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dragonfivehundred
Reviews
Fresh Off the Boat (2015)
Humor is kind of bland, but OK other than that.
I feel that some people find Fresh Off the Boat humorous due to the stereotypes. The mother with her heavy Asian accent sort of reminds me of a Mad TV or Saturday Night Live sketch. She sounds fake and over does it while her husband seems to have very little accent which I find kind of odd. The two younger brothers reminds me of Rod and Todd on the Simpsons with their innocent, brainiac personality while the older brother Eddie wants to be more rebellious sort of like Bart. The grandmother seems to be the stereotypical quiet Asian grandma with unpredictable humor. Overall, I think all the actors are fine except for the mother because of her heavy, fake, Asian accent which I find very annoying and kind of kills the show. Fresh off the Boat could've been a total success if they didn't have to talk about racial issues all the time. A lot of people aren't really comfortable with that. I read someones review that they actually toned it down from the original source material. I think because of the stereotypes, Fresh off the Boat seems unnecessarily provocative and the humor rather bland. This isn't that bad, it could've been better though.
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
Seems more of a fantasy than a biopic
Bruce Lee was an amazing man and Jason Scott Lee was pretty convincing as Bruce even though he doesn't really resemble Bruce. He's a little bigger than Bruce and maybe even a little darker (Bruce was part German). His personality is very similar to Bruce even his voice. Besides his similar mannerisms to Bruce, the movie dramatizes the struggles Bruce Lee had to deal with such as racism. I don't know how much of the drama from the film actually happened in real life, but it seems so real that you really feel sorry for him. I know most of the film was made up and even the synopses about the film says loosely based on Bruce.
Some of the reviews I've been reading seems kind of overly critical and harsh. I have to agree that the fight scenes for example were too long considering Bruce Lee's philosophy about fighting was to simplify and use the most effective way to come out of a fight. Bruce Lee after all was a street fighter. He started training when he was 13 and not as a young kid because he kept getting beat up in street fights as a teenager.
Also, Bruce Lee was an actor since he was an infant. His dad used him in one of his plays. There were many black and white films of Bruce as a kid. So Bruce Lee was a child star and the film focuses more on his martial art abilities for some reason (I guess for Hollywood glamor). Besides ignoring Bruce as an actor as a young kid, I remember reading about his frustration when he was an instructor teaching his martial art style Jeet Kune Do. His students thought there was an ultimate technique but he tried to explain to his students there is no ultimate technique and that you are the one to figure things out for yourself. His students didn't understand it and at one point he closed his schools.
Even though this film is a made up story about Bruce, this isn't the only biopic that's not accurate. Many biopic films focus more on the dramatization than actual events for artistic reasons. Filmmakers are artists as well remember. The soundtrack to this film is excellent. I enjoyed this film simply for the fact Bruce Lee was one of a kind man besides just a martial artist. He is such an influential icon that I can't imagine the movies we watch these days (especially with actions films) would've become without him.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Spectacular!!!!!!
Wow, at first I thought it was going to be just another generic reboot of Spider-man, but I was totally blown away with the script, timing, humor, acting, and special effects were perfect. Bravo to the actors and filmmakers!! I loved it! I feel this version of Spider-man is more to the comic than the Sam Raimi's version because Peter Parker is supposed to be kind of a nerdy, bookworm science geek besides a photographer. Also, the fact that Peter Parker now uses a device for his web (like the comic) instead of the web coming out of his skin (like the Sam Raimi's version) makes more sense now because he's slowly perfecting his craft. Plus he uses his technical skills he's learned from researching to build his costume seems more believable. Besides the costume design, Spider-man's personality again seems closer to the comic because he tries to be sarcastic and also is being human as well. He gets hurt where as Tobey as Spider-man seems to have superhuman strength without really having to struggle much (except with the villains). Andrew as Spider-man however seems realistic. There was a scene in the movie where he allows himself to be shown without the mask and he takes off his mask to prove to a kid whose scared that he is only human. I feel this is what Spider-man movie should've been instead of a sappy, cheezy, Spider-man storyline Sam Raimi directed, not that I didn't enjoy Sam Saimi's version of spider-man, but it wasn't as deep or sophisticated.
Last thing I would like to mention is that there are those ignorant morons who don't know the Spider-man comic books and criticizing the cast that it's nothing but a simple reboot. Even though Peter Parker's love interest isn't Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy IS Spider-man's first love interest before MJ in the comics, and Gwen's father's death IS correct (and I have that comic, it's worth a lot of money) because he dies in the comic as well! They need to understand the comic before criticizing the characters...read the darn comic, tired of this!!!
The Green Hornet (2011)
Not a funny movie
From the trailer, I thought this was going to be more of a funny buddy picture like Jackie Chan's Shanghai films but there were very few moments in the movie that was actually funny. I don't know why but I kept thinking it's going to get really funny, but it didn't lol. I also didn't like how Jay Chou as Kato was represented. He works really hard while Seth Rogen (Green Hornet) is lazily fooling around doing nothing but telling people what to do. Is this how the comic is? Everything about this film seems really bland, from generic villains to annoying hero Rogen (he kind of ruined the film) and cheesy stylized fight scenes. The only redeeming quality is Jay Chao as Kato especially with the one inch punch which he paid homage to Bruce Lee. I wish there were more scenes like that instead of the stylized fighting that wasn't really all that humorous. And I'm not really sure why Cameron Diaz was in the movie. She didn't have much of a role other than she's a big star and same with christoph waltz as the generic villain. This movie was a complete waste of time especially with the unnecessary 3D.