‘Breaking and Re-entering’
Chang Po-chun (Chen Bo-lin) and his four-person crew have just pulled off the perfect bank heist. But their triumph is short-lived: The man who hired them for this swindle, Chen Hai-jui (Wu Kang-ren), turns out to be the head of the bank. He wants to take the money, murder them and pin the robbery on a young bank employee (Cecilia Choi) — who happens to be Chang’s former flame. To save their hides, and hers, they need to break in, return the money and expose the bank director’s fraud.
The Taiwanese director Leo Wang’s action-comedy “Breaking and Re-entering” is wonderfully hilarious, relying on slow-motion shots — such as one of Chang’s friends staring longingly into his eyes, rom-com style, while taking a bullet for him — for entertaining gags. Wang’s action also feels indebted to Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” movies each time Chang calculates the strategies for his fights before launching into the eat-the-rich ambushes that give this film its action spunk.
‘The Clean Up Crew’
Alex (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Meagan (Ekaterina Baker) aren’t hardened criminals — they’re a couple working on a crime-scene cleanup crew led by the levelheaded Siobhan (Melissa Leo) and supported by a hulking drug addict named Chuck (Swen Temmel). But when they stumble on a briefcase filled with money at one of their scenes, the team is split over what to do. While Siobhan wants to leave the blood money be, Alex and Meagan decide to take it and run.
The director Jon Keeyes’s “The Clean Up Crew” features artful shootouts — such as Chuck going Rambo on an army of goons — and cagey back-stabbing by Alex. But its real pleasure is Antonio Banderas as Gabriel, the head of a crime organization, who needs that briefcase to continue bribing cops. Banderas appears to be having the time of his life, extensively quoting Machiavelli as he maneuvers with a viciousness that exemplifies his talents as a comedic force and an action heel.
‘Under Paris’
We’ve been getting low-budget aquatic disaster movies like “Sharknado” for so long that it’s refreshing to see “Under Paris,” by the French director Xavier Gens , return to the political roots of the disaster subgenre. The film’s ecological interest is evident early on when Sophia (Bérénice Bejo), a marine researcher, watches a giant shark — mutated by waste in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (a real place) — devour her crew on the ship. Lilith, as the shark is known, continues her rampage in Paris where, by virtue of her mutation, she can survive in the Seine’s fresh water. Sophia follows to warn the city of the danger. But the mayor (Anne Marivin) refuses to heed Sophia’s warnings, which could upset the city’s Olympic bid.
Often playing like a combination of “Deep Blue Sea” and “Jaws,” “Under Paris” is an increasingly dumb film: It features an entire army of mutant sharks and fresh, bloody kills of unsuspecting Parisians. Despite the outlandish premise, the film manages to take the environmental issues seriously.
‘Mission: Cross’
Capt. Kang Mi-seon (Yum Jung-ah), the head of Seoul’s Major Crime Investigation Division, is so efficient at her job that her colleagues call her the crocodile. She is vicious in a fight, throwing goons over balconies and punching them with a stun gun. She is supported by her adoring, seemingly hapless husband Park Kang-mu (Hwang Jung-min). Kang doesn’t know it but Park is actually a retired secret agent, who sheds his cheery exterior when his ex-colleague (Jeon Hye-jin) approaches him to help save a former team member who has been kidnapped.
The Korean writer-director Lee Myung Hoon’s “Mission: Cross” is a strong romp that often plays like an action-screwball comedy. When Kang learns her husband’s secret, and the couple team up, they’re so unstoppable that in one chase scene, they’re able to turn the hose of a sanitation truck into a deadly weapon — flushing away the opposition.
‘Noryang: Deadly Sea’
Epic might be the wrong word to describe the Korean director Kim Han-min’s “Noryang: Deadly Sea.” Maximalist might be better. Set in 1598, the film is one long sea battle between the invading Japanese fleet and the defending Joseon navy. While there are too many characters to count, this film mostly follows the Japanese commander Konishi Yukinaga (Lee Moo-saeng) as he tries to retreat before the forces of Admiral Yi Sun-sin (Kim Yoon-seok) crush his men.
The story in “Noryang,” however, is a subplot to its craft and scale. In these sea battles, Kim weaves an immersive symphony of drums, horns, crashing waves, gunfire and clanging swords. The fleets stretch for miles, enrapturing the viewer, while the emotion, often conveyed melodramatically through silent film techniques, majestically renders “Noryang” a historical behemoth.
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