Shrek The Musical's Talk

Paranormal Activity

Excellent film that leaves the reality era at its possible end with a bang.

Next to "The Exorcist" (in which is not scary any longer), I felt "A tale of two sisters" was just downright scary; setting aside "Pulse" which was more or less equivalent. Now it seems "Paranormal Activity" gets you ever so close to it.

There isn't a movie out there that can't possibly scare you more than this film can, so to say "it's the scariest film of all time" is not a bit of a stretch at all. The buildup is all there [straightaway] keeping the level of interest at its peak until the moment comes jumping at a glance that'll give you an unnatural tensely shock - most directors will be asking themselves how in the world Oren Peli did that?

What's really scary is if it wasn't for Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat's (whom only made a reported $500.00 each for the role) continuity that made their performance a frontrunner for the audience, the rest of the film may not have been so successful as it is today.

With only a 15 thousand dollar budget, it managed to score more than $60 million, so if it happened to "The Blair Witch Project" then it will happen again i. e. another paranormal part that may or may not have Katie and Micah doing it all over again with Oren Peli scaring us one more time...maybe.

A page off from "Poltergeist" tagline that best describes this phenomenon...

"It knows what scares you."

Kataude mashin gâru (The Machine Girl)

From the creators that brought "Tokyo Gore Police" to your home theater, take a look at the already R1 DVD arrival of "The Machine Girl", a totally twisted and non-stop action flick that'll leave you flooded to a warp of laughter.

Directed by oboru Iguchi, this film packs a bloody punch while at the same time introducing a lovely Japanese gravure idol by the name of Minase Yashiro who guns down - Japanese equivalent to the mafia - Yakuza perpetrators for nothing more and nothing less then indisputable retribution. Let us not forget Yoshihiro Nishimura for lending a hand with some outstanding pre-gore before his "Tokyo is Burning" sensation in the special effects division by slashing a finger or two along with body parts galore.

Synopsis: The bleeding saga revolves around a young and endearing schoolgirl name Ami Hyuga (Yashiro) who enjoys playing B-Ball and taking care of her younger brother Yu Hyuga while having to cope with deceased parent's no longer held accountable. During after school hours, Yu and his friend face off with the son of Yakuza's head chief Sho Kimura to further pay off a debt that's in need of clearing up. When Yu's sisters life is threatened, he attempts to fight back despite being outnumbered by the spoiled brat's followers. To a surprise, Ami finds her brother lifeless on the floor next to his friend who happens to be the son of a female mechanic named Miki (Asami). Although Ami attempts to take revenge on her own, she is eventually confined to a Yakuza beating with a taste of torture and accidentally loosing half an arm. She finds a way to escape and puts her trust with Miki who seems to be taking things a bit on the serious side finding it hard to cope with the loss of her son that Ami had no control over, however, with little tension between Ami and Miki, they both find a way to work together for a possible backlash at those who destroyed their lives using hand-to-hand combat, a deadly chain saw and a pulsing machine gun comfy snuggled at Ami's arm for some blood-scoring hell.

Not only does "The Machine Girl" show tough looking characters like Miki played by soft-core porn-star Asami and Hardcore Honoka who plays the violent Mrs. Kimura, but includes outstanding special effects production from Yoshihiro Nishimura's Nishimura Motion Picture Model Makers Group combined with some cleverly pasty cinematography making Minase Yashiro's sailor outfit notable along with all the blood-spray sticking out nicely created by Yasutaka Nagano who also did picture-making work for 2007 Tomie Vs. Tomie. Who could have guessed that a film audience would get to see a woman equipped with a Violet's secret deadly "Drill Bra" and a custom made Gatling gun shredding a human anatomy to bits, in any case, this film already seemed to have something going before cameras began rolling. In spite of all the blood-soaked allegory, it isn't just guts and gush.

