ellagarden

After all the effort of building international reputation with films like "Heroes" and "Crouching Tiger", Chinese film has gone back to the starting point with this one. "Painted Skin" is nothing but an amateur attempt trying to imitate other ones, without sufficient skill or patient. The lines are simple AWFUL!!! I wonder whether they came up with the script in two days. The costumes and makeup is a joke, look like recycled from other movies. The acting....Donnie Yen's performance is probably OK for a HongKong TV show and nothing else, and all those supposedly emotional scenes are so badly handled, gave me goose bumps. The worst thing of this film is the directing, the editing and camera works. It is absolutely mind-blowing that such a horrible production, worse than an average video on Youtube, has spent so much money on advertising and publicity stunt, but nothing on making this movie worth seeing.

I was never a fan of Stephen Chow's comedy, but i did enjoy "Kungfu" and "shaoling soccer" very much. However, I went to see CJ7 with good thoughts and end up wishing my money back. First of all, i give credit to the surrealism in his film. The creation of UFO and extraterrestrial being(before i knew it was an "Alien dog") is probably the closest to "art" in this film. The "fat girl" cracks me (and everyone else in the theatre) up big time. However, Chow's portrait of a construction worker is of the least convincing. I tried not to let it bug me but it did, throughout the entire movie. The body language, dialogue and even some of the set are too HongKong-ish. Chow was always the same person in every movie, doing his same old funny routine, with no visible improvement of acting skills during all these years, which is a shame.

As for humor, I found it's too "dry". It was mainly expressed through the exaggeration of body language and appearance. Some of them are good at their own, but put into a feature length movie seems too scattered. After all, we are looking for a movie experience as a whole, not a stand-up comedy.

The major complaint that i have for CJ7 is that it's Cliché as hell! Let's just say that after the alien dog's first appearance, you don't have to sit still in the theatre anymore. Instead, if you have any knowledge of kids' sci-fi movies/storys, you will know exactly what is going to happen in the second half. I was actually surprised that in 21st century, this plot can still stand. And in the end,the supposed "tear-jerking" scene is totally cheap and tacky.

If you enjoyed Stenphen Chow's old movies and want to have a good laugh, go on with it. if you are looking for anything other than that, i don't think it worth the time or the money.

CSI Las Vegas is the best TV show is have seen in many years. I became a fan of crime related show several years ago. I have always consider X-files to be the best TV series until i bought the DVD of CSI. And to be honest, this one is even better! intriguing plot, excellent acting and, there's humor. and the city Las Vegas seems to have so many interesting, sometimes rather ironic ways of living, i just can't get enough of it! Someone thought CSI has jumped the shark in season 4, but i think in season 6 things are just getting more interesting. the whole season 6 kept me on the edge of the seat, so did the new season 7. i hope the show never ends,really!