Reviews
Huo bing feng lin du (1974)
An enjoyable romp in 1970s Kung Fu style
While it is certainly not a masterpiece when compared with modern films like ¨Crouching Tiger¨, ¨Duel at Forest¨ (aka Forest Duel) is a very enjoyable Martial Arts movie in the 1970s style. The plot will be familiar to fans of the old Hollywood westerns of Randolph Scott et al even down to the hero riding off into the sunset at the end! For me this merely added to the enjoyment.
The leading actor (named as Wen Chiang Lung on the Australian DVD version I own) cuts a fine brooding figure as an ex-convict who arrives home to find his girl has married a rich loser and just about everyone else wants to beat him up. Hsu Feng plays the feisty daughter of the man he accidentally killed and proves no slouch herself in handling the many fights that litter the movie. In fact my only criticism of the film is the excessive number of fight scenes that crop up ever few minutes. I suspect that some slower scenes may have been edited out to cut down on translation and dubbing (I may be wrong of course).
Overall though I thoroughly enjoyed the film and look forward to watching it again.
Havoc (2005)
Great movie about first impressions that starts with a bad one!
"Havoc" is definitely one of the best low-budget American movies I have seen for some time. I'm not saying that it is an out-and-out masterpiece but it certainly beats most of the Hollywood efforts I have seen in the past couple of years by some distance. I'm sure that, had it been a European production, it would have received a lot more accolades than brickbats.
Although the film has simplistic plot-line about rich kids getting into trouble on the "wrong side of the tracks", this is just the backbone upon which director Barbara Koppel hangs an astute study of false impressions. In some cases these false impressions are created deliberately as in rich soft white kids pretending to be hardened gangsta rappers. At other times they are born of prejudice and misunderstandings.
There is a wonderful scene early in the film when Allison (Anne Hathaway) walks around the kitchen of her home reading the post-its that her parents have left for each other. In those few brief moments we are given an insightful impression (yes that word again) of her totally dysfunctional family while later on, when they bail her out of jail, they appear to be the perfect concerned parents.
The film is very much a vehicle for Hathaway and she carries out her responsibilities with aplomb. Her performance is well worthy of the DVD "Best Actress" award that she received for it.
The much talked about nudity is neither excessive nor exploitative and would probably not even be mentioned if this was a film from outside of the USA. What we do see is totally in keeping with the story and, if anything, the motel room scene involving Emily (Bijou Phillips) is rather tame.
The only major fault with the film is the director's brave (foolhardy?) decision to begin with a scene containing appallingly bad dialogue and wooden acting. This gives (ironically) the false impression that we are about to see a particularly bad hip-hop movie. This is a deliberate part of the story rather than a reflection of the script and the actors. The fact that the scene includes a student capturing these antics on video should be enough to alert the viewer to this fact but, judging from many comments and reviews, this seems to have passed many people by (including some so-called professional critics). Perhaps this is one case where non-linear storytelling would have helped the film.
The final climactic scene is highly unusual (close to being unique I would say) and certainly leaves you thinking.
Don't be surprised if this film turns out to considered something of a classic at some time in the future.
The Brown Bunny (2003)
After this your holiday video will seem like a masterpiece
Ever been on a car journey where the kids keep asking "Are we there yet"? Well, watch this movie and you'll understand exactly how they feel.
About 2/3rds of the film is alternating views of a driver (Vincent Gallo) and the views through the windscreen as he heads across America. To be fair, he does sometimes stop to refuel or say the occasional few taciturn words to girls. He even washes his face quite a few times! Everything is done "real time" as Gallo obviously doesn't understand the meaning of the word "edit".
Finally, he meets up with a former girl-friend for some explicit oral sex, after which there is a simple short story told in flashback. Then it's back to the road.
This would have been a fairly interesting 15-minute short but terminal boredom sets in long before the story gets underway. The biggest surprise is how an actress of Chloe Sevigny's quality was talked into performing fellatio on-screen. She must have thought the film had some artistic merit but sadly she was wrong.
