The Righteous Men August 27, 2010
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I first heard about the Righteous Men a few years back on Richard And Judy’s book club. It was their choice for their Summer Read. I have to admit, cheap, fast moving thrillers such as ‘The Da Vinci Code’ are not my thing and this was claimed as a successor to such. So why did I read it. Well, it was the concept that appealed to me. 36 Men in the world. If they all die the world will be destroyed or some great apocalyptic event or rapture will happen. But someone starts killing them. That’s the selling line of the book “Someone is killing good people. Why?” which has got to be the worst tag line ever for any movie or book.
As I was said, the concept interest me and I had intended to pick it up but never got around to it until finding it at a bargain price in a bookstore in Tokyo, still with the sticker of recommendation from Richard and Judy. I picked it up and finally got into it. Unfortunately the concept which I was so interested in isn’t even brought up until after page 400. But I am partly glad I knew about this plot point beforehand because I don’t think I could read through 400 pages of a Character in utter confusion as to what the heck is going on unless I myself knew first. The main character, Will Monroe, isn’t the sharpest tool in the box, or either he is just intentionally acting dumb so he can hang out with his hot ex gf instead of getting his whiny kidnapped wife back. I say this because he sure does go into a lot of detail about the facets which his ex holds, from time to time he remembers he loves his ex wife, particularly after he fantasizes of his ex and kisses her. But I guess we have to have something a bit hot under the collar to appeal to everyone. Actually, after spending a lot of time trying to get his wife back the bigger mystery of why “GOOD PEOPLE!” are being killed seems to grab his interest more even though it’s sounds like a lot of clap trap to those with any sense.
Yes, this is the Da Vinci code alright, except this time it’s focus is on Judaism. We have the intelligent ex gf who solves the puzzles and riddles with her in depth knowledge, we have a big twist near the end of the novel when one of the characters is revealed to be the leader of the religious cult which is killing the Righteous Men (a reveal which i guessed was going to happen around page 2 or so). This villain that is pulling all the strings, I had imagined as an Ian Mckellen or Christopher Plummer type role. We have an ending where an unborn child might have being the messiah and each chapter ends on a predictable cliffhanger. This ain’t TV, we bought the book, we’re likely to read it all the way through, the constant need to make us read the next chapter comes off as a little desperate and cheap.
I even got the feeling the author was getting tired near the last hundred pages or so. Running out of ways to describe the character’s actions or perspective or physical action he simple moved onto the next character speaking with ‘It was Will’. ‘It was TC’. ‘It was Tom’.
The book reads more like a movie. I’m guessing most of these types of Books do. But it’s not all that exciting a movie if so and most twists you can see coming a mile off, the mystery is pretty much spelled for the reader to catch on before the main character does.
I think if you have time to waste and are interested in a type of book that doesn’t require too much mental strain (and we really are talking very little here) then pick this up. In that regard it’s not a bad read and some parts are genuinely interesting. But at 500+ pages there is a lot in this that isn’t captivating. But don’t take my word for it. It’s ‘The best thriller I’ve read in years.’ according to Piers Morgan.
Inception August 23, 2010
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I wake up late realizing I have totally overslept and missed a meeting with friends, wondering how this has happened and why the alarm on my cell phone didn’t go off after I had repeatedly checked it before sleeping, I begin to realize I’m dreaming and wake up, I’m back home, the whole previous time was a dream or some distant past memory or thought. Suddenly I realize again that it’s impossible at this moment for me to be home. I have woken into a dream. Finally the alarm goes off for real and I wake up in Hong Kong. I feel relieved to have not missed the meeting with my friends and so began a day much like a dream where I discussed Inception with them.
There’s something about this film I like. I know there are many mixed reactions to it. But there is still something traditional about how Nolan makes films, it’s comforting that it feels like a real movie made to entertain and make us wonder at the same time rather than try to blow our mind away with action and visuals alone. This is still a film that a wider audience can watch in my view because it’s a film made for people who like to watch films and not targeted at any specific group. It’s excites me that I can talk with almost anyone about it.
At it’s edges, this film is a heist movie. A rather different and fascinating one at that. I think Nolan wanted to make this his “Blade Runner”. By that I mean a film that left us wondering the big questions presented in the movie. What lies in inception is a greater mystery that sticks with us after the movie, a movie that answers all our questions is easy to get away from, but a movie like inception is one we need to talk to others abouts. We need some solution or peace of mind provided outside the movie theatre. In my view these type of movies that don’t answer everything stick with us far longer.
I’m not the biggest fan of DiCaprio but I genuinely feel he puts in a worthy performance of a very season actor. Tom Hardy too is unrecognizable from his other role which I remember him for (Picard’s clone Shinzon in Star Trek Nemesis). Great to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this too taking on more serious roles and always a massive delight for me to see the great Sir Michael Caine. Ken Watanabe I’d like to see him have bigger roles in American movies.
Scenes I felt very impressed with were the different levels of the dreams, as if it were, the next level of the dream is like going deeper down into a hell and the dream seems to becomes more violent and destructive the further they go. Having each dream’s action effecting the other is a great concept that is executed so well, it adds that extra dimension to the action sequences.
I’m glad they did not feel it necessary to make up some kind of Technobabble as to how the device to enter other people’s dreams works. It’s enough to know that what the box does, not how it does it, it’s not required to make up ways for it to sound plausible. The focus is on the dreams themselves and our subconscious mind within the dream, the characters interaction and the rules in that world is the focus.
Maybe people have speculated on the ending and on what it really is based on what is shown in the movie. But the truth is there is no answer as to what the end means. Christopher Nolan might know but it’s his idea. There’s a line near the end of the movie that says it’s not about what you know but what you believe. He left this film ending open thereby making us the final architects of the dream, do we want it to be real or not. As the architects of our dreams we may choose whatever ending we like and believe whatever we want to believe.
Of course I can’t let this review end with my own thoughts of the ending. I kinda saw it coming. Nolan is know for his surprising/twist ending in some of his movies. Since the focus of the movie is dreams it’s possible to think that he might do something about that, pulling the reality from under our feet and making us question if it’s real or not. Love that. Some people say the kids haven’t aged, others say they did. There’s no hard evidence in either case to give a right answer here. For me the Totem begins to wobble. I think it was reality. I asked the same question to a friend in Hong Kong, he said it rather represents life itself being a dream. I like that.
Favorite Quote: “But I can’t imagine you with all your complexity, all your perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real wife. You’re the best I can do; but I’m sorry, you are just not good enough.” - Cobb
The Caine Mutiny August 5, 2010
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What a superb piece of acting by Humphrey Bogart. Here he plays Captain Queeg of the Caine, a minesweeper during World War II, a paranoid man, broken and heavily disliked by his crew for his strict discipline. I am so used to seeing the actor play the gangster or a detective with a charming and seemingly invincible personality that this movie really does show the acting chops of Bogart is a new light. He was sick while playing this part and in a little over 2 years after he would be dead.
The most hard hitting piece of the movie is one I subtly missed but that comes right back at the end to smack you in the kisser. After the Commander’s heavily charged scene in court the crew is celebrating their victory over their ex commander but are all brought back down to earth when they and myself are reminded of the scene where Commander Queeg had asked for help. At the time I was on the crews side, keeping my view of Queeg as a dangerous, unstable man, but I felt like I was just as wrong. Nobody in the crew offered to help this man or talk to him when he reached out. Instead they almost let him run his course to his and theirs oblivion. Powerful stuff.
Interesting Tidbit, one of my favorite actors Michael Caine took his acting name from this movie.
Favorite Quote: “Ahh, but the strawberries that’s… that’s where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with… geometric logic… that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist, and I’d have produced that key if they hadn’t of pulled the Caine out of action. I, I, I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officers…“ - Captain Queeg
Star Trek Enterprise: The Romulan War Beneath the Raptor’s Wing July 31, 2010
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Since the late 70s. Pocket books have been publishing Star Trek stories that have filled in the gaps of Star Trek’s History and the unseen events sometimes only mentioned but never shown onscreen. With Star Trek currently off TV for a potentially long time and with Abram’s Star Trek movie playground these books are all we have of the current continuity established in the 40 plus years of Star Trek.
The beauty of written Star Trek is that it can be bigger and more imaginative than what can be afforded to be shown on a TV or Movie budget. Here we have Star Trek Enterprise: The Romulan War Beneath the Raptors Wing’ which depicts the Romulan Earth War first mentioned in the classic Star Trek episode Balance of Terror. The novel was written by Michael A martin who this time is writing an Enterprise Novel solo. When Martin was writing this Margret Clark, then editor told him to think of the Romulans seclusion and unknown society in the way of North Korea.
