paul_m_haakonsen

I did enjoy the 1982 movie "The Beastmaster", and I did indeed know about this 1991 sequel, but I actually never had the chance to watch it before now in 2025. Needless to say that I needed no persuasion to do so.

Writers Jim Wynorski and R. J. Robertson didn't really impress me with the script and storyline they conjured up for this sequel. In fact, they went a bit astray with the script for this sequel, as it ventured into slapstick comedy, and sort of put the fantasy aspect in the background. They should have opted to keep the movie in a strict fantasy setting, as that crossing over to a modern day world was just too cheesy and forced; it didn't really work here, and it didn't really work in 1987 when the "Masters of the Universe" movie with Dolph Lundgren did the same thing.

It was, of course, nice to see Marc Singer return to reprise his role from the first movie. Aside from Marc Singer, there were a couple of other familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of James Avery, Michael Berryman, Kari Wuhrer, Robert Z'Dar and Wings Hauser. The acting performances in the movie were good.

And as I perused IMDb, I found out there also is a third movie in the series. I have to see if I can track that one down as well.

Well, at least I can tick the movie off of my watched-movies list now. But I can honestly say that I am never returning to watch it a second time.

My rating of director Sylvio Tabet's 1991 movie "Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time" lands on a rather generous four out of ten stars.

Having just sat through the 2005 "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man", I continued my marathon with this 2006 entry in the franchise titled "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society". While I was familiar with the "Stand Alone Complex" being a part of the franchise, I have never actually seen any of them. So this was my first time to delve into them.

The storyline in this 2006 foray into the franchise is good. Sure, there are large shoes to fill out, but the writers managed to pull it off well enough, and the script proved to be entertaining and enjoyable.

The version of "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society" that I stumbled upon was, unfortunately, a dubbed version. I generally do not enjoy dubbing versions of anything, be it movie or animation. I prefer the original language, so this was a little bit annoying. But thankfully the dubbing by the voice actors and actresses were fair, so it helped cushion the blow.

I have to say that I am enjoying that it is fully drawn Anime, and not a God awful abomination of a mixture between drawn animation and CGI animation.

Thankfully this 2006 foray into the franchise was only running at 108 minutes, and I say "only" here because the previous one ran for 160 minutes.

My rating of director Kenji Kamiyama's 2006 Anime "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Right, well as part of doing a "Ghost in the Shell" marathon, I came across this 2005 addition to the franchise. I was aware of the "Stand Alone Complex" titles vaguely, but I had given up on Anime at that point in time, so I never saw it back in the day.

The storyline in the Anime was good. It was actually a rather well-written and interesting narrative, and a much needed step up from the pompous 2004 "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence" Anime. I was genuinely entertained here throughout the 160 minutes that it ran for, so thumbs up to the writers for that accomplishment.

I definitely liked the return to full-out drawn animation, where as the 2004 "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence" had heavily incorporated CGI animation as well. When I sit down to watch Anime, it should be one of the two; either fully drawn or fully CGI, not a strange abominable mixture of the two. So "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man" was a good return to original form for me.

Running at 2 hours and 40 minutes, you're in for a partial all-evening entertainment event here. I was a bit surprised to find out that it was running at such a length. In my opinion, the Anime could have benefitted from a trim in post-editing, as 160 minutes was a bit too long.

My rating of the 2005 Anime "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man" lands on a seven out of ten stars.