Joe_Means

There are movies that entertain, then there are movies that make you feel. House of Hummingbird is very much a deeply emotive experience, that stirs the soul and communicates existential truths with subtle yet sharp brush strokes, leaving as much a deep cut as it does gently lay down a beautiful flower. The performance by actress Park Ji-Hu who plays Eun-hee is raw, unfiltered, mature and grounded, she's so impressive that it doesn't take long to forget you're watching a movie and feel like you are witnessing someones life unfold in front of you. The cinematography finds a harmonious balance between intimate organic handheld shots, gracefully moving with the characters, then shifting to scenes with still shots, some like a beautiful painting capturing an ephemeral moment in time, others perfectly placed in narrow corridors and rooms, escaping the usual directors urge to find perfect symmetry, but instead embracing slight imperfections in alignment, a wall between the kitchen and hallway off centre for instance, with Eun-hee's room only half in shot, showing her disconnect from the family yet still being loosely tied to the periphery of her family piety. The film's tone somehow strikes a balance between a muted, sombre, yet ethereal and buoyant sense. I felt initially towards the end the script had tried too hard to hit me with too much tragedy, but as I reflected more on it, I opened up to a message I feel the director/writer was trying to convey; you cannot escape loss, pain, suffering. Every connection with someone will always have a part that feels broken, sunken and missing, but those who truly cared will always leave something tangibly beautiful in your heart and in your life.

There's so much misuse of the word "epic" these days that usually upon hearing it, I cringe into other-dimensional gut churning. This film however, deserves the true meaning of the word, because it is quite literally an epic, about a very important and meaningful period in China's history. It is a saga, it is a huge sprawling story of not only China, but historical figures and entities who express that period's struggle, from different positions in China's social strata of the time, driving them all to act out on their own deeper motives, all due to one factor; The British Empire. In this film we see the negative and in some cases horrific effects Britains interfering had in China, wreaking havoc in many ways, in many peoples lives. One such Chinese man affected, a folk hero of sorts, was Wong Fei-hung, a martial arts master, teacher, medicine man and all round nice guy, played perfectly by Jet Li. The way Tsui Hark deals with the subject matter is truly poetic, so many shots expressing deeper layers of China's struggle, the heart of Chinese society being torn at and yet still beating and fighting to stay alive. Fei-hung is faced with some very difficult challenges, conundrums in which whatever he chooses, he is acting in a disloyal way or breaking the law or letting someone down, but somehow he remains steadfast in following his heart to do what he feels is the right thing, which always centres around helping his people, and helping the weak, the innocent, protecting those who need it, using martial arts for one of its highest functions, selfless protection. This is a beautiful, poetic and timeless piece of art that happens to include some breathtaking martial arts fight scenes, expert cinematography, wonderful music all combined to accentuate both the action and the narrative, really offering up a masterpiece painting of China's heart and soul. I honestly don't think any other martial arts film has so perfectly been able to capture the balance between high level fight scenes and expert storytelling. It is the greatest martial arts movie ever made imo. It has heart, and has high quality martial arts. It is quite simply, martial 'art'.

A film with heart... and my god this film's heart is about to burst. Rather than hitting me in the senses, it hit me right in the feels, deeply. This film has such a beautiful and meaningful ending that is imo expertly crafted, with the little budget they were given and lack of big actors, it achieves some kind of cinematic transcendence not many films manage to achieve under such circumstances. The whole premise is centred around martial arts, but it is not a film 'about' martial arts, it uses martial arts as a vehicle to express the journey of a wounded human heart, spearheaded by both Alex Grady (Eric Roberts) and Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee). So essentially at the centre of this movie is the warriors journey to find peace through facing extreme adversity. It may be somewhat dated in its approach throughout most of its running time, with the fight choreography seeming average by the golden era of Hong Kong as well as modern day standards, and Eric Roberts may overdo it in a couple of scenes with his emotional exertion, but mostly the acting and screenplay is solid, engaging and entertaining, and push the narrative into the final showdown at the tournament (which has some spectacular fight scenes), with more to fight for than most martial arts films. They're fighting for more than a medal, than a trophy, more than revenge, they're fighting for meaning, and fighting their own inner demons, to clear the debris of human suffering, and heal the human heart. After all, isn't that the true meaning of martial arts? Through training, fighting, testing oneself and helping to test others spirit, the practitioner could find peace in the centre of the storm, and ultimately become a better version of yourself. This film displays that, to the best of its abilities.

