Lego Ninjas

Limitless

I liked the story of Limitless, I think the plot of any movie is important as I learnt from watching Sucker Punch.  The basic premise of the movie is that there is a new drug that enables the user to enhance his or her intelligence and focus to the point that it allows them be almost supernaturally smart and it allows them to become very successful at anything they come in contact with.  Naturally there are problems with others know about the drug and the main character Eddie has to fend them off.  As he starts taking more of the drug he also starts finding side effects.  I like the little adventure the story takes you through giving you some nice twists in the story.  Oh and the movie definitely shows that the dudes with the brains get the chicks.

Also some other random notes...I was interested to see Anna Friel in a movie role for the first time.  I haven't seen her in anything other than Pushing Daisies on TV.  Too bad the majority of her screen time was short and for her role they had to put make-up to make her look older.  Also at the end of the movie the main character tries to sound smart by speaking "fluent" Mandarin.  Bradley Cooper didn't quite manage to pull it off and the audience got a couple of chuckles out of it.

Sucker Punch

Firstly I didn't realize this movie was directed by the same person who directed 300 and Watchmen.  But I guess it didn't matter who directed this movie since the story line needed a lot of work.  The movie is set in the 60's, when mental health care was still antiquated.  The story involves a 20 year old girl "Babydoll" who is wrongfully committed to an insane asylum after her stepfather accuses her of killing her younger sister, when in fact it was the stepfather who killed her younger sister.  This all happens after the mother dies and the stepfather realizes the inheritance was given to the two daughters.  Here comes my first confusion: why did the stepfather kill the younger daughter?  What could he possibly gain, it wouldn't have helped him gain the inheritance, unless there was something else written in the will that wasn't revealed in the movie.  Once inside the insane asylum the asylum's orderly is bribed by the stepfather to perform an outdated procedure, lobotomy, to make his stepdaughter become mentally disabled for real.  The main plot revolves around Babydoll obtaining various items that will help her escape.  This is where the fun comes in, there are two levels of fantasy involved with the majority of the film with minimal amounts of time spent in the real world.  The first level of fantasy is a mob run brothel where Babydoll and other pretty girls work to please their clients.  They plot to escape and this part of the fantasy reflects what is going on in the real world.  Babydoll does an erotic dance, that sadly never gets seen on screen lol, that distracts all the men in the brothel when she takes center stage and the other girls work to grab their items to escape.  When she fantasizes that she is dancing she goes even further into another fantasy that reflects the struggle to obtain the item.  In these fantasies she enters worlds inspired by other works of fantasy like anime and video games.  The worlds include a samurai world, an orc fantasy world with dragons, a sci-fi fantasy with robots and a steampunk battle against zombie Nazi soldiers.  Why do I have to explain all this?  Because the plot seemingly tries to be interesting and convoluted but it's really not and aside from the fantasy the events in the real world part of the film are senseless.  In the end after grabbing all the items needed for their escape Babydoll and one other girl almost manage to escape but given that there is no easy way out Babydoll sacrifices herself as a distraction whilst the other patient manages to escape.  Spoiler: Babydoll gets lobotomized and becomes a mindless soulless person.  The orderly immediately feels immense remorse for having ruined a girl's life permanently and he gets arrested for having forged the psychiatrist's signature allowing for the lobotomy procedure.  I feel like this film had so much potential but it just had to end in a way that was sad and wrong on so many levels.  I guess Babydoll payed the ultimate sacrifice to allow her friend to escape.  It was a waste of all that effort into all the special effects for such a downer of an ending.  All the pretty girls in the movie too, so pointless in the end though.  Chick named Jamie Chung was in it, saw her in another movie too.  She seems like quite the B-movie actress given her past record, although her next upcoming appearance is in Hangover Part II, which I'm looking forward to and I'm definitely watching.  Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical fame (not that I've ever seen it) was in this movie too.   To summarize my disappointment in this film I would have to say that it needed better writers, even a minimally creative plot would have helped drive the action better.

Edit: I feel I may have misunderstood the story but it doesn't really matter, I still don't like the story.  After reading this the story makes more sense but I don't know, the feeling of the movie still doesn't sit well with me: "Its about escaping to your mind as a coping strategy so you won't have to face your much more grim and darker reality."  Oh and the soundtrack was actually good.

Morning Glory

Morning Glory is a lighthearted comedy about a producer who finds herself in a difficult position as a producer of a failing Breakfast TV news show.  I would not usually be suckered into watching this kind of movie but I thought Rachel McAdams was cute so I didn't mind.  The movie has the predictable overcoming all odds sort of story line and a few good laughs sprinkled throughout the movie.  It made for a pretty enjoyable experience.  Harrison Ford is getting old though haha, he looked a lot better a few years ago in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

World Invasion (Battle: Los Angeles)

I always find a movie more enjoyable when I stay away from any hype surrounding it.  Also, watching trailers can often ruin a movie for me.  I had neither any hype nor any idea of what this movie would be like.  I guess it helped to know that it got bad reviews.  I didn't think this movie warranted the bad reviews it got.  The basic story is that aliens invade earth and come to take our water as it is a resource that they want.  They come violently, taking offensive action against the world's major coastal cities.  It was a basic war movie when it came down to it.  I guess my only complaint would be that the aliens didn't really have any special powers, they might as well have been humans fighting humans.  The movie was action packed and although it was predictable at times it always kept you on edge, not really knowing what's up next.  Also if you thought Transformers was a movie that was a major military propaganda tool then you'd be in for a surprise because this movie bleeds pro-marine agenda all over it.  This movie was fun for the action and CG these days is so incredibly believable.  I don't think at any point in the movie did my brain decide that the aliens were computer generated.

