Andy Warhol’s Heat
written and directed by Paul Morrissey
starring Joe Dallesandro, Andrea Feldman, Sylvia Miles, Pat Ast, Lester Persky, Harold Childe, Bonnie Walder, Ray Vestal, Eric Emerson, John Hallowell, Gary Koznocha
A young hustler ingratiates his way into the sodden life of a washed up TV actress while trying to fend off the manic attentions of her possibly psychotic daughter.
Joey Davis (Dallesandro) was once a famed child actor who starred on a long running TV Western show. He’s slumming it momentarily at a dingy motel waiting for his agent to give him some papers to sign regarding a record deal. The motel is populated with the typical Hollywood weirdos including a two brother nightclub act who engage is sexual activities to climax their show. One of these brothers walks around in a daze and really enjoys masturbating by the pool. Apparently he’s mute and he spends most of the film in a long white cotton dress.
Joey finds his time by the pool rather enjoyable. His star power radiates throughout the motel and many of its denizens hold him in some kind of sick awe. Basically, he seems disinterested in most of anything but takes advantage of situations as they arise. One of these involves the manager of the hotel, a woman named Lydia. She convinces him to let her give him a massage and things quickly turn randy as he massages her breasts while she coos. She promises him reduced rent which she tells him he is going to have to pay every night. Again, he’s casual about the arrangement and doesn’t get too caught up in its inherent drama.
Jessica Todd (Feldman) is a high strung girl who is living at the motel with her girlfriend Bonnie (Walder) and her infant son. There’s a long gag about whether or not Jessica is truly a lesbian or not. She seems unable to convince her mother Sally (Miles) of this fact and later decides she’s not a lesbian after all upon discovering her deep seated lust for Joey.
The film is mostly dialog and it all comes across organically and indeed some of it is improvised by the actors. The set design is simple and straightforward. There are several scenes in an old rustic mansion that lend a grandiosity to the film and the actors in their roles.
The camera simply adores Joe Dallesandro who again proves himself to be an exceedingly natural performer and he eases into every scene. There are many close-ups of Joe’s face and it’s not terribly difficult to read his thoughts or intentions. Still, he’s consumed with charm that can only come from an actor who is very glad to be in his skin.
Sally comes about to give Jessica money and meets Joey with whom she starred in that TV show a few years back. Immediately its obvious that something’s going down between these two and their attraction quickly turns to sex. Sally is desperate about her looks and still maintains she’s a big star even though all she’s done is game shows for the past several years. Basically nobody remembers her and she’s clinging to this belief that she still matters in Hollywood. Unfortunately she’s dead weight and her lust after the much younger Joey comes off as rather pathetic.
Joey moves into the mansion and quickly becomes tired of Sally and bored out of his mind. He’s got things to do and all Sally does is hold him back because she’s too lonely or she can’t bear to lose him to another woman. Whatever the reason, he manages to get out but not before having to deal with Jessica’s advances. Jessica is truly unhinged which is evidenced by one scene when she bursts in on Lydia and Joey’s foreplay complaining that the cigarette burns that Bonnie has administered to her are stinging. She cries for a bit and suddenly bursts out laughing before returning to her crying jag. She’s the kind of girl who seemingly either hasn’t got enough attention in her life or too much. She doesn’t know who the father of her son is and she seems not to have had a very close relationship with either her father or step father. She’s broke, without means to support herself, and in an abusive relationship with a bull dyke who enjoys slapping her around and burning her with the aforementioned cigarettes.
Essentially, this is a tale about terribly messed up family dynamics in situations where there is a whole lot of talking but little listening. Jessica is seventeen years old and honestly shouldn’t have to slum it at a cheap motel with her son. There is absolutely no reason for this but her mother thinks she’s too crazy and clearly wants to keep her at arms length. At one point she tells Jessica that she’ll take care of the baby but that Jessica cannot come live with her. She claims she means that Jessica cannot bring Bonnie with her but her actual meaning seems clear enough. She also says that she wishes she was a lesbian because she wouldn’t have had Jessica and subsequently wouldn’t have to deal with “this mess”. Jessica for her part claims to hate her mother although this doesn’t stop her from begging for money at every turn. Joey stumbles unwittingly into the fracas and all he has to do is lay back and be magnetic.
This film is highly sexualized from start to finish and it all centers around Joey Davis. All the women in the film want to get into his shorts and none of them are at all subtle about it. He takes advantage of all comers including receiving a blow job from a dandy named Harold (Childe). His life is made easy by his physique and his low key, casual attitude. He sleeps with these women because he can but mostly because it hopes it can bring him benefits such as furthering his career. He gets clothes out of Sally but little else. She simply doesn’t have any pull anymore and all her attempts to drum up some interest in Joey fall terribly flat.
The performances in this film are uniformly excellent. Sylvia Miles commands the screen throughout the film yet she allows her fellow actors to break through and shine as appropriate. Her character is dynamic, like a whirlwind that has the capacity to destroy a whole city block. Andrea Feldman is a torch lighting an darkened abattoir. Her perormance resonates with a truthfulness that is rare in cinema. One gets the impression that her character is a real person with the ability to cause real emotional reactions to her words and deeds. Her postures, mannerisms and affectations stay with the viewer long after the film has ended. Hers is one of those characters who truly put their fangs into one’s brain and will not let go. Joe Dallesandro is, again, wholly natural and clean in this role. He’s all grown up in this role in comparison to the naif he played in 1970's “Trash”, also directed by Paul Morrissey. Pat Ast is very impressive here as Lydia the motel’s manager. She delivers all her lines with a tremendous confidence and conviction which gives them an emphatic sense of truth no matter how outrageous they might seem at the outset.
Overall, this film is a oft-brilliant depiction of the ugly side of the glamourous life. These are characters who end up living a particularly empty life at their own hand. Joey Davis is able to get what he wants at every turn because of his body and his past but he just throws it away when he gets it because he’s terminally bored with everything and can commit to nothing. Jessica is little girl gone wrong because emotionally she may have been deprived for long stretches of her life when her mother was away working for TV. Regardless, her violent mood swings and general flightiness are not characteristics one generally wants to see in a new mother. She shows no lasting indication that she even wants the baby, referring to him as “it”. There’s a very real sense that everyone in this film is in a state of arrested development. None of them act as mature persons act and they all throw fits when they don’t get what they want. Joey’s fits are subtler but he acts up when things don’t seem to be going his way. Jessica positively shakes and almost froths at the mouth when she’s agitated. Even Lydia seems unable to fully face herself and make up her mind. She’s locked in on this job managing the motel but its clear she’s just biding time until something better comes along. None of these people know much about the direction they are headed in. They just do things for immediate satisfaction and pay no mind to the consequences of their actions.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Film Review--Taken
Taken (2008)
directed by Pierre Morel
written by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Arben Bajraktaraj, Holly Valance, Nicolas Giraud, Xander Berkeley, Katie Cassidy
Despite a number of rather improbable coincidences this film proves to be an exceedingly elegant story of the intensity of a father’s love for his daughter.
Brian Mills (Neeson) is an ex-CIA operative who has recently retired to spend more time with his daughter Kim (Grace). He is somewhat estranged from Kim because he hasn’t always been around due to his career and she has found parental guidance in her step-father Brian (Berkeley) who she lives with along with her mother Lanore (Janssen.
One of the central moments in this film involves Kim’s abduction at the hands of Albanians who ultimately plan on selling her to a Sheik. The camera and music create a tense situation that is fraught with danger. It is held together by Neeson’s steady, calm response to the terror that is afflicting his character’s daughter on the other end of the phone. She is in Paris with her friend Amanda (Cassidy) and the pair plan on following U2 across Europe. They meet a young man named Peter (Giraud) who shares a cab with them to Amanda’s cousin’s residence where they are to stay for the duration of their visit. Peter calls someone and quickly thereafter the girls are dragged away.
This is a story in which it is absurdly easy to get behind the central character. Neeson never lets us to forget the severity of his mission as he summons up his immense skills to track down the men responsible for capturing his daughter. Mills is relentless in his pursuit and of the mind set that it’s much better to shoot first than to wait around and see who’s holding. He is the ultimate action hero because he is fighting for something that is so personally precious to him and he is not about to suffer the guilt that would inevitably collapse his world should he fail. Indeed, failure is not an option here and so he goes about working his way up the ladder until he inevitably reaches the final pillar and must face to face with the devil himself or at least one of his representatives.
The film’s look is intoxicating throughout. The cinematography by Michel Abramowicz is clean, crisp and economical. It is tinged with an impossible sheen that is remarkably restrained. It creates a sense of glamour but nevertheless does not effectively glamorize the killings be committed at every turn.
