Happy Feet started off with high expectations cut down to shreds. My friend Val and I went to the IMAX theater of the SM Mall of Asia expecting to watch a 3D version of the film. Alas, it was not to be :( They were showing only the 2D version (to make more money on the 3D version later, no doubt). But since we’re already there, we decided to go watch anyway. Fortunately, the movie turned out to be quite entertaining, especially when the lead penguin was still a chick (cute and fluffy) and, of course, the adelie(?) penguins. Those little guys sure were a riot :)) There was a point in the movie where it could have already ended as a poignant reminder of the misery brought about by man onto this world. But no, as the title would clue you in, this is after all a happy movie. So the movie had to drag on a bit more for that happy ending. Reminds me of AI.

Rating: 3/5

I’m not much of a James Bond fan. He’s just too clean, smooth-talking, and glamorous. I prefer my protagonists to be the dark, silent, and brooding kind. But Casino Royale updates James Bond to the typical modern day hero. He is still generally clean, smooth-talking, and glamorous but now he got his dark, silent, and brooding moments. For that alone this movie gets stars. But of course that’s not all of it. The movie is plenty entertaining too. It traced how Bond got started in the 007 role and his first major mission of spoiling the money making schemes of an infamous money launderer for terrorist organizations. It gets a bit tedious as the story dragged on a bit more after the villain already got dispatched. But I guess that’s how the book went and so does the movie.

Rating: 4/5

I thought The Prestige was a romance movie. But since I was bored and there was no other movie to see (the only remotely interesting alternative was The Marine), I decided to watch it. It turned out that what I had in mind was The Illusionist. The movie turned out to be quite nice. It’s about two magicians, Borden and Angier, who started out as friends but had a major falling out when Angier’s wife died in a magic trick that went horribly wrong. Angier sought revenge on Borden who he blamed for his wife’s death. As their rivalry on the stage heated up so it did too behind the stage. Their conflict finally culminated in death. But all is not what it seems. The movie, after all, is about magic. Have I spoiled it for you? Not yet. After all, you haven’t seen the prestige ;)

PS One thing I totally disliked is the idiot-proofing at the end. Hollywood movies seem to do be doing it more and more.

Rating: 4/5