Euro-AICN: Hour Of Religion; Windtalkers; Tomb Raider 2; Peter Pan

Well, Father Geek here with a short Euro-report this time around.

First off I totally disagree with these Euro-guys concerning WINDTALKERS, its certainly no BULLET IN THE HEAD, HARD BOILED, A BETTER TOMORROW, or THE KILLER, but then what is? This is a completely different kind of motion picture, Woo is not trying to revisit his past hits. You might as well except that, we won't be seeing their likes again except on DVD.

It is however a damn nice, rip'em-up, tear'um apart war-action flick, not equal to the very best of that genre... buuuuuuut certainly no where near the worst, or even the middle. And there are alot worse things to drop your money on in the theaters right now... alot worse. The incredibly intense knife fights, sizzling flamethrower action, violent gut-wretching bayonetings, smooth samurai sword beheading, the great bullet-popping, cannon-blasting sound mix, etc... make it all totally worthwhile in this ol' war film fan's opinion... I'll more than likely see it again. Harry saw it while in Vegas, and told me he thought it rocked... Soooooooooo its got two fans at least...

Hi people. A few days ago I was so unlucky to see in a couple of hours Windtalkers and Scooby Doo. My god... I wasn't expecting anything from Scooby Doo, so I can't say I'm disappointed. But John Woo was one of my favorite directors until Face Off (which is absolutely his best movie in USA). How can such a great director make this mess? Of course, it's obvious that the movie was heavily cut, but what is the reason to leave the Nicolas Cage - Frances O'Connor romance (romance?), which has no sense in this form. Worse, the action scenes are not worthy of John Woo. In this (brief) column, Ethan has a very tough review of the movie, as usual for him. More, a few links to news about Peter Pan, Nicolas Cage and Tomb Raider 2. Enjoy!

News from Screendaily

Columbia sets up studio three-way for Peter Pan PJ Hogan's live action version of Peter Pan has been set up as a three-way co-production between its originator Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures and Joe Roth's Revolution Studios. The film is set to shoot in Australia later this summer. Click Here

Hour Of Religion tops Nastro d'Argento award nominations

Marco Bellocchio's Hour Of Religion, the story of an atheist painter who finds out his brothers want to beatify their dead mother, led the nominations for Italy's Nastri d'Argento, the country's oldest movie awards. Just Click

Nicolas Cage and Tomb Raider 2 on Empire Online... We got to talk to Nicolas Cage this week about the remake of Wickerman. You can read the story here Go Here

Plus, they're already advertising for extras for Tomb Raider 2 in the UK Click and See

Ethan has a rough opinion about Windtalkers, which was a disappointment for me too...

WINDTALKERS affair is extremely delicate since we can`t vivisect the movie on its` own terms. It was made by the man who made the greatest war drama ever BULLET IN THE HEAD. If we actually treat it as if it was made by some inconspicous director, it would be defined as a cliched WW-2 flick covering one story in the history of US Armed Forces. Nothing beyond mediocre U-571. But with Woo around we have a completely different affair. Because some of the previously announced failures can be erased and some features may appear fake.

WINDTALKERS script is strictly by-the-numbers case. It has a bunch of fill-in-the-blanks ingredients and plotpoints that can bother you in some typical film. But, with Woo`s name on the credits, this kind of cliched script potentially could turn into deep philosophy. Some of Woo`s movies had great scripts. But he achieved greatness with mediocre writing. Look at HARD TARGET. This means that Woo isn`t at all about plot. He perfectly works with these exploiteted pitches because he contemplates. This is why his expression is all about emotion and cinematic approach.

So, WINDTALKERS script is very flawed but these shortcomings don`t bother me. I am surprised by the staging of battle sequences. If someone else made it, I would bitch about the script (look at this pointless PEARL HARBORish love affair) and claim that battle scenes were well done. But when Woo is around, I expect the higher level of action.

Everyone is familiar with Woo landmarks in action scenes. One of those landmarks is the meaning and the storytelling sense inside of them. His gunplay can arouse you or make you burst into tears. Woo`s gunplay is all there is.

WINDTALKERS has no Woo landmarks. It is done with realistic flare as if he wanted to match SAVING PRIVATE RTYAN. He failed in every way by doing this. First of all, these battle scenes bring us no sense of characters (if we discount the basic level of some of them being brave and stuff). These situations are consisted of two heavily armed groups that kill each other off. We see Nic Cage gunning down dozens of screaming lunatics that don`t look like a respectable enemy in the first place. And this gunning isn`t done in a smart or cool or seductive way. But it also doesn`t feel real. And it has to be either stylized or real. It`s neither. I`m glad that we`re talking high bodycounts and bloodshed here but none of this makes sense in a Woo film. He ain`t no Spielberg. He is greater than Spielberg. Too bad nobody told him that.

Simply, we don`t care about these scenes. We don`t know the characters` goals. We don`t know when agony ends or when all hell breaks lose. And most of all, we have no clue what these guys are supposed to do or how their individual achievement got relevant since Navajo code-talkers essentially send acute messages that even deciphered don`t mean a lot to Japanese. I mean, calling people to say you`re under fire is no news for people who pour fire on you.

The saddest thing is thatI wanted to see a Woo film but wound up with a time-filler that could`ve been credited to anyone.

Big Unit WW-2 flicks are a touchy concept. Guys on a Mission flicks are a bit easier to make since you can focus on characters. I still remember Samuel Fuller`s MERRILL`S MARAUDERS which shows us how great auteur can screw up a Big Unit WW-2 pic funded by US Armed Forces. But still, Fuller made other classics afterwards including the granddaddy of great contempo WW-2 films BIG RED ONE. Is Woo ready to rebound after making M:I 2 and WINDTALKERS in a row. Is he aware that M:I 2 was technically a better film since it had landmark Woo 20 minute finale?

Many critics are also trying to underline the Navajo ethnic context in this film which is quite bizarre since it is the story of people who abused their national heritage so some other people could kill the third party. This movie is by no way helping the Navajos. To the contrary. It presents the Navajos as wimps who calmly take ugly racist assaults and help the very military that almost extinct them. They are also the tool of Woo`s racist vendeta against Japanese who did a lot of ugly things to his beloved Chinese people.

And eventually, what if we expect too much of him? What if he just wants to make movies every other hack can make? Should we respect his wish? Should we let him make failures that will always be compensated by his masterpieces. Or shall we spit on the flop he made and get him itchy?

WINDTALKERS left me puzzled because just two years ago I claimed that I would rather watch a Woo WW-2 film than get jiggy with Carmen Elektra. After this outing, I guess, I would rather do anything else than see a Woo WW-2 flick.

God bless, Ethan

That's all for today See you next week

Robert Bernocchi

Caltanet.it