Stephen (Gweilo Ramblings / Eastern Kicks) and myself head to Thailand for the latest instalment of our introduction to Asian cinema which on this episode looks at possibly the most fabulous western ever "Tears of the Black Tiger". Download Music - Free Audio -
An Eastern Western which combines elements of romantic melodrama with John Woo style heroic gunplay and a Sam Peckinpah western to create something truly original
We also take a look at the career ofMeiko Kaji as well as the live action spectacle that is “Kaiju Big Battel” and their upcoming video game from “Super Walrus Games“
Starring: Milla
Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Kevin Durand, Sienna Guillory, Shawn
Roberts, Aryana Engineer, Oded Fehr, Colin Salmon, Johann Urb, Boris
Kodjoe, Li Bingbing
Plot: Picking up
directly after the end of “Resident Evil: Afterlife” Alice
(Jovovich) now finds herself captured by the Umbrella Corperation and
placed in an underwater facility which also doubles as a
demonstration ground for the effects of the T-Virus. Now Alice must
team up with the mysterious Ada Wong to escape the facility which is
now under the control of a recently reactivated “Red Queen”.
Review: Its
staggering to think at this point in the series that we are five
films deep in the franchise which at this point has also gone on its
own very unique path from the source material as we continue to
follow the journey of Alice in her battle against the Umbrella
Corporation and of course the zombie hordes created by the T-Virus.
Still just when we thought the series had already gone way off the
deep end Director Paul W. S. Anderson somehow manages to find a way
to top it.
Seeing how the
previous film ended on the fantastic cliffhanger of Alice on the deck
of of the Umbrella Tanker Arcadia as she stared down a squadron of
Umbrella Tiltrotors. Now half expecting the film to open with Alice
being captured what Anderson gives us instead is actually something
pretty special as we get to the events which transpired played out in
reverse slow motion which honestly only serves to make it all the
more impactful than if we’d seen it played out normally.
One of the strengths
of the series has always been Jovovich’s performance as Alice a
role she truly has made more and more her own with each film even
designing Alice’s outfits through her own fashion line. Here though
we get to see a new side to Alice as she finds herself waking up in a
suburban dream life complete with husband and deaf daughter Becky
(Engineer) only for dream to quickly turn into the same sort of
zombie nightmare we saw at the start of Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of
the Dead” remake. Here in lies the kicker for this instalment as
Alice finds herself in a facility made up of large scale remakes of
various cities such as Tokyo and New York which originally had been
designed as a way of selling the T-virus to various countries
replicating the rival country at the facility. This of course really
is just an excuse for Anderson to craft a series of large scale and
flamboyant action sequences as the film itself feels like one long
shoot out, especially with the plot moving at such a fast pace.
The action
throughout is great to look and while this entry perhaps features
more heroic gunplay than previous entries with the introduction of
Ada Wong here played note perfect by Li Bingbing whose performance
was surprisingly dubbed well by Sall Cahill but watching the film I
couldn’t tell . Ada as a character though is finally a character
able to stand toe to toe with Alice and to see them working together
in the film really was a thrill. Afterall why have one kickass lady
when you can have two.
Each of the settings
are unique enough to stand out and provides a decent change from
another round of post-apocalyptic wastelands or the sterile
facilities of the umbrella corporation. True none of it is shot with
seemingly the slightest concern for what is realistic or not but its
really hard to complain when its so much fun to have scenes such as a
high speed chase through a simulated Moscow or an army of zombie
soldiers. These scenes only being added to by Anderson’s visual
style which here once again works really well.
This facility setting for the film
also means we get to see the return of several characters such as
James (Salmon) and Rain (Rodriguez) who get to return to the series
as clones. Rodriguez in perticular getting to play two versions of
herself as we see her playing her Strike team persona from the first
film sent to hunt Alice and Ada aswell as the suburban version who
plays like the complete opposite as she acts openly shocked at the
idea of using guns. Yes I could have done without seeing Colin Salmon
again, but then I can pretty much do without seeing him in most
things., Rodriguez meanwhile is enjoyable as always and getting to
see the super powered version at the end was only an added treat.
For some reason
Anderson here also chooses to saddle Alice with a Deaf daughter, who
its explained early on is infact a clone from the suburban simulation
created to play her daughter. Of course knowing this Alice still
shows a mothers devotion to the child perhaps because Anderson
couldn’t find a way to morally justify dumping the kid without
turning her into a zombie kid. Maybe this was just another way of
working his obsession with James Cameron’s “Aliens” into the
film and creating his own version of Ripley and Newt. At the same
time you could also see the different settings the group travel
through as being a nod to “Westworld” which was also reportedly
another source of inspiration for the film.
Ending on another
tantalising cliffhanger with Alice having her superhuman abilities
restored and the sight of humanity making its last stand from the
grounds of the fortified White House. Say what you will about
Anderson as a director he really knows how to make an audience crave
that next instalment.
Starring: Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, Dan Hedaya, Vernon Wells, James
Olson, David Patrick Kelly, Alyssa Milano, Bill Duke,
Plot: Retired
Commando John Matrix (Schwarzenegger) has settled into an isolated
life with his daughter (Milano), only to find himself being forced to
carry out a political assassination when his daughter is kidnapped.
Now Matrix has eleven hours to rescue his daughter from her
kidnappers.
Review: Having
launched himself into the public conscious with the Conan movies and
“The Terminator” with this film we really started to the see the
foundations of the Arnie formula starting with his introduction in
this film consisting of close up shots of his muscular frame which
only seem to make everything seem bigger and more impressive than it
is. Even the chainsaw which looks pretty tiny when we see it, looks
like its 6 ft long in its vanity shot.
The opening shot of
Schwarzenegger carrying a log over his shoulder is such an iconic
shot and feels almost like the studio introducing a major star being introduced and it could
be considered so seeing how compared to the films which came before
it, it’s tonly very different with Schwarzenegger trading in the
sword and sorcery antics of his early films (Conan / Red Sonja) being changed out for one liners and heroic
gunplay which would become the foundation of the classic
Schwarzenegger movie formula. Its only on rewatching the film that
you also realise just how bonkers that opening title sequence is as
we go from shots of the all powerful, man of the earth to shots of
Matrix and his daughter getting ice cream and hand feeding a deer,
which while important to show the life that Matrix has made for
himself since his retirement from the special forces tonely is just
such a random switch.
The plot itself is
paper thin and really only serves to guide the audience from one
exciting moment to the next, especially when Matrix has to do very
little work to find his way to the villain Arius’s (Hedaya) hideout
on the fictional Val Verde which was also referenced in both
“Predator” and “Die Hard 2: Die Harder” which like this film
needed a Spanish speaking country like Cuba or Nicaragua but at the
same time wanting to avoid any potential diplomatic issues. Sadly the
film really lacks a defined villain so it ends up that the henchmen
here are actually more interesting than Arius with of course the most
key being Vernon Wells “Freddie Mercury on steroids” Bennett
another stone cold psycho as Wells channels the same kind of driven
intensity which made “Wez” in “Mad Max 2” such a memorable
villian, though the questionable fashion choices remain present as
here he trades in his ass-less chaps for a chain mail vest! His knife
fight with Schwarzenegger though at the finale is the stuff of action
movie legend.
Of course the
Arnie formula isn’t quite perfect at this point as Matrix is not only
shown as being the muscular badass but also capable to superhuman
feats of strength such as the ability to tear phone boxes out of the
ground or throw nine mall security guards through the air. The
strength element is always played down usually with Schwarzenegger’s
body size being more of a key element than any kind of strength.
