Saw my umpteenth chick flick (I was coerced, your honor). and it’s just amazing how they haven’t changed. They ALWAYS follow the same age-old formula: girl meets guy, they don’t like each other (either that or the girl hates the guy’s guts), girl finally figures out that hey this guy is cool after all (doink!), guy does something stupid (why is it always the guy? Girls do stupid things, too) that he didn’t mean (make it more endearing, no?), girl comes to a [slow] realization (double doink!), eventually they mend things, and on to the happy ending. Freakin’ boring. Should have just looked for DVDs of these movies. Heck, Rambo IV would have been more entertaining.
The first thing that I saw, as I checked the news this morning, was “Heath Ledger Dead”. I was like WTF! He’s such a promising actor. He shone in roles in movies like Brokeback Mountain, A Knight’s Tale, heck even Ten Things I Hate About You. And I heard he absolutely rocks as The Joker in Dark Knight. Now he’s gone. That’s that for his acting. That’s that for The Joker. Sucks.
Beowulf, as you all probably know, is an old English poem. And I do mean old. Unless you’ve been living under a rock… for centuries… then you probably would have heard of it. If you haven’t, suffice to say it is all those stories that you love to hear before bedtime rolled into one: kings, queens, warriors, monsters, and treasures.
But what can I say about the movie? “AWESOME!” would be a good start. Beowulf is already a great tale in itself. But the retelling by Neil Gaiman, Angelina Jolie, the great acting as usual by Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich, seeing it on the BIG screen, on IMAX, in 3D, and did I say Angelina Jolie? All these makes it even bigger and better.
Shell out those hard-earned bucks and watch it on IMAX. It’s worth it.
Rating: 6/5 (extra point for the extra dimension)
Set during World War II in Hong Kong and later Shanghai, Wang Jiazhi (Wei Tang) is a resistance agent tasked with seducing and then eliminating Mr. Yee, a high-level Japanese collaborator. Tony Leung as Mr. Yee is, as usual, impressive as the initially suspicious and impassive target.
The act of seduction, pulled off wonderfully by Wei Tang, unfolds slowly and subtly creating palpable sexual tension between the two. This gradually gains speed and culminates in intense physical contacts that illustrate the feelings that developed between them. This feelings clouds their judgments and eventually lead each to take actions they didn’t intend.
Definitely, a must watch.
Rating: 5/5