Juggling Mike

I really wanted to write up a mini review of each film for Fantasia, but RealLife™ took over and I was occupied elsewhere. Instead of writing out a long review for each film, I will simply briefly summarize my thoughts on each.

A Serbian Film
I had high expectations for this one and it did not disappoint. I walked out of the theater disgusted and angry at the directors, so in my books, the movie worked. It went overboard for a few scenes, but overall, it was a well acted movie. I really liked the main actor, and I look forward to his other films. Only see this movie if you have high limits for disturbing films. It is NOT for everyone (or anyone, as some would say).

Birdemic: Shock and Terror
This was the funnest movie in the entire festival. Nobody walked into this expecting a masterpiece. We all knew from the get-go that it was going to be crap.. and we loved every minute of it! The movie has an important environmental message regarding global warming, but it is lost among all the crap that covers it. The CGI looks like clip art and everything is exaggerated. Still, with our trusty coat hangers in hand, we laughed and cried all the way to the end. This is a must see movie, but it has to be among friends who enjoy watching crap. Oh no, I have to go, I hear a mountain lion!
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I’ve got some more mini reviews for you!

Merentau

This is an Indonesian martial arts flick which feels slightly like Ong Bak. The style of fighting this time is silat harimau, which is something I had personally not seen before. The movie starts off pretty slow, but it soon picks up and never stops. The fighting is awesome and the hits look painful. The characters , especially the bad guys, are a lot of fun. Like Ip man 2, the enemy here are foreigners, only this time they operate a sex trade. When our hero messes with them, they get pissed and they want him dead. I didn’t recognize any of the actors, but the main bad guy was a hoot and a half. You’ll have trouble accepting him at first as evil, but he shows his “badassery” pretty fast and it is entertaining to watch. While the first half does drag a little, this movie is definitely worth it as a complete package. Go see it!

We Are What We Are

This is a movie about a Mexican family who are struggling to make ends meet. The father just passed away and he was the one responsible for bringing food to the table. With him gone, it is now up to the eldest son to take over. I don’t want to say much more, because I would ruin it. This was a great dramatic piece which totally deserves to be at a genre festival. While I did enjoy the overall movie, I think I had set my hopes too high beforehand and thus walked out slightly disappointed. People were comparing it to Let the Right One In, which is one of my favourite movies, so I was really excited. While it has a very similar pace, it never hit the highs that were found in LTROI. My friends loved it, and one said it is probably his favourite film this year, so that is saying a lot about it. I recommend everybody to see it, as it is a very good movie, just don’t get your hopes too high like I did.

I’ll post more when I can. The festival ends on Wednesday!

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So I have a few new mini-reviews for you.

Evil: In the Time of Heroes

This was a fun little zombie movie coming to us from Greece. It falls in the same realm as other comedy zombies movies like Evil Dead and Dead Alive. Not much of it made sense, but that wasn’t the point. It is always fun to see people kill zombies in various ways. A head cutting boomerang? Yes please! Billy Zane is in this movie, but he only plays a small role; his biggest scene involving a sort of “screen saver” moment in which his head revolves on a screen as he talks. It didn’t make much sense, but it all made us laugh. This movie is actually a sequel, so I am missing some knowledge of the previous events, but in the end it didn’t matter. Overall, even though it will never win any awards, it was a fun film to watch with the crowd.

Gallants

I was really excited for this movie. Not only did the trailer resemble an old-school kung fu movie, it was also going to be presented by the director and Bruce Leung! To be honest, I don’t know the actor that well, but I did love him in Kung Fu Hustle. He was a real blast before and after the movie, and I would have loved to have heard some more stories from the guy. The movie itself was a lot of fun and it had the crowd cheering and laughing all throughout. It is one of those movie where you enjoy it in the moment, but realize its flaws afterwards. The biggest problem with the movie was that it didn’t seem to have a real path. It starts by focusing on the kid, but by the end of the movie, it is more about the masters. As I mentioned before, it was still a lot of fun, but I would have preferred an ending with some resolution on the goal the kid had from the beginning. If it plays in your area, I still recommend that you check it out.

