Running Out of Time (1999)

There's no pun intended with the title although I would be tempted to say so :) but it's not because in this case any "no time to write" excuse won't hold. Because "Running Out of Time" (or "Am Zin" as original title) is something for which if I wouldn't have time to write, I'll postpone it for another day. It's one of the few movies that I get to see during one year, that simply said are indeed heart touching. But it's late, I'm sleepy, and I have no idea from where to start with it. Anyway I'll make time for it :) only that there are chances to get a bit chaotic in the following ...

It's a film produced in '99 in Hong Kong, with a visibly small budget, and from what I managed to find out rapidly by a quick search, actually it was shot in pieces, between other projects directed by the same guy (Johnnie To - I'll come back later to him) and this happened throughout something like two years. But a bit about the story first ... We have two main characters, who are introduced during the first 15 minutes. One guy who is in a terminal state of disease with four weeks left to live, who after the visit paid to the doctor that brought him the news is shown gazing suicidally from the top of one of the Hong Kong sky scrappers. That's pretty much what we get for the start ... well, we can also infer from the two bill rolls paid to the physician that he's not exactly the most law abiding citizen ever. The second guy has an intro which is a bit longer, but I won't reveal it entirely. It's enough to say that he's a police inspector, apparently specialized in negotiations for crisis situations. Also, according to his CV you could say that he's the right candidate for the "policeman of the decade" title. Anyway, one day he's summoned for a hostage situation during taking place during an armed robbery on a bank - this is actually the intro sequence for the character, immediately following the one presenting us the first guy. If you already think that you know how the movie goes on .. well .. think again, or better watch it :) There are some surprises, not big, but there are ;)

If you spend some time to think on it after the end, the story of the movie is not that complicated, and it also doesn't have any major twists after all. But it's told that well that you don't realize this until the end credits :) You don't get unnecessary lengths, you have sufficient side threads to the plot prefectly integrated, and all these summed up result in a rhythm that doesn't leave you much time to "think ahead". You're sufficiently caught not to have time to make predictions about the final while you have your eyes on the screen. On a different note, this thing is also ensured somehow psychologically speaking by the fact that you're given from the start with something certain to happen (the dying guy mentioned above if it's not clear). But anyway, again, for the story, better watch the movie ;) it worth the time ...

For the rest as I said you can see the low budget or the HK style of doing movies - minimal costs for maximum profit. Despite all these, we get to hear a soundtrack that can compete without doubt with Hollywood. The cinematography and editing are ok for the amount seemed to be invested in the movie. We actually have a few shots which are quite nice. The actors, who sometimes in the Asian productions get a bit too theatrical are excellently cast here and you can't see the mentioned issue. Actually Andy Lau (the guy who's dying) got an HK Oscars equivalent award for the role during that year (which is quite significant considering that movies from that side of the world don't get a wide distribution usually and are unable to hit any western galas). The part where you can see the lack of budget is the effects and production design part which are sometimes a bit hilarious. But these, as other stuff, like the typical Asian "overdramatical" style that can be seen here & there, and some far fetched action points, can be overlooked. Because the rest is sufficiently good to make it possible.

Johnnie To is regarded as one of the top HK directors. I don't get too often to see movies from that side of the world, but up to this one I was a bit disagreeing about his appreciation. I've seen a while ago "Election" and "Election 2" by him, which attempt to be basically something like an Asian "Godfather". The outcome is good, but not sufficiently to be able to put the movies on par with similar titles from Hollywood. In the case of the current movie however we have something completely different from the usual mafia flick - although we have the mafia also here :) otherwise I wouldn't have made the reference to the others. It's in the end an example whyu you shouldn't avoid movies made in HK because they're .. again .. HK style made. In this case, you don't have neither the martial arts display with a rate of don't know how many punches and kicks at each 10 minutes nor tons of other violence or the mentioned overacting. It's finally an example (among many - and I'll refer again to the original of "The Departed": "Infernal Affairs"), for what can Hong Kong come up for a limited amount of money compared to the huge budgets on the other continent. It's a move that manages to mix a bit of everything: thriller, drama, comedy (yes, you get even a consistent part of this), action, romance, etc (well .. no SF .. tough luck :) ). It's sad and cheerful at the same time, bitter and bright, dark and bright in equal intensities. And all these are mixed in such a way that it manages to get emotionally intense enough to be remembered.

Rating: 5 out of 5

The most decent trailer version (subtitled) that I found .. as a rule, the HK trailers are usually bad & I'm not talking (only) about the video quality ...


