Almost Buddhist - 戲‧論

  本已忘記，但友人提醒：一年就快結束，是時候寫年終總結，這才想起「 The Best & The Worst 」。往年我興致勃勃，直到 2019 年夏，香港發生的那場大革命。時至今日，其實我已經有點意興闌珊，不是因為我的博客乏人問津，本來我的博文就只為自己而寫，不為他人。而是因為從 2019 到現在，世道是沒有最荒謬，只有更荒謬，沒有最壞，只有更壞！實在令人無話可說。遑論有甚麼心情去看、去瞎扯電影。君不見兩年了 , 大家依然戴著個死人口罩；依然被限聚、封區、強檢、坐疫牢；依然哪裡都不能去，原地踏步。這條黑暗的隧道，好似看不到盡頭！但說到黑暗，腦海又浮現一句歌詞： the shadow proves the sunshine 。我不時提醒自己，要在悲觀之中樂觀。或者在這個亂世、末法時期，我們所能做的，就只能這樣！ 不幸中之大幸就是，身邊的人依然健在、不被病毒所侵，雖然鄉下的親人已經走了幾個，連最後一面都見不到，全因這個 CLS 的疫情。友人也信佛，她說這個疫情不能只賴一個國家或一個人，是全人類的共業。其實她說的，也不無道理。那個全宇宙最偉大的國家、最偉光正的政黨、最英明神武的領導，如何可以隻手搞出如此大頭佛？其實都是因為過往人類的貪婪和包庇造就，惡業一路累積，今時今日一起埋單而已！所謂善惡有報，若然未報，時候未到！搞成現在這個局面，我們每個人多少都有點責任。好景的時候，大家都把道義放兩旁，利字擺中間，不是嗎？ 我是寡言的人，可能我是從事文字工作，從早到晚只須打字、打字、打字。有時我也覺得感恩，因為跟文字打交道，怎麼也好過跟「可怕」的人吧？但有時我也會質疑人生和工作，到底這樣努力為了甚麼？也許人生根本沒有甚麼所謂的意義或目的，只有過程。享受過程中的每一刻帶給你的感受，而不是去考量做了之後會得到甚麼結果，因為你所期待的跟最終的結果，肯定不會一樣。過好每一天，做好每一份工作，珍惜跟家人共進的每一餐，以及跟有緣人的每一次交談和相聚，享受每一次觀影經驗…無論好壞優劣，都是寶貴人生的一部分。 The   Best: 〈 Wrathof Man 〉是一部型格之作，無論敘事、動作、配樂、人物刻劃都是拿捏到位，引人入勝。破格的敘事手法，完全沒尿點，不到最後幾分鐘，都不知這個故事將如何作結。動作場面雖然不多，但卻令人心跳加速，看得爽快，或者刺耳不安的配樂應記一功。嚴格講

  ★★☆☆☆ I looked. It’s the 25 th James Bond film. Wow, 25 th ? How many years are we talking about here? I remember there was already Mr. Bond on VCR jumping around, making use of high-tech gadgets, kicking and shooting when I was just a kid! But that was it. I’m sure I quit it long time ago, because a spy film like that is sort of carefree and senseless most of the time. Still, why did I check out ‘No Time To Die’ while I had no time to write? I like Daniel Craig, and this is his last as James Bond so… I said I quit it long time ago and it’s true, even if I like Daniel Craig as an actor, I’ve watched none of his James Bond films before ‘NTTD’, so I don’t know who’s been dealing with who and what, and how I’m supposed to feel the tension here. Well, speaking of which, I don’t think the film would get you on tenterhooks anyways as you know the story is more or less of a cliché where super Bond gets caught up in a super plan to control the world with some super genetic weapon by a sup

