Branded To Kill (1964) - 4/5
Pretty violent Japanese gangster movie, especially for 1964 I thought. Loved the jazzy score and the black and white photography added to the noirish feel.
What Have You Just Seen... Marks Out of 5
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grim_tales
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tom2681
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Handsome Siblings (1992 - Eric Tsang - With Andy Lau and Brigitte Lin): 3,5 / 5
Above average wuxia nonsense.
Some of the fights are a bit messy (bad choregraphy, bad camera angles, visible wires), but the comedy works, the acting is superb and the music is quite pleasing. I thought the climactic fight was a bit silly, though.
If you just need your daily dose of wire-fu, get this film. It's just as good as Flying Dagger and Butterfly Sword.
Just don't expect something like Dragon Inn or Bride with White Hair in terms of build quality.
Above average wuxia nonsense.
Some of the fights are a bit messy (bad choregraphy, bad camera angles, visible wires), but the comedy works, the acting is superb and the music is quite pleasing. I thought the climactic fight was a bit silly, though.
If you just need your daily dose of wire-fu, get this film. It's just as good as Flying Dagger and Butterfly Sword.
Just don't expect something like Dragon Inn or Bride with White Hair in terms of build quality.
I used to be "the man who loves the movies you hate".
Now I'm just "that weird french guy with a cat avatar who comes to BnB once a year for no reason and then disappears again".
Now I'm just "that weird french guy with a cat avatar who comes to BnB once a year for no reason and then disappears again".
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Knetan
- Hail the Judge!
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- Location: Sweden
- Contact:
hey,
the Hong Kong Film Awards liked Francis Ng's performance to the degree that they nominated him for Best Supporting Actor. I've seen better but otherwise it's a Wuxia spectacle that remains watchable, for no good reason really.
The Third Full Moon 3/5
Good chemistry between leads Michael Chow and Lau Ching-Wan makes the sequel to Thou Shalt Not Swear an entertaining, sometimes creepy exercise. Wellson Chin continues to hone his voice, having found it in this genre.
Exposed To Danger 2/5
Passable Taiwanese revenge thriller that has a gory nature to it that diverts. Little else matters though.
the Hong Kong Film Awards liked Francis Ng's performance to the degree that they nominated him for Best Supporting Actor. I've seen better but otherwise it's a Wuxia spectacle that remains watchable, for no good reason really.
The Third Full Moon 3/5
Good chemistry between leads Michael Chow and Lau Ching-Wan makes the sequel to Thou Shalt Not Swear an entertaining, sometimes creepy exercise. Wellson Chin continues to hone his voice, having found it in this genre.
Exposed To Danger 2/5
Passable Taiwanese revenge thriller that has a gory nature to it that diverts. Little else matters though.
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grim_tales
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Great to see Henry back on form.-
HungFist
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grim_tales
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thelostdragon
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HungFist
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Do you own the dvd? if yes, any chance of getting one or two comparison caps?
http://www.dvdrama.com/news.php?6182
(the first ones)
Criterion is out of question, R2J's cost a forture but the german discs are probably R2J ports, although conversions I believe.
HK Video got excellent ratings from dvdrama (9/10 and 10/10 for picture quality) but with their history of contast boosting I'm not 100% sure of I want to take a risk (yet). Especially with a b&w film.
http://www.dvdrama.com/news.php?6182
(the first ones)
Criterion is out of question, R2J's cost a forture but the german discs are probably R2J ports, although conversions I believe.
HK Video got excellent ratings from dvdrama (9/10 and 10/10 for picture quality) but with their history of contast boosting I'm not 100% sure of I want to take a risk (yet). Especially with a b&w film.
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thelostdragon
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HungFist
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thelostdragon
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BiscLimpkit
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Knetan
- Hail the Judge!
