fastfoodi Reviews

The Dead Outside (2008)

A Poor Man's 28 Days Later...

[4/10 · 14 March 2010]

Completely derivative, and not very rewarding. Although the talent of the filmmakers involved is evident, they sabotage themselves by working with completely empty content. Badly written, badly acted and repetitive, the film failed to justify its running time. THE DEAD OUTSIDE works for about 15 minutes, after which its lack of momentum makes it hard to sit through. I suspect it would probably have made a good short film, however.

It has been mentioned that the film "expects a lot from its audience", but this isn't quite true. There was far too much exposition in some scenes. The characters and their stories are simply not very interesting. It's a common thing to see in an indie, but the extent to which bad acting can weigh down even a good script *cannot* be overstated. I'm sure THE DEAD OUTSIDE will be the cast and crew's ticket to bigger/better things, but as a cinema experience it simply is not up to par.

I'll try and contextualize my score by listing scores for the last couple of indies I've seen:

RULE OF THREE (Eric Shapiro). Good acting for an indie. Reasonably good Script. Terribly shot, terrible music. 5/10

INK (Jamin Winans). Some pretty good ideas, hugely ambitious and elaborate production. Weak execution and bad acting. 5/10

SHALLOW GROUND (Sheldon Wilson). A bloody mess. Nonsensical plot. An exercise in pointlessness. 3/10

THE DEAD OUTSIDE (Kerry Anne Mullaney). A technically competently lensed film, but lacking any real focus or originality. Badly acted, boring script, repetitive sound design. 4/10

Genius Party Beyond (2008)

A visual treat, falls just short of the first...

[7/10 · 5 July 2009]

GALA (dir. Masahiro Maeda) 7/10 Conventional tale in the vein of PRINCESS MONONOKE, but with a poignant and redeeming conclusion. Its traditional visual style and eco-friendly message makes this short the most accessible of the bunch.

JIGEN BAKUDAN (DIMENSION BOMB) (dir. Kôji Morimoto) 9/10 A somewhat abstruse sci-fi story told via awesome, highly stylized animation by the director of BEYOND. Powerful post-apocalyptic imagery and a pounding techno soundtrack make this the best entry of the lot.

MOONDRIVE (dir. Kazuto Nakazawa) 6/10 Manga-styled comic animation about a ragtag group of individuals on a weird hunt for a treasure-map. The distinct visual style is interesting but film remains ultimately less engaging than it should be.

WANWA THE DOGGY(dir. Shinya Ohara) 8/10 Genuinely unique visuals employed flawlessly in a tale about a small child lost in the surreal world of his over-active imagination. This one reminded me quite a bit of HAPPY MACHINE from GENIUS PARTY.

TOUJIN KIT (dir. Tatsuyuki Tanaka) 7/10 A subdued story about a girl raising strange creatures in hiding, in a society where they are considered harmful and hunted down by the law. Various common police-state themes abound. Although slick presentation fails to raise this one above par, it remains extremely watchable.

FINAL SCORE: 7/10 Shorter and less satisfying than its predecessor, but still easy to recommend. A must for animation fans.

Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (2008)

An ill-advised venture.

[6/10 · 7 January 2009]

The new scenes are nicely executed for the most part, but completely unnecessary. As eye-candy on their own, they're not particularly impressive either. Further, they tend to break the flow of the film, especially when cutting directly from the new CG to the cel-animated original. Clearly, the entire film should have been revisited rather than this selective and perfunctory approach to an update. It reeks of something George Lucas would do (i say that negatively) and sadly, GITS2.0 fails to live up to his much more seamless updates of the original STAR WARS films.

More importantly, some shots lose their original intent somewhat, for example the scene where Motoko rises to the surface during her dive; also the angel-vision that Motoko has just prior to being blasted by snipers was diluted. There are little details added here and there like rain etc, which do add to the atmosphere, but ultimately i was left wondering about the intentions of the people that carried out this re-envisioning. I cannot for a moment believe that Oshii was consulted regarding small but important decisions like changing the sex of the Puppet Master from male to female. In the absence of the original director's blessing, i have no choice but to condemn what seems to be a superficial attempt at re-marketing a classic.

As an introduction to the franchise, GITS2.0 is still more than adequate, but it merely offers a diminished and disjointed experience compared to watching the original.

The sound FX are improved, although lacking in subtlety. Other user-comments suggest music was redone but i detected no apparent changes.

