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Kazu Kibuishi recommended Yi Yi (2000) in Movies (curated)

 
Yi Yi (2000)
Yi Yi (2000)
2000 | Drama, Romance
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"A phenomenal slice-of-life family drama directed by the late Edward Yang from Taiwan that exemplifies some of the great realist cinema that was being made in Asian countries during this time (see Ang Lee). And despite the films having very little to do with each other, I always personally associate this film with In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar-wai. Both films were released here in the U.S. at the same time, and I watched both on the same day. That was a crazy day. I still remember how the air tasted after stepping out of the theater that evening. Also—and I feel I have to mention this—I watched a third film that amazing weekend, After Life by Hirokazu Kore-eda, and it was my favorite of the three (and is one of my all-time favorites). Kore-eda has a nice movie called Still Walking available from Criterion, but I am hoping for a nice edition of After Life someday."

Source
  
Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Clear and Present Danger (1994)
1994 | Action, Drama, Mystery
The Cover-Up
Clear and Present Danger- is a thriller pacted movie. It has action, suspense and drama. Its downfall its long and somewhat boring and waits a while to get to the action. The action is also decent, not as good as patriot games.

The plot: Agent Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) becomes acting deputy director of the CIA when Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed with cancer. When an American businessman, and friend of the president, is murdered on a yacht, Ryan starts discovering links between the man and drug dealers. As CIA agent John Clark (Willem Dafoe) is sent to Colombia to kill drug kingpins in retaliation, Ryan must fight through multiple cover-ups to figure out what happened and who's responsible.

Harrison Ford is excellent as Jack Ryan. He is the best Jack Ryan in my opinon. He nails Jack Ryan perfectly.

Clear and Present Danger- is a decent thriller with the only downfall is it being a little long and boring.
  
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David McK (3562 KP) rated Sharpe's Honour in TV

Nov 14, 2021 (Updated Nov 14, 2021)  
Sharpe's Honour
Sharpe's Honour
1994 | Action, Adventure, Drama
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
The fifth episode in the TV adaptations of the novels by Bernard Cornwell (which are well worth a read), based on the book of the same name.

I say 'based on' as, because while the main thrust of the storyline is the same, the TV movie of necessity abbreviates the novel somewhat: most noticeably (I felt) watering down quite substantially the role of El Matarife in the proceedings.

As this starts, Sharpe is still mourning the death of his wife Teresa, while Napoleon - in his first appearance in the series - is in retreat from Russia, and with Major Pierre Ducos hatching a plan to drive a wedge between the Spanish and British allies while also getting his revenge on Sharpe by provoking a duel between Sharpe and a Spanish nobleman who he (Ducos) later murders, with Sharpe then taking the rap for said murder (until he is later able to prove his innocence).
  
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
2003 | Action, Drama, Mystery
Faster Than the Newer Films...But Also Much Worse
Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) tries to redeem himself from the first film by taking out a gang of car enthusiasts.

Acting: 4

Beginning: 6

Characters: 0
These characters are about as interesting as an empty takeout box. Not only is there no kind of depth whatsoever, I never really liked the characters to begin with. I can usually deal with characters not growing if they’re at least interesting, but 2 Fast 2 Furious gives us neither. The cars have more characters than the characters themselves. Might has well let them do the talking instead.

Cinematography/Visuals: 4
Speaking from the future, the car chases/race don’t nearly have the same impact as the latter films. In comparison, they are boring and stale and aren’t enough to carry the movie. Overall it’s shot in gimmicky fashion with lots of slowmo and near-misses. It is painful to watch at times.

Conflict: 7

Entertainment Value: 5
Sometimes a movie can be so bad that it keeps your interest solely for the fact that you want to see what crappity crap crap is going to happen next. I fell asleep on more than one occasion which is a horrible thing to say about a movie that revolves around car chases. There was little in the way of redemption here.

Memorability: 5
One line made me give this score above a zero, a line I will always remember for the rest of my days. At one point, Walker almost put me in a casket by saying, “I said forget about it, cuh.” This line has since become the source of a number of memes and Youtube clips and I can still burst into laughter if I were to watch it right now. Regarding everything else about the movie? Forget about it, cuh.

Pace: 9
If I’m holding it to the standard of the latter movies, I do have to acknowledge that the movie gets through its plot at a fairly quick pace. It is easily one of the shortest in the franchise as almost all of the others top two hours. Yes, it still put me to sleep, but only because the content sucked.

Plot: 4
Sports a story that my six-year-old nephew could have come up with. Barely believable, it has holes inside of holes. I almost wish they had just said, “Screw it. Just look at the cool cars.”

Resolution: 5

Overall: 49
Dumpster fire. Burning poop. A fly walking on a windowsill with only one wing. These are all things that are more interesting than 2 Fast 2 Furious. Talk about a nightmare.
  
The Hunger Games (2012)
The Hunger Games (2012)
2012 | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
“The Hunger Games” is based in a post-apocalyptic time when the world has been overcome by a series of devastating natural disasters and people have turned on each other to provide supplies for their families and for themselves in order to survive.

