New Release Tuesday: The Yellow Sea

NEW RELEASE TUESDAY


The Yellow Sea
Another great Korean movie.
Top notch in my book.
Long but it kept me wanting more
throughout the film.
This was screened both at Cannes and Fanstastic Fest
last year.
Lots of intense scenes.
My favorite character has to be Mr. Myun.
Think Mr. Blonde as a leader
of a Chinese-Korean gang, and you
have Mr. Myun.
My favorite scene, Mr Myuan visits
Korea to talk to the big shot boss out
there. Genious!!
Some things are predictable but
still pretty effing good.
This is the same director who did "The Chaser."

This is a must for my Asian section.
Worth checking out, period.

Rio

Rio
Crazy bird story.
It was cute.
It was short and it was simple.
I thought it was all going to take
place in the jungle and we have
magical singing animals.
But, it was better.
We have birds going crazy all over
the streets of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
I liked the pace.
Didn't have a favorite character though.
I would of wanted this to be more musical and
have more songs on it, but it was alright.
Better than expected.

They nominated Kung Fu Panda 2 at the Oscars instead of this?
I had more fun with this one than the Panda sequel.
If your kid loves birds like mine does, I recommend
putting this one on and go with the flow.

The King's Speech

The King's Speech
Well the Oscars are tomorrow and I vowed
to not see last year's winner until a year later
for personal reasons.
So here we go tonight.
It was a bit different than I expected.
I liked it.
Good solid drama.
My favorite character is Geoffrey Rush's character, Lionel.
The movie would be nothing without that character
being so live and smart.
Rush did good in that part.
Everything is else is pretty good.
I wouldn't say true masterpiece but
good to see once in your life.

Kung Fu Friday: Once Upon A Time In China

KUNG FU FRIDAY

Every fourth Friday of every month this year,
I'll be checking out a kung fu movie of any period.
Gives me an excuse to kick the walls and break
blocks of wood. Also gives me the excuse to
go to I Luv Video or Vulcan Video and catch up on
some great kung fu flicks out there.


Once Upon A Time In China
Finally saw this kung fu classic.
Long but deadly.
Jet Li is one bad ass little man.
I was lost in the story for a bit but
then after a while I picked it up.
Majority of this was more of a war film.
Nothing wrong with that,
but I couldn't wait for the next fight
to start.
Very dramatic film.

It was nice to see a different kind of kung fu movie
rather than the typical kung fu flicks of the 70's.
Had to be patient with this one.
Not sure if I'll see the rest of this series anytime soon.
But, a decent start.

New Release Tuesday: Martha Marcy May Marlene

NEW RELEASE TUESDAY


Martha Macy May Marlene
Wow, this movie sucked.
I was wanting something more with the story.
Don't get me wrong,
the acting was good.
But, the story was making me mad from time to
time, especially the main character.
Is she mentally retarded or something?
She should of said something about her experiences
but never said a word about it.
Instead, she just acts crazy and does stupid things.
I would of wanted for the story to all take place
in that "community" rather than just in flashbacks.
I hated hated the ending.

Good acting, bad story.
I wouldn't recommend this.
I should of went with "J. Edgar" for today's New Release Tuesday.
Oh well, we live and learn.

Take Shelter

Take Shelter
This came out Fantastic Fest last year.
Just came out on DVD.
Good solid movie.
Michael Shannon delivers a pretty decent performance
as a guy who may or may not be crazy.
I like the schizophrenic idea.
The movie is a character driven movie.
Nice ending.
If I had crazy dreams and hallucinations like this guy,
I would build a shelter too. Well, maybe not.
I'll just warn everyone and then go to some island or something.

Good movie to check out.

The Rum Diary

The Rum Diary
This was okay.
I'm a big fan of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
and of Hunter S. Thompson's work.
So I had to see this film.
There was some okay parts.
But overall, it wasn't strong enough
for me to love the film.
I love certain scenes like the
liquor fire scenes.
My favorite character is Moberg.
Nothing else to say about this film.
And don't pay too much attention to the trailer.
This movie is more serious.
Nothing wrong with that.
I heard the book is serious.
But, the trailer makes it out to be some kind
of funny adventure wild movie, but I assure you,
it is not.

If you do see this movie, of course have a bottle of Rum
near you. You might need it.

Home Invasion Thursday: Hard Candy

HOME INVASION THURSDAY


Every third Thursday I'll comment on a
home invasion movie I've never seen before.
When I saw Kidnapped from Spain last year,
I decided to start a home invasion section for my collection.
Might as well do a special on this.


Hard Candy
The reason for watching this movie is because
I've been wanting to watch it for a while.
But, since I heard it's about a girl who makes the guy
take her to his house so she can drug him
and he gets trapped within his own house,
I figured that kind of falls under home invasion.
So why not?
Lots of twists and turns.
A few letdowns.
But, some good acting and interesting
scenes.
Even though I was a bit disappointed at times,
the movie still got me interesting.

It's not straight up in your face home
invasion, but it's close enough.

The Dead

NEW RELEASE TUESDAY (Encore)


The Dead
Badass zombie flick.
Seriously, this was very good for a zombie movie.
This came out at Fantastic Fest in 2010 but I missed out
on it. Heard nothing but great stuff.
Now I finally got to see it.
Love that it takes place in Africa.
They took advantage of the landscapes out there.
Man, lots of gore and good kills here.
Some of the story reminded me of the World War Z book.
This movie is more of a survival movie with lots
of zombies.
We're following two characters as they try to
survive day by day in this zombie apocalypse.
We don't know what's going on anywhere else in the
world.
I like that they start the movie with zombies
attacking. No time to explain the whats, the whys,
the whens, and the hows. Just survive, dammit.

