After too many movies that shows the glitz and glamour of the “casino” life, and by the end of it all, you kept finding yourself googling “Top 10 casino strategies in the world” – out of curiosity, and perhaps in the hopes of learning a thing or two. But is the thrill of gambling really about winning? Everybody knows that people play for the rush and that the odds are predetermined to favor the house. The ratio of bettors quite frankly overthrows winners, yet don’t we all just keep playing?
There was an article a couple of years ago about a group of students in the 1990s, the “MIT Blackjack Team”. Apparently, these “kids” formulated a model that used simple math, giving a player an edge over the blackjack dealer. The article was so compelling and got me thinking how things could be just as simple as counting sheep in your head. It made me wonder if this “system” would still work anywhere these days, say, at online casino new zealand guide there are a lot of tips for leaning this strategies.
So anyway, it goes without saying that I was excited to see “21” – a movie “inspired by” the real-life story of the same M.I.T. students who made millions in Las Vegas. “21,” pretty much tells how to follow all the “rules” and end up losing anyway. They clearly tried to fit such a detailed story into a movie template and ended up killing the excitement. It turned out to be purely generic which was such a disappointment.
So, here was how it went:
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) M.I.T. undergrad is a smart guy from Boston. He badly needs a $300,000 scholarship to get into Harvard. His nerdiness did not escape Professor Rosa’s (Kevin Spacey) penchant for math geniuses and ends up inviting him to join a secret group of card-counters who plans on flying to Vegas on weekends to make a forture. Ben resists in the beginning, even after a beautiful blond girl (Kate Bosworth) attempts to woo him. Then again, he really needs the money, so he decides to give it a try — but only until he gathers enough for his tuition.
This was followed by a badly sequenced montage that had me reaching for a nonexistent rewind button just to catch on.
So they all go to Vegas, wins, more montage, until their antics catches the eye of a casino security guy named Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) who’s about to lose his business to some new biometric facerecognition software. What you need to remember here, is that if casinos caught you counting cards, you just might get a good beating down the basement. But don’t worry, you’ll be released afterwards!
Ben gets sucked in to this “too good to be true” life as he limply narrated in voiceover. He finds himself by blondie’s door with a sappy realization that he’s lost everything, but would like one last chance at getting back on the saddle. He makes up with blondie and the professor. They gather the team and reunites for one last score. Turns out, Williams has been hunting Rosa down for years and finally saw a chance at cornering him with the help of Ben. The End.
Overall, the movie could have been done better and written with a better plot. The casting was decent; even the wigs that Bosworth had to wear had more appeal than the story as a whole.
On November 26th, 2019, Kino Lorber will be releasing the Blu-ray & DVD for Bi Gan’s Long Day’s Journey into Night (read our review), a noirish stunner about a lost soul (Jue Huang, The Final Master) on a quest to find a missing woman from his past (Wei Tang, Office, Wuxia).
Following leads across Guizhou province, the man crosses paths with a series of colorful characters, among them a prickly hairdresser played by Taiwanese superstar Sylvia Chang (Slaughter in San Francisco). When the search leads him to a dingy movie theater, the film launches into an hour-long, gravity-defying 3D sequence shot that plunges its protagonist—and us—into a dreamlike, labyrinthine cityscape.
The Teaser Trailer Ambush, the anticipated directorial debut from John Salvitti (In the Line of Duty 4) has finally arrived in all its gritty glory. And when we say gritty, we mean it. We’re talkin’ Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer gritty.
Ambush marks Salvitti’s entry into writing, directing and editing his original brand material. “It’s sort of in the vein of Fight Club with the PTSD/split personality. The story centers on issues we see everyday in today’s media. A constant barrage of violence, shootings, bullying and political tensions – issues that are so burdensome, hey’re driving some to engage in violence. That’s Ambush,” says Salvitti.
