Reviews

The Big O is one of the most creative efforts to ever come out of Japan. Combining the rather dark style of Batman: The Animated Series in animation, the giant robot action of yesteryear, and combining some really surrealistic elements, it manages to entertain such people. It is not your fast paced show with action at every minute, but it has rather impressive fight sequences with cleverly designed mechs I might add. Then you add the rather interesting characters that somehow develop during it's 13 episode run, and you've got a rather impressive series.

It's not for everybody, but I'd recommend Big O to even the most avid fan of animation.

The only bad part is that it's only 13 episodes and it stops rather abruptly, so let's hope it can get more soon.

I use to live in Hong Kong where the show was broadcasted. It was THE most enjoyable game show I've ever seen.

This show had the strangest but witty host as he gathered 6 people to battle through Physical, Mental, Skill, and Mystery challenges (To get the elusive crystals and to not get themselves locked in) as they go through the Aztec, Future, Medieval, Ocean (then Industrial) worlds. I loved how his witty comments and the complexity of it all to get all the crystals to win stuff in a duration of seconds inside the Crystal Dome. If I were in England, I would watch this show endlessly and never get bored!

In a sea of obscurity from Disney (from Dinosaur to Inspector Gadget to Recess to Disney's Doug to whatever things they destroyed) Hercules is one of those shows that has a lot of creativity. Now mind you, the Movie wasn't up to Disney Standards in any way you put it but was an interesting feature film that many other animated features will try to emulate. But actually the Hercules Cartoon is actually very nice.

The cast of characters are very interesting and is definitely making fun of Greek mythology and today's pop culture. This series' was more well executed that the movie of the same name. Animation is sortof typical for this kind of show, but (my God) look at the celebrities they casted for the roles. Everybody like Robert Stack (Unsolved Mysteries), Eric Idle (Monty Python) and even James Woods (The original Dead-Head: Hades) gave their talent to this show. It's sortof amazing in a sense. But I digress, this show is still much more better than the crap they put out now on Disney's One Saturday Morning but I think will never replace Disney's Nostalgic shows like Ducktales, Darkwing Duck, or even Gargoyles. Still, it's a nice show. Recommendable if you ask me.

As I get into Digimon, it gets MUCH more better than Pokemon. Unlike Pokemon, Digimon has an interesting story, and deep characters. I mean... the character factor is very good and different. Unlike the goody-goody heroes of Pokemon, Digimon has characters that are sometimes confused and different from each other. Check out Matt for instance, he's the lonesome one in the group and has the trouble of the higher authority. Also, Digimon aren't as cute as Pokemon (Gatomon... Tentomon...Gomamon...), but they one-up them because they have voices. The dialogue needs a bit of cleaning up, but not as much as the morals of Pokemon. The animation is rather tripped out also, but has interesting character designs. Even so, I don't really like the show that much, but the deep but simple story and the characters warrant AT LEAST a see.

This is NOT a ripoff of Pokemon.... Although I'm not sure that the BGM playing is the original Japanese version.

This is my first introduction to the Slayers series, and believe me, it has been great. The series is outstanding in quality and fun. Action easily blends in with slapstick anime style comedy with many interesting things in between. In some terms, this series uses action as comedy. There's nothing more hilarious as blowing up stuff for the heck of it and laughing at it in between. I love the English dub and the Japanese dub the same way and I suggest you buy this series even if you haven't seen the original.

This review's going to be short and thorough. You've Got Mail was a decent love story movie that seemed to mimic this other past work "Sleepless in Seattle". Ryan and Hanks give out interesting performances, but the movie is farfetched and dis-jointed. They meet up VERY quickly in the end of the movie, I'm not going to tell you how they did so, but... other than that it was decent. It's unlikely to impress anybody.

**

The Amanda show is another fruitless attempt to bring All That to it's peak performance. I'm getting really sick and tired of Amanda Bynes. She has potential, but she can't utilize it in this other heap of Nickelodeon garbage. It doesn't have any good ideas, and the audience is laughing at cheesy and unfunny comedy. I don't know why they like it. I can make better stuff than this. Please, turn off your television set if you're watching this show, you'll live to thank me. Finally, this show has the worst sketches of them all: Hillbilly moment!? Penelope Taynt!? Judge Trudy!? It screams unoriginal all over it. Please, don't watch this show.

