Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky 力王(1991)

This is a weird movie.

I do remember watching it when is was first release.

Having the chance to rewatched this and it is really REALLY violent.

So much so that in the West, this actually has a cult following.

Do understand that this is 90s Hong Kong practical effects, so they seems fake in today's standards.

I think you have to watch this in the context that it is a 90s Hong Kong movie (with chopped limp, scratch your eyes out, pulling ones guts out etc)

No wonder it has a cult following in the West.

Fan Siu Wong (樊少皇) (best know for his baddie role in Ip Man) headlines this movie.

I cannot emphasize enough that this is NOT for everyone.

My Two Sen

3 Days to Kill (2014)

This movie started STRONG.

So much so, initially, that I wanted to write a review RAVING about it.

Half way through, it falter...

And near the end it just got darn silly....

How silly???


Surround Sound is pretty good, so for reference purpose not bad.

Movie would have been much MUCH better if the third act got fixed before the release, but c'est la vie...

My Two Sen

Enjoy

Once again you are too kind and enjoy!!

Hercules (2014)

Hmmm....

Is this year the year of the.... loin cloth??

Okay, before you misunderstand, what I meant is that we have 4 large production swords and saddles movies, namely

1) 300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
2) Pompeii (2014)
3) The Legend of Hercules (2014)
4) Hercules (2014)

What can I say about Hercules (2014)?

I say, THANK GOODNESS IT IS NOT THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (2014)!!!!

Everything is better done!!

The Direction (Good).

The Script (Clever).

The Casting (Well done).

The Production Design (Authentic).

The Costume Design (NO MINI SKIRT WHITE TOGA for THE ROCK *Phew*).

This actually "challenge" the mythology of Hercules, and there lays in the cleverness of the script!!

Dwayne Johnson is really becoming a pretty good actor, and the materials he is working on, does emphasize his strength.

Another thing that surprised me is the director of the movie is Brett Ratner. The same director alot of X-Men fans claims almost killed the movie franchise..., and I have to add, I like his work here (and also like his Red Dragon (2002)).

So, what are you waiting for, if you like Sword and Saddles movies, this is pretty good!!

My Two Sen

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Aug 7 2014, 04:10 PM

Erm
Again I emphasize there is no right or wrong, I was just expressing my opinion, just like you are expressing yours.

To each their own



This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Aug 18 2014, 05:54 PM

I really did like the script and here is why
See what I mean???

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Aug 20 2014, 12:43 PM

So... can I call you Mr Conformist now???

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Aug 18 2014, 06:09 PM

Hahaha!

Urm... I cannot wait....

Would you believe if I told you I have not watched any of the Rush Hours...

Blended (2014)

Okay, let's cut through the chase.

How bad is this movie?

Frankly, it is pretty up there!!!

Okay, if you had watched The Love Guru (2008), this is almost as bad...

Bottom line, Adam Sandler tried SO hard to make this funny and it ended up counter intuitive...

It does have two (2) good parts
And the absolutely worst thing about this movie is
Well, if you watch it after reading this, you cannot say I did not try to warn you...

My Two Sen

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Aug 20 2014, 01:30 AM

Lucy (2014)

Luc Besson, best know for his works Léon: The Professional (1994) & The Fifth Element (1997) had gone on the record that he has another sci-fi movie in his mind that is so big and mind blowing, that it will blow The Fifth Elements out of the water!!!

And ladies, and gentlemen, I believe he meant, this movie Lucy (2014).

Allow an old uncle to elaborate, the oldest "human" fossil discovered by anthropologist to date is an almost complete skeleton of an upright female ape, which scientist believe is our ancestor. This skeleton is named Lucy.

Does, this have anything to do with this movie? In a roundabout way yes. I might elaborate more on this. Keyword being, might.

Luc Besson likes his woman leads..., lacking a better term, butch. He likes them so much so that he married Milla Jovovich, and put her in two of his movies, namely, The Fifth Element (1997) and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999).

So, with the title in mind, Scarlett Johansson heads this Action/Sci-Fi, as Lucy.

From a concept point of view, this movie is a little "non-hollywood".

Alot of inspiration is drawn from Asian cinema, namely Chan-wook Park's work, Oldboy!!?!

So inspired in fact, he got Min-sik Choi to be the BIG BAD in this movie!!

Movies starts out well enough.

Min-sik Choi can play a real S.O.B.!!

Things progress along and Morgan Freeman is introduced, where is narrates the plot of the movie.

And we then get the very weird incarceration scene of Scarlett Johansson and then the action starts!!

Somewhere in that, something happened, I really do not root for Scarlett Johansson character and the movie not longer have me hook line and sinker...

Then the worst thing happened
This movie with a little twigging would have be a GREAT movie, and I am not sure if no one around Luc Besson pointed that out to him, and it is a shame, because this movie is actually very well product and has amazing production quality.

Don't get me wrong, you will be entertained.

I just don't know if it would remain memorable, a shame really.

My Two Sen

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Sep 1 2014, 11:24 PM

Into the Storm (2014)

I am not sure if many people here remember the movie, Twister (1996), I do and I like that movie very much.

Saw the trailers to this and thought, looks like Twister on Steroids and and decided to give it a try.

Good news and bad news.

The Good
The tornado scenes are fantastic.

The Bad
No Character development, so in short you really do not care about any of the characters here.

The Ugly
Do the writers even read a science book?? Really!!!?!

