If Paris Not Fun

If Paris Not Fun, If Paris Downcast 2018

If Paris Is Not Fun Around the love story between Yue Zhu (Truong Han) and Nguyen Man Quan (Hieu Thanh Tu). He is a successful young entrepreneur going to receive the admiration, women followed long queue. She is a good lawyer and a strong, deep woman who does not fall easily. A person with a liberal personality, not afraid of anything in this world. One who always wants to protect himself and others around him is in love with each other. Imagine they are two opposing extremes, but they create a touching love story. Before meeting Dong Zhuo Yao, Nguyen Man Quan encountered the biggest event in his life. To help her ex-boyfriend get rid of a financial case, the man fake the papers, but she also finds herself in jail and is unable to work as a lawyer.

Staying in prison is still a heart toward her boyfriend she is waiting for each day free to return to find her love. But the end result, when Tse Yao was released is also his boyfriend married another girl. The soldier seemed to have lost everything, so much so that there was nothing left. And at that moment she accidentally encountered Yue Zhuo, who pulled her from the mire. Nguyen Man Quan tried his best not to stop him from becoming a voice actor in the company. But then, she wanted to return to work as a lawyer as before, not because she missed the job so much that she could not quit, but because she wanted to pursue Yao Yuzu Peach.
But their love is too many obstacles, the Army has always felt guilty about his past, while Trieu Yao has many "good reputation far away" about the lack of food, playing lovers not long. Apparently they love each other but always fear and evade their feelings. The enemy flees, to lose before the heart, she ran to Paris, but finally met him. That may be the cause, probably because they can not give up each other but later on, the military knows for Tieu Yue: "People who love Dong Zhuo Yao, but in the world Yue Zhuang only one That person is Nguyen Man Quan. "

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The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011)

Morgan Spurlock [Super Size Me] is back with a documentary about brand marketing in movies. Spurlock has made just one feature documentary between this and the 2004 McDonald's documentary that was so popular, mainly because he has had a documentary TV series, 30 Days, that he has been working on.


The documentary starts by giving examples of advertising in movies and television shows, some incredibly blatant. He then decides he wants to make a movie built 100% on advertising money. He gives his pitch to a few companies and receives constant rejection. I'm not sure if this was just editing to make the viewer think that he went from constant rejecting to a lot of acceptance or not. He starts to pick up some major sponsorship from POM Wonderful, JetBlue, and Mini. At this point the film really takes a turn, we see the affect of the sponsorships and what he is allowed to say. The final approval of the film requires that POM Wonderful is happy with the final product. So we aren't even sure what ELSE has been taken out.

The film does not attack any of the issues with advertising in film, it merely talk about how it works. That isn't enough for a good documentary. You won't see this on anyone's "top" lists.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1743720/

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Rio (2011)

Blue Sky Studio's latest animated film, the company that brought you The Ice Age Series, Horton Hears a Who, and Robots, brought out their latest animated film earlier this year. A good year for a weak computer animated film since Pixar's film was a flop and Disney and Dreamworks didn't have much.

The film is about a rare South America bird who's home is Minnesota. Domesticated before he was able to fly out of his nest he has never learned to fly and has never been outdoors. When an ornithologist visits his owner she is convinced to take Blu to Brazil to mate him with the last female of his species.

The film is very cookie cutter from the start. Probably enjoyable for the kids and something my 3-year-old would enjoy some day. As an adult I was bored the whole time. The assisting characters I found irritating and juvenile. Probably the weakest film this company has made to this point [maybe equal to the Ice Age sequels]. It is a very weak Oscar Animated year if this one gets nominated.

KSF: 2/5
Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1436562/

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The Host: Gwoemul (2006)

The film starts at an American lab where the boss is telling the Japanese assistant to go ahead an dump all of the chemicals down the drain. The water empties into the river and the chemicals create a sea creature that attacks the people. The family in the story run convenience stall next to the river and the creature runs off with their daughter. I'm not sure what to call this movie. Labeled at a horror or a comedy... I don't really see either. More along the lines of a bad science fiction than anything.

The film is not well known, and one that I saved for horror month because of the mislabeling as horror. It is one of the films that the 1001 movie book added on a revision, then removed a year later. It is kinda frustrating that a list of 1001 movies changes so much, but I'll digress from that argument.

Not worth you time, and hard to find.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468492/

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Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979)

A modern retelling of the classic film Nosferatu (1922), in Werner Herzog fashion. Herzog writes very slow panning scenes that just don't fit well in the horror genre, and this film ends up being more creepy and odd than scary.

It stars Bruno Ganz [Hitler in Downfall] as Jonathan, the man sent to find Dracula a home. Klaus Kinski plays Dracula, he was also Aguirre in Aguirre: The Wrath of God also directed by Herzog. I could almost swear that Herzog recycled the music from Aguirre for this film. I can't think of a movie character that has been done more different ways than Dracula. We have had versions where garlic or stakes or sun have killed him. We have had version were Dr. Van Helsing is the hero, where Jonathan is the hero, where Lucy is the hero, version where Dracula wins. You really can't assume you know how any one of them will finish.

Herzog just makes this film too slow. It is kind of a pity because Kinski was fantastic as Dracula. The sets and storyline are pretty good also, I liked this re-telling, but it was painfully boring. I'm not a big fan of Herzog and this film strengthened that opinion.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079641/

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The Hunger (1983)

Catherine Deneuve [Repulsion], David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon star in this 80's film that made it into the 101 Horror Films book. The first major film that Tony Scott directed; he went on to direct films like Top Gun, True Romance, and now his fourth Denzel Washington movie Unstoppable.

It might be a stretch to say this "starred" Bowie. The musician wasn't in the film more than 15-20 minutes, and one could make an argument that Sarandon was a more predominant character than Deneuve. The film, based on a book, is about an Egyptian vampire [Deneuve] who takes a "mate" until she is tired of them. When she is bored they are basically left to die and their eternal youth is lost. So we get to see Bowie wither away into nothing to start the movie. She then moves on and peruses Sarandon's character.

The film is like a trendy goth film. Not really scary, not really suspenseful. Most of the scenes take place in rooms that aren't well lit and we get some interesting night club scenes. I'm not going to say I dislike Sarandon, just that she isn't my favorite.

Not a great film, not scary, not really worth your time.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085701/

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Carnival of Souls (1962)

At the end of horror month reviews, I'm starting to get writers block. An older film in the 101 Horror Movies book, this is by anyone's standards a B Horror Film.You can actually watch this for free here: archive.org.

So the film starts with a car full of girls next to a car full of boys in a little American town. They are sitting at a stop light and start revving their engines, the boys win, but the girls aren't going to give up and chase them down. They go across a small wooden bridge and the girls try and overtake the boys.. but end up breaking through the barrier and falling into the river. One girl, Mary [Candace Hilligoss] survives, and the film follows the events that follow.

Mary plays the organ in church, she is a quiet girl who keeps to herself and one might call boring. She decides to take a job playing the organ in a different town to get away from the accident and the undying gossip. In the new town she starts seeing a ghost. A creepy man who appears just about everywhere she turns. Something about him makes her feel that he is linked to the abandoned carnival on the edge of town and she must work up the courage to explore herself.

I found the film to be quite dull, nothing about it was very scary. There is a twist that is someone interesting, but not by today's standards. I could have done without seeing this one.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055830/

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Repulsion (1965)

Director Roman Polanski is originally from Poland. He directed his first film Knife in the Water in Poland before moving to France where he directed this film for a company in Britain. A film that proceeds Rosemary's Baby and a few other thriller films. I guess I didn't see Polanski as a thriller film director.

This film stars Catherine Deneuve as Carole, a ditzy girl who seems to be disconnected from just about everything in life, with the exception of her sister. She lives in a two bedroom apartment with her sister, who has a new boyfriend that Carole doesn't approve of, and she works at a beauty salon. When her sister goes on vacation she loses it. She stays in the apartment for days, and her mental state collapses.

I don't understand why this film is so greatly liked. It even has a 7.9 on imdb, a very high average for what I felt was a simple film of someone going nuts. There were no twists and the conclusion was very ho-hum. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I was very bored.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059646/

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Machete (2010)

So this isn't a horror film. I never though it was, and I'm not sure how it got misplaced in my horror/thriller directory. If anything it should have been watched back in action movie month this last June. If you have seen Grindhouse then you might remember the fake movie trailers before the feature. They were Machete and Hobo with a Shotgun [review here], both which have now been made into feature films. Robert Rodriguez made Planet Terror [1/2 of Grindhouse], and he is also responsible for this film.

