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REVIEW: 全職殺手 [Fulltime Killer] [2001]

2010/10/022013/07/21 Jared Mobarak

“In our business, you’re bound to rub out someone you know” Filmmakers and creators of Milky Way Image, a studio in Hong Kong, Johnnie To and Ka-Fai Wai have been collaborating for many years as producers, writers, and directors, both getting their start in television. I think most people credit much of the work to To, or perhaps that’s just my naivety for never having heard Wai’s name before, but after seeing 全職殺手 [Fulltime Killer] and knowing it’s co-directed by the pair while also adapted from Ho-Cheung Pang’s novel courtesy…

REVIEW: Resident Evil: Afterlife [2010]

2010/09/282013/08/12 Jared Mobarak

“Star Power, Bitches” Is it bad to say I think Paul W.S. Anderson gets a bad rap? This guy has been getting David S. Goyer type flack for years now, but while Goyer can write great work for other directors, saving himself the drivel, Anderson has seen a pretty solid slate of work. I think both Mortal Kombat and Event Horizon are vastly underrated and the first Resident Evil was a fantastic mood piece/sci-fi/actioner. After marrying muse Milla Jovovich, however, he took a back seat by writing the next two…

TIFF10 REVIEW: Bunraku [2010]

2010/09/112013/08/12 Jared Mobarak

“Love is temporary; Hope is eternal” Bunraku may be the term used to describe a form of traditional Japanese puppet theater, but that is no longer what I am going think when the word comes up in casual conversation—because it happens so frequently. Instead, I will recall memories of writer/director Guy Moshe’s unique vision of a future where the law is enforced by battles of skill and hand-to-hand or samurai combat, guns now outlawed from use. His Bunraku is an unforgettable film of high style and high-concept that was three…

TIFF10 REVIEW: 精武風雲－陳真 [Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen] [2010]

2010/09/092013/08/12 Jared Mobarak

“Chinese are not sick men of East Asia” For a director whose only other film I’ve seen is the amazing Infernal Affairs, Andrew Lau’s (no, not star Andy Lau) admittance to Bruce Lee being his ‘super idol’ while introducing his newest work 精武風雲－陳真 [Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen] at the Toronto International Film Festival became quite the relevant tidbit. A far cry from the realistic cop vs. criminal thriller, Legend goes as far to the opposite end of the spectrum as it can, existing in a…

REVIEW: Takers [2010]

2010/08/252015/07/14 Jared Mobarak

“There goes Channel 14 … going the wrong way” Shot at the end of 2008 with promotional materials cropping up during the following year, the only fathomable reason I can think for the film Takers being released in the second half of 2010 is actor/producer Chris Brown’s extra-curricular activities. Honestly, besides the uninspired poster residing at our theatres for a full year, I’ve been looking forward to the heist flick. Playing like Ocean’s 11, but from the streets, you can’t deny the style at work right from the start. Gordon…

REVIEW: Centurion [2010]

2010/08/232011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“A man without his word is no better than a beast” Writer/director Neil Marshall has style and hopefully will continue to bring it forth on cinema screens for years to come, if he decides to travel back to America or not. Many lesser auteurs would have taken that Hollywood payday and looked for another to follow. Marshall, however, hot on the success of his spelunking horror/thriller The Descent, made Doomsday with US money only to see it falter out of the starting gate. Perhaps he had deals to remain stateside,…

REVIEW: The Expendables [2010]

2010/08/142012/08/22 Jared Mobarak

“I woulda win” When a summer movie season can be described as disappointing and have it be an understatement, nothing says popcorn blockbuster better than a big budget action flick. 2010 never quite had anything to fit the bill, but that wasn’t going to stop Sylvester Stallone from attempting to bring the masses something close. The hype has been huge as Sly compiled a who’s who cast of action stars (relevant and not), fringe athletes, and badass character folk like Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke to literally blow up anything…

REVIEW: The Other Guys [2010]

2010/08/032011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“Aim for the bushes” My loathsome attitude to ‘full-blown’ Will Ferrell is common knowledge with those who have been reading my reviews the past few years. He just has a knack to go too far and regress into a large, blithering child. It used to work with small supporting roles or comic relief parts such as in Old School, but once the American public grabbed hold, the joke wore thin when needing to sustain itself for a two-hour duration. But then something happened a couple years ago with Step Brothers.…

REVIEW: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World [2010]

2010/07/282019/12/29 Jared Mobarak

“You punched the highlights out of her hair” Some might say a tagline such as “An epic of epic epicness” is a tad too much. I might have even said that two hours ago, but alas, I saw the finished product. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is appropriately summed up in those five words—both epic in the Playstation lexicon synonym of 8-bit NES era ‘totally rad’ and in the Homer’s Illiad sense of a heroic journey of great achievements by the tale’s protagonist. But 22-year old Scott Pilgrim isn’t on…

REVIEW: Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore [2010]

2010/07/262011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“I’m 65% sure, I can go to 67% … Oh, look! A potato bug” Remember those days of spoof films like Scary Movie, Superhero Movie, Date Movie, and ‘Insert Generic Genre Title’ Movie? Oh, that’s right, we haven’t left that abysmal period of cinematic history behind quite yet. But instead of inundating Middle Schoolers with fart jokes and actors who laugh at themselves, Hollywood has gone to the children. I’ve never seen Cats & Dogs, so I don’t know if that was a real film or not, however, its sequel,…

REVIEW: Salt [2010]

2010/07/202011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“Are you selling secrets for chemo?” The question is, who is Salt? Two years ago she was a falsely imprisoned utilities corporation worker being water-boarded by the North Koreans; an unspecified amount of time after she is a CIA operative who has been saved and traded back to the US, not by her bosses, but by the cover boyfriend who fell for her and started making waves in political circles; and, in the present day, she is accused of being a Russian covert plant—a part of the Soviet Union’s insane…