Star Trek the Motion Picture by Robert Wise (1979)
June 26th, 2009
Considered one of the worst Star Trek films this film is still gorgeous to watch, especially on this blu-ray release, especially with the original Douglas Trumbull Special Effects. The film is very much a love story to the new Enterprise, but it does suffer from a slow pace, and an enemy that is too inhuman to really be a foil to the crew, still it is an enjoyable straight science fiction story, even if it does not have the fun of later Star Trek. It is obvious that the films quick conversion from a new television series Star Trek: Phase II, and the transformation from the pilot script “In Thy Image” into the script for the film did not completely work as expected, as the film is a bit slow and dry. The film was rushed, and the script never finished, and the budget tripled, and the film was considered a failure, though it did easily make back it’s money, getting the studio to greenlight a sequel, and one without Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry who they blamed for this films failures. It is great to see the crew back together, and Nimoy was not set to return until this was turned into a film, though the one in the film with the best lines is McCoy, and because of that DeForest Kelly does really steal the show (helps only having special effects as the enemy). I still do enjoy this film, and it is much better than the dismal failure of Star Trek 5, but it is one of the weaker trek films.
The film starts with an overture featuring the amazing score by Jerry Goldsmith, which later because the opening theme to Star Trek the Next Generation. Then we see a vast energy cloud which 3 Klingon Vessels go in to attack (this is the first time Klingon’s have had the skull ridges which so define them later), and are quickly completely destroyed by powerful energy beams. And it turns out the cloud is on a direct intercept path to Earth. Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) has a meeting with Star Fleet command, and is given command of the Starship Enterprise, which has been being refit under the command of Captain Willard Decker (Stephen Collins) for the past 18 months, and is basically a new ship. Kirk is taken over in a shuttle pod by Engineer Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) where he learns the ship is not quite ready, and needs a shakedown cruise as many things are not in order, but they need to launch in 12 hours to intercept the Energy cloud. Kirk informs the angry Deckard that he has been demoted to first officer, and Kirk is taking command. The new Vulcan science officer is killed in a transporter accident while beaming over to the ship. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy (DeFirst Kelley) is drafted, and brought back into service thanks to Kirk, and McCoy isn’t too happy about it, or the refit of the medical bay. Kirk orders the ship into Warp speed, and they are dropped into a wormhole along with an asteroid. Kirk orders phasers to fire it, but Deckard belays that order, and has Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) now weapons officer (having been replaced as Navigator by Ilia (Persis Khambatta) a Deltan with a former relationship with Deckard who had to take an oath of celibacy to join Starfleet) to fire a photon torpedo, which destroys the asteroid and they safely make it out of the wormhole. Kirk confronts Deckard for countermanding his order, and Deckard informs him he doesn’t know enough about the refit enterprise, and the phasers are now routed through the warp drive, and were cut off. Meanwhile Spock (Leonard Nimoy) on Vulcan was attempting to gain total logic, but his mind felt the presence of the mind of the cloud entity, and does not attain total logic, so he takes a warp shuttle and goes to join the Enterprise, lending his expertise to help with the Warp Engine troubles.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
Tactical Unit - The Code 機動部隊 - 警例 by Law Wing Cheong (2008)
June 24th, 2009
The first of 5 parts of a made for TV sequel to Johnnie To’s police drama PTU. Certainly this is a low budget sequel, though it does have a great cast with Simon Yam, Lam Suet and Maggie Siu, though that is really all it has going for it. Sure I still enjoyed it, but as a made for TV movie, not a film like PTU, or even a film much less than PTU. The shows biggest problem, over it’s lowered production values, is it’s story, which is not too engaging, and in fact served to pull me away from liking the main characters more than actually making me like them more. In fact, this makes the cops seem much more like villains, and not likeable at all, and in fact the cops who are the best get drummed out, so it certainly doesn’t have a message I would think this series would carry. This is a very serious film with no humor, and not much to like in the characters, except that you already like them from the film. Worth checking out for fans, but non-fans should stay away.
The film starts with the police having to launch an internal investigation, because a surveillance camera picked up 3 PTU officers brutalizing a suspect in an alley. CAPO (Complaints Against Police Officers) is sent in to investigate, and to try and find the suspect who has not reported. The unit in question is led by Sam (Simon Yam), and he sets off to find the suspect first and get him to clam up. Meanwhile one member of his unit, the straight shooting Eight (Lee Kwok Lun) is such an honest cop that he has confessed he is in bad debt to their superior, so he is getting transfered off active duty, and is totally distraught about it. He has never done anything wrong as a cop, and always goes by the book, and feels he is being punished for it. Sam has his friend leading another unit May Cheung (Maggie Siu Mei Kei) and Officer Lo (Lam Suet) helping out in the search, as CAPO is on their trail at every turn.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Moon by Duncan Jones (2009)
June 15th, 2009
I love science fiction, so when I saw this trailer I was immediately interested, it looked like a cross being 2001 and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2 movies I love, so there was no chance I was missing this. And I wanted to see it even more when I learned that Duncan Jones is in fact David Bowie’s son. Then even more than that when I learned that this incredible looking film only cost $5 million, which is nothing for something that looks this good, I mean most romantic comedies cost more than this nowdays. And then of course their is Sam Rockwell, who can be amazing, so I was hooked. I went and saw this opening weekend, and I am glad I did. This is a great straight science fiction film, only ignoring moon gravity (too expensive to fake), but well worth checking out. A really good film.
Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is an employee working on the moon base Sarang on a 3 year contract extracting Earth’s new clean power, helium 3. He is the only one there, and is nearing the end of his 3 years, happy to be going home to his wife Tess (dominique McElligott) and young daughter he has never met Eve (Kaya Scodelario). His only companion is the robot Gerty (Kevin Spacey), and Sam is going a little loopy, starting to see a teenaged girl. There are harvesters that mine the helium-3, and when they are full, Sam goes out and picks up the extraction and sends it back to Earth. Currently one of the harvesters is broken, but the other 3 work. Unfortunately the lunar satellites are down, so Sam has no realtime communication with Earth, so his communications are slowly routed through Jupiter. When Sam is out on an extraction, he sees the girl again, and crashed into the harvester. Sam awakens to Gerty, explaining their has been an accident, and Gerty tells him he can’t go out. Gerty tests Sam to see how his skills are, and Sam sneaks out of bed and swears he sees Gerty talking realtime to Earth. Sam decides something is wrong, and fakes an accident with the station to get Gerty to let him out, and he takes a rover to the newly broken extractor and finds the crashed version of himself, in bad shape, but still alive, who he brings back to the station. Now there are 2 Sams, one younger and surlier, and one older and scruffier, both on the base.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Up by Peter Docter and Bob Peterson (2009)
June 3rd, 2009
Not that I am surprised, but Pixar has done it again. Maybe not their best film, but certainly incredibly enjoyable, and especially that for dog lovers (I think my dad would really like this film [and I already know my mom liked it, because she saw it before me]). My biggest complaint is that after paying extra to see this film in 3D it wasn’t all that impressive. I think I was more impressed in Journey to the Center of the Earth (a much worse film) mostly in the live action 3D which I thought looked great, but here it was 3D, but there was still the annoying edges in the fast motion, and at times I actually felt like the 3D detracted from the story. I am starting to think that 24FPS is not a high enough frame rate for 3D, and I think James Cameron is actually shooting Avatar at a higher frame rate to combat that problem. This film, like all Pixar films has an amazing heart and great characters, and this really elevates the film, because the characters come to life, and have so much heart. And for the dog lover this film really delivers, because by having dogs that can talk they really capture the true spirit of animals, so all dog lovers should certainly see this film (really everyone should, but dog lovers will have much to appreciate). This is another top notch film from Pixar, sure it isn’t THE INCREDIBLES or WALL-E, but it is close, and well worth checking out. I am excited to see it again, next time not in 3D.
This film as usual with Pixar films starts with a short film, this is called Partly Cloudy and is directed by Peter Sohn. And as usual the whole story is told without dialogue, which always works so well. This is the story of clouds in the sky who make baby’s, puppies, kittens, and other creatures for storks to deliver to expectant parents, but their is one different cloud named Gus who is a gray cloud, and all his creations are dangerous, from crocodiles, bighorn sheep and a porcupine, which his poor delivery stork Peck must deliver, getting well thrashed along the way. Peck finally flies away to another nearby white cloud. This makes Gus sad, and he cries and thunderstorms, but then peck returns, and finds that the other cloud made him shoulder pads and a football helmet for protection. Gus is elated and gives Peck an electric eel which shocks him right through the protective gear, but he flies off happily to deliver it, if a bit harried.
UP starts almost like another short film by them, with the love story of a young boy named Carl Fredrickson (Ed Asner), and the woman he will marry, Ellie (Elizabeth Docter). Carl’s hero is the famed explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer) who pilots an airship, and who discovered a strange bird in a hidden South American locale named Paradise Falls, but his discovery was claimed to be faked, so Muntz headed off to get a live bird, and was not heard from again. Carl was a huge fan, dressing like him, and as an 8 year old he met the young tom boy Ellie who also loved Muntz, and they eventually married, always promising to go on an adventure, but life got in the way, and they never had enough money, especially working at a zoo with Carl selling balloons to children. They had a lovely life together, but Ellie never got to finish her adventure, where she wanted to move her clubhouse, and abandoned house, that they later bought and fixed up to Paradise Falls, and she died giving him the boom. Carl is then all alone in his house, and the city grows around him, with a big consruction going on around him. Their is one nice worker named Tom (John Ratzenberger who is in all Pixar films), but when Ellie’s mail box is crushed, Carl gets angry and hits a worker, and the developer is able to get the city to say he must give up his house and go to a retirement home. Carl is crushed, but he has an idea, and when the men come to take him away, he goes back in, and using all of his balloons, lifts his house into the air, planning on taking it to Paradise Falls. The one problem is that he has picked up an unsupecting passenger, a Wilderness Explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai) who wanted to help the old man to get his last badge so he could become a full Wilderness Scout. Carl had sent the boy on a snipe hunt, and the boy had returned at the wrong time. Carl does not want to let him in, but they are up in the sky, and they must. Carl decides he must try and let the boy off, but that doesn’t work so well, an they end up going through a huge storm.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Star Trek by J. J. Abrams (2009)
May 23rd, 2009
Now I have to admit that I came into this film really thinking I would hate it, as I am a huge Star Trek fan, and especially a fan of TOS (the original Series) which I grew up watching, and a reboot just sounded like an absolutely awful idea all the way around. And J. J. Abrams did not give me confidence. Now I have not watched LOST, but his Mission Impossible was impossibly bad, and while I do currently really enjoy Fringe, I have heard he was much busier doing Star Trek than working on it. Anyway, After all that I have to say I was quite wrong and did enjoy the film immensely. In fact I saw it twice, taking my wife Kelly to go see it because I wanted to see it again, and have even read the prequel comic. That is not to say that I don’t think it has issues, but it did do very very well in re-igniting the excitement of old Trek, and making the best Trek film they have made in a long time. First the good, the casting. The casting was in fact fantastic and they did mostly really capture the characters (well Chekov may have been a little over the top), but overall the characters were amazing, and who knew that formerly typcast action hero Carl Urban could do a perfect DeForest Kelly imitation, in fact almost a possession. Chris Pine made a very good Kirk (even if they did push his bad boy thing a little too much) and Zachary Quinto even looks like Spock. And the time travel storyline does allow them to create an alternate timeline, so it doesn’t ruin the original, but creates a new one they can play with (personally I would love to see a trilogy of films which start a new TV series, but I doubt that will happen). Of course I do have some issues. While most the sets are great (I love the new bridge), the engineering looks like a bunch of pipes (and was filmed in the nearby Budweiser plant). And while the main uniforms look like the old ones, many are not too impressive, and I hate the look of the new silver phasers, the original series ones had much more style. Then there are continuity issues. Like the fact that in TOS each ship had it’s own symbol on the uniform and it wasn’t till the movies that Starfleet starting using the well known Enterprise symbol as the star fleet symbol. We know they did not build the Enterprise on Earth, but in space, and it was not the flagship (which was the original of it’s class the Constitution NCC-1700). And we know for sure this was not the original crew of the Enterprise. yes Pike was the Captain, but he had a female first officer, Number One, and Spock was the science officer. We had a different doctor, and even when Kirk joined it was with a different Doctor on the Enterprise and Lt. Kelso in engineering, and Chekov didn’t join till the second season (which of course means he should not have met Khan in the old films either). Then there is the tech stuff which always have to not think too hard about with Star Trek, but in this why do you need to make a hole to the planet core to destroy a planet with a black hole? Why not just drop it on the surface? And then the score was perfectly unmemorable and really did not have the Star Trek theme until the end credits. Still as I said I did really love the film, and certainly want it on Blu-Ray. This is a must see, even if I am really sick of films shot in hand held, and didn’t realize lens were broken in the future (must be why there are so many damn lens flares).
