16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2009 • TAIPEI TIMES FILM REVIEW OTHER RELEASES COMPILED BY MartiN WILLiams The Storm Warriors (風雲II) The Pang brothers, Danny (彭發) and Oxide (彭順), are back, this time helming a sequel to the 1998 Hong Kong action fantasy Storm Riders (風雲). Returning from that cast is Aaron Kwok (郭富城) as Cloud and Ekin Cheng (鄭 伊健) as Wind, though not Sonny Chiba or Shu Qi (舒淇), sadly. Even so, there’s fun to be had as Cloud and Wind battle the evil Lord Godless (Simon Yam, 任達華). Fans of this kind of movie — that is to say, those who can tolerate endless use of CGI — are very happy with the frenetic result. The visuals, updated special effects and studio- bound production design suggest a Chinese version of Zack Snyder’s 300. Part III is on the way. Jump (跳出去) “Small town girl” Kitty Zhang (張雨綺) heads to Shanghai with dreams of becoming a dancer. There she falls in with the hip-hop crowd and attracts the romantic interest of a wealthy businessman. As naive and superficial as any dance movie could be, not least because of the East Asian sanitization of American music and dance culture, but its target market would hardly care. More critical to its success is the involvement of Stephen Chow (周星馳), who wrote the story on which the screenplay is based and which is peppered with humor, slapstick and youthful energy. Super Typhoon (超強颱風) This profitable disaster movie screened at a recent festival of Chinese product, and seems to have impressed enough people to get a Taiwanese A law unto theatrical release ahead of itself much worthier titles. It may also be trying to ride on the wave of 2012, which would be a big mistake. Still, what’s F. Gary Gray’s latest offering takes on to hate about a 21st century Chinese film in which the hero is an honest mayor? Super Typhoon Blue Whale bears a big subject with an outstanding lack of gravitas down on a southern city, and there’s nothing any of the stock characters can do about it, though if Variety is to be believed, most of the damage in this inadvertently funny BY A. O. SCOTT The details of his movie is inflicted on miniature sets and a few reused cars. NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK job history are revealed, Oh, and watch out for the creature that lurks beneath. aw Abiding Citizen, during a secret meeting a blunt and sadistic in a tunnel somewhere, The Other Man revenge thriller starring LAW ABIDING CITIZEN late in the movie. But Jamie Foxx and Gerard don’t think I’ve spoiled IT company boss Liam Neeson L hunts down and, over chess, Butler, occasionally pauses from DIRECTED BY: anything. By the time I the mayhem to stage a solemn F. GARY GRAY saw Law Abiding Citizen, conversationally probes a man debate about law, justice and I had already seen the he believes to have had an morality. Butler, playing a family STARRING: trailer four or five times. affair with his wife, a designer man whose wife and daughter JAMIE FOXX (NICK RICE), Another 40 viewings of expensive shoes. The “other were murdered by thugs, feels GERARD BUTLER (CLYDE SHELTON), would have added up to the man” is Antonio Banderas, which would be enough to he was let down by the system, LESLIE BIbb (SARAH LOWELL), BRUCE running time of the whole worry any level-headed husband. Underwhelmed reviewers which gave one of the thugs a MCGILL (JONAS CANTRELL), COLM film, without much loss of scoffed at the film’s twists while wondering what could light sentence in exchange for MEANEY (DETECTIVE DUnnIGAN), pleasure or nuance. have been with this cast. Others might ask why they should testimony against the other thug, VIOLA DAVIS (MAYOR APRIL HENRY), Well, that’s not entirely true. care about the grim obsessions of such characters when who was sentenced to death. MICHAEL IRBY (DETECTIVE SEAN Most of the fun in the feature- they can tune in for the latest Tiger Woods update. GARZA), REGINA HALL (KELLY RICE), Foxx, the prosecutor who made length Law Abiding Citizen GREGORY ITZIN (WARDEN IgER) that deal, thinks that the system, comes not from the cleverly rigged Tomorrow at Dawn however imperfect, did its job. RUNNING TIME: explosions and bloodlettings The promotional materials may But really, Law Abiding Citizen 108 MINUTES — including one unleashed by a has about as much to say about real- robot in a cemetery — but rather suggest a period piece, but this life legal issues as Transformers TAIWAN RELEASE: from the game and gifted supporting French tale of military role- 2: Revenge of the Fallen had to say TODAY cast, who are not featured in the playing and dueling is mostly about defense policy. And it has less two-minute trailer version. set in the present