Movie Reviews: Traffik, Truth or Dare, Laws of Attraction

Traffik
directed by Deon Taylor

It is ironic that a movie designed to horrify us at the modern day plight of women trapped in sex slavery, and which makes some hamfisted allusions to the rape of Black women by white men during slavery, and which was produced by its Black female lead, also spends a lot of time showing off said female lead in a manner which invites the (male) viewer to do a lot of leering. 
Not that I'm complaining. Patton does look really good in Daisy Dukes and tight low cut tops. There's no doubt about that. The problem is that the story's writing and some of its acting weren't enough to make this movie a real winner. All the closeups of Patton's legs or cleavage, wonderful as they are, can't save this film. 

Traffik was an update of similar 1970s movies that starred such Black actresses as Tamara Dobson or Pam Grier. Like those cinematic forerunners Patton combines victimization with a willingness to fight back. I liked the grindhouse style/close up camera work. I liked the invocation of fear that many Black citizens can experience when they are surrounded by whites who have made it clear that they aren't welcome. 

Movie Coming Attractions: The Equalizer 2

Well as much as I enjoyed the first film I'm thinking I'm going to enjoy this one as well. This looks like something worth seeing in theaters when it first comes out in July. Of course if you have no tolerance for filmic mayhem then you won't want to see this.

Movie Reviews: Black Panther

Black Panther
directed by Ryan Coogler

I didn't know if this film would be good or not before deciding to see it. I was interested in seeing it in part because black heroes in mainstream movies are rare. It's also rare for a studio to take a financial risk on a big budget movie with a predominantly black cast. The writer, musicologist, musician, civil rights activist, and photographer Julius Lester recently passed away. Lester moved around the political and religious spectrum quite a bit in his life, from Christian integrationist to black nationalist to Judaism convert and later vociferous Zionist. That's neither here nor there. As a child I remember reading a story in one of Lester's collection of Black folk tales. I can't remember the exact story name, but at the end of the story a newly freed Black man (can't remember if he bought his freedom, physically defeated his previous slave owner or heard about the end of the Civil War) decided to leave the plantation and walk down the road to seek his fortune as a free man. His previous master, mistress and their children watched in seething impotent rage. Unable to hinder his progress they started yelling to the black man to remember that no matter what, he was still a n*****. I mention all of that because that's what a lot of the initial conservative response to this movie's concept felt like. Many conservatives racists were offended by the very idea of Black excellence or Black people being happy. That's some really sick s***. The movie could be good or bad but being upset that black people are excited to see heroes and heroines who look like them shows just how invested some people are not just in hating black people but demanding that black people hate themselves. Twisted.

Fortunately I can say that the movie was good. Not great but very good indeed. It also had a very strong Lord of Rings/Hobbit vibe not just because of the inclusion of two key actors from that franchise and similar framing of battles but because like those movies Black Panther engages the question of whether using the enemy's methods to defeat the enemy is possible or for that matter, morally desirable. Can you take up Sauron's ring?

Movie Reviews: Blade of the Immortal, Downsized

Blade of the Immortal
directed by Takashi Miike

When I watch these stylized samurai action films either in their original Japanese form like this one or in the American homages like Kill Bill, I always wonder why doesn't anyone wear armor. It's probably because as an arrogant and somewhat loony character in a Joe Abercrombie novel disdainfully stated "Wearing armor is admitting the possibility of being hit." And all of these warriors, assassins and magicians are convinced that their awe-inspiring skills preclude anyone wounding or killing them. Most of them are wrong of course. The real reason that armor is often non-existent or non-functional in these movies is so we can watch the blood sprays when arteries are severed and internal organs are pierced by cold unyielding steel. And this movie is all about the violence. It is a true vision of bloody mindedness. Obviously if violence is not something you care to watch then this movie isn't for you. It is based on a manga.

The storyline suffers a little bit from the brute force overemphasis. Blade of the Immortal only occasionally displays the dramatic tension and release which is essential to really good revenge themes, whether played straight like Man on Fire, Kill Bill, True Grit, The Hound demanding chickens in Game of Thrones, or deconstructed in films such as Gran Torino or Unforgiven. This movie lacks the emotional center that normally animates such films. It's very rare in this movie that there's a sense of impending bloodshed and the apprehension that accompanies it.

Movie Reviews: Detroit

Detroit

directed by Kathyrn Bigelow

The 1967 Detroit riot or rebellion started less than a mile from where I would later grow up. In separate incidents during this time both of my parents were shot at by police, soldiers and/or rioters. My mother, a paternal uncle and my paternal grandfather were nearly killed by police shooting at the car my grandfather was driving while he was trying to get my mother safely home. A bullet missed my mother and left a scar on my uncle's shin. Another paternal aunt would later regale me with stories of the National Guardsmen/Army troops riding in armored vehicles shouting racial slurs at black teens and threatening to shoot them. And of course many older uncles and second cousins would from time to time over the years mention the repressive and disgusting behavior of the police back in what I came to think of as the bad old days. I mention all this to say that although I wasn't on the scene or even yet thought of when the riot took place I feel as if I had a very personal stake in what was going on. Some of the buildings that were part of my panorama growing up were the same buildings that were seen on the newsreels of the events in 1967. People died in part so that I could walk freely in my city and succeed to the best of my God given abilities instead of being assaulted by police or trapped in a dead end racially segregated job. So I was intrigued to see what a strong talented director like Bigelow would do with this story. Would she mess it up? Would she get down to the nitty gritty? Would she confirm ugly stereotypes about whites working with "black" stories and themes?

Unfortunately I would have to say that as a storyteller Bigelow missed the boat here. Technically the movie is superb. The camera work, lighting, cinematography, settings and look of the film are all top notch, with one or two minor complaints I'll mention in a moment. Bigelow is a master (mistress?) of her craft and shows it here. But the narrative is too sharply focused on the incidents at the Algiers Motel. The Algiers Motel (which has since been torn down) was a place that was a sort of no-tell motel. People often went there to commit adultery. Some prostitutes worked that area. 

Movie Reviews: Sleepless

Sleepless
directed by Baran Bo Odar

This is a crime thriller movie which despite a talented and energetic cast suffers from some languid direction and a couple lazy stereotypes. Movies with black leads are few and far between but nevertheless I'm glad I skipped this in the theaters. It wasn't a horrible film but it turned out to be nothing that I hadn't seen done better before. Regarding stereotypes how many times do we need to see the aggressive female cop with a chip on her shoulder who's eager to prove she's just as tough as the boys? How many times do we need to see an angry black woman with an attitude who thinks that she knows everything? How many times do we need to see aggressively alpha male pugnacious hillbillies going out of their way to show how insane they are? At least once more according to this film I guess. The film's hero was far from invulnerable but that didn't make me see him as relatable. I've mentioned it before in other reviews but my experience growing up all those years ago was that black parents were generally less tolerant than other parents of anything involving disrespect from their children. In my circles if a kid even looked like he was thinking about talking back that kid would have a serious problem on his hands. And from the black parents I know today it seems to me that cultural expectations of deference towards parents haven't changed all that much. In Sleepless the kid yells at and almost curses out his Dad with no repercussions. Yeah. Well maybe. But not in my neck of the woods. 

