The Iron Lady

 Released Year: 2012

Directed by Phyllida Llyod

Casted by:

Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher
Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher
Alexandra Roach as young Margaret Thatcher
Harry Lloyd as young Denis Thatcher

 Story:

 The film begins sometime in 2008 (opening against the backdrop of news of the Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing) with an elderly Lady Thatcher buying milk unrecognized by other customers and walking back from the shop alone. Over the course of three days we see her struggle with dementia and with the lack of power that comes with old age, while looking back on defining moments of her personal and professional life, on which she reminisces with her (now dead) husband, Denis Thatcher. She is shown as having difficulty distinguishing between the past and present. A theme throughout the film is the personal price which Thatcher has paid for power. Denis is portrayed as somewhat ambivalent about his wife's rise to power, her son Mark lives in South Africa and is shown as having little contact with his mother, and it is implied that Thatcher's relationship with her daughter Carol is at times strained.

In flashback we are shown Thatcher's youth, working in the family grocery store in Grantham, listening to the political speeches of her father, whom she idolised - it is hinted that she had a poor relationship with her mother - and announcing that she has won a place at the University of Oxford. She remembers her struggle, as a young lower-middle class woman, to break into a snobbish male-dominated Tory party and find a seat in the House of Commons, along with businessman Denis Thatcher's marriage proposal to her. Her struggles to fit in as a "Lady Member" of the House, and as Education Secretary in Edward Heath's cabinet are also shown, as are her friendship with Airey Neave (later assassinated by the Irish National Liberation Army), her decision to stand for Leader of the Conservative Party, and her voice coaching and image change.

Further flashbacks examine historical events during her time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom including the rising unemployment related to her monetarist policies and the tight 1981 budget (over the misgivings of "wet" members of her Cabinet – Ian Gilmour, Francis Pym, Michael Heseltine and Jim Prior), the Brixton Riots of 1981, the miners' strike of 1984–5, and the bombing of the Grand Hotel during the 1984 Conservative Party Conference, when she and Denis were almost killed. We also see (slightly out of chronological sequence) her decision to retake the Falkland Islands following the islands' invasion by Argentina in 1982, the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano and Britain's subsequent victory in the Falklands War, her friendship with Ronald Reagan and emergence as a world figure, and the economic boom of the late 1980s.

By 1990 Thatcher is shown as an imperious but aging figure, ranting aggressively at her Cabinet, refusing to accept that the Community Charge (the "Poll Tax") is regarded as unjust, and fiercely opposed to European Integration. Her deputy Geoffrey Howe resigns after being humiliated by her in a Cabinet meeting, Michael Heseltine challenges her for the party leadership and her loss of support from her Cabinet colleagues leaves her little choice but to resign as Prime Minister, about which she is shown as still angry and bitter twenty years later.

Eventually, Margaret is shown packing up her late husband's belongings, and telling him it's time for him to go. Denis's ghost leaves her – in spite of her cries that she is not yet ready to lose him – fully dressed but without his shoes, and she is left alone washing up a teacup.

L² Scored: 6/10

L² Comment:

I'm not really fond of this movie as i think Mdm Thatcher's life is a bit boring as she spent almost all her life on politics, which i will not ever do it in my life. However, I'm impress with Meryl Streep once again. She never failed to impress me in all her film, she's totally in the character :) And of course, her excellent acting in this movie has won her a multiples awards' Best Actress, bravo :)

Red State

 Released Year: 2011

Directed by Kevin Smith

Casted by:

Michael Parks as Pastor Abin Cooper
John Goodman as ATF Special Agent Keenan

Melissa Leo as Sarah

Kerry Bishé as Cheyenne

Michael Angarano as Travis

Kyle Gallner as Jared

Nicholas Braun as Billy Ray,

 Story:

 Being driven to school by his mother, Travis notices first a fire station siren being removed from its pole and then members of the Five Points Trinity Church, led by Abin Cooper protesting the funeral of a local gay teenager who was found murdered. During Travis' first class, his teacher talks about how Cooper and his church had their town ridiculed for his actions and beliefs. Later, Jared, a friend of Travis, reveals he received an invitation from a woman he met on a sex site for group sex with himself, Travis and Billy Ray. They borrow Travis' parent's car and travel out into the country to meet with the woman.

Along the way, they accidentally sideswipe the vehicle of Sheriff Wynan, while he was engaged in a homosexual affair in his car. Afraid, the boys drive off. Sheriff Wynan returns to the station and tells his deputy Pete to go and look for the vehicle. Meanwhile, the boys arrive at the trailer of the woman who sent out the invitation, Sarah Cooper. She encourages them to drink, and after being drugged by the beer, they pass out while undressing. Jared wakes up while being moved in a covered cage. He realizes he is in the sanctuary at Five Points after he identifies Cooper. Cooper begins a long, hate-filled sermon before identifying another captive, a homosexual they lured in through an internet chat room. They bind him to a cross using plastic cling wrap, execute him with a revolver and drop him into a small crawl space where Travis and Billy Ray are bound together.

