CinemaShafiq

  Just wow. I am going through a movie marathon; a movie a day, for Quentin Tarantino's films, and I purposely left Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill to be watched at a later stage of my movie adventure even though I've become a movie lover for quite a while because as far as I've heard, these films are masterpieces. Now, I've watched Reservoir Dogs and I think it is, but after watching Kill Bill: Vol.1, man, I was just blown away. If Reservoir Dogs was the film that kick-started Tarantino's impressive directing career, then Kill Bill was his pinnacle of success. The story and the characters, which were set in their own Tarantino's movie logics were absolutely great and fun, and that iconic yellow jumpsuit was just, instant pop culture material. In fact, I think Kill Bill made it's way to the hall of "movies that shaped the pop culture", in the same league as Star Wars, Indiana Jones and The Dark Knight. And of course, how can I not talk about Uma Thurm

  The end of an era. The quintessential Bond film, even with it flaws. It's not until the last 20 mins of this film that it truly hit me that Daniel Craig had been Bond since 2006 (much earlier than RDJ as Iron Man) and that he's basically the Bond that I grew up with; and this is his last outing. It stays with me even after the film ends, that it's finally the end of an era, just as Logan did for Jackman's Wolverine and Endgame did for RDJ's Tony Stark. As his last and the send-off film, I think the film worked well in delivering that and it is also one of the good Craig's Bond films. Definitely miles better than Spectre. But still far compared to Casino Royale or Skyfall. NTTD feels fresh with great action sequences in the early parts of the film - exciting action scenes since Casino Royale. Also, it's fresh because this is the first film in Craig era that we get to see James Bond as a normal guy, with quippy banters and romantic side to him. Overall, the

  The King Caesar Rises. The Last Temptation of Caesar. Wow, a perfect threequel to close probably the most underrated trilogy in the modern cinema thanks to being drowned in the sea of other superhero and massive sci-fi blockbusters. The best element of this film was probably its cinematography and the visual effects. The CGI oh wow, they all seems so real that you will sometimes forgot that you're actually watching a movie based on a premise that a CGI ape on a horse is leading a revolution against mankind to succeed planet Earth; which, if such premise is on the hands of different persons/studios, would end up as a horrendous silly B-movie. With that being said, hard to believe that everything that happened in this film's universe was thanks to James Franco. If Caesar was Jesus, so he's God... I guess?  8/10

  A good female-lead assassin revenge thriller. Probably one of the few of decent Netflix films. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was amazing, and at least this film got a heartfelt story and beautiful cinematography unlike other numerous cliche modern female badass movies. This is how you make a good, badass female lead film; not with random preachy scenes or bland action scenes (Enola Holmes, The Old Guard), but with a strong front character with a good story and deep characterisation. I would be excited if there's a sequel. 6/10

  Mehh it's alright.  You can definitely expect that it would not be a smart movie or a well-choreographed practical action movie, but the chemistry between The Rock & Statham was fine. And I like the unexpected secret cameo. Still, this film was really not in league with other films in the Fast & Furious franchise, it was filled with crappy CGI, overly used cheap humour, too much slow mo and illogical action scenes (yes, even for Fast & Furious standard). 6/10

The last time I watched this film was back in 2009 at my school, when my replacement teacher showed this movie for us on a projector in a science lab. So my memory about it was very vague and upon a proper rewatch, I am actually slightly disappointed. The first film was a classic, and the second & third installment were basically good, enjoyable 80s action popcorn movie. 20 years later, after Rambo III, we found out that Rambo is now living in Thailand, isolated and far from his old life. I expected more from this as it was directed by Stallone himself, but sadly a lot of aspects of this film were a failure. The story was simple, not a problem but damn it, the casts, everyone basically besides Rambo were annoying, miserable and badly written. The cinematography was nothing extraordinary, and the CGI was hideous and notably bad on a lot of action scenes.  Eventhough the music scores by Brian Tyler was good, as well as the gruesome realistic potrayal of the Burmese civil war was inte

  Chris Hemsworth's new Netflix film Extraction turned out to be worth the watch.  It is a good action-packed popcorn film and this film showed that Hemsworth is the one amongst the OG Avengers who has the most diverse acting range and also a bright career post Endgame. 6/10

  Just what the fuck. This was easily one of the worst action films I had watched in years. It was cheap, poorly written, edited and even poorly acted. Liam Neeson is the kind of actor that works best when he is an addition to an ensembled movie, but oh boy cannot really hold a movie with him being the titular hero. This movie was an easy cash grab with the quality of a B film or a Diva channel film. The only good thing about this film was that at least now the franchise is finally over but Liam Neeson still however keep on doing the same type of films over and over for the past two years. 4/10

  Well, it was a better improvement over the first one, with new casts; and adding The Rock definitely improved your failing franchise. The action scenes were much better, more logical and enjoyable rather than the first film over-the-top cheesiness and those were definitely thrown out of the window in this one. Removing Stephen Sommers as the director and hiring John M Chu was clearly a good decision. You can see the movie was directed by a different director for the sequel and it was a good decision. Still, this movie was riddled with a lot of campiness, and a plot that seems to be taking inspiration from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The funny thing that I noticed while I was watching this movie is that how the plot was really similar to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. An evil organisation who everyone think is dead but actually is running behind the scenes and slowly planning for a world domination, with the final act involving weapons of mass destruction that can target

