Drunken Master II (1994)
Won Fei-Hung (Jackie Chan) hides ginseng in the suitcase of an employee of the British consulate to avoid paying taxes. This innocent act backfires and Hung is inexplicably involved in a crazy conspiracy to steal a valuable Chinese antique.
Chan’s genius was a merger of eastern and western entertainment traditions, combining Chinese martial arts such as zui quan with the slapstick techniques derived from the Italian tradition.
This a fun movie because of the jaw-dropping stunt work which rivals the legendary work by silent film impresarios Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
The English dub is a little awkward, but this only adds to the movie’s low-fi charm.
The Wages of Fear (1953)
Desperate to escape a life of poverty, four immigrants in a small South American town agree to haul trucks of highly explosive nitroglycerin three hundred miles to put out a fire at an oil rig. The trip does not end well.
This movie is an exploration of the power of desperation, the limits of friendship, and the lure of money. The ending is a cautionary tale of hubris. The surviving members of the group, buoyed by their success in a dangerous mission, feel invincible, but learn too late no one is.
Henri-Georges Clouzot also directed Les Diaboliques (1955), a well-regarded psychological thriller, but this is his best film.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Despite the objections of his wife, Felicity (Meryl Streep), Mr. Fox (George Clooney) steals from three cruel farmers, including Franklin Bean (Michael Gambon). When the farmers plot their revenge, the Foxes band together with their animal friends to survive.
Wes Anderson uses stop-motion techniques to replicate the look of a pop-up children’s book and a folk-infused soundtrack to ramp up the whimsy in this delightful adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book.
Clooney is in full swagger mode, like he knows he’s the coolest guy in the room, but, in a rare disappointment, Streep barely registers in her first animated film.
Owen Wilson makes his obligatory Wes Anderson cameo as Skip, an albino river otter.
Bill Murray who plays Clive Badger, Mr. Fox’s attorney, has become the elder statesmen of Wes Anderson’s group of travelers, and because of my love of Murray, I have an automatic affinity for Anderson’s films.
Visually unique and full of bemused angst, Wes Anderson is the answer to what would happen if John Hughes and Tim Burton mated. This adorable film is a perfect way to introduce children to his off kilter films and encourage them to enter into the crazy literary world of Roald Dahl.