The Great Magician (大魔術師)
There is the top-notch cast, beautiful period sets and costumes and one of Hong Kong’s most experienced and versatile directors in the shape of Derek Yee (爾冬陞, Protege and Shinjuku Incident), and an almost complete lack of cinematic magic. A convoluted plot involving a warlord (Lau Chingwen, 劉青雲), his seventh concubine (Zhou Xun, 周迅), arms deals with the Japanese army, a mystical scroll and a master conjuror (Tony Leung Chiu-wai, 梁朝偉), brims with ideas, but the filmmakers seem unclear whether they want to make a comedy, a drama or a thriller. In the end, the colorful concoction falls apart under the stress of these conflicting demands. There are echoes of the even less coherent Let the Bullets Fly (讓子彈飛) from 2010, and it is a testament to the profound failure of The Great Magician that it doesn’t even deliver the manic jollies of that chaotic film.
Man on a Ledge
Sam Worthington, whose starring roles in Avatar and, more questionably, in Clash of the Titans, have catapulted him into the cinematic A-list, seems keen on showing that he is capable of doing a little more in the acting department. Sadly, Man on a Ledge, with its aspirations of being a cleverly constructed thriller, is not likely to give him much of a credibility boost. Worthington plays Nick Cassidy, an ex-cop imprisoned on trumped-up charges. He spends a fair chunk of the movie standing on the ledge of a Manhattan skyscraper threatening to jump. We don’t really care if he does or not, as it is all a distraction so that his brother (Jamie Bell) can pull off a heist that will prove his innocence. No surprise that Elizabeth Banks, an expert hostage negotiator tasked with talking him down, realizes that he is innocent after all. An absurd plot is not necessarily a deal breaker for a thriller, but almost nothing about Man on a Ledge appears to be real or particularly engaging, and you might well find yourself sharing the sentiment of the crowd watching Cassidy and calling on him to make the jump.
RA One
This big, splashy sci-fi action flick is one of the most expensive films to come out of India in recent years, and stars two of its biggest names: Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor. The story of what happens when a shape-shifting superhero jumps out from the video game for which he was created is largely a pretext for Khan to look handsome and heroic and Kapoor to play a maiden in distress. Huge visual effects are calculated to bewitch, and although RA One has a full complement of techno-gadgetry, there is also plenty of room for Bollywood theatrics. If you thought Tron: Legacy would be improved with a bit of belly dancing and a song or two, then you’ll probably love RA One.
Chronicle
This feature debut by director Josh Trank blends a number of genres into a fascinating cocktail that is this week’s low-budget movie of choice. Several friends discover they have acquired superpowers after they stumble onto a mysterious something during a trip in the wilderness; as they learn to use these powers, first through pranks, they feel the appeal of the dark side of their personalities. There are no wise elders to provide life lessons as there was for Peter Parker (aka Spiderman), and the moral choices faced by the characters are much more blurred. Trank’s use of found footage, with all the consequent shaky handheld effects, works remarkably well with the story, and the dark, pessimistic take on the uses of superhuman powers is a nice contrast to the righteous heroes who have populated cinema screens of late.
Goethe!
A delightful period piece from Germany that does not have very much to do with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Also released under the title Young Goethe in Love, which gives a better idea of the overall tone of the film. Goethe! is more to do with romance, from young and ardent to weepy and self-pitying, than it has to do with history. A fine cast is well handled by director Philipp Stolzl, but the movie, clearly inspired by Shakespeare in Love, suffers from a lack of the literary wordplay that gave John Madden’s work such wide appeal. Stolzl’s offering is more of a regular biopic, though the transformation of a puppyish young Goethe into a poet and giant of German letters gets hopelessly lost in a much more banal story of love won and lost.
Julia’s Eyes
Produced under the aegis of horror-fantasy auteur Guillermo del Toro and directed by Guillem Morales, Julia’s Eyes is a solid horror flick that shows that Iberian gothic is a stylistic force to be reckoned with. Although lacking the groundbreaking creativity of films like Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, this film about a woman with a degenerative eye disease who suspects the existence of a stalker in the shadows, plays with genre conventions in intelligent and creative ways. A first-rate cast, with Belen Rueda as the titular Julia, gives the film an edge of sadistic eroticism that has suggestions of Brian De Palma; there is also solid support from Lluis Homar, who plays Julia’s scornful husband.
Seer (賽爾號之尋找鳳凰神獸)
Based on a Taiwanese interactive online game for young children, Seer is the feature film debut for the cute little characters that inhabit what is described on the game’s Web site as Asia’s first children’s virtual spaceship adventure. Strictly for fans.
Japanese Animation Film Festival 2012
A mini festival of five classic Japanese anime feature films from genres including fantasy combat and fashion/romance. The lineup: Bleach Movie 4: Hell Chapter, Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time, Inazuma Eleven the Movie: The Strongest Army Ogre Attacks, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and Heaven Is a Place on Earth. Further information can be found at the festival’s Web site: beesfactory.pixnet.net. The festival opens today and runs until Feb. 16. All screenings are at Vieshow Cinemas Taipei Xinyi (台北信義威秀影城), 18 Songshou Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路18號).
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