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Ying hung boon sik (1986)
One of the top action films ever made
What makes A Better Tomorrow so great? The cast is absolutely brilliant. Legendary kung fu/sword film star Ti Lung proves his fine dramatic range with an excellent performance as a Ho, a gangster trying to change his ways after his father's brutal murder, and trying to prove to his younger brother he's sorry.
His brother Kit is played by the tragic Leslie Cheung, and he gives the role a sad intensity that brings the drama to life. What an incredible scene when Kit sees Ho for the first time after their father's death standing in the rain, and proceeds to attack him.
It's hard to remember just how great the aforementioned two actors are in this film because of Chow Yun Fat's film stealing performance. As the charismatic, gunslingin' Mark, Yun Fat became the biggest star in Hong Kong cinema. His dark trench coat sporting, sunglasses wearing, akimbo berretta ways have influenced modern action cinema to no end, and continue to do so even now. Mark's two-fisted assault on the restaurant is still the greatest gun action scene ever.
Here's an incredible action movie, with outstanding performances, searing drama, and way over the top action scenes. What more do you want?
Dai-bosatsu tôge (1966)
Brilliant, unique action movie.
Sword of Doom is not a really coherent or satisfying (in the traditional sense) film, but, none the less, I love it. It blends a fascinating character study with the more traditional trappings of a Japanese samurai film. The reason it succeeds so well with me is that it breaks every rule of both.
First of all, our `hero' is, well, not one. He is an unpredictable lunatic with no moral sensibilities whatsoever. Ryunosuke is a person who succumbs to the inner darkness that dwells in every man, and revels in it. It's like the director was going to make a fairly traditional samurai action flick, but as a twist he decided to make it from the point of view of the villain. It takes a, uh, `different' kind of person to relate with Ryunosuke. The fact that I can relate with him very well opens the door for me to thoroughly enjoy this brilliant work of art. Tatsuya Nakadai's performance is absolutely phenomenal. He truly understands this complex and unique character and brings him to life brilliantly through a series of unsurpassed broods and scowls.
The plot is quite interesting at first, and then turns more conventional as it builds up a duel between Ryunosuke and the brother of one of his victims. You would expect a typical climax to happen, but, in a stroke of pure genius, the film takes a turn for the insane. Instead of the obligatory end duel, Ryunosuke descends into the mouth of madness as wave after wave of fencers attack him while the house burns down around them. The ambiguous fate of our `hero' is the icing on the cake. I couldn't love this movie any more for its freak-you attitude in the face of conventionalism, and for the brilliant performance by Nakadai.
Koroshiya 1 (2001)
Few redeeming qualities...
I'm a huge fan of Asian cinema for it's audacity, visual inventiveness, humor, and action. While plenty violent, and occaisonaly funny, Ichi The Killer doesn't have much else going for it.
I personaly found it extremely difficult to sympathize with a single character, and found the constant focus on sadism, with no attempt to explore the theme in any other way than show it, to be quite tiresome.
The pacing really bogs down the the second act as it explores the twisted but boring life of Ichi.
3 out of 10
American Beauty (1999)
The word "overrated" was created for this pile of trash
I had big expectations for this film because of all the Oscars and hype, and when I finally saw it, man, did it dissapoint. From point A to Z this film is a failure. From the hideous wannabe hip dialogue to the use of every 90's cliche in existence. Oh, in the 90's EVERY high school kid smokes pot. In the 90's, EVERY gay couple are inherently the nicest people on the block. In the 90's, every suburbian family are hiding dark secrets behind the facade of normality. I could continue but I won't. Hmm, didn't we see that in "Happiness" and other films? We don't need another forcefull presentation of this messege.
I just loved how the character Ricky was such a 90's reinessance man (not to mention nearly the exact same character as Jude Law's in Mendes' follow crap "Road to Perdition")! Not only a high school student and deep philosopher who appreciates the beauty in grocery bags, he also has time to be an amatuer videographer, caterer, successful drug dealer with a long list of clients, voyuer, and an ex-mental patient. Darn, kids in the 90's sure know how to multitask! What a charming lad! GAG!
Now, on to the performances. While Kevin Spacey was mostly believable throughout, not a single other actor was. Particularly embarrassing was Annette Bening's spaztic, inapropriately overdramatic and totally unbelievable performance. Even the normally brilliant Chris Cooper failed to deliver the goods in his most dramatic scenes. And don't get me started on the teenage actors, who further rob the already DOA dialogue of any shred of credibility or sincerity.
