Three Good Movies: Red Cliff, Hellboy 2, Dark Knight

I'm happily satisfied with the three movies that were released these last two weeks. I enjoyed all three movies thoroughly and they were certainly worth every cent spent on the tickets (and drinks and snacks of course).

RED CLIFF (Part 1)
Like I mentioned in an earlier post about Andy Lau's THREE KINGDOMS, it's disappointing to see that no one has done a really good movie based on China's Three Kingdoms era. I'm glad to say that RED CLIFF has finally broken that trend. John Woo has assembled a pretty good cast, with a pretty good script and combined them together to form a darn good movie. lol. There is a nice epic feel to this movie and what I'm particularly impressed with is the way they manage to have so many characters and yet allow the viewer to remember all of them! This was one big failure of the early movie starring Andy Lau. Other than Andy and Sammo Hung, I couldn't really follow who was who and the other characters didn't have much personality at all. Effects were also pretty credible and the fight choreography is top-notch as I would expect from a John Woo movie. My favourite actor Tony Leung, is at his best as usual (I think I only cannot stand him in Wong Kar Wai's 2046) and acts off well against the pretty-boy Takeshi Kanishiro (who for some reason, walks like a kuniang in this movie). The only complain is the female lead. They could have replaced her with a brick and no one would know the difference. Heh.

Red Cliff is a really good movie. Only complain is that I have to wait until 2009 for the ending!

HELLBOY 2: THE GOLDEN MOVIE

HB2 is a fantastic follow-up to the first movie. I liked the first movie and this second movie took everything that was good and made it better. Ron Pearlman is really the only person who can play Hellboy. It's uncanny how he is such a perfect fit for the role. This movie stands out with all the weird incarnations of demons and imaginary folk, right out of the mind of the director Guillermo del Tomo (who channels his best efforts from his eerie movie - The Orphanage and his enchanting movie Pan's Labyrinth). I was blown away by all the weird and wonderful creatures. The story, action and effects were all handled well and the characters really got to show more of their personality as compared to the first movie (especially dear old freaky Abe). I don't have any complains about the movie. Loved it. You should go watch it and then start catching up with Guillermo's other movies.

THE DARK KNIGHT

This is one movie that was so hyped-up that I expected it to fail to deliver. I'm glad to say that for me, it not only delivered, it actually delivered way beyond expectations. Yes, it's been written many times, but I must also say that the Joker is the best character in this movie. He is really creepy and crazy and yet, disturbingly, he was still believable! The other outstanding thing about TDK is the story. I liked that there was a good plot and not the usual Marvel-movie-type stories like Spider Man, Iron Man and Hulk. However, at the same time, be warned that this movie can be a little too dark because the Joker kinda brings out the darkest side of humanity. Thankfully, the writers did include some witty one-liners and jokes in the movie to help lighten the mood. All the other actors are also pretty good. I was only mildly annoyed with two things. (1) I don't think Maggie Gyllenhall suits the role. (2) I don't like Batman's sore-throaty voice. To be frank, I am not sure if this movie is better than Iron Man. I think it is fairer to say that both excel in different ways. Iron Man was a great comic book superhero movie. Dark Knight almost feels non-superhero-like. At times, it feels more like a real life gritty police-and-bad-guy movie. That to me is the charm of DK.