Category: Reviews

“From the director of Twilight,” clearly states the movie’s poster. So I kinda knew what I was getting myself into when I stepped into the cinema. I had low expectations for the movie and was pleasantly surprised the movie didn’t suck.

Red Riding Hood tells the story of Valerie (Amanda Seyfried), a girl that’s been arranged to wed a rich man, Henry (Max Irons) but is in love with her childhood sweetheart, Peter (Shiloh Fernandez). Valerie plans to run away with Peter, but their plans stop short when her sister is murdered by a wolf – the same wolf that the village has been offering monthly sacrifices to keep appeased. The movie revolves around the plot of trying to figure out who the big bad wolf is. Loads of red herrings are purposely placed in the movie to throw the audience off – which is fine, but some seem a bit forced. Especially Valerie’s grandmother.

The cast does a decent job, with Gary Oldman standing out as the overzealous Father Solomon leading the wolf hunt. Peter and Henry – two guys who are supposedly competing for Valerie’s affection don’t seem to be doing much and you can hardly sense the rivalry between them.

The movie somehow reminds me of a less complex The Usual Suspects/Identity/Lucky Number Slevin – but when you discover who the wolf is, it doesn’t really take you by surprise. However, Red Riding Hood is a movie that is decent at best, and Twilight’s director Catherine Hardwicke somewhat redeems herself with this offering. Hopefully she continues to improve with time. Red Riding Hood gets 5/10.

I saw the trailer for The Roommate before I entered the cinema and expected a typical college/thriller movie, and I was right. While the premise of The Roommate isn’t very common, the typical elements of a movie in the same genre are there, babes, frat parties, booze, murder, sex, and so on. Don’t expect anything groundbreaking and you should be decently entertained.

The Roommate tells the story of a college freshman, Sara Matthews (Minka Kelly, who somehow reminds me of Jessica Alba) who gets a crazed, obsessive stalker for a roommate named Rebecca (Leighton Meester). At first, things are all fine and dandy, until Rebecca starts to fall for Sara and her obsession grows out of hand.

The cast play their roles well, with Leighton Meester standing out as the crazed roommate – she’s actually believable as the crazed psycho bitch she portrays in the movie. There’s really nothing to complain about, and the onscreen babes are definitely serious eye candy. Especially Nina Dobrev’s three-minute cameo.

If you’re wondering about watching this movie in the cinema, it’s not a bad choice as a last resort but you’re better off waiting for it to arrive on HBO sometime down the road. The Roommate gets 5/10.

I heard good things about Source Code before stepping into the cinema, including its 90+% score on Rotten Tomatoes during its opening week, so I was expecting good things from the movie. Boy I wasn’t let down.

Jake Gyllenhaall stars as Colter Stevens, a soldier who is thrown into an experimental project, Source Code, which puts him into another man’s body to relive the last 8 minutes of the man’s life. In the 8 minutes he spends in the body, he is supposed to figure out who the bomber of a train is in order to prevent a much larger bomb from going off in the city that day.

From the get go, you should know that this is a science fiction movie, and a “time travelling” one at that – so expect obvious flaws and plot holes. It’s never easy to write stories about parallel lives and going back in time without making any mistakes, but Source Code does a pretty good job of covering it up with an entertaining cast, light hearted gags, and romance.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays a convincing soldier who happens to be caught in someone’s body and portrays his character’s emotions really well, especially in the scene about the phone call to his dad. Michelle Monaghan plays Christina Warren, Colter’s love interest in the movie, and does a pretty good job at it – you can’t help but fall in love with her as well. Russel Peters cameos in the movie as a standup comedian and even gets a chance to perform on the moving train. Nothing to complain about here, there’s eye candy for people of both sexes.

The movie ends on a high note, like a typical Hollywood ending, but it somehow doesn’t cheapen the whole experience. You feel for Colter, and really root for him to get the girl. You might walk out feeling a bit confused, and as you start to dissect the plot, you’ll start to be unimpressed. But taking it at face value and with a little thought – just a little and you’ll find that Source Code is one of the best movies you’ll catch this year. Source Code gets 8/10.