The Straight Story (1999)

"What do you need that grabber for, Alvin?"
"Grabbin'."

Alvin Straight is 73 years old. His eyes are bad, his hips are stiff and he can't drive anymore but when the brother he hasn't spoken to for ten years has a stroke he decides he needs to see him. Rose, Alvin's daughter, can't take him and there are no buses to take him the 240 miles from Laurens, Iowa to Blue River, Wisconsin and so Alvin builds a trailer and hitches it to his 1966 John Deere ride-on lawn mower.

Beautiful and incredibly emotional film from David Lynch that is based on a true story. Shot in sequence, something I think always adds to the reality and honesty of a movie, this film has two of the best performance you're ever likely to see.

The wonderful Richard Farnsworth, who made his debut 63 years earlier in the Marx Brothers picture A Day at the Races, really deserved to win the Oscar for this, his last film (Kevin Spacy won it for American Beauty but Farnsworth was better). His tour de force as Alvin Straight is a perfectly pitched mix of heart wrenching and heart warming that manages to both terrify and up-lift the viewer at every turn, or hill. Gregory Peck was originally intended for the part of Alvin and although I'm a great fan of his I can't imagine how awful and creepy that would have been. No one could have played this delightful old man better than this delightful old man.

Sissy Spacek plays Rose, Alvin's daughter who has her own terribly tragic story, and again she deserved much greater acclaim then she was given. Unrecognisable from the girl covered in pig's blood 20 years earlier her performance is full of emotion and her method near perfect.
The scenery of mid-west America, though admittedly mainly corn and wheat fields, is stunning and beautifully shot by Freddie Francis who made The Elephant Man and Dune and when coupled with the haunting soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti it really is something else.

I simply love this film. Yes it's slow, yes it's a story about an old man on a lawn mower, there is no sex, drugs and rock'n roll but when a story is right it's right, what more do you need?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166896/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_26

Funeral in Berlin (1966)

A year after the Ipcress File Michael Cain is at it again as Harry Palmer, the smart talking cockney spy.

The Russian general in charge of security at the Berlin wall wants to defect to Britain. Harry Palmer is sent to check him out and makes arraignments with a German named Kreutzman to fake a funeral and bring him over. All is not as it seems though and when he is picked up by a beautiful Israeli spy Harry starts to suspect there's more to it then just a defection.

Director Guy Hamilton, in between Goldfinger and Battle of Britain, takes a turn at the Palmer franchise. More seriously done than his other spy movies, all Bonds, Hamilton sticks with the Czech cinematographer Otto Heller who made The Ipcress File which means that the low shot, sideways angles that are the hallmark of the first film are here too, though some of the snappier dialogue is missing. Heller's earlier titles included The Lady Killers, Victim and Peeping Tom. One story to come out of the production is that, during filming in Berlin, Russian border guards would use mirrors to disrupt filming meaning some takes had to be done over and over or from much greater distances than first intended.

Though superior in many ways to the spy stories that would follow it, this film was somewhat eclipsed by the others. The world didn't want the drabness of the Wall, men in macs and glasses, it wanted sex, fast cars and gadgets and Guy Hamilton, together with Harry Saltzman, would give them just that. Bond was here to stay and it would be another 13 years before John le Carré's little man George Smiley would be on our screens, dragging us back to the not very glamorous reality of the British Secret Service.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060437/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

And Then There Were None (1954)

Another piece of Sunday Afternoon fun. Based on the Agatha Christie play, rather than her original book, this is part who done it and part who'll make it through.

Ten people, including a husband and wife, a retired General, a Judge, a Doctor and an adventurer are invited for a weekend on an isolated island by the mysterious Mr U. N. Owen. At exactly 8 o'clock on the first night a record is played accusing each of them of having been responsible for someones death. Most deny their part, some become angry but one, a crazy prince and professional party-goer, admits drunkenly hitting a couple in his car. As he does so he takes a drink and immediately drops down dead. This is the first of a series of deaths that seem to play along the same lines as the nursery rhyme Ten Little Indians. Mr. Owen is bumping them off one by one but who is he and who, if anyone, will survive?

