[COMMENTS] Goodbye to 'A Beautiful Mind'--In honour of John Forbes Nash Jr.--R.I.P

John Nash, subject of the movie"A Beautiful Mind" and wife killed in a car crash on 23 May 2015, aged 86. He was an American mathematician dedicated to game theory, and a Nobel prize winner in Economics in 1994. This movie won the 2002 Oscar Best Picture. The actor of John Nash, Russell Crowe twittered for the sorry.

The introduction on IMDb of this movie is "After a brilliant but asocial mathematician accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish..." When Nash was in his full flush of success, he was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia. He was given a course of insulin shock therapy, but frustrated with the side-effects of the medication, which made him lethargic and unresponsive, he secretly stopped taking it. Against all his colleagues and friends, he decided to deal with the symptom himself, and with his wife Alicia's full support. Years passed and as Nash grew older, he learnt to ignore his hallucinations and earns the privilege of teaching again.  

End with quote from John Forbes Nash Jr. "I think madness can be an escape. If things are not so good, you maybe want to imagine something better. In my madness, I thought I was the most important person in the world."

On this day, in memorial of him, let us have a review of this classic movie! RIP

<full movie online; http://www.bilibili.com/video/av1862111/>

edited by: Fanqing XU 43392202

[FEATURE] David Fincher & his movies Part II

Weekend is coming! Getting ready for some more movies from David Fincher? Most of the movies in the second part were released almost 10 years ago, but every piece of work was classic!

Zodiac (2007)

The casting that including Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. is attractive in the very first place! It's a classic arrogant series murderer story, with journalists and police involved. The movie was based on the true series killer named "Zodiac" in LosAngeles in 1970s. After he murdered someone, he would send the media a letter, leaving codes, clues to challenge the police. The police were at their wits' end about Zodiac. The case caught two journalists' attention, Paul (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Robert (Robert Downey Jr.). With help of David (Mark Ruffalo) from the police, they started to investigate the truth.

Panic Room (2002)

The next Fincher's movie is Panic Room. Reading the name, you can tell it's a thriller, mystery movie. Many of Fincher's work falling in these genres. Meg (Jodie Foster), a divorced woman and her daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart) moved to their newly-purchased house, which had a safe room in it. There were 16 recorder, 8 monitors, a landline that was unconnected to the outside and an impregnable door. They never expected that they would take refuge in this room, when three men broke in, searching for a missing fortune.

The Game (1997)

The Game is another movie in mystery, thriller genres. I was impressed when I first watched it on TV. I didn't start from the beginning but the  story was so attractive and creative. It is my very first brain-training movie, way before the Inception. Wealthy San Francisco financier Nicholas (Michael Douglas) gets a strange birthday present from wayward brother Conrad (Sean Penn): a live-action game. The game was tailored for Michael and pointed at his dark childhood and marriage trauma. Michael joined the game out of curiosity but later he found out his life was falling apart. He told himself it was just a game, then he jumped from the roof...

Fight Club (1999)

Next coming up are two well-known movie by him, Fight Club and Se7en. They are ranked #10 and #22 on IMDb respectively. Basically it is unnecessary to go into details. Great films, great stars, worth watching!

Se7en (1995)

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Have a look back, I cannot imagine that i have watched so many  Thriller, Mystery and Drama movies!! Maybe next time I can do a feature on that!


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[Recommendation] Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Edge of Tomorrow will remind you of a few other films, that’s a given, but it’s not a blatant and bland copy of those other films. It takes these ideas and blends them in a very entertaining way, and sets them against a war-time attack reminiscent of the Normandy landings. It also has some fun with the time travel aspect of the film, and there are some genuinely hilarious moments to enjoy.

Tom Cruise

Emily Blunt

The action on the beach is pretty intense, and the visual effects are very impressive. There are also some big laughs to be had here so a crowded matinée or full price showing is recommended. At home a HD viewing on your TV is the way to go. Watching this on your laptop, Tablet or phone will seriously reduce the impact of this film.




On the technical side of things, the editing, visuals and sound effects work are very impressive. Performances from Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton are also solid, and I really enjoyed watching Cruise play against type and start this story as the coward trying everything he can to stay out of the action. The script also does a great job of moving the story forward, but in a way that never forgets where the characters are within the larger narrative’s time-line.



edited by SHIYU NIU 43507166

[NEW] Mad Max: Fury Road-- HIT on IMDb& RottenTomato by 98%!!

So far it has achieved 9.3/10 on IMDb and 98& on Rotten Tomatoes where the reviewers are very cynical and have a very picky taste on movies. And the background of the movie in Australia! The movie held its premiere in Sydney today 13th May in Events cinema on George Street. Let's have a look at it!

