BLOG POSTING – 26 July

Femme Fatale (2002)
        Director and Writer: Brian De Palma; Cast: Rebecca Romijn, Antonio Banderas
        Watched this one on Cable today. Just when the movie's about to end, it started all over again, with a different and happy ending. Reminded me of Run Lola Run (1998). I checked the director on IMDb. It's a different one. Director and Writer: Tom Tykwer, May be one inspired the other.

1. The Bourne Ultimatum

Can't remember the last time I came across this at a Toronto cinema - SOLD OUT.  We (a party of 6 arriving at 3 different times) had intended to see the 9:30 p.m. show but found it full.  Fortunately, there were two more, at 10:00 and 10:30.  We were able to get into the 10:00.  With the abundance of trailers in Toronto cinemas, it was past midnight when we got out.   All agreed it was an excellent movie.

Got up this morning and checked some info on IMDb.  Bourne has topped the box office.  IMDb user votes, approaching 4,000 (expect to see 40,000 eventually), has already put it in #94 of the top 250 with an average rating of 8.9/10.  Professional critics' reviews look almost like a standing ovation for Paul Greengrass.

Rather than dashing it off in 15 minutes as I did with my last few IMDb user comments, I think I'll take a little more time with this one.  In the meantime, just this: highly recommended.

2. Gangster season or what?

When we watched Bourne Ultimatum, the trailer included no less than 5 upcoming movie about gansters or crime.  We may be able to catch some during our stay in Toronto.  In any event, because of the big names and the marketability of gangster/crime movies, I would expect that they will eventually be shown in HK:

Eastern promises (Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watt): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765443/

We own the night (Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Robert Duvall):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498399/

American gangster (Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe): ttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765429/

The kingdom (Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431197/

Death sentence (Kevin Bacon): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804461/

 

Hairspray

"Nostalgia, underdog story, tons of toe-tapping tunes and feel-good movie" pretty well sums up Hairspray, a new musical based on a Broadway hit set in Baltimore in 1962, a time in US history when racial segregation dominated. A local teenage TV show that has a "Negro day" only once in a month. The heavy subject matter of the TV integration movement is handled, however, in feather-light comedy. Even more important in this movie is the age-old feel-good-about-yourself theme, regardless of what appearance you have or how much you weigh. The “short and stout” girl’s dream of becoming a teenage TV dance star is not unlike what you see in Little Miss Sunshine. But here, she makes it.

You can’t complain about the cast. Michelle Pfeiffer tries out playing a villain of sorts, a manipulative TV station manager. Everybody else is saccharin sweet, including Christopher Walken as the almost saintly understanding father, James Marsden (Cyclops in X-men) as the handsome open-minded show host and Queen Latifah as the determined peaceful fighter for rights of the blacks. Absolutely not to be missed, however, is John Travolta playing the timid mother (yes!) who "never left the house since 1951", blossoming into a wonderful creature at the inspiration of her daughter, played by Nikki Blonsky, a four-foot-ten, pleasantly plump nineteen-year-old, hitherto unknown, but with such a sunshine screen persona that fits the role perfectly. But it's Travolta that is a must-see.

Hairspray is currently number 4 in the US box office. If it comes to Hong Kong, go and see it for Travolta.

Ratatouille

I said in the blog posting above that there must be a reason why an animation feature can attain such a high ranking in IMDb (has actually dropped slightly since then, to #65 and 8.5/10).  Having now seen the movie, I do see why, although I still don't see any sense of ranking animation with "real" movies that have human actors.  But I would certainly give this movie a #1 among all the animations I've seen.

First off, Pixar is indeed impressive as ever. With the depth and light-and-shade, some scenes look more real than real scenes shot with a camera. Facial expressions are also just as good as real. And there are so much admirable details in each frame that you'll miss more than you can take in. 

Behind the astounding visual are characters and stories rich in creative imagination. It is a cartoon and the movie never pretends to be otherwise. But it's impossible not to marvel at the ingeneous plot - the ghost of a top chef, or just a fragment of the hero's imagination, helps that hero, a rat, to become a top chef by working, in turn, through a young floor-sweeper who does the actual cooking. How? Through hiding in the young man's chef's hat and pulling his hair as one manipulates the strings of a marionette.  Now, why didn't I think of that!

