About choco*fish

I'm a Filipino living on Guam who loves movies, video games, jiu jitsu, MMA, surfing and sports! When I'm not working, I'm spending time with my familia. Aside from that, I read whatever interests me at the moment and frequent some local forums.

I Love You, Man (Theaters)

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good comedy (Role Models) and with the release of I Love You, Man starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel of the Judd Apatow “crew”, I knew I was in for a treat as these guys are a sure-shot for laughs.  I Love You, Man is about a newly engaged guy named Peter (Rudd) who quickly discovers he has no guy friends after his fiance asks who his best man and groomsmen will be.  What follows is a series of man-dates gone wrong which ultimately lead to Sidney (Segel), an investor who crashes Peter’s open house for free food and eye candy.  The two immediately click and the rest of the movie follows their budding bromance for each other.

Let’s get something straight, this is a guy movie.  No it’s not testosterone filled with lame fart jokes (although there is a very funny “fart” scene) and abundant T&A, instead guys will relate more to it because everything here is from the male perspective.  The beauty of it is director John Hamburg balances the laughs for everyone, although there will be parts meant just for the guys.  While Rudd and Segel are the stars, it’s the supporting cast and cameos that drew the most laughs for me.  Most memorable would be Thomas Lennon (Lt. Dangle from Reno 911!), whose performance as a gay character is hilarious.  The always cool Jon Favreau plays the asshole we never clicked with but are forced to associate with them because our female counterparts are best friends.  Face it guys, we’ve all come across one of those at one point of our lives. 

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Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li (Theaters)

street_fighter_the_legend_of_chun_li_ver3Let’s be honest, when we all heard a Street Fighter movie was being made back in the 90′s, gamers everywhere, myself included, rejoiced at the thought of Ryu and Ken shooting fireballs from their hands.   Or even M. Bison dishing out some psycho power.  Instead, we got the Muscles from Brussels as the American Guile,  a short Sagat played by an actor known for his Native American roots, a not-so-pretty Vega and Damian Chapa as Ken Masters?!  

The horrible dialogue and terrible fight sequences didn’t help the poor casting choice as it set the tone for future game-to-film flops.  You would think director Andrzej Bartkowiak at least saw the first film and did everything in his power to do the opposite.  That’s exactly what he did.  What did we get?  An even worse Street Fighter.  While the first film relied heavily on cramming in as much SF characters as possible, Bartkowiak took the discreet route by having only six characters in his film: Chun Li (Kristin Kreuk), M. Bison (Neil McDonaugh), Balrog (Michael Clarke Duncan), Charlie Nash (Chris Klein), Vega (Taboo of Black Eye Peas) and Gen (Robin Shou). 

Where the first film failed in character development due to the high number of SF characters, so did Bartkowiak’s six with the exception of it’s title character Chun Li.  Vega gets the worst of it as he’s only onscreen for a total of ten minutes! 

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Watchmen (Theaters)

When the Internet started buzzing about a film adaptation of the famed graphic novel Watchmen, I wasn’t totally excited because I’ve never even heard of it.   But after seeing the official teaser trailer, I was immediately hooked.  Not because of the cool looking blue guy or the Batman looking wannabe, but it was the line spoken at the end ” the world will look up and shout save us, and I’ll whisper no.” 

My curiosity led me to an alternate reality set in the year 1985, where President Nixon has served multiple consecutive terms, the U.S. has won the Vietnam war and superheroes exist.  The Cold War turns real bitter as the U.S.S.R races to stockpile as much nuclear weapons for an inevitable showdown with the U.S.  The Doomsday Clock is set at 5 minutes to midnight, inching closer to worldwide destruction.  After reading the closing lines of Alan Moore’s masterpiece, I became an immediate fan.  My expectations were at an all time high entering the theater, and based on the numerous TV spots and trailers I was optimistic of the end result.  Did Zack Snyder’s film live up to the hype? 

The story begins with the brutal murder of Eddie Blake a.k.a. the Comedian, a former Watchmen.  Walter Kovacs a.k.a. Rorschach, a former comrade of the Comedian investigates his murder and believes to have uncovered a plot to kill “masks” or former superheroes.  Rorschach sets about warning his former colleagues, who assist him with finding the “mask killer”.

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