Quentin Tarantino turns his controversial style of film-making to an action-filled period drama. Look out Nazis, here comes Brad Pitt and his Inglourious Basterds.

He's done mobsters, hit-men, ninjas and low-lifes and even been involved with vampires, so perhaps it was only a matter of time before Quentin Tarantino turned his attention from Reservoir Dogs to dogs of war. Our 'Once Upon a Time...', gentle reader, begins in Occupied France, shortly after Nazi forces took control. Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) witnesses the murder of her family at the hands of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (played by Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she creates a new identity as the owner of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe - but soon to have his fate intertwined with hers - Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) brings together a group of Jewish American soldiers to wreak revenge and retribution for the horrors of the war. Nick-named the 'Basterds' they join forces with German actress and undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich.

Enzo Castellari's original 1978 film shares the title, though that version spells its descriptive noun in the traditional way (one suspects that Tarantino's 'Basterds' is his sole compromise towards a sensitive public/advertising campaign already known to fret over titles as mild as...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the reviews west category

Another movie gets the remake treatment. Can John Travolta and Denzel Washington keep this thriller on track and make it an underground hit?

There's a real problem with any remake of a classic movie. You can disguise the problem by calling it a re-imagination or re-interpretation, but, essentially, you're going back to something that was successful and you're attempting to simultaneously emulate and change it. Hollywood likes to have its cake and eat it - as much as spend its cash and count it, but often it's a soufflé of an outcome, rather than a feast.

For those of a certain age The Taking of Pelham 123 holds a particular fondness. The high-concept was a good one, hijackers take control not of a plane, but of a...subway train. It seems a crazy move, doomed to failure, but it catches the authorities off-guard and that is just the criminals' intent. They have a cleverly detailed plan to put into operation and it's one that isn't to be sneezed at.The original 1974 movie saw cop Walter Matthau (as Lt. Garber) matching wits with Robert Shaw's menacing Mr Blue. Though some of the style and politically unsound stereotyping dates the movie a little, the credible performances and story itself hold up to viewing several decades down the line.

Those who do remember the original will recall the wry...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the reviews west category

Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and machine guns... surely the ingredients for an exciting thriller? But do Dillinger and his gangsters wrap it up?

Michael Mann’s Public Enemies looked so full of promise. This true story of bank robberies and jail breaks, starring Johnny Depp as the notorious John Dillinger and Christian Bale as his cocksure antagonist, FBI agent Melvin Purvis should have had it all. At two and a half hours, this should be an epic action adventure that will have you on the edge of your seat. You will note that I use the word ‘should...’ It ‘should’ be a lot of things but, sadly, it isn’t.

Both actors work well with the material they were given, but that material was lacking in so many areas that I hardly know where to start. Purvis is an unflappable, arrogant, determined and stoic character played competently by Bale - what the writer has failed to capture however, is the frustration Purvis would have felt each time Dillinger slipped through his net. Let’s face it, Purvis would have been incensed! This agent - well known for his ability to ‘get his guy’ - was being publicly humiliated by his squad’s incompetence at every turn, and yet he remained astonishingly calm. At one point, Dillinger actually strolled into the FBI Dillinger Squad’s office and waved himself right...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the reviews west category

Impact welcomes back Abe Goldfarb as he casts an eye over the line-up of the Big Apple's annual salute to the asian film industry.

It’s hard to keep writing breathless introductions for coverage of the New York Asian Film Festival. Eventually the hyperbole just seems like it doesn’t mean as much. Suffice it to say, there are just things one does in the summertime. Skipping the NYAFF would be, for a true lover of cinema, like not going to the beach. It’s a cool drink on a hot day, a beautiful girl in a scanty swimsuit, a rooftop party with a bucket of suds. For fun, variety, art and sheer pleasure, nothing touches the Fest, and this year’s line-up was an embarrassment of riches.

