Lots of Little Reviews

Lots of things keeping me busy at work these last few weeks, and writing was going well until I overcomplicated it for myself. So I took some time off and distracted myself with movies. Here's a few things that I've been killing time with:

Casshern

This is based on an an anime, and it has a nice visual style to it - as clearly seen in the trailers. But from the very firs scene, with it's clunky, exposition-heavy dialogue ("As you know..."). It just gets weirder from there - scenes about genetic mutations, clones, abandoned robot factories in the snowy wilderness, a garden, a dead guy, and politics are all mashed up against each other in a vague attempt to make sense. It's hilarious in the right mood, though - watch it with friends, especially if they're drunk friends.

(Note: that the absolute lack of sense might have been due to the cut of it I watched. I have no idea which one it was, but it might have been the US cut which is known for it's inaccurate dialogue and cut scenes.)

[easyreview cat1title="Overall" cat1detail="It's pretty, but it made it no sense." cat1rating="1" overall=false]

Perfect Blue

After the stupidly confusing Casshern, I moved onto the amazingly confusing Perfect Blue, dubbed in English. It's about a Japanese pop star who tries to move into acting, taking roles out of desperation and having a mental breakdown in the process. Which doesn't help if you've got fans obsessively stalking you and raging about your new career, and a murderer who conveniently keeps killing people who've wronged you.

Gorgeous (but gory) animation and a hundred and one plot twists keep this quirky animated horror-suspense movie going, alongside a creepy soundtrack and good quality voice acting.

[easyreview cat1title="Overall" cat1detail="Aaargh, my mind." cat1rating="5" overall=false]

Eclipse

I know. I'm a bad person. I should be ashamed.

"Eclipse" is the third movie in the Twilight vampire series aimed at teenage girls. It's not to everyone's cup of tea, but the special effects are good, the soundtrack is decent pop-rock, and you can turn it into a good drinking game by having a shot every-time someone does something emotionally manipulative.

I can't stand Bella's character or acting, but she almost redeemed herself with a conversation with her awkward single parent dad Charlie half-way through. Being honest, Charlie may be the only character in this series I actually like. Go Charlie! :P There's also Jasper, who's a stereotypically Texan vampire and lightens up the movie a lot.

[easyreview cat1title="Overall" cat1detail="The special effects are good, but the ending is weak, Bella's actor is bland and the climatic fight scene just didn't have enough impact." cat1rating="3" overall=false]

Napoleon Dynamite

I guess this was a good movie? The actors playing Napoleon and Pedro were great, but it only got a few giggles. This is my fault, though - I'm not much of a fan of anything other than improv.

No review for this one, because my funnybone's broken.

Persepolis

Such a bittersweet movie - it's all about a girl just trying to be a smart girl in modern Iran, getting into rock music and dressing up in a culture where even wearing your veil too high will allow men to accuse you of being a slut. It's easy to forget that Iranian kids and teens are just like any other culture's kids - but for them, having an opinion can be a death-risk.

The soundtrack is fantastic - Iron Maiden, some instrumental work, and my favorite 'Survivor' cover in all of history. It's animated mostly greyscale with some colour, and the dialogue is in subtitled French.

[easyreview cat1title="Overall" cat1detail="Sweet, sad and honest." cat1rating="5" overall=false]