dgg321982 Reviews

Flowers (I) (2010)

A fine Japanese comfort movie

[10/10 · 13 December 2016]

It is gradually clear to me that the Japanese Genre movie is nobody's Hollywood melodrama. My adrenaline level did not peak even once within their typical 100 minutes movie length. These gems are like clean water in a stream, flows its way from begin to end without causing too much disturbance on its way. Their movies are much a "movie-nification" of the Japanese people: friendly, beautiful and yet keep a small distance to the interlocutor. For them, beauty comes from distance.

Flower 2010 is one of these Japanese genre movies. It is a heart-warming narrative about five generations of Japanese women stretching from 1930 to modern days. Among them, three generations and six of them were particularly in focus. All of them were portrayed by the most celebrated actresses in Japanese cinema: Yû Aoi, Yuko Takeuchi, Ryôko Hirosue to name the three. Together, they all give us a kaleidoscopic view of how the the roles and perception of women have gradually moved forward in the modern Japanese society: from assigned marriage to single mom, from housewives to professional female that stood up against her male colleagues, from happy marriage to being abandoned or widowed but without losing their courage to move on in life. The overlap of these periods and characters were subtle (this is not "How the west was won"-kind tilted narrative, in which some key characters appeared across the generations to connect the time) and the narrative was not linear (scenes were not chronic): only if you watched carefully and take up all the clues and hints that the filmmakers left behind, were you able to figure out who were whose daughters.

The pictorial backgrounds were just gorgeous. It took full advantage of the scenic Japan and presented us with its stunning diversity: Sakura avenue, snow scenes, the unique Japanese countrysides with all those oily green rice-paddies, the carefully adorned tatami indoor scenes and onsens (hot spring).

For me the welcoming surprise was from two of the all beautiful actresses: Ms Hirosue and Ms Aoi. They are famed for portraying the "kawaii" (cute and adorable) or girly characters before. And here they have proved themselves to be more versatile and picked up the challenge: portrayed two resolute young women, and in the said process they perfectly embodied the Japanese "Yamato Nadeshiko" (the Japanese female ideal: women that are kind, gentle, thoughtful, good at household, attentive to parents and supportive of their husband).

The whole movie was perfectly concluded and summarized by Olivia Newton-John's "Have you never been mellow?" in a happy scene, not only the lyrics ("Have you never tried to find a comfort from inside you") but also the mood, just a perfect match. After watching, it just gave me much to think over again and review it mentally.

The Best Offer (2013)

artistic movie with plot

[10/10 · 18 May 2013]

Too long I am bombarded by TV shows that attempt to create drama within drama to prolong their lives. Too few movies I have seen that are so beautiful and yet have a good roller-coaster plot.

"The best offer" seems too good to be true. The music, simple, classical and with taste. At times, two channels are separated so that my attention was drawn and I can't stop enjoying the music. The sceneries, full of sculptures, paintings and other sorts of art works, combined with the view of Italy, are mesmerizing. Sylvia Hoeks is just so breathtakingly beautiful. The scene where she submerged herself under the bathtub water was just so picturesquely capture that it itself constructed a french portrait of a girl. The story is just too good to be true, the atmosphere was built up to climax so perfectly that you can sense the doom is imminent. It left me wonder, isn't it too harsh in the end? But

It is a Geoffrey Rush's show. But don't forget, it was Giuseppe Tornatore who put all these pretty things are put together.

Criminal Minds: The Lesson (2012) Season 8, Episode 10

Warning: This episode contains a very disgusting "disjoint" scene.

[1/10 · 10 December 2012]

Followers should get used to various "disgusting" torture scenes in Criminal minds by now. Twisted mind, hallucination and brutal violence not enough? This episode takes the cake. To warn off any faint hearted viewers from this, I going to write it loud here: in this episode, a young girl, her shoulder joints were dislocated by pulling her hands back and upwards.

This scene is so graphic and real, now it burns to my brain and is going to haunt me for a while. I stopped watching right there. A 30-year-old male, I think I could tell myself that was a TV drama and no real harm is done, but that footage sequence left me no reason to believe so. Now I really got to ask: what is the sense of presenting such a scene to us? Is it not enough to give us the idea and let us image the rest? Is it really necessary to depict violence in its full color and let us taste it all? Is it now CM really so down that it has to show the "horror" card to win back its dwindling fans? Are they sure this is not going to get the opposite?

The most disgusting CM episode since I don't remember.

Act of Valor (2012)

Not bad for a B movie

[7/10 · 25 March 2012]

This movie doesn't feature those big bright Hollywood stars and instead uses several "small time" actors and actresses, whom evoke the questions "I saw him/her before, but what is his/her name again?" And the acting here is not the strong suit. But I still like it for its enormous depiction of the US military practice.

As a big fan of Call of Duty Modern Warfare, I am very pleased to see some "first person shooting" view in the movie. The camera is really smartly positioned and it captures the most exciting motions during the missions. The gears, the vehicles and the actions are really adrenaline-pumping. And the plot itself is not bad. The location is indicated by a map in the background and reminds me of COD MW2's briefing. Cool. And only afterward I read that one of my new favorite writer- Dick Couch is involved in the original story.

Room for improvement: the acting is not the first grade, perhaps that is what you would expect from the faces of those Spec Ops soldiers. Second, the plot is a bit loose. A two hours long story can be condensed a little bit and from time to time, it gives the audience a chance to "take a break" or "move their eyes off the screen".

All in all, this is a movie far above the average for some military curious audience and well worth its ticket.

Person of Interest (2011–2016)

So far, so perfect

[10/10 · 7 March 2012]

At the show's premiere I thought this is just another piece of vigilante show with some hi-tech gadgets. But I am decently being surprised by the rest of the season 1. The season is still running but at this point, I can conclude that POI is one of the shows that "keep me waiting for the next".

No need to reiterate the plot here, the story is prettily carried out. Every episode one number = a person needs help, and one big conspiracy/bad guy behind the whole season and connects the episodes together. Every POI has kind of normal life on the surface but deep down, they were vulnerable, sometimes they became part of the conspiracy. The episodes just peeled open the onion and took me by surprise every now and then. The "vigilante helping people" shows such as Burn Notice, Leverage or even Castle are gradually losing momentums as the more seasons are renewed. It is more and more obvious that these shows are falling deeper and deeper into cliché: every episode has the very same formula and the stories were becoming very predictable. But not this show, at least not yet.

I have to praise Jim Caviezel with a word or two. Perhaps because his role in "the Passion", his appearance is just always that "Jesus" for me. Enigmatic and compassionate he is, he gives Jeffrey Donovan a run for his money.

Excellent show. Hope it will escape the TV show canceling spree of late.

Three Kingdoms (2010)

Powerful story, lame filming

[6/10 · 9 February 2012]

No statistics, my gut feeling, Three Kingdoms is definitive the most read novel in China, especially by the Chinese males, partly due to the fascinating heroism and intelligence described in the book, partly thanks to the Japanese game industry (companies like KOEI make games around this book for decades). It is fair to say, a lot of people in China have learned the stories by heart. Lots of Chinese males, including me, have read the book symbol by symbol at least three times.

There is also an abundance of film, TV and game adaptation of the story in China (Look at this the other way, how poor is the creativity in those Chinese script writers' heads, out of the 3000-year-long Chinese history they can only fix their eyes on this 100 years, which is largely based on this half-fiction half-truth novel). The popularity of the novel makes it difficult for any of those videos to satisfy the critical readers. Honestly, to make a film letter to letter based on the original text without any artistic recreation is a daunting task, a lot of dialogs, scenes and actions have to be filled in to make the story-telling to flow. Too many artistic recreation, the die hard readers are going to scream. See, there should be a balance here.

The old 1994 version, in my opinion, is quite an authentic account. True, the fighting and some other things in it were not that jaw-dropping, but they at least obeyed physic. This new 2010 version in contrast, fails at many aspects. The recreation is just a bit over the top and "Hollywood". The action is just a bit too like in circus. The demeanor of the actors were just too modern and "Taiwan" (Young actors pretended to be cool, old actors were way too stiff). And, the music sucks, the same pieces repeated again and again without any variation.

