Review: Drive (2011) isn't 'cool', but rather just an art-house, navel-gazing version of any direct-to-DVD action picture.

Drive
2011
100 minutes
rated R

by Scott Mendelson

There is an old Robert Rodriguez interview where he comments about how shocked he was by the positive reviews that greeted the release of El Mariachi.  He hinted at certain biases that critics have toward films that are supposed to automatically be 'better' than the rest.  To paraphrase, Rodriguez thought he was making an exploitation film, but because it was a foreign movie with subtitles, critics found all kinds of symbolism that wasn't really there.  Nicolas Winding Refn directs the hell out of Drive, itself based on a novel by James Sallis.  But the visual poetry is in service of a painfully contrived and hilariously generic narrative, and even said 'coolness' is so overwrought that it eventually turns into self-parody and becomes as boring as the story being told.

Review: Bunraku (2011) is visually stylish, exciting, substance-free action picture

Bunraku

2011
124 minutes
rated R
In theaters September 30th.  Available On Demand September 1st.

by Scott Mendelson

There is a certain danger to any movie that spends the first five minutes explicitly explaining why the picture looks and sounds as it does.  In this case, we have to understand why the world of Bunraku looks like a hybrid between the 1960s Batman TV show and a blood-drenched martial arts drama.  The film is certainly a case of style over substance, and the utter lack of substance may be fatal for some viewers.  But the picture boasts a unique visual palatte and some interesting ideas.  It also boasts at least two wonderful action sequences, creative in their design and accomplished in their execution, that makes the film almost worth watching.  Bunraku is not quite a good film, but it is surely a bad one worth watching for those who know what they are getting into.