Does this look like a film too hot for the U.S. to handle?

Ten films make the buzzed list this week. While the Toronto Film Festival is winding down, and there is buzz coming out of the fest, most of the buzz is surrounding films already lined up for fall release. This week’s #1 buzzed about film is in a bit of controversy right now. Needless controversy. Read on and find out more.
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Steven Soderbergh has made a fascinating character study of a compulsive liar. Based on a true story, this film shows how someone’s motivations for “doing the right thing” might not always be based on solely catching the bad guys.

Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon, THE GOOD SHEPHERD) was the youngest vice president at ADM, where he was in charge of producing Lysine from corn. He tells his boss Mick Andreas (Tom Papa, BEE MOVIE) that the reason there is a destructive bug in the Lysine processing plant is because the Japanese have a mole in the company and are demanding millions to stop sabotaging the production. The company calls in the FBI, which gets Mark very agitated. When FBI Special Agent Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula, TV’s QUANTUM LEAP) comes to his house to tap his line in his investigation of the blackmail, his wife Ginger (Melanie Lynskey, HEAVENLY CREATURES) pushes Mark to reveal a price-fixing scheme between ADM and the competition.
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Here’s the pitch – a Satanic rock band turns the most beautiful girl in school into a demon that eats boys, written by Oscar-winning JUNO scribe Diablo Cody. Directed by GIRLFIGHT director Karyn Kusama, this horror/comedy possesses Cody’s signature dialogue style and an EVIL DEAD sense of gallows humor.

Jennifer (Megan Fox, TRANSFORMERS) is the prettiest girl in school. She has her BFF Needy (Amanda Seyfried, MAMMA MIA!) wrapped around her finger. Whatever Jennifer wants she gets. This irritates Needy’s boyfriend Chip (Johnny Simmons, HOTEL FOR DOGS). Jennifer convinces Needy to attend the concert of Low Shoulder at a local dive bar. She thinks the lead singer Nikolai (Adam Brody, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING) is salty. But when the bar goes up in flames and the band kidnaps Jennifer, Needy knows some evil is afoot.
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Based on Judi & Ron Barrett’s children’s book, this animated adventure takes the tried and true tale of a misunderstood scientist and gives it a twist… of lime. Adapted by directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, this 3D concoction is pure comfort food. If RATATOUILLE is lobster, this animated entrée is like a good ole plate of spaghetti and meatballs. I mean it says so in the title.

Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader, ADVENTURELAND) has been dreaming up wild inventions since he was a kid. None have really panned out though. His father Tim (James Caan, THE GODFATHER) wants him to come work at the tackle and bait shop, but Flint has bigger plans. They live on the island town of Shallow Falls, where all there is to eat is sardines. Flint has invented a machine that will turn water into all kinds of fun foods. But during a big town unveiling by Mayor Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell, EVIL DEAD), Flint’s new machine goes haywire and wrecks the town’s new amusement park attractions, which where meant to bring the island tourists.
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With Miramax releasing wonderful collection of martial arts films titled the Force of Four on Blu-ray this week, This Weekend’s Film Festival is getting into the mood with five kung fu flicks. The Force of Four swings in with a blind assassin, drunken boxer, Robin Hood of China and heroes. As an added bonus, the Festival kicks off with a wuxia classic. You know everyone wants kung fu fighting!
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Following the release of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON in 2000, the U.S. market became ripe for fantastic kung-fu adventures. The following year, thanks to support from Quentin Tarantino, this 1993 Hong Kong hit came to the States. Unlike Ang Lee’s Oscar nominated martial arts masterpiece, this wuxia flick is a more traditional variety, mixing history, fantasy, humor, melodrama and awesome fight sequences.

Like a Chinese Robin Hood tale, Iron Monkey (Rongguang Yu, NEW POLICE STORY) robs from the corrupt governor (James Wong, ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA) and gives back to the peasants. The mysterious Iron Monkey turns out to be the herbalist Dr. Yang, who helps the poor along with his assistant Miss Orchid (Jean Wang, ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA IV). Governor Chen is so paranoid that the Iron Monkey will strike again that he sends Master Fox (Shun-Yee Yuen, DRUNKEN MASTER) and his men out to round up every suspicious person in town. They end up capturing traveling physician Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie Yen, HERO) and his young son Wong Fei-Hung (Sze-Man Tsang). Wong Kei-Ying is as skilled a fighter as the Iron Monkey, so the governor kidnaps his son to forces him to hunt down the peasants’ hero.
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IRON MONKEY Review

For the most part the 1080p transfer for this kung-fu flick is solid, but it won’t blow you away. The transfer is uneven, giving some scenes more clarity or richer colors than others. Nighttime scenes suffer the most with distracting amounts of grain compared to other segments. The unevenness rids the disc of that 3-D-esque dimension that makes films on Blu-ray pop. With these overall minor complaints, however, it’s still much better than a standard DVD transfer. As for the soundtrack, Disney and Miramax give the English dubbed version a bombastic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 treatment, while the original Chinese soundtrack gets a less dynamic Dolby Digital 5.1 rendition. The speaker balance isn’t as immersive as one would hope whether you go with the dubbed version or the original language.

The special features on the disc are lacking as well. Interviews with Quentin Tarantino and star Donnie Yen will be enjoyable to fans of the filmmaker and martial arts star, but they give little depth into the making of IRON MONKEY. Tarantino reveals some context for the film, while Yen shares some of his experiences, but neither do what the best special features do – tell the story of the production.

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While Chia-Liang Liu is listed as the director, Jackie Chan was the man director of the action, which makes up a great deal of the film. This film was released in China in 1994 as a sequel to Jackie Chan’s 1978 film DRUNKEN MASTER. The film balances slyly between a traditional kung fu flick and a Buster Keaton slapstick comedy.

Chan plays Wong Fei-hung, the impetuous son of pious kung fu teacher Wong Kei-ying (Lung Ti, A BETTER TOMORROW II). He tries to follow the straight and narrow path of his father, but in a sneaky plan to not pay duties on ginseng, he gets wrapped up in an inequities smuggling scheme. Aiding him is his crafty mother-in-law (Anita Mui, A BETTER TOMORROW III), Manchurian agent Fu Wein-Chi (co-director Chia-Liang Liu), kung fu trainee Lily (Chan Kui-Ying), and fishmonger/kung fu teacher Tsang (Felix Wong, THE TIGERS).
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LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER Review

I usually start my reviews by addressing the picture quality, but I have to get my issue with this release’s audio track out first. The film isn’t in Cantonese. The disc offers every subtitle option you could image, but the English subtitles only go over an English language dub. The audio is Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The rear speakers are underused and because the film is dubbed the sound is hollow one moment and then Folly mania ensues during fight sequences. As for the picture quality, the colors are rich and clear for a film that doesn’t boast a brilliant color palette. I have to disagree with Kenneth Brown at Blu-ray.com that skin tones are sometimes flushed. If he’s referring to Jackie Chan, that was meant to be that way. He’s drunk. But the picture is soft at times.

As for the special features, there is little to talk about. The single feature is an interview with Jackie Chan circa 2000 when the 1994 film was released in the U.S. While it’s nothing special, Chan does delve into his method toward the fight sequences. It also features some of the action star’s missteps, which show how dangerous the stunts he does are.

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HERO Review

Yimou Zhang’s HERO is the perfect film to show off the HD TV with. While this transfer isn’t perfect, the detail isn’t as crisp as it could have been, it’s the best for the title thus far and the breathtaking color palette comes off richly. Christopher Doyle’s cinematography is one reason alone to see this film, and this presentation highlights the boldest parts of the film’s spectrum of rich color schemes. As for the audio, the film doesn’t go with the original mix, but with a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track instead. Purists will be upset, but for me the audio presentation was more impressive than the picture. The speaker balance is wonderful, using the front speakers for the powerful thrusts and clanks of swords, and utilizing the back speakers to fill out the scope with the consuming sounds of rain, leaves and horses.

While the special features are not extensive, two stood out. “Close-up of a Fight Scene” is a Blu-ray exclusive that breaks down the planning that went into some of the film’s best fight scenes, including the chess fight, forest leaves fight and the lake fight. If there is a problem with the featurette, it’s only that at nine minutes it was way too short. “Storyboards” is again another too short bonus that compares storyboards with the final scenes. The other features include the adequate making of doc “Hero Defined” and the poorly made “Inside the Action,” which features Quentin Tarantino interviewing star Jet Li, while the camera bounces around like a cinematographer 101 student was filming it. Moreover, with a running time of only 14 minutes, it spends too much time on Tarantino talking about his own work. The loose conversational style would have worked if the featurette were an hour long, but as is, it makes Tarantino look even more like an egotist than he seems everywhere else. The biggest mystery of the disc is the inclusion of a Soundtrack Promo sans the trailer.