The Yellow Sea (2010, R)

This South Korean film is about a Chinese taxi driver named Gu-nam in Yanji City, the crime-ridden region between North Korea, China and Russia. He owes money to the criminals that obtained his wife's visa to work in South Korea (which the characters simply refer to as "Korea"). He hasn't heard from her in a while nor received any money from her, so he assumes she's cheating on him and/or prostituting herself. Kind of like Lucky Number Slevin (though far less humorous), he's offered a job to kill a man in Korea to wipe his debt and he can look for his wife in the meantime. Things don’t go as planned and he has to improvise.

7 Days (2010, R)

This French film is about a man whose 8-year-old daughter goes missing on the way to school and is found later in the worst way.  He abducts the man who committed the crime (en route to jail/courthouse; it's pretty certain he did it though he has not been tried or sentenced yet) and decides to torture him to death over the course of (you guessed it) seven days and then turn himself in to the authorities.  Meanwhile the ranking police officer who worked the case of the man's daughter is trying to find him, as much or more so to save the father as the original perpetrator.

I was bracing myself for this movie to be "torture porn", a sub-category of movies that have amped-up gruesomeness and just enough plot to keep it going, but was happy that this time it would be cathartic in that the victim of the torture would be a horrible horrible person rather than an innocent abductee.  I was pleasantly surprised that the movie had a lot more depth and complexity than that.

Paranorman (2012, PG)

This is a stop-motion animation movie about an 11-year old boy named Norman who can see and talk to ghosts and whose town has a little-believed curse from a centuries-dead witch.  His family doesn't understand him, his classmates at school either don't want to associate with him or they downright bully him, and the various ghosts in town are generally really nice and like him a lot. 

The visual style is the first noteworthy aspect of the film.  I like that they animated the film with stop-motion techniques rather than the computer graphics which are so popular in animation these days.  I honestly don't know which is less expensive to employ, but I know stop-motion has to be very tedious to record, and I find it brings a certain charm to the film... maybe it just reminds me of the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer movie I used to watch when I was young, though the animation in Paranorman is more elaborate and smooth (looks less like wood).  The color pallet is pretty dark with reddish-browns and eerie greens which you don't see too often in animation outside of Invader Zim.  There are no parallel lines or right angles in this film which adds to a cartoony quality but also the feel of unease.

Paper Man (2009, R)

This is a story about a writer played by Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber, 101 Dalmatians) with serious social anxiety issues trying to make progress on his new book.  Lisa Kudrow (the show Friends) plays his successful doctor wife is awkward and she works back near their normal residence during the week and visits him on weekends.  Their marriage is a bit awkward and/or strained due in no small part to his mental emotional issues and his imaginary friend, Captain Excellent, played by Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, Green Lantern, The Nines) whose role is to keep Daniels from making dangerous decisions.  Daniels begins a strange and awkward interaction with a local high school girl played by Emma Stone (Zombieland, Superbad).

In addition to the aforementioned cast, Keiran Culken (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Igby Goes Down) plays Stone’s dark, depressed and hopelessly-stricken-with-unrequited-love lifelong friend.  The general concept of the movie sounded pretty cool to me, but the cast alone would make me watch it because I’m a pretty big fan of most of these actors (other than Kudrow, who I feel lukewarm about).

Pretty In Pink (1986, PG-13)

This John Huges film (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Beuler's Day Off) is about a high school senior girl (played by Molly Ringwald [The Breakfast Club, 16 Candles]) and her social/romantic interactions in an environment that has a strong divide between the wealthy and not-so-wealthy.  She's one of the have-nots.  Her best friend (your quintessential "friendzoned" guy) is played by Jon Cryer (Two And A Half Men.  James Spader (Wolf, Stargate) plays a douchebag rich kid who resents Ringwald for spurning his advances, and Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo's Fire, Weekend At Bernie's) plays his best friend who is miraculously a nice rich guy and has mutual interest in Ringwald.

