Coraline

 Released Year: 2009

Directed by Henry Selick

Voiced by:

Dakota Fanning as Coraline Jones

Teri Hatcher as Mel Jones

Jennifer Saunders & Dawn French as Miss April Spink & Miss Miriam Forcible

John Hodgman as Charlie Jones

Ian McShane as Mr. Bobinsky

Keith David as The Cat

 Story:

Hand made of sewing needles to re-make a doll to resemble 11-year-old Coraline Jones. A little later, Coraline and her family relocate from Pontiac, Michigan to Ashland, Oregon. They move into the Pink Palace Apartments, which are rather dilapidated and one hundred and fifty years old. It is also occupied by retired actresses Ms. Spink and Forcible, and eccentric Russian acrobat Mr. Bobinsky, who claims to be training a mouse circus. Coraline's parents work for a garden catalog and are often too busy to pay attention to her.

Coraline decides to explore their new home, meeting Wyborn "Wybie" Lovat, the grandson of the apartments' landlady, Mrs. Lovat. While exploring, she finds a small brick-sealed door. That night, Coraline follows a mouse through the door, where she discovers the bricks have been replaced by a long corridor. Coraline goes through it and finds herself in the Other World, which is a copy of her world and is inhabited by her "Other Parents", who look similar to her real parents, but have buttons for eyes. In the Other World, her parents are much more attentive and everything is more interesting and magical. Coraline falls asleep in the Other World, and awakens back home.

Coraline goes to the Other World three times despite warnings from her neighbors and a cat that can talk in the Other World. The other copies include a copy of Mr. Bobinsky, who runs a real mouse circus, copies of a young Ms. Spink and Forcible, who perform a theater show, and a duplicate of Wybie that cannot talk. On the third visit, the Other Mother invites Coraline to stay in the Other World forever, on the condition that she has buttons sewn over her eyes. Horrified by this, Coraline rejects the offer. After she refuses to accept the Other Mother's love, Coraline is thrown through a mirror into a secret room. Inside she meets the ghosts of three children (including Wybie's grandmother's twin sister), who were tricked by the Other Mother, into having buttons sewn into their eyes, thus trapping their souls. Coraline vows to free them by finding their stolen eyes. The Other Wybie helps her escape and stays behind, but when Coraline returns, her parents are nowhere to be found. After seeing her parents trapped in the mirror, Coraline discovers that the Other Mother has kidnapped them.

Coraline ventures into the Other World with a seeing eye stone she received from the real Spink and Forcible to play a "game"; to find her parents and the eyes of the ghost children. If she loses, she will stay forever. Using the stone, Coraline manages to retrieve the ghost children's stolen eyes from the warped versions of the Other inhabitants. She confronts the Other Mother, who has decayed into an arachnoid witch with the same needle-hands that made the doll. One of the children warns her that Coraline will never be let go even if she wins. Coraline finds her real parents trapped in a snow globe and manages to trick the Other Mother and escape, blinding her and severing her hand. Coraline's parents return with no memory of being kidnapped.

The ghosts appear to Coraline in a dream to warn her that even though she had freed them, she is still in danger. They tell her that she must get rid of the key, or the Other Mother will find it. They also tell Coraline not to be sad, because she is still alive. As Coraline prepares to toss the key into the well, she is attacked by the Other Mother's severed clawed hand, but is saved by Wybie, who crushes it with a rock. With Wybie's help, Coraline throws the key and the pieces of the claw hand down the well. Mrs. Lovat's twin sister is revealed to be one of the three ghost children. The next day, Coraline hosts a garden party with her neighbors and meets Mrs. Lovat, and prepares to tell her about her adventures.

 L² Scored: 5/10

L² Comment:

This animation is based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 same name novel which talks about a kid's fantasy horror kinda thingy. Well, for me this is just so so... first of all maybe the character design is not really that outstanding comparing to other similar animation... The storyline is also kinda expected, so overall it just a fair movie for me to watch on a boring Sunday night...

The Relic

 Released Year: 1997

Directed by Peter Hyams

Casted by:

Penelope Ann Miller as Dr. Margo Green

Tom Sizemore as Lt. Vincent D'Agosta

Linda Hunt as Dr. Ann Cuthbert

James Whitmore as Dr. Albert Frock

Clayton Rohner as Sgt. Hollingsworth

Chi Muoi Lo as Dr. Greg Lee

 Story: 

John Whitney, an anthropologist for the Museum of Natural History in Chicago, studies a tribe in South America, and drinks a soup made by the tribesmen. Shortly after, Whitney accosts a merchant ship captain, asking him to remove from the ship the cargo Whitney intended to send to Chicago. Unwilling to delay the ship's departure, the captain refuses and Whitney sneaks aboard. He doesn't find his cargo and cries out.

