by Andy Cox
With crunchy riffs on Story of Ricky, Oldboy and Infernal Affairs, it borrows imagery from John Woo and Johnnie To, but with little regard for matching their levels of genre creativity, whether genuinely artistic merits or storytelling expertise. And so The Raid 2 offers only cleverly contrived Tarantinoesque variations of common actioner set-ups, including a traitor-in-the-family twist, and Bond-gadget clichés.
In addition to some gunplay there’s combat with baseball bats, claw hammers, death by pickaxe, and throat-slashing executions by craft-knife, but this is really all done to make silat sexy, with its ragged mêlée style of rumble fu and tightly choreographed brutality frequently shot by handheld cameras in a determined, wholly successful effort to enhance the unlikely realism of some practically superhuman/comicbook mayhem. Latest good news is that Ong-bak star Tony Jaa has signed up for The Raid 3.
Under the auspices of the current Disney-Marvel combine, it would probably never happen, but Welsh-born director Gareth Evans (and his stunt team) should be hired to helm an Iron Fist or Shang-Chi adaptation.
Hollywood’s legendary success-story of the Wachowskis started way back in 1996 with cult movie BOUND (Dual Format Blu-ray/DVD, 18 August), an excellent crime drama. Gina Gershon’s ex-convict Corky is butch enough to wear Y-fronts. Gangster’s moll Violet (Jennifer Tilly) wears what her role requires, but she rebels against the syndicate hoods that control her life. Not many lesbian seductions begin over a kitchen-sink plumbing job (“I’m feeling a little bit curious, myself”) but, after falling into bed together, Cork and Vi are soon conspiring to rob the mob. Caesar launders money (literally, in a sequence where the stash of cash is splattered in blood!), and the sneaky smart ladies plot a $2 million theft – right from under the typically broken noses of mafia goons.
This modern noir and caper thriller mixes erotica, black comedy and straightforward macabre scenes as it develops into a mobster’s bloodbath for the climactic shootout. A glossy De Palmaesque style-fest, with victims of power scheming to escape from the system, Bound twists and turns via betrayals that flip the ‘business’ worlds of macho criminality upside down. It delivers tremendous intensity in witty quirks and fascinating characters that has rarely been matched, even by De Palma himself. This HD release looks and sounds like many a cinephile’s idea of re-mastered perfection.
Eureka’s exceptional ‘masters of cinema’ range continues with number 78, F.W. Murnau’s FAUST (Dual Format Blu-ray/DVD, 18 August). Made in 1926, this is a silent movie with special effects that are still impressive today. Acclaimed as the most authentic version of the ‘German folk tale’, Faust begins with a few animated scenes and some miniature sets, as greybeard alchemist Faust confronts mortal terror and despair over the curse of deadly plague that he’s unable to cure. At the crossroads, he calls upon the dark spirit of Mephisto (first Oscar winner, Emil Jannings) whose leering malevolence is now implicitly a predecessor of comicbook super-villains, preying – like his screen contemporary Dr Mabuse – upon wide-eyed piety and the greed of closed minds.
Who could resist such an offer promising glory from a magical power to help others? Signing up for his one-day trial, Faust works the miracle of resurrection and, with his own youth restored, this failed scholar can start life afresh. Marrying an Italian duchess does not sate his earthy pleasures, yet, returning home just in time for the Easter parade, he spies on young innocent Gretchen. By the time he’s done coveting and plotting, Faust has succumbed to a lure of gold, as his devilish matchmaker inspires rom-com antics that lead inevitably to a tragedy of broken hearts and murder.
Aunty Marthe groped by Satan! A pregnant ‘harlot’ in the stocks! No mercy for victims in the nightmare finale of this moralist fable! At least, in the bitter ending, love on the pyre is transcendent and forgiveness breaks the pact. Judicious metaphysical symbolism is enhanced by static camera-work, while bravura matte-photography and inventive panoramic tracking-shots add considerable scope/scale to what is, essentially, simply a series of macabre sketches and chamber pieces. A stunning clarity of images for this re-mastered Blu-ray makes Faust recommended viewing, and there is more appeal in a choice of three different scores plus expert commentary, and a video essay by critic Tony Rayns.
