Director: John Woo

After spending much time in Hollywood (where he completed such pictures as “Face/Off” and “Mission Impossible II”), director John Woo has returned to Asia with his first feature since the early 1990s. The film, “Red Cliff”, claimed the box office championship that “Titanic” formally held in China. With soaring cameras, bodyparts hurled, and Woo’s trademark doves fluttering in close up, “Red Cliff” further elaborates on Woo’s enormous skills as a director of action.

Set near the end of the Han Dynasty in 208 AD, the movie introduces us to the fearsome General Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi), a man deadset on ruling all territories. His first battle is with southern defectors, led by Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen). An alliance is soon formed with Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) after a visit by southern strategist Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), as the two bond with a good-old fashioned third century jam session.

The climactic battle is of a monumental scale – fire is thrown, fortresses are demolished, and hundreds (maybe thousands) of extras are multiplied to hundreds of thousands with digital effects. As impressive as this war is, however, perhaps Woo was too invested in this filmmaking challenge. The first battle of the film is a glorious one – innovative swordplay, impressive battle formations – whereas the last is a familiar spectacle of dark hellfire. Oddly enough, only in the final conflict did I begin to feel the two and a half hour runtime (condensed from a five hour cut released in two-parts elsewhere).

I have not seen the original cut of the film, but this American cut certainly peaks my curiosity to see how much further the characters are developed in the Asian cut. The performers, particularly Tong Leung and Zhang Fengyi, are all excellent. Despite their efforts, however, many of the faces are blurred by the film’s frenetic, rushed pace.

The film is largely wall-to-wall war, but beyond the spectacle of the battlefield the film takes pleasure in showcasing the era’s militaristic strategies. In one of the film’s most successful episodes, Cao Cao’s army sends dead bodies to their opposition in a cruel form of chemical warfare.

“Red Cliff” is big, loud, and a lot of fun. The last battle perhaps hogs too big of a portion of the American cut of the film, but nevertheless Woo has undoubtedly made an epic on a scale that we don’t often see.

por Bruno Martino

Se o melhor filme de John Woo na China é Fervura Máxima, eu diria que o equivalente na sua fase americana é A Outra Face, pois sintetiza tudo que é o cinema de Woo, e onde o diretor pôde se soltar mais. Aqui um agente do FBI, Sean Archer (John Travolta), caça impiedosamente o terrorista Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage). Após uma emboscada onde coloca o meliante em coma, Archer descobre um plano de detonação de uma bomba e para saber a localização da mesma deve se infiltrar na prisão e tirar a informação do irmão de Troy. Só que o único jeito é fazer uma operação revolucionária onde trocaria de rosto com seu arquiinimigo. Na cadeia já com o rosto do terrorista descobre o paradeiro da bomba, só que Troy acorda do coma e transplanta o rosto de Archer para seu corpo. Dá-se então um jogo de gato e rato onde Troy assume a vida de Archer e este tem que caçar Troy e reaver sua identidade.

As cenas de ação podem não chegar no nivel das de Fervura Máxima ou Alvo Duplo 2 por exemplo, mas pra mim A Outra Face é o melhor filme americano de Woo (confesso que o único que não vi ainda foi Códigos de Guerra por puro desleixo). Com ótimas seqüências, como a do tiroteio na mansão ao som de Over The Rainbow da trilha de O Mágico de Oz (aqui num cover da Olívia Newton John!!), a cena em que os dois personagens miram para os espelhos e encaram seus reflexos (e no caso a imagem de seus inimigos) e a seqüência final passada numa lancha, A Outra Face não faz feio.

O desdobrar das situações geradas pelas trocas de identidades também é interessante, como Troy/Archer ensinando a “filha” a enfiar a faca em malandros e Archer/Troy se drogando no esconderijo dos bandidos. De resto, tudo do cinema de Woo está lá: tiroteios emocionantes, personagens abalados com uma tragédia do passado, heróis com uma arma em cada mão e vilões de sobretudo preto. Tem até uma cena numa igreja com direito a mexican standoff (quando vários personagens apontam armas uns pros outros) e pombos voando. De bônus ainda tem vários coadjuvantes legais: Nick Cassavetes, CCH Pounder, Gina Gershon ,Thomas Jane, Colm Feore e muito mais. Apesar do tema troca de rostos trazer um ar fantástico que em alguns momentos parece não se encaixar na realidade do filme, em nada compromete o resultado final.

It’s rare that I watch a movie and wonder how it ever got off the ground but with Mission: Impossible II I had a hard time believing that such a crappy script could make it to screen. Just like good writing can make a mediocre film worth recommending bad writing can take that same film and cast it into the realm of utter crap. Granted, John Woo saves the film from falling too far back into the pit of disaster but there’s no denying this is two poor hours of action tied together by thin plotting.

Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) returns once, no longer the victim of interagency espionage he’s on the trail of a genetically enhanced virus. Dr. Nekhorvich (Rade Serbedzija) smuggles the antidote out of the lab but ends up being killed by rouge agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), who plans on taking the entire city of Los Angeles hostage with the virus, making billions selling the antidote. Ethan Hunt is sent to stop this baddie but to do it he’ll need an inside man or in this case a woman. He recruits Nyah (Thandie Newton), who is a thief/slut that has a history with Sean.

If you thought the mask trick at the end of Mission: Impossible was cool, you’ll love the plot of Mission: Impossible II as it’s basically reduced to people masquerading as each other. It’s not as if there’s any doubt who’s behind which mask to the point that the actors may as well have a lock of their hair conspicuously sticking out from their fake wig. Granted it is slick the first couple of times but after that it becomes the most overused plot device in any action film I’ve seen. If I ever see the mask trick again it will be too soon. Even neglecting all the mask abuse, the story doesn’t really have any merits of its own and is as generic as a Saturday morning cartoon.

The film doesn’t get any better when with the performances. Tom Cruise essentially is reduced to shooting guns, holding ridiculous acrobatic poses and delivering crap lines. Anyone can shoot a gun and I’m betting he had a stunt double, which really only leaves him to deliver crap lines, which he can’t do to save his life. I’d put some of the blame on bad writing but Cruise doesn’t even put any effort behind any of the lines, making for a sloppy performance. Thandie Newton isn’t any better at delivering the lines. The camera hopes we can forget this as just about every other scene is focused on her cleavage. I’m sorry, but no amount of sex appeal is going to make up for a bad performance.

If this film has an upside it’s that John Woo makes some interesting action sequences. Woo knows how to make an action scene and Mission: Impossible II is no exception. He brings this great sense of visual flair to this film with colors and lighting that really pop out. Likewise the action sequences are sleek, smooth and over the top. And yes, John Woo does overuse slow motion but like that’s to be expected. While Woo still has some style problems, his style is the only good part about the film so I can’t begrudge it too much.

If you want proof that bad writing will kill a film look no further than Mission: Impossible II. Contrived dialogue, nonexistent characters and a dull plot make this an action film that’s dry on paper. However, John Woo is able to inject some color and coolness into this sorry excuse for an action film. He in no way redeems the film but he makes the film watchable. I doubt another director could make this piece of crap as watchable as Woo does. If you just want a film for the action go for it, everyone else should do all possible to avoid Mission: Impossible II.

© 2009 James Blake Ewing

You must never ask me or Paolo what we think of this movie unless you are a person who can handle watching someone yak and try to choke themselves with it to escape the hell of their own memories.

Castor Troy: It’s like looking in a mirror. Only… not.

This John Woo movie is so, so, so ridiculously bad that it almost makes you say, “Wait, is it so stupid that it actually orbited around to being awesome?” But the answer is a qualified no. It falls a hairsbreadth short of being so bad that it’s good, remaining just plain poorly written, stupid, and a waste of your time.

Sean Archer: I want to take his face… off. Eyes, nose, skin, teeth. It’s coming off.

The slash in the title and the number of times that people run their fingers down each other’s faces like mentally challenged chimps are a huge part of why the movie falls short of awesome. The people involved in it took it too seriously. A true cult film has to be more accidentally shitty than this.

Dietrich: No more drugs for that man.

The only good part is this guy, Alessandro Nivola, who played the villain’s even less balanced brother. The character’s ridiculous name is Pollux Troy (his brother, the main baddie, is “Castor;” you know, like astronomy shit? *cringe*), but the freaky performance Nivola turns in surpasses that of anyone else but forever-tragically-underused Joan Allen in this film. He’s having fun with it and so it is, like, unhinged — super, super hot. I love crazy!

Castor Troy: You’re not the only one in the family with the brains.
Pollux Troy: No, although now I am the only one with the looks.
Castor Troy: Touche.

The Taking of Pelham 123 2009

Director: Tony Scott

Writer: Brian Hegeland

Starring Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Luis Guzman, Victor Gojcaj, John Turturro, James Gandolfini and Michael Rispoli

    Tony Scott is one of the best modern action film directors today, so whenever he has a new film I always see it.  I had heard of the original version of this film but had never seen it.  I will definitely seek it out after seeing this version.  This was a solid action film with some very tense scenes in it and a great interplay between Washington and Travolta.  I always have liked Travolta more when he plays the heavy, such as his great performances in John Woo’s Face Off and Broken Arrow.  This is a fast paced and expertly executed crime film and all the lead actors do an excellent job.  The only fault I have with the film is that it doesn’t bring anything new or exciting to the action film genre.  But it is still a enjoyable and gripping film to watch.

