The Dirty Dozen
Dug back through my records and managed to scrounge up 12 movies I saw over the last two months or so which I've failed to mention here for some reason or other, usually laziness.
Napola - Elite für den Führer (Napola: Hitler's Elite; a.k.a. Before the Fall)
Rather predictable. You have your brave lead character who's not afraid to stand up for what's right. You have the weak/gay/artistic (delete whichever's inapplicable) best friend who eventually will kill himself because he can't win. You have oppressive societal forces or authority figures. And that is how you make a typical coming-of-age film, folks!
The Maid (女佣)
Starts off promisingly, and even touches on issues of alienation and loneliness for foreign labor. However, cheap scare tactics abound and it quickly degenerates into a ludicrous mess. The final plot twists are especially laugh-out-loud ridiculous, and unfortunately you also see them coming a mile away.
Land of the Dead
I thought it'd be a fun B-movie. It wasn't fun enough for me.
Red Eye
A tight little thriller that delivers the goods. I had a great time, and Rachel McAdams is smokin' hot.
36 Quai des Orfèvres
Backstabs, betrayals, and tons of intrigue in the world of shady cops and moral ambiguities. Nicely done, if a little plodding at times. Fantastic performances all-round though, and it's nice to see that Gérard Depardieu is still alive and not making a fool of himself.
Night Watch
Slick, very slick. Even the subtitles are smooth as silk and have their own visual effects. An über-cool sci-fi/fantasy epic reminiscent of The Matrix (the first one). When people find out it's the first of a trilogy they're chomping at the bit. The Russkies have really outdone themselves this time.
The Brothers Grimm
Um, it was fun? That's about all I can say for it really. I guess Terry Gilliam really tried, but the script is kinda paint-by-numbers. The different methods of kidnapping the kids - all cool - were just about the best things there were about this movie.
A Bittersweet Life
As a Korean movie, it's really quite a decent one. But that's because I've been hurt far too often by bad Korean film. But on it's own, it's really just rather blah. The sentimentality feels far too forced, and the violence seems somewhat half-hearted, perhaps because the movie lacks a true emotional core. Sappiness and strings do not make for the heart of a movie; real relationships do. And only when violence intrudes into those real relationships is it felt. Otherwise, it's just lots of noise and flash.
長恨歌 (Everlasting Regret)
Superior to Stanley Kwan's previous work 藍宇 (Lan Yu), which seemed like a shallow coming-out anthem for him. Yet it still fails to engage the audience on a deeper emotional or intellectual level. Sammi Cheng's acting seems to have improved, but she still pales in comparison to a veteran like Tony Leung or even some of her supporting cast. Production design is excellent and everything looks very pretty, but you feel detached and bored and eventually just don't give a shit about anything anymore. Some people have said that their everlasting regret about this movie is not being able to get the time they spent on it back.
The Bow
I'm sure it's meant to be a parable or whatever, but frankly, the setting is rather far-fetched and just plain boring, not to mention mostly predictable. Old man rescues/adopts/kidnaps young girl and raises her for ten years, wanting to marry her once she comes of age. One day a young man arrives on their boat and surprise, surprise, the young people fall in love. I'm sure you can see where this is going. Usually I like Kim Ki-Duk's non-dialogue, but this time it gets annoying as all they do is pout and look pissed off with each other. No one really does anything much, and when the climax (pun fully intended) comes, it's bizarre and fails to be moving in any way. Only 90 minutes, but it feels like forever.
Dark Water
I saw the Japanese original a couple of years back and liked it. Now I have to admit I like this American remake as well. I can't say which I prefer, since there are good things in both, but if you could put all the good things from each one together you'd probably get a movie I'd love.
I'm amazed that they actually managed to find an apartment building that's even shittier and scarier than the Japanese one. That looked rather dingy and creepy, but this - this is an apartment building on the brink of hell.
I liked the additional facets they gave to Jennifer Connelly's character, so she wasn't just The Mother, she was The Disturbed Mother Who Might Be Nuts. I also enjoyed the supporting cast, who were hugely over-qualified for this, of course. I thought the ghost in the original was creepier though, and I missed the absence of the fucking cool elevator-doors-opening-and- letting-out-a-deluge-of-gross-water scene. Still effective though, and had a nice little final scene that might bring tears to some (not me though, I was still sore from seeing The Bow).
The 40 Year-Old Virgin
Steve Carell is da bomb, the supporting cast are amazing, and the writing is sharp and fucking hilarious. But I'm sorry to say I couldn't enjoy this movie as much as I thought I would because I was tired out from the two before. That was Reason One. The second reason was probably because I'd heard such good things about it, and you know, build-up and expectations and all inevitably leave you going, "Oh. That's it?" So dammit, if you think a movie is the greatest fucking thing on Earth, just tell me you liked it and don't tell me it's the greatest fucking thing on Earth, because I'll be expecting the greatest fucking thing on Earth and then I'll never think it's the greatest fucking thing on Earth.
