Category Archives: Thai

Meet the Parents (2000, Jay Roach)

Posted on 10 May 2013 | Leave a comment

Meet the Parents requires an extraordinary suspension of disbelief. It’s an absurdist comedy, but the presence of Robert De Niro and–maybe even more so–Blythe Danner imply Parents is based in some kind of reality.

So the simplest thing–believing Teri Polo could be a well-adjusted adult after growing up with De Niro as a father–becomes Parents’s first hurdle. She and Ben Stiller have only the mildest chemistry and it only goes downhill as the film gets more absurd (and more funny).

Director Roach isn’t capable enough to make that romance, which should be the primary focus of Parents narratively, work, so he concentrates on De Niro and Stiller being funny together. It works. Stiller and De Niro are very funny together. While Stiller actually gives a good performance, De Niro’s is problematic. His best moments are either with Danner or Stiller. When De Niro has to play off Owen Wilson, it feels wrong, like De Niro’s doing a “Saturday Night Live” sketch mocking the film.

Roach’s inabilities carry over into the technical aspects as well. He can’t decide how realistic he wants Parents to play–the film opens with a series of home video shots and there’s some Steadicam later on, but it’s mostly static. It doesn’t necessarily need to choose, but it’s clear Roach is simply incapable of making the decision.

Towards the end, Parents gets very long. It can’t handle with the return to sensibly behaving characters. The acting helps get it through.

2/4★★

CREDITS

Directed by Jay Roach; screenplay by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg, based on a story by Greg Glienna and Mary Ruth Clarke; director of photography, Peter James; edited by Greg Hayden and Jon Poll; music by Randy Newman; production designer, Rusty Smith; produced by Robert De Niro, Roach, Jane Rosenthal and Nancy Tenenbaum; released by Universal Pictures.

Starring Robert De Niro (Jack Byrnes), Ben Stiller (Greg Focker), Teri Polo (Pam Byrnes), Blythe Danner (Dina Byrnes), James Rebhorn (Dr. Larry Banks), Jon Abrahams (Denny Byrnes), Phyllis George (Linda Banks), Kali Rocha (Atlantic American Flight Attendant), Thomas McCarthy (Dr. Bob Banks), Nicole DeHuff (Deborah Byrnes) and Owen Wilson (Kevin Rawley).

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Posted in 2000, ★★, Color, Comedy, English, French, Hebrew, Romance, Spanish, Thai, Universal Pictures, USA

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Bangkok Revenge (2011, Jean-Marc Minéo)

Posted on 15 March 2013 | Leave a comment

About the only inventive thing in Bangkok Revenge–and I doubt writer-director Minéo uses it for this reason–is lead Jon Foo being unable to experience emotion. It means Foo doesn’t have to give a particularly good performance. He just has to deliver his lines and he does. He’s not a bad guy, of course, quite the opposite. Corrupt cops killed his parents and now he’s grown up (the brain damage is from the attack) and seeking, you guessed it, revenge.

In Bangkok.

Otherwise, Minéo’s atrocious. He can’t compose a shot, he can’t come up with good fight scenes (he amps up the stylizing to fake ingenuity), he can’t direct actors. He also has a lot of the film in English, but only Foo seems to be able to speak it. His mentor, Kowitch Wathana (in a terrible performance), mangles every line of English dialogue he’s got. He seems completely fluent in Thai, but Minéo seems more concerned with international distribution than a decent picture.

Caroline Ducey, as the erstwhile love interest, butchers her English dialogue too. Minéo would have done a lot better if no one in Bangkok spoke the same language or really understood one another. It would have made for a far more entertaining film.

Somewhat surprisingly–given Minéo’s profound incompetence–are the photography and music. Teerawat Rujinatum shoots DV quite well and Christophe Gerber’s score is professional.

Occasionally (and rather momentarily), Revenge has a moment with marginal potential. But, every time, the incompetence returns immediately.

0/4ⓏⒺⓇⓄ

CREDITS

Written and directed by Jean-Marc Minéo; director of photography, Teerawat Rujinatum; edited by Hugo Picazo and Nicolas Sarkissian; music by Christophe Gerber; produced by Cédric Jimenez; released by China Lion Film Distribution.

Starring Jon Foo (Manit), Caroline Ducey (Clara), Michaël Cohen (Simon), Aphiradi Phawaphutanon (Chanticha), Winai Kraibutr (Samat), Kowitch Wathana (Adjan), Lioutsia Goubaidoullina (Jessy), Julaluck Ismalone (Ying) and Thiraphong Riawrukwong (Superintendent).

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Posted in 2011, Action, ⓏⒺⓇⓄ, China Lion Film Distribution, Color, Drama, English, France, Thai, Thailand

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The Samurai of Ayothaya (2010, Nopporn Watin)

Posted on 1 March 2013 | Leave a comment

If you happened across The Samurai of Ayothaya and missed the terrible opening expository narration, you might think you found an awesome martial arts movie about a bunch of Thai Freddie Mercury impersonators in a Battle Royale situation.

Sadly, you did not. You instead found a terrible mix of a military thriller and a martial arts historical drama.

There’s nothing to recommend Ayothaya, except possibly its under two hour runtime, but the script’s the worst part of it. Every moment, every line, is either foreshadowed or just generally predictable. Director Watin really likes to speed up and slow down the film for emphasis, just in case you miss the utterly obvious events transpiring onscreen. If there were anything good about Ayothaya, Watin’s approach might suggest disgust for the viewer. But no… his filmmaking appears to be entirely earnest in its awfulness.

Lead Seigi Ozeki apparently got the job based on his bangs–he lets them do most of his acting. They don’t do a good job.

Watin’s not just bad at directing actors or its martial arts fight scenes (which are awful too), he’s generally incompetent at composition too. Chuchart Nantitanyathada’s weak photography doesn’t help either. All of Ayothaya is glossy, with hard bright lights. The film’s ostensibly going for realism; not as far as the lighting apparently. Watin’s trying to make it all look so cool and it’s impossible when the actors can’t even react naturally.

Ayothaya isn’t quite Ed Wood… but only because of CG and a budget.

0/4ⓏⒺⓇⓄ

CREDITS

Directed by Nopporn Watin; written by Watin, Thanatat Kongthong, Thanawat Thirayaowapapong and Viroj Sukchu; director of photography, Chuchart Nantitanyathada; edited by Sunshine Manooratana; music by Paphatsin Ketawongwat and Padej Boonlon; production designer, Anan Wantippa; produced by Salinee Phakdeephol; released by Mahagaap.

Starring Seigi Ozeki (Yamada Nagamasa), Kanokkorn Jaicheun (Jumpaa), Sorapong Chatree (Phra Khruu), Winai Kraibutr (King Naresuan), Thanawut Ketsaro (Khaam) and Buakhao Paw Pramuk (Ai-Seua).

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Posted in 2010, Action, ⓏⒺⓇⓄ, Burmese, Color, Drama, History, Japanese, Mahagaap, Thai, Thailand

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Rambo (2008, Sylvester Stallone), the director’s cut

Posted on 28 July 2010 | Leave a comment

I just went back and reread my response to the theatrical release of Rambo. I haven’t seen it since the theater and, while I could pick out some added scenes (Stallone’s director’s cut, titled John Rambo, runs about ten minutes longer), I couldn’t remember if my problems with the director’s cut are the same as my problems with the theatrical.

They are not. Not entirely.

Stallone’s director’s cut is much more thoughtful. It raises these great human contradictions–for example, a pastor hiring mercenaries to kill brown people to save his white people, white people captured while trying to stop brown people from getting killed.

Rambo‘s still incredibly problematic–this cut doesn’t fix the ludicrously unearned and unexplained end–and raising questions is far better than trying to answer them.

This time through–and this cut through–Stallone’s treatment of the Christian missionaries is, while I’m sure it’s unintentional, rather damning. Julie Benz’s character is a good fundamentalist Christian woman who uses sex (the idea, not the act) to bewitch Stallone. This development is new to this version. Maybe in the spinoff, Benz will run for vice president.

It makes Stallone’s Rambo pathetically attached to this woman who abandons him for her tool of a fiancée (John Schulze).

Most interesting, reading my first response, is the idea Stallone portrays Rambo as an animal thrilled at killing. He doesn’t in this cut. He gives Rambo a soul the whole time, not making him earn it.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t improve the movie.

1.5/4★½

CREDITS

Directed by Sylvester Stallone; screenplay by Art Monterastelli and Stallone, based on a character created by David Morrell; director of photography, Glen MacPherson; edited by Sean Albertson; music by Brian Tyler; production designer, Franco-Giacomo Carbone; produced by Avi Lerner, Kevin King-Templeton and John Thompson; released by Lionsgate Films.

Starring Sylvester Stallone (John Rambo), Julie Benz (Sarah), Paul Schulze (Burnett), Matthew Marsden (School Boy), Graham McTavish (Lewis) and Tim Kang (En-Joo).

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Posted in 2008, Action, ★½, Burmese, Color, English, Germany, Lions Gate Films, Thai, Thriller, USA, War

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Rambo (2008, Sylvester Stallone)

Posted on 28 January 2008 | Leave a comment

First, I need to get the theater-going experience out of the way. I do not remember the last time I’ve been in a theater filled with stupider people. They did not shower for the most part. Their girlfriends had to explain the complicated parts to them. I can only imagine what seeing Rambo III would have been like for people with IQs above eighty-five back when the series was popular.

On to the film.

Stallone tries hard to give Rambo the Rocky Balboa treatment and he succeeds on a few levels. He really gets across how awful things in Burma are going–the genocide. He manages to make it the setting, not turning the film into an infomercial. It’s impressive. The more important level is the character himself. In a very poorly constructed voiceover, Stallone eradicates the “Rambo the tortured Vietnam vet” thing he’s had going for twenty-five years. Rambo, Stallone decides, kills people because he likes it (which might not sound like much, but just imagine a Lethal Weapon or Die Hard featuring that thesis about its protagonist). Stallone’s observation, of course, would be a heck of a lot more profound if the movie worked out in the end….

Stallone doesn’t find the balance between action movie and thoughtful observation in Rambo, because he plays toward a general realism. It’s not Rambo running around the jungle trying to save the missionaries by himself, there’s a team of mercenaries with him. Of these mercenaries, Matthew Marsden and Graham McTavish give the best performances. As for the missionaries, Paul Schulze is surprisingly bad and Julie Benz is fine. Benz kind of plays Fay Wray to Stallone’s Kong. It’s a wonderful relationship to watch, because Stallone really gets how to make it work.

So, oddly, the problem becomes Stallone’s unwillingness to go the distance, to have a crazy action movie with Rambo running around killing bad guys (and these bad guys are bad… the worst bad guys I can remember seeing in such numbers in a movie). He goes for something resembling realism and the movie loses out. It’s not dumb fun. It’s dumb pseudo-realistic action violence. Stallone’s very big on showing how awful violence is in the film, it’s graphic and it’s intense.

Rambo, the character, doesn’t deserve the Rocky Balboa treatment–the redefined sequel treatment–because there’s just not enough of a character there. The proof is easily identifiable–Rambo‘s lame closing scene. But it seems like there’s a good mix–and Stallone finds it quite a few times in the movie… he just can’t sustain it.

1.5/4★½

CREDITS

Directed by Sylvester Stallone; written by Art Monterastelli and Stallone, based on characters created by David Morrell; director of photography, Glen MacPherson; edited by Sean Albertson; music by Brian Tyler; production designer, Franco-Giacomo Carbone; produced by Avi Lerner, Kevin King-Templeton and John Thompson; released by Lionsgate Films.

Starring Sylvester Stallone (John Rambo), Julie Benz (Sarah), Paul Schulze (Burnett), Matthew Marsden (School Boy), Graham McTavish (Lewis) and Tim Kang (En-Joo).

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Posted in 2008, Action, ★½, Burmese, Color, Drama, English, Germany, Lions Gate Films, Thai, Thriller, USA, War

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Typhoon (2005, Kwak Kyung-taek)

Posted on 5 August 2006 | Leave a comment

Typhoon is the biggest budgeted South Korean film to date. The money’s well spent, as the film looks like any big budget film. If there are any massive amounts of CG, they’d be at the end, during the storm, which happens at night, making things a lot easier. However, the budget can’t fix any of Typhoon’s problems, since they’re all from the writer-director, Kwak Kyung-Taek, apparently thinks GoldenEye is the action movie template to follow. Had Typhoon just been a remake of GoldenEye in a Korean context, I wouldn’t have complained… because GoldenEye was at least stimulating. Typhoon takes the structure of GoldenEye and some other Bond films and removes all the wit, however forced, and replaces it with moroseness. Typhoon is a would-be heavy film, but it doesn’t even fail to be heavy, it’s just too fake.

The film’s soullessness is peculiar, because it’s almost unique. It’s not a dumb American action movie–though it tries at times and fails because Kwak cannot direct exciting scenes–and it doesn’t want to be (the heavy elements). It wants to be something in between and can’t make it, because Kwak’s script is awful. His characters are entirely flat and go through the exceptionally long two hour film with about enough depth for ten minutes. None of the actors have any fun. Jang Dong-Kun, as the bad guy, doesn’t have any flourishes or any real personality… except he really and truly cares for his men–oh, Kwak also really likes Heat, more on that “influence” later. I was excited to see Typhoon because Lee Jung-Jae’s in it and he’s not particularly prolific and I can truly say I’ve never seen a more bored performance. Lee’s character is the most shallow–imagine a not cocky Tom Cruise action hero–and Lee the actor’s so visibly disinterested, you wish he could just get killed off. The only scenes of interest involve Jang’s sister and then both he and Lee perk up a little. The scenes between the two of them, when Kwak pretends they’re alter egos, produce the film’s most eye-rolling moments. The rest of the time it’s boring, which might mean the eye-rolling scenes are actually more engaging–my first use of engaging as a pejorative.

Frighteningly, Typhoon did get me interested in seeing Martin Campbell’s upcoming Casino Royale, just because if I want to see a pseudo-heavy James Bond movie, I’ll see a pseudo-heavy James Bond movie. It’s also got me terrified of Kwak’s other films, as at least one of them is on my to-watch list.

0/4ⓏⒺⓇⓄ

CREDITS

Written and directed by Kwak Kyung-taek; director of photography, Hong Kyeng-pyo; edited by Park Simon Kwang-il; production designer, Jeon In-han; produced by Park Seong-keon and Yang Joong-kyueng; released by CJ Entertainment.

Starring Jang Dong-gun (Choi Myong Sin), Lee Mi-yeon (Choi Myeong Ju) and Lee Jung-jae (Kang Se-jong).

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Posted in 2005, Action, ⓏⒺⓇⓄ, CJ Entertainment, Color, Drama, English, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, South Korea, Thai, Thriller

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