Reign of Assassins - Review

Reign of Assassins turns out to be a superb martial arts period piece. While starting with a pretty energetic rate to setup what is to become the heart of the story, things soon settle down for a well-paced film. The characters are well developed and well cast, and the story itself has its twists and it is quite entertains from beginning to end. The martial arts sequences come in spurts and they are definite high points of this picture. The sword play & fight scene choreography is superb and the cinematography is perfect.

Michelle Yeoh (who hasn't missed a beat since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and Jung Woo-Sung play a married couple (each unaware the spouse is a world-class assassin - sort of like 'Mr and Mrs. Smith'). Without heavy resorting to heavy visual effects, and without going too far down any one stylistic road, the film gives new life to the genre. Reign of Assassins is full blown of fantasy/martial arts film, yet still has a nice romantic aspect to it as well. This is also a return to form from famed director John Woo who has gone on record stating that now he wants to make many more films in the booming Chinese film industry.

The ending is moving and poetic, and John Woo replaced his usual guns and bombs with flashing swordplay and fantasy effects. It gets better as it progresses and the plot has a few surprising twists and turns. The sets, costumes, acting, and performances are nearly perfect, I highly recommend it.

Here's one of the great action sequences in the film:

Troll Hunter - Review

Troll Hunter is the story of a group of Norwegian film students that set out to capture real-life trolls on camera after learning their existence has been covered up for years by a government conspiracy. A thrilling and wildly entertaining film, the film delivers truly fantastic images of giant trolls wreaking havoc on the countryside, with darkly funny adherence to the original Norwegian folklore.

It's shot in the style of The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield, in which we watch video shot by characters in the moviein that hand-held-camera style. The idea here is that 283 hours of mysterious footage has been found, and after extensive investigation, is concluded to be authentic. It blows the lid off the Norwegian government's cover-up of the troll problem plaguing the country, accounting for rampant livestock carnage, felled trees and random devastation, usually written off by the shadowy Wildlife Board as the work of renegade bears.



During a series of frightening encounters we get a glimpse of the various species of woodland and mountain trolls, learning their quirks and vulnerabilities. Needless to say, they are nothing like those cute tuft-haired '70s trinkets. With life spans of up to 1,200 years, these remarkably stupid predators range from towering three-headed ogres to galumphing cave dwellers.



When power lines (the secret purpose of which is to keep the giant Mountain Kings fenced in) are knocked down, the rogue crew ventures north toward the most dangerous showdown of all, with the Wildlife Board giving chase. When the creatures are finally seen, the CGI work is actually VERY impressive.



Here's a progression reel showing the visual FX breakdown:



Overall it was a very enjoyable film, I found myself always wondering what would happen next. The genre of sci-fi mockumentaries is very small, and for that alone, it's quite original and entertaining.

Cast: Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Hans Morten Hansen, Johanna Morck, Tomas Alf Larsen, Knut Naerum, Robert Stoltenberg
Director/Screenwriter: Andre Ovredal
Producers: John M. Jacobsen, Sveinung Golimo
Director of photography: Hallvard Braein
Production designer: Martin Gant
Costume designer: Stina Lunde
Editor: Per Erik Eriksen
Visual effects supervisor: Oystein Larsen

Game of Thrones - Review (Part 1)

Based on the bestselling fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin – often referred to as “the American Tolkien” – HBO is betting that fans of The Lord of the Rings will come to this for a sprawling, interwoven tale of feuding families, swords, sex, carnage, beasts, frayed loyalties, deception, intrigue and the pursuit of power.

As well they should. Game of Thrones has all the elements that lure viewers to shows like The Sopranos, and Rome. The fact that it’s a fantasy series shouldn’t scare anyone away, because – like Lord of the Rings – there’s a real allure to costume-dramas that pair dense mythology with all of the crowd-pleasing elements of war, honor, pride, lust, power and, yes, even humor. Thrones has all of those in spades and supports them with exceptional storytelling, strong writing, superb acting and some stunning visual effects.


