2011.7.8 NOW PLAYING
Quick (15)
Amid a string of Hollywood blockbusters this summer, Korean blockbuster “Quick” is expected to bring thrills and chills to the Korean movie theaters. Produced by the team which made the 2009 box office hit “Haeundae,” wild waves on the beach of Haeundae are now turned into fierce wind created by speedy motorcycles. Not only the production team but also actors and actress from “Haeundae” participated in “Quick” to shine on the screen once more.
Ki-su (Lee Min-ki), a deliveryman in the film, enjoys speed and it makes him as one of the fastest deliverymen.
One day he gets a call from an unknown number informing him about a bomb that is installed in his helmet while he delivers a girl group member A-rom (Gang Ye-won) who is running late for a music show.
That’s how the unlikely pair, deliveryman and K-pop star, gets involved in a dangerous delivery mission of transporting the bomb in 30 minutes. Ki-su and A-rom have to figure out solutions to survive while they are on this 300km/h running motorcycle.
It took about four years for the production team to finish the film with detailed computer graphics. As a way to add reality, numerous cameras were installed in motorcycles and Lee, a motorcycle buff, drives motorcycle in most scenes by himself without stunt double.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (all)
It all ends here. For many, leaving the theater after viewing this final installment of the Harry Potter film series will mark the end of an era - a nostalgia-inducing rolling of the credits that will remind avid fans of the moment they finished that final chapter in “The Sorcerer’s Stone” back in 1999.
A decade later, the magic still awes, and this time viewers will enjoy the spell of 3-D wizardry. While the slower-paced Part I left some disappointed last fall, the epic, action-packed finale will surely satisfy audiences, young or old, muggles or half-bloods.
Director David Yates, who previously helmed “The Goblet of Fire,” “The Half-Blood Prince” and “The Deathly Hallows: Part I,” does his last Potter-related film justice. When riding your Firebolt (or Nimbus 2000, if you’re lucky) to the theater, don’t forget to bring a handkerchief.
The Cat (15)
Horror, Mystery / 110 / Korean
An unlikely protagonist slinks around in “The Cat,” which follows So-yeon (Park Min-young), a pet groomer who suffers from claustrophobia stemming from a childhood experience.
One day, one of So-yeon’s customers dies on the elevator, leaving her cat Bi-dan behind. The mystery of who killed the woman on the elevator is unknown, and the cat is the only witness. As the police begin their investigation, they ask So-yeon to take care of Bi-dan. But something strange happens to So-yeon from the day she brings Bi-dan home.
So-yeon starts having nightmares in which she sees a little girl who keeps coming back to haunt her dreams. Afraid and unsure of what this might mean, So-yeon starts investigating the mystery of the cat and the death of its owner when her closest friend, who has also recently gotten a cat, dies.
The film was invited to participate in the 64th Cannes Film Festival Film Market, where its distribution rights were sold to three companies in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.
Critics at Cannes said that the movie is scary yet fascinating and ultimately appealing.
The Men Who Stare at Goats (12)
With such a star-studded cast, including Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Rebecca Mader, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang and Stephen Root, perhaps you would expect more from Grant Heslov’s feature debut. However, reviews were not entirely favorable for the actor-turned-director’s first foray into full-length motion pictures.
The film is about a secret American military project that uses the counterculture of the 1970s to become Jedi-like warriors, capable of felling goats with a single stare. “All well and good if they are attacked by goats,” one reviewer pointed out.
Ewan McGregror plays Bob Wilton, a journalist who, looking for adventure, heads to the Middle East in 2003. He meets up with Clooney, and a band of other quirky characters, and the story of the men who stare at goats begins to unravel.
The film is actually based on a non-fiction book by Jon Ronson and the opening credits of the movie state that “More of this is true than you would believe.” But you can be the judge of that.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (12)
Action, Adventure / 157 / English
Yet another installment in the “Transformers” franchise (and almost certainly not the last), “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” will have much of the same as the first two movies: battling robots, explosions and attractive people in perilous situations. But according to an extra hidden on the Blu-ray version of the previous film, “Revenge of the Fallen,” director Michael Bay expressed his intention to make “Transformers 3” not necessarily larger than “Revenge of the Fallen,” but instead go deeper into the mythos, give it more character development and make it darker and more emotional.
The film opens with the last spacecraft to escape Cybertron, The Ark, crash landing on the dark side of the moon in the early 60s.
The crash is detected by NASA and they begin preparations to land the first man on the moon to investigate. The Chernobyl disaster is woven into the plot, there is a conspiracy theorist, betrayal and lots and lots of explosions and general mayhem.
Megan Fox fans will be disappointed to hear that she has been replaced by English actor Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. It is said that Fox likened director Michael Bay to Hitler in an interview, and that was not such a clever thing to do.
The Conspirator (12)
Director Robert Redford’s courtroom drama captures the post-Civil War trial of Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), the first woman executed by the U.S. government. Following Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, prosecutors charged Surratt, along with seven other men, with conspiring to kill the president, vice president and secretary of state. Fredrick Aiken (James McAvoy), a young lawyer and Union war hero, reluctantly defends Surratt in the well-scripted but slow moving film.
The “Conspirator” succeeds in depicting the beginning of the Reconstruction era with great historical accuracy; however, viewers may find that Redford’s drama resembles an in-class film more than an enthralling drama.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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