Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002)

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002)
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist is a parody of Hong Kong Kung Fu movies. What makes Kung Pow unique is that director, writer, and lead actor Steve Oedekerk actually took an old Hong Kong martial arts movie (1976's The Savage Killers aka Tiger and Crane Fist) and edited himself along with some new effects into this other film. Although a few of the CGI special effects are dated ten years later, you can tell that a lot of effort went into putting Oedekerk into the old movie and that there is clearly a love of the source material here while also having some fun with it.
I found the humor to be hit or miss though usually when I did find something funny I laughed pretty hard. I liked the subtle humor ("that's a lot of nuts!", Taco bell and Pringles logos in the background, "THIS IS CNN!", etc.) a lot better than the more obvious jokes such as the Kung Fu cow or the tongue with a face that didn't make me laugh at all.
The "bullet time" parody is dated not because it is a reference to The Matrix, but that for years following that movie everybody and their mother parodied the bullet time scene and the joke became played out. I'm not blaming the makers of this movie for putting that in there as it worked perfectly with what Kung Pow was trying to do, but it took me back to when it was almost mandatory to parody that scene.

Although Oedekirk hasn't acted or directed much since Kung Pow, he has kept busy on the writing side of filmmaking with recent credits such as Evan Almighty and Cowboys & Aliens. Oedekirk was nominated for an Oscar for best animated feature for Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius which he co-wrote and produced. Oedekirk has writing credits for a lot of well known movies from The Nutty Professor to Bruce Almighty and is also known for his Thumbs! comedy series which parodied famous films.
When it comes to parodies of Asian  martial arts movies I prefer the recent web series "Ninja the Mission Force" which I hope gets another season. "Ninja the Mission Force" took a different approach from Kung Pow as instead of putting a guy into a preexisting film, it re-used old footage and claimed that it took place in the same continuity with new scenes, much in the way these Hong Kong cut and paste movies did like Ninja Terminator with hilarious results!
I liked Kung Pow but at this point it seems doubtful we'll get the sequel promised at the end!
6/10

Spring Wrap-up Part Four

S1m0ne (2002)

I'm a big fan of Andrew Niccol's directorial debut Gattaca but had not seen another one of his movies yet. S1m0ne was his second movie, which like Gattaca he also wrote the screenplay for.
Al Pacino plays once a once successful film director named Viktor Taransky who is now struggling for a hit movie. After a demanding star actress (she only eats red M&Ms!) leaves the production of his current film it seems all is lost, until Taransky is given a computer generated actress from a computer scientist friend, which Taransky can manipulate any way he wants and is indistinguishable from reality. We even get the see images of the actresses that Simone is drawn from, in a subtle but hilarious joke includes... Ernest Borgnine?!
It is probably the dream of every director to be able to control their actors in this way and its fun to watch Taransky directing the fakery of Simone. While this starts off with Taransky controlling her acting, it quickly leads to him also having to keep up the illusion that she is a real person due to her skyrocketing popularity!
S1m0ne was ahead of its time in that it deals with concepts such as CGI, holograms, Photoshopping movie posters, technology in films like Avatar, and even reality TV. The themes of hero worship, cult of personality, celebrity culture, "manufactured celebrities," are hammered home with imagery that focused on cameras and eyes.
S1m0ne is a satire that feels like a Charlie Kaufman film with the biting wit of Heathers. Since the movie is a satire it doesn't take place in the real world, but instead in a universe that is real enough only with exaggerated features to prove a point. For example, Taransky works for "Amalgamated Film Studios" and the other women up against Simone for the Best Actress Oscar all have the last names of software (Apple, Corel, etc.).
Here are some of my favorite lines:
"I can't imagine any other actress playing the part!" "Hal, it's a remake..."
"It was so artificial... I didn't believe it was 17th century Lisbon!
"The escalating threat of violence and all out war was overshadowed today by the Oscar nominations"
"We're okay with fake, just don't lie to us"
Although I really liked S1m0ne, it does have some flaws. The two paparazzi guys are funny enough but I felt they were never fully pulled into the story. From the beginning they felt like a humorous but unnecessary side story. At first I thought the pair were stalker fans until it was later explained that they work at a newspaper, which was confusing.
The concert scene in which Simone becomes a pop star is a showstopper. Sure its necessary to show how big of a star she is, but did we really need to listen to her sing an entire song to prove this point?
Without giving anything away, the ending is a deus ex machina. Satires usually have trouble with endings as they often don't have an answer for how to solve the issue they are discussing. This is the case with S1m0ne, although to be fair I'm not sure how else the movie could have ended without making a huge shift in tone. The ending basically accepts the problem of celebrity overload but a great satire should figure a way how to fix the problem. Even though I felt the ending was a weak spot and could have been better, it didn't really harm my enjoyment of the movie as a whole. I can't wait to see more of Niccol's work!
8/10

