In Ronald Cheng’s It’s a Wonderful Life, Miki Yeung – one of four Cookies creating a new career on the silver screen – plays a failed Miss Hong Kong and gambling addict, not at all like the cheerful, outgoing 22-year old actor. We wondered if la vie à Las Vegas was her idea of a wonderful life…

Your character in the movie loves gambling. Do you gamble?
I don’t know how to gamble at all. I only play mahjong sometimes with really small bets. But I did go to Las Vegas before shooting started and watched people playing lots of different games like blackjack. I think it is fun but I am still not very into gambling. I took US$50 to the casino and lost $20… then I stopped.

What about the city itself? It must be amazing, isn’t it?
Well, I didn’t really like it. I mean it is beautiful, like a fantasy, but everything seems a bit unreal to me. I like Mother Nature more.
I know the first day of the screening of It’s a Wonderful

Life is on Valentine’s Day and it is your birthday too. Any birthday wish?
I will be filming in the mainland on my birthday, but luckily the premiere will be before my birthday so I can go to that. Hopefully many people will watch the film and like it. For me, I hope to make a few more movies this year, and to be happy and healthy.

The plot of the film is about a group of fairies. If you could be a fairy, who would you want to be?
Cupid is the first to come to mind! (laughs) Cupid arranges relationships for everyone. Love can make one happy and unhappy, so if I can make people happy it’d be great.

You have worked with Ronald Cheng a few times already. But in It’s a Wonderful Life he doesn’t only act. He is also the director. Did that make any difference on location?
He was awesome. It’s the fourth movie we have worked on together, and we usually have so much fun talking and fooling around on the set. But as a director, he needed to handle everything. He was so busy he could only chat while we ate. Say we had 30 minutes for a break, he would spend 20 minutes with us then go back to his work again. He was very serious this time.

Did he ever get so nervous that he pulled a long face or yelled at the cast?
Of course not. Ronald is a great comedian himself and understands the atmosphere can’t get too serious on the set of a comedy. He tried to remove the pressure and make everyone relaxed. Playful feelings among the cast can help bring new directions to a film.

Who do you want to work with in the future?
Derek Yee. C'est la Vie, Mon Cherie is one of my all-time favourites. He is so good at portraying the tenderness of human relationships. Also I heard he is very good at guiding actors. I’d also like to work with Lau Wai Keung. He may look cool but he takes really good care of the cast.

You have worked with actors like Ronald Cheng, Edison Chen and Alex Fong before. Is there any actor you dream of working with?
Takeshi Kaneshiro! But I guess the chance is slim as our ages and looks don’t match so well on the screen…

But I heard he is a cool guy and doesn’t talk much.
It doesn’t matter! I can just get to work with him and get to know him.

One last thing: what is your idea of a wonderful life?
It is simple. Just to be happy every day. You don’t know what will happen tomorrow so just have fun and don’t do anything that may give you regrets.

Starring: Julia Roberts, Dakota Fanning, Steve Buscemi, Dominic Scott Kay, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Cedric the Entertainer, Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, André Benjamin, Thomas Haden Church, Robert Redford
Director:Gary Winick
Scheduled release:February 17