Sarah's Child (1994)
Overlong "Twighlight Zone"-style story
This is a very pedestrian production of what could have been an interesting story. The way it is presented might have worked for a "Twilight Zone" style TV show but just drags and drags as a feature film. Even so it does keep you watching to the end to find out exactly what is going on. Incidentally, the DVD version I watched was obviously copied direct from a video source using cheap software. Picture quality was VHS standard and the soundtrack kept slipping out of sync. On the other hand it only cost the equivalent of $1.50 so I wasn't expecting much. There are some nice locations - the producers clearly took full advantage of tax breaks and subsidies - it's difficult to see how they would have raised the money otherwise. Not as terrible a film as some reviewers would have you believe but I'm sure their are better ones that haven't made it to DVD yet (even at bargain basement prices).
Chin gei bin (2003)
A fun Eastern twist on a Buffy/Angel theme
A vampire prince falls for a human girl, unaware that her brother is a famous vampire hunter. That's the underlying theme of this martial arts romp which borrows ideas from "Underworld" and "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" but manages to maintain a style of its own. I was bemused by the UK and Hong Kong title "The Twins Effect" as there are no twins involved in the story. It turns out that the two main female characters are played by Hong Kong pop stars who perform as "The Twins". Don't let this put you off. These girls can act (at least well enough for this type of film) and add a lot of charm to the proceedings. Jackie Chan turns up for a couple of cameo appearances adding a dash of his own brand of slapstick mayhem to the proceedings. All in all this is great fun for those who like their vampires served up with a helping of tongue-in-cheek humour.
21 Grams (2003)
Art-house editing can't disguise a turkey!
It says a lot about this film that at one point I was suddenly reminded of Ed Wood's "Plan 8 From Outer Space". I'm referring to the scene when Cristina (Naomi Watts) decides to look for Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro). Done in "silent movie" style with an organ music soundtrack it was just like the Bela Lugosi scenes from "Plan 9". The only thing lacking was Cresswell's deathless voice-over.
Actually, that was probably the most enjoyable part of the movie. Although the director tries (and succeeds at times) to reproduce the look and feel of "Amores Perros" the style doesn't sit well with the story. Not that the story is tragically interesting in the first place, as far as it's possible to judge anyway. In any case it seems that the film-makers had so little faith in it that they opted for a bizarre editing scheme that presents the plot in what seems like a random order to try and add a little interest. Sadly this only makes things worse.
Okay, the acting is , for the most part , good - though a little over-wrought at times. The visuals are striking (but we've seen them before in Inarritu's previous film) so it's difficult to see how this film got so many awards. A classic example of "The Emporer's New Clothes" perhaps?
Junk: Shiryô-gari (2000)
Enjoyable but not terribly original addition to the zombie genre
This is not one of those eerie Japanese thrillers like "Ringu" but rather a typical zombie flick. If you enjoy films like "Dawn of the Dead" and more specifically "From Dusk Till Dawn" you will undoubtedly enjoy this.
Their is definite Tarantino feel to this production about a heist that goes wrong and the meeting up in an abandoned warehouse. The twist is that the warehouse is full of zombies, inactive at first but - well you can guess the rest. Film buffs will no doubt enjoy the irony of an Asian film taking inspiration from "Reservoir Dogs" which itself was inspired by earlier Asian film.
Miwa Yanagizawa makes a very gory but sexy Zombie Queen and we don't see enough of her - no I'll rephrase that - we don't see her often enough in the film. Otherwise this is an enjoyable but not terribly original addition to the zombie genre.
Revenge in the House of Usher (1983)
Can a movie really be this bad?
When I first tried to watch this film I fell asleep THREE times inside the first 15 minutes! Now this was late at night so I tried again during daylight and, with the aid of a large bag of chewy caramels, managed to make my way to the end. At that point I wondered just how much of a masochist I am.
