Hong Kong Box Office - Week Ending: February 22, 2015
As of this writing, Box Office Mojo and EntGroup have not released the numbers for the Hong Kong Box Office for this weekend. Trying HKFilmart.com, which is a weekly report vs. weekend report.
Weekend of February 22, 2015
Rank
Film Title
1
Stand By Me: 多啦A夢 (Stand By Me: Doraemon)
2
衝上雲霄 (Triumph In The Skies)
3
賭城風雲2 (From Vegas To Macau II/The Man From Macau II)
Hong Kong Box Office - Week Ending: February 15, 2015
As of this writing, Box Office Mojo and EntGroup have not released the numbers for the Hong Kong Box Office for this weekend. Trying HKFilmart.com, which is a weekly report vs. weekend report.
奔跑吧! 兄弟 (Running Man) is an 2015 film out of Zhong Guo. The movie stars Angelababy, Wang Baoqiang, Li Chen, Michael Chen, Ryan Cheng, Wong Cho-lam, Sie Yi-Lin, Lynn Hung, Guo Jingfei, Eleven, Kim Jong-kook. The film is based on a popular Zhong Guo variety show of the same name.
The movie starts with the introduction of the team as they arrive at the airport. Eleven eventually shows up as their tour guide. When they get to the hotel, we are introduced to the whole team and the pick teams. The winning team gets to stay in the nice hotel rooms and the loser gets the no so nice hotel rooms. The swimming pool event is using their hands only to knock their opponent off the stage. The next day, they are present with an activity to find up to 200 clues. The winning team will receive $888,888 CNY. A killer has been made available in this game. Game on!
I'll be honest, I wasn't sure what I saw. Because I have not seen the Zhong Guo variety show nor the original Korean version, I wasn't sure what was going on. And the captions they had on screen were not translated so I didn't get the jokes. However, I understand enough to ask myself why the heck I paid AMC prices to watch this. I could have just watched the Youtube version of the TV show. Yikes! But its doing tremendous biz in the motherland. I went with a buddy that knows the Korean version and we were the only ones in the theater.
Hong Kong Box Office - Week Ending: February 1, 2015
As of this writing, Box Office Mojo and EntGroup have not released the numbers for the Hong Kong Box Office for this weekend. Trying HKFilmart.com, which is a weekly report vs. weekend report.
Dracula Untold (德古拉:永咒傳奇) is an 2014 film. The film stars Luke Evans with support from Sarah Gadon. The movie is an re-imagining of Vlad the Impaler's origins.
Luke Evans plays Vlad the Impaler, a prince of Transylvania. The Ottoman empire controls the region while planning to conquer Europe. When the Sultan asks for 1,000 boys to add to his Janissary corp, including his son, Vlad is forced to make hard decisions. Vlad just had a run in with a vampire in the mountains and seeks his power to defeat the oncoming troops. When drinking of the vampire, he has 3 days time to reject blood, but getting all the benefits of vampire power. Vlad starts to win the battles and the Ottoman empire start to retreat, but not before he has to make a decision.
This movie was dark fantasy drama. Taking a "realistic" view of the Dracula and the vampire genre. The world at the time didn't seem to dispute that there are vampires, but accepted it. Luke Evan's battle between good, family, price of a nation, and evil is on full display. This was no "I want to suck your blood" movie. This was a modern take on "monsters" and their unlikely path to being "evil". Seems like Vlad had no choice.
In the middle on recommending this movie. It wasn't all that action packed in the sense of a good fight, but there were plenty of battles. It was in an era that I like to see movies from, the middle ages. And Luke Evans and Sarah Gadon made it very easy to keep your eyes on the screen.
Fight Club (鬥陣俱樂部/搏擊會) is an 1999 film staring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. The supporting cast include Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf (Robert Paulson), and Jared Leto. The movie is considered one of the most influential movies of the late 1990s. The most famous line of the movie, "First rule of Fight Club is. . . you do not talk about Fight Club", is now part of the pop culture lexicon.
Norton plays a insurance man that gets addicted to support groups trying to cure his insomnia. He meets Brad Pitt's character, Tyler Durden, on a plane and looks him up after some bad things happen to him. Eventfully, this friendship starts the fight club. The fight club starts small, get's semi-organized, and starts to cause havoc across the city.
This is one of those movies that I stop to watch all the time over the years. Recently, its been on heavy rerun on HBO since last summer. I recently watched bits of it again. You really can pick up anytime and go from there. It is that interesting of a movie. I think that's a true mark of an movie. The ability for it to stand the test of time. For me and many others, it has. The success it lack at the box has all been recovered in the home media arena.
"Fight Club" is often used in pop culture reference for underground activities and more recently, humorous activities. Usually referred in conjunction with a quote from the movie, "First rule of Fight Club is. . . you do not talk about Fight Club". You replace "Fight Club" with your vice.
If you haven't watched it before, give it a chance. It's no longer the extreme movie it was considered in 1999, but it stands the test of time with its style, dialogue, acting, and story.
Noah (諾亞方舟) is an 2014 film. The movie stars Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, and Anthony Hopkins. The film is based on a biblical character of the same name.
In the early ages, Noah witnesses the death of his father. Fast forward a lot of years, Noah has a family of his own, but the earth is dying. When Noah's grandfather, Methuselah, gives him a seed from the garden of Eden, it brings life around his camp and forest sprouts. Noah embarks to build a ark as he knows world ending storm is coming. When the rest of the world finds out, they try to take over. The flood happens.
This movie was pretty entertaining. Crowe gives a good performance. The rest of the cast were just there. The movie was slow in parts, but I did not fall asleep or fast forward. If you're looking for a grand spectacle of a movie, this is one of them.
Lone Survivor (紅翼行動) is an 2013 film. The movie stars Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, and Eric Bana. The movie is based on an 2007 novel of the same name.
A four man SEAL reconnaissance and surveillance team is tasked to track down and to kill an Taliban leader named Ahmad Shah. The go into the hills above a village to identify Ahamd Shah. However, they are discovered and a long drawn out stand off happens. As you can tell from the title of the film, only one member of the four man surveillance team makes it back alive.
The movie was a mild box office hit due to the time it was released. The film was released during January, generally a slow time of the year. It started a limited release run during Christmas of 2013. But did most of its business in 2014.
What did I think of the film? It was slow to start and bit of a let down at the end. But entertaining for the most part. It shouldn't be compared to American Sniper in any way shape or form. But it is a war time movie and it does go into a bit that war is not good.
