Another seven days in Movie Land, and a hell of an interesting one it was. We had Asian anime and fantasy, 90's exploitation action, 80's horror and award-hunting drama. There are some fantastic movies I would highly recommend from this week. Try your best to catch them on a high def screen, the bigger the better! Over half of the movies this week I was catching for the first time, and for most of them, it won't be the last. Onto the flicks...........
January 22nd - Shame
Otherwise known as the movie where 'Little Magneto' is the star of the show. This is a movie that had Oscar hunting written all over it, and I must admit I'm surprised that it has been nominated for next to nothing. The story follows Michael Fassbender (surely one of the best acting talents working today), and his descent into sexual addiction. A man who thinks he just has a healthy appetite for the ladies, gradually begins to crave physical contact in any form, in the end be it male or female. Love? Forget about it. Throw in an enfant terrible in the form of his sister, played by Carey Mulligan, and you have a recipe for disaster. Make no mistake, this is a tough watch. There is tons of full frontal nudity, coarse and sexual offensive language as well as same sex relations. It's one of those 'serious' films that runs classical music over the top of ridiculous imagery and it will be considered art. It has definitely left an impression on me, and I will be curious to check it out again in the future. But I'm in no rush. Definitely worth catching once though.
8/10
January 23rd - They Live
A John Carpenter movie starring the one and only Rowdy Roddy Piper. It does exactly what it says on the tin. And a little bit more. It starts out slowly enough, with Piper's Nada (literally 'nothing' - not sure if that's lazy or inspired writing!) arriving in Los Angeles, looking for work. He starts on a construction site and makes some friends, who put him up in a homeless community for the night. He sees some strange goings on at the church across the road, and decides to investigate. Inside he sees a band of people forming a resistance, and they happen to have some special glasses, which allow people to see the world as it really is.....At its base level, this is a simple 'Aliens taking over the world story', but it has hidden depths about consumerism and the effect of television and advertising on the waking world. The ideas are maybe a bit too big for its budget, but I guess that's part of its charm. Plus it has a 5 minute fight sequence between two best friends who are arguing over one of them wearing the special glasses for the first time. Choreographed by a WWF legend. And who doesn't want to see that?
7/10
January 24th - Woochi: The Demon Slayer
Now we are talking. This is another movie from the Cine Asia label, recently released on blu ray and two of the most fun hours of your life waiting to be discovered. The titular character is Woochi, a trickster and magician (trust me, he's definitely a cut above Gob Bluth) in 16th Century Taoist Korea. When his master is killed and he is the number one suspect, he is banished into a painting (yes, really) to be left inanimate forever. But when an ancient evil arises 500 years later, he is released, along with his faithful companion (a dog who takes the form of a man, and forever wishes to be only human), to catch all of the demons and bring peace back to modern day Korea. Throw in 3 useless and disaster laden immortal monks (surely an ode to The Three Stooges), a reincarnation of a 16th century princess and an ambiguous Stoic Villain, and once again Asia is showing so much more imagination than their Hollywood counterparts. This is equal turns farcial, funny, action heavy, heartfelt and sheer ridiculous moviemaking. I thought this was going to be my pick of the week until it was usurped on the last day. But it's a very, very close second.
9/10
January 25th - Collateral
Now this is the kind of movie Hollywood excels at. And when it gets it right, it's hard to beat. Jamie Foxx was nominated for Best supporting actor for his role as Max, an LA cabbie. But I think Tom Cruise was criminally overlooked for his performance as Vincent, a cold hearted assassin. Anyone who has read my blog up until now will know I'm a fan of the Cruiser (hell there's even another guilty pleasure coming up), and this is why. He's an actor who isn't afraid to take risks. Playing a thoroughly cynical and evil guy, he is almost unrecognisible from the matinee idol we are used to seeing. In this movie, Vincent has five hits to make in one night, and through a chance meeting, it is Max's bad luck that he has been chosen to be his driver. This is a great thriller, with some fantastic action set pieces thrown in. Hardly surprising, when you factor in Michael Mann as the director. This is second only to Heat in his repertoire, though Collateral also suffers a little in the same way as Heat, where they make the bad guy so charismatic that you want him to get away with it. But as we all know, Hollywood don't do bad guys not getting their comeuppance! Still though, great moviemaking.
9/10
January 26th - Desperado
I watched this at 2am, after a pretty long shift, and I just wanted to turn my brain off. In other words, I watched this at the perfect time. A couple of beers to go with it, this was Robert Rodriguez'sfirst major Hollywood flick, after the minor miracle that was El Mariachi. Antonio Banderas is hunting for the crimelord who murdered his girlfriend. And that is it. Well, we also have to factor in the outrageously hot Salma Hayek in her English language debut I guess....The action in Desperado is superb. It is extremely over the top, wholly unrealistic and hyper violent. It's actually the kind of violence you would expect to see in a comic book or anime, such is its ridiculousness at times. Will forever be one of my favourite action flicks, and was an example of Hollywood being able to match the action theatrics of Tsui Hark and John Woo. Has Rodriguez made a better film on his own since? I'm not so sure. (N.B. Sin City is undoubtedly better, but he only co-created it!)
