Survivor .. You can't survive this

SURVIVOR starts off with a bang and ends with a whimper. The reasoning and motivation of some of the characters will make you scratch your head. You'll wonder how the heck the protagonist gets away with some of the absurdities in director James McTeigue's film.

    The final third of the film is also beyond conclusion. Even a novice film fan will know what will happen.

Man Up ... Down and out

IN a romantic comedy about taking chances and putting yourself out there, the only chance viewers will take is watching this humdrum British film set mainly over the course of one day. Two people meet cute, they hit it off, there's an obstacle in their way, and everything ends happily ever after.
   This film is also so amazingly white that I wonder if multiculturalism had ever pervaded the country. I don't think there was a speaking role for any minority.

San Andreas ... How an earthquake saved a marriage

BEFORE I watched San Andreas, I expected to see disaster striking Earth, a lot of people running and screaming, and a divorced couple, or a couple about to divorce, getting back together by the end of the film. I was right on all three counts.
    In fact, the film reminds me of 2012 (2009), starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet. Cusack plays a divorced limo driver in California whose ex-wife and two kids live with a wealthy plastic surgeon.

Spy ... McCarthy era

A FRUMPY desk-bound female CIA agent overcomes her female boss' worries and her male colleague's putdowns to enter the world of espionage and capture an Italian thug who wants to acquire a nuclear warhead.

    Spy is a spoof of spy films, but it turns things on its head by putting boisterous Melissa McCarthy in the lead role of agent Susan Cooper, who is renowned at the CIA for baking cakes and working with suave tuxedo-clad agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law).

Tomorrowland ... Grumpy Clooney

GEORGE Clooney has a chip on his shoulder, and it's all because the girl he had fallen in love with at the age of 11 rebuffed his advances.
    This certainly sounds more engrossing than the hackneyed concept of humans facing the destruction of Earth. What is it anyway with Hollywood throwing Earth to the dogs? There's a similar concept in Avengers: Age of Ultron, in which baddies threaten the wholesale destruction of our lovely planet.

Launch of Wednesday salsa at Interlude, TTDI, KL

Full house at Interlude, TTDI, KL.

Pitch Perfect 2 ... Can't sing its praises

IF it weren't for the dancing and singing in this sequel to the 2012 film, Pitch Perfect 2 would have been hitting the low cash notes.

  Instead, it's expected to rack up US$68 million in its opening weekend in the US, beating Mad Max and relegating Avengers to third spot.

   However, the film doesn't hit the right notes until the Barden Bellas acapella group goes for an Outward Bound-type bonding retreat in the woods.

The Age of Adaline ... Excited about gray hair

THE Age of Adaline is the only film I've seen in which a woman gets excited about seeing a gray hair on her.  Viewers seeing this film, about a woman who remains ageless after being struck by lightning, will think of Paul Lambert in Highlander (1986), in which the protagonist cannot die, no matter how hard his enemies try to send him six feet under. Of course, his good looks remain the same throughout the centuries.

Mad Max: Fury Road ... Maximum action

MAD Max: Fury Road will disappoint those who believe in having a bit of drama to go with the non-stop action. However, for those wanting an adrenaline rush, this film will do it for you.
    There is no respite once the war rig driven by Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) starts off on its journey.
  This is a film where action speaks louder than words. And it's appropriate that the new Mad Max (Tom Hardy) is reticent and whose dialogue is limited to functional sentences.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 ... Just blah

PAUL Blart: Mall Cop 2 is a film with two halves, with the first being as boring as Adam Sandler's , and the second being energetic, humorous and uplifting. Sandler is a producer of Mall Cop 2.
The Cobbler
    Viewers would have been tearing their hair out by the time the film reaches the part where overweight Paul Blart (an endearing Kevin James) gets on his two-wheel vehicle and saves the day again.

Unfriended ... Net killings

THE originality of Unfriended is that everything takes place in a Skype chat room played out on a The Blair Witch Project brought on the age of left-behind video footage, Unfriended may herald a new age of communication in films.
computer screen. Just like how
   Unfriended is also a horror film, so you see a lot of shouting, screaming, creaking doors, lights going on and off, and blood splatters.

Passion, power and performances at Penang Salsa Fiesta 2015