casperlei0324 Reviews

Damsel (2024)

If you expect any intillengence from the plot or the dragon, stay away. away

[2/10 · 9 March 2024]

They tried to make it looks like a grand fantasy film but I guess the budget was only enough to render the dragon. The "army" of the king to slay the dragon were less than 20 people, the "royal wedding" had less guests than my friend's wedding. The whole setting just fall short.

The acting was ok, was not expecting a Rambo movie but that's pretty much what you get. (Rambo was much much better BTW)

The plot was very stupid, mostly because how stupid they make the dragon is. The royal family had been throwing in hundreds of ladies with all kind of ethnicity from European, African, to Asians into the pit as sacrifice, but the dragon never figured out they are not real Royal families...And there are many other parts how the dragon behave just makes absolutely no sense.

Nicely rendered dragon and the fire it breaths though, that's how the movie gained an extra star to make it two stars for me. Rest of the CG background looks pretty fake and can tell is obviously green screened.

All of Us Are Dead (2022– )

Good premises, dragged too long for the coming-of-age mixed in.

[5/10 · 2 February 2022]

Good premises of a zombie apocalypse setup. Generally good acting but the whole coming-of-age mixed in really dragged down the show.

It's zombie apocalypse we do not have time for young brats' love quarrel and other emotional stupidity. Many parts we fast-forwaded to skip the boring cheesy moment that are suppose to be emotional. They felt completely out of place. Lot of sub-plots were not done in enough details and felt like just fillers.

And I meant it is a zombie apocalypse show we are not expecting it to be 100% realistic, but when you have the main casts happily chatting with each other after two-three days of no water and food, zombies suddenly chase flare for no reason, and certain roles took forever to fully turn into zombie after being bitten, you know something is wrong about the script.

F9: The Fast Saga (2021)

OK that was a bit too much...

[5/10 · 19 January 2022]

I came watch this movie expecting physics defying stunts that make absolutely no sense but also make the fast series entertaining.

However this movie they really overdid it that at the end it began to feel like those parody film made to mock other movies (Spaceball for Star Wars. Johnny English for JB series, as example). F9 felt like a parody film made to mock the fast series itself.

Boomika (2021)

Horrible garbage

[1/10 · 30 August 2021]

We all know these days there are lot of junks being released on Netflix, but this is the first one in the past few months that I can't even bother to finish. After enduring 50 mins of horrible plots, acting, directing, sound editing, and pretty much everything in this film I gave up and turned the TV off.

Outside the Wire (2021)

When Anthony finally gets to play as Captain America

[6/10 · 18 January 2021]

Outside the wire is an averaga action/war movie. Some of the gun fights are pretty well done. The film tried to show the human internal conflict by putting a drone pilot into the front line, but the overall presentation fell short because the protagonist is just completely useless for the first 1.5h of the film (even though it was done on purpose), which also created a plot hole that for the last 30 mins of the film the mentioned useless drone pilot is able to travel deep behind enemy line alone. While the plot specifically said at the very beginning that nowhere is safe once they are outside the military base.

Anthony finally got to play as Captain America in this movie, who is able to take down teams of elite soldiers single handedly in some cool gun fights, but at the end is not able to take down a rookie soldier.

Other than the very bizarre sharp change of the protagonists' performance in this film which makes the plot laughable, it's an entertaining movie.

An Imperfect Murder (2017)

At least it was short.

[3/10 · 14 January 2021]

This is a very non-thrilling thriller. Story is very boring and the plot is going nowhere. The director tried to be very artistic about it but the end result is not good. I gave it three stars because compare with some other junks I have seen lately at least this one was short so wasted less of my time.

Tenet (2020)

A bloody mess when Christopher Nolan tries too hard to top himself.

[4/10 · 30 December 2020]

Always like Christopher Nolan's film, but I think this one he is really trying too hard. The concept is actually quite simple compares to his others films but the way it was executed is...well can't say it's horrible because nobody really know how forward and reverse time will interact with each other. As the film itself said don't try to understand it, feel it...

The simple fact is if they can change the time direction at well, and they want to help the past self like every other time traveling movies. Isn't it simpler just travel back in time in reverse to the past, then switch to forward to perform the aid. Instead of trying to help forward time while in reverse and let the whole thing becomes a hot mess?

The whole plot and special effect is built on this going in reverse time while helping forward time concept, so it's just plain stupid at this point. Especially at some point they did switch back to forward first while trying to change the past so it's not like they didn't think about it. Visual effect is great we get to see many things played in reverse, but it gets old pretty quickly and we have already seen too many of these reverse videos on YouTube.

Other Christopher Nolan's films usually also take some time to digest, and I always end up watching second time to discover more things. However as for Tenet. I don't even feel like to ever watch this hot mess ever again.

