Ali (Michael Mann)

A physically convincing Will Smith as Muhammad Ali.

Film Review Archive (date seen: November 15, 2010)

A good biopic for a 'great' icon (which of course connotes that it's not good enough), and although it runs in an epic 2 and a half hours, I still felt that it's too short to really capture his momentous spirit, both on mic, in ring, or alone. And with it climaxing and ending on the "Rumble in the Jungle" pay per view in Zaire, it has furthered the fact that with all its unrelenting build-up, the film has reached nowhere.

Though I think that the Ali-Foreman bout in Africa is a great way to end a biography film on a high, optimistic note, personally, I think it's better to show the latter days of Ali's career, and because I'm a Filipino, I'm a sucker for some cinematic depiction of the Araneta "Thrilla in Manila" fight. Scanning through mainstream African-American talents in Hollywood, Will Smith really is the perfect choice to play both the loud mouth exterior and the introspective interior. His physical stature's a given, and with Mr. Smith having some rap music background, his tongue can easily catch up with Ali's improvised, rhyming phonetics aimed to discredit his ring opponents.

"Ali", though thematically unsure especially at the last moments, is more than a boxing biopic film. It treads not just the literal and inner battles of Ali, but also his strong stance against racial inequality and his political viewpoints that led to his refusal of being drafted to the Vietnam War and the subsequent stripping of his title.

Before, as I've watched existing footages of Ali and his rambunctious antics, I always thought of him as an arrogant athlete not worthy of his title. But then, after watching this film, with his personal beliefs all exposed, in a time of racial tension and religious prejudice, he merely stood up for what he thought to be worth standing for. And almost 50 years later, Ali still is one of the ultimate representatives of a great, defiant spirit; that which would not falter in the face of an overwhelming adversity, and I'm not even talking about Frazier or Foreman. Many boxers have since imitated his flamboyance, but only a few of them knew what it was really all about.

FINAL RATING

Piranha (Alexandre Aja)

'In the meat of the moment.'

Film Review Archive (date seen: November 13, 2010)

Should have been called "Naked Women with Some Piranhas". Alexandre Aja, whose "The Hills Have Eyes" remake I highly regard, immersed this film and himself with all the common elements of horror films, then multiplied the "over-the-top" factor by ten. The target of all the gore and violence isn't for genuine disturbances, but blood-wrapped punchlines for its supposed B-movie feel; and it fits, because the whole film's a complete joke.

Honestly, who would not want to see occasional nudity in films? But putting sequences involving such censorship-inspiring parts every couple of minutes to create a sinful atmosphere to justify the flesh-peeling deaths in the following moments for such a mainstream horror feature is quite pushing it. Jason, Freddy, and Michael (Myers) have one in each of their films, and so was the others. Two is alright, three is pretty acceptable, but to exceed more than that? That, I think, jeopardizes a film, especially if those scenes have no connections whatsoever with the narrative progression.

I'm not here to preach any "anti-nudity in films" advocacy, but the time that these said sequences have occupied in this film is a complete waste that when the piranhas finally attacked the deserving victims, it's not excitement and suspense I've felt, but more of a sigh-like inner mumbling stating, "oh, finally".

"Piranha" could have been a very taut film, but all the moments spent on nudity were too much when it could have been a hefty lot of time to use for some memorable foreshadowing. What resulted is a film filled with many bare-skinned women, less suspenseful ambiance, flawed logic, and a very lousy ending.

FINAL RATING

Kinatay (Brillante Mendoza)

Brillante's 'Inferno'.

Film Review Archive (date seen: November 7, 2010)

"Kinatay" is one of my 'quiet' must-see films not just because of the Cannes directorial prize it has garnered, but also because of Brillante Mendoza's experimental style of filmmaking, which I reckon to be a refreshing touch to an industry pestered with endless recyclable ideas for movies to pass as 'blockbusters'.

For the initial sequences, Brillante never bothered for sound editing, but instead used the seemingly nuisance-like sounds (the assorted voices of people, jeepneys) to his advantage, transforming it with true verite' ability into an element to breath character into the film as a whole.

But as it gradually enters the realm (the reality of violence and corruption) of the theme which it is pointing to the entire time, "Kinatay's" whole visual and sound texture also becomes different; its realistically colorful display of everyday life in the slums which suggests some hints of momentary gayness turns into a symbolic descent into the netherworld of crimes and profanities (not even bothering about geographical correctness) filled with darkness and aural ambiguities.

Yet Brillante Mendoza's extreme inclination to portray psychological forebodings is also the film's major weakness. Though this might not be a problem for experienced film watchers, this particular slow build-up betrayed its main theme that when the film finally got to where it wanted to be, the audience may already be exhausted and disinterested that they may just accept the violent display merely as a "shock value", when it could have been taken in as a more profound inquiry into the moral consequences of violence. In some ways, this film reminds me of the main exposition of Coppola's "Apocalypse Now", only this time, there's no Kurtz to kill, but a morality to waste based on a decision ultimately driven by the short-lived promises of monetary gain.

FINAL RATING

Shane (George Stevens)

Alan Ladd as the mysterious yet endearing Shane.

