Reviews

Every film lover cannot help but find irresistible the master film director from Japan, Akira Kurosawa. In his adaptation of Shakespeare's MacBeth, aptly named Throne Of Blood, Kurosawa does a wonderful job recreating the familiar story in feudal Japan. Prior to viewing the film, I was in a state of mind best summed up like this: "Kurosawa, it's going to be a great movie". With this predisposition, I pulled the case out of my collection and proceeded to admire my newest purchase. I bought the set of nine Kurosawa films on eBay, only $26.75 with free shipping… not a bad deal. Here's the catch, all of the menu's are in Japanese. All I have to say is "God bless the subtitle button on the DVD remote! Anyway, with my predisposition of Kurosawa = Greatness, I observed the back of the case, and there appeared a Japanese paragraph, all in the characters I cannot read, but above it there was a translation for us non-Japanese speakers, and I quote "akira kurosawa's is a famous film maker,he is Japanese,most of peoples know him in the world,since 1951,the film named rashomon was won golden lions awards in the venice international film festival , it was won the foreign language film awards 24th Oscar in u.s.a,akira kurosawa's was very famous evermore,his work were won awards in the international film festival,some peoples researched films that they were rashomon and seven samurai .now he is a the most famous Japanese in the world,occidental called who akira kurosawa's was mikado,he is the more famous than mikado,films that he shot is very depth,films about there and film's technique are developed a school of his own." If you can explain this to me, or know someone who can, please, let me know. The movie itself developed slowly, and the parts corresponding to the first act and halfway through the second, consumed sixty-five minutes of the ninety-five minute movie. However, this aside, the movie was terrific, although not as good as other Kurosawa films I have seen, but entertaining nonetheless. There were small aspects of the original story that were altered, things like the three witches was one old man, and MacDuff was named Sam in the translation. There was one aspect that stayed very true to the play, Lady MacBeth, played by Isuzu Shimura. Her job, acting as the Lady was so well done, I wish I could watch another of her movies right now, or even Throne Of Blood again. She was the power that drove MacBeth, (Chow, played by Toshirô Mifune), but after he seized power, oops, no more listening to her thuuuuubbpp (that's the sound of a raspberry). One change Kurosawa made that I really liked was the fact that the events were not on such a grand scale. Instead of a King, it was a "master" of a small village, on the verge of conquership by a neighboring province, a nice change that adds to the certain "je ne sais quoi" given to the viewer by the movie.

The acting in this movie was typical of Kurosawa's films: very abrupt, deliberate, and freakin' awesome! The cinematography was absolutely breathtaking, like every other movie Kurosawa has ever done, and the effects were very good for the time. The most trifling thing was the fake birds on the strings, flying into the actors… a bit odd. But, the smoke machines were very well used to shroud the enemy solders in the Spider Bush and to give that very eerie feel to the swamp as given by the original story. During the Chow and witch meeting scenes, the smoke also gave the feeling Shakespeare's original play. The last special effect notable of mentioning was during the end when Chow gets shot by his own men. The final blow went right through his neck, very well done for the time, and still holds up to modern arrow-through-the-neck techniques.

I believe overall, the movie was much weaker than other Kurosawa films. However, if this had been his only movie, he would still be a notable name in the world of film. A definite must see for any film, Shakespeare, or Kurosawa fan.

What a fantastic film! Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a film based off of the book of the same name, written as a semiautobiographical account of one crazy weekend in Las Vegas. The book was written by the famous journalist, Hunter S. Thompson, telling the story of Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his good friend, the Samoan, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) during their short stint in Las Vegas. They receive an advance from a magazine to cover the largest motocross event in the country. With this advance they fill a suitcase with every kind of illegal drug, they can find, and several cases of beer. With this suitcase, and the beer, they rent a fast convertible, ant head for Las Vegas. The rest of the movie is completely without plot, it simply spells out a series of events that happen over the weekend.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the modern-day western. Two buddies go out west and break every rule there is. They show up at the hotel completely out of their minds of acid, and the entire population of this hotel turns into giant reptiles. The rest of the movie is very similar, showing what is happening, and showing it again with the wildest special effects, simulating a drug trip. From start to finish, the film never ceased to entertain. The movie, by the end, showed the capable devastation of drugs. One of the more memorable scenes of the movie was when Raoul takes the adrenal fluid and everything goes to hell and a hand basket. He "wakes up" and he has a dinosaur tail, his tape recorder tapped to his body and there are several inches of water on the floor of the hotel, and realizes his lawyer, Dr. Gonzo, is missing. When he finds Dr. Gonzo, the Dr. has taken a young girl (Christina Ricci) captive, and is drugging her into being his slave. This scene in particular shows how harmful drugs are, and what evil they can create.

The paramount facet of this film was that it gave Terry Gilliam a chance to take his creativity from the odd and hysterical animations he made for the Monty Python movies, and turn them into a live action motion picture. The style of the animation present in the Flying Circus, and especially in The Holy Grail has transitioned beautifully to a live action cinema.

Above all else, the acting in this movie was superb. The ability to act so completely out of one's mind is quite possibly the most difficult thing to do as an actor. The characters are practically unrecognizable, compared to their Hollywood images. Del Toro gained forty pounds for his role, and could not find work as an actor for a long time after Fear and Loathing. The casting directors thought he was a druggie. Depp is totally bald and looks absolutely nothing like any other character in his other movies. My sister (a worshipper of Johnny Depp) walked in while I was watching the movie and proclaimed "Who's that? He's ugly." I looked blankly at her and said Johnny Depp, and I could swear she almost wet herself. Beyond Depp's image, his actual acting was amazing, his acting has never ceased to amaze me, but this was defiantly his strongest act I have ever seen. Not ever has an actor so convincingly played out a demented psychotic maniac (who remains lovable at the same time) better than Depp. When an actor tends to overact (Al Pacino) it normally detracts from the movie (Scarface). However, in this movie it fits Depp's character perfectly. Because it fits the character so well, and Depp does not overact in other movies, it was perfectly acceptable in the film.

This is the movie that comes to mind when I think about what movie coming out now will be a classic when I am older. Absolutely brilliant, I loved every second of it, and would recommend it to anybody looking for a good movie.