Kaali Khuhi (2020)

Really dull

[3/10 · 3 November 2020]

The story is very dull. The characters are undeveloped. The main girl really can't act at all. In conclusion a waste of time. Only reason didn't give this lower than a 3 is I do like the atmosphere and music a bit.

Survive the Night (2020)

Bruce just stop...

[3/10 · 15 October 2020]

I don't know if it's because of the COVID pandemic but Bruce Willis who is one of my favorite actor just keep getting casted in horrible films lately. Hard Kill, Trauma Center are two examples and sadly Survive the Night join the bad films group.

The characters are just really dumb. The plot is very weak. Everybody in the family keep getting hit at the back and captured. The only time the doctor finally succesfuly ambushed the intruder and made him drop his gun on the floor, he decided just leave it there, let the intruder begin a pointless car chase with his dad that goes nowhere. Eventually the intruder just drives back to the house and hit the doctor in his back again and capture him, again. I stopped taking the film seriously at that point. And what are the wife and daughter doing in the barn all night anyways?

The School Nurse Files (2020)

Very weird but interesting

[6/10 · 9 October 2020]

My wife is Korean, after we went through all six episodes together I was quite confused and asked her if there is some Korean culture things in this show that I don't understand. She said nope it is just weird and it's meant to be this way. It's indeed really weird but at the same time kind of interesting and keep you hooked if you can at least make to episode 3. I do like some of the art direction. It's really not my kind of show and I can understand some people will just go "what the heck is this?" and change to another show, but if this is your kind of genre I guess you will really like it.

Hard Kill (2020)

Stupid plot, horrible performance

[1/10 · 29 August 2020]

Plot is very stupid, both good and bad guys keep making stupid decisions. Gun fights are horrible with bad guys' aim worse than storm troopers, while good guys just spray and hit everybody. There is no strategy at all. At one point the bad guys are lost in the dark, keep swimming around randomly and yelling "you are surrounded come out" lol.

Ailiseu (2009–2013)

What a group of incompetent special agents

[3/10 · 16 August 2020]

Saw this on Netflix and I like the casts. Knowing it's an old show but with all the good reviews online decided to give it a shot. It definitely has one of the worst and cheesiest plot of all the Korean shows I have seen.

All agents in the show either from North or South are just all so incompetent. Within the operation the action is good, but how every operation is executed just make me cringe with people making horribly stupid decisions. Outside operations the agents are constantly strolling around randomly like nothing urgent is happening.

The romance plot is just cheesy to the max without much build up, and the constant flash back to the same moments when things were going OK get very annoying half way through the show, because they serisouly do the same flash back every episode just to remind the audience how much they were in love, while not much love was really felt from the dry romance plot.

There are also lot of plot holes, with agents randomly traveling to different places without any difficulty while they are on national wanted list.

The agents don't do much for their job, they are constantly eating, drinking, partying, traveling, walking around randomly, taking days off when depressed, considering about quitting before even the first mission, and constantly only thinking about their love interest instead of focusing on the job. The supposely CIA like NSS keeps lose track of their agents within operation or when they are on vacation. They can't even find target that are strolling around freely in the street, and keep felling for the dumbest trap. The amount of cringe worthy moment are just ridiculous.

Now just keep playing the show in the background while I do other stuff to see how it's going to end, and I can still follow the plot because there are just so many useless fillers.

Avatar (2009)

All flash no substance

[4/10 · 5 February 2010]

I did enjoy the visual presentation during the movie, but that was all. I did not really see anything special about this movie and don't understand what is the hype about. The setting, character...etc might be a new idea in the field of movies, but people who do play video games have seen way too much similarities that Avatar presented to us. Starcraft, Warcraft, Command and Conquer, and Fantasy games...I have seen way too much similar setting, so Avatar is not magicial at all, but just cliché to me.

And the story, I do not know about the connection with Dance with the Wolf...etc that other people mentioned, but it is totally a rip off from Battle for Terra, which I believe was not a big hit at all so nobody mentioned about it. Battle for Terra story goes like this: Humans found a new planet Terra that Human can settle on, but the planet's air is poison to human, so they need to convert the atmosphere to earth like condition, but Earth like atmosphere is poison to Terra indigenous. Surprisingly, Terra indigenous also love their nature and suck at technology. War break out and Terra indigenous is at the brink of losing, in the end human lost because one of its pilot begin to like the Terra indigenous and decide to backstab human's battleship. Does this story sounds familiar? I think it totally is.

In my opinion, Avatar is just a million dollar rip off of video games and small make movies such as Battle for Terra, which the story is so similar that make me doubt Avatar's script was just modified from it.

The Departed (2006)

Fantastic movie but the ending has dragged it down

[5/10 · 9 November 2006]

Overall this is a really great movie. Acting, storytelling, characters development… The Departed got a lot of good stuffs that gave this movie such a high score at this website.

I believe most people can tell all the good parts about this movie from other people's comment, and personally I agree with most of them. Therefore I will just focus on the part that I have different comments with most other people.