Writers and executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss certainly have their hands full dealing with die-hard fans on what they got right or wrong (or left out or put in that may have not been in the books), but they have the backing of Martin, who worked closely with the duo, and that should count for a lot. Perhaps more important to those people who haven’t read the books or heard much about this series, Benioff and Weiss kick things off immediately – with action, blood-shed and eeriness. Director Tim Van Patten creates a beautiful, haunting, visual template of vast expanses (Northern Ireland, Malta), white snow and dark shadows while also allowing the visual effects to pack a wallop.

 

That kind of start to the 10-part series was essential because Game of Thrones is a complicated story with numerous characters and a dense, interwoven back-story. Though it demands attention, Thrones never once bogs down. It’s the kind of drama where, when the first episode ends, you wish the nine others were immediately available. And that validates HBO’s notion that television is the perfect medium for a fantasy series done right. Getting Martin’s Thrones, the gold-standard, could end up landing HBO its next franchise. 




Thrones is set in the fictional land of Westeros, where various clans – or houses -- have lived and fought for generations in different realms, until the Targaryens invaded and united the Seven Kingdoms under the Iron Throne. Now, years later, there’s a battle for the throne.



There are more than a few unexpected surprises and even humorous detours (mostly provided by Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister whose whoring and drinking knows no bounds). A great series should challenge viewers to pay attention, to connect dots and anticipate connections. Thrones manages a superior complexity without ever making you think that you’ve lost the connection to the story. It’s paced with precision and the carefully crafted assemblage of characters unspools at such a rate that you can keep up while keeping tabs on their ever changing moods. What that means, essentially, is that there’s a tight grip on the storytelling and a real understanding of who each person is – traits that make the complexity easier to bear.



It’s difficult to single out the most accomplished parts of Thrones. The ambition is immense, the fantasy world exceptionally well-conceived, the writing and acting elevating the entire series beyond contemporaries like The Borgias and Camelot, and the visual appeal continues to surprise with each episode. What we have here is the successful pairing of an acclaimed collection of fantasy books with a television series that illuminates and expands what’s on the page. I haven't been eagerly anticipating the next episode of a series like this since Rome and Deadwood. The 2nd season has already gone into pre-production, and I can't wait to see the rest of the 1st season. I marvel at the sets, costumes, character development and high production value, I highly recommend it to everyone.

Review - Dark City

I remember it was late 1997, I went to the theater to see a movie (I forget which one) and I saw a trailer for Dark City. It was one of those trailers that showed you all kinds of exciting stuff, yet you had no idea what it was about, so I was thoroughly intrigued. It was definitely some sort of dark-sci-fi-surreal-mystery thing, I couldn't wait to see it! Three months later I went to see it, and I was already proclaiming it to be the best film of the year (even though it was only March).

"Dark City" by Alex Proyas is a great visionary achievement, a film so original and exciting, it stirred my imagination like "Metropolis" and "2001: A Space Odyssey." If it is true (as the German director Werner Herzog believes) that we live in an age starved of new images, then "Dark City" is a film to nourish us. Not a story so much as an experience, it is a triumph of art direction, set design, cinematography, special effects, and imagination. Watching it again recently brought on some nostalgia that I usually only experience from films I enjoyed from my childhood.


Like "Blade Runner," it imagines a city of the future. But while "Blade Runner" masterfully extended on existing trends, "Dark City" leaps into the unknown. Its vast 'noir metropolis' seems to exist in an alternate time line, with elements of our present and past combined with visions from some sort of futuristic comic book. Like the first "Batman," it presents a city of night and shadows, but it goes far beyond "Batman" with a richness of ominous, stylized sets, streets, skylines and cityscapes. For once a movie city equals any we could picture in our minds; this is the city "The Fifth Element" teased us with, without following through.