  ★★☆☆☆ ‘The Guilty’ is the Hollywood remake of 2018’s Danish ‘ Den Skyldige ’, which is truly a phenomenon in terms of engrossing storytelling, ingenious direction and screenwriting definitely. It’s one of my all-time favorites, and a must see if you want to know how a great film can be made for real with just one single actor using one single prop on one single set. It’s pure magic hands down.   I know right after experiencing such Danish cinematic magic, that it’s only a matter of time before the Hollywood version comes to life. So here we have ‘The Guilty’ featuring Jake Gyllenhaal going solo like expected, but what’s not expected is that it turns out so ineffective and irrelevant whether or not you have to compare it with the original. I don’t, as a matter of fact. I already clear my mind before coming to this one. Still Gyllenhaal’s performance is such a letdown. He’s a great actor without a doubt in my mind’s eye, but not in here, not this time. Here he seems to be overacting

★☆☆☆☆ 見識過泰國的 < 鬼影 > ，講因果輪回，鋪排精心，氣氛陰森，真相嚇尿。聽聞過韓國的 < 哭聲 > ，頗有風格，但故事講什麽就完全沒印象了！這次泰韓兩大恐怖大師破天荒合作的 < 凶靈祭 > ，什麽勇奪富川國際奇幻影展最佳作品，什麽壓倒 < 黑寡婦 > ，勇奪韓國開畫票房冠軍，什麽本年度最恐怖作品，看過之後，真是大失所望，雖不至於是垃圾，但也差不多！ 片長超過兩小時，前半段節奏氣氛的把度還好，來到後半段，當主角之一阿敏被邪靈上身之後，有人覺得影片就此開始高能，我就覺得開始低能兼失控。去到尾段更純粹賣弄惡心暴力，完全崩盤，簡直笑話！可能編導到最後已經不知如何打圓場了，所以索性廢話少說，奉上血腥大餐算數！ 故事好像很複雜，訪問一大輪，什麽「巴揚神」，什麽「薩滿」傳承，簡單講就是靈媒驅魔！其實本片最大的敗筆就是其拍攝手法——僞紀錄片！説起僞紀錄片，始祖應該是十幾年前那部 < 死亡習作 > ，但其實 < 死亡習作 > 也是不值一提的。真正發揮出僞紀錄片那種沉浸恐怖感的，印象中就只有西班牙的那部 <80 分鐘死亡直播 > ！而 < 凶靈祭 > 卻是偽紀錄片的失敗示範，越看到最後，就越明白爲什麽！試想一下你是拿攝影機的那個人，你會在極度恐懼，腸穿肚爛就快死的情況下，繼續鎮定地對著恐怖暴力的來源繼續拍攝嗎？當然， <80 分鐘死亡直播 > 和 < 死亡習作 > 也有類似不合理之處，但起碼他們做得沒那麽出位和明顯。 泰國鬼片多數都會談及一些佛教因果輪回的概念， < 凶靈祭 > 也不例外，但只是略略帶過，沒有過多强調。祖先作惡，後輩受報，因果真的如此運作？所謂各自因果各自受，因果從來都是公道的，不偏不倚的，有偏差的只是人的信念和信心。片中所發生的悲劇都源自於人對護佑他的神靈的信心不足！ We are what we believe 。無信心，則無願力，無願力則隨業流轉，而你我都知，我們的業多數是一些可悲可怖，亂七八糟的東西！

  ★☆☆☆☆ I had high expectations for ‘Old’ on account of its theme which is about time and aging, and also the fact that it’s from the director of ‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘The Village’, ‘The Visit’, considered the exceptional demonstrations of how a clever immersive horror is supposed to be like, and thus I’m completely let down as it turns out be so ineffective, weird and chaotic! A bunch of people arrive at a luxury resort, from where they’re led to a secret beach nearby. At first they think they’re privileged to enjoy the paradise but soon they realize it’s hell to stay because they can’t seem to find a way out of there where they age rapidly. Right, what could be worse than having to face the ticking clock of your own mortality? But the film is basically 100 minutes too long, too boring! The script, the acting, the tone, the way the camera moves, all are awkward and inconsistent. There’s no apparent main character here in fact. All seem dispensable and paper-thin so you don’t really ca