French writer/director René Clair chose a wonderfully varied and international group of character actors to front this classic murder mystery. C. Aubrey Smith, the ex test cricketer, plays the General, Irish actor and Oscar winner Barry Fitzgerald plays the judge and Walter Huston, who also won an Oscar for his role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, is the doctor. It very much feels like a play on film, which is exactly what it is.
Perfect after lunch family fare.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037515/?ref_=nm_knf_t4

Bush Tucker Man (TV, 1988-1990)

Before Ray Mears started doing his bush-craft on British TV, there was Major Les Hiddins of the Australian Army. From 1988 to 1990 Les took British viewers on trips across the wild and ranging outback of Australia, camping in deserts and jungles, eating bugs and berries and making canoes out of bark.

As a young man, Les joined the army and served two tours of duty in Vietnam between 1966 and 1968. Having always had an interest in Australian Aboriginal culture as well as survival techniques used by indigenous peoples around the world he went on to help develop the Australian Army's survival manual printed in 1987 as well as his world famous Snack Maps, maps of the outback with pictures of edible plants and animals printed on the back. In 1988 ABC made the series Bush Tucker Man and brought Les' skills, as well as his natural charisma, to the rest of the world. As an 8 year old child I watched amazed as Lez, in his trademark hat, dug up and ate Witchetty grubs, fat white pupa that he told me tasted of scrambled eggs. I was transfixed as this rough but friendly man drove his Land Rover through rivers, pointing out crocodiles and telling stories of survival against all odds. It made me feel that if there was a plane crash, if my ship sank and all was lost I would make it, I could survive with the knowledge he had imparted! Of course these things don't often come up for a boy living in the heart of one of England's biggest cities but what did that matter... I know I could do it.

This was, and is, a great show. Les' passion for what he does is truly infectious and the exotic nature of the people and places he visits, for anyone outside Australia that is, are a thrill. Much more than just Kangaroos and Didgeridoos.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0461719/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_3

Manhunter (1986)

"You owe me awe!"

Another signature piece of 80s film making here from director Michael Mann and the first on-screen outing for Thomas Harris' Dr. Hannibal Lecktor.

Two families have been brutally murdered in their own homes a month apart. Jack Crawford of the F.B.I's behavioural science division has nothing and time is running out. He turns to the one man with a track record in finding and stopping this type of psychopath. The man who shot and killed the murderer Garrett Jacob Hobbes, the man who caught Hannibal 'The Cannibal' Lecktor, the now retired Will Graham. Graham was badly hurt in the capture of Lecktor and it's going to take everything he's got in him to get back into the hunt. Not only that, he's going to have to speak to his old enemy the doctor.
Francis Dollarhyde is obsessed with a painting by William Blake. He believes that the Great Red Dragon is inside him, that they are becoming one, but when Francis falls in love he begins to fight back. Will Francis be able to hold back the dragon? Can Graham find him before he strikes again or will a new family be part of his becoming?

William Petersen steps out again for Michael Mann, this time in the starring role, and although he seems a little posy he's not at all bad as he lays the ground work for his later role in CSI. Tom Noonan is towering and intense as the deranged killer. In the book, Dollarhyde is hugely introverted due to a facial disfigurement and although that's slightly missing from the movie Noonan's method puts across his shyness very well, in particular in the scene with the tiger. Brian Cox is the first of half a dozen or more to play Lecktor on film and TV around the world and he's by far the best. Unlike Anthony Hopkins' better known performances in the later films Cox doesn't play the pantomime villain, sniffing the air and giving knowing looks, but the unblinking cleanliness of the act gives the audience a real feeling of the malevolent inelegance behind the cannibalistic doctor's interaction with Graham. The white cell, the bars and the white uniform, whether intentional or not, will relate wonderfully with the scene with the sleeping tiger and add even more power to the doctor.
Actor Frankie Faison plays Lt. Fisk. He'll appear in 3 of the next 4 Hannibal films as Barney, the doctors jailer.
Michael Mann's fingerprints are all over this film. The wistful looks out to sea, the neon and electronic music, not to mention Petersen's awful pastel pink shorts, make it an archetypal 80s classic.