Probably the most anticipated screening of the NYAFF for Hong Kong fans was the world premiere of Milkyway co-founder Wai Ka-Fai’s phantasmagorical melodrama Written By. See if you can follow this: a young woman’s father dies in a car crash that leaves her mother alive and her blinded, she decides to write a book where they die but he lives, and in the book, her lonely fictional father decides to write a book in which he dies but she lives. That’s the set-up. It is, as the title suggests, a writer’s film, more in line with Charlie Kaufman than Johnnie...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the festivals/conventions/events category

Audiences around the world were introduced to the idea of Vietnamese action cinema with the release of Charlie Nguyen’s The Rebel. Impact’s Phil Wyatt brings us an exclusive preview of the latest Vietnamese action fight flick from the same team.

Making a movie in Vietnam has the usual pressures and challenges attached to it. On top of this, the average movie budget is less then one million US dollars per film. A thirty second commercial in America can cost more to make! However, things are beginning to improve steadily as the country’s economy grows and the public becomes more interested in watching home-grown productions rather then the latest Hollywood offering. Some good movies are now finding their way to the big screen and more appreciative audiences. Things are definitely on the up.

One of the latest productions from Vietnam is The Clash (Bay rong), an action movie starring two of the country’s most well known talents, Johnny Tri Nguyen and Veronica Ngo (Ngo Thanh Van). The real life couple caused a huge stir in Vietnam when they announced their engagement after playing romantic interests in one of the country’s biggest movie hits, The Rebel (which has since been sold to the rest of the world). On the back of this, The Clash has been made to further heighten the onscreen chemistry of the charismatic couple.

Similar in style (and no doubt promotion) to the Brad Pitt/Angelina...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the previews west category

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen may have got ripped apart by the critics, but does director Michael Bay care? Impact talks to the iconic director for whom no explosion is too loud!

Having spent several weeks in Iowa and hours in screening rooms watching Michael Bay’s movies, I think I’m in a position to know something about corn. While the Midwest US state is wonderful in its very lack of apocalyptic drama (usually), the opposite is true for Bay’s movies. No explosion is too big, no woman too curvaceous, no strut too... well, strutty. Never one to shy away from iconic imagery and chest-pounding monologues, this is a one-man power ballad made flesh - with one hand on the wheel and the other flipping the bird to the last vestige of subtlety if not busy elsewhere. That’s just how it is...
It isn’t a new attitude. From an early age, the young Bay was already creating a unique brand of chaos. “I was actually into train-sets and I’d create my own little worlds, build my towns and I made my first ever Super8 movie by stealing my mom’s camera. I set fire to some of the models, which actually caught the drapes in my bedroom on fire and the fire department came. I got grounded for three weeks. That was my very first movie!” he sighs with distinct gleam in his...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the interviews category

Ricky Morris takes an exclusive look at Teddy (The Accidental Spy) Chen’s latest project, Bodyguards & Assassins and its all-star cast (including Donnie Yen, Simon Yam and kick-boxing champion Cung Le).

PPurple Storm and The Accidental Spy director Teddy Chen has assembled a most impressive cast and crew for his latest project, Bodyguards & Assassins, currently shooting in Shanghai and scheduled for release at Christmas 2009. His cast includes Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Simon Yam, Fan Bing-bing, Eric Tsang, Nicholas Tse, Philip Ng, Xing Yu and kickboxing champion Cung Le. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, his crew includes acclaimed action director Stephen Tung Wei and his long-time associate Peter Chan as Producer. Impact’s Ricky Morris takes a first look at the film and some of those involved in the project.

Storyline: Based on events from history, Dr. Sun yat-sen (Tony Leung Kar-fai) heads to Hong Kong in the early 1900s with the intention of raising funds for the revolution and its plans to overthrow the Manchu Government. But the Manchu Government has laid plans to assassinate Dr. Sun while he is in Hong Kong and has sent an elite troop of assassins to carry out the job. Luckily a tycoon (Wang Xe-qui) who supports Dr.Sun, has learnt of the government’s plans, and hired a seemingly mismatched, diverse group of bodyguards to prevent it happening. For various reasons, these men have agreed to lay...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the previews west category

Ray Park hits UK screens in GI Joe next month, but the man who was 'Maul' also stars in this latest indie actioner from Alpha Stunts.