These moments as a result end up being pretty jarring when they occur
though this film more than nails is the ridiculous elements of heroic
gun play which in turn would form the blueprint for the action movie
genre.
The action scenes
are unquestionably the best parts of the film and only build as the
film goes on from a hotel room fist fight with Bill Duke’s green
beret (he eats them for breakfast) hanging David Patrick Kelly (who
looks comically short throughout) off a cliff. The grand finale being
the now legendry shootout with Arius’s personal army which see’s
Matrix not only getting to pull out all the “War Toys” but also
fire countless bullets without ever having to reload but also find
something to turn into a weapon regardless of how cornered he appears
to be. The body count alone for this finale might be one of the
largest ever filmed.
The other noteworthy
aspect of this film and certainly its most overlooked come from Rae
Dawn Chong’s unlikely sidekick and air hostess Cindy who is
initially unwillingly coerced into helping Matrix get his daughter
back only to turn out to be surprisingly resourceful let alone
perhaps the first ever member of the “Girls with Rockets” club by
taking out a police truck with a rocket launcher. Why is it so rare
to see women firing rocket launchers or similar in films? Certainly
its a question which came to me when I was on the “Exploding Helicopter Podcast” discussing “Hard Ticket To Hawaii” and lead
to me creating a list on Letterboxd to log every film this happens
(feel free to name your ideas) so its safe to say thats this film
should also get a credit for being so forward thinking to have her
weld such a traditionally male weapon with just as much competence as
her male counterpart….even if she does initially have it the wrong
way around.
A fun side note is
that originally this film was going to have a sequel which would have
been a reworked version of “Die Hard” and seen Matrix being hired
to head up a security team at the big corporation were his daughter
is also working as a lawyer. Matrix would make up a team of the
toughest and most dangerous people he knows only for them to turn out
to be inline with the company he’s working for which is really just
a front for illegal arms deals. Matrix of course ending up to fight
through all the people he hired to rescue his daughter again which
sounds like a great plot but at the same time its hard to argue
against how “Die Hard” ultimately turned out. Who knows maybe
this will be the plot of “Expendables 4”
For mindless fun
this is unquestionably one of the key Schwarzenegger films and one
whose cult status has only increased in recent years. Here though we
get everything we want from an Arnie movie and while it might not be
perfect there enough mindless violence and action to make for the
perfect popcorn movie.
Starring:
James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas
Kretschmann, Common, Marc Warren, Konstantin Khabensky, Dato
Bakhtadze, Chris Pratt, Kristen Hager, Lorna Scott
Plot:
Wesley (McAvoy) is an office clerk in a dead end job, who discovers
that his recently murdered father was a member of an a group of
master assassins known as “The Fraternity”. Now he is offered a
chance to take his father’s place as they hunt for his father’s
killer.
Review:
After exploding onto the scene with his genre bending double header
of “Night Watch” and “Day Watch” which saw the forces of
light and dark battling in modern day Russia, it was only really a
matter of time before director Timur Bekmambetov got called up to
bring his unique and highly visual style to the Hollywood system,
even though he’d technically already made this back in 2001 with
the Roger Corman produced remake of “The Arena”.
Based
on the cult graphic novel by Mark Miller and J.G Jones of the same
name this is one comic book adaptation where its best to have no
connection to the source material which was set in a world where the
Supervillians had won their secret war with their superhero
counterparts leaving them free to run the world free from
interference. Sadly this was all scrapped from this film adaption
which was crafted instead as a project for Angelina Jolie who was
coming to the end of her contract with Paramount with plans for a
third “Tomb Raider” movie being stuck in development hell. Miller
though was happy with the end result, even remarking that the
previsualized footage had raised his expectation for the film
adaptation.
When
we meet Wesley at the start of the film he is your usual office
drone, being constantly beaten down by his overbearing boss popping
anti-anxiety meds for his panic attacks, while his girlfriend cheats
on him his supposed best friend Barry (Pratt). It’s clear he’s
going nowhere fast until his life is thrown into chaos by the arrival
of Fox (Jolie) especially as it comes with an accompanying pharmacy
shoot out and high speed chase with his father’s killer and fellow
assassin Cross (Kretschmann).
While
he might be far from the most likely candidate to be an assassin, it
seemingly doesn’t matter seeing how his father’s legacy soon has
him being recruited to take his place in “The Fraternity” lead by
Sloan (Freeman) and did I mention that they get their targets from
the mythical “Loom of Fate” which like the COG’s in “Minority
Report” identify targets before they have the chance to cause
create “Evil and Chaos”. An addition in this reworking that makes
me wonder how exactly anyone thought it was a logical idea but its
the one we are going with here, which is made only the more comical
by how seriously everyone seems to be playing things.
It’s
this crash course in assassin skills which makes up much of the first
half of the film and also where the film is the strongest as Wesley
learns marksmanship, hand to hand fighting and knife skills most of
which involves him having the living hell beaten out of him by his
fellow assassins. At the same time he also learns to tap into his
adrenaline to give him superhero levels of strength, perception and
speed. These later skills adding a surreal edge to the action as
Bekmambetov seemingly takes this as a cue to craft any kind of
bonkers and over the top action sequence he can think of. However once
we get into the pursuit of Cross the film kind of loses its way and
becomes a more traditional action thriller, if a totally over the top
one with a train based chase sequence and exploding rat based finale
ensuring that its still memorable even if the pacing isn’t as tight
as the first half.
McAvoy
is completely believable as both Wesley the office drone and the bad
ass assassin despite initially being turned down for the role due to
not having the traditional leading man look or build and while Ryan
Phillippe was considered for the role and no doubt would have been
equally interesting to see in the role, there is something so
likeably about McAvoy that you can’t help but cheer him on as he
finally snaps telling his boss what everyone actually thinks about
her, before smashing a keyboard across the face of his former best
friend as the displaced keys (and his tooth) spell out “Fuck You”.
Angelina Jolie meanwhile slips effortless into her action heroine
persona with the changes she brought to the character only adding to
Fox rather than detracting such as her now largely silent persona
through to the smaller details like the binary code list of targets
she has tattooed on her arm making it easy to forget the fact that in
the source material she looked more like Hallie Berry as its a role
she unquestionably owns here.
The
supporting cast are equally great thanks to the colourful characters
they play with Konstantin Khabensky making his English language debut
as “The Exterminator” reuniting with Bekmambetov after working on
both Night Watch and Day Watch together with Bekmambetov seeing his
casting as a way of having a familiar face on set and along with his
fellow Russian Dato Bakhtadze who plays the knife expert “The
Butcher” providing some of the best moments of the film, while both
Common and Marc Warren clearly seem to be relishing having more meaty
supporting roles than they are used to playing.
The
real star though here though are the action sequences which give zero
thought to their plausibility with Bekmambetov it could be argued
using ideas he had left over from Night / Day Watch only with none of
the supernatural elements to cover for this kind of randomness. That
being said there is something so fun about watching a car chase in
which a Porsche barrel rolls over a police blockade or watching Fox
and Wesley play a game of capture the flag on a moving train. Perhaps
because they are shot so care free and clearly within the confines of
this universe than any kind of reality its never a push to accept any
of this and just enjoy the ride. Shot with a mixture of crisp focus and gratuitous slow motion, while there might often be a lot happening in these actions scenes its easy at the same time to follow what's happening, while the ending might be the most gratuitous scene of gunplay since "Hard Boiled".
While
I might not have liked the film much on that original viewing, upon
returning to the film though I discovered that viewing it on its own
merits there is a pretty fun popcorn action flick to be found here in
the vein of “Shoot-em Up” or “XXX”. Yes it might not be the
most realistic of films but when its this much fun who really cares?
