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Young Master, a review by Jon

Young Master (Shi di chu ma)
2 out of 5



When two rival martial arts schools square off in an annual lion dance competition, the favourite, betrayed by their star pupil, Tiger (Wei Pei), exits in disgrace. When Tiger is expelled and joins with a notorious gang of criminals, led by feared kicking expert Master Kim (Wong In-sik), Dragon (Jackie Chan) embarks on a dangerous mission to bring his 'brother' back to the school. Unfortunately, the situation is further complicated when he is mistaken for his criminal brother, and must fight to clear his name, while continually on the run from both the local police and the criminal gang. Unknown to Dragon, the ultimate challenge awaits him: a deadly one-on-one encounter with the formidable Master Kim. Filled with intricate, masterfully choreographed action sequences, clever sight-gags and fluid camerawork, this timeless classic broke all Hong Kong box-office records on its original theatrical release, and is still, today, one of the top-grossing Jackie Chan movies of all time!

I've always enjoyed classic martial arts movies, especially those with the two masters, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. The plots of their films are usually similar, especially the earliest ones, but their styles very different. Chan is an acrobatic circus performer, so his films usually have a huge dose of slapstick comedy (he is definitely China's Chaplin) including the fights. You should watch his movies for fun and astonishing stunts.

Young Master, incorrectly thought of as Chan's debut as a director, is not a good place to start. It's worth seeing, but it is tedious. The comedy is just too silly, the dialogue horrendous (although that could be down to poor subtitling) and the fights just go on too long. And in these early films the emphasis was on a very structured style often using props that might be clever, but becomes annoying. Chan is amazing with a fan, long-time collaborator Yuen Baio equally so with a bench, but every one of them needs a kick up the arse, so to speak!

What especially annoyed me was the sequence in the middle where Master Kim (Wong In-Sik) is freed from custody. It is superb! Exciting and brutal. It's all Chan's work though and he does a couple of the harder stunts, so he proves he could have injected the rest of the film with a bit more vigour. The final one-on-one with In-Sik could have been a really good brawler. It was known for being one of the longest fight sequences filmed so far at about 15 minutes. That's 10 too long, sadly.

Ah, well. I'll have to have a marathon of proper Chan movies, like Project A or Dragon's Forever.

(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 23rd, 2009)

Love & Mercy, a review by addicted2dvd

Love & Mercy (2015/United States) IMDb |Wikipedia |Trailer | Lionsgate (United States) Director: Bill Pohlad Writing: Oren Moverman (Writer), Michael A. Lerner [Michael Alan Lerner] (Writer) Length: 122 min. Video: Widescreen 1.78:1 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio: 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital: 5.1 Subtitles:

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Stars:
Elizabeth Banks (1974) as Melinda Ledbetter
John Cusack as Brian Wilson - Future
Paul Dano as Brian Wilson - Past
Paul Giamatti (1967) as Dr. Eugene Landy
Jake Abel as Mike Love

Plot:
This remarkable story of The Beach Boys' genius singer-songwriter Brian Wilson is filled with the best of his muscial masterpieces. Until now, few have known the truth behind his mysterious disappearance from the world's stage. Follow the unforgettable story of the pop icon who fell under the complete control of his controversial therapist, made an acclaimed return to music, and, ultimately, found salvation through a chance meeting with the woman who became his wife.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Audio Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Digital Copy

While entertaining and interesting enough to get all the way through... for the most part I found this one fairly average. And I normally enjoy biopics and such. I don't know what...if anything I would change in this film...it just wasn't keeping my attention as much as it should have. I watched this one on Amazon Prime...don't think I will be adding it to my collection.



(From July Movie Marathon: Musicals (Yes... You read right!) on July 15th, 2016)

Grey's Anatomy: The Complete Second Season, a review by addicted2dvd

Grey's Anatomy: The Complete Second Season: Uncut (2005/United States)

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Stars:
Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey
Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang
Katherine Heigl as Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens
Justin Chambers as Dr. Alex Karev
T. R. Knight as Dr. George O'Malley
Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey
James Pickens, Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber

Extras:

• Audio Commentary
• Bonus Trailers
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Closed Captioned

I just finished watching season 2 of this series. As I said before... this is definitely one of my favorite medical dramas. This is the first full season of the series. As season 1 only had 9 episodes. And it pulled off a great season with ease. I especially enjoyed the couple of 2 part episodes that is in this season. Especially the one where they have to deal with an unexploded bomb inside of a patient. That is about as a suspenseful of an episode as you can get.




(From Addicted2dvd's Random TV Series Watched on November 26th, 2011)