There were better ways to show the family issues. If the film had had a black writer perhaps it might have found them. Sleepless moves quickly, primarily because there's not all that much to to the story or plot. Visually it's ok. A lot of it takes place in darkness. It has the blue filter that many of these films like to use. 

Movie Reviews:The Birth of a Nation

The Birth of a Nation
directed by Nate Parker
I try to handle it without violence involved/But sometimes that's the only way these problems are solved
Well run Red run because he's got your gun/And he's aiming it at your head

I am finding it hard to accept the apparent rebuff at the box office of “The Birth of a Nation,” particularly after seeing the film last weekend. It is an exceptional piece of artistry and a vital portrait of our American experience in trying to live up to ideals we say we have. No one should miss it — no one who respects our country and its long struggle to define itself. I am sorry about the conflict with Nate Parker’s past, but let’s try for some honesty here. If you want to make a list of the directors and actors who have rather public indiscretions, and who have in some cases been acquitted of them, start counting. What troubles me is this: Are we being particular here with this extraordinary film because it’s about the racist curse we are struggling to erase from our country and its director is black? The curse is there. Go look at it. Do we have the courage to do that? It’s a fine work.-Hal Holbrook

The Birth of a Nation (BOAN) was probably not an Oscar winning film considering all the competition it was up against. It has a tour de force incarnation by first time director Nate Parker as Nat Turner, leader of the most successful slave revolt in American history, but everyone else virtually fades into the background insofar as memorable performances go. BOAN should have done more to depict just how frightened whites were of the spectre of black revolt. White slaveholders throughout American were worried about the recent successful Haitian revolution. Slaveholders knew what they were doing was wrong. Some of the more perceptive, including one Thomas Jefferson, knew that there would be a reckoning some day. But addicted both to free labor and the venomous ideology of white supremacy which justified it, whites found it impossible to free slaves and outlaw slavery, even if they wanted to, which most of them assuredly did not. Every fact or argument was used to justify slavery, no matter how contradictory. Was a black person stupid or cowardly? Well that just showed that slavery was his or her natural state of affairs. Was a black person brave or intelligent? Well then by God you had better break their spirit to show to everyone else that even that exalted black person dressed in house servant finery was ultimately nothing more than a slave. BOAN needed a more detailed white villain or strangely enough a bit more of a white slaveowner's perspective to show the utter desperation in which enslaved Africans found themselves. 

Movie Reviews: Get Out

Get Out
directed by Jordan Peele

Get Out is a horror movie that has the Black American experience of race and racism at its core. You would think all else equal that more horror films would explore all the rich story possibilities that race/racism allow. I mean what could be more horrific than being kidnapped and treated as subhuman for generations without end. Horror movies quite often reference either directly or more often obliquely social questions and concerns: gender, sexuality, child abuse, feminism, class struggle and many others. But it's rare for a a horror movie to include references to race other than the easy cheap plot device of the sole black character dying first. It's even more unusual for a horror film to tell a story from a black point of view. This is very simply because most horror directors and writers are not black. And even those who are are often under pressure to minimize or eliminate black concerns. This isn't unique to the horror genre by any means. There are many black film directors and writers who can tell war stories of having their book covers altered to avoid informing the reader that the protagonist is black or of having producers and studios refuse to greenlight big budget movies with black leads. But the world is changing. Get Out is a film that might not have been made or more accurately distributed and marketed by a major studio ten or definitely twenty years ago. Not only does it have a black protagonist but American racism is the animating theme of the movie. Wisely Get Out avoids the normal cheap plot device of having the bad guys be Confederate flag waving, low class, incestuous, pickup truck driving, banjo plucking white people from the land that time forgot. The film is both more ambitious and more subtle than that. As I wrote times have changed. Although recently it seems as if a loud minority would indeed would indeed like to turn the clock back to some time around 1922, I would argue that certain incidents not withstanding that racism as most black people experience today doesn't include howling mobs bent on pogroms. Things are usually more subtle than that. 

Movie Reviews: Soul Food Junkies, Jack Reacher 2-Never Go Back

Soul Food Junkies
Directed by Byron Hurt

When you think of soul food what comes to mind? Well I think of food that is traditionally associated with African-Americans such as slow cooked greens, sweet potato pie, macaroni-and-cheese, grits, ribs, chitlins, black-eyed-peas, fried chicken, spicy rice, and other such items. These dishes and style of cooking really come from different antecedents. Kidnapped Africans weren't blank slates. They brought to America their own varied African palates and cooking styles. Africans, Europeans and First Nations peoples in America all learned and shared, willingly or not, each other's recipes and tastes. And during slavery, obviously slaves didn't get the choicest cuts of meat or the best vegetables. They had to make do with what their enslavers provided for them and/or learn to grow their own food. Over the centuries these pressures all combined to create the style of soul food that most black people know today. However there is a problem. Soul food is often heavy in salt, fat, grease and sugar, all things which we know are not good for human consumption. Black people in America also tend to have some issues with obesity as well as the diseases and conditions which track closely with obesity such as diabetes, hypertension, strokes, pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer. cardiac arrest, and so on. Soul Food Junkies is a documentary film directed by Byron Hurt which examines how the diet which black people used to survive in hostile conditions needs to be altered to help black people live longer and healthier. Hurt frames the story around his own family, particularly his own father, who was obese and died of pancreatic cancer in his early sixties. This is not however a sad or preachy story. And it's also not a story which is blaming people who were victims of bad information. Not in the least bit. This is ultimately a very optimistic story.

Movie Reviews: Keanu, Blood Father, In A Lonely Place

Keanu
directed by Peter Atencio

I didn't routinely watch the comedy sketch show Key and Peele when it was still running. Every now and then I would see something online by the show stars Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele and remind myself that I probably needed to watch more of their work. Some of their comedy is really really good but much of it is just okay, nothing special. So when I heard that they were involved in writing and producing this movie, and that the film was directed by their former sketch show director, I watched it. Well the movie was just okay, nothing special. Meh. A theme which runs through Key and Peele's work as well as that of many black artists or creatives of all types is the surreal nature of race in America. In this particular case it's the expectations that people (and this includes all Americans, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality) can often have around black men or for that matter black boys. All of these stereotypes ultimately go back to slavery/colonialism/Jim Crow and may never really be rooted out. Rather than list them all here in gory detail it's probably safer to say that a great many people expect that most black men are hypermacho, supercool, and able to handle themselves physically in just about every situation. While these stereotypes can be embraced by blacks and used to individual advantage (most rap music over the past thirty years) they are more likely to be used by people outside the black community to black disadvantage (witness many black interactions with the police). So Key and Peele use the movie Keanu to investigate in a comedic way how silly these stereotypes are. They do this by simultaneously embracing and deconstructing the stereotypes. YMMV on how successful they were in doing this. This is stuff that goes back to Baraka's Dutchman and Ellison's Invisible Man. It was done better in those works. If the only way to succeed is to do the modern day equivalent of putting on blackface and tap dancing is that admirable? This isn't just a dry academic question. A black comedian referred to the black President with a racial slur. Many black people fell over themselves praising the comedian. Others passionately defended their right to call themselves racial slurs as unassailable proof of their racial bona fides. It's a strange, strange strange world in which we live.

Movie Reviews: Exposed

Exposed
directed by Gee Malik Linton 

The listed stars of this film are Keanu Reeves and Mira Sorvino. But that is a bait and switch. They get a fair amount of screen time, well at least Reeves does, but they aren't very important to the story at all. Their roles could have each been played by other people with little change to the movie. We can't really judge effort but neither of the supposed leads appear to be giving it their all in this flick. As you might expect that's much more obvious with Reeves than Sorvino. While Sorvino is almost doing a parody of an east coast street smart extroverted Italian-American, Reeves is somnolent throughout the entire movie. He speaks in mumbles and is hard to understand. He is one low energy dude. It would be interesting to know what attracted Reeves and Sorvino to this movie. I wonder if they just really liked the script or were doing a favor for someone or wanted to help out lesser known people by attaching their name to this movie. Or maybe JUST MAYBE the studio wanted more marketable stars (read white stars) attached to a story that otherwise is dominated by less well known black and hispanic characters. The movie's Black director and writer, Gee Malik Linton, apparently became so irritated by interference with his film that he took his name off the movie in favor of a pseudonym. I don't like micromanagers either. Who does? But he who pays the piper calls the tune. Anyway I scribbled all that to inform you that if you decide to see this movie because of Reeves and Sorvino, please remember that they aren't the important ones in this film. This film fails miserably as a cop thriller because Reeves can't be bothered even to pretend to have the strutting testosterone drenched swagger so stereotypically associated with members of the NYPD. Reeves was miscast. 

Movie Reviews: They're Watching, Black Dynamite

They're Watching
directed by Micah Wright and Jay Lender

This is another found footage film. Obviously there is an immediate credibility issue with found footage films because (a) who is going to be taking pictures and video while they're running for their life and (b) who has time or interest to capture everything they're doing on a day even when they're not trying to stay alive. They're Watching rather adroitly steps around those issues by saving most of the mayhem for the ending and by offering a reasonable explanation for why all events before then are captured on video. You see the protagonists of this tale are a production team for a real estate show, imagine House Hunters International, who have traveled to the far reaches of Moldova to chronicle the adventures of an American woman, Becky (Brigid Brannagh), a pottery artist who has fallen in love both with a Moldovan soccer star, Goran (Cristian Balint) and a run down home in the forest that she intends to renovate. So obviously the production team and the Home Hunters Global star will always be recording. The team doesn't necessarily like each other all that much. The host and star of the show Kate Banks (Carrie Genzel) is a nerve grating phony when she's on camera and an annoying bully when she's not. Her cameramen and production/sound assistants Greg (David Alpay) and Alex (Kris Lemche) have learned to tune out the worst of Kate's rants, usually by ingesting copious amounts of alcohol and chocolate but also by seeking companionship with local women. Well that last part is mostly Alex, who is unafraid of being rejected or making a fool of himself. Greg's a bit more sensitive. He's haunted by his time in Afghanistan. The group is led around Moldova by the local louche real estate agent Vladimir (Dimitri Diatchenko) who translates for them. The team returns to Moldova six months later to document for the show what Becky and Goran have done with their home. 

Well they want to see what Becky has done with the home. She's the member of that duo who is most interested in home improvement.  And Becky is the one who was most excited by the home. This time on the return to Moldova the team also includes the production assistant Sarah (Mia Faith) an eager new film school graduate who is also the niece of a network big shot. Sarah was hired over Kate's strenuous objections. Kate doesn't like Sarah one bit. It's mostly unstated but Kate resents what she sees as nepotism. Kate also views the younger and more attractive Sarah as simultaneously too weak to succeed and a possible threat to her position. Have you ever made a mistake at work and had a supervisor or someone senior to you immediately brutally correct you in such a way that you know they have long been anticipating and salivating over the chance to take you down? That's how Kate responds to Sarah's mistakes. And as a newbie Sarah makes her share of errors. During their down time the team tries to enjoy the local sights but there's not much to see or do other than drink and make goo-goo eyes at each other or some sullen locals. A few "ugly American" incidents occur. There's some local history which is backstory but still very significant to the city residents. You ignore it or make fun of it at your peril. You can guess what the American protagonists do. For most of the movie the Americans' worst problems are hard stares and uncomfortable silences. And the danger isn't necessarily coming from where you think. The ending is insane but in a good way. If you like thriller or horror movies this one is just entertaining enough to recommend. It's competent but not much more. It plays on the familiar fear of the unknown which most of us have dealt with at some point. This could be something you run into by traveling to a foreign country or by doing something as prosaic as making a wrong turn and winding up in a dangerous neighborhood at night. 

Obviously if you don't like these sorts of films then this movie isn't for you. There are a fair number of comedy moments.  There are only a few "gotcha" moments. Mostly there is just unease which is slowly turned up to dread. The camera work does make you believe that you are there.
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Black Dynamite
directed by Scott Sanders

The older movie Black Dynamite is a loving homage to and parody of a number of movies which were made from say 1967 to about 1975 and have become linked together under the category of "blaxploitation". These movies didn't necessarily have super high budgets. They weren't necessarily financed by, directed by or produced by Black people. The quality of writing and acting could vary dramatically. Some of the directing and camera work was sublime; other directing on display could make you think that you were watching work done by someone who had flunked film school multiple times. Like any other type of film genre, obviously quality varied. What these movies did tend to have in common was black protagonists, who to paraphrase football player and genre star Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, "survived until the end of the movie, won most or all of their fights, and got the girl". This was almost revolutionary for audiences who were still used to seeing black actors and actresses onscreen in subordinate or stereotypical roles or not at all. Of course some of these movies were pure pandering and cheap catharsis in which noble black heroes stood up to evil white racists and as often as not beat the everloving daylights out of them, after being suitably provoked of course. Other movies in this genre had some very negative messages packed within. These films could be formulaic, stereotypical and trite just like any other movies could. But as we've discussed before people like seeing themselves on screen. If you are dying of thirst you're not going to tell someone offering you some spring water that no thanks you only drink distilled. Black Dynamite pulls off the trick of being simultaneously serious and as silly as can be. The lead actor playing the titular hero, Michael Jai White, also wrote the film. White is also an accomplished martial artist. So the action and there's a lot of it in this movie is definitely in White's wheelhouse. The entire film is a tongue in cheek reference to too many blaxploitation films to mention but the plot will be immediately familiar to anyone who's ever sat through an action film. Black Dynamite is a semi-retired bada$$ veteran secret agent community leader player who tells everyone that he's out of the game. Of course you know that when someone says he's done and only wants to look out for himself that sooner rather than later he's coming back. Black Dynamite's wake up moment comes when his brother Jimmy (Baron Vaughn) is murdered. 

