nyk2000my Reviews

Ender's Game (2013)

It is NOT Gravity

[7/10 · 11 November 2013]

Here's a few things I will say about this one.

1. It is not Gravity. Which meant, it's probably not FILM OF THE YEAR, National Film Registry (Hollywood Hall of Fame) future inductee materials, it is not LIFE OF PI (inspirational EPIC), also Ender's Game didn't have the luxury to have Tarantino to direct the show (so NOT a cool type movie), it will not blow yr mind or inspire you to change yr life etc, but...

2. It is a solid sci-fi thriller, well done, good acting, OKish special effect (again, gentle reminder, NOT GRAVITY), lack of depth in story, a long winded like Peter Jackson would probably produce a more detail and added more EPICness into this great material. Personally, kind of feel like it was too rush, probably a longer director cut will do the film more justice. Well, it work for THE ABYSS, not sure bout this one.

3. DO NOT READ ANY SPOILER / WIKIPEDIA PAGE about the story line. Pls don't do it, I regretted this a lot, take away an important plot twist which kind of ruined the fun at the end.

4. Why Ben Kingsley has an Oscar while Ford has none, well watch this film and you will know why. Old BEN has like a 5 minutes cameo and yet stole every scene possible. Butterfield kid was good, not Harley Joel Osment's Six Sense good, just quite good. The rest kind of fall flat. This is a waste to a list of talented cast, due to the rushness. A 180 minutes run time would probably better to showcase this wonderful scifi tale. Just IMO, didn't ask you to like it.

5. Get to know that the director (Hood) from South Africa too. Kind of worry he will shake his camera like his fellow country men did in Elysium, luckily he didn't, which was good. It can be quite violent at time, not for kid, especially when children saw what Ender did to his foe. Take this as a warning.

Thanks for reading, enjoy the film.

Seven Samurai (1954)

The Mother Of All Movie

[10/10 · 30 June 2008]

Any better word to describe this spectacular film? This movie is the first of it's kind, the most aspiration and inspirational, mixed v elements of adventure, war, fighting, class struggle, humanity and even horror n suspends. The best part is, the film was made in 1954. Most movies we seen today, we may see influence from this superb masterpiece of Kurosawa. Had it made by Hollywood, this movie would have top the list of all time great, what a pity.

An aged but skillful n thoughtful Samurai helped peasants who were harmed by a group of 40 bandits. The Samurai Warrior ensemble a cast of 7 determined warriors to fight for the peasants. After a string of tremendous battle, the warriors were reduced to 3 but successfully repel the invasion and slaughtered all 40 bandits.

This is a cinematic masterpiece, properly best of all time. Even up to today, still a great story and you should have no problem sitting through an interesting 3 hours journey. Enjoy!

Ultraviolet (2006)

7 For Style 0 For Cinematic

[8/10 · 23 June 2008]

Well, here's my rating for the film according to diff aspect:-

Cinematic 2 / 10 Plot & Script 3 / 10 Acting 3 / 10 Style & Elegance 7 / 10 Action & Effect 7 / 10

If not because of Milla Jovovich and a bunch of white actors, I would have thought this is another action clique from CHina / HK or low budget B movie I usually seen.

The scripting has been poor, or put it this way, the plot was nonsense and I guess even Aeon Flux has a better story told. If what you want is just to see superhuman chick kick ass on some white trash together with highest ever body count, than this is the movie. Other than that, please forget about watching this movie.

Hail the Judge (1994)

totally absolutely ultimately 1000 times more ridiculous than any film that u can imagine!!!

[10/10 · 15 December 2006]

I felt sorry enough that this film is not popular at all even in Hong Kong. However, for all die hard Chow's fan, this will be a masterpiece that shud not b left out. This is "Mo Lei Tou" (a comedy style that based on unrealistic and ridiculous plot pioneered by Chow) at its peak. The plot is totally absolutely ultimately 1000 times more ridiculous than any film that u can imagine. The dialog is awesome. No single part of the film cool down for u to stop laughing.

The plot look simple but crazy enuf for u to start laughing. It begin with Chow starring a junior magistrate (a corrupted one of course)caught into jail when helping an innocent married woman he love at first sight to clear her from a murder charge that plot by evil minister whose son was actually the real convict. Chow escape from jail and run away as a refugee. He intend to go to the capital to see the Emperor and report the conviction. On his way, he manage to pick up 2 lovely women, one from circus, another one a prostitute while in the mean time mastering supreme skill to quarrel and bad mouth from the thin Mama-san (who happen to be his future in law). Finally, he able to force the Emperor to re-open the case by black mail the Emperor whom he meet him in the brothel. The Emperor made him a highest level judge to judge the case tgt with the evil minister. He manage to setup some brilliant but hilarious plots to force the convict to commit the crime, execute him while thrown the evil minister to jail.

