THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE DIR: Daniel Alfredson CAST: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Lena Endre, Micke Spreitz, Yasmine Garbi, Paolo Roberto
Steig Larsson’s Millennium trilogy of novels is a genuine phenomenon. Best sellers around the world, they have already inspired the Swedish film adaptations that are currently rolling out around the world, there is a US remake to come (with at least the first film to be directed by David Fincher) and the extended versions of the Swedish films, broadcast on television over there, are due to be released on UK DVD some time in 2011, and something tells me that this is really only the beginning. Away from the hoopla surrounding it though, and the growing talk suggesting an aggressive Oscar campaign for Noomi Rapace, how does this second film hold up?
Looking at THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE in isolation is a little unfair, because it’s really only the first half of a huge story told over two novels (it concludes in THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, the adaptation of which opens in late November) and that means that it suffers many of the problems of the middle film. It does, thankfully, have a beginning, because it doesn’t follow as directly from THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO as you might expect (though you’d do well to go in having seen the first film, because Lisbeth Salander’s (Rapace) financial situation in this one is set up there). What it does lack is a conclusion, rather than ending it just sort of… stops, but that’s really a function of the book, and it would be unfair to criticise director Daniel Alfredson on that point. Especially when there are so many other things worth criticising here.
Steig Larsson’s source novel is a huge and often digressive beast, prone, even more so than Dragon Tattoo, to political rants. It’s also very dense, an laden with plot and character. Following Dragon Tattoo, which massively reduced the novel into a sharp focus on its central strand to excellent effect, screenwriter Jonas Frykberg does a very mixed job here of consolidating the material. The narrative feels very scattered, and often under nourished, with a lot of side plots which were very important in the book only dabbled in here. I can understand why Frykberg and Alfredson want to retain threads like the two investigations; the one led by the Police and the one adopted by journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist), into the three murders that Salander is suspected of, setting off the movie’s chain of events. The problem is that the Police investigation is so under explored that the cops become little more than briefly glimpsed expository props, shoved in more for convenience and fan service than any great plot or character purpose. This is very much the case with any story outside of the two main threads; Salander’s attempts to evade capture and find out who has framed her, and Blomkvist’s efforts to find Salander and discover the real killer of Salander’s guardian and a Millennium journalist and his girlfriend. There are also smart deletions, most notably the endless Salander on holiday sequence that opens the novel, delaying the start of the story proper until somewhere around page 200.
Whatever its strengths and weaknesses, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO was genuinely cinematic, boasting some genuinely striking visuals and fine use of the very wide 2.35:1 format. The two sequels were originally made solely for Swedish television, and it shows. The picture is tighter (the 1.78:1 of most widescreen TV sets) and the whole movie just looks and feels flatter. The first film looked like cinema, this looks like telly on a big screen. Daniel Alfredson (brother of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN helmer Tomas) only finds a couple of really compelling images during the whole film (the most notable being Salander disguised in striking, stylised, make up). Overall he doesn’t make any glaring errors, it’s more that his directorial style feels very much like ‘insert tab A into slot B’. This is even felt in the performances, which, outside of the leads, have a bit of a rote quality this time out.
Some of these issues, especially those with the dangling sub-plot threads might well be addressed when we see the TV version of the film, which adds 56 minutes to the running time, deletions that are felt while watching the film. All this said, I don’t want to give the impression that THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE is terrible, indeed it moves at a great clip when it gets moving, and has several really stand out sequences. There’s a great fight scene involving boxer Paolo Roberto (who Larsson wrote into the novel without telling him, and who is in good enough shape to play himself), Micke Spreitz (playing a blonde killing machine who feels no pain, a role apparently offered to Dolph Lundgren) and Yasmine Garbi (who has a ferocious energy here and a tenderness in her scenes with Rapace, making her a great fit as Miriam Wu). There is also a moment, which differs from the book, in which Salander and Blomkvist briefly connect by virtual means, it’s a lovely change, and though it is brief the reactions from Rapace and Nyqvist in that moment speak volumes about their characters. However, the lions share of the great moments belong to Noomi Rapace’ indelible Salander. Whether she’s fighting two huge bikers, getting buried alive and then wreaking vengeance or calmly threatening people, she’s clearly one of the iconic characters in cinema already and every scene just re-confirms that.
Noomi Rapace IS this movie, every frame she's in she competely owns. There are other things to recommend it, certainly it is never dull, and there is able support from Nyqvist and, in a slightly expanded role, Lena Endre, but Rapace is reason enough to buy a ticket all by herself. She’s an incredibly intense actress, as Salander there’s always something going on behind her eyes, everything seems calculated. Rapace has little dialogue in this film, especially in the latter hour, but still her performance is full of texture. Watch as she sizes up her opponents before the fight scene with the bikers, the focus of her rage, but also the dispassion of it, and contrast that with the much more personal scene in which she threatens her guardian (Peter Andersson). Look too at the smile as she lets Blomkvist explore her apartment, or the tough but affectionate way that she talks to her lover Miriam Wu. All these tiny things add up, and slowly, inexorably, Rapace makes you believe in the existence of this young woman who, on the page, can read like a cross between a superhero and Larsson’s sexual fantasy. It is a brilliant piece of acting, and Rapace deserves to become a major, major star on the back of it. The question at this point is really whether she’s just too good for the shit Hollywood is serving.
It will be worth revisiting THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE in November, hopefully a few cinemas will double bill it with THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, because this is ultimately half a film. It’s not entirely successful, and considerably less impressive than its predecessor, but it stays afloat thanks to a whip cracking pace and another extraordinary performance from Noomi Rapace.
I saw 56 films this summer that I counted as 2010 releases, and frankly the standard was embarrassing, with adequacy the prevailing theme of this year's blockbuster season.
So here's a brief look back at the best and worst of summer 2010.
BEST MAINSTREAM FILM TOY STORY 3: It wasn't even a question, and nothing else got near Pixar's latest masterpiece, the beautiful and brilliant capper to perhaps the greatest of all film trilogies. If you were unmoved by TOY STORY 3 then I suggest you check whether you actually have a soul.
WORST MAINSTREAM FILM A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: This film is the recipient of the longest (and possibly the most vitriolic) review I've ever written. It's perhaps best seen as a summation of the case against remakes; a film that adds gloss to an old original, but in the process removes sense, story and scares. Hooray for Hollywood, huh?
BEST INDIE / ARTHOUSE FILM LE REFUGE: Unsurprisingly, French auteur Francois Ozon produced yet another slice of his very particular genius with the second of two films he shot in 2009. He managed here to make a film about a pregnant junkie, yet indulge in precisely none of the cliches of either the drug or the pregnancy movie. A beautiful, quiet, intimate and highly original film.
WORST INDIE / ARTHOUSE FILM HEARTBREAKER: Charmless, unfunny, poorly shot, and as romantic as a kick in the balls. It's not the worst rom-com of the year, but the eminently hateable characters and deeply implausible romance of HEARTBREAKER give THE BOUNTY HUNTER a run for that particular wooden spoon.
BEST NON-2010 FILM VAGABOND: A real treat from the Agnes Varda season at the BFI. Features a brilliant early performance by Sandrine Bonnaire. Highly reccommended if you can track it down.
BEST SURPRISE KICKS: A brilliant British film, the debut of director Lindy Heymann. I've described it as a kitchen sink thriller, but that doesn't capture either the skill of the performances by Kerrie Hayes and Nicola Burley or the incredible beauty with which the film is shot. One of the most striking films of the year.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT ROBIN HOOD: The decision to take the intriguing sounding Nottingham script (which cast the Sherriff of Nottingham as a hero, and Robin Hood as a local insurgent) and turn it into this boring barrel of self-important claptrap just exemplifies all that is wrong with Hollywood right now.
