I don't know when I'm going to schedule full reviews but I saw some films over the last couple of days and I just wanted to tell you to keep an eye out for all three. I'm planning on doing full reviews, but since I have the next couple of weeks planned out I'm not sure when I can drop in reviews that will do them justice.
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010) stars Andy Lau as the title character who is brought back from prison to solve the phantom flames that are consuming people from the inside out. It seems that someone is trying to kill off the people around the Empress and she's afraid he might be next. Huge sprawling and epic in a way that few films from anywhere in the world are this is basically a simple mystery but with marvelous window dressing. Its action packed and for most of it's running time rather mysterious. Its another hit from director/producer Tsui Hark.
Reign of the Assassins (2010) proves Michelle Yeoh can do anything. This is nominally an action film about assassins trying to get the mummified body of a saint. What it actually is is a romance and character study. Honestly at some point you forget about the get the body plot and just go with it where ever it goes. Its a great film, one of the years best, or if not one of the best one of my favorites.
The Village of Shadows (2010) was the world premiere screening at Lincoln Centers Scary Movies festival. The film is about a bunch of college age friends who head to a town to visit the family home of one of them but things go wrong and something is hunting them. Its a cursed down and the curse goes back centuries. A bloodless film (there is no blood and gore) that creates a nasty tension and holds you in its grip. Its actually more a Grimms Fairy Tale or similar to the work of Guillermo Del Toro which I think is going to throw some people. While not perfect it's a damn fine film and worth seeing. (I think I'll be putting the review for this film up later in the week.)
Two links:
The Story of the wooden planet that was to be the setting of Alien 3 can be found here.
What ever happened to horror?
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