The Imitation Game

The story is about the life of an English mathematician Alan Turing who was involved in breaking code during world war two.

Liked the flashbacks across the present time, during the war and Turing's childhood days. Could identify with his frustrations when the program didn't work as he expected the first time round.

Internet Movie Database Link

Bento Harassment

The story is about how a mother made innovative bento lunches for her daughter for 3 years until her graduation day.

Liked the depiction of the ups and downs of the mother daughter relationship! Was amazed by the creativity of the mother!

Internet Movie Database Link

Toy Story 4

The story is about the adventures of a group of toys during a road trip on a rented caravan.

Liked how Woody and Gabby Gabby found their purpose in life in the end! The action sequences were exciting too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Kiki's Delivery Service

The story is about how an apprentice witch trained to be a real witch in a new city.

Liked the cute actress who acted as the apprentice witch!

Internet Movie Database Link

Gravity

The story is about how an astronaut coped after losing contact with the rest of her colleagues in space.

Liked the excellent special effects! Sandra Bullock looked pretty fit in this film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Her

The story is about how a single man developed a relationship with his newly purchased operating system.

Liked how the man systematically taught the operating system about his world and the voice of Scarlett Johansson!

Internet Movie Database Link

Like Father Like Son

The story examines what it means to be a father when two couples discovered that their sons had been switched several years ago and attempt to switch back.

Liked how the director showed that there was no fixed formula for family life as both families have different philosophies in coping with issues!

Internet Movie Database Link

Ghost Rider

The story is adapted from a comic book about a rider who serves the devil to eliminate his violent son.

Nice special effects! The skull on fire looks cool!

Internet Movie Database Link

Wild Hogs

The story is about four middle aged friends going on a road trip around United States on their motorcycles.

Interesting trip where they meet all sorts of people! Marisa Tomei who acted as the waitress looked quite cute! The action sequences are exciting too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Music and Lyrics

The story is about how a once popular boy band member discovers that his gardener had great lyric writing talent and cooperated with her to make a new song.

Interesting to see how the creative process evolved! Nice dance choreography by the singer whom the song is meant for too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Zodiac

This is based on a true story about a serial killer who taunts the police by forcing the newspaper to publish articles about himself in the 70s.

There was too much information overload and didn't manage to understand who the potential suspects were. A bit too draggy to my liking.

Internet Movie Database Link

Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust

The story is about how a young girl travelled back in time to the early 90s to maintain Japan's economic bubble by stopping the economic minister from releasing a particular news.

Interesting and funny film! Was kept in suspense throughout on how everything would end!

Internet Movie Database Link

Bridge to Terabithia

The story is about how two classmates became good friends and how they discovered a secret hideout that they named Terabithia.

Liked the depiction of school life and how the friendship evolved over time! The lead actor's sister looks quite cute! Also liked the nice ending!

Internet Movie Database Link

Ah Sou

The story is about what happens when a triad chief, Gent, gets killed and his adopted child, Phoebe, takes over as the head.

Liked the use of animation to show the flashbacks of the adopted child! The story is not too interesting. I thought I could learn how Phoebe managed the team that comprised of her foster father's pals: Buddy, Whacko and Chance, but the film didn't show any of that! :( One plus point for the film is that Karena Lam acted quite well as Nova, a female triad chief who was an enemy of Gent.

Internet Movie Database Link

Valiant

Valiant is an animation film about how pigeons served the army during the Second World War by helping to deliver messages.

The story is quite good and the action in the air is well choreographed! I have seldom heard English accent in an animation but this is one of the few.

Internet Movie Database Link

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D

Caught the last half hour of this film as I was channel surfing. The story is about the adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl who are creatures in a boy's dream that suddenly turned true.

The adventures are quite interesting as we see how shark boy and lava girl co-operate to defeat the bad guys despite being very different. Sharkboy is a hybrid of a boy and a shark and he can only live in water. Lavagirl produces so much heat that she destroys everything that she touches but she cannot stay long in water.

Lavagirl has the most radiant smile I have ever seen and the ice princess looks quite cute too! I also like the jokes told by the weird guy in giant goggles who is supposedly the boy's physics teacher in real life.

Internet Movie Database Link

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Watched this Tim Burton film next as I missed the public screening in Singapore. The story is adapted from a novel by Roald Dahl and it is about Charlie visiting a gigantic Chocolate Factory together with four other lucky children who won tickets to do so.

Liked the adventures in the factory itself, the flashbacks to the factory owner's childhood days and how Charlie's house slant to one side! Didn't like the small little creatures who look horrific and the musical numbers that they performed though.

Internet Movie Database Link

Marathon

Saw this Korean film on an SQ flight back to Singapore. The story is about how much an autistic guy, Cho Won, likes running and how he trained to complete the Marathon. It also shows his relationship with his family, his coach and the general public.

Great performance by the actor who played Cho Won! He plays the autistic guy very convincingly! Was expecting to learn how a proper training program would be like but there is not much of it. The coach just said that pacing was important and to start slow and run fast when it rains. Not very helpful advice I would think.

Liked the depiction of how different the mother and the coach treated Cho Won! The former over-protects him to such extent that he is like an invalid while the latter treats him just like a buddy. Guess it is hard to strike a balance as an autistic does have special needs but still needs to learn to be independent like any other ordinary person.

Internet Movie Database Link
Korean Film Review

Densha Otoko (Train Man)

Saw this Japanese film on an SQ flight to Australia. The story is about how a shy Japanese guy, Densha Otoko, started dating a young woman, Hermes, after he saved her from a molestor on a train. Fellow internet chat users gave him lots of advice on what to do on his date.

Interesting use of split screen to show people from all walks of life reading about the protagonist describing how his day went and giving generous advice simulaneously! Seems like technology has advanced quite a bit since the days of "You've Got Mail" from one-to-one communication to many-to-many communication. It is fun watching Densha Otoko on each date although the character of Hermes never really got developed fully.

One thing that bugged me was the thick notes given to Hermes to choose her computer. I think it is too much information overload! It'll be better if there is only a single piece of paper that says buy computer brand W, model X from shop Y at price Z.

Internet Movie Database Link