John Lui
John Lui's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when
published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
The Straits Times (Singapore)
| Publications: | The Straits Times (Singapore) |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/5 | 92% | Dunkirk (2017) |
It is Nolan's control of the visuals that makes this among the most harrowing of war films.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 21, 2017
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| 4/5 | 94% | Baby Driver (2017) |
Fans of Wright's work will see plenty of Wright-isms here - the smash cuts, action cut to rock beats, nods to pop culture. That visual wit is now laid over a crime thriller.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 21, 2017
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| 4/5 | 54% | Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) |
A visually dazzling, grin-inducing space adventure.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 19, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 44% | The Bad Batch (2017) |
It has its moments, but this work's wild and ineptly handled tonal swings make for frustrating viewing.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 19, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | 73% | To the Bone (2017) |
[To the Bone], with its ensemble chattiness and good humour, makes a horrifying syndrome sound almost fun to watch.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 19, 2017
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| 4/5 | 94% | War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) |
Caesar is one of the most interesting heroes in recent mainstream cinema. Thoughtful, melancholic and empathetic, he is the opposite of the standard-issue Hollywood protagonist.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 12, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | 85% | The Villainess (2017) |
The result is a blast, a midnight-madness genre picture that makes up in style and droll humour what it lacks in premise originality.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 12, 2017
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| 2/5 | 49% | Churchill (2017) |
After the third time in which same squabbles happen, the movie feels stuck in a loop - how many times must an old man be kicked in order to elicit sympathy?‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 6, 2017
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| 4/5 | 96% | Rams (Hrútar) (2016) |
Offers a masterclass in minimalist film-making that lacks for nothing in colour and character.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 6, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | 70% | The Wall (2017) |
Director Doug Liman, working with a screenplay that was on a shortlist of Hollywood's best unproduced works, is a master at using edits and camera angles as a tool for heightening anxiety.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 28, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | 76% | My Cousin Rachel (2017) |
This is a rare work: a thriller set in the 19th century that is neither grimy and dark nor eroticised and psychological.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 28, 2017
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| 1.5/5 | 18% | The House (2017) |
It's like watching a series of funny viral videos, the kind people send one another on WhatsApp. Ask yourself: Would you like it as much if the clip was more than an hour long?‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 28, 2017
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| 1.5/5 | No Score Yet | Overdrive (2017) |
The speed indicator goes from zero to, well, not much higher than that in this Euro-clone that blends the car porn of Gone In 60 Seconds with the multi-vehicle stunt action of the Fast And Furious series.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 28, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 50% | The Promise (2017) |
A couple of scenes depict the massacre directly, but there is an absence of the kind of detail that brings the scene to horrifying life.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 20, 2017
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| 2/5 | 15% | Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) |
At its heart, this experimental collage of sights and sounds is meant to be understood as a sensory experience, like a splatter painting, or electro- convulsive therapy.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 20, 2017
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| 2/5 | 22% | Once Upon a Time in Venice (2017) |
Fresh and engaging is precisely what crime comedy Once Upon A Time In Venice tries to be, but that attempt is foiled by bad jokes and worse casting.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 14, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 41% | The Hunter's Prayer (2017) |
Marks must be given for how this is a character-driven project. But despite the attempt to make each person fully rounded, none of it feels fresh or engaging.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 14, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | 98% | Kedi (2017) |
In this beautifully photographed and warmly human portrait, there is no all-seeing David Attenborough- like narrator, only the voices of the people whose daily routines intersect with those of the animals, which come and go as they please.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 14, 2017
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| 3/5 | 15% | The Mummy (2017) |
This is, for the most part, a well-made piece of summer entertainment. It just clobbers the viewer senseless with action.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 7, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | 96% | Paterson (2016) |
Jarmusch celebrates small-town life and the dreamers who live in them, while choosing visuals that mirror the patterns of poetry.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 6, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 77% | Viceroy's House (2017) |
The film feels like a six-part miniseries, condensed.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 6, 2017
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| 2/5 | 80% | Colossal (2017) |
There is one good idea in Colossal [but] the idea is buried under distracting junk.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 6, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 92% | Wonder Woman (2017) |
This picture tries so hard to avoid making a statement that it becomes the elephant in the room.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 31, 2017
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| 4/5 | 54% | War Machine (2017) |
Michod wisely resists the urge to heighten the goofiness or the darkly psychological; he lets the absurdity of everyday White House politics speak for itself.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 31, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 19% | Baywatch (2017) |
There is some sweetness, some vulgarity, a bit of improv weirdness and some nerd-gets-hot-girl wish fulfilment. You would think that by dint of trying all angles, at least one joke would land, but you would be wrong.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 31, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 71% | This Beautiful Fantastic (2017) |
This movie is like the tourist gift packs for sale at Gatwick or Heathrow airports -- it is Britain In A Box.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 24, 2017
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| 3/5 | 72% | The Wizard of Lies (2017) |
A fine but otherwise plain domestic tragedy about a crime family that never knew it was a crime family until it was too late.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 24, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 29% | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) |
The problem is that none of it is fresh; larger helpings of stale ideas cannot mask the thinness of the storytelling.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 24, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | 28% | King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword (2017) |
With the legend of Arthur, [Ritchie] has succeeded by going to excess.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 17, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | 71% | Alien: Covenant (2017) |
Scott has a lot of balls to juggle -- fan service, action and science-fiction -- but he manages to keep them all in the air, while adding new, genuinely horrific twists to the life cycle of the creatures fond of outsourcing their childcare to humans.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 11, 2017
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| 1.5/5 | 17% | Dead Awake (2017) |
This movie is a success in one respect: It proved that sleep paralysis is real, because it induced it in this reviewer.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 10, 2017
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| 4/5 | 94% | The Red Turtle (La tortue rouge) (2017) |
The mesmerising The Red Turtle casts a spell from the opening scene.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 3, 2017
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| 1.5/5 | 13% | Brain on Fire (2016) |
The medical misfire Brain On Fire is based on a true story and apparently its producers thought this was sufficient reason to breathe life into the project. It is not.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 3, 2017
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| 4/5 | 82% | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) |
The ensemble comedy formula holds true for the sequel, but this time, returning writer-director James Gunn hits the jokes with a lighter touch and makes sure to integrate the humour with the action.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 26, 2017
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| 4/5 | 98% | Moonlight (2016) |
Writer-director Barry Jenkins puts the audience inside Chiron's almost constant state of discomfort through the use of silence and close-ups.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 26, 2017
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| 2/5 | 39% | Aftermath (2017) |
After an effective first act, everything falls apart -- there is neither urgency nor any narrative direction to Roman's behaviour, one that would justify the actions in the finale.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 26, 2017
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| 87% | The Lost City of Z (2017) |
[A] lushly depicted and haunting biopic.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2017
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| 4/5 | 37% | Brimstone (2017) |
[Director Koolhoven] blends the grand idea of divine retribution from Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider with the noir grimness of HBO's Deadwood, to make something all his own.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2017
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| 3/5 | 69% | Gifted (2017) |
[Director Marc] Webb knows how to let a joke land lightly and how to draw out an emotional moment.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2017
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| 1.5/5 | 46% | Going in Style (2017) |
For a story about geriatrics gone wild (played with affable crustiness by Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin), this work is very tame indeed.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 66% | The Fate of the Furious (2017) |
Everything blows up, nothing is at stake and Dom's team looks like the Power Rangers, except more cartoon-like.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2017
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| 4.5/5 | 84% | Pop Aye (2017) |
It is the storytelling that makes this work stand apart.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2017
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| 3.5/5 | 81% | Mean Dreams (2017) |
The story is driven by character, not coincidence, with the bonus of Paxton giving a powerfully nasty performance as the protective dad from hell.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2017
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| 1.5/5 | 21% | The Shack (2017) |
British director Stuart Hazeldine cranks up the digital effects to give a fairly interesting interpretation of heaven, but they cannot make up for how this is a sermon, turned into a play, dressed up with computer-aided show-and-tell.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 5, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 65% | Carrie Pilby (2017) |
Powley is a good actress, but she plays a protagonist whose motivations flip-flop too conveniently, such that by the end, it is hard not to feel cheated.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Apr 5, 2017
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| 2/5 | 63% | House On Willow Street (2017) |
There is nothing wrong with the premise, but this South African production, which sets the story in the United States, leans heavily on jump scares at the expense of plot and character.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Mar 31, 2017
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| 3/5 | 44% | Ghost in the Shell (2017) |
Bold but flawed.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Mar 31, 2017
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| 2.5/5 | 73% | The Sense Of An Ending (2017) |
For a narrative that deals with the idea of subjective interpretation, Batra's storytelling style is oddly flat and unpoetic.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Mar 29, 2017
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| 3/5 | 67% | Life (2017) |
What begins as a promising fact- based science thriller in the vein of The Martian or Gravity turns into a competently executed if unoriginal addition to the bughunt-in-space genre.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Mar 29, 2017
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| 3/5 | 44% | Saban's Power Rangers (2017) |
The 2017 updates include plenty of backstory to make sure non-fans of the television series are up to speed and go some way to broaden the film's appeal beyond those watching for the sake of a 1990s nostalgia trip.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Mar 22, 2017
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