Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

★★★★☆ ‘The Woman In Black’ is dark, atmospheric and creepy. Unlike most of the horrors where ghosts prefer to pop up and talk to the main character about their miseries, the spirit in the film never says a word in fact. She tells her story through newspaper clippings, photos, notes, letters and hidden words on the wall. There are shadows, reflections, sudden scratches, weird sounds, a moving chair, etc to indicate that she’s there. This is a story about a haunted house and the woman who used to live there. She did harm to herself, and she’s doing it to all those kids. Why and how are what it’s all about. The woman’s mad because she’s not forgiving. A man (Daniel Radcliffe, ‘Harry Potter’ series) meant to find out about her is mad too, since no one, I guess, would be as bold as him to be willing to stay in that house alone even after seeing horrifying things; or be so insanely determined to want to get a dead body out of the marshes where he’s likely to get killed. He doesn’t

★★☆☆☆ 英國權威電影雜誌《 Empire 》說〈突擊死亡塔〉是經典，而美國影評教父 Roger Ebert 則說它是垃圾，當然，電影觀感是很個人的東西，出現這兩種極端也屬正常，因為觀看角度的不同罷了。《 Empire 》看到的，是西方人很少看到的精采近身搏擊，而 Roger Ebert 期望的，可能是一齣故事和動作配搭完美的電影，結果他當然失望而回。 看這類電影，請務必不要對劇情抱有任何期望，一切都是為了打而打，欣賞功夫和畫面就可以了。但問題是，戲裡頭的那些所謂印尼搏擊術，其實大家已經司空見慣，也不過就是泰拳揉合自由搏擊，沒甚麼新鮮，〈拳霸〉和眾多甄子丹功夫電影比它精采多了。看罷電影，個人對這種印尼搏擊術沒甚好感，因為它招招中要害，是一種頗原始、惡毒的武功。此外，這種武術也很重腿功，但在現實打鬥中，腿腳其實應該少用，甚至不用，因為起飛腳，容易失平衡嘛。 這部電影也不是一無是處，其配樂頗出色，能營造出緊張的氣氛，很有壓迫感，背後功臣原來是 Linkin Park 的主音之一 Mike Shinoda ，就是那個 Rapper ，怪不得有種熟悉的感覺呢！

(2012) ★☆☆☆☆ I don’t get this film. It’s really a headache that the camera shakes about a lot every time the actions set in. The story so much of a cliché is basically about a dirty list that could tarnish the reputation of secret agencies worldwide, but we know already that they have no shame at all, don’t we? Plus, no idea why Tobin (Denzel Washington) would want to risk his life for such information. For money like he says? I don’t think there’s anyone who’s stupid enough to be interested in buying things that’d definitely cause them nothing but death. Denzel, without doubt, is a great actor, but I guess he’s been putting himself to waste in films like this for too long!

(2012)  ★★★☆☆ ‘21 Jump Street’ seems pretty promising at first. It gets a little bit boring and clichéd like most of the comedies nowadays as it develops, but surprisingly it has a very interesting ending. It’s not that seriously funny as ‘ Horrible Bosses ’, but a whole lot more fascinating than any of those featuring Adam Sandler. As for the story, you probably know what’s going on there if you watched the TV version back in the late 80s. There’re sarcastic dialogues, great music and decent performances by Jonah Hill, the impressive guy in ‘ Moneyball ’ and Channing Tatum and uncredited cameos like Johnny Depp. Right, he’s there all the time. You just never know when he’s going to pop up, but when he does, you’ll certainly go HFS!

(2012)  ★★★★★ Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? These are the questions we’ve been wondering for ages, and yet we haven’t found the answers. Prometheus is thus built to search for our origins. The film’s set in the near future when we humans can travel far enough to reach a planet’s moon where we believe we’ll meet our Makers, or say, Engineers as they describe in the film. So the next question is, why’d they want to make us? What is the point? ‘Prometheus’ is obviously more grandiose and ambitious than ‘Alien’. The latter is simply there to scare the hell out of us with long silences and shadows, while the former is not only to let us experience a different sense of horror by introducing grosser infections and alien things, but also to make us think big questions that’d inevitably shake our faith. The more you think about them, the more uneasy you’ll feel for sure. This film has a very intriguing opening where a humanoid sees a flying saucer and drinks