Father Geek here with ol'Robert Bernocchi of our Rome Offices with the latest in our long line of regular Euro-AICN Reports. Check it out...

Hi people. I just spent a wonderful week in Belgium, where I was able to attend a great ceremony at the European Parliament dedicated to the Trani Film festival and to the collateral event Verso la Contea (which will occur this June in the Italian region of Puglia), dedicated to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien and to the Peter Jackson movies. It was the first time that a Tolkien Society entered an institution so
important as the European Parliament. You can read the full press release and see three pictures of the evening by clicking here:
Tolkien Fans... Don't Miss out On These!

We have also a few pics from the latest Paul Schrader's movie, The Exorcist: The Beginning. The shooting ended a month ago and I got now a few images by italian company Proxima, which is working at the realisation of digital visual effects. Of these three pics, there is one with Stellan Skarsgard that I've already seen elsewhere, but the other two are new and they can give a good idea of the CGI quality of this movie. You can see these pics (and read a press release by Proxima) by clicking here:

Do It Right Now!

Now, let's start with the usual column...

Evil Spy has something to say about the Middle East release of Tears of the Sun....

Dear AICN-ers,

I just got out of a Tears Of The Sun screening… and, I don’t know about you guys, frankly IT SUCKS! Willis is just lame and not to talk of the overrated Monica Bellucci which kept on crying and wanting to sabe people. I definitely thought she was a miscast in the movie… a major one! Not to talk about the way it was shot… it was practically seeing of the 80’s movies about Vietnam…
Anyway, I’m not here to talk about how the movie sucked… I’ve just had a confirmation that Tears Of The sun has been officially banned in Lebanon due to it’s “sensitive” subject matter: Muslims VS Christians! Frankly I don’t swallow that one bit! I mean, I know that the religion issue is pretty big in the Middle East but, as in every movie released on DVD, this will be parallel imported anyways so why ban it?

These guys have been massacring each other since the mid 70s. I mean they must have learned something! Then again, it’s not their war portrayed in the movie. It’s Nigeria! For God’s sake it’s NIGERIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is true. Things like this happened… (Not the Bruce Willis – Monica Bellucci story)… they’re facts.

Therefore, the only thing I could think of is probably the Anti American feeling rising in this region and creating friction within the region… This is probably a way of retaliation to American propaganda. While I was watching it, people beside me where criticizing the Americans big time… at a point where I had to tell the to shut the F*#k up coz they were disturbing “my fragile little mind”.

The movie isn’t exactly critical on the US position and can easily be applied to what’s happening in Iraq. I watched the movie and frankly that feeling did arise in me. (Not that I’m an Arab… but I see this shit on the news and it pisses me off!) Governments shouldn’t ban entertainment. They should educate their people in differentiating between reality and bullshit!

I know movies such as Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers where boycotted by the viewers. Boycotting is highly respectable. It’s people’s choice. But banning isn’t!
Be sure that it going to be banned next in Egypt, UAE and Jordan… wait for another post!

What pisses me off even more is that in a while, the DVDs are going to be displayed in stores…
Well, it’s 02:00 am and I’m tired… you probably noticed on the way I wrote this.

The only thing they should ban in this world is FOX TV and at times CNN for feeding bullshit facts to people! That’s a FACT!

‘night

The Evil Spy

4 great reviews by our usual correspondents Ethan and James Bartlett.

Beware, some spoilers below...

LOVE AND A BULLET

I must admit that THE BIG HIT is one of the cooler action comedies in the history of cinema and it definitely belongs among the best movies made in the last five years. It was produced by John Woo and Wesley Snipes and these guys never miss.

I mean, John Woo per se cannot guarantee anything these days. He will need time to recover from MI-2 and WINDTALKERS done back-to-back, but in 1998, it was his heyday. He was fresh from making his true Hollywood masterpiece FACE/OFF and producing a very fine HK pastiche REPLACEMENT KILLERS by certain Antoine Fuqua.

On the other hand, Snipes truly belongs to the group of my very favourite actors. I love his roles, especially all the genre stuff he does. By the time THE BIG HIT was released he was fresh from the work on the first BLADE which proved to be pivotal for the genre.

Anyhow, THE BIG HIT rocked big time and I`m glad it even made some cash.

