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theghost50
Reviews
Girl Walks Into a Bar (2011)
Save Your Time
I am a fan of low budget movies (like "Primer") for it gives the people involved a chance to do almost anything. The trailer and written description of "Girl Walks Into a Bar" made me believe this would be a clever and unique action/mystery/suspense type movie, possibly with a dash of a "Pulp Fiction" like story or an "Identity" like twist, right?
I guess I set the bar a tad too high. To me, the opening scene between Zachary Quinto and Carla Gugino is the best acting/dialogue part of the entire movie. It opens the viewer up to an interesting and promising story, but...
The movie held no action, had close to zero suspense, wasn't funny or mysterious, failed at trying to be artistic, and the half of "Sin City" cast do a decent, yet not fully compelling job. There are no "Pulp Fiction" like story lapses, no "Snake Eyes" like cinematography, no "Identity" like twist. The "strangers in interlocking stories taking place" is just a better way of saying the movie is mostly about a son who pickpockets a woman who then wants him to help her with her ex-husband who is dating a bartender who just served a drink to the son's father.
Giving it a little leeway for being a movie that was apparently made for the internet, it still should not have a 6.4 rating. There are just better "interlocking stories" movies out there. If you're not a really big fan of a low budget, independent type of movie, and didn't closely follow any of this movie's main actors, there are definitely better ways to spend an hour and twenty minutes of your life.
Red Eagle (2010)
Slighty above average, still entertaining
To begin with, being a superhero fan in general and a fan of Asian movies will definitely help as to whether or not the viewer will find this film worthwhile. I happen to be both, and for the most part, I enjoyed this decently done movie.
First, the cons: The plot, mainly involving the protest of a nuclear power plant being constructed, was somewhat interesting, but since the movie is over two hours long, it does drag on at times and by the end, you just don't care what happens all that much. Time seems to jump around a lot too. The story includes multiple flashbacks, most of them are to help establish Red Eagle's background, which is fine, but they occur too often throughout the movie and some are just a tad overdone. The acting isn't all that great either. There's really zero chemistry between Red Eagle (Ananda Everingham) and his "companion" Vasana Tienpradab (Yarinda Bunnag), and after they pull off this awkward, rushed, no real nudity, sex scene in a huge refrigerator full of ice blocks, it looks like they're going to high five when he drops her off.
Last, the pros: Clearly, the action. You can never have enough action, but it's peppered throughout the movie just enough to remind you that you're still watching an action movie. At times, the cinematography, the lighting, the color, and the special effects are spectacular. Occasionally, when Red Eagle breaks an enemy bone somewhere, you'll see an in-motion X-ray of the actual bone breaking like in Romeo Must Die and Final Destination 4. One of the high points of the movie, about halfway in, is when Red Eagle meets up with an assassin called Black Devil that was hired to kill him. A long, awesome fight sequence ensues; complete with a chase over building tops, a well executed sword fight, and a showdown on the ceiling of a falling elevator. Also, the few, unexpected Red Eagle's gadgets that spring up from time to time serve as a nice Batman-like touch. A big refresher too is the fact that Red Eagle doesn't hold back on any moral issues when fighting the bad guys. They don't have their hands cuffed, but cut off rather, and a high amount of blood-soaked fatalities spread over most of the battles.
I must admit, some action movies, after watching once throughout, I will watch again, but just skip through the talking to just the action itself. This is one of those type of films. I still did enjoy the entire film overall and do recommend it, especially to anyone to enjoys the crime fighting genre. So give it a try and once you get through it, you'll see what I mean.
Mars Needs Moms (2011)
A Message to the Open Minded
Due to the copious negative reviews about "Mars Needs Moms," I decided to write a quick positive one.
I've read a bunch of different kinds of bashing over this film; from sexism and hidden political agendas to poor animation and a poorly timed release. Now, I think we can all safely agree that if the viewer really wants to find something negative about "Mars Needs Moms", they won't have to look very hard. Keeping this in mind, I went into watching this film with just one simple goal in mind, to be entertained, and I was. This film really isn't as bad as everyone says it is as long as you just go into it with the right mind set.
The animation is incredible, as well it should be with a $150 million dollar budget and over 6 minutes worth of end credits of people who worked hard creating it. Like Beowulf, the human characters look almost identical to the actor/actress voicing them and the surroundings like the space sequences, the garbage mountains, and the Mars tunnels are breathtaking. This simple animation element will be enough to entertain the open minded person. Yet, the overdone and predictable story is still heartwarming and I believe it served as a nice reminder of how special a mom really is. Though some of the dialogue isn't the greatest, and there are a few ominous notes played throughout (leaving me to recommend this movie to children over ten), wait for it to go down from a new release rental price and give it a try.
