Passengers - 星際過客

Passengers (星際過客) is an 2016 film. The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt. The supporting cast include Michael Sheen and Laurence Fishburne.

On a trip to another solar system, two strangers are mysteriously awoken. Would they become lovers while the spaceship hurls through the cosmos? Or will drama arise and make their lives hard. They are both passengers in the game of space and life.

This was a good sci-fi genre film. If you like this genre, this will make you think. Chris does play someone different than his more recent turns in Guardians Of The Galaxy (星際異攻隊) and Jurassic World (侏羅紀世界). But it was welcomed as it was closer to his Moneyball performance. Can't say the same for JL, which I think could have been any decent female lead. But they are both oh so beautiful together.

I think it's worth a watch. I rented it from Redbox and picked up the Blu-ray during black Friday recently. Two watches and I still enjoyed it.

Man of Steel - 超人:鋼鐵英雄

Man of Steel (超人:鋼鐵英雄) is an 2013 film. The movie stars Henry Cavill and Amy Adams. Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, and Russell Crowe round out the supporting cast. The movie is produced in part by Christopher Nolan. The movie reboots the Superman franchise.



Krypton, on the way to imploding, send its last son into space. On Earth, we start with Clark Kent making his way up to the north pole and working his way. When he finally makes it there, the government is there with a discovery or aircraft deep below the ice. A reporting by the name of Lois Lane is also there. A no nonsense report that gets the story and the truth. Lane bumps into Clark and sees some of his powers as he's in search of his origin. Back in Metropolis, Lane writes a story of a Superman that is dismissed, but leaked out to the world. Kent returns home to explore his origins. However, some prisoners from Krypton find their way to earth and battle Kent for the earth.



How do you redo a story that almost every fan of sci-fi would know. A alien being with super powers rescues the earth. The Superman story is part of the fabric of American culture. Just like The Monkey King is in Zhong Guo. In this telling, the film makers went with realism and gut wrenching character development.



If your new to the supermen mythologies, you'll like this. It does break down Krypton, the sun giving Kent super powers, and Lois Lane. This time around, Lois Lane is no nonsense and very much a part of the fabric of the story. Not an after thought.



As much as the movie was well made. I didn't like it that much. I don't even think I'd stop to watch this a 2nd time if I was flipping through channels. Worth at least one watch.

Predators - 終極戰士團

Predators (終極戰士團) is a 2010 film. The film stars Adrien Brody and Alice Braga. The rest of the cast includes Topher Grace, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Danny Trejo, and Laurence Fishburne.

A bunch of people that know how to kill are kidnapped from Earth and sent to an alien repository. They must figure out what is going on and then learn to survive together. The group slowly figures out what's going on and starts to seek out the predators. Can they win and get back home?

The movie was surprising fun to watch. Lots of mystery and lots of action. The movie also explores the predators mythos much more. Lot's of thing were not explored, but didn't need to.

21 - 決勝21點

21 (決勝21點) is a 2008 film. The movie stars Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, and Kate Bosworth. The supporting cast include Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts, and Laurence Fishburne. The movie was based on the book Bringing Down the House.

Ben is a student at MIT. Ben is great in the classroom, but not so great with paying the bills. Faced with financial odds, he agrees to join a blackjack squad. The squad is very successful in bringing down the house of various casinos. As time goes on, Ben gets a little out of hand and thats when things fall apart. How will he get his life back together.

The film was controversial in the Asian American realm because the book it was based on was of a true story. And the main protagonist were Asian American. To this day, 21 is used by Asian Americans in jokes and parodies to point to the overt racist behavior in Hollywood.

As the movie itself, is it worth watching? Yes, it was a pretty interesting subject matter, even with the human elements thrown in, it didn't detract from the main story of Ben needing money to pay bills.

Mission: Impossible III - 不可能的任務III

I caught Mission: Impossible III (不可能的任務III) right when it was released on DVD back in 2006. One of the best things about this movie was that they filmed roughly 20% in Shanghai, China. The city of one set of my grandparents. Shanghai will always hold a special place in my heart. I got a chance to visit Shanghai for 2 days back in 2000. I've been pining to get back there and spent at least a week.



So, when the movie moved to the Shanghai portion of the film, I was all eyes and ears. It was quite funny to hear Tom Cruise shout a couple of Mandarin Chinese terms.



You would be better off getting a movie synopsis from Yahoo! Movies or Wikipedia or even the M:i:3 site.



One of the standout features of the film is Maggie Q. Maggie plays one of the agents that supports Tom Cruise on his mission. Maggie actually has a nice roll and is credited with playing someone called Zhen Lei. Maggie Q was not the dragon lady bad gurl or the the eye candy for white guys to drool over. She was part of the team and did her part.



I thought the plot was a little confusing, but I understood it for the most part. I was a huge fan of Alias and thought this was a good vehicle for J.J. Abrams to enter the film market.