Saturday 31 July 2010

Movie Review: Transporter 3 (2008)


There is something to be said for delivering exactly what is expected. The Transporter series is all about breathless none-too-serious action sequences, and Transporter 3 delivers.

There is no shortage of one-on-many martial-arts-infused and exquisitely choreographed fights, and several car chases that start by straining the limits of physics and then veer in the direction labelled "wild".

At the middle of it all is Jason Statham as Frank Martin, the professional Transporter, this time in charge of delivering a package consisting of Valentina (Natalya Rudakova, interpreting the role as a grown-up Lolita). She is the daughter of Leonid Vasilev, an Eastern European government minister being threatened by an evil consortium intent on dumping environmentally toxic waste in his country.

Martin and Valentina must race across Europe under the threat of being blown to small pieces by wrist-mounted bombs if they stray too far from Martin's Audi, the car being easily the second most important cast member after Statham himself.

Luc Besson's script has enough of a plot to almost justify all the mayhem, and director Olivier Megaton not only has the coolest name of any action-movie director, but also directs with enough pizazz to blur out the large gaps in logic.

For example, ask not why the men hired by Vasilev to rescue his daughter instigate a murderous high-speed car chase during which they machine-gun the car she's in. The chase is too much fun to make sense, and ultimately, a large dose of enjoyable nonsense fun is what Transporter 3 delivers, wrapped in a hyper-polished package.






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Sunday 25 July 2010

Movie Review: Fanboys (2009)


In 1998, a group of friends from Ohio decide to travel across the country to California, to infiltrate Skywalker Ranch and steal an advance copy of Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace.

An interesting enough premise with a few good moments is only half-heartedly developed. Several ideas are seemingly haphazardly floated and left hanging: there are unexplained fractured friendship side-stories; a terminal sickness that gets really slipshod treatment; and a stunted-growth-of-Star-Wars-fans theme that never goes anywhere.

Instead Fanboys presents unnecessarily elongated Star Wars versus Star Trek juvenile antics, a police car chase scene and a rough-biker bar scene that both seem to be included out of someone's idea of necessity; and a break-and-enter at Skywalker Ranch that can never find the proper balance between action and laughs, although the recreation of the garbage compactor scene from Episode IV is the best moment in the film. In general, most of the jokes and attempts at humour in Fanboys are rudimentary at best.

Director Kyle Newman offers little flair to the proceedings. The Grade B- cast struggle against the limp material generally to no avail. Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler and Jay Baruchel will hope that Fanboys does not represent any sort of career highlight. Kristen Bell is sadly underused and deserves better future opportunities. There are dozens of cameos by actors with connections to the Star Wars universe, doubtless to keep fans of the franchise occupied as the general tedium unfolds.

Fanboys has good intentions; unfortunately, the Force was not strong with this one.







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Movie Review: Anamorph (2007)


Semi-retired detective Stan Aubray (Willem Dafoe) is pushed back into service to solve a series of gruesome murders. The killings resemble the handiwork of a previous murderer that Aubray tracked and eliminated five years previously. Is it a case of copycat killings, or was the first case never properly solved?

A dense, dark and grim independent movie, Anamorph is interesting in patches but never too successful. The movie trumpets its set-piece murder-as-art scenes too loudly, and in-between, the attempts to get into the head of detective Aubray lead nowhere. We are left with slow and ponderous stretches that link one macabre display of body parts to another.

It should be an elemental rule of good mystery film-making that at some reasonable point, the person behind the killings should be introduced to the audience to create a character worth loathing or understanding. Anamorph skips this part, and we are left with a mostly faceless murderer with a bizarre but unexplained penchant for the artistic display of recently chopped up body parts.

Director Henry S. Miller goes for a bleak and foreboding mood and mostly achieves it. He is helped by Defoe, who does convince us that he is psychologically tortured. Both are let down by a script (Miller working with Tom Phelan) that stalls and offers little in the way of innovation beyond the creative display of murder victims.

It's one thing to entertain audiences with a busy canvass of murder; it would have been much more interesting for Anamorph to also delve into the psyche of the artist creating the mayhem.






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Saturday 24 July 2010

Movie Review: Death Wish V: The Face Of Death (1994)


If he had a wish other than a death wish, Charles Bronson probably wished that, at 73 years old, he wouldn't be reprising the role of urban vigilante Paul Kersey for the fifth time. Twenty years after first creating the role in 1974, Bronson, in his final screen role, is back to clean up New York one last time.

This time Kersey take on an old-fashioned gang of Irish goons involved in money laundering and protection rackets. The gang leader Tommy O'Shea (Michael Parks, acting as though he's not sure how seriously to take this role) is the ex-husband of Kersey's new love interest, fashion designer Olivia Regent (Lesley-Anne Downe, finally finding the bottom of her career trajectory).

The fashion design angle is what was likely considered an innovative excuse to show Grade C models in various stage of backstage undress. Other than a high body count, the latter Death Wish movies also needed a high nipple count as essential plot elements. There is also a clothing factory where all sorts of dangerous machinery is left running and unattended in the middle of the night: bad business practice, but good to facilitate random torture scenes and innovative methods of murder.

Olivia Regent has clearly never watched any of the other four Death Wish movies, otherwise she would know that anyone getting close to Kersey ends up first mutilated and then very dead. Once that particular necessary piece of business is taken care of by O'Shea's gang, Kersey's latest killing spree is triggered, and he single-handedly eliminates, cleans-up, and mops after the bad guys. It's not clear what is more uncomfortable: watching a 73 year old Bronson trying his hand at romance; or the 73 year old Bronson initiating and enjoying a gory bloodfest.

All actors who ended up in this movie probably realized with certainty that they had a promising career very much behind them. Say hello to Robert Joy (Atlantic City and Ragtime) and Saul Rubinek (Wall Street and Unforgiven).

The film is produced by one of the kings of bad 1980's movies, Menahem Golan, and directed by Allan A. Goldstein, who is faithful to the lack of any talent that preceded him in the series. Death Wish V seems curiously stuck in a couple of wrong decades at once. The film desperately tries to recreate the New York of the 1970's; while the fashion and hairstyles seem to be left-overs from the 1980's. This all serves to emphasize what a pathetic effort this is, and what a dismal ending to Bronson's career.






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Friday 23 July 2010

Movie Review: The Uninvited (2009)


In a genre that rarely offers anything new, this adaptation of a South Korean film is refreshing. The Uninvited is successful at blending an attractive mix of psychological-driven suspense with some sprinklings of horror

Anna (Emily Browning), a young teenager, leaves the psyche ward and returns home 10 months after suffering a trauma due to a fire that killed her sick mother. She finds her Dad in a relationship with her dead mom's nurse Rachel (Elizabeth Banks). Anna and her older sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel) soon start to suspect that Rachel is a lot more sinister than she seems.

The Uninvited is helped by eminently watchable performances from Browning, Kebbel and Banks. All three are successful at portraying multi-dimensional women who are hiding something just slightly evil, either intentionally or not. Browning as the young teen struggling with her return home has the toughest assignment, and pulls it off. Particularly successful are scenes where her Anna comes face to face with pure evil: Anna demonstrates a combination of terror and courage that triumphantly avoids most cliches of the genre.

The Guard Brothers direct with an energetic sense of rhythm, keeping the tension steady while alternating between scenes of all-out horror and scenes of psychological suspense. And for the most part they keep the plot twists properly concealed.

In the mostly recycled world of horror movies, The Uninvited proves to be a most welcome guest.



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Sunday 18 July 2010

Movie Review: The Strangers (2008)


For a horror movie to work, adhering to certain principles can be helpful. The murder and mayhem can be quick and sudden, to create the "who, when and where next" slasher-type tension; or it can be excruciatingly drawn out, in which case the audience expects some delving into the reasons why the killers are taking their sweet time to get the job done.

Halfway through The Strangers, it becomes apparent that the movie is trying to get away with extending the prelude to murder for the entire length of the movie, with no intellectual pay-off. The three masked killers remain faceless, voiceless, and lacking in motive, in which case the only reason to prolong the killing is to toy with the moviegoers.

The film is simply not good enough for that. Essentially a series of cliched "what's that sound in this spooky isolated house" scenes, The Strangers bumps along offering very little that is new, as Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman attempt to fend off three masked intruders who seem capable of finishing their murderous handiwork at any instant, but are waiting for about 90 minutes to pass so that the union guys can get paid.

Liv Tyler goes through the movie wondering if she really gave up a modeling career for nonsense like this. Scott Speedman appears to be wondering when he can cash his cheque and move on to the next movie in his non-career. Bryan Bertino, directing from his script, first connects the dense dots and then paints by numbers to ensure that no old idea is left unrecycled.

The final proof of innovative bankruptcy arrives with yet another horror movie dead body coming suddenly and inexplicably alive in the last scene before fade-out. Guys, this was old in the 1980's.







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Saturday 17 July 2010

Movie Review: Dial M For Murder (1954)


In London, struggling professional tennis player Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) plots the perfect murder and an airtight alibi to get rid of his rich but cheating wife Margot (Grace Kelly). 

But while his plan seems ingenious, in practice everything unravels with unintended consequences. Chief Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) and Margot's lover Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings), a crime fiction writer, are soon trying to untangle a mess of a plot gone wrong.

Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of Frederick Knott's nimble play is both sure-footed and clever. Hitchcock keeps the tone, pacing and settings close to their stage roots, allowing the strength of the story, sharp dialogue and a confident cast to deliver a simple yet gripping film.

Ray Milland as the has-been tennis star husband is effectively slimy and sinister as he conjures up two plots against his wife: the first he planned for years; the second he has to develop in minutes. Grace Kelly does well as the seemingly innocent wife-with-a-lover who is suddenly confronted with death twice over. And John Williams is most watchable as Chief Inspector Hubbard, who uses his wits and old-fashioned detective work to piece together a plot involving a planned yet bungled murder, an unintended victim, apparent blackmail, and infidelity.

Hitchcock delivers thrills, tension and a battle of wits in an economical 105 minutes, and deploys ever-interesting camera angles to wring suspense out of simple settings.

Evil intentions make the call, but Dial M For Murder still gets the right number.






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Sunday 11 July 2010

Movie Review: My Bloody Valentine (2009)


It is not common for cheap slasher films to bother with issues such as love triangles and personality disorders, so let's give My Bloody Valentine some credit for at least trying to be a bit different. However, the small sparks of originality are buried under a sludge of uninspired cliches painfully extracted from the bottom of the horror movie barrel.

In the small mining town of Harmony, Sarah (Jaime King) is the center of attention for both her husband Axel (Kerr Smith) and returning old-flame Tom (Jensen Ackles), who is back in town to close the family-owned mine. Ten year earlier, a murderer dressed as a menacing miner slashed his way through town, with Sarah, Axel and Tom among the survivors.

Now the the bodies start piling up once more as the killer miner terrorizes the community; Tom falls for Sarah all over again but is also haunted by his abandonment of the town ten years ago; the residents want to run Tom out of town rather than let him close the mine; and Axel just wants him gone to stop Sarah from lusting after her old lover.

As directed by Patrick Lussier, My Bloody Valentine is a mostly witless exercise with events that make no sense; characters showing up at various locations with little regard for the laws of time and space; and some really quick wardrobe changes designed with the sole purpose of confusing the audience. The film offers precious little that is not borrowed or adapted from countless other similar and better slasher flicks.

This 2009 version of the original 1981 effort was a 3D release in its short theatre run, so it's full of axes and gore being unnecessarily flung at the cameras in pathetic admission that the movie itself is of little value. At least the filmmakers got that part right.







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Saturday 10 July 2010

Movie Review: The Maltese Falcon (1941)


Dashiell Hammett's book reads like a screenplay, and director John Huston knew better than to tamper with brilliance. This movie version of The Maltese Falcon is a skillfully faithful adaptation of the story featuring a colourful group of ruthless back-stabbing crooks in pursuit of a precious treasure.

Detective Sam Spade finds himself in the middle of the muddle, and has to sort through the mess while keeping himself off the growing list of murder victims.

The strengths of the book are effectively translated to the screen. In a star-making role, Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade defines the 1940's private detective role, all cool under increasing pressure, manipulating diverse characters and cascading events to his advantage despite a shortage of complete information and an even more disadvantageous shortage of guns.

The core of the film is Spade matching wits with Kasper Gutman. Sydney Greenstreet creates one of the most memorable villains of the screen, a combination of faux-intellect, cold-blooded evil, and a really large stomach. Surrounding, complementing, and counterbalancing Greenstreet are the effeminate Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and the too-tough-for-his-own-good Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr.). They both add immeasurable depth to the texture of the film.

The weak spot of the movie, much as in the book, is Mary Astor as Brigid O'Shaughnessy. Astor, with her weird hair style and wide open eyes, cannot bring any depth or darkness to the unconvincing O'Shaughnessy as created by Hammett, and is simply not believable neither as a villainess nor as a seductress.

With a lot of the actual action and murder happening off-screen, and most of the character interaction taking place indoors and through sharp conversation, John Huston creates tightning tension and dynamic movement with his camera angles and framing. There is menace, danger and hidden intent behind every line of dialogue, and Huston, working from his own script, captures it all perfectly.

The Maltese Falcon movie, much like the bird at the centre of everyone's attention, is indeed the stuff that dreams are made of.






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Wednesday 7 July 2010

Movie Review: Everybody's All-American (1988)


Everybody's All-American tries hard to be an epic love story between life-long soul-mates Gavin Grey (Dennis Quaid) and Babs Rogers (Jessica Lange). As suggested by its clumsy title, it succeeds only partially, mainly because there is a gaping hole where the foundations of the love story should have been established. The movie skips over any early defining moments that glue the two characters together. As a result, the emotional impacts of the struggles, fights, and reconciliations that rock their relationship are significantly weakened.

Football player Gavin "The Grey Ghost" Grey is a college star who leads Louisiana State University to a legendary Sugar Bowl victory in the 1950's. His professional career with the Washington Redskins through the 1960's is a bit less glamorous, and he encounters personal tragedy with the murder of his college friend and team-mate; financial woes; and ups-and-downs in his marriage to his college sweetheart Babs.

The story of Gavin and Babs, much like the movie, generally hums along in third gear. Everybody's All-American never risks a truly horrible moment thanks to the talent involved, and yet rarely strikes any truly memorable high notes.

Dennis Quaid goes through 25 years as Gavin Grey without much alternation to his physical appearance, except for some belly fat in later years. He provides two modes for Gavin: the charming, self-effacing hero or the half-drunk somewhat angry husband.

Jessica Lange does better as Babs, and works her character's struggle between proper Southern manners and bold real-world ambition quite well. She conclusively earns her top billing in the movie.

Timothy Hutton is along for the ride as Gavin's nephew and awkward third point in a clumsy love triangle -- his main purpose appears to be announcing the changing years with new hair styles and facial hair, since Gavin obviously kept the same barber for 25 years.

There is an interesting but poorly developed sub-plot involving the character of Narvel Blue (Carl Lumbly), a black friend of Gavin's who gets involved in the Civil Rights movement. For all their good intentions, the scenes involving Blue seem to belong to a whole different movie, perhaps starring Sidney Poitier.

Taylor Hackford directs Thomas Rickman's script from Frank Deford's novel with a split focus on attempting to recreate either the grand romance of his classic An Officer And A Gentleman (1982) or the turmoil of his flawed Against All Odds (1984). He misses both targets, of course, but while Everybody's All-American is never remarkable, it is certainly watchable.






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Saturday 3 July 2010

Movie Review: The Big Sleep (1946)


Creating a coherent movie out of a brilliant but almost incomprehensible Raymond Chandler book must have seemed like a daunting task. Howard Hawks wisely decided to focus instead on creating an extraordinary mood, and allow his stars to shine brightly enough so that the plot does not matter; he succeeded perfectly.


The Big Sleep is a classic and genre-defining detective movie, filled with unforgettable characters, stellar performances from Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and a simmering tension garnished with sharp dialogue. It's expertly directed by Hawks to capture the spirit of Chandler's universe, where every character except detective Philip Marlow is desperate, dark, evil or all three.

This is a story where everyone is plotting to take advantage of everyone else, and once one murder is committed, the dominoes tumble: scores are settled in a prompt manner, one bad deed deserves another, and criminals from the seedy to the respectable reach for the gun. In the middle of it all is an old man losing control of his daughters, and a private detective who decides that the old man deserves better and at least one daughter deserves to be wooed.

Bogart was born to play Philip Marlow, a private detective cruising through the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, side-stepping an ever-growing pile of dead bodies prompted by a most convoluted blackmail, pornography and gambling plot swirling around the family of the elderly and sick General Sternwood. The General's two daughters, the sultry Vivian (Bacall) and child-like Carmen (Martha Vickers) are at the centre of the unfolding chaos, but they seem to be more interested in seducing rather than helping Marlowe. Vivian's role is expanded from the book to give Bacall more scenes with Bogart, and since it's impossible to follow the story anyway, it works.

The scenes between Bogart and Bacall carry an edgy magic, as she tries to protect the family secret and he wisely disbelieves every word coming out of her mouth. Martha Vickers contributes the dynamite sexuality of a spoiled brat craving attention away from her father's millions. The emergence of the Bogart and Bacall chemistry meant that Hawks focussed on Bacall; otherwise, it was Vickers who was supposed to be the rising new star.

Hawks re-creates Chandler's Los Angeles as appropriately overflowing with fog, smoke, seedy characters, tough guys, guns, and beautiful but dangerous women. He does not exclude anything or anyone from the book: the slick gambling king Eddie Mars and his henchman Lash Canino; the small-time blackmailer Joe Brody, the smaller-time hustler Harry Jones and the desperate dame Agnes; the pornographer Geiger, the butler Norris, and a wild assortment of secondary characters including killer chauffeurs; seducing bookstore clerks (Dorothy Malone in a small but unforgettable role); clueless cops; and shady car mechanics.

They are all here for anyone who wishes to try and untangle the plot. But it's much more fun to just sit back, surrender, and enjoy the magic of Bogart, Bacall and the movie's sinister, dark, and magnificently dangerous soul.






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