THE UGLY TRUTH (NC16)
Romantic Comedy/96 minutes

Score: 3/5

PRETTY but socially handicapped TV producer (Katherine Heigl) quarrels often with obnoxious and male-chauvinist TV host (Gerard Butler), before the unlikely couple falls in love.

It's not the freshest idea but Butler's character injects fun into the formula by playing Aunt Agony to his producer and advising her on what men really want.

- YONG SHU HOONG

TOKYO SONATA (PG)
Drama/119 minutes

Score: 3.5/5

BEHIND a facade of Japanese middle-class normalcy, Dad (Teruyuki Kagawa) pretends to go to work after losing his job; housewife mother (Kyoko Koizumi) simmers with discontent, while younger son (Kai Inowaki) uses his lunch money to pay for clandestine piano lessons. Despite a possibly jarring plot twist, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's film touches effectively on the Japanese psyche.

- YSH

CROWS ZERO II (NC16)
Action/133 minutes

Score: 2/5

HAVING fought his way to the top of the heap in the earlier Crows Zero film, Takiya Genji (Shun Oguri) now has to rally the students of Suzuran All-Boys High as they head into all-out war with rival Hosen Academy.

But Crows Zero II could certainly use more of that deliciously demented sense of black humour which marked the first film.

- BOON CHAN

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