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hey,
O.C.T.B Case - The Floating Body 2.5/5
Ben Ng performs above average for the genre (yes, we are talking Cat III) and one gloriously, deranged chainsaw dismemberment sequence (Lily Ching being the victim of it) makes this one worth the price of the vcd. Otherwise the director of Liu Jai (Home For The Intimate Ghosts) flashes several odd ways of exercising non-subtlety, including the usage of score. Think sweeping score used inappropriately and basically being library cues.
As much as it sounds like it, this was never connected to the Danny Lee vehicle Organized Crime & Triad Bureau nor did they do an unconnected series of O.C.T.B cases.
O.C.T.B Case - The Floating Body 2.5/5
Ben Ng performs above average for the genre (yes, we are talking Cat III) and one gloriously, deranged chainsaw dismemberment sequence (Lily Ching being the victim of it) makes this one worth the price of the vcd. Otherwise the director of Liu Jai (Home For The Intimate Ghosts) flashes several odd ways of exercising non-subtlety, including the usage of score. Think sweeping score used inappropriately and basically being library cues.
As much as it sounds like it, this was never connected to the Danny Lee vehicle Organized Crime & Triad Bureau nor did they do an unconnected series of O.C.T.B cases.
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Knetan
- Hail the Judge!
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- Contact:
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grim_tales
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RickyTheDragonSteamboat
- Pedicab Driver
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The Host - 4/5
What can I say? I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not a huge fan of Korean films as they do lack the balance of HK films that I'm used to, but The Host still manages to keep me glued to the screen. The F/X were amazing but the thought that this movie could easily turn into crappy Godzilla '98 at any moment was always looming in the back of my head. Thankfully, my worst fear never got to be. Of course it's not the perfect movie and the anti-American crap is getting old but in the end The Host is still a pretty good movie and is reccomended by RickyTheDragonSteamboat.
What can I say? I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not a huge fan of Korean films as they do lack the balance of HK films that I'm used to, but The Host still manages to keep me glued to the screen. The F/X were amazing but the thought that this movie could easily turn into crappy Godzilla '98 at any moment was always looming in the back of my head. Thankfully, my worst fear never got to be. Of course it's not the perfect movie and the anti-American crap is getting old but in the end The Host is still a pretty good movie and is reccomended by RickyTheDragonSteamboat.
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BiscLimpkit
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romerojpg
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Symbolism = bullshit
You dont need to see any of that twaddle for a film to be good, if you do then its a shit film ussually.
Miami Vice is probly all Symbolism bull, and theres a meaning behind the appauling sound mumbling
I am tempted to buy it for £2.50 from CDwow mind you, if it was the extras packed Directors Cut mind you, shame its not.
I havent posted a review for ages on this forum, may as well do a few from this year so far
a mixture from al over the place.
Battlestar Galactica Season 2 – 4.5 out of 5
(But sadly the last 30 minutes of the last episode are appalling!)
Quite simply one of the best TV show I have ever seen, its just so well made and the story is packed full of characters I adore. All set in a universe that screams excitement. This season gets bigger, more epic and more Cylon robots (at last), which is defiantly a good thing as they now seem threatening to us, as they can move like lightning when they want to and really like to get up close and rip puny humans to pieces. In fact the adult tone is still running through the shows red veins and the use of Frack really takes you off guard at times as it’s a great substitute.
Its all pulled together with some wonderfully creative special effects work, the CGI is improving leaps and bounds and the ships looks so perfect with the camerawork of zooms and out of focus handheld work. Space battles look stunning and come to life when the action gets going and the ships start to blow each other to pieces, the larger ships especially really feel weighty and full of character and power. The low tech, high energy action performed in the show really does look the business and the fighters and battleships get plenty of adventures to show them off in many ways. World War 2 future space adventures never looked so good, and don’t get me started on the flack and torpedoes, they really look the bomb.
Still it’s the cast which works the best, the ships crews get some more complex storylines to back their pasts up a little, some believable and some a little too much to be honest. Saying that the storylines work well and only a hand full of episodes don’t work perfectly. In fact some of the episodes work so well I was just stunned at the show, the Pegasus storyline is especially enthralling and to be honest it was the highlight of the second season by a mile, and it all comes together and really adds to the shows impact. A few shocks are evident and some are signposted well before they happen, but on the whole the story creeps about and keeps pulling rabbits out of the hat at regular intervals and some of them you can never guess.
It’s not all good mind you. Some episodes use the beginning at the end too much it has to be said, it’s ok once, but they overuse it in too many episodes. It is a little predictable at times and you know exactly what’s coming up well in advance of it showing up on your screen. But the biggest single flaw is that end!
I was just in shock at the last 30 minutes of the last episode, it made me cringe so much, its just awful to see happen. It felt strained and like they had compacted 3 seasons into the last section of that episode, as soon as the nuke blew, basically from that point it went belly up for me. It rushed past at such a rate it really was like being punched in the face, hard. I didn’t like the way it then jumped a year ahead and showed them all fat, uglified and basically ignorant to the point of insanity (yeah like they would stop defending the planet fully!). Really I adored the second season, but that as an end?
Come on! Its cruel, its bad and it felt wrong. Still at least next seasons going to start with some bloody interesting episodes to get us out of that mess.
On one final note. The music, never has TV show music been so perfectly scored and suited the shows tone so well, it’s a joy to hear the soundtrack kick in, it’s more like epic film scoring rather than TV show music. I cannot say there’s a shows music like it out there, quite simply mesmerising to listen to, relaxing at times, off putting at others and it works so well the show gets a massive influx of energy from the sound alone.
In the end this show is a masterpiece, it is unlike anything else on TV and it works so well that I cannot ignore it at all, even with that ending. The future of the show is not in dispute, I know it will be exciting next season, just now need to scrub that last episode from my mind as I feel dirty.
Crank – 4.25 out of 5
Not an action film with amazing stunts and amazing choreography. Instead it’s a fun, thrilling, fuel injected ride of comedy, mayhem and general mentalist action. I have to say its all good and it’s a film that stays fast, furious and silly to the extreme. Boy does it get silly, and I don’t mean stupid, I mean funny and it’s just so hilarious watching Jason Statham running like a crack addict down the street in a hospital gown, set to some furious, mental old style Ska music. Moments like this pepper the film and keep it constantly alive with a simple energy that makes it all fly past at a speedy rate.
We see fights, sloppy fights I must add as this is no Transporter in the fights department. They are sluggish, quick most the time and rather bonkers as the one handed man punches the floor with his newly gained bloody stump with a satisfying splodgey thud. It never takes its self serious, at any point. We get sucked into the world of the freaked out, pepped up and crazy man with a simple mission to get some payback.
Visually it’s fantastic, with so many great sequences of various types of camera work and editing. Split screen, super bright coloured contrast, jump cuts, fast forward mode (I could go on), its all in this film and it all seems to work well. Subtitles and words appear on the screen with some works of genius moments especially the C work on Jason’s big bald noggin.
I don’t think there is a problem with the film as it is, some better made fight scenes would not have gone a miss mind you, but you have to admire the pure adrenalin in the film as it jumps about like literally a guy on drugs. Enjoyable is the only way to describe it in the end, with sex, swearing and lots of violent moments and stunts all bring the film to an in your face attitude. Really it’s just too much fun to ignore, and that’s what counts in a film like this little classic.
Smokin’ Aces – 3 out of 5
More than the sum of its parts, and less than I expected it to be. There is a masterpieces under it’s over complicated, mumbled plot, but its just not placed on the screen for me to see sadly. The slow (note Very slow) build up has its many great moments and some scenes are wonderfully played out. With various characters really shining out and becoming more than the rest, Ryan Reynolds as the young FBI agent really steals the film and while he never quite gets to show what he obviously has, he does fine with what he is given. Underused is the way to describe this movie, the films all pre built tension for that scene to come when everyone converges into one mass shoot out and battle to end all battles.
Sadly it takes a bit to long coming, and it could have lost 20 minutes of this character building easily, as it just paces itself to mellow and too long in the wind. When the films finale does turn up it delivers, and features some cracking action and explosions from everyone involved. The lift shoot out being a particular favourite as the lights go out and the gun fire rattles away in the dark of the muzzle flashes. Saying all that it doesn’t really deliver on the epic scale action I was expecting from the massive cast. We see many moments of glory as people are blown away, set on fire, hacked to death, and chain sawed into bloody pulps as bodies explode into a frenzy of spurting red stuff.
But it doesn’t go on for long enough in my eyes. I wanted it to really pay off and go on and on forever with hundreds of people getting in on the action in what I would call and Epic finale. It just feels to short, we see lots of bullets fly and people die in style, but I wanted a lot more of this stuff as it could have gone on for an hour and I would have been very happy indeed. The way it is in the film its just snipped and cut too short and what could have been superb, ends up only good.
The direction seems familiar and everyone involved seems to do their parts, but few shine out to me. Some like Aces himself seemed pretty lame, if anything he was a crap character and I didn’t give a hoot if he died, or flew to the moon, for all I cared he could have been cut from the film completely. He may do some nice card moves, but apart from that I hated the guy and his insipid ways. Too many characters didn’t live up to their promise also which was frustrating. The Tremor brothers for instance have their moments, but they could have gone so much further and never seemed to get into their groove as much as they could have. We see them in some fun bits and pieces, but as a whole we don’t get to see them enough, it’s a bit like the rest of the cast. Too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many characters fill out the film so much, that many of them are fleeting characters who we don’t see enough of when we want to.
In the end it’s a good, solid film which never quite meets my exceptions I have had so long. While it has some great flourishes of comedy, character and violent action, it never culminates into a cohesive piece and never really comes together to create that perfect film it could have been. I say go back edit a bit out, get some more pay off in the action stakes and cut back on some of the coolness they were trying to create and the film would be five stars. Until then a good film it stays.
DragonHead – 1.5 out of 5 (maybe less!)
Slow to the point of painful. This movie is bad, from the start to the end I just felt that the whole film was a waste of time and when the credits rolled I just sighed and thought my god that wasn’t enjoyable. Still it must have been a good idea to someone. I cannot say much about it worked and the lead character really grated on my nerves as he tripped over about forty times in the first ten minutes alone and really you would think he learned after the first ten times, obviously not.
If it was a realistic end of the world tale I wouldn’t have hated the film so much, but it broke the big rule by sending 99% of the cast insane by some magical magnetic field crap. As soon as characters dress up and go a bit crazy in films it gets silly, unrealistic and more than a bit ignorant. Add in a city that by the end of the film looks to have been painted by the cast of some children’s TV show with funky scribbling over every object insight (its not explained why or who did this, it would take thousands of people years to do) and your well onto the way to a really crappy movie.
Special effects don’t impress, and the dark mood of the film is uneven and more than a bit familiar to me. Don’t bother with the film really as it’s not good and not worth my or your time if everyone acted real and the plot didn’t drag on and on then the whole affair wouldn’t be so bad, but it isn’t and so it’s a low class film.
Lady in the Water – 3.25 out of 5
Under stated, small scale, subtle and rather low key. Its not all flashy special effects epic with action and adventure. It is more of a slow build up movie full of small time character studies. The cast make the film and Bryce Dallas Howard as Story is mesmerising to watch as the lady in question. She is quiet and shy, her acting is simple and low key and really she does a great job. She also looks the part that’s for sure, with her eyes and face performing most of her role onto the screen. Paul Giamatti as Cleveland is also another loveable character brought to life wonderfully in the film, he has a down to earth feel about him and really comes off well as he works with the large cast frequenting the hotel. It’s not the most exciting film ever made, but it does everything well and some scenes are spooky and other worldly that’s for sure.
