Simon's Movie Reviews

One of the biggest pop culture events of 2018 so far has been the marriage of American actress Meghan Markle to Prince Harry of the British royal family. From what I casually glimpsed on the news (and on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver ) it looked like a beautiful ceremony, but one has to wonder if Meghan Markle really knows what she has gotten herself into. Given the scrutiny the royal family lives under, years from now the new duchess may want to do what Audrey Hepburn’s fictional princess does in the William Wyler classic Roman Holiday (1953) and run away for a day. When I found this movie on Netflix I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was for various reasons. For one it allows you to visit all of the tourist hotspots in Rome without having to get on airplane. Then there is the historical significance of this being Audrey Hepburn’s breakout role. I also liked the movie’s reminder that royals are, yes, just like us. Sure their jobs are outdated and some would argue us...

One thing I have noticed from the few Korean films I have seen so far is that Korean cinema really doesn’t hold back. One of that country’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful movie is Oldboy (2003), which has amazing performances, beautifully choreographed fight scenes and a story filled with many twists and turns. It also has plenty of scenes that will make you squirm whether because of graphic violence, very disturbing revelation, or because you prefer your calamari fried instead of alive. This was one of the last movies I rented from a video store in the pre-Netflix days in early 2009. By then its reputation had grown in the west especially since on top of the many awards it had won it had also earned high praise from Quentin Tarantino who knows a thing or two about violent and entertaining movies. On paper Oldboy ’s plot sounds like something right up his alley: a man is seemingly wronged by an adversary and that man then seeks bloody retribution. However ...