wirestone Reviews

The Gods Must Be Crazy II (1989)

You Must Be Crazy If You Don't Like This One Too

[5 May 2004]

This sequel is definitely not as insightful about the nature of man as the original, but there're still more than enough slapsticks, romance and family drama to make up for it.

The two children are particularly adorable, their strength comes from their innocence, without the precocity that has become the hallmark of Hollywood. Their storyline is thus the most heart-warming of all.

The two soldiers from opposing forces provide much of the slapstick of movie, and they are very good, with exceptionally funny facial expressions.

And let¡¯s not count Lena Farugia and Hans Strydom out, who play a doctor of law from New York and a zoologist on assignment ¨C their opposite-attract romance is rather stereotypical but Lena in particular is such a charming delight that I forget how much Strydom looks like Tom Selleck, instead, wonder why Lena had not since made another movie - yes, really sad :( - she could¡¯ve been a big star.

So in the end, one very funny little film, worth every penny and more to rent or buy. Keep some band-aids with you while watching, as you may get some stitches in your side.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

An Unbelievable and Unmatched cinematic experience - Spoilers

[9/10 · 17 December 2003]

And it was an incredible thrill to watch it.

The cinematography of The Return of the King dwarfs everything and anything that came before it, including even The Two Towers. The battle scenes are exhilarating to watch, and unlike the siege of Helm's Deep which takes place mostly in the dark of the night, the battles at Minas Tirith and the Black Gate happen during the day, and you can marvel at every little detail on screen. Compare to the claustrophobic underground city of Zion in Matrix Revolution, the open plains of Gondor are just far more grandiose to look at. Just like the end of The Two Towers, when the Rohirrim riders charge into thousands of Orcs, I couldn't help but feel my own blood boiling. Yet the giant spider Shelob is still more terrifying than all the orcs, trolls, mammoths, including even Aragog, the giant spider in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

There are so many elements in Book V and VI of The Lord of the Rings, I was afraid that a lot of story would be pushed away by the special effects. I should've trusted Peter Jackson and the actors to know better, as the acting is top-notch and the plotlines never seem rushed. A couple of times, I even feel the movie drags a little, but that's a very minor complaint.

There are couple of things missing in the movie, and I'm positive that would show up in the extended version of the DVD. One is the fate of Saruman and Grima Wormtongue is not revealed, in fact, both are MIA in the final chapter of the movie, contrary to the book. Second is the relationship between Eowyn and Faramir is also undeveloped, leaving yet another open subplot. Third is how the Rohirrims arrives at Minas Tirith with the help of the Woses, the Wild Men of the Woods. Then there's Denethor, who, in the extended edition of The Two Towers, reveals that he wants the ring for himself and hopes that Boromir would retrieve it. However, since Faramir releases Frodo and Sam to destroy the ring, he feels betrayed by his son. This would better explaine his behaviour later on, but is cut for obvious reasons.

Some minor characters and story elements are cut, like Beregond and the Scouring of the Shire. Of course, adding the last few chapters of the book to the movie will drag it way too long and totally interrupts its flow.

Some final thoughts:

As I watch men, elves and dwarf knee before the four small hobbits, I realize that even though Frodo and Sam are the ones who destroy the One Ring, both Merry and Pippin are also instrumental in the battle against Sauron ¨C they convince the ents to fight against Saruman the White, Pippin helps Gandalf to defend Minas Tirith and saves Faramir's life and Merry helps Eowyn to slay the ringwraith leader Nazgul. All are heroes whom would've been brushed aside at first glance. Bravo!

