Chan-Wook Park's Latest (Managed To Find A Cinema Playing This, Never Had Time To Review It!) +More!
Review of Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Best thing: Kong is admittedly a film that relies on its action sequences. My favourite is probably the initial confrontation between Kong and the attack helicopters. What better way to show the distinction between traditional Kong and this super-sized behemoth than to have him take out far more threatening craft than those that knocked Kong off the Empire State Building and to have him handle them so easily.
Worst thing: I know you wanted John C. Reilly for the role. I get that. But how do you possibly explain him putting on that much weight when he's stranded on an island? And even if we imagine that he's found some kind of ultra sugary fruit and simply overindulged over the years, why would he resize his army uniform rather than wearing clothes like the tribe he is living with?
Kong: Skull Island is a solid action film with some great visual touches. There isn't much of a plot, but the film is still consistently fun.
The original King Kong is a classic that has been remade way too many times already, but Kong: Skull Island isn't just a repeat of the same old story. In fact Kong is barely even the same character. He's as big as a blooming skyscraper! If he tried to climb the Empire State Building it would collapse!
Sure Kong is silly, but my goodness is it a lot of fun. The characters successfully pulled me in. This isn't a top pick for the year, but it is a satisfying watch and a lot better than I'd been expecting.
B+
Review of The Unknown Girl (2016)
Best thing: I think the sheer ballsiness of the protagonist is probably the best thing. I spent the film asking myself why she keeps putting herself at risk, but I never found it hard to believe that this character WOULD do those things. The protagonist has a very consistent and uncompromising drive for some kind of personal redemption, driven out of proportion by her own feelings of guilt.
Worst thing: This isn't what I'd call a particularly exciting film. It's interesting, sure, but I didn't get a lot of catharsis out of this personally.
The Unknown Girl doesn't have spaceships, it doesn't have gore, and it doesn't have character's shouting dramatically and while the camera gives us a closeup of the lines on their face.
The Unknown Girl has its dramatic moments but it doesn't play them up. It's quite naturalistic. I actually feel naturalism in film is a bit of a dirty word. I can't say that I really like the decision not to emphasise the drama, but I do appreciate the tense moments a great deal.
I can't much relate to the protagonist's decisions, but I do find it interesting. Even as a film that I'd say wasn't really my thing, I must say this was a pretty interesting little drama
B-
Review of Lucy (2014)
Best thing: The visuals are exciting and beautiful. I've heard it said that Lucy becomes way too powerful for the film to have any stakes. But actually I think the visuals are so cool that I was not worried about how unlikely it was for Lucy to be defeated.
Worst thing: Naturally the whole premise that we don't use more than 10% of our brain is nonsense and the claims about what would happen if we used more are therefore even dumber. Nevertheless the idea of a woman who is able to reach abilities beyond the reach of the average human being makes for an interesting concept and the way that unfolds almost compensates for the dumb explanation behind it. What I actually find to be the worst thing is the way Min-Sik Choi is completely wasted as the villain here.
Luc Besson is a director I generally find pretty solid. The first Besson film I saw was Leon which is one of my all-time favourite films. He followed that up with The Fifth Element which is a fun sci-fi adventure (also seemingly taking some inspiration from Blade Runner). After that he released his action movie about the life of Joan of Arc, titled The Messenger, which I found incredibly underrated. After a gap Besson released Angel-A which convinced me that Besson must have really lost his edge, but then I was really impressed by Adele Blanc-Sec. Besson then released The Family which I thought was fine, which brings us to Besson's sci-fi action movie Lucy.
On the basis of the trailer, I was convinced I would hate Lucy. Frankly, even in context, the concept came across as dumb as expected, and even Morgan Freeman's authoritative tone couldn't give it credibility.
What kept me on board, however, was the exciting visuals from Besson. As silly and hollow as the plot might be, Besson does a great job depicting Johannson as a woman losing her connection to humanity as she becomes ever more god-like, transcending our ordinary perspectives on time and space.
I've heard it argued that Johansson's character has too much power for the baddies to be a serious threat. My issue though is that the baddies simply aren't relevant to the story. We never know enough about them to justify their sub-plot.
