Watering the sidewalk
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Mission: Impossible III
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read my review of Mission: Impossible III.
Tom Cruise returns as Secret Agent Ethan Hunt who has to stop a ruthless arms dealer, Owen Davian (Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman).
This was a fun action-packed spy thriller similar to the previous M:I movies and comparable to James Bond flicks. It was a great eye-candy filled popcorn flick, but just like junk food, the enjoyment is quickly forgotten as soon as the film ends.
You may have to think about it for a little bit as you try to figure out the questions you had about the plot twists and plot holes, but all the explosions distract you from thinking too much about the plot. Like a rollercoaster, I just enjoyed the ride instead of thinking too much about J. J. Abrams' deeper story about government conspiracies and corruption.
I love J. J. Abrams' t.v. show, Alias. I thought season one was mindblowing. His other tv series, Lost, also is extremely popular with the tv audience. However, in his latest project, I thought he focused too much on satisfying the masses with lots of action and explosions instead of fine-tuning his usual brilliant script writing. The ending was too sugary sweet and lacked his usual cliffhangers.
Although I enjoyed watching M:I:III, I didn't like it as much as M:I:I and M:I:II. In I, I really liked its originality and suspense. It had a great style and the plot twists were fresh and new. M:I:II had John Woo's visual flare and style.
In the third one, Abrams wanted to introduce a deeper romantic storyline. Ethan Hunt gets married and we see the dangers this poses to the loved ones of people in this line of work.
The movie starts off with Davian interrogating Hunt as he and his wife are tied up. Davian wants to know where the Rabbit's Foot is. Hunt keeps blabbing on as he stalls for time. Davian doesn't want to play games and shoots Hunt's wife in the leg. Then, he shoots her in the head.
The film flashes back to tell how they got to that point. Hunt's girlfriend is a nurse who doesn't know he's a secret agent man. He tells her that he works for the Department of Transportation. He tells her friends how he's fascinated with traffic. The guys think he's a bore and the girls think he's a catch. I guess girls are attracted to guys who look good and are passionate about their jobs. He gets a phone call and he meets another agent at 7-11. What I don't get is how someone can wait inside 7-11 waiting for another person, especially a secret agent. Wouldn't it be very suspicious if someone was standing in the aisles of 7-11 for a long time? What if Tom Cruise took his time getting there? After waiting there for like half an hour, they then proceed to talk secretively there. Not a great choice if you realistically want to be on the down low.
His boss tells him that he is needed to save an agent that has been captured. Hunt has been working as a trainer now instead of a field agent. One of his trainees has been captured by the bad guys. He says that she was a like a little sister to him. Ving Rhames asks if he's slept with his "little sister".
He and his special team manage to rescue secret agent Kerri Russell, but a small bomb that was implanted in her head goes off and she kicks the bucket.
Hunt is sad. He is told he has to go after Davian. He tells his gf that he has to go on a business trip for several days. She starts getting suspicious as to why he's been going away so much and acting so strange lately. Hunt marries his gf as a way of showing his love to her so that she can trust him. All of his co-agents tell him that people in their line of work shouldn't get hitched, but he tells them that it's too late. He tied the knot already.
He and his team hunt Davian down. They take photos of him and make a lifelike mask of him. That's cool, but unbelievable.
Tom Cruise starts going crazy on Davian demanding to know where the Rabbit's Foot is. Davian is such a icy cold villain that he keeps his cool and has the balls to threaten Cruise by saying that he's going to hurt his loved one and kill her in front of him.
Davian has connections within the agency so he escapes. During the bridge/helicopter escape scene, Tom Cruise manages to escape being blown up, but the blast pushes him sideways into the white Dodge Stratus. Everyone who watches action movies know that a blast would push him straight forward and not sideways.
They speculate that the Rabbit's Foot is probably an "Anti-God" end-of-the-world-type weapon. The U.S. government has sold this weapon to middle eastern bad guys and they're hoping that they would blow themselves all up. This way, they can start rebuilding the world the way they think it should be. --All in the name of democracy.
There's a lot of plot twists. People are not who they appear to be. Swinging and base jumping across buildings in Shanghai City. Split second decisions. Close calls. It's all there.
Finally, we get back to scene one again. Hunt is tied up along with his wife. His wife gets shot. I would have just told the bad guy where the Rabbit's Foot was. But, it turns out that it wasn't his wife. It was just a mask. The woman underneath the mask was really the translator that failed him before.
Hunt escapes and finds his wife trapped somewhere else. He beats up the bad guy, but the bomb in his head discharges and he gets a splitting headache. They continue fighting in the streets. The bad guy gets run over by a truck. His nurse wife tries to help him. He says he needs her to electrocute him to short circuit the discharge. She doesn't want to kill him, but he says, "If you don't kill me, I'll die." She fries him. He flatlines. She uses her nursing skills and resurrect him. They walk away happy and in love as Chinese people start running around frantically trying to figure out the cause of all the destruction around them.
She wants to know the truth and he says that he works for the IMF. No, it's not the International Monetary Fund. It's the Impossible Mission Force. She laughs, "Yah right!" I can't take that name seriously either.
They never find out what the Rabbit's Foot really was, but everyone starts cheering for Tom Cruise and his new wife.
The Highs: Great action, suspense, plot twists, explosions. Lots of adrenaline.
The Lows: Sappy romance. Corny ending. Lots of plot holes, but the explosions cover them up really well.
The Verdict: A fun rollercoaster ride with your pal, crazy Tom Cruise.
My rating: B, 82.
This review, may or may not, self-destruct in 10 seconds.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
The mountains in Glendora were really beautiful this past Saturday. There were some scattered showers which made for a nice cool scenic ride. This is also road bike heaven since Glendora Mountain Road is closed off to automobile traffic. There are several miles of closed off pavement for roadies to enjoy. This would also be a fantastic spot for lugeboarders. The only problem would be getting your lugeboard to the top. Otherwise it's perfect.
This past Saturday, May 27, 2006, I went biking with my mountain biking buddy up to the lower Monroe Truck Trail in Glendora. It rained a little bit in the morning, but cleared up later. It made for a great ride. This stream crossing trail has changed a lot since the last time we rode up here about 4 years ago. Now, it's turned into a jungle. It looks pretty, but good luck trying to ride here.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Crash
"Why can't we all just get along?" --Rodney King, 1992.
Racism must die! But, unfortunately, it never will. It's part of human nature. Everybody tends to group other people according to their own beliefs. That is part of our own minds' heuristics. Heuristics are simple, efficient rules of thumb that our minds create to make sense of this world. Heuristics help us make decisions, judgments, and solve problems. Without them, we wouldn't be able to make any decisions and we would be overwhelmed by the massive amounts of information that bombard our senses, but sometimes, they lead to biases which are incorrect.
Hopefully, education and mass awareness will help us to get along and treat everyone respectfully. In order to do that, we have to treat everyone individually and not lump people into a group by their race. That means we'll have to get to know people on an individual basis instead of prejudging them. We'll still have our prejudices against other groups of people by other classifications like religion, social classes, political parties, etc., but at least it won't be through race or color.
Crash was a powerful movie about some people who come from vastly differing backgrounds and how they're lives all come crashing together within a span of 36 hours. The plot is complex as the filmmakers try to show how their lives are all interconnected in some way. The characters are complex as well. Each character symbolizes a different race, but they're very multi-dimensional.
Sandra Bullock plays a housewife who is married to the District Attorney of Los Angeles. They live in a nice Brentwood mansion. She seems to be stuck up and goes through anxiety that only rich people suffer from.
As Sandra Bullock and her husband, Brendan Fraser, the DA, finish their shopping at the Third Street Promenade, they get GTA'd by Ludicris and his friend, Peter.
Since Fraser's running for office, he is troubled by this carjacking and how the public will perceive it. He doesn't want to lose the black vote and he doesn't want to lose the law and order vote as well.
When they have a Mexican locksmith come to change the locks on their house, Sandra says she wants the locks changed again in the morning because the locksmith looks like a gangbanger. The locksmith overhears this and is sad. Then, he goes home and sees his young daughter hiding under her bed. She says she heard some gunshots and was scared. He gives her a magic invisible and impenetrable cloak that will protect her. He says a magic fairy gave it to him when he was young and he was never shot or stabbed before.
He goes on to fix a Persian shopowner's lock. He tells him that he can't fix the lock, because the shopkeeper needs a new door. The Persian guy gets pissed off because he feel that he's trying to rip him off. The Persian guy goes to a gunshop with his daughter to protect himself from recent robberies he's had. The gun dealer starts getting frustrated because the Persian guy keeps talking in his native language with his daughter instead of English. He tells him to get his terrorist ass out of his store. The daughter doesn't want the gun and would rather get their money back, but the gun dealer refuses to give them their money back and gives her the gun and lets her choose any type of ammunition she wants. She chooses the red box and storms away.
