Movie Reviews

Pure guilty pleasure, Sahara has good looking heroes and plenty of action to keep everybody happy. If scientists could cross bread James Bond and Indiana Jones with a good old southern boy, then Dirk Pitt would be the prize to their efforts. Sahara is completely silly and way out of touch from reality, but then again what do we go to the movies for; it’s a perfect date night film.

Sahara
3 & 1/2 Stars

Pure guilty pleasure, Sahara has good looking heroes and plenty of action to keep everybody happy. If scientists could cross bread James Bond and Indiana Jones with a good old southern boy, then Dirk Pitt would be the prize to their efforts. Sahara is completely silly and way out of touch from reality, but then again what do we go to the movies for; it’s a perfect date night film.

(Release Date: April 8)

Nothing but guilty pleasure here boys and girls. Sahara is an action packed comedy adventure that will take you on an adrenaline high. It’s James Bond meets Indiana Jones, it’s Laurel and Hardy for today. Steve Zahn as Al, the ever comedic sidekick, and Matthew McConaughy as Dirk Pitt, the handsome save the day and the chick lead, is a duo that is made for the big screen; humor roles between the two of them as if they have been pals forever. Pals forever is the point behind all of this, their relationship in the film should look like they have been on hundreds of adventures before this and will be on even more afterwards and it works. The duo is accompanied by William H. Macy as Admiral James Sandecker, as usual William is right on the mark, and Penelope Cruz is there too, she plays Dr. Eva Rojas, Pitt’s love interest and common do-gooder.

Sahara will take you from the Civil War to a battle between a brutal African dictator and his people in Mali; actually it was filmed in Morocco, but you can’t tell. Pitt and Al are deep-sea treasure hunters that spend the whole film on land looking for a non-existent Civil War battle-ship, along the way their paths cross with Dr. Eva Rojas who is going in the same direction trying to solve a sudden plague that is killing the people of Africa. Then we go from plague and treasure hunts to full-on nuclear waste is going to destroy the world mode; by the way the waste is getting into the water supply and causing the plague. As Sahara moves along, at a very rapid pace, the most unbelievable events happen to it’s characters. Awesome and ah inspiring things like a high-tech speed boat chase that is like no other you have seen on the big screen and a final battle between a helicopter and a rusted bucket with a few rusty hundred year old cannons. Many critics whined about the fact that the events and happenings in Sahara was so unreal and couldn’t happen; let me give you a clue, it’s a movie and it’s suppose to be unreal, DUH!

They didn’t Sink The Titanic this time, so stop your moaning Cussler. Clive Cussler wrote Sahara in a series of Dirk Pitt novels, it is the eleven adventure he has sent the duo on. I have never read the books myself, but if there was a flaw in the film it was from the story end of it; of course that might not have been completely Cussler’s fault, there was 4-screen writers on staff. Maybe there was too many hands in the pot. I’ll give mad props to first time director Breck Eisner, he did a great job under the pressure of big named stars and plenty of sand storms and African heat.

Like I said at the beginning, Sahara is pure guilty pleasure and is a hell of a ride. I enjoyed it and liked the fact that I could sit through a film and not cry or want to kill myself at the end. It’s a non-thinker, just for fun go out and have a good time type of film.

I absolutely adored this movie. Everything about it was top-notch entertainment, and I was wonderfully surprised with its final direction. Kung Fu Hustle is tremendously good fun. Endearing, positive, and filled with the kind of mind-blowing action sequences that Michael Bay can only dream about, this movie is a must see for fans of Kung Fu action and good comedy. Here’s hoping Sony Pictures Classic can manage to give Stephen Chow the American attention and accolades he so richly deserves. Do yourself a tremendous favor and go see Kung Fu Hustle this weekend. You will not be disappointed.

Kung Fu Hustle
4 & 1/2 Stars

As any observant Transbuddha reader will know, I’m a huge fan of Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer, so my anticipation for his new (to the U.S. at least) Kung Fu Hustle was nearly sky high. With high hopes and giddy excitment, I hit the advance screening hoping, wishing, expecting to be blown completely away.

Guess what? I was.

Kung Fu Hustle didn’t meet my expectations, it completely shattered them. Funny, endearing, fast, action-packed, and inventive as all get out, Kung Fu Hustle deserves your money.

Seriously, go see this movie.