Black Dynamite comes back with a vengeance to find out who was responsible and deliver some righteous justice. He finds out that his brother's murder may be connected to a drug ring that is pushing dope into black orphanages. And that's just the outer ring of the conspiracy. But no matter how high the corruption goes or what evil plans are exposed, Black Dynamite will not let anyone prevent him from completing his roaring rampage of revenge. Black Dynamite is assisted by Gloria (Salli Richardson).  Nicole Ari Parker is the undercover Panther Mahogany Black. Other actors featured include Nicole Sullivan, Tommy Davidson (both MadTV veterans), Arsenio Hall, Obba Babbatunde, Mykelti Williamson, Mike Starr, Miguel Nunez, and Richard Edson. This film is full of gags like visible boom mikes, continuity errors (actors who were clearly killed in a previous scene show up just fine in later scenes), people who repeat their lines, bad dubbing, misspelled credits, and of course revolvers that never need to be reloaded. And that's just the obvious stuff. Although the humor is not as relentless and as over the top as say Airplane, it's still pretty out there. This movie was shot on old Kodak film. It lifts footage from seventies movies and television shows. I think you will enjoy this movie immensely if you are familiar with the films it spoofs but even if you've never seen the source material I think you may find this humorous. White holds everything together by taking everything seriously, even in the most ridiculous situations. But you shouldn't take anything seriously in this movie.
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Movie Reviews: Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton
directed by F. Gary Gray

It was the late eighties. I was temporarily home from college for some reason or the other. My younger brother, bless his heart, had wasted no time turning what was formerly our bedroom into his bedroom. One of the ways in which he signaled this change in management was by blasting what I later learned was N.W.A.'s seminal album Straight Outta Compton as loudly as he could. I didn't really sit down and listen to the lyrics then. All I heard was all the profanity and racial slurs. I politely advised my sibling that as free speech was not necessarily a guaranteed right in our residence when it came to profanity if he wished to avoid a serious (ahem) correction, he would need to turn that **** off before our father returned home. Otherwise things could get ugly. And I didn't want any of that correction bouncing off my brother and hitting me. That would have just ruined my day. Quickly coming to his senses, my brother agreed. Still there was something about the music which almost forced you to listen. I picked up the album later. It was raw, ugly, vicious and admittedly every kind of problematic "ist" you could think of. The album Straight Outta Compton was outlaw chic that went to heights, or rather depths, which had only briefly been previously reached by similar styled rappers such as Ice-T or Schoolly D in "6 in the morning" or "P.S.K", respectively. It certainly wasn't the kind of music I listened to in mixed company or in front of my father. But it also was music that was in its way directly descended from the hardest core blues (check out some uncensored versions of Stag-o-lee, songs about prison rape or Pat Hare's I'm gonna murder my baby) or some of the bleaker soul music of the seventies (some of Curtis Mayfield's work). N.W.A. made mostly nihilistic music that claimed to tell the story of the streets. This music was often apolitical in that it made few attempts at any sort of uplifting message. The group claimed to be documenting what was going on but of course there was some glorification. This was no different than Scorsese films in many aspects. N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton" was the perfect soundtrack for adolescent or even older male power fantasies. This made heavy metal sound like Lawrence Welk. This album changed music, specifically rap music for both the better and the worse. The film Straight Outta Compton tells the origin stories, rise and fall and continued success of the young men (Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Easy E, MC Ren, Yellaboy) who became N.W.A.

The first thing to address is that this film was executive produced by Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Easy E's widow. So I didn't go into the theater expecting this film to provide a deep holistic warts and all look at the more problematic aspects of N.W.A's behavior or lyrics. One of the victims of Dr. Dre's violence, Dee Barnes, was upset that her attack was not even referenced, although she didn't necessarily want to see it depicted. As I wrote before the ugly truth about life is that some very talented and successful people can have some very ugly retrograde views or behave in quite nasty ways to those around them. There was an old joke about Ray Charles which stated that to become a Raelette (female backup singer) a woman needed to "let Ray". I don't think that all of that was included in the Ray film. You will have to decide for yourself how important these things are to you as a viewer. For what it's worth Dr. Dre has released a new general apology for his past actions. Straight Outta Compton is the best film I've seen this year because of the acting, streamlined directing and especially the casting. More on that in a second. But most importantly Straight Outta Compton manages to show Black men as full human beings. They make mistakes, get sidetracked and argue but can still come together as friends who have complex, conflicted and even loving relationships. It's odd that I could write that about a film depicting a group calling themselves N.W.A. who could in many respects ( remember Stanley Crouch or C. Delores Tucker anyone) be rightfully accused of gleefully and profitably portraying the absolute worst stereotypes of black people, specifically black men, but life is full of ironies like that.

I mentioned the casting. We shouldn't be surprised that the actor playing the group's most prominent and charismatic lyricist, Ice Cube, looks just like Ice Cube, circa 1988~1995. O'Shea Jackson Jr. happens to call Ice Cube "Dad'. So of course he closely resembles his famous father. But the younger Jackson made his role work by capturing his father's quick snarl that could just as easily turn into a smile, gait, tone and every other characteristic of the elder Jackson. One of his most powerful scenes is wordless as he watches a gang member provide an impromptu after school motivational speech to a busload of high school students. He nailed this role, no question. Corey Hawkins also shines as Dr. Dre, a talented but frustrated DJ and producer who knows that he's wasting his time working for people who can't see that hardcore rap is the next big thing. Easy E (Jason Mitchell) likely has the film's meatiest role. Mitchell was in the films Contraband and Broken City but obviously not as lead. I can't even remember him. Mitchell has only been acting for three years. His performance here just shows what some people can do when they get a chance. I think Straight Outta Compton narrowly avoids a descent into melodrama when it focuses on the later part of Easy E's short life but the quick pace makes it work. Easy E was an unlicensed pharmaceutical distributor with awareness that his progress along that career path was likely going to be limited by the law or permanently ended by rival unlicensed pharmaceutical distributors. Easy E obviously had entrepreneurial talents. He ran in some of the same circles as Dr. Dre and rapper MC Ren (Aldis Hodge) and DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.). Appealing to Easy's eye for profit, Dr. Dre convinces Easy E to bankroll studio time and record production for a group he's overseeing. When the original talent leaves in a huff, Easy is cajoled and almost shamed into getting in front of the mic, despite his highly questionable relationship with pitch and timing. And we see the birth of N.W.A.


