The Great Schlep

This is a verry funny little political short from Sarah Silverman...

See more Sarah Silverman videos at Funny or Die

REVIEW: Slacker Uprising

The day physical media is dead will be a sad one, but a happy day for people like me who hate the space it takes up. I mean let's face it, the serious movie collector only has so much space before we start to look like obsessed maniacs. Film prints, VHS, Laser Discs, DVD's, Blu-Rays. It's all crazy space taking stuff. I love the DVR (aka Tivo) I have the one in my living room cram packed with my favorite movies in HD. Whenever i want something, its a click away. No getting up grabbing the disc waiting 10 minutes for my already ancient blu-ray player to load up. So I am a huge proponent of getting rid of physical media as soon as possible. In fact my brother in law has a nice PC media center. When HD catches up to downloads, it's over Johnny...



So with that in mind, I was excited that Michael Moore's new feature length documentary, "Slacker Uprising" would be released as a digital download and for free no less. Plus it was on Blip.tv which I used for one of my own films. Blip and Vimeo are really blowing YouTube away in terms of quality HD streaming video. Streaming digital distribution is catching up. Anyway I watched the film in HD streaming and had a few hickups but after a while it was pretty seamless. Unfortunatly the film itself is no so good. This is why it's free. The documentary is not like Moore's others. (i have not seen Sicko yet) Moore usually has some sort of point. It may be very left wingish but he tries to make a point and check the system. In Slacker, its pretty much just him going to colleges in 04 trying to lure huge stadiums of kids to vote for Kerry. Michael Moore has become very much about Michael Moore recetnly and that's sad. The man has a gift for documentary filmmaking, but this film is really boring and serves no purpose. Its filled out with performances by Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, REM, Eddie Veder, etc. all telling kids how they have to vote to get the evil Bush devil out of office. Now it would have been cool had that worked, but it didn't! So not only is the end a known thing from minute one, but it's even more depressing right now. And maybe that was the point, but I found this one to be very self serving to Moore. Moore is very predictable now, the edge is gone.



However I am excited that Moore decided to use this method to release his film, and I hope other filmmakers do the same. You can watch SLACKER UPRISING by clicking HERE.

Enter the Jeeja !!!!!!

The days of a movie really blowing my mind don't happen much anymore. It's rare. I was doing some research on a a new Kung-Fu top ten fights blog entry and I was looking into what the status of Tony Jaa's new film Ong Bak 2 was when I saw that director Prachya Pinkaew had a rift with Jaa and went out and made a new movie with a female martial artist Nicharee “Jeeja” Vismistananda called "Chocolate". (For the sake of my fingers typing we will refer to her as Jeeja... ) So I found a copy of it, and holy smokes, Jeeja is for real! SHE BLEW MY FRIGGIN MIND!

The fight scenes are nothing short of breathtaking. The stunts and fighting are things we can't do here in the States folks. People get hurt for real. When they get kicked in the head with a block of ice and fall off of a building they really get kicked in the head with a block of ice and fall off of a building. For real. The version I saw had no subs, so I ordered a new one from HKFLIX and it should be here in time for Kung-Fu Night next week in the Clappatorium. I can't say the rest of the movie is as good as the fighting, but it does not really matter. Check out this trailer for Chocolate. Jeeja is my new love...

Movie Review Madness!

I've logged a lot of films recently, and I've been having a blast. It's great to get caught up on some movies I have been missing. Sadly, no trips to the cinema. What has happened to me? Am I destined for home video hell? On with the madness....

THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM

Based on the legendary Chinese tale of the Monkey King, this movie reminded me of Ronnie Yu's attempt at U.S. kung-foolery called Warriors of Virtue. Like that movie this one is aimed more or less at kids, but its at least fun and stars two of the biggest kung-fu stars of all time, the great Jackie Chan and the great Jet Li. Anyone that knows me really well, knows I am (or used to be) a Hong Kong movie expert. At one time in my younger days I had a massive collection of Asian films. Well in 97, lots of things changed, I got a job and Hong Kong was handed from the Brits back over to the Commies. And pirating of movies became rampant. The former two things really took the local HK film biz into a tailspin. Quality suffered and most of the big stars like Jet, Jackie, and directors like Woo and Yu moved over here to make bad versions of their HK work.