Director:Kevin Smith Released: 2011 Starring: Michael Angarano, Kyle
Gallner, Nicholas Braun, Michael Parks, John Goodman
Plot: Three horny teens Travis (Angarano), Jared (Gallner) and Billy Ray (Braun) who heads out to the countryside
to meet up with an older woman, who has invited them out with the
prospect of casual group sex, unaware they are being lured into a trap
by the local fundamentalist church, lead by the highly controversial
Pastor Abin Cooper (Parks). While attempting to escape one of
the boys a violent stand off between the FBI and the church is
triggered, with the boys now finding themselves caught in the middle as
they try to escaping the increasingly escalating situation, especially
with the church members refusing to go without a fight.
Review:Bursting onto the independent film circuit
with his debut film “Clerks”, Kevin Smith emerged as an exciting
new voice in independent cinema, with Smith soon developing a reputation
for films featuring clever dialogue and frequent pop culture
references, though despite his early films showing great promise, he
soon seemed to be selling out his writing talent for the easier laughs
of dick and fart jokes with many of his fanbase seeing the controversial
“Dogma” which poked fun at Catholism and Catholic Dogma as the
high water mark of his talent, especially with the films which followed
such as the underrated “Jersey Girl” frequently failing to hit
the same levels of humour as his earlier films. An option which was seemingly reinforced as the
humour seemingly started getting lazier as Smith began favouring toilet humour
over clever dialogue which had made his earlier films so memorable let
alone quotable to a whole generation of film fans. Now just as I had
given up on Smith actually making a film comparable to his early work
again, especially after seemingly hitting rock bottom with “Cop Out”, he goes and releases “Red State”, a film which is not only a
radical return to form for Smith, but also a bold change in direction as
it also marks Smith’s first supposed venture into the Horror genre.
“Red State” is almost like Smith returning to the same indie roots
from which he first emerged, with the film being made for 4 million his
lowest budget since “Chasing Amy” and it’s also without the
financial or distribution assistance of the Weinsteins who have
supported Smith’s career on nearly all of his films, with Smith taking up the duties of self distributing the film Stateside via travelling
roadshow, before releasing the film direct to DVD, citing it a response
to the costs spent by studios on advertising, yet it seems that he has
changed his mind for the UK release which has saw the film being
promoted via numerous TV spots and Phone Box advertising for a full
cinema release. When it comes to drawing comparisons Smith seems to be making it very
clear on were he is drawing his inspiration from, seemingly setting his
sights on infamous pastor Fred Phelps and the highly controversial
Westboro Baptist Church, who frequently cause controversy by picketing
the funerals of dead soldiers and gays, with the Phelps earning the
moniker of “America’s Most Hated Family” and seeing Michael Parks giving
passionate rants about the moral failings of America, it is hard to
dispute that Smith has created a character who embodies the hatred of
Fred Phelps, even though Smith has not openly admitted that the
character is supposed to be Phelps, stating that he instead represents “A Phelp(s) like figure”
aswell as that the film is about those same subjects, view points and
Phelps own position taking it to the absolute extreme and turning this
group of radical Christian into a bunch of gun hording and quick to
anger fundamentalists. Still this did not stop Wesboro picketing the
film, only to be greeted by a rival protest group comprising of Director
Smith and fans who also significantly outnumbered the Wesboro group. Despite starting out like a typical Smith esq plot and some mild
toilet humour, as the boys set out in pursuit of casual sex with an
older woman, it soon become alot more darker than anything we have
previously seen from Smith, especially with the church members treatment
of their captives, meanwhile the boys are soon pushed to the sidelines
around the halfway mark with Paster Cooper and the FBI’s Special Agent
Keenan (Goodman) stepping up to take over as the leads, which comes
as a surprise especially after building up the three young leads, but
when Goodman and Parks are responsible for the two strongest
performances in the film it’s hardly detrimental, with Goodman looking
to have lost alot of weight recently, but certainly none of his screen
presence, as he gives a largely shouty performance here, as he tries to
take control of the situation which continues to rapidly spiral out of
control. Meanwhile the rest of the characters are generally given the
bare bones of characterisation with the all of Cooper’s group being
generally of the same mind set and mainly provide targets for the FBI
agents, while the local police get slightly more attention with fun
characters such as the local sheriff desperately trying to cover for his
closeted homosexuality, which Pastor Cooper taunts him with to keep him
under his control. One of the main themes being examined here is the power of religion
and more importantly how it can be twisted to suit one man’s crusade, a
popular subject in recent years having so memorably been explored in “Martyrs” as it is here if perhaps not as so deeply especially with Smith
opting for an ending slightly less biblical then original planned one
which included giant armoured angels and the four horsemen of the
apocalipse all putting in an appearance. What is especially intresting here though is that Smith has clearly got over
his supposed fear of directing action, having stated in previous
interviews that he generally avoided it due to the amount of effort it
requires to direct such scenes, which only adds to the surprise here,
when essentially the second half of the film is one big shoot out
sequence, which will either make or break this film for you depends on
how much of an action fan you are, while also seemingly echoing the 1993
Waco Siege, while no doubt breaking the record for the largest amount
of shots fired in a single movie. Despite Smith claiming that this is a Horror movie it’s claim that is
way off the mark, for despite some elements of Horror and the setup in
the early half of the film, all of these element vanish as soon as it
turns into a siege movie, so anyone going into this one expecting to be
scared whitless are only going to be painfully disappointed as this one
is essentially more of a popcorn action flick than anything even close
to Horror, but then the same could said for the “Askew Universe” fans
coming out expecting to see appearances by Jay and Silent Bob, as this
film seemingly belongs in a whole other universe to those other films
and it’s also one were even Ben Affleck or any of Smith’s usual acting
troupe don’t appear, almost as if Smith is keen to prove that he can
stand on his own as a director without the support of his friends. While “Red State” is bound to isolate the more serious movie goer,
who likes some substance with their movies and while certainly not a
serious dissection of certain more fanatical groups, “Red State” is
still a blast of a movie which if you liked what you see in the trailer,
it will certainly not disappoint you and while perhaps the ending might
be a bit of a letdown, the journey there is so much fun it is easy to
overlook and compared to the plans for the original ending seems focused
morally on ensuring that the power stays with the right group. Still if
your looking for a fun night out you could do a lot worse than this, so
why not switch off your brain and enjoy as this is some pure cinematic
junk food for the soul!
Director: Pete Travis Released: 2012 Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia
Thirlby, Lena Headey, Wood Harris, Domhnall Gleeson, Warrick Grier
Plot: In the future the United
states has been turned into a irradiated wasteland known as the Cursed Earth, while
on the east coast lies Mega-City One, a violent metropolis with a crime rate
spiralling out of control. To restore order the Judges were introduced with the
power to act as judge, jury and executioner. The most famed and feared of these
judges is Dredd (Urban) who has now been tasted with evaluating potential judge
Cassandra Anderson (Thirlby) who also is a powerful psychic. However Things take a turn for the worst
when the judges find themselves trapped in the 200-storey slum tower block run
by drug lord Ma-Ma (Headey), leaving them with no choice but to battle their
way out, while being hunted by Ma-Ma’s legion of armed thugs who are now all
hunting for the judges.
Review: Growing up in the UK we didn’t get a regular stream
of DC / Marvel comics, more so if you lived out in the country like myself were
the nearest comic book store like the nearest decent store to buy films was an hour train ride away. What we did have
though was “2000 AD” a weekly comic whose pages were packed with colourful
characters, exciting stories and most importantly lashings of violence that
you’d never get in those other comics. While the comic itself has more recently been
the subject of the documentary “Future Shock! Thee Story of 2000AD” it’s leading
man Judge Dredd has already had one prior adaptation with the 95 Stallone movie "Judge Dread", which was largely (let
alone unfairly) mauled by critics and fans alike. Needless to say the news
of this latest attempt to adapt the long running series was met with almost
universal scepticism.