Brian Cox told a story on the BBC's Top Gear that when the part in The Silence of the Lambs was being cast his agent, whom he shared with Hopkins, didn't tell him about it. I also read that when Cox was filming this film Hopkins was playing Lear at the National Theatre and when Hopkins was filming as Lecktor Cox was playing Lear at the National. I wonder if it was the same agent messing with them...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091474/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The Day of The Jackal (1973)

"The time elapsed from the first to the last shot was seven seconds. In all, more than 140 shots were fired. Sever bullets pierced the president's car; one came within an inch of his head. But, as if by a miracle, neither he nor anyone else was hurt."

The O.S.S, an organisation made up of ex-Legionaries and French army officers, feel de Gaulle has betrayed them and France by giving Algeria back. They want him dead and having tried and failed themselves their only option is to hire an outsider, an Englishman who calls himself The Jackal.

Based on the excellent novel by Frederick Forsyth this film by director Fred Zinnemann is something of a slow burner. Like High Noon, one of the director's earlier and better known films, it's a matter of a long build up to quick, bloody action. Edward Fox, an actor not that well known internationally at the time, was chosen ahead of the likes of Michael Cain and Rodger Moore to play the Jackal and does so to great affect. Cain would have been far too rough and Moore would have hammed it up. This is a believable thriller, not Bond. Anglo-French actor Michael Lonsdale gives a measured and thoughtful performance as the cop chasing the Jackal through Italy and across France. An underused actor in English language film that most people will recognise from his roles as the old CIA man in Ronin or Drax, the Bond villain in Moonraker. Derek Jacobi who had already co-stared in The Odessa File, another Forsyth story, makes an appearance as Lonsdales' second in command.

Forsyths' research is always outstanding and his publishing and the subsequent filming of the techniques used by real forgers to obtain passports led to the British authorities tightening their routines. There are several untrue stories in popular culture about the book and film being used by people as manuals on assassination. It is true however that the international terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez was given the nickname Carlos the Jackal after it was falsely reported that he kept a copy of the book.

Though a little slow and long I have a real soft spot for this film. The performances are good and the realism is a refreshing counter to the more outlandish spy thrillers of the time.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069947/?ref_=nv_sr_1

M (1931)

There is a child murderer loose on the streets of Berlin. The police presence, though massive, has so far failed to catch him but it is disrupting the rest of the city's underworld community. Disgusted by the murderer's actions and in an attempt get back to normal business the organised criminal syndicates decide to take action themselves to find, try and punish the killer.

Before taking the part of Hans Beckert, the child murderer, in Fritz Lang's ground breaking M, Peter Lorre had primarily been known as a comedic actor. It was this terrifying, sweating performance as the whistling killer that would redefine his career and lead him to roles in films like The Maltese Falcon and The Man Who Knew Too Much. It was this role however that was his crowning moment and it is widely celebrated as one of the greatest on-screen performances of all time.

Austrian director Fritz Lang was one of cinema's greats and the master of the cross-genera thriller. In the epic Metropolis he mixed social commentary on class distinction with science fiction and a love story, in Man Hunt he commented on Britain's lone stand against Nazism and in M he broke ground in featuring a psychopathic sexual murderer, the first time this had been done on the big screen. His use of light and sound are a lesson for any would-be director, using In The Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt was the first time a film character had their own theme. The supporting cast are great and all the more impressive for the fact that a lot of them were amateurs, real criminals and beggars and although it's not them in the movie there really was a beggars' union at that time in Berlin. It was also one of the first films to have a voice-over narrative.

Although the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels personally loved the film it was banned in 1931 because of the director and star's Jewish heritages. Kept in a vault in Germany it wasn't re-released until 1966.

This is not just one of the best of its time, it's one of the best ever made and anyone with a real interest in film should see it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022100/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_32

Brazil (1985)

Terry Gilliam's nightmarish vision of a distopian future has Jonathan Pryces' Sam Lowry trapped in a world of bureaucracy. A Winston Smith like character, he dreams of fighting the machine, literally, before flying away with the woman he loves. When an administrative mistake gives him the opportunity to right a wrong he finds himself dragged into a world of freedom fighting and revolutionary plumbers, fantasy, plastic surgery and torture.