A busy episodic-TV director, Nick Gomez attempts to get back into generic movies, with Christina Ricci portraying the titular role in LIZZIE BORDEN TOOK AN AXE (DVD, 18 August). This account of the infamous story is a glossy biopic with a strong cast (Stephen McHattie, Gregg Henry, and Billy Campbell from TV show Helix), and it plays like a whodunit in courtroom scenes, retaining a narrative ambiguity until the end, although presuming her guilt for the hanging offence.
On morphine for anxiety, Lizzie’s nightmares and daydreams are like Argentoesque flashbacks. “I have been asked so many questions, and I’m so confused.” Ricci aims for a studied sociopathy as the ‘innocent’ survivor of an ambitious prosecutor, but her suspicious antics – especially after the double-homicide crime – amount to a clearly unsympathetic, middle-class girl who gambles to manipulate the system in her favour. “No-one in this town thinks I’m capable of anything.” Clea DuVall (great in TV’s Carnivàle) plays Lizzie’s protective older sister, the murderess’ unwitting dupe in this family tragedy.
The rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack does this costume drama no good at all, except to enshrine its forensic details, so it only rings true as ‘CSI: Bristol County’. Overall, this is average entertainment but does not compare well to Paul Wendkos’ The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975).
After helming some TV episodes of genre series Fringe, screenwriter Akiva Goldsman’s first big-screen directing job is epic romantic fairytale A NEW YORK WINTER’S TALE (DVD/Blu-ray, 18 August). “The sicker I become, the more clearly I can see that everything is connected by light” comes as the punch-line to an hallucination sequence that’s really just an excuse for the filmmaker’s overindulgence in CGI lens-flare. It establishes the literary standard and artistic tone for what follows, an urban fantasy spanning two centuries lofted, from its period setting of cod-Dickensian class distinctions to modern skyscrapers in the present, by Warner’s $60 million budget and the wonders of Hollywood star power-sharing.
Colin Farrell looks typecast (yet again!) as Irish thief Peter, who falls in love with consumptive redhead Bev (Jessica Brown Findlay, overplaying every scene), before her oh so tragic death leaves our charming amnesiac rogue alone with immortality, and a white horse flying on gossamer magic wings. At least he’s safe from the predation of chief demon Pearly (Russell Crowe), who eventually makes a deal with Lucifer (portrayed laughably by Will Smith), for a showdown with absentee nemesis Pete, while embracing mortal risks as the ultimate caveat emptor. William Hurt ambles through a somnambulistic supporting role as the doomed Bev’s concerned city-father Isaac Penn and, in the movie’s later chapters, Jennifer Connolly brings her patented single-motherly anguish routine to scenes with a young daughter dying from cancer.
Based on Mark Helprin’s allegedly un-cinematic novel, first published in 1983, Winter’s Tale flitters from page to screen with its Sleeping Beauty variant plot eschewing postmodernist cynicism, but accepting the conceits of similarly otherworldly/legendary Fisher King motifs. “Miracles are down by half. More if you count Brooklyn,” reports warden Pearly, archenemy of luck and love. In the end, this is a rather predictable chore to get through, despite a few impressive visuals.
Japanese-Indonesian production KILLERS (Blu-ray/DVD, 1 September) is about Tokyo executive Nomura, who posts his DIY snuff videos online, and enjoys a cannibal appetite. It’s also about Jakarta reporter Bayu’s pursuits as a video vigilante after he kills a pair of muggers, and so gets a taste for such violent justice. For his first execution Bayu catches a paedophile, but soon he is finding the guilty everywhere. Competition drives both men to greater cruelties and excessive action as their dreary torture-porn exploits and one-upmanship uploads formally document the melancholy Nomura’s escalation from Lecteresque artist to serial terrorist, while Bayu
’s already-shambolic life plods along from psychotic break to fiery or gory atrocities.
Overlong at 137 minutes, the modest subgenre potential of Killers is unfortunately undermined by its ponderously slow pace which negates any suspense. Basically, the problem is that we watch what’s happening in the twinned locations, but are given far too much thinking time to easily guess what comes next. The lack of a notable cinematic style beyond that of the obligatory shots, with functional clarity for dual set-ups (for two directors; Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto previously worked together as the ‘Mo brothers’) and the homicidal ‘duel’ at this story’s core, is partly redeemed by design elements. Social and psychological differences between the two killers are evident in their living spaces: while Bayu’s home has a cluttered normality, Nomura’s place is grimly spartan and simply too ordered/blank to shelter any humanity.
