Recently in film Category

The Karate Kid was a beloved classic of my childhood, only thing was I was too young to relate to that story. This 2010 remake of the story had many elements I loved, though I thought it really should have been called "The Kung Fu Kid".I chose this movie as my opener of the Summer season not because it's a nostalgia film, but I chose it because I felt the need to pay respect to Will Smith, who is the producer on this film. Making this film sounds near impossible, taking the consideration of a production in China, writing a story that's both true to the original franchise and a step up from them. Plus a corny story of an early teen's "coming out of his shell" story. In the end, the movie was pulled off, and it is truly enjoyable. I had a lot of fun as a picky early 30 something and I'm not afraid to say it. I also wanted to commend Jaden Smith, I felt he truly related to that character, who was singled out and lonely.

There are two things I really look forward to around my birthday in June. One of them is a Pixar film. It has become my annual tradition ever since Toy Story. This year once again they didn't disappoint. The 3rd film to end this story well. It wasn't as powerful as UP since all the main characters are already established, but still, it is a film that will beat out its' competition once again.

Then of course, this must see. Christopher Nolan is somewhat of a Hollywood effect whistle blower, everything's gotta have real physics and textures, script aside, that creative vision alone is worth seeing.

Alright, this wasn't a summer flick, I just happen to finally see it. I love Michael Moor films, he fights for the common man, not afraid to piss people off, and I think he is one of the visionaries in America. I hope people more people watch his films than people listen to the republican rhetoric.

I'm on a documentary streak. I can't resist, below are the two I watched recently.

Afghan Star was an UK production, I really wonder why Americans didn't make this film, o right, Hollywood marketing people, right right, same people that hate featuring minorities in their films.

Anyways, the film follows 4 characters in war torn Afghanistan who participated in the first ever "American Idol" style singing competition. While the topic in its self to me was already very intriguing, I did not anticipate how much I related to the film. There was a moment in the film where it showed what the country was prior to the Soviet invasion, it was eerily reminiscent of China before the June 4th demonstration crack down. You see girls on the street with western clothes, Farrah Fawcett hair, Rock&Roll, Disco, Sneakers, and jeans. Then, seconds later, flash back ends, back to Afghanistan, 2009.

In that film, I saw a different me, what I could've been. Had China taken the wrong turn, what would be of my present. It was a moment of pause for the Chinese, a moment of choice for the communist government. I think we as a society, chose wisely... Thank God.

Afghan Star, thus, was bitter sweet, from the film I saw people with similar faces we had in 1989, doubt, anger, unwillingness to accept progress, but then, people do realize it's something unavoidable, something that everyone desires for, to sing, to be able to choose in fairness, to dream for the better.

Exit through the gift shop is an amazing documentary on street art movement of this decade. Contrary to what most people have perceived about the film, it's not JUST about Banksy, it's actually about some of the most important artisits in the street art scene, the film carries Space Invader, Shepard Fairey, along with other famous faces like PinkMonster. The genius of the film, the genius of Banksy really, is how irreverent the film turned out to be. Without ruining the film here, I will say this, Banksy had a stock of street art footage so complete it covered an entire span of 6 years from street art being street art, to street art being gallery art. He could well made a documentary just about street art, and yet, he worked the tapes into something else entirely. That is why I think this film will win best documentary this year.

I used to bitch about China's SARFT all the time when I was in China. As a part of the culture department, they're responsible for letting western movies gain rights to play in the Country, and their motive is often either obvious, or just bizzare and terrible.

Art house movies are not heavily promoted, I totally understand that, but, when it came to New York I Love You, I couldn't understand how terrible of a promotion job the studios did for this movie in the States. There was absolutely no promotion. I'm a die hard fan of Paris J'taime, and even I had hard time locating the movie.

Now for those of you who doesn't know the significance of Paris J'taime, the concept is very simple. Take a group of world famous directors and allow them to make up their stories themed around love and the city. Because they all have to share this 90min slot, they have to make their stories to about five minutes. In 2006's Paris J'taime alone, it featured works from directors such as Gus Van Sant, The Coen brothers, Christopher Doyle, amongst other masters.

In New York I love you, the concept was carried out in the English speaking setting, in New York. I was also really excited especially because it featured the work of my favorite Chinese director Jiang Wen. He has almost a god status amongst the Chinese my generation because of his willingness to take risk with brilliant wit in Mainland China's environment, it is near impossible for a director. Another reason I was particularly curious about his work is that his last film was considered a failure, after his 8 year hiatus, this second act of his needlessly to say, is very important. Thank god he delivered, his piece is the opening film, and it was very entertaining to watch. I loved how effortless it was for him to mix some Chinese element into the story too, its absolutely brilliant.

The Cove became the only piece of communication that made me pick up my mobile and dialed in to donate money, its just that good. I don't want to divulge further on how and why this documentary is so smart, you just need to watch it to understand it. Of course, I hope you could dial in and donate some money for the cause as well after you finish watching it.

The Ghost Writer featured two of my favorite actors and a brilliant director - Roman Polanski. It was another art house film that was under promoted. I'm glad I caught this one in the theater, I don't really dig Polanski's style as I tend to think he's a bit old fashioned and has a slower pasting, this thriller is not any different, but, I did enjoy this film a lot, its definitely worth it compare to "clash of the titans".

This is probably the most overlooked movie in the past year. I remember the trailer, boasting multi-continent shoots, some gun fight scenes, and the terrible dialogue that made me roll my eyes and chose not to watch the movie "You can't arrest me." - "Who said anything about arresting."

I over heard my co-worker chatting it up one day, and got curious, as I remembered that terrible trailer. After watching it, I thought this must be one of the most well art directed movie in recent days. The selection of cool buildings in this movie would make any architecture buffs cry. I also thought it's pretty brilliant of them to tie this "International style" embraced by the world with corporate evils, how it's faceless, efficient, and unassuming.

If you're an art director, this needs to be part of your collection. The plot was not bad, its just that last scene. The "can't arrest me / who said arresting" exchange is synonymous with "I'm too old for this shit". Someone seriously needs to build an "overused movie dialogue database" for screen writers.

I originally wasn't going to watch Inglorious bastards, since I kindda felt WWII movies are a bit over done these days and from what I saw in the trailer, premise seemed a bit over simplified. So after couple weeks I finally broke down and went to see it with my good faith in Mr. Tarantino. Sure enough, he delivered.

To my surprise, Brad Pitt only played a supporting role in this movie, the true star is Col. Hans Landa, a extraordinarily charming SS officer that is creepy as hell. Wonderfully acted by a German actor Christoph Waltz. The movie is brilliant!

Another notable thing was the theater I watched it in. The Sommerville theater is a happy accident, I missed my usual AMC Lowe schedule that day and had no choice, and this theater became my new fav. one. Not only because it's a theater with a long historical background, but also it had an awesome crepe house next to it.

District 9 is one of the most anticipated summer blockbusters this year. I can't say it was amazing and spectacular, but I can say I definitely enjoyed watching it. It broke hollywood sci-fi stereotypes as it was shot documentary style, with a bunch of aliens that did not initially come to earth all mighty and powerful. Think of The Transformers, where all the robots comes in so shiny, new and colorful that you just instantly know its an epic sci-fi film, or the up and coming Tron. District 9 is the opposite of that. Think of it as the "Born Identity" of the Sci-fi films, though the story is a familiar "alien on earth" one, the technology and all the sci-fi bits are scratched, used, and... just more real. Yes, I am already hoping for a "District 10".

So these are two of the recent Chinese films I watched. Heard them through the grapevine, due to their incredible ensembles, and budget. I have to say I was deeply disappointed in both films. Actually, no I take that back, I was actually furious about wasting 4 hours on these horrible films, with Blood brothers, would Chinese directors please stop shooting at the same freaking studio set that 20 other films have already done at? As a Chinese film viewer for the past 4 years I've already seen at least five movies that had the lame "1920's movie theater in Shanghai" intersection, just stop ok?

With Sophie's revenge, I don't even know where to begin. First of all, I detest people who thinks getting an English name for them selves is trendy, especially when they can't even pronounce it right, second of all, Michel Gondry's extremely popular and copying him is very easy to spot. Thirdly, physical comedy in this movie is really really badly carried out, I was surprised how bad an actor can be under bad direction, I'm sorry Zhang Zi Yi, my favorite Chinese actress, you really really sucked in this one, shouldn't work with that director again... Like... ever.

