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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359950/
Although the name Walter Mitty sounded familiar, it wasn't until I saw the movie and then read James Thurber's short story that I could finally put these pieces of the puzzle together. Here's a movie that made me want to read the original story underlying it.
Score: 9/10
Ping-Pong Playa
It's just a fun formula comedy - the sort of movie that insomniacs like myself like to Netflix at 2 in the morning. But this one was a standout based on the performance of the lead actor, Jimmy Tsai. He also wrote it.
It's about a young Chinese-American guy, C-dubs, living in L.A., or more likely up in the valley, donno, somewhere around there. Anyway, C-dubs has an infatuation with basketball. It's his identity. He lives and breaths basketball. He's affected a trash-talking ghetto speak that's hilarious coming from a Chinese guy. The problem is, well, basketball is not in his blood, and he's not built for it, height wise (he's a Chinese guy for Christ's sake). He's a star on the court for pickup games with 12-year-olds, and the kids absolutely love the guy - he's a charismatic fellow. But he is starting to be alienated from his family and the greater Chinese-American community, a group of people with whom ping-pong is an important sport. So I guess you could say Ping-Pong is in C-dub's blood... I think you see where this is going.
Anyhow, the movie was great fun. Probably not up for an Oscar, but El Sancho certainly enjoyed it.
Score 11 to zip
Thor, the Dark World: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981115/
The plot was hard to follow. There's a concurrence, alignment of worlds, or something weird happening that beams out of the sky and monkeys with gravity. However, whatever it is and no matter how hopeless, you know the good guys are gonna win and the end will have an opening to make Thor 3. I find it hard to see people fighting with swords and futuristic laser guns at the same time.
Thor's hammer is strange. You would think there would be more to it. I thought Loki got his just reward this time, but I won't spoil the movie.
There were some romantic parts such as the two interns getting together and Thor sensing some jealousy when someone his girlfriend dated called her and his girlfriend greeting both Thor and Loki with slaps across their faces. There was also some tension with another female who wanted Thor, but this wasn't developed. Although, these romantic parts were humorous, they didn't provide enough comic relief nor enough heartfelt interest to balance the fighting.
But the main question I'm left with is: how are the bad guys gonna see if they take away the light?
Score: 5/10
Superman II: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superma...ard_Donner_Cut
Now this movie, unlike Thor The Dark World, had all the pieces in place: humor, romance and people getting their butts kicked.
Comparing the two, one can see that the technology in creating illusions has improved over the past three decades.
Score: 8/10
Does the RSC Live streaming of Henry IV Part 1 count? It's the last thing I saw at the cinema and I guess it was filmed in a way that made it more movie-esque, ie. Not filmed from one fixed viewpoint as you'd see it from your seat in the theatre, but with multiple camera angles, zoom-ins etc. Really interesting concept, fantastic play.
9/10
My favorite way to "read" Shakespeare is to watch a video of the play, RobbyA. I haven't seen Henry IV, either part yet.
Last night I watched The Hobbit the Desolation of Smaug: http://www.thehobbit.com/
The scenery was beautiful, but I wasn't clear about the plot. There were a lot of nice parts with orcs getting killed and some romance between a dwarf and an elf guard that provided some relief to the killing. It was definitely better than the last Thor movie I saw, but I was too confused. Why did Gandalf have to go off and leave the dwarfs to go through that wierd forest with the spiders and elves alone?
Score: 6/10
I saw The Ledge last night – a drama thriller. It wasn't so bad. The story of Gavin and Shana seemed a bit absurd, specially the way it ended. Overall the plot was gripping. 6/10
American Hustle
It was hard to follow just what what going on, but the characters were enjoyable.
Score: 9/10
Raising Arizona
Wonderful movie.
Score: 10/10
Classic. Since you liked this, you might also like Kung Fu Hustle, which has a similar live-action Warner Brothers cartoon feel to it.Quote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
The first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies are still tremendous fun. I liked some things about Man of Steel, but I think overall it paled in comparison.
Kung Fu Hustle is in the library! I'll check it out tomorrow.
Kung Fu Hustle: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373074/
Entertaining and original. Sometimes I couldn't tell the good guys from the bad guys. The subtitle on the edition I watched read "From walking disaster to kung fu master" which was cute. There was an unromantic romantic theme that resolved itself in the end.
Score: 9/10
Glad you liked it! Then I feel safe in recommending Stephen Chow's previous movie, Shaolin Soccer.Quote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
OMG. The library has Shaolin Soccer as well.
I tried watching Zatoichi at Large and fell asleep. Zatoichi is a blind samurai. It is so far so over the top of my expectations of what either anime or any video should look like that my score is still ?/10.
Godzilla (2014) - some nice directing touches, but probably one of the worst scripts of any blockbuster I've ever seen - and that's saying something.
I've never seen any of the Zatoichi movies, though I know they're hugely popular in Japan. I think my father has seen some of them and recommended them.Quote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
Fun fact: Shintaro Katsu, who played Zatoichi in the original Zatoichi films, was the younger brother of Tomisaburo Wakayama, who played protagonist Itto Ogami in the concurrently-running Lone Wolf and Cub movies.