The Life and Death of a Porno Gang

This was the first Serbian film on my list. It is quite different than most typical fantasia films, and I really appreciated that. It is good to have some fresh blood in the festival. The movie is a fake documentary on a film maker and where his life leads him. He started wanting to make science fiction, but when nobody would take on his ideas, he turned to pornography. He assembled a cast and crew and decided to try something new: porno theater! His first night was a success, but facing problems with the law, they decide to leave town and bring the show on the road. They visited small villages and performed nightly until they have to leave or get kicked out. They catch the eye of a film producer who proposes a new direction for the group which would make them a lot of money. Seems that foreigners like to see people die. So if he were able to provide them with people who want to die, why not film it and mix it in with their usual type of shows? In short, pornsnuff. Reluctant at first, but soon needing the money, they accept the offer and see where it leads them. Eventually their conscience catches up with them and the group starts tearing apart. Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. I found it a bit too long, but it was a refreshing new take for the festival. The idea is great and all the actors did a terrific job. While the content is really not for everybody, I highly recommend it.

I have only seen 4 movies so far, but the next two weekends will be intense. I am seeing a minimum of 2 movies per day, over the next four days. There is also a live-action play, which I am really looking forward to! So far, the festival has been a blast and I am enjoying every minute!

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Yesterday was the opening night for this year’s Fantasia Film Festival. Usually I go see both official opening films, but this year I decided to skip the first (and official) opening film. They were screening the Canadian premiere of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with Jay Baruchel attending. While I don’t know if the movie is good or not, it just didn’t feel like a genre film to me. Since it is coming out in theaters soon, I felt no urge to see it that night. The Q&A was apparently pretty interesting though, so I would have liked to have seen that. Hopefully they were recording it (like in the prior years), and will be posted on the Fantasia site soon.

The second movie of the night was my first movie of the festival. I think that for the majority of fans, this was the REAL opening film. It is the sequel to last year’s hit Ip Man. This movie takes place after the events of the first with Ip Man trying to open a martial arts club in Hong Kong. There aren’t as many dramatic events compared to the first movie, but there are still some kick-ass fights. At one point, Ip Man must fight other local masters to prove that he is worthy to train his students. This takes place on top of a table which is hardly large enough to support two people. The entire cinema was cheering at this point. The fight between Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung was great stuff. As with Ip Man 1, there is an inclusion of a foreign master, this time hailing from England. He’s a western boxer and while he may not be as fast as the martial artists, he can throw a mean killer punch.

While I really enjoyed the movie, there are a couple of things that brought the overall rating for me down. The first is that I found the choreography in this movie to be slightly “unbelievable”. In the Masters fight, there were moments where both fighters’ arms would move so fast that they were a blur. While that is acceptable for a science fiction or fictional tale, I found it out of place in a movie based on a real person. Other scenes felt more like Wire Fu than Kung Fu. Besides the action, I also felt like the English actors overacted their parts. While this is most likely on purpose, (probably playing on the stereotypes the local population associate to the “foreign devils”) it felt slightly out of place to me.

Overall though, I still greatly enjoyed the movie and I highly recommend it to everybody. If you have never seen either Ip Man movies, then start with the original (which I still find superior) and you will want to watch the second movie right away. Donnie Yen does an excellent job as Ip Man, and the fights are all awesome!!

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In Quebec, we have a sort of springtime tradition involving eating too much food covered in maple syrup. We are in the ideal region for the syrup goodness, so it is something many of us try to do at least once every season. There are many traditional sugar shacks across Quebec, but this weekend I tried out the most extravagant shack I have ever seen. It is called La Cabane a Sucre au Pied de Cochon (Pig’s Feet Sugar Shack) and it is a spin off of a very fancy restaurant in Montreal. The price of one ticket is just shy of 50$, and you have to reserve several months in advance, but it is totally worth it. We ate so much that we had to be rolled out at the end. I doubt any of us will forget the experience.