8/10
January 27th - Cocktail
The guiltiest of guilty pleasures, I make no apology for enjoying this movie. Hot off the success of Top Gun, Tom Cruise was the biggest movie star on the planet. As the 80's were coming to a close, people were starting to wean themselves off of Arnie, Sly et al, and instead preferred a man who stands about 5 feet tall but has charisma to burn. Cocktail further endorsed that perception. It follows Bryan Flanaghan (don't you just love Hollywood scriptwriters attempts at names with an Irish heritage?), who comes back from a few years in the service with dreams of making it in New York. As door after door is shut in his face, he ends up working in a bar, taken under the wing of Bryan Brown's Aussie Coglan. A man who has seen it all and has a soundbite for all occasions (or Coglan's law if you will). After Bryan learns that Coglan's made a move on his girlfriend (a young Gina Gershon), he ups sticks for Jamaica (as you do), where he uses his bar skills and charm to woo the ladies. It goes on from there after he meets Elisabeth Shue, and ends up back in New York again, hoping to make 'Cocktails & Dreams' a reality. This is not just fluff piece, there are some genuinely dark moments (especially Coglan's eventual fate). But you know that Bryan is going to be treated kindly by the powers that be in the end. And isn't that what we all want in a guilty pleasure? A movie where the end is not in doubt, but makes you smile
8/10
January 28th - Redline
And so we come to my pick of the week. This is a Japanese anime movie, 100% hand drawn, and you can see the love and imagination in every frame. Incredibly, this movie took 7 years to make. That is some amount of dedication, and it doesn't go unnoticed as this is quite simply one of the most beautiful things your eyes will ever settle upon. I'm pretty sure if I took drugs and watched Driving Miss Daisy, this is what I would see. This is the movie all of the Fast and the Furious movies combined wish they were. The story follows JP, a reckless but amazingly gifted race car driver, who throws a race to help out his friend, but manages to qualify for the much heralded Redline Main Event by default (the two sweetest words in the English language Simpsons fans). The race will take place on a hostile planet, who are worried if the race is broadcast all over the galaxy, that their national defences and security will be exposed. So we have a war movie one minute, and a race car movie the next. And it all gels perfectly. I cannot recommend this movie enough. I have even put a trailer below, but it will in no way do it justice. For this, you need the blu ray, a big ass tv and the volume turned up to 11. My final tip would be to watch the English dubbed version as the voice work is actually very good, and you won't want to miss a single frame whilst reading the subtitles. Cracking soundtrack as well. This will be watched again, and pretty damn soon. Those damn Asians, they just keep blowing my movie watching mind......
10/10
And there we have it, almost a month down! Hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I'm enjoying the movies and also that you discover a few movies you maybe wouldn't have heard of before. Remember to click follow to receive updates. This week I have Brick, hopefully finally Warrior and Scarface on my radar.
See you back next week. Maybe not the same Bat time, but definitely the same Bat channel.
A John Carpenter movie starring the one and only Rowdy Roddy Piper. It does exactly what it says on the tin. And a little bit more. It starts out slowly enough, with Piper's Nada (literally 'nothing' - not sure if that's lazy or inspired writing!) arriving in Los Angeles, looking for work. He starts on a construction site and makes some friends, who put him up in a homeless community for the night. He sees some strange goings on at the church across the road, and decides to investigate. Inside he sees a band of people forming a resistance, and they happen to have some special glasses, which allow people to see the world as it really is.....At its base level, this is a simple 'Aliens taking over the world story', but it has hidden depths about consumerism and the effect of television and advertising on the waking world. The ideas are maybe a bit too big for its budget, but I guess that's part of its charm. Plus it has a 5 minute fight sequence between two best friends who are arguing over one of them wearing the special glasses for the first time. Choreographed by a WWF legend. And who doesn't want to see that?
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The guiltiest of guilty pleasures, I make no apology for enjoying this movie. Hot off the success of Top Gun, Tom Cruise was the biggest movie star on the planet. As the 80's were coming to a close, people were starting to wean themselves off of Arnie, Sly et al, and instead preferred a man who stands about 5 feet tall but has charisma to burn. Cocktail further endorsed that perception. It follows Bryan Flanaghan (don't you just love Hollywood scriptwriters attempts at names with an Irish heritage?), who comes back from a few years in the service with dreams of making it in New York. As door after door is shut in his face, he ends up working in a bar, taken under the wing of Bryan Brown's Aussie Coglan. A man who has seen it all and has a soundbite for all occasions (or Coglan's law if you will). After Bryan learns that Coglan's made a move on his girlfriend (a young Gina Gershon), he ups sticks for Jamaica (as you do), where he uses his bar skills and charm to woo the ladies. It goes on from there after he meets Elisabeth Shue, and ends up back in New York again, hoping to make 'Cocktails & Dreams' a reality. This is not just fluff piece, there are some genuinely dark moments (especially Coglan's eventual fate). But you know that Bryan is going to be treated kindly by the powers that be in the end. And isn't that what we all want in a guilty pleasure? A movie where the end is not in doubt, but makes you smile 
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