mortifier-1 Reviews

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009)

The Saints Are Coming... sort of... maybe...

[4/10 · 15 February 2010]

It's been ten years since the first Boondock Saints. Ten long years of fans waiting for the promised sequel - for the "All Saints Day"! 'Overnight' has been watched and forgotten, discussions were held on how much of a "dick" Troy Duffy is and how he ruined his career and eventually everyone gave up hope for a sequel.

Now ten years later, the sequel hits theaters. Were the expectations met? Exceeded maybe? Can expectations ever be met by a sequel? Probably not.

After the killing of mob boss Yakavetta in court the MacManus brothers and their father are back in Ireland having given up vigilantism, hiding from the public. One day they are called out again. A befriended priest in Boston has been killed "Saints Style" and the MacManus brothers are blamed for it...

So much for the premise. I will not go into any more detail here.

Suffice to say I expected something else. The film's tag line "All Saints Day" made me think of a broader approach to vigilantism, more supporters or maybe more saints fighting the common enemy. It's what the end of the first film 'promised'.

Now this story is different. Backgrounds are created for the brother's father "Il Duce" and his beginnings, as well as his connections with the mob. The idea certainly is nice, even though I believe nobody clamored for this kind of info. Sometimes characters work best without backgrounds - see "Crank's Chev Chelios" for example - in order to make them appealing.

Other than that the story or overall approach of the film is pretty much the same as in the first. The boys and a sidekick kill criminals and are followed by the police and a kindly FBI investigator. There's a group of cops (the same as in the first) for comedic value and high energy shootouts.

Funnily, the parts where the film resembles the first the most, or does citations of themes from it are the scenes that work the best overall. The FBI investigators interactions with the cops are a carbon copy of the first films, even down to some mannerisms of the (new) character. The shootouts are staged "Boondock Saints"-style and they sure work great as does the characters department in giving us a goofy array of mobsters and petty criminals just like we know 'em from the first.

The film does not work in all other departments. I'm really sorry to say, since I really wanted to like it the way I love the first one. Editing is hack job more than anything, I've seen highschoolers edit better. The score and soundtrack parts, they were a work of art in the first film, are almost obsolete in this. Nothing memorable or iconic in sight. Remember the first films intro? The irish folk song that played there? The theme from the shootout in the strip club? Nothing like this found in this film, except the end credits song and that's a little late to start on a good theme...

Overall that is the problem with Boondock Saints II - it is nowhere near as iconic as the first. It sure tries, but those scenes are only citations from the first film. It creates nothing new, only riffs on memories from part one. Hopefully the inevitable third film will bring the trilogy back to form.

Yet, this will not keep me from buying the DVD once it's out. If simply to support Mr. Duffy and the film itself. I just don't know if it will be displayed next to the first film on the shelf or hide in the "crappy-films-that-I-might-watch-once-more"-box in the cupboard.

We will see...

Avatar (2009)

The ultimate spoiler

[1/10 · 25 December 2009]

Princess Mononoke, Disney's Pocahontas, Disney's Atlantis - The Lost Empire, Dances With Wolves, Aliens, Mel Gibson's Apocalypso, The Matrix Revolutions, The Last Samurai, The New World

+ Gollum

• Creativity

--------------------------------

= Avatar

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Sadly I have to have "more lines of text" so I will bore you with some quotes about the general subject:

"They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they kept only one; they promised to take our land, and they did." ~ Red Cloud

"Democracy means to us Indian people, 'I am going to steal your land'" ~ Unknown

"The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future." ~Marya Mannes, More in Anger, 1958

"So bleak is the picture... that the bulldozer and not the atomic bomb may turn out to be the most destructive invention of the 20th century." ~Philip Shabecoff, New York Times Magazine, 4 June 1978

"For 200 years we've been conquering Nature. Now we're beating it to death." ~Tom McMillan, quoted in Francesca Lyman, The Greenhouse Trap, 1990

Lucky (III) (2005)

Among the best shorts of the past years

[8/10 · 29 August 2006]

'Lucky' is a short film about a man trapped in a speeding cars trunk and what happens when he's able to free himself...

I stumbled across 'Lucky' through a magazine article about new short films and since it could be downloaded I gave it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised by it's looks and the camera works and overall by what could be achieved with so little in terms of set, props and actors. The narrative is tight, which is not a wonder given the films 3 minute running time. The surroundings, a road in the Australian desert, is adds a beautiful touch in terms of gritty realism and the natural light is beautiful. The film has great stunt work and an unexpected 'funny' ending.

