Blu-Ray Review: OPERATION MEKONG

Starring Zhang Hanyu, Eddie Peng, Feng Wenjuon, Sun Chun, Liu Xianda, Jonathan, Zhao Jian, Shi Zhanjie, Wu Xudong, Pawalit Mongokolpisit, Chen Baoguo. Directed by Dante Lam. (2016, 124 min).

WELL GO USA

If you ever wanted to watch a coked-up child play Russian Roulette and lose, have I got a movie for you...

Supposedly inspired on real events - though you'll scarcely believe a minute of it - Operation Mekong is a Chinese action film loaded with bombastic, bloody mayhem. Gao Gang (Zhang Hanyu) and Fang Xinwu (Eddie Peng) are two drug enforcement agents who go undercover with a team of mercenaries to try and stop the flow of drugs from the Golden Triangle, a region along the Mekong River where powerful cartels control everything and everyone.

The most vicious & chemically imbalanced of the drug-lords is Naw Kham (Pawalit Mongokolpisit, sporting the mother of all mullets), who essentially declares war on the Chinese police. In addition to surrounding himself with a legion of murderous thugs, scores of kidnapped drug-addicted kids (little kids) live with him. He keeps them busy, though...walking into police stations with bombs and protecting his compound with machine guns. Father of the year, he ain't.

"Oochy-koochy-koo, you son of a bitch!"

Character development - and a majority of the plot, for that matter - mostly takes a backseat to explosive action and brutal violence. Some of the latter is truly unnerving, such as the aforementioned Russian Roulette scene and the fate of an innocent woman at the wrong end of a knife, though none of it's particularly exploitative. As for the action...Dante Lam directs like a graduate from the Michael Bay Academy, which isn't quite as terrible as the comparison implies. Sometimes big & ballsy is the way to go, and when your movie already stretches credibility to the breaking point, why not toss in a shoot-out/car chase that destroys an entire shopping mall?

Operation Mekong seldom slows down long enough for the viewer to think too much about its plausibility. The violence involving children is a little tough to take - and not real really necessary - but other than that, the film is fairly enjoyable way to kill a few hours.

EXTRA KIBBLES

A six-part making-of documentary

KITTY CONSENSUS:

NOT BAD...LIKE CAT CHOW

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Rest in Peace, Peter Sallis

Peter Sallis (1921-2017)

Blu-Ray Review: BAMBI - ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Starring the voices of Donnie Dunagan, Hardy Albright, John Sutherland, Tim Davis, Sam Edwards, Paula Winslowe, Sterling Holloway, Will Wright, Ann Gillis. Numerous Directors (supervised by David Hand). (1942, 70 min).

WALT DISNEY

What more can you say about Bambi?

If not the best animated film released during Walt's watch, it's arguably the most ambitious, artistic and influential. And along with Pinocchio, Bambi has aged remarkably well, both narratively and aesthetically. 75 years (!) later, it's lost none of its power to enthrall, amuse, charm and horrify.

Speaking of horrifying, it goes without saying that Bambi's legacy extends beyond the silver screen. This is, of course, the movie that ruined a million childhoods by introducing the concept of death to them for the first time. Not the demise of a villain or any of that "circle of life" nonsense...real death, which doesn't always play fair, often comes without warning, takes loved ones away and doesn't give them back.

In the interest of journalistic integrity, I'll save the spoilers for the few who might be clueless to what scene I'm referring to. But I will argue that the main reason it remains so emotionally shredding - more-so than a similar segment in Disney's The Lion King - is its unsentimental, sugar-free cruelty. Death swiftly strikes and moves on. So does the film, without giving its audience a chance to process and fully accept what's happened. In a way, the fact we're forced to move forward with no reassurance is ultimately what makes the event so devastating (especially for the wee ones).

"Mama said I'm not s'pposed to talk about Fight Club."

That aside, Bambi remains a triumph of minimalist storytelling. Seeing it for the first time in at least 30 years, I noticed how little dialogue there actually is, using imagery, action and music to manipulate the audience more effectively than verbal exposition. From a visual and technical standpoint, Bambi not only changed how animated films are made, it's loaded with striking imagery, beautiful backgrounds and painstaking attention to the tiniest details.

