Reviews

The real seafood wars!

A space probe to Jupiter returned home with glittering aliens who created Seafood Kaiju in order to take over the world in Space Amoeba aka Yog, Monster from Space. An intrepid reporter, a biologist, and a resort developer converge on a pristine island destined to become a luxury resort site. That is, if the native islanders and newly created monsters agree to sign the contracts.

Reporter Kudo Taro sees the lost Jupiter probe, Helios 7, parachuting to Earth while he is on an airplane. No one believes him and he is laughed out of the editor’s office. Hoshino Ayako who works for a resort developer asks him to take pictures of a remote island for their project. At first, he’s not interested but then his friend, Dr. Mida Kyoichi tells him he believes monsters might be inhabiting the island. Kudo can smell a buck to be made and agrees. A shady character named Obata tags along on the ship and joins the group even after the monster has already killed a worker on the island. The islanders believe the newcomers are angering Gezora, a giant octopus like creature, but Gezora seems generally pissed off about any two-legged creatures on the island. It’s not long before everyone understands that they are on their own with no way off the island and no way to contact the outside world, with a giant cephalopod out for blood.

This was Honda Ishiro’s first kaiju movie without special effects master Tsuburaya Eiji who died in 1970. Aside from a few random wires through the years, I noticed more in this film than the others combined. Of course, controlling eight legs on land is tough. There were two giant crabs-Ganimes, and a big turtle not named Gamera as well. The overall looks of the kaiju were good for the time period. If you have a bat phobia there were numerous alive and unalive bats in the last third of the film. This film got something right that many of these creature features did not. The monsters showed up early and often instead of being special guest stars in their own movies.

The actors were better than usual, with the exception of the female lead who was never called by name. I kept thinking Kudo would say, “Ayako, stop falling down!” or “Ayako, stop screaming and alerting the monster to our location!” There was never even a proper introduction. The lone island woman, Saki, had her name called out numerous times. Even characters with bit parts had their names vocalized, all but poor Ayako. At least they gave her a name in the cast list. Have I belabored that point? Probably. Lol

Space Amoeba took a different angle on the kaiju genre by having microscopic glittering space aliens take over sea creatures and even humans in their world domination goal. The humans had to survive long enough to work together to discover the aliens’ weakness. They also had a little assist from Mother Nature and a selfless soul. If you enjoy old kaiju films, this is one to try.

19 October 2024

Lees verder

WHERE S THE SHOCK EFFECT?

this could v been an amazin film .. idk what the genre is called , but in some movies, plots start similar to this one , then sooo many random events happen and the wildest chaos ensues .. just for the denouement to be something simple and obvious ( like grace eventually givin money , which is something she could v done 10min into the movie lol).....

Now this type of movies is always fun with strong shock value.... but this one failed the expectations in my opinion. They were so reserved .. it wasnt as chaotic and erratic and manic as i hoped . the characters needed more irrationality and just randomness in their actions..

Lees verder

That's not a sword. Now that's a sword!

Lam Ching Ying wasn’t available for this sequel so Mr. Vampire 4 had to find two priests to take his place! Wu Ma joined the hopping fun alongside Anthony Chan’s Four-eyed Taoist. There were jiangshi and one Big Bad vampire for the boys to deal with.

Buddhist priest Yi Yu returns home with Ching Ching, a female disciple. Chia Le is a disciple of the Four-eyed Taoist but respects Yi Yu. Chia Le and Ching Ching get off on the wrong foot when Chia Le mistakes her for a boy. Their misunderstanding can’t hold a candle to the childish displays by their elders who torment each other and even have a food fight. The two older men have to set aside their petty rivalry and work together when a vampire is being transported to the capital and breaks out of his traveling coffin during a lightning storm.

Lam Ching Ying’s wise unibrowed character would have had no place in this film. It’s a wonder the vampire was ever subdued with these two frenemies on the job. Wu Ma and Anthony Chan made the most of their roles as they fought each other and then the undead. Ching Ching was a more adept female character than in previous sequels making her a welcome addition. Chin Kar Lok took over his older brother’s (Chin Siu Ho) role as the bumbling Taoist disciple. His kung fu and stunt abilities were fun to watch as he was quite acrobatic. Pauline Wong returned in a guest role as a fox demon who tried to seduce the Four-eyed Taoist. Cheung Wing Cheung played a hopping vampire in Mr. Vampire 2 and played the Big Bad vampire here.

Except for a conga line of hopping vampires who also played limbo, the first 47 minutes was devoted to slapstick comedy with the two competing priests. As someone who has a low tolerance for it, those minutes were slower than a jiangshi hopping through knee deep mud. Once the Big Bad took the stage, the action picked up as well as my interest. There was still plenty of comedy, this was not a scary movie. At one point Four Eyes kept coming out with bigger and bigger swords compared to Yi Yu’s. One thing that did not age well was Yuen Wah’s gay eunuch as the role was played strictly for laughs.

