CZ12 (十二生肖) (2012) is an action-adventure movie by Jackie Chan.
Synopsis from here: Globe-trotting soldier-of-fortune JC (Jackie Chan) is hired by shady antiques dealers to track down six missing bronze animal-heads by any means necessary. The six bronzes originally formed part of a set of twelve, representing the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, forming part of a fountain in the old Summer Palace outside Beijing; they were looted and dispersed when Anglo-French armies sacked the Summer Palace in 1860.
JC and his crack team of assistants first head to France, where two of the bronzes are believed to be held in a private collection. The operation to 'liberate' the bronzes from a heavily guarded Chateau brings JC into an uneasy alliance with Coco, a Chinese student in Paris, who is active in a global movement which campaigns for stolen cultural treasures to be returned to their homelands. Along the way, JC makes an enemy-for-life of Pierre, the chief of staff at the Chateau Marceau, and an unexpected friend of Katherine, a bankrupted aristocrat whose home contains another of the missing bronzes.
The trail next leads JC and his team, now including Coco and Katherine, to a forgotten tropical island in the South Seas, where two missing animal heads are found in a beached wreck. A multi-national band of pirates moves to block the team's getaway, but JC's skill and resourcefulness wins the day. Back home, JC is stunned to learn that his employers already had the sixth missing bronze all along, and he sets out to teach them a lesson for tricking him.
Meanwhile the protest movement has persuaded buyers to shun auctions of stolen national treasures, and the shady dealers are threatening to destroy the sixth bronze in public. Will JC's conscience – and his sense of Chinese national pride – kick in to push him to save the last bronze from destruction? The answer is played out on the slopes of an active volcano...
My verdict: This movie bursts with a cacophony of emotions - funny, irritating, annoying, confusing, boring, exhilarating - Jackie Chan's trademark. Conversations among the characters - spoken in three main languages - Mandarin, English, and French - can be quite entertaining at first, but when I have to read the subtitles way too often, it becomes kinda annoying. The action scenes are entertaining and they are basically all about Jackie Chan and his almost impossible stunts for a 58-year-old man.
If you're a staunch Jackie Chan fan, you might enjoy watching this movie. As for me, I find it watchable, as expected.
Switch (2011) is a French-Canadian crime thriller.
Synopsis: Sophie Malaterre (Karine Vanasse) is an unemployed fashion designer in Montreal, Canada. Without a job and friends, Sophie is not looking forward for her summer holidays. An acquaintance, Claire Maras (Maxim Roy) tells her about the website SWITCH.com that allows people to switch houses with someone else for a month. Sophie eagerly swaps her ranch house in Montreal for an apartment in Paris nearby the Eiffel Tower with a woman named Benedicte Serteaux (Karina Testa), hoping that the change will boost her spirits. However, her idealistic holiday soon turns into a nightmare when she's arrested by the police the next day. Detective Damien Forgeat (Eric Cantona) interrogates her, convinced that she is Benedicte Serteaux, a prime suspect in a brutal murder. It is then Sophie realizes she has been set up by Benedicte who now assumes her identity and is traveling to Montreal to erase any trace about Sophie.
This is a pretty taut thriller. The pacing is good, with as little drags as possible. The crazy chase on foot scene between Detective Forgeat and Sophie throughout a serene French suburb is the best highlight of the movie.
Karine Vanasse is good as Sophie, she displays a wide range of emotions - from a relaxed and carefree to a tense and teary girl. However, I do wonder how a common working lady like Sophie could display superb combat / survival capabilities such as handling a gun and getting away from a seasoned police officer on foot without sustaining serious injuries? The writer / director doesn't bother to explore this with a back story. So... yeah.
Eric Cantona (yes, you read that right; he's the former international footballer for the French national team) is quite memorable as the stoic yet soft-spoken Detective Forgeat. He doesn't speak much but his expression says it all.
Karina Testa as Benedicte Serteaux the psychopath shows her abilities as an agile and ruthless murderer during the last 20 minutes of the movie. She explains her motive nonchalantly too, as if she's doing the right thing for herself. However, judging from the brutality of the murders that she did, her motive is too unbelievable. Again, there's no back story to support her case.
Anyway, if you don't try to explore the whys and hows, I believe you will still be able to enjoy watching this movie in peace. :D
Hereafter (2010) is a drama fantasy movie directed by Clint Eastwood with this synopsis: A drama centered on three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. George (Matt Damon) is a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife.
On the other side of the world, Marie (Cécile de France), a French journalist, has a near-death experience that shakes her reality. And when Marcus (Frankie/George McLaren), a London schoolboy loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers.
Each on a path in search of the truth, their lives will intersect, forever changed by what they believe might-or must-exist in the hereafter.
Okay, so that's the synopsis.
I began watching this movie without quite knowing what to expect. But it was good, especially the last 30 minutes or so of the movie. Thought-provoking and riveting storyline and awesome performance by the cast are the two main factors that made this movie a surprise hit and a fantastic directorial work by Clint Eastwood.
George is a male character who lives in San Francisco, Marie is a female character who lives in France, and Marcus is a young boy character who lives in London. All of them share one thing in common: They have somehow experienced death throughout the course of their life. Freaky huh?
On one hand, the unanswered question about life after death is a bit tricky but on the other hand, I'm pleasantly surprised to find out how this movie end with a pleasant and satisfying answer: Anything can happen in life. But it takes faith to accept events in life and when that takes places, we'll be at peace.
In a nutshell, this is a very interesting movie. However, due to the tsunami incident in Japan, this movie may not be shown in cinemas anytime soon. The reason is, there is a tsunami scene in the movie. So, do watch it on DVD. :)