Salvitti is a martial artist known for his roles in Hong Kong films like Crystal Hunt, Cheetah on Fire, In the Line of Duty 4 and Flash Point – as well his action choreography work in Special ID, Kung Fu Killer and Pound of Flesh. Despite for being known for his fight choreography (and his close association with Donnie Yen and Yuen Woo-ping), Salvitti says that Ambush will deliver more on “phycological action and gun violence” than on martial arts.
Here’s what you can expect from the plot of Ambush: Kal is a visitor to Los Angeles suffering with PTSD and on the verge of carrying out a lone wolf attack. But first, he must rescue his girlfriend from her assailants. Question is: Who lives, who dies and who was merely a fragment of one’s imagination?
The film stars New York theatrical actor Maxx Black in the lead role, with Vietnamese theatrical actress Sai thien Le, and from Milan Italy Model, Sabrina Bertaccini.
Ambush is currently in final stages of post-production.
Updates: Watch the film’s latest Teaser Trailer below. Also, be sure and check out a New Interview with Salvitti as conducted by Mike Leeder and M.A.A.C.
A new documentary that “explores relationships between actors and stunt performers” is coming from Rootbeer Films. Lenny Shapiro, CEO/President of Rootbeer Films, said, “Having produced many action films, it is my great pleasure to showcase the real action stars… the stunt people” (via Variety).
Joe Mantegna (Godfather 3) narrates while stars such as Keanu Reeves (John Wick), Halle Berry (John Wick 3) and Mark Wahlberg are interviewed.
Additional featured interviewees include Chad Stahelski (John Wick), Jon Bernthal, Shemar Moore, Joseph Gatt, Mark Dacascos (Ultimate Justice) and Helen Mirren.
The same team is also working on Hollywood’s Hard Hitters, a female version of 2nd Unit: Invisible Action Stars with Zoe Saldana (Columbiana) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Deathproof).
A Trailer and release date is expected soon, so stay tuned!
On October 8th, 2019, Well Go USA will be releasing the Blu-ray for Kung Fu Monster (aka When Robbers Meet the Monster), a fantasy wuxia directed by Andrew Lau (Legend of the Fist) and produced by Derek Yee (Sword Master).
In Kung Fu Monster, several heroes of Greenwood are preparing to rob the government of the people’s destiny. They have decided on an action plan and their respective division of labor. However, things get complicated when a monster falls into the mix.
Bruce Willis (Die Hard), Scott Adkins (Avengement, Triple Threat) and Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds) are teaming up for an upcoming thriller titled Run of the Hitman.
The film will be directed by Stephen C. Sepher (Dead on Arrival), who is perhaps best known for penning Robert De Niro’s 2015 actioner Heist.
Run of the Hitman (aka Grey Justice) revolves around a hitman who discovers his past has been wiped from his memory by a covert government agency.
The film is currently in pre-production phase, but we’ll keep you in the loop as we learn more. For now, we leave with the Trailer for Isaac Florentine’s Close Range.
On November 26th, 2019, MVD will release the DVD for Shinpei Hayashiya’s 2005 kaiju flick Reigo: King of the Sea Monsters (aka Reigo: The Deep-Sea Monster vs. the Battleship Yamato).
The battleship Yamato, the largest and strongest of its time, is on patrol when a lookout spots a massive shape half-submerged in the distance. Believing it to be an enemy submarine, they fire and score a direct hit. But they are shocked when the object emits a strange cry as it sinks beneath the waves. Soon after, something much bigger arrives, the massive kaiju Reigo!
Reigo: King of the Sea Monsters stars Taiyo Sugiura, Mai Nanami, Yukijiro Hotaru, Susumu Kurobe, Yoji Tanaka, Yumika Hayashi and Mickey Curtis.
In order to foil an extortion plot, an FBI agent (John Travolta) undergoes a facial transplant surgery and assumes the identity and physical appearance of a terrorist (Nicolas Cage), but the plan turns from bad to worse when the same terrorist impersonates the FBI agent.
Along with 1993’s Hard Target, Face/Off is considered one of Woo’s finest Hollywood productions.
