How To Train Your Dragon Review

With Pixar winning 5 out of the last 7 Best Animated feature awards at the Oscars, it’s hard to take Dreamworks animated films seriously. I can name only a handful of Dreamworks films that I liked, namely Antz, Shrek, Chicken Run, The Prince of Egypt and KungFu Panda. I’m glad to add How To Train Your Dragon to that list.

This movie takes place in Viking times and is about a boy named Hiccup. Yes, I know, that’s not a very Viking name. In the process of the movie, he sees another side to the vicious dragons that terrorize his village and starts to understand them.

They waste no time jumping straight into the plot. You’re introduced to the dragons right from the get-go. The subtle narration in the opening bits of the movie helps with the introduction to the back-story and is a great starting point. Other than being thrown right into the mix in the first 10 minutes, I found myself being struck by how good the voice acting was. If I had to pick out one thing from this movie that made me like it, I would definitely say the voice acting. Big props to the casting director for getting it spot on with Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson.

Another thing I like about the movie is how they dealt with the accents. There’s a fair balance of Scottish and American thrown in, keeping the Viking flair but at the same time making it mainstream and more understandable with the American accents.

Apart from the stand-out voice acting, the visual effects are well done but nothing mind-blowing. Everything looks very rounded, just like in other Dreamworks movies. I’m disappointed with the art design of the the supposed best and most powerful dragon of all, Night Fury aka. Toothless. I know it’s meant to be cute at times, but at times when the dragon is supposed to be vicious and frightening, it just looks lame. It’s too rounded and looks nothing like a dragon. More like a black cat with wings. The best thing about ‘Night Fury’ is that it’s like the fighter jet of the dragon. It’s fast, stealthy and shoots awesome fireballs.

In a nutshell, the How To Train Your Dragon is a an easy-on-the-mind, feel-good movie. With plenty of cute ‘awww’ moments and decent humor, this is definitely a highly recommendable movie. Everyone should go see this movie. Bring your kids, your siblings, your parents, your grandparents, your aunts and uncles. It will be worth the money you pay. But it’s definitely nowhere close to Pixar standard. This movie barely evoked any emotions in me, something Pixar films do all the time.

I shall give How To Train Your Dragon a rating of 7 out of 10 Popcorns.

Opening This Week: Inglourious Law Abiding Basterds

This week = epic week. So far, Inglourious Basterds has received some extraordinary buzz and Law Abiding Citizen, not so much, but it still manages to seem like a decent action flick. Let's look at what to expect of these films, shall we?


Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Cast: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Til Schweiger
Director: Quentin Tarantino
USA release: August 21
Malaysia release: October 22
USA gross: $119,098,000
Worldwide gross: $275,365,277
Genre: Drama, War
Runtime: 2 Hours 34 Minutes
Rated in USA: R for strong graphic violence, language and brief sexuality
Rated in Malaysia: 18PL
IMDb User Rating: 8.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
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Inglourious Basterds begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). She narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organises a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of vengeance. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own.

From what I've read and heard, this movie is Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece. And if Quentin Tarantino has a masterpiece, you absolutely HAVE to see it. The trailer is apparently very deceiving and the movie doesn't have as much gun-slinging action as portrayed in the trailer. Instead, people have said the movie is filled with intriguing verbal exchanges. Also, this film is very long. I, for one, am excited to watch this film but I cannot speak for anyone else. I guess we'll just have to go see the film to tell for ourselves.




Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler
Director: F. Gary Gray
USA release: October 16
Malaysia release: October 22
USA gross: $21,250,000
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller, Drama
Runtime: 1 Hour 49 Minutes
Rated in USA: R for strong bloody brutal violence and torture, a scene of rape, and pervasive language
Rated in Malaysia: 18PL
IMDb User Rating: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 24%
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Clyde Shelton (Butler) is an upstanding family man whose wife and daughter are brutally murdered during a home invasion. When the killers are caught, Nick Rice (Foxx), a hotshot young Philadelphia prosecutor, is assigned to the case. Over his objections, Nick is forced by his boss to offer one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his accomplice. Ten years later, the man who got away with murder is found dead and Clyde Shelton coolly admits his guilt. Then he issues a warning to Nick: Either he fix the flawed justice system that failed his family, or key players in the trial will die.

I've said this numerous times before and I'm going to reiterate it by saying trailers can be terribly deceiving and we shouldn't peg our expectations for the movie to the quality of the trailer. In my opinion, the trailer for this film was action-packed and really well done. According to IMDb, the general audience liked the film but on the other hand, many of the movie critics on Rotten Tomatoes didn't like it. In any case, let's just hope this film is full of good purposeful action and suspense.

Source: Cinema Online, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Box Office Mojo

Opening This Week: Where Got Ugly Gamer?

This week we get a Singaporean horromedy (yes, I just made that up, well at least I think I did) and Gerard Butler stars in two very different movies. And I've also integrated some Twitter stuff into this post so make sure to utilize it.


