Movies in General

Saw Jurassic World at the local cinema after they started showing it again. Thought that it was perfectly serviceable as a monster movie with Jurassic Park references, but was baffled by its massive box office success. Felt pretty run of the mill as far as a summer blockbuster went. The characters were flat and lacked proper motives, the CGI effects were overused and clunky at times, and there were plenty of plot induced idiocies. I thought that the only grace was Chris Pratt's acting, but he was mostly playing the "Star Lord" type here as well. I hope he doesn't get typecast (which unfortunately happened to Robert Downey Jr.) in the near future.

One thing that startled me was just how many of the actors/actresses starred in Marvel movies. Here is a breakdown. Let's start with just MCU films/shows first:

1) Chris Pratt - Star Lord
2) Vincent D'Onofrio - King Pin
3) Ty Simpkins - Harvey (the rare not annoying kid) from Iron Man 3
4) Judy Greer - Antman's Exwife

If you count the non-MCU films:

1) Bryce Dallas Howard - Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man 3
2) Irrfan Khan - Evil tech genius guy from the Amazing Spider-Man

That covers like half of the main cast! The tendrils of Marvel Studios reach far and wide indeed.

Equation said:

So what about all those Donny Yen action films? I'm sure the American audience still loves a good kung fu action films without having to wait for it to come out on DVD.

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As long as it's not any of the many overly nationalistic and ridiculously CGI-enhanced/wire-fu ones.

Equation said:

I watched the new "Mr. Holmes" movie. And it was great! Ian McKellen played a character where Sherlocke Holmes gotten old and Dr. Watson married and moved on. The story, plot, and acting between all the characters were good.

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Both the wife and I liked this a lot.

PanAsian said:

As long as it's not any of the many overly nationalistic and ridiculously CGI-enhanced/wire-fu ones.

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Actually I love wire-fu movies as long as they done it well and look natural.

Will watch Mad Max: Fury Road between overtime and study session today. I'll let you guys know what I thought of it.

Saw Mad Max: Fury Road yesterday. To put it concisely, it is one of the best action films I've ever seen in my life. As a matter of fact I am kind of glad that I saw it after Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (a marvelous action film on its own right) since Mad Max's action, effects, visual aesthetics, and pacing were even better!

The funny thing is that although there really isn't much of a plot to the film (pretty much a road trip in the desert), I was thoroughly invested in the characters and a lot was actually at stake for the characters. Through what I consider to be the ultimate form of show, don't tell (maybe not at the same level as 2001: A Space Odyssey), you understood the characters' motivations and inner struggles through how they interact with the elements and each other instead of clunky expository dialogue.

Action, as I mentioned earlier, was simply astounding. Very little CGI was used and those used were used appropriately. All the explosions, car crashes, guys on long poles dropping down to attack fast moving cars, motorcycles "Evil Knieveling" over monstrous trucks were done physically and as a result, they feel real!

Aesthetically, the film was very gritty and reminiscent of "Beyond the Thunderdome" except done on an even more epic scale. The world felt very "lived-in", so to speak, and so much attention was paid to tiny details like car-body decoration, steering wheels, and prosthetic worn by the characters. Despite the grittiness of its setting, the world of Mad Max never ceased to feel outlandish and over the top in a good way. One example of this would be a blind heavy metal guitar player who "rocked out" on a truck of speakers and drums. You don't question the impracticality of this setup in a post apocalyptic world with resource scarcity because you were so invested and engaged by this world that director George Miller created so meticulously.

I think that this is the first 10/10 movie for me in a very long time. If you haven't seen it already, please go see it in theater since it is very much a film crafted for the big screens.

After years of attempts, big name actors, and many directors to bring Akira to the live action world, word is Christopher Nolan is about to announce he'll be directing.

AssassinsMace said:

After years of attempts, big name actors, and many directors to bring Akira to the live action world, word is Christopher Nolan is about to announce he'll be directing.

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I'd much rather him tackle "Foundation" on HBO first.

I recommend a good movie I saw called “Un Cuento Chino” in Spanish “A Chinese story” it is an Argentine film about an encounter between Roberto and a Chinese named Jun who is dumped from a taxi in the City of Buenos Aires while in search of his only living family, his uncle. Roberto is a veteran of the Falklands/Malvinas War and has stop living his live due to the trauma and has since lived confined to his home and business, entrenched, almost without contact with the world, until this lost Chinese man helps bring him back into the world.

The movie is in two languages (Argentine Spanish and Mandarin Chinese). I guess you could call it a sad comedy or a character development film.

Link to trailer:


Back to bottling my Grenache

I am looking forward to Matt Damon in '"The Martian," in October. It's about a mission to Mars where, after they land, they have to leave the planet because of a storm and end up leaving a crew member behind they thought had died.

He has to survive in very minimal/basic conditions...and the crew have to decide whether to risk all to try and disobey orders and go back and get him.

I read the novel some time ago and this looks good.