Perhaps the idea is to contrast petty violence with perfect wisdom, but considering that your villains have wherewithall to create intelligence-boosting super drugs, not to mention their willingness to engage in a full fledged gun battle with the police even when it looks like the jig is up, they seem to be beyond the typical comment on the vulgarity of human nature.
In the end the visuals are used to try to make it look like this film has something to say, but it isn't quite enough to make up for the fact that the plot is dumb as hell.
Luc Besson has an excellent grasp of cinematic catharsis and is able to build up emotional response in a way that, for example, George Lucas' Star Wars prequels completely lacked. I feel like Luc Besson had higher ideals for what he wanted to convey with this premise than the lazy pseudo-intellectual script could really support. The visuals in Lucy are actually smarter than the dialogue.
There's more potential here than I would have expected, but I still can't recommend it. But this still has a bit of the Luc Besson magic.
C-
Review of The Void (2016)
Best thing: The Void is a wonderful Lovecraftian nightmare-scape reminiscent of Lucio Fulci's The Beyond and John Carpenter's In The Mouth of Madness, among many others. It's not just the visuals but also the incredible oppressive atmosphere they invoke that makes this so thrilling.
Worst thing: Somehow The Beyond could have no plot and yet it didn't matter. For me, The Void doesn't manage to reach that same level. I was very aware that The Void features a few fairly thin characters and pretty much no plot
Wow.
Okay so the central couple are the least interesting characters, but the supporting characters occasionally get some great moments. Particularly when Ellen Wong forces us to consider, would you try to perform a caesarian if you had almost no idea what you were doing but were both the mother and unborn child's only hope for survival?
There are some deliciously evil characters, some hood wearing creepy henchmen, and some characters a little more informed on the situation who gave up on conflicted emotions and ethical qualms several hours ago.
The effects are creepy, gruesome and spectacular. I wish the filmmakers would linger a bit more on the special effects model-work here but we still get great monster effects all the same.
I also absolutely love the glimpses of the world inside the void. It's another source of spectacular visuals that really build up the nightmarish Fulci-esque atmosphere.
Style over substance? Yeah probably. But this is a horror film with some serious style.
A-
Review of Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
Best thing: The young actress, Lulu Wilson, does a great possessed girl act and the scenes where she gets to be evil are a lot of fun.
Worst thing: This is a film that loses its way in the third act. There's a bit of a mystery, but the resolution felt incredibly contrived to me.
In the first half there was a cool period-specific horror piece and I loved how it set up the family. The best possession effects are generally in the first half and if you've seen the trailer you've seen the best bits. Still, the way those elements play out is a lot of fun.
But in the second half where they start trying to give the ghosts a backstory, that's where the film fell down for me. Plots about helping ghosts or resolving a ghost's unfinished business often fall flat for me.
I fully accept that I am biased against ghost stories (though not necessarily possession stories, so this wasn't a foregone conclusion), but for me, having really enjoyed the first half, this final act was a mess.
C+
Review of Silence (2016)
Best thing: The scene where Andrew Garfield finally meets up with Liam Neeson is really interesting.
Worst thing: In all the arguments with the Japanese authorities couldn't there have been a little more mention of how immoral it is to slaughter innocent people? I know Christendom wouldn't shy away from violence to establish themselves, but I still don't understand why that line of argument isn't more prominent.
Adam Driver, Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson in a film from director Martin Scorcese with positive buzz? Clearly I had to check it out. 99 Homes had me really excited to check out Andrew Garfield's post-Spider-Man work and I was even more excited when I heard that Andrew Garfield is quite clearly the central protagonist here.
I have to admit that, as you'd expect, this is a very well made film. The acting is great, the film is shot very well and the film is consistently tense.
My issue was that after a while I felt I lost the point of it. Silence hammers home how horrible the situation is. I understand that the film takes a different direction in the third act, but that was perhaps the most confusing part.
I like that Silence has an ambiguous ending and goodness knows that this film is thought provoking. But, for me, Silence is too slow and grim for me to really love. I can still recommend it all the same, just as long as you know what you are letting yourself in for.
