COLD EYES ‘Gam-si-ja-deul’ (2013)

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This South Korean remake of the Hong Kong film Eye in the Sky is a well made thriller about surveillance cops and specialist robbers. It’s slick, pacey and well choreographed.

Where it fell short for me was in the fleshing out of the characters. Or lack thereof.
The cops got a little chance to become three dimensional but the robbers are denied any opportunity. I have to be invested to care and that usually happens when the writing is clear and the characters are real. Don’t get me wrong, the acting was fine, believable but I was left as the audience wanting to go deeper, psychologically, into the whys and whos. This aspect was missed, unfortunately. No real stand outs but I enjoyed Lee Jun-Ho as Squirrel.

I just read that there were two directors, Ui-seok Jo (1st film) and Kim Byeung-seo  (3rd film).
For a first film (and third) it’s not bad but what it ultimately lacked in character it made up for in the set pieces. There is a lot of action and it’s a whole lot better than most films of that ilk from the holiest of woods.

I would be interested in watching Eye in the Sky and they do a little nod to it by giving Simon Yam (a big Hong Kong star) a cheeky cameo.

IMDB describes it as ‘A high-tech police surveillance team attempts to take down a gang of ruthless bank robbers.’
Translation hi-tech=Enemy of the State, ruthless bank robbers=Heat, very good films (especially Heat) but they delivered a truer emotional foundation.

So the equation goes:
Enemy of the State + Heat –Taking of Pelham 123 – Dog Day afternoon = Cold Eyes

Well that’s all a bit of nonsense isn’t it? The equation, that is.

A sturdy enough action film that will entertain while not breaking the bank of emotion.

3/5

BUY IT ON DVD HERE

WOLF CREEK 2 (2014)

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How do you keep the wolf from the creek?

Avoid the creek like the plague.

This film shouldn’t have been made. It really is irredeemable, offensive and unnecessary.

Recently in Australia, Margaret & David, the hosts of ABC’s At The Movies, refused to review it. They totally should have and ripped into it and talked about how racist, misogynistic and downright nasty it was. But then that would have opened them up to criticism and maybe they just didn’t have the bottle. They represent middle Australia (if that phrase even exists). I don’t watch their show, I don’t have a television in my house, but it comes to something when they refuse to review something. Most of their viewers will probably not watch it, fair enough, but if you refuse to review a film, surely we all know that that will give it more publicity.

My fear with a film like this is that it perpetuates a stereotype in the way that Mick Taylor thinks and I have to ask where does his drive come from? I’m not over thinking this, merely asking questions.
Pure xenophobia?
It seems that way.

Especially in this second outing, there were racist undertones in the first one but not dwelled upon. Not against people of colour, against anyone who wasn’t Australian.

He is in the same league as Freddy Krueger (burned to death by the parents), Jason Voorhees (rage at drowning as a child), Norman Bates (mother issues), Michael Myers (pure evil bogeyman)…Mick Taylor (racist/misogynist/death merchant).

We were sat behind a young man and his girlfriend and he was laughing a lot at the quips Mick was coming out with during excessive violent behaviour. It was seriously weird. The tone wasn’t tongue in cheek enough for it to be funny, just disturbing.

Like I said at the beginning-Avoid.

UPDATE-Almost 9 years after seeing this film I may have been far too harsh in this review and overly influenced by the experience of sitting behind the couple in front of us and being offended by their ignorant amusement of racist tropes. The point is that Mick is a nasty bastard and represents all the ignorance and small mindedness that exists not just in Australia but the world over. The 1/5 was too harsh.
The film may not have been as bad as I said…….The 2 television series were both great.

1/5

BUY IT ON BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE