Theater

I don’t really think great of Steve Martin when I saw The Pink Panther, around 2005. During that time I only thought of him as a talented actor (I even thought he is French. Pardon me). Things changed after I have known he’s also the writer of The Pink Panther on a paper. Then this year, I found The 75^th Oscar show record and was surprisingly to see his brilliant hosting. So gradually, I respect him more and more. There’s no need to see more reasons to watch this one after all these.

This time, the story involves more people. I’m glad to see Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer still in it and happy to see Andy Garcia and Alfred Molina joined as well. All this brilliant actors getting together is already exciting enough for a comedy mostly based on acting. The flaw is the chemistry between these stars hasn’t been quite worked out, unfortunately. Steve Martin always knows how to keep audience bored less. Most of the time, watching him is already enough for you to laugh on the floor. Meanwhile, the story is acceptable, considering this is a comedy except the rash ending.

On the other hand, I’m satisfied with the short animation inside. I still remember how the first one got me all interested. Such drawing animations are the best thing in Europe. You cannot get these good ones in any other place in the world, even though the movie was made by Hollywood.

Anyway, this is a good one for entertaining. Acceptable-with-some-rash-details story, brilliant-but-less-in-chemistry acting, suitable picture and music. Not bad in such hot days. (7/10).

There’re thousands of movies come out of Hollywood each year. Most of them could make profit regardless of the budget. Some of them, however, practically have made profit but really is a waste of money.

Fairy tale, what a beautiful name, really gets you wonder once you heard of it and didn’t even know what it is. That’s why some movies use it as a line to public, just trying to get people buying the ticket and don’t care about the rest.

Unfortunately, this one did what I mentioned. Nice idea, but it turns out to be a tedious, flat story. The pace didn’t go high at all during the whole time. I know some people would say that fairy tale doesn’t need that. But this is a MOVIE. Writing some movie into a book and saying: I cannot make the book good because it’s not belong to it, is really nonsense. If you cannot make one right, just don’t make them. Making some high-budget thing as an excuse to convince people to buy something else. What a cheap shot. That’s why I don’t think the first movie of Harry Potter is a big success, from a movie point of view. And this one is much worse. Confused twists bonding together made me don’t know what they are trying to say. Some parts are quite rough and ridiculous. I’ve already got bored at home with eating cookies, drinking tea and surfing the internet. I wonder how people get through it in the theater.

One the other hand, the acting part is much better. I was surprised to see Helen Mirren is in it and has delivered a great piece of work. All of the funny things are coming from her, ironically enough. Plus, the VFX is acceptable, considering the whole budget.

I’m truly not a book person. So if anyone wants to argue with me about this one with the book, just give it a rest. Judging something in certain area, the best first thing to do is making it in this area. Tiresome plot, steady and medium pace, good picture, tolerable performance is what it is. Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps one day I watch it again then change my mind. But not today. By the way, this one didn’t get its budget back. (6/10)

Most people doubt whether Michael Bay could have done it again after the huge success of the first one, as with any other “next”. I also couldn’t be the exception. For some reasons, I couldn’t have seen it in the first time. Then I have some faith after the comments came out. Anyway, I still went to see it on the first day.

It took me a while to really think about the movie itself because during the whole time, I was stunned by the indescribable CGI. All the transforming, action, explosion, compositing and animation are beyond the most. It’ll definitely be the TOP for a while. I actually went to see it twice. Found some flaws of compositing in the end though. But that won’t stop from screaming when the transformers show up.

Meanwhile, the pace was kept perfect during the whole time. I was starring at the screen so hard, especially the first half. Before this, I deemed Michael Bay is just a well- educated money-spender. But from this one, he is really a master, using 2000 million dollars to build this highly-enjoyable masterpiece.Bravo! Splendid shot with vigorous music, plus hilarious line. Nothing could make us more excited.

Actors are satisfying as well. Shia LaBeouf plays brilliantly in such a high-budget-normally-don’t-care-about-actors movie.

Any more words are waste. To really appreciate this one, all you have to do is going to theater and watch. Don’t care about the plot too much. (9/10)

We always get movies like this in Christmas to satisfy our holiday needs. They may never get any awards, or really good reputation. But they surely can make we feel better by laughs or even tears.

Disney always is the master of this domain. Grabbing the most dollars in Christmas while being loved the most. Can you find a better one doing this for the children than Disney? So as we see, this year Disney came with bunch of bedtime stories which is one of children’s favorites.

However, this one’s pace is almost terrible. It’s like jumping one to another without any clues, or preparations. I felt like there’re hundreds of people working on this movie, and none of them even talks to the others. Story is not tolerable. I know people in Christmas want to relax and not thinking about the real life for a second. But it doesn’t mean the story could be dull and mindless.

The only thing worse than the bizarre plot is Adam Sandler’s incompatible performance. I know he is a brilliant actor and I don’t hate him, but his weak voice and tiresome acting style is really not fitting. All his trying is making things worse. Others deliver an 80 point job.

CGI and compositing is appropriate and acceptable. Since these movies usually don’t have such problems, I’m not going to say more. Scene and costume design are credible. For the art side, they’ve surely done well.

Rather than laughing, I was just smiling while watching it even though I know all they were trying to do is making us laugh. Suddenly I realize I could no longer enjoy those things. They may still be dreaming and enjoyable for some people, and yet I’m just realistic now. Or even more simply, I was alone.

Plain and thoughtless story, inappropriate leading performance, great art work, makes this one not that successful in the past Christmas. But it’s still good for families because of several enjoyable moments. Also, families often don’t care about the movie itself. Hanging together is already enough. (6/10)

PS:It’s so exciting to see Courteney Cox (Monica). I haven’t seen her since Friends.

There’re actually not many reasons to watch this one except the stars. But I guess for plenty of people, that’s enough. Just give me a second to count them down: Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly (2 of my favorites), Scarlett Johansson, Ginnifer Goodwin ,Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck, Justin Long…Some people are already flying for those.

Although the story is constituted by several ones from different women, they share the same topic: LOVE. In the plot, girls get the wrong idea all the time. Sometimes guys do something just for fun and yet somehow they think you’re totally into them. But I don’t think that’s specific to girls. Remember in Friends, Chandler tells Monica when a guy flirting with a girl, the girl would just think that’s fun. But when a girl flirting with a guy, the guy would be thinking: finally, someone would sleep with me. It’s pathetic but it’s true.

Some points in it are quite interesting, especially what Alex tips Gigi. But do we really like what he says? If a guy likes a girl, he will do everything to make it happen. Well, usually, we do. But there’re exceptions. As far as I know, they’re definitely not exceptional, particularly when we were young. Then as we grow, we become more active and sophisticated.

And now you have to go around, checking all these different portals just to get rejected by 7 different technologies. It’s exhausting.

It’s hilarious but it’s true. What modern technology really gives us about love which hasn’t changed during the past centuries, comparing to technologies?

Besides having those wonderful stars, the performance is satisfying, especially Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly , Ginnifer Goodwin. Aniston was like before, acting from her heart. I guess happy-but-end-with-divorce marriage did make her grow. She may never get an Oscar, but she could be touching.

To be fair, this one barely has a pace. You just follow the line. However, I’m surprise to see I didn’t get bored at all. Guess it’s the words themselves touching and agreeable. Nice writing but with a controversial ending. Plus the wonderful crew, enjoyable performance, good music. This is a nice piece of love. You’ll at least agree with me a bit. (7/10)