Point-by-Point: The Tall Man - 6/10

The Good: This starts off as a pretty good thriller - the story, pacing and direction are solid. The twist in the middle, which I didn't see coming, had me figuring that this movie was going to be great.

The Bad: It was all downhill from there. The second half of the movie slows to a crawl, and it doesn't help that it relies on Jessica Biel's acting chops. 

The Ugly: The assumed morality of the final reveal is off. I'm being vague to avoid spoilers, but it seems the movie treats the end as fairly clear-cut when it really isn't.

Points Pondered

-Really, owning as creepy of a van as our villain does should probably be regarded as probable cause for any crime.

-Most of my points pondered actually occurred in the latter half of the film, so I'll avoid mentioning them. Instead, I'll just say that the Tall Man from Phantasm is both taller and scarier than the The Tall Man's Tall Man. 

Point-by-Point: The Chaser - 4/10

An ex-detective turned pimp tries to track down his missing girls who, despite all evidence to the contrary, he believes have merely run off. Turns out, there's a creep involved, and then the chasing begins.

The Good: Taken individually, there are some interesting and well done scenes. There are moments in the direction and story-telling where I can see why people really like the film. Also, despite our hero basically being a total jerk, the performance is able to humanize him, making us truly end up on his side.

The Bad: The plot holes and sheer stupidity of the characters ruined this movie for me. Usually I'm pretty good at turning my brain off and just enjoying the ride, but The Chaser pushed me over my limit. Your story has serious problems when you rely on multiple people being idiots in order to get your characters out of sticky situations. Once is annoying, but it was almost a motif. For me, this killed any suspense they were trying to build, which then destroyed the pacing because I was sitting there going "There is no way this should possibly be happening" instead of focusing on the actual story. 

The Ugly: The utterly pointless murder near the end, that happens only due to a long sequence of the aforementioned stupidity. You can claim that it makes this movie gritty, or brutal. To me, it's just the director giving a big middle finger to the audience. 

Points Pondered

-Although this one takes it to an entirely different level, pretty much every Korean movie I've seen has totally incompetent cops. Is this just in film, or are they really that bad?

-There's absolutely nothing about the bad guy that convinces me he wouldn't get caught within an hour of his first crime.

-If my houseguest drew a creepy, four-walls-and-floor mural in two days, I might ask him to leave.

-This movie just proves that if you're sick, you shouldn't go to work. It's for your health, as well as the health of others. 

Point-by-Point: May - 8/10

May is a lonely girl. She meets a few people, but they find her creepy. She proves them totally right. 

The Good:  For a fairly small horror movie, the acting is outstanding. Angela Bettis is pretty much perfect as May, which is important because the movie could have easily fallen apart if her performance was even a little bit off. She makes you feel for May, even when she's being horrible. I also have a soft spot for Anna Faris (The House Bunny is far funnier than I would have imagined). Also, credit to the director - it's not easy to combine all of the emotional responses he was going for without it being a muddy train wreck, but he goes effortlessly between black comedy, psychological drama and horror. 

The Bad: Because of previously mentioned blending of genres, the pacing is a bit strange. I didn't have many problems with it, but someone hoping for a thrill-a-minute horror film will probably be bored towards the middle of this. 

The Ugly: Of the all gore in movies, violence of the ocular variety is by far the worst. This movie is a horrible offender.

Points Pondered

-My wife informed me that if the cat ever died while she was away, I should put it in the freezer. No.

-I appreciate that everyone treats May realistically - try to be friendly, see that she's kind of cute and quirky and want to hang out, then realize that she's actually crazy and slowly back away. Most people will take weirdness in stride until it gets to dangerous-weird.

-Has there ever been a non-creepy doll? 

-It's a bit odd - Jeremy Sisto looks to have aged a lot since this movie came out, and Anna Faris basically looks the same.  

Point-by-Point: Kill'em All - 2/10

A group of assassins is rounded up and forced to do battle. Why? That's never satisfactorily answered. 

The Good: This is a tough one. I guess there are a few nice shots of Bangkok. It also doesn't waste a lot of time getting to it's point.

The Bad: You'd think a movie about 8 assassins with different backgrounds and fighting styles killing each other would be exciting, but this movie is excruciatingly boring. The characters are entirely forgettable, and they all fight in basically the same way. I mean, you have to actively TRY to be boring to screw up this premise. I hate you, Kill'em All, for making me nostalgic for The Quest. Remember? The Van Damme movie? Featuring a tournament of deadly fighters from across the globe? No, the other one. That wasn't GOOD, but it was at least fun to watch. Kill'em All was not.

