Bulletproof Monk

[jack]

I *didn't* manage to get to the film festival, but while I was busy with other things I saw several films over the weekend, though nothing of great value.

I think I owe Bulletproof monk an apology. I still think it's very stupid, but it does it with a will and sense of humour. The Nazis *did* take an interest in Tibet before WWII, so that wasn't (edit: was->wasn't) as arbitrary as it seemed.

The monk fulfilled three prophecies, first being fighting an army of enemies while a flock of cranes circled above. Kar finds himself fighting off a cockney-ish sewer gang, and the monk sees and looks up, and you realise some of the steampunkness on the ceiling are a circle of hoisting cranes. That's a prophecy -- the idea of updating prophecies is an old one, but it fulfills the "don't understand it till you see it" well!

I saw some others. Inside man: It seemed the perfect example of a clever caper movie. It had all the elements -- ironic mastermind, white-collar villain, dedicated cop, Chiwetel Ejiofor. But never quite reached the dizzy heights of actually caring what the hell happened.

Bride and Prejudice: It told the story quite well. It fit the story into modern times well: Wickham is if anything more convincing than ever. But I'm bored of P&P remakes :)

ETA: What I was going to say was that the social relationship between Darcy and Lizzie mapped well into that between Darcy and Lalita. It's hard to choose something that captures the feel of the original, this was well chosen.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/vitriol_/]

Halfway through Inside Man, I was convinced I had figured out how they pulled off their clever scheme - when they started hacking a hole in the floor I thought "ingenious, they're going to put the jewelry in a waterproof package and stick it down one of the pipes, so an accomplice can pick it up wherever the pipes came out". I was a little disappointed to find out what their actual scheme was, in the end.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I thought they were referencing that -- the policeman says something like "unless they swam away through the toilets". But then it wasn't the last plan. But I think I've seen both somewhere or other. So I didn't know what was coming, but it wasn't a shock they'd managed something.

I remember this came out at the same time as Slevin, and I tossed a coin to decide which to see and saw Slevin, and am glad I did. Inside Man looked well done from the trailer, just a bit serious if anything. But Slevin was great, artistic, intricate, sassy, just a little grim.

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I loved the songs in B&P ^_^

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I think they were lost on me :) I like *some* musicals, some quite a lot, but in B&P nothing didn't just feel like a five minute interval I had to ignore :) (Though I didn't object to trying, having much music was a good choice :))

[pavanne.livejournal.com]

Bonus points for use of my current favourite word, 'steampunk'.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I think I'm probably using it out of proportion to its original meaning, but it seems to capture that retro-optimistic-technology feel. Anything where you can get ahead in life by tinkering with things in an anarchistic way shares a sense of excitement, that the word captures.