Reviews

Since the beginning of the Car Shows, studios have always been looking for a sure-fire-formula to make to keep the ratings up and the show going. If you want to have a car show these days you need to do the following: 1. Use the words "baddass, interwebs, and Pop (for paint design)" every 10th sentence. 2. Have impossible deadlines to get a car prepped, painted/built for a car event. 3. Magically have the car go from junk to a jewel in a week. 4. Have amazing "barn find" cars suddenly become discovered. 5. Sell a car that you wouldn't think get over $50K suddenly get $90. 6. Constantly talk about how whatever car you are building is the biggest, baddest, most expensive, risky, innovative, potentially bankrupting car ever. 7. A TON of IMDB reviews with incredibly high scores that just have a couple of sentences like..."its great" or "good show".

So Car Masters has all of these items....so what makes it different?

1. Interesting cast of characters: A: "Surfer dude" deal maker guy. He doesn't really work on cars..he just magically finds people who want to trade something for a Gotham Garage car...plus cash. Oh, and if you haven't figured out why he talks that way, He's an actor (duh..obviously....check his IMDB). B: Outrageous mechanic named "caveman" who hasn't cut his hair and beard since the stone age. C: Lone background Mechanic who looks like he puts in a hard days work named Tony. D: An incredibly hot chick model who works on cars. Is she an engine specialist? I guess so. Seems like she knows a few things about cars. And finally D: the head-bandana wearing boss (thats been done before) who I can never tell if he is happy, sad, angry, or whatever because he never changes expression or tone of voice throughout the entire show.

2. The "trade up" system. In the show, the Gotham Garage gang build a car and then trade it to a customer who has something more valuable that they can use to increase their cash to get something bigger/better. Some how all the customers seem to weirdly accept these vehicles despite the tacky design or paint jobs.

Look, I like car shows, but this one is sooooo heavily scripted and fake that it really makes the show look bad. Check for the supposed "all-nighter" scene where they are fake yawning and drinking coffee. Oh please.... Netflix...you missed the point of the car show. Its the BUILDING process we want to see. Not the drama. The fact that some of the work they do is questionable (big gap in the Futura sliding plexiglass cover that would fly off down the highway) and nobody wears safety gear kinda makes you wonder if this is a legit garage. Netflix...try again...but do it right ok?

I gotta admit, I am a sucker for car shows. Yes, there are lots of them out there and I can sit through most of them admiring how the final product works out. Sadly this show seems to have lost its way. The shows premise is that supposedly a car in desperate need of restoration/repair and beloved by someone, is recommended to the show by another family member or friend. The car is taken away under some false story and then with the help of the other family members and legendary car builder Chip Foose, the car is brought back to its former glory....but a bit different. Here are the good things... 1. The show has Chip Foose. This guy is a genius and I love how he has great ideas and puts them into one of a kind masterpieces. 2. Hey, its a car show. Gotta love'em.

The Bad: 1. Sorry but humor by Chris the host is...well...not funny. More than that its annoying and takes away from the show. Sometimes after about 20 min. of his endless parade of one liners and gags...I change channels...and don't come back. However when he plays it straight..I could listen to him for hours. 2. As some other commenters have said mentioned so many of the people who have their car worked on JUST want it brought back to its ORIGINAL condition. You can see that they are not that thrilled with it being "Foosed". Yeah, of course I get it...that's the premise of the show right? Then why not make it a show where people WANT to get their car done by him! I'd love to watch that! 3. Not a whole lot of facts and figures about the cars. Sometimes I really want to know more info about the car. Yeah, I know..that's not the purpose of the show. Still, a bit more would keep my interest! 4. The car being "borrowed" under false pretenses and then returned is a Cliché. Its been done and the 10 min. of extra silly drama grates on my nerves. Seriously...the first 15 min of the show should hook me to make me want to watch more. More often than not I shake my head at their poorly acted goofy antics ...and change channels.

I'd love to see more folks..but Foose the heck out of this show or overhaul it. This formula ain't working...

Keanu Reeves stars as Richard Ramsey, a small town Louisiana lawyer who takes up the murder case of family friends son who may have murdered his father in cold blood. To make matters worse, his young client refuses to speak to anyone on the matter except to say that he is guilty. The boys mother, played by a barely recognizable Renée Zellweger, begs Keanu to save her son from prison but does she have her own secrets to hide?

While the trailer to this movie looks like an intelligent, and mysterious courtroom drama, its sadly misleading. The movie sets up the murder and the characters right from the beginning however the entire movie is played out in either the courtroom...or a series of short flashbacks. It really could have been shot anywhere and except for a few bridge shots, it has no connection to Louisiana. While I have no qualms with the acting, the story is at best, basic. There is no real payoff at the end and when we do see the guilty party, it certainly isn't much of a surprise.