The story combines science fiction with film noir--in more ways than we realize and more surprising ways than I will reveal. Its villains, in their homburgs and flapping overcoats, look like a nightmare inspired by the thugs in "M," but their pale faces would look more at home in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"--and, frighteningly, one of them is a child. They are the 'Strangers', shape-changers from another solar system, and we are told they came to Earth when their own world was dying. (They create, in the process, the first space vessel since "Star Wars" that is newly conceived--not a clone of that looming mechanical vision.) They inhabit a city of rumbling elevated streamlined trains, dank flophouses, scurrying crowds and store windows that owe something to Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks." In this city lives John Murdoch (played by Rufus Sewell), who awakens in a strange bathtub beneath a swinging ceiling lamp, to blood, fear and guilt. The telephone rings; it is Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland), gasping out two or three words at a time, as if the need to speak is all that gives him breath. He warns Murdoch to flee, and indeed three Strangers are in the corridor, coming for him.



The film becomes the story of Murdoch's flight into the mean streets, and his gradual discovery of the nature of the city and the Strangers. Like many science-fiction heroes, he has a memory shattered into pieces that do not fit. But he remembers the woman he loves, or loved - his wife, Emma (the very hot Jennifer Connelly), who is a torch singer with sad eyes and wounded lips. And he remembers a placed called Shell Beach, but can't piece together where or what it is.



There is a detective after him, Inspector Bumstead (William Hurt). Murdoch is wanted in connection with the murders of six prostitutes. Did he kill them? Was he framed? Like the hero of Franz Kafka's The Trial, Murdoch feels so paranoid he hardly knows.ju



The story has familiar elements made new. Even the hard-boiled detective, his eyes shaded by the brim of his fedora, seems less like a figure from film noir than like a projection of an alien idea of noir. Proyas and his co-screenwriters, Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer, use dream logic to pursue their hero through the mystery of his own life. Along the way, Murdoch discovers that he alone, among humans, has the power of the Strangers--an ability to use his mind in order to shape the physical universe. (This power is expressed in the film as a sort of transparent shimmering projection, aimed from Murdoch's forehead into the world, and as klutzy as that sounds, I found myself enjoying its very audacity: What else would mind-power look like?) Murdoch's problem is that he has no way of knowing if his memories are real, if his past actually happened, if the women he loves ever existed. Those who offer to help him cannot be trusted. Even his enemies may not be real.

The movie is a glorious marriage of existential dread and slam-bang action. Toward the end, there is a thrilling apocalyptic battle that nearly destroys the city, and for once, you witness a sequence where the fire and explosions really work and don't play just as effects. Proyas and his cinematographer, Dariusz Wolski, capture the kinetic energy of great comic books; their framing, foreshortening, tilt shots and distorting lenses shake the images and splash them on the screen, and it's not "action" but more like action painting.



Proyas directed "The Crow" (1994), the visually inspired film that was almost doomed when its star, Brandon Lee, was killed in an accident. At the time, I thought that film was one of the best versions of a comic book universe I had ever seen, but "Dark City" is miles beyond it. Proyas' background was in music videos, usually an ominous sign, but not here: His film shows the obsessive concentration on visual detail that's the hallmark of directors who make films that are short and expensive. There's such a wealth on the screen, such an overflowing of imagination and energy. Often in special effects movies the camera doesn't feel free because it must remain within the confines of what has been created for it to see. Here we feel there's no limits.

Is the film for teenage boys and comic book fans? Not at all, although that's how the film was marketed. It's for anyone who still has a sense of wonder and a feeling for great visual style. This film contains ideas and true poignance, a story that has been thought out and has surprises right to the end. It's romantic and exhilarating. Watching it, I realized the last dozen films I'd seen were about people standing around, talking to one another. "Dark City" has been created and imagined as a new visual place for us to inhabit. It adds treasure to our notions of what can be imagined.

I highly recommend it.

Review - Hobo with a Shotgun

Directed by Jason Eisener, written by John Davies, and filmed with a crazy palette of super-saturated colors, this down-and-dirty (sure to be one of the top cult movies from 2011) is a non-stop, over-the-top, intentionally ridiculous visual feast of bloodshed and violence that evolves into pure 100% fun... I highly recommend it.