    The plot basics are this, four amred men hijack a subway train one afternoon in Manhattan.  They stop and decouple the first car and then begin their plan too blackmail money out of the city by holding the people on the train hostage.  The leader of the terrorists is Ryder (Travolta) and he gets in contact with dispatcher, Walter Garber (Washington), who has been recently demoted due to being investigated for taking a bribe.  He makes aconnection with Ryder and he refuses to deal with anyone but Garber.  Ryder demands ten million within a hour or for every minute the payoff is late he will eliminate a hostage.  The Mayor (Gandolfini) okays the deal, but it seems the payoff is putting the stock market through the wringer and the negotiator in charge (Turturro) is wondering if Ryder only wants the money or is making a stock broking gambit with it too make himself obscenely rich.  As the time limit comes and goes Garber has to meet Ryder with the money and what follows is a tense face off and a game of cat and mouse, and who knows who will come out on top in this gambit?

    This is a good film.  Scott’s direction is great as always.  His style of fast cutting and quick edits is not for everyone, but I always enjoys what he does with the camera.  The film is violent too and never skirts away from showing it.  The way he sets up the SWAT sniper’s attacks is tense and when everything goes wrong it comes together perfectly.  Hegeland’s script is tightly woven and he really breathes life into both Ryder and Garber’s characters.  The cast is good too, Washington and Travolta have great chemistry together and as usual Travolta hams it up and it suits the film well.  Turturro is also good as the negotiator trying to get to the bottom of what is happening here.  I also really enjoyed Gandolfini as the mayor, he brought a much needed comedic element to the film and with all the tense face offs in the film it is much needed for the viewer to catch his breath from time to time.  The action sequences in the film are very good, I especially liked the sniper attack, that was the most memorable one in my book.  This was a tense and exciting film, but in my final estimation it does not add anything great to this type of crime film.  I think the thing that makes this film the most enjoyable was Travolta’s performance.

This one gets 3 out of 5

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John Woo’s latest, the overblown, action-packed historical epic, Red Cliff, gets reviewed here.

por Heráclito Maia

Enfim ocorre o inevitável: John Woo é comprado pelos yankees. Os fãs mais puristas chiaram, mas a verdade é que ele fez alguns filmes legais na América. E O Alvo certamente é um deles.

Baseado na obra de 1932, Zaroff, o Caçador de Vidas (The Most Dangerous Game), de Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack, a idéia trabalhada é a de caçada humana, em que ricos pagam fortunas para perseguir e atirar em seres humanos, auxiliados por um grupo de mercenários que organizam o jogo.

Claro que quando Van Damme entra na brincadeira a situação se inverte. Inteiramente filmado em Nova Orleans (numa determinada cena os vilões comentam que já haviam realizado uma caçada no Rio de Janeiro!), nosso herói utiliza seus conhecimentos do local para pregar armadilhas (como na boa cena da cobra, desenvolvida pelo pessoal da KNB, empresa do mago em efeitos Greg Nicotero), e atrair os mercenários para dentro de um velho galpão onde eram guardados carros alegóricos de carnaval, explorados por John Woo como algo bizarro e assustador.

Se em relação aos personagens não há muita riqueza de detalhes (o mais incomum é a dupla de vilões, interpretados por Lance Henriksen e Arnold Vosloo, possivelmente gays), visualmente O Alvo é John Woo puro. Dá-lhe câmera lenta, cenas de ação filmadas em múltiplos ângulos, malabarismos com motos que desafiam as leis da gravidade, os malditos pombos branco voando pra lá e pra cá, etc.

O Alvo é um filme muito simpático, e mesmo ficando abaixo numa comparação com os antecessores de Hong Kong, não deixa de ser uma estréia digna em solo americano e talvez o melhor filme de toda a carreira do Van Damme. Um detalhe curioso é a presença de Sam Raimi na produção executiva. O criador da trilogia Evil Dead já era um grande fã de John Woo muito antes do mesmo vir pros EUA.

John Woo’s first American picture shows a distinct shift in the director’s work. While his films will contain his distinct style and excessive slow motion, his American films are much tamer than his Hong Kong pictures. In many ways one begins to see Woo’s assimilation into the Hollywood mentality as the heroes become more idealized, the line between good and evil is straightforward and the violence is tamed back.

But that doesn’t stop his plots from being any less ridiculous. If anything, his first American picture is one of his more implausible plots. When Nat Binder (Yancy Butler) comes to New Orleans to find her father she’s greeted by a rough gang. It’s only through the noble Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) that she gets away mostly unscathed. And when she can’t find her father she offers Chance a job to help her find him. The two slowly begin to uncover a perverse underground game her father got caught up in which sounds more like the premise of a bad B-movie than an action film.

But John Woo wraps up the absurdity of the plot in conventions of a classic Western. Granted, being set in the modern age the film is a bit different as revolvers are swapped for pistols and motorcycles are stand in for horses. But the perverse game they uncover is reminiscent of the evil deeds of many a Western baddie and I’d swear I’ve seen a number of similar scenes in other Westerns. Beyond even that Chance is the classic Western hero, noble and heroic, protecting those in need.