Ghost Rider (2007)
I'm not a huge comic book reader and have never read any Ghost Rider. This movie is based on the Marvel comic and is one of the few Marvel properties that got a film which Stan Lee had little to nothing to do. Mr. Excelsior is listed has a producer but we don't get a cameo from Stan the Man!
Nicolas Cage plays our main character, stuntman Johnny Blaze, who becomes the superhero (or perhaps antihero in this case) Ghost Rider. Cage delivers a fun performance. It is not one of his better roles but that has to do more with the screenplay than his acting.
The premise is a deal with devil story in the vein of Faust. Johnny Blaze makes an agreement with Mephistopheles to cure his father's cancer in return for Johnny's soul. This eventually leads to events which cause Johnny to become Ghost Rider.
Sam Elliot does a nice job as the Caretaker, a predecessor of Ghost Rider. The Caretaker in the movie is apparently an amalgam of the character of the same name from the comics and and the Phantom Rider comics character.
I don't usually get into spoilers but there was something near the end that bothered me.  Highlight the text below if you are fine with spoilers.

Near the end of the movie the Caretaker reveals his true identity. This sets up that Ghost Rider is going to team up with the Caretaker to battle the villain. But right before the big showdown, the Caretaker changes back to human for no reason and says he used his last change which means he has permanently lost his powers. It was so stupid and disappointing as I was pumped up for a cool final battle and it ended up being a letdown.

Ghost Rider is not a good movie but its not terrible either and entertaining enough. A sequel came out in February this year and despite David Goyer (Dark City, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) having a writing credit I think I'll pass on it.
4/10

The Last Unicorn (1982)
Rankin/Bass is probably best known for their Christmas specials such as the stop motion Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and the animated Frosty the Snowman (1969). Besides these holiday specials they also made many TV series and feature films, such as The Last Unicorn. Peter S. Beagle wrote the fantasy novel upon which this film is based but I never read it.
The fantastic cast includes the voice talents of Christopher Lee, Keenan Wynn, Angela Lansbury, Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin, and Rene Auberjonois. The animation is also quite good though you'll never get it confused with a Disney film.The Last Unicorn is a kids movie but is intelligent and never plays down to its audience, which I highly respect. It's not the best animated movie ever but certainly something kids can enjoy with their parents. There is some slow pacing and weird stuff like the harpy and the "Red Bull" but I overall I liked it.
6/10

Thus concludes the final spring wrap-up post!

Next up: Two movies by a famous director, Two baseball movies, 2012 movies I have seen so far, and TV shows I am watching this summer.
And if you didn't notice the banner on the right, I'll be participating in the My First Movie Blogathon hosted by Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear in early August.

Weekly Wrap-Up (11/20)

This week I saw four films. Two of them were fantastic and two were bad. I'm a firm believer that one cannot truly appreciate great cinema without watching terrible movies as well!

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction is the second Quentin Tarantino movie I've seen. I had watched Reservoir Dogs before and really liked it, so I was looking forward to this film and luckily it did not disappoint. Although Pulp Fiction has been heavily ingrained in popular culture to the extent that I was already familiar with some lines and and scenes, I was completely engrossed and found this to be an amazing film.
The weakest part of the film are the scenes featuring Bruce Willis' character talking to his wife as the movie's pace slows down to a near halt. I understand that the scenes in the hotel room were necessary and the pay-off was certainly worth the slow set-up. Although Tarantino managed to pull off a dialogue heavy movie where even conversations about a five dollar milkshake were fascinating, the chemistry between Butch and Fabienne just wasn't there.
It is hard for me to pick a favorite moment as I loved the entire movie but Christopher Walken's cameo and the scenes with Harvey Kitel were pure gold. Now I need to see more Tarantino movies!
9/10

