BRIEF MOVIE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CASUAL MOVIEGOERS


Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Post-CNY blabber

Gong xi fa cai, happy lunar new year, and welcome back! It has been more than half a month since the last post. That's because The Big Movie Freak was back at his parents' in his native country for a week-long celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Over here, we call this annual endeavour balik kampung, meaning "to return to our village," although you will be disappointed to hear that my "village" is far from being some idyllic getaway with wooden houses, rustling coconut trees and sandy beaches.

The holidays have provided me with plenty of time to catch up on some movies and for absolutely no cost at all... meaning I've been rummaging through Will2k's DVD stash. There were more oldsies than newsies, but at least I finally got to see Superbad and 3:10 to Yuma without having to take a leave of absence from work and watch its 10am only weekday shows. (It's now off the cinema circuit, by the way.) Managed to do some revisiting on Johnnie To's PTU, Sam Raimi's Darkman, Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven. Also finally saw Tron in its entirety, and got to see Michael Hui's Hong Kong comedy Chicken and Duck Talk. Already halfway there with their reviews. Hopefully I'll be able to catch most of the Oscar pics before they announce the awards next week. No Country For Old Men, Michael Clayton, Juno and Atonement are already playing, while There Will Be Blood premieres this week.

News-wise, X-men's Gambit is finally making his big-screen appearance on the upcoming X-men spin-off, Wolverine, in 2009. New Line gets sued again, this time by the Tolkien Trust, which threatens the production on the upcoming The Hobbit movies. On the same topic, apparently director Guillermo Del Toro still hasn't sign the dotted lines, despite having said yes to directing The Hobbit. And Hong Kong star Lydia Shum has passed away yesterday morning after a long battle with cancer. Although not internationally famous, the rotund Shum has been a prolific, prominent and iconic figure in the Hong Kong entertainment industry, having made her mark in a string of successful local comedies and hosting numerous television events.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Hobbit director CONFIRMED!


Guillermo Del Toro, director of Cronos, Mimic, The Devil's Backbone, Blade 2, Hellboy 1 & 2 and Pan's Labyrinth will helm the two-parter prequels to Lord of the Rings! TheOneRing.Net was the first to break the news (link here).
Apart from the physical resemblance to LOTR director Peter Jackson pre-diet phase, Del Toro is more arthouse than a Spielberg like Jackson. His knack for putting interesting visuals and themes onscreen (and his love for creatures and assorted monstrosities sure helps) usually more than covers for his shortcomings in pacing and editing (exception: Blade 2). I still think Jackson is the better choice for keeping the Middle Earth universe consistent with the trilogy, which is what people loved in the first place. But since it's going to be Del Toro, I hope he's given free reign to do his own interpretation, and not try to ape Jackson, who was already kind of aping Spielberg. Bryan Singer, the very talented director who made two really good X-men movies, tried to ape Richard Donner, and came up with the disappointing Superman Returns (which could have used a little more of his X-men sensibilities in it). I really hope The Hobbit isn't going to be Del Toro's Superman Returns.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Review: A Battle of Wits (Muk gong)

State Wars
Set in China’s Warring States period, A Battle of Wits focuses on the small, city-state of Liang. Getting news of a massive Zhao army en route to Liang, the politicos of Liang, including the Liang King (Wang Zhiwen), his prince Liang Shi (Choi Si Won), adviser Si Tu (Wu Ma) and General Niu (Chin Siu-Hou) must decide to either defend their keep, or surrender to the enemy. Before General Niu manages to officiate their surrender with Zhao general Xiang Yanzhong (Ahn Sung-Kee), a special Zhao regiment has already reached the gates of Liang. Moments before, aid from Liang ally, the Mozi tribe, came in the form of Mozi brethren Ge Li (Andy Lau). Before you mock his name, I should warn you that the Mozi are known for their deft in strategic warfare, and Ge Li proves this by successfully repelling the Zhao regiment. His accomplishment earned widespread adulation, including those from the Liang prince and female soldier Yi Yue (Fan Bingbing), much to the chagrin of the jealous king. He suspects that Ge Li may try to usurp his throne, and plots to do away with the Mozi after the Zhao army has given up on invading Liang. Taiwanese star Nicky Wu plays the Chinese Legolas, Zi Tuan.

