Movie Reviews By Movie Reviews Pro

Tau Ming Chong: The Warlords

Rating:

Movie: The Warlords (2007)

Studio : Morgan & Chan Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 127 min

Website : warlordsthemovie.com

Trailer :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcupej

Review:

Missing the chance to catch this film during New York’s Asian Film Festival, I was pleased to learn about the film’s “wider” release to theaters. While released a few years back, the task of subbing a foreign film into the U.S. combined perhaps with other unknown complications have disallowed American audiences from seeing this film locally until recently.

Although widely unknown by most Americans, the Taiping Rebellion is considered by many to be one of the most violent wars of all-time, matching World War I and some may even argue the second World War as well. I will skip the background of this time, as the movie itself actually centers less on the large scale of its history and more on a point involving three particular men. A fallen general finds solace in a poor village where he meets two bandit leaders. With his guidance, they not only do they become brothers-in-arms, but fight off the rebel insurgence. Between this, there is an affair, politicking, and quite a few gorgeous moments to drink in the scenery.

I should say that even as someone who has never been a historian of this period of time, you can still tell that this film is adulterated from its original content, although if you’re complacent with the accuracy of films like Braveheart and U-571, then you should be content with this film because, despite the nature of the film, the overall execution is brilliant. Wars are epic in scale and given a gritty feel, and while there is a martial arts feel to the film, this film attempts to ground itself a little more, give or take a duel or two.

I can honestly say I enjoyed this film and would watch it again. Granted, I am a fan of this kind of Hong Kong cinema, but even when the gloves are back on and the subterfuge plays, there is a lot to appreciate between the unspoken moments of the film, from jade-toned misty mountain ranges to gracefully filthy villages to unspoken words between vocal expressions. This is definitely a foreign blockbuster I would recommend to any fan of action films willing to do a little reading with some points of underexaggerated drama.

-Donald Lee

Action, Drama, In Theaters, War

The Bounty Hunter

Rating:

Movie: The Bounty Hunter(2010)

Studio : Original Film

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 106 min

Website : bountyhunter-movie.net

Trailer :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcupc0

Review:

The whole premise plays out like the classic Seinfeld-ish chain of events. Gerard Butler plays a washed out cop-turned-bounty hunter, and Jennifer Anisten plays an aspiring reporter under parole. What do the two have in common? They were married. What happens when our female protagonist’s parole is missed for a big scoop? Wackiness!

It’s hard for me to not give The Bounty Hunter a little more credit where it’s due. Why? Ideally, I would like to say that the movie producers threw a little money my way and I complied like a bobblehead on a boat, but the honest truth is that despite how cliché this film is, it’s still reasonably watchable. This movie was made with no real contention for a great script, plot, or anything, and the actors know this and you can tell they’re having fun with it as a result. Gerard is practically borderline Jim Carrey at points in his outlandishness to Anisten’s forced straight man compliance, and I have to admit that it genuinely amused me feeling the energy the two gave off with each other. The side characters, while interesting, are fairly forgettable save two roles, one played by Christine Baranski as Aniston’s overly amorous lounge singer mother and Siobhan Fallon as Butler’s crude bail bond contact. Again, both seem to be somewhat exaggerated, and I think that’s what made them so infectiously funny.

This is the sort of film I would call a “compromise” if you want to see something with your amorous other and can’t choose between the chick flick or the action film. They’re both somewhat shlocky genres in general, and while the mishmash between them aren’t totally compatible (it actually stands out more towards the action end, in my opinion), there’s still enough in this film to make it fun to watch for some harmless entertainment.

-Donald Lee

Action, Comedy, In Theaters, Romance

Hot Tub Time Machine

Rating:

Movie: Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Studio : Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 100 min

Website : hottubtimemachinemovie.com/

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbmlpy

Review:

Adam (John Cusack), Lou (Rob Corddry), and Nick (Craig Robinson) are lifelong friends who are unhappy with their lives, who along with Adam’s nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), find themselves trapped in 1986, via the hot tub time machine, as their younger selves, reliving their past and missed opportunities, with a possibility (or impossibility?) of changing their present/future.

Much of the film’s strength is the fact that it takes place in the 80’s–the funky hair, the music, the slang, and the nostalgic factor. Loosely based on Back to the Future’s time traveling plotline, it also pokes fun at Quantum Leap, and various other 80’s films. Added to that is male-bonding comedy about lovable losers reliving their pinnacle moments of their past, and to the film’s credit, those moments provide poignancy.

This is a sci-fi B-movie-style broad comedy. This film is directed by Steve Pink who wrote the screenplay for Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity. I wished he had also written this film because this film could’ve used some of his sharp wit. While the film is mostly funny overall, occasional jokes do fall flat and some parts could’ve used one more draft of rewrite. Better or for worse, much of the humor (although not surprisingly) involve toilet and sexual humor, with some gratuitous drug use and nudity.

This isn’t sophisticated stuff, but this film isn’t trying to be. It’s called Hot Tub Time Machine, after all. The film works because the characters are likeable and the time travel concept is fun. John Cusack plays his usual, likeable everyman role. Lou (Rob Corddry) provides much of the extreme, wild humor. There are fun geeky references, familiar faces, and nostalgic elements for those of us who grew up in that era–the younger generation may have a hard time fully appreciating some of that. Nevertheless, the filmmakers know it’s silly stuff and they milk and revel in the concept to its fullest extent, which is all one can ask for.

-“D-Art” Kang

Comedy, In Theaters, Reviews by Genre Comedy, John Cusack

Shutter Island

Rating:

Movie: Shutter Island (2010)

Studio : Paramount Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 138 min

Website : shutterisland.com

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbyi72

Review:

Having been a huge fan of such classic Martin Scorsese films like The Departed, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull, I had been anticipating the release of Shutter Island ever since I saw the first preview. And I’m glad I got the opportunity to see it.

Set in 1954, the movie starts Scorsese regular Leonardo DiCaprio as Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshal who’s been sent to Ashcliffe, a hospital for the criminally insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient who drowned her children. Accompanying him is fellow Marshal Chuck Aule (played by a characteristically muted Mark Ruffalo).

The hospital is located on an island just off the coast of Massachusetts, and we open as Daniels and Aule are introduced to each other on the ferry ride in, but there’s something about the gray skies and rough waters on their journey that give ominous hints of things to come.

We meet Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow), who carry a friendly guise, but appear to have something more sinister lurking beneath. They’re reluctant to offer information to the lawmen on their investigation, so DiCaprio does some snooping around on his own.

DiCaprio digs into his character well, as he shows a man troubled by his experiences in World War II along with the recent death of his wife. As he spends more time on the island, he begins to undergo hallucinations starring his wife, and there are hints that he could just become one of the patients.

The first half of the movie appears to be a hyped-up whodunit, and an excellent one at that. Scorsese appears to layer the investigation piece by piece, as DiCaprio and Ruffalo meet with a wide assortment of characters on the island that seem to lead them towards something more complex than the case of an escaped murderess.

For this part, the hallucinations, while necessary in establishing DiCaprio’s character, seemed to be overdone and were somewhat distracting from the actual case itself. However, this being a Scorsese film, there are a few surprises, and I can’t write too much more about it without giving away a twist that I half-predicted. However, it did end up surprising me and had me thinking the next day.

The movie is visually impressive as well. A hurricane approaches, and there are a couple tautly filmed sequences starring a lighthouse at the edge of the island, as well as some harrowingly tight cliffs and high-splashing waves that echo of Cape Fear. This movie proves once again why Scorsese is the legend that he is.

-Craig Wynne

Drama, In Theaters, Mystery crime, Drama, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Mystery