The Struggle

First moviegoing experience in Milan! So it was a Monday and there's a happy monday promo which makes the ticket 3.5 euros, way less than the usual 8.90 euros. My first movie here was Step Up All In, I specifically chose this film because Step Up films has no story, the real spectacle here is the dancing. Why so? Because all the major cinemas in Milan are dubbed in Italian. Yeah. So they released A Walk Among the Tombstones early here but I couldn't watch it. And I don't know how do they decide the seating, because the ticket box person didn't show me any seating arrangements. So I thought it's the who's in first system, like the one I encountered in the Philippines. But no, it actually has a seating number. Another unique thing here is there's a 5 minute break random in the film. It was literally at a middle of a dialogue and bam! Pause to relax.

This fall-holiday season, there aren't many films I wanna watch in the cinemas (a result of 2 years of prioritizing in Japan). My little list of films only consists of Gone Girl, Interstellar, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. These are the major ones. The award-season films are not included. WHICH led to the biggest regret of the month: Birdman was shown here in Milan but I found out a day before the screening in which all the tickets were sold out. And this week, Zurich Film Festival is here. And George Clooney's wedding in Venice. hashtagThepainsoflivinginEurope

Anyway, Step Up All In was pretty bad. The flash mob story was, in the Step Up films scope, revolutionary because it didn't involve some tournament. And the dance wasn't even that cool. It looked cool thanks to the super Briana Evigan. And that leading man looked like Chris Evans' stunt double. On a different occassion, I watched Jeff Bridges-starrinThe Giver. It's not bad, but it has all the potential to be amazing. It should be better than Divergent but apparently not. That's a shame. It could be more epic and more thought-provoking, but it ended up talky and bland. Sorry, precision of language; it's quite boring. But the color scheme thing works beautifully. And that overhyped Taylor Swift appearance is only maybe less than two minutes. Hey but who doesn't love Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep?

Anyway, the only films that I would watch that would be screened here in English next month is only Lucy. So that's pretty retarded. Italy is even worse than Japan in terms of movie going.

Buona Sera!

Hi! I'm very honored to introduce this blog's third base camp which is in--drumroll--Milano, Italy! Unbelievable and crazy right? Suddenly this blog just went places. This boring blog. Anyway, I celebrated by staying at home watching two movies back to back (if you're wondering, they're The Rover and Chef) while also accomplishing my first laundry and eating lunch. I know what you must've been thinking: man, this is one lazy Asian over here.

So, good points: new experiences, new friends, all of those new things right?
Bad points: dubbed cinemas and unfriendly locals.

Say whaatt? Dubbed cinemas?
Yep, while the film distribution is pretty good Italian cinema going is a product of the country's history of anti-English/anti-American. Therefore they dubbed all of English-speaking films to their own proud language. They claimed that they have the best dubbers in the world, and from what I've been seeing from the Italian version of trailers, it's true. But fuck that, come on. We're in one of the most famous cities in the world and you can't find an English speaking cinema? Yes you can apparently, but the movies played in those cinemas are limited and not updated ones. And there are only THREE cinemas playing this lingua originale films. Struggle is not over from Japan, guys. Let me get tickets to Coppa della Stelle or some of that three-worded Italian title of The Fault in Our Stars. There are people who needs to watch Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Guardians of the Galaxy in English here.

Please Stop

Just watched Transformers: Age of Extinction a couple of weeks ago. It was just released on early August in Japan. My expectations were very low. I didn't expect anything. The trailers look okay, but I wasn't expecting much. This is going to be real short.

The story takes place after the events from Transformers: DOTM. Transformers is now branded alien and dangerous no matter whether it is an Autobot or a Decepticon. Now the humans are played by Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor--which is less appealing than Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Transfomers are now hunted but at the same time a company is making a Transformers army with less cool impact. There's also a bounty hunter who wanted Optimus Prime. I don't know, too many stuff going on.

I'll start with the good ones: Optimus Prime and Bumblebee's new design is cool. Okay that's it. The fact that Age of Extinction spent its first 45 minutes for human exposition story is kinda wtf and infinitely boring. It's cute that they think they have a legit human story to tell. We don't need Mark Wahlberg talking to Nicola Peltz for 45 minutes. The story is all over the place. The characters are bad. They actually lost me when Ratchet was brutally murdered and another part of the interest was lost when TJ Miller was Sodom and Gomorrah-ed. Apart from Prime and Bee, the other Autobots are crap. There's this racist Japanese robot whose design is like a samurai with full battle costume and he speaks like a Japanese person even though he transformed into a Bugatti Veyron. The John Goodman-voiced Autobot is basically John Goodman. The bounty hunter named Lockdown is one of the highlights. It's good and scary with some cool weapons. But the KSI Transformers (the manmade ones) are sleek but the way they transform is shit. The much hyped Dinobots is another bad thing, it made the movie weird--like really weird. I'd rather have Optimus narrate the phone book as the introduction than seeing dinosaurs in the first minutes of a Transformers film. And those obvious product placement Chinese drinks. And the racist thing that every Chinese knows kung-fu/martial arts. God. I really wanted to leave this film at some points--plural--of the film. The Bayhem seemed muted by the fact the story is really bad. Please stop making more of this atrocity. Transformers: Age of Extinction: rated 1/4

PS
This will be my last Japan-based post for 2014. Next post will be Italy-based!

In another note, my now 8-year old tradition continues with my second viewing of Godzilla, which with 2nd viewing doesn't get better. I'd give it a solid 3/4 now.