Mr. Vampire 4 was comparable in quality to most of the other sequels in this franchise. The fights were well-choreographed and there were plenty of vampires both of the hopping and non-hopping varieties. Most of all, Wu Ma is always welcome on my screen even if I have to watch him in a food fight. (Graded on a ratings curve)

18 October 2024
Trigger warning: Snakes and one decapitation

Lees verder

This movie was a very heart warming movie which talks about struggles of leaving a bad situation, disability, guilt and romance.

Romance:
The romance was truly rewarding and well paced, I loved how their love grew through time and eventually they dated which was truly warm and made the romance really smooth and got us audience to attach to the main romance very well. I also loved the scene where she gave him a massage and I genially thought it was going to lead to a sex scene but turning into a hug was very satisfying and beautiful to watch. Little moments like these makes the romance feel genuine and gives it a special meaning to the reason they got together which felt natural.

Disability ( WARNING IN THIS PARAGRAPH I TALK ABOUT THE SEXUAL ASSULT SCENE):
It was satisfying to finally see representation of a person who has a disability that is not wealthy and actually has to work and provide for herself, which is more common. One thing I loved about his movie was about how she was represented as and shows the struggle of hardship she faces as a blind person trying to survive in a non adaptable society. This was clearly demonstrated in the scene where she wants to ignore the sexual assault to keep her job, shows the desperation of need this job and also the hardship of even finding on or another one.

Guilt:
I have decided to not write a paragraph on leaving a bad situation, and her rather decided to focus on guilt because it is an interesting topic that was explored in the drama.

The fl felt guilty because she was driving and got distracted leading to her parents dying in a car accident
The ml felt guilty for betting someone up, which led to suicide.

Ignoring the rest of the plot the ml has committed crimes and multiple of them has been assaults. The victims family or the victim never got the justice and instead the ml redemption is him being guilty and praying to god everyday to forgive his sins is crazy. He never even decided to turn him self to the police or even apologies to the victims family which frustrated me because despite him being redeemed since her will likely never perform such actions because of his trauma, the victims never got justice. This movie only focused on the ml and his guilt. I feel like if he actually turned himself in, went to jail and served his time, then he will finally be redeemed but instead we are suppose to feel pity for him because of his trauma but none for the victim and his family?

Lees verder

"Why am I here?"

Mad Cats was a low budget flick with an interesting concept. Cats had taken human form and were wreaking havoc on bad pet shop owners and breeders. These women had cat-itude and were not kitten around!

Drunken, unemployed Taka receives an audio recording from a woman telling him where he could find his missing brother. There was also a wooden box he had to steal where his brother was being held. Mune was an archaeologist who had discovered an ancient and forbidden catnip. The catnip supercharged cat monsters who looked like women making them more violent. Taka finds his brother and the catnip but is unable to spring Mune from his prison. While on the run, Taka is helped by a homeless man named Takezo. They both end up being the target of fur-midable feline assassins stalking them! Luck favors the totally inept male leads when a furrocious young woman arrives and protects them from the killers. Ayane whiskers them away to an abandoned amusement park and attempts to train the two impawsibly untrainable men.

This film was as crazy as a bag of cats. Strangely enough, everyone ate Yum Yum Catness cat food, even the humans. The production values were as low as the budget although I really enjoyed the mewsic. Most of the comedy was hiss or miss. The film was littered with cat puns (the nerve!). A prime example, the license plate on the car the guys stole was “hissatu” (hiss at you). The acting was actually pretty good from the main characters and I thought Ayane played the cat turned human purrfectly. Ayane kneaded all nine lives to save her new fur-iends. Mineo Sho and Matsuura Yuya as the bumbling heroes and in-fur-ior creatures managed to pull off some of the purr-plexing slapstick as they fought the murderous glamourpusses.

Mad Cats was a cautionary tale for those who mistreat cats. You would not want to face The Executioner. Fur-tunately, the boys had a cat goddess on their side. Both brothers developed felines for Ayane who was completely devoted to her purr-sons. If you are in the mewd for something purrhaps not claw-some but also not a cat-astrophe, Mad Cats might be something to pounce on.

18 October 2024

Lees verder

Botched story structure damages potential masterpiece

I will warn you when any spoilers are offered, so feel free to read until then.

1. The Western title of this would be, THE LIGHT BULB MAN

2. In general the entire production values are great. The first half of this piece borrows liberally from David Lynch, but in a good way.

