The action scenes are fun to watch, Matthew Vaughn can certainly direct action. The characters are also more developed, certainly we remember them more than in the comic. This is true for Red Mist especially.

In the comic, Millar used him as a twist to reveal who he really was. But in the movie they remove that twist and instead try to develop him into a more rounded character, somebody who’s not totally evil like his dad, but who’s also not a good guy at all. A more ambivalent character.

In the movie there is also less back and forth between “superheroes exists” and “superhero can’t exist”. I think they accept that Big Daddy and Hit Girl are in fact superheroes, so their origin is not revealed as a lie. Which makes the last battle emotionally relevant.

That final battle is also all-out superhero style, complete with a jetpack for Kick-Ass. That was so over the top that I enjoyed it.

Another big change from the comic is that Dave does get the girl, which could be seen as a Hollywood ending. But in general, it does feel like Dave actually accomplished something, instead of the empty feeling at the end of the comic.

This is not a great movie, but it was fun to watch and it solved some of the big problems in the comic. I understand the comic and script were completed in parallel, so the ending felt very different.

If you’re not offended by a little girl cursing and killing people, this might be a fun movie to watch. I was surprised that even my wife kind of enjoyed it.

Rating: 3 Stars

I can see why it appealed to Taiwan, there are many elements they’d enjoy, which I’ll try to list below.

The lead actress playing Tomoko is Japanese, and she has some scenes talking in Japanese, but mostly she talks in Mandarin with her heavy accent. Taiwanese just love Japanese people, and their accent (for girls) is endearing (even to me).

The lead actor playing Aga has that typical “bad boy” look, even though he’s actually a good guy. He seemed to have a good chemistry with Tomoko, especially when they were fighting all the time, before they hooked up.

When Tomoko is not present, the characters speak the Taiwanese dialect, which makes sense considering this takes place in the south, in Hengchun. The place actually looks beautiful, one of those resorts by the beach, which is not what I see when I think of Taiwan. All this I think appeals to Taiwanese national pride.

Then there’s the music, which appeals to everybody I guess. There’s not a lot of it, but after so much practice, we had to see them play at the end, and I think it mostly worked.

The love story told in the old letters felt a bit cheesy to me, and being narrated in Japanese didn’t feel particularly poetic, which is what it was intended. The English translation was fine, I just didn’t find those scenes “touching”.

In the end, I can definitely see why it was so successful in Taiwan, and since that was the intended audience, this is a successful movie. I wasn’t born in Taiwan, but I’ve been there many times. Even so, I wasn’t in love with it. It’s an ok movie, but nothing special to me.

Rating: 2.5 Rating

Then there’s a group of friends who share an apartment and seem to have sexual adventures. There’s a comedic tone throughout, even though the subject is serious (relationships, prostitution etc…).

However towards the end things get more serious, as if to tell us that even though these boys take life very lightly and joking, sooner or later life will catch up with them. The movie ends with a certain sadness that I didn’t see coming.

It’s an odd movie, I don’t think I enjoyed it much (the humor itself wasn’t laugh out loud funny), but it certainly has some message behind it about Taiwan of the time, even through the eyes of foreigners. I just didn’t enjoy it in general.

Rating: 2 Stars

Visually it’s stunning, even though this is 10 years old and the first Pixar feature film, it still looks very modern. I was surprised that many toys were actually real toys before the movie (though not living in US I didn’t recognize them all).

But I think the story was key to its success. Seeing the toys’ point of view when their owner is not around is a genius concept. Even I was curious about it. But there are also some mature themes that probably only adults can appreciate.

Kids these days change toys so often that they appreciate them even less than when I was a kid. I used to treasure my toys and kept them even after I grew up. They became almost collectibles that I would only look at, instead of play with.

Apart from that, this is just a thrilling exciting movie. It was fun to see them in the outside world, and even scary to see them in the bad boy’s room. There was a real sense of danger, especially with those monstrous looking toys.

The main characters were also well developed, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen did a great job at giving them a soul. They might be only toys, but they’re just as human as we are.

I’ll be watching the sequel soon.

Rating: 4 Stars

In a scene at the beginning, they even list a series of movies they’re paying homage to, which ends with Die Hard, though Bruce Willis’s character hasn’t seen that movie…

There isn’t much to say about the plot, I’m more interested in the tone of this movie. This is a mix of funny scenes and R rated action scenes. In these scenes the two leads (Willis and Tracy Morgan) kill people without thinking twice, which I thought was jarring at times.

