2004

The New James Bond Daniel Craig shows here why he deserves the role. He plays the cool-headed gangster with no name in this excellent example of British movie-making.

Jeunet returns with his follow up to his 2001 critical success Amelie with yet another visually stunning and emmotionally strong story. It is the kind of love story that Hollywood would struggle to bring to fruition.

As always visually Jeunet exceeds magnificently whilst also getting the best out of his actors which includes a french speaking part for Jodie Foster as the wife of one of the missing men. Overall this is just a great example of filmmaking with substance enough to bend even the hard of heart.

Yet another head trip and visual feast from the mind of Japanese animation artist Miyazaki. He takes us on an adventurous tale of war, magic and true love. The story follows quiet young shop girl Sophi (Emily Mortimer), who has a curse placed on by the Witch of the Waste that turns her into a withered bent old lady. Now she must run away into the wastes to find someone who can help reverse the curse upon her. It is there that she comes across the eponymous moving castle of the great and literally heartless wizard Howl (Christian Bale).

First off I want to mention my only real gripe with the story and that is the war that is going on partly as background to the central love and redemption story. I just didn?t feel that side of the film was conveyed as well as the rest and as a result it seems out of place at time. It seems more of an added anti-war statement inside what it really is a beautifully told story.

What lifts this above so many other animated features is Miyazaki?s ability to enchant an audience with a style that is an art form unto itself. This can create some of the most emotive and wonderful characters in animation today. And he places these creations against detailed and beautiful vistas. One example of his work is the castle itself, it is wonderful amalgamation of parts of houses, chimneys and machinery that has it?s our personality, you could watch the movie a second time just to catch the intricacies you may have missed the first time through.

Miyazaki had a hard act to follow in creating an another film after the critical success of "Spirited Away". Although he doesn?t quite match what he did with that one when he undershoots he still manages to best everyone else. He is to our time what Walt Disney was to the 40s and 50s.

Spellbinding.

An enjoyable example of Thai action cinema.

In an interview with the Bangkok post in mid-2004 Panna Rittikrai said that he wanted to push the limits of the human body to see where the boundary was. Well it may seem like he has just started this but he has been working on it for the past 2 decades and over 50 films - all of these movies being low-budget, largely unseen B-flicks. In Thailand his movies are famous for the over the top, almost suicidal stunt choreography. Then in 2003 came Ong Bak without Panna's stuntwork or training Tony Jaa may not be the breakthrough star he is right now.

So where to go after being involved in a movie which is almost redefining a genre and giving Muay Thai the respect it deserves? Well why not remake one of your old movies with a bigger budget. Born to Fight is birthed.

Interesting fact is that instead of getting actors and training them to fight, Panna went and hired real athletes. Even better is the fact that these athletes aren't that terrible at acting, what there is of a script they work well. Unlike Ong Bak where the pacing is pretty steady throughout, the build up to the climax can drag but it is well worth the wait.

What you get for your patience is over thirty minutes of the most insane, crazy and absolutely brilliant action you could ask for. Panna's movie making has definitely been affected, for example, the single take steadicam shot of Pe Deaw gunning down bad guys ala John Woo's Hard Boiled hospital shot.

This is one of the few action movies where when the action ended I just wanted more of it. And by more of it I mean, give Panna a bigger budget but please don't let Hollywood know about him... Look what they already did to Asian cinema stars and film-makers. Just don't let it happen to Panna.