Much of the power in this film originates through Mills’s grim, incessant determination to save his daughter from a life of sure ruin. It’s vigilante justice taken to a menacing, purposeful extreme. One is constantly reminded of the nefarious nature of the world that Mills is entering and his almost puritanical zeal for the safe return of his loved one. His tremendous capabilities for torture and combat plus his fearless mien are routinely demonstrated in swift, controlled movements that provide him with the proper inroads into solving the pressing dilemma before him.
This film introduces its central characters with a decisive lack of urgency. We meet them and immediately identify with whatever course of action they are to take. It’s a very simple approach that so many films fail to undertake. In this film it matters because the interpersonal relationships here are vital to understanding Mills’s motivation and his sense of futility in his relationship with Kim. In a few short minutes we know the dynamics and we know what is at stake for Mills. He is presented as a loving father who is trying to make up for lost time yet faces the reality of another man, a rich and genuine man, in his daughter’s life. It is clear that he has failed Kim in some sense and that this fact upsets him intensely.
There are moments in this film that seem to be improbable in their execution. Mills goes to the apartment Kim and Amanda were to stay in and removes a photo card from her camera. He investigates the images and finds one of a man he immediately suspects as being the spotter who set up the initial transaction. From that single photo he is able to track the man down and interrogate him only to lose him in the end. It is difficult to believe that he was able to accomplish all of this with nothing but a blurred photo to go on. One wonders how he knew where to go in such a massive city to find the man responsible for setting the chain in motion that inevitably leads to the Sheik.
The use in this film of the international selling of Western girls to Albanians most likely has ramifications in Albanian communities world wide. It’s an utterly corrupt depiction that presents the Albanians as wholly devious and monstrous. There is nothing whatsoever about them that is remotely likable; they come off as cruel and menacing businessmen who capitalize on the existence of a steady flow of easy prey into the cities. This is a film that expresses a very real and terrible fear that such events may occur at any given time. It presents naive and industrious girls who unwittingly stumble into traps that are set under the most innocent pretexts. They fall for the charm of a spotter who quietly ingratiates himself into their lives by playing on their trust. This film focuses on the simplicity of such an arrangement and demonstrates just how easy it is to mark certain females and wrestle them into a life devoid of hope, where they are made perpetually high, and forced to engage in activities with much older men who treat them like chattle.
The performances in this film are all dynamic and natural. Liam Neeson captivates from start to finish with a character who is fraught with complications but who is able to act in a decisive manner when the situation calls for it. He’s confident in his abilities but not so confident when it comes to the relationship he has with his daughter. It is here that Neeson demonstrates a tremendous range of emotion. During his mission he is driven and focused and tends to show little emotion. With Kim, his disposition is entirely different. He’s open, expressive, and clearly driven by a great love he knows he has almost let slip away. Maggie Grace is extraordinary in this film. She captures her character’s desire to expand and connect with a world much larger than what she has thus far experienced. One gets an immediate sense of her excitement as she makes her plans for heading to Paris. Also, she demonstrates on at least two occasions the fact that she really is barely seventeen and in many ways still a little girl who runs in to her father’s arms and clings madly to him. Famke Janssen’s character is captivating and aggressively disdainful of her ex-husband throughout much of the film. Lenore doesn’t give Mills any space in this film and holds him responsible for his lack of involvement in Kim’s life.
Overall, this is a scintillating film that creates a world of despair and destruction that its central character must fight, using his arsenal of skills, to combat. It’s the classic story of one man fighting for a just cause who must use any means necessary to achieve his aim. There is a sense of freshness in how this film approaches its subject and it never feels strained or superficial. The tension is on from the moment Kim and Amanda are abducted and it never abates straight through to the end. These ultimately are characters worth caring about and this has everything to do with the performances. They are astute at conveying the myriad complexities that haunt each of their lives and the end result is a film that is an exploration of a blistering reality that effects many young women worldwide every year.
directed by Pierre Morel
written by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Arben Bajraktaraj, Holly Valance, Nicolas Giraud, Xander Berkeley, Katie Cassidy
Despite a number of rather improbable coincidences this film proves to be an exceedingly elegant story of the intensity of a father’s love for his daughter.
Brian Mills (Neeson) is an ex-CIA operative who has recently retired to spend more time with his daughter Kim (Grace). He is somewhat estranged from Kim because he hasn’t always been around due to his career and she has found parental guidance in her step-father Brian (Berkeley) who she lives with along with her mother Lanore (Janssen.
One of the central moments in this film involves Kim’s abduction at the hands of Albanians who ultimately plan on selling her to a Sheik. The camera and music create a tense situation that is fraught with danger. It is held together by Neeson’s steady, calm response to the terror that is afflicting his character’s daughter on the other end of the phone. She is in Paris with her friend Amanda (Cassidy) and the pair plan on following U2 across Europe. They meet a young man named Peter (Giraud) who shares a cab with them to Amanda’s cousin’s residence where they are to stay for the duration of their visit. Peter calls someone and quickly thereafter the girls are dragged away.
This is a story in which it is absurdly easy to get behind the central character. Neeson never lets us to forget the severity of his mission as he summons up his immense skills to track down the men responsible for capturing his daughter. Mills is relentless in his pursuit and of the mind set that it’s much better to shoot first than to wait around and see who’s holding. He is the ultimate action hero because he is fighting for something that is so personally precious to him and he is not about to suffer the guilt that would inevitably collapse his world should he fail. Indeed, failure is not an option here and so he goes about working his way up the ladder until he inevitably reaches the final pillar and must face to face with the devil himself or at least one of his representatives.
The film’s look is intoxicating throughout. The cinematography by Michel Abramowicz is clean, crisp and economical. It is tinged with an impossible sheen that is remarkably restrained. It creates a sense of glamour but nevertheless does not effectively glamorize the killings be committed at every turn.
Much of the power in this film originates through Mills’s grim, incessant determination to save his daughter from a life of sure ruin. It’s vigilante justice taken to a menacing, purposeful extreme. One is constantly reminded of the nefarious nature of the world that Mills is entering and his almost puritanical zeal for the safe return of his loved one. His tremendous capabilities for torture and combat plus his fearless mien are routinely demonstrated in swift, controlled movements that provide him with the proper inroads into solving the pressing dilemma before him.
This film introduces its central characters with a decisive lack of urgency. We meet them and immediately identify with whatever course of action they are to take. It’s a very simple approach that so many films fail to undertake. In this film it matters because the interpersonal relationships here are vital to understanding Mills’s motivation and his sense of futility in his relationship with Kim. In a few short minutes we know the dynamics and we know what is at stake for Mills. He is presented as a loving father who is trying to make up for lost time yet faces the reality of another man, a rich and genuine man, in his daughter’s life. It is clear that he has failed Kim in some sense and that this fact upsets him intensely.
There are moments in this film that seem to be improbable in their execution. Mills goes to the apartment Kim and Amanda were to stay in and removes a photo card from her camera. He investigates the images and finds one of a man he immediately suspects as being the spotter who set up the initial transaction. From that single photo he is able to track the man down and interrogate him only to lose him in the end. It is difficult to believe that he was able to accomplish all of this with nothing but a blurred photo to go on. One wonders how he knew where to go in such a massive city to find the man responsible for setting the chain in motion that inevitably leads to the Sheik.
The use in this film of the international selling of Western girls to Albanians most likely has ramifications in Albanian communities world wide. It’s an utterly corrupt depiction that presents the Albanians as wholly devious and monstrous. There is nothing whatsoever about them that is remotely likable; they come off as cruel and menacing businessmen who capitalize on the existence of a steady flow of easy prey into the cities. This is a film that expresses a very real and terrible fear that such events may occur at any given time. It presents naive and industrious girls who unwittingly stumble into traps that are set under the most innocent pretexts. They fall for the charm of a spotter who quietly ingratiates himself into their lives by playing on their trust. This film focuses on the simplicity of such an arrangement and demonstrates just how easy it is to mark certain females and wrestle them into a life devoid of hope, where they are made perpetually high, and forced to engage in activities with much older men who treat them like chattle.
The performances in this film are all dynamic and natural. Liam Neeson captivates from start to finish with a character who is fraught with complications but who is able to act in a decisive manner when the situation calls for it. He’s confident in his abilities but not so confident when it comes to the relationship he has with his daughter. It is here that Neeson demonstrates a tremendous range of emotion. During his mission he is driven and focused and tends to show little emotion. With Kim, his disposition is entirely different. He’s open, expressive, and clearly driven by a great love he knows he has almost let slip away. Maggie Grace is extraordinary in this film. She captures her character’s desire to expand and connect with a world much larger than what she has thus far experienced. One gets an immediate sense of her excitement as she makes her plans for heading to Paris. Also, she demonstrates on at least two occasions the fact that she really is barely seventeen and in many ways still a little girl who runs in to her father’s arms and clings madly to him. Famke Janssen’s character is captivating and aggressively disdainful of her ex-husband throughout much of the film. Lenore doesn’t give Mills any space in this film and holds him responsible for his lack of involvement in Kim’s life.
