Movie Reviews By Movie Reviews Pro

Kung Fu Hustle

Rating:

Movie: Kung Fu Hustle (2005)

Studio : Sony Pictures Classics

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 117 min

Website : kungfuhustle.com

Trailer :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1l206

Review:

“Kung Fu Hustle” is the brain-child of Stephen Chow, a Chinese film maker who combines both his knowledge of American and East Asian film making. Though probably classified as a comedy, it should be equally a fantasy and martial arts woman.

As with every film, the opening image is the most important one in a film, the second-most being the ending. Instead of going straight into the story and introducing the main characters, the villains are first introduced. They are the third group seen, the first being the city’s police, who are being beaten by the leader of the “Crocodile Gang”, a tough group of gangsters who have the police in their pocket. “The Axe Gang” approaches them in the street and a fight ensues, the Crocodile gang getting the worst end of it.

The protagonist of the story isn’t even introduced until easily 12 minutes into the film. “Pig Sty Alley”, the home of the majority of the film’s action is a poor part of town run by a chauvinist and his loud-mouth, cigarette-smoking wife. These people are destitute but have great courage. The Axe Gang comes to town after Sing (Chow) and his friend attempt to steal money from one of the sty’s occupants. They attempt to call the gang members with a firecracker, which backfires, but in the end, the gang members approach and are promptly beaten back by three of the store owners.

The action sequences are incredible. As someone who prefers a realistic style of violence over movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but these sequences are for more than artistic sake, being a vehicle for both plotting and humor at the same time.
A word on the humor: there is a lot of great humor in the movie, from the physical comedy of the hair stylist who wears pants that almost have no point to dancing gangsters, and Loony Tunes inspired moments, coupled with a lot of puns as well as very subtle moments in dialogue and staging of the actors.

This is one martial arts movie that I can watch time and time again, feeling like I have missed details that make it better with each viewing. As with all his films, Chow plays a major role in the film, his comedic talents not just on the script. His performance sticks out among many great characters in the film. This is a film for anyone wanting a laugh or seeing incredibly choreographed action.

-M. Sigurd Hall

Action, Comedy, Crime, Fantasy, On BLU-RAY, On DVD Action, crime, Drama, kung fu

Kick-Ass

Rating:

Movie: Kick-Ass (2010)

Studio : MARV Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 117 min

Website : kickass-themovie.com

Trailer :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbjehk

Review:

I tend to make it a rule to avoid remarking on films that I am familiar with on other formats since transitions are always difficult to appreciate in both ways. The more exacting the transition can be, the more you alienate fresh audiences to the experience. Likewise, a film that tries a different approach from that format lowers the expectations of the diehard fans. Even the most praiseworthy attempts to new formats suffer from clipping of the original material to make a better—sometimes even superior–story.

While I am familiar with Millar & Romita’s Kick-Ass as a comic, my main problem is one centered on the concept itself: it fails to offer a convincing reality. Granted, this sounds preposterous since this is a superhero movie, but this was marketed from the getgo as an attempt to make a “superhero” that seemed realistic, with his own myspace persona and everything. By removing that grounded perspective, you lose the one item that perhaps made this film different from most other wide-released superhero movies out there aside from the repeated complaints about a 13 year old ninja and her Adam West-like gunman daddy.

To be fair, the changes are justifiable. Certain elements in the comic wouldn’t make for a sellable movie, and characters are better fleshed out as a result. But the problem is that it brings nothing new as a result. Even the acting comes off as relatively underwhelming outside of the ridiculously outlandish interaction between Nicholas Cage and Chloe Moretz.

It won’t impress fans too much, and for audiences unfamiliar to the comic, it’s nothing new. All the same, considering how the “real superhero” concept has been fairly well-tread with 2006 bringing us Special, 2007 offering us Kabluey, and even 2010 heading out with the hard-to-disappoint Woody Harrelson in Defendor, this is an issue best left on the comic rack. If you’re looking for Superbad meets Spiderman, then give this film a go, but considering what other action fare we can anticipate in the next few months, Kick-Ass may graze your cheeks just long enough until something better comes along.

-Donald Lee

Action, Comedy, In Theaters

Tau Ming Chong: The Warlords

Rating:

Movie: The Warlords (2007)

Studio : Morgan & Chan Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 127 min

Website : warlordsthemovie.com

Trailer :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcupej

Review:

Missing the chance to catch this film during New York’s Asian Film Festival, I was pleased to learn about the film’s “wider” release to theaters. While released a few years back, the task of subbing a foreign film into the U.S. combined perhaps with other unknown complications have disallowed American audiences from seeing this film locally until recently.

Although widely unknown by most Americans, the Taiping Rebellion is considered by many to be one of the most violent wars of all-time, matching World War I and some may even argue the second World War as well. I will skip the background of this time, as the movie itself actually centers less on the large scale of its history and more on a point involving three particular men. A fallen general finds solace in a poor village where he meets two bandit leaders. With his guidance, they not only do they become brothers-in-arms, but fight off the rebel insurgence. Between this, there is an affair, politicking, and quite a few gorgeous moments to drink in the scenery.

I should say that even as someone who has never been a historian of this period of time, you can still tell that this film is adulterated from its original content, although if you’re complacent with the accuracy of films like Braveheart and U-571, then you should be content with this film because, despite the nature of the film, the overall execution is brilliant. Wars are epic in scale and given a gritty feel, and while there is a martial arts feel to the film, this film attempts to ground itself a little more, give or take a duel or two.

I can honestly say I enjoyed this film and would watch it again. Granted, I am a fan of this kind of Hong Kong cinema, but even when the gloves are back on and the subterfuge plays, there is a lot to appreciate between the unspoken moments of the film, from jade-toned misty mountain ranges to gracefully filthy villages to unspoken words between vocal expressions. This is definitely a foreign blockbuster I would recommend to any fan of action films willing to do a little reading with some points of underexaggerated drama.

-Donald Lee

Action, Drama, In Theaters, War

The Bounty Hunter

Rating:

Movie: The Bounty Hunter(2010)

Studio : Original Film

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 106 min

Website : bountyhunter-movie.net

Trailer :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcupc0

Review:

The whole premise plays out like the classic Seinfeld-ish chain of events. Gerard Butler plays a washed out cop-turned-bounty hunter, and Jennifer Anisten plays an aspiring reporter under parole. What do the two have in common? They were married. What happens when our female protagonist’s parole is missed for a big scoop? Wackiness!

It’s hard for me to not give The Bounty Hunter a little more credit where it’s due. Why? Ideally, I would like to say that the movie producers threw a little money my way and I complied like a bobblehead on a boat, but the honest truth is that despite how cliché this film is, it’s still reasonably watchable. This movie was made with no real contention for a great script, plot, or anything, and the actors know this and you can tell they’re having fun with it as a result. Gerard is practically borderline Jim Carrey at points in his outlandishness to Anisten’s forced straight man compliance, and I have to admit that it genuinely amused me feeling the energy the two gave off with each other. The side characters, while interesting, are fairly forgettable save two roles, one played by Christine Baranski as Aniston’s overly amorous lounge singer mother and Siobhan Fallon as Butler’s crude bail bond contact. Again, both seem to be somewhat exaggerated, and I think that’s what made them so infectiously funny.

This is the sort of film I would call a “compromise” if you want to see something with your amorous other and can’t choose between the chick flick or the action film. They’re both somewhat shlocky genres in general, and while the mishmash between them aren’t totally compatible (it actually stands out more towards the action end, in my opinion), there’s still enough in this film to make it fun to watch for some harmless entertainment.

-Donald Lee

Action, Comedy, In Theaters, Romance