Recently watched movie thread

Hello, all!

I think I will finally be "weighing in" on the Ip Man discussion after tonight... Blu-Ray arrived this morning!


Perhaps my lovely Katalin and I will watch tonight!

Yes, yes... cannot wait...

Oh, guys how lucky I am that that my Hubby is sharing the same interest. What a gift it is.

Hope you all have close friends, relatives, girlfriends, boyfriends (not just Forums and Websites) you can share your enthusiasm with. I know, I know.

OH yes, speaking of VCDs, there was one of those in the packet as well... right, Rink?

Well... yes... the good old Back Alley Princess from Chinatown aka Chinatown Capers... It is not a good quality one but I can make screencaps for the site. That was one of my long missing movie. Thank you so much, Dashiell.

I haven't added anything to this post for a while so here we go again:

Monsters vs Aliens 3D
Seeing that this was reviewed previously - I think it was DM - I won't really go over the plot...Not that it matters really being a kid's movie and all. It was fun though watching a 3D movie, albeit with limited effects. The cinema was also swarming with horrible grade 5 and 6 kids which made it all the more annoying. Anyway, 6 out of 10.

Also, given my dissatisfaction over Ip Man I went back to watch some of the classic Wing Chun movies; Prodigal Son and Warriors Two. I won't bother stating the plots given that everyone should have seen these movies. But anyway, needless to say I found these movies far superior to Ip Man. 7.5 out of 10 for Warriors Two and 9 out of 10 for Prodigal Son.

I recently re-watched Two Toothless Tigers an odd comedy action movie from Sammo Hung - with LCY on his team as a choreographer.

Now I'm probably going to get the names wrong, but one of the Yuen brothers - Yuen Shun Yee I think - plays the nephew of Sammo, who's a cook. By coincidence, Yuen bears a striking resemblance to an underworld figure and is one day ordered to cook for him. Anyway, without making the plot seem to complicated, Yuen ends up doubling for the real underworld crook and is subsequently chased after by Wang Lung Wei - some kind of bounty hunter thing.

There is some excellent fighting in this movie and Wang Lung Wei puts in what could have very well been his best action performance. The fight in the tea house (the same one used in Close encounters of the spooky kind and Dreadnaught) between Sammo, Yuen and Wang is simply incredible and probably the best I've seen in this pretty overused scene.

What stops this from being a great movie is the awkward comedy and the drawn out plot. It takes far too long for this movie to get the action started, so you feel like you are watching a cheesy comedy for the first 40 or so minutes. Anyway, enough said.

4 out of 10 overall but 8.5 out of 10 for action!

Kung Pow! - Enter the Fist

I'm sure that most people will have some kind of opinion about this movie. There are those that love it (often teens) and those who absolutely hate it (generally diehard martial arts fanatics).

The first time I watched it I thought it was quite funny; I guess in the same way that I found You don't mess with the Zohan; as it never took itself too seriously and made fun of stuff that I was very familiar with. The people I know who've put the movie down seem to take offence - probably in the same way that Comedy56 or whatever his name was over the Chinese Ghostbuster thing. A little bit too serious over what was just lighthearted nonsense at the best of times.

I rewatched it for the first time in several years and wasn't as entertained as the first time round. That said it is still a funny, easy-to-watch movie (with the possible exception of the "eoooweeeohhhweee" dubs).

For those actually interested in the "plot" - Steve Oederkirk plays "the Chosen One"; a man with mysterious power; and the movie follows him in his quest for revenge against the one who killed his family, "Master Pain" aka "Betty".

Of course the biggest drawcard is that there is a substantial amount of footage in the movie taken from some old Jimmy Wang Yu flick (also starring Lau Kar Wing and I did see very briefly Phillip Kwok). Steve is literally put into this old print of the movie using the magic of blue and green screen.

If you want to test whether you're a movie lover or a diehard genre movie lover, watch this and see if it presses your buttons or pulls your trigger. 7 out of 10.

I'm kinda in-between with Enter the Fist. I enjoyed the spoof and think it was a much needed send-up of the Fu genre, but I agree that a lot of the movie would appeal to teens. Especially American boys. Don't get me wrong; I appreciate Steve Oedekirk and am glad he made the film. Maybe it will get some people to start watching the real thing!

A spoof I really enjoy, even though it is also quite silly, is Eagle Shooting Heroes (starring the Ashes of Time cast). I can't help but laugh my butt off! I love me some wuxia (more than traditional Kung Fu films, sorry guys) so maybe that's why I like this movie so much.

After your review, I think I'm gonna check out Sukiyaki Western Django.

Mr Drunken Master, sir. I concur that Wang Yu and his one armed capers are quite entertaining. Especially Master of the Flying Guillotine.