B-
Review of The Handmaiden (2016)
Best thing: There is a scene where a character 'demonstrates' a sexual position for an audience. It is a shocking moment and also marked an unexpected shift in tone for the film.
Worst thing: Though it is possible that actual lesbians may say that this is a tasteful depiction of a believeable lesbian relationship, I must say, I'd be surprised. I haven't asked any at this stage. In the first half I thought the film was being pretty tasteful, holding back from going too gratuitous. By the second half it was clear that the film would be showing no restraint at all. (Not that anyone goes to a Chan-Wook Park film expecting restraint, if they have any sense.)
The Handmaiden is a visually spectacular costume drama with a mystery unfolding in a very compelling way. It's a 'dangerous liasons'-esque plot involving a woman being seduced and taken in marriage.
Our protagonist has been sent to try to set things up behind the scenes. She's a practised thief and goes in knowing full well that the plan is to cheat a young woman out of her fortune.
There are some pretty gratuitous erotic scenes, but the intention of the filmmaker is clearly that they should be respectful of the characters involved. Naturally since this is a Chan-Wook Park movie, we also get gratuitous violence and some of that is absolutely awesome.
Is there inconsistency in that the villains are a bunch of pervy men when the film is quite clearly going to have much that would appeal to pervy men? I'd like to think not. There is a clear division made between the perversions of the men and the loving relationship on the other.
Chan-Wook Park really seems to have honed his craft now. I wasn't a fan of Thirst or I'm A Cyborg and thought those were rather messy and tonally confused. But both The Handmaiden and Stoker are utterly brilliant and I'm now completely back on board as a Park fan.
A+
Review of Scrooged (1988)
Best thing: There are some fantastic touches in this film. My favourite is probably the ghost of his old boss. This scene involves some amazing effects as he turns up still drinking and smoking in a body that is falling apart.
Worst thing: In some parts of the scenes with the ghost of Christmas present, she was annoying as hell.
I was a bit frightened to revisit Scrooged because I don't remember it being all that special, but I do remember enjoying it.
Thankfully Scrooged holds up much better than I expected. Bill Murray's comic ability makes this film what it is.
Bill Murray plays a television producer who exhibits the narcissism that Murray's characters so often possess. Murray has had a busy day. He fires an underling just before Christmas for raising a concern. He sends various people towels for Christmas. However the big event was releasing a trailer for the studio's adaptation of A Christmas Carol that pretends it is a high-octane action thriller. With all that done, an old boss comes back from the dead warning him to change his ways and advising Murray to expect a visit from three Christmas ghosts.
The appearance by Murray's boss is actually one of my favourite scenes in the movie. He's drinking even though it escapes from holes in his body even while he's drinking. It looks like the man's body is a dried up husk that could easily fall apart, even while he's casually chatting to Bill Murray with the bravado of a high flying businessman.
The ghost of Christmas past as a taxi driver is pretty cool. The woman in a fairy outfit as the ghost of Christmas present was pretty irritating, particularly with her high pitched voice and the prevalence of slapstick in her scenes.
The humour isn't always consistent, but it's still a lot more consistent than I feared. The finale is a bit too talky. Quite often films seem to struggle to work out how they should wrap everything up, but I'm not sure they needed to stretch out the final segment for that long because that's a long section where Murray is not really so funny as in the bulk of the movie.
Remarkably solid Murray comedy. Not up there with Groundhog Day or Quick Change, but pretty great nonetheless.
B+
Review of Wrong Turn At Tahoe (2009)
Best thing: The initial meeting between thve two protagonists and the criminal kingpin played by Harvey Keitel is intense and kind of classy.
Worst thing: The final twist is incredibly lame and completely unearned.
Another film from director Franck Khalfoun who worked with writer/director Alexandre Aja on some of his other projects like Maniac and P2. There are good aspects and Harvey Keitel brings a lot of class, but in the end this is all a bit predictable.
Not exactly bad, but really not great. All hell breaks loose in the second half in a way that is quite fun, but personally I didn't think the final twist made much sense.