Bad Leiutenant (1992, NC-17)

The title is a pretty accurate description.  It stars Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction) as a scumbag dirty cop in New York.  This film didn't have much of a plot at all.  It's just an illustration of a dirty cop getting lower and lower.  He makes one bad decision after another and we see him spiral downward.  It not rated NC-17 for nothing, as we get to see several methods of drug use (including needles), some frontal (male) nudity, sexual violence against women (which I guess does leave a little to the imagination), and harsh language to children and adults.

Poolhall Junkies (2002, R)

This film was written by, directed by, and starred Mars Callahan.  When one person does these three things, it’s usually a bad sign, but it worked out pretty well here, like in Good Will Hunting.  Actually Callahan looks a little bit like Ben Aflek and I wondered if they were related (they’re not).  Callahan plays a billiards savant named Johnny who had dreams of becoming a professional billiard, but is now a very successful pool hustler.  Chazz Palminteri (A Bronx Tale) plays his controlling mentor/financial backer for his bets.  Also in the cast are Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville, Justice League), Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, Pulp Fiction), and Philip Glasser (An American Tale).

 

If you liked Rounders, this is pretty much the same movie but with 8-ball in stead of poker.  I happen to like both films, though this one had a more independent-film feel (film stock was still good, but somehow I got an off-Hollywood vibe).

Red Cliff (R, 2008)

This Chinese film takes place in the third century A.D. and concerns the military campaign of a Prime Minister warlord's invasion of two southern regions.  The PM just wants to invade the independent areas of the country to get them under his control, and he easily convinces the weak young emperor to approve his war.  The leaders of the two southern regions form an alliance to the surprise of the PM in order to combat the massive imperial army.

I didn't recognize any of the actors in the film but further investigation shows that several actors had parts in House Of Flying Daggers, Hero and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  The director was John Woo (Face Off, Mission: Impossible II) and he did a fine job.  The picture and sound quality were good, special effects were pretty seamless (some scenes included CG assistance by necessity, but it was head and shoulders better than pretty much any non-Hollywood film I've seen), and in accordance with what I presume must be a national law, there was a obligatory wirework for some of the martial arts.

Aparitions (TV, 2008)

STALE REVIEW.

By that, I mean that I did not watch this series just recently.  I actually watched it this last fall/winter when it was leaving Netflix, but I only finished watching it on the last night that it was available to stream so I didn't think it was fair to you guys to post about it just then.  But it's back now, and I really enjoyed it, so I'll hack out a blurb about it.  It's a television series about a Catholic priest/exorcist.  He's an older man with a white beard, and a badass to demons, but also a really gentle supportive man to humans.  I'm not particularly religious, but I found his character really likable, due in no small part to his comparatively liberal opinions (not casting people out because he doesn't agree with their beliefs/practices, just wants everyone to be happy and safe).  The powers that be in the Vatican don't like his attitude, and the demons in Hell don't like his success rate... and by the end, the story gets pretty big and heavy.  I tend to enjoy supernatural-type stories (video games such as Darksiders and Legacy of Kain; shows like Buffy, Angel and Supernatural; movies like City of Angels and The Deaths Of Ian Stone) so this is right up my alley.

Uncertainty (2009, NR)

This film starts with young lovers played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, 10 Things I Hate About You) and Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, John Carter) trying to decide how to spend their Fourth Of July, so they flip a coin and... we follow them through both options.  The film cuts back and forth between the two alternate versions of the day and we see where each option takes them and what other decisions arise as a result.  In one version, they go to Collins's family's barbecue and in the other version, they go to their friend's party.  An attempt to be a Good Samartian makes one version of their day more pleasant and the other into a nightmare.  The story is chock-full-of decisions.

The Next Three Days (2010, PG-13)

In this film, Russel Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind) plays a teacher whose wife, played by Elizabeth Banks (Zack And Miri Make A Porno, the TV shows Scrubs and 30 Rock) is imprisoned for a murder he's sure she did not commit.  The first act of the story is setting up characters, their relationships, and their situations.  The second act has him deciding how desperate he is and planning a breakout/escape for her.  You can figure out what act 3 is about.