Overall, this is a scintillating film that creates a world of despair and destruction that its central character must fight, using his arsenal of skills, to combat. It’s the classic story of one man fighting for a just cause who must use any means necessary to achieve his aim. There is a sense of freshness in how this film approaches its subject and it never feels strained or superficial. The tension is on from the moment Kim and Amanda are abducted and it never abates straight through to the end. These ultimately are characters worth caring about and this has everything to do with the performances. They are astute at conveying the myriad complexities that haunt each of their lives and the end result is a film that is an exploration of a blistering reality that effects many young women worldwide every year.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Film Review--The Pink Panther (2006)
The Pink Panther (2006)
directed by Shawn Levy
written by Len Blum and Steve Martin
starring Steve Martin, Emily Mortimer, Jean Reno, Kevin Kline, Jason Statham, Henry Czerny, Kristin Chenoweth, Roger Rees, Beyoncé Knowles
This reboot of the famous franchise maintains much of the celebrated fervor of the original films. It is a harder, meaner extrapolation of the Edwards-Sellers-Mancini years and often feels like a tribute to those films while maintaining its own vision.
It’s impossible to compare Peter Sellers and Steve Martin with any clarity. Each brings his own take on the character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau and their styles are distinct enough to warrant an appreciation for their approaches. In this film, Clouseau is even more tiresome than Seller’s version. He’s irritating in a way that is relentless as his ego is so profoundly out of touch with his sleuthing methods. Still, there is a raving intelligence to Martin’s Clouseau that is played out in a variety of scenes. He sees things but his interpretations are always incredibly off base.
The film is fairly sexy with the glamourous addition of Beyoncé Knowles who most certainly knows how to make an entrance and fill out a shimmery dress. Still, her sexiness is matched by the more understated appeal of Emily Mortimer. She’s less glam and more buttoned up but there’s a tigress within her that one wants desperately to burst from her bosom. There are hints of her desire for Clouseau which is one of the great unfinished aspects of the film. The hunger in her eyes when they almost kiss is delectable.
Jason Statham plays soccer coach Yves Gluant who is murdered by a poisoned dart while the Pink Panther diamond ring he is wearing is stolen. This kicks off the action proper as Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kline) decides to bring in the most inept police officer so he can swoop in and take all the glory for solving the crime. Despite himself Clouseau is perpetually putting himself in the right place at the right time. Specifically, he goes to a casino owned by Gluant’s business partner Raymond Larocque (Rees) to question the entrepreneur regarding Gluant’s death. He meets a highly secretive British Secret Service agent named Nigel Boswell (Clive Owen) who heroically slides down a rope ala James Bond and defeats the Gas Mask bandits who are staging a robbery while wearing Clouseau’s coat. Clouseau is credited with the takedown and is nominated for the Medal of Honor which Dreyfus is desperately seeking having lost six times previously.
In the usual fashion Clouseau botches every attempt to get closer to the killer while somehow remaining subconsciously aware of the correct path to take. Martin is more aggressively annoying that the other Clouseaus. His confidence rivals anything else in Paris as he steadfastly refuses to accept that he’s anything short of a master detective. Of course events play out that support this assessment of his abilities and it’s actually an exceedingly deft piece of investigation that leads him to the killer. Again, Clouseau spends the entire film utterly clueless but just when the odds are the most against him he comes through to save the day.
Jean Reno has the difficult task of keeping tabs on the maniacal Clouseau. He’s very funny in this as mostly a straight man who plays off of Clouseau’s absurdist antics. He manages to dull the terribly sharp edges that define Martin’s Clouseau and often garners bigger laughs.
There are elements in this film that update it to the modern age. There are cell phones, personal computers and a slick, modern feel to the scenes in New York and Paris. There is actually quite a bit of glamour on display in this film that almost feels decadent at times. There is more frank brutality specifically in the scene where suspect Bizu (William Abadie) is murdered by the same person who killed Gluant. He’s shot in the head and its filmed in such a way that it comes off as a shock.
Steve Martin is more physically aggressive in his stunts than Sellers. He possesses a reposit of energy that Sellers never accessed it. It can be argued that he didn’t need to because his ease of movement was more pronounced. He was clumsy but in an exceedingly deft way. Sellers was doing a bit more than falling down. He was dancing a particularly perverse dance with no partners. Martine’s accidents and disruptions seem a bit more forced and less graceful than the best Sellers gags. He also comes across as more immediately threatening. This is a Clouseau who could actually kill a great number of people and it’s a testament to the film’s effectiveness that they are able to walk the fine line between lunacy and outright disaster.
Kevin Kline fills the shoes of the great Herbert Lom with dexterity and tremendous charm. Kline’s Dreyfus is a bit more fastidious than Lom’s and more anal. He takes umbrage with Clouseau mainly because he is threatened by the distinct possibility that he has gravely underestimated the man. He lives in constant fear that Clouseau will actually be able to crack the case before he gets a chance to push him aside and take all the glory for himself. It’s the driving force that propels him forward and his obsession with Clouseau doesn’t move beyond this aspect. It’s not a full-on colossal loathing that Lom’s Dreyfus felt for Clouseau. It’s personal but it’s far more practical. One doesn’t suspect that this version of Dreyfus could ever be driven absolutely mad by a man such as Clouseau.
The performances in this film are uniformly excellent. Emily Mortimer has a swanlike manner that is also very much like Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. She’s got the same neck and her mannerisms are similar. She’s a bit more prudish than Ms. Hepburn, though, which nevertheless is part of her appeal. Steve Martin does everything one could ask in his performance. He’s clearly a capable physical comedian and his work here is entirely his own. He wisely sees fit not to attempt to borrow too much from his famed predecessor. Kevin Kline is remarkably grounded in this film. He plays Dreyfus with a singular sense of calm. Dreyfus in this film is not a man you would expect to see make any sudden movements unless he is attacked or otherwise compromised which he is routinely in this film.
Overall, this film satisfies the yen for another Panther film even if it doesn’t quite live up to the best of the earlier films. Still, the gags are routinely amusing and the performances are all top notch. It’s clearly created with the previous films in mind but doesn’t try to make a direct copy of anything that has come before. It is its own animal from start to finish and this is most pronounced by Steve Martin’s take on the classic character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau. He makes the character work within a more modern milieu which is the only way he could have possibly taken it.
directed by Shawn Levy
written by Len Blum and Steve Martin
starring Steve Martin, Emily Mortimer, Jean Reno, Kevin Kline, Jason Statham, Henry Czerny, Kristin Chenoweth, Roger Rees, Beyoncé Knowles
This reboot of the famous franchise maintains much of the celebrated fervor of the original films. It is a harder, meaner extrapolation of the Edwards-Sellers-Mancini years and often feels like a tribute to those films while maintaining its own vision.
It’s impossible to compare Peter Sellers and Steve Martin with any clarity. Each brings his own take on the character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau and their styles are distinct enough to warrant an appreciation for their approaches. In this film, Clouseau is even more tiresome than Seller’s version. He’s irritating in a way that is relentless as his ego is so profoundly out of touch with his sleuthing methods. Still, there is a raving intelligence to Martin’s Clouseau that is played out in a variety of scenes. He sees things but his interpretations are always incredibly off base.
The film is fairly sexy with the glamourous addition of Beyoncé Knowles who most certainly knows how to make an entrance and fill out a shimmery dress. Still, her sexiness is matched by the more understated appeal of Emily Mortimer. She’s less glam and more buttoned up but there’s a tigress within her that one wants desperately to burst from her bosom. There are hints of her desire for Clouseau which is one of the great unfinished aspects of the film. The hunger in her eyes when they almost kiss is delectable.
Jason Statham plays soccer coach Yves Gluant who is murdered by a poisoned dart while the Pink Panther diamond ring he is wearing is stolen. This kicks off the action proper as Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kline) decides to bring in the most inept police officer so he can swoop in and take all the glory for solving the crime. Despite himself Clouseau is perpetually putting himself in the right place at the right time. Specifically, he goes to a casino owned by Gluant’s business partner Raymond Larocque (Rees) to question the entrepreneur regarding Gluant’s death. He meets a highly secretive British Secret Service agent named Nigel Boswell (Clive Owen) who heroically slides down a rope ala James Bond and defeats the Gas Mask bandits who are staging a robbery while wearing Clouseau’s coat. Clouseau is credited with the takedown and is nominated for the Medal of Honor which Dreyfus is desperately seeking having lost six times previously.
In the usual fashion Clouseau botches every attempt to get closer to the killer while somehow remaining subconsciously aware of the correct path to take. Martin is more aggressively annoying that the other Clouseaus. His confidence rivals anything else in Paris as he steadfastly refuses to accept that he’s anything short of a master detective. Of course events play out that support this assessment of his abilities and it’s actually an exceedingly deft piece of investigation that leads him to the killer. Again, Clouseau spends the entire film utterly clueless but just when the odds are the most against him he comes through to save the day.
