Tally/Review: Mandrill (2009)

Love, love, love, love this movie! Cannot express how much I love this movie! I first saw this at the 2009 Fantastic Fest, and this was my favorite film of the festival that year. It was my introduction to Marko Zaror, and it doesn’t take long for someone to see how seriously Zaror takes on a role. He has his influences, like any actor does, and any recognizable influence is done so in a fashion that showcases how much respect he has for those influences. Influences which range from Bruce Lee to James Bond, even Shaft.

Marko Zaror has a way of commanding the screen in such a unique way that you can’t help but be completely enamored by his every move. While his characters motives may always be clear, his execution of both martial arts maneuvers and gunplay are absolutely phenomenal.

The movie plays as a sort of Chilean James Bond film. Mandrill is out for revenge, seeking out the man who murdered his mother, a crime in which he is witness to. In his journey to find the man responsible, he has emulated his favorite television star in Chile, John Colt. Growing up, Mandrill learned the ways of John Colt by studying his films, as well as learning “The Technique” to picking up women. The scene where his uncle Chone is explaining the technique is truly one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

This is a film that truly deserves to be seen and appreciated. It’s got humor, action, martial arts. The acting isn’t academic in any sense, these are genuine honest performances that are at times paying homage and respect to the types of film that have influenced Mandrill, and this film deserves to have to chance to be the start of a franchise in which we get to see Marko Zaror again and again.

Tally/Review: Undisputed 3 (2010)

Living in Austin affords me amazing opportunities to see things not only that I might have missed in theatres, but things I may have otherwise skipped entirely. I came into Undisputed 3 only with the excitement of seeing Marko Zaror on the big screen again. I was mistaken to not be more excited about this movie than I was.

Marko Zaror is an up and coming action star, and while I think, generationally, he may be a bit late in this genre to become a mega star, he does bring certain things to the table that the action stars of the past could not bring. I will elaborate more on that in my review of Mandrill.

While Zaror is great in this film as the villain, the real star is the protagonist of the film Scott Adkins. This is the first film I’d seen Scott Adkins, and I can tell you that as a fan of fight films, I was very impressed with him as a fighter on-screen. Scotts portrayal of a down and out fighter is all the more impressive upon learning about the timeline of the Undisputed films. In Undisputed 2, Adkins plays Uri Boyka, in that film he was actually the antagonist who sustains a seemingly career ending knee injury. Upon the opening in this film, Boyka is a prisoner struggling with his life as an injured fighter and he is trying to regain his strength. In playing a character who is highly motivated by anger, it is extremely entertaining to see his rise from weakened fighter to an empowered and agile one, capable of some of the most amazing aerial fight maneuvers I’d seen in years.

As a movie, its certainly not anything that can be painted as original. It’s a pretty academic script, and most ever element to the story are telegraphed ahead of time so that you can see the ending before it happens. None of this matters. If you’re seeing this movie, you’re seeing it because you want to see action. You want to see fighting. You see this movie because you’re tired of the overhyped MMA fighting that promises unique fighting skill sets that in the end, almost always turn out to be five rounds of two guys hugging on the ground until one passes out. If that’s your sort of thing, this movie has that also.

The quality in this movie comes from direction. Isaac Florentine was present at my screening of Undisputed 3 so I had the fortunate pleasure of hearing his perspective of this film in particular. His background is in martial arts films and television shows such as The Power Rangers (yeah, Might Morphin Power Rangers). Having a background as a martial artist himself as well having a background in shooting martial arts he is really able to bring out the precision technique that these characters fight with and it definitely shows on-screen in the fights. Fights that have long shots, no short cut aways, lots of slow motion that highlight the impact of the blows that are happening. Not only are the actors in the film practicing martial artists, almost all of them, Adkins and Zaror included have a background in stunt work, so they have no qualms as actors really performing what, in any big budget production with a mega star actor would be considered stunts. That authenticity make this film, and all of it’s flaws, of which there are many, come to life as an unexpectedly entertaining, and just plain good film.

I cannot implore people enough to see this film. It needs your support. You will not be disappointed because if nothing else, the fight scenes in this movie are truly amazing. The more support this movie receives, the likelihood increases of their being a sequel (possibly with more Zaror), as well as more movies with Scott Adkins.

Tally: Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Tally: Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

Making my way through the entire Nightmare franchise. No thoughts of note just enjoying this great film franchise.

Tally/Review: Robin Hood (2010)

This movie had a strange effect on me. I saw it once, trying my best not to let the negative reviews sway me. The reviews I’m speaking of are the ultra scathing, overly hateful reviews. Reviews written with so much anger I had no idea what kind of on-screen debacle I was about to walk into.

Saw it once and was confused, I couldn’t see why anyone would hate it so strongly. At the VERY LEAST, I think anyone could walk out of a screening of this film and say that it was well made, and looked absolutely beautiful. For any Robin Hood movie I’ve ever seen, this was by far the best looking. That should really come as no shock knowing Ridley Scott’s work. You know he’s gonna have massive landscapes, beautifully shot exteriors, and despite an overall greyish tone to the color of the film, would still create a world full of beauty out of a world that is ultimately bleak and dark.

