The Film Buzz

The Film Buzz Official Review

A little late but better than never – I got round to watching this little gem and I was surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Despite it being a sad film with dark underlying tones, it was strangely uplifting and inspiring at the same time.

With performances by Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton and even Mariah Carey without make-up (she was about 5 shades of scary).

The Plot

Set in 1987, Claireece “Precious” Jones played by Gabourey Sidibe is an obese, illiterate, black 16 year old who lives in Harlem with her dysfunctional family – consisting of her abusive mother and rapist father. Her father raped and impregnated her twice – her first child “Mongo” has Down’s Syndrome and Precious is currently carrying her second child.

When her school finds out that she is pregnant for the second time, she is suspended and referred to an alternative school which would hopefully alter her life direction. Precious finds ways to fight her traumatic experiences every day by imagining she is another person in another world very different to her own – one in which she is loved and appreciated.

Inspired by her new teacher, Ms Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins to learn to read and make friends with her classmates – there she finds a community, one in which she is welcome and loved.

However, the abuse at home doesn’t stop, and her abusive mother reaches a crescendo once Precious’ second child is born and all hell breaks loose…

The Thoughts

A film full of life and love, realistic enough to be gritty but overpowered by compassion to strive for one’s dreams.

Powerful performances by the whole cast, every emotion conveyed was so real and believable and the plot was so cleverly composed in order to shed light on every character’s shortcomings and the reasons behind their actions steering the film clear of “characters abusing each other without apparent reason”.

Overall, it was a beautiful film about abuse, hardship and perseverance and thoroughly touched my heart.

If you just missed Precious in the cinemas, you can catch it on DVD and Blu-ray by March 9, 2010.

The Film Buzz Review Rating: 7/10

UK Cinema Release Date: 29 January 2010

DVD Release Date: 9 March 2010

Director: Lee Daniels

Writer: Geoffrey Fletcher(screenplay), Sapphire(novel)

Links: IMDB, Official Site

The Film Buzz Official Review

It’s a bit late to be categorised in ‘Box Office’ and it’s not quite on DVD yet (DVD will be out 18 January 2010) but I had the chance to catch this film recently and wondered what took me so long to get to round to watching this genius film.

(500) Days of Summer is a romance/comedy but it is most definitely not a typical “rom-com”. I cannot stress it enough that this is not a boy-meets-girl, they-have-some-kind-of-misunderstanding-and-they-hate-each-other-but-for-some-wierd-fated-reason-they-are-forced-together-and-slowly-a-budding-romance-develops-and-eventually-turns-into-a-full-frontal-wedding. So if you’re looking for that – go check out The Proposal or something.

(500) Days of Summer’s tagline is “Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t.”
But the film has way more to offer than just those three circumstances. This is an offbeat, slightly quirky romantic comedy with a play on the words of the title – this film isn’t about 500 days in the season of summer, it’s the memories of a boy’s relationship (or lack of) with a charming girl called Summer.

The Plot

Tom is a greeting card writer who dreams of finding his true love and one day comes across charming, vintage beauty Summer and falls head over heels in love instantly. However, Summer has very different views about love – she thinks it doesn’t exist. Furthermore she doesn’t want to be tied down to a relationship so to make things more complicated, so the couple serenade as ‘friends’ which throws Tom into ecstasy when they’re together on a relationship ‘high’ but at the same time frustrates Tom to no end when they’re on a relationship ‘low’ or rather when there is no established relationship.

Directed by Marc Webb who is relatively new but will be hugely in demand after this masterpiece which is written by  Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber starring the cute-as-hell Joseph Gordon-Levitt and beautiful Zooey Deschanel and also Geoffrey Arend and Matthew Gray Gubler as the two most awesome sidekicks, providing a good deal of the laughs and adding to the overall ingenuity of the plot.

The Thoughts

The beauty of this film is that it disregards the traditional linear plot of rom-com by visiting each memory of Tom in a seemingly random order. The audience is taken on a delightful journey through Tom’s mind as he jumps from moment to moment. This film is so magically put together that it manages the most unconventional twist i.e. stating at the beginning that “this is not a love story” but it somehow manages to make you feel “love butterflies” whilst being bitter-sweet at the same time.

I couldn’t think of two more perfect actors to portray the characters than Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom and Zooey Deschanel as Summer. Gordon-Levitt (10 Things I Hate About You) is the sweetest, most sincere, timid guy who is whole-heartedly chasing his one true love, and Deschanel (The Happening) is a pure beauty – so believable that you cannot help but fall deeply in love with her innocent blue eyes, blushed cheeks and sweet smile along with her charming, quirky ways – they make for a warm exterior but be prepared get your heart smashed in with her cold interior.

