Reviews

I'm a huge fan of both the Western and Samurai film genres and so when I saw the trailers to The Last Samurai I felt a keen excitement, only to be disappointed when business took me away from English language movie theaters during the film's theatrical release. I snapped the film up the first day it became available on DVD and settled in to enjoy the film at last...and settled deeper in, and deeper in...is the film unending or does it only seem like it? Tom Cruise is wonderful – and I'm not particularly a fan – and Watanabe is great as his Samurai counterpart and the action sequences are rousingly filmed, but the filmmakers failed to remain true to the spirit of their story and so fall into ham-handed cliches, melodrama, and empty sentimentality. The director and writer, it seems, wanted not only to give the Tom Cruise the glorious death in battle that centers the film, but to keep him alive to save the Emperor from the wicked ways of the west AND to get the girl in the end, too. The filmmakers want to have their cake and eat it too, and so they made a film that gives the viewer neither.

I grew up watching the old, crotchety, gruff John Wayne, the iconic hero of the right wing, and even though I'd seen some of his early films on television, I'd forgotten what a sexy and compelling presence he had when a young man. It's easy to see while watching his performance how this film made him a star. As great as Wayne is in this film, he doesn't overshadow any of his fellow performers. Thomas Mitchell plays the drunken doctor thrown out of town, a performance that earned him an Academy Award. Andy Devine is hilarious as the complaining, squeaky voiced stagecoach driver. John Carradine is sleek and snake-like as the gambler. Claire Trevor gives a heartbreaking turn as the good-hearted whore thrown out of town by pious hypocrites. Donald Meek plays his name, a meek whiskey salesman befriended by the whiskey-loving Doc. Each actor quickly and deftly sketches his character so vividly that every performance is memorable.

But the real star of the show is John Ford, the director. To introduce and define nine characters in the context of a fast-paced western is no easy task, and he accomplishes it in masterly fashion. Much of the action takes place in the limited confines of a stagecoach, but Ford takes advantage of the limits by staging brilliant and subtle bits between characters; John Wayne casts sultry glances at Clare Trevor, who blossoms under his glance, the young calvary wife's eyes glaze over as the banker pontificates, and Doc sneaks sips of whiskey from the samples case while he solicitously keeps the wind from chilling the whiskey salesman. When the action moves outside, he films the action in dynamic angles and stunts that were the most daring of its time.

If you enjoy westerns and haven't seen this, you have a great night of film-watching ahead of you. And if the last time you saw Stagecoach was some midnight years ago when you wandered home for a bit of the late show before bedtime, watch it again and rediscover what a great western it is

Ying xiong, or Hero, is one of the most visually beautiful films I've ever seen. The cinematographer is to be congratulated, certainly, but the film's visual design likely springs from the director's imagination. Each shot is brilliantly conceived and composed for color, movement and light. The director, Yimou Zhang, does for drapery in film what Sandro Bottecelli did for drapery in Renaissance painting; he gives it a suppleness and volume that makes it come alive. At times, the beauty of the setting and staging was so audacious I gasped, and so I was set up perfectly to be moved by the drama and the characters.

If the sight of Albert Brooks in red bikini briefs turns you on, this is your film. If the idea of Albert Brooks in red bikini briefs doesn't turn you on, you may wish to skip this one. Even fans of Albert Brooks – and I'm one – may find the image burned horribly into their minds. Some things are just not meant to be seen.

I rented this film in DVD form without knowing anything at all about it, part of a winter marathon of watching a film every night. After several awful American action adventure films (Ballistic, Daredevil, Cradle of Life) Zhu Warriors struck me as brilliantly original filmmaking. The story is complete nonsense, but I found the film's sincerity, good- heartedness and complete lack of irony refreshing, and the film looks spectacular. Sure, the special effects are not technically as flawless as those produced by Hollywood, but the filmmakers wisely are more interested in color, composition and movement than realism and so many of the shots are breathtaking. In one shot, two of the superhuman characters stand on craggy spires of rock, a huge moon rising before them, the image perfectly balanced by the three elements. In another, a princess-warrior spires through the heavens behind her glowing sword like a heat-seeking missile. And the colors explode from shot to shot, used to express emotion rather than to represent reality.

The characters have the same simplicity and directness of comic book characters, offering no great depth in themselves but referring to archtypes that resonate more deeply. Physically, several of the actors are astonishingly beautiful. They play their roles straight up, without irony or guile, and so are believable.

Most strange of all, despite the clumsiness of plot and thin characterizations, I found myself very near tears at the end, moved by the beautiful simplicity of the actors and the wildly original, good-hearted vision of the director.

Daredevil probably edges out The Cradle of Life as the worst adventure film of 2003 if only because Angela Jolie is watchable and Ben Affleck is not. Both are equally misconceived, horribly scripted and execrably directed. Both are moderately enjoyable to watch as camp, in the way the Plan 9 From Outer Space is enjoyable. If you rent either of these films, don't worry about pausing the DVD when you take that inevitable trip to the refrigerator - you won't miss anything anyway.

Bill Friedkin, Academy Award winner and director of one of the all time great films in The French Connection, has never fulfilled the promise shown in the films he directed in the 1970's, but even this flawed film is more interesting than most action films released in the past few years. The concept is so tired it's trite - ex-special forces soldier suffering from stress syndrome goes haywire - but it provides Friedkin and his two actors, Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro, the opportunity to construct the film as a near continuous chase sequence. Tommy Lee Jones may look a little long in the tooth to pull off the physical action required of his role as the retired military arts instructor but he infuses the character with great kinetic energy. Watch what he does with his hands in the scene in which he admits to the FBI agent that even though he's trained killers all his life he's never personally killed anyone: I've rarely seen an actor look so convincingly uncomfortable with what fate requires him to do.

If you think too deeply about the logic of the film you'll end up hating it, but the chase sequences are well constructed and Tommy Lee Jones performance goes a long way toward redeeming the rest.

This is one of those films I like in theory much more than practice. The characters are deftly if lightly drawn, from Jennifer Aniston as a retail clerk watching life pass her by to John O'Reilly as a house painter gliding through life on reefer smoke, and the plot dashes forward from one madcap scene to another to an unexpected but satisfying conclusion. But I could not decide, while watching, whether the film wanted to be a comedy or melodrama. I certainly didn't laugh very often, nor did I feel an intense connection to any of the characters. I liked them all, found them amusing and wanted them to do well in life, but I didn't take the characters any more seriously than they took themselves, which was not seriously at all. But then, most lives hover between comedy and melodrama (mine does) so the film is true to life in this way.