The other theme which ran through the movie and still resonates today is the way that police, often white, but black as well, continually pick on black people, specifically young black men. You just don't have to be doing anything. You can literally be minding your own business, as jazz legend Miles Davis learned, and be placed under police suspicion, arrest or violence. Class, wealth, employment, intelligence, respectability or artistic skill provide no protection against this. Straight Outta Compton skillfully weaves several examples of this police brutality throughout the film. It's not just a question of physical manhandling but a constant stream of taunting and insulting that explains to everyone why the song  F*** the Police appealed to many people, regardless of what they thought of N.W.A.'s other creative work. I mean would you be happy if someone with a gun and a badge threatened and cussed out your mother? Probably not. It is also important to single out Paul Giamatti for his magnificent portrayal as the alternately shady and solicitous record company owner, manager and promoter, Jerry Heller. The film argues that Heller badly ripped off the N.W.A. members and did so with a smile. This could have been a thankless or even stereotypical cardboard role, but Giamatti brings a certain intelligence and self-consciousness to the character. Heller is someone who can't be trusted but he also has some hard unpleasant truths to tell about the lack of black distribution, production, legal representation and management in the music and entertainment industry. There are doors that a white person could open that others can't easily reach. Heller argues that Easy E (his favorite) and N.W.A need him. But he doesn't want anyone reading contracts too closely. This is a source of irritation to the suspicious Ice Cube. Suge Knight (R. Marcus Taylor), founder of Death Row records, provides a different management style. Knight's contacts with (and membership in ?) the Bloods as well as his intimidating size and fearsome industry reputation make formal contracts only a minor afterthought. If you're signed with his company you're going to stay with his company. And don't ever park your vehicle in his assigned space. Where some people were studio gangsters Suge was the real deal. The film shows that while it can theoretically be great to have someone like that on your side to cut through a lot of industry nonsense it can also be downright dangerous. Dre sees this first hand. And speaking of conflict and negativity Straight Outta Compton entirely ignores the internal black debate over publicly embracing and using ugly language which was previously only used routinely by street people. Richard Pryor did this roughly two decades before Straight Outta Compton but later came to regret it. Is it possible to move forward if you internally see yourself as something negative. That's a question this movie evades to its detriment. In modern times we often think the greatest sin is hypocrisy but I'm not so sure. There was a reason that in bygone days "blue" comedians or singers often made different recordings for different audiences. Anyway.  

As N.W.A. only had one great album, this movie swiftly moves to post N.W.A. successes and challenges, such as Ice Cube's solo albums, involvement with the NOI and film career, Dr. Dre's ascent to become one of the world's most famous producers, his work with Snoop Dogg and Tupac and Easy E's slow health decline and grim realization that he may have been outhustled and punked by both Jerry Heller and Suge Knight. This was a very long movie but with just one or two exceptions it didn't feel like it. The pacing was on point. The camera swoops in and out to give a very naturalistic feeling to the proceedings. As mentioned this was the best first run film I've seen so far this year. No matter if you are already familiar with the time or music depicted or have never heard of the group this is a movie worth watching. Oscar material? I haven't seen enough new films this year to make that claim. Ren and DJ Yella don't get a whole lot of emphasis in Straight Outta Compton but I guess there's only so much spotlight to go around. Those two members didn't write or produce the film so that's what happens. I always thought Ren was underrated. Yella in particular is shown as sex obsessed even by rapper/musician standards.Other associated acts also get short shrift. Look for a humorous shout out to the television hit show "Empire"/movie "Friday". 
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Movie Reviews: Focus

Focus
directed by Glenne Ficarra and John Requa

As I get older I wonder if the saying that there aren't many new stories, just recycled ones actually has some truth to it. Certainly the film Focus hit on a great many themes which are common to stories you've heard before (fractured parent and child relationships, the inability to tell if something is truly love or just lust, and the dedicated player/con man/gambler, who like the people in the Bob Seger song Still the Same ,may never truly be made to go straight or change) So this movie will probably feel very familiar to you, albeit in a good way. I'd compare it to a favorite pair of slippers.  Nothing special, just nice and comfortable. Unfortunately unlike the similar films Now You See Me or Contraband Focus slightly misses its mark by not having a particularly strong, intelligent or dangerous adversary with whom the lead character can interact. Without this conflict you're not always able to admire the lead character's resourcefulness or shake your head in wonder as to how he got out of that jam. Focus does have one or two good set scenes where the viewer can really enjoy the intelligence and swagger of the lead character but overall this would have been a much better and more enjoyable film with a nastier or more intelligent bad guy to push the lead. On the other hand whereas many of these heist/con type films are concerned with the battle of wits between and among men, Focus features that only as a secondary issue. The film is far more interested with the professional and personal relationship between a man and woman grifter. So in some respects this is as much of a romance film mixed with heists as it is a drama film about the underworld of con men. There's some violence in Focus but not all that much. Con men almost by definition like to avoid violence. If they do their job correctly they're able to have their victims willingly give them money. A good mark never knows he's been conned. You can wonder a little bit about the sort of people who do this for a living but the film doesn't allow you to see the world any other way except through the con artist's eyes. As a result you end up identifying with the protagonists who, truth be told are exactly the sort of lowlifes who will steal your credit card number and ruin your credit, sell you ocean front property in Kansas, and get you to give them two tens for a five. You may end up admiring their panache even though, unlike the con artists in the underrated British series Hustle, these scoundrels have no interest in righting wrongs or only ripping off the greedy.

The male slickster is Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith), a debonair fellow who's equally adept with long complicated deception schemes and short cons. He'll spend 3 months hacking into your payroll system or 3 seconds palming your Bulgari watch. It's all the same to Nicky. He runs a large loyal diverse crew of con artists, hackers, gamblers, fences and all around thieves. In a nightclub/hotel Nicky runs into Jess (Margot Robbie), who attempts to con him via the old "we were just about to roll and tumble but my husband caught us so pay him and he won't kill you" trick. Nicky's not bothered. He's seen through the con already. He knows that Jess and her partner are inexperienced and more importantly, not dangerous. He walks away. A few days later Jess tracks down Nicky. She's dropped the loser she was with formerly. She's found out some of Nicky's backstory and learned that he's a legend among con men. She wants to become his apprentice and ultimately much more. Nicky's intrigued though he's not fond of mixing business and pleasure. Usually that just ends up with people getting hurt. Well you can imagine just how long Nicky holds on to that rule. Men generally don't turn down such requests from Jess. Despite his profession Nicky seems to be an otherwise moral person. He must decide whether Jess is ready for a big job in Argentina with Rafael (Rodrigo Santoro) and/or if he is ready to settle down and go straight with Jess. And Jess must find out if she can trust Nicky to keep his word. Is he truly the one? And both must discover if the other person is just running the long con on him or her. After all if you love a professional liar how do you really know when he or she is telling the truth. A con artist's truth can vary. A good con artist always has plenty of options available as the situation changes. Watching this movie you'll know from the very first setpiece that a big con is coming but some of them will probably come as surprises. This is the case even though the film, via Nicky, tells the viewer almost everything that is going to happen in the story in the first 10 minutes. It's just that you don't realize that until after the fact because of the misdirection employed.