The humor is well done, Willis and Morgan do have a good chemistry. I laughed at many scenes, finding them entertaining enough. But other scenes fell flat. The two supporting detectives in particular didn’t feel that interesting, even though they have quite a few scenes by themselves.

It’s a perfectly fine entertaining movie, but there’s no deeper message or anything remarkable about it. Kevin Smith directed this one, though he didn’t write it, and it’s obvious. His own movies are both funny and poignant.

If you just want some dumb entertainment, this is perfectly fine.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

This is a light comedy that weaves a crime story, a romance and other funny scenes together in an enjoyable pot. At times it reminded me of Guy Ritchie’s mob movies, though this is not as edgy. But it does tell many different stories starring various characters that slowly converge together in a crime act. Again, it’s all very light-hearted and silly, but it’s endearing and entertaining.

I also liked that it tells a little about Taiwanese culture. For example it shows people going to book stores in the evening, and just reading books on the floor. Or that Taiwanese people are into eating food late at night, and that it’s easy to find little places, sometimes even street vendors through the night. Those are all little things about the culture in Taiwan that I appreciated.

An enjoyable little comedy.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

That said, I did get bored at times, and I watched it in two sittings. I felt at times there just wasn’t any tension, especially since we all know what happened with the war. We don’t know about the characters’s fates, but I must confess I didn’t care that much.

I did feel a little “West Wing” vibe in parts, which is obviously a good thing.

Overall it’s a movie I’d recommend, but it’s not a smash hit for me.

Rating: 3 Stars

Here it is in a nutshell: a group of friends go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, but the morning after they wake up without any memory of the previous night, and they lost the groom.

The plot is central and it brings to funny situations. However there’s also a tension throughout that kept me hooked, because I really wanted to know what happened to them and where Doug (the groom) is.

It’s really a procedural, in that they try to find out the truth by following leads. They also meet dangerous people (and animals), and are in deep trouble with the bride. This being a comedy it has a happy ending, but I wouldn’t have minded a more dramatic ending.

This is definitely a fun movie, great to watch with friends.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

There’s also a look at the life of comedians, both ones that are successful and ones that are just starting out. It was interesting to see how comedians write their jokes, it’s not just something that pops in their head and it’s ready to be used. An idea comes up, but then they have to work on it and polish it with more ideas and thought.

I’ve never been a fan of Sandler, he was just too over the top for me. But here he’s more relatable as a human being, which is ironic because his character is kind of a jerk. Seth Rogen is likable and the one we identify with. He’s surprised and in awe of Sandler’s life, just like we poor people are. But he also knows how much of a jerk he is.

That’s all in the first part of the movie and I enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately the second part of this very long movie (too long) just drops in quality. There’s almost a change in tone that transforms the movie into a more traditional comedy. Things get crazy, characters make decisions that don’t make much sense, and it all just feel a little bit forced. It doesn’t go completely over the top, but it’s enough that it doesn’t feel right.

It’s a pity because the first part was very good, worthy of a 4 stars rating. In the end, it’s just worth watching, but it couldn’t have been Apatow’s best movie.

Rating: 3 Stars

He was right, he’s the funniest comedian I’ve ever seen (though I don’t know that many comedians). His particular type of humor though, is perfect for my sensibilities. He is a Canadian of Indian origins, so his jokes revolve around non-American people, their language and culture.

But he doesn’t just invent jokes to make fun of us, he learns about the many different cultures and contrast it with American culture. For example, he talks about how Asian parents beat their children whereas American ones don’t. Or about how cheap Indian people are.

He also has a talent for imitating other languages and accents. His Indian accent is obvious, but never fails to make me laugh. His Cantonese accent is my favorite though, anything he says in that accent just makes me laugh hysterically. He can also imitate other languages, even though he doesn’t speak them. His Italian sounded very good, as did his African. All of these appealed to my family (between my wife and I, we know Italian, Chinese, English, a little bit of African languages).

Here are the shows we’ve watched.

- Comedy Now (2004): the first one we watched, one of the funniest. Much about different races and many good accents. South Africa, Italy, Hong Kong, Indian… Asian parents beating their kids…

- Show Me The Funny! (1997): this being an older show, he had a few good jokes, but he wasn’t totally focused on multi-cultural jokes, and the other jokes weren’t that funny.

- Outsourced (2006): this one repeats a few of the good jokes from Show Me the Funny, but it has many more funny ones. Definitely as funny as Comedy Now.

- Red, White and Brown (2008): this is the most recent show, and it might be the funniest yet. It’s long, but he keeps the laughs coming.

If you’ve never seen Russell Peters, I suggest to watch it as soon as you can.

Rating: 4 Stars