He Says/She Says: Big Trouble in Little China

23 Friday Nov 2012

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He Says

by Thom Yee

Big Trouble in Little China images courtesy of 20th Century Fox

I don’t like to use the term “tour de force” very often, so when I say that “Big Trouble in Little China is a tour de force”, I mean it really is a “tour de force”.  To all fans of awesomeness as a non-ironic force of awesome, I can’t recommend Big Trouble in Little China enough.  It’s got everything — over-the-top action, ham-fisted romance, the Hell of the Upside Down Sinners.

It’s hard to explain what it is that makes Big Trouble in Little China so great, mostly because said explanation would require a scene-for-scene description and re-enactment of the entire movie because it’s all amazing.  I guess it all comes down to Kurt Russell’s Jack Burton, who, for lack of a better term, is a “tour de force” (am I using that right?).

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Quantum of Solace

23 Friday Nov 2012

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By Thom Yee

Quantum of Solace images courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures

“Oh crap,” I thought to myself as the realization set in.  After completing a review of Casino Royale (CR) in the lead up to Skyfall, it dawned on me that I would also have to do a Quantum of Solace review.  Well, here it goes.

Ask any Bond fan, any real Bond fan.  It doesn’t matter if you like Daniel Craig by a little or a lot; Quantum of Solace (QoS) was not good.  That’s an opinion that’s sort of warranted, but also a little perplexing, because, frankly, there are a lot of crap Bonds (or “junk Bonds” as my screenwriting instructor likes to call them, though I haven’t gotten him to commit as to which ones he’s referring).  Certainly to me and to a lot of newer Bond fans, CR was a revelation.  If you read my CR review, you know that Daniel Craig’s Bond was not only my first real exposure to the franchise, but that CR is almost wholly responsible for my being a fan.  And despite my natural inclination towards psychological sedation and withdrawal (and the mixed advance reviews), I remember actually being excited to see QoS.

And then I saw it.

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Casino Royale

23 Friday Nov 2012

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By Thom Yee

Casino Royale images courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures

Casino Royale is the first Bond movie I ever saw.

There.  I said it.

Though, to be more accurate, it’s the first Bond movie I ever saw all the way through.  Sure. I’d seen bits and pieces of various Bond movies at various times, pieced together which ones were usually Moneypenny and which ones were usually M.  Eventually I figured out why a picture of Sean Connery signed by Roger Moore was such a funny joke.  But I never cared about any of it.

Casino Royale is the first Bond movie I ever saw all the way through that I actually cared about.  It inspired me to go ahead and watch all the preceding Bond movies.  In order.  All 20.  All in less than a week.  All the way through.

And to be honest, I still didn’t really care about any of them.

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The Expendables 2

22 Thursday Nov 2012

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By Thom Yee

The Expendables 2 images courtesy of Lionsgate

There’s something to be said for a movie where, of all of its stars, Jean-Claude Van Damme gives the best acting performance.

And that something to be said? F*cking awesome.

That’s how I wanted to start this review, and, after a moment of contemplation, I went ahead and started it that way.

Even though it’s a lie.

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Pitch Perfect

22 Thursday Nov 2012

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By Grace Crawford

Pitch Perfect images courtesy of Universal Pictures

We’ve known each other for a little while now.  I’ve gotten to know things about you, dear reader, shameful things that previously only your browser history knew about (I know you read my Fifty Shades review.  We have no secrets, you and I).  So I’ve decided to come clean about something big, something game-changing, something that will forever change the way you think about me and may even cause you to doubt your love for me, fathomless though you thought it was: I used to be a fan of Glee.

Are you still reading?  Oh, thank God! I was so afraid my love for a cappella covers of popular songs would keep us apart.  What’s that?  Yes, I said a cappella.  Wait, where are you going?  Come back!  This isn’t a Glee review!

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Runaway Bride

22 Thursday Nov 2012

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By Thom Yee

Runaway Bride images courtesy of Paramount Pictures

After watching Runaway Bride, I can tell you that there are only two things that I’m certain of:

  1. Runaway Bride is a movie that was released in 1999.

Runaway Bride is a movie.  I’m certain it is a movie.  I’m certain it is a movie and I don’t think it ever lets you forget that it is a movie.  I’m certain it is a movie and that its writers, producers, directors, cast, set designers, makeup people, second unit directors, and various other hangers on know it is a movie.  I’m certain it is a movie and that the characters are, on some level, consciously aware that they are in a movie.  It couldn’t be anything other than a movie.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I was forced to watch Runaway Bride for a screenwriting course I’m taking.  I don’t want you to think that I pick out movies to review for the classics section just to rip them apart.

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JLA (Issues 1-4)

22 Thursday Nov 2012

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By Thom Yee

JLA images courtesy of DC Comics

Along with Warren Ellis’ Planetary, Brian Michael Bendis’ Powers and Mark Millar’s Ultimates, Grant Morrison’s JLA (short for Justice League of America) is not only one of my favourite comicbook runs of all time, but it really formed the spine of my personal literary sensibilities.  In terms of print on paper with few-to-no pictures, I read very few books, so it’s fortunate that comicbooks as strongly executed and high-concept as those four came along to help inform who I am (or at least who I claim to be).  Having grown up reading comics and magazines more than any traditional novels or literary works, I guess it’s an issue of attention span — I just can’t keep it going, it’s like there’s a wall made of nothing but text.  It really escapes me how anyone can plow their way through a significant amount of text, fiction or nonfiction, without pictures of some invulnerable flying man or a giant, green rage monster jumping out at you.

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The Hunger Games

22 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by in Books, Recent Books

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By Grace Crawford

The Hunger Games image courtesy of Scholastic Publishing

The problem with writing more than one review in a single day lies in the number of jokes one is capable of making in a single sitting.  More often than not, I bring out the big guns for the first article, leaving very little for the second.  However, the last one I wrote was a little light on the funny.  It actually wasn’t funny at all.  It was drier than a piece of month-old bread.  It was drier than all the jokes about bread I’m going to make in this article, because I can never resist puns about baked goods when I’m talking about The Hunger Games.

I’m writing about the book, not the film, and just the first book, not the whole series.  So I don’t want any grousing about how “you didn’t talk about the other two books, and everyone knows the last one is the best,” or “the movie was a ball of flaming crap and I fell asleep and so did my narcoleptic great-aunt who went and saw it with me.”  It’s your own fault for bringing an old woman with a sleep disorder to a movie that cost you $10.25 for the seniors’ ticket and $12.75 for the medium tub of popcorn that she can’t even chew anyway because she left her false teeth in the dishwasher again, and anyway I liked that movie.  But that’s beside the point.

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