"Blood Brothers" is a Taiwanese gangster epic set in Shanghai. Feng lives in a small village where his best friends are two brotehrs, Hu and Gang, who treat him like a third brother. He's in love with the lovely Su, but Hu and Gang convince him to go to Shanghai with them to make their fortune by working as waiters in fancy restaurants. When the three arrive in Shanghai, though, the night club they get jobs at turns out to be run by Boss Hong, a gangster, and they soon become enforcers rather than waiters. Feng is fascinated by Boss Hong's mistress, the lovely singer Lulu. Naturally things don't go well for the three and tragedy and drama follow.
While the script for "Blood Brothers" is fairly standard and predictable, the strong cast keep the movie enjoyable. Qi Shu (she was the cargo in "The Transporter") has great chemistry with Feng and the relationship between the three friends is fun to watch. The movie is solid enough that fans of this genre will enjoy it, but there's nothing special enough in it to recommend it to a more general audience.
Final Grade: B
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Mongol (2007) (SIFF) - B
"Mongol" is an epic Russian film about the early life of Genghis Khan. It chronicles Temudjin's (Genghis is a title rather than a name) difficult early life, suffering through multiple periods of captivity and slavery, as well as having his wife kidnapped and taken as another man's wife. As with most films of this type, the historical accuracy is fairly questionable, with lots of simplifications, combining of characters, etc. but most of the major incidents are based in reality, and the film is accurate in portraying the idea that Temudjin's life before he became Genghis Khan is a remarkable rags to riches story.
Interestingly enough, the movie is really framed as a love story between Temudjin and his wife Borte. It is historically accurate that Borte was kidnapped soon after they were married and taken as a wife by someone else. Temudjin was able to eventually rescue her, and he accepted the son that she bore in captivity as his own, although questions of whether or not his eldest son was really his would plague Genghis Khan all during his life. The movie portrays Temudjin's primary motivation as protecting Borte and his family. His desire to unite the Mongol clans is driven primarily by the desire to keep them safe and provide stability in their lives.
While I found this conceit that Genghis Khan did it all for love pretty hard to swallow, the movie was still quite enjoyable. The acting is good, and there's a really strong connection between Temudjin and Borte on screen. The movie did feel a bit long, though. I'd recommend "Mongol" to fans of epic war/love stories, but it's not quite good enough to recommend to those not especially interested in that genre.
Final Grade: B
Interestingly enough, the movie is really framed as a love story between Temudjin and his wife Borte. It is historically accurate that Borte was kidnapped soon after they were married and taken as a wife by someone else. Temudjin was able to eventually rescue her, and he accepted the son that she bore in captivity as his own, although questions of whether or not his eldest son was really his would plague Genghis Khan all during his life. The movie portrays Temudjin's primary motivation as protecting Borte and his family. His desire to unite the Mongol clans is driven primarily by the desire to keep them safe and provide stability in their lives.
While I found this conceit that Genghis Khan did it all for love pretty hard to swallow, the movie was still quite enjoyable. The acting is good, and there's a really strong connection between Temudjin and Borte on screen. The movie did feel a bit long, though. I'd recommend "Mongol" to fans of epic war/love stories, but it's not quite good enough to recommend to those not especially interested in that genre.
Final Grade: B
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
The Greening of Southie (2008) (SIFF) - A
"The Greening of Southie" is an excellent documentary about the construction of The Macallen Building in South Boston. The Macallan Building was the first "green" building project in the Boston area, and sought a Gold rating under the LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) standard. The movie does an excellent job of making you understand LEED certification. Essentially, you get points for doing a bunch of things in 5 different areas: Sustainable Sites, Materials and Resources, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, and Indoor Air Quality. Depending on how many points you earn you will get a Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Certified rating.
"The Greening of Southie" gives a lot of detail about the strengths and weaknesses of the LEED certification process. For example, using bamboo flooring earns you points because bamboo grows really fast (only about a year to achieve the desired size) and is considered a renewable wood source. As the process went on, though, the builders began to wonder whether it had really been a great decision to go with bamboo flooring because this involved shipping wood from China, and after there were some problems, it involved shipping wood from China three times. One of the claims made in the movie is that in a typical building project, the energy used to ship building materials to the site is greater than all the energy consumed by the building during it's lifetime. The film also doesn't shy away from presenting some of the problems with "green" building. Many of the materials are relatively new and untested, and you see the various hiccups this causes during construction.
