billy_bob_stapel

I am not much of an Anime buff, sure I watched my fair share when I was a teenager but most Animes simply do not grab as much as I would like. There is of course Akira and Ninja scroll and stuff like that people in general should watch at least once in their life. The only Anime TV show that I watched from the beginning was Fist of the North Star. A real classic in my opinion.

Seems like I found another show that I consider already a classic in the making. I am proud to say after watching 3 Episodes of <>Attack on Titan<> I am blown away. The show is nicely paced, the whole plot is so simple, yet strong and the whole concept of having the human race, that consist of mostly German people or so it seems, locked up behind walls is really, really compelling.

The art is superb and a joy to watch. From the Bavarian town over to the great painted landscapes, character design etc. It is all top notch in my opinion.

Stuff like the charging Armored Titan is even for an old timer like just to cool to pass up. What a great scene that was. I cannot wait for the next episode.

Well this is a basically a run out of the mill, average Martial Arts movie with some novelties thrown into the mix. A great actor like Mr. Hounsou wasted his talent in this one, though I was surprised and happy that some of the action scenes and especially the training segments made this predictable junk rather entertaining. There is also a lot of eye candy here to be seen, pretty girls in tight dresses and shirtless, built men who clobber on each other, if that is your kind of thing.

Like I mentioned earlier some of the action scenes are pretty OK. We got rolling cradles, arm bars, triangle choke holds etc. I love jujitsu and traditional wrestling so I thought the filmmakers indeed did quite a good job in showing those techniques on the silver screen, It is quite overdone of course, It is a Hollywood movie after all. However the story lacks, most of the characters are downright dumb and annoying, you have to suspend your disbelief quite a lot to swallow any of this.

Now, many people are arguing about the spirituality this movie lacks and I agree there is none. It is a prime example how the American media butchered the truly graceful arts of VALE TUDO etc. It has been botched for a mere violent circus attraction. I never agreed with cage fighting in the first place, at least there are some rules in it these days. Back in the day when the UFC was in its baby shoes, it reminded me more of a bloody gladiatorial challenge then anything else.

Do not get me wrong, I was also caught in the mix and watched UFC, PRIDE every now and then. There are also a lot of fighters I have respect for but some are just knuckleheads that enter the cage for a beat-down and to let go of their violent tendencies. At least better in a cage then on the streets.

This movie emphasizes on the knucklehead factor quite a lot. Its even a bit scary. The movie wants you to believe that brawling is the coolest thing on earth, a real chick magnetizer and the answer to all our problems...reality is much harsher and unforgiving. Youngsters these days group on you and at least in this movie we have one on one fights which seem to be fair for the most parts.

Nobody takes knifes or guns to the fight so maybe that is the spirituality the director wanted to express. It is not realistic but pretends to be, I just hope that young males and females do not get the the impression that if you train for a few days you can become the next UFC champion. With every form of martial arts it takes years of dedication and discipline even more so in this sport because it emphasizes on so many applications such as grapples and strikes.

I repeat it is still just a movie so just sit back and enjoy the action for what it is worth. If you look for a realistic, spiritual outlook on martial arts better watch the Japanese movie black belt. That is a true martial arts movie. If you look for entertaining Kong Fu flicks, well as a fan you should know. Check out the jet Li's, Donnie Yens etc.

As appendix, if you are into MMA and there are not many action movies that promote this sport, I can recommend flash point with Donnie Yen. the last fight makes totally up for the lacks that we find in that movie. Red Belt deserves a mentioning too but it suffers all too much from the same problem this movie has, it pretends to be something that it is not.

Blood of Heroes aka Salute to the Jugger. Why do i like it? The director did not make the mistake of jumping back and forth in giving a pseudo believable explanation why things are like they are.

You just get thrown right there in the middle of a wasteland a la mad max, leaving most of it pretty ambiguous, there is a short written narration in the opening credits but it's not very insightful nor should it be.

The world is shown as a giant desert, small settlements here and there and overall it gives you a glimpse on how early civilizations might formed, the people dressed in robes. Bedouins and nomads trying to survive in this pretty meager environment.

It is demonstrative and beautifully portrayed, the costumes are simplistic but great in design and efficiently put on display, Especially the Jugger attires are outstanding.

Well what is the premise of the movie? It is the Juggers, who travel to from each settlement to play "the game". so what is this "game"? A wild mix of gladiatorial fighting, wrestling and classical ball games. Each player comes with their own attire, self made helmets, protection gear etc. Some teams feature a common theme, such as having blue stripes on their gear, fur helmets(...weird) among other things.

Sounds bizarre but it is well thought off, convincing and seems like a very interesting sport. You can pretty much guess the rules by just watching it and despite all it's brutality it really does look like fun.

