Ong Bak - Thailand - Martial Arts
Story: When the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it.
For what it is: a modern day urban set martial arts chase movie - this is solid and often surprising work. This film made Tony Jaa a star in the martial arts world. With no CGI or wirework, Ong Bak started a trend for brutal and death defying stunts and action choreography. But unlike the super serious "The Raid" Ong Bak has a sense of humour too.
Rating: A
Sparrow - Hong Kong - Light Crime - Romance
Story: A gang of pickpockets roam the streets of Hong Kong before being led into a dangerous game by a beautiful woman and the man who owns her.
This is a film that I wouldn't recommend to the average person here. Sparrow shows an obvious love for whimsical French cinema blended with To's usual crime genre. Quirky, charming but also exceedingly light and fluffy, Sparrow entertains yet never really adds up to much.
Rating: B
The King of Comedy - Hong Kong - Comedy
Story: The trials and tribulations of an aspiring actor on his way to stardom
Before Stephen Chow started making hilarious kung fu special effects extravaganzas he was already a consumate comedian. Don't be put off by the dreadful DVD cover, The King of Comedy is a well measured comedy. Think Steve Martin, when he was funny.
Rating: A
Tom Yum Goong aka The Protector - Thailand - Martial Arts
Story: A young fighter named Kham must go to Australia to retrieve his stolen elephant. With the help of a Thai-born Australian detective, Kham must take on all comers, including a gang led by an evil woman and her two deadly bodyguards.
From the team that brought you Ong Bak, Tom Yum Goong is of similar quality, if slightly more outrageous. Of note is a great tracking shot where Jaa makes his way up a large spiral staircase, taking out baddies as they come. Some CGI elephants somewhat mar the experience but it's easily forgiven in something like this
Rating: B+
The Wardlords - China - Action - Drama
Story: A heroic tale of three blood brothers and their struggle in the midst of war and political upheaval.
Before the excellent "Wuxia aka Dragon" Peter Chan made this. If you haven't seen many Asian films then you might really rate this highly. For someone more versed in Asian cinema, this is a glossy, big budget production, with big stars that's relatively unoriginal and slightly workmanlike in its directing. It's still a completely solid, entertaining watch but doesn't distinguish itself enough to be that memorable.
Rating: B
The Flowers of War - China - English/Mandarin hybrid
Story: Set during the rape of Nanking, a famous historical event in which the Japanese army sacked a Chinese city and committed countless atrocities - Batman enters a church, puts on a priests outfit and pretends to be godly, to protect the women and girls left alive there from the Japanese army.
Exceptionally violent and overwrought, the film tries to bash you over the head with the notion that the Japanese are really awful and violent. The film itself is well produced but never really does much with the script. Everything you might expect would happen, happens.
Rating: C+
Election - Hong Kong - Crime Drama
Story: Rival gang leaders are locked in a struggle to become the new chairman of Hong Kong's Triad society.
Researched and more realistic because of it, Election is dark and riveting plunge into the unseen process of electing a new Triad leader. It's like electing a new pope, with less old people and more machetes.
Rating: A-
Rushmore - USA
Story: Highschool student Max Fischer is a student at Rushmore Academy and he loves every minute of it. The problem is, in the words of the highschool principal "he is one of the worst students". A kind of high profile loser involved in way too many clubs and extracurricular activities and completely failing in all his classes. He falls in love with a young widow junior school teacher who works there and also befriends a rich business man and school benefactor for whom he has great admiration (the Bill Murray character) but who is also in his own self-loathing way a loser.
This was the first feature length film by Wes Anderson who was to become one of my all time favourite directors and one of the best ones still active. I understand his style may be a little bit too twee or too "precious" for some people but I personally love it. I love all the eccentric characters, I love the humour, I love the style and the look. All of which are unique and very much his own and they're all already in place from this his very first movie. Also favourite actors and co-workers of his like Bill Murray and the Wilson brothers are here and in good form. All his films are good but even among them this would hold one of the highest places.
Rating: A
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
Survive Style 5+ - Japan - Err.... what genre is this?
Story: Five bizarre stories, with no apparently connections, get intertwined resulting in a surreal situation. It stars Vinnie Jones, among others.
