Movie Title: Open Season
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (6/10)
Year: 2006
Open Season official site: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/openseason/

Hunt hunt hunt!! Piang Piang!! Kill Kill Kill!! It’s open season now. Lots of fur for the fashion industry. Lots more leather shoes produced. Lots of goose feather pillow. Ah… yes, to keep the circle of chain. Everything must be controlled.

Now, all the hunting action and hoo-hah only at Open Season. Boog (Martin Lawrence) is a grizzly bear that happens to be adopted by forest ranger, Beth (Debra Messing). Boog lives with Beth in a comfortable environment. Food, snacks, soft and comfortable bed, own personal and private toilet and even a cute stuffed toy “Dinkleman” and not to mention watching Wheel of Fortune before bed. Ah… the big bear have the whole garage to himself. How lucky!

Boog was the main attraction back at there at the small little town. Everything is fine until Elliot (Ashton Kutcher), a “unihorn” (single antler deer) came in to the picture. Elliot was bang by Shaw (Gary Sinise) and tied to the front of his truck. Shaw and Beth both stand on the far opposite viewpoint. Which makes them not at good talking terms.

Matters got worst when Shaw saw Boog help Elliot escape. Elliot then tries to lure Boog out from his comfortable zone which later cause a big problem. Beth have no choice but to send both Boog and Elliot to the wild and release them back to where they belong 3 days before the open season.

For the very first time, Boog left home and have to count on himself. In order to return home, Boog agreed to make Elliot his partner. At the jungle, there were lots of funny part like how Boog tries to go to the toilet, how to catch fishes. Boog and Elliot became easy targets for the animals in the forest as they were sorta weak and pampered.

There, Boog stumbles upon McSquizzy (Billy Connolly) the leader of the squirrel community. He is also the ruler of the forest trees. He speaks with heavy Scottish slang and always have a large troop of army backing him up with loads of acorns.

Being bullied by not only McSquizzy, they were even laughed by the beavers, led by Reilly (Jon Favreau). They were also bullied by Elliot’s deer herds.

While searching their way around, Boog finally noticed that Elliot didn’t actually know his way around. Boog was angry, with Shaw breaking the open season rule and firing at him, he accidently stumble on the dam the beavers make.

It was cool looking at how Elliot, Boog and the porcupine tries to escape Shaw’s attack in the water scenes. I think it was one of the most interesting scene in the whole movie. They were all being washed down to the lower part of the forest where they are prone to be hunted.

Boog just couldn’t care less as all he ever wants to is find Beth. Leaving the rest, he stumbles in to Shaw’s house. Noticing that Elliot is Shaw’s next victim, he quickly runs back to Elliot to rescue him. This time around, Boog and Elliot decided to kick some ass. Instead of finding a place to hide, they decided to fight back. With the help of McSquizzy, Reilly, the porcupine, skunks and duck… everything just gotta heat up.

Everything found was used wisely. From bras, forks, gas tank to knives. Every animal just stick together and use each other’s specialties to help fight the hunters.

I think it was a great animated story. Boog’s fur was simply amazing and yes… it totally deserves the credit. The water scenes were cool as well. Yes, it’s a funny movie with a simple storyline. I think it was amazing but somehow.. it lacked something. Lack of message. I don’t know. I mean… it just didn’t touch my heart enough to think it was utterly great.

It’s seriously not bad… but I think I would prefer Over the Hedge to this. At least there is a message or something to learn about. Yes, I am rather picky. There have been lots of animations like this on the market, one must differ themselves from the rest. Emotion plays a part. Lessons learnt… message delivered to viewers… soundtracks… just so much to make a movie perfect.

So yes, the season is now open! The hunting experience will never be the same again.

Seed of Darkness official site: http://www.seedofdarkness.com/

Okay, before I start… please note that this post is solely a favour I am doing my friend. Let’s see how do I put this. Okay… my unimate, Oliver, have been involved as Producer and Editor for this movie and ask me to help him promote his movie in my blog.

No, this is not a paid advertisement or anything. It’s just out of good deed and well… no, I have no free tickets to give… since I didn’t ask for any. As his friend, and to show my support for him, I decided to buy a ticket and see it in the cinema.

Okay… I think I am a bad promoter. Coz I seriously know nothing about the movie. So yes, I am as eager as everyone else to wait for 28 December 2006 to arrive.

According to source, this movie is the Local Chinese film to be distributed by an international distributor, Columbia Pictures. This movie is produced and directed by Award winning film makers, Dream Image.

Mmmm… The main casts are Wong Sze Zen (Miss Malaysia World 2003/2004), Alvin Wong (Best Actor in Malaysian Video Awards 2005, Acted in Commercials, and sitcoms like 3 girls 1 bed), Amber Chia, Vick Teo
(Malaysian Idol 2003 2nd Runners Up).

Let’s us all support our local movie industry.

Watch Seed of Darkness trailer here: