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Posted by GPR79 on 09/06/05 14:22
FS: Today's Specials - The Cooler R2 Tartan SE DTS £6 & Memories Of
Murder R3 DTS £5
- Payment via bank transfer preferred, then cheque, cash, PO.
**Take both below for £10 total!**
The Cooler - R2 Tartan SE DTS £6.00
Cover: http://www.boomspeed.com/gpr79/cooler.jpg
"The premise of this swinging Vegas picture is enough to carry it over
its narrative rough spots. The unluckiest sap on the planet (William H.
Macy) is employed as a "cooler" at a casino; his very presence can chill
the hot streak of any patron on a roll. He's valued by the old-school
manager of the place, a role given a two-fisted, bourbon-swilling
incarnation by Alec Baldwin. Macy means to quit, but then he falls for a
waitress (the excellent Maria Bello, from Permanent Midnight)--might his
luck be changing? The subplots are pretty much a mess, but the frank sex
scenes between Macy and Bello give the movie a truly offbeat feel. The
tawdry air of a second-rate casino is also nicely done: This is not the
new family-friendly Las Vegas, but a tough place of superstitions,
sinister back rooms, and shabby motels. The characters are perfectly at
home."
Special Features:
Audio commentary by writer/director Wayne Kramer, co-writer Frank Hanna
and cinematographer Jim Whitaker
Audio commentary by writer/director Wayne Kramer and composer Mark Isham
Sundance Channel's "Anatomy of a Scene" featurette
2.35:1 Anamorphic PAL
English DTS 5.1
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
&
Memories Of Murder - HK R3 Korean DTS £5.00
Cover: http://www.boomspeed.com/gpr79/MoM.jpg
directed by Bong Joon-Ho
South Korea 2003
An excellent film that will make you wonder why you've wasted so much
time watching hollywood tripe!
"In October 1986, a woman was found in a ditch, raped and strangled in
her own stocking, and was the first of a total of ten women murdered
over the period of 1986 to 1991 in the rural Gyeonggi Province in South
Korea, by the first recorded serial killer in Korean history. To this
day the crimes remains unsolved.
Director Bong Joon-ho, "Barking Dogs never Bite" and "JSA", was
fascinated with the circumstances of both the crime and the
investigation, and after having researched original case files and news
clippings, turned the case into a film. Bong chooses to approach the
story from an investigative point of view, showing how the case
initially was muddled by inexperienced rural detectives and the
conflicts between them and the outsider, in form of the professional
murder detective from Seoul, before they join forces and actually make
progress.
The centre conflict is between Park, the local detective who normally
solves cases by beating up suspects and whose idea of locating a rapist
consists of him spending time at the local bath looking at the size of
mens penises, and the outside from Seoul, Seo, who solves crimes by
forensics and reconstructing crime scenes. Only slowly does Park realise
that his methods lead nowhere and join forces with Seo, only to realises
that the killer leaves no real traces or clues. The investigation causes
more and more frustration and its only a matter of time before the
detectives break under the pressure.
Bong uses the political background of South Korea at the time, the
military dictatorship by Chun Doo-hwan, to stress the situation further,
but also to establish a time reference. A narrative strength, it also is
a potential weakness, as it can seem disruptive and be seen as a
political comment thrown in the midst of a murder drama, especially if
one has "JSA" fresh in mind. The way Bong chooses to tell the story,
beginning with a relative loose structure and tightens it up, as the
investigations gets on its way. As such, the last 30 minutes are
stunning and very intense. A narrative gamble, which pays off.
A special mentioning of Song Kang-Ho, who delivers one hell of a
performance, as a detective without any real intelligence, who realises
his own shortcomings and who actually begins to think as a detective at
the end. Song also stars in "JSA" and in Park Chan-Wook's "No Sympathy
for Mr. Vengeance".
It is refreshing to see this sort of murder story, when everything else
we watch today is high-tech FBI / CSI investigatory, where killers are
caught because they left a fragment of a skin cell on the victim. Very
few contemporary murder stories deal with the frustration of the
investigator and thus the human aspect of investigating a serial killer.
The only other film I can think of is the overlooked HBO masterpiece
Citizen X. As such, Memories of Murder is a haunting study of men
reaching their breaking point. A great film."
--
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