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Arrow Heads #82: Park Chan-wook’s JSA: JOINT SECURITY AREA (2000) Heralds a Coming Master
Human connection and tragedy in a demilitarized zone
Arrow Heads — UK-based Arrow Films has quickly become one of the most exciting and dependable names in home video curation and distribution, creating gorgeous Blu-ray releases with high quality artwork and packaging, and bursting with supplemental content, often of their own creation. From the cult and genre fare of Arrow Video to the artful cinema of Arrow Academy, this column is devoted to their weird and wonderful output.
[In an effort to thoroughly examine the themes and impact of this film, spoilers will follow].
Jeong Woo-jin (Shin Ha-kyun) loves puppies. He’s got an infectious, child-like smile. He cries when he receives a thoughtful birthday present. He also happens to be a North Korean soldier working along the demilitarized zone at the border between North and South Korea. And before Joint Security Area (2000) is over, we’ll see his body riddled with bullets on screen multiple times as the scene of his death is recreated and retold from different perspectives over and over again.
In fact, burgeoning master director Park Chan-wook will make sure we see Jeong Woo-jin’s humanity entirely stripped from him on screen. We’ll see his brains splatter, his blood splash onto the camera. We’ll see his lifeless, bullet-ridden corpse rolled around a morgue as nothing more than a piece of evidence in an unsolved crime.
And yet JSA isn’t Jeong Woo-jin’s story, really. Indeed he isn’t even the main character. Rather JSA tells the broad, sweeping story of a divided Korea through a tragic event occurring among a small group of soldiers along the border. I simply felt that Jeong Woo-jin’s story was the best entry point into JSA, because he’s illustrative of the profound levels of both humanity and tragedy that Director Park injects into what might otherwise have been simply a slick, militaristic action/thriller/mystery.
We begin with a Rashomon-like structure in which an incident is being recreated and we’re seeing the events that occurred along the border from various perspectives. First we hear our lead character Lee Soo-hyuk’s (international superstar Lee Byung-hun) version of the story as he, a South Korean soldier, was kidnapped, dragged across the border, and had to heroically shoot his way out and escape, leaving Jeong Woo-jin and another Northern soldier dead in the process. Next comes Oh Kyeong-pil’s (international superstar Song Kang-ho) version, in which Southern soldier Lee Soo-hyuk bursts into their guardpost on the North side and executes his comrades. These depositions are both entirely false, and it’s up to a neutral foreign investigative body headed up by Major Sophie Jean (Lee Yeong-ae) to solve the mystery in order to keep international tensions from heating up to a boiling point.
But it’s here where JSA distinguishes itself as something much more than just a military/legal thriller. Because the truth of what happened takes up the majority of the film’s runtime, and it’s far more human and bitingly tragic than any of the versions presented to the authorities. In fact, through a chance encounter one night many months before the tragedy, Northern patrolmen Oh Kyeong-pil and Jeong Wu-jin stumble across our lead Lee Soo-hyuk, who had accidentally ended up on the Northern side after being separated from his platoon… and he has stepped on a landmine. Some tense exchanges occur, but in the end the Northern soldiers dismantle the mine and save Lee Soo-hyuk’s life. Working in bizarrely close proximity to one another along the border but on opposite sides, these soldiers strike up an unlikely friendship, and Lee Soo-hyuk eventually begins crossing over to the patrol post on the North side and simply… hanging out with his new friends. Eventually he brings along another soldier friend from the South and they more or less bro out — playing cards, drinking, checking out porn magazines, and telling fart jokes. In a way, the mundanity of their friendship, the natural rapport and easy laughs they share together, are the heart and soul of JSA. Without this extended middle sequence where the truth becomes concretized and we understand on a profound level that these ideologically opposed political enemies are true friends, the rest of the film really wouldn’t work, and the profound tragedy of the situation wouldn’t be felt so acutely.
Because in reality, by sheer chance a North Korean officer simply walks into the outpost where they’re all hanging out on that fateful night. In a way it was inevitable. There’s only so long you can drink and play cards in the joint security area before it’s all going to come crashing down just from a logistical perspective. But as an armed standoff immediately ensues, blood is tragically shed. In fact, it’s his South Korean friends who ultimately take Jeong Woo-jin’s life, and on his birthday no less.
And once we know the tragic truth, investigator Sophie Jean’s mystery portion of the film becomes more of an unpacking of human flaws and the limitations of nationalism. For a time, it seemed unity and shared human connection really could prevail among friends who share the same blood, the same peninsula, but divergent political ideologies. And for that brief time, it was beautiful; even normal. But as reality came crashing in, base instincts were reverted to, friend shed the blood of friend, and truth must be suppressed at all costs to avoid embarrassment for the political factions involved. In the aftermath of this incident, our grief stricken Southern soldiers will make suicide attempts; unable to stomach the killing of their friend at their own hands.
Park Chan-wook and his entire creative team took an enormous risk telling a politically charged story such as this, never knowing if they’d be punished for addressing so directly the political realities of North and South Korea. The film doesn’t ultimately come down on some kind of clear or pat political message, either. It simply explores the tragedy of a divided nation and reckons with the trauma that their political reality inflicts on the Korean citizens on both sides of the DMZ. It’s a slick and entertaining film that packs a salient human gut punch, and it portends a master filmmaker on the rise.
The Package
An absolutely dynamite physical media release, Arrow knocks it out of the park with JSA. The film’s transfer looks incredible and Park Chan-wook is simply a magnificent visual stylist. The film is loaded with evocative visuals and this Blu-ray just pops. Also loaded with fantastic bonus features, there’s lots of brand new features created just for this release (Simon Ward audio commentary, Asian cinema expert Jasper Sharp interview, and Kieran Fisher liner essay among the highlights), as well as a trove of archival bonus features. There are hours of bonus features to dive into and unpack, which is fitting for a film early in the careers multiple internationally renowned breakout Korean talents. This disc comes with a high recommendation.
And I’m Out.
JSA: Joint Security Area is now available on Blu-ray (USA) from Arrow Video.
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Two Cents Plays Matchmaker with EMMA.
Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick:
Jane Austen has long been a genre unto herself, with her tales of drawing room chats, tangled bonds of families and scandals and marriage, and the complex games of love and desire that play between men and women.
Austen’s stories are so beloved that they serve as the de facto shorthand for any story set during the Regency period of England. The popular new Shonda Rhymes show on Netflix, Bridgerton, is itself adapted from a series of novels by Julia Quinn, but even so there is no question what tradition that show is following in, nor of what audience (and appetites) it is seeking to serve.
Along with Bridgerton, we also got an actual Austen adaptation to slake that particular hunger. Acclaimed photographer and music video director Autumn de Wilde made her feature length debut with Emma., starring Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular heroine.
Emma., for those of you who didn’t realize Clueless was adapted from a Jane Austen novel, charts the various misadventures that arise in Emma’s community after she takes it upon herself to start meddling in people’s lives after placing great stock in her own abilities as a matchmaker.
People caught up in the whirlwind of Emma’s plotting include shy Harriet (Mia Goth), odious Vicar Elton (Josh O’Connor), sincere Mr. Martin (Connor Swindells), and the brooding Frank Churchill (Callum Turner).
Surveying Emma’s games with bemusement are her kindly father (Bill Nighy) and family friend George Knightley (Johnny Flynn) whose distemper at Emma’s charades just might mask that he is the true match waiting to be made.
Emma has been filmed before, repeatedly, but with de Wilde’s vision and an idiosyncratic cast, there’s never been an Emma quite like this one.
Next Week’s Pick:
These still are from the same movie, and that movie is our next film club pick — mostly because our pal and Two Cents clubber Trey Lawson tweeted out the second pic a few days ago and told us it’s now available on HBO Max.
Earth Girls Are Easy features a very young and winning cast of post-The Fly Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum, and pre-In Living Color Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans. I’ve never seen it and I just hope it’s half as wild as it looks. — Austin
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!
Our Guests:
I did not expect to be absolutely charmed by this iteration of Emma. We know this story, of course, but this adaptation manages to find a way to make it feel fresh. It all begins in the film’s aesthetic, with bright colors everywhere. Each scene feels like a splash of water to the face. I could watch this movie over and over again just for the details in the set design.
And then there’s the pure joy of this movie. One of my favorite characters in any movie this year is Bill Nighy. He is absolutely fantastic, and he seems to just be having a great time (minus the drafts, of course). In fact, there’s so much joy in this movie that it’s hard not to feel like every member of this cast is just having a fun time. It’s almost kind of like a high school play where everyone is pouring 100% of their heart into what’s happening, and it makes me love this movie so much. (@hsumra)
Brendan Agnew (The Norman Nerd):
IsIf the only thing to recommend Autumn de Wilde’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic romance were the director’s sumptuous visual sensibility and command of tone, it would be a solid companion to 1995’s Clueless (also from the same book). But what makes it a handsome match is the deft visual storytelling and canny use of playing actors not just ably against each other, but against themselves. Emma. is awash in those who are trying too hard to follow a set of complex social rules (many of which de Wilde introduces largely through context and trusting the audience to catch on) to healthily process their own emotions, let alone judge the feelings of others.
Which is, of course, what makes it such a banger of a rom-com, dressed in period drama livery and framed like a hornier Wes Anderson movie as it is at times (an unusual tightrope to choose, but one it walks ably and often hilariously). Anya Talyor-Joy proves a dynamite leading lady, able to turn on a dime from romantic crescendo to physical comedy, and the chemistry between her and Johnny Flynn make for a worthy pair of lovers from their first scene together.
I love so much about this, from the way de Wilde uses the depth of her frame to stack character and story through the background of group scenes to the unusual “soundtrack” the film uses, I love the seasonal title cards and the costume details, I love how tiny details throughout the movie reward repeat viewings, and I LOVE Bill Nighy’s obsession with drafts. (@BLCAgnew)
The Team:
When you are viewing a new adaptation of a work that has been translated for screen multiple times, you wonder, how will this stand out? Will a distinct voice shine through (see Gerwig’s Little Women)? Will this version make you take a closer look at a different aspect of the work?
Sadly, with Autumn de Wilde’s Emma., I ended up comparing it to Heckerling’s Clueless and McGrath’s Emma. And once I started contrasting performances, costumes, screenwriting, etc… I kept wishing I was watching one of those earlier adaptations instead.
There’s nothing really wrong with this new Emma (period), but there’s not much of the new here either. (@elizs)
Read more of Elizabeth’s thoughts on Emma. HERE.
Emma. is wildly charming and more or less glides to easy success on the strength of its effortlessly appealing ensemble and bright, poppy vision of Regency-era shenanigans. Taylor-Joy makes for a terrific Emma, keeping you squarely in the character’s court even as the regrettable choices and unintended consequences thereof keep piling up. I don’t especially ‘get’ Flynn and his particular appeal, but I follow enough women on Twitter to know that he is definitely plenty appealing to the required audience.
But for as charming as the movie undoubtedly is, Emma. is missing some extra element that would make it a true must-watch and put it into classic status alongside Clueless or the Ang Lee Sense & Sensibility or whichever Pride & Prejudice is your favorite. de Wilde scatters the film with occasional flourishes of the kind of hyper-stylization you might expect from a music video director, but these never amount to anything much and are so inconsistently deployed that they mostly feel completely out-of-place in what’s otherwise a colorful but sober rendition of a well-worn tale. Emma. is nothing less than consistently pleasant throughout, but it’s somewhat forgettable in the larger canon of Austen films. (@TheTrueBrendanF)
I was very much looking forward to being charmed by Emma, never having read the novel, but almost immediately it felt a little disorienting. Things kind of take off without much introduction and even having seen Clueless, I soon felt not only a little lost by the quick pace and large cast of characters, but rather annoyed at the eponymous protagonist with her judgmental attitudes and constant meddling.
But of course, that’s kind of the point — this is a story about growth, and Emma is a character who learns and betters herself as it progresses. Once this arc started to come together I was not only fully on board but deeply moved at how she genuinely seeks to undo the damage she has caused.
While I was off and on with the story, the film consistently excels as a comedy of both manners and errors. The ultra clean and colorful production design lends a degree of whimsy, and the cast of characters with their little foibles and feuds are endlessly fun (I especially loved Bill Nighy in his unusually understated role as Emma’s father), and probably in good measure one of the reasons the tale has proved so timeless. (@VforVashaw)
Next week’s pick:
https://play.hbomax.com/page/urn:hbo:page:GX_NQ9wwGMaHDwwEAAAAk:type:feature
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VIGILANTE Screen Comparisons — Blue Underground’s New 4K Restoration vs Prior Blu-ray
This article contains several comparisons which contrast Blue Underground’s 2010 Blu-ray transfer with their new 4K restoration. The frames aren’t necessarily exact matches, but should give a solid indication of the visual differences. This new edition of Vigilante from Blue Underground released on December 15th and is available now.
One of director William Lustig’s very best films, Vigilante has made its way to 4K UHD Blu-ray in a new release from his home video company, Blue Underground. Fan favorites Robert Forster and Fred Williamson star in the tale of an everyman (Forster) whose family life is destroyed by vicious gangsters, then furthermore wronged by an incompetent justice system. Shattered by the experience, he allies with a group of friends (led by Williamson) who have started taking natural justice to the streets — to an incredible music score.
Blue Underground previously released the film on Blu-ray in 2010 — it was actually a pretty great release, all around so it’s interesting to see are upping their game this time. The result is an incredible new vision of this beloved film.
Please note that, as I don’t have the means to capture the 4K disc, the Blu-ray version of the 4K restoration was used for the captures in this article. While both formats use the same restoration, the actual 4K disc has a higher true resolution and color palette than what is captured here.
Contrast and Brightness
The older transfer had pretty steep contrast which arguably added to its grindhouse aesthetic, but this has been mitigated allowing more subtlety and shadowy detail. This shot from the opener is a good example — the room behind Fred Williamson now has a sense of volume, whereas it used to simply be a flat pitch-black void.
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration Detail now abounds in this car interior and in the station attendant’s clothing, not only from the normalized contrast but also the uptick in resolution.
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration 
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration Besides the difference in brightness in the next shot, I also want to point out how much better the grain looks — certainly the increased resolution has a hand in this, but I also wonder if perhaps the older transfer had artificially smoothed it.
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration The evened contrast allows subtler colors to come through — look at that blue sky!
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration Color Timing
The older transfer favored a grungy green/blue look, so the push for a more even and natural palette means we’re seeing a lot more red across the board.
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration 
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration 
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration With this push toward allowing more red tones to come through, complexions are noticeably ruddier — even Fred Williamson (and not incorrectly, I think — after all, it’s cold outside).
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration 
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration 
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration 
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration More for Measure
A few more for a rounded look at the presentations. The same prior observations generally hold true — color timing changes, even contrast, finer gain and resolution.
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration 
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration 
Top: Old Blu-ray // Bottom: New Restoration
The Package
This edition comes housed in a transparent Criterion-style case with an awesome lenticular slipcover featuring the new artwork. The U-card is reversible, featuring both the new and classic artwork. Capping off the package is an illustrated 20-page color booklet with an essay by Michael Gingold and a dedication to Forster.
My only disappointment here relates to Blue Underground’s recent practice of including soundtrack CDs with many of their other deluxe releases of the past few years. Vigilante boasts one of the most truly badass main themes of all time, so it can’t help but feel like a huge missed opportunity that Jay Chattaway’s unreleased score wasn’t nabbed for this edition.
Unboxed: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJcKg_Kl54K/
Special Features & Extras:
- Audio Commentary #1 with Co-Producer/Director William Lustig and Co-Producer Andrew Garroni
- Audio Commentary #2 with Co-Producer/Director William Lustig and Stars Robert Forster, Fred Williamson and Frank Pesce
- NEW! Audio Commentary #3 with Film Historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
- NEW! Blue Collar DEATH WISH — Interviews with Writer Richard Vetere, Star Rutanya Alda, Associate Producer/First A.D./Actor Randy Jurgensen, and others
- NEW! Urban Western — Interview with Composer Jay Chattaway
- Theatrical Trailers
- TV Spots
- Radio Spot
- Promotional Reel
- Poster & Still Galleries
- BONUS! Collectible Booklet with new essay by Michael Gingold
A/V Out.
Get it at Amazon:
If you enjoy reading Cinapse, purchasing items through our affiliate links can tip us with a small commission at no additional cost to you.All 16:9 screen images in this review are direct captures from the Blu-ray disc (not 4K) with no editing applied, but may have compression or resizing inherent to file formats and Medium’s image system. All package photography was taken by the reviewer
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Two Cents Soars with the BIRDS OF PREY
Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick:
Every movie star needs their own franchise these days, and after being cast as the cultishly adored Harley Quinn for the DCEU entry Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie wasted no time in taking the steering wheel for her character.
Rather than waiting for the studio to decide how and when Harley Quinn would be deployed, Robbie partnered up with screenwriter Christina “I wrote Bumblebee, the one good Transformers movie” Hodson and developed her own vehicle, digging into the rich history of badass women throughout the long-running DC Comics universe.
The final piece of the puzzle was director Cathy Yan, recruited by Robbie after viewing Yan’s debut film Dead Pigs (which is finally going to be widely available in the US in February, via Mubi). Together, they concocted a superhero(?) film that married a gonzo pop art aesthetic with bone-breaking, R-rated action, introducing audiences to a new lineup of heroines previously untouched by the live-action film world.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) opens with Robbie’s Harley Quinn being well and truly dumped by her lover/tormentor, the Joker (played by Jared Leto in Squad but mercifully kept off-screen throughout BoP). Determined to make a new life for herself out from under the auspices of her demented ex, Harley inadvertently declares open season on herself and invites everyone who ever bore a grudge against her to come looking for payback.
As it turns out, many, many, many people have a grudge against Harley Quinn.
Harley’s quest for ‘emancipation’ leads her to crisscross paths with a variety of ‘dames’ dealing with their own worlds of woe. There’s determined cop Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), reckless young pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), disenfranchised singer Dinah “Black Canary” Lance (Jurnee Smollet), and a mysterious, cross-bow toting assassin calling herself Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
And before too long, every one of them has fallen into the crosshairs of psychotic gangster Roman “Black Mask” Sionis (Ewan McGregor) and his sadistic henchman Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina).
With its candy-and-blood color scheme and exuberant ensemble, Birds of Prey was a hit with critics but was unfortunately something of a box office disappointment. Blame the bad taste left in people’s mouths by the atrocious Squad, blame sexist dingbats who objected to the film’s fierce feminine voice and viewpoint, or blame Covid for shuttering theaters around the time BoP might have been benefiting from a word-of-mouth resurgence.
Even with the disappointing box office, BoP quickly earned a devoted following, delighted by its blazing message of female empowerment and the wildly idiosyncratic style that is completely out of step with any other recent comic book films.
Robbie is set to return as Harley in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, but we can only hope that someday soon she and her team will soar once more. — Brendan Foley
Next week’s pick:
Despite their 19th century setting, the works of Jane Austen remain lively and beloved among readers and filmgoers alike, with a new adaptation or two predictably coming along every few years, whether left in their original period or updated for contemporary times. Like Birds of Prey, last year’s Emma had its release on the cusp of the pandemic, being one of the few films of the year to have a theatrical run. It’s now available on HBO GO or NOW or MAX or whatever the hell they’re calling it these days, giving those of us who missed out a chance to catch up — and whether it’s the first time or a rewatch, we want to you to join us! — Austin Vashaw
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!
Our Guests:
Austin Wilden:
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) was the last movie I managed to see in theaters twice before they all shut down due to the frustratingly on-going pandemic. I was so eager to get that second big screen viewing in that when the projector broke at the first theater I went to that night, I immediately checked my phone to see the closest showtime at a theater on the other side of town and darted my way over there. Seeing this glittery majesty light up the silver screen one more time was absolutely worth a potential speeding ticket.
Watching it again for the first time since then, I appreciate this movie’s existence even more. It’s the total package of clever character writing, fun fights, and visual flair coming together for what, even in a normal release year, would’ve been stiff competition for any other major superhero movie to beat. Which makes it even more baffling that BOP became some sort of designated punching bag for certain portions of Film Twitter/YouTube. I won’t dignify any of the people I’m talking about by naming them but seeing high-profile movie channels on YouTube, some of whose content I’d usually enjoy, treat the mere mention of this movie as a punchline got on my nerves.
That’s all the space in this I’ll give to the less worthwhile criticisms of this movie. But I’d feel wrong not mentioning a problem I do have with BoP as an adaptation of the comics and that can be boiled down to two words: Cassandra Cain. That problem involves absolutely zero criticism of Ella Jay Basco’s performance and fantastic sisterly chemistry with Margot Robbie as Harley. The moment where the pair shares cereal while watching cartoons on the couch serving as Harley’s first instance of contentment since the movie started alone speaks well to both Basco and that dynamic. However, for every compliment I can pay to the character Basco is playing and how she fits into the story BoP wants to tell…
She isn’t Cassandra “Best Batgirl” Cain in anything but name.
