Splice

Released Year: 2009

Directed by Vincenzo Natali

Casted by:

 Adrien Brody as Clive Nicoli

Sarah Polley as Elsa Kast

Delphine Chanéac as Dren

Story: 

Genetic engineers Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast hope to achieve fame by splicing together the DNA of different animals to create hybrid animals for medical use. This has recently yielded Fred, a dog-sized worm-like creature intended as a mate for their original female specimen, Ginger. After their success, Clive and Elsa plan to create a human hybrid that could revolutionize science. Joan Chorot of their sponsoring company, N.E.R.D. Pharmaceuticals (Nucleic Exchange Research and Development), forbids them from doing this. Instead, their department is assigned to find and extract proteins from the creatures that they have already created. Secretly, Clive and Elsa conduct their own private experiments, blending human DNA with that of other animals.

They initially plan on terminating the hybrid before it reaches full term, but Elsa persuades Clive to let it continue to grow. Prior to its 'birth', the hybrid becomes aggressive and stings Elsa several times. They attack the hybrid, and it sheds its outer shell in an attempt to escape. After anesthetizing and examining the creature, they discover that she is aging at a vastly accelerated rate. As time passes, the creature grows and learns. After Clive attempts to drown the creature, the scientists learn that she is capable of breathing amphibiously and can live underwater. Elsa names the creature Dren, and refuses to let Clive refer to her as a "specimen."

While studying Dren, Elsa and Clive neglect their work with Fred and Ginger. At the highly publicized "unveiling" of the two specimens, Fred and Ginger savagely fight until both are dead. It is subsequently discovered that Ginger had spontaneously changed to a male, but Elsa and Clive failed to notice because they were focused on Dren. Elsa forms a motherly bond with Dren. After Dren attacks Clive's brother/fellow lab technician Gavin (Brandon McGibbon), they move her to Elsa's late mother's farm. There, Dren develops carnivorous tendencies and eats a rabbit.

As Dren grows into adolescence, she becomes bored with being locked up in the barn and wants to go outside, but Elsa and Clive fear revealing her existence. Clive realizes that the human DNA used to make Dren was Elsa's, rather than being from a "Jane Doe" as Elsa had told him. Dren assaults Elsa, who ties Dren up and removes the stinger from her tail. She then uses the living tissue from the stinger to isolate and synthesize the protein for which they had been searching.

Soon afterwards, Dren seduces Clive, and they have sex. Elsa catches them in the act and storms off home. Clive follows and starts a heated argument, accusing Elsa of never having wanted a child because she was afraid of losing control; instead she chose to raise one as an experiment, where control could be assured. They decide to terminate the experiment, but, on returning to the farm, they find Dren dying. After burying her behind the barn, their boss William Barlow arrives with Gavin. Having found human DNA in the samples that Elsa worked with, Barlow had confronted Gavin about the possibility of a human hybrid, and learned of Dren's existence. Elsa tells Barlow that Dren is dead; as he does not believe her, Elsa offers him a spade saying that he can dig up her body, which is buried behind the barn.

While they are talking, Dren, who has transformed into a winged male, rises from the grave and attacks the group. Swooping through the air, Dren picks up and kills Barlow, presumably by slashing his throat, leaving his mutilated body hanging from a tree, much to Gavin's, Clive's and Elsa's horror. Dren then swoops on Gavin. While searching for Gavin's body, Clive drops his torch into a pond. As he tries to recover it, he is pulled into the water by Dren. After helping Clive get out of the pond, Elsa sees Dren emerge from the water and flees in panic. Dren soon catches up with Elsa and starts to rape her. Clive thrusts a sharp stick into Dren's back; in pain, Dren stands up. Elsa picks up a stone and hits Dren on the head. Dren lashes out with his stinger, killing Clive. Elsa hits Dren in the head again, finally killing him.

Later, Joan informs Elsa that Dren's body contained numerous biochemical compounds for which the company has begun filing patents. She offers Elsa a large sum of money to continue her experiments. The pregnant Elsa accepts. 

