My Little Chickadee (4 Stars)

"My Little Chickadee" is an amusing little comedy, more enjoyable than most of the Mae West films I’ve seen. It’s also my first experience of W. C. Fields in a film, although I already knew something about his comic persona. The story is really just an excuse to throw the two stars together and let them do their respective routines, but that’s quite enough for a film this lightweight.

Mae West is particularly good. She plays Flower Belle Lee as a woman who seems completely untroubled by anything that happens around her. My favourite scene is the attack by the Indians on the train. Flower Belle picks up a couple of guns and starts shooting with astonishing accuracy, while everybody else is in a panic. It’s played completely straight, which makes her effortless marksmanship even funnier. The fact that she’s apparently kissing a masked bandit later in the film is another wonderfully silly touch. How exactly are you supposed to kiss somebody through a mask?

Fields provides a nice contrast to West. His blustering, pompous, slightly disreputable character is very different from her cool self-confidence, and putting the two together gives the film much more variety than a typical Mae West vehicle. I particularly enjoyed watching them bounce off each other, even though I wouldn’t say the film gives either of them a particularly memorable story.

Overall, "My Little Chickadee" is a pleasant, old-fashioned comedy that kept me amused for 90 minutes. I doubt I’ll watch it again, but I don't regret watching it. I’m glad I finally saw a W. C. Fields film, and Mae West and Fields make an entertaining team.

Did someone say lobby cards?

Deadpool 2 (5 Stars)

"Deadpool 2"  has a difficult job. The first film was such a perfectly constructed showcase for Ryan Reynolds that simply doing the same thing again wouldn't have been enough. Fortunately, the sequel doesn't try to be a bigger version of the original. It is a different kind of Deadpool film, while retaining everything that made the first one so much fun.

Wade Wilson is still the same foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-breaking mercenary, but this time he's given a more conventional superhero problem to deal with. Cable, a time-travelling soldier from the future, arrives with a mission to kill a young mutant called Russell before he grows up to become a mass murderer. Deadpool decides that protecting the boy is more important than worrying about what he might become, and naturally things get increasingly chaotic from there.

Ryan Reynolds is still the heart of the film, and he hasn't lost any of his comic timing. What makes Deadpool work so well is that beneath all the wisecracks he's actually a surprisingly sentimental character. The film can move from an outrageous joke to genuine emotion without either side feeling out of place.

The supporting cast is excellent. Josh Brolin makes Cable a suitably intimidating opponent without turning him into a humourless villain, while Zazie Beetz is terrific as Domino. Her mutant ability, which amounts to being extraordinarily lucky, is used for some wonderfully inventive action sequences. Colossus is back too, still trying to persuade Deadpool to behave like a proper superhero, with very little success.

Then there's X-Force, which provides one of the film's funniest stretches. I won't say too much about it, because the joke works much better if you don't know exactly what's coming. It's a good example of the film's willingness to set up a conventional superhero sequence and then completely pull the rug out from under it.

There are plenty of other jokes, references and fourth-wall violations, and some of them are wonderfully ridiculous. The film knows that the audience is familiar with superhero conventions, so it can play with them rather than simply following them. At times it feels as though the writers are competing with each other to see who can get away with the most outrageous gag.

Deadpool 2 is bigger than the first film, but it doesn't lose its personality in the process. It has more characters, more action and a considerably more complicated plot, yet the central appeal remains the same. It's a very funny film with a surprisingly warm heart.

The first Deadpool is difficult to follow, but this is about as good a sequel as you could reasonably hope for. It isn't trying to replace the original. It's simply another opportunity to spend a couple of hours with one of the most entertaining idiots in superhero cinema.

Success Rate:  + 4.7

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

Deadpool (5 Stars)

There are some films that you can watch many times over and still enjoy just as much as the first time. "Deadpool" is one of them.

The plot is almost beside the point. Wade Wilson is a wisecracking mercenary who falls in love with Vanessa, only to discover that he has cancer. An experimental treatment saves his life but leaves him horribly disfigured, so he reinvents himself as "Deadpool" and sets out to find the man responsible. Along the way there are superheroes, villains, enormous amounts of violence and an almost ridiculous number of jokes.

What makes it work is Ryan Reynolds. He was obviously born to play Deadpool, and the film understands exactly what to do with him. Wade can be funny, obnoxious, sentimental, violent and even vulnerable, sometimes in the same scene. Reynolds never seems to be taking the character seriously, but he does take the character seriously enough for us to care about him.