Here I just want to spill my guts about one thing, Cao Cao. This guy is the one of the two central figures in the whole story, the other is Zhu Ge Liang. Besides being an erudite writer, highly competent leader and great strategist, he is traditionally depicted as a cunning SOB, usually gets what he wants by hook or by crook, more or less like the young Bill Gates. The book author Luo Guang Zhong wrote a lot about his achievement, at the same time, he put a lot of negative color on the very same person. This conflictive treatment only makes this personal more fascinating and attractive. Such a controversial and multi-facet person is easy to admire, hard to acted as. Additionally, Cao Cao was somehow a handsome charming guy. Put these together, you get the picture. The Cao Cao in 1995 was very OK. This 2010 was not. The actor Chen Jian Bin failed to compete with his precedent by all account. Not cunning, not pretty, too smart-ass and is downright annoying when he laughed, or pretended to give us a fake laugh.

Try to grab the 1995 version instead.

The Three Musketeers (2011)

a bad "the three musketeers"

[3/10 · 2 February 2012]

I have only watched two of TTM, the 1993 version and The Man in the Iron Mask, (OK, the last one is sequel). This one easily takes the cake to be the worst of them all.

I am not a fan of Dumas either, but his original story is far more appealing than the one here. What disturbs me most is the modern element that the script writer tried to sneak in. The "Assassin's Creed" style killing and the cult around Da Vinci were amazing when I played Assassin's Creed several years ago, but here they were just plain annoying and making the whole French thing to Italian renaissance. The three musketeers are more machine gun operators than sword fighters. The bullet time is great but still inferior to 300 in many aspects.

Perhaps it is time to dust off the 1993 version and enjoy that.

The Flowers of War (2011)

Go see it

[9/10 · 3 January 2012]

I am a Chinese. But I have to admit that I am neither a big fan of Zhang nor of the Chinese cinematography. Except for few excellent works, I found the recent Chinese film industry willingly or unwillingly distances itself from the audience, by making Hollywood-style, big budget, all-star cast, but empty-content and cliché-plot movies. Where are the Chinese movie makers' ideas? Why did they give up finding stories in Chinese history and instead they chase some intangible sci-fis to burn some money? Nan Jing is always a sad place to visit and its history during the sino-jp war is forever a scar in the Chinese. For Jp, an industrialized great power that even beat Russia once, must realize that a fast complete annexation of China is nearly impossible, the huge resistance and a large area of territory that China possessed was way out of Jp capacity. The astronomical Chinese manpower would outrun every Jp technological advantage and eventually turn the table. So the Jp did one thing they could think of - instill fear and horror in the Chinese and wear their resistance down. War crimes - killing, looting and raping could do that and the Jp wanted double of it to get the effect. It is imaginable that the Jp army on one hand would officially blame such behaviors (because of their culture of being respectful and polite) and on the other hand closed one eye for them, perhaps even promoted and encouraged them.

That was Jp. Chinese, they were victims. Period.

An American in China at that time kind of enjoyed immunity from the brutality and had a neutral status.

So these summarized the positions of all people in the film. I can speak for myself, even though I tried to contain my reaction during the viewing I still have been hit head-on by the emotion. It is Chinese Schindler's list. In this case however, those women were more the "Schindlers" than Bale's John don't you think, although John also did a great humanitarian deed.

Pros of the film. I think first is the story itself. A moving story of those women and girls, a realistic account of the jp war crime and a faithful reflection of the fear during the war. True, some of the elements in the plot are predictable, but not the ending of it. At the end of the day, this work is a movie, and a movie needs something unpredictable out of cliché or Hollywood.

Also, the structure of the film is very ideal. Enough time is given to elaborate on the sub-stories, although in my opinion, the ending bit can still be more elaborate.

The characters are also very "human". They were quite free of the stereotype Chinese film mindset here, which I think is the second good thing about this film. To name two things about that "free of stereotype", they showed self-preservation, the girls, the women, Mr Meng and more importantly, John all have it. You know, self-preservation is generally considered as selfishness and one of the personality weakness according to the modern Chinese ideology, which promote the collective greater good is above individual well-being. Being self-preserved at that time is frequently associated with being traitor. And you can expect, self-preservation is rarely seen in Chinese films about sino-jp war. That, in my opinion, is one of the distances I mentioned earlier that the Chinese movie makers created in their "patriotically educational" movies. That is simply not very "human". But I can find it here and that adds up to the credibility of the account.

