eddax

This sounded goofy and I really didn't want to watch it but I did, and was pleasantly surprised by it.

Despite it being a small movie, the special effects were decent. Not great, but good enough to not be distracting, and this was really the key that made the movie watchable, since there were plenty of giant insects attacking people. The actors weren't bad, though largely forgettable, save for Ray Wise, who played the Devil in Reaper and amusingly hams it up here as the pooch-loving, ex-military father of the hero.

I didn't much care for the characters apart from Wise's, but the movie kept the action going at a good pace anyway and there weren't too many scenes where I got bored.

I'd heard a lot about Ip Man before finally watching it, and I think I was a bit biased by expectations though I tried to watch it objectively.

I can understand why the movie was as popular as it was. It's a tale of a real-life hero and features incredible martial arts choreography. Wing Chun, a seemingly defense-oriented style of kungfu, is amazing to behold, and surprisingly, I don't recall ever seeing it on screen before this movie. The movie's two action choreographers - one of whom is Sammo Hung - took home the awards in that category in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The story, unfortunately, I found a bit too simple and bordering on hokey. Ip Man kicks butt, rallies the Chinese people, the end. I would've like to see some kind of background on him. He just simply exists and is a rich kungfu master with a wife and kid, or rather with a family that can be used against him to force him to fight. There's really not much else to his family. Or to him, for that matter.

Donnie Yen seems perfect for the role. He looks like a perfectly charming, non-threatening fellow, until you get him to fight and then you're on the floor with your nose bleeding the next second. He's also capable of looking as though in profound thought, even when there's nothing much to think about.

Watching brilliant kungfu thrills me as much as the next guy but I'd prefer to watch it either in an all-out action movie with a throwaway plot or as a masterpiece of direction with an engaging story to boot. Ip Man is the latter with a story that doesn't work for me, sadly. As such, I'm not too enthused about catching its sequel or unofficial prequel.

I'm not sure if "Men in Black" is supposed to mean something in Cantonese/Hong Kong but I was very amused by how they filmed this movie. Though it's a simple story of four men looking to play while their spouses/partners are away, it's set like a typical Hong Kong thriller, with action sequences, scenes of faux suspense, and even a twist that's revealed at the end.

The cast is uneven. The veterans are effortlessly good - Eric Tsang, Chapman To, Jordan Chan, Teresa Mo - but they make the newcomers pretty bad in comparison. Of the latter group, the only one I know is Candy Lo, and though I love her song "Rubbish," I don't think she's a particularly good actress. Not yet anyway. Neither is the cute young guy of the group, who mainly stands out because his name is inexplicably "Spirit Blue." I was wondering if he's a singer or something but no, apparently he's just a cute amateur actor with an odd stage name.