Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

Case 39 is a horror movie about a social worker (Renée Zellweger) who fights to save a girl from her abusive parents, only to discover that the situation is more dangerous than she ever expected. Starring Renée Zellweger, Case 39 will be released on September 2009.

Popularity: 1%

Coraline is an animated movie about a young girl (Dakota Fanning) who walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life. From the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline will be released on February 6, 2009.

Popularity: 1%

Death Race is a remake of 1975 film Death Race 2000, starring Jason Statham and Tyrese Gibson.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jason Statham and Natalie Martinez in "Death Race"

In the future, prisoners have to compete against each other in the prison’s driving arena to earn the freedom they desire. The movie begins by showing a brutal race between three cars which are all heavily armored and equipped with various guns. Dodge Ram, driven by Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) fires relentless at the two cars in front of him and has managed to put one of the cars out of the race. The remaining car is a Mustang driven by a famous driver known as Frankenstein and he is accompanied by a navigator called Case (Natalie Martinez). Joe manages to damage Franky’s car badly and if he continues to do so, there’s no way Franky’s car can take the additional damage. In order to fight of Joe, Franky requests Case to release the tombstone, which is a large piece of armor on the back of the car in an attempt to counter the Dodge Ram which is attacking him. Although it may seem Franky has successfully fended off Machine Gun Joe, due to his fuel tank exposure, his car explodes as his navigator ejects herself from the car to survive the explosion.

The economy of the United States is in turmoil. Conglomerates run most prisons across the country for profit. In Terminal Island Prison, prisoners would fight to death and the cage fights are televised to the world for profit. However, the viewers has become bored with the fighting and therefore the prison has introduced Death Race.

Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) works at a steel mill that is closing down and most workers are staging a protest. Jensen happily receives his minimum wages of 300 dollars and returns home to his wife telling her he’ll find a new job. As Jensen goes to check on his baby, an intruder breaks into his house and kills his wife. When Jensen sees his wife lying down on the floor, the man who has earlier killed his wife sprays him which causes him to faint. When he is awaken, he finds himself arrested by cops as he is caught red-handed with a knife in his hand and his wife’s dead body next to him.

Jensen is then sent to Terminal Prison and is coerced by the prison warden, Hennessey to join the Death Race by hiding behind a mask as Frankenstein in order to deceive the world that Franky is still alive, and to boost the TV ratings for Death Race. She explains to Jensen that if he wins 5 Death Races, he will earn his freedom and she will release him from the prison. Jensen is then introduced to a man who is known as "Coach" (Ian McShane) and his fellow mechanics and the Mustang V8 Fastback, originally driven by Franky.

The races are broken apart into three stages — the objectives of the first two stages are just to survive while in Stage 3, the driver must win the race to edge closer towards freedom. Frank is introduced to his navigator, the same woman who acts as Franky’s navigator. As the race goes on Jensen soon realizes the man who has killed his wife is a racer in the Death Race. Due to this, he gets distracted and ends up finishing last in the first race.

Jensen learns he is just part of the game for Hennessey’s profit scheme. He goes into Stage 2 by questioning his navigator, Case on whether she is told to kill Franky. She admits she was told to sabotage Franky’s defense weapons in order to earn her own freedom. He manages to seek the revenge he is looking for by killing Pachenko (Max Ryan). The remaining drivers are taken by surprise when Hennessey releases her secret weapon, a monstrous juggernaut truck which has managed to take down at least one driver.

Jensen decides to team up with Machine Gun Joe in order to assault Hennessy’s secret weapon, in which they have managed successfully. Before Stage 3 is held, Hennessey has her men fitted an explosive underneath Jensen’s car in order to stop Jensen from winning the last stage of the race and gain freedom. Jensen decides to add a half gallon tank to his car to add to the already big 30 gallon tank. Jensen then has a talk with Machine Gun Joe about something before they battle it out in Stage 3.

In a well-executed plan, Machine Gun Joe has his Dodge Ram to fire an explosive shot, destroying a wall and when Hennessey realizes it, both Joe and Ames have already left the prison yard on the way to the bridge. Hennessey mobilizes helicopters to capture the two escapees but does not realize that Ames has earlier switches position with Case since Case already has her release paper signed by the warden. Joe meets up with Jensen and they board a moving train to escape.

