Some English Film

We watched Stormbreaker last Friday in Glorietta Kwatro with Ant Bully and Miami Vice as the other "juicy" choices. I wanted to see Ant Bully on that IMAX cinema in Mall of Asia because I wasn't able to check the one in Sydney. "When", though, is a good question.

Stormbreaker
Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!

Adapted from a novel of the same title, the movie featured Alex Rider's first mission as a spy for the infamous British secret service network - MI6. This was after his guardian, Ian Rider (Ewan McGregor/Obi-wan Kenobi wooot!), who was an MI6 agent too, was killed on a mission to expose the dirty works of a suspected criminal, Darius Sayle. Although reluctant to continue his spy guardian's mission, Alex was somehow compelled to acquiesce for a trade off to give his friend/housekeeper Jack Starbright (Alicia Silverstone) a permanent UK Visa.

After he was sent for a brief training with the UK SAS elite soldiers, Alex Rider was inserted within Sayle's base operation by disguising as a contest winner to try out Sayle Corporation's Stormbreaker - an educational computer apparatus which was actually rigged with a biological virus. Sayle distributed Stormbreaker units through out England as a goodwill but planned to have the virus released by the Prime Minister himself during a "break in" ceremony.

While inside Sayle's factory, Alex was able to discover all of this and - via ala James Bond kid version's swashbuckling stunts and tricky gadgets - return to the Stormbreaker inauguration ceremonies in the nick of time, preventing the virus to be released. Sayle headed to his office to set off the manual override and release the virus himself, but trailing behind and foiling his schemes once again was Alex. Sayle's own assasin/business partner killed the corporate kingpin by the way. The reason for it is so trivial it's not worth to spoil.

First, I thought this is going to be one of those hardcore gumshoe movies involving international intrigues and knotted plots within plots. Turned out, it's a "Hardy Boys less one boy" type of story of young adults genre - an English Cody Banks came to mind first. It will sure have its appeal for kids and teenage boppers but none for those who'll seek something more complex out of its thought-provoking poster -->

Click me, check out the film poster

The action stunts were good. I think this is the first time I saw an adept use of a lasso in a fight scene. The gadgets were as, I mentioned, "James Bond-ish" but of course designed with a kid in mind: a backpack, a zit cream, a Nintendo DS (marketing plug ala James Bond too! hehe), and a pen. The story flow is predictable but the simplicity could be attributed for it being a sort of kiddy film. Everything that happened to the young spy's mission was just too good to be true.

Casting has a nice lineup. Obi-wan Kenobi was there. Davvy Jones was there, Gollum too. Batwoman is there too, a comeback film for Miss Silverstone. Her age definitely showed but she's still that hot girl with cute lips on the Aerosmith music videos for me. I like the flatness on Bill Nighy's expressions, it mostly comprised the tinges of comedy on the movie. Yep, the movie's not that serious at all (as, again, what I've expected).

In all, the movie's something you'll wish you've just waited to be shown on HBO instead. Nothing greatly spectacular to anticipate. Sakto lang. It would be a nice film treat for the young boys though who'll probably end up idolizing the young spy, Alex.

The moral of the story: Do not judge the movie by its cover poster. Hehe. Five sago.

Some English Film

We watched Stormbreaker last Friday in Glorietta Kwatro with Ant Bully and Miami Vice as the other "juicy" choices. I wanted to see Ant Bully on that IMAX cinema in Mall of Asia because I wasn't able to check the one in Sydney. "When", though, is a good question.

Stormbreaker
Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!

Adapted from a novel of the same title, the movie featured Alex Rider's first mission as a spy for the infamous British secret service network - MI6. This was after his guardian, Ian Rider (Ewan McGregor/Obi-wan Kenobi wooot!), who was an MI6 agent too, was killed on a mission to expose the dirty works of a suspected criminal, Darius Sayle. Although reluctant to continue his spy guardian's mission, Alex was somehow compelled to acquiesce for a trade off to give his friend/housekeeper Jack Starbright (Alicia Silverstone) a permanent UK Visa.

After he was sent for a brief training with the UK SAS elite soldiers, Alex Rider was inserted within Sayle's base operation by disguising as a contest winner to try out Sayle Corporation's Stormbreaker - an educational computer apparatus which was actually rigged with a biological virus. Sayle distributed Stormbreaker units through out England as a goodwill but planned to have the virus released by the Prime Minister himself during a "break in" ceremony.

While inside Sayle's factory, Alex was able to discover all of this and - via ala James Bond kid version's swashbuckling stunts and tricky gadgets - return to the Stormbreaker inauguration ceremonies in the nick of time, preventing the virus to be released. Sayle headed to his office to set off the manual override and release the virus himself, but trailing behind and foiling his schemes once again was Alex. Sayle's own assasin/business partner killed the corporate kingpin by the way. The reason for it is so trivial it's not worth to spoil.

First, I thought this is going to be one of those hardcore gumshoe movies involving international intrigues and knotted plots within plots. Turned out, it's a "Hardy Boys less one boy" type of story of young adults genre - an English Cody Banks came to mind first. It will sure have its appeal for kids and teenage boppers but none for those who'll seek something more complex out of its thought-provoking poster -->

Click me, check out the film poster

The action stunts were good. I think this is the first time I saw an adept use of a lasso in a fight scene. The gadgets were as, I mentioned, "James Bond-ish" but of course designed with a kid in mind: a backpack, a zit cream, a Nintendo DS (marketing plug ala James Bond too! hehe), and a pen. The story flow is predictable but the simplicity could be attributed for it being a sort of kiddy film. Everything that happened to the young spy's mission was just too good to be true.

Casting has a nice lineup. Obi-wan Kenobi was there. Davvy Jones was there, Gollum too. Batwoman is there too, a comeback film for Miss Silverstone. Her age definitely showed but she's still that hot girl with cute lips on the Aerosmith music videos for me. I like the flatness on Bill Nighy's expressions, it mostly comprised the tinges of comedy on the movie. Yep, the movie's not that serious at all (as, again, what I've expected).

In all, the movie's something you'll wish you've just waited to be shown on HBO instead. Nothing greatly spectacular to anticipate. Sakto lang. It would be a nice film treat for the young boys though who'll probably end up idolizing the young spy, Alex.

The moral of the story: Do not judge the movie by its cover poster. Hehe. Five sago.