The monsters are not exactly on screen much and don’t impress, only the grass dog was a good idea and he is brought to the screen well with animatronics and some CGI. It is not a film about the monsters for me, more about the story between Story and Cleveland and the other little quirky actors present in the film. I liked its subtle tone and the music adds to the energy of it all, its also pretty slow to get to the finish and never really picks up pace to go anywhere quickly, which inst a bad thing.
Nice is a word to describe the film and anyone wanting a blockbuster may well want to stay clear, as it is all very small scale. I feel the film is good, but $75 million worth of film isn’t on screen for me, that figure is sad really when the same film could easily be made for a few million, as no idea at all where that $75 million went (apart from on the hotel which they built from scratch!). Little film, big budget, good end results and a film which starts and ends with its two stars who make the film for me.
You dont need to see any of that twaddle for a film to be good, if you do then its a shit film ussually.
Miami Vice is probly all Symbolism bull, and theres a meaning behind the appauling sound mumbling
I am tempted to buy it for £2.50 from CDwow mind you, if it was the extras packed Directors Cut mind you, shame its not.I havent posted a review for ages on this forum, may as well do a few from this year so far
a mixture from al over the place.Battlestar Galactica Season 2 – 4.5 out of 5
(But sadly the last 30 minutes of the last episode are appalling!)
Quite simply one of the best TV show I have ever seen, its just so well made and the story is packed full of characters I adore. All set in a universe that screams excitement. This season gets bigger, more epic and more Cylon robots (at last), which is defiantly a good thing as they now seem threatening to us, as they can move like lightning when they want to and really like to get up close and rip puny humans to pieces. In fact the adult tone is still running through the shows red veins and the use of Frack really takes you off guard at times as it’s a great substitute.
Its all pulled together with some wonderfully creative special effects work, the CGI is improving leaps and bounds and the ships looks so perfect with the camerawork of zooms and out of focus handheld work. Space battles look stunning and come to life when the action gets going and the ships start to blow each other to pieces, the larger ships especially really feel weighty and full of character and power. The low tech, high energy action performed in the show really does look the business and the fighters and battleships get plenty of adventures to show them off in many ways. World War 2 future space adventures never looked so good, and don’t get me started on the flack and torpedoes, they really look the bomb.
Still it’s the cast which works the best, the ships crews get some more complex storylines to back their pasts up a little, some believable and some a little too much to be honest. Saying that the storylines work well and only a hand full of episodes don’t work perfectly. In fact some of the episodes work so well I was just stunned at the show, the Pegasus storyline is especially enthralling and to be honest it was the highlight of the second season by a mile, and it all comes together and really adds to the shows impact. A few shocks are evident and some are signposted well before they happen, but on the whole the story creeps about and keeps pulling rabbits out of the hat at regular intervals and some of them you can never guess.
It’s not all good mind you. Some episodes use the beginning at the end too much it has to be said, it’s ok once, but they overuse it in too many episodes. It is a little predictable at times and you know exactly what’s coming up well in advance of it showing up on your screen. But the biggest single flaw is that end!
I was just in shock at the last 30 minutes of the last episode, it made me cringe so much, its just awful to see happen. It felt strained and like they had compacted 3 seasons into the last section of that episode, as soon as the nuke blew, basically from that point it went belly up for me. It rushed past at such a rate it really was like being punched in the face, hard. I didn’t like the way it then jumped a year ahead and showed them all fat, uglified and basically ignorant to the point of insanity (yeah like they would stop defending the planet fully!). Really I adored the second season, but that as an end?
Come on! Its cruel, its bad and it felt wrong. Still at least next seasons going to start with some bloody interesting episodes to get us out of that mess.
On one final note. The music, never has TV show music been so perfectly scored and suited the shows tone so well, it’s a joy to hear the soundtrack kick in, it’s more like epic film scoring rather than TV show music. I cannot say there’s a shows music like it out there, quite simply mesmerising to listen to, relaxing at times, off putting at others and it works so well the show gets a massive influx of energy from the sound alone.
