Warcraft - 魔獸:崛起

Warcraft (魔獸:崛起) is an 2016 film. The movie is based on the popular video game of the same name from Blizzard Entertainment. The film stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, Clancy Brown, and Daniel Wu. Many of the folks were in complete CG that you didn't even know it was them.

Humans and Orcs long battle each other. When a evil wizard from the Orcs side gains from evil magic, it affects both side. Both sides must now join forces to defeat the evil wizard. But before they can do that, Humans and Orcs must learn to accept and fight along side each other.

This movie as a lot of CG. So much that it began to look cartoonish. And the CG wasn't bad like television, but it wasn't on par against other movies that rely heavily on CG. The story was also very hard to follow which made me confused and there are way too many characters that look similar that I couldn't tell them apart.

From the box office standpoint, it performed poorly in the USA based on its budget, but got the money back on the international market.

Not sure I can recommend this one. Better off dusting off your Windows 3.1 and going into DOS to set the memory to play the first Warcraft game. Wait, I still do that.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle - 金牌特務:機密對決

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (金牌特務:機密對決) is an 2017 film. The movie stars Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, and Mark Strong. The film adds Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Elton John, Channing Tatum, and Jeff Bridges to its supporting cast.

The films starts out with the Kingsman getting blow to pieces, suggesting a mole. Eggsy find his way to the US to enlist the help of the Statesman. Harry was not killed and was rescued by the Statemen, the US counterpart to the Kingsman. When they join forces, they head to stop another world usurper. Can they make it back in time to stop the madness?

This film was like episode two. It continues Eggsy's evolution from street thug to socialite. However, you can take the kid out of thuglife, but the thuglife lives on in him.

I liked the movie, but once you've seen it once, its hard to watch again. I've skipped it the last few times. I caught this for the first via Redbox.

三生三世十里桃花 - Once Upon A Time

三生三世十里桃花 (Once Upon Aa Time) is an 2017 film out of Zhong Guo. The movie stars Liu Yifei and Yang Yang. The movie is based on a novel of the same Zhong Wen name. Another drama series called Eternal Love was based on the same story.



Liu Yifei plays Bai Qian, a fox ferry that lives in seclusion and dreams of her lover. Ye Hua, played by Yang Yang, who belives Bai Qian is his long lost lover Su Su. Ye pays Bai a visit and tries to figure her out. They eventually fall for each other and go to the heavenly city. There, past lives and responsibilities and politics come into play. Can these two lovers that could be from multiple generations still find love?



I saw this movie at a local AMC back in the summer of 2017. Besides both protagonist being extremely good looking people, I found it hard to watch the movie. During the movie, two couples walked out. I have thought to do that before I think I have, just couldn't for this film. Liu and Yang are too beautiful to not watch. Even if the story sucks.



Update from December 27, 2018: I watched Eternal Love via Netflix this month. It was 58 episodes and does a way better job of telling this story. To even attempt to tell it via a movie seems silly. Goto Netflix now and watch "Eternal Love", skip the movie.

Kong: Skull Island - 金剛:骷髏島

Kong: Skull Island (金剛:骷髏島) is an 2017 film. The movie is an ensemble cast that includes Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Jing Tian, Toby Kebbell, John Ortiz, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann, Terry Notary, and John C. Reilly. The movie reboots the King Kong monster for the modern times and is the second movie of Legendary's MonsterVerse. The first being the recent Godzilla (哥吉拉) reboot. The two franchises will meet someday.

There is a secret island in the South Pacific. During WWII, two pilot crash land there, the Japanese and US pilots clash but are interrupted by a monster. Fast forward to the 70s. A group of researchers identify a strange island that needs investigation. However, in order to get there, a lot of parties join the fray. And all of them have there own agenda when they get there. As each group seemly tries to destroy the island. The protector of the island gets involved. King Kong of course. Can they get out of the island alive? Will Kong climb the Empire State building. Inquiring minds want to know.

This movie was well made. The addition of Jing Tian is to attract the Zhong Guo market. When seems like they did better than Godzilla. As a movie, I was entertained. Even though Samuel L. Jackson's character was cray cray, it had to done to move the story along. Lots and lots of beautiful people in this movie which make watching this movie a breeze. Not gonna watch it a second. It's been on rerun on HBO recently and haven't stopped to watch once. I got this via Redbox back in the day.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - 野蠻遊戲:瘋狂叢林

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (野蠻遊戲:瘋狂叢林) is an 2017 film. The movie stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Nick Jonas. The supporting cast include Bobby Cannavale, Rhys Darby, and Colin Hanks. The film was primarily shot in Hawaii and takes place 26 years after the events of the first movie, starring Robin Williams.

Four teenagers get into mischief at school and are sent to detention. There, they discover a old video game and decide to play it. The four pick characters and are magically transported into the game. They discover that they have 3 lives to complete the game and maybe get back home. Along the way they find out their skills and become "woke" to their ways in the real world.

The movie was a lot of fun to watch, the story was simple and the action kept me engaged. I like that each character had their moments and it wasn't completely a Rock movie. Johnson does get most of the scene time, but they do end up focusing on the other players a lot too.

This movie was also much different than the Robin Williams one. Where the game came to our world, this one was the gamers going into their world. A fun watch and recommended for a fun time.

A sequel was releases in 2019, Jumanji: The Next Level (野蠻遊戲:全面晉級).

The 15:17 To Paris - 15:17 巴黎列車

The 15:17 to Paris (15:17 巴黎列車) is an 2018 film. The movie stars Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos. They were also the real life participants who stopped a attack on the Thalys to Paris train attack in 2015. The film was directed by Clint Eastwood.

Spencer and Alek are good friends in middle school, but they seem to get into trouble a lot. When they meet another trouble maker in Anthony Sadler, they become fast friends. But as life would have it, all three go their separate ways, but they continue to keep in touch via social media. Stone joins the Air Force and Skarlatos joins the Army. Sadler is a student. They decide to do a European back packing trip that leads to their fateful exchange.

This was a pretty good movie. I kind of remembered that Eastwood decided to use the real life 3 doods in the film as the lead stars. The acting between the three needs a lot of work. The story dives into the childhoods of the three and why they were connected. It also goes slightly into the reasons why they choose the paths they did.

Alisa Allapach showing up in a bit role as Lisa was also a nice addition to the plotline.

2018 June Blockbuster Movie Guide

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

Adrift (我願意)



Hereditary (宿怨)



Hotel Artemis



Won't You Be My Neighbor?



Ocean's 8 (瞞天過海:八面玲瓏)



Incredibles 2 (超人特攻隊2)



Tag (貼背戰)



Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (侏羅紀世界:殞落國度)



Sicario: Day of the Soldado (怒火邊界2:毒刑者)



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