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recent-to-me-movies
Jul. 7th, 2012 07:54 pm14 Blades: Wuxia movie from a couple years ago with Donnie Yen and Zhao Wei which...is definitely worth watching if you like one or both, but probably not if you don't? Relatively standard wuxia plot: leader of the government's bully boys realizes they're actually working for the bad guy, goes rogue, meets cute tomboy and has adventures while being hunted and trying to save the country. With bonus abduction. (I could FEEL Zhao Wei and Donnie Yen abducting my standards to make the "in love with your kidnapper" plot work. Though he was rather the worst ever at actually being intimidating after the actual kidnapping. SHE MADE HIM TAKE HER TO AN INN AND TAUGHT HIM TABLE MANNERS FIVE MINUTES LATER! You just can't take a kidnapper seriously when his abductee is swatting his hand with chopsticks.) Kate Tsui is also running around as an evil assassin with a funky-cool wardrobe and Wu Chun pops up halfway through as a bandit leader with a funky-cool wardrobe and lots of braids in his hair so that his Mane Of Glory won't distract the audiencefrom Donnie Yen's Mane Of Glory. (Actually Wu Chun in the "Badboy Bandit Leader With Grudging Good Streak" role was a bit disconcerting because it was like "But you're Wu Chun. Don't you play nice sweet boys?" It worked for him, though.) Fights and visuals are nice but nothing incredibly special or original, aside from some ODD special effects i some fight scenes, but it was pretty fun if you like the cast. (I actually half think this was originally pitched as a series and ended up a movie, for some reason.)
Albert Nobbs: Movie about a hotel waiter in Ireland in the 19th century who is saving up to buy a shop, and is a transman. Glenn Close has apparently been trying to get this movie made for years, and I'm glad she finally succeeded. The plot is a bit uneven and the pacing is a bit too slow, but the acting and characters are excellent, particularly when it comes to Glenn Close and Janet McTeer. (Meanwhile, Pauline Collins is running around the background as the moneygrubbing landlady and occassionally pops up to steal all the scenes.)
Chicago: Extremely entertaining, though it didn't give me the happy feeling of Hairspray or Mamma Mia, and the way some of the musical numbers did the fanservice kept me from enjoying them as much as I wanted to. That said, I kind of want to check ff.net and AO3 to make sure there are a few hundred explicit Roxy/Velma fics. I don't actually want to read them, but knowing they exist would make me feel good.
Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker: This is an anime movie that serves as a prequel to the Dragon Age II game. I've been watching playthroughs of the Dragon Age games and as of typing this, I'm about halfway through watching DAII. The movie is about the Seeker, Cassandra, and her giant fridge full of dead men. (I kid you not.) The animation is a bit odd as it tries to combine the game's style with anime style and it's CGI and more concerned with dragons than people. But it works, even with its love for freeze frame. The dialogue is kind of bad and there's a love interest who's only tolerable because you know he'll never show up again. It's an entertaining but not necessarily good fantasy flick, but who cares, because there's about a dozen scenes of Cassandra taking on dragons and monsters and somehow always managing to be 30 feet above them in order to achieve impressive aerial assault, and why are you watching if not for that?
Flying Swords of Dragon Gate: Technically a sequel to New Dragon Gate Inn, but aside from the backgrounds of the 2 carryover characters, it could almost be a remake. Jet Li and Zhou Xun step into the Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung excellently but, despite being the main protagonists, the first 2/3 of the movie feel like they're barely around and instead the movie focuses a lot of largely-uninteresting antagonists, particularly Chen Kun, who I found slightly less bland than I have in previous movies, but it still feels like any scene with him lasts 3 times as long as it actually does and I kept willing it to get back to the interesting characters and actors. Basically, while I did like the new innlady and the woman Zhou Xun was protecting, the first 80 minutes are good any time Jet Li, Zhou Xun, or Li Yuchun (give her more roles already!) were on screen, but were kind of dull for me otherwise. The last 40 minutes is when it finally feels like a Tsui Hark movie for more than a minute or so at a time and are a lot of fun. I even found Chen Kun a bit less dull than in the rest of the movie (I suspect partly because his screentime was mostly with Jet Li and Li Yuchun) though I laugh at the movie thinking we'll buy that he'd last more than 30 seconds against Jet Li. Not as good as I expected/hoped, but worth watching if you like the actors and/or Tsui Hark.
Grimm's Snow White: I was going to pretend I never watchedthis but then realized that, like me, some people might go "A B-movie Snow White with elves and dragons and Snow White is an archer? Score!" and go in expecting an entertainingly bad fantyasy flick. DO NOT. It isn't entertainingly bad, it's boringly bad. Made worse by the fact that the cast is made up of people who can act who...aren't (mostly Jane March and Eliza Bennett), and peple who can't act who think they are, and the costumes look like someone got a look at the designs for Once Upon A Time (for the queen) and Mirror, Mirror and made some inferior versions, then ran to The Gap and get some clothes and sewed over the buttons and zippers or something. Which you'd think could still make for entertainingly bad, but isn't. Plus, Snow White is basically an extra in her own movie and in the last 10 minutes, she's suddenly an expert archer and master swordswoman despite never touching a weapon before that.
