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You Kill Me

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

You Kill MeYou Kill Me is billed as a killer com­edy and that’s exactly what it is. Ben Kings­ley plays the part of the fam­ily killer who is also an alco­holic. The drink­ing is inter­fer­ing with his job and when it causes him to miss a key hit, the fam­ily sends him to San Fran­cisco to dry out and get it together. He get’s set up with an apart­ment and a part-time job at a mor­tu­rary get­ting dead bod­ies ready for their funeral. While at work he meets Téa Leoni’s char­ac­ter who has her own issues and they embark upon a rela­tion­ship. At this point Ben Kingsley’s char­ac­ter has been an alco­holic so long, he doesn’t remem­ber being any other way. With the help of his new love inter­est (Leoni) and his AA spon­sor played by Luke Wil­son, he works to find his way which couldn’t hap­pen too soon because the last guy he missed killing is mak­ing life more than a lit­tle tough for the peo­ple he’s left behind.


There were a lot of rec­og­niz­able actors in this movie and I’d say the movie was well acted as a whole. Even Luke Wil­son wasn’t ter­ri­ble and while Téa Leoni’s char­ac­ter was a bitch, she was quite a like­able one. The film is def­i­nitely a com­edy but it’s not really laugh out loud funny though it does make you smile a lot. Ben Kings­ley is awe­some and the movie is really just plain fun … even when it tries to be seri­ous. I give it a 3 and a half out of 5 marks but I’m con­sid­er­ing giv­ing it 4. Here’s the trailer:

21.08.2010 Comedy, Crime, Romance, Thriller No Comments

Boondock Saints

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

The Boon­dock Saints is the story of two Irish fra­ter­nal twins that set out to kill evil men in Boston. It styl­ish, funny, and action packed. The twins are played by Sean Patrick Flan­ery and Nor­man Reedus. There’s also a flam­ing gay FBI agent hot on their trail played by Willem Dafoe. The twins are bad-ass, and while they may not be the most intel­li­gent of vig­i­lantes, they make up for it in atti­tude, dar­ing, and style. Though they are killers, they believe them­selves to be doing the lord’s work by destroy­ing evil. There is a prayer they say just before they kill their last vic­tim that is quite inter­est­ing and mem­o­rable. This movie is fun to watch all the way through and the music is pretty good too.

I was look­ing back try­ing to fig­ure out why I hadn’t seen this movie in the the­ater and found out the movie was released in the U.S. on only a few screens due to the actual columbine inci­dent. It was later re-released seven years later. There is already a sequel which I have seen and also rec­om­mend called The Boon­dock Saints II: All Saints Day. It’s nearly, if not just as good, as the orig­i­nal. I ended up screen­ing both movies back-to-back with friends and a good time was had by all. I con­sider them both clas­sics and eas­ily give the orig­i­nal 5 out of 5 marks. Check out the trailer for the orig­i­nal:

29.07.2010 Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller No Comments

Exiled (Fong Juk)

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

Exiled is a Chi­nese action movie that while tak­ing place in rel­a­tively mod­ern times, plays out very much like a West­ern. In it, a group of old friends are brought together again under inter­est­ing cir­cum­stances. Two of them arrive to kill one of the oth­ers while another two arrive at the same time to pro­tect him. Their friend­ship endures while they shoot at each other and oth­ers shoot at them.

This movie is sub­ti­tled but the con­ver­sa­tions hap­pen slow enough for them to be eas­ily read with­out miss­ing any­thing impor­tant in the movie. Some parts of the film play out like  a Kung Fu movies with guns instead of hand to hand com­bat. The per­son­al­i­ties of each of the friends are rel­a­tively dis­tinct and each is like­able in his own way. There are plenty of action scenes and since there are lots of bul­lets fly­ing, there is plenty of blood but not to the point of it being gory. The endur­ing friend­ship of the main give guys is fun to watch as it plays out amidst the back­drop of bul­lets, crime, and gang bosses. The movie takes place in Macao, China and has its appro­pri­ate comedic and dra­matic moments woven into this action piece.

None of the actors were rec­og­nize­able to me but every­one seemed to play their part well. This was an enjoy­able film. It was directed by Johnny To who I never knew but now have an appre­ci­a­tion for. I eas­ily give this movie a 4 out of 5 marks. Enjoy the trailer below then go rent the movie.

19.06.2010 Action, Crime, Thriller No Comments

Dirty Pretty Things

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Noth­ing pretty in this movie stays that way for long so I’m not sure how the title fits but this was an inter­est­ing film nonethe­less. Dirty Pretty Things stars Chi­we­tel Ejio­for, a great actor who I believe has never really got­ten his due. He plays a hard work­ing ille­gal alien liv­ing in Lon­don named Okwe. The life of an ille­gal is dirty, shady, and hum­ble and Okwe trys his best to be a good man despite. He works more than one job and sel­dom sleeps. Every ille­gal alien has a story and Okwe has an inter­est­ing one. When his past comes to light and col­lides with his sense of honor and the plight of a female friend, every­thing hits the fan. The female friend is played by Audrey Tautou, the other star of this film. She’s the face on the movie poster. Her story is a bit more com­mon but is easy to feel for her as well.

There are a lot of inter­est­ing lit­tle char­ac­ters here, each with their own lit­tle story, the hotel owner, the whore, the door­man, the guy who works in the hos­pi­tal morgue, and oth­ers. This story is more about the chal­lenges, hopes, and dreams of the peo­ple you tend to ignore as you go on about your per­sonal busi­ness. The taxi dri­vers, jan­i­tors, maids, and count­less oth­ers are peo­ple you pass by and don’t give a sec­ond thought but their lives can be vibrant, chal­leng­ing, and full of fla­vor. I enjoyed this movie and give it a 4 out of 5 marks.

23.05.2010 Crime, Drama, Thriller No Comments

Pivot

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Pivot is a short for­eign film with no dia­log. It hasn’t won any awards that I am aware of. It hasn’t even made it into IMDB. Nev­er­the­less I think it is a good short film that is worth watch­ing. Here’s the syn­op­sis: ‘When a man is wit­ness to a mur­der and takes pic­tures of the killer, he has to run for his life. Dur­ing the chase he is able to turn the tables and the prey becomes the hunter. All result­ing in an unfor­tu­nate end­ing.’ Enjoy!

Pivot from Pivot on Vimeo.

02.04.2010 Action, Animation, Crime, Short Film, Thriller No Comments

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