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Quick thoughts on a batch of 2018 films under the cut:

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - 4/10 I'm being generous, really.

The Way We Are - 8/10 A lovely, quiet little HK film I've been wanting to see forever. Couldn't find a copy with subs so I had to settle for watching it in Cantonese, and my Cantonese kinda sucks, but I think I got most of it.

Office Christmas Party - 3/10 It's pretty much what you'd expect. You watch it on a lazy afternoon, laugh like three times, and forget the whole thing within hours. Best/worst title for a studio comedy since Hot Tub Time Machine?

Your Name. - 5/10 Apparently Makoto Shinkai is not for me, though I will say this is easily the best of the three films I've seen from him. Overall, I found it to be nothing more than a decent blockbuster, not the profound meditation on human existence I was expecting. Maybe if I adjust my...

Moon - 8/10 Low budget sci-fi movie that deserves more love. It Happened One Night - 8/10 A classic. Witty and fun and popularized a lot of tropes found in romantic comedies today. Spotlight - 8/10 An investigative drama that remains compelling the whole way through and treats its heavy...

Phone Booth - 6/10 Extremely ridiculous, but entertaining. It did its job.

Home - 5/10 Not awful but definitely not one of DreamWorks' best. Felt pretty average in every aspect; it touched on several different themes but didn't bother to explore them in any level of detail. Lava - 4/10 A short about singing volcanoes. Yeah. It was supposed to be cute but I found it...

Whiplash - 8.5/10 This movie flayed every inch of skin off my body. I'm still shaking. I can't remember the last time I had a movie experience this intense. Difficult watch, but so worth it.

Beyond the Lights - 7.5/10 This was a nice surprise. Pretty predictable, but it had some important things to say about (female) celebrity culture and an outstanding lead performance. The Heat - 7/10 A good way to kill 2 hours, I guess. 2046 - 7/10 I really love Wong Kar-wai's films, but I was...

Fargo - 8.5/10 Wish I discovered it earlier. Great as a thriller, character study, and black comedy. Guardians of the Galaxy - 8/10 To be honest I don't really have a particular attachment to Marvel movies (Spider-Man 2 excepted for nostalgic reasons) but I've never come across one I flat-out...

Before Midnight - 9/10 I wonder how different my viewing experience of the Before trilogy would be if I was older and had grown up with it, not knowing when the next one would come out or if there was even going to be a next one. Like the previous two films, Before Midnight features a lot of...

Empire of the Sun (1987) - 6.5/10 Not bad, but I was expecting so much more. I think the real problem here was the overall tone, which never really settled anywhere. Not sure what point the director was trying to make. When a war film doesn't move you much, that's not a good sign. I genuinely...

Equilibrium (2002) - 6/10 Pretty entertaining -- it was fun to watch, but not hugely original or deep. Years from now, I'll probably just remember this for Christian Bale doing some kind of martial arts with guns for a good chunk of the film. You'll either find the action scenes very cool or...

Mirror Mirror - 6/10 I couldn't really bring myself to care about the story but there were a few funny moments and the whole thing was a real feast for the eyes (the costumes, damn).

Peter Pan (2003) - 8/10 Not the Disney version, but a live-action one. I'm a bit biased because this was one of my childhood movies *happy sigh* It's not perfect, but I think it's a pretty good adaptation, fairly faithful to the original play & novel yet refreshing. The acting was great, the...

The Hunger Games - 8/10 It was pretty much what I expected but still entertaining.

Water For Elephants (2011) 6.5/10 A very pleasant atmosphere and decent story, but I found the two main characters horribly bland. Robert Pattinson's acting did not help.

Anna Karenina (1935) 8/10 A very condensed adaptation of the novel -- Levin, the co-protagonist, only appears in like two scenes lol. Still, it's very entertaining, and a real treat for the eyes.