user-28221 Reviews

Buffalo '66 (1998)

Sorry, I had to go see about a girl.

[10/10 · 30 November 2009]

Sorry Doc. Sean, your line is stolen once again... But this is exactly what I think makes watching Buffalo '66 so nice.

Most of the time in the movie things and people are dark and dim, but like all of the other great movies where things and people are dark and dim, there is a purpose to make it dark and dim.

Some say there won't be any good if there's no bad, won't be any beauty if there's no ugliness, and the same reasoning applies to won't be any light if there are no darkness and dimness. Buffalo '66 is all about light, more exactly all about Billy's new sweet life with a new sweet girl Layla, rather than the darkness and dimness almost all over the movie. Just because the last odd sweet part is so short(probably from his call to Goon to reclaim everything he gave him to the very end), doesn't mean the movie's most important part isn't it. What a weird guy Vincent Gallo is! He uses 100 minutes of the movie as preparation for the last 10 minutes. And how smart he is! Because this is probably the best way to let you feel how sweet the sweet part is!

You are worried about him, you don't want him to do the stupid thing and kill himself, you'd tell him were you him you would instantly know you are going to spend the rest of your life with Layla! You as audience know how good his life could be if only he decides not to do something that he just doesn't have to do! And this is what makes the movie so weirdly romantic: all our hero needs to do to have a sweet life is decide not to do one thing that he doesn't have to do at all! And that one thing is: end your wonderful wonderful life...

I was thinking when the movie ends and Vincent sings, that Billy is gonna be like: hey what was I thinking then, I've got such a nice girl I don't even deserve that wants to be my girl, and I was thinking about killing myself for absolutely no reason? F*ck myself...

A lot of people tried killing themselves when their lives are actually good, many decided not to finally, and most of them, when they got their lives in front of them again, they are truly happy. We feel the same happiness for Billy at the end of movie, and that testifies that the movie is successful.

City of Life and Death (2009)

Too much effort on carrying messages weighs the movie down.

[7/10 · 30 November 2009]

It's VERY VERY VERY rare to see a Chinese movie about anti-Japanese invasion made so powerful and calm, well there are many solely powerful ones but powerful combined with calm is so rare.

One thing that makes it so calm is the directer has some different ideas and messages to offer to the audience, namely, Japanese soldiers are not all bad; some of them feel bad for the war; we Chinese shouldn't just vent and pin the blame on everyone of them. Well truthfully these are great ideas and we should bear these ideas in mind, however, over 60 years have passed since Japan surrendered, the agony and hatred have not yet faded at all.

So I guess it's safe to say that for Chinese people to appreciate this movie is yet too early.

But Luchuan's effort is certainly seen and felt. I think a question movie makers need to think about is how to strike a balance between providing a powerful vent for the audience of China and giving them a chance to delve into the subject more deeply. Is it possible? I think yes.

Think about this, if the movie didn't give that many minutes to the part about the Japanese soldier and the Japanese prostitute; if the movie didn't have the odd last scene where a bunch of Japanese soldiers dance to the victory, which is the biggest accomplice that makes the movie hard to appreciate; if the movie filmed more about every story directly concerning the Chinese people in it... If these changes happened, the movie could sure have the balance.

But it's understandable, that the directer wants to encourage Chinese people to understand this history, it's exactly what a directer are supposed to do isn't it.

Wild China (2008)

Wild China, a China that doesn't belong to any government.

[10/10 · 30 November 2009]

To be honest, as a 23-year old Chinese young man, watching a documentary, so deeply about China, yet made completely by England and so well made, doesn't feel so good. But fortunately, the truth that the wilderness of China doesn't belong to any government in the political world does relieve me of the shame from the thought that the beauty of China should only be presented to the world by China.

Isn't it true that the world itself at its very beginning didn't have any government or country, and animals don't have to carry a ID card with them that says "I AM ... CITIZEN", and there are so many mountains and rivers and forests that run through more than one country? And don't forget about the sky that every single creature is underneath. The nature belongs to no one but everyone. So anybody that has the will and capability to make a documentary about the nature of the world should be able to enjoy the freedom to do it.