NAMES TO WATCH Sophie Lowe: The one thing that really made Rachel Ward's BEAUTIFUL KATE stand out was the (perfect) casting of Lowe in the title role, she gives a vital, energetic, fearless performance. It's a shame she missed out on the Salander role in David Fincher's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, but mark my words, this is a movie star.
Toby Kebbell: A young British actor, on the rise since appearing in Shane Meadows' DEAD MAN'S SHOES, but now well on his way to becoming a valuable Hollywood character player. He makes this list for managing to be interesting in two of 2010's dullest, most non-descript, films; PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME and THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE.
Jac Schaffer (Centre): Writer / director of TiMER; the best film you didn't see this summer (because it only played at Sci-Fi London). TiMER marks Schaeffer out as a witty and original talent, with a firm grasp on both storytelling and acting, and a refreshingly offbeat sensibility. I just wish all rom-coms were as funny and as smart as TiMER.
Irina Potapenko: This Ukranian actress made a huge impression with a role in the Austrian thriller REVANCHE, she's so affecting in fact that when she leaves the movie half way through you never quite regain the same level of engagement with it. Her clear skill as an acress, not to mention her dazzling beauty, should see her offered a lot of interesting roles in the next few years. I can't wait to see what she does next.
I'll have much more detail on the best and worst in cinema in 2010 come the multi-part review of the year, towards the end of December. Hopefully this has given you a flavour of a summer that largely saw me tearing my hair out, screaming at Hollywood to make better movies, but often impressed me too, with distinctive films coming from all over the world.
I was wanting to wait to watch A SERBIAN FILM when it was released in the UK, but now it seems that I'll have to see it online if I am ever to see the whole film. The BBFC apparently demanded almost 50 seperate cuts to the film (about four minutes of footage) for an 18 certificate. Without a certificate, the folks at UK horror festival Frightfest sought the permission of Westminster Council (final power over film exhibition in the UK lies not with BBFC but with individual councils) to screen the film uncut. They were refused.
Frightfest's Alan Jones said
"FrightFest has decided not to show A Serbian Film in a heavily cut version because, as a festival with a global integrity, we think a film of this nature should be shown in its entirety as per the director's intention."
If a festival can't show it uncut, then we will likely never see this film released uncut here. It's a real shame, because I imagine that A SERBIAN FILM was a big draw for this year's Frightfest (and it's not as if that audience wouldn't know what it was in for).
I'll have more on the BBFC in coming days, because there are signs they are beginning to come down harder on horror again, after 15 years of liberalisation.
Every friday from here on out, 24FPS will be bringing you a free, legal, movie that you can watch online.
I thought we'd start with a special treat to tie in with Martial Arts Month, so this week's movie is a comedy kung fu treat starring Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao...
WHEELS ON MEALS
NB: This is a dubbed version (sorry) but watch it for the amazing stunt and fight sequences, and especially Jackie's outstanding fight with Benny 'The Jet' Urquidez. Enjoy, and come back for next week's pick.
Once again I'm guesting with my friend and fellow blogger Marcey (of the excellent Supermarcey.com) on her podcast.
This time out we discussed the sad passing of Satoshi Kon, before launching into a discussion about film criticism on the internet and Armond White's thoughts on young critics.
After talking about film criticism we did some, reviewing THE EXPENDABLES , SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD and THE KILLER INSIDE ME, before finishing up with some follow up to previous episodes that I had guested on.
You can find the episode embedded below, or you can listen to it at Marcey's site. Enjoy, and remember, comments and questions are always welcomed.
SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD DIR: Edgar Wright CAST: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Jason Schwartzman, Alison Pill, Ellen Wong
SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD is officially a flop in the US, having met with a distinctly underwhelming $10 million on its opening weekend. However, Edgar Wright’s third film, whatever its box office fate around the world, is a cult hit waiting to happen. The story of the geeky unemployed musician Scott Pilgrim (Cera), who if he wants to be with the girl of his dreams (Winstead as Ramona Flowers) must defeat her seven evil exes, may be fantastical, but it’s also universal. As Ramona notes, “everyone has baggage”. Add that to the breathless invention of Edgar Wright’s visuals, the sharp and funny screenplay, and pop culture savvy enough to impress the most jaded of hipsters and you’ve got a cult on your hands.
Happily, SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD will deserve its eventual success, because though it is far from perfect this is certainly one of the most purely entertaining films of 2010, and one of the very few quality American made films of the year (notably, like KICK ASS, it was made by a British director). Right from the word go, when the film opens with an 8-BIT rendition of the Universal logo and music, you can tell that Edgar Wright is going to cut loose and enjoy himself for every frame of this movie. That can be a problem; it can mean that a film essentially becomes a masturbatory indulgence for a director, but not so here. For the most part the audience has just as much fun as it is evident the cast and crew did while making the film.
However, there is a pretty big hole right at the centre of the film, in the form of Scott Pilgrim himself. It’s partly the character, who is a whiny irritant, whose apparent success with women (by my count we’re supposed to believe that he’s slept with Alison Pill and Brie Larson’s characters, that Ellen Wong is madly in love with him and that Ramona Flowers is also interested in him) is close to inexplicable, because he’s as charmless as he is dull. The point at which I most wanted to slap him was when Scott’s roommate (the excellent Culkin) tells him that before he begins seriously dating Ramona he should break up with his current girlfriend; Knives Chau (Wong) and Scott replies “But it’s hard”. It may also be Michael Cera that is the problem, because he gives the exact same performance that he’s previously given in SUPERBAD, JUNO, YOUTH IN REVOLT and several others. He’s always Michael Cera, rather than Scott Pilgrim.
Amazingly, this central hole doesn’t fatally wound the film, indeed it is enjoyable in spite of its leading character and actor, something thanks largely to the hilarious and brilliantly inventive screenplay by Wright and Michael Baccall and to the exceptional supporting cast. Aside from Cera and Winstead everyone in the film is basically a guest star, and they all make the most of their few minutes. I was especially fond of Alison Pill’s sardonic Kim (the drummer in Scott’s hideously named band, Sex Bob-omb), which reminds me, why don’t we see more of her? More great contributions come from Anna Kendrick, as effortlessly brilliant as ever as Scott’s sister; Aubrey Plaza, whose character’s foul mouth is bleeped and obscured in a lovely meta joke; Ellen Wong, who makes an engaging and energetic debut as Knives and Kieran Culkin, who is probably the closest the film comes to having a real, identifiable person.
The seven evil exes are all great, but it is worth mentioning a few in particular. Mae Whitman, whose opening line to Scott: “You punched me in the boob. Prepare to die, obviously” is one of the film’s funniest, is very funny as Roxie Richter, and has perhaps the film’s best fight (we’ll get to that later). Chris Evans is spectacularly slimy and funny as egotistical movie star Lucas Lee, who employs his stunt team to fight Scott for him. However, it’s Brandon Routh who nearly runs away with the movie. The latest Superman has shrugged off the earnestness of SUPERMAN RETURNS and marked himself out as a really strong comic actor, and his turn as super powered Vegan Todd is one of the real highlights of the film (along with that sequence’s Vegan Police).
It would all be for nothing, though, if the girl weren’t worth it. Ramona Flowers is only sketchily drawn, but I immediately bought into the idea that Scott, indeed any man, would be willing to fight seven evil exes to be with her. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is dazzlingly beautiful, clearly, and I’m not sure she’s ever looked better than she does here, but that’s not the reason you buy into Scott’s quest. It’s hard to put your finger on, but there is simply something about Winstead; call it charisma, call it allure, call it je ne sais quoi, she’s just compelling. That’s why you buy it, and that’s also why she’s going to be a big, big star. I found her, and Ramona, as enchanting as Scott does. It’s a lovely performance; she’s a little mysterious, but there’s a sense of fun behind everything she does.
