UniqueName76's reviews

Love him or hate him, his movies have a unique signature upon them that definitely separate him from the dozens of movies release each month from Hollywood. As a matter of fact, Hollywood apparently has run out of ideas remakes upon remakes, and now worse with movies like The Departed, Strangers, The Ring, and Bangkok Dangerous they're down to ripping off European/Asian movie directors for their ideas.

This time M. Night strikes back with notable differences from all his other movies. First of, M. Night usually forgoes direct violence and gore and replaces it Hitchcock styled atmosphere/sound over gore. Looks like studios are tired of this and forced his hand. Interestingly enough, even with the added gore and violence, there was still a great deal of that "atmosphere" utilized to heighten everyone's awareness. A good deal of work was put in the sound fx to also put some flavor into several key moments.

Like all M. Night's movies, there are SERIOUS flaws in The Happening. Bad acting across 4-5 scenes you simply cannot deny, just really dry delivered lines. A surprising number of no name actors is probably the reason for this, which leads to the music of the film. I haven't seen music this bad in a film this decade. It sure seems as if studios are cutting M. Night at the knees financially. Lastly, this blame will fall solely on the director, the pacing was a tad uneven, abrupt in some places that failed to achieve the desired effect I would say.

Despite it's flaws, the plot and premise is quite interesting, even if it's a bit far-fetched. Once again I found myself smiling throughout the movie and enjoy this movie as if it were one of those old 50s B&W goofy horrors about a giant brain eating up half the planet. Shyamalan doesn't explain the plot in total detail, leaves you with several clues as to what triggered the main events and how the main characters dealt with those events. If you like weird sci-fi with dashes of brilliant horror footage, this is your movie. If you like M. Night movies not because they're full of action and violence, but because they're interesting and different.. you'll love The Happening. However if you have ADD, adrenaline junkie, or hyper-critical in your films.. you'll hate this film steer away.

There's few things that are memorable about Midnight Sun, I suppose if the movie's main song catches you, you will take the most from this film. Otherwise you'll be pretty bored most of the time. A girl who has some rare disease called XP, is forced to live her life at night. She often watches this one particular guy from her window as he goes about trying to learn how to surf.

The movie is quite forced, the director tries to force upon you a slow movie by extending several shots and scenes unnecessarily, there's not much depth, some decent amounts of humor though, which is nice, but overall I found it to be yet another average Asian movie, nothing more.

Reading a synopsis about Zoo and chances are that you probably be interested in this film. 5 stories, 5 young upcoming Japanese directors, dark tales of murder, weird happenings, etc..

What Zoo actually is, is five young Japanese directors who've learned what a still shot, or slow shot is. They use it a few times and pretend to be Takeshi Kitano I suppose, then the stories they show you will be explained to you in the most idiotic way possible.

• The first short film is about these two twin sisters, who are played by the same person, one is hated by the mother the other is not. Everything in this first story is pedantic and trod-ding, and it leads up to a climax that is completely ... NOT surprising.

• The second is a rather semi-interesting one, called 7 Rooms, people are for some unknown reason, each locked into a room, by some unknown guy, who wants to kill them after they've been there for 7 days and eaten 6 slices of bread and 1 bowl of soup. The ending. Is a giant roll-eyes unfortunately.

• The third is absolutely ridiculous I don't even want to talk about it's so stupid.

• The cartoon is boring and dull.

• The final piece actually attempts to be spooky and sort of take chances, but leaves you empty and hollow. There is absolutely no real story told, a mild statement is made and the movie's credits roll.

The end. Save yourself the trouble, this is not for suspense/horror fans AT ALL, go see Tale of Two Sisters or Audition or something else Asia has done that is really worth something.

To say Funky Forest: The First Contact is a bad movie is an understatement of incredible proportions. I can really get into a good art house film, even a surreal and twisted romp like El Topo, Naked Lunch, and Survive Style 5+, because those movies actually have something worth discussing when the credits roll.

FFFC attempts at every avenue to be this deep and intellectual, essentially there is no substance in this movie. This movie is badly done, the visuals in this movie are not inspiring, the dialog is worse, the musical numbers destroy this movie.. I chuckled for GUITAR BROTHERS, but that was immediately wiped out by something completely unnecessary, and irrelevant. It attempted to be deep and meaningful I think, but its just pretentious disoriented nonsense. Freshman film students without a camera could craft something more interesting.

Guitar Brothers and the stand up routines in between skits get 1 point each, everything else is just badly paced, pseudo-creative, heavy handed attempts at being AS good as films by other REAL directors like, Sogo Ishii, David Lynch, and Jodoworsky. Give me a break. I am convinced that people that rave about FFFC are doing so because they have no idea of what they saw, because it was nothing but mild pertinent statements here and there mixed with stupidity and blended until you puke on your own shoes.

This movie was an extreme disappointment, coming off the high that was Survive Style 5+, a film that actually has meaning, combined with excellent use of scenery, cinematography, catchy dialog, funny moments, good soundtrack, excellent performances, fantastic pacing and flow. FFFC features the exact opposite in every way, boring scenery (20 minutes staring at a bland beach at night? a completely white stage? Alien balls floating in white space? a dinky school hallway and then a... school hallway?), terrible cinematography, forgettable dialog, nothing funny or humorous, save the fact you just wasted your life for two hours, soundtrack?, amateurish performances, uneven, disjointed, and often flat out dragging pacing, zero flow whatsoever.

There are those that claim this is what makes FFFC a great movie, that it is so unconventional at every turn that its pure genius. This is simply a way to stroke your own ego it seems, because "unpredictable" could be a good quality for a film if it wasn't coupled with "boring", "innane", and "terrible". Personally I have spoken with two people who admitted to me that FFFC was terrible when they left the theater, but overwhelming rave by art-house elitist made them watch the movie again and then come back to me with a... "Hey it was pretty good I liked it".

I'm going to put my foot down, this movie is slop, I don't care if Roger Ebert says this film is the best thing he's ever watched since he lost his own virginity. "The Emperor's new cloak" I say... this movie is no way indicative of the other psychedelic/trippy films to come from Japan in the last 10 years. Taste of Tea, Party 7, and Kamikaze Girls are much better movies (even with a low budget), and none can honestly compare with Survive Style 5+. Watch FFFC only if your interested in making a pretentious pile of nothing on a shoestring budget.

What is Survive Style 5+? One of the best films I have ever seen in my life. This film is about 5 ( or more, you decide) styles of living, depicted in a seemingly haphazard and bewildering form. The use of song, colors, cinematography will ensure most people have no excuse BUT to be captivated by every scene. Even those that simply miss out on all the symbolism and allegories for every day life will find this movie highly entertaining simply from the excellent performances and superb overall presentation.

The movie opens up with a man, who's apparently murdered his wife, burying her in the forest with a couple of meaningful comments about murder itself. That serious moment opens up a floodgate of seemingly subconscious events and comedy that is meant to jar you from the underlying essence of the movie for a moment. The film introduces other "styles of life", for example a group of bumbling burglar teens, a hit-man (Vinnie Jones) and his translator, an advertising guru who thinks every think she makes is the pinnacle of hilarity, and a family that apparently has a few issues of their own to deal with.

Each layer of bizarre is followed by another layer of bizarre, until the ending will most likely leave you with your jaw on the floor. The great thing about SS5+ is that deep within the layers of apparently non-sensical comedy and action, there is a meaning to unearth, most people will come up with their own ideas as to "what it all means" and THAT is the best aspect of SS5+, enjoy.

If you go into Dead End Run expecting the sequel to Electric Dragon 80,000V you'll be disappointed, this is not the continuation, prequel, or sequel, although most of the people from that film are in this one.. the similarities end there.

Dead End Run explores the connection between life and death, confrontation and resolution, perhaps even love at the brink of heightened danger. To that end this film achieves its goals by presenting to you a series of stories (three in total) with different views of the same theme. They each start off with someone running, and end at a climactic moment, with little dialog or story telling.

Dead End Run is more about capturing a fleeting concept, or an emotion perhaps, its not about a story necessarily. I found this film highly enjoyable, and have already viewed it several times over, each time noticing the amazing detail that went into certain sequences (Steam!) The movie itself does have some faults however, it drags a little too long, while trying to convey emotion and heighten suspense, I feel that it just prolongs the moment and doesn't heighten or add anything to the material at all. However these moments are sparse, as the movie is only 1 hour or so long, the film doesn't leave you hanging for long. Definitely a movie for fans of art, composition, and slow pacing.

Take two genres, action crime drama, and romance, to tried and true genres, and mash them together. Typically, at least with U.S. movies, action movies contain little depth, character development, or plot really, it just moves quickly enough to the next over the top action scene. I'm generalizing a bit here, but this is probably about right. Movies tend to either be more on the serious side (less over the top action), or more on the action side (less serious film elements).

Koreans have a knack for good romance stories, I have seen a whole string of them, The Romance, is terrible in this department. I'll give you a hint for when a "romance" scene is coming up in this movie, the hero of the story, will get a constipated face and stare off numbingly at the girl. Then the tango music plays. This = Love Scene.

Character development? Not really, everything is flushed into a series of tango music/slow mo/clichéd rituals that will leave quite bored. The action scenes come in suddenly and are a bit awkward, as usual most characters cry too much for too many things. The ending is well... expected really, especially if you've been watching plenty of Korean cinema. This falls way below the "average" mark for film, it is a poor movie, with laughable style, and a mish mosh of clichés and trite dialogue. Stick with Public Enemy/Bittersweet Life for crime drama, and A Moment to Remember / The Classic for romance.

The Jacket is being advertised as a "oohhh scary and suspenseful psychological thriller", I guess that in some ways it is. However it is not, it's not really a scary "boo!" in your face movie, you follow the story of Jack Starks, a Gulf War vet who confesses to have have "died the first time" in 1991 when during an engagement lets his guard down to a young boy, who in turn shoots him in the head.

He is left for dead, and later while in the med ward, is discovered to actually be alive, miraculously. He is medically discharged, and in a quick scene the doctors say he has amnesia and Gulf War syndrome, before a quick cut to Brody walking around in a snowy Vermont.

I have definitely seen more disturbing images in other foreign films, and even some older U.S. films like Apocalypse Now, however the movie isn't so much about war as it is about Jack Starks's self-analysis. In a Donnie Darko type move the movie starts to evolve into something else entirely. I Jack Starks dead? Is he crazy and delusional? Is he time traveling? Is he still dead on the field of the Gulf War battle? This movie features excellent performances by Adrian Brody who portrays a wide range of emotions well, from melancholy humble, to terrified, and angry. I was more impressed with "lunatic mental hospital scenes" with 12 Monkeys and The Princess and the Warrior BUT, the other hidden surprise here I thought was Knightley, she didn't do too bad, and since the story ends up focusing on the "what ifs" of these two, its a great thing they had some chemistry on screen.

I definitely liked this more than the goth-teen-emo flick, Butterfly Effect (although in all honesty wasn't that bad), and put this in the same vein as The Machinist. Excellent performances, but weak ending/not a complete story telling experience. I will definitely add this to my movie library.

A realistic look at feudal Japan before it's demise, one cannot help draw a correlation with The Last Samurai. While I loved Ken Watanabe's performance, Cruise's insertion into that filmed bothered me quite a bit. I often thought if they would have just shown the movie without that obvious constipated clichéd Cruise in there what a great film it could have been.

Then I saw Twilight the Samurai, and I was pleased. Twilight also reminds me of Dances with Wolves, in the portrayal of a more realistic and hard earned life of old times. Twilight isn't this incredible swashbuckling hero that can deftly avoid all manners of enemies and hacks 586,932 people before the movie is over, yet there is no question that Twilight is a hero from start to finish.

I love the realistic look at feudal Japan, and while the pacing for some maybe to slow, it's real easy to start to become real enamored with Twilight. A often ridiculed lower class samurai, who just is so unconventional for his era, in that he is just a peaceful simple man.

All the love (notice I don't say romance), portrayed by all the characters seemed and FELT real. There is no gushy over the top out of character lust groping to establish a romance between Tomoe and Twilight, which I appreciate as it is more in-line with Japan's feudal society of that era. His family life feels genuine, his reluctance and humbleness feels genuine, the action scenes lack slow mo bullet time and a theatrical score entirely, yet I couldn't help but be at the edge of my seat just hoping, for the best.

This is a beautiful film, with characters that are enjoyable. I must say that the final scenes will fill you with all sorts of mixed emotions, from anger, to fear for Twilight, relief, betrayal, love, that when the movie is all over, you will definitely be a bit stunned. You will probably say "all this and not an ounce of wire-fu? slow-mo? nudity? cursing? over the top music?" This movie is a profound testament to what it means to act, and direct.