infernal-eternal

Japanese horror is a category of its own. It ranges from super-ridiculous B-movies (or is it C?) to cult classics. This one's neither, but it's certainly above average. It doesn't go into any extremes (like many Japanese horrors do) but instead focuses on characters and on making sense.

The plot isn't very original, so it won't blow you away. Compared to most Japanese horrors, though, the story is coherent and well-paced, and acting is above average.

The premise is simple. Harumi and Reiko start living together. After a while, Reiko starts having episodes of acting strange and referring to herself as Mari, which freaks Harumi out. Harumi's trying to figure out what's going on. There isn't much more I can say about the plot without spoilers.

The movie overall isn't very scary. It's not something that will keep you on the edge of your chair. The horror element is certainly there, but most of the movie is more on the drama side. The pacing is slowish, but it didn't feel boring.

More than half of the movie seems pretty straightforward and predictable. The plot twists come later. They're nothing too unusual either, but at least they make sense, and by the end of the movie, everything is explained well-enough to make for a decent story.

All in all, the movie isn't mind-blowing, but it's well done.

You have to go into this with low expectations. It's not a great movie by any stretch of imagination. It's a low-budget B movie with an unoriginal story and pretentious dialogue. The acting looks bad mostly due to the fact that it's hard to pull off this kind of dialogue without looking silly.

While fighting in most B movies is usually ridiculous, it actually looks real and functional here. Sometimes you can see the actors are too obviously avoiding hurting one another, but for the most part, it looks good. The little warrioress Cecily Fay (143 cm) certainly knows how to move around and fight. And that's what this is all about. The whole movie is just an excuse to see Cecily fight, and fortunately there's quite a lot of that in the movie.

I won't get into the story, because there's really nothing new there. A warrioress, a quest, an ancient prophecy, blah, blah... It's all a bit silly and predictable.

If you want to watch a good movie, skip this one. But if you like fantasy, medieval-ish setting, and fighting with swords, and if you know what you can expect, it's not too bad.

What a disgrace. This movie might be all right if it had no connection to any real people (though it would still be a poor one), but as a biography of Brittany Murphy it's almost unwatchable. Everything is bad.

What's with the choice of actress? She doesn't look anything like Brittany, she doesn't act like her, she has no charisma (which Brittany had plenty of)... What's going on? Some other characters in the movie look and act more like Brittany than Amanda Fuller does. Chloë Crampton who plays her friend would have been a better choice. Watching that round face, I had to constantly remind myself who it's supposed to represent because there was just no resemblance.

I don't really know anything about Brittany's real life, but I really doubt she was this lame when in the movies she was so cool. It just doesn't add up. I feel like Amanda Fuller has never even seen any of Brittany's movies.

Acting is overall pretty bad. A biography of a famous person should not be a B movie with poor actors.

The movie completely fails to build up atmosphere for emotional scenes, so they just end up looking artificial and ridiculous. Crappy, boring music doesn't help either. Everything feels fake. Cheap melodrama.

A girl with a really bad wig representing Alicia Silverstone wasn't even funny.

Brittany's biography deserves a decent script and cast. This is just a bad joke.