Six weeks later, the ship arrives on the Illinois River, with its crew missing. Chicago PD homicide detective Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta and his partner, Sgt. Hollingsworth, investigate the ship and find dozens of bodies and severed heads in the bilge.

Dr. Margo Green, an evolutionary biologist, arrives at work at the museum. She and her mentor, Dr. Frock, examine Whitney's crates. The crates are empty, except for a bed of leaves and a stone statue of the "Kothoga," a mythical forest monster. Noticing a fungus on the leaves, Margo takes some for analysis. That night, a security guard named Fred Ford is murdered in the same manner as the ship's crew. D'Agosta suspects a connection. Believing the killer is still inside the museum, he orders it closed until the police have finished searching. Dr. Cuthbert, the museum director, protests and mentions an important upcoming exhibition.

Margo discovers the fungus contains concentrated hormones found in several animal species. In the container of leaves, she finds a beetle which earlier crawled inside and has grown to abnormal size. The beetle has mutated into a hybrid creature, possessing both insect and reptilian DNA. Ford's autopsy reveals that his hypothalamus was extracted from his brain, exactly like the bodies from the ship. In the museum's basement, the police are startled by a homeless man and shoot him death. The man is found to be a convicted felon with a history of mental illness. Finding Ford's wallet on him, everyone except D'Agosta considers the case closed. Nevertheless, D'Agosta has to give in when the Mayor orders him to let the exhibition proceed.

On the opening night, D'Agosta orders locking down all areas of the museum except the main exhibition hall. Dr. Frock and Margo are the last ones in the laboratory wing, and are trapped there. They keep working, and discover that Ford's killer is after the hormones on the leaves. D'Agosta and several officers search the basement tunnels once again. They are attacked by an unseen creature, which kills a tracking dog and an officer. D'Agosta tells Hollingsworth to evacuate the museum, but he is too late. In the main hall, the headless body of the murdered policeman falls into the crowd, causing a panic. During the hysteria, the museum's alarms are tripped and their security system goes haywire. The fire doors close, trapping a small group of people inside, and the power fails. Two security guards try to restore the power, but are killed by an unseen creature.

D'Agosta finds his way to the lab, and meets Margo and Dr. Frock. They are then attacked by a Kothoga, an enormous chimeric beast. They manage to close a steel door to stop it. Margo theorizes that the Kothoga grew from a smaller animal that mutated after eating the fungal leaves in the crates. Dr. Frock expands on her hypothesis: without the leaves to eat, the Kothoga instinctively seeks the closest substitute: human hypothalami. The tribe that Whitney was studying must have discovered the properties of these leaves, and used them to turn a given animal into a biological weapon that would eventually die when it ran out of targets (they would first carefully hide themselves, and then loose the beast onto the territory of a threatening/rival tribe).

D'Agosta finds a radio and tells Hollingsworth to lead the museum guests out via an old coal tunnel. Several guests refuse to go, opting to wait for the fire doors to be opened from the outside. The Kothoga returns to the main hall and murders them, as well as the S.W.A.T. officers entering through the skylights.

Margo deduces that, as the Kothoga is part-reptilian, it is likely cold-blooded and can be killed with liquid nitrogen. She and D'Agosta collect the remaining leaves from the lab, but discover that Dr. Frock -who had earlier 'volunteered' to stay behind because of his wheelchair-bound condition -has already been killed by the creature. In the sewer underneath the museum, D'Agosta uses the leaves to lure the Kothoga away from the coal tunnel, allowing the guests to escape the museum. However, liquid nitrogen has no effect on the creature. Margo and D'Agosta flee. D'Agosta tells her to lock herself in the lab, while he tries to stop the creature. As Margo protests, her computer completes the analysis of the creature's human DNA, which was earlier determined to make up some 33% of the biological gestalt. The Kothoga was not sent back by Whitney, The Kothoga is Whitney, mutated after drinking the tribesmen's soup.