I remember going in to see Anchorman, thinking it was going to be a silly movie from the trailers I'd seen. And when I came out of the theatre, I was laughing so fucking hard and loving the movie. It was a silly movie, but it was also fucking hilarious, and mostly because everything had been a surprise. And it wasn't even as well-written as Virgin.
So it seems that if I go into the movie thinking, "This is going to be great", it very rarely is. Strangely enough I also felt rather distanced during the screening, like I was standing outside my body watching myself laugh. Sort of like I was my brain, and I was telling my body, "Here's a well-written joke. Now laugh." And while my body would respond, it wasn't a real response, not a gut-heaving thigh-slapping now-that's-fucking-hilarious moment. It felt choreographed, artificial, acted, observed.
I don't know why I get that way - that emotional detachment - sometimes. Maybe I'd invested too much, or tried to invest too much (couldn't do it for The Bow though, because it sucked too bad) for the movies I saw before. Now I think about it, it's rather sad. I invested myself in Dark Water? What the fuck for?
Or maybe it's all because of the fucking filmmaker in me who keeps on wanting to jump out and impress me with how much he knows. I wish I could shut him up sometimes. He does go away with a bit of liquor though.
I'll say one thing: I was terribly impressed with how the writers managed to put offensive jokes into situations that made them much less so, or twisted them around so they were completely inoffensive. You know, like the guys trading "I know you're gay 'cos..." one-liners, Al-Qaeda jokes, and so on.
So yeah, I think I should try Virgin again and see if I can respond appropriately this time round. Fresh, unthinking, and a little bit drunk.
Have I mentioned how much I love the tagline? The Longer You Wait, The Harder It Gets. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
And only gentle, geeky souls can compare an action figure in its original packaging to a man's virginity. Not to mention write a heartfelt scene with the guy saying goodbye to all his toys.
Addendum: Here's an interview with Steve Carell all you Virgin freaks might find interesting.
Additional Addendum (16 Oct 2005): I take back my statement about Everlasting Regret being superior to Lan Yu. Upon racking my hazy memory of that film, I recalled several powerful scenes in that movie that elevated it above the tedium that surrounded most of it. Unfortunately, Everlasting Regret didn't have a single scene like that, and so it is the lesser of the two.
Napola - Elite für den Führer (Napola: Hitler's Elite; a.k.a. Before the Fall)
Rather predictable. You have your brave lead character who's not afraid to stand up for what's right. You have the weak/gay/artistic (delete whichever's inapplicable) best friend who eventually will kill himself because he can't win. You have oppressive societal forces or authority figures. And that is how you make a typical coming-of-age film, folks!
The Maid (女佣)
Starts off promisingly, and even touches on issues of alienation and loneliness for foreign labor. However, cheap scare tactics abound and it quickly degenerates into a ludicrous mess. The final plot twists are especially laugh-out-loud ridiculous, and unfortunately you also see them coming a mile away.
Land of the Dead
I thought it'd be a fun B-movie. It wasn't fun enough for me.
Red Eye
A tight little thriller that delivers the goods. I had a great time, and Rachel McAdams is smokin' hot.
36 Quai des Orfèvres
Backstabs, betrayals, and tons of intrigue in the world of shady cops and moral ambiguities. Nicely done, if a little plodding at times. Fantastic performances all-round though, and it's nice to see that Gérard Depardieu is still alive and not making a fool of himself.
Night Watch
Slick, very slick. Even the subtitles are smooth as silk and have their own visual effects. An über-cool sci-fi/fantasy epic reminiscent of The Matrix (the first one). When people find out it's the first of a trilogy they're chomping at the bit. The Russkies have really outdone themselves this time.
The Brothers Grimm
Um, it was fun? That's about all I can say for it really. I guess Terry Gilliam really tried, but the script is kinda paint-by-numbers. The different methods of kidnapping the kids - all cool - were just about the best things there were about this movie.
A Bittersweet Life
As a Korean movie, it's really quite a decent one. But that's because I've been hurt far too often by bad Korean film. But on it's own, it's really just rather blah. The sentimentality feels far too forced, and the violence seems somewhat half-hearted, perhaps because the movie lacks a true emotional core. Sappiness and strings do not make for the heart of a movie; real relationships do. And only when violence intrudes into those real relationships is it felt. Otherwise, it's just lots of noise and flash.
