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Showing all reviews beginning with B
The Butterfly Effect
Time travel in films can always be a bit of a risky topic, and casting an actor who is most well know for silly teen comedies and being the annoying host of a show on MTV which pulls pranks on celebrities seems like a bad idea.
Before seeing the film, my biggest preconceptions where that Ashton Kutcher was gonna be rubbish, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised as he plays the most serious role I've ever seen him in.
The Butterfly Effect tells the story of Evan, as a child Evan suffers from blackouts at key stages in his life, mainly when bad things are happening around him. He is recommended to keep a journal of his life to help him remember the missing parts of his memory, which he continues to do. As a student, he returns to the town he left when he was a child and speaks to an old friend about her abusive father, she subsequently kills herself. Evan discovers while reading some old journals that he can travel back to the time of the blackout and re-live it, upon doing so he changes the future and when he wakes up, he is in what seems like a perfect alternate reality. However, things soon change and he must try to change history once again to fix the new problems created.
The Butterfly Effect takes the idea that small changes in history can have devastating effects on the course of events.
Kutcher gives a reasonable performance, far removed from his usual comedy style. The story is well told and directed. The films comes to a chilling climax as Evan strives to right his life.
Overall, The Butterfly Effect is a pretty good film, with an interesting plot and a performance from Ashton Kutcher which transforms him from a bad comic actor to someone worth watching.
Buffalo Soldiers
Set in West Germany in 1989 at the height of the cold war, Buffalo soldiers tells the story of Ray Elwood, an American soldier stationed in Germany. He does some dodgy stuff on the side, selling army supplies and cooking Morphine into Heroin for sale to soldiers on the base.
When a new top Sargeant arrives at the base, he doesn't take too kindly to Elwood, even moreso when Elwood begins dating his daughter. Eventually the sargeant discovers Elwoods side business and goes after him.
Ray Elwood is played by Joaquin Phoenix (Signs, Gladiator) and although I find him a bit annoying, he does a reasonable job in this role. The film is quite funny in places as well as having a reasonable plot. Although not amazing, it is reasonably entertaining throughout and a good laugh.
バトル ロワイアル (Battle Royale)
Battle Royale has to be one of my favourite films. It follows the story of a class of school children who are selected under the BR(Battle Royale) act. Under the BR act the class are taken to a remote island and have to fight each other to the death until only one remains. Each child is given a bag with a range of weapons, ranging from guns to knifes to less useful utensils with one boy being given a pot lid. The story follows the classmates as they each make the decision on how they are going to cope with the circumstances. In particular it follows a boy and a girl who feel there must be a way off the island without having to kill everyone. This film is violent, with dark comedy moments, all in all a great piece of cinema.
Big Fish
Director Tim Burton's (Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow) Big Fish tells the story of Edward Bloom, a man who's life is defined by tall tales. Since an early age Will Bloom has heard his father tell his incredible stories, but when he is grown up he realises his father's tales can't be true and feels like he doesn't know the real Edward Bloom. The film follows Will as he tries to find the truth behind his father's stories while at the same time telling some of the tales.
The adventures Edward has told of are numerous and involve such topics as witches, giants and some heroics during the Korean war. As the action moves between the present day and the tales we get a sense of the normal everyday juxtaposed with the fantasy of the make believe. The young Edward Bloom is played very well by Ewan McGregor.
Tim Burton brings us a well written, highly imaginative film with some very immersive stories from Edward's life but at the same time delivers an emotional side with the present day story line. The film is a good length and the different stories help to keep the viewers attention throughout. All in all I'd highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to see something different and who is not put off by the sometimes fairy tale like stories.
Bangkok Haunted
In a bar in Thailand, three women tell three ghost stories. The film follows through each story and so is kind of three short films in one. The story lines jump around quite a bit and it can get a little confusing, the camera work is great and at times the film is a little unsettling, although not as scary as other East Asian horror movies such as The Eye or Dark Water.
The first story tells of an antique drum, which is haunted and brings bad luck to the modern day finder. The second of a love potion which has some unsettling side effects and the third about a cop working on an apparent suicide case.
Overall, the film is a bit weird but very good. A lot of it didn't seem to make sense at the time, but thinking about it later it makes more sense.
Bangkok Dangerous
Another Tartan Asia Extreme Film, and another great film. The story follows a deaf mute hitman by the name of Kong and his partner. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but the story centres on the assinations he carries out and his relationship with a young woman who works in a pharmacy. The story is not just of guns and violence but also of how his actions have repercussions for others. I highly recommend this film to any fan of Asian cinema.
Brain Dead
When Lionel's overpowering mother is bitten by an exotic rat monkey and subsequently turns into a zombie, Lionel tries to cover it up, but as other members of the town are bitten by her and also become zombies his secret becomes increasingly hard to hide. Add to this a story of forbidden love, lots of blood, more gore than you can shake the soggy end of a severed limb at and a Kung Fu priest ('I kick Arse for the Lord!') and you have one of the best comedy horror films ever. Directed by Bad Taste director Peter Jackson before he was known as Peter 'Lord of the Rings' Jackson, this film is, like the Evil Dead films, a fine example of how much fun low budget comedy horror films can be. The film is very gorey towards the end and if you don't like blood or zombies being impaled and cut up then you probably shouldn't watch, for the rest of you I highly recommend you watch this film.
Blood: The Last Vampire
Blood: The Last Vampire follows a young girl named Saya, the last living original vampire and part of a team hunting down and destroying demons. Although pretty short (48 mins or so), this is a great movie, the animation looks really nice, and is a mixture of 2D and 3D CGI. The movie contains both English and Japanese dialog as it is set in a US airforce base in Japan so the Americans speak English and the Japanese speak Japanese. The story is good and the battles between Saya and the demons are great, apart from being a little on the shortside this film is very good and well worth watching.
Bulletproof Monk
I didn't have very high hopes of this film from the start even although Sean William Scott's other films have been reasonably humorous (Dude Where's My Car, Roadtrip, American Pie). Starring Sean William Scott as young pickpocket Karl and Chow Yun Fat as a monk (just called monk, he has no name) who must guard a secret scroll which gives whoever reads it ultimate power, the monk meets up with Karl and as he tries to protect the scroll from a Nazi who has been after it since WWII he realises that Karl may be the next keeper of the scroll. This film is pretty poor, there are a couple of humourous moments, but the rest is made up of really cheesy action and dodgy special effects. One to watch only if you are really bored and can't find anything else.
Brother
Another film written, directed by and starring Takeshi Kitano/Beat Takeshi, Brother tells the story of Yamamoto, a Yakuza who leaves Japan for America after his family is taken over by another family who want him dead because he is too dangerous.
Once in America, Yamamoto meets up with his little brother who is a small time drug dealer, Yamamoto goes on a crusade to establish the Yakuza as the number one gang in the area, recruiting more and more until the attract the attention of the Mafia. Beat Takeshi plays his usual role of the hard ass guy who says very little but kicks a lot of butts. This film is full of action and violence and is a great Gangster/Yakuza movie. Any fan of Takeshi Kitano's other films will enjoy this.
Bloodred Hatred
Is it Thrash Metal, is it Death Metal? Do I care? It rocks and that's enough for me. Denmark's Hatesphere's second studio album, Bloodred Hatred is pretty good. With guitars which range from crunching to squealing through fast riffs and excellent drumming, Hatesphere show us that it's not only the American's which have the stranglehold on the current metal scene. With catchy riffs a plenty, Bloodred Hatred is one album that has been playing continously since I picked it up.
The Bourne Supremacy
The second in the series starring Matt Damon as CIA agent turned fugitive Jason Bourne. When Bourne is framed for the murder of a CIA agent in Berlin even although he was in India at the time, he is forced out of hiding to clear his name and discover more of his past.
The Bourne Identity was a reasonable film, but not amazing, The Bourne Supremacy is definitely better and as a film in it's own right is pretty good. The plot is really good and the acting reasonable, although Matt Damon isn't exactly the best actor in the world. As a sequel, Supremacy has the advantage that since it is based on a series of novels (albiet this is more the second half of the first book), it was always written as a sequel and isn't just a contrived bolt on to make a bit more money out of the first film.
Overall, the Bourne Supremacy is definately better than the Bourne Identity and any fans of the first should go see it. This is how sequels should be.
Blunt
A couple of years ago I picked up Jor's debut album Blunt after hearing them on the Radio One rock show. In recent times, there has been some great metal coming out of England, Jor, Landmine Spring and Coma Kai to name a few. Jor are one of those bands. The 9 track album runs to less than 40 minutes and every song is a classic, great guitars, drums and vocals which are heavy without descending into screaming.
Jor are proof that the English metal scene is still alive and with less well known acts like Jor, Landmine Spring producing great albums like this who needs the bucket loads of nu-metal pish which the Americans are currently churning out.
Bad Santa
Bad Santa tells the story of conman, Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) and his partner in crime Marcus (Tony Cox, Me, Myself & Irene). Every Christmas Marcus and Willie get jobs in the Santa's grotto of a department store, then rip it off on Christmas Eve, emptying the safe and disappearing until the next year.
Willie is the most unlikely Santa ever, he hates kids; has a foul temper and is an alcoholic who is always drunk on the job. Things take a turn for the strange when Willie ends up staying with a strange kid he befriends.
The humour in Bad Santa is very dark, Billy Bob Thornton is excellent in his role as the store Santa who hates Christmas. Almost every line is hilariously funny and incredibly well delivered. Although a Christmas movie, Bad Santa takes all the Christmas cheer out of it, a great movie for people who are sickened by the usual cheery Christmas movies.
Overall, a pretty funny Christmas film with a difference. If you go and see it look out for the best cameo ever near the end when none other than Sherrif John Bunnel of World's Scariest Police Chases fame.
バトル ロワイアル 2 : レクイエム (Battle Royale II: Requiem)
Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale is one of my favourite films, it is extreme cinema at it's best. A dark premise with great performances from the whole cast. Because of this I was interested in seeing the sequel, Battle Royale 2. Whereas while making the original Kinji Fukasaku had the excellent novel by Koushun Takami to work with, BR2 is an entirely new story. The death of Kinji Fukasaku during the making was also a blow with Kenta Fukasaku stepping up to finish his fathers film.
The film is set 3 years after the first and sees Shuya Nanahara, a survivor from the first film forming an underground terror organisation and declaring war against the Grown-Ups. To try to end this uprising, the Government starts the 2nd BR program which sees a class of 42 students sent to the island where Nanahara is hiding to kill him. One member of the team is Shiori Kitano, the daughter of a teacher (Beat Takeshi) who Nanahara killed in the first film. This sees the unwitting students pitted against Nanahara's guerilla movement.
Although there are similar themes to the first one, the film has none of the shock or originality of its predecessor, the acting is terrible and special effects are dodgy to say the least. There is also a thinly disguised Anti-American vibe whereby we hear about a long list of countries which another nameless country (blatantly America) has bombed in the past 60 years.
Overall, Battle Royale 2 follows up from an important film which is destined to be a classic, removes all the importance from it and gives us what is basically an overacted action film with some political undertones which are never really explored properly. As an action film, BR2 is reasonable, as the follow up to Battle Royale, BR2 is as dissapointing as you could get.
Being John Malkovich
Written by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich tells the story of striggling puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack). When he gets a new job at a strange company run by an eccentric old man, he falls in love with Maxine (Catherine Keener, a co-worker in the same building. One night while working late, he discovers a hidden door behind some filing cabinets which allows you to enter John Malkovich's mind and see the world through his eyes. Together, Maxine and Craig start selling the experience to other people, things get complicated when Craig's wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) gets involved.
The entire premise of the film is wonderfully bizarre, and the comedy throughout the movie is similarly surreal. Charlie Kaufman's screenplay is excellent, and all the actors involved give great performances.
Being John Malkovich has to be one of the most original films made recently and is well worth watching.
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Admittedly this is not my usual type of viewing, but there was nothing else on and well sometimes a reviewer has to go see films they don't really want to. Although the subtitle The Edge of Reason has a cheesy action movie ring to it, this film is far from that, being as it is a typically English Romantic Comedy, complete with Hugh Grant
The film starts 4 weeks after the first film (which incidentaly I haven't seen) left off, with Bridget (Renée Zellweger) in her new relationship with her lawyer boyfriend Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Almost straight away her insecurities get the better of her and things stop going as planned.
We are then treated to 100 or so minutes of Bridget getting her self into her usual (I assume) clumsy situations, including a disastrous skiing holiday and a trip to Thailand which doesn't go to plan either.
As far as films go, The Edge of Reason is by no means unwatchable, in fact I have to admit much of the jokes and comedy in the film were actually quite funny and all in all it was a reasonable film. I've seen far worse romantic comedies in my time, and at least it wasn't another Shriek or Jason X.
Bad Guy
Director Duk Kim-Ki is no stranger to extreme cinema his film The Isle was pretty nasty in places, so it's no surprise that another of his films, Bad Guy is also a tale of violence and nastiness.
When Han-ki sees a pretty girl, Sun-hwa, on the street, he decides to go up to her and kiss her, needless to say she is less than impressed and her boyfriend steps in to give him a bit of a beating. Some passing Army guys also beat him up a bit and it all ends with Sun-hwa spitting on him. Han-ki isn't very pleased with this, so sets her up so she gets caught stealing a wallet; she is then forced to go to a loan shark to repay her debts and when she can't pay is forced into prostitution at a brothel for which Han-ki happens to be a pimp.
The film then continues from here telling the story of Sun-Hwa's life of forced prostitution and her feelings for Han-Ki whom she starts to fall for despite all the really shitty things he's done to her.
Bad Guy is violent and deals with some pretty messed up stuff, as a film it's not too bad, but not really cheery family viewing. Only really one to watch if you are a fan of extreme Korean cinema.
3-4x 10月 (Boiling Point)
Takeshi Kitano aka Beat Takeshi nevers fails to dissapoint, known for writing, directing and starring in many a film, Boiling Point was the first film which he wrote and directed himself.
The story tells of a young Gas Attendant named Masaki when he gets into trouble with the Yakuza, his baseball coach Iguchi an ex-Yakuza goes to see them to try and sort the matter, but ends up making it worse and getting himself seriously injured. Masaki and a friend travel to Okinawa to get a gun, here the meet up with another Yakuza, Uehara (Kitano).
The film has a very surreal comedy element to it in places and is shot with no background music, and in a lot of scenes only minamal dialogue. As with many of his other movies, Kitano's character says very little, the main character Masaki is also a shy retiring type who hasn't much to say.
Beautifully bizarre in places, action filled in others but captivating throughout, Boiling Point shows that Kitano's skill as a film-maker has been there from the start. Anyone who has seen and enjoyed any of Kitano's other films will enjoy Boiling Point and if you aren't familiar with Kitano's work then this film is as good a place as any to start.
Bunshinsaba
When 3 girls, who are bullied at school try to call up an ancient spirit to attack their bullies, one of the girls becomes possessed by the spirit of a girl from the same village who died 30 years earlier. When the bullies start to die, she begins to get worried and calls on the help of her teacher and the local psychic to help her.
Although there is very little in the film which is original and hasn't been done before, director Byeong-ki Ahn manages to create a film which is genuinely scary. Although not as scary as other Korean or Eastern Asian films, Bunshinsaba did have a couple of shocks and goosebumps in one or two places.
Much like his previous film Phone, in Bunshinsaba, Byeong-ki Ahn takes tried and tested material and rolls it into a slightly scary, watchable horror movie which is worth checking out if you are a fan of the genre.
Blow
Blow tells the true story of George Jung (Johnny Depp) a man who was a bug time player in the American Cocaine market during the 70's. The film chronicles Jung's life from when he moved to California in the early 70's and started dealing Marijuana, realising he could make more money importing it himself he started flying Marijuana over the border from Mexico. While spending time in jail his cellmate was an American of Columbian descent who knew about Cocaine, so on his release from prison, Jung moved from importing Marijauna to importing Cocaine.
The film takes us through the ups and downs of Jung's life as an importer of illegal drugs into the United States. The story is a very interesting one and entertaining throughout. Depp gives an outstanding performance and with supporting roles from Penelope Cruz and Franka Potente (Run Lola Run, The Bourne Supremacy).
Overal, great story, great acting and a well made film.
Baby Cart at the River Styx
The second film in the Baby Cart/Lone Wolf and Cub series of films; Baby Cart at the River Styx sees Ogami Itto take a job to kill a farmer who if he should fall into the hands of the Shogunate would give up a secret dye recipe. Meanwhile, the shogunate hire a group of females Ninja assassins in an attempt to rid the world of Ogami Itto once and for all.
The content of the film is much the same as Sword of Vengeance; a good old fashioned Samurai film with lots of over the top blood and some decent sword fights. The plot is decent and engaging throughout. While there's not much in the film to make it stand out as anything other than a reasonable Samurai movie it's worth watching if you are a fan of the genre.
Babycart to Hades
Film No. 3 in the Babcart/Lone Wolf and Cub series ([1][2]). Babycart to Hades sees Ogami Itto take a contract to assassinate the deputy of a fief. This leads to him being set up against an army of warriors armed not only with the deadly sword, but bows and guns.
As far as the Babycart films go, Babycart to Hades is pretty typical of the series, over the top violence, lots of blood and some amazing sword fighting scenes. This installment features a little more guns than the previous two and the cart has been kitted out with some extra tricks. There is a lot of samurai philosophy, perhaps more than would be picked up on by the casual viewer.
Babycart to Hades is a a worthy addition to the Babycart series, but newcomers should probably start at the start with Sword of Vengeance as by this point a lot of the characters and back plot has been explained and although not required 100% does add to the film.
Maybe not a film I'd recommend to the casual viewer but for fans of the Babycart series or Samurai films in general, definately worthy of a watch.
Baby Cart in Peril
Film number 4 in the Baby Cart series ([1][2][3]) and more of the same. This time we see Ogami Itto paid to assassinate a tatooed woman who has defected from her clan. Still being pursued by those from his past life who wish to see him dead.
In terms of content and style, the 4th film is pretty much identical to the first 3, over the top bloody violence, large sword fights and many a limb being chopped off. Although the film is definately no worse than the previous 3, the slightly lower score is because it brings little further to the table.
One to watch for fans of the Lone Wolf and Cub series and perhaps fans of Samurai films in general, although it's probably best to start at the start rather than jumping straight in to this film.
ä¸å›½ã®é³¥äºº (The bird people in China)
When Wada is sent to China by his company to investigate a possible Jade seam in the Chinese mountains, he is tailed by Ujiie, a Yakuza who's syndicate is owed money by Wada's company. Together the two are taken deep into the Chinese countryside to a remote mountain village. In this village they encounter a group of villagers who believe it is possible to fly using strap on wings, both Wada and Ujiie become engrossed in the culture of the village.
The Bird People in China is in some ways completely different from other Takashi Miike films, but it still has his stamp all over it with his offbeat and dark comic tones coming through. The film is visually stunning, with the vast, stunning scenery of the Chinese mountains being depicted in vivid colours. The combination of these amazing vistas with the quiet contemplative tone of the film makes for a touching, beautiful movie which still manages to throw in some important social questions just to keep the viewer on their toes.
The Bird People In China has to be one of, if not the most beautiful of Miike Takashi's works and is a stark contrast to some of his other more violence driven movies.
Batman Begins
Batman's fifth big screen outing and with Christian Bale taking up the role of Batman we go back to the start and follow Bruce Wayne as he takes up his role as Gotham's Dark Knight. Batman's first outing sees him go up against villains who plan to envelop Gotham in panic through the use of a fear inducing drug.
Batman Begins is a pretty good Batman movie all considered, Bale is decent in his role and while some critics have said it lacks humour, Michael Caine's character of Albert the Butler is campy as hell and has very few serious lines. The action is entertaing throughout although all the man to man fighting scenes are found lacking as the descend into a nasty mess of hundreds of cuts where you can't actually see what is happening.
Definately one of the better comic book adaptations and Batman adaptations in particular.
Babycart in the Land of Demons
The 5th and Penulimate film in the Lone Wolf and Cub Series ([1][2][3][4]) sees Ogammi Itto tracked down by 5 Ronin who wish to test his skill before offering him a mission. After defeating the 5, Itto must recover a scroll in order to preserve the integrity of the Kuroda clan.
There's not much to say about Babycart in the Land of Demons which I haven't already said about the previous four films; it's a good old fashioned Samurai flick with a reasonable plot, some great fight scenes and a lot of blood. One thing I would say is that by this point the same old Itto takes a job, fights some people and then kills a whole lot of people is getting a little overdone. If you've seen a couple of the Lone Wolf and Cub films, there's not really any need to see this one unless you are a die hard fan of the series.
Bad News Bears
When a foul mouthed, drunk, washed up ex-professional baseball star (Billy Bob Thornton) is recruited to coach a team of misfit kids he has a struggle on his hands. He must turn the group into a team which can beat the smug Roy Bullock in the championship.
With Bad News Bears starring Billy Bob Thorton cast as a foul mouthed drunk who has to deal with children, it sounds a bit like the excellent Bad Santa but that's where the comparisons stop. The jokes just aren't as funny, relying pretty much on how offensive they are rather than being particularly witty.
There are some mildly amusing moments however, although not enough to make the film any good.
달콤한ì¸ìƒ (A Bittersweet Life)
A Bittersweet Life tells the story of Sun-Woo who works for a hotel as part of a gang with ties with organised crime. When his boss leaves for a business trip to Shanghai he is asked to keep an eye on the boss' young girlfriend who is suspected of being unfaithful. His boss' suspicions are correct but instead of killing both the girlfriend and her lover as instructed he lets them off warning them never to see each other again. This disregard for orders leads to a punishment from his boss which in turn sets the wheels in motion for an act of revenge.
