Revenge of the Green Dragons

Title: Revenge of the Green Dragons

Director:  Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo

Released:  2014

Starring: Ray Liotta, Justin Chon, Shuya Chang, Harry Shum, Jr. Kevin Wu, Billy Magnussen, Eugenia Yuan,

Plot: Childhood friends Sonny (Chon) and Steven  (Wu) are recuited by the local Chinatown gang “The Green Dragons” as they soon move up the ranks as the journey into adulthood in 1980’s New York.

Review: Yet another film based on an article (see also Pain and Gain / The Bling Ring) going into this one I was optimistic especially seeing how Andrew Lau most memorably gave us the fantastic “Infernal Affairs” trilogy which Martin Scorsese appearing here on executive producer duties adapted into his inferior yet still Oscar winning “The Departed”. An Oscar I personally felt was more for his career than the film itself with this involvement in this film perhaps being his way of thanking Lau for essentially giving him his first Best Director Oscar which as will soon become clear might be the only reason he’d want to attach himself to this film as sadly this is not a good example of either directors work, as Lau here making his second attempt to break into the Western studio system after his forgettable previous attempt with “The Flock” back in 2007. Instead what we get here instead is essentially the Triad version of “Goodfellas” as seemingly every triad cliché is thrown into the film.

Opening to Sonny and Steven as they are recruited as kids to join the Green Dragons, who are also one of the top five gangs in New York though its hard to see how this recruitment works, seeing how they are shown being chased and beaten up by the baseball jacket favouring members before suddenly becoming gang members while age certainly doesn’t seem to be for the gang as the boys are soon sent out on their first hit on a rival gang leader despite still being young boys.

Needless to say things don’t get any better for the film as it stumbles from one random plot thread to the next, with neither of our leads doing anything to really warm themselves to the audience or even make us care about their plight which really only seems to stretch as far as the gang trying to get to that next level. As to be expected this is all accomplished through gratuitous violence, macho gun play and more off putting a thankfully none to explicit gang rape of the wife and daughter of a rival ganger leader holding out on the location of his funds.

The cast are all passible enough in their roles with Leonard Wu in particular coming off especially memorable as the Dragon’s masochistic leader Chen I. Chung who thinks nothing off kidnapping, torturing and butchering a rival gang leader. Elsewhere Eugenia Yuan is wasted as the people smuggler Snakehead Mama and one of the few characters I wish had been developed further much like the two young detectives who are introduced seemingly to only highlight how little the local police department cares about the triad violence and local Asian population.  Ray Liotta meanwhile is more of a glorified cameo and whose role could easily have been cut out of the film while making you wonder if he was included to provide anything other than star power to sell to the film much to western audiences who’d more than likely skip over this film otherwise.

Despite the short runtime this one was a grind to get through, perhaps because I was expecting more than just another triad thriller and even on that level there are certainly better films such as Lau’s own “Young and Dangerous” series which essentially do what we get here better and certainly more enjoyably.

Life Itself

Title: Life Itself

Director: Steve James
Released: 2014

Plot: Documentary charting the life and death of legendry film critic Roger Ebert

Review: On April 4, 2013 a dark shadow was cast over the film critic community as Roger Ebert lost his 11-year battle with cancer. Ebert was seen by many of us as a titan of the critic community and while I might have written off his relevance at during the early years of this blog it would be after I saw how he championed smaller and lesser seen movies like “Welcome tothe Dollhouse” that I finally got the importance of his work and realised that he was not another mainstream critic simply reviewing movies, but rather a man who truly loved films and saw his critical work as a way to share this love with others and perhaps encourage people to view films in ways they might not have otherwise seen them.

Director James who previously gave us the basketball documentary “Hoop Dreams” here crafts a touching tribute to the life and ultimately death of the legendry critic as he was still filming right up until Ebert’s death. Ebert and his wife seemingly give him here seemingly unlimited access to their lives as well as home movies and photographs to craft a truly full picture of his life, starting from his early writing assignments with his university paper the “Daily Illini” were he also served as the editor before starting his role as a film critic for the “Chicago Sun-Times” which in turn would lead to his now legendry partnership with Gene Siskel.

