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The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
2008 | Action
7
7.4 (9 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Jackie Chan (3 more)
Fun fight scenes
Beautiful scenery
Good cast
Plot was predictable (1 more)
Slow parts
Is this the best Jackie Chan movie?
First off I just want to say this was a blu ray I again paid just £1 for and it is definatly worth it. As far as Jackie Chan movies go it is 1 of the lesser known in my opinion. I had never heard of this movie, it was pure luck I came across it and I'm glad I did.

It is probably not in the top 5 of the best Jackie Chan movies but it is still great. Not sure if it is just me but in some ways it reminded me of the sorcerer's apprentice, it had that tone.

The fight scenes were well choreographed. Jackie Chan and jet li do what they do best and the acting was good. Obviously with this kind of movie you have to ignore all ideas of believability (learning Kung Fu should not be that quick) and just have a good time with it.

The plot was predictable, especially the ending but getting there was fun. The legend of the monkey king was interesting. That part kinda reminded me of avatar the last airbender and the monkey king did annoy me at times but that was the character. He was meant to have some monkey characteristics.

If you like Jackie Chan, jet li, martial arts mixed with fantasy then you will enjoy it. I feel it is a movie I can watch again.
  
Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
2016 | Animation
9
7.4 (20 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The new Dreamworks Animation release Kung Fu Panda 3 has several big name actors voicing the characters. Among them are Jack Black as Po, Angelina Jolie as Tigress, Kate Hudson as Mei Mei, Bryan Cranston as Li, Dustin Hoffman as Shifu, Jackie Chan as Monkey,

Seth Rogan as Mantis and Lucy Liu as Viper.

Po discovers a long-lost relative who travels with him to a secret enclave of Panda relatives. Meanwhile, the trapped super-villain Kai escapes, and begins to defeat all the king-fu masters across the land.
Po must gather his new-found relatives and his long-time friends, and tries to train them to work together to defeat Kai.
What results is a heartwarming tale of friends & family working together to beat the odds, and of discovering that your strengths and abilities can be used in situations that might seem otherwise hopeless. It shows you that no matter what your capabilities are as an individual, working together can achieve great things.
The music throughout the film was engaging, and the graphics and animation were superb. This is one movie that is released in 3-D that is actually worth seeing in 3-D!
I had the 3 kids with me and they all loved it. The youngest, a girl, is 6, and her comment was ‘That movie was AWESOME!’, and her favorite part was ‘all the cool fighting scenes’
The oldest, a 9 year old boy, said ‘it was a GREAT movie!’, and his favorite part was when Po discovered his dad again.
The middle child, 7, a boy says ‘I thought it was so great that I wanted to cry’, and his favorite part was the baby pandas doing their tricks to help defeat Kai.
From an adult perspective I thought it was a great family film, with a message of acceptance and working together despite our differences in order to accomplish a common goal. I loved how Po’s adopted father and natural father worked together and got along and that they all ended up as ‘family’, without sides being chosen. I felt that was a really great message in this day & age.
I would give this movie a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars, and recommend it for any family looking for a fun activity to head out to on the weekend.
  
The Poppy War (The Poppy War #1)
The Poppy War (The Poppy War #1)
R.F. Kuang | 2018 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
9.3 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
A fantasy novel that hits close to home
The beauty of this novel is in the way it tonally shifts from one arena to another, leaving you never quite sure where you are and certainly rendering the tale very unpredictable. If there are fantasy tropes here, it's no matter - you won't see them coming nor where they'll crop up.

The opening chapters seem inspired by wuxia novels and the tale of Yim Wing Chun - kung fu practitioners will note a number of references here to their origin tales, as well as some beautiful descriptions of the biomechanics of the art - mixed with Hogwarts. We have the neglected orphan who works hard to achieve her school place and study the fields of combat, lore, medicine and so on. There is an unusual teacher occupying the position of wise sage and there's the handsome rival. So far, so comforting. One can enjoy this fairly cosy ride.

But then there is a distinct undercurrent. It creeps up on you, darker and more earthy than the tone suggests. Just as the students spend their days training for a war that'll never come, we read this schoolyard tale as if the latter half of the book won't come.

It hits with a bombshell, and they just keep coming. Now fiction isn't fiction at all. History is woven through the narrative. We can see the major players and we know how it ends. And yet the deftly woven plot, excellent prose and gripping characters keep us on the edge of our seats.

A phenomenal debut and the start of a thrilling trilogy.
  
