Hmm... good movies...
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is a worthwhile follow up to
Oldboy, both from Park Chan-wok. I just got through Gus Van Sant's
Paranoid Park, which has enjoyable cinematography but slightly dead pan pacing.
The Bank Job was enjoyable and confirmed Jason Statham's shocking ability to not overact.
The Counterfeiters is a neat film of Nazi counterfeiting.
Max Payne was totally awful, but has some surprisingly recognizable shots of Toronto (including many streetcars & Lower Bay).
Koroshiya Ichi is an entertaining J-Cult horror starring
Mongolian's Tanadobu Assano and directed by Beat Takeshi of
Takeshii's Castle fame (as well as the abortive Western cross over
Brother, featuring House M.D.'s Omar Epps). Worthwhile for those who enjoyed Sion Sono's
Suicide Club. A bit old, but the hyperkinetic cyberpunk classic
Burst City (Bakuretsu Toshi) is always enjoyable for its snapshot of early '80s Japanese Punk. More recently, its director Sogo Ishi's
Electric Dragon 80,000v (also staring Tanadobu Assano) may be worthwhile. Just avoid
Visitor Q, I felt sick after that one The pseudo documentary flash animated
Waltz with Bashir is simply great. I am looking forward to watching
The Badder Meinhof Complex about the FDR's RAF terrorists, but haven't found it yet.
Happy Go Lucky won a bunch of BAFTAs and is certainly watchable. Recent French film
Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne) shows a good grasp of the thriller genre. I have yet to watch it, but the Romanian drama
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days is by all accounts excellent. Both the original
Soviet era Solyaris (the Commie comeback to 2001) and its Steven Soderbergh
remake are well done, particularly Cliff Martinez' soundtrack to the remake (now reused in the
District 9 trailer).
Wolverine: Origins, totally sucked. Maybe its because I watched the pre-realease pirate copy without special effects, but it just sucked. Even the heavy CanCon couldn't make up for it. There is always the holy trinity of Cyberpunk,
BladeRunner,
Akira &
Ghost in the Shell, but I don't need to hype those. I've also got a bit of a guilty pleasure for Tom Clancy movies, partially because AMC screens nothing but Clear & Present Danger, The Hunt for Red October & Patriot Games.
Worst movie of all time?
Caligula. My god did that suck. There are lots of
bad movies, like the Master of Disguise or The Black Knight (get it? it's a black joke, ohh Hollywood...) but Caligula trumped all of those by wholly degrading humanity. The worst part is that it had a fairly decent cast- Clockwork Organe's Malcolm McDowel, Peter O'Toole & Helen Mirem. I was considering watching the horrendously post-modern
Salo, but I may just write the entire decade off now. The moral of the story? Never let Penthouse co-produce your movies. Ever.
EDIT: Ohh, dunno if this was mentioned, but
El Mariachi is always a good watch. It was Robert Rodriguez's debut film, and was shot on a budget of $7k no less. Much better than the later Desperado & Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
P.S. There should be at least something from H.K cinema here. I would suggest John Woo's superlative a
Better Tomorrow as well as The Departed's much better progenitor
Infernal Affairs. Though not even really a H.K. film, JCVD's
Blood Sport needs to be mentioned. Documentary?
Don't Think I've Forgotten, a documentary on the music scene in Cambodia prior to the Khmer Rouge
(all links youtube)