Director: Lee Chang-Dong Cast: Yoo Ah-In, Steven Yeun, Jun Jong-Seo, Kim Soo-Kyung, Choi Seung-Ho, Moon Sung-Geun, Min Bok-Gi, Ban Hye-Ra, Lee Bong-Ryun, Lee Young-Suk Running Time: 148 min.
By Paul Bramhall
It’s been 8 years since Lee Chang-dong last sat in the director’s chair, having helmed 2009’s critically acclaimed Poetry, leaving it just long enough for the rest of us to worry if we’d ever see a Lee Chang-dong movie again. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know he was one of the many names on impeached former president Park Geun-hye’s entertainment and media blacklist, which refused state funding to anyone who was seen as a critic of her policies (notably Park Chan-wook was also named). Thankfully in 2018 Chang-dong came out of his hiatus, and returned to the big screen with Burning, an adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story titled Barn Burning.
The story appeared in Murakami’s shorty story omnibus The Elephant Vanishes, and marks the third time for one of its tales to be transferred to the screen. In 1982 Naoto Yamakawa directed Attack on the Bakery, from the short story of the same name, and a year later he’d also adapt On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl. Both where (perhaps fittingly) short films, so Burning is both unique from the perspective of it being a Korean director taking on the Japanese authors source material, and that it’s been expanded to encompass a 2 & ½ hour epic.
The story casts Yoo Ah-in (Veteran) as an aspiring writer, who takes on various menial jobs as a source of income. In the opening scene we’re introduced to him delivering stock to an outlet store, and by chance he meets a childhood friend who’s working as a promotional model outside the store. Played by newcomer Jeon Jong-seo, the pair agree to catch up over drinks and reminisce about their time growing up in the countryside. Jong-seo reveals she plans to travel to Africa, and how she wants to visit the tribes that live in the Kalahari Desert. She enthusiastically explains how the tribes have two expressions related to hunger – Little Hunger refers to those who are hungry to eat, and Great Hunger refers to those who have a hunger to understand the meaning of life. Before Ah-in knows what’s hit him, he and Jeong-seo are in bed together in her small unit, and he agrees to keep her mysteriously unseen cat fed while she’s travelling.
After Ah-in receives a call from Jeong-seo in Kenya to say she’s coming back to Korea, he agrees to pick her up from the airport, however is visibly taken aback to find she’s joined by a male acquaintance, played by Steven Yuen (Okja). Yuen explains they became close during a long delay in the airport, as they were “the only two Koreans”, but something seems off about him. He’s hesitant to divulge what he does for a living, but is clearly rich enough that he drives a Porsche, lives in the affluent Seoul suburb of Gangnam, and his spacious apartment is adorned with expensive looking artwork. Ah-in makes a comment comparing him to the Great Gatsby, but Yuen’s silky smooth performance feels more pointed towards Patrick Bateman.
The relationship between the trio is essentially the crux of Burning, and each one of their perceptions of the other. More so than any of his previous movies, Chang-dong’s latest could well be described as baffling for the unacquainted viewer. Scenes which feel meandering and uneventful at the time, become rife with questions in retrospect, and seemingly inconsequential pieces of dialogue seek to be re-evaluated once mulled upon. Burning is the kind of movie which practically demands a 2nd viewing, and then a 3rd, because so much is unseen that it feels impossible to comprehend all of the nuances on the initial experience. While Chang-dong eschews a traditional narrative for his latest, the frequently uncomfortable levels of tension come from trying to figure out how much of what’s being implied is real, and how much is being imagined, as much from ourselves as from the perspective of the character’s we’re watching.
Yuen’s performance is a revelation. This marks the first time for him to take a lead role in a Korean production, after supporting parts in 2017’s Okja and 2015’s Like A French Film, and while he remains most well-known for his role in the U.S. series The Walking Dead, roles like this one show a previously unseen range. Despite his fluent Korean, there’s something distinctly alien about his presence, from small details such as his character not using a Korean name (he calls himself Ben), to strange asides about how he considers his meal preparation as a form of making offerings to himself. All signs point to him being a sociopath, but Chang-dong’s direction insists on keeping the audience at arms-length. It’s a tactic which results in proceedings feeling frustratingly opaque, but also impossible to turn away from, often both at the same time.