day. Musician ethical gravity than any three of the Colm Meaney, Leslie Bibb Vincent Perez (Queen Margot) Saw movies. Though it sometimes and Bruce McGill are all much gets involved in a Napoleonic re-enactment to bond with puts on a serious face, this movie, part, displays a surliness that many better than they need to be, as is his brother Jeremie Renier (In Bruges) and finds that directed with snarling, snappish in Hollywood seem to mistake for Viola Davis in a few scenes as the his brother’s weekend warrior pals take their play-acting style by F. Gary Gray (The Italian charisma, and suffers the anguish of mayor of Philadelphia, where this rather seriously. Mixed reviews greeted this film by Denis Job), wears its preposterousness violent bereavement as if it were an bloodbath takes place. You can’t Dercourt, himself a professional musician. with a certain pride. It’s about the annoying gastrointestinal ailment. help regretting that some of cat-and-mouse game between two His character, Clyde Shelton, their characters will meet Asia Pacific Film Festival very smart guys, and it’s perfectly returns 10 years after the death of fiery or bloody ends. On happy to be as dumb as it wants. his family to tie up some loose ends. the other hand, the It’s the 53rd time around Nick Rice, Foxx’s character, He dispatches the thugs, willingly actors were no doubt for this enduring event. Of is slick and ambitious, proud of goes to prison and starts doing paid well for their less interest, perhaps, is the his 96 percent conviction rate and dinner theater Hannibal Lecter suffering. selection of Taiwanese films, quite sure that he’s the cleverest for Foxx’s benefit. “Some lessons which have mostly finished and coolest person in the room. must be learned in blood,” Clyde their theatrical dates. Instead, This does not seem like much of declares, one of many portentous look out for an interesting selection of titles from Iran, a stretch for Foxx, who is cashing proverbs that he seems to have Indonesia and South Korea, among other Asian countries. in on his Oscar rather than going Runs for four days from next Thursday at E-DA World in learned during his career as a PHOTOS COURTESY OF VIESHOW after a second one. Butler, for his military killing-gizmo specialist. Kaohsiung County. More details at www.53apff2009.com. FILM REVIEW aranormal Activity is a but I felt as if I’d snuck out of the camera out of the house. Instead crudely made, half-clever house and broken curfew. of seeing a couples therapist, they P little frightener that has By any serious critical standard, briefly consult a psychic (Mark become something of a pop-culture Paranormal Activity is not a Fredrichs), who can’t really help sensation and most certainly the very good movie. It looks and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY other than to provide the movie movie marketing story of the year. sounds terrible. Its plot is thin and with a flimsy pretext for keeping Midnight showings in US college perforated with illogic. The acting DIRECTED BY: poor Katie and Micah at home. towns and then in big cities, occasionally rises to the level of OREN PELI Further plot summary is beside announced through minimal, viral adequacy. But it does have an the point. Weird stuff continues to publicity, have generated frenzied ingenious, if not terribly original, STARRING: happen, and Peli shows a measure word of mouth and long lines at formal conceit — that everything KATIE FEATHERSTON (KATIE), of ingenuity in producing scares the box office. on-screen is real-life amateur MICAH SLOAT (MICAH), MARK out of the simplest imaginable And now, to capitalize on this video — that is executed with FREDRICHS (PsYCHIC), AMBER effects. You see no monsters, very success, Paramount is giving the enough skill to make you jump ARMSTROng (AMBER), AsHLEY little blood and nothing you don’t movie, written and directed by and shriek. There is no lingering PALMER (GIRL ON InTERNET) anticipate, and yet it all has some Oren Peli on a minuscule budget dread. You are not likely to be impact. A number of horror movies, of US$10,000, a full commercial troubled by the significance of RUNNING TIME: from Blair Witch to Diary of the release. It won’t be the same, this ghost story or tantalized by 1 HOUR 39 MINUTES Dead to Cloverfield, have used though. At the midnight screening its mysteries. It’s more like a trip make-believe amateur footage, but TAIWAN RELEASE: I attended in October, by far the to the local haunted house, where Paranormal Activity does so in a TODAY most entertaining thing about the even the fake blood and the tape- way that is rigorously sloppy, almost movie was the audience.