The Fate of the Furious - 玩命關頭8

The Fate of the Furious (玩命關頭8) is an 2017 film. The film stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Scott Eastwood, Nathalie Emmanuel, Elsa Pataky, Kurt Russell, and Charlize Theron. This is the eighth movie of the franchise.

We start out with a race in Cuba where Dom comes out a winner and makes a friend. While on a raid, he's tempted away by Cipher to do her bidding. The group luckily doesn't die and is super confused. Why would Dom turn on his friend. Think about it for a bit, you have your answer. The crew continues on with their mission with Dom, but time and time again, Dom messes them up. How do you defeat Dom? You don't. Dom comes around and saves the day. Some driving involved, but lots of airtime too.

This is the eighth time out. None of the folks here have been in everyone. Because with #2 and #3, no one wanted to be around. But when Justin Lin put the cool back in, all the folks wanted back with #4. But its now running long in the tooth and even the box office is responding now. Can there be too much of a good thing? Can Hobbs And Shaw's spinoff do well. Shaw still killed Han, never forget. But the international market trumps the box office of the US, so they'll keep pumping them out. Vin has announce that they'll make it up to a final 10th film. Not including the spin offs.

It's been on HBO non-stop recently so I've caught parts of the movie, but there wasn't a time that I stopped to finish to the end.

Atomic Blonde - 極凍之城

Atomic Blonde (極凍之城) is an 2017 film. The movie stars Charlize Theron. The supporting cast include James McAvoy, John Goodman, Sofia Boutella, and Bill Skarsgård. The movie is directed by David Leitch, the uncredited co-director of John Wick.

During the late 1980s cold war, a British spy is found and killed, but not before he's got the list of all the undercover agents in the Eastern block. The killer is set on selling the list to the highest bidder. Trouble is, its still the cold war, and its in the communist side of Berlin. Lorraine Broughton, played by Charlize Theron, is a MI6 field agent sent to track down the list. The agent on the inside is David Percival, played by James McAvoy. Together, they have to figure out where the killer is and how to get the list back before it goes public.

This movie played much like the action of John Wick. Fast paced and hard hitting. When the action starts, it's relentless and brutal. If you're a fan of Gun-fu and the John Wick series, this will be right up your alley. I for one really like the film. The music added a bit of nostalgic for me.

I rented it on Redbox and recently picked up a digital copy on sale. I am set to watch this again someday.

Snow White And The Huntsman - 公主與狩獵者

Snow White And The Huntsman (公主與狩獵者) is an 2012 film. The movie stars Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, and Chris Hemsworth. The movie is based on the German fairy tale "Snow White" compiled by the Brothers Grimm. Not the Disney cartoon version that I am more accustomed to seeing these days.

In a far away land of kingdoms, there is an honorable King with a a queen and princess. When the queen dies, he marries another. But this person is indeed a sorceress and kills the king on their wedding night. Taking power, those that would resist make a run for it, but the princess is left for dead. But she does not perish. The princess, Snow White is captured and locked away. When the Sorceress Queen finds out that she needs Snow Whites heart to gain immortality, the story gets interesting. Snow White escapes to a nearby magic forest and finds her way her father's loyal servants. Together they plot to retake the Kingdom.

The movie was visually very stunning. The world created seemed out of the old middle age days. Castles, Kings, royalty. The story was pretty interesting too. It wasn't plagued by dwarfs and singing birds. A major relief for me. Alas, the movie was entertaining and let me think to a far away land that has no asians. A place I prolly won't ever visit.

Sweet November - 甜蜜的十一月

It's been awhile since I've been able to blog for a month. These days, I've been watching a lot of Amazon Prime videos. Although the selection is pretty weak right now, I am catching up on stuff I didn't watch in the past, like Lost Season 6, Dresden Files, and Firefly. And the good thing is that I can choose to watch in HD. Once you go HD, it's hard to turn back. That's one of the major problems with watching the asian stuff, its not HD. And to get HD, it's usually not available or double the $$.

I'll be a lot more sporadic for the next 3 months. I'll prolly be back to do a daily in March 2012. But my days of daily posts year round are over.

In honor of my daily post for the whole month of November, I give you a sappy movie from one of my favorite actors, Keanu Reeves. Recently shown on cable during Thanksgiving break.



Sweet November (甜蜜的十一月) is an 2001 film. The movie stars Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron. The two also played a couple a few years earlier in 1997's The Devil's Advocate. However, this time around, they turn up the romance.

Nelson Moss (Keanu Reeves) plays an high level marketing guru who meets Sara Deever (Charlize Theron) during a DMV visit. Sara sees that Nelson is a complete jerk and proposes that they spend a month together. Sara's way of saving Nelson from his jerkhood. Nelson is too pompous to see and blows her off. High and mightly, he also goes ballistic at a client for an ad campaign and gets fired. Sara sends him a dog and they start their month to the reluctance of Nelson. Thus, Sweet November. However, you are kept wondering what's Sara's story. But while you're thinking about this, Sara changes Nelson into a better human being. Seriously changes him. But what's Sara's story again? I won't spoil it for you.

Keanu always gets a bad rap for his stiff acting and over the top persona when he plays "driven" individuals. This movie was no different. Just watch the scene where he gets fired. You'll also see it in the clothes. Keanu looks really good when he's the bad @$$ ad guru. But when he becomes the better man, he's in jeans and flanel. This is also the time when Charlize was becoming an A-lister. 10 years later, both still look really good in the film. The film actually still holds very well for being from 10 years ago. The clothes, the professions, and the story still provide a lot of strong feelings.

If you like Hollywood endings, you might want to skip this movie too. Its a adult coming of age film for Keanu and plays to another storyline that would spoil the movie. I especially like the OG trailer and how the Enya song, Only Time, played to the emotions of the film. Being a Keanu, Charlize, and Enya fan, that trailer rocked. The movie is one for the ages in my opinion.