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- Zebraman (2004) Review
- Character posters for ‘Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation’
- George Nolfi’s ‘Birth of the Dragon’ searches for its Bruce…
- 20th Century Boys: Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End (2008) Review
| Posted: 03 Jun 2015 12:02 AM PDT  "Zebraman" Japanese DVD Cover Director: Takashi Miike By HKFanatic With the massive success of 2010′s 13 Assassins it’s easy to forget that, oh, just a year ago director Takashi Miike was more well known for his typically surreal cinema efforts, which have included such feats as a woman shooting darts from her, uh, private regions and people regularly being cut in half. 2004′s Zebraman is one of those zanier flicks, and though it tones down the sex and violence it ramps the weird factor way up. Despite the titular character’s goofy, Super Sentai-inspired costume, don’t mistake this for a kid’s movie. The heart and soul of Zebraman is actor Sho Aikawa, who previously worked with Miike on the Dead or Alive films. Aikawa plays a character who is a complete failure at life and has very little to recommend about him as a human being, and yet because of Aikawa’s performance you can’t help but root for the guy. Aikawa is a 3rd grade teacher who puts the minimal amount of effort required into his job; his son gets beat up at school because all the other kids think his dad is a loser; his wife is cheating on him; and his daughter sleeps around with middle-aged men she meets on the internet. The only reprieve from his dreary life comes from his nights spent dressed up as Zebraman, a TV superhero he recalls from his childhood. Yet even this act is clouded with shame: Aikawa actively worries that someone from his job will see him dressed in the black-and-white costume and fire him on the spot. Eventually, Zebraman learns that he might actually have a knack for this superhero thing. When some CG aliens show up looking to make Japan ground zero for their invasion, only Zebraman can stop them – but first he’s got to believe that he can do it, which might take some convincing. If there’s anything that mars Zebraman as a film, it’s the pacing. The film is very leisurely paced, which means it never manages to build up momentum. About an hour in, some apocalyptic-type events transpire and I was certain that the film was leading into the climactic encounter between Zebraman and the aliens – and then there was another hour to go. 115 minutes is probably a tad too long for what basically amounts to a superhero farce. Still, it gives Miike time to develop the characters and the world of the film. I’ll also admit it was more fun to watch Zebraman take on your garden variety robbers, serial killers, and would-be rapists with his “Zebra Double Kick” and “Zebra Screw Punch,” than it was to see him fight aliens. The problem with the end battle between Zebraman and the aliens is that the extraterrestrials are low-rent, low-budget (for 2004!) CG blobs that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Robin Williams comedy Flubber. So the ending wasn’t as entertaining as it could have been. Regardless, there’s a lot to recommend about Zebraman. It’s a story about a pretty pathetic guy – the kind of person you might know at your job or school – who finds the strength inside himself to become a hero. Along the way, there are a lot of pratfalls and bathroom jokes, including a guy who washes his crotch with alien-infected water at a sauna. But I’ll admit that part made me laugh, among other scenes, and Miike brings his usual flair for action and absurd scenarios. If you enjoy superhero comedies, Power Ranger parodies, actor Sho Aikawa, or just weird Japanese movies in general, Zebraman fits the bill nicely. HKFanatic’s Rating: 7/10 |
| Character posters for ‘Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation’ Posted: 03 Jun 2015 12:01 AM PDT  "Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation" Teaser Poster THE MOVIE: Audiences around the world enjoyed Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, to the tune of some $680 million dollars. That makes a sequel pretty much a given at this point. Although Paramount had been grooming Jeremy Renner to take the reins to the series, general response has been that Tom Cruise (and Tom Cruise doing ridiculous aerial stunts) remains the big reason why people go see these movies. Updates: Great news for fans of the highly underrated crime movie The Way of the Gun. The writer/director on that film, Christopher McQuarrie, is directing the next Mission: Impossible film. McQuarrie rocketed to fame back in 1995 by penning the screenplay for The Usual Suspects, but he most recently worked with Tom Cruise on the forthcoming Jack Reacher movie. Both Cruise and the Paramount are reportedly happy with McQuarrie’s work on Reacher, so we can expect an announcement for M:I5 in the near future. According to Collider, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (aka Mission: Impossible 5) will be released on July 31st, 2015. In addition to Tom Cruise; Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton are rumored to return. Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) has declined the female lead, but Rebecca Ferguson (The White Queen) has stepped in. | First cast photo from MI:5, courtesy of Collider. | According to Variety. Zhang Jingchu (Beast Stalker, Seven Swords) has joined the cast and has a major role opposite Tom Cruise. | A video of Tom Cruise hanging from a plane 5,000 feet in the air in Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, thanks to Collider. Thanks to Collider, we have a few non-spoiler details: Maggie Q was unavailable to return; Composer Joe Kraemer (Jack Reacher) is "playing with something retro, of course" for the score; Sean Harris (Harry Brown) is the film's villain; The film will have the feel of an episode of the old show; There will be some score-less action scenes as in Jack Reacher and McQuarrie's first film, The Way of the Gun; There are specific Brian De Palma references; McQuarrie broke his personal record for footage shot. | 1st trailer. | 2nd full trailer now. BREAKING NEWS: Check out the film’s character posters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| George Nolfi’s ‘Birth of the Dragon’ searches for its Bruce… Posted: 03 Jun 2015 12:00 AM PDT  "Enter the Dragon" Japanese Theatrical Poster A new Hollywood film about Bruce Lee titled Birth of the Dragon is in the works. The movie will take a look at the life of legendary martial artist and movie star Bruce Lee, using Lee’s disputed bout with Master Wong Jack-Man as the centerpiece of the story. There’s some speculation that this could lead to a Rashomon-like structure to Birth of the Dragon since there are so many varying accounts of how the fight between Bruce Lee and Master Wong went down. This isn’t the first time Hollywood has explored the legend of Bruce Lee. Perhaps the most well known example is 1993′s Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, a heavily dramatized biopic from The Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen that featured Jason Scott Lee (Time Cop 2) in the lead role. If you’re worried about Hollywood once again playing fast and loose with the facts of Bruce Lee’s life, you can at least be assured that Birth of the Dragon has some decent pedigree behind it: screenwriters Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivele previously wrote Nixon and Ali. Updates: Variety reports that filmmaker George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau) will be directing Birth of the Dragon. The next big question is: Who will be playing Bruce Lee? According to Deadline.com, Shannon, daughter Bruce Lee, is teaming up with producer Janet Yang (Joy Luck Club), Lawrence Grey (Last Vegas) and Ben Everard (Walt Before Mickey) to make the definitive biopic on Lee. "There have been projects out there involving my father, but they've lacked a complete understanding of his philosophies and artistry," Lee said. And according to Grey: "We will bring on a world class filmmaker and writer, who'll work with Shannon and myself and then we will talk to American and foreign partners.” BREAKING NEWS: Birth of the Dragon is officially in search for the role of Bruce Lee. According to PC (via FCS): “Casting directors are looking for a young Bruce Lee between the ages of 20 to 30 years old. An experienced martial artist highly desired but not required.” |
| 20th Century Boys: Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End (2008) Review Posted: 02 Jun 2015 12:00 AM PDT  "20th Century Boys: Chapter 1" Japanese Theatrical Poster Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi By HKFanatic 20th Century Boys is a live-action film based off the immensely popular and award-winning manga by Naoki Urasawa, who also created Monster. I’m not familiar with the source material but it must be pretty damn epic – it’s taken three movies, each over 2 hours long, just to complete the 20th Century Boys saga. I imagine this will be the biggest stumbling block for viewers looking to get into the series: Chapter 1, the first film, is 142 minutes long and you don’t even get the complete story. Regardless, this is a movie worth looking into. It starts in a familiar way, not unlike Shaun of the Dead or even The Matrix, with an assuming everyman stuck in a job that’s going nowhere until he receives a call to action and must embark on a hero’s journey. The main character, Kenji, is an ex-rock guitar player now nearing his 40′s who runs a convenience store with his mom and looks after his vanished sister’s baby. He’s a good-hearted guy who’s resigned himself to a middle of the road kind of existence. Then one day the apocalyptic prophecies that he and some childhood friends dreamed up when they were kids, prophecies involving a cult and a deadly virus, actually start coming true. Now it’s up to Kenji to reunite with his old pals, figure out who’s behind the conspiracy, and save Tokyo before it’s destroyed. At 142 minutes, you better believe this movie takes the time to set up the plot and introduce the characters. Without a doubt you get to know everyone in the film, even though the cast is quite large. It can be a bit confusing to keep track of everyone and the film jumps around in time from the past in the 1970′s to the “present” of the story in 2000 and even to the future in 2015. Stay focused and you’ll find that the characters are quirky and endearing, and you’ll be dying to learn just who the mysterious Friend – the masked foe out to destroy humanity – really is. If I have one complaint about the film, it’s that despite the long runtime and measured pace the ending feels rushed. Once you do get to the climactic final 20 minutes of the film, featuring a giant robot stomping on Tokyo and spraying a deadly mist that causes people’s heads to explode, the action sequence doesn’t have time to develop. It’s kind of like if they had tried to shoehorn the Battle at Helm’s Deep into the last 20 minutes of Fellowship of the Ring. Granted, it probably wasn’t an option to end the film earlier since Chapter 2 takes place in the future and with a mostly new set of characters (I told you this thing was epic), but the finale just didn’t carry the impact I wanted. The special effects are certainly remarkably impressive, though – and who doesn’t love giant robots tearing shit up? The 20th Century Boys trilogy is one of Japan’s largest cinematic undertakings, with a budget of 6 billon yen ($77 million) and a cast of hundreds across the entire series. Committing to watch all three films is certainly a large investment of time, seeing as how altogether they run about 7 and a 1/2 hours. But after watching and enjoying Chapter 1, I feel confident that the rest of the series is worth looking into. HKFanatic’s Rating: 8/10 |
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