Ghostbusters 2016 (Ghostbusters: Answer the Call)

 Released Year: 2016

Directed by Paul Feig

Casted by:

Melissa McCarthy as Dr. Abigail "Abby" Yates

Kristen Wiig as Dr. Erin Gilbert

Kate McKinnon as Dr. Jillian Holtzmann

Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan

Chris Hemsworth as Kevin Beckman

Andy García as Mayor Bradley

Bill Murray as Martin Heiss

Dan Aykroyd as Taxi Driver

Ernie Hudson as Bill Jenkins

Sigourney Weaver as Rebecca Gorin

 Story:

Physicists Abby Yates and Erin Gilbert are co-authors of a book which posits the existence of paranormal phenomena such as ghosts. Gilbert has disowned the work and become a professor at Columbia University, while Yates continues to study the paranormal at a technical college with eccentric engineer Jillian Holtzmann. Gilbert learns Yates has republished the book, threatening her bid for tenure at Columbia. She reunites with Yates and, in exchange for Yates removing the book from publication, reluctantly agrees to assist her and Holtzmann in a paranormal investigation.

The group witness a malevolent ghost, renewing Gilbert's belief in the paranormal. However, a video of their investigation is posted online, and Gilbert is denied tenure. She joins Yates and Holtzmann's project, but when a new institute director learns its nature, he fires them. They open an office above a Chinese restaurant and call themselves the "Conductors of the Metaphysical Examination." They build equipment to study and capture ghosts, and hire dimwitted but handsome Kevin Beckman as a receptionist.

MTA worker Patty Tolan witnesses a ghost in a subway line and contacts the group. They document the ghost and successfully test Holtzmann's proton containment laser, but their findings are again dismissed. They continue to develop their technology and advertise their services as what pundits have dubbed the "Ghostbusters". Tolan joins the team, providing historical knowledge of New York City and a repurposed hearse, "Ecto-1".

Unbeknownst to them, the ghosts are being summoned by devices built by Rowan North, an occultist and mad scientist attempting to bring about the apocalypse. When Rowan plants another device at a live music venue, the Ghostbusters are called in and capture the ghost in front of the audience. When supernatural debunker Dr. Martin Heiss challenges the Ghostbusters, the incensed Gilbert releases the ghost as proof; it throws Heiss out a window before escaping. The Ghostbusters are brought to see Mayor Bradley, who reveals that the city and the Department of Homeland Security are aware of New York's ghost problem. While privately supporting the team's work, the mayor's office and DHS publicly denounce them as fraudsters.

The Ghostbusters realize Rowan is planting his devices along ley lines which intersect at the Mercado Hotel in Times Square, a site with a history of paranormal activity, and discover Rowan building a portal to the ghost dimension in the hotel basement. Rowan deliberately electrocutes himself and Holtzmann deactivates the portal. Gilbert discovers a copy of her and Yates's book among Rowan's possessions, and realizes that he planned to become a ghost and command a spirit army. Rowan returns as a powerful ghost, possessing Yates and then Kevin. As Kevin, he opens the portal and releases hundreds of ghosts. The police and DHS are quickly subdued, but the Ghostbusters fight through the army of ghosts to reach the portal.

Rowan takes the form of the ghost in the Ghostbusters' logo, grows to enormous height, and attacks the city. The team devise a plan to use Ecto-1's nuclear reactor to close the portal and return the ghosts to their own dimension. The plan succeeds, but Rowan drags Yates into the portal with him; Gilbert leaps into the portal and rescues her. The mayor's office agrees to secretly fund the Ghostbusters' research while continuing to publicly denounce them as frauds. With new funding, the Ghostbusters move to a better facility, a disused fire house. Despite the mayoral smear campaign, New York lights up with thanks and tributes to the Ghostbusters. Tolan listens to a recording of a ghost encounter and asks the others if they have heard of Zuul. 

L² Scored: 5.5/10 

L² Comment: 

Hmm, i'm not sure how to say about this, but i feel that the trailer of this movie is probably better than the actual movie. Or maybe because that i'm a big fans of the cartoon version and i'm putting too much hope into this movie, but i remember the previous 1984 & 1989 version are nice to watch as well, but this 2016 version is kinda a bit boring on the story wise...

Its a good idea to change the 4 main ghostbusters from guy to girl and the blondie secretary is replaced by the macho Chris Hemsworth, but the draginess of this movie is simply making this movie walks toward a dead zone for me. Why not make more different kind of ghost appear and how they try to catch them instead? I'm quite happy to know that a lot of the previous version actors & actresses are back in this movie for cameo purposes :) But will there be another sequal after this? Seriously not sure but finger cross and hopefully they got another chance to prove us wrong again...

Resident Evil: Retribution

 Released Year: 2012

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson

Casted by:

Milla Jovovich as Alice

Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine

 李冰冰 Li Bingbing as Ada Wong

Michelle Rodriguez as Rain Ocampo

Aryana Engineer as Becky

Shawn Roberts as Albert Wesker

Johann Urb as Leon S. Kennedy

Story: 

Alice and the others on the Umbrella Corporation freighter Arcadia face an attack by a fleet of tiltrotors led by Alice's former ally, Jill Valentine. Alice is captured in the attack, while the fates of Chris Redfield, Claire Redfield and K-Mart are left ambiguous.

Alice awakens in an underground facility and is interrogated by Jill. During a power failure, Alice escapes her cell and the laser grid, finding herself in a simulated Shibuya Square, Tokyo. Fighting her way out against zombies, she enters a control room and encounters Ada Wong, one of Albert Wesker's top agents. Ada explains that they no longer serve Umbrella and the power outage was staged by Wesker hacking into the facility's computers. Wesker appears on a screen, revealing that the Red Queen now controls Umbrella. Ada explains that the facility is underwater, located in Kamchatka, Russia, that served as a former Soviet naval outpost. The facility was designed by Umbrella in manufacturing clones and created simulated outbreaks to show the effect of the T-virus. Ada and Alice plan to rendezvous with a rescue crew, which includes Leon Kennedy, Barry Burton and Luther West, Alice's ally from the prior film. Leon's team plants explosives near the entrance of the facility, which will detonate in two hours to ensure the facility's destruction. The group plans to meet with Alice and Ada in the Raccoon City suburbia area. In a New York City simulation, Alice and Ada defeat two Axemen. Leon and his team enter a Moscow simulation, but are attacked by armed Las Plagas Undead.

In the Suburban setting, Alice and Ada encounter Becky, the deaf daughter of another Alice clone who mistakes the real Alice for her mother. They also encounter clones of Alice's former compatriots the One, Rain Ocampo and Carlos Olivera, sent to capture them. Ada gives Alice her smart glasses so that she and Becky can find their way and become split up. They encounter another clone of Rain, who was a friend of Becky's mother and Alice gives her a weapon. She then rescues Leon's surviving crew from the barrage of zombies and a giant Licker. Once united, the heroes head for the facility exit but are assaulted by the clones and Becky is captured by the Licker. Alice rescues her, using Leon's bombs, kills the Licker and allows the heroes to escape. The good Rain clone and Barry are killed - while the rest escape.

However, on the surface, their snow-mobile is knocked over by Jill Valentine's submarine. They confront the heroes with Ada as their hostage. Jill and Alice begin fighting each other, while Rain - now also enhanced with Las Plagas, fights Leon and Luther West, killing the latter. Alice is able to tear the mind-controlling scarab from Jill's chest and sinks Rain through the ice where she is dragged down by zombies. Alice, Ada, Becky, Leon, and Jill travel to Wesker's headquarters, the heavily barricaded and fortified White House, staffed by S.T.A.R.S. and the United States Military. Alice meets Wesker in the heavily-barricaded Oval Office, where he injects her with the T-virus, returning her superhuman abilities; as only Alice successfully bonded with it, she is the ultimate weapon. On the roof, Wesker explains the Red Queen is trying to wipe out humanity, and all of the remaining uninfected are in the base; it is humanity's last stand. A pull-away shows the military defending the White House alongside the remaining Umbrella Corp. soldiers against enormous hordes of T-virus abominations swarming all over the walls. 

 L² Scored: 8/10 

L² Comment: 

Finally Resident Evil is back on the "good-to-watch" track again... Not sure why Michelle Rodriguez is back into the movie but luckily her part is not that heavy, kinda hate to see her nasty face lately~ As the Asian market is getting wider, the production decided to add in asian superstar Li BingBing in this movie as well. However, Li BingBing's style in this movie is kinda weird and look like those 70's shanghai hooker as well, totally spoil her nice image. The story wise is not bad, kinda love the scene when Alice is being chased by many zombies, so cool~ :)

Independence Day

 Released Year: 1996

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Casted by:

Will Smith as Captain Steven Hiller

Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson

Bill Pullman as Thomas J. Whitmore

Margaret Colin as Constance Spano

Vivica A. Fox as Jasmine Dubrow

Judd Hirsch as Julius Levinson

 Story:

On July 2, 1996, an enormous alien mothership that has one fourth the mass of the Moon enters orbit around Earth, deploying 36 smaller spacecraft, each 15 miles (24 km) wide, that take positions over some of Earth's major cities and military bases. David Levinson, an MIT-trained satellite technician, decodes a signal embedded in the global satellite transmissions that he determines is a timer counting down to a coordinated attack. With the help of his former wife, White House Communications Director Constance Spano, Levinson, and his father Julius, gain access to the Oval Office and warn President Thomas J. Whitmore that the aliens are hostile. Whitmore orders large-scale evacuations of New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C., but it is too late; the timer reaches zero and the ships activate devastating directed-energy weapons, killing millions. Whitmore, the Levinsons, and a few others, narrowly escape aboard Air Force One as the capital is destroyed, along with other locations over which the ships are positioned.

On July 3, international military leaders begin ordering individual counterattacks. Their aviation forces attack destroyer ships positioned above the ruins of the cities, but they are protected by force fields. Each destroyer launches a swarm of attack fighters, which wipe out the human fighter squadrons. Captain Steven Hiller of the Los Angeles USMC squadron survives by luring his attacker to the enclosed spaces of the Grand Canyon and sacrificing his plane, forcing the alien to crash-land. He subdues the injured alien pilot and flags down a convoy of refugees, hitching a ride with former combat pilot Russell Casse. They transport the unconscious alien to nearby Area 51 where Whitmore's group has landed. Through Secretary of Defense Albert Nimzicki, they learn that a faction of the government has been involved in a UFO conspiracy since 1947, when one of the invaders' attack fighters crashed in Roswell. Area 51 houses the refurbished attacker ship and three alien corpses recovered from the crash.

When eccentric scientist Brackish Okun examines the alien, it regains consciousness and attacks. It telepathically invades Okun's mind and uses his vocal cords to communicate with Whitmore before launching a psychic attack against him. Whitmore begins seeing visions of the aliens collecting resources by moving from planet to planet and exterminating all life. After Secret Service agents and military personnel kill the alien, he reluctantly authorizes a nuclear attack; a B-2 Spirit fires a nuclear cruise missile at a destroyer positioned above Houston, but the ship remains intact.

On July 4, Levinson demonstrates that the key to defeating the aliens is deactivating their force fields, and devises a way to do it by uploading a computer virus into the mothership. He proposes using the refurbished attack ship to gain entry which Hiller volunteers to pilot. The two are able to implant the virus and deploy a nuclear weapon on board. With military pilots in short supply, Whitmore enlists the help of volunteers with flight experience including Casse and leads an attack on a destroyer ship bearing down on Area 51. Although the fighters are able to inflict damage, their supply of missiles is quickly exhausted. As the destroyer prepares to fire on the base, the last missile jams and Casse decides to sacrifice his own life. He flies his plane kamikaze-style into the directed-energy weapon port, which results in an explosion that destroys the ship. Human resistance forces around the world successfully destroy the other craft using this vulnerability. As humankind is rejoicing in victory, Hiller and Levinson have returned to Area 51 unharmed and reunite with their families. They and military officers nearby accompany Whitmore and his daughter in watching the wreckage from the mothership burn up, resembling a fireworks display as it enters Earth's atmosphere.

 L² Scored: 7.5/10 

L² Comment:

I didn't watch this movie 20 years ago and honestly, i didn't even notice about this movie at all... Until recently the second movie is out, i stopped myself from going to the cinema to watch this movie because everyone say the 2 movies are some sort link to each other... Well, after few months only i manage to find this movie. Overall the storyline is ok but not too excited really...

Mechanic: Resurrection

Released Year: 2016

Directed by Dennis Gansel

Casted by:

 Jason Statham as Arthur Bishop

Jessica Alba as Gina Thorne

Tommy Lee Jones as Max Adams

杨紫琼 Michelle Yeoh as Mae

Sam Hazeldine as Riah Crain

 Story:

After faking his death, Arthur Bishop has been living quietly in Rio de Janeiro with the name Santos. He is approached by a woman who states that her employer wishes for Bishop to kill three targets and stage them as accidents. Bishop takes a picture of her and fights off her mercenaries before escaping. Bishop goes to Thailand and takes shelter at the beach house of his friend, Mae. He investigates the woman and learns that her employer is a man named Riah Crain.