While I've never been a fan of Elizabeth Banks (I had a big crush on her from when I first ever saw commercials for her films, but I've always disliked her characters and the acting has never wow'ed me), she did OK in this role.  Once again, I found her character dislikable in several ways, but she did come across as genuine and the loving family dynamic was believable.  Russel Crowe has had his ups and downs in my opinion: not to say that he has performed particularly badly in acting roles that I've seen, just that some of his films interested me far more than others.  I'll admit that I'm part of the common denominator that loved Gladiator, but he seemed just a little two-dimensional in Robin Hood.  He's great with brooding and intensity, but now that I think about it he doesn't really display a lot of range.

Anatomy Of Hell (2004, NR)

I watched a couple of horror movies this week and a couple of French movies this week and all were horrifying.  This French-language film (Anatomie De L'Enfer in the original tongue) probably horrified me more than anything else I've seen recently.  I mean... it had some decent qualities, but it was very graphic in its depiction of the subject matter (which would generally be considered indecent qualities).  It starts with a straight woman shuffling through a gay bar, bumping into a man to get his attention and cutting her wrists in the bathroom (the scene and a brief conversation afterwards make it clear that this was a cry for attention rather than an actual attempt to die).  The man has a great disdain  for women but clearly does have some human compassion, as he took her to the hospital after she cut herself and he made sure she was OK afterwards.  The rest of the movie is the monologues/dialogues/interactions they have as she pays him to come over and "tell [her] what [he] see(s)" (the female form, etc).  I think the title refers to his idea of a woman's body.

Warlock (1989, R); Warlock: The Armageddon (1993, R)

You've got the dubious treat of a double-feature review of the first two (there were three apparently, but the third had a different lead actor and diverged a bit in story) Warlock films.  Julian Sands plays a/the Warlock, convicted witchcraft (deal-with-the-Devil variety rather than the friendly Earth-child variety that you're more likely to encounter in real life), and he somehow gets into a time vortex that throws him into modern day (late 1980's at the time of filming) California.  The intended method of his execution was the funniest part of the movie for me: hanging and burning over a basket of live cats (like several other elements of this film, they never explain what the cats were for).  The synopsis/tagline for the films says he's the Devil's (favorite) son, but the story itself leads me to believe that this is meant in a figurative rather than literal sense.  The first film has Richard E. Grant (the snotty butler from Gosford Park) playing a whip-wielding witch hunter Giles Redferne, slightly reminiscent of the hero from a Castlevania game; he's sort of a Kyle Reese to Sands' Terminator (1984).  The Warlock wields magical powers and intends to gather pieces of an arcane artifact with ill intent and Redferne and the first modern-person to encounter Warlock, Kassandra (played by Lori Singer, who was also featured in Footloose) try to stop him.  It's not clear how Redferne got to the current era.

Ten Inch Hero (2007, R)

The title refers to a sandwich, sicko, get your mind out of the gutter!  OK, maybe there is a double entendre there, but it doesn't refer to any specific character(s).  This is a soft comedy, not quite drama/comedy though it's got some definite non-goofball elements.  It's got nudity, but not nearly as much as I expected based on the subject-matter-implication of the title (one scene, lower-fronts occluded).  It's about a girl named Piper moving to southern California to study art in college (and she has a peculiar interest in this one family/house though she is too shy to approach), and starts working at a local sandwich shop.  The shop is owned by and employed with quirky college town type characters (here I mean "character" in the personality sense, not in the story element sense)... think The Anarchist's Cookbook, but far less annoying to non-punk-type viewers.  Each employee has one major personality element that defines them and though they verbally jab each other they also love each other as a family.  I didn't expect much from this movie, and in that mindset the story is actually good.  It's sort of a... not quite coming-of-age movie, those are more of early/mid teen years... more of a becoming-who-you're-going-to-be-in-the-world movie.  Like a college developing-personality movie even though only one of the main characters is a college student (as far as we know) and her student aspect is not a focus of her character.  Acting was OK but not great, and the script didn't seem too demanding on the cast.  My favorite scene involved a man out to purchase feminine hygiene products (it was as good as ever I can imagine such a scene being).

The Adventures Of Tintin (2011, PG)

The Adventures Of Tintin is a computer animated feature film about a young early 20th century newspaper reporter who goes on adventures.  The character - English in the film, Belgian in the original print material - is from European comic albums by a Belgian under the nom de plume Hergé and that were later made into cartoon adventures (short-ish).  This particular adventure involves Tintin, his faithful dog Snowy and sea captain Haddock trying to beat the bad guy to find the mystery behind a 17th century lost ship and some non-lost models of it.  Tintin is not Batman in terms of brilliance or fighting prowess, but he is brave, competent and willing to get in there and get the job done.  I'd been told that this movie was good, but I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would.

First and foremost I have to say that the animation in this movie was gorgeous.  The textures were great (particularly Tintin's sweater, also at one point Tintin held a paper pamphlet that I could have sworn was in my own hand).  The faces were a great midway between animation and realism that is visually pleasing, expressive and not creepy.

Buried (2010, R)

Buried is the ultimate “closed-room movie”.  The entire story from start to finish takes place within a buried coffin in which the lead character played by Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, Green Lantern, but don't hold that against him) finds himself.  And the movie is really tight!  He finds a cell phone (with the displays all written in Arabic as he is in Iraq, a language he does not understand) and he has a lighter and a flask.  With the few items at his disposal and the calls he makes and receives, we get a good idea of his character/situation (other than the obvious).  Tension is maintained the whole time, which is quite a feat for an hour and a half in a box.  His actions and concerns make a lot of sense for his situation.

I first saw Reynolds in Van Wilder and really liked it, and later he was one of the only things I liked about X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Much like with Robin Williams, I am much impressed with his dramatic roles (The Nines and this film).  Reynolds is the only actor shown in this film though there were a few voices (well scripted and acted) on his phone.

If you liked Phone Booth or The Devil, you’ll love this story.  It's got high-tension, but no humor (unless one comment from him makes you chuckle), so it's not like his more famous roles if that's what you're looking for.  For me the movie is 4.5 stars.

Cherry (2010, R)

Judging it by the cover and the title I expected this film to be a raunchy, goofy, lame comedy about a guy trying to loose his virginity.  I have never been so pleasantly surprised in my life.  Netflix lied to me: it's not a comedy.  It's a piece about a 17 year old intellectual named Aaron who graduates high school early and is starting his freshman year at an Ivy League university.  His mother is very controlling of his life and though he enjoys art and is good at it, she insists his course-load consist entirely of academic/engineering classes (his intention is not to avoid engineering and do solely art, but to include it).

I was most impressed by how accurate it was to the experience a lot of people have when first transitioning to college life.  While the specifics of his situation are mostly particular to him (though not unheard of for others), the generalities are pretty universal.  He's in an alien environment, mostly in charge of himself for the first time, along with other 18-year-old animals unleashed into their own pseudo-society.  He adapts to the continuously strange environment as best he can, meeting new people and experiencing new things.

Aaron is played by Kyle Gallner (The Haunting In Connecticut, A Nightmare On Elm Street [2010], Red State).  Through much of the film Gallner's face has the same grimace that leads me to believe that the actor is actually in chronic pain.  But that works for this movie because he was/is supposed to be uncomfortable or downtrodden in these scenes.  And there were a couple moments in which he demonstrated that he can form a nice smile as well.  Unlike his previous performances (which were not bad), this one got to show a little more range in his capabilities (quite possibly because he's the lead actor in a character piece).


"When I'm happy, my face goes like this."

Comparing this to other films I've reviewed, this film is most like The Four-Faced Liar and Shrink. 

If you liked Art School Confidential then you should love this movie.  For me, it's 5 stars.

True Legend (2010, R)

This Chinese film is almost like two separate movies (as I guess the title implies a sort of dichotomy).  The first half plays out like a legend of a great military fighter and a supernaturally powered despot.  The second half is the true story of the man who created a new style of martial Wu-Shu fighting (Drunken Fist, like in Legend Of The Drunken Master with Jackie Chan, though I think this film is far superior), both about the same character/actor.  I really liked both parts and think they were very well done.  The visual quality (film stock, etc) was very good for a foreign film, and the special effects were for the most part seamless (there were a couple parts where a bird or carved mountain was obvious CG animation, but otherwise solid).  Much of the fighting was done with wirework, but it still looked clean.  The fighting was a treat to see, and reminded me of some Dragonball Z fights minus the fireballs and aliens (I mean this in the best possible way).  The story wasn't overly complex like Dune or Watchmen (the graphic novel more so than the film), but that's fitting for a legend/fairy tale and for a true story.

