Iro's One Movie a Day Thread

#532 - Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Alex Gibney, 2015



A documentary about the highly controversial Church of Scientology.

The Church of Scientology has become quite the walking punchline over the course of the past decade or so thanks to their litigation-happy attacks on any possible opposition, to say nothing of the erratic and fundamentalist public appearances by the most high-profile member of the movement, Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise. Though Alex Gibney's Going Clear (based on Lawrence Wright's book of the same name) does touch on the aspects of Scientology that have served to make it a laughing stock in recent years, it is very clear that the film's examination of Scientology goes above and beyond something as basic as shallow mockery. Wright claims that his intention was not supposed to be a derisive exposé of Scientology's dark secrets so much as an earnest attempt to understand what it was about this incredibly unorthodox movement that had managed to draw so many people into joining. To this end, much of the film involves interviews with many individuals who were at some point devoted members of the Church but had since left and were willing to speak openly about their time with the Church (with the only one I immediately recognised being Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis, though most of them are not celebrities anyway). This collection of individuals provides the backbone for a film that attempts to paint a warts-and-all portrait of Scientology based in the personal experiences of members who wished to speak out against it.

The film spends its first third or so tracing Scientology's origins by describing and examining the Church's creator and original leader, pulp science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard is initially depicted as exactly the kind of charlatan that detractors of the Church consider him to be, with the decision to adapt his original self-help system Dianetics into a full-blown religious movement apparently motivated by the promise of taxation-free financial gain. Other developments serve to paint him as a genuinely unhinged person, whether it's his ex-wife's account of him kidnapping their child or evidence of him trying to acquire psychiatric help before eventually asking to be lethally electrocuted in order for his problems to be "cured". Other bizarre developments may prompt some uneasy laughter, especially when Haggis incredulously recounts the time that he learned what was then one of the Church's top secrets - the Hubbard-penned creation myth involving ancient alien souls from another planet - and how it drastically changed his opinion of Scientology (though not enough for him to immediately quit). However, the laughter drops out for good with Hubbard's passing and his replacement as leader by David Miscavige, a Scientologist since childhood who took over as a young man in the 1980s and has presided over the Church ever since.

The film treats Miscavige's ascension to the top of the Church hierarchy as a darker reiteration on Hubbard's already rather sinister time as leader. Hubbard originally attempted to avoid paying taxes by globe-traveling and hiding out; under Miscavige, members simply managed to file so many lawsuits against the IRS that they were effectively pressured into granting the Church tax-exempt status. The earnest success story of a fresh-faced young actor named John Travolta (who is implied to be blackmailed into staying within the Church) eventually gives way to the rise of Tom Cruise, whose notoriously fanatical attitude about Scientology is just the tip of a very large iceberg as the rest of the organisation works overtime to fulfill his every possible whim. The inexpensive, grueling, and blatantly unethical labour undertaken by the members of the movement's "Sea Organisation" under Hubbard's watch soon devolves into many accounts of physical, mental, and emotional abuse that is not only permitted by Miscavige but also occasionally carried out by him personally. The only thing more disturbing than the actual instances of abuse and neglect described in the interviewees' recollections is the cult-like air that permeates said recollections, with many of them talking about just how much torment they were able to tolerate before finally deciding to break away from the Church.

Going Clear runs for a full two hours and does threaten to test one's patience once or twice, but for the most part it's a frighteningly compelling insight into what goes on within the Church of Scientology. In addition to depicting what it's like inside the Church, it also shows just what happens when the Church's influence turns toxic for people both inside and outside the Church. Indelible images abound, whether it's actual footage of Scientologists singing "Happy Birthday" to a giant portrait of Hubbard a year after the man's death or even a dramatisation involving a violent game of musical chairs set to the tune of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Much of the film is focused on talking-heads interviews with former Scientologists, who do make for fascinating subjects regardless of how heavily involved they were with the Church (ranging from Travolta's personal assistant to some of Miscavige's most immediate subordinates and spokespeople). The wide range of archival footage does create quite the lasting impression and is thankfully emphasised over dramatisations, which are brief and sparsely used. Though one can easily accuse it of being overly biased against Scientology to the point of being worthless on an objective level, Going Clear makes sure to end with an acknowledgment of the fact that the makers did try to secure interviews with prominent members of the movement such as Miscavige, Cruise, and Travolta. The flat-out refusal to offer any defence of the Church is sort of an understandable response to a film that's pretty dedicated to digging up the Church's dirt; however, this means that something as simple as a sub-title that merely reads "Tom Cruise's attorney denied this" with no further elaboration is potentially more damning than anything the film-makers and interviewees could deliver.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

i really love Her and Pretty in Pink. the latter has its flaws to be sure, but i only find its flaws even makes it more charming.

i'm checking out that Scientology film

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letterboxd

Scientology And Me and The Secrets Of Scientology are well worth a look and are both good documentaries.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

#533 - The Big Boss
Lo Wei, 1971



A young Chinese man comes to Thailand and takes a job in an ice factory but must contend with the incredibly corrupt employees and their boss.

One of the reasons that I never became a huge fan of Bruce Lee is that, despite his considerable combative abilities and iconic screen presence, that never quite felt like enough to fully carry a film. As a result, his films always felt at least a little underwhelming despite the makers trying their best to weave sufficiently entertaining plots and characters in between scenes of kung fu carnage. The Big Boss marked the first leading role in Lee's career and, in a lot of ways, it serves as a rough draft for the handful of films he made before his passing. Lee plays a Chinese labourer who has traveled to Thailand looking for work. He moves in with some relatives and gets a job at a nearby ice factory, but of course there's more to the situation than meets the eye. It turns out that the ice factory is a front for a drug-smuggling operation and the people who run said operation are willing to kill any unfortunate workers who see too much or start asking too many questions. After enough workers have mysteriously disappeared, it then falls to Lee to start investigating just what is going on, though the villains use every possible tactic to either win Lee over or simply eliminate him.

The problem with The Big Boss being the first Lee-starring feature is that, while it uses a lot of the same ideas that get refined in later films, here they can't help but come across as rough and (I hate to say it) boring. The plot isn't supposed to be the most important part of this film, but here the scenes that are dedicated to crafting it feel incredibly leaden. Lee's character is another one of his stubbornly honourable heroes, though even by that standard he still lacks any sufficiently interesting development (even his character's oath of non-violence barely has any relevance). The sole exception would be the brief sequence of events in which the villains encourage him to side with them by not only promoting him within the ice factory but by also plying him with strong drink and fine women (which naturally causes friction between him and his working-class housemates who believe that he has sincerely turned traitor). That's still not good enough to justify how thin the plot is the rest of the time, which is especially distracting considering the lack of satisfactory action in this film. Though there is a comedic edge to the confrontations, it soon becomes obvious why the blatant attempts at humour were slowly phased out of later Lee films. As a result, I barely noted much in the way of interesting action until the last twenty minutes or so, and by then it was too late. The Big Boss may have laid down a lot of the foundations for some fairly good films, but that hardly makes it great in its own right. Not even the inclusion of some of my favourite bands on the soundtrack (whoever heard of a kung fu movie that featured Pink Floyd and King Crimson?) is enough to favourably distinguish it.

#534 - Universal Soldier
Roland Emmerich, 1992



A pair of dead soldiers are resurrected as part of a program to create an army of super-soldiers, which is complicated when one of them rejects his programming and escapes.

I should probably know better than to give certain directors chance after chance after chance to win me over, and now I realise that this is especially true of Roland Emmerich. This early film of his features a relatively small-scale story compared to the apocalyptic extravaganzas he'd go on to create, but that's still no guarantee of "less-is-more" quality. To start off, there's the inherently silly premise to consider. I can understand why the military might want to use deceased soldiers as the guinea pigs for experiments designed to yield a more powerful commando, but you'd think that there would then be an explanation for why they're using dead soldiers from the Vietnam War despite taking place in the film's early-'90s present day. Two of these soldiers become the hero (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and villain (Dolph Lundgren) as they start to regain their memories. Van Damme quickly realises that he is alive in the present day and goes on the run with an aspiring reporter (Ally Walker). Meanwhile, Lundgren's recall is a lot less total; he thinks that he's still in Vietnam for some reason, immediately prompting him to leave a bloody trail as he pursues Van Damme at all costs.

Unfortunately, Universal Soldier ends up being little more than an extremely generic chase movie distinguished only by its extremely ludicrous premise. The odd spot of unique world-building is squandered in some sub-par manners - the concept of the super-soldiers needing extreme cold to heal and survive is an interesting one, but it's poorly executed and frequently played for weak humour. Though Lundgren and Van Damme are not exactly known for their acting abilities, I do think the former manages to pull off an appropriately bloodthirsty villain with gusto while the latter struggles with the demands of being a mentally tormented killing machine struggling to regain his humanity. The action generally isn't distinctive enough to make much of a difference as it runs through a fairly standard collection of set-pieces. Shoot-outs, vehicular chases, the odd instance of excessively violent death...none of it feels especially fresh or inventive. As such, I feel like this is something of an audition reel for Emmerich to prove how capable he is of directing action movies on a larger scale. It certainly doesn't lack for basic technical competence, but that's hardly much of a justification when it's in service to such a wholly unremarkable film. That being said, I'm intrigued by the weirdly cult-ish reputation that its two most recent sequels have earned, but it wouldn't be difficult to be better than this.

#535 - Story of Ricky
Lam Nai-choi, 1991



A young man with superhuman strength and endurance is sent to prison for murder and must fight against the villainous inmates and wardens.