Cooper then begins binding Jared to the cross, but stops when he notices Pete driving up to the church. Travis and Billy Ray use a protruding bone from the corpse to cut themselves free, which is heard by Caleb. He lifts up the trap door just in time to see Billy Ray escape and runs after him. Billy Ray is not able to help Travis out of his tight cling wrap cuffs and leaves him for dead. Caleb chases Billy Ray into a room stocked with weapons, where the two end up shooting each other. Pete hears the gunshots and calls Wynan for back-up, but is shot and killed by Mordechai. Cooper then blackmails Wynan, telling him to stay away or he will reveal Wynan's homosexuality to his wife using explicit photos the church has taken of him. In despair, Wynan calls ATF Agent Joseph Keenan, who begins setting up outside of the church.

While the family mourns Caleb, Travis (who had broken free and feigned death alongside Billy Ray's corpse) arms himself and makes a run for it, eventually making it outside where he is shot and killed by Wynan, who mistook him for a member of the congregation. Keenan tries to reason with the family but a shoot-out erupts instead after ATF Special Agent Brooks is shot in the head. In the midst of the shooting, Agent Keenan receives a call from ATF higher-ups ordering him to start a full raid of the complex to ensure that no witnesses remain of the operation to give details of the events. Another tactical agent named Harry struggles with this decision and argues with Keenan in private against doing this. Keenan dismisses Harry's protests for personal reasons, rationalizing his decision based on personal gain and the reputation of the ATF, and Harry storms off in disgust. During the shoot-out, Cheyenne escapes and is captured by an ATF agent who is about to shoot her (per orders) but he is instead killed by Cheyenne's mother, Sarah. Cheyenne returns to the house and unbinds Jared, begging him to help her hide the congregation's children. Jared refuses due to the fact that the church had killed both his best friends, and her pleas turn into a fight. Sarah notices them and attacks Jared. Cheyenne tries to break up the fight and accidentally shoots Sarah in the process, killing her. Cheyenne sends the children up into the attic, and Jared changes his mind and decides to help Cheyenne hide the children. They run outside to plead with Keenan to spare the children but are killed by Harry, who has come around to accepting Keenan's rationales, though Keenan is now visibly disturbed by Harry's actions. The shoot-out is then suddenly interrupted when a mysterious loud trumpet blast echos across the sky. The remaining Coopers lower their weapons and run outside rejoicing, claiming that "the Rapture" has come upon them as the trumpet continues to play. Abin calmly approaches a stunned ATF team and confidently taunts them that God's wrath is upon the Earth. He raises his arms and stands in the face of a confused and worried Keenan in a moment of triumph, daring him to defy God as the trumpet blares.

Several days later, during a briefing before high-ranking government officials, Keenan reports that he then head-butted Cooper and took the rest of the congregation into custody. He explains that the trumpet noises were not the Rapture but came from a group of marijuana farmers who lived down the road and were irritated with Cooper. As a prank they rigged up an old fire house siren to an iPod with loud trumpet noises, unaware of the shootout taking place over the hill. Keenan is promoted despite disobeying a direct order from his superiors at the time to kill everyone at the compound. Keenan is surprised that he is not punished for his insubordinate actions but his superiors explain that their initial decision to kill the members of the congregation was mostly personal and that they are satisfied with the alternative punishment of taking away the prisoners' constitutional rights to due process, locking them up without ever letting them go to trial. They also laugh at the irony that Abin, who views homosexuality as an abomination, will more than likely be raped numerous times by his fellow male inmates. Keenan laments this outcome in a story he shares about a couple of hungry brawling dogs he once knew that taught him about the darker side of human nature and the way simple beliefs can turn humans into bloodthirsty animals.

Abin is finally seen pacing around his cell singing and sermoning to himself until another prisoner yells at him to "Shut the fuck up!"

 L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

This is a interesting movie written & directed by Kevin Smith himself :) It was really cool to see how darkness fall within the cultural side and on the defense force. Each side would do anything to execute one another~ damn nice... :)

Rango

 Released Year: 2011

Directed by Gore Verbinski

Voiced by:

Johnny Depp as Rango
Isla Fisher as Beans
Abigail Breslin as Priscilla
Alfred Molina as Roadkill
Bill Nighy as Rattlesnake Jake
Timothy Olyphant as the Spirit of the West
Ned Beatty as Tortoise John

 Story:

 An unnamed pet chameleon becomes stranded in the Mojave Desert after his terrarium falls from his owners' car by accident. He meets an armadillo named Roadkill, who is seeking the mystical Spirit of the West and directs the parched chameleon to find water at a town called Dirt. While wandering the desert, he narrowly avoids being eaten by a red-tailed hawk and has a surreal nightmare before meeting the desert iguana Beans, a rancher's daughter, who takes the chameleon to Dirt, an Old West town populated by desert animals.

