title

title
Showing posts with label Simon Yam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon Yam. Show all posts

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

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Cold Eyes (2013) South Korea

It is a game of spying and slipping away.



Action | Crime

Original title:
Gam-si-ja-deul (Korean)


Also known as: 
Surveillance


Review:
      You can call it remake or inspired but this movie resembles Simon Yam's 'Eye in the sky' and a little bit of 'Infernal Affairs'. And that confirms when Simon himself appears as a cameo at the end. This Korean movie was very stylishly made especially the character appearances. An exciting pace with high tech electronic devices implements to spy the criminals gives a very modern look on detectives.

      The movie begins with a twist at opening itself like some interview to hire somebody. Its a surveillance theme where a team of Korean intelligence works together to take down a group of bank robbers. Piglet is a given pet name to a newly recruited officer for the special crime unite. Her impressive observation talent puts her straight into a major spying case. Soon she gets her first field assignment to track the movements of one of the heist member. The thrilling story of 'Cold Eyes' tells how Piglet and her team led by Lee jointly acts to get the ruthless thieves.

      This movie portrayed only between the two groups and nothing else like the rest of the world is blind. Between these two, the thieves and cops, it is demonstrated like a cat-mouse game. It was a good entertaining movie one can enjoy it thoroughly. If you have already seen 'Eye in the sky' or not, no matter this movie is still looking good on its own so you will have a good time. There were no hardcore stunts in the movie except a couple of quick sequences. After all it is a spying theme which fulfills its purpose in a stylish manner.



Similar movies:
Going by the Book, Eye in the Sky, Infernal Affairs, Headhunters, Flash Point, Kill Zone


Suitable for:
Tween, Teen, Adult, All


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

Cold Eyes (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