My biggest complaint is about Gugu Mbatha-Raw, a fine actress whose talents were wasted here on a part that plays no serious role in the movie. Her character almost didn't need to be included in the movie.

Like I said, this movie could have easily been a two-part Law and Order episode. No wonder Daniel Craig bailed on this.

Hariyama Bridge is a film about love, deeply ingrained racism and forgiveness all wonderfully filmed in Kochi, Japan.

The story follows a father, Daniel Holder (Bennet Guillory) who learns of his artist sons death in Japan. Daniel is a man who has a personal, deep seated dislike of the Japanese, nonetheless sets off to Japan to try and recover his estranged sons paintings. While in Japan he learns some surprising things about his sons life that force him to confront his feelings and change his future.

Whats nice about this movie is that it doesn't spend a lot of time on the tired theme of "a fish out of water", meaning that Daniels first arrival in Japan isn't spent on how out of place foreigners are in Japan and how unusual Japan can be. There is just enough camera work to show us that Daniel is indeed in a different world and what beauty there is to be seen.

What also is fresh about this story is that racism is spoken of, upfront and very clearly in a country that rarely admits that such things exist. At one point Daniel's helper Yuiko hints toward racism even amongst the Japanese themselves and how her life was altered because of it.

Some people may find the film slow going. Those that have lived in Japan will certainly not want to miss this. I myself have lived in Japan for more than 18 years and find the film all too real. Glad someone finally touched on a rarely seen topic.

I picked this up out of a bargain basement DVD sale thinking the title "death spider" (Japanese version), might provide some afternoon thrills. While the first 10 minutes provide some hope that the rest of the film is as good, the remaining hour or so is rendered dull by unenthusiastic actors.

The story has a decent premise, a serial killer is on the loose who loves to torture his victims and a psychiatrist who has given up the chase is suddenly confronted by a new patient who has psychic visions.

The music is top notch and the film feels like it had a decent budget behind it but the casting and acting really turn this into a C movie rather than a B. In particular the reporter played by Caroline Kessler seems to enjoy giving a cute smile at really inappropriate moments making us wonder if she also thinks her dialog is bad (notice where she questions the tortured girl in the hospital and says "we need you to tell us everything.." and then smiles??).

In the end most of the actors seem not to be putting their full effort into this one and it shows.The dialog is amateurish in many places which had me rolling my eyes back in my head. Most viewers will probably turn this one off within the first 20 min.

This is not a movie. This is a publicity stunt. It is a series of poorly acted, exceedingly short soft-core porn shots mashed together into some semblance of a theme. But why in the world would anyone waste their time and money to make such a film? Is it really a film or a rich Japanese woman's ego trip? The answer is Kyoko Kano.

If you have never been to Japan then you have probably never heard of Kyoko Kano. Kyoko and her sister (the Kano Sisters) are well known in Japan for promoting themselves with wild tales of sexual exploits, wearing "revealing" clothes on TV and selling books to generally titillate their male audience. Unfortunately their activities have made them targets of criticism by many journalists and celebrities and in one or two instances the sisters antics have run afoul of the law.

If you know all this then its easy to see why this "film" was made. Its nothing more than a desperate Japanese celebrity trying to sell her public the idea she was in a soft core porn movie. She only says a few words in English throughout the film and spends the rest of the time doing short, mildly erotic scenes with men and women.

The film has no real plot and is based on Kyoko's novel. An Italian girl who sells roses for a living becomes interested in a mysterious Japanese woman who one days shows up in town and does nothing more than have sex with everyone. The director and most of the actors have never been in another movie.

Don't waste your time with this one, not even if your curious about Kyoko. If your looking for B rated porn, pass on this one. Most of the scenes look like they are from bad 70's soft core movies. Blink twice and they will be over.

Ben Chaplin (Birthday Girl) plays Eric, a former acrobat turned thief for a wealthy, but deadly collector. When Eric finally steals an artifact of great importance to his acrobatic foster family, he decides to steal it back and begin a treasure hunt with his former child love, Michelle Yeoh.

The plot is the same as pretty much all the films of the genre. A group of noble treasure hunters goes out on a dangerous journey but is pursued by a killer and along the way they find love, loose a few people and end up happy.

The first hour you will admire that the sets aren't cheap and Ben Chaplin does a halfway decent job of playing Eric. Michelle is fair at best and the rest of the cast are awful. The rest of the film makes you wish you could fast forward to the climax and the treasure part....when you get there you will wish you hadn't wasted your time.