Pulp Fiction

If not the best, this is undoubtebly one of writer, director, Quentin Tarantino's best work, released in 1994 the movie follows the story of two hitmen, Vincent and Jules. We all know of buddy cop movies, well this realease is a buddy hitman movie, with so much twist and turns it might leave you feeling dazed as the viewer is flung around characters that incounter and interact with each other in a kind of predestined way. I don't know which was my favourite character in this movie as everyone involved delivered a great performance, even Tarantino himself made a good cameo appearance. Pulp fiction must be the only movie too make me feel confused about whether to laugh or be horrified as the very dark humour is prevalent all the way through the movie giving it a kind of twist which made it more interesting to watch as you're left on the edge of your seat waiting for the next shocker.

Synopsis and trailer

Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) are hitmen with a penchant for philosophical discussions. In this ultra-hip, multi-strand crime movie, their storyline is interwoven with those of their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) ; his actress wife, Mia (Uma Thurman) ; struggling boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) ; master fixer Winston Wolfe (Harvey Keitel) and a nervous pair of armed robbers, "Pumpkin" (Tim Roth) and "Honey Bunny" (Amanda Plummer).

Pulp Fiction: Where Are They Now?

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Produced by: Lawrence Bender
Written by: Quentin Tarantino
Story by: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary 
Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Maria de Medeiros, Ving
Rhames, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken, Bruce Willis 
Cinematography: Andrzej Sekuła
Edited by: Sally Menke
Production companies: A Band Apart, Jersey Films
Distributed by: Miramax Films 
Release dates: May 12, 1994 (Cannes)
October 14, 1994 (United States) 
Running time: 2hr 34mins

A Clockwork Orange

This 1971 classic, A Clockwork Orange is by far my favourite British movie to date, set in the near future as described, this movie as a mish mash of  Slavic words from other languages in Europe interwoven into a sort of cockney shakespearean English dialogue, which made me feel like i was listening to a play by Shakespear, so that was interesting and fun. The title, A Clockwork Orange also as an interesting metaphor, which is, a Clock is mechanical and a Orange is more organic like a human, and when you mix both you get A Clockwork Orange, which Alex, the lead character in the movie is turned into, after he's jailed for murder then released after he was programmed through a new experimental aversion therapy called Ludovico technique, which controls is behaviour into being a law abiding citizen. Directed by Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 - March 7, 1999),

Alex in the experimental therapy, Ludovico technique.

the famous American director who lived in England, Kubrick only took a little over a year to film and release this masterpiece, the movie was originally a novel by English writer, Anthony Burgess, who had it published in 1962. The movie received a X-rated certificate on release in 1971, because despite the great storyline, inventive title and innovative dialogues, the movie was mainly about Alex, a hooligan and leader of a gang 'Droogs' who indulged in criminal acts in what is referred to in the movie as 'ultra-violence'. I personally felt the violence in this movie was needed to shape the story in the best way possible, it wasn't just mindless violence, if you follow the story rather than just the violence it all makes sense at the end.

The director Stanley Kubrick described the movie as:

 
"...A social satire dealing with the question of whether behavioural psychology and psychological conditioning are dangerous new weapons for a totalitarian government to use to impose vast controls on its citizens and turn them into little more than robots."

Synopsis

In an England of the future, Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his "Droogs" spend their nights getting high at the Korova Milkbar before embarking on "a little of the old ultraviolence," while jauntily warbling "Singin' in the Rain." After he's jailed for bludgeoning the Cat Lady to death, Alex submits to behavior modification technique to earn his freedom; he's conditioned to abhor violence. Returned to the world defenseless, Alex becomes the victim of his prior victims.


Trailer

This movie trailer as a constant flow of flashing images, which i'm guessing is to emphasise and play on the idea of the experimental aversion therapy called Ludovico technique used in the movie.

Alex and his Droogs

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Produced by: Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay by: Stanley Kubrick
Based on: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri, Miriam Karlin
Music by: Walter Carlos
Cinematography: John Alcott
Edited by: Bill Butler
Production companies: Polaris Productions, Hawk Films
Distributed by: Warner Bros. (United States), Columbia-Warner Distributors (United Kingdom)
Release dates: 19 December 1971 (New York City)
13 January 1972 (United Kingdom)
2 February 1972 (United States)
Running time: 1hr 46mins

Hitman: Agent 47

I've been a fan of the Hitman franchise since 2002, when i played the second video game, which as had other releases till today, plus novels. The first movie came in 2007 and was a box office success, even though it didn't recieve critical kudos, it raked in just under $100 million, which is not bad at all considering the budget was $24 million. The Hitman stories follow a genetically-engineered assassin known only as agent 47, his name comes from the last two digits of a bar code on the back of his head – 640509-040147. Tall, balled, blue eyed, stiff jawed, no nonsence guy who usually wears a black suit and red tie, with strenth, speed and intellegence above the human average, he's the perfect killing machine. Directed by firsts-time director Aleksander Bach, Hitman: Agent 47 is a action packed thriller that shows what the new director is capable of and he's already got other projects lined up.