Back in the 90's a Jackie vs. Jet movie was oft rumored to be happening, but behind the scenes it was known that the two did really care for each other. In fact Jet made a movie about a Jackie Chan type actor who was know for doing his own stunts but never actually did them. And the director of that film was Wong Jing who made City Hunter with Chan and didn't get along with JC. So suffice to say they were not exactly on good terms... Flash forward about 15 years later and we have a Monkey King movie directed by a round eye, Rob Minkoff.



Honestly, I enjoyed the film as light as it was. But in all honesty its for kids, and its not the crazy ass Jackie vs. Jet movie I dreamed about. The fight scenes between the two is really fun though, and it is very cool to see Jackie's Drunken boxing style vs. Jet's Wushu style. And unlike most US/HK crossovers, its a long fight. So its more than a tease, its a good long fight that will satisfy most people. And to be a reverse racist here, the worst element of the movie is the white kid, whose eyes the story is told. The story is basic, kid finds ancient monkey king staff and is transported back in time to become a kung-fu master in a few days while Jackie and jet fight/team up in the end to fight some bad guys.

Now the other big problem I had with this movie was this: DO NOT F WITH "The Bride With White Hair" EVER. One of the bad guys or chicks I should say is a total ripoff of the Bridget Lin from Bride with Hair movie. One of my favorite HK films of all time. Its a great character, but it does not fit here and comes off as a fanboy dream gone horribly wrong. We know The Bride is a cool movie don't disrespect it like that. Change the hair color at least!

I think this film is fun for two main reasons: Jackie and Jet. Both play dual roles int he movie. Jackie plays a 100 year old man that rents kung-fu movies, and Jet gets to play the Monkey King. I think Jet's Monkey King was pretty good. So it's worth the view if you like those guys, just don't think you're getting Fist of Legend or Drunken Master II or anything.




INTO THE WILD

A really great film, that I assume like the book (which my wife has read) makes you think about whats it all about. Life in society that is. Into the Wild is about a kid, Chris from a somewhat broken home that decides after college he will ditch all material things and just walk/hitchhike his way to Alaska. Played by Emile Hirsch, his goal is to live off the land as much as he can. He may take a small job here or there, but just enough to get him to the next point on his journey. It would seem that he is rebelling against his parents most of the time, but I would have liked the film to have touched more on his relationship with his parents. The idea of his journey that Chris has is understood. Everyone at some point in their life may want to just drop out of society and get as far away from the modern world as possible, but here the reasons are very vague and somewhat stereotypical. (in a movie world that is) Having said that this movie is about the journey and maybe director Sean Penn wanted us to fill in those holes ourselves as we ride along with him.



Along the way Chris meets Kathleen Keener who acts as a sort of a Mom away from home to him. He also gets a job on a farm working for Vince Vaughn and meets an older man, Hal Holbrook who lost his son and sees Chris as a temporary substitute. Based on a true story, I found a lot about Chris I saw in myself, and I think anyone watching it will, but Chris acted on it, and didn't look back. He's like a runaway that ran away after he finished college. I won't spoil the end of the movie, but its handled really well and what I liked about the movie more than anything it doesn't try to preach down to you. It presents things as they are, and its up to you to make those judgements about Chris. The Eddie Veder soundtrack can grate on you after a while, but other than that, highly recommended viewing.



SPEED RACER

I told Amy this, this morning about my review of this so called "film". Now technically speaking aside, If you took a shit on a shit, you would produce something greater than the live action Speed Racer movie film... Nothing more to say on that. However, technically speaking it looks awesome. So, to sum up its like looking in a toilet after you took a shit and saying wow, that's a nice looking piece of shit.



