Recently in film Category

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.

I finally watched this dvd, its brilliant. I personally don't really like the typeface, its a well designed typeface, but, as some of the designers pointed out, its over used, therefore, loses its freshness. Thank god england still reserves to Gil sans, and... I mean, if you're really into it, they also have that slightly goofier Johnston 22 for their tube stations, but I mean, see? Because its a bit goofy, its not being used in a lot of places, therefore, it retains its personality and eccentricity, thats what counts in today's world.

I loved how this dvd also talks about the roots of Helvetica, I got to finally see the inside of Linotype foundry, amongst other really really cool things, IF you're into design that is, hehe. Sagmeister has a bit in the DVD, glad I met him in Beijing.

Best take on Helvetica:" Its well balanced, a perfect harmony of push and pull, positive and negative space."

Worst take on Helvetica:" Look at it, the "O" has the same proportion as the "Y" its not designed with a personality, its an army!"

I finally watched The Bourne Ultimatum, and I think It is one of the best action films I've seen in ages! I can't believe China is not putting this in theaters. Please everyone, go buy pirated DVDs of this film, its all over the place now. SARFT stands for State Administrations of Radio Film and Television (国家广电总局). I would like to say, if i ever become the president of China, I will fire everyone one in this place, along with people in Cultural department, and Transportation department here in Beijing.

Over the week, I enjoyed two brilliant anime films. Tekkonkinkreet is from the same people that made that cool tokyo piece in Animatrix, and Gedo Senki is made be Miyazaki's son Goro Miyazaki. I won't go into details on explaining what they're about, you can easily find their synopsis's online. One thing I loved, and the japanese are always good at, is this bit in Gedo Senki, where the girl is singing in an open grassland, just into the air, without instruments, very moving.

o my god o my god o my god! there's an extended trailer on disney's site! THIS FILM OPENS ON MY BIRTHDAY TOO! I don't know what to say, this film looks soooooooo damn good, I'm rambling! go click on the link and check it out your selves people! o my god o my god o my god...

Thanks to Marcus from work. I was reminded of this movie and watched it. Eighteen directors each directed a short film piece revolved around love and Paris. I was profoundly moved by this film, such an overwhelming range of stories describing so many aspects of love, and yet, they are only a few minutes each. There are the typical love at first sight pieces, and rekindling of old relationships. Then, there are the ones that describe love taken for granted, love that causes aches and pain, love that examines loss, longing, miscommunication... closure. This has become my favorite movie so far this year, I recommend it to everyone.

This is from absolut.com/pears. The site features some neat things being destroyed in slow motion. Really cool.

While I was in LA I saw three films, Letters from Iwo Jima, Breach, and Hannibal Rising. Enjoyed them all, Letters from Iwo Jima probably left the biggest impression on me. I wasn't blown away by it since this is not the first war movie that depicts atrocities committed by both sides of war, scared shitless soldiers, and universal sense of duty and honor. I had high hopes for Breach, which was based on the true story of FBI trying to find its mole. It was great through out but I kept on hopping there'd be bigger climaxes, it turned out to be just a tiny bit flat for me. Hannibal Rising is not a bad try at telling the story of early years of Hannibal, but, this new actor is trying a bit too hard to act like Anthany Hopkins in the other two movies and I find highly fraudulent.

What a director. I didn't really like the plot of the movie, but boy can he direct. I enjoyed it in a purely art direction kindda way. I'd recommend it.

I have to say, this is pretty impressive. Some kind of super nerd collective. Also, impressive information organization skills.

This movie came up in a meeting I had yesterday, thanks to patsy I watched it last night. I loved this movie. I hesitated a bit at first, since the name Alejandro González Iñárritu is already quite popular for his formulaic editing trick for all his movies. But the story nils described in the meeting was quite captivating, and besides, 21 grams is one of my favorite movies. Ok, now back to Babel, the one story, or segment that stood out was the japanese girl story, it out shines all the stories in all of his films in my opinion. I won't spoil it here, just watch it.

I was watching HBO the other day, it was showing a Geoffrey Rush movie called The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Like the title suggested, its about the British movie star Peter Sellers, the talented actor who had always adopted his characters' personalities so effortlessly and natrually. Such a powerful and smart drama depicting a person's inner and outer world. I couldn't believe HBO originals have done this well, I also couldn't believe I didn't watch this earlier (2004). The film has an amazing supporting cast, Charlize Theron, Emily Watson, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, they've all been wonderful. Its a must see.

I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant when I decided to spend my 60rmb on this film after that "the promise" disaster. Then again, you look at the roster, Director: Feng Xiao Gang, Choreographer: Yuen Wo-Ping, Score: Tan Dun, Art Direction: Tim Yip. This is the dream team of Chinese film industry. If Aliens would invade China, These are the people they would abduct. So I decided to give it a chance.

Visually stunning, and in someways better than the art direction in House of Flying Daggers, It employs stunning sets, makeup and costumes to lure audience into the semi interesting plot. I think out of these recent batch of "oh no we have to beat Crouching Tiger" costume epics, this is so far the best one, it is distinct enough both in art direction and story-line, and chemistry between the characters are well balanced. I didn't find Zhang Zi Yi's performance ground breaking though, simply because I've seen her face in too many period films already, Although she puts on an commendable effort in the film, I still find it quite bland.