3. I knew 3 people in this cast (the Mom, her daughter, and the light bulb man) and they were as good as ever. My only complaint is that the camera wouldn't leave the crying girl. You're not going to force me to cry because a girl is crying forever. That's cheap and it started to become an obvious ploy.

4. A major issue with the film is it changes genres midway -- which is a serious NO NO! You spend the first half of the film selling us on a dreamy Lynchian world only to flip it to a tearjerker melodrama? Nope. Both must be blended from frame one.

5. The major problem with this film was the story. Without spoiling, reveals needed to be re-arranged. And when 'reality' comes into the story, most of that should have been quick flashes, as to suggest we never should have left the dreamy world. And the Light Bulb Man deserved a more central role. And now, as warned, here come the STORY --

************ SPOILERS ************

************ SPOILERS ************

************ SPOILERS ************

6. In general there should have been a simple and crystal clear quest for our leading lady.

She, like her boyfriend and everyone else, should have 'been' in this weird alter-verse but started to suspect something was off. One by one the others would begin to recall a traffic accident, but never say 'bus'. They would start to recall they were all together, but something is wrong.

Our lead would say, wait, my boyfriend and I weren't in any accident. He'd be like, yes I guess so (for now), and they'd help the others find their bulbs and say their goodbyes. Our lead would help everyone get to that bulb store. She'd often have arguments with the man there, because she knew he was keeping a big picture secret from her.

When the lead and her BF helped the last person, she'd wonder why they were still stuck there. That they had no one to say goodbye too. Only then would the first flashbacks of the accident be seen in her memories, and she'd realized it was BUS ACCIDENT. She'd wonder if her BF was the driver, and he'd say it's time to say goodbye.

Then, and only then, would she wake up at the hospital.

If the above wasn't clear, I've un-divided the film. It's now a dreamy melodramatic tearjerker that still holds a big reveal for the end. This way it's very simple while maintaining a consistent tone.

Lees verder

good watch

It was quite a good movie. Future possibilities of AI portrayed in a simple story, nothing too much.... The actors are all well known and they did their role justice, music was good specially as it was sung by the cast members, the artificial effects also didn't seem over the top. Overall it was a pleasant, simple but quite emotional film, so I don't see the reason for a low rating. Yes tbh it would've been good if it was made into a series because that would give the story much depth which it needs. As the movie shows the lives of people who were receiving the service but didn't really show the full story of the characters, just fragments which is why we couldn't really perceive their feelings, many things were left unexplained ......

Lees verder

Et si le mal venait de l'intérieur ?

Outside est un film franchement divertissant et jouant avec la tension. Il possède des décors naturels et beaux (notamment les interminables champs de canne à sucre), un casting excellent, un scénario surprenant et une musique parfaite (le dix est mérité).

Carlo Ledesma nous dévoile une famille. Les parents qui semblent à peine se supporter, et leurs deux garçons qui sont, malgré eux, victimes d'une dynamique familiale pesante. Cette dernière va ne faire que s'intensifier au fil de l'histoire, tandis que les secrets se révèlent. Le film ne tente pas de nous les cacher, au contraire, c'est clair et intelligemment distillés. On suit l'histoire, on devine et on voit le chaos qui se renforce.
La psychologie des personnages est ce qui dynamisme l'histoire, car les zombies ne servent que de fond dans ce monde désolé. L'action se concentre majoritairement sur la famille, tandis qu'on découvre le passé et les traumatismes du père, ainsi que l'égoïsme de la mère.

Certaines scènes font mal au cœur, mais renforcent toujours plus la valeur humaine de ce film qui est bien plus qu'il n'y paraît. D'ailleurs, il me fait penser au film taïwanais « Eye of the Storm », sorti l'année dernière (il me semble). Boudé, parce qu'il avait l'étiquette du film pandémique, mais renfermant tellement plus. Outside est plus au moins similaire dans son idée. Encore des zombies ? Oui, mais le film va bien plus loin que ça... Certes, il n'est disponible que depuis hier, il n'a pas encore eu le temps de faire son chemin, mais sait-on jamais !

Bref, c'est un film divertissant qui s'amuse avec les nerfs des personnages, tandis qu'on réalise avec quelques sueurs froides que l'enfer n'est peut-être pas le putréfié qui traîne la patte dans l'ombre, mais ceux qui ont encore le cœur qui bat.

Lees verder

Monstrous and not in the good way

Monsters was a cheap, confusing film which wouldn’t have been a bad thing if it had been funny or scary. Five people ended up in a monster prison that was sealed in four dimensions but wasn’t impregnable. The ancient creators were super geniuses but forgot about solar eclipses which caused the singularity solar space time quantum magnetic black hole multiverse prison to glitch.