Jean Reno has the difficult task of keeping tabs on the maniacal Clouseau. He’s very funny in this as mostly a straight man who plays off of Clouseau’s absurdist antics. He manages to dull the terribly sharp edges that define Martin’s Clouseau and often garners bigger laughs.
There are elements in this film that update it to the modern age. There are cell phones, personal computers and a slick, modern feel to the scenes in New York and Paris. There is actually quite a bit of glamour on display in this film that almost feels decadent at times. There is more frank brutality specifically in the scene where suspect Bizu (William Abadie) is murdered by the same person who killed Gluant. He’s shot in the head and its filmed in such a way that it comes off as a shock.
Steve Martin is more physically aggressive in his stunts than Sellers. He possesses a reposit of energy that Sellers never accessed it. It can be argued that he didn’t need to because his ease of movement was more pronounced. He was clumsy but in an exceedingly deft way. Sellers was doing a bit more than falling down. He was dancing a particularly perverse dance with no partners. Martine’s accidents and disruptions seem a bit more forced and less graceful than the best Sellers gags. He also comes across as more immediately threatening. This is a Clouseau who could actually kill a great number of people and it’s a testament to the film’s effectiveness that they are able to walk the fine line between lunacy and outright disaster.
Kevin Kline fills the shoes of the great Herbert Lom with dexterity and tremendous charm. Kline’s Dreyfus is a bit more fastidious than Lom’s and more anal. He takes umbrage with Clouseau mainly because he is threatened by the distinct possibility that he has gravely underestimated the man. He lives in constant fear that Clouseau will actually be able to crack the case before he gets a chance to push him aside and take all the glory for himself. It’s the driving force that propels him forward and his obsession with Clouseau doesn’t move beyond this aspect. It’s not a full-on colossal loathing that Lom’s Dreyfus felt for Clouseau. It’s personal but it’s far more practical. One doesn’t suspect that this version of Dreyfus could ever be driven absolutely mad by a man such as Clouseau.
The performances in this film are uniformly excellent. Emily Mortimer has a swanlike manner that is also very much like Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. She’s got the same neck and her mannerisms are similar. She’s a bit more prudish than Ms. Hepburn, though, which nevertheless is part of her appeal. Steve Martin does everything one could ask in his performance. He’s clearly a capable physical comedian and his work here is entirely his own. He wisely sees fit not to attempt to borrow too much from his famed predecessor. Kevin Kline is remarkably grounded in this film. He plays Dreyfus with a singular sense of calm. Dreyfus in this film is not a man you would expect to see make any sudden movements unless he is attacked or otherwise compromised which he is routinely in this film.
Overall, this film satisfies the yen for another Panther film even if it doesn’t quite live up to the best of the earlier films. Still, the gags are routinely amusing and the performances are all top notch. It’s clearly created with the previous films in mind but doesn’t try to make a direct copy of anything that has come before. It is its own animal from start to finish and this is most pronounced by Steve Martin’s take on the classic character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau. He makes the character work within a more modern milieu which is the only way he could have possibly taken it.
Film Review--Curse of the Pink Panther
Curse of the Pink Panther
directed by Blake Edwards
written by Blake Edwards, Geoffrey Edwards
starring David Niven, Capucine, Robert Wagner, Herbert Lom, Joanna Lumley, Robert Loggia, Harvey Korman, Burt Kwouk, Ted Wass
As the film opens, the theft of the diamond from the previous film is repeated. A mysterious man tries to sell it to Countess Chandra (Lumley) but she shoots him dead just after Clouseau appears as if he is about to foil the transaction. Chandra points the gun at Clouseau and the opening credits begin.
Clouseau is still missing and the Sûreté are looking for the world’s greatest detective to track him down. Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Lom) is less than enthusiastic over the search and devises a plan to ensure that the exact opposite of what is programmed into the computer is tabulated in locating the best man (or woman) for the job. Subsequently, another bumbling, clumsy idiot in the guise of Sergeant Clifton Sleigh (Wass) is found and put on the case.
Sergeant Sleigh in this film is entirely ineffectual as a physical presence in this film. The character, an obvious pacifier for those who deeply lament the loss of Peter Sellers and who nevertheless will settle for a substitute, lacks Sellers’s solidity and strong sense of place. Despite his buffoonish behavior Seller’s Clouseau was grounded albeit it directionless at times and anathema to any objects put in his path. Sleigh is as much of a stumblebum as the man he is attempting to find. Clearly, the film wants us to satisfy ourselves with Nutrasweet while the real stuff is tragically out of reach. Wass’s dialog is often wooden and combined with his presentation the result is a character who isn’t particularly easy to like or root for.
The mob, led by the affable and utterly winning Bruno Langois (Loggia) naturally do not want Clouseau found so they put out a number of hits on Sleigh which manage to fail in the same manner they did with Clouseau.
Sleigh meets with the luxuriating Sir Charles Lytton (Niven) and his gallant wife Lady Simone (Capucine) who remain surprised that Clouseau hasn’t turned up yet. They discuss the diamond and the disappearance of Clouseau. This scene features one of several blatant sexual references in the film. Somehow Sleigh manages to get a rubber raft in the shape of a duck attached to his bottom so that when he sits down the ducks head peaks out between his legs so it looks like wood. They play with this gag for quite a long time as every time he moves or falls down the same head keeps bobbing away.
Also, there is a scene where Sleigh has just left Professor Auguste Balls’s disguise shop with an inflatable companion that Balls has sold him for a diversion. The scene changes and Sleigh sits outside a French café with his new toy. He lights her a cigarette and the ashes burn a hole in the doll. So, Sleigh puts his head very suggestively between the doll’s legs in order to attempt to blow her up or whatever you want to call it.
Sleigh is certainly a bumbling, stumbling mess but he moves and speaks like a character from “The Forbidden Zone”. It’s amazing if you compare the film and this cop. It’s as if he stepped straight off of that set onto this one and remained the same character for both films. After a while it becomes easier to like Sleigh because one begins to feel horribly for him; one develops a feeling of pity for him. He is lowly and unfortunate throughout although he does manage to get a girl interested in him. She is named Juleta Shane as well as Julie Morgan (Leslie Ash) and she meets Sleigh at a club where she is clearly interested. They had actually seen each other at the hotel they are staying at and later when she appears in his room she is ready to go. She’s one of the more ribald and blatantly sexual female characters in this series and she is basically grinding for it.
There is a tremendous openness at Countess Chandra (Lumley)’s health spa which includes hot mud baths and other various extravagances. It’s an exceedingly clean and vital place and every time the film goes back to it, it is infused with an intense energy that comes directly from the various stations at the spa.
The clumsy antics of Sleigh are over the top to put it mildly. It’s possible that he’s even more vertically challenged than Clouseau is in the first several films. Regardless, he’s a serious wreck and cannot step two feet without stumbling over himself and putting others at serious risk. There are really none of his falls that are particularly amusing. They have the physical characteristics of Sellers’s work but none of the style or grace. They are ugly and perhaps less choreographed but in the end they come across as second rate when compared to the master. But, one can hardly blame young Wass for this. He does what he can in his role which is an attempt to capture the essence of Sellers in the body of another character. It certainly is a smarter move than taking another stab at a Clouseau replacement which lowered the impact of “Inspector Clouseau” with Alan Arkin.
The end of the film is certainly curious and it involves Roger Moore tripping over everything in sight, speaking in an exaggerated French accent, and spending most of his scenes with an ice bucket on his head. It’s clear from the beginning who this really is and it’s a whole lot of fun because Moore isn’t exactly known for slapstick and this display shows him in fine form. These scenes tie the film together and make sense of it. In a way it’s too much, too soon as prior to that the film seems to meander a ways before finally getting to the point. Still, the ending is very appealing in its way and ultimately satisfactory. Indeed, it’s the perfect ending for this part of the series. It would be ten years before another one, “Son of the Pink Panther”, was attempted and that film really has little to do with the tremendous 20 year ride between the original Panther and “Curse”.
This film combines extended gags with short riffs where Sleigh trips over his feet and destroys a piece of furniture or a display. In its way it is successful at what it is attempting to do. It creates a character who is similar enough to Clouseau to not be a shock to long term fans of the series while molding a passably entertaining story around it. It works quite well and the film maintains its directive throughout without succumbing to self-parody.
The performances in this film are all impressive. I’ve decided that Ted Wass is brilliantly playing a wooden character with no rhythm and that he is supposed to be that way. Wass has a certain affability that he exploits routinely. He’s got natural comic timing which comes in to play throughout the film. Joanna Lumley also possess a fantastic comedic touch. She and Roger Moore have excellent chemistry here and it works to the film’s advantage. Herbert Lom is, as usual, very discomforted as Dreyfus and phenomenally agitated at the prospect of Clouseau being alive. It’s a testament to the series that it manages to make Dreyfus’s neuroses regarding Clouseau fresh and novel every time they attack it. Dreyfus is really the central character in these films and Clouseau is merely the comic relief.
