Meatwadsprite's Slow Review Thread

Kikujiro (1 viewing)



Plot : Masao summer vacation has just started , but he has nothing to do. He thinks about his mother that he has never seen and decides to find her.

Story : Masao dosen't get far without being found by his old neighbor who tells her husband - Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano) to help him find his mom. This is where the majority of the movie happens , as Kikujiro and Masao become close friends and travel a long way to find his mother. I love everything about what happens on their way to his mother but once that point of the story happens there isn't a whole lot left. All the time your thinking about the long term effects of this fun trip and it's up to you where the story goes after the credits roll.

Visuals : Kitano's style works really well with this film and the fact that it takes place in Japan adds a lot of uniqueness to it. This is a brilliant looking movie for the entire time and will never let you down.

Synopsis : A moving and immensly emotional character driven film - my favorite Kitano film so far.

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Adaptation (1 viewing)



Plot : Charlie Kaufman attempts to write a screenplay for an acclaimed novel.

Story : The film focuses on many different locations which dosen't work out good for any of the characters , though it is a little interesting toward the end. Charlie Kaufman is trying to make an amazing screenplay , but he dosen't have any clue how to do it - his twin brother Donald (also played by Nicholas Cage) who takes a screenplay class is also writing a screenplay but much more "simple". Charlie reads the novel in which the author herself is a character and developes a relationship with another man. Near the end the characters in the book that have been semi-fictional this whole time actually come to life as real people. Overall the story telling is a mess and misses on all levels.

Visuals : The plant enviroments are lush and colorfull and the characters are very animated - but aside from that , the overall visual quality is never bad or good.

Synopsis : No matter how good Nicholas Cage is in this - he can't save this chaotic mixture of wasted character.

Ok, one review I have to take issue with.

I have absolutely no idea how you can say that it has amazing looking scenes and great cgi...and in the same breath say that is 'poorly executed'. What was it lacking exactly, in terms of execution?

The 'blurring up' of the action scenes were not 'foolish' at all, but quite deliberate and tied in to the ideas about sun blindness. The film had a claustrophobic feel to it at times and its execution showed the paranoia felt by the crew. I don't think you can really describe Danny Boyle's direction as 'amateur', it has its own unique style which is always remarkably effective and professional even on a small budget.

You are entitled to not like any film, but some of your reasoning in this review is unfair.

Not caring about the characters is always more of a personal matter, but I really thought that what separates Sunshine from other 'astronauts in peril' films was that the characters were quite believable.

Takeshis (1 viewing)



Plot : Kitano Takeshi stars as himself (the director and actual person) and another fictional character that looks exactly the same.

Story : Gun fights explode onto the screen introducing you to this films insane surreal setting. Like "Glory to the Filmmaker" this becomes very crazy and chaotic , but there is always room to reason for what's happening. Sometimes I'm reminded of the mysterious David Lynch with this - but performed in a manner of exciting action film. It dosen't connect on the levels of Micheal Gondry's surreal work - but it still delivers that Kitano uniqueness , which I have come to love.

Visuals : Takeshi has nailed down action scenes and gun fights - all which look great throughout this movie , even though their tedious length is only because of the film's strange story. The musical portions part of the film are also well filmed : one huge difference here between all Kitano films I've seen yet - is the amount of camera work : which I really liked here.

Synopsis : Kitano's ride into the surreal delivers some excitement and a pretty depthfull character study, but it still has flaws in it's length and refusal of making any stronger breakthroughs.

The characters don't feel important at all - neither does anything in this movie.

I feel that your sympathy with the characters or otherwise is a very different thing to the execution of the movie. And quite honestly, if the destruction of the sun and the end of life on Earth doesn't feel important, then I don't know what would...

