Posts Tagged ‘Michelle Yeoh’

Wicked Part One

Director: Jon M. Chu

Cast: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Ethan Slater, Peter Dinklage

Running Time: 2 hours 40 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights director Jon M. Chu lands cinematic gold, with his dazzling interpretation of the hit broadway musical Wicked about the origins of the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.

Wicked Part 1 is a stunningly beautiful and bold interpretation of a fantasy tale about the origins of a witch. In this case it is the absolutely brilliant Oscar worthy performance of Cynthia Erivo (Harriet, Widows) who plays Elphaba alongside British pop star Ariana Grande who is fabulous and very pink as Galinda complete with sparkling shoes, handbags and enough accessories to make any teenage girl envious.

Set within the broader Wizard of Oz universe, Glinda and Elphaba meet at University before they both become witches but unfortunately they are at odds with each other. Glinda is blonde and beautiful, vain and popular whereas Elphaba is green and is in some sense a social pariah, a product of an illicit affair that her mother had in which Elphaba was born bright green like the sparkling Emerald City.

Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh (Everything, Everywhere all at Once) plays Madame Morrible as the mistress of magic at the University where both aspiring witches are studying. All is not well in the land when the talking animals are being ostracized and then Galinda is completely distracted by the arrival of the dashing man on a horse Fiyero, wonderfully played with sufficient panache by Fellow Travellers star Jonathan Bailey.

Elphaba tries to become popular while struggling with her own self-acceptance. Cynthia Erivo, besides her superb singing is really an extraordinary actress and suitably well cast in the role of the singing and flying witch.

Wicked Part One is a dazzling film, complete fantasy liberally peppered with fantastic songs and stunning dance numbers. If you are a musical theatre producer or a choreographer then go and see this musical.

As a psychedelic fantasy musical, Wicked Part One is extraordinary with lavish production design by Nathan Crowley who also deserves an Oscar nomination along with the costume designer Paul Tazewell. The pair really go to town with the amazing sets and incredible costumes especially in the glittering Emerald City.

As Elphaba and Galinda travel on a sleek emerald train to the Emerald City to see the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, they soon discover that the wily wizard is not as noble as one might anticipate. Enter the veteran actor Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, The Grand Budapest Hotel) who steals the scene as the industrialist like Wizard who soon discovers Elphaba’s real power.

The songs are amazing, the costumes and sets are spectacular but at two and half hours long there were some sections the director could have cut.

What makes Wicked Part One such an enjoyable film is the performance of Cynthia Erivo, she really takes the iconic role of the Wicked Witch of the West and moulds it into something formidable, a fascinating story of how a young awkward girl transforms into a witch hated and ostracized by the Land of Oz. Society will do that to a perceived outcast.

Lavish, loud and beautifully orchestrated Wicked Part One is recommended viewing and gets a film rating of 8 out of 10.

Suitable for fans of fantasy musicals and those that have a spare two and half hours to kill exploring the yellow brick road.

A Haunting in Venice

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Tina Fey, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Riccardo Scarmarcio, Camille Cottin, Jude Hill, Kyle Allen, Emma Laird, Ali Khan 

Running Time: 1 hour 43 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Based upon the bestselling Agatha Christie novel Hallowe’en Party published in 1969, screenwriter Michael Green adapts the murder mystery for director Kenneth Branagh’s new film A Haunting In Venice starring an ensemble cast including Belfast stars Jamie Dornan and Jude Hill plus Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh (Everything, Everywhere all at Once).

So let’s set the scene: a séance on Halloween at a haunted palace in Venice in 1947. What could possibly go wrong?

Famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is lured to another complex murder mystery by the ambitious writer Ariadne Oliver superbly played with dashes of wit by comedy star Tina Fey to a séance hosted by the doomed Opera star Rowena Drake expertly played with a crisp British accent by Yellowstone star Kelly Reilly (Pride and Prejudice, Flight).

The Femme Fatale Rowena Drake has a host of eclectic guests over for the séance in a bid to bring back the spirit of her dead daughter who drowned in the Venetian canal a year ago. Poirot suspects a far more scientific yet murky plot is afoot despite various inexplicable terrifying occurrences and sightings of potential ghosts.

When the psychic Mrs Reynolds appears with a cloak and a Venetian mask, trouble starts brewing as she expertly assembles her guests in a bid to conjure up the spirit of Rowena’s dead child, but tragedy strikes when not one but two murders occur around midnight on Halloween.

Unlike the dazzling Death on the Nile, Branagh choses a more atmospheric look for A Haunting in Venice taking all his visual clues from classic film noir, with dark shots of the floating city and all the allusions to what Venice as a city represents cinematically: forbidden desire, unfathomable motives and beauty which is deceptive and dangerous.

Branagh keeps the action tight and his ensemble cast including Camille Cottin as Oleg Seminoff and Italian star Riccardo Scamarcio (John Wick 3, Burnt) as corrupt policeman Vitale Portfoglio, all perform perfectly in their roles.

A Haunting in Venice is an extremely dark film, making the entire narrative very murky and difficult to distinguish much like the real motives of the murderer. Branagh possibly had a constrained budget compared to the lavish two previous films: Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile as most of this film takes place in the haunted mansion.

Claustrophobic and scary, A Haunting in Venice is tonally brilliant and fortunately saved by some intelligent screen chemistry between Tina Fey and Kenneth Branagh and will appeal to all those that love a stylish murder mystery. Audiences should look out for an entirely creepy performance by Jude Hill as a precocious boy Leopold Ferrier reading the American Gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe while the other kids are trick or treating.

With richly dark colours like black, red and grey, A Haunting in Venice is pure film noir with a creepy twist and gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10.  

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Director: Steven Caple Jr

Cast: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Peter Cullen, Dean Scott, Vazquez, Tobe Nwigwe, Ron Perlman, Liza Koshy, John DiMaggio, David Sobolov, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Pete Davidson, Colman Domingo, Cristo Fernández

Running Time: 2 hours and 7 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10  

Creed II director Steven Caple Jr provides a fresh directorial vision for the new Transformers film, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts set in a pre-9/11 world in New York City in 1994 and in Cuzco in Peru.

Far removed from the days of Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley hanging helplessly off a glistening yet menacing Autobot in Transformers: Dark of the Moon back in 2011, Rise of The Beasts has a completely new vision with two new rising stars featuring Anthony Ramos (A Star is Born, In The Heights) as the hero Noah Diaz, a struggling young Latino man trying to find a job and look after his little brother Kris played by Dean Scott Vazques and Dominique Fishback (Judas and the Black Messiah) as museum researcher Elena Wallace.

Together Elena and Noah must team up with the Autobots as they have to prevent a new Galactic catastrophe as the evil Terrorcon Scourge wonderfully voiced by the Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage seeks to unlock a mysterious artefact to allow the ruthless Unicron voiced by Colman Domingo to devastate the Earth. Besides all this post-apocalyptic threat taking place ironically set before 9/11, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has a really cool 1990’s vibe especially the scenes set in New York complete with hip music and a slightly retro production design.

For all Transformers fans, the really thrilling part of these films is watching the cars transform into robots and vice versa, but unfortunately in this version there isn’t enough of that. The script while interesting does go slightly off the reservation, actually way off as the action moves to Cuzco in Peru near the site of the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu in South America.

What is lacking in storyline or characterization in this version is definitely made up for in dazzling special effects which will help Transformers: Rise of the Beasts maintain its popularity throughout the 2023 American summer block buster season.

Noah has a better storyline in the film than Elena, although Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback do exceptionally well in a storyline in which 95% of the dialogue is with CGI robots.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts needed some more human intervention even some quirky characters to spice up a rather clunky storyline, nevertheless it is an entertaining film saved by superb visual effects which will be sure to attract audiences to this film.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10 and see it for the catchy music and imaginative visual effects.

Be kind to cinemas and watch Transformers: Rise of the Beasts on a Big Screen now.

95th Academy Awards took place on Sunday 12th March 2023 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Best Picture: Everything, Everywhere all at Once

Best Director: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

Best Actor: Brendan Fraser – The Whale

Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere all at Once

Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere all at Once

Best Supporting Actress: Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere all at Once

Best Original Screenplay: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere all at Once

Best Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley – Women Talking

Best Cinematography: All Quiet on The Western Front

Best Costume Design: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Best Make up & Hairstyling: The Whale

Best Visual Effects: Avatar – The Way of Water

Best Film Editing: Everything Everywhere all at Once

Best Sound: Top Gun: Maverick

Best Production Design: All Quiet on The Western Front

Best Documentary Feature:  Navalny

Best Original Score: Volker Bertelmann – All Quiet on The Western Front

Best Original Song: Naatu Naatu – RRR

Best Animated Feature Film: Pinocchio – directed by Guillermo del Toro

Best Foreign Language Film: All Quiet on The Western Front (Germany) directed by Edward Berger

Took Place on Tuesday 10th January 2023 in Los Angeles and hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at the Beverly Hilton Hotel – Here are the 2023 Golden Globe Winners in the Film Categories:

Best Film Drama: The Fabelmans

Best Film Musical or Comedy: The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Director: Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans

Best Actress Drama: Cate Blanchett – Tar

Best Actor Drama: Austin Butler – Elvis

Best Actress Musical or Comedy: Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Actor Musical or Comedy: Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Supporting Actress: Angela Bassett – Wakanda Forever

Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Foreign Language Film – Argentina 1985 directed by Santiago Mitre

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Cast: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Chui-Wai Leung, Ben Kingsley, Meng’er Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, Mark Ruffalo, Florian Munteanu

Film rating: 7 out of 10

Running time: 2 hours and 12 minutes

The Glass Castle director Destin Daniel Cretton certainly landed a massive task in directing the Oriental fantasy film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings assembling a mostly Chinese cast with Chinese Canadian actor Simu Liu in the lead role as Shang Chi and comedian, rapper and Golden Globe winner Akwafina (The Farewell) as his sidekick Katy.

While Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings starts off promisingly with some thrilling action sequences on the streets of San Francisco followed by an equally brilliant fight sequence in an abandoned skyscraper in Macao in China, the rest of the CGI laden fantasy epic just eventually unravels into a simulacrum of the Tales of Narnia mixed with some strange dragon sequences which clearly resemble the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Then there is the problematic appearance of Oscar winner Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) popping up in such a crazy heavily laden special effects film. Does Ben Kingsley really need the money or did Marvel pay him an extraordinary fee to appear in this confusing martial arts fantasy epic which tries desperately to tag along to the more mainstream Avengers films? One wonders.

After the brilliance of Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, despite making an absolute fortune at the overseas box office, is not as well written or directed or even constituted as an action adventure fantasy.

This Marvel venture is certainly entertaining but at 2 hours and 12 minutes, the middle section of the film drags continuously as does the epic dragon battle sequence at the end which is a rehash of other similar Marvel films and nothing unique.

Despite the film industry being in turmoil since the global Pandemic, it is good to know that Marvel is trying to cover all their bases in terms of target markets but seriously Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings could have been so much better and taken inspiration from such superb martial arts films as director Ang Lee’s Oscar winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon especially considering it lured Bond star Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies) to appear in this film too.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is entertaining and has already made its box office takings but as a film, this could have been absolutely brilliant but then again Marvel are just cashing in on the current cinematic trend and appealing to that massive target market in China which has the world’s largest cinema going population outside of India.

This action adventure fantasy gets a film rating of 7 out of 10. It’s fun but not amazing. Catch it in cinemas or on a streaming site in the future.

Last Christmas

Director: Paul Feig

Cast: Emilia Clarke, Emma Thompson, Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Boris Isakovic, Rob Delaney, Patti LuPone

After watching director Gurinder Chadha’s cleverly written British film, Blinded by the Light inspired by the music of Bruce Springsteen, Spy and Bridesmaids director Paul Feig’s romantic musical Last Christmas was such a disappointment.

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke (Me Before You) plays a Yugoslavian emigrant Kate who works in a year round Christmas shop in London run by a woman called Santa played by Michelle Yeoh (Crazy Rich Asians, Tomorrow Never Dies, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) while she falls in love with the mysterious guy called Tom played by Malaysian star Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians). Kate is desperately trying to avoid going back to stay with her parents especially her over-bearing mother Petra played with a Slavic accent by Oscar winner Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility, Howard’s End). 

What was the exceptionally talented Emma Thompson doing starring and co-writing in such a contrived piece of cinematic rubbish as this film?

Surely she has better judgement than this.

