47 ronin is a big budget movie but was a financial failure. rotten tomatoes gave it 1/5.

i found it quite good. keeanu reeves' performance is non-stellar but his training in matrix and taichi master by martial artistes like yuen wo-ping probably came in handy although that did not come out much in the show, which could have been a factor in its appeal to the mass audience. on the other hand, i thought the attention to details were meticulously genuine - incl the brush and ink, samurai armor, katanas, banners, murals, seppupu ritual, etc. perhaps if the show did not involve witchy foxen and evil dragons, it would have been better received.

beside reeves, there is Hiroyuki Sanada and Hiroyuki Tagawa - both well known japanese faces in hollywood. plus Tadanobu Asano (genghis khan in mongol). note there are no chinese or koreans faking as japanese in this show!

a serious stab at japanese culture, bushido and myth, imo. 3.5/5. strongly recommended.



This post has been edited by AVFAN: Mar 19 2014, 09:48 PM

i watched it in 1080p dd5.1, reasonable audio, not fantastic.

you might want to look for ddtruehd/dtshadma version.

this one is really poor.

you re better off watching the tv movie earth's final hours which has a similar theme.

hobbit: desolation of smaug is excellent. more exciting and focused than hobbit 1. my rating 4/5.
while hobbit1 did a great job with the dwarves, hobbit2 did the same for the elves. always nice to visit rivendell!
legolas returns with a character tauriel well played by evangeline lily (of tv series lost).
flashes of lady galadriel (cate blanchett) and... sauron!
excellent cinematography, choreography and special effects.
needless to say, dsthdma audio is superb.

we'll have to wait another yr to watch the final episode in the trilogy, hobbit: there and back again which supposedly will end where fellowship of the ring begins. the hobbit is supposed to be only in 2 parts but peter jackson committed to 3, so we'll only see smaug's final desolation in hobbit3 which probably will contain bits of filler tolkien stories of middle earth. of course, the next big question is will jackson make another trilogy with tolkien's silmarillion?!

one thing about lord of the rings and hobbit, one needs to watch the shows in trilogy sequence and/or have read the books. it will be hard for anyone to parachute into say, desolation of smaug or the two towers and enjoy the show.

if the map of middle earth below helps refresh your memory... you can find shire, rohan, gondor, mordor, fangorn forest, isengard, moria, lothlorien - lotr. dol guldur, mirkwood forest, rivendell, dale, lonely mountain - hobbit.

i'm quite an lotr fan, remember the story very well.



This post has been edited by AVFAN: Mar 23 2014, 12:01 AM

if you like behind enemy lines, black hawk down and and zero dark thirty, you'll like lone survivor.

based on a true story and book, it's not as glamarous as those 3 but is a good watch. the ending is somewhat touching.

chinooks, apaches and blackhawks... bullets, grenades, rpg's. good audio with dd5.1. my rating 3.5/5.

starring mark wahlberg and taylor kitsch (battleship).



This post has been edited by AVFAN: Mar 27 2014, 05:25 PM

metro manila is recommended. not much action but good drama and suspense.

a sad and moving story of the harsh realities of modern day urban struggle in the face of poverty and crime.

a british-filipino film. best one i know from an asean nation since raid redemption (serbuan maut) from indonesia.

my rating 4/5 despite low budget and minimal action.

sun wukong-journey to the west 西游记 is one of 4 Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature (Chinese: 四大名著, the others being three kingdoms, water margin and dream of the red chamber)). written in the 16th century, it is very much a fariy tale passed on from gen to gen about good vs evil, benevolence vs destruction, kindness vs fury, use vs abuse of power. not many see it that way, though. but the fact that it has lived for 600 yrs or so tells us it has good appeal, even today.

this latest monkey king 2014 starring donnie yen, chow yun fatt, aaron kwok, etc. is yet another adaption of the story with lots of cgi, maybe a bit too much. still, in a fantasy film of mythology, one has to enjoy the essence of the story within the modern depiction of a story written 600 yrs ago. of course, if someone has no idea about the story-legend-myth, the movie can be unappealing.

of all the movies and tv series of sun wukong-jounrey to the west, i find this prologue of the full epic quite good, an excellent attempt at putting such a long and complex (part of a) novel into 2 hours. never mind the inaccuracies about nuwa, erlangshan, nezha and bull demon-princess iron fan-kid with red shoes, never mind if it looked like king kong fighting balrog, never mind the resemblance you may have seen in avatar, superman or lord of the rings, just enjoy the show. and i look forward to a sequel where sun wukong bands up with his master xuanzang and team mates to cross the gobi desert battling the first demons!

best watched in dts/hdma.



This post has been edited by AVFAN: Apr 3 2014, 09:19 PM

+1
gravity ranks among the best syfy i watched.

yes, the cgi is not as good as it can be. perhaps budget issues, can't afford the best from usa or korea!

oh yes, this stanley kubrick film is a master piece. a film ahead of its time.

the moments of silence were critical to the film, adds to the depiction of awry horror in space.

legend of hercules is... so-so. my rating 2.5/5.

kind of disappointing as director is renny harlin of diehard2 and cliffhanger. maybe a better cast would have made a difference. weak drama, not-so-good-action makes it pale in comparison to 300 or immortals or the titans duology. for a few minutes, i thought the fight scene in olympus/acropolis athens was a poor copy of gladiator's maximus fight in the coliseum in rome. and i never thought hercules could wield the lightning rod of zeus!

i hope 300 rise of an empire will be better...

watch a few movies lately but nothing worth mentioning except the machine. a somewhat light but refreshing syfy story about playing god - creation of cyborgs and robots with human intelligence for the purpose of war.

rotten tomatoes gave it 79%, i give it 3/5.



This post has been edited by AVFAN: Apr 13 2014, 06:46 PM

tony jaa is back in tom yum goong 2 or protector 2. 10 years later, tony is as agile and energetic as he was in ong bak.

i thought ongbak2, ongbak3 and tom yum goong were weak sequels and spinoffs.

tyg2 is more watchable - impossible stunts, more and better fighters albeit a weak story and poor acting by foreign actors.

one thing i noticed - not about rza but a guy named mareese crump - great fighter, seems to be well rounded in several types on martial arts incl wing chun.

stunts, punches and kicks... 4/5. story, drama... 2/5.

remember spl 殺破狼 with donnie yen, sammo hung, simon yam and wu jing? looking forward to seeing tony jaaa in spl2 or kill zone 2 with simon yam and wu jing next year.



This post has been edited by AVFAN: Apr 16 2014, 06:44 PM

he's very good, think he's from the same wushu academy as jet li in beijing.
first saw him in legend of zu, then spl, fatal move, shaolin.
i had thought wu jing wud be the right successor to jet li but seems he's not making it big, yet.

there was bruce lee->jackie chan->jet li->donnie yen.

only donnie yen remains kungfu active, still good but a bit bigheaded, i agree...

there seems to be no promising wushu experts on the screen at the moment. there are a few good looking guys from china, taiwan and north america who can move a bit but are just actors without good martial arts background.

and all those fake ipmans incl tony leung and anthony wong... i find them so very poor...!!

This post has been edited by AVFAN: Apr 17 2014, 05:08 PM

great movies 4/5 and higher... very rare at this time - spring.

13 sins, zulu, i, frankenstein, hercules, the machine, dracula prince of darkness, he who dares, the returned are all pretty poor.

later in the year, we'll get x-men days of future past, noah, captain america winter soldier, edge of tmrw, amazing spiderman2, dawn of planet of the apes, godzilla, jack ryan: shadow recruit, tranformers: age of extinction....

which is why it is good to walk away from some of these crap movies and watch good tv series in hd instead - vikings, game of thrones, from dusk till dawn, fargo and turn are probably at the top at this time.

This post has been edited by AVFAN: Apr 19 2014, 04:04 PM

about kungfu movies, there are 2 new ones...

kungfu man is a joke! produced by keanu reeves, actor is tiger chen, protege of famed yuen wo-ping. the only thing worth watching is chen's moves which is certainly genuine gracious kungfu, just like in man of taichi. 1.5/5.



once upon a time in shanghai stars two american chinese actors - philip ng and andy on - both u surely have seen in small roles in other movies. tall and good looking, i think they are "trained for the screen". supported by samo hung, chen kuan-tai, a couple of japanese fighters, et al. a typical "can't stand the gangsters" story, it purposely re-enact bits and pieces of bruce lee seen in the big boss-fist of fury-enter the dragon - no idea if it was done as a tribute to legend bruce lee or an attempt to draw on past success. while it is nowhere near bruce lee standards, it is still highly watchable. 3/5.


This post has been edited by AVFAN: Apr 24 2014, 05:49 PM

pompeii is 1/3 gladiator, 1/3 2012, 1/3 titanic, i.e. action thriller+disaster+romance.

up and coming star kit harington (jon snow in games of thrones), agbaje and jared harris did well. kiefer sutherland didn't come out well as the villain. maybe i am too used to seeing him as the hero jack bauer in 24 who is returning soon in 24: live another day (sounds like a bond "die another day" kind of show). he and canadian carrie-anne moss simply sound strange with north american accents in a "european" film, although they try very hard. for such ancient european tales, best to use english-irish-aussie actors.

overall, an average show among others based on roman legends and greek myths. great audio dts/hdma. 3/5.

looking forward to 300: rise of an empire!



This post has been edited by AVFAN: May 3 2014, 05:39 PM

3 new action shows for your consideration...

3 days to kill stars veteran kevin costner playing veteran dying cia agent. a french production, based in a luc besson story. it starts off good but it turns out weak overall. just watchable 2.5/5.


jack ryan: shadow recruit. this movie signals a reboot of the original jack ryan series (hunt for red october, patriot games, clear and present danger, sum of all fears) but is not a tom clancy story. looks like they got writers to do a whole new jack ryan series for the screen. chris pine plays young jack ryan (the 4th actor to play this character). not anything of a re-invention of the previous action-thrillers. no submarines, no nuclear bomb but a simple straightforward terrorist plot. although it turned out pretty okay with kenneth branagh and kevin costner supporting, it could do with a slicker plot. as a jack ryan fan, i give it 3.5/5.


robocop 2014 is remake of the 80s one. nice to see joel kinnaman (officer holder in the tv series, the killing) playing robocop. much of a terminator style action show with a touch of "i-robot" issues. gary oldman and michael keaton supporting. 3/5.


This post has been edited by AVFAN: May 12 2014, 10:11 AM

this one is, strictly speaking, not a war movie, although it seems to incorprate bits of saving private ryan.

pretty much all drama. good acting from clooney, damon and blanchet.

agree it's a good drama but it's something i will not remember for long...

if u find jack ryan shadow recruit boring, u will probably find all jack ryan and jason bourne movies the same. they are among the best spy-action thrillers!

perhaps u prefer the bond 007 ones, usually more action and pomposity.