DOUGH BOYS – director: Nicholas Harvell; starring: Arlen Escarpeta, Wood Harris, Cory Hardict, Mo, Lorenzo Eduardo, Sticky Fingaz

There is part of me that would like to think that if I had never seen Menace II Society, or Juice, or Boyz ‘n the ‘Hood, or any of the other urban dysfunctional dramas that have come out over the years, that I might think Dough Boys was a halfway decent film. But the truth is that even if I had never seen these other films—and I have, so pretending I haven’t is pointless—it doesn’t change the fact that Dough Boys isn’t a very good movie. Now, I don’t want to be overly negative, but at the same time, if I were to adhere to the “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” school of film criticism, this review would end right here. (more…)

CONNECTED - director: Benny Chan, starring: Louis Koo, Barbie Hsu, Nick Cheung

For decades there has been a back-and-forth exchange of creative influences between Hollywood and Hong Kong. John Woo was heavily influenced by Sam Peckinpah, and in turn Woo’s The Killer and Hardboiled helped rewrite the book on how action was presented in Hollywood films. For a long time, this relationship of Hong Kong influencing Hollywood and vice versa was limited primarily to loving homages and unabashed rip-offs, but seldom did it manifest in legitimate remakes. Perhaps the best known example of a remake is Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, which had been made earlier in Hong Kong as Infernal Affairs. The Departed and Infernal Affairs served as a great example of how Hollywood could take an exceptional film from Hong Kong, and do it justice. Now, Hong Kong has taken a not-so-exceptional film, the 2004 action thrill Cellular, and turned it into the much better Connected. (more…)

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 - director: Tony Scott; starring: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro, Luis Guzman

The word “classic” is thrown around a bit too carelessly these day when it comes to films, making it some sort of magical adjective used to describe movies that by some arbitrary set of sensibilities have been deemed worthy of being classical. Unfortunately, not every film that is called a classic really is a classic, as some films, while being great are simply just that, great. For any film to truly be a classic, it needs to reach a level of excellence that all movies strive for, but few ever achieve. And then decades later, if the film in question still holds up—if the writing is still finely crafted, the acting still solid and capable, and the direction still effectively evokes the sort of emotional response it was intended to evoke—then and only then can it be considered as possibly being a classic. Understanding this is crucial to understanding why the original 1974 version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a classic. (more…)

PUNISHER: WAR ZONE – director: Lexi Alexander; starring: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Colin Salmon

Really, when you stop and think about it, there really isn’t a character better suited for an easy transition from the comic book page to the movie screen than Marvel’s Punisher. Loaded down with enough fire power to stop an army, decked out in a black outfit emblazoned with a skull, and no super powers other than the ability to kill criminals, the Punisher is about as no-frills as comic book characters get. There’s no convincing a movie audience he can fly, or that he transforms into a giant green monster, or that he has enhanced strength from being bitten by a spider. But despite the simplicity of the character, the last two attempts at bringing the Punisher to life—an idiotic 1988 adaptation starring Dolph Lundgren and an even more abysmal 2004 version starring Thomas Jane—have ranked among the more craptacular comic book movies. And those two miserable failures are either enough to make you wonder why anyone would make another Punisher movie, or give you cynical hope that at least there’s nowhere to go but up. (more…)

WATCHMEN – director: Zack Snyder; starring: Jackie Earl Haley, Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Ackerman, Matthew Goode

Sooner or later there was going to be a Watchmen movie. It was inevitable. Sure, a lot of people said it was unfilmable; but that wasn’t going to stop Hollywood. It was only a matter of time, and a matter of how bad the cinematic adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic twelve-issue comic book series was going to be. (more…)

STONE – director: Sandy Harbutt; starring: Ken Shorter, Sandy Harbutt

The low-budget American biker flick came into its own in the 1960s, and with a few exceptions, was pretty much played out by the end of the decade. Easy Rider is considered to be the crowning achievement in the genre—a transformative bit of filmmaking that managed to turned an otherwise exploitative flick into art. After Easy Rider, biker flicks in America quickly gave way to other types of B-movies, but in Australia, in the early 1970s, one of the best biker films of all time was just getting ready to come out. Produced, directed, co-written by and starring Sandy Harbutt, Stone, while not nearly as well known in America, remains a seminal entry in the biker genre. (more…)

VICE - director: Raul Sanchez Inglis; Starring: Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Mykelti Williamson, Mark Boone Junior

It takes the culmination of many factors to make a truly great movie, but it only takes one thing to make a truly bad movie. That one thing, of course, is the script. If a script is bad, there is no chance at all—as in none—that a movie will ever be any good. It doesn’t matter if the cast is good, the direction competent, the cinematography and the editing all up to par, if the script sucks, so too shall the film itself. And that’s the problem with Vice. (more…)

BURN AFTER READING - directors: Joel and Ethan Coen; starring: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand

Sometimes it takes a while to figure out if a film by Joel and Ethan Coen is really any good. That’s to say that some of their films require multiple viewings and time for rumination in order to be fully processed. Sure, it was evident with films like The Big Lebowski, Fargo and No Country for Old Men that these were incredible movies. Others, like The Man Who Wasn’t There and The Hudsucker Proxy, take time and repeated viewings to fully appreciate (the jury is still out on Intolerable Cruelty). And then there is Burn After Reading, their first film since winning a Best Picture Oscar for No Country for Old Men, which, for whatever strong points it may have, is certainly not an instant classic. (more…)

BANGKOK DANGEROUS – directors: Oxide and Danny Pang; starring:Pavarit Mongkolpisit, Persiminee Ratanasopha, Patharawarin Timkul, Pisek Intrakanchit

Twin filmmakers Danny and Oxide Pang are best known for the original version of The Eye, a creepy thriller that spawned several sequels and a bad American remake. But it was their earlier film, the award-winning Bangkok Dangerous—which has since been remade by them and stars Nicolas Cage—that first brought the Hong Kong-born brothers international attention. Produced in Thailand, Bangkok Dangerous was an ambitious mix of visually stylish cinema and exploitation flicks that helped usher in the new wave of Thai film. (more…)

BELLY 2: MILLIONAIRE BOYZ CLUB – director: Ivan Frank; starring: The Game, Sheri Headley, Michael K. Williams

The great thing about direct-to-video market is that it has created an opportunity for a vast array of sequels to films that no one really wanted to see sequels of in the first place. We’ve all seen these titles on the shelves at our local video store, and thought to ourselves, “How do the second, third and fourth Posion Ivy films stack up to the original?” I mean come on…who hasn’t cast a curious glance at American Pyscho II: All American Girl, and found themselves thinking, “I bet that really sucks”? And yet, for whatever reason, far too many people end up watching our fair share of these insidious sequels that often have little or nothing to do with the original film in the franchise. (more…)