This "Anniversary Edition" isn't Bambi's first Blu-Ray rodeo, though. It sports the same gorgeous picture & sound as 2011's Diamond Edition. It also duplicates most of that version's supplemental features, along with a handful of new ones (listed below). And like the previous disc, there are three ways to watch the film: the straight theatrical version, "Inside Walt's Story Meetings" (a picture-in-picture feature where we see and hear transcripts of the original production meetings as the film is playing) and "Disney View," where the sidebars are filled with paintings by artist Lisa Keene (includes a brief Keene bio).

For Disney fans - not-to-mention serious cinephiles - Bambi is a must-own on Blu-Ray. If it's not yet in your collection, this one is worth picking up over the older disc, mainly because it also includes a digital copy. However, with the exception of a digital-only tribute to the film's late lead artist and an early black & white cartoon made by Walt Disney before he was Walt Disney, the remaining new features are of the fluffy variety. Those who own the Diamond Edition may want to consider that before double-dipping.

EXTRA KIBBLES - NEW

FEATURETTES:

"Bambi Fawn Facts"

"The Bambi Effect"

"Studio Stories: Bambi"

"Celebrating Tyrus Wong" (Available on digital copy only) - The late Tyrus Wong was the film's lead artist

ANIMATED SHORT: "Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit: Africa Before Dark"

2 DELETED SCENES

TYRUS WONG LITHOGRAPH

DVD & DIGITAL COPIES

EXTRA KIBBLES - "CLASSIC BONUS FEATURES" (from previous home video releases)

FEATURETTES: "Tricks of Our Trade"; "Inside the Disney Archives"; "The Making of Bambi"; "The Golden Age"

ANIMATED SHORT: "The Old Mill"

3 DELETED SCENES

DELETED SONG: "Twitterpated"

TRAILER

KITTY CONSENSUS:

MEE-OW! IF YOU DON'T ALREADY OWN IT, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Blu-Ray Review: THE ASSIGNMENT

Starring Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia, Yvette Nicole Brown. Directed by Walter Hill. (2016, 95 min).

LIONSGATE

Over his lengthy career, Walter Hill has directed some undisputed classics (The Warriors, 48HRS) and underrated gems (The Driver, The Long Riders). So while Hill certainly knows how to put together a character-driven action film, his last truly good one, Trespass, was 25 years ago. Still, as I do with William Friedkin and John Carpenter (two other legends whose glory days appear long gone), I still cling to the hope that Hill has one last great picture left in him.

But after watching The Assignment, I'm thinking maybe I should give up.

Too bad, really. The concept is just crazy and lurid enough to be a disreputable good time. Michelle Rodriguez is vicious assassin Frank Kitchen, who kills the brother of Rachel Jane (Sigourney Weaver), a brilliant but arrogant & terminally-weird surgeon. With the help of a mob boss and his crew, Jane exacts a bit of revenge - all in the name of science - by giving Frank a radical sex change operation, thinking it will alter his aggressive tendencies. That's right, folks...the 'assignment' of the title refers to reassignment. She's still the same old Frank, though. Upon learning the operation can't be reversed, she decides to hunt down and kill everyone responsible.

"Yeah...I'm in a band."

Rodriguez certainly deserves an action vehicle of her own, but The Assignment is ridiculous, predictable and ultimately boring. Even if the viewer is able to swallow the notion that Frank can bounce back from a complete gender reassignment in a few days - without a single surgical scar - to go on her killing spree, the ensuing action scenes are pedestrian and unimaginative. Frank simply locates (with remarkable ease) and shoots most of the supporting cast one-by-one until she confronts Jane.

While Rodriguez tries, she's unconvincing in the role, mostly sounding like she's voicing a secondary Simpsons character. Despite some elaborate make-up and prosthetics - including a gratuitous, chuckle-worthy shot of Rodriguez prancing around naked with a hairy chest and dangling dong - we simply don't buy her as a man. As Jane, Weaver's mostly forced to spout inane, pseudo-intellectual monologues to establish her as a twisted genius, a trope which became cliche shortly after we met Hannibal Lector.

