Monday, August 07, 2006

Movies of the Month, August 2006

Bomb The System
Not really a graffiti-sploitation movie ala Wild Style, more like those old movies that would teach you all about some job or criminal enterprise while entertaining you. I don't know if it's really so hard out there for a tagger, but the real-life street artists they interview in the extras say it is.
Burst City
Early Japanese cyberpunk movie with a cool punk soundtrack.
Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy
Not the best campy 70s Japanese movie, but then there are so many. Worth it for the girl-gang musical number.
The Descent
Back in the 70's, only Robert Shaw was macho and stupid enough to take a a giant shark, but today's extreme-sports types get a similar comeuppance in this movie. It's sort of like one of those war movies about a foolhardy captain who gets his platoon killed, except with female spelunkers.
Speed Grapher, Vol. 1
OK, it's the future and Tokyo is the playground of the rich. A burned-out war photographer sneaks in to takes pictures at a secret exclusive club where they have orgies and sometimes a teenage girl in an angel costume flies down to kiss people, which somehow gives them super-powers. He's accidentally kissed by her and suddenly everything he photographs explodes. Plus, he's being stalked by a female cop with a gun fetish. You know I love the weird stuff, I just hope it can maintain its level of freaky-deaky for the whole series.
Ghost In The Shell: Standalone Complex (2nd Gig), Vol. 6
Shaolin Vs. The Evil Dead
An updating of Hong Kong horror of the Mr. Vampire/Spooky Encounters variety with computer graphics and the great Gordon Liu as the ghost-busting priest. The only problem is it ends rather abruptly, so I hope there's a sequel.
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Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs
This movie is just waiting for Quentin Tarantino to rip it off. A tough female cop is sent to jail for executing a perverted diplomat vigilante-style, then sprung in order to free a big-wig's daughter from a gang of incompetent, chaotic druggies. As in most 70s Japanese movies, authority figures are worse than criminals and not to be trusted.
Hollow Man
The invisible-man movie genre finally has the computer graphics to go with it, and it looks great when he's on fire or covered with water, but the main ingredient needed is to have an actor who nails the part of an arrogant jerk who wants to play God, and Kevin Bacon does the job right.
Fullmetal Alchemist Vols. 10 & 11
Basilisk, Vol. 1
You got your superhero comic in my ninja anime! Two great tastes that go great together. I love the slug ninja.
Dead Birds
Another genre mashup, this time a horror/western. A good sleeper horror with a better-than average cast. With brother-vs-brother, surgery without anesthesia, and the original sin of slavery, the Civil War is a good setting for horror that has been too rarely used except for the occasional adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce short story.
Heroes Shed No Tears
A loose Hong Kong Lone Wolf and Cub adaptation and early John Woo movie. Excellent heroic performance by by Eddie Ko, a Hong Kong character actor who usually plays villains.
Planetes, Vol. 2

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