A film review: 'Saving Mr. Banks' is a heartfelt rescue mission.

 

Origin: United States, United Kingdom · Language: English

Director: John Lee Hancock · Writers: Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith

Genre: Drama · Release: 2013; Nov 29 (UK), Dec 13 (US)

Casts: Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, Paul Giamatti, 

Jason Schwartzman, Collin Farrell

More info: IMDb

Hello, again! This was supposed to be a simple, on-the-nose review (a.k.a. a short review) which is a section within my Facebook page, but turns out I got a lot more to spew off my chest about my latest viewing experience.

This is a rather stellar companion piece to the more whimsical Mary Poppins, the case study of this period drama centering on the making of the said movie anchored by Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks as the backbones of the film, P.L. Travers (the author of Mary Poppins' source material) and Walt Disney (do I even need to tell you who this is?) respectively. You could say it's a prequel of sorts, but not in the traditional sense.

Film reviews/opinion pieces: Wayang@Budiman Presents 'Sinema Selera'

Official flyer for 'Sinema Selera.'

Good day ol' chaps! As you can see, I am NOT good at constantly updating my blog. Life happens, and laziness happens. And this shitty intro happens. 

Anway, this will be a collective review, short or long, of a handful of films that filled the 'Sinema Selera' slot (literally translates as Delicious Cinema or Cinema of Taste) which is held throughout September and October at Wayang@Budiman, a screening session organised by Pusat Kajian dan Apresiasi Filem (Centre of Film Research and Appreciation). More info on these screenings, I already blabbed about it on the intro in the first review of the first film in this slot, so go ahead and click that. It's right after the posters.

I got to say... I haven't really thought about food the way these filmmakers do. From Japan to Mexico, each of these countries sees food very differently, and maybe these functions would/wouldn't be discussed in each of the film's review/opinion. So let's get it on!

Posters for the films screened at Sinema Selera.

A video game review: 'DmC: Devil May Cry'

Origin: Japan, United Kingdom
Language: English
Genre: Hack-and-slash
Platforms: PlaySation 3 / Xbox 360 / Windows
Release:
PS3 & X360 - January 15 (USA) & 17 (JP), 2013
Windows - January 24 (AUS) & 25 (USA), 2013
Developers: Ninja Theory (PS3 & X360), QLOC (Windows)
Publisher: Capcom

Thanks a lot, Dante. Thanks a lot for making my life unproductive again after I've finished exploring this new rendition of your personality and back story! Fuck you (in the words of Dante and one of the bosses in the game)!

It looks like this game had started things off for a slew of upcoming 2013 releases, and it is none other than a reboot of the most badass action franchise to date which pretty much started the whole 'one guy looking super-cool while killing loads of baddies' kind of games weirdly titled DmC: Devil May Cry / DmC.

A film review: 'Upside Down'

Origin: France, Canada
Language: English
Director & writer: Juan Diego Solanas
Producers: Claude Léger, Dimitri Rassam, Aton Soumache, Jonathan Vanger, Alexis Vonarb
Casts: Jim Sturgess, Kirsten Dunst, Timothy Spall
Genres: Romance / science fiction
Release: August 22, 2012
Studios: Onyx Films, Studio 37
Distributors: Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Samuel Goldwyn Films, Millenium Films

I didn't know how I knew about the film, really. I think it was through random readings of Wikipedia articles that perhaps made me found out about it (yeah, I do that sometimes)? When I stumbled upon it, the interesting spin on gravity is what sold me (hard to believe it's not Kirsten Dunst that got me, huh?).

A film review: In 'The Illusionist', magicians do not exist.

Origin: France, Scotland
Language: French, English, Gaelic
Original title: L'Illusionniste
Director: Sylvain Chomet
Producers: Sally Chomet, Bob Last
Writers: Henry Marquet, Sylvain Chomet 
Genres: Drama / comedy
Casts: Jean-Claude Donda, Eilidh Rankin  
Release: June 16, 2010 
Studios: Pathé, Django Films 
Distributors: Pathé, Sony Pictures Classics

As dull as it may seem, but the uninspiring reality of the world of L'Illusionniste (The Illusionist), the 2010 French animated feature by Sylvain Chomet of Les Triplettes de Belleville (Triplets of Belleville) fame rings true, as it ironically and accurately reflected the situation in which I have experienced at the night of the film's screening in my faculty; an almost empty theatre putting on an amazingly crafted and detailed spectacle for the supposedly labeled 'film students' to ponder upon (which consist of mostly the organisers including myself and very few batch mates of mine).