The most well-regarded martial arts films tend to feature fluid camerawork, exquisite choreography, clever storytelling, and a general sense of substance. Story of Ricky, on the other hand, features virtually none of that. Even by the genre's standards, the premise is extremely flimsy. In the not-too-distant-future, prisons have become privatised and unregulated; this allows the staff to be incredibly corrupt and sadistic, often using established prison gangs to keep an especially draconian order among the population of inmates. Into this system enters a young man named Ricky, who is quickly established as being unnaturally strong and tough. Before too long, he's upsetting the prison's regime by fighting back against the various bizarre villains that both inhabit and operate the prison. While a standard martial-arts film would use that story as a launching pad for all sorts of elaborately crafted fights, the violence that characterises Story of Ricky is as deliberate an inversion of the genre's usual fare as possible. Most of the actual fights are over pretty quickly, and the reason why is either the film's greatest weakness or its greatest strength depending on your tolerance for over-the-top violence.

It is quite ironic how a film that features the words "story" in its title seems to place as little emphasis on telling a good one as Story of Ricky does. There is no dramatic tension whatsoever. The main character is practically an invincible superhero whose punches are not only capable of tearing massive holes in his opponents but can also break through solid doors and walls. Though his motives and powers are explained in-story (often through flashbacks, including one where he himself wasn't even present), you do have to infer for yourself why he doesn't just break out of prison at the earliest possible juncture or even allow himself to be trapped by the villains again and again. The concept of setting up vulnerable sympathetic characters to off-set the hero's invulnerability is barely developed beyond the film drawing a very black-and-white line between "good" prisoners and "bad" prisoners (hint: the good ones start treating Ricky as their saviour while constantly being mutilated and murdered by the bad ones). Characters are given the slightest amount of definition necessary to either progress the plot or to justify something weird and violent happening. The violence on offer is brutal, sure, but often in absurdly grotesque ways to the point where it's practically a splatter comedy on par with Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies or Peter Jackson's Braindead. There is an art to creating such noticeably fake effects and it contributes to a sufficiently humourous aesthetic. It's debatable as to whether or not the film-makers were going for intentionally comical bloodshed, but either way I can't say I'm disappointed with the film as far as pure entertainment goes - it's graphic without being genuinely disturbing and well worth a chuckle.

It's not often that I re-watch a film within a day or so, but I figured that Story of Ricky earned it (if only because I was torn between seeing it in its original Cantonese or with an English dub, so I ultimately decided to watch it twice). Though the extremely low budget and incredibly shoddy quality of just about every facet has apparently generated a "so bad it's good" kind of reputation, I have trouble thinking of it in the same terms that I would with something like Plan 9 From Outer Space or Troll 2. At least Story of Ricky seems at least somewhat aware of its own silliness with its collection of physically impossible feats and fights, scenery-chewing cast of bizarre characters, and (most importantly) the capacity for cartoonish and colourful carnage. Its revels in its shortcomings without a trace of ironic self-indulgence and so every little off-putting detail or badly executed stunt only adds to the charm rather than hinder it. Obviously, those of you who don't go in for excessive amounts of violence are advised to look elsewhere. Otherwise, this rightfully deserves its reputation as a cult classic built on the back of some delightfully memorable instances of over-the-top kung-fu action.

#536 - The Others
Alejandro Amenábar, 2001



A woman who lives in a large mansion with her two extremely photosensitive children starts to believe that the house is haunted.

The Others is a decent enough throw-back to old-school haunted house horrors that rely on the building of bloodless dread and potentially supernatural mystery, and that's enough to guarantee it being a good film despite the rather generic first impression it creates. The film's opening credits feel a bit unnecessary; certain films just work better without them, especially when listing cast members who play characters that appear at crucial or surprising moments and thus expecting certain actors to show up does take some of the surprise out of it. In any case, the film does well at establishing its post-WWII setting as a trio of out-of-work servants walk up to the front door of a large mansion inhabited by a woman (Nicole Kidman) and her two young children. A series of scenes involving Kidman giving her prospective employees a tour of the house develops a plot that's already creepy enough even without the possibility of any paranormal activity. It turns out that Kidman's children are extremely allergic to any light source that's stronger than a small fire, hence a complex system involving door-locking and curtain-drawing so as to prevent them from suffering extremely painful and possibly fatal reactions. That's without the kids acting like the other pale weird kids common to British-looking horror as they naturally become the first to cotton on to the fact that there is something very weird going on with the usual bumps in the night, which naturally result in a disbelieving Kidman growing dangerously paranoid.

The Others maintains a fairly consistent sense of unease thanks to its small but complex ensemble and ever-present threat of not just ghosts but dangerous sunlight, that's about all that the film really has going for it. The film does touch upon themes involving family, post-war anxieties, and religious subtext as it examines what the characters' lives are like even without any imminent peril; while these concepts are generally handled in a satisfactory manner, sometimes they do drag the film down (such as the entire sub-plot involving Christopher Eccleston's character, which doesn't feel particularly essential to the plot beyond some mild thematic relevance). The film is generally good at working the less-is-more angle when it comes to parceling out information about the antagonists, though that does mean it becomes surprisingly easy to anticipate how things will develop. Performances are generally decent, though the music is perhaps a little too dramatic for its own. As a result, I can respect The Others as a generally competent homage to old-school horror that brings in some fairly fresh modern sensibilities, but that doesn't feel like enough to make it a classic.

Great write up of Going Clear Iro . My favourite film of the year so far.