He’s even more of that Western hero when you factor in his mysterious past. We don’t really know anything about him by the end and he feels much like a character that could have dropped out of a Sergio Leone Western. Jean-Claude Van Damme is hardcore here, with a plethora of dropkicks, roundhouse kicks to the face as well as some hardcore marksmanship. And in the film’s simultaneously most ridiculous and awesome moments JCVD punches a rattlesnake in the face. Yes, in the face.

But our hero isn’t the only hardcore character of the lot. The film also has a couple of solid villains. The characters themselves are rather cliché, particularly the villain who loves classical music. For the most part they are the maniacal cold-blooded killers that exist in the Saturday morning cartoon universe. It’s the performances that make them work as Arnold Vosloo and Lance Henriksen bring the presence and malice needed to make them threatening to our hero. And I think the plot is structured in such a way that the arrogance of villain that lets the hero get away is actually plausible.

And of course all this conflict is so that Woo can have himself some of that crazy, over the top action. This being his first American feature the action is a lot more restrained than his Hong Kong outings but they still are ridiculously over the top at times, in particular with his liberal usage of slow motion. Sometimes it works at showing us cool things but more often than not it just prolongs the action pieces of the film. It’s entertaining, but it’s certainly not all that memorable or skillful.

John Woo’s first foray into Hollywood is perhaps not as solid as his Hong Kong flicks and it certainly doesn’t reach the same level of ridiculousness that makes Hard Boiled such a fun film. Yet it still remains an effective picture. The narrative works as a kind of Western and the performances are fun to watch but the action itself is pedestrian and the plot is still farfetched.

© 2009 James Blake Ewing

por Luiz Alexandre

John Woo já tinha se reinventado em Hong Kong e seus filmes já haviam virado referência e contribuíram para a criação do gênero conhecido como “Heroic Bloodshed” (algo como “Sangria Heróica”), envolvendo um homem ou mais empunhando pistolas e enfrentando os inimigos mais desonrados da China. O tipo de cinema que o Chang Che fazia na década de 70, seus honrados espadachins que iam até o limite pelo que acreditavam, muitas vezes perdendo suas vidas, ganhou uma nova abordagem: eles passaram a usar pistolas, roupas elegantes, eram homens das ruas, solitários, anacrônicos, capazes de derrubar cem homens armadas até os dentes com muita desenvoltura, caso isso fosse necessário.

Depois de tantos trabalhos envolvendo membros da tríade, Woo começava a ser criticado por, veja só, glorificar essas organizações. Foi então que decidiu fazer um filme novo com uma pequena mudança: em vez do pistoleiro ser um homem ligado a uma organização criminosa, dessa vez o protagonista seria um policial. Contando novamente com o astro que ajudou a criar, Chow Yun Fat, dessa vez o homem de ação é o Inspetor “Tequila” Yuen, um sujeito durão e corajoso que quando não está trocando tiros e caçando criminosos toca saxofone em um bar de Jazz. Ele investiga as ações de um chefe criminoso chamado Johnny Wong (interpretado pelo xará Anthony Wong) que está contrabandeando armas. Em sua busca por justiça conhecerá o enigmático Tony, feito pelo também xará Tony Leung Chiu Wai, que já havia trabalhado com Woo em Bala na Cabeça. Tony na verdade é um policial infiltrado na gangue de Wong, cujo único contato na polícia é o Superintendente Pang (Philip Chan, que na vida real também é um oficial de polícia), que também é chefe de Tequila. Depois de uns estranhamentos iniciais, envolvendo até mesmo a namorada de Tequila, os dois decicem unir suas forças contra o cruel Wong, investindo todo o seu poder de fogo e, porque não, “cavalice” contra os tríades.

Não vou enrolar muito, o filme é simplesmente fantástico. As cenas de ação, com “lutas de pistola” tão bem coreografadas quanto um filme dos Venoms, que se fazem representados pelo magnífico personagem de Philip Kwok, o pistoleiro de um olho só, Mad Dog, que trabalha para Wong e uma curta participação de Lo Meng.

Aliás, Kwok, um velho conhecido dos fãs de Kung Fu Old School, exala carisma e virilidade com seu personagem. Assim como Tequila e Tony, Mad Dog é um homem com habilidades muito acima da de um homem comum, que apesar de trabalhar com um dos indivíduos mais perversos de Hong Kong, não suja suas mãos com sangue inocente. È o velho “bandido com senso moral” que mesmo velhos cineastas como Howard Hawks gostavam de trabalhar, e aqui Woo não fez feio.

Mas o destaque vai pra parceria entre o esquentado Tequila e o sofrido Tony, O primeiro ganha nossa simpatia pelo seu jeito “fuck you” todo especial de ser, pela maneira desajeitada com que tenta voltar com sua namorada, os ciúmes que sente com as flores que recebe (na verdade um artifício de Tony para mandar pistas para a polícia nos cartões que acompanham as flores), sem contar sua incrível habilidade de encarar milhões de inimigos sozinho. Além do nome fantástico, o personagem deve ter sido feito do mesmo material que indivíduos como Paul Kersey, John Matrix e Dirty Harry Calahan, ou seja, um sujeito durão até o osso como os bons da velha escola.