Cass in the comics, even making allowances for the movie not keeping her whole backstory, has major language processing issues due to her abusive upbringing. Which extends to illiteracy and being near mute. There’s the briefest nod to that when movie-Cass first shows up and needs to clear her throat before sassing Renee. Otherwise, her character represents a blatant example of disability erasure in how she’s brought to the big screen. I get that movie-Cass is a smart mouth to show how she can keep up with Harley in their scenes together, but it’s not like the Gotham City of the comics is exactly lacking in other street urchins they could’ve taken a character name from if that was all they were going to take. The disability erasure stands out more because BoP is impressively intersectional in its representation otherwise, especially compared to how lacking most superhero movies are in that area.
If I do pretend the character has a different name, none of that adaptational stuff breaks this movie in the slightest. That stuff can’t not bug me, at least a little, as someone who knows the comics. But as someone who loves kickass movies, I still really love this kickass movie despite that quibble. Most action movies would give anything to have a single fight scene as good as the ones here. Though Cathy Yan and company weren’t nearly satisfied to stop at just one. Between Harley busting through the police station, the evidence lockup brawl, and the confrontation at the Booby Trap, you’d have to be actively trying way too hard to not let this movie’s vibrant energy rub off on you. Especially when it features a cast giving 110% while being backed by Daniel Pemberton’s score that’s second only to his work on the Spider-Verse soundtrack for the title of “career best.”
In the recent trend of superhero related films/television leaning into an R-rating, Birds of Prey FANTABULOUSLY stands tall with only the likes of the similarly underrated Doom Patrol HBO Max series able to stand next to it. (@WC_WIT)
This is a confession, but not an apology: I am generally a fan of DC superhero movies. I’ve found something to like almost in all of them. Yes, even that one. AND that one. No, not Joker. That said, the franchise made a huge leap forward in quality once filmmakers other than Zack Snyder were allowed to play in the sandbox. Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is one of the best so far. It is exactly as loud and colorful and over-the-top as a film set in Gotham’s underworld should be. It’s just a BIFF-BAM-POW and a “Holy ___, Batman!” pun away from being a hard R version of Batman ’66, and that is 100% my jam. The fight choreography, cinematography, and editing are fantastic, as is the soundtrack. Ewan McGregor and Chris Messina are utterly vile, entitled, misogynist sleazeballs, and the way they chew the scenery (especially McGregor) is just captivating.
But what really makes Birds of Prey stand out is its ensemble of badass women. Harley, Helena, Dinah, Renee, and Cassandra are all characters who have suffered trauma. They have been objectified, exploited by the patriarchy, and tricked by the system into treating each other as enemies rather than allies. And yet they are funny and persistent and cool, even when denied the barest minimum of enjoyment or acknowledgment. I only wish we got more of the Birds of Prey as a fully-formed team — the tease we get of them in costume at the end is great, but I want more movies in this world with this cast. (@T_Lawson)
The Team
Director Cathy Yan and her crew show us the colorful backstreets of Gotham City, as Quinn races on foot through a street market or impatiently awaits her dream breakfast sandwich in a bodega. Dark and dim moments are rare in Birds of Prey; glitter bombs are used in a police station sequence, and a jailhouse fight sequence turns into something out of Singin’ in the Rain.
The fight choreography in this film is what first won my heart. When the humor in the movement is such that it brings to mind Jackie Chan and Gene Kelly, you have created something magical. There’s a vibrant chaos to Birds of Prey, and it is something to revel in. (@elizs)
Read more of Elizabeth’s thoughts on BoP HERE.
I know there are people with beef with this movie and I’d like to be charitable and assume that it’s not ‘entirely’ down to sexist jagoffs being surly about women having a blast making an action movie that isn’t interested in catering to dudes in any real way…and yet every time I watch BoP I am so completely delighted by every choice in it that it’s hard not to assume bad faith in the people (dudes) who react with such vehemence.
Yan has built a Gotham City that feels only a step or two removed aesthetically from the one that existed in the Adam West Batman show, then cross-pollinated that proudly ersatz world with the unchecked acrobatic mayhem you expect from a Hong Kong programmer. It freaking rules, is what I’m saying.
Every actor seems tuned to the right frequency, whether you are talking Perez and Bell playing things as close to reality as can be allowed, or about McGregor and Messina who are both clearly having the time of their lives pushing their villains to previously-unseen heights of berserk freak show. Robbie toggles between the madcap and the human in a way that’s very impressive and keeps the whole enterprise afloat, while Mary Elizabeth Winstead walks off with the movie in her relatively short screen time as Huntress. The choice to make Huntress an unbelievable badass who is completely lost in social situations is the kind of out-of-nowhere idea that could have been trimmed without necessarily losing anything from the story, but adds so much humor and flavor and character that it makes the entire film more interesting.
Anyway, BoP is a blast and has rapidly entered my regular rotation as a movie to throw on and just vibe to. Regardless of how it did or didn’t connect with audiences, I can’t wait to see what everyone involved gets up to next. (@TheTrueBrendanF)
Suicide Squad is easily my least favorite film of the current DC movie universe, so I can see why people might give Birds of Prey — which could be seen as a spin-off — with a bit of side-eye. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn was arguably the best element of that mess of a film, but even so the thought of a solo adventure sounds… exhausting.
Which really is the stroke of brilliance in the way they handled this tale, not only distancing Harley from cinema’s worst Joker and that terrible Suicide Squad movie, but by giving her a new all-girl squad. And even though she’s secondary (parenthesized, even) in the title, she’s the star of this show.
Harley has always been a character interestingly riding the line between right and wrong — while typically a villain, the tendency of the last few years has been to make her more of an anti-hero and even occasional ally to the good guys. It’s an interesting evolution and somehow this film finds the right balance in showing this push and pull.
I also really enjoyed the other ladies who make up this ensemble, especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Huntress. I kind of wish these other characters had a little bit more meat to their arcs, but the story structure and outsider perspective from Harley, an unusual choice for an audience surrogate, makes perfect sense and sets them up for a more focused sequel (please).
I’ve long used up my 200 words but barely even touched on all the reasons to enjoy this wild film — anarchic style, wildly colorful aesthetic, awesome villains, hilarious writing, and a delightfully glittery slipcover on my 4K Blu-ray. I dig it. (@VforVashaw)
https://play.hbomax.com/feature/urn:hbo:feature:GXzFhvgfnbgLCOAEAAAdS
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Screen Comparisons: TREMORS’ New 4K Restoration is an Upgrade of Seismic Proportions
Enough geological wordplay — suffice it to say, this transfer rocks
This article contains several comparisons which contrast Universal’s 2010 Blu-ray transfer with the new Arrow Video restoration. The frames aren’t necessarily exact matches, but should give a solid indication of the visual differences.
Arrow Video recently released Tremors on 4K UHD, alongside new a standard Blu-ray edition.
