ABOUT TIME

THE PITCH

WORTH

$$$$$


THE VIEWING
"Lesson Number One: All the time traveling in the world can't make someone love you."

         It is a journey. By the time it was over I was spent.   Every high and low of love was not covered in the film but just about all was represented on a wide scope.  The thought of reliving every moment until it is perfect sounds exhausting. Even the very thought of time travel is preposterous, and you would think that would get in the way of a potentially solid story but it really didn't.  One may also predict time shifting and redoing the story each time would be annoying but it wasn't.  There came a time when you just accept it without questioning it.  In fact, there were so many times in the film where I forgot that he could do the impossible because of the near perfect direction of the picture…. The time travel was just a MacGuffin, the real story was told incredibly and beautifully.

     A good gauge would be Love Actually… If you loved that, you will love this. The negative side is if you thought Love Actually was too quirky, too long, boring or whatever… You still may enjoy About Time.  I found it to be on a faster pace. Plus it was a little more linear with only one story to tell as opposed to keeping up with 9 couples in Love Actually.  

    Excellent cast.  Bill Nighy is always good. Perfectly witty with impeccable timing and delivery. The marquee of a seasoned acTOR.

           Just a real pleasant movie all the way around.  Unpredictable, at least to me, because I went in not knowing anything about the film or having viewed any trailers/teasers for it. With the subject being love and the lesson being life, how could it not be worth the watch? Time being as priceless as it is, it is hard to imagine it better spent than watching this new favorite film.

      letter grade: A+ [the plus happened because I was pleasantly surprised]

The Grandmaster

THE PITCH

WORTH

$$$


THE VIEWING

"If life had no regrets it would be really boring."

I’ve enjoyed all 3 of the original Ip man movies so far.  That is why I became more than anxious to see this new rendition of the legend that trained Bruce Lee.  Not a bad film, but I prefer the original Ip Man movie that is now available for rental.

     The Grandmaster’s cinematography is at it’s best along with the martial arts choreography.  Every movement seemed to have incredible precision.  Masterful camera and editing work just fantastic to watch.  My only gripe is that it was more of a love story than anything else.  Normally, that would be a good thing but not for a martial arts movie.  I want to see fighting.  The threshold for sappiness in a martial Arts film would  be Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and even in there may have been too much artsy, lovey doviness… but  at least we had enough action to compensate for all of that. Here, not so much.

      I think it’s a good movie to watch, but you may want to wait for DVD.

      Worth the price of the admission simply because of the quality of the film. Marginally worth watching because your time is priceless and I feel like the original Ip man movies can suffice your need for Wing Chun/ Kung Fu fighting.

letter grade: B-