In the end this show is a masterpiece, it is unlike anything else on TV and it works so well that I cannot ignore it at all, even with that ending. The future of the show is not in dispute, I know it will be exciting next season, just now need to scrub that last episode from my mind as I feel dirty.
Crank – 4.25 out of 5
Not an action film with amazing stunts and amazing choreography. Instead it’s a fun, thrilling, fuel injected ride of comedy, mayhem and general mentalist action. I have to say its all good and it’s a film that stays fast, furious and silly to the extreme. Boy does it get silly, and I don’t mean stupid, I mean funny and it’s just so hilarious watching Jason Statham running like a crack addict down the street in a hospital gown, set to some furious, mental old style Ska music. Moments like this pepper the film and keep it constantly alive with a simple energy that makes it all fly past at a speedy rate.
We see fights, sloppy fights I must add as this is no Transporter in the fights department. They are sluggish, quick most the time and rather bonkers as the one handed man punches the floor with his newly gained bloody stump with a satisfying splodgey thud. It never takes its self serious, at any point. We get sucked into the world of the freaked out, pepped up and crazy man with a simple mission to get some payback.
Visually it’s fantastic, with so many great sequences of various types of camera work and editing. Split screen, super bright coloured contrast, jump cuts, fast forward mode (I could go on), its all in this film and it all seems to work well. Subtitles and words appear on the screen with some works of genius moments especially the C work on Jason’s big bald noggin.
I don’t think there is a problem with the film as it is, some better made fight scenes would not have gone a miss mind you, but you have to admire the pure adrenalin in the film as it jumps about like literally a guy on drugs. Enjoyable is the only way to describe it in the end, with sex, swearing and lots of violent moments and stunts all bring the film to an in your face attitude. Really it’s just too much fun to ignore, and that’s what counts in a film like this little classic.
Smokin’ Aces – 3 out of 5
More than the sum of its parts, and less than I expected it to be. There is a masterpieces under it’s over complicated, mumbled plot, but its just not placed on the screen for me to see sadly. The slow (note Very slow) build up has its many great moments and some scenes are wonderfully played out. With various characters really shining out and becoming more than the rest, Ryan Reynolds as the young FBI agent really steals the film and while he never quite gets to show what he obviously has, he does fine with what he is given. Underused is the way to describe this movie, the films all pre built tension for that scene to come when everyone converges into one mass shoot out and battle to end all battles.
Sadly it takes a bit to long coming, and it could have lost 20 minutes of this character building easily, as it just paces itself to mellow and too long in the wind. When the films finale does turn up it delivers, and features some cracking action and explosions from everyone involved. The lift shoot out being a particular favourite as the lights go out and the gun fire rattles away in the dark of the muzzle flashes. Saying all that it doesn’t really deliver on the epic scale action I was expecting from the massive cast. We see many moments of glory as people are blown away, set on fire, hacked to death, and chain sawed into bloody pulps as bodies explode into a frenzy of spurting red stuff.
But it doesn’t go on for long enough in my eyes. I wanted it to really pay off and go on and on forever with hundreds of people getting in on the action in what I would call and Epic finale. It just feels to short, we see lots of bullets fly and people die in style, but I wanted a lot more of this stuff as it could have gone on for an hour and I would have been very happy indeed. The way it is in the film its just snipped and cut too short and what could have been superb, ends up only good.
The direction seems familiar and everyone involved seems to do their parts, but few shine out to me. Some like Aces himself seemed pretty lame, if anything he was a crap character and I didn’t give a hoot if he died, or flew to the moon, for all I cared he could have been cut from the film completely. He may do some nice card moves, but apart from that I hated the guy and his insipid ways. Too many characters didn’t live up to their promise also which was frustrating. The Tremor brothers for instance have their moments, but they could have gone so much further and never seemed to get into their groove as much as they could have. We see them in some fun bits and pieces, but as a whole we don’t get to see them enough, it’s a bit like the rest of the cast. Too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many characters fill out the film so much, that many of them are fleeting characters who we don’t see enough of when we want to.