Using bravado and improvisation to fit in, the chameleon presents himself to the townsfolk as a tough drifter named Rango. He quickly runs afoul of outlaw Gila monster Bad Bill, but avoids a shootout when Bill is scared off by the hawk's return. Rango is chased by the hawk until he accidentally knocks down an empty water tower which crushes the predator. In response, the town mayor appoints Rango the new sheriff. Meanwhile, the townsfolk worry that with the hawk dead, the gunslinger Rattlesnake Jake will return to terrorize them.

After discovering Dirt's water reserves — stored in the town bank inside a water cooler bottle — to be near empty, a skeptical Beans demands Rango investigate. That night, however, Rango inadvertently assists a trio of mole and prairie dog bank robbers, mistaking them for prospectors. The townsfolk find their water bottle stolen the next day, so Rango organizes a posse. They discover bank manager Merrimack dead in the desert from drowning, and track the robbers to their mountain hideout. They fight the robbers' clan of subterranean animals over the stolen water bottle in a chase through the mountains before discovering the bottle to be empty. Despite the robbers professing they belatedly had discovered it was empty, the posse brings them to town for trial.

Rango and Beans deduce that the mayor has been buying all the land around Dirt. Rango confronts the mayor, who denies any wrongdoing and shows Rango he is building a modern city with the purchased land. The mayor summons Rattlesnake Jake, who recognizes Rango as a fake and runs him out of town after humiliating him and making him admit that everything he told the town about himself is a lie. Ashamed and confused about his identity, Rango wanders the desert and, in a daze, meets the Spirit of the West, a cowboy whom Rango identifies as the Man with No Name. The Spirit inspires Rango, telling him, "No man can walk out on his own story".

With the aid of Roadkill and mystical moving yuccas, Rango learns the mayor has shut off the water line leading to Dirt's source of water, Las Vegas. Recruiting the robbers' clan to aid him, Rango returns to Dirt to call out Jake for a duel with a single bullet, a diversion so the clan and yuccas can flood the town with water and free the falsely accused robbers. The mayor forces Rango to surrender by threatening Beans' life, trapping them inside the glass bank vault to drown. He then tries to shoot Jake with Rango's gun, only to discover it empty. Rango has the bullet, which he uses to crack the glass and shatter the vault, freeing himself and Beans. Jake acknowledges Rango as a worthy opponent and drags the mayor into the desert to take revenge for double-crossing him. The citizens of Dirt celebrate the return of the water and recognize Rango as their hero.

 L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment:

Its been such a long time i didn't watch a nice cartoon like this :) This is real good no matter on the character, drawing, storyline & music... everything seems to be so well and perfect... Especially i prefer the 4 birdies who keep on singing no matter what the situation is~ haha ... they are so cute :)

The Hangover Part II

 Released Year: 2011

Directed by Todd Philips

Casted by:

Bradley Cooper as Phil Wenneck
Ed Helms as Dr. Stuart "Stu" Price
Zach Galifianakis as Alan Garner

Mason Lee as Teddy

Jamie Chung as Lauren

Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow
Justin Bartha as Doug Billings

 Story:

 Two years after their escapade in Las Vegas, Stu Price, Phil Wenneck, Alan Garner and Doug Billings travel to Thailand to celebrate Stu's impending wedding to Lauren. Much to Alan's dismay, they are joined by Lauren's younger brother, Teddy. During Lauren's father's toast, he shows his disapproval of Stu by comparing him to congee. At the end of the night, Stu hesitantly joins Phil, Doug, Alan and Teddy for a beer. Sitting at a campfire and roasting marshmallows, the group toast to Stu and Lauren's future happiness.

The following morning, Phil, Stu and Alan, along with flamboyant gangster Leslie Chow - whom Alan befriended after Las Vegas - and a chain-smoking capuchin monkey, awaken in a dirty hotel room in Bangkok. Stu has a face tattoo (a replica of Mike Tyson's tattoo), and Alan's head is completely shaved. However, they cannot find Teddy, only discovering his severed finger. Chow begins recalling the events of the prior night, but he seemingly dies after snorting a line of cocaine. Panicked, the trio dispose of Chow's body in an ice machine.

Through a tip from Doug who is still at the resort, they go to a prison to pick up Teddy but are given a wheelchair-bound elderly Buddhist monk, who knows more about what happened, but does not reveal anything: he has taken a vow of silence, and rejects also an alternative such as writing something down. After finding a business card, they travel to a neighborhood smouldering in ruins. They enter a nearby tattoo parlor where Stu got his tattoo, and they learn that they had started a fight that escalated into a riot. The trio then return the monk to his Buddhist temple, where they are encouraged by the head monk to meditate. Alan is able to recall that they had been at a strip club. There, they learn that Stu had engaged in sex with a kathoey prostitute. Upon exiting, the trio is attacked by two Russian mobsters from whom they had stolen the monkey, and Phil is shot in the arm.

