Sorry about the delay in getting these to you, but in a decision made to give you the best possible reviews instead of just rushing off a few reviews before I went to bed the Monday Movie Review had to be postponed until today. Enjoy.

——Fists of Fury (AKA The Chinese Connection)——

(B+)

Easily the best Bruce Lee film I’ve seen, this could be an A movie if the middle didn’t drag on FOREVER. The movie opens fantastically: Bruce Lee comes home to find his master dead, a rival karate school comes and tells them to move out of town, and Bruce Lee takes vengence against the wishes of his school against the rival school, leading to a big fight that Tarantino obviously based the House of Blue Leaves fight on. Everything from him being surrounded, flinching and having everyone take a step back, to the move where he spins around on the ground hitting everyone in the shins with his nunchucks, to the scene where he walks away with everyone laying on the ground holding onto their shins and moaning finds its way into Kill Bill, and it all looks fantastic with Lee’s awesome choreography.

Then the movie hits a snag. The middle section of the movie acts like it is stalling to set up the third act. Scenes go on WAY too long. I thought at first maybe they were cushioning the movie to hit the ninety-minute mark, but no, the movie is an hour and forty-five minutes long. And you could EASILY cut out fifteen minutes from the middle, so I have no idea what the hell they were thinking. It’s soooooo boring.

But then finally Lee uncovers the plot to kill his master and takes revenge against the Japanese. He takes on two guys with samurai swords, once barehanded and once with his nunchucks, and a karate expert, and expertly kicks all of their asses. Damn he’s so cool. If only the middle were edited down a little to something more manageable.

——The Way of the Dragon (AKA Return of the Dragon)——

(D+)

This movie…not so good. It’s the only movie both written and directed by Bruce Lee, and all I have to say is thank God he died before he got another chance at it. His direction is acceptable if subpar, but damn, his writing is bad. It’s like that shit you used to write in the sixth grade. He actually has a mob boss tell his gangsters not to show their guns in public and makes a big deal of it just so that he can stage a fight in the alley, even though this alley from all appearances is a dead end. The rest of the movie makes less sense. Even the action isn’t that great, aside from the final fight against Chuck Norris, and even that fight is hampered a little bit by Lee intercutting the action between the reaction shots of a kitten (I shit you not). This one is a pass, unless you happen to have a copy of it there and want to fast forward to the Norris fight.

——Foxy Brown——

(A-)

The final fifteen minutes of this are just a perfect example of exploitation cinema. It’s just so damn good and so fun to watch. You’re like, “Damn girl! You go Foxy!” While the rest of this movie isn’t quite as crazy and over the top as Coffy (and frankly that’s damn near impossible to top) the plot and acting is much tighter in Foxy Brown. Pam Grier is a delight and the soundtrack kicks ass (I totally want a Foxy Brown theme song MP3). I was a little disappointed by the fact that there isn’t nearly as much nudity in this one as Coffy, that’s not saying in the slightest that there is no nudity in this one, just that there’s a lot less. Of course when there is a naked chest on the screen every ten minutes, that is a pretty hard number to top. But when Grier pulls a gun out of her afro all is good and watching this movie is insanely fun.

——So Close——

(C+)

This recent Hong Kong movie featuring three hot Asian chicks has a few good action sequences, but otherwise suffers from acting like every other action movie made in the late 80’s and early 90’s. The movie seriously tries to do way too much, and rarely succeeds in doing anything very well. When it finished I could have sworn it ran over 2 hours and 10 minutes, and I was shocked to see that it was only an hour and like 48 minutes long. It just tries to do way too much, trying to cram in back stories and love lives where they really don’t need to be to enjoy the film. It’s about female assassins who are getting tracked down by a female cop and trying to be killed by their previous employers. There doesn’t really need to be more than that, but obviously the writer and director didn’t think so. I’d pass on this one, unless you really like watching people kick up guns to catch them and go into a John Woo type Mexican standoff.

——The Big Bounce——

(B+)

This is surprisingly better than most reviews of it would have you believe. I’m guessing that most of that negativity comes from the fact that the actual heist of the film seems rushed and tacked onto the end of the film, offering more double- and triple-crosses than the movie actually has earned. But that’s all just five minutes in the entire film and I don’t think they should take away from the fact that the rest of the film is actually extremely funny and entertaining, with a slow-burn plot that doesn’t really go anywhere and yet rejoices in that fact, building instead on excellent character interaction, great acting and really funny dialog. Owen Wilson needs more roles where he just lounges around in Hawaii, saying funny shit and occasionally stealing something.

——Mad Max——

(C-)

I don’t know if it is the movie or the fact that I watched it on TV, but what started out as a pretty cool low budget action movie just got more obscure and hard to follow as it went on, with unfortunately no more action sequences to really rival that which opens the film. I kept hoping something cool would happen, but all I got was a story that rambled on from one thing to another. Maybe I should check out Road Warrior instead.

——Out of Time——

(B)

This is a nice suspense story that’s pretty fun to watch, but really only once. Denzel plays a pretty good part as the morally ambiguous chief of police who falls in love with a girl only to see TV’s Superman frame him for murder. Like I said, the movie is a lot of fun to watch, but nothing special, and by the time the movie wants to tack on a Hollywood ending at the last minute you want to vomit. One character I found really interesting though was the Chief’s best friend who was mainly the kookie sidekick, but at times displays the same moral ambiguity as his best friend, repeatedly saying they should just take some drug money and get on a plane to Costa Rica. I would have liked to see his character fleshed out a little bit more.

——Thirteen——

(A-)

Not since Requiem for a Dream have I seen a movie that was so relentlessly depressing, although fortunately this movie ends on a slightly up note and doesn’t make you want to kill yourself when it’s all over (somewhere in there is a compliment, since I really do love Requiem for a Dream). While the plot sometimes drifts into stereotypical territory, all of that is overwhelmed by some extremely excellent acting, especially by Holly Hunter who gives what could have been a anonymous role a much needed punch in the arm, bringing to it a real life mentality and such a wide range of depth and emotion that it really is amazing. The girls are really good too, but for me Holly Hunter really stole the show. This is a pretty amazing movie.

To give you an idea of how my mom reacted to it, even though halfway through she said, “This is nominated for Oscars? For what? This is so bizarre!” she did sit through the whole thing AND stayed awake for the whole thing. I think that’s a pretty accurate depiction of the movie. You may get really uncomfortable watching it, but its so compelling that you are going to watch the whole thing.

——Totals for January——

Movies I’ve Seen: 33
New Movies I’ve Seen: 29
Movies Seen in the Theater: 5