Both Smith and Robbie are in excellent physical shape and enliven the film's visuals. This film looks great! The film was shot in New Orleans and Buenos Aires. All in all this movie was passably good, but generic. It was worth seeing on DVD or VOD. I would have thought it a bit of a waste to see it in the theater. Farhad (Adrian Martinez) brings deadpan humor as one of Nicky's worldweary employees/partners.
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Movie Reviews: Supremacy, The Gambler

Supremacy

directed by Deon Taylor

This movie was supposedly based in part on a real life story. So then I can't get too upset if it dragged at times because that could very well be how it all went down. Still there are some directorial techniques which might have been put to better use in order to keep the film moving. Watching this film I also got the distinct impression that there was more than usual in terms of scenes or writing that was cut from this theatrical release. Some character motivations and frustrations are severely lacking. Perhaps another ten minutes or so would have been worthwhile adding? Or perhaps ten minutes trimmed from other scenes to let you know why some people were so upset could have been useful. I don't know. I just watch movies. I don't make them. Still this film features Danny Glover (it is difficult for me to watch the actor who famously groused in the Lethal Weapon series that he was getting too old for this s*** actually become someone who is old) so I was positively inclined to watching it. Glover carries the movie despite the fact that he must act and look every bit of his 68 years on this planet. Although Glover stands a commanding 6'4", his role in this film mostly requires him to downplay his height, physicality and baritone. Here he's an old and often bitter man who, armed with nothing more besides reason and words, must try to protect his family. Nevertheless Glover gives the film gravitas though the frantic energy is brought to the table by the other lead actor. As do most movies of this kind this film made me think twice about people from times past, whether they found themselves on a plantation in Mississippi or a death camp in Poland, who did what they had to do in order to survive. It's all very easy to look back and talk big about what you would have done or how you wouldn't have stood for this or that. Bottom line if someone has a gun to your head or to that of a loved one, you may decide that death before dishonor is not really a code to live by. Not everyone is ready to die right this minute, though we obviously remember and cherish those who are.

After a number of years in prison for armed robbery and assault one Tully (Joe Anderson) is finally released. Tully is, to put it mildly, a white supremacist. He's covered in racist tattoos. He will not speak three sentences without a reference to how much he hates black people. Tully is a man of some importance in the Aryan Brotherhood. He has big plans for his after prison life, serious plans. He expects to be treated with respect and awe by Brotherhood members on the outside. So he's more than a little peeved when he's picked up from prison not by an honor guard of his Aryan brothers but by Doreen (Dawn Oliveri) a hardbitten woman of easy virtue and definite drug habits with a thang for Aryan Brotherhood members. In fact Tully is so upset that he can't or won't even do the obvious with the initially deferential and horny Doreen. He claims a race warrior such as himself must remain pure for the cause and not sully himself with someone like Doreen. Insulted, Doreen wonders aloud if Mr. Big Bad Race Warrior liked prison so much that he now prefers the company of men. And their fragile relationship such as it is deteriorates from there. It's only Doreen's close links to higher ranking Aryan Brotherhood members that keeps Tully from ditching her or worse.

Well criminals commit crime, right? It's what they do. So no one should be surprised when Tully as much for racial reasons as economic ones, robs a convenience store (he's irritated by the presence of a clerk with apparent South Asian ancestry). And shortly afterwards when Doreen and Tully are stopped by a black police officer who may or may not be responding to the store robbery, Tully decides to add cop-killing to the night's misdeeds. Fleeing the ensuing manhunt the depraved duo force their way into the first home they find off the beaten path, which just happens to be owned by Mr. Walker (Glover) and his wife (Lela Rochon). Some of their children and grandchildren are also with them. Although the movie makes a desultory attempt at making you wonder if any of the adults in the home will try to physically resist the armed white racists, the film's meat is Walker's insight into what makes Tully tick. He will try to use that to protect his family. Walker claims to be an ex-con himself. Walker's family has its own fault lines which will become apparent as the hostage situation continues. I could accept that a man of Walker's age is probably not going to try to physically resist intruders but there were some scenes where I wondered if someone shouldn't have made a move. Again though unless and until you're ready to die it's hard to say what you'd do. The film thinks it knows why racists are the way they are but its answer was too pat for me. I did like the film's easy acceptance of the idea that racism isn't specific to men alone. Doreen is just as dangerous as Tully, more so in some ways because she, unlike Tully, can almost effectively fake empathy. Still, this film drags a bit in the middle. The tension dissipates somewhat. So it's not a must see movie. It's an okay film, just not a great one. Derek Luke has a small role as Walker's estranged/absent son. Anson Mount brings it as the imprisoned Aryan Brotherhood leader. Supremacy uses flashback to tell a lot of its story, a technique which I thought it relied upon once too often. TRAILER

The Gambler

directed by Rupert Wyatt

This is an excellent example of why they call it acting. Mark Wahlberg shed a great deal of weight and muscle as well as most of his usual trademark character cockiness to play the role of Jim Bennett, a depressed and gaunt college literature professor and writer, who when he's not ranting at his students about the meaningless of everything and their general mediocrity, can be found throwing away thousands of dollars gambling at both legal and illegal casinos and card games. Although this film was not directed by Scorsese, it was produced by long time Scorsese associate Irwin Winkler. So it may not be an accident that this film has a lot of the lush look and meaningful soundtrack that you might otherwise identify with Scorsese. There is actually some evidence that beyond a surprisingly low amount of household income that happiness doesn't increase all that much with more money. Other studies dispute that figure or to be more precise claim that the measurement is not really capturing happiness over time. I can't call it. More income and wealth would definitely make me happier but on the other hand the things I require most in life are not things money can grant.That might be a subject of a future post but the reason I brought it up here is that Bennett is a walking example of how material goods can't bring happiness. They really can't. Can they? How much joy does money bring into your life? Is it the making of the money that you like or the things you can do with money?