In 2283, the USS Kelvin, a starship in the united Federation of planets runs into a strange electrical storm in space, and reports it to Star Fleet. Out of the storm comes a strange, and huge Romulan ship, the Narada, which is from 154 years in the future, and easily defeats the Kelvin and demands that Captain Robau (Faran Tahir) comes over in a shuttle craft. Robau agrees, and turns command of the Kelvin over to George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth), telling him to run if he can, and to abandon the ship to save the crew. Robua is brought over to the Narada where he is question about a strange starfleet vessel and Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and when he tells the stardate, the Captain of the Nirada, Nero (Eric Bana) kills him. Kirk orders the crew to abandon ship, including his wife Winona (Jennifer Morrison from House) who is in labor, and he plans to set the ship on auto pilot, but when the auto pilot does not function, he stays on the ship and pilots it into the Narada, telling his wife he loves her and helping to name their son James Tiberius Kirk, as he badly damages the Alien ship.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
X-Men Origins: Wolverine by Gavin Hood (2009)
May 2nd, 2009
I have to admit that I do enjoy Hugh Jackman as Logan, and did enjoy the first two X-Men movies, even if they did not follow the plot of the comics very well, they had the feel of the comics, and it worked (though the third film was so terrible it hurts). And most of this rollercoaster ride action film I enjoyed, though of course they made Logan not quite as messed up as he was in the comics, and then at the ending they really screwed up Deadpool. Sure was from the same program as Wolverine, also known as Weapon X, but what was the silent thing with the swords coming out of his arms? That is just plain stupid. And the hidden ending that I saw makes it look like he will back, and more of his normal self, but he was horrible in this. Gambit wasn’t too horrible in this though. I guess this was enjoyable enough. Not as good as the first two X-men films, but better than the third. And of course it has very little to do with the comic Wolverine: Origins, but that was to be expected. And there is a problem iin that Danny Huston cannot touch Brian Cox as William Stryker so that also brought things down a notch. Decent enough I guess, but it certainly could have been better, especially with all the reshoots. Still pretty impressive that it made $35 million on it’s opening day after being leaked a month before.
In Canada around 1845 a young sick man named James Howlett (Toye Sivan) sees his father John (Peter O’Biren) killed by his friend Victor Creed’s (michael-James Olsen) father Thomas (Aaron Jeffrey) with a shotgun. The young man becomes enraged, and bone claws extend out through the skin on his hand and he stabs and kills Thomas, but not before Thomas can tell the young man that he is in fact his real father. Victor and James then run off as brothers saying they will always protect each other, and we see them fight in the Vicil War, World War 1 and 2 and then in Vietnam. In Vietnam Victor kills a superior officer who is trying to rape a girl, and the two are to be executed by firing squad, but don’t die thanks to their healing abilities, and they are recruited by William Stryker (Danny Huston) to join his elite mutant hit squad.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
Doctor Who Story 131: Warriors of the Deep by
April 22nd, 2009
A decent enough Doctor Who adventure, and honestly the first I have seen with Turlough as a companion, and also interesting in that the Doctor (Peter Davison) seems a bit more martial and devious than I have seen this doctor be before. Not amazing, but certainly enjoyable. I am liking the fifth Doctor more and more, too bad it seems I am about to catch up on all his adventures that have been released on DVD (much as I have done with my favorite, the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker).
In 2084 on Earth there is another planetary sized cold war going on. One side runs underwater missile bases, which can launch the countries strategic nuclear missiles, one such base us Sea Base 4 which cannot be activated without a human operator to sync his mind with the computer, but the base operator has recently been killed, so the Commander Vorshak (Tom Adams) has put an apprentice Ensign Maddox (Martin Neil) into that position, as he is the only one who can sync, though he does not feel up for the job at all. The base notices something on it’s long range sensors. Outside there is a Silurian battleship led by Icthar (Norman Comer) who plan on taking Base 4, and also plan on reviving their warrior cast to do battle. In the Tardis, the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) has promised to take Tegan (Janet Fielding) to Earth’s future, and Turlough (Mark Strickson) is along for the ride. The Tardis ends up in orbit around the Earth, and is attacked by an automated defense robot, and has to make an emergency materialization aboard the Sea Base so the Doctor can affect repairs. The base computer initiates a missile run, which turns out to be a practice, but it is too much for Maddox and he faints, and he is taken to the bases medical officer Doctor Solow (Ingrid Pitt) and Nilson (Ian McCulloch) who are in fact enemy agents. They get the captain to ggive them a program disk, and use it to program Maddox to destroy the ships computer. Meanwhile the crew realize they have intruders, and the Doctor rigs the reactor to overload so they can escape, but it doesn’t work, and they are found (after the Doctor is almost killed) and brought to the Captain.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth Series 10 written and directed by Doug Naylor (2009)
April 20th, 2009
I have literally been waiting years for this, and have had hopes of them making a movie (which it seems will never happen now), and maybe because of all the high hopes this is a bit of a disappointment. Sure it is great to have everyone back, and with the new effects, the stuff of Red Dwarf looks amazing. And I did really enjoy the opening, and the ending, but honestly the whole middle on Earth is a bit dragged out, and not as funny as it could be. And the fact that they have just skipped over a ninth series, but acted as it happened, has only served to make me long for more Dwarf instead of a 3 episode special that could have easily been 2 episodes. Lets have a whole new series or the much vaunted film which would be so funny! And I must say there was a little too much Blade Runner references in this to make it all together funny.