Hanna: Rather fabulous action movie about a young girl raised in the wilds by her father to be a killing machine who decides to take on the woman back in civilization who wants to kill her. Despite some mild SF elements, it's largely a straightforward action/spy thriller that's about as realistic as you can be when your main character is a teenaged weapon who sometimes doubles as a walking encyclopedia. It's also crammed full of fairy tale elements, and pretty much an inverted amalgamation of Snow White and Red Riding Hood, with a bit of Alice in Wonderland thrown in. (Which amuses me a bit because I'm pretty sure that Saorise Ronan was considered for one of this year's Snow White movies.) Extremely enjoyable.
The Sorcerer and the White Snake: 2011 fantasy movie starring Jet Li and Eva Huang adapting the Chinese fairy tale, Madame White Snake, in which a snake demon falls in love with an herbalist, woos him with the aid of her BFF/girlfriend/sister (depends on the version), and is hunted by a self-righteous monk who wants to lock her away forever. The movie is generally lovely with the pretty but cheesy special effects you usually get with fantasy in Chinese cinema and TV, and it's pretty fun for the most part. I initially thought it might be as lesyaytastic as Tsui Hark's Green Snake, but Eva Huang and Charlene Choi quit writhing all over each other after the first scene. And, sadly, Green absents herself for a good chunk of the film to frolic with an apprectice monk who is turning into a bat demon, rather than hanging around all "My girlfriend is dumping me for a human dude? Are we going to share him? Have threesomes? ... No? Darn monogamists. Off to lure monks into sin!" (Actually, no, there's still some luring monks into sin...) The only problem is that, as threatened by the title, the monk takes on a bit more of a protagonist role, and the "Order represented by dozens of men is threatened by 2 women who don't fit in with their worldview and so they must imprison them forever" element isenlarged and give the last half hour a tone I don't think the movie makers intended. But it was still fun until the end, which made me angry and want to watch movies in which Jet Li dies (sorry,dude). I still liked it overall, though. And I really should get around to watching the TV series from a few years ago.
Tomorrow When the War Began: This is an absurdly fun movie in the "We went camping for the weekend and our country was invaded and our families and the rest of the town were enslaved, let's blow stuff up" way. Which...is basically the plot, with Australia being invaded by an unknown foreign power and a group of teens (Including Faye from The Secret Circle and Dot from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Speaking of Ashleigh Cummings: Stupios, she does the "super sweet and virtuous Catholic girl who is more clever and tough than people give her credit for" quite well, but I'm pretty sure she's capable of more, so lets not typecast her too much, ok?) learning about it when they come home to empty houses, and eventually become guerrilla fighters trying to free their town. Lots of girls, fun action, good fights, and male characters that are supposed to be endearing teenaged boys who I actually largely find to be so. It's obviously the setup for a longer series, and I really hope the rest of the books get adapted soon. I may try to get my hands on the books while I wait.
Albert Nobbs: Movie about a hotel waiter in Ireland in the 19th century who is saving up to buy a shop, and is a transman. Glenn Close has apparently been trying to get this movie made for years, and I'm glad she finally succeeded. The plot is a bit uneven and the pacing is a bit too slow, but the acting and characters are excellent, particularly when it comes to Glenn Close and Janet McTeer. (Meanwhile, Pauline Collins is running around the background as the moneygrubbing landlady and occassionally pops up to steal all the scenes.)
Chicago: Extremely entertaining, though it didn't give me the happy feeling of Hairspray or Mamma Mia, and the way some of the musical numbers did the fanservice kept me from enjoying them as much as I wanted to. That said, I kind of want to check ff.net and AO3 to make sure there are a few hundred explicit Roxy/Velma fics. I don't actually want to read them, but knowing they exist would make me feel good.
Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker: This is an anime movie that serves as a prequel to the Dragon Age II game. I've been watching playthroughs of the Dragon Age games and as of typing this, I'm about halfway through watching DAII. The movie is about the Seeker, Cassandra, and her giant fridge full of dead men. (I kid you not.) The animation is a bit odd as it tries to combine the game's style with anime style and it's CGI and more concerned with dragons than people. But it works, even with its love for freeze frame. The dialogue is kind of bad and there's a love interest who's only tolerable because you know he'll never show up again. It's an entertaining but not necessarily good fantasy flick, but who cares, because there's about a dozen scenes of Cassandra taking on dragons and monsters and somehow always managing to be 30 feet above them in order to achieve impressive aerial assault, and why are you watching if not for that?
Flying Swords of Dragon Gate: Technically a sequel to New Dragon Gate Inn, but aside from the backgrounds of the 2 carryover characters, it could almost be a remake. Jet Li and Zhou Xun step into the Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung excellently but, despite being the main protagonists, the first 2/3 of the movie feel like they're barely around and instead the movie focuses a lot of largely-uninteresting antagonists, particularly Chen Kun, who I found slightly less bland than I have in previous movies, but it still feels like any scene with him lasts 3 times as long as it actually does and I kept willing it to get back to the interesting characters and actors. Basically, while I did like the new innlady and the woman Zhou Xun was protecting, the first 80 minutes are good any time Jet Li, Zhou Xun, or Li Yuchun (give her more roles already!) were on screen, but were kind of dull for me otherwise. The last 40 minutes is when it finally feels like a Tsui Hark movie for more than a minute or so at a time and are a lot of fun. I even found Chen Kun a bit less dull than in the rest of the movie (I suspect partly because his screentime was mostly with Jet Li and Li Yuchun) though I laugh at the movie thinking we'll buy that he'd last more than 30 seconds against Jet Li. Not as good as I expected/hoped, but worth watching if you like the actors and/or Tsui Hark.
Grimm's Snow White: I was going to pretend I never watchedthis but then realized that, like me, some people might go "A B-movie Snow White with elves and dragons and Snow White is an archer? Score!" and go in expecting an entertainingly bad fantyasy flick. DO NOT. It isn't entertainingly bad, it's boringly bad. Made worse by the fact that the cast is made up of people who can act who...aren't (mostly Jane March and Eliza Bennett), and peple who can't act who think they are, and the costumes look like someone got a look at the designs for Once Upon A Time (for the queen) and Mirror, Mirror and made some inferior versions, then ran to The Gap and get some clothes and sewed over the buttons and zippers or something. Which you'd think could still make for entertainingly bad, but isn't. Plus, Snow White is basically an extra in her own movie and in the last 10 minutes, she's suddenly an expert archer and master swordswoman despite never touching a weapon before that.
Hanna: Rather fabulous action movie about a young girl raised in the wilds by her father to be a killing machine who decides to take on the woman back in civilization who wants to kill her. Despite some mild SF elements, it's largely a straightforward action/spy thriller that's about as realistic as you can be when your main character is a teenaged weapon who sometimes doubles as a walking encyclopedia. It's also crammed full of fairy tale elements, and pretty much an inverted amalgamation of Snow White and Red Riding Hood, with a bit of Alice in Wonderland thrown in. (Which amuses me a bit because I'm pretty sure that Saorise Ronan was considered for one of this year's Snow White movies.) Extremely enjoyable.
The Sorcerer and the White Snake: 2011 fantasy movie starring Jet Li and Eva Huang adapting the Chinese fairy tale, Madame White Snake, in which a snake demon falls in love with an herbalist, woos him with the aid of her BFF/girlfriend/sister (depends on the version), and is hunted by a self-righteous monk who wants to lock her away forever. The movie is generally lovely with the pretty but cheesy special effects you usually get with fantasy in Chinese cinema and TV, and it's pretty fun for the most part. I initially thought it might be as lesyaytastic as Tsui Hark's Green Snake, but Eva Huang and Charlene Choi quit writhing all over each other after the first scene. And, sadly, Green absents herself for a good chunk of the film to frolic with an apprectice monk who is turning into a bat demon, rather than hanging around all "My girlfriend is dumping me for a human dude? Are we going to share him? Have threesomes? ... No? Darn monogamists. Off to lure monks into sin!" (Actually, no, there's still some luring monks into sin...) The only problem is that, as threatened by the title, the monk takes on a bit more of a protagonist role, and the "Order represented by dozens of men is threatened by 2 women who don't fit in with their worldview and so they must imprison them forever" element isenlarged and give the last half hour a tone I don't think the movie makers intended. But it was still fun until the end, which made me angry and want to watch movies in which Jet Li dies (sorry,dude). I still liked it overall, though. And I really should get around to watching the TV series from a few years ago.
Tomorrow When the War Began: This is an absurdly fun movie in the "We went camping for the weekend and our country was invaded and our families and the rest of the town were enslaved, let's blow stuff up" way. Which...is basically the plot, with Australia being invaded by an unknown foreign power and a group of teens (Including Faye from The Secret Circle and Dot from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Speaking of Ashleigh Cummings: Stupios, she does the "super sweet and virtuous Catholic girl who is more clever and tough than people give her credit for" quite well, but I'm pretty sure she's capable of more, so lets not typecast her too much, ok?) learning about it when they come home to empty houses, and eventually become guerrilla fighters trying to free their town. Lots of girls, fun action, good fights, and male characters that are supposed to be endearing teenaged boys who I actually largely find to be so. It's obviously the setup for a longer series, and I really hope the rest of the books get adapted soon. I may try to get my hands on the books while I wait.