Lost in Translation (2003)

Lost Hearts Discover Each Other

[9/10 · 23 September 2003]

An unlikely relationship develops between an over-the-hill movie star (Bill Murray) and a philosophy grad (Scarlet Johansson), both strangers to Japan, both staying in a Tokyo hotel, both stuck in loveless marriages, both feeling unbearably isolated. The dialogs between the characters are witty and funny but often superficial, a lot of the emotions are left unsaid, expressed only through the eyes of the two leads. Both actors deliver superior acting, especially Murray, who deserves an Oscar nomination. The opening scenes are hilarious, pitting the usual ¡°Murrayistic¡± sarcasm against language and cultural barriers between the east and the west. However a bittersweet yet serene theme runs through the entire film ¨C the movie has very little to do with cultural differences but the spark between two lonely hearts. The writing, directing, cinematography and sound track are all excellent, kudos to Sophie Coppola for making yet another great chick flick (the other one being The Virgin Suicides).

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Chases and Twists

[6/10 · 6 July 2003]

Wonderful fight scenes - after watching The Matrix and its clones, the "retro" down and dirty fight style between the two cyborgs are almost refreshing. No Wired-Foo!!!

Wonderful chase sequences - the huge trucks and several blocks of condemned buildings being crushed look much less choreographed than the dozens of sports carts used in 007 and the recent Bond clones.

Good story and screenplay - even though most of the film is devoted to pure action, the actors are given enough screen time to let their characters shine through, especially Claire Danes, who did a wonderful job playing both Sarah Connors of the first two movies of the series (you will know what I mean when you see the film).

This is definitely not as great as the first two Terminator movies. Most actions in the first two take places during the night, and the darkness adds a much more hair-raising air. Instead, almost the entire T3 takes place during the day, and it's just not as scary, plain and simple.

Also, director Jonathan Mostow showcases his skill on action, but he clearly lacks the personal touch of James Cameron. Even though the T-X is more powerful than anything we've seen in most Si-Fi movies, she's just not as cold and scary as the first two assassins played by Arnold and Robert Patrick. The eyes of the first two cyborgs in T1 and T2 send chills down my spine; Christana Loken just doesn't have the feeling of a sharpened blade like her male counterparts.

But still it is a good movie, especially the twist at the end of the film that will force you to reflect on the world and your own life. And I must comment on the makeup artists, who has done a wonderful job make Arnold actually look much the same as in T2, more than a decade ago.

However, the movie left me with a bitter taste in my mouth as I leave the theatre.

--- S P O I L E R ---

The first two movies emphasizes on a single line - "No fate but what we make", the twist at the end, even though good for storytelling, totally negates that simple ideal. It wipes the efforts in the first two films clean and basically says that you cannot go against fate.

Not surprising though, as the first two films reflect on the 80's - "you make you own fate"; whereas T3 reflects on a much more spiritual 90's - "you cannot avoid your fate".

No wonder James Cameron doesn't want to be involved with this one.

Hero (2002)

Poetry in Motion

[6/10 · 1 March 2003]

Ying Xiong (Hero) is poetry in motion. But that doesn't necessarily transfer to a good movie. I have not seen any movie with cinematography and choreography done in such pure artistic style, resulting in an almost surreal visual experience. By using traditional Chinese instrumental music, the score of the movie is also excellent. The story itself, though very much modernized and contrive, is actually somewhat believable ¨C stories of assassins at this particular time period were abundant. Most lead actors perform adequately, including Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Chen Dao Ming and Zhang Ziyi. But the substance does not measure up to the style. First of all, the dialog is just way too modernized, and at times very pretentious. Second, Jet Li may be the best martial artist ever on the silver screen, still he really cannot act. Since much of the movie depends on him delivering convincing lines, it just falls flat right here. A good film, for the visual and score along, but not a great one worthy of an Oscar.

My Sassy Girl (2001)

Hope for all you nice guys out there

[24 July 2002]

While Hollywood has been glorifying the American bay boys for decades, it is nice to finally see a romantic film for the rest of us. Hilarious and sweet at the same time, the movie details the relationship between a very sensitive young man and a girl he met on the subway. Both lead characters exhibit contradicting personalities - the boy sensitive yet protective, whereas the girl sassy yet vulnerable. A perfect mismatch made in heaven, this is a truly innocent love story. This movie was big in East Asia, because it appeals to the young teens and the young teens still in us. Sappy at times and drags a bit with some unnecessary scenes, but still a wonderful movie nonetheless.

