DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CINEMA

Here's the movie that may have influenced that recent movie most of you have been raving about (well, including me) - Nicolas Winding Refn's DRIVE. Both movies have familiar basic elements - the lone "driver", the mysterious woman, that sticky situation, a cunning adversary, the protagonist works as a getaway driver for thieves, and there's some burning tires to be had. In fact, the first 15 minutes of THE DRIVER made me ponder if Refn ripped off this Walter Hill 70s action thriller. Later scenes in THE DRIVER would prove that the two movies have so much differences as there are similarities, but still I cannot shake the fact Refn was somehow influenced by this one.  THE DRIVER, like DRIVE puts style over substance, yet THE DRIVER falls short of logic in its storytelling. There are plot holes sufficient to create a different movie altogether. Ryan O'Neal plays the titular unnamed character. Bloodthirsty to pin him down is the cop (Bruce Dern), who is so fu...

Here's a movie written by a screenwriter who knows how to thrill using normal conversation. With co-writing credits such as STATE OF PLAY (which is another journalism-themed thriller), FLIGHTPLAN, and the upcoming HUNGER GAMES movie, Billy Ray dishes one intense scene after another in SHATTERED GLASS, a true story based on an article written by H.G. Bissinger for Vanity Fair about The New Republic Associate Editor Stephen Glass.  But wait there's more. Billy Ray also directs this cat and mouse game (he proves to be quite an effective suspense director with this, and his 2007 film, BREACH), putting to a good test the code of ethics of journalism. In this tale however, the offense committed against the moral foundations of journalism is clear cut, and the penalty shall be exacted without consideration whatsoever. Hayden Christensen gives the performance of his career as Stephen Glass, the journalist who became famous with his heavily-researched and thought-provoking articles, ...

THE GREY starts out almost in Terrence Malick fashion, what with all the voice overs and musings and philosophical undertones. As the action is set in motion by a plane crash into the icy wilderness, a group of survivors band together against a pack of wolves who see them as enemies.  Liam Neeson is John Ottway, who becomes the de facto leader of the group, who knows this and that, but we never really understand why he is so good with this and that and has become the leader. Neeson's husky voice and tall, brooding physique nevertheless helps securing the integrity of his character as a leader figure. The story concerns itself with survival, and with it constant questions of who's the actual predator, the humans or the wolves? Joe Carnahan, working on his script and Ian MacKenzie Jeffers (which is in turn based on Jeffers' short story) illustrates how man really is expendable, and any minute may be your last. What Carnahan achieves best in THE GREY is making us feel every...

In terms of espionage fiction, two names stand out: Robert Ludlum and John Le Carre. Ludlum became famous to non-followers because of the Bourne series, whereas Le Carre made his mark as a much more sophisticated storyteller (my opinion). So far, the films adapted from his novels that I have seen, THE CONSTANT GARDENER and THE RUSSIA HOUSE were pretty solid suspense-drama (I have yet to see THE SPY WHO CAME IN THE COLD, and am currently reading A MOST WANTED MAN). However, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY proves the most stylistic film adaptation, and an advantage it has is director Tomas Alfredson, who has already showcased subtlety in narration with the Swedish vampire chiller LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. Gary Oldman is by all means exhibiting restraint as George Smiley, the story's protagonist tasked with uncovering the mole in British Intelligence secretly leaking classified information to the Russians. Said restraint is rather befitting, since it compliments his character's years of e...

ENGKWENTRO comes as a huge surprise. It is a violent, bleak, and unforgiving film and yet it flourishes in beauty; the handheld shots are visceral and they add depth and intensity to what’s happening onscreen. The story, which is THE most important element, succeeds in delivering a representative documentation of an actual phenomenon in the Philippines, which is the prevalence of state-sponsored vigilante killings. Pepe Diokno’s script, co-written with four others including lead actor Felix Roco and scribe Jerry Gracio (LIGO NA U, LAPIT NA ME) manages to compel because of the human element at the center of the story, which is the strained relationship between siblings Richard (Roco) and Raymond (Daniel Medrana). Set against a backdrop of urban decay, a suppressive legal system that is blind to reason, and real characters that are caught in between, ENGKWENTRO delivers a solid, suspenseful action story within its 60-minutes running time. Within that short span of time, Pepe Diokno, in...