Directed by Pete Travis who is probably best known for his
UK TV work other than a sole feature credit for "Vantage Point" and a script written by Alex Garland, this latest adaptation
has a distinctly British feel let alone one closer to the source material than
its American counterpart. At the same time they wisely don’t attempt to adapt
any of the major storylines or characters that would require prior knowledge of
the series though Ma-Ma perfectly fits into this world. The downside though is
that the plot is scarily similar to that of “The Raid”, which is more a case of
coincidence rather any kind of sneak remake as only confirmed by the directors
of both films.
Right from the start Travis perfectly sets up this dystopian
vision of the future while providing the viewer with all the information to
allow them to hit the ground running, which of course he does with Dredd
engaging in a high speed pursuit with a trio of drug dealers, which ends true
to the source material in bloody violence, here shown in voyeuristic slow
motion. While perhaps a more sparse vision of the metropolis than fans of the
series have come to expect the world inside the Peach Trees tower block is
unquestionably more truer to the source material.
Karl Urban, an actor I can never place being in any film gets the honour of doning (and yes Dredd fans he doesn’t take it off) the iconic helmet
as he plays the emotionless and by the book Judge in a great performance which
truly brings to life the character while managing to avoid any traces of
humanity or emotion which is no easy feat especially when placed in a situation
which would in normal people see them making decisions based on their emotions.
At the same time though Judge Anderson covers for a lot of these moments, as
here she is far from the veteran judge of the comics and instead introduced as
a rookie, hinting that perhaps in the sequels we would get to see her develop
her skills as a judge. Sequels which at the time of writing still remain in
development hell sadly, especially when this film sets up so much potential to
build upon this world especially with the plans being for a trilogy of films in
a similar vein to how Nolan crafted his batverse.
The real standout here though is Lena Headey playing with
obvious relish the role of Ma-Ma, a psychotic and heavily scared creation who
is very much sitting comfortably at the top of the pile, largely thanks to
having having butchered her competition in order to claim the block for
herself, which she has turned into her own personal fortress, while she solely
controls the production of the highly addictive drug Slo-Mo which reduces the
user’s perception time to 1% of normal and which generally seems to have been
included so that Travis can get away with gratuitous use of slow motion footage,
which make for some of the worst moments of the film, while not being helped by
the cheap looking CGI which has been used to enhance these sequences.
The main issues I had though with the film other than the worrying
similarities to “The Raid” which left me with the feeling that I was watching a
film I’d already seen before, while at the same time it lacks pacing with so
that it often feels like a number of impressive set pieces largely strung
together under the pretence of climbing floors in the tower block as the judges
head ever closer to the inevitable confrontation with Ma-Ma. This being said
the action sequences make this film worth giving it a watch alone, with enough
blood and gore to keep things interesting with exploding limbs being torn off
in frenzied firefights let alone with Ma-Ma’s personal love of skinning those
who displease her before tossing them over the balcony in one of the early
standout moments.
While this might be a slightly more truer adaptation of the
source material than 1995’s “Judge Dredd” it not without its issues with the
stop start pacing really stopping me from liking it more along with the
excessive use of slow motion footage which has none of the style that Zack
Snyder brings with his use of the same technique. This of course is only made
the more frustrating when so many aspects such as the character design and
casting work so well. For now though this might be the truest vision of the
world of “Judge Dredd” and I can only hope that Urban is still able to don the
helmet once more when the studios finally decide the future of the franchise.
Director: Kim Jee-woon Released: 2013 Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander, Luis
Guzman, Eduardo Noriega, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford, Genesis Rodriguez.
Plot: Having escaped from his prison
convoy, drug kingpin Gabriel Cortez (Noriega) now plans to jump the border into
Mexico via the sleepy border town Sommerton Junction, leaving Sheriff Owens
(Schwarzenegger) and his ragtag band of deputies to stop him.
Review: Seemingly not content with having reinvented the
Western once already with “The Good, The Bad and The Weird” in his native South
Korea, here director Kim Jee-woon attempts to do the same thing once more for his English language
debut with this modern western, which is equally noteworthy for being Arnie’s
first lead role in ten years since the disappointing “Terminator 3: Rise of the
Machines”.
It is of course only fitting that the aging action hero Arnie
here essentially takes the role of the retired gunslinger that having put his
guns to earth is now enjoying the quiet life in this sleepy desert town, free
from the violence and ghosts of the bungled drugs bust which caused him to
leave his post in the LAPD. It’s a role which needless to say works perfectly for
Arnie who here truly is believable in this role as he shuffles around the town
dealing with minor crimes like the occasional cat being stuck in a tree. Infact
the crime rate is so low the deputies are early on found slacking off shooting
guns at slabs of meat with local vintage arms collector Lewis (Knoxville). Unsurprisingly
the FBI is quick to write of these local lawman, especially considering the
lack of experience most of them have dealing with any kind of major criminal
threat. Of course after one of their own is killed during a firefight with
Cortez’s thugs, Owens is quick to put together a plan to take revenge by stopping
Cortez, as deputises former marine Frank (Santoro) and even Lewis, aswell as
raiding his extensive arms collection which he has written off as being a
museum.
Encase you haven’t guessed already the plot is as bonkers as
it sounds and a real throwback to the films of Arnie’s golden period as the
violence and jokes come in spades, especially Noriega’s drug lord is such an
over the top creation, whose only becomes only the more ludicrous the more
layers which are added, for what starts off as a drug lord in a superfast
sports car, soon turns into a drug lord who apparently also has a side line as
a professional race car driver!! It’s really almost as if Jee-woon is trying to
see just how far he can push things, especially when the film already has a
certain amount of leeway being an Arnie action vehicle and somehow me manages
to not only make it work somehow but more importantly do it in such a way that
you don’t mind putting plausibility to one side while you’re watching the plot
reach ever new heights of randomness.
For those already familiar with Jee-woon’s previous films it
will come as little surprise that he once again manages to craft some memorable
action sequences, including a great rolling shootout, let alone crafting a
wonderful high noon centrepiece on the deserted main street, which sees Owens
and his team making full use of Lewis’s extensive arms collection which gives
us such great moments as Luis Guzman in a cowboy hat mowing down bad guys with
a tommy gun, aswell as the now stand out scene involving Arnie moving down villains
with a Vickers machine gun from the back of a school bus. Arnie equally shows he’s
still capable of pulling off a half decent brawl for the final showdown with
Cortez which sees him matching his MMA style with some powerhouse wrestling
moves, however it is also one of the few scenes in which Arnie’s does appear to
be creaking slightly. At the same time it’s a smart decision to have him playing
the role as more of an everyman than his usual terminator style, something which
only seems the more fitting for his current status as the elder statesman of
action heroes.
While the film is largely business as usual for Arnie, the
film is sadly not without its flaws especially when it takes its time getting
going, while Forest Whitaker is essentially squandered as he’s left generally
reacting to the situation as it unfolds from the FBI headquarters. Equally an
attempt at comedy involving residents of the town refusing to help because of
waiting for their omelettes falls flat.
Compared to the films which made up his Bronze period such
as “Collateral Damage” and “End of Days” this really is a return to form, even
if its not quite at the same level as his Gold period films like “Commando” or “Predator”
it’s still a fun ride that does exactly what you need it to do while never
taking itself seriously. True this might not be high art film making, but
really what are you expecting from this kind of movie?
