BRIEF MOVIE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CASUAL MOVIEGOERS


Showing posts sorted by relevance for query budget. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query budget. Sort by date Show all posts

Thursday, September 6, 2007

How to save money on movies

This guy put up a very helpful list of things that you can do to save money on movies on his blog. I originally saw this via a link from IMDb.com.

Just to add a few things in relation to this side of the world (Singapore, to be precise):

  1. Discounts: This info may be outdated in a few years time, but most of the discounts available are credit card privileges. HSBC offers a dollar off on every GV ticket, Maybank provides a special Hollywoodclicks.com membership price, and Citibank lets you redeem points for movie tickets. Of course, the cinemas themselves have their own discounts, packages and bargain days. Notably, GV has just started a membership thing where members get concession rates on tickets and snacks, and it's free. Cathay currently gives out free tickets for toddlers on Tuesdays among other things, and Shaw recently has a buy-four-get-one-free (albeit for Citibank cardholders only).
  2. Film events: In Singapore, they're mostly managed by the Singapore Film Society (SFS), who charges membership that provides ticket discounts for said events and also blockbuster movies. But only if you're watching tons of arty movies and like to mingle with real film connoisseurs.
  3. Cheaper movies: Many should have noticed by now that Code/Region 3 DVDs (that are made in Singapore or Malaysia) are significantly cheaper than imported US Region 1 DVDs, sometimes more than half the price. But I've experienced R3 DVDs that are inferior to its R1 counterparts, in terms of features and even video/audio quality (due to compression issues). These wouldn't matter if you don't really care for special features, do not own home theatre systems, or couldn't tell the difference between 480p and 1080i screen resolutions. Another format to consider is the VCD, though it's far inferior and cumbersome than the DVD in every ways, especially the need to swap discs mid-movie. There are also less scrupulous and much cheaper/free sources of movies across the border and on the world wide web, but that would be unfair to the men and women who worked their asses off in the making of movies. Also, indulge at your own risk.
  4. Buy used: I saw Cash Converter selling second-hand DVDs once, but the selections are, not surprisingly, pretty horrible. The market for second-hand DVDs are not as prevalent as in the West, but it's not like you can't find anything good if you looked hard enough. There are also online classifieds where you can find people trying to hawk their old discs. But again, the problem here is variety.
  5. Borrow from friends: This is probably the most popular way of saving money on movies. But it goes bothways. You'll also need to own something they want to exchange with. The problem of variety again.
  6. Rental: This is The Big Movie Freak's second-most favourite way of saving costs. Renting a movie can be as low as $3.50 that lets you keep it for several days at end. Hollywoodclicks.com and VideoEzy lets you hold the discs for as long as you want with a fixed monthly fee. With rentals, you get to watch your movies at low, low prices, while not having to worry about shelf space.
  7. The number one Big Movie Freak way of saving costs: watch a movie upon its release at the cinema, and watch it on a budget day (Mon-Wed). You'll be watching movies in the best environment (dark room, large screen, surround sound), and you'll less likely to waste money on direct-to-video crap that rentals often expose you to. There are also those "good for watching only once" movies that you'd be glad you saw in the cinemas and not having to "try your luck" in buying or renting them.
  8. Cost-saving precision: do a budget plan. Why the heck do I wanna waste time doing a budget on how much I spend on movies, you say? As if planning household budgets and mortgage refinancing aren't enough headaches already! Well, if you're a movie freak like me that had been splurging an average of $1,000 a year on movies alone, a little planning goes a long way in keeping them costs from ballooning. I've since shaved my expenditure down to a modest limit of $500 without compromising what I need to watch and review every year. Like a responsible public-listed company, my budget is for all to see, right here.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

In my review of the original A Nightmare On Elm Street (ANOES), I forgot to mention another reason why the Freddy Krueger movies aren't scary to me. I'm not sure about your own experiences, but my dreams are usually very hazy, disjointed, frightening, monochromatic, without any sense of time, and mostly beyond my control, like as if they were scripted events - just like a movie! (See Minority Report's psychic scan sequences, which is the closest cinematic representation of dream sequences I've seen so far, even though they're not exactly representing dreams in the movie.) However, when a person dreams in the Elm Street movies, it's like he or she is entering an alternate, parallel world or dimension that progresses in real time, where people can have a substantial amount of free will, participate in conversations, and even make informed decisions! The advantage of doing this is that it keeps the audiences guessing as to whether the onscreen characters are still in the real or the dream world, making the eventual Krueger attacks more unexpected and surprising. This formula makes the movie more fantastical and sci-fi-ish and less relatable to real-life experiences.

This is where ANOES2 gets interesting, as it veers away from the formula even before the formula became formulaic. After the tragic events in the first movie, a new family moves into the Thompsons house, unaware of said happenings. Inevitably, the ghost of Freddy Krueger haunts the sole teenager in the house, this time a reclusive, geeky boy. Probably because the whole nightmare killing thing didn't work out too well the last time, Krueger tries something new, by possessing the kid's body and embark on his killings in the real world. Strangely, his logic-twisting powers in the dream world also applies in the real one. This is more ridiculous than the "alternate world" concept. Trying something new is a good thing because we don't always want to see the same old thing and Hollywood is currently notorious for being creatively bankrupt, but then again in cases like ANOES2, new doesn't necessarily mean it will work for the better.

Many movie critics pointed out the quite-apparent homosexual vibe in the movie, because A: the protagonist is frequently topless and sweaty, B: there's actually a gay bar scene and one S&M-like sequence in the locker room shower involving two men, C: one jock character even made a sober remark that the protagonist would rather "sleep with him", and D: the director claimed that he deliberately made the movie that way. True, they're there in the movie, but they don't deter the movie the way another vibe, the "B-grade vibe" does. Although very tight on budget, the first ANOES felt like a slick, big studio production, with a talented crew and director who were able to stretch every penny with just a little bit of creativity and elbow grease. ANOES2 had more budget, but perhaps with a different director and crew, the producers were unable to replicate the X-factor of the original movie. ANOES2 feels more like a direct-to-video cheapo a la Leprechaun 4: In Space.

The pinnacle of cinematic achievement

With the shift of focus on the real world, ANOES2 loses the novelty that the first movie possessed. The real world of ANOES2 isn't even an interesting place to begin with, having to follow around a mundane lead character that has no apparent appeal or any matter of interest except that he's being psychologically tormented by a supernatural entity. Therefore, I have to agree with the general consensus out there that this may easily be the weakest and dullest ANOES movie, having not yet seen anything else beyond Part 4 except for New Nightmare and Freddy Vs. Jason.








Next: A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

Related links:
Review: A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
The stuff of Nightmares 

Monday, March 31, 2008

Price go up fiddy-cent!

Singapore's largest cinema chain, Golden Village has raised ticket prices by fifty cents since last Thursday. Standard prices on weekdays are between $7.50-$8.50 instead of $7-$8. Premium shows and selected promotional items will not be affected. Price increase is due to rising costs and inflation. Two months back, Cathay made the first move, plus slapping an additional 50 cents on "blockbuster" movies. Question: how would you know whether a movie would bust blocks before you start pricing and selling its tickets? If my calculations are correct, that means I'm spending 7% more this year, or have to watch 7% less? (I'm on a budget.) Oh well, I guess I'll be spending more time at the DVD rental shop this year then. Good luck on the price hikes, guys.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

It's hard out here for a big movie freak...

Even though I have moved on to a new job after languishing in a dead-end one for nearly a decade, I still can't decide if it was the best or worst decision. With time, you can earn a lot of respect and goodwill even in a company that supposedly don't appreciate what its workers contribute, and that gives you a lot of stature and leeway in your workplace. With a new job at a more well-known company, the prospects are better but at a price: you start not necessarily at the bottom, but you still have to prove yourself all over again. And it's really damn hard to work without the stature and leeway that have been the oil that greases your engine. Throw in the pressure of excelling in night classes (my only ticket out of this career hellhole), and it has been a really pleasant experience the last four weeks. I hope to make it through another two months, and will draw strength from the cinematic tough guys I worship, who obviously went through stuff that were a lot worse.

I will also try to continue maintaining the Site and the Blog as I have not done so in the past month, partly because I pay $14 every month to keep the love going. I also realised that the online part of my life has always been keeping my sanity intact, and that sanity has been unravelling in the last thirty days that I wasn't writing or contributing anything. Thankfully, I have my bro Will2k pulling up his sleeves for our cause, who dominated the review section with his most undervalued two cents on the latest big-budget ouevres.

This post will lump belated reviews and recommendations together for your reading convenience.





WILL2K REVIEWS:









THIS WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS

HELLBOY 2 : THE GOLDEN ARMY
I thought Hellboy was the best showcase of all of director Guillermo del Toro's weaknesses in pacing and editing blockbuster movies. His style may work on independent movies, but mainstream audiences are a restless bunch who need to be constantly prompted with big musical cues and zooming cameras. Still, his movies hold up because of the director's penchant for monsters and the supernatural, who are more often the good guys than the bad. Throw in an Indiana Jones-like opening, complete with occult-obsessed Nazis and a badass blade-wielding bad guy, and Hellboy got me hook, line and sinker. I don't know how Hellboy 2 would fare without any WW2 sequences or Kroenen, but we'll soon see.