The beginning, in case you're not convinced yet (no spoilers) ...


And a sample from the soundtrack ...

The Thing (2011)

Antarctica .. 1982 .. Winter .. (well .. Winter is pretty much all the time around there, even if it's called Summer once in a while). Near a Norwegian exploration station a discovery is made: a structure burred under the ice which looks like an alien shio. Not far away, frozen in a block of is found also .. the pilot (or how the title of the movie says - "The Thing"). Guess what happens next ?

Besides the invariable answer of "obviously, something bad", the biggest spoiler (that's so big that it doesn't make much sense for me to ignore it) is that the movie is not a remake for the 1982 John Carpenter's classic. It's a prequel. Well, that shouldn't tell much to somebody who didn't see the '82 movie. I've seen it long ago and I don't remember much, but still the fact that I've found out this is a prequel made pretty clear how it's gonna end. Well, surprise, it's not exactly like that. Anyway, going back to Carpenter's original, that's considered as one of the best horrors ever made. And you have to admit, that all the above context offers a perfect support for something like this. Imagine "Alien" (since it's not much until a prequel for this one too) set in an isolated research station in Antarctica. Besides that, about the creature, there is also probably the most important element, to quote a tagline from the original: "man is the warmest place to hide". Anyway from this start also the bad parts, to say it so ...

As I mentioned, it's been a while since I've seen the original, but I remember that I liked it. What I don't remember is if it had something that's basically granted by the context, but not to much exploited in the new version compared to the movie length at least. I'm talking about the lack of trust, which might go up to paranoid behavior, between the group members, given that it's not known "who is human and who is not". The movie could be 15 minutes longer, which 15 minutes should be dedicated to something like this. The psychological thrill provided by this context is barely exploited by the movie, maybe besides a scene or two (well, central to the movie, it's right). Besides that, as other points to criticize there are a bunch of scenes that don't add up, smth like (small spoilers below):

- "we must go and search for survivors where the chopper crashed"
- "not possible, that place can't be reached, we need another helicopter to go there"
(later in the evening, the two "survivors" are coming back on their own feet at the basecamp - and, well, "the thing" doesn't have wings if that's supposed somehow to explain)

or ...

- "and now what we're gonna do ?"
- "the closest station is a Russian one, at something like 80 km from here"
(the second day, a helicopter is tailing a dog that runs from the Norwegian base to an American one - or at least that should be the continuity with the movie from '82 even if it's not completely shown .. so .. to understand from this, that the dog ran more than 80 km with a chopper behind it)

And there are others too. To these, negatively speaking, you can add also the quality of the VFX which might be better than the '82 one but still far from the 2011 standards on a movie that has the Universal logo in the beginning. Anyway, long story short, I can't say that I lost my time with it. With all its issues, in the end what I wanted to see was a decent horror, not some Oscar material, and for that it was way better than, let's say .. the remakes from the last years of the initial versions of slasher series like "Friday the 13th" or "Nightmare on the Elm Street".

Rating: 3 out of 5

Anonymous (2011)

Since I only have something like four hours of sleep in the last 24 and I'm writing in a work break, I'll get straight to the point. "Anonymous" is a movie that handles a somehow delicate subject = who actually wrote Shakespeare's plays ? And obviously the answer to the question is not Shakespeare but an earl from the respective time, Edward de Vere, the reason behind this being to stay anonymous, considering that such creative activities weren't seen very well by the "politic class" of the age.

The movie is made by Roland Emmerich, who confirms me a hunch that he still has some chances to save his soul from "the movie directors Hell" after catastrophes, more or less figuratively speaking, as "Godzilla", "10000 BC" or even "Independence Day". There were at some point anyway "Stargate" (the movie), "The Patriot" (even with all the cliches in it) and now "Anonymous". And this last one is also probably his best movie up to date.