Jim Bennett is the scion of an extremely wealthy old money banking family. Although his grandfather has just passed away Bennett's mother (Jessica Lange in a taut performance) now controls the family fortune. The mother-son relationship is not super strong. And although Bennett is not exactly a best selling author or a household name, he is published and apparently tenured. So money is not what drives him. He doesn't need to waste his time or money (well a lot of it is Mama's money) playing blackjack, roulette or other games of chance.  Because he's a compulsive gambler who takes dumb chances Bennett finds himself in deep debt to both casino owner Lee (Alvin Ing) and entrepreneurial loan shark Neville (Michael K. Williams). Each of these men have very well deserved reputations as exactly the sort of people to whom you do not want to owe money. Though Lee is quiet and Neville is affable, both of them have put people in the ground. They will have no problem doing the same to Bennett. Their problem however is that it's not really clear that Bennett cares about living or dying any more. How do you intimidate someone who doesn't give a flying Fibber McGee about anything or at least pretends that he doesn't. One thing that Bennett might care about though is his relationship with three of his students, a rich tennis player who is about to go pro, a bored basketball player who is on the verge of making the same decision and Amy (Brie Larson), an attractive young woman who just happens to work in the same illegal casino where Bennett plays. Bennett thinks that virtually alone among his students Amy has real writing skill, interest in literature and the ability to do more with her talent. He's angry that she won't engage intellectually in class more.  Amy might be interested in engaging parts of Bennett besides his brain. When things get a little rougher than Bennett can handle he has to go to his mother and to another loan shark, Frank (John Goodman). I liked Goodman in this role. He's avuncular and downright engaging. But if you don't pay him back he will, like any other man in his position, hurt you very very badly. I actually bought the menace that Frank represented though it's mostly unspoken. Goodman had some very good dialogue in this film, which rose above the cliched thanks almost entirely to his convincing delivery and world weariness.

Ultimately the problem with the film is that you're never quite able to penetrate Wahlberg's excellent acting job to understand why it is that he is so self-loathing. There are plenty of people who have it all and throw it away but in order for me to care about them it would be useful to get some insight into their character or their life story to see what went wrong and why they just don't care anymore. Bennett's classroom rants hint at the reasons behind his alienation but on the whole they seem to be more symptom than explanation. So this movie is a good film to see Wahlberg step away from his normal type characters but I didn't find the writing strong enough to put this movie over the top. This is a remake of a 1974 film of the same name which starred another famous cinematic tough guy, James Caan. Wahlberg and Caan are friends. They discussed the lead role. Perhaps, as with Caan, the idea of playing a character that was defined by moral /physical weakness and acuity appealed to Wahlberg, who usually gets tough guy roles.
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Movie Reviews: Last Knights, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires

Last Knights

directed by Kazuaki Kiriya

Imagine 47 Ronin redone for a world where people of different races all live together in the same area marrying, loving, hating and killing each other without regard to skintones. Imagine a A Game of Thrones subtheme (a man too proud and rigid in his definition of good refusing to play the game and bringing ruin onto his family) brought to the big screen. That isLast Knights. There is a continual conflict between deontology and consequentialism in life. If we discover that a little league team championship baseball team has inadvertently(?) broken the rules should we remove their title? If the text of a law creating health care subsidies has a glaring mistake within should we invalidate the law though that will harm millions of people? Should a proud and good lord refuse to pay bribes to a greedy minister and then call out the corruption even though by doing so he insults the emperor? Does anyone really believe "Let justice be done though the heavens fall"? Yes, some people do believe that. We may consider such people to be heroic martyrs or dangerously rigid idealists. Although few people are absolute deontologists, those who tend towards deontologist mindsets tend to have tremendous respect for rules, codes and laws whether they be externally imposed or internally accepted. A man's gotta have a code pretty much sums up their outlook. They will think long and hard before breaking such strictures and will usually support punishing those who do, even themselves. A deontologist believes that a person should do the "right" thing and/or follow the rules regardless of the consequences. Doing the right thing is reward enough. Giving consequences serious consideration doesn't factor heavily into a deontologist's moral calculus.

This is especially true of deontologist types who happen to be warriors. For them obedience unto death is a job description. These are the sort of people, who if ordered to guard their lord's children or to make a hopeless last stand, will grimly do so with no complaint and no expectation of survival. On the other hand, a consequentialist, or rather a utilitarian, will have much less faith in rules or codes and much more interest in the greatest good for the greatest number of people. So for example if they must falsify evidence to convict a clearly guilty rapist, or occasionally turn a blind eye to some smaller corruption to avoid war or save the lives of loved ones or keep quiet in order to live and fight another day they will do so. Neither position is necessarily "good" or "bad". Moral and immoral people can be found at every point on and between these two poles. Lord Bartok (Morgan Freeman) is definitely a deontologist. The Stark Bartok clan is an old proud much respected family that has produced many great warriors and leaders. But times are changing. Lord Bartok has no son to inherit his name and sword. His biological sons predeceased him. The Emperor (Payman Maadi) is centralizing power. The Emperor uses his execrable minister Geza Mott (Aksel Hennie) to do this. Mott, with a wink and nod from the Emperor, shakes down the various noble families for extortionate bribes. Refusal to pay a bribe is disrespecting Mott. Disrespecting Mott is disrespecting the Emperor. The Emperor has a highly negative response to anyone challenging his power or authority. The arrogant Mott has finally ordered Lord Bartok to come to the capital. Obviously Geza is expecting a bribe and can't wait to boast how he made the old warrior Lord Bartok bow and scrape.

Lord Bartok arrives at the capital, along with his personal guard of hardcore warriors led by Commander Raiden, (Clive Owen) his foster son and most loyal and feared retainer. But after a brief oblique discussion with Raiden about the nature of right and wrong and the future of their clan, Bartok tenaciously holds true to his beliefs. There is a high price paid. Although everything that happens next is legal everyone knows that legal or not, Winter Revenge is Coming. It's only a question of when or if Raiden will pull himself out of depression and self-hate to put the band back together. The action scenes are well shot but nowhere near as graphic or as exciting as films like Hammer of the Gods or Ironclad. Cliff Curtis does his normal solid work as Raiden's second, Lt. Cortez. Park Si-Yeon is Hannah, Geza Mott's long suffering wife. The Iranian actress Shoreh Aghdashloo is Lord Bartok's wife. As with any good war or heist movie there is the requisite number of betrayals, the cocky young kid looking for an opportunity to prove himself as a man among men, the honorable enemy who dislikes his evil master's orders but is sworn to obey them, damsels in distress and grim boasts. This was an okay film but clearly Freeman and Owen are capable of better. I liked the multiple races/ethnicities employed. Last Knights was blandly enjoyable but aside from a few exceptional setpiece battles this film wasn't something that was going to stay in your mind after the ending. I do like revenge movies though. You've heard of comfort foods? This was a comfort movie.
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Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
directed by Spike Lee

This is a remake/reinterpretation of a movie, Ganja and Hess, which I haven't seen. Perhaps if I had seen that film I would have a different, complete or better understanding of Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (DSBJ) but we can only play the hand we were dealt. I am not interested in seeing Ganja and Hess now. The good part about DSBJ is the cinematography. I don't know if there is another American director of any race who routinely shows black people in such beautiful lighting and settings. Chocolate, mahogany, caramel, cafe latte, ebony, all are shown here in exquisite loving detail. You could make a coffee table artbook from the photos. Obviously good looking actors and actresses of any race are going to look well, good, but Spike Lee always brings that something special. And he does so here. The fact that he made this film via Kickstarter for a relatively small amount of money makes me more impressed with his visual skills. The film looks very rich and colorful. Unfortunately the bad parts about DSBJ include almost everything else. To be polite I would say that that this movie was outre and challenging. To be honest I would say the film was virtually incoherent. The music, normally a strong point in Lee films, was WAY too loud and intrusive. The music chosen was often completely wrong for the scenes. It took the viewer away from what was going on in the shot instead of emphasizing it. 

