Jet Li plays a street fighter whose ambition grows out of control with his success, yet his life becomes without real aim. A conflict with other fighters escapes the ring and soon takes a heavy toll. Suspending ones disbelief is required for much of the movie, yet this is the way of period Chinese martial arts films.
The protagonist of the film is constantly saying sorry. Nobody knows why. Gee, that sounds eerily like me. This is one of those gay coming of age films with the usual crush on a straight boy. That’s happened to me too. The kid lives on a farm. Here’s where the similarities end.
Well done overall, but the ending is easily guessed.
I’m surprised at what make-up can still do for Tom Cruise — like hide his lack of height. Why put timers in bombs which are in people’s heads? It just gives them a chance. It makes them do crazy, desperate things. But suspense for a few plot points is generated this way. In the end, just a dumb action flick.
A guy with two first names. There’s an amazing amount of gay content in this seemingly mainstream film about NASCAR. Two guys kissing. A gay formula one race car driver from France. And kudos to the movie’s handling of these gay issues without any violence or homophobia. Gay acceptance seems also surprisingly high for being set in testosterone fueled racing environment.
Coming into this movie, I had a significant dislike for Will Farrell, but this is actually one of his better films. There’s some slapstick, but not the continual over-the-top groan and wince type.
And the movie shows very calmly a duo of strangely intimate male relationships. Ricky and his friend Cal are surprisingly close even after Cal steals Ricky’s wife. Ricky and his nemesis, the Frenchman, Jean Girard, have a couple conversations where they stand not more than 4 inches apart and both appear comfortable with this closeness. There’s a high point when Jean argues that what Ricky says doesn’t make any sense, but deadpan straight. He doesn’t appear to realize that almost everything Ricky says is completely idiotic.
The movie is a good effort, though the plotline is rather predictable and simplistic.
NYTimes reviewer pans the Skywalk and its $75 price tag.
It’s a little light on actual number of Picasso paintings. Still, there’s a fair representation of his incredibly varied style with one of his paintings holding its own per room full of American imitators and emulators.
I was actually kind of disappointed in this movie. Not sure if I ever really liked any of the movies in this series. Still this one has its moments. In the series there has always been the implied analogy between mutants and sexual minorities. Mutants coming ‘out’. People not accepting and turning away from mutants, including their own parents. People proclaiming a cure for mutants ‘disease’.
I’ve always liked Ian McKellan in practically any movie. He’s great here again as the villian Magneto.
Volver = To return. Penelope Cruz is fantastic/amazing/wonderful in this film by Pedro Almodovar. Strangely the film reminds me of Brazil and Latin America — with all the hugging and kissing, but I suppose that’s Spain, too. It’s a fascinating story, and I liked the music. The fictional history behind the title song lends the scene where Cruz’s character sings great impact. There are dark parts of the movie, but mostly it’s really funny. Hilarious, in fact.
