Name: chelano
Most Recent Reviews by chelano
Very interesting film. The whole movie really relies on it dialog only. I mean there are a few characters that have excellent make up, but there is no special effects. It is just a simple dialog type movie. Lo is a demon played by Jeremiah Birkett and he did an amazing job; although Lo kind of reminded me of a weird looking Grinch. He was summoned by Ward Roberts to find his girlfriend played by Sarah Lassez. Everyone in the film did a great job. Most of the film had Lo talking and his dialog was funny and entertaining. The only scene that really annoyed me was a musical number by Devin Barry. Then there was a small scene with a dancing waiter that kind of threw me off too. It really lost my interest in the film. Other than that, it was pretty good. The whole story was good with a nice ending. It is basically saying, how far would you go to get the girl you love back. Would you face Hell? All the little characters in this film were really fun to watch and even though it was low budget, it still was done well. A good piece that shows you do not need special effects to make a movie.
I will admit that the story to this film is just really cheesy. A diseased rat monkey bites someone and then you have zombies. I think the writers really had their thinking caps on in this one. But that is not what makes this film enjoyable. It is the zombies. They were so well done with different personalities. Especially the zombie baby. What a great and creepy little character. They did jump into the whole zombie scenes pretty quick, which was good since the story was going no where in the beginning. The cast was ok. Timothy Balme was decent but the girl played by Diana Penalver was on the verge of annoying to watch. The side cast had some fun gems to watch like Elizabeth the mom and the priest who was Stuart Devenie. This film really does go in a book of fun zombie films to watch. It is not so much scary as it is bloody. There are a few jumping scenes though. You will find yourself watching the film watching to see what zombie they come up with next. Mostly you see normal zombies in films which show a person with an eye out or a missing jaw. This film just goes overboard when it comes to characters. For example. One guy gets grabbed by his head and has his head and spine ripped out the backside of his body. Later you get to see this crazy character walking around. These type of films you can expect much from the story, but it gets an A+ in creativity in characters.
I am always a fan of Takashi Miike. This film really showed the strange and crazy mind of his. With him and his writers, they made one interesting film. Imagine a horror, comedy, musical, slapstick, claymation, love story. Sounds kind of hard to take all in; and it is at first. But you really come to enjoy the craziness of this film. The cast is pretty good. The father is Kenji Sawada who seems to always have things happen. The mother is Keiko Matsuzaka who seems to take charge in the worst situations. Then you have the brother Shinji Takeda who is an ex con. The sister is Naomi Nishida who only wants to find a husband. Her daughter is played by Tamaki Miyazaki who is a cute little girl who is also the narrator. Then you have the grandpa played by Tetsuro Tanba who is just kind of out of his mind. The whole cast had different personalities and throughout the film you see more interesting characters. Also in the film you will see zombies and death followed by happy musical numbers. Then you will see reality burst into the abnormal with claymation scenes; creative and interesting. This film will pretty much make you go through every emotion. Combining the goofy with a normal reality. The story line is really hard to explain. Instead of explaining it, it is better to watch it and experience it. This film is truly not in the norm at all and that is what makes it so great to watch. There is always something going on. The only really thing I had against it is that it can get a little too confusing and some of the characters moments can get a little too goofy. But no matter what happens, you still want to watch it. I actually caught myself not paying attention to the story at parts and just being interested in the moment going on. Another crazy film by Takashi Miike.
The movie had an interesting take on werewolves. More of a deeper meaning. Not so much people changing and killing, but how one man randomly gets bitten and how his whole life changes. The cast was interesting but had its up and downs. Jack Nicholson played a decent character and werewolf. Michelle Pfeiffer was just ok. Some of the close ups on here made her look; not real. Then you have James Spader who I enjoyed the most. Something about his character really fit with him and I enjoyed his performance. The rest of the cast was ok except for David Hyde Pierce. To me, it didn't seem like this was his type of movie. Not his fault, just a bad casting choice. But he is a good actor. The story to the film was interesting, but wasn't solid. This includes a pretty cheap uneventful ending. I will have to say that I enjoyed the make up for werewolves. That when you are a werewolf you are in complete form, but when you are first bitten you are more of a were-person. So overall it was a nice film, just not too exciting for a horror type film.
This was a tough film to rate. At points I really liked the movie and at other points, I wanted to shut it off. So it gave me an overall, "I did not like it" in the end. The cast was not that good. Every character was not that believable except for two. Lindsey Haun was the star and she was just ok. Jack Huston was probably the best at acting in this film though. The story was interesting and stupid at the same time. The stupid part is that they take shrooms and it causes them to see things they shouldn't. The interesting part is the evil characters. If they would of focused more on them, it would be pretty cool. One is a man in a black robe holding a club with a nail through it. That only showed him in a couple scenes and I could swear they were the same filmed parts, just changed a little. Then you have this little kid with a bag on his head. That was my favorite character and he was barely in it. That would of added some extra scare if they focused on him a bit more. The most was not that scary. It had jumping scenes, but you kind of see them coming. All the characters were kind of stereotypical. You have a foreigner, a goody goody, a slut, and girl who is all natural, a stoner and a complete tool. Interesting characters, but not played too well. The film could of been better, but there were a lot of mistakes.
