#51 We just watched this on Netflix streaming:The Man from Nowhere.
The Film: The Man from Nowhere
The Man from Nowhere is yet another masterpiece out of S.Korea. It is a thriller that I regard as one of the best I’ve seen. For those who fell over themselves to watch Taken, and loved it, this movie is levels above that movie.
The plot is not dissimilar to Tony Scott’s Man on Fire, a movie I didn’t think was all that great, with the exception of Denzel sticking a grenade up a guy’s ass. Moreover, From Nowhere follows a mysterious man, Cha Tae-sik, whose is neighbors with a woman wrapped up in a drug scam gone bad. Cha has befriended the women’s daughter, who is the only person in the world who cares or interacts with Cha. When the drug scame goes bad, the girl and her mother are kidnapped and the mother is found murdered and stripped of all her organs.
Cha goes after the drug dealers and the cops chasing them. Now, this might sound generic — and it certainly is — but, like Running Scared, it is in the details that this movie finds its stride. The violence, tension, and willingness to probe the truly grotesque criminal underground, is what makes the movie truly extraordinary – however, it is not without a sense of humor.
Why to watch it:
For no other reason than director Lee Jeong-Beom has created one of the best and brutal action scenes of the past five years. Now, I’m not going to say that action scenes matter more when you care about the characters, which is sometimes true, but in this movie you do care about Cha and his struggle. However, this is not why the end scene is so great. It is great because it is fueled by anger, revenge, and ruthlessness.
Consider the famous scene from Kill Bill where The Bride goes through and massacres everyone, it is a great scene, but there I never felt true rage or weight to what was going on. In the final scene Cha is literally at the end of his rope — death is totally not a consequence to him.
Pay attention to this:
There is a moment when the plot twists, but it isn’t a traditional twist. One of the more talented assassins/goons belonging to one of the gangs seems to be “different” — he seems to be in it for more than the money. You could even say he has principals. What is so awesome about this character is he never comes out and says any of this. His story is told through close ups, looks, and reactions. He respects Cha for being able to stand up to him in a fight. Again, this type of character is fairly typical, but in Nowhere it is all so understated and perfectly executed that when he somewhats turns on his gang, we believe it and consider it an obvious response of that type of person.
-Collin
By Collin, on July 22nd, 2011
Five reasons why you should watch Spaced.
Have you ever heard of Spaced? Well, if you haven’t, it is time you watched the damn show. The past three hundred articles I’ve written have been primarily about movies, but I’m starting to move into mini-series, which should be considered really long movies. Spaced is one of my favorite.
1. Spaced has the craziest directing style of any sitcom you’ll ever see.
If you ever watched Scott Pilgram Vs the World and ever wondered where Edgar Wright’s insane directing style came from, his style might have taken true form in Spaced. I mean it when I say no mainstream sitcom has even been directed with such disregard to conventions. The camera movements, editing, and compositions are so hip and fun that the camerawork is almost a character all itself.
Wright is one of the most exciting directors working right now and so much of that accolade derives from his willingness to try anything. The old way of thinking was that great editing was when the audience didn’t notice, I think directors like Wright are proving that isn’t true.
News came out that the project was being shut down. Apparently, that was bullshit. I think the movie was more being put on “pause” so it can be reevaluated. Regardless, I’ve been inspired to write the following article.
For the uninitiated Akira is probably the best graphical novel (or manga if you wanna’ be a dick about it) ever made. It has been worshiped for almost three decades now and stands as one of the pillars of the cyberpunk genre.
What is cyberpunk? Well, it is a part of Japanese culture that branched out across popular entertainment that fuses a variety genres, ideas, rebellions, and archetypes. To describe it in one sentence I’d probably say: A genre that has rebellious low-lifes trying to bring down a corporation or entity with the use of technology and sometimes special gifts or biological mods. Maybe that is a bad definition, lol, but it is complicated. Think Neuromancer, Deus Ex (video game), Ghost in Shell, The Matrix, or Blade Runner for near perfect examples.
Moreover, if you were to ask me what my favorite cyberpunk work is it would be without question the manga Akira . The cartoon is fantastic and always entertaining to watch, but it was too hard to pack hundreds/thousands of pages into a couple hours. Also, the depth of Akira is so deep and fulfilling that it puts into question whether or not a movie could ever be made about it. There are just too many hurtles.
The story of Akira is a great one. Created by Katsuhiro Otomo the story explores two best friends, Kaneda and Tetsuo, who are part of a motorcycle gang during the fallout from a nuclear explosion during Wold War 3 — Tokyo was completely destroyed. Moreover, Tetsuo is recruited into a government project that mentors humans with immense psychic powers. To say the least, shit hits the fan and Tetsuo loses his mind when his powers begin to take him over.