Aside from the romance storyline with Ramona, SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD really has two concerns; music and fighting. Of these the music works less well. Beck wrote the songs for Scott’s band Sex Bob-omb, and apparently the brief was that they should be somewhere between awful and awesome. Sadly the accent falls on awful. When all is said and done Sex Bob-omb are almost as bad as their name, the best thing about them being the many and varied ways they introduce themselves (“We are Sex Bob-Omb and we are here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff.”) It’s probably deeply uncool to say so, because they are presented as the film’s corporate sell out, but the best music here comes from Clash at Demonhead, the band led by Scott’s ex, Envy Adams (Brie Larson). Of course it helps that the fantastic Metric wrote and play their song. It’s a nice way to get the characters together, but frankly the musical sequences often outstay their welcome, and one robs us of what could have been a very cool action scene.
I have recently railed against a lot of action films, because they have, thanks to shaky-cam, close ups and slam bang cutting they have barely let us see their action (I’m glaring at you, THE EXPENDABLES). That’s not the case here. You can tell that the action was worked on with the assistance of the Jackie Chan stunt team; it is intricate, fluid, frequently amazing to watch, and the actors seem to be doing the bulk of their own stunts. The highlight for me was the most clearly Hong Kong influenced fight, which has Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Mae Whitman fighting, Whitman armed with metal whip and Winstead with a massive hammer. It’s a really funny fight, never more so than when Winstead grabs Cera and uses him as a prop to fight. That said, all the action is great, and Wright handles it brilliantly. He still cuts fast, but his editing is fluent, keeping the geography of each scene intact, and his angles tend to be set a little way back, so that much of the time we can see the whole of the performers bodies as they fight. This is how you do comic book action; stylised, sure, but never so much so that anything is lost to the style.
I enjoyed SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD a great deal, and yet I can’t quite recommend it unreservedly. Michael Cera is a problem; an almost determinedly uncharismatic actor who nearly scuppers a movie which is saved by the quality of everything around that rather poor centre. See it at the most packed screening you can, because this is a movie that will benefit from an audience. I’m sure that you’ll have a lot of fun with it. I did.
Martial Arts Month is winding down, and despite getting sidetracked when I was under the weather, it's been fun and I think we've covered a lot of interesting films (and there are a few more to come, including SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD and a couple of Sammo Hung films). I'm going to attempt to run a special series every month, so here's September's
In September I'm going to try to answer, for myself, the question of who is the greatest working actress. Now I can't spend the whole month going through contenders, I'd never watch enough films for it to be a fair choice. But that's not really a problem. To me it is pretty clear that there are only two real contenders.
From France there is Isabelle Huppert. She's 57 years old, and next year marks her 40th anniversary as an actress. She first came to notice in the mid 1970's, and though she's not especially famous otside of France she's generally regarded as one of the world's finest actresses, and works constantly on film and on stage.
From America there is Jennifer Jason Leigh. A decade younger at 48, she's currently in her 30th year as an actress, and first gained acclaim at 19 as an anorexic teenager in TV Movie THE BEST LITTLE GIRL IN THE WORLD. She's an acclaimed actress, hugely respected in the industry and famous for her incredibly detailed research for roles.
It's interesting to me that Huppert and Leigh have a lot in common. Both shun the limelight, giving only rare and often reluctant interviews, and both are extremely reticent to talk about themselves or their private lives (Huppert won't even confirm whether she is married, or her exact date of birth). Both, too, are breathlessly acclaimed by critics and peers alike, and neither has ever even been nominated for an Oscar.
So, I'm going to look at ten films featuring Isabelle Huppert and another ten with Jennifer Jason Leigh (it's a crying shame they've never worked together, but I guess I can dream). That will make twenty new reviews, and hopefully by the end of the month I'll have a better idea of just who really is the greatest actress working today. I'm going to enjoy September. I hope you will too.
PIRANHA [3D] DIR: Alexandre Aja CAST: Elisabeth Shue, Steven R. McQueen, Jessica Szohr, Jerry O’Connell, Christopher Lloyd, Kelly Brook
The original PIRANHA wasn’t exactly good; it was a Roger Corman production, which meant it was low budget and not really expected to be intelligent, but thanks to screenwriter John Sayles and Director Joe Dante it actually emerged as a fun movie, paying inventive and witty homage to old B-Movies, while delivering the JAWS aping goods itself. The sequel; PIRANHA 2: FLYING KILLERS is notable only for its awfulness and the fact that it was James Cameron’s first film. This belated third in the series (it sits uneasily somewhere between remake and sequel, though the onscreen title, which is simply PIRANHA, leans to the former) is, to its very limited credit, better than the second film, but that shouldn’t be mistaken as a suggestion that it is any good whatsoever.
You know what to expect with a B-Movie, as Joe Bob Briggs puts it; Blood, boobs and beer. PIRANHA 3D certainly delivers on those promises, but, unlike Dante’s film, it forgets little things like wit and tension. Just to be clear on this… I like tits as much as the next heterosexual guy, but dear God, this film’s focus on them is relentless and dull. If you cut just half of the shots that have no other purpose than to fill the frame with large, bouncing, tits you’d have three minutes that you could fill with a character scene, of course, for that to work you’d have to have characters… but I digress. It’s not that you don’t want tits in an exploitation movie, it’s just that this film’s endless fascination with them, to the exclusion of all else (no less than twice the film stops dead for what amounts to a tit break), makes it feel like the work of a horny 13 year old. This might have been cool if I were still 13, but I’m not, and 13 year olds can’t see this movie.
The gore is better used, certainly it’s more sparing, at least in that Aja makes you wait for it. The physical effects by Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger are exceptional (one especially great, and nasty, moment comes when a girl gets her hair tangled a boat propeller, which tightens until it rips her face off). The major piranha attack set piece is good old fashioned exploitation fare, and the one sequence of the film that largely works; 10 minutes of inventively blood drenched mayhem, with the welcome kicker of watching Eli Roth get killed. What’s missing during the earlier gory moments is any real sense of tension, or any interest in the people who are getting eaten. Some of the effects are good, but it’s just not as much fun as it ought to be.
This is perhaps down to the script and the performances. To be fair, Elisabeth Shue gives her best as the small town sheriff trying to police spring break in her lakeside town, and Christopher Lloyd’s eye-rolling mania is a wonderful little mid-movie treat, but otherwise the cast are either bland (McQueen, Szohr, Brook) or relentlessly irritating (O’Connell). There’s not a single interesting or likeable character in this movie, and so when we get to the ludicrous final few minutes, there’s just nothing worth caring about. I haven’t wanted characters to get eaten so badly since I sat through OPEN WATER.
Even if the film were better, I still wouldn’t be recommending it, because the 3D is the worst I’ve seen in over a year, perhaps ever. The 3D is so unspeakably awful that it rendered the film, for me, all but unwatchable. It’s a conversion job, so every shot has three very distinct layers. The foreground is never in focus, not for one single frame, and so every single effect involving something floating out of the screen (and there are many, all of which the film stops dead for) looks incredibly fake, and then drifts out of focus. The rest of the frame is very soft. This is most prominently seen in the hideously overlit sequence in which a naked Kelly Brook and Riley Steele swim underwater. It’s so bad that the girls look like they are CGI, and any detail of their nudity is largely obscured by Aja’s awful shot selection and the abysmal 3D. There are also huge problems with ghosting, which could cause headaches as well as just being ugly and inept.
I can’t for the life of me understand the generally appreciative reviews that PIRANHA 3D has been collecting, it’s a stupid movie that’s a lot less fun than it thinks it is, and besides that it is technically broken. No film should be released in such a state.
