chibiyusa's Movies > Movie reviews by chibiyusa

It wasn't THAT bad

Posted : 6 months, 2 weeks ago on 10 May 2009 10:40 (A review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

Okay so it wasn't the greatest movie, or even greatest comic book to movie adaptation thingy. But it's far from the worst. And I wasn't bored so that's a plus. Most of it was really cheesy and lame but this is still a far cry from the blue and yellow tights, which I had secretly hoped would have made an appearance.

I've pretty much been waiting for this movie to come out ever since I read the Origin comic, which says alot considering I rarely read American comics. I remember reading back then that a motivation the writer had for making that particular comic when he did was because he wanted the comic book version to explain Wolverine's back story as a opposed to a movie. I might (most probably) be remembering wrong but I like to think it went something like that. I'm thinking that guy probably made a good choice back then.

But I haven't read Origins since then but alot of things are different in this movie adaptation, no surprise. But I don't really follow comic books so I'm sure alot of things were different. But perhaps this would have been better if it were divided into multiple movies instead of just one, which seems to be the problem with most comic book to movie adaptations. Or even better in my opinion if they had just stuck closer with the Origin comics. That way they wouldn't have had to put all of the extra stuff that ties in with all other storylines relating to the X-Men universe. And it would have been a period drama, which I whole-heartedly approve of.

Still it was kinda hilarious to see Cyclops, or the teenager that would become him eventually, since he was just fumbling his way through Spanish class. The whole brother feud wasn't that bad either. And every now and then I would mentally exclaim "Oh I know that dude!" but that didn't happen very often.

Err. I just rambled along, but that's no surprise since the movie kinda sorta did the same thing. Bare minimum explanations followed by action sequences. Some moments could have really been awesome but others simply left no explanation. There was some whiny Canadian boy and his brother in a war montage and then some random mutant dudes came along and they went to Africa blah blah blah Canadians oh look it's Deadpool.

The one thing I didn't get, which may be a mild spoiler but really wouldn't matter either way is that if Wolverine got that jacket, which he wears in the other movies, from that farmer couple before he lost his memories, then how does he get it back, or remember it's his, after he loses his memory? Because he was not wearing a jacket at the end scene. Rather he was sporting a very fitting wife beater.
Ah well a not so great review for a not so great movie. But not bad. I enjoyed it enough, though perhaps not enough to watch it many times.

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There Will Be Boredom

Posted : 1 year, 5 months ago on 30 May 2008 11:58 (A review of There Will Be Blood)

I had heard from numerous sources that this was an "amazing" film and an equal amount of sources that truthfully didn't care much for it. I'll come out and say it now; I'm of the latter faction.

I'm not sure it's a fair assessment to say that if one were to denounce this movie that they clearly have no real appreciation for masterpieces and would much rather watch blockbuster hits. It's probably a great film, perhaps one of the great ones even but that doesn't mean I have to like it or enjoy it.
I saw the Mona Lisa once and aside from the fact that it was tiny and hidden behind a glass casing, not to mention surrounded by hordes of people, I understood the fact that for some apparent reason I'm not aware of many other people have named it a great piece of art. I can say well "It's decent enough," but it's not something I can enjoy on a deeper level. I can't connect with the Mona Lisa like I can connect to a poorly drawn but humorous image of a dancing banana. Sure it's not "high class" but it's certainly more enjoyably approachable.

I don't mean to imply that There Will Be Blood is an epic masterpiece in cinema; it tries too hard to be that. There was some superb acting here but I just couldn't feel the connection. No doubt about it Daniel Day-Lewis did give a stellar performance and I did enjoy Paul Dano as Eli the crazy preacher dude (he screams like a girl) but I was still bored out of my mind. Had it not been for the creepy but fantastic score I would have given up within the first half hour.
The score, composed by Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead, is hauntingly amazing. Plus there were excerpts of (string ensemble?) pieces by Brahms and some guy named Arvo Part. It just didn't seem to fit right in the whole setting of the film but perhaps it was this discord that made it work the way it did. Every time I heard those tense strings I kept expecting something big to happen (and nothing ever did). It was as if I were watching a different sort of film with more horror and ghastly creatures waiting to pounce one people and stuff. That might have been more fun if Eli was a leader of a zombie cult that was out to kill anyone trying to drill in their land. And maybe if they had a pyromaniac who was the last salvation against the zombie invasion. Oh and if siblings got along better to ward off said zombie invasion. Then it'd be better. Maybe.

