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If you are expecting any serious stuff from this movie, then you shouldn’t watch it. It’s an Adam Sandler movie and pure comedy. The story is about Zohan, an Israeli super-commando who can kick through walls to knock out terrorists hiding behind them, strips a terrorist’s weapon faster than he can pull the trigger, catches bullets with his noise, and kicks any terrorists ass many ways. Yet all he wanted to do was to get away from all the fighting, and be a hair stylist. Failing to get the understanding from his parents, Zohan fakes his death in a mission to capture the terrorist known as ‘The Phantom’, and then stow away on a plane to America to seek his dreams. After failing to be employed by several hair stylists, he ends up in a neighbourhood where the Arabs and the Israelis live side by side along a common street. This is where he met Dalia, an Arab girl, and was given a job in the her hair salon and he subsequently fell in love with her after a while. In the background were subplots on how Halim, whose goat was taken by Zohan back when they were still in Israel, trying to take revenge for that deed, and how an evil developer tried to create tension and hatred among the Israeli and Arab expatriate communities so they will move out to allow him to build a mall. |
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Of course in the end the man gets the girl, and the bad guy gets his just deserts. Behind all these is probably this one big ‘lecture’ on how there isn’t really much separating everyone except for the politics, while the politics also linked them together, and how everyone can put aside the hatred and live happily together. You know, that usual bs about America is the melting pot of all cultures and the land where everyone goes to live out their dreams. [I believe the Russian word for that would be Strana Mechty – Country of Dreams.] I wondered beyond that, whether the underlying theme behind this movie is trying to tell us that Israeli super-commandos are horny and immoral to the point they don’t care who they are humping. Or is it trying to hint that the Americans – symbolised by the the white real estate developer Walbridge – is the mastermind behind all the flare ups in the Middle East. Of course, I agree entirely that it is meaningless to capture the terrorists only to exchange them after some talks. My personal opinion is just enjoy the movie and laugh about it without looking for too much meaning. We all need some mindless humor and relaxtion once in awhile and this movie would definitely provide it if you would keep yourself from being too critical or trying to hard to be an artsy fartsy dimwit. |
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Category: Movies
Movies Watched: Shôrin shôjo & Narnia – Prince Caspian
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Shôrin shôjo [少林少女] My feelings are rather mixed for this movie. First of all… when the heck did Shaolin take female disciples? Next, while I am rather pissed with Stephen Chow trying to pass this off as a sequel to Shaolin Soccer – a wonderful movie of its own – and the storyline was pretty much meaningless (in xinyun’s words – wtf?), there are things in the movie which make it redeemable. In fact, for those who are born in the 70s and have watched Japanese TV series on tennis (I think it was tennis) and volley ball, it would be a little nostalgic to watch the computer graphics depicting the absurd trajectory of the ball, albeit done with better quality in the movie. Personally speaking, that’s the other thing – other than the fact that the actors are speaking Japanese – that reminds me that this movie is Japanese. |
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Synopsis: Shaolin Girl Rin Sakurazara returned to Japan after 3000 days of training, to find her grandfather’s dojo abandoned. Her original master has quit and is now a chef running his own restaurant. She subsequently learn that simply teaching the martial techniques is not quite enough and there are other things to learn – such as the spirit of Shaolin itself, and teamwork. (Here you find a shadow of Stephen Chow in Shaolin Soccer, where he needs to learn that his ability to kick the ball hard and fast is useless if you can’t put it on target.) Rin slowly learn as a lacrosse player that it’s not just about her and in a team one has to trust her team mates and cooperate with them. She also learn why she was sent away to Shaolin and what caused the dojo to be abandoned during her absence. Ultimately, she has to face the evil enemy and the temptation of the dark side to protect the very people who were trying to protect her, and also the people she cared about. You are really not missing much if you give the movie a miss. But if you like to see cute Japanese girls… and could let your mind wander and think of the meaning of certain things in a movie, then there’s really no harm watching it either. There are still lighter parts of the movie which is quite entertaining in my opinion. |
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Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Synopsis: One year has passed since their defeat of the White Witch, but 1300 years has passed in Narnia. At this time the wife of Miraz, uncle of Prince Caspian X of the Telmarines, has given birth to a son. Seeing that the line of succession is now secured, Miraz moved to the final step in usurping Prince Caspian’s throne and made attempt on the life of Prince Caspian. During his escape, Prince Caspian blew Susan’s magic horn and summoned the Pevensie siblings back to Narnia’s rescue. The Pevensie siblings arrived in time to assist Caspian and to unite the creatures of Old Narnia in their last stand against the Telmarines at Aslan’s How, the location of the destroyed Stone Table, now an underground fortress. |
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Ultimately, everything that the rest of the Pevensie siblings (except Lucy) do in their own strength was futile. In the end, Lucy has to seek Aslan to deliver the Narnians and restore the land. I felt this sequel is less exciting and mesmerizing as the first installment of the series. There were also several distortions to the original novel that several bloggers had pointed out. I personally do not know what direction it will take if another novel of the Narnia series is taken to the big screen. I can only hope that any further sequels won’t end up either maiming or destroying CS Lewis’ masterpiece. To prevent that from happening, I will probably start reading the books myself. |
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Movies Watched: Kungfu Panda & The Incredible Hulk