The film's greatest strength is its timing. It knows that a joke is funnier when you aren't expecting it, and it isn't afraid to interrupt its own story for a gag. The fourth-wall breaking could easily have become irritating, but it works because Deadpool's personality makes it feel like a natural part of the character rather than a gimmick imposed on the film.

It also helps that there's a genuine love story underneath all the wisecracks. Vanessa isn't simply there to give Wade something to rescue. Their relationship is one of the things that makes the more outrageous parts of the film work, because there's an emotional reason for everything Wade does.

The supporting cast is good too, particularly Morena Baccarin as Vanessa and Ed Skrein as Ajax. Colossus is an inspired addition, with his earnest superhero morality providing a perfect contrast to Deadpool's complete lack of restraint. Negasonic Teenage Warhead doesn't have a huge role, but she's memorable enough that it's hard to imagine the film without her.

"Deadpool" is crude, violent, self-aware and frequently ridiculous, but there's a warmth underneath all the cynicism. Most importantly, it's funny. Very funny.

There's really not much more to say. Sometimes a film simply gets everything right, and "Deadpool" is one of those films.

Success Rate:  + 11.5

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

The Fate of Lee Khan (4 Stars)

"The Fate of Lee Khan" is a fascinating film. It isn't without its faults, and it certainly isn't the straightforward martial-arts adventure its title might suggest. There are relatively few fight scenes. For most of its running time, the director King Hu confines his characters to an inn, where they watch one another, deceive one another and gradually reveal their hidden allegiances.

The setting is claustrophobic. The inn becomes a kind of chessboard, or rather a Go board. A brief scene in which Go is actually being played provides a clue to what Hu is doing. The various characters are pieces being positioned around one another, probing for weaknesses and waiting for an opportunity to strike. A seemingly innocent conversation or apparently insignificant movement may have strategic importance. When violence finally erupts, it feels less like a separate action sequence than the inevitable consequence of moves that have been played out earlier.

The first forty minutes are devoted largely to gambling, cheating and various forms of deception. It eventually becomes clear that this is relevant: Hu is establishing a world in which nobody can be taken at face value and everyone is playing a game against everyone else. In my opinion, he takes too long to make the point. Twenty minutes might have been sufficient. The gambling is entertaining enough, but the film could have reached its central intrigue sooner.

Once the main game begins, however, the leisurely pace becomes an advantage. The confined setting allows suspicion to build. We're constantly wondering who knows what, who is working for whom and which apparently insignificant character may turn out to be important. Character development is sacrificed to this strategy. The waitresses, even Angela Mao's pickpocket character, are more functional than fully developed personalities. But within Hu's design, they're pieces on the board, and their importance lies in how they are positioned and what they do.

The women are particularly striking. "The Fate of Lee Khan" contains an extraordinary collection of strong female characters: the innkeeper, the waitresses, the resourceful pickpocket and Lee Khan's formidable sister. They aren't merely decorative companions to male heroes. They're fighters, schemers and active participants in the central conflict. Indeed, much of the strategic intelligence in the film comes from the women.

This is part of a broader tradition in Hong Kong wuxia cinema, but here it's unusually pronounced. King Hu had a particular gift for creating female warriors who were capable without losing their individuality or femininity. In "The Fate of Lee Khan", the women are not simply fighting alongside the men; they are helping to determine the game itself.

The historical background adds another layer. The story is fictional, but it's set in 1366, during the final years of Mongol Yuan rule in China. The struggle between the Yuan authorities and the Chinese rebels was real, and the period immediately preceded the establishment of the Ming dynasty in 1368. Hu takes that genuine historical situation and turns it into an intimate fictional contest inside one inn. A vast political struggle is reduced to a handful of people manoeuvring against one another over a strategically important object.

The martial arts, when they arrive, are beautifully integrated into this structure. They are not the whole point of the film. The real action has already been taking place in the conversations, the deceptions and the positioning of the characters. The fights are the moments when the game finally becomes physical.

I wouldn't call "The Fate of Lee Khan" a perfect film. It's too leisurely in places, and some of its characters are deliberately sketchier than they might have been in a more conventional story. But perfection isn't really what makes it memorable. It's the unusual conception of the film:  the oppressive inn, the constantly shifting alliances, the strong women, the games within games and the sense that everyone is manoeuvring several moves ahead.

