Reviews

I am having a problem with the birth of all the new Hollywood musicals that are coming out. I just do not think that they really work in modern Hollywood. The last good musical was the South Park film, anyway: The direction was sloppy. Joel Schumaker hasn't really made too many good films as of late. His last good movie was 8MM, and before that Falling Down. While watching Phantom, I felt as if some of the camera shots were the comical and zany shots that were in Batman Forever/Batman & Robin. I just don't think he was the right choice to direct this film.

Also, the whole added story about Raoul as an old man was a little unneeded. Why not just have the story as it is? Why add in all this bollocks that really does not justice to the story.

The art direction and costume design. Well, what can I say? Fantastic. You can be sure this will grab up some Oscars for that. The movie itself is a feast for the eyes. Lots of visual eye candy and the such.

I am not really going to say much about the music. Most of us already know the music very well, so...

6/10

Adapted from the novel by Shugoro Yamamoto, Red Beard tells the story of Dr. Kyojio Niide (Red Beard) and his intern Dr. Noboru Yasumoto. Yasumoto has just arrived from Nagasaki, where he was learning medicine at a Dutch academy. Upon arriving at Red beard's clinic, he learns that he is to stay there (rather than to be called upon) as an intern. This angers him, for he had ambitions to be the doctor of the Shogun. The clinic is hardly a dream location. Plus, he isn't exactly too keen on Red Beard's "dictator" like rules. He becomes arrogant, and tries to break all the rules on purpose, so Red beard will send him away. But, in the process of facing the deaths of two of the clinic's patients, he starts to change and begins to learn the true beauty of life. He begins to understand Red Beard's non-conservative thinking.

The story is basically a coming of age story of Yasumoto. After intermission, he begins to document the treatment of his first patient, Otoyo. She is a young girl that they rescued from a brothel. But, as he takes care of her, he falls sick. She begins to take care of him. In a way, they both were the needed cure for each other.

Akira Kurosawa is most famous for his samurai/war films like Seven samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, or Ran. But here, we have a period piece that is not set as a samurai story. It is the simple story of a poor clinic and their struggles. An extremely personal film filled with beauty and emotion. The acting is some of the best you will ever see in a Kurosawa film. Mifune is excellent as the aging doctor as Yuzo Kayama is excellent as the young intern.

If you can handle the length of three hours, then there is no reason why you should avoid this film. The pacing is excellent and the film flows very nicely. One of Kurosawa's best.

9/10

Toshiro Mifune (of Akira Kurosawa fame) stars as Takezo. A young man who seeks fame as a warrior. He and his friend Matahachi join to fight in a civil war. When their "platoon" (for lack of a better term due to my lack of Japanese warfare knowledge) is wiped out, the two young men confide in the help of two women.

The two women rob the dead bodies of Samurai. When a group of bandits wants to cash in on their treasure, Takezo fights off and kills the bandits. When Oko (the mother of the two women) observes this, she falls for Takezo. When he refuses and runs off, she tells Akemi and Matahachi that Takezo forced himself, and she refused. So, Akemi, Oko, and Matahachi leave. Only for Takezo to return to an empty home.

Takezo tries to return to his home village to let Matahachi's fiancé and mother know that he is still alive. When he is accused of leaving Matahachi for dead he is pursued by the town in a manhunt. Otsu, Matahachi's fiancé, learns of Matahachi's marriage to Oko. She eventually falls for Takezo. During all this, Takezo is capturd by a Buddhist monk. Only part of the monk's larger scale plan of eventually moralizing and training Takezo. Thus, Takezo becomes the film title, Miyamoto Musashi.

An excellent and colorful film. Toshiro Mifune excels as Takezo. He proves that he is up to play any type of character. His character is somewhat similar to that of his character in Seven Samurai. Ambitious, but not as strong and mature as he should be for a samurai.

If you don't know too much about classic samurai cinema, this is a good place to start (this is part one in a trilogy of three films). With his short running time and color film, it may help you break into the other samurai classics that are in B&W (Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Yojimbo/Sanjuro, etc.,).

As a note, this won of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1955.

I only saw this film once. It was on opening day back in 2001 when it first opened. I remember going with my entire family. We were all pretty excited about it.

