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Reviews
The Last Winter (2006)
Not a horror film, yet intriguing and original
From the DVD cover I was expecting a B-level horror-film-in-the-snow, style "30 Days of Night". This is not a horror film, which may explain why it has disappointed some reviewers here.
This film is in fact more of a supernatural, environmental ghost story, combining an environmental theme to fantasy story-telling and form. In a nutshell, search and exploitation of natural resources cause damage to the environment, expose the characters to hidden, subterranean forces.
The story is intriguing and original: an environmental theme, powerful and mysterious forces as in "The Mist" unleashed against the camp base standing for our consumer/industrial civilization. Similarily to "Monsters", we barely see these forces but thanks to an incredible sound design, they seem to be everywhere and appear from nowhere.
The direction is strong from the beginning to the end and sometimes quite risk-taking. The Last Winter could maybe have gained more by departing from the classic Hollywood model, further in the direction it takes. Still this film is overall a very good surprise and I believe there is no other film like it. Highly recommended.
The Last Dragon (1985)
Very good camp classic of the 80's
This is definitely an unrecognized classic of the eighties, which should deserve to be better known. The Last Dragon is certainly a cheesecake of a movie, a highly amusing pastiche and collage of the film and music genres popular in the early 80's, such as the Kung-Fu movie, the Breakdance movie, the video clip (references to Cyndi Lauper and Prince watch the hilarious video clip à la Cyndi Lauper) there's even a touch of fantasy. It's a Friday night guilty pleasure (in fact when I watched it) for all those who have been through the 80s.
Unlike Flashdance, it doesn't take itself too seriously: yes, it's (very) cheesy , undiluted 80s, but it's more stylish than you would think at first. Whereas of Flashdance you laugh of the movie, here you find yourself unexpectedly laughing with the movie. The whole cast is evidently taking a pleasure in this film in particular Julius Carry the "Shogun of Harlem"- and this pleasure passes on to us spectators. This movie is closer to camp movies such as "The Big Meater Eater", "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and further back in time "Jack the Giant Killer" and "The Son of Sinbad", rather than other 80's classics, because once again it doesn't take itself too seriously and yet has more qualities than many of the films of its time (don't mention "Highlander"). There's lots of action in this movie, but also singing and dancing as well as some romance. This film shows, irradiates much joy and pleasure, that you wonder why some refer to the 80s as the decade that everyone wants to forget...
This movie is hysterically funny from the beginning to the end, but underlying the humour it also touches on "serious" themes, such as cultural identity which reminds the excellent Ghost Dog by Jim Jarmusch. The main character in the Last Dragon, an African-American Kung Fu master follows cultural models from the East, while some of the Asian characters are strongly influenced by Soul, Funk and African-American culture. Both "The Last Dragon" and "Ghost Dog" show that cultural identity is not something which is fixed, but is fluid, exchangeable, undetermined both movies show characters that adopt, appropriate and are appropriated by other cultures.... Don't get me wrong: the Last Dragon is unabashedly commercial, but it touches on themes normally "reserved" to "high art" (whereas Ghost Dog does it the other way around ;-) ), while remaining consistent with the slapstick tone and humour of the film.
Overall this movie is highly enjoyable. William Macy even makes a short, but very amusing appearance. You gotta see this movie!
King Kong (2005)
Uninspiring
My expectations were not high, but this movie is a real let down. I am a big fan of Peter Jackson's films specially the Fellowship of the Ring and Meet the Feebles, but Peter Jackson's film-making is barely recognizable in this bad movie. Unlike the title, King Kong is long, full of action fill-ups, uninspiring, very long, very uninspiring, despite good performances. To be honest I stopped watching this movie after 2 hours, when some of the main characters finally (at last!) decide to capture the cgi-hairy-ape. It's a one and a half hour action movie spread into 3 hours or so. Like too little butter on a large toast, it becomes thin, superficial and doesn't taste too good. But this movie is not only uninspiring, it is also distasteful.
I remember a very disturbing moment of the film when the main characters meet the Islanders. At first, we see a young girl and for a brief moment we expect something gracious, the encounter of two cultures in a similar way maybe to Roland Joffé's "The Mission". Unfortunately the film-makers are quick to revive in a very gross, insensitive way the old colonialist clichés of the XIX century whereby black or brown people, African or Pacific Islanders were represented as "savages" and "cannibals". There is no irony or a critical perspective on these clichés and during about ten minutes the film-makers demonstrate a rather racistic and chilling imagery. Unwillingly most likely, the film-makers have taken part in a discourse where the "Other" is shown as having the worst of "Us", leading to scapegoating.
The film-makers even go as far as showing the Islanders (who in real life would be Polynesians or Melanesians) in a similar way to the Gobelins in LOTR, with long teeth and inhuman eyes - representing them as "pure evil" as opposed to the main characters which have their defects, but are at least always shown as human. This is all the more surprising (or is it?) that the film-makers come from New Zealand, a country with a large Maori minority which has miraculously and bravely survived colonialism - and still survives it...
To make it short, don't watch this film !
Mi socio (1983)
A pleasure to watch
Mi Socio is a must see for all fans of Latin American Cinema. It's somewhere between a road movie, the story of an improbable friendship and a social comment on life in Bolivia in the eighties. A great deal of humour makes this film a pleasure to watch as well as the beautiful Andean sceneries