So the story begins like this: The main protagonist Sallow(Hauer) is the leader of a clique of Juggers that travel to different settlements to play the game in oder to get recognized by the league and enter the challenge. In order to that they must collect jugs, which are dog skulls and serve as play ball for the game. you win a game you keep the skulls as trophies. In the movie it is never explained fully how many games a Jugger team must win to get a challenge.

Sallow himself has long a history and was once an acclaimed league player but because of some unfortunate events he had to leave the league which is hosted by the decadent authorities located in each of the nine kingdoms.

the nine Kingdoms are Municap enclaves that are kept in underground vaults which are hundreds of stories deep embedded in the ground, the last remains of the 20 th century.

As the movie depict it it is comparable to ancient Rome or Babylon, instead of beauty though, we see a lot of scrap metal and factories, remains of high technology from the better days. the people were fine garments of silk, an is explained to be some sort of safe heaven and the closest thing to a normal functioning society.

The settlements on the surface in comparison are consisting of no more then mere tents and fireplaces, water is scarce etc.

While Sallows team is playing in one of the towns a local young woman named Kidda(Joan Chen) is eagerly observing, tired of field work, she joins the debacle as a substitute after one of the local team members gets beaten to pulp during the game.

She becomes a force to be reckoned with injuring one of of Sallows teammates severely but in the end gets dominated by Sallow himself , overwhelmed by the ability of the bunch she then tries to follow their trail and join them...

This movie is great for it is simplicity, the sport is brutal and violent but on the same level interesting to observe. The characters are fun to watch since all of them carry some unique visual aspects, Delroy Lindo's character Mbulu for example has some huge bulging scars on his cheek that make him look incredibly fierce some.

Each of them look so very different from their attire and look in general, great costume design and make up work.

You might have recognized that the plot itself is pretty basic and down to earth. It evolves wholly around the Juggers and their strive for recognition by the league. Each of them has their own motives and agendas why to do so, or not to do so.

To be frank, only Sallow and Kidda's motives are wholly explained and overshadow the other protagonists ambitions by a long shot.

The acting is on point, cheesy at times but it gets the job done.

Nothing fancy here and certainly not great nor bad. Some do a better job then others. I thought the young Vincent D' Onofrio was a bit over the top at times, his character was overconfident and annoying but i guess that was supposed to be. Regardless, He is a fine actor.

Joan Chen was dull but certainly her display of agility and martial arts made up for it. very impressive indeed and I think and her actions spoke more then words.

Delroy Lindo on the other hand took a backseat on this one and beside his awesome appearance did not get enough screen time to show his true potential as the fine actor that he really is. Disappointing in a way but I blame it on the script.

In Case of Rutger Hauer, who plays the main lead, I have to say he was good but nowhere near as great as in Bladerunner. He did a good job and made the movie enjoyable.

Their interesting appearances stole the show as so did the phenomenal action and the cool concept of the game. Big Kudos to the actors for pulling off a convincing portray of a sport that does not exist. It looked almost to real in many instances.

If you like violent action movies and post apocalypse then do not pass on this little gem. It deserves more recognition then it currently has.

When I started to watch it, I had a minor hope that this could lead into a fun series about bloodthirsty vampires, guess I was wrong again.

The last few years have spawned numerous offshoots about the new incarnation of the humanized loving handsome undead that seem to have manifested itself as the final incarnation of the centuries old vampire myth. I am somehow afraid the genre will die with this generation of pansies dressed in black that fall in love with high school girls. Dracula would rather stake himself than watch this garbage.

there where shows, books and other media that showed vampires more humanized but clearly it wasn't as dumbed down and naive until twilight came along. the movie was an awful adaption of an equally awful book series. It was a major success, oddly enough.

Everything fell apart. TV producers tried to cash in on this pop phenomena called twilight. Moonlight, True Blood and this garbage called Vampire Diaries have the same premise and main story arc.

A loving humanized vampire. Romance before everything, some action thrown into the mix to not bore the male viewers entirely.

True, the shows vary a lot in their core themes as well, obviously they deal with vampires but that is not it. I guess the fable of a mortal falling in love with the undead is the common thread between all these story adaptations. It gets on my nerves.

In Bram Stoker's Dracula Novel, the main protagonist Mina Harker was merely seduced by the dark vampiric powers of the count himself, she didn't love him because she chose too.

Still, I see a pattern emerging here.

While in true blood it's working because we got other outlandish beings thrown into the mix and the story arcs are actually well thought off and not so one dimensional(for the most part, the show has other problems though). In Vampire Diaries it's simply not enough.

Annoying Soft rock music blasts at the viewer almost every minute.