I really expected this to be pretty scary. If you look at the cover, you get a little frightened just by the picture. Unfortunately it is not that scary at all. But it is a little scary in your own mind. The thing that scares you is making you think, "what if I was in that situation". That in itself is pretty scary. The movie is more of a thriller mystery type. Who is the killer? The story line is pretty interesting and you do want to sit until the end of the movie to see who the killer is. The cast for the most part was ok. Peter Mullan was really good and had pure emotion on his face every time you saw him in the picture. A weird surprise was David Caruso. He was good in the film, but after seeing him on CSI, it is hard to take him seriously. There are two others I don't need to talk much about. It is Stephen Gevedon and Josh Lucas. They were just ok, but didn't have too big of a part. They were more sides characters. Then you have Brendan Sexton III who was pretty bad in this film. He was on the verge of annoying. I did not like how he played his character at all. There could of been some better decisions. But for the most part, the film was interesting and it worth a watch at least once.
This film is based on a true story about Yip Man. He was the first to teach the art of Wing Chun that was first introduced by a woman. This is way all the other martial art masters at this time made fun of him. But he proved that it was just as strong and takes a lot of focus making the people around him respect it more. Some still wanted to challenge him though because they believe this art was fake. During this time Yip Man was rich, but the Japanese invaded China and took over his house and money. Being poor, he shows that the love of a family and the love of his art could get him by and one day, make him famous. In fact Yip Man actually helped train Bruce Lee. There are many great actors in this film, but I will mention a few that stick out. The star who plays Yip Man is Donnie Yen, who really shows how fast Wing Chun can be. He has a small rival in the film who is Fan Siu-Wong. He believed his style was stronger than Wing Chun. The last person I will touch base on is Hiroyuki Ikeuchi who played the Japanese general who thinks that Japanese Kung Fu is better than Chinese Kung Fu. Throughout the film you will see many different fighting styles played by great martial artist actors who appear in various US and international films. The film has an ok and touching story. The only problem is at times the story seemed in pieces. This was because they did not want to make the film super long and concentrated more on the fight scenes. But the fight scenes were a pleasure to watch and you can tell they were well planned out. Even though the story is in pieces, you see by the end what the whole picture is about and realize that Yip Man was a great man in Chinese history.
Another great grindhouse film by Robert Rodriguez. Blood, action, nudity, bad story, weird acting and washed up actors. That is what makes up this movie in a nutshell and it all works for it. This film had an interesting cast. Danny Trejo plays Machete. He was perfect for the role. He is only crazy looking person and he didn't have to say much, but when you hear the name Machete, you can picture him as the character. A great character was played by Cheech Marin; A priest wielding two shotguns. Could you ask for anything more? Michelle Rodriguez played a character called "she". She looked great for the part and really played up the character nice. You also have Jessica Alba who plays a sexy cop. Her acting was a bit strange, but the way she worked the character was great for the film. Tom Savini is an ok actor and always gets side roles. But the roles are always funny or interesting character. This make up artist really has it going for him. Now the four surprising people in the film. Robert De Niro was a big surprise. Usually I couldn't see him in a film like this and I know why. His character didn't fit with him too well. Then you have Don Johnson who really was a great character. Every close up of him wearing his cop aviators made me laugh. Then you have the famous Steven Seagal who I really can't stand. But some how, some way they found the perfect character for him and I really enjoyed his role. Last you have crazy Lindsay Lohan. How can the once teen star get back into the movies? They cast her as a messed up, sex crazed, woman with a gun. Plus she does do a few nude scenes. I guess that is the only way she could be in the film. I can never see her doing a serious role again, but strangely, this role did fit. So a very fun grindhouse film that is fun to watch and has some memorial action shots. Then you have that added to the badly edited film, just like the old days.
I see reviews on this film and I have to say that I was a little different when it came to it. I actually really enjoyed this movie a lot. The only real criticisms I had was that it ran a bit too long and some of the focus was lost at parts. Other than that, I thought it was pretty nice. Recently Adam Sandler has been pretty bad in some of his movies. But in this movie he was combining his comedy and some more serious acting. I really enjoyed him in this role. Seth Rogen was pretty funny in his role also. And again, he added some seriousness to his acting and it really fit well. Rogen's roommates were Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill. They were in the film more towards the comic relief part and they added a bit of fun to the film. Especially Schwartzman. The two main girls were played by Leslie Mann and Aubrey Plaza. Plaza was not bad, but she was just ok. Leslie Mann was ok to watch also. Last you had Eric Bana who in my opinion is not a decent actor. But in this film he got to use his natural Australian accent and he was really funny. I think what threw viewers off was the raunchy humor mixed with serious drama. The movie had a teen comedy feel mixed with a deep independent film. I can see how that would turn some people off. But I loved the combination and I thought it fit. But hey, maybe I just like weird things. Like I said in the beginning, I really wish it was a bit shorter, because I thought the film would never end. But for some reason, it needed that extra 30 minutes to get its point across.
A nice little easy going film with some added humor. I mean laughing humor and good jokes. Not the humor of seeing Alec Baldwin in his boxers for 60% of the film, which is a tough thing to watch. Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin make a pretty interesting team in this film and both acted great. Steve Martin is added to the older stew and I am sorry to say that he really didn't fit. There was something off about him. There was some young cast members and the one that really sticks out is John Krasinski. His type of humor and acting sometimes clashes in certain films, but he fit well in this movie. A little added pleasure to the mix I guess you could say. There were smaller parts in the film played by some who seemed to not fit or act well. One example would be Lake Bell, she really didn't fit. The story line was decent but really seemed to jump around a bit and sometimes it seemed like pieces were left out or missing. The one thing that worried me about this film was the whole concept. It really leaned towards one age group. I mean they put younger blood in there to help, but it does focus on older couples. I think even though it is a good movie, they will lose a lot of viewers because of this. But overall, I enjoyed this film and you could say it is one of those Sunday afternoon sit back and watch pieces.
