Movie Watching

I got to see three movies in the last week. (Before I talk about them, though, I am a bit surprised at how expensive cinema tickets are now: Greenbelt 3 - P240, Glorietta 4 - P220, Megamall - P232. Up until 1-2 years ago, you could still find theaters that sold tickets at under P200; that no longer seems to be the case.)

Kingsman: The Secret Service

photo from www.comingsoon.net

Based on the comic book series The Secret Service, Kingsman provides its viewers with an awesome combination of hip superhero-movie flair and old-school spy-film style. It's edgy and cheeky, paying homage to classic spy thrillers while throwing in enough modern-day twists and turns to make it entertainingly unpredictable. Colin Firth has the refined-gentleman role down pat but he is equally superb as a very physical, well-trained fighting machine. His co-star Taron Egerton has the right amount of diamond-in-the-ruff edginess and charm. The movie also gives us an uber-cool villain sidekick Gazelle (seriously, she is one of the absolute coolest movie villains I have seen in a long time!) and it also features Mark Hamill in the cast (he portrayed Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy although I really didn't recognize him). Kingsman: The Secret Service has a lot of great action and is loads of fun.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

photo from www.fiordlandcinema.co.nz

This is actually a follow-up to the first film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. That film was released in the US on the same day as the mega-blockbuster The Avengers so it flew under the radar. Its premise intrigued me so I got the DVD of that first film last year and I enjoyed it. The question is, how does this second one compare to the first? I actually thought The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was better, making it a perfect sequel. Because the first film had already established the context, the characters and their dynamic, this second one was able to move forward at a faster pace without losing its heart. The acting remains superb, but that is to be expected from a cast that includes two-time Oscar awardee Maggie Smith and Oscar awardee Judi Dench. I do think that watching the first film will make you appreciate this second one a lot more, but that said, my friend Joyce and her friends watched only this sequel and they all still really enjoyed it. The ending is a bit too neatly tied together but hey, with all the bad news happening in the world, I can definitely do with more of these really nice happy endings. :)

Cinderella

photo from en.wikipedia.org

This is the second Disney movie I've seen this year that  is based on fairy tales (the first was of course the Into the Woods). I was sort of expecting a major twist in the plot of this Cinderella but there wasn't. That said, there were a whole lot of smaller differences and updates to the original storyline that strengthened the character development and made for a very interesting watch. The cinematography is beautiful and the costume design is topnotch. This is another feel-good movie that makes you smile, even if you do know things are going to turn out in the end.