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Fridae Movie Club
Singapore Movie Update
3 May 2005
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Gays and lesbians,

Whether you're a woman or man of the Bible or the Koran; whether you a Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu or Sikh; whether you're an atheist whose prays at the altar known as "the gym" or the temple known as "the sauna"...

Step aside for what looks set to be one of the biggest movie events of the year. Ridley Scott's grand and exhilarating epic Kingdom of Heaven opens this week. Set in the 12th century, it depicts the Crusades which pitted the Christians against the Muslims.

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But should you think that this film will offend either Muslims or Christians, you need not worry. Ridley has ensured that the portrayal of both sides are fair, which is why this film hasn't generated much controversy the way The Passion of the Christ did.

So big is Kingdom of Heaven that many other films have stepped aside to let its armies of knights on horses through. Only two foolhardy films have dared to open this week alongside this epic drama.

One of them — the horror remake House of Wax starring Paris Hilton — is literally trembling with fear.

The other film, Bonjour Monsieur Schlomi, is a teen drama so small that we won't be surprised if it gets trampled at the box-office by Ridley's entourage.

Now on to the reviews.

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A big thank-you from Fridae and Action for Aids to all of you for showing your support at the fund-raising charity film premiere for Action for Aids (AfA), featuring the German coming-out movie of the year Summer Storm.

READ the Fridae Lifestyle Movie Review.

READ ALSO Look out for Fridae's interview with Summer Storm director Marco Kreuzpaintner to be published this week!

 

highlights
 
Kingdom of Heaven
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Edward Norton,
Ghassan Massoud, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson
 
Kingdom of Heaven
Trailer Website Reader's Reviews

Ridley Scott is easily one of the best mainstream directors we have.His reputation rests on unforgettable modern classics such as Blade Runner, Alien, Thelma & Louise and Gladiator.

His latest film, Kingdom of Heaven, sees him returning to the epic style of filmmaking a la Gladiator. Set in the 12th century during the years of the second and third Crusades, the story revolves around a poor blacksmith Balian (Orlando Bloom) who becomes a knight for the Christian king.

When enmity between the Christian and Muslim forces flares up because of a series of attacks made on the Muslim royal family, Balian has defend his home against Muslim soldiers.

Christian and Muslim readers of Fridae need not worry, however. The conflicts are handled sensitively, and the warriors on both sides are shown to be equally noble, chivalrous and fair in battle.

If there's anyone who should worry, it's Orlando. He may look gorgeously buff in Kingdom, but he seems to have some trouble carrying the 146-minute epic on his young shoulders.

Thankfully, he has a superb supporting cast that includes Liam Neeson as his father, Edward Norton as the Christian King Baldwin IV and Syrian actor Ghassan Massoud as the Muslim King Saladin. Orlando can also count on Ridley's typically competent direction and the film's spectacular battle sequences for support.

The must-see of the week.

 
opening this week
 
House of Wax
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast: Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki
 
House of Wax
Trailer Website Reader's Reviews

For good horror these days, your best bet is still Asian. The two Japanese horror movies playing in cinemas right now — Infection and Shikoku — may be schlocky, but they are still better than what Hollywood is churning out.

House of Wax is a case in point. Hollywood is so creatively bankrupt when it comes to horror that it has to remake its old classics (like The Amityville Horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead and now House of Wax) or borrow from Asia (The Ring, Ju-On and Dark Water).

House of Wax, however, will appeal to some teenagers and the teenager-at-heart — what with its rude American humour, Paris Hilton striptease scene and nice shots of Chad Michael Murray (of One Tree Hill fame) shirtless.

The movie is about a group of totally obnoxious teenagers who are driving to big football game. When their trip takes an unexpected detour to a deserted town with a creepy House of Wax run by a pair of psychotic twins, all hell breaks loose...

The movie is full of cheap scares and cheap flesh. But lovers of gore will relish the very gruesome scenes where a still-living character watches in horror as he is being embalmed in hot wax.

It also has very graphic killing scenes, so we recommend this film to the gorehounds, scream queens and those of you wear the "cheap and shallow" badge with pride.


Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi
Ha’Kohavim Shel Shlomi
Hebrew with English subtitles
Director:
Shemi Zarhin
Cast: Oshri Cohen, Arie Elias, Esti Zakhem, Aya Koren, Yigal Naor, Albert Illouz
 
Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi
Trailer Website Reader's Reviews

Oshri Cohen plays 16-year-old Schlomi in Tel Aviv, Israel, whose family is mildly dysfunctional: His mother is a screeching temperamental woman and his father is an adulterous hypochondriac. Only his grandfather shows affection for the young hero and speaks to him in French — hence the title.

When Schlomi is discovered in school to be a Math genius, he has to decide between leaving home to study with other gifted teens in Haifa and staying home to care for his family members.

The film is neither very deep nor moving, but Bonjour Monsieur Schlomi does have its sweet and sensitive moments. Still, between this film and Kingdom Of Heaven (or even House Of Wax), the latter wins hands down.

 
now showing
 
Summer Storm
Sommersturm
German with English subtitles
Director:
Marco Kreuzpaintner
Cast: Robert Stadlober, Kostja Ullmann, Alicja Bachleda-Curus, Hanno Kofler
Audience Award, Munich Film Festival 2004
Only at Cathay Orchard
[Charity Film Premiere for AfA]
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

This gay movie is the must-watch of ANY week.

Tobi and his best friend, Achim, are both members of a rowing team on a summer camp.

While Achim is exploring his attraction to girls, Tobi struggles to first hide and then accept his attraction to boys. Things come to a head when a rival rowing team called Queerschlag (QueerStrokes), made up of gay teenagers, joins the summer camp.

Sweet, optimistic and gently humourous, Summer Storm is the sort of film that will stay in your heart for always — like Beautiful Thing and Nico & Dani.

And of course, there's some homoerotic horseplay and plenty of skin-exposing swimwear to get your heart racing as well.

READ Fridae Lifestyle Movie Review
READ Fridae Interviews director Marco Kreuzpaintner (to be published this week)


Millions
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Alexander Etel, Lewis McGibbon, James Nesbitt
[Singapore International Film Festival]
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

Alexander Etel plays 7-year-old Damian whose mother has passed away, leaving him behind with his father and brother.

He finds solace in reading about the lives of Christian saints, and sometimes imagines them visiting him. One day, he chances on a large bag filled with money and decides to distribute the money to the poor.

Though the basic storyline seems simple and naive, Millions is actually a rich and multi-layered story that brims with ideas, style and humour. At the heart of the story is an examination of what money means to each one of us.


Divergence
San Cha Kou
Mandarin with English subtitles

Director:
Benny Chan
Cast: Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, Daniel Wu
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

Flush from the success of New Police Story last year, director Benny Chan returns with another action extravaganza featuring plenty of guns, bombs and chase sequences.

Aaron Kwok plays a police officer trying to gather evidence to put a money-laundering tycoon behind bars. He becomes attracted to the wife of the scummy lawyer (Ekin Cheng) who works the tycoon, because she reminds Aaron of his girlfriend who disappeared a decade ago. The characters become entangled in a web of mystery and deceit.


xXx2: The Next Level
Director: Lee Tamahori
Cast: Ice Cube, Samuel L. Jackson, Willem Dafoe
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

Now, we loved the corny, cheesy action splendour that was XXX. But this sequel is absolutely absurd.

Rapper-singer Ice Cube who plays Darius, a spy with a criminal mind and a daredevil streak. Darius is sent to the White House to stop the US Secretary of Defence (Willem Dafoe) in his attempt to oust the US President.

There are bombs, guns and explosions aplenty, and as one can usually expect from this kind of film, all manner of logic is blown to hell.


The Interpreter
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

We all love Nicole Kidman, don't we? Whether she's rumouredly a lesbian or not is besides the point. The fact is, Nicole is a talented actress who has consistently chosen to star in interesting and challenging films like Dogville, Birth, The Hours and Moulin Rouge.

