Movie #40 A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop

I did a double feature this Monday afternoon.  I watched the previously reviewed Inside Job, then I went to screen #1 at the Keystone Landmark for this 2010 Chinese thriller based on the Coen Brothers first film Blood Simple. 

The film is directed by Yimou Zhang.  If that name is not fimilar it should be.  He is the director behind 2002's Hero, 2004's House of Flying Daggers and 2006's Curse of the Golden Flower.  These films are all in the vain of the first major Chinese movie to make a huge impact on American audiences Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  While I enjoy CTHD the most, all of these movies present a vision through eloquent design and execution behind the camera.  The Chinese acting style however doesn't always translate well.


As I was saying "A Woman..." follows the story of Blood Simple.  Like almost all Coen Bros films it is about a person that comes in contact with a bundle of money and get's a situation they don't have the skill set to get out of.  Only this time the story is set centuries ago in China.  The basic plot is an adulterous womans husband hires a man to kill his wife's suitor.  The hitman then turns on the husband.  The boyfriend is then drug into this triangle of deception, lies and murder. 

Blood Simple is a minimalist surreal noir.  "A Woman" doesn't really connect with it's more surreal moments.  The biggest issue I had with the film came from trying to make the connections between the two movies.  I feel like "A Woman" rushed scenes that it should have stayed with longer and lingered on scenes that didn't really add anything to the film. 

Like all recent Chinese films the costumes were magnificent.  The colors were brilliant yellows, greens and blues.  All this set dressing only made the backdrop even more desolate.  In Blood Simple it is the Texas deserts and small towns.  In this film it is calico stripped mountains and hills of China.  When the movie was over I was glad I had seen it, but I am in no hurry to rush out and catch it again like I was with CTHD.  I give this movie a 2.5/5 stars.  Check out the link below for the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMGBQDpfLnc

Movie #39 Inside Job

Back to back documentary reviews.  Inside Job is a new doc by director Charles Ferguson.  Its focus is the 2008 financial collapse of Wall Street.  It is a probing looking into the people, politics and institutions that not only foresaw and allowed this economic meltdown, they caused it.

I credit the film for not dumbing down its content or the issue or even the explanations.  The economic crisis can not be explained with simple metaphors.  The "it's like a fish bowl filled with bologna" type of reasoning or simplifications don't fit this problem.  I won't hesitate to say that a good deal of this film was over my head.  The downside of that is I did loose interest a little.  It was like sitting in a meeting listening to Japanese for two hours.  There I go with the witless metaphors. 

What struck me the hardest about the doc was that when you do boil things down there are about 50 people that can be directly held responsible for this catastrophe.  The CEO's and Board of Directors for the top 4-7 finical institutions all knew what was going on and continued to rake in BILLIONS of dollars personally until the bottom fell out.  Then what really struck me was that none of them have been held accountable.  Not only have they gotten off scott free, they were given millions of dollars in bonuses for they left the company.

I have a saying.  "The answer to your question, and every other question, is money".  When you boil things down every question or action made by mankind is a direct result of the longing for money or sex.  And as we all know (and the movie points this out as well) if you have enough money, you can get the sex.  I couldn't believe the balls on the men involved in this problem.  The director would nail them to the wall with facts and data.  He had all his sources (many of which are public record) in line and he would have these men over a barrel.  Then they would just basically tell him to F-off!  It is a "what are you going to do about it" type of mentality.  It was disgusting display of greed, power, and arrogance.



I give the movie props for staying completely A-political.  It rips every administration from Regan to Obama.  It claims that all of these teams have either knowingly participated in deregulating Wall Street to fatten their own pockets, or at least been stymied by the machine of collective campaign contributions by the lobbyists.     The movie is narrated by Matt Damon for extra credibility I guess?  Over all I enjoyed the film even though occasionally I felt like a freshman in a senior economics course.  I would give the film a 3/5 stars.  Check out the link below for the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2DRm5ES-uA

Movie #39 Burden of Dreams

It's Doc time.  Yet another documentary in my quest for 365 films a year.  This time it is a film that is directed by Les Blank.  The director of the film isn't as important as the director in the film.  Burden of Dreams is a doc that follows and chronicles of German director Werner Herzog's production of his film Fitzcarraldo.

Fitzacarraldo is a movie about a down and out rubber baron in the amazon jungle.  He dreams of bringing an opera house to his remote village.  In his attempts to fund this insane project he is trying to deliver rubber on the river at a cheap rate.  He has an idea to use the natives to help pull a three story massive steam boat over a mountain in order to shortcut the trade route.  The plan is to up root the boat from one branch of the river into another without going around.  As if pulling a boat of that size over a mountain isn't enough of a challenge, the boat will be dropped off at the preface of the most dangerous rapids the Amazon has to offer. 