After Phil is treated at a clinic, Alan confesses that he had drugged some of the marshmallows from the previous night with muscle relaxants and ADHD medication in order to sedate Teddy but accidentally mixed up the bags. After noticing an address and time point for a meeting written on Alan's stomach, the trio meet up with another gangster, Kingsley, who demands Chow's bank account code and password by the next morning in exchange for Teddy. They return to the hotel to try to find Chow's password, only to discover that he is still alive. They steal the monkey (who had the code given to him by Chow inside his jacket for safe-keeping) back from the Russian mobsters through a violent car chase, during which the monkey is shot and injured. After taking the code and leaving the monkey at a veterinary clinic, the group complete the deal with Kingsley. Suddenly, Interpol agents appear and arrest Chow. Kingsley turns out to be an undercover agent, who tells the trio that the police have searched all day for Teddy but were unable to find him.

Desperate and out of clues, Phil once again calls Doug's wife Tracy. Stu then has an epiphany and the trio rushes back to the hotel and find Teddy in the elevator unharmed (albeit still missing a finger). Teddy had woken up in the middle of the night to get more ice for his severed finger (after the first bucket of ice had melted) but became trapped after the power went out. The four use Chow's speedboat, the keys for which were in Teddy's pocket, to travel back to the wedding reception. Arriving on land just as Lauren's father is about to cancel the wedding, Stu makes a defiant speech where he rejects being boring and instead states that he is in fact quite wild. Impressed, Lauren's father gives the couple his blessing. After the wedding continues on, Alan presents Stu with a special gift at the post-reception dance: a musical guest performance by Mike Tyson. Teddy later discovers that he had taken many pictures during the night on his mobile phone. The group, along with Tyson, agree to look at the pictures together once before erasing the evidence of their exploits once again.

L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

The second part is a blast especially added in the cutie Mason Lee, who happened to be the son of the great director, Ang Lee. As for the storyline, the thing is more happening and more adventurous and more exciting compare to the first movie. Really hope they can come out with the Part III :)

All About Love 再說一次我愛你

 Released Year: 2005

Directed by 余偉國 Yu Wei Guo

Casted by:

劉德華 Andy Lau as 高醫生 Dr Ko / Derek

蔡卓妍 Charlene Choi as 紫晴 Qing

楊采妮 Charlie Yeong as 謝婉森 Sam

黃秋生 Anthony Wong as 聂醫生 Dr Nie

 Story:

 Ko is a hard working doctor who has little time to spend with his wife. When she dies in a car accident her heart is given to another woman, Tse Yuen Sam. Ko later changes careers and becomes a paramedic. One night while on call in an ambulance, Ko attends a traffic accident involving Sam. He discovers she is the recipient of his wife's heart and that her husband Derek (also played by Lau) has left her. Ko decides to use their resemblance as a means of making amends for both his and Derek's treatment of their wives.

L² Scored: 5/10

L² Comment:

Its a confusing story which Andy Lau acted as 2 characters in the same film. One as a doctor and another one as a designer. The movie didn't stated it out clearly and make me scratching my head and try to figure what the heck has been happening until the 2 Andy Lau appeared in the hospital when Charlie passed away.

But beside the confusing part, this is a sad romance film which reminds me of someone. I think we should really appreciate those who are with us right now~ all da best to everyone...

Summer I Love You 好心相爱（天荒情未老）

 Released Year: 2002

Directed by 杨勇 Yang Yong

Casted by:

任贤齐 Richie Ren as 阿力 Lek

卢巧音 Candy Lo as 韦晴 Qing

 Story:

 Qing is an emo girl after a car crash which she cause 2 of her best friend to die on the spot. She been spreading virus through ICQ, but she met Lek from Koh Samui who invited her to his hotel. Qing found out though Lek is unable to walk but he live in a happy life. On a ride, Qing cause Lek to paralyze. Qing donated out her cel to cure Lek and both of them fell in love.

The side effect of donating out her cel cause Qing to grow old faster than her usual age. Now she looks like a 60 years old woman who came back to see Lek. Lek feel comfortable to deal with Sam (Qing's another identity). Lek later found out Qing is actually Sam who help him. Lek went to doctor and took out his cel as well. Now both of them look old and live happily together.

L² Scored: 2/10

L² Comment:

I have expected too much on this movie because of the nice song sang by Candy Lo. The whole movie is not good, storyline is normal, and the director didnt even show us how beautiful Koh Samui is... very dissapointed~

Gallants 打擂台 2010

Released Year: 2010

Directed by 郭子健 Derek Kwok & 鄭思傑 Clement Cheng

Casted by:

黃又南 Wong You Nam as 梁景祥 Xiang

梁小龍 Leung Siu Long as 林良淳 Chun

陳觀泰 Chen Kuan Tai as 陈德成 Cheng

泰迪羅賓 Teddy Robin as 羅新 Xin
邵音音 Susan Siu as 芬姐 Fen

賈曉晨 Jia Xiao Chen as 桂 Gui

歐陽靖 MC Jin as 叢生猛 Meng
陳惠敏 Michael Chan as 龐青 Qing

Story:

Xiang is a real estate handler who got a job to took over one land in a village. He met bully in the village but was saved by Chun. Later on he found out Chun and Cheng is the apprentice of Xin who is in coma. Qing & Meng in another hand who is the boss of Xiang who force them to surrender. But Master Xin suddenly woke up and shoo them away.