Especially when it's SO WONDERFULLY DONE!

Growing Pains (1985–1992)

I'd truly say I grew up with them.

[9/10 · 30 November 2009]

When I was a young boy, which probably is more than 10 years ago, every night I would wait in front of my TV to see Growing Pains. It was dubbed into Chinese. I found it really funny and laughed with the spot audience every single night. Well I didn't laugh all the time because even though I was only 11 or 12 years old I could get some of the serious messages in Growing Pains. I remember the episode where Mike gave every teen a lesson about quitting drugs, and another one where he had the whole family help him lie to a girl who's into art and finally told her the truth that he is not artistic. I sure got those, but when I watched the whole series all the way again a few months ago I got more.

To do the spoiler click justice I may wanna talk about the episode I remember the most. It was the one where Boner is going to list in the marine and Mike tries to persuade him out of the decision but Boner really feels he's gonna do what he knows he should do and it's the first time in his life he knows what he wants to do. So all Mike can do as a best friend is give him his best love and wishes and see him off. And that was real touching...

Not only did I find my favorite episode, I also learned more when I watched it the second time. Well the messages and points are quite simple and easy to understand but there is one thing you have to get out there to feel with your own heart. I think Jason just put it very accurately by asking Maggie: Can you imagine all those kids have just suddenly grown up? I am not a parent myself but I could really feel it when I heard Jason say it... You won't notice the growing if you don't want to but as long as you put a little bit of attention and love you will see the family around you are becoming more mature, more lovable! Just try to imagine if Mike had got the 5000 dollars from his grandparents a couple of years before he got them, would he have used the money to help a homeless guy? And would Carol have bought her grandparents the tickets to Ireland with the 5000 dollars if it'd happened a few years ago? If you wanna find out what kind of kids they were just get back and watch episode one. We see their growing and that's a great feeling to have for us as audience because we all have family around us.

Get your dusty family album outta your cabinet and have a look at it, with some smile and love.

Batman Begins (2005)

something better than being perfect

[9/10 · 30 November 2009]

Not talking about something Begins has, this something is what Begins doesn't have. But begins indeed is a perfect movie, so perfect script and story-telling, so perfect acting from all-star casting, cinematography, action scenes, messages conveyed to audience... All so perfect just... call me fussy but really a movie needs something that's better than being perfect, something beyond that, something we can't handle, something that breaks the balance, something wrong...

Something like the joker in Dark Knight...

Yeah there we are, villains in Begins are not crazy enough to get to the level of the joker, and that's why although this really is a perfect movie, it still could be better. Nolan you are the man to make stuff like that so I'm not that fussy I assume.

This something doesn't always have to be characters, it could be a surprise in the plot too, like the ending of Seven. I guess it could be quite a lot of things. Also if a not that good movie has something like that it could still has a special place in audience's heart, Brown Bunny for instance.

Island Etude (2006)

Find out what you wanna do and do it.

[10/10 · 30 November 2009]

There are movies that when you see you will tend to think about evaluating them giving them scores sticking critiques to them or any other stuff like those, but movies like Island Etude, on the other hand, is of another type. When you watch Island Etude, probably from the first few minutes on, the only thing on your mind is simply keeping enjoying it.

Especially ever since the guitar starts sounding...

Haven't seen a scene like this in a movie for a long time: a young man riding his bike along the seaside, so enjoyingly with smile on face, long nice hair drawing wind's direction, huge guitar bag on back, and of course as mentioned just now, the background guitaring... Actually at this moment the guitar music is called "riding side by side", as you can hear the playing of two guitars simultaneously. At this point would you want to say anything about how movies and scenes like this should be shot and how this movie and scene could be improved? I bet you don't, cuz I guess you are like me, immersed in pure joy.

Don't wanna talk about the movie technically, technically good is just not what it's meant to be, instead, it's what it can leave you with.