#537 - The Prestige
Christopher Nolan, 2006



A pair of magicians become rivals who constantly try to outdo one another, with their focus being on trying to master the same illusion.

Of all the Nolan films I have seen, The Prestige wasn't necessarily the worst but it was one that I didn't expect to hold up all that well on a re-watch. Much like an actual magic trick, the film builds off increasingly fantastic and unexpected reveals to create an entrancing initial experience, which only led me to assume that it would also end up feeling less impressive watching it again and knowing how it was done. Though there is no denying that it loses a little something on a second viewing, The Prestige certainly doesn't feel like an excessively weak movie. The film begins with one magician (Christian Bale) being accused of murdering his long-time rival (Hugh Jackman) by sabotaging his illusion, leading to him being sentenced. From there, the film proceeds to jump around a bit thanks to both leads reading one another's journals in a move that is easier to follow than it sounds, tracing their origins as ambitious assistants to a famous magician. When a mistake on Bale's part results in the death of Jackman's wife (Piper Perabo), Jackman swears revenge by intending to become the best magician ever and ruin Bale by any means necessary, which naturally prompts Bale to retaliate in turn. Thus begins one morally grey cold war as both men work to one-up each other by any means necessary, while various other individuals such as Jackman's mentor (Michael Caine), Bale's wife (Rebecca Hall), and the young ingenue (Scarlett Johansson) who ends up becoming the pawn of both leads.

The Prestige is a generally decent film that has a fairly interesting visual style (just look at that header image) and offers a storyline that's still solid enough even when it supplements its Spy vs. Spy conflict with certain third-act developments. Bale and Jackman make for sufficiently conflicted, motivated, and well-acted protagonists - Bale may be the better performer here yet he doesn't get quite as much to work with as Jackman. They have some decent support - Caine is dependable as always, while Hall and Johansson do rather well with characters that could have been annoying props. Even a surprise performance by David Bowie as none other than renowned inventor Nikola Tesla feels at home here (to say nothing of Andy Serkis as his assistant). It explores themes of obsession and identity crisis as Bale and Jackman threaten to lose themselves in their battle for supremacy, though a second viewing doesn't reveal that much more depth to this exploration and still drags occasionally due to its somewhat repetitive structure. As a result, I still think The Prestige is more good than bad but its strengths aren't strong enough for me to consider this a genuinely great film. Some nice visuals and a twisty plot that doesn't fall apart the second time around are decent qualities, but that's not enough to make it a wholly enjoyable film for me.

i need to see both of the last 2 movies you reviewed again. i enjoyed them both, but i feel like i kind of came to appreciate The Others more in retrospect than i did at the time. anyway, good reviews.

I think The Others and Moulin Rouge are the only two films I have seen which offer any evidence of Kidman as an actress. I've heard some good things about a couple of films since, but with her face all frozen I have to admit to being sceptical, at best.

#538 - Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Brad Bird, 2011



A spy goes on a mission to prevent a terrorist cell from initiating a global nuclear conflict.

Despite being apathetic enough about the franchise to miss the third installment in theatres and feel less impressed by the first two films in retrospect, I still ended up seeing the fourth [i]M:I/i] film in theatres (apparently because The Adventures of Tintin was sold out, according to an old Movie Tab post). It managed to impress me reasonably well to the point where I was starting to think of it as my favourite film in the franchise. Now that I've had a chance to watch (or re-watch) all five films, I still reckon that I'd be willing to hold up Ghost Protocol as my favourite film in the series. Making a fourth installment in any franchise is always a risky proposition that is more likely to miss than hit (where critically, commercially, or both), and the employment of animation veteran Brad Bird seems to paradoxically come across as both a safe choice and an unpredictable one. Bird's cartoon sensibilities do end up proving a strong addition to a franchise that is built upon the creation of implausible yet thrilling sequences of action and suspense. This time around Tom Cruise's protagonist has to get bailed out of prison in order to conduct a mission to prevent the theft of nuclear launch codes. This seemingly simple plan is complicated by his being framed for a terrorist act and his whole organisation being disavowed, leaving him with a team of three other agents (Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner) with whom to save the day.

Granted, in a lot of ways Ghost Protocol falls prey to a lot of the usual flaws that have plagued the series. The plot at least tries to change things up by largely abandoning the paranoia angle from previous films and thus cuts out all the usual betrayals and double-crosses. For the most part, it does stick to some recognisable staples of the series for better or worse, such as having Cruise being pursued by well-intentioned investigators or the heroes being made to come up with convoluted solutions to their problems. It still has a bit of trouble staying consistently captivating and peaks around the halfway/two-thirds mark as the film's already-thin conflict grows even thinner. Characterisation is generally pretty haphazard, whether it's Michael Nyqvist's unremarkable turn as an extremist antagonist or the tragic back-story that's supposed to define newcomer Renner as a sufficiently complicated character. Pegg is brought back to serve as comic relief and he definitely provides well enough in that regard, though he doesn't get much of an arc beyond his role as a rookie field agent trying to do a good job. Patton does what she can with an extremely straightforward revenge sub-plot that is at least handled solidly enough to make up for her eventually having to play honey-trap as the team's sole female member. I'm also grateful that this marks the first film in the franchise that didn't try to shoehorn in a romantic sub-plot for Cruise, though it does make a handful of references to his fiancée from the third film that I probably could have done without. If nothing else, you can always depend on Cruise's combination of natural charisma and willingness to get physical for his craft to carry a character that has persisted throughout five films without all that much going on in the way of personal development.