Long before humans crawled down from the trees, giants ruled the Earth. Everything was hunky dory until an underground explosion spewed up lethal monsters that ate everything in their path. The giants decided to leave Earth but eleven warriors stayed behind and caged the monsters. A gazillion years later Gao Fei and her sidekick Su Jun Bao race to the site where her sister, Gao Wei, disappeared a year earlier during a solar eclipse. As luck would have it another eclipse is about to begin. Fei is ready to jump through the newly formed ripples when Zhang Mu Sheng drops in wielding a knife and attacks Fei. Why you ask? Who knows. Jun Bao is accidentally knocked into the portal. When Mu Sheng refuses to relent Fei bounces both of them through the portal before it closes. An observer, Ayo Sayi, finds her way through the portal as well. Hiding in the deep forest is a monster who has a Black Canary cry that disables its prey before it attacks. As the group wanders through the woods, they keep happening upon other people who look just like them, both living and dead. Fei just wants to survive, find her sister, and get everyone safely home.

The creators failed at world building on multiple levels which dragged this movie down. It could have been a translation problem but the characters’ efforts to explain what was going on were just confusing word salads of scientific terms. It seemed liked the creators used the whole black hole singularity multiverse quantum physics explanation so that they could kill off character without having to sacrifice the main characters. How did beings intelligent enough to build a fourth-dimension prison powered by the sun not take into account solar eclipses? Total solar eclipses happen around every 18 months. And how in the heck would a solar eclipse be any more problematic than nighttime? A solar eclipse doesn’t block the sun for the whole planet. The nocturnal beasts didn’t seem to have any problem coming out in the daytime either.

Along with world building, the characters were a mess. Gao Fei knew her sister disappeared through a mysterious portal. She planned to go through it as well when it appeared again. She brought no food, water, weapon, or backpack. To show she was ready for anything she wore a white sports bra instead of a shirt. The Observer in an elaborate costume and wig was not properly attired for traipsing through the forest and fighting off a monster either, although she at least carried a sword. Mu Sheng went from trying to kill Fei to becoming best buddies with her in whiplash fashion. And poor Jun Bao was given a list of scientific terms to rattle off in no particular order. Most of the characters were knocked unconscious at least once. If they survived their ordeal they all needed to schedule CTscans upon return to their world. Quite honestly, my favorite character and the only one I cared about surviving was Master the dog.

Monsters was primarily a singular monster for most of the movie with the kind of CGI you’d expect from this caliber of film. If you enjoy being confused watching confused characters wandering through a singularity solar space time quantum magnetic black hole multiverse monster prison disguised as a wooded forest, this might be something to check out. I told myself if the writers resisted using the most cliched ending for these cheap monster movies I’d give it a .5 bump. It did not receive a .5 ratings bump.

17 October 2024

Lees verder

Prequel story does not align with parent story

This was very well made. The feelings were there, the chemistry was amazing, the storyline was enjoyable too. I just think it would have been better as a stand alone rather than a parent story.

I felt as though so many questions were left unanswered. Dong Hui went to Seoul to study medicine, but ended up as a coffee shop owner. One time in unintentional love story, he mentioned that he wasn't a doctor. It was very casually stated, so it didn't seem as though he was bothered by the fact he never became a doctor. His personality in this also completely differs from the parent story. So what happened during the time he was in Seoul studying?

This story also ends with Ho Tae and Dong Hui smiling at each other, but in unintentional love story, Ho Tae refuses to let Dong Hui treat his wounds after being beaten up by a girl... So the ending of this and the beginning of the parent story don't really align which I found slightly disappointing.

I really enjoyed this series, the actors did great. The fact that the prequel and parent story don't really align makes this a little less enjoyable for me. If you haven't seen unintentional love story and want to after watching this, I would recommend not to, and pretend this is a stand alone story instead lol. There is too much of Dong Hui's past missing in the parent story, which makes it a little confusing if you have watched the prequel and expect a smooth continuation. They are good in unintentional love story too, just a little different.

That being said, I did really enjoy this and do recommend for people to give it ago.

Lees verder

Hard to write about

This is a movie that is hard to rate and hard to review, leaving me without words for the first time since I started writing reviews.

One could think that that should stop me from writing a review, and it almost did but that alone makes it worthy of a review.

So what can I say, the movie has a pretty decent approach to puppy love at the twilight moments of teens lives. Combining art, youth, and lots and lots of Garberas colorful moments in the hospital gray... Showing people with terminal illnesses with drams, wishes and I guess more than just people waiting for a cure... With lots of moments of color and fun.

As well as shows the value of normalsy... So I guess I did manage to find some words in the end.

Lees verder