Bletch76 Reviews

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

When examining a movie with hyped special effects...

[5/10 · 6 March 2005]

...you have to ask yourself the question: What would this movie be like if the special effects were ordinary?

Beneath all of the CGI, FF: TSW was a very ordinary, very schlocky movie with mediocre acting and a somewhat uninspired plot. If this was a live action movie, it would have been relegated to the same dustbin as movies like the Scorpion King, the Chronicles of Riddick and other yawners. While I must commend the creators of this movie for what is (IMHO) indisputably brilliant animation and excellent artistry, the fact that under everything, the movie's plot was so poor reduces these technical achievements to the status of a mere curiosity. I find that to be very unfortunate.

I'm not one of those people that expects every movie to be a Casablanca, but if they put just a bit more effort into fleshing out a real plot to back up their animation prowess, this movie would have been a slam dunk.

The Spanish Apartment (2002)

Little more than Euro-Friends

[4/10 · 16 December 2004]

This movie is proof that Hollywood does not have a monopoly on shallow, trite comedy. This movie is about a diverse crowd of young students from all over Western Europe studying and living in an apartment together. If all of the characters were American, and it took place in a loft in Manhattan instead of Barcelona, maybe drop the homosexual jokes here and there, this movie would have been virtually the same as an episode of "Friends." I've been to Barcelona and while I love the city, the backdrop was not enough to distract you from the annoying characters (especially the main character, whose dilemma amounted to "my life is miserable despite sleeping with supermodels"), stupid situations, and petty concerns.

What baffles me is the acclaim that so many people have for this movie. One has to wonder if the same people singing praise for this movie would be still praising it if it was a Hollywood movie about shallow Americans instead of shallow Europeans? I'm sorry hipsters, but just because something is "Euro" does not mean that it doesn't suck.