LaimingLuo

【影院】宇宙中心五道口

华尔街之狼(华尔街的酒池肉林)

"Wolf of Wall Street" is a three hour long film. Despite some critics' comment that it is fast and dynamic, I actually broke it up and watched it in two days, not because the on-screen excitement is too much to take in for a single day, but because I got too bored to care about what was coming up next. It seems the story is built on the belief that the Wall Street belongs to hungry dealers who coax money out of ordinary investors. And when the money is in their hands, the brokers do nothing but ...

午夜巴黎(Woody Allen最近摊上大事了)

William Faulkner once wrote: "The past is never dead; it is not even past." Perhaps the American writer was suggesting that we humans can never break away from the past and are forever bound to look back to a certain Golden Time. This almost universal sentiment for nostalgia constitutes the main theme of Woody Allen's new film "Midnight in Paris." A screenwriter named Gil is spending his vacation in Paris with his fiancé and her wealthy parents. Despite a successful Hollywood career, Gil always ...

永无止境(初识Bradley Cooper)

Legend has it that we humans are using only ten percent of our brains. This old myth has created a myriad of fantasies, and one of the most recent is the movie Limitless. Faced with the grim hold of "writer's block", young author Eddie is about to hit the bottom of his life, even his girlfriend is walking out on him. But his downward momentum is suddenly reversed by the acquisition of a bag of magic pills that help him tap the full potential of his brain. After finishing the whole book in four d...

美国队长(只记得征兵大腿舞不错)

Captain America isn't exactly my first choice for a night at the movies. A glance at the title and the movie's brief intro provides me with more than enough warning: don't expect anything more than a blatant display of the stereotypical superhero alongside the usual display of American patriotism; which I always find hard to appreciate. Unfortunately, due to a lack of exciting features on offer in the cinema at present I end up watching it, and to my surprise, I actually had fun. The excessive p...

波普先生的企鹅(轻松愉快的小喜剧)

Mr. Popper's Penguins is a movie for kids, and happy kids at that. Families will have fun watching this movie, but divorced parents might have to walk away in order to avoid some unhealthy tugging of the heartstrings. Yet, I expect very few adults to be able to enjoy the film, despite lead actor Jim Carrey's desperate attempts to make it funny. Mr. Popper, played by Jim Carrey, is an ambitious and sly real estate agent. Having spent his childhood being neglected by his adventurous father, he gro...

夺命深渊(卡梅隆试验水下3D摄影)

Alister Grierson's Sanctum could have been a downright disaster, if the co-producer James Cameron hadn't come in to save the day with his 3D photography techniques. Indeed, the film's breath-taking imagery is the one and only appeal that could possibly lure moviegoers to bear this ninety-minute exercise in tedium. A group of explorers are trapped by a fierce storm while they're exploring an underground cave system. Water flooding into the cave causes a portion of it to collapse and blocks their ...

超级8(片子一般,搞笑的细节很多)

"Super 8" is a film that is quite susceptible to misunderstanding. Viewers who expect a science fiction movie featuring ferocious aliens might walk out of the cinema feeling disappointed. But those with patience, a keen sense of humor and a fine touch of nostalgia will be duly rewarded. The film derives its name from the super 8 millimeter film commonly used by amateur filmmakers in the 1980s. Some say the film is an ode to its producer Steven Spielberg, commemorating his teenage years. The sayi...

告密者(比较冷门的片子)

The Whistleblower is based on a true story. Nebraska policewoman, Kathyrn Bolkovac is hired by a US military contractor, Democra, to serve as a UN peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia. While investigating a sex trafficking case, she discovers a network of corruption between local bar owners and her UN colleagues. She decides to blow the whistle, but is relieved of her duties by her superiors. Despite Kate's success with her lawsuit for wrongful dismissal, the UN personnel involved in the corruption ne...

窃听风云2(有气无力的第三篇)

Since the director killed off two of the main characters in the first installment, Hong Kong film Overheard 2 starts with a different story, but retains the same leading actors and the same reference to the use of surveillance technology. A car accident reveals that a successful stockbroker, Luo Minsheng, is being tracked by a military surveillance device. Captain of the Anti-terrorist Force He Zhiqiang is called in to investigate. He discovers that Luo belongs to a secret group of stock fixers ...

