Review: Lady Vengeance

There are movies that trick you sometimes. And I like that. Such is the case with Chan-wook Park's new film Lady vengeance (aka Sympathy for Lady vengeance. This is the last part of Park's vengeance trilogy started with the brilliant Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and even more brilliant Oldboy. (man, I still love that movie!!!) The final installment is just as inventive but more suptle than Oldboy. In fact the first hour might make you dizzy as the movie shifts through time a lot, with a lot of characters. So have some coffee. However stick with it, cause at the end Park does it again and pulls the rug out from you and serves up an ending scene that will make you think.

Lee Geum-Ja, at the age of 19, goes to prison for the murder and abduction of a child on behalf of her accomplice Mr. Baek, only to find out that she is betrayed. While in prison, she carefully prepares for her revenge by winning the hearts of her fellow inmates with her kindness, thus earning herself the nickname 'kind Ms. Geum-Ja'. Upon her release from prison after 13 years, she finally sets out to seek revenge on Baek, with the help of her former prison mates.

What she discovers about Mr. Baek sets her on a similar if not fascinating different kind of revenge plot that I felt was really interesting. I can't say I liked this as much as the first two, but its a great ending to an amazing trilogy. All the actors from the other two films are all in this playing different small roles as a kind of good-bye. The cinematography by Jeong-hun Jeong (oldboy) is again incredible. Chan-wook Park is an amazing talent to keep your eye on. I want to watch it again soon to pick up on some stuff i may have missed the first time out. Up next for me is the banned from cable film Imprint from Takashi Miike! Wish me luck.

Little Superstar

An Open Letter to George Lucas

Hi George. You really pissed me off this time. I'm done with you and your bullshit moves to rip off your fans over and over again. Did you catch Attack of the Show the other night where they took 200 of the new Star Wars dvds and chain sawed them all to bits. Let me explain to you why you fucked this up. You released the Star Wars original trilogy (and we will keep it to the original trilogy, the other is a whole other rant) on dvd a year or so ago. They were the special editions with the new scenes added in. That's cool, thanks for that George. I bought those on laser discs back in the day more than once. Hope you enjoyed that. I think its great that you are leading the way in new movie technology both in making and distributing them. In this area no one comes close to your genius. Keep it up. Here is where you fucked up yet again.

For years fans have been dying to have the original versions without al the extra CG scenes in. So after taking our money after all these years you thank us all by pissing in our face. You put out the original movies without cleaning up the print and in a non anamorphic transfer to boot. Meaning no widescreen. And your response was "well that's the unaltered versions". Well let me explain something to you assface. We like the fact that you clean the negative and make the film look as it were new. And we would like to see it in widescreen on our 16:9 tvs that we forked over a bunch of our hard earned money to enjoy our favorite movies. Instead you use the exact same transfers on the laserdisc and say "well that's what they wanted." George let me explain something to you. We are not six years old anymore. Don't treat us like that. As a fan of Star Wars and you as a filmmaker I don' think you get your fans. Get the FUCK out of your house and talk some real people instead of avitars. Maybe you'll learn how to write again in the process. Don't get me wrong here, you have every right to tinker with your movies, they are yours and god bless you for keeping them that way. Just don't piss on us man, we fucking made you, and we can unmake you.

Now, the next topic. A mere few days after you release your latest round of bullshit onto the public you have the balls to donate 125 million or something like that to UCLA film school. I know that's your alma mater and shit, but hey dipshit why don't you donate that money back to your fans by giving it to film schools that need the help. UCLA is fine. They are just fine, they don't need it. If you want to harbor new talent, give it to a school like UTA where I went where we barely had a working edit bay or a decent tripod. Whew, you are a real pisser George. I used to defend your ass to people that were dissing you but I'm done. Your done. These two events this closely just really pissed me off. I mean you make 125 million off some bullshit slap in the face to fans then donate all of it to rich Hollywood kids. F you dude because I care. I read somewhere that you fear that you have become what you most hated and wanted to not be. Well stop it, and get back to where you started. Otherwise I'll post all the extras that you have not released from the old laserdiscs on YouTube.

Still gotta love live TV

United 93

I have been addicted to 9/11 documentaries the past several weeks. There is one in particular that is really good on the Discovery Channel , the title of which escapes me at the moment. But its about 2 hours and tells all these amazing stories about people that were trapped in the two towers and how they escaped. One dude even saw the plane coming at him and got under his desk and it shielded him from the blast and he fell a floor or two into the rubble and was deaf from the sound but kept yelling until a brave guy from a floor below found him and they actually got out in time b4 it fell to the ground.