You don't have to expect here something similar to the previous titles. The movie is quite slow, compared to any of the above. It could be compared actually with the more politically correct version historically speaking = "Shakespeare in Love". Still, in this case the action becomes a bit soapy on the final taking the speculations to a level which is a bit too far I guess (reason to gain the right to be considered by some a complete blasphemy not only regarding the literature history of England, but history itself). Despite all that is a movie deserving to be seen, at least for the role made by Rhys Ifans as lead character (first time when I see this guy in this position in a movie). And after all, if there is something like "The DaVinci Code" that can be watched in a relaxed note without taking it too seriously ( if you don't want that, obviously ;) ), why not ? It's just a movie :)

Rating:
subjectively - 3 out of 5 (because to be honest I'm not very interested by the subject)
objectively - 4 out of 5 (because if you do a harsh evaluation is better than "The Patriot")

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

Beware ... I'm gonna have a loooong intro :) so have patience with me this time, this movie deserves it ... I've chosen it due to lots of reasons (well .. three) 1. I didn't get to see anything this week, and I don't know if I will so I had to search my memory for something older. And I remembered I mentioned this when I was writing not so long ago about the Oscar nominees for cinematography, which leads to ... 2. Normally, I'm not doing this, and I might actually be sorry that I'm doing it = I'm not spending time analyzing after February what "resulted" from the Oscar related entries. But ... Since I blew it again with the cinematography prediction, for the third consecutive year, I said myself to compensate (sort to speak ...) with something that's absolutely delightful for this part. That would be the second reason for this entry. However, to cool off after the failure of the mentioned prediction, I have to get a bit off topic first: after I watched, live, how "Hugo" grabbed the Oscar for cinematography, I said that I'll give up on predictions .. after which I decided to do a small statistical study and IMDb says something like: Emmanuel Lubezki - "Tree of Life" - 16 wins ; Robert Richardson - "Hugo" - 1 win (the Oscar). One! - a sole award - until this date, worldwide (well, according to what's on IMDb) ... and like this I remembered (again ..) that what I'm doing year by year in February is less important regarding what finally the Academy says, and more .. I repeat myself in order that I'll also get what I'm saying .. and more because it gives the opportunity to write about some movies that usually worth seeing .. And now back on topic, sorry for the unfulfilled Nostradamus frustrations thrown away in public: 3. Finally, the last reason on the list is that "The Man Who Wasn't There" fits perfectly with my current state of spirit. No details, in case it's not yet obvious, because this intro already gets chances to get longer than what follows ...

The movie is probably one of the titles having less impact made by the Coen brothers. But it features the same dark humor, dry and sometimes harsh, brought to a level that's quite rarely achieved these days. The result is a film-noir having an intrigue which is apparently simple at least through the perspective of the characters and of the location. Somewhere, in a small town, in the '60s in US, a barber has a life that appears to be the definition of monotony. During the day he's doing haircuts at the workplace, in the evenings has dinner with his wife and occasionally having invited the couple of owners of the shop where his wife is an accountant. This, despite the fact that the husband from that couple is obviously our's barber's wife secret lover. So .. this goes on day-by-day .. Until one of them, when a client disturbs the normal schedule of the barbershop with a haircut request exactly at the closing time. Fact that breaks into the daily monotonous activity, especially that the client is not a local one but apparently an entrepreneur looking for an investment. 10000$ for a dry cleaners - the last invention on the market - a guaranteed success. What happens next ... it's in the movie :)

I come back with a couple of words about the cinematography. The movie tries to be a noir one for this purpose being switched to black-and-white as main release version. The original is however in color, this is how I've seen it and this is how I recommend it. It is I guess the best cinematography that I've seen in the last 12 months at least. And if some time ago (= "No Country for Old Men" ca sa fiu mai exact) Roger Deakins seemed overrated to me as photography director, during the last year I've started to appreciate him a lot. If the visuals of a movie mean enough to you (= not only the subject is the most important) I recommend from all my heart to see this one. It's not to be missed.

Let me not be misunderstood .. you also have a subject, and it's as tangled and unpredictable apparently as other titles made by Coen brothers. Billy Bob Thornton has an extraordinary role - but the part that lifts it is the script. I'm not always on the same vibe with the Coen brothers, especially when the get into crappy philosophy (see the hugely overrated title above), but in this case the story is said through a monologue .. which monologue, has a series of parts sufficiently deep or if not deep, extremely well placed, to worth some appreciation. I had only one issue with the movie .. the ending .. I would have liked something different - and for this I can say that the rating below is subjectively lower. But risking a sort of spoiler (which I'll try to make as cryptic as possible :) ), I assume that other ending would have contradict the basis idea which is emphasized from beginning to the end in the movie. I like anyway to believe, that it could have been forced a slightly different context ;) keeping exactly the same monologue I was saying, almost unmodified up to the end ...

It's like pulling away from the maze. While you're in the maze, you go through willy nilly, turning where you think you have to turn; banging into the dead ends. One thing after another. But you get some distance on it, and all those twists and turns, why, they're the shape of your life. It's hard to explain. But seeing it whole gives you some peace.

Rating: 4 out of 5