An attractive young woman named Gina Thorne arrives at the shore and, when she asks Mae for some first aid items, Mae notices a split lip and bruising on her arm that suggest she is being treated badly. That evening, Mae notices the young woman being attacked in her boat and convinces Bishop to go out to help. He boards the boat, but his attempts to warn off the man go unheeded and in the ensuing altercation the man falls, hits his head on a piece of the boat's equipment and is killed. Mae arrives, to take Gina to shore, and Bishop quickly explores the ship for clues before setting fire to it to cover his tracks. Bishop learns that the young lady is called Gina, and is working for Crain and confronts her, who reveals that she was working in a children shelter in Cambodia and Crain threatened those children and forced her to arrive at Bishop’s location. Bishop deduces that Crain’s plan was to make him fall for her before she is kidnapped and thus Bishop will be forced to accept the mission. Later, Bishop notices Crain’s operatives watching him and gets intimate with Thorne. He reveals to her that he and Crain were sold to a gangster when they were orphan children. They were trained as warriors until Bishop escaped. Bishop and Thorne end up having sex before they are both abducted the next morning. Bishop is brought to Crain, who gives the identities of the three targets.

The first target of Bishop is a warlord named Krill, who is incarcerated in a Malaysian prison. Bishop travels to Malaysia and gets himself imprisoned to access Krill. Bishop gains Krill’s trust by killing a man already planning on killing Krill. Bishop meets with Krill inside his little hut, where the former kills the latter and escapes the prison with the help of Crain's operatives.

Bishop is informed that he only has 36 hours to kill the next target, Adrian Cook, who runs an underage trafficking ring in Sydney, Australia. Cook goes for a swim in his glass pool outside his high-rise apartment. Bishop breaks the glass, causing the water to spill out with Cook plummeting to his death. Once again, Bishop makes a clean getaway.

Bishop finds the boat Thorne is held and attempts to save her, but fails. He is informed that he has 24 hours to kill the last target, Max Adams, who is an arms dealer in Bulgaria. Adams and Bishop decide to work together against Crain. Bishop fakes Adams’ death and tells Crain that the job is done. They arrange a meeting; but Crain is revealed to be planning to have Bishop killed.

Bishop kills Crain’s men before heading toward Crain's boat, where he engages more mercenaries before getting to Crain. He finds Thorne, and they discover that Crain has the boat rigged to explode. Bishop puts her in a chamber to let her escape and engages Crain. The former runs away moments before the boat explodes, killing Crain. Thorne is told that there have been no survivors.

Thorne returns to Cambodia to continue her work. She is surprised when Bishop shows up. The last scene shows Adams reviewing security footage, which shows Bishop escaping in another chamber. Adams deletes the video to fake Bishop's death once more.

L² Scored: 9/10 

L² Comment:

On the same day I watch "Train to Busan", I decided to continue my movie journey with Mechanic: Resurrection. All these while I'm not really a big fans for Jason Statham, but the thriller attracted me especially the scene where he killed one of the guy in swimming pool.

I did not watch "The Mechanic" which happens to be the first movie before this back in 2011, I never know this film is so cool and the storyline was not bad as well~ No doubt Statham & Alba still hot as before, but they don't really look match together for me. And how much did they paid Michelle Yeoh in this movie? I think Michelle Yeoh is quite costly but her character can simply be replaced by any Asian woman, right? Her character didn't seems to be "important" at all~

Train to Busan 부산행 釜山行 / 屍速列車

 Released Year: 2016

Directed by 延相昊 Yeon Sang-Ho

Casted by:

孔劉 Gong Yoo as 徐錫宇 Seok-woo

金秀安 Kim Su-an as 徐秀安 Su-an

鄭有美 Jung Yu-mi as 成景 Seong-kyeong

馬東錫 Ma Dong-seok as 尹相華 Sang-hwa

崔宇植 Choi Woo-shik as 閔英國 Young-guk

安昭熙 Ahn So-hee as 金珍熙 Jin-hee

金義聖 Kim Eui-sung as 容錫 Yong-suk

 Story: 

Train to Busan is a harrowing zombie horror-thriller that follows a group of terrified passengers fighting their way through a countrywide viral outbreak while trapped on a suspicion-filled, blood-drenched bullet train ride to Busan, a southern resort city that has managed to hold off the zombie hordes... or so everyone hopes. But throughout the whole journey, we can see humanity of people in frienship, working out together and even being selfish... As the zombie attack, only Seong-kyeong brought along Su-an to the safe place at last...

 L² Scored: 10/10 

L² Comment:

Wow, I never ever expect Korea will able to film out this kind of incredible zombie film. Not only the whole film is full of excitement, it totally make me breathless and a few times i got freaked out by the zombie attack. Its a very good zombie film and it definitely has push Korea's film industry into zombie area haha....