Xiang was mistaken as Xin's apprentice and he accepted the challenge from Meng to fight on stage. Chun, Cheng train Xiang to his very best and though they do not win in the end, but Qing decided to let them off as he understood the meaning of martial arts.

   L² Scored: 4.5/10

L² Comment:

This movie is kinda different from other HK movie, though it has positive review, but for me, this is only so so. The only thing i love about this movie is the way they put on the main Movie's poster. The rest is just ordinary, nothing surprising. I thought all those old HK's action movie should have created some sparks in the movie, but they didn't.

Contagion

 Released Year: 2011

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Casted by: 

Matt Damon as Mitch Emhoff

Marion Cotillard as Dr. Leonora Orantes
Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Ellis Cheever
Kate Winslet as Dr. Erin Mears

Jude Law as Alan Krumwiede
Gwyneth Paltrow as Elizabeth "Beth" Emhoff

 Story:

 The film follows several interacting plotlines, with no single protagonist nor antagonist, over the course of several weeks from the initial outbreak and attempts to contain it, to panic and decay of social order, and, finally, to the introduction of a vaccine. It is revealed in the end of the movie how the virus began.

After a business trip to Hong Kong, businesswoman Beth Emhoff stops in Chicago for a dalliance with an old boyfriend before returning to her husband and family in suburban Minneapolis. At first she appears to have contracted a cold during her trip. Her son, Clark, also becomes symptomatic and is sent home from school. Beth's condition worsens and two days later she collapses with severe seizures in her home. Beth's husband, Mitch, rushes her to the hospital, but she continues to seize and dies of an unknown virus. Because it affects the brain and central nervous system, pathologists attribute it to a meningoencephalitis virus. Mitch returns home and finds that Clark has also died from a similar infection. Mitch is put in isolation but turns out to be genetically immune to the disease. He and his daughter attempt to flee the city, but a military quarantine has been imposed, and they are forced to return to their home to face decaying social order and rampant looting of stores and homes. Not knowing whether his daughter inherited his immunity, Mitch struggles to balance his teenage daughter's frustration with quarantine with his desire to protect her, while trying to come to terms with his own loss.

In Atlanta, representatives from the Department of Homeland Security meet with Dr. Ellis Cheever of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and express fears that the disease is a bioweapon intended to cause terror over the Thanksgiving weekend. Cheever sends Dr. Erin Mears, an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer, to Minneapolis to begin the investigation. In addition to tracing the outbreak back to Beth, Dr. Mears has to negotiate with local bureaucrats reluctant to commit resources. She later becomes infected with the disease after being in contact with contaminated fomites while staying at her hotel. The Minnesota National Guard arrives to quarantine the city, and a badly deteriorating Dr. Mears is moved to the field medical station she helped set up, where she later dies.

Investigations into cures via treatment protocols or vaccines initially prove fruitless as scientists cannot find a culture to grow the new virus, which has been named the Meningoencephalitis Virus One (MEV-1). Professor Ian Sussman violates orders from a CDC scientist, Dr. Ally Hextall, to destroy his samples and identifies a line of bat cells that will support research of a vaccine. At the CDC, Dr. Hextall uses this breakthrough to begin to characterize the properties of the virus, which turns out to have a mix of genetic material from bat, pig and human viruses and appears to spread via fomites with a basic reproduction number of two. This later goes up to four after the virus mutates.

A conspiratorially minded freelance internet blogger, Alan Krumwiede, posts videos about the disease, and in one of them appears sick and later claims that he recovered using a homeopathic cure called forsythia. Panicked people attempting to obtain forsythia overwhelm pharmacies, accelerating the contagion as infected and healthy people congregate. Krumwiede leaps to national attention and, during a television interview, accuses Dr. Cheever of informing friends and family to leave Chicago before a quarantine is imposed. It is later revealed Krumwiede was never sick with the virus, but was attempting to boost demand on behalf of investors in the companies producing and distributing the homeopathic treatment. He is arrested for conspiracy and fraud, but is soon released after his 12 million blog readers collect and pay his bail.

Dr. Hextall identifies a potential vaccine, using an attenuated (live) virus. Because of the difficulties of human subjects testing, she follows the precedent of other vaccine researchers and inoculates herself first. Hextall visits her gravely ill father in the hospital to expose herself to the virus and test the vaccine. Production of the vaccine is rapidly ramped up and the CDC awards vaccinations via a random lottery based on birth dates for one full year until every survivor is vaccinated. Dr. Cheever, feeling guilty for his past actions to protect those who are close to him, gives his fast-tracked MEV-1 vaccination to the son of a janitor he works with at the disease center. Dr. Hextall places the surviving samples of the MEV-1 virus in cryogenic storage with H1N1 and SARS.

