I was already planning to watch Beowulf but on regular cinema when Val clued me in to the fact that it will be available in full-length 3D on IMAX. Who would pass up seeing Angelina Jolie in 3Delectable goodieness, right? So tonight, I watched it at SM Mall of Asia’s IMAX Cinema.

Beowulf, as you all probably know, is an old English poem. And I do mean old. Unless you’ve been living under a rock… for centuries… then you probably would have heard of it. If you haven’t, suffice to say it is all those stories that you love to hear before bedtime rolled into one: kings, queens, warriors, monsters, and treasures.

But what can I say about the movie? “AWESOME!” would be a good start. Beowulf is already a great tale in itself. But the retelling by Neil Gaiman, Angelina Jolie, the great acting as usual by Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich, seeing it on the BIG screen, on IMAX, in 3D, and did I say Angelina Jolie? All these makes it even bigger and better.

Shell out those hard-earned bucks and watch it on IMAX. It’s worth it.

Rating: 6/5 (extra point for the extra dimension)

You probably heard about Lust, Caution because of its R rating and its supposedly hot sex scenes. Indeed the scenes are hot. Really hot, in fact. But that’s not all there is to it. Really. Behind it all is a well-crafted wartime espionage thriller.

Set during World War II in Hong Kong and later Shanghai, Wang Jiazhi (Wei Tang) is a resistance agent tasked with seducing and then eliminating Mr. Yee, a high-level Japanese collaborator. Tony Leung as Mr. Yee is, as usual, impressive as the initially suspicious and impassive target.

The act of seduction, pulled off wonderfully by Wei Tang, unfolds slowly and subtly creating palpable sexual tension between the two. This gradually gains speed and culminates in intense physical contacts that illustrate the feelings that developed between them. This feelings clouds their judgments and eventually lead each to take actions they didn’t intend.

Definitely, a must watch.

Rating: 5/5