I wish I could say such a low-wattage piece of sleaze is beneath a once-great  filmmaker like Walter Hill. However, The Assignment (which he co-wrote) is apparently something he's wanted to make for a long time, so he bares much of the blame. What happened? He used to be so good at combining crackling action with interesting characters, but even his last debacle, Bullet to the Head, was more trashy fun than this. I don't know...maybe the man's best years are truly behind him.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTE: "Filmmaking Portraits"

DVD & DIGITAL COPIES

KITTY CONSENSUS:

MEH...

Blu-Ray Review: AFTERMATH (2017)

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scoot McNairy, Maggie Grace, Martin Donovan, Hannah Ware. Directed by Elliott Lester. (2017, 94 min).

LIONSGATE

You gotta give ol' Arnold this much...he makes no pretenses about the fact he ain't the man he used to be. Unlike many of his peers, he knows he can no longer pull-off being an indestructible action hero without looking ridiculous. For much of his post-gubernatorial career - even Terminator Genysys, to a certain extent - he acts his age and all the baggage that comes with it.

And fortunately for him, he had learned to become a better actor over the years than most of those same peers, to the point we can accept him in a straight dramatic role, such as his melancholy turn in Aftermath. In fact, his rich, low-key performance is the best part of the entire film.

Arnold plays Roman, a construction worker whose wife and pregnant daughter die in a mid-air plane collision. Jacob (Scoot McNairy) is the air traffic controller who was on-watch when the disaster occurred, which ultimately killed 271 people. For most of the film, their individual stories are presented concurrently. Both men are devastated, neither able to put the tragedy behind them. Roman still wants answers - or even an apology - which aren't forthcoming. He becomes so withdrawn and lonely he contemplates suicide. Meanwhile, blame for the crash is placed almost solely on Jacob, both publicly and at work (though it's suggested it may not have actually been his fault). Not only does he become alienated from his wife and son, he's forced to relocate to another state with a new job and identity to avoid further public scrutiny.

Eventually, Roman decides he can't fully move on until he confronts Jacob personally, either for an apology he's still waiting for, or to exact revenge.

"Sarah Connor?"

But Aftermath is less about revenge than how two people struggle to deal with an emotionally devastating tragedy. Neither is a hero or a villain. While we watch both men make some questionable - sometimes terrible - choices, we empathize with both of them. This is entirely due to the two leads. McNairy delivers an effective performance in arguably the most challenging role, a hapless man whose overwhelming sense of guilt threatens to consume him. Schwarzenegger is the real revelation, though, with a complexity & vulnerability he only hinted at in Maggie.

With almost no moments of levity, Aftermath is a bleak, mournful and understated film about the effects of a tragedy that most of us pray we'll never have to experience ourselves. As such, it's not a grand old time at the movies, though worth the effort to see Schwarzenegger at his absolute best.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTE: Interviews with director Elliott Lester & director of photography Pieter Vermeer

AUDIO COMMENTARY - with director Elliott Lester & producer Eric Watson

DIGITAL COPY

KITTY CONSENSUS

PURR-R-R...NO PICNIC, BUT SCHWARZENEGGER IS OUTSTANDING

Blu-Ray Review: THE SHACK

Starring Sam Worthington, Octavia Spencer, Aviv Alush, Sumire, Radha Mitchell, Tim McGraw, Graham Greene. Directed by Stuart Hazeldine. (2017, 132 min).

LIONSGATE / SUMMIT

Really, God?

My brutal, alcoholic dad regularly beats the hell out of me & Mom until I'm finally forced to stop his reign of terror myself, and you want me to forgive him? Then my youngest daughter gets abducted and murdered by a serial killer, and your advice for dealing with pain that no parent should ever be forced to endure is simply let it go and forgive that guy???

That's the gist of The Shack, based on the bestseller by William Paul Young, whose own story is more  interesting than anything in this film. Yet another faith-based movie that mostly preaches to the converted, Sam Worthington plays Mack, a grieving father who, months later, still can't get over the tragedy (Entire months, huh? What a crybaby). Too bad he couldn't be more like the rest of his family, who appear to mourn poor Missy for about as long as one would cry over a vehicle-stricken pet.