DSBJ is about addiction more than vampirism. There are many themes. There's questions about black masculinity and femininity, African history, AIDS, black upper class guilt, homosexuality, white cultural theft, capitalism, religion, the black church, wealth, assimilation, forgiveness, sexual abuse and many many more social issues. I didn't think that these elements were mixed together very well. The film also ran about thirty minutes too long. It felt more like a play than a film. There's an iciness and distance that pervades the entire movie. There's no tension or fear or character development. You won't identify with anyone. Dr. Hess Greene (Stephen Tyrone Williams) is a wealthy anthropologist and art collector who splits his time between Martha's Vineyard and NYC. Greene is a cold and distant man. One night at his home Greene is attacked and murdered by his depressed research assistant/fellow anthropologist Dr. Hightower (Elvis Nolasco), who afterwards commits suicide. It's unclear as to why Hightower was suicidal and murderous. He may have had unrequited sexual feelings for Greene. Who knows? Although Hightower stabbed Greene in the heart with an ancient Ashanti dagger, Greene is shocked to find himself returned from the dead. He also has a sudden lust for human blood, which he temporarily slakes by drinking from Hightower's body. Greene sprouts no fangs and doesn't spontaneously combust when the sun touches his skin. He doesn't sleep in a coffin.

After a short period of preying upon Black and hispanic single mothers and hookers in NYC, Greene returns home one day to find Hightower's estranged, brassy and beautiful English wife Ganja (Zaraah Abrahams) demanding to know where her husband is. But Greene falls in love with Ganja. This film isn't the first work of art to make a connection between the religious doctrine of transubstantiation and the needs of someone who is addicted to blood. That is found in vampire stories from Stoker's Dracula to King's Salem's Lot. DSBJ uses this theme but it never really decides what it wants to say about it. If vampires are just blood addicts should they be pitied or destroyed? This film can't decide. In fact it's not interested in even asking that question. It doesn't really take a moral side. So this was a movie during which I found myself constantly checking how much time was left, not because I didn't want it to end but because I did. There is full frontal nudity here from both genders. If you could not live without seeing Felicia Pearson (Snoop from The Wire) nude then this is a film for you. The hair stylist Nate Bova makes her acting debut but (fortunately? unfortunately?) it's in an extremely explicit, detailed and lengthy lesbian scene. I think this film might be more of interest to film students who can appreciate the technical challenges of low budget filmmaking than it would be to the casual viewer who is just looking for an engaging story. But as with everything YMMV. Katherine Borowitz (aka Mrs. John Turturro), Rami Malek, Joie Lee, Cinque Lee, Raphael Saadiq, Valerie Simpson, Thomas Jefferson Byrd and Donna Dixon have roles.
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The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires
directed by Chang Cheh and Roy Ward Baker
"Everybody was kung-fu fighting/Those kicks were fast as lightning"

In the late seventies the Rolling Stones jumped on the disco bandwagon with Miss You. In the eighties Aerosmith reignited their career by doing a version of their song Walk This Way with the then hotter rap group Run-DMC. Similarly in 1974 Hammer Films was reeling financially. Its bosomy period horror flicks were out of style. So the Hammer producers and studio execs tried to duplicate what was popular. Hong Kong kung fu movies were popular. Motivated by pure profit based opportunism, Hammer tried to revive its fortunes by co-producing a horror/kung fu movie with the famous Hong Kong Shaw Brothers Studio. It didn't work. Perhaps the usual Orientalist aspects of Hammer productions didn't mesh with the more independent, modern and proud Chinese Shaw Brothers approach. Perhaps it didn't work because the Chinese and English crews couldn't really understand each other and didn't get along that well when they did. Perhaps it didn't work because kung fu horror wasn't what people wanted, then or now. Peter Cushing did his normal good work as the eternally doubted vampire hunter Van Helsing but he's really in the wrong film. Dracula (John Forbes-Robertson) looks and sounds very much like he wandered in from La Cage Aux Folles. He's about as scary as Count Chocula. Perhaps recognizing a camp Dracula doesn't work, the directors mostly keep Dracula offscreen. They do this by having Dracula possess the body of a Chinese villain which is ironic considering this is basically what Hammer was trying to do with the kung fu genre.

In the 1800s an evil Chinese monk goes to Transylvania to ask for Dracula's help in restoring the power of seven Chinese vampires. In the 1900s Van Helsing lectures at a Chinese university about the legend of vampires who have terrorized a remote Chinese village for centuries. It's not explained why the villagers didn't just move. But if that question comes to mind the horror genre isn't for you anyway. The professors and students dismiss Van Helsing as a nut and leave. Everyone departs except for Hsi Ching (David Chiang) the leader of a band of kung fu expert siblings. He tells Van Helsing that the legend is true. His grandfather killed a vampire. Hsi Ching wants Van Helsing's help in eliminating the other vampires. Hsi Ching thinks that with his family's kung fu skills and Van Helsing's knowledge, they can't lose. The wealthy Norwegian widow Vanessa Buren (Julie Ege) agrees to fund the expedition but only if she can come along. She's got eyes for Hsi Ching. Her character only exists to show off impressive cleavage. Throughout the film more and more articles of her clothing either get wet or come off though Ege apparently (unless there's an unedited edition available) had a no toplessness clause in her contract, something the Chinese extras didn't. When someone asked Baker why he cast Ege he incredulously asked the person to look at her. Ege had been Miss Norway and a Penthouse Pet. Fair enough.

Special effects and cinematography are surprisingly worse than Hammer's work fifteen years before this film. Heck, they're worse than Universal did FORTY(!) years before this film. I'm talking obvious fake bats on strings and stop motion decaying deflating vampires. The film looks very very cheap. The picture and colors lack definition. I wonder if the director of photography was drunk. The indifferent dubbing only makes matters worse. The fight scenes are ok and of a piece with the times. No one is going to mistake this for Five Deadly Venoms (a later Shaw Brothers masterpiece) or Enter the Dragon. The Chinese siblings, with the exception of Hsi Ching and his sister, who likes Van Helsing's son, are never differentiated from one another. Still they are the best part of the film, particularly in an early set piece where the entire family joyously runs to meet the enemy. Aside from that I was joyous when this film concluded. I'm not including the trailer because Hammer actually ineptly revealed the entire ending in the trailer. You're not missing much though.