Log: week 6 / 2021

When Michael is on his daily commute, a stranger sits down across him. She makes him a deal where he has to unmask a passenger on the train in return for a big, lump sum of money. Michael is a bit hesitant, but when it turns out his family is held hostage he has no choice but to comply with their demands.

Neeson can play these parts with his eyes closed, other performances are decent too, the limited set feels aptly claustrophobic and there are some solid action scenes. It's all a bit predictable and the ending could've used some extra spice, but overall this was pretty fun and well-made filler.

Team Batista is a lauded team of surgeons who have a perfect track record performing the Batista operation, a somewhat experimental procedure that has a mere 60% success rate. But when three procedures in a row fail, people are becoming suspicious and an investigation is launched to find out what is going on.

With Takeuchi and Abe in the lead the film has two serious assets, the rest is decidedly more pedestrian. These two actors manage to single-handedly drive up the tension and make the mystery elements work, other than that it's pretty decent, but a bit too long and not very cinematic. Solid filler in other words.

The topic at least is vintage Wakamatsu. The film follows a high school student prepping for his exams. When he looks at the world that he's about to join, including its many social inequities, he's anything but excited. Malcontent with the future that lies ahead of him, he decides to take revenge on the adults.

Activism in other words. Some youthful revolt, a little nudity, stylish black and white cinematography with a splash of color and a jazzy soundtrack. But the film lacks that rawer edge that made Wakamatsu's best work stand out. Also, after 30+ Wakamatsu films, it does start to feel a bit repetitive, seeing the same subject handled over and over again. But for fans of his works, definitely worth seeking out.

Colonel Blimp follows the life of Clive Candy as he rises through the ranks of the British army. It zooms in on the romances he had and picks out a strong friendship he upheld with a German officer. It's all a big stage for the run-up to WWII, where Candy realizes the world has changed for good and his time in it may be coming to an end.

There's a lot of British cheekiness that feels hopelessly outdated, apart from that it's just endless conversations about nothing much at all. Because it handles three periods in Candy's life the film ended up quite long, but that length adds surprisingly little to the characters and the narrative. I dozed off a couple of times, which at least made time pass quicker.

In Kawase's short, Kang Jun-Il returns a sacred scroll to its ancestral home. In Hong's short we follow Mi-Sook as she drives off on a whim to visit an old classmate of hers. When she arrives, she finds out her friend is having an affair with a college professor. And in Diaz' short Carol returns home to the poor miner village where she grew up, only to become the target of a kidnapping ploy.

None of the short are anything special. They're pretty much what you'd expect from the directors, only less developed and visibly made with less money. Kawase's short is the nicest of the bunch, while Diaz' was the weakest for me. A waste of potential though, these tree established directors should've done a lot more with this chance.

This is a little reboot for James Bond. He's on his very first assignment and still has to learn the tricks of the trade. He chases down a bad guy called Le Chiffre, the famed banker of a global terrorist network, in order to stifle their operations. But Le Chiffre isn't just some office stiff, making Bond's life much harder than he had anticipated.

The action scenes are bland, Q is dearly missed, the extra time spent on the characterization of Bond is an utter waste of time and the poker game that grinds the film to a halt halfway through is one of the dullest scenes in any of the Bond films out there. A disgrace, sadly it did well and we seem to be stuck with this Bond for the time being.

Rain is diagnosed with schizophrenia. She suffers from hallucinations and she's on her last strike before she is sent to an institution to recover. When she hears screams in the house across the road nobody believes her, except a new friend she made at school. Together they set out to prove Rain isn't making things up again.

The entire film hinges on whether Rain's suspicions are correct, the fact that she's suffering from mental illness feels more like a lazy shortcut rather an actual attempt to add depth to her character. But the biggest problem is that even with all that Landon fails to cast doubt on the ending, making it all too predictable. Performances are decent and the cinematography is slightly above par, but that's not enough to make this a successful thriller.

