The Front Line

Whoa!  SEE THIS.  This is one of the few movies that are able to mix, perhaps, a bit of fiction regarding interpersonal relationships and present them within genuine historical events.  It is great in that it really brings to life what life was/might have been during a specific historical event as opposed to reading one or two lines within a history book.

A movie like this is something that would do really well in a history class because it brings to life the strangeness of institutions and their effect on the people who put them in power and then have to suffer under them.  One of the very first movies I reviewed on this blog was 'Tae Guk Gi' and this would have been an awesome sequel!  You must see this.

The acting was really good, the directing was awesome, the script rocked, and the cinematography was just amazing.  Too, the music was key.  It neither got in the way and one song that was sung, played, etc. frequently only strengthened the movie's message.

Lockout

No.  The acting was good, but the script was too "I'm a badass" over the top stuff.  Too cliched, to far fetched, and too many..."what?, why? etc."  The only reallly good shot was Joseph Gilgun; his role and acting as a psychotic were awesome...but alas, not enough to save this.

Bad Ass

As much as I dig Danny Trejo's roles, I couldn't finish it.  Trejo's bit parts that involve little dialogue rock.  This was ambitious...too ambitious.  The supporting cast and the canned plots (bad cops, crooked white politicians, etc) forced me to shut the thing off about 1/2 of the way through.

The Hunter

SEE THIS!  This was one of the best films I have seen in a long time.  In places it is incredibly sad and then uplifting.  3 days later and I still toss the plot and all in my mind and think about it.  Simply put, this is an awesome film.

Thank God Willem Dafoe did this.  The last I thought I have of him is that of a green ghoul in the Spiderman series.  No way here.  This hearkens back to his acting days of Platoon.  Awesomely done.  Sam Neill of Jurassic Park and Red October kicks!  His role as a jealous suitor who plot goes horribly awry is just insane.

Everything; the acting, the directing, the script, the score, and the cinematography are just incredible.  I would watch this one again if I did not have to re watch some of the scenes toward the end of the movie...not gory or anything but just heart wrenching.  Awesome film....just awesome!!

A Beginner's Guide to Endings

Have you ever gone to the Indian reservations to get a big stinking box of fireworks, picked out the ultra loaded box that is filled with some high powered pyrotechnics, raced home, lit them, and been totally let down?  Did you enjoy that?

If you did, see this movie.  Everything about it just seems like it will just totally rock but it doesn't.  The script, the acting, the directing, the music, and the cinemtograhy are great, but there is just something missing.  It is like great smelling cookies that get you all excited until you bite into them and find they were made without sugar.

Harvey Keitel is a loser gambling dad with 5 boys; 3 of whom are going to die soon because of a medical test he enrolled them in earlier.  The experimental drug they took (so Keitel could get paid) turns out to be a lethal littel ditty.  Knowing they have little time left on the mortal coil, they start doing crazy and extreme things.  Sounds great?  IT DOES!!!!  But so what, you will be let down.

Freakonomics

It was a bit difficult to watch this film because I use films as sort of an escape in the evenings and on weekends.  This was not fiction or anything but an analysis of trends in society explored through the eyes and thoughts of economists.  Because of what I had heard about it, I felt compelled to watch it because I felt it was a sort of 'required' education unit.

It was good and really interesting.  Freakonomics is a series of vignettes that explore a lot of societal trends, the relationships between cause and effects, where misconceptions in wide-ranging assumptions lie, etc.  It is a must watch dealio.

Acting...none, writing...awesome, directing...great, cinematography...great, music...amazingly well suited!

The Guard

Oh Man!  See this!  Don Cheadle proves again that a well known actor's best work often comes from a pretty unknown film.  This film rocked and it rocked not only because of Cheadle, but mostly because of the film's star: Brendan Gleeson.  In short, a large shipment of drugs is to come onshore somewhere on the Irish Coast.  To intercept it, the US sends in an FBI agent (Cheadle) to educate the local cops...Gleeson. 