Our hero of Island Etude is not the talkative type, actually he doesn't talk much at all, but there is one simple line from him that is really touching, simple as it might sound, "some things if you don't do now, you won't never do." Once in a while we doubt about the meaning of our lives, doubt if we can do what people around us can do if we can have a life as good as theirs, we just tend to wanna copy others' dreams and lives, what about ourselves'? The meaning of your life is if you have the guts to do stuff you wanna do. You may not be able to do it quickly cuz we all have to do things we need to do before things we want to do, but sooner or later you gotta do it if you don't want your life to be your regret.

Forget things everybody says you should do to fulfill your life, do things you feel you need to do to fulfill your life. It's a short life we got buddy, gotta make it worthwhile.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Forget about the sheer enjoyment and watch it again

[8/10 · 26 November 2009]

Well I myself is a big fan of QT and love all of his movies, but loving a movie doesn't make it a good movie, especially when it comes to movies with intoxicating charms of QT... you wanna give a moderate review, you gotta watch twice, calmly...

I must say the first time I watched this movie that experience is just incredible! I watched it right before I went to bed and I was so thrilled that I even dreamed about stabbing people in the faces and shooting them in the testicles... But then the next morning when I woke up, as a long time movie fan I started to think that this movie actually has a lot of flaws. That's what a sensible movie fan would think about ain't that? For instance when we see the character intro of the Hugo guy, we are so excited and wanna see him do some stuff with the IB who he has "gone pro" with, but the crazy guy just dies before he does any fun stuff. That is disappointing ain't that? And as for the vengeance of the jew girl, it just could have been A LOT MORE powerful if only QT had wished to. And the bear jew guy and other IB members, they could have been more like characters that we won't forget in a long time if only QT had wished to! To do those is really easy for him, just think about pulp fiction and reservoir dogs, we do remember every character in them don't we? But in IB, I guess 20 years later from now(it has been almost 20 years since reservoir dogs), we will only remember brad pitt and the jew hunter.

Those are some of the flaws I caught, but I can sort of imagine why QT didn't care about those flaws, they are pretty big ones though... JUST SEE AND FEEL THE CINEMATOGRAPH!!! And I am talking about the camera movement language, it's just so good!! Literally every message the director wants to convey, the camera can do the work! In the first chapter, the movement between french guy's face, jew hunter's smile, and the floor board, and the people underneath it, well buddy, movies just don't get too much better than this do they? Not to mention the cigarette thrown in the air to burn down the films and every "branding scene"... Apart from the camera, the acting is nearly as great! Brad Pitt and jew hunter, I'd vote for them for Academy Award this year.

Again, QT hasn't yet got off his track of making funny and technically-textbook movies, IB is so great. But wanna say this is his most perfect one? oh you ain't gonna say that... Or, this guy just doesn't wanna make movies that are perfect, cuz it ain't fun.

United 93 (2006)

The most moving part of this film is about human nature

[10/10 · 18 February 2009]

What is the most moving part of this film? Well there are a lot of parts that are moving indeed and different people have their different moments in mind, and for me, this is a great film, and the greatest part is that when the passengers are praying to God, the terrorists are praying too, to their god... This is so amazing... I'm not talking about whose god is the true god or which religion is the true religion; what I am trying to say is the case is people's religions, or beliefs, especially when the chips are down, are truly just what they think or assume they can rely on... When I saw everybody on the plane pray, I laughed, yet I was very clear that it is human nature: you know it probably won't help but as long as you assume there is some hope, you'll still do it, BECAUSE YOU WANNA SUVIVE... Their religious beliefs are what they call upon for help, and it makes no difference if the help is from Christianity or Islam, because it's all just fake hope...

Good Will Hunting (1997)

A gay's view on a beautiful boy

[10/10 · 13 February 2009]

Actually Good Will Hunting is one of my so-called favorite movies, about it I have too much to say, which makes me speechless every time I wanna say something about it. I love it so much and have seen it for more than 10 times. Recently I found something really interesting in this movie, which is, apart from those main ideas, also remarkable.

