Year: 2008
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia Labeouf, Ray Winstone, Karen Allen, John Hurt
If you grew up in the 80s, chances are you know the name Indiana Jones. He's like the godfather of adventure films. Indy is the well known part time teacher, part time archaeologist who would risk life and limb to save an artifact. The famed creation of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg has spawned three films, all of which are pretty damn good in my view. And now, like Rambo before him, Indy has been resurrected.
In the previous three films, the time setting is in the 1930s, during World War II. To address the passage of time, it's 1957 in this current film, during the Cold War era, the birth of the nuclear bomb and the paranoia of communism. The story begins with a group of Russian soldiers led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) breaking into Area 51 (yeah, no kidding) in order to steal a mysterious magnetic box, with the reluctant help of our good Dr Jones no less. Jones eventually leads them to the box, and then escapes their clutches despite being betrayed by his comrade Mac (Ray Winstone).
However, the Russians succeed in stealing the box, causing the FBI to blame Indy for the mishap and investigate him. Indy loses his job at the university, and just as he is about to travel elsewhere to start again, he runs into a young man by the name of Mutt Williams (Shia Labeouf). Mutt asks Indy for his help in saving his mother as well as an old friend of Indy's, Dr Oxley (John Hurt). Apparently, Oxley has made a startling discovery about a mystical crystal skull, something which the Russians are after. Indy and Mutt travel to South America to follow the clues and save Ox and Mutt's mother, who Indy discovers later on to be his old flame, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).
The question on everyone's mind is of course, can this film deliver just as the previous films did? Well, yes and no. Yes, it's nice to see Spielberg, Lucas and Harrison Ford as Indy team up once more to bring us more chills and spills. And for the record, Ford can still do this. He looks older, no doubt, but he can still punch, whip, ride and fight with the best of them. It's his defining role, and he can't miss. Spielberg delivers the action well enough, throwing in a nuclear explosion, an exhilarating jeep ride through the jungle, ancient Mayans, giant ants and a quicksand sequence that is downright hilarious. Spielberg, noting the ageing action hero in Ford, lets the young successor Labeouf take part in a fencing duel with Blanchett perched atop two jeeps side by side. Good stuff.
But then, the story has to matter too, and this is where Lucas fails somewhat. Of all the things he decides to bring to Indy 4, he settles on...aliens! Hmm, did Area 51 exist that far back? Well, who knows? But putting Indy on a wild alien chase takes some getting used to. And Labeouf swinging on vines in the jungle? Please. That one looked out of place, as does the final matrimonial scene, I hope I didn't spoil it for you there.
Performance wise, other than Ford, it's all average to slightly above average at best. Winstone is stuck with yet another role that could have been left out of the story altogether. Poor guy, he will probably only be remembered for playing an animated character for his work in the past one year, and that one I didn't even bother to watch. Blanchett sports the worst haircut since Javier Bardem's in No Country For Old Men, which makes her look more like a comicbook character than a striking villain. Where's Monaram when you need him? Karen Allen, who looks like she's aged more than Ford since Raiders Of The Lost Ark, isn't too shabby reprising her role, while Labeouf is spot on as the rebellious Mutt. You can sense that he's gonna be the next action hero for this franchise, if they decide to continue.
I do like the various homages to the previous films: a picture and subsequent mention of Sean Connery and Denholm Elliot, who were both in The Last Crusade, a brief glimpse of the Ark from Raiders and Indy's fear of snakes revisited. Oh, and Karen Allen of course. But I still find it hard to put as much faith as I did in the previous three films in this one. Even the humour in Crystal Skull seems forced, and it misses more than it hits the mark.
It's a honorable try, but if you want a real Indy adventure, pick up The Last Crusade. It's my favourite, and it will always be. (3.5/5)
Year: 2008
Director: Rob Minkoff
Cast: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano, Collin Chou, Liu Yifei, Li Bingbing
By now I'm sure everyone is all hyped up about the pairing of Asia's top two kungfu stars, Jackie Chan and Jet Li in this film. The two actors have wanted to star in a film together for a long time, and now this is the result. Does it live up to the promise?
