“The Hulk” Starring Eric Bana, Jennifer
Connelly Directed by Ang Lee
“The Hulk” is a comic book movie, not merely in its
superhero subject matter, but also in its split-screen frenzy,
which resembles the flipping of pages of animated drawings. You
accept the caricatured characters because they are precisely the
denizens that belong in this briskly edited visual world.
The most pressing issue presented in the film is what Jennifer
Connelly’s hair will do next. Will it stand straight and
silky, voluminous and windblown or curly and disheveled? In all
these states, she looks fabulous, and that may be the fault of
director Ang Lee, who loves making films about females-in-waiting
(“Sense and Sensibility,” “Eat Drink Man
Woman,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”). But
for Connelly, coming off the heavy triumvirate of “A
Beautiful Mind,” “Requiem for a Dream” and
“Pollock,” she is returning to her
“Rocketeer” roots and fulfilling the role of eye candy
exquisitely.
Apparently, according to the film’s title, the Hulk is not
incredible anymore. Yet he leaps across Ansel Adams photography
with ease, sports a thick skin impervious to bullets, plays with
tanks like Tonka Toys, and has the shaggy prophet Nick Nolte as his
mad-scientist father. This father and son team, along with
supporting actors Sam Elliott and Josh Lucas, provide ample male
aggression to balance Connelly’s emoting (she’s crying
in almost every scene). The only other woman of note leaves the
film early on. Lee’s manly action film ends up being about
how there are too few women in the world, and that’s not a
bad idea.
-Howard Ho
“2 Fast 2 Furious” Directed by John
Singleton Universal Studios
In the sequel to “The Fast and the Furious,” Paul
Walker returns to the racing circuit in order to help catch a
notorious smuggler. With the film set in Miami, Walker is
accompanied by a rag-tag team of ex-cons and a sexy undercover
agent, played by Eva Mendes, to help catch the crooked
criminal.
While some believed that without Vin Diesel there could be no
sequel, any missing persons were quickly forgotten during the
film’s opening race. The singers Tyrese and Ludacris, who
make their debut in the movie, are really the ones who steal the
show, while their colorful cars and tricked-out vehicles compete
for screen time with the beautiful Devon Aoki.
When director John Singleton set out to create “2 Fast 2
Furious,” he admittedly modeled his racing sequences from
video games such as “Grand Turismo 2,” which gave the
races within the movie a different feel from that of the original.
Unfortunately, instead of creating sleek sequences that
complemented the equally cool cars, the final product appeared more
comical than realistic.
In the end however, most fans probably won’t care about
the thin plot or how Walker made it to Key West from Miami in less
than 20 minutes (it takes three hours). Plot points aside, what
made the first movie a success were the street-glow cars that were
featured, and, at least on that level, the sequel does not
disappoint.
-CJ Yu