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I haven't had time to look for mine as i haven't been very well am getting better so will get into looking

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Riki-Oh ( The Story of Ricky)

I really enjoyed this movie since I am a big fan of Asian cinema. This was an exceptionally gory movie , while a bit unrealistic, was still great. When I researched this movies background, I found that this is the Hong Kong version of a Japanese film,which was quite popular evidently for its gore.

It starts as so many Asian films from the 90's do, in a prison setting. A bus drives up, prisoners unload, then proceed in, where they are asked to come forward. The guards then give their age, name and reason for being there and years they will spend. Ricky- 21- Manslaughter and assault- sentenced to serve 10 yrs.



The movie progresses rapidly from there. The prison is run by the Warden, Assistant Warden and the Gang of Four. The Gang of Four are the "Trustee" leaders of the north, south ,east and west blocks of the prison. Each "Trustee" has a "special" fighting technique. Ricky has super strength! Which he find combines with a special technique taught to him by his Uncle.







Ricky befriends a prisoner who is later killed by the Gang of Four for helping him. Ricky then fights the first leader,killing him



then befriending the dead leaders nephew. The 3 remaining leaders kill the nephew and now with revenge in his heart Ricky begins to suspect something more is wrong in the prison. He finds out Opium is being grown there in one of the other leaders wings. He starts asking questions. Now he has been noticed by the Assistant Warden.
He is taken to see the Assistant Warden ( love the porn collection on the back wall of the office ) who tries to get him into the Gang of Four( since there was a current opening). Ricky isn't having any of that. The Assistant Warden threatens Ricky with his girlfriends picture.Now we flash back to why Ricky is in prison. His girlfriend saw an opium dealer, was caught by the dealer, taken to the drug lord, escaped and died from running off the roof getting away from him. Ricky killed the drug lord and went to prison.The Assistant Warden tries to fight ricky, fails and sends him back to his cell.
That night Ricky finds the poppy field, ( hates opium and drug dealers ) burns it up and tries to fight the leaders again, meanwhile the Warden is on his way back from Hawaii. Ricky meets the Warden, hates him, gets stuck in solitary, fights another leader, kills him and goes after the Warden. The Warden gets mad, orders ricky buried alive in the prison yard for 3 days, if he survives he is a free man. 3 days later they unbury him, he is alive! The Warden gets the 2 remaining leaders to fight Ricky. His super strength serves him well, he kills them both then goes for the Warden.
They fight their way to the prison kitchen, where the Warden turns into a giant mongloid superfighter, they thrash on each other for a while and then Ricky grinds him to hamburger in an industrial meat grinder after ripping his head off. Ricky shows the head to the guards in the yard then punches a hole in the prison wall and tells everyone they are free.
While trying not to ruin it for anyone who wants to watch it, I did the best I could. This is my first movie review so any advice or comments to improve for the future would be greatly appreciated!

You did fine. If you're going to write that much, I'd probably recommend less synopsis and more personal feelings about fave scenes, acting, F/X, music, photography, dialogue, etc. I realize this movie isn't about acting, but there are some even more crazy scenes you could have alluded to and whether they made you laugh, squirm or look away. Just a thought though...

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Jungfrukallan (The Virgin Spring) 1960 Ingmar Bergman

I want to start off by saying how lucky I am with ths game,I keep getting films that I fall in love with and The Virgin Spring is one of those films.Bergman's film Jungfrukallan is a brutal story about religion,revenge and loss.I think the reason why this film is so haunting is because the violence and revenge is so raw and real and it just reminds me that everybody is human and everybody is capable of sin.



This film is about a young 15 year old virgin that belongs to a religious family. The young girl rides to the church and on her way is raped and murdered by 3 drifters. The drifters end up taking shelter in the young girls house and the film is about the mother and father's revenge.



There is not one thing in the film that I dislike except for maybe the part where the pregnant women was riding a horse,when your with child horse back riding is a big no no.The acting was great and Max von Sydow part as tore was great,He did a wonderful job playing a father overwhelmed with grief.This film is really heartbreaking and it makes you think at the same time and I am really glad that I got to watch it.By the end of the film the only thing I could think of was why did the beautiful virgin have to die.

"You see it, God, you see it. The innocent child's death and my revenge. You allowed it. I don't understand you. Yet now I beg your forgiveness. I know no other way to be reconciled with my own hands. I know no other way to live"

Lovers

of the Arctic Circle

1998, Julio Médem

as recommended by wintertriangles
*warning! spoilers etc*
I admit it... I cheated a little. Before I watched this movie I read probably too much about it, but that's a compliment, really. It's just that I was insanely curious about it, and the poster that wintertriangles posted in the Trade-Off tab was all it took. Plus I liked the images that were conjured up when I imagined a romance taking place in the Arctic Circle (it doesn't actually... well, sort of). It reminded me of "The Ice Man", a short story about a woman who falls in love with a man who is literally made of ice that I really liked. Anyway.

Lovers of the Arctic Circle is a movie that challenges the idea of fate, destiny, and coincidences. As young children, Otto and Ana meet in the schoolyard and are instantly drawn to one another. Soon thereafter, their parents meet and fall in love, Brady Bunch style, and the children are thrown together as step siblings in the process. They never act like step siblings, though. They barely speak at all (very much like my own relationship with my step sibling), but they like to share long, sideways half glances and secret smiles together (nothing like my own relationship with my step sibling).

As teenagers, they turn into lovers, and they enjoy parading it right under their parents' noses without them actually ever noticing. It turns into a game for them, like "accidentally" falling asleep after an all-night "study session" and having to climb out the window and re-climb in their own bedroom window in the nick of time. Unfortunately for them, though, fate has other plans, and guilt and tragedy force the two apart when Otto's mother dies. Years later, they meet again... in the Arctic Circle (where Ana has taken up residency and Otto, now a pilot, parachutes from his plane and gets stuck in a tree!)

The most interesting thing about this movie is that it's told through both of the children's point of view, so after watching one scene, it'd immediately start over again but this time with a different voice over in a sort of Run Lola Run-esque way. This over-the-shoulder perspective is really well-done with an honest feel to it - like when Ana tells the audience how she believes Otto is a reincarnation of her father on the inside, it mostly comes off as a girl playing make-believe.

The title itself is sort of a play on words, because Lovers of the Arctic Circle is really just one big symmetrical mind-f*ck, from the palindrome names, to the very last scene. The ending, in particular, left me feeling quite undone, because



but then I watched it again and decided, after taking into consideration both sides of the story, all lines had been met.

There's also a scene involving a sled that reminded me of Ethan Frome and I was momentarily scared out of my wits.

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how do I get in this?

Wait for the next round. It'll probably be another week or two. Once ash knows you want to take part, I'm sure she'll let you know.

I still haven't received my movie hope it comes in the mail on Monday

Which one did you pick?

I have gone with the only one I could find Brotherhood of the Wolf I live in a small place and not great video shops so it makes it hard to seek out some movies

Sunset Boulevard was great

But I shall review the lesser known oddity, The Secret of Kells.

Branded as an animated Celtic story for children, I hoped for times of great music and fantasy something or other. Those times were rare.

However, the animation was uniquely unreal, and is without a doubt the highlight of viewing. It's dimensions are abstract, the scaling is bizarre but is telling of the characters, but the animation itself, the drawings, the moveable manuscripts, and the simplistic long shots of the Abbey town (or rather fortress), were very meticulously crafted and I cannot say enough good about it visually.

However again, the story is historically shoddy as hell. The film is about a strict-ass Celtic monk who is building a fortress to protect the town from the Viking crusade, and the monk's nephew, Brendon, is trying to learn the secrets of the Book of Kells while the monk tries to keep him away from it, enough to apparently lock his nephew in a cellar like a good christian of the times. Now in case you don't know, the Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript (gospel with pictures, plainly) of some of the New Testament, and it was designed by Celtic monks in the first century, which is what Brendon is trying to protect/finish/learn about. However, the problem is that the Vikings and Celts co-existed more or less peacefully in real life, and it wasn't until the Danish pressure of the new religion onto the Vikings that they retaliated, which is much later than the first century, when this film takes place. Plus, the monks in this film are certainly not the Gnostic-minded monks from the true Celtic times, but hey this is a children's story I guess.