Just some of the stuff in here was too funny and it was a good pop in an otherwise pretty serious crime drama.  The acting was great, the directing was awesome, the script was killer, the cinematography was really cool (and makes Ireland a place I have to go), and the music; well, it had to be good as I didn't even notice it.  This means that it neither took away nor went over the top.

SEE THIS

The Last Circus

God help me.  Spain is just shooting missiles of twisted stuff across its borders and into my red envelope queue.  What the heck.  The last Spanish movie I saw (which I saw right before this) was "The Skin I Live In," and wow, this one was just as macabre.

It took several nights to watch, yet I did keep watching and finished it.  Really, I don't know how or where to start in reviewing this other than the basics: script was good, directing was good, cinematography was good, acting was great, and music was, well, I don't remember it too much which means it did not get in the way.  Okay, dude whose father was a clown becomes a clown and is paired with a sadistic clown who abuses the s#$t out of his girlfriend.  New clown falls for the girlfriend and she falls for him and sadistic clown catches wind of it and then a whole circus of s%*t hits the fan.  New clown then unleashes the 5 gallon Sparklets bottle of unreleased rage he has been filling throughout his life in the span of a week or two.

Gory, crazy, and actually reminded me of Hammurabi settling a dispute of 2 women; both claiming to have birthed an infant and both wanting possession of the child.  It will be hard for this film to find a home as the cover intimates standard B movie crap with cleavage and gore, but the level of acting will be far beyond what purveyors of that genre expect and there won't be enough gore for them either.  On the other hand, the acting and plot are of a level that is more A+ stuff, yet the gore is enough that the purveyors of this will be turned off.

The Skin I Live In

Holy crap.  This is one of the most twisted weird disturbing movies that I have seen in a very long time.  This thing was like a dog pooping.  It is disturbing but you still watch.  Thank goodness it ended and other little red envelopes of love have shown up.  Frankenstein meets the cast of Jerry Springer.

Banderas is great as are all the actors in this film.  The directing, script, music, and cinematography were all great, but man, this was such a twisted film.  If you are ready for just some weird weirdness, this is it.

I am torn on recommending this as it was so well done and I also consider a good movie as one that will hang in your mind for a long time, but man, this was bizarre!

Ong Bak 3

Awesome!  1 was okay, 2 was much better, and 3, wow.  It was really good.  1 was not really the first in the series of these flicks, but 2 and 3 were a series and 3 was one of those rare dealios in which the second in a series kicks over the first.  The writing, the directing, the acting, the cinematography, etc. were awesome.  The only goofer was the soundtrack.  On a few occasions, it was music that was so off that you said, "What the hell is that" and it pulled you away from the on screen acting.  When a soundtrack does that, you have a bad one.

The fighting style of Tony Jaa (leader of the film) is really different and something else.  There was Shakespeare's Hamlet, a series of subplots, Rocky etc. all twisted in here.  It was a total experience and introduction to a culture/time that was way foreign and really intriguing.  Petchtai Wongkamlao who was in the first Ong Bak (2003) was in this one too and played a really good role as a crazy dude.  Funny as...well, funny.

Ong Bak 2

Okay, I don't know Thai, but I do know from deduction that "Ong Bak" translated into English means, "No concept of time or chronology."  This is the second in the series and is called "The Beginning" but seriously, "Ong Bak (1 I guess)" 2003 was in 21st century and 2 is in, heck, 18th maybe?  Weird, so it is the beginning and if it is, who the hell is this dude...Methuselah?

Whatever, timing, chronology, laws of medicine and possible blood loss (and ability to remain conscious) aside, not bad.  In fact, this was better than the first.  The fighting style is insane and Tony Jaa is something.  The style is pretty different from the Jett Li, Bruce Lee, and Jackie Chan stuff and may even be more cooler.  Bad gig for the hero is that, "man, can't this guy catch a break?"  Okay, directing good, acting good, music good, cinematagraphy good, and the script...make sure you go subtittles and not dubbed....good.

I would recommend it!