Synopsis and trailer

  A genetically engineered assassin (Rupert Friend) targets a mega-corporation that wants to use the secret of his origin to create a whole army of killers. 

Here's a break down of the plot and story line by the producer, director and lead actor.

HITMAN: AGENT 47 centers on an elite assassin who was genetically engineered from conception to be the perfect killing machine, and is known only by the last two digits on the barcode tattooed on the back of his neck. He is the culmination of decades of research ­ and forty-six earlier Agent clones -- endowing him with unprecedented strength, speed, stamina and intelligence. His latest target is a mega-corporation that plans to unlock the secret of Agent 47's past to create an army of killers whose powers surpass even his own. Teaming up with a young woman who may hold the secret to overcoming their powerful and clandestine enemies, 47 confronts stunning revelations about his own origins and squares off in an epic battle with his deadliest foe.                

Written by
20th Century Fox.

Here's the second trailer that tells us more about the lead female role.

  

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller

Directed by: Aleksander Bach
Produced by: Charles Gordon, Adrian Askariah, Alex Young, Skip Woods
Screenplay by: Skip Woods, Michael Finch
Story by: Skip Woods
Based on: Hitman by IO Interactive
Starring: Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware, Zachary Quinto, Ciarán Hinds, Thomas Kretschmann, Angelababy
Music by: Marco Beltrami
Cinematography: Óttar Guðnason
Edited by: Nicolas de Toth

Production company: TSG Entertainment
Daybreak Giant Pictures

Distributed by: 20th Century Fox

Release date: August 21, 2015
Running time: 1hr 48mins 

Black and White

Released in the year 1999, this movie was well directed, edited and also inventive in its way of telling a story of a documentary within a movie which explores the growing facination that white kids have with the hip-hop culture scene, starring an array of talented and famous actors, actresses, musicians and sports personalities, the story follows a rapper called Rich, who's big on the hip-hop scene, other characters include a couple, Sam and Terry who are the documentary filmmakers, filming the teens as they share their fascination with black culture, Sam and Terry's life seamlesly interchanges well with the other characters in the movie, such as the character of Raven, one of the fascinated and rebelious teens being documented who is always ready to voice her opinion through out the movie. When i heard that 'Wu Tang Clan' was involved with this project i had to watch it since i'm a fan, and rightly so because it did not disappoint, the story line was captivating enough to keep me interested in the characters and whats going to happen with them. There was a scene in which Mike Tyson who plays himself as an altercation with the character Terry, played by Robert Downey, Jr., which i found rather funny, Ben stiller is also in this movie playing the role of a sleazy cop, even Brett Ratner, a great director of hip-hop music video's and blockbuster movies such as 'Xmen: The Last Stand', makes an appearance as himself. Apparantly whiles filming, most of the scenes were improvised, which works well for this type of movie, all the cast members did a great job but the character that really stood out for me was that of Raven, played by Gaby Hoffmann, she nailed it. i would definitely recommend this movie if you're a hip-hop fan or just someone who likes watching a good movie.

Synopsis and trailer

Rich Bower (Power) is an up-and-coming star in the hip-hop world. Everyone wants to be around him, including Raven (Gaby Hoffman) and her fellow upper-class white high school friends. The growing appeal of black culture among white teens fascinates documentary filmmaker Sam Donager (Brooke Shields), who sets out to chronicle it with her husband, Terry (Robert Downey Jr.). But before Bower was a rapper, he was a gangster, and his criminal past comes back to haunt him and all those around him.