Narrated by a spot on impersonation by voice artist Stephen Stanton reading passages from Ebert’s autobiography from which the film takes its name, the film is guided by these passages while being added onto by interviews with his friends, family and more surprisingly only a handful of director interviews with Martin Scorsese being the biggest named of these directors to appear and this might be more down to the fact that he is one of the executive producers, but as always makes a warm and welcome contribution to film, aswell as highlighting the contribution Ebert made to his career revival with his contributions to the promotion of “Raging Bull”. On the other end of the scale we also have directors Ava DuVernay (I Will Follow) who shares memories of meeting Ebert as a child and meeting him years later when she made her directorial debut. Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart) equally shares a number of happy memories, while seemingly also appears to have had a mentor and apprentice relationship, with Ebert clearly having held out hopes of big things for Bahrani’s career from some of the stories he shares, while scenes of him visiting Ebert in the hospital show a friendship much deeper than critic and film maker.

Needless to say the most interesting parts of the documentary revolve around his professional rivalry and unique friendship he had with Siskel. While the question as to how much of their rivalry was for show still hangs in the air, it is clear from the interviews with those closest to them that they held a level of respect for each other, with Marlene Siskel really nailing it when she quotes her late husband as saying

“He was an arsehole, but he was my arsehole”

Ebert’s quotes from his memoir do also outline much like the well-publicised footage of them finally finding in religion something they can finally agree on that while they might have had their disagreements on screen that off screen they shared many moments he held dear. What is clear though here though as it was then is that both clearly relished the fact that both could give as good as the other.

Equally interesting here though are the sections surrounding Siskel and Ebert constantly promoting the smaller and frequently less seen films, something that Ebert continued to do through his website which would become the home of his critic work for the latter end of his career. The example of this kind of promotion given here though is the Errol Morris documentary “Gates of Heaven” which they managed to sneak onto their show three times. Sadly though this is really the only example given, with the likes of “Dark City” for which he contributed a commentary strangely not even being mentioned which I found to be one of the more frustrating aspects of the documentary much like how his work on Russ Meyer’s “Beyond the Valley of Dolls” is only really glanced with no mention of the adopted father figure he found in Meyer’s thanks to a shared love of large breasted ladies, as highlighted in the Meyer’s biography “Big Bosoms and Square Jaws”. At the same time these things are more of a minor concern if you knew they existed in the first place….so sorry for giving you that irritation I guess.

Ultimately this is both a touching and moving tribute to the life and work of the great man and one which fans will not be left disappointed by, especially as it trades a star studded interview list to craft a truly intimate portrait, especially when the gaps are filled by his wife Chaz whose extensive interview footage ensuring that that this really as complete a profile of the man as possible and an ultimate tribute to the staggering body of work he left us.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Title: The Wolf of Wall Street
Director: Martin Scorsese
Released: 2013
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kye Chandler, Rob Reiner, Joanna Lumley, P.J. Byrne

Plot: In the mid-1990s, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) and the rest of his associates from brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont became the very definition of excess and debauchery, their offices a boiler room fueled by cocaine and greed. High pressure sales tactic and less-than-legal behind-the-scenes manipulation bred plenty of twenty-something millionaires, and Belfort built himself an empire at the top of the heap. This the story of his rise and fall.



Review: So Oscar season is upon us again and this year sees one of the most mixed fields that we have seen in a while, aswell as one which has caused much debate amongst pundits with many favouring “12 Years a Slave” for “Best Film” or “2 hours of shame” as its has come to known by some critics, while some have gone as far as to dismiss it as pretentious tosh.  As for myself as much as I enjoyed “Her” I believe that this will be the film to watch.

Gordon Gecko proclaimed “Greed Is Good” in Oliver Stone’s classic “Wall Street” and now 27 years later it seems that nothing has changed apart from here greed isn’t so much good, but rather bloody divine as Martin Scorsese gives us the surprisingly true story of stockbroker Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio), charting his rise as wealthy stockbroker through to his inevitable fall which resulted in him serving a 36 month stint in prison for defrauding investors.  Of course such falls from grace have frequently been a favourite theme for Scorsese and while the focus of those films has larger been on the mafia and their various devious activities, it could still be argued as to if there really is much difference between their activities and the ones seen being portrayed by these white collar crooks.

