Change Your Image
Martijn
Reviews
Shin jingi naki tatakai (2000)
Not very exciting and talkie
This is not a very exciting film. It is about two schoolfriends who grow apart, with one becoming a yakuza and another a business man. When the leader of the crime family dies a succession war ensues and both men meet each other again. There's too much focus on the internal battles in the yakuza clan, with the usual ridiculous amount of characters and sub-plots, to make the film really work as a drama about the relationship between the two men and the yakuza spend to much time negotiating instead of killing each other to make the film work as a yakuza film. This was probably an attempt at making a film that works at both levels, like Martin Scorcese can do, but it fails at both, although there are some good scenes.
Batoru rowaiaru (2000)
Survivor with machineguns is instant cult-classic
This is insanity on celluloid. The story is set in a future in which adults have grown so sick of rebellious teenagers one class is send to an abandoned island each year where they have three days to kill each other until there is only one survivor. If after three days more than one kid is alive, they'll be blown up all. This all under the 'Battle Royale' law. It's SURVIVOR, including the romances and gossip, with machineguns. Paul Verhoeven's dark future satires like 'Robocop' and 'Starship Troopers' are the best comparisons (although 'Dawn of the Dead' comes to mind too) but BR is even more violent and, if you like your humour very black, funnier. The best jokes involve Japanese superstar Takeshi Kitano as the bullied teacher who strikes back as the referee.
Zheleznaya pyata oligarkhii (1998)
Beautiful images, but not a great film.
This is one of the most beautifully filmed movies I've seen in my life. One of the weirdest too. The basic plot is simple: eccentric (or maybe just insane) Nikolai Petrovich comes to St. Petersburg to overthrow the oligarchy. The oligarchy doesn't like that and sends its agents after him. Bashirov, however, tells the story in what are basically a bunch of absurd sketches kept (barely) together by a bombastic, 19th century style voice-over. Some sketches are quite good if you're into absurd humour, but a lot of them are not, often because of Bashirov's own overacting. And they don't connect too well, making the film hard to understand sometimes, but that's probably on purpose.
Les convoyeurs attendent (1999)
Great combination of touching drama and absurd humor, starring a brilliant Benoît Poelvoorde
LES CONVOYEURS ATTENDENT was the first film I saw in 2000 and I doubt I'll see a better one this year. This beautiful tragicomedy by Belgian filmmaker Benoît Mariage is set in the industrial wastelands of Wallonia. Benoît Poelvoorde plays a father who desperately wants his son to win a car (a Lada!) for him. To do this the son has to break the record opening doors. What the father actually wants his for his son to be someone, because he himself has never made it further as the reporter of local news for a newspaper ironically called L'Espoir (Hope). Of course nothing works out as planned. This film can best be compared to Aki Kaurismäki's DRIFTING CLOUDS, although it is more dramatic and the humour is darker. Just like in that film however the tone is more melancholic than depressing and the ending upbeat, without being unrealistically happy. The humour is absurd, without making the plot unbelievable, and Mariage finds stunning images in the bleak settings that never seem artificial. The best thing about LES CONVOYEURS ATTENDENT is the acting by Poelvoorde. This actor shot to fame with the also brilliant cult-classic C'EST ARRIVÉ PRÈS DE CHEZ VOUS in which he played the charismatic hitman Ben. Since then he only played two small roles in films that were not released in the Netherlands, because, as he said in an interview, he was not convinced of his own acting capabilities and all the roles he was offered were reprises of the Ben character. With his return to a leading role in LCA there should be no doubt anymore about his acting. He's simply brilliant as a man stupid and evil enough to put his family in misery, but smart enough to realize what he's done and be torn by remorse about it. A must see.
There's Something About Mary (1998)
Not even accidently funny collection of ancient jokes.
Avoid this at all cost. This film consists of a collection of jokes that have been around since the middle ages. To make it worse they are brought at an incredible slow pace (unlike the NAKED GUN films in which the sheer number of gags makes sure there are at least some fun ones) by actors who are not good at slapstick at all. For good comedies about the same subjects (sperm, ugly people and there relational problems, retards) check out THE IDIOTS or HAPPINESS.
White Lies (1998)
Very standard tv movie
Sarah is an intelligent middle class girl neglected by her parents. In the extreme right wing group NIM she finds the warmth and friendship she's been looking for. Slowly she's drawn into a pool of violence and racism. It takes a dramatic event for her to realize what mess she's in. If this all sounds extremely standard, that's because it is. Combined with an experimental style that makes the film look like a medium budget video clip, this is not something to stay at home for. It's not bad though: the acting is good and except for its total lack of originality the script is well written. So if nothing else is on, and your local cinema is only showing some brain dead action flick, you might want to give it a chance.
The Faculty (1998)
Ok rip-off of the Body Snatchers
Actually I never intended to see THE FACULTY: we wanted to see TAXI DRIVER in the Film-museum, but more people had that idea, so it was sold out. The only two films in a theatre within walking distance neither of us had seen were THE FACULTY or SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. When you are in a TAXI DRIVER state of mind SIL doesn't seem like a very good film, so it became THE FACULTY by Robert Rodriguez. No opening credits: bad start. I like big James Bond style opening credits, with a music that sets the atmosphere. But the film turned out to be ok. Not because of the story. Kevin Williamson this time did not "sample" elements from several SF films, he just copied THE BODYSNATCHERS. Of course he makes a joke about it, something like: "This is just like The Bodysnatchers. Maybe the same thing happened at Jack Finney's (the writer of the Bodysnatchers) high school and did he write the book as a warning." and "The Bodysnatchers is a rip off of a book by Robert Heinlein, The Puppetmaster". Seems like Williamson was afraid he might be accused of plagiarism... The main characters are stolen from THE BREAKFAST CLUB and one scene is an exact copy of a scene from John Carpenter's THE THING (which bears less resemblance to the original than THE FACULTY does to THE BODYSNATCHERS). I haven't seen the original BODYSNATCHERS, but both the version with Donald Sutherland and the one by Abel Ferrara create a frightening atmosphere of paranoia. Rodriguez and Williamsom: frightening atmosphere? No way. They do make some half-hearted attempts, but it is never convincing. What actually saves THE FACULTY, and is meanwhile one of the reasons the film fails in creating the right atmosphere, are Rodriguez' qualities as a director of over the top action comedy. The people taken over by the aliens in THE FACULTY have more in common with the Martians from MARS ATTACKS! than with the emotionless robots from BODYSNATCHERS. Especially Robert Patrick and Famke Janssen do some nice unsubtle bad guy acting. The action scenes are good, but Rodriguez is at his best again (just like in DESPERADO and FROM DUSK TILL DAWN) when he can combine John Woo style camerawork action scenes with bad taste humor. There is a big football match scene which is in the same league as the scene in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN were they enter the bar and the shootout in DESPERADO with the men with the rocket launcher in the guitar cases. So just like in those films Rodriguez makes an ok film with some great scenes in it. Oh, and about the atmosphere: one time it is there. Someone had the great idea to have Layne Staley sing Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" (in my impression slightly slower than the original). That does create atmosphere (and gave us a new hobby: trying to sing as depressing as possible "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom. Teacher leave those kids alone.")
Deadly Sins (1995)
Mediocre slasher with bad plot and acting, but above average cinematography and locations.
Catholic schoolgirls are being murdered, but by whom? A very standard slasher with sometimes hilarious bad acting and a ridiculous plot. To make it even worse it is not trashy enough: during the numerous sex scenes the actresses keep on their bras (or are only filmed from the back) and all brutal murders take place off-screen. The only good things about this film are the locations and the above average cinematography.