When I first heard of Gundam Wing, I was thinking your typical Saban, over-the-mill, robot war. Boy was I wrong when I saw the version that Cartoon Network aired. IT really shows how great one series can be on it's own and (amazingly) we get an excellent dub out of it.

The extreme part of this show is the Gundams. Yes, the large mobile suits piloted by 5 young boys. What I like about them is that they have their own personality and grace. yet somehow, the English VA's were capable of reproducing them in the dub. Other people stand out like Zechs Merquise and Lucrezia Noin. Anything else is outstanding. It truly shows the future of dubbed anime. I hope that the dubbing company of Dragonball Z (FUNimation) will learn from this and may prosper. But that's a may. Still this is one anime you should watch out for.

Record of Lodoss War is one of the greatest anime series of all-time (Well the OAV version). The presentation was done so well and the work has been put into it was outstanding. The characters were absolutely the best part of the entire series. Each of their emotions were done elaborately and thoughtfully while not straying far from the story. Who also can forget the awesome character designs of people. Such people as Deedlit, the high elf or Ashram, the Dark Knight. The only thing that's bad is it's only 13 episodes, and you wonder what will happen after the last one. As far as I'm also concerned the dub is just as good as the sub too. Nonetheless it's a great anime to buy on DVD, and while you're at it get the new TV series on it on video.

The Life of Brian is one movie that is different from all the rest of Monty Python's total fair. Not counting on the slapstick-ness of the Holy Grail, it puts in a new kind of satire on an old tale of time. Then they make it offensive with their own wry satire and succeeding in it. It's a triumph in those parts. Here's an example of offensiveness: "Do you think that there's anything wrong with the name, Biggus... Dickus." -Pilate. It has comedy in it's own game. There's no other movie like it today, I still need to watch Dogma though. But still, this is a great movie not to be passed up on at all.

Side note: As what controversy from Christian groups say that Life of Brian is offensive to them and Jesus Christ, Monty Python didn't have anything against Christians. But that's another story.

When I was a little lad, I used to enjoy the Transformers. They were full of action, suspense, mystery, and many more. I lived this movie, and I somehow loved it back then. But now, it just seems to fall apart. Yeah... I like the storyline and all, but the scenes and things are just few and far in between...

First of all, that hard rock music soundtrack. Every nook and cranny of the film, there was some hard rock track that kept droning. One of the most disturbing scenes with hard rock soundtracks is when they meet the Junkions and that "Bah weep Granah weep Ninni bog" crap occurred. Then they start doing a little dance... Then there's the whole bunch of Transformers, there was a heck of a lot of Transformers and they can't even concentrate on one entirely, Optimus Prime got killed off fast and we don't get to see more of perrennial favorites like Jazz and Bumblebee. Also, the humans... Right the humans. What's the point in the story with the humans. They were stupid and took up alot of screen time and emotion. Also, the animation wasn't even good all in all. Compared to Disney's style, this looks like crap. And last but not least of all, everything went too fast. No character and plot development were present, it was all meshed up into one movie to irritate people.

This is a nice movie, just not worth somehow your time and the all-star cast is wasted (except for Leonard Nimoy). If you want corny 80's fare, rent this movie. Otherwise, stay away and watch the original.

Toy Story 2... The name is now well-known throughout Thanksgiving because it's so darn great. IT's a wonderful movie packing in the light-hearted humor in the original with new ones. Pixar outdid itself with this monumental movie. Woody and Buzz are still the very best characters. It was good to see the Buzz Lightyear who doesn't know he's a toy back. Then there's many new things to boot up. It's so intricately plot-driven and also particularly fascinating. One thing though, I miss Randy Newman's music score like those three songs in the original. But nonetheless this IS the movie of 99' not Star Wars, not Austin Powers, THIS! Thank you Disney, for not bringing this direct to video (thank god) and THANK YOU PIXAR! For bringing this movie to life.

****

Oh, before I go, watch out for homages to other Pixar works.

When you think of James Bond, super spy, you think of ever beautiful locations, megalomaniacal villains, and sexy femme fatales. The Bond franchise has been in the movie business for 30 long years. This is it's 19th movie, and it's a blast. The franchise is somehow still going strong, but it's a definite improvement over Tomorrow Never Dies. Still it's a good movie in it's own right, it just had it's flaws.