C-
Best thing: Kong is admittedly a film that relies on its action sequences. My favourite is probably the initial confrontation between Kong and the attack helicopters. What better way to show the distinction between traditional Kong and this super-sized behemoth than to have him take out far more threatening craft than those that knocked Kong off the Empire State Building and to have him handle them so easily.
Worst thing: I know you wanted John C. Reilly for the role. I get that. But how do you possibly explain him putting on that much weight when he's stranded on an island? And even if we imagine that he's found some kind of ultra sugary fruit and simply overindulged over the years, why would he resize his army uniform rather than wearing clothes like the tribe he is living with?
Kong: Skull Island is a solid action film with some great visual touches. There isn't much of a plot, but the film is still consistently fun.
The original King Kong is a classic that has been remade way too many times already, but Kong: Skull Island isn't just a repeat of the same old story. In fact Kong is barely even the same character. He's as big as a blooming skyscraper! If he tried to climb the Empire State Building it would collapse!
Sure Kong is silly, but my goodness is it a lot of fun. The characters successfully pulled me in. This isn't a top pick for the year, but it is a satisfying watch and a lot better than I'd been expecting.
B+
Review of The Unknown Girl (2016)
Best thing: I think the sheer ballsiness of the protagonist is probably the best thing. I spent the film asking myself why she keeps putting herself at risk, but I never found it hard to believe that this character WOULD do those things. The protagonist has a very consistent and uncompromising drive for some kind of personal redemption, driven out of proportion by her own feelings of guilt.
Worst thing: This isn't what I'd call a particularly exciting film. It's interesting, sure, but I didn't get a lot of catharsis out of this personally.
The Unknown Girl doesn't have spaceships, it doesn't have gore, and it doesn't have character's shouting dramatically and while the camera gives us a closeup of the lines on their face.
The Unknown Girl has its dramatic moments but it doesn't play them up. It's quite naturalistic. I actually feel naturalism in film is a bit of a dirty word. I can't say that I really like the decision not to emphasise the drama, but I do appreciate the tense moments a great deal.
I can't much relate to the protagonist's decisions, but I do find it interesting. Even as a film that I'd say wasn't really my thing, I must say this was a pretty interesting little drama
B-
Review of Lucy (2014)
Best thing: The visuals are exciting and beautiful. I've heard it said that Lucy becomes way too powerful for the film to have any stakes. But actually I think the visuals are so cool that I was not worried about how unlikely it was for Lucy to be defeated.
Worst thing: Naturally the whole premise that we don't use more than 10% of our brain is nonsense and the claims about what would happen if we used more are therefore even dumber. Nevertheless the idea of a woman who is able to reach abilities beyond the reach of the average human being makes for an interesting concept and the way that unfolds almost compensates for the dumb explanation behind it. What I actually find to be the worst thing is the way Min-Sik Choi is completely wasted as the villain here.
Luc Besson is a director I generally find pretty solid. The first Besson film I saw was Leon which is one of my all-time favourite films. He followed that up with The Fifth Element which is a fun sci-fi adventure (also seemingly taking some inspiration from Blade Runner). After that he released his action movie about the life of Joan of Arc, titled The Messenger, which I found incredibly underrated. After a gap Besson released Angel-A which convinced me that Besson must have really lost his edge, but then I was really impressed by Adele Blanc-Sec. Besson then released The Family which I thought was fine, which brings us to Besson's sci-fi action movie Lucy.
On the basis of the trailer, I was convinced I would hate Lucy. Frankly, even in context, the concept came across as dumb as expected, and even Morgan Freeman's authoritative tone couldn't give it credibility.
What kept me on board, however, was the exciting visuals from Besson. As silly and hollow as the plot might be, Besson does a great job depicting Johannson as a woman losing her connection to humanity as she becomes ever more god-like, transcending our ordinary perspectives on time and space.
I've heard it argued that Johansson's character has too much power for the baddies to be a serious threat. My issue though is that the baddies simply aren't relevant to the story. We never know enough about them to justify their sub-plot.
