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Reviews
Hokkyoku Hyakkaten no Concierge San (2023)
A Christmas themed treat for everyone.
Akino is a new recruit into the elite of all department store shopping clerks in the prestigious Hokkyoku (North Pole) department store - that serves customers who are all animals.
None of the gravity of tragic theatre and convoluted plot twists here, just a Christmas day treat. Although, for all the levity, we should be reminded that many of characters we meet - are now extinct species.
I've just watched this in GFT as part of Scotland Loves Anime festival 2023 and the whole movie theatre was enchanted in seconds, moments of silence with ripples of laughter all the way through. We loved it, we cared, this is one of the most accessible animes ever. 8/10.
Knightfall (2017)
2 minutes of HEMA brilliance...
Followed by 18 episodes of banal Hollywood formula.
It's a real shame, this boxset begins with heavy shock cavalry charge that I felt was immersive, powerful, and directed well. I thought this might herald the prospect of a docudrama that dares to be accurate...
...then, they take their helments off and start acting. And from that moment to ad nauseum it is the same old scripted formula:
* principle actors without helmets swinging at stuntmen with helmets,
* heros get injured repeatedly by sword, spear, arrow, bolt, and mace - but they can still ride away on a horse and leave no scars when they've recovered,
* pointless and historically absurd love affairs because some school of script writers think this what they need for female viewers to relate to,
* ZERO subtlety about who the bad guys and good guys are and their motivations being noble or treacherous,
* chronically boring tragic soliloquys from good guy dying slowly in the arms of their clostest friend/brother - while the BATTLE STILL RAGES and extras are fighting in the background,
I was shouting at the screen so bad I had stop watching in middle of S2E6 and abandon watching this boxset forever. Watch from 2:41 to 5:20 of the S1E1 and forget the rest. I only gave this two stars because I thought Mark Hamill carried this lost cause brilliantly.
Gubbai, Don Gurîzu! (2021)
Perfect rework of the coming-of-age "Stand By Me" style adventure
For two boys Roma and Toto, aged 15 and 16, this will be final year of their hidden secret gathering place "Don Glees" as they will all most likely seeking separate careers going separate ways. For this final year a third teenager, Drop, has joined them - he's new to the group but brimming with enthusiasm for one-in-lifetime experiences.
So Roma is pushed into blowing his entire allowance on a camera drone for an ambitious attempt at a good close-up film of a fireworks display, but events on night do not go according to plan.
This will force them into an adventure deep into the forest without detailed maps and scant phone coverage, taking them through tragedy, terror, heart-ache, and culminating with a truly epic closure.
I watched this at "Scotland Loves Animation" festival in October 2022 and out of 4 entries for the Audience Award - this the only one I felt compelled to vote for. With an excellent script and visuals, intelligently nuanced characters, plot and storyline, this will keep me alert in future for any more work by the writer and director Atsuko Ishizuka.
Watchmen (2009)
I had already read the graphic novel and...
... this movie was an improvement!
The best adaptation of Alan Moore's works I have seen to date. Not truncated, not shy and - if you enjoyed Batman sledging bad guys then THIS IS IT FIVE TIMES OVER. A whole gang of superheroes sledging bad-guys, and occasionally, kicking the **** out of each other!
Alan Moore might be - as far as the IMDb is concerned - the most accomplished author in the genre of graphic novels. "From Hell", "V for Vendetta", "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", even (arguably) "Killing Joke" have all resulted in big movie adaptations. And this one stayed honest in every way to (at least my reading of) The Watchmen.
All the one-liners, the key incidents, political comment and Alan Moore's sense of irony was all conveyed fluently in this adaptation. It corresponded with (my reading of) the graphic novel - frame by frame, line by line - and where it did seem to deviate from the graphic novel's exact story line, it actually improved it!
Furthermore, I was pleased to read *67rocks* review, considering he admits he hadn't read the graphic novel. That says a great deal for the movie's success in delivering the message that the story meant to convey.
PS: Will "Lost Girls" be adapted into a movie? 8P Somehow, I doubt it...
Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1983 (2009)
Criminal Thriller is not a word I will use for this, more like: Disturbing.
The Red Riding trilogy is not something one would normally watch for comedy style entertainment. The underworld criminal corruption and fascist bastard Yorkshire police encountered so far in the first two parts are just touching the surface of this crime drama; beneath this is sick, violent and twisted evil. And the final episode lays it bare.