I have a great interest in seeing this story being told in some manner. Similar to fans interest of the mentioning of the “Clone Wars” in “Star Wars”. I Had previously reviewed the unproduced script for a Romulan War movie “Star Trek The Beginning“. The idea has always excited me to see an epic Star Trek story with large scales battles in the infancy of the Star Trek universe. In the current novel continuity the story is set after the events of Star Trek Enterprise. The build up to this book started in “The Good that Men Do” a book which gave it’s own slant on the final episode of Enterprise which took place on the Holodeck of the Enterprise D in the actual episode and goes on to show a different version of events in actual reality. The story continues in “Kobayashi Maru” which showed what instigated the War.
Having gone into this directly from Kobayashi Maru I noticed some slight continuity errors. Particularly at the beginning when Trip was almost hit by a comet fragment in his escape pod, in the cliffhanger that he ended on in Kobayahi maru it was a gravimetric mine. Anyway.
Sometimes this reads almost like fanfiction, the descriptive language of the battles, the double crossing machinations of the Romulan’s government and military. It’s expected, not enough pulling the rug from under our asserted ideas. It moves together all too fast with assassinations and at times it drags out with characters like Valdore playing up the caricature villain while swilling a glass of Romulan Ale in his hand. The character has regrets and guilt about his actions on cordion but these are merely passing lines rather than anything that actually sticks with him.
The Romulan’s devious scheme though is one that matches what we have seen before in Enterprise, In the episode “United” they used a holographic drone ship to attack other vessels. In Kobayashi Maru they used a telepresence system to take over starships. This Telepresence system which basically hacks computers of starships and gains full control over them is the reason for starfleet reversing it’s technology showing why The NX Enterprise looked more advanced then the Enterprise 1701 and why ships have codes to protect them a hundred years later in The Wrath of Khan. Although other books had explained that it was bulky equipment worked best in space as it was more sturdy. The NX herself is seen as an advanced ship that can’t be manufactured fast enough for war efforts and her design is left behind in favor of ships faster to build, the Daedalus class ships which are said to predate the NX.
It’s a long book. 85 Chapters with many of them being just 2 or 3 pages so the action jumps around a lot in some instances and you can’t really get settled or into one story. I found myself putting the book down too easily after reading a chapter since I knew there’s another few chapters of different characters and events ahead of me before I could get back to the nitty gritty. Which brings me to my other problem.
The book has war in the title but actual War scenes are few and far between and are short, preparation time for the coming battle deals with characters own personal issues and a good portion of the book focuses on the politics within the Romulan Star Empire and Earth’s Government and Starfleet. I certainly like the scenes of these two political systems having their own independent story separate from the interactions of characters on the other side but it’s goes on a bit too long. Romulan politics consists of a lot of personal plotting and overthrowing each other. Earth’s current politics and Coalition dealings are set around a table with characters usually arguing for their own planets well being. This gets a bit tired after a while. Martin’s also fond of his Latin quotes when he writes a chapter dedicated to the characters of Earths government and military snapping back at each other with Latin sayings.
I would have liked to have seen more space orientated movements between the actual combatants of this war, the commanders of the ships, their tactical skills. We do see that here but a lot of them buy it within a chapter or two.
The use of Nukes is made by the Romulans to some effect here when smaller Romulan ships come under attack by larger Coalition ships. I had thought Earth might have had a few of those lying around still from WWIII.A large part of the plot of this book is dedicated to Starfleet’s defensive grid on it’s planets being compromised by the Romulans who launch smaller ships that can sneak through this grid.
Lt. Stiles from TOS “Balance of Terror” had relatives that fought in the war. Oh really? (sarcasm mode) Cos I don’t know how Stiles was even born since so many of his relatives were killed in this book. Why not focus on one stiles character? Here we had multiple stiles, “again” I thought when a new one would come up, could this one be possible be related to the styles we saw in balance of terror? Can they all be related to each other? I buy the bubble gum chewing female Dalai Lama more.
Charles Trip Tucker the III. This poor guy. How long is he going to be an undercover operative. I’m getting as sick of it as he is. I was excited at the prospect of him returning to Enterprise but just when it seemed to happen the character does a u turn and places the faith of the Quadrant on his shoulders. You’re not the only spy out there Trip buddy. I just wonder how many times he can get out of the spy business only to find himself working for another Alien Race. It just seems endless and annoying.
Ultimately this isn’t the story I want. While I am delighted to see light being finally shed on the Romulan - Earth Wars this is using Enterprise as the basis for that which cramps the creativity of making something a bit grittier and less the norm. But this is the best we get since plans for introducing the War during the proposed 5th season of Enterprise never happened when the show was cancelled.