Story line: A billionaire tycoon is killed in an assassination at MI6 headquarters. His daughter, Elecktra (no not Carmen), has inherited his vast fortune and wealth. Bond is sent to protect her at all costs. But he has one problem, the psychopathic Renard. Whom in fact is particularly interesting, a bullet is lodged in his head and he can't feel pain. Faced with that challenge, Bond must defend Elektra, or suffer a fate like the billionaire tycoon and be killed.

The concept of the movie is typical Bond fair. But it had it's flaws. First of all, the lack of Dr. Christmas Jones. She just appears halfway through the movie and she's just plain tagging along with Bond. That's it, no more of this. Then there's Renard, he looks like Donald Pleasance playing Blofeld. Also, he wasn't much of a villain, just somebody who likes to destroy things and had no motive. Also, the bullet in his head is not typical of Bond. Many of Bond's people are bionic ally enchanced, psychopathic, and megalomaniacal. He just isn't like either Blofeld nor Jaws or Oddjob. I could let this thing go because this is fictional though. Then the final thing, the lack of gadgets. I remember the best scene in Tomorrow Never Dies, a thrilling car chase with Bond steering on a cellular phone. The car just only shoots rockets. You call that a gadget? Yet again, all those locations. Mainly Bond films just stayed in at least one or two spots. We got Bond here, hopping from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Kazakstahn, and then to Instabul (From Russia With Love), Turkey. Why can't they just stay in one place? By the way, Renard never really SHOWED he felt no pain in fist fights in the film.

On the plus side though there are many things. First of all, the story, it's well planned but Bond is rather dressed like Tim Dalton in "License To Kill". There's a good use of manipulation and true colors of betrayal though. Brosnan gives Bond a harsher, yet darker tone, that's why I somehow like him in this film. The action is waaay intense, from the Thames chase to the climax under the sea, Bond delivers all out stops with everything he got. Marceau also gives Elektra King some vengeance and lonesome power. But what I REALLY like in this movie is R. Yes R, played by one of my favorite actors John Cleese(Monty Python). He is a good replacement for Q. It's a good thing he signed up from more fun on 3 more Bond films. He'll do a good job with the role. There's also the good role Robbie Coltrane did as Valentin Zukovsky from GoldenEye... Too bad it's his last though...

All in all, this was a fun movie. An intense thriller that made me happy from beginning to end. It had it's flaws but at least it's better than Tomorrow Never Dies! Which gives me a question, will 007 ever die? I hope he lasts for a while, but to assure that, we MUST bring back somethings like Sean Connery had in his personality, not rely on explosions, but on wit and charm and good action. Let us strive to make Bond go BEYOND all limits as being a good film. I hope 007 doesn't die soon. But to assure the safety of our beloved spy... always look at this things and ponder this:

"James Bond Will Return"

Pokemon the First Movie is an exciting romp through the world of Pokemon. Even if it appeased me, it didn't completely please me. This movie is divided into two parts. The 22-minute short Pikachu's Vacation, and the REAL Feature Mewtwo Strikes Back.

Pikachu's Vacation is okay, but rather inane. First of all, the lack of Pokemon. They had a boatload of Pokemon in the beginning to go have fun. But it just whittled down to personal favorites of mine Pikachu, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle. They should've shown more of the Pokemon, which was rather bad. But at least we get to see new Pokemon Snubble and Marril. On the hatred stupid side are these psychadelic scenes that appear every two minutes. That's so lame! But at least it satisfied me with Ash's 3 personal Pokemon. **

Mewtwo Strikes Back however is awesome! They show a decent storyline, good dubbing from the original cast, and the clash between Mew and Mewtwo. It starts off particularly well though. Mewtwo is off to purge humanity and Pokemon with his clones. Mewtwo's form is rather lame though. He speaks in a telekinetic voice that emanates from not his mouth but his thoughts. It's rather cool but surpassed by others. They should show at least DEATH in movies like this. But it's okay. The only thing that stops this movie is the inane morals. Examples like pointless violence, you can't win in fighting, and you don't fight to the death. Well that's stupid, if Pokemon were real and had a Pokemon to face against a superpower, I'd suggest to kill it anyway. Along with morals come inane 3-D effects. WHY do we need 3-D effects. Anime is a work of art that doesn't even NEED 3-D effects. The world 3-D part is the title screen. Also the music (while pretty cool), doesn't even FIT the movie! They should've opted for the original soundtrack (though I like the new rendition of the TV show's theme in the opening). Nintendo screwed up though. We see A NEW Elephant like Pokemon (named Donfuyan in Japan) in the opening of Mewtwo Strike Back. WHY didn't they include HIM in the new Pokemon list. Ah, well... ***

