sgtdraino

This movie is basically an anthology of short films linked by a news report gimmick. Unfortunately most of the shorts are pretty unremarkable, but two of them are absolutely brilliant. I'd suggest just watching those two:

Around the 7 minute mark is "Spanish Jesus."

Around the 79 minute mark is "Psycho Guy on Holiday."

These are just my names for them, I don't know if there are "official" names for those two shorts. The style of these two feels very similar, I suspect they were both made by the same people. I'll say no more about them, other than they are absolutely unbelievable. Do not miss!

A very unique and underrated movie! If you like the three movies mentioned in the summary, you will probably like this movie. This is Dan Aykroyd's baby, written, directed, and starring. Aykroyd's characterization of the "Shire Reeve" (origin of the word Sheriff) totally makes the movie, as does Mr. Bonestripper, souped-up police cars, and John Candy playing against type as the nice-but-tough Chief Constable. Some really amazing sets here, pre-CGI. In my opinion this movie has only two weaknesses: 1. It's a little slow getting started with a protracted dinner party prologue, and 2. The two giant mutant baby grandchildren that live out in the junkyard are just too cartoonish, and not funny at all. But the rest of the movie is great, well worth your while. I particularly enjoy anticipating what ruling the Reeve is going to hand out with each case, and the conclusion of the State Police raid is also a great moment!

I saw this movie as part of ECU's "Butt-Numb-a-Thon Part Deux," a 24-hour movie marathon. And for the record, I actually do like Bjork, but MAN to me, this was top-to-bottom a perfect example of how to make an unwatchable movie. The performances were awful, the dialog tedious and laughable, the direction and patented shaky-cam camera work gave me a headache, the musical numbers and "choreography" painful to hear and watch. As a few other reviewers have said, it seems like every character in this movie behaves like a complete idiot, especially Bjork's character. This movie somehow defies the laws of time and space, because despite a running time of 140 minutes, it felt like it lasted about 5 hours.

SPOILER ALERT***************** When Bjork's character was finally hung at the end, our audience actually cheered and applauded, because they knew it was finally over. Unbelievable.

This, ladies and gentlemen, would be it.

I am not a typical fan of anime. I actually find quite a bit of it to be rather clichéd and repetitive, especially the more serious titles. I enjoy the comedies more, especially the comedies that spoof those anime clichés I just mentioned. "Project A-ko" is a good example of this, and I dare say "FLCL" is an even better one. Interesting that the creators of both series did them just to take a break from their usual stuff. To just get crazy for a bit.

A few reviewers have said that FLCL has no plot. As you can tell from the massive number of favorables, that is not true. Its plot is actually quite complex, and revealed in such a way that the viewer has to figure things out for themselves. In theory as the series progresses, you will gradually start to realize what is going on, at roughly the same pace as the protagonist, Naota.

A lot of reviews have mentioned the whole coming-of-age story angle, and it's a good one. I was actually more interested in the "big picture" plot, so for a change of pace from the other reviews, here's a short synopses of what's really going on in the show. Beware, there are some big SPOILERS in here, and I suggest you only read the next bit if you've ALREADY seen the show, but want a little help figuring it out.

SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!

Fooly Coolly (FLCL) has a number of different plots that run through the series. The one I call the "big picture" plot, is the one that deals with world-changing events. Threats to the Earth and the universe, etc. Fooly Coolly is actually about an ongoing struggle between the Galaxy Space Police Brotherhood, the pirate king Atomsk, and Medical Mechanica. Atomsk is a being of immense power, who is perceived as a threat by the Space Police. The alien girl Haruko (who's real name is Raharu) is a Space Patrol Officer who succeeded in arresting Atomsk. However, while transporting him, Medical Mechanica intercepted the two, and captured Atomsk themselves. Their plan is to harness Atomsk's power to reshape the universe according to their own design. The Space Police sent Haruko to get Atomsk back, but she may have her own secret motives for taking on the mission. To rescue Atomsk, Haruko uses Naota, our protagonist, to open up portals into Medical Mechanica. She hopes that Atomsk will eventually escape through one of these portals, after which she can track and recapture him using the remaining half of a handcuff still on her left wrist.