  ★★★☆☆ I have absolutely no idea what ‘Candyman’ is about beforehand. Whether it’s a sequel or a reboot or a remake or whatever! All I know is, it’s a horror, and turns out it’s an artistic one in terms of score and cinematography. If you expect a bloodthirsty slaughter, you’ll be rather disappointed. Here we have is a well-paced, nerve-wracking, heart-breaking urban legend told in a stylish way, involving art, gentrification, race and memory, which is sort of a surprising treat indeed. The story itself is, to be honest, more or less of a supernatural cliché, where a black man falls in love with a white girl. Later, when the girl gets pregnant, her father chases down the black man, cuts off his right hand and inserts a hook instead, covers him with honey and lets bees sting him to death before setting him on fire. The innocent black man becomes the Candyman afterwards, who would come and get you if you say his name ‘Candyman’ five times in a mirror regardless of who you are and what

  ★☆☆☆☆ I thought I was watching something else at first instead of a sequel to 2016’s ‘ Don’t Breathe ’, an exceptional horror that delivers high level of claustrophobia and sickening stuff that you could find hard to believe. Near the end of the film however, I am assured by the blind man’s own confession, that my memory about him is right. That he’s killed. He’s raped. He is a sicko! I couldn’t help but wonder how come a sick old man back there has become such a simpatico die-hard hero right here all of a sudden. To survive the film, you got to accept this sort of ridiculous change of setup or characterization but I just can’t! ‘Don’t Breathe 2’ is a total disaster from whatever angle you look at it. The setting that’s supposed to take your breath away is gone! So is the claustrophobic feel! What you get instead is simply a carefree game of hide-and-seek-and-chase-and-kill. Some of the action scenes look preposterous while most are exaggerated. Like expected, there’s also somethin

  ★★★★☆ It’s easy to summarize the film based on a true story in just one sentence: a single father (James Norton) dying of some cancer is looking for a new family to adopt his son (Daniel Lamont) who is still too little to know what adopt is and death means. But it’s not easy at all to take the mood and weight of the situation. Just imagine you were the father, how were you supposed to put up with losing your own life as well as your beloved son? ‘Nowhere Special’ nevertheless, keeps away from being a melodramatic, tear-jerking film like you might’ve expected despite its great potential to be one. In fact, the story’s being told in a rather humble realistic tone. Emotional, heart-wrenching scenes are rare if you count those ‘story time before bed’ and the ‘meaning of death’ explained by the father to his son over a dead beetle found under the tree and a picture book about the extinction of the dinosaurs, as something emotional and heartbreaking! Most of the runtime is spent on inter

  ★★★★☆ Now there aren’t many films that would arouse my interest to want to check out. And even if some would, I couldn’t get to finish watching them after all, due to the bad taste in my mouth, or my growing impatience during coronavirus lockdown that seems to be never ending, or the stupidity they were somehow able to make me feel. ‘John and the Hole’ is gladly, not one of them! I’m not saying this coming-of-age story is something I’ve never seen before. In fact, the story’s nothing so off the wall here. A seemingly worry-free adolescent boy facing monotony and confusion is about to do something to break his everyday routine; to kill his boredom and feel excited; to make himself significant and get the attention he thinks he deserves; to try to find answers to the questions that have been troubling him maybe. Whatever the reasons, that something he’s going to do still sounds a bit weird and difficult to comprehend from an adult’s point of view, though I’ve seen similar stories tha

