I’m thrilled to be launching 3-Minute Reviews on Escapist Movies. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute feature film review to the channel, discussing Space Sweepers.
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: blockbuster, South Korea, space, space sweepers, the escapist, three minute review | Leave a comment »
Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with guests Graham Day and Bríd Martin, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.
This time, Boon Joon Ho’s Gisaengchung.
Drafted in to tutor the daughter of a rich South Korean family, the lower-class Kim Ki-woo enacts a cunning plan that will allow his entire family to infiltrate the lavish Park household. However, things quickly spiral out of control, leading to unpredictable chaos and disaster.
At time of recording, it was ranked the 34th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Filed under: This Just In | Tagged: bong joon ho, brid martin, class, class warfare, graham day, horror, mystery, nightmare, parasite, parody, South Korea, wealth | Leave a comment »
Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Grace Duffy and Graham Day, This Just In is a subset of The 250 podcast, looking at notable new arrivals on the list of the 250 best movies of all-time, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.
This time, Park Chan-Wook’s Ah-ga-ssi.
Filed under: This Just In | Tagged: erotica, feminism, film, male gaze, Park Chan-wook, psychic geography, South Korea, the handmaiden, violence | Leave a comment »
It’s easy to see why Die Hard is such a popular action movie template. It’s a formula that is very hard to do wrong. Sure, you might end up with a clumsy and disjointed mess of movie, but the format of man trying to save hostages in a base under siege is so straight-forward that it’s almost always an effective vehicle for an action film. Olympus Has Fallen takes that familiar movie outline and rigidly adheres to it. After all, once you’ve figured out the formula, all you have to do is plug in a few variables and a movie practically makes itself. As compared to a boat or a train or in a stadium, Olympus Has Fallen at least has ambition. It’s Die Hard in a White House.
It’s a clumsily constructed film, one that doesn’t excel at anything and fumbles at quite a few things. However, there’s only so far you can screw up a formula and Olympus Has Fallen winds up being a watchable, if very far from exceptional, mid-tier action film.
“Look, this is what happens when terrorists attack while Bruce Willis is on holiday…”
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: die hard, film, gerard butler, Movie, non-review review, North Korea, Olympus Has Fallen, review, Rick Yune, South Korea, United States, white house | 3 Comments »
Yimou Zhang’s House of Flying Daggers is a wonderful visual and auditory experience. It’s a sumptuous feast for the eyes and the ears, a truly beautiful piece of film that really needs to seen to be fully appreciated. While its plots and characters aren’t quite as rich as the wonderfully saturated surroundings, House of Flying Daggers remains a film that really seems to bask in light and colour, almost soaking in those elements, with each frame seeming like a stunning work of art.
Bamboozled?
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Arts and Entertainment, Blade & Soul, cgi, China, crouching tiger hidden dragon, film, House of Flying Daggers, Movie, Movies, NCsoft, non-review review, Raise the Red Lantern, review, Shopping, Siu-Tung Ching, South Korea, Tang Dynasty, Yimou Zhang, Zhang, Zhang Ziyi, Zhao Xiaoding | Leave a comment »
This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2012.
The Yellow Sea is a strange little Korean neo-noir that manages to seem impressively intimate and epicly vast, often at the very same time. Written and directed by Hong-jin Na, the movie follows a cab driver in the borderlands between North Korea, China and Russia. Severely indebted to a local crime lord, Ku-Nam finds himself assigned to assassinate a South Korean businessman. At the same time, he tries to track down his wife, who disappeared into South Korea after he paid for a rather expensive visa. The movie occasionally has a bit of bother balancing the personal side of the story with the wider crime-based elements, but it is darkly fascinating viewing, driven by Hong-jin Na’s wonderful eye for kinetic action sequences.
Myung-Ga wonders how good his insurance police is...
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Asia, Byung-hoon Lee, China, Film noir, jameson dublin international film festival, Kim Jong-il, Korean, michael mann, non-review review, North Korea, Pyongyang, review, Russia, South Korea, the yellow sea, the yellow sea (film), the yellow sea (movie), Yellow Sea, Yonhap, Young-kyu Jang | 2 Comments »
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