And that pretty much sets the stage for what follows in the series!

END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER

This is a fantastic, multi-layered miniseries. I can't recommend it highly enough. Let me reiterate that you really should watch it the first time WITHOUT being spoiled, so you can experience the mysteries being revealed as they were intended. See if you can figure it out!

I am ordinarily a big fan of Coen brothers movies. "Raising Arizona" is one of my all-time favorites, and most of their other films are also quite good. Fargo, however, is highly over-rated. I believe it to be their worst film to date. As several others have commented, the film is simply too mean-spirited in its comedy, especially when it purports at the beginning to be a "true" story.

The best example I can think of, is the scene in the movie when the wife is tied up inside a sack and the kidnappers are trying to get her into the cabin. She momentarily gets away from them, and runs around in a panicked frenzy, blindly bumping into things, while the kidnappers laugh at her. Believe it or not, in the movie this scene is played for laughs. The movie wants the audience to laugh at this scene, and inevitably some do laugh. Laughing puts the viewer into the same frame of reference as the kidnappers, instead of identifying (as they should) with the victim. As a result, you laugh without thinking, and then feel bad about having just laughed. A very uncomfortable feeling.

Most Coen brothers movies are filled with quirky characters that have a lot of "heart." Even the bad guys end up being somewhat likable. In "Fargo" however, there are very few likable characters. Marge Gunderson is just about the only one, and even she is really too much of a cartoon caricature to feel like a real person. Yet, at the same time, the movie feels a little too much like real life to be a good dark comedy.

Dark comedies are tricky things, and I do love a good dark comedy. However, I think a dark comedy needs to feel unreal enough, in order to allow us to laugh at the naughty goings-on. Bad things can be funny, if we know they are not real. The more real bad things feel, the less funny they get. "Fargo" made the mistake of trying to portray bad things in a very realistic way, and then making fun of them. This contrasts with "Raising Arizona," which portrayed some bad things in an over-the-top cartoonish way, and remained funny. Cartoon violence is funny, real violence is not.

I say, skip this one and watch "Raising Arizona."

I have seen every Coen brothers movie except for "The Man Who Wasn't There" and "Intolerable Cruelty," and for me "Raising Arizona" is their best film to date. It is one of those few films you find that seems perfectly balanced. Just the right amount of comedy, just the right amount of seriousness, just the right amount of introspection. No dead spots. It is suitable for any viewing audience, unlike "Fargo," which was a bit too cruel in its humor (the kidnapped wife running blindly into things was NOT funny), or "The Ladykillers," which was a great film that unfortunately had a steady stream of foul language coming from one of the characters, which really felt out of place and distracted from the rest of the movie. I put "Raising Arizona" along side movies like RoboCop, Aliens, The Untouchables, High Noon, Dr. Strangelove, and Se7en. Pretty much perfect.

Had always heard this movie was NOT good, and was never a fan of the Spice Girls, so until now had avoided this one like the plague. But my buddy insisted that it is one of those movies you can enjoy BECAUSE it's bad, a la MST3K.

And then I heard that this movie had both Richard O'Brien and Meat Loaf in it, two stars from Rocky Horror Picture Show. I was interested to see those two actors together in a movie again, so I decided to give Spice World a try.

I do not exaggerate when I say Spice World was one of the most horrifying and painful viewing experiences I have ever witnessed, and that's even accounting for the fact that I was able to (thank you Lord) skip through the millions of vacuous musical numbers using my tivo.

I don't think there was a single good performance in this movie, not even by the real actors in it. Meat Loaf and Richard O'Brien are, of course, wasted. Few speaking lines, no musical contributions, really just cameos.