Much like what Quentin Tarantino did with his Kill Bill Volume where comedy elements were connected with most of its slaughter shots, the director creates far-fetched scenes regardless of its low-budget status. In one particular scene, Ami uses a human body as a conditioner spouting blood to lotion an individual's body while in the bathtub, hilarious yet disturbing at the same time. Additionally, there are humorous skits that don't involve blood, like Ami being trained by Miki in the same area during the same time frame showing her that she must be well fit and prepared to go up against the likes of Yakuza and ends up going from negative to positive while the sun is still up. By the time you reach the ending, it leads to a brutally yet funny finale that'll bond the Kimura's forever. Perhaps the acting from the cast is not to par, but in a film like this it merely gives dismissive appropriateness that is usually captured in most Japanese anime.

Not everyone needs to know the background to take pleasure in this silly slasher picture, but for a gun-slinging demented schoolgirl, blowing heads and legs off brought to the silver screen is quite enjoyable enough.

Look for The Machine Girl Remix as it features a second DVD of "Machine Girlite", a short spin-off with some overly hilarious scenes that'll extend your love for the world of The Machine Girl.

The Heiress

"the heiress" is william wyler's adaption from henry james' novella "washington square", featuring montgomery clift in his utmost of gracious beauty and a mature olivia dehavilland who still preserves a girlish coyness despite she's reached into matron-hood. it's one of those marvellous examples of dialogue-driven movies based upon the stage plays like "long day's journey into night" or wyler's another work "little fox" starring bette davis. now wyler's on his way to catapult another major warner-studio actress, olivia dehavilland, into further award-winning niche of accomplished actress like he did with bette davis in earlier years.

dehavilland is a rich spinster whose lack of glamour has dwarfed her from being the charming socialite her father wishes her to be, just like her absolutely gracious late mother who has been immortalized by her worshipping dad. the silhouette of her mighty gorgeous mother has intimidated her from blossoming into a genuine womanhood since father always makes woeful comparison between the fabulous mom and the plain-jane daughter. so she's never in love until a handsome playboy who secretly covets her fortune sets his eyes on her..then her timid virginal heart is stirred with rejoice until she discovers the cruel truth of life about her father and her lover's mercenary motive.

clift's social climber has an overlayered parallel with his another role in "the place in the sun", but he just has a sort of boyish naivete and some beguiling refinement to make you hesitate whether you should hate him or accept his warming embrace. there's a very blurred and grey dubiety in his performances as if you could detect some gentleness in him even when he's conniving some bad schemes in his mind. when he's making love to de havilland, you're aware he's mainly after the money but his gestures are so sincere that you tend to fall into his trap. you cannot see any apparent vileness in a character who's supposed to be vile by purpose. that's the so called "elegant rotten-ness".. somehow you almost want to pity him in the end when he knocks the door desperately like a panic child even he just gets what he deserves.

in a nutshell, olivia de havilland sheds off her swashbuckler sweetheart halo and proves to you that she could also be hardened, cruel and callous and she's not just a bundle of sugary water. ralch richardson could pull off any heavy task of stage-play kind of movie like his another success in katherine hepburn's "long day's journey into night" and the imaginative glamour of the protagonist's late mother totally relies upon richardson's nifty expressions, needless to say, it requires subtlety and culture in his blood to channel a fluent suaveness to deliver those lines of classic plays in a stagy movie like this.

XX (ekusu kurosu): makyô densetsu (X-Cross) (XX)

Lovely

Director Kenta Fukasaku finally delivers his best film to date starring Nao Matsushita and Ami Suzuki in this deranged storytelling (sometimes comedic) conveyor, you'll love it from beginning to its splendid ending.

Synopsis: Shiyori (Matsushita) needs a break from her significant others recent infidelity and decides to travel with her "sort of" friend Aiko (Suzuki) to a secluded area where they can be at peace, but the laidback vacation ends up giving them a real reason to escape being confronted by those who wish to use them for other means.

To be honest I have to say that I wasn't much of a big fan of Kenta Fukasaku who directed the sequel to BattleRoyale and then going on to make the forgettable "Yo Yo Girl" that had so much potential of becoming a great action film, but just wasn't drivingly directed to my expectations, though after viewing this new film, I gotta say that its most definitely his best film and can finally be added amongst the elite.