Based on the Belfort’s autobiography of the same name, the film has the unique honour of being the only Oscar nominated picture to open with a spirited round of dwarf tossing! Still from here we go back to Jordan’s first day on Wall St, as a fresh faced and aspiring stock broker in training and showing none of his deviant tenancies which come to dominate him in the years which follow. Such dark temptations though soon start to raise their head when a lunch with his boss (a spirited if brief appearance by Matthew McConaughey) whose questionable advice of frequent masturbation and cocaine use barely has time to sink in before Black Monday hits and Jordan career is reduced to selling penny stocks with a Long Island boiler room. It is from here though that he begins to build his new empire with best friend Donnie (Jonah Hill), while recruiting his friends from their own pot dealing and small time schemes to form his own company as he moulds them in his own sales aggressive image. Of course as the company begins to grow and Jordan and his friends soon have more money than they know what to do with, all the while trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities in particular FBI Agent Denham (Chandler) who is constantly waiting for Jordan to slip to.

A fascinating if cautionary tale of greed and the pursuit of wealth, it is one which truly suits Scorsese’s visual style , especially when Jordan celebrates each successful week on the market by throwing the kind of the parties which put even Caligulia to shame with their levels of depraved behaviour, while handing out cash to anyone willing to humiliate themselves for the amusement of himself and his team, as memorably seen in one seen were he pays one female employee to shave her head.  It is however it is Jordon’s gradual corruption which provide the most interesting moments, especially after he separates from his first wife, who seemingly is his sole moral anchor especially when he only amps up his bad behaviour after they separate, while his new wife Naomi (Margot Robbie) is seemingly only happy to support her husband’s vices as long as he keeps her in good life.
It is of course a downward spiral of self-destruction and greed which Scorsese documents in great detail, while only further credit to his talents that he can still pull off what is essentially three hours of douche porn. True this is a daunting prospect to face going into this film, but honestly the first two hours really fly by with the film only slowing down during its final hour as the net around Jordon slowly begins to draw itself in, while Jordon chooses to frequent ignore advise being given to him in favour of ploughing on regardless of the cost. Disappointingly though for the length of the film, the actual trial and sentencing when Jordon is eventually caught seems surprisingly brief unlike the time he spends charting the Jordon’s rise and actions which lead to his inevitable fall.

Once again it is an astounding cast which Scorsese has assembled here, which again isn’t surprising when you consider the master director level he is still working at, it essentially gives him carte blance when it comes to his casting choices, which might explain why he gives key cameos to fellow directors Rob Rainer, Spike Jonze and Jon Favreau, let alone the surprising appearance of Joanna Lumley.  Equally at the same time a number of actors eager to work with Scorsese dropped pay grades in particular Jonah Hill, who made only $60,000 (the lowest rate allowed by the Screen Actors Guild for his amount of work) something made him a steal for the great supporting performance he gives here and one which rightly has earned him a “Best Supporting Actor” nod as he continues to move away from his frat boy humour routes as becomes recognised more for his acting ability than from just being the tubby sidekick.

This however is clearly DiCaprio’s film as he is front and centre throughout the film, while also serving as the narrator a role which is not limited to just a voice over at frequently and often at random Jordon breaks the forth wall to address the audience directly while Scorsese ensures that such tricks constantly hold the audience’s attention. However real credit has to be given to DiCaprio has certainly come a long way from his Teen heartthrob days, something which it could be argued is largely thanks to being mentored by Scorsese, with this film now marking their fifth collaboration. Here though he manages to make even a despicable asshole like Jordon strangely likeable even as he screws over nearly everyone around him.  Of course with his character being shown in such poor light it only makes it all the more surprising that the real life Jordon Belfort signed off on the film, while also serving as DiCaprio’s onset advisor for several of the films key scenes. Considering that DiCaprio has also been chasing the role since 2007, beating Brad Pitt / Paramount Pictures in the bidding war for the rights to the book. Unquestionably the work DiCaprio puts into this film pays off as he makes for a strong ringleader to this circus of greed and depravity while further highlighting the strength of his partnership with Scorsese.

A fascinating film and one certainly fitting of these financially focused times; it only reinforces the fact that Scorsese is still one of the few consistently great directors currently working today, while at the same time certainly bringing his distinctive style to the film. A strong contender for the best picture Oscar, this is one of the few nominated films which lives up to its hype.