Movie Review: Motorway

Motorway (Che Sau)
Director: Pou-Soi Cheang
Starring: Anthony Wong, Shawn Yue, Guo Xiaodong
Media Asia Films ans Sil-Metropole. Hong Kong, 2012

Cheung (Shawn Yue) and Lo (Anthony Wong) are traffic cops who try to catch speeders. Lo is already waiting for retirement. Rookie Cheung spends his time by street racing at night. A crime boss escapes prison with the help of master driver Jiang (Guo Xiaodong). Criminals escape so Cheung must learn new tricks to drive in the tight alleys.

Lo and Cheung serious after hard day's work.

This is a modern style Hong Kong film, so action is quite realistic. Plot is quite simple. The action is serious and there is almost complete lack of humour. Anthony Wong is good as an old master driver. Car chases are good to watch and rubber burns in the drifting scenes. The mountain road scenes remind of Initial D live action movie which Shawn Yue also starred.

HIghspeed chases are a must in this genre.

Bad guys being bad

Rating: Good

Movie Review: Body of water (Syvälle salattu)

Body of Water (Syvälle Salattu)
Director: Joona Tena
Starring: Krista Kosonen, Peter Franzén, Kai Lehtinen, Kari Hietalahti, Viljami Nojonen, Risto Aaltonen.
Matila Röhr Productions. Finland, 2011

Long ago a famine hit a village and the miller begged the lake for help. The lake spirit promised to help for a price: his first-born son. Years later Julia (Krista Kosonen) and her son visit her parents. Julia is working as a lawyer, and despite her parents' warnings is going to visit a desolate village. There she tries to gain support for the nature conservationists who are resisting electric company's plans to build a water power plant. However the locals give cold shoulder to her. Also her family seems to have dark secrets. 

Damp cellars are scary.

The cinematography is good and uses plenty of watery environments. The mythology of the film uses old Finnish legends about water spirit Näkki and the village has creepy atmosphere. The movie style is somewhat remiscent of Spanish horror film Hierro and Japanese Ringu and Dark Water, both of which also had single mother protagonists. All in all the movies is quite good and exciting... until the final. I won't spoil but the ending breaks the whole setting and also leaves numerous plot holes.

Lovely lake. Or not.

Rating: Average

Movie Review (Eros Int. Box set, Part 2): One Two Three (2008)

 One Two Three
Director: Ashwani Dhir
Starring: Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Tushar Kapoor, Sameera Reddy, Esha Deol, Upen Patel
Big Screen Entertainment. 2008

The hitman, the businessman and the lingerie salesman

Laxminarayan 1 (Tushar Kapoor) is a poor boy whose mother wants him to become a successful gangster. After a valuable diamond is stolen, he gets an assignment to kill a rival mob boss 'Papa' (Mukesh Tiwari). The second Laxminarayan (Suniel Shetty) is a clumsy executive who is always very concerned about getting directions right. He gets assignment from his boss to buy a vintage car from Laila (Sameera Reddy). Laxminarayan 3 (Paresh Rawal) sells lingerie and is trying to do business with underwear designer (Esha Deol). The three Laxminarayans get mixed and hilarity ensues.

Anyone understood the plot?

The characters are comic book-like, the gangsters wear rimmed hats and pinstripe suits. There are plenty of one-liner jokes. One of Papa's henchmen, the bomberman, is even named Pinto. The music usage is quite different from usual bollywood-films, and title song is often repeated. There are only a few "music video" songs.

Mexican stand-off, Bollywood style

Overall the movie is silly fun, with lots of slapstick jokes. Certainly not a classic but goofy fun in the style of Police Academy films.

Rating:  Good