Cinematic Concerns

You know how sometimes you come across an idea which you recognised as your own, except that it was only in your head, once, or perhaps you've just mentioned it to some friends, but never got to it, and now someone else has gone along and did it, made it real, so you can't claim it as your own anymore?



I got my hands on the screenplay when it was listed as one of the Black List scripts back in December 2007. A few pages in and I went, shit, that uses one plot element from my first written script that I had thought to be original! A few more pages and something else happens and I was like, dammit, that's another plot element from the second script that I've written! (I've only ever written two feature screenplay.) So obviously I devoured the whole screenplay in one intense read and I have to say, it's well-written, paced very tautly, and made full use of its high concept and makes for an intelligent Hollywood thriller.

In fact, if it was made into a film, it would've been the best Hollywood thriller in years.

So when it was revealed that the breakout Brit director Duncan Jones is to direct, and that the cast includes Gyllenhaal, Monaghan, Farmiga and Wright ... well, the film's all set. Definitely a must-watch when it comes out.



I interned at a production office in West Hollywood for a few months between 2007-08. Around that time I read the amazing if controversial true story of Slavomir Rawicz, as described in the book "The Long Walk", where he recounts how he was imprisoned in a Soviet gulag because he was a Polish officer, and later escaped with a few prisoners and eventually made their way to safety after crossing thousands of miles of wintry landscape, wet forests, and unforgiving deserts. It made for a great adventure story, and I checked to make sure it wasn't made into a film yet. It was not.

So I pitched it to one of the executives at the production office, who agreed to read it. He then brought it up at the next meeting with the CEO and pitched it then, but the CEO thought it was similar to Defiance and dismissed it fairly quickly. I didn't know what else to say to defend it, and so when the executive looked at me to add to the pitch I had nothing to say and just nodded. So that was that.

And now it's a major motion picture from the director of The Truman Show and Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World starring Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan and Ed Harris.

Bugger.

Anyway, I mentioned that the story was controversial: there were some voices of concern that the story was fake and Rawicz simply made up the story. It wasn't conclusively proven either way. From a cinematic point of view though, no matter - it's a compelling story, and from the trailer it seems promising, though I don't know how many people would go for such a movie nowadays.

I reviewed last year's BMW Shorties finalists, but for this year I will keep this short(er) and without ratings because:

1. Am away on holiday and am typing this on an iPod.*
2. I submitted my own short film this year (see post below) so any negative comments by me on the selected shorts can (possibly justifiably) be perceived as sourgrapes.

You can check out the films by going to the BMW Shorties website.

SUCCESS RATE is my favourite of the ten so naturally I would prefer to see it win. I've been thinking that the comedians doing That Effing Show could turn out to be competent actors and here I'm glad to see Faiq play the leading role competently. An initially unrecognisable Jerrica Lai is cute and effective as usual and of the selected actress nominees I would like to see her win. The thing I kept thinking throughout the short though, was this: Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation. June Tan, tell me if I'm reading it wrong ...

KICKSTART is rather on-the-nose and predictable with its plot, but no matter: it sufficiently generates suspense and pointedly addresses the most pressing issue that Malaysia faces today (in that, solve this problem, and all our other problems unravel a little and becomes less tangled). (Now this is in contrast with the other message film, LIKE TOY DOLLS, which uses shock value and an attempt at poetry to illustrate the media's latest choice of distraction news item - not to belittle the severity of this particular issue though - and despite fairly excellent technical craft left me feeling cold towards it.) By the way, Karnan who plays the unfortunate lead role has good screen presence and that rare actor's attribute of being able to look quite different with minimal makeup; I vote him for Best Actor.

CONFESSION OF SMILEY has an assured sense of style, and left me wondering why the guy who makes a logical case for not using condoms in the middle of the short wasn't nominated. Director Erik Moh could turn out to be one of those future Malaysian directors who specialise in HK-style Malaysian movies ... I'm guessing.

PLAN B: I knew it would be selected when I saw it before the finalists were announced, to the bafflement of my friends, despite the fact that there was no story - or, because this is Malaysia, perhaps because of it - nor, in fact, anything to do with the "0% Wastage" theme (which is also true of at least a couple of the other finalists). It managed mood very well. WHO CARES?: granted it was well-shot, and I can agree with the editing nomination, but they really could have done more with the unemployment theme. Right now, it seemed to be aiming for subtle, ironic humour, but in fact the humour is barely perceptible. So it's just flat.

PERSPECTIVES: so predictable for someone from Malaysia to come up with an idea like this, and even more so for Malaysians to applaud its brilliance. I blame our education system. It's well-meaning, no doubt. But what is the insight? If it's there I didn't see it. BAJET: to echo my friend Albert - ini pun boleh masuk ke? Apalah.

MY NEW CAR: again, well-intentioned, but cliched to the max, man. And yet somehow Malaysian Chinese audiences dig this kind of obvious, simplistic morality tale and don't seem to notice, for example, how utterly unrealistic and wtf it is for the boy to receive that gift with such pride. HOOKED: the slapstickiness is unpolished, and could benefit from tighter editing. Okaylah, but could've been more creative.

These were my thoughts after watching the shorts. So sue me.

* Took me over an hour to type the thing out with two fingers. Have since found a proper computer and refined the post a little. Sorry about the length, turns out I'm incurably verbose, and short is relative.

... So this was why I haven't updated my blog for two months:


Hashshashin's Revolt from Sebastian Ng on Vimeo.

It was a short film produced for entry into this year's BMW Shorties (2010). The results just came out and unfortunately we were not selected as one of the finalists.

However, this was a story that I strongly believed in (the first time in three years I could say that), and more importantly the cast and crew worked diligently and earnestly on this one – most of them completely inexperienced by the way, but delivered work that is generally better than can be expected from amateurs, so credit goes to them.

I hope you enjoy it.

I haven't written anything here in a long time, for reasons that will become apparent soon enough. Meanwhile, I've been busy catching up on movies in the past few weekends after seeing them pile up over a month of absence from the cinemas.

UNSTOPPABLE

Unexpectedly released a week earlier than in the US, this is an exciting enough rescue movie based on a true story. I had erroneously thought that that true story was the San Bernardino train disaster, turns out it was not. What happened there was a train travelled at great speed due to some fault, then train derails at San Bernardino; what was real unfortunate was that in the effort to clean-up the derailment, heavy machinery moving about causes the petroleum pipeline underneath the area around the track to explode, killing more people and destroying more properties.

Anyway, the film itself is okay. Decent acting (anything with Rosario Dawson in it is awesome), pacing was quick enough, and oddly enough there's less of Tony Scott's signature hyperactive editing style here.


RED

From the director of The Time Traveler's Wife. I wanted to see this for one simple reason, and it's not Bruce Willis or Morgan Freeman. It's the sight of Helen Mirren with a determined face letting loose hundreds of bullets from, err, that big machine gun thingie. That woman is pure awesome. And also Karl Urban, love that guy.

The movie itself, I felt, was a little slow on pacing generally. It was fine in the beginning, establishing how bored Bruce Willis is with his life, but I had expected things to pick up, for the plot to become more interesting.


YOU AGAIN

It was entertaining. Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver are a joy to watch, as always. Also I'm intrigued by the two completely unknown, young, and good-looking actors Jimmy Wolk and Sean Wing here. I did think they stretched Odette Yustman's character a little too much though – they didn't quite manage to reconcile the evil bitch and the sincerely-loving girl convincingly.


MEGAMIND

Proving that Dreamworks Animation is on a roll, the film succeeds with an unusual story for an animated feature, never mind that it treads on the same ground as Despicable Me. I just wished I hadn't read the synopsis earlier. Will Ferrell's voice isn't as annoying as I had feared. How To Train Your Dragon is still better by a long shot, though I'll say this is on par with Shrek Forever After.

By the way ... WHICH STINKING GENIUS FOUND A WAY TO INSERT SUBTITLES INTO 3D MOVIES?! IT'S FREAKING ANNOYING, STOP IT! GAHHH!


DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS

I almost saw the original French version Le Dîner De Cons a few years back, which was written and directed by Francis Veber, who specialises in farce comedies. You should definitely check out his other films, such as Le Placard or La Doublure, they are surprisingly hilarious.

This film, on the other hand, well it's well casted: Paul Rudd is one of my favourites (I just love the way he walks!), Steve Carell swings between annoying and sympathetic as required by the plot skillfully, Jemaine Clement is outrageously zany, and my, Lucy Punch in an American role but playing the exact same character she's been playing in the last few movies I saw with her in it (and totally pulling off the American accent)! The problem is, the characters do get genuinely irritating, especially in the middle acts, and contrary to its purpose that is not entertaining. It doesn't help that I seriously dislike Zach Galifianakis (and couldn't understand why people love his comedy style so).


THE OTHER GUYS

My friend David calls it the funniest movie of the year (at the very least). I won't go that far, but I can see why. The dialogue is positively loony, and certainly the most enjoyable parts of the film are the argumentative banter between Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg ... especially the latter, hahaha. And Eva Mendes, my. Her character's presence in the story functions almost entirely as a plot gag, and she milked it for what it's worth. The actual plot though, involving some investigation of a robbery and embezzling of funds, is rather convoluted and not properly explained to the audience (intentional?), so when the end credits appears with infomercial graphics about Ponzi schemes it raised an eyebrow (mine). Likewise, Steve Coogan's character seemed rather bland, though he has one funny recurring joke. But no matter. One of the most entertaining movies of the year, which makes this more of a must-watch than any of the other films here. And Mark Wahlberg should keep making comedies.


REIGN OF ASSASSINS

I was surprised by how good this is. And, though I don't know exactly what his directorial contributions are here, I wished John Woo didn't butt in and inserted his name in as a co-director. Just let the younger man take the credit lah.

I thought the story was well thought-out and more plausible than most Chinese martial arts period movies, and a few of the fight sequences are some of the most spectacular I've seen lately. The weird choices were: having Michelle Yeoh's voice dubbed over ... by a more petite sounding voice and playing a 30-year-old (took an hour to get used to that one), and hiring an unknown Korean actor (well, all Korean actors are unknown to me, except maybe Jang Dong-gun) to play the male lead. The latter turned out to be a good choice, in my opinion: he had just the right kind of face for the role; and if his voice wasn't dubbed over, then I say, excellent voice work Jung Woo-sung.

The romance works, but interestingly there is a subplot involving Michelle Yeoh's character in her younger days with a monk, portrayed with a certain suaveness (if that word applies to a monk!) and poignance by Li Zonghan. It was brief, but man it was romantic – in this case, maybe because it was brief. Shawn Yue plays the most different role he's played so far (I think), and pulls it off.


EAT, PRAY, LOVE

Directed by the creator-producer of Glee. Lots of Malaysians I know didn't like it. While watching the movie, I formulated a theory why. I've always had this superiority complex when it comes to many people I see around me. (If you think less of me because of this, trust me, the inferiority complex is there as well.) And I think the reason why is because I gravitate towards people with a 'soul' – by which I do not mean in a spiritual sense, but rather, that something inarticulated that allows a person to get in touch with art, with literature, to engage in philosophy, to appreciate randomness and know how to subvert predictability (i.e. not be so straightforward all the time). Think about it, does your average Chinaman uncle, or Mat Rempit, or fellow office colleagues whose minds are entirely preoccupied with money/car/family/religion, or (in my case), the unsophisticated Chinese restaurant crowd and dumb people waiting in line to buy cinema tickets around me ... do you think they have that 'soul' in this definition?

I bring this up because I think it is the people without 'soul' who will never be able to appreciate this film, or if they like it, like it for the wrong reasons. Sure, a large argument against the film is that the book is 'better'. Unfortunately I'm the sort who always think that the film adaptation is (usually) the better experience (unless in the hands of an imbecile of a director), so I can't answer that argument.