I have to say the performance by the cast is extraordinary. Sure, you can say that actors like Sean Bean and Paddy Considine do possess a degree of cool and that they easily endow upon their character roles. However, in the final part, something happens which really surprised me and gave me the creeps.
The setting for this trilogy: 1970-1980's Britain, has touched a nostalgic nerve in me - a 40 year old Brit. However, my memories of Gypsies, vandalised cars on the street and the grassy wilderness that carries on from the back garden are all fond memories of my childhood. Red Riding brought me back into these days and these places, and introduced a host of beastly horrors and brutal realities of which - until now - I was blithely unaware.
Finally, I guess that in conclusion, I was specially targeted by this. But it may just be well-written, expertly researched, quintessentially British, supported by a great cast and neatly photographed. And the impact that was intended for the end - certainly worked on me.
Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom (2008)
You may know what to expect - but you will still be surprised.
I have yet to see a Korean film which did not surprise and entertain me - and this is no exception.
Just as one would expect from the title: this movie will resemble the Sergio Leoni classic "Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo." which never seems to drop below the top 5 of IMDb's Top 250. And there are good reasons why this spaghetti western is so popular: cool characters, epic story, the soundtrack, and an unexpected twist for an ending. This Korean production stays true to most of these elements.
The soundtrack is a more of a modern and diverse mix rather than a series of classical regional themes. However, this musical backdrop does fit really well with the action (rather than it just being an ill-fitting duke-box play-list like Tarantino's "Kill Bill"s).
The historical context is totally unfamiliar to me. Some commentators on IMDb might take pleasure in pointing out the anachronisms. But - to be honest - I don't care. This movie is clearly meant to be entertainment and escape, not a historical snap shot.
For the gunfight action they use a lot of hand-held camera, they stay very close to the physical action and the gunshot spatters look brutal. It actually reminds me of "Saving Private Ryan." in it's technique. Add to this a long sequences of complete pandemonium that thrills and spills without losing you in the chaos - both "Mad Max" and "Gwoemul" come to my mind with this effect.
And the ending - well I'll leave it to you to find that out. From the title you will know what to expect - but you still be surprised. Enjoy on the big screen - don't wait for DVD!
Reichenbach Falls (2007)
If you are fan of crime fiction - this is a must.
For me, city of Edinburgh has always had a macabre reputation: it's history of medical experimentation, it's architecture, it's haunted underground tunnels, and it's famous literary people. Ever since I read Edgar Allen Poe's "How to Write a Blackwood Article" and "The Scythe of Time", I've always been fascinated about this place myself. And this TV drama really lit up my imagination.
At first, the hero Jim Buchan (Alec Newman) himself seems like the archetype grumpy cynical Scottish police inspector. He and his partner Sinead Burns (Nina Sosyana) are investigating a 100-year-old corpse discovered in a sealed-off section of the City's underground; the circumstances are suspicious and next to the body the letters A C I D are etched on to the rock.
But Buchan's haunted character begins to reveal some bizarre twists of it's own as the mystery unfolds. The whole detective story genre is turned over on it's head and the crescendo towards the conclusion is a well crafted piece of a surreal drama in itself.
If you're a fan of crime thrillers - on screen and in literature - then you will be in for a special treat; and a macabre fascination for the City of Edinburgh will probably grow in you as well.
Dead Man (1995)
OMG - this movie is genius.
As "Westerns" go, this is a gallery of all the classic stereotypes indigenous to the wild west movies - except the whole thing feels honest, tragic and authentic. Shown entirely in black-and-white, (with a sepia filter for those who know about BW photography) this movie has a novel atmosphere that the whole classic western genre never actually realised. Hence, the story unfolds convincingly, and feels horribly plausible. Our hero William Blake - played by Johnny Depp - is nothing more than a rock rolling down a mountain slope; the climate he has unwittingly fallen into is hostile, chaotic, brutal, cruel and insane. Yet he prevails as a legend - not only to his allies, but also to his enemies. Not bad for a tartan-clad accountant from Cleveland! PS: readers of William Blake's poetry will revel in this movie as a tribute to this writer's life and work - don't miss it.
Dog Soldiers (2002)
Who won? I'm still not sure ;)
Upto a point in the film there seemed to be nothing new to expect from the werewolves - but the army boys were still full of surprises! In some respects - and in spite of the Army-style "no chance" advertising campaign in the run up to this movie - it becomes clear that both parties are pretty well matched! I don't know what was more scary - the werewolves or the squaddies. Because when it comes down to a square fight, the soldiers turn out to be as lunatic as the paranormals they were engaged against.
