Friday, November 16, 2007

Movie review: Finishing the Game

Breeze Loo now sells Hyundais.

By John P. Meyer

Finishing the Game

The unexpected death of Bruce Lee, a worldwide phenomenon and established movie star, came at the zenith of his popularity. Having already shot scenes for his upcoming movie, "Game of Death," studio heads decided to complete the film by launching a search for his replacement, attracting hopefuls from all around the world. "Finishing the Game" is an uproarious, poignant, unpredictable and action-packed re-imagining of that casting process for Lee's replacement, and it examines the leaps and bounds Asians have taken in media representation--or have they?

Source: Cinema Source

• Showtimes and more on Finishing the Game

Those whose only exposure to the films of Justin Lin comes in the form of The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift are going to be in for a bit of a let-down upon viewing Finishing the Game. The most noticeable difference will be found in the production values, which can charitably be described as "modest" in comparison to the generous Hollywood budget Mr. Lin had to work with for his Fast and Furious franchise outing. Which, in terms of what makes it to the screen, means that there are fewer car chases (in fact, there are none) and only a few scenes that have been heavily "polished" in terms of what one might expect to see in a Hong Kong actioner - and those few are presented as lampoons of genre material. Oh, and the story sort of goes nowhere...

In essence Mr. Lin's little film is a sly and often chuckle-inducing send-up of Hollywood hubris, as exemplified by star-power celebrities and the production decision-makers who wield the yes/no power to get struggling actors in front of their star-making cameras. The cinematography is primarily of the first-person hand-held documentary variety.

The story is as follows, and this much of it is true: martial arts film phenom Bruce Lee died unexpectedly in the early stages of making a movie called Game of Death. (End historical accuracy.) The present movie's story takes place in the late '70s; its premise is that the panicked producers of Game... are looking to find a Bruce Lee look-alike so they can fake their way through finishing the film. Forget that only 12 minutes of actual Bruce Lee footage will be available for use in the final cut: post-production magicians can earn their keep with fancy editing and clever cutaways, which sounds like an entirely plausible way for film producers with 1/10 of a finished product on their hands to think.

The casting crew

(In point of fact, the makers of the "real" Game of Death attempted to get away with the same prestidigitation, and who can say they didn't succeed? The movie they released grossed HKD 3,436,169.)

Our story follows the progress of five contenders for the Bruce Lee look-alike role as they navigate the rigors and indignities of an open casting call, and it's a motley crew indeed: Breeze Loo (Roger Fan) may be considered the front-runner by dint of his existing star status (and his resemblance to the dead superstar), but hot on his auditioning heels are contenders such as Colgate Kim (Sung Kang, who also appeared in Tokyo Drift); Raja (Mousa Kraish), who has the karate chops but not the acting ones; Tarrick Tyler (McCaleb Burnett), who claims to be half Chinese but appears entirely Caucasian; and Troy Poon (Dustin Nguyen), who's risen to semi-star status by virtue of his sidekick role on a popular TV cop show, where is signature line has become "I don't do your laundry." (Unfortunately, Poon's starring partner, Rob Force - played by Spiderman veteran James Franco - is found dead in his apartment under the most heinous and embarrassing of circumstances*, thereby ending the hit show's prime-time run.)

The most entertaining bits stem from our behind-the-scenes glimpses of strategic conversations amongst the casting crew, comprised of neophyte director Ronny Kirschenbaum (Jake Sandvig), delightfully-profane casting director Eloise Gazdag (Meredith Scott Lynn) and Eloise's fetching assistant Jackie (Cassidy Freeman). Following stage one of the auditions, Eloise and Ronny are scanning a wall plastered with headshots; Eloise tells Ronny that the key to selecting an actor with star power resides in the answer to one simple question: is he f**kable?

Fist of Führer

"Oh, really?", says Ronny. "Can you give me an example?"

"Charlton Heston," Eloise answers. "How do you think he got to be Moses?"

Also amusing are the clips from faux theatrical releases, such as the Breeze Loo starrer "Fist of Führer," rife with cornball martial arts posturing, flash-cracker punching sound effects and comically-inept dubbing synchronization. In a scene from the TV show "San Francisco Guns" (starring Rob Force and Troy Poon) we can see that director Lin did his homework on the '70's: set to a hipster Mod-Squad-ish score, the screen is populated by gun-toting heavies in leisure suits, brothers with mega-Afros and some stylin', profilin' dudes with mutton chop sideburns. There's also a cameo appearance by Ron Jeremy who's entirely in character as a porn star/film director. (Wonder if he had to audition for this one?)

You'll have to decide for yourself whether this degree of amusement is worth your ticket purchase - what I can tell you is that there's little more to the movie than amusing dialog and well-acted characterizations; plot-heavy it's not. I'd rank the viewing experience on about a par with a moderately-funny Saturday Night Live skit from the Belushi/Akroyd era, expanded out to 1 1/2 hours. (Hey, you could easily do worse.)

SAY WHAT?: "I'd like to see the relationship between the text and the sub-text" - casting assistant to puzzled auditioner

BEST WARTIME GEOGRAPHICAL REFERENCE USED AS A VERB: "Only a true coward would Pearl Harbor someone like this." - Breeze Loo to underhanded screen test villain

WHAT IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO: "So who here would you f**k sober?" - Ronny to Eloise, regarding the headshots

* According to the officer on the scene, Force died while engaging in self-asphyxiating auto-fellatio, surrounded by child pornography and a veritable pharmacopoeia of prescribed substances. Or something like that.

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