But no. Instead I was watching an unconventional film about a guy who digs oil and stuff. Some creepy evangelical prophet and subsequent blind followers. Throw in a little boy and some "brothers" for good measure. That in itself wouldn't warrant my boredom but the film was too long and the pacing way too slow for me to enjoy it. I like me some different movies but this just didn't work out for me.

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MACH GO GO GO

Posted : 1 year, 6 months ago on 18 May 2008 07:21 (A review of Speed Racer)

If one had to describe this film in one sentence they'd probably say something to the effect of "It was very colorful," and indeed, it was very colorful. From a visual standpoint of course, plot wise, it's a bit bland and dull.

Speed is this guy who for all intents and purposes is an idiot with a huge brother-complex. You see, his brother Rex, is a badass racer, or was until he met his seemingly tragic demise. But what Speed lacks in everything, he makes up for in racing skillz. And he's quite the talented racer. And it helps to have souped up cars.

Speed believes in racing and that it comes for the heart, which leads him to refuse a ludicrous corporate sponsorship offer from Royalton. Accourding to this Royalton fella racing is about who has the biggest sponsor and actual racing ability plays an insignificant role to as who wins the race. Naturally our protagonist is totally against this and seeks to disprove him.

Joining him in this perilous endeavor is Speed's family and long time girlfriend since childhood, Trixie. One thing I liked in this film was that the love story was not an important part in the character development. They showed a small flashback from their childhood and bam they were an inseparable couple and we don't have to worry about that anymore and Speed seems to single-minded to notice any other girl anyway. Oh and there's a chimpanzee, I'm not quite sure why but there is. There's also Racer X, who is TOTALLY NOT REX, and his agenda is to expose the evil corporate conspiracies surrounding the races. Somehow second rate ninjas are involved and just about everyone knows some martial arts or something, except the mechanic with the funny accent.

And somehow there's this Japanese pop star, err, racer who's motivated because of his father's company or something. He's not really a pop star but I half expected him to jump into a song since he kinda looks like the type. But my observations were not that far off seeing as the actor himself is a Korean pop star of sorts. Anyway, I think he played an important part in the film because he kept popping up alot, but I couldn't really tell whether or not he had an important role. I'm still trying to figure out the whole chimp thing.

RACER X IS TOTALLY NOT REX.

The film had this strange way of transitioning scenes and stuff where they'd show someone's head and they'd move around the head and the background would change. It was pretty neat the first few times but then it just got old and annoying. And there was alot of talking that may or may not have been advancing the plot but I felt it could have been cut out in lieu of more action scenes.

Thankfully the action scenes were pretty neat and cool to look at, even if I couldn't tell what was happening half the time. The plot just seemed like a big excuse to have cool looking action scenes and the action scenes themselves were too trippy looking to actually figure out what is going on. But if one is intoxicated perhaps it'd make more sense.

The music was fairly enjoyable. Every now and then the original theme from the cartoon would surface and it was all fairly catchy. Perhaps it needed a bit more eurobeat or something.

It wasn't trying too hard to remain faithful to the original anime (actually I have no idea since I haven't watched it) but it wasn't trying to get rid of the corniness. Alot of anime of this period was indeed marketed at an younger audience and they had an obligatory annoying kid character, supposedly it was so the younger audience can connect better to the show. While I may not have watched the original anime I'm guessing this aspect carried on to the film and the childish antics really didn't appeal for me but maybe a younger audience might dig it if they aren't bored because of its length (I sure wasn't but I may be the most immature of them all).

It's not trying to be an amazing film but with the lame plot, funky colors, and cool confusing action scenes, hey, it's slightly worth it for the cheesiness of it all. I was expecting a little more but I figure it could have been worse. At least it was pretty looking and its kinda funny seeing snakes in a car and the defiance of the rules of gravity.
And yeah, Racer X is totally not Rex his older brother.