Time went by. Director Kirk Wong did some TV work, got attached to SIX, Elie Samaha actioner with Michael Jai White that never got made, then got attached to IRON FIST and promptly fired, and in the end he directed Wesley`s biker project.

Kirk failed to make anything fly but he kept himself inside the game.

Screenwriter Ben Ramsey, on the other hand went AWOL for four years. The guy was gone. I don`t know whether he did some uncredited work or not. I guess not because some other films would rule. Now he`s back with LOVE AND A BULLET, a film that allegedly played some theatrical venues but ended up on video soon enough.

This movie is very, very cool. It is smart and it has this balls-to-the-wall attitude that graced THE BIG HIT. This low budget film was made for half a million bucks and it was cut by TriStar, so it doesn`t deliver lots of action. Even though this hitman comedy provides enough comic gore and violence to look dignified.

The story never gets half-cocked and it feels like it doesn`t actually belong to the tired hitman comedy subgenre.

Anthony "Treach" Criss of Naughty By Nature fame stars as Malik Bishop, a tough-as-nails gangsta kid turned elite hit man. While staking out his next assignment - the innocent girlfriend of his notorious boss - Malik reflects on the dark path he’s chosen but cannot escape. Torn between his sense of duty and his newfound sense of humanity, he finds that the only way out is a perilous showdown with men who are every bit as cold-blooded as he is.

But this whole thing is done with witty ironic edge that made quiet scenes of THE BIG HIT so cool. This movie is inhabited exclusively by hitmen with a hard-on for Yaphet Kotto. This is the movie co-directed and written by a man who wrote the brilliant `dad looks like MIAMI VICE villain` gag in THE BIG HIT.

Ben Ramsey`s attitude is the sole reason why this movie kicks so much ass. Rappers turned actors, low budget and anonymous direction by Kantz (from the McG, Traktor and Kaos camp) are being disinfected by his sheer attitude and ability to tune the style and create a unique cinematic universe where all these elements actually work.

After seeing this movie which bravely and unasahamedly threads THE BIG HIT territory and manages to be entertaining, I cannot stop but wonder how come Ben Ramsey doesn`t write big Hollywood actioners these days if he proved to be talented. He is in the Skip Woods position now. He has one big budget screenwriting credit and an indie direction under his belt. But still, Woods first made the indie and then wrote the major while Ramsey did the same thing in reverse order.

THE FOREIGNER

My love for Michael Oblowitz is very well known. I think that his abilities in terms of low-budget filmmaking are outstanding. His abilities are outstanding because he manages to shoot watchable direct-to-video action thrillers that suffer no apparent shortage.

His latest opus THE FOREIGNER is a perfect example. This film belongs to the new batch of Elie Samaha funded Seagal flicks that are made for less or around 25 million budget which means they are not eligible for Warner Bros release. The first of these films was HALF PAST DEAD which suffered many shortcomings in every department.

One of the shortcomings is the fact that director Don Michael Paul wasn`t able to stage meaningful action sequences on a low-budget. Some of the scenes are well executed but if you take a closer look to the film, you realize that some locations (most of the prison scenes) simply lack competent direction. This is because these locations were shot when the crew ran out of cash.

Oblowitz` THE FOREIGNER is a whole other ballgame. It was made for video and never graced the big screen. Too bad, because it belongs to Seagal`s top work, right up there with MARKED FOR DEATH, ABOVE THE LAW, UNDER SIEGE & UNDER SIEGE 2.

Of course, as you look at these Franchise non-Warner pictures, you realize that the budget was miniscule and that loads of money were saved by East European locations.

But Oblowitz is very well used to these conditions. Look at his Hungarian located vampire mayhem THE BREED with Adrian Paul, Bokeem Woodbine and the Chinese chick form RED CORNER.

First off, Oblowitz is the master of iconography. His characters look cool. His characters deliver lots of badass coolness. At the same time he manages to take some simple shots and make them feel like exploitation. He shoots a woman. And he makes that shot feel kinda special. Kinda cinematic. With these shots he buys time, so that action doesn`t take too long.

And when action starts he does his best to make it visceral. The fights are short, The bullets are shot rapidly and yeah bullets hit fuckin` flesh. People bleed in Oblowitz films. Oh, yeah. He does a great job in the slenced gun routine that was perfectly aranged in Dick Donner`s ASSASSINS. He can`t top that but he`s very good in that situation. He also uses slo-mo when characters die. And he uses it in a smart way. He doesn`t rip anyone off. He just uses slo-mo as part of film grammar.

The script is tight. It seems muddled at times because it`s plot-heavy which is great since the only way for indie actioners to attract any intereset is to rely on plot. The plot and characters definitely don`t belong to the best writing I ever encountered but it sure feels better that writing we get in Hollywood theatrical releases. This inflation of twists reminds me of another Franchise feature-Mamet`s HEIST.

Seagal is still chubby and his hand-to-hand fighting technique is fading. But in this film he doesn`t say much, he really does good job in the dangerous silent type routine since in this one he is silent and dangerous. He shoots bad guys well and his dominating badassness is consistent. In other words, this character doesn`t spare no villains in some half-cocked attempt at humanity.

Above all, Oblowitz understands the Seagal esotherics. For example, he knows the typical Seagal Climax secret. The Seagal Climax is always short and Seagal character kills the main villain like his goons, short and sweet. Recent Seagal releases lacked this knowledge and Oblowitz came back to kick some butt and restore order with this piece.

It feels like Seagal took Van Damme`s path. He is definitely derscending into the direct-to-video market. Like Van Damme, he will get some promising work in the direct-to-video universe. But most of this work will remain unseen by major audience because he`s been too chewed and too cool for hipsters like Tarantino to revive him. Anyone remember Ringo Lam`s REPLICANT.

God bless,
Ethan

Black and White

Director: Craig Lahiff
Robert Carlyle, Charles Dance, Kerry Fox, David Ngoobujara, Ben Mendelsohn
99 mins

The closing film of the 3rd Belfast Film Festival, Black and White is based
in on the true story of an Aboriginal man charged with the rape and murder
of a 9-year-old girl back in the late 1950's.

Local hack solicitors David O'Sullivan and Helen Devaney (Robert Carlyle and
Kerry Fox) are called in to provide free legal support for Max Stuart (David
Ngoombujarra). Faced with the shocked community's reaction to the crime and
the fact that Max is a drifter Aboriginal, high-flying opposition solicitor
Roderic Chamberlain (Charles Dance) finds it easy to get a guilty verdict.

But O'Sullivan is not convinced; he is sure that the confession was faked,
written after Max was beaten and threatened. But it's of little use as they
have no money to chase any leads or provide any more clues - it looks like
Max is going to hang.

But then a young newspaper editor called Rupert Murdoch (Ben Mendesohn)
enters the fray: he smells a good story and whips up a media frenzy about
the Death Penalty and Max's innocence.

Issues of race, colonialism and inner-country politics come into play as it
becomes a race against time and prejudice to try and convince the High Court
and then a Privy Council (the highest authority in the land) - that Max is
innocent.

An interesting premise, Black and White is ultimately let down by a woefully
structured, misdirected and leaden script. We're never quite clear what the
story is, or whose story it is - is it O'Sullivan? Max? Murdoch?
Chamberlain?

Crucially, the characters don't really convince: our hero O'Sullivan (played
well by Carlyle) seems to miss evidence and issues that seem obvious. Maybe
that was true at the time, but surely a film would be more involving if it
upped the ante and maybe ignored that in order to make the story more
engaging.

Also, Kerry Fox - a great actress - is utterly wasted and underused. She has
no impact at all and when the pace did eventually pick up as Murdoch entered
the story, you realised that was when the film should have started - not
just seeing O'Sullivan learning nothing as time after time he blasts his
mouth off in court and helps himself lose appeal after appeal.

Ultimately, the case did bring about a change in Legal Aid and (*plot
spoiler*) Max didn't hang, but it wasn't really due to O'Sullivan's
investigative or court room efforts; it was a political decision based on
media pressure that did it - and that was what the story should have been.

It's had much critical praise and sure, on many levels it's an adequate,
atmospheric worthy story, but to me it's a wasted opportunity. It only
occasionally veered out of TV Movie territory and with the cast involved,
they should have done better than that.

The fault lies at the door of the writer (Louis Nowra - who wrote the
excellent Navigator some years ago but also the recent bomb K19: Widow
Maker) and the director. See the recent Rabbit-Proof Fence for a far
superior look at Australia and its relationship with its Aboriginal
ancestors.

James Bartlett

That's all for today
See you next week

Robert Bernocchi

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