The prominence of self-conscious genre films in (post-) postmodernism is a phenomenon which at times can grate the nerves, as anyone who has tried to watch Shoot ‘Em Up more than once can tell you. It surely speaks to the importance of this type of film that some of the highest-grossing and fastest-rising directors of the last ten years are Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), Sam Raimi (Spider-Man), and Guillermo del Toro (Blade II, Hellboy, and Pan’s Labyrinth), all of whom started as imaginative creators of wacky, often self-referential horror films.
Today’s releases include at least three post-modern genre films, and at least one-and-a-half good ones. We get one from Japan’s foremost genre (-crossing) director, one from the sci-fi/fantasy guru everyone loves to hate, and one from the aforementioned Spanish director, Mr. del Toro.
Click the jump to read about the new releases.
New Releases From the Box:
Sukiyaki Western Django
If you’ve never seen a Takashi Miike film, try to imagine Kill Bill with an improved aesthetic sensibility — and an actual story. With his latest film, Miike takes on the Spaghetti Western, a ‘60s genre that transplanted Italian actors and Italian landscapes into the American West. Here the locations and actors are distinctly Japanese (even though a sign — in Japanese characters — tells us the setting is Nevada), hence Sukiyaki Western. As for Django, Miike seems to have taken the name of the main character of a popular series of Spaghetti Westerns and tacked it onto the film’s title for good measure.
Miike takes a story written by Dashiell Hammett, first adapted for the screen by Akira Kurosawa’s samurai jidai-geki (period piece) Yojimbo (1961), remade in Italy as Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars (1964, starring Clint Eastwood), and taken again as the basis for the Prohibition-era Bruce Willis vehicle Last Man Standing (1996), and brings it back to Japan. A nameless stranger arrives in a town beset by a gang war. He plays the two sides against each other; violence ensues.
This simple set-up allows for plenty of stylized violence and mythological overtones. Sukiyaki Western Django isn’t as good as most of its predecessors, and Quentin Tarantino’s presence in a cameo role only detracts from an otherwise fun film, but it’s worth checking out.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Here comes the part, alluded to last week, where I tell you that I think Guillermo del Toro is overrated. Sure, I haven’t seen The Devil’s Backbone (2001), but I wasn’t ecstatic about Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), which was supposed to be his return to form after his years in the Hollywood system. Don’t get me wrong — I liked Pan’s a lot, but I wasn’t gushing all over it like just about everyone else. I always recommend Spirited Away (2001) as a similar-but-superior film.
That being said, I was a defender of the first Hellboy film, and I certainly didn’t dislike this film. But is Guillermo really the genius everyone proclaimed him to be after Pan’s? I don’t think so. There’s little substance to this new Hellboy film. Lots of monsters and interesting animatronics, plenty of slightly sub-standard CGI, a few wisecracks, and very, very flat acting from Selma Blair, but little substance. If you’re in bad need of a superhero fix, Hellboy II can supply it better than, say, The Incredible Hulk, but otherwise it’s a bit tedious.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Ah, George Lucas. More internet-based “open letters” have been written to you in the last ten years than the Bush Administration and the coaching staffs of the Detroit Lions and the New York Knicks combined. I considered attempting my own, but in my life there has always been a remedy for misbegotten Star Wars spinoffs: Star Trek. Even when Star Trek is bad, it’s good.
I can’t say the same thing about your franchise, Mr. Lucas, which delivered so much in its first two installments that you were able to coast with the third. (We even bought the vicious teddy bears!) Then, you got lazy. The most cynical attempt to make cash off beloved memories of the Star Wars of yesteryear is easily the worst, less enjoyable even than the actually-not-so-bad Clone Wars 2-D animated series. The animation is shoddy, the voice acting is as stiff as Hayden Christensen’s regular acting, and the story is the same old Episode I-III crap. To be avoided at all costs.
Next Week on From the Box:
WALL-E comes out just in time for your favorite writer’s birthday. Tropic Thunder may be boycotted by that same writer, in which case he will ponder the evidence offered by Priceless that Audrey Tautou is adorable AND sexy. Then he may or may not share the story about his friend moving into his West Village apartment while they were filming Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 in that very building. But he will NOT watch that movie. Nuh-uh.