Dark Matter (2008)

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.

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.

BONDPONT sounds like he was Reiser's friend in real life in that he just claims the real person deserved to be aced out of a PhD but just says it. makes no cases, cites no evidence. Self promotion is no crime. BONdPONT did not demonstrate how GUNG LU was second best to what was portrayed in the film as a party line dude who did what Rieser and his own wife said to do.while no one should have been shot, the film clearly showed that some one did severe and unjustifiable damages to a budding theoretician. Killing His chances of developoing histheories because hewas not teamplayer buying reiser's soon to be discarded models.BONDPONTpontificates, never convinces.

Better at being thought provoking than entertaining in the strict sense of the word, the core of this movie is the conflict between two brilliant men in a high stakes, high power academic setting. One is the Chinese student of modest means, Liu Xing, who comes to the US to study under Reiser, the brilliant American professor, who expects Xing to support his theory as a graduate student. When he doesn't, things go very badly.The acting is superb across the board. The scenic shots are good, and while the characters tend to exude excessive sentimentality at times, especially Streep, the often vicious nature of competition in academia is captured superbly.The simplistic viewpoint is that Liu Xing publishes an article attacking Reiser's theory through naiveté. More likely, he was less naive than conceited, and when he lost the game his ego fractured and he raised the stakes.There is good timing throughout, although at times it drags a bit it never really gets boring. One of the better movies to see.BTW: There is no math and no theory in the movie. This is about the people, not the theories involved.