Music and Lyrics, 2007

A very cute and funny movie!

Hugh Grant was real hilarious, wonderful, and down to earth in the role of a washed up singer & song writer Alex Fletcher. In quite a few scenes, he dressed up in outfits that strongly resembled Austin Powers in the comedy “The Spy Who Shagged Me”. His performance was so marverlous (singing, playing piano, rock/performed on stages, etc), that I could not help smiling the whole time I sat there watching this movie. Have to admit, it must be the combination of the beautiful music/songs which Hugh Grant or Halley Bennett (as the young and wild singer Cora Corman) sang/played, the presence of the cute Drew Barrymore (in the role of Sophie Fisher who helped providing lyric for Alex's latest song), or Kristen Johnston (as Sophie's big sister), or Brad Garrett (as Alex's manager), etc, that made this movie such a wonderful one.

For some reasons, watching the wild singer Cora Corman performed, I kept thinking of Christina Aguilera. Another smile crept up there, for if the director planned to make a dig at Christina Aguilera, he/she almost succeeded there (it was real cute!).

It was real nice sitting there watching the witty and gorgeous Drew Barrymore fencing words (or teasing?) Hugh Grant. They looked beautiful together. The appearance of Kristen Johnston was a real surprise, for she was always terribly outrageous and funny. Another smile crept up every time I saw her made fun of “how she admired/loved the pop singer Alex Fletcher'...

Then again, perhaps because I have always liked pop/rock music of the 70s and 80s, that watching this movie, I felt tuned in with the characters and plot right at once?

If you expect a thick plot, this movie is definitely not it! It is a pretty simple movie but "very touching" actually.

The movie was about an almost out-dated, unsuccessful male song writer, singer, namely Alex Fletcher. He drifted with life, and was surprised that a new and famous singer, Cora Corman, (from the persuation of his manager) agreed to sing one of his song, if he could provide it to her within a few days.

Of course he wanted to be famous again as he used to be 10 years before that (when his band was still together). The problem remained: he seemed to have no mood or talent to write lyric for any song.

By luck, he found out that the young lady who supposed to care for his indoor plants (in his flat), was truly gifted with words/liturature. From an unfortunate experience in her past, Sophie had no intention to involve with writing ever again. Her big sister, however, happened to be a fan of Alex Fletcher. Events happened somehow, found Sophie Fisher ended up feeling sorry for Alex, and decided to help him out with lyric for his new song.

The song completed successfully, at the same time with the blossoming of attachment between the musician/singer and the lyric writer. Would the two continue helping each other to become better in love and self esteem?


I love all the songs performed in this movie. Do watch this movie if you want to have a good laugh at, and with, the cast of “Music & Lyrics”... It is truly cute and very entertaining!

(It was a surprise to me, that Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore could sing quite OK!)

The Last Castle, 2001

Impressed with Robert Redford from “Spy Game”, I was determined to watch “The Last Castle” to see if he could deliver similar performance.

After the first few seconds of watching, I was a bit worried that this movie might be about another “high security prison” with intelligent schemes of escaping from inmates...

Observing the smooth talking but merciless warden Col Winter (James Gandolfini) bragged about his extensively collection of war artifacts, and the innocent comment made by the newly arrival to the maximum security military prison, (General Irwin (Robert Redford), to another lowly staff there), that 'people who had real experience of war and combat, don't collect war artifacts', I could begin to see the shimmering of resentment from the petty and 'full of pride' warden.

(Why General Irwin was court martialled? It was a result of a miscalculation on his part, which resulted in the lost of 8 of his troups).

Famous for his bravery, as well as in combat tactics, at the same time, well loved by all those who used to fight under his guidance, General Irwin made a real stir in that military prison with his presence, even though he was there to serve his term as a common millitary prisoner.

While most of the inmates tried to convince Irwin to fight the cruelty warden on their behalf (using his extensive and impressive connection to the high rank US millitary officers), the warden on the other hand, tried to intimidate Irwin, since he did not like losing his absolute power over anyone.

