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Reviews
Ninja (2009)
Awsomeness
I didn't think they made them like this anymore! This film instantly transported me back to the 80's. To a time when I'd been out on my BMX all day, building tree houses and eating crisp sandwiches, riding through the fields that are now poorly made housing estates and back in time for tea and a dose of ninja action. When plot, script and acting didn't really matter and all you really cared about was: 'How many roundhouses does he do?'
There's an abundance of dumb henchman, all wearing the same get up but who are actually members of a secret cult, controlled by some scary businessman who worships... err, something or other and have the same salute as the Nazis. These guys are loosely involved with the main ninja bad guy who has a nasty scar, ooh nasty.
You've got your Sensai betrayal, high tech ninja sh*t, stupid copper, traditional weaponry, beautiful girl and even a cameo from Batman.
Could this film be any better? Well, yeah it could... a lot actually but, who cares? It's so authentic in its simplicity, it achieves what 1000's of high budget films nowadays lack - watchabilty.
Bleeder (1999)
?
I don't know where to start with this film. Pusher in my opinion is one of the greatest gangster films of all time, superbly shot with incredible performances, a fantastic storyline and most of all completely realistic. So it would suffice to say that Refn's second film should be just as good if not better, how can you top Pusher? Well the simple answer is you cant and Refn hasn't even tried. He's gone for the more subtle approach and seems to have worked backwards by creating this very slow arty piece.
What i think he has done is pay his respects to all of his favourite films without paying homage to any of them. I think he's tried to highlight peoples outlets.
We have Lenny the quiet video store clerk who watches 4 films a day all of which are graphically violent and thats it, his life is film, Im guessing this is a reference to a traits of Refn's own character but then we move on to how these things can affect you with Leo's character, he has no outlet, the guys meet up once a week for film night and don't talk, Leo doesn't really understand film and why things are the way that they, he is growing increasingly disappointed witn his life and decides to buy a gun, he doesn't even know why - he needs an outlet. Lea's character is very similar to Lennys except her medium are books, graphic books. There are some very nice shots of the video store and the book shop, a persons collection of fiction endlessly spanning into infinity.
Whilst watching i put the slow pace and intense snappy diologue down to character build up and that when we finally see the violent revenge it would make me care even more for the characters, this was not the case. leo wakes up in a factory and instead of Louis beaten him up or torturing him they decide to inject him with HIV+ blood, this is the only refernec i can see to the title 'Bleeder'. Yes its horrible and wrong but hardly a climax, there was no build up, no suspense, no impending doom and what a ridiculous way to exact revenge on someone, its hardly quick. Leo is obviously going to get his own back and he does... wow sigh.
So, the acting is good, the cinematography is great, the storyline is boring, the diologue is boring, the end is boring. You don't feel any different from beginning to end after watching it, so whats the point? because he could.
There is no explanation the only thing i can say is don't expect it to be anything like pusher.
Day of the Dead (2008)
Pretty damn good -spoilers
I'd been warned against this film by so many people and with a straight to DVD release in the uk i didn't expect much. I remember seeing the trailer and thinking how terrible it looked but, I actually loved this film!!!
It does everything a good zombie flick should do - a half decent story line, scare you a bit, keep you in suspense and have tons of gore! This film delivers on all four.
There's been so many remakes and wannabe zombie films out recently every man and his zombie dog has had a go so its not surprising that the quality has left something to be desired. Half way through 'Day of the Dead' 08 I was thinking 'this is nothing like the original so why be classed as a remake?' But then once the action gets going and your treated to complete mayhem and oceans of very well done gore you start to see beautiful references; The likable, innocent, male love interest character shockingly takes on the role of 'Bub' from the original and is aptly named 'Bud'. He retains some of his personality and hilariously refuses to eat people because he was/is a vegetarian. He is not studied by a 'Dr Frankenstein' but tries to shoot the 'undead version' and save his would be girlfriend.
The one thing I really wanted to see was a few survivors holed up in a claustrophoebic underground bunker and I did! ...The few survivors take refuge in an old log cabin in the woods, upon exploring it further they find it leads to a secret scientific research bunker where scientists were not only researching the virus, they created it. Genius, not only are we treated to major factor of the original but we finally learn the cause of the outbreak, something quite rare especially for a Romero homage. We are also treated to a csi style take on a microscopic view of the virus taking a hold on the central nervous system - something the virus was original intended to do, designed as a biological weapon to disable enemy troops which mutated and turns people into flesh eating hordes of the undead - believable in my opinion. The photography is pretty damn good too except for the blatant fast/scream shots taken directly from 'dawn of the dead' remake, but it had to link its to somehow, even if it is copying.
We have the gun ho soldier using a makeshift spear, a machete and about ten different guns all utilizing the fx budget to maximum potential. The director has got the suspense down to a T or is that Z? I even felt my heart rate increase at one point which hasn't happened for a while maybe because i watched 'Black sheep' recently which failed terribly in that department so i was in need of some edge of your seat entertainment, who knows but it works!
The zombies run, climb ladders and even scuttle upside down on ceilings and walls, i wasn't sure about this at first but upon thinking about it i quite like it, it shows the virus has well and truly taken ahold of their brains and the subject will stop at nothing to feed on human flesh, they will do everything within their physical reach to gain that, even if t means falling 2 stories out of a window or setting themselves on fire at an electrical genrator, zombies are stupid don't you know! Theoretically when they've rotted a bit, these actions will diminish.
The only complaint I have about this film is as soon as the virus takes hold the skin is instantly rotten, this pays for me a personal tribute to 'Hammer Horrors Plague of the zombies' so i'll let it slide but usually this shouldn't happen and isn't really explained. There are no deep meaningful lessons to be learned here, no Romero-esquire principals of society today or statements of war and world leadership, there is however a zombie flick that ticks all the right boxes and doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't, I can finally say after a long time of watching all the god awful crap that has been made that this film will firmly take place on my shelf of zombie films.
I am an absolute zombie fanatic and tend to take films seriously but with this one - come on, who cares? It wasn't nearly as good as the wonderful 'dawn of the Dead' remake, nor does it try to be but, it has a load of good points and not many bad - get a few mates round, a crate of beer, sit back and enjoy the film. Its a thousand times better than 'Diary of the Dead' urrgh!