A few movie reviews

While Suzy was in Florida, I decided to catch up on a few movies. In addition to a few decent Samurai flicks, I finally checked out Jet Li's Unleashed. If you are a Jet Li or martial arts fan, check this one out. The action sequences were brutal and energetic, and the editting allowed you to actually see what was going on ... nice long takes that rely on Jet Li's incredible abilities. Jet Li's character, Danny, fights completely differently than Jet Li in other films ... less aristry, more craziness, and startling speed. It also had the biggest fight in the tightest space I've ever seen. Sure the movie had weak points ... the plot was outrageous, it had the ultimate action movie cliche (the fight-to-the-death gladiator gambling club) and was really two movies shoehorned together (the middle half of the movie, where Danny is "adopted" by a family and comes out of his shell). Still a fun watch.

Another top flight martial arts movie is Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior. This movie's star, Tony Jaa,combines Jackie Chan's acrobatics with the speed and power of Jet Li, and is a credible enough actor for the non-fighting scenes. Definately up and coming. This was a low budget film shot and editted with a lot of nerve.

A follow up for Tony Jaa, Tom yum goong, has a small number of great action sequences, but misses the mark. It is tricky pushing the level of excitement without passing that point that undermines the suspension of disbelief. Long, long, long takes are great, but it is nice to have story to link them together.

Meanwhile, at the local martial arts film revival, I was able to catch The New One Armed Swordsman and Legendary Weapons of China, two films featured in the documentary Chop Socky. Alas, they looked much better as highlights than as full movies; tedious, silly, poorly scripted, badly editted. Especially in Legendary Weapons, the skills of the performers were completely undermined by every other aspect of the movie.

Finally, I rented Requiem for a Dream, which was very well shot, well acted, well scripted, well editted. Just plain powerful. It's a big cautionary tale about drugs destroying several people's lives, but was put together with a real nervey edge to it.