Blood And Bone (2009)

Sometimes there is an upside to scrolling the internet and viewing random video clips. Yes, there are the movie snippets that are appropriated by people who try to present them as some real incident with an underlying moral message. Yes, TikTok is full of fake laugh tracks and people filming themselves reacting to other popular videos. But sometimes you see something good, whether it is a clip of sloths being washed and dried, a very gnarly bit of skateboarding, or a moment showing how hard Michael Jai White can kick various people in the face. When I saw that last clip, a highlight from Blood And Bone, I knew that I had to see the movie. I was already a fan of White, and this film looked awesome.

Directed by Ben Ramsey and written by Michael Andrews, two men who seem to have peaked with this violent action flick (and that isn’t a backhanded compliment, this is a hell of a peak), Blood And Bone tells the tale of an ex-con named Isaiah Bone (White). Bone ends up getting involved in a dangerous underground fighting scene, guided from fight to fight by a friendly hype man, Pinball (Dante Basco). Bone’s strength and skill soon get him noticed by James (Eamonn Walker), a middle-man crime figure who would rather be positioned higher. James thinks he can make good use of Bone, which may be exactly what Bone wants.

I could namecheck a lot of action movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s, anything throwing a tough, but noble (sort of), hero in to a fighting tournament, but any action movie fan will already know the main reference points. One or two of them involve Jean-Claude Van Damme. All you need to know is that Blood And Bone easily ranks alongside any of those other movies. It’s well-paced, the storyline does enough to give a purpose to the fighting without feeling as if it is keeping viewers away from the violence for too long, and White easily looks capable of every move he delivers.

There are a number of highlights dotted throughout White’s filmography, but this is definitely one of his best. The film uses him in the best way, showcasing his martial arts prowess and allowing him to effortlessly fill every scene he’s in with his watchability and forceful presence. Walker is a great kingpin, and you know that he will be ready to change the rules any time a fight looks to be going the way he doesn’t want it to go. Basco adds some humour, there’s an entertaining small role for Julian Sands, and Nona Gaye and Michelle Belegrin play women who both end up admiring our muscular hero as they realise that he is up to more than just trying to beat people up. Bob Sapp is the other performer worth mentioning, playing a huge fighting opponent named Hammerman. These movies always need huge fighters who feel like a viable threat, and both Sapp and Walker do that in different ways.

There’s nothing here that is special, not in cinematic terms, and those not after action movie thrills might not want to rush to this one, but, and this is a big but, the fights are frequent, and the choreography and shot choice maximizes the visceral entertainment of each encounter. So if you want a film full of superb fights then this is one for you. And if you’re a big fan of Michael Jai White then you should already have this one marked off your list. It isn’t a great film, in many ways, but in other ways . . . it’s a GREAT film.

8/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Mubi Monday: Naked Lunch (1991)

When I first saw Naked Lunch I had no idea of exactly WHAT I had just watched. It was a film full of startling imagery, a wonderful lead performance from Peter Weller, and some impressively organic special effects that often looked like genitalia. I was probably in my early twenties when I saw the film, which explains why I came away so confused.

Now, at the grand old age of *cough, cough*, I can safely say that a rewatch of the film has led me to now have a clear opinion of it. And that clear opinion is that I still have no idea of what exactly I just watched. It remains a bizarre and bewildering experience, but I now know that it is all planned out that way.

The plot concerns William Lee (Weller), an exterminator who also likes to get high on his own supply of bug powder. As does his wife (Judy Davis). Mr Lee is also a writer, although his main typewriter of choice appears to him as a insect-like creature that starts to talk to him. I could say more but you would just think I hallucinated the whole thing.

That is the big plus of Naked Lunch, yet it's also the big minus. Writer-director David Cronenberg, adapting an "unfilmable" novel by William S. Burroughs, has decided to take the bones of a standard narrative and loop it numerous times through a drug-coated mesh, pulling everything tight at either end and leaving the middle section bulging and mis-shapen. He makes a number of bold choices, but they all pay off when it comes to delivering a movie experience like few others I can think of.

As well as the druggy haze, Naked Lunch deals in the kind of paranoia, conspiracy, and twists and turns that will be familiar to Cronenberg fans who have enjoyed Videodrome (made years before this one) and eXistenZ (which came along some time after). And there are so many films from him that feature characters losing their sense of identity that you could say it is one of his main preoccupations.

Weller gives arguably his best performance here, despite the fact that he has a couple of other roles in his filmography that fans will often put ahead of this one, and he's ably supported by Davis, Ian Holm, Roy Scheider, and Julian Sands, among others. Everyone involved gives a performance that feels a little bit off. Whether it's their sense of humour, their acceptance of odd events, or something else, they feel just like characters being viewed through the eyes of a drug addict who cannot trust his own senses.

Don't ever ask me to tell you what is going on in every scene and how it all connects. I am not about to rewatch the film with the intention of taking down notes and creating venn diagrams. And I am not offering my opinion of the movie as any kind of testimony to my own insight. I just know that I love the experience of it, even during the more gross sequences, and that it is another Cronenberg work that feels like it couldn't have been made by anyone else.

8/10

There's a disc you can buy here.
Americans can get a nicer disc here.

Walk Like A Panther (2018)

You would think that, considering the amount of movies I watch, it would take a lot to actually make me angry and disappointed in a film. I have relatively low standards. I start watching every movie while rooting for it to do a good job. And it was the same with Walk Like A Panther, a movie reworking of an idea that writer-director Dan Cadan first used just over half a decade ago on TV.

The cast made me feel secure in my viewing choice. A lead played by Stephen Graham, a main role for Dave Johns, supporting roles for the likes of Jill Halfpenny, Robbie Gee, Julian Sands, and Michael Socha. I also knew that Lena Headey appeared at some point (it's a very brief cameo though).

The plot didn't put me off either. A group of older British wrestlers, long past their prime, have to put on the lycra once again to raise enough money to save their local pub. Lessons are learned along the way, and someone finally manages to stop living in the shadow of others and grab their moment in the spotlight. Well, that last sentence was what I assumed would happen, and it did.

You get some decent songs on the soundtrack, a selection of colourful characters, and the inevitable montage moments. What you don't get is a decent smattering of actual laughs. This is a comedy in which the comedy itself is notably absent, one or two lines aside.

The great shame is that Cadan wastes that great cast. Graham tries his best with what he's given, as does Johns (playing his father), but there's only so much that can be done with the lazy script. Sands is, admittedly, allowed to have the most fun that I've seen him have onscreen for a number of years but that's offset by the treatment of Socha, reduced to the angry idiot who wants to upset everyone around him until he sees the light. Stephen Tompkinson is the pantomime villain, and Sue Johnston and Jason Flemyng are among the many people wasted in much smaller roles.

Considering how long he has been close to this material, from the time it must have taken himi to develop the TV series to this feature, it's amazing that Cadan couldn't take the time to take the premise and spin some gold from it. Because the potential is there. But nothing is done to lift it even to the level of average. Nothing. If you can't create some decent comedy from the idea of aged character wrestlers getting back into costume for a fundraising match then that's quite an achievement. The fault seems to lie squarely with Cadan and I can only feel sorry for the people involved, who obviously thought the end result was going to be a much better film.

3/10

Walk Like A Panther is available in digital formats.