A brutal and bloody tale of revenge, A Bittersweet Life is a classic example of extreme Asian cinema. The large fight scenes are spectacular to watch, with Sun-Woo taking on numerous attackers at once and kicking some serious amount of ass. One to watch for fans of the genre.
The Black Angel
Ikko, the grand-daughter of a Yakuza boss is raised from birth as the daughter of the boss, but at the age of 6 when her family is wiped out in a bloody power struggle, she is put onto a plane to L.A. by a female assassin who goes by the moniker "The Black Angel".
At the age of 20, Ikko returns to Tokyo to avenge the death of her father, going under the pseudonym of "The Black Angel" whom she respects and looks up to. When the original Black Angel is hired by the Yakuza to capture Ikko they are violently reunited.
Director Takashi Ishii (Gonin) gives us what he's good at, an action packed Yakuza movie full of guns, explosions and general violence. While perhaps not as well shot as other Yakuza movies by director's such as Takashi Miike or Takeshi Kitano; The Black Angel has a decent plot and enough action to keep the viewer entertained throughout. If you're looking for an exciting Yakuza action movie then The Black Angel is well worth watching.
Bewitched
Will Ferrel stars as Jack Wyatt, a washed up actor who in an attempt to boost his career takes the role of Darrin in a remake of the 60's TV series Bewitched. Things begin to get weird when he unwittingly casts a real witch (Nicole Kidman) as Samantha.
Plotwise Bewitched isn't anything special, a typical romantic comedy with the Bewitched backdrop; the writing is reasonably good though and both Ferrel and Kidman are good in their roles providing a good few laughs throughout the film.
Basic
When a squad of 6 Rangers and their Sergeant go into a live ammunition training mission in the Panama jungle, only 2 return alive, one with gunshot wounds to the leg and the other witnessed shooting one of his squad before he was retreived.
When the Ranger refuses to talk to a military investigator he demands another Ranger who he doesn't know is brought in to hear his story. The head of the base calls on an old friend of his ex-Ranger and DEA officer Hardy (John Travolta). Together Hardy and Osbourne (the investigator) must decipher what led to the death of the 4 soldiers and Sergeant West (Samuel L. Jackson).
The plot twists and turns as the story is told and then retold when it becomes clear that someone is being liberal with the truth. This leads to a movie which is engaging and enjoyable throughout as we discover more and more of what really happened. The acting is reasonable and the special effects during the Jungle scenes are decent.
The only bad point I would raise is that the end of the movie is a bit cheesy and could maybe have been toned down a little but overall Basic is a decent movie well worth a watch.
Broken Flowers
Don Johnstone (Bill Murray) is a rich playboy who has gone from woman to woman throughout his life, one day he receives an unsigned letter from an ex-lover warning him that he has a son he doesn't know about who has gone looking for him. His best friend Winston convinces him to make a list of women it could be and after narrowing it down to 5, he is given the itinerary for a trip which will see him visit each of the women in an effort to find his son.
Broken Flowers sees Bill Murray spend most of the movie silent with a bemused look on his face, as he travels between each of the women from his past he ends up in situations which border on bizarre and he ends up as an observer as the events play out.
This format to the movie makes for a quite slow movie where not much happens, fans of Bill Murray's more recent films will no doubt enjoy it as it is kind of like a whole movie made up of the Bill Murray parts of Lost in Translation.
Overall, Broken Flowers is a little slow and quite unsatisfying.
Black Angel 2
In true Takashi Ishii style, this sequel to Black Angel isn't so much of a sequel in terms of plot or character but more a continuation of the themes from the original. With the Black Angel having a different name and being played by a different actress.
The film tells the story of Mayu, a lone female assassin (The Black Angel of the title). When a hit on a gang boss goes wrong a young woman's husband is killed in the confusion. Mayu is thrown together with the man's widow as the woman seeks revenge for her husband's death and Mayu finishes her contract.
Black Angel 2 is typical Takashi Ishii, a dark gritty film about the seedy Tokyo underworld, with strong female characters. Each of the main character's in the film are interesting and while the film doesn't have a high budget feel or sheen it is well worth watching for fans of Ishii, or Yakuza movies in general.
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Set in France in the 1700's Brotherhood of the Wolf tells the story of Grégoire de Fronsac and his Native American friend Mani. In a province of France a strange beast is said to roam which eats women and children and holds the country people in a tight grip of fear. Fronsac and Mani attempt to track down the beast but it might just be that there is a secret behind it which it would be dangerous to unearth.
Brotherhood of the Wolf is an excellent action suspense with a great cast which also consists of Monica Belluci and Vincent Cassel.
Brokeback Mountain
Set against the backdrop of the mountains of Wyoming, Brokeback Mountain tells the story of two young men who meet once summer. Taking work as helpers on a sheep ranch, they must spend the summer alone in the mountains looking after the sheep. What begins as friendship develops into a love which they cannot continue after they return to their lives.
4 years after their experience on Brokeback, Both of the young men, Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) are married with children but their passion is rekindled when Jack seeks to meet up again.
Being referred to mainly as "that gay cowboy movie", Brokeback Mountain is so more than that, the whole movie is beautifully shot, the scenery of the mountains is stunning on a hugely grand scale. The story of forbidden love between Jack and Ennis is both sad and joyful at the same time and while I found the movie is a little slow paced towards the end, the character development is engaging and intruiging.
Brokeback Mountain is a movie which (in this country at least) is probably a little ahead of its time, a scene involving Ennis' wife witnessing the two men kissing was met with laughter rather than the shock or sadness which it should have received if it had been a wife discovering her husband was cheating with another woman.
Overall, Brokeback Mountain is a beautifully made movie which may well come to be an important event in cinema history.
Best In Show
Best In Show is a "mocumentary", following several different dog breeders as they put their dogs in for the annual Mayflower Kennel Club dog show. Each of the characters has their own unique eccentricities and the jokes are delivered in a completely dead pan manner, never breaking from the stride of the Documentary style the film uses throughout.
With a number of strange and humourous characters and comedy throughout which is at times both obvious and more subtle, Best in Show takes a rather strange subject matter and produces a good comedy from it.
Born to Fight
When Deaw, a Thai Police officer (the action movie kind that is allowed to shoot loads of people) loses his partner when a drug bust goes wrong he decides to tag along on a charity trip to a small village near the Thai border that his sister is making with the Thai National Sports Team. Deaw and the team run into trouble when the village is taken hostage by terrorists intent on releasing a drugs baron from jail and destroying Bangkok with a nuclear missile.
While the plot is as ridiculous as it sounds, Born to Fight makes up for this with non-stop action. 10 minutes in there is a huge set piece involving stuntmen jumping between and rolling off two moving trucks before they are consumed in a massive explosion. Throughout the rest of the movie there is a vast number of gunfights, hand to hand combats and a lot more stunt falls which look impossible.
Born to Fight is similar to Ong-Bak in many ways, from the realism of it's stunts to the brutal violence, although is not quite as good as while the stunts are impressive, they don't have the same level of brilliance as Tony Jaa's in Ong-Bak.
Overall, Born to Fight offers very little in terms of plot but if you want to see mindless action by the bucketload, you're in for a treat.
The Bodyguard
Petchtai Wongkamlao who starred in Ong-Bak as Tony Jaa's sidekick returns with a main role in the Thai Action/Comedy The Bodyguard.
Wong Kom (Wongkamlao) is the bodyguard of a wealthy businessman, but despite his best efforts his boss is assassinated. His boss' son Chaichol inherits his father's companies and blames Wong Kom for his father's death and shuns his help. He soon finds himself in trouble and on the run as a he is tracked down by his father's assassins. He finds refuge with a dysfunctional family in the slums where he finds there is more to life than his wealth.
The Bodyguard has some great action set pieces; the opening gun-fight is pretty well done and a car chase ensues which ends with the simultaneous mid-air crashing of 4 no less than 4 cars. The action is backed up with a range of comedy situations, including a naked chase through the streets and a Dance off between the Bodyguard and a Wu-Shu warrior.
Tony Jaa makes a small cameo with the screenplay fitting in a little gag about his role in Ong-Bak.
Overall, The Bodyguard is a reasonably funny action/comedy with some good action scenes.
The Break Up
Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston star in The Break Up, a comedy about the break up of a couple. After argument, Gary (Vaughn) and Brooke (Aniston) decide that they no longer wish to be together and split the house into two leading to mildy humourous consequences. When Brooke realises she has made a mistake, can she get Gary back?
The film isn't really as funny as it is made out to be, but having said that, there are a few laughs in there. There is a lot of shouting, some arguments uncomfortable to watch and while there isn't a lot to the plot, it does defy expectations at the least. Aniston and Vaughn are good enough in their roles, but all in all, there isn't too much there to impress.
Bring it On
It's the start of a new term and Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) has just been announced as the new head cheerleader charged with taking the award winning team to the final of the National Cheerleading championships. Things don't start of well for Torrance when one of the team injures herself and they need to get a replacement. New girl, Missy (Eliza Dushku) steps in with some intial friction but once one problem is seemingly solved, Torrance finds another when Missy reveals to her, all their cheers are ripped off from an opposing team, Torrance has only a few weeks before the Regionals to create and learn a new routine.
Bring it On is a completely trashy teen movie, but for some reason is enjoyable to watch. The plot isn't exactly complex and the acting is as to be expected but there is something to the movie which means you can just chill out, not think about anything and just enjoy the cheerleading.
Brick
Brick is an intriguing "who done it" mystery film, the story follows Brendan, a High School Student who receives a panicked and cryptic call from his ex-girlfriend. When he tries to contact her she warns him to stay away but soons turns up dead. Brendan is determined to find the killer and must infiltrate a local crime ring in order to do so.
Brick is a refreshing change from most American High School movies; the dialogue has a unique feel to it, with each character starting their sentence with little pause after the previous line, a lot of Noir slang is thrown in which adds another level to the dialogue.
The plot is well written with a good balance of action and storytelling and the main players act their characters well. The film is also well directed and presented with bold bright colours in the outdoor shots.
Overall, brick is something a little different and a little refreshing, well worth a watch.
Bad Taste
When an alien invasion threatens New Zealand, the Government send in The Boys to defeat Lord Crumb and his gang of zombie like aliens who want to pack up the human race into boxes and sell them as snacks across the galaxy.
Shot on a very low budget, Bad Taste has a bit of a cult following, I hadn't seen it since I was about 17, but held fond memories of the movie. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't really warrant the following it has. Unsurprisingly the acting is terrible and the screenplay pretty dire; I found the film didn't hold my attention at all. On the plus side, there are some reasonably good special effects considering the budget.
A lot of the gore and gags probably appealed to me more when Bad Taste was something I had never seen before, but 8 years later, I've seen far more shocking cinema and most of the jokes just aren't that funny. Overall not a movie I'd be in a hurry to see again.
Borat
Sacha Baron Cohen, creator of Ali G returns to the big screen with another comic creation of his, the bumbling Kazakh news report Borat whose knowledge of the Western world is limited. The movie builds of the loose premise that Borat has been sent to America by the Government of Kazakhstan to make a movie about who America can help the struggling Kazakh ecomony.
What follows is a series of linked sketches in which the American people meet the completely un-PC Borat. While some of the bigger stunts are obviously staged, the smaller ones seem to be real American's reactions as Borat tries to make friends in America.
The character is so out of touch with what is acceptable in society, that the entire film is one big cringe fest as he says terrible things and gets himself into situations where you just know someone is likely to punch him or worse.
In places, the movie is hilariously funny, with the humour coming from Borats un-PC attitude and the responses he gets to this from the general public.
Bloody Brotherhood
Two Chinese brothers, Chueng Ka-Wai and Cheung Ka-Wah (Andy Lau) attempt to enter Hong-Kong illegally in search of a better life. Ka-Wai is caught and sent back to the mainland, whereas Ka-Wah makes the crossing and starts a new life in Hong Kong.
He initially workers as a hawker on the streets, but when his stall is attacked by some Triad's looking for protection he goes to their boss, Tong Fai, with an intent to beat him. Impressed by Ka-Wai's bravado, Tong Fai hires him and he slowly begins his rise in the Triads.
Without giving too much of the plot away, Ka-Wai eventually returns to Hong Kong as a killer for a rival gang and finds himself in a fight with his brother.
Bloody Brotherhood is a story of Triads and organised crime with a tone of the importance of family and brotherhood. The plot is pretty predictable and as soon as Ka-Wai returns you know that his paths will cross with Ka-Wah's.
There are a number of big action fight scenes and Andy Lau has some impressive martial arts moves. Well presented and well worth a watch if you are a fan of Triad movies.
Zwartboek (Black Book)
Set during the occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, Black Book follows Rachel, a young Jewish women in hiding from the Nazi's. When her safe house is bombed by a damaged plane ditching bombs in order to climb, she is given the opportunity to escape to Belgium. But things don't go as planned and her entire family along with everyone else on the boat are murdered by the German army. She is picked up by members of the dutch resistance who persaude her to undertake a dangerous mission to get close to a German officer in order to bug the Gestapo headquarters.
Black Book is a war drama which focuses on life in the occupied Netherlands rather than fighting on the front lines. Well made and presented throughout, with great acting from the cast. The plot is decent, although the film does seem to lose direction at the end turning into a bit of a mess for a short time.
Overall, a well made an interesting film which could have been better in places but which is excellent for the most part.
Babel
A tale of human communication is told through 4 interlocking stories, a Morrocan goatherder, a married couple on holiday, a Mexican maid in charge of two children and a Japanese schoolgirl who is deaf and mute. Well shot and told throughout as we flick between the storylines, each on a slightly skewed timeline so that the connection does not always appear obvious at first.
The plot is interesting and engaging and the acting from lead cast members, Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Rinko Kikuchi is excellent. While 3 of the main plotlines have strong connections between them, the Japanese plot is only loosley related, which is a shame as it is perhaps the most heartfelt of the four.
All in all, a good movie which is worth watching even if it does have a few flaws.
Brotherhood
In June of 1950, the North Korean Army started an attack on the South which plunged the penisula into war. Two brothers Jin-tae Lee and Jin-seok Lee from the South are drafted to fight against their will. Jin-tae, the elder brother wishes to protect his younger brother so volunteers for the most dangerous missions he can, having cut a deal with his commanding officer that his brother can go home should he win a medal.
Jin-seok begins to notice that after becoming somewhat of a hero his elder brother has changed and his kind manner has been replaced with someone obsessed with fighting the war. The war which split the two countries finally splits the bond between the two brothers.
Stunningly shot, an action packed, Brotherhood is unrelenting in it's depiction of the horrors of war. Very little of the movie is set away from the battlefield with a large part of the movie containing epic scenes of fighting. The plot is top notch and the acting from the two leads excellent as the relationship between the brothers disintegrates.
Brotherhood is an excellent war film set during a conflict which is perhaps less famous than others of the time.
Blood Diamond
Set in Sierra Leone during the height of it's brutal civil war, Blood Diamond follows Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) a Fisherman from a rural village. When militia men come to his town, he is separated from his wife and children, while they go on the run, he is put to work in a forced labour camp searching for diamonds to fund the anti government R.U.F.
When he finds a large diamond, he attempts to conceal it from the gunmen holding him captive but as he hides it, the camp is stormed by Government troops who jail both the R.U.F. gunmen and the workers in the camp. It is in jail where Vandy meets diamond smuggler Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio).
Archer sees his chance to get rich off Vandy's find and goes about offering him the chance to get his family back in exchange for a share of the profits from the diamond.
While predominantly an action movie, the film's subject area has strong warnings of the damage caused by so called conflict diamonds. Diamonds smuggled out of war torn African states and sold to make money to buy weapons. The action scenes are epic, although seem a little over the top in parts and while the plot is obviously fictional; there is enough to link it with the real world to make it interesting and extremely watchable.
Overall, an excellent action movie with a serious issue behind it.
Bombon: El Perro
An Argentinian mechanic who loses his job at a petrol station is forced to move in with his daughter and her family. With strains at home he struggles to find another job until he helps out a woman on the side of the road with car troubles and is rewarded with a pedigree dog in return. He is introduced to the world of dog shows by an Accountant who informs him of how special the dog is.
A story which starts off sad moves on towards a heart-felt happy ending. Juan Villegas who plays the character of the mechanic goes through the movie with a faint smile on his face, looking bemused most of the time. He's just a nice guy trying to make a living to support himself. The dog of the title is also excellent on screen, giving a cute look here and there as it is driven about the barren countryside of Patagonia.
Bombon is a nice movie which makes for interesting viewing and leaves you with a warm feeling inside.
Big Trouble in Little China
Kurt Russell stars as Jack, a Trucker who whilst stopped in San Francisco's China Town finds himself thrown into an adventure involving Triads, an old Chinese mystic and a kidnapped girl. He and his friend Wang Chi must team up to rescue the girl and stop the powerful Lo Pan.
Despite hailing from the mid-80's Big Trouble in Little China hasn't aged too badly, the special effects are reasonable and the dodgy haricuts adds a touch of nostalgia to the whole thing. The gags are funny for the most part and the action exciting, it's kind of like a slightly more grown up version of the Goonies.
The acting is shoddy which is to be expected, but again this adds comedy to the movie rather from detracting from it. The standard find the bad guy and stop him plot is a good enough basis to build the film on.
Overall, a decent 80's movies which is still fun today.
Bullet in the Head
3 friends from 1960's Hong Kong mess about together and get in fights. When a disagreement with a gang leader ends in Fai being hit on the head with a bottle, Ah Bee (Tony Leung) takes Fai to avenge his friends injuries. When they go a little too far, the two friends find themselves in trouble with the law and along with the third member of the trio, Little Wing, they flee to Vietnam where they aim to exploit the war to make a lot of money.
They soon find themselves out of their depths in a country destroyed by war. With strong themes of brotherhood, friendship and the corrupting power of greed, Bullet in the Head offers an intellegent Action movie. Also refreshing is the different perspective on Vietnam that the film portrays as the main characters are in the middle of the war rather than fighting on either side.
The acting from the main three is good and Simon Yam has a good role as a supporting character the trio meet in Vietnam. With more than enough John Woo action to fill the movie, a good plot and a sad ending, Bullet in the Head is an excellent Hong-Kong action movie which offers more than just mindless violence.
Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles is a spoof western; when a black railroad worker is made sheriff of a small town inhabited by racists, he must win the hearts of the people to help save them and their town from a evil Attorney General who wants to seize their land so that when the railroad comes through the town he can make money off the back of it.
The film satirises not only the Wild West genre of films, but also racial intolerance and hatred. The comedy aspect is great, with most of the jokes still as funny and relevant as when it was written over 30 years ago.
Overall, a well written and immensley enjoyable comedy which has aged very well.
Be Cool
Picking up a number of years after Get Shorty, Be Cool sees the return of Chili Palmer (John Travolta). A record producer friend, meets Chili to ask him about making a film of his life; but is murdered soon afterwards. Chili decides to move from Movies into Music and teams up with his friend's ex-wife (Uma Thurman) to find the next big star. This leads him into trouble with the Russian Mafia and a rival record company.
Be Cool feels more like a remake than a sequel; although the plot has been changed, simply substitute music for film in the script and things are pretty similar. The majority of the jokes are identical to the first which makes the film so self-referential that it becomes tiresome.
Perhaps if you saw the sequel 10 years after the original it would be good in a reminiscent sort of way, but having seen neither film I watched them back to back which exaggerates the extent to which the second film contains so much old material.
Overall, a reasonable film in it's own right, but when watched as a sequel to Get Shorty becomes tiresome and offers little new.
Boris
Japanese metal act Boris aren't a band I'm hugely familiar with, but I headed along to see them with Neil anyway. Hugely versatile, they are famous for their hour long drone metal epics as well as some shorter, much faster paced and incredibly heavy tracks.
Opening up for Boris was one man "electro doom" outfit, Loss Leader although equipment troubles meant he cut is set short, what I heard was pretty interesting. The Boris crowd have to be one of the most supporting I've ever seen to a support act, encouraging him to go on regardless, but after 3 songs he left the stage.
Boris came on after a while and played a mix of songs, some incredibly heavy and fast paced and other slower consisting of more soundscapes produced by the two guitarists and drummer. Featuring a huge gong and a double necked guitar they were a sight to behold. Unfortunately due to the pathetic Scottish public transport system we had to leave at what I assume was almost the end of a song which had gone on for at least twenty minutes and for the past ten seemed to consist entirely of the end of songs. Usually you don't have a gong crescendo in the middle of the song, but what do I know about that.
Overall, extremely loud, extremely heavy and at times extremely beautiful.
The Bourne Identity
When Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) awakes to find himself on a fishing boat 60 miles off the coast of Southern France, he has no memory of who he is or how he gets there. With nothing more than a laser pointer showing the number of a safety deposit box to go on, he travels to Switzerland to find out more. He soon learns that he has knowledge and skills which everyday people don't have, an inbuilt instinct for fighting and a master of multiple European languages. The safety deposit box throws up more questions when he finds a number of passports all with his face, a gun and a large sum of cash.
It soon transpires that someone from his past life is looking for him and isn't too happy that he isn't dead; Bourne begins a mission to find out his past and find out who is after him. While the plot is pretty straightforward, most of the film builds up the characters for the rest of the trilogy. The actions scenes provide enough entertainment to make the simple plot worth watching.
Overall, the Bourne Identity is well made and exciting to a point, but on a second watching even a number of years later I found myself less drawn in and entertained than I thought I would have been.
Billy the Kid
15 year old Billy Price is a kid who himself professes to be "different", an outcast at school, Billy the Kid is a documentary which follows him in his daily life. Billy has an incredible down to earth and straight talking attitude, he says things as he sees them which is often very profound.
While Billy is undoubtably a very intellegent and entertaining person to watch, I didn't really understand why he would be the subject of a documentary. The film is well made and interesting to watch, but to me, it seemed a bit invasive of his life. A lot of the time, it seemed to me that the audience were laughing at Billy rather than with him.
