Saturday, April 02, 2016

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

The story is about how Prince Achmed fought against a wizard to save a beautiful princess with the help of a witch.

Liked the interesting shadowy effects in the animation and the exciting fight scene towards the end!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Cybercrimes with Ben Hammersley

This is a British documentary on different types of cybercrimes around the world.

Liked how the presenter slowly introduced the audience to the subject on location and the interviews with the relevant people!

Internet Movie Database Link

Somm

This is a documentary on how a group of young men prepared for the master sommelier exam, one of the most difficult test in the world.

Read about the exam in the newspaper some time back so was interested to learn more about it. Liked the glimpse into the history of wine making around the world!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Blind Date

The story is about two neighbors falling in love with each other despite not having seen each other. Their wall is not sound proof and they could talk to each other.

Liked this charming little film! Can't really tell how great the piano performance was though except through the audience's reaction.

Internet Movie Database Link

After Porn Ends

This is a documentary on a group of people formerly from the porn industry.

Liked to hear how different people coped with the stigma of being in the industry and it affected their relationship with friends and family! Quite amazed to hear that one of them even ran for the governor of california elections!

Internet Movie Database Link

Monday, February 08, 2016

Tesla: Master of Lightning

This is a documentary about Tesla the scientist who enabled electricity to be distributed to the masses in the early 20th century and who was a pioneer in radio communications.

I have seen the lightning demonstrations at Science Center but didn't realize that they originated from Tesla. I was impressed by Tesla's contributions but I thought some of his ideas could be far too ahead of his time to be implementable.

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, February 06, 2016

Why Planes Vanish

This is a documentary about the science behind the mystery of the disappearance of flight MH370.

Liked how the scientific principles of airplane tracking are explained in simple terms for the layman to understand! Didn't realize that there were so many gaps with present technology!

Internet Movie Database Link

Airplane!

The story is about how a series of incidents almost led to an air disaster.

Liked the visual gags and the play on words comedy! Might be a little bit politically incorrect at times but the auto pilot looks quite cute!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Fantastic Mr Fox

This is an animation film adapted from Roald Dahl's short story of the same title. It describes how a fox family managed to outwit a group of business owners.

Liked the nice stop motion animation and how the wild animals worked together as a team!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Particle Fever

This is a documentary on the large hadron collider (LHR) at CERN and how it helped to discover the Higgs Boson in 2012.

Liked the interesting computer animation of how the LHR worked! Thought the acne spot on one of the postdoc's face was a bit distracting though.

Internet Movie Database Link

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Secrets of Her Majesty's Secret Service

This is a documentary about the British Secret Service MI6.

Liked the account of the cracking of Enigma during Second World War and the interviews with the former agents!

Internet Movie Database Link

Monday, January 25, 2016

Back in Time

This is a documentary on the "Back to the Future" series.

Learnt about many interesting "Back to the Future" related events such as theme parks and car shows!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Atari: Game Over

This is a documentary about the rise and fall of the video game company Atari.

Liked how the director presented the view points from different groups of people: fans, programmers and historians! Quite amazed by how the protagonist could develop a game in just five weeks!

Internet Movie Database Link

Friday, January 01, 2016

Goodbye CP

This is a documentary about cerebral palsy in Japan during the early seventies.

Liked how the director dived deep into the personal lives of a few individuals to show us how it was like to be inflicted with cerebral palsy! Felt sad for one of them who had to cancel his poem reading session as the authorities called it a freak show.

Internet Movie Database Link

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Wrestling

This is a documentary about wrestling in Canada during the early sixties.

Liked the exciting sporting action and narration! The reactions from the audience were interesting too!


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Tuesday, December 29, 2015

My Neighbors and Their Japanese Ghosts

This is a documentary about old people in China discussing about the Japanese during the Second World War.

Liked the interesting personal accounts told by the interviewees! They contrasted with the modern peaceful setting in Beijing.

Friday, December 18, 2015

The Green Wave

This is a documentary about the events that happened in Iran around the period of the 2009 Iran elections. Animation is used to recreate personal witness accounts from social media such as blogs and twitter.

Liked how the director covered different perspectives of the events! Learnt more about modern Iran history from the interviews and the nice animation!

Internet Movie Database Link

Three Sisters

This is a documentary about three sisters living in a mountainous village of Yunnan.

Liked the nice mountainous scenery and the peaceful village life! Quite amazed by how the kids were able to do complex household chores like maintaining the fire by themselves!

Internet Movie Database Link

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

Devil's Town

The film consists of many inter-related short stories that happened in Belgrade.

Liked how the director slowly introduced the characters and brought them all together towards the end! Some parts were a bit too weird for my taste though.

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Hopscotch

The story is about an ex-CIA employee trying to write a memoir while staying one step ahead of the people who wants to stop him.

Liked how the protagonist managed to outsmart his ex-colleagues! Great action and comedy without too much violence!

Internet Movie Database Link