Change Your Image
gpsmall
Reviews
Jung wa ying hong (1999)
Unresolved Issues
There was much to be appreciated about this HK martial arts flick. The action was subordinate to the plot rather than the reverse as is the case in all too many martial arts films. The characters did have some emotional dimension as well. Its failing, however, was its failure to develop some plot lines to a conclusion. After watching the film, I immediately went online to discover the name of its sequel, but there is none. Maybe there was going to be one and finances did not permit it. I don't know. What I do know is that I felt cheated after it ended with no revelations about the missing daughter and without retribution for the jealous ninja who burned the place where the birthing occurred and contributed to her death. It was as if Kill Bill ended after Volume 1 and Volume 2 was never made. Don't watch this movie if you like plot lines to be wrapped up nice and tidy by the film's end.
The Alamo (2004)
Emotionally flat, vapid, pretentious epic wannabe
This movie was agonizingly boring. The screenplay was a pretentious attempt at creating an epic from an historical event. The actors all seemed to be saying their lines as if the film was a walk-through rather than the final cut and the lack of apparent emotion was the inevitable result. The director compounded the problem by lingering through scenes in a vain attempt to generate some emotion by fixating on the actors for what seemed like minutes after nothing new was occurring. The result for the viewer is a feeling that you are viewing a film in slow motion-indeed I used the fast forward repeatedly to move through the DVD version of the film to avoid such moments of stultifying boredom. To no avail, however. The only saving grace was that the movie was historically accurate, unlike the John Wayne version. I also question the political correctness of a movie that again shows the Alamo solely from the perspective of the caucasian American settlers who led the revolt against Mexican authority. 44 years ago, when the original Alamo movie was filmed, Hispanic-Americans were marginalized in American society and no one cared if they were bashed in films. However, it now seems totally disrespectful if not ethnically perverse to film a new version which fails to convey a Mexican and Tejano perspective on the conflict. Like Lincoln, Santa Ana had to decide whether to allow a substantial portion of his nation to secede or to attempt by force of arms to assert authority over the seceding regions, such as Texas. And many Tejanos (Mexican natives of Texas) resisted Santa Ana's attempts to reassert central authority over Texas, preferring autonomy from Mexico City. Without such Tejano support it is unlikely that the relatively recent American arrivals could have succeeded in their quest for Texan independence. Yet the movie offers no portrayals of or allusions to Tejano political support for Texan independence. It would also have been interesting to see how the Tejanos were ultimately dispossessed in large part after Texas obtained statehood, despite the financial and military support of many Tejanos for Texan independence.