Sunrise, Ivanhoe, & Twin Warriors

Sunrise is F.W. Murnau's excellent part of the stereotypically evil dark haired ladies attempting to destroy the blond virginal women who have the love of the men genre of movies. Too bad about that, although it really was a little early for it to be so horribly cliched. That aspect of the movie is unfortunate, since the technical aspect of it is so outstanding, especially the camera movement and the superimpositions. This is the reason why silent films are still worth watching, because they so frequently are the reason for the camera tricks we take for granted today.

Ivanhoe is fun, but not history at all. It's also strange to see George Sanders as the evil knight, since I normally think of him as the talker who helps the hero save the day. I probably would have enjoyed it more with him as the hero, but eh, stupid Hollywood usually doesn't know what to do with most actors. I guess I should have been rooting for Joan Fontaine to get Ivanhoe, but, as a Jew, I was rooting for Elizabeth Taylor. And I would have rooted harder if it wasn't for the fact that, as a Jew, she was doomed to have an unhappy ending. Beh.

Twin Warriors was very enjoyable, once you got past the fact that the version I saw was dubbed. Beh. Why couldn't it have been subtitled? The dubbers were horrendous. The fight choreography was outstanding, mainly due to Yuen Woo-ping, and as good as Jet Li was, Michelle Yeoh was outstanding. She was, in my opinion, the reason to see the film. Yeah, Li's fights were good, especially the scene in the monastery, but that fight devolved into slapstick too much. Yeoh's fights were much better. I just wish that the movie was not dubbed. So terrible. And I would have preferred the original title of Tai-Chi Master. Makes more sense than Twin Warriors, unless you can't tell the difference between Jet Li and Siu-hou Chin.