Shock Wave is a quite intense action-thriller starring Hong Kong star actor Andy Lau. It tells the story of an undercover police officers who arrests the brother of a ruthless terrorist who is specialized in using explosives. About a year later, the terrorist has specialized in drug trade but is obsessed with getting his revenge. He kills one of the commanders in charge of his brother's arrest a year ago by making his car explode. The undercover cop who has a successful career, is respected by his peers and has met a teacher who has become his girlfriend over the past twelve months, realizes that the terrorist will challenge him to get his revenge. A series of bombs are found in Hong Kong and it becomes more and more difficult to dismantle them for the protagonist. However, nobody is prepared for the terrorist's magnum opus: he kidnaps hundreds of civilians by blocking the exits of a tunnel with two trucks filed with explosives. His goal is to discredit the Hong Kong police corps, make money with a ruthless businessman and reunite with his imprisoned brother. The undercover terrorist must try to deal very carefully with the excitable terrorist in order to save as many civilians as possible.

There are numerous elements I liked about Shock Wave. The film has vivid pace and is entertaining from start to finish. The acting performances are great as Andy Lau convinces as calm and rational police officers while Wu Jiang delivers the goods as clever and pitiless terrorist. The action scenes in the film are always dramatic and intense. The special effects look great. The settings in Hong Kong are also quite interesting and especially the scenes in the tunnel make for a claustrophobic atmosphere. The film has a few nice ideas that keep it original such as the terrorist's brother who has found religion and unexpectedly doesn't cooperate with the dangerous terrorist. I also liked the movie's unusual ending which distinguishes it from similar movies where an honest officer is challenged by a pitiless terrorist. One wouldn't see such a resolution in an ordinary Hollywood flick.

On the other side, the movie also has a few minor flaws. The story is quite predictable which makes the film lose momentum and tension. The relationship between the honest police officer and the emotionally unstable teacher isn't credible at all as the police officer has the charisma of an iceberg while his love interest seems to be constantly discouraged.

Overall, Shock Wave is a quite good action-thriller that will entertain you from start to finish. It makes me think of the Die Hard series and similar franchises but since these movie have been mostly disappointing recently, it only makes sense to look for something similar but more convincing produced in Hong Kong with its know-how of spectacular action cinema.

Sky on Fire has just as many weaknesses as strengths and makes for an entertaining but ultimately underwhelming experience. On the positive side, you have a quite complex and intriguing story which is though at times hard to follow with its numerous characters with different interests. It basically revolves around a company that is working on stem cell research to cure cancer. The leader of the project died in a fire five years earlier and the team is now led by a greedy doctor and his humanist ex-wife. The son of the deceased leader who believes his father was assassinated in a conspiracy robs a truck with important material to put the company under pressure. A headstrong brother and his sick sister get coincidentally caught up in this conflict and while the sister grows fond of the thief, her brother rather tries to find her a cure by any means necessary. The security guard of the company who lost his wife to cancer five years earlier must decide whether he follows the greedy doctor's orders or whether he supports the group of robbers. However, another more ruthless security guard known as Wolf watches every move he makes and will go as far as he possibly can to protect the greedy doctor and his entourage. This intriguing story leads to quite a few spectacular action scenes. One can observe wild car chases, a dramatic duel on a rooftop and a dramatic showdown in the company's modern headquarters. Sky on Fire is entertaining from start to finish and avoids developing any significant ups or downs.

However, Sky on Fire also has several issues. First of all, the acting performances are truly terrible. The often cringe-worthy dialogues are offered without any emotions as the actors and actresses look as wooden as if they were robots. Since none of the actors incarnates his role convincingly, it's difficult to empathize with any of the characters. The story-telling also has issues and is often switching from one perspective to another which is quite confusing with the elevated number of characters. The fact that the villain behind the conspiracy is revealed halfway through the movie makes the film lose momentum. The special effects look obviously fake and overuse CGI techniques. The company's headquarters look as if they were copied from an old science-fiction movie which doesn't go along with the rest of the story which seems to take place in present-day Hong Kong.

In the end, Sky on Fire is a quite difficult film. It has a solid core with an interesting story, several great action scenes and solid pace that keeps the movie entertaining from start to finish. However, it seriously suffers from terrible acting, weak script writing and cheap special effects. This movie had the potential to be much better than what it ultimately turned out to be. If someone ever decided to produce a remake of this film, I would give it a chance because I appreciate the film's main ideas. However, as it is now, I can't recommend Sky on Fire which is an average action-thriller at best.

Reset is an emotional, entertaining and stylish Chinese science-fiction thriller that is much better than its reputation. The movie tells the story of single mother and scientist Xia Tian who is working on wormhole technology to allow people to travel back in time. One day, her son gets kidnapped and Xia Tian is forced to steal the scientific results from her facility within one hour to save his life. The challenge ends in a disaster with her colleagues getting killed, her facility getting exploded and her son getting killed. As last resort, Xia Tian decides to become the first human being to travel back in time to get a second chance to save her child. However, she soon realizes that her personal fate is part of a much more complex conspiracy and that she has to face much more opponents than expected to repair the past.

Reset is a movie that convinces on many levels. First of all, the depiction of the near future seems surprisingly grounded and realistic but also includes vehicles, technologies and buildings that are stunning to discover. Secondly, the plot is compact and has fluid pace which makes for an entertaining viewing experience from start to finish. Thirdly, the special effects are rarely over the top and find the right balance between brutality and elegance. Fourthly, the acting performances are quite good as one cares about the sympathetic main character but also about her trustworthy colleagues and even about the villains who are much more complex than one might initially think.

