Movie Title: The Wild
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/10)
Year: 2006
The Wild official site: http://www.thewildmovie.com/

The cinema market is now being flooded with 3D animations and well.. my friend pointed the fact to me that the current trend in 3D is animals. Which I find it quite true… most of the up and coming 3D has animal characters in it as well. Probably it is something easier to do? I dunno.. I am not a pro animator.. so who am I to judge. I am just some lazy ass.. who buy a bottle of mineral water.. stuck my butt to a numbered sit then shake some legs and watch whatever movie that is being shown.

As remembered, I tot I saw a photocopy of Madagascar. It’s true… everything is so alike… animals… zoo.. the hype about the wild… I mean.. well.. and it is almost a back to back thing. I dunno can’t blame me for confusing.

The story tells about Samson, the great and mighty king of the zoo. Everyday, people come to see Samson the great and would be glad if they could hear Samson roar. Samson’s son, Ryan on the other side is always fascinated by Samson’s stories about the wild. As curious as he is about the wild, he very much respect his father’s talent to roar because he can’t roar for good. The worst part, everyone is laughing at him because he seems to be meow-ing rather than roaring.

One day, being sad after he screw up his father’s game, he decided to find some place to sit down and think.. Yeah… some place his dad always forbid him from going near to. The green box. The next thing Ryan knows, he was being locked up in the green box and is transported to some far place. Samson and his friends is all set to rescue his son. They all then have this rescue mission to save Ryan.

On the way to save Ryan, they go through lots of obsticles which includes being chased and nearly bitten by some stray dogs. Hahaha.. yeah one could imagine… how a lion is so afraid of stray dogs? Yeah… that really did happen. To run away from the stray dogs, they use the underground tunnels which they end up seeing two alligators. Fear till death.. they tot they would spell F.O.O.D to the alligator. However the two alligator is cool enough to show them the way to the Statue of Liberty. Oh yeah.. forget to mention how I love the way the koala pretend to be the Statue of Liberty.

Samson and his gang is a little late when they saw Ryan being transported to a boat. Samson and his gang faster jump on to a small boat and goes after Ryan.. which they all end up in an island. Yeap… the green box is actually used to transport the animals from the island to the zoo due to some volcano erruption problem. Being scared till death.. Ryan just ran in to the jungle.

Samson is all set to save Ryan when misfortunes keep happening which leads to know Samson’s biggest secret.

A story which I think combined The Lion King and Madagascar to me does not do the trick. I find the animation details were less noticibl. And I just think it wasn’t funny or tickle enough to make me smile. I think it was rather boring… okay.. maybe I was too busy comparing it with Madagascar.

But no… even the plot itself seems to be a little too shallow and seems like everything has been fast forwarded. The rescue mission in the New York town seems fast… it’s like… blink blink.. there you are.

Well.. maybe I sorta have high hope for uncle disney.. but well… it’s okay.. people do fail once a while.

Movie Title: When A Stranger Calls
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/10)
Year: 2006
When A Stranger Calls official site: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/whenastrangercalls/

When we were kids, our parents always warned us to not talk to strangers.
But I don’t think we ever listen to them. And this movie serves a great reminder to all of us to do so.

I personally with the advancement of social media, it is really hard to resist the temptation to talk to a stranger.
In fact, younger generations these days enjoy talking to strangers.

While this genre of movie may not be my favourite, it is something that I wouldn’t mind should someone is accompanying me to watch it.

The movie introduce us to a teenage young girl, Jill. She was grounded by her parents when they found out that she had over used her phone credit limits. Thus, they decided to make her babysit in order to earn some cash and learn to be more responsible.  In case any curious soul wonder why she burst her phone credit limits, it was due to  Jill having a fight with her boyfriend when she found out that him and her best friend kissed.

Like any setting of a thriller movie, the location where every crime happens are a secluded big house surrounded by forests and are situated out of nowhere. Jill arrived to the family house where she is supposed to babysit. The house owner briefly debrief Jill and left.

Everything seems fine, but the director manage to slip in some suspense, with the family’s maid walking around unintroduced to the basic trick of auto sensor lighting.

Suddenly, the phone starts to ring. A couple of strange calls starts to happen, with no one speaking on the other side.
And all Jill could hear was breathing sounds. The mysterious caller even led Jill to run around hunting for him like a cat and mouse game.

The chase was going on for quite a while, the ending of how he was caught was rather disappointing. After such a long hunt, the mysterious caller was caught in less than 10 minutes. And the same ending tactics which makes one wonder if there were other mastermind out there that manage to escape, which leads to a sequel.

While the opening scenes looks quite promising, it ultimately ends with disappointment. Worst was when there were quite many scenes which were less logical, for instance when a parent left their kids for the first time with a new babysitter at home, wouldn’t you want to check up on the kids? I am still shocked when they don’t just because they are worried the kids would be awaken by the babysitter when she opened the door.

And what more absurd was  how the psycho killer knew how many people were at home, where the kids slept and even know they had a guest house opposite their main house. Talk about stalker mode ON.

Movie Title: Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (7/10)
Year: 2006
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown official site: http://www.iceage2.com/

It has been a long wait. 4 years it is. Yes, everyone has waited 4 years before this second instalment is back on the big screen. Scrat, the cute little squirrel with his every precious acorn. With this character alone, it manage to drive everyone to the cinema. Haha…. well, I must say it is pretty good. Although he is not the main cast but still manage to get all the limelight. Ah…. good… just so good.

Yes, at this second instalment, it’s all about the ice age melting. Yeap, no thanks to global warming. The ices is melting and all the animals are in a panic mode. Yeah… as per previous movie, Diego, Manny and Sid is set to travel to find this big boat (yeah.. sorta like Noah’s Ark) Why? Erm… well… coz they are living in a valley. It’s like a bowl sorta thing. When filled with water, everything drowns.

In the whole journey, Manny is being sad because everyone kept talking about him being the last mammoth. Well.. well.. everything soon change when he met Ellie. Yeap, another female mammoth. However, she is a mammoth that assumes she is a possum. With all the funny gestures and actions along the way. Yeah… I was laughing like crazy when I saw the possums doing the Robert Deniro’s gesture made famous in ‘Meet the Fockers’ movie. It was simply amazing.

I also love how Sid says that they will evolve into sea creatures and he ask Diego to call him Squid. Hahaha…

Well… obviously there are some dramas here and there along the way. Yeah, Sid who always hunger for attention and respect finally got what he wanted. But well, I guess he din want it anymore coz he finally knows that it would cost him his life and well… he miss Diego *awww*

Although this show manage to make me laugh a lot, I find it sorta lack of substance. As in, I find the story somehow is weaker and there isn’t much thing to tell about unlike the previous movie. It was sort of a long travel experience. What is even worst, the two who is suppose to be the baddie in the movie… erm… I find that their existence in the movie can almost be ignored.

I dunno… they just din kick or punch hard enough to leave an impact in the movie. It’s quite strange. But well… looking at scrat running here and there to find his acorn is worthy enough.