Tropic Thunder

Directed by Ben Stiller
Written by Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, and Etan Cohen
Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Danny McBride, Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise
Release Year: 2008
IMDB rating: 7.4

A star-studded comedy from Ben Stiller. Usually it would be hard to share the screen time among the stars. But that wasn’t the case with this movie. I think the story managed to distribute enough screen time for each star without explicitly seen as ‘enforcing’ it.

Interestingly enough, the movie was about a movie in a production hell because of too many stars involved in it. Tugg Speedman, Kirk Lazarus, Alpa Chino, Jeff Portnoy, and Kevin Sandusky then dropped at the jungle somewhere around the Golden Triangle where a heroin-producing gang Flaming Dragons operate. Initially the director Damien Cockburn wanted to film the actors guerrilla-style, with hidden cameras, but he ended up blown up by a mine. After some time, the actors realized that things were real and not part of the scenario. Together they must find their way out of the jungle.

Some spoofs were there in the movie, but the comedy sometimes got overdone. Like when Speedman suddenly having identity crisis and Portnoy’s addiction to drugs. I don’t think they need to be over-emphasized. Les Grossman (played by Tom Cruise) was also a bit exaggerated. But I read somewhere that he was based on Stiller’s producer partner Stuart Cornfeld. So I guess some people just got that weird attitudes. Also, Rick’s (Matthew McConaughey) sudden appearance in the jungle baffled me. How could he found out the location that easily? But then again, sometimes comedies must be excused from the logical perspective.

Acting was great. Robert Downey, Jr.’s play as an Australian playing an African-American was convincing enough, although Stiller remained standard with his acting as well as Jack Black. I guess other than Downey, Cruise got himself an equally great performance.

Overall, though, the movie was enjoyable and it was a pretty unique movie. I guess worthy enough to break the Dark Knight’s weekly winning streak at the box office. For the rating, I’d give it a 7.0.

Taken

Directed by Pierre Morel
Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
Starring: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Xander Berkeley, Holly Valance, Katie Cassidy
Release Year: 2008
IMDB rating: 7.9

Typical of Luc Besson’s movies, despite not directing it, Taken was set as a fast-paced movie. It started rather slow, but as soon as the action started, it consistently moving in a steady, fast pace.

In terms of acting, typical of action movies, it was pretty standard. During that brief drama segment up front, it was pretty standard too. The action sequences were somewhat great, yet there were nothing original in it. For better action sequences I would consider Banlieu 13 as more superior than Taken.

The plot was actually simple, or even too simple. A father desparately seeking his kidnapped daughter in Paris, fighting off the bad guys alone using his skills from his old job as a government agent. Crash, boom, bang, and it’s all over. However, it focused too much on action that from the logic of the story, it was too hard to be true. It’s unimaginable to have one man taking on an organized criminals and survived with minor wounds. Also, don’t forget that Bryan was a middle-aged man, and physical limitations should be at least giving him some disadvantages. This, I considered as the biggest weakness of the movie.

Overall, although not the best of its genre, it was a somewhat entertaining movie. For this, I give it a 6.5.

Comeback

Well, it's been quite some time since I posted. It's not that I'm out of the blog completely. Rather, I've been watching several series lately as well as playing Fallout 3. Unfortunately, Fallout 3 has been consuming most of my spare time lately, so I have only a little to blog about.

Yoshitsune is one of the series that I've completed watching. Another that I'm going to review is Hojo Tokimune. Unfortunately, watching taiga drama means not watching non-series movies. Heck, I even losing interest with American series and other non-series too.

Right now, I've got 2 other series ready to watch: Chushingura and Musashi. Hopefully I'll be finished by the end of the holiday season.

See you later, folks.

Yoshitsune

Probably the most famous military general from the Genji clan, Minamoto Kuro Yoshitsune is the leading character in the 44th NHK taiga drama which was aired between January 9th 2005 and December 11th 2005. Portrayed by Takizawa Hideaki, Yoshitsune is described as the tragic hero that died before he managed to fulfill his dream of establishing the dream capital of his.

The story spanned from 1160 to 1189, from the time when Minamoto Yoshitomo (Yoshitsune’s father) was defeated and died at the hands of the Heike clan led by Taira Kiyomori, to the time when Yoshitsune died after being cornered and then committed seppuku.


From all the taiga drama series that I’ve watched and will watch, Yoshitsune is the one at the earliest historical date (1160). As usual, there are always two things to tell in a taiga drama series: a story about a historical figure and a historical event. This time, the figure is Kuro Yoshitsune, and the historical event is the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate by Minamoto Yoritomo, Yoshitsune’s half-brother.

A tale of two people with different approaches in creating a new era, Yoshitsune tried to build a new country based on purity of heart and great compassion, despite his fame as a brilliant strategist. Yoritomo tried to build his kind of country based more on reason and perhaps harsh approaches, although as described in the series, Yoritomo actually had a part of Yoshitsune’s soft character as well. If Yoshitsune excelled in military strategies, Yoritomo could as well be a brilliant politician. A powerful combination if only both of them managed to work together, though.

Seven vassals served Yoshitsune since his rise to fame: Musashibo Benkei (Matsudaira Ken), Ise Saburo (Nanbara Kiyotaka), Suruga Jiro (Ujiki Tsuyoshi), Kisanta (Ito Atsushi), Sato Tadanobu (Kaito Ken), Sato Tsugunobu (Miyauchi Atsushi), and Saburo Yoshihisa (?). Yoshitsune’s relationship with his vassals is perhaps a true example of unwavering loyalty. For, despite whatever bad things that happened to their master, his vassals remained following him faithfully.

There are plenty of leading female characters in the series: Tokiwa (Inamori Izumi), Shizuka (Ishihara Satomi), Yoshiko (Goto Maki), Utsubo (Ueto Aya), Hojo Masako (Zaizen Naomi), Tokiko (Matsuzaka Keiko) and Tokuko (Nakagoshi Noriko). While all these roles were well portrayed by the actresses, I always enjoyed Matsuzaka Keiko’s talent.

Other well-acted characters were the monk-emperor Go-Shirakawa (Hira Mikijiro), Taira Kiyomori (Watari Tetsuya), Fujiwara Hidehira (Takahashi Hideki), Kiso Yoshinaka (Ozawa Yukiyoshi), and Minamoto Yoritomo (Nakai Kiichi). Despite his minor exposure in the story, the merchant Kichiji (Ichikawa Sadanji) was also well played. Of course I don’t mean to single out these roles/actors/actresses, because I think so far the taiga dramas that I’ve watched have been spectacular, and Yoshitsune was one of them.

Each character became ‘alive’ in the series. The kind and charming Yoshitsune, the cautious Yoritomo, the opportunistic Yukiie, the ambitious yet unfortunate Yoshinaka, the strong Masako, the beautiful and elegant Shizuka, the loving Tokiwa, the majestic Fujiwara Hidehira, the scheming monk-emperor Go-Shirakawa, and the great Taira Kiyomori and his wife Tokiko, and many others, all were brilliantly performed.

Indeed, from the beginning to the end, one would easily love the tragic hero Kuro Yoshitsune and his loyal vassals, and perhaps hate Yoritomo for leading Yoshitsune to his early demise. One could also easily wish that the two brothers should have worked together in building the new country. Yet, as bitter as in the real world, sometimes something too good to happen just won’t happen.

I’d give 10 for this series. Historical drama enthusiasts should go find and watch this.

Returning Series

Several series has started their new seasons recently. I only pick several to watch in the months ahead. The first is Heroes. After a scrappy second season, Heroes returns with more characters and perhaps more plot twists, and potentially a lot of new mess. The focus could be on the bad guys this season as stated in the volume title. But one thing that always bothers me with TV series is that the propensity to fall into the soap series. Generating new characters to replace dead ones, resurrecting dead ones from the dead, are all old tricks to lengthen the series lifetime. I don’t like it though. The dead should stay dead. Bringing them back to life would likely do more harm than good. The start of season 3 was also quite messy, because it’s a bit chaotic. What good would it be to have Suresh owning a super power? Perhaps just to prove that it was a mistake on his part, and if it’s lethal, I prefer to have him die, not cured. If he turns out to be a villain, so be it. Don’t hesitate to have it that way, too. Sure the third season has not been dull like the previous season, but so far, it’s a mess and I don’t really sure where it wants to go. I hope Tim Kring won’t do the same mistake as in the second.