Cruise's daredevil antics here definitely make for some genuinely captivating action; the sequence where he must climb up the outside of the Burj-Khalifa using nothing but a pair of high-tech adhesive gloves is something that practically demanded to be seen in theatres yet still feels appropriately tense and stunning during a re-watch on a smaller screen. While the first film's notorious cable-drop scene is easily the franchise's most iconic moment, I honestly think that this scene gives it a serious run for its money. It's not alone; there is the comically ingenious scene where Cruise and Pegg must carry out an infiltration using a giant computer screen to simulate an empty corridor or another scene that takes place amidst the constantly-churning machinery of a high-tech car park. The skyscraper climb casts a long shadow over all of them and the fact that it happens halfway through the film does make the third act feel somewhat anti-climatic as a result, but not enough so to completely derail the film. Bird's visual style definitely feels suited to the grand scale and manic energy as he and cinematographer Robert Elswit work well together to create good-looking shots of what's happening. Bird's presence also made me note just how much the bombastic score by Pixar regular Michael Giacchino sounded extremely similar to his work on The Incredibles, but that still felt appropriate considering how that film paid so much homage to '60s spy stuff like Mission: Impossible in the first place.

While it's far from perfect, I definitely think that Ghost Protocol gets more things right than wrong in trying to keep its fairly simple concept fresh. It manages to make all three of its predecessors feel like rough drafts as it evens out some of the major flaws from those films (though not all of them, unfortunately). At the very least, it feels like a very conscious attempt to provide a vastly diferent experience through constantly subverted expectations; the infamous face-masks that were awfully prevalent throughout the series are conspicuously rare this time around. There's also the fact that, despite the focus on a team-based dynamic that differentiates it from other major spy franchises, it's pretty noticeable how much of the actual tension and excitement tends to derive from sequences involving Cruise being on his own. That being said, by trimming the narrative fat and emphasising the fantastic challenges posed against the small (but reasonably well-developed) handful of heroes, the series seems to have finally found its groove. This much is pretty much confirmed by how much follow-up installment Rogue Nation managed to stick to the same cinematic formula with all its highs and lows (great stunts, not-so-great characters, etc.). Though I may need to give the first film yet another chance, I still consider Ghost Protocol to be the high point in a very erratic franchise and recommend it to action fans of every type.

#539 - Juice
Ernest R. Dickerson, 1992



A group of four African-American teenagers growing up in Harlem find their friendship tested when one of them plans on committing armed robbery.

Juice came out a year after the release of Boyz n the Hood but it opted to avoid a lot of the more straightforward sermonising and melodrama that has ultimately led to Singleton's film not aging particularly well. Instead, Juice offers a more down-to-earth tale in examining the none-too-pleasant situation of a handful of black teens trying to get by amidst a threatening atmosphere of racial tension, gang warfare, and police brutality. The main character (Omar Epps) naturally wants to make something of himself by becoming a DJ, even going so far as to enter a tournament at one point. However, his group of friends is threatened from within by a wild-card (Tupac Shakur), who seems far more willing to embrace the toxicity of their environment and lead the group into a life of crime. The film sets up an interesting conflict between the two, especially when the constantly escalating severity of Shakur's crimes promises to shatter everyone's world.

Though it doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel or anything, Juice is still a very respectable hood film. It naturally points out that crime doesn't pay for a multitude of reasons but doesn't go overboard with it either (save for the occasional notable instance, such as Shakur reacting excitedly while watching the finale of White Heat). Epps makes for a sufficiently likable protagonist in ways that overcome his less sympathetic actions (such as smooth-talking a record store clerk in order to cover for his friends shoplifting records for him), but Shakur creates a sufficiently magnetic and intimidating screen presence even before making the jump from petty crime to robbery and murder. Dickerson's style stays fairly grounded, showing ostentatious flair only when it needs to (such as the scene where Epps does face off against a rival DJ or in a certain scene involving an elevator). Fittingly enough for a movie about an aspiring DJ, the background score consists of some impressive sample-heavy compositions by hip-hop production posse The Bomb Squad. Juice proves a fairly decent film that keeps things sufficiently interesting up until its final moments and is definitely worthwhile if you're interested in hood movies.

#540 - Story of Ricky
Lam Nai-choi, 1991



A young man with superhuman strength and endurance is sent to prison for murder and must fight against the villainous inmates and wardens.

Original review found here.

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#541 - Spider-Man 3
Sam Raimi, 2007



A superhero with spider-like powers is forced to juggle crime-fighting with his personal life, which is complicated by the appearance of an alien parasite.