Last Christmas was just terrible, sickly sweet, historically inaccurate and absolutely shocking saved only by some gorgeous nocturnal shots of the British capital.

I sat through most of this film thinking what nonsense this film was and when the final reveal came it didn’t even touch me emotionally. Last Christmas is a terrible holiday film and both Emilia Clarke and Emma Thompson’s talents were wasted on a film in which its basic premise revolved around the music by the late George Michael and the 1980’s pop group Wham.

After seeing such a deluge of brilliant cinema in the last couple of months including Knives Out, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Irishman and Joker, Last Christmas is terrible.

Last Christmas was badly cast, badly acted and its storyline was utter nonsense, displaying only the worst aspects of London without even showing a capital city that normally shines in its historical elegance. Emma Thompson definitely should have known better.

Recommended only for viewers that love sickly sweet romantic musicals without any substance, Last Christmas gets a film rating of 5.5 out of 10.

Mechanic: Resurrection

Director: Dennis Gansel

Cast: Jason Statham, Jessica Alba, Tommy Lee Jones, Michelle Yeoh, Sam Hazeldine, Toby Eddington, John Cenatiempo

Viewers of Mechanic Resurrection could be forgiven for thinking they are watching a retro 007 film. As German director Dennis Gansel’s film opens in Rio de Janeiro, it is reminiscent of Moonraker then as the next sequence moves to the South China Sea, the location is directly out of The Man with the Golden Gun.

Action man Jason Statham reprises his role of Arthur Bishop in the sequel to the 2011 film The Mechanic, this time Bishop is courted by nefarious arms dealer Crain played by British actor Sam Hazeldine (The Huntsman: Winters War), to carry out a series of assassinations around the globe, which should look like freak accidents.

As Mechanic Resurrection moves from Rio to Bangkok, to a prison island off the Malaysian city of Penang then onto a glossy highrise in Sydney Harbour, director Ganzel makes the most out of every exotic location. Surprisingly none of the locations are in the US, which adds to the originality of the film.

In Thailand, Bishop meets the pawn in the game, Gina, played by the voluptuous and feisty Jessica Alba, and then both are involved in a dangerous game of intrigue, as Bishop is sent by Crain to kill these criminal monsters. The last of which is Max Adams played by an unrecognizable Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive, Jason Bourne), who is hiding out in a Soviet era monument in the outskirts of the Bulgarian resort city of Varna.

Soon Bishop and Adams make an unholy alliance to take Crain down and the rest of Mechanic Resurrection is an old style action film, as bad guys are dispatched in the hundreds, particularly in a scene on a luxurious yacht on the Black Sea. Bishop literally eliminates the competition.

The most dazzling scene in the film is the cantilever swimming pool which juts out of a Sydney Harbour apartment building which Bishop sabotages to kill arms dealer and child trafficker, the suave Adrian Cook played by Toby Eddington.

Mechanic Resurrection is an old style action film, the kind film studios used to make between the mid-1980 and 1990’s. Think Rambo, Die Hard or True Lies. It’s a great popcorn film.

The stunts are outrageous, the locations out of a bond film and naturally the buff Jason Statham is perfect as the fit action hero ready to save the gorgeous Gina held captive on a yacht fill of thugs.

Clearly inspired by the Bond franchise, director Dennis Gansel pays homage to some of the classic 007 films giving the look of Mechanic Resurrection that fabulously exotic retro feel. Even former Bond girl Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies) stars as Mei, Bishop’s friend and confidant in the South China Sea.

Mechanic Resurrection is 90 minutes of pure action, fabulous locations and complete escapism, sometimes it’s just what audiences need to escape the mundane realities of daily life. Go and see it. It’s fun and certainly entertaining!

2000 Toronto International Film Festival Winners

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) takes place every year in September in Canada.
Films which premiere at Toronto are often nominated for Academy Awards the following year.

TIFF does not hand out individual prizes for Best Actor or Actress but focuses on amongst others the following awards:
People’s Choice Award & Best Canadian Feature Film

Opening Night Film: Stardom directed by Denys Arcand, starring Jessica Pare and Dan Aykroyd

People Choice Award: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon directed by Ang Lee, starring Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang

Best Canadian Feature Film: Waydowntown directed by Gary Burns, starring Don McKellar and Marya Delver

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Toronto_International_Film_Festival