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So Close, a review by Tom

So Close (2002/Hong Kong) IMDb | Wikipedia Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (United Kingdom) Director: Cory Yuen Writing: Jeff Lau (Writer) Length: 106 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85 Audio: Cantonese: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles: Dutch, English, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish

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Stars:
Shu Qi as Lynn
Zhao Wei as Sue
Karen Mok as Kong Yat-hung
Song Seung Hun as Yen
Michael Wai as Ma Siu Ma

Plot:
GET READY FOR ONE OF THE MOST DYNAMIC, ACTION-PACKED FILMS OF THE YEAR!

Directed by famed action choreographer Cory Yuen (The Transporter, Jet Li's The Enforcer) SO CLOSE is a thrill-a-minute shootout, with lightning-quick action sequences and great performances by Qi Shu (The Transporter), Zhao Wei (Shaolin Soccer) and Karen Mok (Black Mask).

A crooked businessman brings in a pair of high-tech assassin sisters to murder his elder brother so he can take over the family's business empire. When a determined policewoman starts to put the pieces of the puzzle together, the businessman realizes that he must destroy all evidence... including the assassins and the cop! The three women are left to fight for their lives, while helping each other along the way.

With some of the best action scenes to appear on film this year, SO CLOSE is a high-octane blockbuster hit!

Awards:
Nominated:

Love Hong Kong Film Awards (2002)

Best Action

Extras:

• Bonus Trailers
• Scene Access
• Trailers

A fun movie. Great fight choreograpy and a story which is not as silly as I have expected. This movie also put much effort on cinematogrophy. The one thing which would have made it more enjoyable would have been, if they would have talked in the more pleasing (to my ears) Korean or Japanese instead of Cantonese .

Rating:

(From 2010 December Marathon - Discussion thread on December 5th, 2010)

Little Big Soldier, a review by Tom

Little Big Soldier

My Thoughts:
This time around I think I chose the wrong movie. This Jackie Chan film I found incredibly boring and it will definately not make it into my collection. I hope the rest of my choices were better.

My rating:

(From FantasyFilmFest 2010 on September 2nd, 2010)

"Battlestar Galactica" Marathon (1978-2009), a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Troy and Dillon are called back to the Galactica for an important mission. But it's a trick of Xaviar's and now they are sitting in a disabled Viper somewhere between Earth and the fleet. Meanwhile Jamie has to care for the scouts and to protect them both from the US military as well as Xaviar who wants to use them as bargaining chip. Jamie hides them in a baseball camp.

My Opinion: Don't win! Win! Don't win! Win! Jamie's constant change of minds were a bit annoying, especially since the point of this episode was totally lost on me. There was nothing in it but to show some special effects of super-kids playing baseball.

Synopsis: A Galactica patrol has encountered a new and improved Cylon Raider and engaged it. Both ships were damaged but the Raider is drifting towards Earth and will crash north of New York City. Troy and Dillon travel by plane there but they assume their patrol ship will crash there. Only two Cylons survive the crash but one of them is an advanced model who looks like a Human. And it's Halloween...

My Opinion: Together with the first part of this series, Galactica Discovers Earth, this and the following episode were re-cut to form the movie Galactica III: Conquest of the Earth. And I have to say that I like them. I thought it was an ingenious idea to hide two Cylons in plain sight, but since it's Halloween no one questions their appearance. And although these human Cylons are fully mechanical they are obviously the template for the human Cylons in the next series.
And it seems to have become a running gag that no matter where Troy and Dillon go, they get in some kind of trouble with the local law enforcement and that they steal a police car.

Synopsis: The Cylons were invited to a Halloween party and the famous radio moderator Wolfman Jack will be there. They want to capture him in order to get to the "communication center". From there they will send a distress signal and reveal Earth's position. Dillon and Troy have to prevent that at any cost. But they are not only the chaser, they are also the chased.

My Opinion: It was only years later that I learned that Wolfman Jack was a real person but I liked the character from the start. What I didn't like about this episode (and what wasn't in the movie) were Troy's and Dillon's "super jumps". But I really liked how the (seriously damaged) Centurion tried to protect the Cylon Andromus and jumped from that skyscraper and landed in the dumpster.

Synopsis: The Cylons have destroyed the agricultural ships and the fleet needs new crops. The Cylons hope that it will finally lead them to Earth. Dillon and Troy buy a piece of land from a farmer and try to grow plants there. But the farmer (and now they) are harassed by their neighbour who owns pretty much all land there and he controls the water reservoirs. But people who can fly through space can also make it rain.

My Opinion: I can't remember ever seeing this episode before. And to be honest: When they were harassed by their neighbour (played by MacGyver's Dana Elcar) I expected to see a certain black van with a red bar on it: "If you have a problem. If no one else can help. Maybe you can hire - The A-Team."
Since the scout kids were back, they used "super jumps" to spread the seeds and used the "flying saucer" to make it rain. ship I didn't like this episode very much.

Synopsis: Doctor Zee tells Commander Adama about a dream he had. It includes a great battle and a great warrior called Starbuck who had to be left behind on a lonely planet. There he repairs on of the Cylons who crashed there with him in order to have some company. But soon they are not only 2, but 3.5: Cy has found a pregnant woman and Starbuck has to get her off the planet because soon other Cylons will come looking for their patrol.

My Opinion: That was a great episode. It was well told and had great characters in it. I loved to see the developing friendship between Starbuck and Cy. It was a bit like Enemy Mine and I was really sad when Cy "died" because he protected Starbuck from these other Cylons. And it's pretty ironic that this episode worked very well and didn't need many FX shots (except for the re-used battle scenes in the beginning where Boomer has to say goodbye to his friend).

The Series - My Opinion: Let's face it: The series isn't that good. The special effects were basically reduced to "super jumps", to cloak each and everything and to make their motorcycles fly. And while it maybe OK to destroy the same Raider in the upper right corner over and over again, it looks odd when your motorcycles always fly over the same skyline no matter in which countryside you had been before - especially when you do it in nearly every episode.
It was a good idea to bring the fleet to Earth - they had told many space stories in the original series - but they didn't make anything out of it. Instead four out of ten episodes revolved around a bunch of kids and the main characters were reduced to kindergarten teachers.

(From "Battlestar Galactica" Marathon (1978-2009) on April 19th, 2009)