Now Another reason why I brought these two films up is that the directors from these films are recent up and coming directors in Asia, both of whom had an American education background. When I worked in Asia, and created communication works there, I never tried to install an aesthetic or a story unless its universally accepted, I was extremely careful and nervous about translating my stories to the mass audience to both worlds, I wish Alexi Tan and Jin Yimeng and other asian directors with American roots could invest a bit of love and care in their story telling. China is a different place now and just like American audience, catches on fast, lets not ruin the good names of the Chinese talents from overseas shall we?.

I didn't really understand why this movie got so little marketing compared to say.. Mama Mia, or... X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but I think this is probably the 2nd movie I really enjoyed watching during this summers blockbuster season.

When I saw the preview, I initially didn't want to watch it. It's bomb squad, suspense pretty rests on 50% chances - it blows up, or not. I also expected some inaccurate depiction of some Iraqi villain, since there's just so much you can do with a movie revolved around disarming bombs.

Boy, was I wrong about this movie, in fact, I think this is the best movie about war in Iraq so far. There were so many layers about this war that this movie in one way or another touched on, and touched on so tastefully and accurately. Don't miss it while its still in theaters.

Sorry again for my lack of posts lately. I've been involved in two simultaneous pitches at work.

Now, there are three good things in June every year, 1, apple always make their signature product of the year. 2, Pixar always release their new feature. And 3, there usually is a cake prepared for me.

I know this is practically a month old, but UP was so good that I just need to give it some mention. After Wall-E, I just couldn't wait to watch UP. I have to admit that I tend to watch a lot of things involving levitation. UP is definitely the biggest emotional roller coaster Pixar has ever created, there were so many tender moments as well as funny parts. I can't really describe how good it is except to admit to you that me and some friends all shed tears and laughed really hard in those 90 minutes. In fact, it was so good that I had to watched it again, its a bit embarrassing to admit, having not cried in a movie theater in 20 some odd years, there I was, getting really really choked up with this movie, it's just that good, they really knew which button to press I guess.

Partly Cloudy, a short about being loyal to friends.

Watching it twice did have it's benefit though, I forgot the little smart ass marketing scheme by Pixar to launch their animated short before the main feature only couple weeks after the release, just to get people to go back. The short was called Partly Cloudy, and of course, it was the best ever.

Pixar is really good with playing up these genuine qualities of a child, how we used to love things with all our hearts, being as loyal as ever to friends, brave, curious, and forgetful.

I strongly recommend it.

Röyksopp - Happy Up Here

Bullet time technique has taken to a new level by stink digital.

Beautiful.

Lately I've been on a Documentary streak. A production house came in to the agency and pitched couple of directors, and one director had an interesting story where he made a documentary on abortion in America in the span of 18 years. I got interested and looked into getting this film, but in the process of doing so, I decided to watch a couple more. I'm so glad that I did it. I have yet to watch the film I'm talking about, which is called Lake of Fire, directed by Tony Kaye, but I will soon, mean while, I watched these. I strongly recommend you to watch these if you get a chance.

Man On Wire is a beautiful film, and its' subject is an extraordinary French wire walker that had an impossible vision of walk on a wire hoisted between the two world trade center towers and eventually succeeded in doing that.

This is a documentary from couple of years ago. I've been interested in watching this film for a while now and I finally did it last night. It was interesting peaking into what I consider, the other end of the spectrum of the American society. I thought the narrative is a bit forced with interjection of the radio host casting his point of view though. Its' not that I'm not on his side, I just thought the depiction of the radical evangelicals are powerful enough on its' own that it doesn't really need any voice to bring us back to the reality. Anyways, its very interesting, and I am now more scared of middle America than I ever have.

This was a film that got some noise at various award shows last year, It's a film following two young people around the Yangtze river and how they crossed paths on a luxury cruise line catered mainly for english speaking tourists. It was pretty clever on using the two young people as a back drop of a much more complicated and massive Yangtze River urban migration project. I loved this one, it's such relevant film to today's China, and it's a shame that China's not marketing this one in the country.