I just wonder which print it was you saw of One Armed Boxer? I saw the incredibly bad French version which - wait for it - had the Shaft soundtrack dubbed over the opening credits and during fight scenes.

Above the Law aka Righting Wrongs

One of the few 'big' movies with Yuen Biao in a starring role, the movie highlights some of the excellent action cinema of Hong Kong in the 1980s.

I'm sure that most people have seen this movie, and this was the second viewing by myself in several years. Anyway, story is very straightforward (do I say that everytime?)

Yuen Biao plays a lawyer who likes to hand down the law with his fists and feet wherever the judicial system fails. He gets in over his head when his double life is revealed by cop, Cynthia Rothrock.

There is some excellent action here with Yuen Biao working with a solid team to create some noteworthy action. His kicks and flips are highlighted in this movie brilliantly.

The movie does have its usual HK comedy moments, but for the larger part it is a mostly no-nonsense flick.

It's not the best action movie and at times even the fighters move stiffly, but overall it's worth looking out for.

7 out of 10.

*Spoiler alert* Oh, and as a footnote, this version was very different from what I saw years ago. The Dragon Dynasty cut I just watched had cut out scenes that build Fan Siu-Wong's character which made the movie more jolting. Also, in this cut Cynthia's character dies and very brutally at the hands of Melvin Wong.

Terminator Salvation

I guess the movie's namesake could be a subtle reference to re-igniting the franchise that is the Terminator series - but again, 'the robots of the future are back at it and trying to destroy humans.

If you're off to watch it be prepared for the relatively sleepy bit near the beginning - sure there is a bountiful supply explosions to wake you up at the beginning, but there is a 30 or so minutes section for character development thrown in there.

John Connor is now all grown up and fighting the naughty bots which are now capturing humans to try and engineer cyborgs ala Arnie.

While the movie certainly delivers on the action front, the film reeks of cliches and not-so-subtle in-jokes from the previous movies. There's also a bunch of stupid things in the movie that don't really add up. I mean, surely, if you want to destroy humans, isn't it better to do that rather than waste your stinking time and build a robot? Or alternatively, are the robots aware of their future? Wow, too deep.

*Spoiler alert* I have to point this part out because I found it quite amusing at the time. Arnold, or at least the CGI/prosthetic version of him turn up in the finale of the movie to kill (OMG! Wait for it!) John Connor. Firstly John tries to melt him, doesn't work, then tries to freeze him, doesn't work, so then tries to get Sam Worthington's character - a terminator that believes it is human - to beat up Arnold. Actually, scrap that, not as funny as I first thought.

Thanks for seeing Terminator Salvation so that I don't have to. I figured it would blow, but was waiting for confirmation! I loved #2 but.... Was there ever any 3rd or 4th sequel that was actually good?

Well, in HK cinema, YES! But mind you, the sequels usually seem to be unrelated to the first installment!

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen

Yet another movie franchise doing the Terminator thing - fill plot gaps with explosions and CGI.

Transformers 2 sort of picks up where the first movie ended...Sam has a transformer in his garage. Sam has a hot girlfriend who occasionally bends over and runs in slow motion. Optimus Prime wants to work with humans to defeat the remaining Deceptacons. etc.

This tiny thread of a plot fails to hold everything together as stupid plot devices, crappy one-liners and non-cohesive scenes simply shred the movie and Michael Bay's credibility as a director apart.

I have plenty of problems with the movie, but here are just a few:
1) Transformers have apparently been searching galaxies for suns that they can destroy for energy to make their own robot babies - just have a serious think about that...Yeah, silly isn't it.
2) The first Transformers on Earth that waged war with the humans looked more akin to warriors with headmasks...but they didn't transform!! Doesn't that make then non-transformers? WTF? Seriously!
3) Transformers now have the ability to transform into people...yeah, really dumb.
4) In one scene, they need to get from California (I think...sorry, not good with USA geography), to Egypt - So they teleport.
5) Megatron is recovered and resuscitated - shouldn't they have simply destroyed/disassembled him?
6) Optimus Prime is actually more of an arsehole in this movie - blowing a Deceptacons face off with no remorse. Sure they're bad guys, but he dropped a stinking one liner (can't remember it though).
7) The movie went for far too long - Felt like another LOTR 3.
The scenes with Sam's mother were unbearable - she smokes weed and runs around like an idiot trying too hard to be funny.
9) There are only a few gratuitous moments in the movie, but it really draws back from what seriousness the movie had.
10) There were no effects in the movie that really took it to the next level.

Okay, so that's more than a few reasons. But as you can guess, I really hated this movie. More so than Terminator Salvation.

If you want to see big robots smashing into other big robots, you'll get stacks of it here.

If you want to see a movie that went you go "Wow" like the first Transformers movie, you're out of luck.

4 out of 10.