HANCOCK

Seems like only yesterday that I saw I Am Legend, and here we have another Will Smith blockbuster already unleashed to the masses. The Fresh Prince seems determined to take on every genre out there, and Hancock is his answer to the recent superhero trend. There seems to be some effort to make things a little more interesting. Hancock isn't your usual goody-two-shoes crimebuster - the guy swears, reeks of alcohol and the people he rescued don't seem to even like him. Way too many superhero movies this year, but I'm not tired of them... yet.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

My Blog is now my Site

Surprise! Due to the financial crisis, I have decided to cancel my web hosting with Yahoo and make this Blog the official BMF site instead. Ok, honestly it wasn't the financial crisis, just that the hosting's awfully expensive that it's taking up half my annual movie budget, which could have been put to much better use. Also, beautiful though the old site may look, creating a new page is awfully time consuming, even with a ready template. Too many variables to customise. I could spend an entire night just to put up a new review. Blogger is a little aesthetically-challenged, but postings are relatively fuss-free and archive themselves automatically. A lot of other sites are also using this type of neater and simpler blog-posting format.

There'll be a lot of "transfer" work in the next few months. I will definitely bring over all my reviews and other stuff. Expect some funkiness on the blog too, with pictures missing from certain posts. I shouldn't have "borrowed" the pictures from my Yahoo-hosted site. (sigh)

I do feel a little sad because I really loved the old site's design. I have it backed up already, so I could still maybe one day restart another hosting again. We shall see.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

The price of living far from the city

That's what I felt like doing to the car of the person who schedules the Oscar movies in Singapore. But I wouldn't know who that person is, or even know where to begin to find his car. Furthermore, I don't plan on going to jail for it, so I'll have to be contented with Walter doing the deed on my behalf.

If you're not following, then you must have missed my earlier posts about the near-impossible task of watching the Oscar-nominated movies especially if you're car-less and live and work at least 25 minutes away from the city. The movies are rarely ever shown outside the city, and often scheduled during working hours or very near to closing time, leaving not much time for travelling. Late shows are out of the question because the buses and MRT stop services right before a late show ends.

I had no choice but to attend surcharged weekend shows. This was how the cinemas f***ed this stranger in the ass:

Minimum weekday ticket cost = $6 ($30 for 5 movies)
Minimum weekend ticket cost = $8.50 ($42.50 for 5 movies)

The price of living far from the city = $12.50 or 42% above weekday prices, suckers!

Also, last Monday's Evangelion 1.0 : You Are (Not) Alone ticket fare = $8.50! Why?
One, the cinema that's showing it increased their fares recently.
Two, the movie is exclusive to this cinema.
Three, therefore every single Evangelion fan in Singapore will be bottlenecked to the only two cinemas showing it, thus guaranteeing that seats will be unavailable. Price for booking a seat in advance = add. $1.

To see the complete BMF Budget, click here.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Horror is a strange genre. Movies are supposed to entertain, excite, thrill, tickle your funny bone and even move or inspire you, if done right. Generally, they should affect you in a positive way. Horror movies, on the other hand, strive to affect you negatively, by shocking, provoking and/or frightening. Sometimes, you can admire the craft and thought put into the work, especially with The Exorcist, The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense, etc. On a personal note, despite my respect for the genre, horror isn't my most favourite of genres, and I don't normally rush out to see the next big scare.

This may sound lame, but to me the most frightening movies are those with evil spirits resembling long haired women in white, which are probably the horror villains with the least amount of costume and makeup budget ever. (See The Ring, Ju-On, The Eye, A Tale of Two Sisters, etc.) They are frightening to me in a way clowns or lifelike dolls are frightening to some people.

That said, most Western horrors aren't very scary to me. Shocking, repulsive, maybe. But the scares rarely made me want to cower behind my blanket like the Asian varieties sometimes do. Vampires, zombies, werewolves, the Frankenstein monster, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface and Freddy Krueger... they're more supervillains in a movie than something fearful on a subconscious level. They don't crawl under your skin like a good old apparation or just plain weird shit happenings could do. For example, a man standing and facing the corner of a decrepit room for no reason (The Blair Witch Project) does a lot more than the sight of a raised kitchen knife.