While Joe explains how he wishes he could kill the prison warden, Jensen responds sarcastically and it then shows "Coach" with the explosive that failed to go off in Jensen’s car when the prison warden ordered it be activated. The bomb which was discovered when adding the half gallon fuel tank is then used as part of a plot by Jensen’s crew. "Coach" sends Hennessey’s a gift as a token of her victory she thinks she has obtained when opening the gift it shows the bomb and goes back to "Coach" who says “nobody screws with my car” and pushing the detonator resulting in explosion in the warden’s room, killing her off instantly.

The movie ends with both Jensen and Joe working in Mexico on cars in a junkyard. A car then pulls up showing Jensen’s navigator, Case getting out of the car and saying that her release papers were signed from her last deed of killing the original Frankenstein and the prison warden had no choice but the release her. Jensen shows Case his daughter and they all live happily ever after.

Overall, it is a brutal film, full of violence but lack the substance of a great movie. Somewhat, it is fill with action-packed scenes that are good enough to glue you to the seat.

My ratings: 6 out of 10.

Popularity: 2%

Po (voice of Jack Black) is a fat and lazy panda. In fact, he is the laziest animal in ancient China. He works in his father’s noodle shop but dreams of being a kung fu warrior. Po studies kung fu history and idolizes the Furious Five, the country’s top martial arts masters — Master Monkey (Jackie Chan), Master Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Master Viper (Lucy Liu), Master Mantis (Seth Rogen) and Master Crane (David Cross). They are trained by Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) whose master is Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim).

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Master Oogway (a tortoise who knows kung fu) summons Shifu only to tell him his prophecy of Tai Lung (Ian McShane) will escape to become a treat to the civilians, therefore, Oogway must select a new Dragon Warrior to defend the town. The whole village gathers to find out which of the Furious Five will be the Dragon Warrior only to see Po accidentally being selected as the chosen one.

Po and Shifu in Kung Fu Panda

After learning the prophecy of Tai Lung’s escaping, Shifu sends Zeng (Dan Fogler), the messenger goose to send a message to Commander Vachir (Michael Clarke Duncan), a Javan Rhinoceros to beef up the security by as much as twice but Vachir arrogantly says no one can escape his prison, with 1,000 soldiers guarding 1 prisoner. Unfortunately, Zeng carelessly drops a feather which enables Tai Lung to escape and easily trashes all of Vachir’s soldiers who try to stop him.

When Shifu learns from Zeng that Tai Lung has escaped, Shifu consults Oogway only to have Oogway strongly tells Shifu to believe Po is the chosen one and slowly nurture him like the peach tree. Oogway then passes away like dust in the air. While Po is upset by his clumsiness and his failure in his earlier training, it is Shifu who convinces Po to stay when Po decides to leave. Shifu discovers that Po is able to climb up to the highest kitchen cabinet just to steal some cookies and therefore uses food as a whole new way of training Po. When Po is finally equipped with the kung fu to fight Tai Lung, Shifu brings down the dragon scroll to Po only for both of them to realize the scroll is totally empty.

Po, Master Monkey, Master Tigress, Master Viper, Master Mantis and Master Crane

Knowing that Tai Lung is on his way, Shifu asks his students including Po to help the villagers to evacuate the place, believing he will be able to at least, momentarily holds off Tai Lung. Po meets his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong) who finally reveals to Po his secret ingredient’s secret — nothing. Po finally understand the secret behind the blank scroll, which is nothing but to believe in oneself. He boldly goes back to the palace in order to face Tai Lung. The fight between both of them doesn’t last very long, but like the entire show, is nevertheless hilarious. Po, somehow, manages to defeat Tai Lung and earns the respect of the Furious Five as well as Shifu.

Overall, this is one of the best animated movie and definitely the best so far this year. Great voice acting by Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, beautiful landscapes and background arts, what’s more, the dumplings and bowl of noodles look extremely real! Worth watching with the entire family.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.

Popularity: 3%