Upon watching it, I bet it was not well received when it was released, and I was right. Turns out the film becomes a cult classic a few years after its release and it was not hard to see why. With an interesting premise and a strong acting by Christian Bale, together with its early 2000s leather-punk-rock-music campyness, it was a good dystopian sci-fi film; and the only thing that bugs me was how cheesy the "gun-kata" was. Obviously it drew inspirations from The Matrix, George Orwell's novels and also Chinese kung-fu films and everything was mixed in a blender and blended. Still, it's Christian Bale. 6/10

Not the better Michael Mann movie, too bad because I really enjoyed Heat and The Last of the Mohicans . Gong Li and Colin Farrell's chemistry felt really forced. Mann was making their relationship the typical "law guy meets hot crook girl and fall in love" but it did not worked for me. There are no chemistry whatever between them at all.  I still like the whole "undercover cop dealing with drug dealers" vibe though, it feels like a GTA movie. Hmm.. about time we got a live action GTA movie. Still, to be honest, I never planned to watch this movie. I know that it exists and it was a remake of a 80s TV series but I was on Netflix one day, and the thing that got me into watching is Linkin Park's "Numb" Encore version in the beginning though, and that's the best outtake of this movie. 6/10

This whole movie is basically just Jared Leto enjoying his weird affection to the Japanese culture, this time; a white yakuza. Maybe he didn't had enough satisfaction playing with Japanese elements in Blade Runner 2049.  There was nothing much about this film, it was about Jared Leto being a former US military, stranded in Japan, and for some weird reason in the universe that this film was taking in - the Yakuza seems to be very welcoming in accepting a gaijin , a white one especially, being accepted into the family. Sure, to be honest, the promise of a white guy being a part of the Yakuza is actually interesting, and there were plenty of materials already made on this premise.  However, what we got is one long movie, which drags and didn't really deliver a good story about that and what was more annoying is that there seems to be illogical "white saviour" moments sprinkled in this movie. It felt like Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai . That fi

This movie definitely was not the best thriller or heist movie out there, but the combined stars of the legendary Sean Connery and the forever beauty Catherine Zeta Jones did this movie justice for me. Plus, I watched this movie without knowing that the second half of it would take place in Kuala Lumpur.  Being a Malaysian myself, I am excited to see Kuala Lumpur being shot in its late 90s glory, especially when they decide to use the Petronas Twin Towers as their main setting of the heist. This is during the supposed time of Malaysia's rise as the Asian Tiger, with massive urban developments and mega projects being done under the administration of Tun Dr. Mahathir. The then-Prime Minister (and ironically also the current one) was actually angered with the production of this film and he disliked it due to the fact that they tried to portray as if Petronas Twin Towers was built in the middle of a slump of poor KL residents. This is as if they're trying to sa

It's probably the dumbest out of all Predator movies yet it's so much fun. Shane Black's effort to change a Predator movie into a dumb, fun and action-packed serving works well for me. I had a good time and I would say this is the best Predator movie since 1987. Unpopular view, I know. But I really had a fun time from the absurdity and campiness that this movie had. It's not as dry as Predator 2 and not as vanilla like Predator (2010). Gotta admit tho, the final "anti-Predator armour" was an unnecessary push that made the movie more campier than it already is. I don't think it would grant a sequel, but if there would be, I hope they would keep the fun and campiness aspect and improvise it by giving a better story and a more realistic touch. 5/10

Paskal was a very good Malaysian film. I think this is the first REAL local action film, like real action. No CGI explosion or any cringy action stuffs. It was also the most accurate local movie in presenting the technicalities and true SOP of our Malaysian military. So no more cringy stuffs like "Tuan, orang jahat kat sana tuan!" or anything resembling like that coming from Gerak Khas or Roda-roda KL. It also has a strong patriotic message and really shows just how cool our military, specifically, our navy, really is. Though I think there are some cons. There were too many expositions and I think it was better if the main lead was not Hairul Azreen. Dude can act but he's just not hardcore enough for the main role. OH and this movie introduced me to Jasmine Suraya who is such a delight so there's that. Hi Jasmine    7/10

Just another The Rock's movie. With CGI explosions. And The Rock jumping over 30m mid air from a crane into a burning door at level 60+. And China's Hollywood invasion. Perfect materials for 2018 starter pack of "generic action film that mass audience would enjoy". The China invasion into Hollywood was not even hidden with the main plot taking place in China, a Chinese main character, as well as some minor Chinese characters that have more screentime than they should. This is the kind of movie that you would play if you're doing house chores and you feel like wanted to play something on the background. 5/10

Meh. if there were not too much of unnecessary screaming (just to create intense moments/macho moments), I probably can rate it higher. This film is also a tryhard imitation of The Departed, which itself is a remake of Infernal Affairs. 4/10

Expecting the 3rd act would be about The Rock inhaling the gas and becomes a giant but ok. 6/10

A great film on pop culture, consumer-capitalism, and an appreciation movie for movie & video game geeks. Any geeks. Spielberg showed us that he still had it in the "good popcorn movie master" department. I initially am not expecting much from this movie but I was surprised. The tons of cameos and references from films, video games, animes, and especially from 80s, plus it being a really good film with good hearwamig story and good character, well this is a rarity. I don't wanna spoil anything but the final battle blown me away, and when those two BIG Gs coming out, I feel like screaming like a kid. And the ending would make you sob, especially if you're a gamer or a geek, because you might can relate to what the message given by Mark Rylance. Thank you, Spielberg. 7/10