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Kam
09-11-2008, 07:46 AM
A World Without Thieves (2004, China, Starring Andy Lau) - The story follows a pair of grifters at the end of their last job, having stolen a BMW and are about to sell it. The girl (Rene Liu) wants to end their ways and start a new life and the guy (Andy Lau) wants to keep going. They break up, both romantically and professionally, and go their separate ways. Andy takes off in the car and Rene walks the Chinese countryside. Rene then runs into a very simple villager/orphan who is looking to go back home and find himself a wife with his lifes savings of 60,000 yuan.

She goes with him on a train where Andy catches up with her, seeking to get back together and the three form a strange union/family on the trip on the train. However, also on the same train is another group of thieves who have overheard the orphan and know he has money. A battle of wits and tactics ensues as the group of thieves tries to get the money and Andy/Rene try and protect the orphan. A few twists and turns and tricks along the way and you've got an entertaining and very touching story. Highly reccomended.

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008, USA, Freddie Highmore [the kid from finding neverland]) - meh. It's kind of a Narnia knockoff. It was interesting enough and i wasn't bored watching it, but nothing that really drew me in to make it an over-the-top success. Divorced/Separated mom with twins and a daughter moves to an old family house where the recalcitrant twin (both played by Freddie highmore, with some pretty solid special effects to do so) finds an old book of secrets written by their great grand uncle Mr. Spiderwick. He opens the book and signals to the bad guy Ogre that the book is 'openned'. The ogre wants the book for world domination, as Ogre's are want to do, and the kids want to protect the book from the ogre to prevent said world domination. Hijinks ensue, good fights evil, yadda yadda. Marginally reccomended.

The Legend of the Shadowless Sword (2005, Korea, lots of people i didn't recognize) The king is dead! The princes are almost all dead! Only one remains and the best warrior maiden of the kingdom is sent to bring the last remaining prince back to lead the kingdom. The badguys (obviously the ones who have killed the king and the princes) have set a group of assassins to kill the last prince. There are rivalries and lots of action as we find out some people aren't who they seem to be and others are worse than we thought they were.

Once you get past the intro section and into the movie, it gets a LOT better. Especially once they get rid of one character that is too obviously, and horribly done, as a Jack Sparrow rip-off. After the warrior maiden (who is quite hot, just fyi) gets the prince out of his comfort zone of being a douche-bag and back on the trail of becoming a prince, it's a fun, entertaining movie. The martial arts sequences are more dance poetry than anything else and they go ridiculous on the wire work ala Crouching Tiger, but without the stunning wushu moves that also go into Chinese choreography. Reccomended.

Doomsday (2008, directed by Neil Marshall, with Rhona Mitra) So... i picked this up mainly because i'm a big fan of neil marshall's other movie, Dog Soldiers. But to be honest, he's gone downhill since then. I loved Dog Soldiers (originally reccomended by our very own worfster), and i loved the first half of The Descent before it really descended into stupidity, and now Doomsday is nearly all crap. Just watch the trailer and you'll have seen enough. Although Rhona Mitra is redonkulously hot, it's just not enough to carry an otherwise horrible movie. And it's not bad enough to be in the "so-bad-its-good" category. It's just plain stupid. NOT reccomended. :D

more reviews coming soon!

peace

k2

Worf101
09-11-2008, 10:15 AM
On your recommendation I rented "Legend of the Black Scorpion". I really enjoyed this reinterpretation of the "Hamlet" and look forward to renting "A World Without Thieves" as it sounds to be the best of the lot and I'm way behind on some other movie viewing.

Da Worfster

Auricauricle
09-11-2008, 12:52 PM
Mebbe you should check out the South Koren "Oldboy". IMDb had this write up:

"An average man is kidnapped and imprisoned in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. He then is released, equipped with money, a cellphone and expensive clothes. As he strives to explain his imprisonment and get his revenge, he soon finds out that not only his kidnapper has still plans for him, but that those plans will serve as the even worse finale to 15 years of imprisonment.

On the day of his daughter's birthday, Ho Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) gets completely drunk and is arrested. His best friend No Joo-hwan (Dae-han Ji) releases him from the police station, and while calling home from a phone booth, Dae-su vanishes. Indeed he has been abducted and imprisoned in a room for fifteen years. One day, he is suddenly released, receives clothes, money and a cellular and meets the Japanese chef Mido (Hye-jeong Kang), and they feel a great attraction for each other. However, Dae-su seeks for his captor and the reason of his long imprisonment. While looking for revenge, Dae-su discloses deep secrets from the past". Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It's gritty, its feirce, it hurts and it never stops shaking you up....

I couldn't take my eyes off it.

Kam
09-11-2008, 01:00 PM
Mebbe you should check out the South Koren "Oldboy". IMDb had this write up:

"An average man is kidnapped and imprisoned in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. He then is released, equipped with money, a cellphone and expensive clothes. As he strives to explain his imprisonment and get his revenge, he soon finds out that not only his kidnapper has still plans for him, but that those plans will serve as the even worse finale to 15 years of imprisonment.

On the day of his daughter's birthday, Ho Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) gets completely drunk and is arrested. His best friend No Joo-hwan (Dae-han Ji) releases him from the police station, and while calling home from a phone booth, Dae-su vanishes. Indeed he has been abducted and imprisoned in a room for fifteen years. One day, he is suddenly released, receives clothes, money and a cellular and meets the Japanese chef Mido (Hye-jeong Kang), and they feel a great attraction for each other. However, Dae-su seeks for his captor and the reason of his long imprisonment. While looking for revenge, Dae-su discloses deep secrets from the past". Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It's gritty, its feirce, it hurts and it never stops shaking you up....

I couldn't take my eyes off it.

i have! i loved Oldboy. and the whole trilogy! I thought Oldboy was the best of the three, but Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance had the hardest visceral impact (which is saying alot given the power of the ending to Oldboy) and Lady Vengeance i thought was the weakest of the 3, if only by comparison as to how good the other 2 are. Also, Chan Wook Park's addition to Three Extreme's is phenomenal too! This dude really loves to examine 'revenge'!

Auricauricle
09-11-2008, 01:22 PM
I didn't even know it was a trilogy. Should've known, I reckon. Reminds me of a Korean version of Kill Bill or something that Tarantino would've sunk his fangs into.

BTW: Seeing you're a thespian, how're the gigs up there?

Pretty somber day, all told, eh?

Kam
09-11-2008, 01:28 PM
I didn't even know it was a trilogy. Should've known, I reckon. Reminds me of a Korean version of Kill Bill or something that Tarantino would've sunk his fangs into.

BTW: Seeing you're a thespian, how're the gigs up there?

Pretty somber day, all told, eh?

yeah. :( defn was. always has been for the past 8 years. but thankfully has been busy for me today at the dayjob so i havent been watching any of the news memorials about it.

and i'm actually in a thespian dry spell right now, have some auditions coming up (fingers crossed) but lately haven't been able to get past the call-back stage. haven't been on stage in about 6 months now! withdrawal!! ugh.

and i think this is a true trilogy, (ala red, blue, white) in that Park really examines the themes of Revenge from three distinct pov's in these three movies. there's no carry over in terms of characters, just the thematic thread that links all 3 movies. i think the order of them is Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance.