Jesse Ortega (underwearsoup)

You know usually I'm very open towards these kinds of films, what I mean by that is that I'm usually open when filmmakers try new things, to broaden their horizons, to just make a different film than what people are used to seeing from you. It's something that, I'm sure, filmmakers take great pleasure in doing as it keeps their careers from feeling stale. With that said, but I was just really bored by this movie. Plus it didn't exactly fit in with the theme of today's marathon, well it had SOME of it in there but like I said, this movie is the odd one out of the movies I picked for the marathon. But yea, I was just bored by this movie, there's like literally next-to-nothing going on here. The storylines, while interesting on paper, just don't come across that well on screen. They're not fully developed and they just come up falling short. Like what was the point of the pop-star and the blind man in the movie, it just seemed really pointless. The only real interesting story was the yakuza boss one and that had an anticlimatic ending, which makes sense considering the Boss' profession, but still anticlimactic (same as the pop-star/blind man ending). Also the fact of the matter is that the main story line, of the couple bound together was just a pace killer, literally every time they came on I would just shrug because it would literally detach me from everything else that was going on in the movie and I just couldn't care any less for these two. Sure the movie's cinematography is really impressive, but it really isn't enough to make the movie good, it's really just average at best. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't encourage Takeshi Kitano to do more movies like these, just to make sure they're interesting, because filmmakers nowadays need to take risks even if they fail, it might help revitalize their careers.

This is the second movie of my epic marathon. You know one of the problem that I have with the movie, whose unnamed sequel comes out today, was that the 2 main characters felt fake and superficial. They just didn't feel real enough to where I could care enough about the relationship for me to want it to succeed. The characters feel so fake that I don't even believe that they might exist even in their own fictional universe. I don't buy into any of their struggles as a couple and one of them is a fucking vampire, so that should lead to some interesting shit but...WRONG. Again it's just a relationship based on superficiality, just like most high school relationships. This movie is the exact opposite of that crappy high school crap. I have an appreciation for Korean movies. From the movies that I've seen, they are usually very character driven and the movie really relies on its characters to carry you through the movie and not senseless action scenes and stereotypical characters. I think that's what all movies should be about, to be honest. Not that there's anything wrong with action movies, as I enjoy all kind of movies, but movies that stand the test of time usually stand the test of time because of its characters. This is just a great movie actually and I definitely found myself rooting for these characters and that they would find some happiness in the end, that's something I don't do a lot in movies, especially in romance movies. The thing is, the two main characters in this movie feel real, so I buy into their struggles as a couple, which makes me cheer for them because all they want is to be happy. Also I really got angry at what happened in the movie at the end, like angry at what happened to the character and how unfair it all was, not angry AT the movie itself just at what happened. That also does not happen a lot when I watch movies. The acting is really fantastic and that's really why this film succeeds in many levels, because honestly the plot of the movie isn't awe-inspiring nor is it complex, but the fact that the actors are so fantastic in their roles it makes the movie a joy to watch. I have two real complaints though, near the end of the movie it just got really overdramatic, but you gotta take the good with the bad and I tolerated it. It wasn't like it screwed up the movie for me, but it was just a tad bit melodramatic. And the picture quality of the dvd isn't great, you can see pixels and that's never good, but that's not a complaint about the movie itself just about the company that made the dvd. With that said, this movie is just great stuff and despite the fact that it has NO special features whatsoever I'm still happy I bought this movie.

Absolutely amazing movie, don't know whether I'd still want to be a filmmaker were it not for this movie. It features some great acting by everybody involved, but Mink Sik just shines as Oh Dae Su. Quite frankly the best foreign movie I've seen and that's saying a lot

Last month I said that Wall-E was probably the best movie of the summer so far (I also said that it was among one of the best movies of the year). This is by FAR the best movie of the summer (sorry Wall-E) and one of the best movies of the year. I'll even go as far to say it's one of the best movies to come out in a couple of years. To put it into perspective...the imdb.com site has the top 250 movies of all time as voted by the users. The number one movie of all time (according to the users) is The Dark Knight with an average score of 9.5 and it's an even more amazing feat considering that the #2 movie on that list is The Godfather 2 (who had a stranglehold on that #1 spot for years before The Dark Knight). This film improves on almost every flaw that plagued Batman Begins, the main flaw being that you didn't really know who the 'real' villain was until 2 hours in the film so Batman Begins didn't have the traditional structure of a hero vs. a villain. This movie fixes all of that with the inclusion of the Joker, and to an extent, Harvey Dent. The writing, the cinematography, the action, the acting, etc...again everything that was flawed about Batman Begins was fixed here and Batman Begins was an EXCELLENT film so there really wasn't a lot to fix. Christian Bale does a great job as usual, I liked how he felt more comfortable as Bruce Wayne and he added a depth to the character that was not seen in previous Batman films. I love how Bruce struggles with the fact that Harvey Dent is the hero that Gotham deserves and that Batman is not up to Harvey's standard of heroism. That internal conflict within Bruce was one of the best things about the film. Maggie Gyllenhaal, while she did a much better job than Katie Holmes, wasn't used that much and I felt that a lot more could have been done with her character. Aaron Eckhart was excellent as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. I, originally, was worried about the Two Face character because you already had the Joker who was going to be the main villain of the film, but by hook or by crook this character was excellent and his turn into Two Face was written with such expertise it's not even funny. The end of the movie was left open as there's the possibility of the return of Two Face in a future Batman film (if there are any planned). Now onto the performance that everyone is talking about. Heath Ledger as the Joker, my god he was amazing as the joker. His character was so twisted, disturbing and sick that everytime the Joker is on screen you're instantly drawn to him and his charisma. My aunt made the comment that Heath Ledger's accent as the joker was trying to be TOO much like Jack Nicholson's joker and while I can see the comparison I say that if Heath had used his normal voice for the role, the darkly comedic style of the Joker would have been lost so. While there's room for comparison betwen the two Jokers they're still two very different versions of the same character...Jack's was cartoony, Heath's was more realistically gritty and disturbing. I, personally, enjoyed Heath's joker more cause his delivery and the sheer insanity he added to the joker is amazing and he's definitely the main reason a lot of people are gonna see this movie, and I really can't blame them as Heath was seriously one of the best villains of the decade. Again the end of the film left a lot of questions unanswered for the joker character as he never really died nor did he have a final battle with Batman. I personally think that the joker character should be left off of the sequel, and give people time to get used to the idea of someone else other than Heath playing the joker (due to unfortunate circumstances). The Dark Knight is proof that you don't need to sacrifice the story in order for it to be entertaining (Transformers I'm looking at you), which is why I hate the Transformers even more so now than I did last year, well technically I don't hate it as it had some entertaining parts what I hate about it is that it represents everything that's wrong about summer movies. Stories are sacrificed for entertainment and films like Wall-E and The Dark Knight do a perfect job of combing both great stories and great entertainment. I'm sure that's the reason why there'll be some people who hate this movie, because it's not mindless Michael Bay entertainment. This film is the measuring stick for future superhero movies to follow. I seriously recommend this movie to everyone, I really cannot say good things about it. I'm getting the 2 disc special edition dvd DAY ONE godamnit!!!!