FILM REVIEW OF ''47 RONIN" (2013)

Ethnocentrism occurs when one culture appropriates something from another culture and then attempts to enhance it.  The latest version of the legendary Genroku Akō incident, the tragic 18^th century Japanese account of samurai warriors avenging their fallen leader, displays all the vestiges of ethnocentrism.  Mind you, the Japanese produced six previous cinematic adaptations about their historic milestone before Hollywood tampered with it.  For the record, those movies were “The 47 Ronin” (1941), “Chûshingura” (1958), “Chushingura” (1962), “The Fall of Ako Castle” (1978), “47 Ronin” (1994) and “The Last Chushingura (2010).  Presumably, Hollywood must have felt that this constituted an ideal opportunity to produce its own spin on this venerable story.  Not surprisingly, Universal Studios has taken considerable liberties with the material.  Not only has the studio embroidered this renowned tale of honor with outlandish supernatural elements, specifically demons and witchcraft, but it also has added a half-breed European supporting character to the yarn.  Presumably, Universal must have felt that attracting an American audience to a $200-million plus film primarily about the Japanese would only recoup its costs if a major American actor got mixed up in it.  Keanu Reeves of “The Matrix” trilogy appears as the improbable white guy who sets the catastrophic events of the Akō vendetta into motion as well as dictates how the Japanese can resolve their dreadful predicament.  Freshman director Carl Rinsch and “Wanted” scenarist Chris Morgan with “Snow White and the Huntsman” scribe Hossein Amini have fashioned a conventional chronicle of samurai versus samurai, with a grim finale that precludes any thought of a sequel.  If you know nothing about the outrageous revisions that the filmmakers have imposed on the most celebrated instance of the samurai code of honor, you will probably enjoy this scenic saga about sword and sorcery a lot more.  Imagine what any important event in American history would emerge as if a Japanese individual interfered with it and you’ll have a good idea about “47 Ronin.”

 “47 Ronin” (** OUT OF ****) takes place in feudal Japan in the 1700s.  Lord Asano (Min Tanaka of “Black Dawn”) of the Ako province adopts a wandering teenager, Kai (Keanu Reeves), who is the son of a British sailor and a Japanese peasant.  The boy’s mother abandoned him, and demons raised him.  Eventually Kai ran away from them and Lord Asano took him in as one of his own.  Kai grew up with Asano’s daughter, Mika (Kô Shibasaki of “One Missed Call”), and the two become romantically attracted to each other.  Meanwhile, since Kai is a half-breed, he cannot serve Lord Asano as a samurai.  Instead, he functions as the equivalent of a scout.  The first major scene shows him slaying a massive beast that resembles an enormous buffalo with tree branches for antlers.  Naturally, another samurai warrior, Yasuno (Masayoshi Haneda of “Emperor”), claims credit for the kill, but Asano’s number one samurai, Ôishi (Hiroyuki Sanada of “The Wolverine”), knows the truth.  Later, Lord Asano welcomes his supreme leader, Shogun Tsunayoshi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa of “Mortal Combat”), to his palatial estate along with his chief rival, Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano of “Thor: The Dark World”), from the nearby Nagato province.  The villainous Kira conspires with the aid of a demonic, shape-shifting witch, (Rinko Kikuchi of “Pacific Rim”), to drug Asano into attacking him.  The witch uses a bulbous spider to deliver a drug across Asano’s lips while he is asleep so that he awakens and imagines that Kira is raping his daughter.  Appalled by his own behavior, Asano follows the dictates of the Shogun in committing ritual suicide.  Ôishi blames himself for letting these events transpire, especially after Kai warned him about the witch.  Everybody but Asano and his daughter treats Kai with utter contempt.  After Asano slashes his belly open with a knife, Ôishi completes the ordeal by decapitating his master.  The heartless Shogun banishes all Asano’s samurai who are now designated as ronin.  At the same time, Kira sells Kai into slavery where Kai becomes a highly prized combatant in arena showdowns.  The Shogun commands Mika to marry Kira after mourning the death of her father for a year.  Kira has Ôishi thrown into a dungeon where he spends the next year.  Eventually, after he is released, the vengeance driven Ôishi assembles the remaining samurai and persuades Kai to join them as they set out to deal with the murderous Kira.