We know Gus Van Sant is a gay and enjoyed filming gays in his early days, after which more and more people got to know and like him and he made quite a few great films not about gays. But apparently from those "straight" movies we can still see his preference. In Good Will Hunting, we see, from Sant's eyes, Matt as a pretty beautiful boy, eyes reflected by the mirror when writing on it carefully; sitting in the bus alone and looking outside the window thinking about his life; reading big books every night before sleeping in his small room; talking with Sean by the river looking at him while he's talking, shocked speechless... These all seem to me to be a gay director's view on a beautiful boy, not another boy's view, not a man's view, not a girl's view either. But don't get me wrong, it's never evil; on the contrary, it's beautiful.

Cape No. 7 (2008)

A real Taiwan; a beautiful Taiwan.

[8/10 · 13 February 2009]

The title is what I believe after I saw this movie.

Cape No.7 is a great movie and a humble self-introduction of Taiwan. Few that live in mainland China know the real Taiwan. What are the people like? How is their life there? These questions are not merely out of our curiosity; it's more because we care.

Movie has always been a good way of knowing other peoples and cultures. I've always been wanting to know Taiwan through their movies, but the fact is movie industry of Taiwan hasn't been doing well for a long time. If you go to a DVD shop(not to mention cinema) and look for Taiwan movies, mostly, you'll find, or the owner will recommend to you stupid little romances with good-looking faces or extremely low-key boring meaningless experiments(usually in experiments' disguise making erotic stuff), but what we wanna see and the filmmakers in Taiwan should show us is a real Taiwan, a real life of the people. Unlike most other Taiwan movies you can easily find, Cape No.7 is not only a 100% percent authentic Taiwan movie, encouragingly, it's honest and humble too, in order that a real Taiwan will be demonstrated to everyone, including Taiwan natives.

And the effort paid off. We see the beauty of the island, and the beauty of its people. You may think of another movie that is like a place's self-introduction, The Barber of Siberia. Critics say Russia in The Barber of Siberia is not the real Russia, which is not that good in fact. You might feel Taiwan in Cape No.7 is not the real Taiwan either; you might think Taiwan could never be such a nice place. Truthfully, Taiwan has its good and bad things, if there is nothing good in Taiwan and the movie tells you it's good then that's called fake; if there are good things and people, and the movie shows the good to us, why should we say it's not real? There is a time to reveal bad and ugly and there is a time to show good and beauty. Same reasoning with The Barber of Siberia. At this moment, why don't we enjoy seeing a good, beautiful and true Taiwan and hope there are more and more movies like Cape No.7.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Sometimes movies don't need to convey any meaning or message to shine!

[8/10 · 13 February 2009]

I remember when I for the first time saw the Chinese title of Vicky Cristina Barcelona(translated as Midnight Barcelona), I was thoroughly touched---yet hadn't seen it; normally if the title is this intoxicating, you probably can count on the movie to be accordingly beautiful, plus Woody being the director, I looked forward to seeing it impatiently.

It turned out to be nice enough to glue me on my chair when I saw it at a very late night. It's very fun and relaxing movie, with charming actors and music. I enjoyed seeing it. Afterwards I asked myself why I like Vicky Cristina Barcelona this much, and the answer, satisfactorily, is that there is no obvious meaning or message it tries to convey.

Well, there are a lot of films that contain deep and serious meaning and messages, in the theme or in the camera-directing. Those films are indeed enlightening and they are sort of like our teachers, from whom we learn to live in our world. Yet there are other films that bring us pure fun and in the same process let us relax.

