The Samaritan (2012)

"So whaddya say, baby? Shall I put on some Marvin Gaye?"

At a glance:

All Samuel L. Jackson movies are at least half watchable and this offbeat pulp fiction drops ever so neatly into that category - it jolts, it teases and then at the end credits you're left decidin whether this movie axiom remains true. The veteran anti-hero relishes the tag of bein one of Hollywood's most charismatic actors, a son of a gun who gets paid to shout at people, picture after picture. So when he's not in an eye-patch assemblin mutants to fight aliens, he's in The Samaritan (2012) playin an embattled ex-con (convict AND conman) who had just done a 25-year stretch, only to come out to a strange world populated by characters like Ethan (Luke Kirby), the son of the partner he murdered, and Iris (Ruth Negga) the enigmatic addict nympho who's got the hots for him. The hoverin crime boss Xavier (Tom Wilkinson) provides further intrigue.

Bad news on the doorstep:

Err... how do I say this? The Samaritan changes genre midway and there's a twist in the middle that beggars belief. Worse, it's been done before, so if I tell you which famous movie it's from, it will utterly spoil it for you. This twist is so pivotal and monolithic that entire scripts can be built around it, so it doesn't quite sit in with the rest of the various noir elements in the movie. Perhaps a hint of this iffy approach could be seen in Samuel L Jackson himself, who appears rather bored most of the time, despite also co-producin the movie. He's the master of persuasion and always makes his characters count but in this heist flick gone wrong, we really have to wonder why this story needed to be told. The film is shot by director David Weaver entirely in Toronto and that ain't exactly one of the first cities that come to mind when you're sellin a noir or heist.

Ruth Negga

"You're old enough to be my father...
and that's how dirty I like it."

Perennial wonderment:

Why can't Ruth Negga get more roles outside of TV? She's the delectable Irish-Ethiopian beauty we saw in Breakfast On Pluto (2005) and that crazy cow horror Isolation (2005). Very Thandie Newton, perhaps with a more ethnic edge. Her looks here directly lent some credibility to movie logic and kept the movie from fallin apart. While we're talkin about looks, there's a small role here for Deborah Kara Unger. Don't know if her placid, botoxed look is part of the character but she sure don't look like the spring chicken she was back when she was gettin her kit off for Michael Douglas in The Game (1997).

Reminds me of:

You know I can't spoil it for you.

Watch out for:

When the big twist is given away. People were laughin out loud in my hall.

Most memorable line:

"If you keep on doing what you've always done, you keep on being what you've always been."

"You could always get a job at McDonald's or Walmart, honey."

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Two and a half, I'd say. Rushed endin drew disaffected faces at an advanced screenin I attended at AMC Yonge. On a partin note, the term "Samaritan" is a reference to a type of con, by which it succeeds when con artists get one person to pose as a helpful friend to the mark to gain his trust. Watch the video below for Samuel L Jackson's explanation.

Bonus material:

The Samuel L Jackson Venn Diagram.
[click to enlarge]
Kudos to the guy who thought of it.

In Samuel L Jackson's own words:
Why is it called the Samaritan?

Astro Boy (2009)

At a glance:
Let's not have a review meant for those who do follow Tezuka Osamu's 1952 manga or its derivatives. Let's have a review meant for anyone who buys a ticket to a cartoon movie in which a boy shoots bullets from his butt. On that level, Astro Boy (also available in Cantonese in some territories, with Nic Cage's part voiced by Aaron Kwok) is a moderately successful project that is by most counts, highly enjoyable. Although it borrows from various animated movies of late (notably the robot junk dystopia in Wall-E and the artwork in The Iron Giant), this Hollywood-style Astro Boy manages to keep it simple and short, going for time-tested emotional hooks and easy-flowing pacin.
Bad news on the doorstep:
While the Imagi Animation artwork won't dazzle like Disney's, the movie amply makes up for it by bankin on a solid, if ordinary, story about how bringin somethin to life against the order of nature may have its drawbacks. We're not lookin at Pet Sematary or Igor here. We're lookin at the seasonal, more-human-than-human arc that leans more towards the romanticism in Electric Dreams (computer), Pinocchio (doll) and Mannequin (doll).
Perennial wonderment:
How much thought goes into voice castin, I wonder? Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they don't. In terms of castin, Nicolas Cage's outrageously soulful persona emanates well when voicin the regretful father Dr. Tenma, a brilliant scientist who loses his son Toby and decides to bring him back to life as a cyborg. As Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore, Charlie in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory), the kid struggles to find his place in the world due to his uncomfortably identity. Bill Nighy (Love Actually) voices a wise professor and Nathan Lane (Timon in The Lion King is a fatherly inventor. They even got Samuel L Jackson to lend his voice for a giant robot named Zog.
Watch out for:
A trio of English robots with London accents. Hilarious.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Director David Bowers and screenwriter Timothy Harris gave this Japanese product a very marketable treatment. Although Astro Boy follows the same pattern as Dragonball Evolution and Speed Racer (other American-produced films based on Japanese sources which failed in their land of origin but sold well in China), it isn't a bad watch at all considerin the number of animated features out there who are tryin (and failin) so hard to rival Disney. Pin this one down as a memorable effort towards that cause.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