I've recently heard of this film and it's "inconvenient truth" for Americans to understand the current budget deficit. As the new president takes office in two days, this is my number one concern I wish Obama will address.

A slew of movies came out this month, as a movie nerd, I made the effort of trying to watch as many of them as I can.

Out of the three movies, I enjoyed Gran Torino the most, the story of neighborhood vigilante normally doesn't attract me, but Client Eastwood totally got this directing thing down, and he does have good taste when it comes to scripts. There's a sense of calm and confidence in his delivery, and when it comes to elements that are essential to the story, but not necessarily politically correct, he didn't hold anything back. All in all, a movie I'm glad I watched.

I know, nazi WWII movies have done to death, I also know the Hitler assassination, particularly this one have also done to death. The movie is solid, but I think its the subject matter that took some shine off. Tom Cruise picked the best english actors to be in his ensemble and I enjoyed them acting together.

I had really high hopes for this one. Two of my favorite actress are in this film. The story is a classic, and its one of those stories where I tend to love. I think Brad Pitt in this movie... is a bit too still. He doesn't shed a lot of emotions in his adventure, so it lacks the "Forrest Gump" appeal, I didn't really sympathize or associate with the character. What I LOVED was cinematography. Its a full 3hr scene by scene, shot by shot masterpiece. Just hoped Benjamin Button is warmer.

London (harder, better, faster, stronger) from David Hubert on Vimeo.

I miss London.

Summer is slowing going away, I watched three films in Boston so far. Pixar's Wall-E and its attached film Presto. Batman - Dark Knight. And Tropic Thunder. Wall-E and Batman needless to say, are great, but I didn't expect Tropic Thunder to be, I watched it because I missed Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I laughed so hard in there. The movie did toss political correctness out of the window, but man, its really clever and used in the right way. Robert Downey jr is amazing, I totally recommend people to watch it.

O, For those of you that watched the closing ceremony of summer Olympics last night. Wholly shit right? NBC didn't get to the Performer's microphones and there were terrible echos for every song, but it was still fantastic! Lets see if London can top that!

Wow, I'm not into the music, but, Wow!

I enjoyed watching this movie. Thought it was better than Superman. I wasn't really familiar with the character before the movie so I went into this without any preconceived notion of the characters. They are all pretty good through out the film. Gwyneth Paltrow is lovely in this film, her performance is not as brilliant as she was in The Talented Mr Ripley, but still very good. Robert Downey Jr. He's always charismatic in all the films he's in, this one is no different. Just that... Please don't relapse again.

Rambo.
I hated it. It's a bad video game movie. With all do respect, I Iove Stallone, but this one didn't really work for me. Its a "bordering shit" movie.

Juno.
I LOVED it. The dialogue's smart and quirky, worth watching. My favorite line in the movie: That ain't no etch & sketch.

Atonement.
Found the beginning very Jane Austen like. Who can blame them, its from the film maker that did pride and prejudice. Never dug that. But, Loved the story, I was absolutely absorbed. My favorite part: When James McAvoy sat down in the restaurant, next to Keira Knightley, there was a silent, long gaze out the window. It pretty much summed everything up.

No Country for Old Men.
Wow, I saw violence being taken to a whole new level. My heart had been jolted from scene to scene, and I'm not the type of guy that have that often with violent movies. Rambo was just as bloody and gory, but guess what, its like... decades behind this one. Very dramatic, very neat portrayals of the main characters, Javier Bardem deserves an Oscar for his performance. Loved the beginning part of the film, sets the mood for a stark, harsh country. Favorite part: When Josh Brolin stepped back into the clothing store with boots and hospital gawn.

There Will Be Blood.
I find this one interesting, in the sense that the story hid the conflict between characters in the beginning and slowly they emerged just like... you guessed it, oil. a bit long, but I liked it.

Jumper.
Traveled around the world with the movie, well, barely. I'm a bit disappointed, it lacked Bourn Identity's intrigue because it didn't set up a whole lot of intrigue, once you know the guy jumps around, then... you pretty much know the rest of the movie. Also... wasn't there someone that could already do that in Xmen? This is such a kids movie.