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AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

A Chinese crime group whose stock has taken a tumble during a market crash decides to take some money by targeting 3 premises in 3 different countries but by doing this the Interpol in those countries team up and head to Hong Kong to try and take out the organisation. This nod to the Girls With Guns genre has 5 hot female Interpol officers from various countries taking it to the bad guys. The action scenes are plentiful but are not of a high standard. Yukari Oshima joins the movie around 30 mins in as a wife of an Interpol officer who is shot dead in a bank raid in Japan. The final showdown has the main villain Yuen Wah taking on the 5 Interpol women all at once. It isn't a classic HK action movie which is why it hasn't been heard of by a lot of Asian movie fans but it's worth checking out.

7 years, 5 months ago

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7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

In the 2nd part of the Chiyafuru trilogy, Chihaya and her Karuta club are on their way to the National Championship but she becomes sidetracked and obsessed with taking on Shinobu, the so-called Queen of Karuta who has an undefeated streak stretching back to 4 years. Compared to the first movie, I actually liked this much better. It dispenses with character introductions and backstories as it assumes you have watched the first and thus has a stronger story to tell in Chihaya trying to become a better player in order to try and beat her teen rival Shinobu. All of the regular cast return for this movie but it's Mayu Matsuoka who steals the show as Shinobu. It culminates in a match between the two teen female players as Chihaya gives as good as she gets against Shinobu. This isn't the end of the story however as the third and final movie in the trilogy is set to be released early next year.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Ikou! - Anime Watched In 2017 list

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

The 5th Pirates movie was definitely better from the 4th installment of the franchise, but failed to fully capture the magic of the original trilogy. Despite its cast, the movie never found its footing due to a weak plot and an underwhelming antagonist who was seemingly designed to be convenient to the plot, as opposed to serving a greater purpose to the movie's story. Overall, the jokes fell flat and the action was terribly unmemorable, making this an easily forgettable chapter in the saga of Captain Jack Sparrow.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan rated A Cry from the Streets

 A Cry from the Streets 7/10

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

A heartfelt story about a female social worker caring about London's orphan/neglected kids with the help of comedian/singer Max Bygraves who plays a TV repair man. It's a story from a bygone era in Britain when the country was still emerging from the post war years and rationing. Each child in the movie has a past they'd rather forget. This movie focuses primarily on a trio of young kids led by their elder sister who arrive at an orphanage after their father has killed their mother and faces hanging for his crime. They're a likable bunch of kids although they encounter one elder boy in the same orphanage who puts the blame on the sister for stealing money and stashes away a gun with a live bullet in the floorboards under his bed in the dormitory. The acting by the cast and especially Bygraves and Barbara Murray is excellent. Those with a keen eye will notice Dandy Nichols (of Till Death Us Do Part comedy) in an uncredited role in the movie. An enjoyable movie which shows how much this country has changed from those days.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan rated The Shaggy D.A.

 The Shaggy D.A. 6/10

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

An amusing Disney family movie about a man that's running to be a D.A against a corrupt official. He gets turned into an Old English sheepdog because of a mysterious magical ring. It's a bit of a slapstick comedy and the scenes with the dog talking and even driving a car is funny. The other talking dogs in the story is hilarious with one Bloodhound speaking like Humphrey Bogart! The movie is a reminder of the kind of good old fashioned family output that Disney did with ease in the 70's/80's. The cast all look like they were having a ball in the movie. The transformation scenes of the man turning into a dog is surprisingly well done. It's a shame that these kind of movies aren't done anymore. This is a fine comedy caper for the kids to enjoy.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

I'm of the opinion that there shouldn't have been a sequel to the iconic Trainspotting but with so many people asking about it over the years it was inevitable that this movie would be made. So is it worth the 20 year wait? Well yes though it never eclipses the original. I wasn't too enamoured with the storyline - thought it was a bit weak but it was great to be reacquainted with the characters once more. Danny Boyle does a decent enough job of getting us up to speed with what the characters have been up to since we last saw them. There are a few moments of brilliance and some laughs to be had. Edinburgh looks glorious with fantastic cinematography especially when Renton & Spud jog up Arthur's Seat. The soundtrack is superb and Renton's Choose Life monologue is updated for the times. I'm sure this movie could have been improved with the storyline but I had a lot of fun watching it. The movie supports heavily on the original and its nostalgia, whereby I'm not really sure if it could stand well on its own. Still, Trainspotting fans should enjoy this movie. I know I did.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

Set 10 years after the events of 'Prometheus,' the story begins with the crew of the colony ship Covenant receiving a possible distress call coming from an uncharted planet that seemed to be paradise for humans to live on. Once there, the crew discover the world is much dangerous than it seems but none more dangerous than encountering David, the android from the doomed Prometheus expedition. I think most people expected this to be amazing with Ridley Scott onboard but it's fairly disappointing in the end. The characters are bland / uninteresting and you just don't care for any of them. Some of them are just plain stupid! The one exception are the 2 androids played by Michael Fassbender. I was expecting to learn more about the Engineers but there's nothing. It's just a movie to show how the Xenomorph evolved from some black spores to a white neomorph and finally the acid bleeding killing machine. The gore content is fine with some nice kills by the creature. I felt the pacing of the movie was off. If the talk of several sequels to this movie is true then it's maybe time to pass the franchise over to somebody that can reinvigorate it. With each new disappointing installment, people will begin to care less and less about it. Somebody has to come in and make it fresh and exciting once more. This movie isn't a disaster by any means but it's not what I was expecting either. A bit of a wasted opportunity if you ask me.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

