All these haters can suck a phatty

When word got out a new Romance of the Three Kingdoms movie was in production I was hyped up. Not only because I’m a fan of that specific period in Chinese history but also because it marked the return of John Woo to Hong Kong. The famed director of Face Off was returning to his roots. To the very same place where he gave us cult movies like, “The Killer” and “Hard Boiled”.

But Woo’s latest movie, Red Cliff, wasn’t about good cop vs bad cop. Nope. It was a historical piece set during the Han dynasty in the year 200. This nearly 5 hour movie was split up into two parts. In the first part we meet prime minister Cao Cao trying to convince the emperor to invade the southern lands. These lands belong to Liu Bei and Sun Quan. The two Southern forces are forced to work together if they wanna stand a chance to Cao Cao’s massive army.

And that’s the intro to a massive 30 minute epic battle scene.

It’s obvious why this movie ran over schedule and over budget, coming in at a reported “most expensive production ever in Asia” $80 million dollars. Woo goes a great length to explain every little detail. Thousands of extra’s in battle gear and awesome intricately choreographed strategic battles. There are three major battles, easily account for more than an hour of the film’s running time.

Fans of the ROTK period wil recognize the main characters and lead generals the moment they appear on screen. Woo gives us plenty of scenes where generals like Zhang Fei and Guan Yu just slaughter the enemy single handedly. And fans of kung-fu cinema will eat it all up.
Allthough the fight scenes are not shot in trademark Woo style. Sure there are some slow motion scenes here and there, but overal Woo really shows us the gritty side of ancient large-scale warfare.

Though the two movies have a runtime of more then 2 hours each you never get bored. Sure, there are some scenes that feel dragged out a bit but these scenes are the “oh so Chinese” moments.
The movie overflows with an all star asian cast. Led by Takeshi Kaneshiro as the great strategist Zhuge Liang and Tony Leung as Zhou Yu, the cast never dissapoints. Vicky Zhao does a great job, especially in the second part to bring some comic relief in the world of men and the war they wage.

As his return to Chinese cinema, Woo couldn’t have picked a better project. Red Cliff allows the Hong Kong director of gunfu to dabble in all of his trademark themes (brotherhood, loyalty, a resounding belief in fair play), while exploring new territory (the Chinese martial arts epic). With “Red Cliff”, John Woo has managed to re-invent himself as a director.

YESSIR!

It’s that time of the year again. The NBA Playoffs 2009 start this saturday and it’s promising to be a very exciting one. Some really intresting matchups.

Cavaliers vs Pistons
Everybody’s saying that the Pistons are done. Time to rebuild, trade or whatever. That might be the case, but right now, they’ll have a  series to play. People are quick to say “Cavs will sweep” but don’t count Detroit out just yet. While the I give the Cavs the advantage I expect Detroit to put up a good fight. This series might even go to seven games. (WUT?) Detroit is not what they used to be but I expect them to turn it up in the playoffs. They are still a very good defensive team without Chauncey. I don’t know the latest in the Iverson soap but even without him I expect Detroit to go hard.

Celtics vs Bulls
As I’m writing this post I hear about the news that Kevin Garnett might miss the playoffs. Huuuuuuge blow for the Celtics right there. Pierce and Allen might get The Celtics past Chicago but I think they’ll need the leadership of Garnett to make it back to the finals. Without Garnett The Celtics won’t have their best interor  and defensive player. Granted The Celtics did a great job this season when he was injured but I really can’t see the Celtics make it back to the finals right now. Too bad really, as a basketball fan you want every team going into the playoffs with a healthy roster.

Magic vs 76′ers
Nobody is gonna stop Superman this series. Dwight is gonna have a field day against Philly. Only chance Philly has is to play a really up-tempo game. Just run, run, run. A.I and Miller need to bring their A-game and Thad Young needs to step up like he did this season. But it doesn’t look good for the Sixers and I expect a sweep.