Ong-Bak

Wow, although the standard "righteous out of place dude is and takes down bad established dudes and converts those on the fence" plot, this was okay...okay enough to get me to order the next 2.  What is knarliest about this is the fighting.  I am always into a good Kung Fu/Karate movie but after awhile, they get a bit tedious...especially within one fight, either dude is beaten about the head, face, and neck with chains, 2x4's, feet, shins, etc. over and over and keeps going.

There was a bit of that stuff here, but the fighting style was wild!  It is Muay Thai and definitely different.  Tony Jaa also tosses in some parkour to keep it interesting as well.  This is not something to really go out of the way for, but it was pretty good.  Acting was all good, directing is fine, music...well, it didn't get in the way, script was subtitles and not bad and cinematography was good in that there were no dark spots or anything.  The only annoying part was the girl's voice.  God, that was annoying.

Goon

SEE THIS!  It is Rocky (1976), Slap Shot (1997)-Hanson Brothers' action on steroids, and My Bodyguard (1980) all rolled into one.  With so many little red envelope treats showing up in my house, I forget what I have ordered and have gotten into the practice of bailing on the description the DVD's envelope has and just popping the disc in the player and watching.  Goon, what the heck is this about and within 10 minutes of watching the film, I got it. 

Hesitation ensued when Seann William Scott (Stifler fame from the American Pie series) first popped up on screen, I was bummed.  In the American Pie films, he has been good, but all the stuff I have seen him in since then has been lacking.  He pulled it off here!!  Whew.  Scott is hired as a goon/enforcer for a farm team and for the most part, we follow him as he Gumps his way through the film...funny, funny.  Liev Schreiber is here as well. He has become one of my favorite actors and he rocks here!  He is the hockey league's premier goon and the film culminates with the battle royale they have within a playoff elimination game.  Last headliner is Jay Baruchel.  I saw him in The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010) with Nicolas Cage...had to watch that as the kids wanted to see it... I am such a good dad.   Baruchel in Apprentice is the timid, shy, whiz kid.  In Goon, way different; raunchy, rude, crass, and hilarious.  Awesome.

Acting is good, directing is great, script is just fantastic (as in one scene, Scott's girlfriend runs up to him crying and in trying to figure out what's wrong, he asks, "what's wrong, why are you crying, did you just see Rudy (1993)), and cinematography is dead on: well lit and nothing is missed or hard to see.  Lastly, what is the cherry on this syrupy sundae of love is the soundtrack....it is full on Canadian style power rock the like of Rush, Y & T, and Triumph!

See this!!!!

Little Big Soldier

A few days have passed since I saw this and I keep thinking about it.  Right after it ended, I was not really moved to much, but afterwards, yeah, it was okay.  More to the point, "Hey, that was Jackie Chan?!"  In this role he still had some of the goofy stuff that has paid great dividends for him here in the States, but there was much more. 

The acting was really good, the cinematography great, the directing was good and the script...hell, I have no idea, it was Chinese so for all I know, they could have been using the script from "Dumb and Dumber."  The only goofer would have to be the sub titles were sometimes a bit tough to read and also, there were scenes with a lot of action and dialogue so I probably missed some stuff here and there.  All good though.  As for the soundtrack, no issues with it.  I didn't even notice it and when that happens, it means the music actually supported the film well.

I can't recommend the film with all sorts of excitement and raves, but it was a good dealio.

The Last American Hero

This was a rewatch from about 1976 for me and for the rest of you....SEEEE THISSSS!  Jeff Bridges has always been a favorite actor of mine and this flick was one of his first 5 or so.  Awesome.  This is a dealio that has definitely aged well.  If you are a fan of NASCAR or just a good story, this is a killer film to see.   The acting is awesome, the directing is great, the cinematography has it going on, the script is good and the soundtrack is good period stuff as well.

You name it; father/son drama, brother/brother drama, dude coming of age drama, the dude who doesn't fit in to the rules of the game but changes them and wins, all of those story lines get it going in here.  Glad I saw this one again!