But this is all about Mack. In fact, before it's even confirmed that Missy is dead, his wife (Radha Mitchell) appears more concerned about comforting her husband than their missing daughter.

"Dude, you were supposed to bring the bait."

Later, Mack gets a cryptic letter, inviting him to the same shack in the woods where Missy was murdered. It turns out the letter is from God, here to help Mack deal with his pain. Yeah...great plan. What better place to come-to-terms with a murdered child than revisiting the place where her bloodstains are still on the floor? God manifests himself as three people, Papa (Octavia Spencer), Jesus (Aviv Alush) and Sarayu (Sumire). They're sort of a Holy Trinity tag-team, taking turns explaining life's bigger picture, God's plan and why we should never judge others (even if they're serial killers).

And here lies the biggest problem with The Shack: God isn't all that convincing, no matter how eloquently he presents his argument, mostly through ambiguous riddles and symbolic illusions. The conceit of "get over it and trust God" is almost offensively simplistic when applied to the magnitude of a murdered child, ultimately rendering this film more depressing and fatalistic than inspirational.

As Mack is about to discover, there are no problems so insurmountable that a Necronomicon can't fix.

Of course, The Shack is obviously aiming for a specific audience, but one would think even those whose daily diet consists of blind acceptance would appreciate a side order of justice in this case. If we're expected to swallow the idea of a grieving parent learning to forgive a serial killer over a single weekend, that message wouldn't really diminish if the murderer was at-least caught and brought to justice. In fact, a climax where Mack confronts the killer face-to-face to test his newfound forgiveness would arguably convey the movie's message more effectively. Simply from a story standpoint, having the killer get away scot-free is like rubbing salt in an open wound, making it a challenge for even the most faithful to get on-board with God's plan. 

Elsewhere, despite some pretty locations and a charming, laid-back performance by Aviv Alush,The Shack moves at a snail's pace towards its inevitable denouement, offering no surprises, a dull checklist of revelations by a main character who isn't all that interesting to begin with. Aside from occasionally reminding the viewer how horrible losing a child would be, the film is emotionally vacant, its 'inspirational' message ringing completely hollow.  

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES: "Something Bigger Than Ourselves: The Making of The Shack"; "Premiere Night: A Blessed Evening"; "God's Heart for Humanity"; "Touched by God: A Writer's Journey"

"HEAVEN KNOWS" - The Power of Song with Hillsong United

DELETED SCENE

AUDIO COMMENTARY - by Director Stuart Hazeldine

DVD & DIGITAL COPIES

KITTY CONSENSUS:

MEH...

Blu-Ray Review: LOGAN

Starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Richard E. Grant, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal, Elizabeth Rodriguez. Directed by James Mangold. (2017, 137 min).

20TH CENTURY FOX 

LOGAN is also available on 4K Ultra HD, DVD and Digital HD.

For those of you too young to remember when the 'M' in MTV stood for music, MTV Unplugged was a series where the biggest rock stars of the day performed acoustically-driven concerts in a small intimate setting, without any flash, costumes, props, light shows or pyrotechnics to enhance their music.

Logan could be seen as a superhero version of MTV Unplugged, stripped clean of spectacle and bombast. Its titular character no longer has a costume, modus operandi or any particular desire to save the world. In fact, the fate of the world  isn't even at stake here.

"Guess who this month's centerfold is."

It's 2029. The world has changed, and not necessarily for the better. There aren't many mutants left, and it's suggested that most were eradicated. The old Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, in a career-best performance) is still around, grumpier, drunker and more cynical. Though ailing and unable to heal himself as fast a he used to, he's still capable of carving up enemies when necessary.

He has the added burden of caring for his old mentor, Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who's in even worse shape (his telepathic abilities have become more unstable and dangerous with the ravages of age). Within the film's first few minutes, we suspect their days are numbered, which apparently suits Logan just fine. He's been prepared - sometimes even wanting - to die long before Laura (Dafne Keen, whose winning performance equals her heavyweight co-stars) arrives to complicate things.

Another babysitter who probably won't be returning.