長恨歌 (Everlasting Regret)
Superior to Stanley Kwan's previous work 藍宇 (Lan Yu), which seemed like a shallow coming-out anthem for him. Yet it still fails to engage the audience on a deeper emotional or intellectual level. Sammi Cheng's acting seems to have improved, but she still pales in comparison to a veteran like Tony Leung or even some of her supporting cast. Production design is excellent and everything looks very pretty, but you feel detached and bored and eventually just don't give a shit about anything anymore. Some people have said that their everlasting regret about this movie is not being able to get the time they spent on it back.
The Bow
I'm sure it's meant to be a parable or whatever, but frankly, the setting is rather far-fetched and just plain boring, not to mention mostly predictable. Old man rescues/adopts/kidnaps young girl and raises her for ten years, wanting to marry her once she comes of age. One day a young man arrives on their boat and surprise, surprise, the young people fall in love. I'm sure you can see where this is going. Usually I like Kim Ki-Duk's non-dialogue, but this time it gets annoying as all they do is pout and look pissed off with each other. No one really does anything much, and when the climax (pun fully intended) comes, it's bizarre and fails to be moving in any way. Only 90 minutes, but it feels like forever.
Dark Water
I saw the Japanese original a couple of years back and liked it. Now I have to admit I like this American remake as well. I can't say which I prefer, since there are good things in both, but if you could put all the good things from each one together you'd probably get a movie I'd love.
I'm amazed that they actually managed to find an apartment building that's even shittier and scarier than the Japanese one. That looked rather dingy and creepy, but this - this is an apartment building on the brink of hell.
I liked the additional facets they gave to Jennifer Connelly's character, so she wasn't just The Mother, she was The Disturbed Mother Who Might Be Nuts. I also enjoyed the supporting cast, who were hugely over-qualified for this, of course. I thought the ghost in the original was creepier though, and I missed the absence of the fucking cool elevator-doors-opening-and- letting-out-a-deluge-of-gross-water scene. Still effective though, and had a nice little final scene that might bring tears to some (not me though, I was still sore from seeing The Bow).
The 40 Year-Old Virgin
Steve Carell is da bomb, the supporting cast are amazing, and the writing is sharp and fucking hilarious. But I'm sorry to say I couldn't enjoy this movie as much as I thought I would because I was tired out from the two before. That was Reason One. The second reason was probably because I'd heard such good things about it, and you know, build-up and expectations and all inevitably leave you going, "Oh. That's it?" So dammit, if you think a movie is the greatest fucking thing on Earth, just tell me you liked it and don't tell me it's the greatest fucking thing on Earth, because I'll be expecting the greatest fucking thing on Earth and then I'll never think it's the greatest fucking thing on Earth.
I remember going in to see Anchorman, thinking it was going to be a silly movie from the trailers I'd seen. And when I came out of the theatre, I was laughing so fucking hard and loving the movie. It was a silly movie, but it was also fucking hilarious, and mostly because everything had been a surprise. And it wasn't even as well-written as Virgin.
So it seems that if I go into the movie thinking, "This is going to be great", it very rarely is. Strangely enough I also felt rather distanced during the screening, like I was standing outside my body watching myself laugh. Sort of like I was my brain, and I was telling my body, "Here's a well-written joke. Now laugh." And while my body would respond, it wasn't a real response, not a gut-heaving thigh-slapping now-that's-fucking-hilarious moment. It felt choreographed, artificial, acted, observed.
I don't know why I get that way - that emotional detachment - sometimes. Maybe I'd invested too much, or tried to invest too much (couldn't do it for The Bow though, because it sucked too bad) for the movies I saw before. Now I think about it, it's rather sad. I invested myself in Dark Water? What the fuck for?
Or maybe it's all because of the fucking filmmaker in me who keeps on wanting to jump out and impress me with how much he knows. I wish I could shut him up sometimes. He does go away with a bit of liquor though.
I'll say one thing: I was terribly impressed with how the writers managed to put offensive jokes into situations that made them much less so, or twisted them around so they were completely inoffensive. You know, like the guys trading "I know you're gay 'cos..." one-liners, Al-Qaeda jokes, and so on.
So yeah, I think I should try Virgin again and see if I can respond appropriately this time round. Fresh, unthinking, and a little bit drunk.
Have I mentioned how much I love the tagline? The Longer You Wait, The Harder It Gets. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
And only gentle, geeky souls can compare an action figure in its original packaging to a man's virginity. Not to mention write a heartfelt scene with the guy saying goodbye to all his toys.
Addendum: Here's an interview with Steve Carell all you Virgin freaks might find interesting.
Additional Addendum (16 Oct 2005): I take back my statement about Everlasting Regret being superior to Lan Yu. Upon racking my hazy memory of that film, I recalled several powerful scenes in that movie that elevated it above the tedium that surrounded most of it. Unfortunately, Everlasting Regret didn't have a single scene like that, and so it is the lesser of the two.
posted by cinewhore @ 3:43 PM
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