Overall, interesting and insightful, but something about it didn't sit right with me.
Breath
When a bored housewife sees a story on the nightly news about a prisoner on death row who tried to commit suicide, she goes to visit him in jail. Taking with her a variety of props to try to help him come to terms with his impending death.
Breath is stunningly well paced and shot, compared to Kim's other work it is relatively less brutal and sadistic and at times even starts to become sweet and charming. Having said that, the theme of the movie is still dark as we see a prisoner on death row at the end of his tether. Like many of Kim's other works there is very little dialogue with the inmate not speaking at all and the housewife not speaking to her family.
Overall, another great movie from Kim Ki-Duk.
The Bourne Ultimatum
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is back and the CIA are still after him. Following on from where the last film left off, we rejoin Jason on his quest to find his hidden identity.
As with the previous two movies, the plot is pretty much "Bourne gets some information about something to do with his identity and goes on a mission to find out more". This loose completely forgettable plot is punctuated with a number of high octane action sequences which make for exciting viewing while you're there but little to think about, or even really remember afterwards.
There's a great car chase sequence, some fighting and a chase across the rooftops of Tangier all shot in Greengrass' annoying shaking camera with hundreds of quick cuts.
Aside from the MTV style camera work, the film is pretty good overall and a good end to a trilogy which has managed to keep momentum throughout rather than waning towards the end.
Battles
Despite turning up on time for the published 7pm start time, the doors didn't open until at least 8, by which time we were really ready to listen to some good music.
First on stage were the Dirty Projectors who were pretty good and like Battles fall into a very hard to describe category.
After a short break, Battles started to set up on stage, their masses of equipment were brought on and the drums set up right at the front of the stage, complete with a cymbal on a stand which easily topped 6ft, we were pretty excited and hoped to be in for something special.
Unfortunately when the band took the stage we weren't disappointed, launching straight into the last track on their album, Race: Out. As the song built up, it was clear that although the Mirrored album is pretty good, but live, Battles are amazing. Starting with short musical parts, they build them together layer on layer, tied together through the drums to create an incredibly dynamic sound. This sound is then stripped back down and built up again.
With very little chat between the songs and the sparse vocals so effect laden as to sound like real singing, the set felt very much like a DJ set rather than that of a live band. Which is all the more impressive as it was obvious that the members of the band were playing their specific brand of complicated, technical music live.
Overall, an amazing set from a band who are a joy to listen to.
Boredoms
Support was handled by Michael Gira, one man in his early 50's with only an acoustic guitar. The first track seemed a little strange considering he was supporting Boredoms but as his set progressed his style of dark/depressing lyrics on top of a heavy and raw guitar track came across as extremely powerful despite being quite stripped down.
I hadn't heard much Boredoms material previous to the concert and so didn't really know what to expect, although what actually happened was way off anything I would have guessed. Front man Yamantaka Eye appeared on stage with two lights in each hand and accompanied by a very distorted track of thundering bass noises and almost white noise he dances around the stage waving the lights. It was never clear if his movements were triggering the sound or if he was simply moving in time to the backing track, but the effect was pretty good none the less.
Then the really unexpected nature of the set was revealed as not 1, not 2 but 3 drummers took their places on stage at the 3 drum kits set up. And all 3 of them launched into a track of synchronised drumming backed by a pre-programmed track handled by Eye as well as accompianment from Eye on an instrument which appeared to be made of 8 large planks each stringed with 6 strings and pickups which he hit with drumsticks and each tuned to a different note. The effect was amazing, ridiculously loud and stunningly well performed.
Overall, one of the most original and surprising acts I've seen in a while.
Broken Wings
Broken Wings follows a mother and her 4 children 8 months after the death of the father of the family. The mother has to work nights as a midwife to provide for the family which leaves the eldest child, 17 year old Maya with more than her fair share of family responsibilities. To make things worse, her teenage brother is dropping out of school and her youngest brother and sister are struggling with the lack of the maternal attention.
The film follows the family of a period of only a couple of days as a family emergency brings them together at a time when they are each struggling to be their own person. Acted brilliantly by the entire cast, including some of the younger child actors, Broken Wings is a bittersweet story which is at times sad but still instils a sense of hope in the viewer.
The family and events are completely believable which makes the film even more poignant. Definitely one worth watching.
Beowulf (3D)
The epic English poem dating from between the 8th and 11th centuries gets the big screen treatment and as one of the largest movies of recent times to be presented in 3D, it's a sight to behold.
The story tells of a warrior named Beowulf who comes to Denmark to help a king rid a monster in his kingdom. We follow Beowulf as he confronts the monster and throughout the adventures he has in later life.
The film is computer generated but heavily based on actual camera footage to provide the basis for such, but it still retains a cheap computer game cut scene style to it. The 3D aspect is ok and as good as, if not better than most 3D films I've seen, but it still suffers from the odd ghosting and too much bluriness if the action gets too fast.
The acting is for the most part terrible, especially the accents of almost the entire cast who seem to sound Welsh rather than Danish except for Ray Winstone who voices Beowulf in a mostly indeterminate accent which slips into his London accent whenever anything too exciting happens ("I have come to slay your Monstaaa").
The story is probably the only outstanding part of the movie, but the effects, acting and voices detract from this quite a bit. Despite being so negative, I have to say that the film is entertaining, once you get past the terrible sexual innuendo gags that is.
Overall, a pretty badly done 3D epic action film which is bearable to watch but suffers from many a flaw.
Böse Zellen
This Austrian drama is entirely driven by its large web of interweaving characters. The story starts by following a young woman who survives a plane crash coming back to Austria for Brazil. Six years later she is killed in a car crash and it is then the film starts to pick up pace, following amongst others her widowed husband, best friend, brother and sister as well as the teenagers involved in the crash.
The plot is pretty much non-existant and instead we jump between the multitude of different characters each connected to a number of the others in many ways. This is all displayed through the changing seasons in a town in the midst of a frenzy to win house which is being given away in a lottery.
The direction, photography and acting is excellent and the distinct lack of any music on the soundtrack apart from any music which is happening on film provides an experience which seems real this is coupled with believable characters.
Overall, an interesting and captivating film from Austria which is worth watching.
Bamako
Set in the Malian Capital of Bamako during a court hearing which sees the World Bank and IMF put on trial by the African people to decide whether they are to blame for the poverty in which many African's live, Bamako shows us scenes from the trial in which lawyers from each side argue their case interspersed with stories from around the court room telling the tales of ordinary citizens of Mali.
Bamako is well shot and presented and the question at it's core, are the World Bank and IMF to blame for the situation in Africa, makes for the parts of the film which explore this question, interesting viewing. Unfortunately the film has too many scenes which in my opinion are overly long and detract from the overall point of the film, 5 minute scenes of a man chanting, a strange cowboy film intro and 2 scenes of a woman singing all could have been, in my opinion, cut to make a more compact and succint film.
Having said that, the film is intelligent and well made, so viewers more interested in Africa and African politics will probably get more from it than I did.
Balls of Fury
Randy Daytona was a child Ping Pong star of the '88 Olympics, but when he loses his match and his dad is killed by the Triads for unpaid gambling fees he gives up competitive Table Tennis. 18 years later he is working as a showman in Vegas using his Ping Pong skills in an attempt to entertain the crowds.
When the FBI approach him for help in trapping Triad boss Feng (Christopher Walken) Randy is drawn into a world of underground illegal Ping Pong where losing means instant deaths at the hands of the merciless Feng.
Balls of Fury is a sporting comedy in the mould of Dodgeball, the plot is so ridiculous it only backs up the comedy and while most of the gags are either obvious or slapstick if you are a fan of stupid movies then there is a lot there to laugh at.
Overall, a pretty funny film but perhaps not one for the more discerning cinema goer.
Bender's Big Score
2 years after Fox canned the Futurama TV series, it's back with the first of a few feature length episodes. Bender's Big Score sees all the characters from the TV show return on top form. The show follows the Planet Express delivery crew as the Earth is threatened to be over-run by a dastardly group of extra terrestrial scammers.
Animation and voice acting are the same high quality as the original TV shows, the plot is well written and involves time travel, so gets a little confusing although everything is neatly wrapped up by the end. Overall, the film hasn't lost any of the charm or wit of the TV series and if anything being able to watch Futurama uninterrupted for 90 minutes adds to the experience.
Overall, a great new addition to the Futurama series and one which should please Futurama fans everywhere.
Big Nothing
When Charlie (David Schwimmer) starts work at a call centre to try and support his family while waiting on his book to be published, he meets Gus (Simon Pegg). After losig his job after the first day, Gus lets him in on a plan he has to blackmail the local priest after acquiring some internet logs of his browsing history. Gus and Charlie are joined by Gus' friend Josie, but when the 3 of them go to collect the money things don't go as smoothly as planned.
Big Nothing is full of twists and turns, some feel a little convoluted, but for the most part it is a fun caper as Charlie gets more and more out of his depth and people reveal themselves to be other than what they seem. David Schwimmer plays pretty much the Ross role from Friends, Pegg is good as usual, his comic timing standing out, but his false American accent is hard to get used to. The rest of the cast or ok in their roles with no real stand out performances.
Humorous throughout, with an interesting plot, Big Nothing is by no means Oscar material but there is enough there for 1 hour and 20 minutes of mindless entertainment.
The Big Lebowski
Jeffrey Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is a middle aged, unemployed stoner who calls himself "The Dude" and spends most of his time hanging around the bowling alley with his friends Vietnam veteran Walter (John Goodman) and Donny (Steve Buscemi).
When a couple of hard men mistake him for another Jeffrey Lebowski and rough him up a little while demanding money, they urinate on his rug, Walter suggests maybe "The Dude" should claim reparations from the "Big" Lebowski which leads "The Dude" into a plot concerning pornographer's, kidnapping and embezzlement.
With a great cast which extends beyond Bridges and Goodman to encompase other big names such as Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Big Lebowski is a highly comedic crime caper which sees the laid back "Dude" thrown into a much more fast paced world.
With some unforgettable scenes and some great lines, The Big Lebowski is a film which is entertaining, funny and memorable.
The Barbarian Invasions
Remy, a university professor forced to retire when he was diagnosed by cancer lies on his death bed. His ex-wife calls his estranged son who travels from London to see him. Despite their differences, he arranges his father's medical care and organises for old friends from his father's past to come to the hospital where they reminisce about the old days.
The Barbarian Invasions is a touching story of one man's last days, despite his less than perfect life, when it comes to the very end, people are willing to forgive and forget and focus on the good times rather than bad. Driven mostly through the characterisation of the the main cast, the film has a dark comic feel in places which makes it very watchable.
All in all, a decent movie dealing with death, romance and sexuality.
Be Kind Rewind
Mike (Mos Def) works in a small Video store, his best friend is the eccentric Jerry (Jack Black). When Mike's boss leaves him in charge of the store to go out of town disaster strikes after Jerry becomes magnetised during a sabotage attempt on the electricity sub station he lives next to and erases all the tapes in the store.
In order to save the business and their own asses, Jerry and Mike set about refilming films as customers demand them in a zero budget style. The ridiculous plot outline works ok due to the comic nature of the film, the remakes that Jerry and Mike make are themselves pretty funny, but that in its self leads to the main downside of the film in that there is a higher level story wrapped around this which isn't as interesting as the quirky remakes.
Jack Black is slightly toned down in comparison to other performances, but it's still essentially the same character you would come to expect.
Overall, while the film is funny and pretty good in places with an interesting plot idea, the overarching story line overshadows the real comedy genius of the remakes at the heart of the film.
Black Narcissus
When a group of 5 nuns are sent to open a new convent high in the Himalayas with the idea of running a school and a small hospital, they find themselves in a world which is far different from what they are used to. Lonely and with a somewhat cold reaction from the locals, they each seem out of their depths in this foreign habitat.
The film is pretty much driven by the characterisation of the Nuns and their reaction to their new surroundings with little real plot. This is done reasonably well for the first part as the scene is being set but I found by the middle of the movie it wore on a little. The ending brings in some drama and all things considered is captivating and holds the attention.
Overall, Black Narcissus is a reasonable watch and contains some interesting scenes.
Battleship Potemkin
Set in 1905, the 1920's silent film Battleship Potemkin tells the story of a group of sailors who mutiny and take over the emponymous boat, killing their commanding officers. They then go on to their home port of Odessa where their calls for revolution gather steam.
Although the film quality is reflective of the time, Battleship Potemkin contains a number of scenes, ideas and themes which have recurred in many forms since the film was made. The musical score is excellent, making up for the lack of dialogue and creating a feeling of tension as the film builds up to its more dramatic moments.
All in all, Battleship Potemkin is a classic film, but also one which is powerful and emotional.
Blood Car
In the near future, petrol prices have risen so high that only the very rich can afford to drive, cars lay unused in junk yards. Archie Andrews is a vegan primary school teacher who spends his spare time tinkering with an engine he hopes to get running on wheat grass juice thus solving America's problems.
While tinkering one day, he cuts his finger and discovers that his engine runs on human blood, after a quick transfusion he is up and running but his new found wheels catch the sights of the woman from the meat stall and in order to keep her impressed he must find new sources of fuel for his car.
Blood Car is a completely ridiculous horror/comedy with very dark humour and a ton of nudity/swearing and violence. The low budget feel is reminiscent of early Peter Jackson. For the most part the comedy and situations Archie finds himself in are pretty funny, a lot simply because of bad taste. A couple of gags miss their mark, and some attempts at political satire towards the end feel slightly out of place.
Overall, a low budget film which is entertaining and humourous.
The Brave One
Jodie Foster stars in this Vigilante themed thriller as radio talk show host Erica Bain who suffers at the hands of a violent unprovoked attack as her and her fiancee are walking their dog in the park. With her fiancee killed in the attack, Erica buys a gun with a view to protecting herself, but soon finds herself dishing out Vigilante justice on criminals. As she becomes involved with a policeman (Terrence Howard) the truth looks like it might come out.
The Brave One is not a bad movie, Howard and Foster are decent in their roles and the film is well shot and presented, but there are some points which just don't work too well. Her talk show is terrible for one thing and the lawless New York portrayed in the film seems a little over the top.
Overall, a reasonable watch for entertainment but with the subject matter a plot outline, it could have been more engaging.
Brief Encounter
A housewife recalls the tale of how she has spent the past weeks lusting over a doctor she met in town and has been seeing unbeknownst to her husband. Told for the most part as a flashback confessional of the events, Laura Jesson tells the viewer of how she came to meet and fall in love with another man.
Brief Encounter is well shot and the acting reasonable, but the story of a bored 1940's housewife and her romantic drama wasn't really my cup of tea. There are a couple of humourous moments, but for the most part the film is pretty boring.
The Beast with a Billion Backs
The second of four feature length Futurama episodes, The Beast with a Billion Backs picks up where Bender's Big Score left off, with an rip in the universe created, the Planet Express crew go on a mission to discover what is on the other side, but what they find is a shocking creature that might love their universe a little too much.
The Beast with a Billion Backs is classic Futurama and although maybe not quite as good as Bender's Big Score, it's still something which fans of the series should love. All the regular characters are there, the same science based jokes and the wacky plots.
All in all, another great addition to the Futurama legacy.
The Big Boss
Cheng Chao-an (Bruce Lee) moves to live with his cousins who all work at the local Ice factory. He too gets a job there, but when his cousins start disappearing, he is torn between the dilemma to do something about it or to keep a promise he made to his mother not to get into any fights.
And so you have it, a Bruce Lee movie where Lee doesn't do all that much fighting. The dub is pretty dodgy, the film transfer wasn't amazing, the fight sequences were for the most part poor with people jumping 6 feet in the air all over the place and weren't all the spectacularly choreographed.
Having said that, the plot was reasonable and the ending made up for the lack of decent Bruce Lee action in the earlier parts of the film.
Overall, an alright movie, but I would have liked to see Bruce Lee kicking ass a bit more and a bit less dodgy wire work.
Bad Day at Black Rock
Shortly after the Second World War, an express train stops in the mid-West town of Black Rock. The train hasn't stopped there in the past 4 years and the only person to alight is John J. MacReedy, a smartly dressed man who has only got the use of one of his arms. As he sets about his business in the town, the townspeople treat him with suspicion, scared he will dredge up a secret from the town's murky past.
While the main plot of Bad Day at Black Rock is pretty easy to guess from about 20 minutes in, the surprise is that towards the end of the film, we focus more on the characters involved than the plot itself. Spencer Tracy is pretty good in his role as the moody, secretive MacReedy and the photography of the sun bleached town is stunning, but for the most part, Bad Day at Black Rock offers little excitement and its relatively short run time makes for little time to fully explore the situation.
Overall, an interesting film, but it could have done with being slightly longer.
Bringing Up Baby
Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant) is zoologist for a natural history museum, the only complications in his life are the arrival of a bone he needs to complete the museum's brontosaurus skeleton, the prospect of getting a million dollars funding and his impending marriage; that is until he meets Susan (Katharine Hepburn) within minutes of meeting her she has ruined his golf game and crashed his car before driving off in it. But this is just where his problems start as she drags him into a cross country errand to dispose of a Leopard her brother has her from Brazil (The "Baby" of the title). This threatens to destroy everything important to Dr. Huxley.
Bringing Up Baby is a great madcap comedy, fusing bizarre situations and slapstick together. It still feels fresh and retains its comedy well, 70 years later. Both Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are excellent in their roles as the put upon professor and the slightly insane Susan respectively. With a pace that sees one comic situation after another delivered to the viewer in quick successions, there is certainly no time to get bored.
Overall, very funny, witty and still highly watchable.
Bride of Frankenstein
After a brief intro where we join Lord Byron and Mary Shelley talking about Shelley's story of Frankenstein, we are thrown straight back in where the first film left off as Shelley picks up the plot. This sees us learn that the Monster has survived the burning windmill after hiding in its water-logged basement while Dr. Henry Frankenstein is too still alive after being thrown from the windmill.
After these relevations it's back to much of the same, the monster is still running around being misunderstood and scaring people, although now has a limited vocabulary and Dr. Frankenstein, never one to learn a lesson, teams up with, the also more than slightly crazy, Dr. Pretorius in a bid to create a female mate for the Monster.
The Bride of Frankenstein gets in some good special effects for its time, the most effective of which are tiny little people in jars that Dr. Pretorius has created. The dialogue is full of over the top drama and there is still a hint that the monster may not be all bad and is infact just misunderstood, the point hammered home when he meets a blind man who takes him in and feeds him.
Overall, another classic movie which is still good despite its age.
Burn After Reading
When CIA Agent Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is demoted, he quits his job and decides to stay at home and write his Memoirs. This doesn't sit well with his wife (Tilda Swinton who is having an affair with a family friend, Harry (George Clooney). This leads to her investigating into getting a divorce.
When her attorney suggests she gets hold of her husband's financial records from his computer this leads to a fragment of his memoirs being left on a CD in a local gym. Gym worker Linda (Frances McDormand) and her bumbling colleage Chad (Brad Pitt) find the disk, mistake it for some "Secret Shit" and decide to try and use this to make a bit of cash from Linda's planned cosmetic surgery.
What follows is a series of mishaps, in a twisty plot where the main characters relationships to each other all mingle together with a touch of humour thrown in. For the most part, Burn after Reading is clever, witty and enjoyable. The cast of major stars are all excellent, especially Clooney and Pitt who are playing complete idiots.
Overall, entertaining and amusing.
Bender's Game
The third of 4 feature length Futurama episodes ([1][2]), Bender's Game sees the Planet Express Delivery crew fight to try and break Mom's monopoly on dark matter as prices skyrocket and it costs more and more to run their ship. Meanwhile Bender becomes obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons to a point where he cannot distinguish between his own imagination and real life.
Bender's Game is a strong addition to the new episodes, it still has the same kind of humour fans of the series expect and is laugh out loud in places. The fantasy elements of the plot get a little tiresome in the third act, but there is still a lot of good material in there, including a hilarious seen in a robot loony bin.
All in all, another great feature length Futurama.
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Baader Meinhof Complex is a biography of the German left wing terrorist organisation the RAF (Red Army Faction). Active in the 1960's and 70's the group were responsible for a number of bombings. The film follows the group from their beginnings, following them through two of the founding members, Andreas Baader (played by Moritz Bleibtreu) and journalist Ulrike Meinhof.
The film does a good job of telling the story of the group and portraying the main characters involved without feeling too sympathetic towards them. With a reasonably long runtime of 150 minutes, the film feels a lot shorter, with a lot of history and events packed into the 2 and a half hours.
Extremely well made, with some great performances from the main actors, The Baader Meinhof Complex is easy to engage with and at times is effective in producing an emotional response from the viewer towards the scenes depicted on screen. All in all, an excellent film which is interesting to watch.
Blade Runner
In the not too distant future, special police units called Blade Runner's are tasked with finding and expiring rouge cyborgs who are so advanced as to be almost indistinguishable from human being. Blade Runner follows one such cop, Deckard (Harrison Ford) who is sent out to bring in a group of 4 cyborgs who are trying to discover how they can bypass their built in expiry date.
Set in a glorious futuristic L.A., Blade Runner is as much a gritty cop drama as it is Sci-Fi, with a great plot, some amazing sets and great action sequences, there's something for everyone. Now released in Hi-Def, the film looks stunning with vivid colours.
Overall, an amazing film, with is timeless, having lost none of its impact in the 27 years since its release.
Bad Science
Ben Goldacre's book aims to let the reader in on the truth behind how science (particularly in regard to health and medicine) is reported in the mainstream media and the ways in which what is reported as fact is inacurate at best and just plain wrong at worst.
