Review of No Country for Old Men

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men comes with an impeccable pedigree. Not only that, No Country for Old Men has been highly praised by critics and was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, winning two of them. Javier Bardem won Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture and the Coen Brothers won for Best Screenplay.

With all that, I (surprising) find myself wondering, "Why the hell the nominations?" It's a good film with solid acting (Josh Brolin & Kelly Macdonald were very good) but...something was missing.

The film start simple enough. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is introduced as he strangles a police deputy, escape custody, and then steal a car after killing the car's driver. At the same time, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), comes across some abandoned cars in the middle of the desert, with a collection of corpses in them. Only one dying Mexican is alive. Moss quickly found out he had stumbled onto the aftermath of a drug deal gone sour. He also finds two million dollars in a suitcase and leaves with it. Later that night, Moss has an attack of conscience and returns with water for the dying man. The Mexican was dead already and Moss was discovered. Moss starts running and this sets off a cat-and-mouse game as a gang of the Mexicans, Moss, Chigurh, and the police as they chase each other for the money across Texas and Mexico.

Like I said earlier, No Country for Old Men is solid. It is well-directed, well-acted with solid production values. But I couldn't like it.

The main reason I believed was the story. The film is spilt in 2. The first part is mostly on Moss, and 2/3 of the movie in, the main character became Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff character, Ed Tom Bell. I don't know if this was the director's intentions, or because that is the way it is in the novel, but at times I felt that I was watching 2 movies mashed together. The 2 parts hardly join at all and I found that very hard to accept.

However the acting from the stellar cast saved the day. Watch it for the fine acting if nothing else, but it is a flawed movie.

Review of Alien vs Predator 2

Alien vs Predator is a fan-boy dream. Yes, the original Alien vs Predator was greatly criticized for being a video game, but guess what, it made so much money the sequel was okay by Hollywood.

I always thought the critics were a tad unfair on the original as it was a good flick (you do not watch AvP for the story do you?), Alien vs. Predator 2 is even better. First off, directors Colin and Greg Strause, do away with the back story. They assumed that anyone watching the movie has seem the original already as AvP 2 start immediately after the events of Alien vs. Predator. The dead Predator from the first AvP who had been impregnated by the Aliens gave birth to a Predator/Alien hybrid, called the Predalien. The Predalien starts a killing spree through the vessel and caused the vessel to crash land onto Earth. A distress signal was sent to the Predator's world where a veteran hunter received the message and depart for Earth.

Secondly, the directors understand one basic thing about AvP. It cannot be a kid's movie. You can show the original AvP to kids, you cannot do it for AvP 2. The violence and gore is much greater in this movie. The directors also do not shy away from showing some scenes that will turn your stomach. When the vessel crashed onto Earth, it was seem by a young boy and his father who were out hunting. They went to investigate the wreckage and were attacked and impregnated by Aliens. Later on, the alien will burst out of the boy. Not a scene for the kids. Later in the movie there is a scene involving a pregnant women who was impregnated by Aliens as well. Now that was disturbing!

Lastly, the directors gave viewers what they always wanted. Aliens vs. Predator has some fights between well...Aliens and Predators, but they were short with a lot of humans involved. No such nonsense in Aliens vs. Predator 2! The Aliens vs. Predator 2 fights are knockout affairs and any humans unluckily standing between the 2 species are promptly dispatch without fanfare. Unlike the first movie, the directors are clear in the fact that Predators are not heroes! You puny humans get in their way, you will die. Period!

That's how Predators should be! AvP 2 has more horror, tension and excitement than the original. Take a look if you have the stomach for it!

Review of Lust, Caution

As a general rule, I don't watch Chinese movies in the cinema. Mainly because mainstream television usually show the movie within a year of the release, so I will just wait. That and the fact I prefer English movies.

Lust, Caution is different. One is that this was Lee Ang's first movie after Brokeback Mountain. (Yes, you Westerns; it's LEE ANG. LEE COMES FIRST!) I'm a fan of his since Eat Drink Man Woman. Another is of course the censorship issue. Singapore censors were going to chop off a portion of the movie due to several strongly explicit sex scenes; after a big debate in the newspaper, the movie was released again, this time without cuts. This was the version I saw.

The story is pretty simple. Set in WWII, it follows a young woman, Mrs. Mak (Tang Wei), who has a seemingly impossible mission to kill a Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), by seducing him. However, while successful in seducing Mr. Yee, she soon found herself falling in love with her target, with disastrous results for everyone.

For those people who think sex cannot be art, see this movie. The movie will not be as good as it is without the scenes. That I am certain of. Tony Leung showed why he is the best Chinese actor in the business with an inch-perfect performance. His Mr. Yee is superb. A tightly-wounded man whose can only let his guard when he is in the bed of his mistress. The only unguarded sound that came out of Mr. Yee happens during the sex. Outside that, nothing. No laughter, no jokes; Mr. Yee is a serious man and Tony Leung played him beautifully. That's why the scenes are important. Without them, Mr. Yee is just a man (and not a very good one to boot) and I would be scratching my head on why Tang Wei's Mrs. Mak let him go in the end.

The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and swept the 2007 Golden Horse Awards including Best Actor, Best Feature Film and Best Director. I can see why. See this uncut version and I am sure you will too. A must-see!