The plots are really hilarious and ridiculously brilliant. Also not to forget the tremendous dialog that include some brilliant bad mouth quarrel between Chow and the Mama-san, quarrel between the fat Mama-san and thin Mama-san to inspire Chow to learn the quarrel skill later and also quarrel between Chow and the evil eunuch Lee near the ending. Beside that, some of the scenes are brilliant too.

One thing that need to mention is that to really understand the film and catch up 100 % of all the elements correctly, this will be a must to master Cantonese really well. Which may be the reason why early age Chow movie receive moderate response only from Asian world. However, when Chow film began to spread his influence around the globe, hardcore fans like me found that his film is no more that funny like the old time.

Æon Flux (2005)

If u don't like Catwoman..... forget about this film

[5/10 · 8 January 2006]

It's all about a heroine who posses super natural power fight against a future society that only perfect on the surface. The story and the plot despite uninteresting at all still seem acceptable. However, the costume is exceptionally awful especially Theron's black outfit. Also same with the shot and cutting. The ticket sales reflect how bad this film it is.

The film is about the same like Catwoman with all the sexual and sci-fi elements that more or less the same. So, if u don't like Catwoman, don't waste ur time on it. The only reason I put a 5 there is because it's excellent special effect and some of the stunt. Any way, it's not a new stuff in Hollywood either.

This film join Catwoman, Battlefield Earth and Avenger as my all time A list cast, A budget film but fail miserably. Btw, this film certainly has a lot of potential to be winning a few razzie awards.

Princess Mononoke (1997)

Japan Animation's Best

[9/10 · 6 January 2006]

This film is Japan Animation's all time best to me. To be frank, i don't really like Japan Animation and Japanese either (may be because I am Chinese). But I certainly love this film and most Miyazaki's work.

Mononoke - Hime is a 2 hours plus epic featuring a brave young warrior named Ashitaka's journey to search for Demon that cure him when he kills a corrupted beast God to save his fellow villagers. Without doubt, Ashitaka journey is packed with adventure and fictional elements. But the height of the film and also I think the intention of Miyazaki, was to portrait the clash, between human civilization and the mother nature (especially tree and forest).

Without doubt, our young hero able to save himself, the wolf girl, and may be the forest too at the ending of the movie. But the consciousness that brought up by this film is certainly enormous. It seems that Miyazaki try to tell our kind to preserve the nature beside an unavoidable clash with development. And then, the plot, the sound track, was so fantastic that I can watch this film again and again.

When the film come to its peak, eg:- the battle between San and Wolf God against the Iron City, the ambush of the Pig God, the dead of Shishi Gami, and every tragical event that occur in the film later in the film, was perfectly displayed by the animation team. Just like my friend said when he watched it together with me, he said the later part of the film was so breath taking.

However, i need to point out that another Japan anime Pom Poko, made by Miyazaki's colleague Isaotaka. If Pom Poko made it with comedy elements and sense of humor, Mononoke was a darker version with enough tragic event to open our mind. That's why I give a 9 dough, coz Pom Poko and Mononoke - Hime share a same subject and if I am not mistaken, Pom Poko was released earlier than Mononoke. Any way, this is a great Anime that no one should missed. Marvelous! Btw, another thing I really appreciate about Miyazaki and Isaotaka is that they never exploit women's body shape in all their film. Considering the whole Japanese Animating Industry has this kind of stupid trend (have a look with Sailormoon, those are kid show and see how they drawn the heroine), Miyazaki and his pals should gain some regards on this matter too.

Battlefield Earth (2000)

I say its a classic film..................... classic super bad film

[1/10 · 3 January 2006]

Bad writing, bad plot, bad directing and even John Travolta wont save the movie from being all time worst. I wonder why i spend 2 hours to watch this freak show. May be just to see how bad it is. And lucky enough, i was not disappointed at all.

The story was simple. You could have know the ending without even seeing the movie at all. It was about a group of 7 Feet tall alien conquering earth at the world 1000 years in future. And the rest, are just some stupid plot how man fight against those alien. Cm'on, even the costume of Travolta look so alike with Star Trek.

The scene Barry Pepper teaching his fellow friends trigonometry or Pythagoras is so ridiculous. Even my math teacher never dare to say learning Pythagoras will save the world. Needless to say the part about nuclear bomb. I just get to know that it only took a nuke warhead to blow up a planet! How many megatons is that? 1 Billion mega ton warhead?

This movie will be classic, classic bad Hollywood movie.