Recent Rental Reviews!!

[Kam]

Redbelt (2008 - david mamet) - i had wanted to see this in the theaters, but after i blinked a few times it was gone so i had to wait till now on DVD. It has a typical Mamet feel to it, while at the same time is just a fun movie that doesn't feel quite as controlled as some of his others, for e.g. The Spanish Prisoner (which i enjoyed, but just felt like everything was TOO tightly controlled, if that makes sense). The story revolves around an MMA fighter whose dojo is not meeting the bills. A slew of characters are all interwoven into a multifaceted storyline, that still never really strays from the POV of the main guy (the baddude from Serenity who has a ridiculous number of vowels in his name), which was something i enjoyed to see. Rather that a story ala Crash, where you follow several POV's, Redbelt never gives you the motivations of any of the other storylines outside of how they effect our Main Dude. Definitely reccomended.


Bangkok Dangerous (2008 - a remake, of course) - Having seen this kinda bland remake, I have the original (strangely enough made by the same director and production team) on my netflix queue and will see if it's any better. It's been "hollywoodized" to a certain degree, although not totally, but the original stroyline i find more fascinating than this one, where Nicholas Cage plays a hitman on assignment in Bangkok for his final mission and all that he goes through blah blah blah. It's not horrible, it's not great, and it's not really all that worth watching.

Dororo - (2008 - Japan) - Now this movie was just a whole lotta fun. BUT... one big caveat, you either HAVE to overlook the horrible CGI, or enjoy the horrible CGI for being horrible. The story is incredibly fascinating and starts off with a prologue which explains the myth we're about to watch. A warlord, seeking immortality after a losing battle, comes across a temple of demons where he pledges his unborn son to the demons in exchange for being invincible. Unfortunately for the unborn kid, there are 48 demons in the temple, so the kid is split 48 ways to the 48 demons. Now flash forward a little and a monk comes across the "kid" after the 48 demons take their pound of flesh (so to speak), which is basically a body and head. The monk uses his magic and science to attach limbs from children who've died in the war and train the kid in martial arts. He gets a special sword that kills demons as one of his arms (from a travelling stroyteller) and sets off to kill the 48 demons. After he kills each demon, he regains a piece of his lost body. And it's as much ridiculous fun as it sounds. Highly reccomended.


Max Payne (2008 - mark wahlburg) - meh. i forgot to take it off my netflix queue so it showed up and i watched it. I made it through the whole movie, if that's any reccomendation. Trying to be too much of too many other movies, top of the list being Sin City. I wouldn't rent it.

The Innocents - (1961 - Deborah Kerr) Gotta love the classics. This is the movie that The Other's is based off of, which itself is a version of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. It's not too much of a horror movie watching it now, as much as a compelling drama/thriller, more on the drama side of things. The biggest mention of the movie should go to the little boy. He is freakily good in his dialogue and scenes with Deborah Kerr, ala Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning all wrapped into one lil strange dude. It's a little strange seeing him 'channel' the spirits as he talks to Deborah and he does it extremely well! Highly Reccomended.

Battle Royale - (2001 - Japan) All you need to know is the plot. In the future, due to overpopulation, Japanese student classes are selected at random and sent to an island and given various weapons. They have 3 days to kill each other and have ONE emerge victorious, or they all are killed. Yep. It's as good as it sounds! Highly reccomended.

Cashback (2006 - indie) - fantastic independent film about a schlepp whose girlfriend dumps him, takes a boring job as part of the nightcrew at a grocery store, and learns he can stop time and walk through the frozen world. (i think i already reviewed and reccomended this now that i think about it, but in case i didn't...) Highly reccomended!!

More to come soon!!

peace!

-K2

[nightflier]

If I can put a plug in for Lucky Number Slevin. I know it's already been mentioned, but it's one of those movies I tend to skip over in the video store (along with the likes of Bangkok Dangerous & Max Payne - I tend to prefer the historical / epic type movies the best, and not much qualifies as that anymore). Anyhow, not only was I tricked into thinking the kid had been shot, but I also didn't see the love interest getting whacked either. Great flick. And then there's the soundtrack and the visuals. I can't say this about many films, but the colors, the quality, and the artistic sets really added to the film. Hallways have amazing depth, architectural details fit the storyline, and interiors were almost custom-tailored to the plot. There was a dream-like sequence to it all and it still worked. Anyhow, that was one good flick.