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Kungfu Panda There’s also many parts of it that I would considered ‘very Zen’ . For example, Master Wugui (乌龟) saying ‘One often meets his destiny on his way to avoid it’ , and it is generally true, as many people end up facing what they tried to avoid because whatever they did inevitably resulted in it. The Dragon Scroll is the other thing that is ‘very Zen’ too. But I won’t reveal anything about that because that will be the spoiler if I did. (It makes me wonder if that’s the general view of Westerners of Oriental culture because there are parts of Forbidden Kingdom which I felt are quite Zen too.) |
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Anyway, the story line is about picking one among the inhabitants of the valley as the Dragon Warrior to face the greatest threat they have ever faced, and the Panda Po was chosen. (I won’t get to the part on how a Kungfu ‘moron’ got chosen as it would be yet another spoiler.) The task to train him into the legendary fighting machine fell on the master of the five kungfu experts – Tigress, Mantis, Viper, Monkey and Crane. It is a daunting task that left the master disillusioned and disheartened as Po definitely isn’t cut for the job. Master Wugui finally convinced the master to have faith in Po and nothing happens by coincidence. After Wugui passed on, the Master finally had enough faith to put his mind into training Po. It is then he discovered Po’s hidden potential and ultimately found an ingenious way to train him – as most of you would probably have seen parts of that in the trailers. And of course in the end there would be the showdown between the villain and the hero where our hero will be triumphant. (And oh, don’t forget to sit through the credits… it will round up the story nicely, and there’s a little bit more at the end.) |
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The Incredible Hulk No more picking up tanks and throwing them this time round and the story line is way better. The pace of the movie is also controlled very well as it at least keeps me captivated. I do not know how much it has deviated from the original comic series itself but when I looked up Wikipedia articles, at least some of the characters, for e.g. General Ross and Betty Ross etc are from the comic itself. The story line revolves around how Dr Bruce Banner turned into the Incredible Hulk after a gamma radiation experiment went awry. Unknown to Banner, the experiment is a secret army program to create super soldiers. In General Ross’ own words: Instead of making the hardware better, we made you better. |
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After destroying the lab where the experiment is conducted, and causing harm to his beloved Betty, Banner escaped to Brazil, where he and ‘Mr. Blue’ tried to find a cure to his condition. While at the end Banner and ‘Mr. Blue’ did almost find the cure (or at least a method to suppress the creature within), Banner was forced to make the choice between living peacefully forever, or to wake the creature within him to fight the Abomination, a creature created by the remnants of the very experiment that created the Hulk, and blood samples taken from Banner himself. The story climaxed with a battle between these two creatures of immense strength and power in the streets of New York. Spoiler: At the end of the movie, Tony Stark (Iron Man) appeared to invite General Ross into joining him in a special force. I wondered, is Marvel setting up the scene for an Avengers movie featuring all the Marvel Superheroes featured so far? (And no, this is not another ‘after credits’.) |
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Movies watched recently…
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Rambo: Anyway, this time round the mission takes Rambo to Burma (Myanmar), where he (on the trail of a group of mercenaries) rush to the rescue a group of missionaries who has run into some ‘domestic trouble’ with the Myanmese military in the Karen tribal areas. I wondered whether it was watching this (and Stealth), that caused the junta to be have such an irrational fear of Americans. By the way, I don’t even know if the movie has a point at all. Most of the missionaries who were doing some good with their humanitarian efforts to bring health care and some simple education to the Karen people all met with a terrible end. The only message I got was from the fact that most of the mercenaries died except for the one who came back for Rambo and ‘finished the mission’… perhaps a subtle reminder to the American people they should stay the course in Iraq or face a terrible end? I definitely hope Stallone won’t make another Rambo because it is going to be quite a joke seeing how this man continually kick his enemies’ ass. In fact, Rocky Balboa was done way better than Rambo. At least it Rocky didn’t beat the young champion, and it showed that even older people can have a determination to do what they intend to do. Vantage Point: I was glad I didn’t write it off from there because the storyline began to unravel after that, and that’s where it tied in the three vantage points to reveal to the audience what was missing in one but present in the other to allow Agent Barnes (Dennis Quaid) to be hot on the trail on the conspirators to rescue the President. There wasn’t very much of Sigourney Weaver in the movie, as she was seen only in the earlier part of the movie. As for what is Forest Whitaker’s role in the movie, you have to find out for yourself. Of course it comes with the usual intrigue, car chases and gun fights though probably not as exciting or super-human as a James Bond or XXX movie. All in all, I liked this movie, it was refrenshing to me simply because I don’t recall ever watching another movie made similarly. If you have missed it I do suggest you get the DVD. Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Anyway, since it was such a long time after the last movie, the villians of the movie are no longer the Nazis, but the Soviets. (I wonder if another 20 years later whether it might be Communist China, since now they already have a Chinese Mummy – Jet Li.) The movie started with Dr. Jones (Harrison Ford) captured by a Colonel-Doctor Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) and is forced to assist her in recovering a crate in a Hangar 51. It ultimately led Jones on a competition against Spalko in a race to find the Crystal Skull and lost Akator – also know as El Dorado. |
In my personal opinion it was a little disappointing, just like Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I had a feeling I maybe watching ET Part II, actually. Retuurrrn…. ET Phone Home… You will get what I mean after watching the movie. However, unlike George Lucas, at least Steven Spielberg had the courtesy not to sell out the fans by making it into a kid’s movie so parents will be held hostage and turn up in droves. The storyline is not really captivating, and fortunately the action and a lot of army ants made up for that. In fact I had actually hoped that more emphasis was placed on the son after his identity was revealed, so at least the action can be carry on in that person in future Indiana Jones movies. (Personally I wondered if that wasn’t hinted at the end of this movie.)
