To the Fore (Por Fung)

Hong Kong's submission to the 88^th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the few fictional features dedicated to the world of professional cycling.

Representing a detour from his well regarded crime thrillers, director Dante Lam Chiu-yin's To the Fore (Por Fung) tackles the trials and tribulations of three competitive cyclists. Ming (Eddie Peng Yu-yan) and Tian (Shawn Dou Xiam) are lead-outs, tasked with slipstreaming the team's sprinter to the final meters of the race and then break away, to allow Korean sprinter Ji-won (Choi Siwon) to race to the finish line.

Unlike other features, To the Fore focuses mostly on the lead-out rather than the sprinter, well describing the high pressure, high stamina and endurance faced in this propulsive race.

While engaging, the sportscasters' comments, as well as the professional rivalry and love triangle plot involving chinese ex-cyclist Shiyao (Wang Luodan), dampen the races' visually immersive momentum.

Shot on location in Taiwan and Asia, the steep, arduous terrain boasts increasingly sharper bends demanding more speed and control. Attention to detail and technical ingenuity creates an authentic portrayal and close-proximity feel of the diverse cycling styles, action choreography, stunts and the heart-stopping crashes. 

Goosebumps

In this entertaining take of author R.L. Stine's popular young adult horror series that started to be published in 1992, we find teenagers Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his friend Champ (Ryan Lee) accidentally and unknowingly unleashing a real-life scary monster trapped inside a chained Goosebumps book. The monster quickly releases all of the other monsters in the books and together, they start terrorizing the town. Zach, the fictionalized Stine (Jack Black) and his beautiful daughter Hannah (Odeya Rush) attempt to trap them back into the books before it's too late.

The monster-hunt includes over 23 monsters including the Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, the Cuckoo Clock of Doom, mutant insects, the Werewolf of Fever Swamp, knife throwing garden Gnomers, and the main villain Slappy the Dummy. Use of simple but effective computer graphics are instrumental in keeping the scare factor low for the younger audience.

In addition to the great, at times silly and purposively exaggerated performances, the well balanced execution by director Rob Letterman and screenwriter Darren Lamke keeps the action-adventure, screams, and laughs constant in this fun, roller coaster thrill ride.

All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records

All Things Must Pass opens with the striking statement that Tower Records, one of the largest record stores in the world, earned one billion in 1999. With the onset of the digital age and globalization, it filed for bankruptcy five years later and closed its last store in 2006.

With wit and humor, first time director Colin Hanks and writer Steven Leckart trace Tower's rise in Sacramento in 1961 to its fall, capturing the chain's charisma, family atmosphere, and personal approach through interviews of its visionary founder, octogenarian Russ Solomon, Tower's employees and customers. Included are regulars Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stone's contributing editor Steve Kopper, Dave Grohl, and 1970's footages of Elton John at Tower's Sunset Strip store.

An insightful documentary about the lasting legacy of this cultural landmark and the end of the vinyl records industry era.

Steve Jobs

Based on Walter Isaacson's best seller, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's (The Social Network) and director Danny Boyle's (Trainspotting, 127, Sunshine) ambitious, quasi-verite style drama about Apple CEO Steve Jobs, convey the character's essence rather than a comprehensive biography.


Divided into three time-lines, the feature represents Job's career-turning product launches: the 1984 unveiling of the first Macintosh by the 29 year-old at De Anza Community College in Cupertino,

California, the 1988 NeXTs “black cube” computer, and the 1998 iMAC launch. Each section has its own distinctive look shot in 16mm, 35mm, and high definition digital respectively. Stylistically different from director Boyle's previous works, the thrilling drama encapsulates fast paced, continuous action and exceptional dialogue.

Strong performances include Kate Winslet as marketing executive Joanna Hoffman, Seth Rogen as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Michael Stuhlbarg as Mac software designer Andy Hertzfeld, Jeff Daniels as Apple chief executive John Sculley, and Katherine Waterston as ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan.

Despite the lack of physical resemblance to Jobs, Michael Fassbender, superbly portrays the pulsating energy that drives this multidimensional character, and his relationships with key life figures, with an emotional center on Jobs' relationship with daughter Lisa (Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo, and Perla Haney-Jardine).

The Walk

In August 6, 1974 the 24 year-old French high-wire artist Philippe Petit walked a distance of 140 feet on a tight rope strung between the newly constructed World Trade Center Twin Towers, at an elevation of more than 1,300 feet above ground.

Robert Zemeckis' heist-like, narrative, docudrama starts with Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) sketching the, at times comedic, climactic sequences that framed the aerial feat, culminating with a breathtaking and gripping depiction of Petit's death-defying walk.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's captivating performance provides a glimpse of Petit's character. Lesser developed are the integral team of co-conspirators including Petit's mentor, the Czech acrobat Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), Petit's girlfriend Annie Allix (Charlotte Le Bon), photographer Jean-Louis (Clement Sibony), a math teacher deathly afraid of heights Jean-Francois (Cesar Domboy), electronic salesman Jean-Pierre (James Badge Dale), insurance broker Barry Greenhouse (Steve Valentine), Albert (Ben Schwartz) and stoner David (Benedict Samuel).

Creating a shivering, vertiginous, edge of the seat momentum is director of photography Dariusz Wolski's groundbreaking and impressive use of 3D camera angles and stop motion photography placing the viewer on the tight rope looking down at the digital recreation of 1970's Manhattan's skyline, as Petit sits, lies down and walks on the wire.

The Martian

Unlike most space sci-fi genre films Ridley Scott's latest feature is more based on believable science rather than futuristic fiction, it is not laden with action nor special effects and yet it is an engaging, stirring, thrilling adventure marked with powerful performances.

Adapted from Andy Weir's 2011 best selling novel, the story is about astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) who is lost in space during an emergency evacuation of Mars.

Presumed dead Watney is left behind by mission captain Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), pilot Rick Martinez (Michael Pena), chemist Alex Vogel (Aksel Hennie), and specialists Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara) and Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan). When NASA becomes aware of Watney's survival, a high risk, suspenseful rescue mission is contemplated.

While focusing on Watney's physical and psychological existential difficulties, director Scott interjects lighthearted, at times comedic, introspections.

One of the best movies of the year with an outstanding performance by Matt Damon. A must see.