I didn’t watch Smallvile from the first season, yet I tried to watch the season 8 premiere and got pretty much interested in it. So, I’d like to watch this series to see whether the rest of the season is as good as the beginning. Honestly, I don’t like to watch Clark Kent’s adventures as a young country boy, but the beginning of the 8th was setting the stage for the adult Clark, and thus the real adventures of Superman. What interests me more is that this could be the early stage of the formation of JLA. It got Arthur Curry and Oliver Quinn as well as Dinah Lance (Black Canary). Hopefully, the story will be getting more and more interesting as the season progresses. Recent readings suggested that several members of the Legion of Superheroes may appear in season 8.

I watched the pilot episode of Fringe earlier a few months ago along with The Middlemen, True Blood, and Life On Mars. Of these, so far I’ve watched Fringe. I got the Middlemen, but haven’t watched it. I believe Fringe is an attempt by Fox to ressurect the X-Files genre. Although it doesn’t focus too much on the alien stuffs, but rather, on the fringe sciences. I still think that the lead actress is not necessary at all, and that the whole team could just get along with Walter and Peter Bishop. Olivia Dunham would only create a stark reminder to the X-Files. The plot is already seen as identical with X-Files, and we’re still in the third episode here! Conspiracies weaved to create a grand conspiracy named the Pattern. So far, the induced progeria and human walkie-talkie stuffs couldn’t impress me. Thus, in the longer run, I’m not that sure whether I would be really enjoying this new series or not. If this is regarding fringe science, I hope everything will be verifiable in the name of science.

After some months off the air, Dr House made a comeback. It appears that the entire season 5 would be about Wilson coming into terms with Amber’s death in season 4 and possibly with ‘Thirteen’ also coming into terms with her having diagnosed with Huntington. As for House, well I doubt that he would actually make a big change in himself after all. Although not yet considered as awesome, the potential for season 5 to be as good as the previous seasons remains there. Okay, the first two episodes were still the average House episodes and there’s nothing special happens yet. I hope the plot would be more and more exciting than prior seasons. This is one of my favorite series, though. I’m not watching it because I’m not a medicine-world enthusiast, but rather, the character of House himself that attracts me. Actually, I don’t feel good with the hospital stuffs theme (I didn’t watch E.R. and Grey’s Anatomy nor Scrubs, too). It gives the impression how fragile we are as a living being. Well, we know about that already, right? There’s no need to amplify or exaggerate it too much. Anyway, it’s great to have House back now.

How Not To Live Your what? This British sitcom about a no-good man with no job at all may not be a widely recognized series. But I decided to give it a shot. Starring Dan Clark, Sinead Moynihan, Finlay Robertson, and David Armand, this series has been pretty entertaining at some parts, although there have been some silly jokes, too. I think Dan Clark should focus the Don character to strive for new job, given that he got to pay for his living expenses and also for the mortgage on the granny’s house. Else, it would be questionable how Don could pay up his daily expenses. The secondary plot should be about his efforts to take over Abby from Karl. Nevertheless, there are 6 episodes for the first season, and it will be decided whether I will continue to go through the second season.

With her as the lead actress, would I want to miss it?

Lt. Horatio Caine is back, alive and kicking. Not even a small surprise, though. I’ve been following the series with the hope to see things getting better, but so far, it’s still the same old CSI Miami. Caine should be considered as a superhero not a supercop anymore. His style, his luck, and his awesomeness are just too hot to handle by Miami criminals. It’s surprising that the ratings is still pretty good given the ‘typical storyline’. Yeah, the suspects usually too easy to commit their crimes, and perhaps too stupid to leave evidences on the scene. Also, each member of Cain’s team had suffered in previous seasons, with Alexx as the latest to got hit heavily and resigned from the team. Eric also got a near-death experience, as well as Calleigh. Boa Vista and Wolfe had their personal problems too, although not a near-death style. Tim Speedle got killed in the beginning of season 3 and so far nobody else dies. Compared with the original Las Vegas CSI, the Miami spinoff got too centralized on Caine, and perhaps this what made the whole series vulnerable. It also lacked mystery in the cases. Cases usually got solved too easily, unlike what happened to Grissom’s team back in Vegas. I guess if season 7 shows no changes, I’d call it a quit.

