APRIL 13 ― We're less than three weeks away from what is surely the most hotly-anticipated cinematic event of 2019 ― the release of Avengers: Endgame on April 25.
Tickets for sneak preview screenings on April 24 sold out like hotcakes in just a few hours and there are even screenings as early as 7am in certain cinemas on April 25, which is practically unheard of in this neck of the woods.
I have heard stories that some Rajinikanth movies have played at ungodly hours like 4am in places like Klang, but am unable to confirm whether the stories are indeed true or whether they were late screenings, as in extra screenings past midnight as opposed to the rush to be the first to see Endgame that's happening now.
But don't let the hype blind you to the fact that even now, a few weeks before Endgame arrives here, there are plenty of riches to be found playing in Malaysian cinemas.
Work commitments meant that I have so far missed the chance to see the latest Upin & Ipin movie (already a RM25 million blockbuster as per reports), because I had to prioritise seeing Us first (who can resist a new Jordan Peele movie after what he served us with in Get Out?) and follow that up with Five Feet Apart (because I'm a sucker for anything with Haley Lu Richardson in it now, even if the film's basically The Fault In Our Stars for cystic fibrosis).
Those films are still playing here, and they've been followed by another bunch of solid titles worth your time, especially what looks certain to be one of the major contenders at the next Festival Filem Malaysia: Zahir Omar's feature film debut Fly By Night.
Here are my thoughts on them.
Fly By Night
This film opens here just about two weeks after One Two Jaga swept this year's Festival Filem Malaysia with a raft of major awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor.
Fans who only took notice of One Two Jaga after it arrived on Netflix should do themselves a favour and not miss the chance to see Fly By Night in a cinema when it opens here this week.
The reason I'm making this comparison is not because the films are in any way identical, but because they belong in more or less the same genre ― crime drama.
A truly Malaysian film in that it is multilingual, with characters speaking Malay, English and Chinese dialects like Cantonese and Mandarin, directed by a Malay dude who doesn't speak Chinese, Fly By Night plays like classic Hong Kong gangster films but set in a very realistic Malaysian milieu.
It's about a group of small time taxi-driving robbers who specialise in extorting rich businessmen.
These hoodlums find themselves in way over their heads when some of them get overly ambitious and try to go it alone.
In true genre film fashion, the film is an exciting watch, enriched by solid performances all around, with Bront Palarae stealing the show, even from regional cult favourite Sunny Pang.
My only complaint is that, after the supremely classy handling of the film's dramatics, the film stumbles a bit when it comes to its centrepiece car chase scene and the shootout that follows it, which will suddenly remind you that you're back watching a local film in some of its camera angles and editing choices.
A later shootout though, is wonderful, bringing to mind classic Johnnie To and Ringo Lam in its execution. Still, this looks set to be a major contender come the next Festival Filem Malaysia, which is quite an achievement indeed for a feature film debut!
Shazam!
I watch both Marvel and DC movies with the same enthusiasm that any casual moviegoer would have when anticipating a superhero film.
So this whole Marvel vs DC nonsense among fans is something that I've never really understood, especially the line of thought that “darker” is better when it comes to DC fans.
Those “darker” fans will probably be disappointed with Shazam!, a DC movie that's so cheerful and irreverent that it plays like a cross between the first Ant-Man movie, Guardians Of The Galaxy, a PG Deadpool and that Tom Hanks 80s classic Big.
Zachary Levi seems born to play Shazam, but it's the two kids at the heart of the film, Billy Batson and Freddy Freeman (star-making performances by Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer respectively) that really make the movie.
Whenever they're onscreen, the movie rocks. So when the third act arrives and the super villain takes centrestage, the movie unfortunately becomes just another superhero movie, with the necessary boring and unimaginative climactic battle that usually comes with them. Good thing the kids have stolen our hearts by then.
Pet Sematary
As much as I love movie adaptations of Stephen King books, it's quite hard for me to find many good things to say about the first movie adaptation of Pet Sematary in 1989.
Although I grew up watching it, like I did most of those classic 80s horror flicks in the golden age of VHS, the first Pet Sematary was just a bit dull for me.
So when 30 years later a second adaptation arrived in cinemas, on the one hand one can be less than thrilled knowing that such a weak film is getting a remake, but on the other hand one can also be excited to see if the remake can improve on the original.
Although there are some slight changes/tweaks this time around, especially in the movie's big “twist”, the 2019 Pet Sematary is still, for me, just a little bit better than the 1989 one in terms that it's got faster pacing, and it bothers to cram in a bit more meat into the pretty simple and bare narrative of the 1989 version to suit the attention span of its current audience.
Will it be a horror highlight of 2019? I don't think so. Sometimes dead really is better.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