A series of events happened, which inadvertently forced Irwin's hand. He had no choice, but to protect the powerless inmates from the ruthlessness and illegal killing/punishment which warden Col Winter continued to enforced over them.

It was fascinating, following the combat of will between the two powerful men, one with real power to crush (who was full of love for himself only), the other with intelligent combat tactics and the respect of all the 1200 inmates present.

Mark Ruffallo gave a wonderful performance in this movie (you have to watch in order to understand what I meant). Robert Redford was terrific as usual, while James Gandolfini was marverlous in his role as a shallow, cold, ruthless, 'always greedy for power' warden.

It was very touching, seeing how loyalty, honor, dignity, etc, were maintained among the “court martialled” soldiers in that millitary prison. The ending almost made me cried. At the same time, I felt very happy, because it proved that goodness would always win at the end, however bad the situations were...

A relief that it was only a movie, and that Robert Redford did not really “gone” for real at the end!

Hart's War, 2002

A surprise to know that all the filming of this movie was done in Czech!

This is a beautiful movie about the second world war, about what happened within a certain camp where many US Prisoners of War were kept, the interactions between the German captors and the captures, as well as the interactions between the POW themselves. This movie is quite a success, considering its terrific good plot (with many surprising twists), music, sceneries, performance, etc.

When first heard of the name “Hart's War”, I thought this movie would be about some war between a character Hart, against the German during the WWII. (I was so sure Bruce Willis would be that Hart. Alas, he played the role of Colonel William McNamara, head of all the prisoners of war in that specific camp instead).

Turned out that character “Hart” was another POW, a young lieutenant (Colin Farrell), who joined the camp later (with respect to Col McNamara).

At the end of the movie, I thought hard.

So, the movie was practically about the fights which Lt Hart constantly had, sometimes with his inner self, other times from his interaction with the new environment and people.

His way of interpreting right or wrong, black and white, etc, was challenged badly since the time he happened to get caught by the German. He was ashamed with himself when he had to reveal some army important information to the enemyto avoid more tortures. He felt uncomfortable with Col McNamara and other high rank officers at the camp, for knowing his betraying, but surprised about their attitude of never outright condemned him.

In the camp, he thought he was doing his best by defending a black fellow POW in a court case, against some murder charge which he knew this black officer had not committed. The tensed moments came, gone and kept returning, revealed many more surprising twists.

The story ended poignantly. Quite a few heroes died in victory after fulfilling their last mission: destroyed a huge munition factory which was hidden next door to the POW camp. Lt Hart survived the war to tell the tale of this final heroic act of Col McNamara (the war ended 2 months after that event). Hart himself, perhaps nevercould forget all the lessons he had learnt while in the camp, and became more humble from that.

Spy Game, 2001

With a good cast and an intriguing/thick plot, this movie was quite a success. It showed how Nathan Muir (Robert Redford), a CIA agent, coped with the unexpected events which happened in his last day at work before his long-awaited-for-retirement. In his cautious way, agent Nathan Muir played the last game of poker with his cunning and ruthless CIA colleagues: single handedly, he tried using any resorts he could put his hand on, to organise the last rescue to save his protege Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) from being executed by the Chinese government over some espionage charge. The movie was full of fascinating scenes/events from countries ravaged with war, which all of us kept hearing about, eg, suicide bombings, bullets flying as normal daily events in certain parts of Middle East, etc.

From Muir's cautious narrating/flashbacks, the progress of how Tom Bishop was recruited and trained to become a very good CIA agent, were shown in great details, backed up with missions he completed over the years, from asia, to Europe, then Middle East, etc.

How much of what Muir told was true or false, noone really knew. Muir took his time doing this, in order to figure out the best and fastest way while he still could use all the best and most updated modern facilities his CIA agency had, the last time, to save his protege before his execution took place (within the 24 hours from the time he got captured while trying rescuing his former girlfriend from a Communist Chinese jail).

