Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

Christmas is coming. Meaning the year 2014 is gonna end, and we’re all one year closer to death. Damn! I’m still like an ‘Almost Buddhist’, unprepared, overoptimistic, indifferent and bewildered at times, but I’m very proud of being one anyway. Movies do console me to some extent, but inevitably they all make me feel like I ought to be attached to something or someone so as to move on. And I kind of hate that feeling. Thus I didn’t check out as many films this year as I did last year. As a matter of fact, movies have been a smaller part of my life, yet I haven’t figured out what’s become a bigger part of. Afraid I may not be able to share with you guys next year’s ‘The Best & The Worst’. We’ll see, but keep in mind, nothing’s objective. This is all personal! Thought either David Fincher’s ‘ Gone Girl ’ or Christopher Nolan’s ‘ Interstellar ’ was gonna blow my mind. Turns out they’re all more or less of a disappointment. After all, life’s full of surprises as long as yo

★★★★☆ I appreciate this film not because I’m a believer of a tooth for a tooth like it tends to convince, but simply because it’s really a cool, stylish, exciting piece of action cinema, and the underscore makes it much, much cooler, hands down. I feel like I’m watching ‘ The Man From Nowhere ’, ‘ Dredd ’ and ‘ Leon The Professional ’ at the same time. I don’t know. I’m always fascinated by a story about a righteous smart super skilled loner, after struggles, deciding to do the right thing by taking a thousand assholes into his own hands, though I know that’s not the right way to serve law and justice after all. The story’s straight. The camerawork is impressive. The pace, the close-ups, the slo-mo action sequences are stunning. Denzel Washington is exceptionally competent at playing Robert McCall, a mysterious superhero cold-blooded to the scum but warm-hearted to the weak and innocent. The film lasts like more than 2 hours, but still you feel like it’s kind of short, as we’r

★★★☆☆ There’s a big contrast in the opening of the film where Brat Pitt’s Don kills a Nazi with much hate but sets his white horse free with much love. To him, it seems like a horse’s life is much more precious than a human’s. Sure this is not his fault. It’s the Government, the propaganda, the madness, the war itself that makes us act like an animal in some particular time. Basically it’s our distinction to blame. And it’s not something we’re endowed with, but we think it is! A matter of fact that I love every film starring Brat Pitt, but of course not every film he’s in is good, including this one. ‘Fury’ has got some gross and haunting images but the story and the characters are not so convincing and impressive. Why Don, with just a broken tank and a few hands left, still insists to stay and fight against an army of heavily armed Nazis instead of retreating and working out a better plan? Maybe he’s sick of having to live and fight over and over again. I don’t know, but the

★★☆☆☆ 相比第一集的悲壯，以及 第二集 的煞有介事，第三集的故事十分乏味，既無驚喜，亦不緊張，還要拖兩個小時，叫人難熬，結局更是一堆車撞來撞去，不知所謂！這次除了竊聽系列的三位常客，還多加了幾位中港大腕，結果那三位常客的戲份被攤薄了，主角反而好像是葉璇跟曾江，起碼他們有戲做，其他人都只是走來走去，念念對白。以為方中信會有點看頭，怎知也是閒角一名，不過他的口頭禪 everything under control 倒是令人印象深刻！ 其實很多人心裡都知道 nothing is under control ，但我們還是想去 control ，為甚麼？因為我們心底明白存在是虛無的，正正就是這種不安全感促使我們不斷想去 control ，自我保護之餘，也想證明自己是實實在在地存在。有些時候事情好像 under control ，但那只不過是因緣和合的假像，神通無邊如佛陀者也不能阻止其族人被滅絕，何況我們此等業障深重的凡夫，連自己都不能控制，遑論去控制其他人和事。緣起甚深，業網複雜，我們無知，所以總是想 control it ，而不是 flow with it 。 〈竊聽風雲 3 〉雖然過目即忘，但最後那場「時光倒流」多少令人唏噓。人總是擔心有一天會耗盡地球資源，以致地球毀滅，但其實在地球毀滅之前，首先毀滅的一定是我們人類。我想起美國棟篤笑大師 George Carlin 說過的令人回味的話： The planet isn’t going anywhere. We are. The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas 。我們都只是這個地方的過客， nobody is in control of anything ！