  ★★☆☆☆ If you’re misled by the trailer and think ‘Pig’ is a revenge story of ‘You kill my pig. I kill you all’, similar to what’s going on in ‘John Wick’, you’ll be quite upset, and probably check yourself out just a few minutes into the film. While Keanu Reeves is still busy being a super action hero making ‘Matrix 4’ and ‘ John Wick 4, 5, 6…’, Nicolas Cage has instead dived into some indie cult films, though he was once, too, considered an action hero after ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ that, in case you forget, granted him the Academy for Best Actor! I don’t have any expectation for ‘Pig’ because I know Cage has deliberately kept away from the mainstream in recent years. That it can’t be just some kind of action entertainment. So it doesn’t let me down but I can’t say I like it either. It manages to keep me seated till the end but it’s not the film for me to feel much! The film opens by introducing Cage’s Rob living out in the woods with a pig that can help him find truffles to sell for a

  ★★☆☆☆ Emma （ < 變形金剛 > 女郎 Megan Fox ）和 Mark 是夫妻一對，準備結婚周年慶祝，但其實他們貌合形離！ Emma 私底下跟同公司的 Tom 搞婚外情， Mark 則是 Emma 和 Tom 的上司，平時各人都戴著面具做人！影片用了開頭十幾分鐘簡單介紹完他們的關係，就把我們帶到一間湖邊小屋，在那裏 Emma 和 Mark 度過一個頗爲浪漫的夜晚。第二日早上， Emma 醒來，發現 Mark 坐在床邊，他用手銬銬住自己的手和 Emma 的手，另一隻手拿著把槍，扮嗮語帶雙関咁對著 Emma 講：是時候醒啦。跟著毫不猶豫對著自己的腦袋自轟瓜柴！看到這裏，想必各位跟我一樣都 O 嗮嘴，滿腦疑問，覺得這樣的開頭又幾有趣哦。不過跟著的劇情就另一回事了！ 你以爲 Emma 的老公咁做，是因爲什麽驚天大隂謀嗎？錯！只不過是因爲他事業上犯法，感情上受挫，知道老婆出軌，想跟老婆攬炒而已！但爲了攬炒要搞到自轟咁盡，一定有什麽驚天扭橋大佈局吧？又錯！他切斷所有對外聯絡，封殺所有離開小屋的可能性，扮 Emma 給 Tom 發信息叫他一起來小屋，收起所有利器，把自己銬住 Emma ，無非只是想將她拖住留在小屋，好讓 Emma 昔日的仇人 Bobby 上門報仇大開殺戒咁簡單！當然 Bobby也是Mark事前call來的。 （其實 Mark 可以不用自轟，將 Emma 銬在夾萬就得啦，不過可能編劇嫌這樣不夠戲劇性，看 Emma 拖著 Mark 的尸體周圍走過癮點吧？）點解 Bobby 和 Emma 有仇？這點電影沒有詳細講，只知道 Bobby 曾經想搞 Emma ，可能為財，亦可能為色，結果被 Emma 插盲隻眼，坐了幾年監，搞到一無所有！簡單講，主題就是復仇中的復仇。 Mark 的復仇好無謂，故弄玄虛。 Bobby 的復仇好低 B ，看似緊張刺激，其實得啖笑！ 在知道點解 Mark 要自轟之後，劇情已經開始走下坡，無嗮神秘感，所以看到 Mark 自轟時那下 O 嘴已經算是高潮！其實之後的劇情可以不用那麽無謂低 B 的，不過編劇硬要加個 Bobby 的細佬 Jimmy 來扮好人，搞到有些劇情明顯是為做而做，甚至不理到底是否合理，總之為緊張而緊張，結果就是變成一個衰人，一個好人，加一條女（條女其實又唔靚又唔識做戲）在小屋彈出又彈入的貓捉老鼠游戲

  ★★★☆☆ ‘ Alien ’ was born in 1979! 3 years later there came ‘The Thing’ (Left)! And almost 30 years later there came ‘The Thing’ (Right) again. But don’t get it wrong. 2011’s ‘The Thing’ is not a sequel to 1982’s, but a prequel instead. Sounds strange but that’s how it is, and there’s been no sequel ever since. Both ‘The Thing’ and ‘Alien’ are like the same stuff tailor-made to deliver alien terror that’s supposed to not only make you feel sick and scared, but masterfully keep you on tenterhooks from start to finish. 1979’s ‘Alien’ is one of a kind because it’s able to do both. 1982’s ‘The Thing’ is competent at terrifying and sickening you but it’s not the kind to stay in your mind for long. Its prequel, despite solider special effects, is more or less of a letdown because it apparently lacks patience and originality. When I first saw ‘The Thing (1982)’, it did make me want to throw up watching those human bodies get invaded, torn up, deformed, and transformed to something so gross

