苏乞儿

The fighting scenes are not bad, better than the 14 blades ones. But too much censored scenes and bad editing just irks the watching. Not to mention the need to have Jay Chou and Michelle Yeoh to appear in the movie. 赵文卓 is 苏粲 who braved the enemies liar with his team of soldiers and rescued some Prince. Though the Prince wants to promote him but he rejected and recommended his 义兄 袁烈 as he went back to his home town and lived with his wife and son.

Years later, Mr baddie 袁烈 is back after acquiring some 5 poision mastery skill. He is back to kill 苏粲's father who killed his father who was a baddie too, no marks for guessing that. With his new skill, he killed his father with ease. 苏粲 was at his kungfu training shop opening, by the time he knew, he rushed back to his home. Having to deal with a brother and sister, 2 KKs under 袁烈. They didn't manage to stop him thus, leading him to 袁烈. 苏粲 was no match for him, he was poisoned and injured by him but was spared when his nephew 锋儿 stopped him.

袁烈 threwed his body into the ocean, his wife 周迅 as 阿英 jumped too. In the pugislitic world, people never die when they either jumped in ocean or being thrown, this is still true in this movie. Washed to the shore, 阿英 still managed to drag him up some mountains, as usual only a feat found in the puislistic world, though she slipped at the last mintue. Don't fret, Michelle Yeoh as 余大姐, some miracle herbalist living in the mountains. She has to be there to treat 苏粲.

While the poison clears, 苏粲 tried to recover his right hand mobility and strength. Somehow that involved 2 imaginative friends, Jay Chou as 武神 and some giggling monk. This is really not needed, if need it has to got to be better ways. It is like trying to extend the length of the movie. After several rounds of sparring, it seems 苏粲 recovered his confidence and ready to get back his son. Though he didn't seems to learn any new skills. 阿英 as advised by 余大姐, knew 苏粲 seems to be "walked fired into demon" left to find his brother 袁烈 to get back their son.

苏粲 chased after but was too late, 袁烈 buried her and killed the men who did before their duel. 苏粲 defeated 袁烈, crushing through his so called don't know what armoured shield which was sewed into his skin. 苏粲 realized too late as he rushed out to find 阿英, it was too late. He couldn't face the reality of losing his wife and led a wondering begging drunkard life with his son. During one occasion where he stormed into a inn for wine, he gone into hallucination again, thus Mr Jay Chou had to appear, this time as 醉仙, do we really have to do this ? This inspired him to come up with 醉拳.

Then came when his old KK had to fight with WWE wrestlers in a death duel where he was there to watch with his son, he stepped him when his son was in danger. Entertaing action sequences but the censoring just flawed the movie. 6/10

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

This is a action fantasy with attempted comical elements in a Greek mythology style. Reviews is comparing this to Boring Potter which the director quickly disagreed. Percy is more direct, less dark, more action and more monsters. Percy is a normal kid attending school till he finds out he is a demi-god, that is when a god do it with a mortal. It was overwhelming to him though not really shown by him as the movie tries to do it in a humorous way.

Ex-007 Brosnan is a centuar hiding in modern world protecting percy, not letting him being discovered by others till Zeus suspect Percy of stealing this lighting bolt. Percy is the son of Poseidon which possesses magical power with water. Knowing that, also knowing his friend Grover is a satyr, half man half goat was quite a dramatic change in his life. From the relief teacher turning into some devious flying monstrous bat and some Giant Minotaur chasing them on their way to Camp half blood, though he managed to kill it but before it somehow dissolved his mother.

In camp, purpose is for Percy to know Luke and Athena. Ares came to camp asking Percy to hand over the lighting bolt and he will return his mother. Percy had to go to underworld even knowing he don't have the lightning bolt. With Luke's help, telling him to get 3 pearls before leading him to underworld. The pearls are the only way to get them back from underworld.

He need some help thus Grover and Athena had to follow. They overcame Medusa, Multiple headed dragons which grew more heads if you cut them off and stucked in Lotus Casino where they eaten some Lotus flowers which made them staying there. Anyway, they did reach underworld and met Ares whom still believe Percy had the bolt was furious but when Percy dropped the shield Luke gave him, the bolt was hidden there. Ares took it and told Perspehone feed them to the souls. But Perspehone tricked Ares and killed him with the bolt. She returned the bolt to Percy and freed them. But Grover had to stay since they have only 3 pearls which I believe he had a good time with Perspehone.

Back from underworld, Percy found out it was Luke who stole the bolt. He wanted to Gods to go into war. Percy prevailed and returned the bolt to Zeus thus preventing a God of war. 7/10

锦衣卫

There seems no excitement in the movie and fighting scenes are so so nothing to shout about. Story wise seems more interested to introduce the other characters into the movie which seems disparate. Donnie Yen as 青龙 leads a group of highly skilled bodyguards serving the Emperor, they are trained from young as orphans and do not question the tasks being ordered to do.