Knowing that the CIA meant to let Tom Bishop died (due to the fragile diplomacy between China and US at the time, especially since the US president was about to visit China over some Trade talk right the next day), Muir became more determined with his lone mission, especially since he seemed to blame himself for causing Bishop's former girlfriend's capture by the Chinese government in the first place.

The movie ended brilliantly. My question is, did Muir really sacrified the last 282 thousand dollars he had, in order to save his protege from death?

And how much of what Muir told us (the flashbacks, the narrating about the past), really happened?

Shanghai Knights 2003

This movie has always managed to make me laugh and laugh... The humour embedded within, the hilarity peppered here and there, the funny clash between western and asian worlds (which are almost definite features in all Jackie Chan's movies), seemed to be better here in this movie. Some Jackie Chan's movies were made as a show of martial art/kungfu within a simple plot, which always guaranteed to make people laugh, but nothing else. This "Shanghai Knights" has a good plot, with beautiful actors & actresses, magnificent background, and lots of humour behind/within.

In this movie, Jackie Chan played the role of a sincere Chinese young man, Chon Wang, who came to US to learn more of the world around him. The time was late 19 century. His father back home, was a high rank officer in the Chinese Palace, being the important keeper of the unique and most revered China Imperial Seal. He was attacked one night, killed, and the Imperial Seal was stolen. His daughter, Chon Lin (played by the pretty and very charming Fann Wong), witnessed the murder, but could not fight back the thief, an English Lord, namely, Lord Nelson Rathbone, (Aidan Gillen).

Remembered the family's duty as keeper of the Imperial Seal, Chon Lin promptly sent message to her brother, told him of what she knew, and hoped he could retrieve the Imperial Seal back for China. She herself headed straight to England to chase after the enemy of her family.

Received the message, Chon Wang promtply set out to England, to do his duty as the next keeper of the Imperial Seal, as well as to revenge his father's death as any Chinese filial son would do at the time. With his buddy, the gorgeous, funny but silly Roy O'Bannon (played by Owen Wilson), Chon Wang felt sure that he would succeed his mission at a country which was completely unknown and strange to him. With time, they realised that things were not simple as they thought, but quite sinister. Unavoidably, they found themselves got tangled somehow in Lord Rathbone's plot of removing the queen of England.

The laughters kept increasing, with new friends and foes they made in England. The viewers would have a good opportunity to enjoy all the martial arts and kungu done in a sort of noble spirit, very hilarious, but at the same time, quite gripping.

The music and costumes in this movie were terrific too. (You have to watch in order to appreciate fully what I meant!)

A quite entertaining movie!

(Wrote this review for my friend because this movie was done partly in Czech. The filming was also done in UK, USA and Canada).

Miss Potter, 2006

I have always liked Renee Zellweger, but never could watch her trying to be plum and unsophisticated in her role as Bridget Jones in the Bridget Jones' diary series. Found out that she played Miss Potter, I was hoping to see the real sophisticated actress finally.

The movie was quite enchanting, with beautiful sceneries from the countrysides of England, all the cute animated pictures, the wonderful costumes of the old England at the late 19th centery (from the rich to the middle class), etc.

Playing the role of Beatrix Potter, (the famous female author of the children book series, with the tales of Peter Rabbit and his friends), Renee Zellweger showed the charm and determination of a young lady in a strict society, in which women were expected to wed and settle down as a minor figure in the family. She was determined to be an author instead, supporting herself independently.

Romance did come to her, only to be cut short by fate. This, the movie managed to show in a very touching manner. She found love again later in life, with an old childhood friend. (The director did manage to prepare the viewers of these events by gently introducing at the beginning of the movie her childhood friend and her high esteem for him).