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It was okay

Posted : 1 year, 6 months ago on 16 May 2008 04:49 (A review of Snow Falling on Cedars)

I haven't read the book it was based on but sometimes things in books work better in books and things in movies work better in movies.

No doubt the movie was beautiful from it's long drawn out scenes of a bunch cedars and stuff. And it's rather brilliant in it's telling of the story through EXTREEMME flashback mode.

Kazuo Miyamoto is on trial for killing Carl Heine, who may have been his friend at one point, I couldn't really tell. The backdrop is some small fishing island town in Washington post WWII and anti-Japanese sentiments still run strongly in many people. And the Japanese can't be all too quick to forget the years spent in internment camps during the war. Oh and you have the one armed newspaper guy wonder Ishmael, who just can't seem to get over his old girlfriend Hatsue, who so happens to be Kazuo's wife.

The story is told in a dizzying manner of flashbacks and court proceedings. A good indicator of whether or not something was a flashback is to see whether or not Ishmael still has both arms. The shifting from past to present to both is constantly washed over with great tidal waves of tense strings. Much of the score includes expansively tense strings and other parts of the movie subject the viewer to talking over talking to mere silence to the annoying tick tock of a clock.

Too bad while all that was wonderful, it was quite boring at times to watch. It's not very confusing if one pays attention but it's confusing nonetheless and it seems to drag on and on with no end in sight. I hear the ending though is similar to the book but it seems like such a copout, though we have obvious signs to it being that way early in the film through Ishmael's own private investigating.

Maybe some people will really dig the disjointed storytelling and delightfully tragic romance being told but for others, maybe not so much.

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Oscar Wilde = Space Alien

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 23 April 2008 10:30 (A review of Velvet Goldmine)

I'll be quite honest. I didn't understand it, and I doubt I will ever able to from a single viewing. But perhaps in the future when I rewatch it, it might make more sense; all that I took away mostly was that clearly I was missing something in my life before I listened to this type of music. I'm quite shocked and surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did, it reminded me very much of Across the Universe, which personally I didn't really care much for but somehow this movie clicked with me. But I have sneaking suspicions that it has something to do with Oscar Wilde being a space alien. That enough is to make any movie epic.

Apparently it's supposed to be slightly based of David Bowie or something but I really can't tell you since I'm not all that familiar in this genre of music. All I gathered is that Brian Slade, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, is this glam rock icon of sorts but he kinda has feelings for this other rock dude Curt Wild who so happens to be played by Ewan McGregor. He's kinda insane apparently since at the age of 13 he underwent electro shock therapy after "servicing" his brother in the loo. Obviously it didn't help much since he's insane. Christian Bale plays the awkward looking fanboy turned journalist named Arthur or something.

The story is told mainly in a flashback type of mode as Arthur, now a normal looking dude, is a journalist researching about Brian Slade and his subsequent disappearance after a "faked" murder stunt. It's funny I thought that he appeared much younger looking in the "present" scenes than in the "flashback" ones. He just looked like a kind of sad pathetic thing looking for his place in society. Maybe he too was a space alien. That'd make sense.

Throughout it all we gain insight on who this Brian Slade character really was through other people and from Arthur's own memories of the time back then (He was a pretty big fanboy). Lots of fops and dandies make appearances and glitter and feathers randomly fall from the sky. Oh and there's a fairy. Like seriously, this guy's last name is Fairy. He too might be part of the alien conspiracy.

It's just a really really long music video type thing. Some I suppose are covers of other songs and others are original to the movie performed by some musicians of noted merit and the main leads in the film. Lots of drugs, sex, and that sort of stuff. Maybe a bacchanal or two. The important thing I understood from a single viewing was that Oscar Wilde was a space alien, and suddenly everything makes sense.

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Interesting Choice of Music...

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 1 April 2008 09:38 (A review of Dororo)

So I kinda forced this movie upon my friends, to much resistance might I add, and by the end they had such large groans. And it wasn't because the movie was so bad or anything but because they realized that they would have to wait for TWO more movies to finally reach the satisfaction of an ending.

