Weekly Round-Up (3/31/13 - 4/6/13)

A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson) **** - I've seen quite a number of prison escape films: From The Great Escape to Le Trou to The Shawshank Redemption. This is probably the best prison escape movie. It's my favorite so far at least. The plot is simple enough: A French man is in imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II and wants to escape. Like with most films by Robert Bresson, the film is fairly minimalist and the emotions are muted but there are still moments of suspense. Bresson was masterful with his direction here, particularly his use of sound. Like with many Bresson films, there's an added spiritual layer to this film which makes the ending surprisingly moving in an odd way. A real masterpiece.

Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer) ***1/2 - Oh, my God. This movie is unbelievable. A trio of big-breasted (of course!) female drag racers murder a man, kidnaps his young girlfriend and hide out in ranch with a crippled misogynist keen on some raping. The film is intentionally super campy and is filled with so many clever lines and innuendoes that I think you have to watch it more than once to catch them all. This can also be read as some sort satire on feminism and gender politics Is it pro-feminist or anti-feminist? Who knows? It's still trashy B-movie stuff fun made the old-fashioned way.

GI Joe: Retaliation (Jon M. Chu) *1/2 - I didn't bother to see the first one. I wasn't going to see this one either after the delay and the re-shoots. I wasn't looking forward to it. I just saw it because I'm bored and it's the only thing playing the cheaper theater that wasn't a Filipino rom-com so why the hell not? Okay, I'm not a hoity-toity artsy fartsy film snob who can only be excited by a black & white subtitled film from an obscure country (I love watching those though!). I love a good escapist action picture. Cinematic junk food that's fun and filled with eye candy and 'splosions. I only require one thing from them: That the script, direction and acting is good enough that I give a shit about what's happening. That didn't happen here. There are some really neat action scenes like the really cool fight scene with the ninjas flying around wires on a cliffside with swords but not enough to really engage me. Every cool gadget, every cool explosion, every incredible fight/moves/stunts that would've made me go WOW! COOL! had the cinematic foundations surrounding it was better made. It's inoffensive but so are screensavers.