9 years after Series VIII, the Dwarfers are still going alone on Red Dwarf, but much has happened (a missing series it seems). Dave Lister (Craig Charles) spends his time either playing pranks on Arnold Judas Rimmer (Chris Barrie) or mourning the death of his love Kristine Kochanski (Chloe Annett). The Cat (Danny John-Jules) spends time being the Cat, and the andriod Kryten (RObert Llewellyn) has been on vacation. They discover their is a problem with the only remaining water supply, it seems their is a giant squid monster in it. So Rimmer runs the controls, while Dave, Cat and Kryten go in a diving bell to fight the creature and are almost killed, but manage to just survive. Just then a new ships hologram arrives, this is Katerina Bartikovsky (Sophie Winkleman) a former science officer on the crew, who gives 24 hours to Rimmer before she will shut him off, and then plans on helping Lister repopulate the species. She uses the dimension hopping capabilities of the squid to open a portal back to Earth, though it claims that their dimension is fake, and they begin to get sucked into the portal.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Fast and Furious by Justin Lin (2009)
April 18th, 2009
I have always been a fan of the fast and the furious films, with the first being my favorite, though I have enjoyed the whole series (and i liked how the 3rd was kind of a sequel to Better Luck Tomorrow, Lin’s first film), probably part of having 2 really good friends who are really into the whole rice burner thing. And even if these films did not start out too accurate to the scene, they were still enjoyable fun, especially Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, who made a great onscreen team. And for this film they brought back the whole crew (even Han [Sun Kang] from The Fast and the Furious 3 Tokyo Drift making this film a prequel to that film) and pumped everything up to the max, making this a rollercoaster thrill ride. Sure there are too many digital effects, but it is good to see Vin Diesel back in a role that suits him, and this film is exactly what it should have been, and honestly I enjoyed it a great deal, though it is of course just a popcorn action film. And sure the story isn’t too great, or too plausible, but we are here for the characters and the action, and this film gives us that in spades.
Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), his girlfriend Leticia “Letty” Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) and his crew, including Han Lue (Sung Kang) who are robbing gasoline trucks using tow trucks that they spin around, and break off one fuel truck at at time, and Letty freezes the hitches and breaks them with a hammer. Of course they are noticed and things go bad, with Dom barely saving Letty, and the two of them almost getting killed. It seems the cops are on their trail too, so Dom breaks up the money, and tells Han who says he will head to Japan (for the fhird film) and Letty doesn’t want to be left alone, but Dom thinks it is too dangerous, so he leaves her. Dom gets a call from his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) telling him Letty was murdered. Meanwhile Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) is now an FBI agent, and working on a case trying to take down a Mexican drug lord named Arturo Braga, and of course with Letty’s death they want him to catch Dom as well.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Doctor Who Story 124: Arc of Infinity by Ron Jones (1983)
April 15th, 2009
Continuing right where Time Flight left off, this is another really strong enjoyable series of the fifth Doctor. I am usually a fan of when the Doctor returns to his home planet of Galifrey, and this is another one that shows just how messed up the Time Lords are as well. A really enjoyable series all the way around, making for a really enjoyable season of the Fifth Doctor. A must see.
Two kids traveling in Amsterdam, Colin Frazer (Alastair Cummings) and Robin Stuart (Andrew Boxer) have lost their passports, so they go and stay in a crypt, but something happens to Colin, and Stuart has to take off. It seems a Timelord has turned traitor, and is working with a creature from theanti-matter dimension known as the Renegade (Ian Collier), and has helped it by stealing the Doctor’s bio-data and sending it, which is caught by a technician named Damon (Neil Daglish). Using the data, the Renegade invades the Tardis, and attempts to take over the Doctor, but does not manage it. The Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companion Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) realize the Renegade is hiding in a place called the Arc of Infinity which can shield anti-matter. The Timelord High Council, led by Lord President Borusa (Leonard Sachs) as well as Chancellor Thalia (Elspet Gray) and Cardinal Zorax (Max Harvey) and the Doctor’s old friend Councilor Hedin (Michael Gough) activate the recall switch on the Doctor’s Tardis to force him to come back, as they realize that to destroy the creature before he can destroy the universe, they must kill the Doctor., an
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Red Cliff II 赤壁 II by John Woo (2009)
April 13th, 2009
After waiting on the first one and loving it, I rushed to see the second, and saw it on Blu-Ray, and it was well worth it, because no only is the movie as good as the incredible first, but the transfer is reference quality. This film proves Woo still has it, and Hollywood would just not let him do what he did best. Of course it also brings Chow Yun Fat further down after turning down a role in this film, and doing Dragonball, which now has a rotten tomatoes rating of 13, that guy is only out for money obviously, and should have done this amazing film. This film is of course the direct sequel to the previous film and could into stand without it, and my only complaint is the annoying page ripping transistion that is used way too much, other than that this film is near perfect, and the additions to the story all work incredibly well. This is a fantastic adaption and an incredible film, and Tony Leung Chu Wai and Kaneshiro Takeshi both outdo themselves, which is saying allot. The action is top notch, the effects are great. Everything about this is amazing. And a much faster pace than the first film, which has more discussion and setup. This is an absolute must see!!!