Apart from the sections "borrowed" from an earlier film by the same director(which was enjoyable in a camp so-bad-it's-good kind of way)there is absolutely nothing of any entertainment value here. Bad is too good a word to use to describe it.
If anyone wants to run a course on how not to make a movie I would recommend this as the main text. Otherwise avoid like the plague!
Out of Bounds (2003)
A timid approach spoils a promising thriller
The headmistress of an all-girl boarding school discovers her art-teacher husband is having an affair with a pupil. The husband disappears leaving his wife and the girl alone in the rambling old-school buildings during a school break.On paper this sounds like a good premise for a creepy thriller. In reality what we get is a series of unlikely killings, red-herrings a-plenty and an uneven tone that never pulls the viewer in to the story.
The biggest problem is the timid, anaemic direction for which writer Merlin Ward himself must take the blame. This is clearly a case of failing to identify the target audience. Is this an afternoon TV movie or a late-night thriller? In trying to hedge his bets Ward misses both targets. Clearly frightened of "Lolita" comparisons, he has Sophia Myles portray the schoolgirl at the heart of the story as the blandest of blondes. In similar vain, he makes only the merest of hints as to why headmistress Veronica Van Huet (an otherwise excellent performance by Sophie Ward) would not have had the girl expelled immediately.
The ending piles on the unlikely events thick and fast but fails to provide a satisfying explanation for them.
In truth it's probably not as bad as I've made it sound, but it is unsatisfying to see a missed opportunity to make a better movie. If only the Coen Brothers had been in charge this could have been a first-rate black comedy.
Pieces of April (2003)
A totally charming piece of cinema
Peter Hedges takes the old sitcom standby of a daughter trying to
cook a special dinner for her family and uses it brilliantly as the
backbone to a story examining the real nature of love and
friendship.
April is a twenty-one year-old white girl from a middle-class
background who is estranged from her family and has a love-hate
relationship with her ultra-critical mother (more hate-love in fact).
When she invites the whole family to a thanksgiving meal she
neglects to tell them that she lives in a run-down apartment
building, she can't cook and that she has a live-in boyfriend who
happens to be a black guy. To make matters worse her stove
breaks down and she is forced to rely on the kindness of
strangers to get the meal ready in time.
This is a beautifully judged mix of wry comedy and understated
sentimentality which reminded me of the work of the fine British
screenwriter Jack Rosenthal. I sat enchanted from start to finish.
Memory Run (1995)
The kind of movie that gives sci-fi a bad name
There's a decent enough slice of science fiction lurking somewhere in this story but it's well hidden in a low budget TV standard shoot-em-up production.
The fact that the director felt it necessary to supply 3 screens-worth of background information at the start demonstrates that he doesn't have a lot of faith in the quality of the screenplay. Lots of machine guns and explosions punctuate the unimaginative dialogue. The actors do their best but they don't have a lot to work with.
The film does have its moments and from time to time begins to develop relationships between the characters, but the director seems determined to keep rushing on to the next unremarkable action sequence instead of allowing the viewer any kind of emotional engagement.
Big Fish (2003)
Beautifully made, well-acted but just plain boring.
Okay, it must be me!
Every one else seems to think this film is great but I thought it was
awful. Beautifully made, well-acted but just plain boring.
I like the idea of the tale-telling father and the son who just doesn't
get what his father is all about. Unfortunately, the stories the father
tells all seem to be pale imitations of fairy-tales, all show and no
substance. True fairy-tales have a darkness at their heart, fables
have a moral. The stories shown here just seem to exist simply to
provide the opportunity for nice visuals.
As a time-filler for the under-tens this is fine but as a great
movie...?
Like I said, it must be me!
White Oleander (2002)
Superb performances in a memorable film.
