Punisher: War Zone

Genre: Action
Watched With: Mr Rider @ The Cathay (26/01)
Snacks: Green Tea

Porno. Is. The. Punisher.

It has been 6 years since Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) lost his family (and also 6 years since the events in the first movie by the way) and The Punisher has become quite a regular figure by the police in their fight against crime and the mob.

And everyone is happy to mind their own business til an FBI agent is killed and his partner Paul Budiansky (Colin Salmon) is set on going after The Punisher to avenge his death.
So he's assigned to tag along with Det. Martin Soap (Dash Mihok) who has been studying Castle for years.

Now enter Billy 'The Beaut' Russoti (Dominic West). Mobster and all-round bad guy. The Punisher almost kills him but ends up just severely disfiguring him. And now he calls himself Jigsaw.
And after springing his crazy brother Loony Bin Jim (Doug Hutchison) from the mental hospital - just add them to the numbers going after The Punisher.

The first movie starring Thomas Jane as the lead character was greatly criticized as a piece of shit movie because they said it was "too clean" and "not violent enough" to suit the whole 'The Punisher' kind of feel. So they said let's do a completely new movie and make it more violent.
And they succeeded in doing only that.

This movie was one big violence-fest.
Seriously. Glorified killing (which wasn't even that stylish to be honest) and pointless maiming. Not really good value for money bub.
The acting was bad. The direction was bad. The plot was worse type.
Casting was horrible. I mean. Couldn't they assemble a proper cast?

Throw in a pointless sub-plot involving the slain FBI agent's wife Angela Donatelli (Julie Benz) and her kid and you manege to screw it all up again.
And what the hell is up with Punisher's arms-dealer Micro (Wayne Knight)?
Wayne Knight? That's the best they could do???

They wanted to make a violent movie? They did.
They wanted to make a better movie? They did not.

Final Verdict:

Doubt

Genre: Drama
Watched With: Nobody @ The Cathay (25/01)
Snacks: Green Tea

The year is 1964. And it is a time of.. well.. doubt.

Sister James (Amy Adams) is a young teacher at St. Nicholas Church School. The headmistress Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) starts to suspect that something is amiss when a priest - Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) - starts showing erratic behaviour especially shown in the topics of his weekly church sermons and also in the protective nature he shows to Donald Miller (Joseph Foster), who happens to be the only African American boy in school, subjecting his to discrimination by the other boys at school.

And discoveries by Sister James leads everyone to believe that Father Flynn seems to have a hidden agenda with the boy.
And at a time and place where nuns are below priests in the pecking order - how are they going to sort this out.

Is anything really wrong?
And if so, how can they prove it?
And since there is no real proof, can they go against the order of things at the church?

This is based on a stage play by John Patrick Shanley that has a very successful run in the early part of this decade.
And since the setting was such, the strength of the play had to obviously be shown through the performances of the cast members.
And that's exactly what it was.

The performances by Amy Adams, Meryl Streep & Phillip Seymour Hoffman were compelling to say the least.
The dialogue paired with the delivery of the 3 leads were enough to keep you glued to the movie with anticipation to get to the bottom of things. And at time you might even root for a certain character but later on change your minds based on a plot development.

Okay sure not exactly the best movie to go to if you're looking for enjoyment.
This was a pretty serious and sombre tone for a movie.
So i reckon it's good. But better on DVD.

Final Verdict:

Australia

Genre: Romance
Watched With: Miss Hana @ GV Yishun (07/01)
Snacks: None

Crikey mate.

Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) is forced to leave England and come to Australia after her husband is murdered.
She has come to sell off their cattle station 'Faraway Downs' to Aussie 'cattle king' King Carney (Bryan Brown).

But it is at her cattle station that she chances upon a mixed-blood aborinal boy Nullah (Brandon Walters) whom she not only takes a liking to but he also convinces her to try and keep the ranch running after proving that the station manager Neil Fletcher (David Wenham) is working secretly for King Carney.
So now Lady Ashley needs the help of brash and free-spirited cattle-man Drover (Hugh Jackman) to save her cattle station.

But can she save the ranch?
And how does Nullah's grandfather King George (David Gulpilil) - the medicine man who was supposedly responsible for Lady Ashley's husband factor in?

So director Baz Luhrmann wanted to make his great Australian romance epic and i guess he finally did it.
He managed to squeeze a whole lot of stuff into a 3-hour long movie.
And that's just the probelm - it's 3-hours long.

He could have stopped at the 2-hour mark but noooooooooo he decided he needed another hour to put even more stuff into it.
This was after all - an epic - right?

Well I guess it wasn't so bad.
It was definitely a great vehicle to promote Australia as a tourist destination. The cinematography manageed to capture some really beautiful scenes and imagery of Australia.
Actors weren't too bad either. But to me veteran Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil really stole the show.
He may be old now but I remember when I first saw him as a fairly young man in Crocodile Dundee.

Go catch this movie it's not too bad.
If only it wasn't so bloody long. Mate. Crikey.

Final Verdict:

Seven Pounds

Genre: Drama
Watched With: Nobody @ Cathay EHub (04/01)
Snacks: Rocky Road Cookies

Hmmmmmm.

This is one of those movies where I can't tell you much because if I do - then it'll spoil it for you and there's no point in you watching the movie.

But what I can tell you is - It's got a pretty good cast including Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson and Barry Pepper.
I can also tell you that it's a drama and it's actually a very sad movie.

And last but not least. I will tell you that - this is not a bad start to the year in movies.
If you don't mind a good powerful drama with some suspense and a lot of instances that want to make you want to be a good person in 2009 and also a movie that might induce some tears then go watch this.

Final Verdict: