Finding Neverland

 Released Year: 2004

Directed by Marc Forster

Casted by:

Johnny Depp as J. M. Barrie

Kate Winslet as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies

Dustin Hoffman as Charles Frohman

Julie Christie as Mrs. Emma du Maurier

Radha Mitchell as Mary Ansell Barrie

Freddie Highmore as Peter Llewelyn Davies

 Story:

The story focuses on Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, his platonic relationship with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, and his close friendship with her sons, who inspire the classic play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Never Grew Up.

Following the dismal reception of his latest play, Little Mary, Barrie meets the widowed Sylvia and her four young sons in Kensington Gardens, and a strong friendship develops between them. He proves to be a great playmate and surrogate father figure for the boys, and their imaginative antics give him ideas which he incorporates into a play about boys who do not want to grow up, especially one named after troubled young Peter Llewelyn Davies. Barrie's wife Mary, who eventually divorces him, and Sylvia's mother Emma du Maurier, object to the amount of time Barrie spends with the Llewelyn Davies family. Emma also seeks to control her daughter and grandsons, especially as Sylvia becomes increasingly weak from an unidentified illness.

Producer Charles Frohman skeptically agrees to mount Peter Pan despite his belief it holds no appeal for upper-class theatergoers. Barrie peppers the opening night audience with children from a nearby orphanage, and the adults present react to their infectious delight with an appreciation of their own. The play proves to be a huge success.

Because Sylvia is too ill to attend the production, Barrie arranges to have an abridged production of it performed in her home. She dies shortly afterward, and Barrie finds that her will is to have him and her mother look after the boys, an arrangement agreeable to both.

  L² Scored: 7/10 

L² Comment:

Multiples awards nomination film, this movie is something like a biography-kinda film of the playwright Mr Barrie, who created Peter Pan. I was amazed of how this guy can have such good imagination to creae a wonderful story like Peter Pan, as it has always been my dream to look for a neverland too :) 

Overall the storyline is just ok for me, some part is a bit dull but luckily the talented actors and actress make this movie sparks ~

Kungfu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom

Released Year: 2011
Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Casted by:
Jack Black as Po
Angelina Jolie as Master Tigress
Gary Oldman as Lord Shen
杨紫琼 Michelle Yeoh as Soothsayer
Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu
成龙 Jackie Chan as Master Monkey
Seth Rogen as Master Mantis
Lucy Liu as Master Viper
David Cross as Master Crane
James Hong as Mr. Ping
Story:

Long ago, Lord Shen, heir of the peacock clan that ruled Gongmen City in China, sought to harness the power of fireworks as a weapon with which to rule the entire country. When he learned from the court's goat soothsayer that "a warrior of black and white" would one day defeat him, Shen assumed she was referring to the giant pandas and had them exterminated to avert the prophecy. Shen's parents were horrified at this atrocity and exiled Shen, who swore revenge.

Thirty years later, Po is living his dream as the Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, the Furious Five, but is told by Master Shifu that he has yet to achieve inner peace. While fighting off a pack of wolf bandits who have been stealing refined metal for Lord Shen, Po is distracted by a symbol on the head wolf's armor, which causes Po to have a flashback of his mother and allows the wolves to escape. Po asks his goose father, Mr. Ping, where he came from, but all Ping can tell him is that he found Po as an infant in a vegetable crate and adopted him.

Afterward, Shifu receives word that Master Thundering Rhino, leader of the kung fu council protecting Gongmen City, has been killed by Lord Shen with his newly developed weapon, a cannon, which threatens to destroy kung fu tradition. Po and the Five go to stop him, reaching Gongmen City to find it under the control of Shen's forces. The heroes find two imprisoned council members, Masters Storming Ox and Croc , and ask their help to liberate the city, but both masters cite their helplessness against Shen's weapon and refuse to escape. Po and the Five are then discovered by the wolf leader, who they chase to prevent him from alerting Shen, only to be captured.

Upon being brought before Shen in his tower, Po and the Five free themselves and destroy Shen's cannon. However, Crane burns his wing and Po is again distracted by a flashback upon seeing the same symbol as before on Shen's plumage, allowing Shen to escape and destroy the tower with an arsenal of cannons. After escaping, Tigress confronts Po over his distraction. Po explains that he remembers Shen's presence on the night he was separated from his parents, and wants to question Shen about his past. Though empathetic, Tigress orders him to stay behind for his own safety. Po regardless breaks into Shen's cannon factory to confront Shen, inadvertently foiling the Five's attempts to destroy the factory. Shen claims that Po's parents abandoned him before he blasts Po out of the factory and captures the Five.

Po is rescued by Shen's soothsayer, who has been exiled by Shen to the ruined village where Po was born. Guided by the soothsayer to embrace his past, Po remembers that his parents had endangered themselves to save him from Shen's forces, his mother hiding him in a crate before she was subdued. Attaining inner peace, Po returns to Gongmen City to save the captive Five from being executed by Shen at the city harbor. During the ensuing battle (in which Shifu participates after having persuaded Ox and Croc to do the same), Po uses his inner peace to gauge Shen's cannon fire and redirect it against Shen's armada. He then urges Shen to let go of his own past, but Shen refuses and attacks Po until Shen inadvertently slashes the ropes holding up his last cannon, which falls and crushes him to death. Victorious, Po returns to the Valley of Peace and reunites with Mr. Ping, declaring him to be his father. At the same time, Po's biological father is shown to be alive in a hidden village inhabited by surviving pandas, sensing that his son is also alive.

L² Scored: 7/10

L² Comment:

Love the 1st movie, the 2nd one... hmm~ ok la... not as good as the first one. Watch this movie with Bubu and enjoy laughing together. The whole movie is more pack than the first one and it reveals the background of the panda and how he was adopted by the geese.

A great movie which you should watch in the big screen :)

Kungfu Panda

Released Year: 2008
Directed by John Wayne Stevenson
& Mark Osborne

Vocal by:
Jack Black as Po
Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu
Angelina Jolie as Tigress
Ian McShane as Tai Lung
Jackie Chan as Monkey
Lucy Liu as Viper
Seth Rogen as Mantis
David Cross as Crane
Randall Duk Kim as Master Oogway
Story:

The story is set in the Valley of Peace, a fictional land in ancient China inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. Po, a young, clumsy, overweight panda, is a kung fu fanatic who idolizes the Furious Five – Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and Crane – a quintet of kung fu masters trained by Master Shifu to protect the valley. Because he works in his goose father Ping's noodle restaurant, Po is unable to achieve his dream of becoming a kung fu master himself.

One day, Shifu's mentor, the elderly tortoise Master Oogway, has a vision that Shifu's former student and foster son, the evil snow leopard Tai Lung, will escape from prison and return to the Valley of Peace to take revenge for being denied the Dragon Scroll, which is said to hold the secret to limitless power. Shifu holds a kung fu tournament for the Furious Five so that Oogway may identify the legendary Dragon Warrior, the one kung fu master worthy of receiving the Dragon Scroll and capable of defeating Tai Lung. Forced to take a noodle cart to the tournament, Po arrives after the doors to the tournament arena close and is unable to enter. Desperate to see the Dragon Warrior be chosen, Po straps himself to a set of fireworks and rockets into the sky. Po crashes into the middle of the arena at the moment when Oogway is to point out the Dragon Warrior, and to the surprise of everyone present, Oogway chooses Po, seemingly by accident.

Unwilling to believe that a big fat panda could be the Dragon Warrior, Shifu attempts to get rid of Po by berating and ridiculing him into quitting his training with the Furious Five, who similarly despise and mock Po for his lack of skill in kung fu. After receiving helpful advice from Oogway, however, Po endures his grueling training and slowly begins to endear himself to the Five with his tenacity, culinary skill, and good humor. Meanwhile, Zeng is sent to Chorh-Gom Prison to have Commander Vachir double the amount of guards to prevent Tai Lung's escape. When one of Zeng's feathers falls into his cell, Tai Lung uses it to escape from prison (as foreseen by Oogway). After taking down Commander Vachir and the guards, Tai Lung spares Zeng so that he can carry a message to Shifu. Oogway makes Shifu promise to train Po before disappearing. Still unable to grasp the basics of kung fu and confessing a crippling self-loathing, Po despairs that he has no chance of defeating Tai Lung. Shifu, however, discovers that Po is capable of impressive physical feats when motivated by food. Using food as positive reinforcement, Shifu successfully trains Po to incorporate these feats into a makeshift yet effective kung fu style.

Meanwhile, the Furious Five set out to stop Tai Lung themselves only to be overwhelmed and defeated. Shifu decides Po is ready to receive the Dragon Scroll, but the scroll reveals nothing but a blank, reflective surface. In despair, Shifu orders Po and the Five to evacuate the valley while he delays Tai Lung as long as possible in a fight to the death. The dejected Po finds his father who, in an attempt to console him, reveals that the long-withheld secret ingredient to his famous "secret ingredient soup" is nothing, explaining that things become special if people believe them to be. Realizing that this concept is the point of the Dragon Scroll, Po returns to the Jade Palace to confront Tai Lung, who has reached the Palace and nearly killed Shifu. Po proves to be a formidable challenge for Tai Lung as he tries to protect the Dragon Scroll. Though the Dragon Scroll eventually falls into Tai Lung's grasp, he is unable to understand or accept its symbolic meaning, and Po ultimately defeats him using the secret Wuxi Finger Hold. Po is praised by the Valley of Peace and earns the respect of the Furious Five, who fully acknowledge him as a true kung fu master. Shifu, exhausted but alive after his fight with Tai Lung, is finally at peace with himself now that peace has returned to the valley.

At the end of the credits, Po and Shifu are eating together under the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, just as a new sprout is seen growing from the seed Shifu planted earlier before Oogway's disappearance.

L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

Bravo bravo to Dreamwork production for trying very hard to get into the China animation market which i believe is a success :) This animation use China's precious animal - Panda as the main character is a wise choice, especially with Jack Black as the vocal. Beside this, they also used up a lot of Asian artist to features on the sounds characters such as Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Randall Duk Kim & James Hong.

A very meaningful cartoon and i hope the part 2 will be as good as the part 1~

Midnight Cowboy

Released Year: 1969
Directed by John Schlesinger

Casted by:
Jon Voight as Joe Buck
Dustin Hoffman as Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo
Story:

The film follows the story of a young Texan named Joe Buck, who works as a dishwasher in a diner. As the film opens, Joe dresses himself like a rodeo cowboy, packs a suitcase, and quits his job. He heads to New York City in the hope of leading the life of a hustler.

Joe's naïveté becomes evident as quickly as his cash disappears upon his arrival in New York. He is unsuccessful in his attempts to be hired by wealthy women. When finally successful in bedding a middle-aged New Yorker, Joe's attempt to "talk business" results in the woman breaking down in tears and Joe giving her $20 instead. Joe meets the crippled Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, a third-rate con man who easily tricks Joe out of $20 by offering to introduce him to a well-known pimp, who instead turns out to be a religious fanatic. Joe flees the scene in pursuit of Rizzo, but he is long gone.

Once broke, Joe is locked out of his hotel room for failure to pay the bill. He finally attempts to make money by submitting to oral sex from a young man in the seats of a movie theatre, but even this plan goes awry when the teenager reveals he has no money. The next day, Joe spots an unsuspecting Rizzo at a lunch counter. He angrily shakes Rizzo down for every penny he has — all sixty-four of them — but Rizzo surprisingly offers to help Joe, by sharing his place, an apartment in a condemned building. Joe reluctantly accepts the offer, and they begin a business relationship, helping each other pickpocket, steal and further attempt to get Joe hired as a stud. They are both completely alone without each other, and a genuine bond develops between the two men. Rizzo had a cough when the two first met during the summer and, as the story progresses into winter, his health steadily worsens. Joe and Enrico

The events of Joe's early life are told through fast-cutting flashbacks interspersed throughout the film. He had been to church and baptized as a boy but has only frightening memories of the experience. The two people Joe had loved were his grandmother, Sally Buck, and his onetime girlfriend, Crazy Annie. His grandmother raised Joe after his mother abandoned him but often left him alone to go off with boyfriends; one of them, a wrangler named Woodsy Niles, was Joe's only father figure. Annie had been a promiscuous girl who changed her ways after meeting Joe, but this did not sit well with the men of their hometown: the two were caught and raped by a gang of males. Annie was later sent to a mental institution; Joe joined the army. Sally Buck died while Joe was away serving in the Army, and Annie remains a constant presence in Joe's mind.

Rizzo's backstory comes mostly through the things he tells Joe. His father was an illiterate shoe shiner who worked deep in a subway station, developed a bad back, and "coughed his lungs out breathin' in that wax every day!" Rizzo learned shining from his father, but refuses to follow (such as he could, after polio crippled one leg) in the old man's footsteps.

