Movie Review: War (2007)

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My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie “War (2007) (aka “Rogue Assassin”)” at Cinepex, Market Square, Markham, Ontario, Canada

Having been away from North American cinemas for some time. I wanted to watch a movie while I was in Toronto. Unfortunately, due to the amount of time I had, I was not able to find a movie that I want to watch at one of the better cinemas.

I had always like Jet Li movies, when combined with Jason Statham and John Lone I was expecting a great movie with many amazing fight scenes. This was where a mistake, since it placed my expectation for the movie quite high. In foresight it was too high.

I think this is the first movie in which Statham had a lot of dialogue. For some reason I find that every time Statham spoke in the movie I had a real difficulty hearing what he was saying.

Fortunately the fight scenes were great as typical Jet Li movies, this may be because its martial art directions were by Corey Yuen, the fight choreographer of most of Jet Li’s previous movies.

The car driven by Li’s character was very nice. It is a Spyker C8 Spyder. It it was not for the twisted plot and the cars in the movie I would have given it a even lower Penguin rating.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Transformers

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My Rating: 4Stars

This evening I saw the movie “Transformers” at Broadway Theaters, Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sa Tsui.

For some reason I was never into Transformers toys when I was a kid. Although, I did see the cartoons on TV while living in Hong Kong.

The special effects were amazing, with only a couple scenes that did not match the real picture, where the blue screen was obviously in use.

There were so many product placements, ranging from HP, Apple Inc. and GMC. Fortunately, Dreamworks did not infect the movie with too many of its typical in-your-face humor, as they normally do with their animations.

There were enough action and humor to keep the audience on the edge of their seats while just the right number of breaks in between to let them catch their breaths.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

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My Rating: 4Stars

This evening I saw the movie “Live Free or Die Hard” at UA Cinema, Time Square, Causeway Bay.

One simple word, WOW!!

If the plot of this movie was a bit more different than the previous 3 movies in the franchise, I would have easily given it my 5 penguins rating.

The special effects in this movie is very similar to the up coming movie “Next” with Nicolas Cage. You can find the exact release date in Hong Kong from my Must See Movies list.

I do not want to get into the plot, as it will give it away. I was presently surprised that it can be better than the previous 2 movies: “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” and “Die Hard 2” in the series. Of course, very few sequels can be better than the original. So if you like the Die Hard franchise you will like this movie.

PS: the “Mac Guy”, Justin Long, from Apple’s Get a Mac commercials co-star in this movie with Bruce Willis.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Zodiac

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My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie “Zodiac” at UA Cinema, Time Square, Causeway Bay.

After watching the trailer for this movie I was anticipating a movie of intriguing plot with a difference, but fifteen minutes into the movie I realized my assumption was incorrect. The plot does have the twist and turns of a murder mystery, unfortunately this was only evident on the surface.

Much has to do with Jake Gyllenhaal’s acting and his character “Robert Graysmith”. Graysmith is very similar to the obsessive nature of the character, “Anthony Swofford” that Gyllenhaal played in the 2005 movie, Jarhead.

I am now batting 3 for 3 in bad movies. Is it time for me to review my criterions before choosing the next movie to watch?

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer

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My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” at JP Theater, Causeway Bay.

The first movie, “Fantastic Four” of the series was not so great. I particularly do not like the actor, Michael Chiklis who played the character “Ben Grimm”. Chiklis is most recognized for his role as “Vic Mackey” in the TV series, “The Shield“. That is the character I keep associating him with, and his character as “Ben Grimm” in “Fantastic Four” was not distinctive enough to change that for me.

One good thing about latest movie in the series, is that Chiklis was only himself; without “The Thing” makeup, in two short scenes. The rest of the plot was a bit weak. They expected the audience to have seen the first movie, which I believe is always a bad thing to assume for a sequel.

The other good thing with this movie was the CG. Unfortunately, that is the only thing one can look forward to.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Ocean’s 13

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My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie “Ocean’s 13” at UA Time Square, Causeway Bay.

Unfortunately, this is yet another movie that fell into the sequel hole. In my opinion the only one from the series that’s original was the first one “Ocean’s 11“, which was a remake of the 1960 original.

