4/30/2017 1 Comment Miss sloaneWell, since it's prom weekend, plus I have service job to do on Friday, I did not watch movies this week. So I want to use this chance to talk about a movie I watched during March, called Miss Sloane. There has been a time that I had a wired ambition: watch every movies (well, i mean blockbusters and those movies with great cast or good ratings) in the theater, and that ambition started last year. I had a list, and Miss Sloane is on it. When I started watching this movie, I considered it's my duty to watch it, so I was prepared for a boring, talking a lot, plot hard to understand drama movie. But, if it's really like that, I won't be writing this review now. This movie is really fun to watch.
Story wise, it's about a successful lobbyist called Miss Sloane tying to beat the law system, and that's all I can tell about the story, because the plot is full of interesting twists and the ending is awesome. I would give 60% my love of this movie to Jessica Chastain, her performance is incredible and she made Elizabeth Sloane so alive.(Also the character she played in this movie reminds me of Eileen Bunch, they both had red hair and strong personality, so Eileen if you're reading this review, watch this movie because that's literary you in maybe 10 years.) The other 40% of my love should goes to the screenwriters and the director, thanks to them, a movie about politics can be this straight-forward and easy to watch. This film feels like a movie version of House of Cards, but with less politics talking and more smart moves and action. However, if you're a teenager who only loves explosion and Disney like those stupid freshmen in my school, then don't watch this movie. What's more, this movie visually looks comfortable(maybe it's just me). The director chose to use a cool tongue filter to shoot the movie, the entire movie looks really pale and blue, and I like it a lot. The similar color choice can be seen in the John Wick series, so if you dig into that you can try this movie. There is no special effect in this movie according to my memory, but there is many focus on face shots(i just made that up, or not) in the movie, and most of them belongs to Miss Sloane, which gave this movie a cool looking appearance. It just feels great to see some filming techniques and nice shots in a low budget movie about politics. For conclusion, I just want to say that when you're watching this movie, what you see is probably is just Miss Sloane talking, but it feels like Batman just kicked superman's butt.
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4/24/2017 1 Comment The fate of the furiousWhen I saw the trailer of this movie, I was thinking that this movie is gonna suck at story telling but incredible at visual effect. When I read the reviews of this movie, I was so surprised that it actually got a really good scores on Rotten Tomatoes(yes i know, i relied on that website too much). My first thought after I finished the movie is that: man, this is like the avenger. Yes, the fast & furious series has completely become something else.
Story wise, I believe if you saw the trailer, you would've known that Dominic Toretto has betrayed his family for some reason, then of course it's about how Toretto's team take him back to the good side. I don't want to spoiler here why Toretto betrayed his team, but I would say the reason why he did that is really kinda hard to relate or believe. Besides that, the third act of this film gave me a feeling that the director is out of ideas, but it stills looks cool. Visually, this movie is awesome. The opening racing scenes and the prison fight scenes made me want to watch this movie again. The New York chasing scenes is stunning, I can not imagine how much money was spent on that scene. The director of this movie is F.Gary Gray, who directed straight outta Compton, a movie I loved so much. I'm glad that he decided to use as less CGI as possible to shoot the car chasing scene, and I've seen a video before the movie about how they shoot a scene where all the cars were being driven out of a building then dropped to the ground: the crew literary just throw tons of cars to the ground. I like the fact that a franchise is always changing, to try something different, but for fast & furious, I think they need to try a little bit harder next time since they says that they're making two more. Maybe it's not a bad choice to return to that street racing series right now. 4/10/2017 1 Comment The great wallI've been hesitated for a long time, thinking about should I see this movie. The great wall is a really compliated movie, and for that I mean it's really controversial in the international filming industry. Technically, the great wall is not a Hollywood movie; it's a Chinese movie with a Hollywood production crew and production company(for the purpose of being international). This movie came out in China first, then America, and it received many different movie critics. I payed close attention to the reviews of this movie in both American movie review websites and Chinese movie review websites. Most American movie websites talked about whether this movie is a good movie from the perspective of making a film; However, the Chinese websites spent more focus on the topic that can this movie represent China in the international film industry. My own opinion of this movie is that this is a great try, and it has more business value than its "movie" value.
