Movie Blurbs 2

Casino Royale (2006)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, and Mads Mikkelsen
Directed by: Martin Campbell
Rating: **** out of 5

I haven't seen many James Bond movies, and maybe that's because I can't handle the really old movies that are ripe with that 1960s charm and I can't stand the newer 90s movies that are all action, no substance. However, Casino Royale was an amazing ride. Daniel Craig is the perfect brooding James Bond and the plot is simple, with an unexpected twist, and tons of high-octane action. I was more than pleasantly surprised with this one. This is a must see.



Fearless (2006)
Starring: Jet Li
Directed by: Ronny Yu
Rating: *** out of 5
Eh. That's how I felt immediately after seeing Jet Li's Fearless and that's how I still feel. Don't get me wrong, there are some awesome wire-fu moments here and I love the message of the story, my problem it is that it's nothing new. There is nothing new here in Fearless and it's like watching a hodge-podge of House of Flying Daggers, Hero, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but written and directed like XXX. I've seen better martial arts movies and I've seen better martial arts movies from Jet Li. Worth a rental, but that's about it.


Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Starring: Tsutomu Tatsumi and Ayano Shiraishi
Directed by: Isao Takahata
Rating: ****-1/2 out of 5

Grave of the Fireflies is one of those movies that you want to see, but at the same time you can't bear to watch it. The first thing that you notice with this movie is the spectacular animation, you can't help but notice because the opening fire-bombing sequence is so haunting. But what this movie has that most animated features don't, is a solid story that is harrowing and passionate, but at the same time crushingly sad. The movie itself is depressing, but when you're talking about World War II and bombing raids on Japanese villages, it would be a disservice not to be. The best you can hope for is that the movie inspires people to think and cherish the things, and people, that they have around them that they might otherwise take for granted. A must see.

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala (2005)
Starring: Romi Pak and Rie Kugimiya
Directed by: Seiji Mizushima
Rating: ***-1/2 out of 5

Fullmetal Alchemist is one of my favorite television series, so I was highly anticipating the movie... and I wasn't dissapointed. This was a good, but not great ending to the series. Much like Grave of the Fireflies, this movie deals with depressing and heavy issues (Hitler and the rise of Nazism) and is coupled with magnificent animation. My only problem with the movie is that I'm not really sure what it accomplished. The story was okay, nothing great, but still better than I was expecting from an anime spin-off movie... which is part of the other problem: Even though they give you a rundown of what the series was about, you'll need to see the series to understand anything in the movie the way you really should. Would reccomend, more-so to someone who's seen the series.


Lady Vengeance (2005)
Starring: Yeong-ae-Lee and Min-sik Choi
Directed by: Chan-wook Park
Rating: **** out of 5

Lady Vengeance is the third and final film in Chan-wook Park's Vengeance Trilogy and it was very, very good. The film tells the story of a woman who is robbed of her daughter and put in prison after taking the rap for a murder her then-boyfriend commited and then, after milking the connections she made while in prison, tracks him down. The thing that Park does in all of these movies, the best being the fantastic Oldboy, is show the humanity of revenge. You empathize with the "bad guy" much like you would in a spaghetti western... you follow the path of a gunslinger whose goal is no better than the actual crimes of the person she is going after... and yet you find yourself rooting for her. You find that murder isn't as black and white as it seems, but it is still always good, as Guem-ja says in the movie, to "live white."