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The Last Kingdom (2015)
Wonderfully heroic saga of 9th Century Britain castrated by Netflix
Beautifully written story chronicling the emergence of England from the chaos of Viking invasions due to the courage and ingenuity of brave men, overcoming the barbarity and violence of an alien culture. Finely drawn characters and excellent acting from the BBC on a grand historical theme. Well that was true of the first three seasons, until Netflix did its usual coarseification of all periods of history into sex and feminism (ala Marco Polo nude kung fu).
In the fourth season Uhtred the intrepid warrior is now the passive plaything of women as he blunders from one disastrous engagement to another, whether being repeatedly ambushed on the road or listlessly vegetating over a month for a plan to rescue his daughter. His sole contribution to the drama is to throw off his white shreve during the solemn ceremony of baptism as priests chant hosannas, so 21st century women can enjoy his body.
Meanwhile Brida who ever threatens sexual violence against men, is briefly captured by men cementing her status as the abuse victim, allowing a long episode of lovingly humiliating, abusing and brutally killing her former captor. Even pregnancy with the man she loved has no impact as she kills him before announcing that the child is hers and hers alone, as prelude to for her plans to exact vengance on Uhtred and all men.
If gender harmony is not much on her mind, the same cannot be said for the Vikings. When Brida brings back no women captives for their pleasure, (due to her insistence that Welsh women fight back, necessitating their killing), they take the uncharacteristically civilized position of adopting vows of celibacy throughout their brutal campaign to conquer England. As if!
The replacement of highly textured characters such as Father Beocca, Aethelwold and Aelfric the perfidious uncle, with 21st century archetypes more intent on fighting patriarchy (Stiorra) and resolving inter-family dynamics (ala Wihtghar the multi-culturally inclusive villain) make this a silly exercise in pandering.
Hopefully there's no season 5.
Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street (2014)
Charming storyline dragged down by girl power
First season was funny with doses of magic interspersed with kids real life challenges such as the loss of a loved one.
Unfortunately it then veered off into Mary Sue land, with all the girls being the leaders, future scientists and world changers, while the boys were content to be dorks holding their coats.
How do you expect parents to respond to a show where only one half of their children are told they can succeed in the real world ?
Sita Sings the Blues (2008)
The Guggenheim Foundation spent it's money on this ?
First the good parts of the movie were the music sung beautifully and the animation done in a pastiche of styles.
The bad parts were the story itself which was a projection of the authors' sense of victimhood onto the story of Rama.
Nina and her boyfriend are living in domestic bliss with their cat in San Francisco when he gets a contract in India. Though she misses him greatly he's enjoying his time there and even extends his stay away from her.
She leaves her comfortable apartment and cat to follow him to India only to be unceremoniously dumped. Life is a drag.
She ends up in a cold apartment in New York reminiscing about the good old days and reading the Ramayana for some reason. Things now become clear to her as the book, rather than being the Story of Rama venerated for millennia, is really the Story of Sita, reflecting the eternal suffering of women at the hands of unfeeling men. Such as perhaps ... the author ??
The movie ends with Nina's revenge on India for stealing away her boyfriend by having the Hindu God Vishnu obsequiously massaging the feet of his wife. ha,ha :{
This exercise in self pity has certainly been rewarding for the author. For the rest of us however, this type of self centeredness and trivialization of another culture's deeply held beliefs are one of the reasons why Americans are viewed with justifiable suspicion and hostility in the cultural realm.
Jing wu feng yun: Chen Zhen (2010)
Good 20 minutes of cinematography and acting wasted in derivative movie *spoiler alert *
The good parts of this movie include using Shangahi in the 20's as the backdrop for the romance between sultry lounge singer Shu Qi and world weary veteran Donnie Yen at the Casablanca Club.
Targeted at the Chinese market however, the movie marches very quickly into mindless homages to Bruce Lee and the all consuming xenophobia & victimization themes we've become familiar with in modern Chinese movies.
The numerous racial epithets ("white skinned dogs", "f****g Japanese pigs) and Communist slogans about the Chinese people make for a tiresome soundtrack to the wire-fu and political conflict.
Jet Li's version of the story "Fist of Legend" is said to be far better.
Transporter 3 (2008)
Better than 2nd but usual America Bad, Europe Good silliness
This movie's travelogue of Europe is interesting and it brings back some of the fun of the first movie, though not quite as good.
Unfortunately it's burdened by it's silly plot of needing to show that the Ukraine's main problems are not Russian paranoia but American capitalists intent on polluting Europe.
Corey Yuen's choreography is good as usual and the movie does have some exciting driving stunts though I would have preferred the BMW to the Audi. The actress is not very appealing and Frank's need to disrobe periodically in the middle of a chase across Europe is disconcerting.
The police inspector is back for his wry turn though they don't really give him much to do any more, unlike the first one where he was actually investigating a crime. Here in the middle of an international kidnapping he's out of place dawdling through the scenes as just a small town cop incongruously involved in the action.
Beowulf (2007)
Very good 3D, silly femanazi revisionist plot
First the good parts: The 3D is spectacular in scenes like the that of the dragon flying and the digitization is good in action sequences though not in facial closeups. I liked the ground level shots of horses riding by .
The bad part is the story which follows the current American trend of showing that the real monsters in all situations are men. Not humans overall of course, just men, who it seems are all sex crazed, drunk, loud, violent, sexist buffoons who impose themselves on long suffering women and monsters everywhere. Yet even these Vikings who sing of rape and pillage meekly listen to the "no means no" lecture and cry when reminded that they were unfaithful to their wives.
They're momma's boys who boast of being bad when out of their playpen as Anthony Hopkins shows in arriving on screen in a diaper. Good momma Robin and bad momma Angelina have their own ways of correcting these naughty little boys. Grendel being less of a monster than the men, gets lullabies from momma Angelina while the rest of the men get impalement, evisceration, beheadings and other gruesome deaths.
Good momma Robin is kinder in that she only withholds sex and love from both of her husbands ensuring a long unfulfilling marriage to all parties.
This clearly has nothing to do with the poem or 6th century Denmark or heroic literature which this genre finds disgusting. It's really about Hollywood in the 21st century and the self centered, politically correct intolerance of other cultures and times seen through those who lived in it.
Excalibur by John Boorman is a much better envisioning of a heroic story while the Thirteenth Warrior is Michael Crichton's innovative take on Beowulf.
Wong Fei-Hung (1991)
Racist xenophobic exercise in anti-Americanism
Transposition of the enslavement of Africans in the 18th century to late 19th century Chinese brutalized by colonial era costumed Americans is a laughable exercise in national self pity.
As with other Jet Li movies of this era made in China, the blatant anti-Americanism and overwhelming xenophobia leads to idiotic historical reconstructions and constant propagandizing.
As an example, though many famous martial artists died during the boxer rebellion,the wholesale liquidation of martial artists and martial arts in China, was implemented first by the Nationalists then more completely by the Communist government, not foreign devils (yes they are called that in the film). Meanwhile, the great Lam Sai Wing, senior student of Wong Fei Hung is here shown as a fat buffoon useful only for comic relief.
The stunts themselves are sped up and though illustrative of Mr. Li's athleticism, are not well spaced.
A far better movie illustrating Wu Shu creativity is Iron Monkey, a coherent story containing excellent fight scenes, little brutality and no racist dogma.
Zhong hua ying xiong (1988)
Stooges of the Hegemonists
If you want to wallow in ignorant Chinese xenophic anti-americanism, this movie's the one for you.
Somehow the American Navy seems to have taken over China and prostituted their women while drinking all the beer. Characters include the cowardly black sailor, racist white boys on leave and the ever popular missing in war daughter of the disabled veteran, turned prostitute for the hated Yankees, though with a heart of gold for her countrymen.
From destroying a rickshaw taking a pregnant woman to the hospital to assorted acts of drunken anti-social rampage, these Americans seem to require brutal murder for the good of the Chinese people.
hmmm, sounds like Tianamen Square.