Category: Rating 3

The Russia House

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The Russia House (buy from Amazon)

Posted by Sigrid

Type: Drama, USA 1990

Director: Fred Schpisi

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Sean Connery... Barley Blair
Michelle Pfeiffer .... Katya

Story:
Barley (Connery), a hard-drunking, middle-aged London publisher, became friends with a dissident Soviet physicist on a drunken evening. He soon found himself being drawn into the espionage business. During his mission, Barley came to know Katya (Pfeiffer), the physicist's former girlfriend, whom he had to save from the Russian military intelligence.

My review:
Based on a spy novel by John Le Carre, this movie set out to capture the age of glasnost in the former Soviet Union. It was filmed mostly in Moscow and Leningrad, with some beautiful scenes shot in Lisbon.

The plot itself is intriguing and Connery turned out a masterful peformance as a hard-drunking, middle-aged, book publisher who managed to outwit both the British secret service and the CIA. One memorable scene showed Connery playing the saxophone at a Moscow book fair.

Unfortunately, the subtlety of the spy novel did not play well on the movie screen. Perhaps the editing could have been done better as well. I would think that most moviegoers got lost initially towards the end. As a result, some time had to be spent to recapture what happened -- and the entire effect was dumbed-down.

While some would call this a thriller, the movie was strongly reminiscient of "mini-series" produced by the major (American) TV networks in the late-1980s.

See also:
http://www.allstarz.org/~seanconnery/russia.htm
http://members.tripod.com/rossiya_david/id170.htm

Belph?gor - Le fant?me du Louvre

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Belphegor: Le Phantom Du Louvre (buy from Amazon)
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Belph?gor - Le Fant?me Du Louvre (Widescreen - Original French with subtitles) (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama Suspense, France 2001

Director: Jean-Paul Salom?

My rating: 2
Key actors/actresses:
Sophie Marceau .... Lisa/Belph?gor
Michel Serrault .... Verlac
Fr?d?ric Diefenthal .... Martin
Julie Christie .... Glenda Spender

Posted by Dominic
Story:
In 1935 a French archaeologist brought back an unnamed mummy from Egypt to France and stored it in Louvre, little did he know that this mummy has been condemmed and shall be stuck in the in-between worlds. The mummy becomes known as the phantom of the Louvre and has killed many guides and it is trying desparately to get to the next world...

My review:
I must say the initial story line looks quite interesting but the actual movie was not that exciting.

Himalaya

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Himalaya (buy from Amazon)
Type: Drama, Nepal 1999

Director: Eric Valli

My rating: 3
Buy it now:
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Key actors/actresses:
Thilen Lhondup .... Tinle
Gurgon Kyap .... Karma
Lhakpa Tsamchoe .... Pema
Karma Wangel .... Passang
Karma Tensing .... Norbou/Urgien

Other similar movies: more
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Country: Nepal
Type(s): Drama

Posted by Dominic
Story:
Tinle, an aging chief of one of the tribes on the Himalaya mountain just lost his eldest son in an accident, reluctant to give up his position to a young man who is strong and with leadership skill named Karma, because Tinle accused Karma of causing his son's death. The tribe is divided and they set off at different times to do the important trade on the other side of the mountain. The old and young, the tradition and modern are in conflict, soon they find they have a lot to learn from each other and they have a lot of respect to each other.

My review:
An interesting movie that shows off some of the beautiful scenary of the Himalaya and also give the viewers some ideas of the life and tradition of the tribes in Himalaya. Nicely firmed.

Everybody has secrets

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Everybody Has Secrets (2004) (buy from Amazon)

Type: Comedy Drama, South Korea 2004

Director: Hyeon-su Jang

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Byung-hun Lee .... Choi Su-hyeon
Sang Mi Chu .... Han Ji-yeong
Hyo-jin Kim .... Han Mi-yeong
Ji-Woo Choi .... Han Seon-yeong
Yongnyeo Seonwoo .... Mother

Story:
A story about how one man encounters and goes out with the youngest sister out of 3 sisters ends up secretly having affairs with all 3 sisters. Each sisters have very different personalities but all end up loving the same guy, the eldest sister is married with kid and the 2nd sister is a typical 'bookworm' type of girl with thick glasses and always studying and the youngest sister is an energetic person who sings at clubs for a living.

My review:
A funny comedy about adultary affairs. I have seen a Spanish comedy called The Age of beauty where the guy had affairs with each of the 4 sisters.