That’s some Dakota Fanning! It’s only a mild heresy to turn a beloved children’s book and animated film into a star vehicle for the wee Miss Fanning, who has become Hollywood’s only A-list star under the age of 13. The only real surprise is that she doesn’t have her own production company yet.
And so we come to what was an inevitability: a live-action rendition of Charlotte’s Web, complete with CGI-infused talking animals. The star power is out in force, at least in the barn. Fanning’s Fern adopts the runt of a swine litter, naming him Wilbur, and placing him in foster care in her uncle’s barn in her tiny Maine farming community. Once he’s in the confines of Zuckerman farm, the embittered animals begin to warm to young, impressionable Wilbur, while warning him exactly what humans keep pigs around for.
Eventually Wilbur is befriended by Charlotte the spider (voiced by Julia Roberts), who quickly vows to save him from his fate in the smokehouse. You probably know the drill: she weaves into her web words such as “SOME PIG”, “TERRIFIC”, and so on, which turns Wilbur into a local media sensation. The various other animals in the barn offer a hand here and there, most notably the rat Templeton.
The film will inevitably – and rightly – be compared to the animated classic, a film so loved it gives off that air of ‘don’t mess with this movie’. Yet messin’ is done. The changes are subtle. For the most part, the new Charlotte’s Web is a faithful and honest attempt to stick with its source material. But something here has drained away some of the Web’s magic. Is it an attempt to make the story more Fanning-focused? The movie has a more ‘kiddie’ feel throughout and the animated film’s best lines have gone missing. In fact, one of my favourite lines of dialogue of all time has been excised: Templeton, searching for new words to describe Wilbur, comes up with one from a popcorn box: “It says, ‘Crunchy’.”
Instead of such clever moments, this film is filled with potty humour. Farting cows, the view of a horse’s rear end, belches, drooling... these are the staples of the new Charlotte’s Web. The source material is fine without such way-out-of-place juvenile fare which weakens considerably what is otherwise a perfectly serviceable affair for both kids and adults. (My four-year-old was only mildly distracted in the last half of the movie and sat quietly and patiently throughout the 96-minute film, which, for me, fairly flew by.)
A word about casting: Roberts and Buscemi are inspired choices for their roles, but the remaining cast aren’t quite as magical. With Robert Redford as a horse, John Cleese a sheep, Oprah Winfrey a nattering goose and Thomas Haden Church a crow, the voice work is fine, but it smells more of stunt casting to amuse the adults than anything else. For what it’s worth, Wilbur is voiced by an actual 10-year-old.
Most kids will enjoy Charlotte’s Web, 2006, with its encouraging message about friendship and tolerance. (Though some will be scared to tears by the enormous, talking spider and the occasional dark tones: the opening scene has a farmer threatening to behead a baby pig with an enormous axe.) An apt comparison might be to that other talking pig movie, Babe, which comes out superior in just about every way.
Bottom line: Charlotte’s Web doesn’t really encroach on the legacy and success of its animated forbear – the original Charlotte has nothing to worry about. Christopher Null

Starring: Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Debra Messing, Gary Sinise, Billy Connolly
Director: Roger Allers, Jill Culton, Anthony Stacchi
Scheduled release: February 15

Not too long ago, one great computer-animated film appeared per year, and that was it. Then, seemingly overnight, that became a dozen a year, and every one had to do with an animal trying to find its home. Tacked onto this ever-growing list is Open Season, the latest from The Lion King director Roger Allers.
In a small rural town where camping and hunting are a part of daily life, Boog (Martin Lawrence) has a damn good time... for a grizzly bear, that is. He does a show with his friend, park ranger Beth (Debra Messing), and has a nice little bed and three meals a day in her basement. Then one day, Boog frees a deer named Elliot (Ashton Kutcher) from the hood of dumb-as-brick hunter Shaw’s (Gary Sinise) truck. Elliot considers this an act of eternal friendship and begins to follow Boog around everywhere, eventually causing the bear to lose his show with Beth. Without a home or means of livelihood, Boog is sent back to the forest with Elliot. There, he must find his inner bear (did I just type that?) and Elliot must find the courage to stand up to head-buck Ian (Patrick Warburton). All of this happens while the pair are also trying to find their way back home while avoiding being killed by Shaw.
Though the beginning of the movie gives off the lovable sheen of a Yogi the Bear cartoon, Open Season quickly gives up quirky lovability for a familiar no-place-like-home sentiment and ever-present ‘be yourself’ diatribes. Nothing here is specifically more heartwarming or witty than anything in, say, Monsters, Inc. (where co-director Jill Culton served as visual developer).
That said, nothing sticks out as particularly obnoxious either. The movie has the patented values one would want from a film like this and most of the characters are overblown enough to warrant heavy chuckles. The problem is that it doesn’t offer any depth to make the characters memorable: Boog is no Buzz Lightyear and Elliot is certainly no Woody. However, holding out for another Toy Story or The Incredibles might be a little optimistic given the mass production of these films. At this point, the best we can hope for is an animation that doesn’t concern breaking out of a zoo of some sort. Chris Cabin

