Avengers: Endgame - 復仇者聯盟:終局之戰

Avengers: Endgame (復仇者聯盟:終局之戰) is an 2019 movie. The film stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner as the original six Avengers. The other cast members include Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Bradley Cooper, and Josh Brolin. This is the 22nd film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The is the 4th Avengers film and a direct sequel to Avengers: Infinity War (復仇者聯盟:無限之戰).



In the aftermath of the Snap, Tony and Nebula are trapped in space, but make it back to earth. On earth, it is confirmed that 50% of life has ended around the universe. Captain Marvel returns to earth to help. Ant-man makes it back out of the Quantum realm to join in the fight. There, they join forces with the rest of the survivors. Their plan is to re-claim the stones to undo what Thanos did. And that's as much from the trailers that we can reveal now. The rest would be spoilers



After 22 films. Seriously, 22 films, this is the finale. The one that sets the tone for the MCU going forward. And does it ever. If you're reading this beyond April 2019, you'll think it silly of all the fan theories out there and that none of them were even close to 25% correct. Elements were there, but the story took so many turns that unless you had the script, you wouldn't have known.



I am writing this within a couple of hours of coming home from the movie, so my mind is still trying to process. I think a 2nd and 3rd viewing will allow me to put the story aside and just enjoy the majesty of the most epic MCU ever.



This is an epic film by all accounts and it plays to the strengths of all the survivors and sets up the next phase of the MCU. What the MCU has done is unprecedented in connecting together 22 films and making sense of most of it. This 22nd one takes the cake and you'll be happy that you took the time to enjoy the MCU ride.



I saw it on IMAX it was spectacular. If you want to enjoy it, do it in IMAX. It was the midnight showings or pre-release day previews. This movie will have a huge box office opening. The 3 hours actually seems fast. I wanted more after. I wanted it to continue.



The movie has the most comedy of the ensemble casts films and you'll be laughing and crying at the same time.



So, what's next now? With Disney+ in the mix and the inclusion of the Fox, the future of the MCU seems so up in the air. I for one will be happily following along.

Avengers: Endgame - 復仇者聯盟:終局之戰 - Tomorrow

Avengers: Endgame (復仇者聯盟:終局之戰) is getting released tomorrow in the US. I can hardly contain my excitement. I hope I don't get any spoilers before hand. Below are the many TV spots that have been released daily for the last few weeks.

通靈少女 - The Teenage Psychic - Season One (1)

通靈少女 (The Teenage Psychic), Season One, is an television series out of Taiwan from HBO from 2017. The series stars Kuo Shu-yao. The supporting cast in Kent Tsai and Sylvia Hsieh. It is advertised as the first Mandarin speaking original series from HBO. However, in actuality, maybe around half of the series is in Taiwanese.



The story of a 16 (sixteen) year high school sophomore that is part of the drama club. But what she hides from her schoolmates is that she works at a temple as a psychic. Someone that can communicate with dead people. The story follows her work at the temple and how she uses her skill to help the community around. The other half is her trying to get through adolescence and everything that comes with it.

There are 6 episodes at around 45 minutes. It seemly starts at the beginning of a new semester when a new student shows up and than ends months later at a spring festival talent show. Without giving allow the main plot points too much, the story contains a lot of sadness. Although things are resolved, it still a very sad series. Which is what I would expect from a Taiwanese series that seems to have a little more creative freedom and doesn't necessarily have to take ratings into affect.

I like the series portrayal of people living their lives in Taipei. I like the slice of HS that I didn't get from Taipei life having grown up in the US. I like how the community of Taiwan seemingly can integrate both Buddhist and Christianity into the story.

At six episodes, its over before you can start to get annoyed at the things it assumes you know. I was left satisfied at the end and prolly might have had trouble going on if there were 10-15 episodes.

If you have HBO, its available as a on demand viewing. I watched it via HBO Go app on old Apple TV.

Den of Thieves - 極盜戰

Den of Thieves (極盜戰) is an 2018 film. The movie stars Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, and O'Shea Jackson Jr. The supporting cast include Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Max Holloway, and Michael Bisping.



Some bad guys try to rob a armor truck and things go a little south and one of their guys is shot. A "special forces" version of team from the LA Sherriff's arrives on scene and finds some leads. From there a cat and mouse chase of the robs going with the "keep you friends close and your enemies even closer" philosophy. The mouse keeps leaving clues and hints for the cat. When the big heist goes down, who will win?



This was a hard watch. Maybe because no one in the movie was very likable. They were either a criminal or they were a bad cop. No win choices there. However, by the end of the film, I was pulling for the bad guys to get away because the cops were so unlikable. There are lots of major plot twists through the movie and he better keep up. Luckily, I was able to rewind when needed.

I got this film via T-Mobile Tuesday Redbox promo.