Yes I have seen the original before, and I might be a little bit biased here, but for me everything is nicely done in this movie except the ending. Of course there are different styles for directors, so some scenes might be more effective than the original, some might not. But I found the ending for The Departed especially lacks of depth. Where I am not just simply comparing the ending with the original. I am just commenting on the ending of The Departed by itself.

Seriously, the ending feels like a comedy, it kind of ruined everything that this movie has tried to development in the first 2 hours. It feels like "okay the movie has to end now so let's just blow everybody's heads off".

When people began to get shot in the head near the end, most people in the theater began to laugh out really really badly. It is just too sudden and has no emotion. Bang! Bang! Bang!, okay now they are all dead and we don't really care. The only sentence I wanted to say to my friend when I was walking out of the theater was the sentence that they have abused during the entire movie: "what the xxxx".

In conclusion, I think The Departed is a great movie before it reaches the end. The ending really has disappointed me a lot, and that's why I only give it 5/10.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Very Well Made

[9/10 · 30 November 2005]

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is one of the best of the series. I found it pretty entertaining, especially i am in the middle of preparing for final exams. It captured most of the main points of the book. The Triwizard Tournament was accurate, even though some parts were missing. Near the ending the graveyard scene was very detailed, considering it is such important turning point of the Harry Potter series. It was very well done and true to the book.

The acting was good for most of the characters, but there is one small part that i found not so true to the book. It was when Harry's name got nominated by the Goblet of Fire, then Dumbledore almost strangled our poor Harry. The emotion was too strong, and is different from the Dumbledore i know from the book who was always calm and wise.

The special effects are very good. The dragons are really cool, even though they were much smaller than what i have imagined. It was pity they didn't show all four combatants' battling for the golden egg though.

The story for the Goblet Fire is much darker than the previous three. I think it is not very suitable for younger viewers. However, older fans will enjoy it.

Over all, the Goblet of Fire is very well made, but i found it was kind of rushed (considering they have to put the story of a dictionary size book into a 2.5 hours movie). People who had read the book should have no problem follow it, but i think people whop never read the book will be kind of lost.

House of Flying Daggers (2004)

Beautiful but stupid

[7/10 · 18 December 2004]

"House of Flying Daggers" is beautiful, in fact, it is way too beautiful, as well as unintentionally funny. There were many scenes that made me and my friend laugh like hell. The director tries too hard to make the movie beautiful, and it becomes less believable as a drama. When the imperial soldiers begin to involve Takeshi Kaneshiro, he asks Andy Lau for help. Andy Lau says "I can't help you at all" Then he gives him a bag of arrows. Well, what are the arrows for???? Some people think when the imperial soldiers are shooting bamboo spears at Keneshiro and Zhang Ziyi was a great scene. But where did they get all the bamboo spears from??? Imagine chasing someone and making weapons at the same time. (Look at those soldiers shave the bamboo...) Even more amusing, all of the daggers seem to be remote controlled. While there are many parts in this movie that are unbelievable, it is after all just a movie. It does not have to be realistic, but too much of it stretches the truth.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

Pretty cool but not as suspenseful as before

[7/10 · 23 October 2004]

When I played Resident Evil on PS console for the first time, I was scared most of the time. It was very suspenseful and scary, so was the first Resident Evil movie. In contrast, in the second Resident Evil movie, the main character, Alice, had total ownage. It kind of reduced the suspense in the movie, because she was too powerful so that nobody could actually hurt her.

Suspense is a very important element in any Resident Evil movies/games, but in the second Resident Evil, only the first part of the movie (When Alice hadn't appeared), was pretty frightening. After Alice arrived, it turned into a pure action movie instead of a suspense movie. The action was pretty cool, but I personally prefer more suspense.

The graphics were pretty good, and it was really nice to see some shots that were directly taken from Resident Evil III. Near the end there was even a shot that was taken from Resident Evil X, Code Veronica. I guess there will be another Resident Evil movie, and I hope it is as good as the first one.

In conclusion, I gave this movie 7/10.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

A very entertaining and exciting adventure

[10/10 · 21 October 2004]

Like "70 shoe", I saw the preview on TV and decided to see this movie, and I enjoyed it very much.

The very first shot of the movie was very beautiful when an airship flew into snowy New York. The special effects of this movie were great. There were many thrilling air-(water)combats scenes, especially when Sky Captain flew his P-40 between skyscrapers in downtown New York.

The music in the movie by Ron Gurr was great and fit the action perfectly. It also added emotional power to the story.

Although the story was very simple (Hero saves the world), it did not need to be complicated. The movie was an escape film, and meant to relief stress. (As a new university student, this movie really helped me forget about my economic midterm.)

The acting in the film was okay. As a fan of aviation, I particularly enjoyed the flight sequences. Although they were not realistic, they were terrific fun. Therefore Casper's evaluation is 10/10.