Era of Passion -- "Public Enemies"

That was an era called "The Great Depression", and now it's the era called "The 2nd Great Depression". That was an era that ppl hated the banks that "robbed" their money so that any bank robber could be a super star, and now its the era that ppl hated the banks that "cheated" their money yet the banks still gave huge bonus to their management staff. That was an era of passion, and now it's an era of re-creating such passion, on the screen.

Nostalgia colors, old-school microphones, 30's costume and settings, all these brought us back to that era. But I don't buy it that a Thompson semi-auto can be fired like a M-16, although the gun fighting scenes are awesome, esp the one in the Little Bohemia Lodge and the woods. We've been flooded by bombs, lasers, missles and other modern weapons, so when I heard the gunshots that resemble the real-life ones, it actually touched me more. The other thing I disagree with the camera-men is that why they couldn't just hold the cameras still? I felt like car-sick after the show...

Johnny Depp doesn't look quite like John Dillinger, neither does Christian Bale look like "Little Mel". Aside from the box-office, they earned their roles, I bet, most likely because they always dared to do some "extreme" things in their previous projects, like "Edward the Scissorhands" and "Mechanics". Depp is definitely the star of the whole movie, via the skillful acting that he used to portrait Dillinger from being smart, being aggressive, and finally being desperated. There is only one scene that I felt that he was "over-acting" -- The scene that Billie got arrested. Dillinger was actually surrounded by dozens of special agents, and he acted like he just wanna shout it out. Hard to believe that no one noticed such a strange guy there and just let him drive away like that... The scene that Dillinger visited Chicago Police Department looks quite weird, but I heard that it was based on reality. I just saw Depp walking around like a ghost, weird, but I kind of like it.

Compared to Depp, Bale was not that lucky, for his role, special agent Melvin Purvis, was just not the focus. This is not "Catch Me If You Can" after all.

Our "Dillinger Girl" Marion Cotillard could be hardly categorized as "beauty" in Hollywood. The most impressive scene is when Billie was tortured by that fat-boy agent. Besides earned some points to her career, she also earned a romantic scene with Bale here. ^_^

I actually don't quite like the director to put so much love stories upon Dillinger, but I know that's for the box office...

Unsuccessful Extension of the Classics – Transformer Salvation

Terminator 1 & 2 are two classics: One showed us the infinite possibility of “time travel” in fictional world, while the other one introduced one of the most impressive robots in history. And of course those creative and bold stunts and explosions re-defined some “rules” of Hollywood movies. The third one in the line was a disaster: ruined the box office, and sent Schwarzenegger to the Governor’s office.

Now here comes T4, which used a different naming style, a brand new cast, and most attractively, a new actor in the leading role. But the script writers seemed to be lack of some imagination: The human-robot-hybrid looks not quite much different from RoboCop series, and the “mercury robot” just disappeared (maybe ppl nowadays know that could not possibly come true before 2018?). The non-stop bombing and stunts are quite exciting, esp. with the thundering sound effect, but we shall expect more from a T movie, right?

Some bugs in the story:
1. How John Conner suddenly became the global leader of Resistance? At the beginning he was just a member of the field team (a junior leader at most), but when the Commander gave the order to bomb Skynet, he could simply make ppl around the world to disobey it. Was he some kind of “Robinhood” here? Anyway he gained the leadership in this sequel, so we don’t need to worry about that in the next one, if there is any.
2. How could the Resistance maintain their super hi-tech communication channels when Skynet got the ability to destroy those satellites? Transmission stations above the ground are easily recognized, and mobile ones are too unstable. Don’t take your globally roaming mobile phones for granted…
3. Why Skynet did not just kill Kyle when they found him? If Kyle is dead, John Conner will not be born, so everything will be changed right? Keep Kyle and lure John Conner into the Skynet base looks just for the storytelling’s sake…

As for the actors, most look average. Christian Bale is the star, and Sam Worthington got an equal share too. But not like some reviews saying that Worthington “steals” the show, they actually contributed some pretty good scenes together. God knows how long we have been waiting for those real man-to-man scenes! (OK I know those journalists don’t like Bale, but over-praise Worthington is not good for him…) Anton Yelchin (as Kyle) is quite hot these days, like the most recent appearance in Star Trek as the genius Russian young lad. Moon Bloodgood must have mistaken the famous “sun-burn” makeup originally from Faye Wong (in case you don’t know, one of the most successful and famous pop queens in Chinese-speaking areas, who also always led the fashion trends until retired to family yrs ago). But as an ex-model for MAXIM, her performance as the wildcat-like sexy pilot was actually beyond expectation. And since she got a typical Asian face (got Korean blood), reviewers from Asia gave her a hell lot of praises, which I think is a bit over. Bryce Dallas Howard (as Mrs. John Conner) looks pale, not only because her role is pregnant. Why she took this trivial role when she actually got the talents to write and direct a full-length movie by herself?

The Darkest Time -- Batman: The Dark Knight

"The dark before the dawn is the darkest" (I'm not talking about McCaine, although he had some problems with this quote recently.) This is my feeling about the recent Batman movie.

Christopher Nolan, the director had warned us that this will be the darkest Batman movie that ever made. Actually I even think that this is the darkest movie that I've ever watched. The darkness, is not about the cruel and cold-blooded Joker, but torturing EVERY role by making them to make choices about life and morality. Jimmy has to choose from an unrightful apology or his son's life; Fox has to choose to use or destroy the powerful yet indecent overhearing system; people on the ferry boats have to choose to blow somebody else off or to wait for their own destine to come; even the old Alfred has to choose a "right time". Heath Ledger might be pushed to much by such a movie to be ended like that.

I don't quite understand why the Nolan brothers have some hostility again China in the script. The low-quality gun was "made in China", and Chinese government "will never extradite one of their own"? Come on, cold war has ended for decades! And for the record, this movie has not yet got the permission to be shown in mainland China, and you know why now.

Gary Oldman is really an "oldman" now. Let's hope that the next Batman movie could be made within these coming two to three years, otherwise he might be too old to take the role that I like very much. Maggie Gyllenhaal looks sooooo 1930's, and even if she's the elder sister to Jake Gyllenhaal, I cannot see the point to pick her as Rachel. Aaron Eckhart is shining as Harvey Dent, but not quite as Two-Face. But he should get people to remember his name now. Christian Bale fades to the background, just shows from time to time to reminds me that this IS a Batman movie.

The glory goes to Heath Ledger. His Joker is so pain-causing. It seems that he could jump out of the screen at any moment, with a knife in your mouth, and says, "Why So Serious?". I know that many people say that he should win an Oscar for this role. That's true. It's a once-for-a-life chance, and he use his life to catch it.

The music is quite striking, especially when you are sitting in a hall with the best audio equipment in town. And the shooting and editing is some masters' piece. Actually I even did not dare to look at the screen several times during the whole show.

BTW that Edison Chan, all his scenes include: one far-far-away shot from the heli, one from the back without the head, and the only one in front, -- out of focus. Is this kind of arrangement before or after his scandal?