The Raid: Redemption

Hard-core action & violence. A film for men.

8/10

Public Enemies

Very interesting plot based on a true story with a good cast and however mediocre storytelling which wasted a quite a bit potential. Filmed on HDV instead of film which makes the cinematography more “news” looking but somewhat “cheap” to some people.

What you do doesn’t really mean much. It’s how you treat people.

7/10

The Raven

Interesting story with beautiful production design and however underdeveloped characters by a good cast. Pacing in the middle could’ve been better without some unnecessary dialogue, even though the editing is smooth.

A movie with a brilliant beginning sometimes is very unfortunate.

7/10

The Cabin in the Woods

Mediocre trailer doesn’t mean an average movie. This one surpassed my expectations by re-shaping modern horror movies onto another level.

Refreshing plot with smoothly funny storytelling. Even with a few acceptable ridiculousness, this one brings a deeper meaning to horror movies.

When we blame current horror movies all have the same pattern, have we thought about that did we give a chance on those that aren’t the same? We are the actual god that controls the destiny of the characters in horror movies. Luckily, they are still not real.

8/10

The Hunger Games

Profound storyline with outstanding performance and flamboyant but appropriate design( Everyone is Lady Gaga, aren’t they?), engaging plot with some crucial flaws, especially on the love part.

Oscar is not far away from Jennifer Lawrence considering she’s so young.

Story is not as deep as I thought since I’ve known Battle Royale before. Rather calling it the American Battle Royale, I agree it should be called Battle Royaling Twilight instead.

8/10

John Carter

Oldest story with amazing visual effects and music but critically flawed storytelling and mediocre acting. I can see why this movie is causing a huge financial sinking since nothing from the movie that you see is new considering the original book written in 1911 is the ancestor of all Sci-Fi.

Andrew Stanton, my favourite director from Pixar, who wrote and directed masterpieces including Finding Nemo and WALL·E with 2 Oscar winnings, has yet to find a way to shift his talent of animations into films, which is a common problem for many animation directors. In animation, you have the full control of how the character acts, as the contrast in films, the performance will mostly rely on your casting choice and directing on the set.

What’s surprising was that there are some key elements missing in the story, considering Andrew is such a great writer. I guess in this Pixar’s first non-animated movie, the balance of the team got shifted to accommodate the new financial dynamic. Luckily, Pixar still got the design and visual effects right, which satisfied the entertainment somewhat.

7/10

21 Jump Street

Never laughed so hard at the theatre. Without seeing the original, this one surpassed my expectation way beyond with wildly hilarious dialogue writing (including some hard-core racist jokes though), well-paced editing and somewhat dumb but suitable acting. Whatever they wanted to achieve, I think they did.

Perfect for friends getting together just for a fun night out. And oh boy, did Jonal Hill lose tons of weight…

8/10

The Grey

Survival movies can be unpleasant in common but what’s more important is to dig out the meaning of life out of the unpleasantness, in which case you didn’t waste 2 hours in your life on something that only brings you down.

Thanks to Liam Neeson’s subtle and powerful performance, I truly felt the desperate attempt of surviving in an empty and frozen land. Others, such as Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson and Dermot Mulroney all did a great job. Editing is good as well especially on grabbing the hopelessness when being stuck at Alaska where only wolves are around. However, the action scenes are a bit puzzling since I had a hard time of seeing what’s really going on when wolves attack especially in the close-ups. Might just be a coverage problem. Cinematography-wise, this one did well considering the budget.

Life makes fun of you sometimes. Those ones are so afraid of death die first and the ones who are ready for survive.

7/10

The Flowers of War

As most of Zhang Yimou’s work, this one has gorgeous cinematography with beautiful production design plus graceful music. Ever since Hero, the first big budget Chinese movie, he always tries so hard to make certain scenes so emotional in a very obvious way which is called over-dramatized. This time he tuned down quite a bit to make the story which is based on a novel much more reasonable with a good message delivered.

Acting-wise, being in a mixed Chinese movie (half-Chinese & half-English), Christian Bale did a decent job being a recent Oscar Winner. Ni Ni, on the other hand, being perfectly casted, is a bit awkward on English acting even though she’s smooth on the Chinese side.

When considering a historical period, you can’t define it under current knowledge, as some philosopher said, every era has its limits. Prostitution has always been and still is disrespected in Chinese culture. But that isn’t the core point of the story. Self-sacrificing to save others is always glorified since it’s one of the rare valuable human qualities that we still try to achieve.

This isn’t a pleasant movie to watch, especially for Chinese. As every one of us knows, the massacre in Nanking by Japanese during WWII is the most brutal one in Chinese history and has been a huge scar ever since then, quite similar to the Concentration Camp for Jews. The difference is that Germans did sincerely apologize and mark the huge mistake into their law system while Japanese only briefly apologized with constantly occasional denials from a certain percentage of the population and their history books, which always create arguments between the 2 countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre_denial).

About 4 years ago in university, I went to Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall(Nanjing is the standard Chinese way of spelling Nanking) which has the most historical evidence from that event. I remember the last sign at the end of the tour, was Remember the history but forget the hate, which was the highlight in my memory. Taking the high road is hard, especially for this kind of brutal-ness. But revenge often makes things worse. On the other hand, certain people never learn the lessons on their own. I guess that’s why history tells us everything but doesn’t change anything most of the time.

Making historical films is always a good way to get people interested. However, I usually try to stand out of the background to see how the movie actually is. In which case, the emotion transition isn’t smooth enough especially on the main character John Miller, played by Christian Bale who did the best on his end. This one does have a big potential to become a masterpiece with a more powerful ending. Nonetheless, storytelling-wise, this is already Zhang Yimou’s best work in the last 10 years.

7/10

Safe House

Good performance by Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington, stunning choreography and sound effects. Cinematography, however, is a bit of puzzling with all the shakiness (yes, even more than The Bourne Supremacy) and softness (yes, not just 1 or 2 shots but during an entire conversation). If that’s the style the director was going for, I can’t say I would agree since as a high budget movie, creating physical uncomfortableness is not a great idea for getting money back.

There were a few highlights on the story since manipulation between men is always interesting and protecting love for people who work for places like CIA could always be touching. Unfortunately, they weren’t fully utilized which makes this one more mediocre.

7/10