Clash

Nyah.  Nothing new, nothing catchy.  Same story line of a dude way deeper undercover than maybe he should be who falls for a girl who is one of the bad guys (I mean people...sorry PC crowd) who is there only becuase she is trying to do the right thing.  One person in the group of baddies is a Benedict Arnold turncoat who plays both sides etc.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  To get this story, just see Ronin (1998) or Point Break (1991) or something else and save yourself from having to goof subtitles.  Acting okay, directing okay, cinematography okay, script...not sure, all Vietnamese, and music: BAD.

Take Shelter

See it.  Okay, before the straight dope on this, I have to get something funny off the chest.  Right before this film I saw "Barry Munday" (2010) and in it was a supporting actor named Shea Whigham.  Hadn't seen the dude in much of anything and then pow, here is here but in a totally different (but again) supporting role...the dude has chops.  Speaking of acting chops, Michael Shannon ROCKS!  He is a dude who, just because of his expression, looks, and size you hope isn't going psycho because, well, it would be bad.

Okay, only Curtis (Michael Shannon) can see and here things that are just outta place; he also has some majorly spooky dreams as well and a mother who has been committed for being a psycho.  "Curtis, the cards are stacked against you!"  This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time and for me (who watches a ton of movies, that is about a month) it is close to being one to watch a second time.  It was that good.  The acting led by Shannon is awesome and so are the supporting roles as well.  The directing was great, the writing awesome, the cinematography great, and what you don't get often is a killer soundtrack.  The music was an element that just really pushed this thing way up there!  SEE THIS ONE!

Barry Munday

This movie was 3 years too late but maybe that is just about right.  "Knocked Up (2007)" was the first version of this.  It is a movie that is really a meeting place of 3 actor categories:

• Those who are on their way to more prominent roles,
• Those who once had prominent roles and are on the way down to obscurity
• Those who have been stuck in this sorta purgatory dealio and have been waiting to pass through the Golden Gates of the MGM studio

There are really no lovable/likable folks but you have to dig Patrick Wilson's "Barry Munday" as he turns from the slacker slouch to responsible dude.  The acting is good, really good, the directing is good and the script is pretty funny.  One dude who just nails it is Shea Whigham who plays Barry's best friend Donald.  He rips!  The only music I can remember is from the "Beaver Tree" but that is that.  Cinematography was all good.

I have no real recommendation either way, but for the most part, it beat the crap out of a ton of movies I have seen of late, so if you are looking for something, this one streams via the red envelope senders so not much effort needed to get the limited value.

London Boulevard

Nice!  Colin Farrell is the best I have ever seen him.  This movie rocked yet is smacked a ton of "Layer Cake" (2004).  These British crime films are such a mental contradiction: how can people with such proper accents be so nasty?  Whatever.  So the story line is the same: crime dude is honorable but wasting his honor in a non honorable profession and he wants out.  However, the kingpin likes his style and wants him to stay and promises the world.  Can he get out? 

If you liked "Layer Cake," you will like this, but don't see them too close together because it will be kind of like seeing the same movie twice except one will have subtitles.  The acting was awesome, the directing was great, the script rocked and the cinematography was good too.  Only goofer was the music that flared whenever Farrell and Knightley started doing the clutching prelude to other stuff stuff.

Monsters

Eh, it was okay.  A satellite goes into outer space to get some samples from somewhere and upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, it blows up and spreads its cargo in the area between the US and Mexico.  Now you have an infested area of big, I mean BIG aliens cruising the area and doing battle against the military forces of Mexico and the US all in an effort to just survive.  In the middle, a photo journalist must escort the daughter of his media mogul boss through the zone to safety in the US.

I am so sick of movies with kids of the rich slumming.  Call me pessimistic, but even when I hear about this sorta thing in real life, I don't buy it.  The girl annoyed me.  The dude was okay, but he ticked me because of being a dad who wasn't in his son' life.  Okay, now that I have destroyed (or at least found no reason to appreciate) the leads, well, it wasn't something that I would click past if I saw it on TV.  In better hands, this movie could have really kicked.

The score is something that I have to draw attention to becuase I don't even remember it.  When that happens, I am of the mind that it must have been good; it didn't detract so it must have added.  The acting was kind of like an uninspired Costner grade.  The directing, not bad, but still it could have been better.  As for the cinematography, it was good.  Script, it was okay.  If you are left with nothing else, you could do far worse than this.