Well, this being a Hollywood effort, how much hope can you put into this movie? As good as the Hollywood movie making machine is, it's never good enough in delivering a 100% solid film for either Chan or Li. Chinese actors tend to get stereotyped when given roles in Hollywood. Anyway, lets get to the review.
The Forbidden Kingdom revolves around a magic staff owned by the great Monkey King, who is imprisoned by the evil Jade Warlord. The story begins in present day Boston, where a young boy named Jason spends his time watching old kungfu flicks on DVD, which he purchases from an elderly Chinese store proprietor. One night, after being coerced by the town bullies, Jason lets them into the old man's store. Trouble ensues and the old man is shot. The old man hands a mysterious staff (yeah, THE magic staff) to Jason and asks him to return it to its owner. Jason runs and before he knows it, he lands himself in ancient China!
Once there, he finds himself being pursued by the Jade Warlord's army. The warlord wants the staff for himself, of course. Jason then gets rescued by drunken master Lu Yan, and then later by a pretty girl called Golden Sparrow, who's skilful with throwing darts and knives. Later the trio run into a mysterious Silent Monk, who is interested in returning the staff as well. Jason sure is fortunate to have all of them to help him on his journey, but the tough part comes when he has to learn how to fight for himself. To this end, our two kungfu masters spare no leniency in training him. Meanwhile the Jade Warlord sends his top assassin, Ni Chang (modeled after the Bride With White Hair) to retrieve the staff.
Director Rob Minkoff (Stuart Little) and writer John Fusco (Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron) have made this film with obvious references to Chinese tales such as Journey To The West and The Bride With White Hair. The story that they have come up with is pretty much standard fare. A young boy who has yet to find himself, goes through many trials, half of which are comedic, to discover his destiny. Sounds like Karate Kid and Sky High, the latter film also starring Michael Angarano. Direction and storywise, it's not too bad. It lacks originality for sure, and the dialogue is very cheesy. But it works mainly due to the great action and fight scenes choreographed by the legendary Yuen Woo Ping.
Chan and Li both do double duty here, Chan as the old man from the store and Lu Yan, Li as the monk and the Monkey King. For the fight scenes, it's no surprise that these two have no equal. They make all their fights look real and superb, and the long awaited sparring scene between them doesn't disappoint as well. It is about 8-10 minutes long, and as exciting as it is to watch, you can't help but feel that it's there just to please the fans, and not to move the story along. But I have to say that Li needs more English lessons, unfortunately.
Angarano is playing almost the same kid he played in Sky High, but he does a decent job. Collin Chou is rather disappointing as the villain, very stereotyped, and his English is even worse than Li's. Liu Yifei is easy on the eye as Golden Sparrow, while Li Bingbing is quite wooden as Ni Chang. Oh, we were talking about English here. Why do the characters speak English in China? Weird. There are scenes when some of them speak Mandarin, these should have been expanded, it would have made more sense.
At the end of the day, it's a nice adventure film that the whole family can enjoy and relate to. Everyone loves the ongoing battle between good and evil. But I do hope that the next time Chan and Li work together, it can be something more meaty and worthwhile. This is an effort that you can't take too seriously or you won't enjoy it.
Fans of Chan and Li will watch it, but they won't call it their favourite. It's an average film, at best. (3.5/5)
Year: 2008
Director: Jon Favreau
Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow
This is officially FF's 100th review, and what better film to win this honour than the film that starts 2008's blockbuster season, Iron Man. It's based on the Marvel comicbook of the same name, following in the footsteps of many other Marvel film adaptations such as Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four.
However, unlike the latter three, Iron Man is more on the life of its alter-ego Tony Stark, than the superhero character itself. Tony Stark (Downey Jr) is a billionaire cum playboy cum inventor of weapons for the military, and chief of his own company, Stark Industries. One day, after a demonstration of his latest weapon for the US military in Afghanistan, his convoy is ambushed by Afghan insurgents. Stark is seriously wounded and held captive.
The insurgents force Stark to build them the same missiles he just showed his military. They give him an assistant, a scientist named Yinsen (Shaun Toub), who also happens to be the man that finds a way to keep Stark alive despite his injuries. Stark agrees to their demands, but instead builds a metal suit to help him escape captivity. He dons the suit (which is heavy and clunky, but packs a mean punch) and breaks out in spectacular fashion.
Upon his return, he makes a prompt decision to stop building weapons, much to the chagrin of his chief advisor in Stark Industries, Obadiah Stane (Bridges). Stark is influenced by the fact that the enemy used his own inventions against him when they captured him, as well as against innocent people and intends to make up for it. He decides to rebuild the metal suit and improve on it, as part of his personal project. Despite lack of support from his best friend Colonel Jim Rhodes (Howard) and personal assistant Pepper Potts (Paltrow), who fears for his life, Stark soldiers on with his plans. The end result is an impressive suit that has enough firepower and calibre to take down any enemy. However Stark faces betrayal from within that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.
Director Jon Favreau, who is also a writer and actor, turns in excellent work for his film about the armored avenger. What Favreau presents to us is a film that doesn't dwell on the superhero theme, and yet makes it very exciting, imaginative and well grounded all at once. Compared to other Marvel adaptations like Spider-Man and Ang Lee's Hulk that take themselves too seriously, or Elektra and Ghost Rider that end up being over-the-top, Iron Man comes across as charming and witty, with enough action to please the adrenaline junkies, and still leave enough room for drama.
Downey Jr is probably tailor made for the role of Tony Stark. He gives Stark plenty of spontaneity, humour and charm, making him instantly likeable. Stark is supposed to be a vulnerable character deep down, who struggles with his demons and guilt, and in the scenes where the script calls for its revelation, Downey Jr doesn't disappoint in bringing them forth. He's ably supported by Howard and Bridges, whose characters are not just there to fill the screen, but to be intelligent and relative to the plot. Bridges in particular fleshes out his character Stane very well indeed. If you're an Iron Man fan, you'd know how Stane plays into all this in the end. Paltrow, whom I consider to be quite annoying (I'm no fan of hers) does surprisingly well also as Stark's loyal assistant Pepper.
What's worth mentioning also is the visual effects courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic, who do a tremendous job with the battle scenes and scenes involving Stark in the Iron Man suit. I dare say it's a lot more fluid than the Spidey visual effects, and more believable too.
I'll admit that there were some lines uttered in the film's climax that sound too cheesy, but overall I had a fantastic time watching Iron Man. Marvel will surely be able to build a steady franchise from this character. Recommended. (4.5/5)
Year: 2008
Director: David Ayer
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Terry Crews, Naomie Harris
Movies about dirty cops can be interesting if done right. The Negotiator remains my all time favourite cop thriller, while most people would say Training Day was awesome. Street Kings on the other hand, doesn't quite live up to these two.
First, the plot. Keanu Reeves stars as Detective Tom Ludlow, a veteran cop with the LAPD's Vice Squad. He's good at getting the job done, even if he has to break the law to nail the bad guys. To his superior, Capt Jack Wander (Whitaker), he is the golden boy of his squad. Wander uses his influence to protect Ludlow and give him the reins to do his job.
However, Ludlow isn't a happy man. His wife has passed on, he has a drinking problem and now he has another mess. He finds out that his former partner Terrence Washington (Crews) has been giving up information about him to Internal Affairs. Wander warns him to stay cool, but Ludlow decides to do something about it. He goes to confront Washington at a grocery store, but suddenly two gangbangers walk in with machine guns and kill Washington right in front of him before fleeing.
