Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

★★★★☆ ‘Flight’ opens with a naked woman waking up to a morning alarm call. Beside her lies a man (Denzel Washington) reluctant to get up, seemingly suffering a hangover. On the nightstand beside him are bottles of hard drinks and cigarettes, suggesting he’s a heavy drinker & smoker. We don’t know his name, and what he does just yet. Here comes something shocking, this guy has to suck cocaine before he can finally get out of the room and get to work. Now we know, judging by the uniform he puts on, that he’s an airline pilot. Right, you may’ve guessed, as you see in the trailer, that he’s going to cause the plane crash. Yes, the plane’s going to crash but it’s got nothing to do with his addictions to alcohol and drugs. He kind of saves the day on the contrary. It makes him a hero, just not the one people normally see, but the one he needs for himself. ‘Flight’ marks the return of Academy Award winning (1994’s Forrest Gump) Director Robert Zemeckis to live action films since...

★★★★☆ I wonder, who Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) is; how a doctor, or say, a dentist-turned-bounty hunter pops up out of nowhere in the middle of the night, sets Django (Jamie Foxx) free, and sets out to hunt bastards; why he wants to risk his own life to help Django fulfill his presumably ridiculous wish; why he believes that a nigger’s right to be on a horse while everybody else thinks that’s absolutely unacceptable; how he could be that fearless, determined, helpful, and loving kind in a sense. Well… ‘Django Unchained’, Quentin Tarantino’s latest, is as awesome, exhilarating and engrossing as his previous ‘ Inglorious Basterds ’. In the film, he shows off his ingenious directorial skills in terms of witty, zaggy dialogues, appropriate castings, a great setup for the final painful and explosive, and you know what, nothing’s more entertaining than the music Tarantino chose for the film. Slavery is but a backdrop, and in front it a story of a set-free nigger struggling ...

★★★☆☆ 我不是王家衛粉絲，也不好王家衛電影，他的電影我沒有看過完整的一部。之前友人介紹的港片經典〈東邪西毒〉，看得我暈頭轉向，中途放棄。放心，〈一代宗師〉不會讓人頭痛，起碼沒有時空大兜亂，但會讓人有點發昏。王家衛把精采、複雜的打鬥放在開頭（沒錯，就是預吿片那段雨中對打），接著，他就開始播放自家風格的愛情廣告了。 慎防大家不知，概括說說：故事結構──打，打，再打，初遇，分離，奔喪，報仇，再遇，聊幾句，完事。中間夾雜時代更替，用字幕加歷史片段交代了事。當然，還有數不勝數的金句，所以戲裡人不僅是武人，還個個都是詩人。演員方面──小瀋陽是出來搞笑的；趙本山是來解釋「裡子」和「面子」的，沒出過招；宋慧喬是綠葉，戲裡還有大量我們想都沒想到的綠葉，震撼；張震是純粹做功夫示範的，只演一場；以上幾位只能算客串，不能算配角，真正的配角是宮寶森（王慶祥），馬三（張晉），和葉問（梁朝偉）。沒錯，葉問只是配角，主角其實是宮二（章子怡），所以電影叫〈一代宗師〉，而不是〈甚麼葉問〉或〈葉問甚麼〉，大家不要先入為主。武打方面──武指是袁和平，但武打場面完全不見八爺的影兒，他在戲裡倒是客串了一角。打鬥場面多運用局部近鏡，少量慢鏡和頭頂俯視，招式的來去其實看得不太清楚，喜歡看八爺動作場面的觀眾，會有種被騙的感覺。音樂方面──我欣賞，很有氣氛，特別是葉問和宮二初會那段，竟然配上西方歌劇，這種神來之筆，只有王家衛才膽敢做。 前面提過，〈一代宗師〉裡的功夫只是幌子，其骨幹依舊是愛情，是一齣不折不扣的愛情廣告，畫面唯美，百分之八十的鏡頭都是演員的臉部特寫。如斯廣告長達兩個多小時，未必人人受得了。我最喜歡的，不是片中的武打，而是最後一場宮二對葉問的表白，場面和音樂淒美非常，看得人唏噓無奈，因此這齣廣告我是可以接受的。 說到金句，有兩句比較有印象，其中一句很多人都提過：「每次相遇，都是久別重逢」。好像挺浪漫的一句話，細心咀嚼，還蠻恐怖的，因為它說的是輪迴啊！還有一句說武學的三個境界：「見自己，見天地，見眾生」。縱使宮二武功比葉問高，但頂多見到天地，見不到眾生，因為她有很多的放不下。至於葉問見到眾生與否？我看也未必，因為到最後他還覺得「功夫是一橫一豎」，還有分別，還沒放下。王家衛最後以一連串佛像作結，令人感慨──時代埋沒無數宗師（迷者），只有大師（覺者）方能傲視時代而不倒！ ...

★★★★☆ Sylvester Stallone’s ‘Judge Dredd’ is nothing worth remembering. ‘Dredd’ is however, a whole lot better cinematic experience. The story reminds me of ‘ TheRaid: Redemption ’, an Indonesian action film in which cops are trapped in a building controlled by a sicko. And they have to kill their mercy and fight their way out using unique physical combat skills. Western viewers love it, but I find it boring and impractical. The plot is quite the same, but ‘Dredd’ is visually more engaging! In ‘Dredd’, two Judges face a life-and-death situation. Karl Urban’s Judge Dredd never shows his face in the film. Cool! Although Judges don’t know martial arts, they’ve got a very special gun loaded with different destructive bullets. Guess what if a bad guy points this gun right back at the Judge? Cooler! And the coolest thing is the jaw-dropping visual effects. Hands down! Every time the slo-mo drug is triggered, pictures become mesmerizing. The mood is right set up, the pace well contro...

★★☆☆☆ In case you don’t know, Skyfall is a mansion in Scotland where little Bond grew up with his family, but don’t expect it to be like ‘Batman Begins’ or stuff so that we might get to know how little Bond becomes big Bond. This 23 rd (why people haven’t got fed up yet) Bond film is still about how Bond always seems to be able to hook up a girl and find a way out before finally getting his job, maybe not perfectly, but absolutely finished anyhow. He must be, like the film suggests, the last rat standing, no matter how invincible and fearsome the villain appears to be, this time played by Javier Bardem. What a waste of his talent and charisma in acting indeed. ‘Skyfall’ is nothing but a carefree action film, and you know what, carefree action films suck. I’m never a fan of 007 series. Not fond of films starring Daniel Craig either. The reason why I checked out ‘Skyfall’ is that it’s gained positive reviews from critics worldwide. Turned out there’s nothing exciting about it,...

★★★★☆ Killing them softly is in fact not quite accurate to describe the way Jackie (Brat Pitt) does his job. It’s more like, theatrically speaking, killing them slowly and elegantly. One of the killing scenes in the film does demonstrate how the beauty of violence is supposed to be like on the big screen though you know violence is nothing beautiful in reality. Here we have Brat Pitt as a cold-blooded hitman. The way he talks is cynical and intimidating but sometimes humorous. The way he executes is calm and stylish. If you’re fond of charismatic figures like that and Neo-noir films, this is the one you shouldn’t miss. The whole plot is, to be honest, nothing special, but the way it reveals is certainly entertaining and atmospheric. You get more and more engaged as the story goes on. Political speeches by Bush and Obama are throughout the film despite the fact that it’s nothing of a political drama. They play, however, like an interesting, sarcastic backdrop as Jackie finally...