JASON BOURNE (2016)

Genre: Thriller / Action
Running Length: 2:03
Cast: Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Julia Stiles, Riz Ahmed
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenplay: Paul Greengrass & Christopher Rouse

Despite the rinsing and repeating elements from the trilogy, JASON BOURNE still feels fresh. It's all there, exactly like how Honest Trailers - The Bourne Trilogy pointed out. That said, one doesn't go into a Bourne movie expecting an intellectually stimulating experience. The series' only has one goal; to keep the audience gasping for breath from get go with Greengrass' frenetic camerawork.

And this installment probably offers the best of such relentless intensity in the series. The action set pieces are not mindless (meaning: predictable and boring) but it's choreographed and edited in such a a way that it amps up the tension. The best of which comes near the end; an exhilarating car chase that actually feels real and dangerous.

As for the plot, the Snowden and social media backdrop are introduced in this film to give it a bit more relevance to today's context but like I mentioned, it's pretty much the same - the CIA hunting down Jason Bourne.

As for the supporting cast, they all do a fine job. Jones,Vikander and Cassel are all serviceable. But man...Matt Damon IS Jason <expletive> Bourne. Eventhough this outing is clearly financially motivated, I'm glad the filmmakers still put in a lot of heart and more importantly, Damon didn't phone-in his performance (*cough* Bruce Willis *cough* Die Hard series).

I'm definitely looking forward for more of Damon/Bourne walking away to Moby's Extreme Ways in the closing credits.

Rating: 7.5/10

STAR TREK BEYOND (2016)

Genre: Science Fiction / Action
Running Length: 2.00
Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella
Director: Justin Lin
Screenplay: Simon Pegg & Doug Jung

I was neither a big fan of Star Trek nor Star Wars series. But I leaned towards the latter because light sabers are just too cool. Well let's put it this way, Star Wars is about a war and Star Trek is about trekking the galaxy for the purpose of exploration. And war stories are always grander in scope and the agenda is clear; good guys vs bad guys. Thus, the premise of showing the day-to-day life on the Enterprise and the crew contemplating whether to engage with foreign regimes or not seems boring...until now.

Well, the first act of STAR TREK BEYOND does just that by looking at the reality of the everyday life on the starship. Even Captain Kirk himself is questioning his purpose as the captain of the ship because, "Things are starting to feel a little...episodic, " he confesses.

But when the second act kicks in, it goes up a notch. The Captain and his crew are attacked by Krall (Alba), a vicious enemy. As a result, the USS Enterprise crashes (yet again) into our deadly enemy's territory and the main crew are separated. It is in this process of finding each other and rescuing the rest of the crew, the audience is treated to some nice character development. The highlight to me is the amazing chemistry between Urban and Quinto's character as they had to lean-on each other to survive. A shout out to Urban who usually plays tough action hero characters because in this installment, his Bones character is fully fleshed out and his against type casting as a "doctor and not a fighter" is just perfect.

Speaking of casting, many critics have argued that Idris Alba is wasted as the main villain because he is buried under all the prosthetic. But when his character's motivation is revealed, I personally felt his casting was worthwhile.    

And when the movie finally kicks into warp drive in its third act, it goes into full on explosive Justin Lin's Fast & Furious mode. In fact, now I can fully appreciate how clever it is for the marketing team to use "it" for its first trailer. Many may argue for its sheer ridiculousness but I love it!

All in all, Star Trek Beyond should appeal to the mainstream audience without alienating fans of the Star Trek series. Although it seems to draw more inspiration from Guardians of the Galaxy in terms of its treatment, I'm not complaining because this film is much more fun compared to its predecessors. And it has a good balance of piling up the action and focusing on the relationships within the crew. The humanity element which defines this series is respectfully kept in this sequel as it explores the vision of what society could become in the future if humanity learned from its past mistakes...or do not.

Rating: 8.5/10

COLD WAR 2 (2016)

Genre: Thriller / Action
Running Length: 1:54
Cast: Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Chow Yun-Fat, Charlie Young, Eddie Peng
Director: Longman Leung, Sunny Luk
Screenplay: Jack Ng, Longman Leung, Sunny Luk

Although COLD WAR 2 is not cut from the same cloth as the classic Infernal Affairs (and its sequel), it's a much more engaging outing than its predecessor. This sequel literally picks up where Part 1 left off with a tense rescue drama. And it pretty much maintains its high energy throughout the film.

When the film came to a close, I couldn't help but feel really satisfied until I started thinking more about it. And the more I thought about it, the faster my satisfaction for this film diminished. As opposed to Infernal Affairs, it had a reverse effect. The reason for the comparison is because both films deal with the internal strife and conflict between management and operations in a bureaucratic organization. Both are first a political thriller, then only action.