猿族崛起(第二篇依然小心翼翼)

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is a typical example of a dystopian film. As a reboot of the 1960s classic "Planet of the Apes" series, the latest version excels in visual effects and a logical plot, but falls short of a pertinent portrayal of human, or shall we say, primate, psyche. To save his father from the ordeal of Alzheimer's disease, scientist Will Rodman develops a retrovirus and tests it on chimpanzees. The virus boosts the chimps' intelligence dramatically and sparks the fire of wisd...

这个男人来自地球(小心翼翼的第一篇影评)

"Man from Earth" is an outstanding film. The title of the film, and talk of nanoseconds, Martian colonies, and perfect regeneration, might lead many to expect a thrilling science fiction movie, but those people will soon find themselves disappointed. The story is about a few college professors sitting in a half empty room shooting the breeze, and the only part of the film that could be considered even remotely exciting involves a gun that is never fired. To his friends, the protagonist John Oldm...

中国合伙人(英语讲得烂,难受的是听的人)

The film "American Dreams in China" is Hong Kong director Peter Chan's first attempt at a contemporary drama. Based on the story that he adopts, I guess he was going after David Finch and "The Social Network," but what he really delivered is a hollow story without a spirit. Like Finch, Chan tells the success story of insignificant nobodies. In this case, it is about a Chinese teacher who became one of China's wealthiest men through his English-language tutorial centers. Apart from the title, the...

海啸奇迹(吃饭的时候不要看)

Among all the films that currently occupy the big screens in Chinese cinemas, disaster drama "The Impossible" is not the most popular. If you're looking for amusement we have "Monsters University" and new arrival "Smurfs 2", for excitement and fantasy there's "Jurassic Park" and "Elysium", even literary snobs can find some satisfaction in "The Great Gatsby". In comparison, "The Impossible" may look a wee bit plain but it is certainly outstanding in its own way. Two terms describe the essence of ...

极乐空间(毫无创新的新瓶装旧酒)

They say "you can't teach an OLD dog new tricks", but at the tender age of 33, director Neil Blomkamp is already projecting old age into his new film "Elysium". Blomkamp's 2009 movie "District 9" concludes with the aliens promising to return in three years. Four years later, the South African-Canadian director returns with "Elysium", older, but none the wiser. Like "District 9", "Elysium" is full of political messages, highlighting the conflict between the haves and have-nots. The only differenc...

极速蜗牛(超级英雄伪装励志片)

To describe the film "Turbo," one word is enough: fast. First of all, it is about a really fast snail. Yes, snail, fast. The title character, Turbo, is an ordinary garden snail, but his dream is to become the greatest racer in the world. For that, he is constantly ridiculed by his neighbors, and even by his own brother. Luckily for him, an accident gives him the power of incredible speed and some other characteristics of a real car. Then a series of events lead him onto the tracks of the Indiana...

圣诞玫瑰(杨采妮导演首秀)

2013 has seen many Chinese actors try their hand at directing for the first time. Of these, Charlie Yeung is one of the more interesting. While most first-time directors tap the market's demand for nostalgia or bemoaning the bygone of their own youth, the Taiwan-born director has chosen a more serious topic. In courtroom drama "Christmas Rose", Kwai Lunmei plays a handicapped piano teacher who accuses a famous surgeon of sexual harassment. Zhang Zhen plays the surgeon and Aaron Kwok is the publi...

特殊身份(某人的2013三部曲之一)

“Special ID” would have been a decent action movie, if less effort were made to highlight one of the female characters. Hong Kong director Clarence Fok’s latest outing stars Chinese martial artist Donnie Yen and actress Jing Tian. Yen plays an undercover police officer working for a local gang leader. He is assigned by both the gang leader and his senior officer to investigate a missing person case. His mission brings him in cooperation with female officer played by Jing Tian. Together the partn...

四大名捕(出了2还要出3的节奏,挠墙...)

"The Four" is the kind of movie that explains why imported films dominate more than 70 percent of market share in Chinese cinemas. For the duration of the film, you do not sense much serious commitment other than the commitment to profit. Director Gordon Chan has a habit of providing the public with whatever is missing in the market. And, apparently, he has found that Chinese movie-goers are missing a movie adaptation of a Gongfu novel written by Wen Rui'an, who is perhaps the third most popular...

龙纹身的女孩(超酷的女主!!)

I was attracted to David Fincher's 2011 film 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' after first seeing the trailer, where I caught a glimpse of the movie's terrific opening: A Bond-style monochrome accompanied by the piercing scores of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, which defined the dark tone of the movie. This, along with the image of Rooney Mara in a punk outfit with an intimidating dragon tattoo, and a hint of her character's social ineptitude, added to my expectation of the movie's eeriness. I h...