Writer/Director/Star Stephen Chow may be one of the most famous entertainers you’ve never heard of. His films are blockbusters in China and Asia in general, and his previous effort (Shaolin Soccer) broke every box office record in Hong Kong. Miramax picked up Shaolin Soccer and then sat it on a shelf for two years, only to release a dubbed and re cut version into a staggering 6 theaters. Word of mouth and region-free DVD’s created a cult following here in America, and Miramax finally did the right thing and released an uncut, subtitled version on DVD. His newest film, Kung Fu Hustle, blew past Shaolin Soccer’s box office take, and managed to sweep the Hong Kong version of the Oscars.

Kung Fu Hustle tells a story of the epic battle between the residents of Pig Sty Alley, home of the poorest of the poor, and the notorious Axe Gang, a vicious band of thugs who’ve taken over the local gang scene. Doing triple-duty again, the ever charming Stephen Chow plays Sing, a wannabe gangster who (in his ill-conceived attempt to run protection racket in Pig Sty Alley by posing as a member of the Axe Gang), inadvertently brings the attention of the real gang to the not-so-helpless denizens of the slum. This forces three disguised Kung Fu masters to fight off the gang, and all hell breaks loose as the three seemingly harmless men just decimate the gang. Unwilling to accept a beating, the leader of the Axe Gang recruits his own kung fu masters to take revenge which of course escalates into a miniature war of superhuman proportions.

While that may read as your run-of-the-mill chop-sockey plot of conflict and revenge, Kung Fu Hustle stands apart with it’s deft balance of humor, plot, and jawdroppingly amazing action. It’s a testament to his filmmaking prowess that the jokes in Stephen Chow’s films manage to get through the translation to subtitles. It’s funny where it’s supposed to be funny for non-native speakers, and that’s a rare treat in most foreign films. Sure he’s not averse to the occasional sophomoric or low-brow sight gag, but mostly the humor comes from the seemingly incongruent actions of his characters and his exceptional eye for casting. There’s more than a few laugh-out-loud moments in the film, and I found myself grinning for most of the 95 minute running time. So much so that my jaw actually hurt as I was leaving the theater, and for once that wasn’t due to Milk Dud consumption.

While most action film plots are threadbare things just there to propel you from one fight sequence to the next, Kung Fu Hustle inserts some serious thought about personal responsibility and the consequences of our actions (which results in a couple of subtle Spider-Man references, no less), without resorting to treacle or preaching. Chow’s action films all share a common message about the underlying meaning of Kung Fu and how it should be used to better our lives, not end others, and that message makes it’s expected (but not obvious) appearance.

While the characters at first seem like crude stereotypes, they’re endearing enough to make you care about their fates and mourn for their losses. Super high marks must be given to Wah Yuen (the Landlord) Qiu Yuen (the Landlady), and Siu Lung Leung (the Beast), as these three grandparent age actors were simply a joy to watch onscreen. Not only accomplished fighters, their interactions were among the highlights of the film. A pre-battle conversation between them was at once both charming and forbidding as each (in their outlandish costuming and graying hair) managed to convey a perfectly realized sense of barely contained power and vitality. Delusional hobo-clad Leung especially managed to deliver a performance that was funny and brimming with gleeful malice. And as always, Stephen Chow put his odd looking cast to the best possible use.

Stephen Chow is a self-confessed Bruce Lee fanatic and it shows in every gesture and expression on his face. He’s a perfect heir to Lee’s charm and magnetism, and Sing’s eventual spiritual transformation neatly captures Lee’s trademark power and grace. He manages to sneak a not-so-subtle dig at Keanu Reeves’ Neo that only underscores why the Matrix films ultimately failed to connect. A hero shouldn’t exist just to fight, and Chow knows that.