Tommy C in Japan Y'all

So one of my favorite actors, Tom Cruise (I don't need to mention his films right?), came to Japan about one month ago. As a part of his promotion stunt to visit three cities in one day just like he did in the world premiere (NY, Paris, Rome--if I'm not mistaken), he repeated the same thing in Japan by visiting--in chronological order, Osaka--Fukuoka--and finally Tokyo. I was quite blessed to have the opportunity to go to Fukuoka to see him!

It's a crazy day, and the fan meeting event was held in one of the busiest spots in Fukuoka: Hakata Station, one of the central stations in that city. People were already waiting since 9.00 am in the morning for the event on 13.30. I myself arrived at around 11, when people were already lining up like it was a Disneyland ride. It was the most unstrategic place to hold a fan meeting of any scale, let alone Tom Cruise's fan meeting. Take a look at this crazy pic from above.

By 13.30, people were commuting around like crazy as they are trying to join the crowd although they didn't line up since 9 am. Tom Cruise showed up with director Doug Liman and one of the producer whose name I can't recall. Tom Cruise greeted the people above he also looked unsatisfied with the venue. Even though he's on a stage, most people couldn't see him. Then he climbed onto a railing and stood up there and waved to people. The crowd went nuts. Then he gave a short speech about he love coming to Japan and how the Japanese original inspired the Hollywood adaptation. I loved how he's so humble and kind to the fans--or as the Japanese call it 'meccha ii fan sabisu'. One sentence moved me a lot when he said, "it is my honor to entertain you"

not from my iPhone-duh

He was up there for around 20 minutes in total. Doug Liman was asked questions and the producer too. Then the three of them were given a traditional Fukuoka yukata. And that was it. I think there was a special screening of a bit of the film, I have no idea whether Tom Cruise was there or not. I hope not, because if he did, I'd be so pissed that I didn't 'hunt' him.

Here's to more movie premieres in the future.

                        

Late Bloomers

I am sorry. I have not written here for so long that I have forgotten this habit. I owe whoever frequently reads this shitty blog of mine. So, about three weeks ago I had a marathon of the films I would call Frozen dethroners. So, in Japan Frozen (or titled in Japan as a more sensible but generic fare Anna and the Snow Queen) had reigned the box office for 14 weeks straight. But then Maleficent and Edge of Tomorrow (or titled cooler in Japan All You Need Is Kill) was released and succeeded in breaking the 14-week-reign. And just yesterday, Japan finally welcomed their own creation Godzilla.

Edge of Tomorrow
I felt blessed to have met/seen Tom Cruise live in Japan before watching this film. This film looked super solid from the first trailer and it actually is. The main plot is a recycled Groundhog Day but with more rules and twists. Tom Cruise plays Lt. Cage, a coward PR agent who was forced to join the army and battle alien race called Mimics. He's helped by the Full Metal Bitch, Rita Vrataski (a hyper badass Emily Blunt). Edge of Tomorrow is surprisingly intense and funny at the same time while still retaining the quality it possesses, a really rare feat for a summer blockbuster these days (last time a summer film was funny and action-packed was White House Down and we know how it turned out). The ending is another great point for me. It doesn't make sense, but do everything has to make sense? You should be able to figure it out by yourself using your own brain. Edge of Tomorrow: rated 4/4

Maleficent
I have never seen Sleeping Beauty (cue the jaw drop), so I came to this film only knowing that sleeping beauty is Aurora and the villain is Maleficent. I thought the film would still retain the animated film version but with a perspective from the villain, make Maleficent like an anti-hero thing. But no, they actually did a new take on the film. It is also a part of the new wave Disney that tries to wash clean the whole true-love-is-from-a-prince thing, like Frozen. The visuals look cool and stuff, Angelina Jolie is great as the titular role but the fact that it has so little story bugged me. It felt great at sometimes but at some time it also felt disjointed and out of place. I find it sad to see Sharlto Copley reduced as a grunting King whose death was cut just to make the PG rating. Also Brenton Thwaites reduced to just being a pretty face, when he could do great like in the stellar horror film Oculus. Lana del Rey's take on Once Upon A Dream though, that's quality. Maleficent: rated 2.5/4

Godzilla
The King of Monsters is back. Gareth Edwards of Monsters fame is on the helm with a group of spectacular actors that include Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen and Sally Hawkins. After the ill-received Roland Emmerich version of Godzilla in 1998, this version is the one Hollywood and Japan needed. It is a fresh take on Godzilla, and it combined the geek momentum from the underrated Pacific Rim and also the popularity of the creature itself. The story is more in this film, so for those people who asked for more story in your films you can suck on this. In this version, Godzilla is mother nature's natural weapon to eliminate MUTOs or you can just say Kaiju. He battled (spoiler) two creatures that were to endanger humanity. The approach to this film is an exceptional one. Instead of giving us the creature from the get go, it builds up to the climax. It is very effective to create this dark brooding atmosphere so that we can feel like in the situation. However, I think the story might be too much that it kinds of sidelined the human characters. It's such a pity to see Elizabeth Olsen just screaming around whenever Godzilla was battling the other monsters. Also Ken Watanabe who's just there to stare at things and got awed at creatures. There's not enough Godzilla action too, but everytime he's on screen it's that awesome y'all. I also don't like the fact that Godzilla was praised after he destroyed two cities that are separated by an ocean. What about Man of Steel? Bottomline, Godzilla may not be a summer film, but it is an amazing film. Godzilla: rated 4/4