Adaptation. (2002)
I usually don't give a movie a perfect score upon my first viewing but had to make an exception here. Adaptation is proof that films can be incredibly entertaining as well as great works of art with something to say at the same time.
Nicolas Cage was amazing in a dual role as the Kaufman twins, Charlie and Donald. I have only seen a few of his movies but Cage seems to be an actor who is only as good as his director and script. To be fair this is the case for most actors (with guys like Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price being exceptions) but Cage played down to the material in The Wicker Man (2006) so much that I could barely believe this is the same actor. Although I had never heard of Chris Cooper before, he won a well-deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John Laroche.
I though it was pretty clever how Being John Malkovich, made by the same director (Spike Jonze) and writer (Charlie Kaufman), was incorporated into this movie. The reason for this was because Charlie Kaufman not only wrote the script, but is also main character in Adaptation. Spike Jonze has only directed three feature films thus far so once I see Where the Wild Things Are I'll have seen all his movies. Hopefully he will make some more! While Kaufman has written more movies than Jonze, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation the only films he has done that I have seen so far.
While all aspects of this movie were great I was most impressed by the writing. The title itself, "adaptation," has a double meaning as it refers to adapting material to another medium as well as how people adapt to life. In the film, Kaufman is trying to write a screenplay adaption of the book The Orchid Thief and then writes himself into the script. The book is a real book and Kaufman wrote Adaptation under similar circumstances! The movie is incredibly meta and even deconstructs how screenplays are written. Kaufman use of himself as a character in his own movie reminded me of how Philip K. Dick did the same in his VALIS novels, which isn't surprising since Kaufman is a PKD fan.
It is worth noting that although Adaptation is credited as being written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman, in real life Charlie does not have a twin and Donald does not exist. That didn't stop Donald from also being nominated with Charlie for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay!
10/10

Cyborg (1989)
Cyborg was directed by Albert Pyun, who has made tons of low-budget B-movies and direct-to-video films. Pyun is the guy who directed the 1990 Captain America movie as well as Alien from L.A., which was featured on MST3K.
Cyborg stars Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of his earliest film roles. Van Damme's character, Gibson Rickenbacker, must help a cyborg get to a group of scientists in Atlanta as she is carrying the cure for a deadly virus which has ravaged mankind. However, an evil gang leader kidnaps the cyborg to use the cure for themselves. As you could probably guess, this movie rips off Escape from New York and The Road Warrior on its way to being a generic post-apocalyptic film. The only real difference is that Rickenbacker is a martial artist. But if I wanted to see that I would just watch Bloodsport again. Although this is a bad movie it is still watchable. The fights and special effects (such as explosions and the robotics on the cyborg) were actually pretty good. I was able to see this in High Definition and was amazed with how good it looked, especially considering it was a low-budget movie made over 20 years ago. The outside scenes looked like they could have been filmed today!
What really made this movie bad was the acting and writing. While there isn't too much dialogue the acting is over the top, even for a movie like this. The basic story makes sense but I still don't understand how Rickenbacker and the girl caught up to (and actually got ahead of) the gang. The gang traveled to Atlanta on a boat while Rickenbacker followed them by foot! Rickenbacker's back-story was interesting although derivative, but had jerky editing that made the flashbacks confusing at first.
If you like bad cinema, post-apocalyptic movies, or are a hardcore Jean-Claude Van Damme fan, you will enjoy this. Otherwise just watch Escape from New York and the Mad Max movies instead.
3/10

Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (1990)
Jesse "The Body" Ventura is an interesting person. The man was a Navy SEAL, pro wrestler, actor (I enjoyed his role as Blain in Predator), governor of Minnesota, television host, and author. During Ventura's film career he made the mistake of "starring" in this truly terrible film.
Pretty much everything that can go wrong in a movie went wrong in Abraxas. The acting is awful and the dialogue is repetitive and silly. The film's story is incomprehensible, but I'll try to explain it.
An alien cop named Secundus (who has Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent) comes to Earth and rapes a woman with his hand who then gives birth to the child five minutes later. Another alien cop (these cops are called "Finders" although I don't know why) named Abraxas (Jesse Ventura) sends Secundus to space jail. These space cops can live for thousands of years but it is never explained how this is possible (are they androids?) and has no relevance to the plot. Five years later, Secundus somehow escapes to Earth so that the child (called a "comater" though again, never explained why) can give him the "anti-life Equation," a concept stolen from Jack Kirby's comics. Abraxas must stop Secundus with help from his "VD box," a rip-off of Ziggy from Quantum Leap, that is attached to his arm. Confused? Join the club.
The "VD box" is just unfortunately named. You would think that somebody would have realized that when most people hear "VD" they think "venereal disease." In this movie VD is supposed to stand for "vibrational detection," which is almost as bad now that I think about it! At least lines such as "My box has VD, trust me" and "Members of our force were taught to avoid VD" are unintentionally hilarious.
Abraxas features random music that never fits the scene and always feels out of place. The head-scratching camera work, editing, and directing make you wonder if the crew rushed the production or simply showed up on set drunk everyday. This movie is incredibly dark, and I mean that literally. Lighting is almost non-existent except for some outdoor scenes. Usually it is so dark that it is hard to see anything! James Belushi has a cameo as a school principal which he did as a favor for his wife at the time who was in Abraxas as Sonia. Despite Belushi being in this movie there is no intentional humor in this movie at all and the tone is always serious. Many B-movies realize how ridiculous they are and try to have some fun with it but Abraxas takes itself way too seriously. Oh, and while I'm at it, Abraxas liberally rips off The Terminator and shamelessly uses the word "terminate" many times. This movie failed in every way possible.
Luckily I watched the RiffTrax version which features a hilarious commentary by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Tom Servo of MST3K fame. RiffTrax usually makes fun of recent good movies so its nice to see the RiffTrax crew go back to some classic MST3K material. Although this movie is terrible, I do recommend the RiffTrax for some great laughs. Check out the RiffTrax sample for Abraxas here.
Abraxas is not a well-known bad movie like Plan Nine from Outer Space, Manos: The Hands of Fate, Troll 2, or The Room but it should be up there (or more appropriately "down there") as a craptastic classic of truly awful cinema.
1/10

