The Film:

Has there really ever been a good ninja movie? The ninjas have certainly been associated with cinematic coolness, and maybe it is the recent pop culture affection for the ninja that has spurred the coolness, but outside of a few cameos in actual good films, ninjas have seemed to be regulated into the low rent action fodder, currently clogging up the action section in our store of choice. Ninja Assassin somehow seemed prime to take the ninja into a different cinematic stratosphere, for reasons that are debatable. Was it the over-the-top action, or the coolness we felt promised from the trailer? Unfortunately, now, it doesn’t matter. Ninja Assassin is 100% pure eh, and eh isn’t cool no matter how you slice it.

Coming off a solid first feature in V for Vendetta it seemed like director James McTeigue knew how to tell a solid story, and infuse some neatly staged action scenes. In Ninja Assassin, his approach feels low rent, low brow, and while I won’t get into the nature of how sometimes low brow, mindless entertainment can be great fun, all I can say is that this is scrapping the barrel of low brow entertainment. Certainly Ninja Assassin’s goal wasn’t to make the definitive ninja film-that’s still left unmade-but there’s a reason why the ninja film is considerably goofy, especially when compared to the other cinematic cool guys: the samurais.

Ninjas are mindless, deadly, shadow dwellers, and casting of Rain doesn’t help. The film plays tricks with his character with is he or isn’t he a good guy, but the title spoils all. Rain has been touted as a possible next big thing, and while he has the physic and the skills, he cannot elevate the poor characterizations beyond the page, something a Jet Li, Tony Jaa, and Bruce Lee can do. The film’s most inspired moment, was when a Europol agent claimed he didn’t “look deadly, he looks like he’s in a boy band”, which is a playful jab at him, since Rain is in a South Korean pop band. During Speed Racer, Rain captivated the Wachowskis, who decided to place him in a martial arts film. I don’t deny Rain’s appeal, he looks good in a film, and McTeigue does craft a few awesomely staged scenes, but rumors of Rain being a heir to Bruce Lee in a proposed Enter the Dragon remake, are ill advised.

With the right material, I would like to see Rain again, but Ninja Assassin isn’t the right material. Ninjas might be cool, but CG blood isn’t cool. The film’s filled with CG carnage, and it’s very poor and incredible noticeable. In V for Vendetta, the physical hand-to-hand fights were great, there was a real presence behind Hugo Weaving’s punches. Ninja Assassin is about as deadly as the recent Mortal Kombat game. It’s way to processed, and whatever possible coolness could have leaked out from the pedestrian J. Michael Straczynski script, is evaporated with CG swords, blood, and violence. The Shaw Brothers never needed a computer to hack a limb off.

Big, bold, silly dialogue, a cable TV plot, and some uncool CG fights, Ninja Eh-ssassin feels like it should be clogging up the dump bin at Best Buy, rather than our multiplexes. Ask this ninja, why he isn’t cool.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: While I disliked the film, the WB high-def disc is superb. The transfer is solid, stunning, and borderline gorgeous with it’s handling of the details and especially the dark scenes. Good stuff, as is the audio, that brings in more ass-kicking than the film did. Loud, bass heavy, and featuring plenty of surround activity. Audibly, you’ll be impressed with its DTS track.

The Myths and Legends of Ninjas: In HD, this near 20 minute piece on film’s ninja movies. It starts off a little cheesy, no doubt to the voice narrator, but maybe that’s part of the fun. I dig extras that supplement the film, and I got a kick out of this.

The Extreme Sport of a Ninja: In HD, runs 10 minutes of pure EPK material.

Training Rain: Here’s a look at Rain’s rise into pop celebrity status in Korea, then to the movie word. Decent.

Additional Footage in Hd on passable scenes, and an Exclusive Sneak Peek at Clash of the Titans remake in HD.

Conclusion: Messy and not fun, but the Blu-ray rocks.

The Film: Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

JMS: Yes, I wrote five drafts.

Q: Is it close to getting done?

JMS: One never knows. The director is attached to it and Paramount really wants to see it done because they have a lot of money invested in this thing. They think it could be a really big film for them.

Q: How did you adapt the first person narrative?

JMS: A series of interviews, so I basically said, “Well, who did those interviews?” And you tell the story of the guy who works for the UN going around the planet interviewing folks to see what happened to them and report on what happened. Through his eyes, you see flashbacks of those storylines.

Q: Zombies are big now.

JMS: Well, they have good agent.

Twilight Saga: New Moon takes over the box office once again as they reign supreme in first place over the course of a monstrous five day holiday weekend. Mainstream releases Ninja Assassin, Old Dogs and Fantastic Mr. Fox all were trumped by the supernatural teen eye candy film. The mammoth film wrangled in $42.5 Million, bringing in a whopping $230 Million domestic total, making their $50 Million budget reached several times over.

