THE INTRUDER: ANYBODY HOME?

While watching THE INTRUDER I felt that I’d seen this movie before. Perhaps not this exact movie but more than once I’ve seen those with a similar storyline. That didn’t make it less enjoyable but it did prevent it from being the standout movie one would expect with a name like Dennis Quaid attached.

Annie and Scott Russell (Meagan Good and Michael Ealy) are a successful young couple in California on their way up. Having landed a top account at the business he works at the couple decided to buy the house of their dreams. They find just the place in Napa Valley owned by Charlie Peck (Quaid). Friendly and open to sharing the history of the house and his family, Charlie makes them an offer they can’t refuse. After all, he’s selling the house so he can move in with his daughter in Florida.

Things begin to go a little off once the couple move in. Scott is certain that he hears creaking in the house at night. Then Charlie begins showing up at the house doing things like mowing the grass. The couple tells him he doesn’t need to bother but he just wants to help. His daughter is still trying to make the room that will be his complete and he won’t be leaving just quite yet.

Scott sees this as a little strange but Annie feels sorry for Charlie. After all his wife did die of cancer in this house, his children were raised here and parting with it must be difficult. She even invites him for Thanksgiving dinner along with their friends Mike (Joseph Sikora) and Rachel (Alvina August). As Mike makes suggestions about changing the house by knocking out a wall to open the space Charlie becomes agitated while talking about the integrity of the house. It’s an upsetting moment for all. Mike goes out for a smoke and Charlie follows. It’s an act of intimidation that Mike is sure of. When he alter finds a cigarette burn in the seat of his car he’s certain Charlie did it but can’t prove it.

As the days pass Charlie continues to randomly show up out of the blue at the house. Scott is certain that something is wrong with all of this but Annie refuses to believe it. For her Charlie is a harmless older man who just is having trouble moving on. Of course Scott is right as we viewers have the chance to see Charlie peeking in through windows, breaking into the house and then watching the couple in their most private of moments.

All of this eventually leads Scott to confront Charlie and tell him to leave both the house and the couple alone. Of course Annie apologizes for his behavior. A few days after Scott is out jogging when a truck comes by and hits him knocking him off the road. Scott is confined to the hospital overnight and sends Annie home.

Who should show up but Charlie with pizza in hand. He and Annie talk and share stories. At the same time Mike has shown up at the hospital and Scott asks him if he will make a point of stopping by the house to check on Annie. From this point forward all the worst fears you could imagine begin to rise and become apparent to everyone.

As I said I’ve seen movies before where killers, stalkers and plain old lunatics end up watching a person or couple with ill intent before. These movies are never huge box office successes and this one did decent business. But there is a certain amount of comfort in watching movies where you have at least an inkling of where it will all go by the end of the film. Rarely do they alter course or come up with a twist ending. Does this one? I won’t give it away.

Both Ealy and Good do a good job as the young couple moving into a different location than they’re used to. Quaid takes center stage here offering us what appears to be a sympathetic character who is in reality someone to be feared. That’s not a spoiler if you’ve seen the trailer for the film. Almost always cast as the hero it’s good to see him stretch like this.

On the whole the movie is an enjoyable entertainment for the night but more than likely not a film you’ll be popping in yearly to glimpse once more. If you’re a fan of this sub-genre then you might do so but otherwise it will be a good night’s rental and little more. But at least it’s a fun ride the first time around. 

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ALITA – BATTLE ANGEL: MANGA BROUGHT TO LIFE

For those who aren’t aware of what Manga is it’s a form of comic book developed in Japan that’s fueled by colorful art and normally has adult themes. It’s become quite popular since its inception and influential in comics in this country as well. While many Manga have been turned into animated films few have transferred into reality based films. That all changes with ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. I should say somewhat changes because computer animation is still to be seen here. But it combines seamlessly with real footage to make an interesting, exciting and adventurous movie that most will enjoy.

The year is 2563 and its 300 years since the Earth was devastated in an all-out interplanetary war. In this post-apocalyptic world Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) roams the junkyards for parts for his cybernetic customers, people whose limbs have been replaced with robotic parts. He comes across a cybernetic body with a human brain still intact and takes it home to attach to a body he has there. He names the cyborg Alita after his deceased daughter.

Alita adjusts quickly to her new body though she has no memories of her past life. She meets a mysterious woman with ties to Ido named Dr. Chiren (Jennifer Connelly). Wandering the streets near where she lives with Dr. Ido she meets Hugo (Keean Johnson) a streetwise young man who dreams of getting off planet to the sky city above, Zalem. To fund his way there he steals cyborg parts he sells to Vector (Mahershala Ali), the head of the most popular game on the planet Motorball. The game consists of cyborgs battling it out on a track and Hugo takes Alita to see the game.

One night after noticing Dr. Ido sneaks out after dark Alita follows him. She discovers that he is secretly a hunter-warrior, someone who hunts down rogue cyborgs with a bounty on their heads to fund his hospital. Wounded by Grewishka (Jackie Earl Haley), one of those he’s come for, Alita steps in and instinctively knows how to fight the attackers using a long thought extinct battle form. Taking out two of the three attackers, the third returns to his employer, Vector, and is repaired and upgraded by the doctor Vector uses, Dr. Chiren.

Wanting to help the doctor by becoming a hunter-warrior too he tells her no and to stay home. Like any young person she ignores his instructions and goes out to register on her own. Searching the nearby junkyards Alita comes across a body there, a Berserker, one of the bodies used by the United Republics of Mars (URM) during the Great War. She urges Ido to transfer her mind into it but he refuses.

Knowing that Grewishka will continue to seek out Ido Alita heads to a nearby bar where the hunter-warriors hang out. Picking a fight with the most infamous member there she nearly defeats him before Ido steps in and puts an end to it. Her goal was to recruit the hunters to take down Grewishka but before she could round them up the bar is attacked and Alita damaged.

With no choice Ido transfers Alita into the Berserker body. The technology even stuns Ido. Still alive and in love with Hugo who has now changed his ways, Alita is more determined than ever. Armed with the new body and still motivated to face off against the evil Grewishka, she enters the Motorball game. But Vector has something in store for her that may stop her before she has a chance to put her plan in motion.

ALIST: BATTLE ANGEL combines some amazing storytelling with the most astounding visuals seen in some time. The film doesn’t depend solely on those visuals though and instead intertwines these two items to make a tale that you will find yourself involved in and waiting to discover the outcome of while ignoring the remote control, never wanting to fast forward past any eye catching moment. It’s rare that the combination of storytelling and effects works so effortlessly and yet director Robert Rodriquez has done just that. But then he has the experience to pull this off having made SIN CITY and the SPY KIDS movies.

The acting here is much better than one would expect as well, including that of Rosa Salazar as Alita. In spite of the fact that her performance is CGI rendered had she not brought Alita to life through her acting abilities the character would have fallen flat. Instead she gives it substance.

I know of at least one person who’s not a fan of science fiction that said she loved this film. My guess is that everyone who has the chance to view it will do so as well. By the end credits it’s a film that you hope will find its way to becoming a franchise with new adventures for Alita to experience. If not at least this one will satisfy those of us who have become fans. 

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MASTER Z - IP MAN LEGACY: THE STORY CONTINUED

You can’t be a fan of martial arts movies or Quentin Tarantino without knowing the name Yuen Woo-Ping. Woo-Ping was the choreographer behind many of the classic martial arts movies to come out of China as well as doing the same role on films like THE MATRIX and CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON. But he’s also a well-respected director in the genre as well having directed films like IRON MONKEY and DRUNKEN MASTER. So it should come as no surprise that Woo-Ping now helms the continuing saga started with the Ip Man series of films.

Picking up where the third IP MAN movie left off Cheung Tin Chi (Jin Zhang) has abandoned martial arts after his defeat at the hands of Ip Man. Now running a small store in Hong Kong while raising his young son he sets out to live simply. But fate has more in store for him.

While making a delivery he literally runs into Nana (Chrissie Chau), an opium addict in debt to gangster Tso Sai Kit (Kevin Cheng) and her friend Julia (Liu Yan). When Kit breaks the gift Chi bought for his son, he steps in to protect the two women before the police arrive. All are arrested and thanks to a payoff to the corrupt police chief they are released that night. But the release comes late and Chi misses the dinner he promised to take his son to at a high end restaurant owned by Davidson (Dave Bautista).

Seeking revenge for his humiliation Kit and his men firebomb Chi’s store burning him and his son. As he escapes with his injured child the men follow him. Passing nearby the Gold Bar, owned by Fu (Xing Yu) Julia’s brother, he bumps into Julia and asks her to watch after her son. One by one he defeats that gang chasing him as well as an assassin named Sadi (Tony Jaa) who’s been following him.

Julia talks to her brother and he offers Chi a job working in the bar. The two talk and form a bond once he realizes who Chi is having studied martial arts himself. Their friendship is tested after Chi takes vengeance against Kit by destroying one of his opium dens. Kit’s sister Kwan (Michelle Yeoh) is the actual head of the gang that Kit is part of. She was also the person responsible for helping Fu begin his bar and he’s indebted to her. All is smoothed over when she talks to Chi.

 Kwan is in the middle of trying to take their business legit but Kit wants to carry on with the gangster life. So much so that he makes a deal with a friend and gets into the heroin business. When his friend takes him to the man behind the heroin trade (no spoiler here folks) he cements his loyalty to the man and finds himself with more power than he had in the past.

Chi discovers what is taking place and alerts Kwan to the situation. She asks for time to settle the situation but before that happens Kit kills Nana who was engaged to Fu. Chi and Fu storm Kwan’s offices and an all-out battle takes place that is amazing to watch. Another offering is made, another situation settled but not completely. It isn’t long before Chi will be forced to reignite the flame inside and use his skills to right the wrongs set in place by the various situations fate has steered him to.

Look, I’m a fan of martial arts films and have been for some time. I grew up on those Saturday afternoon showings of Kung Fu Theater that had the imported Chinese martial arts films that were more about acrobatics than martial arts. But the movies coming out of China today are stunning in not just the martial arts skills on display but the technical aspects of the films as well. And with Well Go leading the pack in bringing these films around the world on disc they deserve major kudos.

Yes, I know that much of what we see on display here is wire skills, actors being lifted high in the air by trusses and wires. But there is more to it than that. The moves used in these films take an enormous amount of skill to do properly and they do indeed follow through on those skills.

More than that the film is gorgeous on so many levels. The cinematography for a movie that some would write off as “just a martial arts movie” is amazing. The fluidity of the fight sequences is stunning. And rather than fall prey to the worst shooting of a fight scene possible as many western films do (the Bourne films come to mind) they don’t zoom in for close ups during fights or rely on jerky camera movement to cover up the problems associated with a fight sequence. Instead they back up enough that you can see the entire fight taking place. And in the sequence in Kwan’s office you have not one but two separate fight sequences taking place at the same time for some amazing shots.

I’ve not gotten around to watching the IP MAN series though I was able to pick them up used a while back. Now I find myself wanting to pull them out to watch and set this one next to them on the shelf. I have a feeling I will enjoy them as much as this film. It will be one that I know I’ll definitely pull out from time to time to watch. Once again praise to Well Go for bringing these films to the world. And continued success to them with more coming. 

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