All in all, it appeases me, just not completely pleases me. It's just another marketing ploy though. In my eyes, I will always see Pokemon as a brilliant, creative game and TV show (the only two which I only care about in the franchise). But in Nintendo's eyes, it's just plain mass-marketing. Well at least it's better than the Rugrats movie.

Pikachu's Vacation: ** Mewtwo Strikes Back: *** Combined Average: **1/2

It's a nice movie, just got estranged in some poor quality. I hope I get to see this subtitled. But the next thing that's subtitled I'll ever see is Dragonball Z on DVD in 2000. Let's hope that Nintendo opts to sell Subtitled episodes here. I bet they will be as good as the dub.

I've never been a Beatles fan in my life (my dad is though). But when I hear of this wonderful "Yellow Submarine" and it's re-release I decided "What the heck, I'll just see if it's good..."

Boy was I smart to watch it.

This animated feature is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's a real fantastic movie regarding Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles) being thrust into fantasy. The animation is so superb. You must think that's crazy? No. The animation is the most surrealistic I've ever seen, the characters, the backgrounds, heck even the Beatles look weird. It seems a gigantic world from Monty Python's head is thrust into life with the Beatles! Yet that's what also makes this movie cool. Characters on the other hand are quite fun. Mostly coming from the Beatles (John, Paul, George, and Ringo), they keep on saying pun after pun on many things while the demented reality flies. "Hey that's look like a cyclops" says one. "Yeah, but it has 2 eyes..." "Well it must be a bicyclops!" Superb. It's a pity we never had the REAL Beatles playing their animated self (though we get to see them sooner or later in the film), but the actors sound like them! That's good! The songs aren't of Disney people, it's Beatles it has a "groovy" soundtrack with "Yellow Submarine", "All Together Now", "When I'm 64", or "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". They're priceless. Yellow Submarine is one heck of a movie not to be missed. The BEST animated movie I've seen!

****

Baseketball is a rather funny movie by the creators from Airplane! and Naked Gun. But it isn't like that, it starred South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Who were also genuinely funny throughout the movie. It's like South Park in many ways both in humor and in content. It was satisfying and fun. One part I absolutely howled with laughter was when Coop (Parker) didn't make a kids wish come true when he was suppose to make 2 home runs and was using a defibulator (those "CLEAR" tools) on the child. It's funny stuff, but it somehow watered down in the end. All in all, a good romp with the two guys who made South Park come alive.

Naked Gun is without a doubt one of the best comedy series of all time. Leslie Nielsen gave the character Frank Drebin life as a slick cop with an always interesting head for thoughts. He isn't a bumbler like Inspector Clouseau but he is rather funny. The slapstick humor in this movie works out just fine. From everything as eating a Dugout Dog full of things to giving away remarks regarding Nordberg (O.J. before his tribulation) as Nordberg is seriously wounded. This show is a complete genius of a show and is rewarded with good stuff. The other two sequels are sort of going hardcore on the slapstick and should take a breather...

George of the Jungle is cheesy yet funny movie. The humor somehow sticks true to the cartoon and the look of it is somehow a cartoon. Yeah, the movie kind of lame in dialogue, ("Nobody gets killed in this movie, just get simple Boo-Boo's"), but it's rather nice. Brendan Fraser is the simplistic George, portraying the cartoon character. Swinging from tree to tree, crashing into one or the other. It's rather entertaining with all these sight gags and comic mishaps. And it's funny nonetheless. But I REALLY want Disney just to make an ORIGINAL movie out of their own minds. Not just remakes of movies and TV-series.

This is a Python-ish movie to my taste. It's basically a pirate movie with a dose of silliness in between. One being of Yellowbeard, played by Graham Chapman, a testorone driven violent man, which is funny. But also of many others, one joke I got was Mr. Prostitute. It was rather cute that they could do this. It's fun, but sometimes unfunny but always engaging.

If they wanted more fun, they should've had the rest of Python join up with Chapman, Idle, and Cleese.

