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SkylineDirectors: Colin and Greg Strause
92 minutes
2.40:1Earth is being invaded by aliens again. But when done right, you enjoy being sucked in the Skyline.
A group of friends party till the early morning when they are awaken by bright blue light and screams. The aliens are coming and they are ready to solve human's overpopulation problem.
The Brothers Strause doesn't give anything new plot wise - and writers Joshua Cordes and Liam O'Donnell do not provide you with many exposition scenes either - but it plays much better than J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield. Shot on a shoestring budget but not looking it, they give us something that hasn't been seen before in an alien invasion movie - direct mass harvesting. The premise is enough to get people to watch this movie in droves.
The small cast do what they can with the minimal script and they did it well. Standout performances are from Eric Balfour and David Zayas. The score could use a little more work but the sound design and mixing are well done. The VFX is amazing but this is to be expected. The Brothers Strause are the owners of Hydraulx, the boutique VFX house that is frequently used by Hollywood studios which did all of the CGI work here.
For an independently-financed epic monster movie to be conceived and finished within one year is an amazing feat. It will be interesting to see what the Strause brothers will come up with next after their impressive debut with Skyline.
UnstoppableDirector: Tony Scott
92 minutes
2.40:1It is said that everybody loves to watch a train wreck. Unstoppable is not one and it is worth watching.
Human error caused a train to go off the train yard without an engineer on board. Carrying hazardous chemicals, the speeding train is a disaster waiting to happen, unless a rookie conductor and an experienced engineer can stop it. This story is loosely based on a true incident.
Scott did a tremendous job of heightening tension here as making a moving train look dangerous is not easy. It's also not easy to shoot the human drama when the actors are on the actual speeding train. Writer Mark Bomback script is smart in explaining to the audience the technical difficulties in stopping a train while keeping the suspense intact. Director of photography Ben Serensen captured the action and vista brilliantly. While Denzel Washington and Chris Pine get the top billing, Rosario Dawson is also a key cast member. Indeed the entire ensemble is commendable in making the show entirely believable.
There are CGI effects to be seen here but they are hard to find if you're not paying attention - and that usually means it's really good. The sound design and mixing are wonderfully balanced between the calming lull of the countryside and the rush of the runaway train.
Tony Scott has created one hell of a ride that features no bad guys and one Unstoppable train.
MegamindDirector: Todd McGrath
96 minutes
2.40:1When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, spike it with vodka and sell it to the boy scouts!
Megamind is a blue alien with a large head who, out of sheer luck, got mixed with the wrong crowd when he landed on Earth. Thinking that he will always be the bad guy, he becomes the arch nemesis to Metroman, also an alien, who fights the good fight. Their epic battles ends predictably every time until one day when Megamind's plan goes according to plan. He wins for the first and last time. So now what?
A fantastic twist of the superhero genre, this is a clever, witty and funny film from start to finish. It's also got plenty of heart. McGrath and writers Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simmons tell an amusing fairy tale of what goes wrong when your dreams come true. The Dreamworks Animation team did a great job at animating the exhilarating 3D fight sequences but the emotional scenes were their best work to date. The cinematography is impressive and it might give the audience an idea of what to expect when the Superman reboot is shown in 3D.
The voice talents is delightful and Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt in particular are brilliant at not sounding like their usual selves. The sound elements didn't offer anything new but the mixing is well done. The special effects - that is anything that is not part of the animation process - is detailed and amazing.
Take the time to enjoy Megamind in 3D! It's worth it!
HisssDirector: Jennifer Lynch
99 minutes
2.40:1The point of a remake is to make it a fresh positive experience for contemporary audience. Unfortunately Hisss fails at that.
There is an Indian myth that whoever could possess the energy of Naagin, the snake goddess, he will live on forever. Believing this myth, a group of men in modern day India captures her mate in order to force the goddess' hand. As the goddess kills them one by one, a detective must wrestle with his disbelief of the myth and solve the serial murder case.
If the above paragraph makes the movie seems interesting, well then obviously the opportunity to make an entertaining remake was lost somewhere. To be fair, there are no English version of the move prior to Hisss; in fact, even the current one is a mix of Hindi and English. There were actually two Hindi versions prior to this. Within the Bollywood movie musical convention, the 1986 version was far more entertaining than this one!
The only admirable work to be seen here is the cinematography by Madhu Ambat.
Director and screenwriter Jennifer Lynch has disowned the film because she was booted out of the post-production stage by the producers. So much can make a movie better in editing, in music score and CGI effects but it is clear that this one received a sloppy post-pro work. Producers Govind Menon and Vikram Singh must shoulder the blame for letting this mess be released theatrically.
