I've skipped to #10 before I do #9 because I felt the need to tell you about the Raid 2 before it leaves the cinema, particularly as it has such a limited season. In Brisbane this was only showing at Southbank Cineplex, Sunnybank Hoyts and Garden City Event Cinemas. And the number of screenings is limited too so you've got to carefully plan if you want to see it. And you should want to see it, and seeing it in the cinema is absolutely essential. A big screen and lots of company to clap and cheer along with you is a must to enjoy the bone-crunching violence to the fullest. The subtitle being "Berandal" - Indonesian for 'thug' - should be a key sign of what's to come.
A film so violent and brutal it makes the first one (see my review a couple of years ago) look like a bunch of fluffy kittens batting around a ball of wool, this will thrill action fans and amaze those who think that Arnie/Stallone/Jet Li are the ultimate action stars. Please, please, please do not let the fact that is in Indonesian with subtitles stop you from seeing this awesome movie. Indonesian star of the future Iko Uwais returns as good cop Rama, whose resourcefulness and absolutely gobsmacking fighting skills got him through the tower block from hell and out the other side.
The Raid 2 picks up almost directly where the first film ended, as Rama brings out the dirty cop who caused the first chaotic operation, only to find that the police have a plan in place to catch an even bigger fish. This will involve Rama leaving his wife and young son and going undercover to infiltrate a gang by befriending the son of the leader, in the hope that he can work his way up the chain to find the corrupt police who are helping the gangs. What should be a relatively quick mission turns into a multi-year nightmare for Rama who has to go deep if he is to make the cut in the gang.
The Raid 2 is a much longer film with a much more complex storyline than the first movie, so be prepared for that. However, it doesn't mean they have taken the foot off the action pedal at all. There are multiple big set-pieces in this movie which will take your breath away. Two fights in prison open Rama's account, before the film widens out as we see him befriend Uco, son of Bangun who heads up a gang which provides protection to local criminals for a price. They are up against the Goto family who may or may not be connected to a stylish criminal called Bejo. Bejo seems to be trying to play off both sides in the hope of winning his own territory. Rama and Eka alternate their time between helping Uco with enforcement of the family business and keeping the petulant youngster out of trouble with his father and women. As Bejo orchestrates trouble between the rival gangs, Rama finds himself out of his depth and on his own as events spiral towards a showdown.
You will need to concentrate to keep straight all the characters and who is double crossing who, but in the end the movie is still about the fight scenes. Which are absolutely spectacular as new enemies are introduced - the key ones being "Baseball Bat Man" and "Hammer Girl" but the ultimate is "The Assassin". A fight between Rama and the Assassin, who both are obviously very skilled in the martial art known as "pencak silat" is just mind-blowing although it features one of the least believeable moments of both films in my opinion (a slashed leg presents no trouble at all until convenient). However a new aspect is introduced with an absolutely heart stopping car chase. I was actually ducking in my seat as a driver pulled up alongside Eka with a gun, plus wincing as a motorcyclist cops machine gun fire through his helmet at point blank range. Like I said, super violent!!!!
The film just never lets up, providing the ultimate action experience but with an intelligent storyline. The best part is that it is perfectly poised for the Raid 3! Can't wait.
This movie gets 5 out of 5!Do not miss out on this if you like action films.
Saturday 12 April 2014
Movie #8 - Dallas Buyers Club
Sorry I've been away so long loyal readers. Life has been a bit busy with buying and selling houses and moving so there hasn't been time to catch up on my movie reviews let alone see many movies. But I'm back with a few spare hours now!
Way back on the day before the Oscars I managed to see Dallas Buyers Club. It has lingered in my mind though with its heartbreaking tale of those left on the outer edge of society when the AIDS crisis hit America in the early 80s. Just like its Oscar competitor 12 Years a Slave, this movie is based on the true story of an inspirational man and sticks fairly close to the truth I'm guessing. The lead character who is in virtually every scene is Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey), an electrician and rodeo bull rider who is not just a hardcore partier, but also racist and homophobic. Ron and his mates love nothing more than rodeo, drinking, taking drugs and having sex with the numerous women who throw themselves at this 'celebrity'.
