Reviews

The Heist is a landmark action film. It is surprising that it is so overlooked. It looms large over the film action genre over the past two decades. Almost every action film owes something to this remarkable masterpiece by Peckinpah at the the height of his directorial powers.

For starters, the garbage compactor scene was directly lifted by George Lucas in Star Wars. The dialogue, pacing, and editing are stamped all over Tarantino's films. The action sequences are the starting point for John Woo's Triad masterpieces.

A few movies that bear out the direct influence include Point Break (which the story and action sequences are similar); as well as Ben Affleck's The Town.

The script by a then up and coming Walter Hill, based upon a Jim Thompson novel, is perfection in itself. In fact, all of Hill's movies can be tied in one way or another to his screenplay in The Getaway.

In fact I don't think it's a stretch to say the brash direction and machismo was a defining influence on Takeshi Kitano's directorial career.

By all means, if you are a film lover and have not seen this one, you are indeed lucky to be able to see it for the first time. Usually, Peckinpah is defined by critics with his film The Wild Bunch and by general consensus - consider it his best. After seeing this film, it is no longer true for me - this is Peckinpah's finest hour. McQueen shows why he is still regarded as a legend - a simply unforgettable performance.

As a concert film, this is a mediocre effort. It is comprised of shaky camera shots, blurry pans of the crowd, and the absolute darkness on and off stage.

As far as the music goes, it is decently rendered performance by Kobain and sidekicks. There appears to be a deep lack of connection by Kurt with the audience, and it is clear why Pat Fear was called into duty - the guitar playing was too much one person - after all there only was one Johnny Ramone.

During the 1980's which immediately preceded the 'grunge' of the late 80's (Pixies), and early 90's (Nirvana), hardcore punk was alive and well in Orange County, CA. I had the privilege of seeing many shows at the historic Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach including the Adolescents, Exploited, 7 Seconds, Angry Samoans, U.K. Subs and so on. A typical punk show of the time was lots of smoke, very dark, and impossible to do any type of watchable filming. Clearly, none of these obstacles were ever taken into account and what results is the viewer having the experience of looking in darkened glass windows into a bunch of blackness.

Particular irritating is the t-shirt and jeans girl/boy on each side of the stage moving spastically the entire time. At one point a bubble machine is seen continuously blowing bubbles. After viewing the concert, even though I love Nirvana's albums, I have no desire to have been there - not like the show I went to at the Hollywood Palladium with the Ramones and Social Distortion in 1986. What is lacking is a sense of viewer participation - we as the fourth wall are not shown the atmosphere of the audience; what is was like to be there; what people were doing; how many and how big were the mosh (slam) pits - there is no sense of atmosphere in which to gauge the experience - quite unlike DA Pennebaker's concert documentaries.

The sound on the blu-ray in not particularly impressive, soundstage wise, the bass is present, although the treble is non existent - this does not even bring up the problem on audio/video sync apparent throughout. I do not know why they even advertise 5.1 as there is only 2.0 - you will be deeply disappointed expecting a surround sound experience.

All in all, if you are a die hard Nirvana fan, then by all means see it. If you are not or are not a rock historian - I would give this a pass, and put on In Utero instead with a good pair of Sennheiser or Grado headphones.

Video 4/10 Audio 6/10 Quality of performance 7/10 Punk rock or grunge does not mean sloppy guitar playing or lots of distortion or amateurish guitar skills (see Johnny Thunders, Rikk Agnew, Mike Ness, etc). Unfortunately this concert does not capture Kobain at his best - fortunately we have the MTV unplugged Special which fully showcases Kobain's charisma, singing and guitar playing with great backup by the Meat Puppets. By all means see Nirvana Unplugged which I give a 10/10, especially if this is going to be your introduction to the band.

Kitano, who has left the personal, lyrical and poetic quality behind, now emerges as a filmmaker reaching out to the mainstream. Outrage is the start of his second Yakuza trilogy (Outrage 2 has been announced for next year), and plays out on a Shakespearean stage with the epic quality of Dostoyevsky. Unlike his first trilogy (Violent Cop, Boiling Point and Sonatine), this movie focuses on the politics of the yakuza rather than an intimate portrait of a compromised individual.

There are random acts of extreme violence that continue to propel the plot forward. Kitano, playing the underboss Otomo, is a similar role to his other characters in yakuza movies which portray out of control individuals that have a minor standing yet have the last word at the end of the play. Rather than focusing on the beauty of mobsters hiding out on the beach, this is a gritty, urban drama much in the tradition of Johnnie To's triad movies (Election) that has dominated the organized crime dramas over the past decade.

In showing the criminality of the human mind, it evokes Mario Bava's study in Rabid Dogs, similarly Kitano is building a Brechtian inspired drama about the harsh existential life. Kitano continues to explain and further define his worldview through the character of a doomed nihilist anti-hero. In all of Kitano's yakuza character studies, there is no hope, or redemption, only a further plunge into an ugly existence of lies and deceit, where only an act of violence can bring about change.

As Kitano remarked publicly about his making of Outrage, he is giving the people what they want - no pretense of artistic embellishments, but rather blunt, cruel acts of violence of the professional criminal devoid of any romanticism. One scene in particular evokes The Godfather, but that is where the similarities end - there is nothing glamorous about the yakuza lifestyle.

In this film, Kitano assumes the duties as in his other yakuza films as that of star, director, editor and writer. The vision is completely his own. The pacing is deliberately slow, showing that the life of a criminal is not particularly exciting but rather mundane as that of any other type of businessman, mostly involving allegiances of convenience and acts of betrayal. There is no illumination or redemption here, no course of action will lead to a better life, such is the basic tenet of a nihilist.

