Zombieland

A funny spin on the usual I-Am-Legend-apocalypse-type movies.

Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is one of the few (6 to be exact) alive humans in a zombie-ridden Earth. He's heading to Coumbus, because his parents are there. Columbus joins Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a killing monster on a quest to find a Twinkie. They stop at a grocery store to search for Twinkies, but they find zombies and the two sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The sisters steal their weapons and vehicles, but join the two boys when the sisters try to con them again. They decide to go to Pacific Playland because it supposedly is the only zombie-free area. And who doesn't want to ride roller coasters? It's thrilling.

Sno-balls?!? Where's the cream filling?

There's some seriously hilarious moments in Zombieland. Bill Murray?? What the heck? Bill Murray as a zombie?? What the heck? Watch any five minutes of it and I assure you'll be hit with laughs. Although specific scenes were funny, the movie as a whole was a bit lacking. I think it's because it was intended to be a TV series (which would have been awesome and better suited); the pacing and storyline was a little messy. Besides that, the acting was great (except Jesse Eisenberg was pretty much just being himself). The characters were the most unusual group to gang up and the results were very entertaining. It's also refreshing to get a different kind of apocalypse movie. The end of the world doesn't always have to be gloom and doom. 

Who you gonna call?

Elf

Happy Holidays, Everyone! My family celebrates with silly Christmas movies and lots of tissues (because I always get sick).

Santa!!! I know him!

Buddy (Will Ferrell) was adopted by Santa (Ed Asner) after he crawled into his present sack from the orphanage. Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) raises Buddy to be an over-sized elf in the North Pole. As Buddy grows up, his size also grows to be a problem with bedding, toilets, and he can only make 85 Etch-A-Sketches a day (gasp!). Buddy overhears that he isn't just a "special elf"--he's a human. He sets out on a journey to New York to find his father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan), who isn't as nice as gumdrops and sugar plums. Buddy's elfish ways clashes with the rush of New York, but he finds his way to his family and Jovie's (Zooey Deschanel) heart.

Ahh...there's nothing better than watching Elf to get in the Christmas spirit. Its hard not to laugh at the charming Will Ferrel in a hilarious elf costume...in New York City. Buddy brings the child out of everyone; from spinning in revolving doors to stashing free handouts, he is easily a lovable character. Pair him up with Mr. Grumpy Walter Hobbs and Cute Jovie and we have a great Christmas movie. The story is gumdrop-sweet and unbelievable, but what the hey--it's Christmas. Anything can happen.

Kick-Ass

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a nobody in his school. He's the geek that hangs out at the comic book store. He's the weirdo that decided to become a superhero, Kick-Ass, overnight. Unfortunately, he doesn't have superpowers and he ends up in a hospital, stabbed and hit by a car. He gets fixed with metal-reinforced bones and a damaged nervous system that makes him almost invincible...and his ego a bit inflated. Kick-Ass meets Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) when she kills Frank D'Amico's gangsters when they were getting ready to beat up Kick-Ass. Hit Girl's father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), wants to bring Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) down because he framed Big Daddy as a drug dealer (back in the day when he was a cop). D'Amico thinks that Kick-Ass killed his men and goes after him. Kick-Ass meets Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), another amateur superhero, and they team up. Little does he know, Red Mist is D'Amico's son and has ulterior motives to their friendship. 

Kick-Ass Team

What's that about child profanity and violence? Oh that's right...it's awesome. It's a fictional movie and rated R, so little kids wouldn't be running around swinging butterfly knives in the playground (unless their parents are idiots and let them watch Kick-Ass). Kick-Ass was very entertaining with a great soundtrack to match. The comedy kept the more grim scenes in balance, and it got me laughing a few times. The  choreography was fresh and super cool. Honestly, Hit Girl's action scenes blew me away. Chloë was perfect as Hit Girl--a sweet girl and brilliant killer. Aaron Johnson was a lovable dork in Kick-Ass. The storyline gave enough time and thought into Dave's character development, and Aaron was able to bring comedy and seriousness together without shocking the audience with a bipolar movie. I was surprised to see Christopher Mintz-Plasse play a non-dorky role (not that there's something wrong with McLovin). Soo...movie producers: Chris is versatile! Good thing Nicholas Cage had a mask on for most of the movie; his contemplative-eyebrow-face wasn't there to distract. The ending bothered me; Kick-Ass felt like it ended too early. Maybe a little tweak here and there would have made a perfect movie (to me, at least). 

The hovercraft was disappointing. 

The Last Airbender

M. Night Shyamalan sure had us fooled...who knew his true calling was COMEDY? The Last Airbender gave me a few laughs because it was like a spoof video of the show. I showed a clip of the movie to my friend and she thought it was a fanvid.

In the world of Avatar, there are four nations: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. The people in their nation can bend the corresponding element if they're born with the ability. The Avatar is supposed to bring balance to the four nations with his powers (ability to bend all four elements). Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) from the water tribe find Aang (Noah Ringer) in an iceberg and free him. They find out that Aang is the Avatar that ran away 100 years ago because he didn't want to be the Avatar (can't have a family) and he got caught in a storm, resulting in getting trapped in the iceberg. Aang is hunted by the Nazi-like Fire Nation, who wants to take over the world with their fire bending with the absence of Aang. Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) is banished to hunt the Avatar in exchange for his fathers acceptance. When the firenation captures Aang, Katara and Sokka decide that it is their "responsibility" to help Aang. They escape with some swoosh swoosh airbending and Aang and his new friends stop by some small Earth kingdom towns to stop the firebenders little by little. He has to learn waterbending as the first step to mastering the elements (he already mastered air) to defeat the evil fire nation.