Ninja Scroll - 獣兵衛忍風帖

Ninja Scroll (獣兵衛忍風帖) is an 1993 anime film out of Japan. The movie was brought over the US in 1995. During the 1990s, many people consider this film as one of the most influential anime films of its time. The film is directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri.

Jubei is a traveling mercenary ninja. Jubei helps the less fortunate for scraps. When a plague hits a particular region, the local clan sends their ninja to investigate. But they all but get wiped out. A spy from the larger shogun leadership goes to investigate and enlist the help of Jubei through some trickery. Can these three strangers band together long enough to stay alive and get what they all want?

I got to see this via rental back n 1995 from a local comic book store called Angel Comics. At the time, they started to rent out anime and Ninja Scroll came up. The selection wasn't big so I pretty much rental everything they had. I wasn't a stranger to anime, but this film was so different than anything out there. Kawajiri was also the director of a bunch of other non kid friendly anime from the 1980s. This one took it to another level.

A couple of years back, I really wanted to watch this again. When a deal for it came up on Amazon, I purchased it. I recently re-watched it. Man, does it hold up. The production value is high and seems like an anime that you can play today. But its from 1993. The story also is very 1990s/1980s in its sensual aspects that you don't see in today's anime. So, it may definitely turn lots of people off there.

The movie was so popular that an series was created for it. I can't remember much as I didn't like the series nearly as much as the movie. Still a classic in 2019.

Burnt - 天菜大廚

Burnt (天菜大廚) is an 2015 film. The movie stars Bradley Cooper. The supporting cast include Sienna Miller, Omar Sy, Daniel Brühl, Matthew Rhys, Riccardo Scamarcio, Alicia Vikander, Uma Thurman, and Emma Thompson. The movie primarily takes place in London.

Bradley Cooper plays Adam Jones, a former 2 star chef of an Paris restaurant. The movie starts with him I NOLA shucking 1 million oysters to make amends and being 2 plus years sober from his past life in Paris. After he shucks his 1 millionth oyster, he leaves and flies to London in a grand plan to start a restaurant that will get 3 stars. Along the way, he looks up contacts from his past and young talent to join him. Along the way, there are many failures and character searching.

I really enjoyed this movie. It flowed from beginning to end with a purpose. Get those 3 stars. But the therapist was right, what happens if you don't get it. Life must still go on. For those of us in the regular world, we deal with this much more and wouldn't be in those extraordinary situations that a movie presents.

Because I love watching cooking reality shows, this fictionalized one made it seem much more exciting. Because you get to see what they live through after the cooking stops. The folks in the food services industry have to work really hard.

I watched this movie via Netflix.

First Man - 登月先鋒

First Man (登月先鋒) is an 2018 film. The movie stars Ryan Gosling. The supporting cast include Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, and Kyle Chandler. The movie is based on the life of Neil A. Armstrong, the first man to step foot on the moon.

The movie starts with Neil's plight as a test pilot and his application to the space program for the astronaut program. Neil gets in and moves to Houston with his family. The families of the program all live in the same neighborhood. The wives end up getting to know each other. As the film progress over a roughly 8 year period of trying to land on the moon. It starts with runs into the earth orbits to try things all the way to the landing on the moon. Along the way, we see the life of Neil unfold in bits and pieces. You can't cover 8 years of life in a 2 hour film, but they try.

The film was a pretty slow movie. They try to take a very extreme close up view from the shaking that happens on the aircrafts. I just ended up getting a headache and not watching and I watched it at home. If I were in the movie theatre, I might have thrown up. The story presentation was also very uneven, it goes through the space program life really fast and the lack of real character development makes following them a bit less emotionally attached. In the end, my thought was, finally over. I also fell asleep a couple of times and had to rewind.

I picked this up via T-Mobile Tuesday's Redbox promotion.

Overlord - 大君主行動

Overlord (大君主行動) is an 2018 film. The movie stars Jovan Adepo and Wyatt Russell. The film is based during World War II.

A paratrooper group is dropped behind enemy lines and has to destroy a communication tower in preparations for the D-day attacks. The communication tower is a source of information that would give the allied troops a distinct advantage. However, the majority of the troop is killed when their airplane is shot up. The four that survive make it the base of the communication tower. There they get in and try to do a little recon. However, they find out that experiments are taking place. Can this troop survive the zombie troops and destroy the tower?

This movie has high production value. Does not feel like a B movie. BUT, the story is quite boring. I ended up fast forwarding a lot of the movie because I was falling asleep. The action was good in some places, but the story made me want to sleep.

I got this via T-Mobile Tuesday Redbox promo.

2019 April Blockbuster Movie Guide

Here are the movies to look out for this month, US Edition.

Avengers: Endgame (復仇者聯盟:終局之戰_



Shazam! (沙贊!)



Pet Sematary (禁入墳場)



Hellboy (地獄怪客:血后的崛起)



High Life



Sources:
IMDB Coming Soon
Box Office Mojo
Wikipedia.org
Taiwan Yahoo! Movies
WMoov Hong Kong