November 2006 Round-Up

An even more super-overdue posting. Short takes on November 2006's flicks.

Crank
Insanity on crack. The sheer ridiculousness and hyper-kineticism are fun for a while, but after, oh, 30 minutes or so you're suffering from overdose. By the end of it all you're fucking exhausted, and it wasn't even that enjoyable. Cool poster, though.






L'Homme de sa vie (The Man of My Life)
Very talky French movie about a man who discovers that he might or might not have some homosexual tendencies. You could fall asleep for most of it and still not feel like you missed anything important. The conversations all want to be Deep and Meaningful, but end up not being very much at all.




An Inconvenient Truth
Al Gore says that we're fucking up our planet. And for the love of all that's good and pure, he's right, and it's fucking scary. Even though he doesn't get filmmaker points for this glorified Powerpoint presentation, it's still effective as hell.






Der Lebensversicherer
(Running on Empty)
Someone please make this movie end already. Any warmth you feel towards the complete inhabition of the role by the lead actor is demolished by the overlong runtime and the complete lack of anything actually happening. Oh, and there's a sex scene which feels dirty and disgusting because this is, after all, a European arthouse flick, and people never have good sex in those.

妄想 (Diary)
Over-convoluted, with more twists and turns than a pretzel, along with some pretty iffy-looking CGI. I was surprised that one of the Twins could actually act, but by the final, completely unnecessary plot revelation, I just didn't give a flying fuck anymore.





My Summer of Love
Coming of age movie - yay! Lesbian movie - double yay! But seriously, this is a sensitive and well-made film about friendship, family, love and deceit. Sometimes people lie for no good reason, and perhaps wealth and power make them feel as though they can, because there are entirely no repercussions for them. I hate rich fuckers.

臥虎
(Wo Hu, a.k.a. Operation Undercover)
With its hundreds of undercover police officers in the mob, it seems 臥虎 is trying to go one better on Infernal Affairs... except 王晶 (Wong Jing), king of lowbrow comedy and exploitation flicks in Hong Kong, is involved. This means that there's moments of bizarre comedy sitting side by side with heavy (well, trying to be, anyway) drama, which, unless you're a master, simply doesn't work at all. Oh well, at least it didn't have breasts all over the place. Wait, that might've been an improvement.

Flushed Away
To be honest, I didn't have high expectations for this at all, especially strange since this is coming from Pixar. But the trailers promised nothing more than a silly flick with potty humor (literally) aimed at the kids. Trailers lie, though, because there's actually quite a bit of droll Brit humor in here that's hilarious, as well as random gags and slapstick reminiscent of Stephen Chow in his heyday. Lots of fun.


Indigènes (Days of Glory)
This is an Important film about Important Issues, and look no further for proof than the French government. Apparently after this film was screened, they changed their policies to recognize the efforts of the Algerian soldiers and gave them proper benefits. However, it doesn't make this any more than a by-the-book war film. Been there, seen that.



Ian Fleming's Casino Royale
James Bond goes hardcore. He's tougher, more of a badass than ever before, and it works, gloriously. From a spectacular opening chase to no poker matches that are no less exciting, this is great entertainment. Too bad about the lacklustre finale - I don't know how any climax set in a sinking building could be any less exciting. Perhaps I was just overloaded from everything that had gone on before. Besides, that whole last act seemed unnecessary.

NAGASAKI・1945 アンゼラスの鐘
(Nagasaki 1945 - The Angelus Bells)
Plays like something from local TV - well-meaning, but so clumsy and heavy-handed in its execution that you just get turned off. Important Lessons about humanity, selflessness and the atomic bomb are presented to you every oh, three minutes or so, to the extent that I felt like I was in a civics lesson in secondary school. And I hated secondary school civics lessons. Then again, the opening credits should've been a warning, seeing how many government agencies supported and endorsed this anime. Anything this loved by any government must not be any good.

Happy Feet
I must admit, I underestimated this movie. "Singing and dancing penguins? What the fuck?" were my thoughts as I watched the trailers. And the annoying "turn off your phone" ad that repeated endlessly in theatres didn't help. That being said, the themes were handled well and the animation was gorgeous. Robin Williams was annoying in multiple roles, but that's to be expected. It was all good up until the ending, which wrapped up a complicated global issue so quickly and neatly that it betrays the entire movie that had gone before.

Janji Joni (Joni's Promise)
Never underestimate a country just because they're poor; they can be as entertaining as anybody else. A film delivery boy must deliver the next reel of a movie from one theatre to another to win the heart of a pretty girl. It's usually a snap for him, but today just might be his unlucky day. Great slapstick, physical humor, visual gags and fun dialogue make for a fun time at the movies.


Der Freie Wille (The Free Will)
This is the cinematic equivalent of a car wreck - it's ugly and horrible, but you just can't look away. I must emphasize though, that it's the characters and the situations that are ugly and horrible, and not the movie, though it's really long and slow (although the deliberate pacing is necessary). It's a credit to the cast and direction that it ends up absorbing instead of boring.


Hundstage (Dog Days)
After the punishing movie above, I somehow felt compelled to inflict further cinematic punishment on myself and went to this utterly ugly movie. Lots of ugly people do horrid things to themselves and to each other. It's quite something when the character that arouses the most sympathy is an annoying retard that goes around hitching rides and forcing her extremely inappropriate questions upon people. I came out feeling very dirty.

Quinceañera
This seems to be a good month for coming-of-age tales. Quinceañera is sensitive and moving, as a pregnant-although-technically-still-a-virgin Hispanic girl and her sexually ambiguous cousin move in with their kooky uncle and the three form a makeshift family that seems stronger than other "normal" ones. The writers-cum-directors love all of these characters, and it never really shows that these two guys are gay white men, as far removed from their creations as they can get. This movie has lots of heart, and makes you feel good without a single false or forced note.

Glastonbury
From the looks of it, Glastonbury is a really cool festival to hang out at, even though it was much cooler when it first started, with people walking around and dancing naked, and even getting down in broad daylight in public. Too bad this documentary is complete shite, with lots of clips of performers but no point and focus at all.