Records, Movies And Books
Movies
Man Of Tai Chi (2 stars)
Keanu Reaves marks his directorial début with a film fraught with contradictions and confusions. Man of Tai Chi is a bilingual, cross-cultural movie that, in keeping with today’s zeitgeist, is a western film aimed firmly at breaking the Chinese market. In the process, what has been produced is a film that takes some of the worst aspects of each film culture and hybridizes them in a way that had the audience sitting awkwardly through 105 minuets of oratorical dribble that barely moves you from one fight to the next.
The story centers round Tai Chi master Tiger Chen, who is recruited into a secretive underground fight club run by Keanu Reeves for the entertainment of uber-rich viewers. The film charts his progression from a man of honor into a man of paid violence. Tiger Chen, one of the original stuntmen on the Matrix, is paired with the choreographer and Hong Kong Cinema legend Yuen Woo-Ping. Together they produce some truly stunning fight sequences. However the film becomes saturated with repetitive violence and becomes boring. The characters wax lyrical about the philosophical ramifications of the use of violence whilst excessive product placement draws you completely out of the already weak story. A scene where a gangster is playing on an app on his phone was especially cringeworthy. The characters are two-dimensional with a few in particular being more like caricatures in nature. These problems, coupled with an unsatisfying ending, have produced a film that suggests maybe Keanu should stay well away from the director’s chair. Dawa Tshering
Lone Ranger (2.5 stars)
What do you do if you want to launch a new movie franchise; you get Jonny Depp to dress up and act weird. This seems to be the thought process of Director Gore Verbinsky. It worked well in The Pirates of The Caribbean series so why not again?
The Lone Ranger stars the aforementioned Jonny Depp as Tonto, sidekick to Arnie Hammer’s Lone Ranger, in the latest adaptation of this old western stable. Scathed with rumors of spiraling costs and production problems, The Lone Ranger has had anything but an easy ride. However, as a two and a half hour long unbalanced mess of a film, it’s easy to see why.
The story of the Lone Ranger is told through the medium of an old aged Tonto recounting the tale to a young boy at the 1933 World Fair. One of the main problems with the film is it never seems to decide how to tell the story. It jumps between time frames and shifts between genres ad nauseum, never really settling or choosing a path. The tone of the film can be slapstick one second followed by cannibalistic horror the next. Coupled with this undefined theatrical aesthetic, it is the severe lack of chemistry between the two main characters that really holds this film back. Bar a genuinely exciting end sequence, which eschews from the current blockbuster fashion that requires the destruction of entire cities, there is little to praise about the Lone Ranger. Andy Harrop
Monsters University (2.5 stars)
Pixar is one of the most consistently brilliant film studios in the world. Over the past few decades, they have lead the way in computer animated story telling and have produced an unprecedented number of modern classics. However, as has become a worrying Hollywood trend in recent years, they have seen fit to try and grasp on to any intellectual property they own and squeeze out a sequel or prequel where perhaps they don’t belong. Don’t get me wrong; the Toy Story series is one of the finest trilogies in movie history, but the Cars sequels seemed forced and more of a cash-in than truly warranted stories.
We join the Cast of Monsters Inc. in their formative university years as they make their way towards becoming ‘Scarers’ tasked with capturing human children’s screams to power the monster world. Avoiding the fact that the plot of the original film renders most of what happens in this prequel pointless, the storyline follows the formation of Mike Wazowski’s and Sully’s friendship. This plot follows a formulaic pattern worn thin by countless other American college movies. Where the original film explored a new, original fully realized world, this one plays on dated stereotypes and unoriginal jokes. The first film was hilarious with Boo, the central human character, providing the adorable heart and soul of the movie. This prequel however has way fewer laughs and what charm it possesses has been shoehorned into a tired script. Children will still enjoy it but it retains none of the lasting impact of the original. Ewan Colledge
The Internship (1 stars)
The satirical website ‘The Onion’ sums up all you need to know about The Internship in its recent video review of film when they stated that it has “Everything an audience in 2005 could want in a comedy”. I will however add one addendum: this film would still have been bad in 2005.
In our new digital world, middle-aged salesmen Billy McMahon (Vince Vaughn) and Nick Campbell (Owen Wilson) find themselves out of work when their employer goes out of business. They end up applying for internship positions at Google and, whilst possessing none of the required skill set for the jobs, are accepted due to their ‘unusual’ interview answers. What follows is a farcical story of two men using their supposed ‘real world experience’ to compete against book smart youngsters. The plot is as predictable as the jokes and neither are worthy of any merit. The references and gags are out dated and awkward with the characters lacking any charm. It truly feels like the script was written a decade ago and shelved till recently for some unknown reason.
The film acts as an extended and uncomfortable advert for Google whilst simultaneously making it look like a cult. Throughout the movie, you are made painfully aware that the Vaughn - Wilson comedy duo are simply going through the motions and should have retired a long time ago. The Internship is a painful cinematic experience that highlights the Hollywood practice of squeezing every last drop of profit out of unoriginal ideas until they are truly worthless. Dawa Tshering
Books
Mr Ma and Son (5 stars): Lao She, Penguin
Mr Ma and Son finds itself set in the back streets of London at the beginning of the 19th Century. The novel charts the progress of Mr Ma and his son Ma Wei as they start a new life in London trying to run an antiques shop. The protagonists are met by a backdrop of deep routed Sinophobia, with their lives plagued at every step by a myriad of different flavors of ignorance and racism.
England in the 1920s, for Chinese immigrants, was not an agreeable place. The preceding century had seen the British and Chinese fight in two Opium Wars causing the British psyche to be imprinted with a predefined notion of the ‘Chinaman’ that filled them with guilt, fear and disgust.
A profoundly tragic and comedic book, the story plays with the cultural conflicts of the time, representing a seminal text on the relationship between British society and Chinese immigrants. The distressing nature of the contents of the book, at the hands of a lesser writer (and subsequent translator), would tend towards a depressing and repetitive text. However, celebrated Chinese author, Lao She, basing the book on his own experience living in ‘20’s London, has thankfully filled the novel with wonderfully subtle observations and cutting satire. The observations are heartfelt and sadly, today, still posses a dark and reprehensible relevance.
It’s hard to argue with its status as a modern classic and it is fascinating, after reading many books on western experiences of China, to hear Chinese experiences of the west. Dawa Tshering
Tomorrowland (3 Stars): Kirk Kjeldsen, Signal 8 Press
Fleeing New York to start a new life after a robbery gone wrong left four people dead, Brendan Lavin, an ex con, finds himself in Shanghai with a new name and a new identity. He opens a bakery, a skill he was taught in prison, and marries a local girl with whom he starts a family.
Brendan has laid low for the last twelve years but after a listings magazine (oops!) runs a story on his bakery with a photo provided by one of his employees, the remaining gang members from his former life are able to track him down. They blame him for their incarcerations and want him to assist in the robbery of a diamond merchant and if he doesn’t help, they will reveal his true identity and murder his new family.
The novel plays out over the lovingly recorded streets of Shanghai, author Kirk Kjeldsen paints a vivid picture of the city with an attention to detail that will delight anyone who has spent time here. It’s a rare talent for someone to be able to create such a sense of place. The city is alive and fully realised. The villains in the book possess a genuine sense of malice. They are to be feared and loathed but Brendan must cope with the knowledge that he was once one of them.
A thoroughly suspenseful drama that plays out over a beautifully described city, Tomorrowland is a brooding tail of escapism and consequence. Ewan Colledge
Records
Magna Carta Holy Grail (3 stars): Jay Z
Hove is back with his twelfth studio album entitled Magna Carta Holy Grail; another boastful title for a rap album that has to compete with Kanye West’s recently released Yeezus. However, where Yeezus is an exceptional album Magna Carta, though beautifully produced, is noticeable lighter on decent content.
Jay-Z seems comfortable to continue boasting about wealth and power as he has done for a long time now; the beats are solid but there’s nothing really new here. When Jay-Z came to prominence he was known for his revolutionary methods, sampling from the likes of the musical, Annie, for Hard Knock Life, he changed up the game and shot to super stardom. Now at the top he seems comfortable to sit on his laurels and keep producing similar sounding tracks.
But this album is not just boasting about his wealth, it's adding to it. Jay-Z, ever the shrewd businessman, ensured that the album went platinum even before its release. He signed a deal with Samsung where he sold one million copies to the tech giant for them to give away to customers as a promotion, meaning that the only people able to listen to the album on day one were owners of Galaxy model phones. This album is about those who have and those who have not. As with any Jay-Z album, the lyrics are strong, even if the references are a little dated or awkward, and it hosts an amazing array of collaborations. This is not Jay-Z in his prime but it is still an enjoyable record that will get you moving. Andy Harrop
Electric (4 star): Petshop Boys
Launching their first album off their own new label, ‘Electric’ finds old time Syth-Pop Boppers, the Pet Shop Boys, in fine form with a renewed sense of energy. It’s unusual to find any pop groups 30 odd years and 12 albums into their careers. This type of time span seemed reserved only for rock groups that somehow survive the perils of stardom. The Pet Shop Boys then are rather unique and special, still holding themselves up as kings of the genre.
Do not expect to find the sort of generic dancy pop music that gums up today’s charts in a bland wave of highly targeted conformity. Instead, expect something more interesting, exploratory and fun, although there is a collaboration with Example which seems like a rather contrived attempt to attract younger listeners and forms one of the weaker parts of the album.
From the get-go, the first track Axis sets you off with a glorious techno romp and the rest of the album rarely lets you go. Prepare for a confident album that will have you dancing away no matter if you are a longtime fan or a new convert. After last year’s coolly received Elysium, it is a relief to see Pet Shop Boys back at full power. For your fix of synthy goodness that flies high above the boring milieu of contemporary pop, look no further. Ewan Colledge