Gantz (2004)
Gantz - Not bad, not great
The reason behind my review on Gantz is to speak out a tad more clearly since most of the reviews I've read were somewhat vague and incomplete. This review does include spoilers.
First of all, the thing that allured me into this series and I believe it's the only real awesome thing about it was the plot. I thought the idea was very original, very crazy, and had the potential to turn into a great, fun story. This big black ball claims the lives of individuals that die in the real world, only to provide them with an opportunity to go back to their real world lives if certain tasks placed before them are completed. It dictates the scenarios, displays a timer along with the objectives and opponents, provides weapons and a Spawn-like black rubber suit, and kicks them into a supernatural battlefield where no one living can see or hear them. In a weird way, it reminded me of Saw 2, where a bunch of random people get thrown into a hell hole with a very rare, but tangible chance to climb their way out
if they only would just remain coherent and work together. This is what sets in motion the decline of the Gantz series. The story had two paths in which it could take; one every serious and creepy, grim and dark, and the other a heroic alliance between everyone to overcome and defeat evil. The anime tries to do both
and it just doesn't work.
I did like the main character Kurono, particularly when he keeps his chalkboard-scratching voice silent, only because he finally breaks the "frozen with fear" stage (a stage it seems everyone initially gets locked into), begins to discover the potential of their obscure suits and weapons, and actually kicks some alien ass in the 2nd and 3rd missions. Unfortunately however, the action to drama ratio leans way too far in the favor of just talking
or in this case yelling. Endless frivolous arguments abound from why are they are there, are they alive or dead, whether or not they're going home, who they should or shouldn't listen to/trust, to who is or is not in charge. Where was the leadership, the confidence, the control? After six times of just rolling my eyes up at the ceiling with how ridiculous the constant altercating dialogue was, I stopped counting... but that's not to say my frustrated gestures ceased. Even from Mission one, there is rapid yelling and screaming between the characters in a cloud of confusion and uncertainty, which, in a way, is to be expected. However, it gets quite trite quickly, it doesn't progress the story really at all, yet it continues pretty much throughout every episode. If the constant arguing wasn't enough, the alien creatures are simply too powerful for the less motivated of the captured souls to even combat. Hence, numerous times, my shoulders slumped to the fact that much pathetic death ensues these whiny side characters while overall continuing the consistency of a sheer despairing environment. This emotion capitulated with the conclusion of Mission 3 (ending around the 21st episode). I was happily amazed to see some of the 2nd group (mostly just the three main characters though) actually bond and work together and with quite heavy difficulty, defeat the missions' first two big, stone warrior aliens, only to watch their efforts disintegrate in vain when the two fallen aliens are immediately replaced by six more stone like alien statues, along with an apparently stronger new head leader, that pretty much singlehandedly kills off all of our heroic alliance in a few bloody stabs and separations.
Seriously, the path taken with the overall story was just downright depressing. After having watched this, I can't see how anyone that intently involves themselves in this story can walk away with a satisfying, "that was worth it" smile. The fact that the series is devoid of hope brought me to the conclusion I will not watch this series again and am greatly thankful I watched it online without shelling out any money. But that's just me.
I must admit the series did have an addictive element. Sex (ep. 15) and gore in anime are just what I want and expect. Also, the music choices, both for the opening and closing themes, as well as for the random song inserts throughout were perfectly picked and placed. However, at least for me, I wanted to watch this series as quickly as possible so I could put it behind me and look forward to more gory sexy anime that would not suck as much.
Overall, the series was okay. A 5 out of 10, nothing utterly terrible but surely nothing great either. If you do watch this, make sure to have a fast forward option easily accessible. It was just too long
dragged out over 26 episodes when it could have snuggled into 13. I really wanted to enjoy Gantz. A lot of other reviews raved about how good it was, but to me, I was sadly disappointed by the overall depressing feeling the series gave me. Anyone who just hails from above how spectacular this series was really has not watched a lot of anime or has very simplistic morals for being entertained. While the plot and music excelled the experience, the mediocre animation and very poor dialogue just pulled the whole anime down the outhouse hole. Comparing to other animes like Basilisk, Blue Gender, and Ergo Proxy, Gantz, outside of its original intriguing idea, really doesn't hold a candle.