Round Three (Week 11)

Since completing the first round in this challenge, we have watched 8 more films in the past 11 weeks. Just goes to show how much time this process is taking and how busy we both are.

Traffic

This film by Steven Soderbergh was very impressive. I had seen parts of it before (or the whole movie without remembering all of it) and love the various ways that Soderbergh uses to convey changes and differences between the characters' worlds. In the interweaving of lives affected by drug trafficking, Soderbergh creates a fabric close to reality. The performances were spectacular, and only a few times did I notice a character giving a speech about the issue at hand (**cough** Topher Grace **cough**) as though serving as a megaphone for the director or writer. Overall, it was an amazing, valuable film.

Hard Boiled

This was my very first Chinese action film. Apparently John Woo made Chow Yun-Fat famous through this and many other action films. The introduction was excellent, with a huge build-up to an undercover operation to thwart an illegal guns trade. The action and violence was baffling, and way ahead of its time. I noticed where many recent American action films gained inspiration in the flying through the air shootouts and selective slow motion. The primary relationship in the film between a rough cop (Yun-Fat) and a deep undercover cop (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) was complex and interesting, and I was invested in the character and the story. Considering the relative culture gap, this was a notable accomplishment on the part of the film, and I can definitely understand why John Woo made our list.

Erin Brockovich

I have seen this movie over and over again throughout my young adult life. I have always loved it and to me, it is Julia Roberts most complete and impressive acting job of her career. She is on the edge of categories for me in terms of whether she is more of a character actor or a flexible, versatile actor. Watching this movie again made me believe in her range, and the telling of this story happens so beautifully. I tried to watch this time with a critical eye and even so I was wrapped up in the humanity of this movie, loving the characters and the real people that they represent.

Once a Thief [**SPOILER ALERT**]

This action-comedy by John Woo came out a year before Hard Boiled. In this film the culture gap was more apparent for me, maybe because of the comedy aspect. I didn't understand why the characters did half of what they did, and the strange relationship turns and quick changes in emotion (not to mention the crazy-huge gun battles) made me confused for much of the film. Three orphans (two boys and a girl) who were raised by a thief grow up to become thieves, one of the men now dating the woman (his sister?). When he apparently dies, the other man (who has always been in love with her) begins seeing her, and when the other man comes back from the dead in a wheelchair (which in a climactic battle he leaps from after being shot in his paralyzed legs to reveal he actually WASN'T paralyzed) he shifts between moody glaring at them and bouncy, cheerful proclamations of his broken heart. In the end, they travel the world together and the couple gets married. The permanent third wheel "watches" their baby and does housework in a comical ending where he THROWS THE BABY. It just threw me for a loop, but was a funny, interesting movie to watch.

The winner is Steven Soderbergh! Whether it is due to my more solid connection to the culture in which his films exist or my continued awe for Erin Brockovich, his movies were more fluid, complete, and understandable. I would love to see Woo's later work, but probably won't have time as we still have 180 movies left to watch FOR THIS OUTER BRACKET.

Hard Brockovich

Our third contest had Steven Soderbergh (known for passionate complicated dramas) vs. John Woo (famous for his Hong Kong action films). For Soderbergh we watched Erin Brockovich and Traffic and for John Woo we had some trouble finding his top works on Netflicks. Ideally we would have watched some from the For A Better Tomorrow series but instead we watched Hard Boiled and To Catch a Theif.

Traffic - 40/50
Genre- Ensemble Drama 9/10 The fact that Soderbergh is able to weave together so many plots and performances in which the actors don't interacte in many scenes is pretty amazing.
Characters- 8/10 Catherine Zeta Jones as the house wife married to a murderous drug dealer, and Benicio Del Torro as a Mexican law officer stand out amoungst many.
Mood, Theme, Ambience- 7/10 Confusion and fear on all sides eventually gives way to a calming peace.
Invetivness- 8/10 - One of the first films to use the color tinting that is so popular in films today. The way they use yellow tinting to highten the opressive heat in Mexico is very effective.
Film Quality- 8/10 The many sided picture of the drug trade in America works well from all angles.

Hard Boiled - 30/50
Genre - Action 6/10 extreemly violent for an action film and while inventive tends to drag in some of the less interesting action scenes.
Characters- 6/10 some of the most interesting work is done by the characters with less screen time. Such as the honorable villian who won't kill innocents.
Mood, Theme, Ambience - 4/10 Pretty much everything is blatently explained on screen in violent blood rippig detail. Some interesting work done in the realm of what makes a cop and villian.
Inventiveness - 8/10 This is where Woo does his best work. The long continuous action sequence that goes into and out of an elevtaor in one shot. The scene where the two opponents in the hospital end up on opposite sides of a group patients in a hospital.
Film Quality - 6/10 Too needlessly violent and obvious with the plot lines but pretty inventive in the action sequences and some of the characters.

Erin Brockovich - 38/50
Genre- Courtroom Drama - 8/10 This film changed the way the courtroom drama is done without ever being in a courtroom.
Characters - 8/10 fresh bold characters all over but lead clearly by Julia Roberts in the lead role of the woman who won't take no for an answer.
Mood, Ambience, Theme - 7/10 Stories of a woman in a man's world had been pretty typical by the late 90's but the way in which this film exploits stereotypes felt fresh and honest the entire way through.
Inventiveness - 7/10 The story felt a little too classic to truely feel inventive but the ways in which the plot twists and turns in unexpected ways without feeling unrealistic was pretty well done.
Film Quality- 8/10Classic story, pitch perfect script, and characters that by the end you were nearly cheering for.

To Catch a Thief- 30/50
Genre - Action Comedy 6/10 Action scenes too unrealistic and some of the Comedy too slapstick.
Characters- 5/10 Chow Young Fat showed range into comedy that I had never seen before in a cast that otherwise didn't stand out.
Mood Ambience Theme - 5/10 Introspection into what it was too be a friend/family and to be in love as well as the duality in most people between right and wrong. Pretty much what you would expect.
Inventivness - 8/10 Again Woo's best stuff is in the action sequences. You see things here such as the dance around red alarm wires and halting above the floor best sceen in Mission Impossible later.
Film Quality- 6/10 Some interesting stuff in the action sequences the comedy was only so-so maybe it didn't translate well.