Film Review - The Man from Hong Kong (1975)

The Man from Hong Kong is an Australian action film and stars Jimmy Wang Yu and Inspector Fang Sing Leng from Hong Kong who comes to Sydney to extradite one of his own, but when he is assassinated, Leng blows the place Sky High to find out who's responsible.

Clearly inspired by the success of the James Bond series, Writer-Director Brian Trenchard-Smith has created essentially an Australian equivalent of a Bond film, complete with the title song (Sky High by Jigsaw) the pre credit action sequence, multiple action scenes which are just outstanding to watch plus the cherries of both a beautiful heroine and a nasty villain funnily enough played by one time 007 George Lazenby, A coincidence; surely not.

But back to the stunt scenes, which as I said before are outstandingly well made and boy does everyone involve cop a whack, even the film's director who appears in a small role, a pity that with all of the computer graphics directors have at their disposal these days, on screen action simply isn't as good as what's in this movie, no doubt due to the ease of just doing it all on a blue screen or green screen stage rather than going out and doing it all for real and in camera.

But hey, apart from that, go check this film out, it's a knock out in more ways than one with a real sense of energy and excitement, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Sanctum (2010)

Sanctum is an underwater thriller produced by James Cameron and concerns a team of cave divers who are going down a cave in Papua New Guinea when they are caught in a cyclone and trapped underground, so the team has to find their way out, by going down.

This review for the most part will concern both the 3D experience and the film as a whole, first off I'll start with the 3D and boy was it AMAZING, really a great experience which envelopes the viewer and at times, makes you really feel like you're struggling for air, there were times where I was literally holding my breath it was that good, so good in fact that after the film, I felt like I still had water in my lungs (I didn't really) and if there was an Oxygen tank nearby, I would have ran for it, anyone watching this on Blu-Ray will really be missing out.

But what about the movie as a whole, well sadly it isn't up to the 3D effect, probably because the 3D was probably supervised mainly by Cameron whereas Alistair Grierson directed the film itself and I have to say that it really feels like an amateur effort compared to a veteran like Cameron, in fact if Cameron himself had the chance to direct this film, I think it would have been so much more than it is in terms of the claustrophobia, tension and characterization.

As I write this, Sanctum is on it's way out of cinemas and in a way it's a shame as you really do get a proper cinema experience seeing it in one, it's just a pity that Cameron couldn't be persuaded to direct the film himself, as Grierson and Co. make it look like an amateur's job, but hey the 3D experience made it worth the wait so a 3 out of 5 for Sanctum.

Film Review - Easy A (2010)

Easy A stars Emma Stone as Olive, a high school girl who doesn't get noticed much until one night she fakes a story about losing her virginity, a decision that will have some big consequences.

In all honesty I don't think this movie would have been anywhere near what it is without Emma Stone in the lead, she is wonderful in this film with her great sense of comic timing, her wonderful natural look and ability to garner sympathy from an audience, I honestly believe that she could be a big star in a few years, but enough about that, let's talk about the rest of the film.

And that is that it's smart, well written and also funny, with many odds to the 80's teenage comedies specifically those by the late John Hughes and Say Anything, the 1989 film by Cameron Crowe which starred John Cusack and Ione Skye, in fact I dare anyone not to get a little swept up when "Don't you forget about me" by Simple Minds and used in The Breakfast Club and Futurama plays at the end.

You know, as I was watching this I was reminded of some of the best episodes of both The Simpsons and Red Dwarf so you should give this a look when you can, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Basic Instinct (1992)

Basic Instinct stars Michael Douglas as San Francisco Inspector Nick Curran and Sharon Stone as Catherine Trammel a Novelist, Douglas is investigating a murder that happened during a kinky night where an ice pick is the murder weapon, what he will uncover will push him to the brink of insanity.

You know, I really don't know where to begin with this movie, on the one hand it has a great performance by Stone, who's ice cold intelligence makes for compelling viewing not to mention a terrific score by the late Jerry Goldsmith, outside of those however this is one of the most predictable and ridiculous crime thrillers I've ever seen, complete with an ending that undoes everything the film says up to that point.

In some ways, this really feels like last year's Salt with Angelina Jolie, in that something that should be simple to solve at a script level is left unsolved and as a result, the writer (in this case Joe Eszterhas) cuts it both ways and chickens out of creating a final answer, which reminds me of the old idiom "The More things Change, the More they Stay the Same."

You know, I wanted this to be good as it was an adults only movie, something that is in short supply in the current climate but I can't say this was any good at all, despite those minor pluses, 1 out of 5.