Amreeka

Amreeka
Nice little drama here about an immigrant single
mother and her teenage son and their experience
in the U.S.
It felt right to watch this on Mother's Day.
Single mothers always have my sympathy.
Of course they do, because my mother was a single mom.
Being a parent myself, now I realize all the hard work.
The whole story here deals with cultural differences
and adapting to this country (post 9/11).
Some scenes make me mad because
of how ignorant people are.
But, love the characters.
The story was short and simple
and had that personal authentic touch.
At the end, I was like, that's it?
It ended fast.

Good to see once, especially if you're in the mood
for a family drama.
Another recommendation that's similar to this is the
movie, The Namesake. The Namesake was more
emotional, though.

Salvage

Salvage
Decent genre film from the U.K.
This played at Fantastic Fest in 2009.
I been wanting to watch it for a while but
I waited for Mother's Day weekend this year.
Not bad at all.
Lots of unexpected scenes.
A few crazy gore scenes.
This actually reminded me a bit of a German zombie
movie I saw at last year's Fantastic Fest called,
Rammbock.
Love the concept here:
Mother and Daughter have a fight.
Daughter leaves and hides in a nearby friend's
house. Military men raid the neighborhood.
Killing people and looking for this "creature."
Mother goes out to find daughter.
Crazy stuff happens.

Recommend this underrated little film the only complaint
is that lack of English subtitles.
It's hard to understand people with their British accent.

La Ultima Y Nos Vamos

Cinco De Mayo Special


La Ultima Y Nos Vamos
Man, this was fun.
I didn't know anything about it.
Never seen the trailer.
My brother, Erik, recommended this movie.
I went in with no expectations and I was entertained.
At first I thought this was going to be some kind of soap opera
or "novela" kind of acting. But after a while, the acting was alright.
The stories are alright.
What I love about this movie was two things:
the music and the time frame this takes place.
The music was non-stop, one song after another.
I love movies that have their stories take place
within a 24 hour time frame.
When movies like this one do that, you follow
the characters more closely.
For being mostly a drama, not bad.

Good drinking movie.
Need to add this one day to my everlasting Foreign film section.
Some of the music makes you want to say,
"Happy Cinco De Mayo."

A Somewhat Gentle Man

A Somewhat Gentle Man
Excellent dark comedy from Norway.
Seriously, clever stuff here.
Love the dialogue and every quirky moment on here.
This was shown at last year's Fantastic Fest but
I went to see The Man from Nowhere instead.
Both very different films.
This movie just came out yesterday on DVD.
Favorite moments:
women offer our lead character a quickie
and they treat him like crap afterwards.
Damn good performances too.

This is a must see for fans of Foreign and genre movies
and this is a must buy for me.

The Green Hornet (2011)

NEW RELEASE TUESDAY


The Green Hornet
Delivers as a popcorn action movie.
Few badass scenes.
The ones that stood out were:
The scene in the beginning where we meet our
bad guy (played Christopher Waltz).
Another scene where Kato first beats
the crap out of these thugs.
And last but not least where
The Green Hornet's actual theme song comes out at the very end.
The rest of the movie was so and so.
I couldn't tell if it was Michel Gondry's work.
Didn't have that Gondry feeling.
I was wondering what it would of been like
if Stephen Chow hadn't stepped down as the director and actor
for the film.
But, it is what it is.

Lots of action but the story was a little too easy and simple
in my opinion. Okay to check out.

Nine

MUSICAL MONDAY

[To expand my knowledge in this genre
and for the sake of trying something different,
every first Monday of every month this year,
I'll be checking out a musical I've never seen before.]


Nine
Alright musical.
Late last year I saw 8 1/2 by Federico Fellini.
This film is a musical version of that one.
It was between this and Mama Mia for this month
but I decided to just go with this one.
Some okay moments like the dream sequence with Fergie.
That scene was actually also in the original 8 1/2
with the same song and everything.
I wanted a little more out of this musical.
Would of wanted some trippy musical scenes.
I like the way they ended it with Guido saying
"Action."

Can't go wrong with a nice scene by Penelope Cruz
and great performance by Daniel Day Lewis.
Alright to see if you're in the mood.

Dead Or Alive 2 / Dead Or Alive: Final

Dead Or Alive 2
This was a little fun especially in the first half.
I'm a fan of the first Dead Or Alive movie.
It was over the top insanity.
I ended up buying the box set of this trilogy
early in the year. Saw it for dirt cheap at a local store
and I knew that this rare box set cost five times
more than what I bought it for.
I was saving these movies for my yakuza nights
but decided to not include them as yakuza movies
because they're not straight up yakuza movies.
Part 2 wasn't over the top.
It had some good moments.
There's a nice POV shot of a guy getting shot at.
It was missing some of the magic from the first one.
If you seen the first one, obviously this is not a direct sequel.
Why? Because the whole world blows up in the first one.
I found this one somewhat entertaining.

Couldn't find the actual trailer but here's a scene:




Dead Or Alive: Final
Part three had a weird feeling.
The whole thing had this yellow filter
that just made this one little out there.
It takes place deep into the future
where there's androids and stuff.
Not over the top violence but it has
some over the top scenes where
our main guy is able to stop bullets
with his hand and etc.
A little enjoyable but can be boring at times.
Keep in mind,
I was watching this one at 2am.
So some scenes seemed to drag on a bit for me.
But, man, another messed up Miike ending.
That ending makes this one alright.

This is probably my least favorite of the trilogy.
But still had some good cinematic moments.
Verdict: The first part of this trilogy is the best
one. Crazy stuff starting from frame one.
The two movies that follow have nothing comparing to the
first one. So no reason to see them or buy them unless you're
a Takashi Miike fan like me. Love this box set.