Movie-mania

My family has always been mad about movies. Preferred genres included romances/romantic comedies (moi), action (A,Z & W), sci-fi/fantasy (all of us), & comedies (Z & W). This pretty much covers 80% of the movies out in theatres at any one time.


We would catch the latest releases on opening weekend. So moving to Beijing with its limited number of English movies (I read somewhere that they get on average 20 English movies a year -20!) really bummed us out as far as this recreational activity was concerned. True there are bootleg copies of the latest releases out in the DVD stores usually within 2 weeks of the movies' release despite efforts of the copyright lobby. But nothing beats sitting in a movie theatre watching a movie on widescreen with Dolby/THX (or other system) sound blasting.


So having been back here in Singapore for about a month now, we have, so far, watched a total of 5 movies (not counting the 2 - Harry P. & Die Hard 4.0- that we will be watching this week).


Pirates 3 - a disappointment. Johnny Depp was great, but the storyline which continued from Pirates 2 lost me. No doubt the special effects were well done, but a movie can't live on SFX alone.


Fantastic Four 2 - loved it! I used to read FF comics as a kid (still do sometimes!) which is probably one reason why I enjoyed the movie. But Jessica Alba doesn't quite cut it as Invisible Girl though (ya, ya, I know she is probably one of the most downloaded celebrities in web-dom)...just something about that blonde hair which just doesn't go with the rest of her look.


Nancy Drew - Curiosity got the better of me & I succumbed to the temptation & greatly regretted it within a half hour of the show. I had previously blogged about it & my first impressions were not wrong. Sigh.

Transformers - Jaw dropping CGI, & awesome action sequences made for light entertainment. I think it's a "guy movie" as my kids LOVED it. I thought it was OK, worth the ticket price, but wouldn't want to go back & see it again. But my geeky car-loving son probably thought it was one of the greatest movies ever...hey, what more could a boy ask for? An intelligent Chevy Camaro that speaks & turns into a superhero 'bot when need be.

Shrek 3 - another disappointment. I watched Shrek & Shrek 2 on DVD & thought they were both excellent movies. But Shrek 3 was just plain corny. Weak dialogue, fairy tale characters springing up left right & center, predictable storyline all made me wish for the movie to end ASAP.

I am looking forward to more movies this week. Harry Potter/Det. McClane, here I come!