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Yau doh lung fu bong (2004)
The Hong Kong Fight Club
I have gone into this film very excited as I have become a Johnnie To fan only recently. After seeing both Election movies and PTU, I have been totally amazed at the quality of director he is and how good his films can be. Throw Down continues my fan-ship of Mr To in style. I have always felt that wires and stunt doubles ruin films, no matter what the genre, and this is something Mr To seems to share with me. The fighting style of Judo is perfect for the physical aspect of the film. The actors can get close and throw each other to the ground without need of propelling themselves over bamboo trees, which is great.
The three main leads, Sze-To, Tony and Mona are pretty good. Though Mona seems to aimlessly wonder through the film and really only serve as a third wheel at times, she is a nice enough support for the muscle of the film. Louise Koo is amazing as Sze-To, the former champ turned club owner. His drunken and dazed, followed by angered and determined emotions are all portrayed brilliantly. I was even surprised by Aaron Kwok, who is great as the eager Judo fighter, travelling from fight to fight, and spurring Sze-To into his renewed sense of fight.
The photography is spot on. The massive fight in the club is so perfectly filmed and cut with the Japanese vocal that it was a joy to watch. Even the simple scenes of clubs, night life, computer games room, restaurant, are all magnificently shot. And then, as if the film were not good enough already, the soundtrack, sound editing, production design (such as the Ext Judo Championship scene) and the screenplay are all as good as you could want. The first hour and ten minutes had me on the edge of my seat. The following twenty minutes had a more mysterious, what can happen now, feel, but it is all just perfect.
If you haven't seen a Johnny To film, this might be a good starting point, but be warned, he makes no excuses and feels no obligation to explain anything about anything, it's often left to the viewer to determine the why and the how. This, for me, is what film-making is all about.
Ski School 2 (1994)
The best film ever made by a human being, seriously
I watched this film 5 times in one day during the first year of owning a copy on DVD. The love for this film has not stuttered in the slightest. This film's pure brilliance is astounding. It is hard to believe the majority of these actors are relative unknowns. Brent Sheppard and Dean Cameron excel as the two leads competing for the attention of the blonde honey Beth, who happens to own the ski resort they are based at. Bill Dwyer and Will Sasso fill the screen during their supporting acts as second fiddle characters, but ensure that they will forever be remembered with quality timing and happily making the film fun to watch and enjoy.
This film could be described as 'too much fun'. Simply because, at no point what so ever does the film attempt to be great, it just happens by accident. The scenes are oozing with wonderful white scenery, the women that pass by are consistently scrumptious, the supporting cameo actors are so convincing that its a surprise when Oscars aren't brought into the scene for them, and best of all the skiing scenes are picture perfect, filled with excitement and gloriously filmed manoeuvres that only seasoned pros could make look so good. Another bonus to the films natural charm are the goofs, and plenty of them to boot. I would hazard a guess at a single goof is made, via stars and scenery, every 20 seconds, approximately. Yet, astonishingly, it only adds depth to the addictiveness of the entire film.
This film is what On Her Majesty's Secret Service would have been like had it been filmed as a comedy, set in Canada, and given a third of the budget. Though I must admit the villain, Brent Sheppard as Steve Longwood, is a far more ruthless and demented rival to our hero than any antagonist has ever been before, or since.
This film is pure and simple entertainment that, at only and hour and a half, is far shorter than you'd like, but the compactness of its genius means that you can watch it several times a day, happily. Fabulous!
I, Robot (2004)
Help the environment recycle you're sci-fi films
From the trailers it was easy to see that this film was going to be a basic robot revolt film that has been toyed with in both literature and films many times in the past. Though it is fair to say that Asimov was a strong sci-fi writer in his own right, this movie comes at an opportune moment in the cinema time-line; when it is guaranteed success. People would have wanted to see the Matrix robot revolt in live action, but we had to settle for an animated version of it all in the Animatrix.
However, this film takes only a small element of the Matrix in this respect, but then smashes this together with all the other sci-fi-robot related films ever made. I am talking about a very long list of quite good films that have all been, basically, ripped-off;
Short Circuit, Blade Runner, A.I, Bicentennial Man, Terminator, the list is (probably) endless.
Of course, there is one saving grace for this film
Alex Proyas. Thankfully for everyone involved a great director was employed as the visionary for the production and it shows with many of his great shots and angles that he has used to great effect in previous efforts and does so again here to help keep the film from being too bland and too much of a blatant rehash of older films.
Top marks to the man for his daring creativity that takes a computer generated character and makes it a key player with good effect, unlike the Jar Jar Binks disaster of Phantom Menace fame. Sonny is a good character that gives a good show in his own right ,but it must be said again, a recycled element HAL of 2001 a Space Odyssey, but with a body to run around in. Shame that not even the good visual elements of this film could been original either.
However, it is good to see that CGI is finally making big leaps towards top quality and soon will make films better instead of being an over used thorn in our side.
2/5