Flowers of War – Review

Finally, reviewing a newer film… I was extremely busy during the last few weeks and the only source of films for me was DVD’s or Blu-Rays that my parents bought. That’s why I haven’t been reviewing new films. But today, as it is Chinese New Year, I went to the movies with my parents and saw this film – Flowers of War. Directed by Zhang YiMou, and it stars Christian Bale as the male lead, and Chinese actress Ni Ni as the female lead. The film focuses on a story that happens in a Church during the Japanese invasion towards China, Bale, a mortician went to this church supposedly to help bury the priest who died from the war, but was required to play a larger role in the story of 13 students who were living in the church, and 12 prostitutes who forced their entry in the church in order to hide from the war. That’s as much as I can tell without spoiling the film.

Before the actual review, I have to say that movies like this, movies that are loosely based on true events, have to be seen as what they actually are – movies. I do believe that directors try to create thought-provoking films to generate polemic, but I do also believe that directors are not making movies to create war between two nations, and after reading some comments from YouTube, I would say that people are starting their own “verbal war” for this film, specially the veracity of the war and the current political position of China and Japan. Films are meant to be seen as a source of entertainment, and that being said, when a film starts a debate like this, it’s just quite disrespectful towards “movies” as a whole.

Now the actual review: As a Chinese, I have seen some of Zhang’s previous works, including Hero with Jet Li, and I would say that this is one of his better films in the recent years, and that’s because this film does not feel dull, and does not feel that the director is trying to put his style down your throat, it’s artsy without being too slow, there, I said it. The performances are phenomenal, considering that most of the performers are inexperienced children. Bale’s performance was OK for his standards, considering his records (come on, the guy was in American Psycho, was in Nolan’s Batman and convinced me that he was a cracked out asshole in The Fighter!), it’s not that it’s a boring performance, because it was not, you can actually feel the emotional arc of the character.

The female lead, Ni Ni, gave a brilliant performance as the leader of the group of prostitutes, she was charming without overacting, appealing without seeming slutty, and I give her props, because acting in a foreign language is extremely difficult, and she did it splendidly.

This was a great film, but not a flawless film. Although the director did a better job in this than most of his recent works, the film’s plot is still a bit forced, in the sense that Bale’s characters starts in being a drunk asshole and ends in being this heroic dude, but the only thing that made him that way is that he witnessed a scene in the invasion, but earlier in the film he says that he’s been in China for a while, we have to assume that he witnessed death during this war, and all of the sudden, he went from being a money-seeking drunk to this hero? It’s just a bit difficult for the audience to follow. Overall, the story is a bit forced, but the film flows really well, and the performances were amazing with what they were given, specially the kids and Ni Ni, I would, for the first time, rate a film, and my rating scale is between F and A+, and this film would be a B film.

I will try to write more reviews as I can see more films, please be tuned.

Duo Review – Midnight in Paris and In Time

For the first day of my long Chinese New Year holiday, I watched two movies that I have wanted to watch ever since I saw the trailers – Midnight in Paris and In Time. Now, it’s part of me being a movie lover that I would have to like some Woody Allen movies, however, I have never seen the so-called classics of Woody Allen, and I think that’s mainly because where I live and how old I am, which means that it’s difficult for me to measure Midnight in Paris in contrast with other Woody Allen classics. That’s being said, I say that the movie is beautiful. The scenery of the first 10 minutes of this film is the perfect advertisement for Paris. I swear to whatever it’s to be sworn, but after the first 10 minutes, I had this urge to go to Paris, not that I am going to, but I would like to. The movie stars mainly Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kurt Fuller and many more, and it’s a beautiful time-travelling story with a fascinating message behind it. I have heard that most of Woody Allen movies that don’t work happens because Woody Allen wants his protagonists to act like him, and his neurotic personality is not something that everybody can do, but for this film, because Owen Wilson has this easy-going presence that helps the audience to invest in such premise. I am not going to spoil the movie more than saying that it’s a time travelling film, but the way that it was portrayed was awesome and the message behind it is…well, it’s something that we all should at least think about, so I would recommend it.