The story is simply and straight-forward: Two foreign soldiers came to China in order to find the mysterious "black powder", a secret weapon that has great power(it's real in ancient China). But unluckily, they got captured by a group of secret army who served on one of the world seven wonders: the great wall, and found out this army is fighting a tons of green aliens to protect China(this is not real, or maybe it is?). First thing I'd like to mention is that the secret army of China looks like power rangers, and I believe that's where the director, Yimou Zhang got his idea from. Secondly, many Chinese critics thought that letting some strange foreigners(sorry Matt Damon) save China is probably the dumbest idea ever. In this movie, Matt Damon is a foreign mercenary with some mad archery skills, and I think that's the only reason why he is the "hero" in this movie, or maybe it's just because he is white. So, what about that Chinese secret army? In one scene where they capture Matt Demon and that awesome guy from games of thrones, about 15 soldiers shooting arrows like 10 arrows per second and made those arrows form a circle to trap Matt Demon and that awesome guy form games of thrones inside. Can we let that soldiers be the heroes in this movie? No, because they're not Matt Demon. I understand the idea of letting Matt Demon be the leading role is to gain American audience in the theatre, but to achieve that goal, they need a better reason to let Demon to be that guy who can save China. Also, the ending of the movie is very much like what they did in "Star Trek: Beyond", but I'm not gonna spoiler here, lol. Yimou Zhang is consider a visual director in China, he is the one who directed the 2008 Olympic opening and closing ceremony in Beijing. In this movie, you can see many of his fantastic shots of the great wall, the secret army fighting and Matt Demon being a cool dude. The CGI in this movie is great but not convincing enough, which brought a question: why every time a Chinese movie claims that they have a Hollywood CGI crew, the CGI does not look like it's from Hollywood? Don't gave me wrong, the special effect in the great wall is probably 10 times better than the other "Hollywood CGI" Chinese movie, but it still looks nothing like King Kong or Godzilla. Even I'm a little disappoint about the CGI is not good enough, I still have to admit that there is progress, and maybe that's what matter to this film. Like I mentioned before, this movie is a great try in the Chinese movie industry. I'm happy to see China is getting closer and closer to Hollywood, and for those people who does not like this movie base on the concept other than the story itself, I would say be patient, it will get better. 4/3/2017 1 Comment Power rangersI understand that many people would say this is such a stupid idea, since they might find out the original TV show was pretty dumb too. However, I hope people do not judge a movie just based on it's appearance or it's background, they should put more focus on the story itself. I'm confident enough to say that this new power rangers is a fun, highly entertaining and convincing movie. This movie complete my dream that a TV show(about superpower human) that was first appeared in Japan and was finally reproduced by Hollywood(well, maybe Godzilla count too). I came from China, and the influence of those Japanese Tokusatsu to China is like what Star Wars means to America; I grow up with it, and it's always nice to pick up some childhood memory in the movie theatre.
The plot of the new power rangers pretty much follows the original franchise: it's about 5 teenagers with different background and race found a spaceship and 5 special coins underground, and they become "power rangers" under the guidance of Zordon, who was a formal power ranger and was acted by Bryan Cranston, who was obsessed with being a part of the Hollywood recreating Tokusatsu since Godzilla(just kidding). One thing I love about this movie is the character design and the character building. I'm not a big teenager movie fan since teenagers mainly have 0 IQ in a movie, but this movie actually did not make me feel that way, I'm not saying they did not do stupid stuff at all, but the reasons why they do, what they do and how they do is really relatable and fun to watch. And also I notice that pretty much in every "Teenager" movie, there is a teenager group mental therapy session in some parts of the movie, and in this one they have it too. Usually I don't care about those moments since they're a waste of time, but in this new power rangers movie, those moments really caught my attention. Also, I need to talk about the bad guy in this movie, Rita, acted by Elizabeth banks, who I think it's too hot for such a role. The existence of this role kinda break the entire mood of the film, because the director was trying to create a darker power rangers universe, but I still enjoy her performance, she is really a bad*** in this movie(except the ending). For those people who is worry about the CGI in this movie, no need to worry. The CGI looks great, even though it could be better from my perspective. There is several scenes in this movie would completely turns you on and make you want to rewatch this movie just because of those moments. Also the choice of music is really interesting. The movie use a tons of pop songs from nowadays, and they fit the scenes really well. But if you hate Kanye west, you might hat this movie. The director uses some really interesting shot choice, like some long shots in the beginning, and some other shots(those shots I remember what they looks like but just can't remember their names), which made this film really high class, and I like it a lot, this what Hollywood should feels like nowadays. The movie change its mood when the teenagers put on their colorful suits, and that the reason why many movie critics gave this movie a bad review on Rotten Tomatoes, but I don't understand why that's a problem, I totally buy it. I highly recommend this movie to those who had dreams in their childhood of becoming a super hero and drive awesome-looking vehicles. |
作者简单介绍一下自己。不需要很花哨,概括一下就行。 存档
May 2017
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