Review Thread Standings
-------------------------------

Seven Samurai
Reservoir Dogs
Goodfellas
Fight Club

Star Wars IV : A New Hope
American Gangster
Dazed and Confused
Hot Fuzz
Magnolia
LOTR : Fellowship of the Ring
LOTR : Two Towers
LOTR : Return of the King
The Godfather
Sweeney Todd
Southland Tales
The Science of Sleep
There Will Be Blood
Boogie Nights
Spiderman 3
Eternal Sunshine
Ratatouille
Superbad
Pyscho
Kikujiro
Cloverfield
King of Kong
Spiderman 2
Indiana Jones : Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones : Last Crusade
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Knocked Up
Blade Runner : The Final Cut
City of God
Zodiac
Ghost Busters
Miller's Crossing
Donnie Brasco
Spiderman
Aqua Teen Movie
Robocop
300
Darjeeling Limited
Takeshis
Taxi Driver
O Brother Where Art Thou
Rush Hour 3
Beverly Hills Cop
About Schmidt
Glory to the Filmmaker
Black Snake Moan
The King of Comedy
Delicatessen
Oceans 11
Juno
Brother
Planet Terror
The Good , The Bad , and The Ugly
Hairspray
A Clockwork Orange
Fargo
-------------------- movies below this line not recommended
Die Hard 3 : With a Vengeance
Sunshine
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I Am Legend
Simpsons Movie
Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny
Face Off
Ocean's Twelve
The Hoax
Slacker
Adaptation
Kung Fu Hustle
Chinatown
The Constant Gardener
Boyz N The Hood
Jackass : The Movie
No Country For Old Men : Theatrical Review
Bee Movie
Transformers
Rashomon
Live Free or Die Hard
Nightmare on Elm Street
Meet the Robinsons
2001 : A Space Odyssey
Even Almighty
Friday the 13th

(they aren't all there yet)

Dang, I really liked these movie

It is PSYCHO, just letting you know

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I used to be addicted to crystal meth, now I'm just addicted to Breaking Bad.

your thinking of a different movie

I'll agree with you on FaceOff if nothing else. Man I hate that movie.

I typed it in on IMDB, nothing.

It is pretty bad.... but I absolutely love that one shot in Face Off when Cage's coat blows open... 'tis just cool...

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Gee, I thought Face/Off was John Woo's best American film, by a mile.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

I liked Face/Off untill the last 40 minutes but I did hate Hard Boiled , so i'm not looking forward to any John Woo movies.

Yeah, thanks for -rep on post that told you

when you said

I'd like to know what exactly about Hard-Boiled might make you hate it.

In that case, I wonder what you'd think about The Killer or even Bullet in the Head.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

I think he didn't like it because the action scenes were TOO fast-paced.

Woo has a major filmography pre-Hard Target (first U.S. release). When was the last time you saw a hyper action director accentuate his films with Christian iconography?

I grudgingly admit to liking Face-Off too, but "John Woo's best American film" still sounds somewhat euphemistic to me.

I'm actually on the wad's side on this one, and while perhaps he's not as literary as a lot of the members here his point is a legitimate one. Not everyone that watches Sunshine (myself included) was blown away by the blurry visuals that were a major part of the film, Personally I didn't care for it at all. And I've read a lot of very deeply thought provoking posts as to why I should like it, but at the end of the day I still didn't like it. I realize they were on a small budget and that's probably the reason more than anything as to why I never got a good look at the guy. I agree with your assessment that the characters were *believable* but, overall the story arc of the film is very typical of a cheap Sci-Fi movie. The main reason I give it is because of Boyle more than anything, I do like his style but the movie just isn't that good.

It probably is his best, although I really enjoy MI 2 from time to time as well. Plus its got this great line in it as well...

"I hate to see you go... But I love to see you leave."

Plus there's Gina Gershon who can't love a movie with Gina?

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

American Beauty (4 viewings)



Plot : Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) suddenly hates his current life and breaks all the rules he lives his life by. Meanwhile the people around him only further push him to another realization.

Story : Lester Burnham narrates his story of how he gets murdered - it starts with him going through a normal day of what he is accustomed to : but for him it's his last - the next day he starts to change things to his sudden will. Meanwhile his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) who is obsessed with "success" , which is her career for her : is thrown off by his strange behavior and she also goes on a life changing mood. Their daughter Jane develops a hatred for them as well and falls in love with the new neighbor : who has a need to film everything he thinks is beautiful.

There seems to be two sides of what people can relate to : Fight Club or American Beauty , while I can relate to both - I'm more on the Fight Club side. Both films with heavy themes of anarchy and attempts to further understand life : though I feel how American Beauty blends in some comedic/quirky situations just subtracts from the power of the film.



Visuals : Some great moments and some foolish looking moments. I enjoy how the neighborhood of the house is very into the movie : with the neighbors house actually being across the house and it's used pretty well. As for something dumb looking like the fantasy scenes with Lester and Jane's friend - really detract from having any visual "beauty". One thing that makes a big boost here though is the great soundtrack.

Synopsis : Always gets me to think about it's characters , the kids are the ones I have the hardest time relating to : but being unable to comprehend them is also a good point for this interesting film.