Terry Gilliam's films often have a large scale and slightly confusing feel about them and this is no exception. Pryce is good as our everyman hero, if a little watery, and there's a good cameo from Bob Hoskins as well as nice performances from Ian Holm, Ian Richardson, Jim Broadbent and Peter Vaughan. Although I like the character, the casting of Robert De Niro as Harry Tuttle the underground plumber feels too much like a grab for a wider audience. Other than Michael Palin, whose performance is one of his best, the real stars of this piece are the director's vision and the sets. Given the modern practise of using CGI for everything it's great to see real actors using real props.
As with a lot of Gilliam's films, Brazil was beset with production problems and arguments with the distributors. Universal Executive Sid Sheinberg tried to block its release in the belief that it wasn't commercial enough but after several rather public arguments and a critics' screening in which it was hailed as the best film of the year he backed down.

It's been released in 3 different cuts over the years, the shortest being at 94 minutes, and although the final cut is widely thought to be one of the top 100 movies ever made I would argue that at almost two and a half hours it's a bit too damn long.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Youth of the Beast (1963)

Jô Shishido is one tough son of a bitch and this is a real classic of 60s Japanese noir.

After a policeman dies a new Yakuza arrives in town and gets to cracking the skulls of anyone who gets in his way. Two of the local gangs start paying attention to him and he soon starts on a plan to play one off against the other. Is it a take-over bid or a ploy to earn money, or is there more to it?

The story is your basic Yojimbo/Fist Full of Dollars deal but with a nice little revenge twist to keep us going, add to that a handful of crazy Yakuza types and an outstanding, punchy jazz soundtrack and this film is a lot of fun. Director Seijun Suzuki's use of music, car chases, sex and torture gives it a very modern feel while the costumes throw you back to 50s America. He also uses a trick of going from black and white in the opening scene to colour for the rest of the film, something he'll do again in the better known Tokyo Drifter.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057697/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

13 Rue Madelein (1947)

James Cagney stars in this semi-documentary style war film by How The West Was Won director Henry Hathaway.

Bob Sharkey is one of the top guys in 077, America's cloak and dagger division during the war. While training a new batch of recruits he learns that one of them is a Nazi spy but rather than arresting him he tries to send him over with some false information. Things don't go according to plan and after killing one of his team mates the spy escapes, putting the whole operation in jeopardy. Sharkey only has one option, to go in himself and finish the job.

This is a good and stirring story to lift the post-war mood. Hathaway was a great story teller though some of his films, True Grit for instance, can feel a little long but not this one. James Cagney is always good though I find it a little hard to believe he could convince anyone he was French with his accent. At one point he was one of the highest ranked Judo masters in the US and in both the training scene and the fight scenes you get to see him do his stuff.

Originally Cagney's character was called Donovan and 077 was O.S.S but it was only a year and a half after the war ended and the head of the real O.S.S, one Major General William Joseph Donovan, didn't like the idea that Americas secret service would be shown as being infiltrated by a Nazi spy and so the names were changed. The films title is the address of the Gestapo headquarters in Le Havre, the reason for the reference being made clear at the end of the film. Despite the suggestion in the opening titles this is not a true story though some aspects are true and the final scene with the bombers did happen, all be it in different circumstances.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038279/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Falling Down (1993)

"I'm goin' home! Clear a path you motherfucker!... Clear a path! I'm goin' home!"

William Foster just wants to go home and see his daughter on her birthday but he's stuck in a traffic jam, in a car with no air-con, and the walls are closing in on him. He's had enough. He gets out of his car and, ignoring the calls of the other drivers, he starts to walk. Farther down the road, also stuck in his car, is Sergeant Prendergast, a cop on his last day at work before retirement. As his day goes on he meets a Korean shopkeeper who's been assaulted, attends a drive-by shooting gone wrong, an armed robbery at a burger bar and a dead fascist in an army surplus store and as he goes along everyone tells him about a man in a shirt and tie who just wants to go home and see his daughter.

