muckiduck Reviews

Shiri (1999)

Surprisingly good movie. Worth watching.

[10 June 2002]

I found this movie at Blockbusters in the DVD section. Although I am of Korean background, I have not heard of this movie prior to finding it at Blockbusters. I rented it out of curiosity... the short description on the jacket seemed interesting enough. I only found out after watching the movie that it was such a big hit in Korea a few years ago. Watching the movie, it reminded me of "The Rock", "La Femme Nikita/Point of No Return", and "Heat".. All these were previously mentioned in other comments, and I agree that some of the scenes in Swiri (or Shiri) weren't very original in that regard. Still, the quality of the movie was surprisingly excellent. I also agree a lot of the action sequences in this movie weren't perfect, but then again, so are some of Hollywood's action movies. Some of the special effects were below par as well (the scene where a building blows up wasn't too convincing). Still, I've seen other Korean movies and I must say that Korean films have come a long way.. cinematography, plot, characterization were all done really well. I watched it twice.. once in Korean audio without subtitles, and again with English subtitles. The subtitles, although done very well, does leave out some of the subtleties. I'd say it is a difficult thing, translating dialog without losing something somewhere. Still the acting does fill in the blanks quite well I thought. I thought the acting was excellent.. Knowing a bit about the North/South Korean history would help understand the movie. Also knowing a bit about South Korean perception of the North Korea would also help understand the movie better as well. I thought that the love story in the movie, although it is a type that is very very often used (the tragic type) especially in Korean films, worked well. I thought it was far more convincing than the love between Anakin and Amidala in SW2 AOTC.

Overall, Swiri/Shiri isn't perfect. It isn't without holes. It doesn't compare to Heat (an excellent film). But unlike some of other "Hollywood" movies, that Blockbusters had many more copies of (Black Knight, Joy Ride, Thirteen Ghosts), I was glad to have paid $4.09 to rent it for 5 days. That reminds me. I'd better return my copy since they only had copy. If you can find a copy at your local Blockbusters or a DVD/Video rental place, rent it.

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

Good movie, but not so good "Star Wars" episode.

[23 May 2002]

Possible spoilers ahead.

I'm not a fan of Star Wars, just fan of good movies.. AOTC as a movie was good. Great special effects, action, plot, characters. I'd say go see it, definitely.. I'd give it 7 stars. However, as a Star Wars movie, there were significant disappointments. +Special Effects: The effects in this movie were excellent. Lots of creativity went into character, costume, and background design, as a Star Wars movie should be. The different worlds that were shown were filled with a lot of details. One scene reminded me of a chase scene from Fifth Element..though..

+Action Scenes: The fight scenes, whether they were between Jedis or drones, clones, machines, space ships, they were all great. It's hard to beat a Star Wars and George Lucas on that.. I hate to repeat what everyone already said, but Yoda's scene was excellent.

-Anakin: I tried to like this character. I tried to have compassion for this poor kid (with all the bad things happened to him). But I couldn't. Although Vader's character was evil (until the very end), I had respect for him as the bad guy. I just can't imagine whiny Annie becoming the Vader character. I wished that they made him someone who I could like.. someone who I'd hate to lose to the darkside, but no.. not this kid.. the dark side can have him. Also the tragic scene with the death of you know who.. too cliche.

+Amidala: I thought Portman as Amidala was great. She makes a good Amidala.

-Romance: This was significantly disappointing. When Amidala says she love him, I was not convinced at all. Anakin had a crush on her at best.. was I expecting too much? Some of the lines were down right corny.. man they need better writers.

+/- Plot: The plot is very important, since they can not leave holes.. we know what happens later. In order to tell the story, you have to explain the important subplots and the origins or all the characters. This led to the film jumping around quite a bit.. but I thought it was a bit choppy.. I thought LOTR had done a better job telling its story.

Overall, I think acting and writing could've been much better. The pace could've been better too.. the first 2/3 was a bit too long to wait for all of the action. It was a good movie to see for the familiar plot, characters, and its excellent visual effects.. but now, I'm not so eager to see the next one.