The number of true visionaries making films can just about be counted on the fingers of one hand. Tragically, one of them died on Monday, taken by pancreatic cancer just under two months before his 47th birthday.
After beginning his career as a Manga artist, Kon branched into film in the 90's, first as a screenwriter, and then as a director. His first film, 1997's PERFECT BLUE established many of the themes that would run through his work; dream worlds blending with reality, characters with multiple personalities, celebrity and technology all helped form the backbone of his cinema. What was also notable was Kon's pursuit of a thoughtful adult aduience; much of the adult anime seen in the West is notable purely for its violent and sexual content, Kon brought rounded characters (especially his women) to the fore and put them in genres seldom seen in anime; such as Hitchcockian thriller PERFECT BLUE, Christmas set comedy TOKYO GODFATHERS and the beautiful, elegaic, romantic fantasy MILLENNIUM ACTRESS. His final completed film, PAPRIKA, seemed almost a summation of his themes and interests to date, and with its espoinage story and exploration of multiple levels of dreamstate seems to have been a key influence on Christopher Nolan's INCEPTION.
As much as anything, Satoshi Kon was an artist. His films are genuinely stunning to look at, and often quite unlike other anime, employing techniques and shots more often seen in live action, but also using the possibilites that animation offers to their full potential. He was an especially masterful character designer (look at the way he subtly ages Chiyoko Fugiwara, the lead character in MILLENNIUM ACTRESS, from scene to scene), but each of his films also boasted exquisite, explosive, diplays of animation technique (see some clips below).
Every time a new Satoshi Kon film appeared you could be sure that he would take you to another world. It might be thrilling, it might be touching, it might be confusing, it might be scary, but all of Kon's films are genuinely transporting. Happily we still have one more journey to look forward to, at the time of his death Kon's latest; a children's film called THE DREAM MACHINE was nearing completion, and it will be completed and released.
On Monday cinema became a duller and less inventive place. Other filmmakers will follow in his footsteps, but, sadly, there was only one Satoshi Kon and he's gone now. Let's enjoy the films he's left behind, and try to make sure that others do too.
Note: PAPRIKA appears on my Top 100 films, click the title for the article. PERFECT BLUE will appear further up the list.
This directorial effeort from Chaing (more frequently a cinematographer) probably has more weight if you know some Chinese history. It's set during World War 2 and has a small group of resistance fighters opposing the Japanese army, who want to set up a poison gas factory in a small, newly occupied, town. The performances are broad; shining heroes vs eeevil Japanese baddies, but MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS has quite a bit going for it.
Chaing keeps the pace up, close to frantic at times, and in 88 minutes doles out a lot of action both violent and comedic. Despite the rather perfunctory story and performances, the cast are also quite engaging, getting by more on charm and charisma than any real acting ability. Richard Ng is fun as a drunk who gets swept up in the action, the beautiful Cindy Lau has some great moments to show off her martial arts, and makes for a sweet, if not helpless, ingenue and Derek Yee is solid and charming as the hero.
However, it's Michelle Yeoh, in an early starring vehicle, who holds the attention. She's very young here, but already the charisma that she'd bring to films like WING CHUN and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON shines through. Though she's not a trained martial artist Yeoh's on screen fighting is fluent and hard hitting (her prop use is especially brilliant), her years as a dancer and talent for physical mimicry (as well as a willingness to do her own stunt work) serving her well.
MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS isn't quite a classic, but it's an enjoyable movie. There are some technical failings (even in the Cantonese version the dubbing is appalling, and some of the editing isn't great) but the action is great and the film as a whole is always engaging.
ONG BAK DIR: Prachya Pinkaew
Martial arts films have often been laughed aat for the thinness of their stories, but Tony Jaa's movies really deserve those giggles. Okay, ONG BAK (village boy goes to Bangkok when his village's idol is stolen, retrieves it through kicking people) has a more complex story than TOM YUM GOONG ("Give me back my elephants!"), but not by much.
The thing is, to denigarte ONG BAK for its lack of little things like a well thought out story, compelling performances, or any sort of dramatic weight would be to completely miss the point. This isn't so much a story as it is a breathtaking showreel for tsar Tony Jaa, his stunt team, action director Panna Rittikrai and director Prachya Pinkaew. After 30 minutes or so of exposition and scene setting, ONG BAK explodes into life, and though it becomes little more than a series of tenuously linked fight and stunt sequences the invention, style, skill, and power on display is such that the story could involve the reading of the Thai phone book and it this would still be thrilling cinema.
The action is among the best ever filmed. An early chase sequence shows off Jaa's amazing agility and timing (catch the awesome flip he does between two sheets of glass), but it's the raw power of the Muay Thai fighting style, perhaps best seen in what has been called the Fight Club sequence that was really new and excting when this film was first released.
As an actor, Jaa's flatness can be forgiven, but sadly he lacks the presence of a Jackie Chan or a Bruce Lee, and much of the time you do feel that you're watching a stuntman rather than a star. The support is better; Petchai Wongkamlao and Pumwaree Yodkamol are both funny and charming as the city slickers along for the ride with Jaa, and that keeps the downtime between the action scenes bearable, if never especially engaging. Fortunately the film is chock full of action, so it never slows down long enough to get really dull.
For me, ONG BAK has since been bettered by the same team's vehicles for Jeeja Yanin, especially the jaw dropping CHOCOLATE, but this was the west's introduction to Thai martial arts cinema, the film from which the rest have flowed, and as well as bringing us alot of quality films since, ONG BAK holds up as a genuinely astonishing showcase for thai martial arts, if not a great film.
You may remember that, a couple of weeks ago, I published a letter I had written to Jeremy Hunt, the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport detailling my issues with his closure of the UK Film Council (you can read it here). Yesterday evening I had the following reply...
Dear Mr Inglis
Thank you for your letter of 9 August to the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, following the recent review of DCMS’ Arm’s Length Bodies. I have been asked to reply on his behalf.
I can assure you that the Government is wholly committed to supporting the UK film industry, especially in these tough economic times. It will maintain the film tax credit, currently worth over £100 million a year; Lottery funding, including the film production fund, which currently stands at about £27 million a year, will remain and will increase after the Olympics. The Government is now considering options to transfer the distribution of these Lottery funds to other existing bodies, with a view to reducing administrative costs; and it will maintain key priorities such as strengthening the sustainability of the UK film industry and supporting its diversity. Going forward, this Department will ensure that support and guidance remain in place during any period of transition.
You may also be interested to know that the Government is committed to the long-term future of the British Film Institute (BFI), which of course plays an important role in our cultural heritage. Over the summer DCMS officials will discuss with the BFI the setting up of a direct, less bureaucratic relationship with this Department.
Although going forward the Government will want to consider policy priorities for Lottery funding, it recognises that First Light – to take one example you mention – is an important and successful programme that contributes to audience development and helps find tomorrow’s talents – two areas seen as priorities.
The Government is also very clear that one of its top priorities is to have a robust and more coordinated strategy to promote the UK as the best place to invest for film-making. Inward investment has been a massive success over the last few years, generating value for film makers from around the world, for audiences, and for the UK economy. The Government remains fully committed to its promotion and will engage with the industry in the coming weeks to discuss these points as well as others.
I hope this is of reassurance to you.
Yours sincerely
For me, this reply is a mixed bag. The BIG problem is that it doesn't address my major concern about the disollution of the Film Council... Who will decide what gets funded? There's nothing here to counter my concern that these decisions (currently made by people with years of experience in the film industry) will end up in the hands of a board made up largely of MPs and/or policy wonks. What's the use of having money available - more money, even - if the people deciding how it's spent have little or no relationship to the film industry (and, if precedent holds true, are likely to be much more conservative in their outlook on art as a whole)?
In terms of the smaller programmes that the Film Council funded (some of which I addressed in my letter) I am heartened to hear that the First Light programme will retain its funding, but it is perhaps telling that none of the other smaller programmes; the Festival Development Fund and the FILMCLUB initiative and most vitally the Prints and Advertising fund, recieve similar promises.
Overall, there's a lot of nice language here; "Over the summer DCMS officials will discuss with the BFI the setting up of a direct, less bureaucratic relationship with this Department.""The Government remains fully committed to its promotion and will engage with the industry in the coming weeks." We'll just have to keep an eye on how things unfold to see how true those words are.
All this said, however much I like or dislike this Government and their policies, at least they have shown a willingness to engage in some discussion on this issue. I like living somewhere where that's possible.
THE EXPENDABLES DIR: Sylvester Stallone CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke
If only THE EXPENDABLES had simply lived up – or down – to it’s title. If only it were just forgettable nonsense. If only it had just been dumb, in one ear, out the other, typical action fare. Unfortunately that’s not what it is. Instead this is one of the very worst films of 2010; a cacophony of senseless, bludgeoning, unwatchable idiocy and a complete waste of an interesting cast and $80 million.
It’s not like I don’t understand what this film is; I didn’t come to THE EXPENDABLES expecting layered character driven drama or a particularly rich, metaphor-laden story. But, honestly, is it too much to ask that the characters have some motivation, some personality, and that the film as a whole makes some level of sense as a story? It shouldn’t be, even that apex of eighties action idiocy COMMANDO had, at the most basic level, a main character who had a credible motive for putting himself in harm’s way. The best motivation Stallone seems able to conjure for his character, Barney Ross, leading his team to near certain death is some vague guff, mumbled by a clearly bored Mickey Rourke, about women and soul, and the fact that the girl Barney wants to save (having known her for about an hour) gave him a drawing.
The other attempts to inject some sort of depth into the film are also laughably tossed off, and only one has any bearing on anything that happens in the film. Dolph Lundgren’s Gunner, for example, is frequently described as a junkie, yet we see no evidence of this and it has no effect on anything. Jason Statham, as Stallone’s right hand man Lee Christmas (really, Sly?) gets a ‘romantic sub-plot’ co-starring Charisma Carpenter. It lasts all of two scenes, perhaps three and a half minutes of screen time, and, again, has absolutely no relevance to anything. The only piece of ‘character development’ that has any bearing on the film is that after being teased for being short Jet Li uses his small stature to his advantage in a fight.
The acting is as miserable as the writing. Nobody speaks; they grunt. Watching Stallone and Lundgren exchange dialogue is especially laughable, as they seem to compete to see who can intone their words in the lower, more indecipherable, bass rumble. Lundgren wins, thanks largely to his accent. It’s perhaps churlish, given the monumentally awful and shallow screenplay, to note that not a single member of the large cast develops anything you could call a character. Churlish, but true all the same.
Let’s be realistic about this though; it doesn’t matter much if THE EXPENDABLES is badly written or acted, what matters is the action. You’ve get here several generations of great screen fighters; surely the action is awesome, right? Well, I’d love to be able to tell you about the action, but I couldn’t see it. That’s down to Sylvester Stallone’s frankly appalling direction. It’s bad enough outside of the action scenes, in which he shoots roughly 75% of the film in uncomfortable close up, but it’s when people start fighting that everything really goes to shit. Stallone’s cutting is so blisteringly fast that nothing makes the slightest bit of sense (so much so that I was genuinely surprised, in one last reel fight, when it finally became clear that it was Randy Coture, and not Jet Li, fighting Steve Austin). The spatial relationships go completely out of the window, so you never know who’s fighting who, where they are in relation to each other or the other characters, or what they are doing to each other.
The editing is a truly hideous thing. Worst affected is Jet Li, who worked with veteran action director Corey Yuen to choreograph his fight with Dolph Lundgren. You have no idea how much I wish I could have seen some of that fight, but Stallone and editors Ken Blackwell and Paul Harb appear to have turned the footage over to a roomful of chainsaw wielding, meth smoking monkeys and then given the resulting mess to a six year old with some sellotape. That or they are shit at their jobs… your call. The editing, offence to god and man though it is, is hardly the only visual problem with THE EXPENDABLES. On the whole Stallone’s direction is ugly and frequently nonsensical, but it’s also poorly served by some of the worst CGI I’ve seen for years. Especially embarrassing is a shot in which Stallone slices off the heads of two soldiers, who are decapitated using effects that make Mortal Kombat seem advanced, but the whole film is afflicted by terrible CGI splatter and some genuinely shocking compositing.
THE EXPENDABLES is a total embarrassment. It’s about as much fun as getting a splinter in your eye, and so poorly made at a basic technical level that it is all but unwatchable.
Why is it on the list? SCHINDLER’S LIST is a deeply upsetting film, and yet it is also one that re-affirms your faith in humanity, by showing you that even amidst perhaps the most evil act in the history of mankind there were still people doing good. The film is based on Thomas Keneally’s fact based novel Schindler’s Ark, which he wrote after being told the story of Oskar Schindler by one of the Jews he saved from the gas chambers of Auschwitz; Leopold Pfefferberg. Despite Hollywood’s fascination with World War Two the film took some time to get made, passing in the process from Billy Wilder, to Martin Scorsese, who then passed it on to Steven Spielberg, because he felt that this was a story that should be told by a Jewish filmmaker. Offered the film in the mid 1980’s, Spielberg sat on it for nearly a decade, saying that he didn’t feel that he was ready as a filmmaker at the point he was offered the project.
If there was ever a film that could have been marred by Spielberg’s often-sentimental eye, this was it, but (at least up until the epilogue) Spielberg’s gaze is unwavering, and as harsh as the black and white the film is shot in. Though I love many of his earlier films it is clear that this film marks a real shift in its director’s work, it is, in effect, the sight of cinema’s Peter Pan growing up. There are moments that are purely Spielbergian (the little girl in the red coat that he follows through the astonishing twenty minute sequence of the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto) but even these are used to drive home the horror of the events the film documents. Spielberg had previously demonstrated mastery of action and an ability to capture a sense of magic in his films, but here he delves deep into the real life horror of the holocaust and the assurance with which he captures it is somewhat surprising.
Perhaps the most striking moment of pure cinema in this film, maybe in Spielberg’s career, is the unbearable ten minute sequence in which a train full of Schindler Jews is mistakenly directed to Auschwitz Birkenau, as they are processed the sense of doom and despair grows ever heavier, and then when, in the shower room, water flows from shower heads that would usually dispense gas it is a moment of such unalloyed joy. Those ten minutes alone mark SCHINDLER’S LIST as the work of a master filmmaker, but the rest of the film is just as strong.
For this film Spielberg assembled a cast made up of an interesting mix of established character actors like Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes and newcomers like Embeth Davidtz. From Neeson’s powerful and complex leading performance (Schindler, a committed nazi, was no angel and neither Neeson nor the film paint him as one) all the way on down to Bjork’s brief cameo appearance as a Jew Schindler takes a shine to at his birthday party, there’s not a wrong note struck by the performances. Several stand out though; Ben Kingsley’s dignified Itzhak Stern is one. Embeth Davidtz, who deserves to have a much higher profile career, is exceptional as Helen Hirsch, a beautiful Jewish worker with whom Ralph Fiennes’ concentration camp commandant falls in love, especially in one scene in which Fiennes, trying to decide whether to kiss her, compares Jews to rats.
It is, however, an Oscar nominated Ralph Fiennes who walks away with the film. As Amon Goeth he is truly, perfectly, loathsome. It’s a performance more chilling than any horror film, because Goeth is a finely etched portrait of the utter banality of evil. He doesn’t kill Jews because he’s evil, or because he hates them. He kills them because it’s his job, and sometimes because he’s bored. So completely did he pull off the illusion of becoming Goeth that when he was introduced on set to the woman who inspired the Helen Hirsch character she began shaking. Fiennes commits totally to bringing Goeth to life, and never lets him simply become a two dimensional bogeyman, which makes him even more hateful and even more terrifying.
SCHINDLER’S LIST is a film you can’t help but have a reaction to. It upsets, it infuriates, it terrifies. It is, as well as being a great film, a truly important one, a film that, while it couldn’t be accused of dispassion in its documenting of the holocaust, is never exploitative and can take its place among the great pieces of art and great statements made about the holocaust.
Standout Scenes Liqudation The scourging of the Krakow ghetto was one of the great crimes of the second world war, and here Spielberg plunges us into that nightmare from ground level. It’s a sequence he’s never matched for intensity since.
“Is this the face of a rat?” A vile monologue from Goeth, but delivered in a perversely affectionate to to a completely petrified Helen Hirsch (Davidtz)
The Train The ten minute sequence that takes the Schindler Jews to and through Auschwitz Birkenau is the single most nightmarish thing Steven Spielberg has ever put on film.
Memorable Lines Amon Goeth: They cast a spell on you, you know, the Jews. When you work closely with them, like I do, you see this. They have this power. It's like a virus. Some of my men are infected with this virus. They should be pitied, not punished. They should receive treatment because this is as real as typhus. I see it all the time.
Amon Goeth: This is very cruel, Oskar. You're giving them hope. You shouldn't do that. That's cruel!
Itzhak Stern: This list... is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf.
Reiter: I'm a graduate of Civil Engineering from the University of Milan. Amon Goeth: Ah, an educated Jew... like Karl Marx himself. Unterscharfuehrer! Hujar: Jawohl? Amon Goeth: Shoot her. Reiter: Herr Kommandant! I'm only trying to do my job! Amon Goeth: Ja, I'm doing mine.
Oskar Schindler: I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don't know. If I'd just... I could have got more. Itzhak Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them. Oskar Schindler: If I'd made more money... I threw away so much money. You have no idea. If I'd just... Itzhak Stern: There will be generations because of what you did. Oskar Schindler: I didn't do enough! Itzhak Stern: You did so much. [Schindler looks at his car] Oskar Schindler: This car. Goeth would have bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people. [removing Nazi pin from lapel] Oskar Schindler: This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this. [sobbing] Oskar Schindler: I could have gotten one more person... and I didn't! And I... I didn't!
Amon Goeth: I would like so much to reach out to you and touch you in your loneliness. What would it be like, I wonder? What would be wrong with that? I realize that you are not a person in the strictest sense of the word, but, um, maybe you're right about that too. Maybe what's wrong, it's not us, it's this... I mean, when they compare you to vermin, to rodents and to lice. I just, uh, you make a good point. You make a very good point. Is this the face of a rat? Are these the eyes of a rat? "Hath not a Jew eyes?" I feel for you Helen. [leaning forward to kiss her]. No, I don't think so. You Jewish bitch, you nearly talked me into it, didn't you?
Less a martial arts film than... oh God only knows what this film is... God, or perhaps Tsui Hark, but I wouldn't put money on Tsui Hark. It seems to tell the story of two snake spirits who take human forms (the heart stoppingly beautiful forms of Maggie Cheung and Joey Wong). Wong's White Snake is older than Cheung's Green, and thus she's more able to appear human, and even manages to forge a relationship with a young scholar (Wu Xing-Guo). Theere's also something about a powerful monk (Zhao Wen-Zhou) who has taken it upon himself to destroy these two 'snake evils', this involves a lot of wire assisted leaping around and much use of the incantation "Bo ye ba la hung", which you will know as well as the sound of your own name by the time these 93 minutes are up.
Green Snake is like eating a three course meal consisting purely of LSD. It makes very little sense, you're never sure what's going on, but some of it sure is beautiful. Wong and Cheung both give fine performances under the circumstances, and Cheung is especially effective as the impetuous Green, but the film's pleasures are largely visual, and centred on its female stars.
Many scenes revolve around the scantily clad, frequently wet, Cheung and Wong almost making out. Honestly, if you can think of something better to hang a movie on I'll be happy to help you get it made. It's never explicit, and there's not a frame of nudity from either Cheung or Wong, but dear God it's sexy.
So, if you're not too concerned about little things like a coherent narrative, and you've got a thing for Chinese girls Green Snake comes highly recommended. Otherwise, this one's not really for you.
A highly entertaining, if pretty silly, remake of King Hu's 1967 film. The plot is a tad confusing but let me try. Maggie Cheung (sigh) owns the Dragon Gate inn, in the middle of the desert. For some reason both bandits (led by Tony Leung Ka Fai and Brigitte Lin) and government agents who are hunting them end up there. There's lots of fighting. At the end Donnie Yen shows up (as a eunuch, of course) and the big final fight ensues. So, yes, it's all a bit mystifying and it's certainly not for newcomers to the wuxia genre but there's plenty to recommend here.
Maggie Cheung's performance is infectious, she overplays the comedy to the hilt but the sillier she is the more fun her performance (and, I know I say this whenever I review one of her films but, she's SO beautiful that just watching her is a joy). Brigitte Lin is also terrific in a much more steely and more action oriented part than I’m used to seeing her in and Donnie Yen, sadly not in the film enough, shows up and struts his stuff impeccably.
As far as the fighting goes it's all well worth watching but there's a couple of sequences that really stand out. First a fight between Lin and (a heavily doubled) Cheung in which Lin, having just had a bath, strips Cheung of her clothing one item at a time as they fight. Neither is ever exposed but it's hugely sexy as well as being a solid fight. The final fight is also magnificent with some stunning shots of the cast fighting in what is almost a sandstorm and some awe inspiring physicality from Donnie Yen. It ends in a touch so ludicrous that it's laugh out loud funny but that's the tone of the movie and doesn't hurt a great sequence.
Sadly there's not quite enough action as the tension at the inn seldom boils over and another downside is that Tony Leung Ka Fai is rather bland (perhaps if he and Donnie Yen had traded roles there'd have been a better film here). At the end of the day, as is the case with most wuxia films, if you like the genre you'll find things to enjoy here and if you don't, well, you aren't reading this are you?
REDBELT DIR: David Mamet
When I first heard about Redbelt I did a double take. It seemed like such an odd fit: David Mamet’s martial arts movie, really? While it’s neither the best martial arts movie I’ve seen, nor the best David Mamet movie I’ve seen it is an interesting, and occasionally outstanding, example of each.
Mamet’s name, and his reputation and history as a writer, is enough to attract a stellar cast to play alongside members of his stock company whenever he makes a film, and Redbelt has a truly outstanding cast. Chiwetel Ejiofor impresses in the leading role of Mike Terry, a Jiu-Jitsu instructor who, for reasons I won’t reveal, finds himself having to break his cardinal rule as a fighter, and fight in a competition. Ejiofor seems to be doing the vast majority of the fighting himself and while moves seem quite basic the choreography is well put together and the length of the takes and the combinations of moves are pretty impressive, but Ejiofor’s strength is the drama and he plays it flawlessly, from an American accent so good that you’d barely believe he’s British to hitting every beat of Mamet’s always intricate dialogue just right. Another British actor, again playing an American, also impresses in a smaller role. Emily Mortimer is quickly growing into one of the most reliable character actresses around and here she plays a complex role, with a lot of different facets and an extreme arc absolutely convincingly with only a few rather brief scenes to do it.
