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

Movies
TV

	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
3/5	55%	The Lion King (2019)	Watching this, it is hard to muster an emotion not previously associated with the first movie...It would have been a bold, fresh move for director Jon Favreau to have pencilled in a few changes... - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 17, 2019
2/5	51%	Tolkien (2019)	The spoon-feeding does not just feel silly and pandering, it is distracting - as in a video game, Easter egg-hunting draws attention away from the key story. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 17, 2019
2/5	54%	The Dead Don't Die (2019)	This could almost be a stoner comedy, except there are no drugs, no jokes and not enough weirdness. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 17, 2019
2.5/5	38%	The Professor and the Madman (2019)	Unlike the tome, this movie is neither useful nor necessary. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 11, 2019
2.5/5	67%	The White Storm 2: Drug Lords (2019)	Characters can change, but they should not become two completely different people. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 11, 2019
4/5	90%	Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)	This movie is perfectly pitched as a sweet pick-me-up, a human-sized romp that looks back to the blip, while moving the story forward. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 3, 2019
2/5	30%	Red Joan (2019)	Unintended silliness makes young Joan look foolish for being entranced by them, robbing her of agency when the film is desperate to prove the opposite. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 3, 2019
5/5	100%	Parasite (Gisaengchung) (2019)	Social satires rarely come as funny, unpredictable or as generous to its characters as this. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 27, 2019
2.5/5	66%	The White Crow (2019)	It is made more dramatic by Nureyev's frequent tantrums...and made worse by the over-exposure of persons important to the plot, but useless as characters worth caring about, such as Exarchopoulos' socialite, Saint. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 27, 2019
3/5	100%	The Wolf's Call (Le chant du loup) (2019)	Despite the excursions into fantasy, this submarine saga with a French flavour is a fun watch. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 27, 2019
1.5/5	27%	Anna (2019)	It is one thing to watch a film-maker turn his kink into a movie, but it is another when that kink carries a specifically European strain of racism. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 20, 2019
4.5/5	98%	Toy Story 4 (2019)	Happily, the long wait has paid off. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 20, 2019
1.5/5	22%	Men in Black International (2019)	It tries to pass itself off as the real thing, but the mask keeps slipping. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 14, 2019
4/5	97%	Deadwood: The Movie (2019)	This film remains a fitting and satisfying farewell. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 13, 2019
2.5/5	90%	Rocketman (2019)	This is a biography that falls into the trap of thinking that suffering is the same thing as depth. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 13, 2019
3/5	23%	Dark Phoenix (2019)	Turner is generally good in her role, but it would have been better if she had given it more range - being anguished all the time can get tiring for audiences. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 5, 2019
3.5/5	91%	Always Be My Maybe (2019)	The core Sasha-Marcus romance is kept straightforward, perhaps too much so, such that it falls into predictability and unearned last-minute redemptions. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 5, 2019
4/5	No Score Yet	A Home with a View (2019)	There are real laughs - or rather, bitter chuckles - to be had in this quick, 90-minute trip into the Hong Kong dream that for many is more like a nightmare. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 30, 2019
3.5/5	56%	Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)	Efron offers an excellent performance as a character who used his attractiveness and white, middle-class male privilege to wreak havoc. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 23, 2019
3.5/5	56%	Aladdin (2019)	The new version is a grin-inducing, toe-tapping delight filled with stunning choreography. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 23, 2019
2/5	60%	Greta (2019)	This is a lot of A-list acting power to throw into a B-movie, one that throws away its sheen of mystery by the mid-point to become a run-of-the-mill work of horror. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 15, 2019
	48%	The Sun Is Also a Star (2019)	That realism, however, is tempered by the glamour exuded by Natasha and Daniel. Their lower-middle class immigrant selves are filmed with the heightened colours and dynamic movement of a fashion product. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 15, 2019
2.5/5	90%	John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)	In its third iteration, the franchise is showing its age. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 15, 2019
2.5/5	67%	Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)	All of it is an amiable adventure peopled by characters who will be forgotten five minutes after the credits roll. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 9, 2019
3/5	72%	Teen Spirit (2019)	Minghella's serious take on a trite topic breaks no new ground but it has more than a few moments of pure pop magic. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 8, 2019
2/5	34%	King of Thieves (2019)	Caine's legacy as the go-to Cockney criminal in the best thrillers of the 1960s and 1970s deserves better than this uneven blend of feel-good comedy, caper movie and Caine tribute show. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 8, 2019
