Movies205's Review and Discussion Thread: Vol. 3- Revenge of the Elitist Porcupines!

[Mr.Webs]

Good review. Better film.

Funny.

 

[Movies205]

Bwahaha agreed
Ugh, what a bad movie.
I think my favorite movie for 2007 so far is Hot Fuzz.

Zodiac for me... Hot Fuzz was good but the script was such a mess... You know we really should just take this to my review thread...

 

[블라스]

I still need to see Zodiac.
I loved Fight Club and Seven, but Panic Room kinda sucked.
But anyway, Robert Downey Jr. = yay!, so I'll be sure to rent that.

 

[Movies205]

Even Robert Downy Jr. couldn't save the pretencious garbage known as Scanner Darkly Panic Room was Fincher stepping stone to conventional film-making.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

AZUMI

Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura

Starring: Aya Ueto (Azumi), Shun Oguri (Nachi), Hiroki Narimiya (uknia), Kenji Kohashi (Hyuga), Takatoshi Kaneko (Amagi), Yuma Ishigaki (Nagara), Yasuomi Sano (Yura), Shinki Suzuki (Awa)

Running time: 142 mins.

Currently avaliable on DVD

Azumi is a movie I was very excited about seeing - but then I am obsessed with swordfighting as well as superheroes. Although based on Japanese comics not widely avaliable in the west, one glimpse of the Azumi trailer reveals all manner of colourful characters engaging in blade-swinging mayhem.

It would be easy to call this the film Kill Bill (2003) wanted to be. That's not exactly accurate though. Whilst Azumi is closer to the crazy, old-style bloody martial arts mayhem that Tarrantino tried to emulate, it's very different in other ways. It's the story of a band of teenage assassins who must kill a series of warlords who threaten the peace of the country around 1600. The warlords send their own assassins after the assassins, and by the climax, nearly every single character is dead. This is the typical samurai story, warriors who are forced to go on fighting even though they don't want to. Azumi tells it in the most straight-forward, basic way possible.

The only difference is, these are teenagers. If you can imagine the BBC producing a six episode kung fu TV series in the 1970's, with a Japanese cast and crew, and then editing it into a movie, you can imagine Azumi. It's episodic. It's very cheap looking, shot mainly on location in woods and fields. The costumes are very over-the-top (to be expected as Azumi is based on a comic strip), yet in most cases very badly constructed. A lot of the costumes look amateur. The acting, however, is of a decent enough standard all round.

But this is an action movie first and foremost. There is a lot of action, and it's all swordplay. Sadly not sword fighting, but sword play. The difference? Sword fighting is when swords clash and the opponents have a proper battle. Azumi has endless scenes of the heroes chopping down wave after wave of bad guys, without having to even block or parry once. Despite some imaginative shots, this is unavoidably repetitive. And there is virtually no threat to our heroine whatsoever until the climax, and even that is disappointing. After you've seen Azumi slice up an entire village full of thugs (according to the DVD, 200 men!), one more bad guy (the final boss at the end), no matter how good, is never going to be pose much of a threat. Basic rule of drama; the threats to the hero(ine) must increase over the course of the story. The lack of excitement is not helped by dull rock music that could have been taken from a 1996 Sega Saturn game.

Our heroine, Azumi, is played by the jaw-droppingly cute 18-year old pop star Aya Ueto. As unlikely as it seems, she makes a pretty convincing sword-swinging killer, and has the 'sad warrior' samurai movie expression down perfectly. When she's cloaked in her jet black cape, she makes quite a fetching heroine. The rest of the cast is barely worth mentioning. All are passable, but none stand out in any way. There are only two faces on display here; brooding (after you've killed someone) and extreme pain (as you're being killed).

Azumi is entertaining in a low-key way, but never amounts to anything. The title character drifts through the movie with the bare minimum of development. Although she denies fate for a time and gives up the warrior life, she can't escape it for ever, and just like Clark Kent and Peter Parker in their movies, she's needed to be a hero. She ditches her combat garb and dresses in a pink komono, but the appeal of the sword is too strong. Finally she gives in and grasps it, pulling a katana from the scabard of a thug who is about to rape her. "I have no choice," she mutters, "I am forced to kill." Once Azumi accepts her destiny, Ueto thankfully adds some steel and melancholy wisdom to the character.

None of the battles have any build up, and the endless hack-and-slash gets dull after a while. There are some basic attempts to add personalities to the villains, but there is little time for that between the blood-letting. It's proberbaly most palatable in thirty second bursts; watch one of the trailers for the movie and you'll see everything it has to offer.

Another problem is, despite the heavy war and death vibes, this movie is camp-all-day. The sheer volume of men in ludicrous costumes with bizarre haircuts, many of who make silly noises, ruins any chance the film has of being taken at anything beyond face value. The ultimate villain (and there are a number) is as feminine as can be, in a white dress, very long hair and pink eye-shadow. He throws roses to his intended victims and shrieks with girlish excitement as he slashes them up. He has a vague air of menace, but mostly resembles Cesar Romero's Joker as a 16th century Japanese asassain. Only not as good. And no maustache.

There are so many very similar, and better, films out there. Bichunmoo (2000) is what Azumi would be like with real story, real emotion, real characters and stunning visuals. Princess Blade (2001) is almost Azumi set in the future, as it also stars a Japanese pop princess as a sword-wielding assassin. But Princess Blade has intense, vicious action - with clashing swords and bad guys who don't get slashed down immediately. If you want to look outside movies based on comicbooks, Seven Samurai (1954) is considered one of the best movies of all time, and Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai (2003) is definetly worthwile viewing.

Azumi isn't great, but it had the potential to be more than a basic, cheap, hack-and-slash bloodbath. As with so many movies like this, it's greatest flaw is the contradiction at it's heart; violence ruins lives, it tells us, until the next fight scene, in which violence is cool.

It contains some undeniably imaginative elements, but remains a missed opportunity. It does however break the record for most stupid haircuts in one movie.

 

[Movies205]

For 2 years I've try to get you to post here Kevin and now you come... It's that 20k Post count isn't it, it's gone to your head

 

[블라스]

Even Robert Downy Jr. couldn't save the pretencious garbage known as Scanner Darkly Panic Room was Fincher stepping stone to conventional film-making.

Pffft, never bothered with ASD
I'm really looking forward to watch RDJr as Tony Stark, though t:

 

[Movies205]

I love samurai movies because there what the western is to America and if you look closely at the Western genre it's been reworked and redone so many different times and ways that it's truely amazing, I mean to this day we still getting different types of westerns being made, on the top of my head would be "Deadwood". And Samurai Flicks are the same way... Definately need to see some more, I recently watched Seven Samurai for the 3rd or 4th time, truely an amazing film however what truely gets me about it is it's amazing characterizations infused with a healthy amount of action which leads to a great finish.

 

[블라스]

Sword of Doom FTW

 

[Movies205]

Pffft, never bothered with ASD
I'm really looking forward to watch RDJr as Tony Stark, though t:

Aren't we all, hopefully it'll take a page from Robocop and have some very fun satire on corporations and what not. Also Jeff Bridges looks surprisingly good bald and also am I the only one that likes the 70s Kong Flick?

 

[Kevin Roegele]

For 2 years I've try to get you to post here Kevin and now you come... It's that 20k Post count isn't it, it's gone to your head

LOL. This is such a great thread, I didn't want to spoil it with my inane rantings. But now I just don't care. t:

 

[블라스]

Aren't we all, hopefully it'll take a page from Robocop and have some very fun satire on corporations and what not. Also Jeff Bridges looks surprisingly good bald and also am I the only one that likes the 70s Kong Flick?

I really like the 70s Jessica Lange

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I really like the 70s Jessica Lange

Me too.....wowza.....

 

[Movies205]

LOL. This is such a great thread, I didn't want to spoil it with my inane rantings. But now I just don't care. t:

Pish Posh... Welcome, I like this thread since it cuts down on making a thread for every old movie you see... Also it's a lot easier to discuss ideas without someone says "Z0mG your such a noob!"

I really like the 70s Jessica Lange

I like her, I haven't seen 70s Kong since like 05' however from what I remember she was pretty peripheral in the film, actually in all the kongs the only female who ever gave a really good performance was Watts in Jackson Kong except 05' Kong is probably my least favorite Kong, even though I still like it quite a bit. Plus in 70s Kong he spends way too much time trying to fondle Lange... However 70s kong has my favorite action scene out of all the Kongs which is with the Train scene, I also just love the look of the film. However my favorite Kong film is probably Mighty Joe Young (1946)

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Pish Posh... Welcome, I like this thread since it cuts down on making a thread for every old movie you see... Also it's a lot easier to discuss ideas without someone says "Z0mG your such a noob!"



I like her, I haven't seen 70s Kong since like 05' however from what I remember she was pretty peripheral in the film, actually in all the kongs the only female who ever gave a really good performance was Watts in Jackson Kong except 05' Kong is probably my least favorite Kong, even though I still like it quite a bit. Plus in 70s Kong he spends way too much time trying to fondle Lange... However 70s kong has my favorite action scene out of all the Kongs which is with the Train scene, I also just love the look of the film. However my favorite Kong film is probably Mighty Joe Young (1946)

I think the 70's version has a certain something the 2005 version (a better film overall) lacks. A think, as there is no CGI, it's a better sense of physical wonder. If that makes sense. The 70's Kong movie feels huge. the 2005 Kong feels artificially huge, loads of pixels.

 

[Movies205]

I think the 70's version has a certain something the 2005 version (a better film overall) lacks. A think, as there is no CGI, it's a better sense of physical wonder. If that makes sense. The 70's Kong movie feels huge. the 2005 Kong feels artificially huge, loads of pixels.

Cronenberg says it best on the commentary of Videodrome (1983), that even though it looks somewhat fake(About the special effects in the film), he still do it that way over cgi since models, stop-motion, etc provide a certain type of palpability to the audience that CGI just doesn't do since it's not there and the audience knows that.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Cronenberg says it best on the commentary of Videodrome (1983), that even though it looks somewhat fake(About the special effects in the film), he still do it that way over cgi since models, stop-motion, etc provide a certain type of palpability to the audience that CGI just doesn't do since it's not there and the audience knows that.

Yeah. I think of it this way.....take a shot of a xenomorph from Aliens crawling through the service tunnels towards the camera. Then take a completely CGI shot of something similar from Alien Vs Predator. In the first, while it's not a real alien, it is a man dressed as an alien crawling through the service tunnels towards the camera. It has the same dimensions as the alien, the same speed, it really is crawlign towards the camera....the only thing false is the alien. All you have to do is suspend you imagination to believe that the fake alien is a real alien.

With the CGI shot, there is nothing really there at all. In some cases, the background is CGI as well. So with the CGI alien, you have to use much more suspension of disbelief in order to convince yourself that anything on the screen really exists. With the man-in-costume, you know it really exists, it just isn't exactly what it looks like.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

I watched Angels With Dirty Faces a couple days back. It had been some time since I watched a classic gangster movie and I still wanted to see this again. Fantastic movie. James Cagney is one of the most iconic, legendary actors to grace the silver screen. Every gangster-role he's done is superb. And his performance as Rocky Sullivan is second to his role as Cody Jarrett in White Heat (which really is in, like, the top 10 of best performances ever put on film) Excellent directing and some pretty fancy camerawork for those days. Amazing final sequence. A great shootout followed by a truly bonechilling finale. It's pretty moralistic. But I let them get away with that just because it all works so damn well.

 

[Movies205]

You know this problem is really easily fixed? Michael Bay mastered this in Transformers which is the bait and switch. Somehow figure out how to use a puppet or some other "real" version of what ever your cging and then in scenes of intense action switch in the CGI version, doing that thus creates an atmosphere of reality and if the story is half-way decent, the audience shouldn't even be focusing on the CGI.

 

[Movies205]

I watched Angels With Dirty Faces a couple days back. It had been some time since I watched a classic gangster movie and I still wanted to see this again. Fantastic movie. James Cagney is one of the most iconic, legendary actors to grace the silver screen. Every gangster-role he's done is superb. And his performance as Rocky Sullivan is second to his role as Cody Jarrett in White Heat (which really is in, like, the top 10 of best performances ever put on film) Excellent directing and some pretty fancy camerawork for those days. Amazing final sequence. A great shootout followed by a truly bonechilling finale. It's pretty moralistic. But I let them get away with that just because it all works so damn well.

Check out the Petrified Forest with what I believe is Bogart first gangster role, it's completely different from other gangster films of the generation and it's quite philospophical, just stick with it to the end, it's a great film and is one of my favorite ganster films from the period.

Also do you think at the end he faked it or he was really scared?

 

[Carmine Falcone]

Check out the Petrified Forest with what I believe is Bogart first gangster role, it's completely different from other gangster films of the generation and it's quite philospophical, just stick with it to the end, it's a great film and is one of my favorite ganster films from the period.

Also do you think at the end he faked it or he was really scared?

I have seen the Petrified Forest. It kinda reminded me of Key Largo (just the setup) I really didn't like it. The main characters made me want to tear my eyes out. A whole new grade of annoying. Bogart was excellent as usual though.

Key Largo now thát is a good film.

That's a good question. It might be lame to say; A bit of both.
But that is what I say.

 

[Movies205]

I have seen the Petrified Forest. It kinda reminded me of Key Largo (just the setup) I really didn't like it. The main characters made me want to tear my eyes out. A whole new grade of annoying. Bogart was excellent as usual though.

Key Largo now thát is a good film.

That's a good question. It might be lame to say; A bit of both.
But that is what I say.

Bah! Key Largo = boring as hell, Petrified Forest is an exploration of the soul and about wants and dreams, and getting a kick in the ass when you least expect it, beautiful film <---Joking not really mad

Have you seen City of God?

 

[Carmine Falcone]

Bah! Key Largo = boring as hell, Petrified Forest is an exploration of the soul and about wants and dreams, and getting a kick in the ass when you least expect it, beautiful film <---Joking not really mad

You better be joking about Key Largo too.

 

[Movies205]

You better be joking about Key Largo too.

I'm not I should probably see it again though now that I love Edward G. Robinson and Little Ceasar.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

I'm not I should probably see it again though now that I love Edward G. Robinson and Little Ceasar.

Well then you have your Petrified Forest and I have my Key Largo.

by all means, watch it again. Edward G. Robinson (he is awesome, I want to see Double Indemnity) is really the blueprint of a classic gangster in it.