Já Tony, também um exímio guerreiro, sofre com o fato de ser obrigado a se passar por um bandido, tendo que trair a confiança daqueles que ama, como o Sr. Hoi (o falecido Hoi Shan Kwan) que sempre o acolheu como um filho. A cena em que ele mata o velho tríade para conquistar a confiança de Wong. Aliás, se Chow Yun Fat rouba o show com sua marra e malandragem, Leung, que provavelmente está para o drama como Jackie Chan está para as artes marciais, consegue ser cool, durão e sensível, criando uma persona ainda mais rica que Chow.

As grandiosas cenas de ação estão presentes por toda a película, com três destaques: a cena de abertura, no restaurante, com Tequila e seus colegas trocando chumbo pesado contra os tríades, a cena de invasão de um galpão pela gangue de Johnny Mo, acompanhada pelo enfrentamento de Tequila e a antológica e longuíssima batalha no hospital que serve de fachada para os bandidos, em especial o duelo de armas entre Mad Dog contra os dois policiais e uma cena de vários minutos, sem cortes, mostrando Tequila e Tony derrubando vários criminosos a bala. Inacreditável que algumas das belas cenas de violência estilizada deste filme, como a cena de Tequila descendo as escadas se apoiando no corrimão, tenham sido elaboradas de improviso. John Woo nem precisava de tanto após a feitura de Bala na Cabeça e The Killer, mas outra vez mais ele mostrou que sua fama não era apenas hype. Do início ao fim, o que vemos aqui não são apenas chineses violentos trocando “gentilezas”, mas homens de honra indo em direção ao inferno para enfrentar o mau. Contando apenas com um ao outro e nada mais. Howard Hawks, Sam Peckinpah e Chang Che devem estar orgulhosos!

Moving on now to some more serious John Woo, Hard Boiled is perhaps John Woo’s most well known film, or at least the film he is most well known for. The crime drama starring Hong Kong’s action poster boy, Chow Yun-Fat, serves as another vehicle for excessive slow motion and an ocean of bullets, shells and grenades. But there’s a bit of subtly at work here, something beyond all the shootouts.

When it comes practicing subtly Hong Kong cop Tequila (Chow Yun-Fat) is one of the worst. He’d much rather fill the latest ring of illegal gun dealers with bullets than do something more traditional like arrest them. What starts off as just another roundup turns into a disaster as dozens of innocence bystanders are hit in the crossfire as well as a handful of cops. Tequila’s partner is among the dead, spawning him on a personal vendetta against these gun dealers. His superior, Superintendent Pang (Philip Chan), wants him to back off and cool down but Tequila isn’t one to sit around. He teams up with the nephew of a notorious gun dealer, Alan (Tony Leung), in order to take down the dealers.

Like most films of the genre the plot here serves as more of a setup for the action. There’s enough to keep you engaged in the film on a narrative level by wrapping up the action in a conventional cop narrative. It’s more than simply a mishmash of genre tropes, but you’re not going to find a truly gripping narrative here. At times it feels like the film is working far too hard to develop a story that isn’t as compelling as the film thinks it is.

More compelling is Chow Yun-Fat as the smart mouthed cop who uses his wit as much as his weapons. He’s more in the vein of a Han Solo, a dashing swashbuckler. His ability to be both a charming soothsayer and an agile gunman makes Chow Yun-Fat as Tequila one of the iconic action heroes. Grounding the film in the dramatic is the superb Tony Leung who has some great moments and is the soul of the film. But instead of just fleshing out these core characters the film delves into some of the more ancillary characters. Cheng Jue-Luh as Mad Dog, one of the top gun dealers’ gangsters, stands as a great rival in terms of both character and performance to Tequila.

Hard Boiled, in this reviewer’s opinion, is John Woo at his best. Here he’s able to create a series of interesting set-pieces and execute them with a thoughtful craftsmanship. Tight camerawork, ridiculous effects and the trademark slow motion make for an over the top but entertaining action flick. Reality is thrown out the window as Tequila, Alan and Mad Dog are all gods with guns, akin to characters out of a Sergio Leone film. It embraces the unrestrained action and is absurd on some level but it never becomes as goofy as other Woo pictures. I do still take umbrage with Woo’s incessant need to punctuate every cool moment with a lingering slow motion sequence as I think it ruins the pacing of some of the more intense action sequences.

I admire Hard Boiled by being one of the rare action films that is commenting on all the violence it contains. Sure, the gun dealers are asking for it, but what about all the collateral loss of life? Cops die and few are accidentally shot by their fellow coworkers. Even more upsetting is the loss of civilian life throughout the film. Here there’s no such thing as clean shootout and expecting no loss of innocence life is naive. Some may find the body count senseless but I found it important to the thematic overtone to the film. Innocent people die in the battle against these gun dealers and it’s not just a few bystanders.