I took pictures of the whole thing, but I must warn you, your arteries may clog just by viewing them. View at your risk.
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The end of the year is always accompanied with gatherings and events which take up most of your time. For the last two weeks, any day where I was not working, I was busy at an event. It is amazing how fast time flies when you are kept busy, and next thing you know, it has been over a week since you last posted. While I missed a Music Monday, I hope you were all too busy with the holidays to notice!

The Cirque du Soleil is currently back in Montreal with Alegra. This show started touring in 1994 and is still going strong. They changed their format in 2009 to fit in arenas, but the show is still the same. Since I had never seen it before (as if I need an excuse), I bought my tickets as soon as they were available. Unfortunately, my “awesome” front row seats (not on the floor, but first row in the bleachers) were directly behind some projectors blocking out part of the floor. Luckily, one of the attendants gave us seats in the third row which had not been sold for that night. Regardless of that slight annoyance, the show was great.

One thing you realize when you see many circus shows is that the acts all start feeling familiar. I had a sense of deja-vu throughout the performance. While that didn’t dampen my impression of the show, it is something to consider. My favourite act of the show was definitely the clowns. I often find that clowns are never fully fleshed out in Cirque shows, but I loved the dynamism between the two in Alegria. They were really funny and did a great job. It was no surprise that they had the biggest ovation at the end of the show.

Another great part of this Cirque show is the music. As usual, there is a live band and singers and it adds to the overall experience. The Alegria theme song is probably the most known Cirque du Soleil out there, and it brought me joy to finally hear it live.

Overall, I really enjoyed Alegria, but I didn’t find there was much that was new to me. This is my fourth Cirque du Soleil show in 2009, so after a while, the acts tend to repeat. If you are new to the Cirque du Soleil world, then Alegria will definitely impress, but if you are used to circus shows, then you will enjoy yourself, but will find nothing really new. To those who have seen the show and loved the clowns, I have only this to say: “Never surrender!”

Watch the official trailer here.

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It has been a while since my last post. I try to post regularly, but sometimes days pass by way too fast and next thing you know a month has passed since your last entry. For shame Mike.. for shame. I guess I’ll end this stagnation with a summary of my month of October. For starters, I’m house hunting, although that hasn’t kicked into full swing yet. I have also spent a lot of time with Dharti (not enough time, but the house should help fix that). I have been spending some time with friends and vacation plans have been made. I practiced my unicycle and I am finally starting to “get” what it is supposed to feel like. If I can ride it properly by Spring, I may have to invest into a 24 incher. Wow, that can be totally misinterpreted…

Besides that, I have also been playing games. I didn’t touch much of my consoles over the summer, but lately I have been giving them much attention. I bought three games this month, which is a lot more than I would normally buy/play. I started by playing Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune which a friend lent me. Awesome game, but that playtime has been interrupted by the arrival of Brutal Legend.

Brutal Legend is the newest game from Tim Schafer, one of my favourite game designers. I own every one of his games, and have played pretty much all of them at least twice. His days at Lucasarts produced some of the finest adventure games, and his first platformer Psychonauts remains one of my favourite games ever. If you’ve ever played Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, or Full Throttle.. you have this man to thank. Brutal Legend takes place in the world of metal music. It is a universe imagined based from covers of old heavy metal albums, and a lot of music love went into the game. You play Eddie (voiced by Jack Black) who can slice enemies with his axe, electrocute and burn people with his guitar, or drive through them with his Druid Plow. It is a mix of all sorts of genres such as action, racing, and RTS, and it is all blended well. The humour is excellent and the pacing is well done. My only gripe with the game is that I’m not a huge RTS fan, so a good portion of the game loses some interest over the other sections. Still, overall it is a lot of fun and I recommend it. I am not finished the single player yet, but I hope to get through it soon.