Tremors first arrived on a terrible-looking Universal Blu-ray in 2010, and prior to that was released as an HD-DVD (2007). A much-improved transfer with less DNR smearing later released as part of the “Tremors Attack Pack” collection (2013), which is the version I own and used in this comparison, so this is a best-versions comparison. Building on a prior comparison made by Blu-ray.com, here’s a three-way comparison of 2010/2013/2020 — with credit to Blu-ray.com for the 2010 and 2013 images.
2010 (Standalone) Blu-ray / Source: Blu-ray.com 
2013 (“Attack Pack”) Blu-ray / Source: Blu-ray.com 
New 2020 Arrow Video Release
THE COMPARISONS (2013 to 2020)
The differences are very consistent throughout these two presentations — Arrow’s new restoration features greater detail, finer grain and color subtlety, while mitigating the older transfer’s harsher artificial sharpening and contrast.
Please note that, as I don’t have the means to capture the 4K disc, the Blu-ray version of Arrow’s disc was used for this article. While both formats use the same restoration, the actual 4K disc has a higher true resolution and color palette than what is captured here.
Detail and resolution
Kevin Bacon’s hair — now more feathery.
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow The massive difference in resolution consistently gives Arrow’s restoration much finer grain where the older transfer had splotchy and noisy. This is evident throughout in the film’s open skies, but in this shot you can also see a massive difference in the rocks which now look far more natural (like… actual rocks).
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Edge Enhancement
Intrusive image processing and contrast manipulation on the original transfer give the image an artificial sharpness, but also the halo effect evident with edge enhancement. I know this is a lesser understood artifact so I’ll point out a few examples.
In the image directly below, there’s a bright halo around the tank and pipework, most noticeably at the contour against the grey sky.
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow There’s noticeable ringing around all the characters in this shot — observe Fred Ward’s knee and Kevin Bacon’s shoulders.
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Brightness and Color
This particular shot is quite telling. The billowing dust looks much finer now, but also notice the window shows a much clearer, more detailed image of the foliage rather than just a… black blotch against a white slate.
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Here’s another example of a background window showing a subtler color gradient rather than a massive whiteout.
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Graboids
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Parting Shots
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow
A/V Out.
Get it at Amazon:
If you enjoy reading Cinapse, purchasing items through our affiliate links can tip us with a small commission at no additional cost to you.Except where noted, all 16:9 screen images in this review are direct captures from the disc(s) in question with no editing applied, but may have compression or resizing inherent to file formats and Medium’s image system. All package photography was taken by the reviewer.
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Two Cents Enters 2021 Side-by-Side with THE QUICK AND THE DEAD
Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick:
The Western is a genre that is routinely being pronounced dead, yet it nevertheless is always rising out of the grave to give us another dose of sprawling vistas, dusty frontiers, and quick-draw gunfights.
Westerns were especially dead throughout the ’80s, thanks to the historic tanking of Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, but the success of films like Dances with Wolves and Unforgiven, not to mention the phenomenon of the Lonesome Dove miniseries on TV, led to a brief resurgence of the Hollywood Western.
Suddenly cowboys were cool again, albeit tempered with then-modern attempts to address the murky morality underpinning your standard white hats vs. black hats conflicts, not to mention the historic plight of Native Americans.
By the time The Quick and the Dead hit theaters, that Western boom was already pretty much going bust, which might be why the film flopped on release and was greeted with mostly a shrug.
Even as a belated part of a trend, The Quick and the Dead doesn’t quite fit in. Instead of moral murk and Oscar-winning prestige, Quick delights in pure-pulp storytelling. Every character is a Character, every emotion is outsized to operatic proportions, and cartoon physics rule the day with bodies flying with Loony Tunes abandon.
Then again, what can one really expect from Sam Raimi turned loose on the Wild West?
Raimi was hired by producer/star Sharon Stone off the strength of his work on Army of Darkness. He brings all his tricks to bear, with canted angles, manic energy, and of course epic Raimi-cam shots as bullets streak towards skulls to blow impossible wounds through unsuspecting fools.
Stone plays The Lady, a taciturn gunslinger who rides into the town of Redemption with nothing but a pistol, a bad attitude, and a grudge against outlaw-turned-overlord John Herod (Gene Hackman). The Lady figures out quickly that her best bet at settling her unknown score against Herod is to enter his quickdraw tournament, battling her way to the big bad one gunfight at a time.
That’s right, someone asked what if you made an entire movie just out of the part at the end of a Western where two people stare each down and then pull.
Standing between the Lady and destiny is a murderer’s row of future stars and character actors. There’s the baby-faced Kid (a pre-Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio), and the angel-faced Cort (a pre-L.A. Confidential Russell Crowe), along with a bevy of bad hombres including Lance Henriksen, Keith David, Mark Boone Junior and Tobin Bell.
The Quick and the Dead ended up being something of a dead end for all involved. The same year this flopped, Stone delivered maybe her career best performance in Casino and was rewarded with an Oscar nomination. DiCaprio and Crowe would both vault to mega-stardom only a couple years later, while Raimi would pivot to the Hitchcockian thriller A Simple Plan and earn a new degree of critical appreciation before ushering in the next phase of Hollywood blockbusters with his triumphant Spider-Man.
But Quick hasn’t been forgotten, not by Raimi fans and not by Western lovers. It’s too bizarre and singular an item to ever go fully ignored. So saddle up beside us and get comfy. 2021 is opening with one wild ride.
Next Week’s Pick
Wonder Woman 1984 has found itself at the center of a great deal of attention and controversy, not only because of the mixed reactions to the film itself, but its release method — debuting streaming on HBO Max, making it one of the key titles discussed amid Warner Brothers’ recent dollow-up decision to move their entire theatrical release slate online in the wake of the industry’s sudden downturn.
But where girl-power-infused DC movies are concerned, your Two Cents editors can agree on their mutual appreciation for unfairly overlooked Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), the hilariously irreverent Harley Quinn-focused tale which yoinks the one good aspect of the asinine Suicide Squad and spins it off into its own deserving entity. You can find it streaming on (where else?) HBO Max.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!
THE QUICK (Our Guests):
Austin Wilden:
Nobody ever mentioned this was a Death Tournament Movie!
The Quick and the Dead being a Western directed by Sam Freakin’ Raimi was enough to put it on my “To Watch” list. Knowing it’s part of one of my favorite subgenres of action movie (and one normally confined to martial arts movies at that), I would’ve rushed to see it faster than The Lady’s firing hand. Structuring a Western around a quick-draw competition basically works as an excuse to have a whole movie where a good portion of the runtime is dedicated to what other Westerns would only feature in a single scene, iconic shootouts.
The only thing keeping those scenes in this movie from having that iconic status is the fact this is one of the less seen entries in Raimi’s filmography. His direction and Dante Spinotti’s cinematography make each one unique and the pace of the story keeps things from getting monotonous. The murderer’s (ha!) row of character actors, including Mark Boone Junior, Lance Henriksen, and Keith David, making up the other contestants give the audience something of interest to watch between scenes concerning the plots of the central characters.
