Review: Westworld (1973)

Sometime in the future, people can act out their fantasies in resorts populated by human-like robots. Two vacationers, Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) and his friend John Blane (James Brolin) holiday in the 'West World' theme park, where they get involved in wild west set pieces, including shoot-outs with a particular robot called the Gunslinger (Yul Brynner). Other vacationers go to other parts of the resort, 'Rome World' and 'Medieval World'. Of course, the robots go awry and decide to do away with the guests.

Writer-director Michael Crichton's cautionary tale about technology going bad is surprisingly clumsy at the start, given his prior experience as a film writer and director. There are slabs of dialogue between the vacationers explaining how the theme park and the robots work, followed by even more exposition between engineers as they try to figure out what is going wrong with the robots. One feels that Crichton strayed too far from the technology that he was familiar with because the technobabble is very vague and does not stand up to mild scrutiny.

Where he does well is to create a believable tone and setting on a very tight budget, with parts of the film reminiscent of 'The Andromeda Strain'. The blurred line between humans and robots is illustrated in one striking sequence, the night-time collection of the 'dead' robots by emotionless human technicians. The film also features some of the first CGI effects, showing the Gunslinger's point of view.

Yul Brynner, who has virtually no lines of dialogue, is the most memorable is the implacable Gunsligner. Dressed in a similar costume as his character Chris in 'The Magnificent Seven', Brynner simply dominates all his scenes. The chase through the deserted resort complex is one of the best ever made.

3 out of 5 stars.

Review: 龙虎门 / Lung fu moon / Dragon Tiger Gate (2006)

In a seemingly lawless world, the Dragon Tiger Gate martial arts academy, run by Master Wong (Wah Yuen), trains its students to uphold justice and resist the triads, and provides a home for orphans. One of its students, Tiger Wong (Nicholas Tse) runs foul of the triads when he and his friends get hold of the Luocha Plaque, which signifies that the holder is second only to Loucha Gate's boss, Shibumi (Yu Kang). Tiger meets his half-brother, Dragon (Donnie Yen), when the triads try to regain the plaque. Meanwhile, a new student, Turbo (Shawn Yue), who tries to join the Dragon Tiger Gate, becomes embroiled in the fight.

Adapted by Edmond Wong from the manhua comic series by Yuk Long Wong, 'Dragon Tiger Gate' is somewhat confusing at the start and you may have to be familiar with the comic books to understand the setting and the main characters. It doesn't help that the CGI establishing shots of a grim lawless environment are at odds with the brighter live-action shots. A fair bit of explanation in the opening credits is repeated in a flashback, which distracted me because I tried to match them up. The film's pacing is choppy, with many dead patches, especially those featuring camera arcs, that don't progress the story or develop any of the characters.

Action, though, is the name of the game, and director Wilson Yip puts a lot of effort into the fight sequences. The fight in a Chinese restaurant is energetic and the fight in a Japanese restaurant is a nod to film's manhua origins. However, it's as if all the ammunition was expended at the start, because succeeding fight scenes feel a bit tired and the climactic fight between the heroes and Shibumi is a tedious CGI-filled affair.

Cantonese with English subtitles.

2 out of 5 stars.

Review: 放逐 / Fong Juk / Exiled (2006)

In Macau 1998, before the colony's handover to China, five professional hitman, led by Blaze (Anthony Wong), decide to do a last job for one of their own, Wo (Nick Cheung). Their plans go awry when triad boss Fay (Simon Yam) enters the picture, and they spend some time lost in the wilderness before rediscovering their purpose.

Action fans might be a little disappointed by plain nature of the firefights; there aren't any distinctive weapons or manoeuvres, and the after effects are often messy. The characters are lightly but sufficiently sketched in and the camaraderie between members of the gang is unforced. I especially like how all the scenes are allowed to play out and the denouement is pleasantly ironic.

Director Johnnie To's elegant and slightly melancholy actioner is about endings, honour and brotherhood, and brings to mind Sam Peckinpah's 'The Wild Bunch', which dealt with similar themes in the wild west. From the first scene, we have a good idea of how things will pan out, but the script by Kam-Yuen Szeto and Tin-Shing Yip has plenty of surprises and wry humour as the gang get into one gunfight after another.

Cantonese with English subtitles.

3 out of 5 stars.

Review: Dune (1984)

Adapting Frank Herbert's complex galaxy spanning novel to the big screen was never easy. Since the novel's publication, various film makers, including Ridley Scott, have had a go. This version, adapted and directed by David Lynch, charts Paul Atreides' rise to power as the foretold super human 'Kwisatz Haderach' and leader of the Fremen, the natives of the desert planet Arrakis. Arrayed against him are the traditional enemies of his family, the Harkonnens, the scheming Emperor Shaddam IV, the Guild Navigators who control interstellar flight, and the Bene Gesserit who seek to control Paul. All the parties have a common interest in the spice 'melange', which provide the power to fold space and time, and is only found on Arrakis.

The production is lavish and detailed, with huge sets and elaborate costumes. In this universe, humans are cogs in the machine of empire, genetically modified for computation (mentats), space travel (the whale-like Guild Navigators and their attendants with brain drips) or war (the Imperial Sardaukar soldiers encased in environment suits). Characters are often dwarfed by huge steam-belching machines or starships, giving the film a hellish Victorian industrial atmosphere.