The Ugly: The set. I know the official description says they're locked in a "high-tech bunker known as the Killing Chamber," but that's awfully grandiose. I was thinking something like the X-Men's Danger Room, but it's basically a basement in an abandoned building that has a pipe for gas to come in. That's it. Disappointing.

Points Pondered

-It doesn't really seem fair to pit an assassin who specializes in explosives against one that has trained for years in hand-to-hand combat. Of course, he manages to hold his own, because this movie is dumb.

-For some reason, they decide to kill the most interesting assassins off first. Would have been too exciting, otherwise. 

-"Hey, now he's fighting like a monkey!" Oh, The Quest. 

-While you watch this movie (which you really shouldn't do), keep in mind that the main bad guy had all of these deadly assassins unconscious and totally helpless at two points during this ordeal. The fun begins when you try and reconcile that with the villain's ultimate plan. 

Point-by-Point: 13 Assassins - 8/10

A group of 13 samurai are sent to assassinate a brutal lord before he can grab any more power. Yet another well-titled movie.

The Good: For the most part, Takashi Miike tones down his usual cavalcade of brutality and that lets his ability as a director to shine through. The battle sequence is long yet amazing and well-shot, and avoids devolving into random guys hitting other random guys. Of course, he still puts in a few visceral scenes, but they are all the more effective when not surround by more of the same.

The Bad: Even though the story is well-told, it's fairly rote. Also, a number of the 13 aren't fleshed out very well, leading you to figure that they'll just be fodder when the time comes.

The Ugly: The variety of scenes used to paint a monstrous picture of our bad guy is about as ugly as it gets. Of course, by the end of it, you're totally on the side of the assassins, which is the point.

Points Pondered

-I knew this wasn't the average Miike film when a guy commits seppuku and you don't actually see him stick and knife in and watch his guts fall out.

-Setting this at the end of the samurai era definitely makes it more believable that a handful of well-trained men could pose a threat to a small army of amost-ceremonial samurai.

-The interplay between the leader of the 13 and the general of the enemy army was well done. It could have become one of a number of clichés, and avoiding them made the story stronger.

-Reading the description of the uncut version, they definitely made some wise choices for an international audience. Usually changes are made to dumb down films for a wider market, but here they eliminated a lot of silly scenes and weirdness that would have felt out of place. 

Point-by-Point: Lady Vengeance - 6/10

A lady goes to prison for awhile, then seeks vengeance on the one who put her there. The title is apt.

The Good: Park has style to spare. While it didn't quite impress me as much as Oldboy, the movie has an elegance that's easy to like. I also appreciate that people looked to have aged between when our hero first went to prison and eventually got out - I've run across far too many movies where 5 or 10 years supposedly pass and all the folks even have the same haircuts.

The Bad: I didn't like the story. More to the point, I felt like it was a good premise wasted. I actually kind of enjoyed the whole build-up of her calling on prison connections, but once a little girl shows up and other families get involved, it gets stupid fast. There are more than a few pointless scenes, and none of the actors seem like anything special. Overall, it's a pretty, dull movie.

The Ugly: There are a few scenes to be sure, but surprisingly nothing really approaching Oldboy. Let's go with the man-dog in the dream sequence.

Points Pondered

-The main character looks cooler in the poster than she does in most of the movie. I mention this mainly because I really like her eyes in the poster.

-She totes a very cool, albeit impractically super-close-range, handgun. But hey, style is definitely important.

-The "10 prisoners to a room" system seems to just be inviting problems.

-I think we can all agree that Chan-wook Park just enjoys torturing Min-sik Choi.  

Point-by-Point: Buried - 7/10

A contract trucker gets buried alive in Iraq. We spend the next 90 minutes in a coffin with him.

The Good: This movie takes it's concept and runs with it. I was skeptical that it could never leave the coffin without getting dull, but the film held my attention throughout. Really, it's impressive that they were able to make such a tight thriller with so little, and should serve as an example for modern thrillers that seem to get more bloated every year. Ryan Reynolds does an admirable job, and they seemingly (and impressively) light the entire movie with items he has in the coffin.

The Bad: There's nothing really profound about the story, and some of the political aspects seem a bit thrown together. And of course, if you happen to be a person who has nightmares about being buried alive, such as my wife, you should probably just find another movie.

