Movies
A pleasant mix of crime and dark comedy elements. The film takes a while to get going and the editing should've been a bit tighter, but decent performances, above average cinematography and a couple of interesting twists set this film apart from its peer. Definitely not an outstanding film, but as filler it's more than satisfactory.
The setup of No More Bets is interesting enough, but it quickly devolves into typical Chinese blockbuster drama antics. It doesn't help that it is based on a real case, which makes it even feel more sentimental. It would be nice if they'd be able to keep films like this a bit more genre, going a little easier on the drama. The performances aren't too bad though, and the story is pretty insane. But when it's just a couple of normal people fighting their oppressors, things become stale very quickly. The runtime is excessive and the second half isn't half as interesting, but at least the film has some decent moments.Read all
Chinese pep talk. I think this is the second Chinese blockbuster anthology made with a single goal in mind: make China look good on the silver screen. It's no surprise these film have started to pop up over there now that their local market is booming, they're simply copying Hollywood's playbook. China's most familiar actors (Bo Huang, You Ge, Baoqiang Wang, ...) are all present, the cinematography is nice and colorful and there are some quirky stories, but there's not enough variation, there's no grit and all the film offer the same self-boasting fuzzy feelgood nonsense. I hope this will be the end of it, but since these films are doing pretty well at the box office I doubt it very much.Read all