2006 / Neil Burger > One of the most refined films of the year, it’s hard to find any technical flaws in The Illusionist. Most noticeable is its cinematography, crisp and decisive about its turn-of-the-century Vienna setting. The mood is further perfected by Philip Glass’ elegant score. The acting is above par at worst, with Rufus Sewell’s post-Dark City re-emergence being a pleasant welcome. But as the drama unfolds, we find ourselves within a rich love story that, unfortunately, feels like it’s on shaky foundations. Thankfully, the mystery of the illusions drives the story forward. By the end, it is what it is: The unexpected is actually expected, but we not only only accept it, but actually enjoy it.
Category Archives: 3.0
The City of Violence
2006 / Ryu Seung-wan > I imagine that Ryu’s intention with The City of Violence may have been to exploit every inch of the martial arts/action genre he could while still having some semblence of plot and character development. And that he did, if barely, but just enough to progress the film towards crazier and more ridiculous fighting sequences. Clocking in at roughly 90 minutes, Ryu doesn’t force the Korean convention of the two hour film, but instead keeps it short and sweet. The meat may be thin, but the bones don’t break: The City of Violence is the result of every successful director’s wet dream.
The Perfect Crime
2004 / Alex de la Iglesia > A tale of two halves: The Perfect Crime has an incredible build-up, with a freshly comic opening that commands your attention. “Who is this man?” “What is his story?” Alright, so he works at a department store, but hilarity ensues nevertheless. Then we have the gist of the film slowly revealed, and suddenly it dawns on us that the film has a modest chance of being original at this point. It tries, and it tries hard. But it fails. The lead-up to the finale is scattered and often boring, but one comes to understand, “This is definitely better than most films that try to do this. Not too shabby, not too shabby at all.”
Citizen Dog
2004 / Wisit Sasanatieng > Take Amelie, increase the color saturation, replace Paris with Bangkok and add some crack. That about sums up Citizen Dog: a quirky, oddball romantic comedy that has its own fair share of imagination to keep itself from simply being dubbed a copycat.
Its most unfortunate act may be that it starts off so strong (in terms of original content, witty storyline and sheer pacing) that halfway through it fails to keep up. Once that steam runs out, the style no longer works or fits, and the viewer is left stalled, even bored. Moreover, the peculiar subplots work fine when in small doses, but the whole “plastic” storyline was dead at arrival. However, this remains a wonderful watch if only because one gets to witness the further maturation of Thai cinema as well as some very memorable characters in their habitat.
Funny Games
1997 / Michael Haneke > The controversial tale of two well-dressed boys who take a family of three hostage, it’s hard not to be polar about Haneke’s commentary on violence and the audience: From a technical perspective, the film is well-made, but it lacks the fundamental punch necessary to be blindly accoladed. From a dialectical perspective, one can go on and on about whether he flipped the boat into the land of arrogance and pretense.
The biggest problem by the end may seem that the whole setup of the film is contrived into a nice, neat package for him to manipulate the viewer as he wishes. This could either be looked at as skill or simply an easy way out. Either way, it’s hard to recommend or advise against Funny Games, as it purely depends on one’s tolerance of bullshit.
Love is a Crazy Thing
2005 / Oh Seok-geun > Mismarketed as a romantic comedy, Love is a Crazy Thing follows the journey of a downtrodden woman with an incompetent husband (whose face we never see), two young sons and a stackload of debt into the wonderful world of Korean “karaoke.” Oh does a good job in not getting carried away with sex industry cliches, balancing properly the woman’s inner emotions with her outside influences. Played impeccably by Jeon Mi-seon, there’s a subtle radiance that grows on her throughout the film. It successfully builds multiple layers around her character and then peels them away. Moreover, the script grounds itself in reality until the climax, so the plausibility of the storyline is not questioned until it needs to be. By the end, there is little doubt that the title of the film, unlike its marketing, was indeed on the spot.
Over the Hedge
2006 / Tim Johnson & Karey Kirkpatrick > While nowhere near Miyazaki or even Pixar quality, this most recent animated offering from DreamWorks is perfect fodder for 80 minutes of summertime. The storyline is simple, but not always plausible. The humanity involved, as often in animal-laden animations, is cliche and at times uninteresting. But with strong voicings by both Bruce Willis and Gary Shandling (plus a hilarious Steve Carell), Over the Hedge is an exercise in filler, biting off from its peers and chewing it successfully.
District B13
2004 / Pierre Morel > Finally released in the United States, this Luc-Besson produced, parkour-driven action flick is short, sweet and packed with entertainment. The film stars parkour (commonly known as “freerunning”) co-founder David Belle as a resident of District B13, a crime-ridden area of Paris where the film is set in the year 2010. Much of the film is watching him jump around in it (and that’s a good thing). Those who can look past the blatantly shallow storyline and fairly two-dimensional characters will be rewarded with what is essentially an ADD-proof eighty minutes.
Zero Effect
1998 / Jake Kasdan > Two things that this film brings to the forefront: Bill Pullman is underrated, and Ben Stiller needs better scripts. The whole neurotic, private detective role is played to the pin here by Pullman, one that he obviously embraced quite a bit more than the President of the United States (i.e., Independence Day). As for Stiller, I still miss his foray into films such as Permanent Midnight, which lacked the slapstick and had considerably more heart (and a little bit of darkness).
As entertainment, Zero Effect is a fairly good example of how a film can hold your hand but still not patronize you. The detective’s Doogie Howser-like journal entries keeps you in the game, yet keeps the modern-day noir feel in check. I imagine this is a film that has largely been ignored at the rental stores, but it’s one that is definitely worth a shot. It probably won’t hold up against your Vertigo, but then again, there isn’t much that will.
V for Vendetta
2006 / James McTeigue > I generally tend to like 1984-esque storylines, especially when done with such high production value on multiple fronts (i.e., not Equilibrium, which wasted both Bale and Watson’s acting talent). V, fortunately, was good at worst on most fronts, but fairly disappointing due to the not-too-subtle liberal ideologies that permeate it. Yes, I understand this was written to criticize Margaret Thatcher, not George W. Bush, but the comparisons, in this day and age, are absolutely inevitable. And while there are amazing possibilities in fusing social commentary with entertainment, V fails primarily because the story becomes so one-sided that it loses its credibility as time goes on. Thankfully, if you can turn a blind eye to its hard-handedness, the film does stand well on its own as bonafide, if fleeting, entertainment.