Leonida is a war veteran who suffers from mental illness when he returns home. He neglects his family and loses the respect of his son. When his daughter gets kidnapped though Leonida immediately chases behind the kidnappers. The police, looking at his record, treat Leonida as a possible suspect, but he only cares about getting his daughter to safety.

It's Neesan meets Rambo, which means its best to keep your expectations of the plot rather low. The (rather neat) twist is that Leonida is quite fallible. An impressive force to be reckoned with, but far from the killing machines I'm used to seeing in American productions. The presentation is decent and performances are okay, it's hardly a spectacular film, but solid enough filler for those looking to watch an entertaining action flick.

Samuel and Rose run a church in Africa, until they are raided by German troupes. Only Rose survives the attack, but she has no way of escape. Then she meets Charlie, a rugged fella who owns a boat. Traveling down the Ulonga-Bora is ill-advised, but Rose convinces Charlie there's no other way to escape their predicament.

The effects are crummy and the adventure is merely amusing, never tense. Bogart's performance is questionable at best, Hepburn isn't really on top her game either. At least the film doesn't take itself too seriously, other than that it's a decently paced, but hopelessly outdated film.

A man is waiting for a woman in a snowed-in house, deep in the mountains. When the woman doesn't come the man gets a little suspicious, but the tricks himself into believing she's just held up. The longer he stays in the house, the crazier he gets and his imagination starts running wild.

Maybe with a little extra budget, some better actors, more professional gear and a talented cinematographer this could've ended up a much better film, then again that means replacing about 80% of the entire production. Fans of indie/cult cinema might get something out of it, but I wouldn't really recommend it unless you know what you're getting yourself into.

Mio is a young girl who grew up in the countryside, working in a local inn. When the inn closes down she is sent to a friend of the family who lives in Tokyo. It's time for Mio to see more of the world, but Tokyo isn't anything like home and she needs time to adapt to her new environment.

Performances are strong, the cinematography looks very polished, characters are intriguing and the drama is touching. Seeing the coming of age elements mixed with the redevelopment drama is a bit odd, but it gives the film some extra character it lacks elsewhere. Definitely not a bad film, just a little too expected for a true masterpiece.

Edith is a cheeky woman. She steals money from a charity in invest it in the stock market. What looked like a good deal turns out to be a disaster and Edith loses all her money. In order to pay back the charity she relies on the help of an Asian businessman. He is willing to aid Edith, but wants more than just money from her.

It's a pretty simple story that goes from A to B without too many surprises. Performances are well over-the-top, the cinematography is rather bland and characters are flimsy. In its time it might've been an interesting film, considering all the limitations directors had back then, but films like these just didn't age well at all. It's only an hour long, but it felt much longer.

Two sisters are reunited after their mother dies. It's clear from the start that there's a lot of unaddressed drama and anger in their past, caused by the erratic behavior of their mother. The sisters lose sight of each other once again and won't be in contact until one of them turns up dead in Japan.

Performances are good, the cinematography is decent and the score acceptable, but it all feels a bit too safe. Just a little too predictably arthouse, which made it harder than necessary to get really invested in the characters. The potential is there though, and I'm certain to give Yeo another shot, but I expected a tad more from this one.

After some initial hoopla, Cates and Hammond team up again to finally catch The Iceman. Cates is on the brink of losing his badge, Hammond was just released out of jail but hasn't got his money back yet. Their unorthodox ways gets them very close, but somehow The Iceman is always one step ahead.

Another 48 Hrs is a decent buddy cop flick, nothing more, nothing less. The biggest difference is that the action scenes are a tad more impressive and that Murphy has come into his own, which is beneficial to the comedy. The rest is just simple and basic genre stuff, but it does a decent job passing the time.

In an attempt to smuggle contraband into Hong Kong, Charles and Chi find themselves in a secret cave where they wake up a princess and a dark martial artist trapped there for centuries. The duo gets magical powers which they use gratuitously, but when the evil master follows them back to Hong Kong they need to step up and save their loved ones.

