Reviews

I watched this film today during its initial run at SFX Cinema Emporium, Bangkok. The Thai film rating is 15+.

Rural North-East Thailand. Uncle Boonmee is dying. The film follows him for the last few days of his life. Between the time the audience first meets him and his death in a cave that seems to be full of stars, the ghosts of his wife and long lost son appear, the protagonists talk about life and love and many things in-between and a disfigured princess has an erotic encounter with a catfish. Long, drawn out scenes abound. The surround sound keeps you in the middle of rural Thailand.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul tells a story that doesn't ask or need to be understood. "Uncle Boonmee..." is an art film par excellence. Make what you want of it or don't. It does help if you are familiar with Thai customs and legends.

I wasn't bored for one minute. If you love art films this is essential viewing.

Joe Dante is finally back with a feature film after 'Looney Tunes: Back in Action' (2003), a very long break only interrupted by the occasional TV work. As my fellow reviewer mentioned, 'The Hole' is currently on general release in Thailand (Dolby 3D only). I watched it today.

'The Hole' has what you can expect from PG-13 horror. Think 'Poltergeist' (from which it borrows a plot device). The scares are mild, there is only one slightly gory scene. Atmosphere and story are fine.

I cannot comment on the quality of the 3D effects as I don't have 3D vision. You can expect a lot of character scenes that establish the story as well as scenes obviously designed to show off the technology, including underwater sequences.

If you like Joe Dante's work and don't need ultra-brutal horror, you may well enjoy 'The Hole'. I'm happy to report that Dick Miller has the expected (very short) cameo.

Mindless action films abound and can be fun. This is not a mindless action film, but its "mind" caters to nerdy dreams of becoming a more-than-human being. Wouldn't we all like to suddenly have $3.5 million in our bank accounts, tell off our extremely annoying boss (is there any other kind?) and get trained as an ultra-assassin? Then just shoot everybody they tell you to or have a quick case of conscience, then shoot them - cool? Not.

One scene is ripped straight from "The Matrix" series of films and the overall feeling is overwhelmingly Matrix/Terminator. Perhaps it's overoptimistic to look for something new in a movie of this type, but there's hardly anything original. This is not a film the world needs now - or ever.

Seriously, what can you expect? I expected another hyper-kinetic action movie and got exactly that. The recipe seems to have been "as much action as possible, hardly a quiet moment, throw in everything AND the kitchen sink". If the rubber boat sequence in "Temple of Doom" made you laugh in disbelief, you'll have more to laugh about here. In the days of "Die Hard" and similar excesses this is hardly surprising. "Raiders" is one of my favourite films, but "Crystal Skull" left me quite cold. On the positive side, Harrison Ford does a good job and the special effects were good enough for me.

Go see it, by all means, if you're under 30 it will probably be your kind of movie. I was 29 when "Raiders" came out...

I live in Thailand and caught the first show today. After all the hype I was pleasantly surprised. The story starts a bit slow, but the monster attack began before I got bored. The shaky camera work puts you in the middle of the action. Other than "The Blair Witch Project", to which this has been compared, the characters are sympathetic enough to make the story compelling. There's so much action that the movie seems to be much longer than the actual running time.

The monster design is fine, if not completely original, with flailing, spider- or crab-like legs. The "face" reminded me a little of Ray Harryhausen's Ymir. The beast has only one clear close-up shot near the end of the movie, but its massive body is glimpsed several times before. It looks very impressive. The small offspring or parasite monsters are barely glimpsed, but they are vicious.

No explanation is given about the monster's origin. The camera-bearing protagonists are all killed - no Hollywood ending for this movie.

Altogether a solid entertainment with a big potential for sequels. Also one of the best uses of surround sound ever.

I live in Bangkok and go to cinemas regularly. Beginning of November I saw the trailer for Rak haeng Siam - Love at Siam, referring to Siam Square in downtown Bangkok where major scenes of the movie were filmed. I thought it to be a regular teenage love story. I was in for a pleasant surprise. At its centre is nothing less than a gay love story between teenage boys, tastefully handled, with Thai cultural standards faithfully observed. Amazingly the final message is "It's OK to be gay." No kathoeys (Thai gay stereotypes who abound in local movies and on TV) in sight, just two regular schoolboys who happen to be gay.

Of course this movie is mainly for Thais. Non-Thai people will enjoy it more if their knowledge of Thai culture is up-to-date. The most amazing scene in the movie has the boys sharing a prolonged kiss, surely a first for Thai cinema. The reaction of the mostly teenage audience was worth the price of admission alone. The movie is still running at this time and seems to be critically successful, too.

I enjoyed it very much and don't hesitate to designate it as the best Thai movie of 2007.

Go see it if you are interested in Thailand and Thai culture. Definitely go see it if you are gay. You won't be disappointed.

The modern approach to making TV series and movies is very much in evidence here: hit them with all you've got and hope that it sticks. For "Little Britain" that means outrageous characters like the wheelchair-bound guy who really isn't, the adult guy who still loves being breast-fed by his mother or any female relative, the gay guy who prefers to think he's the only one in his village, cross-dressing men and frontal nudity galore. Running gags are repeated to the point of nausea (literally so in the case of the vomiting "lady"). The low-brow humour is only partially appealing. Hearing an old man talk about his experiences in mutual masturbation as a youth solicits laughter not because it's funny to hear, but because it's just plain outrageous. A complete lack of subtlety brings everything down.

The Monty Pythons had a policeman chasing them away when the sketch got too silly or the studio audience storm the stage when the gags got too tasteless - something that I sorely missed here. Not surprisingly, "Little Britain" has only about half the number of episodes that the Monty Python series had.

6 out of 10 for sheer recklessness - and not much else.