Along the way, he takes potshots at, amongst others, Dr. Gillian McKeith, the MMR and MRSA scandals and homeopathy. Part of the book focuses on teaching the reader the scientific method in order that they might be able to examine these "science" stories better themselves in the future.
With a writing style which is funny and immensely readable, Bad Science is a book which you can whizz through. Goldacre tends to hammer home his points a little too much, but for the most part it's enjoyable and entertaining. My only criticism is that for anyone reasonably interested in science, the book will cover a lot of familiar ground.
All in all, readable with interesting information and facts, but there is nothing amazingly challenging or surprising.
Bringing Down the House
Bringing Down the House tells the dramatised story of a group of card counters from MIT who make money on their weekends by hitting large Vegas casinos. The book intersperses the story with information about how card counting teams operate and how they can beat the casino.
The book is written in a trashy style which is very easy to read and contains enough glitz and glamour on top of the plot to keep the reader hooked. While entertaining and based on an interesting story, the book is a little overly dramatic.
All in all, interesting, entertaining but still trash, the literary equivalent of a big budget hollywood action movie.
The Boat That Rocked
In the 1960's with little popular music being played on mainstream British radio, pirate radio stations run from boats sitting in the North sea were common place and large number of Britons tuned in to listen to their range of rock and roll.
The Boat That Rocked follows the DJs on the Radio Rock boat, we are introduced to their world via the arrival of the young Carl who has been sent there by his mother to stay with his god father Quentin (Bill Nighy). Once aboard the boat, he soons becomes friends with the group of disfunctional men (and one lesbian) as they live the rock and roll lifestyle and generally lark around. When their fun is threatened by the UK Government who are keen to put a stop to their broadcasts he becomes one of them as they fight for what they believe in.
The Boat That Rocked has a great setting and a cast which are genuinely funny, there are some great gags and actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost and Rhys Ifans makes for great watching. Add to that, the underdog sticking it to the man plotline and you have a film which is great fun and has you rooting for the main characters.
All in all, funny and entertaining.
Black Dynamite
Scott Sanders' Black Dynamite tells the story of the titular Black Dynamite, an African-American man in the 70's fighting to avenge the death of his brother who was killed by "The Man". The screenplay sees Dynamite take on number of enemies with his "Kung Fu", uncovering corruption that leads all the way to the top.
The film is a very tongue in cheek spoof of 1970's Blaxpoitation movies which makes for hilarious consequences. Every about the film fits in with the genre films it aims to parody, the 70's look of the film stock, dodgy editing, (deliberatley) bad acting, a hokey script, visible technical equipment. You name it, it's there. From the outset the gags come thick and fast, there's very few that fall flat and there is a very high rate of jokes, with incredible attention to detail leading to smaller hidden jokes of which I am sure there are many I didn't even see.
All in all, Black Dynamite has to be one of the funniest films of the year, a spoof which is done properly, unlike the tirade of "insert-genre-here Movie" films which has passed for parody recently.
Breathless
Breathless follows a small time thug and debt collector, Sang-Hoon who is employed as muscle to disrupt student rallies etc. as well as to beat up those who owe him and his business partner money. No one is exempt from his brutal violence and foul mouth. The film follows Sang-Hoon as he makes an unlikely friend in a young high-school girl, Yeon-Hue, brought together by a mutual history of domestic violence.
Breathless is grim, bleak and very violent. For most of the 2hr plus run-time, we witness Sang-Hoon swearing and attacking those who get in his way, both at work and in his personal life. But we also witness another side to him, along with an explanation of how he came to be the man he is. While the start shows him as a reprehensible small time gangster, this becomes much more ambiguous as the movie makes its way towards its harrowing ending.
Often difficult to watch and not for those of the feint of heart, Breathless is a gangster movie with none of the glitz and glamour often given to violent criminals on the big screen, but more than that, it is a shocking look at domestic violence and its effects on society.
A well made and powerful film from a first time director who is also the writer and star, this debut makes Yang Ik-Joon a director to look out for in the future.
Brothers
Tin Tam, a triad boss has two sons, Shun and Yiu. When he is given a bad omen regarding his sons future, he ships Shun off to America and brings up Yiu along with his adopted son Ghostie to run the family crime empire. When a power struggle erupts in the syndicate, Tin is killed and Shun returns from America to grieve for his father, but Yiu soon pulls him into the family business.
The film follows the brothers in their lives as well as Inspector Lau Andy Lau of the Hong Kong police who is trying his best to put a stop to the bloodshed.
Brothers is a pretty average Hong Kong triad action film, the plot is pretty standard and there are at least 4 or 5 other Andy Lau movies that have similar plots. There is a fair amount of action, especially in some sequences set in Thailand which are completely different in tone to the rest of the film. Acting is reasonable and the plot fairly predicatable.
Overall, an alright Triad movie, but nothing too special.
Backdraft
Backdraft follows two brothers, their father was a Chicago fireman who died on duty and the eldest brother, Stevie (Kurt Russell), is now a lieutenant in the Chicago fire department. When the younger brother, Bryan (William Baldwin) passes out and becomes a fireman too, he is assigned to Stevie's unit and the pair come to blows almost immediately.
Stevie's bullying forces Bryan to take up a job working with fire investigator Don Rimgale (Robert Deniro) and the pair are soon get busy investigating a series of possible arsons where people have been killed due to opening a door and being fried alive with the "backdraft".
What starts as a seemingly straightforward action film about herioc firefighters, soon descends into a web of conspiracy theories. Most of the actors are pretty mediocre and even Deniro doesn't get that good a role. While the fire sequences are genuinley well done, the film is a little boring in places and you feel that if there wasn't so much sibling rivalry and melodrama, much more could have been made of the scenario.
Overall, on the surface a film about firefighters, but underneath a melodramatic story with an all too cliched conspiracy theory twist.
Black Snake Moan
Rae (Christina Ricci) is widely regarded as the local hussy, psychological trauma from her past leaves her with an impulse to block out bad memories by sleeping with anyone who she can. When Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson), a local farmer with demons of his own, finds her at the side of the road beaten and unconscious he takes her into his house with the goal of nursing her back to health and saving her soul.
Black Snake Moan is a story of two flawed characters who through an unlikely friendship improve their lives. Both Ricci and Jackson are excellent in their respective roles, although a short part from Justin Timberlake in the role of Rae's boyfriend is less than stellar.
The plot is pretty good and is a unique and interesting story. The main characters are also interesting especially as their friendship develops and we learn more about them.
Overall, a pretty good film which is a little way off the normal mainstream path.
A Battle of Wits
Another large scale Chinese war epic and another in recent years starring Andy Lau. A Battle of Wits follows a small walled city as they come under attack from a rival warlord. They beg for help from the Mozi warrior clan and the Mozi's respond by sending one of their own, Ge Li (Lau). Ge Li gets to work coming up with a plan to stop the invaders.
Battle of Wits has a great plot which is simple and effective. The acting and action sequences are excellent and there are some cool touches, including a scene where the enemy attacks in one man air balloons. The only downfall in the movie is the at times terrible CG, a couple of scenes look awful, but for the rest of the time the film is a visual feast.
Overall, a great ancient war epic, let down by dodgy CG in places.
The Bourne Supremacy
Ludlum's second Jason Bourne book has a plot which is not only vastly different to the film's but so opposed that it could never become a film in its own right, which is a shame because it's pretty good.
The book follows Jason Bourne, now settled with his wife Marie and living under his real name of David Webb. When his wife is kidnapped and taken to Hong Kong, Bourne follows her out there to try and rescue her. Once in the far east, he is thrown into a world of plots and secrets which go much higher than the kidnap of his wife and threaten to blow the whole region apart.
I have to admit I have a soft spot for the east, so setting the book in Hong Kong was always going to be a winner for me. The films didn't really explore Bourne's beginnings in Vietnam, but they are important in the novels, so returning Bourne back to where it all started make for an interesting read. Full of action, intrigue and some interesting snippets of information and set in a pre-British hand over Hong-Kong, The Bourne Supremacy is an excellent read.
Overall, a tremendous book, better than the first but I would recommend reading Ludlum's own take on The Bourne Identity before diving into this as the plot is very different from the films.
Blood Money
While on one of my web searching binges craving new music to listen to, I came across an article somewhere entitle the top 20 thrash metal albums of 2008. It sounded like just my thing, so I fired up Spotify and gave them a listen. Guillotine's Blood Money was one of the keepers and I promptly bought the CD.
After a few listens, I'm happy to report that it's pretty good. Straight out thrash with some excellent guitars and some catchy vocal hooks, it's clocked up a good few plays on my iPod.
If you like early 90's/late 80's thrash, you should enjoy this album. It seems like thrash is back and in my book that's only a good thing.
Beyond the Permafrost
I just received Skeletonwitch's latest album Breathing the Fire last week, so I thought I'd post a review of 2007's Beyond the Permafrost.
Beyond the Permafrost had me hooked after the first couple of listens, Skeletonwitch's particular brand of death metal with blackened (i.e. black metal) vocals is fast, powerful, melodic and catchy as hell.
The 13 tracks run to just under 40 minutes which is around 3 minutes a track, most are in the 2:30 - 3:00 range though. Every song on the album is a keeper and while they merge into each other a little, there are some definite highlights to be found. The highly technical guitar work is awesome and while I wasn't initially convinced with the vocals, I was soon drawn in, the whole thing is backed with fast drumwork which makes for an album full of energy.
Overall, one for metal fans everywhere, Skeletonwitch rock.
Bonnie and Clyde
This 1967 outing chronicles the criminal careers of two American outlaws in the 1930's tells the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. When Bonnie meets the young Clyde fresh out of prison she tags along with him and the pair start robbing banks, teaming up with a young mechanic and Clyde's brother Buck Barrow they go by the name of the Barrow gang and are chased around the South by law enforcement.
Based on a true story, the film has a plot which is interesting and some great action sequences. The realisation of 1930's America seems pretty good and the production quality is top notch. The film has a sympathetic take on the pair of criminals, portraying "bad" guys you can root for which makes their subsequent demise seem all the more unfair.
Overall, a well made film which is worth watching.
The Band Wagon
Fred Astaire stars in this musical comedy as washed up Hollywood song and dance man Tony Hunter. When he visits his friends in New York, he is informed that they have written a new musical comedy for him to star in to restart his career, but when the bring on board a pretentious director, he turns the whole project into an over the top retelling of Faust with disastrous/hilarious consequences.
Considering my dislike of musicals, I found The Band Wagon disturbingly enjoyable. The plot is reasonable and although I didn't think any of the songs were amazing, they were upbeat and fun with some good dance numbers. The comedy element works well and the main characters are pretty good as over the top versions of real theatre types.
All in all, enjoyable and fun.
Das Boot
Das Boot follows the crew of a World War II German submarine, we follow the crew of mainly young men from the evening before they begin their mission. It's clear almost from the start that these men are in the main, young, scared and fighting because they have to rather than for any desire to follow the Nazi-party ideology.
With the majority of the film set inside the confines of their submarine, Wolfgang Peterson creates an immense amount of tension and claustrophobia. It's easy to identify with the men as the go about their day to day lives aboard their ship. With some immensely powerful scenes of their boat coming under attack from Allied destroyers, Das Boot is an amazing movie which can truly be considered an epic.
All in all, a great piece of cinema which any film buff should see.
Bullitt
San Francisco cop Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is tasked with looking after a witness in an upcoming trial against "The Organisation". Much to Bullitt's dismay, it's not long until the suspect ends up in hospital at the hands of those he was to testify against. Bullitt seeks to get to the bottom of the case, but soon finds out everything is not as it seems.
Bullitt is a movie famous for its car chase scene, which is about the only bit of action in the whole film. The iconic chase through the streets of San Francisco is well shot and looks pretty realistic. Sadly the rest of the film is pretty slowly paced, there is a lot of not all that much happening and this drags out towards the end.
Overall, I would have liked more action, more plot or even more characterisation of Bullitt. The film is an ok watch, but can become tiring as the film goes on.
Boyz 'N the Hood
Boyz n the Hood follows three friends growing up in L.A.'s South Central neighbourhood. The trio is comprised of brothers Ricky and Doughboy (Ice Cube) and their friend Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.). Ricky has dreams of playing professional football, Tre is the smart one heading for college and Doughboy is happy to hang out on the streets with his friends. But growing up in such a rough district is not easy as the 3 find out.
Boyz n the Hood is a drama of life on the streets, a strong anti-violence message runs through with a good plot and performances from the lead players. The film also stars Laurence Fishbourne as Tre's father who puts in a good performance as a man wanting the best for his son.
Overall, a powerful and emotional drama which is both thought provoking and entertaining.
Basic Kanji Book Vol. 1
I have to admit that the only reason I own this book is that it's the Kanji book which my Japanese lessons tell us to use, so I was kind of forced into purchasing it. For a couple of years, I'd used it mainly for learning the 10 or so Kanji we need for our bi-weekly Kanji tests, but recently after deciding to go back and try and really learn the Kanji I'd been brushing over, I discovered how good this book really is.
It teaches you 251 Kanji, with the stroke order shown for each, along with various readings and up to 4 compounds. But where the book really shines is the end of chapter review sections. These include questions split into reading Kanji and writing Kanji. If you do them in order, they have the advantage that they build upon each other, so you aren't just testing your knowledge of the latest 10-15 Kanji you have learned, but are revisiting most of the Kanji from previous chapters as well. Every 10 units, there is also a recap which goes over all the previous Kanji again, but in more depth. This means that if you do a chapter at a time and learn the Kanji and do the exercises, the earlier Kanji become second nature because you are using them so much.
My main criticism of the book would be that the first 251 Kanji chosen are very different from other resources I am using, especially my Kanji flash cards, with some of the Kanji is this book not even appearing in the first 3 set of cards I have, to have a flash card for every character in the book, I need to buy the fourth set of cards which has the last 512 Kanji in it.
This is kind of understandable as many different resources decide which Kanji are more important, but also a bit annoying, especially since some of the Kanji presented in the later chapters of this book relate to quite complicated topics which are a bit ahead of my current vocabulary.
Overall though, this is an excellent resource, but beware it isn't cheap. To get a copy from Amazon costs about £34! Considering the Japanese list price is only 2,400 yen (£16 at the current [poor] exchange rate), you're best off trying to get hold of a copy next time you are in Japan. I got a copy of Volume 2 in a book shop in Tokyo for a much reduced rate.
A Better Tomorrow
John Woo's 1986 "Heroic Bloodshed" drama A Better Tomorrow was set to create a partnership between the Director-Auteur and actor Chow Yun Fat which was to leave it's mark on Hong-Kong cinema forever.
Ho and Mark (Chow) are a pair of gangsters, making a living by selling counterfeit money to American gangs in Taiwan. Ho's younger brother Kit (Leslie Cheung) is a cop in the Hong-Kong police who is unaware of his brother's criminal involvement.
When Ho is set up in Taiwan, he ends up doing time, in the 3 years that he is away, Mark falls from grace and a new gang boss takes over their business. Kit finds himself restricted in his police work due to being the brother of a criminal and begins to resent Ho. When Ho is released from prison, he looks to go straight, but things come to a head. To be resolved, the situation demands help from Mark and Kit as the film winds its way to the finale.
There's no denying, A Better Tomorrow looks like an 80's Hong Kong film, but behind that slightly dated exterior is an amazing plot, with a number of twists and a feel which echoes more modern Cop vs Triad films like Infernal Affairs. The strong themes of brotherhood and family are present throughout and there is a lot of great action in there too. Stand out moments include Chow Yun Fat's shoot out in a corridor and the huge finale which is just non-stop action until the end.
All in all, A Better Tomorrow is a classic which has surely shaped Hong Kong cinema in the years since its release.
Blades of Glory
A comedy looking at the world of professional figure skating, Blades of Glory stars love him or hate him shouty man Will Ferrell and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder.
Heder plays the golden boy of men's figure skating, Jimmy MacElroy. A young man plucked from an orphanage by a rich man who has trained him to skate from the age of 4. Ferrel's Chazz Michael Michaels is the complete opposite, the bad boy of the sport. When the two tie for gold in an internation competition, a fight breaks out on the podium leading to both receiving life-time bans from the sport.
3 years later, both are washed up and have forgotten about skating, but when MacElroy learns of a loophole which will allow him to compete in the figure skating pairs event, a series of events lead him and Michael Michaels into entering as the first 2 man figure skating pairs team.
Staples of any comedy then follow ergo, they make up their differences and learn to get along.
With a ridiculous plot and some truly WTF? moments, Blades of Glory is actually reasonably enjoyable. Ferrell is perhaps less annoying that usual and Heder plays the gormless MacElroy to a tee. There are some genuinley hilarious scenes and much of the rest of the filler is not without its charms.
All in all, a movie which is complete trash but is still funny and entertaining.
The Butterfly Effect
Time travel in films can always be a bit of a risky topic, and casting an actor who is most well know for silly teen comedies and being the annoying host of a show on MTV which pulls pranks on celebrities seems like a bad idea.
Before seeing the film, my biggest preconceptions where that Ashton Kutcher was gonna be rubbish, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised as he plays the most serious role I've ever seen him in.
The Butterfly Effect tells the story of Evan, as a child Evan suffers from blackouts at key stages in his life, mainly when bad things are happening around him. He is recommended to keep a journal of his life to help him remember the missing parts of his memory, which he continues to do. As a student, he returns to the town he left when he was a child and speaks to an old friend about her abusive father, she subsequently kills herself. Evan discovers while reading some old journals that he can travel back to the time of the blackout and re-live it, upon doing so he changes the future and when he wakes up, he is in what seems like a perfect alternate reality. However, things soon change and he must try to change history once again to fix the new problems created.
The Butterfly Effect takes the idea that small changes in history can have devastating effects on the course of events.
Kutcher gives a reasonable performance, far removed from his usual comedy style. The story is well told and directed. The films comes to a chilling climax as Evan strives to right his life.
Overall, The Butterfly Effect is a pretty good film, with an interesting plot and a performance from Ashton Kutcher which transforms him from a bad comic actor to someone worth watching.
Dave W - 11th July, 2004 - 23:13
Director:
Gregor Jordan
Year: 2001
Language: English
Country: America
Set in West Germany in 1989 at the height of the cold war, Buffalo soldiers tells the story of Ray Elwood, an American soldier stationed in Germany. He does some dodgy stuff on the side, selling army supplies and cooking Morphine into Heroin for sale to soldiers on the base.
When a new top Sargeant arrives at the base, he doesn't take too kindly to Elwood, even moreso when Elwood begins dating his daughter. Eventually the sargeant discovers Elwoods side business and goes after him.
Ray Elwood is played by Joaquin Phoenix (Signs, Gladiator) and although I find him a bit annoying, he does a reasonable job in this role. The film is quite funny in places as well as having a reasonable plot. Although not amazing, it is reasonably entertaining throughout and a good laugh.
Dave W - 6th June, 2004 - 19:25
Director:
Kinji Fukasaku
Year: 2000
Language: Japanese (English sub)
Country: 日本 (Japan)
Battle Royale has to be one of my favourite films. It follows the story of a class of school children who are selected under the BR(Battle Royale) act. Under the BR act the class are taken to a remote island and have to fight each other to the death until only one remains. Each child is given a bag with a range of weapons, ranging from guns to knifes to less useful utensils with one boy being given a pot lid. The story follows the classmates as they each make the decision on how they are going to cope with the circumstances. In particular it follows a boy and a girl who feel there must be a way off the island without having to kill everyone. This film is violent, with dark comedy moments, all in all a great piece of cinema.
Dave W - 16th November, 2003 - 14:28
Director:
Tim Burton
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Director Tim Burton's (Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow) Big Fish tells the story of Edward Bloom, a man who's life is defined by tall tales. Since an early age Will Bloom has heard his father tell his incredible stories, but when he is grown up he realises his father's tales can't be true and feels like he doesn't know the real Edward Bloom. The film follows Will as he tries to find the truth behind his father's stories while at the same time telling some of the tales.
The adventures Edward has told of are numerous and involve such topics as witches, giants and some heroics during the Korean war. As the action moves between the present day and the tales we get a sense of the normal everyday juxtaposed with the fantasy of the make believe. The young Edward Bloom is played very well by Ewan McGregor.
Tim Burton brings us a well written, highly imaginative film with some very immersive stories from Edward's life but at the same time delivers an emotional side with the present day story line. The film is a good length and the different stories help to keep the viewers attention throughout. All in all I'd highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to see something different and who is not put off by the sometimes fairy tale like stories.
Dave W - 14th February, 2004 - 14:56
Director:
Oxide Pang Chun
Year: 2001
Language: Thai (English sub)
Country: Thailand
In a bar in Thailand, three women tell three ghost stories. The film follows through each story and so is kind of three short films in one. The story lines jump around quite a bit and it can get a little confusing, the camera work is great and at times the film is a little unsettling, although not as scary as other East Asian horror movies such as The Eye or Dark Water.
The first story tells of an antique drum, which is haunted and brings bad luck to the modern day finder. The second of a love potion which has some unsettling side effects and the third about a cop working on an apparent suicide case.
Overall, the film is a bit weird but very good. A lot of it didn't seem to make sense at the time, but thinking about it later it makes more sense.
Dave W - 20th March, 2004 - 14:06
Another Tartan Asia Extreme Film, and another great film. The story follows a deaf mute hitman by the name of Kong and his partner. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but the story centres on the assinations he carries out and his relationship with a young woman who works in a pharmacy. The story is not just of guns and violence but also of how his actions have repercussions for others. I highly recommend this film to any fan of Asian cinema.
