pb104-1 Reviews

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Much better than expected

[8/10 · 1 March 2015]

Despite the complaining from people with constipated imaginations, this is an excellent and entertaining film. I ran it 3 times for private groups, and everyone was smiling as they exited, All had good things to say about it. The most common comment was that it was a lot better than they expected. . Good acting, astonishing visual spectacle, and a compelling plot. Don't let the negativity keep you from a great space opera. (Which wasn't always a term of derision) The Wachowskis have stumbled a bit in their last couple of films, but it's rather childish to continue to bash them because they haven't reached the heights they hit with "The Matrix." They still have the daring and imagination to create a new sci-fi experience, and at long last, a film without a giant monster to threaten the planet. I very much hope that the studios continue to fund their flights of fancy.

Stranger by the Lake (2013)

Slow and self indulgent.

[2/10 · 3 February 2014]

It's a cruising beach for gays somewhere in France. Men arrive early and simply sit on a towel and wait for a suitable boy to have flash sex with. Otherwise, they just sit there. No music. Nothing to read. Desultory conversations. The most boring bunch of shallow losers you ever saw. The film itself has no music or other diversions. It all takes place on the same beach. The end titles go by in dead silence.

SPOILER ALERT!!! Franck, justly described as "stupid" by Michel, sees Michel drown his current lover in the lake and does nothing. No one does anything, in fact. The lover's towel sits on the beach for days, and no one seems to care. Franck takes Michel as a lover and covers for him when an investigator arrives. The ending is ambiguous and totally predictable.

Hard to tell if this is an indictment of gay culture, or a misguided slice of cruising life. All the men are depicted as having virtually nothing to say, and are as shallow as a teacup. Or, they are deeply self-destructive. Or homicidal. Can't imagine why this film is being championed by the gay community. The characters are portrayed in a very bad light.

Lost Place (2013)

A decent thriller

[7/10 · 1 February 2014]

Saw it last night. A better film than some comments would suggest. Following clues in a GPS cache event, four teens find themselves in what appears to be an abandoned military installation. As is typical for these movies, the characters act in obviously stupid ways, and find themselves in deep trouble as the facility wakes up. A clever concept, executed fairly well. Not a horror film, but it generates considerable tension. The characters are believable, and the underlying scientific concepts are close enough to reality to add some paranoiac spice to the mix. Might even be true. The film has good sound recording, but the 3-D adds nothing.

Hyeongsa (2005)

A visual feast

[9/10 · 19 November 2006]

I saw this film at the opening night of the Hawaii International Film Festival, as an unannounced special screening. Outrageously colorful and stylized, it's a tale of a girl trained as a sword-fighter who works as a cop, and a mysterious masked swordsman who may or may not be in league with a gang who is flooding the country with counterfeit money. The plot is confusing enough, but it really doesn't matter: it's just an excuse for some amazing set- pieces involving crowds of sword-fighters, fighters chasing through markets and dye factories, barroom brawls, and over the top humor. And swordplay as foreplay. Not likely to get a US release, but a lot of fun. Modern Korean cinema, in my opinion, is leading the world in terms of set and scenic design, and innovative cinematography. Catch this film to see what I mean.

Babel (I) (2006)

interesting, complex tale

[8/10 · 5 September 2006]

The film opens in the Moroccan desert: an elderly tribesman trades a high-powered rifle to a goat herder for 500 diram & a goat. He hands the rifle to his two young sons and tells them to kill jackals with it, to protect the herd. As practice, the start shooting at rocks, a car passing on the hill below, and finally a bus. That's the only thing they manage to hit, putting a bullet through the shoulder of a tourist. In the middle of nowhere, there's no medical help, and no one wants to wait with the injured person except her husband. That's the setup of this complex, challenging film. It splits into four related stories, one in Japan, two in Morocco, and the last in California, where a housekeeper has to get to her son's wedding in Mexico, but has no one to watch the two children in her care. She decides to take them along, and of course things go sour. A good cast, great acting, fine cinematography, and expert direction make this film well worth watching. It's not for everyone, but for people who are ready to see deliberately paced low-key thriller, this is one good film. The split story line is reminiscent of "Syriana," but in no way copies it.

Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)

Even worse than people say

[1/10 · 14 June 2006]

I was forced to screen this film for members of the Motion Picture Academy. They weren't forced to watch it, though: of some 25 people in the audience, all but one walked out. Appalling, smug, ignorant crap about a thug with far less talent than I would ever have imagined, considering he sells records and made a movie. Ugly, murky cinematography, a screenplay so thoroughly obvious and predictable that the only interest was how bad the acting would get, and a thudding badly mixed soundtrack will give you two of the most annoying hours of your life. Some years ago there was a magazine that rated films & TV shows on 4 levels: BAM (by all means), WT (worth trying), BD (brain damage), and PBD (permanent brain damage). This film fits completely into the PBD category-it will make you just a little stupider than you were before watching it. Hopefully the perpetrators of this atrocity have found other employment, like working in a car wash.

Down in the Valley (2005)

A whole lot of not much

[5/10 · 22 February 2006]

A slow moving, entirely predictable drama about a would-be cowboy (Edward Norton) and a teenage girl who picks him up at a gas station on her way to the beach, leading to an affair and ultimately to violence. From the first half-hour it was clear where this story was going, and the only question remaining was who would get shot on the way there. Edward Norton's surprisingly one-note performance, the same old father-daughter conflict, and the loving close-ups of guns in the protagonist's hands makes it obvious who's going to do the shooting as the film progresses. As Norton's character becomes increasingly unhinged, he spends more time in his cowboy fantasy, No one seems to notice until he starts shooting, probably because his character appears to stay the same . The high point is a great performance by Bruce Dern as a grumpy horse owner. The supporting cast is adequate to the job, but the lack of surprises in the script, and the flatness of the direction make this a very minor addition to the resumes of the people involved.

Naisu no mori: The First Contact (2005)

As strange as it gets

[8/10 · 18 January 2006]

How to describe this film? It's a group of related inter-cut stories by three talented Japanese directors, but that's not really it...It's a surrealist fantasy of a bizarre reality with grotesque body parts, freaky sex and...no, wait, it's a David Cronenberg comedy where a fellow with enormous nipples pulls bloodsucking creatures out of his pants at a high school after school club. One of the most peculiar films I've ever seen, it defies categories. There are two parts, Side A and Side B, with a three minute on-screen intermission. There are wisecracking TV hosts babbling in fractured languages. And there are icky creatures that alternately make you laugh and make you sick. It's definitely not for everyone, but fans of extreme comedy and very alternative cinema will be thrilled and delighted. I thought it was awesome. 8.5/10

American Fusion (2005)

A n excellent cross-cultural comedy

[8/10 · 18 January 2006]

First-time director Frank Lin has fashioned a great little comedy about the difficulties of relationships across cultural and racial boundaries. Yvonne, a Chinese divorcée pushing fifty with a young son pretending to be black, is a virtual household slave to her domineering, old-school mother who constantly demeans her for not being more successful with her life. When she meets a handsome dentist while on assignment doing an interview for a newspaper, her life suddenly regains its promise. But complication arise in the form of not just her mother, but her entire family, who think that a Mexican named Jose is a totally unacceptable match for a Chinese woman. ("Hosin? That means Monkey!") When Yvonne's mother gets a back injury from a massage mishap and needs surgery, Yvonne starts to believe that her chances for romance are indeed over. American Fusion is a very funny film, well written and very well acted. All the characters are believable, and the clash of an ancient Chinese tradition with American reality makes for some very humorous and touching moments. With a cameo from Fabio and excellent work from Frank Morita, this film should be a crossover success, and deserves wide distribution. 8.5/10

Blood Rain (2005)

An extraordinary thriller

[10/10 · 18 January 2006]

