Coming to Cinemas (13/12/2012)

Just like the release week of Skyfall, this week sees only two movies that would be hitting Malaysian screens this Thursday; one a highly anticipated Hollywood blockbuster and the other a local production taking their turn for the compulsory screening.

While you can say it's a quiet week of releases in Malaysia, cinemas are sure to be jammed pack from Thursday through the weekend and getting tickets to see one of them is going to be an adventure in itself for sure...

Let's look at this week's releases.

The Golden Couple (金童玉女)

Director: Ah Niu
Cast: Mike He, Fiona Xie
Running Time: 1 Hour 37 Minutes
Language:: Mandarin
Classification: U
Synopsis: "The Golden Couple" is a story set in a city where a young brilliant advertising executive earns big bucks for his work, owning multiple credit cards and leads a lavish lifestyle. But due to poor financial management, his life soon turns into a debt-ridden nightmare. 

Trailer Impression: Ah Niu's The Golden Couple was set to be released a couple months ago, but due to uncommitted distributors the movie had to be pushed back to this 'auspicious' date. Auspicious to be completely ignored, more like. Still, to Ah Niu's credit I would still give his second directional debut a chance; one reason for this is because I take Ah Niu to be a better filmmaker than Namewee that deserves support from his fellow countrymen. As for the trailer, it seems to revolve around a similar issue he had been in in The Wedding Diary, but seem to have more serious (but still comedic) consequences like Jack Neo's Money No Enough. This one still deserves a look in my book, though most likely when it comes out on DVD, or I don't get a ticket for The Hobbit. Sorry, bud.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Director: Peter Jackson
Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, Andy Serkis
Running Time: 2 Hours 49 Minutes
Language:: English
Classification: P13
Synopsis: The first of the three-part epic fantasy film directed-produced by Peter Jackson based on J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel of the same name follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature Gollum. Alone with Gollum on the shores of an underground lake, Bilbo not only discovers surprising depths of guile and courage, he also gains possession of Gollum's "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities...

Trailer Impression: What's more to say? We've all been waiting for this to arrive and the time is now. Probably the only concern this time around compared to the previous trilogy is the new HFR (High Frame Rate), which is only being shown in limited theaters in KL (only from TGV). I'm planning to watch it in HFR and decided to skip the IMAX version with the 9-minute clip from Star Trek Into Darkness (partly because I'm not paying extra just to watch Star Trek). So hopefully, I would have something to say about the experience.

FilmBah's Pick of the Week: Do I really have to say? While it's pretty obvious that you should go see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in whatever format that suits you (IMAX or 3D HFR), but I won't discount Ah Niu's The Golden Couple. Like I said, it's more of an unfortunate set of circumstances that led its release to be next to The Hobbit, but it doesn't mean that Ah Niu's films are unappealing. I would recommend it to Chinese moviegoers who can't get a ticket for The Hobbit.

Releases according to CinemaOnline.