Kung Fu Hustle: Sing (Stephen Chow), seeking to transcend his timid nature and achieve greatness, attempts to join a 1940s-era criminal gang in Shanghai. Through much pain and failure, he ultimately discovers his true inner self.
The film is a superb achievement in comedy and special effects, referencing, one way or another, dozens of movies and animated features from the past. Looney Tunes takes a central position in the film, along with The Karate Kid, The Shining, Gone with the Wind, The Blues Brothers, The Godfather, The Hulk, countless martial arts movies, and the final scene tips its hat to The Matrix Reloaded with the zillion Agent Smiths attacking Neo-ahh-Sing.
James Gunn, director of the Guardians of the Galaxy series and the upcoming 2025 Superman release, told Allie Capp in 2021, “Although I can, on occasion, be prone to hyperbole, I say without it here: Kung Fu Hustle is the greatest film ever made.”
Genre: Action–Comedy–Crime—Fantasy–Martial Arts
Directed by: Stephen Chow
Screenplay by: Stephen Chow, Huo Xin, Chan Man-keung, Tsang Kan-cheung
Music by: Raymond Wong
Cast: Stephen Chan, Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu, Eva Huang, Leung Siu-lung
Film Location: Shanghai, China
ElsBob: 8.0/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 91%
Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter: 89%
Metacritic Metascore: 78%
Metacritic User Score: 8.1/10
Theaters: 23 December 2004
Runtime: 98 minutes
Budget: $20 million
Box Office: $104.9 million
Source: Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Metacritic. Capps Allie Capp, WGTC, 2021.Graphic: Kung Fu Hustle Trailer, 2004, copyright Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures.
Juror 2: Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is chosen as one of twelve jurors to decide the fate of a defendant accused of homicide, only to discover that his thumb-up, thumb-down decision transcends the trial itself; like free will, suffering is woven into the fabric of our existence.
Clint Eastwood’s movies typically deliver entertainment with plots that resolve in the great American tradition of truth, justice, and apple pie. This film is different. It’s a story where past mistakes lead to present agony and future pain.
This is a thought-provoking movie, brilliantly portrayed by Hoult. Very little staging or action is needed to polish it into a complete piece. My only quibble is that the moral predicament would resolve itself if the protagonist were fully aware of his actions when they occurred. But then there would be no plot.
Boston homicide cop Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) suffers permanent and progressive hearing loss while pursuing a murder suspect through shipping docks of Boston. After returning to duty, his ex-homicide partner volunteers him to interview a deaf witness, Ava (Sandra Mae Frank) who has information about two recent murders near her 10-story apartment building. Frank and Ava soon find themselves frantically running through her building trying to avoid the killers who are determined to silence Ava.
“The Silent Hour” is a low-budget movie with nothing new under the sun plot that doesn’t allow for many surprises, or I should say no surprises. When the story does make a few detours from the tried and true, it feels more like filler rather than substantive elements enhancing the narrative. However, it is competently directed and well-acted, and its brevity ensures it remains engaging enough to be watchable.
Genre: Action—Crime—Mystery–Thriller
Directed by: Brad Anderson
Screenplay by: Dan Hall
Music by: Anton Sanko
Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Sandra Mae Frank, Mekhi Phifer, Mark Strong
Film Locations: Malta and Ontario, Canada
ElsBob: 5.0/10
IMDb: 5.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 64%
Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter: –%
Metacritic Metascore: –%
Metacritic User Score: –%
Theaters: 11 October 2024
Runtime: 99 minutes
Source: IMDb. Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic. Graphic: The Silent Hour poster, copyright Republic Pictures and AGC Studios.
A contract killer discovers he has a quick moving form of dementia, and his estranged son needs help. Keaton and Pacino team up to save Keaton’s family from financial ruin, and his son from life in prison.
This film was Keaton’s directorial debut, and he delivered a smashing success. A future as an actor-director may just be in the cards for Keaton.
Source: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic. Graphic: Knox Goes Away Movie Poster, copyright Saban Films 2024.
Longlegs: Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), mildly clairvoyant, rookie FBI agent, tackles a satanic serial-killer case with the enthusiasm of a vampire seeking high noon.
The movie possesses a few good, creepy scares molded around a very predictable plot with characters needing the IQ of twigs to make the story work.
Nicholas Cage elevates the movie to watchable while simultaneously establishing a serious deficiency in talent for the remainder of the cast that chose to perform in front of the camera. Unfortunately, his acting is not enough to salvage this flick.
Trivia: Three songs by Marc Bolan’s band, T-Rex are woven into the Longlegs’ plot: Get It On, Jewel, and Planet Queen. All three songs provide a creepy, lyrical cadence to the horror that is Longlegs.
More Trivia: Zilgi who is credited with the music score is Osgood Perkins brother, Elvis Perkins, both of whom are the sons of the late actor and director Anthony Perkins.
Genre: Crime–Horror—Mystery—Suspense–Thriller
Directed by: Osgood Perkins
Screenplay by: Osgood Perkins
Music by: Zilgi
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt
Film Locations: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Els: 5.0/10
IMDb: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 85
Rotten Tomatoes Audience: 60
Metacritic Metascore: 77
Metacritic User Score: 6.3/10
Theaters: 12 July 2024
Runtime: 101 minutes
Budget: <$10 million
Worldwide Box Office: $104.1 million
Source: IMDb. Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic. Graphic: Movie trailer, copyright Neon.
Tom Reagan (Byrne), indispensable man to prohibition crime boss Leo (Finney), is caught up in a no-win love affair, mounting gambling debts, and to add some juice, Irish and Italian mobs are competing for his unique talents. With everything to lose Reagan plays to keep his hat.