This film had it all and then some from shades of BattleRoyale to a taste of that Quentin Tarantino style and molded innovatively from the son of the late Kinji Fukasaku. Don't base too much on my synopsis, this film has more than you think. You'll be surprised how entertaining this film is as you watch it with high anticipation for a nice ending.

I'm always looking forward to a Kenta Fukasaku film when it comes out, because he is the son of a great director, but now I give him the credit he now disserves and for the first time look forward to see his next movie with no more shadows.

Jigoku (The Sinners of Hell)

You can't really call yourself an Asian-Horror-fan until you have seen this Japanese Classic.

Director Nobuo Nakagawa, memorably acclaimed for his work in this torture fest where all whom sin will fall into the depths of eternal glorifying hell starring Shigeru Amachi and the beautiful Utako Mitsuya.

Synopsis: Shiro Shimizu (Shigeru) takes a drive with his friend who commits a hit-and-run putting most of the blame on Shimizu. His guilt drives him mad and attempts to go to the police with his future wife Yukiko, but gets into a serious accident. Soon thereafter, a series of murders become imminent which leads to Shimizu being plunged into the depths of the unbearable hell.

Nobuo Nakagawa made his directorial debut in 1938, but it was to be in 1960 where he would be most remembered for in his partake of a well lid screenplay written by Ichiro Miyagawa. It would be Shintoho's last production and may have been the reason behind the whole film looking to have been rushed, but for a demanding movie deadline, this one did quite well. Not only is the story interesting enough, but the making of the film was tremendous and possibly a bit advanced for its time. The budget reputably being low didn't seem it was at all, the special effects were done quite more than expected and the cinematography supported it threw it's hundred and one minute run time.

I loved Utako Mitsuya in this film and wouldn't hesitate to catch more of her classic films, and thought the whole living world and the dead world - as they presented it - was amazing and kept myself wondering the true meaning of time and eternal. Time and eternity are two different paths where in the living world (earth) time exists and in the realm of the dead time does not.

I'd like to share a note towards this film pertaining to the Bodhisattva (bode-eh-SAWT'-vah) that was demonstrated by the spirits in the realm of hell. When I saw these scenes I did not assume them to be all sinners, I don't think that was the point of the outlook. These characters did not do so wrong, but are Bodhisattva's - like Jesus a true Bodhisattva - that praises for those in need, and in return for their evildoing, they suffer for the sinners that are bound to stay for eternity that is hell. If you understand this, you will better comprehend the story and Shigeru Amachi's character.

Lady in the Lake

"lady in the lake" is an amateurish noir by robert montgomery's gimmicky experiment of filmmaking with raymond chandler's novel by the same name. it utilizes the entire first-person perspective which is also applied in humprey bogart's "dark passage" which was also released around the same time in 1947. but montgomery's trial is thorough becuz montgomery's philip marlowe is basically just a narrator, a void awaiting to be filled by the audience.

first of all, it takes a great deal of imagination as well as some enduring composure as a constant reader to visualize oneself in the position of philip marlowe as you're reading chandler's detective novels with his die-hard ace marlowe. as an enthusiastic reader of chandler's novels, i've found montgomery's primitive direction borders on my perception of the plots as i leaf one page after another. obviously, i cannot help but wonder whether montgomery's choice of such kind of directing is due to his limited craftmanship as a director since he cannot think any other way to present a movie?

second of all, the process of film-viewing is a highly passive involvement with the original texts since the filmakers have filled in the pages with their own envisioning of the story. as a viewer, you're detached in a position to judge whether the fimmaker's presentation is marvellously creative or not with a smugly ignorant condescendence even you've not got in touch with the texts beforehand. but on the contrary, reading is an active experience or commitment to devote your absolute attention into the story, and you're more left alone with your own imaginations on the characters, backset and the stream of consciousness kind of soliloquy as the character's self-revelation...you concede into the author's viewpoint at the moment you open the book or you wouldn't dedicate your time and efforts on consuming all the materials..when you're reading, you're fabricating a movie made on your own with your mind in absolute privacy....

so "lady in the lake" is merely a passable movie-piece since the director cannot offer you anything more than a whirling camera with some bizarre hand gestures. but somehow it simulates your inward state as you read the original books while imagining yourself as marlowe and see things in his angle...meanwhile it also lacks a sort of deepening refinement of characters' dimensions which the book usually renders by monologues..in the case, it proves that audrey totter is indeed a good actress who could pull off an acting job by playing opposite to an abscent leading man, shedding tears to a lifeless machine without the helpful eye-contact in the love scenes.

Coraline

one of the best 3d animation!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)

This film is AMAZING. Yes this account of the Holocaust seemed to be played by an all British cast (which isn't quite accurate lol) but it dosen't take away from the hard hitting emotional impact of seeing the events unfold through an innocent child's eyes. Where this film ultimately takes you in the end is emotionally GUT WRENCHING to say the least, but you won't soon forget its impact.

Wanted

The Brave One

"the brave one" is jodie foster's latest blockbuster breakthru by some art-house director neil jordan with the helpful upstaging thru charismatic terrence howard. so would "the brave one" be a smash hit? obviously, it sells well but would its crucial viewpoint be taken without being midled and over-generalized as another "chic with vengence" rehash, especially from male audience? another sort of chic/woman's flicks about strong woman risen up against all the odds just like 40s "mildred pierce"?

it's a story about a woman and her husband-to-be being almost beaten to death in the central park. she survives but her loved one passes. so angered by the injustice and grievance as well as approaching fright, she purchases a gun for the sense of safety. then some other perilous events drive her into using her lethal pistol into immediate killings which she's obtained great kicks from until she actively sets her path into disposing of the genuine evil men that including her fiancee' murders. therefore, she's become an involuntary vigilante partially forced by circumstance.

"the brave one" is actually a film noir to its essence but inevitably it over-lingers over the sentimentalities of a woman's traumatic pysche after the catastrophe such as the self-inflicted confession over the radio-broadcastings, and those attributes are easily categorized as "feminist refugee" like 90s "thelma and louis".

there're four basic elements of film noirs that this flick's contour could ascribe: 1. the dark side of humanity over sex or violence. 2. anarchistic distrust over the law. 3. a vigilante to perform the justice on his own, usually private dick like philip marlowe. 4. the seedy backset of a metropolitan's shadowy retreat like raymond chandler and james m cain's frequent spots of los angels, grendale, pasadena in southern california or danshiel hammet's san fransisco. and "the brave one" is about human's potential appetite of violence being provoked by grand tragedy, and the woman protagonist's distrust over the law is so severe that she has to buy a gun to feel safe, then bang bang bang! she would do justice on her own, a vigilante! and it's about the dark corners of new york as well as her obsession over this super-metropolitan that's well-channeled by her radio-broadcastings...unfortunately these traits have been neglected by the viewers, does it occur to you that audience cannot deem it as film noir just becuz the vigilante protagonist ain't male despite jodie foster has every believable characteristic of a tough guy inside her? or it's too sentimental to be taken as noirish? or it's becuz the director hasn't toyed enough of cinematography of starkness but chose naturalistic rendering instead?

still, it's very engrossing to put a woman into a spot in this kind of story as gender-reversal. jodie foster has a genuine grit in her and her "tough guy" ain't like uma thurman's cartoonish "kill bill"(a semi-dominatrix vixen in boyish pulp), she conveys real fragility as well as genuine toughness to win the odds. probably she's the only woman actress who could pull off the task of action heroine without taunting her sex appeal. perhaps, a woman in the main spot would bring out some feminine aspects to mellow out such material which is supposed to be harsher, rougher and more expressionistic to be considered noirish. pitifully "the brave one" would still be labelled as "chic flick", "woman's movie" or "feministic refugee".