A Battle of Wits is another one of those “against all odds” movies like Lord of the Rings, Troy and 300, with a city of 4,000 up against an army of 100,000. Most of the fun in Battle is from observing how Ge Li overcomes wave after wave of attacks from the Zhao. Actually, Ge’s defensive maneuvers are more about brutality than strategy - employing many cheap, gruesome tactics like spike traps and fire pits to kill as many enemies as you can within the shortest amount of time. Although the Zhao army lost only a fraction of their men, the psychological impact is severe, demoralising Xiang’s troops who were supposed to be on their way to a bigger, more important battle up north. But Xiang himself is no idiot, and devised some sly maneuvers of his own. It’s interesting to note the Mozi’s inner conflict between the two key components of his religion - “universal love” and cold pragmatism. It’s his love for humanity and peace that brought him to Liang’s aid, but cruel logic dictates that in order for Liang to survive, Zhao soldiers must die.

Lovehkfilm.com’s Kozo described Ge Li as resembling a Jedi Knight. Apart from trudging about a sandy landscape in a brown, hooded robe, the Mozi is also very monk-like, keeps a short crop of hair, and abstains from material possessions and even a disrobing Fan Bingbing. You can say that his ability to outguess his opponent’s movements is a kind of Force power. The only thing missing is elegant sword skills and a lightsabre, though Ge is pretty wicked with a bow and a specially modified arrow.

My only gripe with the movie - the romantic subplot, which involves an improbable female soldier character in 5 B.C. China, who is porcelain-fair and pretty to boot. (Why couldn’t they just make her a Liang princess?) Admittedly, Fan Bingbing provides some much needed eye candy in a sea of grimy, ragged people that are the civilians of Liang. Either ways, it’s still leagues smarter and more entertaining than 300, and loses out to Troy only from a lack of star power (unless you see Fan, Wu and Super Junior member Choi as “stars”). It’s also better than the messily edited theatrical cut of Seven Swords. (I’m still waiting for the five-hour epic version, Mr. Tsui Hark.) Of course, in the biased eyes of this Rings fan, nothing beats Lord of the Rings. - BMF

VERDICT:





Written and directed by Jacob Cheung Chi Leung (Never Say Goodbye, Midnight Fly). Stars Andy Lau Tak-Wah, Wang Zhiwen, Fan Bingbing, Chin Siu-Hou, Choi Si Won, Ahn Sung-Kee, Wu Ma and Nicky Wu. Based on the novel Bokko by Sakemi Ken'ichi.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Missing out on the "Oscar" movies, part 2!

Original posting here.

The Oscar nominations were announced on 21 January (22 January here), and their selections for the Best Picture categories are Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. Total number of Best Pic nominess - five. Total number of Best Pic nominees that I've seen - zero.

Michael Clayton has been reduced to one show a day, at 9.30pm, so too bad, I can't possibly watch that anymore unless I'm willing to pay $2.50 extra and let it eat up my weekend. Not so looking forward to Atonement, and it isn't looking forward to me either, since it has placed itself in the weekday evening 6.30pm slot (impossible for me to make it). Both No Country For Old Men and Juno debut on Valentine's Day, while there are no news about There Will Be Blood's release date.

For the other Oscar nominees: I managed to catch Eastern Promises and American Gangster, and they didn't disappoint. The Assassination of Jesse James is showing only in the city and at odd times on weekday evenings; 5.35pm and 8.55pm, so I guess I'll have to pass. There's still a window of opportunity for 3:10 to Yuma, which has 6.50pm shows in the following week, provided my wife allows me to watch this and Rambo 4 on the same week. Elizabeth: The Golden Age has stopped screening (at GV, at least).

Ben Affleck's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone was a critical favourite, and debuts on 31 January. I hope it lasts till after the Lunar New Year celebrations, during which The Big Movie Freak site and blog will be on a one-and-a-half-week hiatus. (I'll catch it as soon as I'm back.) I'll probably try to watch CJ7 in Malaysia during that time, and hope that it's not a censored version. The E.T. vibe of Stephen Chow's latest looks censor-friendly enough.

Maybe I should start taking my moniker more literally and watch only the blockbuster movies. Following up on these critically acclaimed movies has proven to be quite a chore! I mean, aren't movies supposed to be leisurely entertainment?