Saaska P

"Mowgli" is far truer to the spirit of Kipling's story than the singsong Disney version (incidentally, there are no songs to speak of in this one). Animation is rather unusual, with rather sweeping strokes and not a lot of color detail, but very detailed movements. I for one love watching Bagheera (who is female here for grammatical reasons), and Tabaqui is also a treat. It's always been hard to stop an episode of "Mowgli" in between, especially the Red Dog episode always has me sitting on the edge of the seat.

This is a classic that every Russian child since 1967 grew up with and I keep returning to it. One of the best in Russian animation, and that means something.

Battle Royale can get very gruesome at times, but seldom, if ever, has gore been so badly needed to communicate the message. Forget painless 3-figure casualties, these deaths make themselves felt. Once you absorb the film's initial premise, you believe everything that is happening on the screen. You believe it down to your bone and your stomach. It IS happening out there to this boys and girls. You start believing like there's no tomorrow. To be sure, there is no tomorrow for many of those kids. And some of them accept it quite readily. I for one was terrified of how easily I accepted the terms of the game. How quickly I started to sympathise with some the characters enough that I wished they killed others. One even suspects that some adults might find it hard to suppress hot ready surges of a certain feeling generally manifested in the words "serves 'em right". And it's frightening. One keeps asking oneself questions, and those are difficult questions.

Beyond the plot, this film is about how we are made what to do what they call 'grow up' and how we are made to kill each other, if not as immediately as in Battle Royale, and how we come to get used to it.

Acting is superb. I wish teens in some blockbusters (cough..cough.. Potter and the Over-the-top Acting) took a leaf out of these guys' books. Kitano was a bit of enigma to me in this one. I almost hoped he would explode with emotion towards the end, but Kitano never does that, does he?

I don't expect a Gaijin could fully appreciate the references that Battle Royale makes to Japanese political situation and school system, but their implications for a native viewer must be profound. Definitely deserves a second viewing.

May not be a classic, but quite close. 9/10

Not that it's bad, mind you. Quidditch scenes are fascinating, visuals and camerawork are effective as ever. Robbie Coltrane and Dame Maggie Smith are as you've come to expect. Branagh is adequate and Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy is definitely an asset.

That said, the second instalment in Harry Potter series is miles weaker than the first, and I mean it. And the weakest part is acting. The director is too busy getting the hell on with his story to pay any attention to how the younger actors are faring. And they are disastrously overacting! Looks like they've forgot what they still remembered a year ago. Not that overacting is exclusively their privilege. Older actors are at it, too. And that makes the Potter world seem very unreal. You are hardly allowed to forget it's the adaptation of a fairytale book you're watching.

Dursleys gathering round Harry to ask him what he'll be doing when the Masons arrive, twins putting on big eyes when their mother threatens Ron, or, God forbid, Seamus Finnigan laughing - scenes like that in any other movie would send director's rating crashing into the white cliffs of Dover. Mr Columbus must be grateful it's HP that he shoots. People'll munch at it anyway.

I understand this is essentially a kids' movie, but one can remember some kids' movies which are good on multiple levels. There is very little in this one for adults. I'll take Oliver Wood's new Quidditch training plan and leave, if you permit. 6/10