European movies

Ambition – Rosetta Mission short film

November 1, 2014 by Yein Jee

Ambition is a short film to promote the Rosetta mission by the European Space Agency (ESA). Directed by Tomek Bagiński, filmed in Iceland, and stars Aidan Gillen and Aisling Franciosi.

Rosetta is a space probe launched in March 2004 for a detailed study of Comet 67P. It reached its destination last August. According to ESA, it will be the first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet, escort it as it orbits the Sun, and deploy a lander to its surface.

You can learn more about Rosetta on its official website here or read a bit on wiki instead. Set aside the mission, it’s a pretty nice video on its own – it encourages people to learn, explore, and be brave.

Update – The spacecraft ended its mission by hard-landing on the comet in September 2016. Not sure if it has collected any useful data about the comet, but it has achieved many “first” in space exploration besides the few mentioned above. Seems like a successful mission overall.

Unknown (2011) movie trailer

November 22, 2010 by Yein Jee

Trailer for Unknown, an American-German action thriller film. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and based on a French novel by Didier Van Cauwelaert. The movie stars Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Aidan Quinn, Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella. In cinemas in the United States in February 2011.

The movie follows Dr Harris who’s in a traffic accident in Berlin. He wakes up from his coma after four days only to find his wife with another man – who she says is her husband – and seems to have no memory about him. Harris tries to solve the mystery with the help of Gina, the taxi driver who was involved in the accident; and together they discover a twisted agenda and find themselves in deep water.

Interesting plot, and thankfully the trailer doesn’t reveal too much to spoil the suspense. I like the cast too, so I’ll probably watch this in cinema. The US release is around Chinese New Year though, I suspect Malaysia will get a later release because we usually focus on CNY themed movies during that period.

Update – Watched this in late March, we got a delayed release as expected. It’s a movie of two halves; the suspense is good at first but the story goes downhill after they solve the puzzle, it turns into just another action film after that. Overall it’s an average movie, perhaps just a bit better than average.

I also have doubts that the main character would change his belief just because of an accident. I get that there are post traumatic stress and other things but that don’t fit quite right in this case.

Babylon A.D. movie trailer

July 16, 2008 by Yein Jee

Trailer for Babylon A.D., an English language science fiction action movie based on the novel Babylon Babies by French-born Canadian writer Maurice Georges Dantec. Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, the film is a joint production between France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The cast includes Vin Diesel, Melanie Thierry, Michelle Yeoh, Lambert Wilson, Mark Strong, Jerome Le Banner, Charlotte Rampling and Gerard Depardieu. In cinemas in the US next month.

Official intro by 20th Century Fox… “Vin Diesel stars as a mercenary hired to deliver a package from the ravages of post apocalyptic Eastern Europe to a destination in the teeming megalopolis of New York City. The “package” is a mysterious young woman with a secret.”

The woman isn’t that secretive anymore after you watch the video; trailers reveal too much these days. It doesn’t impress me regardless; the actions and techs seem a bit ordinary for a scifi production and the actors look boring. Frankly, a movie is usually poor if the teaser is bad to begin with.

Michelle Yeoh fights again

The only reason I’m considering watching this is because of my fellow countrywoman Michelle Yeoh. She’s starring as a nun who’s also the guardian of Aurora, aka the mysterious woman. Not sure if it’s a good or bad thing but most of her roles are martial art related these days.

Michelle is also starring in another Hollywood film, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which is hitting the theatres in the same month. And yes, looks like she’s a kungfu fighter yet again. On second though, it has to be a good thing to get these exposures in Hollywood regardless of the roles.

As part of a successful franchise, The Mummy – also starring Brendan Fraser, Jet Li and Maria Bello etc. – will probably fare better than Babylon in the box office. Good luck to both films.

Mr. Bean’s Holiday movie trailer

May 27, 2007 by Yein Jee

Trailer for Mr. Bean’s Holiday, a British-French comedy film starring Rowan Atkinson in the title role. It’s based on British TV series Mr. Bean in the 1990s and a standalone sequel to movie Bean in 1997.

Directed by Steve Bendelack and co-starring Max Baldry, Emma de Caunes and Willem Dafoe; it also features veteran French actor Jean Rochefort in a cameo role (as the headwaiter). The film was released in most places back in March but going to show in America in August instead.