There's also a fairy-girl in the forest that helps Brendon with his quest, and she's rather entertaining mocking minor human folly, and it's only her scenes where there's basically any good music, which is unfortunate. Later on, when she leads Brendon to the cave of a dormant god to recover something for the book, Brendon faces his boss battle, and they play Snake. Yeah. I don't know how to feel about that still. Looked cool though.

I suppose I am torn about this one. It's beautiful no doubt, but the history is wrong and the message is very questionable. Not a waste of time though.

2.7/5

i think the highlights you mentioned were really what stood out for me, too. i thought that all the bits with the little girl, ashley (like me! ) were really entertaining and fun with good music and scary/beautiful animation, but the story itself like with his uncle and stuff wasn't all that interesting. still, i loved all the abstract animation in between, and i imagine if i were a pothead, this would be the right sort of movie to smoke a bowl and sit back to.

what do you mean? what would you say the message is?

I explained the history bit but since it ended with I never liked the impressioning of theistic vision since this is a children's film. Naturally I can interpret however I want, which would be that art is life, but eh.

Thank you very much Mark F, I truly appreciate the advice I will have a firmer grasp on what to write about in the future.

No worries Nebbit, Brotherhood Of The Wolf is excellent.

I posted this in the other thread (re)found this one so here it is again. Still trying to hunt McCabe and Mrs Miller, don't want to blind buy it, yet.

I'm not sure how much there is to write about Buried considering how it's about as simplistic as a film can be but was good. The premise was handled a lot more deftly than the similarly themed 127 Hours, for my money. It took the concept and ran with it, without breaking off from it to try to find new ways to keep you engaged or build empathy for the character. Reynolds was pretty good, not quite Oscar worthy but this should be looked at very highly in his body of work considering how he completely carries this role. Overall, an excellent use of the setting and despite pausing the film a couple of times, it kept me hooked.

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1983, James L. Brooks

*as recommended by Sexy Celebrity*
So... I've been kind of putting this review off mainly because I knew it wasn't going to be pretty, and I didn't want to hurt Sexy's feelings. I know that kind of defeats the purpose of the Trade-off, but I like Sexy and don't want to be a jerk, but I just really disliked this movie.

This movie is just like a certain ex boyfriend of mine - really depressing in a bad way. There is just so much that happens, and none of it good. Confusing relationships that turn friendly, then sexual, then confusing, a love/hate mother daughter relationship which I still don't think I really understand, infidelity, stale and strained married/family life, growing old, dying young... no wonder this movie won so many awards.

The people in this film were awful. I don't mean the actors themselves, I really like Shirley Maclain, actually. I mean the characters. And I don't mean they are awful, as in, they are horrible people and I don't want to watch a movie that has horrible people in it. I don't give a **** about that, even though that seems to be a lot of people's problem with this movie (according to reviews on the internet). It's just that the characters are badly written. They aren't even cliched - they're, like, inconsistent, like the writer couldn't make up his mind what he wanted them to be like, or they just wanted them all to be super quirky, but they went over-the-top and they're just kind of bonkers. Do people like this really exist? A lot of them? I sincerely want to know. It sort of reminded me of that one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in season 4, when Faith and Buffy switch bodies.

So, in conclusion-

"A person's energy has a flow, a unity. Buffy's was fragmented. It grated like something forced in where it doesn't belong." <--pretty much every character in Terms of Endearment

After I recommended this to you, I watched the ALMOST 5 MINUTE long trailer for the film on Youtube:



And I thought I had made a mistake. So I'm not surprised that you didn't like it.

Does this mean I can't ask for another movie to watch, though? (I've been putting off Peeping Tom and I have to say, I now think a big reason is just because I'm not interested enough in it.)

I liked Terms of Endearment, though, when I saw it -- I think it was in 2004. Haven't watched it since.

You should check out the sequel that came out in 1996, The Evening Star. (I haven't.)