Starring:Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Carla Gugino
Director: Shawn Levy
Scheduled release: February 15

Right around the time a monkey urinates on Ben Stiller’s head, I came to terms with the fact that Shawn Levy’s high-concept comedy Night at the Museum would choose the lowest road possible as it searched for scatological humour.
That Levy would stoop to such levels doesn’t surprise me. No, I’m more upset that it took me so long to accept that what could have been inspired fluff for the whole family is, in fact, a silly parade of slapstick antics aimed at audience members age eight and under.
Stiller plays the unremarkable Larry Daley, a milquetoast divorcee whose inability to hold a decent job has him in the doghouse with son Nick (Jake Cherry). A last-ditch job interview (handed to him by Stiller’s actual mom, Anne Meara) sends Larry to New York’s Museum of Natural History, where he accepts the post of night watchman and discovers that everything literally comes to life once the sun goes down.
Museum houses a veritable stable of comic relics. Dick Van Dyke, Bill Cobbs, and Mickey Rooney (doing a terrible Don Rickles impersonation) creak through establishing scenes as the facility’s former guards. They leave Larry a set of instructions to follow, though their motives are a little suspect. Robin Williams keeps his motor mouth in check as a wax Theodore Roosevelt, Larry’s late-night mentor. All the players, though, must blow an inch of dust off the movie’s flat-as-pancakes jokes, credited to Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon.
Because Museum begins with a farfetched premise, I’m willing to overlook certain plot inconsistencies, even those that potentially derail the entire story. For instance, if Roosevelt knows he’s a mannequin made in Poughkeepsie (and not the actual president), how come Sacajawea (Mizuo Peck) believes she’s a real Indian tracker?
Still, two things stuck in my craw that can’t be overlooked. As he hurtles through a decathlon of catastrophes, Stiller falls back on the nervous shrugs and unearned bravado that are part of his comic approach. That’s fine, though trading barbs with De Niro (in Meet the Parents) is hardly the same as having a slap-fight with a monkey. However, what’s disappointing is that Museum doesn’t tailor its alterable script to fit around Stiller’s strengths. It’s immediately obvious that any actor willing to sprint for 90 minutes could play this part. (Jack Black, in fact, might have been an inspired choice.)
And secondly, Levy’s effects are substandard – again, no major surprise considering Chris Columbus and Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) receive producing credits. Digital animals and miniaturized soldiers (look for Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan in elongated cameos) resemble rejects from the set of Jumanji, which came out 11 years ago. Yawn.
Here’s an idea: instead of buying a movie ticket, spend the afternoon in an actual museum. You’ll likely laugh just as hard. Sean O’Connell

Starting: Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore, Kristin Johnston, Brad Garrett, Haley Bennett, Campbell Scott
Director: Marc Lawrence
Scheduled release: February 14