A suspenseful movie playing tribute to film noir/crime noir flicks of the 40s and 50s with inspiration from Dashiell Hammett’s ‘The Glass Key’ and ‘Red Harvest’. The plot is complicated that with a patty wagon full of characters it takes considerable effort, initially, to keep ‘em all straight.
This is Coens’ 3rd movie coming after ‘Blood Simple’ in 1984 and ‘Raising Arizona’ in 1987.
Genre: Crime—Drama—Film Noir–Thriller
Directed by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Screenplay by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Music by: Carter Burwell
Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro
Film Locations: New Orleans
Els: 8.5/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 93/100
Rotten Tomatoes Audience: 90/100
Metacritic Metascore: 66/100
Metacritic User Score: 8.4/10
Theaters: 21 September 1990
Runtime: 115 minutes
Budget: $10-14 Million
Worldwide Box Office: $5 Million
Source: IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Wikipedia. Graphic: Movie Poster by 20th Century Fox.
A New York writer’s hookup girlfriend dies, possibly murdered, and he is emotionally coerced into attending her funeral in the sticks of Texas, followed up by a less than enthusiastic investigation of her death.
A film that clicks on all cylinders, screenplay, acting, directing, and social commentary of all things—too bad it died at the box office. It really is a great movie to watch if for no other reason than to see and hear the philosophy of Ashton Kutcher.Theaters: 29 July 2022
Streaming: 16 September 2022
Runtime: 107 minutes
Genre: Comedy — Crime – Mystery — Thriller
ElsBob: 7.0/10
IMDB: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 82/100
Rotten Tomatoes Audience: 86/100
Metacritic Metascore: 65/100
Metacritic User Score: 6.4/10
Directed by: B.J. Novak
Screenplay by: B.J. Novak
Music by: Finneas O’Connell
Cast: B.J. Novak, Boyd Holbrook, J. Smith-Cameron, Ashton Kutcher
Film Locations: New Mexico
Budget: $22 million
Box Office: $4.4 million
Source: IMDb. Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic. Graphic: Vengeance Movie Poster 2022, Focus Features copyright.
Genre: Crime – Drama — Mystery — Neo-Noir — Thriller
Els: 7.5/10
IMDB: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 95/100
Rotten Tomatoes Audience: 8.3/100
Metacritic Metascore: 84/100
Metacritic User Score: 8.0/10
Directed by: Joel Coen
Screenplay by: Joel and Ethan Coen
Music by: Carter Burwell
Cast: John Getz, Francis McDormand, Dan Hedaya
Film Locations: Austin and Round Rock, Texas
Budget: $1.5 Million
Worldwide Box Office: $2.7 Million
Blood Simple is a twisted Texas tale of a honky-tonk owner, a cheating wife, contract killings, misunderstandings, and violence.
This is the Coen brothers’ first movie along with the first major film for Barry Sonnenfeld and Francis McDormand. A classic neo-noir crime film setting the stage for Fargo and No Country for Old Men down the road.
The film was ranked at number 98 on AFI’s 2001 movie listing of the top 100 Thrills in American cinema. In case you are wondering Hitchcock’s 1960 film, Psycho was first.
Source: IMDB. Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic. Wikipedia. Graphic: Movie Poster, Circle Releasing.
Awards: Best Actress–Best Supporting Actor, Academy Awards; Best Actress–Best Picture–Best Screenplay–Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Awards; and many others.
How I missed this movie for 7 years is mystery but I’m glad I found it. The movie won multiple major Academy and Golden Globe Awards and it didn’t even register within my sphere of consciousness. Of course, if I paid any attention, which I don’t, to Hollywood award shows I may have caught it. But any who, I saw a mention about the movie online while browsing and decided to give it view. I’m probably the only person on the planet that hasn’t watched this movie but on the off chance you haven’t, you should.
After Coen Brother’s 1996 black comedy crime film: ‘Fargo‘, ‘Three Billboards‘ brings another black comedy crime film without the Coens but thankfully with Joel Coen’s spouse, the fantastically wonderful actress, Frances McDormand to the screen. McDormand takes the lead role in ‘Three Billboards‘, as she did in ‘Fargo‘, and turns in a engrousing performance as a grieving and scheming mother earning her the Academy and Golden Globes Best Actress awards in the process.
‘Three Billboards‘ was written and directed by Martin McDonagh in which he garnered the 2017 Golden Globe Best Screenplay for the movie. He followed up this film with the 2022 movie ‘The Banshees of Inisherin‘ which won the 2022 Golden Globe for Best Movie. In both movies McDonagh brings his trademark dark humor cloaked in a drama to the big screen. Tragedy is a better genre fit for McDonagh’s work but that term seems to belong to a time long passed.
FootnoteA
Frances McDormand, as Mildred, is a mother looking for closure over her daughter’s rape and murder in the small town of Ebbing, Missouri. After many months of waiting for the local authorities to solve the crimes she grows despondent and desperate over the lack of progress in apprehending, or at a minimum, identifying a suspect and begins to take matters into her own hands.
This movie hits on all cylinders, the screenplay, direction, cinematography which is beautiful, and acting all come together to produce a mostly coherent story with multiple sub-plots that are a feast for your senses and emotions. The only ding I have is that towards the end of the movie McDonagh introduces a twist in the plot that makes very little sense unless they were planning for a sequel, or it is a deus ex machina solution to an intractable plot problem. It is a minor irritation but in its defense, without the twist the final scene would have been very different and likely not as fullfilling.
On an extraneous side note, as with ‘Fargo‘ which was filmed mainly in multiple locations in Minnesota, ‘Three Billboards’ was filmed in multiple locations in North Carolina. Movies are for believers.
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