The obvious heroine of this fatalistic anti-buddy movie certainly has her work cut out, navigating through a male maze of impending terror. As Bayu clings to hope and struggles to regain the family that he’s separated from, Nomura’s loss is gone forever, and his only connection to any sense of empathy is the influence he exerts over Bayu’s sympathetic nature. So, a collision is inevitable. For one, the meeting is the ultimate team-up, but for the other it’s a final reckoning.
“Do you know why Cain killed Abel?” PAINLESS (aka Insensibles, DVD, 1 September), the feature-debut of director Juan Carlos Medina, packages so much convoluted plotting, prone to horrific melodrama, that this is best viewed as a dark fairytale. The Spanish mystery spans two generations. It begins in 1931, with two little girls on fire, and a young boy who attempts to eat himself. The tragedies are caused by an ‘unknown disease’ that has made a town’s children ‘immune’ to suffering. The kids are all carted off to a mountainside asylum, where the doctor is fascinated by their dangerous condition, and struggles to save them from self-harm.
In present-day Catalonia, neuro-surgeon David survives a car crash that kills his pregnant wife. He wakes up in hospital to find the six-month-old foetus of his son has been saved, but also learns the doctors have just identified a tumour that means David will need a bone-marrow transplant if he is to survive treatment for the cancer. David’s parents refuse to help and will not explain why, at first. The situation becomes a ghastly cliché in a storyline of several soap opera moments that collectively undermine the movie’s bracing conflicts between political ideology (partly centred on civil war), scientific inquiry, and moralist failings.
There’s an absurdly large gap in the narrative between the 1960s in the prison, where a ‘painless’ boy has sort-of matured into misunderstood monster Berkano (Icelandic Tómas Lemarquis, Noi The Albino), and dying David’s quest for answers to questions about his own past. Thankfully, the drama avoids lapsing into torture-porn mode and its emotive concerns for the children’s lost humanity and some diabolical crimes committed against them – that leaves the innocent Berkano open to exploitation in the scenes of anti-communist interrogation – are depicted with heartbreakingly poetic skill and immense theatrical style.
In not offering a full synopsis, this review might not make any sense but Painless is only worth seeing for its quite startling fantastical imagery anyway. At times, the genre influence of Guillermo del Toro is discernible. Locked away, forgotten for decades, heavily-scarred Berkano is certainly a nightmarish Frankensteinian remnant that is particularly haunting.
Writer-director Jeremy Saulnier’s sophomore offering, crowd-funded BLUE RUIN (Blu-ray/DVD, 8 September) is a very impressive revenge thriller. After the murderer of his parents is released from prison, itinerant Dwight (Macon Blair) returns home. Turning stalker, Dwight stabs the ex-convict, but learns that he’s killed the wrong man, who only pled guilty to protect his ailing father. The crook’s disreputable family strive for a vengeance of their own and, soon, the misunderstandings and misdeeds escalate into a bloody feud, lurching into uncontrollable tragedy for everyone concerned. Engagingly realistic and wholly downbeat, this is a superbly written drama with understated yet compelling performances. Key themes (transgression and vigilantism) are sketched out in subtle greys, avoiding the typical b&w moralist approach. It’s often reminiscent of the Coen brothers’ work, but it lacks their neo-noir flourishes and weird twists.
