Coming to Cinemas (10/1/2013)

Only into the second week of 2013 and we're already feeling the lull of slow releases. This week's releases are generally uninspiring, so it's really hard to find a reason to go to cinemas this week.

Take a look at this week's releases to see if there's anything you like:

Fire With Fire

Director: David Barrett
Cast: Josh Duhamel, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Vincent D'Onofrio
Running Time: 1 Hour 37 Minutes
Language:: English
Classification: 18
Synopsis: Following a gruelling day of work, firefighter Jeremy Thomas Coleman and his co-workers contemplate ending the day with a refreshing drink, only for Jeremy to be an accidental witness to a liquor store clerk being brutally murdered at the hands of Hagan, a white nationalist. After Jeremy narrowly escapes with his life, police detective Mike Cella (Bruce Willis) learns of Hagan's recent crime and takes an interest in the case. But when Hagan is arrested and Jeremy identifies him in a line up, Hagan demonstrates that he knows Jeremy's details, which forces the latter to enter into a witness protection program. Although Jeremy finds it difficult to cope with the loss of his career, he also finds consolation in his budding romance with Talia Durham, a US Marshal assigned to his case. However, his new identity soon becomes compromised, and Jeremy is forced to take an unexpected course of action in order to get his life back and save the lives of those he loves.

Trailer Impression: As the only English release that we are getting this week, Fire With Fire is actually made for a straight-to-DVD release, so it could explain the dodgy vibe that I'm seeing on this trailer. The plot looks unpromising and it stars Josh Duhamel from the Transformers series, who wants us to take him seriously as an action star. Not interested. Pass.

Rumah Kentang

Director: Jose Poernomo
Cast: Shandy Aulia, Tasya Kamila
Running Time:
Language:: Indonesian
Classification:
Synopsis: When her mother passes away, Farah is forced to return from Melbourne to Jakarta in order to care for her sister Rika. However, things are more complicated than they seemed for Farah soon discovers that there are two problems that she has to resolve: caring and providing for her and her sister and finding a new place to stay as their current home is rented after her mother sold their old home in order to allow Farah to study in Melbourne, which is now too expensive for her to pay by herself. A silver lining comes in the form of her mother's will that informs her that they are still in possession of her mother's first house, which she deemed was a good investment due to its strategic location among the upper class, but has failed to be sold due to the fact that the place is haunted. The two sisters move in, but strange things start to happen...

The Tower

Director: Kim Ji-Hun
Cast: Sol Kyung-gu, Kim Sang-Kyung, Son Ye-jin
Running Time: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
Language:: Korean
Classification: P13
Synopsis: Directed by Kim Ji-Hun from "May 18", Sol Kyung-gu, Son Ye-jin and Kim Sang-Kyung play a group of people who fight to survive a fire that occurs in a high rise building on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve a party is going on at Tower Sky for VIPs at the super-luxurious landmark building in Seoul. Part of the event involves helicopters circling above sprinkling snow to simulate snowing. As the party progresses, one of the helicopters crashes in the building and a fire broke out rapidly. Together the people trapped in the burning building must work together to save each other...

Trailer Impression: Here it is. Korea's Towering Inferno. Strangely enough, disaster movies has been one of the favourite staples for Korean filmmakers, and only my general disinterest for that genre has staved me away from them. However, seeing how poor the releases are this week, I might actually give this one a try to see how technically advanced Korea's special effects are, much to the detriment of my sanity to sit through a forced performance.

Young and Dangerous: Reloaded

Director: Daniel Yee Heng Chan
Cast: Philip Ng, Chung Him Law, Paul Wong, Oscar Leung
Running Time: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
Language:: Cantonese
Classification: 18
Synopsis: Imaginatively titled "Young And Dangerous: Reloaded", the remake will feature a new generation of muscle bound actors who promise to deliver plenty of bloody violence, foul language, and raunchy sex scenes. The original "Young And Dangerous" was based on a comic book, and chronicled the adventures of a young group of triads in Mongkok. Actor Ekin Cheng portrayed the iconic leader of the pack known as Chan Ho Nam, who will now be played by Him Law. His co-stars will include Oscar Leung (Chicken), Sammy Shum (Ugly Kwan), Jazz Lam, Paul Wong (Big Brother B), Dominic Ho, Philip Ng, Winnie Leung, Hu Ran, and Jacqueline Chong. The film will be directed by up-and-coming director Daniel Chan.

Trailer Impression: After last week's The Last Tycoon, we move into the modern era with the remake of the Young and Dangerous from the 90s. I'm not sure what's the intention of showing shots from the comics, because the cast that they have chosen seems to be making some sort of unintentional parody of the original source material. I'm just not convinced by this new batch of actors taking over the original cast because none of them have the onscreen charisma to be distinct as the characters they were in the 90s version. I'm already seeing the bad signs of this, but somehow something inside is telling me that I should give it a chance, so that I can warn anyone if this turns out to be horrendous.

FilmBah's Pick of the Week 

Looking at this week's releases, I'm really reluctant to pick anyone of these to be my pick of the week. Since I do have movies (Oh God, when will I ever go see Les Miserables?) in the backlog that I haven't been seeing, I think I might just do that instead. However, if I am still insistent on which one of these you should pick, I would go for The Tower, or unless you are a masochist subject to abuse, go see Young and Dangerous: Reloaded.

 Releases according to CinemaOnline.