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Reviews
Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)
Brilliant dumb comedy
I avoided this movie for months, thinking it would be awful. I was so pleased when I finally watched it. The plot is self-consciously ridiculous, but the dialogue delivers one laugh after another. Like a Monty Python movie, _Dude, where's my car_ is sublimely over the top. Interesting hints at homoerotic tension between the two main characters.
Wo hu cang long (2000)
Superb
Great acting! Great dialogue! Great characters! Great plot! Great fighting! Great sets and costumes! A thrilling fairy tale that engages the viewer from beginning to end. I left the theater wanting to learn Chinese.
Red Corner (1997)
A look at government oppression in China
Like many movies with political/ideological messages, this movie veers into the preachy at times, but the character development is good. Fine acting from Ling Bai. The plot unfolds well and develops and maintains suspense. A fascinating and sometimes chilling peek into a legal system very different from America's.
Tian yu (1998)
Sickening trash (vague spoiler)
Vague spoiler ahead. Decent acting, a storyline more depressing than Sylvia Plath, and a few shots of lovely Chinese wilderness do not change the fact that this is basically softcore porn for sadists. If you would enjoy watching a fifteen-year-old get sexually mistreated, this is the movie for you. I am no prude, but this movie has a nihilistic, letcherous feel that in my experience has only been matched by _Kids_. This movie left my wife and me feeling ill - I did not eat dinner after watching this film.
Higher Learning (1995)
In over its head
I give props to this movie for taking on many different aspects of racial discrimination on college campuses in such a direct way. It is unfortunate that the characters, both white and black, are all stereotypes and the dialog sounds forced and preachy. By painting a disturbing yet fake picture of a campus filled with skinheads and overt bigots, this movie brushes right over the more subtle, yet often equally damaging ways unconscious racism affects people who consider themselves unbiased.