BTW The term "Dog Soldiers." is reserved in the UK armed forces for the platoon of unwanted misfits, analogous I think, to the US use of the term "Wild Card." As for the patter between the soldiers and the tactics they employed, I will echo a comment made by someone who served in the army for 25+years: "well researched."
War of the Worlds (2005)
A scientifically credible way of invading the Earth with an unlimited energy budget.
I feel compelled to engage a couple of issues raised by other viewers comments. The first is the Science - which I believe is mostly accurate. The other is how the US Army and (post 9/11) Joe Public are shown to cope with this extraordinary situation. I believe some critics were just a little bit too disturbed by the apparent "pro-American" perspective to see the true intention by Spielberg. This is the critics' fault for being politically biased - not the directors fault for targeting the American movie audience from their own perspective.
THE SCIENCE. Many viewers have slammed the science behind this film - but I found much of the science being treated with justice.
A common theory shared by characters in the film was that the tripods were hidden under ground for millennia before the alien pilots boarded them from orbit. I would argue, however, that the tripods protective shielding proved capable of withstanding extreme pressures and temperatures - enough to sustain geological parameters. So these things could have all entered the earth at weak location of the crust and migrated through the mantle to be married with their pilots from orbit. This need not involve waiting for a millennia as being able to swim through the mantle would expediate global coverage of their heavy weapons from a single entry point.
Bear in mind also, that lightning travels upwards! So the lightning phenomena could have been generated from the tripod upwards - not the other way round. With regards to the EMP effect - Ray Ferrier himself identifies that fault is in the electrical surges melting the coil windings together rendering the induced magnetic field impotent. Components with coils (transformers, electric motors, RF circuits, induction coils) would not function until the coils had been replaced. Batteries need not be affected.
Did anyone notice the maelstrom effect in water being the same as it was for solid earth? (Tripod attacking the refugee's boat and the initial surfacing before Ray Ferrier and the crowd.) As a reader of the Geologic sciences I would give this film extra credits for correctly observing the behaviour of materials through this corkscrew effect.
Yet in spite of this, the logic by the alien invaders given the technology they have still beggars belief - simply for the amount of energy dissipated by their methods. The geological approach is certainly an indication of the amount of energy the aliens have at their disposal - ASTRONOMICAL.
The only reason why the tripods needed to collect meat must only be to feed the pilots on board. The Red Earth effect really got to me - the aliens were seemingly trying to terraform the earth away from a Chlorophyll based carpet into a Haem based one. They used the blood from freshly gathered (human) meat to this effect. This strategy seemed to display a complete disregard for microbial life - which we already know loses them the war.
THE USA ARMY AND CIVILIANS. Apart from the microbes winning the war, I have to commend the US military in this story for successfully slowing down the tripods progress. The reunion at the end of the film clearly shows how much they saved.
I am sorry to announce for the benefit of US hating left wingers: that the US military is not comprised of gun-toting power junkies who are liable to cause massive collateral damage. What we see in this film are professional soldiers trained and disciplined to NATO standard - not the part-timer white trash from the Home Guard. So I was not surprised at the way the soldiers regarded the human tide around them as nothing more than terrain feature and got on with their job - in fact this was what I would have *expected* from them given their training.
As for the behaviour of the American public - I don't know if I'm the only one to suspect that Spielberg must have watched hours of video from the 9/11 atrocities in order to get it right. And IMHO he has got it right. (Apart from me, a small black dot on the horizon as soon as the ground begins to fracture owing to my respect for geological pressures) the tentative mood of the civilian public around the entrance of the tripod is relevant. It IS how we behave - Humans are always dangerously curious creatures in the absence of better information.
And for the first a couple of days of the war the American people are remarkably civil to each other. It is only after several days of starvation and terror before the Amercian people start behaving like a frenzied mob. I believe this is accurate and fair - only naive minds would imagine people turning into a greedy uncivilised frenzy at the drop of a hat - even in the absence of police and authority.
AND FINALLY.. All the credit goes to H.G.Wells, neither of the more modern names stole the show. We can rely upon Spielberg and Cruise - for their parts in the direction and acting performance - to be transparent enough for their movies to hit the spot. If anyone is still has doubts about some of the science then I hope my discourse above will be enough for consideration. But if anyone is still disillusioned about this being some 'pro-American' thing then you will need your head examined.