Review #1,478: 'Assassin's Creed' (2016)

Despite numerous critical and commercial failures over the last quarter of a century, Hollywood just cannot turn away from trying to capitalise on an industry that continues to out to out-gross them. Video game adaptations have been a thing ever since Nintendo tried and catastrophically failed to bring to life the colourful world of Mario and Luigi with 1993's Super Mario Bros., and it's become a running joke ever since that there has never been, and will unlikely ever be, a decent console-to-big-screen adaptation. But the $1 billion-plus success of Capcom's Resident Evil franchise lingers in the minds of many a studio head, so pretty much every year a new cast and crew are put together to develop a game series with a promise to break the trend. 

While the likes of Prince of Persia and Rampage are perfectly serviceable fluff, they are way overshadowed by the unbearable awfulness of a Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, or a Max Payne, or whatever hot turd Uwe Boll is serving up that month. We have gone through the disappointment too many times to believe it when a director promises to stick to the source material, but eyebrows were raised when it came to the inevitable movie adaptation of Ubisoft's hugely successful Assassin's Creed series, which plunged you into a centuries-old battle between the Knights Templar and a shadowy group known as the Assassins. Not only was Justin Kurzel, director of the truly unsettling Australian drama Snowtown and Shakespeare epic Macbeth, to helm the film, but Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, two of the most respected actors in the business, were also signed up for the leads. Could this be the movie to finally bridge the two mediums and match the success of its source material?

The short answer is no, but by no means is Assassin's Creed a complete disaster. Its main problem is that it depicts two worlds from two different periods in time, but forgets to make them both interesting. We have the Inquisition-era Madrid, where hooded assassins move stealthily through the crowd armed with daggers and their wits, as they attempt to bring down those in power who seek peace in the land through control. The Assassins also long for peace, but peace gained through freedom, and they don't want a McGuffin known as the Apple of Eden, which somehow possesses the power to block humanity's free will, falling into their hands. This war has raged on for centuries, and in the modern era - a glum grey world full of murky corridors and empty rooms - the Templar continue their search for the Apple, employing a new technology that allows people to travel into the memories of their ancestors, to track down the allusive object through the centuries. 

We spend the bulk of the time in the present day, as convicted criminal Cal Lynch (Fassbender) is saved from the electric chair by Sofia (Cotillard) and spends much of his time brooding in his cell over the murder of his mother. I get the feeling that writers Michael Lesslie, Adam Cooper and Bill Collage want to keep you in the dark about who the good guys are here, but as soon as Jeremy Irons arrives with his black turtleneck sweater, you pretty much know how this is going to play out. The plot is an odd mixture of overly complicated and incredibly stupid, and much of the screentime is spent having these characters explain it to each other and the audience, or at least those in the crowd who have never played the game (like myself). When Cal finally straps up and enter the body of his ancestor Aguilar de Nerha, the movie springs into life, although this bleached-out world of questionable special effects and wannabe-Indiana Jones action may have seemed all the more exiting by the sheer dreariness of the alternative. 

Directed by: Justin Kurzel

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Kenneth Williams

Country: USA/France/UK/Hong Kong/Taiwan/Malta

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,183: 'Silence' (2016)

At the age of 74 and with 50-odd years in the business, Martin Scorsese shows no sign of letting up, whether it be in terms of quantity or quality. His movies are still routinely up for all the big awards, and his name alone is enough to sell a picture (although the presence of Leonardo Di Caprio in recent years will surely have had a hand in that). His last feature, The Wolf of Wall Street, saw the director at his most free-spirited, spinning a tale of white-collar crime that was both incredibly funny and outrageously over-the-top. It now feels like Scorsese may have been flushing some pent-up energy out of his system before he finally tackled a passion project 25 years in the making: his long talked-about adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel Silence.

In 17th-century Japan, Christians are being forced to renounce their beliefs in the face of horrific torture, as a samurai referred to as 'the inquisitor' prowls small villages hoping to snuff out anyone hiding religious idols with the image of Christ or the cross. In Macau, Jesuit priests Sebastiao Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver) learn that their former tutor Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), who had travelled to Japan to spread the word of God, has apostatised and integrated himself into Japanese society. Believing the rumour to be nothing but propaganda, the two priests travel to Japan with the help of drunken sailor Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka), who has witnessed first hand the brutal acts of the inquisitor. Upon arriving in Nagasaki, Rodrugues and Garupe find poor communities going to desperate lengths to worship in secret as eyes and ears lurk everywhere.