Later, the Persian shopkeepers store is destroyed by vandalism. He gets so freakin' angry he gets his gun and goes to shoot the Mexican locksmith, because he thinks it's all his fault since he didn't fix the lock. He waits for the locksmith to come home and right when he's about to shoot him, the locksmith's daughter runs towards her dad. She jumps right in front of her dad as the gun goes off. The locksmith cries out in agony believing that she's dead. Later, it turns out that somehow, miraculously, the bullet didn't go through her. The magic impenatrable cloak really worked!
The Persian shopkeeper is stunned. He can't believe what he had just done. He also is in disbelief about the girl being okay after he shot the gun. He tells his own daughter that the little girl was his angel.
The daughter is relieved that her shopkeeper dad has changed his attitude. She smiles, because she's the one that put blank bullets in the gun.
Meanwhile, two cops, Matt Dillon and his partner, are after two black carjackers who stole the D.A.'s black Navigator. They spot a black person who is driving a vehicle by the same description and pull him over. They spot a light-skinned black woman inside the SUV who lifts her head up after giving her husband fellatio. Dillon decides to have fun with them and harasses them. The black man (who is a movie director) and woman are in their car laughing because they can't believe they got caught, but they start getting scared once the officers tell them to get out of their car. Dillon starts frisking them and then puts his nasty hands all over the black director's wife. He starts fingerfucking her as her husband watches. The black director is a mild-mannered respectable man who grew up white. He didn't want to get in any trouble. He apologizes to the officers and asks to be let off with a warning. His wife looks at him with disgust and betrayal for his cowardice. She wanted him to fight back. But, what could he do in that difficult situation? If he fought back, the cops might have done something worse to them.
Ludicris and his friend drive around talking about philosophy and racism and why they do what they do. Ludicris defends himself by saying that they aren't robbing from black people. As he's driving recklessly, he hits an Asian Korean chinaman as the man tries to open his van. After running him over, they notice that they've been driving with him still stuck underneath the SUV.
That scene was pretty scary to watch. It makes me paranoid now everytime I go biking. I just pray that other cars don't hit me.
Ludicris throw the Korean chinaman in front of the hospital and take off. When they try to sell the SUV to a car chop shop, the owner of the chop shop says that he won't buy it because of the blood. On the Discovery Channel, they show how cops can detect and trace the blood. Then, Ludicris and his buddy carjack another black Navigator. This time, it's the black director's SUV. And this time, the black director's pissed. He's been fighting with his wife over the cop incident. He fights back even though Ludicris and his dawg have guns. Cops see them fighting and start chasing after them. The director and Ludicris both get in the car. They drive off and are followed by cop cars. Finally, the director gets out and starts cussing at the mofo police. Dillon's partner recognizes him and realizes that he's upset over last night's incident. He manages to calm him down and tells the cops not to shoot. The black director and Ludicris drive away shaken by what just happened. The director tells Ludicris that he's ashamed of him and that he should be ashamed of himself and let's him go. If it was me, I'd have the cops arrest him.
Dillon tells his partner, who asked to be reassigned because of Dillon's racism, says, "You think you know who you are? You have no idea."
Dillon's partner later drives home at night and gives a ride to someone. He turns out to be Ludicris' partner. They start talking. The black guy starts saying that he likes the country music he's playing on the radio and that he loves hockey. The off-duty police officer thinks that he's being sarcastic and they start getting into an argument. The black guy starts laughing because he sees that the white guy also carries around a little catholic figurine in his car. He starts pulling something out of his pocket and the white guy tells him not to. He pulls it out, but the white guy freaks out and shoots him. Bang! He pulls over and sees that the black guy was just pulling out the same figurine he had in his car. The white cop looks sad, but since he's scared, he throws the black guy's body down the side of the hill. He burns his beatup car and walks away.
A crowd of homeless people start gathering around the fire. Somehow, the movie director drives to the very same spot and pulls over. He looks like he's reminiscing over the past day's events and starts throwing wood over the burning car.
Earlier that day, Dillon responds to a car crash. He comes to save whoevers trapped inside the overturned car that's about to explode. It turns out to be the director's wife. She starts screaming to get away from her, but he assures her that he's not going to touch her. He saves her life seconds before the car turns into a fireball. He finds redemption. Dillon was mad because his dad, who helped blacks by hiring them, lost his government contract business when they gave the contract over to minorities. After his dad got sick, a black woman wouldn't help him because his HMO didn't cover him.
A black cop and his lover and partner, a Latina, are humping each other when his mom calls. He tells his mom, not now, because he's having sex with a white woman.