Overall, this film captures the spirit of the earlier films without quite managing to create their elegance or style. Tedd Wass of course isn’t as dynamic and thrilling as Sellers but that isn’t what the film is going for here. Wass is an entirely different animal even though he shares the same afflictions as Sellers in terms of his lack of balance and inability to avoid falling down. He is a repressed, buttoned-up nerd with no clue about the world, and especially women. Next to him Clouseau is Casanova. Seller’s Clouseau, despite his tendency to destroy inanimate objects, is a man of the world. He’s sophisticated in a way that Wass’s is not. The film wonderfully gives us a character who doesn’t try to be a mock-up of Clouseau and instead carries on with his own personality quirks that come in the end to define the character.
directed by Blake Edwards
written by Blake Edwards, Geoffrey Edwards
starring David Niven, Capucine, Robert Wagner, Herbert Lom, Joanna Lumley, Robert Loggia, Harvey Korman, Burt Kwouk, Ted Wass
As the film opens, the theft of the diamond from the previous film is repeated. A mysterious man tries to sell it to Countess Chandra (Lumley) but she shoots him dead just after Clouseau appears as if he is about to foil the transaction. Chandra points the gun at Clouseau and the opening credits begin.
Clouseau is still missing and the Sûreté are looking for the world’s greatest detective to track him down. Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Lom) is less than enthusiastic over the search and devises a plan to ensure that the exact opposite of what is programmed into the computer is tabulated in locating the best man (or woman) for the job. Subsequently, another bumbling, clumsy idiot in the guise of Sergeant Clifton Sleigh (Wass) is found and put on the case.
Sergeant Sleigh in this film is entirely ineffectual as a physical presence in this film. The character, an obvious pacifier for those who deeply lament the loss of Peter Sellers and who nevertheless will settle for a substitute, lacks Sellers’s solidity and strong sense of place. Despite his buffoonish behavior Seller’s Clouseau was grounded albeit it directionless at times and anathema to any objects put in his path. Sleigh is as much of a stumblebum as the man he is attempting to find. Clearly, the film wants us to satisfy ourselves with Nutrasweet while the real stuff is tragically out of reach. Wass’s dialog is often wooden and combined with his presentation the result is a character who isn’t particularly easy to like or root for.
The mob, led by the affable and utterly winning Bruno Langois (Loggia) naturally do not want Clouseau found so they put out a number of hits on Sleigh which manage to fail in the same manner they did with Clouseau.
Sleigh meets with the luxuriating Sir Charles Lytton (Niven) and his gallant wife Lady Simone (Capucine) who remain surprised that Clouseau hasn’t turned up yet. They discuss the diamond and the disappearance of Clouseau. This scene features one of several blatant sexual references in the film. Somehow Sleigh manages to get a rubber raft in the shape of a duck attached to his bottom so that when he sits down the ducks head peaks out between his legs so it looks like wood. They play with this gag for quite a long time as every time he moves or falls down the same head keeps bobbing away.
Also, there is a scene where Sleigh has just left Professor Auguste Balls’s disguise shop with an inflatable companion that Balls has sold him for a diversion. The scene changes and Sleigh sits outside a French café with his new toy. He lights her a cigarette and the ashes burn a hole in the doll. So, Sleigh puts his head very suggestively between the doll’s legs in order to attempt to blow her up or whatever you want to call it.
Sleigh is certainly a bumbling, stumbling mess but he moves and speaks like a character from “The Forbidden Zone”. It’s amazing if you compare the film and this cop. It’s as if he stepped straight off of that set onto this one and remained the same character for both films. After a while it becomes easier to like Sleigh because one begins to feel horribly for him; one develops a feeling of pity for him. He is lowly and unfortunate throughout although he does manage to get a girl interested in him. She is named Juleta Shane as well as Julie Morgan (Leslie Ash) and she meets Sleigh at a club where she is clearly interested. They had actually seen each other at the hotel they are staying at and later when she appears in his room she is ready to go. She’s one of the more ribald and blatantly sexual female characters in this series and she is basically grinding for it.
There is a tremendous openness at Countess Chandra (Lumley)’s health spa which includes hot mud baths and other various extravagances. It’s an exceedingly clean and vital place and every time the film goes back to it, it is infused with an intense energy that comes directly from the various stations at the spa.
The clumsy antics of Sleigh are over the top to put it mildly. It’s possible that he’s even more vertically challenged than Clouseau is in the first several films. Regardless, he’s a serious wreck and cannot step two feet without stumbling over himself and putting others at serious risk. There are really none of his falls that are particularly amusing. They have the physical characteristics of Sellers’s work but none of the style or grace. They are ugly and perhaps less choreographed but in the end they come across as second rate when compared to the master. But, one can hardly blame young Wass for this. He does what he can in his role which is an attempt to capture the essence of Sellers in the body of another character. It certainly is a smarter move than taking another stab at a Clouseau replacement which lowered the impact of “Inspector Clouseau” with Alan Arkin.
The end of the film is certainly curious and it involves Roger Moore tripping over everything in sight, speaking in an exaggerated French accent, and spending most of his scenes with an ice bucket on his head. It’s clear from the beginning who this really is and it’s a whole lot of fun because Moore isn’t exactly known for slapstick and this display shows him in fine form. These scenes tie the film together and make sense of it. In a way it’s too much, too soon as prior to that the film seems to meander a ways before finally getting to the point. Still, the ending is very appealing in its way and ultimately satisfactory. Indeed, it’s the perfect ending for this part of the series. It would be ten years before another one, “Son of the Pink Panther”, was attempted and that film really has little to do with the tremendous 20 year ride between the original Panther and “Curse”.
This film combines extended gags with short riffs where Sleigh trips over his feet and destroys a piece of furniture or a display. In its way it is successful at what it is attempting to do. It creates a character who is similar enough to Clouseau to not be a shock to long term fans of the series while molding a passably entertaining story around it. It works quite well and the film maintains its directive throughout without succumbing to self-parody.
The performances in this film are all impressive. I’ve decided that Ted Wass is brilliantly playing a wooden character with no rhythm and that he is supposed to be that way. Wass has a certain affability that he exploits routinely. He’s got natural comic timing which comes in to play throughout the film. Joanna Lumley also possess a fantastic comedic touch. She and Roger Moore have excellent chemistry here and it works to the film’s advantage. Herbert Lom is, as usual, very discomforted as Dreyfus and phenomenally agitated at the prospect of Clouseau being alive. It’s a testament to the series that it manages to make Dreyfus’s neuroses regarding Clouseau fresh and novel every time they attack it. Dreyfus is really the central character in these films and Clouseau is merely the comic relief.
Overall, this film captures the spirit of the earlier films without quite managing to create their elegance or style. Tedd Wass of course isn’t as dynamic and thrilling as Sellers but that isn’t what the film is going for here. Wass is an entirely different animal even though he shares the same afflictions as Sellers in terms of his lack of balance and inability to avoid falling down. He is a repressed, buttoned-up nerd with no clue about the world, and especially women. Next to him Clouseau is Casanova. Seller’s Clouseau, despite his tendency to destroy inanimate objects, is a man of the world. He’s sophisticated in a way that Wass’s is not. The film wonderfully gives us a character who doesn’t try to be a mock-up of Clouseau and instead carries on with his own personality quirks that come in the end to define the character.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Film Review--Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak
written by Justin Marks
starring Kristen Kreuk, Chris Klein, Neal McDonough, Robin Shou, Moon Bloodgood, Michael Clarke Duncan, Taboo, Josie Ho, Edmund Chen
This is the story of a little girl who longed to be nothing short of a renowned classical pianist. We learn of her ambition through voice over narration by her adult Self. She is Chun-Li (Kreuk) and along with her piano studies she also undertakes extensive martial arts training with her father Xiang (Chen) who teaches her a wide variety of useful techniques that she proves to be exceedingly adept with. Unfortunately their idyll is shattered by Bison’s (McDonough) henchmen who kidnap her father and leave her mother in a crumpled heap. Chun-Li grows up to indeed by a pianist who plays extravagant concert halls and is well received. She receives a scroll written in ancient Chinese and this ultimately leads her to Bangkok where she has been instructed to meet a man named Gen (Shou). Eventually she does meet him and he instructs her while helping her get more control over her anger.
This film, adapted from the successful video game franchise, suffers as most adaptations of this sort do. It quite often feels like a video game with little character development, ludicrous dialog, and absurd fight sequences. Still, it does have its charms which mostly come through in the performances which are mostly excellent.