During one mission, he was ordered to retrieve some imperial seal from some righteous officials. But another party was interested but failed while 青龙 escaped injured. 青龙 made his way to some 镖局 and requested to escort him to somewhere. Though along the way, he seems to be protecting them more than they protecting him.

He took 赵薇 as 乔花, daughter of the 镖头 in exchange of them diverting the enemies attention till he gone to his destination. He knew who betrayed him when one of the failed assasins told him. 戚玉武 as 玄武 in cahoots with the 太监 贾精忠 to steal the seal to sell to soms Prince who want to revolt. 玄武 as the bastard is inferior in so many ways as to 青龙, skills, confidence and stance, not sure why his character being protrayed this way.

And this 太监 贾精忠 is just a greedy baddie, the person to defeat is the assasin from send by the Prince, 徐子珊 as 脱脱, are we lacking words in thousand of years of chinese history ? What a name ? Maybe 睡睡 ? 插插 ? coming up. As 青龙 finds out more of the revolt plot, he met 吴尊 as 大漠判官 which is totally too modern, boyish and suave looking to be some bandits 老大. They raided some gold together prepared for the 太监 贾精忠 by the prince in some "T" city.

So it is up to 青龙 to stop the war and get back the seal in time but also to duel with 脱脱, seems wierd Donnie fighting a woman. The last fight scene was just so so. 6/10

New York, I Love You

Not your typical kind of romance movie. 11 short film together in a single movie, that meant each was real short. Not only they were short but also not along the main stream type, each story is like imagination of one can come up with.

Not to mention the huge cast of international stars starring in it, Bradley Cooper, Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Maggie Q, Olivia Thirlby, Julie Christie, Shia LaBeouf, Chris Cooper, Cloris Leachman, Shu Qi, Andy Garcia, etc.

A desperate artist in search of someone worthy to be painted by him, though initially reluctant, this someone being Shu Qi, some herballist relented but too late. He died when she went to find him. Ethan Hawke as a writer trying to pick up Maggie Q while sharing a moment of smoke. His vivid description of how he can make her attaining the ultimate moment of sexual enjoyment was quite .... funny. Though it didn't really realize into action as she told him she was really a hooker.

Some of the films leave you to fathom what was the director/writer trying to achieve. A guest at a hotel had a mysterious encounter with Shia LaBeouf as a bell boy, this one was really like trying to grab you off your seat and out of reality. Then a young man prom's date ended up with a surprise relevation in the end. His date apparently was on a wheel chair but on their way back, they had their intimate moments, hard to visualize. The relevation came when she was off the wheelchair and walked right up to her door. This is a light hearted movie with love as a main theme but 11 seems too much. 6/10

Invictus

A bio drama about Mandela and his actions in bringing glory to South Africa in the 1995 Rugby World Cup so as to re-unite the blacks and the white, the national team, the springboks are all whites except one. As he attended one of the springboks game, the blacks jeered them. Even with his busy schedules and serious problems of crime and unemployment, he convinced the rugby board to retain the springboks before the World Cup.

Morgan Freeman as Mandela then meet up with Matt Damon as François Pienaar over tea. He tells him his intention of using Rugby to try to unite the nation though he didn't explicitly convey his thoughts. Pienaar understand and knows what he wants him to do. As they trained hard for the World Cup, the team was also order to be envoys to the poor, play and train with them. Though the team is reluntant and pissed with this arrangement with their tight training schedules but the results are good. Their support grew before the World Cup. Mandela flew by and attended one of their training sessions, almost greeted all of them by their names.

The first game against Australia, Mandela wearing a springbok jersey sporting number 6 enter the stadium, crowds chanting his name. They need to win in order to have any chance to go past the group stage, they did. They surpassed all expectations and meet New Zealand in the final. A match with little hope they will win as New Zealand crushed all opponents along the way, Lomu their most leathal threat, deem unstoppable. As the final starts, the whole nation was watching, both black and white. The match went into extra time locked at 12-12, a kick by Joel Stransky sends the crowd into delirous as SA won the World Cup. A scene outside the stadium seeing white police officers celebrating with a black boy, as the game progress and black boy and the officers turned from hostile to neutral to peace and then cheering like friends. An inspirational drama which probably raised your will that you can do anything for a while, soon after is back to reality. 7/10

Sherlock Holmes

I believe no one's memories of sherlock holmes will be like the one in the movie. This is so lock stock barrel style and snatch style, to do this, this sherlock guy must change to suit this kind of movie. I don't have much mermory of how sherlock needs to be, thus it doens't really affect me. Movie started with action rightaway, horse carriage chasing Robert Downey as Sherlock, he evaded them and met up with Jude Law as Dr Watson. They manage to stop a human sacrifice where this baddie Mark Strong as Lord Blackwood is doing. SM saved W from a shard where Blackwood usually used. Then the police came and led B away.