Where Got Ghost? (2009)
Starring: Henry Thia, Jack Neo, Mark Lee
Director: Jack Neo
Singapore release: August 13
Malaysia release: September 11
Country: Singapore
Language: English, Hokkien, Mandarin
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Runtime: 1 Hour 46 Minutes
Rated in Malaysia: U
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Jack Neo's 3-in-1 horror with Singaporean humour will include "Roadside Got Ghost", "Forest Got Ghost" and "House Got Ghost".

Where Got Ghost? is a Horror-Comedy Chinese Movie. 3-in-1 Horror tales told in a good old comedy fashion.

Roadside Got Ghost: Swindlers Cai, Fu and Shou have a new scam - using a hotline to make random calls to people, promising them fortune. Those who win the lottery are required to pay commission to Cai or be scared into submission.
One day, Cai receives a phone call. The caller gives Cai deploying the same hotline trick. Believing it is a copycat of his scam, Cai naturally disregards the call, but goes ahead and tries his luck with the given number anyway. To his surprise, he wins. Mysterious happenings assume...

Forest Got Ghost: Nan and Lei return for army reservists' training. They learn that the place they will be sent is the widely known 'haunted hill', so they take the short cut. Suddenly, the 'haunted hill' seems to come alive - tombstones, red dress spirit and other strange sightings. Then it rains. Nan and Lei seek refuge at Yin Yin's house, a girl they just met. Little do they know their road to hell has been cut short...

House Got Ghost: It is the Lunar 7th Month, weird sightings happen at home, children can only think it is the late mother's doings. The truth slowly surface as they begin their road trip only this time it seems to be more than what they bargain for

Not many good horror/comedies come out of Singapore (other than Jack Neo films) but this should be one of them, so definitely should be checked out.




The Ugly Truth (2009)
Starring: Kathrine Heigl, Gerard Butler
Director: Robert Luketic
USA release: July 24
Malaysia release: September 10
USA gross: $87,565,314
Worldwide: $104,277,504
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Rated in USA: R for sexual content and language
Rated in Malaysia: 18PL
IMDb User Rating: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 60%
See what Twitter people are saying of The Ugly Truth

A romantically-challenged morning show producer (Katherine Heigl) is embroiled in a series of outrageous tests by her chauvinistic correspondent to prove his theories on relationships and help her find love. His clever ploys, however, lead to an unexpected result.

If there were ever a decent chick-flick, I think this would be it. But then again, Gerard Butler in rom-coms is just...weird.




Gamer (2009)
Starring: Gerard Butler
Directors: Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine
USA release: September 4
Malaysia release: September 10
USA gross: $11,203,761
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes
Rated in USA: R for frenetic sequences of strong brutal violence throughout, sexual content, nudity and language
Rated in Malaysia: 18PL
IMDb User Rating: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 18%
See what Twitter people are saying of Gamer

Gamer is a near-future action/thriller starring Gerard Butler (Kable) as the champion of an online game called "Slayers". Mind-control technology has taken society by storm and "Slayers" allows humans to control other humans in a mass-scale, multiplayer online game. With his every move tracked by millions, Kable's ultimate challenge is regaining his identity and launching an attack on the system that has imprisoned him.

Now this is the kind of role I'd like to see Gerard Butler in. Unfortunately, the film doesn't seem to be good at all.

Here are a few Twittereviews - from @elguapo1 "If you've ever wondered what it would be like to have a seizure, watch Gamer." and "Gamer made me almost want to never play video games ever again. And the whole movie was shot from the ground. Pick up the f@#$ing camera."

From @smashpop - "Just finihed watching Gamer. It gave me a headache. Rate it 5/10"

So Twitter has spoken. Do you want to get a seizure, never intend to play video games again and get a headache all at the same time? I don't think so.

Sources: IMDb, Cinema Online, Twitter, @smashpop, @elguapo1, Rotten Tomatoes, Box Office Mojo

Law Abiding Citizen Trailer Is Anything But Law Abiding

This is a great trailer from the upcoming Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler film, Law Abiding Citizen directed by F. Gary Gray. Ever since Butler did P.S. I Love You, I just could not take him seriously. To make things worse, he just did The Ugly Truth with Katherine Heigl this summer. But it looks like he is trying to regain his 300-King-Leonidas-This-Is-Sparta-badass-ery with roles in Gamer and Law Abiding Citizen. Want to know what I mean when I say badass? Just watch the trailer embedded below.

Law Abiding Citizen is a thriller about a brilliant sociopath who orchestrates a series of high-profile murders that grip the city of Philadelphia - all from inside his jail cell - and the prosecutor assigned to his case who realizes he is the only one who can end the reign of terror.



Law Abiding Citizen is set for release October 16.

Gamer Trailer

Gamer, starring Gerard Butler and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, is set in the near future where mind-control is possible and a game called “Slayers” exists. Humans are able to control other humans in this mass-scale, multiplayer game. Kable (Butler) is a death row prisoner who is promised to be released if he survives 30 rounds of the game. He, of course, tries to cheat the system and take down its creator.

Gamer gets its release in America September 4 and in Malaysia September 17. Below is the trailer.