A teenage girl is dragged through a series of foster homes and
orphanages after her mother is jailed for murder. It sounds like a
pretty turgid scenario but turns out to be a totally engrossing
movie. I would certainly list this as one of the best dramas I have
seen in recent years. Alison Lohman is superb as Astrid, capturing the character's
chameleon-like personality perfectly. She is able to imbue the part
with both the fragility and resilience necessary to make the story
work. There are excellent performances all round from the other cast
members too, especially Michelle Pfeiffer and Renee Zelwegger.
And, just in case no-one else has mentioned it, full marks to the
senior cast members for allowing Ms Lohman to take the leading
credit in the opening titles. Any one of them could have easily
pulled rank to move their own name up the order so it's a credit to
their professionalism that they did not do so.
If you're a fan of character-driven movies this is a must-see.
Antitrust (2001)
A rework of "The Net" but Ryan Phillipe is no Sandra Bullock
The evil boss of a vast computer empire (who happens to look just
like Bill Gates) enlists the services of a teenage super-techie Milo
Hoffman (Ryan Phillippe) to help him in his final step towards
world domination. But Milo is not so much of a nerd that he would
fail to notice the underhand things going on.
Aside from the opening premise, this is a techno conspiracy
thriller pretty much along the lines of "The Net", including the "let
the whole world know" ending. But Phillipe's character doesn't
have the charisma that Sandra Bullock did in her film.
It's enjoyable enough but fails to live up to its potential. We are
given tantalising glimpses of back-stories that might explain why
some of the minor characters go along with the conspiracy.
Unfortunately, these come mainly from computer screen read-outs
(not the most inspiring way of providing exposition) and then get
virtually ignored anyway. Most of the twists are signalled well in
advance and some of the dialogue is extremely clumsy.
I'm still trying to work out what purpose Rachel Leigh Cook's
character served. Despite second billing, she does little more than
make an occasional "rabbit-in-the headlights" face. Maybe her
decent scenes ended up on the cutting-room floor.
The film really hits its stride towards the end when it switches to a
straightforward race against time. Not a great movie but
reasonable enough light entertainment.
Dreamcatcher (2003)
Most dreams are more logical than this
A group of schoolboys defend an autistic youngster from bullies
and then grow up to be a bunch of self-centered misogynists with
psychic powers. A re-union camping trip goes disastrously wrong
and the gang find themselves in the middle of an alien invasion.
This movie borrows shamelessly from films like The Shining,
Alien, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Cabin Fever and even
Bambi (!) but fails to import anything resembling a logical plot. To
make matters worse it has a seemingly endless supply of clunky,
expositional dialogue - even monologue - as the characters
constantly try (unsuccessfully) to explain the storyline. I have to
admit that by the time act three came around I'd gone well past
incredulity and was in fits of laughter. If only the Monty Python team
had been involved this could have been a great production.
Reform School Girl (1994)
An enjoyable genre romp
You might expect a made-for-TV remake of a 1950's exploitation flick to be a camp spoof but instead it turns out to be a rather enjoyable, if simplistic, prison movie.
The tone is little uneven, with some of the older actors playing up the melodrama while the younger cast members take it all seriously, but the result is an enjoyable genre romp. Pre-Friends Matt LeBlanc plays the bad-boy teen Vince who leads innocent schoolgirl Donna (Aimee Graham) astray and gives an insight to how his career might have developed if he hadn't been forever entwined with the character of Joey. The most surprising aspect is the tender lesbian love scene between Donna and Carmen (Teresa DiSpina). Fairly explicit and very erotic it is the outstanding scene in the film and totally unexpected in a US TV drama.
It's is true to say to say that the story is fairly shallow and trite but this is pulp fiction not Shakespeare and the film is never less than entertaining. This review is based on the version aired on UK television with a running time of around 6 minutes less than the 85 minutes shown at IMDb.