Also known as "Blood Rain," this Korean murder mystery is one of the most powerful and dramatic costume dramas I have ever seen. Taking place in the Chosun Dynasty (which looks like the late 1700s although no date is specified), it concerns an isolated island which prospers due to its famous paper factory which exports fine papers throughout the region. When a ship loaded with top grade paper as a tribute to the mainland ruler burns in the harbor, an official is dispatched from the Court to investigate. What he encounters is a string of increasingly gruesome murders and a town beginning to panic, believing that an angry spirit is causing the deaths. But there are wheels within wheels, and the execution of the mill owner years before may be related to the murders. And there are other secrets deeply hidden in the town's past as well. With stunning production values, fine acting and relentless pacing, Blood Rain is a mesmerizing thriller, a mystery that continually deepens as the story progresses. Fast-paced and exciting, it develops a dynamic power rarely equaled in cinema. Korean dramas are known for intensity and this film is no exception. Some violent scenes may upset the squeamish, but they are essential to the story and by no means gratuitous. Hopefully this powerful film will secure an American release. 10/10

Only Human (2004)

A wonderful comedy

[10/10 · 18 January 2006]

The funniest film I've seen in years, "Only Human" is a comedy about Leni, the daughter of a eccentric Jewish family, who brings her fiancé home to meet her relatives for the first time. Dinner is planned, and all is going well, until Leni reveals that her fiancé Rafi is Palestinian. Of course the reaction is hysterical, and Rafi retreats to the kitchen to help in preparing the meal. He offers to take care of the chicken soup, but in removing the frozen soup from the container, it accidentally falls out the window, landing on the head of a man outside and knocking him out. To make things worse, the man may be Leni's father, and the soup may have killed him. Things really take off from there... With a cast of talented comic actors and a truly funny and irreverent screenplay, Only Human gave me more honest laughs than any film I've seen in ages. The characters are definitely oddball, but they are treated with respect, and there is no low humor or mocking of the characters' weirdness. It's good to see a comedy that takes it's humor from the situation and the personalities of the characters, rather than making them look stupid for a cheap laugh. Highly recommended. 10/10

The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)

Well-made biopic, but a little thin

[7/10 · 17 January 2006]

Bettie Page was a icon of the repressed 1950s, when she represented the sexual freedom that was still a decade away, but high in the hopes and dreams of many teenagers and young adults. Gretchen Mol does a superb job of portraying the scandalous Bettie, who was a small town girl with acting ambitions and a great body. Her acting career went nowhere, but her body brought her to the peak of fame in an admittedly fringe field. Photogrsphed in black and white with color interludes when she gets out of the world of exploitation in New York, this made-for-TV (HBO) film has good production values and a very believable supporting cast. The problem is, it's emotionally rather flat. It's difficult to form an attachment to the character, since Bettie is portrayed as someone quite shallow and naive given the business she was in. The self-serving government investigations are given a lot of screen time, which slows down the film towards the end. But it's definitely worth watching for the history of the time, and to see the heavy-handed government repression that was a characteristic of the fifties. 7/10

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005)

A journey into the heart of China

[9/10 · 24 December 2005]

A young Japanese film maker is in hospital in Tokyo. His estranged father tries to visit, but the son refuses to see him. So, as a gesture of reconciliation, the father decides to go to China to complete the filming of a Chinese opera, called "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles," which the son was working on but unable to finish. But the master singer whom the son was most interested in filming is now in jail, so official permission must be granted. And then the singer has a breakdown because he wants to see his own young son who is way off in the country somewhere. So the Japanese father now has to travel distances to find the son of the singer. A strong and beautiful film as one would expect from master director Yinou Zhang, it is a tale of one man's journey both into the world and into himself. In a way, it's a road movie, but there's more than one kind of road involved. Unlike his more dramatic fantasies, this is a quiet and haunting story, filled with stunning images from the hidden heart of China. Highly recommended.