Though I didn't exactly hate the first two Spider-Man movies, the unfortunate reputation that got attached to the third film was definitely enough to keep me away for the better part of a decade. Of course, as with so many of the films on this list, morbid curiosity eventually led to me to check out the much-maligned Spider-Man 3. Unfortunately, this film definitely lives up (or down) to its rather unforgiving reputation. The plot once again revolves around Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) trying to balance out his secret identity as the friend neighbourhood web-slinger with his increasingly strained relationship with Mary-Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), whose own career as a Broadway singer is floundering. The personal conflict is only exacerbated by the arrival of three new villainous threats. First, there's Peter and Mary-Jane's old friend Harry Osborn (James Franco), who has made it his mission to murder Spider-Man in revenge for killing his father, the original Green Goblin. Second, there's a recently-escaped ex-con (Thomas Haden Church) with a link to Peter's past who stumbles into a dangerous experiment that grants him sand-based powers. Last (but not least), there's an alien parasite that arrives on a meteorite and threatens to infect Peter for the worst.

Even with the intention of giving Spider-Man 3 the benefit of the doubt, I still found it a largely lacklustre film. A lot of that has to do with the length - I know that the current trend with superhero movies is to have them pass the two-hour mark by a significant margin, but that only seems to work if the film can find decent material to fill out such a prolonged running time. To this end, Spider-Man 3 makes the mistake of focusing far too much on the non-action material, which wouldn't be so bad if said material wasn't so weak. The entire sub-plot where Peter is infected with the alien parasite has become notorious thanks to his awkwardly unfunny appearance and actions, but even its ridiculous nature is slightly preferable to the more boring sub-plots that permeate the film, whether it's Peter and Mary-Jane's relationship problems or the ways in which they are complicated by the presence of Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Harry. Speaking of Harry, he doesn't prove too much of a threat as he more or less recycles the same villain from the first film, hence why the film tries to over-compensate by introducing not one but two more villains. Church's villain is a mixed bag; though his introduction to Spider-Man's narrative is redundant at best and his vaguely redemptive motivation feels very standard, Church is good enough to sell it all reasonably well. The same can't really be said for the third villain, who is sold as a pretty typical dark/evil counterpart to the hero, which is a shame considering how poorly handled the hero is in this film.

Raimi's capacity for extremely vibrant and dynamic visuals has resulted in his Evil Dead trilogy becoming some of my all-time favourite movies, and it is that same capacity that at least makes the film's awfully sporadic lapses into blockbuster thrills look competent enough to compensate for the relative weakness of the CGI involved. That's about the only real upside to a superhero film that isn't a major travesty but still has next to nothing to recommend about it. For the most part, Spider-Man 3 plays out like an especially weak soap opera that only occasionally references the fact that it's about superheroes. Superhero films that have already moved past the origin-story phase may have more narrative freedom but that just means that they struggle to fill it out, and in a film as long as this one it certainly does struggle. It'd be one thing to just be boring but the ways in which it fills out its running time are especially goofy, especially the sequence of events where Peter is infected with an evil parasite. I'm hard-pressed to recommend it to anyone except comic-book completionists - even people who are just looking for a lightweight diversion will struggle to find much to like about this rather dire excuse for an action blockbuster.

#542 - Romper Stomper
Geoffrey Wright, 1992



A gang of Australian neo-Nazis get into a turf war with Vietnamese immigrants.

Romper Stomper is one of those films where the main draw comes from being immersed within a fringe sub-culture, even if it one as fundamentally unpleasant as that of neo-Nazi "skinheads". A young Russell Crowe stars as the leader of one such gang, ekeing out a meagre existence in the run-down Australian suburb of Footscray. When they're not busy harassing people of a different colour with their rampant xenophobia, they're too busy using unemployment checks to support their incredibly low-rent lifestyles that involve squatting, drinking, screwing, and whatever other cheap pleasures they can indulge. The balance gets upset by a couple of complications - one ends up being the appearance of an upper-class drug addict (Jacqueline McKenzie) in the gang's usual hang-out, while the other is the escalating gang war between the skinheads and a group of Vietnamese immigrants, which is kicked off when the skinheads assault an innocent couple at the beginning of the film. This provides enough of a premise to prop up a feature-length examination of skinhead sub-culture, which is captured in a very gritty verité style.

The film doesn't hesitate to showcase the skinheads as a largely pathetic group of individuals whose pride in their white heritage is the saddest and flimsiest possible basis for their identity; without it they're just another gang that engages in petty crime and lives in squalor. No matter what kind of fiercely charismatic gusto Crowe puts into his character's diatribes, it's never enough to make up for either his or the other characters' short-sighted foolishness (to the point where other characters will call them out on it). His uncompromising bigotry comes through in even the most trivial instances, such as him being the only one of the group to refuse eating pasta on the basis of it being Italian. Though Crowe brings considerable energy to his turn as the film's vicious protagonist, the other characters tend to be fairly one-note. The only other ones of any serious consequence are Crowe, McKenzie, and Crowe's main offsider (Daniel Pollock), whose nervous disposition makes for the ideal counterpoint to Crowe's cruel nature (and allows the film to build in a fairly standard love triangle between the trio). The film is perhaps a bit too episodic with the entire conflict against the Vietnamese resolving before too long and eventually forcing the remaining members into other misadventures as their numbers dwindle. The music varies between slices of neo-Nazi punk songs (which are naturally difficult to enjoy even after learning they were deliberately made up by non-Nazi bands) and groaning drones (less difficult to enjoy), to say nothing of the Kubrick-influenced use of classical music during one sequence.

