Bar Review: Tree
[Time Out Singapore] We got lost trying to find Tree, and no wonder – the signage is way above eye level on the pillar next to the establishment’s black-matted front, and the windows are so small you wouldn’t realise a restaurant and bar reside within. There are two entrances to the establishment – it’s the red door you want to open for the bar.
Review: J.Edgar
[inSing] Relentless in his pursuit for lawfulness and abhorred for his hardliner ways, America’s first and longest serving Director of the FBI, John Edgar Hoover’s battles for justice in the mean streets of the early 20s and struggles with his own dark alleyways is dramatized in this biopic directed by Clint Eastwood.
Review: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
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[inSing] “Who’s up for an adventure?” asked a beaming Alexander Anderson (played by Michael Caine who can still run at his age). That question heard in trailers - and asked about three more times throughout the film - set the premise to what is to be an action-packed journey through an island where the only mythical thing about it is that its ecological system is flipped—small animals are huge and vice versa. And as the credits rolled, we caught ourselves asking, “What adventure?” Honestly, without the ingenious idea of changing the ecological system, the film would have been over in 30 minutes.
Review: I Spit On Your Grave
[inSing] Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler - usually semi or fully naked) needs to get away from the bustling city life to write her novel and rents a riverside cabin. Unknown to her, the local hillbillies are plotting to shake her up for unintentionally humiliating one of them –Johnny (Jeff Branson), a gas station attendant. What was supposed to be a lesson taught ended up going too far with Jennifer being brutally gang-raped by two of Johnny’s friends, a mentally challenged plumber and a Sheriff. Jennifer survives the ordeal and dives into the lake, never to be seen again –or so they thought.
Review: Has’ Senza EP
The man with many hats (sometimes literally) has rekindled his production itch since his debut album Ten Kingdoms manifested from placement in digital shelves to last year’s Juice Award for Best Electronic Dance Music Producer. Senza didn’t lose much of what Has seemingly set out to do with his album -which is to release his own music (his first foray in a decade long career). But what his EP does that his album does not, is that it subtly grows on you like a pleasurable after-taste that refuses to leave.
Review: 50/50
[inSing] The thing with disease themed movies is that one can expect high drama fragmented with tear-jerking moments. Peppered with a sense of hope (or demise) through characters that are as predictable as they are stereotypical, these supposedly inspiring stories can fall flat or come off as horridly cliché. But director Jonathan Levine’s 50/50 come from a sense of reality, a reality that in these situations, no one, not even the therapist, really knows how to handle the emotions that come with the pain.
Review: Killer Elite
[inSing] Firearms that seem to not run out of ammo, fireworks from explosions, foul language and fiery sex: These are the parts of a sum that makes any film watchable. But is it worth watching? That’s another question altogether.
Killer Elite’s main appeal lies is one simple fact: Seeing Jason Statham and Clive Owen beat the crap out of each other. Robert De Niro is in there to provide balance to the story and to prove that his grey hair can still take all that red blood splatter. But as the credit rolls, the only thing that the all-star trio is left with is a bruised fist on one hand and an overtly messy script on the other.
Review: A Little Bit of Heaven
[inSing] If there’s anything that Kate Hudson should be typecast in, it would be in the department of awkward and ironic characters set in a messy situation.
In Something Borrowed, she is Darcy who treats her best friend Rachel like a punching bag, steals her crush Dex, marries him and ended up with Rachel sleeping with him and keeping secrets. In My Best Friend’s Girl as Alexis, she’s breaks up with well-natured Dustin who hires his roommate Tank to help them get back together. But as Kate Hudson would have it, her character Alexis falls in a complicated romantic situation with Tank.
Review: The Weeknd’s Thursday
On the Monday of March 21, something incredible happened in the world of forward-thinking music. Without pretentious buzz, a mountain of press-release hype and stirring media appearances, The Weeknd released House of Balloons on free download without any additional information. That mixtape created such a storm, everyone wanted a piece of it.
Review: Little Dragon’s Ritual Union
The Swedish electronic band are like 4 best-friends hanging out in their little apartment, each one with their varying taste in music, decided to make a band and became fucking awesome in it. The forming the band part was in 1996, the becoming awesome part is in the present.
And who could doubt the heavyweight of Little Dragon’s distinctive melodious synthpop with their third studio album Ritual Union. Fronted by the genetically indie vocals of Swedish-Japanese Yukimi Nagano, their album’s title track opener (embedded below) kicks starts and forewarns the listener’s magical journey into a soundscape of minimalist beats, a countryside of acoustica, an outback of trip-hop, and downtempo mayhem.
