I can't afford to go to the fancy film fests this year or any other for that matter. The last one nearly killed me! However I am able to throw my own. I was a bit under the weather this week, and I am still on the mend. So I decided to start going through "the Stack" which collects dust on my DVD rack. I had a wide assortment of films Mon-Thursday to plug through. So here come the mini reviews...
REVIEW: The Eye 2
Directed by The Pang Brothers
I liked elements of the original film, "The Eye" by Danny and Oxide Pang. It was creepy and right in the middle of the whole Asian Horror fad that is now fading away. So I took a chance on Part 2 knowing that the original directors were back. This is not a sequel so much, but a spin-off. The only returning elements are the Ghosts from part one. This movie has nothing to do with eyes whatsoever. Its about babies. Its about karma and Chinese spirits coming back to haunt a suicidal pregnant woman played by Qi Shu. The movie moves along nicely but slows in the end and then crashes pretty hard when it doesn't know when to end. The effects are very creepy, or I should I say the ghosts are very creepy. I've noticed something about the Pang Bros that fascinates me. They like to see people fall or get hit really hard by cars. Its CGI, but its starting to look more real than not these days. So I would recommend it if you are looking for the ghosts from The Eye or if you like Qi Shu from The Transporter. Otherwise its another day in the Asian horror neighborhood.
REVIEW: The Brown Bunny
Directed by Vincent Gallo
Man, I love Gallo's first movie, Buffalo 66. Love it to death. Will watch it any day any time. I will span time with it. The Brown Bunny comes with much talk. And sorry to say, I hated this movie as much as I loved Buffalo 66. I thought maybe I was losing my indie touch by missing the boat on this one, but no I didn't. I even went as far to as to read some reviews of it on IMDB. I don't get it. I like art films but this was just utterly boring and then all of a sudden at then end of 90 minutes he decides to tell the story in some expository dialog after getting the infamous real blow job from Chloe Sevigny. I love slow moving stream of conscious movies, but this is Gallo getting a big head after Buffalo 66. Sevigny shows up at the very end of the movie folks, she's not even in the first 80 minutes. Gallo has talent, but anyone could have made this in their sleep. He plays the same character as he did in Buffalo 66 more or less. He just talks less. There are endless scenes of just his face, or just shots of the road going on forever. I got it, that he is a character in pain searching for a connection with someone. And I understand that he gets a blowjob from the one person he loves at the end, and that shows us that this emotionless act of sex is the ultimate analogy of this man's state of being. WHOOPIDEEFUCKING DOO. This film sux it. And so does Chloe Sevigny.
REVIEW: Joint Security Area
Directed by Chan-wook Park
Really interesting film from the genius that gave us Old Boy last year. I liked this movie, as hard as tried to not really care about the North/South Korean issues while the effects of Hurricane Katrina looms daily. In the DMZ separating North and South Korea, two North Korean soldiers have been shot to death, by a South Korean soldier. But the 11 bullets found in the bodies, together with the 5 remaining bullets in the assassin's magazine clip, amount to 16 bullets for a gun that should normally hold 15 bullets. The investigating Swiss/Swedish team from the neutral countries overseeing the DMZ suspects that another, unknown party was involved - all of which points to some sort of cover up. The truth is much simpler and much more tragic. There is a real magic about the way this story unfolds. It is very slow and tedious, but the more you get sucked into it, you see how crime scenes can never really give you the ultimate truth about any situation. And it was nice to learn about this outpost on the North/South Korean border. The story acts as a nice analogy for the problems between the two sides. I was more interested in that aspect towards the end, but then things turn to pull you back into the human part of the story.
REVIEW: The Final Cut
Directed by Omar Naim
I popped this disc in with high hopes. The movie was kinda about what I do for a living every day. And as it wore on my hopes were dashed. The futuristic story concerns implants that are put inside you when you are born that records every single second of your life. When you die a "cutter" takes all the footage and edits down to about 10 minutes to show at your funeral called a "rememory". Robin Williams plays Alan Hackman (how original) the best cutter in the biz. His editing system called The Guillotine is his life. He is addicted to living out others peoples lives through there eyes rather than living his own. It starts out very interesting, then the plot turns stale and becomes very generic and predictable. It was a great concept that could have gone so many interesting ways, but instead goes formula. So watch the first 3 minutes and be a good cutter and cut the rest out.
REVIEW: Last Life in the Universe
Directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Great movie. This is what Brown Bunny was trying to do. Its slow, yet very focused and honest. A mysterious, obsessive-compulsive, suicidal Japanese man living in Bangkok, Thailand, is thrown together with a Thai woman through a tragic chain of events. The woman is everything he is not. He is a neat freak who keeps his dishes washed and his books neatly stacked and categorized. She dresses like a slob, smokes pot and never picks anything up. It's a match that somehow works. It's photographed by uber genius Chris Doyle of Wong Kar-wei world. This movie has a simple beauty to it. Much like say Chungking Express but without the wacky camera angles. Its more Japanese in style I guess. Of all the movies I saw in this batch Last Life is the winner. Oh and watch out for a small part by director Takashi Miike!