Ron's life is so fantastic to him, although it looks a little empty to us peering in from the outside. However, things soon take a bad turn as Ron's regular cough worsens until he eventually passes out. Taken to hospital, he is given the news that he has AIDS by Dr Sevard (Denis O'Hare) and Dr Eve (Jennifer Garner). Unable to believe that the doctors could be right 'because only gays get AIDS', Ron rejects the diagnosis, discharges himself and goes back to his partying ways. However, an escalation in his health issues soon has him researching his condition. He finds that some very promising treatments are available, but after a visit to the doctors he finds that those drugs are unavailable in the US. He is put on a drug that has been fast tracked to human use by the drug company greasing the wheels with the FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration Board) but he soon discovers that this drug is a bad idea when he has an overdose that nearly kills him.
The next part of the movie will seem farfetched to some viewers but to me this part was highly relatable due to a personal situation I'm aware of. It is a really really difficult issue to work out what should be added to schemes where the Government will dispense or subsidise a drug, or not. There are so many rules that should change and drugs that should be made available, but working in finance I'm also aware that there are not unlimited funds to subsidise every drug that would make one person better.
A Mexican doctor's treatments not only stave off the death that Dr Sevard and Eve have told him is imminent, but put Ron in the best health he's been in for ages after he kicks the drugs and alcohol. Unable to get a treatment that will work inside the US and clearly made unwelcome in his usual social situation, Ron decides to take matters into his own hands and start the "Dallas Buyers Club" where he will import (illegally) the treatments that he has found south of the border and provide them to the members of his club who have paid membership fees.
The portrayal of Ron is an astonishing performance from Matthew McConaughey. The physical transformation of his body is amazing, but the most impressive part is the way he portrays the gradual breaking down of his previously offensive views. This is no overnight change that is hard to believe though. It's really a testament to the character of Rayon (a gorgeously fragile Jared Leto), a transgender woman who Ron meets in the hospital and eventually begs for assistance with increasing the membership of the club. At first Ron's motives are pretty selfish and he treats Rayon pretty awfully for a long while, but Rayon's sweetness and fragility eventually lead Ron to tolerance if not embracing the gay community. There is so much believability here.
There are so many great moments in this film as Ron kicks against the FDA, beaks down his own prejudice and gradually breaks down Eve's loyalty to the hospital and its toxic drug program. However it is mind-blowing how the evidence of Ron's treatment could be so ignored when so many people were dying. The movie has very few light moments or laughs so it could be a little hardgoing if you've had a bad day. But in the right frame of mind you could find this a beautiful story of redemption. As Jared Leto said in his Oscar acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor, this one is for the outsiders. I give this 4.5 stars out of 5.
Way back on the day before the Oscars I managed to see Dallas Buyers Club. It has lingered in my mind though with its heartbreaking tale of those left on the outer edge of society when the AIDS crisis hit America in the early 80s. Just like its Oscar competitor 12 Years a Slave, this movie is based on the true story of an inspirational man and sticks fairly close to the truth I'm guessing. The lead character who is in virtually every scene is Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey), an electrician and rodeo bull rider who is not just a hardcore partier, but also racist and homophobic. Ron and his mates love nothing more than rodeo, drinking, taking drugs and having sex with the numerous women who throw themselves at this 'celebrity'.
Ron's life is so fantastic to him, although it looks a little empty to us peering in from the outside. However, things soon take a bad turn as Ron's regular cough worsens until he eventually passes out. Taken to hospital, he is given the news that he has AIDS by Dr Sevard (Denis O'Hare) and Dr Eve (Jennifer Garner). Unable to believe that the doctors could be right 'because only gays get AIDS', Ron rejects the diagnosis, discharges himself and goes back to his partying ways. However, an escalation in his health issues soon has him researching his condition. He finds that some very promising treatments are available, but after a visit to the doctors he finds that those drugs are unavailable in the US. He is put on a drug that has been fast tracked to human use by the drug company greasing the wheels with the FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration Board) but he soon discovers that this drug is a bad idea when he has an overdose that nearly kills him.
