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Reviews
Dragon Ball Super: Doragon bôru cho (2015)
Dragon Ball Super is amazing blend of action, comedy and fantasy, and great continuation to my childhood favorite TV-Shows, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.
I grew up watching Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, so when I found out that my favorite animated TV-Show is returning after almost twenty years, you can guess how ecstatic I was. While some people ended up being disappointed by Super, I personally can say that I enjoy watching it as much as original Dragon Ball and Z. I love the fact, that even at this age, I can enjoy it as much as I enjoyed it when I watched it as a kid. But you all know that Z and Super are vastly different than original Dragon Ball; they're more mature I'd say, but then again, it's expected, since characters are older and they deal with more dangerous opponents in later installments of Dragon Ball franchise, especially in Super, where we met strongest characters in all of the universes.
For me, Dragon Ball Super is full of elements that I loved at first two Dragon Ball series. It has many new cool characters, it's action packed, but it doesn't lack great storytelling, it has many funny moments, and interactions between characters. Some people complained about the fact that Goku doesn't interact that much with characters from first Dragon Ball, like Krilin and Piccolo, although they do have some cool moments together. But it's probably due the fact that it's mostly show centered around Goku, Vegeta and new characters. Speaking of new characters, my favorite probably would be Whis. I love his design, and the fact that he's strongest character in 7th universe, but is so humbled by his own omnipotence that he steps back from the fact that he's so powerful. He's simply such a cool character, and he works so well in his scenes with Beerus, even if they are different in their personas. Beerus is another new amazing character, he's at times childish yet he also can be really intimidating. Only person who constantly punches Beerus and get away with it, is Bulma, which is simply hilarious to me. Also, I understand criticism that it's time for Goku's character to evolve, but Goku is Goku, simply put, and I think that's what makes his character great.
First arc of Dragon Ball Super re-tells the story of "Battle of Gods", while next arc is focused on things we saw in "Resurrection 'F", where fans favorite villain Frieza is back, stronger than ever, with even bigger desire at revenge. I just love Frieza as a character, all of his forms are amazingly drawn, and I loved seeing more stuff in these arcs, even if I knew how it will end, having seen both of these films. Next arc is "Universe 6 vs Universe 7", which is so far my favorite. There's just something different in having an arc where main characters face off against some villain, and arc that consists of some kind of tournament. We were introduced to so many new characters in this arc, such as Champa and Vados, and out of contestants in tournament, my favorite being Hit. Directing, editing and writing in this arc is so far highlight of the show for me. It was really unpredictable, honestly, and all fights were epic and surprisingly none of them were too long. And then, when tournament ended, we were introduced to, in my opinion cutest anime character ever, Zen-Oh. Amazing character, amazing voice acting (I watch Japanese version) and design. He looks so cute yet he's most powerful being in all of the universes. Every time Beerus sees him, we get hilarious scenes. Firstly, both Beerus and Champa were so scared of him, and of course, Goku was the one to ask to shake hands with him. I think Zen-Oh accepted that, because he's probably tired of people being so scared of him, so he gladly accepted that and said to Goku that he liked his match. Next time we see him is when he appears at Beerus place, saying that he wants to met with Goku, and in that scene we get one of funniest moments in the series: Beerus headbutting the table.
I won't talk too much about next arc, "Black Goku" or "Future Trunks" arc, which I just finished, but I did liked it. I think next arc will be the best one, and I waited for it since first appearance of Zen-Oh. In general, I think Super is as good as first two Dragon Ball series, and while at times animation loses in quality, I still like it, I like story lines and interactions between characters (although I wish we can see more of Goten, and I understand that he doesn't have any screen time as well, but one of my favorite characters is Chiaotzu, and I'd love to see more of him as well). I won't say that if you're true Dragon Ball that you will enjoy Super, and if you're tired of seeing Goku and friends facing new opponents and later winning against them, then probably don't watch it, but after all, it's really cool that we have opportunity to watch Dragon Ball series again, and for me, Super consists of so many elements that made Dragon Ball and Z awesome.
Looking (2016)
Perfect closure to adventures of Patrick, Agustin and Dom.
I just finished re-watching TV-Show, and with huge expectations prepared myself for Looking: The Movie. Yup, I can say it's amazing. Atmosphere and aesthetics of the show are visible, Andrew Haigh really is capable or capturing emotions of those characters in sublime way. This expression has been used a lots of times, but it really does feel like you're just watching real people, not just actors act.
Acting is great, Jonathan Groff is wonderful here, although he wasn't among my favorite performers on the show, he really shines in the film. I do love the fact that he ended up with Richie, but scene with Kevin is probably my favorite from the film. It was really heartbreaking, and like their fight at end of Season 2, their conversation here is so real, vivid, authentic. The way Kevin kisses him for the last time was so hard to watch, it was really emotional and touching. As well as Richie coming back to the club, and kissing Patrick. It was breathtaking.
My only complaint is that it doesn't focus on Dom at all, which is shame, because he's my favorite character and Murray Bartlett is perfect in the role, but here he doesn't have much to do. But, considering I love all these characters, it was really nice to see them together again, and when they all met up in the club at the beginning of the film, I literally couldn't but not smile all the time, to see them all again. Afterwards, as I said, it mostly focuses on Patrick, and Agustin and Eddie wedding, and it's nice to see things conclude like that.
Ending almost made me cry. I really will miss these characters. I hope we get another special like this, but if we don't, this film feels like perfect closure to ultimate tale of friendship, that we had pleasure to watch and enjoy.
No Escape (2015)
No Escape is your regularly served escape from daily life, in a form of mindless blockbuster flick.
I'll start with last scene or shot, before opening credits. We see a man, bodyguard of a Unspecified Foreign Place's leader, trapped, with all people around him dead, and plenty of killers ahead of him. He sees no exit, grabs knife, and decides to kill himself. Next we see title of a film, "No Escape", for which first scene was thrown into film, because it would be cool to make that parallel, I guess. Later on, as usual, it starts with American family going on vacation in foreign country, this time in unnamed Asian country. After first twenty minutes or so, we see our leading guy, right into city square, where two large groups of people, cops and probably revolutioners, suddenly appear facing each other and killing each other. Adventure of our hero starts. I couldn't but not think of title of film, and scene I talked about in beginning. Asian guy couldn't find escape, and killed himself. Something tells me that our leading guy, will "beat the title", and somehow find escape, to say it like that, by the end of the film.
We from then, start to follow his adventure and root for him. Because that's what large amount of people wants to see; this guy, escaping this situation, with his family alive. So, we mostly follow situations from his eyes, from men who is destined to be regular American hero in this kind of film. After few intense scenes in hotel, family we follow and other people, seemed to currently found their escape on the roof of the building. Helicopter arrives, on their misfortune bad guys are in it, and later on, helicopter crashes, and chaos reigns. Because it obviously had to fall down, or film would be over by now. While we follow them trying to find way out, group of bad guy reaches the roof, and while it would took them less than a minute to find everyone, and kill others, we instead next fifteen minutes watch our hero's plan to jump to other building. After much is said and done, he forces his daughter to jump, and after they manage to do that, Asian guy, who was with them, gets killed just before he was to make another step and jump. Well, who hasn't seen that coming?!
Just before the end, our hero gets caught, and in the new situation, in which again seems not to be escape for him, because two people are holding him, and other guy is holding his daughter and gun pointed towards him, and of course won't kill him right away, we see clichéd situation of his wife suddenly appearing, punching that one guy, and saving the day. It's no problem later to just get rid of those other two. It's really a manipulative scene, to say the least. Film ends with classical scene of them after all is over, and we can easily continue our daily habits, and not think about it any more.