Humans are in trouble by the end of the Novel, do they have no choice but to fight their way out of this one? If so, maybe the human race isn’t as half as smart as it thinks it is.
Favorite Quote: “The only inevitable thing is fear, especially when the thing you are scared of is something you haven’t even seen yet.” - Lian Hua An Gyatso 18th incarnation of the Dalai Lama
Iron Man 2 June 29, 2010
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I found this rather enjoyable. I remember when I watched “Iron Man” two years ago I was a bit critical of it. I watched it recently again and felt it had less problems, maybe because my expectations were lower for the second viewing. With Iron Man I felt it was only providing a taster of what was to come as a lot of films seem to do these days. The appetizer before the main course. Iron Man 2 certainly ramps things up and provides the action I was wanting from the first movie. There are more comedic moments too especially with Stark at his Birthday party and Stark talking with Nick Fury at the Donut shop. Downey lets his hair down more here.
The funniest part of the Movie though was the Stan Lee cameo, best one yet! I hope they continue this trend with further Iron Man sequels as Lee’s cameos in them are really fun to watch. This one gave me a good laugh.
Although this time the film seems more generic. I found the switching back to Micky Rourke’s character as he “slowly” made his plans, suit and documents to the US taking up unnecessary time and reminding me of older comic book and 80s action movies with the bad guy on his way to give the good guy a good ass kicking. The good guy comes back from the ass kicking of course after training/building a better suit, weapon etc.
Ivan Danko/Whiplash is a bit of a generic villain too. One that I lacked sympathy for compared to Dr. Octopus in Spider-man 2. I was glad that the Villain is one on equal footing of technological intelligence as Stark. I like that the Character is Russian as I was hoping for a villain the likes of Titanium man.
At times I wondered if Stark’s disease is more of an allusion to the Demon in the bottle storyline then actually doing it. We see him drunk, out of control, he is sick, he has a problem he can’t talk to anyone about, War Machine has to take the reins from him. War Machine is, well, War Machine! A walking gun advertisement. I’d like to see the demon in the bottle storyline in the next sequel but I think they’ve done a bit of it here already. Maybe it’s too dark for a family audience? But it might happen since Downy and Favre seem to think we are seeing the early stages of Stark’s drinking problem here. For a sequel which I have no doubt there will be, where will it go? I hope they do the demon in the bottle storyline. Possibly we’ll see the Mandarin too. I hope for more Scarlett Johansson, the red headed bomb shell black widow is sex.on.legs.
The after credits scene isn’t nearly as interesting as the first film. I thought finding something like Captain America in ice might have been more exciting than what we got. But obviously it’s referencing the Marvel film furthest ahead in development.
Some geeky things I want to address from my own pure geekness. Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory) storyboarded parts of this, in particular the action scenes. Love this guys work. His eyes are in the wide scope when he draws action.
It’s not a Dark Knight beater or a Spider Man 2 beater. But it’s a lot of fun to watch. It’s still a bit too long of a film like the first one. I thought a more tighter film would be better.
Favorite Quote: “You have *a* big gun, you’re not *the* big gun.” - Iron Man
Tetsuo The Bullet Man May 31, 2010
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The Third Tetsuo Movie to be released following the original “Tetsuo The Iron Man” (1989) and “Tetsuo II Body Hammer” (1992). The first film was an underground cult hit, a cult of which I’d like to proudly say I am part of. By constantly exposing oneself to as many movies as possible you sometimes find something unexpected that leaps out at you and takes hold of your mind. Tetsuo is the kind of movie that is more likely to melt your mind. It’s not for the timid or your normal movie going fan but for those of us who get it. We go nuts for this.
The third film had been rumored about for a few years and was more of a pipe dream than anything else. An American version was banded about with Tarantino involved some way, possibly as a producer or co-director but the predicted budget of the film would be too high for the concept they had in mind. Tsukamoto decided on bringing the film back to it’s roots in Tokyo. Nothing was heard and then in 2009 while Tsukamoto was promoting his upcoming film “Bullet Man” he announced it was going to be the next Tetsuo film.
The Tetsuo films have always been like a painting in motion. The film shies away from modern effects and continues in the fashion of stop-motion animation and prosthetics but lacking the S&M scenes found in the first movie. Electric drill anyone? The character of Tetsuo most certainly has attributes of Tetsuo from “Akira” (Manga). Both Cyberpunk films were released a year apart. Both characters go through similar transformations becoming uncontrollable weapons of destruction. The bullet man is the first Tetsuo movie that starts to move away from the artistic, visual side. There’s more dialogue for one thing, it starts to become more explanatory which can be explained by the fact that it’s shot in English in America and might be aimed towards western audiences more.It probably reveals too much, not leaving a mystery so much to ponder over.
I don’t know if I would call this a sequel, more like a retelling as Tetsuo II was of the original movie. What links these is the same character that tries to instigate the creation of the weapon/machine.This time we get more backstory of Tetsuo’s orgins, actually going as far as to explain the how and why of his creation. That of Artificial life. It may come as a strange concidence that at the time of writing this scientists have created a synthetic genome that can self-replicate, how we will measure or use this new “artifical life” remains to be seen in our world but “The bullet man” may be one view of how things might turn out. Do we learn about this new life or do we turn it into our wants and needs?
I don’t think the film entirely succeeds in it’s desires as a sequel but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to see another one. But how often are we going to rehash this story? There’s a possible hint at the end of a sequel “you don’t know what I’ll do inside you” but if there is a sequel I imagine it might be reset once more.
The actor who becomes Tetsuo this time is Eric Bossick, a video game voice artist and that shines through here. I think there is little emotion in his voice and it’s rather bland. Suited to video games but not for a movie. The voice seems detached from the actual character. I don’t think it’s a casting choice that would attract western audiences. He certainly has the ‘look’, rather plain undefined and clear features almost looking half Japanese. The dialogue itself here isn’t so much the problem, it’s the way it’s the delivery of the lines, sounding unnatural and spoken as if it were being read from the script.
The soundtrack, Nine Inch Nails provide an excellent theme for this movie. Chu Ishikawa also returns to provide a classic opening Tetsuo theme.
I went to view the movie at Cinema rise, the style of that place certainly seems fitting to watch such a movie.
Favorite Quote: “You don’t know what i’ll do inside you” - The Guy
District 9 April 28, 2010
Posted by oldboy in : Cinema, Science Fiction , 1 comment so far
What I love about Science Fiction is that it is one of those genres that is more creative than others as it’s not based on anything in our present or past time. It feeds off imagination to create a world we have never seen before and yet at times it can also drive home real issues related to our world. District 9 is one of those films that does that. Not seamlessly or altogether thought provoking, but it is one hell of an entertaining movie.
If I were to divide the film up, it is first a Documentary or as some call Mockumentry. After the introduction of the characters and setting it adds the macguffin that changes it into a Horror film about the transformation of man into something less Human. The final third of the movie is a roller coaster of sci-fi action. It’s been a long while since I had this much fun watching a movie in the theatre. For me that happens when Wikus is captured by people at the district nine camp, they are planning to cut off his arm until he is able to grab one of the alien weapons. From this point on I was giggling, then as he and Chris storm the MNU facility I was laughing, not because it’s funny but because it was just so damn enjoyable and fun to watch.
The effects in this look spectacular for a budget of $30 million and they look far more realistic too compared to the over stylised “clean” CGI of Cameron’s Avatar which almost put me to sleep, it also makes the action far more brutal and fun then the latter. Remember when Cameron made good fun action movies like Terminator 2? Remember in T2 when the T-1000 drove his truck off a bridge and into the embankment while chasing John Connor on his motorbike? Great action but also fun. That was a film that inspired the Directer Neill Blomkamp while making District 9. Compare the two mecha scenes between Avatar and District 9. Which one holds your excitement more? Without doubt it was District 9 for me. Also dealing with the films topic it is an analogy of apartheid and clearly depicts how we might might treat aliens that come to this world. Wikus is one really unlucky guy but perfectly shows how niceness and bigotry go hand in hand sometimes. It’s a sharp social commentary on our own History.
It is interesting to note of late as I write this that Professor Stephen Hawking has said in a documentary, ‘Into the Universe’ he made with the Discovery Channel that we should avoid alien contact for any advanced aliens might be that type “to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach”. This of course says more about Humanity as it’s a reflection of how we have treated our own civilisation thus far, intelligent life in the universe is measured against our own.
If you watch this movie for the first time watch it without knowing or seeing anything else about it. That’s the way it was for me, I heard of the hype, didn’t seen any trailers, didn’t even know what the aliens looked like until I watched the film at the theatre or that it was going to be a documentary style movie in some parts. Or that the F word would be used 137 times throughout the movie.
Favorite Quote: “This whole’s thing’s under your shack? For 20 years, you’ve had this fookin’ thing hidden out here? This is, this is very illegal, I mean, this is… this is a find.” - Wikus
Bullet in the Head March 31, 2010
Posted by oldboy in : DVD/Video/T.V., Asian Cinema , 5 comments
One of the best movies I have ever seen. I think as a Hong Kong action movie it has never been eclipsed for it’s action and powerful themes of War and brotherhood throughout the movie. It was the first Hong Kong Movie I ever saw, a film that introduced me to the Directorial gunplay of John Woo and the magnificant acting talents of Tony Leung. It’s a film that at the time was shocking to watch. It’s a film that could never be made today without a heavy reliance on CGI and male popstars.
I first watched the movie in the early 90s during a late night showing in the early hours of the weekend on S4C (Channel 4 UK). It’s one of those movies you watch in the dark and by the time it’s ending light is starting to creep through your curtins. In contrast to American action movies, “Lethal Wepaon” for example, the heroes don’t come out of the explosions and flying bullets unscaved. While the hero always wins in American action movies, the hero of Hong Kong films often don’t survive or are left deeply scarred by their experience, with John Woo’s Heroic Bloodshed movies of the 80s and 90s the characters go on a journy that will change them forever. As much as these movies are action they are more about the brotherhood and bond between characters, something America has seemed to miss in copying Woo’s movies by solely focusing on gunplay as the appeal of Woo as movies like “Shoot’em Up” (advertised as John Woo’s “wet dream”) have shown to completely miss the point of what a John Woo movie is. I guess this is largely why I became so attracted to Hong Kong Movies in the first place. After a diet of mainstream american action movies I was sideswiped by this, not for a moment expecting what that final outcome would be for the Protagonists. I love it when a movie can have that kind of impact on you, you aren’t expecting it yet you find yourself going on that journey with the characters and ending up somewhere that isn’t always comfortable but sticks with you long after the movie finishes. I believe this movie had a life course changing effect on me.
The story in a nutshell is about three best friends who grow up together in Hong Kong, their lives start to take a turning point during the riots of the 1960s. When they get themselves into trouble, they decide to head to Vietnam to avoid the autorities and make a small fortune selling goods on the black market. Instead it turns into a “out of the frying pan into the fire” situation as they are trust into the heart of the Vietnam War.
If this were simply just action then there is no concern as to what happens to these characters, the 3 main characters are friends who have grown up together, defend one another, they go to vietnam in search of savoiour but are thrown into a hell on earth, they surive gun battles together and overcome the odds for half the film, but when we see the friendship of this trio tear itself apart as they start pointing guns at one anoither, that’s when it really hits the fan. It’s almost heart wrenching to see them fall apart. Waise Lee has recieved criticism over his performance in the movie but part of the problem is the major shift in his character mid way through. He loses his mind with gold fever. For some his descent into madness happened too quick. At the time of viewing it didn’t bother me though. The gravity of the situation they found themselves in was a harsh one and the gold was his savour out of the whole mess he had gotten himself into.
The film wasn’t well recieved in Cinemas, particullarly because it was released soon after the protests in Tianmin square in 1989 which it takes a lot of imagery from but places it in a 1960s vietnam war setting. Woo was always inspired by “The Deer Hunter” and “Apocalypse Now” and this is definitly reflected in the movie along with classic Woo signature imagery of religious symbols since he himself grew up wanting to be aChristin Minister. He stills claims this movie to be his most personal work.
For years after seeing this movie I had tried to attain it on Video, buty upon requesting it at Stores I recieved only blank or very strange stares upon mentioning the title “Bullet in the Head”, this was long before Hong Kong films were popular, there was no Matrix or Crouching Tiger hidden SDragon to captilise on. It wasn’t until 2004 that I was finally able to see the movie again thanks to the release on DVD by UK DVD company Hong Kong Legends.
The longest availbale version of this film today is 135 mins. But there was actually 3 Hours of footage in total which I earn to see. It might not ever happen, the footage could have already been destroyed or stored poorly somewhere which seems likely after according to Woo’s comment “The original version was 2 hours and 50 minutes, but the studio makes you cut it to 2 hours. When I came to America I tried to buy the film and put all the scenes back. I checked at the lab and at the studio, and all the extra scenes are gone. In the Hong Kong labs, they never keep the extra scenes. They throw them away like garbage. They make so many movies, they have no room to store this footage.”
But maybe one day on Blue Ray we can get a 3 Hour Bullet in the head Redux. Yes, I can dream. The thing is that there probably IS more footage out there. I for one remember a Russian roulette in the film when I first saw it on Channel 4 (S4C). Then when I got the HKL DVD of the movie there was no such scene on it and more so I couldn’t find any reference to it. Of all the famous deleted scenes the most talked about is the ‘piss drinking scene’ which can be found online and other DVDs of the film but never this Russian roulette scene which, from what I remember was a really heavy scene. Bey Logan does give a brief mention to it on the DVD commentary for the movie but there is no deleted material of it on the DVD itself. I have confirmed with other people that watched the movie on Channel 4 years ago that the scene does exist. Better still one of the people I spoke to online has a video recording of it which he plans to make some screen caps of later. When he does I’ll update this blog again with pictures.
Favorite Quote: “Today I saw a soldier kill a man and I learnt something. In this world, we can do anything if we have guns!” - Little Wing
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus February 23, 2010
Posted by oldboy in : Cinema , add a comment
It was the morning of January 22nd 2008 when I woke up and looked outside my window to see it snowing. I stepped outside to view the snow having not seen it for quite some time. Returning inside I sat down and started to eat breakfast while watching BBC News as I did every morning. I had missed the opening headlines so I watched each report to see what was happening in the world that day, a report came on and in the background was a Picture of Heath Ledger with the years 1979 - 2008 on it and the newsman reporting Heath’s death with his first words being ‘how fate can sometimes be cruel’. I was totally shocked. The film industry had lost one of it’s great rising stars. Two years and three weeks later it’s snowing here again and I go to view Heath’s last movie.
There’s a great line in the movie that says “nothing is Permanent, not even death” as the character of Tony discusses all the beautiful, wonderful people who died too young but will be forever remembered for their beauty since they will never grow old, get fat. It seems like an intentional line as a tribute to Heath but Gilliam has said that it was already part of the movie’s script before anything had happened.
At the time of the Heath’s death he had not yet finished filming all of his scenes but he had completed the scenes that were filmed in the world outside the mirror. At the time of Heaths death Gilliam thought the film was finished but this being the last great work of a great actor there was an effort to complete it. With the first Phone call to Depp Gilliam was able to stop the money slipping away and complete this Film. Thanks to the help of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell they completed Heath’s last work and donated their earnings to Heath’s daughter. These three fine actors take the mantle of the Character of Tony at the point when he walks through the mirror. Since the mind of Doctor Parnassus represents fantasy and desire Tony’s appearance changes too. This wasn’t the original idea of course but it was rewritten this way and fits perfectly with what was filmed before.
I first saw the poster for the movie a few months back at a subway station, it was quite large, featuring all the actors who portray Tony and at the front stood Johnny Depp. Then I noticed that it wasn’t Depp but Heath. The resemblance between the two men was very alike in the poster. The lines blurred even more for me when before Tony first enters the mirror he is wearing a mask and talking in a very bravado way, I had thought that this might actually be Johnny Depp but in fact it was Heath Ledger doing Depp, something which Tery Gilliam even reflected on with Heath after filming the scene. What’s more when Tony walks through the mirror for the first time I thought we were still viewing Ledger but in fact it’s Depp at this point, the characteristics of the actors and physical resemblance in this film is indistinguishable as if it were almost intentional like the actors had discussed this scene. But we know this not to be true. This is a case of beautiful acting that resonates to something deeper beyond our grasp. I can’t help but think again that if the role of “The Joker” might ever be recast in the next Batman film that Johnny Depp might be the man, the only man who could make the character his own while at the same time not lose what Heath created. Jude Law and Colin Farrell do such great justice to the part also, particularly Farrell who had to carry the film to it’s final conclusion, he did an amazing job, one of his best performances.
I watched this film in Tokyo. After the screening I overheard girls talking about how great Gilliam was. For a film that features four handsome and very popular actors I think that’s saying something. Gilliam has captured people’s imaginations with his own and that in itself is a beautiful thing to behold.