The effects are absolutely dire and performances are well over the top, but Andy Lau, Pak-Cheung Chan and Joey Wang have good chemistry and the comedy is delightfully daft. The pacing is insane and the film is completely unpredictable, which makes for 100 minutes of solid entertainment. A pleasant surprise.

Though they haven't seen each other in 10 years, Izumi and Mika decide to meet up again and catch up for old time's sake. Meanwhile, a string of seemingly unrelated hauntings is taking place. When Mika reveals a lingering trauma from their childhood days, everything appears to be coming together.

The film plays a little like a horror anthology, with one main thread bringing all the shorts together in the end. There are some fine ideas here, and it's not hard to see how this could've been a great Japanese horror film, but cheap production values, poor performances and icky CG don't really help Yamaguchi. It's a shame, because underneath that cheapness this was good fun.

Ingeborg and her husband open up a small grocery store. While it doesn't make them rich, it allows them to live a comfortable life. But then Ingeborg's husband falls ill and though she tries her best, the shop has to close after he passes on. Ingeborg is separated from her kids and has to stay in a poor house. All she wants is to see her kids one last time.

It's a very sentimental film that piles on the misery, but because the score is so beautiful and calming (a big contrast with most scores for silent films) it really balances out the drama. I'm sure that with a different soundtrack my score would be halved, but as it stands the restored version is not that bad.

After Joanna's latest TV show flops, she and her husband move to Connecticut to start their lives anew. They arrive in the quaint town of Stepford, where it appears time has stood still. Everybody looks their best all the time, the wealth is extreme and nobody ever complains. It is obvious something weird is going on there.

The performances are gleefully over-the-top, the cinematography is bold and colorful and the comedy is just right. Oz doesn't even bother hiding the mystery of the village, instead he has a little fun with gender roles/reversals and twists the original story a bit further to come to a satisfying ending. A fun surprise.

Furuya is an adoration boy. The kind of boy all the girls love to swoon over, but won't actually date. Furuya is tired of being alone, and he picks Misono as his romantic interest. She's known to be somewhat of an ice queen though, so Furuya will have to do his utmost best to win her over with his charms.

Lock-On Love is a cookie cutter romance that doesn't even try to venture outside its comfort zone. Performances are basic, the cinematography feels kinda cheap and the soundtrack is extremely poppy, but at least the pacing is decent and there's some chemistry between the leads. If you come for signature Iguchi though, it's best to avoid this one altogether.

Bond goes on a risky mission to North-Korea. He is captured and tortured, but his life his spared when it can be traded for a North-Korean spy. Bond's hellbent on unmasking the mole who betrayed him. His travels take him to Iceland, where he learns about a new weapon that threatens to start a new war.

Tamahori did well with the action scenes, which are a good step up from previous installments, while still offering enough kooky Bond nonsense (live him surfing the tsunami). Berry's a bland addition to the cast though and Stephens is a dull bad guy, Yune and Pike are slightly better. Certainly not the greatest Bond, but quite entertaining.

Nesmith and his crew still frequent comic fairs, almost 20 years after their hit series disappeared from TV. Though they still have fans, nobody takes them seriously anymore. Until they're summonsed by actual aliens who think their show was the real thing. Suddenly they find themselves in the midst of a real space war.

Performances are bland, the sets and effects look cheap, the comedy is very predictable and lacks the edge of a good parody. I'm pretty sure US TV sci-fi fans will find something to laugh at here as in the end it's more and ode than a parody, I'm just glad they never bothered to make a sequel.

Rini lives with her family in a remote village, where they take care of their sick mom. When she dies strange things start happening around the house and Rini begins to suspect her mom has kept something important from them. When grandma suddenly dies and the youngest of the family becomes the target of violent hauntings, everyone's in a panic.

Satan's Slaves is a well-made film, the problem is that you've probably seen it many times before. Performances are solid and the cinematography is stylish, but the haunts aren't all that scary and the backstory never really comes into its own. Certainly not bad, but it could've done with more original lore.