dandan's blog: July 2009

lucky number slevin

i bet it was that mouth that got you that nose...

slevin kelevra (josh hartnett) arrives at his friend nick's apartment to find him out of town. after a nice visit from, neighbour, lindsay (lucy liu, some less pleasant visitors call round and drag him off to see the boss (morgan freeman); no, not bruce, but the head of a criminal gang, who thinks slevin is nick and wants him to pay off debt by killing the rabbi's (ben kingsley) son. no sooner has slevin arrived back at nick's, when two of the rabbi's men turn up and drag him off to see their boss; needless to say, nick owes him money and he wants it back. quite a predicament...

first things first. i don't think that i've ever seen a film which has spent so much of its budget on wall coverings. lucy liu looks cute in a nice bit of knitwear.

right, now for the rest. this is a bad film. a sub-tarantino affair, where 90% of the narrative and dialogue is just terrible. there are no real surprises; in fact, as the opening scene ended, a fellow viewer commented that "everyone is dead", to which my response was "everyone apart from the little kid, who is going to grow up to be josh hartnett and take revenge". which, is what happens; if the director or script writer thought that this would come as a surprise for their audience, then i guess they don't give them much credit. actually, thinking about the rest of the film, they clearly don't...

besides the general crapness, director paul mcguigan has chosen to bookend every scene with aerial, time-lapse and digitally filtered shots of new york, and tried to add style visual flair to flashbacks and exposition sequences, of which around 90% are just unnecessary dressing.

so, apart from lucy liu, some nice wallpaper, a couple of funny lines and couple of nice shots of new york, there's not really that much on offer.

a bit pooh...

the dvd is £2.99 from play.com

k-20

the fiend with twenty faces...

the text which opens the movie sets the scene pretty well, so i shall borrow it...

"attention, this is a special news bulletin. the headquarters of the imperial army and navy has announced on this day of december 8th at 6am that a peace treaty has been signed with u.s. and u.k. forces. the onset of world war has been avoided.

a past where world war II never happened...

the 'new nobility' established in the 19th century continues today. this has created an extreme divide between the upper and lower classes. changing occupations is forbidden. people may not fall in love freely and must marry within their class.

a phantom thief known as k-20 or the fiend (kaijin) with 20 faces has gripped society by stealing priceless objects from the rich.

japan, 1949, teito - the imperial capital"

and so, famed detective akechi (toru nakamura) is on the case, trying to track down the aforementioned thief, who taunts akechi by telling him where he will strike next: in this case, at the formal ceremony, announcing the engagement of akechi and, society princess, yoko hashiba (takako matsu). meanwhile, on the other side of the tracks, the naive, yet talented, circus performer, heikichi endo (takeshi kaneshiro), is employed by a tabloid to take covert photographs of the event. however, when the camera that heikichi has been given turns out to be the trigger for a bomb, he is captured and charged with being k-20! how will he clear his name and what is the real k-20 up to?

well, that was fun: the film is a nice mixture of steam(or should that be tesla?)-punk, sherlock homes, lupin, masked-villains, noble crime fighters, family secrets and dashing heroes. plus, there's an annoying little kid...

there's nothing really new or special about 'k-20' which, for me, is where the appeal lies; there's no post-modern ironic twist or knowing, self-deprecating gags, just a solid slice of adventure, with drama and a touch of romance thrown in for good measure. and, clocking in at two and a quarter hours, director shimako sato manages to blend these elements together, throwing in more adventure or an action set-piece, whenever the pace of the film threatens to drop.

kaneshiro, matsu and nakamura, make for a trio of solid leads, but find themselves on equal par with the design of the film. sure, some of the cgi isn't brilliant, but it is always passable and the look of teito, of houses, offices and the costume design are all top notch.

good stuff...

the dvd is hk$102 from buyoyo.com

beer wars

america's beverage...

anat baron makes a documentary about beer. well, beer in america. you're probably thinking; 'what do american's know about beer? american beer sucks' etc etc. and, if you were referring to anheuser-busch, miller or coors, then you'd be right. but, and it's a little but, almost half of the 8% of beer which is drunk in america, which isn't brewed by the aforementioned corporate giants, is being made by small, independent, craft breweries.

baron, whilst delivering a potted history of beer in america, an analysis of the three tier system and generally chatting about beer, focusses on the micro breweries and those people who are passionately struggling to bring better beer to the u.s. of a. concentrating on sam, the head of the dogfish head brewery (a success story for craft brewing), and rhonda, who is struggling to get a foot hold in the market with 'moon shot', a caffeinated beer.

the result is a very entertaining documentary; there's a nice cocktail of shaking one's head at corporate greed and crazy legislation, which essentially maintains the power of the big three, whilst nodding along the small time brewers who seem to be driven by a love of good beer, above anything else.

good stuff...

the dvd is currently only available at beerwarsmovie.com and is $19.95, but will be available through other retailers next year.

miao miao

who doesn't love cake?

ai (sandrine pinna) is a high school student who lives with her father (?) and really likes cake, despite the fact that her attempts at baking are usually very poor. when she meets miao miao (ke jia-yan), an exchange student from japan, the two start to become friends; when miao miao reveals her baking prowess, the friendship is cemented.

one day, after school, when miao miao sets out to find a cake shop, but finds a music shop in its place. when she enters, she hears a song her grandmother used to sing her and, after a couple more visits, finds herself attracted to the shop's owner, chen fei (fan wing); despite the fact he's a touch moody and seems incapable of removing his headphones...