I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2006)

A Colossal Misfire

[4/10 · 19 July 2008]

Chan Wook Park is nothing if not inventive. I'M A CYBORG BUT THAT'S OK is chock full of amusing little technical flourishes with some ingenious ideas sprinkled in between. Attempting to walk in the footsteps of the likes of Marc Caro and Jeunet (CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, DELICATESSEN), Park embarks on a fanciful, lighthearted tale which is a radical departure from his usual morbid fare. Hardly one to be faulted for his ambition or his vision, it is genuinely unexpected, then, to see all Park's effort add up to so very little.

I'M A CYBORG BUT THAT'S OK seems astonishingly to subtract from itself as it goes along, with the the end result being a fraction of the sum of its parts. The premise is promising, gags are copious and offbeat humour abounds but it all fails miserably to create any meaningful connection with the audience. The characters are cute and quirky and played with gusto by the cast, but, try as i might, i could not bring myself to care for any.

SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE was a misstep, indicating perhaps that Park was overindulging himself a little bit, but it still managed to showcase some of the director's unique flare and in the wake of an impressive filmography, was readily forgiven. None of the assured confidence that commanded JOINT SECURITY AREA or SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE is evident here. I'M A CYBORG BUT THAT'S OK left me so utterly unengaged i caught myself instinctively fast forwarding from time to time (more regularly as the film progressed). I gave LADY a 5/10, and by that measure, this probably deserves no more than a 3. For old time's sake, i'll be generous: 4/10

No Mercy for the Rude (2006)

Reasonably competent until atrocious finale...

[5/10 · 19 July 2008]

Flick was reasonably competent until an absolutely disastrous final 10 minutes (actually the final 10 minutes felt more like an hour, and the music, dear lord the music...)

NO MERCY FOR THE RUDE starts out as a confident, fast-talking, self-referential black comedy.. with what would seem like some genuine potential.. Although not terribly original at all, the movie has a charm which so many Korean movies share. Unfortunately, repetition sets in around midway.

Ha-kyun Shin, so great in films like SAVE THE GREEN PLANET and MURDER, TAKE ONE is more than capable of carrying a film, and does not disappoint here either. His character was eerily reminiscent of the actor's role in SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE, in which he also suffers from a disability of one of the senses. Oddly enough, the love interest also seems to resemble the anarchist-chick from SYMPATHY.. anyhow, similarities between the two films end there.

Ultimately, the movie thinks it's smarter than it actually is. The snarky voice-over, although initially endearing, eventually begins to grate. All said, i'd have given the movie a respectable 6/10, but that would have been before i suffered through the atrocious ending. Only in Korea can emotional melodrama become so pandering and drawn-out (well, on second thought there's always Bollywood)

5/10

The Chaser (2008)

Almost-great suspense-thriller

[7/10 · 18 July 2008]

A well-executed thriller that doesn't rise to the level of a film like the flawless MEMORIES OF MURDER, but is extremely suspenseful and entertaining nonetheless. It certainly gets points for trying.

A clear evisceration of Police incompetence and to a lesser extent, the sex-trade, CHASER makes nary a misstep right up until the final quarter, when coincidence and melodrama, heretofore tightly controlled, seem to slip out of hand. I cannot convey how much i hate it every time this happens.

It is Yun-Seok Kim's kinetic lead performance that anchors this movie. His moral crisis is palpable and his desperation is entirely believable. The audience feels just as helpless as he does, and as time continues to run out, the suspense is masterfully maintained. The film's attempts at addressing some big ideas are commendable and mostly it succeeds, but the overly sentimental and improbable final series of events just squanders some well-earned authenticity (the unnecessary single-frame inserts of the recently deceased girl and her daughter are a case in point).

One other constantly niggling nitpick is the colossal level of physical violence the characters seem to be able to absorb. This becomes altogether absurd during the final showdown.

CHASER just barely misses an 8/10 in my book, but is still recommended to fans of the genre.

Our Town (2007)

Interesting exploration of serial killing..

[7/10 · 18 July 2008]

I'll try and say a bit about the film without giving too much away..

OUR TOWN is an interesting and well-told story exploring the motivations of serial killers, and the circumstances/experiences which leave a person vulnerable to the particular urges a killer may feel. It's intelligent and thought-provoking. The main character (the aspiring writer) has an unmistakable charisma and gave a great performance. Secondary players were also more than up to the task.

I liked how the so-called serial killer triad of behaviors i.e. bed-wetting, animal-torture and fire-starting, was implied rather than spelled out, and the main character seemed initially to be channeling Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov (unfortunately, this promising development breaks down later as his childhood experiences are revealed).

