色，戒 / Lust, Caution (2007)

Oh my goodness!  I remembered there were lots of sex scenes in the movie, but I didn't remember the movie to be so explicit.  There had got to be at least ten different positions shown in the movie, a mini Kama Sutra cliff notes.

She was a naive innocent girl that didn't know what love was and didn't know the difference between sex/love/lust.  He was a mature, sophisticated man of high power and lots of money.  At the end, he gave her a massive diamond ring, and she caved.  Definitely a cautionary tale.

Tony Leung is THE best.  That scene of her singing to him in the Japanese restaurant, and him crying, it was simply gut-wrenching.

Math Teacher really liked the spy part of it, but he couldn't stand the stupidity of the college students.

I've shown Math Teacher both Ang Lee's movies, Brokeback Mountain and Lust/Caution.  Both started slow; both had minimum characters but lots personal development; both had sex scenes.  I promised him this was the last artsy movie from Ang Lee that I'd show him.

Movies I Could Not Finish

Weekend at Bernie's (1989) - not the movie's fault.  I was exhausted from the work and from the gym.  It had some funny parts.  Maybe I'll try again.

Remo Williams:  The Adventure Begins (1985) - racist and sexist Kung Fu Panda and not funny.

Grumpy Old Men (1993) - the grumpy old men were a bit funny.  It was the female characters that I couldn't stand.  Also, I don't need to watch this movie.  I'll just watch Math Teacher turn into a grumpy old man in thirty years.

The Naked Gun 2 1/2:  The Smell of Fear (1991) - I hung in there for ten minutes.  Juvenile, childish humor.  No part of it was funny in those ten minutes.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Death on the Nile (2022), A Haunting in Venice (2023)

These movies were sponsored by Board of Tourism in its respective country of filming location.  Beautiful, breath-taking sceneries.  I want to visit all of them!

Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile were just meh.  I didn't like everyone was cooped up in one enclosed space and then the ending was "everybody did it!"  I also didn't like the ending was mostly detective Hercule Poirot telling me what happened, not showing me what happened.  Two and half ⭐⭐

So A Haunting in Venice was a surprise.  Everyone was still cooped up in one enclosed space, but it wasn't "everybody did it!"  Also, someone important that I had imagined would be manipulating Hercule Poirot throughout the movie, died immediately at the beginning.  That was another surprise.  This was the best of all three movies.  ⭐⭐⭐

Oppenheimer (2023)

Originally posted on 08 December 2023

HOUR 1

My lord, this movie was long~  I thought we had watched two hours, but it turned out we only watched the first hour.  We had to stop.  It was too much in one sitting.  Good thing we didn't watch this movie in a theater.  It was definitely a at-home movie.

So far, very artsy.  Probably it could be cut.

So far, Robert Downey Jr.'s role seemed unimportant and did not contribute to the story.  Don't get me wrong; Robert Downey Jr.'s acting was superb.  It showed his range.  He wasn't Iron Man at all.  He was an ordinary politician supporting Oppenheimer.  But, do we really need this?

An hour in, the movie finally got interesting when Matt Doman showed up and they started building the bomb.  Matt Damon was so good as a stern military brass trying to handle an egotistical civilian.

Two more hours to go~

HOUR 2

The movie was engaging.  The building of the bomb, the search for the spy, and the men walking dramatically across fields.  The acting was great from everyone; hour 2 was difficult to stop.  I wanted to keep watching.

HOUR 3

After the bomb was successfully detonated at the test site, we thought it was going to be over soon; so we kept watching.  But no~~. It went on and on unnecessarily.  Why do I want to watch a loser politician trying to deny Oppenheimer's security clearance?  History remembered Oppenheimer, not the loser politician.  And also, building a nuclear bomb vs. security clearance hearing committee, which was more exciting?

Don't get me wrong.  Robert Downey Jr. played the loser politician perfectly, but none of his parts contributed to the movie.  This movie could shrink down to two hours without any politicians talking out of their asses.

SPOILER ALERT/TRIGGER WARNING

There were nudities and explicit sex scenes.  Combined they didn't amount to more than thirty seconds.  We were just surprised, because all of the movie review sites that we regular visited did not mention the sex scenes.  I didn't feel the sex scenes contribute to the movie, either.