2046

Darn!  I have been stoked to have really hit a vein of cinematic gold, but this last strike of the pick popped someone's septic tank.  I had no idea who or what was going on other than following the exploits of this dude who is obsessed with shagging a specific harlot...unfortunately, all the other harlots he does nic nic with just aren't of the caliber of this one.

At first I was intrigued with the sci fi aspect, but it went to heck and I lost patience waiting for it to come back.  Bail.  I am not even going to jam the directing, script, acting, cinematography or score.  The only score I can remember was...well, the dude scored a lot and I can really remember a specific one.  Avoid this.

The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch

No one I have ever seen or heard of, breasts I hadn't seen before (and still not enough to save this film) and that is it.  There was a ton of promise and action and all of it, but something was missing.  This film was like smelling a big, juicy, perfectly seasoned and cooked steak and then sinking your teeth into a veggie burger.

This post is being done over a week since I saw the movie and since my queue has been hijacked by 2 chick flicks and a kid flick, I am using my time away from the DVD player to write this.  Don't see it.  No one in it really gets me to root for them.  The hero personifies "Rage Against the Machine" as he protests social injustices, yet cruises back to his 4,000 square foot penthouse in downtown Hong Kong to sulk and mope.

Two Days In April

Wow!  This was really something to see.  Okay, full on dude film...unless you are a mother (of an NFL dreaming boy) who doesn't want her son treated like a piece of meat and needs a bit more ammunition for her case.  So this film follows 4 college football players from the end of their final college football season to the start of mini camps at the pro level.

The film covers what is at stake and all the stuff that they go through and must train for beyond what they did in college: Pro Days, Senior Bowls, Interviews, the Combine, etc.  There are shots and scenes that dehumanize them and just make them animals.  Slave trade is what it is.  The last part of the film covers each of the four in their houses, hotel rooms, etc. as they watch the 2006 NFL draft and hope to be called in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd rounds and beyond.  I never knew the gap in salary and how much difference there was.

This was a gripping film.  I got to 11:00 PM a few nights with a 4:30 AM wake up the next day but could not stop watching.  Wow, it was something.  The filming was great, the acting (there was none), the script (there was none), the editing/directing...heck, SEE THIS!

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

At the beginning of this one, I was "Wow, oh man, this is great, oh wow!" but the weirdy thing was that during the day, I didn't find myself eager to get home and turn it back on and all.  It may have been the start of 2 kids in baseball, swimming, and cub scouts that had me worn out, trampled and looking like a piece of road kill bacon.  Not sure, but I did finish it.

Donnie Yen, who is in just about the last 10 films I have seen was in this one too and his fight action is awesome!  He has some of that floating/flying Hidden Tiger stuff going on but not so much that you are thinking to yourself, "Hey, now I know what those opium dens were for: dreaming up floaty fight scenes."

I kept thinking that the mask and all were like Bruce Lee in "The Green Hornet" TV show and yep!, there was a comparison and some connections.  Still good and this is a film that I can recommend, but not one that I would jump up and down and rave for.

Acting was good, directing was good, writing rocked, and the music...eh, okay.  Cinematography was awesome!

Ip Man: 2

Hold the phone!  Not since the Rocky series have I been so into a final fight!  Wow, awesome fight scenes and fights and wow!  Donnie Yen translated into English is Steven Segal: kidding he is not but he reminds me of Segal.  What I like about Segal is none of the Van Damme.'beaten to within an inch of his life only to rise at the last second and kick butt' stuff.  No, with Segal, you get, boom boom bad guy down!  Nice, I like it.  Donnie Yen as Ip Man is like that and also like Segal, there is nothing but a calm expression on his face as he puts a full on beat down onto his opponent. 

