Tag: movie

Kill Bill, Volume I

Reviews

When I saw Resevoir Dogs for the first time, I was stunned. The story, the style, the violence… all of it was just awe inspiring.

Pulp Fiction followed suit.

Jackie Brown… well, other than a few highly quotable lines from Samuel L. Jackson, it was a stinker.

Kill Bill is a true return to form for Tarentino, and a departure just the same. In what actually feels like a modern retelling of an old black and white kung fu/Kurosawa film, he blends the perfect mixture of style, story, and over the top violence to pull you in and leave you begging for more.

Thankfully, Volume II should be out in February.

I highly recommend this film. And if you like Tarentino, you’ll love this movie.

Blondes and Jackie Chan

Reviews

I’ve seen two movies recently, and figured I’d take a moment to give them the once over for ya…

The first one, Legally Blonde 2.  It was cute, funny in parts, but the main reason I went was to cheer up the love of my life.  And it worked.  Essentially, if you liked the first one, you’ll like the second one… Just ignore the “Snap Cup” scenes and you’ll be fine. 

Next… The Medalion starring Jackie Chan.  It was good, but like almost all Jackie Chan movies, the story takes a back seat to the action.  There is a feel to the film, if you pay attention to it, that is common in alot of anime and other films from that region of Asia, of disjointedness.  The story jumps from one plot point to another with little in the way of transition.  Plot point. *pop* Plot point. *pop* Action Scene. *pop* Plot point. *pop* Chase Scene. *pop* Plot point… etc.  And the cuts between scenes are about that abrupt.  And of course, when dealing with a Jackie Chan film, you’ll see the usual people speaking their native tongue that is later dubbed over.  Sometimes the choice to do this is odd..  They are in China, you would expect them to be speaking chinese with subtitles, and they do speak chinese, but its dubbed over in english, and then when the same actor is in a setting in England speaking to non-chinese speakers, he’s still speaking chinese with english dubbed over…  Its just one of my personal nit picky problems with dubbing.  I hate it.  And lastly, the movie gets to a certain point, decides “Its been 90 minutes, lets wrap this up.”  And it is, in about 3 minutes.

That said… I go to see Jackie Chan films for the action scenes.  And this movie delivers on that respect.  The only issue is that for whatever reason… Jackie getting older, wanting a different feel for the movie… whatever… they used alot of cable work as opposed to the normal stunts that Jackie usually pulls.  Normally, I walk out of a Jackie Chan film saying to myself “Oh my god! I can’t believe he did that!”  Things like jumping from one building to another without a safety harness, etc, etc…  But in The Medalion, its clear in many places that its not just Jackie… its Jackie and the guys pulling the wires.  And seeing that… it makes me a little sad.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Reviews

The Disney theme park ride is good…

The new movie starring Jonny Depp and Orlando Bloom is awesome.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw an action/adventure film in the theater and left feeling so utterly satisfied.

Go see it.

Make Love Not War

Reviews

I could talk about the Matrix: Reloaded, but there are approximately 4,783,548,451,963.33 websites already doing that. I’m sure you can find one, you just have to sift through all the porn…

Instead, let me tell you about another movie. Down With Love.

When I first saw the previews for this, I thought to myself, and told as many people and I thought cared to listen, that this movie was going to either be utterly fantastic or an utter pile of poop. I’m happy to say it is the former.

Down With Love is smart, witty, and has a fabulous sense of style. It takes the old 60’s romantic comedy, and honors it, and skewers it both at th same time. From the bright colors and clothes, to the painted city skyline backdrops, it fills a hole in the movie horizon that I didn’t know existed until they showed it to me.

Its about a woman who writes a book to empower women to be like men: all business, no love, and sex a la carte. Its also about a man, the ladies man, the man about town, the most eligible bachelor who is determined to remain one. She rebuffs his charms, and he becomes determined to show the world that she’s not really a “Down With Love” girl.

Beginning to end, literally from the first opening credits and music until the last of the credits rolled, I had a smile on my face. This is one movie that will definately find its way into my DVD collection someday.

Bulletproof Monk

Reviews

Catches bullets? with his teeth? Nigga please!

Okay, so that line is actually from Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon, but I just couldn’t resist.

Want to see explosions? guns? unrealistic martial arts fight scenes? If you said yes, this movie is for you.

I loved it! (It was much better than Cats.) Chow Yun Fat played his usual self, only slightly less serious. Seann William Scott played his usual self, only slightly more serious. And Boy Wonder Studios (owned and operated by Burt Ward, Robin from the old Batman TV show) did a fine job on the special effects.

I liken this to a kung-fu movie in the old style, like the ones that used to air as “Kung Fu Theater” on Saturday afternoons. Guys show up, fight, move on. Chases. A little story about a prophesy. And saving the world.

Definately worth my $6.

A Beautiful Mind.

Reviews

I saw this over the weekend, and it was good.

I was expecting this movie to be a fact based docu-drama type film about the life of John Nash. But with Ron Howard at the wheel, I should have known better. Even when the situation was heartbreaking, he would remind you that there was hope. In the midst of his madness I found myself smiling, even laughing out loud.

And in the Darkness, Bind Them.

Reviews

The day has come and passed. The Lord of the Rings was finally brought to the silver screen properly (Ralph Bakshi’s bastardization doesn’t count, and if I close my eyes and repeat “it does not exist” maybe it might come true).

Wow.

And…

Wow.

The film is beautiful. The effects are amazing. Every actor nails their role. Peter Jackson has succeeded (so far) in bringing one of the most loved fantasy novels to life. For almost 3 hours, I didn’t blink. I didn’t want to miss a single frame.

I could go on about the story and the film, but I will leave it at this: Sitting to one side of me in the theater was a girl that I overheard in pre-movie chit-chat had never read the books. When Boromir died, she wept. This is the words of Tolkien and the vision of Jackson. Simply amazing.

Recent Movies and My Opinions

Reviews

I’ve actually been to see a few movies lately, so here is what I thought in no particular order.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. This was a good movie. Not being a fanatic, nor actually having read the book, I’d have to say it was slow though. There were a number of things that were in the movie because they were in the book, and had this been a less popular book many of these scenes would have been cut, but they were playing to the fans. No biggie, but it means the movie clocked in at 2 and a half hours long. A bit overboard for someone seeing it for the first time. Still, it was a solid story, good acting and effects, and great for kids.

Serendipity. Fantastic movie! The way that love should be. I laughed and smiled, I hoped and dreamed and I twisted in my seat when things didn’t look so good. A beautiful film worth every cent spent.

Monsters Inc. From the people that brought you Toy Story I and II, and A Bug’s Life. Pixar makes good family films and their animation is sweet. Again, worth the money.

That’s it for now, feel free to give me your opinions on the discussion forums, but I will delete messages with spoilers, so please avoid giving away the secrets of the movies.

In City of Heroes News…

Random Thoughts

.. the people on the official CoH Message Boards continued to discuss how cool the game is even though it doesn’t exist yet! They talk about the game disecting each frame of the admittedly damn cool gameplay movie. They roleplay. They create characters (most of them will end up bitching when someone steals their idea before they get their hands on a copy of the game). They form super teams.

Let me repeat… The game does not exist yet!

This isn’t a new thing. It’s happened with most games that have come out recently. See Dawn for an extreme case of people defending a game that will NEVER exist (I have my Beta account set up anyway so I can laugh at it properly). Mostly though, this kind of religious ferver just results in disappointment and general community divisions and hatred as people bicker and bitch about whether or not capes should be in the game.

I think the first sign of the coming apocalypse is any time two people argue about something where not only can neither of them win, but even if they could it wouldn’t matter because its not up to them to decide.

15 October 1999

Random Thoughts

Well, I do have tons to write, but I never seem to have time to write it.
For now, let me just give a quick list of things I’m going to hit in the next week or so.
Women in Prison: The single greatest film genre ever.
It’s Not a Wonderful Life since “It’s a Wonderful Life” doesn’t come on 40,000 times at Christmas.
The Glass isn’t half empty or half full.
If you get angry and there is no one to yell at, did you really get angry at all.
The Freedoms of having your own place.
Swearing: the power of words.
That’s all I’ve got on my things to do list. But for now, I need to go to work.
“Can’t be king of the world if you’re slave to the grind.” -Sebastian Bach