Director: Mathieu Kassovits
Cast: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui
SPOILERS BELOW
La Haine follows an ethnically diverse group of three French youths in and around their public housing complex the day after a riot in their neighbourhood. It has a sharp, funny screenplay, despite subtitles often stepping on punchlines and features good naturalistic performances from the three leads. The actors are able to capture the bravado of youth and the film manages to walk the thinline of showing our heroes' persecution complex even as they are being persecuted. It's a low budget film, but its lo-fi digital aesethic mainly works, except when Kassovits overcompensates by using showy camera tricks Similarly the plot, which is mainly a small coming of age story about a day in the life of friends coping with their tough life, takes a sharp turn in the last 3 minutes that feels out of place and the work of a director who wanted to make sure his film ended with a bang. The youthful lack of discipline give the film's performances and dialogue it's spark, but unfortunately end up undermining the plotting and camerawork of an otherwise excellent film.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Universal Solider: Regeneration - 2009 - 3.5 Stars
Director: John Hyams
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Andrei Arlovski, Dolph Lundgren
A sequel to a not particularly well loved 90's Roland Emmerich Sci-Fi film, I didn't even know that Universal Soldier: Regeneration existed until I saw it mentioned on twitter by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. In need of a testosterone fix, I threw it on yesterday and it met or surpassed all of my expectations. It is common, especially on the internet, to pine for macho 80's action films while complaining that current shoot em ups ain't what they used to be, however good action movies are still being made; they are just harder to find without the aid of survivorship bias. Hyams's second feature is a sincere throwback to the movies that turned Jean-Claude Van Damme into a superstar 25 years ago; it has a lot of practical effects, doesn't feature the tongue-in-cheek post-modernity of The Expendables and could be set during The Cold War. While all three of the leads have posses the screen presence required from them , the real star of the film is Hyams's direction and fight choreography, which is brutal, easy to follow and creative; one long take in the film's climactic action sequence is remarkable and a works as a companion to the winking opening of 2008's JCVD. If you have never liked a movie featuring Van-Damme or Lundgren, you will not like this film, but if you have liked anything featuring them this well-constructed, entertaining, brawny action flick is better than watching Cobra on TBS for the 18th time.
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Andrei Arlovski, Dolph Lundgren
A sequel to a not particularly well loved 90's Roland Emmerich Sci-Fi film, I didn't even know that Universal Soldier: Regeneration existed until I saw it mentioned on twitter by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. In need of a testosterone fix, I threw it on yesterday and it met or surpassed all of my expectations. It is common, especially on the internet, to pine for macho 80's action films while complaining that current shoot em ups ain't what they used to be, however good action movies are still being made; they are just harder to find without the aid of survivorship bias. Hyams's second feature is a sincere throwback to the movies that turned Jean-Claude Van Damme into a superstar 25 years ago; it has a lot of practical effects, doesn't feature the tongue-in-cheek post-modernity of The Expendables and could be set during The Cold War. While all three of the leads have posses the screen presence required from them , the real star of the film is Hyams's direction and fight choreography, which is brutal, easy to follow and creative; one long take in the film's climactic action sequence is remarkable and a works as a companion to the winking opening of 2008's JCVD. If you have never liked a movie featuring Van-Damme or Lundgren, you will not like this film, but if you have liked anything featuring them this well-constructed, entertaining, brawny action flick is better than watching Cobra on TBS for the 18th time.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Top Ten of 2012
The Oscars are today and they have prompted me to make my compulsory top 10 of 2012 list. I have been grinding through 2012 movies the past week and there are still several movies that I'd like to see ( THE KID WITH A BIKE, BARBARA, ELENA, LIFE OF PI, HAYWIRE, etc.). All movies I've seen and had a non-festival release in 2012 are eligible for this very, very, very important list.
Honourable mentions and the top ten after the jump
Honourable mentions and the top ten after the jump
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