HERO, HEART AND HUMOUR

MOVIE

Big Hero 6

Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter

Director Don Hall, Chris Williams

Review Ray Chan

DISNEY’S Big Hero 6 is set in a pan-Pacific technopolis called San Fransokyo, setting the scene for a mix of American and Japanese influences throughout the movie.
    And just like that curious mix of cultures, the studio seems to have surgically implanted the plush heart of a Pixar movie into the lumbering mechanical body of a Marvel property.
    Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) is a wayward boy genius whose equally gifted brother is killed in a freak explosion, leaving Hiro with a well of grief and his sibling’s masterwork invention, a robotic “health care companion” named Baymax, who’s amorphous, affable and emphatic.
    The initial scenes between Hiro and his new-found wide-eyed (in more ways than one) associate are among Hero‘s best, but the film shines with its climax, a smash-and-fly action fest involving Hiro, Baymax, and four research buddies who equip themselves as tech-assisted warriors to take on a masked supervillain controlling millions of tiny swarming micro-bots and a giant portal to another dimension.
    While all this kicks up a lot of narrative sediment, the story offers respite and knows when to pull back. Hiro’s sadness over his brother’s passing infuses every decision and emotional juncture in the film, and Baywatch’s non-violent programming offers an endearing counterpoint.
    At times, Big Hero 6 gets a little too noisy for its own good, but that doesn't drown out its many quieter charms.


#bighero6

DARKNESS DENIZENS WILL BRIGHTEN YOUR DAY

MOVIE
What We Do In The Shadows
Taika Waititi, Jermaine Clement 
Directors Taika Waititi, Jermaine Clement
Review Ray Chan

This New Zealand comedy-mockumentary is certainly based on an inspired premise, even if it mostly chronicles the adventures of a group of vampires in an era when hardened viewers might feel that spoofs and satires of ghouls, zombies and the like are not particularly original.
    Yet What We Do in the Shadows overcomes this perception by wringing fresh gags of sublime silliness out of stereotyped characters and situations, resulting in one of the funniest movies in recent years.
    Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi deliver impressively on all fronts: writing, producing, directing and acting.
    Clement is half of the Flight of the Conchords duo, while Waititi is a well-known Kiwi film and TV comedy director whose star is sure to shine brighter after this release.
    The pair have a long history of performing together, and it shows in the ease of their largely improvised banter as they play two of four vampires who share a house in the city.
    The youngest member of the group, Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), is a lascivious lad of 183. Waititi's character, the foppish Viago, dates from the 18th century, while Clement's Vladislav, has a bloody track record in the pre-modern era. Petyr (Ben Fransham), a desiccated Nosferatu-esque bloodsucker residing in the basement, is so ancient he hasn't even tried to adjust to the world of mobile phones and dance clubs.
    The roommates invite a film crew into their decrepit, suitably creepy mansion to document their lives – or un-lives, even – as they prepare for an annual festive gathering of the local paranormal folk. And, unlike the uninterested characters in most found-footage flicks, they’re ridiculously proud to be on camera — preening, posturing, pouting and posing at every opportunity.
    Waititi’s elegantly elfin character walks us through the nightly ritual of rising from his coffin, unable to repress his glee at playing to an audience.
    Later, the quartet childishly flaunt their superhuman powers by transforming into bats and engaging in fights, bully their human minions (who do their bidding in the hopes of getting bitten and therefore become immortal), and bicker over who's going to wash the sink full of bloody dishes.
    But while the creatures are certainly supernatural, they're also recognisably human, with dynamic personalities — and that's why sight gags such as a chore wheel on the wall don't come across as cheap or tired.
    Clement and Waititi craft a minimal but effective narrative, as the foursome’s bonds are tested by the advent of a freshly fanged vampire (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), who exhibits all the casualness of a typical millennial.
    We also see a gang of werewolves treading on the vampires’ personal space. The furry fiends, rough and tough gangsters, do their best to match the coolness of the bat-winged brigade, but are hampered by their unavoidable lupine transformations every time there’s a full moon.
    Clement and Waititi clearly realise that comedy comes not just from mocking tropes but from the scruffy human pretensions that give birth to them.
    What We Do In The Shadows is perfectly paced, and perfectly pitched. Like all the best scary and/or funny films there’s also a message, and not surprisingly, it’s about overcoming difference and everyone learning to get along together.
    It also shines a light on the difficulties faced by the older generation in having to adapt to modern life. And despite the hilarity, the film touches on the loneliness of the immortal – “this is what happens when you are a vampire, you have to watch everyone die,” says Deacon.