There's Rush Hour... and then there's "Drive", the quintessential B movie 'smaller brother' to the Hollywood big budget classic, that for me packs a much bigger martial punch than its Hollywood heavy hitting bigger brother. There's something that puts this movie slightly ahead of Rush Hour as a martial arts film, and at least on par with Rush Hour as an overall film, and that is this film has a lot of grit mixed with a lot of heart. Much of that heart is ironically (Bio-engine, the chest kind, not the one in Malik's...ahem) delivered by the hugely underrated actor and martial artist Mark Dacascos, who in an alternate universe somewhere gave a mesmerising, enthralling and breakout lead performance as Neo in "The Matrix" and went on to become an established action star in Hollywood. Anywho, back to this universe and this film, Dacascos dazzles and excites in his almost balletic yet explosive movements and martial abilities, almost everything Mark can do is demonstrated in some of the most creative and entertaining fight scenes. But something else that Mark can do is shown here, his very good acting abilities, the guy has so much sincerity radiating from his eyes, we feel what he feels, and know he really wants Malik in the film to get back together with his wife, and to save his own girlfriend back in Hong Kong. I have watched this movie many times and each time it does not fail to enthral me and uppercut my adrenaline. Dacascos and the fight scenes are backed up by great cast, with Kadeem Hardison offering the perfect counterpart/partner in crime, often ad libbing much of his dialogue which imo helped to give a very natural feel to their relationship on screen, and it translates really well on screen, giving the simplistic plot premise a huge elevation by their connection and own individual performances. The story is further helped by exploring Malik's (Kadeem) relationship with his wife, with sincerity leaking out all over the screen more than Steve's nasty, fat, coagulating around your heart, not good for you cheeseburger juices.

Unlike most others who love this film, I much prefer the US cut released soundtrack to the Directors Cut version, however I wish there were a version that had the Directors Cut extra footage mixed with the US cut soundtrack. Irregardless of that, this film, although the story being pretty straight-forward, is just so damn good due to its characters, fight scenes and overall tone. Fun and adrenaline are guaranteed.

This film deserves far more prestige and exposure than it has got throughout the years. This is a relic of a time when souped up overrated digital VFX of today did not exist, instead we had a unique blend of computer and practical effects that to me look mostly far more convincing than the slop I see perpetually on screens today. It really is a visual spectacle, and also manages to blend tongue in cheek comedy with subtle violence and brooding 80's horror. The fight choreography, worked out competently under a short time schedule by John Carpenter and James Lew, is well accomplished and serves the tone of the film perfectly, everything comes together, from the acting to the cinematography, the special effects and practical effects down to the fight choreography to find the right blend of practical fighting and fantastical displays of superhuman feats that put Marvel and DC movie nonsense to shame. James Hong is genuinely terrifying and equally hilarious as Lo Pan, 'The Three Storms' give a great classical Hong Kong martial tone mixed with the intended and non-intended comedic moments, and Kurt Russel playing the well meaning but cocky and clumsy lead subverts expectations of the action hero stereotype, with only his mouth as a weapon for sharp shooting one liners at unsuspecting stoic bad guys throughout, this role of the Jack Burton as the hero is rick-rolled over to what we think originally as the sidekick to Wang Chi played by Dennis Dun who displays a humble and likeable good guy with some great action abilities. This film pretty much has everything, it's pure cinematic entertainment, and such an underrated gem of a movie.

...I could end it there, but let's buff this review and film up a bit. Jackie Chan and Benny "The Jet" Urquidez somehow managed to put together what is to my eyes the most convincing realistic martial arts based fight scene I have ever seen. Genuine blows were thrown (mainly absorbed by Benny, what a champ btw) in segments of this fight scene, although Benny being given the grace of having a body pad under his shirt to help absorb Jackie's strikes to the body, but Benny being the legitimate professional competition fighter/champion he was, I'm sure it wasn't too much of a hardship (although from what I've heard, some of the glancing blows to his face may have bothered him, just a tiny amount... perhaps). Now, a highly realistic fight scene to me adds to the story, because it is believable, and used in a film in this case that's not based on any fantastical magical plot devices, it thus broadens the realism and immersion of the story and people portrayed to some extent. I have actually seen very similar footwork and movement from this fight scene in quite a few professional MMA fights, the attention to detail that Benny, Jackie and his team put into this fight scene, I feel, is not highlighted enough in the martial arts cinema world. The feints, the counter strikes, it is a martial chess match, and modern MMA has now firmly reached this standard, gone are the days of the 'Just Bleed' era of rock'em sock'em robots in a steroid fuelled human cockfighting red mist of rage and haymakers, most of today's top flight MMA is highly nuanced, highly skilled with feints and traps with almost every movement (largely pioneered by Anderson Silva), and so too is this fight scene filled with many ingredients of modern day MMA, so in essence, way ahead of it's time. But aside from that majestic scene, this film is actually backed up by hilarious and highly entertaining scenes, great comedic acting and sub-plot lines, with the overarching plot line being serviceable enough to warrant your attention to the end, rooting for the good guys, particularly the highly likeable Jackie and Yuen, who enthralled and entertain throughout with their advanced martial abilities and the awesome cinematography capturing the best of what they can do.