MATHEMATICIANS/PHYSICIANS

Math Teacher was so happy to see all of his idols on the big screen, especially Einstein.  He loved Einstein was portrayed as this old gray-haired dude that showed up to dish out wisdom and then disappeared.  He also loved the movie showed Einstein and Kurt Godel taking a stroll in Princeton University.  He said the two seconds were completely unnecessary, but he loved it!

Then there's Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Ernest Lawrence.  There were so many that the movie stopped introducing their names.

DVD

We were debating watching the movie in the theater or buying a DVD.

At my town, a movie ticket was $12/person.  Me and Math Teacher would be $24, plus the ducking processing fee of $3.  The total was $27.

The Oppenheimer DVD was selling at Target for $22, plus tax, which ended up to be $25.

We planned to see this movie once; so it didn't matter if we watched it in the theater or on DVD.  The explosion scene would probably be spectacular on a big theater screen, but 1.5 hours of security clearance hearing would not be worth it sitting in a theater chair and not able to pause and go to bathroom (we were old people).

So we bought the DVD, and we will donate it to a library.

12 March 2024 Update:  2024 OSCAR

I'm glad Robert Downey Jr. won the supporting role.  He was amazing as a politician that smiled in front of you but turned around to stab you in the back.  Again, however, 90% of his story contributed nothing to the movie.  However, the Academy Award was never going to give him best actor for Iron Man, even though Robert Downey Jr. and Marvel contributed billions of dollars to Hollywood for more than fifteen years.  So, Oppenheimer would do.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) trailer review

Harrison Ford looked old and tired in the trailer.  Why did he agree to this movie?  He had enough money and power to say no.  Why would he ruin his legacy?

Hollywood was trying to reboot/revive this franchise.  They were going the wrong way.  Ke Huy Quan is the only one that can carry this franchise now.  Mr. Quan was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) as a little boy back then.  The storyline could be him all grown up, taken the mantle of an adventurous archaeologist.  He had the experience because he followed Indiana Jones around; he was inspired to continue the saga.  Harrison Ford could come in to be the wise old man dishing out advice, for about five to ten minutes.  The story makes complete sense.  Harrison Ford maintains his legacy.  Mr. Quan makes so much money.

Additionally, Mr. Quan already proved he could be a dashing and action star.  He could fight; he could run; he could be charming.

Hollywood, call me!

The Librarians (2013 ~ 2018)

Enjoyable family entertaining.  No curse words; no sex scenes.  Barely any kissing.  The fight scenes were average.  The special effects were low budget.

Storylines were easy to follow.  Quite a few funny parts.

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Love this movie!  I've always loved this movie!  It was a commentary on suburban life.  People that wanted to fit non-conforming others into the suburban life.  People that couldn't care if non-conforming others fit in or not.  And people that would turn on non-conforming people as soon as they didn't like it. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

My boss said he started this movie but couldn't understand what it really was.  Fantasy?  Romance?  I said it was a social commentary on suburban life.  He stared at me and said, "NaNaKo, I wanted to watch an entertaining movie on a weekend night, not read an essay!" 😂

Math Teacher thought it was ok.  There were several points in the movie that kept him guessing so that was good.  However, he was annoyed by the romance at the end.  Overall, he liked the movie but would not watch it over and over again like me.

Hercules (2014)

90 minutes of The Rock as Hercules kicking ass, showing off big muscles, and screaming at underlings, what was not to like?

A wonderful, entertaining, quick movie for a weeknight.  It explained all the myths of Hercules was simply PR campaign to drum up Hercules' mercenary price.  We were guessing who would die in the movie (a game that Math Teacher and I play while watching anything); we were wrong about all of them.  I enjoyed it very much!

OMG I thought 2014 wasn't that far away.  GASP!  It was 10 years ago!  GASP GASP!  The Rock did not look like he aged 10 years at all!  What was his beauty routine?  Being awesome?!

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

I WISH I KNEW HOW TO QUIT YOU!

SOMETIMES I MISS YOU SO MUCH I CAN HARDLY STAND IT.

Everything was beautifully and delicately made.  From the cinematography, to dialogue, to custom design, to directing, to acting.  This movie was perfect.

I cried the first time I saw it in theater in 2005.  I cried again the second time I watched it at home in 2024.  Two people in love but couldn't be together because the society said so.  It tugged at the heartstring too much~ 😢😭