The Harry Potter movies, Part I

In preparation for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, I have been re-watching all the Harry Potter films in chronological order. Today I'll post my thoughts on the first four Harry Potter films.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
I started reading the books as a kid before the movies were announced, let alone had been released. At the time it seemed like turning these books into movies would be challenging, especially since the book series wasn't even finished yet! Despite the degree of difficulty, director Chris Columbus did a great job of creating the immersive Harry Potter movie universe. Without this set-up the sequels would have failed. Scenes like Diagon Alley not only capture the feel of the book, but explore the depth of the wizarding world. The first two movies, both directed by Columbus, are very close to the books, but stand alone so that if you didn't read the novels you could still jump into the film series. While I love film adaptations that are close to the original source material, I always think that a movie should be able to be seen and enjoyed without having to watch or read what it is based on before you watch it. Of course if you have read the books you will get even more out of these movies. The CGI is a bit dated, for example the mountain troll, but this is a problem with all movies that use CGI. To be fair, there are a surprising amount of practical effects for a film series like this. The success of this film, its sequels, and the Lord of the Rings movies have really made almost anything film-able.
7/10

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
After seeing this movie for the first time in years I actually liked it better than I remembered. This has a similar feel to the first Harry Potter movie, which makes sense since Columbus also directed this movie. I really liked the mystery aspect of trying to figure out who has opened the Chamber of Secrets. Like Sorcerer's Stone, this one also stands alone if you haven't read the books before. I loved the casting of Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart. Although this was Columbus' final Potter film, it did a good job of setting up Ginny Weasely and Voldemort's back story. The Chamber of Secrets is even better than the first since the world was already established and now we could focus more on the characters. The story gets a bit darker, although the series doesn't fully commit to this new tone until the fourth movie, which is also the case with the books.
8/10

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
After re-watching it I actually liked the third Potter movie a little less than I had remembered. The Prisoner of Azkaban was directed by Alfonso Cuaron and it shows as the style is noticeably different from the first two movies. Gary Oldman was perfectly cast as Sirius Black, I just wish he could have had more screen time throughout the series. Although I love the concept of time travel, I don't think it belongs in the Harry Potter universe for a number of reasons. That said, the time turner sequence is done even better than in the book. This is partially because we can actually see and hear what is going on. We get to see the events from before and after the time travel, which show that this is actually a fixed timeline. My main issue with this movie was that this is really the first one that had important plot elements that were mentioned in the movie, but only fully explained in the book. For example, the Marauder's Map plays a pivital role in both the novel and the film. However, the movie never explains who Moony, Wormtail (he is sort of explained but not his relationship to the others), Padfoot, and Prongs are. This must have been confusing for those who had not read the books, especially since I noticed in the fifth movie they mention Padfoot again. If you read the books like me its not an issue, but it would have only taken a couple of lines or a brief flashback to explain it.
7/10

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
While I still feel that Goblet of Fire is currently the weakest of the Harry Potter films, I actually liked it a little more this time around. We have our third director in four movies as Mike Newell takes the helm. Like when Cuaron took over, we have another stylistic shift, but it still feels like a Harry Potter movie. The main problem with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is that is is based on one of the longer Harry Potter books. There is a lot of material to cover, and since it was only filmed as one 157 minute movie, several important sub-plots and characterizations had to be cut. I also still don't quite understand why Harry had to participate in the tournament since he didn't put his name in the cup and nobody else wanted him to enter. To be fair, I think this was explained in the book but its been awhile since I read it. I wish they filmed this Lord of the Rings style, as it was my favorite Potter book, but its still an enjoyable movie and worthy installment in the Harry Potter movie series.
6/10

I'm going to be seeing Deathly Hallows Part 2 at midnight Thursday so I'll get a review up of that on Friday with the wrap-up of the other three Potter movies. Then we'll be back on schedule with a film topic post on Saturday and the weekly wrap-up on Sunday.