hhrshipper Reviews

Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (2006)

What did you expect?

[8/10 · 28 June 2009]

I can't believe the number of bad reviews this movie has got. What did people expect? This is not an Oscar winning movie, but it never wanted to be. It just wanted to exploit the first one's success, and follow in its steps. It did, even too much maybe.

I have to say that Taj is not Van Wilder, and while you can't help smiling when you realize how much he has progressed from the timid wreck he was in the first movie, and how well he learned Van's lesson, you can see that he's not on Van's level yet. The fact that Van never made even the smallest appearance takes a star away from my vote, and another star is taken away by the too similar plot to the first one. A stuck up asshole who thinks he's God's gift to humanity, his girlfriend who can't get away from such a boring guy and enjoy having fun, and the lead character ready to give her that fun, and more. Where did we already see this? On VW1 of course.

But it still works, and quite well too.

Lauren Cohan was very good as leading female character, I didn't know her but she impressed me for the natural way in which she put herself in the role of the girl who has been brought up as strict follower of the rules, but desires nothing more than to break them and have fun. I can see her being like that more than Tara Reid in the first movie (although she did well too there).

So all in all, in its genre it is a good movie. Not the best, but good nonetheless.

Virgin Territory (2007)

A movie made to entertain, and it scores!

[7/10 · 7 September 2008]

Of course this movie will never win an Oscar, but that is not what it aims for. It aims to entertain the audience, with a certain amount of nudity and sexual innuendo, and it does that quite well I've to say. Mischa Barton and Hayden Christensen act their roles quite well, just like Tim Roth, and basically I can say that if you want a night of light entertainment, this movie can provide that.

It is loosely based on the Decameron by Boccaccio, and if I have to find a problem with the movie, it is the Italian title for it, because really, the references to the Decameron are not so many, but at the same time, the situation of a group of young people leaving Florence for the plague is the same, so I guess it could be accepted. However, it's all the "adventures" these people go through once they leave the town that make the movie somewhat interesting and amusing.

I know I'll be watching it again in the future.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

Wonderful!

[9/10 · 15 July 2006]

Awesome movie, I saw it the night it came out in theaters here in Italy, and found it so good I simply had to go see it again the next day. Way better than the second, both from the storyline point of view than from the racing point of view. Drifting is something awesome, and they managed to show the thrill of doing it in this movie, so, really, I'm enthusiast of it. Can't wait for the DVD to come out, this is a must to see! Another thing I loved of the movie are the cars used, mostly from Japan, but hey, there's a reason for that, Japan cars are the best for drifting, after all it was invented there...Again, maybe I repeat myself but the storyline is really really good, and the actors do their job really well, I was a bit skeptical knowing the original cast wouldn't be there, but the only one I found a bit out of place was the guy playing D.K., not frightening like the nephew of a Yakuza should be, I could tell from the moment I saw him that the character was just a buffoon, while in the beginning it should have been more frightening.