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Reviews
The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)
I was surprised
I got the DVD as a gift, hence the late review. It's the unrated version, with some bad bloopers and an interesting making off, but honestly i'm glad someone got me the DVD, otherwise i wouldn't have bothered to see it because of my 'it raped the original'-attitude. But when i shoved that out of the way for an hour and a half, it was surprisingly entertaining.
To be honest, i thought this was a going to be a waste of Dodge chargers and a raping of the original series. The first statement is correct (even though the original show wrecked ten times as much chargers, back then they threw muscle-cars at your head), the second statement is also correct, cause now Bo and Luke are 2 jackass/American pie criminals, no longer the 'good old boys' with milk and cookies. Plus Luke gets all the girls. The whole redneck thing from back then turns into some sort of lame caricature, and the new casting is really not flattering for the original shows' characters, especially that new Roscoe P. Coltrane. Next to that, it bothered me that you can see the chargers getting wrecked in stunts, which happened only occasionally in the original Dukes of Hazzard. If a real old series could show the general as some sort of 'invincible' car without ever getting the chassis bent or the suspension cracked (in footage shown to the viewer), why can this 2005 movie not?
BUT if i completely forgot about the old series, this movie was quite enjoyable in a 'Smokey and the bandit/'74 Gone in 60seconds' kind of way, only with more good-looking girls. I have to say the stunts were really neat (especially the drift around the roundabout) and i laughed at most of the jokes. The acting was amazingly awful but at a point, even Jessica Simpson convinced me as the 2005 Daisy Duke (NOT the original one) by seducing Enos in 4 seconds. About the guy with his armadillo hat; no idea what he was doing there, but worth mentioning. The only one that i absolutely missed was Roscoe P Coltrane. The guy playing him was the worst choice. The story is offcourse a try on shoving all the old episodes into one, so it turned out to be all moonshine, racing and Boss Hogg versus Uncle Jesse. Entertaining, however not something to write home about, but the director is obviously not a Stanley Cubrick. He mentioned some of his other movies in the making off, but no idea what he was talking about.
If you watch the movie open-minded, as a standalone version (even if you've seen the original) and expect nothing more then a bunch of great stunts, some American pie-type jokes and pure mindless enjoyment, this is worth watching. I'd give it 6/10
However as a movie version of the original, it's a fans worst nightmare. 2/10
Rabu Hina (2000)
One of my all-time favorites
I saw this anime right after the big series like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy bebop and movies like Akira, Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell and End of Evangelion.
Those aren't the most happy series and movies out there so when I saw Love Hina, this was like a relief. It made me laugh, cheered me up, brought up so much different emotions. Its serious and cheerful at once. It kept me hooked for the entire series, the specials and the sequel Love Hina Again. And another very important thing: the soundtracks and music are amazing. they make the images so much greater when its needed, they never irritated me once.
If you like cheerful love stories, this sure is a recommendation. It goes right up there with the Ah! My Goddess OVAs, even tough Ah! My Goddess is a little better in my opinion.
At first Love Hina may look like some crazy kids show (unlike the manga) but there's so much more to it. I watched it several times now, and it gets better and better. You live along with the characters, you see their life, their evolution in the story and the series finish this just so perfectly in the end. Even tough it's completely unreal, it all looks so possible and constantly goes up towards that one big climax: what about Keitaro and Narusegawa? Still, it's a pity they didn't completely end it. The manga goes on for a few more chapters and clears even more things up. But that doesn't change a thing about how good the series is.
This went straight into my top 5 of best anime ever. 10/10