Later on, they get into a car accident, and he says this poetic, but bizarre statement: It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
I would have to disagree with his conclusion. That is definitely not why people crash into each other.
His mom just loved his prodigal brother. After getting out of the crash, the black cop sees that the police are investigating another crime scene. He sees that it was his brother who was shot, killed, and thrown down the hill.
His latina lover starts arguing with the Asian Korean chinawoman over who caused the accident. I've never heard such things coming out of a Korean lady (ahjumma) before. She was cursing and yelling racial epithets like there was no tomorrow. This didn't seem realistic to me. You'll never see a middle-aged Korean woman do this. She might say this in Korean, but not English.
The Korean lady rushes over to the hospital where her husband was. He was the guy who was run over by Ludicris.
Ludicris, after being dropped off on a street corner by the movie director, goes back to where he ran over the Korean guy. He discovers that inside the cargo minivan there were a dozen Chinese people. He goes to sell the car and its cargo. The car chop shop owner and his buddy were really happy to see its cargo 'cuz all they saw were dollar signs.
Ludicris, however, must have had a change of heart, because we see him dropping off the cargo in Chinatown. He let the Chinese people go and gave them $30 bucks for something to eat. The Chinese guy, who is scared, doesn't say anything and walks away with the money. "Damn dopey chinamen!"
What didn't make sense to me was that a couple of Koreans were running a Chinese smuggling business. I've never heard of that ever happening. That's not realistic. Why'd they screw this up like that in the movie?
I know I've left out a lot of other stuff that happened in the movie. The way the movie tried to portray the deeply convoluted interrelationships made it very complex. It reminds me of Magnolia and how that movie tried to show the interrelationships between its characters.
The movie did a good job showing the complexities of each character and their reasons for their motivations. The movie shows how nobody is completely good nor completely bad.
We're all affected by the actions of others. One good deed can really change another person for the better. This movie teaches us that how we act towards others can change the actions and attitudes of others for worse or for the better.
Okay, so the movie was too highly contrived. It may have been artistic, but laughably unrealistic, especially to that extent of the number of coincidences. This is the sort of thing found in Korean dramas where all the characters are deeply intertwined. But, at the same time, it's not totally impossible. In fact, everyone is connected to everybody else in one way or another in real life. Just look at the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.
I thought the acting was superb for the most part. But, the acting by the Koreans and the Persian shopkeeper were terrible. They were overacting. I thought Ludicris was a bit mouthy. He came off as a smart ass.
The story was really great. It's totally Oscar-worthy. I'm glad it won.
I think it's a movie that everyone should watch. It's not perfect, but it is an important movie because of its subject-matter and the way it shows the connection between different people. Whether you love it or hate it, you can't deny that's an important piece of work. It should be viewed in schools and discussed.
The Highs: Complex, powerful, profound, thought-provoking. Great acting, story, writing. Very emotional.
The Lows: Too contrived for some. For a movie about dispelling racism, it still mixes up Koreans and Chinese people. It also messes up Korean names. Kim Lee-what the heck?!
The Verdict: A must see film. Other films have tackled racism before, but none have presented its messages and characters in this way.
My rating: B+, 89.
Racism must die! But, unfortunately, it never will. It's part of human nature. Everybody tends to group other people according to their own beliefs. That is part of our own minds' heuristics. Heuristics are simple, efficient rules of thumb that our minds create to make sense of this world. Heuristics help us make decisions, judgments, and solve problems. Without them, we wouldn't be able to make any decisions and we would be overwhelmed by the massive amounts of information that bombard our senses, but sometimes, they lead to biases which are incorrect.
Hopefully, education and mass awareness will help us to get along and treat everyone respectfully. In order to do that, we have to treat everyone individually and not lump people into a group by their race. That means we'll have to get to know people on an individual basis instead of prejudging them. We'll still have our prejudices against other groups of people by other classifications like religion, social classes, political parties, etc., but at least it won't be through race or color.
Crash was a powerful movie about some people who come from vastly differing backgrounds and how they're lives all come crashing together within a span of 36 hours. The plot is complex as the filmmakers try to show how their lives are all interconnected in some way. The characters are complex as well. Each character symbolizes a different race, but they're very multi-dimensional.
Sandra Bullock plays a housewife who is married to the District Attorney of Los Angeles. They live in a nice Brentwood mansion. She seems to be stuck up and goes through anxiety that only rich people suffer from.