The film starts with the people of the Red Cliff and Liu Bei’s (You Yong) men awaiting the attack of Cao Cao (Zhang Fengi) from across the river. Zhuge Liang (Kaneshiro Takeshi) and Zhou Yu (Tony Leung Chu Wai) plot their attack on Cao Cao’s forces. Sun Quan’s (Chang Chen) sister Sun Xiang-Shang (Zhao Wei) has infiltrated Cao Cao’s camp as a male soldier, and is sending messages back to Zhuge Liang. Cao Cao has the superior force, so he is confident, and has his troops train in kick ball, and has his admirals strap the ships together with iron beams so that the ground troops won’t get sea sick on the crossing. He does have some sickness in camp, and uses it to play dirty, sending the corpses over to Red Hill, where soldiers and townspeople are exposed. The sickness is weakening the side badly, and causes Liu Bei and his troops to pack up and leave, though Zhuge Liang stays back to keep his promise to Zhou Yu and help in the fight. Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang compete to each fulfill a seemingly impossible task in the help of the battle against Cao Cao, each if they lose agreeing to give up their heads. Zhuge Liang agrees to get 100,000 arrows in 3 days, and Zhou Yu promisses to get the heads of Cao Cao’s two admirals Cai Mao (Yi ZHao) and Zhang Yun (Jia Hongwei). Meanwhile Sun Xiang-Shang befriends a enemy soldier (Tong Dawei) who is good at kickball, and is made a troop leader of arrow men, the two play together, and Xiang-Shang uses him to help finish her map of the enemy camp, but does start to truly like him as well.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Doctor Who Story 123: Time Flight by Ron Jones (1982)
April 10th, 2009
At first I was not a fan of Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor, because he replaced my favorite doctor, Tom Baker the fourth, but after starting to watch more of Davison I have realized that I actually really like the quirky fifth doctor, and this was an enjoyable adventure. And one that added to the fun by adding in the then very high tech, and now defunct Concorde, and also featuring one of the Doctor’s best villains. This is an enjoyable adventure, and well worth checking out.
The Concorde Golf Victor Foxtrot is coming in for a landing at Heathrow, when it’s signal breaks up, and the plane disappears. On the TARDIS, the Doctor (Peter Davison), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and the reluctant Tegan (Janet Fielding) hit some turbulence, and end up being drawn to the spot where the Concorde disappeared, so they land at Heathrow, and go out to see what is going on. The authorities see the police box, and the Doctor has them call Unit, and is put in charge of the investigation. They get another Concrode, Gold Alpha Charlie, and have the Tardis loaded aboard and the Doctor and his companions go with Captain Stapley (RIchard Waston) to go find the other Concorde. They find the disturbance, and the Concorde passes through it, though it seems they are landing at Heathrow, in fact they have travelled back 140 million years into the past, and it is a form of psychokinetic energy that is making them see things, and when they manage to clear their heads they find the other Concorde, as well as a citadel, and the remains of an alien spacecraft that has crashed some time before. The Doctor of course sets out to investigate.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
Doctor Who Story 121: Black Orchid by Ron Joens (1982)
April 8th, 2009
An honestly very mediocre two parter starring Peter Davison as the fifth Doctor. This one is really a throw away, and not too enjoyable, except seeing Tegan dancing and having fun. Not much of a good episode, but it was followed by the excellent Earthshock. This is also only a 2 episode story, so it does seem like filler, and the unexplained woman who looks just like Nyssa is not very well used, and not at all very good. Pretty much just a waste.
In a house in the English countryside two people figtht, and a servant is killed. The killer goes into the room of a young woman. We then see the man tied to the bed, and guarded by an American Indian. The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) plans to take Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), but the Tardis takes them to Earth in 1925, they arrive at a train station, and when the step out a chaffuer walks up to them and tells them that Lord Carnleigh (Michael Cochrane) is expecting the Doctor. Intrigued they get in the car. They arrive at the estate, and Lord Cranleigh is blown away, because Nyssa looks just like his fiancée. Meanwhile they get the doctor into their Cricket game, and he proves both good at bowling and batting, and wins the game for them, so they take them up to the house for the nights events.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
The Good, The Bad, The Weird 좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈 by Kim Ji-woon 김지운 (2008)
April 3rd, 2009
I can honestly say I have been excited for this film since I first heard about it, and with that much build up it could have easily been a disappointment, but instead it is one of the most ridiculously fun films I have seen in a very very long time. This film is a Western in the East, do you call that an Eastern? And is obviously based somewhat on Sergio Leone’s classic The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. And it doesn’t hurt that the film stars 3 of Korea’s hottest stars,, Song Kang-ho 송강호 plays the Weird and has been in such classics as Green Fish, Shiri, The Foul King, JSA, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Memories of Murder, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, The Host, Secret Sunshine, and is in the about to be released Thirst by Park Chan Wook. The Bad is Lee Byung-hun 이병헌 who was also in JSA, as well as Three Extremes, A Bittersweet Life, and is about to be in G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra, and we have Jung Woo Sung 정우성 as the good, who has been in Beat, Musa and Daisy, I mean what a cast! And for an Eastern, it is not as incongruous say as Chow Yun Fat’s classic PEACE HOTEL, as this is set in Manchuria during the Japanese invasion, so it does have horses and cars and motorcycles (even if I doubt a US army jeep would have been there at this time), but after all it is an over the top super stylistic action film, so it is not exactly grounded in reality to begin with. Honestly I enjoyed this so much I would love to see a sequel! This film is just so much fun all the way around!
In Japanese occupied Manchuria, a rich and powerful man sends a very important map to be sent to the President of the Japanese Imperial Bank, named Kanemaru, who is traveling by train. He then hires his associate Park Chang-yi AKA the Bad (Lee Byung-hun) to go with his gang of robbers to steal it back. Meanwhile the Korean independence movement has hired Park Do-win aka The Good (Ju Woo Sung) who is also sent to get the Map, but also to get the bounty on Park, who he believes is a man called the Finger Chopper who has been chasing for some time. On the train Kanemaru gets robbed by a third man, The Weird also known as Yoon Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho) who gets the map, just as Park and his gang shows up and stops it, and Yoon shows up gunning for Park, but ends up going after Yoon and the map. Yoon though is picked up by his friend Man Gil (Ryoo Seung-soo 류승수) on a motorcycle, and they go off to figure out the map.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Ip Man 葉問 by Wilson Yip Wai-Shun (2008)
March 23rd, 2009
Donnie Yen goes the route of Jet Li in fearless to do a biopic of Bruce Lee’s Master Yip Man in his early years, and makes for one Donnie’s best films, but does not come close to Li’s best historical films in any way. Sure Donnie does some great action, and his most sedate performance is certainly one of his best, though he still does not have too much depth to his acting skills. And from what I have heard the film is not too historically accurate, but that doesn’t make it any less of a fun martial arts romp, which some Chinese nationalistic story telling, and Wilson Yip has once again made an impressive looking film. Very worth checking out, and the blu-ray looks very good (though there are some motion artifacting in some dark scenes that do distract).