Compared with other samurai sages, “47 Ronin” is fairly routine stuff.  The battle sequences lack grandeur, and the sword play is pretty dull.  The massive ritual suicide at the end isn’t exactly what American audiences will enjoy.  Imagine “Star Wars” ending with everybody eviscerating themselves at fade-out and you have a good idea what to expect.  This big-budgeted spectacle also suffers from second-rate special effects.  Most of the sprawling mountain backdrops are clearly computer-generated, while the swirling witch’s dragon looks like something out of a Chinatown carnival.  Presumably, Rinsch and his writers decided to rely on sorcery because nobody knows for certain why Asano attacked his guest in real-life.  The way that Asano is poisoned is reminiscent of how the Japanese girl died at the hands of Ninjas in the James Bond movie “You Only Live Twice.”  In “You Only Live Twice,” a ninja hid in the rafters, dangled a thread above the heroine’s mouth, and dribbled poison down it.  The witch in “47 Ronin” behaves less spectacularly than the witch in “Snow White and the Huntsman” that co-scripter Hossein Amini penned.  The art direction, production design, and cinematography make “47 Ronin” look more impressive than its ersatz plot.  Interestingly enough, this film didn’t impress Japanese audiences, and Universal has already written it off as a financial disaster.  Ultimately, “47 Ronin” qualifies as a tolerable movie with guts but little gusto.

FILM REVIEW OF "FOUR FAST GUNS" (1960)

The title of “Four Fast Guns” (*** out of ****) refers to the hero’s expertise with a six-shooter as well as the three pistoleros hired to kill him. “Hell Bound” director William J. Hole Jr.’s western melodrama “Four Fast Guns” qualifies as a low-budget but above-average ‘town tamer’ sagebrusher with a good cast, compelling characters, and several surprises. This black and white, 72-minute oater reminded me of the Wayne Morris B-western “Two Guns and A Badge.” In “Two Guns and A Badge,” Morris is appointed as the deputy marshal of a lawless town. In reality, he isn’t the man that the townspeople were supposed to have as deputy marshal. Similarly, “Four Fast Guns” protagonist Tom Sabin (James Craig of “Drums in the Deep South”) has been run out of Kansas by the hired gunman, Haggerty, who was paid to clean up the territory. The obnoxious ‘town tamer’ encounters Sabin along the trail. Haggerty warns Sabin to steer clear of Purgatory where his next job is. Sabin ignores him so Haggerty goads Sabin into a gunfight. Indeed, Haggerty gets the first shot and wings Sabin’s right arm between the shoulder and the bicep and then demands that Sabin show him the palm of his hand. Presumably, Haggerty intends to put a bullet through Sabin’s hand and end his days as a gunfighter. Haggerty has his own gun drawn when Sabin surprises him and drops him with one shot.

Sabin rides into the town of Purgatory. Inscribed on an archway that welcomes visitors are the words: Purgatory: When you ride into Purgatory, “Say goodbye to God.” The citizens have never laid eyes on Haggerty. When Sabin shows up, they ask him if he is the ‘town tamer?’ Like the Wayne Morris hero in “Two Guns and a Badge,” Sabin tells them that the ‘town tamer’ Haggerty sent him to Purgatory all the way from Kansas. At first, Sabin isn’t altogether certain that he wants to maintain this masquerade. They citizens offer him $500 for the job. When somebody suggests that Sabin may be afraid, Sabin accepts the job. The townspeople want to see the owner of The Babylon Saloon, Hoag (Paul Richards of “The St. Valentine's Day Massacre”), run out of town since he controls all of the killing, rustling and gambling in the area. Sabin and the citizens strike a compromise. They will try him out and pay him after he cleans up Purgatory. When they want to know who to send the $500 to, Sabin gives them the Santa Fe address of the widow of Jay Cassavedas. Later, when Sabin prowls around the marshal’s office, he spots a wanted poster of himself on the wall. He is wanted for the killing of Jay Cassavedas.

Hoag indulges himself in a hobby of importing works of art as well as minions of evil. The first work of art is a small replica of Venus De Milo. Ironically, Hoag is an invalid confined to a wheelchair. He spends his time playing the piano in his bar. Later, Hoag’s pretty wife, Mary Hoag (Martha Vickers of “The Big Sleep”), explains that they were on the stagecoach for Wichita to get hitched when the vehicle wrecked and broke her husband’s back. Nevertheless, Hoag is a power neither to be taken lightly nor ignored. Hoag is as cold-blooded as they come, and he antes up a thousand dollars to see Sabin lying dead in the dust. Hoag sends one of his henchmen, Grady, over to kill the sheriff after their first meeting, but Sabin kills Grady. As each gunslinger botches the job, Hoag increases his offer, until the third gunslinger, Johnny Naco, arrives and takes the three grand to kill Sabin. Hoag never really ventures beyond the premises of the Babylon and he emphasizes his sophistication when he quotes a poem to Sabin when the 'town tamer' visits him in his office. Cleverly, the scenarists have Hoag quoting a passage from the Robert Herrick poem "To Virgins, to Make Much of Time": "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may/Old Time is still a-flying;/And this same flower that smiles today,/Tomorrow will be dying."

No sooner has Sabin arrived in Purgatory than Hoag dispatches a gunman to kill him. Sabin is in the marshal’s office when his would-be assassin enters and tries to kill him. Predictably, Sabin survives this fracas, but the twists are what distinguish this western. He has to contend with three gunslingers before he cleans up Purgatory and rides away to Tombstone. Along the way, Sabin makes a rather good friend of the alcoholic living in the abandoned marshal’s office, Dipper (Edgar Buchanan of “Texas”), who wears a small cup around his neck with which he uses to drink his whiskey. Despite his drinking, Dipper is a lot smarter than most people take him. Essentially, Dipper serves as the quasi-narrator of sort. Although he isn’t seen until later in the action, Dipper provides narration at the outset. “This man came along the trail one Sunday morning back in ’73 talking it slow and easy keeping his open and his gun hand ready. Came from nowhere I guess. Anyhow, he never said from where and we never asked. He was going to stop off in Purgatory, make his stand, like he lived alone. This is number one. He called himself Sabin.” The number one in the narration refers to the first of the “Four Fast Guns.”

Dipper becomes Sabin’s greatest ally. Not only does Dipper serve as the film’s narrator, but also he is chief source of comic relief. Hoag’s wife is another interesting character. She stands by her husband, but her sentiments toward Sabin change over time. Ultimately, she grows attached to Sabin, but she refuses to end her marriage to Hoag. The second time that Sabin visits the Babylon, Hoag tries to convince him to leave town. He shows him three letters that he intends to send to three gunslingers that he will pay to kill Sabin. Hoag suggests Sabin tear up the letters, but Sabin refuses to violate a federal law pertaining to the sanctity of the U.S. mail. Ironically, Sabin winds up mailing Hoag’s letters, letters to men who will come to kill him. The three gunslingers are worthy of note, particularly the Brett Halsey character.

The first of them is a Mexican named Quijano. Quijano (Richard Martin of “Bombardier”) catches his girlfriend in the bath tub and asks her to translate Hoag’s letter. Quijano rides to Purgatory. Along the way, he asks for directions and the settlers warn him to ride clear of Iron Town. Marshal Becker of Iron Town is pretty quick with a pistol. Quijano shoots the lawman on the trail, but he loses his lucky charm, a necklace with a cross. Later, Mary tries to bride Quijano out of killing Sabin, but he refuses her offer. He had been whipped into submission like a dog by a ‘town tamer’ and hates them. Quijano slaps leather with Sabin in the Babylon and Sabin blows a hole in the Mexican. After he drops Quijano, Sabin gets a lecture from Mary Hoag. “You’ll be destroyed by a man without a gun. A man you can’t shoot because he can’t stand up to you in the only kind of fight you understand—a gunfight.” Actually, “A Day of Fury” scenarist James Edmiston and “When the Clock Strikes” scribe Dallas Gaultois provide a lot of foreshadowing in Mary’s speech because “Four Fast Guns” concerns honor. Sabin’s sense of honor compelled him to take up the townspeople on their offer. Similarly, a sense of honor prevents him from simply shooting Hoag while the villain plays his piano.

The second of the three is the laconic Farmer Brown (Blu Wright of "Squad Car")and he has cultivated a reputation for being a fast draw and an accurate shot. He proves his accuracy when he blows a coin out of a stable boy's hand. The Farmer never carried a gun until he was shot in the face. Now, he totes one and he has the personality of an ogre. He tries to shoot Sabin from under table as they are playing poker. Sabin outsmarts him. He pulls out his revolver and cocks it as soon as he sits down so the weapon is on his thigh within easy reach. Since the outcome to this duel is such a foregone conclusion, director William J. Hole Jr., doesn’t even show us how it happened. This strategy occurred in an earlier scene when Grady the gunslinger entered the jail, while Hole keeps the viewer outside with the camera. The gunfire is audible and then the gunslinger stumbles outside and falls dead on the street.

The third of the three, Johnny Naco (Brett Halsey of "Roy Colt and Winchester Jack"), trails the Farmer into Purgatory. Johnny is dressed like a classic villain from Stetson to boots in black. He is a ladies man and has the utmost confidence in his ability to out draw everybody else. Mary tries to distract him initially from his showdown with Sabin in the saloon. Naco clears the bar and waits for Sabin to enter. The tension mounts as Sabin walks into the bar. The director shows close-up shots of their opposing faces. They appear to know each other. One of the major surprises in “Four Fast Guns” occurs at this point and everything afterward clashes with the typical ‘town tamer’ western. Finally, as the tension melts between them but nobody shucks iron. Sabin turns and walks out of the Babylon. This is the last thing that you expect out of this western with eighteen minutes left to go. The townspeople are surprised and the one who constantly derides Sabin makes a wisecrack, while Naco hands Hoag back his $3-thousand. "I'll kill the man, but it's going to be a little more difficult than I figured." When Hoag demands to know why Naco didn't draw on Sabin, Naco tells him that Sabin is his brother! Naco also informs Mary that Sabin and he are brothers. They relocate to the church that hasn't been used because Purgatory has no preacher. Earlier, a woman told the townspeople taking up a collection for the 'town tamer' that she thought they needed a minister instead of a gunslinger. In the church, Naco explains that Sabin and he had trouble with a man called Cassavedas. Naco shot Cassavedas, but Sabin took responsibility for what Naco had done.

“Ambush at Cimarron Pass” lenser John M. Nickolaus Jr.’s black & white, widescreen cinematography is an asset. Nickolaus shoots this low-budget western as if it were a big-budget opus. He set-ups his cameras in the best possible positions and his pictorial composition is virtually flawless. For example, the Farmer Brown scene in the Babylon opens with a medium long shot of the legs of the gamblers under the table. Using the frame of the chair that Sabin will occupy, Nickolaus shows us Farmer Brown's lap with his gun on his thigh. You can tell that the Production Code censors had mellowed by 1960 because we get a glimpse of a Mexican girl's buttock and Dipper goes to sleep with a picture of a scantily-clad woman on the wall. The Code may have objected to Dipper's picture on the basis that it implies that the old drunk will have a 'wet dream.' The performances are good. James Craig is appropriately tight-lipped and honor-bound. He doesn’t look very appealing without his usual mustache. Martha Vickers, who plays Hoag’s wife, is very good. She might have become a well-known actress if she had stuck to playing bad girl roles in the late 1940s. Good movies contain surprises which usually enliven the narrative. The surprise ending caps this corker. “Four Fast Guns” never wears out its welcome.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE A-TEAM'' (2010)

Anybody who enjoyed the landmark NBC-TV action series “The A-Team” will probably want to see new big-screen adaptation. “Smokin’ Aces” director Joe Carnahan and scenarists Skip Woods and Brian Bloom have adhered to both the spirit and formula of the George Peppard classic. Our original heroes were elusive, but wrongly-convicted government fugitives on the lam, one jump ahead of military authorities, and the film “The A-Team” sticks to that premise like glue. Although the series that co-starred Mr. T was set against Vietnam, Carnahan and his scribes have updated the storyline so the action occurs in Iraq. Since more than twenty years has elapsed since the series left the air, Twentieth Century Fox must have decided that the movie do double-duty as an origins outing rather than a sequel. After all, contemporary audiences probably weren’t watching television when the original series aired from 1983 to 1987. Liam Neeson of “Taken” quite capably takes over the role that George Peppard originated. Bradley Cooper of “The Hangover” steps easily into Dirk Benedict’s shoes as ‘Faceman.’ Newbie Sharlto Copley of “District 9” is every bit as loony tunes as Dwight Schultz was as the harebrained Murdock. Finally, Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson plays ghetto-tough B.A. Baracus, the role that made Laurence Tureaud into an overnight sensation as Mr. T. Essentially, “The A-Team” (**** out of ****) qualifies as a prequel to the television series. The filmmakers show how the eponymous foursome met and wound up in the dire predicament that led to their weekly exploits.

“The A-Team” concerns honor, deception, betrayal, lies, and revenge. Colonel Hannibal Smith, a U.S. Army Ranger, is getting the pulp smashed out of him as the action unfolds in gritty Mexico. A corrupt Mexican policeman laughs at Hannibal because our hero handed over a bundle of greenbacks to a dirty cop. They cannot get Hannibal to cough up anything but blood, so they decide to ice him. They try to kill him with his own pistol, but Hannibal has removed the firing pin, and the corrupt cop doesn’t want his henchman to shoot him with his own gun because he fears that U.S. authorities will trace the killing back to them. They leave Hannibal with his impaired firearm and turn two vicious dogs loose on him. Before the dogs can reach him, Hannibal reassembles his weapon and his waiting for the mutts. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Templeton ‘Faceman’ Peck is tied up and stuck in the middle of several tires while a higher corrupt cop, General Javier Tuco (Yul Vazquez of "American Gangster") wants to know who the pretty boy is working for. They plan to strung Peck up, and General Tuco is furious because Faceman had sex with his wife. B.A. Baracus is cruising through the countryside in his signature black mini-van when he happens upon an escaped Hannibal. They share U.S. Ranger tattoos and bond, after Hannibal pumps a slug into him. Just as the villains are about to hang Peck, Hannibal and B.A. arrive like the cavalry in the nick of time. Afterward, our heroes grip each other’s hands and set off to a hospital to pick up Murdock. The angry Tuco masses his forces and retaliates with greater firepower. Our protagonists spring Murdock from the hospital, and he flies them out in a Red Cross helicopter, only to discover that another chopper armed with missiles is pursuing them. Murdock performs some aerodynamically impossible stunts to elude the missiles. This entire, prolonged, bullet-riddled, action-packed sequence with the main credit titles popping up occasionally against the scenery and the gunfire resembles the pre-credit sequence from a James Bond escapade. Carnahan never lets the action stall for a moment and he adopts a storytelling strategy that keeps audiences up to snuff with the “A-Team’s” shenanigans. Basically, Carnahan lets the characters explain what they plan to do and shows them carrying out the plan as they explain it. The recent "Sherlock Holmes" movie did the same thing.

The story lunges ahead eight years into the future after our heroes have completed 80 missions. The setting is Iraq after the war has concluded. Hannibal and his men are considered the best special operations unit in the U.S. military. Hannibal has caught wind of a hush-hush, top-secret operation that he feels only his elite quartet can handle. It seems that terrorists in Baghdad have obtained stolen U.S. Mint printing plates and have run off over $1 billion worth of $100 bills. The bigger diplomatic picture prohibits Hannibal’s oldest friend, General Morrison (Gerald McRaney of CBS-TV’s “Simon & Simon”), from issuing Hannibal official orders to recover both the plates and the money. Instead, Morrison appears to have struck a deal with a ruthless band of mercenaries called Black Forest, led by Pike (Brian Bloom of “Terminal”), who have no qualms about murder as long as they are paid in full. Meantime, our heroes go in, snatch the plates and a trailer-load of counterfeit currency. All too suddenly, everything goes south for Hannibal and his team. An explosion obliterates the trailer, and Morrison dies in another explosion himself. Our heroes are arrested for disobeying orders. Everybody, including one of Peck’s ex-girlfriends, Captain Charisa Sosa (sexy Jessica Biel of “Stealth”), believes that Hannibal’s team and Pike’s gunmen collaborated on the mission. The Army court-martials the quartet and sends them off to serve stretches in different prisons. Hannibal refuses to accept this miscarriage of justice and finds himself an ally in Lynch (Patrick Wilson of "Watchmen") a mysterious C.I.A. agent. Although he is incarcerated in a top military lock-up, Hannibal has been cooking up a plan when he meets with Lynch. In no time at all, our heroes escape from prison and go after Pike.

Hollywood has struggled without success to resurrect other televisions series, but they have failed more often than not and failed miserably. “Starsky and Hutch,” “Wild Wild West,” “I Spy,” “The Avengers,” and “The Mod Squad” were catastrophes. Happily, “The A-Team” is a straightforward, larger-than-life, high-octane, action movie that never wears out its welcome. Moreover, “The A-Team” is better than its predecessor. Predictable for the most part, it is nevertheless an amusing as well as absorbing, with terrific performances, snappy dialogue, and a sense of audacity. The biggest differences between the PG-13 rated “A-Team” and the original series is that people die, and the big-screen adaptation adopts a grittier approach. Of course, “The A-Team” is just another big, noisy, slam-bang actioneers, but these Carnahan and company know how to slam and bang! They haven’t overlooked anything in terms of hardware so “The A-Team” looks as slick and sophisticated as a James Bond extravaganza. They have also jammed in enough intrigue for a Jason Bourne thriller. This explosive adventure opus has crowd pleaser branded on it with its international locations, high voltage action sequences, and murderous villains.