Reviews

On an isolated island, a horrific fire and a mysterious murder break the usual way of life. The victim died in the same way as the son of an executed Catholic, so the locals are scared to death that the ghost of the dead start taking its evil toll...

What could have been a start for yet another awful Japanese horror movie or an overtly-long, boring and unrealistic Chinese epic actually happens in the first 10 minutes of a great Korean picture. Despite the fact that the movie is set in 19th century Korea, the movie itself could have easily been shot about France or the USA (with appropriate time adjustment) - and, frankly, would the Americans want to shoot a remake they would need to change surprisingly little as the film is very European in its style. Surprisingly, the authors find a lot of room not only for suspense, but for a very deep study of the fear, the guilt and the responsibility in a very clear, articulate way.

To put it short: if you watch Asian movies for more than fake kung-fu and surreal jumping action, you should definitely see this one. It's much better than most of the things that went out this year in the USA.

Yes, the Germans did it again - they showed US how the documentaries should look like.

In a three part film the two Germans observe the story of Inquisition through the ages. What did its proponents look like? What about the opponents? How people in position of power thought of their place in the hierarchy of the Church, how should they use the power given and to what consequences might its use lead? In process, the authors uncover, probably, the choice of name for the current Pope before he actually become one.

A must see for any thoughtful person.

The Amityville Horror is based on a novel based on real events; however, both the novel and events are pretty old and can be described as belonging to "pre-Stephen King era". I cannot quite realize what made the producers revitalize the idea; however, this necrophiliac act produced an awfully boring movie.

Skipping the main phases, the plot is so short, so predictable and so unoriginal (by modern standards), the actors are so unmemorable and the suspense is lacking to the extent that this movie literally belongs to good 'ol VHS horrors shot on a budget of at most 100 grand. Literally, I doubt this movie would lose anything would it be shot under those conditions. It might even benefit from more imaginative special effects, since the one used are really reminiscent of what was used again and again since the times of "The Ring", minus originality and suspense.

Do yourself a favour and support independent studios at once: buy some trash by "Trauma" instead. It will likely have better acting, better plot, better director and more suspense.

Well, OK, I'd say that "4" is a baseline score for pretty much any Japanimation. They make nice, smooth, colourful movies. Unfortunately, this one delivers only "1" worth of anything else.

"Steamboy" is set in a Victorian England, in a steam-punk setting. The movie does a great job showing all the steam tubes, nice action sequences - as most Japanese movies do. However, the characters are completely unbelievable. As usual, we have a set of typical "anime" settings: nutty professors, spoiled girls, ultimate brats and such. They all use Japanese humor, Japanese stereotypes and Japanese behaviour. It looks as funny as "asian" movies from mid-1950es.

The plot exploits everlasting Japanese "moral dilemma" on "responsibility" of science: should we murder brutally scientists whose inventions can be used to make weapons or their own creations will eventually kill them? Well, in the usual spirit of Miyazaki, the answer is obvious: let's hug trees. Machines are baaad. Yes, maybe, would it be the first Japanimation I've seen in my life, it might have impressed me. But we've seen Laputa. And Akira. And many more. At times it feels like all Japanese are doomed to shoot at least one apocalyptic movie with a spectacular destruction of the world as we know it and only few chosen being saved. Dammit, the plot is one walking cliché!

From the graphical standpoint, the film has some very impressive "mecha" sequences (yes, stim mecha), very detailed background and, well, a bunch of clones in place of faces. I doubt you'll be able to recall the face of any of the characters after a few days. The facial work is really mediocre, it feels as if they just used faces from other films, to some extent. Yes, there are two or three original faces (one belonging to archvillian), all the rest seem to be borrowed. What makes things only worse is the fact that the "clones" act in a very similar manner to their lookalikes from Laputa, Akira or other films - to the extent that you'll be able to tell who exactly they'll turn out to be.

To put it short: yet another bold attempt to breed anime, Luddite moralization and unfamiliar setting. Two of the three failed miserably, it's up to you to decide whether you want to go for anime alone or not.

To put it short, "The Scorpion King" is not a bad movie - for the genre. Just don't expect it to be realistic or have some deep plot.

If you have ever seen "Conan" movies, you probably know the setting: early ages, a bunch of "lost" civilizations, some "emperors" whose armies march the world and a lonely hero who tries to stop him. Blend in a touch of magic (old technologies, paranormal, whatever - just to taste), add some "slashnig" sequences - and - voilà - you get the movie.

Well, it sounds quite simple, but since "Red Sonja" I can't remember anything worth watching. Now this is the film: reasonably bad, quite cliché and not very imaginative. Still, it has quite a bit of eye-candy, and, in some sense, it's superior even to the famed "Gladiator" as it doesn't pretend to be any more than it is. Probably, it could have been at least 20 minutes longer, but let's blame it on the rising cost of production. Worth watching if you know perfectly well what you want. 7/10.

Well, it looks like Europeans hold to their tradition of producing completely safe, family-friendly features. Only this time it actually provides some eye-candy.

Valiant, as the teaser suggests, is a story of a small pigeon who volunteers to enlist into the army. After this point, the movie goes pretty cliché: new recruits with different characters, Very Important Mission and, ultimately, happy ending. Unfortunately, it looks like the plot suffered castration to fit into the budget and child-book format. Why create five different pigeons if there is so few places where you can actually spot the difference? Why make Valiant initially nervous about his size if in the end the film doesn't go further than that "initial nervousness"? Why make a full-length animation feature only 1:12 long?