The second one was the women group itself. They are, because of their profession, always depicted as no soul, no feeling, full of vanity and selfish in Chinese culture, and more, they were non-political. This story also quoted one of the mostly quoted Chinese poems in the end to remind us of that last point. The catch of this film is to challenge that opinion. Like in the La Dame aux camélias, they have emotions, human feelings like you and me, "they love and hate". It is overkill to discuss whether they should be patriotic and do something about the war. Simply being themselves (OK, in the film, acting like ones), they can convince the rest of us already.

Second, the acting. Christian Bale, in my opinion, is getting better and better since his Batman the Legend begins. True, Liam Neeson is still THE Schindler. But Bale has his shot. John's submission in front of the Jp is very well portrayed by Bale's hard but meanwhile sad face. And Bale also has the eyes to tell those stories when he tried to cover up those women's imminent "going to hell" event before the girls. In comparison to the similar looking Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who also associates himself with sino-culture, I think I prefer Bale's a little darker and sadder presence.

The women, they deserved three hurra both for their characters and for their acting. A piece of information, the Chinese generally considers women from the vicinity of Shanghai are "mean". I am not saying this is true, but it adds to their characters when I looked at them. They were really mean sometimes weren't they? If you think so too, you should realize what these 12 actress have done to you : )

OK, some minor cons. Yes, the girls and women played their parts well when the horror kicks in. But remember those scenes from Schindler's list? The trembling teeth of the Jewish youth, the little girl in the s* hole, those widely open eyes in the shower room. Few can convey fear in films like Spielberg. Zhang here is on the right track in the right direction, but not yet close.

Also, the young actors and actresses are promising, but still have room to perfect their skill. The depiction of fear, again, still showed some artificiality.

Go see it!

The Help (2011)

Good book, good movie, this movie is going to be a hit

[10/10 · 17 November 2011]

I read the book because the book keeps showing up at the top of recommendation list at Amazon and pops up every time I was there. More than 3000 ratings and counting have been given. The book by itself is already a modern classics. Heartwarming stories and written nicely and partly in the languages of the colored maids. Its narrative is humorous in its own way and never loses the brightness of life even though it took place in one of the bad time for color people in the American history.

A strong story makes its way into a strong movie. In contrast to an awful lot of mediocre book-adapting movies seen nowadays, the movie keeps all the essential elements of the book and makes itself a faithful representation. It contains the minor but important events of the book, which to my fear would have been first sacrificed for keeping the film to the normal movie length about 1 to 1.5 hours, especially those historic events are kept to my delight. That makes sure the contemporary pulse can be felt throughout the movie. It shows the fear and the horror to people from different time, countries or races, because they are not likely to image that zeitgeist at that time of madness and racism in USA. Colored people could get shot or have their house burned down just by talking about their situations. Even when their lives were spared from violence, they still had to face all kinds of hatred and discriminations, exemplified by having their separated bathrooms.

As to the omitted parts, I feel that they were good cuts: Celia fought off a lunatic and drank those quack cures, Skeeter's invitation to Stuart's house and a few more are in fact not that vital in my opinions. Also, small changes to originals were made and I feel fine about them: Charlotte knew about her daughter's undertaking, Rachael was being dark-colored and more importantly Hilly and Elizabeth's remorse at the end of the movie. The latter was a nice touch even though it dampens a bit Hilly's harshness and her incorrigible attitude to the help, which may not be Mrs Stockett's original idea.

All in all, this 2 hours long movie is a must see. I myself had waited since August when I finished reading the book and am glad that it quite lives up to the book and my expectations: and I am a mean critic when it comes to movies.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

worst of the three

[5/10 · 24 September 2011]

After viewing this title, I really appreciated the first two Transformers. At least they have some comedy elements and some really tight schedule. But this last sequel? It didn't have any. What it has is cliché.

