What Have You Just Seen... Marks Out of 5

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 08 Feb 2008, 19:44

Oops, sorry

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 08 Feb 2008, 19:51

You must really nark your Mum off by all your apologising

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 08 Feb 2008, 20:53

Yeah sometimes

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 09 Feb 2008, 00:26

City of Lost Children (France, 1995) – 1/5
What can I say about a piece of trash like this? One good joke (laughed for 5 seconds) and Ron Pearlman. The directors’ only goal seem to have been to create the most bizarre and ”cool” movie ever. Expect a whole load of extreme close-ups, streched image and madly laughing faces. The storyline is about a scientist kidnapping children in a fantasy world (has some potentially nice visuals, but the endless effects and tricks make them too tiresome to enjoy).

Beautiful Teacher in Torture Hell (Japan, 1986) – 2/5
As far as ’straightening up office ladies and housewives’ genre goes I have hated everything I’ve seen. Until now. Beautiful Teacher in Torture Hell has a promising start with an interesting main character (female teacher and a kendo expert) and even some effective horror movie esque moments. Later the movie falls to the expected and boring punishment/torture cycle but as a whole it’s still one of the better efforts in the genre. The original use of music and burning hot high school girl as a supporting character tempt to raise the rating to 2,5, but maybe not this time. Genre enthusiasts ought to take a look, though.

Noble Lady: Bound Vase (Japan, 1977) – 1/5
I’m starting to believe I’ll never come across a Naomi Tani classic that I'll enjoy. In Noble Lady she plays the same character as some many times before and after, a housewife with too much shame. Time for the husband to begin the usual punishment procedure. Despite being set in a beautiful rural mountain area the filmmakers have opted to use indoor setting for most of the film. Smut legend Masaru Konuna directs.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 09 Feb 2008, 00:38

Hung wrote:City of Lost Children (France, 1995) – 1/5

It's a beautifully crafted fairy tale.
A sort of french version of Alice in Wonderland (or Spirited Away).

Can't believe you didn't like it.

Have you seen Jeunet's other films ?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 09 Feb 2008, 01:02

This is Hung, his taste in films is as warped as yours

I'm not surprised. If Hung hates it it must be excellent, if he like it it's probably shit

Jeunet is a fantastic director!

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 09 Feb 2008, 09:53

tom2681 wrote: Have you seen Jeunet's other films ?

Amelie I recall liking a lot the last time I saw it (it had enough heart to overcome some flaws, I think) and Engagement I can't get rid of. I check it every four months, to see if it's bad enough to sell it, but I always give up after 20 minutes thinking "no, this bloody film is still good. Back to shelf"

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 09 Feb 2008, 16:29

I cannot work out why anyone would watch a film so regularly they dislike???

Amelie is just marvellous. I love it and Audrey Tatou is just utterly cute. "A Very Long Engagement" is also very good too.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 09 Feb 2008, 17:33

I didn't say I dislike it. I said "this bloody film is still good".

And I didn't say I watch the movie often. I said I check the beginning often.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 09 Feb 2008, 18:38

My mistake I misread what you said. It's City of Lost Children and Amelie you dislike but A Very Long Engagement you do like, got it.

You have done that though, kept re-trying a film you dislike.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 09 Feb 2008, 19:09

Is it D'oh, or am I missing some joke here?

I said "Amelie I recall liking a lot"

Okay, one by one:

Amelie: I like a lot

Children: I dislike a lot

Engagement: I like a lot
-->
(Liked it the last time I saw it, but nowadays I get dubious whether I would still like it, and therefore test it by watching the film 20 min from time to time, always to discover the film looks still great. I don't finish the movie, because I don't need to. I've seen it before. But if it now looked bad, then I would watch the whole film and decide if I should sell it. But since it looks good, I put it back to shelf and forget about it.)

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 09 Feb 2008, 22:49

The Blue Light (Japan, 2003) – 4/5
This was a surprising find. Yukio Ninagawa’s slick drama thriller of a 17 year old schoolboy who starts planning on his stepfather’s murder isn’t half as bad as it ought to be. In fact, it’s next to terrific. The screenplay of course stumbles a bit here and there but the storyline remains interesting till the end. The audio-visual execution is extremely pleasing. Arashi member Kazunari Ninomiya’s acting is okay, and the ever sweet Anne Suzuki appears in a small supporting role.

Hunter in the Dark (Japan, 1979) – 4/5
Hideo Gosha’s 1979 chambara flick reminds of his earlier film, Bandit vs. Samurai Squad, but avoids that film’s flaws. The storyline is less epic and quite simple in the end, but the characters’ backgrounds are handled skillfully. The cast is thoroughly impressive - Tatsuya Nakadai, Isao Natsuyagi, Shinichi Chiba and Tetsuro Tamba, just to mention a few – but especially Yoshio Harada is amazingly good as an assassin without memory. Gosha’s direction is visually stylish, but also aims at certain degree of realism. The fights are intense but very brutal.

