Movie Madness .3

This one's a doozy. Whew, here we go:


Ip Man 2 (2010)

Sequel to the amazing Ip Man, which I've lightly discussed in a previous post. The second film picks up right where the first film ends, with Ip Man fleeing his Japanese-occupied hometown for Hong Kong and opening up his own Wing Chun studio. However, he meets stiff resistance by already established martial arts studios and masters, and eventually realizes the hostility is the result of British Colonial rule in the city. Long story short: the Brits are trying to promote how their boxing is superior, Ip Man decides to show them who's boss.

Like in the first movie, this one has that theme of foreign presence threatening the Chinese way of life. In this case, the foreigners are a bit more unfamiliar with Asian cultures in general, and their unwillingness of understanding said culture causes a rift among the people.

Anyways, Ip Man is still pretty bad ass. However, I simply enjoyed the first movie more, maybe because  an invasion and brutal overtaking is much more severe than a foreign presence coexisting.

Also, a little Bruce Lee makes a cameo at the end of Ip Man 2! It was great.


No Strings Attached (2011)

I thought the synopsis for this movie seemed...well, trashy and simplistic, when I first saw the trailer. Nat Portman is this emotionally detached gal and Ashton Kutcher's the funny, charming guy and they try to just be fuck-buddies until one of them starts wanting something more. The point is, this movie is completely predictable (obviously. It's an American rom-com.)

Yet despite it's somewhat vapid plot, the movie overall is just so darn...cute. They're like-able. Funny, at times. Maybe the actors do a decent job of making the characters human as opposed to just characters on a screen in a story. Maybe I'm just a sucker for Nat Portman. I guess the way one of my cousin's puts it: it's so bad, that it's so good. Fair enough.

And then another movie was just recently released: Friends with Benefits, I believe? As far as I can tell, these two movies are exactly the same, just with different actors. But what I find somewhat interesting is that FWB stars Mila Kunis. She and Nat Portman were in Black Swan. And then they each go an star in a film that has the exact same synopsis. What? Weirdly coincidental.


Chocolate (2008)

I've been in a kung-fu/martial arts movie phase, it seems. Chocolate is a Thai action movie about an autistic girl who has an uncanny ability of learning martial arts just by watching it being performed either on tv or in person. Her mother is sick and needs medicine, but the girl's friend discovers some people owe the mother some money back when she worked with gangs and shit. So friend and girl set off to get the money back. How? With plenty of good ol' ass whupin, of course.

The director of this movie also did the Ong Bak movies. So the focus is on Muay Thai, Thai Kick-Boxing, which is pretty bad ass if you ask me. Lots of elbowing and kneeing. And then all the actors do their own stunts in these movies. And there are no wires or strings - it's all actor-controlled and combat-acting. And people actually get hurt in these movies, man. During the end credits of Chocolate, it showed some behind the scenes looks during filming, and these people are hurting themselves, falling, hitting each other...! Geez. It's intense.

It's an exciting film. Makes me kinda want to learn Muay Thai, heh.


Dead Snow (2009)

Norwegian zombie film, and boy, is this the most unorthodox zombie movie I've ever seen. You know how typically, zombies are either slow-shufflin' or fast-sprintin', decaying, undead people who only want to eat you? And they're usually devoid of any kind of conscious, or a form of communication among one another? Well in this movie, a group of friends are spending their Easter vacation in an isolated cabin up in the mountains for some fun and skiing and whatnot, but their trip is ruined when they're attacked not just by zombies, but Nazi-zombies, rumored to have been buried in the snow from WWII. But the thing is, these Nazi zombies still function like an army, and obey the orders of one Colonel Nazi zombie, and it's just...it's just mind boggling, because these zombies are communicating with each other! Coordinated attacks! What!

Otherwise, it's your typical zombie film with plenty of blood 'n guts to keep you happy. If you're into that sorta thing, you know.



The Hard Times of RJ Berger

This is a television series that airs on MTV, and surprisingly, it is not another reality show or let's-follow-some-celeb/pregnant chick-around-and-see-what-his/her-personal-life-is-about. It's an actual television series with a story, characters, and everything. I know, crazy, right?

