I think the Dark Fate trailers came close to doing so too. The notable absence of one character, the chronological order of events, all we needed was to see the ending and bam, 2 hours savedOriginally Posted by shockNwave
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
I think the Dark Fate trailers came close to doing so too. The notable absence of one character, the chronological order of events, all we needed was to see the ending and bam, 2 hours saved
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Recently watched Bento Harassment (今日も嫌がらせ弁当), currently screening at the Japanese Film Festival. A really touching drama-comedy about a single mother and her strained relationship with her teenage daughter. The movie tugs on the heart strings and brought tears to my eyes on a few occasions, but also wonderfully punctuates the tension with comedic moments, including a few times where the fourth wall is broken (to deliver comedic soliloquy).
Yoshine Kyoko plays Futaba, the teenage daughter. I've seen her before in Piano in the Shed (物置のピアノ), which was shown at the 2014 Film Festival (and was considered for becoming the new HSC Japanese Extension prescribed text, only to be outed by Your Name (君の名は)). Definitely worth checking out another great independent movie that presents an original story; something that seems to be in increasingly short supply in an age where every other movie is either a sequel or prequel or adaptation etc. of something that already exists. I like my superhero movies too, but sometimes I like to see wholly new ideas too.
P.S.: Does anyone else find it funny that they call it a "Film Festival" when movies these days are shot on digital cameras?
P.P.S.: Yoshine Kyoko was born in the same year that I joined OTCA. Geeeeezz...
Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
Watched Rambo:Last Blood and it's best to skip to the last half hour of the movie because that's where the action's at.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Two weeks ago I saw Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Dolls. I had no idea that this was based on an existing TV series and jumped in with no prior experience, and even then I found it to be a really enjoyable film. The story stands alone fine that pre-existing knowledge isn't necessary, but it's made me want to go back and watch what's happened before the events of this movie.
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Saw Frozen 2 today and found it to be a movie that was good in concept but flawed in execution. This movie should've been done more like X-Men 2; focus it on a single protagonist rather than sharing the limelight with an ensemble cast. It really should've been Elsa's story, because the Elsa story parts work really well but they end up being underdeveloped because the story shifts to the other protagonists (Ana, Olaf, Kristoff)... and quite frankly, their arcs aren't really important (especially Olaf and Kristoff; they've become the Jar Jar Binks to Frozen 2). While X-Men 2 did show some other X-Men, it was really Wolverine's story. And in doing so, it worked quite well. I think that Frozen 2 would've worked better had it been written in a similar structure; make it Elsa's story. The animation is absolutely amazing and the music is well done. I quite like the additional references to Nordic mythology, and I like how the story is more cutting edge in the presentation of its plot complication and antagonists. If your kids want to see this movie, then yeah, they'll enjoy it. But it's more of a mixed bag for adults.
Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
Recently saw The Irishman and as long as you're a fan of Goodfellas and the Godfather movies you'll love it but if you don't have the patience for a three and a half hour drama then avoid it.
PS. It's great to see Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino working together again and this time in a more in depth way than their performance from Heat.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Bad Boys For Life. Really good. Worth seeing on the big screen.
Rank 3 - Basic Member
Finally got round to watching Joker. As a character film, it is a masterpiece. Acting, directing, score, all award worthy.
My wife asked me why I carry a gun?, I said "Decepticons"... She laughed, I laughed, the toaster laughed, I shot the toaster. It was a good day.
Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
Saw The Gentlemen. This would have to be Guy Ritchie's crowning achievement when it comes to gangster flicks. It's certainly better than Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
IP MAN FOUR - SPOILERS AHEAD
Last night I watched Ip Man Four on YouTube rental, and yeah, found it to overall disappointing. Made me realise that all of the Ip Man movies have the same basic plot recycled every time.
As expected the movie isn't remotely historically accurate. Not that the others were either, but it seems that each sequel becomes less and less historically accurate. But beyond that, it doesn't even seen historically authentic. The Chinese and White Americans on both sides are played up to be massive racists to the point where it's just comically ridiculous. The Whites are shown to be racist so that Ip Man can have enemies... really. But it's not even done well. The bad guys are out to disprove Chinese Kung Fu because they see the Chinese as an inferior race - and they hurl all these anti-Asian insults... all while wearing Japanese Karate Gi and espousing the awesomeness of Japanese Karate. It's almost as if they casually forgot that Japan is Asian too (note: a lot of these weren't just insults against the Chinese, they were insults against Asians as a whole; if it were the former then story-wise that would make more sense).
The racism from the Chinese against the White Americans was also ridiculously ramped up. Ip Man and Bruce Lee were shown to be not racist (which is accurate for Bruce Lee; I don't think Ip Man cared either way IRL), but their more moderate views didn't really go anywhere in the story! It's August 1964. In this month Bruce Lee marries Linda Emery, so he is either engaged or married to a White woman who btw, is already 3 months pregnant (with Brandon Lee). I really wish that Bruce had spoken up against the anti-Caucasian racist rhetoric, or heck, have Linda walk in and help tend to their wounds, serve them tea etc. Show them that there are good White people too (just as they want the Whites to know that not all Chinese people are bad). Gah... the hypocrisy in these characters is just dumb and the movie makes no attempt to hide it. Not only that, but one of the really anti-Caucasian characters (a Tai Chi master) has a Eurasian daughter. Yeah. The teenage girl who plays her is IRL half German half Chinese! We never see his wife on screen (or even mentioned), but the audience can visually assume that this man, who hates on White people, has a Caucasian wife (just like Bruce, who he chastises for teaching Kung Fu to Whites!). Gah!
Ridiculous over-the-top racism aside, as I said before, this movie isn't even historically accurate (and in parts, even possible/plausible).
* The surprising lack of security and discipline at that army base! What?!
* Ip Man would have already been 70 years old at the time. If he was suffering from throat cancer (as the film states) then it's unlikely that he would have travelled overseas, let alone fight lots of people.
* Ip Man has also never travelled outside of Asia (he may have never travelled outside of China and Hong Kong).
* In the movie Ip Man travels to the US to find a school for his son Ip Ching. Ching would have been 29 years old in August 1964; a tad old for high school!
* The movie shows flashbacks from Ip Man 3 where Ip Man and his late wife, Cheung Sing-Wing, were close and loving during her final years as she suffered from and succumbed to cancer. In reality this is total horse-dung. Both Ip and Cheung were separated from their children - they were stuck in Foshan China while their kids were in Hong Kong (the border had closed). So what did our heroic Ip Man do? Why, he abandoned his wife, buggered off to Shanghai where he found a new girlfriend, shacked up with her and got her pregnant! Cheung would never see her husband again and died without him or her children.
* The movie blames Ip Man's throat cancer on his tobacco smoking, which is most likely true, but continued to ignore the fact that he was also a drug addict. It was because of his opium addiction that Ip Man even started teaching Wing Chun in Hong Kong in the first place. This man came from a very wealthy aristocratic family, but after WWII he blew his money on his crack and had to resort to teaching Kung Fu to support hisfamily^addiction. He had a stable job as a police officer before he became a junkie.
But yeah, repetitive predictable plot and a story that's about as historically accurate as Disney's Pocahontas.
Rank 10 - Admin
One of the SBS channels (31 in Brisbane) is playing the movie The Fifth Element tomorrow (Sunday) at midday... and then repeating it four times after that.
They did this last year as well... playing the movie five times in a row.
Does anyone have any idea why they might be doing this?
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