This is a highly recommended and highly intelligent film, resonating with raw insights and brimming with lessons in love, this will take a piece out of you and hopefully you will take a piece of it home with you.

You guys need. to. check. it. out. Catch it on DVD in just over a month’s time.

If you have seen this already, what did you think of it? Did it give you lovey-dovey goosebumps or was it just an average rom-com to you?

The Film Buzz Review Rating: 8.5/10

Cinema Release Date: 2 September 2009

DVD Release Date: 18 January 2010

Director: Marc Webb

Writer’s: Scott Neustadter (written by) Michael H. Weber (written by)

Links: IMDB, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes

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Star Trek is out now  on DVD in the UK, lucky me I got mine through the post two days early so I was able to enjoy it all over again on Saturday night.

Star Trek features Chris Pine (Smokin’ Aces) as the legendary Kirk, Heroes favourite Zachary Quinto as Spock, Zoe Saldana (Avatar) as Uhura, John Cho (FlashForward) as Sulu and Leonard Nimoy (Original Star Trek Series) reprises his role as the ‘other’ Spock. They are all joined with a host of other stars that make this film one of the best of 2009.

Star Trek Poster

You don’t need to be a fan of the original Star Trek series or any of the subsequent films or television series to watch this film, you don’t even need to be a science fiction fan or have even seen a Star Trek episode. This story is a new retelling for all the family of how the first crew got their start in the Star Trek universe. Entertaining, funny, clever, well written with plenty of action and drama to keep everyone satisfied. Definitely a must watch!

The Film Buzz Rating: 9.5/10

UK Release Date: May 8th 2009

UK DVD Release Date: 16th November 2009

Director: J.J Abrams

Writer’s: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Gene Roddenberry

Links: IMDB, Official Site

Infernal Affairs (Mou gaan dou), is probably one of the best cop film thrillers I’ve ever seen. Set in modern day Hong Kong, we are introduced to a set of characters all interwoven through the ominous Triad gang and the Hong Kong police force. We are firstly introduced to the Triad gang run by the enigmatic Sam (Eric Tsang) who infiltrates one of his own gang members Lau (Andy Lau) into the police force. The police force in turn place a mole Chen (Tony Leung), deep undercover in the Triads.

Problems soon start to arise with Chen starting to question his time deep undercover and Lau trying to protect his cover as well as stay loyal to the Triads. Mayhem ensues when the police soon start to close in on the Triads, but the Triads don’t go down without a fight and lives are lost on both sides.

You must watch this film as it was meant to be seen, with the original soundtrack. This means subtitles are necessary if you don’t speak Cantonese, but don’t let that put you off. This is edge-of-the-seat stuff with plenty of action to satisfy any man, enough will-they-won’t-they for the ladies and very well written by Alan Mak and Felix Chong, definitely two writers to watch.

This is pretty much an all-round great film with the underlying theme of ‘how far will you go to protect your identity?’ Whether loyally, ethically or just for sheer survival. This is well-acted with convincing performances from Leung, Tsang and Lau. I found myself captivated by these characters, hating some, loving others which makes it all part of the fun.

Alice Says:

Me being Chinese and all, this is a film that makes me proud to be Chinese/Hong Kongnese.

The Hong Kong film industry isn’t far out there in Hollywood, and certainly has a long way to go, but this film and it’s successors Infernal Affairs II and Infernal Affairs III, has definitely propelled the Hong Kong film industry right into the midst of Hollywood film-makers attention and blown them away.

The Film Buzz Rating: 8.5/10

Released: 2004

Director’s: Wai-keung Lau & Alan Mak

Writer’s: Alan Mak & Felix Chong

Links: IMDB

Here at The Film Buzz, we like to take a look at some older releases that we feel deserve some recognition for their great or not so great efforts, re-watch or watch for the first time in some cases and review them and giving them a buzz rating.

One of these films is Disturbia released in 2007, starring Transformers star Shia LaBeouf and The Matrix heroine Carrie-Ann Moss.

Shia plays troubled teenager Kale and after a string of unfortunate behaviour, Shia is placed under house arrest.

Kale then begins to spy on his neighours and soon notices something suspicious about his neighbour Mr Turner, thus leading to a race against time to prove his neighbour a killer.

A good idea, well written and acted, with a relatively short running time. You are bought straight into the action of the film but are then let down by it’s rushed ending. Definitely a film to to see with your friends.

The Film Buzz Rating: 6/10

Director: D.J. Caruso

Writer’s: Christopher B. Landon & Carl Ellsworth

Links: IMDB, Official Site