3.5/5	76%	Hotel Mumbai (2019)	The optics might be off, but such is the perspective we are given for a film that has to be sold to global audiences. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 2, 2019
2/5	81%	Long Shot (2019)	A dull, frustrating slog, about as funny as a pebble in a shoe and as authentically romantic as a dinner date with a blow-up doll. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted May 2, 2019
2.5/5	88%	The Third Wife (2019)	Writer-director Ash Mayfair makes her directorial debut in this lushly-photographed drama that juxtaposes gorgeous exteriors of the countryside with the harshness of the reality as felt by women on the silk farm. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 24, 2019
4/5	94%	Avengers: Endgame (2019)	This cap to a villain arc that began in Thor (2011) features the most gloriously fluid and beautifully-paced action sequences this reviewer has seen in a superhero film, but marred by a distractingly high number of convenient plot contrivances... - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 24, 2019
4/5	92%	Fighting with My Family (2019)	This story, rich in character detail and genuinely funny jokes, makes everyone who walks into frame come alive, complete with traits that other biopics airbrush away. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 17, 2019
2.5/5	No Score Yet	Curse of the Weeping Woman: J-ok'el - La Llorona (2008)	The film's top-notch credentials, which includes producer James Wan (Aquaman, 2018), do not rescue it from sinking into predictability. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 17, 2019
3.5/5	18%	Hellboy (2019)	Marshall's more-is-better philosophy gets a little wearying past the first hour, but in some scenes, one has to admit that his methods, as crude as they seem, can surprise and delight. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 11, 2019
3/5	44%	Captive State (2019)	While entertaining, the film suffers most from a lack of introspection. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 10, 2019
3/5	89%	Missing Link (2019)	Laika's understated aesthetic, coupled with its mission to make every prop by hand, makes for images of jaw-dropping beauty. If only they had taken as much care with Sir Lionel's character. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 10, 2019
4/5	97%	Tehran Taboo (2018)	Iranian film-makers, more than anyone else it seems, have mastered the art of whole-of-society stories. This racy, funny, thought-provoking film, made in 2017, is one example. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 10, 2019
3.5/5	91%	Shazam! (2019)	It really does not have to be as packed with comic-book references or be as long or have as many characters as it does, but this go at an origin story makes up for its bloat with strong comedy performances. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 3, 2019
3.5/5	57%	Pet Sematary (2019)	This update, however, loses some of its freshness because some of its ideas, scary in the 1980s, have become old hat in our zombie-obsessed times. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 3, 2019
2/5	46%	Dumbo (2019)	Walking the line between reality and fantasy is hard, and the decision for Dumbo the flying elephant to feel like a miracle fails to pay off. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 29, 2019
4/5	74%	Dragged Across Concrete (2019)	This is that rare movie which ticks all the boxes. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 29, 2019
3/5	58%	The Hummingbird Project (2019)	Eisenberg plays the cocky one here and Skarsgard is the bespectacled boffin. They are not terrible, but that sort of jape does not help the suspension of disbelief..it is better to use unknown actors - they bring attention to the story, not to themselves. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 20, 2019
3.5/5	97%	Border (Gräns) (2018)	Tine and Vore's unusual love story, and Abbasi's slow unfolding of it, will stick in the mind long after the movie ends. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 20, 2019
3.5/5	94%	Us (2019)	Peele once more shows that he is a better writer than director. This work spills over with themes and symbols, just not coherently arranged, nor presented in a visually stylish way. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 20, 2019
4/5	89%	The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)	A unironic embrace of the Arthurian legend, one the illustrates and amplifies the timeless quality of the story, is what's needed. This film provides plenty of that. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 19, 2019
4/5	No Score Yet	Guang (2018)	Yes, the images lean towards romanticised squalor, but the craft is undeniable and arresting. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 14, 2019
2/5	27%	The Aftermath (2019)	At its heart, the story has a soft-porn premise - there is healing to be found in literally sleeping with the enemy - but it is too handicapped by its serious-movie status to sell that idea with any enthusiasm. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 13, 2019
3.5/5	88%	Arctic (2019)	While the film is not quite a nail-biter, there is enough of an engine driving interest in the story... - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 13, 2019
3/5	78%	Captain Marvel (2019)	The Marvel Cinematic Universe's first woman-driven movie has taken much too long to arrive. That it is here at all is cause for celebration. A pity then that it sticks to the tried and tested. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 6, 2019
3.5/5	80%	At Eternity's Gate (2018)	In a stylistic choice that is both the film's best feature, as well as its greatest weakness, its makers have opted to put visuals first and coherent story second. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 6, 2019
2/5	62%	Vox Lux (2018)	It aims, it fires, it misses every target. - The Straits Times (Singapore) EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 27, 2019