A cybertrone civil war should be mainly fought by cyber beings, the Transformers. But now it is fought on Earth, so human is everywhere in the scene. I just don't quite get that why Sam and his girl friend and some GI have to be caught in every crossfire and witness every destruction of the key Decepticon players. And this far-fetched human intervention is poorly mixed with the main line of the story, like some of side stories. Why they cast the fine actor Malkovich for such a nonsense negligible role? What is it about Sam's parents and job interviews and things? These made the movie into a two and a half hours Spagetti.

I am glad that Prime finally finished off Megatron in this Michael Bay's version of Transformers, so that Bay can't make any more Sequel and stop destroying my appetite for more.

Setup (I) (2011)

Huge cast, small plot

[6/10 · 11 September 2011]

One thing I haven't understood, why a movie can pull up a cast like the trio in the post but can not have a decent story. An old school big score goes wrong and revenge isn't that much of a plot. The ending is just so-so, no surprise, no tears and no laughters. A few monologues from 50 cent are neither funny nor enlightening. Every character has a short and non-impressive appearance before the camera and none of them is quite tangible, all cameo without the time needed to develop the character, the only exception perhaps is Bruce Willis.

And perhaps, 50 cent is still not yet a full-fledged movie star although he tried it really hard recently. His expression is still quite poor, especially when he stood beside Bruce Willis. No emotion on his face, just like a plain sheet of paper.

Man, Bruce is still good like always, managed to add something funny in this otherwise plain movie, but neither he can rescue the movie.

When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story (2010 TV Movie)

Sweet Ryder as the perfect wife in a heart warming story

[9/10 · 22 July 2011]

Sure, the story of Mr and Mrs Wilson is a very true one, so true that we can hear around us now and then. Before watching it, I never know the alcoholism can be so devastating and make the victim so helpless. And the depression adds insult to the injury, making their lives even down to the bottom. I had to watch this part with great uneasiness. This lasted until the very end, where everything seemed to be OK again. What can I say, exactly such an up and down makes a warm story about devoting love and faith.

I am impressed that Mr Wilson finally made it and, not only helped himself but also the others. But I am more impressed by his wife Lois, her devoting love and firm support to her husband, which, if I were in Mrs Wilson's shoes, would have divorced him at least three times over. Sure, this film is from her angle telling the story and understandably making her the closest entry point for the viewers. Nevertheless, her sweetness and forgiveness is never shadowed or shaded by this setting. One might wonder, who else can play Lois Wilson better than Ryder. I don't know how the real Lois looks like, but as long as the real story goes like the one in this film, the role will be tailored to Ryder. After all, I really can't think of another actress in Hollywood has a small share of Ryder's sweetness and shyness.

Train Man (2005–2006)

Very Japanese, adorable

[9/10 · 10 April 2011]

I first knew this show through "Japanorama" and finally found it and finished the whole 12 episodes in a week. A very "Japanese" show.

I asked a Japanese college, are those things really happening in Japan, like the little girl stepped onto the poor guy's ankle because he lost her balloon, or do Japanese guys cry so much and shiver so when they are nervous, or are the girls and bosses so violent and so alpha that they will hit their male omega and physically abuse them? He was just taken by surprise and laughed and said "no, no".

Sure, Japanese are polite. Look at how they bow, showing their most vulnerable body parts to you. And Japanese are really into manga and anime. So although the whole is very dramatic or "exaggerated", I still find the Japanese elements inside are very adorable.

Especially the "surfing" scene, I was touched. A Japanese female college told me, Japanese take apology very seriously. That is really so in that scene. Yamada kneed and kowtowed to beg Herme-San's forgiveness. A very nice and moving part of the drama.

Moonlight Serenade (2009 Video)

First time got disappointed by an Amy Adams' movie

[5/10 · 30 December 2009]

Since then, all the movies featuring Amy Adams were nice, from Enchanted to her two Streep's films (doubt and Julia). And no doubt that she is an attractive actress, quite sweet and above all, healthy. Also, her singing is outstanding. She ought to be successful among the other stars in Hollywood.

However, no matter how magnificent she can be, as long as she appears in a movie, she needs a script to interpret. A script with a plot. Sadly, this Moonlight serenade seems to fail without one.

Adams' role Chloe is a mysterious girl, sharing some elements with Maeterlinck's Mélisande: from an unknown somewhere, bouncing forth and back between her two lovers, coming and going without any reasons. And Nate, acting at whim. Besides, the plot is pale. I couldn't help myself from being distracted now and then. So many unnecessary people were just moving around to attract my attention. Even the singing part wasn't exciting either, failing to rival the songs in Adams' Enchanted.

Hope Amy's will have something more to show in the future.

A Dangerous Man (2009 Video)

Americans fight Chinese, Chinese fight Chinese, Russians fight Americans....

[29 December 2009]

The movie can't be rated yet. I would give it four stars for Steve's hand fighting, at most.

A total war, Americans fought Chinese, Chinese fought Chinese, Russians fought Americans, Russians also fought Chinese. I was totally lost at the last scene. No idea who was fighting whom any more. One basic idea is, Shane is, like he said, the good guy.

A lot of bullets. But if you look closer, those bullets couldn't make bullet holes. Even if they hit, because the girls screamed several times and died, they don't create visible wounds on human bodies. Are they Made in China, too?

Shane is the good guy, lots of fast hand and gun fights, he never got touched. Skilled, lucky and bulletproof.

My suggestion, omit the plot, watch the hand fights.

The Message (2009)

Made in China is not always bad

[9/10 · 9 November 2009]

The opening of the film already shows some quite different quality from the otherwise dull and hard Chinese films. Visual effect it is, that is what the Chinese doesn't have or has but in a poor way.

However, nice, eyes attracting cg isn't the essence of this film. The script and the performance are the winning factors. Quite like a detective movie, but another way round, "bad" guys searching "good" guys. Clues, dialogs and something unexpected come one after another. Of course, the final answer only shows up in the end. The atmosphere is right: set in a castle, no way to escape, dark and brutal, even bloody. The struggle between Chinese and Japanese in the War time, or to be more general, between the righteous and the evil at that time, is the permanent subject of all time.

Performance of the actors and actresses are beyond reproach. My only disappointment is on Zhou Xu. Nothing in particular, only, say, it can be better.

I have heard that because of the censor some scenes were heavily cut. The cut part must be something even more bloody and scary. However, what should I say, without these scary scenes, the impact of the whole movie would reduce to its half. And I would like to say, the remaining "torture" scenes are not yet entirely convincing, although they are quite enough for the mass majority in China.

In addition, the last scene is quite superfluous, intending to highlight the "old ghost". In an old Chinese saying, painting feet on a snake. In my opinion, silence will do the trick, just let the audience remind themselves.

At the end of the comment: I want more although it is enough!

Max Payne (2008)

Payne is better in a game than in a play

[4/10 · 17 November 2008]

I have only played Max Payne II, the fall of him. But I got quite impressed by this figure. So after watching the film, I couldn't help myself feeling quite disappointed, this movie hasn't captured much of feel that the cyber version had given me 5 years ago.

First of all, the choice of Max Payne failed. My first choice for this roll would be Clive Owen. Who has played the game wouldn't forget how Max spoke, how he walked and shot. I may like to say Owen would fit in every bit as a Max. His tune, his height and style make me think that he would be born for Max Payne among all his colleagues from the action movie faculty. Mark Wahlberg just should simply try anything else but Max.

Second, there are two few bullets. I have expected tons of bullets flying around in all direction every 10 to 15 minutes, and only that can truly remind us of who Max really is. But, quite a pity. Wahlberg preferred to talk rather than fulfill my little desire. Every shooting hasn't lasted long, after three or four rounds of loading, end of the scene. And what was worse was the climax. Every audience has full rights to enjoy an exciting, adrenaline-driving climax in the late part of every action movie. But this movie didn't realized that. Two bad guy were just simply finished by one single bullet. Nearly no hand to hand fight. Haiiiiii. By the way, I am pacifist, maybe the scriptwriter is one too. Pity for an action film.