I'm adding this to the zombie section for sure.

Adam

Adam
Cute little story we have here.
There's times where I lose my patience with
some of the actions made by Adam.
But I think that's the point.
He has Asperger's Syndrome and the actor does
good portraying that.
I like the story as a whole.
I didn't like the look Adam gave us in the
last shot of the movie.
But, he's a sweet guy, I guess.
Also, please make sure you know that
somehow and someway there's no raccoons in New York.
So when the movie surprises us with racoons at Central Park,
act surprise. I didn't get it cause I'm not a New Yorker.

A little romantic, a little dramatic, but nice independent film.
Worth seeing once or maybe twice in your life.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Finally saw this sci fi movie.
Took a while.
But here it is.
It kind of reminded me a bit of Sin City in a way
except this one is a war movie.
It was a little too busy for me.
I mean, I like robots envading the world and all,
but this was filled with scientific stuff, military stuff,
history stuff, and on top of that, an unecessary love story.
It's cool to see but to call myself a fan of this
movie would be very hard.
I didn't like Gwyneth Paltrow's character.
She could of been a little smarter for this type of story.
Other than that, alright popcorn entertainment.

See The Wizard of Oz.
This one has a lot of references to it.

South American Cinema Night: Whisky

SOUTH AMERICAN CINEMA NIGHT

Every 2nd Wednesday of every month
I'll be checking out a movie from any country in South America.
My goal is to see one movie from each country.
This excludes any films I see at film festivals.

Tonight's movie is from the country of Uruguay.

Whisky
This is my first Uruguayan film ever.
For that, I give it some props.
It's nice to check out other countries other
than the typical stuff.
I mean, movies from America, Spain, and Japan,
(just to name a few)
are getting a bit boring now that I've seen tons of them.
Time to check out what other stuff is out there.
Eff the Eiffel Tower.
Well, this film was alright.
A bit slow and boring.
The characters were kind of lifeless.
2D characters to be exact.
I wanted more life out of them.
But, I did like the story a little bit.
My favorite part and probably the only part
I liked was when the brother gave his brother
(the main character) socks as a present.
The funny thing is that the main character
makes socks for a living.

Well these are my comments for this film.
I tried to find wine from Uruguay to go with this film.
The only place I found in Austin was expensive
so I went with an Argentinian wine instead.

Project Nim

NEW RELEASE TUESDAY


Project Nim
Another decent documentary from the same
guy who brought us Man On A Wire.
Informational, a little emotional, and a little bananas.
Get it, bananas?
The majority of the documentary talks about teaching
Nim (the chimpanzee) sign language.
Then the last part focuses on animal experimentation
and isolation of Nim.
This is basically the real "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."
The sad part happens when we see how Nim is affected
by human attachment and detachment.
When his teachers and friends come and leave
throughout his life, we see Nim's emotions.
He's almost too human but yet still a wild animal.
Some good old parts are those crazy dramatizations that include:
throwing a poodle against the wall and smoking marijuana.

What I took from this documentary:
If I have a chimpanzee, I need to get rid of it before he turns five.
That, and keep my distance at all times no matter
how cute the ape is.

80's Monday: Say Anything

80'S MONDAY

[Every first Monday of every month is 80's Monday.
There's a lot of movies that came out
in the 80's that were so popular that I haven't seen.
I'm an 80's kid, so this segment will give me a chance
to catch up on some of those popular typical movies from this period.]


Say Anything
This was bound to happen on a 80's Monday.
Everybody who grew up in the 80's always
talks about the famous John Cusack raising the stereo scene.
Well, here it is.
This was actually pretty damn good.
I thought it was going to be more
of a typical romantic comedy but it wasn't.
It's got a little bit of it.
But it's not strong enough to be considered a romantic comedy.
It has some cool moments.
My favorite moment being the scene
where our main character talks to the guys
outside the convenience store
while drinking beer and eating Funyuns.
That was pretty cool.
Didn't know Jeremy Piven and Eric Stoltz
was on here.
As far as the stereo scene,
it wasn't what I expected.

This movie wasn't as cheesy as other movies
from the 80's. But, it was a good time, for sure.

Ninja Assassin

Ninja Assassin
I don't know why I skipped out
in watching this one earlier on.
I mean, it came out at Fantastic Fest in 2009,
it came out in the theatres shortly after.
It's an over the top bloody ninja movie.
I liked it.
A little more bloody than I expected.
One can easily make fun of the ninjas here.
Especially the cheesy dialogue.
But, it was pretty good for a Friday night action movie.
Love that they show how these ninjas become ninjas.
Love how they come out of the shadows.

Grab some ninja stars and start attacking
when watching this one.
Oh, and make sure all the lights are turned on
because if not, you might lose a limb or two.

Green Fish

Green Fish
This Korean movie felt a little different
from the usual Korean flicks.
This one was slow.
But there was some good gangster
bloody scenes like the bathroom scene towards the end.
I never heard about this movie.
I just went up to the Korean section
at Vulcan Video and there it was.
A new discovery.
Well, it's from 1997.
I didn't get the green fish reference.
But they mentioned it at the end.
It's a metaphor for something that
happened in the past.
I love Korean cinema.
This one was okay.
I wouldn't recommend this unless
you're into these types of movies.

If you do see it, make sure to have
some Hite beer to go with it.