MARCH 20 — The big news this week in terms of new movies is, of course, the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a triumph of fan demand long in the making ever since the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign first made its rounds when the Joss Whedon-helmed Justice League was first released a few years back.
At a whopping 4 hours and 2 minutes, and dropping on HBO Max less than a day before my deadline this week, there’s just no way that I could squeeze in a viewing of this long-awaited movie event and write about it in time, so this one will have to wait for next week, if I do feel like writing about it, of course.
Quite a few words have been said about the movie’s exclusive release on HBO Max, which means that it won’t be shown in cinemas here, to the disappointment of a lot of movie fans out there.
All I can say about this phenomenon is that we better get used to it already as the streaming wars are not going to end any time soon, with big names like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, HBO Max and Hulu battling against each other for exclusive content, and there’s only so much that the Average Joe can pay in terms of subscription fees to all these platforms.
So even if you feel a wee bit disappointed at not being able to watch Zack Snyder’s Justice League in the cinema, worry not, as there are even more movies now playing in local cinemas since they’re allowed to reopen at the start of the month.
Here are two that definitely merit your time and attention.
The Con-Heartist
If you’re looking for a sweet, funny and heartwarming good time at the movies this week, please do yourself a favour and catch this Thai film, the latest offering from the ever dependable Thai studio GDH, and another wonderful confection from rom-com auteur Mez Tharathorn (responsible for previous hits like ATM: Er Rak Error and I Fine...Thank You Love You).
If you’re already a fan of GDH rom-coms, then this one should be a no-brainer, but if you’re new to the GDH universe, this one serves up an additional ingredient into their much-loved rom-com formula, as it’s about the lead character Ina (the irresistible Pimchanok Leuwisetpaiboon) who, after being put in debt to the tune of 500,000 Thai Bahts as a result of being scammed by her ex-boyfriend Petch, stumbles upon a phone scammer named Tower, and together they hatch a plan to scam Petch out of even more money as payback.
Mixing in elements of the con-artist and even heist movies (which technically makes this a “rom-con”?), Tharathorn and the ensemble cast have put in some gloriously entertaining, well-played work in concocting the romantic, comedic, and con-artist elements needed to make the whole film tick.
Even at slightly over two hours, The Con-Heartist felt like a breeze to watch because the whole thing’s just so snappy, entertaining and easy to love.
Like most other con-artist movies, there are of course plenty of twists and turns in the story to keep you alert, but it’s the film’s sweet and big heart, and its goofy sense of humour that will leave your heart soaring, like all good rom-coms do, at the end of the movie.
Monster Hunter
There are three Andersons out there who can be called relatively “major” names in contemporary cinema who are still actively working today.
Two of them — Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson — are names that I’m sure need no introduction. Just look at films like Rushmore and The Grand Budapest Hotel by the former and Magnolia and There Will Be Blood by the latter as undisputed proof of their cinematic genius.
The third Anderson — Paul W.S. Anderson — is actually my favourite of the three but is a rather controversial figure when it comes to what constitutes good cinema and what makes a good director.
Responsible for the first and final (of three) Resident Evil films (with Afterlife and Retribution being two of the highlights of pop filmmaking in the 2010s, in my humble opinion) and a number of other poorly reviewed films like Pompeii, The Three Musketeers (both of which I loved to bits) and the first Mortal Kombat movie, my favourite Anderson is not at all a poet when it comes to subtlety and classical storytelling.
But when it comes to the poetry of not only bodies but also cameras in motion, especially 3D cameras, there are very few better poets out there.
And he proves this yet again with his latest film Monster Hunter, another video game adaptation starring his wife and muse Milla Jovovich, that is simply chock full of plenty of wondrously staged and executed action and CGI set-pieces that not only look way more expensive than they actually cost, but are also more accomplished than a lot of other big-budget blockbusters out there.
Mark this as another good one in the ever-impressive oeuvre of my favourite Anderson, critics be damned.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
