Another busy month of movie watching – I’m fast approaching 100 flicks in 2021 already! I transitioned from watching way too many spaghetti westerns to watching way too many Hong Kong action flicks, so that’s something. Anyway, here’s my rundown for the month:
Best of the Bunch:
Breaking News (2004) This is genre filmmaking at its absolute best, and one of master director Johnnie To’s real showcase pieces. It reminds me of the best Samuel Fuller flicks, which managed to provide thrills and genre twists while deftly weaving in social commentary. Here, To tackles the potentially insidious reach and effectiveness of the mass media in shaping public opinion—while delivering a gripping action flick that never once gets preachy or obvious about its intentions. The flick opens with one of To’s best-ever action scenes—an eight-minute, single-shot sequence that begins as a drug bust gone wrong and ends up as a wild shootout. Unlike some recent “one-shot” action scenes (Atomic Blonde, Extraction), To doesn’t just follow one protagonist through a scenario. Rather, his crane-assisted camera weaves in and out of the action, showing each participant in turn and showing off some of the tightest action choreography you’ll ever see.
It turns out this shootout gets broadcast to the Hong Kong public, and it doesn’t make the cops look all that great. To combat this, the police basically goes on a rebranding mission. A media-savvy female cop is promoted to lead their next big operation, with an eye toward leaking footage to the news networks that makes the cops look better. That next big op turns out to be the siege of an apartment tower block where the crooks from the beginning are holed up. In a bold move, To devotes basically the whole last hour of the flick to this sequence, as the camera-rigged police move floor to floor hunting down the shooters. Of course, the ruckus disturbs an unrelated pair of assassins who just happen to be hiding out in the same building, which adds a whole other layer of intrigue and action. To cuts from the cops-and-gunmen action inside the building to the stage-managed news reports that are being broadcast outside. Needless to say, they don’t always match up. This is Johnnie To working at the top of his game, and easily one of the best genre flicks of its decade.
Other high/lowlights:
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) Even by the low standards set by the title, this movie is pretty, pretty lame. It’s the laziest kind of paint-by-numbers ‘corporate blockbuster filmmaking,’ checking off the required boxes without ever conjuring up anything approaching an original thought. Evil corporation headed by scheming megalomaniac who is obviously the villain from scene one? Check. Meticulously racially and gender-balanced cast that still finds a way to disappear and center the ingenious, quick-thinking white man at the film’s climax? Check. Final 30 minutes consisting of nothing but CGI monsters destroying one another and some random city? Check. Scrappy teen girl who sees through the lies? “Wacky” black podcaster who knows the truth? Ridiculously gorgeous evil second-in-command who dies violently? Check, check, check. This is a truly terrible film. I’d also like to point out that today’s hyperrealistic effects don’t do movies like this any favors. A lot of the fun of the old Godzilla flicks was that they looked—and were—ridiculous. It was obviously a guy in a monster suit stomping around a tiny set. Even as kids, you’d laugh and say, “Look at those Hot Wheels!” It’s simply not as much fun watching a very realistic CGI Hong Kong get destroyed; it’s hard not to wonder how many millions of people are dying in these monster fights.
Rock Star (2001) Always a pleasure, never a chore to watch this, the second-best movie about heavy metal ever made (after This is Spinal Tap, of course). I’m still not sure whether they meant to make a drama or a comedy, and unlike my wife, I don’t believe for one second that they intended to create this much of a schizophrenic ride. As always, highlights include Dominic West’s spectacular wig, the parking lot brawl between the two Steel Dragon tribute bands, and the mesmerizing dichotomy of Jennifer Aniston’s performance—she seems to think she’s making a real movie here, even while carrying on conversations with Mark Wahlberg at his most vacant. I could watch this ridiculous flick once a month.
The Complete List for April (first-time viewings in bold):
Bastard Swordsman (1983, Chun-Ku Lu)
Black Jack (1968, Gianfranco Baldanello)
Breaking News (2004, Johnnie To)
Companeros (1970, Sergio Corbucci)
Dirty Ho (1979, Lau Kar-leung)
Enter the Fat Dragon (1978, Sammo Hung)
The Equalizer 2 (2018, Antoine Fuqua)
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021, Adam Wingard)
The Last King (orig. Birkebeinerne) (2016, Nils Gaup)
Lifeline (1997, Johnnie To)
The Mission (1999, Johnnie To)
The Mystery of Chess Boxing (1979, Joseph Kuo)
PTU (aka PTU: Police Tactical Unit) (2003, Johnnie To)
Rock Star (2001, Stephen Herek)
7 Grandmasters (1977, Joseph Kuo)
Shaolin Prince (1982, Chia Tang)
Shaolin Temple (1976, Chang Cheh)
Space Sweepers (2021, Jo Sung-hee)
Take a Hard Ride (1975, Antonio Margheriti)
The Thin Man (1934, W.S. Van Dyke)
Three (2016; Johnnie To)
Throw Down (2004, Johnnie To)
Previous Entries:
January 2021
February 2021
March 2021
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