Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and stars Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Michael Sheen and Stephen Fry. It is an extension of the Lewis Carroll novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The film uses a technique of combining live action and animation.

In the film, Alice is now 19 years old and accidentally returns to Underland, a place she previously visited 13 years ago. She is told that she is the only one that can slay the Jabberwocky, a dragon controlled by the Red Queen. Burton said the original Wonderland story was always about a girl wandering around from one character to another and he never felt a connection emotionally, so he wanted to make it feel more like a story than a series of events. He does not see this as a sequel to previous films or a re-imagining. It premiered in London at the Odeon Leicester Square on February 25, 2010 and was released in Australia on March 4, 2010 and the United States and the United Kingdom on March 5, 2010 through Walt Disney Pictures in 3-D and IMAX 3-D, as well as in regular theaters.

Alice Kingsley, 19, attends a party at a Victorian estate shortly after the death of her beloved father. She learns that the party is actually an engagement party to wed her into the Ascot family, who now own her father’s trading firm. Unsure of an answer to Hamish Ascot’s proposal, Alice runs away and follows the White Rabbit, Nivens McTwisp, but falls down a rabbit hole into Underland, a bizarre world she previously visited as a child, although she has no memory of it. It is explained throughout the course of the film that Iracebeth, the Red Queen conquered Underland by stealing the ruling crown from her sister Mirana, the White Queen, but Alice will slay her guardian, the Jabberwocky, on the Frabjous Day using the Vorpal Sword. However, a misunderstanding of words from Absolem the Caterpillar makes everyone believe that Alice is the wrong one. The forces of the Red Queen attack and capture McTwisp, Uilleam the Dodo, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee, whilst Alice escapes. The Knave of Hearts, Ilosovic Stayn, informs the Red Queen of Alice’s return, and she orders for her capture.

Alice is found by Chessur, a grinning cat, who leads her to Tarrant Hightopp, Thackery Earwicket and Mallymkun. As Ilosovic searches for Alice, Tarrant flees toward the White Queen’s castle with a shrunken Alice, but he is caught, leaving Alice and his hat behind. A bloodhound named Bayard, who was forced to work for the Red Queen due to his imprisoned family, aids Alice in sneaking into the Red Queen’s castle to rescue Tarrant. McTwisp, now a page for the Red Queen, gives Alice some food which makes her grow to a large size, but she fools the Red Queen into believing she is “Um from Umbridge”, and Tarrant is made the Red Queen’s hat maker. Alice learns that the Vorpal Sword is hidden in the den of the Bandersnatch, whose eye was removed by Mallymkun earlier. The eye is restored by Alice, making the Bandersnatch choose to side with her and escape from the castle with her and Bayard. Chessur saves Tarrant and Mallymkun from execution, and they lead all of the enslaved Underland creatures to flee the Red Queen’s castle. Alice delivers the Vorpal Sword to the White Queen and returns to her normal size, but she remains unsure whether she can kill the Jabberwocky.

Absolem, going into his pupa stage, reminds Alice of her past visit to Underland and gives her the courage and belief to fight the Jabberwocky. On the Frabjous Day, the forces of the White and Red Queens converge on a battlefield to decide the fate of Underland. Alice fights the Jabberwocky and decapitates him, while the Red Queen’s forces sides with the White Queen who regains her crown, and then banishes her sister and Ilosovic to the outlands forever. Alice returns home by drinking blood of the Jabberwocky, refuses Hamish’s proposal, and becomes an apprentice for Hamish’s father with the idea of beginning trade routes with China. The film ends with Alice sailing away on a ship, with Absolem, now as a butterfly, flying away from her shoulder.

Recommendation: 4/5

Well, my 1st time watching 3D show. =P Anyway, I didn’t read the book at all. So I kind of like this movie. After all, Johnny Depp is in the movie. Who doesn’t want to watch?

This heartwarming true story is an American adaptation of a Japanese tale about a loyal dog named Hachiko. This very special friend would accompany his master to the train station every day and return each afternoon to greet him after work. Sadly his master departs one day, passes away and never returns to the station. Hachiko faithfully returns to the same spot at the station the very next day, and every day for the next nine years to wait for his beloved master. During his daily visits, Hachiko touches the lives of many who work near and commute through the town square. He teaches the local people love, compassion and above all unyielding loyalty. Today, a bronze statue of Hachiko sits in his waiting spot outside the Shibuya station in Japan as a permanent reminder of his devotion and love.

It’s the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters have walked out of the pages of high school student Percy Jackson’s Greek mythology texts and into his life. And they’re not happy: Zeus’ lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Even more troubling is the sudden disappearance of Percy’s mother. As Percy adapts to his newly discovered status as a demi-god (his father is Poseidon), he finds himself caught between the battling titans of Mt. Olympus. He and his friends embark on a cross-country adventure to catch the true lightning thief, save Percy’s mom, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves.

Recommendation: When I entered the theatre, I had absolutely no expectations. I did not even read the books (which are apparently very popular). I was definitely NOT disappointed! The lead actor (Logan Lerman) was a stand out and had quite impressive acting skills. I also liked the action scenes, and the comedic elements that were added in to the movie. Go see this movie if you like adventure, action, and want to be entertained for two hours! It is a great family film, you won’t be let down!

In 1905, Sun Yat-sen (called “Sun Wen” in the film) intends to come to Hong Kong (then a colony of the British Empire) to discuss his plans for revolution with fellow Tongmenghui members to overthrow the corrupt and crumbling Qing Dynasty. Empress Dowager Cixi sends a group of assassins led by Yan Xiaoguo to kill Sun. Revolutionary Chen Shaobai arrives in Hong Kong a few days before Sun’s arrival, to meet Li Yutang, a businessman who provides financial aid for the revolutionaries. As Sun Wen’s arrival day draws near, trouble begins brewing in Hong Kong as Chen Shaobai’s acquaintances are murdered and Chen himself is kidnapped by the assassins during a raid. Li Yutang decides to officially declare his support for the revolutionaries after the newspaper agency is closed by the British authorities, who maintain a policy of laissez-faire towards China’s political situation. Li rallies a group of men, including rickshaw pullers, hawkers and a beggar, to serve as bodyguards for Sun Wen when he arrives. Li’s son Li Chongguang is chosen to act as a decoy for Sun Wen to divert the assassins away while Sun attends the meeting and leaves Hong Kong safely.

Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Kevin Chu
Cast: Jay Chou, Lin Chiling, Chen Daoming, Eric Tsang, Miao Pu, River Chen, Will Liu, Kenneth Tsang
RunTime: 1 hr 46 mins
Released By: GV & Scorpio East Pictures & Mediacorp Raintree Pictures
Rating: PG
Official Website: http://www.treasurehunter.com.tw/

Opening Day: 31 December 2009

Synopsis:

In the northwest desert where countless prosperous dynasties have flourish and fallen, there is rumour of a buried treasure of unbelievable riches. A group of mysterious guardians have kept the map to the location of the treasure safe, until a fierce rivalry erupts. A notorious international crime group, The Company hunt down the map keepers and before they manage to secure it, the keeper passes the map to a young chivalrous man Ciao Fei (Jay Chou). Ciao Fei is forced to give up the map to save the live of his mentor’s daughter Lan Ting (Lin Chi Ling). Teaming up with Hua Ding Bang (a famous archaeologist) and Lan Ting they embark on a dangerous journey to recover the map and fight to protect the ancient treasure.

Recommendation: 5/5

Why bother to ask me? It’s a MUST WATCH of cos. =))))))

“Avatar” is an emotional journey of redemption and revolution. The story tells of a wounded ex-marine, who thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, and eventually crosses over to lead an indigenous race in a battle for survival. Thus, combining the elements of massive spectacle and intimate character that made James Cameron’s “Titanic” the highest grossing film of all time.

Recommendation: 4.5/5

I caught this show over the net on a Christmas Eve while nursing the sickening nose. Initially, I was reluctant to watch this movie. I thought it will be just another blue looking aliens/ monsters show. My friends (most of them) strongly recommended this and re-assured me that I will like it. So I gave it a shot (Reason being why I caught it over the net & just to save a 10 bucks). I was immediately drawn to the movie right from the beginning, not leaving my laptop for any seconds. The storyline was simple but it kept me excited throughout. Obviously, I fell in love with Pandora, it would be even much more beautiful if I were to catch it in 3D. No regrets watching but regretted not being able to catch it in 3D. I bet everyone loves this show!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Storm Warriors (simplified Chinese: 风云II; traditional Chinese: 風雲II) is a 2009 Hong Kong martial arts/wuxia film, produced and directed by the Pang brothers. It is the second live-action film adaptation of screenwriter Ma Wing-Shing’s manhua Fung Wan, following the 1998 film The Storm Riders. The Storm Warriors is based on Fung Wan′s popular Japanese invasion story arc The Death Battle. Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok respectively reprise their roles as Wind and Cloud, who this time find themselves up against Lord Godless (Simon Yam), a ruthless Japanese warlord bent on invading China. The film is a co-production between Universe Entertainment and Sil-Metropole Organisation.

A sequel to The Storm Riders was first announced in March 2008 after Universe gained rights to the Fung Wan franchise from former film distributor Golden Harvest. The Pangs aimed on creating a big-budgeted film involving visual effects and stated that The Storm Warriors would not be a direct sequel to its 1998 predecessor. Principal photography for The Storm Warriors began in April 2008 and ended in July; filming took place in three studios located in Bangkok, Thailand. The film is notable for being the first Chinese language film shot in bluescreen. During post-production, effects artists worked on scenes involving computer-generated imagery, focusing on the film’s setting and backgrounds.

