Archive for January, 2007

Jet Li’s Fearless

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 31, 2007
in Action, Drama, History, Martial Arts and Philosophical
. 0 Comments

I should probably start off by saying I’m a big fan of the Kung Fu/Samurai film genre. I’m not well-versed in the genres, but I’ve been trying to watch some of the classics.

I think martial arts for many in the US is all about taking a name and kicking an ass. Seriously. I see kids all the time kicking and punching and screaming like a character from Mortal Kombat. I have to admit that I too was one of those kids, however, I was impersonating the Karate Kid. I’m also not an expert on Asian culture or their martial arts forms, but I do know that the philosophy behind it is not about beating somebody up, but more about bettering oneself in mind, body and spirit. So the better fighter will actually defend himself instead of taking the opportunity to severely injure their opponent. I’m sure this blows some minds out there, but please keep reading.

Bruce Lee - one of the premiere martial artists to bring kung fu to America was constantly denied adding philosophy to his movies. All people really wanted to see was his famous one-inch-punch and those numchucks hitting somebody in the head. I have to admit I really enjoyed seeing people fly off screen after making the mistake of making contact with Bruce’s limbs of fury, but now that I’m a little older I appreciate some of the other aspects.

In Jet Li’s Fearless, Jet Li does just that. He brings the true philosophy into his last martial arts film. Some other good films I would suggest in this genre are Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Kung Fu Hustle and Unleashed. I can’t deny that there aren’t awesome and amazing fight scenes in this movie, but they aren’t the main focus or theme throughout.

This movie is really about redemption. You have a man who becomes famous and reckless in all aspects of his life. He thinks he is on top, but he really still has a lot to learn. Due to some misunderstandings, he makes the worst mistake of his life and loses everything. Years later though, he gets a second chance and is able to make a difference.

If you can’t tell already, I loved this film and highly suggest it to everyone. Other than violence, there really isn’t any other objectionable material in the film to make someone want to avoid it. So please go out and rent this one and tell me what you think.

Alpha Dog

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 31, 2007
in Based on a true story, Crime, Drama, Dysfunctional, Independent and Kidnapping
. 0 Comments

Here’s another movie I had no idea what it was about before I saw it. Turns out it’s based on true events surrounding Jesse James Hollywood who was one of the youngest people on the FBI’s most wanted list. He eluded the feds for five years before being caught in Brazil in 2005. The story goes that Benjamin Markowitz owed Hollywood $1500 or so so Hollywood and his friends kidnapped Nicholas, Markowitz’s little brother, held him for five days, and killed him in the end.

One might say I just spoiled the movie, but all this information is out there if you want to look any of it up since this is based on actual events. What really drew me in and kept my attention was the reality of the film. It seemed so real. A lot of times you watch a movie and know that what you just saw would never ever happen in real life. This story definitely seemed possible. I think the performances helped make this movie what it is. Directed by Nick Cassavetes, we have Bruce Willis, Emile Hirsch, Vincent Kartheiser, Justin Timberlake, Shawn Hatosy, Harry Dean Stanton and Ben Foster to name a few.

I think I was most surprised by Timberlake. I’ve just always seen him as a fluffy person. I’m not into his music and he’s always been around other people I consider fluffy like Brittany Spears, Christina Aguilera…..and who can forget ‘N Sync? This guy can actually act though. Another great performance from Emile Hirsch. I really like this guy. He seemed to almost be the same person he was in Lords of Dogtown. I mentioned to Liz that he always seems to play roles where he’s a drug addict and a deviant. She then reminded me of some other roles like The Girl Next Door and Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys.

Another interesting aspect was the time period. I’m almost the same age as Jesse James so thinking back about when this happened while watching the film made it a lot more real for me. I really liked watching this movie, but don’t know if or when I’ll watch it again. It’s definitely worth your time to watch it once though. Let me know what you think if you saw this.

Idiocracy

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 22, 2007
in Adventure, Comedy, Future and Sci-fi
. 0 Comments

I have to say I was a little disappointed with this one. After all, Office Space is my favorite movie of all time. While there were several funny and hilarious moments, Mike Judge kinda let me down here. Maybe I was expecting something else or had expectations. I’m not really sure.