But the fights! Oh, the fighting!  Sweet, beautiful Kung Fu madness leaps from nearly every frame of this movie. This the world of wire-fu, and the blissful disobedience of the laws of physics is ratcheted up a notch with each successive fight. Bodies fly through the air, everyday objects become weapons of mass destruction, and its an even race for what’s more in danger of being destroyed; the fighters or the world around them. While the fantastic elements of these battles remove some of their visceral impact, these fights get downright brutal. (Though for all it’s violence, Kung Fu Hustle remains a fairly blood & gore free movie.) Characters are literally pounded into the ground if they’re not being flung into the air like rag dolls. Famed fight choreographers Yuen Woo-Ping and Sammo Hung once again prove their worth as the architects of this ballet of violence. Chow seems to be enjoying his bigger budgets with more refined and seamless CGI effects, which put the Matrix sequels to shame. Unlike the almost masturbatory slow-motion shots seemingly designed to make stars look cool, Kung Fu Hustle knows that speed wins in the end, and so it reserves it’s slow-motion for sequences that deserve the attention. It’s the action that will bring this movie it’s attention from non-Hong Kong savvy filmgoers, and in that regard it should deliver above and beyond the normal expectations.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I absolutely adored this movie. Everything about it was top-notch entertainment, and I was wonderfully surprised with its final direction. Kung Fu Hustle is tremendously good fun. Endearing, positive, and filled with the kind of mind-blowing action sequences that Michael Bay can only dream about, this movie is a must see for fans of Kung Fu action and good comedy. Here’s hoping Sony Pictures Classic can manage to give Stephen Chow the American attention and accolades he so richly deserves. Do yourself a tremendous favor and go see Kung Fu Hustle this weekend. You will not be disappointed.

Barring decent returns drawn in by Barrymore’s rom-com track record, Fever Pitch should go a long way in convincing higher-ups to keep Jimmy Fallon on SNL, where his delivery and love of laughing at his own jokes can serve to distract the audience from wooden performance of that week’s guest star.  Unless your need for a sports flavored romantic comedy can’t be sated by a quick rental of Bull Durham, I’d advise you give Fever Pitch a pass and just pick up endlessly more entertaining About a Boy or High Fidelity. 

Fever Pitch
2 & 1/2 Stars

It’s difficult to judge a film solely on it’s own merits when you’re dealing with a re-make of film based on popular book.  Especially so when you’re fond and familiar of the source material.  That being said, I made every effort to view the Farrelly Bros. newest Fever Pitch unfettered by my thoughts on the either Nick Hornby’s book or the 1997 Colin Firth vehicle based off the same, but even removed from it’s source this romantic comedy still manages to strike out at every opportunity.

Ben (Jimmy Fallon, once again failing to convince America to believe he’s as funny as he thinks he is) is a lifelong Red Sox Fan, with a beyond obsessive devotion to the (until 2004) long disappointing team.  Lindsey (Drew Barrymore, who somehow manages to be awkward and charming at the same time) is a high-powered, job obsessed number cruncher who makes room in her heart for Ben, only to realize that his love of the Red Sox leaves little room for her in his.  Hilarity and true love inevitably ensue, as contractually obligated.

And that’s it, really.  Gone are the moments from Hornby’s autobiographical novel which underscore how a man’s obsession with a sports club can both define and control his life to the exclusion of all else.  And with their recent World Series win (which prompted some hasty re-writes, I’m sure), The Red Sox don’t provide the Farrelly Brothers with a team that delivers the bitter disappointment and love/hate relationship that comes with backing a perennially losing team, and how that disappointment bleeds into every aspect of the obsessive fan’s life.  By shifting the plot’s focus to fit a traditional romantic comedy genre the guts are taken right out of those aspects which made the material movie-worthy in the first place.  Further injustice is done by removing the first person viewpoint that made High Fidelity and About a Boy so compelling and engaging.  By widening the cast there’s no room to hone in on Ben and truly explore the impact and implications of his obsession.

Though to be honest, when your main star is Jimmy Fallon, perhaps the wisest move is to pull back as far as possible.  Sadly cameras aren’t capable of operating far enough back to showcase Fallon as anything other than a self-amused and unfunny clown.  Erasing any fond memories of his turn as sleazebag manager Dennis Hope in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, Fallon delivers every line like it’s the 100th take read straight from a teleprompter, to the point where his ‘spontaneous’ jokes come across like the ramblings of a delusional who’s oblivious to the world around him.  His work is not helped by the seemingly random turns his character takes, which are presented with no context to help make sense of them.  Nearly every one of Ben’s big decisions are made off-screen, leaving the viewer to wonder what the point of this movie is in the first place.

