A full month in, this project has been a lot easier than expected. In fact, I feel like I’m just getting started. Also features ‘Lady Snowblood’, ‘Dark City’, ‘Following’, and ‘Some Like It Hot’.

A few weeks ago now, I decided to start a little experiment: a simple regimen to combat the twin menaces of backlog and beer gut. Hop on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes every single day, and watch a movie every single night (see first post here for further explanation).

Week four is now complete. As I write this, since the posts do have a few days lag time, I’ve officially completed the full month I set out to do. And surprisingly, it’s been a lot easier than expected. Aside from the occasional night of starting too late and fighting not to doze off, or the occasional sore calf muscle in the morning, it’s a totally manageable commitment.

In fact, I feel like I’m just getting started. The progress on my fitness is only now starting to show a bit in that morning mirror assessment; the Netflix queue that started around 250 is inching a lot closer to 200. Sure, it might be nice to have an extra couple hours a night to divert to video games or comic books or catching up on the DVR I’ve been neglecting, but it also seems too soon to give up. For now, I’m contemplating making it a 50-day drive instead of just the 30 I’ve already got behind me. Or maybe Modern Warfare 2 will arrive next week and both fitness and films will take a backseat.

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Lady Snowblood

I know a lot of spaghetti westerns were inspired by classic samurai films, but then you see a 70’s-era revenge tale like this and it almost feels like a western. Not to mention that Lady Snowblood in particular feels very much like it could have been one of the slew of films Tarantino drew on for his Kill Bill movies. So who’s influencing who here? What was patient zero in the long line of these films? Wherever the origin, this is a fine example of a strongly character-based, man-(or woman)-on-a-mission film with just the right amount of brutalizing foes to keep it exciting without swerving into silliness. A lot more understated than Ong Bak 2, that’s for sure.

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Dark City

A lot of people seem to like this movie, and I can see why in theory. The setting is visually rich and the story has an interesting mind-bending aspect, both of which I normally like. But at the same time, I couldn’t get over all it’s small problems. The ‘Strangers’, the film’s antagonists, are a little too weird to be intimidating. There are several elements which felt unnecessary or unexplored (why were their aliens living inside the other aliens, and why were they allergic to water of all things?) Overall, it just felt dated, and I couldn’t shake that this was essentially a predecessor to The Matrix only not as well-executed. For all of these reasons, the seams were showing too clearly for me to really sit back and enjoy it, so it’s hard to recommend.

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Ong Bak 2

The difficulty in judging martial arts movies is picking the criteria. If measuring by intensity and memorability of action sequences, Ong Bak 2 is easily one of the best of all time. Tony Jaa’s extreme skill, proven in films like the previous Ong Bak or The Protector, is pushed even farther in this follow-up by a mix of fighting styles and inventive scenarios. Adding swords and chains brings an added sense of danger and brutality, while facing off against an alligator or atop a live elephant seem superhuman. As far as fight choreography goes, this is the most gut-wrenching display you’ll find anywhere. If judging by overall visual style, Ong Bak 2 stands up as well: it’s shot so beautifully and in such lush locales that it’s almost too much for the eyes to take in, yet still more grounded than the fantastical realm of Hero or House of Flying Daggers. Unfortunately, if judging by dramatic effectiveness, Jaa’s directorial debut still falls short. Though an ambitious attempt is made by Jaa (whose acting is clearly improved) to create an emotional epic, the story still falls closer to melodrama than Kurosawa. As a result, the plot-driven scenes that miss their mark make this film feel uneven, despite it being a wildly impressive achievement. Focus on the fights, and be amazed.

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Where the Wild Things Are

Expanding a ten-sentence illustrated children’s book into a feature film can’t be easy, but director Spike Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers have created something magical nonetheless. The vistas of young Max’s imaginary world are spectacular. The fantastical monsters that live there are wholly believable. The interplay between characters is often very funny. Even the music captures the rambunctiousness and vitality of childhood. But if there’s a frustration to be had with this film, it’s that it takes its mission to portray boyhood too literally. Like a child in turmoil, it quickly veers from joy to anger to sadness without clear reason, and can leave us, as its adult viewers, unsure how to feel. Still, there are enough scenes of striking beauty or stirring emotion to make this necessary viewing, despite the childish mood swings we might rather maintain are behind us as grown-ups.

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Orphan

Surprisingly — and as noted by Spencer in one of our past podcasts — this isn’t a stupid tossed-off scare flick. It’s a slow-burn, character-driven mood piece much more in the style of classic horror films, and much the better for it. There’s no mutilation. In fact, almost no one even bleeds. There are no supernatural forces wreaking havoc on the innocent. It seems hard to believe, I know, but sometimes regular humans can be scary too, and it’s nice to see a film that recognizes that.

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Following

If you’re a fan of Christopher Nolan’s smaller films like Memento or The Prestige, you’ll appreciate the early signs of psychological playfulness that show up in his first film, about a writer who follows people for material then gets caught up in one of his subject’s schemes. The noir and Hitchcock influences are apparent, and his later tendency to play with chronology is also present, both of which make the film fairly captivating despite its obvious shoestring budget and inexperienced cast. However, even though Following certainly showed off the potential of a new young filmmaker in its time, now that he’s gone on to more polished work, it’s probably safe to leave off the resume.

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Some Like It Hot

The first word that comes to mind trying to describe Some Like It Hot is ‘wacky’. For the duration the slapsticky, cross-dressing male leads bounce from one cartoonish setup to the next. They run from bad guys chasing them around in the style that would later be at home in a Scooby Doo cartoon; they’re totally cavalier toward who might get to bed Marilyn Monroe’s character Sugar Kane first; meanwhile, she plays the unrepentant bombshell in search of a rich suitor. One could read into the film some stance on sexuality, but the film doesn’t demand it at all: it’s all total fluff. Not what I expected for a film written and directed by Billy Wilder, the same man who brought us Double Indemnity and The Apartment. Eh, I guess nobody’s perfect.

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