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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Man of Tai Chi (2013) China | Hollywood

Some talents are misled by the powerful men.





Genre:
Action, Drama,


Tagline:
"No rules. No mercy. Pure fighting."


Review:
     Directional debut for Keanu Reeves which was partially based on stuntman Tiger Chen's life story. Since the story was inspired by a Chinese character, the movie was co-produced by Hollywood and China in Cantonese and Mandarin languages with a little English. Keanu Reeves appeared in a negative role and his friend Tiger Chen as himself.

     As the Keanu Reeves's first movie as a captain it is evident that he had faced tough challenges to capture in some of the scenes. Clearly the fight choreographies were the best parts of the movie. Since his friend Tiger Chen is a stuntman they had no troubles in those areas. Those who love martial arts will like this movie for its awesome stunt sequences. Drama portions were little sloppy, due to the similar fashion storyline that already we had seen in some of the earlier releases.

‘‘The stronger they are
the better I fight’’


     It is not a finest martial art movie of the year, but fights were the movie's highlight. I can't appreciate Keanu Reeves direction, but somehow he handled everything nicely from this movie being a junk. He's a good actor than a director, though he may improve in his next project, but I don't know.

     I expected this movie to be fast paced, exciting one, but what I got was opposite. The reason was the story of individual character did not fit into as a single movie. For example, Tiger Chen's master and his story, Hong Kong Police and their criminal chase, all these looked a bit weird together. Removing commercial elements could have made it a better movie.

     This is not the first time a western director flew to the east to make a movie. It has been done many times in the past in movies like 'The Last Samurai', 'Kundun' and the recent one '47 Ronin' et cetera. So no wonder Keanu Reeves made this with his best friend Tiger Chen. The question is, is this movie worth to have a peek? I would say it was not the best nor the worst.


Similar movies:
The Last Samurai, 47 Ronin, Tom Yong Goong, Ip Man, Chocolate


Suitable for:
Tween, Teen, Adult, All


Final verdict:
Ignore, Bad, Average, Good, Excellent



External link(s):
HTML tutorial  HTML tutorial  HTML tutorial  HTML tutorial

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Mill and the Cross (2011) Poland | Sweden

At the time when everything was not still. 





Genre:
Drama, History


Tagline:
"Behind every great painting lies an even greater story."


Review:
     An art movie about the 16th century's arts. It was based on the book of the same name which details the landscaper Pieter Bruegel's painting 'The Procession to Calvary'. A movie specially made for classical painting lovers.

     The movie had very less talkings and everything should be learnt by watching the pictures which depicts painting like series of frames. So there's nothing much to talk about the movie. One of the best ever production designs. Frankly, I was less enjoyed due to lack of knowledge about Bruegel, but glad I saw it and come to know few things about 1500s culture through his paintings.

     After all, I was not stranger to 'The Procession to Calvary' only by a few weeks before watching this movie. Recently I saw a movie called 'Museum Hours' and it helped a bit to understand this movie. In that movie a guide, an expert briefs in a scene about this painting and the reason behind it.

     It was a very unique movie, which still won't exactly portray as it had happened. A glimpse about the idea of it might have been like that. More like an imaginary world created behind the magnificent art work. Not suitable for all, especially those who watch movies for entertainment should stay away from it.


Similar movies:
Museum Hours, Le Tableau, Uncle Boonmee


Suitable for:
Tween, Teen, Adult, All


Final verdict:
Ignore, Bad, Average, Good, Excellent


External link(s):
HTML tutorial  HTML tutorial  HTML tutorial  HTML tutorial



Tuesday, April 22, 2014

The Congress (2013) France | Israel

The world is changing very fast. Are you ready to sail along...?



Animation (2D) | Drama | Fantasy | Science Fiction

Original title:
Le Congrès (French)


Review:
     An Israel-French co-productioned English language movie. The movie was both live action and animation which divides into two equal parts in the 2 hour movie. The movie chronicles the tale of an actress who travels different medium of the world during her second half of the life. The actress role was played by Robin Wright as herself.

