John Woo was one of the reasons I got into watching Hong Kong films many years ago. Unfortunately it's been ages since he's put out anything that I've been able to tolerate, let alone enjoy. His constant use of Woo-isms (just give the doves a rest, already) and attempts to go Hollywood left me cold.
So I didn't have high hopes for Red Cliff, especially after I heard Chow Yun Fat walked off the set right at the start.
Some descriptions practically beg a person who likes bad movies to watch the movie involved. Such is the case with Taarzan the Wonder Car, a film about a car designer who is murdered and comes back as a vengeful car.
Taarzan is like a psychotic Herbie the Love Bug gone completely off his medications. But don't let the movie fool you into thinking it's a bizarre automotive remake of Death Wish. In between car-delivered-justice sequences, large sections of the movie are devoted to light-hearted romantic comedy.
Kick the Moon is a bit of an oddball Korean film—it doesn't fit neatly into a specific genre. It's very funny in many parts but not a comedy; it has some romance but it isn't a romance; it has a lot of fighting but isn't exactly an action movie.
At heart the movie is about two men and their friendship and rivalry, from their days in high school until their present days as adults.
Sholay is a famous "curry" western, India's answer to the spaghetti westerns of Italy. A rousing combination of action, romance, drama, comedy, music, and revenge, Sholay is a western that is epic in the best sense, and it deserves to stand alongside other classics in the genre.
If there's one thing Bollywood does better than any other movie-making industry, it's excess. Colors, music, dancing, clothes, sets, melodrama—they love to take things to the next level. Sometimes they take it to such an extreme that a western sense of style or good taste just can't be applied. Western sensibilities are as likely to fit within some Bollywood movies as moon ponies and unicorns are likely to be found frolicking in Dick Cheney's back yard. Things that could never work in a western film sometimes work in Bollywood.
Disco was already all about excess and poor taste, so when Bollywood does disco you'd better be prepared for a double-barreled blast of dance inferno madness.
What if an otherwise normal boy grew up with the ability to grow a blade from his hand—a blade so sharp that it could cut through almost anything?
Sounds like the setting for a super-hero action movie, but it isn't, exactly. This bleak Russian film treats the subject in a more true to life fashion—the boy has no understanding of how to control this power at first, and kills several people when reacting in self-defense. Alienated and alone, Sasha continues to use violence as a means to an end as an adult.
ZsaZsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh is about a gay gender-changing superhero that fights giant frogs, flying exploding zombies, and hot alien women that are out to destroy all men. Or at least change them into women. And there will be musical numbers along the way.
If that doesn’t sound interesting to you, run away quickly.
Continuing my exploration of Bollywood, I came across Main Hoon Na. This movie has been described (fairly accurately, as it turns out) as a cross between True Lies, Grease, Never Been Kissed, Toy Soldiers—with a little bit of Matrix-style action and the requisite singing and dancing— how could it not be terrible beyond belief? Obviously this required investigation.
Zipang is a rather strange movie that throws a lot of genres into a blender and comes up with a mixture that isn't entirely tasty. It's kind of a shame because a lot of the individual ingredients are great; it's hard not to love a movie that has hordes of ninjas, a cute pistol-wielding female bounty hunter, and a hero that has his henchmen carry around nine swords for him so he can pick the right one for each occasion.
Citizen Dog is a Thai surreal romantic comedy with great visual style and use of sound and music. I really love this director's use of oddly bright pastel colors in both this movie and his previous film, Tears of the Black Tiger. It also features some off-the-wall creative touches like a zombie taxi motorcycle driver, a talking (and smoking and drinking) teddy bear, and many other oddities.
