# a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z see:k KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM. Karan Johar, 2001. 210min. From the director of the Bollywood hit Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) comes this star-studded story of a family divided by love. The most expensive Indian film released up until that point, K3G unfortunately suffers from an overly-long buildup in the first half, somewhat lacking in good songs or choreography, which threatens to bog down the film. Fortunately, things pick up after the intermission. The songs are catchier, the dance numbers improved (even if they could appear to be Color Me Badd videos at certain points), the plot thickens, and a few choice lines of dialogue adds an interesting cultural conflict to the proceedings. While it pays off slogging through the first half, it might be better in the long run to fast forward to the intermission saving yourself an hour and a half, so long as you get the basic gist of the story. Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan play roles similar to the ones they had played in Mohabbatein (Aditya Chopra, 2000), to greater effect, proving "It's all about loving your parents." 9.28.03 skip:k KILL BILL, VOLUME ONE. Quentin Tarantino, 2003. 110min. In the past, Tarantino has shown how he has managed to shape his many influences into a new, inventive, whole. With Kill Bill, he offers a collage which proves far less than the sum of its many parts. While there are beautiful scenes, clever juxtapositions, and well-choreographed and shot fight sequences, the flimsy narrative that ties the pieces together is so far a rather straightforward and dull revenge plot (which suggests something more sinister, but did we need two hours of bloodshed to "heighten" the suspense? It seems almost beside the point). Still, for all the flash Tarantion puts on the screen, Kurosawa was able to convey more skill in one minute than in the battle between Lui and Thurman that serves as the very long climax of the film; and Jackie Chan proved much more resourceful and resilient during the extended fight that concluded Drunken Master 2 (directed by the choreographer of Kill Bill, Woo-ping Yuen, 1978). The decision to extend the film into two parts underscores all that is wrong about the film. It would be better if it were shorter and tighter. As it stands Kill Bill plays as a drawn-out version of Game of Death (Robert Clouse and Sammo Hung, 1978), a filmed performance of a video-game champ putting the moves on Mortal Kombat, or a kung-fu porn film (as Poshi put it). Fun for a while, but I'd rather fast forward to the good parts. 10.13.03 A KNIGHT'S TALE. 2001, Brian Helgeland. 132min. An energetically anachronistic opening roars out of the canister to set the stage for this rock and roll mideval tale, which unfortunately ends up crawling to the eventual showdown over the course of an overly long (and almost unbelievable running time of) 132 minutes. A punchy 85 minutes could have made this a much more enjoyable ancient precursor to professional wrestling, but as the film stands, its unclear where all the film really goes. The rather simple story somehow attempts to become a bloated epic when all it wants to be is an entertaining whammy. It's one saving grace is a deliciously over the top Paul Bettany performing as a herald who happens to be Geoffrey Chaucer, slumming for a story after a year with the pilgrims. KONTROLL. Nimród Antal, 2003. 105min. There's style to spare in this Hungarian film about the underground world of ticket checkers working the Budapest subway system. A techno soundtrack pounds its way through the lives of one five-person crew as it experiences the ups and downs of subterranean life on the rails. Unfortunately, for all the great ideas the film has, it can't seem to make up its mind what it wants to be. And so we have comedy, romance, action, and redemption. As a result, nothing quite hangs together. A little grounding would have gone a long way towards explaining the demons from which the main character flees, as well as his relationships to the other minor characters around him. At times, the film begins to resemble Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer, 1998), but where that film was one small idea drawn out too long, this film suffers from too many ideas not allowed to run to their course. 03.05 KUNDUN. 1997, Martin Scorcese. 128min. Had Scorcese jettisoned the plot and made the abstract film this project seems so badly to want to have become, it could have been a great film. Unfortunately, the plot gets in the way, hindering some spectacular scenery and cinematography and forcing another retelling of the life of the current Dalai Lama. That said, the soundtrack by Philip Glass is wonderful, and there are some brilliant sequences. It's just a shame that those two couldn't have been left to stand alone as a testament to the beauty of the country and the plight of the Dalai Lama. What we get seems compromised. 03.14.01 # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z |