Two "Long" Movies

Because I'm procrastinating on writing, here are my thoughts on two movies that feel longer than their actual runtime, for different reasons.

Prime (105 min)
It seemed like a good idea for a romantic comedy. Newly-divorced 37 year-old woman falls in love with her therapist's 23 year-old son. Sounds like a High Concept Movie. But seriously, this movie just crawled along. So what went wrong? Lots, apparently.

First, it was a dramedy. That's one of the worst genres to do, because handling the drama and comedy aspects simultaneously needs a deft touch, and it's somewhat of a juggling act trying to balance the two. Prime leaned too heavy towards the former, and this made the latter seem like almost an afterthought. It starts off light and fluffy, like your typical romantic comedy, except the couple doesn't "meet cute". Misunderstandings and farcical situations arise, but then the drama kicks in, the therapist mother goes missing (from the plot, I mean), and it's all about the couple fighting to stay together and trying to make it work without the shits and giggles.

It also felt like an indie movie disguised as a Hollywood flick. While it's a good thing to let your actors go ahead and do their scenes unrestrained (and when you have Meryl Streep, you don't really need much else in the way of direction), you also need to be merciless about chopping out stuff that doesn't advance the plot at all and just stays there like dead air. There's a very lackadaisal feel about the whole thing, which meant that it could probably have been a lot tighter if Ben Younger had exercised more restraint in the editing room. The bittersweet ending, while panned by some, seems realistic enough to me to buy it, and is definitely non-Hollywood. In this case, being like an indie is a plus point.

It probably doesn't help that this is only his second feature film. It also hurts that he wrote the screenplay, because it's hard to direct something you wrote. Correction, it's easy, but then it's also too easy to lose objectivity and leave particular scenes in just because they're you're favorite babies. Even if you love them, sometimes you still have to kill them off, or the film might be bogged down.

It's not to say it's entirely bad. There are excellent scenes and bits. Too bad the movie around them doesn't really come together, but ends up being rather misguided and muddled instead. Oh yeah, and way too slow.

殺破狼 (SPL) (97 min)
Holy shit, this is a crazy movie. Crazy kungfu, crazy intense. It's very dark, and very cool. Like the vast majority of Asian films, it can't seem to avoid the melodramatic moments and way too overt symbolism, but on the whole they don't hurt the film much. The story's nothing you haven't seen before, but it's very stylishly done.

Have I mentioned Donnie Yen's fight choreography is crazy? Sammo Hung proves that while he may be getting on in years and piling on the pounds, he's still got it. In his first action scene, which takes place halfway into the film, he literally explodes on the screen. It's a real sight to behold. The finale fight scene has him and Donnie Yen wrestling and throwing each other around - it's a lot cooler and more brutal than it sounds.

Then there's the penultimate fight between Donnie Yen and Wu Jing, both experts in the fighting arts, wielding a baton and a big-ass knife. Unlike most movies, which use close-ups and quick cuts because they're easier to fake, this scene stays relatively wide and is done in long takes. Their limbs are a blur onscreen as they trade blows and parries. It's completely insane, fucking intense, and abso-fuckin'-lutely beautiful. It's a work of art.

Oh yeah, why does it seem longer than it really is? Because the mood is so bloody dark and oppresive. Because everything and everyone's so damn intense. Because people get killed left, right and centre - and not just the silly goons, too. Characters that you've actually come to give a shit about, they're picked off like flies. Because there's just so goddamn much packed into those 95 minutes. At the end of it all, the only thing you can do it heave a sigh of relief and go, "I'm glad that was only a movie."


And finally, just for fun, here's an essay on Structured Procrastination, which I find uncannily true and actually practical. It tells you how to procrastinate while seemingly doing a ton of useful shit, which I'm sure is primary to cubicle rats out there. And to me too.