Review of Breaking News (2004) by Blind P — 10 Feb 2007

An analysis of the media role taken in events which shape public perception of the police force, featuring skillful changes of pace. (I quite enjoyed the little break where two of our characters find a moment's peace in cooking).

The cops and robbers each make use of the cameras as the action flows through the streets and into an apartment building standoff. The steps taken by both sides seem logical and there is enough of the unexpected to hold my interest.

Not even the unfortunate inclusion of some bad Hollywood style fart jokes could bring it down. These few scenes seemed very curious to me, given the strength of the rest of the material.

Score one for Rockin Tim.

I wonder who is winning? I haven't kept track. heh.

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Reprint from a comment in roguebooks journal, after he rates it 6/10:

"Every time I've logged on lately, I see my 7/10, which is quite high for a first viewing for me, and I am bothered.

I say in the blurb that it is "an analysis of the media role..." blah blah blah, but when I think about it really is just window dressing for a big dumb action movie.

I still think the pace changes are done well. Reflection finds some of the characters drawn rather stiffly, our female protagonist chief among them.

I am irritated by my rating, without clearly deciding why, and now that I've told ya to watch it and seen this reaction, it just underlines my disquiet.

So, changes are in order, and I agree with the 6. Seeing it once is enough. I find I am way more forgiving of Asian cinema for some reason. Once one gets used to its conventions, one finds just the same amount of repetitive angles as Hollywood spews, and the quest is on to sort the wheat from the chaff.".