Reviews

Here's a quote from the CBC website along with my personal comments at the very end:

"It is August 1914 and World War I has just begun.Lieutenant Harry Colebourn (Michael Fassbender), a veterinarian with the 34th Fort Garry Horse Division, is traveling by train with other soldiers when he buys a bear cub at a rest stop. He names her Winnie, after his home town of Winnipeg and, in spite of all common sense warnings from his fellow soldiers, takes her with him to the camp in Valcartier, Quebec where the Canadian expeditionary force is gathering.

Winnie is a breath of fresh air for the young soldiers faced with the prospect of war, and she travels with them all the way to Salisbury Plain in England.

When Harry's regiment is sent to fight in France, the young vet knows Winnie cannot go. He finds a home for her at the London Zoo, promising to return as soon as the war is over and take her back to Canada.

While Harry and his friends fight in France, Winnie becomes the star attraction at the zoo. For the children of London, living in the shadow of a frightening war, she becomes a symbol of friendship and hope."

What a good way to spend 2 hours. The acting was great, well directed, the sets were appropriate and I did get choked up! (This doesn't happen often, except in Zombie movies).

However, there were some VERY annoying slow-motion shots that looked terrible. Lots of flickering during the slow-motion scenes and bad timing. It should have been omitted.

Final verdict...A very entertaining and educational story about a beloved bear for the whole family.

The title of a movie should have some connection to the contents.

The director seems to have forgotten this.

The acting was fine, the feel was spooky and gratuitous breasts are always nice but where are all the zombies that massacre people?

In addition to the other movie suggestions, I would add, Hell of the Living Dead (aka Virus) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0082559/ and any of the Romero zombie flicks.

For my taste, all that would have been required for this movie to be decent would be to add at least a dozen zombies and a confrontation between them and the visitors to the island.

Stumbled on this last night while channel surfing, I may have missed the first couple of minutes but what I did see looked great.

This guy is trapped in a large robot (think Robotech, Mechwarrior, etc.) and is headed for a cliff while trying to shut it down. Story is mainly him interacting with the sexy female computer voice.

Check it out if you have a chance, it's in French but 'mech lovers won't care.

You may not want to pay to go see this movie, but if it comes on TV it may be worth your time.

First off, the setting of this movie goes from Europe to Thailand to Cambodia (Angkor Wat). It was really neat to see scenes of Bangkok over 40 years ago.

Lots of secret agents involved as well as some unexpected killing & serious plot twists. I was just thinking "hey, that's exactly what I'd do in that situation". In so many films you see someone kill someone then leave that person's gun behind and you say to yourself that they're a real idiot, that you would have picked up the gun and searched the body, etc. This film has a lot of scenes where feel that the actors are acting intelligently.

This movie was originally in German and the English dubbing isn't bad at all.

Check it out!

Much has already been said about the film itself. Here are some comments regarding the portrayal of Hong Kong. An early comment was saying that this film makes Hong Kong look dirty and cramped.

Well, having lived in Hong Kong (in several different areas) I have to say that what the film shows is reality. I was paying about US$1,000 per month for a small room about 10 x 15 feet in Hong Kong (Tin Hau area) in 1996. It was not even a really nice place. Hong Kong is very expensive to live in.

It is also a very dirty and polluted place compared to cities in the West. The director of the film was not making this up.

By reading this you may think I hated it there, well it rates as one of my favorite cities in the world. It has a lot of charm.

By the way, the movie isn't bad and worth a look.

Just saw this last night on the Space channel. It was dubbed in English and like any dubbed movie you'll find that quite annoying, so if you understand French, by all means rent that version instead.

The costumes and sets in the beginning of the movie are great! Really gets you immersed. Overall the acting is quite good and there are some really funny characters that'll make you laugh.

If you're looking for a "From Dusk 'til Dawn" type film, this isn't it, it has a lot less action and is a good movie to watch with your girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husband....you get the idea.

I gave it a 6/10. I also noticed that Karmina 2 is out (2001).

Donald Sutherland narrates the story of POWs in the Pacific, held by the Japanese. Donald tells us of daily life, the working conditions, prisoners dying of disease and malnutrition every day.

The film is entirely in black & white and the most incredible part is that it seems to incorporate actual footage from that time with modern day actors. It's amazing because the actors are bone thin so I'm wondering if it's all film that the Japanese took, would actors starve themselves for a part? If anyone knows about this please let me know.

This is a depressing film, you will not feel very good after having watched it but you will feel a lot of compassion for what our soldiers went through in the camps. A must see.

I taped this just because Christopher Lee was in it and got around to watching it last night. I didn't expect much but was pleasantly surprised.

A doctor is suspected by the police of murdering his wife but they can't find a body. During the movie all kinds of deceptive clues are dropped which leads a person to think a certain event took place but in fact didn't. This, to me is what makes a good murder mystery film, leaving the audience guessing...

That's what this film accomplishes.

If you like murder mysteries then watch this movie. (7/10)