American independent action cinema comes up trumps again with the action/horror hybrid that is Hellbinders. It’s an entertaining romp through territories familiar to anyone who watched Highlander and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the film crams in ample amounts of action, a dash of gore and a good dose of laughs as the UK’s own Ray Park (soon to be seen in GI Joe) and former Power Ranger Johnny Yong Bosch punch and kick demon ass all the way back to hell. Andrew Skeates brings Impact the first review of the film.

Park and Yong Bosch play Max and Ryu who, along with Cain (Esteban Cueto), are three soulless warriors roaming modern day Los Angeles. Max is a cynical hard bitten mercenary who will take on any job for the money. Ryu is a deadly assassin who is hunting down a ruthless clan of Yakuza: a clan who may be in the grip of some body swapping demons. Cain meanwhile, is the remaining member of the Knights Templar, who must unite the three in order to stop the body-jumping demons from opening a gate to hell. A mish-mash of concepts and genres it may be Hellbinders nevertheless finds the right groove...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the reviews west category

Our Tokyo-based writer, Andrez Bergen, looks at the upcoming Japanese anime releases - and which better studio to approach than Production I.G, the veteran production house behind Eden of the East?

Kenji Kamiyama is, like the title to this page, big in Japan. In fact ‘huge’ may well be a better description. While Mamoru Oshii has quite famously been responsible for the major cinematic takes on the Ghost in the Shell franchise, Kamiyama is the man behind its TV incarnation (Stand Alone Complex and S.A.C. 2nd Gig) as well as one feature film (Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. Solid State Society).

A decade ago, Kamiyama was also the animation director on Hiroyuki Okiura’s superb, underrated Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, penned by Oshii, and more recently he helmed the anime fantasy, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. All of these jaunts were undertaken with essential anime studio Production I.G (productionig.com), the people behind not just Ghost in the Shell in its varied forms, but the animated bits in Kill Bill: Vol. 1. The studio is also currently putting together an opus on real-life katana-wielding legend, Miyamoto Musashi. So, Kenji Kamiyama is obviously in healthy creative company at I.G, and this is no more apparent than in the director’s latest series for I.G, Eden of the East (juiz.jp).

Eden of the East debuted in April on Japanese broadcaster, Fuji TV, in their prized ‘noitaminA’ timeslot [actually...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the anime category

This month Andrez also puts a rear-vision spotlight on one of the best anime shows of the decade, Gonzo's Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, with feedback from director Mahiro Maeda, in the third of Japanime's 'From The Back Of The Fridge' series.

Just before its launch on TVs across Japan in October 2004, I think I knew that Studio Gonzo’s new 24-episode series was going to be something exceptional. Maybe it had something to do with the storyline, - the archetypal revenge yarn first published by French scribe Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers) in 1844. Edmond Dante is falsely accused and imprisoned for 14 years, then escapes - assumes the identity of the enigmatic Count, and exacts sometimes devastating revenge upon those responsible.

Over the years Dante has been played by actors like Richard Chamberlain, James Caviezel, Robert Donat and Gerard Depardieu, but it’s the anime version - in which Dante is voiced by the sensational Jouji Nakata - more recently responsible for Giroro in Sgt. Frog and Roy Revant in Solty Rei - that truly shines. Undoubtedly Nakata is the perfect seiyu for the role, as is Jun Fukuyama (as Albert de Morcerf), who, not so long ago, shone in Production I.G’s Ghost Hound.

The director here was Mahiro Maeda, previously a key animator on Hayao Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1988) and the infamous animated sequence of the origin of O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill, as well as the mechanical weapons...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the anime category

First up in anime attack this month is Shigurui Death Frenzy.