Perhaps the idea is to contrast petty violence with perfect wisdom, but considering that your villains have wherewithall to create intelligence-boosting super drugs, not to mention their willingness to engage in a full fledged gun battle with the police even when it looks like the jig is up, they seem to be beyond the typical comment on the vulgarity of human nature.
In the end the visuals are used to try to make it look like this film has something to say, but it isn't quite enough to make up for the fact that the plot is dumb as hell.
Luc Besson has an excellent grasp of cinematic catharsis and is able to build up emotional response in a way that, for example, George Lucas' Star Wars prequels completely lacked. I feel like Luc Besson had higher ideals for what he wanted to convey with this premise than the lazy pseudo-intellectual script could really support. The visuals in Lucy are actually smarter than the dialogue.
There's more potential here than I would have expected, but I still can't recommend it. But this still has a bit of the Luc Besson magic.
C-
Review of The Void (2016)
Best thing: The Void is a wonderful Lovecraftian nightmare-scape reminiscent of Lucio Fulci's The Beyond and John Carpenter's In The Mouth of Madness, among many others. It's not just the visuals but also the incredible oppressive atmosphere they invoke that makes this so thrilling.
Worst thing: Somehow The Beyond could have no plot and yet it didn't matter. For me, The Void doesn't manage to reach that same level. I was very aware that The Void features a few fairly thin characters and pretty much no plot
Wow.
Okay so the central couple are the least interesting characters, but the supporting characters occasionally get some great moments. Particularly when Ellen Wong forces us to consider, would you try to perform a caesarian if you had almost no idea what you were doing but were both the mother and unborn child's only hope for survival?
There are some deliciously evil characters, some hood wearing creepy henchmen, and some characters a little more informed on the situation who gave up on conflicted emotions and ethical qualms several hours ago.
The effects are creepy, gruesome and spectacular. I wish the filmmakers would linger a bit more on the special effects model-work here but we still get great monster effects all the same.
I also absolutely love the glimpses of the world inside the void. It's another source of spectacular visuals that really build up the nightmarish Fulci-esque atmosphere.
Style over substance? Yeah probably. But this is a horror film with some serious style.
A-
Review of Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
Best thing: The young actress, Lulu Wilson, does a great possessed girl act and the scenes where she gets to be evil are a lot of fun.
Worst thing: This is a film that loses its way in the third act. There's a bit of a mystery, but the resolution felt incredibly contrived to me.
In the first half there was a cool period-specific horror piece and I loved how it set up the family. The best possession effects are generally in the first half and if you've seen the trailer you've seen the best bits. Still, the way those elements play out is a lot of fun.
But in the second half where they start trying to give the ghosts a backstory, that's where the film fell down for me. Plots about helping ghosts or resolving a ghost's unfinished business often fall flat for me.
I fully accept that I am biased against ghost stories (though not necessarily possession stories, so this wasn't a foregone conclusion), but for me, having really enjoyed the first half, this final act was a mess.
C+
Review of Silence (2016)
Best thing: The scene where Andrew Garfield finally meets up with Liam Neeson is really interesting.
Worst thing: In all the arguments with the Japanese authorities couldn't there have been a little more mention of how immoral it is to slaughter innocent people? I know Christendom wouldn't shy away from violence to establish themselves, but I still don't understand why that line of argument isn't more prominent.
Adam Driver, Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson in a film from director Martin Scorcese with positive buzz? Clearly I had to check it out. 99 Homes had me really excited to check out Andrew Garfield's post-Spider-Man work and I was even more excited when I heard that Andrew Garfield is quite clearly the central protagonist here.
I have to admit that, as you'd expect, this is a very well made film. The acting is great, the film is shot very well and the film is consistently tense.
My issue was that after a while I felt I lost the point of it. Silence hammers home how horrible the situation is. I understand that the film takes a different direction in the third act, but that was perhaps the most confusing part.
I like that Silence has an ambiguous ending and goodness knows that this film is thought provoking. But, for me, Silence is too slow and grim for me to really love. I can still recommend it all the same, just as long as you know what you are letting yourself in for.
