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Archive for the 'Movie Reviews' Category

The Last Dragon. Kiss my Converse!

Hello! It’s been forever since I posted, but here we are. If this were a regular blog, I’d attempt to ply you with stories and grievances that explain my absence. I would regale you with my adventures with frost giants, Wills-o’th’wisp, and other good people. What does it matter, though? Let’s get to the meat of it!

Let’s look at a movie I recently watched for the first time. It seems like everyone else I know has already seen Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon, but it was new to me. Here, you’ll get the pristine reactions of my first viewing, fresh as the plastic film in one of Garret’s unboxing videos. Read more…

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You’re goddamned right it’s Ip Man!

Well, it’s been over a month.  I guess I should update.

Let’s talk about a wicked kung fu movie, shall we?  I’ve done a few reviews here that feature the legendary Wong Fei Hung, but it’s time for a slightly more recent bad ass to take the stage.  This post’s movie is Ip Man, a biopic about Yip Man (just an alternate Anglicization), the great 20th century Wing Chun master.  There is honor.  There is sadness.  It’s kung fu during World War II.  What more could you want? Read more…

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The 36th Chamber of Shaolin! How could we forget it?

Hey, all. I really need to update here more than once every five weeks. But enough chatter! It’s time for kung fu!

No list of great kung fu movies is complete without The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Seriously, right on the front of the DVD box, you can see a quote from the New York Times referring to it as, “the greatest kung fu flick of all time.” If you haven’t seen it yet, please just go rent it or something. Hell, call me, and I’ll lend you my copy. If it helps, the star of this movie also played Pai Mei and the leader of the Crazy 88s in the Kill Bill movies. Read more…

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The Chinese Connection! Whose kung fu is strongest?

Hey! I promised it a while back, and now I’m delivering. A kung fu movie!

The Chinese Connection was Bruce Lee’s second really big film. It took a story that has been told at least a couple of times in Chinese cinema and gave it a great 70s aesthetic. My favorite line of the movie is when a Japanese man wags his finger in Lee’s face and boasts, “So! You must be tired of living!” Read more…

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War, Inc. Let’s make some money!

Hello, reader.  I have a special message, but it’ll be at the end of this review because I don’t want to bury my lead too much.

War!  What’s it good for?  Makin’ money, y’all!  At least, that’s the moral of the 2008 film War, Inc, starring John Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hillary Duff, and many other folks worth watching.  Set in the fictional (wink!) country of Turaqistan, War, Inc. follows the trials and tribulations of a US government hitman as he attempts to kill the new Turaqi president and pretends to rebuild the country even as American tanks cruise the streets. Read more…

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