我十一(画面极美,自娱自乐)

In his semi-autobiographical movie "11 Flowers," Wang Xiaoshuai has been extremely personal in presenting the spiritual and sexual awakening of a teenager. Moviegoers may identify with the film's sentiment, but still ask for more. The film is set in a rural town in southwest China in 1975, a year before the end of the Cultural Revolution. The 11-year-old boy Wang Han is receiving painting lessons from his father. His new artistic perspective encourages him to more closely observe the world aroun...

了不起的盖茨比(最佳服装设计)

After watching Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby", I was convinced once again of the greatness of the title character Jay Gatsby, the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and the actor Leonardo DiCaprio. But one question remained: where is the part where Gatsby says, "Her voice is full of money". It is an important statement in Fitzgerald's original novel and without it the movie is only half complete. As a result, Gatsby, despite all his charisma and positive hopes, is reduced to being just a simple-minde...

挪威的森林(陪伴我高中和大学的村上啊)

Roughly ten years ago in China, Japanese writer and translator Haruki Murakami won popular acclaim when the Chinese translation of his novel Norwegian Wood was released. The Chinese probably knew Murakami better than they did the Beatles, whose song bearing the same name could have been one source of inspiration for the Japanese writer. Ten years later, Murakami's Norwegian Wood is commanding the attention of the Chinese audience again – a film adaptation of the novel by French director Tran Anh...

环太平洋(喜欢奥特曼的小P孩们可以开开眼)

Sci-fi action film Pacific Rim features overwhelming visual effects. And yes, when I say overwhelming, it means the visuals are good enough to make you overlook the film's other failings. Written by Guillermo del Toro and Travis Beacham, the story is set in the 2020s, when colossal alien monsters pass through inter-dimensional portals on the floor of the Pacific Ocean to plague the human world. In response, the Pacific Nations pool their resources and build equally colossal humanoid machines to ...

逆光飞翔(考验耐心的好片子)

For weeks, Chinese movie theatres have been dominated by blockbuster action films. But in the midst of all the thundering engines of Fast 6 and the showering bullets of White House Down, there was a rather quiet piece of art that soothes your nerves. "Touch of the Light" is developed from Taiwan Director Zhang Rongji's 2008 short movie "The End of the Tunnel". In both pieces, blind pianist Huang Yuxiang presents the true story of his life. In spite of a congenital eye defect, Huang proved his ta...

超人·钢铁之躯(平凡的超人)

Not long after the conclusion of the Batman series, Christopher Nolan finds himself working on another DC Comics character. This time, he teams up with director Zack Snyder and screen writer David Goyer in a reboot of the Superman film series. But the movie "Man of Steel" exhibits few of Nolan's characteristic traits. It also seems that director Zack Snyder's focus has shifted to loading young moviegoers with visual stimulus, rather than examining the core themes facing all superheroes. Nolan an...

Amour(爱能陪你走多远?)

French-language drama film "Amour" is one of the two best films nominated at the 85th Academy Awards, matched only by Hong Kong director Ang Lee's fantasy movie "Life of Pi." Both films excel in almost every aspect of filmmaking, and personally I can find nothing to complain about in the best foreign language film. Veteran actor Jean-Louis Trintignant and actress Emmanuelle Riva play a Parisian couple, George and Anne, in their 80s. They seem to lead an ordinary, reclusive but rather content lif...

【抢先】大闹天宫的槽点

怪兽大学(感冒的声音&不感冒的片子)

Despite taking in big earnings at the Chinese box office, the 3D computer-animated comedy "Monsters University" is yet another indicator of Pixar's loss of creativity. This forced addition to the Monsters series offers nothing new, except the varying degrees of weirdness in the appearance of the monsters. I guess the happy ending of "Monsters Inc" was an unfortunate inconvenience for the producers, forcing them to focus their limited capacity for creativity on a prequel. So, the story goes back ...

小时代(四姑娘精准定位特供90后妹纸)

Lately there has been no shortage of controversy in China's film market. A few weeks ago, the Chinese movie "Switch" raked in nearly 300 million yuan for being an incredibly awful product. Now, "Tiny Times", the first film by Chinese author and businessman Guo Jingming has provoked heated debate between Chinese viewers of different generations. Guo is a successful writer-turned-businessman. His novels were able to tap into the wallets of China's young adolescent readers to bring him quick fame a...