Although The Lost Boys and Flatliners are very good this is my favourite of Joel Schumacher's films. The heat and claustrophobia of the opening scene, the intensity of Michael Douglas' performance  (he and I think it's his best) and the foil of Robert Duvall's soft hearted cop really draw the audience in. At times you'll find yourself rooting for Foster, his rants in the shops and on the golf course are easy to go with, but the underlying menace and the hints at his past madness are always there. The cut's very well done and the whole production feels very tight. Well timed and well written by actor Ebbe Roe Smith, the script was turned down by every studio until Dougles got on board and got the money from a mix of Alcor, Regency and Canal +.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106856/?ref_=ttco_co_tt

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV, 1979)

After a failed mission in Czechoslovakia that has left a British intelligence man in the hands of the Soviets, Control, the head of the SIS, is dead and his right hand man Smiley has been retired. When Smiley returns home one night he finds Peter Guillam, one of his old proteges, is waiting to take him to a secret meeting. Ricky Tarr is one of their men gone AWOL and he has a story to tell, a story about spies...

British TV drama had something of a heyday in the late 70s and early 80s with shows like I Claudius, House of Cards and this. Some of Britain's best actors were turning to telly, much to the pleasure of the viewer Tinker Taylor being Alec Guinness' first go at it. Based on the novel by John le Carré, a genuine ex member of the secret service, the suburban, understated action gives all a very real feel. There are no ridiculous car chases or shoot-outs in this one, which is funny given that the director John Irvin is better known for the action films Raw Deal and Hamburger Hill. Guinness, despite his personal feeling that he wouldn't be right for the part, is wonderful as Smiley, the quiet and put-upon man from the ministry. Michael Jayston is a very good Peter Guillam and went on to be the voice of every le Carré audiobook I've heard, and I've heard them all. Beryl Reid, though better known as a comedy actress, does a stunning and tragic turn as Connie and Ian Richardson as Bill Haydon shows his usual professionalism. There are simply too many good actors to name them all here.
I loved Gary Oldman's film version of a couple of years ago but this series takes the gloss off it and reminds you that real espionage isn't about Bond gadgets and Bourne chases, it's about people and the lies they tell.

I guess it's all for the good of the country...but whose?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080297/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Yojimbo (1961)

One of the more fun outings from the masters of Japanese cinema, Akira Kurosawa and Toshirô Mifune.

A ronin (masterless samurai) arrives in a small town to find it beset by two warring criminal clans and soon starts playing one off against the other. When the young gangster Unosuke returns home with his new revolver he beats our man for interfering and slaughters the rival clan. During the massacre our man escapes but when Unosuke finds out he kidnaps his only friend, holding him to ransom and forcing the final duel.

If you feel you recognise this story it's probably because you've seen it. A Fistful of Dollars, Last Man Standing and even Miller's Crossing are all remakes of this film but the original is still the best. Kurosawa was one of the greatest and most influential story tellers there has ever been and remakes of his movies are some of the west's most beloved films. The Magnificent Seven, Pulp Fiction and Star Wars, none of these would exist without this giant of the cinema. His partnership with Toshirô Mifune lasted for 16 films and Kurosawa's accidental discovery of Mifune, he's said to have walked into an audition by mistake where the director fell in love with his angry reaction, brought the world one of the largest presences ever seen on screen.
Though, in terms of camera work or lighting, there are no great tricks in this one it's a wonderfully crafted story with some great action, acting and comedy moments and you'll enjoy the comparisons between Mifune and Eastwood.
Watch this to see two of the best making one of the best.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055630/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The PJs (TV,1999-2001)

Fairly short lived and extremely funny stop-motion animation staring Eddie Murphy and a host of character and voice actors including Pepe Serna who played Angle in Scarface.

Thurgood is the Super Intendant (caretaker) of a housing project in Chicago. He spends his days battling with rats and toilets, hanging out with the neighbourhood kids and arguing with the residents. In his building live Calvin and Juicy the schoolboys, the old lady Mrs Avery, Haiti Lady the Voodoo witch, Tarnell the hustler and Smokey the crack-head. Over his time he's fought off gang-bangers, built a racetrack from the top of the high-rise to the bottom, become a porn magnet and a preacher and lost his crown as the Gumbo king.