The Kothoga smashes into the lab through the ceiling, while D'Agosta is locked outside. The creature chases Margo and corners her. It suddenly pauses, seemingly recognizing her from its former life as Whitney. Margo starts an explosive fire that destroys the Kothoga, while she survives by hiding inside a maceration tank. As dawn comes, D'Agosta and a team of police break into the lab, see the charred remains of the Kothoga, and rescue Margo from the tank.

  L² Scored: 3/10

L² Comment:

This movie is based from the best selling novel of Douglas Preston's Relic (1995), but how best selling? I'm not sure, but if purely based on this movie, I don't think is best selling at all. First of all, the storyline is so predictable, its kinda like Aliens & Predators back in the 80s... Furthermore, the creatures inside totally look the same as the creatures from Aliens + Predators... Well, this will fall in my "one-off" movie list which I will not watch it again...

Angels & Demons

 Released Year: 2009

Directed by Ron Howard

Casted by:

Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon

Ewan McGregor as Father Patrick McKenna

Ayelet Zurer as Dr. Vittoria Vetra

Stellan Skarsgård as Commander Maximilian Richter

Pierfrancesco Favino as Inspector Ernesto Olivetti

Nikolaj Lie Kaas as The Assassin

Armin Mueller-Stahl as Cardinal Strauss

 Story:

Under the watchful eyes of Father Silvano Bentivoglio and Dr. Vittoria Vetra, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) initiates the Large Hadron Collider and creates three vials of antimatter particles larger than any that have ever been produced before. Almost immediately, Father Silvano is killed and one of the vials of antimatter goes missing. At the same time, the Roman Catholic Church is mourning the sudden death of Pope Pius XVI in Rome and prepares for the papal conclave to elect the next Pope. The Camerlengo, Father Patrick McKenna, assumes temporary control of the Vatican. The Illuminati kidnap four of the 'preferiti' (the favourite cardinals to be elected pope) before the conclave enters seclusion and threaten to kill one candidate every hour and destroy all of Vatican City at midnight, using the missing vial of antimatter as a bomb. The Vatican summons symbologist Robert Langdon from Harvard University and Vetra from CERN to help them save the four preferiti and locate the vial.

Langdon listens to the Illuminati's message and deduces that the four cardinals will die at the four altars of the "Path of Illumination," marked by statues of angels in locations relevant to the four classical elements. Over the objections of Commander Maximilian Richter, head of the Swiss Guard, but with McKenna's consent, Langdon is granted access to the Vatican Secret Archives. He examines Galileo Galilei's banned book with Vetra. Following the clues and accompanied by Inspector General Ernesto Olivetti and Claudio Vincenzi of the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps, they arrive at the Chigi Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. There they find Cardinal Ebner dead, suffocated with soil and branded with an ambigrammatic word "Earth". They verify the second location is Saint Peter's Square but are unable to save Cardinal Lamassé; his lungs punctured and his body branded with "Air".

While Vetra studies Silvano's diaries, Langdon, Olivetti and Vincenzi locate the third church, Santa Maria della Vittoria, but are unable to save Cardinal Guidera from being burned to death. His body is branded with an ambigrammatic word, "Fire". The assassin appears and kills Olivetti and Vincenzi, while Langdon barely manages to escape with his life. Langdon and two Carabinieri officers race to the Water altar, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, where the assassin murders the officers and drops a bound and weighted Cardinal Baggia into the fountain. Langdon, assisted by bystanders, saves the cardinal, who tells him the Illuminati's lair is Castel Sant'Angelo. There Langdon and Vetra discover a hidden passageway leading to the Vatican, being used as a hideout for the assassin. Discovering a case with marks for five branding irons, they realize the fifth brand is for the camerlengo but are confronted by the assassin before they can alert McKenna. The assassin spares their lives, then cryptically warns them that his contractors were "men of God". He escapes but is then killed when his car explodes.

Inside the Vatican, Langdon and Vetra find Commander Richter hovering over McKenna with a gun, the Vatican symbol branded into McKenna's chest. Richter and Archbishop Simeon are shot by the Guards, and Langdon takes a key that slips from Richter's hand. The stolen antimatter vial is found in St. Peter's Tomb below the church, but the battery life is too low to risk re-connecting it to a battery. McKenna, a former military pilot, seizes the vial and uses an awaiting helicopter to fly above the Vatican. At a high altitude, he parachutes out as the antimatter bomb explodes overhead. McKenna is hailed a hero and savior, and the cardinals move to elect him pope. Langdon and Vetra use Richter's key to watch a security video showing McKenna speaking to Richter before the attack. The video reveals that it is McKenna, not the Illuminati, who masterminded the scheme. McKenna reveals that he murdered the previous pope because he felt the pope had betrayed the church by trying to bridge the gap between science and religion. Once McKenna had killed the pope, he intended to have himself elected to the papacy whilst rallying the most conservative Cardinals to his side. The recording is shown to the Papal conclave, and when it dawns on McKenna that he has been exposed he flees to a remote recess in the building where he is able to commit suicide by setting himself on fire.

