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Short reviews, part I: movie edition
The 777 we flew back from the UK had those touch-screens where you got to choose whatever movie you wanted to watch at whatever time you wanted to watch, unlike the previous version where you just picked what channel and they played the movie at scheduled times during the trip. I ended up watching three movies and a TV show during the flight back, as they'd turned the lights in the cabin off and turning my little spotlight on to read would have caused me to get even more overheated (they've gotten rid of the personal fan-things! Bad move! Arrgh!).
The Karate Kid - The recent reboot set in China about kung fu, which I had better feelings about once I learned that it was, indeed, released as The Kung Fu Kid in other parts of the world. It was about what I expected, being almost blow-for-blow like the first Karate Kid movie. Not enough Jackie Chan being awesome, and it took far too long establishing that Dre, the main character, was hating his new life in China before getting to the scene where MrMiyagi Han beat up his tormentors.
Interestingly, as the child characters were aged down to about 12, instead of 16 or so, Chan's fight scene with them had to be altered, too, because even though the attackers were portrayed as willing to deliver lethal blows, they were still kids and you just can't have kids being beat up by an adult and have the adult remain sympathetic in this kind of movie. Chan's characteristic humorous fighting style had to be toned down as well to fit with the movie, so his fight scene involved him tangling five attackers up in one jacket, and performing moves that forced the attackers to hit themselves or each other.
The ending wasn't as strong as the original, either - in the original, Mr Miyagi has a confrontation with the rival's sensei, which ends with him beeping the sensei's nose instead of delivering a final blow. There's no confrontation between Mr Han and the "No mercy!" kung fu sifu*, and instead (minor thematic spoiler) the sifu's students all bow to Mr Han, signifying lost respect for their sifu. Which could have been powerful if handled correctly, but instead just felt like the movie makers needed to show you Just How Awesome Mr Han was. This next bit's not a spoiler, because it was also in the original: it bothered me that the Traditional Healing Technique that Mr Han uses after Dre pleads with him to try it on his leg at the tournament was done using cupping (heating a glass bowl and placing it on the skin) ... and there was no indication of where they got the implements used for it. They certainly hadn't brought them to the tournament, and the office where Dre was lying down at the time didn't have any of them lying about as far as I could see.
Anyway, it was good for what it was: a way to pass the time on an airplane and take my mind off the fact that I was OMG 38,000 FEET STRAIGHT UP.
ETA: I forgot to mention the Obligatory Mystic Temple scene, which has to be in all movies referencing wuxia by contract. Interesting, but ... didn't really fit the rest of the movie.
* Do I have that term correct?
Blondie - Short documentary about the band, with recent interviews with Clem Burke, Debbie harry, and Chris Stein interspersed with footage of Blondie on stage at the Top of the Pops and a couple of other British TV shows. And it blew my mind when the narrator said "Now entering their fifth decade playing.." and I realized that yes, that was correct. Aaarrgh!
Robin Hood - The Russel Crowe reboot. Robin Hood crossed with The Return of Martin Guerre and a soupcon of random French invasion, lightly seasoned with the signing of the Magna Carta. It was more American than the Kevin Costner version, not due to accents, but due to spouting on about the rights of man and freedom and so on. The barons' attempt to force King John to sign the Magna Carta* rings hollow when you know that the historical barons weren't actually interested in the rights of every human, just themselves.
I watched it primarily because the guide we hired in Wales took us by a beach that they used for filming Robin Hood and the latest Harry Potter movie. If you've seen it, it's the Invasion of France scenes. The cliffs don't actually exist, but were composited in. And since I knew where the beach was, it was a little odd to be thinking "Why did France sail all the way round to Wales to invade?"
Of course it was still Worst Invasion Evar because I don't see why you'd want to invade a country using a beach that was backed up with giant cliffs perfect for the defenders to range on top of and shoot arrows down at you. Even if it was supposed to be a secret invasion.
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myrialux says that he heard the original concept was to have the Sheriff of Nottingham be the good guy, and Robin Hood the bad guy. That might have made a fascinating story. As it was, it was a standard fake-historical flick meant to be the first in a franchise, as it was How Robin Hood Became an Outlaw.
* I will spoil you right now by saying they don't manage to make him do it, because this was obviously supposed to be the beginning of a series and they needed a recurring villain to keep Robin Hood an outlaw.
The A-Team - Would have been better had I actually seen any of the original TV show.* And if I had been able to hear more than half the dialogue - between the noise of the jet engines and the background music and explosions it was damn hard to make out what the characters were saying. I'd never pictured Liam Neeson as a square-jawed Army Rangers colonel, but he managed to pull it off.
* And why was I under the impression that the original A-Team had a woman on it? Was there a recurring female character or something?
The Karate Kid - The recent reboot set in China about kung fu, which I had better feelings about once I learned that it was, indeed, released as The Kung Fu Kid in other parts of the world. It was about what I expected, being almost blow-for-blow like the first Karate Kid movie. Not enough Jackie Chan being awesome, and it took far too long establishing that Dre, the main character, was hating his new life in China before getting to the scene where Mr
Interestingly, as the child characters were aged down to about 12, instead of 16 or so, Chan's fight scene with them had to be altered, too, because even though the attackers were portrayed as willing to deliver lethal blows, they were still kids and you just can't have kids being beat up by an adult and have the adult remain sympathetic in this kind of movie. Chan's characteristic humorous fighting style had to be toned down as well to fit with the movie, so his fight scene involved him tangling five attackers up in one jacket, and performing moves that forced the attackers to hit themselves or each other.