Drew Barrymore fares better as Ben’s love interest, but like Fallon she’s not given enough material that could give her character any more depth or interest.  She’s just there as a plot device, and not a particularly compelling one at that.  Outside of a fever-haze first date in which Ben gets his caregiver on, there’s no exploration of why these two people are together in the first place, let alone why they care enough about each other enough to accept their place alongside each of their respective obsessions.  She’s further saddled with the responsibility of providing the film’s “big moment”, an act which would in reality destroy every single one of her career aspirations.  Oddly enough, most of the actual character work is done by her character’s Sex & the City cut-out circle of friends, with nearly every revelation about Ben and Lindsey delivered by the status and fitness obsessed Greek chorus.

Had the film included a Steve Buscemi or Rob Schneider cameo, I’d have been more inclined to believe this was one of Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison productions than a film from the usually entertaining Farrelly Brothers who, for all their lowbrow sensibilities and visual gags, have consistently delivered stories with enough of an emotional core to make the experience worthwhile.  Of course, the Brothers Farrelly also have a gift for casting leads who can perfectly embody their characters; a gift that either deserted them for this go-round, or simply couldn’t fight the combination of a weak script and an actor who seems to enjoy his own performances more than the audience or his co-stars.

Barring decent returns drawn in by Barrymore’s rom-com track record, Fever Pitch should go a long way in convincing higher-ups to keep Jimmy Fallon on SNL, where his delivery and love of laughing at his own jokes can serve to distract the audience from wooden performance of that week’s guest star.  Unless your need for a sports flavored romantic comedy can’t be sated by a quick rental of Bull Durham, I’d advise you give Fever Pitch a pass and just pick up endlessly more entertaining About a Boy or High Fidelity. 

Barring decent returns drawn in by Barrymore’s rom-com track record, Fever Pitch should go a long way in convincing higher-ups to keep Jimmy Fallon on SNL, where his delivery and love of laughing at his own jokes can serve to distract the audience from wooden performance of that week’s guest star.  Unless your need for a sports flavored romantic comedy can’t be sated by a quick rental of Bull Durham, I’d advise you give Fever Pitch a pass and just pick up endlessly more entertaining About a Boy or High Fidelity. 

Sin City weaves through the tale of hulking sociopath and dead-prostitute-avenger Marv (Mickey Rourke), dedicated cop Hartigan (Bruce Willis), and all around cool customer and mean motor scooter Dwight (Clive Owens) as they set out to right wrongs, punish the deserving, and spill a goodly amount of blood (their foes and their own), while laboring through the urban wasteland of fictional Basin City. Along the way we’re introduced to a seedy world of strippers, prostitutes, corrupt cops, silent assassins, pedophiles, and downright evil public figures, all so well armed it must bring a tear to Charlton Heston’s craggy eye.

This’ll find an audience with fans of stylized grit and gristle, but serious film-noir fans might find it’s inherent cartoonishness a bit much to take. But if you’re feeling the need for fast cars, faster women, big guns and lot’s of blood, stop in at Sin City and you’ll get your fill.

Sin City
3 & 1/2 Stars

I was able to catch the advance screening of Frank Miller’s Sin City last night.  As a long-time comic geek, this movie had me all kinds of oogala boogala over the prospect seeing Basin City’s most infamous residents live out their their hyperviolent lives on the big screen.  The film geek in me was a hell of a lot more skeptical, however. 

Well, I was duly impressed and a little let down, to tell the truth.

Violent Marv gets his Hulk on.

Director Robert Rodriquez (Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids 1 -1000, From Dusk till Dawn) was so intent on faithfully adapting uber-comic writer Frank Miller’s graphic novel series that he made Miller the co-director of the film . While most comic fans would swoon over the prospect of a series creator having equal creative control, I’m not so enamored of the talent that I can blindly think that what works in one medium works in another. But before I trod all over that aspect, let’s get the meat and gristle out of the way.

Sin City weaves through the tale of hulking sociopath and dead-prostitute-avenger Marv (Mickey Rourke), dedicated cop Hartigan (Bruce Willis), and all around cool customer and mean motor scooter Dwight (Clive Owens) as they set out to right wrongs, punish the deserving, and spill a goodly amount of blood (their foes and their own), while laboring through the urban wasteland of fictional Basin City. Along the way we’re introduced to a seedy world of strippers, prostitutes, corrupt cops, silent assassins, pedophiles, and downright evil public figures, all so well armed it must bring a tear to Charlton Heston’s craggy eye.

