Zíza

So I dutifully went to the theaters to see this, even though I had it downloaded at home, and I don't regret it. If only on the principle that we need to support Japanese cinema here in our country. It was really nice to see all the actors I know from dorama (for example, I saw Jun Kaname as a bad guy for the first time). The main character was likable and made mistakes; he was just human. His friend was even more human. Some moments were purely Japanese and some felt American to me, but it didn’t clash too badly. Sometimes the graphics were like something out of an RPG, but then again, it wasn't as bad as Dororo; here at least I wasn't reduced to giggles. Yeah, and surely it’s pointless to mention that the factography isn't 100%? But I was a bit annoyed that they made Sasuke such a loser... And the ending? For all its flaws, it was really impressive. It commanded my attention. A weaker 4 stars.

In the end, it turned out exactly as I expected (and man how those glasses suited him at the end!). But that's fine with me, sometimes movies just turn out the way you think they will. The worst was the lame dialogue. Having the most perfect heroine (Jolie didn't show anything new, it was all old, hackneyed, and bad; all she showed were her tits...) didn't add to the beauty of it either, she was the one who pissed me off the most. All in all, I was thinking this was a movie for the garbage rating. I only gave it a single star for the few moments when I didn't roll my eyes and tell myself the heroine needed to die (after all, she wasn't in the scene most of the time...).

I'm a little disappointed – I was expecting more comedy from this. Not that I didn't laugh at times, but this had some pretty untapped comedic potential, kept it pretty grounded, and the demonic good won out in the end. Somehow the film felt empty, pieced together from some scraps and glued together with Klebstoff (and let's face it, it's not that great a glue :D). Anyway, I'm going to watch the anime; everyone says it's better :-)

I sucked down 9 episodes in one breath and when I exhaled, it was over. I was enjoying it, waiting to see how they'd once again come up with a ruse for someone involved in that incident 11 years ago... Ohno does a good determined look, but his happy face is weird. So weird that it annoyed me. This is more of a crime thriller than the drama and romance they describe it as here. It's interesting to watch them: the way they hesitate, the way they suffer – some quietly, some a little louder, yet for me there isn't that awful pathetic display of self-pity and I’m thankful for that :-) I'm glad that Ohno stayed right up to the end exactly they way I wanted him. And the ending is also just the way I wanted it. Somehow I think it couldn't have ended any other way. I mean, except for Kasai... But you'll see. So if you're in the mood for something where relationships aren't the focus and nobody breaks up and gets back together three times, something where the characters are human – they're rotten, they’re righteous, they’re both humane and monstrous – check it out. I'm not saying it's the best you'll find in the genre, but it certainly serves its purpose – entertaining and not boring. As long as you don’t end up fast-forwarding some of the flashbacks...

Even though I watched this alone in my dorm room, at night, I still wasn't scared, just bored. So the woman was making me angry, the guy wasn't much better; I wasn't enjoying their fights. I even got the version with the "rougher" ending, yet... I guess I'm just not cut out for horror movies: they don't scare me, and that's too bad, because they should, that's all they’re supposed to do. And if you're not scared, you can't possibly like the movie very much. Just an ordinary ghost movie that maybe even gives you the old happy ending... :-D – of course, it depends on who you're rooting for.

Interesting animation – yes, it really adds to the atmosphere. Then again, I've never been much into Kafka. I've read Metamorphosis and The Trial but just never clicked with the young Jewish German living in Prague. Kōji Yamamura's bleak work isn't exactly my thing either, but anyone can spend those 20 minutes on it and then contemplate what the bard was trying to say. Still, I imagine alienation a bit differently...

Why does the handsome one have to be her brother? You'll find better fight scenes in Crows Zero; this doesn't have much comedy, there's not much romance either, but it's still a very enjoyable film. It's such a strange mix of melancholy, clichés, and good moments. At first it looks like it's going to be action-packed, but in the end it's just higher quality high school pop. If you've seen a few Korean films or doramas, you won't find anything surprising here. It occurs to me that if they made it a three-part dorama (as if they couldn't have :-D) and fleshed out the relationships better, and if it hadn't all been so weirdly disjointed, it would have gotten a higher rating ^^ a better 3 stars.

The weakest Harry Potter instalment split into two parts? Oh dear, we're raking in the dough, we're raking in the dough. And unfortunately it phoned it in – the first part is boring. A fairy tale with thriller elements and coincidentally uncovered graves. It's sad, but as a fan, I'm disappointed. The music, the actors, the effects – nothing new, lackluster and drawn out. A brick on you. The second part might finally make you cry; so far it's been nothing but smirking. I had fun making fun of it. Otherwise, I was yawning. Sorry, Harry, you were acting like Frodo, and I won't forgive you for that. A weaker 3 stars.

No matter how I think about it, I just can't give it even that one star. And don't think of me as the kind of person who sees the words “High School Musical" in the title and condemns it immediately. I admit without torture that I gave the first one 4 stars because it was something new at the time and I really enjoyed it, I wasn't bored by it. But here? I didn't like the songs. The numbers were okay at times, yet it seemed to me that it was always kind of repetitive and a bit unimaginative. But what irritated me the most was the perfection of Poet and Ning Ning – the shots à la Michael Jordan (check), IQ 289 (check), the vocal cords more golden than Herr Gott (check), piano playing, guitar playing (check). You know, just awful upon dreadful. And I was terribly bored the whole time. And the comedy; where was it?!

So typical, it’s all been done so many times, yet so entertaining, so likeable. A new teacher comes to the school who wants to help his students achieve and, most importantly, discover their dreams. He gets his hands on delinquents who love baseball but aren't allowed to play. They got banned because they got in a fight at a tournament. Well, it'll take a while to get gloves on them and bats in their hand, but these boys will play. And they're not just gonna win. I told myself at the beginning that if they get to Koshien Stadium, I'll be satisfied, that it doesn't matter if they win, the main thing is that they get there. But I was wrong. The most important thing is that they keep playing... The closing song is absolutely amazing, every time I heard it I had to smile and rock my head from side to side like a moron. ^^ But I'm knocking points off for the fact that there's just no way for anyone to have that much bad luck, it was just too much. And then there were some unnecessarily long scenes, but that's pretty much every dorama, so that's kind of par for the course. You might think this looks perfectly normal, an eleven-part dorama, right? Well I’d say it’s actually a thirteen-parter – the first and last episodes are an hour and a half each.