Oh my goodness! He's bending fire out of nothing! It makes all the other firebenders look like wimps.

People in the theater probably thought I was crazy because I was laughing so much when the scenes were solemn. Aang is only twelve years old, but he acts like his mother beat the childhood out of him or something.   Every single character in Avatar is stripped of his/her personality, which makes the show what it is. There is absolutely no excuse for Shyamalan's suspicious casting. I can act better than Noah Ringer and just use his stunt double to do some cool flips. Nicola Peltz had no emotion. Might as well cast a rock for Katara and invest the money on a better camera (most scenes looked blurry and foggy). Heck, I can write a better script than Shyamalan.
Aang (being a Liberater): "There's earth under your feet!" 
Earthbenders in prison: Really?? Ooh there is!! I can earthbend this earth that has been right under my feet for the past 100 years!
Me: *facepalm*
The bending in the movie reminded me of a video game. Opponent's turn. Fire ball: → O ↓ ↑ X ← Enter. You dodge. Your turn. Rock Throw: ↓ O ↓ ← ← Enter. Opponent defeated. You gain 10 EXP.

← ← ← Run away! Run away!

It takes so long just to move a tiny rock. Why waste your time bending when you could just go up to your opponent and stab them? It would be so much faster. If firebenders need a fire source, why can't everyone put out their stupid campfires? There are so many things in this movie that doesn't make sense. Even though it's a fantasy, Shyamalan's ideas wouldn't even make sense in the Avatar world. I may be a bit biased because I'm a huge fan of the show, but people that don't watch the show have common sense and are probably lost in The Last Airbender's super fast pacing. I can't say that I'm disappointed because I kind of predicted that this would be a bad movie, just not this bad. 1 star for making me laugh sometimes and promoting the show (you should watch that instead). I really hope this isn't a trilogy...

Shaolin Soccer

Stephen Chow!! He's such a hilarious guy. This movie is probably one of his funniest.

Iron Head and sing trying to rouse up the Kung fu spirit in gangsters

Fung (Ng Man Tat) used to be a famous soccer player, but because his rival teammate, Hung (Patrick Tse) set up an event that led to his cripple leg, he now is a human foot-stool for Hung. Fung meets Sing (Stephen Chow), who has an amazing "Mighty Steel Leg" and gets an idea to use Sing's Shaolin Kung fu to beat Hung's soccer team and win the tournament. Sing agrees because his ultimate dream is to teach people to incorporate Kung fu into their everyday lives to improve it. After some major encouragement, he gathers his Shaolin brothers to train with Coach Hung. They're a bit rusty on the Kung fu and can't play soccer for their life, but Sing manages to bring their butt-kicking spirit back to fight play against Hung's "Evil Team" (such an evil name).

The Shaolin Bros get their game on.

Now don't let the language barrier stop you from watching this movie. The subtitles are pretty accurate, but I have to admit..knowing Chinese makes this movie perfect. I have watched Stephen Chow's mo lei tau (Chinese wordplay) movies and I understood it like an American: I had no idea what was so funny. Shaolin Soccer, however, doesn't use much mo lei tau. The humor is mostly physical and slapstick, so I kept laughing throughout this whole movie. Having the director be the star of the film really gets things done. There is really no one that can star a Stephen Chow movie than the man himself. He works great with Ng Man Tat and Wong Yut Fei (Iron Head). The romance between Mui (Vicki Zhao) and Sing seemed a little rushed, but Hey, kung fu attracts girls, right? The action scenes were very cool. Even though the CGI isn't as polished as the movies nowadays, the scenes are so over-the-top that they're hilarious. I recommend you see the full 102-minute version of the film (not the Miramax 80-minute version). I don't know why they would cut 20 minutes of great scenes.

This is Empty Hand (Bruce Lee Danny Chan Kwok Kwan)

Filming Cheaters (now called The Dilemma) in Chicago!

I happened to walk by the filming of Cheaters (2011) and ahem...Channing Tatum and Winona Ryder!!

They were filming in Chicago Chinatown's Wentworth Street. The film crew totally transformed one of the gift stores into a movie set! They moved all of the nick-knacks out of the store and put some meat on display and random Chinese candies inside the store. There were extras and cars lined up on the street to pass through the scene at the right time. Only part of the street was blocked for filming, so the lucky tourists that happened to walk by were able to take pictures and watch the magic happen. Most of the Chinese people that lived in Chinatown just wanted to cross the street because they had no idea what was happening. Who the heck is Channing Tatum? I just want to get some bok choy!

Luckily, I lived near Chinatown so I could run to my house to grab my camera with huge zooming lenses to get clear pictures. Other people were caught by surprise and only had their phones and iPods. "There's lots of paparazzi here," the security guard said. Gosh...I'm sure he was just talking about me. The security guards blocked the streets when they were filming and told me that pictures weren't allowed, but someone with more authority told us that pictures were allowed, but no flash. I was going to take pictures anyways- it's much too exciting.

The Hollywood interpretation of a Chinatown store

Here's the scene: Channing Tatum parks his car and gets out, leaving Winona Ryder inside. He walks into the store and buys a roast duck from the Asian dude. The salesman dumps the duck into a plastic bag and gives it to Tatum. He gets out of the store, waving the duck at the woman. Then, he gets back in the car and drives away. They must have done the same scene at least ten times. 

Tatum with duck in a bag

Hollywood is hilarious... in the real Chinatown, the butcher chops the duck up and puts it in an aluminum take out box, all of the drivers aren't white, and the people walking aren't all young and hip.

If I walk around Chicago, I might just end up watching the whole movie!