The movie is , however, far from perfect.. and it is most unfortunate that its flaws, in my view, could have been easily remedied. Firstly, and most importantly, the flashbacks were immediately confusing. It was unclear which younger actor represented which elder kid in which flashback. This was a significant hindrance as the flashbacks are numerous and play an important role in fleshing out the three primary characters (also the jumps in time could have been dealt with more smoothly somehow, they tended to be a bit jarring and disorienting). Secondly, the subtitles at the screening i attended were inadequate. Many instances of Korean text appearing on screen were left untranslated, despite being obviously essential to the plot. It was fairly easy to infer more or less what information was being conveyed, but it disturbed the overall experience of the film significantly. On a lesser note, there is a glaringly distracting shot where a young girl who is supposed to be dead can CLEARLY be seen to be breathing. I would not normally complain about something as minor as this, but this actually leads to a brief spell of confusion since she appeared so obviously alive. Hence the simple "goof" graduates to incompetence.

Had these two major flaws not existed, OUR TOWN might have garnered an 8. As it stands, it gets a 7 on the strength of its story (Perhaps the DVD release will have better subtitles, so that problem may not be an issue for home viewers). It's a strong effort and unlike many Korean films of this nature, it thankfully didn't derail into hokeyness at the end of the final act (ala A BITTERSWEET LIFE, CHASER, NO MERCY FOR THE RUDE etc. etc. ad infinitum!).

Black Belt (2007)

Poetic and powerful

[8/10 · 17 July 2008]

Disregard kobushi's review. His years of experience practicing karate have apparently clouded his judgment considerably. No one save perhaps himself and a handful of others cares a hoot about the true to life mechanics of real-world karate. Suffice to say his approach to the film is laughable in its narrow-mindedness.

The film presents a deceptively simple and elegantly told martial arts fable, set against a backdrop of an increasingly militarized japan. The fight scenes , tho admirably staged and completely credible (and shocking in their immediacy), are merely the seasoning on a powerful tale of good vs. evil. The stylistic flourishes and acrobatic excesses which plague most other martial arts movies are completely absent, and that is a welcome and long overdue development. The script seamlessly fuses the protagonists' journeys of self-discovery with the setting in which the story unfolds. The director's calm, measured approach is refreshing in its economy, a rare thing in a martial arts film. There is a charming honesty about the whole project that makes it difficult to resist..

As the two protagonists wrestle with their own diametrically opposed natures and strive to discover the secret of their training, the inevitable standoff between them is subdued but satisfying, like the film itself. The supporting characters (and I'm thinking mainly of the evil army general), though two-dimensional, are well-written and performed. The acting is uniformly excellent, a laudable accomplishment since apparently many of the martial artists are non-actors..

More than likely the film will be derided by the ADD generation, but i thought it was a welcome return to the style of old Japanese classic films (Reminiscent also of early Bruce Lee movies, in content as well as in spirit). It isn't pretentious or abstruse enough to be labelled an art film, and it shuns the spectacle of mainstream schlock. Kuro-Obi is a humble, poetic film both funny and moving.. and is adorned with a beautiful musical score.

a resounding 8/10

Rule of 3 (2008)

Promising concept held back by indie credentials..

[5/10 · 17 July 2008]

Fitfully involving, despite some good ideas and a decent script exploring some darkly comic moral ambiguities...

I recognize its independent origins, but the bland lensing and terrible musical score really did not help. Ben Siegler's impressive performance deserves mention. Other supporting cast members were uneven at best, tho i did guiltily enjoy Rodney Eastman's drug-dealer character.

Although it presents an intriguing mystery, and is inventively told via jumps in time, the movie seemed to progress without generating any real suspense at all. Paring down some of the exposition (as well as some predictable, over-long exchanges) and drawing out the more important plot developments would probably have given the film a much more engaging rhythm and created a more visceral drama..

Fear(s) of the Dark (2007)

An ambitious experiment in B&W animated horror-suspense

[8/10 · 17 July 2008]

A short preface: the device of chopping up and interspersing the segments was not completely successful, in my opinion. The individual episodes would have been more cohesive and effective if each had been told uninterrupted, and this would have benefited the film as a whole.

