Weekend Movies

On DVD, first Fearless staring Jet Li. A solid martial arts film with an equally solid nationalist message embedded in it. It is based, loosely, on the life of Huo Yuanjia who the founded the Jin Wu Sports Federation. Interesting that it is his Japanese opponent is the one that is the most honorable of his foreign foes. Lots of good fight scenes but a rather pedestrian plot. My Grade: C

Then, Architecture of Doom, a documentary about the Nazi design aesthetic. Very interesting, making excellent use of archival footage, though, instead of focusing on that, the last third of the movie descends into a blow by blow of the fall of the Nazi regime and the obligatory "this is why the Nazis were bad" rote. I would like to have seen more of the Nazi architecture and some information of the Todt Organization (which was entirely ignored). Though it did have an interesting insight (paraphrased), "That the Nazis sought to purify and beautiful the world through violence." My Grade: C/C+