Day 217 - The Sweeny(British)

"Flying Squad officers Detective Inspector Jack Regan (Ray Winstone) and Detective Constable George Carter (Ben Drew) arrive at the scene of a warehouse robbery; four armed men are attempting to steal gold bars. After Regan and Carter capture the robbers, Regan takes some of the gold bars to give to his informant Harry (Alan Ford). Detective Chief Inspector Ivan Lewis (Steven Mackintosh) from Internal Affairs starts to scrutinise Regan's activities – he is not aware that Regan is having an affair with his estranged wife, Flying Squad officer Nancy Lewis (Hayley Atwell)."

Not bad of a movie but isn't as good as other police action dramas that are out there. It was interesting to see Damian Lewis in the film as it was the first time I heard him speak with his ascent. Hayley Atwell was beautiful in the film but doesn't stay long. Ray Winstone was interesting as always as the leader and main star of the film. I wouldn't suggest you watch this unless you are very into British films.

 

 

1.9/5

Day 216- Space Pirate Captain Harlock (Japanese)

"In the future, mankind has discovered a way to travel faster than light and has built colonies on thousands of planets. With humanity fading and the resources of the universe starting to dwindle, some five hundred billion humans began the long journey back home, Earth. However, humanity has outgrown its capacity to repatriate that many people and thus began the "Homecoming War," where the many factions of humanity battled for a stake on Earth. The war was long and bloody, things wouldn't subside until an authoritarian universal government by the name of the Gaia Sanction declares Earth a sacred planet, and thus forbidden for humanity to repopulate.
To prevent various factions of humanity from immigrating back to Earth, an elite wing of the Gaia Fleet was tasked to defend Earth: The Deathshadow Martyr Fleet, led by Harlock. With the assistance of his scientist friend, Tochiro Ōyama, Harlock helped saved a dying advanced alien race called the Nibelung. In return for their help, the Nibelung gave Harlock their advanced technology and helped create the four Deathshadow-class ships with dark matter engines to defend Earth. Harlock's ships were unstoppable and he successfully defended Earth from humanity's influence, until the Gaia Sanction broke their own rules.
A peace treaty was created to prevent future bloodshed from various factions of humanity, however, it was under the condition that the diplomatic elite would be allowed to immigrate. Unfortunately, this didn't sit well with Harlock as he felt it was a betrayal of what he believed in as well as the hypocrisy of the Gaia Sanction. Enraged, Harlock broke rank and killed all the immigrants and set his guns upon his own fleet. With only the Arcadia in his command, the ship was badly damaged and was being boarded. In a high-risk gamble for survival and protection of the Earth, Harlock asked Miime (Nibelung observer and engineer of his ship) to unleash dark matter upon the Earth to protect it from humanity. Sadly, the gamble was made at a terrible cost."


This is an amazing 3D animation movie, it was also the first time I have seen Captain Harlock and his crew. I think Captain Harlock is a very amazing character that has more depth than someone would think. His story was completely interesting to see as well seeing his crew and their loyalty to their captain. I hated the character of Logan, he was completely annoying with no real value to me. I could tell how they were going to set up the ending of the film due to how Logan looks. That's also why I dislike the ending because I don't think it was befitting of the Captain. I wish we could have heard more about the crew and why they have loyalty to the captain. They didn't have all that much depth so it could have helped the film if they had done so. I also hated Logan's older brother Ezra who was completely annoying as well and useless to me. I suggest this film to those that like 3D animation films.

3/5

Day 215 - White Vengeance (Chinese)

"The film is loosely based on events in the Chu–Han Contention, an interregnum between the fall of the Qin dynasty and the founding of the Han dynasty in Chinese history. The film's Chinese title is a reference to the Feast at Hong Gate, one of the highlights of that era."

I have always disliked the Han dynasty as well communism era China as well. But I never knew about the fight between Han and Chu. I enjoyed more about the Chu and I was sad since I knew from the beginning that they wouldn't win. I would much rather had the Chu come into power rather than the Han. Its the same for the movie, the people of the Chu side were the better actors and had better characters. Feng Shaofeng was stellar as Xiang Yu, he was a much better actor and had a better character than Leon Lai. Liu Yifei did a nice job as well, I hope to see her in more movies in the future. The two characters that Feng Shaofeng and Liu Yifei had a tragic romance that was good but failed to draw out that much emotions because they don't have a lot of screen time together. What little time they did have was managed quite well. It was also nice to see Anthony Wong again, since I have seen him in a ton of movies before. I have to say Feng Shaofeng as Xiang Yu was the best in the film, he took us on a wonderful journey. This film is for those that like Chinese action and historical films.

2.9/5

Day 214 - Knuckle (Irish)

"This film follows 12 years in the lives of three Irish Traveller families (Joyces, Nevins, and Quinns) and their bitter feuds and fights. The film explores the reasons why they hold these fights and explores in-depth these families' secret life, which is barely known to outsiders of the Traveller community. The real reason for the feud among the families is never revealed, as they will not talk about it to outsiders."

A very interesting documentary that shows us the taboo world of the Traveller families bare knuckle fights that outsiders don't get to see. The director followed these families for 12 years, he was there for some of the action. Even after all these years he is still treated as an outsider, so we are not able to see a few of the fights because of legal reasons. Ian Palmer made this stellar documentary, that any one interested should watch this film. This a true story about 3 clans that fight in matches with only their fists that they call "fair fights". The fights are not professional, so don't expect professional fighting but fights worth watching. But the film is much more than fights and I'll leave it at that.