The next game I bought was Borderlands. I originally knew nothing about this game, but when Wal-mart announced that they were selling it at a reduced price, it peaked my interest. I bought it along a couple of friends and we started playing together. I like to think of it as a Fallout 3 - Lite. It is a FPS with RPG elements. It has a very original art style and is quite addictive. The coop play is a lot of fun and well implemented. I keep wanting to play to reach just one more level. If you like shooters and want something different, you should check Borderlands out.

The last game I got was a bit of a guilty pleasure. I had posted about it before and then said I would not buy it, but I caved today and picked it up. I’m talking about DJ Hero. I never bought Rock Band because I would always be playing it alone, and I can’t start banging on the drums in my apartment. I was pretty excited when DJ Hero was announced since it is a relatively quiet game (regarding the instrument) and is mostly solo. Also, it is my kind of music. I love this stuff. I wish they would release a soundtrack, since a lot of the tracks in this game are just simply awesome. My biggest gripe about the game is the price. It costs over a hundred dollars which does not make it easily accessible to everyone. It has a new plastic peripheral, but compared to a plastic guitar, this is the kind of toy I wouldn’t mind having on my living room table. The turntable controller works really well and feels great. I haven’t played too much so far, but from what I’ve seen, I love it. Hearing Queen mashed with Daft Punk is simply (excuse the pun) music to my ears. If I didn’t work tomorrow, I would probably end up pressing plastic buttons and scratching plastic records for a good portion of the night. If you like music games, and you like the sounds DJs produce.. you need this game.

Anyways, I need to get to bed. Till the next post!

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When we were watching the trailers on the Fantasia DVD, one movie everybody agreed on that did not look great was Black. The trailer just did not make it appealing. I did not buy tickets, but thanks to the great folks at Evokative films, I won a pair of tickets to see it. I did some research on the film, and it had garnered some good press at SXSW. Intrigued, I went to see the movie with mixed anticipation. By the time it was over, I knew how wrong I was. It was nothing like I expected.. it was so much better! Black is an awesome movie!!

The story starts out like a heist film. After a failed armored car robbery, Black gets a call from his cousin in Dakar who knows of a briefcase full of diamonds in a bank with lax security. It seems like an easy job, but really, what is? It is here that everything starts diverging from your typical heist film, and where Black shines. The diamonds were supposed to be a secret, but news spread quickly. Soon several parties are after the same goal, and then nothing is going to plan. Add to the mix a voodoo witch who is trying to fulfill a prophecy by emerging the inner snake from her lover, and you can start to understand why this movie is so awesome.

MC Jean Gab’1 does an excellent job portraying Black. As he mentioned in the Q&A, the character of Black is just an extension of himself. He looked like he had a great time playing the role, and his charisma and humour really explodes on the big screen. The other cast members were all equally great, even if they may not have had a lot of screen time. I particularly enjoyed the Russian mercenary, as he is evidently eccentric and sounds just like a bad guy from the Tintin cartoons.

Many people are calling Black a Blaxploitation film, but since I don’t really know the genre, I cannot make my comparisons. One point that can link it to the genre is the soundtrack. It is full of funk and old school jazz, and in short, is awesome. I will be getting the soundtrack when it comes out in September. It really adds to the movie and makes it that much more enjoyable. The last time a movie had such an awesome soundtrack was Survive Style 5+, and while they both use different types of music, they both properly incorporate it into the movie to add to the experience.

Overall, “Black” does pretty much everything right. The cast is great, the story is crazy, the music was incredible, and the overall movie is just a lot of fun. I’m really happy I won the ticket to see this movie. It comes out in Montreal July 31st, and I recommend everybody to go check it out!