Those central characters also have strong yet easy to understand motives that keep the dynamics between them engaging without being lost under everything else. Sharon Stone’s Ellen, mostly called “The Lady” throughout the movie, deserves a place among the great cinematic action heroines. Russell Crowe’s Cort has his killer’s instinct in conflict with his quest for redemption. (Which also happens to be the name of the town the whole tournament’s taking placing in, because for all the great features of this movie subtlety isn’t one of them.) Meanwhile, both have personal ties to Gene Hackman’s despicable despot, named Herod (see what I meant about subtlety), an all-time great villain-turn to top even Hackman’s well-remembered role as Lex Luthor.
If all that wasn’t enough to speak to how much ass The Quick and the Dead thoroughly kicks, there’s also a scene of Stone’s character shooting a pedophile’s dick off! (@WC_WIT)
Brendan Agnew (The Norman Nerd):
Is The Quick and the Dead the “most” western?
That is rhetorical, because yes — it is. Do you like Sergio Leone? Sam Raimi has crash zooms, close-ups, and dramatic squinting aplenty. Do you like Ennio Morricone? Alan Silvestri does too, and his score is gonna make sure you know it. Do you like mysterious characters with enticing secret backstories? Literally every principal character has you covered. Do you like “high noon” shootouts on main street? GOOD NEWS, THAT’S THE ENTIRE MOVIE.
More isn’t always better, but at a brisk 105 minutes, stuffed with legendary character actors pitching their work at the exact same “back of the rafters” that Raimi is directing his visuals at, and a can’t-miss tournament structure, The Quick and the Dead stands as a delightfully entertaining companion to slick ’90s westerns like Tombstone and Young Guns. Gene Hackman brings some big Lex Luthor energy to what could have been just a retread of his performance in Unforgiven, Sharon Stone does an able riff on the type of wandering badass lady that Raimi and Lucy Lawless would later perfect with Xena, and both Russell Crowe and a babyfaced Leonardo DiCaprio emerge as bone fide movie stars right out the gate.
The Quick and the Dead is unashamed popcorn, but it’s effective, stylish, fun, a memorable and (literally) explosive finale, and a veritable buffet of unforgettable performances. (@BLCAgnew)
THE DEAD (The Cinapse Team):
I adore virtually every frame of this lunatic movie and think just about every element of it is perfectly chosen and deployed. Except for Sharon Stone. Now, to be clear, I have no beef with Sharon Stone as an actress and think as a producer she is above reproach with this movie. She pushed for Raimi, she insisted on casting Crowe and DiCaprio, etc. Even if the movie was ignored on release, time has proven her instincts and choices to have been perfectly on point. But the Furiosa-ian ‘snarling stone-faced gunslinger’ role proves to be a bad fit for her, and at times she seems to be the only performer not keyed in properly to the gonzo-but-sincere tone that Raimi strikes. I almost wish she had cast some up-and-coming actress as The Lady and instead taken the Hackman role for herself. God knows she could have really made a five-course meal chewing up the scenery as a great cackling villain. Hell, it worked for Catwoman (the only thing that did).
But with that said, Quick and the Dead is still just so much unbridled fun. Raimi is unleashed to a degree that is truly unprecedented. You can feel him pushing for every shot to contain some bit of manic energy, and the ensemble is more than willing and able to match him. Every actor comes in swinging hard to be the villain who stands out amongst all the other villains, while both Leo and Crowe are serving up fastballs of movie star charisma every chance they get. It’s a wonder the whole thing doesn’t implode in on itself (and in the scenes where things are forced to slow down to focus on the rote story, you can feel that starting to happen) but the feeling of sheer, blissful reckless abandon carries the day. (@TheTrueBrendanF)
While The Lady is the protagonist, she’s also the mysterious figure of vengeance — it’s her friends that give the film its heart. The boyish DiCaprio is both rascally yet sympathetic as the hotshot kid who really just wants approval from the father who denies him.
But my favorite character is definitely Cort, the preacher who fights only because he’s forced into the contest against his will. At one point, he says to The Lady in reference to his crimes, “I’m already damned, I know that. Don’t go down that road. You don’t have to become like me”. But when she moves to kill, he tells her, “There’s always forgiveness if you ask for it”. A subtle flash of recognition lights his countenance as he realizes it’s the truth that can also set him free. It’s a great moment of remarkable depth in a vengeful story that is, at least on the surface, about people trying to shoot each other. (@VforVashaw)
Excerpted from Austin’s review of the 4K Blu-ray.
https://cinapse.co/new-on-4k-blu-sam-raimis-the-quick-and-the-dead-1995-6aa170349574
Next week’s pick:
https://cinapse.co/new-on-4k-blu-sam-raimis-the-quick-and-the-dead-1995-6aa170349574
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Spinema Issue 52: Metal Face. Media Fanatic. MF, as in DOOM.
MF DOOM wasn’t just a hip-hop genius — he exemplified fandom at its most creative.
On December 31 we learned of the passing of legendary New York hip-hop artist Daniel Dumile — MF DOOM — who had passed away exactly two months prior. It was an unusually delayed announcement in the frenzied world of social media where famous personages are more likely to have their deaths announced prematurely than with a delay. But then MF DOOM, who famously performed in the character of a masked villain, was no stranger to mystery or secrecy.
Dumile hit the scene as a member of the early hip-hop outfit KMD (alongside his brother DJ Subroc who died in 1993, bringing a close to that chapter), but his full persona emerged with his solo career in the late 90s, most notably with the release of his incredible debut LP, Operation: Doomsday.
The heavily sampled music of MF DOOM was immediately unique. Sampling is commonplace in hip-hop, but his utilization of the tool went far beyond pulling an occasional drum rhythm or bassline. His compositions were masterworks of refitment, blurring the lines between original and derivative works. Samples were lifted, mixed and combined, pitchshifted, and adjusted into entirely new compositions, sometimes unrecognizably so. Old sounds fashioned into new sounds.
The utilization of primarily 70s soul, funk, and R&B as the melodic backbone for Dumile’s music gave it distinctly classic footing, while he spit clever raps over the colorful compositions for a sound that was simultaneously nostalgic and contemporary — and distinctly MF DOOM. The incredibly wide and notably deep spectrum of musical acts which he sampled spoke to an obsessively encyclopedic knowledge of music, and not limited to those genres.
But what made MF DOOM so accessible for geeks and cinephiles was his implementation of, and identification with, the popular culture we love — not only music, but also of movies, television, animation, comics, and even video games.
Most notably (and obviously), Dumile patterned his persona after one of Marvel’s greatest villains, Victor Von Doom — aka Doctor Doom. Both names found their way into Dumile’s expanding list of alter egos, as he performed and recorded albums under both “MF DOOM” and “Viktor Vaughn”. Similarly, as a member of the NYC-based Monster Island Czars hip-hop collective, whose projects took inspiration from Godzilla films, he recorded as “King Geedorah”. Later, his collab with Danger Mouse, DANGERDOOM, would revolve around Adult Swim cartoons.
