Tiros Cruzados

If you're a fan of the Barry Eisler Rain novels, do yourself a favor and don't watch this. This movie is everything the novels are not: boring, full of plot holes, seriously lame fight scenes and a story line that makes little or no sense.

The movie feels patched together, like the director filmed a bunch of scenes and then tried to make them fit. They don't. The acting is fine, all of the cast give their best, but there just isn't much to work with.

The fight scenes are all super-quick-cut editing stuff, so you can't see what is actually going on. That is probably because our martial artist protagonist isn't a martial artist. I've seen better fights on the elementary school playground.

The plot is full of holes; not just little holes, but big, gaping holes that require you to do more than just suspend your disbelief. You would have to get a quick lobotomy before watching this if you don't want to be constantly aggravated by the plot holes. Characters will say something in one scene and then say the opposite in the next scene.

The editing seems to have been done by a spastic drug addict with ADHD: the cuts between scenes are missing any semblance of art or craft. There are a few times where the director blurs part of the picture or tries some other type of artistic effect that just doesn't work. In short, the direction and editing are just plain awful.

By the time you get to the cliché ending you will be bored and thinking about maybe clipping your toenails or something equally exciting. They managed to take an exciting novel about a hit man with issues and turn it into a boring movie. Buy one of the books instead of watching this.

This movie is a lesson on how to not make a movie. I had to give up 35 min into the movie because the camera-work was so bad I couldn't stand it anymore. It wasn't hand-held camera bad, it was worse. At least with the shaky hand-held camera you know why the screen keeps moving. In this film the camera seems to have ADD in a bad way, every second or two there is a cut, sometimes to another character, sometimes to an object being handles, sometimes to completely random points in the room. It's a visual frenzy that is very jarring to watch. Additionally every actor in not fully in frame, from mid-forehead up is completely cut off in virtually every shot, and I can't explain why and it's really annoying. The camera also tends to drift a great deal, as if someone left the cart in neutral and it started rolling away but they kept on filming anyway. The plot isn't quite as bad but the story is so hard to follow because of the shoddy camera-work that it might as well be. This movie is dreadful, avoid it unless you are interested in seeing a train wreck on screen.

Rain Fall, like the meteorological event of its namesake, came and went with little fanfare when it was released. Based on one novel in a series by Barry Eisler, it follows John Rain (Kippei Shina), a Japanese assassin for hire who becomes deeply embroiled in a hunt for a mysterious flash drive, the contents of which could have nasty consequences if released. Between the Yakuza, Japanese government and the CIA, Rain has his plate full, especially when he has to take a young girl under his wing who is in danger from all factions involved. Gary Oldman makes twitchy work playing William Holtzer, the unsavoury and corrupt Token CIA station chief. He barks orders like he's in a Bourne film, bends rules and is a morally blank, ruthless A-hole. Oldman plays him without his usual villainous and eccentric flair, opting for a stressed out, nervy turn which suits the gloomy tone of the film. It is a drab yet exciting affair, the intrigue dimmed down to dull greys and muted gunfights that ebb and flow with a minimal pulse. Shina is awesome as Rain, and seems born to play the spy thriller protagonist. Under the radar is how this one plays it, an atmospheric cloak and dagger outing well worth a watch.

Watched this online last night…...relative to much of what I have watched online with Netflix, this was a pretty good movie, all in all. The plot was fairly predictable, almost formulaic. The producers made the right call in casting; Oldman's role is what convinced me to try it......

The dialogue is mostly in Japanese and a good 90% of the film is set in Japan. This means to be prepared for lots of subtitles. I usually do not mind and a fair percentage of my "all-time, top 20 favourites" are foreign. Just that night, I was hoping for a break from reading and as I mentioned earlier, this plot would not have required my undivided attention on the screen.

Cast: -Kippei Shiina,: does a nice job. Felt a bit like this was supposed to be something of a "vehicle" film for him. He did not become one of my new "must watch" actors but I would be interested in seeing more of his work sometime. He played the role of a reluctant "unbeatable action hero". Got the impression that he is capable of more...... -Oldman was not really at his true best, at times it almost felt like an "impression of how Gary Oldman may act"; Pacino does that sometimes in his less stellar performances. Little, oddly timed, fits of mania, the way he conveys the big "master plan" towards the end....... At times it just felt like a caricature of Oldman's best roles. -Kyoko Hasegawa.: Not one who watches many Japanese films, she was a nice surprise! I felt she was the actress who really "made the show". Does a very nice job of playing "the beautiful woman who was in danger"/ "love interest". Not too much screaming, not too much whining, and she did not try to "Rambo" up either. She was interesting, smart, understated, emotionally strong, very beautiful, and showed some real acting talent. She was far more than just a pretty face; I would be interested in seeing her work again. -Akira Emoto: did a very nice job but the role was sure not one to stretch his acting skills. A minor part, but he usually tends to stand out due to his talent and skill.

So, in summary, if you are looking for an action movie on Netflix (or a rental, do not mind subtitles, like Japanese movies (with some Western influence), and one that has a reasonably happy ending with good casting...... go for it. You could certainly do much worse than "Rain Fall".

Based on a book with the same title. It's about corruption and an assassin fending off several factions that includes a police detective who seems to be an honest one. Rain is trying to figure out what's really going on. Don't know why people keep comparing it to the Jason Bourne films. Rain is not a super soldier who has amnesia. Just not a fan of having to read subtitles for a long time depending on the scenes. Also some mushy scenes that sort of seem out of place for my taste but I suppose they have to show that Rain's got a soft mushy side, too. After all, he's not really such a bad person.