Unfortunately, this has an element of, "You had to have been there" to it, and I can admit, I hold some bias in this regard because I was there, and Turtle Mania was a very real thing. However I recently watched this film again having not seen it since my childhood, and no amount of nostalgia can hide whether a film is garbage or not... This film is actually pretty damn good. It is not perfect by any means, but you compare this live action to the CGI slop being spewed out onto screens today, it holds up better than any recent TMNT film, or any recent CGI action film for that matter. The world of TMNT is fully realised here, taking from both the popular cartoon of the time and the much lesser known original TMNT comic (which was far darker and more violent than the kids TV show), this movie manages to get a well managed harmonious balance between the show and the comic, dark yet charming, serious yet playful, goofy and meaningful, with brooding shots of Shredder appearing for the first time in a dark underworld, with lived in set designs, one for instance of the turtles living in a converted compartment 'somewhere' in the sewers. The cinematography in this film in almost every shot tells a story within the main story, without having to rely on super slow motion or fancy tricks. The moving scene between the turtles and the spirit of their master Splinter at the camp fire, who is like a father to them, genuinely moved me even this time around watching, and seeing Splinter get tortured at the hands of Shredder and his henchmen genuinely affected me, the puppeteering by Jim Henderson's workshop so expertly crafted, Splinter and the turtles expressions on their faces conveying more emotion than any Marvel DC actors green screen wooden performances. The fact these guys in the heavy rubber suits made the turtles looks like skilled martial artists is a testament to the talent and abilities of the stunt actors and fight choreography team. There is a mix of very playful fight scenes that highlight each turtles personality, and a great face-off at the end between Shredder and the turtles and produces some very skilled fight work when taking into account the suits they had to wear and the timing they had to master in each choreographed movement. Its not a high art masterpiece, but it is an extremely well made film, and this film did something very unique, with a one time only realisation of puppetry and action with solid storytelling all combined in a timeless fun engaging family movie.

An odd film in a way because it is essentially a remake, but it is really it's own unique movie (outside of the title), and borrows small elements from Bruce Lee's style of film making and fight choreography but mixes it heavily with elements from Jet Li's era of Hong Kong movie making, a slightly mystical almost magical approach of the romanticised fantasy epics of Hong Kong martial arts cinema. Bruce Lee's movies were far more grounded in his approach to screen fighting. So realism meets fantasy in this intriguing re-imagining of the classic Fist of Fury, a few brutal moments but largely softened and exaggerated by the Yuen Woo-Ping ethos... but anyway I prefer this version, as there are story elements which adhere closer to a classical romantic and philosophical nature rather than Bruce's blunt on the nose nationalist vengeful vision. My favourite scene is the stand-off between Jet Li's 'Chen Zhen' and his opponent Fuimo Funakoshi, both masters of their own respective arts, mixed with their own personal core values injected into their individual method of fighting. Chen demonstrates his extreme focus, concentration of energy and direct power by smashing a rock into dust with one punch, but Fuimo in his old age shows something far more profound in its symbolic application by gracefully slicing a falling leaf in half, this brief moment between two honourable adversaries unfolds in such poetic visual fashion I can't help but swoon over this encounter and applaud the visual story-telling complimenting the dialogue here. The ensuing fight scene, by itself a great visual spectacle, with highly diverse, intricate and interesting fight choreography, is held at a higher amplitude due to the expert storytelling. I don't really hear or read much about this movie by Martial Arts movie fans and critics, but it does have a cult following in some regards, and is a great example imo of marrying the martial arts with the narrative, brilliantly interwoven throughout. Jet Li is just mesmerising on screen, that martial intensity even when still, mixed with his humble sincerity pulls the camera into him, and his perfectionist martial arts prowess is a joy to watch. Highly creative choreography and camera work in this unique re-imagining of the Bruce Lee classic.

The humour of Jackie is amongst his best here with his two great martial brothers Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, some great plot devices that both asian and western audiences will mostly find hilarious, mixing in some light martial tomfoolery but eventually as the tone of the story gets more serious, so too do the fighting sequences, levelling off to an enthralling final showdown at the drug production warehouse, with some of the most ferocious, creative and impressive martial set pieces I have ever seen on screen. The cinematography for these fight scenes is really well thought out and creatively assembled. The very final stand off between Jackie and Benny Urquidez (for the 2nd time) is not as good imo as their very first encounter in Wheels on Meals, but still great. The martial arts set pieces at the warehouse contain insane boldness for extreme risk taking for the sake of breathtakingly violent yet satisfying visuals, all the actors and stuntmen pulling out the stops to create something that can never be cinematically reproduced. I would perhaps rate it higher if the story was more compelling but due to a perfect marriage between the masterful cinematography and insanely impressive fight scenes, it's a must watch for any martial arts movie/Jackie Chan fan.

Great set pieces and fight scenes throughout. The basic premise of the story is a little cliched (to be expected for its time), but still executed rather well, despite losing its way a little bit half way through the film. Brandon's use of martial arts is visually impressive, succinct and clearly carried his fathers talent in his own unique way, and the martial arts marries the story premise well. Brandon's character Jake Lo is caught up in a seedy underworld of gangsters and corruption, being a witness to something sinister going down, a 'wrong place wrong time' affair, having to escape criminal bad guys and use his wits and fighting skills to outmanoeuvre the low level unskilled brawling crime thugs, until he meets more worthy adversaries later in the film who know a thing or two about applied martial arts, with one fight in particular the choreography effectively incorporates some Jeet Kune Do to great effect in a mostly realistic fight scene. The love interest for me was it's weakest element by far, also Jake Lo I feel could have had his relationship to his father padded out more, rather than a highly predictable romantic love interest for Jake with Karla Withers, a supporting actress providing sexual tension building up to raunchy sex scene thrown in for the 90's remit of action movie making, and perhaps more script given attention to Jake's father's involvement in the Tiananmen Square protest, but despite these minor flaws, for a film without a massive budget it is a great martial arts action movie with thrilling visuals superbly executed, a great musical score demonstrating some of the true high's of 90's action cinema, guaranteed to bring visceral excitement to anyone who enjoys raw mostly unimpeded martial arts movies. Brandon was truly mesmerising on screen, such a shame to lose a burgeoning naturally gifted actor and ultimately a beautiful human being so early.