That said, Infernal Affairs strongly relied on the acting caliber of its leads and superior editing eg. pauses and silence to allow the actors (and the audience) to process and react to a situation, while the Cold War saga uses non-stop camera work and over dramatic soundtrack to convey hammer home a point. I was continually engaged with what's on screen not because of its narrative but because of its unnecessary multiple cuts for a simple action. I had to pay attention to keep track of what's happening. And the soundtrack... oh boy, it doesn't seem to stop throughout the film; a slow track to convey a certain emotion and a loud booming one to emphasize anger and tension.

And if you thought that the first one was serious, this sequel takes it up a few notches. Everyone in this movie is either brooding or stressed up. It just takes itself way too seriously. And the frustrating part is when the movie ends, it doesn't resolve anything but just to reveal that these on-screen characters are pawns of a greater scheme of things. And speaking of the final scene...really??

That said, I still enjoyed Cold War 2. One of the action sequence in a highway tunnel was so heart-stopping it kept me on the edge of my seat (credit to action choreographer Chin Ka Lock). Tony Leung still steals the show with his powerhouse performance, but I must say Aaron Kwok's performance has surprisingly improved too.

Rating: 7.5/10

GHOSTBUSTERS (2016)

Genre: Comedy/Horror

Running Length: 1:56

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth

Director: Paul Feig 

Screenplay: Katie Dippold & Paul Feig, based on the 1984 film written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis 

Eventhough I walked into the new GHOSTBUSTERS film without much judgement (in actuality, I couldn't remember much of the original or even the sequel), it turned out to be not very good. It's not very bad either but it's just...mediocre. 

When the studio announced that they would be rebooting the series with an all female cast, I thought it was a clever idea. I enjoyed the trailers because it checked all the boxes of the Ghostbusters elements which I was familiar; the four buddies, the comedy, the proton packs, the classic station wagon and of course, the theme song. 

But what made this movie meh is the weak script. It felt as though the filmmakers were torn between making a fan service film and taking risk to do something different. As mentioned, although all the familiar elements are present, and even the original cast made a cameo, I felt that the existence of this movie was just unnecessary. If only they followed what The Force Awakens did where the old characters came alongside to support the new cast, this new Ghostbusters film could have turned out to be a fresh approach to the franchise without alienating the fans.     

What made the the original worked is the comedy. But for some reason, this film's focus is on the Ghostbuster-on-ghost action. To be fair, some of the action sequences are engaging but the majority of it especially the "epic final battle" turned out to be boring (because it's so done before). But is it funny? Well let's just say there are more miss than hits. Chris Hemsworth is hilarious and I'm glad he wasn't just playing a small supporting role.  

What I do like about this film is the cool looking apparitions. They are bright and glowy (and some are quite scary looking). In conclusion, this is a serviceable film but there's just nothing memorable about it.

Rating: 6/10

THREE (2016)

Genre: Thriller
Running Length: 1:28
Cast: Vicki Zhao, Louis Koo, Wallace Chung
Director: Johnnie To
Screenplay: Yau Nai-hoi, Lau Ho-leung, Mak Tin-shu

"Walking in a group of three people, I could surely find my own teacher. Indeed, I would take the two of them as my teachers. For example, there may be one person who is good and one who is dishonest. I should select the good things and virtues of the first person and follow by way of imitation. Also, I should silently observe and reject the vices of the other person, and if I discover the same mistake within myself, I should correct it." Confucius

Johnnie To's THREE finale is so baffling it immediately killed off everything good it was building up to. Every.single.thing. All.at.once.

It's not the script to the ending that was lame but the choice of how the filmmakers decide to treat it. Imagine any scene from a Quentin Tarantino film that involves a prolonged conversation during a Mexican standoff. The ones that keep building up the tension until it becomes too unbearable it just explodes in your face when the tension breaks with a shootout? Now, what if you were to replace these QT signatured shootouts with a stylistic OTT slo-mo tracking shot unfolding over a sentimental pop song by Ed Sheeran? WTF right?!

Although inconsistent at times, I loved everything about the movie - until of course the ending ruined everything. The film explores cinematically with the above teaching from Confucius (in my opinion, this story would have worked better as a stage play). What lessons would these three characters; Zhao the doctor, Koo the police inspector and Chung the chief villain, learn about themselves when their lives intersect over a day in a hospital? It's an interesting character study as we see the irrational choices our protagonists make when they are being forced into a corner.

As the premise of this movie relies heavily on the performance of its actors, all three leads are equally good especially Zhao. And they are effectively supported by the usual go-to Johnnie To's stable of supporting actors. The cinematography, sound and editing are really tight, thus giving it a tension filled atmosphere right from the start. The up-closed graphic images of scalpels slicing into flesh and blood squirting out during the surgery scenes fill the atmosphere with dread - as we know something bad is going to happen. It's like watching a ticking time bomb.

But the ending...

Rating: 4/10