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Reviews
Last Kung Fu Monk (2010)
Good background noise
Spoiler: there's nothing beyond the title to indicate the protagonist is anywhere near being the last Shaolin Kung-Fu monk. There is no explanation for this just as there is hardly any apparent motivation for anything anyone in this movie does.
The characters who are supposed to be likable are. There are some OK (and IMHO, only OK) fight sequences.
As some have said, the acting is not very impressive-but considering the sophomoric screenplay it would be hard for the best actors to do anything with their lines.
If you told me this movie was the first written and directed by an aspiring 13-year-old filmmaker, I'd believe it.
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Charming, heartwarming, mind-opening, girl-empowering film - I don't care if it's not edgy! ...but fix the synopsis
Roland E. Zwick (magneteach@aol.com) & other earlier positive reviewers have just about said it all. Except, perhaps: this is the kind of non- threatening but stealthily profound story we can't get enough of until everyone in the world gets it: girls' dreams and aspirations matter as much as boys' - and those strange others with their strange ways, are at the heart of it, just like us. Banal? Sue me for loving this movie for these reasons alone.
One thing: Can whoever is in charge of the synopsis change it? It's tantamount to summarizing "Casablanca" like this: "Ex-pat American's bar gets shut down over illegal gambling."
New York: A Documentary Film (1999)
A top-drawer, loving but clear-eyed history of New York
This is a history of New York, and by extension a history of the U.S.
It is a loving history of a great city, beautifully executed. Like a sibling or parent of a flawed man, the historians and other contributors see the flaws but love the subject despite them.
A serious history of New York, like of the U.S., reflects the contradictions that go back to the very early days of this city and this country: A melting pot where people of many classes, nationalities, languages and religions learned to live and get along in close proximity – and where many people hated everyone unlike them, or who resented or oppressed everyone whose group arrived in a wave after their own. Where a spirit of democracy, community, equality, public service and a hand up for everyone who needed it resided side-by-side with unbridled greed, indifference to the suffering of others not doing as well as oneself, stupendous corruption, exploitation of slaves and virtual (wage) slaves.
Some of the other reviews seem to miss the message by a mile – the historians and other contributors provide useful insights – and accurate ones. I don't know if every numeric and temporal statement is dead-on accurate, but the thrust and the many, many details and nuances discussed throughout the series are correct. From the first line uttered by the narrator in Episode 1: "On September 2, 1609, Henry Hudson
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The superlatives, too, are on the mark. Like it or not, New York has not only been a city of all kinds of "firsts" and "biggests" and "bests" but also has a more dynamic and interesting history than most others -- which is why these superlatives are so frequently present. If some day Burns chooses to make a documentary about St. Petersburg or London or Beijing, I'm sure there will be a lot of talk about those cities to the exclusion of all others. In other words, this is a documentary about New York, not a city in Australia, Egypt, France or Russia - where the 19th Century rural peasants DID live much as they had in the Middle Ages.
How anyone watching this series and paying attention, could miss the many, many more things Burns covers besides race, class and greed – is surprising. That the series discusses these frequently is not surprising – since long before Hudson sailed up the river later named for him – all 3 have been factors in the history of New York from 1609 to today. To ignore this fact would have been to whitewash the truth. Watch "Rambo" or "X-Men" if you want fiction. Burns and his contributors report these truths – and extol the many virtues – or strengths of New Yorkers famous and anonymous by way of explaining the evolution and rise to the top of the city.
Too slow? Really? It covers 400 years , an hour and a half per century for heaven's sake. Personally, I couldn't get enough.
House of Cards (2013)
Just a comment on the show's value
Enough has been said about the art that goes into this show. For those that think we don't need entertainment that rubs our noses in the realities of how Washington works: art (including movies) is not just there to entertain or divert us - it's there to provoke emotion, thought and awareness.
It's clear we need more civics lessons - this show, along with its production values (which reviewers here either like or don't) helps make up for poor or missing civics classes for most Americans over 18. Along with an entertaining way to demonstrate how Washington is supposed to work for the American People, House of Cards would be a good substitute - until real civics and history education is reinstated.