Quentin Tarantino took his inspiration from Hong Kong films and, in tribute, Chinese filmmakers throw reverntial references back his way. 2001’s Chuen jik sat sau is the story of two contract killers, one Chinese, one Japanese, and the woman and cop tangled between them.

The body count is massive and constant though the subtitles were really difficult to see against a ridiculously light background. Was that a surreal jump? It makes sense compared to the movie. Andy Lau is the younger, Chinese killer whose dream of redemption is to becomes the top Asian assassin after his brother collapsed at the 1983 Olympics just before he’d have won the pistol shooting gold; they share the same disease (epilepsy?).

Lau’s more than a bit insane which at first appeals to hottie Kelly Lin. She really has her heart set on Takashi Sorimachi, the reigning king of the hill, whose apartment she’s been cleaning for two years. The cops close in but the three break free, leaving behind a parking lot full of bodies, for a night of good food and drink. Then the two men drive off for a video game inspired final conflagration.

recommended 

David Lean’s 1957 prison camp classic The Bridge on the River Kwai has always been a favorite of mine compared with many other World War II movies because instead of having many shots of flying planes or tanks it focuses on mental combat and the response of men to terribly difficult circumstances.

Alec Guinness stars as the ranking officer of group of British soldiers captured by the Japanese and marched to a camp deep in the jungles of south Asia. Sessue Hayakawa is the camp commandant, unhappy to start with at this non-combat assignment, and unwilling to brook the least dissent from his charges.

The Brits, though, are equally unwilling to lose that stiff upper lip and when Hayakawa orders the officers to work alongside their men in building a bridge (over the Kwai River, natch) in contravention of Geneva Convention rules the officers take blistering punishment rather than comply. Falling further behind schedule the Japanese has no choice but to find a face-saving excuse to cave in. The Englishmen take the project in hand and deliver as required.

Meanwhile William Holden, already a prisoner when the others arrive, escapes and, with the help of natives who hate the Japanese as much as him, makes his way to an Allied base. The officers there are aware of the Japanese’ train plans and use a bit of armtwisting to get Holden to lead a team back to the camp so the construction can be blown up. The final conflict, of course, is between Holden and Guinness.

Based on a novel by Pierre Boulle (yes, he also wrote the novel from which Planet of the Apes was made), this was the first of three incredible historical epics director David Lean made: Bridge was followed in 1962 by Lawrence of Arabia and in ‘65 by Doctor Zhivago. Some run, eh?

highly recommended

I finally saw Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith last weekend and I can’t say it was worth the wait. Or worth seeing sooner. George Lucas made the darkest movie of his career but there were too many nods to the fans, lazy shortcuts and simply overdone acting.

not recommended

Tivo knows my taste for Australian movies and comedies so no surprised that the machine recorded Mr. Reliable (1996) for me. For which I’m appreciative since I really enjoyed the film, in which a young couple and some overzealous cops stumble into a hostage situation in Sydney during the steamy summer of 1968.

(Sorry, I was distracted by a commercial on A&E for their broadcast tomorrow of the national rock, paper, scissors championship and it took me a few minutes to recover.)

This movie stars Colin Friels as Wally Mellish, just paroled from a nine month prison stint, and Jacqueline McKenzie (yes, she’s Australian and now plays Diana Skouris on The 4400) as Beryl Muddle, a young single mother who falls for him anyway. Just days after she moves in to his place on the outskirts of the big city a couple of constables show up to arrest Wally for stealing some car hood ornaments from a junkyard as a gift for her.

Mellish isn’t interested in going back to lock up so soon though, and pumps a shotgun load in the air over the cops’ heads to warn them off. And we’re into the hostage crisis, complete with a zealous number two copper (Frank Gallacher) anxious to force them out with tear gas, a seemingly incompentant top man (Paul Sonkkil) and, since this is summer time and not much else is happening, an audience of bored Aussies who brought their own blankets and lawn chairs to be more comfortable and plenty of media coverage.

The situation goes on a bit more than I might have let it though Wally and Beryl’s wedding ceremony with the two cops as best man and witness was worth having. Finally the New South Wales premier, being a politician, finds a way out of the mess that makes sense for Wally and the government.

I have to hand it to director Nadia Tass and writers Don Catchlove and Terry Hayes, because they really saved the best for last; I was rolling on the floor laughing at the final twist. They might not have had much of a budget but every dollar was onscreen.

recommended

I’d heard good things over the years and am glad to have finally seen this 1990 dramatization of the lives of twin London gangsters, coldblooded killers who were twisted just a bit in the wrong way by their Mum.

The Krays are Ronnie and Reggie, born in the depths of the Depression to a poor family completely dominated by Violet Kray, backed up by her sisters and mother. The men in the family are barely there; the boys father is an ethereal presence and GrandDad is only interested in getting up to a bit of mischief. I never did understand where the food and rent money came from.

Though this is a decent movie and the potential was there, two problems leave it short of greatness. First, the Kray boys are played by Martin and Gary Kemp and, while they’re also twins and share an exquisite sense of style with the real mobsters, neither is really that good an actor. Just a bit too stiff in movement and delivering dialog.

Second, writer Phillip Ridley and director Peter Medak try to cover too much of the boys lives in 119 minutes. If I remember correctly there were half a dozen scenes at varying intervals showing bits of their childhood but if it were me I would have started with the episode at a carnival when they got in a ring and boxed each other.

Once can understand the desire to show how their mother created their personalities, one sociopathic and the other psychopathic, but we never see how their careers in crime begin or even any particularly significant capers. The only crimes we see are them beating or murdering other gangsters!

moderately recommended

I didn’t have high hopes going into the theater, despite more or less enjoying the novel and that Tom Hanks, Akiva Goldsman and Ron Howard were once again collaborating, but for most of the two and a half hours The Da Vinci Code exceeded my expectations. And then it all came crashing down as the movie went wishywashy on Dan Brown’s core condemnation of the Catholic Church in a vain attempt to appease the mass market.

Well, maybe not completely in vain since the film has taken in over $170 million at the US box office since its release 17 days ago. Not chicken feed, the $77M opening weekend was by far the biggest of Howard’s or Hank’s careers.

Taking the knife to Brown’s allegations of centuries of suppression, murder and deceit of the true nature of Jesus’ relationship to Mary Magdalene didn’t help that much since their were people with banners and placards outside most theaters on opening weekend including the one at which we saw the film.

Not being a Christian, the interest for me was in whether the movie was as good a thriller as the novel, not always an easy task when most of the audience has read, or is at least largely familiar with, the novel. Like I said, for the most part it held up. Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina, Paul Bettany and Ian McKellen are all very good actors and Howard and Goldsman know how to pace a film.

Code even has an innovative visual effect: when a character is recounting some historical episode (such as the Last Supper, a battle from the Crusades or the funeral of Isaac Newton) we see it recreated onscreen, transparently overlaid on top of the current scene. I don’t think this brief phrase really does it justice but I can’t think of a better one.

Where the filmmakers lost me, though, is a scene towards the end where Langdon and Neveu (Hanks and Tautou) discuss what the final revelation of the Priory of Scion’s mission means for Neveu. They added a speech where Hanks, much more of a father figure than I’d have expected, tells her that she can toss aside 2,000 years of struggle by many, many men and women and allow the terrible deeds (alleged by Brown) to pass into history.

not recommended