Bullets 'n' Babes

uberbloke wrote: My first Johnny To film... (any further recommendations)

Outstanding To Films
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
Running out of Time
Election 2
Fulltime Killer

Decent To Films
Breaking News
PTU
Election
The Mission
Running on Karma
The Throwdown

IMO.

Sweet Baby Jesus Bisc, The Mission and Throwdown are the best films he's made.

Blood Diamond (2006 - USA): 3 / 5



Thought the high-definition trailer was amazing, so I decided to try this one.

Not good enough.

There's a lot of good stuff in this movie.
The story is quite good, touching even.

Djimon Honsou is amazing, and many secondary characters are quite charismatic.
DiCrapio is better in this film than he usually is, but his death scene is pathetic. I can't tell whether it's his acting or if it's the director's fault, although I'd be willing to bet on the former.
Connelly's character, however, is predictably useless. I blame the screenwriter.

Sadly, most of the gunfight scenes are repetitive and boring. There's a disturbing lack of tension throughout. They should be gripping and scary, but they just aren't.
And to add insult to injury, the score is pretty much forgettable apart from a couple of good bits. With such an epic scope, it should have been huge.

But worse than that, there's no passion. Blood Diamond is not bad, but it's just 143 minutes of film, nothing more.

The ending is great, and while it would almost make me want to buy the DVD, Leonardo's death scene ruins it for me.
It's funny how one little scene can fuck up a film. It doesn't happen very often, but sadly it does happen.

Watched it once. Was disappointed. Won't buy the DVD.

Blood Diamond - 3.5 / 5
I thought Blood Diamond was very good, the story and history behind conflict diamonds is something new to me, and seeing this was pretty grim. DiCrapio I feel is getting better and better as an actor. He has a good south african accent and is pretty much spot on. Like Tom had previously mentioned Djimon Honsou steals the show, he is truely outstanding in this, I really liked him and prob the only reason for liking this movie so much. I would prob buy this on DVD, would love to see a documentary on conflict diamonds.

Puppet Master - 3 / 5
Hell yeah, cheesy 80's horror movies are back for me to watch , I really loved this movie from Full Moon Production, it is the first time I see any of the Puppet Master films, and it is pretty good. The only problem is that I was wanting more gore in this, they shy away from it, the puppet animation is pretty good, and love the puppet POV camera style. Would def watch the sequels now.

Turistas - Unrated - 2 / 5
Watchable movie, similar to Hostel, bunch of backpacker in Brazil get stuck due to a bus crash, end in a nice beach, then get whisked off and gets opened up. It is a torture film, but there is not enough torture for me. It is only one character who ends up being cut open which is pretty feeble I think.

It is a torture film, but there is not enough torture for me. It is only one character who ends up being cut open which is pretty feeble I think.

You are a scary man.

slasher13 wrote:It is a torture film, but there is not enough torture for me. It is only one character who ends up being cut open which is pretty feeble I think.

What were you expecting, Guinea Pig level torture?

Markgway


EvaUnit02
Never seen those films but I do want to get the unearthed boxset, but yeah that what i was expecting, even the torture scenes in hostel was good, and I thought it was going to be similar to that.

hey,

A Tale Of The Sacred Mountain 4/5

It's hard to summarize this Mainland film, shot in Mandarin and English. Deals with the British invasion of Tibet or rather what they in the film refer to as freeing them in order to become a civilized nation. That's what the cannons are saying.

Well before that, director Feng Xiaoning (that created a War And Peace-trilogy, starting with this film) has established an understanding between people of different worlds that speak to notions of change not in need to take place between the actual people of the rich or the poor. Just ways of each culture, Eastern and Western are governed by tradition, making neither very sympathetic. A rare balance for a film dealing with several sides.

Curse Of The Golden Flower 1.5/5

What a pile of poo. It's the David and Victoria Beckham of the film world. Lots of money thrown at it and it looks good, but absolutely no depth, intelligence or characters to be cared for.

Got 0.5 for having SOME ok ish action bits.
Got 0.5 for looking very nice.
Got 0.5 for the ample amounts of cleavage in the film.

I haven't seen it yet.
Doesn't look good then..., I'll give it a chance because I like wuxia films (and the excellent Hero /HOFD).

