Reviews

WELCOME BACK GRATUITOUS VIOLENCE! _Ghosts of Mars_ provides a reason for gorehounds to rejoice as unabashed violence has made its way back to the local multiplex. I can't believe a movie like this could be released to mainstream. Not a great film, or one with much depth. I never had so much fun watching what others labeled a "bad movie." If someone reads a one-line synopsis they can think "I remember this film when it came out last year when the title was _Pitch Black_." The plot here has a group of futuristic U.S. Marshal-types(Natasha Henstridge, Jason Statham, Clea Duvall, Pam Grier et.al) going to Mars (hence the title, duh) and teaming up with the prisoner they were set to transport to trial(Ice Cube). Instead of aliens like in _Pitch Black_ the troop must fight against a possessed mining colony. Seems simple and it is. It's much like _Night of the Living Dead_ but they fight against ravenous miners-turned-savages instead of zombies. Anyway, the plot here is just a mere excuse for John Carpenter to use his trademark atmospheric directorial style to provide audiences with gratuitous violence, and boy did he do it enjoyably. I felt I was watching a Lucio Fulci movie with all the atmospheric touches and violent deaths. Not as gory as a Fulci movie, but it was a little more coherent and it did have the Fulci-film touch of extremely cheesy dialogue ("The tide is high, time to stay alive"). Many reviews refer to this as a hack job but I look at it as a film the great director uses to pay homage to a bunch of guys from John Woo, George Romero, and even Clive Barker. Then again, if I viewed this film and interpreted it the way mainstream critics and audiences would have, this would have been a trite viewing experience. In addition to the gore, the performances were great considering the type of film this is. Natasha Henstridge's character would kick Lara Croft's butt. Statham plays a likeable character as usual and Ice Cube looked like he was having the time of his life. Critics are telling people to stay away from this movie and the right wing conservatives constantly fight to keep films like this from being made. FIGHT AGAINST HOLLYWOOD CONFORMITY AND WATCH GHOSTS OF MARS!

"Tengoku to jigoku" is the epitome of police procedural films. Akira Kurosawa blessed cinema with "Tengoku to jigoku"(literally, Heaven and Hell) in 1963 and it withstood the test of time. Known as "High and Low" in the USA, "Tengoku to jigoku" belongs in the same group of timeless film-noir classics as "The Third Man," "Touch of Evil," and "The Maltese Falcon." There are no weak points in the story or the film itself. The legendary Toshiro Mifune plays a wealthy shoe manufacturer who gets involved in a complex kidnapping. The pacing fits the narrative perfectly---"Sanjuro," another Kurosawa film, seemed like it was longer and it was more than forty minutes shorter. Watch "Tengoku to jigoku" and be captivated.

This movie is pure excrement. I thought I was watching a very bad episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even worse, I found myself in a movie theater which meant that I couldn't change the channel. The movie tries to redefine the vampire elements, but instead poorly churns out the same old story. No one will care for its uninspired plot or irritating characters. Pointing out all of the films logical flaws wasn't even fun. Instead, it made the experience even more excruciating. This film is definitely up there with U.S. Seals as one of the most painful movies I have ever watched. The original From Dusk Till Dawn had more vampire action in a fraction of its second half than this abomination. If you want to watch a film about vampires, pick any vampire movie except this.

I decided to give Shen Qiang Shou yu Ga Li Ji (a.k.a. Pom Pom and Hot Hot) a shot after reading a review referring to it as a prime example of "gun-fu". I expected a John Woo style actioner, but what I got was an amalgamation of a film. Yes, there is stylized violence with some amazing gunplay gags. I was pressing rewind saying things like "Get the Hell out of here!" or "That is not possible!" What made this an even crazier film was the unique comedic

presence. This film is not like the Naked Gun series with all of the slapstick comedy and police-action aspects playing themselves out at the same time. The action and comedic elements run side by side with one another. It's almost like watching two different movies at the same time. One scene may have the characters laughing it up with one another and the next scene may have them in a serious gun battle with people dying. Furthermore, the brand of comedy is of the Hong Kong brand: physical comedy and sex jokes. The Western viewer may find this Asian style of inducing laughter as irritating and annoying, so beware. The plot deals with the usual cops vs. gunrunners battle. Jacky Cheung and Tung Wei play the goofball duo out to catch the bad guys. Lam Ching Ying sheds the Taoist-hopping-vampire-fighting-priest role to play the duo's serious superior. Instead of using amazing Taoist tricks with red ink, yellow paper and sticky rice, Lam uses shotguns, magnums, and bullet magazines to spectacular cinematic effect. The ending of Pom Pom and Hot Hot ranks in the upper echelon of gun violence. It is definitely up there with the conclusions of A Better Tomorrow II, Hard Boiled, and The Killer. Love it or hate it, it could have only come from Hong Kong.