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Reviews
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Best Cap movie - decent action movie overall
Steve Rogers is one of the best characters to come out of MCU. He's paired up with Natasha "Black Widow" in this story. I love her fighting style and 'grit' but her character is simply not given enough rope to work with - I guess she needs to remain 'mysterious' until her own movie. As a result their relationship fleshes out in a way I understand but do not "feel".
By contrast, the Captain America figure is laid bare and we can see the different factions and emotions pulling at his deep seeded loyalty. I like this story as it gives a setting to his moralistic wrangling and, like us all, he just wants to see his choices make a difference and to feel like he has agency over his own life.
The Winter Soldier idea is cool - the whole Shield is a shell that has grown the enemy within is not new, but was decently executed.
The movie is too long - of course, all of these MCU movies are too long for an action flick. But I take at least two sittings to watch anything these days since I'm on my own couch anyway, so no big deal. I knocked off a star due to that length and the fact that very important dialogue to halfway decent plot is spurted out after a gut punch, or growled through gritted teeth, or whispered while explosions go off in the background, or shouted while a crescendo of 'dramatic' music flares too often.
The 100 Year March: A Philosopher in Poland (2018)
Unscientific
"They" are out to get "us" from one, incomplete, point of view. Fear mongering shrouded in pride.
Rinne (2005)
Excellent suspense/horror
This is a film, and I judged it as I would art. Not just for entertainment, but for form and feeling. This is why I gave it a 9 of 10.
I found the film to be easier to follow than Takashi Shimizu's recent larger release, The Grudge (I did not see the sequel, The Grudge 2). His is a distinctly unique style, and it may not meet with most American expectations for a horror movie. However, for those who appreciate this style, this is a very good film. Aside from a little confusion about one character and unfortunate CGI in one place, there isn't anything I would change about this movie.
Reign of Tera (2005)
Impressive cast of Asian women
An impressive cast of Asian women is the highlight of this movie. The scenes are hot, but unfortunately there are too few and most of the girls appear only in a huge orgy scene at the end. A couple notes of interest to me:
1. Charmaine only non-orgy scene is a girl-girl with Tera, 2. Lucy Thai excels in her tag-team scene, 3. Lily Thai steals the orgy with a wicked orgasm.
The acting and plot are, of course, terrible. But that's fine because all the chicks are hot and it doesn't matter much what they say, right?
There is a second disk with individual tease/masturbation scenes for each girl with a voice-over by Tera, so that's a nice bonus. I gave an extra point for that.