Dave W - 21st September, 2003 - 16:17
Director:
Peter Jackson
Year: 1992
Language: English
Country: New Zealand
When Lionel's overpowering mother is bitten by an exotic rat monkey and subsequently turns into a zombie, Lionel tries to cover it up, but as other members of the town are bitten by her and also become zombies his secret becomes increasingly hard to hide. Add to this a story of forbidden love, lots of blood, more gore than you can shake the soggy end of a severed limb at and a Kung Fu priest ('I kick Arse for the Lord!') and you have one of the best comedy horror films ever. Directed by Bad Taste director Peter Jackson before he was known as Peter 'Lord of the Rings' Jackson, this film is, like the Evil Dead films, a fine example of how much fun low budget comedy horror films can be. The film is very gorey towards the end and if you don't like blood or zombies being impaled and cut up then you probably shouldn't watch, for the rest of you I highly recommend you watch this film.
Dave W - 23rd December, 2003 - 23:04
Director:
Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Year: 2000
Language: Japanese, English
Country: 日本 (Japan)
Blood: The Last Vampire follows a young girl named Saya, the last living original vampire and part of a team hunting down and destroying demons. Although pretty short (48 mins or so), this is a great movie, the animation looks really nice, and is a mixture of 2D and 3D CGI. The movie contains both English and Japanese dialog as it is set in a US airforce base in Japan so the Americans speak English and the Japanese speak Japanese. The story is good and the battles between Saya and the demons are great, apart from being a little on the shortside this film is very good and well worth watching.
Dave W - 28th September, 2003 - 22:11
Director:
Paul Hunter
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
I didn't have very high hopes of this film from the start even although Sean William Scott's other films have been reasonably humorous (Dude Where's My Car, Roadtrip, American Pie). Starring Sean William Scott as young pickpocket Karl and Chow Yun Fat as a monk (just called monk, he has no name) who must guard a secret scroll which gives whoever reads it ultimate power, the monk meets up with Karl and as he tries to protect the scroll from a Nazi who has been after it since WWII he realises that Karl may be the next keeper of the scroll. This film is pretty poor, there are a couple of humourous moments, but the rest is made up of really cheesy action and dodgy special effects. One to watch only if you are really bored and can't find anything else.
Dave W - 21st September, 2003 - 16:25
Director:
Takeshi Kitano
Year: 2000
Language: Japanese
Country: 日本 (Japan)
Another film written, directed by and starring Takeshi Kitano/Beat Takeshi, Brother tells the story of Yamamoto, a Yakuza who leaves Japan for America after his family is taken over by another family who want him dead because he is too dangerous.
Once in America, Yamamoto meets up with his little brother who is a small time drug dealer, Yamamoto goes on a crusade to establish the Yakuza as the number one gang in the area, recruiting more and more until the attract the attention of the Mafia. Beat Takeshi plays his usual role of the hard ass guy who says very little but kicks a lot of butts. This film is full of action and violence and is a great Gangster/Yakuza movie. Any fan of Takeshi Kitano's other films will enjoy this.
Dave W - 15th August, 2004 - 17:28
Is it Thrash Metal, is it Death Metal? Do I care? It rocks and that's enough for me. Denmark's Hatesphere's second studio album, Bloodred Hatred is pretty good. With guitars which range from crunching to squealing through fast riffs and excellent drumming, Hatesphere show us that it's not only the American's which have the stranglehold on the current metal scene. With catchy riffs a plenty, Bloodred Hatred is one album that has been playing continously since I picked it up.
Dave W - 15th August, 2004 - 18:03
Director:
Paul Greengrass
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
The second in the series starring Matt Damon as CIA agent turned fugitive Jason Bourne. When Bourne is framed for the murder of a CIA agent in Berlin even although he was in India at the time, he is forced out of hiding to clear his name and discover more of his past.
The Bourne Identity was a reasonable film, but not amazing, The Bourne Supremacy is definitely better and as a film in it's own right is pretty good. The plot is really good and the acting reasonable, although Matt Damon isn't exactly the best actor in the world. As a sequel, Supremacy has the advantage that since it is based on a series of novels (albiet this is more the second half of the first book), it was always written as a sequel and isn't just a contrived bolt on to make a bit more money out of the first film.
Overall, the Bourne Supremacy is definately better than the Bourne Identity and any fans of the first should go see it. This is how sequels should be.
Dave W - 20th September, 2004 - 19:09
A couple of years ago I picked up Jor's debut album Blunt after hearing them on the Radio One rock show. In recent times, there has been some great metal coming out of England, Jor, Landmine Spring and Coma Kai to name a few. Jor are one of those bands. The 9 track album runs to less than 40 minutes and every song is a classic, great guitars, drums and vocals which are heavy without descending into screaming.
Jor are proof that the English metal scene is still alive and with less well known acts like Jor, Landmine Spring producing great albums like this who needs the bucket loads of nu-metal pish which the Americans are currently churning out.
Dave W - 21st October, 2004 - 22:18
Director:
Terry Zwigoff
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Bad Santa tells the story of conman, Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) and his partner in crime Marcus (Tony Cox, Me, Myself & Irene). Every Christmas Marcus and Willie get jobs in the Santa's grotto of a department store, then rip it off on Christmas Eve, emptying the safe and disappearing until the next year.
Willie is the most unlikely Santa ever, he hates kids; has a foul temper and is an alcoholic who is always drunk on the job. Things take a turn for the strange when Willie ends up staying with a strange kid he befriends.
The humour in Bad Santa is very dark, Billy Bob Thornton is excellent in his role as the store Santa who hates Christmas. Almost every line is hilariously funny and incredibly well delivered. Although a Christmas movie, Bad Santa takes all the Christmas cheer out of it, a great movie for people who are sickened by the usual cheery Christmas movies.
Overall, a pretty funny Christmas film with a difference. If you go and see it look out for the best cameo ever near the end when none other than Sherrif John Bunnel of World's Scariest Police Chases fame.
Dave W - 7th November, 2004 - 13:55
Director:
Kinji Fukasaku
Kenta Fukasaku
Year: 2003
Language: 日本語 (Japanese) - English Sub
Country: 日本 (Japan)
Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale is one of my favourite films, it is extreme cinema at it's best. A dark premise with great performances from the whole cast. Because of this I was interested in seeing the sequel, Battle Royale 2. Whereas while making the original Kinji Fukasaku had the excellent novel by Koushun Takami to work with, BR2 is an entirely new story. The death of Kinji Fukasaku during the making was also a blow with Kenta Fukasaku stepping up to finish his fathers film.
The film is set 3 years after the first and sees Shuya Nanahara, a survivor from the first film forming an underground terror organisation and declaring war against the Grown-Ups. To try to end this uprising, the Government starts the 2nd BR program which sees a class of 42 students sent to the island where Nanahara is hiding to kill him. One member of the team is Shiori Kitano, the daughter of a teacher (Beat Takeshi) who Nanahara killed in the first film. This sees the unwitting students pitted against Nanahara's guerilla movement.
Although there are similar themes to the first one, the film has none of the shock or originality of its predecessor, the acting is terrible and special effects are dodgy to say the least. There is also a thinly disguised Anti-American vibe whereby we hear about a long list of countries which another nameless country (blatantly America) has bombed in the past 60 years.
Overall, Battle Royale 2 follows up from an important film which is destined to be a classic, removes all the importance from it and gives us what is basically an overacted action film with some political undertones which are never really explored properly. As an action film, BR2 is reasonable, as the follow up to Battle Royale, BR2 is as dissapointing as you could get.
Dave W - 7th November, 2004 - 14:24
Director:
Spike Jonze
Year: 1999
Language: English
Country: America
Written by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich tells the story of striggling puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack). When he gets a new job at a strange company run by an eccentric old man, he falls in love with Maxine (Catherine Keener, a co-worker in the same building. One night while working late, he discovers a hidden door behind some filing cabinets which allows you to enter John Malkovich's mind and see the world through his eyes. Together, Maxine and Craig start selling the experience to other people, things get complicated when Craig's wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) gets involved.
The entire premise of the film is wonderfully bizarre, and the comedy throughout the movie is similarly surreal. Charlie Kaufman's screenplay is excellent, and all the actors involved give great performances.
Being John Malkovich has to be one of the most original films made recently and is well worth watching.
Dave W - 28th November, 2004 - 12:38
Director:
Beeban Kidron
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: United Kingdom
Admittedly this is not my usual type of viewing, but there was nothing else on and well sometimes a reviewer has to go see films they don't really want to. Although the subtitle The Edge of Reason has a cheesy action movie ring to it, this film is far from that, being as it is a typically English Romantic Comedy, complete with Hugh Grant
The film starts 4 weeks after the first film (which incidentaly I haven't seen) left off, with Bridget (Renée Zellweger) in her new relationship with her lawyer boyfriend Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Almost straight away her insecurities get the better of her and things stop going as planned.
We are then treated to 100 or so minutes of Bridget getting her self into her usual (I assume) clumsy situations, including a disastrous skiing holiday and a trip to Thailand which doesn't go to plan either.
As far as films go, The Edge of Reason is by no means unwatchable, in fact I have to admit much of the jokes and comedy in the film were actually quite funny and all in all it was a reasonable film. I've seen far worse romantic comedies in my time, and at least it wasn't another Shriek or Jason X.
Dave W - 28th November, 2004 - 12:55
Director:
Ki-duk Kim
Year: 2001
Language: Korean (English Sub)
Country: South Korea
Director Duk Kim-Ki is no stranger to extreme cinema his film The Isle was pretty nasty in places, so it's no surprise that another of his films, Bad Guy is also a tale of violence and nastiness.
When Han-ki sees a pretty girl, Sun-hwa, on the street, he decides to go up to her and kiss her, needless to say she is less than impressed and her boyfriend steps in to give him a bit of a beating. Some passing Army guys also beat him up a bit and it all ends with Sun-hwa spitting on him. Han-ki isn't very pleased with this, so sets her up so she gets caught stealing a wallet; she is then forced to go to a loan shark to repay her debts and when she can't pay is forced into prostitution at a brothel for which Han-ki happens to be a pimp.
The film then continues from here telling the story of Sun-Hwa's life of forced prostitution and her feelings for Han-Ki whom she starts to fall for despite all the really shitty things he's done to her.
Bad Guy is violent and deals with some pretty messed up stuff, as a film it's not too bad, but not really cheery family viewing. Only really one to watch if you are a fan of extreme Korean cinema.
Dave W - 9th January, 2005 - 15:18
Director:
Takeshi Kitano
Year: 1990
Language: 日本語 (Japanese) (English Sub)
Country: 日本 (Japan)
Takeshi Kitano aka Beat Takeshi nevers fails to dissapoint, known for writing, directing and starring in many a film, Boiling Point was the first film which he wrote and directed himself.
The story tells of a young Gas Attendant named Masaki when he gets into trouble with the Yakuza, his baseball coach Iguchi an ex-Yakuza goes to see them to try and sort the matter, but ends up making it worse and getting himself seriously injured. Masaki and a friend travel to Okinawa to get a gun, here the meet up with another Yakuza, Uehara (Kitano).
The film has a very surreal comedy element to it in places and is shot with no background music, and in a lot of scenes only minamal dialogue. As with many of his other movies, Kitano's character says very little, the main character Masaki is also a shy retiring type who hasn't much to say.
Beautifully bizarre in places, action filled in others but captivating throughout, Boiling Point shows that Kitano's skill as a film-maker has been there from the start. Anyone who has seen and enjoyed any of Kitano's other films will enjoy Boiling Point and if you aren't familiar with Kitano's work then this film is as good a place as any to start.
Dave W - 9th January, 2005 - 15:32
Director:
Byeong-ki Ahn
Year: 2004
Language: Korean (English Sub)
Country: South Korea
When 3 girls, who are bullied at school try to call up an ancient spirit to attack their bullies, one of the girls becomes possessed by the spirit of a girl from the same village who died 30 years earlier. When the bullies start to die, she begins to get worried and calls on the help of her teacher and the local psychic to help her.
Although there is very little in the film which is original and hasn't been done before, director Byeong-ki Ahn manages to create a film which is genuinely scary. Although not as scary as other Korean or Eastern Asian films, Bunshinsaba did have a couple of shocks and goosebumps in one or two places.
Much like his previous film Phone, in Bunshinsaba, Byeong-ki Ahn takes tried and tested material and rolls it into a slightly scary, watchable horror movie which is worth checking out if you are a fan of the genre.
Dave W - 26th February, 2005 - 16:12
Blow tells the true story of George Jung (Johnny Depp) a man who was a bug time player in the American Cocaine market during the 70's. The film chronicles Jung's life from when he moved to California in the early 70's and started dealing Marijuana, realising he could make more money importing it himself he started flying Marijuana over the border from Mexico. While spending time in jail his cellmate was an American of Columbian descent who knew about Cocaine, so on his release from prison, Jung moved from importing Marijauna to importing Cocaine.
The film takes us through the ups and downs of Jung's life as an importer of illegal drugs into the United States. The story is a very interesting one and entertaining throughout. Depp gives an outstanding performance and with supporting roles from Penelope Cruz and Franka Potente (Run Lola Run, The Bourne Supremacy).
Overal, great story, great acting and a well made film.
Dave W - 6th April, 2005 - 18:26
Director:
Kenji Misumi
Year: 1972
Language: 日本語 (Japanese) (English Sub)
Country: 日本 (Japan)
The second film in the Baby Cart/Lone Wolf and Cub series of films; Baby Cart at the River Styx sees Ogami Itto take a job to kill a farmer who if he should fall into the hands of the Shogunate would give up a secret dye recipe. Meanwhile, the shogunate hire a group of females Ninja assassins in an attempt to rid the world of Ogami Itto once and for all.
The content of the film is much the same as Sword of Vengeance; a good old fashioned Samurai film with lots of over the top blood and some decent sword fights. The plot is decent and engaging throughout. While there's not much in the film to make it stand out as anything other than a reasonable Samurai movie it's worth watching if you are a fan of the genre.
Dave W - 6th April, 2005 - 20:50
Director:
Kenji Misumi
Year: 1972
Language: 日本語 (Japanese) (English Sub)
Country: 日本 (Japan)
Film No. 3 in the Babcart/Lone Wolf and Cub series ([1][2]). Babycart to Hades sees Ogami Itto take a contract to assassinate the deputy of a fief. This leads to him being set up against an army of warriors armed not only with the deadly sword, but bows and guns.
As far as the Babycart films go, Babycart to Hades is pretty typical of the series, over the top violence, lots of blood and some amazing sword fighting scenes. This installment features a little more guns than the previous two and the cart has been kitted out with some extra tricks. There is a lot of samurai philosophy, perhaps more than would be picked up on by the casual viewer.
Babycart to Hades is a a worthy addition to the Babycart series, but newcomers should probably start at the start with Sword of Vengeance as by this point a lot of the characters and back plot has been explained and although not required 100% does add to the film.
Maybe not a film I'd recommend to the casual viewer but for fans of the Babycart series or Samurai films in general, definately worthy of a watch.
Dave W - 16th April, 2005 - 17:49
Director:
Buichi Saito
Year: 1972
Language: 日本語 (Japanese) (English Sub)
Country: 日本 (Japan)
Film number 4 in the Baby Cart series ([1][2][3]) and more of the same. This time we see Ogami Itto paid to assassinate a tatooed woman who has defected from her clan. Still being pursued by those from his past life who wish to see him dead.
In terms of content and style, the 4th film is pretty much identical to the first 3, over the top bloody violence, large sword fights and many a limb being chopped off. Although the film is definately no worse than the previous 3, the slightly lower score is because it brings little further to the table.
One to watch for fans of the Lone Wolf and Cub series and perhaps fans of Samurai films in general, although it's probably best to start at the start rather than jumping straight in to this film.
Dave W - 10th May, 2005 - 10:52
Director:
Miike Takashi
Year: 1998
Language: 日本語 (Japanese) English sub
Country: 日本 (Japan)
When Wada is sent to China by his company to investigate a possible Jade seam in the Chinese mountains, he is tailed by Ujiie, a Yakuza who's syndicate is owed money by Wada's company. Together the two are taken deep into the Chinese countryside to a remote mountain village. In this village they encounter a group of villagers who believe it is possible to fly using strap on wings, both Wada and Ujiie become engrossed in the culture of the village.
The Bird People in China is in some ways completely different from other Takashi Miike films, but it still has his stamp all over it with his offbeat and dark comic tones coming through. The film is visually stunning, with the vast, stunning scenery of the Chinese mountains being depicted in vivid colours. The combination of these amazing vistas with the quiet contemplative tone of the film makes for a touching, beautiful movie which still manages to throw in some important social questions just to keep the viewer on their toes.
The Bird People In China has to be one of, if not the most beautiful of Miike Takashi's works and is a stark contrast to some of his other more violence driven movies.
Dave W - 16th May, 2005 - 21:20
Director:
Christopher Nolan
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Batman's fifth big screen outing and with Christian Bale taking up the role of Batman we go back to the start and follow Bruce Wayne as he takes up his role as Gotham's Dark Knight. Batman's first outing sees him go up against villains who plan to envelop Gotham in panic through the use of a fear inducing drug.
Batman Begins is a pretty good Batman movie all considered, Bale is decent in his role and while some critics have said it lacks humour, Michael Caine's character of Albert the Butler is campy as hell and has very few serious lines. The action is entertaing throughout although all the man to man fighting scenes are found lacking as the descend into a nasty mess of hundreds of cuts where you can't actually see what is happening.
Definately one of the better comic book adaptations and Batman adaptations in particular.
Dave W - 19th June, 2005 - 23:58
Director:
Kenji Misumi
Year: 1973
Language: 日本語 (Japanese) (English Sub)
Country: 日本 (Japan)
The 5th and Penulimate film in the Lone Wolf and Cub Series ([1][2][3][4]) sees Ogammi Itto tracked down by 5 Ronin who wish to test his skill before offering him a mission. After defeating the 5, Itto must recover a scroll in order to preserve the integrity of the Kuroda clan.
There's not much to say about Babycart in the Land of Demons which I haven't already said about the previous four films; it's a good old fashioned Samurai flick with a reasonable plot, some great fight scenes and a lot of blood. One thing I would say is that by this point the same old Itto takes a job, fights some people and then kills a whole lot of people is getting a little overdone. If you've seen a couple of the Lone Wolf and Cub films, there's not really any need to see this one unless you are a die hard fan of the series.
Dave W - 3rd August, 2005 - 09:16
Director:
Richard Linklater
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
When a foul mouthed, drunk, washed up ex-professional baseball star (Billy Bob Thornton) is recruited to coach a team of misfit kids he has a struggle on his hands. He must turn the group into a team which can beat the smug Roy Bullock in the championship.
With Bad News Bears starring Billy Bob Thorton cast as a foul mouthed drunk who has to deal with children, it sounds a bit like the excellent Bad Santa but that's where the comparisons stop. The jokes just aren't as funny, relying pretty much on how offensive they are rather than being particularly witty.
There are some mildly amusing moments however, although not enough to make the film any good.
Dave W - 19th August, 2005 - 16:15
Director:
Ji-Woon Kim
Year: 2005
Language: Korean (English Sub)
Country: South Korea
A Bittersweet Life tells the story of Sun-Woo who works for a hotel as part of a gang with ties with organised crime. When his boss leaves for a business trip to Shanghai he is asked to keep an eye on the boss' young girlfriend who is suspected of being unfaithful. His boss' suspicions are correct but instead of killing both the girlfriend and her lover as instructed he lets them off warning them never to see each other again. This disregard for orders leads to a punishment from his boss which in turn sets the wheels in motion for an act of revenge.
A brutal and bloody tale of revenge, A Bittersweet Life is a classic example of extreme Asian cinema. The large fight scenes are spectacular to watch, with Sun-Woo taking on numerous attackers at once and kicking some serious amount of ass. One to watch for fans of the genre.
Dave W - 22nd August, 2005 - 13:11
Director:
Takashi Ishii
Year: 1997
Language: 日本語 (Japanese) (English Sub)
Country: 日本 (Japan)
Ikko, the grand-daughter of a Yakuza boss is raised from birth as the daughter of the boss, but at the age of 6 when her family is wiped out in a bloody power struggle, she is put onto a plane to L.A. by a female assassin who goes by the moniker "The Black Angel".
At the age of 20, Ikko returns to Tokyo to avenge the death of her father, going under the pseudonym of "The Black Angel" whom she respects and looks up to. When the original Black Angel is hired by the Yakuza to capture Ikko they are violently reunited.
Director Takashi Ishii (Gonin) gives us what he's good at, an action packed Yakuza movie full of guns, explosions and general violence. While perhaps not as well shot as other Yakuza movies by director's such as Takashi Miike or Takeshi Kitano; The Black Angel has a decent plot and enough action to keep the viewer entertained throughout. If you're looking for an exciting Yakuza action movie then The Black Angel is well worth watching.
Dave W - 22nd August, 2005 - 13:58
Director:
Nora Ephron
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Will Ferrel stars as Jack Wyatt, a washed up actor who in an attempt to boost his career takes the role of Darrin in a remake of the 60's TV series Bewitched. Things begin to get weird when he unwittingly casts a real witch (Nicole Kidman) as Samantha.
Plotwise Bewitched isn't anything special, a typical romantic comedy with the Bewitched backdrop; the writing is reasonably good though and both Ferrel and Kidman are good in their roles providing a good few laughs throughout the film.
Dave W - 22nd August, 2005 - 14:35
Director:
John McTiernan
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
When a squad of 6 Rangers and their Sergeant go into a live ammunition training mission in the Panama jungle, only 2 return alive, one with gunshot wounds to the leg and the other witnessed shooting one of his squad before he was retreived.
When the Ranger refuses to talk to a military investigator he demands another Ranger who he doesn't know is brought in to hear his story. The head of the base calls on an old friend of his ex-Ranger and DEA officer Hardy (John Travolta). Together Hardy and Osbourne (the investigator) must decipher what led to the death of the 4 soldiers and Sergeant West (Samuel L. Jackson).
