Of upset fathers, renaming movies, and short people as heros..

[Lycia]

I took in three movies so far this weekend.



First up was the Infinitfilm vers of John Q.

Denzel Washington plays John Q. Archibald a down on his luck father of a 10-12 year old. John's Wife's car gets repo'd, John is dwn to 20 hours at work, they've got bills and a big house and a new truck...While watching his son play baseball (which is odd-will explain later...), John Q. watches as the son runs around second then colapses on the ground. At the hospital the family learn that with out a heart transplant, son will die..soon. After going through Ins, and other ways of getting money and still getting denied, John Q. takes law into his own hands...

I really haven't given away anything you probably don't know. Standard movie fare.

What I liked:

Denzel. He's still a great actor. Going from tuff guy and fit in Training Day to growing bear belly machine factory worker is pretty eye catching...

Eddie Griffin. He's got some funny lines...

uhm...while there isn't much in this section, I did like the movie over all.


What I hated:

The dialog. The only recent movie I know of that had a young kid act like a kid was The Mummy Returns. Directors, Take note, That is how you write a kid. This kid's acting is so poor I still can't remember his name as an actor nor the character. One scene, after the car is repo'd, John is dropping son off at school. Son stops and says "I have $45. You can have it, dad. We are a family, Families stick together." So this isn't a direct quote, but the actual lines were stiff and obviously nothing a child would say.. Since when do children speak in perfect English Grammer? Hell, when do Americans as a country speak the proper king's english????


The story. It's pat. YOU KNOW the end. Even when they did a twist, you know the outcome. Even my girl, who has english as a second language and is constantly asking me to explain why and what is said in movies, was calling out the outcome of several scenes before they happened!!


*About the baseball. I find it confusing that he's playing baseball. The kid is supposed to have a serious passion for some body building dude, going so far as to make reference to him about 5 separate times in the movie...So he gets sick playing baseball...? usually when a director shows something like that and repeats it, it ties in. Example, Black Rain with Michael Douglas. We see him early in the movie racing a motorcycle on the street. WE KNOW he can ride a bike now. So we KNOW he's going to be riding said bike later in the movie...It's called a set-up. Except, not here...sigh.


Over all, I thought about what I would do faced with a similar situation. It's frightening what I think I am capable of in regards to my son...

Don't buy the movie, rent it.


Jet Li's The Contract Killer.

I hate the movie industry sometimes. They did it to Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury and The Big Boss. Originally FoF was The Big Boss and Chinese Connection was Fist of Fury. Also, Way of the Dragon was renamed to Return.. Argh.

Anyway, The Contract Killer is actually The Hitman, a movei who's cover portrayed it as almost a comedy. There are some funny scenes, some of which my gf again caught me by surprise in that she understood what was happening and being said..The cover has Li, and three others, in black suits. One, his so called agent holds a banna instead of a gun, a girl, the agent's daughter has sunglasses and a bemused look, and the fourth, has a gun to his head. The movie is pretty funny in parts...with most the funny coming from the overweight agent. Anyway, this cover just has Li in black with a gun...which is confusing since the actually killer in the beginning and at the end is the one wearing the suit...looks like they cut and pasted Li's head!!??!!

Ok, The movie opens with the death of a old japanese man who tells his masked killer that if he, the old man, should die, then there will be a congtract on the killer's head worht 100 million dollors. Killer kills the old man.

Li plays a country boy who was in the army, in the big city and poor. Looking for work, he lives in a small apt with several men whoo are apparetnly b-grade hitmen. They leanr about the 100 million and Li wants in. Told no, he some how ends up at the meeting of the contract killers and is denied entrance. They try to rough up Li who kicks the crap out of them and earns the respect of the agent guy. He gets in and takes the contract then proceeds to give Li money and clothes while trying to find out who the killer is.


What I like:

Funny thing, I still can't figure out how they found out who the killer is. But story is not why I like these movies...Jet Li kicking arse is the main reason. And he is in good form here...looking young and fit the last scene is ballet. Li fights three people at once, while trying to protect his agent and a detective.

Jet Li. He rules. I don't think there is an actor out that can match him for arse whuppin.

The Agent. This guy cracked me up Great lines int he dubbed vers.. Which by the way is the only way you can watch it in the Contract Killer vers. The original, The Hitman, had Mandarin, Cantonese, and English tracks..)

The Daugher Kiki. What a cute girl. Yum. She's got a good scene with Jet. He's at the agent's house and is sleeping in Kiki's old room, she's moving in with her fiancee. Kiki walks into her room and on Jet. She picks up her teddy if he moved anything. Jet responds no. Kiki says he better not becuase teddy tells her things. Jet deadpans "Well, she saw me naked!" Kiki's giggle was cute.

The last fight scene is pretty damn good, with the Agent giving some funny scenes and fighting techniques against a killer geisha.

What I hated:

Uhm....don't remember much of the dialog to hate it.

I hate the americans who think we're stupid and cannot follow hong kong movies. Jet's Black Mask got the treatment a few years ago turning it into a confusing mess. Thankfully I got hte original HK vers. And of this as well.

Also, while I don't mind rap/Hip Hop, I am getting sick of hearing and seeing these movies chopped up and with new sundtracks featuring rap/hip hop songs.


If you can't find the original cut of The Hitman, get The Contract Killer. Otherwise, GO GET THE HITMAN. good Jet Li Movie.

Finally, I bought the two disc The Lord of the Rings. Everyone knows this movie. I liked it. I will buuy the Four disc set in Nov.

I am not going to talk about the story. I will say the transfer was pretty good. Although there were some artifacing...the scene where they were showing the orcs cutting down trees and the rift in the earth where they were making weapons, the fly down showed black and red artifacing. This could be my older Sony DVD player...TV is new, dvd player is old. Need new DVD player... Haven't had time to watch the special features, maybe later.

This movie is amazing. Get it. Watch it. And whine till The Two Towers comes out at xmas.

[Draggar]

Originally posted by Lycia
Haven't had time to watch the special features, maybe later.

He he he you're in for a treat.....

A preview of the 4 disc set.

Also, Suncoast packaged (for $5 or $7) "Master of the Rings" DVD - its a documentary on the trilogy (actualy, all 4 (DOn't forget "The Hobbit".

The "extras" are very good, get some popcorn & Sprite for them.

[Wayward Clam]

Lycia, quick note regarding renaming of movies, etc. A lot of those aren't done for (so-called) artistic reasons, but because some doofus is sitting on a copyright (that they don't need for themselves, naturally) that they won't let go for less than $1000000 or something like that.

"The Hitman" was probably taken by Bret Hart and the WWE or something like that. At least, if that was the case, it would be legit... not like cybersquatters taking domain names purely for the sake of selling them off at ridiculous prices...

Domain and copyright squatters are a very low form of business scum in my opinion.

[Lycia]

True, but I didn't think movies would be bound by the same law that would keep me from naming my new restaurant McDonalds...

Renaming a movie isn't whats annoying. Changing the packaging and trying to sell the movie as something else is.