cebudden-1 Reviews

Léon: The Professional (1994)

Pleasantly surprised

[8/10 · 3 February 2005]

I saw this movie on the constant recommendations of friends, not expecting much more than an entertaining movie. Surprisingly, it was a good film--a piece of art. It is above all about true friendship--Leon and Mathilda create a special bond that is above gender, age, experience, and (even despite some of the overtones, I would argue) sexuality.

Not only does the movie handle the theme of friendship very well, but its backbone is a killer action movie with lots of wicked gunplay scenes. As a fan of John Woo's Hong Kong flicks I really enjoyed this part as well.

Whether you're a fan of Peckinpah and Woo or you just want to watch some cool gun battles, this is a great movie, one of my new favorites.

A Better Tomorrow (1986)

Why the bad rap?

[8/10 · 11 November 2004]

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. It's obvious that a lot of people only like Woo's films for the action, and that's fine--nobody before or since has come close to equaling Woo's mastery of action choreography when he was in his prime. But if you look deeper, there's also some meaning to his films.

Woo's oeuvre is very much concerned with morality. All of his films deal with issues like the gray area between good and bad, whether loyalty to one's family or one's profession ought to take precedence, the extent to which actions determine one's character, and so on. People criticize his movies for featuring protagonists which leap around in ridiculous ways, shooting endless bullets, never having to reload. They're missing the point, because Woo doesn't care at all for realism. He is more interested in creating a sort of superhero mythology featuring more or less real-life characters that use extreme violence as a means of self-realization and working out moral issues.

Anyway, although A Better Tomorrow doesn't actually feature all that many action scenes (although the ones that are here are really good, especially the scene in the restaurant) it's still somehow my favorite of his Hong Kong films. It has heart, the acting by Chow Yun-Fat is really great, and for some reason I also really dig the music. I can't really offer good reasons why I like this one better than Hard Boiled and The Killer, because the action is technically better in those two. But I prefer this one.

Day of the Dead (1985)

Suffered from the long shadow cast by Dawn, but a great film in its own right

[8/10 · 11 November 2004]

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. If this was the one and only zombie film Romero had ever made, people would have thought it was brilliant. As it stands, however, it was the sequel to what is arguably the best-loved zombie film of all time, and therefore people had high expectations.

As the liner notes for the recent Anchor Bay DVD discuss, the film, which is highly critical of government and authority (particularly the military and scientific establishments) and presents a pessimistic outlook on humanity's ability to solve difficult social problems, was released at a time when American society was also experiencing a similar malaise. In other words, a lot of people just found the movie's message depressing, and therefore didn't like it.

Personally, Day has always been my favorite of the Dead trilogy, and I've always liked the fact that Romero takes this potentially funny subject matter very seriously and deals with the philosophical, social and ethical issues it raises. Also, in my opinion, Tom Savini's makeup work is fantastic. The guts and blood and brains are absolutely realistic-looking and disgusting, especially to those who don't know how these effects are achieved.

I can't wait for the next installment in the series. I hope Romero hasn't lost his edge, but something tells me it's going to be great.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

A decent movie, but nowhere near as good as the original.

[11 November 2004]

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. I'm not going to rag on or declaim this film, because I think it's a good enough film for what it tries to be--a gory action film based on Romero's classic.

Beyond the splattering brains, however, there's very little true substance here. At least in Romero's original there was a subtext of social commentary, and a number of important themes (for example, individualism, the way human beings react in times of crisis, the inability of civil and political authorities to cope with disaster). However, the remake does deliver some very solid action and acting, some nice surprises, and a very cool scene involving a fortified shuttle bus.

I didn't like how Snyder ripped off the fast zombies from 28 Days Later (if you think about it, a reanimated corpse probably wouldn't be able to run that fast, so Romero's vision is actually more realistic).

Snyder has offered us, on the whole, a thoroughly postmodern take on Romero's classic--style over substance. While that is sometimes great for a genre that is in danger of becoming totally irrelevant due to overexposure (think of what Tarantino did for American crime films), I think there's still plenty that can be done within the zombie subgenre. Overall, I give this movie a C+/B-.

The Killers (1946)

Has aged unbelievably well.

[9/10 · 11 November 2004]

Maybe I've just seen too many old movies, but for me, other than the period fedoras and suits, nothing about this movie would really give away that it's almost 60 years old.

The plot is solid and keeps you guessing until the end, with many twists and turns along the way, and is told asynchronously (perhaps necessary for today's audiences, which may be why it holds up so well). The acting is great, quite realistic, and for the most part avoids the maudlin sentiment and overacting that characterizes some older films.

The Killers is an incredibly enjoyable crime film, perhaps the perfect crime film. I haven't seen the remake, so I can't comment on that, but I hold this film in high regard.