The plot twists and turns as the story is told and then retold when it becomes clear that someone is being liberal with the truth. This leads to a movie which is engaging and enjoyable throughout as we discover more and more of what really happened. The acting is reasonable and the special effects during the Jungle scenes are decent.
The only bad point I would raise is that the end of the movie is a bit cheesy and could maybe have been toned down a little but overall Basic is a decent movie well worth a watch.
Dave W - 3rd November, 2005 - 08:54
Director:
Jim Jarmusch
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Don Johnstone (Bill Murray) is a rich playboy who has gone from woman to woman throughout his life, one day he receives an unsigned letter from an ex-lover warning him that he has a son he doesn't know about who has gone looking for him. His best friend Winston convinces him to make a list of women it could be and after narrowing it down to 5, he is given the itinerary for a trip which will see him visit each of the women in an effort to find his son.
Broken Flowers sees Bill Murray spend most of the movie silent with a bemused look on his face, as he travels between each of the women from his past he ends up in situations which border on bizarre and he ends up as an observer as the events play out.
This format to the movie makes for a quite slow movie where not much happens, fans of Bill Murray's more recent films will no doubt enjoy it as it is kind of like a whole movie made up of the Bill Murray parts of Lost in Translation.
Overall, Broken Flowers is a little slow and quite unsatisfying.
Dave W - 9th November, 2005 - 13:23
Director:
Takashi Ishii
Year: 1999
Language: 日本語 (Japanese) (English Sub)
Country: 日本 (Japan)
In true Takashi Ishii style, this sequel to Black Angel isn't so much of a sequel in terms of plot or character but more a continuation of the themes from the original. With the Black Angel having a different name and being played by a different actress.
The film tells the story of Mayu, a lone female assassin (The Black Angel of the title). When a hit on a gang boss goes wrong a young woman's husband is killed in the confusion. Mayu is thrown together with the man's widow as the woman seeks revenge for her husband's death and Mayu finishes her contract.
Black Angel 2 is typical Takashi Ishii, a dark gritty film about the seedy Tokyo underworld, with strong female characters. Each of the main character's in the film are interesting and while the film doesn't have a high budget feel or sheen it is well worth watching for fans of Ishii, or Yakuza movies in general.
Dave W - 22nd November, 2005 - 13:57
Director:
Christophe Gans
Year: 2001
Language: French (English Sub)
Country: France
Set in France in the 1700's Brotherhood of the Wolf tells the story of Grégoire de Fronsac and his Native American friend Mani. In a province of France a strange beast is said to roam which eats women and children and holds the country people in a tight grip of fear. Fronsac and Mani attempt to track down the beast but it might just be that there is a secret behind it which it would be dangerous to unearth.
Brotherhood of the Wolf is an excellent action suspense with a great cast which also consists of Monica Belluci and Vincent Cassel.
Dave W - 29th December, 2005 - 12:00
Set against the backdrop of the mountains of Wyoming, Brokeback Mountain tells the story of two young men who meet once summer. Taking work as helpers on a sheep ranch, they must spend the summer alone in the mountains looking after the sheep. What begins as friendship develops into a love which they cannot continue after they return to their lives.
4 years after their experience on Brokeback, Both of the young men, Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) are married with children but their passion is rekindled when Jack seeks to meet up again.
Being referred to mainly as "that gay cowboy movie", Brokeback Mountain is so more than that, the whole movie is beautifully shot, the scenery of the mountains is stunning on a hugely grand scale. The story of forbidden love between Jack and Ennis is both sad and joyful at the same time and while I found the movie is a little slow paced towards the end, the character development is engaging and intruiging.
Brokeback Mountain is a movie which (in this country at least) is probably a little ahead of its time, a scene involving Ennis' wife witnessing the two men kissing was met with laughter rather than the shock or sadness which it should have received if it had been a wife discovering her husband was cheating with another woman.
Overall, Brokeback Mountain is a beautifully made movie which may well come to be an important event in cinema history.
Dave W - 11th January, 2006 - 13:29
Director:
Christopher Guest
Year: 2000
Language: English
Country: America
Best In Show is a "mocumentary", following several different dog breeders as they put their dogs in for the annual Mayflower Kennel Club dog show. Each of the characters has their own unique eccentricities and the jokes are delivered in a completely dead pan manner, never breaking from the stride of the Documentary style the film uses throughout.
With a number of strange and humourous characters and comedy throughout which is at times both obvious and more subtle, Best in Show takes a rather strange subject matter and produces a good comedy from it.
Dave W - 8th April, 2006 - 19:13
Director:
Panna Rittikrai
Year: 2004
Language: Thai (English Subs)
Country: Thailand
When Deaw, a Thai Police officer (the action movie kind that is allowed to shoot loads of people) loses his partner when a drug bust goes wrong he decides to tag along on a charity trip to a small village near the Thai border that his sister is making with the Thai National Sports Team. Deaw and the team run into trouble when the village is taken hostage by terrorists intent on releasing a drugs baron from jail and destroying Bangkok with a nuclear missile.
While the plot is as ridiculous as it sounds, Born to Fight makes up for this with non-stop action. 10 minutes in there is a huge set piece involving stuntmen jumping between and rolling off two moving trucks before they are consumed in a massive explosion. Throughout the rest of the movie there is a vast number of gunfights, hand to hand combats and a lot more stunt falls which look impossible.
Born to Fight is similar to Ong-Bak in many ways, from the realism of it's stunts to the brutal violence, although is not quite as good as while the stunts are impressive, they don't have the same level of brilliance as Tony Jaa's in Ong-Bak.
Overall, Born to Fight offers very little in terms of plot but if you want to see mindless action by the bucketload, you're in for a treat.
Dave W - 3rd June, 2006 - 16:14
Director:
Panna Rittikrai
Petchtai Wongkamlao
Year: 2004
Language: Thai (English Subs)
Country: Thailand
Petchtai Wongkamlao who starred in Ong-Bak as Tony Jaa's sidekick returns with a main role in the Thai Action/Comedy The Bodyguard.
Wong Kom (Wongkamlao) is the bodyguard of a wealthy businessman, but despite his best efforts his boss is assassinated. His boss' son Chaichol inherits his father's companies and blames Wong Kom for his father's death and shuns his help. He soon finds himself in trouble and on the run as a he is tracked down by his father's assassins. He finds refuge with a dysfunctional family in the slums where he finds there is more to life than his wealth.
The Bodyguard has some great action set pieces; the opening gun-fight is pretty well done and a car chase ensues which ends with the simultaneous mid-air crashing of 4 no less than 4 cars. The action is backed up with a range of comedy situations, including a naked chase through the streets and a Dance off between the Bodyguard and a Wu-Shu warrior.
Tony Jaa makes a small cameo with the screenplay fitting in a little gag about his role in Ong-Bak.
Overall, The Bodyguard is a reasonably funny action/comedy with some good action scenes.
Dave W - 14th June, 2006 - 21:09
Director:
Peyton Reed
Year: 2006
Language: English
Country: America
Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston star in The Break Up, a comedy about the break up of a couple. After argument, Gary (Vaughn) and Brooke (Aniston) decide that they no longer wish to be together and split the house into two leading to mildy humourous consequences. When Brooke realises she has made a mistake, can she get Gary back?
The film isn't really as funny as it is made out to be, but having said that, there are a few laughs in there. There is a lot of shouting, some arguments uncomfortable to watch and while there isn't a lot to the plot, it does defy expectations at the least. Aniston and Vaughn are good enough in their roles, but all in all, there isn't too much there to impress.
Dave W - 25th July, 2006 - 13:24
Director:
Peyton Reed
Year: 2000
Language: English
Country: America
It's the start of a new term and Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) has just been announced as the new head cheerleader charged with taking the award winning team to the final of the National Cheerleading championships. Things don't start of well for Torrance when one of the team injures herself and they need to get a replacement. New girl, Missy (Eliza Dushku) steps in with some intial friction but once one problem is seemingly solved, Torrance finds another when Missy reveals to her, all their cheers are ripped off from an opposing team, Torrance has only a few weeks before the Regionals to create and learn a new routine.
Bring it On is a completely trashy teen movie, but for some reason is enjoyable to watch. The plot isn't exactly complex and the acting is as to be expected but there is something to the movie which means you can just chill out, not think about anything and just enjoy the cheerleading.
Dave W - 30th July, 2006 - 14:19
Director:
Rian Johnson
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Brick is an intriguing "who done it" mystery film, the story follows Brendan, a High School Student who receives a panicked and cryptic call from his ex-girlfriend. When he tries to contact her she warns him to stay away but soons turns up dead. Brendan is determined to find the killer and must infiltrate a local crime ring in order to do so.
Brick is a refreshing change from most American High School movies; the dialogue has a unique feel to it, with each character starting their sentence with little pause after the previous line, a lot of Noir slang is thrown in which adds another level to the dialogue.
The plot is well written with a good balance of action and storytelling and the main players act their characters well. The film is also well directed and presented with bold bright colours in the outdoor shots.
Overall, brick is something a little different and a little refreshing, well worth a watch.
Dave W - 9th October, 2006 - 12:51
Director:
Peter Jackson
Year: 1987
Language: English
Country: New Zealand
When an alien invasion threatens New Zealand, the Government send in The Boys to defeat Lord Crumb and his gang of zombie like aliens who want to pack up the human race into boxes and sell them as snacks across the galaxy.
Shot on a very low budget, Bad Taste has a bit of a cult following, I hadn't seen it since I was about 17, but held fond memories of the movie. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't really warrant the following it has. Unsurprisingly the acting is terrible and the screenplay pretty dire; I found the film didn't hold my attention at all. On the plus side, there are some reasonably good special effects considering the budget.
A lot of the gore and gags probably appealed to me more when Bad Taste was something I had never seen before, but 8 years later, I've seen far more shocking cinema and most of the jokes just aren't that funny. Overall not a movie I'd be in a hurry to see again.
Dave W - 15th October, 2006 - 14:01
Director:
Larry Charles
Year: 2006
Language: English
Country: America
Sacha Baron Cohen, creator of Ali G returns to the big screen with another comic creation of his, the bumbling Kazakh news report Borat whose knowledge of the Western world is limited. The movie builds of the loose premise that Borat has been sent to America by the Government of Kazakhstan to make a movie about who America can help the struggling Kazakh ecomony.
What follows is a series of linked sketches in which the American people meet the completely un-PC Borat. While some of the bigger stunts are obviously staged, the smaller ones seem to be real American's reactions as Borat tries to make friends in America.
The character is so out of touch with what is acceptable in society, that the entire film is one big cringe fest as he says terrible things and gets himself into situations where you just know someone is likely to punch him or worse.
In places, the movie is hilariously funny, with the humour coming from Borats un-PC attitude and the responses he gets to this from the general public.
Dave W - 10th November, 2006 - 12:57
Director:
Lung Wei Wang
Year: 1989
Language: Cantonese (English Sub)
Country: Hong-Kong
Two Chinese brothers, Chueng Ka-Wai and Cheung Ka-Wah (Andy Lau) attempt to enter Hong-Kong illegally in search of a better life. Ka-Wai is caught and sent back to the mainland, whereas Ka-Wah makes the crossing and starts a new life in Hong Kong.
He initially workers as a hawker on the streets, but when his stall is attacked by some Triad's looking for protection he goes to their boss, Tong Fai, with an intent to beat him. Impressed by Ka-Wai's bravado, Tong Fai hires him and he slowly begins his rise in the Triads.
Without giving too much of the plot away, Ka-Wai eventually returns to Hong Kong as a killer for a rival gang and finds himself in a fight with his brother.
Bloody Brotherhood is a story of Triads and organised crime with a tone of the importance of family and brotherhood. The plot is pretty predictable and as soon as Ka-Wai returns you know that his paths will cross with Ka-Wah's.
There are a number of big action fight scenes and Andy Lau has some impressive martial arts moves. Well presented and well worth a watch if you are a fan of Triad movies.
Dave W - 7th December, 2006 - 12:57
Director:
Paul Verhoeven
Year: 2006
Language: Dutch, German (English Sub)
Country: The Netherlands
Set during the occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, Black Book follows Rachel, a young Jewish women in hiding from the Nazi's. When her safe house is bombed by a damaged plane ditching bombs in order to climb, she is given the opportunity to escape to Belgium. But things don't go as planned and her entire family along with everyone else on the boat are murdered by the German army. She is picked up by members of the dutch resistance who persaude her to undertake a dangerous mission to get close to a German officer in order to bug the Gestapo headquarters.
Black Book is a war drama which focuses on life in the occupied Netherlands rather than fighting on the front lines. Well made and presented throughout, with great acting from the cast. The plot is decent, although the film does seem to lose direction at the end turning into a bit of a mess for a short time.
Overall, a well made an interesting film which could have been better in places but which is excellent for the most part.
Dave W - 26th January, 2007 - 12:53
Director:
Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu
Year: 2006
Language: Various
Country: America
A tale of human communication is told through 4 interlocking stories, a Morrocan goatherder, a married couple on holiday, a Mexican maid in charge of two children and a Japanese schoolgirl who is deaf and mute. Well shot and told throughout as we flick between the storylines, each on a slightly skewed timeline so that the connection does not always appear obvious at first.
The plot is interesting and engaging and the acting from lead cast members, Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Rinko Kikuchi is excellent. While 3 of the main plotlines have strong connections between them, the Japanese plot is only loosley related, which is a shame as it is perhaps the most heartfelt of the four.
All in all, a good movie which is worth watching even if it does have a few flaws.
Dave W - 30th January, 2007 - 14:47
Director:
Je-gyu Kang
Year: 2004
Language: Korean (English Sub)
Country: South Korea
In June of 1950, the North Korean Army started an attack on the South which plunged the penisula into war. Two brothers Jin-tae Lee and Jin-seok Lee from the South are drafted to fight against their will. Jin-tae, the elder brother wishes to protect his younger brother so volunteers for the most dangerous missions he can, having cut a deal with his commanding officer that his brother can go home should he win a medal.
Jin-seok begins to notice that after becoming somewhat of a hero his elder brother has changed and his kind manner has been replaced with someone obsessed with fighting the war. The war which split the two countries finally splits the bond between the two brothers.
Stunningly shot, an action packed, Brotherhood is unrelenting in it's depiction of the horrors of war. Very little of the movie is set away from the battlefield with a large part of the movie containing epic scenes of fighting. The plot is top notch and the acting from the two leads excellent as the relationship between the brothers disintegrates.
Brotherhood is an excellent war film set during a conflict which is perhaps less famous than others of the time.
Dave W - 31st January, 2007 - 18:11
Director:
Edward Zwick
Year: 2006
Language: English
Country: America
Set in Sierra Leone during the height of it's brutal civil war, Blood Diamond follows Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) a Fisherman from a rural village. When militia men come to his town, he is separated from his wife and children, while they go on the run, he is put to work in a forced labour camp searching for diamonds to fund the anti government R.U.F.
When he finds a large diamond, he attempts to conceal it from the gunmen holding him captive but as he hides it, the camp is stormed by Government troops who jail both the R.U.F. gunmen and the workers in the camp. It is in jail where Vandy meets diamond smuggler Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio).
Archer sees his chance to get rich off Vandy's find and goes about offering him the chance to get his family back in exchange for a share of the profits from the diamond.
While predominantly an action movie, the film's subject area has strong warnings of the damage caused by so called conflict diamonds. Diamonds smuggled out of war torn African states and sold to make money to buy weapons. The action scenes are epic, although seem a little over the top in parts and while the plot is obviously fictional; there is enough to link it with the real world to make it interesting and extremely watchable.
Overall, an excellent action movie with a serious issue behind it.
Dave W - 13th February, 2007 - 18:33
Director:
Carlos Sorin
Year: 2004
Language: Spanish (English Sub)
Country: Argentina
An Argentinian mechanic who loses his job at a petrol station is forced to move in with his daughter and her family. With strains at home he struggles to find another job until he helps out a woman on the side of the road with car troubles and is rewarded with a pedigree dog in return. He is introduced to the world of dog shows by an Accountant who informs him of how special the dog is.
A story which starts off sad moves on towards a heart-felt happy ending. Juan Villegas who plays the character of the mechanic goes through the movie with a faint smile on his face, looking bemused most of the time. He's just a nice guy trying to make a living to support himself. The dog of the title is also excellent on screen, giving a cute look here and there as it is driven about the barren countryside of Patagonia.
Bombon is a nice movie which makes for interesting viewing and leaves you with a warm feeling inside.
Dave W - 22nd March, 2007 - 12:55
Director:
John Carpenter
Year: 1986
Language: English
Country: America
Kurt Russell stars as Jack, a Trucker who whilst stopped in San Francisco's China Town finds himself thrown into an adventure involving Triads, an old Chinese mystic and a kidnapped girl. He and his friend Wang Chi must team up to rescue the girl and stop the powerful Lo Pan.
Despite hailing from the mid-80's Big Trouble in Little China hasn't aged too badly, the special effects are reasonable and the dodgy haricuts adds a touch of nostalgia to the whole thing. The gags are funny for the most part and the action exciting, it's kind of like a slightly more grown up version of the Goonies.
The acting is shoddy which is to be expected, but again this adds comedy to the movie rather from detracting from it. The standard find the bad guy and stop him plot is a good enough basis to build the film on.
Overall, a decent 80's movies which is still fun today.
Dave W - 7th May, 2007 - 15:07
3 friends from 1960's Hong Kong mess about together and get in fights. When a disagreement with a gang leader ends in Fai being hit on the head with a bottle, Ah Bee (Tony Leung) takes Fai to avenge his friends injuries. When they go a little too far, the two friends find themselves in trouble with the law and along with the third member of the trio, Little Wing, they flee to Vietnam where they aim to exploit the war to make a lot of money.
They soon find themselves out of their depths in a country destroyed by war. With strong themes of brotherhood, friendship and the corrupting power of greed, Bullet in the Head offers an intellegent Action movie. Also refreshing is the different perspective on Vietnam that the film portrays as the main characters are in the middle of the war rather than fighting on either side.
The acting from the main three is good and Simon Yam has a good role as a supporting character the trio meet in Vietnam. With more than enough John Woo action to fill the movie, a good plot and a sad ending, Bullet in the Head is an excellent Hong-Kong action movie which offers more than just mindless violence.
Dave W - 19th May, 2007 - 11:21
Director:
Mel Brooks
Year: 1974
Language: English
Country: America
Blazing Saddles is a spoof western; when a black railroad worker is made sheriff of a small town inhabited by racists, he must win the hearts of the people to help save them and their town from a evil Attorney General who wants to seize their land so that when the railroad comes through the town he can make money off the back of it.
The film satirises not only the Wild West genre of films, but also racial intolerance and hatred. The comedy aspect is great, with most of the jokes still as funny and relevant as when it was written over 30 years ago.
Overall, a well written and immensley enjoyable comedy which has aged very well.
Dave W - 24th June, 2007 - 16:42
Director:
F. Gary Gray
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Picking up a number of years after Get Shorty, Be Cool sees the return of Chili Palmer (John Travolta). A record producer friend, meets Chili to ask him about making a film of his life; but is murdered soon afterwards. Chili decides to move from Movies into Music and teams up with his friend's ex-wife (Uma Thurman) to find the next big star. This leads him into trouble with the Russian Mafia and a rival record company.
Be Cool feels more like a remake than a sequel; although the plot has been changed, simply substitute music for film in the script and things are pretty similar. The majority of the jokes are identical to the first which makes the film so self-referential that it becomes tiresome.
Perhaps if you saw the sequel 10 years after the original it would be good in a reminiscent sort of way, but having seen neither film I watched them back to back which exaggerates the extent to which the second film contains so much old material.
Overall, a reasonable film in it's own right, but when watched as a sequel to Get Shorty becomes tiresome and offers little new.
Dave W - 25th June, 2007 - 13:11
Headline:
BORIS
Venue: Nice n Sleazy
Gig Date: 27th June, 2007
Support:
Loss Leader
Japanese metal act Boris aren't a band I'm hugely familiar with, but I headed along to see them with Neil anyway. Hugely versatile, they are famous for their hour long drone metal epics as well as some shorter, much faster paced and incredibly heavy tracks.
Opening up for Boris was one man "electro doom" outfit, Loss Leader although equipment troubles meant he cut is set short, what I heard was pretty interesting. The Boris crowd have to be one of the most supporting I've ever seen to a support act, encouraging him to go on regardless, but after 3 songs he left the stage.
Boris came on after a while and played a mix of songs, some incredibly heavy and fast paced and other slower consisting of more soundscapes produced by the two guitarists and drummer. Featuring a huge gong and a double necked guitar they were a sight to behold. Unfortunately due to the pathetic Scottish public transport system we had to leave at what I assume was almost the end of a song which had gone on for at least twenty minutes and for the past ten seemed to consist entirely of the end of songs. Usually you don't have a gong crescendo in the middle of the song, but what do I know about that.
Overall, extremely loud, extremely heavy and at times extremely beautiful.
Dave W - 28th June, 2007 - 12:52
Director:
Doug Liman
Year: 2002
Language: English
Country: America
When Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) awakes to find himself on a fishing boat 60 miles off the coast of Southern France, he has no memory of who he is or how he gets there. With nothing more than a laser pointer showing the number of a safety deposit box to go on, he travels to Switzerland to find out more. He soon learns that he has knowledge and skills which everyday people don't have, an inbuilt instinct for fighting and a master of multiple European languages. The safety deposit box throws up more questions when he finds a number of passports all with his face, a gun and a large sum of cash.
It soon transpires that someone from his past life is looking for him and isn't too happy that he isn't dead; Bourne begins a mission to find out his past and find out who is after him. While the plot is pretty straightforward, most of the film builds up the characters for the rest of the trilogy. The actions scenes provide enough entertainment to make the simple plot worth watching.