Claiming a basis on actual events is hardly a new trick for modern horrors. Australian shocker Wolf Creek (2004), by first-time writer, producer and director Greg Mclean, had one sincere aspect of reality in that, like many true-life stories, there was no happy ending. It’s a tale of woe for tourists/backpackers visiting the meteor impact site in a national park, before they are waylaid by predatory Mick (John Jarrett) – a kind of extreme parody of Paul Hogan’s Crocodile Dundee. Blending elements of rather more exciting commercial style or cult entertainments, like Texas Chainsaw sequels, The Hitcher (1986) or Wrong Turn (2003), the grisly and gritty appeal of Wolf Creek as a good example of 21st century’s slasher revival was undeniable. Even considering the mocking reference to Hogan’s eccentric yet absurdly likeable outdoorsman, the second part of this belies the laidback attitudes of its first half, when the leisurely ambiance and beautifully photographed dawn-to-dusk scenery suddenly gives way to scenes of brutal sadism and agonising death. Its utterly downbeat finale is darker still than the close of Jeepers Creepers (2001), Cabin Fever (2002) or even Creep (2004), so it heralds a greater intensity of nastiness from down-under.
Unlike the director’s first outing, WOLF CREEK 2 (DVD/Blu-ray, 15 September) introduces the human-monster Mick before we meet his next batch of victims. After the unsurprising re-start, this sequel is rather more of a generic torture-porn effort, albeit with similarly fine performances and appealing characters, than Mclean’s debut. He also made the big crocodile actioner Rogue (2007). WC2 is a markedly slicker thriller production than the first movie. Its atmosphere remains engaging, but it’s only throwaway stuff compared to that slow-burning predecessor. Jarrett’s twisted track of villainy turns dramatically from salty comedy to sweaty terrors, and stops at irony along the way. His chuckling slayer is perhaps a Cannibal Dundee venting anti-British sentiment like a leaking septic tank. The young hero’s ordeal winds down into grisly agony with a history quiz. It’s arguable that the filmmaker’s biggest mistake here is a misuse of Strauss’ Blue Danube waltz as the soundtrack for a shooting incident. Even if it is viewed as an ironic moment (like a dance of death), it still does not really work, as all I see when hearing that music is 2001’s spaceships.
Mclean’s Hollywood debut, 6 Miranda Drive (2015), is a supernatural thriller starring Kevin Bacon and Radha Mitchell. Let’s hope it is more than just another haunted-house movie.
A belated telly spin-off, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN SEASON ONE (DVD, 22 September) takes the original movie’s genre fusion (crime spree and slick monsterama ambush), and stretches it over ten witty episodes in a sprawl of mayhem and foreshadowing of horrors familiar to fans of the Tarantino/Clooney vehicle. This greatly expanded account benefits from having four of its episodes directed by originator Robert Rodriguez, whose adaptation of Tarantino’s screenplay here, with his own signature style, lends this re-production solid and satisfying links to the crowd-pleasing movie of 1996.
It’s about the Gecko brothers – sociopathic romeo Seth and psychotic nerd Richie – versus a vengeful Texas Ranger. On the run after a wild west gun battle, the Gecko pair hijack a Winnebago. That’s how god-bothering widower Jacob and his kids become hostages for their escape into Mexico. With cartel-cowboy stereotypes and blood-cult gangster figures, a bizarre conspiracy builds around this anarchy of road-rage, while overacted talky scenes, developing various redneck subplots in flashbacks of the fractured narrative arcs, are prone to soapy interludes – as usual for TV horror – but this insubstantial material does not detract from the dramatic momentum.
What makes it work so well is the combination of gothic atmosphere and showy violence, as this version happily re-creates many of the stylish movie’s memorab
le set-pieces in extended-play sequences, exposing the timeline developments of a vampiric mythos that dates all the way back to the conquistadors, while boasting enough sleaze and horrific massacres to compete with True Blood. Supporting players Don Johnson, Robert Patrick and Jake Busey (as ‘Sex Machine’, who simply can’t be trusted, of course) add some heft to inconsistent performances by the younger main cast, but Eliza Gonzalez is fine as villainess Santanico, the seductive vampire of the Mexican death-trap (“What the hell kinda floor-show is this?”). She is only a part of a hierarchal order for a banquet feeding beneath the diabolical mechanisms of a labyrinthine temple-based “people juicer”, and her long awaited revolt, leading night-creatures (mostly serpentine types) against Spanish overlords.
A diamond heist, a prison break, and twists exploring the differences between double-cross and betrayal, strengthen this tale of sibling rivalries (in life and beyond it) that is otherwise driven by the entirely supernatural powers. As in the movie, not everyone gets out alive – but the latest news is that FDTD has been renewed for a second season of thirteen episodes.