Having said all of this, I'll move myself and talk a bit about term "Guilty pleasure". You see, I understand people saying they don't have ones, because they don't find themselves guilty for liking some film. To some extent, I agree with that. But, here is the film, in its screenplay so full of stuff I dislike being done in blockbusters, yet despite all of that, I found myself enjoying pretty much whole film. So why I wrote all that stuff above... Well, because I simply don't think it's a good film, aside from some nice direction, which is really intense and brutal at times, but melodramatic and manipulative at others; and surprisingly good performance from Owen Wilson, and enjoyable presence of Pierce Brosnan. Some nice editing and pacing here and there, as well as pretty amazing camera work. But I can't say I didn't found film completely offensive at times, and I picked few scenes above to explain why and when. Bad guys fall into the cliché that Asians are villains or victims do not deserve the second of credibility. They're used as cheap villains and never get second of empathy. Villains portrayal may be either be seen as poor characterization of bad guys, or just racist. Whatever intentions were, they are still seen as group of Asians who decided all white men must die, for reasons no one knows. There isn't explanation why are they killing all foreigners, except that they're bad. There is literally one line explaining situation, which is told in sardonic way. But of course, we only got to see our hero's perspective of things. Again, title is so lazy, because there is escape, for our hero and his family, why? Because script requires that.
I'll give it six stars on here, which clearly is really high after everything I wrote, but even if my review doesn't seem like it, I am in a good mood and feeling generous about this film, and I want to show that when you're writing review, rating doesn't really mean that much, because I would no have problem rating this much more lower.
Knock Knock (2015)
Couple of chicks, making mess of someone's house, just because.
Not gonna lie, I expected to like this. It started okay, a bit weird, and Keanu showed us glimpses of what later will be hilariously bad, but enjoyable performance, starting with his "Monster" scene. First half an hour or so I found to be quite okay, and it looked to me like it was intentionally funny and was made to be considered as one of those "so bad, it's good" films. So, I thought, cool, it's stupid and fun, I like where this is going, I may give it 7 or something. And then, rest of the film came, which just proved to me that Eli Roth is most childish director currently working. The torture is pointless, sadistic, idiotic, and thousands of harsh words I can throw to it, but I won't. I think it wasn't even intended to be stupid in his eyes; intentionally funny, yes. He just enjoys violence, with no real purpose portrays it in his films, and I guess his perverted imagination enjoys watching immoral people winning, and of course, someone being tortured for no reason of telling something with it. And I don't like saying films should have messages, but if this had one, it's laughable and wrong attempt of supporting feminism; picking two girls, who are clearly obnoxious sociopaths, his portrayal of feminism easily can be read as misogynistic actually, considering countless of shots he made with this film. Either way, it's just not right. I felt guilty for enjoying it at beginning and I felt manipulated at the end, and I really wouldn't hesitate on punching Roth in the face for this piece of sh*t. He can't even produce scares, atmosphere, suspense, story, etc., if we were to talk about his directorial skill. Unlike Michael Haneke, who made Funny Games, Roth with this film leaves impression of indifference in creating true tension, or digging deeper and showing allegory of moral consequences, which is main problem of this film.
Wayward Pines (2015)
Short thoughts.
Obviously, there were plenty of unintentionally funny moments in this TV-Show. It was made by Shyamalan, after all. But I'd say this is by far my favorite thing he's done. Yes, I'm not even fan of The Sixth Sense, but I understand its popularity. So, if you're not his fan in general, do not immediately skip this when you see he's attached to it. Anyway, there were parallels made with with Twin Peaks in many reviews, and I can see why. It is influenced by it, like many shows, but it's definitely different show, and not copy of Lynch's work. But while we're here, I gotta say, it's amazing how in twenty five years, not even one similar show to Twin Peaks, has managed to evoke the tone and nuances that David Lynch and Mark Frost built into the DNA of their series.
I won't talk about it in detail, since whatever I'll brought up, I may spoil something. What it could've done better, is exploring it's characters a bit more, instead of pretty much showing them as marionettes throughout whole show, which we saw since first episode. But that's part of the show that makes it what it is; its mechanic vibe gives the town its uniqueness. Its atmosphere is just right; dark enough for mystery show like this. I'll just say that it's really exciting show to watch, with some good performances, with Toby Jones as a standout, Matt Dillon as very good leading guy and beautiful Shannyn Sossamon, very underrated actress; and as a sucker for mystery TV- Shows, I must say I really enjoyed it, even if very final scene was disappointment and if this doesn't get second season, I can see many people saying whole show was pointless.