 L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

Love love love the story very much, kinda exciting and fun to watch it actually, but i wish it would be longer in the movie instead. Adrien Brody is still hot and i barely can take my eyes away from him in every scenes :)

King Kong 2005

Released Year: 2005
Directed by Peter Jackson

Casted by:
Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow
Jack Black as Carl Denham
Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll
Colin Hanks as Preston
Thomas Kretschmann as Captain Englehorn
Story:

In 1933, New York City vaudeville actress, Ann Darrow is hired by troubled filmmaker Carl Denham to star in his new movie with popular actor Bruce Baxter. Ann agrees when she learns her favorite playwright Jack Driscoll is the screenwriter. As the SS Venture sails to mysterious Skull Island, Ann and Driscoll fall in love. A warrant is out for Denham's arrest and Captain Englehorn begins having second thoughts about the trip. Despite his attempt to turn around, the ship is lost in fog and crashes into rocks encircling the island.

Denham and the crew explore the island and are attacked by its natives, who later kidnap Ann to sacrifice her to their god "Kong". Kong, a giant ape, takes Ann to his lair in the island's interior. As the filmmakers and the ship's crew search the island for Ann, they battle numerous dinosaurs, giant invertebrates, and other deadly and exotic dangers. Although the rescuers suffer many casualties, Denham wants to both rescue Ann and capture Kong as a way to save his job.

In Kong's lair, Ann is frightened of the ape at first but realizes that he is gentle and curious about her. She entertains Kong with juggling and dancing from the theater; they watch the sunset together; and she attempts to communicate with him using sign language. Driscoll interrupts Ann's befriending of the ape, and the ship's crew traps Kong as he chases them. Although Ann opposes Denham's plan, the ape is subdued with chloroform for the trip to New York, and Denham promises the crew that Kong will make them all rich.

Denham presents Kong — the Eighth Wonder of the World on Broadway, starring Baxter and an imprisoned Kong. Ann refuses to participate in the show, which sensationally recreates Kong's capture. Kong becomes enraged when he sees that the lead actress is not Ann, then breaks his chains after camera flashes anger him further. As the audience flees, Kong destroys the theater and wreaks havoc in Times Square before Driscoll lures Kong away. The ape and Ann reunite momentarily in Central Park, but they are interrupted by the military.

Kong climbs the Empire State Building with Ann in his grasp. Observing the dawn, Kong repeats the sign for "beautiful" that she used in his lair, causing Ann to realize his intelligence. Before she can attempt further communication, they are attacked. Kong battles the Army's Curtiss Helldivers on the summit of the observation spire. He is hit by several bursts of gunfire, and gazes at a distraught Ann before falling to his death. As Driscoll comforts Ann, hundreds of people run to Kong's body. A man tells Denham that the airplanes killed him, but he replies, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast."

L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

I never failed to watch this kind of epic film in the cinema. It was nice and exciting to watch it in the cinema with all those good sound systems and environment. Rewatching this film is a bit dragging for me actually, a film with 187 minutes, lol~ 3 hours~ gosh !!!

A remake of the same movie film 1933 (please dont confuse it with the 1976 version), Peter Jackson has managed to drag this film to another 1 more hour which is a bit boring at the beginning of the film.

The best part for me will be the time when King Kong fought with 2 dinos to save Naomi from getting eat up~ The giant insects are not bad too, and of coz yummy Adrien Brody is the main reason i rewatch this film~ :)

The Village

Released Year: 2004
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Casted by:
Bryce Dallas Howard as Ivy Elizabeth Walker
Joaquin Phoenix as Lucius Hunt
Adrien Brody as Noah Percy
William Hurt as Edward Walker
Sigourney Weaver as Alice HuntStory:

The movie starts out at a funeral of a child in a small village. The death date on the tombstone establishes the date as 1897. As the story progresses, it is revealed the villagers live in fear of nameless creatures in the woods that surround the village. They have built a barrier of oil lanterns and watch towers that are constantly manned to keep watch for "Those We Don't Speak Of", who are spoken of numerous times early in the film. It is explained that the villagers have a long-standing truce with the monsters; the villagers do not go into their woods, and the creatures do not enter their village. Even so, dead, skinned bodies of small animals are starting to appear around the village.