Dramaticly, it was boring and devoid of life. No character ever has any realistic motivation to do anything interesting. The extended and stupid fantasy scenes were meaningless and far too numerous. Oh, and just by chance, Chris Cooper and Annette were planning to kill Kevin with the exact same brand of gun.
What makes it all the worse are the special features on the DVD in which the producers talk about how this was the best screenplay they'd ever read and crap like that. How could they be so dumb? Are they illiterate? The dialogue was just HIDEOUS! How could this crap get so much critical praise? It's baffling, seriously. It's just representive of how artisticly vacant modern Hollywood is. Want further proof? The very next year, "Gladiator" wins best picture.
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Haters missed the point
The general disdain for Reloaded and Revolutions by critics and fans alike has me baffled. What the heck were you all expecting? Why would you expect totally coherent, cookie-cutter entertainment from films based on anime and philosiphy? Have you seen anime, as most of you claim?
The Matrix trilogy told a story, a story about robots vs. kung-fu. When Reloaded was met with bitter, bitter hate upon release, people hated it beacuse it was such a different film than the first. I guess people just wanted more of the same, as it the norm for most American sequels. But, fortunately for those of us with brains, the brothers decided to continue the story with no regard for the conventions of the action genre.
Revolutions again suprises us with a completely different experience than the first two. As it's the climax for the entire trilogy, those idiots expecting conventions such as a normal three act plot will not get it. Instead, you get a thrilling and brilliant two hours of action that even tops the previous two films. Oh, it's hardly perfect cinema, but let's see anyone else make a better trilogy about robots vs. kung-fu! You haters missed the freakin point, and shame, shame on you all!
Underworld (2003)
Underworld: Underwhelming
Great idea, bad execution. I was hoping for an epic war between the two of the most famous Hollywood monsters, with a strong dose of Matrix inspired style. What I got was an anemic, pretentious, "action" flick that hasn't a spark of originality or life.
The plot is pure action movie fodder, but provides us with only two weak action scenes; one at the beginning and one at the end; with a whole lot of boring material in between delivered by the least talented and least charismatic cast in recent memory. It fails to evoke any notions of an epic or ancient war. Worst of all is Underworld's vain pretentiousness. This is a silly vampire action movie and the filmmakers don't seem to know it, and they present it like it's freakin' high art.
At least the action scenes were cool, right? Right? Wrong! Dead wrong (pun intended)! I'm really sad to see the once cool akimbo pistol style (using two pistols at once) made popular by John Woo's Hong Kong masterpieces, then brought to America in Face/Off and the Matrix, go all mainstream. It's so cliché these days that you even see it used on crappy TV shows. If John Woo where dead, he'd be rolling over in his grave. And Underworld puts the last nail in the coffin on akimbo pistols, no intelligent action director could possibly be stupid enough to use them again, but rest assured, idiot, copycat, Hollywood scumbag directors like Michael Bay, have and will, and it does and will suck. Kate Bekinsale, while alluring as a vampire warrior, doesn't look too experienced or confident with the dual USP handguns she supposedly uses to dispatch so many lycan freaks.
Worst of all, are the boring, and all too familiar camera angles used in the action scenes, taken straight out of the 1947 book "Proper Camera Angles for Television and Film Action Scenes". We've seen them a million times before. Only people who know nothing about action movies and only watch American crap would think the action scenes in Underworld are cool. The only scene that worked for me was the final sword blow by our heroine, only to have it ruined by the oldest gag in the gore book, the delayed dismemberment shot. Not only is it a Japanese film and animation staple, but was also used in another Matrix wannabe called Equilibrium only last year.
In closing, Underworld may fool the mainstream masses, but action buffs hoping for something original will be sorely disappointed.
Gladiator (2000)
Why did I fall asleep?
A fantastic director (Scott) and a brilliant star (Crowe) and an exciting premise. Can't miss, right? Why did I fall asleep then? It wasn't an awful film by any means but I felt completely detached from anything happening on screen. Aside from the lust for blood, and Crowe's forced tears, the film is barren of emotion and I was left not caring what happened to any of the characters.
Unforgiven (1992)
Mediocre
I really don't know what the big deal about this film was. Academy award winner? It radiates not a hint of life or emotion. I went through expecting at least characters I could care about or relate to and every last one of them was repellant. A true disappointment.