 

Eisener throws you from laughter into screams, with his newest creation Hobo with a Shotgun which is an excellent follow up to his popular Sundance short Treevenge, which was a hilariously horrific look at Christmas trees (I had showcased the film two years ago here, long before I knew who Eisener was). Cinematographer Karim Hussain, costume designer Sarah Dunsworth and production designer Ewen Dickson collaborate to give the film's Nova Scotia locations a unique look, and the whole thing plays like a tribute to the star himself. Rutger Hauer and films like The Hitcher, Flesh+Blood, Wanted:  Dead or Alive, seem to be acclaimed and worshiped through the very making of this movie, and of course Hauer does a fantastic job playing the Hobo who's out to wage this brutal solo war in a city ravaged by crime and depravity.

 

This film reminded me of such classics as "The Warriors" and "Class of 1984", there's been plenty of filmmakers in recent years that have attempted to capture that style and atmosphere, but few have been able to do it as well as "Hobo with a Shotgun". It has some of that Roger Corman spirit to it, paying a fantastic homage to the grimy drive-in B-flicks of the '70s.

I enjoyed this movie a lot, but I am incredibly biased, since it was shot here in my town of Halifax/Dartmouth. I would see the recognizable Nova Scotia backdrtop in nearly every shot. It has a few familiar Canadian faces like Robb Wells and George Strombolopolous to name a few. But as some of you may know, ALL Canadian films (and television) have a certain"look" about them, a look that many Canadians often shudder to witness - THIS movie has none of that.

 

As crude and violent as some may think this film to be, this is probably the most fan-friendly movie to ever come out of Canada, and it delivers on its genre promises. This film is certainly the best trash-cinema/drive-in throwback genre movie to ever be made in Canada (to my knowledge). And most likely the best post-apocalyptic/action movie to come out of Nova Scotia since Def Con 4... HA!

I must mention the end credits song; Lisa Lougheed's 1988 "Run With Us". I remember this track playing for the closing credits of each episode of The Raccoons animated series, it's haunting theme stills sends chills up my spine.

The film is available On-Demand in US (http://www.magpictures.com/ondemand) 
Make sure to check it out!

Why is the movie so good?
Rutger Hauer's performance (as always) is fantastic, he plays the whole
thing with deadly seriousness.
The music and sound oozes of early 80s slasher films.
The lighting is high contrast and soaked with bright colors.
The production design and location work gives you a
good sense of the post-apocalyptic world we find ourselves in.
The actors are appropriately cast and fit in their roles quite well.
Props and costumes are perfect for the genre.
The FX and the gore are fitting and plentiful.
Story structure and character development are simple but well thought out.
Eisener recreates the 70s/80s exploitation film style with an impressive
attention to detail, and giving us a great grindhouse cinema experience.

Suffice it to say, I'm looking forward to whatever Jason Eisener does next. I still wish I could get my hands on that awesome Hobo poster. Here's an excerpt of an article from our local paper: 

With the buzz coming off of Sundance, Eisener has received the inevitable job offer from Hollywood to do a horror remake. "I turned it down," he says. Though he acknowledges the money was good, he doesn't want to spend two years on something where his heart isn't in it. "No amount of money is worth that." Besides, the script for the next movie is already being written and Fichman is on board again to help get it made. "It's going to be a high school martial arts movie," says Eisener, gleefully.  Source: The Coast

 

 

Bonus: Check out this Fangoria interview with the director.

The Illusionist

I've finally gotten the chance to view Sylvain Chomet's "The Illusionist". It was everything I was expecting and more. A beautifully crafted film from start to end, magnificent compositions, exquisite lighting and colors, and the typical character design style that Chomet is now famous for, but most importantly the characters and stories were original and refreshing. The physical acting of the character animation is what I marveled at most, the performances were amazing to say the least, not quite as caricature-ish as his Belleville, but precise and delicate to say the least. The script was penned by France's equivalent of Charlie Chaplin, Jacques Tati, and Chomet was given permission to adapt it by Tati's daughter, Sophie Tatischeff, who died before she could see the completed project.

