Day 349: The Replacement Killers (1998)

Last week we took a break when it came to having an Ass Whoopin Wednesdays film because we were busy watching another film for our 365 movies in 36 days challenge blog. So this week, we decided to pick a film Chow Yun-Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) that we’ve always wanted to watch in The Replacement Killers. John Lee (Yun-Fat) is one of the best assassins that money can buy. After a drug lord’s (Kenneth Tsang) son gets killed, John is tasked with doing a revenge job for him, but John’s conscience gets in the way and he fails to do the job. Knowing that he failed to do it, he will seek the help of a documents forger (Mira Sorvino) to get papers to go back to China. The only problem is that the drug lord has already hired replacement killers to not only finish the job, but to take you out as well. The film also stars Michael Rooker (Guardians Of The Galaxy) as Det. Zedkov, Jürgen Prochnow (Das Boot) as Michael Kogan, Til Schweiger (Inglorious Basterds) as Ryker, Danny Trejo (The Devil’s Rejects) as Collins, Clifton Collins Jr. (Triple 9) as Loco, Carlos Gomez (Desperado) as Hunt, Patrick Kilpatrick (Last Man Standing) as Pryce, and the film was directed by Antoine Fuqua (The Magnificent Seven). To see the rest of the review, please click here to go to Moshpits and Movies.

Day 248: Morgan (2016)

Society has always had the need and the want or desire to play God throughout history of cinema (e.g. Frankenstein, Ex Machina). Of course like all of them, they are usually destined to be doomed. So for today’s film, I chose to watch the newest film in Artificial Intelligence entitled Morgan. Morgan (Anya Taylor Joy) is a new breed of artificial intelligence kind of humanoid that was breed as an organism by scientists as an experiment. One afternoon, Morgan has sort of a metal lapse and she attacks a scientist. The corporate company that is paying for the experiment decides that it wants to send in a risk-management consultant by the name of Lee Weathers (Kate Mara). Lee must decide whether Morgan is a valued asset or to terminate a dangerous asset. The film also stars Rose Leslie (The Last Witch Hunter) as Dr. Amy Menser, Michael Yare (Game Of Thrones) as Ted, Toby Jones (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) as Dr. Simon Ziegler, Chris Sullivan (Stranger Things) as Darren, Boyd Holbrook (Gone Girl) as Skip, Vinette Robinson (Sherlock) as Brenda, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as Dr. Cheng, Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight) as Kathy, and the film was directed by Luke Scott (Loom).

The idea for the film was there and for the most part they did a fine job, but maybe the execution didn’t go off as planned. The first part of the film is kind of boring as it’s getting you up to speed with what is going on and exactly who Morgan is. The real excitement in my opinion is when Paul Giamatti shows up to test Morgan as to whether she is an asset for the company or not. That is when the intensity of the film really starts to build up because for a while all you get are pieces of a secret until that secret is finally revealed to you as to why she was locked in the box again. Giamatti is really just there to mess with her mind and prove that she in fact is not human and therefore is not capable of feeling real emotions. He is a ball buster and the only one who is going against science. I didn’t recognize Anna Taylor Joy until I saw that she was in the film The Witch. She was phenomenal in that film and she did a pretty good job in this one as well. One thing that I will say is that she was kind of freaky looking to me which might have been a very small aspect for what they were going for. The one thing I didn’t understand was what was the point of the character of Skip? He really doesn’t serve a real purpose in the film, but he’s just there. There’s a big twist at the end of the film, but if you do the math you’ll figure it out as soon as it happens. I saw the ending coming as soon as it started to unfold which doesn’t bother me too much, but they could have done better with that. Overall, it’s just an OK film that was looking to explore a different aspect of A.I. in cinema. I commend them for that, but it won’t change my grade this time. I am going to give the film an C+ for a final grade.

Day 141: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

The film I chose for today was one that for some odd and strange reason, I had avoided watching back when it was released. What motivated me to finally watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is tat the fact that Netflix released the sequel to the film this year and so I chose the original for today’s film. Chow Yun Fat (The Killer) stars as Li Mu Bai, a storied master and warrior in China who is trying to give up the lifestyle by relinquishing his famous and most storied sword The Green Destiny. After the sword is stolen, he is sent on a mission with another warrior in Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) to try and track down the notorious fugitive that they believe stole the sword. What they don’t bargain for is a young adolescent teenager who is the nobleman’s daughter that is highly skilled standing in there way because she is at a crossroads in her life. The film also stars Ziyi Zhang (Rush Hour 2) as Jen Yu, Chen Chang (The Assassin) as Lo “Dark Cloud”, Pei-Pei Cheng (They Wait) as Jade Fox, Sihung Lung (The Wedding Banquet) as Sir Te, Xian Gao (The Legend) as Bo, and the film was directed by Ang Lee (Life Of Pi).

I can certainly tell you that I am definitely happy that I checked out this film because it was definitely different than you average martial arts films. I say that because the martial arts was really only a part of the film and not the main focus. At least that’s how I feel in my opinion because it was more of a love story. Of course, the martial arts was a big part of the film, but it was much more poetic. Ziyi Zhang’s character is at a crossroads because she wants to follow her family’s wishes of getting married to who they arranged to her, but she is in love with someone else. It’s also kind of a coming of age story for her because she feels tat with the sword, she has great power, but she soon earns from Li Mu Bai that it’s much more than that and that she wasn’t really worthy of the sword. Of course the action scenes in the film are phenomenal and excellent to watch with all of the sword fighting, martial arts action. The flying through the air bits can be a little much to watch at times because it’s pure fantasy, but at the same time it was cool to see on the screen. It does add to the imagination and the beauty of their art by seeing that. The other great part about the film is the cinematography and the shots of the scenery are just beautiful to watch. The film is in Chinese, but never fear because there is subtitles. It’s available to watch on Encore Play and Encore. I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade because I really enjoyed the film.