The second film, In Time, stars Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, which we see a future that time is the currency, and people in the ghetto live day by day while rich people live forever. Justin Timberlake met a dude that wanted to die, and gave Timberlake all his time, thus making Timberlake rich, but also telling him the true reason behind people’s deaths. Seyfried is the rich girl, and through the film, I would say that these two become partners in crime. The film was…well, the thing about this flick is that nothing is well-explained, we never know the transition between the modern times and this future, and apparently, facing such important evolution, the only thing that changed is the currency, because every other thing is the same. The cars are the same, the houses are the same, it’s just a bit weird. However, the movie is not bad, Justin Timberlake was badass! The concept is cool, the acting is acceptable, the execution just fell flat, a bit.

So, here are my reviews for today, and I will try to write as often as possible.

50/50 Review

I know that there's only a limited number of readers (if there's any), but there's this - I have been heavily sick for the last 6 months, which was kind of a deal breaker for writing, because I did not have the inspiration for almost nothing.
Anyway, I will try to do more reviews, I will try.

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This is a movie that I only got the chance to see recently, and before watching, I heard incredible things about it. It was said to be one of the Oscar movies of 2011 and it was released in September, and that Joseph Gordon-Levitt knocked it out of the park with his performance, and that Seth Rogen finally is NOT annoying.

The plot of this movie is fairly simple, yet heavy. The movie follows Adam, played by Gordon-Levitt, who is a fairly healthy man, receives the worst news of his life, that he has a rare form of cancer, and that his survival rate is only 50%. The film follows Adam’s fight towards the disease. Through the film, he is accompanied by Rogen, his best friend since high school, his girlfriend, played by a hot actress that I don’t know her name, but a b*tch, for the purpose of this film, his mother and a therapist played by Anna Kendrick.

There’s a lot that can be said about this film, but I am going to summarize all that with one word – amazing. This movie is simply amazing, first, the performances, Gordon-Levitt is definitely one of the better American actors of this generation (although I like Fassbender and Gosling, but one is British and the other is Canadian), his performance was so f-ing moving, specially towards the end of the movie, and that’s probably old news by now, but he only decided to be part of this film 10 days before shooting, and given that he only had 10 days to prepare for this role and he was able to deliver such a grounded performance, I would say that I hope that he gets his Oscar nomination this year. Rogen is also awesome, by offering one of the least annoying performances of his career (I don’t like Knocked Up, I kind of liked Zack and Milli Made a Porno and I thought that Green Hornet was…I nothing-ed the film, I felt nothing), he was definitely more grounded here, and his personality was more inclined towards a real person instead of a goofy presence. Anna Kendrick’s portrayal of therapist was adorable. I think I fell in love for her just because this performance, seriously, she was that cute.

Writing and directing wise, the film was fairly good, I heard that this movie was inspired by one of the writer’s real experience, as he really did have cancer and survived it, and I think that because of that, the film was much more real than most of cancer films. The best part of this film is the balance, the balance between comedy and drama, and both these parts are extremely effective, the film is funny when it needs to be funny, and it’s emotional when it needs to be.

The movie is inspired by the true story of one of the writers, so it’s no spoilers that Adam survived, but the journey was amazing, and the ending was extremely effective. I highly recommend this film, but it clearly targets an adult audience, if you are younger than 18, you might not get this film, it’s just fact. So, please, watch this, it’s really good.

Hanna - Review

“I Just Missed Your Heart”

Instead of reviewing the Transformers 3 like everybody else would, I chose to review a movie that pretty much no one had the plans of watching, at least no one in this part of the world. I am talking about Hanna, the Joe Wright-directed “thriller”. The movie stars Saoirse Ronan, the girl from Lovely Bones and Eric Bana – The Hulk and Cate Blanchett from The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons.

I put thriller between quotation marks, yea, because this is described as a thriller, but it’s actually not, this is an art house film that involves thriller elements, but it also involves some coming-of-age films elements and revenge-flick elements, so, this movie is a combination of a lots of types of films.

