MiztaBungle

Sporting the tagline, `Kiss your nerves goodbye' - Evil dead 2 is essentially a re-make of Sam Raimi's first Evil dead movie. This time round the movie's bigger budget is noticeable in the effects department. However, the movie remains loyal by weaving in and out the original storyline. It differs with its slightly more tongue-in-cheek approach with more gore, more frights and an interesting twist at the end allowing for the classic pun in the third movie in the series: The Medieval Dead.

Bruce Campbell is back in his superb role as Ashley, the store clerk looking forward to a quiet weekend away with his girlfriend in a cabin in the woods. His weekend turns out to be anything but quiet. Inadvertently, he summons evil spirits when he finds spooky incantations on a tape recorder belonging to a Professor researching into the phenomena. When his girlfriend is possessed, Ashley is forced to kill her and buries her out in the woods. But she doesn't stay in the ground long. She returns to the cabin to aide the evil spirits in wrecking havoc and generally making Ashley's life hell. And they succeed with horrific and hilarious results.

This is a gem of a movie paying tribute to the original, which in it's own right is an all time classic having inspired and influenced a whole new genre of horror flicks. The camera work, in particular the first person POV of the `demon/evil spirit' is unique for its time, producing astonishing results. Bruce Campbell's role is highly commendable. His facial expressions alone allow the audience to empathise with his agony. The film does lack the eerie spookiness of the original but makes up with the laughs and the gore that is exaggerated for maximum effect. A must for horror fans!

Two cops investigate a series of gruesome murders involving gourmet cooking with human brains as the main ingredient! After capturing the serial killer who also happens to be brainless (quite literally!) they close the bizarre case as solved. However, when sporadic copycat murders follow, the cops are drawn back deeper into the case and begin to discover some unsettling truths about who, or more precisely what they're dealing with. Even though the film doesn't score high for originality, director and writer Jôji Iida does a fantastic job maintaining the suspense factor, keeping the audience guessing right to the end. As a result, the occasional slower moments in the movie don't really slow the overall pace, if anything, it helps with the character development. All the acting is on a superior level, more notably the two cops displaying awesome on-screen chemistry. Yosuke Eguchi plays the younger, 'good cop' with Yoshio Harada as his older, slightly more ruthless counterpart. Overall, this genre merging sci-fi / horror movie manages to deliver, captivating the viewer with suspenseful twists and at the same time not over-doing the gore to unbelievable levels. The shocks are kept moderately frequent and the intelligent, well thought out ending followed by the excellent Japanese theme song at the credits make this a movie guaranteed to satisfy fans of the genre(s).

Set in a fantasy futuristic medieval Japan, 'Zipang' is a deliciously quirky action movie following the wacky adventures of outlaw Jigoku-goraku-Maru as he is pursued by a band of bounty hunters led by Teppo Oyuri otherwise known as Pistol Lily. During their escapades they meet a half naked guy and decide to help him recover the legendary sword thought to be the key to 'Zipang' – the city of gold where his lover is held hostage by the evil king.

The characters are interesting, requiring no real development due to their comic book style appeal. Director Kaizo Hayashi does a great job paying a tongue-in-cheek tribute to an era of classic martial arts characters including a not-so-blind samurai and a ninja displaying amazingly ability. The style over substance element means the film does slow down at points and the ridiculous plot doesn't give the viewer enough to cling on to. But who cares? The action scenes are excellent and the humour is great, remaining buoyant even when the plot spirals into absurdity.