Donnie Yen plays the titular Ip Man a Wing Chun martial arts master in a town of masters named Foshan, but one who likes to keep his skills secret, as he is not a show off. Ip Man lives a quite life with his wife Wing Cheng (Lynn Hung) and young son. One day Ip Man is challenged by a fellow master named Liao (Chen Zhi Hui) and Ip man easily bests him, and this is witnessed by a local named Aha Da Yuan (Wong You-Nam) who was getting his kite from a tree. Sha Da Yuan goes into town and tells everyone what he saw, publicly humiliating Master Liao. Master Liao starts a fight, and local Inspector Li Zhao (Lam Ka-Tyung) intervenes, saying people fight with guns now, and not fists, though Ip Man easily disarms him, and removes the cylinder from the gun. A martial artist from out of town named Jin Shan Zhao (Fan Siu-Wong) comes in and starts challenging the masters of all the schools, and defeating them all. The teahouse owner who is also a martial artist named Lin (Xing Yu) tells Ip Man, but Ip man can’t help because of his wife’s disapproval of his fighting.Jin comes to challenge Ip man, and starts breaking things, and this causes Wing Cheng to allow him to fight, and he quickly defeats him. The whole town starts to respect Ip Man, and his Wing Chung.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
The Harder they Fall by Mark Robson (1956)
March 19th, 2009
Through this film Bogy has a pained look on his face, which fits perfectly with the character, and his moral crisis, unfortunately it was more than that, and Humphrey Bogart was very very sick, and did not last another year or make another film. It is good though that his last film was such a good role, even if it is so sad or it to have been his last. A dark and cynical film based on true events, and again a must see.
Humprehy Bogart plays Eddie WIllis a formerly big sports writer who has lost his job, and is now desperate for work. He gets called in by a mobster named Nick Benko (Rod Steiger) to be a boxing promoter for a huge Argentinian former strongman named Toro Moreno (Mike Lane). The whole setup is a fix to make as much money as possible, so they want to make Toro seem like an amazing fighter, and they don’t tell him or his manager Luis Argandi (Carlo Montalban). Eddie goes along, and they decide to go to California to start Toro’s career, leaving his wife Beth (Jan Sterling) back in New York.
REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS…
My Name Is Bruce by Bruce Campbell (2008)
March 18th, 2009
Thanks to Netflix I got to check this out, because I have wanted to see it since I initially heard about it. I mean a new Bruce Campbell horror film directed by him, and which also parodies him and his career! That sounds perfect, and honestly for it was, it really was. This film is fun as can be, and a must for any Bruce Campbell fan! And it was great to see Ted Raimi having such a big part (well parts really). Fun Fun Fun! And I love the musical elements with the townsfolk singing about what is going on in the movie (well two of them) and Ted Raimi playing his 3rd party as the guy who paints the sign, changing the number of people in the town as people get killed, and eventually getting killed.
In the small town of Gold Lick, Oregon, a boy named Jeff (Taylor Sharpe) who is a horror and especially Bruce Campbell nut, goes with his friend to an old Chinese cemetery to meet up with some girls. They go through smashing graves and stuff, and Jeff picks up a gold amulet, which releases the Chinese God of War Guan-di (Jamie Peck) who protects the dead Chinese, and their Tofu after a bad mining accident. The God with glowing eyes kills his friend and the two girls before he escapes. We then see Bruce Campbell playing a sleezy version of himself, with a horrible career doing Z movies. He goes to meet his agent Mills Toddner (Ted Raimi) at a strip club, and he wants to fire him, but keeps him when he gets promised something special for his birthday. Bruce gets totally wasted, and barely makes it back to his trailer, where he drunk dials his ex wife, and gets his dog drunk, before getting knocked over the head, and stuffed into the back of a car by Jeff.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Once Were Warriors by Lee Tamahori (1994)
March 17th, 2009
This film showing hard life and domestic violence in Maori culture blew me away when I first saw it, and it was equally as powerful seeing it again now. This adaption of Alan Duff’s bestselling novel is powerful and sad. It is difficult to believe that people live like this, even when you know they do. The cast is perfect, and we see from the brutality to the caring, even if the brother is given a short thrift in the film. This was certainly one of the best films of that year, and one of the best films ever made, a powerful film that is a must see, and if you have seen I would recommend going back and seeing it again, though don’t expect not to be moved.
This is the story of the Heke family, a family of Maori’s living in the slums of Aukland. The family is pretty disfunctional, with the father being the quick to fight and quick to party Jake (Temuera Morrison who went on to play Jango Fett in the Star Wars prequel films), his wife Beth (Rena Owen) who tries to do good, but also loves to party with the best of them, their estranged eldest son Nig (Julian Arahanga) who hates his father, and is ready to leave, the always getting into trouble second son Mark who calls himself Boogie (Taungaroa Emile) and the 13 year old Grace (Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell) who is always writing stories and telling them to her 2 younger siblings, and is really the glue that holds the family together. Grace’s best friend is a homeless boy who lives in a burnt out car under an underpass, and who she always goes to read to because he can’t read. Nig leaves home to join a Maori street gang, who go for full body tattoos, and Boogie has a court date, and got picked up again by cops, so things aren’t looking good. Jake comes home with a bunch of fish, and wants to have a good time, but finally admits to his wife, that he has been fired, and she freaks out, so he goes to the bar and drinks with his group of buddies, then brings the whole gang back to his house for a party after getting into a major fight. The young kids try and sleep upstairs, as Boogie has a big day, but it is hard with all the noise. And when Beth pissed off Jake, he literally beats the living piss out of her, before forcibly taking her to bed.