Among the rest of the supporting cast there are (too) small parts for Mamet regulars Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky Jay and David Paymer and excellent turns from Brazillian actress Alice Braga as Ejiofor’s wife and Max Martini as his star pupil. The real surprise, though, is Tim Allen. Allen is usually found slumming, but has previously shown that with a good script (the Toy Story films, Galaxy Quest) he’s an effective comic lead. Here, though, he’s got an entirely dramatic role as action movie star Chet Frank, and he absolutely eats it up, grabbing it with a zeal that suggests he knows exactly how good a chance this is to prove that he really can act. Now if he’d only stop making crap like The Santa Clause and seek out more roles like this.
Mamet’s screenplay is talkier than you’d expect for a martial arts movie, but truly it’s the talk that is the film’s most compelling aspect. As ever with Mamet it overflows with quotable dialogue (“We got a deal”. “What good's a deal if no one's making any money”?) and in typical fashion things that seem incidental end up paying off in ways you don’t expect, as in a beautiful second act sequence here, which draws a morass of dangling threads together to set up the final conflict.
It is, sadly, that final conflict that ends up making Redbelt somewhat less than the sum of its parts. The last act is very familiar, and it’s done with little panache, particularly when Mamet, the master of dialogue, wraps proceedings up with a (hopelessly cliché) silent sequence. Worse is that the final fight isn’t very dynamic or exciting and that several moments that promise rather more drama are thrown away, never to be seen. Still, for three quarters of its running time Redbelt is vintage Mamet, with a nice side order of kicking.
HEART OF THE DRAGON DIR: Sammo Hung
Fung Tat (Jackie Chan) is a cop. He's always wanted to get a job on a ship and sail round the world but can't as he has to care for his elder brother Dodo (Sammo Hung) who is mentally handicapped. Tat is in the process of trying to marry his girlfriend (Emily Chu) so he can leave Dodo in her care and go off sailing but when his brother falls in with a gang of thieves he must save him and clear his name with the police.
Heart of the Dragon is far removed from a typical Sammo Hung / Jackie Chan film. The first thing that audiences will notice is that Sammo doesn't fight, though he does a couple of stunts, the other most notable thing is that Heart of the Dragon is overwhelmingly a drama, allowing Jackie and Sammo both to play far against type for perhaps the first time in their careers.
As Dodo Sammo really gets to create a character and he shows that actually he's a pretty versatile and talented actor, given the chance to stretch. We never get specifics on what is wrong with Dodo but Sammo's childlike performance is charming and never condescends to the audience or becomes so broad as to be insulting to the mentally handicapped as so many films have.
Jackie is also effective as Tat. In one particularly excellent scene he rails against his uncomprehending brother about how he's not been able to go away because he's had to devote his life to caring for him. Jackie always gets to be more adult when Sammo is directing him (perhaps it's because, as his big brother, he trusts Sammo to stretch him) and that's certainly true here. Even outside of the dramatic scenes his fighting is more brutal, more outwardly violent and his relationship with Emily Chu both cynical and suggestive of a more adult side to the character, particularly in a couple of kissing scenes which from anyone else would be mild but are probably as sexual as Jackie has ever allowed himself to be on screen.
This is very much a drama. After an opening action beat (which includes a rare and sadly brief smackdown between Jackie and the late, great Lam Ching Ying) it settles down into being a very serious piece which lets the acting rather than fists and feet do the work and it works better than you'd ever expect because Sammo and Jackie hold it together (though supporting cast members like Mang Hoi are sometimes found wanting). So committed was Sammo to this tone that he actually cut action scenes from the main body f the film, holding off on the action until the traditional end fight which, it has to be said, is a beautiful thing. I love Jackie Chan's films and he's created some of the greatest action ever put on film but he never looks better, or more dangerous, than when he's directed by Sammo and this is no exception, fast, furious and violent it's a great release after a long wait for some action.
Heart of the Dragon is not a film for people new to Hong Kong martial arts movies as it's far from a traditional entry in the CVs of Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan but it's well executed in all respects and a recommended watch for fans who want to see Sammo and Jackie trying something new and doing well at it.
ARMOUR OF GOD DIR: Jackie Chan
Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) used to be a pop singer along with friend Alan (Alan Tam) but now he's an Indiana Jones style fortune hunter. When Alan's girlfriend (Rosamund Kwan), also Hawk's ex, is kidnapped he and Alan must retrieve all three pieces of the Armour of God as a ransom for the corrupt group of monks who hold her.
Every time he does a film Jackie Chan does things that could quite easily kill him. He fell off a clocktower in Project A (actually he did three takes of that one), he slid down a long pole lined with lightbulbs in Police Story and he's been injured countless times, dislocating bones you never thought you could dislocate (the sternum). He's only come close to dying in one stunt though, a rather simple one on this film. Jumping out of a tree from about 15 feet up Chan missed his target, the cameraman rolled out of the way to avoid being landed on and Chan landed on a rock, cracking his skull. Fortunately he was able to get emergency brain surgery, though he still has a plastic plug stopping the hole in his head.
Armour of God did get finished though and there's little in it to suggest that its star and director had nearly lost his life early in the schedule as Chan still executes some truly breathtaking stunts. It's not, sadly, one of Chan's best but Armour of God does have some real standout sequences. The opening sequence isn't so much inspired by Indiana Jones as it is a direct lift but it's strong with some great stunts and the same exuberant action feel as the Indy films captured. Sadly after this the film settles into a largely action free midsection which throws too much focus on a bland Alan Tam (whose introduction, with an entire canto-pop song, is truly a test of endurance). The ending set piece does, as ever, liven things up with Jackie fighting four female opponents as well as some monks before diving off a cliff onto a hot air balloon and sliding down the balloon into the basket (something he did for real, mere months after his operation).
Aside from the action this isn't a great film but there's enough decent action and endearing performances from Jackie and Spanish model Lola Forner to recommend it.
THE TUXEDO DIR: Kevin Donovan
Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) works as a cab driver until one day a passenger offers him a job as driver to super spy Clark Devlin (Jason Isaccs). When Devlin is injured in a bombing Jimmy takes his place, using a tuxedo of Devlin's that confers superpowers on the wearer.
Suited up Jimmy and partner Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt) (who, being on her first assignment, thinks he's Devlin) go up against an eeevil bottled water manufacturer (Ritchie Coster) who is planning to poison the world's water supply, leaving only his mineral water safe to drink (muahahahaha).
It's not an easy time to be a Jackie Chan fan. His Hong Kong output has been slipping in quality (he's been trying to act, God help us) and his Hollywood films lurch from one embarrassment to the next. This might be the best of his US work to date, I realise of course that that's like saying 'Whaddya know, this sewage smells better than that sewage', but still, small mercies.
The Tuxedo is certainly beset with problems. First among them is the prevalence of wire work (not great wire work at that) in the action and stunt sequences. Time was Jackie lived by the words: I am the special effect. But time marches on and this can be put down to age and injury rather than laziness or a lack of ideas on the part of Jackie and his stunt team. The smaller moments are the best, true they've been slightly aided by effects but still the displays of agility, particularly when Jackie has to fight while trying to put his tux back on, are as amazing as ever.
Debuting Director Donovan isn't the man for the job. Too often he botches the action particularly in a sequence with the most obvious fake leg ever put to film and his leering fascination with Hewitt's cleavage, magnificent as it may be, makes you wonder if it was an adult or a 13 year old boy behind the camera. However there are bright spots. Chan's having fun, which often seems not to be the case lately, clearly he enjoys the slapstick comedy and, for all the frustrations of working in English, his comic timing and screen presence still win through. Hewitt may be utterly miscast but she makes the best of things and actually puts in a sparky performance that serves the film perfectly well.
