paul_haakonsen

Never having heard about this 2020 South Korean martial arts action movie titled "Real Fighter", I still opted to watch it on account of it being an Asian movies that I hadn't already seen. I have to say, though, that the movie's title just permeated low budget, and made me think of some dubious 1990s arcade fighting game.

It was a bit amazing that writer Hwang Il-Kwon could manage to put together such a generic script. It was like watching a 1990s martial arts movie. There was a lot of random fight scenes, but very little profound story to follow. It made for a subpar viewing experience. And even more amazing was it that three directors couldn't manage to come together and pull of a semi-watchable movie.

I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. Which is actually something that spoke in favor of the movie, as I enjoy watching unfamiliar and new faces and talents on the screen. The acting performances in the movie were, well, let's just say nothing to write home about.

Some of the fighting scenes were actually nicely enough choreographed and executed on the screen, but don't get your hopes up. "Real Fighter" is not an outstanding or memorable martial arts action movie in any way.

The music in the movie was so amazingly annoying that I actually almost turned off the movie.

My rating of directors Kim Kyung-Taek, Seung-Gu Gwon and Chun-Sik Kim's 2020 movie "Real Fighter" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Despite the fact of never having heard about this 2024 Indonesian horror movie titled "Temurun", of course I opted to watch it, as I had the chance to do so here in 2025. I am a big horror fan and also a big fan of Asian cinema, so this was two nice things combined into one.

Or so I thought. But the narrative in "Temurun" was insanely boring and devoid of interesting contents, much less anything scary. So writer Vontian Suwandi dropped the ball phenomenally here, and I was not the least bit entertained throughout the of course of the prolonged 86 minutes that the movie ran for.

The only familiar face on the screen, for me, was actress Yasamin Jasem. The acting performances in the movie were actually fair, but the actors and actresses were fighting an already lost uphill battle against an inferior script and annoying and pointless characters.

There was nothing scary in the movie, well, unless you consider boredom to be scary. Then you're in for a treat.

The movie doesn't make use of any noteworthy special effects. I have to admit that I was laughing at one scene where a man was found hung. A body doesn't strut like that in the position that man was as he was supposed to have been hung. It was just laughably bad and cringeworthy to look at.

If you enjoy Indonesian horror movies, then there are far, far better movies out there, and I wouldn't recommend you waste 86 minutes on watching "Temurun".

My rating of director Inarah Syarafina's 2024 movie "Temurun" lands on a generous two out of ten stars. Not a particularly great or memorable directorial debut here.

Granted, I've never even played a single minute of Minecraft, nor will I ever, but of course I am familiar with the concept, as my son used to play the game. So I knew somewhat of what I was getting into here. I can't claim that I was harboring any grand expectations to a movie based on a game such as Minecraft, especially since so many other game adaptations have flopped.

But truth be told, I do believe in giving all movies a fair chance, and thus opted to give director Jared Hess's 2025 movie "Minecraft" a fair chance.

Writers Allison Schroeder, Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James and Chris Galletta put together a script and storyline that actually proved to be surprisingly entertaining. It was quite an adventurous ride of goofy silliness. I was actually genuinely entertained throughout the course of the 101 minutes that the movie ran for.

Now I have to say that I found it no surprised that the likes of Jack Black would participate in a movie such as this, and he essentially just plays himself in every single movie he is in. And isn't it about time for Jack Black to get a haircut and remove that raccoon living on his chin and jaw? Well... Moving on. But Jason Momoa in a movie such as this? The Rock, sure, but Jason Momoa? Aside from Jason Momoa and Jack Black, "Minecraft" also had Jennifer Coolidge on the cast list, so there were some familiar faces. And the voice talents of Jemaine Clement and Rachel House. The acting performances in the movie were actually fair.

The CGI in the movie was actually good, and that counted for quite a lot in a movie such as this. There were a lot of really nice attention to detail, and I have to say that the CGI team really managed to pull this movie off quite nicely, and it added generously to the enjoyment of the movie. It was a visually nice and vibrantly colored movie to behold.

"Minecraft" is a kids movie, no doubt about that, but actually has enough campy, cheesy silliness in it to also entertain adults. But I am sure people that have played the actual game would enjoy this movie tremendously more than I did as a casual viewer.

While "Minecraft" was actually an enjoyable movie, it hasn't planted a seed for me to go out and start playing the game though.

My rating of "Minecraft" lands on a six out of ten stars.