Yet, I still enjoyed movies like A Nightmare On Elm Street, although for the wrong reasons. Freddy Krueger, a very iconic horror staple recognisable through his trademark fedora, red and black striped sweater, Wolverine-like blades and charred face, is a memorable baddie more in the lines of The Dark Knight's Joker than a malevolent supernatural force like in the other movies I mentioned. With villains like The Joker, Hans Gruber, and Hannibal Lecter, you find yourself rooting for them despite their nefarious nature. I doubt anyone was in anyway concerned about Dr. Chilton at the end of Silence of the Lambs, and probably wished Lecter got to "have him for dinner" sooner!

Unlike other horror villains, Krueger dispatches his victims in their dreams (or nightmares) where logic and the laws of physics don't apply, which allows for creativity beyond the usual hack-and-slash-with-the-common-garden-utensil death sequences. One infamous scene depicts a teen being swallowed by his own bed, only to be regurgitated as a geyser of blood. This makes Krueger's nightmare attacks a constant highlight in every impending sequel. The Nightmare On Elm Street series becomes more of a morbidly humourous special effects showcase than a true fright fest.

"A Nightmare On Elm Street" is the kind of "must-watch" movie for the movie and horror buffs, simply because the popularity and iconic stature of the series cannot be ignored. I find the movie above-average, with some nice subversion of cliches (a trademark of director Wes Craven) marred by bad acting performances. I also didn't find it frightening for one second, but that doesn't mean you should show this one to your mum or kids either.

Also stars Johnny Depp and John Saxon.







Next: A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2 - Freddy's Revenge

Related links:
The stuff of Nightmares

Monday, August 11, 2008

A pretty good weekend

This weekend has been pretty good for two things: the Beijing Olympics and Singapore's National Day.

In terms of the Olympics, I've been a skeptic since day one. China has been experiencing a PR nightmare since the start of the Tibet incident, but not forgetting the "slavery" fiasco and all those numerous toxic products that got recalled left and right. But I really have to give it to them for the awesome opening ceremony that they put together on Friday. The British will have a tough time trying to outdo the Chinese in the next Olympics. I pray for China that the level of quality and dedication displayed on Friday would eventually spread to other aspects of their lives, and not just on sports, kungfu and Zhang Yimou.

I didn't see the whole Singapore National Day Parade on Saturday, even when it was broadcasted on TV. The Olympics opening ceremony set the bar so high that any parade or fireworks in the near future is going to feel inconsequential. So, rather than form a negative opinion about the NDP from watching it, I chose to avoid watching it. But I did see the NDP theme song video that's been playing on TV, sung in English by Singapore and Asia Idol winner Hady Mirza, and in Mandarin by pop star Joi Chua. And it was good. Like really, really good. Sounds less like an anthem and more like contemporary R&B (well, at least for Hady's rendition), it's catchy, strangely romantic but more importantly it's emotional, and emotions will touch more people than any fakey nationalistic ba-rah-rum-pumming anthem ever could. Joi sang it pretty straight, thus I prefer Hady's R&B spin on it.

I'm crossing my fingers that Malaysia's National Day theme song this year will be just as good. I also hope that the recent National Day budget cut's not going to affect its quality though. Uh-oh...

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Review: Mortal Kombat (2021) ⭐️⭐️1/2

Take a franchise filled with grotesque characters, plan a couple of gory money shots, and tie them all together with some superfluous plot fillers - what do you get? It’s a horror flick that also happens to be a video game adaptation. I knew it when I saw James Wan credited as one of the producers. The good: the money shots delivered. Some of it were even pretty clever. As a Mortal Kombat fan, you will be satisfied by all the callbacks and all the blood and gore. Hiroyuki Sanada really added a lot of legitimacy to all the daftness that’s happening. Sub-Zero was easily the best villain, played menacingly by Joe Taslim of The Raid fame. Kung Lao was great! Lewis Tan isn’t bad as the eye candy lead. And there’s proper martial arts, yes! Not too bad and could have done with a little bit more, but at least some effort was put in. Also, that opening scene was so classily done that I was a bit shocked the production design and filmmaking quality started to dramatically nosedive from that point on, which brings me to... The bad: The set designs were really cheap-looking, like Sonya Blade’s crib that looked like they just randomly picked and shot the nearest junkyard they could find, and the more exotic locales like Raiden’s temple and the Outworlds felt like recycled Star Trek TV sets, and felt small and cheap. There are many TV shows nowadays that looked better than this. But what’s worse was how disjointed the movie felt. It’s as if there were 10 different directors shooting it. The filmmaking quality varies from segment to segment. The writing and the editing; not good. Bottom line: if you’re a fan, you will at least watch it. Non-fans should just treat it as a low-budget horror of the week, and you wouldn’t feel so disappointed. And if you’re wondering which is better to me - it’s those YouTube shorts that some guy did that had Katie Sackoff in it. They were far superior on every level except the money shots. RANDOM THOUGHTS: - When Liu Kang appeared, I was really holding out hope that it was Robin Shou. But dude’s turning 61 this year - SIXTY ONE! So it wasn’t him. Some other guy. - Tadanobu Asano was Raiden??? Yes, it’s Hogun of The Warriors Three himself! But jeezus, he wasn’t good here. He’s a good actor, but he looked uncomfortable doing this for some reason. - Chin Han, the guy who Batman grabs from Hong Kong in The Dark Knight, and also Togusa in the live action Ghost in the Shell, plays Shang Tsung. He’s also Singaporean like me. Sadly, he didn’t make me forget Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Tagawa is better by far. - The Mortal Kombat theme wasn’t very well-used here. The 1995 film did it better and saved it for the best moments.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Missing out on the "Oscar" movies

