KILLER'S KISS (1955)

A washed-up boxer lives in a low rent apartment and although he knows better, he gets involved with a local taxi dancer who is nothing but bad news. She's not a bad person, but the thug who owns the taxi dance hall she works at has the hots for her and he's not above sexually assaulting women or having his men beat the crap out of anybody who gets in his way.

KILLER"S KISS is rough around the edges and a little slow to start, but when you consider Director/Writer/Editor/Cinematographer/Producer Stanley Kubrick was only 26 when he made this film with $40 grand he borrowed from his uncle it's quite a remarkable film.  Especially when you compare it to other micro-budget Noirs of the time. (BLAST OF SILENCE I'm looking at you motherfucker, but not for too long cause I'll fall asleep.) Also, Kubrick was smart enough (although it was probably related to the low budget) to keep the entire thing a tight 67 minutes instead of padding it out.

But is it worth watching? Ehh, probably not. If you want to see Kubrick's beginnings to compare to the masterpieces he would make just a few years later then yes, but you're not really missing anything if you decide to skip it. If you only got time to watch one 67 minute film noir in your life then I say watch DETOUR instead.

A FRIEND IN NEED (2010)

I'm not even sure what the title of this film even is. The film itself says YEOUIDO ISLAND, but I couldn't find that anywhere online. I did find listings and a trailer for this film under the title A FRIEND IN NEED, so I'm going to go with that instead since it makes more sense. Either way, it wasn't a good film.

A loser dude is deep in debt to a loan shark. He's looked down upon at work by his co-workers and even his wife has lost all respect for him. Things are looking pretty grim for this sad sack loser. But then things suddenly turn around when his childhood friend shows up and after a long night of drinking he goes to work the next day to find out that his main competition at work was found dead. Murdered! Things take an even bigger turn when the guy he owes money to (and is pimping out his wife to pay off the interest!!!) turns up murdered and in the trash. Strange huh?

Not as strange as how a story with such a weak and unimaginative script could actually be made into a movie. The potential was there, but didn't happen. Not even close! I'm not giving anything away by saying there's a twist ending at the end, because if you didn't figure out the twist the instant the childhood friend character appeared onscreen then you have some problems. On the bright side, I did enjoy the acting. Everybody did a fine job and I especially liked the loan shark played by Kim Sung-Tae.

Anyway, A FRIEND IN NEED. Nice looking film, but the story is so simple that I thought it might be intentionally lulling me only to attack me with an awesome, mind-blowing ending, but no. It just ended and I was left completely disappointed. A year from now I won't even remember watching it.

THE LIVES OF OTHERS (2006)

Set in 1984, THE LIVES OF OTHERS tells the compelling story of a German Democratic Republic Staatssicherheit (Stasi) officer Gerd Wiesler. He's in charge of secret surveillance on a popular playwright, Georg Dreyman, who might be harboring anti-GDR feelings. Wiesler cannot find anything wrong with Dreyman. Wiesler soon discovers the real reason for the surveillance is one of the high officials has the hots for Dreyman's girlfriend and wants Dreyman out of the picture. Wiesler's been in the secret police business for a long time, but even so (or maybe because so) he still has a small spark of humanity left inside of him.

I really enjoyed THE LIVES OF OTHERS and after watching it I'm anxious to read some books about the subject. I found the whole idea interesting, but I was really intriguing that the GDR officials, even though they were doing something as highly unethical as bugging a person's home, still felt it important that they actually get concrete proof the person is guilty of whatever it is they're accused you of. Why even put on the charade? Another thing I found interesting was after the Stasi raid Dreyman's home and wreck the joint (tossing over furniture, cutting open sofa cushions) they left him a card to report any damaged stuff! What's the point of that?!  Mind games?

I kinda went off subject, so I'll just conclude by saying TLOO is excellent and you should watch it. The subject is fascinating, the filming locations look very authentic and the acting by everyone is perfect. It's easy to see why it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007. Hell, in my opinion, it's even better than THE DEPARTED which actually won Best Picture that year.