this is, in some ways, a strange little film; it manages to be quite sweet, cutesy even, but also kind of bleak and depressing, despite the tone of the film erring toward the former. this probably makes the film appear more light-weight than it actually is. one cold say that it's a sub-shunji iwai tale of friendship, unrequited love and the difficulties people have expressing themselves; with the three central characters all having a really hard time of communicating and accepting how they feel about the people they fall in love with.

it's not a great film, but it was certainly an enjoyable watch and i did like it. oh, and sandrine pinna is rather cute.

i'm off to eat cake...

the dvd is hk$91 from buyoyo.com

moon

nine-hundred and thirty-eight. approximately...

sam bell (sam rockwell) is approaching the end of a three year contract and is looking forward to going home. that's not really surprising, considering that he's been stationed on the moon, with his only company for the last two years and fifty weeks being gerty (voiced by kevin spacey), his station's computer. the isolation seems to have been getting to sam, and he begins to feel that going home in two weeks time may not be as simple as it seems...

that's pretty much all i knew about the film when i went to see it, barring the fact it was directed by zowie bowie, sorry; duncan jones. and, that's all i'd suggest that anyone knows when they head to see it. knowing more won't ruin the film for you, but i'm pretty sure a first viewing, with minimal knowledge of the narrative, is much more enjoyable than having an idea of where the film is going. that's not to say that there are huge twists or radical plot points, of which any knowledge will be detrimental, but getting in to the easy pace of the film and allowing the gentle unfolding of events to happen before you, is a pretty pleasant experience. that's all i'll say...

the film is, in essence, a drama, tinged with science fiction. as you may have guessed, i'm not too keen on discussing plot points, but i shall say that i really enjoyed the way that jones handled this film. sure, it's far from perfect and there are some questionable elements here and there, but the fact that not every gap is filled and the audience is encouraged to think about the world beyond the film is, in my mind, a very good thing.

speaking of very good things... sam rockwell. mr rockwell is an actor who i always enjoy watching, but he's usually found in supporting, character driven roles: here, he's pretty much in every frame of film, and that's nothing but a good thing. kevin spacey, who is not someone i find particularly watchable, contributes the voice of the computer, and he does it very well.

which leads me seamlessly into saying just how much i enjoyed the production design on this film. the station where sam is based, the use of gerty's emoticons, the miniatures used on the moon's surface, the costumes and all of the films other visual aspects are rather ace. i read that the writer's strike meant that a lot of the talent at shepperton were going through a pretty dry spell, so jones was able to bring in some top notch people for a pittance. good work...

any hoo, a very enjoyable watch...

the film is currently on general release.

x-men origins : wolverine

nice stick...

logan (hugh jackman) and his brother victor (liev schreiber) are mutants. yep, right weirdos who heal after being wounded, plus logan has big sharp bones which appear from his hands, whilst victor can make his fingernails grow into claws. ooh. after fighting wars and killing and maiming, the brothers end up in prison, only to be rescued by stryker (danny huston) who adds them to his team of mutants who travel around the world killing people. logan soon tires of the killing, but when victor kills his girlfriend (lynn collins), he takes stryker up on his offer of help.

as if by magic, and lots of adamantium, logan is transformed into wolverine - grrr! however, when it is revealed that stryker was just using logan as a test case and that he's actually going to kill him, wolverine goes wild and escapes. time to find victor and get revenge.

oh. my. god. this has to be the shittiest film i've seen for ages. it has almost no redeeming features, at all. when an all to brief appearance by dominic monaghan is the highlight of the film, you know something is rotten. on the whole, the cast, the script, production design and the special effects are all dreadful. the film takes itself far too seriously, with jackman's brooding 'oh, look at me, i'm an animal' moaning, and any injection of comic relief is so forced and lame, that it makes you wish that you had your own adamantium claws to ram through your own skull, just to make it stop.

the action sequences and special effects are almost totally uninspiring, at best, and just crap on the whole. lots of people should hang their heads in shame for actually helping this film arrive on the silver screen. and, i'm not even a fan of the 'x-men' comic books - if i was, i'd imagine i'd be reduced to a puddle of rage.

avoid, avoid, avoid.

the dvd will be £12.99 from hmv.com

hamlet 2

what's "fisted"?

the dvd is £9.99 from hmv.com

miracle mile

i had an uncle named chett...

the dvd is $9.47 from dvdpacific.com

sense and sensibility

if you cannot think of anything appropriate to say you will please restrict your remarks to the weather...

the dvd is £3.99 from play.com

the butcher

you're a man with a degree in the science of violence....

the dvd can be picked up for around €10 from amazon.de

land of the lost

the size of a walnut....

the film is currently on general release.

final justice

thunderbolt vanguard...

cheung (danny lee) is a maverick cop, who doesn't play by the rules and gets right up the noses of his superiors. boy (stephen chow) is a car thief and occasional driver for triad types; in particular judge (shing fui-on). after being arrested by cheung, a car that boy had been driving ends up being involved in a mass shootout at an illegal casino. now boy has to trust cheung to crack the case, or he'll find it pinned on him...

a reasonable, by the numbers affair, with danny lee playing the role which he always plays in his police procedurals, set against a dramatic performance from chow, who does a good job. there's plenty of cliched scenes of the hard boiled cop fighting his ignorant boss, and some more interesting scenes of the criminal whose trust he has to gain. there's a couple of action sequences, all of a decent standard, but nothing really great.

an average film, made better by lee and chow.

the dvd is hk$35 from buyoyo.com