With all honesty, I wasn't really very motivated to watch all of the so-called "Oscar-baiting" movies of 2006, thus giving the Oscars 2007 a miss after many years of not missing the live telecast of the Academy Awards. But being a self-proclaimed Big Movie Freak, I guess I'm a little obligated to at least check them out, see what the fuss is about (what could be more entertaining than Shoot 'Em Up?) and perhaps recommend or warn you about what to expect (e.g. will they bore the hell out of you, etc.?).

Unfortunately, at this point I've missed at least half a dozen of 2007's movies vying for 2008's Oscars, but it's not entirely my fault. The problem with these "artistic" movies is that most people (likely you) are not always interested in watching them, thus the shows are relegated to just a handful of cinemas, and they're often always the ones around central Singapore. That's not a problem if you're working in the city, but guess what? The Big Movie Freak doesn't work in the city! Making matters worse, they always, always slot these movies into the 6.30pm schedules on weekdays, giving me less than an hour to get there after work (5.30pm) from my workplace at the other end of the island. It takes 15 minutes to get to the MRT, and then another 45 minutes to the nearest cinema showing these movies; you do the math. Would it hurt so much to just schedule it just 15 or 30 minutes later?

Sure, there are weekend movies, though that gives me three problems: 1) price - weekday shows cost me $6 per ticket (I get discounts on my HSBC credit card), weekends cost me $8.50 (remember, the Big Movie Freak is on a budget), 2) Saturday is my quality time with the wife and sometimes with my pals; I do my creative shit on Sundays, and 3) I still need to haul my ass down 45 minutes worth of train ride to watch something that's potentially boring for all I know, even though there's a freakin' cinema right in front of my freakin' apartment already!

So, to the people responsible for Michael Clayton, Eastern Promises, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and Lust, Caution (R, not NC16), my apologies for not catching your movies; blame the loss of my $6 ticket on your distributors. American Gangster and 3:10 to Yuma, hold on, I may still be able to catch you guys. The Darjeeling Limited; well, Wes, I've seen The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but man, wtf? I don't feel so stoked about you, The Savages and Atonement. No Country For Old Men, not even Singapore? And will there be blood here?

On second thought, there's a strike going on in Hollywood, which has affected the awards shows, to the point that the Golden Globes had to be reduced from a three-hour glitzy event to a one-hour press conference. The Oscars might end up in a similar predicament, who knows? Then perhaps I won't feel so guilty not watching them now, hehe.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Review: Moon

If you like your science fiction smart, you can't go wrong with "Moon". In the near future, when mankind has depleted all sources of fuel and energy and put the world in turmoil, The Lunar Corporation concocts a brilliant solution - harvest the untapped source of Helium 3 from the surface of the moon. One brave astronaut miner Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) has the unenviable task of running the mining facility all alone for three years straight. Not very cost effective to be shuttling back and forth Earth and the moon, you see. When his contract is about to expire, strange things start to happen. These events threaten to ruin his long-anticipated family reunion on Earth.

"Moon" borrows ideas from other science fiction stories, and doesn't really have anything groundbreaking to offer except that it is executed really well. It's also a great demonstration of what you could accomplish with just a $5 million budget and one really good actor. The entire movie is held up by Rockwell's central performance. If it were another actor of lesser talent, the whole movie would have faltered. Worth a watch.

Format: DVD, anamorphic widescreen.
Source: Rental (Arts Brother, Jurong Point 1 Level 3)

Experience: Home, 47-inch LCD with home theatre surround system
Cost: SGD $4