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

Good, but not perfect

[7/10 · 13 May 2002]

A worthy summer blockbuster, but little quirks keep it from a perfect action thriller.

First, the film lacks the youthful energy of Episode IV: A New Hope - it takes itself way too seriously. Hayden Christensen is awkward in almost every scene, too holdback during the first half and not fierce enough during the second half. The love scenes between Anakin and Padme are not very well developed and acted - Anakin is just too young to be charming enough to win over Senator Amidala. Obviously the film intends to show that it's Anakin's wild side that attracts Padme, but there's very little of that shown during the time the two actually spend together. And later on in the scene where he shows his dark side, it should be a closeup with his eyes burning and teeth grinding with anger and sends chills down the spines of the audience - but it doesn't, he's too good looking a kid to make you scare of him.

Second, like Episode I: The Phantom Menace, there are some totally unnecessary scenes. I understand the desire to create an entire world (or galaxy to be precise), but some sequences (like the factory) interrupt the flow of the story and just drag down the action.

Third, the fight scenes are not very well choreographed. The Jedi duels are the perfect place to overuse wires like The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but like The Phantom Menace, the fight scenes, especially the one with a squadron of Jedi Knights versus thousands of battle droids, are too repetitive. A Hong Kong action choreographer like Yuen Woo-ping, would've made wonders here. Even the duel between Yoda and Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku), thought great to look at, could have been more imaginative.

And last, the FX is very well done generally, but some scenes, like the chase at the beginning of the movie could've used less - sometimes the CGI world can be too distracting and keep the focus off the action.

Don't get me wrong, I still like this movie, a lot, and would recommand it to anyone. But there's still a lot of room to improve on the script, the acting and the FX.

Kung Fu Cult Master (1993)

So bad it's worse

[10 May 2002]

The plot of the movie is based on a popular Kongfu novel by Jin Yong, THE most famous Chinese writer of the last fifty years. This novel is one of my favorite of all his works, but in order to cram the story into movie-length, much has been changed and cut. And changed and cut in the typical style of Hong Kong kongfu TV soap operas.

Hong Kong kongfu TV soaps are altogether bad. First, Cantonese is spoken and thus reduced the historical feel of the scenes - there's a reason why Ang Lee asked all the actors in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to speak Mandarin, even if they could speak fluent Cantonese. All characters from this movie are from Northern China, and Cantonese, a rather modern dialect, just don't fit here.

Second, typical to kongfu soaps, there's a lot of overacting in this movie. It seems that Hong Kong TV series directors and actors think overacting is how ancient Chinese behaved or they believe without overacting the audience will not feel the history or something. Anyway, the acting is worse than most B movies of the 70's and 80's, and that says a lot.

Third, too much makeup. And this is also typical of Hongkong kongfu soaps, big hairs, big eyebrows and eye shadows, wierd hairdoes and costumes. As if the makeup artists think without the hair and clothing, the audience cannot distinguish between the characters. The story happens during a time of extreme close-mindedness in Chinese history, wierd clothing and hairdoes were not tolerated at all. All that makeup is used just to please the lowest denominator of the audience which is rather a small portion.

Last, typical to Hongkong kongfu soaps, the action scenes, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART FOR MANY, is of very low quality. Due to the fact not that many actual martial artist or Chinese opera performers (like Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, etc.) will work for television, action scenes in kongfu soaps often over-use wires and explosives. When a person jumps 10 feet in the air and 20 feet across, when a master's "chi" causes an explosion 20 feet away, when you can see the "chi" as lightning coming out of someone's hands, the believability of the action is down to nill. And like typical kongfu soaps, this film uses camera closeups to mask the real fighting, you are only allowed to see hands, arms, legs and feet in most shots, not the entire body movements of the actors/stunt doubles.