Probably the best decision the filmmakers made was to spend a lot of time on the reactions and thoughts of the construction crew at the Macallan building. It was fascinating to see the various reactions of the crew members to the idea of environmentally friendly building. The focus on the crew also allowed for some interesting side explorations into issues such as the impact of gentrification of the Southie area on families living in the area, and the fact that this kind of construction is quite expensive, and none of the construction crew could ever hope to live in a building like that.
Great story telling, fantastic educational value, and some excellent time lapse camera work to show the progress of the building make this a documentary that I highly recommend.
Final Grade: A
"The Greening of Southie" gives a lot of detail about the strengths and weaknesses of the LEED certification process. For example, using bamboo flooring earns you points because bamboo grows really fast (only about a year to achieve the desired size) and is considered a renewable wood source. As the process went on, though, the builders began to wonder whether it had really been a great decision to go with bamboo flooring because this involved shipping wood from China, and after there were some problems, it involved shipping wood from China three times. One of the claims made in the movie is that in a typical building project, the energy used to ship building materials to the site is greater than all the energy consumed by the building during it's lifetime. The film also doesn't shy away from presenting some of the problems with "green" building. Many of the materials are relatively new and untested, and you see the various hiccups this causes during construction.
Probably the best decision the filmmakers made was to spend a lot of time on the reactions and thoughts of the construction crew at the Macallan building. It was fascinating to see the various reactions of the crew members to the idea of environmentally friendly building. The focus on the crew also allowed for some interesting side explorations into issues such as the impact of gentrification of the Southie area on families living in the area, and the fact that this kind of construction is quite expensive, and none of the construction crew could ever hope to live in a building like that.
Great story telling, fantastic educational value, and some excellent time lapse camera work to show the progress of the building make this a documentary that I highly recommend.
Final Grade: A
Hair, Let the Sun Shine In (2007) (SIFF) - C
"Hair, Let the Sun Shine In" is a documentary about the musical "Hair" and it's influence. The movie is a mixture of clips from performances in the 70's and interviews with surviving cast members and producers. Now I've never seen "Hair" as a whole, although I'm familiar with some famous scenes and music from the musical. This may have contributed to my feeling that the documentary was fairly light. You had lots of people talking about how important and influential they felt "Hair" was, but their reasons seemed fuzzy to me, and they were all people intimately involved in the musical, so that section felt like a puff piece to me. It wasn't until the second half of the documentary that my interest was piqued a little when the movie started exploring the darker side of "Hair." Quite a few people involved with the musical died very young (usually from AIDS,) and there was some nasty incidents with people being given "B-12" shots that turned out to be laced with amphetamines. There was enough interesting stuff that I can't say I though the movie sucked, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, except for a die hard fan of "Hair."
Final Grade: C
Final Grade: C
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
The King of Ping Pong (2008) (SIFF) - C
"The King of Ping Pong" is Swedish film about Rille, an overweight outcast who seems to be outdone by his younger brother Erik in every way. Erik is more popular, hanging out with the older kids, while the older kids pick on Rille and mock him. To compensate, Rille becomes fascinated with ping pong, declaring it to be the last egalitarian sport, untainted by drugs or scandal. Doesn't that sound like a pleasant coming of age comedy? That's what I thought when I went to see "The King of Ping Pong" at SIFF. Unfortunately, the movie turned out to be more drama than comedy, and was quite dark at times. The movie is also very slow paced, really dragging at times. Fortunately there are enough genuinely sweet and funny moments between Rille and Erik, and Rille and his friend Anja (who is quite memorable) to keep the movie from sucking, but I can't recommend "The King of Ping Pong" to anyone.
Final Grade: C
Final Grade: C
The Wrecking Crew (2008) (SIFF) - A
"The Wrecking Crew" is an excellent documentary about a little known group of artists that dominated the rock music scene in the 60's. What if one band performed all of the hit music of the 60's? It turns out that's not as ridiculous as it sounds. A group of studio musicians informally known as The Wrecking Crew played on a huge number of hit albums starting in the late 50's through the early 70's. A shocking number of well known bands didn't play on their own albums. For example, The Beach Boys didn't play any of the instruments on their albums. Very early on, Brian Wilson decided that he wanted the Wrecking Crew to play on their albums because they were simply better than the members of The Beach Boys. There was a scandal when the public found out that The Monkees didn't play any of their instruments, which was confusing to Davy Jones because he was aware that a bunch of other bands were doing the exact same thing. Listening to the songs featured in the movies is like listening to a soundtrack of the 60's. Some of the bands I was surprised to find out didn't play on their own albums included Simon and Garfunkel, The Righteous Brothers, Sony and Cher, and The Mamas and Papas, to name just a few. The Wrecking Crew also worked with Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sam Cook, and Elvis Presley.