Marv is on a bloody quest to avenge the death of Goldie, a prostitute who mistakenly assumed he could protect her. In the comic, he was known as Violent Marv, and he certainly lives up to the name in this adaptation. Dwight starts a gang-war to protect the girls of Old Town from the repercussions of a misguided killing, and Hartigan is trying to protect a young girl from a vengeful serial killer he couldn’t manage to stop 8 years before. Bookending the film are two short vignettes about a charming but efficient contract killer (Josh Hartnett).

Steeped equally in the hard-boiled canon of Mike Hammer and the blood soaked frenzy of the Asian revenge genre, Sin City is one incredibly gory and violent film. Seriously, this movie makes Kill Bill look like The Rainbow Brite Movie. Beheadings, beatings, endless shootings, and some leg-crossing inducing moments permeate through Sin City, drenching it in an ocean of hyper stylized gore. To that end, it’s almost a love song for bloody retribution on a level Sam Peckinpah would have cringed at. Combined with more supple female skin that I’ve seen on screen since the T&A glory days of the mid-80’s, the only thing saving this movie from NC-17 rating is hyper-cartoonish black and white look of the film, which almost perfectly matches Frank Miller’s original works. Visually the film is an absolute winner. Reversed silhouettes, sparse use of color, and beautifully realized effects made this a joy to watch from a purely artistic point of view. Fans of the series will quickly realize that nearly every shot is a direct lift of the comic and perfectly conveys Miller’s gritty style.

Which is actually where my problem with the film lies. Every single line of dialogue is from the comic. It was so faithful to the source that I could have left for 30 minutes and known exactly what was going on. Indeed, one fan behind me was reciting the lines moments before the characters would. As a fan of the series, I impressed by the truly exceptional casting of the roles, as each character was a perfect representation of their creator’s intention, but I can’t help wondering what the point of the whole endeavor was. Much like Gus Van Sant’s remake of Psycho, if Rodriguez didn’t have anything to add to the material why bother making it? I realize that statement constitutes fan-boy heresy of the highest order, but I long ago came to grips with the fact that director is an interpreter, not a re-enacter. For all the changes wrought by Sam Raimi, Bryan Singer, along with every other comic-book film director, I’m glad those artists showed us something different about the characters I’m so familiar with. Every fanboy wants a perfect rendition of his favorite story, but what’s the point of that, and how does it serve to widen the appreciation for the characters? The answer: It doesn’t. This film is a slobbering love fest for it’s source material, and it makes no bones about it. Whether the big name cast and visual hooks will be enough to engage the unfamiliar remains to be seen.

As a stand-alone film, Sin City is not much more than a cartoonish realization of most every guy’s most animal instinct. Talking is never an option, and why wound a guy when you can utterly erase him? And why just kill ‘em when you can literally pound them into the pavement? On that level the film does it’s job exceptionally well. Having to pick and choose the stories from such a larger source, Rodriquez and Miller don’t spend any time explaining their characters’ action beyond a superficial level, nor do they provide any clue on how these characters became the way they are. In Sin City everyone is just one bad day away from a complete homicidal rampage. But I suppose I’m asking too much of a film which would rather spend more effort on cool poses and hard-ass looks in between gunfights.

Some little highlights before I conclude this, lest anyone think that at the very least I didn’t enjoy the film on it’s most visceral level: As I said before, the casting is jaw-droppingly perfect for fans of the series. Non fans can be content to enjoy an immensely entertaining performance by Mickey Rourke, and really…how often can you say that? As I said previously, Rosario Dawson managed to be vulnerable, tough, scary and sexy as hell without fading into her characters inherent shallowness. Nick Stahl was excellent as a bona-fide monster, in that his pre-hideous screen time is equally as menacing and evil as his post. Bencio Del Toro obviously enjoyed the hell out of his role as bad apple Jack Rafferty, and that came across in his wild-eyed and creepy performance. But truly the most kudos have to go to former Hobbit Elijah Wood, who is doing an excellent job in picking roles capable of erasing Frodo Baggins from the mind of the collective consciousness.

I suppose I need to pick a side on this movie. I did enjoy it, but not for the reasons I expected to, just as I was turned off by those things that, as a long time comic fan, I should have been very happy with. This’ll find an audience with fans of stylized grit and gristle, but serious film-noir fans might find it’s inherent cartoonishness a bit much to take. But if you’re feeling the need for fast cars, faster women, big guns and lot’s of blood, stop in at Sin City and you’ll get your fill.