Massive TV and Film Review Post

With all my recent free time, I've been watching a lot of TV, though mostly not on a TV. Go Youtube.

惡作劇2吻
I saw the first one (also on Youtube) during my last work term and thus didn't get too much FAP done--not that I had the drive to do them anyways. While I didn't think it was that good of a series, I push through the incredibly draggy series because 林依晨's character (ok and herself too) is too likable. I know they are making a sequel, but I was pretty nonchalant toward it. Enough history; part 2 is just as draggy as part 1. There isn't really a plot to speak off in part 2 because the leads already got married in part 1 so there isn't a clear destination in the sequel. However, if you treat it like a sitcom, 惡作劇2吻 is really not bad. Basically is more of the humor of the first, but without the underlying quest of the first, and 直樹 seems like less of an asshole than before. However, I have to complaint about the weak soundtrack of part 2. 林依晨's singing sounds very synthetic.

鬥牛，要不要
Hebe as a lead in a full series!?! 鬥牛 is another series on basketball, but unlike MVP情人, it plays a pretty minor role in the plot and it's basically there to make the male leads look cool despite weird Dragonball Z hairdos. Hebe plays a bitchy spoiled brat who refers to herself as "your father" and to everyone else as "barbecued squid"--trust me it's funny in Chinese. Unlike 林依晨, her character is not likable, though in certain scenes she just looks too damn cute to be unlikable. My biggest problem with this series is 賀軍翔. This guy cannot act!!! At first I thought he is some new guy but he's been in other series before. With the copied scenes from Meteor Garden and other parallels, he reminds me of the laughable acting done by F4 in Meteor Garden. The other male lead is Hebe's bodyguard who is portrayed as someone who is so selflessly in love that one can't help but pity--but at least he has more expressions in his arsenal than 賀軍翔. Second biggest problem: drag. Out of curiosity I skipped to episode 10 after watching episode 5. Though I am slightly confused with regard to why Hebe got a haircut, the fact is nothing happened among episode 6 to 9 that episode 10 did not reiterate in flashbacks! It looks like they used 4 episodes for a date between Hebe and 賀軍翔 and then padded it with schmuck that didn't advance the plot at all, AKA major dragging!!!

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At this point I have to digress, why is it, in every 台灣偶像劇, the girl falls in love with a jackass? And damn why can't I find any cute TW girl that are like that in real life?!?!?
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The Amazing Race Asia 2
What started off as being very interesting has turned into a predictable and annoying mess. At first I was drawn by concept of a TAR in Asia with Asians who speak English in a thick accent--Paula and Vanessa's Malay accents are just gold. However, with the lost of the Japanese team, and this weird excursion to Europe, it has completely gone downhill. The last few legs in Europe has just been boring as hell. Mindless roadblocks and detours, ridiculous leg designs (back to back non-elimination and then a intersection!?! WTF were they smoking?!? Jeez I wonder who will get eliminated next week?!), and Marc and Rovilson. Gawd I hate M&R, their idiotic demeanor, corny one-liners, and how they keep winning! I wish they would go back to Asia and have Asian themed tasks for the contestants.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Lazy writing. Sarah monologues are bland and without thought. The terminator head traveling through time didn't make sense--unless the writer is god and gets to decide what sort of object is elementary enough to be able to travel through a time wrap. The whole time traveling to avoid continuity problem is just lazy to the max. The fighting scenes are basically nothing but two terminators pushing each other into walls, making lots of holes, dents, and debris--lazy. In episode 3 "The Turk", after all that setup, a super lazy and unsatisfactory resolution was presented. Also in "The Turk", the jab at nuclear scientists again is lazy. "Fathers of destruction"? Am I the only one that thinks that the nuclear scientists are in the same shoes as Sarah? They are both facing the problem of whether it's justifiable to do evil (developing the bomb) to prevent another evil (get owned by the Nazis).


And now for some movie reviews!

Enchanted
This film was surprisingly likable because of Amy Adams' Giselle. Without her, this film would have sucked.

Rambo
I saw Rambo on the afternoon it opened and from the opening credits I knew it was gonna be pretty crazy. Rambo is definitely the most gore filled film in the series and it was sick. Certain scenes are just so sick I just couldn't help but to release the tension by laughing--not that people getting mowed down my machine gun fire, blew apart by land mines, or chopped up by a machete is a laughing matter. It was the most realistic Rambo, not only because of its visuals, but also because Rambo only got gazed by one bullet in the entire film; in other films he would get hit four times and would still be able to fire a machine gun with ease. And Stallone didn't look one bit like someone who is already 61. An awesome experience.