Kung Fu Panda 2

Name: Kung Fu Panda 2      

   

Genre: Animation/Action/Adventure/Comedy

Cast: Voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Garry Oldman, Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Director)

Synopsis: Peacock Clan rules the Gongmen city of ancient China. Lord Shen of peacock clan wants to use fireworks as new weapons and developing the same. His court’s goat future teller tells him that a warrior of black and white will defeat him and will be hindrance in his rule. Hearing this Shen with his large army starts exterminating Panda population of the area to stop this prophecy to never let that happen. As Shen parents came to about his atrocity, they immediately exile Shen to move out of the Gongmen city and never come again and before going out of the Shen promises that he will have his revenge. After thirty years, Po is now the dragon warrior protecting the villagers from the bad guys with the furious five. Shifu tells Po that he is now a kung fu master but he still doesn’t have the inner peace. When he was defending villagers from wolf bandits of Shen who were there for stealing metal for new cannons to be made, a symbol distracted him and remind of a flashback of his birth. Po later on came know that he was found in a radish box by his goose father and he is an adopted child though Po still remained unsatisfied.

Shifu received a message that Shen has attacked Gongmen city and has killed Master Rhino and is planning to destroy Kung Fu and the whole of the ancient China with a new weapon developed by him. So he sends Po and the furious five to stop Shen and his evil plans. They entered the city and finds that Master Ox and Croc were being held captive. Po and the furious five asked them to help in liberation of city from Shen but they refused in saying that if they do then he will destroy the city by the new weapon. Po and the furious five were chasing Shen’s men and later surrendered and were taken to Shen tower. Later they destroyed Shen’s new cannon but during his fight with Shen a symbol on Shen’s plumage reminds his past again with a little flashback and that gives time for Shen to escape to its other tower. Tigress asked Po about what distracts him again and again to which Po finally tells him that Shen was there and he knows something about his past. Tigress asked him to stay here but he went into the factory to find Shen. On other side the furious five too entered the factory to blow it out so that cannons can’t come out but seeing Po in trouble they went into the factory and tried to help him. Shen starts fighting Po and ultimately hits him with a cannon and Po went all out. Shen captures the rest of the furious five as their hostage.

Po wakes up and sees that Shen’s future teller has rescues and healed him and is now in his ancestral village and asks him to remember and embrace his past. Po remembers everything that what actually had happened that on that day and how his parents sacrificed his own lives to save Po. Po finally attains Inner Peace that he is now living a happy life though such atrocities and hardships is being faced by him. He went to the city again to stop Shen and his evil plans. He freed the furious five and later sees that Master Croc and Ox with his own Master Shifu too has arrived there and starts fighting with Shen’s wolf bandits. Eventually they thought that had stopped Shen’s plan but Shen hits the wreckage created by Po with his new cannon. Shen starts a whole round of cannon towards Po but as Po has now attained Inner Peace deflected all the cannon balls fired at him. Tigress, Shifu and even Shen was shocked to see this and could believe its own eyes. Finally Po went to Shen and asked him to stop all this but listening to him Shen starts again attacking him and in that fight ropes which were holding a canon falls on him and crushed him to death. 

Po came back to the village and tells to his goose dad that he is his father at all and hugs each other. Meanwhile somewhere else, Po’s real father who were living with rest of the alive panda’s senses that his son is still alive somewhere.

Review: As first was a big success so a lot to be expected from the next part and it delivered with full expectations. The movie is full of action, adventure and a lot of comedy scenes which makes it a little ahead of its previous prequel. Action sequences used in this part was even better then it was used in the prequel. Story was at all connected with the previous part. Lord Shen was better on the villain part and was more effective than the prequel’s Tai Lung. Music given by Hans Zimmer and John Powell were as usual at its level best. It has to be said that this part of the movie has more action sequences and adventure fun than the previous part and the 3D make it an extra edge to it. A fabulous and a classic animation movie with Po’s panda style was mind blowing.

Stars given: 3.5 out of 

Kung Fu Panda

Name: Kung Fu Panda

Genre: Animation/Action/Adventure/Comedy

Cast: Voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Jackie Chan, John Stevenson & Mark Osborne (Director)  

Synopsis: Po (Jack Black) was having a dream where he seen legendary warrior with unmatched Kung Fu skills are being greeted by the legendary kung fu warriors, The Furious Five bow down to that legendary warrior and requesting him to fight with them and at that time suddenly Po wakes up from dream. In the valley of peace in ancient china Po is a Kung Fu lover panda who idealizes the furious five including Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper and Crane trained by their master Shifu. Po tells to his dad Ping a goose that he had a dream and being forced to ask about the dream he tells he dreams about noodles. Oogway, an old tortoise had a dream that Tai Lung,(Ian McShane) an evil snow leopard and also old student of Shifu will escape from prison and come to Valley of peace again to have his revenge as he was denied to take the dragon scroll, the source of limitless power. Hearing this, Shifu send one of his goose messengers to check the security of Tai Lung so that he can’t escape.

Master Shifu ordered furious five that there will be a Kung Fu tournament and from there Master Oogway will choose the dragon warrior who will have the dragon scroll and in turn Tail Lung can be defeated. Everyone in the village gets this news and was very excited to watch the tournament which includes Po as well. But when Po reaches the arena the door were closed. In desperation after doing every attempt to watch the tournament, he sat on a chair with full of attached fireworks and rockets. Suddenly he moves in the sky but very soon falls down in middle of the arena but he woke up, he saw Master Oogway was pointing finger towards him and telling everyone present there that he is the dragon warrior.

Furious Five and Master Shifu were angry that it was just an accident and couldn’t believe that he is dragon warrior. Shifu tried every trick in his book to make Po quit of being himself considered as dragon warrior and should go back home but Po remained there as he was so fanatic about Kung Fu. Even most of the furious five wasn’t impressed from him and wanted him to immediately move out of Jade palace where they all lived. There once together he came know about the real story of Tai Lung from Tigress (Angelina Jolie). Meanwhile on other side, after seeing all the security preparations of Tai Lung, Zeng, the goose messenger of Shifu was getting out of the prison at that moment one of his feathers was dropped near to Tai Lung. He used that and as he himself is a master because he was treated by Shifu himself used that feather starts fighting with the guards himself. After a hell of fight he breaks from the prison and tells Zeng that he should go back to Shifu and tell him that he coming back to have his dragon scroll back.

Zeng gives this bad news to Master Oogway and asks him to guide to stop evil Tai Lung so that Village and the people can be protected. Oogway asks Shifu to give him promise that he must believe in Po and nurture him to bring the best out of him and then he ascends into the sky. Shifu went to Po and the furious five and gave them both the news of Tai Lung is free and Oogway is gone. He further asks Po that he will teach him but Po refuses saying that he will never able to defeated Tai Lung. On initial disagreement between the two, Shifu starts teaching Po Kung Fu and in a little while the progress showed by Po, Shifu can’t believe himself. Po starts believing in himself as a Kung Fu master. The furious five decides to take on Tai Lung by themselves. They have tough fight with Tai Lung but in the end Tai Lung defeated them all and strikes them with nerve attack. Crane brings all of them and seeing all of them defeated Shifu decided to give dragon scroll to Po. On the day of giving dragon scroll to Po, he opens the scroll but nothing happens and being disappointed and no other way to save the valley, Shifu ordered Po and the furious five to take the people out of the valley as far as possible and he himself will face Tai Lung.

When Po and the furious five were starting to take villagers out of the valley, Po meets his goose dad. Po was little upset that things doesn’t go right but his dad tell him that it’s Ok if things doesn’t go right. He tells him that he is gonna tell him his secret of his secret ingredient soup and which is nothing. You just had to believe that it is special. Realizing this he went back to master Shifu. Shifu on other side had started fighting with Tai Lung. Tai Lung being in rage and aggressive was overpowering Shifu at every front. When he was about to Shifu, Po came there and challenged Tai Lung to take the scroll from him and he is the dragon warrior. Tai Lung was now more angry starts fighting with Po with full force. But Po’s unconventional and effective kung fu techniques were too much for Tai Lung. Tai Lung when once defeated was about to open scroll but nothing happened at that time too. Po at that time asked Tai Lung that he didn’t get that in first time either and that there is no secret ingredient and it’s just you. Tai Lung starts attacking again but Po finally over powers him. Seeing this, all the villagers including furious five bows down to Po and call him as master. Po remembers of Shifu and went back to him and Shifu asks him that finally now he can have peace.

Review: One of the classic animation movies with full of action and adventure. The Kung Fu sequences used in the movie from start to finish was great. Story of the movie was decent but the focus given on the rest of characters excluding Po was a little disappointing. Comedy scenes in the movie were quite good which brings some laughable part. Music given by Hans Zimmer and John was good too. Although at some areas movie seems to be a little stretched but as a whole movie is a great to watch full of action and adventure and specially the introduction of new style of Kung Fu “ The Panda Style” this was great.

Stars given: 3 out of 5

The Perfect Storm

Name: The Perfect Storm

Genre: Adventure/Drama/Thriller

Cast: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, Wolfgang Petersen (Director)

Synopsis: A boat used for fish catching as their profession named Andrea Gail after having a low and ineffective catch of fishes came to the ports of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Almost all the crew members of Andrea Gail are money broken and desperate need of that. Seeing this, Captain Billy Tyne (George Clooney) convinces his crew to go on for one more round of fish catching and being broken for money, they all have accepted for the same. This time to catch more fishes the crew moves ahead from their normal grounds but thunderstorms starts forming behind them. The crew of Andrea Gail straight to Flemish Cap and there starts catching more fishes. Soon after catching too much of fish and because of the height of their fishing expedition the ice machine breaks but as they have caught so much of fish the only way the captain seems to see is that head back to shore as quickly as possible. Meanwhile on other side the thunderstorm was becoming worse and worse. After debating with the crew, they all decided to move through the building storm rather than to wait it out.

As they move back to Gloucester port the storm was becoming even worse than before. Captain Linda Greenlaw (Mastrantonio) of Hannah Boden was trying her level best get the message of forming hurricane from thunderstorms to crew of Andrea Gail but she was unsuccessful every time. Soon Andrea Gail antenna broke down and from that point they stop receiving messages. Their at this point whole of the crew was fully confident that they will move ahead from this thunderstorm. Here Captain Linda called this a Mayday and alerting national cost guards and telling them the whole problem. An air National Guard responds to this mayday and sends a helicopter for the rescue but after a lot of rescuing of the other ships they were unable to refuel in the midair for the pursing the rescue any further due to bad weather the helicopter crew due to crashing of it jumps from the helicopter and later on rescued by the coast guard ship.

On other side to bad weather due to thunderstorm, Andrea Gail starts encountering all the problems. Deck was being to crash because of the repeated waves from the ocean, their stabilizer was broken and two of their men were thrown overboard by the waves. A rogue starts beginning to appear. Billy tells one of his crewmen named Bobby (Mark Wahlberg) to ride the wave with full force as they think they might able to do so but the wave stars growing bigger and the boat capsizes. As the boat was going down and rest of the crew being trapped in the boat, Billy decided to remain in the boat too as the captain of the ship but booby manages to move towards the surface of the ocean watching the boat, crew and bobby going down. But Bobby was not wearing any life jacket and as the weather was worse due to the thunderstorm, he didn’t have any chance of surviving this too. At Gloucester all the people were watching news regarding any information regarding their loved ones but there were no survivors of Andrea Gail crew.

Linda was at the memorial for all the people who have lost their lives in this hurricane especially for Andrea Gail crew followed by Christina, Ethel with tear in their eyes and consoling each other where Linda were telling in Billy’s view what swordboat captain is all about and how much he and his crew share for fish cashing.

Review: Really a great movie as a whole. Based on the true events the way movie is directed was really good. Director Wolfgang does shows in this movie not about this true incident but also how the problems is being faced by the boat crew who catching fishes for living. Performance of Clooney was good but performance of the Mark and rest of the crew were decent. Visual effects and sounds to be associated to the movie were great. In the movie it can be seen that the story is being filmed by Wolfgang pretty effectively but he failed to get the best out of the cast of the movie excluding Clooney. Overall a good movie to watch as this movie brings the actual problems the real life fish catchers faces in their life.

Stars given: 3 out of 5.

Cast Away

Name: Cast Away

Genre: Adventure/Drama

Cast: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Nick Searcy, Robert Zemeckis (Director)

Synopsis: Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a system analyst who works for Federal Express (FedEx) to solve their productivity problems. He lives with his girl friend Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt) with whom he had a long term relationship. On night of Christmas Eve Chuck was called by the company to resolve some problems in Malaysia. When going to Malaysia the plane in which he was travelling got caught by a storm and crashed it in Pacific Ocean. But somehow chuck was able to survive that crash and got hold of a life raft. After clinging to that he was left unconscious, floated the whole night in that raft and next morning find himself on an uninhabited island. Many FedEx packages were also there which got scattered during the accident and also find the body of the pilot of the plane and later he buried him there. He tried many times with his efforts and resources available to him to make a raft again and move from their but wasn’t able to clear the surf.

He finds some useful items in that FedEx packages and when he searched for food, shelter etc. He left one package unopened. Chuck now realizes that he has to make fire and starts making that but during his few attempts he wounded his hand and in anger he throws some objects from FedEx packages into the water and one of them was a Wilson sports Volleyball which later he make a face on that ball naming it Wilson and starts talking to him. Four years have passed till that crash and now Chuck is very much thinner, weaker and had lot of long hair. Now he is expert in catching fish and making fire. He remembers her girl friend every single moment all the time during these four years. He also talks very frequently to Wilson (the face on Volleyball). Chuck now again decides to make a raft to cross the turf again. He built a life raft with proper focus and attention in building that raft and wants to wait for the best conditions to cross the powerful surf’s of the ocean. During the optimal conditions he boarded the raft to cross the surf. After some time, storm appears on the sea and tears his raft to pieces leaving him lonely again with all hopes gone. When he was unconscious floating on the river a nearby cargo ship spotted him and saved him.

After returning to home, Chuck came to know that he has been pronounced dead and all his family, friends has made his funeral also Kelly has been married to Chuck’s dentist and has a daughter too. On initial stages Chuck doesn’t have the want to meet Kelly for not waiting for her but her husband told Chuck that she waited for him for quite some time and it can be helped as she was alone and needed some support. Chuck finally meets Kelly. They shared their feelings but they both new that had to move their separate ways as it will not be possible to stay together as Kelly has some responsibilities towards her family too. Chuck returns to the address to deliver the last package which he didn’t opened. The house was empty so he leaves the package there and writes a note that this package saved his life. As he moved back a woman came there and explain to him that where each of the cross roads leads too. Chuck notice that the woman in the pickup truck has written the same lines as it was written on the FedEx left package Chuck now starts looking towards each road and after wards starts looking towards the truck of the woman.   

      

Review: It is one of the most good drama type movies of the Hollywood where Tom Hanks has given one of his life time performances in the movie. The whole movie was solely based on the acting of Tom Hanks and he had kept the expectation pretty brilliantly. Screenplay and the movie were good and so do was the cinematography and the story part and for that he was also nominated for many awards and also won quite few of them. It is purely dramatically type of film where he has given his heart out in that character. Such movies are rarely made and are very much appreciated although the ending of the movie was a little low to the standards maintained by the movie all the time but Hat’s off to Tom Hanks. Also to Robert for such a direction that captures each and every emotion of the movie beautifully.

Stars given: 3.5 out of 5

Vertical Limit

Name: Vertical Limit

Genre: Adventure/Thriller

Cast: Chris O’Donnell, Bill Paxton, Scott Glenn, Robin Tunney, Martin Campbell (Director)

Synopsis: Peter Garrett (Chris O’Donnell), Annie Garret (Robin Tunney) and his father Royce Garrett were climbing a cliff in mountain range of Southwestern United States. Some amateurs got loose from their rope and footing fitted in the clip thus, endangering the life of all Peter, Annie and his father Royce. Royce ordered Peter to cut his rope so that Annie could be saved and the rope will not be able to take the weight of all the three. Peter had to no choice but to cut the rope even he didn’t want it to do so. Years later, Now Peter has been retired from climbing and now is just a wildlife photographer. Annie now has become a renowned mountain climber. Peter shows up in a base camp where Annie was about to start his climbing expedition at Mount K2, world’s Second highest mountain. Elliot Vaughan (Bill Paxton) is a well known industrialist and Tom McLaren also a well known mountain climber. Last night before the expedition to start, they people over there were partying and enjoying but suddenly a man named Montgomery Wick came there asked few questions and concerns about the expedition. In the morning, they started expedition but soon weather becomes bad resulting into a disaster. Annie, Elliot and Tom got stuck into a crevasse. Annie uses Morse code to try to contact with the base and Peter too know the Morse code who already at the base, decrypts it and was relieved when came to know that Annie is alive with rest of the other two. As they came know that they are stuck in crevasse and to get them out they need an explosive so they asked Pakistani army for the same as Mount K2 is in Pakistan. They gave them an explosive called nitroglycerin. During night he asked people over there to help them in rescuing Annie and others stuck up in the mountain. He manages to get Cyril, Malcolm, Kareem, Monique and Skip Taylor. But enquiring about the things they have and estimates of time that things will be used, Skip tells Peter that they need guy like Montgomery Wick to reach them on time. After few arguing Wick accepted to go with Skip at base.

 Teams were divided and helicopter makes them land at best position from where they had to start journey on foot. As the expedition goes ahead, Cyril and Monique land into trouble as Cyril got off balance and got himself hanging on the cliff but Monique rescues him but soon avalanche came running down takes Cyril with him and Monique clings to the cliff, but soon Monique rescues herself and moved forward. She informs the base camp and moved forward. Soon the persons carrying the expedition came to know that the Nitroglycerin explodes as soon as it comes into the contact of sunlight and they too quickly took nitroglycerin in shade to avoid sunlight. Monique, Peter and Wick successfully avoid this did disaster but Malcolm and Kareem instead of taking proper action in avoiding the explosion didn’t take proper attention that there was a leak in the canister and soon the nitroglycerin explodes killing Malcolm and Kareem. Annie on other hand begins to suffer from edema when water begins to form inside her lungs. Tom also is severely injured. Annie pleads Vaughan that he should use dexamethasone to save Tom. But Vaughan isn’t interested in saving him as this will only decrease their chances of survival at it goes further. Monique finds a body of a woman fully frozen in the mountain. As she moved closer Wick came there and asked her not to touch her. Wick told Peter that Vaughan is responsible for his wife’s death and empty box here proves it and plans to kill him. Peter warns Wick that he will not him kill to which Wick responds that he should be more concerned about her daughter rather than him and Vaughan. On Annie’s camp, at night Vaughan takes some Dex himself and kills Tom with the syringe, to save remaining Dex for himself. In the morning, Wick sees that Peter has moved on alone with Monique. Soon they reached the place where Annie and Vaughan were trapped. Peter used nitroglycerin to detonate a part of mountain so that from there Annie and Vaughan can come out. When they attempts to rescue them Annie and Vaughan the hooks got loose and they were about to Annie but soon Wick came there and takes situation in his control. He came down to Annie and Vaughan so that Annie could be lifted above properly and as they were lifting Annie a piece dislodged from there leaving Annie, Vaughan and Wick hanging on the rope in the manner as Annie as above of them, Wick in between and Vaughan at the bottom. Wick understands that rope will not be able to take the weight of all three of them and calmly cut the rope leaving only Annie above so that she can be saved at least. Wick and Vaughan falls to death in the depths of cliff. Peter reunites at base camp below and pay respects at memorial for those who killed at K2 including Wick, his wife, Tom, Cyril, Malcolm, Kareem and Vaughan.

Review: A good movie with some good performances by almost most of the Cast including Chris O’Donnell, Scott Glenn. Concept of the movie was very unique and so do was the screenplay. The movie shows what type of difficulty is being faced by the mountain climbers in proper and real way as in the real life the climbers face. Special effects of the movie were average. At some point, the movie does have some loose edges but as a whole it is adventurous movie with some thrills in it.

Stars given: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Time in China III

Name: Once Upon a Time in China III

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama/History

Cast: Jet Li, Rosamund Kwan, Max Mok, Tsui Hark (Director)

Synopsis: During the last years of regime of the Qing Dynasty, China was experiencing turmoil as foreign powers were increasing their influence significantly. To restore their pride and their might of their martial arts in front of foreign powers, empress Dowager Cixi order and governor Li decided to organize a Lion Dance competition, where all the martial art schools around the country will participate for the title of “Lion Dance King”. Wong Fei Hing with Aunt Yee and his student Leung Foon arrived in Beijing to visit his father’s residence in Canton. When they got off the train station, they meet a Russian diplomat called Tomanovsky who knows Aunt Yee as they both had studied in Britain. He tried to kiss Aunt Yee’s hand but seeing this Wong Fei Hong gets annoyed and tells Tomanovsky that this western culture is considered bad in Chinese culture. When Wong Fei Hong reaches the association’s centre to meet his father, he came to know that his father was attacked by a wealthy businessman called Chiu Tin Bak and his men; one of those was Thunderfoot (clubfoot) but his father sustains minor injuries but very happy to see his son and Aunt Yee.

Before the actual competition took place, local martial arts club organized a competition of their own just to show their might to the others. Wong Fei Hong didn’t participate in that but was watching the competition from a roof of a building. Meanwhile Foon and some students of Wong Fei Hong though of participating in the competition and accidently meet Thunderfoot which they also encountered previously when they were taking rickshaws. Foon and Thunderfoot had a fight but Foon manages to escape and during that Thunderfoot got hurt very badly during the rampage of the horses. Wong Fei Hong after seeing that the martial clubs are unnecessarily beating each other, jumps into the competition and tries to stop them and asks if they want to show their might why not try him. One of them tried but later on they said they have understood Master Wong’s point. Chiu Tin bak throws a party for winning the local lion dance competition. When injured Thunderfoot goes to the party, Chui’s men make fun of him and humiliate him. Also Chui Tin Bak abandons him. Being abandoned and dejected Thunderfoot goes to Wong’s house and challenges him. Wong Fei Hong sees the injured condition of Thunderfoot asked him that first let him treat after that he can fight with me. Thunderfoot seeing the kindness of Wong agrees to him and later starts to live with them. Aunt Yee’s camera was thrown in Local Lion dance competition and later it was retrieved by Wong. She sees the camera reel and uncovers that Governor Li’s life is in danger and will be killed during the Lion Dance Competition and Tomanovsky is one of the conspirators. Learning that truth, Wong Fei hong decided to take part in the competition with Foon and Thunderfoot as his assistance. As the competition start, all the participating men fights with each other to try to reach at the top scaffolding to have the Gold plate, so that they can be pronounced as winners of the competition. Tomanovsky sees that Yee is recording the competition through the camera and fearing that she will also record the assassination goes for her to take the camera away. Yee seeing him running towards him also runs from there. Wong Fei Hong, on other side, over come all the odds against him and Thunderfoot wins the competition. Someone from the Russian camp fires at governor Li during that moment but luckily bullet didn’t hit him and he was alive.  Hearing the bullet voice Tomanovsky went want with the pistol in hand. Seeing pistol in hand all the Governor Li’s men point guns towards him but someone from the Russian Camp kills Tomanvsky and accuses him of Japanese spy. Wong Fei Hong refuses the gold medal and being accepted him as winner and told governor Li that China has today lost men for just no reason. Real victory will only be there when every Chinese will play its role with wisdom for restoring national pride. He tossed the gold medal in front of governor Li and walked away.

Review: Another great sequel made by Tsui Hark with absolutely brilliance. Another great performance given by Jet Li. Acting of Rosamund and Max Mok were as usual, good. But this time, the martial arts sequences in the movie were even better than the previous two prequels. But the performance of Chin Chui wasn’t much impressive. Story of the movie was somewhat a predictable. Leaving some negatives apart, movie is full of action, some brilliant direction and some great martial arts sequences. A must watch for everyone and specially for those who are followers of Jet Li or who are following Once upon a time in China film series.

Stars given: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Time in China II

Name: Once Upon a Time in China II

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama     

Cast: Jet Li, Rosamund Kwan, Donnie Yen, Tsui Hark (Director)

Synopsis: Wong Fei Hong was travelling to Guangzhou through train to attend a seminar where doctors of both Western and Chinese medicine were about to meet, with his student Leung Foon and Aunt Yee. White Lotus Society was gaining popularity and was performing demonstration on streets. Aunt Yee was seeing that demonstration. She tried to take a picture of the demonstration and caused a flash which men of that society got scared and treated her as evil as she can produced lightening and also was wearing foreign cloths and tried to take her away to burn her but Wong Fei Hong came for her rescue and beats the followers of the society. At the Medicine seminar Wong Fei Hong was having difficulty to make the western doctor understand his lecture on the benefits of Acupuncture but Dr. Sun Yat Sen, helps him to translate in western language what he wants them to understand. As seminar was going on, White Lotus Society tried to disrupt it on the orders of their priest leader Kung. Their main aim is to drive foreign powers out of their homeland. After a series of events Wong Fei Hong came to know that Dr. Sun Yat Sen, is the leader of a society who wants to topple the government and wants to establish a democratic china. A school of foreign languages was set on fire by the White Lotus Society. Some children hide in the shelter of the school and later were found by Wong and Aunt Yee. After having some difficulty in providing shelter to children, Aunt Yee, takes the children to British Consulate. On other hand, Wong tried to talk to Commander Lan asking him to provide security to the children and to do something about White Lotus but Commander Lan told him that already all the men are deployed on borders to deals with foreign power and he doesn’t have enough power to support a fight with them.

When Wong goes back, he sees that those children from foreign school as well as Aunt Yee and Foon are not there. Soon Foon came there and tells Master Wong that the children are safe in British Consulate. Soon followers of White Lotus attack the consulate. Wong Fei Hong helped Dr. Sun Yet Sen, in treating the injured. Commander Lan have some information that rebels including Sun Yet Sen, is hiding in British Consulate and came with force to search the consulate but wasn’t able to do so as they were told that consulate is not under their jurisdiction. Commander Lan ordered to cut down the telegraph wires so that Dr. Sun, could contact the outside world. At night White Lotus attacked the consulate but Wong Fei Hong and his aides defeated the white lotus followers but soon Commander Lan came their and arrested those followers. Dr. Sun had already escaped before the attack of White lotus but now Wong planned that Foon impersonating as Dr. Sun’s companion named Lu Hao Tung runs from there, Wong takes Lu with him as impersonating Foon and asked permission from commander Lan to destroy the White lotus Society. Later on, he destroys the society and their leader King got accidently killed during the fight. They meet Foon near the docks but foon told them he forgets to take the book containing the names of their rebel brothers. Lu asked them that they had to go back to take the list as it is a matter of life and death. All of them went back. After retrieving the list, they were going back but Commander Lan and his men came there and shot Lu. Lu asked them to destroy the list and Foon stars doing that. Wong Fei Hong fights commander Lan as he is desperate to get the list and Wong knows that after he gets the list, Lan will kill them. There starts a fight between them but in the end Wong Fei Hong defeated Lan which eventually lets him killed. They ran to the pier to and arrived just when Dr. Sun’s ship was about to leave. Wong Fei Hong throws a cloth containing the design of the flag for free china for which they were fighting.

Review: Another great movie made by the great director Tsui Hark. He once again proved his excellence in film making. As laid in the previous part, the direction in the movie this time was also great. Jet Li was performance as Wong Fei Hong in this movie is damn good. Donnie Yen and Rosamund Kwan performance were good although Rosamund Kwan role in this part was not much. Music as per the previous was good and so does the martial arts sequences of the movie, Just awesome and including historical and main figures of China in the movie also provided an extra edge in the movie.

Stars given: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Time in China

Name: Once Upon a Time in China

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama

Cast: Jet Li, Rosamund Kwan, Yuen Biao, Tsui Hark (Director)

Synopsis: Western powers were increasing its influence in the Foshan region. Liu Youngfu the general of the Black Flag Army came to Wong Fei Hong and asks him to give training to a group of people who can defend the town. Some of them were Porky Wing, a butcher and an American educated Chinese named Bucktooth So. Wong Fei Hong came to visit Siu Kwan, who is around the same age as him. As they are not directly blood related but her father was sworn brother of Wong Fei Hong’s grandfather so she is considered elder to him. Leung Foon comes in the town hoping that he will become student of Wong Fei Hung. He ran into a stage performance hoping that he will meet Wong there but Shaho Gang cause trouble in that stage performance. Wong Fei Hong defeated them but due to some misunderstanding Leung Foon and Wong Fei Hong, now Leung can’t become his student. Being in despair Leung was roaming in the streets of Foshan region when he sees a fight between 2 masters. A master called “Iron Vest” Yim emerges as victorious and impressed from him, Leung asks him to take himself as his student. Later on Yim told him that he wants to be the best around and wants to open a school here. Leung told him that he has to defeat Wong Fei Hong here as he is the best Master here, so defeating him will show the rest that he is number one master around. Shaho Gang, on other side, set Wong’s clinic Po Chi     lam on fire as a warning that he should not indulge in Gang’s matters. But a Church’s father came to the aide of Wong and told the police that he knows who set his clinic on Fire. Arrest warrant was issued against Shaho Gang. To avoid the arrest they came in the shelter of Americans, from Sino pacific Company and in return of that the Gang will help them in kidnapping local women which can be sold as prostitutes. Shaho Gang meets Yim and asks him to take revenge against Wong Fei Hong which Yim readily agrees.

The gang abducts Wong Fei Hong’s “Aunt Yee” when she was helping a laborer who had escaped from America and told her about the wrong doings of the Americans and his pain over there and how he managed to escape, so as to avoid local government inspection. Wong Fei Hong and his followers were arrested and were sent into prison as they cause ruckus to buy time from their escape. Bucktooth came to Wong and told him that Aunt Yee has been kidnapped by the Gang. Being dejected that what should he do now but the very moment some men from the police freed Wong as they have utmost regard for him and told him to rescue Aunt Yee. Shaho Gang’s leader tries to rape Aunt Yee but Leung sees it and fight with them so that no harm could be made to her. They try to beat hell out of Leung. But the very moment the gang got informed that Wong Fei Hong and his men very clever entered the American Base and are searching for Aunt Yee. Wong Fei Hong battles with Yim and later on defeated him. When he was running out of the Go down where fight took place between Wong and Yim, Americans starts firing at Wong but Yim as his last attempt to defeat Wong came running at him but eventually got him by the shots and Later on took all the bullets on himself and save Wong Fei Hong and asks him to move ahead.  Wong Fei Hong successfully rescued Aunt Yee and rest of kidnapped women over there. Wong also killed American leader Jackson by shooting a bullet into his forehead with his hands and all this time Leung was with Wong to help him. Later on, in the end Leung Foon was being accepted as a student by Wong Fei Hong.

Review: The movie proves why Tsui Hark is considered one of the great directors in Asian Film Industry. He combined all the ingredients of a great movie into this. Awesome direction done by him combing with the story, which he associated with Chinese hero Wong Fei Hong. On top of that, emphatic and energized performance given by Jet Li in the movie. Rest of cast performance was also at its best. Every role in the movie was given proper importance which is to be needed in. Excellent martial arts demonstration was there and what adds more to it was the music given by James Wong and George Lam who also had given the theme song of the movie, which is exceptionally good. Truly, a great movie full of Martial Arts action.

Stars given: 4 out of 5.

Pirates of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Name: Pirates of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Genre: Adventure/ Fantasy

Cast: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane, Rob Marshall (Director)

Synopsis: Jack Sparrow came to London to rescue his mate, Joshamee Gibbs but Jack’s real reason to come to London is to find the person who is impersonating Jack and recruits a crew. As jack thought he rescued Gibbs, both Gibbs and Jack were taken into custody and Jack was taken to King George II. King wants Jack to guide and expedition to found Fountain of Youth before the Spanish. Jack asks him to ask him to give him a ship and a crew for the expedition but his also gives him a captain for the ship i.e. Captain Barbossa who is now a privateer in the Royal Navy. Jack escapes from there. He meets his father captain Teague, who warns him that the Fountain of Youth will test him. Later on, he came to know that the person who was impersonating Jack is none other than Angelica, who is her former lover and daughter of Blackbeard, a ruthless pirate. Jack is forced to lead Blackbeard’s crew to Fountain of Youth. Jack was onboard on Queen Anne’s Revenge, where he came to know that the fountain water must be drink from two silver chalices that once belonged to Juan Ponce de Leon. The person who drinks from the chalice containing mermaid’s tear will have the life extended and the other person will die as the remaining life will be extracted from it. On other hand, Gibbs memorizing the Jack’s map and later on destroys it, forcing a deal with Barbossa that he will spare his life in return he will take Barbossa to the Fountain of Youth. Blackbeard wants this fountain power so that he could prevent his fatal encounter with the “one legged man, Barbossa” and set a course for White Bay. They were attacked by group of angry mermaids but Blackbeard was able to capture one of them. Philip Swift, a captive missionary by Blackbeard falls in love with the mermaid and names her Syrena. Blackbeard sends Jack to retrieve the chalices from Leon’s ship.

Jack finds the old ship and enters in it and later meet Barbossa was there too. Both of them came to know that chalices are in the possession of Spanish. Barbossa in reality only seeks revenge against Blackbeard attacking the Pearl, which force Barbossa to cut his own leg in order to escape and tells him that reason is to kill Blackbeard as for revenge of losing Pearl. Jack and Barbossa joined forces. Jack steals the chalices from Spanish men. Syrena meanwhile also starts reciprocating Philip’s feelings. But through the trickery of Blackbeard able to get mermaid’s tear and after that left that mermaid to die. Blackbeard takes Philip with him. Soon Jack meets Blackbeard with the chalices and strikes a deal with Blackbeard that he wants his magical compass and the release of Gibbs and in exchange to that, he vows to take Blackbeard to give him the Chalices and take them to the Fountain of Youth. Blackbeard agrees to the deal. When they reached fountain, Blackbeard and his crew meets Barbossa and his men. As fight starts soon, Spanish and their men appeared and tried to destroy both Chalices and the fountain. During the fight Barbossa stabs Blackbeard with his poisoned laced sword. Angelica when tries to take that poisoned sword from Blackbeard she cuts herself too. Barbossa takes Blackbeard magical sword and his crew too. Philip got injured during the fight but manages to escapes from there and frees Syrena. Spanish throws broken chalices into the water. Syrena takes the chalices and back to Jack. She goes back to Philip and kisses him and takes him back to water. As both Blackbeard and Angelica were injured and wounded, Jack convinces that Angelica to drink from the chalice which contains the mermaid’s tear and Blackbeard should sacrifice his life for Angelica’s safety. Blackbeard asks Angelica to drink the water from other chalice and let him drink from the chalice containing the tear. Angelica agrees to it and drinks from the chalice which doesn’t contain the tear. But Jack deceives them in the matter that Angelica actually drinks from the chalice containing the tear and Blackbeard drinks the opposite one. Blackbeard’s body was consumed by fountain and eventually killed him. Angelica admits her love to Jack but Jack knows that Angelica will try to take revenge against him for Blackbeard’s death; he strands her on an Island with one pistol and a shot. Barbossa claims Queen Anee’s Revenge and the rest of the crew and becomes a pirate again as he has taken his revenge. Jack finds Gibbs, who used his compass to locate and take the shrunken Pearl. But Gibbs has taken all the shrunken ships in bottles which were in possession of Blackbeard. He hopes to bring Black Pearl back to his original form and determines to continue a pirate life as he said “it’s a pirate’s life for me, Savy”. In the post credit scenes, Angelica sitting on shore of Island finds the voodoo doll of Jack and looks with a grin.

Review: Being the forth part of the Pirates of the Caribbean, lot of hopes were there from the movie and the movie no doubts clears the coast very well. Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush’s were performance were as usual excellent. As there was no Orlando Bloom and Keira in this part so there a something that can be doubted in the movie but bringing in Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane was a good move which brings new energy, style and a variety in the movie with Ian McShane as ruthless and aggression and Penelope with sensuousness and sexy pirate. Direction of the movie was decent. Story of the movie is very much unique and it’s some of the previous parts. Movie is not of action one but it is more of an adventurous and fantasy movie with concepts of Fountain of Youth, Mermaids, and Chalices etc. which were very unique. Special effects of the movie are also above average. Overall the movie is a good entertainment with full of adventure, fantasy and a little dramatic twist in the end, with the solid performance of Johnny Depp with his Humor, style and the way the pirate. “Oh yes! Very Piratey”.  

Stars given: 3.5 out of 5. 

Pirates of Caribbean: At World’s End

Name: Pirates of Caribbean: At World’s End

Genre: Adventure/Fantasy/Action

Cast: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Geoffrey Rush, Chow Yun Fat, Gore Verbinski (Director)

Synopsis: To have full control over the seas, Lord Beckett kills anyone who is being suspected of piracy which includes women and children. As Beckett has Jones heart, now he uses Jones to destroy any pirate ship he sees on seas. Condemned prisoners compel nine pirate lords to convene the fourth brethren court at Shipwreck cove so that they could take action against Beckett. Barbossa leads will, Elizabeth, Tia Dalma and rest of his crew to rescue Jack from Davy Jones locker. Another pirate lord, Sao Fang, posses a map to the locker called “The Navigation Chart” where jack is imprisoned eternally. Elizabeth and Will tries to bargain with Feng for map and ship, but Feng got angry as Will already tried to steal it with his own men. British Royal Navy under the orders of Beckett Feng’s bathhouse. Later Will strikes a deal with Feng. Will wants Black Pearl to rescue his father from Dutchman. As crew after many difficulties rescues manages to rescue Jack from Jones locker. During the escape route, they see dead soul where Elizabeth sees her father’s soul too. Tia told them that it was his lover calypso, who appointed him to check the dead to the next world and return he was able to step on land once in ten years but when Calypso failed to meet him, he abandoned his duty and was subsequently turned into a monster. When they came to real world, Sao Feng ambushed them. He betrayed the rest and handed them to Backett for the Pearl, and also came to know that everyone has some motive to rescue jack but no one came to rescue jack just for the sake that they miss him. Backett takes Jack with him on the Endeavour. Feng bargains with Barbossa for the pearl. When Feng attack Becketts ship, Jack escapes. Feng told Elizabeth that the first brethren court tried to trap Calypso in human form. As ordered by Beckett, Jones destroys Feng’s ship. When Feng was about to die, he appointed Elizabeth as the new captain of his ship and later on Elizabeth and his new crew were imprisoned. She later came to know from Bootstrap Bill that whoever stabs Davy Jones heart will have to become the next captain of Flying Dutchman. Elizabeth and her crew escapes from there custody but Norrington was killed. On the Ship deck, Jack tells that he stab the heart so that Will’s problems can be solved and thrown him into the river and gives him his own compass so that Beckett could find him and shipwreck cove with that compass. On Pearl, Jones meet calypso which now being shown as Tia Dalma herself and asks why she left him like this? She told him that once they let him free, she will tell how cruel she is, Jones after hearing that left.

When there was a meeting at Shipwreck cove, Barbossa tells them about freeing the calypso is the only way to solve their problem but Jack said that he agrees with Elizabeth’s idea of fighting the war with Beckett. At last, Barbossa said that only Pirate king can make that decision and calls Captain Teague to confirm that. After that there was vote to elect pirate king and Jack voted for Elizabeth and rest of the lord votes for themselves which makes Elizabeth the pirate king and yes she declare the war with Beckett. Before the war they had a parley with Beckett and Jones and during that Elizabeth swap Will with Jack realizing that Jack true motive is to stab the heart of Jones. Barbossa steal the pieces of eight and tried to free Calypso. Soon calypso lashes her fury and created a storm in water where surrounds both Pearl and Dutchman. Jack escapes from Dutchman with the chest in which Jones heart was kept, resulting in a sword fight between Jones and Jack. Will proposes Elizabeth and they marry. But during the fight Jones wounded Will. Jack was tempted to stab Jones heart himself but seeing Will was about to die, he places his sword in Will’s hand and helped him to stab Jones heart. Jack and Elizabeth escapes the Dutchman as it was about to sink. Beckett tried to attack pearl but Dutchman suddenly appears within the waters and then both Pearl and Dutchman destroyed Endeavour which results in killing Beckett. Will is now alive but has to sail seas and captain of Dutchman. Elizabeth after farewell with Jack and rest of the pearl’s crew spends a day with Will. Will departs Elizabeth the chest and tells that he will come one day after he fulfilled his duty as captain of Dutchman for ten years. When Jack and Gibbs were Tortuga then finds that their ship has gone and Barbossa has taken it. Barbossa tells his crew that now they are going to find the Fountain of Youth but later came to know that Jack has cut the middle of the map. Jack sails for the fountain of youth in a small boat.