The only thing that bothered me, was, the then single Miss Potter played by Renee Zellweger seemed to be a bit aggressive, short/rude to her parents now and then, even before the event of her fiance's passed away. (Miss Potter's parents had tried their best to stop her from marrying down, to her publisher Norman Warne. They did not know that he would die suddenly latter because of some sudden sicknesses).

I admired Beatrix Potter for her daring move at the end of the movie: she tried buying as much of lands in the Lake District as she could, to preserve the beauty of the area as well as to prevent these farmlands from being destroyed.

It made me sad however, that such a charming, intelligent and talented lady, who loved writing books and painting beautiful pictures for children so much, ended up passed away being childless.

It took me a few days to really recover from this sad thought! I kept thinking of Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, etc), the Bronte sisters (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights).... They all left behind beautiful pieces of lituratures, but were they really happy when they were alive?

(Sigh!)


(by the way, Renee Zellweger as Miss Potter, still looked very plum and not youthful at all! Can't wait for some movie director to cast her in a role of a beautiful, slim, youthful and determined (female?)... )

Alien VS Predator, 2004

Thought it would be either a bad or lukewarm movie, but I was in for a surprise! The movie was quite interesting. The story behind did make me paused for some hard thinking (just a few points they made here and there through out the movie)...



- Imagined that the ancient human beings long time ago worshiped a God, and this God taught them (the human beings) lots of things which were terribly advanced (which even the 21st century could not figure out! The image reminded us of the Egyptians worshiping their SUN GOD, the building of strange pyramids, their technique in body preserving, etc).

- to control the slaves (the human beings), this so called God (who happened to be aliens from space, who were both aliens and predators to the human species), used a certain kind of scorpions. These scorpions were also used by the so called Gods/Predators, as a sort of "duel" partners, to test out their own strength before they could become real warriors of the Predator species.

- all of this happened long time ago, because due to some sort of accidents happened, which made these scorpions (or so called "aliens" in the movie) rebelled, fought the Predators, and made the human species then extinct. The predators then sealed the pyramid, put in some guards, and only returned when their teenagers needed a chance to prove their maturity by fighting with the aliens kept in that temple/pyramid which predated the Egyptians and the Aztec.

- this temple/pyramid was hidden thousand of feet under the antartica of the earth



Imagined that an industrialist billionaire happened to find out about the location of this strange pyramid by thermal imaging statellites, and wanted to investigate. He requested the help of a number of famous archaeologists, scientists and explorers to help him get into this pyramid.

The movie seemed to focus on a very complex plot. To some, it was
- too complex and not too convincing enough, (eg, the pyramid under ice, in antartica, etc)
- lacking all the horrible scenes/bloodshed that often came with the predator theme,
- not enough fighting (real fighting) as other predator/alien movies...

Since I only watched a few "alien" movies so far, I thought this movie was quite entertaining, worth the money and time I spent. I did not recognise any of the cast, except for Lance Henrikson, who played the role of the industrial billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland. I was very impressed with the main cast, Sanaa Lathan, who played Alexa Woods, the leader of the expedition. She looked quite pretty, spunky, and very determined in what she had to do.

Thing that made me laugh a bit: the tough looking predators in their armors, did resemble a mix between the famous black singer Bob Marley with his long hair and some bionicles (the pirakas series).

The movie was full of tense moments. It showed how the expedition progressed, with all the unexpected/twists. Seemed as the team of scientists/archaeologists/etc got to the location, and found themselves got entangled with a coming of age ritual of a teenage predator group. To be killed or not to be killed, the sole survivor Alexa Woods realised that she had to join team with the predators in order to defeat the scopions and its queen (the aliens), and get out of the temple/pyramid alive.

The ending was interesting (when you thought the climax was completely over, it promptly suggested another beginning of an un-ending story)!

7.5/10 for this movie!

(Imagine that, they made this movie at a Prague studio (Czech), with certain scenes filmed at a CDK factory in Vysocany, (also in Czech))

(Write this review for my friend)