There are only minor flaws in this film. First of all, the plot is somehwat predictable and could have been a little bit more complex. Secondly, the movie's twist wasn't much convincing and could have been more detailed.

In the end, Reset is a very strong science-fiction movie that is filled with action and emotions from start to finish. The film's camera, light and special effects look greater than many contemporary Hollywood films. Therefore, the movie deserves more acclaim and attention than it gets. Give it a try and you will get excellent entertainment if you like science-fiction films with depth.

My DEESL Day in three pictures with three descriptions:

Chocolats Samson in Trois-Rivières: wonderful place, wonderful people, wonderful chocolate!

École secondaire de Donnacona: great people, great food, great conferences!

P.F. Chang restaurant in Laval: elegant decorations, elegant food, elegant waitresses!

Ladies and gentlemen!

Four years after my detailed predictions for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, here are now my predictions for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Two months before the start of the biggest sporting event in the world, it's time to look at the thirty-two teams that are going to participate. Today, I will start with group A, which is one of the easiest groups in the whole tournament which makes this one particularly hard to predict in my book.

Team: Russia

Strengths: The hosts of the tournament will be pushed by their fans and the entire country. The team's biggest advantage is that the players almost exclusively play in the Russian Premier League and know one another particularly well. The players who have been part of the squad over the past year are aged between twenty-one and thirty-four years which makes for a balanced mixture of experienced veterans and energetic youngsters. Coach Stanislaw Cherchesov has been in charge for two years and knows his players rather well by now. He has been the goaltender of the national team for twelve years and knows what his players are going through. He has been coaching for far over a decade and has enough experience. 

Weaknesses: The Russian team doesn't have any star players like Andrey Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko ten years ago who gave Russian football a big boost and signed with successful foreign clubs after having their breakthrough at the UEFA Euro 2008. The team is also lacking a solid striker. Their best attacking players Aleksandr Kokorin and Fyodor Smolov have only scored twelve goals each. At the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, the Russian side lost against Portugal and Mexico and only managed to defeat New Zealand. Since then, the team has only won one out of six games.

Prediction: The Russian side is too weak to compete at the highest international level. I predict the team to finish third in the group stage and get eliminated.

Team: Saudia Arabia

Strengths: Saudia Arabia has some very experienced players in its squad. Midfielder Taisir Al-Jassim has one hundred twenty-seven caps and central defender Osama Hawsawi even has one hundred thirty-one. The team has a very good striker in Mohammad Al-Sahlawi, who has scored twenty-eight goals in only thirty-six games. The squad is very homogeneous with most players earning their money in Saudia Arabia and three players performing in renowned Spanish Primera Division. 

Weaknesses: Saudia Arabia has only survived the tournament's group stage once: back in 1994 when the tournament took place in the United States of America. Since then, the team hasn't won one single game in the tournament and I still remember the crashing 0-8 defeat to Germany back in 2002. Saudia Arabia hasn't qualified for the last two editions of the tournament. Even on a more regional level, Saudi Arabia hasn't been too convincing as of lately. They were eliminated in the group stage during the last two Asian Cups in 2011 and 2015. They didn't even get past the group stage at the last Arabian Gulf Cup in 2017. That was also the case for the last two West Asian Football Federation Championships in 2012 and 2014. The team has only won one out of its four friendly games this year, against Moldova. Coach Juan Antonio Pizzi doesn't have much experience and has only been in charge for a year.

Prediction: Saudi Arabia doesn't have the assets to compete internationally. The team will finish last in the group stage and therefore get eliminated.

Team: Egypt

Strengths: Egypt has one of the world's most successful strikers right now in Mohamed Salah who has also scored an impressive thirty-three goals in only fifty-seven games for his national team. Experienced Argentinian head coach Hector Cuper has been in charge for more than three years and is fully supported by the Egyptian Football Association.

Weaknesses: Egypt's appearance at the 2018 FIFA World Cup is the first in twenty-eight years and only third overall. The team has never gone beyond the first round. The team participated in two FIFA Confederations Cup and didn't survive the group stage either. The team hasn't had a successful year so far, losing friendly games against Portugal and Greece. Aside of star player Mohamed Salah, most players in the squad don't have much international success. The team's captain and goaltender Essam Al-Hadary is already forty-five years old.

Predictions: Egypt will probably finish second in the group stage and is going to advance to the round of sixteen. They could face Spain or Portugal in the next round and I can't see them winning against these experienced squads. They won't survive the round of sixteen.

Team: Uruguay

Strengths: On paper, Uruguay is by far the strongest team in Group A. The team has an experienced goalkeeper in Galatasaray Instanbul's Fernando Muslera. Captain and defender Diego Godin and his colleague Jose Maria Gimenez both play successfully for Atletico Madrid. Strikers Luis Suarez from FC Barcelona and Edinson Cavani from Paris Saint-Germain are among the best attacking players in the world. Head coach Oscar Tabarez knows his squad very well. He is seventy-one years old and has been in charge of the team for an impressive twelve years in a row. The team has played an impressive qualification, finishing only second behind Brazil and in front of last tournament's finalist Argentina. The team has won the 2015 Pan American Games, defeating teams such as Brazil and Mexico.

Weaknesses: The squad's midfield isn't as strong as its defense and attack. It includes several young talents who haven't played that many games for their national team so far. The team hasn't won any major tournament since the Copa América title back in 2011.

Prediction: Uruguay is probably the strongest team in Group A and will advance to the round of sixteen without any problems. However, the team could meet Portugal or Spain in that round and I can't see Uruguay defeating either team right now. Uruguay will get eliminated in the round of sixteen.