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Ran - R
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After a lifetime of conquest, ageing Lord Hidetora hands the reigns of power to his eldest son, but banishes his youngest when he questions the loyalty of his two brothers. When Hidetora is betrayed as Saburo predicted, he is left to wander the desolate lands his armies had ravaged in earlier times. Ran was the last of Kurosawa's great epics for which he was forced to seek financial backing outside of Japan where he was considered too old-fashioned. It is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear and was clearly a very personal project for him. Unlike Lear, Hidetora is shown as a man repenting his past crimes, and on his wandering is constantly reminded of the life of conquest and butchery he had led up until this point. In fact everyone involved whose interests are in power and material wealth inevitably meet a sticky end and only his victims are shown to achieve any kind of peace. It is impossible not to compare Ran with his earlier works, and because he was virtually blind by the time this film was made, it misses his keen eye for composition and photography; despite the epic scale and colourful costumery, I personally preferred his black and white photography of his classics. The sets and costumes are as epic as the themes and it avoids the sentiment of a lot of Kurosawa's work, but I found Tatsuya Nakadai's performance a little too ripe for my tastes, and is as theatrical as his rather severe make-up. On the other hand the most formidable personality is to be found in the shape of Lady Kaede played by Mieko Harada who, unlike the coquettish Lady Asaji Washizu of Throne Of Blood, is a strong willed and wily adversary whose role turns the entire chain of events on its head. My criticisms are only born of the incredibly high standard of the rest of Kurosawa's work, and by any other it is a majestic period drama full of lush imagery and dark themes that leaves a lasting impression.
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November 28, 2009
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N/A
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Taken - PG-13
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A retired ex-secret serviceman is trying to make amends with his estranged daughter when she is kidnapped in Paris by white slave traders. Taken is on paper a very straightforward, almost tired sounding idea that you've heard a thousand times before. It's an unpretentious action thriller that plays out like a revenge story, except there is a goal outside of vengeance; a father's unstoppable wish to protect his daughter from harm. The first 30 minutes is the usual predictable and slightly clumsy exposition, but once Neeson springs into action it becomes an altogether different beast. Neeson is not the kind of action hero who looks like he'd shy from a fight for the fear of mussing his hair. Instead we get an ageing Irish terminator cutting a swathe through the kind of evil bastards even a guilt-ridden white liberal such as myself feels a tingle of pleasure to see brutally disposed of. The appearance of Holly Valance is a little embarrassing and sits about as comfortably as pink frosting atop a T-bone steak and made me suspect that her agent beat the producer at cards the night before shooting but otherwise it does exactly what is says on the tin. Plotless in almost a pleasing way, this is kind of like James Bond going rogue except "this time it's personal"; there are no stereotypical terrorists threatening our fat cat white christian way of life, no shadowy conspiracies or megalomaniacs, just a single-minded feast of adrenaline fuelled action that I really enjoyed. One of my future guilty pleasures and no mistake...
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November 28, 2009
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N/A
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The Road - R
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November 27, 2009
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N/A
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The Yes Men - R
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Two self proclaimed activists impersonating representatives of the World Trade Organisation challenge accepted capitalist thinking in an attempt to set the world to rights. Or rather two smug middle class white American men stage a series of weak skits and juvenile parodies, claiming it "makes people think about the problems of the Third World" but in fact seems to be more about attention seeking and self-aggrandizement. Amongst their "hilarious" parodies are a lecture including a "management suit" which is a gold lame bodysuit with an enormous protuding phallus and a video showing a pipeline transporting the excrement of the west to create shit burgers for the Third World. Ho-de-ho. The main reason I can see for their audience not realizing that they're joking is because they display the level of wit of a ten year old and are just plain unfunny. They bother to produce some of the disturbing facts and figures of world capitalism at the very, very end but the rest of the film seems to concern itself solely with how "dangerous" and "heroic" THEY are. Whatever you think of Michael Moore's politics, his approach is invariably wittier, more insightful, more informative and most of all far more entertaining than this frat-style publicity seeking.
