Reviews

Tai Chi 2 stars a great martial artist, Jackie Wu. He looks like a young Jet Li! His martial arts are fast, crisp and smooth. This movie is filled with action and martial arts! Jackie wu does some great Wu Shu and Tai Chi here. Yuen Woo Ping directed it and it shows. It includes the villain in Fong Sai Yuk (the bald guy, Chuen-Hua Chi) and the pimp ass Tai Chi master in all of the Shaolin Temple movies and in Tai Chi Master (Yu Hai), and the badass general in Fist of Legend and many other movies (Billy Chow).

His character is a bit of a smartass, but it works well within the story. Its a cute story and every five minutes of so...boom great martial arts sequences! :) This is one of my personal favez, because of the fresh new Jackie Wu, who later went on to star in the Hong Kong TV Series Shaolin Temple directed by none other than Yuen Woo Ping.

This is a B movie to the "t"! Bad acting (except for vin diesel), cheesy lines, unoriginal story, but a fairly original subject matter for a movie... Street racing. And did I mention revolutionary/AWESOME direction of action and racing scenes. The last 5 minutes of the movie alone are worth the money to see this movie. It leaves you with one hell of a WOW feeling. The movie features "new" car racing, that is mostly Asian Cars suped up with nitris oxide or premium engine modifications to make them extra fast. Only at the end do we see the highlight of the film an old hot rod that leavez you droolin at the sound of it's revving. This movie is pretty much an exact remake of Point Break except with Street racing the subject matter instead of surfing. But the storyline and plot are good enough to get you through to all the action/racing scenes which are incredible and groundbreaking. The director does an awesome job with the action/racing scenes. The new cool way the race scenes are filmed can be compared to the new cool way the fighting scenes were filmed in the matrix (except no special effects here). The movie has a certain element of pazzaz and the race scenes and the action scenes in general are well done and suspenseful as hell. You gotta see this movie.

This movie was not bad. I thought it was going to be a typical cheesy b-movie, but it turned out to be entertaining and decent. However, it is nothing special. It was a sexual thriller with a touch of psychological mystery. Watch it if ya got nothing else much to see. Pretty girls and half-way decent acting and story make this movie watchable. It is a touch predictable, but not anymore than the usual big blockbuster movie at the theatres. It does a good job with the suspense and isn't too cheesy, so it isn't a b-movie, but it isn't a great movie. It's good for a rainy day when nothing else is on or nothing special is in blockbuster. I gave it a 6 out of 10.

I have never read Dickens' "Great Expectations," but I can tell you that this is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Let me clear something up right away. This is not a b-movie, a cheesy remake, or even a remake. It is my understanding that this movie is loosely based on the Dickens' book, but that it does follow the themes, just not the exact story. This is a great movie, it is a modern classic. The acting is excellent. Ethan Hawk is amazing, he really is a top notch actor. He's not just a young sexy leading man type who gets by on looks and a touch of acting (as I had previously thought since he looks like the typical Matt Dillion or a Lowe type). Gwyneth Paltrow is absolutely stunning and plays her role perfectly. De Niro has a nice, powerful role, and duh, he's awesome in this movie. Anne Bancroft was hauntingly superb in this movie, you'll see what i mean. Hank Azaria and Chris Cooper play great supporting roles. I think this movie was probably Chris Cooper's breakthrough role, and he was great.

The movie was breathtakingly shot. The cinematography was better then even the recent crouching tiger hidden dragon. The movie gives you a feeling of awe and mystery because of it's settings. It's a work of art. The writing...based on a classic Dickens novel..come on it is superb. No cheesy lines; yes there are heartfelt beautiful lines, but none cheesy or over-emotional or over the top dialogue. The writing and actors clicked perfectly. Need I say the story was both interesting and intriguing (based on Dickens' Great Expectations). It may be loosely based or not, but it was GREAT.

The directing pulled everything together and added some nice tricks to make this movie a Modern classic. And the way music was used to intensify this movie and when and where it was used was absolutely brilliant, and i suppose this is the director's job, WELL DONE.

The music was almost as important as the acting in this movie. The musical score for this movie is one of the best I have ever encountered. It makes this movie move you. And just as good are the music (songs) the movie uses, how and when they are used. This is one of the few movies that thrives on sound (music) to help create it's mood, power and emotion and it is done masterfully.

This movie is a masterpiece. Beautiful on the eyes, ears, heart, and mind. I feel sorry for you if you don't ever get to experience this movie, it is a MUST see.

The first thing anyone should say about this movie is that MORGAN FREEMAN is one of the best actors ever. This movie is "regular" without him, and he slides into the role with grace and POWER. You will watch this movie and just be in awe of him, he is absolutely fabulous in this movie. Although he certainly stands out as the best thing about this movie, he is just one character of hundreds in this brilliant movie.