Plot

(Spoiler alert)

Sam (Brooke Shields) and her husband Terry (Robert Downey, Jr.), make a documentary in which they follow a group of white teens, Raven (Gaby Hoffmann), Charlie (Bijou Phillips), Will (William Lee Scott), Marty (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Wren (Elijah Wood), who are fascinated with the culture and so go out to mingle with the black hip-hop crowd. A rapper by the named of Rich ( Oli "Power" Grant) who is a mover and shaker in the hip-hop scene is the guy to be seen with and who's apartment is a favored hang out spot for the in-crowd, including the group of white teens.
When Rich's friend Dean (Allan Houston, of the New York Knicks) who is a talented college basketball player, takes a bait to throw some games, he is left with a proposal from detective Mark Clear (Ben Stiller) to either give up his friend rich or go jail, Rich learns of this and in fear of Dean ratting him out for his criminal past, he asks one of the white kids that hang with him to do away with Dean.

Here's a music video from the all hip-hop soundtrack

Genre: Drama, Music, Crime
Directed by: James Toback
Produced by: Daniel Bigel, Michael Mailer, Ron Rotholz
Written by: James Toback
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Gaby Hoffmann, Allan Houston, Jared Leto, Method Man, Joe Pantoliano
Bijou Phillips, Oli "Power" Grant, Raekwon
Claudia Schiffer, Brooke Shields, Scott Caan, Mike Tyson, Elijah Wood, Ben Stiller
Music by: American Cream Team
Cinematography: David Ferrara
Edited by: Myron Kerstein
Production company: Palm Pictures
Distributed by: Screen Gem
Initial release dates: September 4, 1999 (1999-09-04)
Running time: 1hr 38mins

Hard Boiled

If you claim to like and know about action shoot em up's, and you've never seen or heard of this classic, then i'm sorry my friend, because you've been left in the dark. Released in 1992, Hard Boiled is a shoot em up fest of epic proportion that lasts for over two hours. Written and directed by the critically aclaimed John Woo, who is famous for this type of movie's and his trademark use of slow-motion, With this being his best work in my opinion, and the last one he made in Hong Kong before his American endevours, John Woo never really impressed me again as much as he did with this movie, Hard Boiled is a classic, that should be on every action junkies list. Even though the action was prominent in this movie, i liked the way the Jazz soundtrack composed by Michael Gibbs, smooths things over at times when it was needed to give the action a break, it was also a good idea allowing the lead role of Inspector "Tequila" Yuen, played by Chow Yun-fat, to be able to play the clarinet, i felt that these aspects added depth to the character and movie, also the dark humour at times allowed the movie not to take itself too seriously, which i also enjoyed, and not forgetting the finale sequence of the hospital, which are amongst the best action scenes ever, and probably inspired the movies original poster. Hard Boiled picked up Winner of the 1993 Hong Kong Film Award for Best Editing, and shot John woo and Chow yun-fat into the Hollywood limelight, i'm hoping that one day, Woo and Chow decide to work together like this again, because they have such great chemistry. A video game sequel titled Stranglehold was released in 2007, developed in collaboration with John Woo, and even stars Chow Yun-fat in a revival of his role as the Hard boiled cop, Stranglehold was cool and worth looking into if you're a gamer, it was also the last time we saw Woo and Chow colaborate since the movie, and would be great to see them work together again on a movie project.

"Give a man a gun and he thinks he's Superman. Give him two and he thinks he's God."

Quote from the movie

Video game sequel of Hard Boiled

Chow Yun-fat says this about the film in Hong Kong Action Cinema: "The film is seventy percent action, thirty percent story!" But this increase in action may have some base in reality. Chow goes on to say "In America, the policeman must shout 'stop' before he shoots you. Here [in Hong Kong], he can just shoot you any time, without warning! That comes across in the films."

Hard boiled was filmed in the 90's during the time of Asia's rising crime rate when triads were very active, thats why John Woo decided to create the character of 'Tequila' as a hero cop figure, to give the people hope, he himself made a cameo apearance as a bartender in a scene where he can be seen conversing with Tequila.

Synopsis and trailer



Chow Yun-fat

A cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers goes on a mission to catch them. In order to get closer to the leaders of the ring he joins forces with an undercover cop who's working as a gangster hitman. They use all means of excessive force to find them.

Director: John Woo

John Woo

Producers: Terence Chang, Linda Kuk,
Written by: Gorden Chan, Barry Wong,
Story by: John Woo
Starring: Chow Yun-fat,  Tony Leung,  Chiu-Wai,  Teresa Mo,

Music by: Michael Gibbs
Cinematography: Wang Wing-Heng
Edited by: John Woo Jack Ah David Wu Kai Kit-Wai

Production company: Golden Princess Film Production, Milestone Pictures

Distributed by: Golden Princess Film Production (Hong Kong)

Running time: 1hr 28mins
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese, English Dubbed

Release date: 16 April 1992 (Hong Kong)