Looking at the current state of his work slate it would seem
that this film with Arnie as the everyman might be more the direction he’s
wishing to take things especially when we look ahead to films like “Maggie”,
with this film in that respect perhaps serving as a sign of things to come and
honestly I’d like to see him do more films like this than trying to cash in on
his previous glories, not that I don’t enjoy him pulling out the old tricks for
his appearances in “The Expendables” franchise, it’s just makes more sense
especially with him being now in his advanced years seeing him playing more
characters like Owens which could be a really interesting new chapter for him. For
now though we have to wait and see, more so with the lacking box office returns
for this film it remains to be seen if audiences could buy him in a more toned
down form.
Director: Andy Sidaris Released: 1987 Starring: Ronn Moss, Dona Speir,
Hope Marie Carlton, Harold Diamond, Rodrigo Obregon, Cynthia Brimhall, Patty
Duffek, Wolf Larson, Lorry Green, Peter Bromilow
Plot: When two DEA agents are
killed on a private Hawaiian island, Agents Donna (Speir) and Taryn (Carlton) soon
intercept as part of their investigation a delivery of diamonds belonging to
drug lord Seth Romero who plans to flood Hawaii with drugs by taking over the
island of Molokai.
Review: The second film in director Andy Sidaris’s “Triple B” series
(Boobs, Bullets and Bombs) of loosely attached films in which Sidaris casts Playmates
/ Penthouse Pets as the leads in his series of over the top action films with
this film being one which I recently got to discuss on the “Exploding Helicopter” podcast. Now If you’ve ever seen any of Sidaris’s other films you
will already know what to expect going into this film, as Sidaris essentially
picked up were Russ Meyer left off as he shares Meyer’s love for amply breasted
ladies, moulding his films around this love by casting them as his feisty leads
in these otherwise by the book 80’s action fests with a healthy side order of
cheese.
The plot is as paper thin as it is nonsensical with Sidaris
padding out the plot with a healthy dose of nudity and softcore sex scenes,
aswell as a random sub-plot involving a seemingly invincible killer snake. This
however does not stop it from being a fun ride and all the more unsurprising that
it has more recently gained a real cult following, if especially for some of
the more truly bonkers scenes including the much discuss assassination attempt,
by an assassin riding a skateboard and while holding a blow up sex doll!
While the girls are more than capable of handling things on their
own, the girls are joined by fellow agents Rowdy (Moss) who can seemingly can
only use a bazooka to hit anything (by his own confession no less) making me
wonder what exactly the entrance requirements are for their agency, while Jade
(Dimond) brings some killer kickboxing skills. Both 80’s action hero cut outs,
yet still make for an amusing double act whenever they are left to their own
devices or have one of the numerous attractive ladies to distract them.
The action scenes are one of the main selling points and
other than the appeal of gratuitous nudity; Sidaris crafts several great action
scenes which are so amusingly over the top it’s hard to not use these moments
to see past the numerous other flawed parts of the film. After all what other
film sees a bazooka being showcased as having so many uses, including being
used at point blank range with zero effect on the shooter. Such leaps in
realism are scattered throughout the film with the real jump the shark moment
coming when Rowdy takes out a guard using a razorblade Frisbee in yet another standout
moment. Still this is also a world where the characters have movie posters on
the wall of the directors other films hanging on the wall.
The acting on show here is surprisingly better than you
would expect from a cast which largely consists of glamour models. This is not
to say that its Oscar worthy, but certainly its not being hammed up, with the
general feeling being that the cast and director were genuinely trying to make
a good movie, something only further reinforced by the introduction provided by
Sidaris and Julie Strain, even Sidaris spends most of it complimenting the
looks of his leading ladies.
True this might be abit of a cornball action movie, with
more than a handful of outlandish moments, but then this really is all part of
its charm and makes it only the easier to understand its cult appeal. This isn’t
award winning film making but at the same time it’s a world apart from the
intentionally bad efforts churned out by the likes of “The Asylum”, while it
more than lives up to its triple b promise, with enough boobs, explosions and
gunfire to keep things intresting. So watch it with an open mind and a few like-minded
friends and it’s a blast. So buy a ticket and just enjoy the ride.
Plot: Frank (Murray) a middle-aged
insurance salesman has become deluded by the current state of the world around
him, which causes him to suffer from insomnia and chronic migraines. However upon
being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, he soon finds himself on a
quest to rid the world of those he sees as being the cause of its problems,
while at the same time finding an unlikely accomplice in the 16 year old Roxy
(Bar)
Review: While most might know Bobcat Goldthwait as the
bio-polar and manical voiced Zed in “Police Academy” he has in recent years
really carved out a niche for himself as a director with this film forming the
final part of an unofficial trilogy of dark humoured comedies, which in many
ways has helped to fill the bad taste void left by John Waters while we
continue to wait for the long proposed “Fruitcake”.Here Goldthwait taps in the
general annoyance of the population which now faces an almost continual
bombardment of trashy reality TV shows, rudeness and those people whose general
stupidity makes you wonder how they manage to make it through general day to
day living. These are just a few of the irritancies that Goldthwait takes aim
at, as he gives us essentially a funnier and certainly more violent version of
“Falling Down”.
When we first meet Frank we are treated to what must be one
of his daily violent fantasies, which on this occasion is how he would like to
deal with his annoying next door neighbours in a scene which serves as a
warning of things to come especially when the fantasy consists of violently
dispatching of said neighbours via pump action shotgun. However Frank is not a
psychopath but rather a guy who’s finally reached his breaking point, as he
finds himself forced to work in cubicle hell while his fellow employees embrace
all the things he sees as being things which will lead to the breakdown of
society. A view point we see him trying to explain to one colleague who
misguidedly feels that he should try and be more cheerful. Of course things
only get worse when he finds himself fired for harassment after he tried to
send flowers to a receptionist he had a crush on, while his issues are only
added to by his terminal diagnosis given to him by his doctor who seems to care
more about the car he’s buying than the sensitive news he’s supposed to be
delivering.
So what starts with a simple plan to kill a “Super Sweet
Sixteen” brat whose tantrum over her father buying her the wrong car on the
show sparks the idea in Frank in the first place, it soon becomes clear that
Frank is anything but a natural killer, especially when his plans quickly and
hilariously fall apart. It’s this first death that also introduces him to Roxy
who is fascinated by Frank while at the same time proposing he abandon his
original suicide plans to instead embark on a murderous road trip.
Frank and Roxy despite having a noticeable age gap the pair
with their shared world view they make for a great pairing especially when Roxy
comes off mature for her age, while being quick to blast “Juno” and Diablo
Cody’s view of how hip teenagers are portrayed. Goldthwait also ensures that he
plays up on the warped comedic potential caused by the age gap, with Frank
worrying about the paedophile connotations of their unusual friendship so much
so that her simple request to be reassured that she is pretty throws him into a
blind panic. Still their Bonnie and Clyde style relationship is frequently
played up including several on the nose references, while best described by
Roxy when she bemoans them as being “Plutonic spree killers”. Together this pair makes for a surprisingly good team even
if they are frequently killing without any kind of fore planning and often when
the situations present themselves. Surprisingly though it would seem that the
local police are far from the most effective seeing how despite both Frank and
Roxy being caught clearly on CCTV they are never pursued at any point nor do
they ever attempt to hide their identity.