The Intruder (1999)

The worst nonsense I have ever seen

[1/10 · 20 October 2008]

I can't imagine, how this film could manage to gather the actresses like Charlotte and Natasha but meanwhile to make up such a meaningless story. Calling itself a thriller, it was just able to produce a minimal atmosphere that a typical thriller movie needs, and the ending is absolutely disappointing. I think, the script writer must have lost his last little bit creativity and logic to write down such a ridiculous bedtime story. Besides, there are too many useless roles and branch plots. Give me the scissor, I will cut it from 90 min to 30 min, without making the movie worse. All in all, this time travel stuff is not an easy cake, the logic behind these kind of movie is questionable. The only way to let the audience forget asking why this why that is a good, captivating plot. But this film has definitively not one.

Taken (I) (2008)

Liam Neeson in action

[8/10 · 20 October 2008]

Liam Neeson, immortalized himself in his role as Oscar Schindler, here challenged himself with an action movie. The end effect is sparkling. Even when I was sitting during the film, I knew something big and exciting was happening, although it may not be a happy experience for "Kim" :).

This movie has every elements that an action-thriller movie should have and must have. A lot of bullets, car chasing, hand fight, drug, a superman-like protagonist and a beauty kidnapped. Although I found the onset of the whole story a bit strange, the development of it appealed to me. Liam Neeson was perfectly fit in his role. Highlight was the scene where he negotiated with Marko, I couldn't imagine who anyone else can do this acting as convincing as Neeson.

Somewhere I have read a comment, if you like Jason Bourne, a dude with a gun killing round, then you should like this one too.

Cold Creek Manor (2003)

Dennis, Stone and Plummer in a third-rate exploitation trash

[1/10 · 1 September 2008]

Out of a simple and boring story, which is not even worth mentioning, has the writer made up a two-hour so-call "Thriller" film. Absolutely waste of time. I can't understand, how this film managed to call up the actors like Dennis, Stone and Plummer into its crew.

Bad guys are not welcome in a society, but are critical for the films who name themselves "Thriller" or even "Horror". They are literally the spirits of such genre. Without a crazy, paranoid, ghost-like bad guy, they are just amateur home videos. Remember Anthony Hopkins in Hannibal? CRS (though they turned out to be good) in the game? Or the zombies in the evil resident? You would have regretted to see one of them in real life. But in this movie, Dale is anything but a devil. For me, he is just a tragic young man with some bad temper, and at the end went mad. There is no a single guilty nerve in that character. This bad guy can not support the whole film.

The other parts of the crew are not better. Ask Stone, what is a thriller film, she would tell you "basic instinct". Na, that is a real deal, but not this "cold creek manor". Dennis is uninspired either.

The plot reminds me of a schoolboy's plain composition. Long, loose focus, redundant details everywhere. But something that need to be clear is finally unclear. For example, what kind of accident had Dale,, which sent him to jail? how did he commit the terrible crime? Why did he want the house back? What were those photos all about?

War of the Worlds (2005)

I want more than the film has offered me

[6/10 · 6 November 2006]

Naja, a very spectacular movie. But it doesn't 100% satisfy me. War of the worlds reminds me the film Independence Day. I, truly, prefer the second one.

It is nothing new, making some ETs, big UFOs and dozen of ugly creatures, which sometimes also make fun(in the basement the invaders have seen the photo curiously and one has tried the bike, which fell on him and made him angry. Very funny). They didn't say a word, just kill, without a simple reason. What is new? The creature were kill this time by the real virus and bacteria, not like Independce Day, by the Computervirus. And the theme is no longer to fight and defend, but a upset one, namely to escape and to leave friends behind, even to kill the other for a self-survival.

Of Tom Cruise, a failed father, has done nothing more than anyone else will have done. Just run and run, what is worse, kill Tim, who has saved his and his daughter's lives. I have thought, even hoped, that Tom acts like a hero, just like he has done before. What he has, just luck, that helped him to come cross all those killing-rays and falling buildings.

The end came too suddenly. The great machines ran down, without any omen. As if Steven only wants to tell the story further, but just at that time it hits him, time is up, everything has to be driven to the end. He did it, just with a man outside the screen, who tells you, the invaders are undone by the tiniest creatures on out planet. Maybe the virus's and the bacteria's names should be shown first at the credits, not Tom's.