cyrano | Coyote Cinema: Priest

Possibly the best Ninja western I've seen this year. Or at least second best.

This was not the most promising start. Trailers inspired mild interest, but no actual desire to watch. This weekend I found out that it was down to a single showing a day, and I thought 'this might be a show that gets me the house to myself'. So I signed on for a ten-thirty showing, and at ten twenty-eight, half a dozen teenagers trouped in to drape themselves artfully over the seats. Enh. It was a thought, anyway. And then there were trailers for Luc Besson's newest La Femme Nikita recycle and the newest 300 recycle (for those who thought perhaps 300 was a bit shy in the bombast department). And I thought "These two previews bore the crap out of me. Perhaps I am not the target audience for this film."

And I made a grumpy face.

And the movie started, and here is my liveblog:
Cliche. Trite. Trite. Hmph. Okay, that's a little interesting. Cliche. Okay, that's interesting. Cliche but kind of cool. Cl--oh hey. This should be cool, but I'm not feeling it, really. Hunh. Nice. Cliche but kind of cool. Oh. Hunh. Oh wait. Seriously? Oh yeah. Cool. Hah! Awesome! Oh no. Oh no, John Ringo! Yeah! Cool!

The movie is apparently based on a graphic novel by a korean author, the world is very gamer friendly in the Deadlands style, and while I spent the first half of the movie thinking "This could be fun if they weren't taking themselves so damned seriously," I spent the last half of the movie rejoicing the goofy action that had replaced the seriousness.

Postapocalyptic zombie ninja western. With the ever so hot Karl Urban, Paul Bettany and Maggie Q. And once the party gets to the reservation, things start to go a lot more smoothly. And once there was a Train Job and I knew it was also a western? It's just nonstop crazy fun. Also, I love how more than once I frowned and said "That makes no sense" and then later on things were revealed and I said "Oh! Now it makes sense." Those events make me happy. Girl priests who do not need to be rescued rock. Girl priests who screw up their own plan and then come up with even more awesome plans? I want to help them break their vows. Heroes who are badly outmatched in a fight, get the crap kicked out of them, and then still win in a believable manner? That's pretty cool. (Well. "Believable" for a kung fu western movie.)

All in all, Coyote says three wags. Definitely worth the ten-thirty matinee price.