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Bai Ling recommended Red Corner (1997) in Movies (curated)

 
Red Corner (1997)
Red Corner (1997)
1997 | Action, Drama, Mystery
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I’d like to pick Red Corner, because Bai Ling’s in it. [Laughs] Actually, I choose it because out of all the movies that have Asian leading characters, it’s the first to have the most feminine — the most brilliant, modern, intelligent, female character ever in a Hollywood film that portrayed Asian characters. In all other films, it’s a mystery, romance, or kung fu; but here, I played a lawyer, a contemporary woman. And she has a romance with this sex symbol — Richard Gere. That combination is really rare on the silver screen, in Hollywood. I play a lawyer and I fall in love; I’m under a Communist government and helping a foreign man. There’s also a lot of unspoken love underneath. I would sacrifice my life for him. She gives on many, many levels; she’s not only tough and sexy, but there’s intelligence behind it, and a total giving of unconditional love for this man for whom she would die and do anything for. There’s a beauty to her giving up everything for a man whom she’s helping while she’s under danger and pressure from the government — choosing between a country’s love, and being in danger of being destroyed and never seeing this lover that she would do anything for. It’s extremely beautiful and romantic to my heart and my soul, and I have a fantastic and beautiful relationship with my co-star, Richard Gere. So that’s one of my favorite movies forever, because I’m so close to it. These two [characters] are giving their lives to each other, and that love must remain hidden on the surface of the court system; the modern world is harsh. I like that under the harshness there’s a romance, and that romance is so free and so true."

Source
  
Black Dynamite (2009)
Black Dynamite (2009)
2009 | Action, Comedy
9
5.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
One of the most absurd, ridiculous, awesome, and hilarious action comedies ever. Highly recommended for kung fu, blaxploitation, and comedy fans. (0 more)
After his brother is killed, Black Dynamite decides to take matters into his own hands. Just who is Black Dynamite? He's an action legend, a one-man army, and anyone who gets on his bad side is going to wind up dead. Other than struggling with trying to figure out who's responsible for his brother's death, Black Dynamite also has other matters to attend to. There's that new smack being distributed on the street that's even somehow reaching the orphans at the local orphanage and there's something screwy about that Anaconda malt liquor that just doesn't sit well with him. Black Dynamite will do whatever it takes to find out who killed his brother and clean up the streets even if it means going all the way to the Honky House.

Black Dynamite has quite a reputation as just about every article or review that mentioned the film gave it high praise. Is it possible for a film to be incredible while paying homage to the films that inspired it? Sure it is. Directors like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez make a living doing just that. With Black Dynamite, however, you may not know what to expect. Expect it to parody the blaxploitation films from the 70s, pay homage to classic kung fu films, have ridiculous dialogue, a storyline that hilariously doesn't make sense, and have a funky soundtrack with lyrics that are just as awesome as the rest of the film.

Michael Jai White is really the selling point of the film since he is Black Dynamite and you're with him the entire film. I hadn't seen much of White's work before this, but I'm definitely wanting to see more now. His fight scenes are top notch and from what I could tell, it looked like he did the majority of his own stunts. The word I've been hearing is that he's a fairly impressive actor overall, but has just never really picked the right roles and never really broke into the mainstream. Maybe after playing Gambol in The Dark Knight helped him out a bit because he definitely has a bright future as not only an action star, but an actor as well. Other than his superb martial arts work, White's comedic timing is also really important in a film like this and it really pays off. There's a scene where a boom mic is noticeably in the shot while Black Dynamite is giving a big speech. He draws attention to it by repeatedly glaring at the mic throughout the scene, but doesn't miss a beat of the dialogue. Ridiculous scenes like that were crucial in the overall enjoyment factor of the film.

The dialogue is laugh out loud funny at times. There's a scene where the CIA show up at Black Dynamite's house and Agent O'Leary says to Black Dynamite, "We heard about your brother's death and we don't want you running around turning the streets into rivers of blood." Black Dynamite responds with, "Then tell me who did it and I'll just leave a puddle." The storyline is just as absurd, as well. Other than the film missing scenes that were shown in the trailer and things not fully being resolved with Vincent "The Don" Rafelli, the scene where Black Dynamite and his crew figure out what Anaconda malt liquor's true purpose is is both hilariously long-winded and confusing.

Black Dynamite may not be for everyone, but it will be hilariously awesome for most who actually get to see it. The film somehow manages to blend comedy as absurd and ridiculous as films like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy or Zoolander and have hard hitting action scenes that are noticeably a tribute to classic Bruce Lee films. This blaxploitation parody comes highly recommended, can you dig it?
  
The World's End (2013)
The World's End (2013)
2013 | Comedy, Sci-Fi
9
7.4 (27 Ratings)
Movie Rating
This summer’s movie lineup has been crammed full of sophisticated robots, vampires and even a recently passed billionaire genius. And then you have The World’s End (“TWE”), which might simply be the best and most creative of the bunch. Having a much smaller budget than these bigger movies, and being set in England, Edgar Wright shows that it’s not all about money and tropics in this hilarious romp.

 

I cannot honestly think of a better way to wrap up the Cornetto Trilogy then the story told in TWE. For those that don’t know there’s a joke behind the Cornetto name, in that a report brought up that a Cornetto ice cream wrapper was featured in each of the first two movies. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz make up the first two movies, and TWE rounds out what eventually became the Cornetto Trilogy. Ice cream Easter egg aside, all the films in the trilogy share the same cast and crew. They star Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, written by Pegg and Wright, and directed by Wright. The films are chock full of inside jokes that go back as far as this incredible groups humble beginnings with the TV show Spaced. Beyond these connections, though, each films stands on its own as a unique story.

