Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Screenwriter: Michel Arndt
Cast: Abigail Breslin (Olive), Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano (Dwayne), Alan Arkin (Grandpa), Toni Collette (Sheryl), Steve Carell (Frank)
August 29, 2006
Superman Returns (2006)
Director: Bryan Singer
Screenwriters: Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris
Cast: Bradon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Parker Posey, Frank Langella
Screenwriters: Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris
Cast: Bradon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Parker Posey, Frank Langella
August 23, 2006
August 16, 2006
The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich (2004)
Der Untergang
Germany
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Germany
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
August 13, 2006
August 08, 2006
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
US
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: John August
Book Author: Roald Dahl
When our hero, Charlie (Freddie Highmore), the good kid, inevitably wins one of the five golden ticket and heads to Willy Wonka's (played by Johnny Depp) chocolate factory, and inevitably wins the ultimate prize, the factory itself, in the end, I can't help thinking: it is just too obvious. No way the whole thing is so simple.
Charlie gets his first piece of Wonka chocolate as an early birthday present, although his family almost runs out of food. No golden ticket. His grandpa gives him some money he hides for a long time, telling him to go to the nearest store and buy the first chocolate Charlie sees. Still no golden ticket. Then Charlie finds a bill half buried in the snow outside the sidewalk, he grabs it and without thinking, he runs into the nearest store for another Wonka chocolate bar. The store owner hands him one, and this time charlie is getting lucky. Yes, luck. Not the money from Charlie's beloved parents and grandparents, but random money from the street and the chocolate from a stranger's hand.
It's clear that the other 4 kids being chosen is a meditation, a scheme somehow organized by Willy Wonka. So the Oompa Loompas will have a song when a spoiled kid is "punished" for his or her behavior. But what about Charlie? The heterogeneity of a single character, usually the leading one, is created for the audience to project our sympathy. But how Charlie gets the grand reward blurs the movie's main theme, the connection between good heart, good deeds and good consequences is weaken. As a movie primarily made for children, I can not help wonder is there any dark intention hidden in this colorful and overall delightful movie.
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: John August
Book Author: Roald Dahl
When our hero, Charlie (Freddie Highmore), the good kid, inevitably wins one of the five golden ticket and heads to Willy Wonka's (played by Johnny Depp) chocolate factory, and inevitably wins the ultimate prize, the factory itself, in the end, I can't help thinking: it is just too obvious. No way the whole thing is so simple.
Charlie gets his first piece of Wonka chocolate as an early birthday present, although his family almost runs out of food. No golden ticket. His grandpa gives him some money he hides for a long time, telling him to go to the nearest store and buy the first chocolate Charlie sees. Still no golden ticket. Then Charlie finds a bill half buried in the snow outside the sidewalk, he grabs it and without thinking, he runs into the nearest store for another Wonka chocolate bar. The store owner hands him one, and this time charlie is getting lucky. Yes, luck. Not the money from Charlie's beloved parents and grandparents, but random money from the street and the chocolate from a stranger's hand.
It's clear that the other 4 kids being chosen is a meditation, a scheme somehow organized by Willy Wonka. So the Oompa Loompas will have a song when a spoiled kid is "punished" for his or her behavior. But what about Charlie? The heterogeneity of a single character, usually the leading one, is created for the audience to project our sympathy. But how Charlie gets the grand reward blurs the movie's main theme, the connection between good heart, good deeds and good consequences is weaken. As a movie primarily made for children, I can not help wonder is there any dark intention hidden in this colorful and overall delightful movie.
July 31, 2006
Battlestar Galactica
Miniseries
Director: Michael Rymer
Screenwriter: Christopher Eric James, Ronald D. Moore
Director: Michael Rymer
Screenwriter: Christopher Eric James, Ronald D. Moore
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)
Germany
Director: Mark Rothemund
Screenwriter: Fred Breinersdorfer
Director: Mark Rothemund
Screenwriter: Fred Breinersdorfer
July 01, 2006
Flightplan (2005)
Director: Robert Schwentke
Screenwriter: Peter A. Dowling, Billy Ray
When the first part of the movie planning and leading us to believe that Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is a lunatic woman imagined she brings her daughter on plane, then the second part turns the possible psychological thriller into a action movie that involve two criminal trying to hijack the plane and blackmail the airplane company. But unfortunately the turn also evaporate the originally tension it holds, not all that tasteless, but surely plainer to the psychological layout Flightplan trying to built in the first place.
Screenwriter: Peter A. Dowling, Billy Ray
When the first part of the movie planning and leading us to believe that Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is a lunatic woman imagined she brings her daughter on plane, then the second part turns the possible psychological thriller into a action movie that involve two criminal trying to hijack the plane and blackmail the airplane company. But unfortunately the turn also evaporate the originally tension it holds, not all that tasteless, but surely plainer to the psychological layout Flightplan trying to built in the first place.
June 30, 2006
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Director: Brett Ratner
When a movie have something to hold on to, something that doesn’t have to be too complicated, something that can be as simple as a single noun like friendship or loyalty, then apply this center ideal to build the story and characters, we are more likely to have decent a movie. Not the case of X-men: the Last Stand here, as we try and try waiting for the story to come together and make some sense, it fell from the first moment to the end. Confusingly the movie ends with Mutants fight against each other, forgetting Human is the source of the fight.
It begins with a vaccine that can “cure” mutants, make them “normal.” Typically we have two groups stand in different ground and fight with other for their own beliefs, but the beliefs here is confusing. Magneto (Ian McKellen) doesn’t trust Human will give Mutants the free will to choose, stubbornly believing that the invention of the vaccine means genocide. He gathers the Mutants and preaches they make the first move, but this move gives Human exactly what they need- an excellent excuse to use the weapon. On the other hand, Professor Charles Xavier’s side not exactly has a sufficient reason to the war, either. They don’t talk about the issues of the vaccine much, the minority issue was long gone in this movie, and it is really hard to say what they are fighting for; the peace they pursue just a mirage of nothing happened. All the threads the movie picks up end loosely and unsatisfyingly. The love triangle, the untold love, the father-son issue, the team work, the movie temporize its audience and gives easy answers to those questions.
No beautiful faces or novel superpower tricks can save the movie this time.
When a movie have something to hold on to, something that doesn’t have to be too complicated, something that can be as simple as a single noun like friendship or loyalty, then apply this center ideal to build the story and characters, we are more likely to have decent a movie. Not the case of X-men: the Last Stand here, as we try and try waiting for the story to come together and make some sense, it fell from the first moment to the end. Confusingly the movie ends with Mutants fight against each other, forgetting Human is the source of the fight.
It begins with a vaccine that can “cure” mutants, make them “normal.” Typically we have two groups stand in different ground and fight with other for their own beliefs, but the beliefs here is confusing. Magneto (Ian McKellen) doesn’t trust Human will give Mutants the free will to choose, stubbornly believing that the invention of the vaccine means genocide. He gathers the Mutants and preaches they make the first move, but this move gives Human exactly what they need- an excellent excuse to use the weapon. On the other hand, Professor Charles Xavier’s side not exactly has a sufficient reason to the war, either. They don’t talk about the issues of the vaccine much, the minority issue was long gone in this movie, and it is really hard to say what they are fighting for; the peace they pursue just a mirage of nothing happened. All the threads the movie picks up end loosely and unsatisfyingly. The love triangle, the untold love, the father-son issue, the team work, the movie temporize its audience and gives easy answers to those questions.
No beautiful faces or novel superpower tricks can save the movie this time.
June 24, 2006
June 15, 2006
[Gig] Arctic Monkeys
Roseland Ballroom
No matter how charming the Monkeys are, I'm too old to squeeze between bunch of pot-smoking teenage kids. No way I'm doing this again. 18 and older shows only! Or at least sits on mezzanine.
No matter how charming the Monkeys are, I'm too old to squeeze between bunch of pot-smoking teenage kids. No way I'm doing this again. 18 and older shows only! Or at least sits on mezzanine.
June 14, 2006
June 13, 2006
June 11, 2006
[Broadway] Shining City
Manhattan Theatre Club at The Biltmore Theatre
Written by Conor McPherson
Directed by Robert Falls
Cast: Oliver Platt, Brian F. O'Byrne, Martha Plimpton, Peter Scanavino
Written by Conor McPherson
Directed by Robert Falls
Cast: Oliver Platt, Brian F. O'Byrne, Martha Plimpton, Peter Scanavino
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