Well, in the end this is quite a good family movie, definitely better than some of the older European features. If you have small kids (and, possibly, plan to have some more) it would probably be wise to buy DVD, since it's absolutely safe and will probably be quite amusing at a certain age. Maybe, not a bad movie to dump your kids while you're shopping. Most likely, it will eventually become a Sunday feature on Teletoon and make its way into boxes of cereal. Other than that, it has nothing close to a master touch of "The Incredibles" and I wouldn't recommend any adults going to that move unless they want to see some child film. Still, the overall quality is quite fine. It's good enough for 7/10.

Tim Burton showed that you don't have to be Pixar or use "high-end" technologies to produce original cartoon. In fact, this one beats most of the recent CG movies visually. Extremely well animated, very imaginative background design and songs. Lyrics are at times hilarious, and at the very least amusing.

The film revolves around the concept of "halloween" guys trying to make Christmas with predictably failed results. I have to say that the plot itself is somewhat cliché, but, probably, I've just seen too many of such movies. Execution is very nice, though, primarily due to an incredible amount of work that went into details. Another big minus is that it is too short by modern standards, a little over an hour. 8/10, with points deducted for length and plot.

I have to say that, in my opinion, this show is the best superhero parody ever made. It is funny and satiric without being grotesque, Darkwing Duck makes mistake, but not incompetent, and the characters are quirky without being outright oddballs.

The hero, Darkwing Duck, is an average superhero - in a sense that from time to time he might be slow or incompetent, but it is hard to question his adequacy for a position. The villains, well, make fun of ordinary villains - but they still do look like villains and act logically. Yes, there are spin-offs to the plots - but they are never absurd. Moderation is the key, I guess.

The series are really well animated. They still hold the charm of *that* Disney animation that somehow vanished in late 90es. Although they still have a significant number of cultural references from early 90es, in most part humor is contemporary. Completely child safe.

I adored the series as a teenager and I just have to recommend it to everyone else. It is still possible to find them at the after-market (probably, bootleg), and it's a pity Disney won't release them on DVD. 8/10.

I was surprised to learn that this short took a big bunch B (thanks to my bootstrap course for that one) awards at various short film festivals. I find it unfair, since there is nothing special about that film - I've seen a lot of better shorts that got nothing (but were produced later).

Plot summary: giant snails threaten humankind. Morale (I guess): don't use pesticides (rabbit invasion is only steps ahead). Well, whatever the author meant, it's unclear to me.

To be frank, I din't like this short at all. It combines easily predictable plot with not-so-good artwork and poor animation. Maybe, I've seen too much of these. Try going for Eastern European shorts, they have a lot that are much better. 4/10.

Well, I have to admit that I hunted this particular movie for 10 years. I've seen it for the first time when I was in my early teens (12 or 13, not sure), and I was really impressed by the animation and the plot. Besides, I didn't have a chance to see a lot of sci-fi movies (let alone animated movies) back then.

Now, that I've been able to see it again, I find it really outdated (or "old-skul") - pretty much, it felt like Kubrick's "Space Odissey" animated, only that "Gandahar" came out in late 80es, when "Akira" set a new industry standard. The plot is more or less predictable, the sci-fi backgrounds looked like something from mid-70es, and the battle scenes are even worse than those of cheap Japanimation TV series.

Despite all the bad things above, this movie got a touch of a master. First, I have to admit that movement animation feels highly original (I can't think of anything similar) and is done with a lot of skill. Second, the voices (in French) are much better than anything I've heard. Finally, I find character design very good.

To sum up, I don't think that this is quite the right movie to see "just for fun", but for those who are interested in animation it is definitely a must.

I have to say: I love this animation. This was one of the few movies I tried to find for years - and when I found it, I wasn't disappointed.

Bad things first. The movie is obviously a book adaptation. It is a good book adaptation, since it preserves most of the plot. Unfortunately, due to this approach the actual movie story line lacks smoothness and some attention to details. There are also very few 3d effects if you are concerned, but there couldn't have possible been many at that time.

Good things. Plot is great! It keeps you wondering what happens until the last moment, so, when I found the final scene lacking sound on the tape I ordered I had to re-order it. Animation is *very* fine - the cats are all real. I've never ever seen a better cat animation. There are no holes in the plot.

Conclusion. Not the best thing to watch for pre-teens, but just fine if you're 14 and above, since the movie has scenes of sex and violence. The execution is unusual, but hard to find, the plot is solid, all the characters are great, and you've got to see that cat animation!

In my opinion, this is a good example of the movie that could have been much better if it had been short 10 years earlier. I doubt it would benefit from modern technologies, but it would have looked much better if it was at least 90 minutes instead of 70.

The artists and animated did a great job. In my opinion, this movie can boast the best background art and one of the best character design. Animation are extremely smooth and realistic. For the duration of the movie you believe in the world you see, so everyone did a great job. It can also boast one of the sexiest female animated characters, if not the sexiest, that beets typical anime girls with ease.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of bad thins about this movie that will make it not so appealing at the moment. First, the plot and execution is comparable to contemporary adventure movies, and is really old-fashioned by modern standards. Second, due to the duration time it would benefit a lot from extra 20 minutes of dialogs. Finally, the setting is not so popular at the moment.

Conclusion: a great alternative to another short story about Conan the Barbarian, but not to a novel.