Absolute dumpster fire of a movie. Trash. Faux 'arthouse' made by people with too much money and too much self interest, with actors on too high a wage and too much self interest. Amateur editing cuts, almost broadsword-esque at times with cutting between characters dialogue back & forth robotically, random cuts to an unnecessary close up of a face for 2 seconds then over to another unnecessary shot that brings no premise nor sculpture of context then back to the 3rd or maybe 4th shot choice shown in the scene in totally maybe 10 cuts for a scene lasting no longer than 1 minute, no camera air time to let any scene really marinate, bleh. And was this supposed to be a comedy? Tragic comedy of errors more like. Oh wait! Of course, of course! It makes sense, I should have known... When you have Collin Farell as your lead, a man who's acting could be mistaken for a cardboard sign outside a budget saver store, there is generally only one way the whole vibe of a movie is going to hang it's coating over, that of a self indulgent narcissist who's just vomited over himself and wants you to admire him and tell him how lovely his new coat is, and also give him money for it, because clearly he's so amazing and basically a auteur, with his vomit dripping down from his chin, onto your shoe.

Filming an empty bucket for one hour & fifty three minutes with the last minute having someone throwing up in the bucket would be more interesting and artistically stimulating than this film.

My god this was awful. Mortal Kombat is a dark obscure and occasionally comedic game franchise with deep lore. This film was essentially a 'Super Hero' movie with the Mortal Kombat name and some MK characters slapped on the surface. Music, all cheesy super hero themed. The editing cuts were jarring. Ah man I don't want to write any more, it is just really, really, really bad. Honestly I think the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie was better than this, for as campy as it was in places, at least they got the costumes on point and I felt the universe that Mortal Kombat takes place in was actually displayed more faithfully (or even actually included) in that version.

I give it 2 stars, 1 for some of the fights scenes (particularly Hanzo Hasashi at the beginning) and 1 star for the comedy gold of Kano.

Damn people are really trashing this version huh? I personally think a lot of the harsh hazing against this new version of The Stand is coming from a swathe of Stephen King novel purists, I understand if you don't like it, but doesn't mean the show itself is bad, it just means it didn't meet your expectations. However some people have given legitimate reasons for why they think the show is bad, from unconvincing performances to terrible editing and timeline structures. Can't argue with that, and I agree with the timeline and some other things, hence why I couldn't never give this a 10 or close, but I can argue for the things it got right, and particularly some things it did really well.

Within the past month, I first watched this version, then recently just finished revisiting the original 1994 version of The Stand. I was interested in what the new one could bring and also how it compares to the old one, and also see how much of my nostalgia would ware off from a fresh viewing of the 1994 version which I hadn't seen since I was a kid. I gotta say, overall I think the modern version slightly outdoes the 94 version. Here's why;

The quality of acting is far more consistent in this one, the only really bad performance is by the new Trashcan Man (Ezra Miller), it was over the top, unrealistic and just plain annoying. If Trash is that far gone and disconnected from reality, I really don't think he would be able to expertly create bombs and expertly extract nuclear warheads. Whereas Trash in the 94 version (Matt Frewer) had some semblance of a grip on reality that shifted to schizophrenic psychosis when his past came back to haunt him from all the bullying for being so different, you could see a tortured soul and thus a twisted mind that fell in and out of reality obviously mixed with a pre-existing mental condition), so he could get a task done like build a bomb but make stupid mistakes (or God's plan all along etc) that would help eviscerate Las Vegas.

For me the 'Golden Egg' of this modern interpretation was Owen Teague. His portrayal of Harold was imo masterful. I totally bought into the maniacal spiralling descent into hate fuelled revenge, I could see his broken ego and manufactured personality, and what a stroke of genius, the scene where his true transformation really started to take shape, the shot of Harold looking menacingly into the mirror, grinding his vitriolic gears to conjure a gnarled counterfeit grin, only for the camera to move slowly to reveal a picture of Tom Cruise on his mirror, the picture showing Tom in typical Cruise fashion caught mid-pose grinning his forced, larger than life persona unto the public, and Harold in the mirrors reflection, mirroring Cruise in a warped unhinged flex. It's a wonderful shot and brilliant cinematic language. Harold's unrequited love for Frannie and his spiteful reluctance to accept her love for someone else is explored here on a much deeper level and creates some high stakes truly intense moments that had me on edge throughout certain episodes, already knowing what Harold will do but seeing it unfold in a new light was excellent storytelling, from the actors to the cinematic language used by the director/cinematographer, it was a huge highlight for me and trumped the originals effort. A large part of why I gave this version of The Stand a 7 out of 10 is because of Owen's performance, and the script for him mixed with the brilliant scenes conjured for him elevated the whole show.

