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Vivant (2023)
Boring nonsense
The first 10 minutes or so, we are treated with the plot that begins it all, a boring financial situation. Already then I almost fell asleep.
I think they were trying to do something like Black Lagoon but failed epically! The characters are not exciting, the main character's facial expression always looks like he's chewing on lemon or something bitter, he always has this face of disgust.
The plot is extremely pulled out of the behind as we say. The guy somehow knows a CIA agent (yeah right!) and that agent is able to track Yusuke using a satellite with a crystal clear picture (again, yeah right!). The explosion of Al-Zair also makes zero sense. He's in his tent and has an explosive vest. Two locals who previously helped Yusuke are far away but somehow the explosion kills the guy... at that distance!?
Schwarzesmarken (2016)
Criminally underrated
I read the only other user review present so far by the Bot and I don't really understand the angle of attack.
I came into Schwarzesmarken from Muv Luv Extra and then Unlimited so I already had the perspective from Japan. This takes place in Germany and I actually thought the whole East-West thing was really interesting. As someone who grew up in the Soviet Union, albeit late, I know the dynamics too well. Neighbor telling on neighbor, black car showing up during the night and taking people away never to be seen again. I think these days we are totally spoiled because this kind of thing just doesn't happen in what we call civilized societies (although that is highly debatable)
Unfortunately I never played the visual novel because I don't know Japanese and it has not been translated yet. But we are exposed to squadron 666, callsign "Schwarzesmarken" with main characters Theodor, Katia, Irisdina... To me it just feels like Muv Luv, it doesn't disappoint. Sure you're not getting the 40 hours or so that I clocked on both Extra and Unlimited but feel this is the right length 12-13 episodes is just perfect.
The story as you can guess mostly takes place in Germany and Poland with the regular armies pushed back and relying on TSFs, which are the mechs. The mechs have high maneuverability and thus a single TSF can take out hundreds of BETAs (the aliens) and of course all the main characters are pilots of TSFs.
Because this is billed as a "side story", I didn't have high hopes but it was one of the surprises of the year for me.
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
There is a hypersensitive fanbase
As someone who watches a lot of movies and anime, I am aware that things like GitS have a large cult following. Another famous example is perhaps Berserk, where the hardcore fans grin at the most recent releases because it's too CGI for their taste and that may be true to some extent, however the reality is this is what we get so in short get over it.
I, like many, thought this would be a failure of a movie. No, not because of the cast, not necessarily because of the script but because generally adaptations from animes and video games fare poorly.
Before I briefly comment on the film, I feel I need to comment on the anime itself. GitS Season 1 is one of those animes in two halves. The first half, pretty empty, devoid of any serious story and it only starts with the Laughing Man saga. So again, I know there are hardcore fans out there who value each millisecond but not me. Laughing Man saga is very good, the rest not so much. GitS Season 2 is extremely boring, slow and feels almost like a poor rehash of the first season. It's the same deal with the movies, Innocence being way too heavy on philosophical quotes. Interesting to an extent but really designed for the cult followers I feel.
So with that in mind, that the anime is NOT that great, compared to the ones I think are, like Wolf's Rain, Last Exile, Soul Eater etc... let's address the film. I enjoyed the visual aspect, the story how Batou lost his eyes and so forth. In fact the only part I really disliked was with the Japanese actress who plays Makoto's mother. I live in Japan and the acting pool here is very poor. She's the best they could pick probably, that says a lot in itself.
In conclusion, unless you're a hardcore cult follower who basically wants every single scene shot frame for frame then give it a watch.
Ajin (2017)
Disappointing
I didn't have high expectations going into this and this point is important for my review.
I've seen both the first and second seasons of the anime. What the movie here does essentially is cram the entire first season into 5 minutes and then proceeds to mashing up season 2 in a spectacular mess indeed.
Firstly, the changes that they brought were a combination of very poor decisions. There is no airplane crashing into a building instead it's a building collapsing into the other building <- This is much better in my opinion.
Nagai's sister is NOT supposed to be out of the hospital for a very very long time. It takes almost the entirety of the second anime season for that to happen and it happens much better. Not a group of extras who can't act showing up at grandma's door but Nagai rescuing her from an angry mob at the hospital. Plus a dramatic entrance by Nagai's best friend who was completely omitted from the film.
I also did not like the changes to Nagai's character. I thought he was just fine being a high school student, university freshman would have worked as well. He spends most of the anime deciding whether to help at all or not. But in the movie, he makes that decision pretty quickly therefore character development is lost.