So it's dumber than you can possibly imagine but there's also fun to be had. There's some hammy cameos from Whose Line Is It Anyway's Colin Mochorie and from Peter Stormare as a mad scientist and just enough of Jackie's trademark action to make it fun. Clearly no masterpiece then, but hardly as mortifying as Shanghai Noon or The Medallion
DRAGONS FOREVER DIR: Sammo Hung
Jackie Lung (Jackie Chan) is a lawyer hired by a chemical processing factory to make opposition to their polluting ways, which are threatening the fish farm run by Miss Yip (Deannie Yip), disappear. However Lung discovers he is working for gangsters (led by Yuen Wah) and with the help of friends Fei-Hung (Sammo Hung) and Tung (Yuen Biao) sets out to destroy the drug refining and smuggling operation really operating through the factory.
The legendary 'Seven Little Fortunes' opera troupe of Sifu Yu Jim Yuen included many of the great stars of Hong Kong martial arts cinema but the three that made the greatest impression on the industry were Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. The three made numerous films together but only in three of those did they all have starring roles. Project A, Wheels on Meals and Dragons Forever. Being a Sammo Hung film it is darker than Project A and lacks the exuberant fun of that film but Dragons Forever, like many of Sammo's films, not only shows off his cast's astonishing abilities to their best effect but allows them to stretch them selves in areas they usually wouldn't.
All three of the stars play against type. Jackie, normally the moral underdog hero, is cast as a shyster, skirt chasing lawyer and when we first see him is defending a rapist in court (though he does give him a hell of a punch after the acquittal). Sammo gets to be a bit of a ladies man, something that his build would usually preclude and Yuen Biao plays a very odd character, an old friend who appears to have gone mad. It is perhaps this deviation from their usual personas that meant Dragons Forever was something of a box office disappointment on its release. For me though the changes to the familiar personas are a welcome way of providing some variety in a genre that too often only distinguishes itself in the choreography of the fighting.
There's quite a lot of plot in Dragons Forever and that allows for not just a lot of fighting but quite a bit of comedy and even a few more dramatic interludes. These vary in their success. For example there's a charming sequence with Sammo and Deanie Yip night fishing while sharing some food (this, apparently, is based on how Sammo and his first wife passed the time when he was broke) which works beautifully but a broader scene when he pursues Yip down the street with a megaphone trying to get her to go on a date with him pushes the boat out a bit far.
A lot of the comedy involves physicality and never is this better executed than in a scene at Jackie's apartment as first Yuen Biao and then Sammo gatecrash as he tries to woo Pauline Yeung and the tries to hide their presence from her. If the Three Stooges did kung fu it would probably look like this ludicrously entertaining sequence.
Though the comedic action is hugely entertaining it really has nothing on the true action beats. There's an excellent early scene for Jackie, which takes place on a boat (the venue for his second date with Pauline Yeung) and again shows off his absolute mastery of fighting with props. The three brothers all fight together in a stunning scene in a club, which uses a real disco as a standing set in ways that look astoundingly painful. There's a one time only occurrence for fans too, as Dragons Forever is the only film in which you can see a three way fight between Jackie, Sammo and Yuen Biao.
The plot wraps up (with, sadly, just about the worst scene in the movie) at the end of act two to set up the final few reels for the traditional showdown. It's here that Yuen Wah, reprising the robotic bad guy he played to such effect in Eastern Condors, comes into force and Benny Urquidez arrives in the film. Urquidez (who Bey Logan, who should know, describes as pound for pound the greatest martial artist alive) fought Jackie in Wheels on Meals (and it's that fight that Jackie named his favourite he's ever taken part in) and was brought back as the formidable last reel opponent here.
Their confrontation is quite simply one of the finest ever filmed. It starts out slow and over about ten minutes amps up to a frenzy of punches and kicks, all of it executed brilliantly. The timing is spot on, the use of props inventive, adding to the scene and Sammo even lets the action pause for a quick comic beat and let the audience catch a breath. Even if it's not the best martial arts sequence ever filmed (for me that's the Sammo directed duel between Frankie Chan and Lam Ching Ying in The Prodigal Son) it's still right up there and a truly fitting finale to the last of the three brothers films together.
SHANGHAI NOON DIR: Tom Dey
China 1881: When the Princess Pei-Pei (Lucy Liu) is kidnapped from the Forbidden City and held for ransom Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) begs to be included in the party sent to rescue her. When the train they are travelling on is robbed by Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) and his gang and his uncle is killed Chon Wang goes after Roy. Eventually they team up and ride off to save the princess.
When even the outtakes at the end of a Jackie Chan film are less entertaining than spending the same amount of time slapping yourself in the face you know it's been a really bad day at the office for the clown prince of Kung Fu movies. Shanghai Noon is an embarrassment. The comedy, from both Chan and sidekick Owen Wilson is thuddingly unfunny (and, in one extended sequence with some indians, more than a little bit racist). The physical comedy for which Chan is justly famous is here reduced to such tired gags as him getting off his horse the wrong way and then walking funny; oh my sides, how they ache.
The most serious crime though is that the action is not only rather dull (shocking, what with Jackie, his stunt team and Yuen Biao working on the film) but ineptly shot. Dey forgets to let us see Jackie in several of the big sequences, including a long fall which is the best stunt in the film (an embarrassing standard).
Chan, Wilson and Liu are fine, doing what little is asked of them perfectly well but there's little to love here. There are no moments to rewind gasping 'how'd he do THAT?' None of the fights really get the blood pumping and the comedy is a laugh desert the fact it's not the worst of Jackie's American films speaks only to how catastrophically awful The Medallion really was.
SHANGHAI KNIGHTS DIR: David Dobkin
Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) and Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) are reunited after Chon enlists Roy's help in avenging his Father's murder and getting back the imperial seal that he was killed for. This involves going to England to meet up with Chon's insanely hot sister (Fann Wong) and pursue the killer; evil Lord Rathbone (Aiden Gillen)
I hated Shanghai Noon but clearly I'm a glutton for punishment so here we are. There's good news and bad: the good news; this sequel is better than Shanghai Noon, the bad news; barely, and by default.
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar clearly decided that they'd run out of cliché jokes about Native Americans and how out of place Jackie Chan was in the wild west so they've moved the story to England. What that results in is some of the worst xenophobic English jokes and clichés since the despicably unfunny Three Men and a Baby. There are only two accents in this England; an incredibly overplayed 'aristocratic' one, which reaches its most ludicrous point with the monumentally terrible performance of Aidan Gillen and the world's most cliché 'apples and pears' cockernee, which contributes to the mortifyingly dreadful performance of young Aaron Johnson.
A constant annoyance is that the film has absolutely no regard for historical context. Set in 1887 it takes place in a London where Jack the Ripper is already terrorising the streets (those murders took place in 1888), motion pictures (first demonstrated in the 1890's) exist and Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) is already 10 or so. Obviously we don't come to films like this looking for historical accuracy but when these jokes are such a big part of the script shouldn't they at least have a basis in fact?
At least the cast is game. Chan and Wilson work hard but they can't mine laughs from the mirthless abomination that is the screenplay and Gillen certainly puts forth effort (even doing some creditable sword fighting) but has been misdirected; his cliché villain lacking only a moustache to twirl. Fann Wong lights up the screen with her beauty but her character is so thin as to be anorexic and few of her actions have any motivation (notably her character's attraction to Roy). However, untrained as a martial artist though she may be, she looks great in her action sequences.
The action sequences are better than last time out. Unlike Tom Dey, Dobkin makes sure we can see Jackie in the action set pieces, makes sure we know it's him, the choreography is better too, a sequence involving a ladder recalls some of Jackie's best work and harks back to the mastery of props he showed in films like Project A. Sadly the fight between Jackie and Donnie Yen, long awaited by fans, is something of a letdown. The tussle is grounded for much of the time and lacks any real drama (though the pay off, provided by Wong, is good).
For the action, the outtakes (always a highlight of Jackie's films) and for Fann Wong this is worth a look but what surrounds it is, at times, torturously poor.