While the idea for the film could have quickly run out of
steam around the halfway point, especially when it really is the loosest of
plots which he hangs the film on, with the only real plot point revolving
around an “American Superstar” (the films version of “American Idol”) being
humiliated by the judges, only to turn into the freak of the week as those
horrible auditions have the tendency of doing. Somehow though Goldthwait
manages to make it all work, no doubt because of the believable friendship
between Frank and Roxy which goes beyond their love of killing annoying people,
especially when they share a number of touching sequences such as the impromptu
teddy bear target practice session or during the finale when the two reunite.
Unquestionably this is a comedy painted in only the darkest
shades, meaning that it might not sit with some but for those like myself in possession of a slightly warped sense of humour this is a film which manages to balance moments of sweetness with pitch black humour, even if the message of shooting those who don't fit in with your world view is slightly questionable, it frequently is more on target than it is off.
Starring: Olivier Gruner, Tim Thomerson, Cary-Hiroyuki
Tagawa, Yuji Okumoto, Marjorie Monaghan, Nicolas Guest, Deborah Shelton, Merle
Kennedy
Plot: Alex (Gruner) a retired cyborg police officer is
pulled out of retirement to track down his former girlfriend and cyborg Jared (Monaghan)
who is smuggling data to terrorist organizations plotting to assassinate government
officials.
Review: Directed by cult favourite Albert Pyun, who to date has
directed over 40 movies while earning a reputation as something of a b-movie
hired gun, as if you have a movie that you need to make on a minimal budget
then Pyun is your man. He was also responsible for the very first film I
reviewed here “Wrecking Crew” which was also for the longest time one of the
worst films I had reviewed here, an honour now currently shared between “Deaden”
and “Dear God No”. For some reason though it has taken me to now to review
another film from his back catalogue but then I can hardly claim that I am the
biggest fan of his work, but this is another film from my childhood whose cover I remembered from my misspent hours scanning video library shelves only to never actually get around to watching it until now.
Predictably being a Pyun film, ruined buildings, cyborgs and
a post-apocalyptic future are all the order of the day which always amused me
about his film, especially considering how Pyun cares little for any of these
themes as he stated once in an interview were he essentially cleared up this
irony.
“I have really no interest in cyborgs. And I’ve never really
had any intrest in post-apocalyptic stories or settings. It just seemed that
those situations presented a way for me to make movies with very little money,
and to explore ideas that I really wanted to explore – even if they were
[controversial].
Honestly I’m not too sure what story he wanted to tell here,
seeing how there is less plot development than “Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever”
which really is kind of saying something, but here the film goes from one
bullet riddled shootout to the next, with seemingly only explosions and scenes
of Alex and his unintentional sidekick (of sorts) Max (Kennedy) frequently diving
off cliffs to tie it all together.
Okay perhaps this is a little harsh as there is some William
Gibson-esq musing over what it is to be human, especially on the part of Alex
whose frequent injuries have left him in need of frequent cybernetic upgrades, while refusing to be labelled a mindless robot, frequently stating that
eighty-six point five percent of him is still human at any given moment. I
would like to believe that these cybernetic upgrades are responsible for the
continually bland and emotionless performance that Gruner gives here though I
would seriously doubt this is the case. Even the most basic of emotions seems
to be a push for him outside of the occasional smile while memorably showing
zero emotion when his dog is killed by one of his former handlers in a pretty
dickish move to try and convince Alex to come back. The logic behind this move
still lost on me, I mean how many times have you convinced someone to do something
by killing one of their cherished pets?
On the plus side Max comes with a Lorri Petty / Tank Girl style
personality which never really gets any chance to shine and instead just comes
off constantly skittish while providing enough personality to cover for both of
them. Elsewhere the villians all bizarrely have a faux German accents while
generally spending the film chasing after Alex and Max and shooting up the
scenery. Sadly one of the worst aspects of the film is how underused
Cary-Hirouki Tagawa is as his appearance is really more of a cameo, while more interesting
one of his rarer non villainous roles and considering that he manages to act
everyone else off the screen with his handful of scenes only makes me wish that
Pyun had found a way to expand his role.
So what does this film have going for it? Well action,
action and more action is essentially the order of the day, with everyone seemingly being
armed to the teeth even an doddering old granny pulls out a pistol at one
point! Needless to say the film doesn’t
waste any time getting to the first of the numerous shoot-outs as right from
the off Alex is involved in a fierce shoot out, with Pyunchoosing like John Woo to have his characters
rarely reload and even when they do it is only after they have fired off
countless rounds. More amusingly though is that despite frequently being only a
few metres from each other no one ever seems to be able to hit the broadside of
a barn door and seeing how everyone is seemingly a cyborg (something which
seemingly doesn’t improve anyone’s ability to aim) when someone does get hit it
is usually in a hail of sparks which is visually pretty fun to watch.
While Gruner might be lacking as an actor, he does however
make up for it in the action scenes with his character being changed from the
originally proposed violent street urchin to Gruner’s cyborg cop as part of a
production deal between Pyun and production executive Ash Shah who were keen to
use the former Kickboxing champion in one of their projects with this film with
Pyun in return being allowed free reign to make the movie he want and by the
looks of things he really took that ball and ran with it. Surprisingly despite Gruner’s
kickboxing background he only gets a chance to actually show off these skills
on a couple of occasions as Pyun instead opts to have his Gruner demonstrate
his gun handling skills instead which thankfully also works in Gruner’s favour as
he handles himself well during the action sequences including a scene where he
memorably machine guns his way though the floors of a hotel which would be
memorably reworked in “Underworld” to similar effect, with the other memorable
sequence involving him brawling with a generic villain while sliding down a
muddy ramp and it really is in these scenes that the film really does shine and
no doubt would have made this possibly my favourite movie had I watched it when
I first discovered it, when the action scenes mattered more than the rest of
the film.
Far from my favourite viewing experience as of late, yet like so many of Pyun's films I can't help but feel that the film was in many ways close to something, only to lose it along the way. Still if you like sparky firefights and explosions with minimal plotting then this could be the film for you. Now I just have to see were the series goes next seeing how this film spawn an additional three films, so don't be surprised if this isn't my last venture into the series.
Director: Sylvain White Released: 2010 Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans,
Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Óscar Jaenada, Jason Patric,
Holt McCallany
Plot: Presumed to be dead after being double crossed by
the mysterious Max (Patric), Clay (Morgan) and his special forces team nicknamed "The Losers" are
given a chance for revenge when they are tracked down by the mysterious Aisha
(Saldana), a beautiful operative with her own agenda.
Review: With the key comic properties like Spiderman and Superman now essentially being
tied up either by the major studios or Marvel themselves thanks to the success
of their own Marvel studios a gamble which it is safe to say has more than paid
off with their Phase one series of films. So with the public demand in the last few years for
comic book movies and the studios as always looking for any way to milk a
trend, it is hardly surprising that more indie comics have started seeing big
screen adaptations, a trend which it’s safe to say that this film belongs in.
Based on the comic book series of the same name, released by
DC Comic’s as part of their Vertigo imprint, which also serves as a home to
fellow indie favourites Sandman, 100 bullets and Fables, while also providing
movie fodder on more than one occasion with Hellblazer (which became “Constantine”),
A History of Violence and V for Vendetta all being released via Vertigo. Still
the series is hardly known outside of comic book fans, making it an usual
choice for a film adaptation and meaning that upon its original release, most
movie goers didn’t even realise it was a comic book movie.
Like the A-team on crack, this group of ex-special forces
operatives, each bring their own special set of skills, while working under
Clay’s leadership, a man guided by his own moral compass and one which soon leads
to their attempted murder by Max. Making up his team of self-titled losers are
Jensen (Evans) – Intelligence specialist and computer hacker, aswell as the groups oddball and comic relief.