Dr. Leonora Orantes, a World Health Organization epidemiologist, travels to Hong Kong to trace the origins of the infections. She collaborates with Sun Feng and other local Chinese epidemiologists and public health officials and they identify Emhoff as patient zero. As the virus spreads, Feng kidnaps Orantes to use her as leverage to obtain the first MEV-1 vaccines for his village. Orantes spends months living in rural China with the villagers until the vaccine is announced. Feng exchanges Orantes for the vaccines, which turn out to be placebos. Orantes rushes away when she is informed of this, presumably to warn the village.

The film concludes by tracing the origin of the virus from a bat nesting in a tree being cleared by Emhoff's mining corporation. The bat flies to a nearby pig sty and drops a banana where it is eaten by the pig, presumably transferring the bat virus into the pig. The pig is sold to and butchered by a chef in a Macau casino, who greets Beth Emhoff without washing his hands of the pig's blood, transferring the bat-pig hybrid to her and creating the MEV-1 human strain.

L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment:

Oh fuck, this is an extremely good film. I love all those big casts and the storyline, there's almost flawless in this film~ excellent work and excellent cast :)

The Woman in Black

 Released Year: 2012

Directed by James Watkins

Casted by:

Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur Kipps

Ciarán Hinds as Sam Daily

Janet McTeer as Elizabeth Daily

Sophie Stuckey as Stella Kipps

Misha Handley as Joseph Kipps

Liz White as Jennet Humfrye

 Story:

 The film opens with three small girls having a tea party in an upstairs room in the Eel Marsh House. As they play, one of them looks up, the other two doing the same. The three girls, in a kind of trance, destroy their toys and move to the bay window. Each of them simultaneously open one window and jump to their death's. A woman screams over her child's death, and the screen pans out, revealing a portion of a woman in a black gown.

In the Edwardian era, young solicitor Arthur Kipps lives with his four-year-old son, Joseph and his son's nanny. Kipps's wife Stella has died after childbirth. Kipps keeps having visions of her and is facing financial problems along with stress from the law firm for which he works. He is assigned to handle the estate of Alice Drablow, who owned an English manor known as the Eel Marsh House, where she had lived with her husband, son Nathaniel, and sister Jennet Humfrye. Although the locals are unwelcoming, Kipps befriends Sam Daily, a wealthy landowner, and his wife Elizabeth.

At Eel Marsh House, located on an island in the marshes, Kipps repeatedly hears footsteps coming from upstairs in the house while he is going though paperwork downstairs. He then goes upstairs to a bedroom where he sees a baby crow that has fallen out of a nest located in a worn down fireplace. After putting it away, the crow's mother swoops past loudly - this being the first jump in the film. As he goes to the window and opens it, he sees the Woman in Black standing in the distance and then vanishing. He reports the sighting at the local police station but, while there, two boys bring their sister Victoria, who has drank lye. She dies in Kipps's arms. Victoria is not the first child in town to commit suicide, and the townspeople believe the "Woman in Black" comes for their children as revenge for her own child being taken from her, and believe that when someone sees her, a child nearby the person who saw her, is killed, which could be why children have been dying since Kipps' arrival at Eel Marsh House as Kipps saw her there.

Kipps and Sam arrive at the house of Jerome, the local solicitor. The house is empty, and they hear a noise from the cellar. Kipps peers through a hole in the cellar door and is startled when the face of a young girl, Lucy Jerome suddenly appears and screams at him to go away, believing he was responsible for Victoria's death. After returning to Sam's house for dinner, Kipps discovers that Sam and Elizabeth's son, Nicholas, drowned while playing at the beach and that Nicholas communicates through possession; Elizabeth, in a possessed state, then draws a hanging woman who Kipps realizes is Jennet. Later at the Marsh, Kipps discovers notes claiming that Jennet was mentally unstable and was not allowed to care for Nathaniel, who was actually Jennet's son, although this fact was hidden by Alice, Jennet's sister, who raised Nathaniel as her own son. He also finds out that Jennet hung herself due to Nathaniel's death, long ago.

The villagers desperately want Kipps to leave, but he refuses, wanting to protect his job. Throughout the night at the Marsh, Kipps has many paranormal experiences with the Woman in Black and all the children that committed suicide, as they all appear outside the house in the state they were in when they died. The next morning, Sam and Kipps return to town to see the local solicitor, but Jerome's house is on fire. Kipps rushes inside to rescue Lucy, Jerome's daughter, who has been locked in the cellar. There, he sees the Woman manipulate the girl into setting herself on fire. Lucy smashes a lantern at her feet, getting engulfed in flames. Kipps visits Mrs. Daily, who reveals in a trance that Joseph is the next victim. Kipps realizes that he must put Nathaniel to rest by giving him a proper burial. Kipps and Sam go to the Marsh. Kipps dives into the marsh and finds Nathaniel's body. They then take his body and lay him out in the nursery in the house, expecting the woman to appear and reunite with her lost son. The Woman appears and knocks Kipps to the floor and disappears. Then, Sam and Kipps finally lay Nathaniel to rest by burying him with his real mother, Jennet. After Kipps and Sam leave, the camera moves quickly through the hallway of the Marsh House, and the voice of the Woman in Black can be heard saying "I'll never forgive!... I'll never forgive!..."