As Sandra Bullock and her husband, Brendan Fraser, the DA, finish their shopping at the Third Street Promenade, they get GTA'd by Ludicris and his friend, Peter.
Since Fraser's running for office, he is troubled by this carjacking and how the public will perceive it. He doesn't want to lose the black vote and he doesn't want to lose the law and order vote as well.
When they have a Mexican locksmith come to change the locks on their house, Sandra says she wants the locks changed again in the morning because the locksmith looks like a gangbanger. The locksmith overhears this and is sad. Then, he goes home and sees his young daughter hiding under her bed. She says she heard some gunshots and was scared. He gives her a magic invisible and impenetrable cloak that will protect her. He says a magic fairy gave it to him when he was young and he was never shot or stabbed before.
He goes on to fix a Persian shopowner's lock. He tells him that he can't fix the lock, because the shopkeeper needs a new door. The Persian guy gets pissed off because he feel that he's trying to rip him off. The Persian guy goes to a gunshop with his daughter to protect himself from recent robberies he's had. The gun dealer starts getting frustrated because the Persian guy keeps talking in his native language with his daughter instead of English. He tells him to get his terrorist ass out of his store. The daughter doesn't want the gun and would rather get their money back, but the gun dealer refuses to give them their money back and gives her the gun and lets her choose any type of ammunition she wants. She chooses the red box and storms away.
Later, the Persian shopkeepers store is destroyed by vandalism. He gets so freakin' angry he gets his gun and goes to shoot the Mexican locksmith, because he thinks it's all his fault since he didn't fix the lock. He waits for the locksmith to come home and right when he's about to shoot him, the locksmith's daughter runs towards her dad. She jumps right in front of her dad as the gun goes off. The locksmith cries out in agony believing that she's dead. Later, it turns out that somehow, miraculously, the bullet didn't go through her. The magic impenatrable cloak really worked!
The Persian shopkeeper is stunned. He can't believe what he had just done. He also is in disbelief about the girl being okay after he shot the gun. He tells his own daughter that the little girl was his angel.
The daughter is relieved that her shopkeeper dad has changed his attitude. She smiles, because she's the one that put blank bullets in the gun.
Meanwhile, two cops, Matt Dillon and his partner, are after two black carjackers who stole the D.A.'s black Navigator. They spot a black person who is driving a vehicle by the same description and pull him over. They spot a light-skinned black woman inside the SUV who lifts her head up after giving her husband fellatio. Dillon decides to have fun with them and harasses them. The black man (who is a movie director) and woman are in their car laughing because they can't believe they got caught, but they start getting scared once the officers tell them to get out of their car. Dillon starts frisking them and then puts his nasty hands all over the black director's wife. He starts fingerfucking her as her husband watches. The black director is a mild-mannered respectable man who grew up white. He didn't want to get in any trouble. He apologizes to the officers and asks to be let off with a warning. His wife looks at him with disgust and betrayal for his cowardice. She wanted him to fight back. But, what could he do in that difficult situation? If he fought back, the cops might have done something worse to them.
Ludicris and his friend drive around talking about philosophy and racism and why they do what they do. Ludicris defends himself by saying that they aren't robbing from black people. As he's driving recklessly, he hits an Asian Korean chinaman as the man tries to open his van. After running him over, they notice that they've been driving with him still stuck underneath the SUV.
That scene was pretty scary to watch. It makes me paranoid now everytime I go biking. I just pray that other cars don't hit me.
Ludicris throw the Korean chinaman in front of the hospital and take off. When they try to sell the SUV to a car chop shop, the owner of the chop shop says that he won't buy it because of the blood. On the Discovery Channel, they show how cops can detect and trace the blood. Then, Ludicris and his buddy carjack another black Navigator. This time, it's the black director's SUV. And this time, the black director's pissed. He's been fighting with his wife over the cop incident. He fights back even though Ludicris and his dawg have guns. Cops see them fighting and start chasing after them. The director and Ludicris both get in the car. They drive off and are followed by cop cars. Finally, the director gets out and starts cussing at the mofo police. Dillon's partner recognizes him and realizes that he's upset over last night's incident. He manages to calm him down and tells the cops not to shoot. The black director and Ludicris drive away shaken by what just happened. The director tells Ludicris that he's ashamed of him and that he should be ashamed of himself and let's him go. If it was me, I'd have the cops arrest him.
Dillon tells his partner, who asked to be reassigned because of Dillon's racism, says, "You think you know who you are? You have no idea."