Art museum by the zoo

Type: Comedy Romantic, South Korea 1998

Director: Jeong-hyang Lee

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Eun-ha Shim .... Chun-Hi
Sung-jae Lee .... Chul-su
Sung-kee Ahn .... In-Gong

Story:
Two strangers under some unforeseen circumstances are forced to stay in the same house and they didn't get along at the beginning, but soon things began to turn for the better and love is in the air...

My review:
You guessed it, happy ending, boy and girl fell in love and lived happily thereafter...

Kandahar

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Kandahar (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama, Iran, France 2001

Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Nelofer Pazira .... Nafas
Hassan Tantai .... Tabib Sahid
Sadou Teymouri .... Khak
Hoyatala Hakimi .... Hayat

Posted by Dominic
Story:
A native Afghanistan woman Nafas who now resides in Canada has returned to Afghanistan and must go back to Kandahar to see her sister who wrote and said she was going to end her life. Nafas only has 48 hours and she is deseparate to go on an unsafe journey.

My review:
Though the story is fictional, the many details of the life of the people in Afghanistan are not. Torn by years of war, people are living a pretty scary life. Trust no one and people constantly have to lie to survive. Sigh..

The Cube

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Cube (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama SciFi Suspense, Canada 1997

Director: Vincenzo Natali

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Nicole de Boer .... Joan Leaven (The Math Student)
Nicky Guadagni .... Helen Holloway (The Doctor)
David Hewlett .... David Worth (The Architect)
Andrew Miller .... Kazan (The Autistic Man)
Julian Richings .... Alderson (The First Victim)
Wayne Robson .... Rennes (The Fugitive)
Maurice Dean Wint .... Quentin (The Cop)

Story:
7 completely strangers with very different background found themselves woke up in a strange place - a cube with doors on each of the 6 surfaces and each door leads to another cube and there seems to be endless number of cubes and many cubes have deadly traps. Why are they here? How or will they ever get out of the cube?

My review:
Interesting concepts and story lines. Very different from mainstream movies, refreshing. Though this is not to everyone's liking. I quite like it.

Samaritan Girl

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Samaritan Girl (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama, South Korea 2004

Director: Ki-duk Kim

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Ji-min Kwak .... Yeo-Jin
Min-jeong Seo .... Jae-yeong
Eol Lee .... Yeong-ki
Kwon Hyun-Min .... Salesman
Oh Young .... Musician

Posted by Dominic
Story:
2 girls Jae-yeong and Yeo-Jin who are best friends and they are making money by Jae-yeong acting as prostitute and Yeo-jin is managing the 'business', yeo-jin hated those men. 1 day, Jae-yeong jumped out of the window during a policy raid while she was at business, she was seriously injuried and was dying, her dying wish was to see one of men she slept with a musician again. Yeo-Jin tried to fulfill her best friend's dying wish, but that musician would not come unless Yeo-Jin slept with him. Jae-yeong died before he arrived. Since then, Yeo-Jin decided she would sleep with all the men that Jae-yeong slept with and returned the money to these men. Little did she know that her father who is a policeman had found out about her activities and he intended to punish these men...

My review:
A controvisial story on a sensitive topic of young girls going into prostitution. Yeo-Jin intended to change those men by sacrificing herself, it is an unusual thought, but in the process her father was deeply hurt.

Dogma #7 Interview

Type: Drama, South Korea 2000

Director: Hyuk Byun

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Jung-Jae Lee .... Eun-seok
Eun-ha Shim .... Yeong-heui

Story:
A film maker doing interviews of people telling their love stories, he falls in love with one of the interviewees. As his feelings for her continues to evolve, her lies are uncovered...

My review:
An interesting plot that needing one to pay more attention to appreciate.

The Returner

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Returner (buy from Amazon)

Type: SciFi, Japan 2002

Director: Takashi Yamazaki

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Takeshi Kaneshiro .... Miyamoto
Anne Suzuki .... Milly
Kirin Kiki .... Xie
Goro Kishitani .... Mizoguchi
Yukiko Okamoto .... Dr. Yagi

Story:
A young girl came from the future to present time, human race at her time was almost wipped out by aliens. Her task is to stop the first incident of alien encounter and the chain of reaction that happened there after. Would she succeed?

My review:
Pretty entertaining, this is the Japanese's answer to ET, independence day, time travel and else. Quite entertaining, nevermind about the logic of the movie,just enjoy the story.

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