Old Dogs is doing decent, despite the huge slew of negative reviews it still manages to bring in the audience. With $16.8 Million under it’s belt, its off to a fine start with the Walt Disney Pictures feature making back it’s budget. The same goes with Ninja Assassin, making $13.1 Million within the five day weekend. The real test for these films will be the next week and weekend, whether or not they can withstand other upcoming features and hold their own. Here’s the rest of the chart for the weekend from Box Office Mojo:

Weekend Box Office (November 27-29)

1. Twilight Saga: New Moon  ($42.5 M)
2. The Blind Side  ($40.1 M)
3. 2012  ($18 M)
4. Old Dogs  ($16.8 M)
5. A Christmas Carol  ($16 M)
6. Ninja Assassin  ($13.1 M)
7. Planet 51  ($10.2 M)
8. Precious  ($7.09 M)
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox  ($7.02 M)
10. The Men Who Stare at Goats  ($1.5 M)

Bring in some dramas, because December is chock full of them right away for the most part. This coming Friday starts the very limited release of Up in the Air that will eventually expand to it’s official Christmas Day release date. The rest consist of Armored, Brothers, Everybody’s Fine and Transylmania.

Coming off a solid first feature in V for Vendetta it seemed like director James McTeigue knew how to tell a solid story, and infuse some neatly staged action scenes. In Ninja Assassin, his approach feels low rent, low brow, and while I won’t get into the nature of how sometimes low brow, mindless entertainment can be great fun, all I can say is that this is scrapping the barrel of low brow entertainment. Certainly Ninja Assassin‘s goal wasn’t to make the definitive ninja film-that’s still left unmade-but there’s a reason why the ninja film is considerably goofy, especially when compared to the other cinematic cool guys: the samurais.

Ninjas are mindless, deadly, shadow dwellers, and casting of Rain doesn’t help. The film plays tricks with his character with is he or isn’t he a good guy, but the title spoils all. Rain has been touted as a possible next big thing, and while he has the physic and the skills, he cannot elevate the poor characterizations beyond the page, something a Jet Li, Tony Jaa, and Bruce Lee can do. The film’s most inspired moment, was when a Europol agent claimed he didn’t “look deadly, he looks like he’s in a boy band”, which is a playful jab at him, since Rain is in a South Korean pop band. During Speed Racer, Rain captivated the Wachowskis, who decided to place him in a martial arts film. I don’t deny Rain’s appeal, he looks good in a film, and McTeigue does craft a few awesomely staged scenes, but rumors of Rain being a heir to Bruce Lee in a proposed Enter the Dragon remake, are ill advised.

With the right material, I would like to see Rain again, but Ninja Assassin isn’t the right material. Ninjas might be cool, but CG blood isn’t cool. The film’s filled with CG carnage, and it’s very poor and incredible noticeable. In V for Vendetta, the physical hand-to-hand fights were great, there was a real presence behind Hugo Weaving’s punches. Ninja Assassin is about as deadly as the recent Mortal Kombat game. It’s way to processed, and whatever possible coolness could have leaked out from the pedestrian J. Michael Straczynski script, is evaporated with CG swords, blood, and violence. The Shaw Brothers never needed a computer to hack a limb off.

Big, bold, silly dialogue, a cable TV plot, and some uncool CG fights, Ninja Eh-ssassin feels like it should be clogging up the dump bin at Best Buy, rather than our multiplexes. Ask this ninja, why he isn’t cool.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Awaken the Dragon has already got The Shield writer/producer Kurt Sutter handling the script, as well as making his directorial debut. The film is said to be changing up the story of the original Enter the Dragon just a bit: it will now be about a lone FBI agent who pursues a rogue Shaolin monk to get him to participate in the world of underground fight clubs. WB is apparently looking for an already-established and well known American actor to play the agent, and now we know they’ve at least got Rain in mind for the ass-kicking monk.

Lord knows how this film will turn out, but Killer Film will be on top of all new updates of this Warner Bros Pictures remake.

The story will focus on a murder who is inspired by Poe’s stories. The movie also plans to address the suspicious last five days of Poe’s life, which started with him being found delirious on the streets of Baltimore wearing someone else’s clothes. He was never conscious long enough to detail what had occured, but called out “Reynolds” repeatedly in the hospital before his death.

Writer Hannah Shakespeare is set to co-write the script with Ben Livingston. Shakespeare’s credits include Loverboy, and NBC’s Bionic Woman. Ben Livingston is a newcomer, so that brings the total to… two. However, his had been a Brad Anderson (The Machinist) project before landing at McTeigue, so maybe some of that will carry over.

Source: FirstShowing.net

“You know… I… I would say… I’ll keep you guessing, actually. It’s good not to dispel every rumor, right?”

One of the longest development hell properities out there is a film based on the silly DC Comics character, Plastic Man. Before the Matrix was made, Larry and Andy Wachowski wrote a script based on the character. Again, here’s what McTeigue said about it:

“Obviously, Larry and Andy, did a script for Plastic Man back in the day. I’ll be very surprised if that movie gets made. We haven’t ever really talked about it. But I know it’s still a Joel [Silver] property or a Warner property…”

You can see James McTeigue next film, Ninja Assassin around Thanksgiving this year.

Source: /Film