Rain Fall

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.

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.

This isn't a tragic love story or a bloody kill-fest inside a strip club (or a Bourne rip-off) but it's still decidedly oriental in its flavor and content.

CIA office in Japan headed up by Gary Oldman's character decides to outdo the Yakuza by controlling the country rather than just the police force and a few politicians--they could blackmail and extort high government officials, running Japan from behind the scenes and skimmimg rich profits.

Another character in the office of the CIA decides to reveal the blackmail scheme or contents to a reporter and creates a flash drive for that purpose but gets intercepted before the transfer. That's the McGuffin and the premise for the rest of the movie--nothing at all like Bourne, though the music has a quiet Bourne-like track in a couple places.

Rated this 7 stars to get the average higher than the 4.6 because it isn't that bad--my rating would be 5.5. It's mostly dialogue, you have to follow along...some of it is ruined by how unlikely it is to have occurred that way in real life, but overall, except for a brief hanging scene, you could almost watch it with kids in the room.

Rain Fall is a regular movie, a tame one as most of these types go, and not deserving of so many negative reviews though it's not a blockbuster either.

I'm writing after watching the movie and reading the previous reviews. Watching the film I couldn't help seeing nearly every segment as yet another sad attempt at recapturing the thrills, twists, relationships, etc. carried out so wonderfully in "The Bourne Identity". I felt embarrassed for Gary Oldman playing this cardboard cut-out of the Chris Cooper's 'Conklin' character. I won't bother listing the plagiarized elements- they are too numerous, too obvious, and would take more time than this sad film deserves. I'll take a tip from you earlier reviewers and sample a Barry Eisler novel. I'm so deeply into Martin Cruz Smith's 'Arkady Renko' novels (again!) that I'm liable to be disappointed. I'll need a trip to the Gulag to get my hunger back.