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November 27, 2009
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N/A
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Naked Killer (Chik loh go yeung) - R
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A young woman's botched attempt to kill the gangster who murdered her father leads to her being taken in by the leader of a ring of female assassins. The obvious selling point to this HK action movie upon its release was the promise of gratuitous nudity by the stunning Chingmy Yau and company, but the fact is the whole softcore porn element is really rather tame; the story is very exploitative (beautiful female assassins in various states of undress brutally dispatching evil, lecherous men) but it's actually rather technically accomplished for an exploitation flick. The action, particularly the Woo-style gun battles are well choreographed, it's all photographed quite attractively and there are some very nicely framed shots of pretty set design and sexy outfits with some nice use of colour. The plot is nonsense of course, but not much more ridiculous than the average action flick and the story has quite a romantic core at its centre. More live action manga than exploitation, it's a visually pleasing HK action film with plenty of eye candy that has dated surprisingly well.
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November 26, 2009
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N/A
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The Manchurian Candidate - R
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The captain of a recon patrol which went missing for three days in the deserts of Kuwait begins to question his own memories after a disturbing visit from one of his men. "Remake" is inevitably a dirty word in cinema but Jonathan "Silence Of The Lambs" Demme is no stranger to suspense, which along with a promising cast made this film a rather more interesting propostion than most Hollywood cash cows. In fact Demme's skillful build up of tension combined with Denzel's believable performance as a man who is hallucinating, possibly delusional and questioning his sanity makes for a very intriguing foundation to the story. It also chooses to avoid the usual laziness of most Hollywood thrillers by not including irrelevant gun battles and car chases, and has enough twists and turns to the plot to maintain the interest. It's a shame that the conclusion to the story doesn't live up to this initial promise, as the inclusion of hokey X-Files style technology and an increasingly preposterous plot is capped by an unsatisfying conclusion that feels like a half-hearted homage to The Dead Zone. Certainly not a complete waste of time, but a decent finale might have realized the superior conspiracy thriller this could've been.
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November 25, 2009
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N/A
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Fantastic Mr. Fox - PG
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November 25, 2009
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N/A
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Avatar - PG-13
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November 22, 2009
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N/A
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Star Trek - PG-13
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The classic 60s TV series gets a big budget re-boot and sees the original crew of the starship Enterprise come together for the first time. I was actually looking forward to this film as I grew up with Shatner and co and thought the time was right, especially considering the success of the BBCs recent re-boot of the British equivalent, Doctor Who. In fact a few years previously, Doctor Who went through a similar process starring Paul McGann, but this project was in retrospect a total misfire; although McGann made a perfectly adequate Doctor, the whole approach was wrong. Instead of trying to capture the essence of the show, it uneasily combined a load of hardcore fan-pleasing yet irrelevant continuity and dumbed down kiddie-pleasing action and special effects and it just didn't work. Star Trek makes EXACTLY the same mistakes. The first half is a constant stream of in jokes and references to the original series in a similar but more witless way to Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, just for the film to come up with an excuse to throw all of it out! The last half is a load of explosions and running around, linked by absurd coincidences and contrived situations. Pine plays Kirk like an oafish frat boy, Uhuru is just an R'nB ornament and the crew barely speak to each other to make way for Abrams pointless swirling camera work and breathless fast cuts. It's not all bad news; Zachary Quinto makes a fine Spock and provides all of the best moments, Karl Urban makes a surprisingly good McCoy and the opening sequence (which is by far the best part of the film) "feels" like Star Trek. But as a whole it pales compared to both Wrath Of Khan and First Contact. The nett result is something akin to a Saturday morning cartoon and frankly I don't think history will look kindly on this effort.