The film does know when to draw the line, sparing us from some of the more brutal acts that might have take place. Some may still find it just a bit too much to take but those that see it out to the end will find a film that makes them think about the violence they enjoy. Too often gunfights are portrayed as cool but here the come across as senseless and horrific. How far should they go to take down these gun dealers and are they really saving lives if they are producing bodies at every place they antagonize these dealers?

Hard Boiled is an over-the-top cop action flick that works well on that level but provides something more completing. The moral exploration of the violence may put off some viewers who’d rather just be entertained by the shootouts but it makes for a thoughtful picture. If you want to put aside such moral quandaries and just enjoy the bloodbath you probably can but you’ll be depriving yourself of the most compelling part of Hard Boiled. You’ll certainly have a bit more to like than the average action flick with a strong cast of characters and compelling set-pieces, but it has much more to offer than what exists on the surface level.

© 2009 James Blake Ewing

The Killer is the John Woo film I should be starting with but seeing as I’m unable to obtain a copy we’ll start with Once a Thief, an early ‘90s feature while Woo was still working in Hong Kong. All of Woo’s films are ridiculous, sometimes it’s the action, sometimes it’s the camerawork but sometimes the film is trying to be silly. In some ways Once a Thief seems to be Woo poking fun at himself in other ways it’s more of the Woo madness.

Lifelong friend Joe (Chow Yun Fat), Jim (Leslie Cheung) and Cherie (Cherie Chung) are three very successful thieves who specialize in stealing famous paintings. They’re the best in the business but their latest job takes a turn south when they find mad gunmen are on their tails. Between humorous banter and hardcore shootouts the trio attempts to make their escape.

Everything is paced in a very predictable cycle: heist, humor, shootout, more humor, on the run, more humor and then maybe another shootout. About halfway through the film appears to be taking a more dramatic turn but by the end Woo can’t help but embrace the predictable cycle once more. In fact, the entire middle part is somewhat insulting and a mindless waste of time.

But it still works on a base level because of how compelling these characters are. Joe is a quick witted prankster, able to slither out of any situation. Jim is the more serious one, especially when it comes to the girl. Cherie succumbs to Joe’s charms even though she knows he’s simply playing with her. It’s a somewhat weary love triangle but the performances make it work. Chow Yun Fat in particular is great at pulling off joke after joke with great consistency.

But the film takes the hilarity too far. Once a Thief wants to be both a serious action film and a comedy yet it never finds the proper tone. A given scene often flip-flops between the two entirely different moods and the transitions are jarring. Occasionally the film reconciles the two, such as the vault job sequence, but for the most part the film cuts between the hardcore and the hilarious without much grace. This undermines the more serious action sequences as there are small gags thrown in at the oddest moments.

There are also a handful of other things that drag this film down like one of the worst soundtracks I’ve ever heard. The music is so obtrusive that my ears were suffering the first twenty minutes of the film. Also, John Woo doesn’t bring his directing chops to this film. We get a reprieve from the constant slow motion but he doesn’t bring any sense of style into the film. The film feels to cut and dry during the action sequences without the energy or visual kinetics of his other films.

Once a Thief wants to be a macho film but falls flat on its face with some of the slapstick gags. It drags itself down is the separation of humor and action. Both work separately but they never come together. The comedic moments can be a riot and the action sequences can scratch that itch but the overall experience is odd. Taken moment to moment Once a Thief is always enjoyable but the moment you try to fit all those moments together you get a mess of a film, albeit an entertaining mess.

© 2009 James Blake Ewing

Since I mentioned the wide release film that would conquer the weekend’s box office last week, Friday, I might try again this week: Twilight: New Moon. Ugh, since it’s the lead, there’s a pic of it, but, again, I ain’t seeing it.

Need I say why? I expect it to be just a contrived teen melodrama dressed up with the mythos of such archetypical characters of vampires and lycanthropes (not that all those movies are bad, it’s just a watered down version for the romance novel crowds). The worst part about it is that this new Twilight Movie is it helmed by the Hollywood hack Chris Weitz, who, along with his writers, offer the blind idealization of Hollywood’s interpretation of teenage life. It’s ironic that the first film’s director, Catherine Hardwicke, made her mark directing Thirteen, a movie about the complicated relationship between a young teen and her wannabe-cool-but-ultimately-messed-up mother. She just so happened to have co-written that movie with then 15-year-old Nikki Reed, an actress in the two Twilight movies.

As a matter of fact, none of the wide release movies this week appeal to me. The Blind Side, looks like another schmaltzy underdog sports story that doubles as a star-vehicle for Sandra Bullock. I’d expect to be a predictable torture, which is what I hate most about those kinds of movies. I take no pleasure in watching a movie where I know exactly how a story will not only turn out but how it will develop.