The ending wasn't as strong as the original, either - in the original, Mr Miyagi has a confrontation with the rival's sensei, which ends with him beeping the sensei's nose instead of delivering a final blow. There's no confrontation between Mr Han and the "No mercy!" kung fu sifu*, and instead (minor thematic spoiler) the sifu's students all bow to Mr Han, signifying lost respect for their sifu. Which could have been powerful if handled correctly, but instead just felt like the movie makers needed to show you Just How Awesome Mr Han was. This next bit's not a spoiler, because it was also in the original: it bothered me that the Traditional Healing Technique that Mr Han uses after Dre pleads with him to try it on his leg at the tournament was done using cupping (heating a glass bowl and placing it on the skin) ... and there was no indication of where they got the implements used for it. They certainly hadn't brought them to the tournament, and the office where Dre was lying down at the time didn't have any of them lying about as far as I could see.
Anyway, it was good for what it was: a way to pass the time on an airplane and take my mind off the fact that I was OMG 38,000 FEET STRAIGHT UP.
ETA: I forgot to mention the Obligatory Mystic Temple scene, which has to be in all movies referencing wuxia by contract. Interesting, but ... didn't really fit the rest of the movie.
* Do I have that term correct?
Blondie - Short documentary about the band, with recent interviews with Clem Burke, Debbie harry, and Chris Stein interspersed with footage of Blondie on stage at the Top of the Pops and a couple of other British TV shows. And it blew my mind when the narrator said "Now entering their fifth decade playing.." and I realized that yes, that was correct. Aaarrgh!
Robin Hood - The Russel Crowe reboot. Robin Hood crossed with The Return of Martin Guerre and a soupcon of random French invasion, lightly seasoned with the signing of the Magna Carta. It was more American than the Kevin Costner version, not due to accents, but due to spouting on about the rights of man and freedom and so on. The barons' attempt to force King John to sign the Magna Carta* rings hollow when you know that the historical barons weren't actually interested in the rights of every human, just themselves.
I watched it primarily because the guide we hired in Wales took us by a beach that they used for filming Robin Hood and the latest Harry Potter movie. If you've seen it, it's the Invasion of France scenes. The cliffs don't actually exist, but were composited in. And since I knew where the beach was, it was a little odd to be thinking "Why did France sail all the way round to Wales to invade?"
Of course it was still Worst Invasion Evar because I don't see why you'd want to invade a country using a beach that was backed up with giant cliffs perfect for the defenders to range on top of and shoot arrows down at you. Even if it was supposed to be a secret invasion.
myrialux says that he heard the original concept was to have the Sheriff of Nottingham be the good guy, and Robin Hood the bad guy. That might have made a fascinating story. As it was, it was a standard fake-historical flick meant to be the first in a franchise, as it was How Robin Hood Became an Outlaw.* I will spoil you right now by saying they don't manage to make him do it, because this was obviously supposed to be the beginning of a series and they needed a recurring villain to keep Robin Hood an outlaw.
The A-Team - Would have been better had I actually seen any of the original TV show.* And if I had been able to hear more than half the dialogue - between the noise of the jet engines and the background music and explosions it was damn hard to make out what the characters were saying. I'd never pictured Liam Neeson as a square-jawed Army Rangers colonel, but he managed to pull it off.
* And why was I under the impression that the original A-Team had a woman on it? Was there a recurring female character or something?
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Omg the cups! That continuity issue drove me nuts.
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The doctrine of indirect approach? No? Then I got nothin'.
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That almost kinda makes sense, if you ignore the fact that the French would have been highly unlikely to keep the invasion a secret, and the English could have easily gotten an army to the landing site ahead of them (the medieval French navy was generally poor). The cliffs, though...
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Perhaps the cliffs hadn't been composited in when they did their original recon...
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Perhaps the cliffs hadn't been composited in when they did their original recon...
Heh. "Look, as long as you're editing things, how about giving us a few CGI trebuchets?"
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(OTOH, maybe I'll just stick with my mental AU, which apparently had a kick-ass woman on the team. XD)
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Why yes I watched a lot of A-Team as a kid and teen. I also hated the new film and didn't make it past 30 minutes. Liam Neilsen made a great Hannibal but the rest of it... just no.
Now I'm left wodnering why i don't have an A-Team or HM. Murdock icon.
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http://intrawebnet.com/mr_t/images/a_team_1.jpg
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I might have turned it off if I'd had any other option, but being in a plane will do that to you. XD
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They kept trying to introduce a regular female character in The A-Team, but rumor was that at least two of the male leads (no gold stars for guessing which two) kept having "conflicts of personality" with the actresses who were brought in. So the actress would be fired, the next brought in for a guest stint to test the waters, the same thing would happen, lather, rinse, repeat. It might have occurred to someone involved that the actresses weren't the problem, but the actresses also weren't the regulars with on-set clout.
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And that doesn't surprise me one bit. XD
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How 'Nottingham' Became 'Robin Hood' (http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/05/17/how-nottingham-became-robin-hood/)
How Robin Hood Nearly Destroyed the Russell-Ridley Relationship (http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/05/robin_hood_script_russell_crow.html)
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