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anthonyspera
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Ni hao, Li Huanying (2021)
What a stupid movie, until it wasn't
I've seen about a half dozen Mandarin movies. Some are cute, some I really don't like. Humor doesn't always translate well, so about 2/3rds of the way through this movie I was thinking, "THIS is what my daughter Anastasia was crying about? It's just nonsense". Until it wasn't. In the last half hour there is a plot... twist that explains what really happened. Then, I cried. And cried. And cried. Even now, I watch the last 30 minutes of the movie every once in a while.... then I cry. One of the best stories ever written.
Anita (2021)
A amazing movie about an amazing womans life
If you don't know her, this is still a great story. Having lived in HK for half a year and being a fan of Chinese music, I had heard a bit about her. If you know nothing this is still a great movie and true story.
Of course, there is an undercurrent to the story which a foreigner will not get about her but it is still an incredible movie experience. For example, there is a simple scene where she, now being rich and famous, is interviewed and asked if she will stay in Hong Kong after 1997. She proudly says "Yes, I will stay in Hong Kong". This was the year that Hong Kong was handed back over to China from being a British colony and there was a lot of fear at that time that the mainland government would be heavy handed with locals and take away their western freedoms. This turned out to not be the case but many people left HK at that time and she proudly stayed. This is not explained in the movie, you'd have to know the history of HK. But these few blips would take nothing away from this film if you didn't.
If anything, the true story of her life is even more incredible than this story, a wonderful film.
Enterprise: Cogenitor (2003)
I hated it, but for the opposite reason others did
As usual, Star Trek treats "aliens" as simply humans with a funny face. Trip had no business getting involved AT ALL and the whole setup to show how "abused" the 3rd gender was (is? In the fictional Star Trek universe, isn't it still happening?) was another bad example of this. What if, instead of humanoids, they were a race of rock looking people who rolled around the ground and, lets say, grew hands as needed but otherwise were fully intellegent? Would Trip have cared at all about their being a 3rd and seemingly unappreciated gender? What does Trip really know, anyway? Perhaps the mating ritual that requires this 3rd gender requires that the 3rd gender... sleep a lot or education would distract them from their necessary function? Maybe they were meeting an uptight bunch of snobs and they aren't treated this way most of the time? Maybe 500 years ago in their "history" they tried to educate the 3rds and their civilization almost collapsed and it lead to anarchy and death for all 3 genders? Trip knows none of this situation except what he (the writers, really) are projecting on the situation.
Let's talk about the bride price (stay with me here...). In some cultures (the ones we actually have, here on the actual Earth) the idea of a man paying money to marry a woman would be abhorrent. But! Try asking a woman in those cultures about it! If a man refused to pay, she would, to her way of thinking, but insulted. "You are saying that I'm not worth it? That I provided NO value to my family that should be repaid by my absence! Marry someone else ungrateful lout!".
OK, maybe she wouldn't say "lout", but get the point: what is abhorrent from one point of view can, and should be, completely opposite from another. And that is the problem with this silly episode. Trip knows nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Not from the beginning, not at the end, after he violated ALL of their privacy (and Floxx, willing to doom an entire race of beings for the sake of "not getting involved in their evolution" is willing to go along with this projection of Trip.
In the end, it was a powerful lesson: She killed herself. I was glad of that. Not because it was a happy ending but frankly, Trip had no business getting involved. Maybe the 3rd gender can't handle any kind of education / interaction / freedom (or what WE could call freedom) or maybe 100 other possibilities in a truly ALIEN situation (Trip even refused Floxx's offer to see how the 3 aliens need to procreate, what right did Trip have to refuse that? If you are going to get involved, aren't you morally BOUND to at least see what their role is?) that the writers could have invented.
But no, they took the easy way out: all cultures / species / races / situations are the same (and by extension, the bride price is always wrong and anyone who says otherwise is barbaric, because... my culture and beliefs say so).
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
If George Lucas was dead he would be spinning in his grave
I grew up with Star Wars. I loved the universe, the movies, books, games, characters, lore, music (long live John Williams!). Ok, yes, EP1 and 2 were a let down, but still I enjoyed them and they had some great scenes and a story to go somewhere. And Episode 3 was amazing and wrapped things up in an incredible way.
When I heard Disney bought Star Wars, I was ecstatic!
Then, Episode 7. Wow, what a train wreck. Really? Just a bigger Death Star? When they attacked the new "Death Star" I literally yelled at the screen: Do NOT fly your X-wings down a trench to destroy the Death Star. Then, they did. Wow, what a rip off. But then, everyone said, "wait, wait! Episode 7 is just setting up the awesomeness that will be Episode 8, patience Padawan!"
Episode 8 was SO bad, that all the other Star Wars movies now look bad. Rian Johnson slapped the lore and the fans across the face like a drunk macho man jackass with a $5 hooker. He said: "your Snoke theory sucks" and Kathleen Kennedy proudly proclaimed: "The force is female". Imagine George Lucas and Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford wearing t-shirts that said "The force is male" to a gathering. Yea, offensive like that. And her attitude showed in the story. The men are idiots who need to step aside for the "oh so smart and in command" women. What a joke the whole story was, and it didn't even go anywhere.
All the people who told us that EP7 was setting up for EP8 had no idea. Even the few mysteries from EP7 were casually tossed aside like garbage.
I loved Star Wars, saw the movies at midnight, read the books, played the games, bought the toys, collected the comics.
I can't believe I'm even saying this, but I'm not going to see Episode 9. I may or may not read the plot on line when it comes out, but I'm not going to see the next movie. A sad, sad day.... Kathleen Kennedy and Rian Johnson are not Star Wars fans. They needed to be no where near this story, no where near at all...
Wang chao de nu ren: Yang Gui Fei (2015)
Almost not one sympathetic character on the screen
Kings. Aren't they great? We should go back to the days of dynasty and emperors! Are you the king? Do you think your sons wife is sexy? Give him a new wife and take her for your own, cause, why not? Are you one of the kings many concubines / sons / followers? Make promises and alliances and break them as you wish to further your own ends, cause, why not?
After watching this movie, I had not one shred of respect for any of the characters who are all self serving and mostly insane. Is this a Chinese problem? Of course not. Go back and read the history of the Roman Empire or the British Empire. This story has played out for as long as someone has said, "Long Live The King! (or in this case, Emperor)".
People lie, cheat, murder and steal to keep their place or get what they want and no amount of nice background music or setting up of events to gain sympathy for the characters made me like them. The Emperor is a pig and his words mean nothing. He disposes of people because his libido tells him to and that's about it.
The main character is the new concubine, who could get some sympathy in the story, being, as she is, fairly powerless to get what she wants out of life, and, of course, not going along with the wishes of the king (emperor) will simply get you killed.
If you want to be depressed and hate people, watch this movie.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
They took the worst of all ideas and put them here.
I didn't like Janeway. Not at first, not so much by the end. She was not a good leader. Too emotional. But by the end of the series, it was OK.
But now, we have 2 women, not just emotional, but incompetent. And the men in the series are cowards or dismissive (just so the women can be proved right, after all). Do all women leaders need to be so emotional? I wouldn't trust either of them with a leadership position. Too cocky and self sure one minute and then emotional and out of control the next. If Picard or Riker or Sysco acted this way no one would have liked those shows either. If we had incompetent women portrayed this way in a series with the cocky men shown to be right, it would be off putting as well.
The show is retro but the tech is better? I didn't like the idea of Enterprise going back in time, now we go back again? Can no one make a new show in the future of Star Trek? Has every creative brain fled Hollywood? Can no one make something new again? Heck, you don't even have to make it COMPLETELY new, just continue the Star Trek story, but in the, you know, FUTURE.... Why are we still talking about fighting the Klingons?!? I miss NextGen so much. There is just no way to make another show like that again. NextGen didn't need cliff hangers. They just made a good story, with a beginning, middle and end.
This show is horrible. It makes me hate Star Trek. Whoever owns Star Trek should never allow another one to be made, again, ever. Take it away and force people to write a story in their own universe.
Pearl Harbor (2001)
I loved this movie. Not being facetious
Completely non spoiler review: See this movie and don't read the other reviews. They are, in my humble opinion, not reviewing a movie. They are nit picking a historical account, sometimes based on their own biases and sometimes based on their disappointment in what really happened! For example, yes, there is a token black guy. THEY WERE ALL TOKEN BLACK GUYS BACK THEN! It's called discrimination. It still exists! How is that Michael Bay's fault? Anyway, watch this movie to see a good movie with amazing effects, likable characters, enough history to teach you something (if you don't know the history behind Pearl Harbor) and the best ending this movie could possibly have.
Mildly spoiler review (but if you know your history, this is not a surprise: Japan attacked the USA at Pearl Harbor in 1941!):
When I was a boy, my father took me to see the story of the Pearl Harbor attack in the movie "Tora, Tora, Tora". I still remember the room shaking as the planes took off from the deck! I looked up at my dad with a huge smile on my face. Yes, that was a good movie. More like a documentary than a movie. At the end of the movie I felt empty. Was that it? I was about 10 years old and confused (also disturbed by the scene where the son lands his plane all bloody and screaming). My dad then explained to me that we (the USA) won the war and etc, etc, etc. But the scene at the end with the 2 military guys just chatting was so weirdly confident to me. Didn't they realize they just had lost thousands of men to a rotten sneak attack? There were no characters throughout the whole movie to get emotionally attached to, just like a documentary.
Fast forward about 25 years. My wife and I went to the movies and saw Pearl Harbor. I loved it. I've seen it about 4 times now and still love this movie. The scenes were excellent, the characters likable and the emotion felt right. A good balance of respect for the subject matter and the true parts of the story. If you don't know the story, the movie tells you. But, unlike Tora, Tora, Tora, they weren't trying to make a documentary, and they included some relatively minor characters (like the "token black guy" some other reviewers are upset about (should he not have been included at all?!?) and Michael Bay found a way to include an excellent story about a lesser known story: the Doolittle raid and he ended on that note instead of just the defeat at Pearl Harbor. Frankly, a brilliant way to tell both stories and have the audience leave feeling better about the story.
I realize I'm in the minority here, but I'm confused about what people hated so much about this movie and I can't wrap my head around it. I read a couple dozen reviews and it seems to me that they just can't understand that they are watching a movie, not a documentary.
I thought the acting was good, the music great and the action scenes fantastic. And, I am a history buff and have read many WW2 books, including the entire series written by Winston Churchill, so yes, I knew where Pearl Harbor wasn't completely accurate. Had it been, Micheal Bay could have called it "Tora, Tora, Tora" and the haters would have blasted him for just doing a remake of that movie.
The nitpicking in the reviews about "that model jeep was not being used in that year" and "that guy's name was misspelled" and "this US 5$ bill not yet in circulation in that year" and "those are not the exact two guys who flew the planes" are hilarious. In 2001, the attack on Pearl Harbor was 50 years old. What percentage of the movie goers would have any idea about these details? Could Michael Bay have been less lazy and/or more accurate? Sure. If you want to see the exact story, the History Channel has some excellent programs. If you want to see a great movie, which is about 85% historically accurate and captures the zeitgeist of the times it portrays, watch this movie: Pearl Harbor is excellent.