Punished
Directed by: Law Wing Cheong
Written by: Chi Keung Fung
Starring: Anthony Wong, Richie Jen, Janice Man, Maggie Cheung Ho Yee

Punished is another entry in the revenge genre that continues in its ongoing popularity. A kidnapping occurs with the film non-linearly unraveling the mystery of who is involved. Although there are a few depictions of brutal violence, this film concerns itself mainly with the psychological toll on the perpetrator of revenge. An interesting change is that the physical revenge is performed by a hired-hand of the victim’s father.

Some people expecting an action film will likely find the character scenes rather bland, but I thought they were interesting in the context of the mystery of revealing who was involved in the kidnapping. The violence is not stylized at all. There are rough and tumble fights rather than wire-work martial arts. And the gunfights are straight ahead “keep shooting until you get shot” matches. No slow motion or doves here.

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The Captains
Written and Directed by: William Shatner
Starring: William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula, Chris Pine

The Captains is a documentary made for fans of Star Trek. It features interviews with the actors who starred as starship captains in the Star Trek franchise. What makes this Star Trek documentary unique is that it was written and directed by William Shatner, the second actor to play a starship captain. (Shatner replaced the first actor as captain, Jeffrey Hunter, who starred in only the pilot episode of Star Trek. Hunter has gone on to the final frontier, and so was not contacted for an interview.) Also the interviews were conducted by Shatner, who appears on-screen with his interviewees. On viewing this documentary, it soon becomes apparent that its focus is not on Star Trek, but rather on Shatner himself.

I confess. I am a lapsed Trekkie. I suppose my faith waivered because I was disappointed in Star Trek (2009). Perhaps I couldn’t let go of the fact that William Shatner was no longer Captain Kirk. I grew up with the original series, and William Shatner will always be my favourite captain. For many males including myself, Shatner’s Captain Kirk was the embodiment of masculinity: he commanded the respect of those being led by him; he fearlessly encountered the unknown; and he attracted females wherever he travelled. None of the later captains for whatever reasons were able to highlight these characteristics in the way Shatner did in my mind. Even when there was a conscious attempt to emulate these original characteristics in the last Star Trek series to date with Scott Bakula’s Captain Archer, the general public did not seem to take notice. Every Star Trek fan has his own favourite captain, though, so interviewing all of them seems like the best way to appeal to as many people as possible.

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Reed’s Bargain Bin is a recurring column where Reed Farrington tells us about a movie he bought for under $5, and whether or not he regrets the purchase.

For those who think that the best martial arts films are the ones that star actual martial artists, I present to you two films that defy this categorization: Dark Assassin (2006) and The Fifth Commandment (2008). I wasn’t even going to bother reviewing these two films, but after watching the behind-the-scenes documentaries on each DVD, I found out that much effort and perseverance were involved in getting these films made. So I thought I would at least offer these films some recognition even though I won’t have many good things to say about them. However, discussing these films might be of some interest. And with the recent release of Ninja Assassin, I thought there might be an interest in assassin movies.

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Here are some Christmas gift ideas that I’ve already purchased for myself (since everyday is more or less Christmas for me). But if you have any Reed Farrington-type guys in your life, then you might consider one or all of these gift items:

1. Gort 16-Inch Resin Statue – The Day the Earth Stood Still

This is supposedly a limited edition of 1,951 statues; however, the cheaply printed Certificate of Authenticity in mine didn’t have a number indicating which of the 1,951 statues in the production line that I bought. This item seems rather abundant in Ontario, Canada, because if you go to a Winners or HomeSense, then you’re bound to find this item selling at a reduced price of $19.99, which is a bargain considering that it’s selling on sale at Monsters in Motion for $75.00, which is 50% off its regular price.

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Killer Imports is a regular feature on Film Junk where we explore foreign-language films from around the world that haven’t yet had their chance to shine.

Kung Fu Cyborg: Metallic Attraction opens with a promising title sequence. On a plain white background befitting a technologically sterile environment, a headless robotic body performs various human movements like training on a Wing Chun dummy and playing an erhu, a Chinese musical instrument. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie was rather disappointing although it does have a certain amount of charm.

I had not heard or seen anything about this movie when I noticed its clunky title on the DVD cover. Since the images on the cover were rather indistinct, I imagined either a martial arts Terminator wreaking havoc or an Ultraman-like hero dispatching evil-doers. What I got instead were Transformers in a meandering mess of a plot meant to please everyone. For the action fans, there are Transformer-capable cyborgs that use kung fu. For the comedy fans, there are some genuinely goofy, slap-stick comedic bits that kids might laugh at. For the intellectual fans, there are philosophical implications to contemplate. And for the sentimental fans, there is a love quadrilateral to be resolved.

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Killer Imports is a regular feature on Film Junk where we explore foreign-language films from around the world that haven’t yet had their chance to shine.

Whenever I appear on the Film Junk podcast and review a film, I invariably have a negative opinion. And when I write film reviews for the Film Junk web site, I invariably have a positive opinion, even for films that many Film Junk readers would consider bad. The discrepancy has to do with the fact that I don’t get to choose which films to review on the podcast. I find it easier to give reasons on why I like something rather than why I don’t like something. So for me, writing a positive review is easier to write and seems more worthwhile since someone may be influenced by a positive review to watch a film that I feel deserves attention. No one in a right state of mind sets out to make a “bad” film, and I know the task of actually getting a film made is not easy. I prefer not to say anything bad about the result of someone’s efforts. But I thought I should correct the discrepancy between having all my podcast reviews being negative and all my written reviews being positive.

So it is with a heavy heart that I must say how much I disliked Coweb.

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Reed’s Bargain Bin is a recurring column where Reed Farrington tells us about a movie he bought for under $5, and whether or not he regrets the purchase.

“Blowed ‘em up good, blowed ‘em up real good!” If Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok from SCTV’s Farm Film Report had been on Rotten Tomatoes’ (RT) staff, then there’s no way that Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (BEVS) would ever be in the list of RT’s worst movies of the past decade. So, in the opinion of Reed Farrington, does this movie deserve to be at the top of that list?

Well, that “worst of” list was the impetus I needed to finish watching this film that had been sitting in my stockpile for the past three years. I hadn’t realized that I had watched all of it up to the last ten minutes. Perhaps this is indicative of how bad BEVS is, but I also have movies like The Lord of the Rings that I haven’t finished watching either. And some people seem to think LOTR is good.

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Reed’s Bargain Bin is a recurring column where Reed Farrington tells us about a movie he bought for under $5, and whether or not he regrets the purchase.

Even though Film Junk followers would probably prefer to read current TIFF film reviews than a review of an older science fiction film, I have decided to submit this review of “Babylon A.D.” And at the risk of further enforcing the view that I have a poor taste in films, my review is generally a favorable one in contrast to popular opinion. I was aware that this film did poorly at the box office, but I didn’t realize how many bad reviews this film received until after I had watched the film and checked out the reviews on the Internet. The reason why I watched this film is that I try to watch all the high profile science fiction movies regardless of audience reception. Given that this movie was not screened for critics and that advertising was minimal, I wonder why this movie did not get a straight-to-DVD release instead. Perhaps Vin Diesel’s name attached to an action movie was seen as critic-proof.

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Killer Imports is a regular feature on Film Junk where we explore foreign-language films from around the world that haven’t yet had their chance to shine.

See Jackie Chan drive a farm tractor on an iced, shallow pond and fall through! That’s the only promotional blurb I can think of to sell this latest Jackie Chan movie to a Jackie Chan audience. Shinjuku Incident marks Jackie Chan’s first full attempt at a dramatic role. His role in the 2004 New Police Story movie was more of a transitory role in which he got to do some emoting as a drunken cop and for which he received a Best Actor nomination by the Hong Kong Film Awards and a win by the Golden Rooster Awards. And although there is action in this movie with gangs fighting each other, Jackie’s trademark stunts and fighting skills are nowhere to be seen. Instead of Jackie dealing out the punishment, we see him taking the punishment much more than usual.

Jackie portrays a farm tractor repairman who enters Japan illegally to find his missing girlfriend Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei). While he is in Japan, he meets up with a good friend Jie (Daniel Wu) from his hometown and other illegal Chinese immigrants, befriends the Yakuza leader Eguchi (Masaya Kato), and rises to prominence in the Shinjuku district. His friendship with Japanese police detective Kitano (Naoto Takenaka) complicates matters. The Japanese prostitute/bar hostess Lily (Fan Bingbing) also plays an important role.

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Treknobabble is a continuing series of columns written by uber-Trekkie Reed Farrington about Star Trek and how it has influenced his life.

When I was in grade school, a friend of mine and I co-created a school newsletter comic strip called “Dogs in Space.” I believe the main inspiration was the popularity of the Planet of the Apes movies. I’m not even sure we were aware that dogs like Laika were used in early space flight testing by the Russians. Neither of us owned a dog. I think we simply needed another animal besides apes. Dogs were easy to draw and easily recognizable by their snouts and floppy ears. I suppose we could have called the comic strip “Planet of the Dogs,” but I think even at our young age, we didn’t want to make blatantly obvious what the source of our inspiration was.

Anyway, this Treknobabble isn’t about that comic strip. And it’s not about the 80’s film with Michael Hutchence. It wasn’t even originally supposed to be about the dogs that were used in the Russian space program, but after a bit of research, I thought I should devote a paragraph or two to these special examples of “man’s best friend.” Instead, I wanted to write about the connection between Star Trek and another of my favorite things, Charles Schulz’s Peanuts and especially Snoopy. And I’ll also be writing about Porthos, the real-life beagle that appeared in the Star Trek series, Enterprise.

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Treknobabble is a continuing series of columns written by uber-Trekkie Reed Farrington about Star Trek and how it has influenced his life.

When I first watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture (STTMP) in a theatre in 1979, I must admit that I thought that Gene Roddenberry could do no wrong. I was one of those Trekkies who were eager for new adventures after years of watching reruns. I think I watched the theatre screen with rapt attention even with the interminable fly-throughs of the V’Ger spacecraft. I must admit that I didn’t clue in to the twist even when the crew approached the Voyager type spacecraft. I remember being disappointed by the simple resolution of the threat. And I did miss the fun factor even though I had thought most of the humor in the television series was hammy.

Visually, I liked the monochromatic design with the gray and muted colors. I thought Star Trek needed a more serious, realistic look to counter the overuse of color that was used in the Original Series (TOS) in order to sell color televisions. The costumes appeared more dignified. I thought that it made more sense now that engineering personnel had special outfits. Also the security personnel now had head and chest protection. I had pre-imagined the all-in-one pants and boots as a visually appeasing look. I was probably influenced by the svelte appearance of Bruce Lee in a form fitting track suit. In our current day and age, this idea of the pants and boots being one piece seems rather impractical, but in the 23rd century, laundry doesn’t seem like it would be much of a problem. As the movie showed, after you showered, you could have transporter technology “instantly” clothe you.

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Treknobabble is a continuing series of columns written by uber-Trekkie Reed Farrington about Star Trek and how it has influenced his life.

You know when you find something that you like, whether it be a song or book or movie or whatever, and you want to share that something with family and friends? And you really hope that they share the same feeling about that something? Or how about the feeling that you get when you find out that the creators of things you admire are fans of each other? I’ve grown to agree with the familiar saying that you can judge a man by the friends he has. I suppose in trying to understand myself, I’ve been trying to assess the commonality among all my interests by looking at the people behind my interests. Although this may sound self-serving, I agree with Plato in his statement that an unexamined life is a life not worth living. Since this is a column about Star Trek, I thought it would be interesting to find connections between Star Trek and other things I love. In this column, I’ll be looking at the sporadic connections between Star Trek and The Beatles.

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