For those who like bad movies (i.e. enjoy making fun of them MST3K style), this is still NOT a good movie for you. I think that's because the movie is already supposed to be a comedy. For some reason, it's difficult to crack funny jokes at a bad comedy. Maybe that's why MST3K never used comedies in their show. The bad humor cancels out your good humor, somehow.

Anyway, a movie to avoid at all costs. Zero stars.

Sure, I suppose the movie was technically put together well. The story was told effectively, the situations seemed believable. I've got two big problems with it, though (SPOILERS FOLLOW):

First, "based on a true story." More than half of this movie is NOT based on a true story, because the makers have no idea what happened to that couple after they were stranded in Open Water. Here I thought I was seeing two people in a real situation relating what happened to them, only to find out at the end that these parts were all made up.

Second, the journey the movie takes us on is ultimately pointless and depressing. Nothing is accomplished in the film, except for the sad deaths of the two divers. It's like seeing a couple have a horrible car crash, then standing there to watch them for 90 minutes, trapped in their car, as the car slowing catches on fire and burns them to death. Sure there were scary scary parts, sure there was tension. But there is no payoff. The movie is simply unpleasant to watch. Who wants to pay money to watch something that is purely unpleasant? Not me. One star.

I'm a big Robocop fan. The only Robocop thing I HAVEN'T seen, was the cartoon, so I can't compare it to that one.

But in comparison to the 3 movies and, yes, even the TV series, this is the saddest Robocop has ever been.

Robocop is, of course, the ultimate superhero movie.

Robocop 2 was almost as good. It's biggest shortcoming was the lack of the classic Robocop theme music. If Basil's music could somehow be edited into this movie, I think people would be amazed at the improvement.

Robocop 3 was almost as good as Robocop 2 (seeing a trend here?). The music is back, most of the characters from the previous movies are present. Robert Burke is no Peter Weller, but he does his best, and his best is just barely good enough. Robocop 3 is a bit cheesier than the previous entries, and Robocop SHOULD NEVER FLY. However, the movie does have some moving moments, and on the whole did feel like "Robocop."

Robocop: The Series was geared towards a younger audience. The violence was toned WAY down, and some of the acting was about as cheesy as what was found in Robocop 3. Unfortunately, none of the villains measured up to any of those found in any of the movies. All were too cheesy. HOWEVER, Richard Eden did an excellent job as Robocop. Better than Robert Burke in Robocop 3. The supporting cast of good guys were also quite good on the whole, with the possible exception of the popularly despised "moppet." The creators did a pretty good job of maintaining the visual style of the movies, with the same cars, uniforms, gear, etc. I could tell they cared about what they were making. Yes, it was juvenile, but it had heart and it still felt like "Robocop." The show's opening music theme was particularly good, an expansion on Basil's original theme.

Robocop: Prime Directives was very, very sad for me. I'd been anticipating this quite a bit, and was prepared to give it a lot of slack. I'd kept up with production on their website, and had heard that the folks involved were big Robocop fans.

I was VERY disappointed.

As many have mentioned before, Page Fletcher was totally miscast. I'm sure he did his best, but he was just way too short, and did not know how to move or act as Robocop. The worst portrayal of Robocop in existence. The plot of the miniseries I found to be dull, cheesy, and clichéd. The effects were not even up to the level of what was found in the TV show. Because this story takes place so many years in the future, there are no familiar images to tie in with what has transpired before. It's almost like Robocop was dropped into some other town, where nothing is like it was. He is the only familiar image, and a sad miscast image at that. There is no sense of history. The fact that Prime Directives pretends that Robocop 2, Robocop 3, and Robocop: The Series all never happened is an insult and a cop-out (a Robocop-out?). Sure those movies and the TV series had their faults, but ALL of them were superior to Prime Directives. A sequel should only ignore what has come before under the most dire, DIRE circumstances. Say... Alien 3. And if that sequel does ignore what came before, it had better be good enough to merit that. What came before Prime Directives was not that bad, and Prime Directives was not NEARLY good enough. F-