Pure fun is very often in little things.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is quite little...you guys know what I mean don't you... The whole movie is like the music in it, friendly, delicate, relaxing, yet very sexy, and seeing a movie like it is pure fun. You don't have to think hard to pick up all the fragmentary threads to get the great idea, and you won't be completely shocked and feel ashamed to be human. Watching Vicky Cristina Barcelona, all you need to do is get yourself in a comfortable sofa, try to experience with the characters the beauty of Spain and its art, feel the actors' charm, laugh when the fun comes, smile when you find you can identify with them, move your body with the end music and plan on seeing Barcelona with your own eyes. What is left when you finish seeing it will be your smile and a refreshed body.

The Shining (1980)

Why so scary?

[10/10 · 10 February 2009]

1. REPUTATION You've heard about how scary it is; you know who Stanley Kubrick is and what his films are like... And you probably will think to yourself: hey, some of this guy's other films, which are not necessarily known for scariness, are very scary indeed.(2001: A Space Odyssey is pretty scary isn't it?) Now this is his horror movie! It's gotta be scary!

2. MUSIC The Shining's score is indeed the best score in history, not one of the best, it is the best! Music to film is like colour to picture, yet, in The Shining, music is even more vital, because it is an invisible actor. It plays all of the ghosts in the movie. So deeply powerful, petrifying!

3. SETTING Just imagine... Freezing winter with heavy snow, isolated huge old house, maze of rooms in the house...

4. CASTING This should never be ignored. Casting for Danny and his mom is just perfect.

5. CINEMATOGRAPHY AND EDITING ... ...(about this, speechless I am)

6. UNKNOWNNESS Many remain wondering about the idea and theme of The Shining after seeing it for many times. They guess and argue. There has come out so many explanations now, some of which are truly imaginary! But regardless of how much people guess and argue, the movie is still like a mystery. Yet it is just the unknownness that has made it so intriguing, so enchanting, so...horrifying... Exactly like the director himself.

The Wrestler (2008)

The movie is very pure inside

[10/10 · 9 February 2009]

I believe if I were about the same age with The Ram I would probably love this movie even more. And the fact is I am much younger than him yet I can hardly love this movie better. It's not just the acting of Mickey that makes me relate to The Ram; it's the script that added to it.

The end is absolutely unique among the genre. These years a lot of films centered on a sports team or individual struggling to make their way back to top or underdogs winning respect by beating the best... have been wanting to be different by having a surprising end, such as Million Dollar Baby. They know if the hero wins at last, as usual, the audience will be bored. So they tried to make some change. But no matter how the change happens, the hero wins in his way, and the movie is still made to motivate people. The wrestler, on surface a movie to motivate people to never give up on themselves even if you are too old or too ill, but deeply, it's very sad; it is a movie about self-redemption through self-destruction.

The Ram is literally a man with nothing to lose. He struggles to find his normal life back(if he ever had one), but in his attempt he finds no one needs him, and he, in despair, turns to wrestling again, because there are the people who need him. He doesn't go back pick up wrestling again because he wanna have the showdown with his old rival; he goes back, because there is no other way to go. If he could lead a normal life he wouldn't have chosen to go back for he knows very well that he may die if he wrestles again.

So here is what he says: I just want to say to you all tonight I'm very grateful to be here. A lot of people told me that I'd never wrestle again and that's all I do. You know, if you live hard and play hard and you burn the candle at both ends, you pay the price for it. You know in this life you can loose everything you love, everything that loves you. Now I don't hear as good as I used to and I forget stuff and I ain't as pretty as I used to be but god damn it I'm still standing here and I'm The Ram. As times goes by, as times goes by, they say "he's washed up", "he's finished" , "he's a loser", "he's all through". You know what? The only one that's going to tell me when I'm through doing my thing is you people here.

And he knows this is self-destruction...... and self-redemption.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Oh! Poor Danny, not again...

[4/10 · 9 February 2009]

Please, please tell me why so many of you people love this piece of crap?! It will probably take my entire life to figure it out! I'm gonna tell you the reason why I still gave it a 4. It's the ambition, the ambition of Danny to make a different movie, which is obvious if only you see half of the movie. The difference lies in the storytelling. A boy reveals his life by explaining to the suspicious policemen why he, an uneducated slumdog boy, managed to win amazingly great money that no one ever did in the history of the program Who Wanna Be The Millionaire. Deservedly it is great storytelling. Yet a great storytelling alone is never enough to make a great movie.