In the end it’s a good, solid film which never quite meets my exceptions I have had so long. While it has some great flourishes of comedy, character and violent action, it never culminates into a cohesive piece and never really comes together to create that perfect film it could have been. I say go back edit a bit out, get some more pay off in the action stakes and cut back on some of the coolness they were trying to create and the film would be five stars. Until then a good film it stays.
DragonHead – 1.5 out of 5 (maybe less!)
Slow to the point of painful. This movie is bad, from the start to the end I just felt that the whole film was a waste of time and when the credits rolled I just sighed and thought my god that wasn’t enjoyable. Still it must have been a good idea to someone. I cannot say much about it worked and the lead character really grated on my nerves as he tripped over about forty times in the first ten minutes alone and really you would think he learned after the first ten times, obviously not.
If it was a realistic end of the world tale I wouldn’t have hated the film so much, but it broke the big rule by sending 99% of the cast insane by some magical magnetic field crap. As soon as characters dress up and go a bit crazy in films it gets silly, unrealistic and more than a bit ignorant. Add in a city that by the end of the film looks to have been painted by the cast of some children’s TV show with funky scribbling over every object insight (its not explained why or who did this, it would take thousands of people years to do) and your well onto the way to a really crappy movie.
Special effects don’t impress, and the dark mood of the film is uneven and more than a bit familiar to me. Don’t bother with the film really as it’s not good and not worth my or your time if everyone acted real and the plot didn’t drag on and on then the whole affair wouldn’t be so bad, but it isn’t and so it’s a low class film.
Lady in the Water – 3.25 out of 5
Under stated, small scale, subtle and rather low key. Its not all flashy special effects epic with action and adventure. It is more of a slow build up movie full of small time character studies. The cast make the film and Bryce Dallas Howard as Story is mesmerising to watch as the lady in question. She is quiet and shy, her acting is simple and low key and really she does a great job. She also looks the part that’s for sure, with her eyes and face performing most of her role onto the screen. Paul Giamatti as Cleveland is also another loveable character brought to life wonderfully in the film, he has a down to earth feel about him and really comes off well as he works with the large cast frequenting the hotel. It’s not the most exciting film ever made, but it does everything well and some scenes are spooky and other worldly that’s for sure.
The monsters are not exactly on screen much and don’t impress, only the grass dog was a good idea and he is brought to the screen well with animatronics and some CGI. It is not a film about the monsters for me, more about the story between Story and Cleveland and the other little quirky actors present in the film. I liked its subtle tone and the music adds to the energy of it all, its also pretty slow to get to the finish and never really picks up pace to go anywhere quickly, which inst a bad thing.
Nice is a word to describe the film and anyone wanting a blockbuster may well want to stay clear, as it is all very small scale. I feel the film is good, but $75 million worth of film isn’t on screen for me, that figure is sad really when the same film could easily be made for a few million, as no idea at all where that $75 million went (apart from on the hotel which they built from scratch!). Little film, big budget, good end results and a film which starts and ends with its two stars who make the film for me.
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RickyTheDragonSteamboat
- Pedicab Driver
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Knetan
- Hail the Judge!
- Posts: 2009
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hey,
Rape And Die 1.5/5
The story of a family dog and his adventures in the big city...
...not really. God knows this pessimistic drama has oppurtunities and confidence but it's also largely wasted dedication thanks to director Lee Wing-Cheung's (The Cheeky Chap) muddled direction. Even being excessively downbeat, a choice I'm not often opposed to, doesn't save this.
Rape And Die 1.5/5
The story of a family dog and his adventures in the big city...
...not really.
God knows this pessimistic drama has oppurtunities and confidence but it's also largely wasted dedication thanks to director Lee Wing-Cheung's (The Cheeky Chap) muddled direction. Even being excessively downbeat, a choice I'm not often opposed to, doesn't save this.