Then there’s Planet 51, which (by the trailer that I had to endure too many times to count alone) I can tell is just another CGI excuse to condescend to children. Dumb CGI movies like these (the last one I actually made it to the theater to watch was Shrek 2) insult the intelligence of children. What’s worse is that many of those children have not developed the aesthetic sensibility to know this. It’s crap filmmaking serendipitously designed to indoctrinate young minds to want to watch simple-minded Hollywood crap. As if this writing, the flick is dropping hard on the Tomato meter (at 15% as of this writing).

Planet 51’s “ingenious” idea to depict a human astronaut as an alien in an alternate planet stuck in the nostalgia of 50s American culture is just an excuse to retell the same old stupid jokes through some simple-minded twist in telling the story. One of the great similar animated sci-fi films of the last century is the French-Czech production Fantastic Planet, which, at least according to the experience shared by one of my film-loving friends, would blow the minds of any child headed to boost Planet 51 at least to number two at the BO this weekend. Watch the opening scene here:

This friend, when much older, told me about receiving a video tape of this movie and recalling, as a child, how it so disturbed him, as well it should have.Imagine humans on some strange planet whose dominant humanoid inhabitants are actually so large, that a human fits in the palm of its hand. These creatures then treat them either as pets or trivially toy with them in the wild as humans do in the real word with ants and flies. It was presented then as a criticism of the oppressive communist regime that then rules Czechoslovakia.

Before I digress more, let me just say Fantastic Planet is one of the greatest sci-fi films of the 20^th Century, and deserves a look if you have not seen it.

There are interesting movies coming out this week, at least in limited release. Master Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar is set to release his second consecutive movie starring Penelope Cruz, Broken Embraces, a combination that resulted in one of his best ever films, 2007’s Volver.

Then there is my favorite German filmmaker currently working Werner Herzog, who
has his second Hollywood film coming out (after the Christian Bale-starrer
Rescue Dawn): Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans of a bad cop to the Nth power, Bad Lieutenant, starring Harvey Keitel. I’d even be keen on seeing what sounds like a nice departure for John Woo. Red Cliff is set in China during the rule of the Han Dynasty.

OK, so two predictions for this weekend’s BO: New Moon, of course, number one, and Planet 51, number 2. Hey, if anyone plans to see them let me know and what merits you might actually find in them…

In the meantime I am left to hunt out Almodovar’s and Herzog’s new releases… Anyone know where they’re playing in Miami?

Tudo começou assim…

e, então, o agente do FBI Sean Archer (John Travolta) tornou-se o psicopata Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage)…

…e ficou bem menos chato.

And remember: everytime you look in a mirror you’ll see my face.

Red Cliff Movie. Trailers, Film Clips, and more!

Legendary Hong Kong action specialist John Woo and international superstar Tony Leung reunite for their first feature film together since 1992’s Hard-Boiled with this historical drama set during the decisive 208 A.D. battle that heralded the end of the Han Dynasty. Adapted in part from the beloved Chinese tome Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Red Cliff opens in the year 208 A.D., just as prime minister-turned-general Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) seeks permission from Han Dynasty emperor Xian (Wang Ning) to organize a southward-bound mission designed to silence troublesome warlords Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen). As the expedition gets under way, Cao Cao’s troops rain destruction on Liu Bei’s army, forcing the latter to retreat and convincing Liu Bei’s military strategist Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) that their only hope for victory is to form an alliance with Sun Quan. Increasingly aware of the monumental struggle ahead, both sides begin preparing for the battle that will ultimately shape the future of an entire nation. Originally envisioned as a single film, Red Cliff was eventually split into two parts due to an excessive running time that approached five hours.

Redan för flera år sedan diskuterades en sydkoreansk version av John Woos Hong Kong-klassiker “A Better tomorrow”. Detta kommer nu att realiseras. Regissör blir Song Hae-Sung som bl.a. gjort supersuccén “Failan” (2001), ett gripande drama som blivit mycket väl mottagen inte bara på hemmaplan, utan även internationellt.

Chow Yun Fats (även “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) roll kommer att axlas av Song Seung-Hun som är mycket omtyckt, inte bara i Korea utan i hela östasien, och faktiskt inte minst i Kina. Lee Min-Gi gör bortgångne Leslie Cheungs (även “Farväl min konkubin”) roll. 

Inspelningen påbörjas strax efter årsskiftet och premiären är planerad till år 2010. Filmens Koreanska titel är “Osårbar” eller “Invincible”

John Woo-fansen blir nog skeptiska av det här beskedet. Ett allmänt frågetecken är dock hur Song och Lee skall kunna axla mantlarna efter två av Hong-Kongs absolut bästa skådespelare (frågan är om inte Leslie Cheung var den allra bästa av de bästa).

Men faktumed tror jag att det kan bli en riktigt bra film. Det är ett riktigt intressant team både bakom och framför kameran. Och med tanke på originalfilmens emotionella kvalitéer är nog Sydkorea det enda land som skulle kunna göra en värdig remake. Koreaner är känt för att vara ett känslomässsigt folk och känslostarka filmer och TV-serier produceras på löpande band i Sydkorea. 

Någon tycker säkert att projektet är lika ödesdigert  som det skulle vara
att göra en remake av en klassiker som “Infernal Affairs”.
…Och den amerikanska versionen blev ju faktiskt en riktigt hyfsad film.

A Better Tomorrow

 Förresten, både “A Better Tomorrow” och “A Better Tomorrow 2″ är riktigt bra filmer. Se dom om du inte redan har gjort det.

FilmMedia-Filmblogg

Originally posted on Blogger.

Red Cliff (赤壁) is getting a one film US Release on November 18, 2009. It has also been available via VOD for the the past month or so in the US. The film was broken up into 2 parts for the Asian market. I wrote reviews for Part I and Part II in the past.

Red Cliff has a star studded cast of veteran Chinese actors including Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Hu Jun, and Zhao Wei.

The US version will have some additional “explanation” scenes and voice overs. Some of the secondary stories from the Asian version will be out right deleted.

I am not sure I’ll be catching this anytime soon. I am not sure I can watch a “English” dub. That just sounds wrong.

Shanghai Daily is reporting John Woo’s latest movie, now being filmed in Shanghai, is about a retired female assassin and gang leader in ancient times whose past catches up with her.
The US$12 million-budgeted film stars kung fu star Michelle Yeoh making her return to the martial arts epic genre after Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000).

The film “Jian Yu Jianghu” (“Rain of Swords in the Martial Arts World”) is a joint directorial effort between Woo and young Taiwanese film maker Su Chao-pin, known for box-office hits “Silk” and “Twenty Something Taipei.” He wrote the script for “Rain.”
The film is to be released next summer.

Woo’s two-episode historical war epic “Red Cliff” has become the highest-grossing Chinese-language film in Chinese film history, earning more than 500 million yuan (US$73.53 million) in box office on the Chinese mainland.

The Hollywood-based Hong Kong director says he aims to break stereotypes of martial arts films. Its cinematography will be very different, he says.

“When I read it three yeas ago, I was very excited,” Woo recalls. “It’s one of the best scripts I have ever seen. We decided to film it.”

Yeoh plays a retired female assassin and gang chief who falls in love with the son of a man whose father was killed by her gang.

“Traditional martial arts films used to simply assign good guy-bad guy labels to the characters,” the actress says.

“But in this film, we see complex personalities. The past really haunts the present. Everyone is trying to discover his true self and find balance in life again.”

The film aims for the global market and has a star-studded cast, including Chinese mainland actor Wang Xueqi, Hong Kong actor Shawn Yue, Taiwanese pop star Barbie Hsu and South Korean actor Jung Woo-song.

Costumes are created by Japanese designer Emi Wada, noted for the Oscar-winning creations in Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran” and efforts behind the technicolor wardrobe of Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers.”

The martial arts film also features Woo’s daughter, Angeles, in a supporting role of a mysterious killer.

Angeles follows her father’s film path. In 2004, her directorial debut film “Coleridge’s Couch” was entered in the short film contest at the 61st Venice International Film Festival.

por Ronald Perrone

Rajada de Fogo tem uma certa importância especial para a carreira de John Woo, não em relação ao filme em si, mas por proporcionar a continuidade de seu trabalho no cinema. Woo havia acabado a parceria com Tsui Hark; montou sua própria produtora cujo primeiro filme, Bala na Cabeça, embora seja uma grande obra, não foi um sucesso comercial; precisava urgentemente de um filme seguro, que não precisasse correr riscos e que tivesse um bom retorno financeiro. Contratou dois atores com quem já havia trabalhado antes e que possuíam grande apelo popular, Chow Yun-Fat  e Leslie Cheung, desenvolveu uma estória simples sobre roubo de obras de artes, incrementou com cenas de ação eletrizantes, acrescentou toques de melodrama adicionados de um humor pastelão. Acabou acertando em cheio. Rajada de Fogo é um dos filmes mais comerciais de John Woo, um interessante híbrido de ação e comédia que garantiu um público amplo nos cinemas. O filme é, realmente, bastante divertido, embora algumas situações de comédia não funcionem tão bem no meio dessa mistura toda. Os atores estão ótimos, em especial a dupla protagonista, com o falecido Leslie Cheung bastante carismático e Chow Yun Fat totalmente à vontade em seu papel, que carrega boas doses dramáticas e cômicas durante o decorrer da estória. E ainda há a bela Cherie Chung se colocando no meio do triangulo amoroso, embora a força narrativa se concentre na amizade dos dois protagonistas.

Rajada de Fogo, no fim das contas, não chega a ir muito longe dentro da filmografia de Woo, mas é um entretenimento agradável que atende as expectativas do publico menos exigente e não deixa de divertir os fãs do diretor. O filme rendeu quatro vezes mais que seu trabalho anterior, Bala na Cabeça, e permitiu que Woo realizasse sua obra prima, Fervura Máxima, e preparasse para o seu exílio nos Estados Unidos.