Back Seat Producers

In April of 2003, a young engineer named Aron Ralston had a startlingly harrowing experience. Being enthusiastic for the canyons of Utah, Aron set out on a weekend hiking adventure on his own and got way more than he bargained for. While walking through one narrow crevasse, he slips and a small boulder falls with him, wedging itself between his hand and the canyon wall, trapping Aron, with what seems as no hope for survival.

127 Hours is the newest movie from director Danny Boyle. Now I’m a huge Danny Boyle fan, with some of his past movies like Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Slumdog Millionaire easily being some of the best movies that I’ve seen for the years that they were released in. At the same time, Boyle is also responsible for the only movie that I ever walked out on, A Life Less Ordinary, and this always looms for me whenever I go to see one of his films. Really though it hasn’t made a difference at all.

And that’s certainly the case with 127 Hours, an absolutely amazing tale of the perseverance of the human spirit in impossible odds. Boyle’s direction is kinetic and enthusiastic, which is even more amazing when you realize that the bulk of the movie takes place in one confined spot and with just one main character. but even with those limitations, Boyle is constantly keeping things moving and we feel every ounce of Aron’s pain along the way.

Two hallmarks of all Boyle’s films are visual flash and engrossing use of music, which are certainly evident here. The cinematography and editing in this really stand out, featuring beautiful landscapes filmed in some very interesting ways, cut together in a kinetic fashion, with a particular good use of split screen techniques. Now for all the visual flash though, it doesn’t overpower the story, and works in tandem for an experience that you feel. The music is quite effective as well, with a terrific choice of songs playing in the background that always help to highlight the situation.

But what’s at the core of this film is the sure-to-be Oscar-nominated performance of James Franco as Aron Ralston. Oh sure, there’s a supporting cast at work as well, but they are there in the barest support, which is fitting considering the solitary experience. I’ve certainly seen Franco in a lot of stuff in the past, but his work here is what I’d call career altering and inspiring. He’s full of enthusiasm that’s never irritating and pathos that’s never sappy. the most important thing though is that we’re with him all the way through this, and everything that he feels, we feel.

Don’t miss this one, it’s truly a terrific tale of survival against impossible odds that’s told with a lot of visual flash, but filled with loads of substance. Near the end of the film, things do get pretty grisly with Aron’s ultimate resolution to his predicament, so more sensitive viewers might want to keep that in mind, but still, I wouldn’t want that to stop anyone from the experience that you’ll get with 127 Hours. Highly, highly recommended.

The warrior Yang has trained at the hands of the deadly clan his entire life to become the greatest swordsman the world has ever seen. To fulfill his duty to his clan, Yang is ready to strike down the final survivor of an enemy clan. He tears through the survivor’s bodyguards only to find that the final survivor is a baby girl. Upon seeing her face and hearing her little laugh, Yang can’t bring himself to kill her and instead takes it upon himself to take care of her. Knowing that he’s failed in his duty to his clan, Yang and the baby April, set across in a journey to find an old friend of his for help. This friend has traveled to the American West and once there, Yang finds that his friend came to a deserted town now settled by a band of misfit carnival workers. But Yang’s friend has passed on, and now Yang and April find themselves adopted by the rest of the townsfolk.

Yang has abandoned his old ways and taken on the role of launderer in the town hoping that his new, quiet life will keep him from being found by his old clan. He soon discovers that the town has it’s own deadly past…

And that’s all that I’m going to say about The Warrior’s Way, a little movie that literally came out of nowhere (as far as I’m concerned) and is one of the very best little gems I’ve seen all year.

I only saw the trailer for this the first time when I saw Skyline a couple of weeks back. The trailer looked fantastic and my friends and I were ready to see this immediately on it’s opening. The trailer was exciting and stylish and loaded with action, but the final movie is another matter itself filled with a whole lot of heart and some wonderful, engaging characters.

The best way I can describe this is to reference a couple of international flavors. to me, this is like what you’d get if the French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children and Amelie) made his own version of Koike and Kojima’s classic manga, Lone Wolf and Cub.

The film’s look is extremely stylized, having a “fake” quality that I think really works for it’s storybook presentation. I love the fact that director Sngmoo Lee was confident enough in his skills to go with this look and run counter to what would be traditional of making it look all too real. The stylized action certainly sells the movie in the trailer, and it’s exceptional, playing right in hand with the look of the film. That action though isn’t as large a part of the movie as you would think. It’s predominant at the start and end of the film, but the middle portion is filled with building it’s world and characters, and that’s just loaded with heart. Lee’s look may be intentionally fake, but his feel is loaded with love for the genre’s that he’s playing with here.

The cast really surprised me, simply because I wasn’t expecting to see people like Geoffrey Rush, Kate Bosworth and Danny Huston in something like this. Now while no one here is going to win awards for this work, that’s not to say that it’s bad by any means. Their inclusion adds weight to this world and I thought all concerned did a great job, with big kudos to Danny Huston playing the sadistic Colonel who terrorizes the town.

The biggest plus in the cast though is South Korean actor Jang Dong Gun who plays the warrior, Yang. Jang has a quality about him that reminds me of Chow Yun Fat to some extent. He’s extremely stoic here, but there’s still something in his eyes and his body language that makes him very appealing, and he sells the action quite well.

As I said at the top, this one really took me (and my friends) by surprise. We were expecting to have a good time with this, sort of in the same vein as we did with last year’s Ninja Assassin and what we got was a whole lot more. The Warrior’s Way is a beautiful and exciting film just loaded with heart, and heart goes a long way. I don’t expect this to appeal to everyone, but I had a ball with this. I can’t wait to see it again.