Burden of Dream follows the brilliant / mad Herzog as his production is threatened by feuding governments, rival tribes, torrential down pours, cast and crew rebellions, and so forth.  It has been said that Herzog makes things unnecessarily difficult for his teams of  film makers.  He believes that the struggles will lead to a better picture.  This is the man that just last year shot a doc in Antarctica and has worked with Klaus Kinski on numerous times, including the title character of the films Fitzacarraldo.

Did I mention that there was no computer effects used in post?  Did I mention that they actually hired Amazonian natives to pull the freaking boat over the freaking mountain?  Well, that is all true.  Everything that could have gone wrong with the production pretty much did.  Diseases, budget problems, food/energy/facility shortages you name it.  But it all worked out and made a fantastic film.  I guess you could say it made for two fantastic films.

Burden of Dreams is a fantastically shot film considering the conditions.  The camera was right where it needed to be when it needed to be there.  Even if sometimes it wasn't in the perfect location.  Les Blank knows his subjects and he lets them tell the story.  His voice over is nice and not a distraction at all.  Over all I give Burden of Dreams a 3.5/5 stars.  I will say that you should watch Fitzacarraldo first.  You will have a better appreciation of the doc.  I would give Fitzcarraldo a 4.5/5.  Check out the link below for the trailer.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMqjAnMn_RY

Movie #38 Saw

I am WAY behind on my reviews so I will  have to be brief with them in order to get things caught back up.  Fortunately for me the first picture on my list is Saw.  I am not a huge horror aficionado, but some people who's opinion I trust (or used to) on films recommended this to me.  They said it subverted the genre.  They told me that is had both style as well as substance.  They informed me that there was a morale message to the film.  They praised it for its production values.  They clamored on about the devices of torture and the twist at the end.

I did not see hardly any of this.  I saw a mildly clever setup, terrible (and I mean terrible) acting, hokey scenes of violence and pain and a total lack of morality.  There was no "message" to this film.  The twist at the end did surprise me, but by that time I didn't really care.  I had no reason to root for or become invested in any of these characters.  I did really care what happened to them. 

At best there is a subversion to the genre here.  This is the first American film that I know of to be classified as "Torture Porn".  Essentially films that display torture mearly for the sake of torture.  It is shock cinema.  These types of films have been in the grindhouses and underground for decades.  Movies like Saw and Hostel simply put scenes of mutilation and degradation in the multi-plex. There is no horror here.  There is no slasher, or physiological thrills.  No haunting music or disturbing soundscapes.  Hell, there really isn't even any scares.  A few things jump out at you, but there was nothing frightening about the film.  I watched it on my phone while lying in bed.  I turned it off when it was over and fell right asleep.  I couldn't have done that after The Shining, or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 

I could care less about a film or film makers morale's.  I just want to be entertained or manipulated into feeling something.  The only thing I felt during and after Saw was cheated.  I am glad there are people that enjoy watching these movies, and now they have easier access to them.  But you won't see me in line to go see Saw 14.  I give this movie a 1.5/5 stars.  Check out the link below for the trailer....if you dare, ohhhhhhh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFQebvkii90

This Weekend

I had a pretty busy weekend.  I watched Young Frankenstein and Shawn of the Dead with my lady.  Then today I watched a new doc called "Inside Job" about the finical collapse, and I watched a Chinese movie called "A Woman, A Gun and A Noodle Shop".  It is a retelling of the first Coen Brother movie "Blood Simple".  Reviewed on this very blog about a month ago.

I will try to get around to reviewing them this week as well as "Saw" which I just finished last week.  I have started the 1934, John Ford film Stagecoach staring a young John Wayne.  I have also started David Fincher's Panic Room with Jodie Foster.

This weekend I spent over 10 hours on the highway.  Most of the time I was listening to Peter Biskind's book "Easy Riders and Raging Bulls".  It is all about the ushering in of the New Hollywood in the late 60's and follows it through the early to mid 80's.  I listened to it on audio book. It was awesome.  I like another one of his books as well.  It's title is "Pictures at a Revolution".  It is similar however it mainly focuses on the 5 Best Picture nominees for an Oscar in 1968.  Among them are Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Look Who's Coming to Diner and Dr. Doolittle.  Both are great reads (or listens).

Movie #37 The Friends of Eddie Coyle

After watching "The Town" a few weeks ago I kept reading about a movie that it apparently drew pretty heavily from.  The Friends of Eddie Coyle. So I saw it and man, I would say so.  The Town owes about 40% of it's scenes and shots and even it's location to Eddie Coyle.

The friends of Eddie Coyle stars one of my new favorite actors Robert Mitchum as well as Peter Boyle, Steven Keats, Richard Jordan and Alex Rocco.  Dynamite cast!  The story is about a nice guy thief "Eddie Coyle" played with a cool understated sense of urgency by Robert Mitchum.  Colye is looking at doing a few years in the joint for some minor truck heist he was a part of.  In order to avoid doing that time he is ratting out every two bit thug and thief he knows.  In addition to that he is working with a crew that is holding up banks all across Boston.

This film is held together by Mitchum's performance, but the supporting cast is like the sprinkles on the cake.  Keats and Jordan were both excellent in their roles.  This films was made made in 1973 and it looks like it.  Of course you have the vehicles from that time period, the wah-wah guitar soundtrack and the wardrobe is dated to say the least.  At times it reminded me a little of Dirty Harry and The French Connection.  High praise in both cases.  The direction in the film is slick without drawing attention to its self.  A perfect example of that 70"s action character study.  There is a fantastic scene shot during a Boston Bruins hockey game.  Another scene stolen by Affleck except he uses Finway Park and the Sox instead of Bobby Orr and the Bruins.

I don't have a lot more to say about this film.  It is shot and directed very professionally, the writing is solid, the performances are wonderful.  If I was to nit pick something, it was a little disjointed.  I didn't always understand the bank robbery scenes and how they tied into the overall plot.  This movie also makes its protaginist a snitch.  That is a person that can be a little hard to pull for.  Especially when his motives are unclear of weak.  In Eddie Coyle's case I would say both apply, but Mitchum is so charismatic he can make me overlook those minor flaws.

I would give this film a 4/5 stars and make this a must see.  If for nothing else it is a great example of a heist movie that has been borrowed from for 30 plus years now.  Check out the link below for the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WtR-mi6VtU

Movie #36 Buried

I love a films that can make me have a visceral reaction to them.  I enjoy the manipulation of being made to feel sad or angry or sick to my stomach.  But this weekend I had an experience like I have never had before.  The movie staring Ryan Reynolds (and only Ryan Reynolds) made me squirm from the feeling of claustrophobia.  That is a feeling I have never had before.  Generally I kind of enjoy being alone.  Tight spaces have never really bothered me before.  But this film had me stretching in every direction, attempting to gain some sense of peace and comfort.

The film is a cinematic experiment.  It is the ultimate in single location filming.  It takes place entirely within a coffin that has been buried.  Ryan Reynolds character is a US truck driver in Iraq.  His convoy is ambushed and he wakes up in his own grave.  After freaking out for about 10 minutes straight he finds a few things his imprisoners have left him.  He has a cell phone, a couple of glow sticks, a lighter, a pencil, a small pocket knife and a flashlight that is on the fritz. 

Director Rodrigo Cortes does an excellent job in using every trick in his cinematic bag to keep the visuals fresh and exciting.  Never once do we get out of the coffin.  The farthest we get from our protagonist is once he gives up hope and begins to make peace the camera pulls back making the coffin look 10 feet deep.  Kind of an homage to Trainspotting when Renton OD's on heroin and falls deeply into the red carpet.  The only other reprive from the grave is when Reynolds has a brief halouncination of being rescued.  The coffin lid begins to open and white light pours in.  The light floods out any other visuals and then we are quickly snapped out of it back into the grim reality.

The story is a little thin and you have to overlook a few continuity errors (the coffin depth ranges from inches above his nose to him being able to turn over on his side).  You are also required to take a leap of faith in that he can get cell phone service underground and that he isn't burning up all of his oxygen wiht his Zippo.  But these are nit picky critisims.  This film won me over big time.  It is bold and fearless.  Like many horror films you are comforted by a knowledge that someone has to survive the ordeal.  With Reynolds being the only character in the film, you fear for his life but with that spark in the back of your mind that surely they won't kill him off.

Buried was a Sundance favorite, but hasn't tested well with other audiences.  I was fortunate to be the only one at my screening.  That atmosphere really added to the loneliness and abandon feelings Reynolds character was going through. 

This film has a few weak political threads thrown in towards the end.  It is as much a movie about bureaucracy and the absurdity of governments and business and the relationship between them.  This is like Brazil for the post 911 crowd.

I loved this movie.  I will give it a 4.5/5 stars.  Check out the link below to view the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVMUwoNZs2Y