REBEL MOON! TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS! IT'S A REVIEW ROUNDUP.
Because I wrote two reviews in as many weeks, PLEASE CLAP.
Sofia Boutella sez: A pew pew, yibble yibble yibble!
I am woefully late in sharing last week’s Roger Ebert dot com review, for which I apologize. In my meagre defense, Jene and I were beach-bumming it up on Fire Island, and I did not have my computer on me. Go figure! Now you get two (2) reviews in one week, what a bargain! I like both of these reviews, too, so hopefully there’s something here that you’ll enjoy…
First up is my Roger Ebert dot com review of the new director’s cut of Rebel Moon, parts 1 and 2. I previously reviewed the shorter—as in a combined 120 minutes shorter—versions of these two lifeless Star Wars/Seven Samurai ripoffs. And I’m glad I watched these R-rated new director’s cuts, because they do clarify director Zack Snyder’s vision, such as it is. Rebel Moon’s still not great though and I stand by my preliminary description of Snyder’s project as “overproduced van art cinema.”
Louis Koo sez: FIGHT ME.
Next up: Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, the hotly anticipated Hong Kong action spectacular starring a pantheon of HK stars, including Sammo Hung, Louis Koo, and Aaron Kwok, and featuring new fight choreography from Kenji Tanigaki, who is on a tear. This review was written before I saw Trap, which I really like, but I still think Twilight of the Warriors is the crowd-pleaser to beat this summer. I’m always interested in what director Soi Cheang gets up to, though it always takes me time to fall in love with his work. The most extreme example being when I did a full 180 on Dog Bite Dog, Cheang’s seedy/beautiful hard-boiled neo-noir, after initially haaaating it. At some point, I’ll crack open my Shamo blu-ray…though who knows when…
In the meantime, I am enjoying the retrospective attention Cheang’s work has received, particularly thanks to blu-ray releases of his two Milkway productions, Accident and Motorway. Those are both pretty good, especially because they resemble the style of producer Johnnie To. I also think Cheang’s Sha Po Lang 2 (aka: Kill Zone 2) frequently gets overlooked when talking about his best work….and his more recent Mad Fate (another Milkyway production!) is pretty good, too. Even Limbo has elements of greatness in it…I guess Cheang’s an interesting filmmaker, ok?
Kamal Haasan sez: What’s a little nationalism between friends?
Some deadlines and preliminary planning for November/December’s move have kept me busy, but I hope to watch some more new Asian pop titles that I can write up for you here. I have a ticket for a late afternoon show of Successor, the mainland Chinese comedy that reteams Moon Man’s in-demand co-leads. I’m also eager to catch up with two streaming titles, the Indonesian horror movie Borderless Fog (on Netflix) and the Tamil-language Indian anti-corruption action drama Indian 2 (also Netflix). I’m especially curious about Indian 2 since it’s directed by S. Shankar, who also helmed two notable Rajinikanth vehicles, the loopy scifi adventure Enthiran and its surprisingly thrilling sequel, 2.0. I reviewed the latter movie for Casa Ebert…no idea what a Shankar movie without Rajinikanth looks like, but eager to find out.
In the meantime, please consider signing up for a paid subscription or just continue to repost the newsletter’s url…that way I can get a little more ambitious with future posts and continue flexing creative muscles that I don’t always get to in my reviews/features. And thanks again to everyone who’s already here. I appreciate you.