I've been wanting to watch it for a while now and through magical means I was able to. The music choices were certainly interesting and while I might listen to them in my off time I just felt that the music was not quite right with the scene but you get kinda used to it. Plus I really dig the weird Mongolian guttural chanting thing... and at the end no better way to end the movie than with some Jrock!

What I thought was really annoying though was Dororo. I know it's based on a manga by Osamu Tezuka and if I know Tezuka like I thought I do there's normally some obligatory annoying character used for comedic relief of sorts. This is Dororo. And she's also kinda a main character. But I can overlook such things because it's slightly better than having a much younger person playing Dororo. That'd be even more frightening and annoying.

So apparently this failure of a father wants to be like the strongest so he exchanges 48 body parts of his then unborn son in exchange for like the power in war or something. And so this stump of a body is born and found in a river by this amazing doctor dude who gives him these amazing living prosthetic limbs. So the rest of this movie is essentially him finding the rest of his body parts. Spoiler, they don't find them all (Hence parts two and three in production). These demons are using Hyakkimaru's (that's the name of this kid with no body parts) body parts and wreaking havoc upon humans so he has to find all his body parts back and hopefully find his real family.

The demons and other uh.. spiritual things range from ridiculous to oh that's pretty neat looking. There's this good montage of him fighting a bunch of them in the middle of the film set to weird music that doesn't quite fit I suppose fits the nature of this weird film. Oh and Dororo's there for moral support and drum bashing. And yelling... alot... and beating on the drum. But mostly yelling.

A pretty enjoyable fantasy journey type film. Plus the actor for Hyakkimaru, Satoshi Tsumabaki is really cute. But then again I'm a female and many of my other female friends came to this same conclusion. But that's not surely the only reason why I wanted to watch this film. I haven't read the original manga this was based on but I have a renewed hope for other comic based movies. Probably not the greatest film of this type but I enjoyed it well enough and look forward to reading the original manga.

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How did I miss this?

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 28 March 2008 11:13 (A review of Stage Beauty)

I can't believe I never even heard of this movie until very recently when I, by chance, caught it on TV. It was so amasing that I had to rent it and show it to all my friends.

What really caught my eye when I saw the cover of the DVD was that the two main leads, Billy Crudup and Claire Danes, were also the leads in another favorite movie of mine, Princess Mononoke. And I quite enjoyed the English dub of that movie for the most part. So it was wonderful bonus surprise for me.

On to the movie itself, it's takes place around the time when women started acting in England, because prior to that it was all men actors doing the female parts. So you get to see the fall of Ned, Billy Crudup, and the rise of Maria, Claire Danes, as women actually get to play the role of women. And for a movie set in England with a mostly English cast I find it a bit funny that the two main leads are American. And it's quite funny to see Rupert Everett as the King of England with all the bows and hair. And Richard Griffiths, who I remember as being as Uncle Vernon in Harry Potter, is ah... yeah... not quite Mr. Dursley to be sure. Hold on while I suppress a great urge to burst into laughter.

The thing I love about period pieces of this nature are the amazing costumes. But I think the best part of it all was the cross-dressing. Ah yes. There is much of that in this film.
And nearly every line of this film is quotable for me. It's really just that epic. Then again most were quotes from plays and this film was based on a play so I suppose that's to be expected.
The whole death scene at the end was a very powerful moment I thought. Before much of the acting it seems back then was horribly fake looking with fanciful hand movements but then BAM! you get that punch at the end which I thought perfectly summed up the movie. Sure Ned's line at the very end might seem lame to many but if it sounded cool I think that might have defeated the purpose of the film.

All in all this soon became on of my favorite films ever but it's really all about whether you like this sort of stuff to begin with. It was just a very very fun film to watch and I actually gave a damn about what was happening to the main characters so that's a double plus. Recommended, although some people might actually dislike this film for all the reasons I love it for.

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Concrete Roads

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 27 March 2008 01:01 (A review of Whisper of the Heart)

I've been meaning to write a review on this movie for a while now since it's one of my favorite Ghibli movies and it's not a Miyazaki thing (kinda). It kinda holds a special place in my heart.