Ludlow is devastated over the incident, but now he has bigger problems. The fact that he was there makes him a suspect to the murder. Internal Affairs chief Capt James Biggs (Laurie) begins investigating Ludlow as Wander does his best to cover up for him. But Ludlow refuses to back down and begins poking around on his own. He teams up with the cop assigned to Washington's murder, Detective Diskant (Evans) and start combing the streets looking for his killers.
David Ayer is the guy who wrote Training Day, so you'd want to see some equal measure of quality here . Unfortunately, no. Plotwise, it's just too damn predictable. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who's the real bad guy in the film within the first half of viewing. The authenticity of the sets and language used is good, but not enough to make it interesting. It gets dull after a while when you realise you're actually smarter than the lead character.
Speaking of which, I gotta hand it to Reeves for pulling off a worthy performance this time around. He's believable enough as the rogue cop trying to do the right thing, much better than playing a messiah or a supernatural hunter. Whitaker is a little over the top here, but he's all right. It's an about turn from his role in The Shield. Laurie isn't so far removed from Dr House in his performance here, but still manages to make his scenes memorable.
I watched The Shield a lot, and honestly that show is way better than Street Kings. It's more unpredictable and the cops are characters you can learn to love or hate. In this film, you couldn't be bothered with the characters after a while.
While Street Kings is in no way bad, it's not very good either. (3.5/5)
Year: 2008
Director: Andy Tennant
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Donald Sutherland, Ewen Bremner, Ray Winstone, Alexis Dziena, Kevin Hart
I went to see this yesterday because I needed something to do to pass the time. It was either this or The Kite Runner. I thought, hey why not watch an adventure comedy. Might be fun. Who knows? But perhaps I made an unwise choice.
Fool's Gold focuses on an odd couple, Finn (McConaughey) and Tess (Hudson). Finn is a treasure hunter seeking fortune in the Bahamas, particularly an ancient Spanish treasure thought to have sunk somewhere along the coast. Finn is a very enthusiastic and charming guy, but it's not enough to get him out of trouble. See, he owes money to a black guy called Bigg Bunny (Hart), and he's just used up all his resources in finding this treasure.
Things get worse when Tess divorces him, because she is sick and tired of him messing up her life and their marriage. But he gets a new lease on life and finding the treasure when he meets up with Tess's employer, the very wealthy Nigel Honeycutt (Sutherland) and his pretty daughter Gemma (Dziena). He convinces Nigel to sponsor his expedition and persuades Tess to go along. With much reluctance, she agrees. But it's not a smooth plan, as Finn finds a rival in his old friend Moe (Winstone), and Bigg still pushes Finn for payback and all the gold he may find.
Andy Tennant gave us some nice films in the past, such as the lovable Sweet Home Alabama, the likeable Ever After and the underrated Anna & The King. You can always find fascinating characters, great chemistry between the leads and an interesting plot in his films. It's unfortunate however that this time he only scores one out of three.
Hudson and McConaughey do have excellent chemistry together, but this and the very humorous portrayal of Gemma by Dziena is all that Tennant has going for in Fool's Gold. Dziena plays Gemma as a totally clueless girl who gives the term "slow on the uptake" a whole new meaning, and it works. But it's not enough to carry Fool's Gold beyond average.
The plot isn't much to begin with and the script doesn't give much for Hudson and McConaughey to work with. Given the right dialogue, the two could have made the audience laugh out loud constantly. Alas, it was not to be. Winstone is wasted in his role, and Ewen Bremner as Finn's partner even more so. And why the hell is The Cosby Show's Malcolm Jamal Warner in this film playing a fat, tubby henchman for Bigg Bunny? That is so wrong. So, so wrong!
There are a few genuinely funny moments, but I wish there were more. It would have made up for so many of the boring areas I sat through. The ending is also predictable, but I guess I can forgive that, it's a romcom after all.
Dull and uninteresting. Wished it was better. (2.5/5)
Year: 2008