Frannie (Odessa Young) is an improvement in this version, she has far more believable emotions conveyed on screen. However I still don't sympathise with her in either version, perhaps it's just the way the character is written in the novel (which I never read) but she comes across as slightly derogatory and condescending towards Harold. Nadine (Amber Heard) is much better here, and again has more emotional gravitas, more believable and has a better back story as to why she gives herself so willingly to Flagg. Speaking of Randall Flagg, although overall I preferred Jamey Sheridans portrayal, it's the demonic scenes and scenes where Flagg loses his temper that Alexander Skarsgard gets right here, and it was a nice touch showing a close up of Flagg's eyes and seeing into his soul, a glimpse of the universe embedded in him shown to those he chooses, and extended via the stones he gives his loyal followers/mind-controlled victims. It was a great touch too showing the more following and admirers Flagg had, the more he could levitate and access more of his powers, but as his following dwindled, he lost his ability to levitate and thus showed he relied on worship to function at maximum potential, something the first series failed to include (whether due to King's revision of the script I don't know but still, it's a pro for this version). I personally quite liked Irene Bedard as Ray, as much I am generally not a fan of wokeness being forced into all avenues of media, I felt this actually worked quite well and feel she gave more impact and 'umph' to the character and I felt more saddened by her passing than the originals Ray. Jovan Apedo overall pulled off a better performance as Larry Underwood but his backstory was a little cringe and underwhelming in places, but solid acting throughout the main storyline and again I preferred his portrayal over the 1994's version.

Whoopi Goldberg, was she there just for the paycheque? Looked like it to me, not very good, it was grating watching her miserable grimacing out lines, compared to a prior 94 Mother Abigail who was sweet and wholesome and full of life (Ruby Dee). The rotoscoped effects of Woppi's face on Mother A's deathbed were as bad as the Windows 95 hand of God effects of the 94 version. And while I'm on the matter, this version did a much better job of Mother A (im assuming teaming up with God) coming down as a storm then an electric ball and eviscerating the heathens in Las Vegas.

The biggest gripe I have with this version is episode 9. What the heck was that all about? Mr. King, did they pay you off sir? I mean, what? It was so unnecessary, it hindered the whole saga. Virtue signalling galore, and then the final scene with Flagg, somewhere between being meta and concretely setting itself up for a potential second season. Just, no. And also, we get it, white man invading bad. Other races, good. Understood. Check.

But other than that, and some highly suspect 'special' effects.. a highly enjoyable rollercoaster ride for me personally, not great but very good.

I remember watching this as a kid and my experience then of it compared to now is quite different as you'd imagine. There were still things that hit almost as much as when I first saw it all those years ago, like the brilliant tapestry of visuals painting a powerful picture of a devastating and tragic event that has taken many lives, whilst Blue Oyster Cult's classic "Don't Fear the Reaper" looms hypnotically over the desolation unfolding poetically on screen. It sends chills watching it, so this was a great achievement by the director & crew to convey something quite powerful for a time when straight to TV drama was not expected to be of the highest quality. The strongest memory that stood with me all this time was the montage of the desolate streets and highway as Crowded House's "Don't Dream it's Over" swells hauntingly like a mournful ghost gliding over humanities downfall, I still felt the impact from watching it this time around all over again.

Those two chunks of this series will always be in my heart, as soppy as they may sound. But I have to say that, before the harsh realism kicks in with just how many things are terrible here, mixed with some blossoming of small triumphs.

As other reviewers have mentioned, I agree that the first two episodes are good, they build the characters well, for the most part, but the last two episodes just fall into a shambles. I have seen the recent modern 9 episode version of The Stand, and I think overall it is better than this, but there are moments in the 1994 version which display more humility and wholesomeness, and my preferred treatment of the heroes journey with beautiful shots out in the American wilderness, compared to the rotoscoped half live, half advanced studio effects modern version which just kills the immersion for me as I see straight through it. But what this version gets wrong, mainly due to being a product and thus a victim of its time, is the hammy, 'Days of Our Lives' soap opera acting at times. Molly Ringwalds overly dramatic sobbing when the slightest thing doesn't go her way, I mean of course her father dying is pretty devastating, although she suddenly seems happy with Harold to play records a few hours after burying her dead father outside, its really unrestrained acting and the director is partially to blame for getting some comical performances out of these actors that I'm sure could have done a much better job if they were working in todays modern 'post-Sopranos' era. Gary Senise as Stu expertly maintains his only acting ability, the stoic concerned everyday man never straying from the same facial expressions throughout. Molly Ringwald as Frannie, never really convinced me of a delicate sunflower that I feel the source material probably had the character as, but she rather comes across as naive and spoiled and her emotions seem plastic. Jamey Sheridan as Randall Flagg, now from what I've read he's gotten a lot of stick for this performance, but I actually prefer his portrayal over Alexander Skarsgard's. The fact the original character has a smiley face badge pinned to his denim jacket should hint at this guy's (or 'being's') persona, he/it has a sense of humour, and wants others to know this, as he/it mocks others he/it sees as inferior to him. Sheridan pulls this of perfectly for the most part, however when he gets angry and switches to his demonic self, first off the makeup is awful and comical (however the first episode where Flagg is represented as a demonic scarecrow in dreams was very good and genuinely terrifying), secondly his body movements as he half heartedly throws a stool here and there is kinda pathetic for a spawn of Sheitan, and here is where I feel Skarsgard's portrayal is better performed, his anger is really felt through his body movements and facial expressions. But overall, I give it to Sheridan for the Flagg version and Skarsgard for the cosmic/demonic version. San Giacomo as Nadine, oh dear, this was embarrassing to watch She is truly awful here as Nadine and turns Nadine's character into a caricature, similar to Harold played by Corin Nemec, there is no subtlety here, in fact Harold is less of a caricature and more of a cardboard cutout, there is no gravitas to any of Harolds vengeful rage, it just seems more like a petty, stroppy teenager who's a bit jealous and may as well blow them all up because hormones. It's not very convincing and just falls flat, as devastating as the bomb is blowing up Nick, who - played by Rob Lowe in this version - is much better than the overly forced sob-story in the modern version of Nick played by Henrique zaga. I'm torn between being slightly annoyed by the stereotypical portrayal of Tom Cullen by Bill Faggerbakke, and being enamoured with him and how sweet his character is, however Tom and Nick in the 1994 version is much more wholesome and complete and something I loved as a kid, their relationship and connection to one another is displayed much better here than in the modern version. I feel the modern version of Tom Cullen played by Brad Henke is more realistic, but I felt less emotive connection to him, whereas with Bill Faggerbakke I saw the humanity and emotion in his face and I couldn't help want to root for him and feel a sense of attachment to him.