Favorite Quote: “Nothing is permanent, not even death.” - Tony
Doctor Who: The End of Time January 31, 2010
Posted by oldboy in : Science Fiction , 3 comments“In the last days of planet Earth everyone had bad dreams.” No this isn’t little Britain, this is/was/will be the final adventure (for now) of the tenth Doctor David Tennant. The BBC gave Tennant a right old send off putting him on a dozen other shows on the BBC over Christmas, along with the idents (program introductions), repeats, sticking his excellent three hour “Hamlet” between the first and second parts of “The End of Time”. Tennant was the face of the BBC and has been such a large part of the popularity of Doctor Who. Heck, even my parents watched it. That’s how big of an event it was. I doubt there was many people who weren’t at least curious to see the final moments of this Doctor.
It’s a bittersweet feeling to see David Tennant leave, he has served the part of the Doctor so very well and is a fine actor. He deserves to move onto a great career. I won’t say greater since I think Doctor Who is one of those great golden roles that not many can play. It is in no small part thanks to Russel T Davies also for bringing the series back to life and putting it at the top of BBC’s agenda. Also big thanks must go to Christopher Eccleston who started the new series and captured the audience that would be handed on to Tennant. It was Eccleston that really got me into this new series and Tennant that held onto me too.
The final episode here isn’t the best in the run of the new series, I was delighted to see Donna back as well as Wilf, although Donna has a very small part. The Master is back too which is rather cool. The Characters of the Doctor and The Master are like that of Holmes and Moriarty. Enemies that respect the genius of the other. The Master’s plan is a little wacky but he is not the true enemy, that is The Time Lords. Power corrupts and as Davies put it, you can’t not be that powerful without becoming a corrupt society, interesting piece of social commentary there. It’s nice to finally see the Time Lords back onscreen. I had expected from the beginning that this was an Ace Card Davies was holding up his sleeve. Although I had thought this might be a full return of the Time Lord race as to put things back in place for Moffat, but the concept of “Last of the Time Lords” adds a darker tone to the character that I think will remains a large part of ‘Who’ lore.
Tennants ending is unexpected, the Master is the first speculation as to “he will knock four times”. But Davies writing is unpredictable to say the least. My guess has always been wrong with these hints he sprinkled throughout the series. It’s interesting to see back as far as season 4 in 2008 that there is a mention that the meeting between Donna and the Doctor is not by chance, but that was left open and wasn’t answered until New Years day 2010 when Wilf had to go and get himself locked in. Bernard Cribbins, you are an emotional delight to watch.
Here too in this series is some unanswered questions. Who is the Woman who voted no on the time lord council, the same woman who talked to Wilf through his TV, who was the second person who voted against the time lords with their face in their hands. Davis says that this is left open to interpretation to the viewer. Some say it’s the Doctor’s mother. Others say it’s his grand daughter Susan since the Doctor looks at Wilf’s grand daughter Donna when Wilf asks him who that lady was. My own opinion is that it’s Susan, his grand daughter but it might be something left over for Moffat in his series. Something to come perhaps. A cute little cut scene from the script that didn’t make it to air was the Doctor mentioning that he was half Human for a few days in 1999. Nice nod to an old unanswered question. It’s all wibbly wobbly timey wimey anyway isn’t it?
The 10th Doctors death is certainly slow and milked for all it’s worth. I think it’s nice to see him get to give a nod to all his companions, the one with Jack in the Bar was hilarious. Most heartfelt was the lotto ticket to Donna from her father Geoff Noble given to her by the Doctor, Geoff Noble was played by Howard Attfield who appeared in The Runaway Bride but died during the filming of season 4.
10’s last line “I don’t want to go” is perhaps the most realistic view of the passing of the Doctor from one regeneration to the next. Since he loses that personality that was unique to him. It’s a powerful moment and we are suddenly thrown into the hands of the 11Th Doctor and the adventure begins again! “Geronimo!” which sounds like it was taken from a character in a Humphrey Bogart movie.
The End of Time wraps up the final adventures of The 10th Doctor along with the era of Russel T Davis as head producer. It’s a shame that Tennant and new Head Producer Steven Moffat won’t be working together on a new series but with both Tennants and RTDs departure there is a clean slate for Matt Smith and Moffat to work on, creating their own look and style to the series. I’m terrible excited about what’s to come from Moffat who wrote some excellent episodes of Doctor Who so far.
Favorite Quote: “You’re a genius, you’re stone-coldbrilliant, you are, I swear, you really are. But you could be so much more. You could be beautiful. With a mind like that, we could travel the stars. It would be my honour. Because you don’t need to own the universe. Just see it. To have the privilege of seeing the whole of time and space… that’s ownership enough.” - The 10th Doctor