Let me just say, I have never been so freakin' bored out of my mind. I felt like with the success of Titanic, that Bay was trying to re-manipulate the idea of incorporating a teeny bopper love story into a major disaster in history. Although, Cameron did a hell of a lot better job in Titanic.

Affleck is a great actor who always gets typecasts. He's always put in the wrong roles and this certainly is not helping him out. Josh Hartnett is also an underrated actor, but he is just so freakin' sloppy in this movie.

The attack scene on Pearl harbor, the 45 minutes of the movie that actually make the movie title somewhat make sense (I think they should have stuck with the original title, Tennasse or whatever) is one of the most poorly filmed war scenes I have ever seen. Smudging lenses to cover up blood to make sure of a PG-13 rating. It's just hack film making that Michael Bay is making so popular these days.

The bombing raids in the end, the crashing in china, this to me doesn't seem like "Pearl Habor". To me, this is history slapped together into one giant mess only to confuse teenagers more on history events. Worrying more about ticket sales rather than art and actually somewhat educating people. I remember my ex-girlfriend, God bless her mind, actually thought Pearl harbor was a war in Alaska with the French...yeah, anyway, enough said on that.

If you want to see a film about Pearl Harbor that is much better. Please, do yourself a favor and watch Tora! Tora! Tora!

Rock & Rule was put out of print back in 1985 shortly after its first video run. Since then it has not really seen the light of day, other than on ebay auctions, random TV sightings, and most recently on Bit Torrent. Now, with a two disc special edition DVD being released, it is finally time for this film to get the attention it deserves.

Rock & Rule most likely failed because it was released in a time when animation was still dominated by the Disney/Children's market. Ralph Bakshi had a few successful films in the 70's, but as the 80's came along, he failed. Transformers (another PG animated film) failed. There were so many experimental animated films coming out, but none of them were successful, just because of its more adult-like content. Rock & Rule isn't as extreme as say some of the Bakshi film are. But, there is a strange use of drugs (with orb-like balls) in the film, sexual innuendos, language, etc., But, nothing a young teen couldn't handle.

Our story begins with some information about a war that is long passed. Humans don't exist anymore. What we have now are mutant evolutions of street animals (dogs, cats, rats, etc.,). We are introduced to Mok. He's an Iggy Pop/David Bowie sort of character. His music career is somewhat going under. It isn't as strong as it used to be.

He stumbles unto a secret code that can only be un-locked with a certain key. That key is the perfect voice. Once this code is unlocked, a beast will come and destroy all that Mok wants to be destroyed.

He stumbles upon a struggling band in his local town led by Omar and Angel. Omar sings the first song. Then Angel sings the second. When Mok hears this, he discovers the perfect voice. So, he does a little heist and kidnaps her and takes her to "Nuke York" to perform. After Omar and his friends wake up from a drug-haze, they travel to Nuke York to try and save her.

Animation is splendid for its time. Crazy visuals. Especially during the "Triumph" scene. It's almost like a psychedelic trip. The music is also great, featuring Cheap Trick, Earth Wind and fire, Iggy Pop, etc.,

I suggest any fan of animation check this out once it comes out on DVD (whenever that may be, but it will be soon). It ain't a cult classic amongst true animation fans for nothing!

Metropolis is one of the most incredible animated films I've seen to this day. I was so excited to see it, I drove an hour and a half out of my way to go see it at the theater. I was in for a treat when I also realized it was subtitled, I was tired of seeing English dubbed Anime films.

The character development in the film is incredible, the film keeps circling around its characters, and links all of them into one setting at the end. It has great elements of science fiction, adventure, comedy, mystery, and political drama.

I highly suggest seeing this film while you can. It can only be experienced in the theater.

I first saw Memories in 1997 when I recieved a fansub copy. I had just gotten into Anime at the time. The film is divided into three segments, Magnetic Rose/Stink Bomb/Cannon Fodder. The most impressive segment is Cannon Fodder, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, to my knowledge its the first animated feature done in One-Shot (Meaning it never cuts, the camera just keeps moving around from scene to scene). Anyways, all the segments are based off of old manga shorts written by Otomo. Its an amazing film, with awesome music, storytelling, and animation. Highly recomended.