In her excellent new film The Interpreter, she plays an interpreter at the United Nations who overhears a plot to assasinate an African leader. Convinced that the plotters will try to kill her too, FBI agent Keller (Sean Penn) is assigned to protect her.

The Interpreter is drum-tight, suspenseful and intelligent. It reminds us of those classy political thrillers of the 1970s like Klute, Three Days of the Condor, All the President's Men and The Day of the Jackal which Hollywood rarely makes these days.


The Hidden Blade
Japanese with English subtitles
Director:
Yoji Yamada
Cast: Masatoshi Nagase, Takako Matsu, Hidetaka Yoshioka
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

One of the bright lights of Japan's film industry is the much-loved writer-director Yoji Yamada. His last film Twilight Samurai was a powerful portrait of an ageing samurai that swept a record 12 Japanese Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

His new film is yet another sublime work of art. Set in mid-19th century where Japan's samurai system is slowly giving way to modern Western weaponry and military strategies, Nagase Masatoshi plays a swordsman whose honour is tested when his corrupt superiors order him to kill a fellow samurai.

The film depicts a bygone era in rich and wonderful detail. The cinematography by Mutsuo Naganuma is warm and assured, and the acting is masterful throughout.


Infection
Japanese with English subtitles
Director:
Masayuki Ochiai
Cast: Michiko Hada, Maya Hoshino, Yoko Maki
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

Lovers of B-grade horror, prepare to knock yourselves out. Infection is a wonderfully trashy horror flick that uses good old-fashioned green goo to up the scare factor.

At an old hospital that is poorly-staffed and poorly-facilitated, a new patient arrives with bizarre symptoms. The green goo that oozes from his wounds infects the hospital staff and compels them to do strange things.

Green goo. Green goo. Now where have we seen this gag before...


Guess Who
Director: Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Bernie Mac, Judith Scott, Zoe Saldana
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

In 1967, the classic comedy Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? broke new ground with its daring take on inter-racial relationships, with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as the shocked parents of a young white woman who brings her black fiance (Sidney Poitier) home.

This lousy remake has turned the tables. Here, a white financial consultant goes to meet the African-American parents of his fiancee. Yawn-inducing and unfunny — not to mention, homophobic.


Creep
Director: Christopher Smith
Cast: Franka Potente, Sean Harris, Vas Blackwood, Jeremy Sheffield, Ken Campbell
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

This uncreepy British horror film is set in the actually-creepy London subway. Franka Potente (Run, Lola, Run and The Bourne Supremacy), usually a fabulous actress, disappoints with her by-the-numbers performance as a drunk party girl who falls asleep in a London underground station and misses the last night train. When she wakes up, she finds herself being chased by a strange maniac who shrieks in a rat-like sound.


Colour Blossoms
Japanese, Cantonese and English with English subtitles
Director:
Yon Fan
Cast: Theresa Chung, Harisu, Keiko Matsuzaka, Carl Ng
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

The latest film by flamboyant Hong Kong director Yon Fan bears all his hallmarks: the gorgeous actors, the sumptuous production design, the dream-like images.

Meili (Teresa Cheung) is a property agent hired by the rich and mysterious Madam Umeki (Matsuzaka Keiko) to lease out her lavish apartment in Hong Kong. She meets two different men (dazzlingly handsome models Carl Ng and Sho) and falls for both of them. Tragedy ensues.

With the exquisite sets and equally exquisite cheekbones of the actors, Colour Blossoms is an undeniable feast for the eyes. But the film also veers dangerously into campy excess and plain old weirdness with its forays into voyeurism and S&M.

READ Fridae Feature: Interview with actor Carl Ng.
READ Fridae Chinese: Interview with director Yonfan.


Samara
Director: Hideo Nakata
Cast: Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, David Dorfman, Sissy Spacek
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

Naomi Watts is all set to jolt you out of your seats and rattle your cage in Samara, a slick and worthy sequel to The Ring that was remade from Hideo Nakata's hit Japanese horror franchise Ringu.