Romper Stomper is still a pretty solid film that captures the essence of the skinheads' lifestyles without resorting to straight-up moralising about the wrongness of the characters' views. It manages to do this without setting up a lot of genuinely "good" characters in comparison; most of the Vietnamese characters have their own gang that's just waiting for the skinheads to make the first move, while the wealthy victim of the skinheads' home invasion happens to be an incestuous abuser of one of their number. There are even moments that hint towards less overt racism than the skinheads, such as the publican who sells his hotel to a group of Vietnamese entrepreneurs without even thinking to warn them that it's a regular hang-out for the skinheads and practically guarantees a conflict. The film wears its influences on its sleeve and manages to craft a sufficiently dark and gritty slice-of-life drama about the few fleeting highs and many lows of being a skinhead without feeling much need to ram a message home, which is appreciated but also makes the film feel somewhat directionless as a result.

I rate Romper Stomper higher, but +rep because I agree with what you wrote about it.

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#543 - Lantana
Ray Lawrence, 2001



The members of four very different yet inter-connected married couples find their relationships with one another strained around the same time that one of them disappears under suspicious circumstances.

Original review found here.

I gave Lantana an extremely favourable rating after an initial viewing several years ago for deftly weaving an intricate ensemble drama around a fairly standard mystery plot. Though it's been held up as a classic of modern Australian cinema, revisiting it recently hasn't been particularly favourable to my own perception of it. This might have something to do with it providing an easy blueprint for the subsequent fifteen years of Australian drama (both cinematic and televisual) and thus becoming less impressive in retrospect, or maybe it really isn't that good underneath its many accolades. The mystery is fairly simple - the film starts with the body of a woman tangled within a cluster of plants. It then goes on to introduce all its principal characters, most of whom are having difficulties with their marriages. You have the police detective (Anthony LaPaglia) who's cheating on his wife (Kerry Armstrong) with a member (Rachael Blake) of their tango class, who is herself separated from her husband (Glenn Robbins) while eyeing up her married, unemployed neighbour (Vince Colosimo). Meanwhile, there's a psychiatrist (Barbara Hershey) who is not only treating some of these characters, but whose interactions with a gay man (Peter Phelps) talking about his affair with a married man cause her to question just why her own husband (Geoffrey Rush) is being so cold and distant lately. Infidelity and coincidence abound as many of the characters are connected to one another through their affairs, keeping the ensemble tight and also sufficiently inter-connected for the sake of drama as the investigation into the disappearance of one character becomes central to the plot itself.

Unfortunately, Lantana (so named for the twisted type of Australian flora that serves as a metaphor for the complexities of the narrative) doesn't quite manage to hold up all that well on a second viewing. Even on an initial viewing, the mystery that provided the film with a plot still felt secondary to the web of lies that emerged between the film's many characters and the promise of whether or not the mystery would prove to be the breaking point for the many strained relationships on display. None of that intrigue is improved or even supported by a second viewing, which only serves to expose the hollowness of the film's attempt at complex emotional conflict. The occasional spot of dramatic irony (such as a married couple attending a tango class to spice things up only for both members to end up cheating on one another with people they meet in said class) does little to provide the film with interesting material. The cast involves a variety of recognisable actors who give impassioned but ultimately unremarkable performances - Rush in particular is probably the best despite his relatively small role. None of the actors are talented enough to save such clunky dialogue, though - it's straightforward and utilitarian, which does not complement the film's more enigmatic intentions. The visual style is rather bland, which wouldn't be a problem if the film's plot and characterisation held up but here it just serves to make one feel especially bored by the proceedings. Though I do admit to liking it initially, this time around Lantana feels especially underwhelming. It lacks strength both as a mystery and as a drama that doesn't quite deserve the acting talent that it gets (and vice versa). It's worth one viewing at the absolute most, while a second viewing only serves to expose that it's not bad exactly, just extremely dull.

#544 - Game of Death
Robert Clouse, 1978



A film star is forced to fake his own death in order to take on an organised crime outfit.

It's not often that I end up shutting off a film without finishing it, but that's what happened the first time that I tried watching Game of Death. The film is well-known for being the film that Bruce Lee was working on at the time of his death, having already shot roughly half an hour of footage before his passing. Said footage can be found on the special edition DVD of Enter the Dragon, where I ended up watching it and finding it about as awesome as anything Lee ever did. Of course, that didn't stop Clouse and company from trying to put together a feature-length film that is supposedly intended to complete Lee's unfinished project but instead comes across as a cheap attempt to capitalise on Lee's posthumous popularity, which had already manifested in the form of various knock-offs featuring Lee look-alikes. Game of Death attempts to build a film around the combination of both existing footage of Lee and newly-shot footage featuring various doubles. The plot also takes a metafictional twist as Lee's character ends up being a star of martial arts films named Billy Lo (nice initials, dude), who ends up earning the wrath of a nebulous criminal organisation. After surviving an assassination attempt by said organisation, Billy opts to stay "dead" and proceeds to dismantle the organisation however he can, even though he does so at considerable expense to his love interest (Colleen Camp).

For a film that attempts to pay homage to Lee's legacy, Game of Death honestly feels like a feature-length insult to said legacy regardless of the makers' intentions. By trying to blend footage of Lee with new footage featuring doubles, Game of Death is constantly breaking one's suspension of disbelief to the point where I wish I was watching a film that simply used doubles and no actual footage of Lee. Homage or not, this attempt at compromise simply feels too patronising to genuinely enjoy. The obvious inter-cutting between shots of Lee and shots of doubles is too distracting to truly look past, while the ways in which the makers try to work around the difference end up being painful to watch. An early scene in which Billy is being cornered by a villain in his own dressing room seems to be the jumping-off point for any uncertain viewers; one can easily tell that Lee's face has been printed out and taped to a mirror in front of the double's reflection, which leads viewers to question whether or not they can put up with similar techniques for the next hour-and-a-half. It gets to the point where the doubles' admittedly decent physical abilities become difficult to notice because you're still getting pulled out of the action every time the film goes out of its way to convince you that, yes, that is most definitely Bruce Lee you are watching fight dozens of goons. Even by the standards of old-school martial arts films, the plot feels far too thin to even remotely compensate for these gross technical shortcomings; not even respectable actors like Dean Jagger or Gig Young do anything to sell the conflict at the heart of the film, to say nothing of the fact that Billy's vocal delivery is one of the most stunningly dull ones I've ever heard (which I guess was a conscious decision to not overshadow Lee's own distinctive voice, but that doesn't make it any less of a failure on the film's part).

If there is one remotely redeeming part of this film, it is definitely the footage that Lee shot before his death where he wears the iconic black-and-yellow jumpsuit as he fights his way through multiple highly-skilled opponents. However, it's edited down severely to fit the constraints of the film's wonky narrative and doesn't appear until the end of the movie. As a result, most of this film becomes an especially tedious waiting game as a viewer bides their time in the hopes of seeing sufficiently uninterrupted footage of Lee himself. In the meantime, Game of Death tries to build a sort of spy movie similar to Enter the Dragon (complete with an opening credits sequence and a background score straight out of a James Bond movie) but it fails incredibly hard. Though I managed to resist the urge to stop the film this time around, it seems like I was right the first time. With the unedited Game of Death footage available on the Enter the Dragon DVD, there is pretty much no reason to ever bother watching this film unless you are a die-hard Lee fanatic. Regardless of whether or not it was an homage to the late legend or a shameless cash-in, the resulting film is a disappointment that I don't think needed to exist.

#545 - I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
Mervyn LeRoy, 1932



An ex-serviceman is arrested for a crime he didn't commit and intends to escape from his chain gang.

I reckon that most of the people who find out about Paul Muni these days are likely to do so because of his starring role in the original Scarface, which proved to be enough of a reason for me to check out one of his other best-known roles with I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. Though there's a superficial similarity in how Muni's character in this film is also driven to overcome adversity and become a success through illegal means, with this film there's a lot more nuance to the character and the performance. After coming back from serving in the war, Muni doesn't just want to return to the grind of his old factory clerk job and instead plans on traveling around looking for more meaningful hands-on work. Unfortunately, unemployment and destitution follow him wherever he goes and he eventually becomes an unwitting accomplice in a hold-up. The robber is killed, but Muni is caught alive and placed on a chain gang. As you can probably guess from the title, he eventually escapes, but that's not the end of his troubles by a long shot.

I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang is a sufficiently competent film that is not dated by its setting as it tackles issues of injustice and moral relativity. Muni brings considerable vulnerability to a character who starts off confident and idealistic but is soon ground down by a world that seems to have very little use for him and then puts him through one unfortunate situation after another. Though he is prone to instances of ethical flexibility throughout the film, none of them are so egregious that he loses an audience's sympathy The film thankfully doesn't drag out either the imprisonment or the escape and instead continues to build highs and lows for Muni as he seemingly manages to escape the crooked justice associated with work gangs, but he still ends up encountering all sorts of unexpected obstacles as he tries to rebuild his life on the outside. As is to be expected from an early talkie, the film is lean and punchy - as a result, performances are a little stilted at times but generally passable. Even with such a short running time, there are parts that threaten to drag but for the most part the suspense is pretty strong, especially while Muni is escaping. It's a bit on the pulpy side and doesn't feel strong enough to warrant a repeat viewing, but it's still good, and that ending genuinely caught me off-guard (if only because I had no idea that this film was pre-Code). Worth at least one watch if you want an old-timey thriller with a little weight to it.