I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.
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| Big Trouble in Little China - A heroic adventure into Chinese mythology. |
Watch Big Trouble in Little China on Netflix
Buy Big Trouble in Little China
Written by: Gary Goldman & David Z. Weinstein (written by), WD Richter (adaptation)
Directed by: John Carpenter
Starring: Kurt Russell, Dennis Dun, James Hong, Kim Cattrall
Rated: PG-13
Plot:
Truck driver Jack Burton is pulled into a battle with Chinese sorcerer Lo Pan over girls with green eyes.
Verdict:
This movie is a lot of fun. We enter the Chinatown underground where black magic and grotesque creatures are real. Jack is the typical arrogant hero, but you soon realize he's mostly talk. This movie deconstructs the action genre so subtlety you may not notice, and it's infinitely quotable. It's a must see cult classic.
Watch it.
Review:
This is one of my favorite movies. It's one of the few movies that I remember vividly from childhood so that i can do a proper retrospective. As a kid, I thought it was great, and I could never fathom why it didn't have a sequel. Jack Burton was the man's man, the all American hero. Lo Pan and the three storms were evil, but they looked so cool.
It was only watching later that I realized Jack is a bit of a bumbling hero. His sidekick Wang Chi does most of the heavy lifting. Jack doesn't understand the world he enters and he doesn't care. He has a job to do and he'll do it. He's brave, and he does have quick reflexes. "[He's] a reasonable guy. But, [he's] just experienced some very unreasonable things."
David Lo Pan is an amazing villain. All of the bad guys are awesome, just look at the three storms.
I never liked the first scene, and I was vindicated when I heard later the studio forced them to add it to make Burton seem more heroic. The second scene of Jack driving always felt like a better opening.
While you can't listen to the DVD commentary on Netflix, it's a good commentary, though it's Carpenter and Russell hanging out rather than commentary on the movie. I've watched this movie many times as a child and as an adult. It's a lot of fun. This was originally going to be a western. Jack Burton's horse was going to be stolen, not his truck. It was going to be Chinese mythology in the late eighteen hundreds.
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| Big Trouble in Little China - Lo Pan |
Jack is a sidekick that doesn't know it. He has the bravado to assume he's in charge despite being completely unprepared and unequipped. Despite that, you can't help but like the character. He selflessly offers to help Wang Chi save his girlfriend when she's kidnapped by a street gang.
The typical movie would have Wang Chi as the hero, fighting for his girl, but this movie subverts that. A guy that doesn't know where he's going tells everyone, "Hey, follow me!" Everyone follows Jack.
Jack is bewildered just like the audience. He continually states he doesn't get it. He's told it's Chinese black magic and to go with. I went with it too.
Kim Cattrall's acting is wooden, but I can't help but think it's part of the joke. The female characters in action movies are often present just to prop up the hero. Her exposition is laughable. With a movie that so cleanly deconstructs the genre, this is intentional.
The pacing is excellent, and maintains a great balance between action, plot, and character development. When Jack shoots a guy he looks stunned, and he's asked if it's his first time. He responds no, of course not, but we know it is. He's largely ineffective when it comes time to the fights, but when it counts he's on his game.
The big fight contains many super human feats but it's easily dismissed because the good guys drank a secret potion and the bad guys use magic. There's substantial use of trampolines to make the fights fantastical. As crazy as it sounds, it's easy to suspend your disbelief. The movie does an excellent job of providing an explanation for common action movie tropes that typically are ignored.
The very beginning of the movie showcased Jack's reflexes, and they are paramount in the finale. After the battle is won, Jack rides off into the sunset.
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| Gladiator - A modern epic. |
Watch Gladiator on NetflixBuy Gladiator
Buy Gladiator
Written by: David Franzoni (story), David Franzoni and John Logan and William Nicholson (screenplay)
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou
Rated: R
Plot:
A Roman general is betrayed and forced to fight for his freedom as a gladiator.
Verdict:
Gladiator tells a sweeping, epic story and it has the production values to make ancient Rome real. We root for Maximus, but it's the villain, Commodus, that draws the audience's ire. The writing, acting, and directing combine to form an unforgettable adventure.
Watch it.
Review:
This movie looks great. The production values are stunning, opening with an enormous battle led by the Roman general Maximus (Russell Crowe). After winning the battle, Maximus wants to return home to his family, but Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wants to designate him a the new emperor. The emperor's son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), is jealous of Maximus and paranoid of his power. Commodus is distraught when he discovers he will not be the next emperor.
The one thing Maximus wants, freedom, is the one thing he can't get when he's enslaved as a gladiator. Commodus is ruthless and blood thirsty. Everyone fears his wrath. The stakes in this Hollywood epic are high. Almost every scene is life or death. In his first gladiator battle, Maximus rebukes the crowd asking, "Are you not entertained?" The people miss the point and cheer him.
The battles are a marvel with many warriors, chariots, and even tigers. They're brutal, bloody, and scary.
Commodus is a well written villain. He loves violence but is afraid of the battle field. He's a coward and unlikable but fancies himself as a well liked general. As great of a character as Maximus is, he's made better by Commodus. It's not that we want Maximus just to succeed, and we do, but we want Commodus to fall.
It's basically good triumphing over evil, overcoming many hardships. The setting of Rome makes this epic. It's a movie that does everything right.
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| 3-Iron - Quiet, haunting, imaginative. |
Buy 3-Iron
Written by: Ki-duk Kim
Directed by: Ki-duk Kim
Starring: Seung-yeon Lee, Hyun-Kyoon Lee, Hyuk-ho Kwon
Rated: R
Plot:
A man breaks into homes pretending to live in the victims' homes while they're on vacation
Verdict:
This is a strange movie. It tells such a complete story with very little dialog, and you almost don't notice. The story is strange and only gets stranger. I didn't get the ending even after scouring the internet for any theories. I've come to my own theory, as taking this movie at only face value isn't satisfying.
It depends.
Review:
Ki-duk Kim also did one of my favorite movies Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003). That was a quiet, melodic movie and 3-Iron is another simple story.
I don't know why Tae-suk breaks into houses. Is it fantasy, to live vicariously, or just voyeurism? He uses the victims' shower, wears their clothes, but also does their laundry and does repairs. With just him in the house, it's calm and serene. When the family returns he quickly escapes, but the family is upset and arguing. Was it a commentary on Tae-suk being thankful and the family taking their fortune for granted?
So many movies use dialog as exposition and still can't tell a clear story. This movie tells a story with so little dialog, but it's never confusing. It is odd though. Tae-suk breaks into the home of an abused woman, Sun-hwa. She spies on him, but he stays. When the husband returns Tae-suk saves Sun-hwa and they ride away. Their relationship is completely silent. He continues to break into and stay at random houses, now with a partner.
They are eventually caught and Sun-hwa is back with her husband and Tae-suk is put in prison. He becomes good at sneaking, able to hide in plain sight. He was figuratively invisible before, now he is almost literally invisible. After his release Tae-suk revisits the homes he had broken into, now with the families inside of them. They never see him and he returns to Sun-hwa's house.
She lives with two men. Her husband who now thinks he is making his wife happy, while really she's happy Tae-suk is there. He lives unseen in the house. In an amazing or ludicrous scene Sun-hwa hugs or husband while kissing Tae-suk.
This movie ended and I felt like I had missed the point. The final image is the quote, "It's hard to tell that the world we live in is either a reality or a dream." What parts of this movie were a dream and what was real? When both Tae-suk and Sun-hwa were on a bathroom scale it read zero.
Tae-suk being a ghost or dead or this being a fantasy movie seems like an easy cop out solution. I searched the internet for theories but found nothing.
I finally settled on the following interpretation. I don't know the movie's intent, but this is the theory I made up. Sun-hwa is the main character and Tae-suk is a figure she imagined. She imagined living in other house, any home but her own as an escape. When things got so bad she met this imagined figure and he saved her from her abusive marriage. It could be she was in the hospital due to injuries, and when she returned home Tae-suk went to jail. Then she imagined him silently living in her house to save her from complete misery and to make her life bearable. To take this movie at purely face value seems too simple.
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| Young and Beautiful - Shallow and hollow. |
Watch Young and Beautiful on Netflix
Buy Young and Beautiful
Written by: François Ozon
Directed by: François Ozon
Starring: Marine Vacth, Pailhas, Frédéric Pierrot
Rated: --/R
Plot:
A teen girl leads a secret life as a call girl, with little interest in the encounters or the money.
Verdict:
This movie doesn't have a point because the main character doesn't have a reason to become a prostitute. While it doesn't glamorize prostitution like Pretty Woman (1990), if that's the main message it's just not enough. The movie is uncomfortable just because the character (not the actress) is underage, not to mention that her clients are past middle age.
Skip it.
Review:
It's weird in that a twenty something actress plays a sexualized seventeen year old. It never becomes less uncomfortable. Prostitution isn't glamorous like Pretty Woman. Isabelle client's are middle aged or older men.
Is this a product of French culture? This isn't a movie for teens, despite being about a teen. Isabelle has sex for the first time but doesn't enjoy it as much as she expected. The movie just jump cuts to a different season and shes a prostitute? How'd she make that leap? With the internet you can do anything, of course.
I don't know the point of the movie. Is it to show that prostitution isn't glamorous? Isabelle isn't motivated by sex or money. In therapy she talks about exploring and experimenting, but the boredom on her face is palpable, causing that explanation to fall short. If she just wanted to explore, I'm sure she could find a teen boy her own age. It's not about money because we never see anything she wants to buy.
She gets a few on the job lessons like always demand money up front and don't hook where you live when she sees a client in town.
She showers a lot, which could be symbolic or just part of the job. The movie feels exploitative because there is no reason provided as to why she does this. Isabelle's secret life is eventually revealed and her parents are shocked.
This is ultimately hollow and unfulfilling. An attempt at a heartfelt scene is made at the end, but Isabelle is an enigma to a fault. I kept wondering (and checking) how much longer until this movie ended.
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