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Much slower than Vol 1 but a satisfying conclusion to the story
Kill Bill Vol 1 was an out-and-out comic book romp, full of violence but always with tongue firmly in cheek. The violence count is severely reduced in Vol 2 but arguably more disturbing. The big difference is that Vol 2 is about the characters rather than the action. Here we begin to find out who these people really are and that, despite there penchant for assassination, they are real flesh-and-blood human beings. The result is that expectations of another high-speed violence-fest are dashed but the seemingly chaotic events of the first film finally get explained. The pace slackens quite markedly towards the end causing an audible amount of fidgeting in the theatre where I viewed it but sitting it out to the end is well worthwhile. As before, Tarantino presents the story in a variety of film styles, my particular favorite being the black-and-white Film Noir that opens the movie. I'd love to see Tarantino do a whole movie in this style but I'm not sure his attention-span would last that long.
Thirteen (2003)
A (literally) shaky start leads into a fine drama
The movie starts out like amateur night at MTV - all hand-held zooming, panning and shaky sick-making imagery set to a thumping beat - interspersed with snatches of pure expositional dialogue. The temptation to hit the stop button on the DVD player was high but I resisted it - just. Once the chaos died down the film turned out to be a gripping and involving drama with great performances all round. Based loosely on events that actually happened to co-writer and actress Nikki Reed it provides a telling insight into the chaotic life of many modern day adolescents. The real-life basis for the film is both its strength and its weakness. Real life doesn't have neat beginnings and endings or easily recognisable "cause and effect" and neither does this film.
We end up not really knowing what caused Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) to go off the rails, whether Evie (Reed) is really a "Poison Ivy" style bad apple or a mixed-up abused child or what direction their lives will eventually take. As a drama-documentary it works well but as a story it leaves the viewer somewhat unsatisfied. Nonetheless, leaving aside the opening, it is a well-made movie and definitely worth viewing.
Deal of a Lifetime (1999)
Pleasant, undemanding comedy that could have been better
A reasonable retelling of "Faust" as a high-school comedy, the film is let down a little by a low budget and inexperienced director. It works well in parts, but there are occasional scenes which quite clearly don't work. One example - when the devil's agent (Kevin Pollack) is disguised as an ice-cream man he "scares" away some kids by throwing what looks like a few scraps of paper at them! Without the luxury of re-shoots, scenes like that needed either some imaginative work in post-production or someone brave enough to leave them on the cutting room floor. Instead, they are left in and undermine the good work elsewhere.
Overall it's a enjoyable family comedy with good performances from the main cast. Shiri Appleby looks suitably stunning as the object of Michael Goorjian's affections and does a good job of making more of the role than the script gives her.
The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003)
Watchable but it should have been better - SPOILERS
I've never seen Project Greenlight but I do know about screenwriting so I can only assume that the script that won the contest was a hugely different affair to the one that made it to the screen. Either that or the other 9000-plus entries were real turkeys!
The story is totally unfocussed, switching between stories of high-school rivalries, domestic discord, and unrequited love with little or nothing to connect them. I read that Shia LaBeouf is considered to be a future star and he gets the lion's share of screen time as the lead character, Kelly. Unfortunately Kelly is a self-centered and boorish young man who disses his parents, his teachers and his adoring female friend with no regard for their feelings. We are supposed to like him though because he is the victim of a school bully. Getting our sympathy for such a character was always going to be hard and LaBeouf fails to pull this off.
Considering the quality of the supporting cast,and the involvement of Affleck and Damon, I was expecting a much better movie than this. The film is not actually bad and there are some good performances, but the whole thing just doesn't hang together. The final twist that reveals why Kelly has resisted the romantic advances of Sarah (Shiri Appleby) comes completely out of the blue - a cardinal sin in all the writing classes I've attended. It sounds like a hastily thought-up excuse for a happy ending.
Ironically, the final scene it sets up is actually the best part of the film with LaBeouf and Appleby clowning around sweetly like real young lovers.
This review is based on the Region one DVD release. As the film runs for a bare 79 minutes I was expecting some interesting extras on the DVD but there are none (apart from some previews).
Poor show Miramax!