New York, I Love You

Per my wife's request, we went to see this movie over the weekend. Well, what can I say about this movie?......I'm not a professional film critic, I think this movie is ok....but not great. I can be a much better movie and it is not bad by all means. I've mixed feeling of this movie.

First of all, this movie composed of 11 short films, none of them longer than 11 minutes. It's supposed to be sequel of another movie which has nothing to do with the story, but the overall premise which is about people and stories about a big city. Last one was in Paris and this one is in NYC. I've been NYC, this movie doesn't film NYC at its best. Yes, some directors put few seconds of Statue of Liberty, Empire Building, Grand Central, Time Square, etc in their movie. However, no story in the movie is really about NYC. Except the scenes about the cabs, and the openiness, multi-ethic side of it. As such, this movie is really about people.

Out of those 11 stories, some of them are good, but most of them are so-so. The good thing is that we did get surprised by some well-written ones, but they don't last, and vice versa. Anyway, as this movie is not an 'effect' movie, so it is all about the performance of actors in those short stories, and how to portrait their characters and dialog in those few minutes. I would say that out of all the stars that I could recognize in those stories, Maggie Q and Ethan Hawke did jump out among all. Probably it has to do with the well dialog written of their story about a writer and a call-girl. I also like the other story about prom night of the teenage guy with the wheelchair girl. Cos, these two stories are the most funny ones. For the others, most of them are kinda so-so. Another part that I would say is my favorite in that movie gotta be the soundtrack. The music match every story very well.

Well, that's my two cents about this movie. It is not bad, but not great either. I heard that the third and fourth one for this movie series are in the work. Not sure if I will see them, well, I guess that doesn't matter neither....