 

While Shaun of the Dead was the group’s take on zombie films, and Hot Fuzz visited the buddy cop genre, TWE is a comedic riff on films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. If you have somehow made it this far without having the full plot spoiled for you, do try and keep it that way. The key things you need to know is that there are robots, creepy “YOLO” kids, and the story centers on Gary King, a man who never quite grew up.

 

Gary (Pegg) is a disaster of an adult male. He’s wild, rambunctious, trying to constantly relive his youth, and irresponsible to boot. This demeanor has not done any good for him as an adult on the far side of 40, but he’s delusional and is not aware that he has not succeeded in life. This actually adds to his charm.

 

Gary gets a bug up his you know what, and wants to relive one of his last greatest days of his youth. A day when he and his four best friends decided to celebrate finishing school by tackling the town-famous golden mile. Newton Haven has 12 pubs spread along a mile path that Gary manages to convince his friends Steven (Paddy Considine), Oliver (Martin Freeman), Peter (Eddie Marsan) and former best friend Andrew (Frost) to attempt again just like they did all those years ago. The pub crawl concludes at the film’s namesake: The World’s End.

 

As the evening goes on, and the beers start going down, the five begin to discover that something is off. Between rounds and pubs, the group starts to discuss whether or not the town has changed, or they have. This leads to a fight with the creepy “YOLO” kids that is reminiscent of Chinese Kung Fu movies the likes of Jackie Chan would be found in. As the mates progress from pub to pub, more and more of the mystery of Newton Haven begins to unravel.

 

The film starts in a deceiving way and hides its true nature underneath a veil of middle-aged men trying to reconcile their present with their past. Gary very much represents the past as he still dresses the way he did when he was 18, still drives the same car, complete with the same cassette tape of music given to him more than 20 years ago by Steven. Gary is a loser, but thinks he is the hero of every story, which causes a love/hate relationship with the group of friends. Then it all changes! Wright and company manage to do a complete 180 and combine a very believable mid-life crisis film with a robot invasion. And it works!

 

Pegg absolutely nails the role of Gary, from his movements to his banter with the others in the film. There is an air of desperation hidden under his free spirit persona. But surprisingly, it is Frost that steals the movie this time around. Andrew is the most well-rounded character he has portrayed, even through his transformation from a stiff professional into the atomic elbow dropping fighter he needs to become.

 

As I mentioned earlier, the fight scenes are very reminiscent Chinese Kung Fu movies. The choreography is amazing and the actors have no problem keeping up with the action and bringing the air of humor that the Kung Fu films bring as well. It is impressive watching Frost, a small man by no means, nimbly dispatch several foes. Meanwhile, Pegg is constantly thwarted by enemies as he unsuccessfully attempt to enjoy a pint. For a film billed as comedy, the few fight scenes are among the best of the summer.

 

As good and Pegg and Frost are though, it all comes back to the man behind the camera… Wright. He has a style that is distinctive and unique. He has shown his range over the years with shows like Spaced and films like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. And his attention to detail is bar-none. Nothing is included in a shot if it doesn’t have some sort of meaning. Wright is a master film maker in his own right.

 

TWE is steeped in originality and creativity, which is sorely lacking in many films that are released these days. Wright is a master of deconstructing a genre film to honor it and make fun of it at the same time. Pegg and Frost have an uncanny knack for translating Wright’s visions to the silver screen. The World’s End is another example of their shining chemistry, and also one of the best films of the summer.
  
Sherlock Gnomes (2018)
Sherlock Gnomes (2018)
2018 | Animation, Comedy
The original "Gnomeo & Juliet" movie was a sweet spin on the Shakespeare
inspired story of Romeo and Juliet, but with two clans of gnomes at war
with the main destruction being to each other's gardens. Two star-crossed
lovers, Gnomeo & Juliet fall in love and after all the chaos, hate, and
near death experiences, both "gnomes houses" seek a truce and learn to
co-exist.



In the sequel, the gnomes move to London. Juliet (Emily Blunt) is so
preoccupied with rebuilding the garden, she fails to notice Gnomeo's (James
MacAvoy) needs and feelings. In other parts of London, Sherlock Gnomes
(Johnny Depp) and his faithful companion Watson (Chiwetel Eljiofor) are
investigating the disappearance of several gnomes throughout London. One
day, Gnomeo attempts at a romantic gesture goes awry when he tries to steal
an orchid for Juliet from a flower shop. Juliet ends up saving Gnomeo,
causing them to bicker and squabble and not realize all their gnome friends
and family were kidnapped. One thing leads to another and they find
themselves teaming up with Sherlock and Watson to track down all the clues
in hopes of saving their loved ones.



From the director who brought us "Kung Fu Panda," this was a major misstep
for John Stevenson. The movie was fast paced, but the story line was very
disjointed. I understand what angle they were attempting to hit here:
Don't take your loved ones for granted, but I just could not connect with
the characters. In the first film, they really focused on the
relationships between Gnomeo and his mother, Juliet and her father, and both
 Gnomeo and Juliet. Those relationships were lost in this film. From the
adult perspective, the movie lacked depth, but was still entertaining.
However, the kiddos on hand loved it. They enjoyed all the high flying
suspenseful moments, the potty humor, and over the top one liners.