Kagero (Japan, 1991) – 3/5
Late Gosha’s yakuza film has more than a few similarities with the Red Peony Gambler films, although Kagero is hardly as remarkable. Kanako Higuchi stars as a female gambler looking for her father’s murderer. Gosha requlars Tatsuya Nakadai, Isao Natsuyagi, Ken Ogata and Tetsuro Tamba appear in supporting roles. The storyline lacks originality, but the excellent cast compensate enough to keep the movie interesting from start to finish. The excellent ending credits sequence leaves a good aftertaste.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 10 Feb 2008, 09:58

Eastern Condors - 4/5

Fine war action drama that has a story a bit like The Dirty Dozen, it has some great fights too

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 11 Feb 2008, 12:39

Cinderella Man - 2/5
I thought Crowe was alright, the film was not. Boxing films are so tiresome, we know there will be one of two endings...

Brothers Grimm - 3/5
Tim Burton meets Terry Gillian? Wasn't too impressed really.

Dexter - 4.5/5
NOTE: I am rating this by the standards of American TV. It has the acting and plots flaws you'd expect from a TV show that needs to prolong itself but overall it's a compelling production.

Bartender - 4/5
Finally sat down and finished this, it's not really a series to be rushed though - one to relax to with your drinks cabinet on hand to emulate the recipes. A lot of it is very, very contrived but it has nice music, a good atmosphere and it's about booze.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 11 Feb 2008, 14:55

The Golden Compass: 1 / 5

It's my fault, really.
I just wasn't expecting it to be a silly little adventure film for retarded children.

I didn't understand the plot at all. Is it the screenplay, or is it the fact that I haven't read the book ?
Either way, none of it made any sense.

Horrible script, terrible dialogue, clumsy editing, crappy CGI... and where was the ending ? Looks like the screenwriter was fired before he finished the script.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 11 Feb 2008, 16:16

La Femme Nikita (France, 1990) – 3/5

Terrible first 40 minutes. Just terrible. After that Luc Besson’s junkie girl turned into a government assassin pic takes an incredible turn in quality and starts getting better and better. Anne Parillaud’s acting improves and the age gap is no longer such a problem (in the early scenes she’s way too old to play the character). The use of music is great, and the film benefits from Jean Reno’s small but strong supporting role. The ending is the best I’ve seen in quite some time.

Mad Max 2 (Australia, 1981) – 4/5
The best part in the Mad Max trilogy is loaded with amazing action and stunts. Gibson has almost never been this good. Post apocalyptic setting is always a big plus, too. One of the seminal action movies of the 80’s.

dragonhero005 · Post by **dragonhero005** » 11 Feb 2008, 16:22

There's supposed to be a sequel or two...
Anyway, didn't like the movie, as well.

Especially, because I watched it for Craig and he appeared to be in the movie for about 5 minutes....

Sealed with a Kiss

Great low budget ("could be -) lovedrama by Derek Chiu.
Wow, I really liked it.
Probably Louis Koo's best performance ever (besides Election 2). The same goes for Yoyo Mung.
Thanks Knetan for the recommendation!

4/5

King of Beggars

Probably due to bad picture quality and burnt-in subs, i couldn't fully enjoy this movie. Chow has made a lot of better/funnier films.
The action is quite nice though. Only disappointing that the final fight is lame...

3/5

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 11 Feb 2008, 16:57

I didnt like Golden Compass very much either. Quite poor, terrible ending.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 11 Feb 2008, 17:05

Lourdes wrote:Brothers Grimm - 3/5
Tim Burton meets Terry Gillian? Wasn't too impressed really.

I actually found this film to be painful. A real stinker.

HungFist wrote:La Femme Nikita (France, 1990) – 3/5

Been a long time since I've seen this but I thought the Canadian TV series was much better.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 11 Feb 2008, 17:07

Dirty Harry 3/5

Hmm... not as great as I remembered. Some scenes I still really like but there's a whole section I would have cut (the peeping tom and jumper scenes) and Andy Robinson's psycho becomes increasingly annoying rather than scary... I don't think I'll keep this.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 11 Feb 2008, 17:23

Lourdes wrote:Cinderella Man - 2/5
I thought Crowe was alright, the film was not. Boxing films are so tiresome, we know there will be one of two endings...

Watch the anime series Hajime No Ippo, if you want boxing done right.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 11 Feb 2008, 18:24

Amores Perros - 4.5/5

As good as 21 Grams and Babel. I love Innaritu's visual style, and he seems to make anything interesting.

Porco Rosso - 3/5

I didn't really enjoy this, but it's clearly a well-made film. The Optimum DVD annoyed me with its frequent audio dropouts and glitches as well.

Ratatouille - 4/5

Typical Pixar quality, gotta love 'em. The Blu-ray presentation was flawless.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 11 Feb 2008, 18:47

I thought the Besson film was just called "Nikita"

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 11 Feb 2008, 19:09

grim_tales wrote:I thought the Besson film was just called "Nikita"

Yeah, it is.

They retitled it for the US to make it sound MORE French(!)

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 11 Feb 2008, 19:29

HungFist wrote:La Femme Nikita (France, 1990) – 3/5

Terrible first 40 minutes.

Check out the American remake if you want to see an terrible film from start to finish. Doesn't the kitchen shoot out happen in the first 40 minutes? That's ace. As is the whole film. Leon is considerably better though.

gasteropod wrote:Amores Perros - 4.5/5

As good as 21 Grams and Babel. I love Innaritu's visual style, and he seems to make anything interesting.

It's great isn't it. I think Babel is the weaker of the three. It is a little too self aware, but still very good.

Amores Perros and 21 Grams are just outstanding though.