Bloody hell!

Go and see this film!

I found Kung Fu Hustle morally awkward and I don’t like people hitting each other.

I flinched at this film too, but it’s… well, it’s a work of art. Mind you, it’s a work of art which as you’re walking through the gallery, reaches out of the frame to grab you by the neck and slam your face into the wall before pumping you full of lead, spitting on your face and leaving you for dead. But a work of art nonetheless.

Stellar cast. Bruce Willis is excellent. Mickey Rourke is bloody amazing… but it is the cinematography that’s the star of this film. You’re probably heard that it looks like a comic book brought to life—but it looks like a fantastically well-drawn comic book brought to life. Fantastically well-drawn and über-violent.

I really enjoyed the ride. It’s an involving, visceral thrill of the kind that horror movies strive to provide. Sometimes hard to watch and occasionally very nasty, but the good guys win at the end, kind of.

Now ’scuse me while I grab my shooter and head out to avenge the death of this classy hooker I used to know.

Violent, but funny.

Go see it—unless you feel squeemish at watching people kick seven shades of shit out of each other for an hour and a half.

It’s a bit like watching a live-action Tom & Jerry, but with fewer frying pans and pianos… and in which some of the characters die messily. Mixed in with the usual kung fu/gangster/Western conventions, filtered through with a trickle of Animé and The Matrix.

Like The Matrix Reloaded, there are huge fights and lots of black suits, white shirts and ties… and some obvious computer animation, but unlike The Matrix Reloaded, the artificiality is somewhat endearing. It’s a cartoon knockabout and it doesn’t really matter that you can tell which bits are CG.

Quite a touching ending, but a bit of an odd moral angle. In the world of Kung Fu Hustle godliness is next to fighting ability and there is honour in ultraviolence. That made me uncomfortable.

Topping. Go see it.

Batman Begins: A film which attempts to answer the age-old question “Just how believably serious is it possible to make old-school, underpants-atop-tights superhero Batman while still keeping him Batman?”

And the answer seems to be “holy expunged clichés, Batman, pretty darn believably serious.”
Continue reading →