2010 October - Row Three

02 Oct

Category

Trailer: The Warrior’s Way

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Had The Warrior’s Way been titled Cowboys & Ninjas, I suspect it would have made an interesting double-feature with the upcoming Cowboys & Aliens. When you have a movie about cowboys and ninjas fighting, the plot hardly matters – but it does star South Korean actor Jang Dong-gun (Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War), Geoffrey Rush, Danny Huston, and Kate Bosworth which may be enough to attract some people. Everything aside, it looks to be chock full of an absurd amount of bubble-gummy CGI and over-the-top action – something that will appeal to the younger hormone-fueled crowds when it hits theaters on December 3, 2010.

01 Oct

Posted by
Bob Turnbull

Category

A Montage for a Month of Horror

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Is it cliche by now to focus on horror movies during October? Wait, don’t answer that – because we don’t care. We love horror films here at RowThree (well, most of us do anyway) and so a good portion of the posts for the next 31 days will be devoted to just that.

So to kick things off, here’s a little video we created set to the tune of “Batcat” by the great band Mogwai…

01 Oct

Posted by
John Allison

Category

Talk Amongst Yourselves

Talk Amongst Yourselves

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I beat everyone to the talk amongst yourselves post this week…

01 Oct

Posted by
Marina Antunes

Category

Review: The Social Network

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Director: David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac)
Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, Ben Mezrich (book)
Producers: Dana Brunetti, Ceán Chaffin, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Max Minghella, Josh Pence, Justin Timberlake, Joseph Mazzello, Rooney Mara
MPAA Rating: PG13
Running time: 121 min.

(4/5)

David Fincher’s The Social Network is an age old tale of what happens daily in the business world. The difference here is that involves one of the biggest brands in the world (valued at somewhere in the $25 billion ballpark), best friends (one of which is portrayed as socially inept) and the fact that this all happened before anyone involved turned 25.

The Social Network Movie Still The one thing that we need to keep in mind while watching the film is that this is a work of fiction. The people involved know what happened but that’s about it. Regardless of how well researched Ben Mezrich’s book is (from which the talented Aaron Sorkin adapted the script), we can’t take it as the bible of what happened but we know the basics and they are that in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and his partner Eduardo Saverin launched thefacebook.com (they later dropped “the” from the name). Shortly after launching at Harvard, the site launched at other campuses before eventually going public and everyone and their grandmother having a facebook account. Along the way, Zuckerberg burned a few bridges, causing a few lawsuits (the film’s tag line accurately reads: “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies”) and facebook is still the biggest thing in the world. Ah, brand power overshadows much.

» Read the rest of the entry..

01 Oct

Posted by
John Allison

Category

Review: Nightmare Detective 2

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Nightmare Detective 2 DVD Cover
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Writer: Hisakatsu Kuroki & Shinya Tsukamoto
Producer: Shinya Tsukamoto, Shin’ichi Kawahara, Yumiko Takebe & Takeshi Koide
Starring: Ryûhei Matsuda, Yui Miura, Hanae Kan, Miwako Ichikawa
Year: 2008

(4/5)

Ryûhei Matsuda returns as the titular character, Kyoichi Kagenuma of Shinya Tsukamoto’s Nightmare Detective 2 (Akumu Tantei 2). It has been a few years since I saw the original while attending Toronto After Dark in 2007. Tsukamoto’s most accesible film to date at that time ended up on my top 10 of the year. The original involved an interesting hero battling an enigmatic creepy villan, played by Tsukamoto himself in people nightmares. The movie succeeded because of its creepiness, its strong story an interesting characters. Unlike a lot of directors Tsukamoto, who has never been known for doing things by the book takes the story inward and while the horror and mystery of an attack within dreams is told the film delves deeply into the psyche and origin of Kyoichi.

Kyoichi is awoken from a nightmare involving his mother being terrified of him as a child to find Yukie Mashiro (Yui Miura). She begs him for help as she is being haunted in her dreams by another school girl, Yuko (Hanae Kan). Yukie and her two friends bullied Yuko and locked her in a shed. Since that night Yuko has left school but invaded her dreams. Kyoichi wants nothing to do with Yukie as his powers take a great toll on his body and his mind. Slowly over the course of the film Kyoichi discovers through his own dreams and by Yuko’s attempts to gain his help that both Yuko and his mother seem to have suffered dreadful fears when it comes to their friends and families. The Nightmare Detective is drawn into an attempt to save Yukie, Yuko all the while trying to come to terms with his mother’s fear of her own son.

Tsukamoto does not give any easy answers in Nightmare Detective 2. The story of Kyoichi is very emotional and Tsukamoto does not hold back on having Kyochi’s memories warped and mutated by his own fears and regrets. This is a story about how the power the Nightmare Detective has alienates the weilder from everyone else. Kyoichi, Yukie and Yuko are all lonely tragic figures. I will admit that Yuko as the villain is not as disturbing as the killer “O” in the original she is a more compelling tragic figure.

As with the original Nightmare Detective 2 is more accesible than some of Tsukamoto’s other films but that does not mean it is a mainstream film. It will challenge you to put the pieces of Kyoichi’s past together as he discovers it himself. It is a creepy and disturbing film yet it has a real touch of heart and caring to it. I for one truly hope that Tsukamoto and Matsuda will return one final time and wrap the story up in a trilogy. I am sure we will be left with as many questions as answers when everything is done but with a character so compelling and Tsukamoto’s unique vision into dreams I for one welcome the challenge of revisiting the Nightmare Detective again.

01 Oct

Posted by
Matt Price

Category

Mamo #181: We Bet It All On The Wrong A-Team

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Even though TIFF is over, that’s no reason for us to return to our humdrum workaday lives. For one thing, after taking off for 10 days to sit and watch movies, some of us are unemployed. For another, the annual summer box office championship has finally come to a close and we can truly call a winner. Shockingly, it’s neither of us. Even more shockingly, it’s the same person who won last year. The prize (A limited edition copy of Let The Right One In) is on its way to the winner now. Take a listen for all the details as well as our pithy excuses for why we were so dead wrong.

***SPOILER WARNING*** We give away the ending of Buried. Because we thought it sucked, and don’t really care that much. Just sayin’