B-
Review of The Handmaiden (2016)
Best thing: There is a scene where a character 'demonstrates' a sexual position for an audience. It is a shocking moment and also marked an unexpected shift in tone for the film.
Worst thing: Though it is possible that actual lesbians may say that this is a tasteful depiction of a believeable lesbian relationship, I must say, I'd be surprised. I haven't asked any at this stage. In the first half I thought the film was being pretty tasteful, holding back from going too gratuitous. By the second half it was clear that the film would be showing no restraint at all. (Not that anyone goes to a Chan-Wook Park film expecting restraint, if they have any sense.)
The Handmaiden is a visually spectacular costume drama with a mystery unfolding in a very compelling way. It's a 'dangerous liasons'-esque plot involving a woman being seduced and taken in marriage.
Our protagonist has been sent to try to set things up behind the scenes. She's a practised thief and goes in knowing full well that the plan is to cheat a young woman out of her fortune.
There are some pretty gratuitous erotic scenes, but the intention of the filmmaker is clearly that they should be respectful of the characters involved. Naturally since this is a Chan-Wook Park movie, we also get gratuitous violence and some of that is absolutely awesome.
Is there inconsistency in that the villains are a bunch of pervy men when the film is quite clearly going to have much that would appeal to pervy men? I'd like to think not. There is a clear division made between the perversions of the men and the loving relationship on the other.
Chan-Wook Park really seems to have honed his craft now. I wasn't a fan of Thirst or I'm A Cyborg and thought those were rather messy and tonally confused. But both The Handmaiden and Stoker are utterly brilliant and I'm now completely back on board as a Park fan.
A+
Review of Scrooged (1988)
Best thing: There are some fantastic touches in this film. My favourite is probably the ghost of his old boss. This scene involves some amazing effects as he turns up still drinking and smoking in a body that is falling apart.
Worst thing: In some parts of the scenes with the ghost of Christmas present, she was annoying as hell.
I was a bit frightened to revisit Scrooged because I don't remember it being all that special, but I do remember enjoying it.
Thankfully Scrooged holds up much better than I expected. Bill Murray's comic ability makes this film what it is.
Bill Murray plays a television producer who exhibits the narcissism that Murray's characters so often possess. Murray has had a busy day. He fires an underling just before Christmas for raising a concern. He sends various people towels for Christmas. However the big event was releasing a trailer for the studio's adaptation of A Christmas Carol that pretends it is a high-octane action thriller. With all that done, an old boss comes back from the dead warning him to change his ways and advising Murray to expect a visit from three Christmas ghosts.
The appearance by Murray's boss is actually one of my favourite scenes in the movie. He's drinking even though it escapes from holes in his body even while he's drinking. It looks like the man's body is a dried up husk that could easily fall apart, even while he's casually chatting to Bill Murray with the bravado of a high flying businessman.
The ghost of Christmas past as a taxi driver is pretty cool. The woman in a fairy outfit as the ghost of Christmas present was pretty irritating, particularly with her high pitched voice and the prevalence of slapstick in her scenes.
The humour isn't always consistent, but it's still a lot more consistent than I feared. The finale is a bit too talky. Quite often films seem to struggle to work out how they should wrap everything up, but I'm not sure they needed to stretch out the final segment for that long because that's a long section where Murray is not really so funny as in the bulk of the movie.
Remarkably solid Murray comedy. Not up there with Groundhog Day or Quick Change, but pretty great nonetheless.
B+
Review of Wrong Turn At Tahoe (2009)
Best thing: The initial meeting between thve two protagonists and the criminal kingpin played by Harvey Keitel is intense and kind of classy.
Worst thing: The final twist is incredibly lame and completely unearned.
Another film from director Franck Khalfoun who worked with writer/director Alexandre Aja on some of his other projects like Maniac and P2. There are good aspects and Harvey Keitel brings a lot of class, but in the end this is all a bit predictable.
Not exactly bad, but really not great. All hell breaks loose in the second half in a way that is quite fun, but personally I didn't think the final twist made much sense.
C-