Overall, the Bourne Identity is well made and exciting to a point, but on a second watching even a number of years later I found myself less drawn in and entertained than I thought I would have been.
Dave W - 2nd August, 2007 - 12:35
Director:
Jennifer Venditti
Year: 2007
Language: English
Country: America
15 year old Billy Price is a kid who himself professes to be "different", an outcast at school, Billy the Kid is a documentary which follows him in his daily life. Billy has an incredible down to earth and straight talking attitude, he says things as he sees them which is often very profound.
While Billy is undoubtably a very intellegent and entertaining person to watch, I didn't really understand why he would be the subject of a documentary. The film is well made and interesting to watch, but to me, it seemed a bit invasive of his life. A lot of the time, it seemed to me that the audience were laughing at Billy rather than with him.
Overall, interesting and insightful, but something about it didn't sit right with me.
Dave W - 18th August, 2007 - 15:30
Director:
Ki-duk Kim
Year: 2007
Language: Korean (English Sub)
Country: South Korea
When a bored housewife sees a story on the nightly news about a prisoner on death row who tried to commit suicide, she goes to visit him in jail. Taking with her a variety of props to try to help him come to terms with his impending death.
Breath is stunningly well paced and shot, compared to Kim's other work it is relatively less brutal and sadistic and at times even starts to become sweet and charming. Having said that, the theme of the movie is still dark as we see a prisoner on death row at the end of his tether. Like many of Kim's other works there is very little dialogue with the inmate not speaking at all and the housewife not speaking to her family.
Overall, another great movie from Kim Ki-Duk.
Dave W - 21st August, 2007 - 12:37
Director:
Paul Greengrass
Year: 2007
Language: English
Country: America
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is back and the CIA are still after him. Following on from where the last film left off, we rejoin Jason on his quest to find his hidden identity.
As with the previous two movies, the plot is pretty much "Bourne gets some information about something to do with his identity and goes on a mission to find out more". This loose completely forgettable plot is punctuated with a number of high octane action sequences which make for exciting viewing while you're there but little to think about, or even really remember afterwards.
There's a great car chase sequence, some fighting and a chase across the rooftops of Tangier all shot in Greengrass' annoying shaking camera with hundreds of quick cuts.
Aside from the MTV style camera work, the film is pretty good overall and a good end to a trilogy which has managed to keep momentum throughout rather than waning towards the end.
Dave W - 13th September, 2007 - 12:44
Headline:
Battles
Venue: Liquid Rooms
Gig Date: 18th October, 2007
Support:
Dirty Projectors
Despite turning up on time for the published 7pm start time, the doors didn't open until at least 8, by which time we were really ready to listen to some good music.
First on stage were the Dirty Projectors who were pretty good and like Battles fall into a very hard to describe category.
After a short break, Battles started to set up on stage, their masses of equipment were brought on and the drums set up right at the front of the stage, complete with a cymbal on a stand which easily topped 6ft, we were pretty excited and hoped to be in for something special.
Unfortunately when the band took the stage we weren't disappointed, launching straight into the last track on their album, Race: Out. As the song built up, it was clear that although the Mirrored album is pretty good, but live, Battles are amazing. Starting with short musical parts, they build them together layer on layer, tied together through the drums to create an incredibly dynamic sound. This sound is then stripped back down and built up again.
With very little chat between the songs and the sparse vocals so effect laden as to sound like real singing, the set felt very much like a DJ set rather than that of a live band. Which is all the more impressive as it was obvious that the members of the band were playing their specific brand of complicated, technical music live.
Overall, an amazing set from a band who are a joy to listen to.
Dave W - 21st October, 2007 - 18:19
Headline:
Boredoms
Venue: The Arches
Gig Date: 23rd October, 2007
Support:
Michael Gira
Support was handled by Michael Gira, one man in his early 50's with only an acoustic guitar. The first track seemed a little strange considering he was supporting Boredoms but as his set progressed his style of dark/depressing lyrics on top of a heavy and raw guitar track came across as extremely powerful despite being quite stripped down.
I hadn't heard much Boredoms material previous to the concert and so didn't really know what to expect, although what actually happened was way off anything I would have guessed. Front man Yamantaka Eye appeared on stage with two lights in each hand and accompanied by a very distorted track of thundering bass noises and almost white noise he dances around the stage waving the lights. It was never clear if his movements were triggering the sound or if he was simply moving in time to the backing track, but the effect was pretty good none the less.
Then the really unexpected nature of the set was revealed as not 1, not 2 but 3 drummers took their places on stage at the 3 drum kits set up. And all 3 of them launched into a track of synchronised drumming backed by a pre-programmed track handled by Eye as well as accompianment from Eye on an instrument which appeared to be made of 8 large planks each stringed with 6 strings and pickups which he hit with drumsticks and each tuned to a different note. The effect was amazing, ridiculously loud and stunningly well performed.
Overall, one of the most original and surprising acts I've seen in a while.
Dave W - 27th October, 2007 - 16:28
Director:
Nir Bergman
Year: 2002
Language: Hebrew (English Sub)
Country: Isreal
Broken Wings follows a mother and her 4 children 8 months after the death of the father of the family. The mother has to work nights as a midwife to provide for the family which leaves the eldest child, 17 year old Maya with more than her fair share of family responsibilities. To make things worse, her teenage brother is dropping out of school and her youngest brother and sister are struggling with the lack of the maternal attention.
The film follows the family of a period of only a couple of days as a family emergency brings them together at a time when they are each struggling to be their own person. Acted brilliantly by the entire cast, including some of the younger child actors, Broken Wings is a bittersweet story which is at times sad but still instils a sense of hope in the viewer.
The family and events are completely believable which makes the film even more poignant. Definitely one worth watching.
Dave W - 1st November, 2007 - 13:13
Director:
Robert Zemeckis
Year: 2007
Language: English
Country: America
The epic English poem dating from between the 8th and 11th centuries gets the big screen treatment and as one of the largest movies of recent times to be presented in 3D, it's a sight to behold.
The story tells of a warrior named Beowulf who comes to Denmark to help a king rid a monster in his kingdom. We follow Beowulf as he confronts the monster and throughout the adventures he has in later life.
The film is computer generated but heavily based on actual camera footage to provide the basis for such, but it still retains a cheap computer game cut scene style to it. The 3D aspect is ok and as good as, if not better than most 3D films I've seen, but it still suffers from the odd ghosting and too much bluriness if the action gets too fast.
The acting is for the most part terrible, especially the accents of almost the entire cast who seem to sound Welsh rather than Danish except for Ray Winstone who voices Beowulf in a mostly indeterminate accent which slips into his London accent whenever anything too exciting happens ("I have come to slay your Monstaaa").
The story is probably the only outstanding part of the movie, but the effects, acting and voices detract from this quite a bit. Despite being so negative, I have to say that the film is entertaining, once you get past the terrible sexual innuendo gags that is.
Overall, a pretty badly done 3D epic action film which is bearable to watch but suffers from many a flaw.
Dave W - 20th November, 2007 - 21:02
Director:
Barbara Albert
Year: 2003
Language: German (English Sub)
Country: Austria
This Austrian drama is entirely driven by its large web of interweaving characters. The story starts by following a young woman who survives a plane crash coming back to Austria for Brazil. Six years later she is killed in a car crash and it is then the film starts to pick up pace, following amongst others her widowed husband, best friend, brother and sister as well as the teenagers involved in the crash.
The plot is pretty much non-existant and instead we jump between the multitude of different characters each connected to a number of the others in many ways. This is all displayed through the changing seasons in a town in the midst of a frenzy to win house which is being given away in a lottery.
The direction, photography and acting is excellent and the distinct lack of any music on the soundtrack apart from any music which is happening on film provides an experience which seems real this is coupled with believable characters.
Overall, an interesting and captivating film from Austria which is worth watching.
Dave W - 10th December, 2007 - 21:29
Director:
Abderrahmane Sissako
Year: 2006
Language: French (English Sub)
Country: Mali
Set in the Malian Capital of Bamako during a court hearing which sees the World Bank and IMF put on trial by the African people to decide whether they are to blame for the poverty in which many African's live, Bamako shows us scenes from the trial in which lawyers from each side argue their case interspersed with stories from around the court room telling the tales of ordinary citizens of Mali.
Bamako is well shot and presented and the question at it's core, are the World Bank and IMF to blame for the situation in Africa, makes for the parts of the film which explore this question, interesting viewing. Unfortunately the film has too many scenes which in my opinion are overly long and detract from the overall point of the film, 5 minute scenes of a man chanting, a strange cowboy film intro and 2 scenes of a woman singing all could have been, in my opinion, cut to make a more compact and succint film.
Having said that, the film is intelligent and well made, so viewers more interested in Africa and African politics will probably get more from it than I did.
Dave W - 13th December, 2007 - 21:05
Director:
Robert Ben Garant
Year: 2007
Language: English
Country: America
Randy Daytona was a child Ping Pong star of the '88 Olympics, but when he loses his match and his dad is killed by the Triads for unpaid gambling fees he gives up competitive Table Tennis. 18 years later he is working as a showman in Vegas using his Ping Pong skills in an attempt to entertain the crowds.
When the FBI approach him for help in trapping Triad boss Feng (Christopher Walken) Randy is drawn into a world of underground illegal Ping Pong where losing means instant deaths at the hands of the merciless Feng.
Balls of Fury is a sporting comedy in the mould of Dodgeball, the plot is so ridiculous it only backs up the comedy and while most of the gags are either obvious or slapstick if you are a fan of stupid movies then there is a lot there to laugh at.
Overall, a pretty funny film but perhaps not one for the more discerning cinema goer.
Dave W - 27th December, 2007 - 11:42
Director:
Dwayne Carey-Hill
Year: 2007
Language: English
Country: America
2 years after Fox canned the Futurama TV series, it's back with the first of a few feature length episodes. Bender's Big Score sees all the characters from the TV show return on top form. The show follows the Planet Express delivery crew as the Earth is threatened to be over-run by a dastardly group of extra terrestrial scammers.
Animation and voice acting are the same high quality as the original TV shows, the plot is well written and involves time travel, so gets a little confusing although everything is neatly wrapped up by the end. Overall, the film hasn't lost any of the charm or wit of the TV series and if anything being able to watch Futurama uninterrupted for 90 minutes adds to the experience.
Overall, a great new addition to the Futurama series and one which should please Futurama fans everywhere.
Dave W - 6th January, 2008 - 12:23
Director:
Jean-Baptiste Andrea
Year: 2006
Language: English
Country: America
When Charlie (David Schwimmer) starts work at a call centre to try and support his family while waiting on his book to be published, he meets Gus (Simon Pegg). After losig his job after the first day, Gus lets him in on a plan he has to blackmail the local priest after acquiring some internet logs of his browsing history. Gus and Charlie are joined by Gus' friend Josie, but when the 3 of them go to collect the money things don't go as smoothly as planned.
Big Nothing is full of twists and turns, some feel a little convoluted, but for the most part it is a fun caper as Charlie gets more and more out of his depth and people reveal themselves to be other than what they seem. David Schwimmer plays pretty much the Ross role from Friends, Pegg is good as usual, his comic timing standing out, but his false American accent is hard to get used to. The rest of the cast or ok in their roles with no real stand out performances.
Humorous throughout, with an interesting plot, Big Nothing is by no means Oscar material but there is enough there for 1 hour and 20 minutes of mindless entertainment.
Dave W - 8th January, 2008 - 12:53
Jeffrey Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is a middle aged, unemployed stoner who calls himself "The Dude" and spends most of his time hanging around the bowling alley with his friends Vietnam veteran Walter (John Goodman) and Donny (Steve Buscemi).
When a couple of hard men mistake him for another Jeffrey Lebowski and rough him up a little while demanding money, they urinate on his rug, Walter suggests maybe "The Dude" should claim reparations from the "Big" Lebowski which leads "The Dude" into a plot concerning pornographer's, kidnapping and embezzlement.
With a great cast which extends beyond Bridges and Goodman to encompase other big names such as Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Big Lebowski is a highly comedic crime caper which sees the laid back "Dude" thrown into a much more fast paced world.
With some unforgettable scenes and some great lines, The Big Lebowski is a film which is entertaining, funny and memorable.
Dave W - 1st February, 2008 - 13:18
Director:
Denys Arcand
Year: 2003
Language: French
Country: Canada
Remy, a university professor forced to retire when he was diagnosed by cancer lies on his death bed. His ex-wife calls his estranged son who travels from London to see him. Despite their differences, he arranges his father's medical care and organises for old friends from his father's past to come to the hospital where they reminisce about the old days.
The Barbarian Invasions is a touching story of one man's last days, despite his less than perfect life, when it comes to the very end, people are willing to forgive and forget and focus on the good times rather than bad. Driven mostly through the characterisation of the the main cast, the film has a dark comic feel in places which makes it very watchable.
All in all, a decent movie dealing with death, romance and sexuality.
Dave W - 15th February, 2008 - 19:30
Director:
Michel Gondry
Year: 2008
Language: English
Country: America
Mike (Mos Def) works in a small Video store, his best friend is the eccentric Jerry (Jack Black). When Mike's boss leaves him in charge of the store to go out of town disaster strikes after Jerry becomes magnetised during a sabotage attempt on the electricity sub station he lives next to and erases all the tapes in the store.
In order to save the business and their own asses, Jerry and Mike set about refilming films as customers demand them in a zero budget style. The ridiculous plot outline works ok due to the comic nature of the film, the remakes that Jerry and Mike make are themselves pretty funny, but that in its self leads to the main downside of the film in that there is a higher level story wrapped around this which isn't as interesting as the quirky remakes.
Jack Black is slightly toned down in comparison to other performances, but it's still essentially the same character you would come to expect.
Overall, while the film is funny and pretty good in places with an interesting plot idea, the overarching story line overshadows the real comedy genius of the remakes at the heart of the film.
Dave W - 3rd March, 2008 - 19:16
When a group of 5 nuns are sent to open a new convent high in the Himalayas with the idea of running a school and a small hospital, they find themselves in a world which is far different from what they are used to. Lonely and with a somewhat cold reaction from the locals, they each seem out of their depths in this foreign habitat.
The film is pretty much driven by the characterisation of the Nuns and their reaction to their new surroundings with little real plot. This is done reasonably well for the first part as the scene is being set but I found by the middle of the movie it wore on a little. The ending brings in some drama and all things considered is captivating and holds the attention.
Overall, Black Narcissus is a reasonable watch and contains some interesting scenes.
Dave W - 17th March, 2008 - 18:42
Director:
Sergei M. Eisenstein
Year: 1925
Language: Russian
Country: Russia
Set in 1905, the 1920's silent film Battleship Potemkin tells the story of a group of sailors who mutiny and take over the emponymous boat, killing their commanding officers. They then go on to their home port of Odessa where their calls for revolution gather steam.
Although the film quality is reflective of the time, Battleship Potemkin contains a number of scenes, ideas and themes which have recurred in many forms since the film was made. The musical score is excellent, making up for the lack of dialogue and creating a feeling of tension as the film builds up to its more dramatic moments.
All in all, Battleship Potemkin is a classic film, but also one which is powerful and emotional.
Dave W - 2nd May, 2008 - 12:29
In the near future, petrol prices have risen so high that only the very rich can afford to drive, cars lay unused in junk yards. Archie Andrews is a vegan primary school teacher who spends his spare time tinkering with an engine he hopes to get running on wheat grass juice thus solving America's problems.
While tinkering one day, he cuts his finger and discovers that his engine runs on human blood, after a quick transfusion he is up and running but his new found wheels catch the sights of the woman from the meat stall and in order to keep her impressed he must find new sources of fuel for his car.
Blood Car is a completely ridiculous horror/comedy with very dark humour and a ton of nudity/swearing and violence. The low budget feel is reminiscent of early Peter Jackson. For the most part the comedy and situations Archie finds himself in are pretty funny, a lot simply because of bad taste. A couple of gags miss their mark, and some attempts at political satire towards the end feel slightly out of place.
Overall, a low budget film which is entertaining and humourous.
Dave W - 20th June, 2008 - 12:50
Director:
Neil Jordan
Year: 2007
Language: English
Country: America
Jodie Foster stars in this Vigilante themed thriller as radio talk show host Erica Bain who suffers at the hands of a violent unprovoked attack as her and her fiancee are walking their dog in the park. With her fiancee killed in the attack, Erica buys a gun with a view to protecting herself, but soon finds herself dishing out Vigilante justice on criminals. As she becomes involved with a policeman (Terrence Howard) the truth looks like it might come out.
The Brave One is not a bad movie, Howard and Foster are decent in their roles and the film is well shot and presented, but there are some points which just don't work too well. Her talk show is terrible for one thing and the lawless New York portrayed in the film seems a little over the top.
Overall, a reasonable watch for entertainment but with the subject matter a plot outline, it could have been more engaging.
Dave W - 21st June, 2008 - 17:19
Director:
David Lean
Year: 1945
Language: English
Country: United Kingdom
A housewife recalls the tale of how she has spent the past weeks lusting over a doctor she met in town and has been seeing unbeknownst to her husband. Told for the most part as a flashback confessional of the events, Laura Jesson tells the viewer of how she came to meet and fall in love with another man.
Brief Encounter is well shot and the acting reasonable, but the story of a bored 1940's housewife and her romantic drama wasn't really my cup of tea. There are a couple of humourous moments, but for the most part the film is pretty boring.
Dave W - 24th June, 2008 - 13:11
Director:
Peter Avanzino
Year: 2008
Language: English
Country: America
The second of four feature length Futurama episodes, The Beast with a Billion Backs picks up where Bender's Big Score left off, with an rip in the universe created, the Planet Express crew go on a mission to discover what is on the other side, but what they find is a shocking creature that might love their universe a little too much.
The Beast with a Billion Backs is classic Futurama and although maybe not quite as good as Bender's Big Score, it's still something which fans of the series should love. All the regular characters are there, the same science based jokes and the wacky plots.
All in all, another great addition to the Futurama legacy.
Dave W - 6th July, 2008 - 11:12
Cheng Chao-an (Bruce Lee) moves to live with his cousins who all work at the local Ice factory. He too gets a job there, but when his cousins start disappearing, he is torn between the dilemma to do something about it or to keep a promise he made to his mother not to get into any fights.
And so you have it, a Bruce Lee movie where Lee doesn't do all that much fighting. The dub is pretty dodgy, the film transfer wasn't amazing, the fight sequences were for the most part poor with people jumping 6 feet in the air all over the place and weren't all the spectacularly choreographed.
Having said that, the plot was reasonable and the ending made up for the lack of decent Bruce Lee action in the earlier parts of the film.
Overall, an alright movie, but I would have liked to see Bruce Lee kicking ass a bit more and a bit less dodgy wire work.
Dave W - 19th July, 2008 - 11:04
Director:
John Sturges
Year: 1955
Language: English
Country: America
Shortly after the Second World War, an express train stops in the mid-West town of Black Rock. The train hasn't stopped there in the past 4 years and the only person to alight is John J. MacReedy, a smartly dressed man who has only got the use of one of his arms. As he sets about his business in the town, the townspeople treat him with suspicion, scared he will dredge up a secret from the town's murky past.
While the main plot of Bad Day at Black Rock is pretty easy to guess from about 20 minutes in, the surprise is that towards the end of the film, we focus more on the characters involved than the plot itself. Spencer Tracy is pretty good in his role as the moody, secretive MacReedy and the photography of the sun bleached town is stunning, but for the most part, Bad Day at Black Rock offers little excitement and its relatively short run time makes for little time to fully explore the situation.
Overall, an interesting film, but it could have done with being slightly longer.
Dave W - 25th July, 2008 - 16:50
Director:
Howard Hawks
Year: 1938
Language: English
Country: America
Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant) is zoologist for a natural history museum, the only complications in his life are the arrival of a bone he needs to complete the museum's brontosaurus skeleton, the prospect of getting a million dollars funding and his impending marriage; that is until he meets Susan (Katharine Hepburn) within minutes of meeting her she has ruined his golf game and crashed his car before driving off in it. But this is just where his problems start as she drags him into a cross country errand to dispose of a Leopard her brother has her from Brazil (The "Baby" of the title). This threatens to destroy everything important to Dr. Huxley.
Bringing Up Baby is a great madcap comedy, fusing bizarre situations and slapstick together. It still feels fresh and retains its comedy well, 70 years later. Both Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are excellent in their roles as the put upon professor and the slightly insane Susan respectively. With a pace that sees one comic situation after another delivered to the viewer in quick successions, there is certainly no time to get bored.
Overall, very funny, witty and still highly watchable.
Dave W - 26th October, 2008 - 10:02
Director:
James Whale
Year: 1935
Language: English
Country: America
After a brief intro where we join Lord Byron and Mary Shelley talking about Shelley's story of Frankenstein, we are thrown straight back in where the first film left off as Shelley picks up the plot. This sees us learn that the Monster has survived the burning windmill after hiding in its water-logged basement while Dr. Henry Frankenstein is too still alive after being thrown from the windmill.
After these relevations it's back to much of the same, the monster is still running around being misunderstood and scaring people, although now has a limited vocabulary and Dr. Frankenstein, never one to learn a lesson, teams up with, the also more than slightly crazy, Dr. Pretorius in a bid to create a female mate for the Monster.
The Bride of Frankenstein gets in some good special effects for its time, the most effective of which are tiny little people in jars that Dr. Pretorius has created. The dialogue is full of over the top drama and there is still a hint that the monster may not be all bad and is infact just misunderstood, the point hammered home when he meets a blind man who takes him in and feeds him.
Overall, another classic movie which is still good despite its age.
Dave W - 27th October, 2008 - 12:00
When CIA Agent Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is demoted, he quits his job and decides to stay at home and write his Memoirs. This doesn't sit well with his wife (Tilda Swinton who is having an affair with a family friend, Harry (George Clooney). This leads to her investigating into getting a divorce.