You have to understand that this is an homage to a genre that doesn't need this many homages, but whatever. I do like the star of this film Danny Trejo, and I thought he brought some subtle humor to the role. I even liked Steven Seagal as the bad guy. As a matter of fact after the opening sequence I thought the movie was going to be really cool. Then came the rest of the cast, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, and Lindsay Lohan. Alba brings a seriousness to her role that doesn't fit, Rodriguez has a pretty typical performance... I just don't like her, and Lohan can't act.

I never expected I would be suggesting this one, and I'm not. If only the rest of the film could have been like the intro.... then it would have been worthy of the 101 Action Movies. Oh well.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985694/

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Sanctum (2011)

I really didn't think this was a "horror" but I was expecting it to be a thriller. I was under the assumption that this was some sort of combination of The Abyss and The Descent. I was quite wrong.

James Cameron was an executive producer on this film, again I was under the assumption that he directed this. I'm sure others were also since his name is at the top of the movie poster with this last film, Avatar, mentioned. Don't be fooled. This was directed bu Alister Grierson, and he hasn't done anything you've seen.

The film is about a group if scientists that are exploring a cave system that has never been accessed in the history of mankind. While deep in the cave a tropical storm hits. At their depth they have no sign of the storm, and the radio communication to the ground level are out. With no warning water starts to fill up the cave. They are forced to continue to the other side [e.g. - we know the water in the cave feeds a river].

The problem with the film is the horrendous acting. Father [Richard Roxburgh] and son [Rhys Wakefield] were not good, and bad guy Ioan Gruffudd wasn't any better. Wakefield reminds me of the Hayden Christensen in the Star Wars films.

Don't get suckered into watching this because they put Cameron's name on it.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0881320/

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Scream 4 (2011)

Just over 10 years now since Scream 3's release, we rejoin this horror series with a decade having passed in the characters lives as well. A little bit of a jump on horror month for me, and one that I thought I might have to do some research into what happened in the previous films before watching. As long as you remember who is who, you are fine, this review should provide a refresher for you as well.

Neve Campbell plays Sidney Prescott, the victim in the previous films who currently making her rounds on a book tour talking about her survival. David Arquette is Dewey Riley the police chief, who used to work alongside his now wife Gale Riley [Courteney Cox]. Gale has made a living off of selling her detective stories of stopping Ghostface as a slasher movie series. So the killings start again, but this time Sidney's younger sister Jill [Emma Roberts] and best friend Kirby [Hayden Panettiere] are running from Ghostface.

A few scary moments, and a typical Wes Craven Scream twist, both good and welcome. Some really bad acting, which I actually expected more from in this series. For all the work I did figuring out what happened in the previous movies it wasn't worth my time.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1262416/

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This Is It (2009)

I have been meaning to watch this one for a while. Honestly I was waiting for an opportunity when I didn't need to pay full attention. I've seen this one categorized as a documentary, but you aren't learning anything, there is no narration, and I don't consider a few lines about his passing a storyline. You could almost call this a musical, but it is more like a DVD you get for free with a music CD at the record store. Just a raw performance music video is really what it is, so I'll call it a musical.

The film starts with interviews of the extras, talking about how much they love Michael then we hit the stage. The film basically goes through each final take on each song he had planned for his final tour which he called "This is it."

There are some pretty cool sets, and it seemed like there was a different set for each song. It really would have been an amazing concert to attend. The thing that struck me the most was his passion for saving the environment. He seemed to think the world was going to end in 2012 because of how humans were treating the environment. This really made me think... what exactly has this mulch-millionaire done himself?

He SHOULD and COULD have done a lot, so before I assumed he hadn't I did some research. His song "Heal the World," is said to have created an awareness for the environment with a younger generation. He is given a lot of credit for writing some songs, and I will commend him for that. His videos really did reach a lot of people and send a strong message internationally, and at the end of the video there is a note to donate to his charity "Heal the World Foundation." Jackson established two foundations with his millions of dollars, this one and one and "Michael Jackson United Negro College Fund Endowed Scholarship Fund." This one is an endowment, so he put $1.5 million in it in 1986... and that was it. The Heal the World Foundation lost it's tax exempt status in 2002 when it failed to file yearly tax statements. The reality is that he was a hypocrite, he took no real actions to help the environment. None of his charity work helped the environment, he just made money on songs about helping the environment telling people to do their part without doing his own. I'm not going to get into his personal life, not necessary, but this alone bothered me. You need to be a big Jackson fan to find this one worth your time.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1477715/

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Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Hum... what to say about this one. Let me start by saying that my snap judgement of 5/10 might be a little harsh, but my desire to keep it in the "avoid" category remains. Personally I'm not a huge fan of Jack Nicholson as a person, and that probably affects how much I enjoy his films.

I had to do some reading on this film before I could write a review because I felt I missed some things. Not in the way of being distracted, or not paying attention, but in the way that you are watching something "deep" when unaware that you need to be keen to such. This film was made at a time where Nicholson was famous for films like Easy Rider and it was assumed that he couldn't be deep [we know this now after The Shining, As Good as It Gets, and About Schmidt]. So it was a breakthrough film for him at the time, nominated for 4 Oscars and on several critics top 100 lists.

The film is about oil-rig worker with a ditzy girlfriend that he treats like trash. When his father becomes ill he goes home and we find that he has abandoned his wealthy family. It is clear that his relationship with his father is strained to say the least, and that he resents the intellectual conversations that his mother likes to start up. On the surface this is a boring film about an indecisive asshole who cheats on ditzy girlfriend that he impregnated. It does make a compelling story as to why this guy has run away from everything and is the kind of person that he is.

I doubt many of my readers would care for this film, and I doubt I'll give it much thought again.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065724/

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Hanna (2011)

I'm not sure why I was so excited about this film. Maybe because I had heard good things and the reviews haven't been bad either. I didn't look at the director or stars I guess, director Joe Wright  has been batting 2 out of 3 for me to date. I liked Pride & Prejudice and The Soloist, but I can pass on Atonement... which is his tie to our star Saoirse Ronan. Ronan doesn't have the best track record with me, The Lovely Bones wasn't the best and her role in The Way Back wasn't substantial enough for me to say I "like" her. I'm also about 50/50 on Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and I'm Not There. weren't so good... but then you have Robin Hood and The Lord of the Rings.

So about the film. Eric Bana plays Erik, Hanna's [Saoirse Ronan] father who seems to be raising her in Siberia. They spend the day hunting with bow & arrow and the evenings memorizing the encyclopedia and practicing different languages. Hanna decides that she is "ready," whatever that means and pushes the button to let some government agency know they are ready. All of this training seems to be with a goal of killing Blanchett's character then getting away. Hanna seems to be some sort of super human, a teenage girl with the ability to kill dozens of trained professionals.

I found it to be silly, pointless, and dull. The motive of the lead characters is silly at best, and the twist of key to the film isn't very exciting and recycled. I don't know what I wanted from this film, but this wasn't it.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993842/

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Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)

I've been looking at this blog post all day trying to decide how to write a review. I'm not going to let it be one of those movies that persists to keep me far behind the finds I'm currently watching. The film was a meandering mess with minimal plot. Directed by Sam Peckinpah who I can't say I have much of an opinion about either way.

Basically the story goes that Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid were once friends in the same gang. After a job gone wrong they all split up, and Garrett became sheriff in a western town. When the Kid shows up he give him a few days to leave, when it doesn't they capture him and prepare to hang him. The Kid escapes and the rest of the film is Garrett in slow pursuit of the Kid.


This is one of the films that was not picked for the AFI Top 10 Westerns and I thought might have been overlooked. It was filmed in Mexico so I don't know if that has something to do with it or not. I'm happy if it was overlooked now.

The film stars James Coburn as Garrett and Kris Kristofferson [you'd recognize him from the Blade series] as Billy the Kid. The most notable part of the movie however is one of the supporting characters, Bob Dylan. He plays "Alias" a young man in Billy's gang. He also lent some music to the film, most notably "Knocking On Heaven's Door," which was later covered by Guns N' Roses.

The film is not worth your time.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070518/

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Rango (2011)

It is almost offensive to me that this film is labeled as a children film and was able to get a PG rating. This animated film is not for an under 10 audience. If you weren't sure what this was about read the movie poster, directed by Gore Verbinski, the same director from the Pirate of the Caribbean series, and starring Johnny Depp. So just like the Pirate series, this is a film all about Depp.

So I do like Depp, but about 30-45 minutes of just kid humor is not my thing. The film is about a chameleon traveling in the back of a car through the desert, when the car swerves to avoid an accident, Rango and his tank are thrown from the car and he is forces to survive on his own in the desert. He stumbles upon a rough town called "Dirt," who has a serious water problem and Rango pretends to be tough to avoid getting thrown out of a bar. The town starts to rely on him, and he is forces to fend of a bird and a snake to protect them.

The film is quite gross with characters having limbs falling off, bad guys in the desert with infect body parts. I'm not saying to was too gross for me, but I didn't think the mature dialogue was appropriate for immature humor. It was clear that a younger audience was target here, so it didn't work for me. Middle school age boys might be the only ones that walk away really happy from this film, so I was greatly disappointed.

Vote: 5/10; KSF 5/5

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1192628/

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The Basketball Diaries (1995)

Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg star in a mid-90's film will little to do about sports, and a lot to do with teenage drug usage. I think I would have liked this a lot more if I would have watched it when in high school.

Jim [DiCaprio] and Mickey [Mark] are best friends and play on the high school basketball team together. They go to Catholic school and roam the streets on New York at night. They start with drinking and smoking and daring each other to jump off cliffs into the river, but this eventually leads to then getting mixed up in heroic in crack. Both characters go over the edge, start robbing stores and living on the streets.

A teenage angst film that I'm afraid I've outgrow. I'm afraid to watch  The Beach again, a movie I gave a 10 in high school, and that I fear I would not feel the same about today.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112461/

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Never Let Me Go (2010)

This is a "kinda" interesting film independently released in Britain with a number of stars you should know. It seems like a film for the MTV generation and was nominated for 5 Saturn awards winning one. Directed by Mark Romanek who is better known for his music videos, like Nine Inch Nails "Closer" and "The Perfect Drug" or Madonna "Rain" or Michael Jackson "Scream."

Starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley, and Sally Hawkins, the film is science fiction based but in reality is a romantic drama. The film starts by explaining how life expectancies continue to rise thanks to medial advances. We then go to a school in the middle of the country were children are given strict diets, sheltered, and have their vitals constantly monitored. We get the feeling they are being protected for some sort of experiment, honestly I thought this was an attempt to see just how old they would get when sheltered. We learn that they are protected so that their vital organs can be given to others when they get older.

The science fiction pretty much stops there and we are left with a pretty boring romantic love triangle. Garfield won the Saturn for his supporting actor performance, one I'm sure meant less to him than his Golden Globe nomination for The Social Network, and I think he should have seen an Oscar nomination instead John Hawkes. That is enough of a tangent though.

Almost a 6 for me, just average... but I also felt like it was a waste of time.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1334260/

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The Switch (2010)

Everything you need to know about this movie you can learn from the movie poster: Jennifer Aniston is shocked that Jason Bateman decided to "use his seed" becoming her sperm donor. The movie is pretty one dimensional so you can pretty much just fill in the plot yourself. They are just friends, he makes the switch, she gets upset, they make up.

Did I really just spoil the film? You watch a romantic comedy like this not for the surprise of the plot but because you want to see chemistry between the leading characters. You want to see them fall in love and you want to be amused at the same time right? Well I did find Bateman funny a few times, but I found the boy even funnier. Aniston wasn't better than any random Friends episode.


I see why this one was a flop, there are better predictable romantic comedies to watch.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0889573/

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Monsters (2010)

I'm going to be meaner than I should in my review of this film and I need to tell you why from the start. I watched this film simply because it beat out The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for the Saturn award for the best Internation Scifi, Action, or Horror film. The saturn awards are geared at giving credit to films in genres overlooked by the Oscars and Globes and I felt this was a much weaker film. It is marketed as an alien action film but is in fact a drama so I don't think it should have been considered for the Saturn, but then again The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is more of a drama than an action.

The thing is this film is labeled as a SciFi film, even the opening credits are an alien attack. The poster makes it look like an action film. But these aren't the only reasons I disliked the film.

It is a drama centered around the two characters you see on the poster. A journalist and his bosses daughter who are traveling from South Mexico to America through an "infected" zone. They encounter little to no aliens and the film is centered around a budding relationship. It achieves so little in an hour and a half and the aliens are more of a distraction from the real plot than an addition.

Make in the UK but not a single actor has a British accent. Entirely in english and the winner of the foreign award, kind of a joke if you ask me.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1470827/

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