Coming to Cinemas (3/1/2013)

First of all, Happy New Year, as we enter into the first week of releases for 2013. January is normally the beginning of the slow months in the US, but in Malaysia we are either catching up with the release of delicious award season contenders or scrummaging leftovers from the Christmas season, and that seems to be the case for this week.

This week's releases is dedicated to parents (both of the mundane and grand-kind) as we talk about 'second chances', a new documentary to help you take up a new diet for the new year and two major blockbusters about cops and gangsters.

So let's see what's installed for us at the start of this year:

End of Watch

Director: David Ayer
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, Anna Kendrick, Cody Horn
Running Time: 2 Hours
Language:: English
Classification: 18
Synopsis: A powerful story of family, friendship, love, honor and courage, End Of Watch stars Academy Award(R) nominee Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena as young Los Angeles police officers Taylor and Zavala as they patrol the city's meanest streets of south central Los Angeles. Giving the story a gripping, first-person immediacy, the action unfolds through footage from the handheld HD cameras of the police officers, gang members, surveillance cameras, and citizens caught in the line of fire to create a riveting portrait of the city's most dangerous corners, the cops who risk their lives there every day, and the price they and their families are forced to pay.

Trailer Impression:  Catching up to releases for the awards season is David Ayer's End of Watch. While not strictly in the running to win any Oscars, End of Watch has been receiving plenty of praises from critics and sporadically mentioned in the top 10 lists of 2012 that I've seen. And I can see why from this trailer. David Ayer's return to explore the unruly parts of LA by tough cops feels like a step-up of the grim and gritty side of law enforcement from Street Kings. With the quasi found footage format, this feels like a less pretentious Act of Valor with a much better performance in it.

Forks Over Knives

Director: Lee Fulkerson
Cast: Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., T. Colin Campbell
Running Time: 2 Hours
Language:: English
Classification: P13
Synopsis: "Forks over Knives" is an American documentary film directed by Lee Fulkerson. The film examines the "profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods," principally by tracing the careers and research of American physician Caldwell Esselstyn and professor of nutritional biochemistry T. Colin Campbell. Additionally, in the fashion of Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me", the filmmaker switches to the plant-based nutrition plan advocated by the film and reports on the diet's effect on his own physiological well-being. The title of the film refers to the choice of plant-based nutrition in the diet, thought by skeptics to be a radical change, over the alternative of coronary artery bypass surgery, presented by the interviewees as being the more radical of the two options.

Trailer Impression:  An interesting documentary to say the least. Although its message seems America-centric, if it were more informative on the benefits of adopting a plant-based diet, I think it should be beneficial for anyone to watch this. This one seems to be going up at GSC International Screens, so it should be staying in those cinemas for quite a while, but I don't think this is one I would want to miss. I will find the time to watch it.

Minyak Dagu

Director: Azhari Zain
Cast: Yana Samsudin, Fezrul Khan, Fizo Omar
Running Time: 1 Hour 22 Minutes
Language:: Malay
Classification: 18
Synopsis: Azman is determined to get his revenge when his fiancee Emelda breaks off their engagement to marry another man. Azman visits a witch-doctor who teaches him to place a curse on Emelda who later goes hysterical on the day of her wedding. His action indirectly causes the death of Emelda's mother whose funeral he attends out of regret. However, this is against the advice of the witch-doctor, who warned him not to visit the dead or prepare to suffer the consequences.

Parental Guidance

Director: Andy Fickman
Cast: Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Marisa Tomei, Bailee Madison, Joshua Rush
Running Time: 1 Hour 44 Minutes
Language:: English
Classification: P13
Synopsis: Artie Decker (Billy Crystal) and his wife Diane (Bette Midler) are left alone to care for their grandkids when his daughter goes away for work, but Grandpa's old-school methods collide with their modern ways of "teachable moments," no punishments, and overall lack of fun. Even as the once-orderly household begins to spin out of control, the grandparents employ some unexpected tactics to win them over and teach them to be... kids.

Playing For Keeps

Director: Gabriele Muccino
Cast: Gerard Butler, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Uma Thurman, Jessica Biel, Judy Greer
Running Time:
Language:: English
Classification:
Synopsis: Playing the Field kicks off with the homecoming of George (Gerard Butler), a retired soccer pro whose glory days are behind him. Burnt out on his playboy lifestyle and bankrupted by a string of bad investments, George moves back to Virginia to reconnect with his estranged ex-wife (Jessica Biel) and neglected son (Noah Lomax). Making up for lost time, George starts to coach the boys' soccer team. But can he keep his eyes on the goal when the bleachers are stacked with sexy soccer moms and desperate housewives?

Trailer Impression: What's this? A movie about a lousy father trying to regain the trust and bond of his son and estranged wife? Directed by the man who did the tear-jerking father-son drama of The Pursuit of Happyness? With a strong cast? This has got to be good on paper right? Unfortunately, that was not what I heard. Playing For Keeps was not in my radar until I saw the trailer, the director and cast list, and reviews for it seem less positive. Maybe there are some warning signs from the trailer, which shows that it is taking a safe and uninspiring route into exploring those tough relationships that eventually draws to a predictable happy ending with not much at stake. It's quite hard for me to believe that with a director who has done something like this before, backed up by a cast that you can't hate, this would not generate any hopeful hype that it was a movie to watch. But I'm not 40-years old with a kid to take with me to find out.

The Last Tycoon (大上海)

Director: Wong Jing
Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Huang Xiaoming, Francis Ng, Sammo Hung, Ni Ni
Running Time: 1 Hour 58 Minutes
Language:: Cantonese
Classification: 18
Synopsis: It was 1917, China. Cheng is an innocent young man who works in a grocery store with no ambition other than to be with his lovely neighbor, Peking Opera student Qiu. But Cheng's life changes forever when he walks in on an affair between his lady boss and the chief of police. To hide this secret, the chief throws Cheng into prison, accusing him of raping his lady boss. There, Cheng meets cellmate Mao, who happens to have an escape plan. The duo breaks out, but Cheng has to leave his life and his dream girl behind. Cheng finds a job as a bouncer in the casino owned by the powerful Inspector Jin. As Jin indulges himself in debauchery all day long, Cheng slowly climbs up the underworld ladder, becoming one of most powerful mob bosses in Shanghai in the late 1930s. Fame takes its toll when he finds himself stuck between the looming Japanese army and the scheming local secret service. To make things worse, he bumps into Qiu, along with her writer husband...

Trailer Impression:  Hong Kong gangster movies seem to be back of late and this period piece looks like it's attempting to market on the nostalgia factor. I believe Chinese kids who grew up in the late 80s to 90s first had the idea of wanting to be triad boss, when they saw Chow Yun Fat on TV in his iconic role set in a similarly timed period of Shanghai. So it's pretty obvious to who this one is pandering to. But if there's one thing that even an icon like Chow Yun Fat (and Sammo Hung, for that matter) can't save for the once glorious genre, is that it needs a better plot to refresh it, not a rehash of it. I had some hope for this when I saw an earlier trailer, but now I'm not so sure.

FilmBah's Pick of the Week: I wouldn't say that it's a bad release week. End of Watch, Forks Over Knives, Playing For Keeps and The Last Tycoon looks like viable choices to spend your first weekend of the year in the cinema. I do admit that I might have been really harsh on Chinese/Hong Kong films lately, and I haven't even see the ones that I should have last year. But still, End of Watch would be my pick because it has more enticing appetizers that I need to sate, instead of going for the mushy mashed potato that is Play For Keeps or the hardboiled The Last Tycoon. Damn these food analogies.

 Releases according to CinemaOnline.