pearlksp Reviews

Turbo (2013)

Wildly Racist, Sexist

[2/10 · 25 January 2015]

Why would no alarm bells go off for the production people of how they are presenting people to little kids?

Mexicans boiled down to unsuccessful taco entrepreneurs? The black snail being some sort of hip hop tough guy who thinks he's fast but is slow?

Snails are hermaphrodites. Even in this case the primary players are portrayed as male. Male factory leader. Male head speaker. Male main character. Male human characters. Male hero for the snail. Have females again been zipped off the planet again? Allegorical sure, but here's a female. Flirty lipstick snail as girl in a gang. Such opportunities lost.

And the world is a big bad world where danger is everywhere. Everyone mocks the hero and continually colleagues die and they collectively shrug. Bird and big are killed for humour I presume. Really? This is the best they could do with the imaginations of themselves and their audience?

Christmas Caper (2006 TV Movie)

Is mainstream that far right wing?

[4/10 · 23 December 2008]

It's a strange movie in the sense that it could make me suspend disbelief and hold my attention but afterwards I felt annoyed.

Pros: Female leads are fairly strong, for Hollywood standard.

There's a kid who had integrity and is heeded as an individual not by standard age and gender.

It gave lots of things to talk about afterwards.

It keep dramatic tension. It has a classic story arc of hero's journey and redemption.

Elements feed back through to make sense such as the lead two being described as always having had a fight and make up fiery relationship.

People are self-accepting and the community is affirming of one another.

Cons: Holy Gender Norms, Batman. Boys must be horrified and disgusted that he has received a female toy.

And let's denigrate housewife clothes; women to be sexy must have long hair down and show cleavage for basic self-image maintenance.

A role for an overweight man? Comic foils only need apply.

And no queer couples, even in the background.

Race. Lordie. Who did the casting choices?

The career criminal is black and is the only one who goes into a squad car in handcuffs. He can steal without remorse, reflexively even without noticing.

The white middle class America girl does same crime and yet no time because she has a cop friend willing to work the system for her, even erasing a past record.

Somehow even being a skilled acrobat and long time criminal, she is the victim of life and herself. And gets her butt saved by a man, with her cooperation.

Good girls who do everything "right" in life are two blondes. Both arguably ditzy.

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)

hollow unpretty eye candy

[1/10 · 12 October 2006]

The set designer and the fashion designer had fun. I can say the lighting designer had fun and drew attention to his art. The movie seemed to try to be spooky but in the end, (and middle and beginning) I found I didn't care about any of the characters. The soundtrack was melodramatic organs from another era.

It's not a subtle movie yet I don't get it. I suppose garish but hollow superficiality against the backdrop of mortality was the point in a way but there was only the one point, announced, acted out, over and over and over. Perhaps it is because in 1960s rote learning and repetition was in vogue?

Everybody uses everybody. And? Woman is learned helplessness and a case study for those who don't listen to their instincts pay for it. So? Lady pimp doing something "evil" while hapless lead character victims go through motions of life. I kept expecting a turning point, more than a slow motion toy train wreck.

It isn't so much what it was as what it wasn't. I guess it annoys me because there is not only no glimmer of hope, no wit, no sense of humor, no building drama, no depth or development of character. There was no plot tension. There was no unexpected turns unless you count erratic behavior and unpredictability of cardboard "friends" tracking her down.

Sometimes when a movie character makes an error the audience laughs or groans and slaps their collective head and goes, no, no you fool. Except in this movie it's not huge enough mistakes for you to get that excited over; why is everyone so daft?

If you don't like someone, don't tell them where you live and invite them for tea. If the guy doesn't want to be around the contessa, then he can go elsewhere. If people would just be upfront with each other instead of insensibly running away... there would be no movie, but a handy bit of time that could be used for say, household tasks.

for me, boring and depressing. Clearly I'm missing something.