The next part of the movie will seem farfetched to some viewers but to me this part was highly relatable due to a personal situation I'm aware of. It is a really really difficult issue to work out what should be added to schemes where the Government will dispense or subsidise a drug, or not. There are so many rules that should change and drugs that should be made available, but working in finance I'm also aware that there are not unlimited funds to subsidise every drug that would make one person better.
A Mexican doctor's treatments not only stave off the death that Dr Sevard and Eve have told him is imminent, but put Ron in the best health he's been in for ages after he kicks the drugs and alcohol. Unable to get a treatment that will work inside the US and clearly made unwelcome in his usual social situation, Ron decides to take matters into his own hands and start the "Dallas Buyers Club" where he will import (illegally) the treatments that he has found south of the border and provide them to the members of his club who have paid membership fees.
The portrayal of Ron is an astonishing performance from Matthew McConaughey. The physical transformation of his body is amazing, but the most impressive part is the way he portrays the gradual breaking down of his previously offensive views. This is no overnight change that is hard to believe though. It's really a testament to the character of Rayon (a gorgeously fragile Jared Leto), a transgender woman who Ron meets in the hospital and eventually begs for assistance with increasing the membership of the club. At first Ron's motives are pretty selfish and he treats Rayon pretty awfully for a long while, but Rayon's sweetness and fragility eventually lead Ron to tolerance if not embracing the gay community. There is so much believability here.
There are so many great moments in this film as Ron kicks against the FDA, beaks down his own prejudice and gradually breaks down Eve's loyalty to the hospital and its toxic drug program. However it is mind-blowing how the evidence of Ron's treatment could be so ignored when so many people were dying. The movie has very few light moments or laughs so it could be a little hardgoing if you've had a bad day. But in the right frame of mind you could find this a beautiful story of redemption. As Jared Leto said in his Oscar acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor, this one is for the outsiders. I give this 4.5 stars out of 5.
Movie #7 - 12 Years a Slave
This 2014 Best Picture Oscar winner is not a movie that you 'enjoy' seeing, but in my opinion it was very deserving of the accolade and was an excellent movie. Even if you don't normally like period dramas, this is well worth seeing. I walked out of this movie shaking my head that people could have just decided that someone with different coloured skin was less of a human being and deserved to be treated so badly. And it was not really that long ago. Then I thought about the way so many countries are treating gay people at the moment, and realised it's still happening! Hopefully the same social change will occur for gay people. I hope it will be much less than 100 years for us to be watching a movie about how gay people were persecuted just for being gay and asking "how unbelievable is that".
The film is based on true events and although it seems incredible, I doubt that there was much stretching of the truth here as it was based on the memoir written by the real Solomon Northup less than a year after his ordeal. Solomon was a free born black man living with his wife and young children in upstate New York. When his family go away so his wife can work, Solomon is enticed to join a travelling circus to play violin, for which he will be paid a lot of money. Seemingly unaware of the phrase "too good to be true", Solomon is drugged on a night out in Washington DC (where slavery was legal) and sold to a slave trader. He initially protests his treatment and proclaims his freedom, but the slaver and his jailer beat and whip him until he agrees to pretend he is a slave called Platt. He is transported to New Orleans where he is put into a slave market (slave trader played by Paul Giamatti) and quickly sold to his first owner.
The film then follows Solomon's eventful journey as he is bought and sold by three different masters over his 12 years spent as a slave. His early time with Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) is portrayed as relatively easy due to the kindness and religious ways of Ford who benefits from Solomon's work skills. However in real life Solomon was still trying many ways to escape or get letters back to his family and friends. The easiness of this time is upset though when a carpenter working for Ford, Tibauts (played here by Paul Dano in creepy mode) takes exception to Solomon and beats him. When Solomon beats back, Tibauts tries to kill him but Ford intervenes - but his protection can't last long. Solomon is then sold to another master where he works hard but continues to try to escape. After a short time of peace here, Solomon is sold to a man named Epps.