Another film I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend to the average viewer. Survive Style 5+ is one for those who can watch ecletic, sometimes strange, quirky but enjoyable movies. There are no rules in this off the wall Japanese slice of pop culture.
Rating: B+
bugsonglass said:
Rushmore - USA
This was the first feature length film by Wes Anderson who was to become one of my all time favourite directors and one of the best ones still active. I understand his style may be a little bit too twee or too "precious" for some people but I personally love it. I love all the eccentric characters, I love the humour, I love the style and the look. All of which are unique and very much his own and they're all already in place from this his very first movie. Also favourite actors and co-workers of his like Bill Murray and the Wilson brothers are here and in good form. All his films are good but even among them this would hold one of the highest places.
Rating: A
Nice review, I'll check it out when it's on TV. I think I tried to watch a Wes Anderson film about a family but gave up half an hour in.
Thank you. I will be adding more in due time.
I think what you tried watching must have been The Royal Tenembaums which is probably his biggest hit and a lot of people's favourite. Personally I would rank it lower than a lot of his other work but I think it's still fun to watch. Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom (for which I will also do a mini-review) are my highest recommendations (and I still haven't watched the Grand Budapest Hotel which is meant to be really good too).
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
Yeah that's the one.
gamingeek said:When I watched Amelie I thought I'd love it. I ended up giving the whole thing a funny weird look.
As in rented?
No I bought them.
Nice, I haven't reviewed the sequel yet. It doesn't go where you'd expect it to. The lead character never goes into avatar state and becomes some godly martial artist. As long as you don't mind that it's still about as entertaining as the first.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - USA - superhero
Definetly better than the first film but still a bit uneven. On one hand it has the best portrayal of Spider-Man ever put on film. Peter and Gwen's relationship is perfect because of their amazing chemistry. The action is visually stunning and ripped right from the comics. But the movie has issues with too many storylines and crazy shifts in tone. Most of these problems come with the villains. It all ends with the best stretch a spider-man movie has ever had, it is what the whole movie should have been like. The good greatly outweighs the bad for me, read my full review in the other thread.
Rating: B+
Great review, look forward to seeing it. 
Thanks.
So reviewing these movies has rekindled my love for some of them, I recentely bought Bluray versions of them. The Battle Royale booklet explains why Battle Royale 2 sucked so much. The director of the first movie died a few days into the shooting of the sequel and his son had to take over. Also the reason why Battle Royale never gained traction in the U.S was because Toei refused to release it in the wake of Columbine.
Hellsing Ultimate - Japan - Anime - Horror
Story: In world of undead things, a British organisation established by the Van Helsing family uses a powerful and bloodthirsty vampire as their ultimate weapon against the darkness.
Don't confuse this with the original and bad Hellsing anime series - Ultimate is based more accurately on the manga and is on a whole other level of awesome. For a start, the animation is wonderfully glossy and rich, we're talking movie level animation with extremely high production levels. Hellsing Ultimate is about excess, glorious, wonderful excess and accepting the descent into bloody darkness and savagery. Everything is completely over the top, for instancea Nazi general gives what feels like a nonstop 15 minute speech on why he loves war, Alucard the vampire talks about death and killing with such savagery in his voice you can feel the delight he revels in. How can you not enjoy an anime with Nazi vampires invading London?
Rating: A
Note: Part 1 is bad, stick with it.
Wonder Woman - USA - DC Original Movie
Story: A modern man's trespass of the island of the Amazons enables the imprisoned war god Ares to escape and Princess Diana wins the responsibility to recapture him.
Nathon Fillion Alert! Yes, Castle is in this movie and it's all the better for it. If you've never seen the modern interpretation of Wonder Woman in the Justice League TV series for instance - note that this is nothing like the cheesy 70s series. Taking more inspiration from modern Greek mythos cinema, Wonder Woman is filled to the brim with mythical beasts, Greek Gods, the underworld, beheadings, kick ass action and a huge slice of comedy on the side. Part action, part comedy, Wonder Woman criminally didn't do well enough for a sequel or series. But this movie is still a cracking surprise.
Rating: A
Black Lightning - Russia - Superhero
Story: A young Russian guy gets an old yet technologically advanced flying car. He uses it to become a superhero
Every bit as entertaining as a modern Spiderman film, Black Lightning manages to be an enjoyable U.S style superhero flick.
Rating: B+