When you look through the list of accolades that writer, director, and producer David E. Talbert has received, you can’t help but be a little impressed with the playwright who is working his way to the big screen.  Once you win an award that labels you best playwright, there is a certain standard that you should be held to with the works that follow, and if I were to simply judge his talent based upon how A Fool and His Money turned out, well, best playwright wouldn’t be a label I’d be throwing around.

There is a lot to like about the first half of this production; though the down-on-their luck family may feel a bit stereo typical, it’s hard to not relate to this family that is struggling, especially in today’s economic climate.  The father is working hard to keep a roof over his family’s head and steer his children in the right direction so they can have a better life than he does.  But no matter how hard he tries, it just never seems to be enough.  To help make ends meet their son has been skipping out on school to work, but this has caused his grades to slip which means he’ll have to quit the job to focus more on school.  The daughter though is seeing a guy that that the mother disapproves of, but her father seems to be okay with him because he believes the guy is taking good care of his little girl, but of course the mother sees the boyfriend for what he really is but just can’t seem to change her daughter’s mind.  Already we have plenty of drama, when the father loses his job and the bills are already piled so high that his marriage is at a breaking point.

When the History channel isn’t busy churning out reality shows, they manage to indulge the history enthusiasts with a fresh new documentary to tide us over.  Granted I’m an obsessed fan of Swamp People and Brad Meltzer’s: Decoded, but what gets me most excited is when they bring out a new documentary.  (I’m a history geek in case you haven’t figured it out.) So when I got the chance to check out Titanic at 100: Mystery Solved, I happily put this in my DVD player.

After the success of James Cameron’s Titanic the world was flooded with several TV movies and documentaries that told the story of what happened the morning of April 15^th 1912 in the Atlantic, so I will spare you the details.

One look at the DVD case for Life Without Principle and you would get the impression that this would be your average run-of-the-mill Hong Kong action film.  This couldn’t be any more misleading.  I understand the companies need to make money, and the easiest way to do this is to make up some cover art with guns, fire, and a masked many with money flung in the air seems the way to go, but in the process it does this film and the audience a disservice.  So please, if you are expecting an action-packed bullet-ridden spectacle I apologize, but you need to look elsewhere.  But for those willing to sit back and watch a solid thriller about greed and corruption you are in for a treat.

Director Johnnie To is as much a staple to Hong Kong cinema as Martin Scorsese is to American cinema.  For those unfamiliar with To’s work I would recommend checking out some of his better known titles like Election, PTU, and Vengeance to see some great modern Hong Kong cinema that action fans will have a lot of fun with.   He’s a filmmaker that has a broad cinematic canvas that gives each of his films a unique style, but somehow while watching it you know you’re watching  a To film.