#whatwedointheshadows

GUNFIGHT AT THE JOKEY CORRALL

MOVIE
A Million Ways To Die In The West
Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson
Director Seth MacFarlane
Review Ray Chan

Family Guy and Ted creator Seth MacFarlane gives us Blazing Saddles for Generation Y, a Western parody complete with all the trimmings of the director’s trademark digressions, pop culture references and low-brow humour.
    Laced with enough quips to make this movie outrageously R-rated, there are nevertheless enough laughs in it to ensure they don’t make for a bad one.
    The plot concerns MacFarlane’s sheep farmer Albert, dumped by girlfriend Louise (Seyfried) after he cowardly escaped a gunfight.
    Liam Neeson is a violent gangster searching for gold, and Charlize Theron’s gunslinger Anna turns up to teach Albert how to shoot just in time for the big showdown with arch nemesis Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), who has wooed Louise over.
    The best stuff is when McFarlane plays up the ridiculous aspects of the genre, emulating Mel Brooks at his sledgehammer best.
    At some points it’s like a big-budget comedy night set in the desert – the hilarious moustache barn dance is a delight – with MacFarlane’s delivery a cross between improv and stand-up comedy.
    Playing the straight man to a cavalcade of others, his liberal use of expletives in a Victorian setting is solidly funny.
    Seyfried and Theron aren’t given many knee-slappers, so the closest of the main cast to a full comic talent is Sarah Silverman as a prostitute who, despite entertaining others in the course of her profession, refuses to sleep with her boyfriend until they’re married.
    When you get right down to it though, most of the jokes don’t mesh with the visual and tonal aesthetic.
    MacFarlane is obviously being deliberately anachronistic, but a lot of the gags feel out of place or juvenile and unpleasant (laxatives and sheep appendages, for example).
    At two hours, the movie may be considered too long. Indeed, a dream sequence in the last 15 minutes seems included just for cheap laughs and feels totally out of place, and could easily have been edited out.
    Yet despite all of the obvious flaws, there are enough genuine chuckles and chortles to keep viewers entertained, but only if they’re not of a sensitive disposition.

#millionwaystodie

IT'S MILLERS TIME

MOVIE
We're The Millers
Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston
Director Rawson Marshall Thurber
Review Ray Chan

This is the story of David Clark (Jason Sudeikis), a small-time pot dealer with a heart of gold.
    When his stash and cash are plundered, the pusher he works for, Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms), says all debts will be forgiven if he agrees to smuggle a shipment over the Mexican border.
    To enable him to get past the border patrol, David persuades his stripper neighbour Rose (Jennifer Aniston), homeless girl Casey (Emma Roberts), and the 18-year-old dork and fellow apartment dweller Kenny (Will Poulter) to pose as his all-American family, the Millers, planning to hide the weed in an RV and sail right across.
    Of course, things don’t go quite to the script, with the crew ending up being chased by a Mexican drug kingpin, having a series of bizarre encounters with another RV-driving couple (Kathryn Hahn and Nick Offerman), and struggling to keep their masquerade intact.
    The jokes themselves are often sexual or scatological, with gags about wife-swapping, sexual malfunctions, and tampons making prominent appearances, not to mention an unfortunate incident with a spider bite on a set of testicles.
    But while We're the Millers is very raunchy in its humour, at the very heart of it lies a sweet intent, being fundamentally a tale about a bunch of wacky misfits who secretly yearn for the kind of normality some people would take for granted.
    As their journey moves forward, the Millers find themselves assuming the characteristics of a real family. David and Rose develop a sense of parental protectiveness toward their “children”.
    While all of the cast play off each other well, Poulter is a standout and hilarious as the insecure Kenny, whether he's rapping to TLC's Waterfalls or awkwardly learning how to kiss from an inappropriate source.
    As the movie winds up, life lessons are learned by all. In some ways, this is the movie's best joke: that even complete screw-ups can find a sense of belonging when thrown together with other fellow oddballs.

#we'rethemillers

TOP GUN

MOVIE
Django Unchained
Jamie Foxx, Christophe Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Don Johnson 
Director Quentin Tarantino
Review Ray Chan

Tarantino may have his critics, but this movie probably typifies exactly how brilliant this filmmaker is.
   Bold, brave, blithe and bloody, Django Unchained is an incendiary masterpiece featuring a kick-ass tale of revenge with some awesome performances from its star-studded cast, smart chunks of dialogue punctuated by action, ensanguined altercations and stereotypical Western ballads, and for some unfathomable but highly entertaining reason, Tarantino himself with a ridiculous Australian accent.
    Jamie Foxx is Django (“the D is silent”), a slave being dragged by his masters in chains, when he runs into Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz, portraying a good guy for a change).
    Schultz needs Django to identify his former employers so that he can kill them and collect the bounty on their heads, and promises to set Django free once the mission is accomplished.
    They find the odious brothers on the sprawling cotton plantation of Big Daddy (hammed up impeccably by Don Johnson), and it doesn’t take long for Django to dish out some retribution for his past treatment at their hands. Schultz doesn’t care because he gets the reward anyway.
    Then the twists and turns keep coming. After Django relays the story of his missing wife, the wonderfully-named Broomhilda, to Schultz, the pair partner up to hunt bounties all winter with a plan to track her down in the spring and buy her back from her current owner—a vile, mustachioed gentlemen named Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) who runs a plantation called Candieland.
    Suffice to say that efforts to rescue Broomhilda don’t go exactly to plan, with the plot meandering through a series of shocks, suspense and surprises, as Candie’s devoted slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) figures out the real reason for Django’s visit.
    Indeed, Jackson’s performance is a highlight. Usually depicted as the rough, no-nonsense law enforcer or a vicious criminal, here he plays an exaggerated and extremely funny character calculated to make the audience laugh and then feel uneasy about how willingly they respond to his over-the-top delivery.
    Overall, the blend of classic film homages, violent spectacle and clever verbal exchanges ensures that Tarantino remains one of the most interesting and innovative movie maestros of his generation.
    On a more serious note, he makes a potent and powerful statement about racial stereotype and racist language, and even includes a post-credit gag to suggest the potential for such language to then be successfully appropriated.
    The end result is what I believe to be Tarantino’s best and most thoughtful film to date.

#djangounchained

GODLY SLICE OF PI

MOVIE
Life Of Pi
Suraj Sharmam, Irrfan Khan
Director Ang Lee
Review Ray Chan


It takes the pedigree of an Academy Award-winning director like Ang Lee to have the audacity to tackle what looked like a seemingly impossible literary adaption of Yann Martel's novel.
    Martel's story outlines the life-defining journey of a young man named Pi, whose zookeeping business family decide to travel to Canada from their Indian homeland — lock, stock and menagerie — to escape political problems there.    
    On the way, their cargo ship gets battered by a fierce storm and capsizes.
    Pi manages to find a life boat, which bit by bit takes on various animals from the sinking vessel — a wounded zebra, a noble orangutan, a cackling, self-serving hyena, a regal Bengal tiger — who in the ensuing days turn on each other in the quest to survive.
    Eventually it’s just Pi and the tiger left stuck on the small vessel in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a predicament that would test anyone’s sanity.
    To help him endure, Pi digs deep into the recesses of his eclectic convictions that a god exists to keep him alive, and this journey is rendered impeccably by Lee's vision. The colour is electric, with iconic and stunningly sublime shots littered throughout.
    Whether it's magnificent underwater shots of the ship plunging to the watery depths, a grand whale breaching to the skies, or the infinite glacial look of an ocean, Lee's stunning composition is omnipresent, as is the technical wizardry used for the animal stars of the film, which make them wonderfully realistic.
    Veteran Irrfan Khan plays the older Pi, who narrates the tale, while the younger version is represented by Suraj Sharma, who does an impressive job of absorbing the harrowing physical torture without extinguishing his optimism, belief and hope, successfully emoting without any real creatures to play off of.
    If you haven’t read the book, you are in for a treat as you gradually realise the movie is all about symbolism and metaphors.
    As the film nears its end, a rescued Pi tells two versions of his adventures: the animal story and a human interpretation. It’s then that the realisation dawns, if it hasn’t already, that the ragtag group of animals were likely anecdotal manifestations of crew members who clambered on board with Pi.
    After recounting his experiences, Pi asks his rescuers, and indirectly the viewers, which rendition they prefer.
    Pi maintains it was his faith that got him through, and here he provokes a person to believe in the presence of a higher being.
    He is challenging the viewer to consider which version of the world they prefer — the one where we make our own way and suffer through the darkness via self-determination, or the one where we are aided by something greater than ourselves (regardless of which diety we may follow).
    Is the tiger in fact how Pi sees God, who helped him get through adversity when all seemed lost? Is the tiger Pi himself?
    Ultimately, Life of Pi is a beautiful allegory about living with acceptance in the face of the most formidable of adversities.
    The consensus from the hardened investigators interrogating Pi as he recovers is that the animal version is too fanciful to believe, but a much happier one to accept.
    “And so it goes with God,” Pi says as the movie ends.

#lifeofpi

I SCREAMED A SCREAM

MOVIE
Les Miserables
Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Ann Hathaway
Director Tom Hooper
Review Ray Chan

IF you like your musicals big, bombastic and blasting on all cylinders, then this is the movie for you.
    The cinematic sweep works pretty well at times, right from the opening scene, in fact: a chain gang of prisoners labouring to pull an enormous ship into dry dock looks like authentic toil, and has a decent shock moment when the camera searches the faces and finds the emaciated Prisoner 24601, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread.
    The protagonist of Victor Hugo’s novel, Valjean is put on the path to goodness by a generous gift, but pursued relentlessly by Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), who doesn’t believe in redemption.
    Then after 90 minutes, the stage becomes vastly more crowded as other characters from the narrative are introduced.
    Valjean rescues Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) from a couple of unscrupulous innkeepers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter), who then travels to Paris and falls in love with idealistic French student Marius (Eddie Redmayne), who has joined a band of brothers fighting in the revolution.
    Indeed, with the entire saga set in France, it’s interesting to note the cosmopolitan make-up of the cast, which includes Britons, Frenchmen, Americans and Antipodeans, all of whom make no attempt to hide their native accents.
    The exception is Cohen, who for whatever reason adopts a random Inspector Clouseau inflection, which contrasts wildly with the perplexing Jack Wild-esque Cockney-speak of Daniel Huttlestone as the French urchin Gavroche.
    With so many different characters, there are bound to be moments when viewers feel scenes are rushed, or lacking deeper exposition, but any flaws in the adaptation are more than made up for by Jackman’s performance.
    Apart from a solid showing as the anguished lead, Jackman surprises with his tenor vibrato, standing up against the best of the actors who have played Valjean, particularly in What Have I Done, dragging you into the film so completely you can almost feel his spit on you, and on the difficult Bring Him Home, where the verses hit notes that only dogs can hear.
    More surprising and impressive is the portrayal of Fantine by Anne Hathaway.
    Her solo I Dreamed a Dream is the first significant test for director Tom Hooper’s gamble of recording his actors performing live in one take, with flat notes and rough edges preserved and not re-done in the safe haven of a studio.
    The two shining stars really brighten up what we need to remember is foremostly a musical, but unfortunately, not all their peers are as vocally blessed, with the biggest culprit being Crowe.
    It’s not unfair to say that when Les Mis is good, it’s very, very good; but when it is bad, it’s usually because the Gladiator star has tried to sing.
    Crowe, whose professional crooning career peaked with pub band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, is a sorry simulacrum for the angry Javert, cooing dramatic songs as if they were lullabies.
    Ultimately, adapting beloved oeuvres into a new medium is always a tricky prospect. Whether it's a comic book, a stage play, or in this case, a great work of literature, if makes it to the silver screen, chances are that there is a fairly devoted fan base who will let you know in no uncertain terms if you screw up their baby.
    In Les Mis, if they can overlook the unevenness of some of the musical numbers, they will probably raise their thumbs.
    While there's a slight disconnect from the source material, there's also an undeniable passion and respect for the magnum opus, which runs for more than two-and-a-half hours.
    It may be overlong and even test one’s patience, especially those who are not into Broadway shows or singing and dancing theatre pieces, but as cinematic musicals go, it’s generally one of the more sumptuously-crafted productions in recent years.


#lesmiserables

MEGA IMPRESSIVE

MOVIE
Dredd
Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby
Director Peter Travis
Review Ray Chan