Overall it's a very good short film with great production values. If you liked this, you might also try the short 'Prey Alone'.

Antibodies (2005)

Not even close and no cigar

[1/10 · 3 September 2005]

Throughout the German press "Antibodies" was hyped as THE German answer to "Se7en" or "The Silence Of The Lambs".

Now after watching it I can see where that comparison came from - "Antikoerper" steals from those two films so blatantly that it's almost painful to watch. The writer mixed in some genre references and hoped that people might actually think this film was smart. Sadly, it's not...

It starts of quite promising with the capture of our serial killer Gabriel Engel (Engel is German for Angel - Oh, it's so smart!), who paints pictures with his victim's blood - but soon enough the film transforms into Lecter-lite , when a small town cop is sent to interrogate him. There it's never above the quality of an average episode of "Tatort" (which is a German detective TV show). After an overtly long 90 minutes the film reaches it's Se7en-lite stage but doesn't have the guts to go through with it.

The acting is rather wooden, especially on the part of Wotan Wilke Möhring's small town cop Michael Martens. The killer, played by Andre' Hennicke, tries his best to be as menacing as possible but never really convinces. Heinz Hoenigs street-smart big-city cop is purest camp, but sadly not of the good kind.

To make things short - if you want to see a good and new serial killer film, go see "Saw" or wait for the sequel. If you want to see a fun and genuine German killer flick, see "Anatomie". If you want to see something better than this without leaving your home, see any episode of "CSI".

Evil Aliens (2005)

The bold, the brave and the eeeeeeevil aliens!!! Great fun!!!

[8/10 · 14 August 2005]

I saw "Evil Aliens" at the "Fantasy Filmfest" in Frankfurt, Germany, and it instantly became one of my top films for 2005 so far.

Scalleum, an island off the coast of Wales, home to a Stonehenge like stone formation known as the "Devils Teeth". It's only inhabitants are 3 welsh farmers and their sister Cat. One night she is being adopted and impregnated by (evil) aliens, while her "boyfriend" Angelo is being anal-probed to death... British TV program "Weird Worlde" specialist's in news about aliens, ghosts and Bigfoot sets out to investigate and report the case. The TV crew, accompanied by actors to stage a dramatic reconstruction, and an UFO expert head off to Scalleum. There they soon realize that, not only the Welsh are rather strange people, but that aliens really do exist and are everything but friendly.

Jake West's Evil Aliens is truly a labor of love and you can see that in every frame! It's beautifully shot, the designs of the aliens (a mix between your average "grey alien" and a "Predator") or the saucers is top notch, the CG looks very good and often convincingly real as do the practical effects. The film is filled with references and nods to the early work of Peter Jackson or Sam Raimi while never being unoriginal. And did I mention how funny this film is? I am an avid fan of all colors of horror- and b-films but I have never seen a horror comedy that made me laugh so hard! Be it the slapstick humor or the "splattery humor", Jake West has perfect comedic timing, while the film never becomes silly! See this if you liked: "Braindead", "Evil Dead 2", "Shaun of the Dead" or "Cabin Fever"

Oh, and in case you wondered what the song in THAT certain scene was: It's called "I've Got A Brandnew Combine Harvester" by "The Wurzels" (UK 1976)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Lots of kissing, lots of... nah! But a very entertaining film!!!

[8/10 · 11 August 2005]

Yesterday I attended a screening at the 19th "Fantasy Filmfest" (think German Sundance)in Frankfurt, Germany, where "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang" was the festivals opening film.

"K.K.B.B." is best described as a comedy, a spoof of film noir and the buddy film concept with an absolutely ingenious narrative style. I try not to spoil too much, but I must say that this film is not so much propelled by it's story, which just serves as a skeletal structure to give the characters room to interact, but by it's very sharp dialog, it's nicely drawn, but not overexposed characters and on the spot acting by it's leads. Downey Jr. back at his best and a definite high for Kilmer. The audience was raving, laughing and cheering, especially for Harry Lockheart (Downey Jr.), the somewhat good-hearted but unlucky and not-so-streetsmart-thief-become-actor-become-detective. One of his most memorable and laugh-out-loud scenes involves... uh... urinating (!) and (even if this must seem really strange for someone who hasn't seen it...) is destined to become a comedy classic. It's Shane Black's first turn as both writer and director. He wrote "Last Boy Scout", "The Long Kiss Goodnight" and the "Lethal Weapon"-films and watching "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang" one starts to wonder how those would have turned out if he had directed them from his own script. (This goes especially for "Long Kiss..." since I enjoyed "Boy Scout" and the "Lethal Weapons")