RJ Berger is a loser at his high school. He has a best friend, Miles, and another good friend, Lily, who's kinda in love with him ever since they were little kids. But RJ is head over heels for Jenny Swanson, school hottie, but currently dating a complete douchebag jock who constantly makes life for RJ a living hell. And while Miles is a complete horndog itching to hump any decent looking girl who'd give him a chance, RJ is...nice. He's a nice guy, and he tries to do the right thing when it comes to his friendships, his parents, Jenny, and school.

Otherwise, much of the plot for the seasons and episodes are fairly predictable, your typical omg-high-school-sucks-I-just-want-to-be-popular world. And as much as RJ wants the girl of his dreams, he's just different from other guys and is just...nice.

There are two seasons for RJ Berger, with a third one supposedly in the makes. I've really enjoyed what I've watched so far. Maybe it's because I can relate to this character in a lot of aspects.

Oh yeah, Weezer makes a guest appearance in one of the episodes in season 2. Awesome!


Sherlock 

I'd heard about this BBC mini-television series somewhere, which sparked my interest in watching it. It's basically a modern, present-day take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. The first season is only 3 episodes long and each episode is 90 minutes, but boy, this series is good. The actor who plays Sherlock is just brilliant. The character is crass, a bit hostile, rather emotionally detached, but pure genius, witty, and wildly resourceful. And Watson is an veteran army doctor, obviously older than Sherlock. Ah, another thing: this Sherlock is really young-looking. The contrast between Sherlock and Watson is somewhat displacing, but it works so well.

The episodes themselves are great too. The mysteries are clever, with ample amounts of suspense and danger. And watching Sherlock fire away with his infamous deductive reasoning skills is pretty amazing.

To say the least, I cannot wait for the second season to air. So good.




Captain America: The First Avenger

I really like super hero movies. I think if I had to redo my younger childhood years, I'd be a complete comic book geek. Or is it nerd? I keep forgetting the difference. Anyways, Captain America never struck me as one of the cooler super heroes. I mean, the dude can fight, his weapon is a...shield...yeah, and his costume just screams "AMERICA, FUCK YEAH." I never really knew the story of the Captain prior to watching this movie.

But whoa, this is pretty great. I think the strongest point of this movie is the emphasis of how Steve Rodgers/Captain America is good, not just because he fights for justice, but because he understands the importance of not giving up and giving in to an evil purpose. Can't really describe it, but it's just somehow rather motivating in some aspect.

And I'm pretty excited because this movie is the beginning of a segue way into the The Avengers film!...which is expected to be released sometime in 2012. Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor...man. All these super hero characters and villains in one movie? It's gonna be awesome.



And lastly, I've started watching the television series Modern Family. This show is hilarious! I don't think I've laughed this hard watching a new series for myself since I began watching Scrubs for the first time. The title explains it all, and follows the lives of this family. Claire and Mitchell are the children of Jay, who you'd call the patriarch, of sorts. Claire is married to Phil, and they have three children, Haley, Alex (girl), and Luke. Mitchell is life partners with Cameron, and they have an adopted Asian baby, Lily. Meanwhile, Phil is remarried to Gloria, a smokin' hot Colombian woman nearly the same age as Claire with son Manny, who's almost the same age as Luke.

Yeah...it's all rather confusing at first. But all these unconventional family-ties already set up the characters for rather humorous debacles and conflicts. The style of story telling reminds of me of The Office, where at points in the episode, the story will break to have the characters talking to someone, most likely a questioner, in an interview style about things relevant to the current episode plot. And then even during the episode, characters will occasionally break the fourth wall and glance at the camera, as if there's a film crew just following all these family members around. It's rather interesting and makes me wonder why I don't watch The Office more often.

I think what's nice about this series though is that even though this family is dysfunctional as it gets, they're still a family and love each other hugs and kisses awwww. But it's great. Check it out.

Also, the actress who plays Haley - she TOTALLY looks like a little Mila Kunis. It's crazy.



"The thing about being a good dad, well: sometimes things work out just the way you want it. Sometimes they don't, and you gotta hang in there. Because when all is said and done, 90% of being dad is just showing up." ~Modern Family