Monday, September 26, 2011

Movie Review: Detective Dee and Mystery of the Phantom Flame

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Another poor weekend movie choice for the big releases with last week having an animated 17 year old film converted to 3D taking the box office. This weekend didn’t look like any new releases were going to beat it. (update, yeah, Lion King 3D was the highest grossing movie for a second weekend) Back to the art house films I go although, my regular Regal theater is supposed to be cinema art house here in Honolulu, they haven’t shown art house films in a while. So I looked at Consolidated Theaters and one film leapt off the computer monitor at me. Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame just has such an intriguing name I couldn’t pass it up.

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame Movie Poster
The movie is rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and some sensuality and ran just over two hours at 122 minutes. The whole time my eyes were attentive to what was happening on the screen. Take beautiful cinematography, add in high wire martial arts (like a Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon), set it in 690 AD for a period movie and lay that on top of a murder mystery and you have an engaging film. The fact you that you have to keep looking at the screen in order to read the subtitles helps keep you engaged too.

Empress Wu (Carina Lau) is soon to be coronated as the first female Emperor of China. While a giant Buddha statue for the coronation is being constructed two of her high level officials mysteriously and suddenly burn up. Some think it is divine intervention signaling that Wu should not be crowned. Others believe there is plot afoot not by the gods but by man to stop the ceremony. The best person to solve the mystery is Detective Dee (Andy Lau), a man who eight years earlier was sent to prison for opposing the empress’ raise to power. To help ensure the now released detective stays on the case, the empress assigns Shangguan Jing’er (Li Bing Bing) and Pei Donglai (Chao Deng) to both assist and watch over Dee.

The martial arts staging was enthralling to watch. Flips, climbs, dives, jumps, spins and back bends done with the assistance of wires are staged with deft choreography bringing the fight scenes to life. Include weaponry with swords, arrows, whips and a special mace and you have some edge of your seat kick butt altercations. With assassins running rampant to stop Dee, Jing’er and Pei from trying to solve the mystery and you never know when a fight to save their lives will break out. Being high on the cinematography scale scenes with falling white petals adds to the mood of the film.

Two items that I found took away from the experience slightly were the subtitles and the massive CGI shots. For the CGI they needed to be tweaked slightly. I can’t put my finger on why, but any of the scenes showing massive amounts of boats in the harbor just didn’t look quite right. I’m not sure if it was the coloring, the movement or shapes that my mind automatically jumped to “those aren’t real.” For the subtitles, there was a few times when there were large sentences on display and not enough time to read them; sometimes they just flashed too quickly. Being what they are, your eyes focused on the bottom of the screen preventing you from focusing in on the beautiful details in intricate designs, patterns and background action and absorbed them fully. This is one film that a dubbed version might actually make it better allowing you to watch with eyes wide open across the entire screen rather than just the lower third.

Even though Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame was originally released in 2010 and received nominations for Best Film and Best Choreography while winning for Best Director and Best Costume Design at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards, it has just now made its way to American shores. If you have a chance to see the film on the big screen, I think you’ll enjoy it.



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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Movie Review: Drive

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Wow, this ...this was a movie I wasn't expecting. You anticipate something pretty bold when the coloring of the titles is fuchsia. Based on the previews I thought it would have been a high powered action movie, something along the lines of The Fast and The Furious. Boy was I wrong. I would call this a minimalist action thriller heist movie, sort of a laid back, chill, toned down action movie. When engagements occurred, it was not over the top, but it could be extremely intense. They were presented with a confidence about themselves that it came across as cool. So cool in fact that the main character played by Ryan Gosling didn't even have a name...in the credits he was listed by his profession which was being a Driver and his whole point was to Drive.

Drive Movie Poster
The opening sequence was a chase sequence but it was a zen, intelligent chase sequence. No whooping, no hollering, no loud annoying screeches, no cars flipping over and taking out pedestrians or other cars. There was a simplicity about what The Driver did, how he performed and kept his wits about him. The Driver maintains this level of composure while dealing with traffic, lights and the ensuing police cars.