Anyway, last I heard was that there are plans for another Indiana Jones movie. And Harrison Ford making another Indiana Jones movie is still alright, as long as they cut down more of the action and increase more of the archeology and riddle aspects. After all, Dr. Jones isn’t all action. He has brains too. But I can’t say the same for Rambo… because I can’t imagine him sitting in a control room directing all the action of maybe a section of mini-Rambos in his place.
Horton Hears a Who!:
Also known as Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! , this is animation based on the book of the same name. In this animation, Horton the Elephant (Jim Carrey) heard a yelp coming out of a dust speck when he was taking a dip in the pool. After placing it on top of a clover that he holds in his trunk, he finds out the speck harbors the city of Whoville and all its inhabitants, led by Mayor Ned McDodd (Steve Carell).
The story is about how Horton tries to defend his knowledge, and to help the people of Whoville by taking and placing the speck atop Mt. Nool, the safest place in the jungle. Of course Horton was ridiculed because the other animals in the jungle couldn’t hear the people within the speck. Led by Jane Kangaroo, a lynch mob roped and caged Horton, in their attempt to end Horton’s delusion and destroy the speck once and for all.
I believe I have already revealed enough about this story so I’ll leave the details for you to find out on your own. Though I won’t recommend you to give it a miss, there’s nothing so captivating on inspiring in it that you should watch it either.
Movie: 10000B.C., 江山美人 & 卧虎
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10,000 B.C. Nothing spectacular in this movie either: Prophecy & mysticism, raiders that goes far and wide to raid and capture slaves, velociraptors that looks like berserk ostriches, unlikely hero against impossible odds, allies and friends from unexpected places, stigma the son bears of a father’s unexplained departure, pyramids and slaves that requires freeing (Moses!), deformed men living behind veils claiming to be Gods, and the hero in the movie winning the beauty at the end after all his trials. The same old plot we see all too often. The only thing missing was T-Rex or Godzilla rampaging around at the end of the movie, but in their place were rampaging mammoths… and many of them. The story ended with a large scale rebellion or uprising and a good spear throw. You are not missing anything if you had given this a miss. The Empress and Her Warriors [江山美人] This is not that story. Instead this was the story of an outcast (黎明 Leon Lai), an orphan whose parents are unknown (甄子丹 Donnie Yan) and a princess (陈慧琳 Kelly Chen), who became the successor upon the murder of her own injured father, and the support of the orphan who became a general in the kingdom’s army. The ending was quite tragic as well, though I’ll prefer not to reveal more details on that. Of course, in a setting like this, there is palace intrigue and conspiracies, leading to an attempted assassination of the Empress-to-be, and her fated meeting with the outcast. Near the end of the movie, the Empress-to-be finally discovering who the murderer is and avenged her father. So ultimately, the good guys did win, but at a tremendously high cost in lives. As to the costume, the armor is outlandish even though it appears to be set in some medieval age in China. I do not really like the movie, because some parts of the plot was unrealistic. If it was the intention of the script writers and directors of the movie to encourage the people to see beyond their petty international squabbles and put aside their hatred, that isn’t going to happen at all. You aren’t losing much, if you give this movie a miss. |
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Operation Undercover [卧虎] In fact, it is of no surprise that in the movie, several of the actors were from the cast of Infernal Affairs II [无间道 II]. While I normally write off movies directed by Wang, this movie was atypical. In fact, I would say it is quite well done in some places where the agony of the undercover policemen and the hazards they faced are vividly portrayed. Some of these involved the killing of fellow policemen in the course of undercover work, getting killed in the course of duty, and finding it hard to return to normal life after long periods as a triad member. Meantime, it also portrays the power struggles within the Triads, of members vying to be the next leader and their plots to oust and discredit their fellow rivals. Of course, you also see the ‘good’ guys within the Triad itself, one who honors his vows of brotherhood to his fellow members, and did everything for the unity of the Triad itself. While it was nothing as dramatic as The Infernal Affairs [无间道] itself, I would say it is a pretty good movie. I didn’t regret watching it. |
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