B scheduled to be executed 3 months later. Meanwhile, SM is bored without any case. W told SM that he have plans to marry Mary and will probably won't be working with him anymore. Then came the day of execution, where B requested to see SM and told him that there will be 3 more deaths. B was hanged and pronouced dead by W. Soon after that, SM met with Rachel Mcadams as Irene, a con woman which SM likes. She asked SM to find a man for him and gave him a sum of $. SM trailed her in disguise and found she was with a man.

3 days after B was executed, police informed that his tomb was shattered. SM and W arrived to the tomb area, there they found the body in the coffin was a red hair midget. SM found a pocket watch and then from it, found the home of the midget. In there, there were chemical experiments and also came 3 thugs, arriving to destroy the evidences. A fight ensued which SM and W were victorious but both were led away by police for property damage. Mary came to bail W but SM was led away to some house, apparently like the HQ of the temple of the four order. Their leaders Sir thomas and Lord coward, told SM that B was a former member. Though SM was blindfolded all the way, as the so good SM, he told every single details of what he hear and smell, thus deducing who they were. He rejected their offer to take down B and rather pursue the case in his own interest.

As SM and W investigate more, 2 senior members died, one in a tub and one burnt to death in spontaneous combustion mode. B during one of the order meeting took power, revealing Lord Coward as his ally. B wants the order to force England to retake United States. While LC issued a warrant on SM, SM and W went to an industrial slaughterhouse after finding more clues. At there, they were forced to save Irene at a conveyor belt but while escaping, SM escaped a explosive blast but W kena. SM hid himself and think of what B's plan was. Somehow he wanted to cast a spell on Sphinx, and its animal constituent are ox, man, eagle and lion. The last, lion will be the british parliament. Knowing that. SM allowed the police to capture him thus leading him to LC. LC abi too LL, told SM of B's plan at the parliament. SM then escaped by diving into River Thames.

W recovered. SM, W and Irene went into the sewers of the Parliament. They found the device where B going to use to inject deadly gases into the parliament. While Irene try to remove the part of the device that will deliver the gas, SM and W dealth with more baddies. Then the final showdown between SM and B happen at Tower bridge, SM won. Irene told SM that tha man she was with was Professor Moraity, as brilliant as him but more pai lang. Overall, it was entertaining with action and as what detective mysteries do, they will explained what happens later on things you though how can it be and with some humour. 7/10

Alvin and the Chipmunks 2

I cannot remember whether did I really watch the chipmunks as a cartoon when young but I doubt so. But now with CGI, they are alive, not to forget the so cute and so adorable, Theodore !! Story wise revolving round Dave sending the chipmunks to school and previous scrupulous manager Ian Hawke bouncing back with his plot to down the chipmunks. And more chipmunks in the form of females chipettes, sending the chipmunks's heart thump thump thump.

As Dave is recovering in a Paris Hospital after an accident in their Paris concert, he asked Aunt Jackie and cousin Toby to take care of the chipmunks. But Aunt Jackie herself was admitted to hospital following an accident at the airport, so it is Toby with the chipmunks. The fun came when the chipmunks goes to school, not to study of course. They got too popular with the girls which the guys are jealous and taught them a lesson, simon got dunked in the toilet bowl, theodore got pinned on a wall though alvin did got back at the guys. The principal didn't expelled them because very much she is a huge fan, deep down inside.

She told the chipmunks to represent the school in a music competition for $25,000 and with that money, it could save the school's music department. They agreed. Meanwhile, Ian chanced upon the female chipmunks which sing of course, conning them into believing he is the good guy. He convinced them he will make them famous, the singing chipettes. But he need to make them known first and he heard of the school competition, barged in and convinced the principal that the chipmunks and chipettes should have a performance, whoever got the loudest applause will represent the school.

Alvin got close to the guys and they got him into their football. He missed the competition after going to the celebration following winning the football game, this really pissed Simon and Theodore who felt he is drifting away from them, Theodore is really sad and left home though his note is not really convincing, telling them he is at the zoo. They patched up after Alvin saved him from the eagle. Ian got his attention he wanted, his previous company agreed to let the chipettes performed. But Ian got carried away, he only wanted Britney who sang better and got a better overall figure, Jeanetter and Eleanor were not needed. They refused to perform if not together, so Ian caged them. Britney managed to call Alvin, telling them to perform for them for the school. The chipmunks saved the day. 7/10