(October 16)

——Spirited Killer (1994)——

I love Tony Jaa and his two movies, Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong, and the fact that he’s quickly becoming a new action movie superstar in the tradition of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. When I saw this movie, touted as his first film from the action team of Ong Bak, I was totally on board. From what I’ve seen, Thailand’s action movies kick some major ass. Unfortunately, I was conned through some good advertising. Aside from a handful of semi-good fights, this movie sucks. Tony Jaa, even though he receives top billing on the box, is barely in the film. In fact I couldn’t even figure out which character was him. This is not Ong Bak, by any means. Buyers beware.

(AVOID)

(October 17)

——Super Inframan (1975)——

To be perfectly honest with you, I was so tired when I saw this that my eyes kept forcing themselves closed while I struggled to keep them open, and in the process I only really saw (and remember) half of it. It’s hard to review something that you half slept through. The gist: The Shaw Brothers, Hong Kong’s biggest studio in the 70’s, rips off Ultraman to create a superhero who can save the world from rampaging monsters, a la the Power Rangers. He kicks lot of extremely fake looking monster ass. You can’t really call this movie “good” by any definition of the word, but silly? It has silly in spades. Put this in if you need a good laugh.

(MISS)

(October 20)

——Thank You For Smoking (2006)——

[Note: This is basically a reprint of my theatrical review for the film, edited.]

Some people are going to love this movie (like me). Others will probably hate it (or at least not buy into it). I think that all depends on your opinion of the film’s general argument, which is that to win an argument you don’t actually have to prove anything other than that the other person is wrong. Our main character in this is a lobbyist for the big tobacco companies whose job it is to put a positive spin on smoking so that more people pick up the habit. As his boss tells them, they have the perfect product. It practically sells itself. Except with all of the new health risks of smoking in the news, less and less people want to risk death to look cool. That’s where our protagonist comes in.

You’ve got to admire the balls of this satire. I, myself, am a fervent anti-smoker, but at times I found myself smiling and nodding my head along with his persuasive arguments. That’s not to say I agree with them, just that he argues things so well that you can’t well admit he is wrong because you can’t find a flaw with his misleading logic. That he avoids the actual issues is beside the point. [Fun fact: No one in the film is actually seen smoking.]

Watching the movie again, I still think that it is really funny. Aaron Eckhart has an innate talent for making an asshole seem completely lovable and endearing. (See also: In the Company of Men.) You can’t help root for this guy, and for that matter, this movie.

(MUST SEE)

——Down in the Valley (2006)——

Have you seen Taxi Driver? Good. This movie is basically a remake of Taxi Driver, just different enough to make it interesting in its own right but not different enough to make it a great film. Edward Norton is Harlan, one of the last remaining cowboys, come to Southern California. He’s working at a gas station when a young rebellious girl Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood), going to the beach with her friends, sees him, he sees her, and she invites him to go to the beach with them. He’s sweet, innocent, and seemingly oblivious to how the rest of the world is, like he was plucked up out of a ranch in the 50’s. The two of them fall in love and he befriends her younger brother (Rory Culkin) while her dad freaks out on her new older boyfriend, forbidding her from seeing Harlan again. They of course don’t listen, but it turns out that Harlan isn’t exactly who he appears to be. He’s got his own secrets and his own problems, and although Tobe’s dad is a dick about things, he’s also right about Harlan.

Thematically this is very similar to Taxi Driver, right down to the shirtless gun in the mirror scene. The movie has its own merits though. It’s well made and extremely well acted, so we can forgive and forget its shortcomings long enough to enjoy the ride. What can I say? The movie works.

(SEE)

(October 21)

——Pretty Poison (1968)——

What I like about this movie is that it appears to be one thing, but then completely turns into something very different. Some great twists and wonderfully clever writing save this film from being just another bland example of the genre. One of my favorite scenes is the one at the very end where they explain what the title of the film means. I won’t ruin that here, but let’s just say that once you figure out what the title means you too will think that it was a very smart way to sum up what the movie is about.

Anthony Perkins has been recently released from a long stay in a mental institution after starting an accidental fire in his aunt’s home that killed her. He also has a little problem with making up stories. He takes up residence in a small town and gets a simple job before seeing and falling in love with a high school drum majorette (a fantastically refreshing Tuesday Weld). To gain her attention he creates an elaborate story about his being a CIA agent in town to stop terrorist agents from releasing chemicals into the drinking water from the mill that he works at. The story works and the two of them fall in love. That is until she gets a little too into the story and kills a man on one of their “missions”.

That’s when all of the cool twists and turns start coming at you. Despite the fire and his aunt, Perkins’ character isn’t a killer. She just thinks that it is all part of his job, though, and can’t understand why he is so upset. The whole story turns on a dime and it is so delicious that you can’t help watching.

Pretty Poison was made at a time when what you could and couldn’t show in a movie concerning sex and violence was changing. The revolution wasn’t quite complete yet, though, so a lot of the sexual allusions had to be veiled to get the movie past the censors. It’s a very thin veil though. The sexual metaphors are frequent and extremely obvious to anyone who has half a brain. You can tell that the filmmakers were having some fun with how extremely dirty and vulgar things in the film could be right underneath the surface. No sex is shown on screen, but it is talked about so much that later on you’ll swear that you saw some. Good stuff.

(MUST SEE)

——Decision Before Dawn (1951)——

This movie was a very cool surprise. Decision Before Dawn is an incredibly unique World War II film, in that it was actually filmed on location in some of the devastated places that had yet to be rebuilt at that time after the war. That fact gives the film the feeling of Italian Neo-Realism and also makes it one of the most authentic and realistic WWII movies ever made.

The film is about the true story of German POWs who were made into spies by the Americans to go behind enemy lines and report on their own people. The main character is a young medic who agrees to become a spy and the film follows his entire mission inside of Germany to find out the position of a Panzer division. Not only has he become a spy for the enemy and constantly runs the risk of being discovered as a traitor, but he’s also seeing what life is like for his countrymen behind the battlefront for the first time in years. If he thought things were bad for the soldiers, they are just as miserable at home. The question constantly remains in the back of our heads, will he betray his countrymen or the American’s who trusted him?

The film has an amazing immediacy and realism to it, one that will confound and blow your mind. It feels almost like a documentary. The fact that they filmed all of this on location adds so much to the film that it is just amazing. You’ve never seen a war film like this one. These aren’t Hollywood sets. This is how it actually was. A set designer today could only be so lucky to have a set like these to make a film on. This movie grabbed onto me and wouldn’t let go. I really recommend it. What’s even more amazing is that even though it was nominated for Best Picture in 1951, I’d never heard of it before finding a review of it online. I’m sure most people haven’t. All the more reason to go out and see it.

(MUST SEE)

(October 22)

——The Woods (2005)——

Ever since I first heard about this increasingly pushed back Lucky McKee film in the documentary on his Masters of Horror episode, Sick Girl, I’ve been dying to get my hands on a copy. His first feature, May, has quickly become a huge favorite of mine. After watching The Woods though, I’m beginning to wonder if that has more to do with the fantastic Angela Bettis than with McKee, himself. The Woods isn’t bad. It’s just disappointing. It’s a fairly standard Witch movie with a few cool moments but not much else to make it stand out in the pack. Blame might reside with lead actress Agnes Bruckner and her part in the film. Her character doesn’t do much acting, just reacting, and Bruckner isn’t talented enough actress to pull that off. You know who is that talented? Bruce Campbell. In the first ten minutes of the film he doesn’t have a single line and yet his acting is probably some of the best I’ve ever seen from him. In this movie he really raises his “kick-ass” stock.

Agnes Bruckner is Heather, a new student who may or may not have supernatural powers, at an all-girls’ boarding school in the 60’s that may or may not be haunted by witches. The other students and teachers are cruel to her and weird things seem to happen without anyone else remarking on them. She might just be crazy. Or is she…? Yawn. Patricia Clarkson, as the headmistress, adds some interesting levels to the film through her restrained calm performance, and McKee has some cool ideas, including a gruesome climax, but the whole thing just feels a little tired. That makes me a little sad, as I like McKee. Let’s just hope the next film is more like May.

(MISS)