  ★★★☆☆ I like the apocalyptic setup in the film just as that in famous video game ‘The Last of Us’, quiet but full of danger, brutal but filled with humanity, bleak but somewhat encouraging. Whether you like the plot is another story. Sometimes I wish where we stay would turn into a quiet place just like that, so we’d be obliged to learn how to appreciate life again, and not to take anything for granted, not even a tiny ant travelling on the ground or a little flower dancing in the wind. As 2018’s ‘ A Quiet Place ’ drops us in the aftermath of some kind of alien invasion without any heads up at all, ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ takes us right back to Day 1 to see how it all begins as it opens. But still we’re not told what those alien creatures really are; where they come from; what they are here for; how come they have to wipe out anything that makes sounds. It seems like they’re doing it not because they’re hungry but then what for?; what do they eat?; how do they reproduce?; do they s

  ★★☆☆☆ To be honest, I’m not really into horror films that feature ghosts, spirits, witches, demons or any other religious stuff. I’m more like a melodrama guy so this kind of scary material could sometimes play out like a comedy to me, but of course if you’re one of those who just can’t get enough of being scared the shit out, ‘The Conjuring’ franchise will not let you down I guess. At least it doesn’t seem like a joke. Since ‘The Conjuring’ cases are all based on so called true supernatural happenings, the tone of it is basically dark, ominous and serious. That being said, 2013’s ‘ The Conjuring ’ doesn’t impress me much with a decent setup but a rather disappointing finish! So I let ‘The Conjuring 2’ pass! And now the horror continues with ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’. Alright, you may ask, why would I not let this one pass as well? Well, first, people were praising it, saying it’s juicy and scary. And I wanted to know if it’s them or just me. Second, I was super bored. Yea, I know,

  ★☆☆☆☆ Oh my, I just can’t believe it. This is the ninth installment of the ‘ Saw ’ series already. How many years has it been since the first appeared to sweep us off our feet? Well, I don’t remember when I started to feel fed up and decided to call it quits, maybe right after ‘Saw V’. All I remember is ‘Saw’ and ‘Saw II’ that really were something out of the ordinary back there. They’re still like the best of that can’t be surpassed. That, serving like a curse unfortunately, makes all those sequels they promised to make every once a year afterwards more or less a joke, including this latest one! Critically speaking, ‘Spiral: From the Book of Saw’ feels like an outsider, though there’re still bloody sickening traps that make you want to turn away, and the same old familiar ‘I wanna play a game’ ritual, plus of course plot twists. The whole tone of it nonetheless, feels so not ‘Saw’ which is supposed to be serious, nerve-wracking and even a bit depressing. Maybe it’s something to d

  ★★★★★ Director Guy Ritchie is known to me only for his magic of turning the old and faded ' Sherlock Holmes ' into something new and modern, not perfect obviously but good enough to be remembered. I haven't got to check out any other film of his ever since, but I always appreciate his unique and innovative approach to some classic, ancient stories. 'Wrath of Man', Ritchie's latest, featuring action star Jason Statham, I don't know how many times they've worked together before but Statham seems to be a regular in Ritchie's films. Whatever, this is the best crime thriller I've ever seen in years, hands down. It's nerve-wracking, heart-pounding, and no bullshitting right from start to finish! There's no so called break-time in between. Not a single shot or sequence is purposeless. Every conversation makes you frown and agitate. Every kill and move brings about more puzzles. Every twist and turn makes you want to dig in more. It keeps you