Yes, the clothes on George Clooney and Brad Pitt, but other than that there is really no surprise in this one and the plot is even weaker.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Spider-man 3

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My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie “Spider-man 3” at JP Theater, Causeway Bay.

I was disappointed. I guess it has to do with “Tobey Maguire“, he is someone easily hated. Given he plays the hero, Spider-man, of the movie that is not a good thing. Plus, I never thought “Kirsten Dunst” to be cast correctly as the heroine. I saw them when they were much younger in the first Spider-man, unlike the actors in movie “Harry Potter”, these two did not improve over time.

The supporting actors in the movie were much better, and their humorous scenes saved the movie for me. Many of the kids in the audience were not captured by the actions in the movie or the lack of action. The movie was way too long, at many spots it feels like it was dragging on too long.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Shooter

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My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie “Shooter” at JP Theater, Causeway Bay.

It has the style of “The Bourne Identity” franchise staring Matt Damon.

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Even the poster used in Hong Kong theaters had the Bourne Identity feel.

The Bourne Identity resemblance was not the reason I gave it 3 penguins. The acting was amateurish, the story was weak. There were many areas that were not believable.

Danny Glover of Lethal Weapon fame had some sort of lisp every time he spoke. Aside from him many of the actors’ dialogs were hard to understand. Making me want to seek the Chinese subtitles for clarification. Unfortunately, I cannot read Chinese well enough, so I missed most of the dialogs in the movie, causing me to guess what was going on based on the action.

If it was not for the mediocre entertainment value I would have given it 2 penguins.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: 300

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My Rating: 4Stars

This evening I saw the movie “300” at Golden Harvest Gateway, Tsim Sa Tsui.

Many in the United States claim that this movie has a lot of American propaganda. Having heard that comment before I saw the movie, made me appreciate why they would say that. Although, if I did not I would not have drawn that same conclusion.

This movie was littered with CGI, and after watching the behind the scene special on Discovery Channel I was amaze how seamless they were. CGI is advancing so fast that it will get harder and harder to distinguish on the big screen what is real and what is animated.

This movie brought me to realize that a new warlord would appear every few decades. So are these critics in the US correct to call the US; in particular George Bush, Jr. “the warlord” of our time? I will not dare to comment any further on the subject. May be next time when I have more time.

Anyway, without being too concern with the political inference of the movie, this is a fairly enjoyable movie and deserves my 4 penguins rating. If I had a HD TV I might even consider buying a Blu-ray or HD DVD of this movie.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it if you can
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Mission Impossible III

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My Rating: 5Stars

This evening I went to see the movie “ Mission Impossible III” at Broadway Cinema, IFC II. Another one from my Must See Movies list.

Simply… “Well Done!”.

Like most sequels I go to, I tried not to have any expectations. One thing I did do, as I normally do for movies I definitely want to see, is to avoid all trailers. In the past, the Mission Impossible series with Tom Cruise usually showed most of the most exciting parts of the movie in the various trailers they air. Hence, I made a point not to watch any of these trailers.

Not even knowing who was in the movie or the general plot was, helped add to the freshness and surprise of seeing the movie as the director laid it out. I actually had a feeling of excitement sitting in the theatre waiting for the movie to start, which is something I had not had in a long time for movies I am about to watch. I am happy to say that I was not disappointed.

There were the typical cheesy dialogs and the typical Tom Cruise trademark smiles through out the movie, but the plot had many twists and turns and the action were ample. They added more of the traditional Mission Impossible trickery compared to the previous two episodes of the series.

The sexy Maggie Q was okay in this movie, her Cantonese dialogs were horrible. They did not match the English translation nor were they typical phrases one would say. She did had a very sexy dress and car.

As usual I purposely did not describe the plot of this movie here, as there are many professional reviews of this movie already published. If you are a Mission Impossible fan; no matter you’re the Tom Cruise series or the original TV show, I would suggest you try my method of approaching this movie if you can. Avoiding the barrage of advertisements for this movie and just go into the movie with the pure intention to just enjoy.

Oh… you may want to make sure you visit the washroom prior to the movie, as it is a long one.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere