(M) Huo Yuanjia (Fearless). (Ronny Yu, 2006) Grade: B+

Thoughts: Fearless is Jet Li’s last martial arts film and what a way to go. Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li) was a well known Chinese martial artist, who fought for China in the early 19th century when the West was coming in and taking over. He co-founded the Chin Woo Athletic and was considered a hero in China which created many myths and legends regarding him. The movie, loosely based on him, had a good mix of fight scenes and storyline. However, determining what was fact and/or fiction was difficult. Apparently, the family of Huo Yuanjia disagreed with the film and sued Jet Li and the film company.

(M) Idiocracy. (Mike Judge, 2006) Grade: D

Thoughts: A great message but executed poorly. Pvt. Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) and Rita (Maya Rudolph) are test subjects for the government. They are both average Americans who will be frozen for one year however due to circumstances the year turns into 500 years. In 2506, society has become stupider than ever due to the theory that only the dumb and stupid reproduce while the educated and smart find reasons not to start families. I found that to be the most interesting part of the movie, too bad that only lasted 5 minutes. The rest of the time it was watching Luke and Maya try to get back to 2006. Ugh pretty painful to watch. Oh and Dax Shepard is a terrible actor. Blech!

(M) Clean. (Olivier Assayas, 2004) Grade: B-

Thoughts: I wanted to watch this movie ages ago mainly because Maggie Cheung won Best Actress for her role at Cannes. She did do an amazing job but the story was a bit thin. Emily Wang (Maggie Cheung) is a junkie dating Lee Hauser (James Johnston), a has-been rock singer. One night, Lee overdoses on heroin and dies leaving Emily all alone; well not completely. She still has her son who is being watched by Lee’s parents Albrecht Hauser (Nick Nolte) and Rosemary Hauser (Martha Henry). Nick Nolte does an excellent job as a father grieving for his son and trying to make things better for his grandson and daughter in law. The movie moves along slowly and you don’t really care for some of the things going on in Emily’s life because her character is so selfish. An interesting note is the band Metric makes an appearance and the lead singer Emily Haines even has a few lines.

Count: 105 movies