The Almighty Caine is back...

What about medieval stuffs? Knights and wizards and dragon? Well, if you like those stuffs, maybe Merlin is for you. The UK series is based on the supposedly the life of Merlin from the Arthurian legend. At least that’s what I thought before, until I saw the first episode. I imagined that Merlin was a lot older than Arthur, but in the series, they are of the same age. This already ruined my interest on the series. Then, Guinevere is, no offense here, black? I guess the whole Camelot gone bonkers now? What next? Would there be Gentleman of the Lake instead of Lady of the Lake? Would Excalibur be replaced with a shotgun? Why not doing it a la Monty Python instead? Anyways, I’ll see where this series is going, although I’m awfully disappointed with the first episode.

That’s it then, the shows that I’m planning to watch in the next few months. I’m also waiting for the new seasons of Battlestar Galactica and CSI Las Vegas.

The Sopranos

Created by David Chase
Starring: James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese, Steven Van Zandt, Tony Sirico, Robert Iler, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Drea de Matteo, Aida Turturro, Steven R. Schirripa, Nancy Marchand, Vincent Pastore, Joe Pantoliano, Vincent Curatola, Frank Vincent, John Ventimiglia, Federico Castelluccio, Sharon Angela, Kathrine Narducci, Steve Buscemi, David Proval, Joseph R. Gannascoli, Dan Grimaldi.
Run: 1999 – 2007, six seasons, 86 episodes.

Finally, I’ve completed watching this great series from HBO. I’ve been impressed by the plot and the performances by the cast so far, since the beginning of the series.

Perhaps, the most memorable characters for me are Olivia Sopranos, Junior Sopranos, Paulie Gaultieri, Christopher Moltisanti, and Tony himself. Despite its violent nature, the show managed to balance it with a good sense of humour. Nearly every episode contained violence, either commited by Tony or his henchmen or his opponents, either intentionally or not intentionally.

Funny thing is, whenever a character got killed, I couldn’t help but to feel that the person deserved it. Probably because nobody in the ‘family’ is without a sin, and no matter how hard I’ve tried to sympathize with Tony, in the end there would only that feeling of disgust.

And the finale? That was brilliant. I thought something went wrong with the file so that I replayed it near the end credits and still I got the same thing on the screen. Well, David Chase probably wanted us to have an open end, because anything could happen in that evening family dinner.

Overall, the show was great. Once I watch it, I got hooked by its humorous dialogues and plot twists. Although as a mob boss, Tony got himself too lucky to only got really hit once.

Yeah, HBO did it again, it impressed me with Deadwood, Band of Brothers, and Rome, and now this. I got John Adams waiting to be watched, too. For the final score, I’d give it a 10.0.

Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour

Release Year: 2007
Starring: Rissa Walters, Alessandra Daniele, Brian Comrie, Dan Comrie.
Directed by: Lisa Comrie
Written by: John Comrie
IMDB: 3.5 (217 votes)
RT: 0% (8 reviews)
Metacritic: 30 (5 reviews)

Zero at Tomatometer says it all. Even until now I still feel clueless about what was it all about. There’s no horror in the movie at all. Perhaps it’s more horrifying to feel that way.

First of all, the title itself didn’t fit the film. With the stuff like “and the Paranormal Hour” attached to it, I thought “every time” that hour comes, there should be something “horrifying” happens. But, it was a dud, I guess.

I guess the story could have been a better one, but the acting was awful, or more suitably, awkward. No wonder, though, because I read somewhere that it was Rissa Walters’ debut performance. The rest of the cast were also delivered some awkward performance. As acting is supposed to be the soul of a film, this one lacked of it, that’s why the entire flick suffered from it.

At the end of the movie, it was suggested that there would be a sequel (well, the poster was also said "the first"), but from what I’ve read from the net after I saw the movie, the movie’s inability to win the viewers’ favors had perhaps put the Sarah’s adventure to rest. For now, I guess. I don’t know if in the future there would be someone crazy enough trying to resurrect the character.

Anyways, I was totally disappointed with the movie, so I’d give it just 1.0 for the final score.