Naomi plays the single mother of a boy who has watched a haunted videotape of Samara, a dead girl in a well. Fearing for the life of her son, she moves away from Seattle to start a quiet new life in Astoria, Oregon. But Samara is determined to follow the boy wherever he goes.


Beauty Shop
Director: Bille Woodruff
Cast: Queen Latifah, Alicia Silverstone, Andie Macdowell, Alfre Woodard, Mena Suvari, Kevin Bacon, Djimon Houson
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

Queen Latifah plays a hairstylist who saves all her money to open up a hair salon in Atlanta. But jealous gay rival hairdresser (played hilariously by Kevin Bacon) tries to sabotage her business.

What gets this comedy going are the very funny conversations that Queen Latifah makes with her customers, rife with social commentaries from weight issues to racism to Michael Jackson.

Kevin plays his gay role to the hilt of flamboyance, while newcomer Bryce Wilson is also quite hilarious playing a faggy hairdresser.


Be Cool
Director: F Gary Gray
Cast: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Danny De Vito
 
Trailer Website
Reader's Reviews

There's not much to warm up to in this lacklustre sequel of Get Shorty. John Travolta reprises his role as ex-loanshark collector Chilli who, in 1995's Get Shorty, managed to muscle his way into the Hollywood movie industry and make millions.

Now Chilli's good friend and record company boss is murdered, leaving behind his sexy wife (Uma Thurman) and a lot of debts. In order to help her, Chilli wants to turn a talented young singer (Christina Milian) into a money-making star engine. But to do that, he has to face the Russian mafia, a money-grubbing rap artiste, as well as other assorted baddies of the pop music industry.

 
coming soon
 
In My Father's Den
 Director: Brad McGann
Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Miranda Otto, Emily Barclay, Jodie Rimmer
Screening Date: 7 & 8 May
Release Date: 16 Jun
[New Zealand Film Festival 2005]
An Angel at My Table
Director: Jane Campion
Cast: Kerry Fox
Screening Date: 7 & 9 May
[New Zealand Film Festival 2005]
Forgotten Silver
Directors: Peter Jackson, Costa Botes
Screening Date: 6, 8 & 9 May
[New Zealand Film Festival 2005]
Fracture
Director: Larry Parr
Cast: Kate Elliott, Jared Turner, John Noble, Michael Hurst, Liddy Holloway
Screening Date: 7 & 8 May
[New Zealand Film Festival 2005]
The Jacket
Director: John Maybury
Cast: Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Daniel Craig, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Release Date: 12 May
The Amityville Horror
Director: Andrew Douglas
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jimmy Bennett
Release Date: 12 May
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith
Director: George Lucas
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen
Release Date: 19 May
My Boyfriend is Type B
B Nam Chin
Korean with English subtitles

Director:
Choi Sun-Wuk
Cast: Lee Dong-Gun, Han Ji-Hye
Release Date: 26 May
Only at Cathay Cinemas
Monster-in-Law
Director: Robert Luketic
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Michael Vartan, Wanda Sykes, Adam Scott
Release Date: 26 May
Madagascar
Directors: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
Voice Cast: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett-Smith, David Schwimmer, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer
Release Date: 27 May
Eros
Japanese and English with English subtitles
Directors:
Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh, Michelangelo Antonioni
Cast: Gong Li, Chang Chen, Rober Downey Jr, Alan Akin, Ele Keats, Christopher Buchholz, Regina Nemni, Luisa Ranieri
Release Date: 2 Jun
Only at Cathay Cinemas
Vaya Con Dios
German with English subtitles
Director:
Zoltan Spirandelli
Cast: Michael Gwisdek, Daniel Bruhl
Release Date: 2 Jun
Only at Cathay Cinemas
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Director: Garth Jennings
Cast: Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def
Release Date: 2 Jun
Ice Princess
Director: Tim Fywell
Cast: Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall, Michelle Trachtenberg, Hayden Panettiere
Release Date: Jun
Mr And Mrs Smith
Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn
Release Date: 9 Jun
Batman Begins
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman
Release Date: 16 Jun
 
 
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