TIFF Day 07: on the down hill run!

Lebanon (2009), Israel, is basically the film, that will do for tanks what Das Boat (1982) did for submarines. The entire film takes place inside a lone tank patrol during the first Lebanon war in 1982. The tank crew of four battle to keep their emotion and focus on their job, while supporting ground soliders during a mission. The camera co-exist with the crew and the only view outside we see is through the scope of the tank. The mission goes astray and they struggle to keep control of the situation. Lebanon recently won the top award at the Venice Film Festival, partly IMHO because of the fact that the whole film takes place in the inside of the tank. Enjoyable, but certainly not outstanding.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), USA, Werner Herzog second film at TIFF is strange film with moments of brilliance and moments of ridicioulos overacting with corny dialogue. This film is a sequel only in name with Nicholas Cage occupying the role of the Bad Lieutenant Terence McDonagh who hurts his back in the opening scene of the film saving a prisoner in his cell during Hurricane Katrina. The story skips forward six months to find a newly promoted Terence struggling with back pain which has caused an addiction to narcotics both legal and illegal. Cage performance delivers a strong performance only let down by some strange dialogue during a number of moments. The film has the hallmarks of the original film, but is tamer. It's good film, but is let down at the crucial moments by some overacting and dialogue.

Bitch Slap (2009), USA, had a buzz on it the moment people saw attractive women wearing skimpy outfits and getting all violent. This film plays like a homage to Russ Myers with whole lot guns. The camera lingered on every part of the film anatomy and hovered over the lack of clothing. The sequence in the desert while heroines search for their treasure is mechanism to tell the story of some brilliant looking flashback sequences with incredible visual style and fight scene. The film contains some amusing dialogue that will keep you giggling. As a date movie, this could be a deal breaker if you take a lady to see this one you better hope she gets just as bigger thrill out of looking at attractive woman in the skimpiest outfits fighting. The reality is I felt a little dirty watching this film as it's geared straight to males sensibility of looking at half naked woman.