The movie is a well done mixture of archival footage showing The Wrecking Crew playing in their primes and interviews with several of the surviving members. A lot of interesting tidbits come out during the movie. For example, the Wrecking Crew was so much in demand that several of the members became multimillionaires purely through being paid scale (or occasionally double scale) with no royalties of any kind. The worked that much! Hearing the musicians describe how in a lot of cases the producers or writers would only come in with an outline of the music and let the individual musicians create riffs to personalize the music was fascinating. It was also interesting to see how different the life was for the studio musicians. They didn't tour at all, so they had much more normal lives.
I want to make it clear that you don't need to be a fan of the music they played to appreciate this documentary. I'm not really a big fan of the music of that period. If you have any appreciation for music at all, you'll enjoy "The Wrecking Crew."
Final Grade: A
The movie is a well done mixture of archival footage showing The Wrecking Crew playing in their primes and interviews with several of the surviving members. A lot of interesting tidbits come out during the movie. For example, the Wrecking Crew was so much in demand that several of the members became multimillionaires purely through being paid scale (or occasionally double scale) with no royalties of any kind. The worked that much! Hearing the musicians describe how in a lot of cases the producers or writers would only come in with an outline of the music and let the individual musicians create riffs to personalize the music was fascinating. It was also interesting to see how different the life was for the studio musicians. They didn't tour at all, so they had much more normal lives.
I want to make it clear that you don't need to be a fan of the music they played to appreciate this documentary. I'm not really a big fan of the music of that period. If you have any appreciation for music at all, you'll enjoy "The Wrecking Crew."
Final Grade: A
Monday, May 26, 2008
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) - B
My review of the latest Indiana Jones movie is going to be a tiny bit spoilerish, so I'll put my overall conclusion up front, rather than at the end. It's probably fairly uncontroversial that a ranking of the first three Indiana Jones movies is quite clear. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is clearly better than "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" which is clearly better than "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." I think that "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is definitely better than "Temple of Doom" and definitely worse than "The Last Crusade." It's good enough that if you are even a moderate Indiana Jones fan you'll enjoy it like I did, but for those not into action movies, you can probably pass it by. From this point on in the review, spoilers are going to start getting dropped, so if you don't want any spoilers, come back and read the rest after you see the movie.
There's a lot to like in "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." First and foremost, the movie really felt like an Indiana Jones movie. The atmosphere, humor, cinematography, and style of action all feel like they could easily have been put into the earlier movies. Yes, Indy is a bit older, but the movie even manages to acknowledge that gracefully. The opening scene is especially good, and really would not have been out of place in "Raiders" or "The Last Crusade" other than Indy's age. After that opening sequence I was really hopeful that "Kingdom" would be amazing. Also, bringing Karen Allen back for "Kingdom" was a brilliant move. She's obviously the one true Indiana Jones love interest, and she and Ford still have a good chemistry.
Unfortunately, there were some bad elements that kept "Kingdom" from rising to the level of "The Last Crusade" (obviously hoping to achieve "Raiders" level is just wishful thinking.) The biggest problem is that the movie has aliens in it. Apparently Lucas first came up with this concept over a decade ago, and Ford and Spielberg refused saying it was a terrible concept. After many new treatments of the same basic concept, Ford and Spielberg finally agreed. I guess they finally found a treatment that wasn't so terrible that it ruined the movie, but of the four movies, I would say that this one had the weakest concept. Yes, the concept for "Temple" is pretty mediocre, but it never made me actively blanch like this one did at times.
The other weakness of "Kingdom" is that it was the only "Raiders" movie that actively broke my suspension of disbelief at times. One of the people I saw the movie with was Richard Garfield. I had to agree with him when he said that he had to actively put his suspension of disbelief back together after a few scenes.
The movie that "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" reminds me of is "Casino Royale." The first half of "Casino Royale" is really fantastic, as good as any Bond film ever, in my opinion. Unfortunately, the second half really goes down hill, and the movie kind of staggers to the finish. I know a few people who think "Casino Royale" is really great, which I believe is them editing their memory to ignore the weak second half. It was just so nice to see a good Bond movie again, that it's easier to focus on the good parts and ignore the bad parts.
I feel that people who say that "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is as good as "The Last Crusade" are also engaged in creative editing of their experience. The beginning of the movie is fantastic, but as the alien storyline comes more and more into focus, the movie gets weaker and weaker. The quality of the first half of the movie is such a pleasant surprise that it's easy to edit out the second half, but I think there's simply no way you can compare this movie to "The Last Crusade" considering how weakly "Kingdom" finishes.