The Vatican officially announces that McKenna died due to internal injuries suffered during his parachute landing, and Cardinal Baggia is named Pope Luke, with Cardinal Strauss as the new camerlengo. Strauss thanks Langdon for his assistance and gives Langdon Galileo's "Diagramma Veritatis" for his research, requesting only that Langdon's will contain a request that it be returned to the Vatican, and that any future references he may make about the Catholic Church in his future publications be done gently, to which Langdon replies, "I'll try."

 L² Scored: 6.5/10

L² Comment:

It has been such a long time I didn't watch any movie and update this blog... almost one month without any new update, a friend message me & order me to update soon or else he will dis-follow my movies' blog lol~

Well, I have been wanting to re-watch this movie, a sequel of "The Da Vinci Code". Angels & Demons was one of my favorite movie back in 2009 before i started to blog about movies review. However, watching it the second time, its a bit boring to be frank. Of course beside solving hints, Tom Hanks with a new girl running around like mad dog & the villain change to Ewan McGregor... Of course its a good movie still, but maybe not for the re-watching time...

World War Z

 Released Year: 2013

Directed by Marc Forster

Casted by:

Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane

Mireille Enos as Karen Lane

Daniella Kertesz as Segen

Story: 

A zombie outbreak erupts in metropolitan areas around the world; those bitten by the creatures become zombies themselves within several (twelve) seconds. Retired United Nations (UN) investigator Gerry Lane, his wife Karen, and their two daughters manage to escape the outbreak in Philadelphia and take shelter with a family in Newark while waiting for special evacuation the next day, thanks to Gerry's friend UN Deputy Secretary-General Thierry Umuntoni (Fana Mokoena). They find a shelter for the night while waiting for a rescue helicopter. Their hosts choose not to accompany them when they flee the next day and are subsequently bitten and changed by zombies. Their son, Tommy, manages to escape, and Gerry's family takes him in. They are flown to an offshore U.S. Navy carrier group near New York where Umuntoni is overseeing the remaining worldwide governments' reactions.

The scientists there believe they must first find the cause of the zombie outbreak, believed to be in South Korea. A team of U.S. Navy SEALs is dispatched to go and defend Gerry. Gerry is coerced into going with them under the threat of having his family sent to a potentially unsafe mainland refugee camp. The team lands at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, where the surviving soldiers hold back zombie attacks. Gerry learns that a Korean doctor was the first to come down with the rabies-like infection, after being bitten by a soldier he was treating, whom local villagers had captured when he tried to attack them. A former CIA operative held at the base for selling arms to North Korea reveals that Israel had reacted a week before the outbreak, building giant walls around Jerusalem, and suggests that Gerry talk to Mossad agent Jurgen Warmbrunn.

Gerry is flown to Jerusalem and is brought to Warmbrunn. The Mossad agent reveals they had intercepted a message from the Indian Army on fighting the rakshasa ("Demons"). He and other Israeli experts convinced the government to build the wall to protect themselves, but allowing all uninfected people to move in. As Gerry is escorted back to his plane by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), zombies are drawn to the loud music and singing in the city and pile themselves against the wall, forming a mound of bodies that allows many to clear the wall. As the city is quickly overtaken, Gerry and the IDF members battle their way to escape. On their way, Gerry notices that the zombies avoid attacking an elderly man and, in another instance, a young feeble boy. A zombie bites Gerry's IDF escort; and he quickly amputates her hand, which prevents her from being infected. Eventually, Gerry and the same female IDF escort, who identifies herself only as Segen, are able to board the last passenger jet leaving the city.

Gerry recounts the zombie attacks and remembers seeing sick, injured, and elderly people passed over by the zombie hordes, which leads him to believe this is evidence of some way to deal with them. He contacts Umuntoni to help convince the pilots to take them to Cardiff where an operational WHO (World Health Organization) facility is located. Nearing approach, a single zombie is discovered on the plane, and most of the passengers are quickly infected and converted. Seeing no other option, Gerry uses a grenade from Segen's pack to rupture the cabin and blow out the zombies, but in the process, causes the plane to crash. Gerry and Segen survive, though Gerry is impaled by debris from the crash. They make their way to the WHO facility where Gerry blacks out and falls into a coma.