When her attorney suggests she gets hold of her husband's financial records from his computer this leads to a fragment of his memoirs being left on a CD in a local gym. Gym worker Linda (Frances McDormand) and her bumbling colleage Chad (Brad Pitt) find the disk, mistake it for some "Secret Shit" and decide to try and use this to make a bit of cash from Linda's planned cosmetic surgery.
What follows is a series of mishaps, in a twisty plot where the main characters relationships to each other all mingle together with a touch of humour thrown in. For the most part, Burn after Reading is clever, witty and enjoyable. The cast of major stars are all excellent, especially Clooney and Pitt who are playing complete idiots.
Overall, entertaining and amusing.
Dave W - 28th October, 2008 - 12:14
Director:
Dwayne Carey-Hill
Year: 2008
Language: English
Country: America
The third of 4 feature length Futurama episodes ([1][2]), Bender's Game sees the Planet Express Delivery crew fight to try and break Mom's monopoly on dark matter as prices skyrocket and it costs more and more to run their ship. Meanwhile Bender becomes obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons to a point where he cannot distinguish between his own imagination and real life.
Bender's Game is a strong addition to the new episodes, it still has the same kind of humour fans of the series expect and is laugh out loud in places. The fantasy elements of the plot get a little tiresome in the third act, but there is still a lot of good material in there, including a hilarious seen in a robot loony bin.
All in all, another great feature length Futurama.
Dave W - 8th November, 2008 - 16:32
The Baader Meinhof Complex is a biography of the German left wing terrorist organisation the RAF (Red Army Faction). Active in the 1960's and 70's the group were responsible for a number of bombings. The film follows the group from their beginnings, following them through two of the founding members, Andreas Baader (played by Moritz Bleibtreu) and journalist Ulrike Meinhof.
The film does a good job of telling the story of the group and portraying the main characters involved without feeling too sympathetic towards them. With a reasonably long runtime of 150 minutes, the film feels a lot shorter, with a lot of history and events packed into the 2 and a half hours.
Extremely well made, with some great performances from the main actors, The Baader Meinhof Complex is easy to engage with and at times is effective in producing an emotional response from the viewer towards the scenes depicted on screen. All in all, an excellent film which is interesting to watch.
Dave W - 23rd November, 2008 - 21:35
Director:
Ridley Scott
Year: 1982
Language: English
Country: America
In the not too distant future, special police units called Blade Runner's are tasked with finding and expiring rouge cyborgs who are so advanced as to be almost indistinguishable from human being. Blade Runner follows one such cop, Deckard (Harrison Ford) who is sent out to bring in a group of 4 cyborgs who are trying to discover how they can bypass their built in expiry date.
Set in a glorious futuristic L.A., Blade Runner is as much a gritty cop drama as it is Sci-Fi, with a great plot, some amazing sets and great action sequences, there's something for everyone. Now released in Hi-Def, the film looks stunning with vivid colours.
Overall, an amazing film, with is timeless, having lost none of its impact in the 27 years since its release.
Dave W - 17th February, 2009 - 12:27
Author:
Ben Goldacre
Year: 2008
Ben Goldacre's book aims to let the reader in on the truth behind how science (particularly in regard to health and medicine) is reported in the mainstream media and the ways in which what is reported as fact is inacurate at best and just plain wrong at worst.
Along the way, he takes potshots at, amongst others, Dr. Gillian McKeith, the MMR and MRSA scandals and homeopathy. Part of the book focuses on teaching the reader the scientific method in order that they might be able to examine these "science" stories better themselves in the future.
With a writing style which is funny and immensely readable, Bad Science is a book which you can whizz through. Goldacre tends to hammer home his points a little too much, but for the most part it's enjoyable and entertaining. My only criticism is that for anyone reasonably interested in science, the book will cover a lot of familiar ground.
All in all, readable with interesting information and facts, but there is nothing amazingly challenging or surprising.
Dave W - 6th April, 2009 - 12:41
Author:
Ben Mezrich
Year: 2003
Bringing Down the House tells the dramatised story of a group of card counters from MIT who make money on their weekends by hitting large Vegas casinos. The book intersperses the story with information about how card counting teams operate and how they can beat the casino.
The book is written in a trashy style which is very easy to read and contains enough glitz and glamour on top of the plot to keep the reader hooked. While entertaining and based on an interesting story, the book is a little overly dramatic.
All in all, interesting, entertaining but still trash, the literary equivalent of a big budget hollywood action movie.
Dave W - 7th April, 2009 - 20:16
Director:
Richard Curtis
Year: 2009
Language: English
Country: United Kingdom
In the 1960's with little popular music being played on mainstream British radio, pirate radio stations run from boats sitting in the North sea were common place and large number of Britons tuned in to listen to their range of rock and roll.
The Boat That Rocked follows the DJs on the Radio Rock boat, we are introduced to their world via the arrival of the young Carl who has been sent there by his mother to stay with his god father Quentin (Bill Nighy). Once aboard the boat, he soons becomes friends with the group of disfunctional men (and one lesbian) as they live the rock and roll lifestyle and generally lark around. When their fun is threatened by the UK Government who are keen to put a stop to their broadcasts he becomes one of them as they fight for what they believe in.
The Boat That Rocked has a great setting and a cast which are genuinely funny, there are some great gags and actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost and Rhys Ifans makes for great watching. Add to that, the underdog sticking it to the man plotline and you have a film which is great fun and has you rooting for the main characters.
All in all, funny and entertaining.
Dave W - 19th April, 2009 - 15:24
Director:
Scott Sanders
Year: 2009
Language: English
Country: America
Scott Sanders' Black Dynamite tells the story of the titular Black Dynamite, an African-American man in the 70's fighting to avenge the death of his brother who was killed by "The Man". The screenplay sees Dynamite take on number of enemies with his "Kung Fu", uncovering corruption that leads all the way to the top.
The film is a very tongue in cheek spoof of 1970's Blaxpoitation movies which makes for hilarious consequences. Every about the film fits in with the genre films it aims to parody, the 70's look of the film stock, dodgy editing, (deliberatley) bad acting, a hokey script, visible technical equipment. You name it, it's there. From the outset the gags come thick and fast, there's very few that fall flat and there is a very high rate of jokes, with incredible attention to detail leading to smaller hidden jokes of which I am sure there are many I didn't even see.
All in all, Black Dynamite has to be one of the funniest films of the year, a spoof which is done properly, unlike the tirade of "insert-genre-here Movie" films which has passed for parody recently.
Dave W - 25th June, 2009 - 13:19
Director:
Yang Ik-Joon
Year: 2009
Language: Korean (English Sub)
Country: South Korea
Breathless follows a small time thug and debt collector, Sang-Hoon who is employed as muscle to disrupt student rallies etc. as well as to beat up those who owe him and his business partner money. No one is exempt from his brutal violence and foul mouth. The film follows Sang-Hoon as he makes an unlikely friend in a young high-school girl, Yeon-Hue, brought together by a mutual history of domestic violence.
Breathless is grim, bleak and very violent. For most of the 2hr plus run-time, we witness Sang-Hoon swearing and attacking those who get in his way, both at work and in his personal life. But we also witness another side to him, along with an explanation of how he came to be the man he is. While the start shows him as a reprehensible small time gangster, this becomes much more ambiguous as the movie makes its way towards its harrowing ending.
Often difficult to watch and not for those of the feint of heart, Breathless is a gangster movie with none of the glitz and glamour often given to violent criminals on the big screen, but more than that, it is a shocking look at domestic violence and its effects on society.
A well made and powerful film from a first time director who is also the writer and star, this debut makes Yang Ik-Joon a director to look out for in the future.
Dave W - 26th June, 2009 - 13:57
Director:
Sung Kee Chiu
Year: 2007
Language: Cantonese (English Sub)
Country: Hong-Kong
Tin Tam, a triad boss has two sons, Shun and Yiu. When he is given a bad omen regarding his sons future, he ships Shun off to America and brings up Yiu along with his adopted son Ghostie to run the family crime empire. When a power struggle erupts in the syndicate, Tin is killed and Shun returns from America to grieve for his father, but Yiu soon pulls him into the family business.
The film follows the brothers in their lives as well as Inspector Lau Andy Lau of the Hong Kong police who is trying his best to put a stop to the bloodshed.
Brothers is a pretty average Hong Kong triad action film, the plot is pretty standard and there are at least 4 or 5 other Andy Lau movies that have similar plots. There is a fair amount of action, especially in some sequences set in Thailand which are completely different in tone to the rest of the film. Acting is reasonable and the plot fairly predicatable.
Overall, an alright Triad movie, but nothing too special.
Dave W - 16th August, 2009 - 22:50
Director:
Ron Howard
Year: 1991
Language: English
Country: America
Backdraft follows two brothers, their father was a Chicago fireman who died on duty and the eldest brother, Stevie (Kurt Russell), is now a lieutenant in the Chicago fire department. When the younger brother, Bryan (William Baldwin) passes out and becomes a fireman too, he is assigned to Stevie's unit and the pair come to blows almost immediately.
Stevie's bullying forces Bryan to take up a job working with fire investigator Don Rimgale (Robert Deniro) and the pair are soon get busy investigating a series of possible arsons where people have been killed due to opening a door and being fried alive with the "backdraft".
What starts as a seemingly straightforward action film about herioc firefighters, soon descends into a web of conspiracy theories. Most of the actors are pretty mediocre and even Deniro doesn't get that good a role. While the fire sequences are genuinley well done, the film is a little boring in places and you feel that if there wasn't so much sibling rivalry and melodrama, much more could have been made of the scenario.
Overall, on the surface a film about firefighters, but underneath a melodramatic story with an all too cliched conspiracy theory twist.
Dave W - 17th August, 2009 - 22:37
Director:
Craig Brewer
Year: 2006
Language: English
Country: America
Rae (Christina Ricci) is widely regarded as the local hussy, psychological trauma from her past leaves her with an impulse to block out bad memories by sleeping with anyone who she can. When Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson), a local farmer with demons of his own, finds her at the side of the road beaten and unconscious he takes her into his house with the goal of nursing her back to health and saving her soul.
Black Snake Moan is a story of two flawed characters who through an unlikely friendship improve their lives. Both Ricci and Jackson are excellent in their respective roles, although a short part from Justin Timberlake in the role of Rae's boyfriend is less than stellar.
The plot is pretty good and is a unique and interesting story. The main characters are also interesting especially as their friendship develops and we learn more about them.
Overall, a pretty good film which is a little way off the normal mainstream path.
Dave W - 26th August, 2009 - 12:43
Director:
Chi Leung 'Jacob' Cheung
Year: 2006
Language: Mandarin (English Sub)
Country: Hong-Kong
Another large scale Chinese war epic and another in recent years starring Andy Lau. A Battle of Wits follows a small walled city as they come under attack from a rival warlord. They beg for help from the Mozi warrior clan and the Mozi's respond by sending one of their own, Ge Li (Lau). Ge Li gets to work coming up with a plan to stop the invaders.
Battle of Wits has a great plot which is simple and effective. The acting and action sequences are excellent and there are some cool touches, including a scene where the enemy attacks in one man air balloons. The only downfall in the movie is the at times terrible CG, a couple of scenes look awful, but for the rest of the time the film is a visual feast.
Overall, a great ancient war epic, let down by dodgy CG in places.
Dave W - 15th September, 2009 - 12:48
Author:
Robert Ludlum
Year: 1986
Ludlum's second Jason Bourne book has a plot which is not only vastly different to the film's but so opposed that it could never become a film in its own right, which is a shame because it's pretty good.
The book follows Jason Bourne, now settled with his wife Marie and living under his real name of David Webb. When his wife is kidnapped and taken to Hong Kong, Bourne follows her out there to try and rescue her. Once in the far east, he is thrown into a world of plots and secrets which go much higher than the kidnap of his wife and threaten to blow the whole region apart.
I have to admit I have a soft spot for the east, so setting the book in Hong Kong was always going to be a winner for me. The films didn't really explore Bourne's beginnings in Vietnam, but they are important in the novels, so returning Bourne back to where it all started make for an interesting read. Full of action, intrigue and some interesting snippets of information and set in a pre-British hand over Hong-Kong, The Bourne Supremacy is an excellent read.
Overall, a tremendous book, better than the first but I would recommend reading Ludlum's own take on The Bourne Identity before diving into this as the plot is very different from the films.
Dave W - 29th September, 2009 - 20:04
Artist:
Guillotine
Year: 2008
Genre:
Thrash Metal
While on one of my web searching binges craving new music to listen to, I came across an article somewhere entitle the top 20 thrash metal albums of 2008. It sounded like just my thing, so I fired up Spotify and gave them a listen. Guillotine's Blood Money was one of the keepers and I promptly bought the CD.
After a few listens, I'm happy to report that it's pretty good. Straight out thrash with some excellent guitars and some catchy vocal hooks, it's clocked up a good few plays on my iPod.
If you like early 90's/late 80's thrash, you should enjoy this album. It seems like thrash is back and in my book that's only a good thing.
Dave W - 15th October, 2009 - 21:25
I just received Skeletonwitch's latest album Breathing the Fire last week, so I thought I'd post a review of 2007's Beyond the Permafrost.
Beyond the Permafrost had me hooked after the first couple of listens, Skeletonwitch's particular brand of death metal with blackened (i.e. black metal) vocals is fast, powerful, melodic and catchy as hell.
The 13 tracks run to just under 40 minutes which is around 3 minutes a track, most are in the 2:30 - 3:00 range though. Every song on the album is a keeper and while they merge into each other a little, there are some definite highlights to be found. The highly technical guitar work is awesome and while I wasn't initially convinced with the vocals, I was soon drawn in, the whole thing is backed with fast drumwork which makes for an album full of energy.
Overall, one for metal fans everywhere, Skeletonwitch rock.
Dave W - 19th October, 2009 - 23:50
Director:
Arthur Penn
Year: 1967
Language: English
Country: America
This 1967 outing chronicles the criminal careers of two American outlaws in the 1930's tells the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. When Bonnie meets the young Clyde fresh out of prison she tags along with him and the pair start robbing banks, teaming up with a young mechanic and Clyde's brother Buck Barrow they go by the name of the Barrow gang and are chased around the South by law enforcement.
Based on a true story, the film has a plot which is interesting and some great action sequences. The realisation of 1930's America seems pretty good and the production quality is top notch. The film has a sympathetic take on the pair of criminals, portraying "bad" guys you can root for which makes their subsequent demise seem all the more unfair.
Overall, a well made film which is worth watching.
Dave W - 9th November, 2009 - 21:29
Director:
Vincente Minnelli
Year: 1953
Language: English
Country: America
Fred Astaire stars in this musical comedy as washed up Hollywood song and dance man Tony Hunter. When he visits his friends in New York, he is informed that they have written a new musical comedy for him to star in to restart his career, but when the bring on board a pretentious director, he turns the whole project into an over the top retelling of Faust with disastrous/hilarious consequences.
Considering my dislike of musicals, I found The Band Wagon disturbingly enjoyable. The plot is reasonable and although I didn't think any of the songs were amazing, they were upbeat and fun with some good dance numbers. The comedy element works well and the main characters are pretty good as over the top versions of real theatre types.
All in all, enjoyable and fun.
Dave W - 17th November, 2009 - 22:35
Director:
Wolfgang Petersen
Year: 1981
Language: German (English Sub)
Country: Germany
Das Boot follows the crew of a World War II German submarine, we follow the crew of mainly young men from the evening before they begin their mission. It's clear almost from the start that these men are in the main, young, scared and fighting because they have to rather than for any desire to follow the Nazi-party ideology.
With the majority of the film set inside the confines of their submarine, Wolfgang Peterson creates an immense amount of tension and claustrophobia. It's easy to identify with the men as the go about their day to day lives aboard their ship. With some immensely powerful scenes of their boat coming under attack from Allied destroyers, Das Boot is an amazing movie which can truly be considered an epic.
All in all, a great piece of cinema which any film buff should see.
Dave W - 20th December, 2009 - 12:31
Director:
Peter Yates
Year: 1968
Language: English
Country: America
San Francisco cop Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is tasked with looking after a witness in an upcoming trial against "The Organisation". Much to Bullitt's dismay, it's not long until the suspect ends up in hospital at the hands of those he was to testify against. Bullitt seeks to get to the bottom of the case, but soon finds out everything is not as it seems.
Bullitt is a movie famous for its car chase scene, which is about the only bit of action in the whole film. The iconic chase through the streets of San Francisco is well shot and looks pretty realistic. Sadly the rest of the film is pretty slowly paced, there is a lot of not all that much happening and this drags out towards the end.
Overall, I would have liked more action, more plot or even more characterisation of Bullitt. The film is an ok watch, but can become tiring as the film goes on.
Dave W - 5th January, 2010 - 12:02
Director:
John Singleton
Year: 1991
Language: English
Country: America
Boyz n the Hood follows three friends growing up in L.A.'s South Central neighbourhood. The trio is comprised of brothers Ricky and Doughboy (Ice Cube) and their friend Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.). Ricky has dreams of playing professional football, Tre is the smart one heading for college and Doughboy is happy to hang out on the streets with his friends. But growing up in such a rough district is not easy as the 3 find out.
Boyz n the Hood is a drama of life on the streets, a strong anti-violence message runs through with a good plot and performances from the lead players. The film also stars Laurence Fishbourne as Tre's father who puts in a good performance as a man wanting the best for his son.
Overall, a powerful and emotional drama which is both thought provoking and entertaining.
Dave W - 17th January, 2010 - 14:27
I have to admit that the only reason I own this book is that it's the Kanji book which my Japanese lessons tell us to use, so I was kind of forced into purchasing it. For a couple of years, I'd used it mainly for learning the 10 or so Kanji we need for our bi-weekly Kanji tests, but recently after deciding to go back and try and really learn the Kanji I'd been brushing over, I discovered how good this book really is.
It teaches you 251 Kanji, with the stroke order shown for each, along with various readings and up to 4 compounds. But where the book really shines is the end of chapter review sections. These include questions split into reading Kanji and writing Kanji. If you do them in order, they have the advantage that they build upon each other, so you aren't just testing your knowledge of the latest 10-15 Kanji you have learned, but are revisiting most of the Kanji from previous chapters as well. Every 10 units, there is also a recap which goes over all the previous Kanji again, but in more depth. This means that if you do a chapter at a time and learn the Kanji and do the exercises, the earlier Kanji become second nature because you are using them so much.
My main criticism of the book would be that the first 251 Kanji chosen are very different from other resources I am using, especially my Kanji flash cards, with some of the Kanji is this book not even appearing in the first 3 set of cards I have, to have a flash card for every character in the book, I need to buy the fourth set of cards which has the last 512 Kanji in it.
This is kind of understandable as many different resources decide which Kanji are more important, but also a bit annoying, especially since some of the Kanji presented in the later chapters of this book relate to quite complicated topics which are a bit ahead of my current vocabulary.
Overall though, this is an excellent resource, but beware it isn't cheap. To get a copy from Amazon costs about £34! Considering the Japanese list price is only 2,400 yen (£16 at the current [poor] exchange rate), you're best off trying to get hold of a copy next time you are in Japan. I got a copy of Volume 2 in a book shop in Tokyo for a much reduced rate.
Dave W - 17th January, 2010 - 15:10
John Woo's 1986 "Heroic Bloodshed" drama A Better Tomorrow was set to create a partnership between the Director-Auteur and actor Chow Yun Fat which was to leave it's mark on Hong-Kong cinema forever.
Ho and Mark (Chow) are a pair of gangsters, making a living by selling counterfeit money to American gangs in Taiwan. Ho's younger brother Kit (Leslie Cheung) is a cop in the Hong-Kong police who is unaware of his brother's criminal involvement.
When Ho is set up in Taiwan, he ends up doing time, in the 3 years that he is away, Mark falls from grace and a new gang boss takes over their business. Kit finds himself restricted in his police work due to being the brother of a criminal and begins to resent Ho. When Ho is released from prison, he looks to go straight, but things come to a head. To be resolved, the situation demands help from Mark and Kit as the film winds its way to the finale.
There's no denying, A Better Tomorrow looks like an 80's Hong Kong film, but behind that slightly dated exterior is an amazing plot, with a number of twists and a feel which echoes more modern Cop vs Triad films like Infernal Affairs. The strong themes of brotherhood and family are present throughout and there is a lot of great action in there too. Stand out moments include Chow Yun Fat's shoot out in a corridor and the huge finale which is just non-stop action until the end.
All in all, A Better Tomorrow is a classic which has surely shaped Hong Kong cinema in the years since its release.
Dave W - 7th February, 2010 - 10:22
A comedy looking at the world of professional figure skating, Blades of Glory stars love him or hate him shouty man Will Ferrell and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder.
Heder plays the golden boy of men's figure skating, Jimmy MacElroy. A young man plucked from an orphanage by a rich man who has trained him to skate from the age of 4. Ferrel's Chazz Michael Michaels is the complete opposite, the bad boy of the sport. When the two tie for gold in an internation competition, a fight breaks out on the podium leading to both receiving life-time bans from the sport.
3 years later, both are washed up and have forgotten about skating, but when MacElroy learns of a loophole which will allow him to compete in the figure skating pairs event, a series of events lead him and Michael Michaels into entering as the first 2 man figure skating pairs team.
Staples of any comedy then follow ergo, they make up their differences and learn to get along.
With a ridiculous plot and some truly WTF? moments, Blades of Glory is actually reasonably enjoyable. Ferrell is perhaps less annoying that usual and Heder plays the gormless MacElroy to a tee. There are some genuinley hilarious scenes and much of the rest of the filler is not without its charms.
All in all, a movie which is complete trash but is still funny and entertaining.
Dave W - 7th February, 2010 - 10:35
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