Final Grade: B
There's a lot to like in "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." First and foremost, the movie really felt like an Indiana Jones movie. The atmosphere, humor, cinematography, and style of action all feel like they could easily have been put into the earlier movies. Yes, Indy is a bit older, but the movie even manages to acknowledge that gracefully. The opening scene is especially good, and really would not have been out of place in "Raiders" or "The Last Crusade" other than Indy's age. After that opening sequence I was really hopeful that "Kingdom" would be amazing. Also, bringing Karen Allen back for "Kingdom" was a brilliant move. She's obviously the one true Indiana Jones love interest, and she and Ford still have a good chemistry.
Unfortunately, there were some bad elements that kept "Kingdom" from rising to the level of "The Last Crusade" (obviously hoping to achieve "Raiders" level is just wishful thinking.) The biggest problem is that the movie has aliens in it. Apparently Lucas first came up with this concept over a decade ago, and Ford and Spielberg refused saying it was a terrible concept. After many new treatments of the same basic concept, Ford and Spielberg finally agreed. I guess they finally found a treatment that wasn't so terrible that it ruined the movie, but of the four movies, I would say that this one had the weakest concept. Yes, the concept for "Temple" is pretty mediocre, but it never made me actively blanch like this one did at times.
The other weakness of "Kingdom" is that it was the only "Raiders" movie that actively broke my suspension of disbelief at times. One of the people I saw the movie with was Richard Garfield. I had to agree with him when he said that he had to actively put his suspension of disbelief back together after a few scenes.
The movie that "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" reminds me of is "Casino Royale." The first half of "Casino Royale" is really fantastic, as good as any Bond film ever, in my opinion. Unfortunately, the second half really goes down hill, and the movie kind of staggers to the finish. I know a few people who think "Casino Royale" is really great, which I believe is them editing their memory to ignore the weak second half. It was just so nice to see a good Bond movie again, that it's easier to focus on the good parts and ignore the bad parts.
I feel that people who say that "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is as good as "The Last Crusade" are also engaged in creative editing of their experience. The beginning of the movie is fantastic, but as the alien storyline comes more and more into focus, the movie gets weaker and weaker. The quality of the first half of the movie is such a pleasant surprise that it's easy to edit out the second half, but I think there's simply no way you can compare this movie to "The Last Crusade" considering how weakly "Kingdom" finishes.
Final Grade: B
Made of Honor (2008) - B
"Made of Honor" is essentially "My Best Friend's Wedding" with the gender's reversed. Patrick Dempsey (McDreamy on "Grey's Anatomy") stars as Tom Shepard. Tom's a playboy who has a bunch of rules to make sure none of the women he dates get too close, like the no back to back dates, or no family functions. His best friend, however, is Hannah, played by Michelle Monaghan ("Gone Baby Gone,") who he met in college when he mistakenly climbed into her bed thinking Hannah was her roommate. They've been friends ever since, and Hannah is the woman Tom always takes to his father's many weddings (Sydney Pollack's final role.) When Hannah goes on an extended business trip to Scotland, Tom realizes how empty his life is without her, and resolves to tell her that he wants to be with her when she gets back. Unfortunately, Hannah shows up with Colin (Kevin McKidd of "Rome") in tow, and announces that she and Colin had a whirlwind romance and are getting married in two weeks, and that she wants Tom to be her maid of honor. Tom's guy friends then convince Tom that he should agree in order to try and sabotage the wedding from the inside.
In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I am a complete sucker for romantic comedies. Also, I felt a personal connection to the plot because I was a bridesman in John and Jenny Tynes' wedding. That being said, I really enjoyed "Made of Honor." I'm a big fan of all three of the main actors, especially Monaghan, who is an actress I keep hoping will make it big after loving her performances in "Gone Baby Gone" and "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." While the overall plot is quite predictable, I found the individual jokes to be funny and sometimes surprising. I do realize, though, that this a movie I should only recommend to someone who likes romantic comedies.
Final Grade: B
In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I am a complete sucker for romantic comedies. Also, I felt a personal connection to the plot because I was a bridesman in John and Jenny Tynes' wedding. That being said, I really enjoyed "Made of Honor." I'm a big fan of all three of the main actors, especially Monaghan, who is an actress I keep hoping will make it big after loving her performances in "Gone Baby Gone" and "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." While the overall plot is quite predictable, I found the individual jokes to be funny and sometimes surprising. I do realize, though, that this a movie I should only recommend to someone who likes romantic comedies.
Final Grade: B
Iron Man (2008) - A
"Iron Man" is the latest comic book movie. It stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man, and has a strong supporting cast including Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Terrence Howard. "Iron Man" is one of the best of the recent crop of super hero movies. Robert Downey Jr. is a perfect casting choice for Tony Stark, and he delivers an excellent performance. The strength of the movie is that the script and Downey make Tony Stark the single most interesting character to have been presented in any super hero movie, period. Only Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker comes close. The rest of the cast is excellent as well, and the chemistry between Paltrow and Downey is extremely enjoyable.
On the negative side, director Jon Favreau isn't exactly who I would think of to direct a super hero movie, and the action scenes in "Iron Man" simply aren't that great compared to other recent super hero movies. I don't want to sound too critical of Favreau, though, since the rest of the movie flows really well. The character development scenes are great, and Favreau even manages to make an extended sequence about engineering improvements to the Iron Man suit fun and interesting. My other slight nitpick with the movie is that there are a few plot points that didn't really make sense to me. After talking about them a bit with Skaff, I guess you can come up with explanations for what's going on, but during the actual viewing of the movie I had several "Huh?" moments.
Overall, I only rank the first two "Spider Man" movies ahead of "Iron Man" as far as super hero movies go, and I think it is quite close. I'd definitely recommend the movie to anyone. Also, if you are a super hero geek like myself, you'll definitely want to sit through the credits for a brief extra scene at the very end of the credits.
Final Grade: A
On the negative side, director Jon Favreau isn't exactly who I would think of to direct a super hero movie, and the action scenes in "Iron Man" simply aren't that great compared to other recent super hero movies. I don't want to sound too critical of Favreau, though, since the rest of the movie flows really well. The character development scenes are great, and Favreau even manages to make an extended sequence about engineering improvements to the Iron Man suit fun and interesting. My other slight nitpick with the movie is that there are a few plot points that didn't really make sense to me. After talking about them a bit with Skaff, I guess you can come up with explanations for what's going on, but during the actual viewing of the movie I had several "Huh?" moments.
Overall, I only rank the first two "Spider Man" movies ahead of "Iron Man" as far as super hero movies go, and I think it is quite close. I'd definitely recommend the movie to anyone. Also, if you are a super hero geek like myself, you'll definitely want to sit through the credits for a brief extra scene at the very end of the credits.
Final Grade: A
Saturday, May 24, 2008
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) - B
Surprisingly, "The Forbidden Kingdom" is Jackie Chan and Jet Li's first collaboration. It also stars Michael Anganaro ("Sky High ") as Jason Tripitikas, an American teen who is obsessed with martial arts movies. When a group of high school bullies force him to help them break into the Chinese pawn shop where he gets most of his movies, the proprietor is shot, and hands Jason a staff, proclaiming that Jason must return it to it's rightful owner. Jason is chased up onto the roof by the hoodlums, and falls from the roof. When he wakes up, though, he is no longer in America. He is in the Forbidden Kingdom. He meets a master of Drunken Kung Fu (Jackie Chan) who recognizes Jason's staff as belonging to the Monkey King (Jet Li). It is Jason's destiny to return the staff to the Monkey King. Thus begins Jason's quest.
"The Forbidden Kingdom" was choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping ("The Matrix" among many others). As a result, its style is much more Jet Li than Jackie Chan. You won't see wonderful improv fighting with random objects. It's pretty much a straight martial arts movie, beautifully choreographed. The cast is good, with Li and Chan being given roles that suit their respective strengths (meaning that Li doesn't talk much compared to Chan, for example) and Anganaro is appealing as the main character. For a martial arts movie, the plot is above average. It mostly holds together, and the random Zen pronouncements aren't so numerous that they become annoying. The plot isn't quite as good as my favorite movies of this genre, such as "Hero," though, so I can't quite recommend it to everyone. If you enjoy the traditional martial arts adventure, this is one of the better ones, but if that description makes you yawn, you probably want to pass.
Final Grade: B
"The Forbidden Kingdom" was choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping ("The Matrix" among many others). As a result, its style is much more Jet Li than Jackie Chan. You won't see wonderful improv fighting with random objects. It's pretty much a straight martial arts movie, beautifully choreographed. The cast is good, with Li and Chan being given roles that suit their respective strengths (meaning that Li doesn't talk much compared to Chan, for example) and Anganaro is appealing as the main character. For a martial arts movie, the plot is above average. It mostly holds together, and the random Zen pronouncements aren't so numerous that they become annoying. The plot isn't quite as good as my favorite movies of this genre, such as "Hero," though, so I can't quite recommend it to everyone. If you enjoy the traditional martial arts adventure, this is one of the better ones, but if that description makes you yawn, you probably want to pass.
Final Grade: B
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