That being said, after watching the movie once, I convinced myself that the story of Robin Hood before he became the Robin Hood we all know and love simply was not an interesting story. That to change some major elements of the classic story simply don’t work as well as they planned for them to.

But then upon second viewing, knowing what I was in for, knowing I didn’t have to be awestruck by the cinematography, something happened. I paid more attention to the story. Now that sounds awful to hear coming from someone who loves movie, but there was so much negativity thrown at this movie that there was no way I could give it a fair shot going into one screening, and I really tried to give it a fair shot.

The story becomes far more interesting the second time around when you’re not fixating on the fact this is a Robin Hood story. It’s not without its flaws though, (SPOILERS AHEAD)

for Robin to not be originally from Nottingham only to end up being from Nottingham all along is a little cheesy and way to convenient a plot point. The final title card :”And so, the legend begins…” is a little to unnecessary and the way my friend and fellow Tallyteer @Schofizzy put it: “The legend begins” people were sold on that movie being Robin Hood, not Robin Hood Begins.

The performances are certainly noteworthy. No matter the script, Ridley Scott is a director that will get a good performance out of his actors. While one could argue that Russell Crowe was simply playing Maximus from Gladiator, his Robin Hood in this movie is certainly of the most bad ass of all bad ass Robin Hoods of past films. Cate Blanchett is an amazing actress, and I don’t think she was given enough in this film to really shine and bring anything new to the character of Maid Marion, definitely and underutilized character in this film but given the context of the story, and her limited role overall in Robin Hood’s life up to this point, it makes sense that there isn’t much for her character to do besides be a guide to Robin Hood.

But in the end, you’ve gotta give credit to the writers and to Ridley Scott for taking an idea that I don’t think people were clamoring for (Robin Hoods origin), and making an interesting, beautifully shot, and ultimately, entertaining fresh take on a story that we all know.

Tally: The ‘burbs (1989)

This is why I love living in Austin! I watched this at the Terror Tuesday series at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz.

Terror Tuesday is hosted by the cinematic encyclopedia that is Zack Carlson, and has a very deep appreciation for all movies, especially horror pre-1990. Most of the movies I take in at Terror Tuesday are movies I have never seen, or even heard of, which is another reason why I love this series at the Drafthouse.

The ‘burbs is one of the few exceptions to Terror Tuesday in which it’s not only a movie I’ve heard of, it’s a movie I’ve seen. Not only have I heard of and seen this movie, I LOVE this movie.

It may sound a little strange saying that considering I haven’t seen this movie in over 10 years, but I remember fondly liking this as a kid, and I have seen bits and pieces in recent years. In actuality I remembered very little about this movie, so seeing it on the big screen was like seeing it for first time.

The great thing about Terror Tuesday is host Zack Carlson himself. Not only are the movies great and incredibly entertaining, but before every movie Zack introduces the film and usually gives a little bit of back story. In this case he told us about director Joe Dante and his affinity for creating kids features that maybe aren’t so good for children to watch.

If your ever in Austin, Tx. I cannot recommend Terror Tuesday enough.

Tally/Review: Get Him To The Greek (2010)

This year of 2010 has had a pretty steady theme throughout for me. That theme is for almost every horrible comedy trailer I’ve seen that I’ve prejudged into thinking would be a terrible, terrible movie I have ended up loving. That being said the only example I can really think of at the moment is Hot Tube Time Machine.

But, regarding GET HIM TO THE GREEK, almost nothing about the trailer for this movie got me excited for it. Here’s an interesting revelation, and it’s not much of one, but if you insist: SPOILER ALERT!

A good portion of the footage in the trailer isn’t in the actual movie.

Where this movie really excels is the story overall. It’s much more dense of a story than the trailer leads you to believe. GREEK devotes a fairly equal amount of time to every character that makes the movie great. This is good news if you’re not a big fan of Russell Brand, or if you’re not a big fan of Jonah Hill. I heard from Brand fans that there wasn’t as much Jonah Hill as they thought there would be, and vice versa for Hill fans not seeing as much Brand as they thought they would see. But I think the most surprising thing about this film is (I can’t believe I’m about to say this) Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs. Puff, freaking Daddy is the most surprising funny thing about this film. There is never a moment in GREEK where he doesn’t make you laugh, and as great as he was in Favreau’s MADE, my God he turns in the funniest ‘man in charge’ part in a comedy since Tom Cruise in TROPIC THUNDER.

While this movie starts out slow, it soon picks up to an excellent pace and has an absolutely brilliant way of alternating the pace between slow dramatic moments, and the ridiculous moments of hilarity and it’s the alternating pace that makes the film work at it’s best, especially when it shifts focus on the different characters that all bring something different to the table, and all coexist well with each other.

I don’t think GET HIM TO THE GREEK will end up on my top 10 list of the year, but it’s certainly worth your time in theatres and the DVD/Blu Ray promises to have an unrated version that’s sure to bring even more ridiculousness to any screen.

Remember to stroke the furry wall!!