hankyee.com It's me, but digitized for preserved freshness.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo…

Harder, faster, and sharper than it's Swedish counterpart. The bigger budget most definitely shows, as the film looks and sounds great. Completely brutal, this film matches the book’s tone of brutal evil. Which are the biggest differences between the American and Swedish versions. Both are pretty faithful to the book, yes some things have been changed or omitted, but none of them detract from the overall story. But Fincher’s is so in your face with the violence and torture that it hits like a cold slap in the face. Not Fincher’s greatest work, then again he sets the bar very high, but this is a very solid adaptation. Your body won’t feel the 2 hr 38ish minute running time, however you won’t exactly be thinking about it in the days following. Good (not great) popcorn fun.

***1/2 (Out of Five)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows…

Instead of playing a game of shadows, they should have played a game to make this a better film.

* (Out of Five).

Equilibrium…

This review was original written in 2002, I was able to recover it from version 1.0 of hankyee.com.

Equilibrium is one of the best movies of 2002. But unlike the other "best" movies it has received no advertising what so ever. Dimension Films released a trailer for the movie four days before it was scheduled for release and showed it in only 75 markets with limited screens in each of those markets. The little money that this movie is making is by word of mouth only. Which is a shame, considering how good the movie is.

Equilibrium takes place in a futuristic world, where a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. Tetra Grammaton Clerics are the long are of the law and are responsible for destroying those who resist the rules. First Class Cleric John Preston (Christian Bale) is the best of the best; he takes no shit and dishes out heaping loads of it. But when he has to kill his partner for being a sensory offender and misses a dose of Prozium, a mind-altering drug that hinders emotion, Preston, who has been trained to enforce the strict laws of the new regime, suddenly becomes a sensory offender himself and the only person capable of overthrowing the regime.

Writer & Director Kurt Wimmer borrowed, combined, and adapted ideas from Fahrenheit 451 & Brave New World. Some people may feel that this is a complete rip off of the earlier movies, but unofficially in Hollywood if a movie or idea has been around for ten years it becomes eligible for "re-imaging." Wimmer puts together a nice story, but uses the same imagery of the future used in many other movies about the future. Since he adapted the plot from already established sources it didn't really surprise me that he did the same his vision of the future.

The one thing that Wimmer does in grand fashion are the action sequences. The movie starts in high gear and never even thinks about slowing down. The scenes are truly original and should be the main selling point of the movie. The characters in the movie use a form of martial arts called "Gun-Kata" which uses mathematical possibility of combat. Each of the fighter's stances put themselves in the least statistical possible place to be hit. He is basically outmaneuvering every shot being fired at him. This takes the look of different gun poses, which are usually for show in most movies, but in Equilibrium it's a science. This is the most original idea to gunplay that I have ever seen in a movie.

It all starts off with Preston (Bale) kicking down a door and using it to slide into a pitch-black room filled with gun toting enemies. He fucks them up single handedly in the dark no less. Now that is badass. A scene like that could very well be the end scene in any other blockbuster action movie, but it's the opening scene in Equilibrium. The fucking opening scene! Ladies & Gentlemen when any self respecting action junkie sees a scene like this in the first ten minutes of a movie they piss themselves & shit their britches at the same time. It's incredibly dirty & fulfilling at the same time.

Now after seeing that the shock value of Preston killing six to ten guards at one time is removed and it becomes expected. Don't be alarmed these expectations get meet several times in nothing less than excellence. Back flips and rolls are abundant. If you ever question widescreen just watch the layed out back flip off of a motorcycle, it will quiet any concerns that you might have forever!

One thing that I was glad to see is the first part of the final scene was a throw back to old school martial arts movies. Back when the final boss wasn't the second best fighter (next to the hero) in the movie, and killed in only a few moves instead of a 5 minute long finale. Preston fucks Brandt (Taye Diggs) with 3 precise cuts with his sword. Slices that fuckers face right off. Not his head, his face, his fucking face, his god damn motherfucking face! The second part of the final scene is an all out Gun-Kata battle. It looks phat as hell, super fast pace and 100% deadly. God damn Preston is one badass mofo; that white boy can fight.

Equilibrium is easily the best action movie of the year, and one of the best movies flat out. Its only flaws are that its story elements are borrowed from previous movies and have a recycled feel. Because of that it doesn't reach the plateau of the absolute best movies ever created. But for action movies it busts down the door to the action movie hall of fame and blows the fucker up. This has the most original action scenes since some guy first filmed drunk guys fighting back in the old old days. Fucking go see this movie. If you can't find it in theaters, fucking bootleg it! All males must see this movie, if you have any sense of hesitation then consider yourself a pussy!

****

Kick-Ass…

I love comic books. Always have always will, and I am simply amazed at how many comic book adaptations are making it to the big screen. Ten years ago I would have never dreamed that something like Kick-Ass would grace the silver screen. It’s not a Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man, a character that already has mass media appeal and a built in fan base for over 50 years. No Kick-Ass is a miniseries created less than five years ago. Not to say that it’s any less compelling than our big three but it’s certainly less far reaching.

So Kick-Ass is the story of misfit teenager and comic book lover Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who feels a higher sense of purpose and questions superheroes do not exist in real life. Why people don’t reach out and help others? So he decides to become a superhero himself, donning the moniker Kick-Ass. Starting his own adventures; quickly discovers allies, enemies, and traitors. Such is the life of a superhero.

Kick-Ass is fun movie, it kicks ass you could say. But it’s not without its flaws. It goes for a somewhat realistic take on cape crusaders, something that’s very in vogue now a day. As such Kick-Ass gets his ass handed to me more times than not, and it’s a little frustrating as your riding with him on his journey and rooting for him to succeed and the constant ass beatings get a little annoying. Although (little spoiler, but seriously who doesn’t see this coming) he gets up every time, so at least he is not a quitter, which is something I can always get behind.

The second annoyance is that Kick-Ass isn’t even the most interesting character/hero in the film. The father daughter duo of Big Daddy (Nic Cage) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) is so much better as they are the ones who do the entire ass kicking. They have the training and the toys to strike fear into the hearts of the city’s worst, Hit-Girl specifically slices and dices bad guys like a hot knife through butter.

This is where a lot of the films controversy comes from as Hit Girl is a young girl who is cursing and slicing off body parts left and right through most of the film. Many parents and many critics who refer to their parenthood speak negatively about that fact she is a young girl doing very adult things. Well I say fuck that! It’s fun and funny when she drops a C bomb on the bad guys. I don’t have kids and I don’t care about your kids, the film is rated R for exactly that reason. Perhaps because of the films attempt at semi realism that people are so put off, but it is a film and not real life. There are tons of things portrayed in films which can offend, so I say lighten up and enjoy a 9 year old girl telling grown men that they are little bitches.

So on the whole Kick-Ass does a mighty good job at being solid entertainment. It’s exciting, funny, and emotional in the right parts. The fight choreography is tight and the little girl does a great job dispatching the baddies. I never read the original comic book series so I don’t know if there is additional canon for the film makers to sort through for an encore, but I would definitely enjoy another foray into the Kick-Ass universe.

***

Operation Movie Junkie

I am dusting off the old project, but under different parameters. Instead of being a summer project, I'm going to make it endless. The list above has been update from the past year. Not much changed but there it is.