Gamer (2009)

This is your typical action movie with bullets flying and cars exploding. Nothing new. What grinds my gears is that in the first scene, Gerard Butler’s character shot almost 200+ rounds from a 30 round magazine. I know it’s only a film, but come on, that is blatantly unrealistic. Plus what makes an action movie good is its bad guy. Michael C. Hall’s character is lacking in so much that he might as well be a side character. Don’t watch.

Carriers (2009)

Usually, viral outbreak movies have great tendency to be action-packed and thus all the humanity of the characters are almost always lost in the ensuing chaos and carnage. But this movie brings out the emotional turmoil of its characters and sought to be different from other film in the genre. The scene where the father tries to distract his young daughter with a song when the main characters are abandoning them was especially heart wrenching. And the ending speaks volumes about the things we lose when we think of nothing but survival. Watch it!

Short: SIGNS (2009)

This is what great films are about! I can’t help but feel the main character’s emotions every step of the way; I feel sad when he was sad and was happy when he was happy. This short is simple yet so complex in emotionality that I actually clapped at the end. Job well done! Watch it!!!

Invitation Only (2009)

Taiwan’s first ever slasher horror is also a porn film. The sequence of the film goes like this: sexy girls dancing and kissing, boobs, sex, more boobs, sex, gore, gore, gore, and finally, more sexy girls. I did not expect much of a plot since I knew this is a slasher flick, but seriously, the weak attempts at the justification of the killer’s motives was unnecessary. Yup, the word unnecessary basically describes the entire movie. And there were some scenes in it which were nothing short of bizarre; particularly, the scene where the main character squishes a cockroach and wipes its squashed liquid on the wall, followed by a shot of the cockroach crawling away with its entrails hanging out. I’ve to admit, the reason why I watched this film was because of Maria Ozawa, and after watching it, I’d advise the company that made this to cut out the rest of the garbage and market it as another one of Maria’s works. Also, Maria was only in some scenes and she died way too early into the movie. Stay away from it.

Pandorum (2009)

It’s been a while since the studios made such a sweet sci-fi flick. It reminds me of the first Alien movie. And the twist at the end made it even more satisfying to watch. I’ve been a fan of Ben Foster for a while since I saw him in “3:10 to Yuma”, and am glad to see him tackle a different genre. Dennis Quid did an acceptable job, nothing much to comment on. Watch it.