Next up:

- Mongol
- Traitor
- The Breach

(yeah, I know they're all one-word titles, not reassuring).

[Kam]

Next up:

- Mongol
- Traitor
- The Breach

(yeah, I know they're all one-word titles, not reassuring).

ooo i saw Mongol when it came out, i think the review is a few pages back on here. let us know how Traitor is, i've been debating about adding that to the netflix queue too.

[Worf101]

Well I saw Mongol a couple of weeks ago, brilliant. Loved the cinematography. Can't believe Ghengis lived though all that hell to become who, and what he did. good if not great movie. Well acted brilliantly filmed.

"Trator", eh, an alright movie saved from absolute crud levels by Don Cheadle's heartfelt and nuanced performance. Despised the ending, but hey... that's Hollywood.

Kam, what did you think of "Slumdog Millionaire" I saw it last week. Discussed it with some friends of East Indian descent. Curious about your take.

Da Worfster

[Kam]

Well I saw Mongol a couple of weeks ago, brilliant. Loved the cinematography. Can't believe Ghengis lived though all that hell to become who, and what he did. good if not great movie. Well acted brilliantly filmed.

"Trator", eh, an alright movie saved from absolute crud levels by Don Cheadle's heartfelt and nuanced performance. Despised the ending, but hey... that's Hollywood.

Kam, what did you think of "Slumdog Millionaire" I saw it last week. Discussed it with some friends of East Indian descent. Curious about your take.

Da Worfster

i LOVED Slumdog. I'm very curious to read the book now to see how that is, but the movie was just breathtaking. It was a brilliant device on how to tell the story using the questions, but aside from that, it was a very engaging story as well.

I'd akin it to Pulp Fiction, in that once you get past the 'device' of HOW they're telling the story, the movie still has to stand on it's own two feet, otherwise it's just a gimmick and forgettable as so many movies are. But the ones that do BOTH, have a very interesting gimmick in telling the story and a brilliant story to tell are instant classics. I have a feeling it will, and i think it deserves to (at least of the movies i've seen so far) get every award it's been nominated for.

(On a total side note, Eva's gotten some company now with Freida.)

Good lord talk about perfect casting. To be honest, if the audience doesn't fall in love with her (or at least for me) in the shot where she's turning in the sunlight and looking up at Jamal at the walkway, the whole movie isn't nearly as powerful as it was. But she is so loveable there, and so instantly endearing, that everything really makes sense. It's an amazing love story and both the girl and the kid Jamal were absolutely perfectly cast, and perfectly cast throughout! as the little kid versions of them as well, including the brother.

It was an inspiring movie, and the kind of movie i would dream about being involved in.

[Worf101]

Aside from Sugi (she OWN's the Spectrum 8 Theatre I saw the movie in), yours was the opinion I wanted most. Most of my Indian friends loved the film. Those who were born and raised in Bombay, now Mumbai (sp) found it very hard to watch. For some it revisited too many old, hard memories of poverty and sacrifice.... (I have the same feeling when watching movies about the South sometimes). Some were upset that the protagonist was a Muslim and all his tormentors were Hindu's (I can't speak to this). One woman, Mrs. Malave who I love dearly, was incensed that they cast a English born in the adult male lead. She was livid.

I found the film to be masterful, well directed, well filmed, wonderfully cast and compelling as all get out. My only quibble was that the brother's character should've been fleshed out more. I know he did what he did to protect his brother but.... I felt his character and that of the cop and the talk show host should've been fleshed out and developed more. What story finally convinced the cop that the kid was "legit"? What from his OWN past, pushed the cop over the line to believability?

Still those are only smal quibbles. I'll be watching on Oscar niight myself and pulling for this picture....

Da Worfster

PS, loved the Ballywood dance number at the end... Good stuff that.

[Kam]

Aside from Sugi (she OWN's the Spectrum 8 Theatre I saw the movie in), yours was the opinion I wanted most. Most of my Indian friends loved the film. Those who were born and raised in Bombay, now Mumbai (sp) found it very hard to watch. For some it revisited too many old, hard memories of poverty and sacrifice.... (I have the same feeling when watching movies about the South sometimes). Some were upset that the protagonist was a Muslim and all his tormentors were Hindu's (I can't speak to this). One woman, Mrs. Malave who I love dearly, was incensed that they cast a English born in the adult male lead. She was livid.

I found the film to be masterful, well directed, well filmed, wonderfully cast and compelling as all get out. My only quibble was that the brother's character should've been fleshed out more. I know he did what he did to protect his brother but.... I felt his character and that of the cop and the talk show host should've been fleshed out and developed more. What story finally convinced the cop that the kid was "legit"? What from his OWN past, pushed the cop over the line to believability?

Still those are only smal quibbles. I'll be watching on Oscar niight myself and pulling for this picture....

Da Worfster

PS, loved the Ballywood dance number at the end... Good stuff that.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



from what i remember, there were only two points where this came up, both of which i thought were handled nicely and not heavily dwelled upon.

first - when he was answering the question of what Rama hold's in his right hand. was the day his mother died, and you see the attack of the hindus (assumed, i don't honestly remember anyone saying they were hindus) on the muslims that day, of which you ONLY know it is such, because of the single subtitle, "Get them, they're muslims" or something to that effect. and then the violence of the attack. i didn't see anyone wearing anything specifically Sikh in origin, so it would be assumed that at that time, 70s, violence in india against muslims would be by hindus (and vice versa). i didn't think this was a heavy issue of the movie, as much as it was a realistic portrayal of the times. same idea as any Hollywood movie made in the deep south in the timeframe of the 50s... there were certain facts of life going on that were you to flat out change the facts of.. well that wouldn't be a very realistic or genuine movie.

second - when jamal catches his brother praying on a typically muslim prayer rug before going off to do the Crimelord's bidding and asking for forgiveness.

The inspector of the police torturing him, from what i remember was only called "inspector". he was played by Irfan Khan (a typically muslim name, not that i'm assuming the actor's actual religion) but to say that all of Jamal's antogonists were Hindu, i would say is just flat out false. you could assume the inspector was hindu, but unless someone said his name and i missed it, i didnt think any evidence was given that he was hindu. and in my opinion, Jamal's worst antogonist was his own brother. who also ends up being his best saving grace, if inadvertantly so throughout most of the movie, until the end, where his brother makes an actual decision to help save Jamal. I think that was a great character arc for the brother actually.

the brother makes two decisions to actually aid his brother. first to save him from the begging ring (which that was scary in how true that is, and still is, going on over there.) and then at the end to kill the crimelord. but every decision in between he makes, seemingly for his own benefit, actually does benefit Jamal in the long term, in spite of himself. makes for fantastic storytelling.

the cop could be more fleshed out sure, but i think there just wasn't enough to do that, and would have been distracting. since the entire story is told from Jamal's POV, what he has to do is convince the inspector he's telling the truth, ala Verbal from Usual Suspects and Agent Kujan. Do we really know anything more about Agent Kujan than we do about the Inspector in SM? just as much i'd say. they're both willing to bend/break the law to get their answer. and both, imo, equally well played by the actors.

and both were convinced by the people they were interrogating. in one case, duped by Kaiser, and in slumdog, the inspector was convinced by Jamal's innocence and honesty, as he says that one line to him, i believe you because you're honest, (way more eloquently in the movie) and the same argument goes for the ShowHost i think.

[nightflier]

ooo i saw Mongol when it came out, i think the review is a few pages back on here. let us know how Traitor is, i've been debating about adding that to the netflix queue too.

I know Traitor has been getting mixed reviews, but I thought it was incredibly well done. It's not your Hollywood-style action film and the movie flows more like a story than what most people expected. There is plenty of action, even hand-to-hand type, but this isn't Ong Bak or the Matrix with ridiculous kung-fu action. And this is probably why it wasn't a commercial success - the action sequences are actually believable. It's basically the story of a guy with very deep convictions who starts to question his mission and the rightness of one side to the other. It deals with very real issues of terrorism and politics and does an excellent job of telling the story with fairness to both sides. I am referring to the Western/Christian side vs. Eastern/Muslim side - I'm not condoning terrorism, and I'm pretty sure the film doesn't either. It does a very good job of portraying the immensity of the challenges, the racism and misconceptions on both sides and it does all this is a very taught, fast-paced, and tense plot-line to the very end. No big car chases, end-of-world calamities, or superheroes, just people trying to do what they believe is right. And excellent film, up there with NCFOM rather than IronMan, but one that I'm definitely going to keep, lend out, and recommend.