Kipps is reunited with his son, Joseph, who is with his nanny, exiting their train at the railway station and plans to leave immediately. While the nanny is occupied with getting tickets to the train to London and Kipps is bidding Sam goodbye, Kipps turns to Joseph, walking along the tracks towards a fast approaching train. Sam and Kipps notice the Woman along the platform as Kipps jumps onto the tracks to save Joseph. As the train passes, Sam looks through the windows to see the unrested souls of all the children whom the Woman has claimed.

Still standing on the tracks with Joseph, Kipps looks up to see the now deserted platform. Joseph asks, "Daddy, who is that lady?" to which Kipps replies with a smile, "That's your Mummy." Realizing he and his son have died, he kisses his son and walks to his wife behind them, carrying Joseph and takes her hand. The three of them, reunited in death, 'go on' together, leaving the Woman in Black, in her grief, forever after.

   L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

This is quite a good film based on a novel. The whole story is kinda scary and the pace is just nice. Its a big challenge for Daniel Radcliffe to act as a father, but a 22yo boy can't convince me at all!!!

Drive Angry

Released Year: 2011

Directed by Patrick Lussier

Casted by:

Nicolas Cage as John Milton
Amber Heard as Piper
William Fichtner as The Accountant
Billy Burke as Jonah King

 Story:

 In Colorado, John Milton interrogates the only survivor of a car wreck he caused, seeking Jonah King, the leader of a Satanic cult who murdered Milton's daughter and took her baby. In three days, King and his followers will sacrifice the child at midnight. After the man tells him where Jonah King is, Milton sets off for Louisiana to find his grandchild. He is then being followed by a strange man in a suit who identifies himself as "The Accountant".

At a diner in Oklahoma, Milton meets a waitress, Piper, who gives him a ride. After dropping Milton off, she goes to her fiance Frank's house to discover Frank is having sex with another woman. Piper viciously fights the other woman, and gets into an argument with Frank, who then decides to pulverize Piper. Milton rescues Piper, knocking Frank out, and they leave in her car. Later, The Accountant comes to Frank's house, still looking for Milton. Angry, Frank attacks the Accountant, who kills Frank with a broken baseball bat. Police arrive, and the Accountant presents an FBI badge, telling them to help him find Milton, who is supposedly an escaped convict.

Milton and Piper then stay for the night at a roadside bar/motel. Piper later spots Jonah King, who orders his men to find and kill Milton. In the motel, Milton is having sex with a waitress, and without stopping is able to kill most of Hill's men; Piper kills the final one. The Accountant and the police arrive to find Milton. Both officers get killed, and Piper and Milton escape. The Accountant pursues them, but is shot by Milton with a 5-barreled shotgun. This in turn causes The Accountant to lose control of the car and then crash. Despite not wanting anything to do with the situation, Piper agrees to help Milton to find his grandchild.

Further up the road, Milton and Piper come to a church where Jonah is inside with Milton's infant granddaughter. During the struggle, Milton is shot in the eye and left for dead. Jonah leaves with Piper in a RV. Soon after, Milton gets up, killing almost everyone in the church, and catches up with Jonah. He manages in rescuing Piper, but Jonah escapes with the child. Back at the church, The Accountant finds someone who is still alive and he tells the Accountant that they shot Milton but he survived. He tells the Accountant that they have supposedly made a pact with Satan and that sacrificing the child will bring hell on earth. The Accountant is, however, amusedly skeptical of this.

Nearing their destination and needing a new car, Milton stops at the farm of an old acquaintance, who is shocked to see Milton alive. Piper angrily demands an explanation for how Milton could've possibly survived being shot in the skull. He says that Milton was a career criminal, but was killed over 20 years ago. Milton explains that he was condemned to Hell, where the damned are punished by being forced to watch their loved ones suffer in real life. Claiming that his daughter was "the only good thing he ever did in his life", seeing King abuse and murder her enraged him to the point he was able to escape his bonds. The bizarre looking gun that he carries with him is called the "Godkiller", which he stole from the Devil himself, and has the ability to not just kill a person, but to erase their very soul from existence.

Just before storming the prison, the Accountant is finally able to catch up with Milton and Piper. The Accountant assures them that King and his followers have made no such pact with Lucifer (in fact, cults that kill in his name are apparently one of his greatest annoyances). He agrees to let Milton complete his objective, but is still going to return him to Hell when it's all over.

Minutes before midnight, Milton literally crashes the gathering, and he and Piper kill nearly all of King's followers. Just before he can kill the child, Piper is able to recover the Godkiller from the Accountant who tells her to hurry if she intends to help Milton. When she gets to the fight between Milton and the cult she tries to shoot King, misses and is blown back by the Godkiller's kick. King, while boasting of his power, then beats Milton while he is crawling to the gun which had landed next to the altar and out of King's view. Just when King is about to deliver the final blow the Accountant briefly distracts him allowing Milton time to pull out the Godkiller and shoot him at near point-blank range vaporizing King's body and soul.

