AKA Chang An.

The animation quality's... surprisingly good!!! Especially in the intro.

The story though? Bureaucracy? Adventure? Where's this going...?

It goes further than you may think! It goes into war, it goes from youth to old age, it tells a tale of adventure and purpose, as seen through the eyes of two poets. One outgoing and wild, the other held back, but disciplined, and all the fiercer of heart.

It feels bleak for a while, but though it deals with death more than it does life... it's beautiful too. The visuals are beautiful, the words honorable and exotic, the plan a simple one, but deceiving in the best possible way.

I must say, this was friggin' great.

This was way better than I thought it would be.

It wasn't just an animated film. It feels like I've lived... a lifetime. I've experienced everything, even if the life I lived never led me that far away.

It's not the kind of story to make you teary-eyed. Not on the outside at least. But in my soul... maybe. It feels... greatly. The way things are phrased. The way they're told. The decisions this old man takes.

You truly grow wise, with age.

 rated 5/5: friggin awesome

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Once every ten years or so a movie comes out that totally blows you away, that does it like nobody's done it before, that reminds you how most movies you watch are just total bullshit... this was always one of those movies!

They do the breakdancing slam-into-ground bit one time too many though, and the drone shots one time too much, and the camera work's sloppy sometimes, and the close-up's veil the fights, and the Boy doesn't move fast enough to authentically ward off the bullets...

And yet it is amazing. The CGI they do right. The creativity's there always. The twist comes when you least expect it - though maybe I should have. Femke's still beautiful but fatal, and the good guys are awesome, and the brother with the longer hair reminds me of Shoot Em All, and the outro of Scott Pilgrim, and the final showdown a bit of the final fight in The Raid - and not just because one of the same guys is in it.

I love it. I heard great things about this before I saw it, and it didn't disappoint, but I do feel it could've done some things even better.

The fights. Sometimes they're just not clear enough. Sometimes they're not fast enough. Sometimes there's just too much CGI.

But it delivers still. It's a rare gem, it reminds me a little of Everything All At Once too, and Equilibrium, a dystopian flick with a flare for the unconventional, and the sentimental. It's complex... it's killer.

The Van Der Koy's? They really are one crazy dysfunctional family, and I don't think I saw the grandma go...

 rated 5/5: friggin awesome

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Ancient Taoists travel through time and space in an effort to obtain a divine sword.

Korean Sci-Fi!

It's like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon met The Returner with aliens. Kinda.

There's comedy, lots of it. Epic fight scenes two. There are two worlds, and times, that collide. Though there is also some lens flare amidst the most epic battles, and shaky cam, and swords that keep swinging more so than legit fight choreography.

I hear this is a bit like a watered down version of the first. A re-run on the same theme. Same thing all over again. But if it is... I need to watch the first, cause this was great.

It's a bit messy initially though. You follow a great deal of characters through a great deal of twists and turns and chase and cheesiness before it all starts connecting and making sense. When it finally does though! Oh my. It was worth the build-up.

Can't say it's a perfect movie but I did thoroughly enjoy it. I like the clash between times too, between old and new, oldskool adventure and martial artistry; high tech wizardry on a cosmic scale.

Even if the alien race is but a sliver of what it once used to be.

I gotta watch the first though. Alienoid 1 up next. Despite initial confusion - considering which one of these the reviews rave most of, hopefully this is the right way...

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

After crash-landing in the snowswept Andes, a Uruguayan rugby team has no choice but to turn to desperate measures in order to survive.

Desperate measures as in cannibalism.

It's a classic movie this one. I've heard of it before but had yet to see it.

It tells the tale well, with a semi-realistic plane crash (it looks violent, at least, if not a hundred percent authentic) and the desperation that follows... they enact it well.

The crash site looks real, and you can see the characters gradually getting more and more tanned as the movie progresses, though not looking as malnourished as they most certainly did in real life.

I thought I recognized Ethan Hawke in here too! As a very younger, but still very much recognizable young E... I don't think I know any of the others, but they're all good. Ethan apparently refused to grow a beard during the movie, and I wonder why. If it was vanity it feels pretty disrespectful. I hope it was for other reasons, like staying true to the character he played. Maybe the real Nando couldn't grow a beard either...

It's a beautiful movie overall. One about overcoming hardship more so than about the dark side of humanity, and religion probably was a big thing for the main crew too. They came from a Christian country after all.

In desperate times I've no doubt even non-believers might turn to God, yet there's one particular scene where an agnostic suddenly starts praying as a storm starts raging, after weeks of telling the rest of the team that 'he won't pray, cause he's agnostic'.

I cringed a bit at that, and apparently it did not happen for real either!

It felt like one of those things they'd include in a movie just because it's a movie, or because they have an ulterior motive with the religious theme, and it was so.

It may be a slightly glorified and dramatized movie overall, but it's true, for the most part. The avalanche really happens too. I tear up occasionally, and unexpectedly. Sometimes it seems a bit dated, or angled for faith, yet the next moment it feels real and raw and like they're really managing to bring out the essence of humanity in the best possible way...

I'm glad I watched this after all. It's a classic for a reason. And there are a few other movies centered around this same event, which I just might need to see too... the Alive: 20 Years Later one in particular is intriguing. It came out the same year, but deals with the backstory and survivors more so than the tragedy; the filmatization of it all.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

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This is the story of McDonalds. True story.

Michael Keaton plays the main man behind the Big Mac... though Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch play the two maybe more sympathetic characters in the initial arrangement. Who as with many in similarly big franchises get pushed out of the picture when the potential for profit first presents itself. And to think they were only trying to help!

It's a sad story really, the one behind McDonalds.

It started so well. With a hit of genius. With a stroke of good luck. With comradery and fortune and good intentions, and then that lawyer steps into the picture, and Kroc gets a bit too full of himself; flounders a bit too much on the grandiose lie he somehow stumbles into...

But it's a great movie. It presents the company in a fascinating way - as both an amazing, and ambitious, and revolutionary thing - with family values to boot. But also with a certain evil at it's very root. A good idea turned to something else by someone greedy.

I wonder when Ronald McDonald came into the picture - they don't delve much into the mascot.

But at least the modern logo was something Kroc really did contribute himself. And he did work hard, there's no denying that.

He's just a rat.

Damn good movie though. Authentic-seeming sceneries and mannerisms and everything of the times, too.

And I love those cars.

 rated 4.5/5: almost awesome

AKA Hindustaini.

Watched the sequel recently. Had to go back and watch the original too...

You know what? This is a classic - flaws though it may have. The new one's ambitious, but it almost seems blasphemous compared to the first. Parodious.

The special effects here - with anamorph-style transformations and some gnarly green screen moments - like our main character jumping over cars on the race track - may not have aged so well. The blood and all's sparse. The masks aren't as good. But the emotion. The situation. It's real here.

They really did have some gnarly stunts on that racetrack too, and a massive explosion with an actual plane.

And the dances! Those really did take it to the next level with the sequel, but they were massive here too. And pure, in a different way. And the one scene where you see something like ten odd road signs around a round-about is fascinating, prohibiting U-turns and all. I wonder if the traffic system's changed in India since. It seems overwhelming.

Kamal Hassan, that's The Indian. AKA Hindustani. And yes he is younger than he looks! He was so here, and is so again with the sequel, but they really did a solid job with the prosthetics overall.

The movie starts in a similar way compared to the second. I realize now the trash stash was a throwback in the second one, as many other things I probably don't catch.

Visually this one might not have it all in the bag, but script-wise it held it together better. Without dated effects it might've been more than a...

 rated 3.5/5: not bad at all