These personas weren’t merely outward projections, but manifestations of a rich appreciation for creative culture. DOOM’s music heavily sampled from cartoons (most notably The Fantastic Four for obvious reasons), but also movies, film scores, TV shows, anime, you name it — from popular fare to deep cuts, across all manner of genres.
Part of the joy of listening to a new MF DOOM album was the burst of pleasure that comes from identifying a sample you recognized — you never knew when you’d suddenly come across the web-swinging music from Spider-Man or the Fat Albert theme, or a stray bit of dialogue pulled from The Twilight Zone, or Hell Up in Harlem, or Fist of the North Star. The reverse worked too, watching something on TV and suddenly realizing “Oh, that’s where that clip came from”.
MF DOOM is rightfully immortalized as amazing producer, genius lyricist, and tremendous rapper with incredible flow.
But I’ll also remember him as one of us — a fan like me.
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Screen Comparisons: Arrow’s PITCH BLACK 4K Restoration vs the 2009 Blu-ray
Shine your eyeballs on these new comparative screen captures from the first Riddick film
This article contains several comparisons which contrast Universal’s 2009 Blu-ray transfer with the new Arrow Video restoration. The frames aren’t necessarily exact matches, but should give a solid indication of the visual differences.
Arrow Video recently released Pitch Black as their second 4K title (following Flash Gordon), alongside new a standard Blu-ray edition.
Their foray into 4K titles is tremendously exciting for fans, with further titles since having been announced and released. I recently got my hands on a copy of the older Blu-ray, giving me a chance to compare the transfers directly.
Please note that, as I don’t have the means to capture the 4K disc, the Blu-ray version of Arrow’s disc was used for this article. While both formats use the same restoration, the actual 4K disc has a higher true resolution and color palette than what is captured here.
I don’t think I ever watched Universal’s original Blu-ray edition of Pitch Black , but assuming it’s the same transfer as the 2006 HD-DVD I owned, it looked pretty great in my opinion, and I’ve never questioned it as needing a better version. On the surface it even often appears sharper at times than Arrow’s new restoration. However, on closer analysis this is evident of the edge enhancement used liberally throughout, whereas Arrow’s scan has a certain purity to it.
The end credits might seem an odd place to start, but they demonstrate this pretty definitively. The older transfer appears much sharper, but you can see the chunky inconsistency of the text color, clearly evident of edge enhancement. Arrow’s version, on the other hand, doesn’t nearly look as crisp, but the consistency of the image is far superior — it looks like a pristine film print.
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video Pitch Black is thematically and physically tied to concepts of light and darkness, set on a planet with intensely bright days and dark nights, and its cinematography and composition directly reflect these qualities with a mix of bright and dark scenes, as well as high contrast juxtapositions.
Because of their stylized colorization and lighting, the planetary daylight scenes of Pitch Black are difficult to gauge “accurately” since they aren’t designed to demonstrate a natural appearance. I give Arrow the edge on this, as their color gradation is richer and subtler, and slightly less prone to white-out.
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video The film’s dimly lit interior scenes and dusk-set exteriors are the closest the film comes to “natural” lighting, and it’s here that Universal’s older Blu-ray disc arguably looked its comparative best, with using edge enhancement and contrast to draw out a bit more detail from the textures (trading off for slight halo effects on contours and chunkier grain).
Comparing the facial textures in the image below, I prefer Arrow’s more natural look (especially in motion). However the older disc does appear sharper, even if it does so artificially.
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video Both transfers do an admirable job of the namesake pitch black scenes, though Arrow excels with finer grain and darker backgrounds. And though it’s anecdotal, I think Keith David’s turban tells the biggest story here. I think the fact that it looks way grimier on the older transfer speaks to the punched-up contrast.
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video 
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video
A/V Out.
Top: Old Universal // Bottom: New Arrow Video Get it at Amazon:
If you enjoy reading Cinapse, purchasing items through our affiliate links can tip us with a small commission at no additional cost to you.Except where noted, all 16:9 screen images in this review are direct captures from the Blu-ray (not 4K) discs in question with no editing applied, but may have compression or resizing inherent to file formats and Medium’s image system. All package photography was taken by the reviewer.
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MAX CLOUD Bursts Its Own Bubble
Come for the Scott Adkins, because you won’t find much else
Never fear, Max Cloud is here!
Providing a wonderful opportunity for martial arts legend in the making, Britain’s own Scott Adkins, to flex his comedic muscles, Max Cloud has him playing the titular arrogant hero of a [fictional] massively popular 90s-era side scrolling video game. As a game within a movie kind of situation, Adkins is swinging for the rafters with this artificial character, imbuing him with all the bravado and one-dimensional personality that a 16-bit action hero might have. It’s great stuff, honestly, and perfectly suited to Adkins’ ever-growing skillset. He’s got one-liners, regressive ideas that will be addressed humorously, and there are even a few well designed fight sequences presented in a 2D video game style which is surprisingly enjoyable aesthetically.
Readers may be aware that I’m somewhat of a Scott Adkins superfan and feel no compunction about being so, as long as I make it clear for the purposes of full disclosure. So my primary interest in seeing this film was due to Scott Adkins’ presence and my goal to see all of his films and review as many of them as I can. That said, I was quite charmed by the premise of Max Cloud, felt pretty blown away by the aesthetics on display in the trailer, was shocked at the quality of the ensemble cast, and had my hopes pretty high for this high concept 90s video game action sci-fi comedy.
And, look… I bear no ill will towards Max Cloud.
It just really doesn’t have all the ingredients it needed. It’s pleasant, largely unobjectionable, with a few highlights that result in a finished product that’s just undercooked.
Aping the latest iterations of Jumanji, Max Cloud pulls video game junkie Sarah (Isabelle Allen) into the game, and only her raw hot dog eating best friend Cowboy (Attack The Block’s Franz Drameh) can take the controller’s reins and guide Sarah’s video game avatar on a glitchy playthrough of the game to get her back out safely into the real world. Along the way some highly recognizable actors like John Hannah (The Mummy), Tommy Flanagan (Braveheart, Gladiator), and Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel, No Time To Die) will ham it up inside the game world as well. There will be boss battles and in-game challenges that have real world consequences.
The few moments of inspiration in the film involve the aforementioned spot on Scott Adkins performance. He goes big, and it all works. The Adkins of a decade ago likely couldn’t have pulled off this role, but his hard work has paid off and he simply clicks here. It’s also clear that the design of the video game itself is based on 90s era Capcom beat ’em ups like Captain Commando or Final Fight. I loved those games and felt like whoever designed the 16-bit scenes did a great job. It’s when you start to realize you are enjoying the video game cutscenes more than the game itself when the problems arise though, right? That’s ultimately how the movie feels. Allen and Drameh are trying, but you can feel that they’re going for laugh out loud comedy when what they’re given is amusing at best, limp at worst. The Jumanji films do a much better job of this “sucked into a video game” schtick, unfortunately. And Max Cloud’s 88 minutes runtime actually feels quite padded. I would say that the script from Sally Collett and director Martin Owen needed a little more work, but also the very cheap feeling production design brings the low budget feature down some, and the direction by Owen is serviceable at best. There are moments when it springs to life as it goes hard on a fight scene (Fight Coordinator Dawid Szatarski of the Andy Long Stunt Team deserves a shoutout for some fun set pieces that incorporate the film’s video game inspirations), letting Adkins do his thing, or when it doubles down on its 16-bit roots. But there’s just not enough here to sustain a feature, unfortunately.
