Movies

My thoughts on the newer movies I've seen this year:

2012: For some reason I keep calling it 2112 after the old-school Rush album. As for the movie, cool epic special effects, but went on for too long. As it's just a movie, I won't launch into a theological tirade of errors. I do know the end won't be another flood. The rainbow tells me so. For more into read the Bible. In the end Jesus rules of course and we that believe live happily ever after. I didn't spoil it for you did I?

Robin Hood:
Way back I remember going to a friends house and seeing Robin Hood with Errol Flynn. And at the final fight between Robin and Guy of Gisbourne, what do you know, the power goes out. How terrible for an impatient kid to have to wait through the whole night to finally see it. There was my deprived childhood.

As far as the new one, I think I'd need to see it one or two more times to give my opinion. It was so different than the way I remember. In most stories I remember Robin becomes an outlaw, King Richard comes back, and if you follow history John becomes king later on. Here John becomes king, Robin allies with him for a battle with the French and then at the end Robin becomes an outlaw. So that takes getting used to. Plus Russell Crowe is so old. The cool part was the Ridley Scott logo type art at the end credits. Many versions of Robin Hood have appeared including Kevin Costner, the recent BBC, Disney, and Mel Brooks's satire with Cary Elwes, but still nothing can compete with the old-school Errol Flynn Robin, and of course books, mainly Howard Pyle's traditional take which I read as a kid.

Karate Kid: Probably just about as good as the old one, and the use of more real and better moves will satisfy the entertainment needs of martial arts geeks across the country. Except that Jackie Chan should've had it out with a grown-up like maybe the bad teacher, not just a rabble of kids. Mainly I didn't like the name Karate Kid like the old movie. In this they use kung-fu, which I love, but is not the same thing despite the old promotions of "kung-fu: chinese karate" to Americans who just call martial arts karate. And I'll still enjoy the dvd, but I'll still complain about the title.

Last Airbender: My first 3d movie. Though apparantly the 3d wasn't known to be the greatest, and I didn't really catch that much 3-d. Oh well, maybe try again with something else. Still might be fun to watch on dvd.

Sherlock Holmes: Finally saw it recently on dvd. Very cool, sort of like a victorian NCIS. Or I suppose it should be the other way around. I think I'd need to watch it a few times to understand the mystery stuff. The streetboxing was kind of weird and different from how I'd imagine Sherlock. Still his analytical view of fighting reminds of the martial arts I've been studying, which was cool. Loved the soundtrack and found out it was by Hans Zimmer, one of my faves.

Ninja Assasin: Well, after seeing the bloodbath at the beginning where they somehow managed to avoid gunshots running through the dark and then somehow sawed off limbs with multiple throwing stars, I still decided to give it a chance. While the car chases and fight scenes were cool, the cheesiness of blood fountains when someone gets hit reminds me of a video game. Oh the movies my martial arts geekiness takes me to to waste my time with.

Red Cliff: Okay, so 2008 is a bit old, but I saw it more recently. Epic (as in awesome), epic (as in grand and glorious tale), violent, and Chinese. Need I say more?