chaplin (1992). directed by richard attenborough.

captured the life and times of the great silent comedy star, charles chaplin. after watching this movie do i begin to appreciate the seemingly unfunny slapstick moves of chaplin, that it was hard work to create all that. that he sacrificed his personal life through various divorces because he was addicted to working and a perfectionist when it comes to film making. it is particularly interesting that the movie touched his technique of improvising-as-you-film, which would definitely run for a much longer time and at higher costs.

whlist RDJ is a good actor and i love the man since heart and souls (1993) and have loved him even more ever since, i find him a tad too young for the role eventhough he was 27 at the time. but that by no means disparaged his talents and wealth of sensitivity in bringing chaplin alive to the big screen.

after the wedding (2006) (original title efter brylluppet). directed by susanne bier.

this is the reason why sometimes you have to watch other than hollywood crap feeding you more hollywood-crap-like-values. the scenes in this film will never be found in hollywood movies, to the very last detail, when jorgen was bowling his eyes out to helene, it occured to me, a scene from stepmom (1998) in which they all gathered during xmas and then susan sarandon shortly died after that, that people dont die like that. unless you are a cow about to be slaughthered during aidiladha, even them go beserk after seeing their frens bleed. people grieved deaths and the impending ones. they are in pain when they have to make difficult choices like that of jorgen and jacob.

may be much less movie-like drama, but life's like that, not the other way round. may be a bit of realism doesnt not hurt. and mads mikkelsen is hot.

tropic thunder (2008). directed by ben stiller.

this film is incredibly funny-stupid. or stupid fun. some things that blows me over are

- the fact that the black RDJ stayed in character at all times

- RDJ sported blue contact lenses

- RDJ sported fake oz accent that sounded totally shit but that's the whole point

- the satan's alley trailer and calls for it to be turned into a proper movie (and i havent got around watching happy together (1997) whlist my sister frowned upon looking at the cover: 2 guys rolling on the floor, you get the drift)

- tobey maguire and RDJ - hot

- tom cruise as the jewish head of studio muthafucka

- the fact that ben stiller got around to make this

brilliant.

the dark knight (2008). directed by christopher nolan.

the pay off is huge, i felt like it surpassed what a comic book tale should be. i felt like watching m night shyamalan and other great drama directors like micheal mann rolled into one. it blew me away, a story almost reaching that of shakespearean proportion.

this is the dark knight. read more at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/usercomments

the village (2004). directed by m. night shyamalan.

have you heard of the track from the village (2004, dir M. Night Shyamalan) called "the gravel road"? that piece of music was on when Ivy Walker was walking fast, away from the village, after she unknowingly killed noah who tried to scare her, donning the "those we do not speak of" costume. and another, "the vote" is played when noah's family agreed to keep the secret going by accepting his death and reinforcing the belief that the village will stay pure, undisturbed by influence from the outside as "those we do not speak of" shall stay to be the barrier, or buffer.

(August Nicholson, in a meeting discussing whether or not to let Ivy go): We cannot run from heartache... Heartache is a part of life. We know that now.

best listened in classical mode. the echo is beautiful.

unbreakable (2000). directed by m. night shyamalan.

unbreakable

a lot of people i asked, didn't expressed a liking for this movie. they remarked that it was too slow, dead slow. perhaps it's the fact that bruce willis was extremely toned down, which does not mean underused, but not a maniac whose illusion of grandiose is to save the world. samuel l. jackson is spectacular as elijah price, hands down.

i like shyamalan's idea of debunking the myth of superheros. comics are not complete without them, but we could never recognised one in real life. nobody flies around in red underware to save maidens in trouble, nor do we see any one climbing walls and towers sticky webs of a spider. in comics, for this to happen, several elements need to exist:

1. a catasthrophe

2. the effect of the catasthrope and why one must prevent its reoccurance

3. a superhero, the person who would prevent the catasthrope

4. a fantastic ability, in which all superhero got to have one

5. a villain, all out to defeat the superhero, sometimes a motivation is not even needed, because we are allowed to assume that the villain is evil

enter david dunn, a security guard who used to be a college star footballer, now a married father with a little boy. he was never sick as far as he could remember, but that is not his special ability. on the far end of the universe is elijah price, who spends his childhood on the bed due to a rare bone disease that makes him susceptible to multiple bone fractures and breakages. dunn recently survived a train crash in which he was the sole survivor.

the similarity the two shared is that both desperately need something to believe in. price was disillusioned with the disease he was forced to live with, and dunn regretted his decision to give up football for a marriage to the woman he loves, only now he is not sure if football is worth giving up in the light of his troubled marriage.

the dynamics between dunn and price gives us a an insight of what the universe of superheros and villains colourfully painted in comics is consist of, and it is infallibly human. i won't give away the story, but it is definitely a good piece of cinema. i personally think it is shyamalan's best work.

oh, the soundtrack is something the story can not be complete without. 

days of glory (2006). directed by rachid bouchareb.

i wasn't in the mood for movies yesterday but i thot my bro gonna put up something english. he did not, instead showed a movie about the french resistance by the 7th algerian infantry division during the second world war. the movie was a close up of 4 arab algerian men fighting along side the french army to liberate italy and southern france from nazi occupation in circa 1944-45. each of them brought their dreams of greater acceptance and equality from their colonial master, as well as riches and a sense of belonging. this proved to be the things that even a so called civilised nation, france in this case, has a real trouble giving. and the shame, on top of the obvious inequality and discrimination of the soldiers from french colonies, was the fact that france have continually refused to award pensions to the native soldiers who had fought for her during the second world war.

ashes of time (1994). directed by wong kar wai.

wong kar wai shot this film in a time when pantene was nay impossible to be fund in the age where the sun, the desert, camels, renegades and travelling swordsmen were a norm and there was no place for silky, straight flowing hair was at all possible. casted with leslie cheung, the two tony's (leung ka fai and leung chui wai), jackie cheung and female heavyweights such as maggie cheung, carina lau and brigitte lin. everybody is reflecting of what they used to have, yearning for the past to be the future, regretting the past for the time they can not turn back.

life is now. not tomorrow.

protege (2006) (original title moon to). directed by tung shing yee.

this movie is downright depressing, akin to traffic (2000), though not as extensive in scope as the latter. the mood is bleak, junkies in worldly hell of drugs, dealears and drug lords suffering from delusions of grandiose, and the undercover, simply suffering from too much reality. the undercover found no purpose in trying to bring down the cartel, life as meaningless as corpses being eaten by rats as a result of being tired of trying to kick the habit away, never succeeding. who can save us from such misery? only when we look beyond ourselves.

i like the fact that it is grounded. HK movies normally suffer from trying too hard, too much action, too much colour, too many characters, and it's just a havoc lacking control. it seems directors have become wiser, and a steady flow of films recently produced have seen the effect of afterthoughts in terms of plot, editing & scripts.

the wicker man (2006). directed by neil labute.

what ever you do do not waste your time on this pointless. movie. A remake that did not need to be retold. Everyone coming out of the theater had the same comments. Worst movie I ever saw. Save your time and money!!!Nicgolas Cage was biking down hills, swimming in murky water and rolling down hills while being attacked by bees but yet his suit was still perfectly pressed and shirt crisp white until the very last scene.Although a good cast with Ellen Bernstein and Cage the acting was just as unbelievable as the movie itself. It is amazing how good actors can do such bad movies. Don't they get a copy of the script first. If you still have any interest at all in seeing the movie at the very least wait for it to come out on DVD.

as reviewed in imdb.com

my take...

where do i begin? this is gotta be the worst movie ive watched produced in 2006. i am a cage fan, and you know what, it's no good to watch cage being burnt to death by the end of the movie because i knew 30 minutes in advance that he was the intended sacrifice. it's ok to have the hero whacked off, but for a good reason. you know, like in gladiator (2000), crowe died but not after he killed the evil emperor. not for stupidity as displayed in cage's character. the dialogue is funny-stupid-odd, the combo of a very modern man in cage and the 18th century-like feeling of summerisle.