Richard Mcguire's final segment was far and away the most inventive in the use of shadow/light, and i think was easily the most elaborate and accomplished of all the segments (hence my decision to begin with it). His short alone would have warranted a recommendation for PEUR(S) DU NOIR. (thankfully the producers chose to leave this one intact, and it serves as a glorious ending to this collection. Splendid! 9/10

Lorenzo Mattotti's young-boy-reminiscing/mysterious-beast tale comes in a close second for me.. i especially liked its superb gunshots-in-the-dark climax. 8/10

The impressionistic, primal style of Blutch's opening segment (wild dogs being led around London by a sadistic handler) was more disturbing than frightening (that said, it was hardly unenjoyable), and offered some of the more haunting images of the movie (i daresay this short suffered the most from being split up). A seamless telling would have netted an 8/10, but as it stands, i give this a 7/10

I wasn't so impressed with Charles Burns' segment (creepy tale about a young lad being dominated by a mysterious love interest), although it had its own perverse charm. Reminded me instantly of the Black Hole comics in its artistic style as well as its psycho-sexual overtones (no surprise, then, when i discovered they share the same author!). This one squeaks past 6 to 7/10

Marie Caillou's tale was the least memorable primarily because of its flash-animated visual style. Still, it was surreal and interesting. Once again, this suffered from being told episodically. 6/10

If i had to pick an overall weakness in particular, it would be Pierre Di Scullo's freestyle monologue linking the segments. Occasionally amusing as it was, its accompanying abstract visuals were disappointingly uninspired. Not only was it thematically somewhat incongruent with the rest of the film, the absence of this light-hearted intermission would have made the film more powerful in its entirety (no doubt the intention of the film-makers WAS to afford audiences a brief respite every few minutes from the terror , i felt this decision unnecessary) 5/10

Overall score: an impressive 8/10 (bumped up from 7 thanks to Mcguire)

Batman: Gotham Knight (2008 Video)

An Embarrassment.

[5/10 · 5 July 2008]

If i was in Nolan's shoes , id be very, very glad this wasn't being promoted as being more directly linked with the upcoming release of THE DARK KNIGHT, although some will no doubt connect the two.. It is purported to "fill in" the chronological gap between BATMAN BEGINS and TDK, but this claim is overblown hype at best. Two of the segments deal with the gang war between Maroni and The Russian, but there is absolutely NO vital or even interesting back-story information here. Pay no heed to the yappings of hormone-addled fanboys.

As it stands, BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT is a collection of bad or mediocre stories bookended by two pretty good ones. First segment was easily the best one animation-wise (Shoujirou Nishimi worked on TEKKON KINKREET), and i'd put it on par with the last one story-wise (they both get a 7/10). As for the crap in between, the less said the better. Bad writing, bad animation. Even the presence of highly regarded writers like Azarello and Rucka seems arbitrary. I don't expect much from Goyer but at least his segment was actually passable. Barely.

In summation: Embarrassing. Huge potential shamelessly squandered. One would expect at least something on the level of the "Batman: Black & White" comics content-wise. BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT is being regarded as another ANIMATRIX. but that is really just insulting to the Wachowskis' work. Whereas that film delved into the matrix mythology via genuinely intriguing stories (and a top notch presentation), BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT is no more than a pathetic cash-in.

Genius Party (2007)

A collection of shorts ranging from BRILLIANT to WTF. Tending towards former.

[8/10 · 4 July 2008]

Genius Party Opening: 9/10 Abstract animation doesn't get better than this. Reminiscent of MIND GAME, although director Masaaki Yuasa wasn't involved here. Uplifting techno soundtrack complemented the visuals well.

Shanghai Dragon: 9/10 Superb crowd pleaser. An adrenalized action-thrill-ride that avoids stylistic cues of other hyper-kinetic films like DEAD LEAVES or FLCL.. (not that there's anything wrong with them..) and very funny to boot. Flawless direction and pacing. This is a minor anime masterpiece.

Deathtic 4: 8/10 Conspicuously Tim Burtonesque stylings utilized to great effect. Inventive and unexpected use of CG throughout. Hilariously dark.

(thus far GENIUS PARTY was turning out to be ridiculously good. Too good to be true apparently... )

Doorbell: 7/10 Solid little psychological yarn about multiple selves/personalities vying for dominance. Unfortunately, bogged down by substandard animation (the worst of the bunch) which was all the more ostensible after having just sat through the first three installments. I liked the story so it still gets a 7 from me.

Limit Cycle: 5/10 Others will probably be less lenient with this one than me.. but the visuals were great. If ONLY the pointless rumination actually meant something or went somewhere. Promising early on, the over-intellectualizing quickly spirals into repetition and utter confusion. Cutting the length in half would have EASILY salvaged this. Director has an inexplicable James Dean fixation.

Happy Machine: 8/10 A surrealist moving take on early childhood and growing up. Cute, funny and original.

Baby Blue: 7/10 A sentimental tale in the vein of the work of Makoto Shinkai (VOICES FROM A DISTANT STAR), except not animated nearly as well as his stuff, which is a shame as it's a well-written short that manages to dodge most of the clichés that rid this kind of story.

FINAL SCORE 8/10 recommended without reservation.