nix (at) beyondhollywood.com : Editor, Webmaster, and Contributing Writer at BH. Likes: Movie news, opinions, suggestions. Dislikes: Emails about how much I suck for making fun of your favoritest movie/comic book/actor/director in the whole wide world. Thank you, have a nice day.

Expiration (2003) Movie Review

In my neverending quest to give back to the world, I offer this advice: When leaving a Note of Utmost Importance to your pregnant girlfriend, who is sleeping it off inside your parked car, it’s a good idea to leave the note inside the car instead of outside wedged underneath the windshield wipers....

September 16th, 2003 | Read More

Princess Blade (2001) Movie Review

It’s probably wise not to expect too much from a movie based on a manga comic book, or even if it has that manga-inspired feel to it. The Japanese action movie “Versus” and the Hong Kong film “A Man Called Hero” prove this notion out. Maybe in their original forms (if one...

September 15th, 2003 | Read More

The Mission (1999) Movie Review

If 1999’s “The Mission” proves anything, it’s that filmmaker Johnnie To is better as a solo filmmaker than he ever was when working with frequent collaborator Ka-Fai Wong, whose presence on a Johnnie To movie has led to some unmitigated disasters in a number of genres. Working...

September 15th, 2003 | Read More

Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision (2003) Movie Review

It’s always been my contention that the reason Time Travel movies are such a niche genre (with the exception of the “Terminator” movies, which has defied the parameters of the genre and become something completely different) is the inherent problems associated with making films about...

September 11th, 2003 | Read More

Jake 2.0: Pilot (2003) TV Review

Think of it as “The Six Million Dollar Gen-X’er”. The premise is simple: Jake Foley (Christopher Gorham) works for the National Security Agency as a tech support guy, but he dreams of being a “real” agent and working in the field. Trouble is, Jake is not all that physically...

September 10th, 2003 | Read More

Beast Cops (1998) Movie Review

“Beast Cops” cleaned up the hardware in its native Hong Kong’s annual movie awards in 1998. The film was highly acclaimed by the critics and was, most importantly, a box office hit. The screenplay is by Gordon Chan and Hing-Ka Chan, with Chan (“2000 A.D.”) and Dante Lam...

September 9th, 2003 | Read More

Try Seventeen aka All I Want (2003) Movie Review

“Try Seventeen” (aka “All I Want”) could most definitely have been better, but it’s restrained by a lot of things, one of which is the need to be too mainstream. It’s a crowd pleaser, with an attractive cast and a screenplay that is more witty than bland — all...

September 6th, 2003 | Read More

My Life as McDull (2001) Movie Review

If there’s one thing I can fault “My Life as McDull” for, it’s that the movie, running at a scant 70 minutes, gets perhaps a bit too somber toward the end. While there’s no doubt that the movie’s original creators (and screenwriters) Alice Mak and Brian Tse have more...

September 4th, 2003 | Read More

Cypher (2002) Movie Review

The best part of Vincenzo Natali’s “Cypher” was trying to guess the plot twists of Brian King’s screenplay before they were revealed. I will admit that the script fooled me a number of times, including the final twist, which I thought I had uncovered 30 minutes before the final...

September 3rd, 2003 | Read More

Wrong Turn (2003) Movie Review

“Wrong Turn” benefits from a big budget, which allows it to be more competent than usual for films in its genre. Essentially a Teen Slasher, with 3 inbred hillbillies in lieu of a masked psychopath, “Wrong Turn” runs 80 minutes long and that’s being a bit generous. It’s...

September 2nd, 2003 | Read More

The Hulk (2003) Movie Review

“The Hulk” is probably the best comic book adaptation of 2003, which is unofficially the Year of the Superheroes. What “The Hulk” has going for it is a sure hand by director Ang Lee and two outstanding leads in Australian newcomer Eric Bana (”The Nugget”) and longtime...

September 1st, 2003 | Read More

Nikos the Impaler (2003) Movie Review

When a film opens with the titular character getting gutted by a sword, his insides spilling out, and then the character grabbing his own intestines and taking a big juicy bite, the viewer has two options: stop or keep watching. If you choose to keep watching after this 5-minute opening sequence, then...

August 31st, 2003 | Read More

Helen of Troy (2003) Mini-Series TV Review

As if channeling the oracle Cassandra, screenwriter Ronnie Kern (who I suspect is a woman, but I could be wrong) must have known he/she was in for some backlash by people who spent their bored days pouring over Homer’s epics, because the movie opens with narration that informs us what we’re...

August 30th, 2003 | Read More

Tube (2004) Movie Review

Two things about “Tube”: In the beginning, during a shootout at the airport, just ignore the fact that you never see anyone reload, even though there are enough bullets flying back and forth to arm the entire Iraqi army. (Actually, I only saw a character reload once in the entire movie.)...

August 28th, 2003 | Read More

Finding Nemo (2003) Movie Review

Let me confess that American-made animation is not the type of thing I go out of my way to see, since most movies always seem to be adaptations of other Disney movies, only with different characters and different songs. I hate singing cartoon characters. Then Disney surprised me with “Lilo and...

August 27th, 2003 | Read More

Army of Darkness: Official “Bootleg” Version (1993) Movie Review

Sam Raimi’s “Army of Darkness” (aka “Evil Dead 3 “, aka “Bruce Campbell vs. Army of the Dead”), is a low-budget film with a big budget. What that means is, despite having a big budget and guaranteed international release, “Army of Darkness” is approached...

August 27th, 2003 | Read More

Asian Charlie’s Angels (2001) Movie Review

Here’s the odd thing: most of Christy Chung’s co-stars record their dialogue using sync sound, but only Chung’s dialogue is entirely dubbed from beginning to end! It would be interesting to find out why this is the case. I’ve seen Chung in numerous non-Chinese films, like the...

August 27th, 2003 | Read More

Ripley’s Game (2002) Movie Review

A few years ago a movie called “The Talented Mr. Ripley” came out starring Matt Damon (”The Bourne Identity”). It was the first adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name. Highsmith wrote 5 installments in the Ripley series, aging her main character, the homicidal...

August 25th, 2003 | Read More

Counterstrike (2003) Movie Review

Here’s the thing: I really don’t care that the filmmakers of “Counterstrike” decided to make the President of the United States a woman, but why in the world does the President dress like a plain housewife? You’d think that going to a historical summit with her Chinese counterpart...

August 25th, 2003 | Read More

The New Option (2002) Movie Review

“The New Option” is more police drama than an action movie. If one were to excise the film’s only gunbattle, which closes out the movie, the film would be devoid of any gunplay. And besides the matriculating of new recruits to join the elite SDU unit (the Hong Kong police’s version...

August 24th, 2003 | Read More