Drucilla_Black

I saw "The Castle of Sand" at a Japanese Film Festival this year in Sydney, and I must say that I'm surprised that this movie isn't better known as it's so beautifully made and incredibly moving...It's one of those near-perfect gems that are few and far between. It's a fairly long movie at nearly 2.5 hours, but the movie is one that draws you in very quickly and keeps you wondering up until the very end.

The plot centres around the mysterious murder of Miki, a retired policeman in his 60's who was well-liked by pretty much everyone who knew him for his kindness and integrity. Two detectives, one a rookie and one fairly older, are assigned to the case and what at first seems like three unrelated stories slowly weave together to reveal the reasons and the person behind Miki's death. Even if you're not a fan of foreign movies, "The Castle of Sand" is still definitely worth a watch.

Pretty much every single person I came across was raving about "The Incrdibles" after seeing it. This included my Dad, who is in his early 40's. Despite being 18, I love a lot of kids movies (I thought "Finding Nemo", and "Toy Story 1-2" were modern-day classics, and "Monsters Inc" is pretty good too), so I rented this out with positive expectations.

Two hours later, I felt like I had been seriously ripped off. In my opinion, there were two good things about this movie:

1. Incredible CGI and special effects. Not as good as some like "Finding Nemo", but still incredible.

2. The fact that it ended.

Apart from that, I really can't think of much else nice to say about "The Incredibles". Elements of the storyline felt clichéd and recycled, such as the character syndrome, and the fact that The Incredibles seem suspiciously like a carefully-disguised rip-off of the old cartoon "The Fantastic Four".

The plot itself was tired and predictable, much like the clichés. I would've let all that slide if they had at least injected some good humor into the movie, but alas! I didn't get one laugh from the whole thing. But I guess for all the great movies they've done, Pixar were going to have to make a stinker eventually in order to balance things out. And what a stinker they made...

I really wouldn't recommend wasting your time on this. Pixar have made so many better films than this...