Newcomer Jeon Jong-seo likewise delivers a top tier performance in her debut, and at the time of writing has already been tapped as the lead for The Bad Batch director Ana Lily Amirpour’s next feature, titled Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon. She takes center stage during Burning’s pivotal scene, which sees the trio converging in the yard of Ah-in’s countryside home, close to the border of North Korea. They share a joint, and in a surreal but beautifully filmed sequence she dances topless around the garden, imitating the Great Hunger dance she spoke of earlier. The fire the Kalahari Bushmen danced around as the sun set on the horizon is now replaced with the mountains of North Korea, the propaganda from the loud speakers a constant presence in the background, and for a moment Ah-in and Yuen sit there transfixed.
The concept of fire carries significance for each of the three main characters, with the joint lowering Ah-in’s defences enough that he reveals a traumatic memory from his past, while Yuen discloses his “hobby” of burning down derelict greenhouses. After the scene finishes Burning plunges down the rabbit hole, however does so with such subtlety that it’s easy not to notice. Yuen and Jong-seo drive off together back to Seoul, but Jong-seo simply disappears and becomes uncontactable. Yuen confesses to Ah-in that he only visited to scout for empty greenhouses, and assures him to keep an eye out for one close-by being burnt down in the next few days, but it never happens. Then of course there’s the cat that was never actually seen, despite the food Ah-in left out for it being eaten, and its droppings being left in the litter tray.
Just like the difference between the Little Hunger and the Great Hunger, there’s an impression that Chang-dong is applying the same principle to the audience. Are we caught up in trying to solve all of the little mysteries that are weaved into the narrative, or are we looking at the bigger picture as to what exactly they all mean? Much like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, Chang-dong’s latest has its lens pointed at the class divides that exist in Korea, and the injustices, both perceived and imagined, that stem from them. The anger and rage that are born out of these divides is evident in both, however in Burning that seething energy always feels like its hovering just beyond the borders of the screen. Ah-in feels that something is amiss with Yuen’s interest in both him and Jong-seo, but he can’t articulate it, and perhaps none of us can.
By the time the end credits roll, the sense of danger that’s remained so elusive to pinpoint has neither dissipated nor been resolved, but rather manifested itself as a feeling that prompts bigger questions, which is perhaps the whole point all along. At one point Ah-in states that the world is a mystery to him, and uses this to offload the blame for the fact he hasn’t been able to write anything. The mysteries of the world mean it’s often not that simple to have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and that lack of narrative structure is also applied by Chang-dong with the way the narrative unfolds.
Burning has already earned the accolade of being the highest rated movie in the history of Screen International’s Cannes jury grid, and is also the first Korean production to make the final shortlist for the Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film category, recognition which is well deserved. When Ah-in and Jong-seo first meet she perfectly pantomime’s peeling and eating a tangerine, telling him that if he ever wants something, he can create it by doing the same. Just like the tangerine, Burning feels like its equal parts character drama, mystery thriller, and misguided romance, but it could just as easily be none of those. A perplexing epic that poses a lot of questions, and expects the audience to find its own answers, Burning is a triumph.
On December 3rd, 2019, Shout! Factory will release a Collector’s Edition Blu-ray for John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China, which will be available in both a Standard and a Limited Edition SteelBook.
Kurt Russell (The Thing) stars as Jack Burton, a tough-talking, wisecracking truck driver whose hum-drum life on the road takes a sudden supernatural tailspin when his best friend’s fiancé is kidnapped. Speeding to the rescue, Jack finds himself deep beneath San Francisco’s Chinatown, in a murky, creature-filled world ruled by Lo Pan, a 2000-year-old magician who mercilessly presides over an empire of spirits. Dodging demons and facing baffling terrors, Jack battles his way through Lo Pan’s dark domain in a full-throttle, action-riddled ride to rescue the girl.