Wow, wow, wow. In a year that’s dished up some hardcore super-hero fare in the form of The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and Batman: Dark Knight Rises, it’s pleasantly surprising to discover that the best in this genre so far is this adaptation of the classic British character.
    Dredd is a fantastic film: sharply focused, true to the spirit of the comic book character, and filled with ratcheting tension and killer action set pieces.
    Shot and designed for a 3D experience, the film’s policeman protagonist is played superbly by Karl Urban wearing his best grimace and scowl.
    A new drug called Slo-Mo is circulating through Dredd’s grim future metropolis Mega-City One, with its users experiencing reality in a slowed-down state that is visualised in 3-D with stunning clarity and colour.
    What could have been a gimmick becomes a central plot device and a trademark visual of the movie. The experience of falling off of a skyscraper on Slo-Mo, for instance, feels like eternity for the poor falling victim.
    It’s a fine testament to the skills of director Pete Travis and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, who pull out all the stops in making the sequences pop, ripple, and explode.
    Part of the appeal of the movie is the linear fashion of the storyline, which goes from start to finish without meandering on confusing diversions.
    Dredd and his new trainee, psychic recruit Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), answer a call to the nearest triple homicide, and soon find themselves trapped in the slum tower of the dreaded gangster Ma-Ma, with no way to escape except to kill ’em all.
    In this apocalyptic future, Dredd has the power of judge, jury and executioner, while at the same time being the uncontested hero of the story. There’s a wonderful balance struck between thrilling entertainment and the square-jawed triumph of The Man.
    It’s a straightforward good guy versus bad guy showdown and one almost feels that Dredd’s singular and unwavering devotion to the law is the key to holding this tenuous society from teetering right off the brink.
    Famously never depicted without wearing his signature helmet, Dredd is always The Law, a trope abandoned in Sylvester Stallone’s disappointing version of the same character several years ago.
    Succeeding as an action movie, a comic book adaptation, a tonally tricky science fiction narrative, and a visually compelling live action adaptation, Dredd is one of this year’s most memorable cinematic offerings.


#dredd

HAIL CAESAR

MOVIE

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
James Franco, Andy Serkis
Director Rupert Wyatt
Review Ray Chan

I’M old enough to remember watching the original Planet of the Apes series as a kid in the 60s and not being impressed by Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall and co, who appeared even to my young eyes to be just humans wearing masks with mouths that did not close shut when talking, even if the prosthetics were ground-breaking at the time.
    And unbelievably, the make-up was considered even worse for Tim Burton’s lightweight 2001 remake, which was critically panned.
    So the trepidation was high as the lights fell on the first instalment of the newly energised franchise, rebooted for the times. But it was needless, as today’s technology reveals that you too can believe that a monkey can talk.
    In San Francisco, Dr Will Rodman (Franco), a brilliant genetic engineer working for a typical money-hungry conglomerate, wants to cure Alzheimer’s to save his fading father (John Lithgow).
    He designs a serum aimed at repairing the brain, but it does something even better in one of the chimps on which it has been tested, boosting her intelligence without any noticeable side-effects.
    As time passes, the subject duly gives birth to a chimp which had the magic potion delivered to him in utero.
    When she breaks free from her shackles at being separated from her child, she is killed by panicked security guards, which encourages Will to take the orphan chimp home as his own, naming him Caesar.
    As he grows, he proves to be not just smarter than other apes of his species, but smarter than humans of similar age as well.
    He also picks up language better than a human kid, and as he develops from baby to moody adolescent, his vocabulary and curiosity expands even faster, as do his expectations of what he wants from the world from which he is isolated, but which he watches in fascination from his attic window.
    Over-riding the weird science factor – in which viewers may question whether such fanciful notions are possible – is the emotional tug in the storyline which focuses on father-and-son relationships, as Will does everything he can to find the cure for his dad’s disease, yet thinks with his heart when it comes to taking care of his surrogate son.
    No moment is more poignant than the one when Caesar asks whether or not he is regarded as a pet. It’s a theme that lurks throughout the film, as animals who haven’t had Caesar’s advantages are treated without regard to their status as entities with feelings.
    The primate prodigy's world changes when he protects Will's dad from an aggressive neighbour, causing injury in the process. He is sent to a simian shelter where he assumes the alpha role among the caged menagerie of chimps, baboons, gorillas and orangutans.
    Caesar eventually breaks free from the facility and uses canisters of Will's drug to enhance the abilities of his new-found tribe, which he also liberates into the city, including some apes from the zoo for good measure.
    The camerawork is brilliant as the lens zooms in on the apes, swooping madly while negotiating the world on their terms, whether it’s crashing from room to room in the Rodman household, through the wilds of the surrounding woods, or swarming the Golden Gate Bridge in a devastatingly effective action sequence that plays to emotion and adrenaline.
    The star of the movie is undoubtedly Caesar, and that means actor Andy Serkis (seemingly making a habit of playing fantastic beasts), who puts in an absolutely triumphant performance.
    While the use of CGI has transmuted his appearance into that of a chimp, the actor creates a character of vivid complexity, the anthropoid face and form as full of empathy as that of a human.
    The childlike joy, the troubled confusion, and finally a stare of cool, focused malevolence as Caesar stands up to a tormentor, physically and intellectually, is gripping for its intelligence and for its inexorable desire for retribution.
    Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is a splendidly wrought cautionary tale about good intentions going astray, but one executed without sounding too preachy.
    It combines smart storytelling with groundbreaking effects to create an experience that is gripping from start to finish, standing as proof that the best movies entice us not just because of the mayhem, but from the ability to make us care why it's happening.
    The deliberate open ending of the movie sets up the promise of a sequel (or two), and if the same standard of emotion and adventure can be maintained, then it is something to look forward to indeed.

#riseoftheplanetoftheapes

LIGHTS, ACTION ... CAMERA

MOVIE
Super 8
Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning
Director JJ Abrams
Review Ray Chan


Joel Courtney leads a cast of talented kid actors as Joe Lamb, the middle-school-aged son of Jack (Kyle Chandler), a sheriff’s deputy who struggles with the demands of single parenthood after his wife dies in a steel mill accident.
    Joe copes by escaping into a world of models and monster magazines, and fills his free hours making a zombie film with his movie-mad pal Charles (Riley Griffiths).
    Filming surreptitiously at an abandoned train station one night, they witness a train derailment that ushers in a series of mysterious happenings that might be explained by events they unwittingly captured on the Super 8 camera.
    The scene is presented brilliantly as the sound of screeching metal fills the air while cars tumble aimlessly across the tracks.
    It’s the first of many sequences which show the influence of the movie's producer Steven Spielberg on J.J. Abrams, who readily admits that this new offering is a homage to the man who has become the most successful director in Hollywood history.
    Abrams shows he has been a keen student of Spielberg’s techniques, adopting style and substance from Jaws to E.T. to Close Encounters, with parts of The Goonies thrown in for good measure.
    Saying more about what happens after the train incident would spoil Super 8’s carefully cultivated aura of mystery, but suffice it to say that what follows won’t be too surprising to those who have seen the aforementioned films that lend this their DNA.
    That makes the picture both welcomingly and frustratingly familiar, and more the latter as it goes along.
   But A for effort. Super 8 constructs a believably complicated small-town world, fills it with the right period details and shoots it beautifully, testing the residents’ sense of order and willingness to stand up to authority to cope with a chaotic element that could destroy them.
    Borrowed the pleasures may be, but who better to imitate if the object is to flatter?

THE MAIM MAN

MOVIE
Machete
Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro
Director Robert Rodriguez
Review Ray Chan

IN his collaboration with Quentin Tarantino on the two-in-one thriller Grindhouse, Robert Rodriguez introduced a mock trailer for a fake movie called Machete, starring craggy-faced, veteran character actor Danny Trejo as an intimidating Mexican day labourer.
    Now, in tribute to violent, low-budget 70s exploitation pictures, that ‘coming attraction’ has become a testosterone-fuelled reality.
    The minimalist plot behind this action film – with so many over-the-top sequences that it could really be labelled a comedy – revolves around main (and maim) man Machete (Trejo), a badass ex-Mexican Federale who is seeking revenge against the vicious drug lord who killed his wife and daughter.
    Within the opening minutes, he’s chopped the heads and arms off a dozen gangsters guarding the kingpin Torrez (Steven Seagal), but comes off worse for wear.
    Left for dead, Machete recuperates and flees over-the-border to Texas, where he’s coerced under threat of deportation to accept a job to kill conservative, intolerant Texas Senator McLaughlin (Robert De Niro), who denounces illegal immigrants as parasites, and enjoys driving with sadistic, rifle-wielding Von (Don Johnson), shooting unarmed Mexicans they find sneaking into the country.
    But it’s a set-up and when he’s identified as the would-be perpetrator of the failed assassination, Machete’s only allies are his brother and less-than-pious priest Padre Benito (Cheech Marin), and Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), the proprietor of a taco truck and leader of the underground resistance called ‘the Network’.
    Then there’s scantily clad Sartana (Jessica Alba), a luscious Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, and slutty April (Lindsay Lohan), the entitled, drugged-up daughter of McLaughlin’s associate Booth. Mix them all together and you get a cocktail of murder and mayhem.
    Rodriguez and his co-director Ethan Maniquis may be only junior-grade Tarantinos, but they assemble enough ludicrous, offensive, politically incorrect genre conventions – like bigoted hombres, naughty nurses, double-entendred dialogue and slightly-clad bodacious babes – to score the film as one of this year’s most surprising must-sees.
    And they’re already planning two sequels – this time, the trailers are real. Sí, por favour.