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It is quite slim pickings for movies this time of the year. After checking the local listings, there were only a few notable movies to watch and I didn’t really want to catch and old Bruce Willis trying to do more action scenes only to discover he is old and can’t do it anymore and see the movie descend into dialogue-based thriller. So, I chose 500 Days of Summer, mainly because I like quirky romantic movies like this.

After half an hour into the movie, I realised that 500 Days of Summer is not a movie for everyone. Some might actually find it very boring but I found it very interesting. Definitely one that I can watch again for a number of reasons. The music in the movie is awesome. I might not know the songs and the groups that sung it but it was really nice to listen to.

Second reason is that I love the direction of the movie. When there were moments that it was a bit slow, I marvelled at the use of angles and also wondered how wonderful it would look if captured on the camera. No wonder some people might find it boring! And the excellent use of split screens was also very cool.

500 Days of Summer is about a guy who falls in love with a girl only to find out that it is not working, well, at least the girl told him so. The story is presented in a way that you are thrown back and forth in time so it can get confusing at times. The movie also presents you with a lot of open-ended questions. So, if you are looking for a movie that answers every possible question thrown in the movie, skip this one.

I was closed to watching Surrogates as my next movie but decided that I probably can’t go wrong with a Chinese triad movie – Rebellion. With Chapman To in it, you can be assured that at least one good actor will be in it. And surprisingly, everyone gave a good account of themselves although the lead Shawn Yue was quite monotone in his role but I think that could be good execution as he was supposed to be stone drunk.

The movie throws in quite a lot of twists and turns so you would be interested to find out the actual ending. Although it may seem quite cliche in the end, the movie was well paced enough to hook you in and keep your attention. There is not a lot of violence (surprisingly for a triad movie) and swearing was kept to a minimum so our censorship board didn’t need to do too much.

While it may seem to be counter productive to be minimal on those two fronts, it actually worked out well for viewers here as we don’t get the sudden cuts. Unlike 500 Days of Summer when a whole chunk of dialogue that was critical to the scene was silenced out.

While the pickings may be slim, there are still some good movies to catch. This week we will get to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs so that should at least cover one movie. If I don’t need to work that is.