At a glance:
If you'rere part of the camp who thinks that Quentin Tarantino ain't made nothin decent since Jackie Brown and that Inglourious Basterds may just mark his return to form after that double feature fiasco he called Grindhouse, then you'll be as disappointed as the Germans who lost the war. The celebrated director's latest is a shallow comic book reimaginin of WWII with improbable characters and romantic (if barbaric) scene resolutions - but devoid of the many things that made his signature Pulp Fiction such an enjoyable piece of entertainment.
Bad news on the doorstep:
As soon as Ennio Morricone's openin track plays, you're assured it's Tarantino time - but this addition to his illustrious catalogue of cult films can't be seen as somethin that matches his usual high standards of fun but culturally important landmark films; instead it's Dirty Dozen in Nazi France, starrin violent scalp-collectin Jews with little character development and moral depth. Of course, this ain't as bad as the totally indulgent, in-universe references in Grindhouse but the appeal of Inglourious Basterds is limited to well-composed fantastical sequences and intermittent clever dialogue. It's like watchin Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs alright, only that the sharpness is skewin towards the objects of torture rather than wordsmithery, not to mention that monologues are so 1994.
Watch out for:
Brad Pitt (R, pic) doesn't seem to be havin a lot of fun as Lt. Aldo Raine (leader of the U.S. Nazi-killin outfit who make bludgeonin human heads and carvin skin Swastikas a favourite Jewish pasttime) but he delivers a commandin male lead all the same. The female Basterds are a Jewish farmgirl played by Paris-born Melanie Laurent and a celeb spy played by German-born Bridget Kruger, who add Euro excitement to the picture, along with a young German officer played by Daniel Bruhl (The Edukators, Goodbye Lenin!) . The standout performance though, belongs to Christoph Waltz as the menacin Jew Hunter, a prime example of well-groomed and polite men of power who can speak four languages and threaten your life with vivid proverbs. He deservingly picked up Best Actor at Cannes for this turn and it looked like he could execute The Final Solution a few times over, just for laughs.
Most memorable line:
Lt. Aldo Raine: "Now, I don't know about y'all, but I sure as hell didn't come down from the goddamn Smoky Mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, fight my way through half of Sicily and jump out of a fuckin' air-o-plane to teach the Nazis lessons in humanity. Nazi ain't got no humanity. They're the foot soldiers of a Jew-hatin', mass murderin' maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed."
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Sadly only. America's critical acclaim for this movie is best summarised as perhaps a nod to their admiration for European sophistication (since QT has packaged it accessibly and masterfully) and also a general thirst for anythin Tarantino. Basterds is already his highest grossin movie ever, both Stateside and worldwide. That's a surprise, considerin Yanks are usually adverse to heavily-subtitled films. For the rest of us who expect more from QT, watchin a great character like the Bear Jew (he does nothin after a grand intro) is a regrettable experience that brings us back to the days when Samuel L. Jackson last recited Ezekiel 25:17 and gave us somethin we could talk about for years until the next World War.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

At a glance:
Where do I begin, to tell the story of how great a movie can be? Oh well, so much for hidin my admiration for this flick. Tarantino's critically and commercially celebrated Pulp Fiction is one of the most iconic movies of all time. If you had to pick just one movie from the 90s to mail off to aliens in outer space to let them know about us, this unhealthy and highly addictive movie would be it. Centred around some unrealistically cool dodgy characters and a mysterious suitcase (lots of fanboy theories on the Net about what it actually contains), this is an embarrassin wealth of pop culture references, punctuated stylishly with plenty of movie moments that you can simply gobble up like a Big Kahuna Burger.
Bad news on the doorstep:
That it doesn't have a sequel or somethin to that effect? Any one of the characters in here couldda spawned a spinoff movie. Hell, that Big Kahuna Burger on the table couldda spawned a spinoff movie.
Perennial wonderment:
If Tarantino can ever make a better film. Doubt it. Well, actually I think Reservoir Dogs is a better film. It's just that Pulp Fiction is just so darn engrossin.
Reminds me of:
Melchiorre Conti, the Sicilian who couldn't stop sayin "Well, I'm a mushroom-cloud-layin' motherfucker, motherfucker!" Wotta man.
Watch out for:
Bruce Willis & Ving Rhames in a butt-rape and revenge scene, backed by The Revel's Comanche. I really enjoyed the weapon selection sequence.
Most memorable line:

Jules: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and goodwill, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengence and furious anger, those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is The Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Top actors, top soundtrack, top screenplay. You can't ask for more. You give it and you hope that you can get a tasty beverage to wash it down with.

Menace II Society (1993)

At a glance:
Perennially referenced textbook thug movie set in So-Cal LA, with the highest f-word-per-minute dialogue at the time apparently. Movie starts with the brother shootin dead a Korean shop owner and his wife. From there, we just get sucked into a hard knock life so to speak.
Reminds me of:
A coupla brothers I used to know.
Watch out for:
A young Jada Pinkett Smith, who plays Ronnie, the woman with a kid in hand and a man in prison with no parole.
Most memorable line:
Caine (on bein told the bitch he boinked was pregnant): "Stop lying, alright? Besides, I had the jimmy on extra tight."
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?Not often you get a look-in like this.★★★1/2

Soul Men (2008)

At a glance:
Not your average black movie, with some genuinely funny moments although the gags are common. Two feudin one-time greats travel to the Apollo to perform a tribute when their foundin trio member dies. Lots of great tunes but loses steam somewhere near the last third. Composed itself for a stronger finish.
Bad news on the doorstep:
Long time comedian Bernie Mac and true soul man Isaac Hayes got their wintermelon beancurd (Canto expression, go ask a mate) before the world premiere. Film was apparently edited to appear more sensitive to this unfortunate development - but still came out as crude and brash as ever. Movie did poorly at the box office, you can read.
Perennial wonderment:
Samuel L Jackson, who plays Samuel L Jackson in every movie.
Watch out for:
Feature song Puppet - "I'll do funny things if you want me to, I'm your puppet..." Brother Ons was apparently quite taken with this tune.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Three ought to do it.
The day the music died:

R.I.P Bernie Mac (1957-2008).