The acting as expected from a Japanese film was pretty weak, superficial and fake. Save from a few decent performances, Satou's and Tozaki's, the rest were close to abysmal.
Overall, do not waste your 1h40 or whatever it ran for and watch the anime instead.
Myeong-ryang (2014)
Interesting but fails on many levels
For me this was a movie of two halves. And I am well aware that the naval battle is at the center of the story but the first half was better.
The battle itself was quite well done but it was too long and I got bored somewhat. I think in one of the Lord of the Rings DVD Extras, they were talking about how people can only focus on a fight scene up to 15 minutes. Then they lose interest and focus. I'd agree with that.
Though people may think otherwise, this is not a reason why I put 5/10 at all.
It seemed to be an over-stretched film in general. For whatever reason they stretched it like a pizza dough to be 2 hours long when in reality this could have been a slick flick 90 minutes long.
Slick? Perhaps that's not quite the right word. The big issue for me was the acting. The actors playing the Japanese were dreadful. The weird pauses, the unconvincing expressions etc... not to mention that they are all Koreans. Why? Couldn't they get a few Japanese actors to speak proper Japanese? Was it a budget constraint?
Having said that, the actor who played the Admiral's son was also equally dreadful. Whatever cred he built up in the first half of the film was destroyed by the regular and in my opinion useless cuts to him during the battle. It's always the same emotion and did we really need to see that at least 3 times? Just do it once if you have to, then show the crowd cheering at the end.
I much prefer Red Cliff to this. While Admiral started out well, the awful acting and poor editing choices just killed it for me.
Blame! (2017)
Leaves you hanging
When I first heard about this, I read comments like "This is the best post-apocalyptic anime ever" so naturally I was excited only to be very disappointed (as is usually the case).
My main complaints are the under-developed characters, the music which seems to loop too often and the characters saying character names way-way too often. Silence is better, we get it, we're not dumb.
I am aware there is a manga and I never read it but this is supposed to be a stand alone movie and even during the intro we don't quite understand what exactly happened. A minute or two more of explanation would have fixed it. The story is pretty slow, only except during the fight sequences but even then after being told to "Run", they stand around for a good five seconds doing absolutely nothing and then run. It feels very unnatural just as is saying character names when alone, this is a virus from older animes and I thought it went away but nope.
The film leaves so many things unexplained and I just feel they should have worked on the structure much more, it feels like a trainwreck. So my guess is, they left so much stuff open because they want people to get the manga which is a common strategy these days to sell more stuff. Sadly the movie had so many unanswered questions that I don't really want to check the manga. If they explained at least 40% of the things, I may check the manga out but here it felt the film explains less than 5% of what's going on and that's too steep a mountain to climb.
Overall an interesting project which could have been so much better and instead leaves you disappointed and puzzled.
Deep Gold (2011)
Worst movie ever!
I saw Deep Gold a few days ago. Honestly, I did not expect anything good because I always highly doubted Philippines could ever compete with other Asian film industries (Japan, China). It did not disappoint in that respect, it was an absolutely horrible movie, a total waste of my time and money.
The plot is reminiscent of other great work (sarcastic) by Fred Bailey who still somehow manages to sell his scripts and have movies made out of them. If you check most of his scripts here, the ratings are all around 3, the ratings do not lie. However, the ratings will lie here for a while because the only people that rated it 8, 9 or 10 are either workers of Bigfoot company or some really close friends of the owner.
The story is just atrocious and SO ordinary that it will never stand out. The acting is terrible, that's what you get from using models as actors. You must have a huge ego to be both director and actor, unfortunately it rarely works, only Tarantino manages to break the barrier. The action scenes had NO tension whatsoever, the danger happens always AFTER the hero is safe and sound, especially during the library scene. The story is predictable and offers no twists whatsoever so I don't know how anyone can say it's the best 3d movie of 2011 (of course it's an employee review).
After reading more about Bigfoot online, I found out that it is ruled by the owner who disregards ALL other people's opinions though having no film training whatsoever. And all other Bigfoot films are B-movies at best, but most lower than that.
Stay away from this horrific movie and spend your money more wisely. Watching golf is more exciting than watching this.
Poseidon (2006)
Stupid and dumb
Okay, I have watched the original film, which was done much better. Especially it's done in 1972 and back then they really had to use their minds to figure out how to do some stuff.
Now this one, shame on Wolfgang for coming out with such garbage. The plot is so predictable, the character die in ways that are so obvious and dumb. Overall, this movie is a complete no-brainer. But sometimes those type of films can be stupid but fun, but this movie is stupid and dumb.
