SP Videography Club

Can films be euthanised? That thought was dominating my mind while I try to keep myself stuck into the upholstery, even as Babylon AD tried to murder my common sense with its generally plotless, illogical exposition. Leonard had stomped off within the first half-an-hour, and my solace was in the common suffering we fellow movie-goers shared within the cinema hall.

So, what was I doing there? The Singapore Polytechnic University Alumni organised a movie screening at Golden Village, Plaza Singapura on 12 September 2008. Thanks to the school’s support, tickets for the movie were going for $6, instead of $14. That included popcorn and drink, so it was a great bargain from a poor student’s perspective.

Now, after holding a subsidised ticket, it would normally be an eternal sin to condemn the choice of movie by the organising committee (in asia), but I’m sure that the organisers couldn’t have had access to the movie review when they booked the venue months ago (and thus not their fault), so I’ll re-state my conclusion with categorical condemnation: the movie was a pain to watch!

The film starts in an unknown location in Russia, where Vin Diesel lives. We don’t know why, we don’t know when, and we don’t know how. He sits down for a good meal when some guy (whom we don’t know) storms his rickety apartment along with a group of Russian mafia, pointing his rifle at the back of our protagonist’s head. The latter flips out and kills the former, and is then calmly escorted by the bunch of Russian gangsters onto a vehicle, where he is offered a handsome cash reward for smuggling a young girl into America.

Confused yet?

Babylon AD shoves plot advancement after another, yet doesn’t stop to explain why things turn out the way they are. We see a girl with apparent psychic powers being able to predict a bomb explosion a few moments before it happens, then we are told that the girl’s powers of premonition came about because of a deadly virus that could destroy the world. That premise would never be explored, nor this plot developed later on.

I’d say more, but doing so would have been futile, because there’s absolutely no way to link the vast disparate sub-plots into a cohesive, sensible whole. On 2nd thoughts, I might have recommended that viewers watch this movie on merit of its graphic effects, but the age of prevalent Computer Generated graphics has meant that countless other movies (way better than this one, I must add) would have been more worthy of the discerning viewer’s patronage.

Stay. Away. Full. Stop.

Jack Neo has become a household name in Singapore for his productions that touched the hearts of many Singaporeans, and so how did he fare in his latest production Money No Enough 2?

Money No Enough 2 story highlights how the common Singaporean are on a continuous drive to strike it rich quick while at the same time coping with the Government’s policy such as the ERP.

I personally feel that Jack Neo this time had counted too much on computer generated graphics, giving the film a lack of cohesiveness in the overall feel. Otherwise, I felt that it is something that touches the hearts of many Singaporeans. Jack Neo’s trademark humour/comedy present inside gave the movie a more light hearted feel from an otherwise very serious setting.

This is definitely not one of Jack Neo’s best show, but I would give it 3 1/2 stars out of 5 due to the fact that it will be able to strike a chord with every Singaporeans heart and gives everyone who watches it a good laugh.

I was looking around for videos for my celtic music presentation on YouTube, and I found this really cute video, involving some-special-technique-that-MUST-have-a-name-but-since-I-don’t-know-it-I’ll-call-it-a-Many-in-1-video technique.

Well… I wonder if there’s a way to do it, on a low budget we have? This would be so cool to do, once we get our cameras.

-Mabel

Hello. For my first post, let me offer a movie review.

Les Choristes was released in 2004, a French film about a music teacher teaching in a boy’s home. (See why I’m reviewing it? )

This is an absolutely heart-warming film that follows the life of a middle-aged musician who got a job at the boy’s home, teaching math to a bunch of rowdy boys and dwelling with teachers who practise military discipline upon the boys & insist that the rule of ‘Action & Reaction’ is the only rule in the school.

But when this maths teacher (who was going under a terrible culture shock) walked into the classroom to hear the boys singing, he changed them into a boy choir, and going to the extent of touching the boys’ lives, especially one whom he believed had an extraordinary talent of music.

What I love about this film is the music, of course, and the characters that the story introduces us to, and builds upon them. While not all the boys get the limelight at the same time, you can see a few familiar faces once you progress into the middle of the movie. You can tell who’s the small one being constantly bullied, who’s the new big guy who is out to create trouble no matter what, and the young protégé who starts getting arrogant and wants to be the best. And there’s the kind-hearted teacher, who narrates his thoughts through the film, and he shares his story from a personal level. This makes the movie much more touching, and at best, heartwarming.

The music is original, and absolutely lovely. One famous piece is this one, La Nuit. The young soloist’s voice is chill-inducing, Watch it for yourself here

Another one, which I really really really like, is Cerf-volant. This scene is a spoiler for you all.

Find this film in the school library. I watched this film with my classmates for Character Development. I personally give it a 5. If I were picky about it rotating about a particular choirboy and not around the whole troupe in the middle of the film, a 4.5 .

-Mabel

I remember being fascinated by old television commercials when I was younger. Some of them were surreal; others were spooky, but I was amazed at how creative the ad agencies were with the limited effects and technology of the 1980s and 1990s. But why should I even be surprised? Although Star Wars was a landmark series that demarcated the start of an era of impressive visual effects, the technologies enabling that weren’t widely adopted, probably because of prohibitive costs, so companies had to crack their heads longer and harder to come up with something that’ll stick in people’s heads.

Ariston would be glad to hear that their commercials got stuck in my head, being the most memorable advertisement video I had ever saw. The catchy singing from stop-motion animated appliances spooked and fascinated me to no end. So isn’t there any wonder that 15 years into my life, I still find myself humming the tune? Watch the video and find out for yourself!

Now it’ll be really spooky if my underwear started talking like that!

When it comes to viral videos on the Internet, an important thing that makes people like Soon Bing want to blog about these videos is their ability to intrigue. So here’s an addition to the SPVC blog

Imagine a world where oil costs tango with the prices of other precious metals…

We’ll be having film appreciation and reviews posted on the blog soon, but if you want to get ahead, watch the following movies:

• Spaceballs (1987)
• There will be blood
• Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
• Google Me The Movie
• Three Kings
• No Country for Old Men
• Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
• Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

NC-16 movie:

• 3:10 to Yuma

M-18:

• Charlie Wilson’s War

R-21:

• Schindler’s List

If you’ve watched a film, and have a strong urge to tell the whole world how much it rocks (or sucked), email pkchu.spin@gmail.com or leave a small note in the comments, and we can get a discussion going on the blog!

Cheers,
Soon Bing