Pooch (Short) – transport specialist, so if it rolls or flies he is all over it, aswell as the owner of a dog bobblehead, whch somehow makes it into every vehicle he gets behind the controls of.
Cougar (Jaenada) – The almost permanently mute sharpshooter with an affection for his cowboy hat.
Roque (Elba) – Demolitions
While the group make up might hardly be anything new, the
way in which they choose to operate, acting like a group of superheroes who
don’t actually have any superpowers, while using largely guerrilla tactics with
a heavy dose of humour to get the job done, with this intoxicating blend really helping them to
stand out from the groups which came before them. Aisha meanwhile plays the wild
card of the group with her dubious sense of alliance to the group, while marking the start of Saldana establishing herself as
an action heroine, something she would continue with “Colombiana” a character
none to dissimilar to the character of Aisha, especially seeing how both are
more than capable of looking after themselves, let alone packing their own
impressive armoury of weapons as especially seen here, as she proves herself
more than capable of holding her own with the boys on more than one occasion,
as highlighted by a couple of room trashing fistfights with Clay while reaching
a pinnacle of badassery when she appears suddenly welding a rocket
launcher under one arm at the finale.
Meanwhile the losers themselves are capable of unleashing their
own brand of hell, even if they are generally more low key about it, with any
outlandish action heroics kept to mainly to the opening and finale which also
include this shining moment of badassery from Cougar, which makes me wonder why
more people haven’t pick up on this film.
The rest of the time, they tend to stick to more low key
infiltration and engaging in the occasional round of military grade grand theft
auto, while director White continually gives the impression that he is atleast
trying to do something which hasn’t been seen 100 times before. Still it is an
infectious mix of comedy and action which White brings to the table, most of it
via Jensen a character which Evans is clearly having a ball playing, as he
always has a wise crack no matter how dire his situation gets, while more
randomly even managing to convince a group of security guards that he has the
power of mind Bullets!
The casting here is great while especially spot on with
Morgan, making a great lead for the group with his gruff charm and gravelly
voice and after seeing him previously as The Comedian in “Watchmen” it is nice
to see him playing a more lighter character, that you don’t feel so guilty for
liking, which was always the problem with the Comedian. What fails though with
his casting in this role is the unlikely romance his character has with Aisha,
which while important to the storyline still comes off as clumsily handled.
Elsewhere Patric is suitably villainous as Max, always sharply dressed while
carrying a dark sense of humour as he argues with his henchmen over mistakenly interpreted
nods, after said henchman throws one of his scientists off a roof, while
equally prone to random acts of violence as he shoots a girl carrying his
umbrella for allowing the sun to momentarily shine on him.
For one reason or another this film never got its due upon
its release and like the equally overlooked “Shoot Em Up” has been left for the
action fans to rediscover, now it has been largely forgotten by most, which
only makes it more of a shame when this film is so much fun from start to
finish, while giving us a group whom I would have loved to have seen further
adventures with, something I seriously doubt we will be seeing anytime soon, so
for now we might aswell just enjoy it for what it is. A one shot curiosity and
a snapshot of what could have been, but one worth giving a look none the less.
Director: Peter Berg Released: 2003 Staring: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Rosario
Dawson, Christopher Walken, Ewen Bremner, Jon Gries, Ernie Reyes Jr, William
Lucking, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Plot: Beck (Johnson) is a “retrieval expert”, keen to get
out of the business so that he can open a restaurant, something not made easier
by boss Walker (Lucking) constantly screwing him over. However when Walker
agrees to release Beck from his contract if he can do one last job, he soon
finds himself heading to South America to get Walker’s son Travis (Scott) in
the town of El Dorado nicknamed “Helldorado” by the locals due to local tyrant
Hatcher (Walken) who is not so keen to let Travis leave, especially when he belives
that Travis can lead him to a rare artefact O Gato do Diablo aka “The Devils
Cat”.
Review: Despite being the breakout film for Johnson whom at
this point was still working under his equally well know wrestling alter-ego
“The Rock”, it surprisingly remains largely unseen by most people outside of
wrestling / action fans which is something of a shame as it is certainly one of
the better wrestler headling productions which WWE Studios was setup to make,
especially with WWE owner Vince McMahon never being one to miss a promotion opportunity,
even though wrestlers have hardly had a track record as credible acting talent,
even more when such promotion ideas have lead to the world being given such
cinematic monstrosities as “Santa With Muscles” and “Mr. Nanny” both staring
Hulk Hogan back when he decided to take a break from trying to convince the
world he was still relevant as a wrestler and instead was trying to convince
the world he could act.
Still this has not been to say that there haven’t been
wrestlers who have managed to transfer their ring presence to the screen, as
seen with Kane (See No Evil), Rowdy Roddy Piper (They Live / Hell Comes To Frogtown) and current WWE favourite John Cena who surprisingly has not had the
same luck that Johnson has had, despite appearing in the surprisingly good “The
Marine” and the sadly overlooked “12 Rounds”, though perhaps if he wasn’t
appearing in trash like “Fred: The Movie” it might also help. This film however
would prove to be just the boost that Johnson’s acting career needed,
especially after his previous lead in “The Scorpion King” failed to be the star
making vehicle that it was expected to be, while this film seemingly was
crafted to work to all of Johnson’s strengths such as his natural charm and
general ass kicking abilities, while finally showing him as the leading man the
WWE wanted him to be seen as.
Director Berg was an interesting choice to direct this film,
especially considering that his only feature credit at this point in his career was the
black comedy “Very Bad Things” a polar opposite of this film, which
clearly sparked in him a taste for action movies, especially seen by the films
like “The Kingdom” and “Battleship” which followed in the wake of this film and
here crafts a confident and flashy action comedy which with its treasure
hunting subplot also seemingly is trying to work within a similar mould to the
Indiana Jones movies. Berg though ensures that the film hits the ground running
with a brutal club fight when a collection doesn’t go as smoothly as Beck would
like and from here the pace never lets up the film continues at a breezy pace,
effortless combining scenes of comedy with bone crunching action, with Johnson
proving himself equally at home with either style, while Scott provides most of
the laughs as he plays the sort of goofball sidekick that Johnny Knoxville has
been for the best part of his acting career been trying to play with decidedly
mixed results and even though is essentially the same kind of double act we saw
in “Bullet Proof Monk”. Also on comedy relief is Ewan Bremner who no doubt most
of us remember as Spud from Trainspotting, than any of his other random roles
and here seems to be have been included only because American audiences find
the Scottish accent insanely funny or so it would seem, especially considering
that its this kind of thinking that gave Shrek (something else I don’t get the
appeal of) a Scottish accent.
Certainly what really helps this film though is the huge
advantage of casting Walken as its Villain, who here truly is on scene chewing
duties as he manages to invoke the same kind of presence that he had in “King
of New York” were he doesn’t need to rely on random of acts of violence to seem
imposing and like Frank in that film, he has his group of thugs enforce his will
should anyone wish to test him, which in this case is a group of bullwhip
welding heavies. Meanwhile his income is supplied through forcing the local
villagers to dig in his mines for gold, something which I have a feeling was
more the result of a rewrite in the production process, even more so when his
mines have more the look of a blood diamond mine, which is what I assume he was
originally mining for. Still this is Walken at his villainous best, so that
when he steps up to a towering man mountain like Johnson (even more so outside
of the ring), he still retains an intimidating error and one of someone very
much in control of the situation, even though Beck could no doubt despatch of
Hatcher with the minimum amount of ease, Hatcher’s status within this village
as a tyrant means that he raised well before his own limitations and it’s a
role sold perfectly by Walken.