A lot of the casting in the film is spot-on: Kyle MacLachlan's Paul believably matures from the son of a noble to a leader; Francesca Annis is radiant and elegant as Jessica; Siân Phillips is a domineering Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother; José Ferrer is the scheming but weak Emperor Shaddam IV; and Patrick Stewart, who has hardly any lines, is effective as Paul's mentor, Gurney Halleck. Most memorable is Kenneth McMillan as the repulsive and cruel Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, with his pustule-ravaged face and flying suit.

The film is overburdened by the sheer number of ideas in the novel and by the filmmakers, to the detriment of the story. There is an excess of explanation, from the initial voiceover by Princess Irulan (Virginia Madsen), to scenes where the characters discuss some background or detail which are followed by internal monologues from each character explaining what was just shown on screen! Perhaps, as a product of the early 80s, there was a concern that audiences wouldn't understand SF ideas unless it was explained to them two or three times (the initial release of 'Blade Runner' also had a voiceover). There is so much exposition that it isn't until halfway through the film that anything actually happens, following which, there is a sense of inevitability about the ending that drains the rest of the film of any surprise or suspense.

Maybe the initial cuts of the film, much longer, are better structured. There is no way of knowing since they were just work prints, nor is a director's cut available. After the film's initial release, a longer version was made for TV without David Lynch's involvement; that version is just unwatchable.

1 out of 5 stars.

Review: Waltz with Bashir (2008)

In 1982, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) invades southern Lebanon to remove the PLO. During their occupation of Lebanon, Bashir (or Bachir) Gemayel, the leader of the Lebanese Forces (an Israeli ally), is assassinated. Subsequently, militiamen from the Lebanese Forces were allowed by the IDF to enter the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, where they massacre Palestinian civilians. The title of the documentary comes from an incident where a Israeli soldier, caught in a cross fire between high rise buildings in Beirut, finds himself doing a crazy jig surrounded by giant posters of Bashir on the buildings' walls.

Ari Folman, an infantryman in the war, takes us through the events in that war from the viewpoint of ordinary Israeli soldiers that he interviews. On the ground, the war is terrifying and shocking, and Folman uses animation to recreate the experience. The use of animation is an effective technique that draws us in and makes us witness the horror and atrocities, when live footage would have caused us to turn away.

Hebrew with English subtitles.

4 out of 5 stars.

Review: Ashes to Ashes, Series 1 (2008)

'Ashes to Ashes' follows-on from its predecessor 'Life on Mars', this time with DI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) transported back in to 1981, after a possibly fatal incident, where she finds she is part of DCI Gene Hunt's (Philip Glenister) team. Alex quickly works out that she is having the same experience as Sam Tyler from LoM (conveniently, she read his case file) and decides that the way back to the present day is to save her parents, Caroline Drake (Amelia Bullmore) and Tim Price (Andrew Clover) from dying in a car bomb.

I wonder why the creators, Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, chose to set the series in 1981, a period when there hadn't been any remarkable police procedurals other than 'Hill Street Blues' (and at a stretch, 'The Professionals'), unlike LoM, which was set in the early 70s and could reference many more series. Series 1 also seems to live in a vacuum; the fact that the UK economy was in a deep recession is hardly mentioned, and significant local events in the early 80s, such as the Brixton race riots, aren't used much in the series.

The dynamics between the Alex and Gene in the first few episodes in the new series were a bit wobbly, as if the creators were writing a female Sam Tyler instead of a totally new character, and it isn't until episode 4 that Alex steps out of Sam's shadow. Also, from that episode onwards, other members of Gene's team start filling out the series: macho Ray's (Dean Andrews) masculinity is tested, mop-haired Chris (Marshall Lancaster) and newcomer WPC Sharon 'Shaz' Granger (Montserrat Lombard) start making eyes at each other, and even desk sergeant Viv (Geff Francis) plays a part in the investigations.

More of a conventional cop series compared to 'Life on Mars' but still inventive and sometimes surprising.

4 out of 5 stars.

Review: Mensonges et trahisons et plus si affinités... / The Story of My Life (2004)

Raphaël (Edouard Baer) is an anonymous ghost writer of celebrity autobiographies who pretends to be satisfied with his lot. He dates architect Muriel (Marie-Josée Croze), whose forthright manner starts to make him confront his unfulfilled dreams. When he is commissioned to write the autobiography of boorish footballer Kevin (Clovis Cornillac), he discovers that the woman he fancied in university, Claire (Alice Taglioni), is Kevin's girlfriend, and he decides to worm his way into her heart.

Writer-director Laurent Tirard and co-writer Grégoire Vigneron stay well within the path well-travelled by many other urban romantic comedies: boy meets girl, they break up, then they make up. What's entertaining is the journey and the sights along the way. The good and funny bits comes from establishing the characters, and Raphaël and Muriel's courtship; Edouard Baer's makes Raphaël an amiable, slightly repressed introvert who is easy to relate to, while Marie-Josée Croze is great as the more direct and perky Muriel. The main plot where Raphaël (ineptly) tries to seduce Claire is a little offputting and underdeveloped, and the side plots involving Raphaël's mates, journalist Jeff (Eric Berger) and banker Max (Jean-Michel Lahmi), don't go very far and are resolved a bit abruptly.

Crowd pleasing, uncluttered romantic comedy.

French with English subtitles.

3 out of 5 stars.