I also watched United 93. I had a really hard time putting it in, because its not something you put in to enjoy per se. However I thought the decision to do the film in real time was great. It really gave you a sinking feeling inside. I was really proud of how those passengers took control of that plane and avoided what could have led to even more deaths. They knew they were going to die, so they took charge and essentially began the action of taking back our country. Although this is a very sad and depressing film to behold, there is a light to it that shines very bright.

9/11 still makes me angry. You feel hopeless and and after 5 years of questionable actions it makes you feel even more helpless. Everyone should still be angry but proud of our country and continue to encourage change.

While we are on the subject...

Cockroach vs. Weatherman

Idiocracy

Had a weird day on Sunday. We got up and I told Amy how Fox is dumping Mike Judge's new movie, Idiocracy in 5 cities without any poster, trailer, or any commercial promotion at all. I mean this is the genius behind Beavis and Butthead and AMy's favorite movie of all time I think, Office Space. Not to mention King of the Hill. So we drove to one of the few theaters playing it and besides us there was one other person in the theater. Sad. The movie itself is no Office Space, but it has moments that will make you laugh out loud, and we did. The movie concerns Luke Wilson a nobody army guy who is frozen in an experiment and forgotten about until the year 2500. In that time the world has bred nothing but idiots to the point of smart people being relegated to being called gay and ignored. The president is a popular wrestler and Costco's are the size of cities that you have to take trains to get to the electronics part. So Luke is now the smartest person alive, but not before being tortured for being smart. Its all a kind of take on the dumbing down and commercialism of America. I thought it made some really valid points like Office Space did about the office environment of today. But it kind of gets dragged down by its own dumbness towards the end. It was a noble attempt at social commentary, and I think Fox really did the film a disservice by ignoring it this much. I mean its Mike Judge. He makes you a lot of money daily on King of the Hill. Give the guy a commercial at least. Its funny to me that the very thing Judge complains about in the dumbing down of America is actually happening in a big way to his own film. That's the real moral of this movie.

Optimus Prime

So this is what Optimus Prime will look like in the new Michael Bay live action movie of The Transformers next summer. Hmmm...More than meets eye.

Amy and Erik Wedding Site Updated

I finally updated the wedding site. Hope you like it... Click here to witness the revolution.

Chicago Wrapup

Put all the photos together in a little movie....Click here to watch the adventures...

Kung Fu Baby

Superman Returns in IMAX 3-D

Just a quick note that I went back to see Superman Returns in Chicago at the 3-D IMAX on Navy Pier. I went in wanting not to like it and was ready to pick it apart. So many people hated it, i thought maybe I missed something. And guess what, I liked it again. I even liked it better the second time. I think you either roll with this flick or not. I know its not the down and dirty Superman people wanted, but the message of the film is still very pure. It's not the popcorn movie wanted, it's a very character oriented film about a dude that flies. The 3-D was awesome. I can see a day coming real soon, where this format totally replaces traditional 2-D films. Its coming. And it may be a good thing economically for theater owners wanting to combat DVD's, and HD sets. It may bring the theater experience back for generations to come. And that's a good thing. It seems like every time I go to the movies now, when I step out of the theater I am wondering why am I not here more often?


Speaking of good movies, I also saw Little Miss Sunshine a few weeks back. I thought it was really good solid movie. I thought it felt very real in terms of how families really are. The ending was kinda blah for me, but that was a minor misstep in an otherwise funny movie about so called dis-functional families.

See ya Sam

Sam Vincent the head coach of the Fort Worth Flyers is leaving his position to be an assistant coach on the Dallas Mavericks. Great for Sam, but sad for Flyer fans. He will be missed, but says he still plans on working with the Flyers while he is with the Mavs. He says he has grown to love Funky Town while living here.

Late Message from Chicago

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Originally uploaded by genzod.

Well this picture arrived 5 days late after i sent it on Amy's phone. So I guess the days of instant picture blogging could be dark. My phone won't even send photos anymore. We should have some new photos of Chicago posted soon. We didn't have a computer at our disposal in the city except at the Mac store down the street. Plus Amy took about 350 photos with her new camera. So it may take us a while to decide what to put up.

And We're Back

This is how we feel about being back to work today....