War, Inc.

John Cusack, the star, co-writer and producer of War, Inc. (First Look)

If you ever wondered what might have happened to John Cusack's hit man from 1997's Grosse Pointe Blank, then check out War, Inc. (opening June 27 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas). The character Cusack plays presents a possible fate for Martin Q. Blank, or at least a logical trajectory his killer could have taken. War, Inc., as with Grosse Pointe Blank, is also co-written by Cusack, co-stars his sister Joan as his assistant Marsha (she was Marcella in Grosse Pointe Blank), and boasts an appearance by Dan Aykroyd. But unlike Grosse Point Blank, which knew exactly what kind of dark comedy it wanted to be, War, Inc. is all over the map.

Death Note

Death Note -- the manga, anime and live action film --try them all, they're all good! (Viz Graphic/Viz Media/Viz Pictures)

This week, American audiences will have an opportunity to see a hit, live action Japanese film adaptation of a popular manga (that's a Japanese comic book). Hollywood has taken note of the increased popularity of Japanese manga by optioning a number of them for the big screen. In addition to the recent Speed Racer, there will be live action film adaptations of Dragonball, Akira, and Blood: The Last Vampire. But the film that manga fans are embracing is Death Note (playing May 20 and 21 at 7:30pm only at AMC Mission Valley, Horton Plaza Theaters and Edwards Mira Mesa Cinemas; for online tickets are available). Death Note began as a serialized manga back in 2003. Since then it has inspired a trio of movies, an anime TV series and a spin-off novel. The first live action film was a hit in Japan back in 2006. Now Viz Pictures is giving Death Note a unique 2-day run in U.S. cities. 

Death Note knows how to hook an audience. The intricately written and strikingly illustrated manga by Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata has sold more that 25 million copies in Japan. Last year the anime version of the manga found success in the U.S. on the Cartoon Network. Now the live action film will pose Death Note's intriguing premise on the big screen: what if you found a notebook belonging to one of the gods of death.

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

The name's Bond... um, I mean Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath. (Music Box Films)

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (opening May 16 at Landmark's Ken Cinema) is one mouthful of a title. But it does exactly what a good title should do - it conveys something about the film. In this case, it signals that you are in for a spoof on spy movies. Most Americans will assume that it's simply poking fun at James Bond but that's only part of the joke. OSS 117 also refers to a famous French spy who appeared in nearly a 100 novels beginning in 1949, and a handful of movies in the 50s and 60s. So that may explain why the film's been such a hit in France where it plays on their own pop culture. It's been such a homegrown hit that there's already talk of sequels.

Cairo, 1955. Everyone suspects everyone of something; everyone is plotting against or double crossing everyone else; nobody trusts anybody; and the British, the French, the Soviets, the family of the deposed King Farouk, and the insurgent religious sect Eagles of Kheops are all engaged in some sort of covert activity in Egypt. Into this nest of spies, the President of the French Republic, Monsieur René Coty, sends his best weapon: Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, agent OSS 117 (Jean Dujardin). Or as one of the femme fatales he meets says, "numbered like a cow for slaughter." Any way, OSS 117 must discover who killed a fellow spy and restore order to Cairo and the world. Along the way he encounters a bevy of beauties, some with lethal intentions. (You can also listen to my Film Chat about OSS 117 and Son of Rambow.)

The Signal

Do you have the crazy? That's the question The Signal asks. (Magnolia Pictures)

Calling TV a wasteland is old news. But suggesting that our televisions -- and also cell phones and radios -- could be the means by which people are transformed into homicidal maniacs, well that's a bit fresher. The Signal (opened on February 22 throughout San Diego) serves up a triptych of horror, with each segment helmed by a different filmmaker.

The Signal opens like a 70s low budget grindhouse picture, something American International could have produced. An obviously deranged killer brutalizes women on the screen. Is this the movie we've paid to see? At first we're not sure but then the image distorts and eventually degrades into mere noise on the screen, and we realize we were watching an image on a TV. We find ourselves in a dark, claustrophobic bedroom where the TV has gone on the fritz. We also discover a pair of young lovers in the room. It makes you wonder, though, was the slasher film meant to fuel their passion or was it just something that came on late at night without them noticing? It doesn't seem the type of thing either Ben (Justin Welborn) or Mya (Anessa Ramsey) would be interested in, so it makes you wonder if it was on for some other reason (more on that later). The apartment belongs to Ben and he's having an affair with Mya. He keeps trying to convince Mya to leave her husband Lewis (A.J. Bowen) but to no avail. She insists that she has to return to Lewis, or there might be bad consequences. She even tries to call Lewis from Ben's apartment to warn him that she'll be home late. But the phones, like the TV, don't work and are just transmitting some kind of static noise.

George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead

The dead are coming back to life... again. Diary of the Dead (The Weinstein Company)

Let me be upfront about this – I love zombie movies. I don’t know what it is about the lumbering undead that I find so endearing but they definitely charm me. And George A. Romero is THE master of zombie horror, having essentially created the genre with his 1968 black and white film, Night of the Living Dead. (There were some zombies before Romero but he defined them as we know them today, and anyone who saw him at his panel at last year's Comic-Con should be convinced of his master status in the horror genre.) This year, the 67-year-old Romero delivers his fifth zombie film, Diary of the Dead  (opening February 15 exclusively at the AMC Palm Promenade Theaters), so run, don’t “shamble,” over to catch the undead’s latest uprising.

The great thing about Romero’s zombies films is that you can enjoy them in any of a number of ways. If you just want a zombie gorefest, he delivers a bloody thrill ride of horror fun. But his films can also be appreciated as truly independent filmmaking in which Romero has complete control of everything; his films serve up primers on how to make a film on little or no money outside Hollywood. And finally, if you want something a little meatier, you can always find social commentary mixed in with all the blood and gore. Romero’s latest, Diary of the Dead, satisfies on all three levels.

10 Best of 2007

Choosing the top ten films of 2007 is like choosing which of your children you like best. I love them all but in different ways. This year the family grew larger than expected and was all over the map. You can listen to my rundown of the 10 best of 2007. I'm also including here some other noteworthy films of the year.

First, I'll mention a few films that might have made my ten best if studios had only decided to release them in San Diego. The trippy anime Tekkon Kinkreet; David Lynch's mind bending Inland Empire; the slyly ironic Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; the abortion documentary Lake of Fire; and a pair of Johnnie To Hong Kong actioners Exiled and Triad Election (known as Election 2 in Hong Kong) all dazzled in their own unique ways. But none were deemed worthy of release here. I'm particularly irked by the fact that Johnnie To repeatedly fails to get his films released here. In these two films he served up gangster tales that were darker and more existential than what American audiences probably expect from Hong Kong actioners. He manges to mix action elements with a French New Wave freshness and Wong Kar Wai's lush stylish flourishes. To delivers consistently stunning work yet has failed to convince U.S. distributors to give his films an art house release that extends beyond a few cities. This needs to change.

Shoot ‘Em Up on DVD

Now available on DVD

Okay, I don't usually write about the DVD release of a film but I have to highlight a film that I loved from last year but which failed to generate much interest at the box office. It's not a high and lofty work of art but it is easily the most fun you'll have at an American action movie. Shoot 'Em Up (coming out on DVD January 1) delivers breathtakingly choreographed action sequences that play out like wildly elaborate Rube Goldberg devices. Clive Owen stars as a man who knows how to handle guns and women (and sometime both at the same time). He comes to the aid of an infant whose mother was killed by mobsters. Paul Giamatti is a bean counting hit man and Monica Bellucci is a luscious prostitute. Plus the film wins the award for the most innovative weapon -- a carrot. I bet Bugs didn't realize the veggie he was chewing on could be lethal but first time director Michael Davis shows that in the proper hands it can be an instrument of death.

If you are an action junkie like I am, this is the high octane fix you've been waiting for. The DVD includes the following bonus features:

Audio Commentary

Ballet of Bullets: The Making of Shoot 'Em Up

Michael Davis' Original Animatics with Optional Commentary

Deleted Scenes

Theatrical Trailer

Addictive Re-mix Trailer

Red Band (R-rated) Trailer

Here's my original review of the film, including interviews with actor Clive Owen and director Michael Davis . This film kicks ass!

No Country for Old Men

Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men (Miramax)

Let me just say up front what a pleasure it is to watch a well-crafted film in which not a word or a gesture is wasted. The Coens' No Country for Old Men (opening November 16 throughout San Diego) is such a film. You feel that every word has been chosen with care and everything from the type of boots a man wears to the cut of his hair has been chosen for a distinct reason.

In a little more than two decades of filmmaking the Coen Brothers have tackled film noir, antic slapstick, Warner Brothers style gangster film, romantic comedy, crime caper, remake, and a few things that don't fit neatly into any category. They seem to want to try every genre, and the amazing thing is that they've proven adept at all of them. For their latest film, No Country for Old Men they return to the crime milieu of Blood Simple and Fargo, but this time adapting a novel by Cormac McCarthy about a man who finds and takes a stash of illicit money, and the unstoppable thug tracking him down.

Shoot ‘Em Up/Interviews with Michael Davis and Clive Owen

I'm a British nanny and I'm dangerous... Shoot 'Em Up (New Line)

At this year's Comic-Con, filmmaker Michael Davis and actor Clive Owen sat on a panel for their new film Shoot 'Em Up (opening September 7 throughout San Diego). By the end of the ten minutes or so of clips, the crowd of 6400 attendees in Hall H were hooting and hollering their approval and begging for more. But can the film sustain that level of energy throughout? Listen to my radio feature or read the extended interview/review.

I spoke with both Davis and Owen at the Comic-Con about their film. Owen arrived at the round table interview looking like he had just stepped off the cover of GQ. He wore a suit and tie--definitely over dressed for the Con. But he brought a touch of class to the room of bedraggled journalists. He's also drop dead gorgeous... and a really nice guy to boot.

Shanghai Noon

Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in Shanghai Noon

East meets west both in front of and behind the camera as Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan teams with American actor Owen Wilson and with Hollywood's Touchstone Pictures for a period western entitled Shanghai Noon (opening citywide May 26).

There was a time when Jackie Chan was getting younger and younger with each film released in the U.S. That was because American distributors kept reaching further back in time for Hong Kong titles (First Strike, Mr. Nice Guy, Twin Dragons) to release in order to satisfy the growing U.S. demand for Jackie Chan. But now that Hollywood has discovered Chan's box office potential here, they are willing to back new American films with the stuntman extraordinaire. So now Chan is beginning to look but not quite act his age. It's just a shame that Hollywood couldn't have come to this realization a couple decades ago when Chan first tried to crack the U.S. market and was in peak physical condition. Anyone who's seen films from that era -- Police Story, Project A, Drunken Master II -- saw Chan at his best and is bound to be somewhat disappointed by this film. But his fans are going to have to deal with the fact that he is getting older and that Hollywood still doesn't quite get the over the top, in your face style of Hong Kong cinema.

That being said, Shanghai Noon is a delightfully entertaining action comedy with Chan and co-star Owen Wilson making a highly appealing buddy team. The story involves a kidnapped Chinese princess, a con man, a Chinese Imperial guard and a whole lot of gold. In case you cant figure it out. Chan plays the Imperial guard sent from China to America in order to bring the Princess (Lucy Liu) back. Owen Wilson is the con man who, like Han Solo, doesnt take an interest in anyones predicament until money is involved.

Shanghai Noon borrows from quite a few films -- Star Wars, Once Upon a Time in China and America, Little Big Man, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But it does so with such self-deprecating humor and unabashed openness that it's hard to resist. Chan still displays flashes of inspiration that draw on his love of silent comedians like Buster Keaton. Chan continues to prove that anything is a potential prop and unusual weapon from saplings in the forest to a horse shoe on a rope. And Chan's physical agility is still a wonder. He makes everything from scaling scaffolding to escaping a hangman's noose look easy.

Shanghai Noon is not Chan at his best but it's such good humored fun and has such a joyous spirit that it's hard to resist.