VIDEO REVIEWS

Rip It Up, Issue 247, 1 March 1998, Page 32

VIDEO REVIEWS

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ARMAGEDDON - Director: Hyunse Lee 4.5 billion years ago, an alien race discovered they were alone in the universe, and put into effect a program to populate other planets, using part-organic supercomputers to create life on barren, empty planets. Delta 89-88 had particular success with his life forms on Earth, where everything is fine until the very near future, when invaders from Gamma 66-66’s planet decimate most of earth’s cities. Hei Sung, a Korean schoolboy, learns he is the Delta 89-88’s avatar, and hulks up as the ‘Delta Boy’, to save what is left of the earth’s population from extinction. : This animated movie is closer to Astroboy than Ghost In The Shell, and more all ages friendly than most anime/manga, though the peculiar dialogue (“Will you be the supreme ruler, or a lifeless lump of meat?”) and rather lewd insinuations characteristic to the genre are probably above most kid’s - heads. Armageddon is enjoyable, but not as much as an apocalyptic, faithdestroying cartoon has the potential to be.

THE FIRST SHOT Director: David Lam The picture painted in The First Shot of early 70s — early 90s Hong. Kong is all dirty dealings, gangsters and extortion, where nearly every citizen either pays or receives ‘dirty money’ and only the Anti-Corruption Unit attempt to do anything about it. It's a fast moving and sometimes confusing story (which apparently has its origins in actual events), and one where the bullet casings and bodies pile up rapidly. Under Lam’s stylish direction, there are stand-out performances from Maggie Cheung (the action veteran who starred alongside current ‘Bond girl’ Michelle Yeoh in The Heroic Trio 1 & 2) and Simon Yam (who vomited at the sight of guns in Naked Killer). The First Shot has less genre-specific quirks and self-referential touches than many HK flicks, and as such may also appeal to non-aficionados, whose interest in Asian cinema begins and ends with Jackie Chan.

FACE OFF Director: John Woo John Travolta tells a story about trying to understand his motivation for one of Face Offs scenes by asking director John Woo to explain where his character had just come from. Afier a long pause, Woo’s face lit up, “You have just come from... somewhere!”

Forget the background, it's the on screen action that really counts with Woo, and in Face Off (his second

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Hollywood movie after the disappointingly ordinary Broken Arrow, which also starred Travolta) the action is so riveting you’ll overlook the basic implausibility of the premise that human faces can be surgically removed, swapped, and reattached. ¢

Travolta and Cage make the most of their switching roles in this compelling movie, where a federal agent adopts a terrorist’s face and identity in order to find a bomb that’s set to destroy LA. - It's classy, dumb, and a lot of fun. And it's great that John Woo has been able to inject his trademark stylistic ~ touches into the compromised Hollywood world. Expect even greater things in the future.

CRAPSTON VILLAS Vol 1 Director: Sarah Ann Kennedy This is a clay-mation soap, set in the vile and squalid (and hopefully fictional) Crapston Villas. It is made by the people responsible for Spitting Image, and directed by a veteran of that depressing load of bollocks, Eastenders. The denizens of this awful place (the Villas, not Albert Square) are a contemptible bunch, with not a sympathetic character amongst their sorry lot. It's frightening; the two thoroughly evil kids show the Simpson children up as goodygoods; Fatso, the grotesque cat who pukes at will, would make even the most ardent animal lover unsure; while Enid, the nasty, tripping granny, and the stupid, ugly bimbo, Flossie, are enough to shatter your faith in the basic goodness of humans (even though they're clay). The three episodes here are crass, Vulgar_and totally hilarious, and guaranteed to Teave-you wanting more. e