This film includes appearances by Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, 007: Tomorrow Never Dies) and David Carradine (Kill Bill, the Kung-Fu tv series), both of whom performed their roles very competently but did not steal the scene.  The acting was competent for all of the actors actually, even for the main character's son.  I liked the character arc, the various things he had to overcome and how he overcame them.

If you liked the films Ip Man/Ip Man 2, or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; the graphic novel Infinite Kung-Fu; the video game Jade Empire; or the show Dragonball/Dragonball Z, then I think you'll love this movie.  During most of the movie I had a big dumb grin plastered on my face and I'm pretty sure it was only partly due to the tasty beverage in my hand (which makes me embrace any story a bit more).  I wish this movie was around when I was younger and that I'd had a copy of it: it's a top-notch sleepover movie.  It takes only a small amount of generosity for me to give it a 5 star rating.

Boy Wonder (2010, R)

This movie is a bit darker than I expected, though I should have known by the cover (I guess sometimes you can judge a book/film by its cover).  The main character is a high school boy whose mother was killed in front of him when he was a young child.  He's clearly broken inside at this point, but he's also really effective at what he does.  The title of the film is an obvious reference to Batman's partner Robin, who is a young crimefighter with tragic origins, though this guy doesn't have an adult role model (crazy nocturnal Bat-man or otherwise).  The movie Kick Ass is supposed to be a more real-world version of the costumed hero, and Boy Wonder is even more so.  He practices kick-boxing, studies various elective sciences, and hangs out at the local police station.

In terms of what he does and how he does it, he's kind of a cross between Robin and The Punisher (two characters that I really like), but somehow he doesn't seem to have the depth of character of either of them.  What I liked about the film was the various ways in which the main character prepares himself for his chosen... "hobby", I have to call it because it's not a profession unless he gets paid.  He's really effective and I like the brains and drive behind it.  Some of the details about the charachters' lives in the story are nice and subtly introduced, which I like because it gives us a chance to use our brains, but it also makes those details more clear later on in case you missed it the first time.  What I didn't like about the movie was how flat some of the characters came across.  I think it was a factor largely of the acting, because the writing of the story overall was pretty good, though the dialogue was kind of lacking as well.  It's a lot better when you can see from behind the main character's eyes (metaphorically)... even the book Lolita managed to do that, which was crazy hard on me once its main character started doing more reprehensible things, but good strong storytelling!

Honestly, if you liked Kick Ass, then you probably liked it for reasons other than the ones that this movie shares, so it's not a good comparison.  If you liked Falling Down, I think this film shares a lot of the same emotional tones (broken main character doing what he thinks is justice, and you may or may not agree).  I want to compare it to the 2004 Punisher movie, but that one had remarkably strong characters.  If you're an amateur crimefighter and you want some do's and don't's, then I guess this could have some pointers for you... I shouldn't be saying that.  I liked it in an academic sense, and parts of the story were really strong, but the characters left me wanting, so I couldn't love it.  I'd say it's about a 3.5 star movie for me, 4 if I'm feeling generous.

Three... Extremes (2004, R)

Man, the title of this one does not lie!  This is an anthology of 3 short horror films from different parts of Asia.  The first segment is a Chinese film entitled Dumplings, and was later made into a feature-length film of the same title which is also available to stream on Netflix.  Dumplings stars Bai Ling (Crank 2: High Voltage, The Crow... as well as a couple episodes of Angel and Lost) as a woman who makes some magical dumplings that restore youth and virility to women.  When she says to her client in the film "Don't think about what it was, think about what it will do for you," I should have known to ask myself this question: if there is anything in the world that I don't want to find out she's eating, then I should turn this off right now.  I didn't ask myself the question and I didn't turn it off, much to my horror.  It's an effective piece at evoking shock and awe in the audience (or me at least), so I have to give it that much credit, but it is not for the weak (or only moderately strong) of heart.