This movie was probably the inspiration for John Carpenter's The Fog. Rather a misleading title as there isn't a living skeleton in the story but there's a close encounter underwater with a group of them. It begins with a massacre by pirates of a ship's crew and passengers (they steal the gold cargo in the hold) before moving the plot 3 years on as the reappearance of a ghostly ship on the coastline heralds the start of mysterious deaths as those that were responsible for killing the people on the ship are bumped off one by one. Each person is stalked by a ghost woman in a white dress. She was one of their victims. Quite an atmospheric movie with an air of dread throughout. The special effects are passable but the gore content is high and shocking for it's time. An enjoyable and creepy Japanese movie.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Ikou! - Anime Watched In 2017 list

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

Based on an anime, this is the first in a trilogy of movies revolving around a rather silly Japanese card game called Karuta. Never heard about it until now to be honest and even after watching this I'm still a bit clueless as to how the game actually works but this movie tries to make it an exciting spectacle which I doubt it really is in real life. It even tries to incorporate a pointless romance angle to the proceedings. Thankfully the characters make this such a watchable movie led by the beautiful Suzu Hirose who plays the character of Chihaya. She creates a Karuta school club of 5 members who want to become school champions. It follows the team bonding and training as they prepare for a Karuta competition against other schools which includes the current champions. The movie ends on a small cliffhanger that leads on to Part 2. It's an interesting enough movie with a good cast of characters even though the Karuta game itself doesn't do anything for me.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

This is a remake of the original 1981 movie with the plot having been changed as well. Yuen Biao plays a constable who gets inadvertently involved in the quarrels of several martial clans while he brings a "thief" to justice. The "thief" is a beautiful princess who had decided to have "fun" pretending to be a thief and getting arrested. Along comes the Golden Snake Man who is slightly crazed and is primed for revenge against the leader of the clans, Lord Wan, who massacred Snake Man's village and stole his wife ten years earlier. A "Poison" clan run by women, a crazy old master who bounces around like a ball, and a Manchurian who seems to have magnetic powers over swords, complete the chaos. I honestly could not follow what takes place in this martial arts / fantasy movie as it doesn't make any sense and it's so off the wall but on saying that it's a lot of fun and the action scenes are well choreographed. There are so many great spontaneous fights, crazy special effects, magical mayhem, random and spectacular wire-fu and great comedy mixed with intense drama that it doesn't really matter if you don't know what's going on! I don't think this movie is supposed to be taken seriously. There's an excellent cast which includes the stunning Sharla Cheung and Danny Lee. If you like your HK fantasy movies fast and crazy then this will be right up your street.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan rated Anna

 Anna 6/10

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

Anna, or Mindscape as the original title goes, rides heavily on the presence and acting capabilities of its two main leads, Mark Strong as John, a psychologist with mind reading abilities, and Taissa Farmiga as Anna, his young and eerily disturbed patient. The film itself revolves around the idea that certain humans have developed their latent psychic abilities to such a degree that they can read the minds of others and thus help them overcome traumas and illnesses of the mind. Plot-wise the movie is nothing special, being relatively easy to predict and offering no real twists, but it's more of a moodpiece in any case. I would have liked for the actual mindscape scenes to be a bit more creative and the story as a whole to be a bit more overreaching in scope, but those lacks only mean that the movie is merely good instead of great. It's still worth a watch.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan rated Money Monster

 Money Monster 4/10

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

Directed by Jodie Foster, this movie rehashes the cliché movie dramatisation of Wall Street fraud and the commonplace Americans who are the big losers in a tycoon's greed. George Clooney and Julia Roberts have good chemistry as the star television talking head Lee Gates and his hard-working producer Patty Fenn. The simplistic story is that of a "hostage drama" when Gates is held captive in the studio by a crazed investor who has lost his fortune due to a Wall Street scammer and the advice given over the air by Gates. Most of the action was predictable, and much of it was also unbelievable. The relationship of the young terrorist and his wife was entirely unconvincing. And the inaction on the part of the SWAT team, who had successfully surrounded the terrorist both in the studio and outdoors, was equally improbable. In the end, this is a bland movie that doesn't provide any surprises to viewers.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 11 items to their collection

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Ikou! - Anime Watched In 2017 list

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

I'm not too sure exactly what 'American Fable' was trying to be. It's listed as a thriller, and there are elements to it that could certainly make it a thriller, only it doesn't feel like a thriller. The problem is I'm not sure exactly what it does feel like. It's a story that kind of just drifts along until it ends. I suspect writer/director Anne Hamilton had a vision for this movie which was to entrance the audience and create an almost fairy tale like world. Sadly though, she just seemed to find the nothingness middle ground of everything. I think that's the biggest problem with the movie is that it never commits to any direction and it never dares to be anything great. I think Hamilton had the idea right somewhere along the line, she just perhaps didn't have the writing and film making skills to put it together. Check it out and see what you think of it.

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan rated Carol

 Carol 7/10

7 years, 5 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to The Good & The Bad - Movies Watched In 2017 list

This is a great love and life story about one woman fighting for her right to be happy and another trying to figure out how can she really be happy. Each of them is the answer to the other. The script could feature more insight, but then again, the movie is supposed to be subtle and let the images speak for themselves. The cinematography is outstanding and the score is downright superb. There's a feeling, a certain atmosphere that makes the movie a one of a kind. But in the end, I think that it all comes down to Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, as they give unforgettable, brilliant performances. They are always great, but here there's something remarkable about their performances. Some might find the movie slow moving but it is never boring. It definitely deserves to be seen.

7 years, 5 months ago