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~ :)

Lockout / MS One: Maximum Security

 Released Year: 2012
Directed by James Mather 
& Stephen St. Leger

Casted by:
 Guy Pearce as Marion Snow
 Maggie Grace as Emilie Warnock
Peter Stormare as Scott Langral

Story: 

In 2079, CIA agent Snow is arrested for the murder of undercover agent Frank Armstrong who had uncovered evidence of an agent selling state secrets about the space program. Secret Service director Scott Langral threatens to have Snow incarcerated on the maximum security space penitentiary MS One where prisoners are kept in stasis for their sentence. Snow's agent friend Harry Shaw tries to locate Snow's contact Mace who knows where Frank's briefcase containing the secret information is hidden.

Meanwhile, Emilie Warnock, daughter of US President Warnock, arrives at MS One to investigate claims that stasis might affect prisoners' minds, leading to psychopathy and dementia. Hydell, a prisoner, is awakened for questioning, but manages to escape. He releases all of the prisoners and starts a riot, led by his brother Alex. Emilie and others are captured. Shaw convinces Langral to send Snow to rescue Emilie rather than risk her life in a siege. Snow is initially reluctant, but agrees after Shaw tells him that Mace is on MS One, and could help Snow prove his innocence. Snow secretly infiltrates MS One. Alex realizes Emilie is the President's daughter and goes to secure her. Emilie manages to escape with her bodyguard Hock and hide in a secure room. A problem with the oxygen supply however causes Hock to commit suicide to give Emilie more time.

Snow breaks into the room and rescues Emilie. Snow changes Emilie's hair to conceal her gender and appearance after the prison is alerted to her true identity, allowing them to walk through the prison population. They find Mace, but the stasis has given him dementia and made him incoherent. Snow and Emilie bring Mace with them as they attempt to reach the escape pod. Without the maintenance of the staff, the prison has begun to fall out of its orbit and crashes into the International Space Station. The collision causes a breach and Mace is killed. Snow brings Emilie to the pod but discovers it has only one seat, and that he has been sent there to die. He sends Emilie on her way, but she allows the pod to launch without her, believing that the remaining hostages will be otherwise killed. Hydell contacts Emilie and threatens the hostages unless she reveals her location. When she does so, he kills all of the hostages.

As Snow and Emilie flee, they discover evidence that the prisoners were being illegally used as test subjects. Alex finds the pair and captures Emilie after shooting Snow and leaving him for dead. When Alex learns that Hydell has killed all of the hostages, he beats Hydell and contacts the President threatening to allow Hydell and the prison population to rape Emilie if they are not released. The President refuses to allow a siege and risk Emilie, causing Langral to temporarily relieve him of his command. Langral orders the destruction of MS One. Hydell tries to rape Emilie as promised, but is stopped by Alex. Infuriated he stabs Alex to death. Emilie fights back and Hydell attempts to stab her, but he is incapacitated by Snow. Snow and Emilie flee from the prisoners and Hydell. Meanwhile Langral's men plant a bomb on the prison. Snow and Emilie use space suits and jump from the ship as it detonates, destroying the prison. The suits allow the pair to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and land safely in New York City.

Snow is arrested. Emilie later realizes that Mace's seemingly incoherent rambling was the location of and password needed to access Frank's briefcase. Armed with the briefcase, Snow meets with Shaw. Shaw immediately unlocks it to see the evidence, but finds it empty. Snow notes that he had not given the unlock code to Shaw, and Shaw is revealed as the mole and arrested. Snow is released and his possessions returned, including a lighter given to him by Frank before his death. Snow finds a memory card containing the real secret information hidden within it. Emilie meets Snow and teases him, having learned his first name is Marion. The pair walk away together.

L² Scored: 4.5/10

L² Comment:

A movie based on the novel of Mather, St. Leger, and Luc Besson... Well, this kind of film, i still feel that the American would film a better one than the French lol...Overall the movie is ok, a few parts were bored to death~ won't think to rewatch this film too if i don't have any movie to watch :p

Upside Down 2012

 Released Year: 2012

Directed by Juan Diego Solanas

Casted by:

Jim Sturgess as Adam

Kirsten Dunst as Eden

Timothy Spall as Bob

 Story:

The film starts with Adam telling the story of his planet, unique from other planets as it is the only one that has dual gravity. Two planets live next to one another. The gravity has 3 rules:

    All matter is pulled by the gravity of the world that it comes from, and not the other.
    An object's weight can be offset by matter from the opposite world (inverse matter).
    After some time in contact, matter in contact with inverse matter burns.