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November 20, 2009
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N/A
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Harry Brown - Unrated
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November 20, 2009
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N/A
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La Prima Linea (Front Line) - Unrated
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November 19, 2009
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N/A
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5 Fingers of Death (Tian xia di yi quan) - R
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November 18, 2009
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N/A
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Up in Smoke - R
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November 18, 2009
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N/A
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The Twilight Saga: New Moon - PG-13
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November 18, 2009
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N/A
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Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (Flesh for Frankenstein) - R
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I caught some of this on late night TV. Why on Earth would anyone want to sit through 90 minutes of the worst acting, worst direction and worst dialogue you have EVER seen to be rewarded by the sight of unconvincing rubber internal organs covered in scarlet poster paint...? Utter, utter garbage.
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November 18, 2009
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N/A
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Blood Diamond - R
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A fisherman caught up in the civil war of Sierra Leone reluctanctly teams up with an amoral smuggler to retrieve a precious stone in the hope that it will secure freedom for his family. Edward Zwick has made a career of making worthy adventure-with-a-message movies which have tended to be a cut above the usual Hollwood action blockbuster fodder, and Blood Diamond is very much in this tradition. Rather than a deeply insightful analysis of the political situation, it is more of a straight action adventure that uses the conflict as a colourful backdrop to the story. Not that it doesn't have any points to make; it highlights the cynical complicity of the West in the conflict diamond trade, and the "politics" of the warring factions whose ideologies extend no further than greedy and corrupt self interest. Zwick's penchant for dewy eyed sentimentality does rear its head towards the end of the film, but no more so than most other films of its type; personally my favourite moment was when Hounsou wordlessly eyed the absurdly ostentatious bauble that has been the cause of all his woes, destined for the necks of the idle rich in a jewelry store window. Not in the same league as the likes of The Killing Fields, but if you want something more in the way of rousing adventure rather than emotionally harrowing, this is a fine choice.
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November 14, 2009
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N/A
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Fireworks (Hana-bi) - Unrated
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An ex cop tries to spend time with his dying wife during her final days, but a Yakuza loan shark refuses to leave him in peace. A typically understated marriage of violence and poetry from Beat Takeshi, Hana Bi examines loss and mortality in a deeply personal way. It shares many of the themes of Sonatine, but is not as brutally nihilistic; there is much warmth in the often wordless scenes with his wife which have far more humanity than the contrived schmaltz we are used to from most mainstream film making. Takeshi's laconic persona is taken to the extreme in this film as he silently deals with the loss of his child, his wife's illness and his guilt over his suicidal ex-partner's crippling injury, although he still manages to find humour with the use of some oddball supporting characters. In other words another typically brilliant and artful Beat Takeshi film.
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November 14, 2009
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N/A
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Punch-Drunk Love - R
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An emotionally repressed salesman woos his sister's colleague but blackmailers from a phone sex line complicate matters. I hate Adam Sandler, I think he is the least funny man on the planet. I have been conned into watching his films in the past because of the talent associated (namely Anger Management featuring Jack Nicholson) and my opinion did not change. Here we have a film directed and written by the excellent Paul Thomas Anderson who was responsible for some brilliant films, not least of which the very funny Boogie Nights. Punch Drunk Love is not one of them; the only reason I knew that this was supposed to be a comedy is because it was written on the back of the DVD cover. When will film makers realise that weird does not automatically equal funny...? All of the characters in this were unbelievably annoying and unsymapthetic not least Sandler himself, there are no laughs WHATSOEVER, and it's a tediously boring, charmless chore to sit through. He has managed to go from one end of the bad comedy spectrum (puerile and adolescently unfunny) to the other (irritating and pretentiously unfunny) in one step. Never again Sandler. NEVER AGAIN.
