松 竹梅（生花五個條之一）

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Movie, 2017)

The first movie was original and entertaining. We enjoyed this sequel comedy. Elton was a hoot.  However, The language in this movie was straight out of the gutter, way too much cussing.

Despicable Me 3 (Movie, 2017)

I really liked the first two but this one fell flat. Minions started out as good comic relief in the first two movies and established a cult following, even among adults. Problem is, with their simple minds and goofy language, they can only be funny for so long before they just become parodies of themselves. 

Spider-Man: Homecoming (Movie, 2017)

The movie was for grade-school children. It was not like or even close to the other Spider-man movies. The acting and plot were the worst I've seen in years. Even the specials effects were lame.  To treat Spider-Man as a boy going through puberty is just dumb.

Magnolia

Atomic Blonde (Movie, 2017)

As special agent Lorraine Broughton, Charlize doesn't only destroy her enemies, but plays this intriguing lady with so much charm. This movie has a convoluted plot, plus lousy audio being hard to discern the words. In addition, I cannot buy off on the premise of a 120 pounds woman single-handed beating up 6 men in hand-to-hand combat.

Camellia & Wintersweet at Huntington Library

Birth of the Dragon (Movie, 2017)

The best fight scene resides in this movie with Bruce Lee, the Legend - icon, Sifu and Master Sifu Wong Jack Man where they fought in an empty warehouse. They both looked like fire and smoke while they danced and fought beautifully. 

This movie shows a plausible spark for Bruce Lee's need to go beyond his Wing Chung style roots and into the spirit of Jeet Kun Do. It wasn't bad for a totally fictional story of the late Bruce Lee. 

Alien: Covenant (Movie, 2017)

Expect that we're getting another prequel movie after its predecessor of "Prometheus" and before the original classic. It admittedly did not bring much of anything new to the series, and was fueled by some of the story cliches started by "Aliens". 

Oddly enough, people doing incredible stupid things just so they could die. 

Flower arrangement works

 Moribana

xXx: Return of Xander Cage (Movie, 2017)

Xander Cage is all wisecracks, tattoos, and ego.  It's the third XXX franchise. What made XXX such a great movie was it's 007 feeling.

Donnie Yen is always good. However, this new crew that Xander brings in to work with just comes out of nowhere. The stunts are great though.

Transformers: The Last Knight (Movie, 2017)

This movie is a true mess and nothing flows properly.  It just seems to get worse every movie they make. The story was dull and has no identity. They squeeze so many things in there like King Arthur, Merlin, Stonehenge, and other unnecessary events. All the transformers are acting inconsistently silly.

New year's kick off!

Free Style

芳華 (youth) 電影 (2017)

碎片式的情節，符號化的年代，流水賬的青春。

馮小剛與嚴歌苓，對文工團的感情是相反的。如果一部電影要靠畫外音旁白推動情節，灌輸情緒，這電影基本上好不到哪裡去。

嚴歌苓的主題是懺悔：懺悔對弱者何小曼的欺侮，懺悔批鬥劉峰時自己因受環境挾迫未能避免落井下石，也“追責”了那個因為嫉妒而主動睡了蕭穂子男朋友的郝淑雯。上海書展嚴歌苓在活動上公開說過，這些情節都是有原型的。

純粹馮小剛式的，只是取用了嚴歌苓提供的若干人設和情節，然後用溫柔的情懷包裹起來，向自己已逝的青春獻上的一束花圈。嚴歌苓在原著中最重要的批判和懺悔被拋棄了。