Red Cliff (2008)
Director John Woo’s Red Cliff is a dramatically poetic movie based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms a historical novel written by Luo Guonzhang. If you aren’t familiar with the Three Kingdoms story – it chronicles the ambitions of three men, love and the wonderful Generals that followed their lead. The three men are Liu Bei, Sun Quan, and Cao Cao. While Liu Bei is often depicted... [Read more]
From Russia With Love (1963)
Tatiana: “Oh James will you make love to me all the time in England?” James Bond: “Day and Night”. I absolutely love James Bond in this mission, not only is he having a good time but we see him in a different light than the one-dimensional spy version that follows this movie. We see James as a man of honor to his dear friend Ali Kerim Berey (Pedro Armendariz), allowing him to take... [Read more]
Christmas and Fargo? Yauhh, You Betcha!
“We’ve been waiting here an hour. He’s peed three times already.” – Carl Shuwalter So this Christmas break I took a trip to see the mother with girlfriend and daughter in tow. I had purchased a new Blu-Ray player for mom so that she can continue to realize her obsession with Denzel Washington in high-res goodness while keeping up with the latest technology trend. When... [Read more]
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Like it’s name, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford will be misunderstood as being too long, too historical or too boring. If you ever read a review that uses the word boring to completely discredit a movie without any explanations why, you should probably stop reading. What I saw in this movie, was a masterpiece of excellent acting, stunning visuals and incredible... [Read more]
The Twilight Samurai (2002)
Everybody loves Samurai, we associate them with anime action heroes, Tom Cruise and cool swords. Due to this, we have Western, chubby, couch potatoes referring to themselves as modern day samurai as they admire the aluminum katana replica hanging on their walls. If push came to shove the blade would be out, they would take a stance and cut through their enemy the way the old school samurai... [Read more]
The Ninth Gate (1999)
I recommend The Ninth Gate to the movie watcher who loves a sense of mystery and an open-ended script that allows for debate, discussion and interpretation. Johnny Depp is remarkable as the curious Dean Corso and Frank Langella and Liana Telfer are a pleasure to watch in their respective roles. Watching this echoed reminders of the newer The Da Vinci Code yet I found this to be a superior... [Read more]
Goldfinger (1964)
Ask any James Bond fan about their top 5 movies and you will be hard pressed to find one who doesn’t have Goldfinger in his/her list. The coolest bad guy with the most expensive habit and methods for killing his enemies combined with Bond at his most male chauvinistic. The last time I watched Goldfinger I had my girlfriend (who is relatively new to the spy series) sit through it with... [Read more]
Inglourious Basterds
It starts out in the beautiful fields of a French landscape, with the usage of a gritty type of film and natural sounds. To begin a movie like this was reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and the flashback to Maximus and his family within the fields prior to his capture, breaking and enslavement. The inevitable calm before the storm. Although I knew the storm was coming, I didn’t... [Read more]
District 9
District 9 is sci-fi perfection. There is a satirical human parallel to it (for those of you who are really itching to find one), there is nothing forced with it’s direction and there is no clear-cut good or evil. What we are shown is a documentary about one Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) and his work, going from being promoted to being the central focus of a huge episode in human... [Read more]
Moon
Duncan Jones has captured the term Sci-Fi in this tiny film that lacks all of the laser shootouts, stunning phasers and starfighter battles that the genre is known for. Notably fans of Sci-Fi will tell you that Science Fiction is beyond the action of the Star Wars and much more than the drama of the Battlestar Galacticas. Sci-Fi for true fans is a bit of everything but mostly the “what... [Read more]
The Hurt Locker
Beyond war movie and beyond another critically acclaimed movie, The Hurt Locker is the living definition of thriller. Rare is it that I find a movie that has me breathing unevenly whilst gripping my seat wondering what could happen next. The direction is simple but brilliant in it’s own right, the acting is compelling and the reality of the so-called “War on Terror” is very... [Read more]
36th Chamber of Shaolin
Also Known as Shaolin Master Killer (Which is weird given the monk’s philosophy on killing) 36th Chamber of Shaolin is one of my favorite Kung Fu movies. The reason behind this is the likeability of the main character and the dialogue he has with the elder monks. It is the ultimate story of hero vs villain as we watch a boy witness his village ravaged by bullies, only to leave and become... [Read more]