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Falling Down by Joel Schumacher (1993)
March 8th, 2009
I can’t believe this film did not do better because this is such a great film, and I have loved it since I saw it in Cinema 466 when it was shown to the class before it was released. I love it from the remake of 8 1/2 in the opening, to the man pushed just too far, doing all the stuff that you really could see yourself doing if you just got pushed a little too far. Beautifully shot, perfectly cast and acted, and really the ultimate Los Angeles film. This is such a good film, and no one knows about it. And seeing it in HD on HDNET I must say it looked amazing and deserves a great blu-ray edition, hopefully with some special features. Check this one out, it is really worth checking out.
William Foster (MIchael Douglas) is an angry man, sitting in his car trapped on a Los Angeles Freeway on a very hot day, and he finally loses it, and gets out his car, with the license plate D-FENS, and just walks off, saying he is going home. A LAPD Seargean Martin PRendergast (Robert Duvall, probably my mom’s favorite actor) helps a motorcycle cop push the car off the road. Foster walks to a convenience store owned by a Korean (Michael Paul Chan) and he wants to buy a coca cola, but needs change for the phone, and the Korean won’t give it to him unless he buys something, so he wants to pay 50¢ so he can use the phone, so he loses it when the Korean goes for his bat, and takes it and trashes the store, then when the owner agrees he pays 50¢ and goes out to call his ex wife Beth (Barbara Hershey) who has a restraining order against him, but he tells her he is coming home for their daughter Adele’s (Joey Hope Singer) birthday. Foster then keeps walking, even with a hole in his shoe, and ends up in a hispanic gang area, and when he gets attacked, he beats the hell out of them, and ends up with one of their butterfly knife, and continues on. The gang bangers then go to kill him with a bag full of guns, letting out the girlfriend Angie (Karina Arroyave) and doing a drive by, but they miss Foster, and crash, and he takes their guns which are in a gym bag, and walks off.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
Watchmen by Zach Snyder (2009)
March 7th, 2009
I have been looking forward to this adaption of the seminal Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons 1986-1987 comic book for years, and when Zach Snyder the director of 300 and the dawn of the dead remake was doing it, I couldn’t have been happier. And for most of the movie I was really with it, at least as a fan, the lack of exposition I felt really made this a companion piece to the comic book, and not feel like it’s own entity, and the lack of exposition left Kelly, and I have a feeling many others completely out in the cold. And the film is a visual feast, really bringing the world of watchmen to life, with casting to match, as these people really look, act and seem like the comic characters. Of course this film is extremely violent, much more so than the comic and to the point of gratuitousness in the extreme. It also has a pretty explicit sex scene, and other breasts shown, so this is certainly no kids film. My personal biggest problem came with the change of the film McGuffin, which as a huge fan of the comic, really threw me, because it did not improve anything for me, and just seemed to be an arbitrary change. I have an idea I think could have been more true without being completely true, that I will discuss at the end. The change of endings also seemed to come out of left field because of the fact that so much of this was a slavishly accurate adaption up to that point, and then it changed, not for the better, and also left out a couple of lines from the comic that I think were really necessary that were cut out of the film, and also hurt the film. If they had stayed accurate (as accurate as you can be when adapting a series to an under 3 hour film) this might not have been popular, but at least the fans would have absolutely loved it, and stuck with it forever. The fact that they changed it, and gave so little extra exposition makes me feel that this will not only not be huge with the general populace (sure it got a 55.7 million opening weekend, but it will go down) but also the fans will not like it, and the film’s box office will suffer because of it. Honestly I was loving the film as it went, it really seemed like an accurate adaption of this hard to adapt comic, and loved the little details including the ends is nigh guy, and the newstand and kid reading the comic, and the opening which showed elements of the history of this alternate world, though again didn’t explain them enough for the general populace. Honestly a noble try, but ultimately a failure, and I am sure it will not do well after this opening weekend.
Watchmen begins in an alternate 1985, in the apartment of a man named Edward Blake, also known as the superhero the comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). An intruder comes in, and fights Blake, easily beating him even though he fights back, and gets thrown out the window to his death, dropping his smily face button with blood on it. We then get a montage showing the alternate history of the US from World War 2 through 1985, showing the rise of costumed superheroes, the shooting of JFK by the Comedian, RIchard Nixon (Robert Wiseden) using the one true powered super hero Dr. Jon Osterman also known as Doctor Manhattan (Billy Crudup) to win the war, and get himself a 3 and 4th Presidential term, in the 1970’s the Keane act which outlawed masked superheroes, and the rising cold war tensions which seam to be leading to inevitable nuclear war with Russia. A costumed vigilante named Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) who has defied the Keane act is continuing the investigation into the Comedian’s death, and goes out to warn his retired comrades. First is Dan Dreiberg formerly known as the second Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), and Dr. Manhattan and his lover Laurie Jupiter formerly the second SIlk Spectre (Malin Akerman) who work for the government, working on development alternate fuel to give free energy to the world, with a fourth former superhero Adrian Veidt formerly known as Oxymandias, the smartest man in the world, and the most successful businessman. Dan goes to Veidt to try and see what he thinks about the conspiracy, but is rebuffed. Dr. Manhatten and Laurie are not doing well as Jon becomes more separated from the human race, and she leaves him before he is to go to a talk show. Laurie ends up going to Dan, and ends up staying with him, and he obviously cares for her, though he tries to hide it. Manhatten goes to a talk show, when a man in the audience questions him about his former coleagues who have all gotten cancer, including his former lover Janey Slater (Laura Mennell) who confronts him. Reporters sense blood, and press in, and Jon teleports himself away, and exiles himself to Mars, which is so much easier for him, without difficult human interaction. Jon’s departure loses the US it’s ultimate weapon, so the Soviet’s push it and invade Afghanistan, pushing Nixon ready for a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Chungking Express 重慶森林 by Wong Kar Wai (1995)
February 27th, 2009
The easiest and most accessible Wong Kar Wai film, which can really get people into his filmmaking has never looked better than this Criterion Collection Blu-ray disc. Sure I have seen better looking discs, but I am sure their source material was kept better, and this is certainly the best this film has ever looked (of course I have the original Hong Kong DVD with the original theatrical cut which looks terrible, but I did like that cut). This is really 2 films in one, both about cops in love, and both dealing with the same locations of Chungking Mansion and a food stall called Midnight Express, but two very different films, the first a noirish thriller, and the second a screwball romantic comedy. Both are fun, and both are pretty silly and strange, but both are quite enjoyable. This is fun, lyrical and fantastic film, and worth seeing again now that is is on criterion and has never looked better.
