Tag Archives: Daniel Baldwin

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How to Train Your Latin Dragon

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The Fist of the Condor

by Daniel Baldwin

Since 2006, the Chilean powerhouse team of writer/director Ernesto Diaz Espinoza and martial arts superstar Marko Zaror has been delivering some of the best independent action cinema in the world. From raucous martial arts mayhem (Kiltro) to street-level superhero satire (Mirageman) to Eurospy parody (Mandrill), their wild body of work together has been a diabolical fondue of influences ranging from kung fu movies to spaghetti westerns to blaxploitation cinema and beyond. What makes them all the more impressive is that of the four previous films they’ve made together, no two are alike in terms of style and tone. Other than a good time, you never know what you’re going to get from an Espinoza and Zaror pairing.

The Fist of the Condor sees this duo reuniting for the first time in almost a decade. Their last outing, the rogue assassin tale Redeemer, had been their weakest effort to date, but I’m happy to report that they’ve bounced back here and then some. A deep-flowing love of classic kung fu cinema has always run throughout their collaborations, but it’s never flowed as deeply or as lovingly as it does here.

This is a martial arts adventure just as concerned with evoking the philosophy of both the genre and the real-life practices behind it as it is in showcasing expertly-choreographed fights. There is a poeticism behind the fisticuffs on display here that calls to mind the Hong Kong classics of yore, leaving us with a masterful modern piece of meditative martial arts cinema that would make the Shaw Brothers smile.

Espinoza has always had a way with striking imagery that is a delicious mix of exquisite location photography and beautiful artifice that holds decades of movie knowledge behind it. Condor is no different, as it births some of the best sequences his wonderful mind has conjured to date. All backed by another excellent ‘70s-infused score by longtime collaborator Rocco, of course!

Those whose only experience with Marko “The Latin Dragon” Zaror are his villainous turns in Hollywood films such as John Wick: Chapter 4 and Machete Kills might be surprised to see the monk-like heroism of his primary role here. Fear not, however, as he also plays his own evil twin! His heroic (but not innocent) protagonist Guerrero is his best role since Kiltro and one we’ll be lucky to see continue, since this is meant to be the first in a trilogy. The next two cannot get here soon enough.

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Screening Room: John Wick 4, A Good Person, One Fine Morning, Return to Seoul & More

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John Wick Chapter 4, A Good Person, Return to Seoul, One Fine Morning, Kubrick by Kubrick, The Tutor, Chantilly Bridge

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Screening Room: Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Inside, Boston Strangler, Magician’s Elephant & More

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Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Inside, Boston Strangler, Moving On, The Magician’s Elephant, Leave, Are You Lonesome Tonight?

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Born on the Fluff of July

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Unicorn Wars

by Daniel Baldwin

Blood. Steel. Pain. Cuddles.

That’s the motto constantly being pummeled into the minds of the teddy bear soldiers by their theocratic, fascistic leaders. Their enemy? The unicorns, a seemingly peaceful race that resides within a natural wooded paradise called the Magic Forest. The bears want what the unicorns have and they aim to take it with deadly brute force. Emphasis on brute.

Albert Vazquez’s animated Spanish-language war satire is, simply put, a sight to behold. Vazquez takes all of the hallmarks and horrors of Vietnam War cinema and wraps them in a lusciously cartoonish new skin, rendering incredibly grisly terrors all the more potent. Too often, societies send their children off to fight their wars and what is more child-like than a teddy bear? Instead of putting guns in the hands of human teens, Vazquez arms impressionable teddies with bows, arrows, knives, and grenades, sending them off to destroy the natural world around them for its resources.

If it sounds like a scathing indictment of human behavior for the entirety of our history, that’s because that is exactly what it is. Man’s inhumanity to man is on full display here in numerous ways, both in a war between two vastly different cultures and in how the bears treat one another. Nearly all the film’s main characters are a vicious miserable lot, despite their Care Bear-ish looks. Every punch, stab, shot, bludgeoning, and impalement packs a wallop as it lays the horror of war bare for all to see. Pun intended.

If Unicorn Wars has any major failings, it’s that its crude sexual humor sometimes undercuts the deathly serious satirical message. The unicorns are also underdeveloped. The film cannot decide whether to showcase their side of all this or just leave them as an enigmatic (and largely peaceful) race. As a result, an early subplot involving a few unicorns peters out by the midpoint of the film and never really resolves in any meaningful way.

Vazquez is aiming for something as potent as Watership Down and The Plague Dogs here. While his reach ultimately exceeds his grasp, he still manages to conjure up a very striking and occasionally moving piece of adult animation – right down to an absolutely haunting final sequence. That Unicorn Wars is only his second feature makes it all the more impressive. Keep your eyes on this filmmaker, folks.

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Lock, Stock, and a Barrel of Laughs

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Three Day Millionaire

by Daniel Baldwin

What would you do if, after being handed a big paycheck, you found out that it might be your last? That your bosses had conspired to do away with your job? If you’re a character in the latest film from Jack Spring (Destination Dewsbury), you’d find yourself in a British heist comedy!

Three Day Millionaire follows a gaggle of “Trawler-men” from the port town of Grimsby, England as they come ashore to have themselves a good time with their latest hefty batch of wages, only to find themselves in a bit of a pickle. Their world is about to move on without them, leaving them with only hope and desperate measures. It’s a tale as old as time: the smalltown little guy versus the unflinching, uncaring machine that is corporate “progress” and greed.

Director/producer Spring takes this premise and fashions a dark comedy around it, imbuing the all-too-familiar plight of the working man with all the British crime comedy tropes that we have come to love throughout the decades. As well as a few that maybe should have been allowed to die off. The resulting concoction presents itself as a smaller, more regional riff on the works of Guy Ritchie, Danny Boyle, and Edgar Wright.

The good news is that this is filled with a lot of personality, which can go a very long way in films of this type. The bad news is that sometimes it goes a bit too far into pastiche, particularly when it comes to the freeze-framed “character bio” introductions.

Three Day Millionaire never truly finds an identity purely its own, instead leaning on the aforementioned auteurs to get its tale across. Its Ritchie-ness is thick, but also shallower than Guy. Its party-hard Boyle-isms are never as biting as Danny’s. It’s Wright-ings never fully measure up to the wittiness of Edgar. Despite all of this, as well as some pacing issues, it still manages to be a laugh-filled good time.

If you’re in the mood for a quainter British black comedy caper picture, it’ll get the job done. Not every film needs to rewrite the rule book, as sometimes you just want something that will deliver what’s on the box. Jack Spring’s Three Day Millionaire does just that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu-7IrMxDFQ

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You Know Their Name

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The Other Fellow

by Daniel Baldwin

In 1953, while writing Casino Royale, Ian Fleming decided to name his hero after an ornithologist who had written a book on Caribbean birds that he enjoyed. That name was Bond. James Bond. You know his name and you know his number, but what about all of the other folks out there who share the same name?

Our names are a part of our identity. Some of us like our names; others don’t. So too it goes for the other souls around the globe who are named James Bond. Matthew Bauer’s documentary The Other Fellow is their story. From an annoyed lawyer to a self-made raconteur to someone fleeing a real-life villain to another accused of murder, these people carry both the pleasure and the pain of being compared to the world’s most famous spy every time they introduce themselves.

Much like the Bond films, this documentary is a globe-trotting affair filled with beauty, grief, suspense, and yes, even product placement. In most hands, this could have been a cheap piece of cinematic fluff meant to grift some money off of Bond fans, but the filmmakers have managed to craft something far more meaningful here. Whether or not you sympathize with the varying trials and tribulations of its different subjects, The Other Fellow is a compelling and human look into identity – be it chosen or not – and how it affects a person as they go through life.

Why would someone intentionally change their name to James Bond? Well, as it turns out, there can be some very good reasons for that. Similarly, there are scenarios in which carrying that name could ruin your entire life because of the baggage it carries. Being Bond comes with a cost, be it a grand one or just the occasional annoying one in the form of bad jokes from strangers. For better or worse, such is the way of things when one shares a name with a celebrity (be they real or fictional), which is something yours truly knows a tiny bit about.

The Other Fellow is an intriguing and insightful look at how our names can shape our personality, our growth, our day-to-day lives, and ultimately our future. It’s an 80-minute dive into identity that, much like its subjects, just happens to evoke a certain 00 agent. It might not leave you shaken and stirred, but it’s worth a look.

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Screening Room: Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Your Place Or Mine, No Bears, Consecration & More

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Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Your Place or Mine, No Bears, All That Breathes, Consecration, Attachment, Woman of the Photographs, Daughter, The Civil Dead, Mean Spirited

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Way Down in Poconos

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Mean Spirited

by Daniel Baldwin

Influencer-themed genre fare seems to be all the rage these days. The latest entry in this quickly-expanding subgenre is writer/director/co-star Jeff Ryan’s Mean Spirited. This satirical slice of would-be spookery sees a pair of childhood friends (and former vlogger business partners) attempting to reconnect over the course of a weekend vacation in the Poconos, but the realm of the supernatural has other plans for the two of them.

There is quite a bit of insightful commentary and scathing satire of YouTuber culture, influencer vapidity, and modern social media posturing on display here. All of this is reinforced by intentional editing choices that mimic many vlog styles, all the while sending them up in the process. We are gifted with a mix of both completed vlog footage, as well as unedited video, which allows for the public façade to be peeled back on these characters when there’s no one for them to put on a show for. It’s in these moments that the film hits its stride.

Unfortunately, all of it is mired by a wobbly execution of the film’s genre elements. Comedy is an insanely subjective genre, more so than even horror, but even taking that into consideration, a little bit of obnoxious YouTuber humor goes a long way. Even in a satire, too much can push the grating needle into the red, and that’s a trap the filmmakers fall into here. Add in the fact that the actual scares come way too late, and the end result is a horror comedy that never manages to find a healthy balance between either genre.

Mean Spirited may not be one of the better entries in the influencer-themed horror comedy subgenre, but if you’re a fan of found footage, mockumentaries, and/or YouTuber culture, you might still find some enjoyment within. You might also perhaps want to consider avoiding weekend getaways to the Poconos with an estranged friend.

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Screening Room: Missing, The Son, Alice Darling & More

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Missing, The Son, Alice Darling, Legions, There’s Something Wrong with the Children, Take Back the Night, Devil to Pay, Holy Spider, Back to the Wharf, New Gods Yang Jian, All Eyes Off Me