s3019653 Reviews

Mulan (2020)

Enjoy it as a stand alone film.

[7/10 · 6 November 2020]

It is quite a good movie. There are a lot of negative reviews but those reviews seem to be expecting that it would be identical to the animated film. If they made it exactly the same the wouldn't be any point watching it. As long as you watch it with the understanding that it is a different story you can see it is very well done. The film makers have decided for a more realistic style following the wuxia genre. There are some fantasy elements but a talking dragon wouldn't really make sense so I'm glad he was not included in this version. The action is fairly limited. It is a shame to have superstar martial arts actors who didn't have much opportunity to demonstrate their skills. However I guess they wanted to keep it family friendly.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016)

Disappointing and poorly executed

[4/10 · 13 June 2020]

This film really doesn't seem to have much coherence with the original film, which happens to be a masterpiece. The only reason that the sequel seem to exist it to make a quick buck off the reputation of the original.

It was surprising that the film makers chose for the dialogue to be in English which further distances the mood from the original and the Australian accents seem quite jarring and make it hard to feel that the story is taking place in Qing dynasty China. Some of the actors can't even pronounce Chinese place names correctly.

Add to that the complete lack of chemistry between Michelle Yeoh and Donny Yen, the overall movie seems very dull. It would have been good to bring back more than one character from the first film. I guess it is challenging since most of the main characters died in the first film. At least there could have been a flash back or something.

I did enjoy the fight sequences and the landscape shots but overall it fell quite flat.

Thelma & Louise (1991)

Is it anti-male?

[9/10 · 3 May 2004]

A lot of people have dubbed this as a "chick flick" but I do not really like that term as it implies that men cannot enjoy watching it. Alien had a female lead and had parts that were sad but nobody would call that a chick flick. Also is every movie about male characters a guy flick? I thought this was a great drama and the acting was superb. No one can deny that this movie is a classic and has influenced the English language. I would also like to mention that I am a man. In response to people who bash the movie saying that it is anti-male; I would like to say that Thelma and Louise is simply a movie about situations that happen to women all too often. Women are raped everyday and women are abused everyday; this movie brings that into the light and says that it is not good enough. I do not believe that shooting the rapist was justified but at least he did not get away with it. The movie shows that by running away from your problems things only get worse. People have also commented that there are no men that are not portrayed negatively. Both the sympathetic police officer and Jimmy are likable characters. The purpose of this film was not to celebrate masculinity but to show two women breaking free from oppression. Not all women are raped or abused but it is something that is very common and it is relevant enough to be a theme of a movie.

I was very moved by the movie and I gave it a 9/10.