The only cool thing about this movie, is the actual rogue wave itself. It looked good and the way the boat flipped was good too. But then when the guy in charge (can't remember if it's the captain) says they should stay down there because they are "safe", you just know they are not. Then Kurt and co. go play Tarzan around the boat. Yes, there are worse movies than this but this one is really not worth it.
Goemon (2009)
Great visuals, great story
Okay, so here we go, Goemon. I've been looking so much to Kazuaki's next film ever since Casshern. Big thumbs up for him for staying in that science fiction style.
To briefly reply to coolhandbrent-1 from Japan. What can I say, there are people that went to watch Lord of the Rings. Those people hate that genre, they come out of the cinema after just 10 minutes, they go on IMDb and give the movie 1/10. Look, if you're not into science fiction, just stay away from it forever.
About Goemon, well it's a folk hero who is kind of the Japanese equivalent of Robin Hood, there was a bunch of video games based on his ninja skills as well.
Just like I loved Casshern, I loved Goemon and if you really don't get the story, then you don't have any imagination in you and you should remain in the boring reality based films instead.
American Dad! (2005)
It's not smart, it's propaganda
I was a big fan of Family Guy, and the same creators took up the difficult task to produce a second show, American Dad.
Family Guy is funny because it stays politically neutral, it's about family life, just like The Simpsons. American Dad however is very politically-charged, it is a propaganda show for Bush. I never thought it would be made, but I was wrong. And that's all there is for American Dad, the humour is very dry, and obvious, it's not smart at all, it's logical in its own way.
I thought the family was funny when I first saw it, it looked like an alright family idea, although Stan working for the CIA is totally opposite to other family shows, where the father figure is usually stuck in a dead end job. So already, it's half fairy-taleish. It's not so interesting, as the plot lacks conflict within the family. And please please please stop the propaganda elements, it's very irritating.
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (2006)
The longest dream
Dreamfall is a game like no other out there today. Maybe that is because action and sports games overflow the market but still. I have never heard of the game until it came out, I never played the prequel (The Longest Journey) either prior to this.
I didn't know what to expect. And although the game starts as a semi-horror one, it's really emotionally packed instead. The story alone of Faith made me cry, this is just a story that touches me and that I can feel I can relate to.
The graphics are top notch and although the battles are a little bit easy and the puzzles ridiculously easy, the story itself is the heart of the game. The soundtrack is amazing and enthralling, the voices are superb and the writing of the game is magnificent, so you can't ask for more! After finishing the game, I decided to get The Longest Journey to find out more about the overall plot.
10/10, and I would put much more, I really would.
Doragon heddo (2003)
I found it better than "The day after tomorrow"
Having watched a huge panorama of movies already, i was pleased to see Dragonhead. It is an Easter-Asian movie, and i decided to watch quite a few others after this one.
The special effects are just good, sometimes really good. It is a good approach to such a movie too, because you start to think it's a nuclear disaster at the beginning, and then you find out it's actually something a bit worse than that, when the crust of the earth moves, the Earth's balance shifts. That's true, but especially when the magnetic field gets messed up, our apocalypse will come, or rather will rain down on us without holding back the tears of destruction.
When you have a volcano popping up not far from you, and throwing up huge magma bricks at you, that is not nice, i wasn't surprised the humans, well at least the Japanese lost the will to fight for life. But then again, some people have to believe in the future, because there is always a future, no matter how grim things look like.
I put 10/10 for Dragonhead, because of its realism, Apocalypse is not about happiness, it is boring, and everyone just needs to find the will to fight on, against all odds. If you like something a bit different than big blockbusters, then this movie is so for you, because in Asia they approach everything from an objective point of view, that is what makes their quality.
Wonderful Days (2003)
Wonderful days, is a wonderful journey
I saw this animated movie in June 2004, and again i will say that i am no newcomer to animes, i have seen lots and lots of these. So far I've only bumped on all the good ones and that is good.
Well anyway, Wonderful days, has a story somewhat similar to George Orwell's 1984 book. It is in a way very similar especially with the idea of a sun blocked by the clouds, or confined life behind buildings and lies. The higher class and lower one are also portrayed here.
I think i am getting used to big finales now, but in wonderful days, the finale was excellent, spanning through 5 minutes approximately, with blood splashing out, and characters flying in all directions. Amidst the violence, there are deep emotions, love, and sadness. It is not just about survival, but acts of heroism too, to save Gibraltar.
