"Same Planet. Different World."

At first I thought that this would be another one of those remakes. I thought wrong, of course. Journey to the Center of the Earth proved to be a very interesting, and funny, movie on the Jules Verne classic. It was great the way they were able to interlace the movie with the actual story.

Brendan Frazer was as usual, the source of laughter. His punchlines were right on the mark and they made the movie livelier.

The special effects were awesome too. It really looked like everything from down there were real. The pre-historic animals looked real too! There were some scenes that made me jump off my seat a bit...well I was already at the edge of my seat to begin with, so...

Although personally, I think the Journey to the Center of the Earth was a bit too short and it kinda lacked some real story. Sure, it's about a man who discovers the way to the center of the earth, and who goes through an adventure to find the way back out but...that's all there is to it. They didn't even spend 3 days at the center. Buuuuuut. It's still a good watch.

I think we've caught a glimpse of a potential sequel too!

Forbidden Kingdom wasn't what I expected it to be

(The image is hi-res. Click for full size)

To put it bluntly, I thought that the movie sucked. The story, at least, because the fight scenes were cool and awesome even if they did use the type of fight scenes you'd normally see on some cheesy old Hong Kong films (with the flying stunts and all). Of course, I'm not generalizing since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did those kinds of stunts too - artistically, though.

Anyway, Forbidden Kingdom is about an American guy named Jason (Michael Angarano) who finds a staff in some pawnshop in Chinatown. The owner of the shop asks him to deliver the staff to its owner and blah blah he suddenly wakes up to find himself in ancient China - the Middle Kingdom, to be exact.

He meets a drunken master (Jackie Chan) named Lu Yan and his "assistant" Sparrow (Liu Yifei) who tells him the story behind the staff - that it belongs to the Monkey King (Jet Li) who was turned into stone by the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou). Jason needs to give the staff back to the Monkey King in order to end the horrific reign of the Jade Warlord.

Along the way, they come across a monk named Lan Cai He (Jet Li) who tries to steal the staff at first but becomes their friend thereafter. I don't think you'd want me to tell you the rest of the story here, right? So I'll stop with the spoilers here and move on to my ranting.

So I already mentioned that I didn't like the story but I don't think I mentioned why. I thought Forbidden Kingdom was a bit too...Hollywood. I mean, movies about the Monkey King were done in the 70s. Aside from the upcoming Dragon Ball movie, I don't think I've heard of any Monkey King movie that has been highly anticipated as Forbidden Kingdom.

My guess is that a large part of the anticipation comes from the fact that it's Jet Li and Jackie Chan's first movie together -- and seeing them fight is epic. Yeah well, the fight scenes were awesome indeed, but I've definitely seen better (from their individual movies too). Some of the lines and scenes were funny and amusing so I guess that's an upside to it, right?

Did I mention how ugly the guy who played Jason is? And how pretty Sparrow is? Well the Witch is pretty too - I think a lot of people who have seen pictures of her (or the movie itself) will agree with me.

I'm not discouraging anyone from watching Forbidden Kingdom. What has been written here are just some opinions of a kung fu and martial art movie fan. These are rants of a Jet Li fan. Go ahead and watch Forbidden Kingdom then go back here and tell me what you think about it, okay? :)

Beowulf

In just a few days, Beowulf will be shown in theaters. Is anybody looking forward to watch Beowulf? I know I am. The reasons? Well one, it is a movie about one of the best mythological stories ever and two, Angelina Jolie is there. Yep, I'm Angelina Jolie's fan and I can't wait to see her computerized nude scene. If you haven't heard or read anything about it yet, most of the movie is CG.

Anyway, Beowulf, if you're not aware, is the story of a warrior-hero named Beowulf who has slain the demon Grendel. With Grendel's death, the wrath of his deadly and seductive mother falls upon Beowulf. She wants revenge against the slayer of her son and she wants it bad.

Beowulf, I forgot to mention, is an Anglo-Saxon epic poem that probably came to existence at around 700 AD. Despite it being of Anglo-Saxon origins, the plot and characters heavily relies on Danish and Swedish influences.

Beowulf has a stellar cast lined up:

Ray Winstone - Beowulf
Anthony Hopkins - Hrothgar
John Malkovich - Unferth
Angelina Jolie - Grendel's mother
Brendan Gleeson - Wiglaf
Crispin Glover - Grendel
Robin Wright Penn - Wealthow
Alison Lohman - Ursula

So is anyone else looking forward to watching Beowulf? I think it'll be a really great movie!

The Pagemaster

Pagemaster -- I remember watching Pagemaster when I was around 9 years old (this was released on 1994, btw). I loved the whole live-action and animation combination throughout the movie. Well, it wasn't so much of a combination as compared to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or Space Jam since the movie switches between live-action and animation, plus majority of the story is animated.

For those of you who haven't heard of the Pagemaster yet, it's a movie that stars Macaulay Culkin as Richard. He was a timid boy who was fearful of a lot of things. His father decided to make a tree house for him but he's too scared to climb up and help his dad. So one day, his dad runs out of nails and asks Richard to buy some for him. On the way home, rain starts to pour heavily and Richard is forced to seek shelter at the library.

There he meets the librarian, played by Christopher Lloyd, who quickly assumes that Richard is looking for a fiction book and sends Richard off to find one. He slips on the floor at the center of the building and as he wakes up, and suddenly a huge wave of color engulfs him, turning him into a cartoon character.

He then meets three books, Adventure, Fantasy and Horror, in their respective sections. They encounter the Pagemaster who tells them that they have to find the exit, and thus begins an adventure for Richard.

It's a great movie for both kids and adults. I mean, a lot of the grown-ups would recognize literature references all throughout the movie more than the kids would do. Well there's a moral too, just a simple lesson for Richard to face his fears. It was a lot of trouble for that one piece of advice, but at least, he was able to learn how to do just that.

Highlander: The Source

Highlander -- So has anyone seen the trailer for the new Highlander movie? Does anyone even know that there's a new Highlander movie? Well it's slated for release this year and it's the fifth Highlander movie to date.

I read somewhere that it was already shown in America, aired by the Sci-Fi Channel, but when I watched Resident Evil the other day, I saw the trailer for Highlander: The Source, so I'm guessing that it will be shown here in our local cinemas.

I can't wait for this one. If you've read my earlier post on the Highlander series, you'll get an idea of how much I like Highlander. Added to that, Adrian Paul, the original Duncan MacLeod, is the one starring in the movie. So that's double the "I can't wait for this one."

Oh yeah, the plot. It's basically just a quest to find the Holy Grail so that the immortals can unlock the secrets of "The Source". Ah but this time, as they race to find the secrets, the world of the near-future is on its path to destruction.

So, is anyone going to watch this? Do you think it will be a good one?