Mad Max Post- R18

The Mad Max series have the background in Australia where humanity and regulations are broken down after the nuclear war. The story is based on Max, a highway patrol and a gang speeding the car.

The story and the adventure is on in a stark desert.

Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult etc. getting together as a new group and show torture, speeding and shoot-out in this new episode-- still MAD.

Max, starred by Tom Hardy, was arrested by highway rider and tortured!

Here's the trailer of Mad Max4. Then just grab the ticket and enjoy it this weekend! It seems that there's an explosion of great movies this May!!!

edited by: Fanqing XU 43392202

[FEATURE] David Fincher & his movies Part I

If you watch movies, I would say you must have seen at least one of David Fincher's movies. His movies are famous for his unique way of telling stories and strong logical connection between every scene in his movie. Frankly, you have to be smart enough to understand his movie. Well, that kinda hurts. Anyway, even you cannot fully understand the movie after the lights are on (check the reviews afterwards, some of them are masterpiece!), you will still be impressed by David's ability to tell stories and arrange the fragments of scene.

Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl is David's latest movie. I was so thrilled when I walked out of the theatre. Her love to her husband is so creepy and extreme. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo (2011)

I clearly remember that I watched this film with my mate before bed one night. I had never seen any 'rape' scenes before so I was really sick after that [caution]. The film is about that a journalist was asked to investigate a family murder happened 40 years ago. The tatoo girl Liz hacked the journalist's computer and he invited her to investigate the murder together since the girl has an outstanding research ability. 

The Social Network (2010)

David rarely makes any biographic film, but this one is an exception. Unlike traditionally telling the story along the timeline, the film is based on a law suit between Mark (CEO) and Endardo (CFO). Whether the story is real is doubtful, but the film is basically on that 'you cannot be successful without making enemies, losing friends and being lonely'.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

It's starred by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and directed by Fincher, which somehow guarantee the quality of the movie. The movie started with an old lady's diary, which a man called Benjamin wrote. He was born looking like an old man, but he was growing younger. Inverse growth was a new topic in films at that time. Worth watching!

5 more David Fincher films will be introduced in our next FEATURE session!

BTW, this is what this great director looks like!

===To be contimued===

Fanqing XU 43392202

[Recommendation] Lucy (2014)

Imagine if human beings could utilise their brain to its full potential. It’s an interesting concept, one which we’ve seen before – in 2011 with ‘Limitless’ – and one which has been revisited rather prematurely with ‘Lucy’. It is particularly odd that the idea has been used again so quickly, when you consider the positive manner in which ‘Limitless’ was received; a lot to live up to. From the looks of things, ‘Lucy’ is basically Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow hitting new levels of badass. With a short run time and pretty impressive headline acts, I’m all set for what should be a powerful, action-packed watch.

The movie follows our protagonist Lucy (Johansson), who gets wrapped up in a Taiwanese mafia drug deal, where she is forced to smuggle the highly dangerous CH4 drug to the West. The drug, based on a hormonal chemical which stimulates rapid development in a foetus during pregnancy, allows users to access 100% of their cerebral capacity. Of course, Lucy has a reaction to the drug and becomes a little too much to handle. Those pesky Taiwanese criminals have created a monster. There follows lots of chase scenes, fighting and deaths in the attempts to retrieve the drugs, but the omnipotent Lucy also develops a penchant for violence and an apathetic disregard for the victims of her destructive behaviour. With time running out for Lucy, she opts for martyrdom, and with the help of evolutionary scientist Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman), decides to travel through time and educate the world.

Scarlett Johansson becomes very robotic after her superhuman transformation, which is probably intentional, but left me feeling rather disengaged with the whole narrative. Her indefatigable, relentless character makes it hard to have any kind of connection, or for that matter, any interest in her story. I think you should stick to aliens and The Avengers Scarlett, much more relatable. Morgan Freeman could (and probably should) have featured more in the film. That way, he might have been able to rescue the film from absolute absurdity. I’m personally surprised he went along with it all in the first place. But I guess you either quit at the top, or act long enough to find yourself involved in a few disasters.

From the very first moments, ‘Lucy’ just seems to be a poorly thought-out, rushed and bizarre project. The opening scenes featuring nature documentary footage should have been a hint as to what would follow. The whole thing is overly fantastical and ludicrous, compensated for by means of the laughable Taiwanese mafia villains. Whilst watching, I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was just watching a wacky, low-budget Kung-Fu film. Full of gimmicks and cliché moments – montage sequences, car chases and cheap gun fights – I soon wished the short run time was even shorter. Director Luc Besson, trusted with a $40m budget, clearly saved the majority of this for the final five minute crescendo. Dinosaurs Luc, really?

edited by Shiyu Niu 43507166