(M) Blood Diamond (Edward Zwick, 2006)Grade: B

Thoughts: Danny Archer (Leonard DiCaprio) is a diamond smuggler for a big company similar to DeBeers and Soloman Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is a simple fisherman who gets separated from his family during a rebel raid. The two men form an alliance – one to get a priceless pink diamond; the other to see his family again. The subject matter was fascinating but how the film was executed was a bit too stylized and not realistic enough. In addition, the love interest played by Jennifer Connelly felt weak. It made me hate diamonds even more and the way society perpetuates this desire for these rocks.

(M) The Prince & Me. (Martha Coolidge, 2004)Grade: C

Thoughts: Modern day Cinderella story where pre-med student Paige Morgan (Julia Stiles) meets and falls for Eddie (Luke Mably), only to find out he is Prince Edvard of Denmark. This is a pretty silly chick flick BUT I really like Julia Stiles so I gave it the benefit of the doubt and it was entertaining.

(M) Hellboy. (Guillermo del Toro, 2004)Grade: B

Thoughts: A demon name Hellboy (Ron Perlman) grows up to become a defender against evil. With the help of Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) they try to fight the dark forces. An entertaining film, however it spent too much time on Hellboy’s back story in regards to the Nazis.

(M) Seung Sing (Confession of Pain). (Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, Alan Mak Siu Fai, 2006)Grade: C

Thoughts: When I was in Hong Kong in 2006, I wanted to see this movie so bad but I left before it came out. Now I’m thankful I missed it. Hei (Tony Leung Chiu-Wei) is a well respect police detective married to Susan (Xu Jinglei). Her father and close servant are violently murdered and Susan hires private investigator Bong (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to find out what happened. It was a mess of a movie where the audience knew early on who the killer was. The only enjoyable part was looking at Tony and Takeshi, both so dreamy.

(M) Ngor Yiu Sing Ming (My Name is Fame). (Lawrence Lau Kwok-Cheung, 2006)Grade: B+

Thoughts: Poon Ka-Fai (Lau Ching-Wan) is a semi washed up bitter actor who has more to say about the industry than he puts into knowing his lines. Enter Faye Ng (Huo Siyan), a bright-eyed, young up and coming actress who takes to Poon quickly. He reluctantly takes her under his wings and grooms her to become a great actress and in the process rekindles his love for acting. One of the more sincere and honest portray of the movie industry.

(M) Hollywood Chinese. (Arthur Dong, 2007)Grade: A-

Thoughts: A highly informative and very entertaining documentary regarding the representation of Chinese Americans in Hollywood, going back to the 1930’s until now. It was filled with archival footage and interviews with directors (Ang Lee, Wayne Wang and Justin Lin), actors (James Hong, Joan Chen, B.D. Wong) and writers (David Henry Hwang and Amy Tan). It made me think about what it is like to be Chinese in America and how we are viewed in Hollywood and overall in society. They are actually doing screenings of this film in the next week or so. I encourage you guys to check it out.

Movie Count: 44