Chomet has a pretty good claim to be one of the greatest European animators of our age. He managed to make a dark, individualist, almost-wordless story about a top-class cyclist, his club-footed granny and a bizarre transatlantic kidnap plot sufficiently appealing to a mainstream audience to garner two Oscar nominations, $7m at the US box office and healthy international sales on DVD.

In the four years since Belleville Rendezvous (aka Les Triplets de Belleville) Chomet has flirted with several major studios, but wrong-footed just about everyone who thought they knew what he should do next. Now, his newest film, "The Illusionist" is exquisitely drawn and bathed in beautiful light, each shot carefully hand-crafted by an army of animators, together they form a visual love song to the Capital from one of the world's most acclaimed animation filmmakers of our time. The film tells the tale of a French conjurer, the illusionist of the title, who is struggling to find work in 1950s Paris, as his public desert him for the new-fangled rock 'n' roll. He accepts a gig on a Scottish island, Iona, which has only just got electricity, where he falls for a local girl, and together they travel to Edinburgh.

Chomet's admiration for Tati can already be seen in Belleville, in which his characters watch Tati's 1949 classic Jour de Fete. It was to secure permission for this that Chomet first contacted Tati's daughter Sophie Tatischeff. Tati wrote the story about a traveling entertainer meeting a young girl alog the way and she tags along during his tour. But Tati died before making it the film. Sophie liked the style of Triplets and didn't want this film to be produced unless it was made through animation.

Chomet had always admired the physicality and inventiveness of Tati's comedy, and the way in which it does not rely on dialogue. The magician at the heart of the story is a foreigner, unable to understand the language and the accents of the town he's in. Chomet, set up a studio in the heart of Edinburgh after falling in love with the city while at the Capital's film festival in 2003. He moved with wife Sally to North Berwick, while his studio Django Films, was set up in the New Town with the past few years being spent working on The Illusionist.

The end result to Chomet's tireless work and passion for the craft is is the story of a stage magician - possibly not a very good one (and with an ill-tempered rabbit) — faced with the prospect of an audience that no longer exists, living in a world that no longer has a place for him or indeed for any of the simpler entertainments of his day. (There’s a bit of Chaplin’s Limelight (1952) and his A King in New York (1957) in here, too). Our magician sets out for London in hopes of a warmer reception, but things are even worse there—except that he gets an offer from an exceedingly drunk and unintelligible Scotsman to travel north and perform there.

Appearing at first in a small town, things do seem to go better, especially with the young serving girl, Alice, who is entranced by Tatischeff’s magic and touched by his kindness to her. But there is a hint of trouble to come when his act is followed by a jukebox being hauled out to play the pop tunes of the day. Plus, there’s an obvious limit to how long you can keep going with the same tricks in a town with a limited audience, so—now accompanied by Alice—he makes his way to Edinburgh to try his luck at the dying music hall there. They make their home in a boarding house specifically geared to—and populated by—other music hall artistes, none of whom are doing any better, as illustrated by an alcoholic ventriloquist and a suicidal clown.

Both the downward spiral—and the fact that Alice will ultimately gravitate toward her own age group (again, there’s the specter of Chaplin)—are inevitable, but it makes neither arc any less moving. The film’s final scenes—especially a note written by Tatischeff — are among the most genuinely heartbreaking scenes you're likely to see. (Though there is one final gag if you stay till the end of the credits.)

The Illusionist is like a seance that brings to life scenes from the 50s with eerie directness, in a way that glitzy digital animation or live-action period location work could somehow never do. Something in the unassuming simplicity of the composition allows the viewer to engage directly with the world being conjured up. This is, after all, a film for which the 1950s is the present-day. The visions of the old King's Cross railway station in London, or the old boat-train, or Edinburgh with its lonely seaside-cry of seagulls, are all weirdly like a remembered dream of a fictional childhood. Everything is paradoxically, vividly present. So I beg you, do not miss this beautiful film.

Red Letter Media's Review of "Star Wars: Episode 3"

It's finally here!
The follow up to the incredibly hilarious movie reviews of Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones has arrived! This time he breaks down the final George Lucas pile of crap; Revenge of the Sith:


PART 1:




PART 2:




PART 3: