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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.5/5 | 57% | The Grinch (2018) |
The result is a meandering, low-stakes affair, punctuated by fine but forgettable visual jokes. ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Dec 7, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | 16% | Robin Hood (2018) |
Who knew that the tale of the merry men of Sherwood Forest could be so dour? ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Dec 7, 2018
|
| 3.5/5 | 92% | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) |
The Coens love how fate places a banana peel under the feet of those foolish enough to look up at stars. Desire makes fools of everyone and to the Coens, that is rich comic material. ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Dec 7, 2018
|
| 3/5 | 83% | Creed II (2018) |
It is strange to say this, but the thing that carries the biggest sting here - especially in the scenes when Stallone's Rocky, aware that he is in his life's twilight, muses about roads not taken - is not the boxing, but the bonding.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Dec 7, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 91% | Widows (2018) |
The thrilling, emotional Widows is so satisfying because it not only does not skimp on the stuff that makes heist movies tick, it ups the ante.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Dec 7, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 88% | Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) |
The first movie was such an endorphin rush, it is hard to imagine a sequel that could match it in sweet, rambunctious fun. But this follow-up comes very close. ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Nov 21, 2018
|
| 3/5 | No Score Yet | Dark Figure of Crime (2018) |
Both actors handle their roles wonderfully. Kim Yoon-seok's eyes flicker with intelligence underneath a world-weary face while Ju's killer Kang is a compelling mix of bravado, menace and psychotic rage.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Nov 20, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | 38% | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) |
The seizure-inducing cuts and crazy angles felt as though one were taking a torture test designed to weed out weaklings from an astronaut training programme.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Nov 16, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 100% | Shirkers (2018) |
Shirkers is one of those films that seems almost too good to be true. ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Nov 16, 2018
|
| 2/5 | 40% | The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018) |
But in these superhero-happy times, she has been turned into Tomb Raider's Lara Croft crossed with Marvel's Black Widow and, in the process, loses everything that made her character special.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Nov 7, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 82% | Overlord (2018) |
This project relies on intimate encounters that put viewers close to the grisly stuff, but only after careful character-driven plotting that places people right where they ought to be.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Nov 7, 2018
|
| 3.5/5 | 74% | Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) |
That third-act misstep aside, this is still one tense and stylish crime thriller, filled with small delights and grounded in the politics of its period.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Oct 31, 2018
|
| 3.5/5 | 67% | The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018) |
And using these techniques, he has fashioned a fun, chuckle-worthy take on the 1973 book of the same name, one that never feels ironic nor a heavy-handed exercise in visual style.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Oct 31, 2018
|
| 3.5/5 | 62% | Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) |
Care is taken to coat everything with a layer of light, self-deprecating comedy. It is as if Mercury or May are on the couch, regaling a talk-show audience with an anecdote.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Oct 31, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 68% | Beautiful Boy (2018) |
These are deeply airbrushed images of how addiction plays out, but Groeningen casts a spell, helped by heart-breaking central performances from Carell and Chalamet. ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Oct 25, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | 68% | The Happy Prince (2018) |
Wilde's painful decline is drenched in romantic idealism - in a fictional touch, he becomes a father figure to adorable French orphans - and worsened by Everett's reluctance to rein in the sprawl of characters and dialogue.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Oct 25, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | 65% | Lizzie (2018) |
The team has come up with a psychologically realistic but polite work that, like the corsets around Lizzie's torso, feels too buttoned-down and joyless for its own good.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Oct 25, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 88% | First Man (2018) |
Chazelle's story could have been drowned in technical details, but as he did with musical terminology in Whiplash ("Not quite my tempo"), he reveals just enough for things to move forward.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Oct 25, 2018
|
| 5/5 | 90% | A Star Is Born (2018) |
The result is a richly layered, laugh-and-cry love story that understands that audiences must love the characters before they buy their love affair. ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Oct 4, 2018
|
| 3.5/5 | 88% | MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. (2018) |
This contradiction - an activist for social justice with a blue-blooded partner - is sadly never explored. ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Sep 27, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | 33% | The Predator (2018) |
Chaotic, loud and filled with too many coincidences to count. The best thing that can be said about The Predator is that the dialogue is engaging, and some gags are funny. ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Sep 14, 2018
|
| 3/5 | 84% | The Wife (2018) |
The strong performances help make up for the film's lack of style, but not enough to elevate it from being just okay.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Sep 8, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | 53% | Papillon (2018) |
Malek makes a fine, low-key effort as the buddy who turns Papillon into a better man, but Hoffman is an impossible act to follow.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Sep 5, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 92% | Crazy Rich Asians (2018) |
This slice of escapist entertainment is all about Rich People Problems, but looking in from the outside is just so much fun.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Aug 22, 2018
|
| 1.5/5 | 50% | Down a Dark Hall (2018) |
This murky, muddled attempt at Gothic horror set in a school is pretty to look at, but gets an F in the subject of scares.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Aug 22, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 87% | Madeline's Madeline (2018) |
Beautifully acted and featuring a head-spinning variety of dream-like images.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Aug 22, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | No Score Yet | 23:59: The Haunting Hour (2018) |
Feels like a slap-in-the-face anti-climax.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Aug 9, 2018
|
| 3.5/5 | 81% | Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) |
Still, bringing in Cher...is par for the course for this frothy, slightly slapdash production unafraid of putting all its eccentricities on display.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Aug 8, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | 17% | The Darkest Minds (2018) |
This lack of effort creates the impression that this is a generic work, a high-school drama with science-fiction touches screened on Sunday evenings on cable television.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Aug 3, 2018
|
| 3/5 | No Score Yet | Man on the Dragon (2018) |
Chan has the good sense to couch the message of uplift in action, not speeches, making this effort a notch above the mass of films about downcast blokes who find their joy in sports.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Aug 1, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 100% | Traffic Stop (2017) |
Infuriating and heartbreaking.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 25, 2018
|
| 3.5/5 | 96% | Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018) |
What emerges is a portrait of a star who never became a terrible dad or entitled monster, but who remained who he was until his final days: a sweet, gentle soul for whom the art of expressing himself was everything.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 18, 2018
|
| 3.5/5 | 63% | Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) |
The fit is not perfect and feels too convenient, but to director Sollima's credit, their psychological shifts are believable, if not completely understandable.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 18, 2018
|
| 1/5 | 11% | Siberia (2018) |
What can only be described as the Siberian version of the white saviour complex.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 18, 2018
|
| 2/5 | 46% | Skyscraper (2018) |
There is little to laugh at here - and that is the problem. This is a loud, silly film that takes itself seriously.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 11, 2018
|
| 4.5/5 | 99% | Shoplifters (Manbiki kazoku) (2018) |
The film derives it gut-wrenching emotional power from just how spare it is.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 11, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 88% | Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) |
There is cuteness and chuckle-worthy visual and verbal jokes, but the film-maker weaves in that element that eludes others: heartfelt emotion.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 5, 2018
|
| 3/5 | 83% | Disobedience (2018) |
By favouring the general over the specific, and gentleness over sharper criticism of the mores that hold women in loveless relationships, the story is weakened.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jul 3, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | 57% | Hotel Artemis (2018) |
It is a bold mix, but marred by a lacklustre visual-storytelling style; everybody labours over exposition in dialogue.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 29, 2018
|
| 1/5 | 0% | Gotti (2018) |
From its first moments until the end credits appear, this movie thrashes about for a unifying idea. In between, there is miserably bad acting and confusing editing.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 29, 2018
|
| 3/5 | 89% | Hereditary (2018) |
Collette's performance is hairraisingly good.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 21, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | No Score Yet | The Big Day (2018) |
The trouble is that as characters, the couple are as sanitised and blandly likeable as tap water and all the wackiness coming from the supporting players cannot make up for the absence of texture.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 21, 2018
|
| 4.5/5 | 53% | Book Club (2018) |
While the movie is a romantic fantasy on one level, it makes an honest attempt to deal with the problems that older women face, both physical and mental.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 21, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 88% | American Animals (2018) |
The bleak comedy of the film's first half gives way to a more sombre mood in the second. ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 14, 2018
|
| 2.5/5 | 68% | Ocean's 8 (2018) |
Cast women, by all means. Just make sure that they get a script worthy of their time and talent. ‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 14, 2018
|
| 4/5 | 92% | Revenge (2018) |
Fargeat avoids modern cliches, such as altered timelines or found footage, to deliver a suspenseful nail-biter of a thriller, one that updates an old format with an interesting take on gender politic‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 7, 2018
|
| 3/5 | 48% | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) |
The real hybrid here, however, is the movie itself. While more coherent than its 2015 predecessor, it stills feels lumpily composed of bits from other science-fiction and disaster films.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 7, 2018
|
| 3.5/5 | 70% | Adrift (2018) |
As survival stories go, the story of Tami (Woodley) and Richard (Claflin) has great bones - they are young, pretty and in love, and the settings are marinas and beaches of islands in the Pacific.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 1, 2018
|
| 4.5/5 | 94% | Custody (Jusqu'à la garde) (2018) |
Writer-director Xavier Legrand knows how to do family court.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted Jun 1, 2018
|
| 3.5/5 | 33% | Fahrenheit 451 (2018) |
Bahrani's fondness for drama with a social justice angle is revealed in the backstory...and does not go much farther than general finger-wagging at screen-addiction and the herd mentality found on network echo chambers.‐ The Straits Times (Singapore)
Read More | Posted May 30, 2018
|