Remember the excitement we had after we saw Pulp Fiction? Was the excitement purely out of the outstanding storytelling? Certainly not, we love the storytelling because it is combined with shining acting, fascinating music, deep ideas, and solid ending. The storytelling is just a skeleton, and the other things make the flesh. How beautiful can a great skeleton be if there is little decent flesh on it? Pulp Fiction is strong both inside and outside, however, Slumdog Millionaire, just has a nice outside.

Before I saw Slumdog Millionaire, many people told me it is the Indian version of City Of God, and I felt even more excited when I found its director is Danny. But after I saw it, I was completely disappointed. Because Danny did the stupid thing again! After his greatest movie Trainspotting, this guy seemed have turned to someone nobody can recognize. Look at 28 days later, it could have been a milestone if he had added a unique idea for it; The Beach, great acting and story, but the ending, so so disgustingly stupid... You will easily fall in love with these two movies if you see the first half only... Why Danny, why always lack a little bit to be great? Slumdog Millionaire has the same and new problems. The end is as meaningless as The Beach; the lack of ideas is inherited from 28 Days Later.

And the new problems this time are terrible! The music is sick; the whole plot is very very far-fetched and unnatural: how did the two characters fall in love; this is a movie talking about things in India, and it is honorably compared with City Of God because they are both about the crime and violence in the worst places of the world(India and Brazil), however, if you wanna introduce something violent and horrifying, you should do it in a violent and horrifying way. So many people that like this movie say Slumdog Millionaire is the City Of God without blood. That just doesn't make any sense! If there is no blood, it's not India at all!!!

I almost lost my faith in Oscar when I saw it gave so many nominations to Slumdog Millionaire but not The Dark Knight and The Wrestler... They are truly solid movies.

The Dark Knight (2008)

A movie doesn't have to be perfect to completely amaze you!

[10/10 · 6 February 2009]

I really hate those censorious critics. When everyone is saying The Dark Knight is truly one of the top five movies in the whole history and the movie itself is becoming really popular, someone laughs coldly and says things like "this is the most overrated movie ever made". And if you go deeper to their ideas, you find all they have done is pick up the small detailed flaws of the movie, which is completely not affecting the whole quality and worthiness of seeing more than twice of the movie. Hey boy, WHY SO SERIOUS? I wonder if those people work in a watch factory, in which you are never allowed to make a single tiny mistake because if you do, you will ruin the whole work. Movie is art, and art is never perfect. Its imperfection is the very thing that makes it amazing.

The Dark Knight is not perfect, or in other word, can anyone name a literally perfect movie? Is Godfather perfect, or The Shawshank Redemption? But they are indeed amazing aren't they? I really think The Dark Knight should be even longer, maybe three hours will do. This is a so complex multi-layer script, for many directors it's too hard to tell the story and make it clear to the audience. The Nolans made it, although not 100 percent, but they did make it understood plus shining plus intriguing! If the movie were long enough, the story-telling would be even more clear and very importantly, not that tied up, which is the biggest shortage of The Dark Knight.

Then it's time to talk about why it is so amazing. I hate to say everything in the movie is great because that's over-simplifying and showing no respect for the standing out. THE JOKER, it's him who makes the movie different. It's not only about Heath's acting,(actually I have no idea how to describe how great his acting is, it simply defies description) it's about the role. Many marvel that this joker is the NO1 villain of the history, indeed he is, why? Because he never deserves anyone's mercy, in other words, he is, in absolute terms, bad, bad enough to go way beyond the punishment people make to measure the fierceness of bad. He is a villain that will stay longer in your heart and control your thoughts than your best hero image can do. A hero is an example; a villain like the joker is an obsession.

So I suggest you not fall too deep in love with The Dark Knight and the joker, although I already have.