Gerry wakes up a few days later nursed back to health. He contacts Umuntoni to help convince the WHO employees of his identity, but learns that Karen and his family were shipped to the mainland as they presumed he had died in the plane crash. Gerry explains his theory that the zombies ignore the infirm for the healthy, and suggests injecting themselves with a deadly but curable disease to mask themselves from the zombies. The WHO scientists agree but point out the pathogens are located in one of the zombie-infested labs. Gerry, Segen, and a WHO scientist carefully work through the infested labs but are detected. Segen and the scientist get to safety, while Gerry finds himself in the vault with the pathogens and becomes cornered by a lone zombie. Without the ability to identify the strains in storage, many of which could kill him, Gerry injects himself with one of the samples and finds himself still alive. His hypothesis is proven correct as the zombie enters the vault but does not attack, allowing him to walk back to safety with more samples as the rest of the zombies run right past him. Gerry is then treated for the disease.

Later, as Gerry and Segen are taken to the mainland refugee camp in Nova Scotia where Gerry is reunited with his family, he explains they were able to use these diseases to create a masking agent, allowing them to rescue refugees still trapped by zombies and fight against them. He says that this isn't the end and the war has just begun, but there is hope as people have used the masking agent to evacuate people or fight back.

 L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

After watching the lousy Pride+Prejudice+Zombie, I feel "sad&bad" for the genre of Zombie lol~ Actually my darling recommended this movie and mentioned that World War Z 2 is coming out soon in this year, so I must watch the sequence in cinema (if it was released in m'sia).

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Released Year: 2003

Directed by Peter Jackson

Casted by:

 Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins

 Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn

  Ian McKellen as Gandalf

John Rhys-Davies as Gimli

 Orlando Bloom as Legolas

Sean Astin as Samwise "Sam" Gamgee

 Billy Boyd as Peregrin "Pippin" Took

 Dominic Monaghan as Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck

Andy Serkis as Sméagol/Gollum

Miranda Otto as Éowyn 

David Wenham as Faramir

John Noble as Denethor

Liv Tyler as Arwen

Cate Blanchett as Galadriel

Hugo Weaving as Elrond

 Story: 

Gandalf leads Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and King Théoden to Isengard where they reunite with Merry and Pippin, who helped the Ents destroy Saruman's forces. With Saruman himself defeated, Gandalf retrieves Saruman's palantír. Overcome by curiosity, Pippin steals a glance into the seeing-stone, and suffers an immediate mental attack from Sauron himself. From what Pippin was able to recount, Gandalf deduces Sauron will attack Gondor's capital Minas Tirith, so he rides ahead to warn them, and takes Pippin with him as 'punishment'. They meet Lord Denethor, steward of Gondor, bitterly grieving the death of his son Boromir. Pippin offers his service to Denethor after confessing Boromir died protecting him.

Meanwhile, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee are led by Gollum to Minas Morgul where they witness the Witch-king of Angmar leading an Orc army to drive Denethor's younger son Faramir and his men from Osgiliath. At Gollum's urging, the three begin climbing a precarious stair carved in the cliff face that will take them into Mordor via a 'secret way'. But having overheard Gollum's plot to regain the Ring, Sam keeps a suspicious eye on him. In Gondor, Pippin follows Gandalf's instructions and secretly lights the beacon to signal Théoden to assemble the Rohirrim and come to Gondor's aid.

While helping Théoden gather his forces, Aragorn is approached by Elrond who says Arwen is dying. After seeing a vision of her son she refused to leave Middle Earth. Elrond then gives Aragorn the sword Andúril, Isildur's sword Narsil reforged, so he can reclaim his birthright while gaining reinforcements from the Dead Men of Dunharrow. Joined by Legolas and Gimli, Aragorn travels to the Paths of the Dead, recruiting the Army of the Dead with the promise to release them from their curse once they fulfil their oath to Isildur.

Faramir is gravely wounded after a futile effort to retake Osgiliath, and believing his son to be dead, Denethor falls into madness. Gandalf is left to command the city defences against the Orc army led by Gothmog. But as Gothmog's forces eventually force their way into the city, Denethor tries to kill himself and Faramir on a pyre. Pippin alerts Gandalf and they save Faramir, but Denethor leaps to his death from the top of Minas Tirith just before Théoden and the Rohirrim arrive. Initially the Rohirrim have the advantage at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, but are eventually overwhelmed by the Oliphaunt-riding Haradrim while the Witch-king mortally wounds Théoden. Though Théoden's niece Éowyn, having posed as a male soldier, battles and slays the Witch-King with Merry's help, Théoden dies of his wounds. Aragorn arrives with the Army of the Dead, they overcome the Orcs and win the battle. The Dead are released from their curse, and the wounded are tended to. In the Houses of Healing Éowyn meets Faramir, and they comfort each other. Aragorn and the other captains of Men decide to lead all who can march upon the Black Gate as a distraction, so Frodo and Sam can get to Mount Doom.

Meanwhile, Gollum manipulates Frodo into leaving Sam behind before they arrive at the tunnel leading to Mordor, and then tricks him into lair of the giant spider Shelob. After a terrible chase, she paralises and binds Frodo. Sam returns and drives Shelob away, but believing his friend to be dead takes Frodo's sword Sting and The One Ring for safekeeping. When he sees Frodo's body being taken by Orcs to Cirith Ungol he realises Frodo's still alive, and gives chase. Sam rescues Frodo from the Orcs, and returns the Ring to him. Aragorn's army draw out Sauron's forces and empty Mordor, allowing the exhausted Hobbits to stagger to the volcano, but they're attacked by Gollum when they reach Mount Doom. Frodo finally succumbs to the Ring's power and claims it as his own, and refuses to destroy it. Gollum attacks Frodo and bites his finger off to reclaim the Ring, but then (while holding the Ring) Gollum falls into the volcano where the Ring was made. Sam manages to save Frodo. The Ring and Sauron are both destroyed, causing a chain-reaction that consumes the mountain, topples Barad-dûr, and kills most of the fleeing Orcs as the ground crumbles beneath them. Gandalf flies in with eagles to rescue the Hobbits, who awaken later in Minas Tirith and are reunited with the surviving Fellowship members.

Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor and takes Arwen as his queen. They, and all others present at his coronation, bow before Frodo and the Hobbits. The Hobbits then return to the Shire where Sam marries Rosie Cotton. Frodo, unable to cope with the traumas of his journey, departs Middle Earth for the Grey Havens with his uncle Bilbo, Gandalf, and the Elves, leaving Sam the Red Book of Westmarch which details their adventures. Though saddened by Frodo's departure, Sam is gladdened by the warm welcome he receives on returning home.

 L² Scored: 10/10 

L² Comment:

Finally I found a friend who own the Blu-Ray version of the extended version of this movie. If not mistaken, the whole movie is about 4 hours ++. After spending such a long hour in my friend's house, finally I complete watching the whole set of this movie series *applause :p

This movie jointly holds the record for the largest number of Academy Awards won with Ben-Hur & Titanic. Not sure whether there will be any epic movie as big as this, but Lord Of The Ring will always be one of my favorite :)

Pride + Prejudice + Zombies

Released Year: 2016

Directed by Burr Steers

Casted by:

 Lily James as Elizabeth Bennet

Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy

Jack Huston as Mr. Wickham

Bella Heathcote as Jane Bennet

Douglas Booth as Mr. Bingley

Matt Smith as Mr. Collins

Charles Dance as Mr. Bennet

Lena Headey as Lady Catherine de Bourgh[

 Story: 

In 19th century England, Colonel Darcy travels to the home of a wealthy family to investigate rumors of a newly infected zombie. He arrives at the home and sits with the family before taking out a small vial containing carrion flies as a means to detect the undead (as they are attracted to dead flesh). The flies land on the house's patriarch, whose eyes turn red. Darcy breaks a glass and stabs the man in the throat before decapitating him. One of the young girls in the house retreats upstairs to check on the niece of the recently dispatched zombie. She discovers the niece devouring a servant; the niece then proceeds to attack her, and then they both kill everyone in the house.

The Bennet sisters - Elizabeth, Jane, Kitty, Lydia, and Mary - have all been sent to China by their father to learn in the art of weaponry and martial arts. Mrs. Bennet wants her daughters to be married off to wealthy suitors. As it turns out, the Bingley family has moved in nearby and are throwing a ball, wherein Mrs. Bennet hopes that the young and handsome Mr. Bingley will win over one of her girls. Elizabeth, on the other hand, doesn't want to seek a husband.

The Bennets attend the ball. Bingley instantly sets his eyes on Jane. Darcy is in attendance and takes notice of Elizabeth, but he makes comments that she is unappealing, which Elizabeth overhears. She walks outside tearfully and encounters Mrs. Featherstone, now a zombie. Mrs. Featherstone converses with Elizabeth, before she is killed by Darcy. A horde of zombies then attack the party, prompting the Bennet sisters to spring into action. As they slay every zombie in their path, Darcy instantly becomes smitten with Elizabeth when he witnesses her in combat.

The Bingley sisters invite Jane over for tea at Netherfield. Mrs. Bennett forces her to go on horseback, thinking she will be invited to stay overnight due the oncoming rainstorm. While on the ride, Jane encounters a zombie and fires her gun. The gun backfires leaving a bite-like wound on her hand. She kills it but then spots a zombie woman with her child. Jane hesitates and is attacked by the zombie. At Netherfield, Darcy orders her confined to her room, in fear that she may have been bitten. Elizabeth arrives at the home to care for Jane. While in Jane's room, Darcy releases his flies to detect a zombie, but Elizabeth catches each fly with her hand and returns them to Darcy.

After Jane recovers, the sisters attend another ball thrown by the Bingleys. There, Elizabeth meets a soldier named Mr. Wickham, who seems to be charming and polite. He tells Elizabeth that he has had a history with Darcy and does not wish to further challenge him. Another group of zombies attack the party, resulting in Bingley injuring himself, and Darcy joining Elizabeth in fighting the horde. The Bennets are visited by Parson Collins, who intends to marry one of the sisters. He initially sets his eyes on Jane, though he is told that she is with Bingley. He later tries to seduce Elizabeth, and proposes to her, but states that she must give up her life as a warrior, something that she adamantly refuses to do. Mr. Collins later decides to settle with Elizabeth's friend Charlotte.

Elizabeth travels with Wickham to the In-Between (an area outside of walled-in London but inside a royal moat) to a church where some zombies live and worship, while feeding on pig brains to keep them from going completely savage, which would occur if they ate human brains. Wickham wants Elizabeth to join him in helping the zombies. He also suggests that she run away with him, but she remains conflicted. Elizabeth and Wickham then meet with Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, a notorious zombie killer with major authority and wealth, to try and persuade her to come to peace with the more "civilized" zombies who do not eat human brains. Darcy and his aunt blatantly refuse. When she arrives home, Elizabeth is told that Darcy has convinced the Bingleys to move away. When Darcy approaches Elizabeth with a proposal of his own, she expresses her outrage at his actions and fights him in a duel. Elizabeth gets the upper hand, and Darcy leaves.

Darcy writes Elizabeth a letter to apologize for his actions and to state that he separated Jane and Bingley for fear that Jane only wanted to marry Bingley for his wealth, having overheard Mrs. Bennet drunkenly mention it. Darcy also mentions that Wickham had tried to elope with Darcy's fifteen-year-old sister for her fortune. Darcy's letter states that he is battling zombies in London, and that they have overrun the walled city. Elizabeth is then cornered by Lady Catherine and her bodyguard Wilhelm. Catherine knows that Elizabeth and Darcy have developed an attraction toward one another, yet she still wants Darcy to marry her sickly daughter, Anne. Wilhelm attacks Elizabeth, but she claws his face and fights him off, causing him to get crushed under a pile of bricks. Catherine decides to protect Elizabeth's family and takes them to her estate. Wickham ran off with Elizabeth's youngest sister, and she must go rescue her.

Elizabeth joins Darcy in London and helps him battle the undead. Darcy encounters Wickham at the old church and rescues Elizabeth's sister. While fighting Wickham, he impales him and reveals a bite mark on his chest, revealing Wickham was undead all along. Before Wickham can kill Darcy, Elizabeth rides in and chops his arm off and knocks him unconscious. Darcy rides with Elizabeth across the bridge as the army destroys the last remaining bridge to keep the zombies trapped within the In-between on the inside of the moat. Darcy is injured in the explosion and is rendered unconscious. Elizabeth tearfully admits her love for him. After Darcy recovers, he finds Elizabeth and tells her that he heard what she said on the bridge. They share their first kiss and agree to marry. The two have a joint wedding with Bingley and Jane, officiated by Parson Collins. In a mid-credits scene, the now one-armed Wickham is leading the zombies toward them, ready for war.

