shutter nick

No, I didn’t invent a time machine that can make me travel back in time. I was not feeling well yesterday so I didn’t blog about the movies that I saw. And even then, two of the movies in this review was seen almost two weeks back.

Having said that, the two movies I saw in Singapore are still not shown here. The first is Band Slam. Starring Vanessa Hudgens and two other people I don’t really know, the movie is pretty much like School of Rock. Take away Jack Black and replace him with a normal white kid and you get Band Slam.

However, it is not to say that it is bad. Band Slam is fun and there are really some classic funny moments in the movie. I actually burst out laughing in the cinema and that is quite a feat for any movie. The songs, which makes the movie (since its titled Band Slam), is also quite top notch. The only problem is a predictable plot but well, nothing is perfect.

I’ll never understand Quentin Tarantino and his huge following. Call me popcorn but if this is supposed to work-of-art, then I’ll pass. Sure enough, there is some gore, violence, and foul language but this is not Kill Bill. At least with Kill Bill, I saw the “funny” side of it.

This time around, the plot was unbelievably slow that even gore and violence could not save the film. Not to mention a WTF ending. It didn’t help that Brad Pitt spoke in a way that I believe not many of us can understand a single word he says. I’ll have to chalk it up as one of the most boring movies I’ve seen, right up there with April Snow.

If you’ve read this far, then you will get to read now about the odd movie from the list. This was actually seen in Malaysia, currently being shown in Malaysia and it was actually watched over the weekend. Well, Friday.

Tsunami at Haeundae is Korea’s take on a disaster movie focusing on a disaster that is pretty real to us right now – tsunami (as if you can’t figure out from the title). The premise of the movie is that some quake in Japan will break some islands which will then create mega-tsunami that will destroy Haeundae.

Of course, like almost all disaster movies, the location of the disaster would usually be the host of some international conference. No difference here. Except America didn’t come in and save the day.

I expected the movie to be all special effects and the usual scream affair but this movie surprised me. Majority of the movie was spent on showing different characters that were in Hauendae and they cross paths some time which was quite interesting.

While none of the character development was out of the box, you have the rich-girl-meets-poor-guy, busy-father-meets-mother-and-daughter-who-doesnt-know-he-exists (the daughter, not the mother), rich-local-businessman-hated-by-local-community and of course some other relationship between a guy and a girl with a complicated history involving the death of her father. Pretty run of the mill stuff, no?

But it all worked out in the end. I read reviews that the movie was slow but I think the pacing was fine and that character development was pointless because some of them died after they are introduced/developed but I think its way better than no character development like in most Hollywood disaster movies.

So, yes, Tsunami at Haeundae is enjoyable and if you have nothing else to watch, its certainly worth your RM10.