Produced for Fox and MTV the show ran for 3 seasons in the late 90s and early 2000s with a vague attempt at a reboot in 2008 and though there are 3, 1 and 2 are the only seasons worth watching. It was the first mainstream show on American TV to use stop-motion and although it looks like claymation it was actually done with an easier-to-use foam technique.
The characterisations are really good and so was the writing. The dynamic between Thurgood and Smokey, everyones favourite crack-head, was particularly good. It did suffer in the third series. Eddie Murphy was no longer doing the voice of Thurgood, the writers had changed and they added new and uninteresting characters but this happens a lot with sitcoms.
Not nearly as well known as Futurama or American Dad but certainly comparable.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182621/?ref_=ttco_co_tt

The Crimson Rivers (2000)

Rather over-cooked but still exciting French cop thriller by La Haine and Gothica director Mathieu Kassovitz (he's also the junkie mugger in The Fifth Element).

A body is found tied, naked and with the hands and eyes missing in a crevasse high on a mountain in alpine France and commissioner Pierre Niemans is brought in from Paris to investigate. Meanwhile, local detective Max Kerkerian is working on a case of desecration at the cemetery and a break-in at a primary school that leads him to the 20 year old accidental death of a little girl and a nun who has spent the last 15 years in the dark. As the cases coincide, stories of nepotism, eugenics and murder come to the surface along with a bunch more bodies.

Without giving anything away, the stories' twists and complications, of which there are many, do boarder on the ridicules but the pacing and main performances are good enough to keep the viewer interested and rolling with it. Jean Reno is Niemans and although nobody could ever claim he's a great actor he's a good one that got a couple of great parts and he's good in this. Vincent Cassel plays Kerkerian. It's not anywhere near as good a performance as he gave in La Haine but he's intense, confused or sardonic at all the right times as the gung-ho young detective and to be honest out does Reno in the acting stakes. The very beautiful Nadia Farès is our female lead. It would be hard for me to tell you too much about her part without giving out spoilers, so I won't. As far as her acting goes she's quite good. A little moody in parts but that fits the bill. As far as the production goes, the sets are good and the location is very nice but there's nothing overly special about the rest. Jean-Pierre Cassel, Vincent's father, plays the Dr. He's by far the highest quality in the film but he's so heavily made-up and the part is so small that you don't recognise him.
It suffers from the same thing as all these French thrillers, over writing, but as I said before you easily get over that and it ends up really enjoyable.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0228786/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Marathon Man (1976)

"Is it safe?"

When his brother is killed in an accident in New York, Szell, a Nazi hiding in the jungles of South America, is spooked. He leaves his hiding place and travels to the States to collect his hidden loot convinced that the authorities are onto him. Meanwhile Doc, a member of the "division", is murdered by one of Szell's men. That's not enough for the Nazi, he needs to know how close they are and so he kidnaps Doc's brother, a student and runner, and tries to find some answers.

Staring Rod Scheider as Doc, Dustin Hoffman as his brother Babe and Laurence Olivier as Szell, this is another of those "grey 70s" thrillers written by William Goldman and directed by Midnight Cowboy director John Schlesinger. It's a tense and brooding film featuring an iconic dental torture scene and carrying themes of love, family and, over all, betrayal. Scheider is better remembered for this than he is for Jaws and Hoffman still seems young and hungry, although he was 38. A real mid-seventies American classic only let down by the slightly silly make up on Larry Olivier. His rather grey look however may have something to do with the fact that he was suffering from a very aggressive cancer at the time of filming and in fact it took pressure from the House of Lords to get Lloyds to insure him so he could take the part.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074860/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Election (2005)

Johnnie To's most complete movie is a fine blend of action and story.

For hundreds of years there has been an elected chairman of the triad societies. He looks after the sacred baton, gives out favours and dispenses justice while keeping the peace among the families. It has been 5 years and it is time for an election and a new chairman. Lok and Big D are the main contenders. Lok is the businessman, Big D the young gun. It is up to the uncles to vote and Big D is spreading his bribes about, and his muscle.

Simon Yam, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Louis Koo, Suet Lam and Tian-Lin Wang; some of the best talent in Chinese cinema come together to cast this one and the product is a well rounded action thriller. Big D and Uncle Long Gun provide some good comedy to balance the violence of Big Head, Jet and the others. There's a really good soundtrack and it feels much more convincing than a lot of other Chinese gangster flics. Intricate, well made and not just another shoot-em-up.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434008/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2