Daddy Day Camp (2007)

This film does depend too heavily on various "stink" jokes, but the performances are generally strong.

The father-son relationship is well portrayed, especially by Cuba's father (Richard Gant). It could use more convincing development of the motivation for the "loss" that haunts Cuba's character so many years later. However, Lance (L. Munro) is a good, bad-guy.

Paul Rae, who plays Cuba's sidekick is impressive. I've seen him called a John Goodman clone, but other than in general appearance, that isn't true. Rae gives a subtle performance that goes far beyond the usual fat-guy role.

Fred Savage does a good job with the kids. All of the are realistically cute, without being over-the-top. Tyger Rawlings is good as the "bully", but I worked several days on this shoot and Tyger is a natural comedian. He could carry a leading comedy role with ease.

A bit of trivia -- it was very cold and raining or snowing most of the days the competition scenes were shot। If you watch the trees, you'll see increasing numbers of leaves that have turned yellow or red from the frost. The scenes shot on a few days had to have low angles to keep the snow from showing.

Transformers (2007)

Okay, as those who have seen the trailers will figure, the CG is pretty much the cornerstone of this movie. While it probably will blow you away, the novelty eventually wears off and then you wonder: hey, where did the plot go?! But then your attention is quickly drawn back by a giant robot slamming into an office block - or a wonderfully shot car chase; probably some of the most impressive action sequences to ever grace the silver screen.

A hefty dose of cheese seems to have been added to the movie, but most of it can be laughed off. One particular scene was reminiscent of the fighter jet in the movie Stealth downloading songs off the internet. A few loose ends in the thin story probably suggest a sequel is coming - but how can anyone have a problem with that! It has its laughs (even if some are cheap) but the 2.5 hours go fast; I'm sure most people will leave the cinema on a high note. Hopefully this movie gets Bay the credit The Island didn't.

And a postscript for hardcore Transformers geeks: go with your expectations at your ankles because you're probably going to cringe when something isn't as it should be (although even a minor fan like myself noticed a lack of original transformation noises)। But on the whole this movie has plenty more to offer, and appeals to many more people.

Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII (2006)

One year has passed since the events in Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children। Buried alive following the Meteor disaster, a mysterious group known as the Deep Ground Soldiers emerge and begin raiding the city of Midgar. The enigmatic Vincent Valentine is somehow connected to these attacks, and may be as well the only one who can save this shattered world. Other characters from Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children join Vincent on his journey to save the one mighty city of Midgar and as the story unfolds, you will bear witness to shocking trusts never revealed before in Final Fantasy VII...

Ten til Noon (2006) DVDSCR

Between 11:50 and 12:00 noon, a crime is commited। In the same ten minute period, we follow the lives of the ten people…

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is the third and last of the money spinning trilogy, or so they say. Everything has led to this, or so they say again and I kept my mind opened. The first of the Pirates series, The Curse of the Black Pearl was good. It was a movie out of nothing or more correctly a movie inspired by nothing more than a Disney theme park ride. Having said that however the creation of Captain Jack Sparrow was nothing short of inspirational. Captain Jack played by the charismatic Johnny Depp became the talisman of Pirates of the Caribbean. Thought to be dead when we saw him charging into the jaws of monster octopus Kraken toward the end of Dead Man's Chest (the sequel), he is to be brought back from the dead in this latest film.

I have to be honest; I hated Dead Man's Chest. Its various plots and subplots were terribly tangled and confusing. It was hard to follow what sort of story or motives the movie wants to say. I blamed my lack of understanding for not comprehending Dead Man's Chest. That was summer of last year but since then I have done my research, for the billion dollars making movie was to have a third installment. Having seen one and two, I have to see three. But if I do not understand two then how can I go ahead with three. And so after a better understanding of two I saw three. You should know this. For all my efforts I was still robbed by the pirates.

I was led happily out into the open sea before being robbed. I was enjoying the first third of the 168 minutes film. Captain Jack's crew arrived in Singapore to look for Captain Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fatt), pirate lord of the South China Sea for a ship and a map, so they could sail to world's end and rescue our favourite captain from Davy Jones's Locker. Davy Jones's Locker is a ghost realm of the netherworld where the dead Captain Jack Sparrow is being kept for eternity.

There appears to be some oriental influence in At World's End. Firstly of course we are introduced to a Chinese pirate, Captain Sao Feng. Secondly, the costumes and all were very well designed in an exquisite oriental fashion. And there was Singapore, a South East Asian country where Captain Sao Feng can be found.

The Singapore set features a bathhouse and I couldn't help relating it to Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. The popular animated film, released by Disney in the west has a bathhouse theme. The relation did not stop there, and I wondered if the scene where Captain Jack Sparrow is isolated in Davy Jones's Locker was inspired too by Hayao Miyazaki's work. The part where thousands of strange and curious yet harmless rounded stone-like crab helping Jack move his ship, The Black Pearl across a desert aroused my attention to this perspective. It was through the hands, eyes and imagination of the acclaimed animation master, Hayao Miyazaki that made famous the approach of detailing stories with thousands of mini little intriguing creatures. And it was fun to watch.

I was enjoying At World's End, laughing merrily at all the pirate jokes that the characters are lashing out at one another, feeling the thrill of the sword-fights and of course attracted to the sometimes witty, looney and mad character of Captain Jack Sparrow. That scene of him engaging himself to his many different personalities while alone in the deserted Davy Jones's Locker is a real gem.

But with all the oriental influences, the filmmakers probably did not take note of the teachings of Zen, where less is truly more. For when after the crew rescued Captain Jack Sparrow and brought him back to the mortal world, it all happened again. The tangling and confusing plots and subplots manifested once more and killed whatever is good about the film. In my opinion, if At World's End had ended after rescuing Captain Jack and had a straight approach in the gathering of forces to deal with Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) and Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) with a fitting spectacle of a finale fight, the film would have been great.

I was trying to understand the story। In reflection I probably should not for it amounted to nothing. It just isn't worth it. It would be tiring for me just to list them all out. So just be warned that in the film, every character have their own personal agenda. It is "me" first and "you" later if "you" are still there. If that is the purpose of the story-writers to represent the meaning of how pirates are, then they have succeeded. In fact it was so successful that they lost me.