Degen wrote:What a pile of poo. It's the David and Victoria Beckham of the film world. Lots of money thrown at it and it looks good, but absolutely no depth, intelligence or characters to be cared for.

Funny, that's exactly how I felt about HoFD.
I've really liked CotGF though.

P.S: Strangely enough, I found plenty of intelligence and depth in that movie.

tom2681 wrote:
P.S: Strangely enough, I found plenty of intelligence and depth in that movie.

Yeah, where?! I must've dozed off or something then!

I thought HoFD was very arty, but at least the action was good in it. There is very little action in CotGF and it isn't that good IMO.

Kurtlar vadisi - Irak aka Valley of the Wolves: Iraq - 4.5 / 5
This is my first experience watching a turkish film. I kinda liked this movie, and yes there are elements of anti-US in this film, but there have been countless film which US have portrayed Middle east as terrorist (plus tv - eg sleeper cell and 24 ongoing saga)

2 Scenes sticks out, the first is where the Sheikh (played wonderful by Ghassan Massoud) talks to his daughter Leyla. Leyla has just seen her husband killed and wants revenge, so she decides to be a suicide bomber, however her 'father' the sheikh says this wonderful speech that Suicide bombers are not true muslims. Ghassan truly plays an excellent charactes, He was excellent in Kingdom of Heaven and he is excellent here. Also there is a beheading scene, where he walks in and basically again says doing this is not what Islam is about, did the prophet to this, no then why do you.

Billy Zane is in this, and I really like this, I've alway liked him, and he still has some wittiness. Gary Busey only has a small role here, my god he looks totally thin, completely different from Predator 2.

Anyway cool movie, I would get it on DVD, don't think it will ever get released in UK or US.

New Police Story - 3-ish/5

Thought this was OK but not great It was nice to see Jackie make a return to playing his most famous character (kind of), recalling the classic Police Story films, and I also liked the fact he is not a "superhero" kind of person, but seeing Jackie getting drunk and crying a lot isn't really a substitute for good, dramatic acting.

Why does he make a bet with the cardboard cut out villains at the start and bet the lives of his men? That's bloody stupid!

I understand Jackie's motivation was vengeance, focusing on his pain and loss, but it went a bit OTT at times IMO. I liked the "speeding bus" stunt, recalling the classic stunt from Police Story 1.
I also found the music at the start familliar Not sure where I have heard it before?

hey,

strange Jackie didn't channel his CRIME STORY acting. Or is it Benny Chan's fault?

Dunno. How much control did Jackie have over NPS?
I liked the Lego room fight (not sure what to call it) near the end, that was quite good. And the part at the end with the little kid was nice because it creates paralells with earlier, when Nic Tse (?) told Jackie a story about a guy who stole something for his son who was hungry, but a cop helped him. This is exactly what Jackie does.

At the beginning, I felt Jackie was stupid and reckless rather than heroic.

Has Benny Chan ever made a good movie? Heroic Duo, New Police Story and Divergence were all dreadful.

hey,

A Moment Of Romance and the Tsui Hark produced Magic Crane are two examples. The former had involvement from Johnnie To and Ringo Lam and it's been mentioned they're influence sometimes went into the direction too. Classic nonetheless.

New Police Story was great when I last saw it. Tom must agree with me, right?

Didn't Benny Chan direct Who Am I? Liked that!

Well I'm kinda put off the guy after watching the three aforementioned titles. Won't be in a rush to watch a Benny Chan movie ever...

hey,

A Moment Of Romance IS terrific, his first film. Or rather his first directing credit as he replaced Leung Po-Chi on FATAL LOVE a few years earlier. Leung got to keep his credit though.

Knetan wrote:hey, A Moment Of Romance and the Tsui Hark produced Magic Crane are two examples. The former had involvement from Johnnie To and Ringo Lam and it's been mentioned they're influence sometimes went into the direction too. Classic nonetheless.

And you know when The Magic Crane reads 'Tsui Hark Presents' it really means Tsui Hark co-directs.

hey,

yep, you're never safe.

grim_tales wrote:Didn't Benny Chan direct Who Am I? Liked that!

Jackie co-directed and unsurprisingly the fights 'n' stunts (ie. Jackie's material) is the best stuff.