Showing This Weekend: April 24, 2015: Kung Fu Killer with Donnie Yen.

 

If you love Donnie Yen as much as I do, you'll want to watch Kung Fu Killer. I've enjoyed watching Donnie Yen in all his Ip Man movies about the legendary Kung Fu  master of the same name during the Japanese invasion of China. After he moved to Hong Kong, Ip Man reportedly taught a young Bruce Lee back in the day. 

Now, this poster just trades on Donnie Yen's fame and the Kung Fu genre, nothing else. Hence the name "Kung Fu" is prominently displayed in the title, along with Donnie Yen.  As for the director Teddy Chen, I've no idea who he is, although he's probably quite well known in Hong Kong.  Kung Fu Killer was originally released in Hong Kong as "Hong Kong Jungle". 

I think I'll go watch this movie. If not, I will wait for it to stream on Netflix.

Lone Man With Gun: Weekend of April 24, 2014: Laugh Killer Laugh.

The movie is described in some reviews as a killer who enrolls in a creative writing class and starts spewing stories about his exploits and past. Premise sounds interesting and possibly humorous to me, but I think a more creative poster emphasizing the main character's writing attempts rather than his killing job might make me want to see it more. I would dismiss this movie based on this poster. The tagline: Wiseguy or Wiseass doesn't help either. However, reading online about the movie does. LA Times gave it a brief but good review. This leads me to think: If a movie has to rely on people digging deeper to bring themselves to want to see it, then the poster it probably spent millions of dollars on is not doing its job.

Laugh Killer Laugh, starring William Forsythe, Tom Sizemore and Bianca Hunter. Directed by Kamal Ahmed.

Throw Back Movie Poster: Charlie Chan In the Secret Service

They say that the Charlie Chan movies are racist. Asian Americans particularly object to the way the Chinese detective is portrayed as a stereotypical pidjin English speaking Chinaman. However, I recently began to read Charlie Chan by Yunte Huang and have a new found appreciation for this character based on a real life detective in the Honolulu Police Department in the early part of the the 20th century. Hollywood's portrayal of the detective in the noir genre gave birth to a truly American pop culture icon.

I found Charlie Chan in the Secret Service on Netflix. Racist as it may be, the anachronistic portrayal of the horrible Confucius wisdom spouting detective by Sydney Toler had me giggling all the way to the end. It's hard not to imitate the way he speaks afterwards. Detective Chan earned much respect from this humble viewer.

Infernal Affairs: One of the Coolest Hong Kong Movies

Infernal Affairs: The Hong Kong cult classic that inspired Oscar Award winning movie The Departed, directed by Martin Scorcese. The original is so much more raw. The poster is typical of the Hong Kong ganster/police bad-ass gun wielding style, and style is what this movie is about. Directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak and starring two of Asia's biggest stars Andy Lau and Tony Leung.

Posters with Guns: Weekend of April 17, 2015. Monsters: Dark Continent

This is apparently an American GI fighting aliens kind of story. Default weapon for brave men to save the world? Guns! Oh, just read the description. It's an "absolute must see", directed by Brent Bonacorso and Jesse Atlas. 

Supposed to be an epic sequel to Gareth Edwards' cult sci-fi hit, Monsters. I haven't seen that one, and most likely won't see this one either.

Starring

Posters with Guns: Weekend of April 10, 2015. Kill Me Three Times, Broken Horses

Biiiiig gun and small.

Looks like this is an Australian film, starring another one of the Hemsworth bros and a few others.
Directed by Kriv Stenders. Can't seem to get too excited by this movie.

Sub-tle! Gun is not carried by anyone but is the biggest thing looming as a shadow. Artsy!

 Now, I just saw this one, billed as "A Tail of Brothers, A Trail of Blood". Given the fact that both James Cameron and Alfonso Cuaron gave it their endorsements and that it's directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and maybe an Indian director's interpretation of the American Western story, intrigue me.  I might rent it on DVD one of these days.

Posters with Guns: Weekend of April 3, 2015. Cut Bank

 

 

 

 

He's the sheriff, so must carry gun.

 

 

 

 

 

Billed as an "All American Thriller", starring Liam Hemsworth the Australian, John Malkovich, Bruce Dern, Billy Bob Thornton and Theresa Palmer (who?). Directed by Matt Shakman.

Here is another of my pet peeves. Have you noticed that too many movies are billed as "American this" or "American that"? I guess America (meaning the United States, we're not talking about Canada, or any of the countries in South America, I don't think.) with all its' supposedly unique indiosyncracies, sells to the world, and to itself.