After the funeral, Lucius Hunt asks the village elders for permission to pass through the woods to get medical supplies from "the towns." His request is denied and, later, he is admonished by his mother, Alice, for wanting to go to the towns, which the villagers describe as "wicked places where wicked people live." It is revealed in that scene that the Elders seem to keep dark secrets of their own in the form of black boxes, the contents of which they keep hidden from their own offspring. After Lucius makes a short venture into the woods, the creatures leave warnings around the village in the form of splashes of red paint (referred by the villagers only as "the bad color") on all the villagers' doors.

Meanwhile, Ivy Elizabeth Walker, the blind daughter of the chief Elder, Edward Walker, informs Lucius that she has strong feelings for him, and he returns her affections. They arrange to be married, but things go horribly wrong when Noah Percy, a young man with apparent developmental problems who is in love with Ivy, stabs Lucius with a knife that he kept hidden away in his pocket.

Edward goes against the wishes of the other Elders, agreeing to allow Ivy to pass through the forest and seek out medicine for Lucius. Before she leaves, the first plot twist is revealed when Edward explains the secret of the creatures – they are fabrications created by the Elders in an attempt to keep any of their children from leaving the village. He does mention, however, that he had heard rumors of "real creatures" living in the woods at one time.

While Ivy is traveling through the forest, one of the beasts suddenly attacks her. She tricks it into falling into a deep hole to its death. It is then that the second plot twist is revealed — the creature is actually Noah in a costume that he had found under the floor of the room where he was kept locked from others. It is implied in that scene that it was Noah who had been skinning the animals all along.

Ivy eventually finds her way to the edge of the woods, where she encounters a large wall. After she climbs over the wall the final plot twist is revealed: the film is set in the present day (a newspaper in one scene shows July 30, 2004, the date of the film's release). A park ranger driving a Land Rover with the words "Walker Wildlife Preserve" on the side spots Ivy and is shocked to hear that she has come out of the woods. He then learns that Ivy's last name is "Walker."

It is revealed that the village was actually founded some time in the late 1970s, when Edward Walker, professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania, approached other people he met at a grief counseling clinic after his father had been murdered. He asked them if they wished to join him in "an idea" he had. From this apparently grew "the village," a secluded town in the middle of a wildlife preserve purchased with Edward's family fortune, a place where they would be protected from any aspect of the outside world. The head ranger named "Jay" in the ranger station seen reflected in a glass door, fills in several plot points; the Walker estate pays to maintain the ranger corps, the rangers make sure no one goes into the wildlife preserve to "disturb the animal(s)", the Walker estate "paid off" the government to keep the entire wildlife preserve a "no-fly zone". Once the village was created, it appears the original "Elders" rolled the clock back to the late 19th century to what they thought was a simpler, more peaceful time.

The ranger retrieves medicine from a ranger station and Ivy returns to the village. This sequence is intercut with brief segments showing the Elders opening their black boxes, which are revealed to contain mementos from their lives in the actual outside world, including one or more items related to their past traumas. The film ends with a scene in a cabin where all the Elders are sitting around Lucius' bed. In that scene Edward points out that Noah's death will allow them to continue deceiving the rest of the villagers that there are "creatures" in the woods and all the Elders take a vote to continue living in the village. The film ends with Ivy arriving and saying "I'm back, Lucius."

L² Scored: 7.5/10

L² Comment:

Well, this is definitely a good movie which i'm really interested on. Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan himself is a movie which u shouldn't miss. I remember when i watched it in the cinema, i was so gan zheong during the whole movie and was shocked on the twist of the story at the end...

But this is definitely not a movie for rewatch, guess knowing the ending has spoiled the mood of watching it again.