StarGlitter Reviews

The Losers (I) (2010)

"The Losers" is a loser film. Terrible.

[1/10 · 8 May 2010]

The preview trailer of "The Losers" looked good and so i decided to watch it. I watched the first one hour of it and became so bored with it that for the rest of the movie i skipped to the important parts right up to the end.

I do not wish to bash a movie but, in my honest opinion (and everyone is entitled to one), this truly is another formulaic predictable cliché Hollywood action flick. I am comparing this action flick to other action movies previously made before like Transporter 1 and 2, Shanghai Noon, Next, Paycheck. These OTHER action movies definitely had substance and quality over "The Losers".

"The Losers" cinematography is not pleasing at all. It felt like the movie was just quickly put together to fill a quota of action films produced by Hollywood.

"The Losers" is just more of the same mind-numbing not-funny action movies that Hollywood endlessly and relentlessly produces.

I wish that there were more Peter Jackson and Neil Blomkamp and more high-quality movies like District 9 and King Kong. Thank God for non-Hollywood studios who are willing to take risks and produce high-quality original films, or else the movie industry would be sinking to the lowest levels.

Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)

A true story and one of the best films of all time ! (not exaggerating)

[10/10 · 4 February 2010]

I have watched some touching and moving movies in my lifetime and about 2 movies have made me cry, However i was crying my eyes out when i was watching this Hachiko movie. I was crying for a good 10 -15 minutes even after this movie ended. I have browsed through the comments and reviews on this IMDb board and on other online forums and have noticed that so many other people who watched this movie have also cried. I really think NO OTHER MOVIE has made so many people cry. Whenever i saw Hachiko go to the station and sit there waiting oblivious to the fact his owner died, my heart died a little each time.

Knowing that this movie was actually based on a real life story set in the 1920s-1930s in Tokyo whereby an Akita-breed dog waited in front of the Shibuya train station day by day around the same time at the same spot for NINE WHOLE YEARS for his beloved university professor Professor Ueno to come back from work, really breaks my heart.

No animal or human would ever sit in front of the station to wait for someone they love for THIS LONG (9 FREAKING YEARS). This dog Hachiko must have had such ENORMOUS love for his owner that he would throw his life away (9 years is like 7 decades in dog years) waiting in front of the station at the RIGHT TIME each day.

How clever are dogs? Real-life Hachiko somehow knew how to read the time in order to wait at the station at the same time everyday for 9 years. Waiting for 9 years- wow! I never knew that the extent of an animal's LOVE and DEDICATION and PERSISTENCE could reach those heights.

In real life, Hachiko's was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, showing up again and again at his old home. This showed that Hachiko loved his original owners (Ueno and his wife and kids) too much to let go of his master Ueno or his memory of him and wanted to return to his remaining living owners.

Eventually, Hachiko's apparently realized that his Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. How smart and clever is that of a dog? The other original owners of Hachiko had moved to a different location and Hachiko could not find his other living original owners since he is a dog and so he decided to wait in front of the railway station like he always used to do for his master to turn up and be reunited with him,

This real life story of Hachiko clearly demonstrated UNDYING, UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR ANOTHER since both the PHYSICAL ABSENCE of his owner Professor Ueno and the PASSING OF TIME would not diminish Hachiko's love and UNFLINCHING LOYALTY for his original master Ueno. This real life story also reminds us about HOW LOVE CAN MAKE ANYONE (INCLUDING ANIMALS AND DOGS) do CRAZY THINGS for someone they love.

Somehow I just wished that in real-life, the wife and family of Professor Ueno should have just placed lifeless body of Professor Ueno on the floor for a while for Hachiko to sniff and inspect the body. This might sound crazy to all you people reading this but i believe that dogs know about life and death and would be able to tell if a fellow dog or a human is dead.

I am quite sure that Hachiko, being clever enough to wait at the station at the same time everyday for 9 years, would be able to figure out that Ueno was dead. Then this would have given Hachiko at least CLOSURE, then he would not have to wait for 9 years.

You can read up on the real life story of Hachiko in this Wikipedia page which also lists all the Japanese films made about Hachiko. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachiko Or you can just Yahoo! Or Google Hachiko's real life story for more information.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

Great summer blockbuster! Smashing action scenes!!!

[10/10 · 31 July 2008]

This film is the third installment to the The Mummy series. Even though this blockbuster action film had a very predictable storyplot and was like every Hollywood action script (it had the must-have love story, bad guy-good guy, fighting, the silly funny sidekick), it was still very entertaining and was funny in many parts. And everybody loves humour right?-especially when watching a summer blockbuster. And to think that Jet Li and Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh got to work together! Holly Molly!! 3 stars rolled into one! Can’t get any better than this!!

I wanted to go to the cinema to be entertained with action scenes and to laugh and my wish was fulfilled when I watched this. Its action scenes were smashing. I thought the 3 white yeti monsters were so fantasy-like and so outrageous and hilarious….i mean out of no where they come to help and seem to know who the enemies are. While watching this movie, this movie made me forget about everything in my life. I was quite engrossed in the movie. The sound effects were better than I expected, especially during the avalanche scene. The special effects were definitely Lord-of-the-Rings standard especially the battle scenes between the Emperor's dead army and the Emperor's dead skeletal enemies and also when the Emperor's skeletal enemies rose from the dead. The whole movie was much better than I expected even though i knew the script was going to be very very predictable.

I am surprised many people gave bad or okay reviews. Like one of the reviewers in IMDb said, this movie had "beautiful scenery and beautiful action sequences that make this movie one of the best this year." The scenery of the Himalayan mountains and the sandy desert and the old mansion house in England and the busy streets of China and the Shangri La green land with its waterfalls were truly a feast for all eyes. This particular Mummy movie also is less gory and has MUCH more sense of humour than the previous Mummy movies. Personally I think that this is the best Mummy movie so far.

I actually would have preferred if the amazing famous actress Rachel Weisz resumed her role next to Canadian actor Brendan Fraser for this Mummy movie but she didn't. I can only pray that she reprises her role in the next Mummy installment which I am sure will be made in the future. THe sidekick at the end of the movie said he was going to Peru...and there are Aztec and Inca pyramids in Peru hence another Mummy installment!!!! But her replacement, Maria Bello knew whose shoes she had to fill and her great acting in this movie made the loss of Rachel Weisz less saddening. I am Malaysian therefore I am very, very proud and happy that the Malaysian Chinese actress Michelle Yeoh played one of the main characters. Michelle Yeoh acted really well and she should get more roles in Asian movies and in Western movies before she gets too old because I really believe if she has the opportunity to showcase her versatility and acting skills and if she got the right role in a great movie then she can win a golden globe award. And she can speak both English and Chinese fluently and eloquently unlike Zhang ZiYi. I could tell from her acting and all the movies she acted in (The Touch, Sunshine, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) that she can do not only action films but drama and all other genres.

In this movie I sometimes thought that the attention was too much on the movie character Alex O Connell and other movie characters instead of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz's characters at the beginning of the movie and would have liked it if the movie was longer so that the original Mummy hero Rick O Connell played by Brendan Fraser had more screen time and more things to do. I don't know whether it was just me and I don't know if others have noticed but I thought Brendan Fraser looked a little sad (maybe about the movie script and Rachel Weisz’s absence) at the beginning of the movie. I could tell from Jet Li's acting and facial expression in the movie that Jet Li concentrated a lot on his role and he did a great job too.

To everyone out there, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is one summer blockbuster not to be missed!!!!! Combining Jet Li , Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh!! Wow!!