Category: Movies

Being a great fan of Chinese martial arts movies in general and Jackie Chan in particular, I had to watch “The Young Master” (also known as “Shi di chu ma”). It is one of the first movies directed and produced by Jackie Chan himself. And it was very good.

The story was kind of weak. But it usually is in these movies. It is only to match and mix fighters of all levels into both group and duel fights. Which there were plenty in the film. Four fights were standing out and I guess they were either the classics by the time Chan did them, or they became classics afterwards. When Dragon (played by Jackie) is fighting with cheif police inspector’s son, who is using a wooden bench is interesting and innovative. Especially the part where the bench is used to tie and control the opponent. Fight between Chan and cheif police inspector in the house was hilarious. It can be used to measure Chan’s progress in recent movies. Fight with inspector’s daughter and her dress was classy. It was so good that Jackie even tries to use it two times in the same movie, when later he fights two bad guys using a dress from the shop. The closing fight with the bad guy was good too. It was surprisingly long and style changing.

This movie is fun and if you like either Chinese movies about kung-fu or Jackie’s action movies, you should see this one.

7 out of 10.

Olga and I went to the movies today after a somewhat break. We’ve watched “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason“. It is, if you don’t know, the sequel to “Bridget Jones’s Diary“. We haven’t seen the first film, though, but decided to go anyway.

Short story: both of us enjoyed the movie. It is nice and classy comedy romance with few bits of drama. It turned out to be slightly better than both of us expected. I was suprised by the plot curves – it went further than usual with all those Thai prison and cocain thingies. But it was all good. Casual humour and the amount of jokes were also good, as well as costume design, scene setup, decorations, and character development. In fact, the only issue I have with this film is – Ren�e Zellweger. Not that she cannot act, she surely can. But in this film she was way over herself. She tried to be something she is not and it didn’t look nice.

Overall, the movie leaves the feeling of reading an interesting blog with bits and pieces of everything – humor, links, pictures, joy and sadness, thoughts, and unfamiliar people getting slightly more familiar. I think that it was worth the time, but I am not planning to see it again.

6 out of 10.

I am writing this post being totally smashed and shaken by “House of Sand and Fog” that I have watched on DVD a couple of hours ago. I can barely find any words to express myself.

This is one of the greatest movies that I have seen recently. It is a pure drama, which don’t come out that often. No product coloring like comedy or action were added. It is somewhat slow paced and all “artistic” will brilliant photography and sound pieces. In fact, it is done in the way that usually leaves me very unsatisfied and frastrated. I don’t like this type of movies. But “House of Sand and Fog” was an exception.

Vadim Perelman shoud really be awarded a bunch of awards for this film. Especially considering that he directed, produced, and screenplayed it. And considering the fact that this is his first movie ever. Unbelievable! The rest of the crew were great too. Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley delivered excellent performace, while there plenty was coming from the supporting roles too.

This film is an absolute must see. 10 out of 10.

“Sweet November” was on TV. It is a pretty good romance movie with somewhat original story, although not unseen before.

The movie is nicely paced and with good character development but screwed up dialogues and slightly unsatisfying music. The biggest mistake was, of course, hiring Keanu Reeves instead of a real actor. Tough luck for Charlize Theron, who had to pull most of the movie by herself. She was as lovely as always though. She can act, she is very natural, and she is extremely energetic.

Nothing really more I can say about this film, so it gets a 6 out of 10.

P.S. Check the trivia page for this film.