xGary Xx (garyX)

When a contract killer accidentally blinds a nightclub singer, he takes on one last job in order to pay for an operation to restore her sight but his employer is less than willing to let him retire. John Woo's international breakthrough film, The Killer explores his favourite subjects of honour, loyalty, and revenge. It's pure XY pleasing male bonding and excessive gunplay and to be honest, it's showing its age a little. His penchant for heavy handed sentiment is clearly in evidence (although it's nowhere near as cloying as it was in A Better Tomorrow) and the dialogue is clumsy and repetitive; in fact when Danny Lee is describing Chow for a composite picture he sounds like he's in love! But let's face it, this film is all about the action and Woo's trademark "heroic bloodshed" is as thrilling as always, the slow motion acrobatics, duffel bags full of firearms and exploding masonry will be familiar to anyone who has seen everything from The Matrix and beyond. Hardly the height of subtlety and sophistication, but it's still a stylish and exciting throwback to the days of 80s machismo.

C.I.A. operative Leonardo DiCaprio enlists the help of the Jordanian secret service to locate the leader of a terrorist cell responsible for bombings in Europe. Being a massive fan of Ridley Scott, I always have very high expectations for his films and this was no different. Unfortunately what you get is more James Bond than Syriana, the depth and insight into the political situation in the Middle East sorely lacking, the film underneath being more a straight cold war style espionage thriller. I did like the way it showed the parallel between DiCaprio's handler and the terrorist leader as two sides of the same coin; each arrogant egoists with no understanding of or respect for their adversary or their culture, using their "followers" as disposable pawns in their own little power games. It's certainly very solidly made, with decent performances, quality visuals and an intelligent plot, but as with Vietnam, I think we will have to wait til the conflict has ended before we see any truly worthwhile cinema about the subject, at least from Hollywood.

The best movie ever made. End of.

Daesu Oh is a drunk and a philanderer, but otherwise a fairly typical husband and father. That is until one day he is kidnapped and imprisoned in a cell for 15 years with only a TV set for company and no word of explanation. One day he wakes up on the outside with only a wallet and a phone, and he sets out on a single-minded quest to find out why he was imprisoned and extract bloody vengeance on those responsible. The second part of the Vengeance Trilogy by Chan-wook Park, Oldboy is a bizarre and brilliant film. It constantly wrong foots you and messes with your perceptions, and contains the kind of revelation that makes the kind of so-called plot "twists" of most films look gimmicky and inane. This is the kind of film that blows you away and makes you realise you've been watching the WHOLE THING from the wrong standpoint. As for Min-sik Choi's performance, astonishing is the only word for it...the way such intense emotions and motivations are constantly shifting without ever feeling contrived or forced is just spellbinding. It combines art and extreme violence in a way that reminded me of A Clockwork Orange, but BETTER. It's also stylistically on the same level as Fight Club and is absolutely riveting from beginning to end. A totally flawless modern masterpiece.