Step Up 2: The Streets (2008)

Well, this story is not about Tyler anymore although he appeared a while. This is about his sister, Andie (Briana Evigan) who appear for a while to show some moves in Step Up. Andie is leaving with a good friend of her mother who died from cancer.

Andie is part of 410 crew, a group that shows their talent illegally. It got on youtube (i think) and the news. However, she got out of control and the guardian want to send her to her aunty in Texas. Then came Tyler to the rescue. She got Andie enrolled in the MSA – Mary School of Arts.

MSA recently had a new Director and is a legend ballet dancer. He wanted to rebuild and enlarge the MSA into state of the art facility and made a fundraising show. Andie knows nothing about ballet and struggled to keep up. She did not manage to juggle between MSA and 410 and later got kicked out of 410.

She meet Chase(Robert Hoffman), brother of the Legend Ballet Director. Together with Chase, they started a new crew to compete in the streets. They got thrashed and kicked out from the streets. In order for them to be recognized, they have to be on air or the internet. So they thrased 410 leaders house to make a statement. 410 got pissed and thrased MSA. Andie got expelled from school and send to Texas.

During the fundraiser, the crew got a message that the streets are competing and hurried to search Andie. They manage to persuade Andie and off they went. The hood didn’t give them a chance to compete. Andie ran straight up the DJ’s box and gave a speech. Then they went street dancing in the rain.

This movie is not about ballet and hip hop again. It’s solely hip hop and crank(hope i spell it right). Music such as “Low” by Flo Ride & T-Pain is in it. This is even better than Step Up as it has more dancing scenes and they sure can dance. If you were to choose between Step Up & Step Up 2, go for Step Up 2 and check out the ending part dancing in the rain with torchlights !! They rock in the rain!!

Step Up (2006)

This movie is about a white guy, Tyler (Channing Tatum); who hangs around the hood with 2 niggers. All they do is steal, dance and all the bad stuffs. Skinny (one of the nigger) broke into a famous school of performing arts and together they thrashed the auditorium. Tyler got caught and sentence 200 hours of community service at the school.

At first he didnt care about anything. Nora (Jenna Dewan) was preparing for a showcase to get her dream job but her boyfriend back out. In came Tyler as a temporary substitute. Tyler back out later and rejoin again. Yea, its how the story goes. Hmm, i forget about the whole dance thingy … Nora is a ballet dancer while Tyler is a hip hop street dancer. From substitute to permanent dancer to lovers …  and from ballet to a mix breed of hip hop + ballet for the showcase.

In the end Nora managed to get the job. Tyler became a good citizenship and get to enrolled in the school. If you expect much dancing from this movie, i can tell that you will be slightly dissapointed. Mixing ballet and hip hop is not something you will find everyday … worth to watch.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

The mummy is back with another Story, this time the East meet West and the mummy orginated from the East. At the end, there was a hint there maybe part 4 as some mummies were discovered in Peru.

It all started about the Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) slaughtering the peasants for power. He then seek the power of immortality however got sealed becoming catacombs. 2000 years later, the catacombs was discovered by Alex – son of Rick O’Conneil (Brandon Frasier). It was then also a group of Chinese troops also wanted to release the Dragon Emperor from the curse.

From there onwards, i believe you can guess what already. The Chinese troops manage to freed the Emperor and Rick O’Conneil and family trying to stop the Emperor. The only way to kill the Emperor was to use a legendary dagger which was possesses by our very own Datuk Michelle Yeoh. The dagger falled in the hands of the Emperor and later she called up the innocent peasant in zombie form to fight along her side for revenge by sacrificing hers and her daughter’s immortality. So in the end, the Emperor was killed and the end of the story.

I have a lots of critics about the movie. I never like the Mummy and never will i like this episode either. The Emperor does not look like a mummy in any ways and later after freed from the cursed is able to transform into Hydra and Behemoth. The legendary dagger was broken into two pieces but still manage to stab thru the Emperor’s front and back by Rick and his son Alex together. How coincidence will this happen, one in a million? If you are a person who goes for storyline, this movie is not for you. If you watch for actions and maybe Jet Li (like Yoshi) then yea … this will do just fine.

This show starring Eva Mendes, who is the ABN network president struggling to get their shows ratings up. The company is in such a bad situation that they wanted something to triggered the ratings back up. While brainstorming, she came out with a idea of someone getting killed in a reality show would be a brilliant idea for their survival.
So the process went on despite arguements and everything, she insist and proceed without care for the reality show. So 6 contestants were selected through audition with a single bullet loaded gun! The person who manage to walked safely will get a 5 million dollar cheque (or check in some countries).
The movie is only exciting at the end where the reality show really begin. She managed to get the ratings to the top but she got herself killed in the end. The show became the most popular ever and she became a legend so it says. Not a very interesting movie especially at the start as they drag the process to long and it became boring. Camera shots are a bit unprofessional at times too.

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle Movie (2004)

This movie starring John Cho and Kal Penn is one damn hilarious movie. However, this movie is subjected to heavy censorship due to sex, politics and all the bad stuffs in it. You will never find these kind of movies in Malaysia at the cinema.

This 2 dudes known as Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) in the movie. John started out working overtime to rush his boss assignments while the boss went partying. He was being forced into it as the company is downsizing and he wouldn’t wanna get his arse fired. Kumar, was attending an interview to get into a medical school. It went perfectly well until Harold called as the vulgarity and obscene words started coming out of Kumars mouth and he failed his entry.

So both of them went home and wanted something extraordinary for dinner. Then came the White Castle ad (burger advertisement). So they made a vow to have that for dinner no matter what it takes. Along the journey to White Castle, many incidents happened. They got lost, bullied, car stolen, para gliding, met a famous actor, became fugitive and etc… If i mentioned it all it wouldn’t be fun and exciting anymore, so i am keeping the details summarized.

So along the storyline, Harold was involved in a litte love scenes. He wanted to court this woman leaving at the same floor but whenever they met, the words never came out of his mouth. He is lost for words. At the end, he find mustered some courage and voila out came everything and a few smoochy moochy in the lift before she left for Holland.

So in the end they manage to get the burgers after a long journey. The show ended where Kumar asked Harold to go find the girl in Holland, which is the beginning of part 2. I will write this review when i’m back home as i do not recall the title of the movie. This movie is not for the underage !!

Death Race Movie (2008)

Just back from a movie in Indonesia. Hmm … this will be the 1st movie review i’ll be writing. Btw its weird that Indonesia offers “Buy 1 Get 1 Free Ticket” for their premier movies. How come it never happen in Malaysia?

The movie is about racing, of coz but in a killing method. It start with a laborer back from work with pay cut. As he went to clean up, his wife got murdered in the kitchen and he was framed for killing. He got send to jail.

He was offered to be freed from the sentence if he participated in the race as Frankenstein. One who got killed from the race but remain unknown. Henessy, the woman who is in charge of the jail and racing is profiting from broadcast earnings from the race.

The race was divided into 3 parts. 1 & 2 is for survival while 3rd one is for victory. Anyone who achieved 5 victories will be freed. Frankenstein has got 4 which means 1 more he will be set freed. However, Henessy is the mastermind of the race where she determines who wins and lose.

He soon uncovers the dirty tactics and plans to revenge on his wife’s killer and then to repay Henessy. He also manage to free himself in the end.

Hardcore racing and drifting with violence in it. Not for the faint of heart. Recommended!