The Edge (Край)

First off I guess I skipped out on watching Black Swan, I'm not so great with watching that kind of movie these days.  My friend Mark is a big movie guy and since it's his last week of freedom before he starts work next week we decided to meet up to watch a movie from the Hong Kong International Film Festival.  There were too many choices so we ended up choosing a random movie that would be convenient to go to both in terms of location and time.  We didn't really look too much into this movie, but a quick look at it's wiki shows that it won a nomination for best foreign language film at the Golden Globe awards.

Knowing little about the movie we wondering why it got the category III rating (equivalent to being R-rated).  Thankfully there wasn't any sort of uber-violence though, just a few nude ladies.  The story looks at the main character after WWII.  After finishing his duties at the frontline of war Ignat is hired to work as a train mechanic at a Gulag.  From here on the story is rather complicated to describe though.  However it is pretty interesting.  With nothing much to do at the Gulag most of the story focusses on Ignat's obsession with trains.  It also focuses on the Russian's hatred of a German girl who Ignat finds while trying to recover an old train and Ignat's efforts to protect her.  High production values make for a very believable movie. The story of a protagonist protecting someone from discrimination is uplifting as she finds a way to live without hatred in her life in the end.

The King's Speech

I must say I was a little disappointed about this one, I guess that's what hype does to any movie.  It's not a bad movie but I guess it didn't really move me that much.  The story is about King George VI who had a speech impediment and his struggle to overcome it so that he could make speeches, made necessary by his role.  Not to say that it isn't an inspiring story, it's always great to see someone come through after their struggles.  The acting was also good, I don't know, I guess I was looking for that extra bit of sparkle.

Shaolin (新少林寺)

I'll start off by saying that this is the most pro-Buddhist movie I have ever seen.  The movie doesn't stop to promote the Buddhist ideals of peace, harmony, community and zen despite all of the action going on.  The main plot revolves around a fallen general who changes his wicked ways and becomes a shaolin monk.  He trains in the Shaolin martial arts ways and becomes a good monk, defending the people from his power hungry former officer.  I guess I'm not into all the emotional stuff in this movie.  All the crying is just a bit too much for me.  The action scenes were pretty good though and I guess I sympathize with some of the Buddhist ideals.  I guess I like the lesson in this movie that that we can all repent from our sins and change our ways, which is similar to that of Christian ideology but obviously different in its execution and faith.  Great acting skills from lead Andy Lau and Nicholas Tse, Jackie Chan added a few laughs too.  A very serious movie, I guess I'd prefer something lighthearted, then again the most movie I'll probably watch is Black Swan, though my reason for seeing it is mostly for Natalie Portman, maybe I should watch No Strings Attached instead for the same reason?  To be continued...

Fantastic Mr. Fox

A rather strange but funny movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox is full of surprises.  I guess from the opening scene it's hard to know what to expect next.  The stop motion animation is pretty creative, going beyond the rules of gravity and common sense.  The dialog is quick witted.  I love when the animals break out of their human like character when they eat and become animalistic.  All in all good fun I suppose.

The Green Hornet

This was a fun movie, despite all of it's failings.  I think the movie focused a bit too much on Seth Rogen's failings as a head superhero character and the drama over Cameron Diaz's character was unneeded.  Also much of the script needed more work to make it more believable and less Seth Rogeney.   What does make the movie enjoyable though is it's humor and craziness.  One example would be when the Black Beauty gets cut in half but can still run in front wheel drive.  Then there are the slow mo action scenes and Michel Gondry's psychedelic artistic shots.  I guess in summary the movie was a good laugh, not something to be taken too seriously.  Take a closer inspection and the story sort of falls apart.

The Tourist

I really don't have much to say about this movie.  I'd say it was disappointing.  I don't think Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie had much chemistry.  The whole plot doesn't make much sense.  This is partly forgiven due to Angelina's still 'ravishing' looks, despite her age.  That is all.

Tron: Legacy 3D

Tron was a good no-brainer action sci-fi movie.  Premium Hollywood material.  It helps that Olivia Wilde was hot too, her eyeliner goes a long way.  The graphics were good.  The story line was terrible.  I do like the Eastern mysticism theme that was going on though.  What really doesn't make sense is how Quorra comes into the real world.  Probably some bio-quantum techno-babble the film made a brief entry into. What more can be said of Tron?  Awesome music my Daft Punk.  Stuff all nerds would love.  Instantly forgettable I would think, but time will tell.

Christmas Balls

Christmas Dinner

VII Sopranos

Sony (Speaker and PSP)

Christmas Toy Train II

Christmas Toy Train

Books to Finish

Kitty Cat