Movie Reviews: Yellow Sea and The Avengers

Well, its been awhile. It appears that I have not posted up in over two weeks. Apologies for that, but, no worries, nothing much has happened. The only action I can report is two movie viewings: Yellow Sea, a Korean film, done by the same director behind The Chaser, and the early summer blockbuster, The Avengers. Here's a couple shortened reviews:

Yellow Sea: Korea's Answer to Kill Bill.
All you have to do is look back to see my last movie review, a Korean film called The Chaser, which i really liked. The next movie I took in was by the same director, and included the two main actors from Chaser. Yellow Sea is about a down-and-out, heavily indebted taxi driver living in Yanbian, an autonomous region in China, near the North Korean border, made up primarily of ethnic Koreans. The Driver's wife has disappeared in Seoul, where she went to find work, and his loan-sharks are now calling in his debts. A gangster boss in the area approaches him with a proposition: Go to Seoul and carry out a hit and your debts will be cleared, and you can search for your wife as well.

Interesting plot-line, and it remains an engrossing film for an hour and a half or so (its about two hours and twenty minutes long), as the protagonist tracks his target and plots how he will strike, all while searching in vain for his wife. It makes for very interesting viewing. However, the story eventually becomes incredibly confusing, as third parties enter the story and a series of betrayals take place and I pretty much lost all sight of what was really going on. While disappointing, what made it worth continuing was the absolute over-the-top action and violence that consumed much of the rest of the film. I mean, comparing to Kill Bill is just about right. Blood flies around in buckets, and guys survive seemingly devastating attacks from knifes and hatchets. Its actually quite a bit of fun. I imagine many people would probably be turned off by it, it does get a bit ridiculous, and it would be nice if I could have kept track with the story, but the fight scenes, in particular an orgy of violence between rival gangs in a Seoul safe-house and a chase/fight in a shipyard are a riot, and worth watching. Firearms are notoriously hard to acquire in Asia, so all the action is done with sharp implements, which only ramps up the crazy factor.

Verdict: Its not as good a film as "The Chaser" and it does get confusing, but I am going to say see it. The story-line is a good one, and the action takes care of the rest. Grade: B

If you liked this movie you might also like: Ummmm....probably Kill Bill.

The Avengers: Hollywood Runs Out of Ideas 
I am not going to spend a lot of time on this one. If you haven't heard of The Avengers, or don't know what the premise is, you should probably climb out of your Cold War-era bomb shelter. Somebody had the genius idea of taking all the Marvel Comics heroes that have gotten screen time in the past couple of years, throw them all in the same film and have them battle against the forces of evil hell-bent on destroying the Earth. Its far from original, but that somebody made a lot of money off of it. Now, I am not really a big super-hero movie fan, and this movie is beyond ridiculous, but, what the hell, its fun. The action, of which is almost non-stop, is all CGI, but that is par for the course nowadays. Its a wild ride, and all movies can't be works of art. Sometimes its nice just to sit down and enjoy the spectacle, which is pretty much what The Avengers offers. Also, its funny. Lots of clever one-liners in this one, and, its got my man Robert Downey Jr. in there, so its gotta be good. I don't think this movie is a world-beater, but its a guilty pleasure.

Verdict: See it, its fun. Grade: B+

If you liked this movie you might also like: There are like 8 different superheros featured here. I suppose you could watch all their individual films. Just a thought. 

Movie Review-The Chaser: Hey Seoul Sister

Up until last night I had had two experiences with Korean cinema. The first, Tae-guk gi (otherwise known as the Brotherhood of War) was fantastic, and I recommend it certainly to any war movie buff, and to anyone who enjoys good film-making. The other, Oldboy....was not such a hit with me. Actually, I still use it as a point of reference when discussing the amount of trust one should put into IMDB and other online ratings. So "The Chaser", another one highly regarded on the internet, was the third foray. How did it turn out? Glad you asked.....

Very, very good. Now, I will add in the caveat that this may not be in everyone's taste. It can be pretty violent at times (really only in two scenes is it a bit gratuitous) and some might find the story a touch over the top, but it is enthralling, and I think very original. Jung-ho (the character's name, I am not going to bother with the actors, nobody will know them anyway, unless I have Korean readers) is a former detective from the Seoul police department who is now a pimp, and some of his girl's have been disappearing. At first he is under the assumption that they are being kidnapped and sold, it becomes more and more apparent that the girls are actually meeting brutal deaths. Now, the interesting part to this movie is that we find out who the murderer is very early on, about 20 minutes in. After he and Jung-ho confront one another and are arrested (Jung-ho briefly detained), the culprit willingly admits to a series of killings that had been stumping the police. However, he refuses to divulge the whereabouts of the last girl sent to service him (who may or may not still be alive) and where he has been burying the bodies, and this takes up much of the story. What makes it so engrossing is the progression we see of Jung-ho, transforming from a pissed off pimp to a worried guardian, particularly once he comes in contact with the missing woman's little daughter. Him using the skills and know-how from his previous job to track down the killer's house/hideout, all while the Seoul police buggle about, was a great touch, and what really makes the film so unique, at least for me.

There are some comedic elements to the film, a couple of scenes here and there. Any of you with a decent memory will know I like the movies with serious undertones to remain serious, but in this instance it didn't take anything away, I was too happy with the other stuff. The acting was by-and-large pretty decent, though some of the lines were a bit dumb, but this could just be poor translation, or just the fact that some things (particularly from a language like Korean, so different from English) can't be translated properly. Some of the events in the film are rather implausible, but there was nothing massive that immediately comes to mind. Nothing, at least, that made me shake my head and think "just like in fucking Contraband" or something like that. Again, for some people it might not be their style. Overall it is a very dark film, and the ending will probably disappoint many (I definitely was a bit) but all this has to compared against the fact that the story-line captures you and doesn't let you go. The suspense, and awesome story (or so I think) make it easy to overlook any deficiencies. Two other points: Some decent shots of Seoul in this one (a city your humble correspondent has explored) particularly in the older part of the city, where a couple of foot chase scenes take place. Also, some the actresses employed for this film are gorgeous.

Verdict: Even with the aforementioned caveat, you really should see it. Grade: A-

If you liked this movie you might also like: Not sure what comparable movies from Hollywood there are...maybe Tom Cruise's "Collateral"? 

Movie Review- Contraband: ContraBAD

Well, that was a bit shit.

It appears that Mark Wahlberg has come home. All the good work done in "The Fighter" was a sixth-sigma event, and he has now returned to his ever-repetitive role of cliche-talking, blue-collar tough guy looking to save the day, usually protecting somebody from something. I obviously didn't expect a world-beater with Contraband, but I figured it might make for a nice action flick, Wahlberg's other movies are usually OK (Four Brother's comes to mind, in case y'all forgot!) and it features Ben Foster, who I quite like, to boot.

Unfortunately bad acting and bad writing cannot be overlooked all of the time. The excitement was there (though really not that much) but some of the stuff in this film is just laughable. Right from the very beginning I could tell that this movie was going to offer up a decent helping of cringe-worthy acting and writing. Cliched lines really stick in my craw, and hearing them delivered from Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale (who I have never thought much of) makes it even worse. Giovanni Ribisi's character was so badly portrayed that you wonder if it was done intentionally as a joke. Ben Foster is still pretty fun to watch, I wish he would stick to a higher calling. This, along with the Jason Statham classic "The Mechanic" really aren't very good mediums for his acting skills. So take the school-boy acting and poor writing and wrap that all together with an incredibly dumb story-line. I mean, it just didn't make a bar of sense. Mark Wahlberg is forced back into his prior life of smuggling in order to pay off his brother-in-law's debt. That sound's simple enough, but, as it is portrayed in the movie, this whole conundrum looks like it could have been solved in about five minutes. Of course that couldn't happen because you need to get an hour and 45 minutes out of it. As the movie progresses (if you want to use the term "progress") plot holes begin to develop, and you soon forget what the hell is really going on. I hope whoever was involved in writing the script and lines for the characters were dragged out into the street and shot.

Yeah, there is some decent action in the movie, including a street shoot-out in Panama City. Actually, scratch that, that was about the only action scene I really liked. I will say for the film that the ending is kind of neat. Well, its a bit of a mix. Wahlberg's character uses some pretty crafty tricks to solve his situation, that was the cool part, but at the same time some horribly implausible stuff takes place that just makes you shake your head.

So, those involved didn't make a complete hash of the latter part of the film, but is it really worth sitting through the whole thing? I almost shut this one off 20 minutes in because I thought it might make me dumber. So....no.

Verdict: Don't bother. Grade: D

If you liked this movie you might also like: Outside of "The Fighter" and that movie he made about the Philadelphia Eagles or whatever, Mark Wahlberg's movies are basically cut from the same cloth.