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Last year, one of the best Fantasia films was Satoshi Miki’s “Adrift in Tokyo”. While I did not see it at Fantasia 2008, I got to see it early this year thanks to Evokative Films. While I found it to be an enjoyable movie, the hype from everybody else dampened the overall effect. In short, it is about two guys waling across Tokyo and the zany stuff that happens to them. While that is pretty much all to the movie, it is the people they meet and the stuff they do that makes the movie special. It is a zany movie, but set at a slower pace.

This year, Satoshi Miki brings us his latest movie Instant Swamp, which feels similar in a way to “Adrift in Tokyo”, but also manages to be its own movie. In this story, Haname Jinchoge falls upon a series of unlucky events. She loses her job, her boyfriend, and her rabbit. Her mother falls into a coma after nearly drowning while trying to catch a kappa (Japanese water-sprite). She finds an old letter which might lead her to her long-gone father. She finds out that he is an owner of a junk house (”antiques shop”), but refuses to believe he is the right person. One thing leads to another until we get the crazy ending which nobody could predict. It sounds simple (and by the way I described it, very sad), but that is far from the truth. Like in “Adrift in Tokyo”, every mundane activity is spiced up with zaniness. The actors all play their roles well, and you just end up smiling at everything happening. Haname makes the best out of everything, and it leads her into all these weird scenarios.

If you’ve seen “Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain“, you have an idea of what to expect. This movie adds its touch of Japanese weirdness (which I always enjoy) and although it doesn’t always makes sense, you always have a smile on your face. When I left the cinema, I was thinking it was so-so, but the more I thought about it, the more it grew on me. (”Adrift in Tokyo” had the same effect.) If you want to see a fun movie, this is an excellent choice!

Now THAT is awesome hair!

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Last year, I saw a really great movie from Sweden called “Let the Right One In“. It involved vampires, but strayed away from the usual vampiric horror trend. It is a slow paced romantic horror, which delivers more of a psychological scare than anything else (similar to what Grace offered us this year). It was invigorating to watch, since it had been a while that I had seen any good vampire movies that weren’t slashers of sorts. (Let’s leave Twilight out of this.) This year, Fantasia brought us Thirst, a Korean vampire movie, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes 2009. I had big expectations, and while I enjoyed the movie, it couldn’t surpass “Let the Right One In”.

The story, although simple, is really interesting. The main character Sang-hyun is a priest who feels he hasn’t done enough to contribute to humanity, so he participates in an experiment to find the cure for a viral disease. Most patients do not survive, but thanks to a blood transfusion, his blisters disappear and he manages to defeat the illness. He returns to his hometown, but he soon discovers that he has perhaps not properly healed. His blisters are coming back and his senses are all alert. He has a craving for blood, which he realizes temporarily heals his ailments. He realizes he is a vampire, but as a priest, he is tormented by this fact. Add to that mix Tae-ju, an old forgotten friend, who becomes smitten with him. He falls for her and as lust takes over his mind, he has to battle his wits over what feels right (as a priest) and what feels good (but sinful). As emotions increase, issues arise which will force Sang-hyun to decide which path he will follow. It is not an easy choice when you were raised by the Church.

Thirst could be classified as a romantic drama, but it is definitely not a scary movie. They do make important choices that will shock the viewer, but nothing that will make you jump in fear. Both Song Kang-ho and Kim Ok-bin do an amazing job in their roles. They went all out for this movie, as evident from the nudity; something that is frowned upon in Asian cinema. I applaud both actors for their fantastic job, for had they faltered in their role, the movie would have greatly suffered. That said, I did find the movie to be slightly too long. It really felt like a three hour movie. It will be coming to America, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they chop it up a little bit. I think some scenes could be shortened without losing any information.

I would recommend this film to those who enjoyed “Let the Right one In”, and to those who want a movie that is different from the norm. The acting and story is terrific, but the pacing can feel tedious at times. In the end, I still enjoyed it, but I can’t stop thinking less of it because I keep comparing it to “Let the Right One In”. Perhaps if I had seen Thirst first, my opinion would be different.

I love this poster. I want it on my wall.

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