In the post cut scenes, Ten years later Elizabeth and her son was standing on the top of a cliff and there arrives the Flying Dutchman and Will came back after fulfilling his duty for ten years of the captain of Flying Dutchman and is released from that obligation. 

       

Review: As this was the third part of the trilogy a much was expected but it did reasonably good. Johnny Depp’s performance was as usual very good with some good performances of Bill Nighy, Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom. But this part of the trilogy was a little stretched which was at all not needed. At some part of the movie, it feels little slacky and boring but the last of movie was very much exciting full of action and adventure. Humor in the movie was as usual, decent one. In the middle part, the movie becomes slows and pace was not there which loses its hold on the audience. Special effects of the movie were almost as its previous part. In this part, it was clearly shown that Gore Verbinski doesn’t remained focus on his strengths which he remained in the first part of Pirates of Caribbean. As a whole movie is a good entertainer for the audience. But clearly till now the best part of the trilogy was the first one.   

Stars given: 3 out of 5.

Pirates of Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Name: Pirates of Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Genre: Adventure/Fantasy

Cast: Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Bill Nighy, Gore Verbinski (Director)

Synopsis: Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading company, come to the wedding of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, interrupted it and has arrest warrants for them as they helped Jack Sparrow to escape during his execution. He also has an arrest warrant for Norrington as he is responsible for delaying the pursuit of Jack. He arrests Elizabeth and sends Will to look for Jack’s magic compass which points to the direction that whatever the holder of the compass wants at that time and for that he will give him Letter of Marquee which will make Jack a privateer and will free Will and Elizabeth. As Will leaves, Governor Swann, Elizabeth’s father was arrested and taken into custody. Beckett frees Elizabeth to go after Will and gives him Letters of Marque. Jack escapes from prison with a drawing of key which he wishes to have. On the pearl he reunites with Bootstrap Bill who has joined Davy Jones crew so that he could escape the fate trapped on the seabed. He tells Jack about the deal he made with Jones that either I must join his crew or being dragged into Jones locker by his pet “The Kraken”. Jack ending up landing in Pelegosto where he is praised as god by some local tribal’s which were planning to eat him. Will and the crew arrives on the island but were taken as captive. Later on, they manages to escape from their which were immediately followed by Jack. The crew visits Tia Dalma, a voodoo practitioner tells them there is to open dead man’s chest. There is a key which Davy Jones had kept with himself of the chest in which his has kept his own heart after being betrayed by his lover. She tells Jack to find Jones Flying Dutchman and gives him jar of dirt, as Jones can only step on land once in every 10 years.

Will goes on a shipwreck on Jack saying but actually it was a way so that Flying Dutchman to appear. Flying Dutchman appears and Jones takes Will as a prisoner. Jones confronts Jack and makes a deal with jack and also Will has to stay on Dutchman where he meets his father. When his father came to know that Will hasn’t pledge to serve Jones, he helps him to escape from Dutchman. Will steals the key from Jones when he was asleep and promises to free his father. Jack goes to Tortuga and recruits new crew. He meets Elizabeth and Norrington there. Both of them joined Jack. Soon Jack realizes that if Beckett gets Jones heart, he will rule the seas. Norrington on other hand plans to get Jones Heart so that he could regain his honor and life and can have rank of Admiral. Jones also realized that Jack is after chest. Everyone arrives at Isla Cruces. Three a sword fight starts between Will, Jack and Norrington as each of them having their own goals and on other hand Elizabeth, Pintel and Ragetti fight with Jones crew. Jack removes Jones heart from the chest and put it in the dirt jar locks the chest again. But Norrington somehow finds it and remove heart from jar and asks them to leave and pretend to be sacrifice for Jones crew. Jack, Will, Elizabeth and his crew boards Black Pearl and tries to overrun Dutchman but Jones set Kraken free so that they could be trapped again. Soon Jack discovers that the heart was missing and runs above leaving his crew behind. Elizabeth saw this incident. Will tries to fight the Kraken with some explosives and he wounded kraken. Seeing this Jack returns back to Pearl. Jack orders his crew to abandon the ship. When Elizabeth was going at last, he gave a kiss to Jack but cleverly chained Jack. Will sees this and misunderstood that she loved Jack. Jack escapes the chain but at very moment kraken came and Jack confronted him and jumps into his mouth to kill him but instead drags Black Pearl to the Locker of Jones. Jones discovers his heart was missing from the chest. Meanwhile, Norrington reaches Port Royal, presenting the heart of Jones to Beckett. Will, Elizabeth, Gibbs and some of Jack’s crew members reaches Tia Dalma’s house, if they wish to rescue Jack which they agree. Tia Dalma on their agreement said that they need a captain who knows the seas and a resurrected Captain Barbossa appears.

Review: As first part of the Movie was a blockbuster hit so much was expected from this part and to the expectations, movie rose up very well. Johnny Depp’s performance was highly charismatic. Bill Nighy performance is also its all time high. Special Effects of the movie are awesome, how the Davy Jones tentacles were made, how the fish like whole crew and many other specials effects were very good. Story of the movie is very unique and holds its audience together all the time during the movie. Direction of the movie was good. As a whole, movie full of entertainment with a mixture of adventure, fantasy, awesome special effects and good performance of Johnny Depp and other cast of the movie.

Stars given: 3.5 out of 5.