Big Trouble in Little China also stars Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City), Dennis Dun (Year of the Dragon), James Hong (Blade Runner), Victor Wong (Tremors), Peter Kwong (Golden Child), James Pax (Shootfighter: Fight to the Death), Donald Li (U.S. Marshals) and Al Leong (Rapid Fire).
Special Features:
NEW! Interviews with Cast and Crew
Audio Commentary with Director John Carpenter and Actor Kurt Russell
According to The Clarion Ledger, New Orleans-based actor Jeremy Sande (Deepwater Horizon) is pounding the pavement in the hopes that Walt Disney Studios will consider him for the role of a lifetime in the next Die Hard franchise.
Says the actor, “About a two years ago when I heard the chatter of a new Die Hard, I felt this was my opportunity.’ When it (Die Hard) came out it blew away the action genre. John McClane was just a normal guy who wound up in a situation where he had to perform outstanding acts to survive which is what the human genome is designed to do.”
“So I set out to produce a short film, basically as my informal audition tape. With the help of some incredibly talented filmmaking friends, we made “Roy” within a week.” Anyone that is a Die Hard fan will understand the Roy reference from the original 1988 film, directed by John McTiernan.
Watch Sande’s film Roy below and ask yourself: Does he have what it takes to step in the shoes of John McClane?
To read about the the latest updates regarding the next Die Hard film, click here.
On December 10th, 2019, RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) will release the Blu-ray for The Wrath, a 2018 Korean horror film from director Yoo Young-Seon (The Wicked).
In the household of Lee Gyeong-jin, a high-ranking official of Joseon Kingdom, three sons die from an unidentified horror. A woman pregnant with a child of the third son soon learns of the evil spirit that haunts the house.
The Wrath stars Seo Young-Hee (The Chaser), Son Na-Eun (Return of the Mafia), Lee Tae-Ri (Waikiki Brothers) and Park Min-Ji (Punch Strike).
On October 15th, 2019, Fox Home Entertainment will release the Blu-ray & DVD for Stuber, an action comedy directed by Michael Dowse (Goon).
When a mild-mannered Uber driver named Stu (Kumail Nanjian, The Big Sick) picks up a passenger (Dave Bautista, Enter the Warrior’s Gate) who turns out to be a cop hot on the trail of a brutal killer, he’s thrust into a harrowing ordeal where he desperately tries to hold onto his wits, his life and his five-star rating.
Stuber also features martial arts star Iko Uwais (Triple Threat, The Raid 2), Natalie Morales, Betty Gilpin, Jimmy Tatro, Mira Sorvino and Karen Gillan.
On September 20th, 2019, Kwon Oh-Kwang’s Tazza: One Eyed Jack is getting a limited theatrical release from Well Go USA. The film – a follow up to 2014’s Tazza: The Hidden Card and 2006’s Tazza: The High Rollers – stars Park Jung-Min (Office) and Ryoo Seung-Bum (Doomsday Book).
A young poker player at the top of his game loses everything after he plays for one big jackpot. To save himself from a loan shark settling his debts, he joins a poker team lead by the legendary poker player One-Eyed Jack. While successfully working their plan to win a huge jackpot, a single mistake puts the entire team in a dangerous life or death situation.
Tazza: One Eyed Jack also stars Choi Yu-Hwa, Woo Hyeon, Lee Kwang-Soo, Lim Ji-Yeon and Kwon Hae-Hyo.
In the tradition of Choi Dong-hun’s Assassination (2015) and Kim Ji-woon’s The Age of Shadows (2016) comes Saturday Fiction, a spy thriller from director Lou Ye (Suzhou River) and writer Yingli Ma (Summer Palace)
According to AFS, Saturday Fiction revolves around a star theatre actress working as a spy for the Allies in 1941 Shanghai.
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