Dillon's partner later drives home at night and gives a ride to someone. He turns out to be Ludicris' partner. They start talking. The black guy starts saying that he likes the country music he's playing on the radio and that he loves hockey. The off-duty police officer thinks that he's being sarcastic and they start getting into an argument. The black guy starts laughing because he sees that the white guy also carries around a little catholic figurine in his car. He starts pulling something out of his pocket and the white guy tells him not to. He pulls it out, but the white guy freaks out and shoots him. Bang! He pulls over and sees that the black guy was just pulling out the same figurine he had in his car. The white cop looks sad, but since he's scared, he throws the black guy's body down the side of the hill. He burns his beatup car and walks away.
A crowd of homeless people start gathering around the fire. Somehow, the movie director drives to the very same spot and pulls over. He looks like he's reminiscing over the past day's events and starts throwing wood over the burning car.
Earlier that day, Dillon responds to a car crash. He comes to save whoevers trapped inside the overturned car that's about to explode. It turns out to be the director's wife. She starts screaming to get away from her, but he assures her that he's not going to touch her. He saves her life seconds before the car turns into a fireball. He finds redemption. Dillon was mad because his dad, who helped blacks by hiring them, lost his government contract business when they gave the contract over to minorities. After his dad got sick, a black woman wouldn't help him because his HMO didn't cover him.
A black cop and his lover and partner, a Latina, are humping each other when his mom calls. He tells his mom, not now, because he's having sex with a white woman.
Later on, they get into a car accident, and he says this poetic, but bizarre statement: It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
I would have to disagree with his conclusion. That is definitely not why people crash into each other.
His mom just loved his prodigal brother. After getting out of the crash, the black cop sees that the police are investigating another crime scene. He sees that it was his brother who was shot, killed, and thrown down the hill.
His latina lover starts arguing with the Asian Korean chinawoman over who caused the accident. I've never heard such things coming out of a Korean lady (ahjumma) before. She was cursing and yelling racial epithets like there was no tomorrow. This didn't seem realistic to me. You'll never see a middle-aged Korean woman do this. She might say this in Korean, but not English.
The Korean lady rushes over to the hospital where her husband was. He was the guy who was run over by Ludicris.
Ludicris, after being dropped off on a street corner by the movie director, goes back to where he ran over the Korean guy. He discovers that inside the cargo minivan there were a dozen Chinese people. He goes to sell the car and its cargo. The car chop shop owner and his buddy were really happy to see its cargo 'cuz all they saw were dollar signs.
Ludicris, however, must have had a change of heart, because we see him dropping off the cargo in Chinatown. He let the Chinese people go and gave them $30 bucks for something to eat. The Chinese guy, who is scared, doesn't say anything and walks away with the money. "Damn dopey chinamen!"
What didn't make sense to me was that a couple of Koreans were running a Chinese smuggling business. I've never heard of that ever happening. That's not realistic. Why'd they screw this up like that in the movie?
I know I've left out a lot of other stuff that happened in the movie. The way the movie tried to portray the deeply convoluted interrelationships made it very complex. It reminds me of Magnolia and how that movie tried to show the interrelationships between its characters.
The movie did a good job showing the complexities of each character and their reasons for their motivations. The movie shows how nobody is completely good nor completely bad.
We're all affected by the actions of others. One good deed can really change another person for the better. This movie teaches us that how we act towards others can change the actions and attitudes of others for worse or for the better.
Okay, so the movie was too highly contrived. It may have been artistic, but laughably unrealistic, especially to that extent of the number of coincidences. This is the sort of thing found in Korean dramas where all the characters are deeply intertwined. But, at the same time, it's not totally impossible. In fact, everyone is connected to everybody else in one way or another in real life. Just look at the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.
I thought the acting was superb for the most part. But, the acting by the Koreans and the Persian shopkeeper were terrible. They were overacting. I thought Ludicris was a bit mouthy. He came off as a smart ass.
The story was really great. It's totally Oscar-worthy. I'm glad it won.
I think it's a movie that everyone should watch. It's not perfect, but it is an important movie because of its subject-matter and the way it shows the connection between different people. Whether you love it or hate it, you can't deny that's an important piece of work. It should be viewed in schools and discussed.
The Highs: Complex, powerful, profound, thought-provoking. Great acting, story, writing. Very emotional.
The Lows: Too contrived for some. For a movie about dispelling racism, it still mixes up Koreans and Chinese people. It also messes up Korean names. Kim Lee-what the heck?!
The Verdict: A must see film. Other films have tackled racism before, but none have presented its messages and characters in this way.
My rating: B+, 89.
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