Une Vieille Maîtresse (The Last Mistress) (An Old Mistress)

"the last mistress" is the work of art from the director who's made "romance", catherine breillat, and it's much more reserved and polished due to its backset time-scale than breillant's any other sensationalistic piece. frankly, as a fervent feministic provocateur, breillant has always been a little bit too politically contrived on the bedroom matters when she seals her relentlessly cynic mockeries to genders and marital legimacy. somehow that characteristic spoils the genuine artistic success she may have ever had. "the last mistress" is another achetypical example of her radical viewpoint which is also very avant-gardistly cliched: sex, the physical desire could override any santuary reverence men have over innocence, purity and the institution of marriage, no matter how much you may love a person, but you still listen to your genital down below at any cost, you may feel agonic and very much in pain but you just cannot help it, so women're better off without the bondage of men, be the dominatrix who masters over men.....come on, tell or advocate me something which i haven't heard or read in these three decades of feministic movements.

in a nutshell, the tale goes like this: a penniless libertine swoons a beautiful chaste woman of higher birth, the jewel of french aristocracy, but he has a hard time terminating his 10 year affair with a wild gypsy-like she-devil, a seed of illegitimate union(princess and matador). the male libertine deserts his mistress for the virginal lily, and he believes he's whole-heartedly in love, then this gluttonish she-devil traces him to his newlywed chateau to re-kindle their illict sparkle. then the man succumbs...later, his wife discovers then has a miscarriage by broken-heart. eventually the libertine has ruined the happiness of his precious wife as everyone predicts. the classic quotation here would be "in love, the first to suffer has lost"....

undoubtedly, the she-devil is played by the notably spunky italian actress asia argento who's been taking roles of brave indiscreet women since the 90s, her smashing performance in 1998 "b monkey",,,then her role is always tough woman-rebel or daredevil whore...i've always been amazed by her gritty beauty, and i've never found any character she performed abrasive despite the inevitably repeated typecasting until the moment after i watched "the last mistress"...her interpretion is fine and perhaps argento is the only actress who could render this role due to her winsome features which are literily designed for this role. but i've got to admit, asia argento's no longer the same fresh-faced ingenuine who toys between reckless seductiveness and brittle naivete that i saw 10 years ago in her american debute "b monkey"...she's upgraded into a more spiteful lilith-like being who ruminates and devours in full masterful manipulation in catherine breillant's "the last mistress" which definitely decreases her likability.(or she just ain't that gorgeous as she was in 1998?)

the castings of the leads are absolutely a gallery of striking fair youth, and the male protagonist has a pair of juicy smackable lips, eyes of sheer transparent blue, and skin made of milky streaks of porcelain, same for the blonde-haired woman-protagonist, so statuesque like people who stride out of europe's classical paintings. somehow that makes the setting even more peculiar and oddly persuasive, accompanied by such cherishable beauty, you would still like to cheat with a third party who may not rival your wife? perhaps the ignition of lust could surpass any romantic sentimentality you've been deeply inspired. the director's camera frame has manifested well on that by a shot of the man's wedding ring and the illict woman's snake-shaped bracelet.

this movie's made with some refinement which surprises me since it's done by the same brazen woman who chooses to bare a vaginal frontal scene and have his lead woman sex with a real porn actor in "romance"...but honestly i'm still deeply annoyed by her sexual politics in this latest movie of hers. why, as a woman, she has to be so tremendously selfish just for the sake of shameless unbridled freedom even it would cause pain to others??? it even features one scene where argento's character smirks at the cornered seat of church when the man's wedding is to be proceed on with some drab bliblical admonisments for marital virtues on women as if she lures the man just to defy church out of taunting contempt...would she care the other party which's never done any damage to her? personally if that's the necessary attitude to pronounce your feminist right, it's better to have no part of it when your blissful emancipation has to be built by the sacrifice of those irrelevant people. wouldn't woman, in this case, just descends into the accomplice of man to wreck other woman's life?