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Reviews
Tron: Legacy (2010)
A movie that actually makes Matrix: Reloaded look good. Yikes :(
I'll keep it brief:
*The main character makes me long for Sam Witwicky
*The film seemed to have only about 1/3rd of the scenes presented in 3D, and when the film does kick into 3D it is extremely distracting. The 3D is gorgeous but rare, and there are virtually zero "3D moments" worth noting at all. This is a prime example of 3D as cash grab... literally no jaw dropping moments here.
* The best performance is Jeff Bridges'elder Flynn character... exclusively because he's not actually playing Flynn, he's playing Jeffrey Lebowski.
* The second best performance is from Michael Sheen as Chris Tucker playing David Bowie for 5 minutes. It makes the rave scene/bizarre French dude from Matrix II look like one of the most imaginative moments in cinema history.
* George Lucas could have (and has, recently) written a more engaging script. The script to this film makes Attack of the Clones look like a Charlie Kaufman masterpiece.
* The CG for Clu/Young Flynn is laughably bad and they show the "youthful" Jeff Bridges in the first real shot of the film, setting the tone for the whole thing... it's remarkably bad, Beowulf quality in its best moments (okay okay, there are 1 or 2 of the 30 or so shots of Clu that look pretty outrageously good), and legitimately Van Helsing quality the majority of the time.
* Daft Punk's soundtrack is fitting, but sounds like a Fischer Price version of the Inception soundtrack.
I'm not a devotee of the original Tron, but I am a die hard sci-fi (and all around) film nut and this ranks up there as one of the worst theater experiences I have had... and I was treated to a preview in one of the best IMAX theaters available. This film is all marketing - it's about one thing and one thing only, and that is selling light-cycle toys to hell-spawn... it actually makes me want to check out "The Last Airbender" to see if it could possibly be worse.
Victoria para chino (2004)
Victoria Para Chino is a moving short film, but it is not about victory for china
I viewed this film under the impression that it would be about China, and more specifically, the successful Chinese invasion of America or other Western countries. This film, directed by Cary Fukunaga and shown at this year's Sundance Film Festival, is however not about Chinese people, but actually Mexican people who pay to be transported "into the heartland of Texas" in an eighteen wheeler. There are about 80 of these people, and the film, at the end, shows you that 19 of them died, presumably from dehydration, lack of air, and possibly previous illness (and it is suggested maybe even with the consent of fellow passengers in some situations). The film has beautiful visuals and feels very 'polished' and tells this tragic story with aplomb. It might have been interesting to see the film without subtitles, so that the Mexicans really have their own identity and you have to really pay attention to them. This can be easily accomplished by the viewer, however, by making your hand flat like the horizon, and then putting your horizon hand over the subtitles. This starts to hurt after a while because even though this film is short, you must keep your hand there for the whole time as the whole thing is basically in Spanish.