The Ugly: Not to spoil it, but the last thing the kidnapper has our hero do is basically awful. Probably unnecessary, but it definitely upped an already tense movie.

Points Pondered  

-I would guess that the most important trick in keeping your cell phone battery up is turning down your brightness, not turning off the vibration.

-Really, why would any actor agree to do this movie? I guess there's a thin line between challenging and hellish.

-One day, the people of Movieland will figure out how to build a flashlight that works as well as a real one and isn't constantly flickering off and on.

-If it's the policy to never pay these kidnappers, why do they keep burying folks in the desert? and really, 90 minutes seems like an absurdly short deadline for a large money transfer.

Point-by-Point: The Man From Nowhere - 8/10

A pawn shop owner befriends a young girl, who is then abducted. He objects, and decides to hurt everyone he meets until he finds her. It's a solid mix of Leon: The Professional and Taken.

The Good: Pretty much everything here is good. The acting from our hero and the little girl seriously impressed me, and the action sequences were stylish and brutal. In general, the story is well told and I really found myself pulling for the guy, even as he was beating up cops and stabbing gang members repeatedly.

The Bad: The movie could afford to cut down a little on the melodrama, but it wasn't awful. The only things truly bad were the comic relief characters, which seem to be required in Asian films, no matter how out of place.

The Ugly: Despite several savage fight scenes, the child-organ-harvesting ring wins.

Points Pondered  

-I can't imagine business is very good at his pawn shop. It seems a bit out of the way, and he exudes "you don't want to talk to me."

-I really like the build of not showing him commit any violence in person for the first half of the movie or so - all we get to see is the resulting carnage he creates.

-Our guy runs down a hallway, jumps through a window, smashes the glass, hits the ground a story below, rolls and keeps running - the camera follows him THE ENTIRE WAY. Not quite sure the specific way they did it, but it's awesome. 

-He definitely looked a lot more suspicious when he put a hat on to hide from the police. Really, anyone wearing a suit and a baseball hat is going to seem a bit odd.

-Yes, the knife fight at the end is truly cool. Cutting out the soundtrack during the scene is a nice touch.

Point-by-Point: The Warrior's Way - 7/10

A samurai runs away with a child and hides in an American near-ghost town. Stuff happens, but what you really care about is that yes, you get to see who wins if a cowboy fights a samurai. 

The Good: I really like the comic book stylings of this movie. It excuses (or can lead to, depending on your point of view) the over-the-top action, absurdly evil villains, and some of the excesses in acting. Bottom line, this is a throwback Western that looks cool and is a lot of fun.

The Bad: The same things I like about this movie will probably cause many folks to hate it. Also, the movie occasionally stalls when the action abates, and some of the acting is a bit rough.

The Ugly: Even though this movie has a perfectly good Kate Bosworth hanging around, we're stuck with Geoffrey Rush's naked butt.

Points Pondered  

-More babies need handles.

-This movie nailed the comic book feel so well, both in plot and cinematography, that I figured it was based on one. Nope.

-What was Geoffrey Rush doing here?

-I think we can all agree that the French clown is the worst sort of clown.

-Did this movie really need the last scene? It seemed like a stupid add-on to a fine ending.

Point-by-Point: 30 Minutes or Less - 4/10

A pizza driver gets a bomb attached to him by a couple of crude dopes and is forced to rob a bank. He's given significantly more time than 30 minutes, which seems like false advertising. 

The Good: The Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari parts. The two work well together, and their bank robbery prep and execution were the funniest parts of the movie. Really, the story isn't bad, and both of them react at least semi-understandably to the situation.

The Bad: The Danny McBride and Nick Swardson parts. I guess if you like Danny McBride's schtick, this won't be an issue for you. But basically every time they came on screen the movie dragged to a halt, and he did 4 minutes of dick jokes. Totally killed any hope they had of setting up a tense "watch the timer" situation, and in general ruined the movie for me.

The Ugly: If you listen to Danny McBride for 30 seconds, you'll find something for this section.

Points Pondered

-I'm actually slightly impressed that the movie took a rather dark subject and was able to make it in to an acceptable thing to laugh at.

-I imagine reacting very similarly if a bomb vest was placed on me - Spend some time googling on how to disable a bomb, then use my movie knowledge to try and rob the bank. 

-This movie would have been better with a more serious villain, even if they were slightly inept. Where's Sean Bean when you need him?

-In general, a flame thrower is a poor weapon choice. Cool, but still poor.