By day The Driver is a mechanic and a stunt driver. At night he’s behind the wheels of the getaway vehicle with the rules that you have a five minute window. He’ll do everything for you during those five; outside of those five, you’re on your own. Pretty cut and dry, straight forward rules. That’s about all he says to his clients allowing himself to keep emotional distance between him and them, not getting caught up in their plans.

So what’s the driving point of the story? Well, he meets his next door neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son Benicio. They seem to hit it off and become friendly all the time keeping dialogue to a minimum. Oh and by keeping the dialogue to a minimum I don’t mean they are exploring the physical side of the relationship. Far from it. The Driver, Irene and Benicio enjoy spending time together almost as if The Driver is extending himself for a relationship that he either can’t have or wouldn’t allow himself to have due to his profession. The backstory for the driver is very limited only learning a small fragment from Shannon (Brian Cranston), the shop owner at The Driver’s place of employment when Irene brings in her car for repair.

Fairly quickly it’s revealed that Benicio’s father, Standard (Oscar Isaac), is in prison and to be released shortly. Unfortunately, Standard can’t seem to get away from the gang life and in doing so pulls in The Driver. From here out is where the intensity of the action gets moved up a few pegs. Unlike most action movies today it wasn’t a constant barrage of in your face. It was quiet. Something happens, maybe vicious or brutal for just a moment or so and then it goes back to quiet. My audience had an audible “argh” and “ugh” at a couple displays which is why the movie has an R rating for strong brutal bloody violence, language and some nudity. Most of the movie is pretty tame but when those scenes happen, you might squirm a bit in your seat. But, all in all, the movie ended its 100 minute run on a calm, quiet note with no easter egg, just the vivid fuchsia letting flashing on the screen.



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Monday, September 12, 2011

Movie Review: Contagion

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At one point in time, if you wanted to travel the world, it took a lot of time and a lot of effort.  Heck, It used to be that if you wanted to fly the China Clipper from San Francisco to Honolulu, there were about 25 people on the plane and about 17-20 hours in the air.  Today, the same flight is about 5-6 hours and a flight from Honolulu can reach all the way to Newark, New Jersey in just 11 hours and in both cases the planes can hold around 250 people.  The point the movie Contagion is making is that with the mobility of people today, if a highly infectious and deadly disease with a short gestation period ever occurred, it would truly be horrifying as the disease left deadly pockets of destruction across the globe.


Contagion Movie Poster

The movie begins with Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) coughing and Day 2 appearing on the bottom of the screen.  She's on her way home from Hong Kong.  Shortly after having arrived at a place of safety back with her family, she has seizures, is rushed to the hospital by her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) where she dies.  Don't get mad at The Movie Monkey for revealing this, it's all over the previews so it's no big secret.  What was surprising is just how quickly this major Hollywood star was killed off.  That doesn't happen too often.



The clock is ticking.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Heath Organization  are made aware of people who have died at several locatiosn across the globe.  CDC head Dr Cheevers (Laurence Fishburne) sends investigator Dr Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) to investigate Beth's death while the WHO dispatches Dr Leonora Orantes (Marion Cortiland) to Hong Kong to try to locate the initial infection point.  Back in San Francisco a conspiracy theorist Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) discovers a video of a man in Japan who dies on a bus and attempts to sound an alarm. Up front, no one believes him.  As the days pass from the initial contamination, the body count starts rising. The conspiracies run wilder, the doctors and scientists keep working to find a solution.  Some people get sick and survive, some are immune but the death toll goes higher and higher.