I saw this movie sometime near the time it first came out, and I remembered liking it... but it seemed to have been blurred in my head with all the other "school" movies I had seen since then. I only remembered bits and pieces. And when someone mentioned they had rented it, honestly, I was not very excited to see it. BUT I was wrong. I was planning an excuse to leave when my friends put the movie on. I watched it for a few minutes and became amused. I sat down and really was enjoying it. And when Morgan Freeman first walks into the school and makes his speech I was hook, line and sinkered.

This movie has some heavy duty acting, but it is the writing that pulls this whole movie together. The story is very realistic and deals with a problem that hits a strong note with many viewers...the state of our inner city schools. The characters in this story are both intriguing, realistic and dynamic. There is no sappy romance, no plot twist that makes you say..."oh my god..how corny or obvious", no terrible lines, everything just FITS. Everything meshes perfectly with the incredible cast that this movie has.

The actors are amazing. This movie has many powerful, scenes...and then it has many regular everyday type scenes. The actors had to act, and boy did they act. I swear, it is as though you are sitting there watching this all happen next door. It just all flows together, and works so naturally. The angry parent, the vice principal, the teachers, the many students that this movie focuses on, the pricipal's boss and his lawyer...all characters that were very dynamic, interesting and awesomely acted.

The story is sad, real, important and inspiring. I went to and inner city grade school and high school. Granted, my schools were nowhere near the mess that this school was in the beginning of the movie, but inner city schools are typically in conditions similar to this school. This is sad but true fact in our society today. This story takes that premise and adds in characters you will miss and ties it all together with Morgan Freeman, the HNIC. After you see the movie you'll understand. :)

I'll make this a very quick comment, since I have to go. This movie was a mix between the typical "Crash of Flight blah blah blah" and Man and woman meet but one has important secret he/she keeps secret only to ruin relationship for a short time till secret is told and pain and suffering is over and relationship lives happily ever after... We have all seen these two movies over and over again. Both movie plots suck on their own, the combination is a disaster. The movie is very over dramatic and just a terrible script for the two great actor(ress)s. There is very little time spent on character development other than the two main characters, and it doesn't even go very deep there. All the time is told preparing and telling the overused combo of a story, and trying to make the audience feel, feel , feel. It only makes every guy go "ohhhh mannnn, come onnnn" and makes his spouse/girlfriend cry and yell at the cold hearted guy for dissing such a lovely heart whelming movie. TRY YOUR BEST NOT TO SEE THIS MOVIE. Tell her Ben Affleck dies early in the movie or something, just keep away!

In anticipation of Ang Lee's new movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," I saw this at blockbuster and figured I'd give it a try. A civil war movie is not the typical movie I watch. Luckily though, I had a good feeling about this director. This movie was wonderfully written. The dialogue is in the old southern style, yet doesn't sound cornily out of place and outdated. The spectacular acting helped that aspect of the movie. Toby Maguire was awesome. I thought he was good (but nothing special) in Pleasantville, but here he shines. I have always thought of Skeet Ulrich as a good actor (but nothing special), but here he is excellent as well. The big shocker for me was Jewel. She was amazingly good. Jeffrey Wright, who I had never heard of before, is also excellent in this movie. It seems to me that great acting and great writing and directing go hand in hand. A movie with bad writing makes the actors look bad and visa versa. This movie had the perfect combination. The actors look brilliant and the character development is spectacular. This movie keeps you wishing and hoping good things for some and bad things for others. It lets you really get to know the characters, which are all very dynamic and interesting. The plot is complex, and keeps you on the edge of your seat, guessing, and ready for anything at any time. Literally dozens of times I was sure someone was going to get killed on silent parts in the movie that were "too quiet" (brilliant directing). This was also a beautifully shot movie. The scenery was not breath taking (It's in Missouri and Kansas for goodness sakez) but there was clearly much attention put into picking great nature settings. Has that rough and rugged feel, but keeps an elegance, which is very pleasant on the eyes. The movie was deep. It told a story and in doing so made you think. It had layers underneath that exterior civil war story. Specifically, it focused on two characters that were not quite sure what they were fighting for. There were many more deep issues dealt with in this movie, too many to pick out. It was like a beautifully written short story, filled with symbolism and artistic extras that leaves you thinking during and after the story is done. If you like great acting, writing, lots of action, and some of the best directing ever, see this movie! Take a chance on it.

I am a huge martial arts movie fan and have seen just about every jackie chan, jet li, donnie yen, yuen biao and sammo hung...ect. movie out there. This movie has the most and best fighting scenes in any movie, and its actually funny (not bordering on stupid like many of jackie's movies). It has at least 6 actors who show great martial arts abilities in this movie, as opposed to the usual one good martial arts bad guy and one good martial arts good guy. Anita Mui is reminiscent of Josephine Siao's role in Fon sai yuk 1 & 2, she is great in this movie. This movie has great character development, unbelievable fighting sequences and its funny with great acting. Don't miss it.