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The Burning

It speaks to the strength of The Burning’s reputation among cult-film fans that what’s most memorable about the 1981 slasher is not that it was written by the Weinstein brothers, nor that it represents early appearances of the likes of Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens. It’s that its Cropsy is just a damned good villain.
05/24/2013 | Comments 0

Dexter: The Seventh Season

There's no way to discuss the seventh and penultimate season of Showtime's hit Dexter without acknowledging how the previous year ended. Therefore, if you haven't finished the sixth season, stop reading now. You've got work to do.
05/21/2013 | Comments 0

Nightfall

As Simon Lam gets older, he gets better. The veteran actor has appeared in such in seminal HK action films of the 1990s as Once Upon a Time in China (opposite Jet Li) and Bullet in the Head (directed by John Woo); in the aughts, he graced audience and critical favorites Election and Ip Man.
05/20/2013 | Comments 0

Grand Duel

Lee Van Cleef enjoyed a secondary career in Italy cranking out spaghetti Westerns, with little regard to quality. However, 1972’s Grand Duel — aka The Big Showdown — is deserving of its Grand label. No wonder Quentin Tarantino borrowed its sweeping theme song by Luis Bacalov for Kill Bill; you'll recognize it in two notes.
05/20/2013 | Comments 0

The Last Stand

Early in The Last Stand, the small-town sheriff played by Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "It's my day off. Should be a quiet weekend." That's the new way of saying, "I've got one week to retirement," because it signals — with flashing neon and everything — that life is going to royally upend those plans.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0
Home · Articles · Movies · deadCenter · Year of the Fish
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Year of the Fish


None June 8th, 2007

Reviewer's grade: B

 

You know you're not in Kansas anymore when a movie is narrated by a fish. In this Cinderella fable set in New York City's Chinatown, 17-year-old Ye Xian (An Nguyen) arrives from China, only to find herself a virtual slave in the employ of a massage parlor.

 

Enduring abuse by a vicious proprietor, Ye Xian receives help from a mysterious old crone. Writer/director David Kaplan lends the tale a hard-candied coating through rotoscoping animation. If "Year of the Fish" doesn't always live up to its promise of magic, its most successful moments reach near-splendor.

 

"”Phil Bacharach

 
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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