Scorsese has spoken often about his Catholicism, and has made it the subject of many of his best works. The most obvious being The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), but you can trace themes of Catholic guilt way back to Mean Streets (1973). A few of the characters in Silence struggle with the absence of God, and Rodrigues in particular struggles to comprehend a God who would sit back as thousands are tortured and murdered because of their faith. Scorsese explores this theme in a slow, considered manner, and it's clear that this may be the most personal film he's ever made. At almost 3 hours, the scope and vision of the story are a perfect fit for Scorsese's eye for classical film-making. There are plenty of beautifully framed shots, capturing both the beauty of the landscape and the brutality dwelling within. With a cast full of Japanese faces unfamiliar to Western audiences and a narrative happy to dwell on contemplative conversations, it's no wonder that this is one of the film-maker's lowest-grossing movies in years, but there is plenty to savour here from a purely cinematic perspective.

When I first heard about the film, I wondered why Scorsese hadn't opted for Driver, who is clearly the stronger screen presence of the two leading actors, in the central role. But, combined with his Oscar-nominated performance in Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge earlier this year, Garfield has cemented himself as a compelling leading man, and has finally rid himself of Sony's Amazing Spider-Man stigma. Driver has surprisingly limited screen-time, but he commands the screen whenever he's on it. The same can be said for Neeson, who leaves an impact in what adds up to only a handful of scenes. The film belongs to Garfield, whose boyish good-looks make his inner turmoil all the more gut-wrenching, as he watches folk put to death by high-tide crucifixion or burned at the stake, after they refuse to take part in a symbolic denouncement of faith by stepping on a slab with the image of Jesus. It received only a solitary Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, but it seems Scorsese made this for himself, and the most personal visions can speak the loudest of words.


Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, Issei Ogata, Ciarán Hinds, Yôsuke Kubozuka
Country: USA/Taiwan/Mexico

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #365: 'Master of the Flying Guillotine' (1976)

A staple of the exploitation circuit, the martial arts movie played a fundamental role in the 1970's as a prime form of action cinema. It not only had its own stand-alone sub-genre, but was also essential to even the blaxploitation market. In the west the Kung-Fu movie was enlivened by Bruce Lee, and particularly Enter the Dragon (1973), and despite his early death, left a legacy that turned this obscure form of action cinema into a western phenomenon that is still highly evident today. Unlike Bruce Lee's usually modern-set movies, the tradition of period films found their way onto the exploitation market, and Master of the Flying Guillotine sits within this context. Set in the 18th century, this film follows on from Yu Wang's 1971 The One-Armed Boxer, and centres on a mission to avenge the killings that the one-armed boxer (Yu Wang) committed in the previous film by Fung Sheng Wu Chi (Kang Chin), the blind master of the titular weapon (an infamous tool that has the ability to severe a human head with very little effort). 

There is very little in the way of narrative in the film, and focuses its attentions of the fight choreography, which is at times spectacular. A particular favourite is the Yoga expert, who has the ability to extend his arms in battle, leading to some hilarious sequences. It's a testament to Chinese cinema, that the film makers were able to use humour even within fight sequences (something that Hollywood action cinema rarely does (and really didn't do until the 1980's), something that Jackie Chan took to new levels in the late 1970's and 1980's. There are a few times where the fighting becomes a bit repetitive, but I guess that will happen, considering that about 95% of the screen time is spent of fight sequences.

Whilst there are many funny sequences, and the fighting looks amazing, there was something that just didn't feel right about it as I viewed, and couldn't immediately put my finger on it. Growing up in the 1980's, the Kung-Fu genre was an important part of growing. Not only were there great action sequences, but they're incredibly fun to watch, but seeing this in my adult life highlighted a function that was missing with this film: The English dub! I saw Guillotine in its original language (Mandarin), but was struck at how much funnier they are when over-dubbed into English. But besides this rather trivial complaint, Master of the Flying Guillotine is a hoot.


Directed by: Yu Wang
Starring: Yu Wang, Kang Chin, Chung-Erh Lung
Country: Taiwan/Hong Kong

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy