jürgen fauth’s muckworld

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) with a taste for explosives. Satisfying.

Daai si gin. Johnny To, 2004. ***

The Internet Movie Database lists 48 adaptations of Macbeth–give or take a few TV versions–but Geoffrey Wright’s contemporary gangster take on the Scottish play doesn’t resemble any of them as much as a low-budget remake of Scarface. There’s lots of gunplay between drug dealers, the witches are a bunch of doped-up goth chicks, and some of the Bard’s best soliloquies are abbreviated in favor of extended orgies (some literal, some merely orgies of bloodletting.)

Fresh off of Slings & Arrows‘ pitch-perfect second season, in which the New Burbage Festival takes on the cursed play, Marcy and I were more than eager to see a fresh take on Mackers, but there’s precious little to praise here. In the title role, Sam Worthington gives most of his speeches in voice-over without changing his expression at all, and Victoria Hill looks like she would be more comfortable in a prime time soap than as literature’s most cruelly ambitious woman. She gets to do “Out, out damn spot” topless.

The contemporary updating–Duncan and his men are Melbourne drug lords–is supposed to make the drama more accessible but only distracts instead. (Macbeth’s gated estate bears a sign identifying it as Dunsinane, Banquo likes to ride motorbikes just so he can ride something when he gets whacked, and Burnham Wood is a logging company.)

Worst of all, the direction lacks the go-for-broke pomo gusto that made Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet such a success: everything about this adaptation, including the slow-motion finale, feels unconvincing and lackluster, and the beauty of the language never takes wing. How could it if you cut “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” before the punchline? Stick with Orson, Roman, and Akira. Opens July 6.

Macbeth. Geoffrey Wright, 2006. *

Videos: Geoffrey Tenant takes on Macbeth at the beginning of Slings & Arrows S2E2, newsreel footage from Orson Welles’ 1936 all-black stage version, and trailers for Polanski’s 1971 and Kurosawa’s 1957 adaptations.

Victor Nunez can’t catch a break–first, nobody wanted to distribute the third installment of his Florida Trilogy (preceded by Ruby in Paradise and Ulee’s Gold). Now that it’s finally out on DVD, we had to go and watch it as the last movie before taking off on vacation. By now, too many motoconcho rides, santo libres, and raptures of the deep later, memory just barely serves to recommend it. Sonny (Timothy Olyphant) is released from prison and returns to the Gulf Coast town where his best friend is a cop (Josh Brolin) married to his high school sweetheart Ann (Sarah Wynter.) The local gangsters Sonny took the fall for don’t want to pay up, and Ann is tempted to run away with Sonny…. A carefully observed small-town drama with a true indie feel; Nunez’ big, generous heart is as much is evidence as in the other two films.

Coastlines. Victor Nunez, 2002. ***

[tags]film, jurgen, 3 stars, victor nunez, florida, trilogy, gangsters, high school sweethearts, crime, love, adultery[/tags]