Imagine Me & You (2005)

a fun enough hour and a half, worth a watch if you're in the mood for light love at first sight fare

[7/10 · 13 February 2006]

It is hard to know how to rate this one. On one hand it was completely predictable the way a Hollywood sitcom, or Hong Kong Comedy-romance, is, thus a 6 at best. In a way, it is a light, feel good movie that I enjoyed. It did the job it set out to do. It made me and everyone else I could hear around me laugh. It was pleasant. I am not sorry to have seen, don't regret the time spent on it thus an 8. But I wouldn't put it on a watch again list.

It's hard to put my finger on why I would give it as low as a 7. I can't say any actor was wooden nor was any scene choreographed poorly. I found the soundtrack rather overbearing and blaring over at times but that's a common enough aspect that is to someone's taste, just not mine. It didn't drag, didn't belabor, but didn't challenge. It wasn't violent, wasn't offensive, wasn't naughty, wasn't a tearjerker. It is sort of a formula pulp fiction (not the movie, actual pulp fiction). If you haven't seen Notting Hill, Me and You will seem fresher to you. Even though 2004's Saving Face was a romantic comedy of what would you do for love at first sight, is it real, the effect was totally different. But even from the trailer and posters of this one, I was set up for that.

But still it is a good movie. The writing was snappy, funny when it was supposed to be, oh-no! where it was supposed to be. No character was annoying, nor terribly developed either. The scenes were pretty, the actors acted well through connections and conflicts; the actors were all attractive, even if hard to tell apart as two lead ladies looked a lot alike.

They had it paced and set up so you cheer all the right people and all but it bore an uncanny resemblance to a Friends episode (except that here gay and interracial romances are assumed to be natural and as seamless as any other relationship not a punchline. That was nice to see.) There wasn't any silly nonsense of ew-old-folks-and-sex is gross and awkward like so many movies do. (That was a relief. )

I guess what dissatisfies me that not for a minute did I forget in You and Me that it was a movie or that I was in a theater. It didn't make me suspend disbelief. Even Crocodile Dundee was completely silly but I got involved in it in a way this didn't click.

It's a fun diversion.

Geboren in Absurdistan (1999)

What is Parental Love? When does a place become your nation? *spoiler*

[8/10 · 15 October 2005]

The movie begs the question what makes someone your child? How far would you go for a child you "know" is "yours"? Can people co-parent a child or must it be the legal possession of the genetic parent? As an undercurrent it examines, "what is nationhood?" and "how can we reconcile responsibilities of a nation with that of responsibilities of humanity?"

That's not to say it's a heavy movie. Some call it a dark comedy. I wouldn't go that far. It is a broad comedy mixed with nail-biting drama.

It is rather a fish out of water story that can be examined and enjoyed on a few levels. It is mixed with political commentary for the viewer to assess who are the heroes.

Personally I rather liked the echo effect of the news being broadcast and retold in many homes. Risky for the director but rather poetic.

I'm sorry to hear the other reviewer found the portrayal of Turkey to be inflammatory and hurtful. I think the world at large is well aware of Turkey as a diverse country, modern, cosmopolitan in places, just as Austria and every other nation has rural areas and urban area.

Like the extremes of urban life to village life, Austrian life to Turkish life, the gender roles were hyperbole. A lot of the humor comes from the over-the-top parodies of men "responding with testosterone" while their women bond peaceably. For something billed as a drama, I was surprised at how much it made us laugh. (But then I laughed at Fahrenheit 9/11 and found the bias manipulation funny too.)

I respected that what could have become a narrow story of how the Austrian couple and Turkish couple became buddies and take on the world, the very real background tension of prejudice was not glossed over. It is thrown in periodically with care. The message of the movie is not to promote these notions as much as to examine them and take one case and say do the notions publicly held of refugees hold true?

It throws into contrast the reality of the risks the Austrian couple were taking and how far they moved across their prejudices to become friends and companions of the Turkish couple. The Turkish couple we got to know as lead roles were as intelligent, as educated, well respected at work.

Absurdistan seems an appropriate title for three reasons: Navigating the bureaucrats and political hoops in any country is remarkably similar. Even simple straightforward things seems to be reduced to ridiculous levels of pulling rank and currying favor. Secondly is also a fitting title for a comedy film of people who realize they are caught between what it is intuitively right and what bureaucracy says they must feel, be or do, both as as "citizens", as "the other", as the "father" or "mother". Thirdly, just when you think nothing else can go wrong or be botched up, more goes wrong(!) and the plot twists again.

Magic Kitchen (2004)

a pleasant evening

[7/10 · 5 September 2005]

Magic Kitchen (Moh waan chue fong) has got a cast of beautiful people and a fun convoluted plot told in flashbacks from a few times, moods and perspectives. You will either love or hate that way of telling a story.

It is a story of how a circle of lifetime friends from kindergarten support each other and negotiate the sticky points of being adult and in the search for a partner or true love. It doesn't fit squarely into drama, comedy or romance genres, while having moments for all of them. While it makes social commentary on this age's shape of love and dating relationships, it is light, falling just short of fluffy.

It is sort of a watered down version of Like Water for Chocolate so far as the aspects of chef and cooking goes. The movie has definite parallels to the movie Woman on Top, with a chef, quirky unexpected plot turns, the bit of the surreal, and a woman who would be ditsy if she weren't so loved and smart. I liked this one better than the Penelope Cruz one because Magic Kitchen struck me as having far more believable characters, less sanitized view of choices in relationships, with less of a pat fairytale ending.

It's soundtrack isn't intrusive. It's cinematography doesn't take center stage but these things are considered. In the subtitles, it would have been handy in a couple places if the print on screen would have been translated not only the spoken words.

The Attractive One (2004)

It is light, deliberately goofy, but that doesn't prevent it from being a heartwarming story of oddballs falling in love and avoiding admitting it.

[9/10 · 28 March 2005]

The Attractive One is a well-paced, delightful, romantic comedy. It is light, deliberately goofy, but that doesn't prevent it from being a heartwarming story of oddballs falling in love and avoiding admitting it.

The Attractive One ("Sun giu yu gwai") is almost the Naked Gun 2 1/2 for the romantic comedy genre. It is a colorful story smoothly told. It is delightfully quirky in the way only Hong Kong can do well. The cast is obviously having fun making the movie and that comes through. It's a "safe" movie with no villain, violence or tear-jerking. For all its lightness, it has an underlying message that leaves the audience feeling good at the closing credits.

I'm not sure the English title matches the movie but it isn't so far off. There are a few places in the subtitled version I saw where some of the dialogue wasn't subtitled. The songs weren't translated and neither were any of the signs the camera panned over. Despite that oversight, I don't feel I missed anything pivotal.

It was time well spent.

Sex and Lucía (2001)

violent

[5/10 · 20 February 2005]

If you find the title is titillating, and you like romance, that's about as much as you're going to get in the title. The acting was heartfelt but I found the plot was presented to thrill and add suspense and mirror the conflicts of characters, which left me feeling the plot was was convoluted and confusing.

I couldn't tell who was who some of time and didn't want to at others. While the movie has beautiful cinematography and is effective it is emotionally wrenching. that's good if you like that sort of head-job. If, for example, your tastes run to things that Pedro Almodovar directs, you might like it. It gave me nightmares for days of the nightmares of Lorenzo.

Spanglish (2004)

immigrant story

[8/10 · 20 February 2005]

I'm glad to say the humorous trailer doesn't do it justice. The acting was enough to make me suspend the sense that it is a movie. The acting is natural. If there was music, it didn't distract. It provokes laughter, empathy, but also thought. It isn't too heavy nor too shallow. It didn't drag. It had social commentary, characters instead of caricatures and no easy answers yet steered clear of pat answers and of harshness. Where I saw it, ranked it as family fare and while there is no violence, emotional or physical, the concepts of adult decisions may not be interesting to children. I don't know how it compares to the 1994 movie by the same title but this one is not typical Hollywood fare.