The Storm Warriors was released theatrically in Hong Kong on 10 December 2009.

The evil Japanese warlord Lord Godless (Simon Yam) desires to conquer China. He threatens the General in command into surrender, takes the emperor captive and subdues a large number of martial arts masters using his special poison. Among the captives are Cloud (Aaron Kwok) who surrendered out of concern for Chu Chu (Tang Yan), and the Mou Lam legend Nameless (Kenny Ho). Lord Godless gives them two choices, they can either surrender and work under him, or they will be executed. None of the masters accept the offer. Nameless then breaks free of his chains, revealing that Wind (Ekin Cheng) sneaked in earlier to give all the masters the antidote to the poison. Cloud and Wind land direct blows on Lord Godless with no noticeable effect, and even though several other martial arts masters combine their powers to attack Lord Godless, they lose the contest of strength and are killed. Nameless uses his special attack on Lord Godless, using his chi to launch all the captured masters’ swords at Lord Godless, Lord Godless takes the attack head on and blocks all the swords while Nameless suffers serious internal injuries because he overtaxed himself while not fully recovered from the poison. Some other martial artists raid the prison on horseback and Nameless, Cloud, Wind and Chu Chu manage to escape, while Lord Godless sends his son, Heart and two lieutenants, Earth and Sky, after Nameless with an army, with orders to destroy any martial arts schools along the way who will not surrender.

Nameless is badly injured and will not be able to recover his full strength to fight with Lord Godless for a significant period of time, so he sends Cloud and Wind to find Piggy King’s elder brother, Lord Wicked, who is the only person who can fight Lord Godless now. They go to the mountain where he has hid himself from the outside world but are unsuccessful in persuading him to help, until Wind’s lover Second Dream shows up and aids in persuading Lord Wicked. Lord Wicked comes out of his cave, revealing that he had chopped off his own arms years ago. This was his attempt to stop killing innocent people because he had lost control of himself in his younger days while practicing evil kung-fu. He kicks some pebbles at Cloud and Wind to test how they react, Cloud crushes the pebbles totally while Wind only catches them intact. Lord Wicked states that Cloud is too aggressive and will not be able to handle training in the evil way, while Wind has more control and might be able to return to normal. Lord Wicked then starts training Wind in evil arts while Cloud is summoned to meet Nameless at Lin Yi Temple.

At Lin Yi Temple, Cloud fights a disguised Nameless, who states that Cloud has massive potential, able to accurately learn his styles in a short period of time, and trains him, eventually creating a new sword style which Nameless names “Ba”, inventing a new character partially resembling the characters “Cloud” and “Sword”. Lord Godless discovers where Nameless, Wind and Cloud have been hiding and dispatches Earth and Sky to kill Nameless while sending a few warriors after Wind. At the temple, Cloud easily defeats Earth and Sky in a single blow, but as Lord Wicked and the others are fighting off the warriors that Lord Godless sent, Second Dream gets injured and Wind interrupts his training to come out of the cave and save her, killing the warriors in the process. Afterward he leaves with his training unfinished, despite it supposedly not being possible to leave the pool yet. Cloud arrives to find Wind gone, and Lord Wicked sends Cloud after Lord Godless as he is trying to find the Dragon Tomb which contains a secret that deals with the destiny of China.

Lord Godless meanwhile has taken the Emperor and his family as hostages and is searching for the Dragon Tomb. The Emperor refuses to help him, but Heart is able to find out which path into the tomb is the correct one through the use of his chi that generated a massive wind when he picked the correct passage. Once at the end of the path, Heart starts threatening the Emperor for more information on the Dragon Tomb, but as he refuses to speak, Heart starts killing his wives and sons. Cloud arrives, and the guards which were Imperial Guards that were forced to surrender, switch sides instantly and pull the Emperor out of harm’s way. Cloud and Heart exchanges blows, Heart backs off after the first exchange, and Cloud and Lord Godless starts fighting, Cloud initially has the upper hand but is unable to injure Lord Godless due to his near invincible armor. In the fight, a pile of rocks is blown away, revealing the entrance to the real Dragon Tomb, which contains a human skeleton sitting upright. Lord Godless almost kills Cloud in the next exchange of blows, but Wind, whom has been thoroughly possessed by the evil arts, arrives and fights against first Lord Godless, then Cloud, and then both of them, eventually killing Lord Godless by cutting off his arm from the underside of his armor, which was not as well protected and stealing the Dragon Bone, the secret of the tomb.

As Cloud chases after Wind, the Emperor begs Cloud to retrieve the Dragon Bone as it is crucial to the destiny of China. Second Dream eventually finds Wind at the secret place she had written to him in a letter about, but Wind just sits there with minimal response, and eventually the Emperor’s guards arrive to try and take the Dragon Bone back. However as the General struggles with Second Dream over the dragon bone, Heart, which had escaped from the previous battle, grabs the bone and heavily injures the General, as the General and Heart struggle for the bone, it breaks into two and Wind gets fully taken over by the evil spirit again. Cloud arrives and fights Wind to try and bring him back, but fails as Wind eventually wounds Second Dream and also kills Chu Chu. In a final gambit, Cloud hurls his sword at Wind, cutting him on the forehead and Wind miraculously regains control. The cliff side has taken serious damage in the battle however, and a large section collaspes, causing Wind and Second Dream (who walks over to check on her beloved) to fall off the cliff. Cloud is not in the section of the cliff that collapses. However, Cloud jumps off the cliff as well, manages to fall faster than the Wind and Second Dream, and exerts a force to push Wind and Second Dream back to safety. In doing so, Cloud plummets into the depths, but there is no scene of him dying. Sitting safely on the stable part of the cliff, Wind laments about why Cloud did not kill him earlier when Cloud had the chance. The movie ends abruptly at this stage.

Recommendation: 4/5 if you are looking for story line. Otherwise, 3/5. 5/5 for Aaron Kwok & Ekin Cheng. =X

I was kind of disapointed with the storyline, especially the last part when Feng & Yun were fighting. I almost fell asleep. -_-” The ending was even worse. So what happened to Yun then? Will I be expecting a Part 3 soon? Obviously, we will not want to see LAO KOK KOK dudes acting in the Part III.

I watched cos I wanna see dudes. So I wasn’t that disappointed after all. Well, Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng were YUMMILICIOUS!

Sara and Brian Fitzgerald’s life with their young son and their two-year-old daughter, Kate, is forever altered when they learn that Kate has leukemia. The parents’ only hope is to conceive another child, specifically intended to save Kate’s life. For some, such genetic engineering would raise both moral and ethical questions; for the Fitzgeralds, Sara in particular, there is no choice but to do whatever it takes to keep Kate alive. And what it takes is Anna. Kate and Anna share a bond closer than most sisters: though Kate is older, she relies on her little sister–in fact, her life depends on Anna. Throughout their young lives, the sisters endure various medical procedures and hospital stays–just another part of their close-knit family’s otherwise normal life. Sara, a loving wife and mother who left her career as an attorney to care for her daughter, is sometimes lost inside the single-minded caregiver she has become in her efforts to save Kate. Her strong, supportive husband, Brian, is often rendered powerless and passive by his wife’s strength and determination. And their only son, Jesse, drifts, at times all but forgotten as Kate and Anna take center stage. Until Anna, now 11, says “no.” Seeking medical emancipation, she hires her own lawyer initiating a court case that divides the family and that could leave Kate’s rapidly failing body in the hands of fate.

Recommendation: 4/5

I read the book & I watched the movie.

So, if you read the book, you will be disappointed. Though I understand that it’s difficult to put 500 pages of words into a 2-hours movie. However, I see no point in the changes they made. First, cutting the character Julia may have been a good idea if thinking about time, but without her, there was no depth in the character of Campbell Alexander. Also Campbell only made one excuse as to why he had a service dog, leaving viewers who hadn’t read the book confused when he had a seizure. Secondly, why move from Rhode Island to California? This wasn’t that big of a change, however it didn’t make much sense to me. Thirdly, they didn’t go into detail about any characters. Viewers didn’t see that Anna couldn’t go to hockey camp because Kate may have to go to the hospital. They didn’t show that Jesse had become a drunk, druggie and pyromaniac because of lack of attention. They didn’t show that Brian was a stargazer and based most of his life on the stars in the sky.

WARNING SPOILER AHEAD!

And the most disappointing change was the change of the end of the movie. In the book, Anna died. Having Anna died gave the book sense and closure. Anna was able to save her sister one last time. In the movie, Kate died. The movie ended. And the family went on vacation to Montana.

Yeah. If you’ve never read the book, you will love the movie. If you read the book, you’d better think twice about wasting your money.

FBI agents (Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell) investigate the mysterious murder of a college student linked to the man who helped create a high-tech surrogate phenomenon that allows people to purchase unflawed robotic versions of themselves – fit, good looking remotely controlled machines that ultimately assume their life roles – enabling people to experience life from the comfort and safety of their own homes. The murder spawns a quest for answers for who’s real and who can you trust.

Recommendation: 4/5

Nice show. Esp when I get to see Bruce Willis’ young version. Well, I would very much like to have a surrogate who can help me to go to work while I was at home. Just that, it feels so 没人情味after a while. Don’t you agree?