The main characters are incredibly wooden and unconvincing, bare such an awful striking resemblance to the twilight characters and on top off that the plot is also so similar in its setting(vampire goes to high school and finds the love of his life, YIKES!) its boring and redundant and i can't stand it one bit.

A lousy start for a TV show if you ask me. No gripping story and certainly not enough characters you sincerely care for. The main actor is especially tedious and annoying since He is a cheap Edward Cullen knock off.

The original was dreadful already, guess how bad the copy is.

who am I kidding, the whole thing is almost a carbon copy of twilight in itself. this based off a book again and makes you wonder if all these novels about cheerleader loving vampires are written by the same person.

dwelling deeper into it, casting aside the overall mediocrity and tediousness, there are actual fun elements that makes you least like to glance over the series. We got the eerie mist transformation, we got shape-shifting, the charm spells, that's all traditional vampire lore that I actually like though it is really not enough to save from the rest which is basically Melrose place with vampires.

I don't think its gonna get much better so I gave up on it.

This series might be aimed at teenagers and housewives, I just take a wild guess here. No pun intended, when i was a teenager I liked to watch that absolutely nobody dared to watch, things like Dario Argento splatter and horror flicks. Not exactly quality stuff either but entertaining and different nonetheless.

In Conclusion: Vampire Diaries fails to deliver the goods and reminds me that somebody wanted to shamefully cash in on the twilight hype and make a quick buck. It's unimaginative and without any interesting new ideas. It feels you have been watching the same show for a million times and because of this you don't feel attached to it.

I wouldn't recommend it and I hope in the future we can finally see bloodsuckers that we fear. Vampires that scare you, who are not nice. A show based on the characters as seen in Near Dark would be perfect. at least they were truly horrifying repentant monsters and not those pansypires that everyone seems to love now.

"""""""Spoilers Ahead""""""" Honestly it's my favorite movie for many reasons, it has an intriguing storyline, astonishing visuals and characters I can relate to.

the movie starts of a Sci Fi, Chase movie about a group Punks that swarm the roads of Tokyo with flashy motorcycles in the not so distant future. ransacking, engaging in a violent gang war against another gang and wrecking havoc in the process. the city is portrayed as an futuristic techno nightmare, neon lights covering every spot, massive skyscrapers sprouting out of the ground like pest plants. riots occur on a daily basis and people seem to be less concerned about the problems around them. so far so good.

sounds like a typical 80's sci fi movie with anti social comments thrown in the mix, however after thirty minutes in the flick the movie takes a u turn and suddenly we are dealing with an epic tale beyond the normal proportions, I don't want to spoil anymore I just suggest watching it, be prepared and have an open mind, this movie is nothing like what you have seen before.

perfect.

The action is phenomenal as expected, Tony Jada delivers the goods like he always has been. He takes a lot of bumps again and the stunt work is amazing, though people who have seen his previous work and expect the same will be a bit disappointed, there isn't much left from the former fanciness of stunts, for example this time around we don't see amazing slides under sharp objects, vehicles, dodging through narrow alleys , breaking motorcycle helmets with a knee or jumping off exploding glass walls anymore.

Instead tony Jada presents us with an huge array of different martial art forms, gone are the days of straight Muay Thai action.

That seems to be a let down for some fans but at the end of the day it's all about giving a good show and hell how Mr. Jaa delivers this time around.

We see a vast array of Chinese, Japanese and Western styles of martial arts. For an instance we get a showcase of drunken boxing(a Jackie Chan homage, no doubt), bits of Judo, Japanese sword fighting, Chinese weapon styles, Chinese Gung Fu(various styles) and of course Muay Thai. These are for show, mind you and shouldn't be judged from point like the effectiveness(why are those guys running into his fists all the time?) It's a movie and not a K1 bout or a test of might, that should be considered.

But what really impressed me is the art direction, every character shown is unique in its own way, countless goons that run into Tony Jaa's character and get beaten come off in such diversity.

We have sword wielding ninjas, angry tribal men, a vampire woman(I am serious), a fighter who is a crow/man hybrid(what the hell) , angry pirates, shiny royal guards et cetera. You get the picture, under normal circumstances this would be considered as cheesy and flamboyant but here it works, they are presented with such style and flashiness you got to love em.

Particularly because all these random characters are a reverence of the good old days of shaw brothers kung fu movies. Those silly characters are just fun to look at. They bring back memories of times long forgotten and I am glad that somebody has the guts to show what was necessary to make kung fu a piece of art again, we loved the DRUNKEN MASTER, THE ONE ARMED BOXER, THE YELLOW HELL OF THE SHAOLIN and THE MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE(just to name a few) for their memorable characters.

