The Dark Knight

Written by Matthew Ishitani

After Spiderman 3, I thought I’d hate another densely packed, content-orgy, comic-book movie. The Dark Knight has about a dozen independent plots orbiting the villainous Joker’s master plan. Each of these little plots could serve as its own episode in the series (Batman going to Hong Kong, copycat vigilantes, etc.), which may be a little off-putting, even in a movie that’s two hours and forty minutes long. I pried myself away from the hype two weeks before the film opened with the understanding that I might hate it. Thankfully, it turned out to be the best superhero movie of all time.

Red Belt

By Matthew Ishitani 

It's hard to say that you're disappointed in a really good movie. American Gangster wasn't the classic everyone expected it to be, but it was still exceptional. David Mamet's Redbelt falls under this category. The film's plot is congruent with Twilight Samurai in that a humble, gifted warrior struggles through unfair adversity until his skills are recognized. That works for a samurai movie, but it comes off hammy in a modern-day context, especially when mixed martial arts are involved. It still kills this year's earlier American MMA release, Never Back Down.

Brazilian jiujitsu instructor Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) saves a burnt-out action star (Tim Allen) from a brutal bar fight. When things seem to be improving, the action star's sleazy agent (Joe Montegna) steals Mike's methods of practice while he and his wife (Alice Braga) go bankrupt. Mike has to win back his honor by entering the tournament that bastardized his training regiment. The film is host to an orgy of plot developments that make it hard to summarize.The best of these arbitrary developments is Emily Mortimer as paranoid attorney Laura Black. Mike empathizes with Laura and decides to teach her how to defend her self and conquer her fears, showing that the film is more than just a brawler's movie.

Ejiofor is able to evoke the same pain as Hiroyuki Sanada in Twilight Samurai, as well as the beaten ego of Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven. He wears the signature scar on his forehead like the crest of a superhero as he charges through stadium security near the film's climax. Montegna is well-suited as the villain of the story, while the collective group of evil businessmen also includes incomparable Mamet-staple Ricky Jay. Braga is fiery in all the wrong ways, but Mortimer remedies the absence of nurturing female roles in Mamet movies.

Unlike Heist, the tough guys of this movie don't get the snappy dialogue. Mike is more philosophical than smart-mouthed, which makes sense but isn't as entertaining. I was anticipating the hero/villain banter of kung fu movies to explode with Mamet's writing, but that wasn't the direction Mamet had intended. The fact that it starts out somberly realistic, then becomes hellishly realistic, and ends almost like a Mighty Ducks movie brings it down a few notches from being a classic.

Redbelt is a film that would probably baffle generations. My generation will expect it to be an exciting, nonstop action romp and older generations will try to fish out elements of a classic Sport movie, like Rocky. Never Back Down was able to make back its $21 million budget in its first three weeks, with Redbelt still $6 million below budget, because it had a generation to appeal to (while failing at everything else). I enjoyed the movie, but it probably comes down to being part of the two niches the film is associated with, fans of David Mamet's films and fans of martial arts.

All images from www.imdb.com

Chocolate

By Matthew Ishitani

With the rise of Thai martial arts movies, there's been a great deal of letdown as far as story lines. While Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong were both explosive in nature, their plots borrowed the same stencil. Chocolate, the latest from director Prachya Pinkaew and choreographer Panna Rittikrai (of the previously mentioned films), pays back these generic plots with a number of absurdities, ultimately culminating in the introduction of JeeJa Yanin, the proposed female counterpart of Tony Jaa.

The Forbidden Kingdom

By Matthew Ishitani 

The Forbidden Kingdom is like fan-fiction written by a newbie Wuxia film-junkie who just read Neil Gaiman's Stardust. While I found the epic pairing of less popular masters Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung (in SPL) to be more intense, Jackie Chan and Jet Li were so monumental together that they actually deserve their own trilogy. It's really a shame that Li wasn't more strict and stoic to contrast Chan's inebriated whimsy.

Street Kings

By Matthew Ishitani

“Street Kings” is basically “Dark Blue” with a weak lead, a better villain, and predictable story-structure. I expected better from James Ellroy (“L.A. Confidential”), who wrote both movies, but he can’t be blamed since his original script was rewritten by director David Ayer (“Harsh Times”) and Kurt Wimmer (“Equilibrium”). Much like “Equilibrium,” the story is preposterously derivative, though somewhat intriguing and very entertaining.

The movie is wrought with one cliché after another. It starts with Detective Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) waking up and looking at himself in a mirror. (When are they going to stop with the damn mirrors?) He deals with the now-fashionable Asian-American gangsters, who turn out to be child-rapists. We continue into this “complex” plot about police corruption, in which Captain Wander (Forest Whitaker) has to cover for Tom’s activities, which eventually involves the murder of Tom’s former partner (Terry Crews). Tom loses credibility as he hunts for the killers with the help of a rookie (Chris Evans), who hasn’t proven himself yet as a gunfighter. I’ve named at least five clichés so far.

Keanu Reeves is a puzzling actor. All the emotions are there, but his speech is perpetually corny. This makes it impossible to take him seriously as a detective. His unmistakable Asian-ancestry is also a factor, when he has to shake down Korean gangsters with bigotry. (They respond by calling him a “white boy.”) If the role didn’t require him to talk, Reeves would be fine. But this is a James Ellroy movie, and there’s no way around having the main character sum up everything at the end.

The bit parts from Common and the Game are surprisingly the most convincing while Tom’s corrupt sidekicks are played too obviously. Hugh Laurie’s role as Captain Biggs felt bland and lacking, as though he was originally written to be the main character, but was set aside for the purposes of action. He’s like Dr. House with two legs, a badge, and five minutes of screentime. Whitaker’s role is similar to Idi Amin with Denzel Washington’s accent from “Training Day.” He speaks with a sort of inspiring yet disillusioned superiority. “What ever happened to just putting away bad people?” asks Tom. Wander responds: “We’re all bad, Tom.”

Ironically, there is no real need for Ellroy’s trademark summations, since you can figure out where everything’s going five minutes in. The twists are digested with a sort of “duh” attitude. The sneaking suspicion that Captain Wander is behind everything persists throughout the experience. Characters are left without an encore, notably the women, and the ending hangs open like an exit-wound. The positives are in the action sequences and Whitaker’s sermons of corruption, though the latter doesn’t measure up to his Academy Award-Winning performance. It’s not worth $8 at the cinema, and you’re better off watching one of Ellroy’s other films.

All images © www.imdb.com

Charlotte Hatherely - Deep Blue

By Matthew Ishitani

Former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley released her second solo album “Deep Blue” in March 2007.

Going from “Grey” to “Blue”

Charlotte Hatherley is one of the great “under the radar” talents of this generation. A guitarist first and a singer second, Hatherley recorded her second solo album “The Deep Blue” last year. While the playlist is marred by slower tracks, the loud and swift standouts of the album are effective enough to maintain her Alternative Rock roots. As the title implies, “Deep Blue” is a dive into the unknown. Previously a guitarist for the Northern Irish rock band Ash, Hatherely split from the group in 2006, and began working on “Deep Blue,” a gamble that would either sink or swim.

Persepolis

by Matthew Ishitani

“Persepolis” is an animated French film in which a young, Iranian woman struggles with the shifting state of her identity. Adapted from the autobiographical, two-part graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, “Persepolis” (named after the ruins of the Persian Empire) follows Marjane’s (Chiara Mastroianni) impressionable childhood, teenage rebellion, and conflicted adult life during some of the worst times in modern Iran.