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Reviews
Jing goo wong (1995)
What an odd movie. It's funny, and yet...
Not sure what to say about this, other than it's very quirky and pretty funny -- but not consistently so, unfortunately. The plot involves The King of Tricks and The Emperor of Tricks (2 practical jokers for hire) who compete to out-do each other with...tricks. Some of them are priceless (especially those in the first 10 minutes, featuring the always-wonderful Joe Cheng) and some are sadly lame, but ALL of them are clearly weird. The humor is mostly broad sight-gags a la Stephen Chow (although he's not in it, his director, Lik-Chi Lee did this film).
It's definitely Hong Kong-style humor, which means it's better than most of the juvenile crap produced here in the US. Nevertheless, it's not anybody's best work. Lau Ching Wan and Anita Yuen have both done much better work in other roles.
Not a must-see, to be sure, but if you find it in a bargain bin you ought to give it a chance.
The Cable Guy (1996)
Difficult to watch, but done well.
This disturbing film made me (and apparently many others) really uncomfortable. That said, it deserves much praise for evoking such strong, difficult, sentiment. It wasn't a bad film, just painful and weirdly depressing.
Santa Sangre (1989)
El Poopoo
Horrible. Be grateful that you can watch this film at home on your VCR, because you're gonna want to fast-forward through tiresomely amateurish, painfully unedited, faux-grotesque buffoonery being passed off as what? Horror? Art? Allegory? Nahhhh.
Every scene is too long and too concrete -- NOTHING is left for the viewer to imagine, because it's all played out with leaden heavy-handedness. How can you respect a film which assumes that its viewers are half-bright 11-year-olds? Jodorowsky likes to spill his guts, a concept which is exactly as interesting as it sounds.
American Beauty (1999)
Pretty fair, but a very weak second to The Simpsons.
Hasn't this been done a zillion times already? Bad marriages, mid-life crises, teen angst. Pick a cliche: Lolita confuses sex with love. Macho homophobe loathes his own homosexuality. Greedy people have no scruples. Old guys in sports cars are pathetic.
Nothing original or thought-provoking to see here, folks. Go on home, the show's over. DON'T look too closely.
Pi (1998)
Too much crust, not enough filling.
Disappointing! Too long by half. Interesting premise, but they apparently ran out of ideas (after ripping off the much more disturbing and authentic film, Clean, Shaven) and resorted to chase scenes and unconvincing mayhem.
With all the medication this poor guy was gobbling, and given his obviously deteriorating mental state, hadn't anyone considered prescribing anti-psychotics???
Wonderland (2000)
Welcome to Hell. Please take a number.
Flawless writing, wonderful acting, realistic dialogue, and lots of danger - real, imagined, implied. The patients on this locked psychiatric unit are extremely ill, clearly likely to harm themselves or others because of their mental sickness. They have the psychological equivalent of cancer, and they're not gonna get better by the end of the show, folks. Many of them will die unless they get a lot of care.
Speaking of which, the caregivers are human as well, meaning they suffer from the same maladies, albeit in smaller, more manageable (most of the time) doses. However, the writing is so good that the story never relies upon cliche: no "whacky but lovable" patients, and no "crazy shrinks". Everyone is portrayed as real humans with the same problems that you and I have to cope with. And just like in real life, sometimes you do your best but things get worse, not better.
The first episode was as good as anything I've ever seen on TV, and better than most commercial films. Watch it and be awed...