     Actually, it was better than I expected. It opens with a plain drama about a middle aged actress who suffers from the lack of offers to play in the movies. She has to agree with whatever the proposal comes her way for the sake of the future of her career. And that is the end of live action, then the screenplay begins to turn into an animation which illustrated similar to the movie 'Inception'. In a dream like world, everything can be possible with a creative mind. After becoming old the actress sails into the cartoon world for some reason, but meets a guy in a chaos created by the rebels. What follows next is possibly driven to the confusion between reality and the fictional world.

     In the history of world cinema there are plenty of movies we can find where live action and animation collides. This movie was such a concept with extraordinary flavours. Some people did not like the movie mainly for the style of animations that rendered in it, but I was pleased. They did not go for 3D animation, for cast and storyline like this it would have cost a lot which won't earn back in the distribution market. The whole movie to present in live action, people would have complained about copying the idea of 'Inception'. So I feel as it is, it was so cool and clever. You should understand it properly to get the point of the movie the writer and director trying to say. Veritably, it was a fine adaptation from a novel by the visionary sci-fi writer.



Similar movies:
Inception, Mr. Nobody, Spirited Away, The Fountain, Children Who Chase Lost Voices


Suitable for:
Tween, Teen, Adult, All


Final verdict:
Ignore, Bad, Average, Good, Excellent

The Congress (2013) on IMDb


Monday, April 21, 2014

Foosball (2013) Argentina

A call for a rematch from foosball to football.



Animation (3D) | Adventure | Comedy | Sport

Original title:
Metegol (Spanish)


Tagline:
"Being small has never been greater."
"Back together again?"


Review:
     A 3D animated sport-movie from Argentina. I do not hail from a football crazy country like South America or Europe, though I love the game. This movie was about foosball, a table football and its game characters.

     This story follows when a professional footballer Grosso challenged his old enemy Amadeo to play football on a real turf after he was narrowly lost in a foosball game to him a long ago. Amadeo had no choice but to accept the challenge when his town is under a threat and to save his girlfriend. He's clueless about the preparation and game plan, but under some circumstances foosball characters come to life which offers support to build a team. And what comes next is the most excited game in the last quarter of the movie.

     It was a terrific idea like 'Night at the Museum' and many other movies, but lost to a bad story and execution. Technically it had the upper hand than the entertainment side. I love the animation, especially the foosball characters, very nicely created. A movie that had all the qualities to be a fine short animation than a full length feature. Unfortunately, it was based on a short animation and failed to stretch its runtime with some good scenes.

     It was obvious that the many parts of the movie were dull due to poor transition between the scenes. I think the screenwriter was clueless about what to add and not. A great achievement, according to the Argentinian animation industry. But the storyline and characters were more local cultural tradition than universal appeal which might influence audience from the other parts to draw out of the interest except children and foosball fans. The movie was not fun at all, it was pretty serious which should have not been. In my guess I believe adding more jokes should have saved the movie. At least the movie can be watched once with a lower expectation than that from Hollywood.



Similar movies:
The Painting, Osmosis Jones, Stuart Little, Night at the Museum, G-Force, The Smurfs


Suitable for:
Tween, Teen, Adult, All


Final verdict:
Ignore, Bad, Average, Good, Excellent

Underdogs (2013) on IMDb


  • Tween: From age between 7 to 12
  • Teen: From age between 13 to 19
  • Adult: From age above 20
  • Ignore: Not worth watching
  • Bad: Not good but watchable
  • Average: 50-50, choice is always yours
  • Good: great certainly not masterpiece
  • Excellent: A must see, Masterpiece

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Philomena (2013) United Kingdom | Hollywood

Hope, and with a little hard effort can make you reach your destiny.



Biography | Drama

Tagline:
"These two unlikely companions are on a journey to find her long lost son."


Review:
     The movie was adapted from a book called 'The Lost Child of Philomena Lee' which was based on the true story of an Irish woman. The movie chronicles the story of Philomena's quest in search of her long lost son which travels all the way across the ocean to different countries. And again this incredible story ended in the hands of a great director. The director Stephen Fears just put some magic spell on the story and it became a soulful movie with the fine support from his cast and crew.

     The movie was just like I wanted. From each level of the story, it surprised with the beautiful turning points. It was a single movie, but I felt I saw part by part, chapter after another with detailed information. 'Philomena' is phenomenal movie of the year. The depth of emotions can be felt through our heart, very touching story. An inspiring movie for other mothers who are still looking for their lost children. One should never lose his 'hope', it can be used as a powerful weapon to discover what had you lost.

     I had seen plenty of nature documentaries about a mother and love towards her kids. It might be a polar bear from Arctic or a penguin from Antarctic they all fight for their little ones and ready to give her own life when it matters. In this movie Philomena's (Judi Dench) child was taken away from her under some tough circumstances. She kept it secret in her sealed lip but never stopped to look for him. She waited for 50 year-long, finally with the help of a former BBC journalist, Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), she succeeds to follow the tracks. Whether the mother and son unite or not is the movie's end.

     As far I know the best ever performance by Steve Coogan. This movie definitely will boost his confidence for his future project and also will help his professional graph go upwards. Never doubted the James Bond lady (M), Judi Dench as Philomena. Her experience came to very useful to shape up this movie well. Never could have been this much exciting the movie without these two along with the director. Hope they all join hands together for another project in the near future.



Similar movies:
Abducted: The Carlina White Story, Losing Isaiah, Youkame no Semi (Rebirth), I Am Sam, Hamoni


Suitable for:
Tween, Teen, Adult, All


Final verdict:
Ignore, Bad, Average, Good, Excellent

Philomena (2013) on IMDb


  • Tween: From age between 7 to 12
  • Teen: From age between 13 to 19
  • Adult: From age above 20
  • Ignore: Not worth watching
  • Bad: Not good but watchable
  • Average: 50-50, choice is always yours
  • Good: great certainly not masterpiece
  • Excellent: A must see, Masterpiece

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy (2014) Hollywood

TinkerBell's all new adventures.



Animation (3D) | Adventure | Fantasy

Tagline:
"In the world of Peter Pan."


Review:
     The fifth movie of the 'Tinkerbell' movie series. Probably the weakest one only in a slight margin, but the entertainment was assured. For each sequel DisneyToon brought a new director to direct it. With vast change in stories from each other to the addition of new characters in every new movie. These frequent modifications had a significant task to the movie's stronghold, especially for young kids under 8 as well the most of the grown ups.

     I have been watching this movie series since the first one came out. As a movie buff, I love to watch all kinds of movie so I did not leave this children's movie as well. In todays world you don't have to hesitate to peek into a movie like this because, for the record, effortlessly millions of bucks making movies are the animations.

     Like I said the new addition was the character Zarina, a dust-keeper fairy who is another version of Tinkerbell. She is very skilled and curious in nature about everything she sees who love to modify and invent new things. In a such experiment she conducts something goes wrong and the whole fairy community will be held in a dangerous situation. As usual, our smart Tinkerbell and Co makes their effort to break free from the evil course. How it has been done is the story in the remains.

     There's a thing in the story where powers of each other fairies are switched. Because of that, all the fairies engaged in adventures are equally unveiled. So if you are a Tinkerbell fan, you will be slightly disappointed. Also the story was tried to connect with Peter Pan's Neverland with characters like croc with clock ticking noise from his belly and of course the Hook, the pirate captain. If you are a intelligent enough, you will find other stuffs as well. A good movie in a series that is not too awesome or too awful, but can be enjoyable for its short run.



Similar movies:
Secret of the Wings, The Great fairy Rescue, Tinker Bell, Epic, The Cat Returns


Suitable for:
Tween, Teen, Adult, All


Final verdict:
Ignore, Bad, Average, Good, Excellent

The Pirate Fairy (2014) on IMDb


  • Tween: From age between 7 to 12
  • Teen: From age between 13 to 19
  • Adult: From age above 20
  • Ignore: Not worth watching
  • Bad: Not good but watchable
  • Average: 50-50, choice is always yours
  • Good: great certainly not masterpiece
  • Excellent: A must see, Masterpiece