Gatchaman

Like other late-FF-2013 films, I'm posting this almost a year later thanks to some lost notes and bad memory.

Suited superheros ninjas fight end-of-the-world monsters, their emotions, and regret over lost love in this over-the-top Japanese adventure film, based on a 1970s television show.  Also, apparently when half the planet is in ruins, Japanese will still go shopping and to dinner parties.

I wanted a stupid action film, not a love-triangle dialog-driven drama.  Sad.

Gatchaman
2013, 113 minutes, directed by Tôya Satô

Machete Kills

Robert Rodriguez has a vison.  It's called Machete Kills Again... In Space! and it's the pre-announced title for the third film in this gritty Mexican action series.  At the end of the first film, Machete (Danny Trejo, in a role he's made for) has joined the U.S. ICE with partner Sartana (Jessica Alba).  At the start of the third film, Machete is tracking down the evil silver-masked villain on a space station.  To get from A to B, they had to make a film, and Machete Kills is the result.

To say it's a bridge film is an understatement.  It's a plot conveyance.  Masked assassins kill Sartana and steal a U.S. nuclear weapon.  POTUS (Carlos Estevez, yes that one) commissions Machete as the only person able to drop into Mexico and get it back.  But when things go awry, Machete is left with a captive with a deathwish and 48 hours to get back to the United States.

The cameos are one of the strong spots, with a role specially made for Cuba Gooding Jr., Lady Gaga, and Antonio Banderas (yes, all of them).  And I swear one of the guards at Mendez the Mad's compound looked like Bruce Campbell.  But overall, it's a bridge to a contrived story, one that Robert Rodriguez would much rather tell.

Machete Kills
2013, 107 minutes, directed by Robert Rodriguez

"Machete Happens"

Flimmer (Flicker)

The hapless employees of a remote Swedish electric and communication company try to live their lives amidst the local 4G roll out and a band of anti-EM terrorists.  I think it has a very subtle, very northern sense of humor, meaning most people won't find it funny at all.

Flimmer (Flicker)
2012, 100 minutes, directed by Patrik Eklund

No habrá paz para los malvados (No Rest of the Wicked)

I've watched several films this week featuring good-cops-with-a-side-business, where they're put in a bad situation and need to bring forth their best side to save the day.  Santos is not one of those cops.  He's downright evil.  Set in Paris ahead of a G-20 summit, this feature finds him very quickly murdering three people late night at a strip joint.  A witness escapes, forcing Santos to ditch his G-20 surveillance responsibilities and take on investigation of the club's contacts.  Meanwhile, Chacón, a police investigator, takes on the murder case, forging ahead into the same investigation from a different angle, thinking terrorism.  Can she catch Santos before he eliminates the witness, or is something more going on here?

No habrá paz para los malvados (No Rest of the Wicked)
2011, 114 minutes, directed by Enrique Urbizu

Deja Vu

This film starring Denzel Washington starts as a straight-forward police procedural, investigating a terrorist attack that destroys a New Orleans ferry carrying returning sailors and their families.

Then the time viewing/interference starts and it gets weird.  Couple that with an ending of imperfect knowledge and I hesitate to like it as much as I think I should.

Deja Vu
2006, 126 minutes, directed by Tony Scott

Source Code

Frankly, I'm surprised by the stream of positive reviews this film has received.  It was pretty decent, and I didn't have it all figured out from the start, but I anticipated each plot turn.  It may be the best science fiction / action film of the year - but the year is still young.

Source Code
2011, 93 minutes, directed by Duncan Jones

Rules of Engagement

Although I missed the first 20ish minutes of this film, I picked it up quickly and found myself unexpectedly immersed in the characters and story.  It was brisk, direct, unsubtle, exactly befitting a film about U.S. Marines.

However, the ending I was waiting for was presented as words flashed on the screen just before the credit roll.  What the heck?  I would have rather seen those words unsaid, to assume those parties went unpunished, than be told the outcome with no benefit of drama, dialog, character.  If that's all they could provide, I would rather have read a summary of the script than seen the film at all.

Rules of Engagement
2000, 128 minutes, directed by William Friedkin

Live Free or Die Hard

This week's Netflix special is 2007's Live Free or Die Hard.  I liked the first movie quite a bit, and I remember being somewhat let down by the second and distinctly disappointed in the third.  I didn't think the fourth film, set and released some 12 years after the third, was worth a trip to the theater.  Honestly, I was right.

I can watch a shoot 'em up, if the shooting is good.  I can watch a big explosion film, if the explosions are good.  I can watch an action comedy, if the action's good or the comedy makes sense.  Big story arcs don't have to be perfect, but basic plot points just need to make sense.  Where did the cars come from that filled the side of the tunnel with the helicopter hovering just overhead?  Why does BMW vehicle assist work when the cell phone network is down?  Why is Bruce Willis' dialog just so plain awful, and his joy at each kill somewhat creepy?  And when did we get to the point that they have to dub in the curse words?

Let this series return fallow.  It's done.

Live Free or Die Hard
2007, 129 minutes (unrated version), directed by Len Wiseman

Four Lions

"Why make a comedy about terrorism?"  Well, what could enrage a terrorist more than being laughed at?  Hilarious in its stupidity, this British film somehow works.

Four Lions
2010, 101 minutes, directed by Christopher Morris