Animations are excellent, blend very well together, and the story is excellent for my money too, going to get the DVD, hope it's available. 10/10 and nothing else really.
Titan A.E. (2000)
Action sequences keep you on the edge of the seat
9/10 for Titan A.E. I really found it amazing, there is a constant mix of top notch graphics with a bit older style of animation, and both blend very well.
I don't know really how to describe this movie, i suppose you just need to watch it, some scenes are simply breathtaking, and I have seen a lot of Animes before. The ice field is simply stunning, as is the construction of the new Earth (Planet Bob).
There were a couple of excellent jokes, treason, love, passion, will to fight on, Titan A.E is complete. Great imagination from the creators to invent the hydrogen trees for example, that was a great idea.
At no moment in Titan A.E you are bored. Action sequences keep you on the edge of the seat, and the story explanation blends in well to fill the gaps. But it is not filling in a boring way, it is done quite fantastically to blend in with the overall subject.
Characters are funny, there is enough background for all main characters really. *SPOILERS* Well at least it inspired the game Freelancer, with the Nomad ships, don't know who took the idea first but there we go *END SPOILERS* , yeah by all means watch it, expert's recommendation :)
Elysium (2003)
A good mecha Anime after all
I just got my hands on Elysium and so I decided to watch it being aware that it is a mecha anime. I usually, dislike big robots clashing with each other, but i could just bear it for the duration of the movie.
What I found instead, is great action, and good battle scenes. *SPOILERS* Obviously, the Matrix came before Elysium, and the game Anachronox came before Matrix, so one ripped off the other and so on, Elysium uses Matrix technology in slow-motions, and camera rotations.
In Elysium Four "Knights" are chosen to protect the Earth from what appears to be a mistake and a plan for world domination. The animations are very well done, except maybe for the characters, but it's all a matter of getting used to it really, because by the end, i saw a flawless animation as the three remaining Knights fly out.
Don't expect a perfect computer animated anime though, maybe with a bigger budget things would be better, but maybe they were not needed, hence my rating of 8/10 for a watchable and enjoyable Anime. I never knew they made that stuff in South Korea, thumbs up.
Léon (1994)
Another example of simplicity at its best
What makes Leon so excellent, is the simplicity of the scenario. With the very limited amount of different places being shot, the movie still remains great as it makes an impact on the performance of the leading actors.
Jean Reno plays a hitman, and despite that, he is a sweet guy, in life, he simply does his job as cleaner. Cleaner which also at the start is used ironically.
Luc Besson does a great job to pay attention to all details, and he leaves little space for errors in acting. I also liked this idea with the plant, that Reno keeps clean and safe throughout this movie.
In a nutshell, great great movie, 10/10 for sure.
Wing Commander (1999)
A fairly decent movie
6/10 for my rating. I found it fairly alright, based heavily on the game of course, and especially the Tiger's Claw. The movie recreates the universe of the game for the Super Nintendo, Wing Commander 2 I believe.
Same principles, sometimes same animations, but in other parts, they used some more advanced weaponry from later games.
I don't know, it was an action movie, based on the game series, so if you like the games, where you hide behind asteroids to shield yourself and all that, then watch it, i certainly cannot say I hate this movie. Tcheky Karyo played very well, and Saffron Burrows was very cute, shame that they made no sequel, because games about space still come out, like for example Microsoft's Freelancer, and Wing Commander prophecy, and Secret Ops were very good and difficult games.
Now back to getting a life :)
Troy (2004)
Human error, is how big empires fall
I didn't know what to expect from the movie, the trailer looked quite poor, and very Hollywood style, i still believe they seriously made too many ships.
Overall it was an alright movie, 8 out of 10. The beginning is a bit strange, well they should have narrated the parts with the map, it always has more effect, and it is true that they did not really bother about the characters' backgrounds.
The movie is like 3 hours long, but they actually compressed Homer's book relatively well, and action always happens. I would rather slam the music of the movie, since i don't know, it wasn't always appropriate. Sometimes it lacked a heroic touch to it.
Good performances, from Eric Bana, Brad Pitt in particular, Orlando Bloom was girlish :) but overall it was a fun watch.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Another Jim Carrey classic
For some reason Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise jumped to my mind, but ESotSM is shown in more depth, and from another angle. I still need to watch The Truman show in full, but i know that Jim Carrey is a reliable actor, he can play as a crazy guy, as well as in serious movies, it really doesn't make any difference for him. He's very flexible. In this movie, Carrey once again makes a top-class acting appearance.
The special effects in the movie are really good. They're very simple, but very effective, and complete the scenes very well. I really didn't know what to expect from the movie, my friend just dragged me to the cinema, but as far as this movie is concerned, i put a vote of 10/10 for what it is.
The Quiet American (2002)
Very simple, very interesting, very real
I thought Quiet American was a pretty good movie. Probably a rather low-budget movie too, but once again showing the importance for perfect acting in such movies. It was nice to see Brendan Fraser in a serious movie for once, and i think he answered the call very well. Michael Caine was excellent too, he was in fact perfect in this movie.
The movie starts and then makes a flashback, this is very effective. Not in every movie, but i thought it was an obvious thing to do here.
Well it obviously shows how the Americans can create conflicts once again, i knew they were involved in supporting factions before, I didn't know it decayed to that extent, eventually leading to the war, and them losing the war.
Secret Window (2004)
Nothing new, but good nonetheless
I've put 9/10 for this movie. The plot is not very new itself, even though it's based on a King novel. If you want, it's a mixture of Fight Club and A beautiful mind. Mr.Depp :) plays a novel writer who develops a sense of schizophrenia and creates a secondary character that apparently is there simply to do harm. Of course as the plot goes on, Depp was the sole murderer. The ending still leaves an open bit for a possible sequel, and ends with very beautiful words (probably from the book).
Go see it, i believe it's worth it, since there is nothing else good at the moment. I bet that Troy with those huge superstars will be a typical Hollywood movie too, and Spiderman 2 looks phenomenally stupid, so yeah thumbs up for Secret Window
Van Helsing (2004)
Useless movie
I've put a rating of 3/10 for this movie. Maybe some of you know that I'm very critical, and this movie did not avoid my critizism. Basically, the movie looks nice graphically speaking, and the special effects live up to Sommers expectations, but stunts are repeated over and over again. We are not in Tarzan and yet Van Helsing strangely ressembles Tarzan, dudes just keep hanging on stuff, and moving from wire to wire, this is very annoying. The constant screaming of so-called Vampire wives is also a pain to the ears.
The plot is incredibly stupid, this movie is just useless, we would live well without it. Laws of physics are broken, i.e. the horse and chariot jump over the broken bridge, which is very highly unlikely. Horses are not that stupid, they would stop before kamikaze jumping into a pit. The very end before the credits...are we in Indiana Jones, riding off to the sunset? well 3/10, everything summed up
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
10/10 and get the DVD
This is probably the movie I've been waiting to see for all the time I can remember. A beautiful mind explains John Nash's world of complex mathematics a brilliant mind, and genius.
Many people say that being a genius requires a lot of knowledge, with a bit of insanity in the mix. For most smart people this theory is very true. As they say in the DVD, schizophrenia occurs to people usually starting at 20, and affects most people who like to think. Since it happens to me all the time, I found A Beautiful Mind a somewhat more extreme reflection of myself.
It is a Grand movie, see it at all costs, maybe then you can understand people who talk to themselves better, unless of course they are drunk.
10/10 for sure, excellent DVD edition as well, full thumbs up!
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Alright but not what I thought it would be
I've seen the original so don't accuse me of missed things. I gave the 2004 edition a 4 out of 10. Half marks lost because of the huge plot variation and another point out due to the stupidity that was born out of those changes.
A REAL shame this is. They just had to change the plot so much, and made the movie much worse than the original. Especially what's with the ending?? And with the useless old people?? Seriously... Some scenes were nice like the Jay Leno joke and other characters, and the bhutane? box explosion. But the rest will simply not do. I prefer the original by far...
Oh yeah, and this movie is NOT scary at all, jesus christ people, I can't believe that movie actually is scary to people today. Haven't you watched TV in a while, 28 Days later, Resident Evil, you get used to the so-called jumps... Hellsinger out...
American History X (1998)
No need to repeat that it's BRILLIANT
Well well, I will not say that this movie is amazing enough. Norton's performance is simply great, deserves lots of oscars. The movie makes the bold move to show the big differences between the Whites and the Blacks. The difference being obvious today, with the Blacks bringing in most drugs, offensive rap music (keep Eminem outta this), and the "sex with everybody" slogan, makes them very repulsive to say the least. American History X steps forward and shows what awaits the White man in the future, as the race gets slowly wiped out. Racism will grow intense, and revolts and other acts of violence will follow, mark my words. If you want to get a perfect glimpse of the future, then watch this movie, if however, you wish to sit back and think it's all a big joke, then sorry to say, but you must be a loser.
"The White man marches on", nice one guys. Hellsinger out...