Death Frenzy is perhaps the most appropriate suffix to a title...ever. This is, without doubt, an anime that revels in the essence of ultra-violence like no other. Yet another manga adaptation, Shigurui Death Frenzy is based on a series written and illustrated by Takayuki Yamaguchi (also responsible for Apocalypse Zero) who, in turn, based his manga on the first chapter of the novel, Suruga-jou Gozen Jiai by Nono Nanjo. The anime version is produced by Madhouse Studios and directed by Technolyze helmer, Hirotsugu Hamazaki.

Set in the beginning of the Edo era of Japan’s history the anime opens with a grisly plea to the shogun, as a courtier, incensed that the blood-thirsty shogun has ordered a duel between the country’s finest swordsmen to be conducted using Katana rather than wooden Bokken, beseeches him to reconsider the waste of talent that will result, before unwrapping the bandages around his waist and unfurling his innards before the court in a bit to prove how seriously he feels. As a gesture, it is obviously heartfelt, but ultimately futile. It does, however, set the tone for this dark and brooding series.

We cut to the courtyard of the Shogun’s castle and are introduced to the protagonists...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the anime category

Then we take a look at Gunparade March from the opposite end of the anime spectrum.

Anime Attack wonders if videogame adaptations can be any better if they’re cartoons... Apparently, Gunparade March was once a Japanese videogame for the PlayStation One - personally, I’ve never heard of it, but Wikipedia has... and so had Katsushi Sakurabi, because he’s the man who took its concept and turned it into an anime. Actually, that’s not strictly true - Gunparade was first turned into a manga by one Hiroyuki Sanadura and published in Dengeki Daioh magazine in 2001, before being translated in 2003 by ADV Manga. The anime adaptation also occurred in 2003, so this one has taken a while to reach UK DVD players...

Coming from a game concept, Gunparade March pitches alien invaders as the reason for hostilities ceasing in World War Two. An invasion of the Earth in 1945 sees humanity unite to battle the Genjyu - giant psychic crab monsters with smaller attack beasties and the ability to control humans and their machines from afar. The subsequent years see humanity handed an ass-whupping and, by 1999, Japan is pretty much the last man standing...

Forced to evolve technological answers to such threats, industrial behemoths like Shibamura Industries have developed walking tanks (mecha to you and I...) called...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the anime category

Impact catches up with Peter Briggs and takes a sneaky-peek at the plans and story-boarding for his all-action directorial debut, Mortis Rex...

We last spoke to Peter Briggs after his aborted but ambitious version of the Highlander movie: The Source which he was hired to write for. Briggs had already shared the screen-story credit for the Hellboy movie, and had penned earlier drafts of scripts for the likes of Judge Dredd, Alien Vs Predator and more. But there comes a time when a writer wants to shake off the big studio notes and committees and get down to business himself, shaping his own work if possible. Flying in the face of the current financial climate, it looks as if Peter will actually get that chance with Mortis Rex - a story that combines the supernatural and the historical as a disgraced roman commander takes on dark forces in deepest, darkest Scotland.
“Mortis Rex kinda came about via an odd back-door route. Back in 1997, I was doing Hellboy for Dark Horse, and it looked like I’d be doing some comic-books for them,” Peter explains. “One of the things I wanted to do was a Predator story. I had one that dealt with a Predator tailing a Roman column that was coming back from a battle. The Predator falls off an incline,...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the interviews category

As the ultra-violent and controversial Breathless gets its UK premiere, Impact talks exclusively to its director Yang Ik-Joon about gangsters...

Every year at the Edinburgh International Film Festival a new slice of Asian Extreme is debuted in front of an audience hungry for some challenging cinema from the Far East. Past corkers included Dark Water, Old Boy and The Host and this year two features were unveiled: Rule Number One - a humdrum Hong Kong ghost story starring the typically excellent Ekin Cheng (more on this one when, and if, a UK release is announced but - in all honesty - it’s not brilliant) and the much more interesting Breathless. A South Korean gangster offering, written/directed/produced and starring Yang Ik-Joon (who marks his first time behind the camera with this gruelling outing), Breathless is not an easy ride and hits harder than a hammer blow to the head.

Ik-Joon plays a character called Sang-Hoon: a low-rent gangster who is called upon to smash seven shades of Seoul out of anyone daft enough to borrow from his loan shark boss. Living a thoroughly depressing existence, Sang-Hoon spends considerable time looking into space and only seems truly alive whenever the chance comes to beat some luckless soul into a bloody pulp. Meanwhile, a series of flashbacks graphically highlight that our man was born...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the asia extreme category

Michael Worth is a name that is well known to long-time Impact readers. Mike Leeder caught up with him to discuss his latest projects... including God’s Ears, an acclaimed drama about a boxer overcoming autism...

Most Impact readers know Michael Worth for kicking butt and taking names a in such projects as Street Crimes, To Be The Best, Final impact (with Lorenzo Lamas) and Isaac Florentine’s US Seals 2. His onscreen opponents have included Batman, vampire slayers and rogue Special Forces operatives. In recent years, Worth has begun working both in front and behind the camera on a variety of projects including God’s Ears - a well received action drama about a boxer overcoming autism. Impact’s Mike Leeder caught up with Worth for the following interview.

Impact: Michael you’ve made quite a name for yourself as an actor and action performer in projects like Acapulco heat, US Seals 2 and the PM movies; Ghost Rock, Dual etc... Recently you seem to have been stepping behind the camera more often. What lead you to make that decision?
Michael Worth: I’ve found that whatever creative force drove me into this insane business, it is a little broader and complex than just ‘acting’ can provide. There is a sort of self indulgence to acting that can require a lot of creative thought... but directing and writing tackles another part of my brain and gut...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the interviews category

Impact looks back in anger at the Hong Kong movie classics that should maybe have made a bigger impact on their releases. First up? Andy Lau actioner, Runaway Blues...

The movie opens in Taiwan, introducing us to Kwong (Andy Lau), a reckless Triad boy racer, as he and his girlfriend (Ngok Ling) compete in a ‘fast & furious’ scooter race through the Taiwanese countryside. Things take a deadly turn and, after a rival racer is killed, it’s time for Lau to flee. He is forced to leave his girlfriend behind and head to Hong Kong where his new boss instructs him to room with Sue (Liu Hsia-ling), a single mother and one of his mistresses. As Kwong earns his keep, a relationship begins to develop between he and Sue, that you know will have unfortunate consequences... and things get even more complicated when his girlfriend arrives from Taiwan and a strange three way relationship takes form as he finds himself torn between two women he loves - and they both love him back.

Kwong also crosses paths with Wah (Kelvin Wong) a Chinese immigrant turned would-be-gangster. After some early misunderstandings the two ‘outsiders’ form a friendship and, with the cops on his trail, Kwong and Wah head to nearby Macau, where things take a dark turn with deadly ramifications that lead back to Hong Kong and the two women in...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the reviews east category

He's the man who taught us to scream AND laugh at the dark. Impact meets the cult film director and promises to never feed him after midnight!

Few connoisseurs of esoteric cinema will fail to recognise the name ‘Joe Dante.’ As a protege of the legendary Roger Corman, the great man began his career cutting trailers for such grindhouse classics as Caged Heat and Cockfighter. Eventually being let loose on his lonesome, Dante would give the world Piranha - a movie which caught the attention of Steven Spielberg, allowing the filmmaker to work on the ill-fated 1983 compendium Twilight Zone: The Movie before shooting to the A-list with 1984’s Gremlins. As an admitted follower of cult flicks it should come as no surprise that many of Dante’s best known epics (a list which also includes werewolf farce The Howling and Innerspace) owe their existence to the wonderful world of B-flicks. Appearing at the annual Edinburgh International Film Festival, the father of Gizmo was happy to admit: “I have been influenced by practically every movie I ever saw. My films come from my own world view, and it’s a very strange world.” (Laughs.)

