A Major Disappointment

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

I was really shocked when I heard the Lu Gang incident which happened when I wasn't born yet. If Lu Gang is still alive he would be in my Father's age. And I searched the photo of Lu.Those glasses and hair style looks just like those in my father's old black-and-white photos. He entered the top one university-Beijing university and then get the chance of studying abroad which is invested by the government and is extremely rare. You can't imagine how lucky he was to earn the opportunity. And of course, this need plenty of effort to beat others in the competition. Similarly, my Father had a "American dream". He took the abroad-study program test,too. He failed it. Believe me, I know how hard-working my dad is. In those days, entering the university means a bright future. Studying abroad means a even brighter future. Lu was the elite among the elite but ended up like a monster. "It is also based on my own experience" as the director said. 1980s was just the time China had went through the darkest era and the dream of communist became totally a joke. Young people found that there are everything they ever wanted in the country across the sea. Liu Xing brought his obsession with math and his dream of wining Nobel prize to a foreign land. When he was just one step to his success, the professor ended his dream. This movie is not only about American academia but also about the burst of "American dream" of my father's generation.

Not fully Realized Study of Academia and the Struggle for New Ideas entering the Prison Paradigm of Formalized Mainstream Thought. It's a Good Effort and it has a lot to offer but unfortunately, does Not Deliver Completely.The Enslavement of the Mind by Ego-Maniacal Professors in the Higher Educational System is Touched Upon here but Deserves far Deeper Exploration than what goes on here. Instead, We have two Subjects, the Cross Cultural Effort and the Impenetrable Intelligentsia. Each deserve a wider Venue. There just isn't enough Space for both to Co-Exist in this Little Film and its a Short Changed Display that Results are Unfulfilled.The Ending Suffers greatly, Betraying its Cerebral Dark Subject Matter.

Awful. Terrible. Depressing. Just appalling.After watching Dark Matter, the first thought that entered my head was "fail".This film, perhaps the worst ever seen, had all the right ingredients to produce a great film: a good story, a positive message and great cast. How it ended up being so awful is a mystery.A combination of strange characters, unnecessary sex-related scenes and a completely ludicrous ending do not make for a pleasant film. The film leaves the audience lost and completely unsatisfied.The only credit the film as is including the incredible Meryl Streep, the only pleasant aspect of the film. Her small role, however, struggles to make up for the rest of the film's flaws.Do not waste your time on this film. You have been warned.

Every now and then a movie comes along that is so bad somebody needs to pay. I was motivated to at least create an account here and warn others.This is a very dramatic movie. I'm very tolerant of dramatic, slow moving films. I often like them when few others do. But this stinker is the epitome of a slow moving, do nothing, say nothing movie. To complete the stink bomb, the ending is void of any redeeming value whatever.To reiterate - I'm very tolerant of off beat movies that most people don't like. There's nothing in this movie to like. No pithy lines, no stimulating interaction between characters; just non-thought provoking depression.I've seen plenty of movies that are just plain awful, but they're usually just silly or weird without merit. This one is in a class of it's own; it's disturbingly bad. Someone's gotta pay.