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November 12, 2009
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N/A
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War, Inc. - R
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In the near future corporations rule the world rather than nation states and disputes are settled by a heavily armed "arbitrator" played by John Cusack. The combination of black comedy and extreme violence and the presence of the Cusacks and Dan Aykroyd will be familiar to anyone who has seen Grosse Point Blank. It's essentially a political satire, Turekistan being an obvious analogy for the events in the middle east; a kind of "Thank You For Smoking Guns". As political satire it has all the subtlety of a scud launcher, some of the physical comedy bordering on Zucker/Abrams territory, but it also has enough smart, witty and well observed dialogue to offend "patriots" everywhere and no doubt get everyone involved on the NSA's shitlist. The leads are all excellent, John and Marisa making a smart and sexy couple, Joan is hilarious as his company sidekick and Aykroyd once again supplies a memorable cameo. I couldn't help thinking it could've been a masterpiece if they'd shown a little more restraint, but the hit and miss comedy is on target far more often than off and it's nice to see an American comedy that's both intelligent and has something to say.
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November 10, 2009
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N/A
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Babylon A.D. - PG-13
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A mercenary in a distopian near future is employed to deliver a mysterious young woman to New York. Babylon AD plays out as a kind of Children Of Men meets Mad Max clone as Diesel does his usual laconic tough guy routine in the company of the impossibly cute Melanie Thierry and the ever watchably graceful Michelle Yeoh. In fact the slick visuals and entertaining action underpinned by an intriguingly enigmatic premise meant I was struggling to see why this film recieved such a savage pasting by the critics. And then it just...ends. No, ends is not the right word. It stops. No explanantions, no revelations. It just stops. Dead. In such a way that flew through the "Is that it?!" barrier, sailed over "WTF???" territory and lands firmly in "You've got to be f***ing kidding me." land. The fact that anyone involved in this project thought they could get away with releasing what amounts to nothing more than a sci-fi action clip show shows such an astonishing lack of respect for the intelligence of the viewing public it borders on contempt. Pure smoke and mirrors with absolutely NOTHING to back it up.
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November 10, 2009
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N/A
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The Killer (Dip huet seung hung) - Unrated
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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.
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November 5, 2009
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N/A
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Body of Lies - R
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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.
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November 5, 2009
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N/A
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Four Brothers - R
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A saintly old lady is executed during a liquor store hold up and her four foster sons reunite to hunt down her killers. Four Brothers is exactly the kind of braindead action thriller that holds extreme violence up as the answer to all of life's problems as we follow Marky Mark and co on their rampage through the streets of Detroit using nothing but their wits. And thuggery, torture and huge quantities of lead, of course. There is no character development, little meaningful dialogue and the testosterone fuelled mix of male bonding and dodgy sentimentality (the thanksgiving scene is one of the most cringeworthy things I have ever seen) belies quite a staggering lack of subtlety or sophistication, even by Hollywood action movie standards. Singleton throws in enough well handled action scenes to stave of boredom, but in the end it's just another meat-headed American Idiot pleaser.
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November 5, 2009
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N/A
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The Men Who Stare at Goats - R
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November 4, 2009
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N/A
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Dead Snow (Død snø) - Unrated
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Yet another in the old Norwegian-Nazi-zombies-on-a-mountain-top genre, Dod Sno starts really well with shocks and suspense right from the off, with brilliant use of the music from Peter And The Wolf. Then it settles down into the usual teenagers heading to a log cabin, to be picked off by an unseen menace to dodgy hard rock. Doh. The idea of Nazi zombies is irresistible to the point of being amazing that it hasn't been done before (not least by Tarantino!) Unfortunately it doesn't really run with the idea; the only way you know they're Nazis is because of their uniforms, and the fact that they think, run around and can be killed by conventional weapons means they aren't even proper zombies in the conventional movie sense. It does have some shocks, nice effects and occasionally inventive direction, and the snow covered setting makes it different enough to be worth a look but what it lacks is a sense of FUN. Instead it's just an excuse throw buckets of fake blood and guts around, and like Severance, for what is supposed to be a black comedy, it isn't particularly funny. A decent schlock horror film, but if the director had been a bit more concerned with invention than intestines it could've been so much more.
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November 4, 2009
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N/A
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15698 ratings
2125 reviews