My Two Sen

The Internship (2013)

I don't like Vince Vaughn. I just don't!!

Having said that, I was actually surprise I like this.

In this bad economic times and with jobs getting scarce what happened to Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson is occurring more and more often.

What I like most about this movie is the can do attitude of Vince Vaughn's character, even when the chips are down.

An entertaining comedy, with actually really good life learn.

Watch it if you haven't

My Two Sen

Hungry Ghost Ritual 盂蘭神功 (2014)

Nick Cheung directorial debut and... he chose a ghost story??

First Simon Yap now him?...

Do they really think that horror movies are easy to make??

The interesting thing was it was actually filmed in Malaysia (Why do Hong Kies thinks that Malaysia's spooky??). The thing that shocked me most was... seeing a Proton Waja in one of the scenes!!

Movie revolves around an Cantonese Opera Troupe.

There is a twist at the end, and I think there lies the issue...

Nick Cheung in his directorial debut, tried to pull an M Knight Shamalyan!!!

Did not quite work.. At least not to me.

I do have to add, that the very last frame of the movie is actually... poetic!!

Not the best horror movie by far, Nick Cheung needs to attend film school....

I'm mean, I know.

My Two Sen.

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Sep 21 2014, 09:00 PM

You left out the brilliant TANGO scene!!

Nightcrawler (2014)

Hello young'uns.

How is everyone.

I have not had a chance to go to the movies for quite some time now...

And to break the "dry spell" I had chose to watch this movie and have to say, I Am NOT DISAPPOINTED!!!

I heard some rumblings of this movie and have to add, did not really read up much about this movie. And I am glad I did not, because this movie kinda caught me sideways, but in a good way!!

I have not "felt" so much whilst watching a movie in a long LONG time!!!

Firstly, I have to rave about how underrated Jake Gyllenhaal is as an actor. Yes, he was in a movie called Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) and have to add, since then he had give us Source Code (2011), Prisoners (2013) and now this.

I am really impressed.

Frankly, I hope he at least get a nomination for this at the OSCARS or Golden Globe, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Just to give you a taste of how dedicated he is to the role Louis Bloom. Louis Bloom is not a rich person. As a matter of fact, he is probably borderline desperate for money.

The first scene you see Louis Bloom, what hits you is how gaunt-like he looks. Seriously, give him a burger, fried and a coke, and super size it already!!

Than you see what he does for a living...

Okay I am really not going to spoil this for you.

I will add this though, the character Louis Bloom is everything that is right and wrong about America/Capitalism....

Really, do yourself a favour, and go watch this. Because of the rating, there seems to be limited screening of this movie.

Seriously, find a cinema that is showing this and go watch it.

Grade A stuff.

Oh, going back to the cinema, I get a dose of reality by having a group of ladies who cannot help themselves and talk amongst themselves throughout the movie...

*Sigh*

Even with that, I really REALLY enjoy this movie.

My Two Sen

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Nov 6 2014, 01:52 AM

Interstellar (2014)



This is embarrassing. I need assistance. Had Christopher Nolan given any interviews in which he had expressed that his is a fan of Stanley Kubrick or Godfrey Reggio?

Why?

Because, by Jove, Interstellar, to me, is a USD 165,000,000 love letter from Christopher Nolan to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (Director by Stanley Kubrick) & Koyaanisqatsi (1982) (Directed by Godfrey Reggio & Produced by Francis Ford Coppola).

The music and dire straits situation is directly from Koyaanisqatsi (Music by Philip Glass. I hope Han Zimmer gives some form of loyalty to Philip Glass).

The the space stuff is directly from 2001: A Space Odyssey!!!!


Okay, Okay, I a really getting ahead of myself...

Do yourself a favour, if you are going to see this movie because you love Christopher Nolan's work in The Dark Knight (Batman Second Trilogy). Do not go see this movie.

1) The is NO Batman

2) This is a WHOLE DIFFERENT GENRE all together. You probably have not seen anything like this before.

Additionally, if you say, I've watched Armageddon (1998) or Apollo 13 (1995) so I should like this (space disaster movie right?!). Again you will be VERY disappointed.

Christopher Nolan, approached this project like... A documentary (drama first). Also, he approached this movie like it is a independent movie... And I have to add, I have NEVER watched an Independent movie, with a budget of USD 165,000,000!!!!

Okay, okay, let me do it this way:

The Good


The Bad


The Ugly...


Okay, in summary, a flawlessly produced movie (Production quality is off the charts). Story quite gripping at the beginning and the middle, I feel that if they tweaked the end part a little, I would appreciate it more...

In truth, I confess, having just watched Nightcrawler (2014) on Wednesday night, I prefer the USD 8,000,000 movie more compared to this... Although they are off different genre.

Just, My Two Sen

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Nov 8 2014, 12:16 AM

I never considered that.

The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom 白髮魔女傳之明月天國 (2014)

*Ouch*

Really???

Seriously??

Is this a recipe of how to lose USD 65,000,000??? (You read the number of zeros correctly, I've double checked)

The first two acts of the script was actually decent.

Tying it to the Mystery Of The Red Pill during the Ming Dynasty is also clever.

Casting is decent.

And then the end of the 2nd act and the 3rd act...

And the ending!!!! What the...

Also, paying Homage to Leslie Cheung (who was in a pretty successful adaptation of this book in the 90s...) at such an "awkward" spot is no homage...

Disappointing...

My Two Sen

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Nov 12 2014, 04:50 PM