Laura's an 11-year-old genetically-created mutant with the same abilities - and temperament - as Logan (no great mystery why). She has escaped Transigen, a research lab where mutant children have been illegally created, and now they want her back. The bulk of film becomes a cross-country chase, with Logan reluctantly protecting her - and vise versa - as they head for Eden, a supposed mutant sanctuary that Laura learned about from an old X-Men comic book.

An overall sense of inevitability that runs throughout the film tends to render the story rather predictable, but in-no-way diminishes its emotional impact. That's because the plot - essentially a conflict-laden road trip - is secondary to real core of the film: its three main characters and their relationships with each other. Their evolution into a marginally functional family provides Logan's most joyous and heartbreaking moments.

It's been oft-mentioned the primary inspiration for Logan was classic westerns, which is obvious because one of the genre's most classic tropes - the remorseful antihero seeking redemption - is the most prevalent theme running throughout the film.

Much has also been written and said about Logan's highly touted R-rating, which it definitely earns, but that's not what makes it unique among the other X-Men films. Though it definitely fits comfortably within the franchise, it exists perfectly outside of it, as well...an 'unplugged' superhero film with a story, mood and atmosphere so unlike any previous ones that it not-only transcends its own franchise, but the entire genre. Here, the Logan character is finally presented as the unfiltered antihero only hinted at in previous X-men films and Wolverine spin-offs.

Dark, violent and suitably poignant, Logan is, so far, one of the best films of the year, and a wonderful respite from all the biblical spectacle typical of the comic movie genre.

EXTRA KIBBLES

LOGAN NOIR - A black & white version of the film on a separate disc. Similar to the B&W version of The Mist, it enhances the already dark tone of the film.

"MAKING LOGAN" - A detailed, six-part making-of documentary

AUDIO COMMENTARY (by director James Mangold)

DELETED SCENES (with optional commentary)

DVD & DIGITAL COPIES

KITTY CONSENSUS

MEE-OW! LIKE BEING TURNED LOOSE IN A BIRD SANCTUARY

Blu-Ray Review: SKY ON FIRE

Starring Daniel Wu, Zhang Ruoyun, Zhang Jingchu, Joseph Chang, Amber Kuo, Wayne Lai. Directed by Ringo Lam. (2017, 100 min).

WELL GO USA

Sky on Fire has a lot going for it. There's action o' plenty...hand-to-hand combat, car chases, gunplay and, for good measure, one absolutely epic scene of destruction. It's confidently directed by Ringo Lam, whose City on Fire (no relation) remains an all-time classic of Asian action cinema. Daniel Wu (Into the Badlands) makes a solid action hero. And on a more superficial note, check out that badass box art.

Unfortunately, the story is convoluted, cliched and loaded with glaring lapses in logic. In a nutshell, everybody is after a batch of Ex Stem Cells, which can apparently cure any disease, including cancer. Years before, it was stolen by Tang (FanKuang Yao), who killed a colleague, Professor Lee, to get it. Fast-forward to today, and Tang runs a research facility known as Sky One (a massive skyscraper dwarfing every other building in Hong Kong). Lee's former co-workers, including his son, steal the stem cells back, which are then stolen from them by Jia, who wants it to cure his cancer-ridden sister. Sky One's head of security, Tingbo (Wu), goes after them, but switches sides due to Tang's greed and cruelty. 

"That was one mother of a moth."

A lot of this is really confusing, especially at the beginning, not helped by plot turns that make little sense. For example, a team hijacks a truck leaving Sky One, then heads right back to the same building, for no discernible reason other than to feature more mayhem. It's also unclear why billionaire Tang would refuse to treat Jia's ailing sister in the first place, except to remind the us what a bastard he is. Speaking of the sister, even though time is rapidly running out for her to get the Stem Cell treatment, her new friends - well aware of her condition - decide to take her boating.

The viewer is better off forgetting the plot and simply enjoying Sky on Fire for the action and violence, which is elaborate and over-the-top, especially during the CG-laden climax. There's just enough mayhem to make it worth slogging through the sorry story and dumb characters.

EXTRA KIBBLES

None

KITTY CONSENSUS:

NOT BAD. LIKE CAT CHOW.

Rest in Peace, Roger Moore

Sir Roger Moore (1927-2017)