International Shenanigans

Movie Review: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Caught this classic Bond film on TV. I probably wouldn't have watched it as I've seen it many times before but this time it was in HD so... Wow did it look good. Those scenes in front of the pyramids really make me want to go to Egypt. It was a little disappointing to learn that none of it was filmed in Egypt but that says a lot about the set and props department for this movie. Well done. Unfortunately this film was a lot cornier that I remembered it to be. More funny than exciting. After watching this I'm really stoked to see the newest Bond film. 6/10

Movie Review: Phenomena (1985)

My new King of B Movies. This was just awful but bad in a very funny way. It had all the elements of a disaster: bad story, bad acting, cheesy soundtrack that didn't fit the movie, horrible lighting, crappy sets, extremely fake looking gore, and most importantly ... a revenge seeking knife-wielding monkey. This movie comes from the mind of the famous Italian horror director Dario Argento. I haven't seen any of his other films and this one doesn't really compel me to. Jennifer Connelly, in one of her earliest roles, stars as the son of a famous American actor who enrolls in a private girls' boarding school in Switzerland. Unfortunately the school and the nearby town have been plagued by a series of grisly murders recently. This doesn't seem to concern any of the students however as they are often walking around the surrounding woods smoking and meeting up with boyfriends. Maybe they're not worried because of the unusual lighting conditions there - no matter what time of night or how deep in the woods they are there always happens to be a spotlight nearby. Anyways, Connelly's character is a little different than the rest because she can somehow communicate with insects. This is all quite silly and really doesn't do much for the film but get her drawn into a hilarious sequence of violent encounters that don't seem to upset her in the least. For anyone that likes really, really bad movies this is a good one. 2/10

Movie Review: Beyond Borders (2003)

Angelina Jolie plays a high society British women who decides to go to Africa to lend a helping hand at a refugee camp. There she meets a handsome and highly dedicated doctor played by Clive Owen. Of course they fall in love and she follows him to Cambodia and Russia. The plot is mostly about the plight of starving hapless refugees in the beginning but by the time they are in Russia the film is all about the two lovers. I think the message of the film gets lost as the story devolves into a romance and the spirit of the film changes. 6/10

Movie Review: House of Flying Daggers (2004)

From the director of Hero Yimou Zhang this is yet another flashy but beautiful, wire-action wonder. A story of subterfuge within subterfuge. An army officer goes undercover and helps a blind woman escape from jail in order to find the secret assasin clan she belongs to. But no one is who they appear or say to be. This nice little thriller is fleshed out with fantastic, almost dream-like sword fight scenes. A fight scene that takes place high above the ground in a bamboo forest is especially beautiful. 8/10

Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code - Extended Version (2006)

This is about 13 minutes longer than the theatrical version. The majority of the new scenes don't add a lot but are nice moments taken directly from the original Dan Brown novel. If you haven't seen this yet it would be better to watch this extended version. 7.5/10