The first story is that of Cop 223 He Qiu-Wu (Kaneshiro Takeshi) a plainclothes detective that we see running through the city (the film is printed with step framing so the world blurs around him) and catches a pimp, but not before running into a strange woman in a blond wig (Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia) who he says he will fall in love with, but that running into her was the closest he will be to her. Then we see him mostly hanging out around a food stall pining over his lost girlfriend May, and trying to call other girls, none of whom want to hear from him. He decides he will move on on May 1st, his birthday, a month away if he has not heard from her, and goes to a convenience store and buys a can of pineapples that will expire on May 1st each day, and he plans on eating them on May 1st.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington produced and directed by Frank Capra (1939)
February 26th, 2009
An all time American classic, and one of the greats of both James Stewart, but also Frank Capra. A great tale of a man with ideals and hopes, with no idea coming to washington and trying to make a change, but learning of the political machines in place, and just how corrupt the place in fact is. And the story of this film is just as apt today where we have political scandal after scandal. Really an amazing film.
The governor of an unnamed state named Hubert “Happy” Hopper (Guy Kibee) has to appoint a new senator because the last one died. His “boss” the head of a political organization and power broker named Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold) wants him to pick a hand picked man who will follow orders, while the government wants a reformer. Happy’s children bring up the head of the Boy Rangers, a man named Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) with no political experience. Happy flips a coin and goes for Smith, thinking his naiveté will make him easy to manipulate. Smith is taken under his wing by Senator Joseph Pines (Claude Rains) who was friends and a layer championing justice together, and as soon as he gets to Washington falls for the senator’s daughter Susan (Astrid Allwyn). The press core interviews Jefferson, and makes a total fool of him, labeling him a bumpkin and saying he has no business being a Senator, and Jefferson is floored, but he does take Paine’s advice to propose a bill to give reason for him to be there.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
Macheads written, directed, edited and co-produced by Kobi Shely (2008)
February 25th, 2009
I love the subject matter, about the cult of Macintosh, and that they got Andy Ihnatko, Guy Kawasaki and Raines Cohen to do interviews for this, but honestly, overall I felt pretty disappointed by this film. The actual editing seemed a bit amateurish, especially all the cuts in an interview on screen, which felt to me like they should have been covered with something, and the music which was bad, and did not seem at all to go with the picture, and often times contrasted to it. It felt like a rough cut with a bad temp music score. And maybe that is just the editor in me, but that is certainly how I felt. Honesltly I felt a bit ripped off for the price on an under an hour documentary.
The Barefoot Contessa by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1954)
February 21st, 2009
I am a huge fan of Humphrey Boghart, and so I try to see all of his films, so I checked this one out on cable and quite enjoyed this tale of the life of a Spanish Movie Star from her discovery to her death. An enjoyable film seen partially through the eyes of Bogy’s character who plays a movie director, and through other people around her, so we see into the dark side of filmmaking and stars in the short life of the Barefoot Contessa. Certainly not one of Boghart’s best films, but still very enjoyable.
The film stars at a funeral for a Spanish Contessa, where our Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart) a film director is in attendance, and he reminisces about the life of Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner) who he directed in both of their biggest films, and who found her initially. We go back in time to see how they met, with Harry not doing so well, so having been hired along with publicist Oscar Muldoon (Edmond O’Brien who won best supporting actor for his role) by the Tychoon Kirk Edwards (Warren Stevens) who has decided to Produce a film. They are in search of talent and have come to spain to see the Dancer Maria Vargas, but they came in to late, so Edwards shows his power and forces Harry to go back and talk to Maria to get her to come and talk to him. Harry catches her with a young man, and realizes what is going on, and convinces her to go, but she skips out on him. Edwards threatens to fire him and leave him there if he doesn’t get her, so he goes to her house and convinces her to come for a screen test. The screen test goes very well, but Harry has stacked the theater with other movie execs, which helps to sell Maria, and he breaks away from Edwards, and goes to make a movie with Maria out of Edwards control.
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Smokey and the Bandit 2 by Hal Needham (1981)
February 19th, 2009
The ridiculous sequel is not quite as fun, especially since so much of the movie is just getting Bandit into shape again, but it does pick up again once the racing begins again. Still ridiculous and silly, and with the addition of Dom DeLuise and a pregnant elephant it gets even sillier. Still a good brainless time though.
Big Enos Burdette (Pat McCormick) is running for Governor of Texas with the help of his son Little Enos (Paul Enos), but is in a literal mud slinging war with the other candidate, and they both get chewed out by the outgoing Governor, but they hear about some crate in Florida that needs to be delivered for the convention. Enos decides to get the case himself. The Enos’s enlist Cledus “Snowman” Snow (Jerry Reed) to get Bo “Bandit” Darville (Burt Reynolds) and do the job for a lot of money, and Snowman goes to get a now drunken and out of shape Bandit. Bandit let fame get to him and lost everything, including his car, except for his ego. Snowman calls up Carie “Frog” (Sally Field) who is again about to married to Junior Justice (Mike Henry), which gets him and Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) on the trail again. Enos raises the stakes to $400,000 and Fog and Snowman set about retraining Bandit so he can do the run, and they get him a new car as well, which she got by selling Junior’s car, and they head for Florida.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…