3.9/5

Day 213 - Ocean Heaven (Chinese/Hong Kong)

"Ocean Heaven is about a terminally ill father, Sam Wong (Jet Li) as he works his job in an aquarium and struggles to look after his 21-year-old son Dafu, who has autism (Wen Zhang). Sam has single-handedly brought up his son since his wife died 14 years ago and looks after him day and night attempting to help him learn basic tasks in order to care for himself, as well as searching for a home for his son before he passes away. As the story progresses, the growing relationship between father and son as well as the community around them become clearer"-wiki

A heartfelt film around such a horrible disorder called Autism that haunts many people. It was truly interesting to see Jet Li in such a dramatic role, not a single time did he raise a fist or a leg in this whole movie. He was actually good, I was quite surprised at how much I liked his performance in this film as a dying father. Wen Zhang was truly amazing, I didn't notice a single mistake about his performance it is almost as if he had the disorder. These two just helped each other to be a better actor which is a rare find in this modern world. These two characters walk the same path in life but are slowly going away from each other. Sam Wong tries his best in order to get Dafu to be more independent so he doesn't have to worry about him after he leaves. Dafu must struggle past his disorder in order to learn everything his father is teaching him. The struggles of these two people are truly heart filling and wonderful you want to know what happens next. I suggest this film to those that don't know what autism is and love dramatic films. Please don't watch this film if just want to see Jet Li fight, he doesn't do any kind of martial art in this film.

3.5/5

Day 212- The Berlin File (Korean)

"After a tense illegal arms deal in a Berlin hotel involving North Korean spy Pyo Jong-seong (Ha Jung-woo), a Russian broker, and a Middle Eastern terrorist goes wrong when disrupted by unknown assailants, Pyo narrowly escapes but encounters morass of conflicting evidence that may reveal why he was set up."

Not so good but not that bad! The Berlin File could have been great, it had potential but failed to be a great thriller. Some of the scenes were shot horribly and it looked fake at one point. The acting was okay, I think the best acting came from Ryoo Seung-bum. His character just came a live but everyone else was bit boring, annoying, or having a bad day. I like Han Suk-kyu but his English made me want to hit him it was horrible. Every time he spoke in English just annoyed me but when speaking Korean he wasn't that bad in the film. Ha Jung-woo wasn't half bad either, I just wish he had a stronger character but alas he didn't. The English speaking actors in the film as usual were horrible actors and should retire. I don't know why in Korean movies most of the people that "speak" English sound like they are mentality slow.  Not the best out there but I'll still suggest it for people that like spy thrillers.

2/5

Day 211 - Assualt on Wall Street (American/Canadian)

"In the midst of the financial crisis, a portfolio-manager instructs his employees to neglect the best-interest of clients in order to increase company profits.
Meanwhile, Jim Baxford (Dominic Purcell), a former soldier and armored car driver, lives with his wife, Rosie, in New York City. Rosie is in the process of recovering from a near-fatal brain tumor. Their health insurance has reached its limit, and Jim finds that he is unable to afford her treatment. He decides to cash in the pension he earned from serving in the military, but learns that much of it is lost as a result of bad investments on the part of his financial advisor. In addition, he finds himself in a $60,000 lawsuit as a result of bad real-estate investments conducted by his rogue financial advisor. Jim borrows $10,000 from a colleague to pay for an attorney to sue his financial advisor, and arranges a meeting with an assistant district attorney to discuss wrongdoings on the part of his financial advisors. However, the attorney he hired claims that he is unable to do anything and the assistant district attorney is unwilling to meet with him. Jim becomes frustrated at the loss of his money and his inability to pay for his wife's treatment and their mortgage. Because of his financial situation, his employer reluctantly fires him, as the company is not willing to trust him with large sums of money.
Rosie feels guilty for the financial strain that her illness has put on Jim and, unable to cope, commits suicide. Jim blames Wall Street financiers for ruining his life. Seeking vengeance, he purchases various firearms and grenades from an arms dealer, and begins a one-man army shooting spree on the Wall Street bosses that lost his money and contributed to the death of his wife. One by one, he kills those that have wronged him. The climax of the film has Jim staging a one-man assault and infiltration of a high-rise office building to confront and kill Jeremy Stancroft, a ruthless and greedy banker who is indirectly responsible for Jim's financial situation"

Not the best movie out there but I think that the message is clear. No one nowadays cares about the little people, the people that do the jobs most people don't want to do from a security guard to a police officer. Everyone in this film suffers but those on top until the end of the movie. The people on top are barely human, they don't care if they destroy many of the little people in order to just get fatter pockets even if they already have billions of dollars. This happens all the time in every country in the world! Yet we still let it stand because the people with the billions of dollars are the ones that actually ran the countries.
Now back to the movie, this film features many seasoned actors like the star Dominic Purcell who appeared in prison break, Keith David (Pitch Black, Dead Presidents), Edward Furlong (American History X), Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight, Runaway Train) and a few others. Yet the film suffers due to dialogue and sub par acting. I enjoyed the message of the film more and especially enjoyed the end of the film as I would do the same thing. We see this average American guy go through so much trouble and eventually snap. Towards the end he starts to stand up for whats right and he gets revenge.

2/5