Beck though is far from your traditional action hero, seeing
how he shuns the use of guns and would prefer to diplomatically work things out
with his foes, rather than just using his fists, as seen during the opening
confrontation, were after his initial attempts to reason with the football
player he’s been set to collect from result in a drink to the face, normal cue
to said football player to be introduced to alittle badass dentistry, but
instead Beck walks away and phone his bosses to try and find another way to
handle the situation, only to then be forced into unleashing his badass side
which as we will see throughout the film is never a good thing for those
crossing Beck. However bizarrely there is no real reason given for why Beck
handles his business like this or why he hates guns, with the only reason being
given is the idea that seemingly Beck is only in his current line of work to
help fund his restaurant dream. Beck however as would see with the later action
movies Johnson has made, is the same kind of softly softly action hero that his
future similar roles would be cast from and the sort of badass that Vin Diesel
likes to play, were with their size they appear dominating yet are more happy
to avoid confrontation were they can and either reason or intimidate those who
get in their way, before resorting to a good old fashioned ass kicking when
that fails.
Looking back at this film it is now easy to see how Johnson
made the leap from wrestler to actor, even more so with the bold career choices
which followed such as his lead role in “Southland Tales”, making it all the
more of a shame that most people seem to be more interested in his later films
when he changed his name and became a full time actor than these early films
which only makes it more of a shame especially when they are missing out on the
generally fun times this film provides, while it’s Indiana Jones style elements
make me wish that it had gotten a sequel, but for now we have to contend with
just this one adventure while being left to dream as to what could have been.
Director: Tony Scott Released: 2005 Staring: Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Edgar Ramirez, Riz
Abbasi, Delroy Lindo, Mo’Nique, Dabney Coleman, Lucy Liu, Macy Gray, Jacqueline
Bisset, Christopher Walken, Mena Suvari, Brian Austin Green, Ian Ziering, Tom
Waits, Jerry Springer
Plot: The fictional biography of Domino Harvey (Knightley),
the model turned bounty hunter.
Review: Opening with the title card “This based on a true
story….Sort of” it essentially sets the tone for the events which follow as
Director Tony Scott brings his usual brand of subtlety (that being one of a house brick
to the face) with his this original to say the least Biopic, the
idea for which coming after Scott’s business manager sent him an article from “The Mail
On Sunday” titled “My Gun For Hire: Why A Movie Star’s Rebel Daughter Turned
Into A Bounty Hunter” about Domino Harvey which inspired him to immediately
track her down and propose the idea of making a film about her life.
Even though interviews were conducted with Domino and her fellow
bounty hunters Ed Marinez (Rourke) and Choco (Ramirez), Scott would reject the first two drafts of the screenplay based on
these interviews, due to their conventional nature before finally asking
“Donnie Darko” director and scribe Richard Kelly to write the screenplay after he read
Kelly’s script for the much underappreciated “Southland Tales” which seemingly
would also be the basis for this films screenplay aswell it would seem,
especially considering that both films have such a keen interest in pop culture as well
as a love of mind twisting plotting which is something this film also has in
spades once it gets into the meat of its actual story.
Seeing how Domino Harvey is supposed to be a badass,
especially from her confessions of graduating to fighting boys and one that the film would have you believe and a mythos which is
essentially diluted by the real life Choco who appears on the special features
of the DVD (looking absolutely nothing like the rugged Ramirez’s reimagining of
his character) essentially confessing that most of the hunts they carried out
involved Domino flirting with the bail jumper usually in a bar and convincing
them to follow her outside were he would arrest them. Still you have thought
that Scott would have cast a suitably badass female to play her, which sadly
does not happen here as we instead get the laughably horrible tough girl act of
Knightley who is hideous at the best of times, but here she reaches a new low
and kind of laughable level of toughness usually peddled by Noel Clarke in the
likes of “Kidulthood” as she smokes, curses and scowls her way through the film. The problem is not so much with the look as she makes a
suitable clotheshorse for Domino’s many looks which sways between grunge and
punk, with Knightley even rocking a mullet at one point with a suitably white
trash look. The problem however comes when she opens her mouth and attempts to
snarl out any kind of tough girl dialogue which makes it hard not to snigger,
even more so when she makes zero effort to use any kind of accent other than
her usual posh tones, which work perfectly fine in Knightley’s usual territory
of costume drama and while Domino might have come from upper class roots even
she didn’t speak this prim and proper as further highlighted in the interview
footage also included on the disc.
So with Scott having kind of screwed up with the casting of his lead, he atleast
makes up with it in his supporting cast, who essentially carry the film for
Knightly from Rourke’s world weary Ed, who in many ways provides Domino with
her missing father figure, while in many ways playing the same for Ramirez’s
rough and ready Latin badass Choco. Meanwhile Lucy Liu is on her usual great
form as the criminal psychologist, whose interview essentially structures the
film as we follow Domino from her early life and the events which lead to her
bounty hunting career in the lead up to the fictional armoured truck heist
which she finds herself currently being investigated for involvement in. Still
despite this heist being thrown into the mix, 95 percent of this film could
essentially be seen as being fictional so anyone looking for some kind of
serious biopic of her life, might be best not bothering with film, but did you
really expect Scott to really make a serious picture to begin with?
Throughout the course of the film, these supporting
characters becoming increasingly colourful as we meet Domino’s boss Claremont
Williams III (Lindo) and his gaggle of feisty ladies who supply him with
information via their positions at the DMV, while being lead by Caremont’s
mistress (and world’s youngest Grandmother) Lateesha (Mo’Nique). Of course the
Taj Mahal of these characters is Walken’s appearance as TV Executive Mark Heiss
who signs the group up for his latest reality TV show project and probably best
described in his assistant Kimmie’s speedy brief
“I should let you know that Mr Heiss will only be available to meet for about
five minutes, so we should hurry up and cut to the point. Um, and speak in
short sentences because he has the attention span of a ferret on crystal meth.”
Unquestionably this is Walken at his unchained best, as he
blusters his way through his scenes, with Walken’s usual dialogue projection
really only adding to his character here.
While the plot might descend into a slightly confusing mess,
but Richard Kelly’s work has always been known for its head scratching quality
as memorably seen with his debut “Donnie Darko, but here where he doesn’t have
full control over its presentation it does result in the main heist plotline
suffering from a twist to far. Meanwhile Scott pummels the viewer with pop
culture shots and flashy visuals, while the continuously quick edits make it
seem like Scott gave a kid hyperactivity and ADHD a soda and the keys to the
editing suite which has at times the tendency to instil a feeling of nausea
when viewing, especially in the rare moments he slows the film to crawl. Still
when the film works it works well with some truly brutal moments of action,
which has always been were Scott has excelled with the finale shootout at the stratosphere
in Las Vegas making for a high pressure showdown between the FBI and the Mob,
while random asides such as Lateesha pitching a new ethnic classification chart
on Jerry Springer keep a surreal edge to things while making it highly reminiscent
of “Natural Born Killers”.
True this film is far from perfect, but when Knightly isn’t
speaking the film does have its share of truly memorable moments, with a heavy
vein of black humour keeping things from getting too serious and for myself at
least making it the guiltiest of guilty pleasures.
Basically this is my love letter to the cinema I adore, with the main focus being to look away from the mainstream and instead look more in the direction of Cult, Foreign and Obsure cinema and everything that comes in between. This blog is also about keeping movie going fun and embracing the randomness, that can often be found, while also uncovering the occastional hidden great, often in the most unlikely of places.
I try to add somthing new atleast once a week, but I'd rather keep this blog fun to write and so i'm not neglecting commitments outside of this blog.
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