EXILED

I love Johnny To movies. He has made so many great ones over the years and is probably the best HK director working today. Maybe because he stayed put while everyone else moved to the US after 97. I dunno. But he continues to crank out great comedies and gangster movies year after year. I recently saw his Election dualigy, which was really good. Here a gang of 5 childhood friends who are all gangsters in rival gangs show up for a reunion of sorts. However one of the men has a hit on him by a big gang boss. Two of the guys are there to kill him, and the other two are there to protect him. After a crazy opening gun battle they all agree to work together to save their fellow brother who now has a wife and small baby depending on him. Anthony Wong is the main star while the greatness of Simon Yam shows up as the Big Boss wanting the job done. Fantastic drama mixed with ever greater choreographed gun battles. To is still on top of his game. His newer gangster films have found this rhythm of silence and sudden out bursts of violence that really get to you. It's a return to 90's Hong Kong gangster classics!

Documentary Reviews!

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD


Werner Herzog is like heroin. Once you get into one of his films, you must have more. His narrative films are pretty similar to his documentary work. Experimental. I really dug his last narrative, Rescue Dawn with Christian bale, and I didn't think I would. Grizzly Man was a tour de force in my book as far as documentaries go. And King of Kong is on par with that one as well. I had the opportunity to watch his newest documentary, Encounters at the End of the World. This film looks at a place called Antarctica. Who lives there, and why. It was all shot and sound recorded by Herzog himself and one other crew member, cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger. They got a plane to Antarctica with no plan, other than they had 7 weeks to make a documentary about something.



What they find there is a group of people and animals mind you all drawn to a similar need. Through the course of the film, that need seems to be nature. What is it, and how does it adapt in these circumstances. A lot of the people there may be labeled extremists but most them are scientists trying to figure out the many mysteries of Earth. The underwater footage is breathtaking. In fact the footage there is what drew Herzog to go there in the first place. This is not the most focused documentary mind you, but is the bravest in quite some time. Any fan of Herzog knows he will do almost anything for his art. And as long as that spirit is alive, his films will continue to resonate with a passion that few other filmmakers dare to undertake.



BIGGER STRONGER FASTER



The next doc on the slater for me was Bigger Stronger Faster. This doc is from new filmmaker Chris Bell and details the wild world of steroid use in America starting around the later 70's until today. Bell uses his own family of brothers to anchor the story on a personal level. All three brothers were obsessed with Hulk Hogan, Arnold, Sly and the 80's tough American stereotype. So naturally they all went into wrestling and body building. And each has or still is using "the juice". Amongst his own story Bell carefully weaves all the other steroid drama from baseball to Wrestling and even does a great job analyzing all those 80's action flicks from Sly and Arnold and how those films really influenced my generation into thinking bigger was better. Regardless of the price you or your loved ones might pay because of that perception.



I thought the film did a great job from minute one in telling this mini-epic that stemmed from 80's action movies and wrestling and continues on today with no end in sight. The documentary gives a fair look at what steroids actually are thanks to the fact that the fimmakers own brothers are active users of the stuff. So in way I guess this film is very much in the style of Super Size Me, because the maker is really in the world he is examining. And it's quite fun to watch his journey. I may be slightly biased in my review because I am the same ages of the subjects here, and I completely understood where the idol worship came from. Who didn't want to work out and wear black shades and drive Brigette Nielson around after seeing the genius of Stallone's Cobra? These guys took it to the next level. Highly recommended.

REVIEW: The Counterfeiters

The love that I have for WWII movies has increased through the years. Any docs about Nazis, odd things in the field during the war are really grabbing me these days. I would highly recommend renting The Counterfeiters. I'm pretty sure this won a Best Picture Oscar for Foreign Film last year. It's a really amazing true story about how the Nazi's during WWII rounded up a group of Jewish artists and printers in a concentration camp and made them make counterfeit bills for all the other countries so that it would drive the value of that countries currency down during the war. It was called Operation Bernhard at the time.

The main focus of the film is master Jewish countefieter Salomon Sorowitsch, played perfect by Karl Markovics. He then meets the other counterfeiters in the camp ala Dirty Dozen. The performances are spot on as is the writing and directing by Stefan Ruzowitzky. The only other film I had seen by Ruzowitzky was the horror movie Anatomy. This is a major upgrade for him. Operation Bernhard was the largest counterfeiting outfit of all time. I am a WWII and Nazi movie nut, so if you like those kind of flicks, this is a welcome addition to the genre.