Running out of Time, Last Hurrah for Chivalry, Charlotte Sometimes, & The Mission

Running out of Time is a pretty good movie, with Andy Lau as a dying master criminal who is playing a game with an expert hostage negotiator. It's a stylish little thriller from Johnnie To, made during the same year as The Mission, and considerably better than that one. The Mission is about a group of bodyguards hired to protect a triad boss, and then have to struggle with the repercussions of an affair. They're both stylish thrillers, but Running out of Time is just a more effective film, and held my interest much better.

Last Hurrah for Chivalry is an early John Woo film, before he decided that honor was about two .45s being fired at the same time at waves of dudes in suits. At this point it's about guys with swords fighting unnamed guys and guys with names like Green and Pray and Sleeping Wizard (who fights while sleeping). It's eminently silly, a twisted plot about a son revenging the death of his father and an attempt on his life by his newlywed wife (who was a whore he bought and his enemy paid twice as much to kill him), and the two swordsmen who help him. There are many, many swordfights, some interesting, most not, and it seems like the good guys get stabbed many, many times and don't really suffer much. Weird how that works in movies.

Charlotte Sometimes is a little indie film about a quiet Asian guy (the actor's Japanese-American, but the movie doesn't specify his ethnicity) who rents out part of his parents' house to a couple (she's Asian and he's half-Asian) and works as a mechanic. When he meets a girl in the bar at which he hangs out, tensions arise. It's a small film, mainly just the two couples, but it's shot impressively for DV six years ago and looks good and uses light and shadows very well. And it's surprisingly deep. Definitely one to check out if you want to see a great film that doesn't treat the audience like an idiot.