Category Archives: Reviews
Review: Death Warrior aka Olum Savascisi (Turkey 1984)
I’ve seen a lot of crazy old Turkish genre movies over the years, ranging from the relatively well-crafted and genuinely enjoyable Kilink and Tarkan films to bananas mindbenders like Turkish Superman and 3 Dev Adam, in which Turkish El Santo … Continue reading
Review: Reign of Assassins aka Jian Yu (Taiwan/China/Hong Kong 2010)
Reign of Assassins is one of the best wu xia films of the past decade, marrying old school pleasures with comic book aesthetics and inventive action instead of relying on the grim seriousness mandated by the Hero model. Characterization is … Continue reading
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Tagged 2010, China, Hong Kong, John Woo, Kelly Lin, Michelle Yeoh, Shawn Yue, Su Chao-pin, Taiwan, Wu xia
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Review: Atomic Blonde (USA 2017)
A hard-R gender-flipped Bond film pretending it’s The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Atomic Blonde is one of the clearest cut cases of style over substance I’ve seen in a while. The film – a mess of double … Continue reading
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Tagged 2017, Charlize Theron, David Leitch, David McAvoy, John Goodman, Toby Jones, USA
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Review: The Frisco Kid (USA 1979)
I feel like this movie never really evolved beyond the elevator pitch. “Gene Wilder will play a rabbi who gets into hijinks in the Wild West! And Harrison Ford will play his desperado sidekick! The comedy will write itself!” Unfortunately, … Continue reading
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Tagged 1979, Gene Wilder, Harrison Ford, Robert Aldrich, USA, Western
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Review: Weiner (USA 2016)
This documentary contains some fascinating material on the failed Anthony Weiner 2013 mayoral run in New York, though I was not overly impressed with the way, at least in the early going, the filmmakers put their thumb on the scale … Continue reading
NYAFF 2017 Review: The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio (Japan 2016)
Sick of serious Miike? 13 Assassins and Hara-kiri Miike? Yearning for the older, wackier V-cinema Miike? Look no further than The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio (a belated sequel to 2013’s The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji). This film is … Continue reading
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Tagged 2016, Japan, NYAFF, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Takashi Miike, Yakuza
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NYAFF 2017 Review: Fabricated City (South Korea 2017)
So, so, so dumb but so, so, so fun. Fabricated City starts off with our lead, disaffected loner Kwon Ju (Ji Chang-wook) going into battle in a multi-player war game with his team of random internet gaming geeks, performing crazy … Continue reading
NYAFF 2017 Review: Suffering of Ninko (Japan 2016)
More an erotic fable than a proper narrative, Suffering of Ninko puts a Japanese spin on the popular mythological concepts of the succubus and the incubus. Ninko is a Buddhist monk, fixated on his own asceticism. Unfortunately, his very presence … Continue reading
NYAFF 2017 Review: Split (South Korea 2016)
The festival program describes Split as a mash-up of Rain Man and Kingpin, and that’s exactly right. The problem is that there is way too much Rain Man, and way too little Kingpin. It’s a bowling dramedy, but weighted heavily … Continue reading
NYAFF 2017 Review: Kfc (Vietnam 2017)
Kfc starts out with the opposite of the Fargo disclaimer – a emphatic reassurance that the film’s events are purely fictional. Whether that’s a reaction against Fargo or just an attempt not to get sued, I don’t know, because Kfc … Continue reading