Idiocracy is a story about the world gone bad….real bad. After a botched military experiment, two people wake up out of cryogenic freezing to find the world a much worse place. Apparently the slackers reigned and they find humanity reduced to the lowest possible denominator in the smarts area. After many trials and tribulations, Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph are able to help the people of the future do things like grow crops and bring back the economy.

Maybe I just need to watch this one again some time. It was late at night, however, everybody that was watching it with me pretty much had the same opinion. Maybe it was just because this was popped in immediately after Beerfest and we were already laughed out for the night. Not really sure, but I’m willing to give this another try at some point.

Deja Vu

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 22, 2007
in Action, Drama, Romance, Sci-fi, Thriller and Twist
. 0 Comments

I saw this one at the dollar theater. I love the dollar theater cause if the movie turns out to be a bust, you aren’t out that much. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie. In fact, I was kind of expecting it to be “one of those movies” where I’d be glad I had seen it for a dollar. Surprisingly, I really liked this one.

If you’re not sure what deja vu means, here’s a definition: 1.Psychology. the illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time. Make sense? Well you have Denzel Washington who is a cop and there’s been a horrific crime. While he’s trying to check some things out, he sort of has that “deja vu” sense about the whole thing. We then find out that the government has this big top secret equipment where they can look back in time 4 days 6hours and 45min, if I remember correctly.

So they use this top secret equipment to look back in time and solve the crime. The equipment shows them the past at “real time”. This means that they can’t fast forward or rewind so they better pay close attention. They end up solving the crime and getting their man, but this has gotten personal for Denzel and he still feels the need to tie up some loose ends. This is where it gets interesting and you find out why the movie has its name.

I won’t go into too many more details just because you should go out and watch this yourself. I give this one a surprised two thumbs up.

Beerfest

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 22, 2007
in Comedy and Germany
. 0 Comments

If you’re a fan of Super Troopers, I think you’ll really like this movie too. A lot of the same is also the same because this was another Broken Lizard movie. Broken Lizard is made up by Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske.

The premise of this movie is the guys stumble upon a secret beer festival in Germany, are made fun of, go home, create a team, train, and return to defend their honor. This is full of many one-liners, as I’m sure you’d imagine, that you can quote and re-quote. I think some of my favorite parts were with the Germans. One of the funniest parts was when the Baron was getting a little stir crazy in his submarine and he apologizes because he had a bad experience in one once. This would be funny because he the captain in the movie Das Boot way back in the day.

This movie is also full of rude and crude humor so be prepared if you go to watch this and have no idea what these movies are like.

The Prestige

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 15, 2007
in Based on a novel, Drama, England, Fantasy, Mystery, Revenge, Sci-fi, Suicide, Thriller and Twist
. 0 Comments

Back in September there were commercials and previews out for two movies about magicians: The Illusionist and The Prestige. Trying to keep them separated in my head was quite a task. I even went to see The Illusionist in the theater and thought I was going to see The Prestige. Even though I enjoyed that outing and was entertained by the film, I recently found out The Prestige is way, way better. It even made me want to go watch Batman again after seeing Christian Bale and Sir Michael Caine in action together a second time.

In this film you have two magicians who have been around each other for a long time and are competing to see who is best. There is also a grudge war between the two that all started with an unfortunate accident that resulted in Angier’s wife’s death. In the end, the obsession to be on top ruins both men’s lives and there are a few twists in there that aren’t easily seen through from the beginning.

This film is full of wonderful actors. It was definitely a treat to see Bowie back in action. I think his performance as Nikola Tesla blows his Labyrinth performance out of the water. Andy Serkis plays his assistant. I’m glad to see he’s getting more work. The two magicians are played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Michael Caine is an engineer who builds and designs the illusions and Scarlett Johansson plays an assistant. Besides just being a great movie, I think this film also portrays what an unhealthy obsession can do to somebody when taken to extreme levels.

One thing I really appreciated was the lack of offensive material. So often in the box office I see films that great, except I can’t recommend them to certain people because of certain content contained throughout. This is one that will hopefully keep you entertained, and, isn’t full of nudity, violence, language and drug-use. So go out and see it. I caught it at our dollar theater. Hopefully it’s playing somewhere around you for cheap too.