Superman Returns 3.5/5.
Singer has crafted a fine film. Excellent action set pieces and the presentation that channels the Donner films to a tee. Routh is pretty wooden but he gets the job done; he has presence, which is important. Kevin Spacey underplays Luthor, unlike Hackman who relished in a deliciously cheesy performance.
The story is really shitty though. As I've already told you.
Last edited by EvaUnit02 on 08 Jul 2006, 06:23, edited 1 time in total.
A fast-paced schizophrenic tale. Very nicely shot.
Kinda hard to follow, but quite rewarding.
I used to be "the man who loves the movies you hate".
Now I'm just "that weird french guy with a cat avatar who comes to BnB once a year for no reason and then disappears again".
I´m sure everyone of you has already seen this. Well,... I hadn´t.
What I didn´t like about it, is the beginning, where Jackie Cheung and the others are just fooling around. The weak comedy doesn´t fit this very serious and violent movie at all. Besides that, the acting was lousy at some times, but who cares.
Tiger Cage is a real entertainer, which I hadn´t expected to be so violent and dark at all, and I had a lot of fun watching it.
The light-heartedness is there to set up the characters' closeknit relationships and show how happy they all are. If the movie starts depressing with immediate effect it has nowhere to go and we've little involvement with the characters whom we've come to like. Lousy acting? From whom?
grim_tales wrote:I've heard Tiger Cage 2 is better than the first one.
Havent HKL got the rights to TC 2?
HKL have the rights to both - maybe even all three films? The second one gets most plaudits because of the martial arts action. The original is more of a gunplay movie, but I prefer it overall. The third one is a disappointment.
Carol "DoDo" Cheng´s acting in the scene in which the man she loves more than everything else, Leung Kar-yan dies wasn´t very convincing in my eyes.
As well as Donnie Yen´s acting throughout the whole film.
But the "best" ones, still were those American baddies.
The one´s acting just consisted of drinking, the others of reading porn or looking angry.
They looked like their own caricatures.
Man, "Tiger Cage" was a big let-down to me. After I had heard so much about it and how great the action was supposed to be, I was really pissed when I saw it eventually. "Yes, Madam!" has better action IMO.
I've not seen Tiger Cage but have seen Yes, Madam which, aside from the enticing pairing of Yeoh and Rothrock was pretty poor in my opinion. So, if you rate the latter film over the former, I don't think I'll be watching it anytime soon.
On a tangent, does anyone know of a film which features a character falling a long way off (what appears to be) a skyscraper? The scene is filmed almost all the way down, with multiple camera angles to the point where the chacters falls through a glass roof. I watched this when I was, I dunno, about 8, and I can remember nothing about the film aside from this scene. I believe it was a hero character that did the falling and dying, which is why it's filmed so closely. I thought the title was Police Assassins (which is why I brought it up), but I found out (to my dismay) that this wasn't the case.
You´ve not seen Tiger Cage? The scene you describe is very silimar to one from Tiger Cage.
It´s Jackie Cheung´s girlfriend, who has the pleasure to get killed that way.
@Markgway: Let´s finish the discussion about who didn´t play convincing. Because, in the end it doesn´t matter, just as I said. Those moments don´t destroy this very entertaining movie - they rather add some fun as well.
Hmm, maybe I have seen Tiger Cage then
From what I remember, the music cuts out as the fall begins, you just hear that very commonplace cloth-ruffling sound effect (one of my favourite sound effects ever ) and lots and lots of shots of the character falling in a kind of slow-motion.
Wow!
Very harsh and uncompromising film that nonetheless has some very nice, tender moments in it. Tsotsi is Johannesburg street slang for a street thug or criminal, when one such young boy steals a woman's car, he accidentally finds a baby on the back seat and he has to take care of the baby. We see how it affects him and how he becomes a better person and learns to respect himself, flashbacks reveal his difficult upbringing, living with a terminally ill mother.
SA street life was very harsh, and it involved gangs, rather like the ones in City of God (2003).
Obvious at this point the formula was not finely tuned yet, but its coming together.
Several nods to Sesame Street - Kermit says "Have you thought about an educational show for kids" and in one of the "At the Dance" skits, Bert (from Sesame Street) says of his dance partner "You look familliar" and she turns around and laughs just like Ernie!
Surprising youth drama starring pop stars. Considering this premise and the cast had nothing going for it beforehand, it's only right to salute Herman Yau and his co-director Longisland So (?) for making the effort.
Quantum Leap - Pilot - 4/5
Man, the series was released a few days on DVD over here. It's been out in R1 and R2UK for quite some time, I know, but I had to have the German dubbing as it brings back so many memories. I remember how I used to love that show and after watching the pilot episode yesterday I realized that it didn't lose any quality over the years.
It's silly, stupid, wild, funny, violent...often at the same time and really a breath of fresh air for Hong Kong cinema. Leon Lai continues to mature and Chapman To continues to show he's about to break out. Someone just had to give him a chance or he had to give himself a chance.
Those who loved Alan Mak's energetic X-Mas Rave Fever will feel comfy.
Can I cry any more tears? :crybaby: I don't think so. Oh, how I have LOVED this series and hate to see it end! This is quality TV drama. Top notch viewing. I just can't believe it's over! *sniff*