The acting is good until it breaks from the English subtitles and the Brits begin speaking English.  The only other flaw I saw/heard was the occassional time when the music was so bad I was able to actually notice how bad it was.  Other than that, the cinematography is great, the directing was great and the action scenes just rocked!  Script, good again until the English start speaking...then it is kind of cheesy.  Cool dealio is the surprise pupil Ip Man gets at the movie's end

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

Holy Wow!  This was just as good if not better than the first...or should I say second.  It turns out that this doolie was done 3 years prior to "OSS 117: Lost in Rio" (2009).  Funny as heck and, well, you have to see it.  Jean Dujardin is the James Bondy dude OSS 117 and he just kicks in the role.  The over done pauses, moves, expressions, etc. just rock.  It takes a second, but you say to yourself, "Oh man, that was so dead on to the over dramatic moves that were used in the films of the '50's.

See it.  Acting, script, cinematography, directing, and score all just click beautifully!

OSS 117: Lost in Rio

See it.  It is like the Austin Powers series but isn't.  It is more like James Bond meets Inspector Clouseau and together, the possess the social awareness of Napolean Dynamite.  Though done in 2009, the film goes way back to the late 50's style spy films with grainy film, decor, and all and it is well done.  The acting is awesome (campy), the cinematography and sound track are great, and the script nails it.  It has the PC subtlety of Airplane! (1980) and is just funny.

This by far one of the best films that I have seen in a long time.  It is just funny.

A World without Thieves

The acting, the cinematography, writing, and directing, aside from a few glitches, were good; however, the score was awful.  It bounced between what would be the backing track of the Chinese version of "Days of our Lives" to something you would hear during a fight scene between Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek.   It was so bad that not only was it noticeable, it detracted.

In short, an amazingly oblivious dude befriends/is befriended by two thieves (pick pockets, car thieves, etc) during a train ride to his home village which is far away.  With him is a good deal of money that he has made by restoring a monastery and which is he plans to use to start a life with his new wife who is back home.  The thieves are torn between wanting to EASILY rip him off or use him as the first paver in their road to salvation and forgiveness by protecting him from the other thieves they can see but oblivious dude can't.

True Legend

Ah my friends, I have been away for too long.  I strayed into the mainstream movies and drowned but have been returned to the shore of obscure films and this is one. 

The fight scenes were awesome and there were some strange characters to dig as well, but I can't go hog wild and recommend this.  Now, when I watch a film of this genre, I am in it for more than just the fight scenes and stuff.  That explains why the Bruce Lee "Dragon" series is not something I am all goo goo over.  Same goes for nudie movies...can't watch those because the one aspect they tout ain't enough to carry the bad acting, writing, directing, cinematography, and music.

This movie had good/great directing, writing, cinematography and music; however, it was just lacking something.  Perhaps the plot was just not too gripping.  If you dig fight stuff, this is pretty okay though!  Oh yeah, there is a loose historical dealio here on the Wushu style of fighting.

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Bail on this.  The acting is so so, the directing is fine, the cinematography is okay, and the script is okay, but still bail and here (in a long winded statement) is why.  When I was in high school, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was the greatest thing.  We would go to midnight showings and do whatever we could to go see it over and over again, and if you didn't get it, well, you were just not hip or savvy enough to see its beauty.  I have wisened with age and here is the deal...that movie is crap.

"Wristcutters" falls into the same thing.  It takes sometthing bizarre and/or shocking and treats it in too cavalier/common a fashion for me.  In this movie, folks who commit suicide land in their own weird afterlife and how/when they committed suicide is revisited and treated as nothing really sad, shocking or whatever.  Instead, the suicides (and attempts) are treated by all with the same gravity as grabbing a coke from the refridgerator.

I saw this as an attempt by a new and inexperienced cast a crew trying to take a shortcut to notoriety by treating suicide in such a fashion. 

Riverworld

Eh.  This was crazy long (like 2 minutes shy of 3 hours) and had I known that and this was really a TV series crammed into one long continuous loop, I would not have watched it.  People are killed and then crawl out of a river where they run into the likes of Mark Twain, Pizzaro, etc.  Then you have members of "Blue Man Group" popping in and out to either advise or hinder progress.

There was nothing really great about the acting, the directing, the score, or the writing.  The cinematography was good as the lighting was fine and all of that, but there was nothing really awesome about the entire production.  You could tell that this was made for TV and that is where it should have stayed.