Kristen Kreuk has an unassuming personality as Chun-Li in this film and her tiny frame contains a fireball of martial arts skills that seem to erupt as if out of nowhere. It’s delightful to watch her launch herself into full on fighting mode and her particular fighting scenes have a ballet quality to them as well as seeming to be incredibly athletic. She manages to infuse the scenes with an erotic quality that is conspicuously missing from other such scenes in the film. She expresses a tremendous energy and possesses a strong presence throughout the course of the film.
The character of Bison is presented to be one who has basically sold his soul to the devil. Literally, in one of the more preposterous scenes which is never properly explained, he removes his unborn daughter from his wife’s stomach and transplants his conscience in her so he can be rid of it once and for all. Ostensibly this is so he can continue to fleece people without ever having to suffer the damned pangs of guilt that generally accompany such nefarious transactions. He grew up a thief and continues his activities by managing to buy out all of the waterfront slums in Bangkok and forcing all of the residents out of their homes so he can build expensive, exclusive hi-rises for the affluent. Neal McDonough plays him with fiendish glee yet he never makes the mistake of turning his character into a cartoon. In this film Bison is all too human and representative of the corrupting influence that greed and power can hold over certain individuals who do not know how to reign in their appetites.
Bison’s sinister machinations are not fully explored in this film. I wanted more evidence as to why he’s such a dangerous person and I only got a hint of what he is up to. I learn that he’s prone to extreme violence, commands an army of sycophants, kidnaps well-connected businessmen to do his bidding, and makes plans for obliterating the lifestyles of scores of people for his own profit and amusement. But, there is clearly so much more sinister goodness inside this man. His reign of terror is just too local to have much street value. I assume he is more ambitious than what he appears but perhaps he’s satisfied with his corruptive schemata.
As Chun-Li makes her way to Bison, whom she has learned is holding her father, a cop named Maya Sunee (Bloodgood) and an operative named Charlie Nash (Klein) are following a series of decapitated heads to Bison. Eventually they both intersect setting up the final showdown between the police and Bison’s military squad. It’s a typical battle sequence and nothing particularly dramatic stands out although again Chun-Li possesses a legitimate sense of grace and elegance as she administers her various assaults on her enemies.
Overall, this film manages to be fairly entertaining despite its myriad flaws regarding pacing, style, and dialog. It has the requisite amount of energy for an action film and the performances are mentioned are uniformly good. Robin Shou quietly commands the screen in every scene he’s in. His character is spiritually wise and it’s consistently enlightening to listen to him wax philosophically about various aspects of martial arts and yoga. Ultimately, it’s a film that probably should have gone straight to video as it doesn’t exactly feel very cinematic most of the time. It feels restrained, as if it were trapped in a tiny box not very unlike a gaming system or television set.
directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak
written by Justin Marks
starring Kristen Kreuk, Chris Klein, Neal McDonough, Robin Shou, Moon Bloodgood, Michael Clarke Duncan, Taboo, Josie Ho, Edmund Chen
This is the story of a little girl who longed to be nothing short of a renowned classical pianist. We learn of her ambition through voice over narration by her adult Self. She is Chun-Li (Kreuk) and along with her piano studies she also undertakes extensive martial arts training with her father Xiang (Chen) who teaches her a wide variety of useful techniques that she proves to be exceedingly adept with. Unfortunately their idyll is shattered by Bison’s (McDonough) henchmen who kidnap her father and leave her mother in a crumpled heap. Chun-Li grows up to indeed by a pianist who plays extravagant concert halls and is well received. She receives a scroll written in ancient Chinese and this ultimately leads her to Bangkok where she has been instructed to meet a man named Gen (Shou). Eventually she does meet him and he instructs her while helping her get more control over her anger.
This film, adapted from the successful video game franchise, suffers as most adaptations of this sort do. It quite often feels like a video game with little character development, ludicrous dialog, and absurd fight sequences. Still, it does have its charms which mostly come through in the performances which are mostly excellent.
Kristen Kreuk has an unassuming personality as Chun-Li in this film and her tiny frame contains a fireball of martial arts skills that seem to erupt as if out of nowhere. It’s delightful to watch her launch herself into full on fighting mode and her particular fighting scenes have a ballet quality to them as well as seeming to be incredibly athletic. She manages to infuse the scenes with an erotic quality that is conspicuously missing from other such scenes in the film. She expresses a tremendous energy and possesses a strong presence throughout the course of the film.
The character of Bison is presented to be one who has basically sold his soul to the devil. Literally, in one of the more preposterous scenes which is never properly explained, he removes his unborn daughter from his wife’s stomach and transplants his conscience in her so he can be rid of it once and for all. Ostensibly this is so he can continue to fleece people without ever having to suffer the damned pangs of guilt that generally accompany such nefarious transactions. He grew up a thief and continues his activities by managing to buy out all of the waterfront slums in Bangkok and forcing all of the residents out of their homes so he can build expensive, exclusive hi-rises for the affluent. Neal McDonough plays him with fiendish glee yet he never makes the mistake of turning his character into a cartoon. In this film Bison is all too human and representative of the corrupting influence that greed and power can hold over certain individuals who do not know how to reign in their appetites.
Bison’s sinister machinations are not fully explored in this film. I wanted more evidence as to why he’s such a dangerous person and I only got a hint of what he is up to. I learn that he’s prone to extreme violence, commands an army of sycophants, kidnaps well-connected businessmen to do his bidding, and makes plans for obliterating the lifestyles of scores of people for his own profit and amusement. But, there is clearly so much more sinister goodness inside this man. His reign of terror is just too local to have much street value. I assume he is more ambitious than what he appears but perhaps he’s satisfied with his corruptive schemata.
As Chun-Li makes her way to Bison, whom she has learned is holding her father, a cop named Maya Sunee (Bloodgood) and an operative named Charlie Nash (Klein) are following a series of decapitated heads to Bison. Eventually they both intersect setting up the final showdown between the police and Bison’s military squad. It’s a typical battle sequence and nothing particularly dramatic stands out although again Chun-Li possesses a legitimate sense of grace and elegance as she administers her various assaults on her enemies.
Overall, this film manages to be fairly entertaining despite its myriad flaws regarding pacing, style, and dialog. It has the requisite amount of energy for an action film and the performances are mentioned are uniformly good. Robin Shou quietly commands the screen in every scene he’s in. His character is spiritually wise and it’s consistently enlightening to listen to him wax philosophically about various aspects of martial arts and yoga. Ultimately, it’s a film that probably should have gone straight to video as it doesn’t exactly feel very cinematic most of the time. It feels restrained, as if it were trapped in a tiny box not very unlike a gaming system or television set.
Film Review--Friday the 13th (2009)
Friday the 13th (2009)
directed by Marcus Nispel
written by Damian Shannon, Mark Swift, Mark Wheaton
based on characters created by Victor Miller
starring Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Derek Mears, Julianna Guill, Ben Feldman
In this stellar, atmospheric reimagining of the Friday the 13th film series, the various aspects that made the earlier films in the franchise so effective are maintained and occasionally enhanced. The result is a menacing, deeply haunting telling of the mythos that surrounds the character of Jason Voorhees (Mears).
Jason is hard in this film. His movements, demeanor and cold calculations render him one of the more salient mass murderers in recent horror history. This film reworks elements from the first four films to tell the familiar story of a disgruntled homicidal manic who preys on those who stumble into his terrain. Jason is territorial here and the locals know enough not to enter into his domain. There is a quiet complicity amongst the locals who seem to accept the fact that a crazed killer routinely stalks and butchers his prey in their midst. They just want to be left alone and are not prone to asking any questions. Also, it is perhaps likely that they too view the incursions of the outsiders as troublesome and that those who suffer at Jason’s hands somehow deserve their fate for their dissolute lifestyles.
The film features two sets of killing sprees six weeks apart. In each a group of young people are out for a good time of sex, booze, and whatever other substances they can find and ingest. The first group are seeking out weed that they have learnt grows around Crystal Lake and they want to procure it in order to sell it at a huge profit. The first kill who is obsessed with GPS tracking systems but is clearly not one that the ladies favor finds the marijuana just before he is slaughtered by Jason. These kids fall relatively quickly except one girl named Whitney (Righetti) who resembles Jason’s mother when she was younger. Jason keeps her chained in his basement although there is no clear indication that he attempts to torture or sexually assault her.
Six weeks later a man named Clay (Padalecki) is looking for his sister, Whitney, who disappeared and he is traveling around knocking on doors asking if anyone has seen her. One woman says “She ain’t missin’. She’s dead” before slamming the door in his face. He gravitates to the beach house of Trent (Van Winkle) who is hosting a wild weekend for his friends. Trent and Clay do not hit it off and a clear rivalry is set up between them. The kids booze it up and some of them have sex which it has been proven is never a good idea in these films. Gradually, Jason makes his way through the group until all but Clay and Jenna (Panabaker) are left. The film focuses mainly on Clay’s continuing search for Whitney as Jason bores down on satisfying the edicts of his killing plan.
There is a definite mood set up in this film through editing and music. The killings seem brutal and more intense than the majority of recent remakes and most contemporary horror films in general. Jason is depicted as not so much a raging force out of control but as a calculating killer who has a set agenda that involves careful planning and deliberate action. Jason has evolved into more of a modern day serial killer who knows precisely what he wants to accomplish and has the tools to reach his aims. He is also a mass murderer who kills a great number of people all at once. For the first time he captures and detains a victim and also tortures a girl named Amanda (America Olivo) by stringing her up in a sleeping bag over a camp fire.
The film starts with the beheading of Jason’s mother (Nana Visitor) which took place at the end of the original film. Jason observes this act and it is this moment that is assumed to have triggered his violent course of revenge. Thirty years later the kids show up and Jason takes his pleasure at their unwitting expense. Clay is similar to a character in one of the early films in that he is also looking for his disappeared sister. The use of a sleeping bag as a death chamber is similar to a girl who was slammed against a tree in a previous film.
There is some comedic relief in the form of Chewie (Yoo) who offers up the occasionally witty remark before getting his in the shed. We actually spend quite a bit of time with Chewie which is almost unheard of in the series. We get to know his quirks as well as the contents of his one-track mind. He’s one of the only characters worth knowing in this film and his demise comes as something of a shock although we know from the outset that it’s inevitable. There are others who are more developed than is typical including Clay and Jenna who necessarily become the two who are thrust into the role of key survivors who face Jason and make concerted efforts to eliminate him.
It is possible that Jason is just defending his weed from the greedy mitts of intruders. Perhaps he’s been cultivating it all along and becomes exceedingly angry when it is disturbed. He wants it to be left alone and is bent on ensuring that it remains protected by those who would ravish it for mere profit.
The killings have a visceral quality that renders them immediate and vital. The use of sound enhances the deaths and accentuates their brutal natures.
The performances in this film are all relatively impressive for the genre. Jared Padalecki has a particularly strong presence and carries his part of the film effectively. Amanda Righetti is at ease looking terrified and her character possesses a genuine spark that is actualized near the end of the film
Overall, this is one of the most satisfying remakes of recent memory. In fact, it’s one of the most invigorating horror films of recent vintage and does everything right to jack up the series and return it back to its roots. It provides the viewer with an opportunity to revisit the elements that have made this one of the most popular franchise series in cinematic history. There are moments of legitimate terror which is brought to bear by the score and set design. Each of the main characters are well thought out and seem necessary to the story being told. Still, the majority of the characters are just fodder for Jason’s peculiar tastes and he dispatches them without fanfare. Jason himself is exceedingly swift and energetic in this film. He seems more human and therefore more terrifying than in many of the more recent additions to the film’s canon. In every way this is a successful take on these films and it seems as if they have set it up so that there will likely be a sequel.
directed by Marcus Nispel
written by Damian Shannon, Mark Swift, Mark Wheaton
based on characters created by Victor Miller
starring Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Derek Mears, Julianna Guill, Ben Feldman
In this stellar, atmospheric reimagining of the Friday the 13th film series, the various aspects that made the earlier films in the franchise so effective are maintained and occasionally enhanced. The result is a menacing, deeply haunting telling of the mythos that surrounds the character of Jason Voorhees (Mears).
Jason is hard in this film. His movements, demeanor and cold calculations render him one of the more salient mass murderers in recent horror history. This film reworks elements from the first four films to tell the familiar story of a disgruntled homicidal manic who preys on those who stumble into his terrain. Jason is territorial here and the locals know enough not to enter into his domain. There is a quiet complicity amongst the locals who seem to accept the fact that a crazed killer routinely stalks and butchers his prey in their midst. They just want to be left alone and are not prone to asking any questions. Also, it is perhaps likely that they too view the incursions of the outsiders as troublesome and that those who suffer at Jason’s hands somehow deserve their fate for their dissolute lifestyles.
The film features two sets of killing sprees six weeks apart. In each a group of young people are out for a good time of sex, booze, and whatever other substances they can find and ingest. The first group are seeking out weed that they have learnt grows around Crystal Lake and they want to procure it in order to sell it at a huge profit. The first kill who is obsessed with GPS tracking systems but is clearly not one that the ladies favor finds the marijuana just before he is slaughtered by Jason. These kids fall relatively quickly except one girl named Whitney (Righetti) who resembles Jason’s mother when she was younger. Jason keeps her chained in his basement although there is no clear indication that he attempts to torture or sexually assault her.
Six weeks later a man named Clay (Padalecki) is looking for his sister, Whitney, who disappeared and he is traveling around knocking on doors asking if anyone has seen her. One woman says “She ain’t missin’. She’s dead” before slamming the door in his face. He gravitates to the beach house of Trent (Van Winkle) who is hosting a wild weekend for his friends. Trent and Clay do not hit it off and a clear rivalry is set up between them. The kids booze it up and some of them have sex which it has been proven is never a good idea in these films. Gradually, Jason makes his way through the group until all but Clay and Jenna (Panabaker) are left. The film focuses mainly on Clay’s continuing search for Whitney as Jason bores down on satisfying the edicts of his killing plan.
There is a definite mood set up in this film through editing and music. The killings seem brutal and more intense than the majority of recent remakes and most contemporary horror films in general. Jason is depicted as not so much a raging force out of control but as a calculating killer who has a set agenda that involves careful planning and deliberate action. Jason has evolved into more of a modern day serial killer who knows precisely what he wants to accomplish and has the tools to reach his aims. He is also a mass murderer who kills a great number of people all at once. For the first time he captures and detains a victim and also tortures a girl named Amanda (America Olivo) by stringing her up in a sleeping bag over a camp fire.
The film starts with the beheading of Jason’s mother (Nana Visitor) which took place at the end of the original film. Jason observes this act and it is this moment that is assumed to have triggered his violent course of revenge. Thirty years later the kids show up and Jason takes his pleasure at their unwitting expense. Clay is similar to a character in one of the early films in that he is also looking for his disappeared sister. The use of a sleeping bag as a death chamber is similar to a girl who was slammed against a tree in a previous film.
There is some comedic relief in the form of Chewie (Yoo) who offers up the occasionally witty remark before getting his in the shed. We actually spend quite a bit of time with Chewie which is almost unheard of in the series. We get to know his quirks as well as the contents of his one-track mind. He’s one of the only characters worth knowing in this film and his demise comes as something of a shock although we know from the outset that it’s inevitable. There are others who are more developed than is typical including Clay and Jenna who necessarily become the two who are thrust into the role of key survivors who face Jason and make concerted efforts to eliminate him.
It is possible that Jason is just defending his weed from the greedy mitts of intruders. Perhaps he’s been cultivating it all along and becomes exceedingly angry when it is disturbed. He wants it to be left alone and is bent on ensuring that it remains protected by those who would ravish it for mere profit.
The killings have a visceral quality that renders them immediate and vital. The use of sound enhances the deaths and accentuates their brutal natures.
The performances in this film are all relatively impressive for the genre. Jared Padalecki has a particularly strong presence and carries his part of the film effectively. Amanda Righetti is at ease looking terrified and her character possesses a genuine spark that is actualized near the end of the film
Overall, this is one of the most satisfying remakes of recent memory. In fact, it’s one of the most invigorating horror films of recent vintage and does everything right to jack up the series and return it back to its roots. It provides the viewer with an opportunity to revisit the elements that have made this one of the most popular franchise series in cinematic history. There are moments of legitimate terror which is brought to bear by the score and set design. Each of the main characters are well thought out and seem necessary to the story being told. Still, the majority of the characters are just fodder for Jason’s peculiar tastes and he dispatches them without fanfare. Jason himself is exceedingly swift and energetic in this film. He seems more human and therefore more terrifying than in many of the more recent additions to the film’s canon. In every way this is a successful take on these films and it seems as if they have set it up so that there will likely be a sequel.
Film Review--Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
directed by Ronnie Yu
written by Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
based on characters created by Victor Miller and Wes Craven
starring Robert Englund, Ken Kerzinger, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Kelly Rowland, Chris Marquette, Brendan Fletcher, Lochlyn Munro
From the bowels of Hell, Freddy Krueger (Englund) fears his ability to terrorize the dreams of the unwitting is fading so he turns to Jason Voorhees (Kerzinger) for help. Unfortunately, he fails to acknowledge that Jason’s fundamental purpose, that which gets him out of the bed in the morning, is to kill as many humans as possible before sundown. Jason simply cannot be shut off on a whim and kills just as naturally as another man brushes his dog’s teeth.
From the beginning, it’s not a particularly square arrangement. Freddy simply wants Jason to do all the work so he can take all the credit. He imagines that he can control Jason but this proves to be a most unfortunate miscalculation. So, Jason returns and starts killing as if he never let off. He butchers a couple of kids and a parent leaving Springwood utterly beguiled with fear and anticipation.