The production value of this very B movie is zero, acting is zero (Jet Li maybe a martial art superstar, but he can't handle a romantic lead role). This film is so bad, it isn't funny any more; it is so bad, it isn't even good, just worse. Avoid this thing at all time.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Technical breakthrough bogged down by a pointless plot

[21 April 2002]

No question about it, Final Fantasy is a technical breakthrough. You can still recognize that the environment and the characters are computer-generated, but for some, this virtual world may be more appealing.

The story is far too familiar. Shoot the enemy enough times and it will disappear, if not, shoot it with a bigger gun, and if still not working, you are dead! Meanwhile, collect enough items so you can defeat the final boss. Jeez, you can just tell the story is written by a game programmer, not a movie screen writer. Lesson Number One to all action movies, the hero worth only as much as his enemy, and when the enemy turns out to be less threatening than we originally thought, the momentum of the movie is completely lost. Okay, so there's the obligatory "bad guy in our own camp" - the overzealous military man - but he's just too type-casted to be interesting at all.

Weak (very weak) plot aside, watching this movie give you an over-whelming sense of "why bother?". The environment and the characters are just too real and you find yourself asking why not just the real world and real actors who can deliver more facial expression than the computers currently can. Unlike movies like "Toy Story" or "Shrek", where animation is almost the only way to go, there's very little reason for this story to be animated at all - other than showing off Aki's beautifully CGI hair.

Altogether, worth watching just for the animation.

Postmen in the Mountains (1999)

Less is often more. A lot more in this case.

[10 February 2002]

The story is simple. Only it is not. A son is taking over the postman job of his father, who is forced to retirement due to arthritis. And on his first day of job, the father walks along to show him the rope (literally). The job is simple, they walk uphill 80 kilometers a day for two days, and back down 80 kilometers on the third day, dropping off and picking up mails in the villages along the way. Yet the job is not that simple at all, the postman's job involves a lot more than just simply delivering mail, he also need to know the relationships amoung the villagers by heart. The story revolves around the relationship between the father and son. It is not a rebellion relationship typically seen in western movies, the son already appreciates the sacrifice his father has to make, considering the father is one of the only few literates in the area, yet he spents almost 30 years delivering mail on foot, often away from home for months - it is a great sacrifice (there's a scene late in the film which the son tells his father what needs to be done in their own village, and you realize that the father has been away from home for so long that he knows little about it). But this time, the son truely experiences and understands the difficulty of the job. The last few scenes of the film tells that even though the father may not have spend much time with his son, he could trust no one but him for the job, and you understand why his son, who could probably spent his life in the cities, takes his job at the beginning of the film.

Sometimes funny, but mostly touching, the subtle but deep bond between the father and son is very well acted.

Great cinematagraphy, well suited for the subtle tone of the film.

There are many little bits that would be lost to the westerners if translated in English. For example, the Chinese title of the film is "Those Mountains, Those People, That Dog", refering to their trusted family dog, a constant companion on the road. The name of the dog (in English dub is apparently Bingo), is "Lao Er", an often used term to descript the second son of the family. Even so, if it had a wider release in the states, I truely believe that it would win a lotta awards.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

Anti-Climatic End (spoiler)

[6/10 · 19 June 2001]

I didn't expect much from the movie, but still feel less than thrilled afterwards. The ridicules plot only serves to join the four action sequences, but that's okay, plots for this type of movies ain't always necessary. Actings are mediocre at best, but that's okay, the script doesn't gives the actors anything to act for. Angelina constantly flashes her boobs at you, but I guess that's okay too, that ain't much different from the game where Lara constantly flashes her behind at you. What I'm most disappointed is the last action sequence. The first three builds up quite nicely, each one more exciting than the previous, so I expected Lara to battle impossible odds against a demi-god at the end, but no, we are left with a quick hand-to-hand that can't even match that of Charlie's Angels, let along Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Matrix. Since the trailers gives away much of the action in the first three sequences, the last one was especially anti-climatic. Recent movies of this type, Mission Impossible 2 and Charlie's Angels are all done better with less FX. Jeez, I was very much surprised by my indifference at the end of the movie.