So there were a handful of other movies that I caught over the last several weeks that I haven’t covered in my blog, but none of them were all that impressive (ranging from just pretty good to fairly disappointing, but none of them interesting enough to discuss, or bad enough for a scathingly negative review), so I’m just going to skip them and move on to last weekend (it was such a nice weekend this weekend that I took a trip to Lewis & Clark Caverns instead of going to the movies so there's nothing to report for this weekend – I might take a mental health day in the middle of the week to check out what’s new at the theater). Last weekend there were four new movies out at the theaters, two of which I really, really wanted to see – Jet Li’s Fearless and Flyboys. And wouldn’t you know it, neither was playing here in town (the joys of living in a medium-sized town in the middle of Montana).
Now, the average person would probably think to himself, “Damn, that sucks. Guess I won’t be catching those at the theater after all.” But not I. No, dear readers, I immediately went to Carmike Cinema’s website (since Carmike operates the vast majority of movie theaters here in Montana) and started checking movie listings in other towns. The nearest place showing both movies was about 85 miles away. So what did I do? That’s right, it was time for a road trip, so I jumped in the car and headed down the highway. I caught both movies as a double feature, had dinner at the Golden Corral, and then headed home. All in all not a bad day out. Of course, it says something about how much of a movie buff you are when you spend as much money or more on gas to get to the movie theater as you do on the actual movies themselves.
So was it worth it, you might ask? Absolutely!! I loved both movies. So let’s get started with the reviews. The first of the two I saw was Flyboys, which is the story of a group of young American men who travel to France to fly in the French air service during the early days of World War I (they’re flying for the French because this is before America has officially entered the war). Just as a quick side note, I have to say it’s hard to believe there was a time in our history when American men actually traveled to another country to JOIN a war, as opposed to the Vietnam War era when people were fleeing to Canada to avoid going to war. But that’s another subject entirely that we’re not going to get into.
Like the football movies reviewed in my last entry, Flyboys is also based on real events, which only really comes into play at the end when you find out what happens to the remaining characters after the movie ends (although it is kind of neat to get a brief look into where the characters’ lives went after the events of the movie). The best parts of this movie, naturally, are the aerial battles between the French biplanes and the German triplanes. They are really, really cool to watch, and because of the differences in technology, are quite a bit different from modern dog fights in movies (or even World War II dog fight scenes, as far as that goes). And there’s a scene involving a zeppelin that’s just stellar. It’s also nice to see a movie focused on World War I pilots, since WWI movies are hard to find in general, and when you do find them they’re mostly focused on the trench warfare of the infantry, and not on the fledgling air corps that had just started to develop during that period.
The overall story isn’t too bad, and the characters are all interesting. There’s even a love story involving the main character and a young French woman that’s tolerable. Of course the critics complained about the story and the dialogue and a number of other petty little things. But in my mind, you go to see a war movie for basically one reason, and that’s the battle scenes. And when it’s a movie about fighter pilots (from whatever era) then it’s all about the dogfights. And the ones in this movie were pretty damned spectacular, as far as I’m concerned. So if you like war movies, definitely check this one out.
Our next film is Jet Li’s Fearless, which – interestingly enough – is ALSO based on true events (that seems to be a theme running through quite a few of the movies I’ve seen recently, surprisingly enough). The film takes place in China early in the 20th century, back when China was a weak nation that was starting to be heavily influenced by foreign nations, especially Western nations. The main character of the story is Chinese Martial Arts Master Huo Yuanjia, a hero of the era who stood up to the Westerners and brought pride back to the Chinese (for a well-written description of the movie, check out the plot outline on the movie’s imdb page. He did a good enough job explaining the story of the film that I see no reason to try and paraphrase it here).
This movie is being billed as Jet Li’s last martial arts epic, and is directed by Ronny Yu (who's done a surprisingly eclectic range of films since coming to the US), with action choreography by Yuen Wo Ping. The combination of these three tells you right up front that the martial arts in this movie are going to be breathtaking, and indeed they were. The fight scenes are absolutely incredible. But just as important, the story is fantastic and the acting is top notch. We see a boy rise to manhood, only to fall from greatness and journey towards redemption. Along the way he energizes the morale of his entire country (and became a national hero). It’s a great story of China’s history brilliantly told. Just as a warning, though, it is also very much a Chinese movie, meaning that you’re watching it with subtitles if you go to see it (for those people who are bothered by such things). Being as big a fan of foreign films as I am, this didn’t bother me in the slightest, and I’m so glad I went and saw this movie at the theater.
I would highly recommend both of these movies as ones to see at the theater if you get the chance (and I will definitely be picking both of them up when they come out on DVD). Well, that’s it for now. Should I get to the theater during the week, I’ll try and get my review out on whatever movie I go see as quickly as possible (which sadly isn’t always as easy to do as I’d like). Until then!
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