One of the most satisfying Jason moments takes place in this film. A group of kids all attend a rave in a cornfield and as they get plastered on whatever’s most readily available, one cannot possibly wait for what happens next. Right on cue, Jason comes a swingin’ his machete and manages to take out nearly a dozen drugged out kids before he’s done. It’s truly as glorious as it sounds and fits nicely into Jason’s fundamental moral outrage toward those damn kids and their rampant sexuality and drug taking.
But, Freddy is not pleased. His charge is threatening to usurp all his glory and this troubles him immensely. His sole purpose for tricking Jason into working for him is becoming unraveled at the seams.
The kids, led by Lori Campbell (Keena) and Will Rollins (Ritter) soon become aware of what is happening and take measures to protect themselves from Freddy’s dream land. They try to get their hands on an experimental dream-suppressant drug called Hypnocil and are attacked by Jason but not before one of them injects him with two massive syringes that temporarily knock him out. They cart him back to Crystal Lake to “send him” home but he escapes. Meanwhile Lori also in injected with the tranquilizer in order to pull Freddy out so that Jason can deal with him.
We learn through Jason’s dreams that he is indeed mortally afeared of water. He and Freddy battle to a standstill before Jason wakes up setting the stage for the final, epic battle.
Freddy has an ability to “possess” certain individuals and convince them to do his bidding. This is most readily apparent at Westin Hills Asylum where the kids travel to procure their medication. A stoner named Freeburg (Kyle Labine) finds the medication but is forced to dump it all out when taken over by Freddy. By this stage Freddy is enraged that he is losing so many kills to the unstoppable Jason. He wants nothing more than to ensure that fear will reign in the community so he can once again wreak utter havoc and satisfy his insatiable lust for blood.
There is a ward of patients in the asylum who appear to be sleeping but they are actually comatose from taking too much Hypnocil. Apparently, there is a citywide structure in place to reduce fear so Freddy doesn’t return to torment anyone else’s dreams. It’s not precisely clear why so many healthy, seemingly normal kids are being locked up at Westin Hills. It has something to do with Freddy’s appearance four years back when he went on his most recent killing spree.
The battle sequences between Freddy and Jason are all handled relatively well. They go at each other as one would expect and the tenacity of their fight is readily apparent throughout. It’s a lot of quick editing, and great lighting that changes from red (fire) to blue (water) once Jason becomes faced with his gravest fear. It feels like clash of the titans in hell which is precisely what the film makers are going for.
Lori and Will are two star crossed would-be lovers who dated when they were fourteen. When her mother was killed, he disappeared and spent the next four years at Westin Hills. He claims he was locked up because he saw Lori’s father (Butler) kill her mother. Apparently, Dr. Campbell is the man responsible for keeping all of the kids doped up on the dream suppressing drug. Again, we only get a hint about what happened four years ago. We know that Freddy was active and that the town reacted very strongly in order to eliminate the threat of his returning again. This has something to do with suppressing fear amongst the population which explains why Freddy Krueger had felt compelled to summon help in making the townsfolk terrified again.
One of the most fascinating sequences occurs when Jason and Lori are both dreaming at once. Lori is at camp Crystal Lake the day Jason drowned. She sees a group of kids taunting Jason, driving him onto the dock. Lori runs up to two counselors who are fornicating to draw their attention to what is happening at the dock. One of them morphs into Freddy and Jason is thrown into the water. Lori runs to save him but he is pushed down by Freddy who holds him underwater until Jason awakens and boy Jason disappears. It’s some well-needed back story that helps explain some of the mystery that has always existed in the series regarding Jason’s death. It creates a portrait of a child with a misshapen head who is cruelly teased without as much as an attempt at intervention. It explains his mother’s rage and much of his subsequent behavior.
Overall, this film is a consistently entertaining cross fertilization of the two franchises. It provides the best of both characters and brings to light significant aspects of both narratives. The performances are all effective for the genre and the story has a logical thrust that it maintains over its duration.
directed by Ronnie Yu
written by Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
based on characters created by Victor Miller and Wes Craven
starring Robert Englund, Ken Kerzinger, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Kelly Rowland, Chris Marquette, Brendan Fletcher, Lochlyn Munro
From the bowels of Hell, Freddy Krueger (Englund) fears his ability to terrorize the dreams of the unwitting is fading so he turns to Jason Voorhees (Kerzinger) for help. Unfortunately, he fails to acknowledge that Jason’s fundamental purpose, that which gets him out of the bed in the morning, is to kill as many humans as possible before sundown. Jason simply cannot be shut off on a whim and kills just as naturally as another man brushes his dog’s teeth.
From the beginning, it’s not a particularly square arrangement. Freddy simply wants Jason to do all the work so he can take all the credit. He imagines that he can control Jason but this proves to be a most unfortunate miscalculation. So, Jason returns and starts killing as if he never let off. He butchers a couple of kids and a parent leaving Springwood utterly beguiled with fear and anticipation.
One of the most satisfying Jason moments takes place in this film. A group of kids all attend a rave in a cornfield and as they get plastered on whatever’s most readily available, one cannot possibly wait for what happens next. Right on cue, Jason comes a swingin’ his machete and manages to take out nearly a dozen drugged out kids before he’s done. It’s truly as glorious as it sounds and fits nicely into Jason’s fundamental moral outrage toward those damn kids and their rampant sexuality and drug taking.
But, Freddy is not pleased. His charge is threatening to usurp all his glory and this troubles him immensely. His sole purpose for tricking Jason into working for him is becoming unraveled at the seams.
The kids, led by Lori Campbell (Keena) and Will Rollins (Ritter) soon become aware of what is happening and take measures to protect themselves from Freddy’s dream land. They try to get their hands on an experimental dream-suppressant drug called Hypnocil and are attacked by Jason but not before one of them injects him with two massive syringes that temporarily knock him out. They cart him back to Crystal Lake to “send him” home but he escapes. Meanwhile Lori also in injected with the tranquilizer in order to pull Freddy out so that Jason can deal with him.
We learn through Jason’s dreams that he is indeed mortally afeared of water. He and Freddy battle to a standstill before Jason wakes up setting the stage for the final, epic battle.
Freddy has an ability to “possess” certain individuals and convince them to do his bidding. This is most readily apparent at Westin Hills Asylum where the kids travel to procure their medication. A stoner named Freeburg (Kyle Labine) finds the medication but is forced to dump it all out when taken over by Freddy. By this stage Freddy is enraged that he is losing so many kills to the unstoppable Jason. He wants nothing more than to ensure that fear will reign in the community so he can once again wreak utter havoc and satisfy his insatiable lust for blood.
There is a ward of patients in the asylum who appear to be sleeping but they are actually comatose from taking too much Hypnocil. Apparently, there is a citywide structure in place to reduce fear so Freddy doesn’t return to torment anyone else’s dreams. It’s not precisely clear why so many healthy, seemingly normal kids are being locked up at Westin Hills. It has something to do with Freddy’s appearance four years back when he went on his most recent killing spree.
The battle sequences between Freddy and Jason are all handled relatively well. They go at each other as one would expect and the tenacity of their fight is readily apparent throughout. It’s a lot of quick editing, and great lighting that changes from red (fire) to blue (water) once Jason becomes faced with his gravest fear. It feels like clash of the titans in hell which is precisely what the film makers are going for.
Lori and Will are two star crossed would-be lovers who dated when they were fourteen. When her mother was killed, he disappeared and spent the next four years at Westin Hills. He claims he was locked up because he saw Lori’s father (Butler) kill her mother. Apparently, Dr. Campbell is the man responsible for keeping all of the kids doped up on the dream suppressing drug. Again, we only get a hint about what happened four years ago. We know that Freddy was active and that the town reacted very strongly in order to eliminate the threat of his returning again. This has something to do with suppressing fear amongst the population which explains why Freddy Krueger had felt compelled to summon help in making the townsfolk terrified again.
One of the most fascinating sequences occurs when Jason and Lori are both dreaming at once. Lori is at camp Crystal Lake the day Jason drowned. She sees a group of kids taunting Jason, driving him onto the dock. Lori runs up to two counselors who are fornicating to draw their attention to what is happening at the dock. One of them morphs into Freddy and Jason is thrown into the water. Lori runs to save him but he is pushed down by Freddy who holds him underwater until Jason awakens and boy Jason disappears. It’s some well-needed back story that helps explain some of the mystery that has always existed in the series regarding Jason’s death. It creates a portrait of a child with a misshapen head who is cruelly teased without as much as an attempt at intervention. It explains his mother’s rage and much of his subsequent behavior.
Overall, this film is a consistently entertaining cross fertilization of the two franchises. It provides the best of both characters and brings to light significant aspects of both narratives. The performances are all effective for the genre and the story has a logical thrust that it maintains over its duration.
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