Bringing peace to the land was a nation known as Panem which is ruled by the Capitol. Panem had once consisted of thirteen districts all providing a resource essential to the survival of its people. An uprising against the Capitol caused much anger and destruction resulting in war and the annihilation of its thirteenth district.

With the intent to make sure such an uprising would never happen again, the Capitol required each of the twelve remaining districts to abide by the rules and regulations written in the Treaty of Treason to make sure that there is peace within Panem. Once a year a lottery is held where each of the twelve districts must offer up one young man and one young woman as tributes. This must be done in order to remind the people of Panem what was lost. Each of the 24 tributes must train and then battle for survival in an outdoor arena against each other leaving only one tribute to become the victor. This is known as The Hunger Games.

“The Hunger Games” is based upon the New York times best seller written by Suzanne Collins and directed by Gary Ross who also directed Seabiscuit. The storyline follows the main character Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) who volunteers as tribute in order to save her younger sister from having to fight and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcheson) has also been randomly chosen as tribute for the twelfth district.

The movie mostly follows these two characters on their journey to the battle ground as opposed to the book where we get a little more background into each of the different districts and their tributes. Who will be the victor of the 74th annual Hunger Games?

Let me start off by stating that you do not need to have read the book in order to enjoy this film. However, the movie does follow the book very well. Fans will always have their own very strong opinions as to whether the films follow their favorite books but for someone who read the book after I watched the movie I must say I was not lost nor did I feel disappointed that I did not read it prior to screening it.

This film includes a great cast such as Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland and a surprisingly effectively-cast Lenny Kravitz. Along with a fitting cast the film also offers a great soundtrack, colors that fit each district and great cinematography.

It is always interesting to hear the comments of the other reviewers after the end of a movie screening. Some commented on how they pictured certain characters as a totally different type of character than what was portrayed in the book such as Cinna played by Lenny Kravitz.

One lady pictured him as a slim Asian man while my guest pictured him as a flamboyant white man with a high fashion sense. Others commented on how shaky the cinematography was. Yes, granted it does get shaky in a lot of the scenes but it only adds action to the heart pounding edge of your seat scenes. This film is a kickstart to the season of great movies to come and I predict “The Hunger Games” will reach a bigger audience as it provides elements of action, drama and sci-fi to satisfy a larger audience.

For those of you who have not read the book I do have to warn you some of the scenes and or elements of the story may be just a little too disturbing for some but is a great story nonetheless.
  
The One Plus One
The One Plus One
Jojo Moyes | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.8 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
One of my favorite books that I read in 2014. It’s sort of silly and outlandish in plot, but you don’t care, because you’re just riveted, wanting to read it as quickly as possible. Jess is a down-on-her-luck mom of two (her daughter, Tanzie, plus stepson Nicky), whose husband has abandoned her so she has to work two jobs to make ends meet. She meets Ed, a millionaire who is also a bit down-on-his-luck (oh just some investment fraud charges and such) while cleaning his vacation home. Eventually Ed comes to their rescue (literally, as the family is sitting on the side of the road) and helps drive them to a math competition for young Tanzie, who is a maths expert. Along the way, a lot happens. You’d think the novel would be pat and predictable, but it’s really just… lovely. And one of the few books I’ve really loved that I actually think would make a good movie, provided I can approve all casting choices, of course.
  
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Doctor Sleep (2019)
2019 | Horror
Basically a new spin to vampirism (0 more)
The slow stabbing and cutting death of a screaming child, and going after other children was too much for me. (0 more)
Interesting spin
Contains spoilers, click to show
The movie takes place several decades after "The Shining", Danny is still haunted by the events from the hotel and is even hunted by the evil that was there. He has found a way to trap the "evil spirits". He makes use of his "shining" and it becomes a great story, however the main protagonist is a group of people that have the same special power as Danny and even more, but they've also learned how to suck the power from young children and this results in what I don't think needs to be in cinema. This world is evil enough as it is and to watch a child be cut and stabbed to death slowly while a group kneels over him inhaling his essence is revolting, I almost left the theater over it.
0/10 snore factor, cant sleep through this one!
  
Aladdin (1992)
Aladdin (1992)
1992 | Action, Animation, Comedy
Robin Williams (0 more)
Friend Like Me.
Aladdin- such a classic. I love this movie, its perfect. Why did their have to remake it, last year with Will Smith as the Genie. Why!!! Oh yea cause $$$. Anyways the songs so perect, you have.."Arabian Nights", "One Jump Ahead", "Friend Like Me", "Prince Ali"and "A Whole New World".

The plot: When street rat Aladdin frees a genie from a lamp, he finds his wishes granted. However, he soon finds that the evil has other plans for the lamp -- and for Princess Jasmine. But can Aladdin save Princess Jasmine and his love for her after she sees that he isn't quite what he appears to be?

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:

"Friend Like Me" – Nominated
"A Whole New World" – Nominated

Also you cant forgot about Robin Williams as the Genie. So excellent, so perfect, so funny, so hilarious, so amazing, so wonderful, such a great person.

A classic to all.