That brings me to the point, the costumes are really well done, nothing seemed to look cheap or cheesy, that shows what can be done with such a little budget(compared to the big studios we have in the west), Hollywood should learn from that. the wigs looked a bit off from time to time but, you know it wasn't terrible.

now lets get to the story, well don't expect much here, it's not the Manchurian candidate, or the firm or something in that vein. It's a fantasy martial arts action movie. the story is very basic, it's a revenge story. a noble whose parents got violently murdered seeks out the culprit in order to avenge his parents and claim his rightful place on the throne. nothing fancy here, though this movie is a historic fantasy movie, we will get glimpses of Thai culture .

I didn't expect a take on Shakespeare anyway and I sincerely hope that most people who like these kind of movies don't expect something outstanding in the dialog or story department for that matter. Of course some directors try to sugarcoat their movies with overdone dreadful artistic visuals and poorly written meta plots, such as hero or house of the flying daggers, don't get me wrong I like Jet Li and Tony Leung but I am not fan of this westernized martial arts movie concept. more show then face value. This movie suffers in some parts from the same concept, slow mo raindrops etc. and some weird meta plots, it's certainly a bit annoying though in defense of the movie it isn't nearly as overdone and distracting as in Zhang Yimou 's movies. Thus I can easily live with that.

Dialogs? What dialog? Tony Jaa speaks only a very few lines in the entire movie (maybe two or three i can't remember), the rest consists of glares, gasps, war cries and grunts. The acting wasn't really terrible, the actions of the character spoke for itself and I have seen far worse, It wasn't so important after all.

It's still miles ahead of what the infamous Chuck Norris can deliver.

It's certainly different from Mr. Jaa's previous work. He also gets major credit from me because he directed it and he coordinated the stunts. A lot of Sweat and Heart invested into this flick.

Of course it boils down to one thing, was it an enjoyment? Totally, I enjoyed almost every minute of it. some flaws and things that I personally don't like(overdone visuals like slow motion raindrops etc.) but still very enjoyable.

7/10

Ok i 've seen Animatrix and Matrix: Reloaded...first off Matrix:Re sucked hard...it wasn't really exiciting (pretty boring of course) and the plot was TO philosophial and in the end completly irretating, an over-hyped special effects drama that turned my mood down.

Animatrix instead is way better then The real "One" ...The first episode is a little bit to LIKE-THE MATRIX but it's an perfect example how astonishing cgi effects can fool your eyes(The faces looked so real).

my favorite episodes were the first renaissance part 1 and 2. I ve read in some reviews that it might be TOO brutal and violent...but in my eyes (like the Japanese always did) it's all shown in a completly realistic way. The world we live in is violent and brutal everybody knows that (Some may think they can escape REALITY by watching movies like Matrix), that's why this totally awesome plot of these two episodes make sense. Mankind is feared of itself that's why we build weapons to protect ourselves...we create machines to make life for ourselves easier(like postings reviews on entertainment products, can this BE real?) but IF (in an fictional way) the computers would create their own will, what would happend...propably the same that happens in these two short movies. and YES it would be so violent...it's completely fictional i know but think about wold war 2, the country where i was born in was lead by an total psychopath and he murdered millions of people (so don't tell me nothing would happen).

these two episode are morbid, fearful, creative and brilliant at the same time.

to the other episodes...i liked them very well but sometimes i couldn't believe my eyes because it was totally spaced away. Kid Story and that episode with the cat (forgot the name sorry)were also really good. detective story looked great but combining future and past with Film-Noir hadn't that affect on me in my opinion.

but in the end in the all Episodes were well written and much better than the Matrix: Reloaded. But maybe Matrix:Re sucked because of the German synchro who knows...

Watch the Animatrix it's worth the try. Creative unpolitical...and a mindbreaker. It's not an cash-Product to push up the Matrix-Hype. It stands for it's own.

8 out of 10...

I saw this flick half an hour ago. It was awesome. The movie pretends to be a romantic zombie movie but in fact this whole thing was just a real good comedy.

The acting was astonishingly bad (maybe the WORST dialogues i have ever heard). Every time when the main characters talked to someone i totally laughed my ass off, i got tears in the eyes.

Of course there is a lot of violence, humiliation, tormenting etc. in this movie but it's so damn funny. the only real "YUCK" scenes were the tormenting scenes...just watch it and than you know what i mean.

Entertaining movie. not as violent as day of the dead but still very unique (sick ideas). the best character in this film was without a doubt...Riverman.

RENT IT!!!!

invite your friends, get some booze and start that damn thing. get ready for over 90 minutes full of strange bizarre low budget trash. thanks to Brian Yuzna (by the way, dark society was horrible...two thumbs down)