Guy Ritchie was born to do gangster films. LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS is downright inventive and funny; its unofficial sequel, SNATCH is equally enjoyable. ROCK N' ROLLA is a little over-the-top, but still worth watching. So when a guy like Ritchie (I haven't seen SWEPT AWAY, and I'm not planning to) decides to toy with our minds via the convoluted and chopsuey cinematic mess that is REVOLVER, there goes the cardinal rule about visionary filmmakers and that one time that they hand us a piece of crap.  A character in the mockumentary FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION by Christopher Guest said: "I always tell my students, 'you can hand me a piece of crap wrapped in a big red bow, but at the end of the day it is still a piece of crap wrapped in a big red bow'." While I cannot easily dismiss REVOLVER as crap, the big red bow mentioned is the tirade of blinding colors, cartoonish editing, the Tarantino ripoffs (the anime use is just one example), and the attemp...

*May contain spoilers Vengeance is always a fascinating theme for cinematic exploration, because it lays the groundwork for a moral debate, and moral debates are among those which I look for in movies.  Of all the noted Korean filmmakers whose films I've seen, Park Chan-wook is clearly the one with a tendency, no make that an assured delivery to shock you out of your senses. His ideas, and his visual translation of those ideas birth compelling results. I only saw two of his films previous to this; THIRST was a hysterical yet blood-soaked vampire movie, while JSA (JOINT SECURITY AREA) is a stirring political thriller that evoked so much emotion in me, even though I'm not Korean.  SYMPATHY FOR MISTER VENGEANCE, the first installment of his now famous "Vengeance Trilogy" starts out slow, but gets real serious and interesting during the second act. It is a story headlined by antiheroes, and like THIRST and JSA, the ending is governed by force majeure, an undeniable tr...

LIMITLESS is a fresh, fast, and addicting thrill ride with a decent logical story and a star-making performance by Bradley Cooper. It being a morality tale, there's a moral lesson in the end- not quite what I expected but satisfying enough. There were questions in my mind after watching the film, some plot holes that were left in the dark, but after reflecting for a while, I found the answers in the story itself.  Eddie Morra is a struggling book writer who's hit rock bottom. He's about to get evicted from his apartment, his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) breaks up with him, and he has a serious case of writer's block.  A chance encounter with his ex brother-in-law introduces Eddie to an underground drug called NZT, which can eventually allow a person to access 100% of his brain. The film then shifts its focus on the drug as it is the sole cause for the fortunes and misfortunes of the film's characters. Even so, the NZT suddenly becomes a main character. Eddie gets r...

The narrative of Steven Soderbergh's CONTAGION is that of an interconnected one; from the first frame, we follow the path of a virus as it infects people all over the world. In all fairness to CONTAGION, I was hooked during maybe the first 30 minutes; then it gets kind of bland. I still cannot figure out Soderbergh 's style in filmmaking. He hit the spot in OCEAN'S ELEVEN, OCEAN'S TWELVE and ERIN BROCKOVICH, and missed the mark in THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE and THE INFORMANT. Then again whether or not his films are of quality is up to anybody's preference. You either love em' or hate em'. One thing is certain. The musical score helped create tension in the film. And Marion Cotillard never looked more fabulous, since...ever. I like CONTAGION on the basis of entertainment alone. The star power sure helped, especially Gwyneth Paltrow during that seizure scene. Matt Damon's haircut is disturbing, and Jude Law's activist blogger character seems out of...

It's nice to see Jason Statham back in a British film set in a British landscape. THE MECHANIC was a little trying too hard, and though DEATH RACE was campy, it was also forgettable.  BLITZ runs like your usual police procedural, but a tight enough plot keeps the film afloat. Statham barely fires a gun (as compared to THE EXPENDABLES) and most of the time he's tracking down the cop killer code named Blitz (Aidan Gillen). As the stereotypical loose cannon cop character, Statham does little work, but during moments where it counts, he emerges the hero that the story requires. The film is formulaic, but enjoyable.  Credit that to Elliot Lester's pacing and careful direction. The scenes of violence are unrestrained, but not gratuitous. I don't know how much is lifted from Ken Bruen's novel, but the script by Nathan Parker is compelling enough. You have a drug element aside from the main cop killer plot, and on the side media sensationalism is grazed upon (David Morri...