Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

★★☆☆☆ This latest piece of work of the British Oscar winning director Danny Boyle (Best Director, Slumdog Millionaire) looks intriguing and elusive at first, but as it develops, it becomes so predictable and scientifically unconvincing. Said you’d be able to ask anyone to do almost anything by simply hypnotizing him. Well… I don’t buy it. I guess it’d be so much better to make it a sci-fi flick like Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’ than a reality-based crime thriller as it may seem but certainly not. The use of hypnosis and dysfunction of one’s memories in ‘Trance’ is all just a cover, under which is nothing more than a story of revenge. To be honest, that’s quite boring. And there’s violence and obscene that I don’t find necessary either. I nonetheless, gotta give it to Danny in the light of his ingenious editing skills and choice of music. ‘Trance’ is technically impressive but dramatically weak. So maybe it’s just me, as I prefer a good, witty story to anything else in films...

★★★☆☆ 〈真夏方程式〉不是不好看，只是跟之前的〈嫌疑犯 X 的獻身〉相比，給予我的震撼沒那麼強烈而已。上週二看了這部電影，再次體會到：期望越大，失望越大。拖到現在才寫，是因為沒什麼好說或想說的，簡單說來，一切都是因為愛！ 這次的案件沒有〈嫌〉裡頭的那麼「複雜」和「完美」，但案件涉及人物多，跨越年代久，也就只有湯川教授那般的天才頭腦，才能看清謊言背後的真相了。整個故事沒什麼驚喜意外之處，只要留心看，在湯川教授揭開謎底之前，大概已能猜出一些端倪。但是戲裡的那位小男孩，多少還是讓我們有點傻眼！有人說福山雅治如同香港演員林峰，只是 chok ，沒演技，但事實是，電影版的〈神探迦利略〉跟電視版的相比，感覺是相差甚遠的。電影版裡的福山雅治收斂了很多，起碼沒有那個招牌手勢，也沒有突然拿起什麼，耍酷地寫一些讓人摸不著頭腦的方程式。你可以不看電視劇〈神探迦利略〉，但是電影版你絕對不能錯過，包括這部〈真夏方程式〉。 〈真〉是一部非常沉重的電影，雖然它偶爾會讓你笑一下，但它給予你更多的，我想，是眼淚與唏噓。你甚至會非常同情戲中的犯罪者，認為他做的是正確的，是應該的，就算是一向非常理性的湯川教授，最後也選擇「感情用事」，讓秘密永遠成為秘密。我不知道這樣做是好是壞，但我相信，一個背負著秘密與愧疚而走下去的人，他所踏出的每一步，一定是比別人沉重萬分的！

★★★☆☆ All you see in ‘Europa Report’ are images of a past event in mockumentary style. All shots are taken from so-called news clips and interviews, and cameras equipped inside and outside the spacecraft and spacesuits. The camera angles are narrow. The pictures are rough and shaky. Viewers like me may find it unpleasant. And I guess a mockumentary is still a mockumentary. The more you try to make it look real, the less it looks real! As a fan of sci-fi films, the story’s interesting enough to me. A crew of astronauts setting out for Europa, one of the Jupiter’s moons, that is believed to harbor life under its ice-covered surface. The journey seems pretty gripping as it’s presented nonlinearly. But the ending turns me off. It reminds me of Danny Boyle’s ‘Sunshine’, a seemingly great sci-fi film unfortunately ruined by its mindless ending. What ‘Europa Report’ finally reveals is not that mindless after all, but it certainly leaves a bad aftertaste: why are we still thinking ins...

★★☆☆☆ Going to cinema for a film was my top entertainment while TVs and TV shows were still kind of rare. Those I remember for sure I checked out together with my mom are Christopher Reeve’s ‘Superman’ series. To an adult like my mom, Superman was nothing impressive, but to a little naïve boy like me, it certainly was. I like Superman movies that represent hopes and dreams of flying higher and being stronger and larger than life. After years of hibernation, Superman finally came around again with Zack Snyder as the director, and Christopher Nolan the producer. I expected there’d be slo-mo spectacular moves like those in ‘300’, but there’s quite the opposite, and it feels nothing like ‘The Dark Knight’ either. This new version of Superman is more or less a disappointment! Yes, ‘Man Of Steel’ is packed with actions and I’m fine with that, but I would’ve enjoyed it if they had just slowed down a bit, and not given me nauseous, boring action sequences like a hybrid of ‘Transformer...