Starcraft... the Best Real-Time Strategy game in the world. Centered around the Koprulu Sector, 3 races, the human Terrans, the bug Zerg, and the Alien Protoss, go head-to-head in triangle war for control of the galaxy. This story, employed by great voice-acting and Content.

Voice-Acting? It isn't like a professional voice acting guild BUT IT WORKS! The characters are brought to life before our very eyes. The noble Protoss Warriors Zeratul, Fenix, Tassadar, and Aldaris show knightship and honor like medieval times. The great Terran men like Admiral Gerard DuGalle, Captain James Raynor, and Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov give the feeling of human wrath on the sector. The Zerg... Only one person sums up the Zerg... Former Terran Warrior Kerrigan, now hte Queen of Blades. The Queen ***ch of the Universe. Very well played.

How about the creativity? TONS OF IT! Each race has a different strength or weakness. One may be technologically strong (Protoss) than the other. They may be physically strong (Zerg) than the other. Or others may be well-rounded (Terran). Each has a weapon of destruction. They have to use it well. Protoss has Dark Templar, who are great against any person, Terrans have Battlecruisers, that are all powerful, and the Zerg have their usual Strike Force of Hydralisks, ready to decimate a colony in no time flat.

To sum it up... Starcraft is A GREAT GAME! BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT! Also with the Brood War expansion set... I feel it's just part of the game. Now when you get it... You feel happy to say when your Ghost lauches a Nuke:

"You Call Down the Thunder... Now Reap the Whirlwind."

Priceless.

This Pink Panther film ranks as one of the best there ever was... The plot was simple, Chief Inspector Dreyfuss (who is becoming a psycho since A Shot in The Dark), escapes from the mental institute and plan to kill Inspector Clouseau (which is by far one of the best comedy characters of all time). He then kidnaps a professor of high rank and builds a Doomsday device to kill off the world so that Clouseau is gone. Peter Sellers is at his best still as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, getting into and out of trouble with hilarious concepts and quotes. Dreyfuss is very funny and shows his psychotic personality when he becomes an even more psychotic person. Best scene is when Clouseau and his manservant Kato, wreck Clouseau's apartment as they usually do. THIS is comedy at it's finest along with A Shot in The Dark.

Chrono Trigger... The best RPG (second to Final Fantasy III) for

the Super Nintendo. Nothing is as challenging, thought-provoking... and fun than this little devil from the gods of RPG, Squaresoft. The storyline is impressive and heart-gripping, the masterful art design of Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame astounding and the uniqueness of battle that seems to be in place.

My favorite attacks, Dual Tech. This attack is very powerful and eye-catching and adds a hint of greatness in battle. Example: Falcon Toss. Ayla tosses Crono (The hero) up and Crono slashes his sword (kamehameha style) to his enemies. Then there's Tech attacks, like Robo's Robo Tackle or Frog's Leap Slash. That's pretty darn good in attacks and stuff.

The music is heartwrenching and superb too.

Chrono Trigger will live in the minds of players and DB watchers alike. I can't wait until Chrono Trigger is re released on Playstation, Reason: NEW FMV CUT SCENES, made by Akira Toriyama and his creative crew at Bird Studios. Until then... Play some more Final Fantasy VIII.

Bowfinger is a hilarious romp through a story of filming, cheating, and deception. Martin plays a run-down film maker who is convinced of a friend's quality script and asks Hollywoods biggest star (Murphy) Kit Ramsey to play the part. Ramsey gets pretty suspicious and goes into hiding and Martin finds a look-alike to do some parts. The humor in this movie is plain hilarious with the best coming out of the Bowfinger staff with Martin and Murphy. They should've added more time to the nerdy character Murphy was playing. All through the movie, I was impressed on how well they did it. Trust me... you'll love it.

Mystery Science Theater 3K is an interesting series. The plot is simple, a guy and two robot friends sit through horrible movies and plot out some amazing to funny remarks of the film. There's Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo, three guys that are brave enough to face the challenge. It's very simplistic in design and very natural in comedy. It's amazing... It even ranks up to personal favorites of mine such as Monty Python's Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers. I just wish it wouldn't be 2 hours long, it should be as long as what the movie has been. Of course, the episodes are all the length of movie and why would they have a film adaption to the Tv series. Otherwise, it's fun and wacky, just what people like to order.