With The Wire finally out of the way — none of the screeners piling up by the door could possibly compete — I’ll try and quickly catch up with some of the bat-free movies I’ve seen over the last few weeks. Charlie BartlettWarm and funny coming-of-teenage tale about a wealthy kid (Anton Yelchin) who dispenses [...]
The Wire
We’re done! Getting through all five seasons of The Wire in one massive binge took weeks & weeks out of our usual movie-viewing schedule, but it couldn’t have been more worth it. Instead of yet another paean to “the best show on television” (which, in fact, isn’t praise enough), here’s a quote by David Simon [...]
http://jurgenfauth.com/2008/07/27/the-wire/
Breaking News
Cops, killers, bandits and the media clash in a Hong Kong apartment complex full of hostages, hand-grenades and Internet hookups. Johnny To‘s (Triad Election, PTU) 2004 thriller begins as a straightforward police adventure but complicates our shifting sympathies between the hard-nosed inspector (Nick Cheung), the pretty commissioner (Kelly Chen), and the savvy gangster (Richie Ren) [...]
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/07/02/breaking-news/
Infernal Affairs
I wish I’d seen this sooner because it’s old news now: Infernal Affairs is much better than Marty’s Oscar-winning remake, The Departed. There are about 49 reasons why this is so, but here are just two: it’s only half as long, and the Hong Kong waterfront is twice as dramatic as Boston’s. Mou gaan dou. [...]
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/04/24/infernal-affairs/
Hot Fuzz
More amusing silliness from the guys who made Shaun of the Dead. After demolishing the zombie film, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost are taking aim at the Jerry Bruckheimer action flick, and they’ve set it in the picture-postcard English countryside. Bobbies with firearms–what’s not to like? Simon Pegg plays Sgt. Nicholas Angel, a [...]
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/03/28/hot-fuzz/
Memories of Murder
I’m having a hard time putting my finger on exactly what Bong Joon-ho is doing with genre, but that’s the thrill of it: in The Host, he’s transcending the monster horror formula, and this previous movie is a police procedural that’s equally infused with dark humor, outbursts of violence, and human moments that are all [...]
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/03/11/memories-of-murder/