At one point, an odd-looking couple approach Joe and Ratso in a diner and hand Joe a flyer inviting him to a party. They enter into a Warhol-esque party scene (with Warhol superstars Viva, Ultra Violet and others in cameo appearances). The naive Joe smokes most of a joint thinking it's a cigarette, then takes a pill offered to him and begins to hallucinate. He leaves the party with a socialite, who agrees to pay him $20 for spending the night with her. Rizzo falls down a flight of stairs as they are leaving; he insists he is fine. Joe and the socialite attempt to have sex, but he suffers from temporary impotence. They play a game of scribbage together in which Joe reveals his limited academic prowess. She teasingly suggests that Joe may be a homosexual, and that does the trick: he is suddenly able to perform, and the two have lively, aggressive sex. In the morning, the socialite sets up a friend of hers to be Joe's next customer, and it appears his career is on its way.

When Joe returns home later, Rizzo is in bed, sweating and feverish, and admits to Joe that he is unable to walk. Joe wants to take Rizzo to a doctor, but Rizzo adamantly refuses. He wants to leave New York for Miami; this has been his goal the whole time. A frightened Joe is determined to take care of his friend and leaves the apartment to scrounge some money. He picks up an older male customer, but the man tries to send him away at the last minute out of guilt. Joe's desperation boils over when the man gives him a religious medallion instead of cash. He beats and robs the man, stuffing the telephone receiver into his mouth when he thinks the man is calling the hotel front desk for help.

With the money, Joe buys two bus tickets to Florida. During the long journey, Rizzo's already serious physical condition deteriorates further. During a rest stop, Joe touchingly buys bright new clothing for Rizzo and himself. He throws away his cowboy outfit and admits "I ain't no kinda hustler." As they reach Florida and near Miami, Joe talks about plans to get a regular job, only to realize that Rizzo has died in the seat beside him. After Joe informs the bus driver, the driver tells him that there is nothing else to do but continue on to Miami.

The film ends with Joe seated with his arm around his dead friend, numbly staring out the bus window as row after row of palm trees go by.

L² Scored: 7/10

L² Comment:

Well, guess what? Jon Voight is Angelina Jolie's father. That's why u see Angelina is so hot... Coz the father is hot as well. This movie has won the best film in oscar academy awards. And both Dustin and Jon has been nominated as the best actor but did not won.

The whole film is kinda simple but the "gay relationship" is kinda hidden between the 2 guys in this film. Well, i would love to watch more of Jon Voight's movie soon :)

Meet The Parents: Little Fockers

Released Year: 2010
Directed by Paul Weitz

Casted by:
Ben Stiller as Gaylord "Greg" Focker
Robert De Niro as Jack Tiberius Byrnes
Teri Polo as Pamela Focker
Owen Wilson as Kevin Rawley
Blythe Danner as Dina Byrnes
Jessica Alba as Andi Garcia
Dustin Hoffman as Bernard "Bernie" Focker
Barbra Streisand as Rosalind "Roz" Focker
Story:

Greg and his wife Pam, daughter of retired CIA agent Jack, have five-year-old twins, Henry and Samantha. Jack begins to experience significant health issues and appoints Greg to the new head of the family, the "Godfocker".

However, he starts to have doubts about his decision, because he thinks Greg has an affair with Andi Garcia, a sexy pharmaceutical-company representative with whom he sells the erectile dysfunction drug Sustengo. This is not true, the impression is due to coincidences and drunkenness of Andi. Jack even suggests to Pam that it might be better to divorce Greg and resume her relationship with Kevin Rawley, her former fiancé.

Greg and Pam are annoyed by this. In order to prove he can look after the family, Greg tries to get his children into a better school (although he almost blows the chance), build a new house (which has problems in the garden), and get his finances in order. Upon meeting Bob (Debbie's ex-husband), he tells Greg that he has never been happier after getting off "the hamster wheel" and that he was Jack's first choice to lead the family and gave him the name "The Bobfather", which makes him a little upset.

Jack and Greg eventually make up at the twins' birthday party after a fight, in which Jack suffers a heart attack and Greg saves his life. The film ends four months later on Christmas Day when Jack, Dina, Bernie, and Roz come to spend Christmas with Pam and Greg in their new house and Greg's parents tell them that they are moving to Chicago and are going to move two houses down from theirs. To this, Jack and Dina say they will move too, because they also want to be close to their grandchildren, to which Bernie and Roz are delighted about, although both Pam and Greg insist neither move.

During the credits, Jack watches a video of Greg on YouTube.

L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

Oh lord, this is so funny... laugh so much in the cinema together with Julius :) Not really remember the 1st 2 movie of meet the parents, but this is so funny, especially the part when Stiller help De Niro to inject some medicine on his rock hard penis and saw by the little Focker :P

Jessica Alba is damn hot!!! She's look so flawless even though she has gave birth to her baby~ nice and hot... miao !!!