It's not a complaint when I say that Hugh Grant seems to play the same role over and over these days. It never gets old to watch him play a complete bastard who is also loveable and endearing in his utter self-absorption. It may eventually get tiresome to see the spiky-haired acerbic bloke woo the girl, but it hasn't yet – and it is certainly an improvement over his earlier, sappy-and-awkward romantic stylings.
In Music and Lyrics, Grant's playing Alex Fletcher, former frontman of a hilariously '80s band called Pop and current contented has-been. While living exclusively in the land of former glory does allow Alex to wallow in adoration without really having to do anything whatsoever, his bottom-of-the-barrel tour dates are drying up and the money is running out. He gets the chance to revive his career when a vapid pop superstar gives him four days to write her a hit.
Alex is lucky enough to have a novice lyricist as his fill-in plant tender, so he and Sophie (Drew Barrymore) strike up an impromptu partnership to crank out a twee pop ballad in under a week. It's a convenient set up for the odd couple brand of foreplay so popular in chick flicks, with the flirty banter and clever quipping, but most of the entertainment isn't from the awkwardness of first love so much as it is about Barrymore's floopy, hippie appeal colliding with Grant's sarcastic charm.
There is something about Music and Lyrics that seems rote, even for a prototype in the romantic comedy field. It hits all the appropriate rises and falls of a burgeoning onscreen romance – the meet cute, the sudden discovery of deep feelings, the obstacles that threaten to tear the lovers apart – and it hits them precisely when convention dictates. But it does so even though Barrymore and Grant have a more bickering sibling or flirtatious friends vibe than they do, even though their romance has no real roadblocks to it, even though it feels like these things happen because they are supposed to happen in romantic comedies.
But Music and Lyrics is much more comedy than romance. It's funny because of Alex's unflagging wittiness, and the tragically accurate satire of a rich pop star's enthusiasm for both Hunduism and onstage dry humping he calls "dancing." Kristin Johnston is also a delight as Sophie's sister, a weight-loss guru with a huge residual crush on Alex's patented Pop dance moves. It's accidentally funny because of the bargain basement dubbing in of singing voices for all the actors (which has happened to Barrymore before, in Everyone Says I Love You). But the absolute top tier of comedy is the opening scene of Pop's original 1984 hit, Pop Goes My Heart, which is spectacularly Wham-tastic.
It's too bad that Music and Lyrics isn't better, because it's been ages since there was a really good romantic comedy, and this one looks adorable on paper. But writer-director Marc Lawrence, who previously did Two Weeks Notice, may know how to write Hugh Grant to be flawlessly endearing, but he does not seem to have the same knack for pacing an entire romance. It's got all the polish and pizzazz of an entertaining movie, but it really feels too chicky for a good comedy, yet not romantic enough for the Valentine's release it's set up to be. Anne Gilbert

Good news – the 31st Hong Kong International Film Festival is on the horizon. Bad news – the film buff rat race is on again.

If you have even a moderate interest in movies, the festival can become an exhausting round of dashes from one venue to another, trying to fit in all those films you know HK will never see again. I remember some years ago behaving like an adrenaline injected greyhound to slot four movies into one day – it was harder work than a full day at the office. But that’s life with movie mania – and the only way to get your fill of outrageous cult classics, innocent (or not) animations and everything in between. The programme for this year’s festival is on its way but here are some of the titles we’ll be running for…
Taiwanese director Zero Chou’s Spider Lilies looks the choice for everything stylish and edgy. Chou’s last work, Splendid Float, won the Best Taiwan film award in the 41st Golden Horse Awards. This time she asked Taiwanese pop babe Rainie Yang and the young and promising Isabella Leong to star in her elegant exploration of relationships. While most people gossip about Yang and Leong’s erotic kissing scene, those who saw Splendid Float will know the stunning visuals are what to really look out for. Also don’t miss South Korean director Han Lee’s Almost Love, in which My Tutor Friend’s charming stars Kwon Sang-woo and Kim Ha-neul reunite for a genre-blending romantic comedy.
We’ve had the good and the bad – here’s the ugly. It is an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story about the gruesome duckling which became a sublime swan. Hegner and Kiilerich’s movie, The Ugly Duckling and Me, is a very modern take on the tale – imagine a wily rat setting the hideous little quacker up as a sideshow in a carnival! And the duck is ugly – but you gotta love it that way. Another CG wonder is Shrek producer John H. William’s Happily N’Ever After, a fairy tale about fairy tales gone awry. And yes again, the characters are as stylish as Shrek. Ahh, when did cartoon characters become so… ugly?
The full programme of the festival will be announced on February 22. Postal and online bookings open on February 24. For the latest updates, click www.hkiff.org.hk.