A solid piece non-the-less, I'd recommend it.

Contrary to to the film, the movie's website is disproportionaly negalected.

At last, I watched this movie. I always adored Pixar movies, this one is no exception. As usual, the pre-opening short film was charming as well.

Dragon Tiger Gate (龙虎门）
The film poster for this movie had got to be the gayest film poster I have ever seen. I mean, they really used photoshop to the max, the g5 computer probably exploded after handling the air brush job. The movie opening sequence is a 100% identical copy of US. DC comic's version, where the pages of comic illustrations flipping through. The plot is half assed story about three brothers defying the mystic mob boss. Other than the fight scenes, there's absolutely nothing in the film worth talking about.

Crazy Stone (疯狂的石头)
I had high hopes for this one. It was supposedly created by one of the up and coming directors in China, with a fresh cast, and produced by actor turned producer Andy Lau. The story is about different groups' struggle to retrieve a precious jade found in a factory's public toilet. First 10 minutes into the movie, It is already apparent that the movie is a duplicate of Guy Richie's Snatch. I don't want to put the movie down too much, after all, it is a credible attempt at some new ways of story telling. However, it is more like a A+ final film school project than "creative film making" because Guy's Richie has already done it. Disappointing in originality, The Si Chuan accent dialogs is only funny some time and annoying at other, it is not as clever as Brat Pitts' indistinguishable irish trailer trash accent. I didn't like the movie, but for people who haven't seen Snatch or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, this movie would be somewhat enjoyable.

Xin Jie Kou (新街口)
This is the only cool Chinese flick I saw. The movie is about a love story in Beijing during the early 80s. The acting is wonderful and honest, some of the bad exagerations and cliches actually works really well together. I enjoyed it very much. Also in the film the director had put in a lot of cheesy played out commericals and clips of programs EVERYONE in china watched during that time. The jian wu stereo commercial everyone loved so much has been brought back. I only wish this movie had the big promotion budget as that Dragon Tiger Gate's.

Miami Vice
This film is very very "style over content". Its about a cop falling in love with a drug lord's cuban chinese decent lover. I liked the acting, but the story is boring. The whole thing is shot on digital, and unlike Collateral, the "digitalness" is so obvious it hurts your eyes to watch it. Its a glorified "Cops" episode.

Little Miss Sunshine
This movie is funny, witty, and the story is rich, I loved this movie, and was surprised how clever and moving it is.

Idlewild
I always loved outkast, the movie is entertaining, soundtrack is solid. I felt the story is a bit bland, but enjoyed Bryan Barber's direction, as always. Its definitely worth going.

I had to watch this film twice because of work interruption. Mixture of conference calls, Jay Chow shoot, and saving Korea creative totally screwed up my schedule.

I was a bit surprised at how average the dialogs were in the film, also there were couple scenes where I just had to roll my eyes at. Take the train set scene, it sets up the eventual climax but it was just simply too much film school techniques. I can't believe the same guy directed unusual suspects directed this.

The new guy Bradon Routh does the job well, but I like Reeves' version of superman more. The new suit is really cheesy, I don't like it, except for the slight curve of that diamond outline. The whole rubber feel of the cape is most annoying.

Visually though its impeccable, I also loved the John Williams' score, it was a beautiful film, just... not very interesting.

I'd say its average, one of those video game films.

I was lucky to catch the tail end of "retrospective du documentaire Francais" or Frech documentary gallery. I always wanted to watch that "darwin's nightmare" but missed it. I did watch this one called Loin du Vietnam which I can't say is really exciting, but... different and interesting. People my age by now should be able to recall pretty much 90 percent of all Vietnam war footages, I went in thinking there will be some war news reel and such, but in fact the film didn't show a lot of those moments if at all. The beginning of the film is very striking, it filmed these street venders building temporary bomb shelters, what it is is just a simple one meter tall and half meter wide concrete tube burrined in the ground with a removable thin concret lid, kind of like a simple fox hole, and when the siren hits, people do differnt things to it.. or in it.. or besides it, a depiction of a city in war can't be more real than this, i thought to my self.

The documentary also features some interviews with Fidel Castro, and really dramatic street debates in various parts of USA, mainly New York, from mid 60's to late 70's.

There's also this really cool song in the film, try to find it if you're interested. Its called Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation, by Tom Paxton.

This is by far, the worst movie I've ever witnessed. We have yet again, this coming of age film, about some character that has lived through the Japanese occupation, the nationalist brief triumph, and the communist coming to power. I'm getting absolutely fed up with these chinese films. The Barber however, is exceptionally bad due to its over the top corny lines, horrific background music with crude editing, and an unsympathetic treatment on all the major characters. The only commendable part about this film is perhaps its cinematography, its not ground breaking, but I see the ambition, so that qualifies as "commendable mediocrity" i guess, and thats it. This reminds me of that other nightmare, my second worst movie ever seen - The promise, at least in THAT it has an acceptable soundtrack. My verdict: Avoid watching The Barber at all cost, it is not even worth my 6 kuai.