There are parallels to what the world experienced back in 2009 with the outbreak of the H1N1 virus.  Contagion takes it a step further with a deeper "What if".  What if the components of the outbreak because more time restrictive, the potency of the virus was ratcheted up, and the method of transmission was even easier?  You sit in your seat for 105 minutes squirming as you watch human nature take over.  People want to hug and kiss but doing so may transmit the disease. Government works to find solutions but fears of creating panic before the full information is available hinder dissemination to the public.  First responders either knowingly or unknowingly putting their own lives on the line.  They just know they are attempting to help someone in need.  News organizations are not sure which information to distribute, those from the government or from other organizations who may have details that are contradictory in nature.  Individuals across the board are trying to keep their reputations and integrity intact when faced with overwhelming circumstances.



What makes this movie work is the slow build of the fear.  How do you protect yourself from something that you can't see without a microscope?  Do you protect yourself?  How do you guard those you care about?  How far do you go to safeguard your own and what lengths to shield others?   How do you distinguish truth from propaganda?  Short of aliens coming down and blowing up planet Earth, the body count is high, even higher than the 1918 pandemic of the Spanish Flu.  With the disturbing images and strong language, the picture was rated PG-13.  When the movie is over, you'll be breathing a big sigh of relief, but remember, if the MEV-1 virus actually existed, that single exhale could be deadly to someone else.






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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Movie Review: Seven Days in Utopia

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The unofficial end of summer is upon us and I was looking for something different to wrap up the season. One film in the listings caught my attention as I had not seen any previews for it but it was playing at both of the art house theaters in town. Not seeing any previews can either be a good thing or a bad thing. So with only that it was listed for the two theaters to go on, I got my QR code for one of the free one million bags of popcorn from Yahoo! and Regal Cinemas and headed out. During the course of the movie there were a total of six people in the theater for first show of the day.

Seven Days in Utopia Movie Poster
Seven Days in Utopia is based on a David L Cook's book Golf's Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia. The movie had some star power with Academy Award winners Robert Duvall and Melissa Leo. It also reunited Duvall with Lucas Black who starred with each other in 2009's Get Low. A golfer, Luke Chisholm (Black) after having a very bad round unexpectedly ends up in Utopia, TX where he meets Johnny Crawford (Duvall). Crawford had seen Chisholm's melt down on TV and tells him that if he stays in Utopia for seven days he can help him work through the situation. Chisholm takes up Crawford's offer.

So, if you take a bit of love of golf and the love of the purity of the sport from The Legend of Bagger Vance, some of Mister Miyagi's style of off beat training methods from the original Karate Kid and some of the elements of story telling from best selling self-help books' author Og Mandino, you have an outline of elements and devices of the story laid before you. Going into the 99 minute movie I had no idea what to expect, I took it on faith that it would be a decent movie. While the visuals which were actually shot in Utopia, TX were very compelling and from a production and acting stance were top notch, the story being told and therefore the editing to tell the story were a bit uneven. The attempts to give the back story via flash backs worked to an extent. The trust and openness between Crawford and Chisholm seemed really deep for two people who had just met. The people of Utopia, all 375 of them, seemed very warm and receiving of Chisholm which seems so unlike life today.

Ultimately, it is a feel good movie with a touch of a redemption story of sorts folded into the sports story script. At the end of seven days when Chisholm is about to leave town the connection between the characters is very tight given the time frame they had been together. The overall tenor and tone of the movie reminded me of a movie that I saw the better part of ten years ago called The Legend of Johnny Lingo. Chances are you didn't see that movie either. If you have a chance to find it via a streaming site or a DVD rental it also leaves you feeling good plus you'll love the views of the beaches and waters of the Cook Islands. Heading back up to the Lone Star state, Seven Days in Utopia will leave you feeling the same except for the very end of the movie. The move that I had never seen before in a movie was a very bold approach done by the marketing department. I'm like "WHAT! How could you do that in the movie!" It was very effective in that it had me thinking about the movie when I got home several hours later.

When you SFT, See, Feel, Trust, the positive and inspirational message delivered by Lucas and Duvall, you'll totally understand why the movie has a G rating for general audiences. There is no easter egg at the end of the movie, but there is a good song that plays during credits if you choose to stay.



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