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1/14/2007

Double Dip

It's been a while since I last watched two movies back to back at a theater. Woohoo!

The Curse of the Golden Flower: Put it this way, Zhang Yimou's best movies were made at least 7 years ago. Great cinematography, great film-making, decent soundtrack, decent acting, piss poor story and theme. In fact, I have trouble understanding what the point of the movie is. (Spoiler alert... although maybe I can spoil it for you so you won't have to see it yourself... back to the spoiler) I gave some thought about this. Seriously. Maybe it's about you should be near your family and take care of them. Maybe it's about not re-marrying. Maybe it's about paying attention to every family member. Maybe it's about not having your husband work for your ex-husband. Maybe it's about not killing your brother. Maybe it's about not sleeping with your step-mom. Maybe it's about not listening to some crazy chick. Maybe it's about just killing the crazy chick rather than poisoning her (You're the emperor, man, just kill her!). Actually, I think this is the point: listen to your step-mom whom you are sleeping with and don't sleep with your half-sister. That must be it.

Here's to hoping that Zhang Yimou goes back to small money productions that actually impact lives of people. Yeah, like that's going to happen... sigh.

Casino Royale: rarely can I say that a 007 movie is believable. But hey, I just watched a movie where an emperor in the Tang dynasty had only three heirs. This is the TANG DYNASTY. Each emperor should have at least 20 offspring. Anyway, 007 was more "believable." I don't understand how people like this 007 more. It's okay at best. The dialogue is better, but the action is less. My biggest beef, however, is how 007 gets all cheesy and, ultimately, deceived again and again. This 007 is not a cool dude though, being deceived again and again. Oh, actually, I have an even bigger beef: where the hell is Q!? How can you have a 007 movie without Q??????

Oh, so the bad guy in the movie takes money from even badder guys. His mission in the movie is to make "risk-free" investment that has high returns. (He obviously needs an MBA... or some common sense) So he short sells a plane manufacturer stock, which will fall sharply after he bombs its prototype airplane. Hardly risk-free, I'd say. Anyway, how is this "bad guy" differnet from Martha Stewart? And why are we sending 007 to deal with Martha Stewart?

4 comments:

shmoo said...

Hey, you said yesterday you liked Dr. No, and there's no Q in that one either.

Josekin said...

Shmoo, that was the first one. They hadn't thought of Q yet, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Once you have Q, you always have to have Q. It'll be like... oh, I don't know... Spiderman without the gossip magazine editor. He's not essential, but the show just needs him around.

shmoo said...

It was the first film, but many of the novels had already been published. Dr. No was actually the sixth book. Casino Royale, coincidentally, was the first.

shmoo said...

Oops, I made a mistake. Major Boothroyd is in Dr. No, but played by a different actor. Oops.

Apparently the only other film without a Q was Live and Let Die.