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rhkoehler
Reviews
Kung fu (2004)
Such a good movie!!!!
Kung Fu Hustle is a movie about Kung Fu masters facing one another, protecting one another, and battling the Axe Gang. I have never heard of this movie and I was told to watch it for my final for my Perspectives class and I truly did not have high hopes for this movie, but I was wrong! This movie was absolutely great and I enjoyed watching it so much. It was such a good mix of feelings for the viewer as well. You felt sad at some points, you felt happy in others, and the rest of it was just plain exciting. I can not tell you how much I laughed during this movie and I was watching it with my mother as well, she thought it was weird but she laughed multiple times. The movie also has an interesting mixture of time periods and mixing of different cultures. It was sort of like a western film, mixed with roaring 20's, mixed with old school gangs and mafias like in "The Godfather", mixed with a goofy Stephen Chow movie. I thought the story line was goofy, yet exciting and I would totally recommend this to anyone who wants to watch a goofy Chinese Kung Fu movie. I honestly wish there was a remake of this movie!
Wadjda (2012)
Good Movie!!
Wadjda was such a good movie! I thought it gave everyone in the western world what life is like in Saudi Arabia for not only men but also women. Westerners always joke about the rights in Saudi because they are so far behind places like the United States and the United Kingdom and their culture is so much different than ours. I was a cool learning experience for everyone because I honestly do not think that many people actually knew what life is like there. But the director was very creative on how she was able to make this movie and be able to follow rules and laws in the Saudi community and she still was able to make an awesome movie and she even got awards for it. She was talking about it in a Stephen Colbert interview what she had to be in a van covered up and used a radio and a loud speaker so she could say what she felt needed to be done and do what any other director would do. The ending was also very heart warming and really made me and the people I watched it with very happy. I also think that its ironic that the UN women rights council is now headed by Saudi Arabia, but hopefully this means they want to push themselves more and become a better country when it comes to gender rights. But absolutely great movie! I would totally recommend it.
Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand (2004)
Really cool movie but it was kind of boring...
So, I just finished watching the movie and to be honest, I was very mixed about it. I thought it was very interesting to see the side of the war in Iraq that was not shown by the media during the conflict, and even to this day it still does not get attention. I thought it was also very sad to see all of the refugees and all of the injuries that some of these people had gotten from the past conflicts and the attacks against the Kurdish people by the Iraqi government. The movie showed some things that we never really think about like the mines and the selling of the weapons in the region, along with the trading system that seems to be in place by the villagers. Sadly though, the movie also talks about and shows the horrors of what war can do to people mentally, this is shown with one of the main characters, she was shown having mental issues due to her being raped by either Turkish or Iraqi soldiers as they attacked her village, it was very terrifying and hard to watch at times. All and all though, I thought the movie was kind of boring due to the fact that the movie failed to keep my attention for very long. But if you have interest in these types of movies I think it would be a great fit for you.
Omar (2013)
Good movie
So, I really enjoyed watching this movie and I thought it was a really cool way to look at a fairly taboo topic to talk about in the western world. I thought it was also a cool way to also see a different side of the movie " Paradise Now "( which if you haven't seen that yet you definitely should). I thought it was also cool to see a little more of the Israeli side of the story with the jail and the wire stuff. I thought the monkey thing at the end was cool too, great foreshadowing! It was a really cool look into the life of these people and it is interesting to see how they feel about these topics, rather than how western media says. I would get political about this topic because it is not my place because this is a review website, but there were times I got a little angry because my political views were against somethings and I totally understand how it could not even bother people that truly do not care. Very good movie though, 9/10
Paradise Now (2005)
Very good but...
So, I thought this movie was great for the most part. I thought it looked at a very edgy topic that is not talked about all too often and I thought it brought an interesting point of view for western viewers such as Americans and Europeans. I also thought it was cool that the movie tried its best to stay accurate and serious but at the same time still had a few funny moments here and there. The one thing that bothers me though is that it seems to be one sided, though the director says he was keeping an open view on this topic, I just feel we didn't get the whole background of it. I know a lot of people will not like that I feel this way but the movie , in my personal opinion, seemed to be promoting terrorism more than a "freedom fighter" movement. This just really got on my nerves a little bit and I understand nationalism, but I feel that what the Palestinians are doing is more of a terrorist act than a revolutionary act. With that being said though, I still thought the movie was good and interesting, it kept the viewer on the edge of their seats and kept them wanting more. I would totally recommend this to a friend if they were looking for a movie of this genre. 8/10
Tuya de hun shi (2006)
Cool movie but I thought it was boring...
Last week I watched Tuya's Marriage and I was pretty interested in the the movie. I thought it would be a nice change from my normal genre taste and a nice way to see the culture of the Mongolians. After watching it though, I have to say it was such a boring movie that I wanted to fall asleep half way through it. I thought it was very boring and the story line was just very plain and not interesting. The names all sounded the same to me and I just felt that the everyday life of these people was just a giant melting pot of stuff. The thing that makes me the most upset is the ending. Tuya still meets with the suitors and makes a deal even though she knows that Shenge wants to marry her, but at the end of the movie you see Shenge and Tuya's ex husband fighting about the marriage and we never got to know who she was even marrying. This left me in a state of confusion and it just made me dislike the movie more and more. I would not recommend this movie but I guess it is a nice way of seeing life in Mongolia.
Okuribito (2008)
Great Movie
Departures has to be one of the best movies I've seen this year! The story was great, the content was wonderful and it was a very cute movie to a degree. I thought it was a great look into the Japanese culture and it was awesome to see what the Japanese people feel about these "Undertakers". I honestly thought that the movie had a lot of very cute moments and I thought it was well balanced with a lot of serious moments as well. There was also a lot of great symbolism in the movie as well, like Daigo throwing the octopus back out to the ocean and it dying and when he was watching the river and the salmon were swimming up stream and the one died. I'll let you decipher that for your own. But I also think that its a good thing to watch the movie over again to make sure you get some of the smaller details, like at first, I didn't understand a lot of the finer details until I heard my friends talking about it, like Daigo's father had how he had the stone he gave him when he was a little boy and how he started to gain more and more respect for his father, even after not seeing him for 30 years. Though the movie , in my opinion, lacked a story line of what happened between when the father left and when we first meet Daigo. I would have liked to know a little more about the main character but it is what it is. I do believe though that this was a very good movie and I would recommend this to anyone willing to watch a great foreign movie. 10/10 would watch again.
Whale Rider (2002)
Very Good Movie!!!
Whale Rider is definitely one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. The movie used very artistic camera angles and the acting was very good. I also thought it was wonderful that the director wanted to show off the Maori traditions and add in a lot of those really cool details you would get from an actual visit to New Zealand. Besides the awesome culture in the film, the movie was very well written and I thought it went into great detail about the story line, plus the characters were very well thought out and developed. Though, I did think that the ending was very dramatic and even a little cheesy. Plus, I thought that it was very odd that the grandfather, just all of the sudden was happy to have a granddaughter instead of a grandson. Though, the story line does kind of justifies it. With that being said, I still think that Whaler Rider is a great movie and I think it deserves a lot more "mainstream" publicity. 9/10 !!!