Film Review Archive (date seen: November 4, 2010)

Though it's stupid as it may sound, part of the reason why I do not like to watch this film before was the almost zero appeal of its poster (it does look very cheap, with Alan Ladd purposely looking sideways for the camera) considering the heights that "Shane" had reached ever since. But then I found out, after watching it, that it's one of the more contemplative of "old" westerns, that which dwells not just in common sentiments of former gunfighters being passed by time, but also in the crisis of decisions, the choice to act, and its consequences.

Shane is a character unlike any other mythical gunslingers that have graced the silver screens; here is a man not hardened by past violence, but shaken, guilt-ridden, and traumatized by it (it's also the primary theme of Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven"). Alan Ladd is heroic, straight, and enigmatic enough for the eponymous role, though in my opinion, he's often overshadowed by Van Heflin's performance as Joe Starrett. Given that more serious westerns has been rising in the mainstream at the time (such as "The Ox-Bow Incident" and its unforgiving commentary on mob lynching), "Shane" is definitely a western film that has carried its theme precisely to where it intends to, and sets the tone for further "moral explorations" in the western world, paving way for the films of the genre more concerned with "what the man with the gun thinks and feels" than "what the gun would do to a man who does not".

The common cliche "...and the hero rides into the sunset" is always ever present in horse operas, accompanied by a musical score to enhance the scenery and sense of victory. But "Shane" gave the "sunset" a whole new meaning and the celebratory score interchanged by a child's lone call. For a hero. For an idol. For a friend.

FINAL RATING

True Grit (Henry Hathaway)

The 'Duke' as Rooster Cogburn.

Film Review Archive (date seen: November 1, 2010)

The first thing that inspired me to see this film was John Wayne's Oscar-winning performance that supposedly toppled both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight's in "Midnight Cowboy". Then the second was the fact that the Coens remade the film with an all-star cast.

It is indeed a great film as a whole, and though I thought there's no way that "The Duke" has won an Oscar for the role, his oozing legendary persona is just too immense to neglect, and the genre that this film belongs and its foundations whom he helped to build is just too colorful to pass.

"True Grit", for me, is one of the quintessential films to portray the pure "western wonder" before the genre's choice to delve into much more realistic territories. It contains a dark and conflicted theme of 'revenge' and turned it into a pleasurable piece of high adventure and a delightful cinematic display of human bond. Granted, this is John Wayne's well-known "swan song" to both the western genre and his illustrious film career as a whole, but I'll also remember this film as an early project for Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper, who both had great careers afterwards.

"The strangest trio to ever track a killer", the tagline used to say, and yes, I agree, gun-toting and experience-wise, it's perfectly imperfectly balanced, but as a circle of people brought into camaraderie by the path of a killer, it's a superlative chemistry to beat.

FINAL RATING

Hamlet (Kenneth Branagh)

4 hours long? "To be or not to be."

Film Review Archive (date seen: October 31, 2010)

An exhausting (both in length and content) but worthwhile screen adaptation of arguably the masterwork of William Shakespeare. Hamlet, as how he was always described as the "Melancholic Dane", lingers through every stage productions and film renditions with controlled anger and fury suppressed by sadness.

But Kenneth Branagh, who also directed the film, added an energetic haze into the Prince's persona, turning him from a quiet rebel into an unpredictable, flamboyant protagonist, playing out the character with both loud intensity and emotional subtlety. Through its running length of 4 hours, though there are some clever use of quick editing, Branagh's "Hamlet" may very well be one of the cases of "substance over style", championing the sheer strength of Shakespeare's material too much that the film itself sometimes becomes unconscious of its cinematic audience and that some of it actually looked very much "theatrical", save for the live sets.

If I have to pick the best "Hamlet" adaptation from the 3 which I have seen, I have to say the Laurence Olivier version, with this and Franco Zeffirelli's tied; Though this film version is good, I thought its visuals were too pretty to completely emphasize the core of the play, yet it's (the visuals) also one of the film's main points that made it much more accessible than the other versions. I'm really unsure on what to say about this film, but maybe it's an unconscious psychological effect from the "man that could not make up his mind".

FINAL RATING

Macbeth (Roman Polanski)

Torment, ambition and lust for power.

Film Review Archive (date seen: October 26, 2010)

Shakespeare's dialogues may not be that accessible these days, but Roman Polanski's rendition of his play about ambition wrapped within madness and paranoia is quite simply a great piece of cinema to behold.

It's great to hear the deep, flowery Shakesperean words, but what makes this film much more than a screen adaptation of one of his works is how Polanski has made it: Full of imagery bordering insanity and nightmare, performances teetering between stagy rhetorics and tragedy personified, the pure green fields of Wales as the stage for the depressing sight of the lonesome Cawdor castle, and the painful, furious emotions seemingly incorporated by Polanski himself (wife Sharon Tate being murdered just years prior to the filming of this picture).

Now, back to being "accessible", if I'm going to recommend a Shakespeare adaptation that can tell the story easily without the laborious chore of comprehending the playwright's complex language, then I'm going to say "Throne of Blood" by Akira Kurosawa, albeit it being set in feudal Japan. But if one wants to see the pure power of the play, heightened by a master filmmaker's great vision of Macbeth's slide into ruthless lunacy, then "thou shalt not look further". I do not know whether that came out sounding like one of the ten commandments, but there you go.

FINAL RATING