 L² Scored: 2/10

L² Comment:

Seriously, I kinda feel my money being wasted to watch this kind of movie in the cinema. This movie is based on Seth Grahame-Smith's same name novel in 2009, which also is a parody of Jane Austen's novel "Pride & Prejudice" back in 1813. The zombies are not scary, the fighting action by the girls are lousy... the only thing that brighten me in this movie is Douglas Booth. 

Deadpool

 Released Year: 2016

Directed by Tim Miller

Casted by:

Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson / Deadpool

Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carlysle

Ed Skrein as Francis Freeman / Ajax

Gina Carano as Angel Dust

Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead

Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus

Leslie Uggams as Blind Al,

 Story:

Wade Wilson is a former special forces operative who works as a mercenary in New York City. He meets escort Vanessa Carlysle at a local bar and they become romantically attached. One year later, Wade proposes to her and she accepts, but he suddenly collapses. Wade is diagnosed with terminal cancer and though Vanessa remains by his side, he fears losing her.

A recruiter from a secret program approaches Wade offering an experimental cure for his cancer. Although Wade initially refuses, he decides to leave Vanessa and undergo the procedure. At a laboratory, Wade meets Ajax and Angel Dust, whom he instantly resents. Ajax injects Wade with a serum designed to awaken latent mutant genes, then has him subjected to weeks of torture to induce stress and trigger the mutation without success. Wade discovers Ajax's real name, Francis Freeman, and mocks him. In response, Ajax straps Wade into an airtight chamber which raises and lowers the oxygen level to keep Wade constantly on the verge of asphyxiation. Ajax reveals to Wade their true purpose: to make super-powered slaves to be sold to wealthy customers. Several days later, Wade develops a healing factor which cures his cancer and he escapes from the chamber with a severely disfigured face and skin. He attacks Ajax, but relents when told that his disfigurement can be cured. Ajax subdues Wade, impales him with a rebar and leaves him for dead in the burning laboratory.

Wade attempts to return to Vanessa, but is afraid of her rejecting him because of his appearance, and keeps himself away from her. After consulting his best friend Weasel, Wade decides to hunt down Ajax and have his disfigurement cured. He becomes a masked vigilante, takes the alias "Deadpool", and moves into the home of an elderly blind woman named Al. Following a string of leads, Deadpool tracks down Ajax to a convoy of cars on an expressway. He kills all the escorts, corners Ajax and demands a cure to his disfigurement. The confrontation is interrupted by two X-Men, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, who have been trying to recruit Deadpool. Taking advantage of the distraction, Ajax escapes. Colossus handcuffs himself to Deadpool and begins dragging him away, in order to take him with them back to the X-Men's mansion. Deadpool cuts off his own hand and escapes. His hand slowly regenerates overnight.

Ajax goes to Weasel's bar and learns about Vanessa. In response, Weasel calls Wade and tells him Vanessa is in danger. Wade goes to the strip club where she works but hesitates before he can face her. As a result, Ajax has time to kidnap Vanessa. He and Angel Dust tell Deadpool to meet them on a decommissioned helicarrier in a scrapyard.

Deadpool convinces Colossus and Negasonic to help him, and the trio takes a cab to the scrapyard. While Colossus and Negasonic battle Angel Dust, Deadpool fights his way through Ajax's henchmen, and eventually engages him in close combat. After Angel Dust knocks out Colossus, Negasonic uses her power to repel her, but accidentally destroys the equipment holding the helicarrier upright. As the helicarrier tips over, Colossus wakes up and takes Negasonic and Angel Dust to safety, while Deadpool successfully saves Vanessa. Ajax, still alive, attacks Deadpool, but is subdued and reveals there is no cure for Wade's disfigurement.

Colossus urges Deadpool to spare his enemy, but Deadpool kills Ajax. Wade turns to Vanessa, who removes his mask revealing his face. Vanessa is angered that Wade left her, but still loves him. She accepts him, and they reconcile by kissing.

In a post-credits scene, Wade announces a sequel featuring Cable and tells the audience that the movie is over.

  L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

Ryan Reynolds was casted as Wade Wilson back in 2009 "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". But when it become Deadpool, Scott Adkins was the actual cast. Within so many X-Men movie series, Deadpool should be the one which consist a lot of comedy elements in it. Wade Wilson is different than those superhero, he is actually half good half evil actually. Overall this movie is over my expectation, good job ! By the way, Reynolds is also one of the producer for this movie :)