That is just scratching the surface of the story. But why am I writing all this? Because I’m curious why the “live-action” movie can’t get made. I’m not an expert of Akira, but I know quite a bit and am listing five things to consider when making the movie. Because, like Robotech, I haven’t figured out why the movie can’t get made about such great source material
1. The story is very “Japanese”.
I don’t know exactly what that means and it isn’t meant to be offensive of alienistic, but when you look at something like the movie Die Hard, that movie is really American. Like, John McClane is an all-American ass-whooper. In the same way, Akira is very Japanese. The story is rolled up in post-war rebellion and hysteria. There is a sense that the whole manga is woven into ideas that are inherently pulled from a generation that lived in a Japan still stirring with post WW2 sentiment. What exactly do I mean by that? Well, don’t quote me, but I think the manga was a big middle finger to the existing establishment of Japan.
All that is not even considering the fact that Hollywood is adapting all the Japanese characters and making them white, a fact that drew huge critcism from famed actor Geroge Takai. It is racist, but making the characters white is understandable. The movie just wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
But consider this: Recently, the masterpiece cartoon Avatar: Last Airbender was adapted into a movie and was a complete failure. While the movie made quite a bit of money (over three hundred million dollars) the movie tried too hard to appease a wide audience by having its main characters be white and not Asian. Even going as far as having white children living in an Inuit village. I think changing the location and race of the characters is necessary to get funding, but how will they handle the change without sacrificing so much of the culture that made Akira what it is?
The new Sherlock series is one of the most enjoyable television experiences I’ve had in a long time. It isn’t series fare and won’t go down as an “important” show such as Breaking Bad or Mad Men , but if you want to have some fun over three movie-length specials — take a look at this program.
It is fantastic, and against all the odds. The series is adapted stories from a few of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories, but set in modern times.
Who would have thought that another Sherlock series would work so well?
There are so many adaptations, not to mention the recent updated movie starring Robert Downey Jr. But that is just the thing, the whole show banks on the performers playing Sherlock and Winston and man do they deliver. Sherlock is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, who has most ludicrously gentry name I’ve ever heard. (You might have seen the actor as the dude that rapes the girl in the beginning of Atonement.) Cumberbatch knocks it out of the park. He is so much fun to watch as Holmes, who is idiosyncratic, egocentric, rude, and brilliant.
His sidekick Watson is played by the great, but little known, Martin Freeman. Freeman was the original “Jim” from The Office, and was the person who invented “the look”. When Freeman was in The Office he would look right in the camera with that sarcastic face. I mention this because Freeman is kind of just playing that character, but in a more educated, snarky manner. (If that is possible)
Watson is given a leg that he injured while at war in Afghanistan. For some reason helping Holmes gives him the focus and rush he needs to forget about the injury and/or his PTSD. Holmes needs Watson just because they seem to click well and Holmes needs to someone to bounce ideas off of.
Final Thoughts:
Both Freeman and Cumberbatch are going to be in the new Lord of the Rings movie. Freeman is playing Bilbo, but I was suprised to hear that Cumberbatch actually has two roles: One as the voice of the dragon and the Necromancer (who is Sauron if I remember right). His voice is spectacular and is one of the reasons he has such a powerful presence on screen. All those ridiculous parodies you hear of silly English accents? Cumberbatch sounds like them all.
The filming of The Hobbit was actually delayed a bit because they wanted Freeman so bad. He is Bilbo and the choice is a genius one.
Season One is painfully short, only three episodes at a hour and half each, but the second season is coming out this fall. So it gives you plenty of time to either rent, buy, or stream it from netflix.
By Collin, on July 20th, 2011
The Amazing Spiderman trailer
It is here folks. I might break it down sometime later this week, but until then enjoy the trailer. It really does look amazing. Definitely fullscreen that shit.
The first Spiderman was a good movie, but this one looks incredible. It looks like a David Fincher version of Spiderman, or maybe that is because Garfield was in The Social Network?
This is also the first film to use Red’s new Epic camera and I have to say it looks really, really, good and crisp.
Whatever the movie is, this is a good example of a great trailer, compared to the recently released The Dark Knight Rises trailer, which was awful. I don’t really agree with including the first person view in the trailer though, the effect would be a better surprise when we actually get in the theater with 3-D glasses on. Just a small complaint.
I also read a comment that said it was going to be all Twilight-like. I think this is a sentiment that a lot of people share and I don’t have any clue why. Maybe someone can fill me in.
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