And then, there are many layers in the plot, not contrived or pretentious, but just offered to you naturally as part of the story: family value, office politics, aspiration vs reality, peaceful co-existences between races (in this case, humans and rats).  There are of course poignancy and uplifting moments, which are, however, never over done.  This is a sensible movie that entertains you hugely, moves you gently, and makes you think a little as you go along.

I am not an animation person but this one gets my vote.

I know who killed me

Just opened in Toronto, carried mainly by Lindsay Lohan, this one is a seriel killer thriller with a twist.  The title is revealing - the victim escaped death and may hopefully help to track down the seriel killer.  But the twist is that she claims she is a different person, not the rich girl who was kidnapped but an exotic dancer.  Many movies are criticised for being overly gory and gruesome.  This one can at least try the defence that this is necessary as part of the plot.  The solution to the mystery is not particularly impressive but I've seen worse.  The fact that they cast Lindsay Lohan is telling.  More I wouldn't say.  Movie buyers from HK cinemas are quite likely to get this one.

 

TELA session 30 July 2007 Short Films by students of City University, Creative Media

I checked the booklet, "IND Panda: 3 International Short Film Festival 8-29/8/2007 at Broadway Cinematheque" and failed to find them listed there. This could well be City U's answer to the Festival, since there is a seesion "Best of HKAPA 2007".

(1) The first one is a movie "Red String" about poppy love, girl meets boy. Not outstanding and may tend to be childish.
(2) "I shoot" next. It's about a private eye investigating a lady who turns out to be a transvestite. There are cuttings back and forth and some suspense.
(3) "Garden of Eden" animation. The story about Adam, Eve and the snake with a twist at the end: Adam kills Eve. (...what about the human race?)
(4) "Ghost" fast animation, character moving quickly through changing background.
(5) "Weird Mind" animation about gears and connecting rods moving about on their own, a mechanical butterfly flies and then dis-mentles on its own.
(6) "Secret" very short and fast moving animation.
(7) "Home" animation about a boy meeting giant robot. At end, boy turns to become a transformer himself.
(8) "My Mother" animation in water colour, my favourite, about the time spent between a girl and her mother who past away.
(9) "Escape" animation about a duck's plight to avoid the chopping block, but ends up back in the cage.
(10) "Fantasia" animation of Red Riding Hood in puppetland. One of the longest piece, very lively and fluent.
Totol time 80m

Coming from University students, these short films are so good that they promose the future in this business which HK is already doing very well. Most of them are accompanied by exquisite music, some of them original.
I'm going back to the booklet to pick a few of the short film to watch in cinema.

Transformers

Transformers transform - something this movie offers that is unique.  The CGI sequences of vehicle-to-robot (and the reverse)  are as spectacular as promised.  There are other elements that are all too familiar - parents-vs-adolescent comedy and big-brother type secret government outfit, just to name two.  All told, there are enough visual treats to satisfy and enough laughs to give you a good time.  Definitely family entertainment (TELA gives it an IIA although I can't see why it can't be I).  At 144 mnutes, however, I think it's a tad too long.

 

 

 

Current movie scene in Toronto

Two of the best movies I've seen in HK this year are still shown here: The lives of other and Paris je t'aime.  Of the movies currently being shown in HK, there are two that I plan to see here in the nest few days: Transformers and Ratatouille.

New movies currently shown here that look quite interesting include:

> No reservations: a feel-good romance with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart

> My best friend: most popular French actor Daniel Auteuil

> Becoming Jane: Anne Hathaway playing Jane Austin

> I know who killed me: a mystery, with Lindsay Lohan

more later....

 

 

 

Belinda, I didn't watch Death Proof after all - too much pre-trip chore to attend to.  Happy that you and Thomas did.  I heard about the 大快人心 part too, from a radio program on movies.  Maybe I can still catch it in some worn-down little cinema in Toronto.

Watched Death Proof this evening.  Typical Tarentino stuff with a lot of talk, a lot of blood and violence (but this time the weapon is a car).  I particularly like the ending (大快人心 as Thomas put it) when the bad man is revenged and whimpers for mercy.  The stuntswoman is quite something. 

One question:  Do American women talk of anything else? 

Belinda

For the next 6 blog postings, while the upcoming movies will continue to cover the Hong Kong cinemas, the 回應s that I expect to post from time to time will report on movies watched in Toronto.  Some of these movies will be released ahead of HK, some simultaneously (maybe even slightly behind) and there'll probably be some that will not be shown in HK at all.  In addition, the TIFF in September should be very interesting.