I personally liked this film, a lot. The acting on this film was amazing, especially Eric Bana, and I think the dude is extremely underrated, and Saoirse Ronan, the girl, was extremely believable as this person who is this person that was trained to be a warrior and has no knowledge on the outside world. The supporting cast was terrific, throughout the film, she met a family. Most of similar films tend to do this – they tend to put the protagonist next to a normal family, and as protagonist had never known anything about the “normal” world, the family would appear weird, but in this film, the family is actually weird, but on the appropriate amount. The group of killers was also great, especially the leader, he was charming in an evil way. But none of these characters were able to steal the show from the 3 protagonists, they were amazing.

The reason that I called this an art house film is because it was directed that way. The cinematography was amazing, but the movie was made in such an unpredictable way, and the sequences were so unique (there was a sequence of the movie where the group of killers was moving, and their rhythm coincided with the music, and I was sure it was intentional, and yea, I thought it was cool). Joe Wright did an amazing job directing this film, but because it was made as if it was an art house film, it might alienate part of the audience that would be interested in this type of films.

At times, this film reminded me (a lot) of Unleashed, the Jet Li film, but this movie was much better in most of the aspects, I would recommend this film to you, my non-existent readers, watch it on DVD, or even BluRay, it’s worth your time.

House M.D. Season 7 Review

“Everybody Lies”

I am a House fan, I have been since the beginning of the show, 7 years ago. However, there was a point that I went from being all fanatic to a moderate fan, I watch it on a regular basis, but I don’t watch it on a weekly basis anymore. However, I have always tried to follow a season as soon as it ends (so that I can watch all at once), and that’s what I did for season 7, I waited for the season to end, and I watch all in 2 days.

The reason that I became a moderate fan instead of a fanatic is that in seasons 4 to 5, there’s a change in the story that I personally didn’t like that much, and from that point forward, I watch House, but on a regular basis.

Now, for those who have never watched a single episode of House, I got to do two things, the first is to ask why on earth you wouldn’t House? Second, to provide a exposition for those who actually haven’t, and here it is: House is a doctor, he is a diagnostician that does medicine as if they were crime – they find “cases” that are rejected or ignored by all the other doctors, and they try to piece the case together by analyzing it. The process that House uses is more of a deductive process that a analytical process, which means that his diagnosis are often the result of his observation on his patients, rather than focusing on the medical stuff. The show fascinated me right from the beginning because they are like puzzles that I, as a business student, would never, and I mean never be able to solve, but I still like to watch House doing his thing.

The actors of this show are phenomenal. Hugh Laurie, you know, Stuart Little’s father, plays Dr. Gregory House, a doctor with a chronic pain situation, and a doctor that has the absolute skill when we are talking about human behaviors, and as such, he might appear to be an a-hole for most people, specially his patients. Supporting cast includes a lot of people that I don’t remember their names, because the show basically imprints the characters for the audience, so, most of us know the characters, not the actors.

Season 7 starts with a large change in House’s life, and the main story arc of this season is based on this change and the aftermaths of this change. The show continues to shine where it is supposed to shine – the medical puzzles, the writing and the acting. However, comparing to the 1^st three seasons, I still feel that it might be a bit better. House, in the 1^st seasons, were a bit episodic, and now it follows a continuous story arc while House takes different cases every week, the story arc was good, and the finale was “mind blowing” (for those who watch, this was intended), but I still think that House should be this prick that does things regardless of the consequences, but with his focus on medicine, and this season changed that a little bit. However, as I said, the season finale was amazing, and was intriguing, to the point that I feel safe to say that I will watch the next season, at least the 1^st episodes of it. To my non-existent readers, for the love of god, please, watch House, you will like it, it’s got mine stamp of approval, and a lot of other people’s too.

Knight and Day – Review

How would I describe this movie? I would describe it as a hot mess. The movie stars the always-young Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, Diaz plays June Havens, an “attractive” woman who just happens to be traveling with Roy Miller, this apparently charming fella that happens to have a secret identity, then, let the madness begin.

The movie has a couple of things going for it, performances being the most important one – Tom Cruise is just charming and alive, pretty much the same as his off-screen persona; Cameron Diaz has…let’s call it an average performance, but I would not praise it, because I saw My Sister’s Keeper, and I know that Cameron Diaz can act, so… this is nowhere near a good performance. Peter Sarsgaard is apparently the antagonist, once again, but I like him better here (than in the Green Lantern). There’s chemistry between the leads, but that would be saying that there’s water in a rainy day – for such big movie stars, manufacturing chemistry should come naturally, so, this is a good thing about the movie, but it is just a thing that this movie should have.

The movie’s editing style definitely killed the movie – it shifts from point A to point B by inducing a unconscious state on Diaz’s character, without explaining how the shift was made, and for us, the audience, it would look like that the writers were way too lazy to develop a sophisticated explanation for occurrences, so they just made Cameron Diaz black out and audiences just feel disconnected from the film. Also, the plot of this movie focuses too much on transiting between different locations, that the plot and the writing became less effective. The writers and the film makers should have made the movie to focus on one or two locations, instead of what is in the film, which was again, confusing.

The movie was a good summer blockbuster, because it has beautiful sights, beautiful people, and a lot (a lot) of explosions, but as a movie, or seeing this movie as a whole, it lacks cohesion. I would give this movie 3 out of 5, considering that it is a summer block buster. As I said, hot mess, it’s messy, but it’s still worth seeing.

Green Lantern – Review

“In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!”

I have got to admit – I am not a Green Lantern fan boy. I knew who Hal Jordan was/is, and I knew what Green Lantern’s special power was, but I was never following Green Lantern’s story as some of my friends were (I am a Marvel fan, yup). Having that said, this movie was…OK.

The movie stars Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, my goddess as Carol Ferris (my goddess being Blake Lively) and Peter Sarsgaard as a evil doctor with a very large head. The plot is the origin story for Green Lantern, Hal Jordan is this test pilot who, apparently, was chosen to replace a legendary member of the Green Lantern Corp. The movie was directed by Martin Campbell, who previously directed Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson, a movie that I was a fan of.

Honestly speaking, this movie was really OK - if you took away the fact that it was based on a comic book. The reason that I say that you have to take away that the movie was based on a comic book that had half of a century of history, and because of that, it would be really difficult to convert such a long story in a 2 hour movie (I believe that it will have a sequel, by the way.) Ryan Reynolds was awesome, as always, Peter Sarsgaard was terrific as the antagonist in the movie, because he was able to create a somehow frightening character with a relatively weak script. My goddess, Blake Lively, however, was the weakest link in the cast. Her performance was somehow wood-y, she just was not able to convey that type of emotion that would make the audience feel for her, and the way she reads lines would lead audience to believe that she was actually reading, rather than doing a performance.

The thing that made this movie only OK, and not a good movie was the writing – it was SO CHEESY. The humor was not as bad as people are saying that it was, but it was no where near good – Reynolds’ delivery was able to make up for some of the cheesy humor, but the humor was just misplaced in the movie. Pacing was another issue – the writers are trying to start way too many story arcs in a 2 hour movie – Hal Jordan’s family appeared for 2 minutes, Oa, the planet, appeared for 10 minutes, those were example of things that the writers were trying to put in the movie, but the way they did it was like how a child talks – they started a subject, and when something that appears to be more interesting shows up, they start talking about that other thing – and this happens several times in this movie. I did not have much of a problem to the CGI based direction, because I think that a story like this needs to be CGI based vision, but this was clearly an example of spectacles overpowering the story, and when the story lacks focus as this movie does, the spectacles were distracting.

Overall, the movie was OK, it was just miserably placed in a summer where we got X-Men: First Class, Thor and possibly a good movie about a war propaganda hero (Captain America), and with such good movies in comparison, this just seems a bad movie – it really was not, it was just not a good movie. I would give this movie 3 out of 5, for Reynolds’ performance and delivery, and for the CGI.