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Posted by GPR79 on 09/06/05 22:40
**Update: The Cooler is pending sale**
FS: Today's Specials - River Wild R1 USA DTS £6 & Memories Of Murder R3
DTS £5
- Payment via bank transfer preferred, then cheque, cash, PO.
**Take both below for £10 total!**
The River Wild - R1 USA DTS £6.00
Cover: http://www.boomspeed.com/gpr79/42119.jpg
Excellent film - brilliant DTS track!
"Meryl Streep tried her hand at action films with this Curtis Hanson
film and proved herself quite credible, bringing emotion as well as the
willingness to kick butt. She plays a suburban mom and former
white-water rafting guide who is taking her family on a raft trip for
summer vacation. But overworked Dad (David Strathairn) can't make the
trip, so she and her son leave without him--and walk right into trouble.
Killers on the run (Kevin Bacon, John C. Reilly) abduct them and force
Streep to take them down the most dangerous stretch of river to elude
the cops. Hanson understands how to pace and construct this kind of
action fodder, but it's strictly formula stuff, enlivened only by the
depth of Streep's portrayal and the viciousness of Bacon's character."
&
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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