I don't think it is a memorable film though. But it was alright for what it was. Julia Roberts does have charm.


LEGEND OF THE FIST: THE RETURN OF CHEN ZHEN

The first ten minutes? Eye-poppingly brilliant. Like, wow – portraying Chinese labour in he French army fighting German soldiers in WWI (not Nazi, not in power yet), with an intense and furious fight sequence. Unfortunately, the rest of the film sucks. And such squandered talents: Donnie Yen is in peak physical form, Shu Qi is alluring as ever, amazing set and costume designs (for HK cinema, especially). And what's with the dubbing? Can't they stick to Mandarin? Seriously! Anyway, I don't know what happened to director Andrew Lau, but the film's pacing just veered off course after the European prologue. The climax was anticlimactic.


CHARLIE ST. CLOUD

I liked the original title better: The Death And Life Of Charlie St. Cloud. Zac Efron is gearing up to be the next Leonardo DiCaprio; I don't mean he is purposefully aiming to become him, what I mean is that Efron is trying his best to shun the pretty-boy reputation and take on more adult and more challenging roles. Gradually. Not wise to plunge into a completely dark role, and this one is just far enough removed from that HSM stuff but yet could still engage his girly fanbase. Except that that backfired, and this film didn't do well in the box office.

Anyway, I thought the story was not bad, and Efron and other young, much lesser known actors Amanda Crew and Charlie Tahan all sunk into their role without messing up. The only false moment I felt in the movie was that the girl accepts the weird guy's words too easily at the very end. But okaylah.


DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME

This would have been such an awesome story, a murder mystery set in the time of Wu Ze Tian (!!!) and containing fantastical and interesting plot elements that are truly bizarre ... if only it wasn't directed by Tsui Hark. I promised myself I wouldn't watch another of his films after Seven Swords ... but I only realised this was his when I sat down in the cinema. And what is with Malaysian cinema distributors and always getting the Cantonese version of Mandarin-spoken films?!?! Can they go shoot themselves now?! It was SERIOUSLY annoying to see their mouths moving differently. Carina Lau's regal performance especially suffers. Potentially a very good film that is totally ruined.


THE SWITCH

I can relate to the Jason Bateman character. Not his neuroticism, but the way he is seen and treated by his friend, played by Jennifer Aniston, for that is how many of my friends (particularly my uni friends) see and treat me, i.e. with much exasperation. Indeed, Jason Bateman's character and I often wonder why our friends continue to be friends.

The film itself is a charming enough dramedy. I don't know why people are disparaging Aniston so much nowadays. Sure she makes bad film choices, and all her roles are basically the same – but when it works, as it does here, it works. Why complain? Jason Bateman deserves a nomination for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical. Worth watching.


LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE

I heard so much about how the visuals are breathtaking and the story's not so good. The visuals are breathtaking. But the story doesn't suck! It's actually not bad. Though somehow, owls just aren't endearing enough, unlike penguins. Chalk this as a watch-once-only – but also a must-watch.

By the way again ... WHICH STINKING GENIUS FOUND A WAY TO INSERT SUBTITLES INTO 3D MOVIES?! IT'S FREAKING ANNOYING, STOP IT!


WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS

I never saw the first movie, just read the script, so I have a vague recollection of the story. But I guess it doesn't matter all that much, for there are enough clues to fill you in on what you need to know coming into this one, and there isn't much that you need to know anyway. The movie mostly focuses on Shia LaBeouf's career and domestic troubles and how those intertwine, and there's more of the latter than you would expect in a movie about Wall Street. LaBeouf plays the role very earnestly and does actually cement his abilities as a dramatic actor. Michael Douglas proves that he is still an effective actor, exuding charm and making you believe it. And then there's lovely Carey Mulligan, her performance convincing you of her character's conviction even if you wished she was not like that. Frank Langella is brilliant as ever. Cameos by Oliver Stone and Charlie Sheen are completely pointless – could have done more with those, instead of using up running time. Ultimately not a very exciting film. Just okay.