Made for Each Other

Oh God, so bad, so bad.  Please save yourself and don't watch this.  Just bad, save yourself.  Even with nothing in the house that I ordered from the lovely red envelope people, I could not bring myself to go past 14 minutes.

Move on.

Bitten

Bad.  Stay away.  I had such high hopes...not expectations for this.  Jason Mewes' character of Jay in "Clerks" (1994) was awesome, but like the rest of the "Clerks" cast, there has since been nothing worthwhile acting wise from any of them...this included. 

The previews looked good so I got it in hopes of someone from the "Clerks'" cast being able to obtain some form of acting redemption...didn't happen.  The only decent thing about this movie were the scenes in which (for no real reason other than to trying and save the movie) Erica Cox removes her shirt and bares her breasts.  Nice.  But, however nice those scenes were, they couldn't make up for the torture the bad script, acting, directing, score, and cinematography inflicted.

Bad movie, bad!!!

Whitewall

Bail.  Terrible cinematography, bad acting, bad directing, and bad story.  I went 15 minutes into it only because I had nothing else: my wife had hijacked the Netflix queue and took my other two placements up with the latest Pirates deal and the latest Harry Potter deal...seriously, hasn't that kid graduated yet?

Kung Fu Hustle

Yeah, go ahead and watch it.  I get most of my movies from Netflix...okay all of them so you folks at Netflix, go ahead, rip me off and charge me an additional fee for something, ya got me.  Okay, so the thing about Netflix is that once you select a film, they load you with ones that might be similar and too, once you get the film, the previews before it starts will turn you onto other films in the same vein.   So here we are with another one of the Kung Fu types but at least the word "Panda" is not in this.

So a pair of misfits find themselves in the middle of a vendetta the Axe Gang has against this pit of a housing complex that houses about 3 dudes who completely dissed one of the Axe Gang's bosses.  Now the Axe Gang must find the best killers in the land to put a beat down on the 3 and the whole complex.  In the end, the Axe Gang thinks that they have found the world's best killer, but have they?????

The dialogue was amazingly unexpected and there was some funny goof comedy stuff as well.  It took several nights to finish, but yeah, see it.  The acting is good, the directing is good, the cinematography is a bit dark, but the dialogue is crazily unexpected and pretty funny.  Not the best film I have seen recently, but a hell of a lot better than most of the stuff you might come across.

Typhoon

This took me 4 nights to finish.  Okay, nothing wrong with the writing (which included plot), the acting, the directing and the cinematography, but this film really hit home with a 5th element of a movie...the soundtrack.  The soundtrack killed this. 

You have a man who, as a child, watched his family get shot by North Koreans as they tried to defect to the South.  To him, the blame rests on South Korea and for that, he is going to unleash a cloud of nuclear waste in the skies over South Korea and kill them all. 

The action was awesome, the acting was good, the effects were awesome, the locations were awesome, but the soundtrack, well the soundtrack...oh what is that word...oh yeah...sucked.  The music sucked.  It was so bad that it not only stood out as being bad but was so bad that it tainted the rest of the movie.

I have to pan this one as it is up there with all of the other big international drama movies and all, yet the soundtrack was just too bad.

9th Company

SEE THIS!

If you liked Stanley Kubrick's 1987 "Full Metal Jacket," SEE THIS.

If you liked 2001's "Band of Brothers," SEE THIS.

If you liked Sam Mendes' 2005 "Jarhead,"  SEE THIS

Heck, if you use your left foot approximately half of the time when you walk and eat breakfast once in awhile, see this!  Man, this was intense.  Released in 2005, "9th Company" is based on historical events and follows the travails of a group of Russian recruits as they make their way through boot camp and eventual deployment to Afghanistan.  This was so gripping to me as the recruits are similar to the stuff I watched in "Full Metal Jacket."  The momentaryy insanity that punctuated interminably long periods of boredom rivaled what I watched in "Jarhead."  The based on historical stuff that I saw in "Band of Brothers," was mirrored here.  Man this was good.

Why didn't the US watch this before going into that country?