Hawks vs Heat
This is really a toss-up series. This could go either way. I can see D-Wade go crazy this series. He basically has to for the Heat to be serious contenders. The Hawks are looking real solid. Remember, they took Bosten to a seven games series last season. But the problem for the Hawks is: who do you put on Dwayne Wade? Put Joe Johnson on him and risk that Joe gets into early foul trouble? These are questions the Hawks will have to answer.

Lakers vs Jazz
Last season, people said the Lakers weren’t physical enough. Well, they’ll have a chance to get real physical this series against the Jazz. They’ll need to. Because Boozer and Milsap are gonna push, shove and hold all games long. There are gonna be technical fouls given every single game this series, book it. I don’t really give Utah a chance but the Lakers will have some tough times in Salt Lake. Oh yeah, before I forget. BYNUM’s back baby!!!!

Nuggets vs Hornets
This is a close one. I could see either team take this series. To me, the Hornets peaked last season. They haven’t looked good all season long. Scott just puts too much preasure on Paul. Now he has to distribute the ball AND score. That’s just too much. He can’t keep that up all Playoffs long. The other guys will have to step up.
The Nuggest got the second seed? Hold up, the Nuggets? Who woulda thought that. The Chauncey Billups deal really helped the Nuggets it getting a true point guard. Billups really stabilized that team. With the improved play of the Nuggets bench, they are looking real good.

Spurs vs Mavs
The Spurs are getting old. And it shows. Everybody was waiting for that ’second half of the season run’ the Spurs allways have. They kick it up after the all-star break and finish the season 34-6. Well not this time. Manu’s out for the season and Timmy isn’t feeling well. Still, I expect the Spurs to take this series. Nobody can stop Duncan in the post and Parker is gonna have  a monster series against Jason Kidd. Cuban must be furious again.

Blazers vs Rockets
Perhaps the most exciting matchup in the first round. Will the Rockets finally get out the first round? Are the Blazers letting the league know they can ball with the big boys now? Props to Nate McMillan for his job. He did a great job making all these guys play as a team. And with a legit superstar in Brandon Roy, and a somewhat big man with potential. (Oden) The Blazers future is looking really bright. The question is, will that future start in the 2009 playoffs, or not?

Last week April 1st. (No joke) The Westcoast Hiphop festival took place. And of course Mr. Cuzz was in attendance. The good homie Kay went along to represent the Dub. So after a dull trainride listening to some music to get in the mood I arive at A’dam central station. After hooking up with Kay (After about 15 tram rides and walking around the same block for about 20 minutes) we decided to grab something to eat. Not really familiar with the Amsterdam I let Kay lead the way. (I could make a witty comment right now but I won’t…)
Anyway, after the food, it was time to get down to the Melkweg. Again Kay leads the way. So after a tourist route through Amsterdam, including back alley’s, Rastafari’s trying to sell me homemade mixtapes (and Kay having a phonecall at that EXACT moment…) we arrive at the Melkweg.

It wasn’t really all that crowded yet and still had like an hour to kill before the show. Got some drinks. (2 drinks for € 8,00 is NOT cool. I could get like 3 bottles of coke, 5 Ice Tea and an asian girl on the side for that kinda money) At around 8.00 PM DJ Muggs kicked off the show with some old skool DJ’ing. The crowd wasn’t really into it and to be honest Muggs was kinda hit or miss on his most of his set. After that stuff it was time for the DPG to rock the stage and boy they did rock that shit. People were really into it. They played all the classics from Dogg Food, Doggystyle and some new stuff featured on their new album. The chronic smoke was in the air. You didn’t even have to smoke to get high.

The scene shifted from L.A to the Bay because it was time for Mr. Flamboyant himself E-40.  People were gettin hyphy and Forty Water had a nice set. Even invited some girls on stage to preform. Although some of the girls where more into sending text messages then E-40. Oh well. After Forty’s set it was time to go home. Unfortunately. So we missed the main acts like Xzibit and WC & Ice Cube. And I must say the sound quality was really horrible in comparison to the Ice Cube concert in 013, Tilburg. Maybe they added some extra bass or something but most of the songs were hard to follow.

Overall I would grade this show a solid 7. It was nice but could have been better. Probably would have graded the show higher if I saw Cube’s and Xzibit’s sets.