There is little flourish in the direction such as to immerse the viewer into the dark, banal existence of its characters. The one scene that brings a sense of relief with sunlight streaming through the trees on a backstreet, is colored darkly by seemingly innocent activity that is actually quite sinister for the individuals involved.

This is a welcome and long overdue return for Kitano to the yakuza genre which he abandoned a decade ago for a trilogy of felliniesque introspective autobiographical films. There are no experimental sequences or absurdist imagery as in his previous films. As a consequence, Kitano is no longer held back with meditative musings, instead giving the viewer an unfiltered take on the corruption, lies, and phony existence of the individual in an artificial society - that any person in any social situation is merely part of an inauthentic social contract.

In many ways, the lack of artistic pretense in Outrage only serves to further embolden the bleak message that Kitano has for us. This is not a film for the weak of heart, nor is it one for the impatient, it is a slow revelation revealing the emptiness of life and the pointlessness of all action.

An unrelenting assault on the viewer's senses for 90 minutes does rate as something horrific, yet one becomes numb and disinterested, especially in the lack of the tempo... all fast - no emotional modality... no connections to the outside world. The whole story is so insular that it neglects to connect with the audience and fails to set up an alternative world that the viewer is welcomed into and finds inviting. In short, what this movie lacks is imagination and a storyline. It hath no substance - the non-stop shock card is played all too often by those lacking of true talent. In contrast, setup of the true horror films such as the Italian giallo - Dario Argento, Lucio Fulcio, Mario Bava and the Modern American horror slasher (with back-story) represented by John Carpenter and Don Coscarelli evoke a more authentic response of terror - such as a simple scene from Phantasm when the Tall man says, "You play a good game BOY!!!" is far more menacing, terrifying and enigmatic than any line of dialog from any Saw movie (especially the latest installment)... In fact in Saw III, the psychological element of torture is merely a poorly worded treatise relying upon convention and boiled down philosophy. It lightly touches on the psychological but never the metaphysical. It is a self-absorbed exercise at best... so a 6/10 for doing torture for no rhyme or reason for 90 minutes straight. At best, the movie is a representation of worthlessness which brings to mind Sartre's much more profound philosophical novel, Nausea - which deals with the metaphysical problem of worthlessness in an erudite enlightening manner. To see a film that truly deals with sadism, torture and man's inhumanity to man I recommend Michael Reeves masterpiece: the Witchfinder General. Check it out. tho its not available on DVD in the USA, only videotape. I recommend the UK DVD.

In only the first half hour, Rabid Dogs has more tension and psychological insight into the criminal mind than all of Reservoir Dogs making Tarrantino look like an amateur. Even Scorese has admitted the influence of Bava, this movie has Mean Streets starting to look pale in comparison. The master cinematography, confined setting, brilliant camera angles, and editing brings to mind some of Orson Welles best laid out scenes. This all presides over a backdrop of overwhelming despair abundant in nihilism which begs yet another comparison to another admitted admirer, David Lynch, who looks like a student to the teacher - the breadth of brechtian super realism truly achieves it peak, of which an entire generation of filmmakers have aspired to, including Fellini - all of whom had never had the chance to see the film until the late nineties. The movie crashes through the fourth wall and the viewer becomes a passenger in this unfortunate circumstance. The film is a tribute to the genius of Mario Bava and in a way the culmination of all his talent and influence neatly compacted into a ninety minute film school. One of the finest crime dramas ever made. The intricate dialog which illustrates a pure hatred of life and total lack of respect of all that is good - even makes one start to question if Coppola missed the boat with the Godfather a little bit in making his characters a little too heroic and romantic, rather than the base individuals they are supposed to portray. One comes from this film with a horror of the criminal rather than a wish to emulate. In this real time robbery, murder and car-jacking, Bava takes us to the precipice, the edge of reason and finally beyond all semblance of humanity.

Let's not pretend this is a sci-fi movie, but rather welcome Spielberg to the Masters of Horror club. This is comparable to Dario Argento at his peak but on a global-scale, rather than showing intricate death scenes as is Agento's signature, Spielberg leaves the worst to the imagination of the viewer. A searingly realistic parable with sterling dialog that shows how people really act in time of crisis – not unifying but turning on one another. I walked out of this movie numbed with the horror I had witnessed. The subtle social context of humans resorting to terrorist tactics against the aliens (which one may argue have eminent domain) – truly makes one wonder about our place as Americans in this world. Along with Land of the Dead, Batman Begins, and Revenge of the Sith this marks the best year in American film in a long time with the sheer number of brilliant action horror / sci-fi / fantasy movies recently released in a short period of time. I would not recommend this film for the young or faint of heart, although lacking in explicit graphic violence – the intensity is all too much but for the seasoned viewer. I wonder how Spielberg got this one past the rating board without an 'R' rating.

One of my favorite movies of all time. The English countryside has never been filmed and used to better effect. This is Vincent Price's greatest acting achievement. Michael Reeves left this mortal coil too young. Evil is everywhere: in the air, underground, in the water, in nature and the towns. There is no escaping this nihilistic existence and eventually all good is corrupted. This is a tremendous cinematic tour de force, full of lyrical beauty and one of the most compelling love scenes is history. The tone, pacing, and handling of the horrific subject matter brings only to mind Dario Argento, Mario Bava, and Tod Browning. This neglected masterpiece has been slowly gaining respect over the decades as more see it. It is unforgettable. The story is derived from historical fact of the witch hunts by the puritans in Great Britain before they moved over to America. This is possibly one of the most scariest movies you will ever see.