When my friends told me that how fantastic Batman Begins was, i decided to give it a shot. Azrien and gangs goes for it last weekend, Tash told me that he watched it on Sat, my friends goes for the show despite Jay Chow's Initial D is a hit...
And yeah, thank goodness director Christopher Nolan of Memento and Insomnia did not disappoint me, together with a bunch of fresh faces (Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy) and a gang of old experts (think Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman (and it was so long since Gary Oldman had a apperance in a blockbuster), Tom Wilkinson and Ken Watanabe, the only Japanese cast in the film)
It's filled with excitement, thrill and....a mixed of comic book adaptation and James Bond. Think of the gadgets Batman used in the film. Whoo!
As Katie Holmes is the only actress in the film, i can say that Batman Begins is a movie where masculinity rules. But at the end of the day, it's just like Star Wars Ep 3, the ending leads audience back to the old series. If you watch the film, the ending shows Batman and Jim Gordan (Oldman's return as a only good police sergent who wants to wipe out the corrupted cops) are on the rooftop, with Jim telling Batman that there's a mysterious clown commiting crimes and left his namecard: Joker.
Back to Tim Burton's day where Michael Keaton plays Batman, Jack Nicholson as Joker and Kim Basinger as the reporter who wants to reveal the mystery of Batman.
That's why i don't really recommend studios to make the beginning of the film after having several of their series after so many years. See? Computer graphics used in Star Wars Ep 4-6 are simple, yet Star Wars Ep 1-3 are sophisciated. Isn't it contradicting, or more rather, funny in some ways, where prequels have technological advancement, yet sequel are more technical imbecile? i don't know what's that word.
And how long is the age gap b/w Batman and Batman Begins? 1989-2005. About 16 yrs. Star Wars? 1977-1999. 22 yrs. omg.
Went straight down to Laserflair Parkway as there are sale going on for vcd's released under HVN, the distributor who owns the home video distribution right to Universal, Paramount and Dreamworks. The Godfather Trilogy Uncut Uncensored M18+PG version plus other selected titles are now selling at 2 for $12.
3 movies plus another movie for $12? Soounds too good to be true? Please look below.
So i bought Coppola's classic with Collateral by Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx, and i regretted buying Godfather trilogy. I should have get them on DVD instead, or get myself Manchurian Candidate by Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep.
When i opened the plastic wrapper for Godfather, i found a bumped marks on the corner (where the side has been hit by something else before. could be due to delivery.) When i opened Godfather Part 1, the plastic casing came off. My!
As if that's not that bad, there are more to go. The middle casing (where you have to insert the disc to keep your disc in place) or rather, the small circle to secure the disc, came off one by one.
And here's the reason why they are getting rid at 2 for $12. There's a crack on Part 1 disc 3. With the crack, i can't play the movie.
Worst of all, there's no subtitles for Italian dialogues!!!!!!!!! Watched Part 2 and 3 before, and there are plenty of Italian dialogues in Part 2. When watched it on DVD, the Italian dialogues are printed on the prints itself. Now, how the hell can i watch the crime sage without subtitles for non-English dialogues?
HVN seems to disappoint the consumers with the home videos they produced. In the eralier days, the volume was so soft, that one had a problem listening to the film, unless they watch it with earphones. Now, they copied the film directly from the prints (and that's the case for Godfather 1) where you see loads of scratches and circles on the film. Except for recent new titles such as Tomb Raider, Vanilla Sky, Italian Job etc, old movies released under Paramount are copied directly from the prints. Same thing appears when i bought Sat Nite Fever years back.
I've learnt my lesson here: should get made in HK's version, where prints are fully restored with subtitles. Never buy from made in M'sia's version unless quality are guranteed. Collateral is one of them.