Remember when your library books still had their own card and you can actually see who borrowed the book before you? Kinda, maybe, sorta? Anyway that's the premise of this movie (at the start anyway). Shizuku is a giant bookworm and doesn't seem to notice much of anything else really, her whole world revolving on those novels she reads.
Things like boys and stuff aren't a real big issue. Until she notices that all the books she reads have also been read by some other guy, most probably her knight in shining armor. And throw some teen angst and whatnot for good measure.
Somehow later on, without spoiling anything, she feels that she needs to accomplish something epic and decides to write a novel about a cat baron dude, based on this cat figure she saw at a Antiques Shop. The scenes about the book she writes were actually directed by Miyazaki and later became "The Cat Returns."
Unfortunately, the director of the actual movie, Yoshifumi Kondo, died rather early. This kinda sucks since he was supposed to carry on the business at Ghibli after Miyazaki. This is why we still have Miyazaki directing all these Ghibli movies (not that it's a bad thing), but it'd be nice to have a bit more variety...

Anyway... it's based on a book so at times it does feel like they are trying to put too much information in and it really makes the movie drag a bit. And as a result the ending seemingly comes OUT OF NOWHERE. But the song Country Roads, for me, washes away all hostilities on how big a cop out the ending was. It's by no means the best Ghibli movie but it's the one that really hits me in the heart (and doesn't leave me all depressed like Grave of the Fireflies. Try giving the non-Miyazaki movies a go, you might end up finding a whole new realm of anime movies to watch.

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Beautiful

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 27 March 2008 12:49 (A review of Saawariya)

This was another of those in-flight movies that I watched so the ratings might be slighltly skewed in favor of the movie since I was really bored. Plus the subtitles were dreadfully difficult to read so I might be a bit inaccurate at some parts.

Now I haven't seen many Bollywood films (only three counting this one) but this by far is my favorite. Looking at other reviews people seem to rate this one harshly based on another work by the same director but for me it was simply fantastic.

This movie is just beautiful in the sense of the setting and imagery provided. You can just stare at the screen and let the sounds of Bollywood envelop you.

It's much your traditional love-at-first sight movie only from a different perspective (trying not to spoil too much here). The main character is this guy named Raj who I guess a traveling musician and he falls in love with a girl named Sakina. I think what really made the movie for me was his amazingly (almost) nude dancing sequence. I think somewhere filmmakers realized that women need fan service too.

(Almost) nude dancing aside did I mention this movie was beautiful? Sure it's not realistic looking but it invites you in this mystical fantasy world where you can just look at the pretty pictures. I suppose that's what really made the movie for me was the cinematography (and almost nude dance scene). And the music. You can't watch a Bollywood film and not appreciate all the dance numbers.

Highly recommended (especially if you are looking for a different sort of love story, or in a way not so different at all)

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More like a Kid City

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 27 March 2008 12:40 (A review of Big City)

So this is a French movie about the American West as seen through the perspective of a child. Okay I dig it.

This is one of the many in-flight movies I watched this past week and the ratings might be slighly skewed to the favor of the film in question since I was really really bored.

If you've ever been to Wannado City or something of that nature you'd probably really connect to this movie. Essentially all the adults, except for the village idiot and drunk, are out fighting Indians or something and it's up to the kids to keep the city running. At first they have this giant free-for-all party until the village drunk manages to make them take up the jobs their parents once did and carry on the city functions.

So now you have 11 yr old prostitutes that are selling kisses for a dollar and stupid boys running around in KKK costumes stealing people's cats. It rather (blunty) pokes fun of the period of that time (and to an extent present day). Kids are raised to be just like their parents. They don't exactly understand why they act that way but that they should based on what they've seen their own parents due. So that's why you have little kiddies in KKK garb running around like it's Halloween. I think. I'm not even sure the KKK even existed at time the movie is set but eh.

The kids are cute and because they are so young you forget that the issues they face are issues many adults have to deal with and sometimes the kids just deal with those issues better and sometimes they don't do any better. And sometimes they have to question the decisions that adults have made. Anyway, it's a not so nice and cute film about society. There's more than meets the eye here.

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