Thursday, July 26, 2012

dragon (wu xia (original title)) (2011). directed by peter chan.


shown at cannes 2011, this film stands on its own despite comparison to cronenberg's a history of violence (2005). i like the fact that hong kong film makers are looking for ways to reinvent kung fu storytelling, and the pairing of kaneshiro and yen work. both men snapped at some point in their lives and looking for redemption. yen, who i think has limited acting range, is pretty good as the tight lipped gangster trying to escape a life of violence and relished being with his small family, living in a nondescript village. the anonymity suits him fine until a city detective nosily pries on his life upon a killing of some bandits. the city detective played by kaneshiro is your typical cynical, self righteous bastard who hunt people down out of a misplaced sense of justice. 

i won't give the story away, because it deserves some watching. 

Saturday, July 21, 2012

the dark knight rises (2012). directed by christopher nolan.


my brother dared to say that this is the worst nolan movie he had ever watched. i thought of it as a big clumsy machine trying to wade through too many characters and subplots. the script is problematic, which is a surprise because it was written by the nolan brothers. by the time the movie ends, and i ran a lot of nolan movies in my head, i thought, man you can't out do yourself. but then again, i can't think of a third installment that could top the second - think of the lord of the rings and the godfather trilogies. 

the biggest problem with the movie is the mix of realism and comic book short cuts that nolan doesn't usually use in his previous films. this guy made inception (2010), i can't see why the dark knight rises has to be that clunky. the action sequences are not memorable, i don't care about the characters, bane is an uninteresting villain which means tom hardy was severely underused. his back story and cotillard's talia are unsubstantial (he was her protector? thats all?!), anne hathaway being anne hathaway and has no chemistry with bale's bruce wayne. 

i could go all day. if only nolan is micheal bay, but he is not, so i still think he could come up with something better. 

beginners (2010). directed by mike mills.


a 75 year old father comes out to his son as gay after 44 years of marriage. a son trying to make sense of his disbelief of relationships, fueled by years of watching his parents' passionless marriage. it is a parallel story, of a father who always have faith in finding happiness, and his son's discovery that such a thing exists. in a world where some straight folks think it is alright to deny basic rights to gay people, this story asks many pertinent questions about the nature of happiness - that it is what we make do of what we have, that it needs work to sustain it, that denying something so basic is ruinous to people who are being forced to fit into the "normality". 

christopher plummer is such a pleasure to watch. 

red riding hood (2011). directed by catherine hardwicke.


i do not find any redeeming quality in this film other than the salem-like witch hunt for the warewolf responsible for terrorizing the village. the movie has gary oldman in it and i don't know why he's in it...he played too many baddies perfectly i don't see this is going to add to his reputation.  yeah the movie has nice effects yada yada...but no story, no interesting characters. the trees with thorns are more interesting me thinks. 

another mindless movie on a sunday night. next!

Monday, July 9, 2012

men in black 3 (2012). directed by barry sonnenfeld.


written by etan cohen (not to be confused with the famous ethan coen of the coen brothers) this movie is pretty funny and strikes the right notes. i like it. this is what happens when you watched so many mindless films, that anything that is slightly good becomes a huge relief.