With his mission completed, Milton asks Piper to watch after his granddaughter, which she agrees to. The Accountant arrives to bring him back to Hell. Milton graciously enters a car that the Accountant summons (only after demanding that he get to drive it) and cockily tells the Accountant that if he escaped Hell once, he can surely do it again. Almost hopefully, the Accountant says he doesn't doubt him. The film then ends with a portal opening, and Milton and the Accountant driving across a long fiery bridge back into Hell.

  L² Scored: 7/10

L² Comment:

Hmm, how should i rate this? If just based on my opinion, i love it and probably will score it even higher than 7/10. But the story is kinda confusing, beside the cult and sacrificing, i don't know whether cage is a human or devil in this film. And there's also a guy "Fichtner" who is a God? A protector of cage? OMG, i really don't know... But the action wise is good... except this, i found that Nicolas Cage is always stuck in this kind of film... a lil bit like "ghost rider"....

Fright Night 2011

 Released Year: 2011

Directed by Craig Gillespie

Casted by:

Anton Yelchin as Charley Brewster
Colin Farrell as Jerry Dandrige

Imogen Poots as Amy Peterson
David Tennant as Peter Vincent
Toni Collette as Jane Brewster
Christopher Mintz-Plasse as "Evil" Ed Lee

 Story:

 The film opens with a vampire systematically stalking and killing an entire family in a suburb of Las Vegas, Nevada. The film then focuses on Charley Brewster, a teenager who discovers that a new neighbor has moved in next door to him. Charley is an average teen, who has recently been accepted as one of the 'cool' kids after a nerdy adolescence. Upon arriving at school, Charley's former friend, "Evil" Ed Lee, informs him that many fellow students have gone missing. Charley disregards this, but Ed blackmails him into coming to an old friend's house, the same house seen at the beginning, to check if he is alright.

When Charley goes home after school, his mother introduces him to Jerry Dandrige, their new neighbor. Charley eventually remembers to meet up with Ed, who informs him that Jerry is a vampire. Charley becomes fed up with Ed and leaves. On his way home, Ed is harassed by a bully. He manages to escape but is confronted by Jerry, who bites him. The next day, Charley realizes that Ed is missing and decides to investigate.

As Jerry begins to attack more people throughout the neighborhood, Charley sneaks into Jerry's house and finds out that he keeps his victims in secret rooms. Charley manages to free one of his victims, but she burns the moment she steps into the sunlight during their escape. Charley goes to Vegas magician Peter Vincent, a supposed expert on vampires. Unfortunately, Peter doesn't take him seriously, and kicks him out, leaving an angry Charley to deal with Jerry on his own.

Jerry comes to Charley's house the next night and complains to his mother, but Charley convinces her not to let him in. Reasoning that if there's no house, he does not need an invitation to enter in order to claim his victims, Jerry ignites the natural gas in the house and blows it up. Charley, his mother, and his girlfriend, Amy Peterson, barely escape with their lives, fleeing through the desert in their minivan. Jerry chases them with his truck, forcing them to crash. When their disabled car is then hit by another vehicle, Jerry kills the driver. Jerry then attacks Charley, and is only stopped by being staked by Charley's mother (with a real estate sign stake). She then faints from a head injury sustained in the crash.

Charley's mother is then admitted to a hospital. At the hospital, Charley gets a call from Peter telling him to come over. Peter gives Charley advice on how to defeat Jerry, but midway through the conversation Ed (now a vampire) shows up, posing as a package delivery boy. Charley and Ed fight while Peter hides in his panic room. Jerry, who survived the attack from Charley's mother, also arrives, and Amy manages to fight him off. Charley kills Ed, who briefly reassures Charley before dying that it's okay. With Jerry in pursuit, Charley and Amy then run into a club where they get separated in the crowd. Amy is bitten and taken by Jerry.

The next day Charley tells Peter that he is going after Jerry and he needs his help. Peter refuses and reveals that both of his parents were killed by a vampire (later revealed to be Jerry himself). He does, however, give Charley a stake that will kill Jerry and turn all of his victims back into humans. Charley goes to Jerry's house where Peter decides to join him after all. The two break all of the windows to let sunlight in.

They are led into Jerry's basement where they are attacked by many of Jerry's victims, now vampires, including Amy. Charley, having outfitted himself in a flame-retardant suit, lights himself on fire in order to burn and disorient Jerry while he tries to stake him. Peter assists him by shooting a hole in the floor above to allow sunlight in which burns Jerry. Charley quickly stabs Jerry in the heart, killing him instantly and returning his victims to their human form. Afterwards, Charley's mother recovers from the hospital and goes to shop for a new house as Charley and Amy make love in Peter's penthouse.

  L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

 Remake of Tom Holland's 1985 same name movie, Colin Farrell to act as a sexy hotty vampire is definitely a correct choice... The whole movie is kinda good and a bit funny, almost every part is a scene which cannot be left out, the only part i dislike is the vampire is a bit too cartoon, not scary enough :)