It is, above all, fascinating.

The Invincible Eight (4 Stars)

A fun martial-arts film, although not particularly memorable. The story is straightforward: eight people whose fathers were  killed by an evil general each decide to take revenge. Their paths cross, and when they realise that they have a common enemy they join forces. The film takes its time bringing them together, however. Three of the eight spend most of the film in prison and aren't released until twenty minutes from the end, so the supposed “eight” rarely function as a group.

The eight are:

Swordsman Ho (Paul Chang Chung) –) The calm, capable swordsman who escapes capture and becomes the main figure holding the scattered group together.

Lei Kuei (James Tien) – A determined fighter who attempts to assassinate General Hsiao before being wounded and rescued by the others.

Feng I Fei (Tang Ching) – A formidable swordsman who joins the others in their struggle against the general.

Chu Fu (Li Kun) – A cook rather than a conventional martial artist, but nevertheless a capable fighter when the occasion demands it.

Hai Tao (Patrick Tse) – A highly skilled swordsman whose position is complicated by his connection with the general's organisation.

Kuei Chien Chin (Angela Mao) – A woman who infiltrates the general's household, so she spends most of the film in disguise rather than taking part in the fighting.

Chiang Yin (Nora Miao) – A young woman raised by the general who gradually discovers the truth about him and ultimately turns against him.

Chiao Hsiu Hu (Lydia Shum) – A capable and respected member of the group who's always treated as a genuine fighter despite her appearance. She doesn't look remotely like a conventional martial-arts hero, yet she is always able to hold her own in the fights.

The choreography is enjoyable, with considerably more jumping than was usual in martial-arts films of the period. It isn't wire-fu; it can be called trampoline-fu, with fighters repeatedly launching themselves spectacularly into the air from off screen trampolines. It's not remotely consistent with the film's other physical rules; at one point a character uses a grappling hook to climb a five-meter wall, despite the fact that he'd been jumping considerably higher while fighting,

Sammo Hung is also present, both as an actor and as the action choreographer, although he's young and inconspicuous enough to be difficult to spot.

Overall, "The Invincible Eight" is an enjoyable watch with some entertaining action, but the overcrowded ensemble prevents the characters from making much of an impression. I expect I'll watch it again some day, but if someone asks me tomorrow what it's about, I'd only be able to describe the film in a single sentence:

Eight people team up to get revenge on the man who killed their fathers.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (3 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #48

"The Bone Temple" is an improvement on "28 Years Later", but that's not saying muxh. There are fewer zombies, which suits me perfectly, but the film still has an unpleasant post-apocalyptic atmosphere. I dislike post-apocalyptic films almost as much as I dislike zombies.

12-year-old Spike is the main hero in the film series, but he spends most of the film as a member of the Jimmies, disguised by a ridiculous blond wig.

The film's saving grace is Ralph Fiennes. Whenever he appears on screen, things immediately become more interesting. He's eccentric, funny and wonderfully watchable, bringing some much-needed personality to the grim proceedings.

And then there's the highlight: Fiennes dancing to Iron Maiden. I was slumping back in my chair for most of the film, but when "The Number of the Beast" started playing I sat up with a jolt. For a few glorious minutes "The Bone Temple" became exactly the sort of film I wanted it to be.

Then they killed Ralph Fiennes.

He was the best thing in the trilogy, but he won't return for the last film. Is there any reason left for me to watch it?

Success Rate:  - 1.1

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

28 Years Later (2 Stars)

Amazon Friday #44

Spike has grown up with his parents on the isolated island of Lindisfarne, where his mother is increasingly sick and partially demented. On his 12th birthday, his father takes him to the mainland to kill his first infected – a fancy new name for zombies – as a rite of passage. Spike later returns with his mother after hearing rumours that a doctor lives on the mainland who may be able to help her. 

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the film. It's very slow for most of its running time, with long stretches of people talking and relatively little happening, and I found the infected themselves rather uninteresting as opponents. I've never been a great fan of zombies because they're just ugly, empty things to be killed; I prefer villains who have a personality and motivation that gives me something to engage with. There are exceptions, such as "The Girl with All the Gifts", but "28 Years Later" has only dull, uninteresting zombies. It wasn't until the last few minutes, when Jimmy and his group appeared, that I suddenly became interested in where the story might be going. That was too late.

Success Rate:  + 0.3

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de