The ending is horrible. Ugh, its so bad. And the hand of God, that fiasco in Las Vegas before the A-bomb blew up, it seemed rushed and forced and didn't convey any sense of a stand, but the modern version beats this version for its ending (excluding the needless nonsensical episode 9).

I would probably have given this a 5 if I had never seen it as a kid and this was my first viewing, but I have to also take into consideration the time period it was made in and constraints, and expectations of its time. A 6 is fair as there are some things it gets right and particularly the devastating effects of the virus at the beginning and the sense of loss mixed with the coming together of the Boulder community.

Amidst the wash of super clean narrative, generic plot devices and Hollywood shine, back in 2003, away from Hollywood and over in Thailand, was a film that threw all that hype under the bus (or VW Beetle, in this instance), and instead offered up an emotive and fluid narrative which favoured finding sense over making sense.

Last Life in the Universe somehow manages to be funny, delicate, serious, detached, attached, and something else I can't quite put my finger on. It's got some highly medative, slow paced direction like a Tarkovsky voyage, but combines it with the playful nonchalance of a Weitz movie.

Directed by Pen-ek Ratanaruang, this film seems almost like a love letter to the abstractions contained in every day life when one is caught in a day dream, or when the light catches a moment in the street just right and everything seems other worldly yet peaceful, all playing out amongst life's harsh chaos. Pen-ek I think used this film as a passion piece, his own life experiences deeply embedded in the main character, Kenji, played by Tadanobu Asano, who lives a strict orderly life, going beyond OCD to a level of mathematical precision in how his clothes are arranged. A dry, arrid, non-commital life of work and a distilled home are the order of the day for Kenji.

The Director, Ratanaruang, first wrote a rough version of the script during a time in his life where he considered not being amongst the world, "I didn't want to die, but I thought about death a lot." Ratanaruang went on to say, "In Thai culture, death is not a bad thing. In Buddhism, death is a part of life. You will continue anyway. I felt so tired. I was employed by an advertising company that let me go out and make films. In my spare time I would shoot TV commercials for friends. I found out that everyone around me felt the same way. The world seemed to be spinning so fast. We were saying, 'Maybe we should die. It would be more relaxing' - and that's exactly what Kenji says in the film."

The first moment we see the film's main character, Kenji, he is hanging from a rope, introducing himself via a calm distilled narration, as if he's speaking from beyond the grave. Is it all a dream? Or a heaven-like state where Kenji has already killed himself, and existing in-between worlds? Irrelevant. This film is playfully weaving reality with fantasy, a beautiful tapestry in a sweet, yet oddly dangerous plot, gently plodding away in its own maritime zone. Ratanaruang would not have been able to achieve this without the help of the Orient vagabond cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The cinematography often speaks on behalf of the characters, beautifully crafting scenes that create the multi-versed visual narrative.

Underpinning that little lot, and maybe more importantly, is a love story. Sinitta Boonyasak, who plays "Noi" in the film, is Kenji's complete opposite. She lives in a complete mess of a house, which reflects her chaotic disorderly life, and disfunctional relationship with her sister. There is a magical moment in this film, where Kenji's influence on Noi creates a dream like sequence, it's such a creative way of expressing her experience of Kenji in her life. From this, we are feeling her experience, rather than having everything explained to us via needless exposition or long drawn out distilled scene setting shots. Sinitta brings a raw presence to Noi, and underneath hides a colourful palette of emotions which unravels as the film progresses. Both stylistically and narratively, Kenji and Noi complete eachother. Kenji is Noi's Yin to her Yang, and vice versa.

This film is highly underrated. If you do decide to watch it, try not to set your compass on a particular destination of expectation, but instead, let the tide of it's vessel carry you to a different view, even if it feels like your not moving for a while, I guaruntee you'll feel moved by the end.

You remember that observation that someone with a fancy car was usually compensating for "something" or shall we say, a lack of something?... I feel I could apply that to this film, but the fancy car in this films case is a stylish cinematic visual orgy, and what's being compensated for is (imo) the ability to visually and creatively convey human truth and touch the human heart. They tried, they really did, but it's similar to people who overindulge on self-help lifestyles, and throw every bit of hypocritical guru advice, 'spiritual' workshop, buddhist mantras, Alan Watts diatribe and the garden ornaments with the kitchen sink thrown in for good measure, it's just too much to the point the core of the intention is lost in the superfluous, crushed in the mass volume of input.

This film has so much going on, that in places and at times it creates a sensory input overload, and by the time the lovely sweet, almost gushy but very meaningful beautiful message of finding love in the mundane and those around us, myself and I feel others who have watched this who saw through the glitz and glamour are left with a cinematic experience of a film who's heart suffers from existential density. It is dense because of the amount of matter shoved into a heart shaped chocolate box, filled with concrete.

Let me suddenly shift things a bit, not unlike the films visual style... I have been a fan of Michelle Yeoh since Police Story 3. One of my favourite films I have seen her in is "Sunshine", which I think is highly underrated. She shined in that movie, even though it wasn't a major part for her, it really showed her talent in a short space of screen time. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, a beautiful experience, imo was the highlight of her career, a delicate but stoic performance underlining a powerful presence and impressive physicality and martial ability when not being played by a stunt-woman. With EEAAO, I'm so glad someone gave her a chance at centre stage, and throughout this film she was a pleasure to watch. But for me the real gem of this movie was Ke Huy Quan. It took me maybe 15 minutes to finally realise, "Hey that's the kid from The Goonies!". His performance actually managed to pierce my heart. This shows also a very well written character, which shows me 'The Daniels' can write impressive insightful screenplay, half the time at least. I feel the same about this movie as I do with their prior film, "Swiss Army Man", a mixed bag oddity of beautiful humanitarian concepts and deep social commentary and an interesting probe into the less visited parts of the human psyche, whilst simultaneously grappling with perverse visual humour and sickly gushy sentimentality. The same could be said of EEAAO, but the perverse over the top visual humour is toned down for most of the film, but still rears (excuse the pun) it's ugly head in the form of a giant dildo being used as a martial arts weapon, a scene where Michelle Yeoh is dressed as an adult baby and red substance is squirted on her as if mimicking blood which I found quite disturbing and completely unnecessary for any plot development and character unravelling, and lovers with sausage wieners for fingers which when bitten into leaked and squirted mayonnaise or custard or god knows what everywhere. To me, these things are perverse and disgusting, and just seem to be two guys with some warped fetishes getting their fix from sneaking this stuff into their movie (but hey maybe I shouldn't be so surprised, this is Hollywood we're talking about, I'm sure everything is normal about Hollywood social cliques these days). There is a lot of unnecessary things in this movie, including the reference to Wong Kar Wai's movie "In the Mood for Love" and similar, as much as it's nice to give a visual nod to their inspirations/role models, they seem to forget they have a story to tell. By this point in the 3rd act of the movie it was dragging on.... Much like my review.

It's a visually impressive movie when it's not shoving things up it's own a**, but takes too long to get to it's most rewarding point. Great performances by all actors involved, some inspiring moments both visually and emotively, but overall a cluster pluck of mostly needless martial arts cliches and what seems to be a ridiculous competition to see how far jokes and meaning can be pushed before it all becomes meaningless. Yeah, the rocks were cute and funny, but by this point, I wanted a landslide to come along and push them to the end of the movie.

Meh. Just, meh.

OK so some things are working well in this episode, building some drama between the King and his daughter. The acting between them is emotive and engaging, but, the script (I don't know how close to the book it is verbatim) is quite basic. There is very little depth to any of this. It feels so bland, blasé. It feels like I have been watching a coming of age teen drama for the first half of the episode, with all the cliched bouts of will between a father and his daughter. Stroppy, jaded teen runs away, oh and she comes back after stabbing a boar to death, that was ready to keel over anyway, and looks like a warrior princess, yet the direction of the show would have you think the knight protecting her had nothing to do with killing the boar and oh, ya know, just coincidentally saving her life. But no, we must virtue signal.

Anywho, Dr. I don't care Who stereotypical bad guy Prince Daemon on his flailing wacky inflatable CGI dragon (the dragon was ok in parts, and the fire effects were actually one of the best parts of this episode) managed to completely turn me off the whole thing. His acting is about as immersive as dry wall. He also sounded pathetic shouting from his dragon, whimpering in a pseudo RP voice. The battle was average, and also in parts quite ridiculous. The choice of editing cuts throughout the whole episode is grating. There's so many things wrong with this show, it's time for me to bail out before I get impaled by a giant stag made of plasticine.

