High Heels and Low Lifes (2001) Movie Review

I have very low expectations of movies I’ve never heard of. This may be why I’m usually very surprised by the superior quality of a lot of low-budget films (or independent films) that have been ignored by the general populace by their lack of publicity. Look at it this way: when you have...

February 26th, 2002 | Read More

2000 A.D. (2000) Movie Review

Gordon Chan’s 2000 A.D. doesn’t represent your average Hong Kong film production. For one, one of its writers is a fellow name Stu Zicherman, a non-Chinese name as you’ll ever find. Zicherman shares screenplay credit with Chan, who adopted Zicherman’s English screenplay into Chinese....

February 26th, 2002 | Read More

K-Pax (2001) Movie Review

The immediate question brought up by K-Pax is rather the character Prot is an alien visiting from the planet K-Pax 10,000 light years from Earth or is he just a tortured soul repressing unhappy memories from his past. This is the question that many people who watches director Iain Softley’s K-Pax...

February 26th, 2002 | Read More

One Fine Spring Day (2001) Movie Review

Love hurts. That simple statement expresses everything there is to know about Jin-ho Hur’s One Fine Spring Day, a movie that is about the awkwardness of attraction and the pain of a burning passion suddenly doused. It is about love found, love enthralled, and finally love lost. Sang-woo lives...

February 24th, 2002 | Read More

Ballistic Kiss (1998) Movie Review

Ballistic Kiss is the kind of movie that we in the States refer to as “Vanity Projects.” Such projects usually involve a known actor, already famous and with an established name and reputation, who takes on multiple chores for the film, mostly as star, director, producer, and sometimes as...

February 24th, 2002 | Read More

Spy Game (2001) Movie Review

The CIA is a complex agency. It was originally created after World War II to continue U.S. intelligence gathering overseas, taking over from the OSS, but in the last 20 years or so it’s become something of an enigma. Some people look at the CIA as a single, shadowy monolithic agency that lives...

February 23rd, 2002 | Read More

Proof of Life (2000) Movie Review

Meg Ryan shouldn’t curse. I came to this conclusion while watching Taylor Hackford’s Proof of Life, a movie that I admittedly did not really feel any enthusiasm towards while it was playing in the theaters. Now that the movie is on video, I found myself watching it, and actually enjoyed it...

February 23rd, 2002 | Read More

Gen-Y Cops (2000) Movie Review

The “men” at the core of Gen-Y Cops are 3 Chinese cops who are supposed to be an “elite” squad that handles “all of Hong Kong’s toughest cases,” but the actors playing them look like they’re in their early ’20s and talk like they’re in their...

February 23rd, 2002 | Read More

Danger Zone (2003) Movie Review

“Danger Zone” is one of those movies so unconcern with being even slightly competent that you just have to tip your hat to it, because to do otherwise would drive one insane. Take this scene, which occurs about 30 minutes into the movie: a woman, seeking to distract some cops in the living...

February 22nd, 2002 | Read More

Wild Zero (2000) Movie Review

When he set out to make what would later become a horror film classic, George Romero, through sheer will and the acquaintance of some foresighted investors, managed to frighten up (forgive the pun) somewhere around $114,000 in order to make Night of the Living Dead. I suspect director Tetsuro Takeuchi,...

February 20th, 2002 | Read More

Buena Vista Social Club (1999) Movie Review

The most perplexing question that comes to mind while (and sticks with you well after) watching Wim Wenders’ Buena Vista Social Club is just how did these great musicians get so lost in the world, that only now, when most of them are reaching their twilight years, did they finally come to our attention?...

February 19th, 2002 | Read More

Ghost World (2001) Movie Review

Saying that Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World is quirky and funny is like saying the sky’s blue. It’s obvious and doesn’t need anyone to toot its horn. Ghost World was adapted by Zwigoff along with the property’s original creator, comic book writer Daniel Clowes, and follows the...

February 18th, 2002 | Read More

Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000) Movie Review

Michael Lynch, the ordinary decent criminal of the title, is an ordinary Irish fellow who happens to make a living as a professional bank (and whatever else you got) robber. He has a big household, is married to the beautiful Christine, and is also sleeping with Christine’s sister, Lisa, out in...

February 18th, 2002 | Read More

Ashes of Time (1994) Movie Review

Wong Kar-wai’s “Ashes of Time” is a rare film. It manages to be complex, thoughtful, and incredibly entertaining at the same time. Based on a novel of the same name by Louis Cha, “Ashes of Time” is truly an amazing film, one of the best, if not the best, Hong Kong melodrama/action...

February 16th, 2002 | Read More

Failan (2001) Movie Review

Kang-Jae is not much of a man. In fact, he’s not much of a human being. He’s boisterous and loud, a tough guy without any toughness in him. His boss abuses him and his fellow gangmembers have no respect for him whatsoever. The first time we meet Kang-Jae (Min-sik Choi) he’s just been...

February 14th, 2002 | Read More

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) Movie Review

The year 2001 has been a banner year for fantasy novels turned event films. Both well-known book series, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter have been adapted from their print form into much-anticipated movies, each one with legions of fans waiting to pay any price to see them. Of the two, Rings is...

February 12th, 2002 | Read More

Soldier (1997) Movie Review

Soldier is not a deep movie. It’s a sometimes too-violent film, but it’s never boring. At least, I never found it to be boring. The plot is a simple one: old supersoldier Todd and his group of supersoldiers, trained since birth to be killing machines, are replaced by another group of supersoldiers...

February 11th, 2002 | Read More

For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000) Movie Review

For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story opens in 1991 with Cuban-born trumpeter Arturo Sandoval (Andy Garcia) entering an American embassy in London and asking for political asylum in hopes of defecting. David Paymer plays an unidentified State Department man who interviews Sandoval to determine...

February 10th, 2002 | Read More

Avalon (2001) Movie Review

Pointless. That’s how I feel after finally finishing a First Person Shooter (FPS) game. It doesn’t matter if the FPS was a good game, a bad game, or if it was too hard, too easy, or somewhere in-between. At the end, when the credits roll, and I shut down the game, I feel as if I’ve...

February 10th, 2002 | Read More

Gonin (1995) Movie Review

A movie like Gonin astounds and fascinates me. Writer/director Takashi Ishii is obviously a very talented man. There are visuals and camera framing in Gonin that just takes my breath away. The man has a great eye for detail and knows how to set up his cameras to convey the point that he wants conveyed....

February 9th, 2002 | Read More