The filmmaker also recounted how he began indulging his enthusiasm for the fantasy and horror movie genre by contributing illustrations to monster magazines in his teens. Then, after graduating from Art College, he became a...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the interviews category

Each month we take a look at the shows you should have watched but might have missed. This month we look back fondly at Alias.

JJ Abrams is now firmly established as one of the key go-to people of the action genre. He’s tackled Impossible Missions with Tom Cruise, helped a plane-load of people get Lost and boldly gone to new lengths to revitalise the Trek franchise. But, eight years ago, his star was still reaching such heights and he was probably best known as the producer on a show called Felicity - tackling the emotional ups and downs of the titular college student played by Keri Russell. However when talking over high concept ideas, Abrams mused on an idea where a girl was a college student by day but a super-spy by night. The high concept became a reality when Abrams created Alias, starring Felicity co-star Jennifer Garner as the eponymous spy.

The concept was fleshed out to immediately potentially confusing proportions. Sydney Bristow (Garner) appeared to be a student but also secretly served as a spy as well. She worked for SD6, which she believed to be a branch of the government. However, SD6 was actually a sophisticated terrorist organisation in which many of its operatives had been similarly duped into using their talents, overseen by the ruthless Arvin Sloan...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the television category

Welcome back to Beau Smith. This month he casts his assured eye over the more bizarre corners of comicdom and asks ‘Hey, why so serious?’

It’s gone. It’s all gone. Where’s the humour, the wit, the simplicity of doing fun-filled adventure stories that aren’t bogged down with character depression and lost hope? It appears that all the risk takers have left the building. The word ‘Comic’ should be taken out of ‘Comic Books’ and replaced with ‘Depressed’. Graphic Novels should be called ‘Graphic Angst.’ I’m serious, why so serious?

The spine has been ripped out of the comic book world like a scene out of the movie Predator. No one seems to have the backbone to have a little fun with the super hero genre. Some would say it’s because there’s not an audience for light hearted, straight ahead adventure anymore. They scream that everything has to have a realistic - with a ripped-from-today’s-headlines type of feel to it. I say they are very wrong. There’s an audience out there, publishers/writers just don’t know how to reach them. Or, in a worse case, don’t want to. They’re too interested in amusing themselves or creating an image that only impresses them. That, my friends, is a truck full of wrong.

The 1960s were high times for risk-taking, off-the-wall characters in super-hero comics....

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the comics category

In the last year or so, some of the main comic-book characters have been handing over their costumes to a new generation. John Bierly assesses whether it’s a sea-change or a stunt-filled rain-check...

After seven decades of selfless bravery, Superman, Batman, and Captain America have been (temporarily?) replaced in the pages of their own comic books. Impact takes inventory of the new heroes currently fighting the battles of these classic heroes.

BATMAN
[FIRST APPEARANCE: DETECTIVE COMICS #27, MAY 1939]
DC Comics hasn’t let Batman’s recent billion-dollar big-screen success stand in the way of a ‘new era’ called Batman Reborn. At the end of the recent Final Crisis ‘event,’ Darkseid zapped Bruce Wayne into the distant past of another reality, where he was last seen wearing only his Batman pants and drawing bats on cave walls. This followed the heavily hyped but convoluted Batman R.I.P. crossover, which didn’t end with Batman dead or even presumed to be. (He spoke with Alfred about escaping the exploding helicopter before embarking on the Justice League mission that ended with his supposed demise in Final Crisis). Many readers revolted against the anti-climactic, over-the-top plotting of Scottish scribe Grant Morrison, who in turn called the fans ‘autistic’ for daring to question his self-assumed genius.

As of June, original Robin, Dick Grayson, has assumed the Bat-mantle. (DC wants you to believe this is groundbreaking, but it’s not the first time...

[ This article is available in full in the August 2009 edition of Impact ]

View more articles from the comics category