yupman

The exuberance of the Akira Tendo character is well portrayed by Eiji Akaso who is such a lovely sunshine boy who brightens up every scene he's in. There's also lots of droll humour and the many Japanese references were interesting to me as a foreigner. The use of "nudity" was also effective and hilarious.

The stunt work and fight choreography were well done, although perhaps the budget was not high so the special effects were not "Inception" level good.

All in all, I was very entertained and got introduced to the wonderful Eiji Akaso and I dunno why this movie got such a low rating. To me it's an 8.

This could have been good but the absurdity of the behaviour of one of the children really is beyond belief. The child seems to be brainless and headstrong in equal measure so much so I feel like killing her myself.

Besides that, I quite like the look and feel of the show, and the weird foreign culture. The parents are cool and the son acts well. The religious premise bit could have been made more apparent but I guess there was not enough time for that in 6 short episodes.

Perhaps this could be picked up by big, bad Hollywood and remade, with the daughter's character re-written so it's not so dumb and annoying.

Those expecting another cheapo Asian martial arts flick will be pleasantly disappointed. Wu Kong is clever extension of the Monkey God yarn but filmed in a beautiful and fantastical way, coupled with some poignant scenes and social commentary. The acting was well done by the eye candy leads and the action sequences were interesting too. The CGI was also better than usual. All in all, I was very entertained and actually felt for the characters.

Guardians of the Galaxy made me laugh almost non-stop from beginning to end. It's a welcome break from all the conventional superhero movie, with oddballs leading the way instead of "Super" heroes. Surprises galore. There are several tender moments and the stunt work is very good. Sound track is very fun. CGI is unobtrusive. Acting is excellent all round, except Glenn Close who is severely underused. Nice wholesome values, violence is not over-the-top. Recurring theme is one of redemption, honour, self-sacrifice, friendship, and not underestimating anyone's ability to do the right thing. Lots of fun and well worth my RM14. There is an ostrich's egg at the end.

This is a funny, refreshing, way-non-American, zany, completely different movie. It is even touching at some points. Watch this for great 'slice of life' moments in the 'new' Russia and how the past still haunts Russians.

Oh, and the music is of course wonderful, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. Hope it springboards you to find out more about musty old 'classical' music. It's not so easy to 'get' it, but boy, nothing compares. Plenty of very good versions, so shop around online and see the reviews and ratings. The titan David Oistrakh is usually a good bet, and so are most of the younger stars these days like Midori or Joshua Bell.

This is not a perfect movie, but it's very unlike anything I've ever seen and the execution is very good. It's not preachy but great moments hit you out of the blue, just like in real life. Dialogue is also very funny but some of the funny Chinese bits are not translated in the subtitles (I can understand most of it, but most non-Chinese won't). Very moving at times, and the sense of being lost and bumbling around resonates with me. Kelly Hu's character is probably the weakest and her Chinese is quite atrocious but she makes up for it by being gorgeous. Hayden P's character is a little hard to believe but once you suspend disbelief about that, she's a very lovely character indeed. Ken Leung is very good indeed, I must say, he seems almost like somebody I know.