Change Your Image
mrfilm
Reviews
Surrogates (2009)
Unbearable
This has to be the worst sci fi movie since Twister. I honestly cannot think of a single redeeming quality in this film. The starting premise itself was a stretch - 98% of the people in the future use surrogates. There is absolutely nothing in this world that 98% of the people agree on, not to mention a surrogate would be an expensive piece of machinery which not everyone could afford. The plot involves Bruce Willis playing a his tired "rebel-cop" persona (only looking strangely like Robbie Rotten from Lazy Town when he is in "surrogate self") and stumbling upon various conspiracies involving VSI (corporation producing surrogates), the military (of course), and the inventor of surrogates (who apparently in all his genius cannot figure an obvious explanation for his son's death and needs Bruce Willis to point it out to him). The subplot of the movie involves reservations where surrogates are not allowed and shot on sight, even if they are law enforcement surrogates. How the government decided to waive their sovereignty to a bunch of regressionist secessionists is not explained. The regressionist reservations are filled with clichéd fat hillbillies and are led by Ving Rhames with dreadlocks, who delivers his lines with a passion of a low level politician reading off a teleprompter. There are other problems that I can go into such as surrogates being strong enough to withstand collision with a car yet falling apart under the force of Bruce Willis' bare fists, as well as the non-nonsensical robot beauty salons, but if I describe every hole in the plot, I will probably have to post the entire film's screenplay. So I'll just cut to the chase: the story is absurd, the action is OK at best, the dialogue is bland in some parts, laughable in others, and the ending is meaningless.
If you want to see a decent sci fi movie, check out Pandorum instead.
1-Ichi (2003)
Surprisingly decent
An interesting, distinctly Japanese low budget flick. The story revolves around the origins of infamous Ichi the Killer. The movie starts with Dai, a de facto high school fighting champion trying to maintain his status as the toughest kid on the block. All the while a weakling, Satoichi, discovers that he gets sexual gratification from violence. The movie doesn't really take off until the appearance Onizame, a sadistic new kid on the block who is more than a match for Dai. This is the point when the whole thing turns into an orgy of violence, perversion, and general creepiness of absurd proportions.
The most noticeable flaw of this movie is unnecessary odd editing and various cheap video effects, a common ailment of many amateur film makers. The director probably felt very self conscious of the movie's shoe string budget and tried to use all possible means at his disposal to "thicken up" the production values. Unfortunately, the only thing that that did was cause an unnecessary distraction from an otherwise decent story line. Nonetheless, 1-Ichi is definitely worth a watch for the fans of the genre, or anyone who is interested in seeing an alternative to the stuff put out by Hollywood. The best thing about this film is Kôji Chihara (playing Onizame), who steals the show as a psychotic bully.
Kaubôi bibappu: Cowboy Bebop (1998)
Story telling at its best.
These are excellent series, not just "animation" series. "Cowboy Bebop" easily reaches the pedestal of series such as "The Prisoner". Cowboy Bebop consists of stories about an oddball group of bounty hunters in, get this, action/sci-fi/western/detective/comedy genre. But the most amazing thing is that the creative team actually manages to balance all the genres well enough to avoid being absurd, in fact, well enough to be thoroughly enjoyable spectacle. The quality of each episode ranges from good to excellent. And even though the series borrows from easily identifiable sources such as 2001 Space Oddessey and The Good the Bad and The Ugly, it does it with enough finesse not to undermine itself. It really is ironic that the Japanese animators manage to pull off American pop culture references better than most American filmmakers can. But then again, good film-making/animations transcends all cultures. For those people who cannot get pass "Disney mentality" - that animation cannot be a vessel for "grown up" film-making... all I can tell you: Its your loss.
Pi (1998)
A well-done, boring film
If you narrow it down, this film is basically an exercise in directorial skills, but nothing more. You respect the director for his effort, yet you feel hollow inside by the time the film ends. Its like looking at an abstract painting - you know it is supposed to be art, but more often than not, it sucks to look at. Pi is an "art house masterpiece" so to speak - an art for the sake of art, with no real meaning. If you take away the quick montage, and sharp cinematography, you will have a film about some guy who is trying to crunch out some numbers out of his computer that constantly breaks, while being chased by somebody (actually everybody)... and that's it. If you are one of those people that enjoys discussing how socioeconomics effect the soul of an artist, and various other "I understand and other people do not" nonesense, while drinking coffee in starbucks on a friday afternoon, you will probably like this film. But then again, if you are that person, chances are, you already saw this film. If not, I would recommend a find a film that has a story in it, and Pi is not one of those films.
Hotaru no haka (1988)
What can I tell you...
This certainly is a depressing cartoon.
I would not call it a "masterpiece" though, as others have, because it does have its flaws. The story pretty much revolves around two kids, and in my opinion fails to emphasize enough the reason why they are suffering so much, while others around them seem to be doing fairly "alright".
The cartoon does however gives us well rounded characters so its easy for us to understand everyone's motivations, even though they do not play a big role in the story.
The art style has a "hand-drawn" feel to it, creating a sense of intimacy between the cartoon and the audience. But there are certain parts, such as the montage of memories about the recently deceased, which quite blatantly goes over the top in its sentimentality, as if the screenwriter wrote "cue in tears" on top of that scene.
The biggest achievement of this film I think is that it shows the death on the civilian side during the war is an excruciating slow and agonizing process, as opposed to a usual quick and violent death of a soldier on the battlefield.
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Shame on you Lucas.
You've heard people say that Attack of the Clones is like a video game. Well, its not just a figure of speech. This movie actually features characters dodging industrial presses! If that isn't wide screen gameboy I don't know what is. The film also contains horrendous dialogue, and like that video game comment, I'm not exaggerating. There was so many times I just wanted to reach for the screen and smack Anakin on the face for being so insolent and dimwitted. Jar Jar Binks has nothing on this guy. Speaking of Jar Jar Binks. Remember how some Jamaicans were offended by him? Well Attack of the Clones features an alien resembling African chief who communicates via clicking sounds, and an alien member of Senate who sounds like a bumbling Japanese tourist with subpar intelligence. Seriously, I cannot believe this. How could a man who wrote Star Wars Episode IV and Raiders of the Lost Ark produce such a monstrosity? Perhaps it was a fluke - just as the theory goes, a bunch of monkyes with typewriters will eventually produce a good novel. I think George Lucas is a monkey who got lucky with Star Wars IV and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Shame on you Lucas.. BAD BAD MONKEY!
Insomnia (2002)
Well done film.
Thoroughly enjoyable film. I must confess, I am not a big fan of Robin Williams. His constant overacting nauseates me. In "Insomnia" however, his acting was sufficiently restrained to make him believable. Pacino was great as usual and Hillary Swank was convincing as a small town aspiring detective. The biggest credit, however, must go to the director. The movie was well paced and kept the suspense in all the right moments. Granted, I have never suffered from insomnia, but Christopher Nolan first-person cinematic portrayal is exactly how I imagine actual insomnia to be. Overall, this film was performed by capable actors, and executed by a skilled director with a vision.
Possessed (1947)
Pure Melodrama
This is Citizen Kane of the melodrama genre. Its has love triangles, obsessive woman, older husband, suspected wife murder, abusive lover, bitchy step-daughter and a psychiatrist that tries to make sense of all this. Its over the top but you'll be so into it you'll think you're viewing a documentary. Watch for the line: "The mathematical chances of you killing me are very slim...". It doesn't get better than this! By the way, the entire story is told with the help of truth serum.