The two worlds are separated. While Up is rich and prosperous, Down is poor. Up buys cheap oil from Down and sells electricity back to Down at much higher prices. Going Up is strictly forbidden and the only connection between the worlds is through the company "TransWorld".

Adam lives in an orphanage Down Below as he lost his parents in an oil refinery explosion. The only living relative he has is his great-aunt, whom he visits every week. His great-aunt has a secret recipe for flying pancakes using pollen from pink bees. The recipe has passed through generations and will be inherited by Adam.

As a child, Adam secretly climbs a mountain that gets very close to the Up world. There he meets Eden, a girl in Up. Years later, they are now friends as teenagers and are in a romantic relationship. They meet on their mountains and Adam uses a rope to pull Eden towards Down. As Eden sits on Adam's shoulders, they form an anti-gravity object that easily floats. But they are found and while Adam is trying to pass Eden back to her planet, he gets shot and drops her. He thinks she is dead. When he returns home, his aunt is arrested and her home burned.

Ten years later, Adam is now working on creating anti-gravity using his great-aunt's recipe. The recipe allows matter to feel both gravitational fields at once. Adam is developing it as a cosmetic product for face-lifts. Then he sees Eden on TV and learns she is alive and works at TransWorld. He finally works out his formula and gets hired by TransWorld to develop the face-lift cream. Adam's plan is to find Eden in TransWorld. In his office he meets Bob, a TransWorld employee from Up who makes a deal with him. In return of Adam bringing material (like stamps) from Down, he will help him find Eden.

With the help of Bob, Adam meets Eden by putting Up-material in his clothes to disguise himself as a worker from Up. But Eden doesn't recognize him as she lost her memories with the impact of the fall years before. The Up-material in Adam's clothes starts to burn so he has to return to Down. Later on, Bob is forcefully retired but as he leaves, he secretly gives Adam his ID to help him. Later, by calling Eden through Bob's phone, Adam manages to get a date. He presents himself as Bob.

Meanwhile, his cosmetic cream becomes of great importance to the company. While Adam is doing a presentation of the cream, Eden sees him and learns his real name. Adam runs to find her but Bob's ID has been terminated so he is noticed. He goes to Bob's house. He shows him that by mixing the matter from both gravity areas can make matter that resists both gravitational fields and tells him he didn't give TransWorld the secret ingredient of his compound, leaving the company unable to produce the product without him.

With Bob's help, he goes back to the restaurant where he met with Eden before and finds out she started to remember him. But the cops come and he has to run. When he returns to his planet, he goes to the mountain top where he met Eden. Eden comes to find him and they meet as they used to. But cops find them again and as they fail to escape, Eden is arrested by cops while Adam drops. TransWorld agrees to drop the charges against Eden if Adam gives them his formula and never contacts Eden again.

Now Adam has gone back to his old life, believing he will never see Eden again. Eden goes to Bob for help. Bob finds Adam and surprises him by showing he can stay Down without the help of the weight supplements; Bob has been able to use Adam's methods to create a way to negate the effect of gravity. Bob tells him he had the patent of his beauty cream before TransWorld and tells him he has a date.

At the spot Bob tells him, Adam finds Eden, also able to walk without weights. There, he learns that she is pregnant with twins and that is what keeps her Down.

The film ends by Adam telling their act has changed their worlds forever.

 L² Scored: 7/10

L² Comment:

I will scored it a 10/10 if not because of those mistakes they make:-

1. Why can the bullet be shot in the different world with the same speed and angle they want?

2. On the start of this film, when Eden was ridding on Adam's shoulder in the down world. Why doesn't Eden's hair flow up towards her own world?

3. How can Eden & Adam make love in Adam's world... and both of them can flow in the middle of air while turning round and round?

But overall this movie is very special, and i don't think anyone has use this idea before. Cool and i totally love it...

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 :)