I don’t recommend Max Cloud to anyone but Scott Adkins fans or video game movie completionists. It isn’t that the film is offensive or actively terrible. As mentioned, there’s a few highlights to grab hold of and enjoy. But the film makes clear what it’s striving for and unfortunately is simply unable to achieve the high concept intergalactic comedic adventures it is inspired by.
The Package
Well Go USA didn’t load this Blu-ray up with even so much as a sizzle reel. You’re getting the movie, and the movie alone… though at least you get a full HD option! (Many Scott Adkins films are unfortunately not even getting that Stateside). So really there’s not much to this package and only Scott Adkins completionists need really feel compelled to own this film on physical media. For those who remain curious, I’d suggest a Digital rental or purchase (even though I myself won’t take that advice).
And I’m Out.
Max Cloud is now available on Digital and will hit Blu-ray & DVD January 19th, 2021 from Well Go USA Entertainment.
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TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a Beautiful Psychological Travelogue
Self-realization is a foreign land to be explored in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s moving new film
Most may know Kiyoshi Kurosawa as one of the early pioneers of J-Horror in the 2000s, but as accessibility to international cinema has broadened, so has exposure to much of the Japanese auteur’s more diverse entries in his filmography. In fact, much of Kurosawa’s output has found him veering away from external frights in favor of more internalized ones–the anxieties and neuroses that define our daily lives. Tokyo Sonata, in particular, features a nuclear family falling apart at the seams as they try to adhere to the societal roles expected of them; Creepy, on the other hand, is a suspense thriller of neighborly goodwill gone absurdly awry. Even his recent ghost stories find themselves exploring interesting worlds beyond their horrific origins. Journey to the Shore sees Kurosawa reframe a ghost story as one of romantic longing as a woman finds herself guided once more by her deceased husband; his first international feature, the French Daguerrotype, is a horror-romance driven by obsession more in the vein of Hitchcock’s Vertigo than Kurosawa’s own Pulse or Seance. While all these films use the same expansive tableaux and crumbling naturalistic settings once used to hide shambling, lonely spirits, these ruins now feature lost souls still trapped in the land of the living–most, if not all, searching the awkward, nicety-driven worlds they live in for a sense of greater purpose or fulfillment.
His latest to hit American shores is To the Ends of the Earth–a film that explores how the anxiety of being a stranger in a strange land disarms the ability to construct a persona out of the language we carefully use. For the film’s reporter lead, a journey across Uzbekistan forces her to confront the winding career path that led her to a desert a world apart from the safety of home–as well as the dreams she repressed along the way.
The film follows chipper Japanese TV personality Yuko as she meanders the clamorous city streets of Tashkent, Uzbekistan and the mountainous desert beyond in search of material for her travel program. Far from the world she knows back in Tokyo, the vibrant world of Uzbekistan becomes a sounding board for each of Yuko’s greatest hopes and fears–with each stop on Yuko’s adventure revealing a new shade of her secretive inner life.
To the Ends of the Earth is a beautiful, methodically-constructed journey into the origins of one woman’s passions and insecurities. Its rich, vibrant atmosphere — with shades of everything from Abbas Kiarostami to Robert Bresson to Jacques Demy — and a contemplative, emotional performance by Atsuko Maeda makes To the Ends of the Earth one of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s most rewarding recent films.
Comprised of small vignette-like set pieces in and around Tashkent, much of To the Ends of the Earth sees Yuko often separated from the perceived safety of her film crew — cast adrift in an unfamiliar and untranslated streets of Uzbekistan. There’s rarely a frame when Yuko is alone in a crowd where at least one person isn’t casting a bemused or disapproving stare her way — or where Yuko tries to escape the frame of a camera whose eye is always roving yet is always locked in place. Here, Kurosawa’s signature sense of paranoia and dread pervades a world where any semblance of the supernatural or fantasy has given way to staunch commercialism and harsh lack of mystery. Familiar objects in a supermarket are decked out in unfamiliar Cyrillic and Uzbek; languages outside of Japanese or English go untranslated, leaving intentions by passersby uncomfortably elusive. Kurosawa evens out the film by targeting the internal biases at the heart of Yuko’s anxieties — addressing a subtle xenophobia without making that a total lynchpin of the film. In one climactic scene, Yuko finds herself apprehended by the police after a slightly comical chase sequence — all of which arises from their inability to understand each other. “You ran,” the Police Chief later translates, “so we had to chase you.”
Rather, much of To the Ends of the Earth explores this widening gap between Yuko and the unfamiliar world she navigates. She struggles to keep up with her boyfriend back home, who’s pursued his dangerous passion as a coastal firefighter — not just in differing time zones, but as we later infer as her own inability to equally courageously pursue her own professional goals. Yuko also diligently throws herself into precarious and ill-staged sequences for the good of her program. A gut-wrenching scene has her ride a flipping ferris wheel multiple times in a row so all angles can be shot, despite becoming increasingly nauseous. In another, she happily downs a dish with uncooked rice, remarking it’s “exquisitely crunchy” for the camera. For Yuko, such haphazard work clearly isn’t fulfilling, even if it might make for “good television.” Regardless, she soldiers on, even as she struggles to hide her disgust or nausea behind her cheery TV personality. But that’s the crux of To the Ends of the Earth — what’s the point of such self-inflicted suffering or inadequacy, if we have only so much time on this planet?
Kurosawa meditates on potential answers in fleeting moments of human connection reminiscent of Robert Bresson and Abbas Kiarostami–and much of these breathtaking sequences in To the Ends of the Earth are its most surreal and dreamlike. Around a corner could be a bustling bazaar or a Silent Hill-esque darkened alley; and in a labyrinthine, ornately-decorated theater, one can find themselves both audience member and performer. While much of the film is grounded in Yuko’s experience, Kurosawa’s quick to let us in that this is the world as she perceives it — with everything around Yuko framed as menacing, melancholy, or full of mirth depending on her state of mind. Its in these moments where Yuko’s repressed passions — notably one as a musical performer — eke out a journey to potential fruition. The film’s climax finally sees this barrier potentially come crashing down — using Maeda’s experience as a musician and stage idol as an unexpected asset in one of the most cathartic endings of the year. It’s a conclusion that’s hopeful in Kurosawa’s own way, much like the endings of Tokyo Sonata or even Pulse — that the carefully-constructed barrier between the real and the fantastic is a source of misery and pain that must be eradicated at all costs. While the end result may vary somewhere between the horrific and exhilarating — anything is better than the complacency of the known and mundane.
To the Ends of the Earth is now in brick-and-mortar and virtual theaters courtesy of KimStim. The film is currently a featured screening of the Austin Film Society–without them, this review wouldn’t have been possible. Please visit their virtual screening room to support their work!