Generally I try to avoid visual gore in any format (although I used to watch some violent anime in the 90's, but its somehow different, at least in my mind anyway) but I don't mind it in creative storytelling, if there is justification for it in the context of the piece then it actually enhances the it, it gives a visual impact and shows consequence and cost to certain actions creating reactions, and it shows just how much is at stake in the world of said creative piece. We had this in GOT, and it is why to me the gore and extreme violence was always justified, by that I mean, it made sense in the universe it existed in, what these people were capable of, the brutality fit the narrative, and there was always a trail of cause and effect leading to it. In this first episode of House of the Dragon, there are essentially 3 scenes (2 of them intertwined) of extreme gore and violence. How did we get to that violence and gore? First, Daemon just randomly out of nowhere decides to go kill some random people in the streets of the city who by all accounts and measure, appear to just be minding their own business. They label these people as criminals. Ok. I looked away through some of it as I just don't want to look at wanton bloodshed thrust upon me for no good reason. Already at this point it seems they are trying to fulfil a "Game of Thrones bloodshed quota". Then we have the dual scenes of bloodshed, The jousting contest turns into a bloodbath, it quite literally went from mild pole in the chest armour to "lets suddenly mace the mandible off this guys skull!". There was no build up, no consequence, just people being violent because they could, and it will likely never be revisited again. And again, we get that violence quota met, yeah savvy writing. But, I will say, the caesarean section was contextual, and even important for viewers imo because, it is reflective of history and what many women went through, as barbaric is it is, I'm sure men of power must have at some point had to make that decision. However, as much as the gore was contextual with the caesarian, I still could not watch it and looked away, I did not want to go to bed with that imagery in my mind, but the premise and the sound was enough for me to feel the gravitas and impact and reflect on it.

Ok with all that out the way, everything else was boring. There is nothing else worth mentioning. CGI - poor. Acting - average to cringe. Script - poor. Also, there is some odd casting choice in here, purely based on the book from what I understand, it just seems to be adhering to current diversity pressures.

It's not looking good for this spinoff... and it's head might well be spinning off after one season if it does not improve drastically.

Not much of anything happening really. It's not terrible, but its not anywhere near the standard of GOT seasons 1 to 6 (maybe 7.. need to watch again). It has some emotive intrigue with the jostling for power via manipulation of certain characters to further another characters own agenda, as per the GOT way. I am starting to feel some kind of connection with some of these characters, but what I think was supposed to be a shocker and cliff hanger and nail biting thrills in this episode near the end, it really just looked to me like really bad CGI, that from the start of this show is a bad sign that this half baked overuse of CGI will be prominent throughout, this is not a good sign for things ahead to come. The standoff between Princess Such & Such who I have yet to really care about and Matt-man from Dr Who was contrived, simplistic and highly transparent, and displayed itself like a firework that fizzled out before it could take off. Very disappointing.

Most people who have a similar negative view of this film like myself, have covered most of what's wrong with this film, the damming jarring pace, the lack of any true revelation at the end, the lack of any true connection to any characters throughout the whole movie...

...but no one has criticised the one thing I find to be the most overrated part of this movie; Daniel Day-Lewis' acting. I have seen him in quite a few other films and was always impressed, from The Crucible, In The Name of the Father, to Gangs of New York (also overrated but at least old Danny boy was entertaining enough, and fit for purpose in a film that required a pantomime approach), but in There Will Be Blood, Day-Lewis is essentially a caricature of a 'coming of age' oil baron, and I found it incredibly hard to take a single iota of his performance seriously. In most scenes he looks constipated, his eyes about to pop out from their sockets like a burst oil line. He's equivalent to a 'try-hard' in an acting role, and for someone of his calibre I was shocked how awful his acting was all the way through this massive dung hill of a movie. I felt embarrassed for the guy. There was nothing believable about his performance, I would understand if it were a film like Gangs of New York which is full of cartoonish stereotypes as that is what the movie deliberately went for, but for this film, it turned into a bizarre comedy. Maybe that's what the director was going for, if so, I should have given this film a 1.

Very much a case of style over substance.

What starts off as a compelling set piece of fantasy drama, eventually unravels into a predictable hero worship cliche of 'the chosen one' and everything perfectly falling into place for him.

I will give it this, the visuals for the most part, are interesting and in some moments spectacular, with some good choreographed fight scenes and war set pieces. The first act of the film I felt I was being positively consumed by the visuals and world building, and the characters were all being introduced with clarity & energy at a steady pace. Then the second act comes and we have the typical drama in these types of action sci-fi, consisting of some reason for mo-fo's to start fighting, shooting etc etc... But here's where for me things start to go wrong. Major characters are killed off with little compensation to the viewer. They are just arbitrary disposable pieces to help move the story to support the hero worship as mentioned earlier... which also is tied intrinsically to the editing style of this film. We are hurled as if from a sling shot from one grand scene to another with little time to reflect on anything. Character arcs that are supposed to be impactful just get tossed aside to haphazardly hurry the show up and get to the hero getting to where he needs to go, whether its a best friend or a beloved father, these characters and their arcs are irrelevant and a side note stuck to the fridge of leftovers compared to the hero's predictable blessed precious journey, which makes the film become more and more one dimensional, kinda like the effects used for the original Dune body shields. I had lost interest by this point and dragged myself through the final 3rd of the movie just to see it through to the end, and was relieved when it was over. The music got worse as the film progressed, it seemed to slide out of place at moments with the scenes, but overall just seemed to get louder and louder to the point of seeming like the audio interpretation of a migraine.

I give it a 5 purely based on the impressive special effects and world building which must have taken a lot of dedication from the effects team and director etc, because most modern films special effects look awful to me, so that's saying something that I enjoyed that exact thing I usually despise in modern movies. Also the acting was good, for such (imo) a bland predictable story, with very little meaningful character development.

Watch it for the visual spectacle, but don't expect anything meaningful.