The time with Epps takes up a large amount of the film as it is the most eventful. Epps (played by Michael Fassbender of X-Men and Prometheus) is a married man who is wracked with guilt over feelings for one of his slaves, the hardest working cotton picker Patsey. Prone to whipping his workers for not picking enough cotton, drinking and violent outbursts in between his nice moments, Epps is a frightening creation in the hands of Fassbender. Here is where Solomon's resolve not to give up hope of escape and return to his family is both strengthened and tested. The interactions with Epps, Patsey (newcomer Lupita Nyong'o who fully deserved her Oscar) and another female slave who was separated from her children back at the slave market with Solomon are extremely saddening. I had tears in my eyes in a very disturbing scene with Solomon, as Lupito Nyong'o finds the depths of desperation and pain and recrimination.
I won't spoil how Solomon finally escapes his illegal imprisonment as that part is well documented in the film. What is not covered but is well worth reading up on afterwards, is the struggle to find justice for Solomon. I'm not sure what is the bigger tragedy - what happened to him or how the system was unwilling to punish the guilty. The film provides a shocking insight into a terrible time in history, complete with the use of the 'n' word and realistic violence. It's not easy to view but is such a well constructed and worthy tale. The thing that touched me the most was the perfect pacing by director Steve McQueen - not a minute is wasted and everything is beautiful, even the ugliness.
The film is based on true events and although it seems incredible, I doubt that there was much stretching of the truth here as it was based on the memoir written by the real Solomon Northup less than a year after his ordeal. Solomon was a free born black man living with his wife and young children in upstate New York. When his family go away so his wife can work, Solomon is enticed to join a travelling circus to play violin, for which he will be paid a lot of money. Seemingly unaware of the phrase "too good to be true", Solomon is drugged on a night out in Washington DC (where slavery was legal) and sold to a slave trader. He initially protests his treatment and proclaims his freedom, but the slaver and his jailer beat and whip him until he agrees to pretend he is a slave called Platt. He is transported to New Orleans where he is put into a slave market (slave trader played by Paul Giamatti) and quickly sold to his first owner.
The film then follows Solomon's eventful journey as he is bought and sold by three different masters over his 12 years spent as a slave. His early time with Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) is portrayed as relatively easy due to the kindness and religious ways of Ford who benefits from Solomon's work skills. However in real life Solomon was still trying many ways to escape or get letters back to his family and friends. The easiness of this time is upset though when a carpenter working for Ford, Tibauts (played here by Paul Dano in creepy mode) takes exception to Solomon and beats him. When Solomon beats back, Tibauts tries to kill him but Ford intervenes - but his protection can't last long. Solomon is then sold to another master where he works hard but continues to try to escape. After a short time of peace here, Solomon is sold to a man named Epps.
The time with Epps takes up a large amount of the film as it is the most eventful. Epps (played by Michael Fassbender of X-Men and Prometheus) is a married man who is wracked with guilt over feelings for one of his slaves, the hardest working cotton picker Patsey. Prone to whipping his workers for not picking enough cotton, drinking and violent outbursts in between his nice moments, Epps is a frightening creation in the hands of Fassbender. Here is where Solomon's resolve not to give up hope of escape and return to his family is both strengthened and tested. The interactions with Epps, Patsey (newcomer Lupita Nyong'o who fully deserved her Oscar) and another female slave who was separated from her children back at the slave market with Solomon are extremely saddening. I had tears in my eyes in a very disturbing scene with Solomon, as Lupito Nyong'o finds the depths of desperation and pain and recrimination.
I won't spoil how Solomon finally escapes his illegal imprisonment as that part is well documented in the film. What is not covered but is well worth reading up on afterwards, is the struggle to find justice for Solomon. I'm not sure what is the bigger tragedy - what happened to him or how the system was unwilling to punish the guilty. The film provides a shocking insight into a terrible time in history, complete with the use of the 'n' word and realistic violence. It's not easy to view but is such a well constructed and worthy tale. The thing that touched me the most was the perfect pacing by director Steve McQueen - not a minute is wasted and everything is beautiful, even the ugliness.
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