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Reviews
Big Bounce (2018)
Nowhere near as entertaining as Sasuke/Ninja Warrior
German TV-channel RTL jumped on the bandwagon of Ninja Warrior (NW) with success last year. Now they tried their own thing with Big Bounce, clearly inspired by NW, but having the trampoline as the central apparatus for the whole course, where in NW trampolines are only one of many different kinds of devices. In my opinion this focus on a single type of equipment is the biggest flaw of Big Bounce, in comparison to NW.
But there are more flaws:
1. The show is not about beating the course. For the top athletes, the courses aren't even that difficult. It's all about who is the fastest. For me, the big fascination with NW is the question, whether someone can beat the course at all, to be impressed by the unbelievable strength and skill of the athletes. That's completing lacking in Big Bounce. And it's not even really about finding out, who is the best of the best, it's more about not making any mistake, because those are usually the deal breakers in terms of time. In the end, I felt a lot of luck was involved, because these small mistakes can happen to any of them.
2. Most obstacles in the show are completely uninteresting. Each of the courses usually only had one or two obstacles that really mattered, that determined the outcome of the race. The rest was filler.
3. The first five shows felt all the same, not enough change up in terms of obstacles. That's on top of the fact, that you only have variations of trampoline obstacles in the first place.
As for the positive:
1. Some obstacles are actually really interesting, and I would have loved to see them implemented in Ninja Warrior (for example the final obstacle is similar to the Spider Climb, only that the walls are trampolines, so you had to bounce your way up between the walls). I would also have liked it, if they would have made just a single really tough course with only obstacles of the interesting type, one harder than the one before, and made everything about if someone can beat it at all.
2. Overall a lot of good athletes.
Bottom line: It's ok for one season, but probably won't watch a second season.
Inu to watashi no 10 no yakusoku (2008)
Typically artificial, but children won't mind
"Inu to watashi no 10 no yakusoku" is a typical animal film. 10 years of a dog, and everything is laid out to make a perfect animal story, with exciting moments, sad moments, happy moments and finally even a wedding. The story is about respecting animals as living beings and a dog as a member of the family in particular. It's a nice movie for children and a good lesson for some adults, who even at their age see their pet only as a cute doll. Otherwise it does not have much to offer, at least no to me. The actors are likable, the music is nice and the production is decent. All in all it is a decent movie for a certain target audience.
Mushishi (2006)
A treat: Visually, Acoustically and Spiritually
Already the beginning of this movie is amazing. The mystic forested mountains covered in fog, two people marching through the rain, mystic cloudy shapes emitting from the earth, a sudden landslide, all accentuated by this music. Impressive.
The cinematography is definitely one of the highlights. The scenery and costumes are also superb. The special effects are simple and of low quality (except for the landslide), but yet they work out very very well. Visually and acoustically the movie is wonderful. For real! I also like the cast, especially Aoi Yuu and Ri Reisen.
I haven't read the manga or watched the anime, though I was aware it existed, before I watched this movie. But I had no problem at all to follow the storyline. Yet, it is a demanding movie which only works on a spiritual level.
I think a problem many people will have with this movie is, that it lacks a dramatic structure, an arc of suspense.
It's not for everyone, but I enjoyed it.
Shen you qing ren (2006)
No sparkle in this fantasy tale
"Shen you qing ren"/"Gen yu den" is a Taiwanese/Japanese movie about a Japanese girl, living in todays Taiwan, "tripping" into a Chinese realm of ancient times. It's a realm of demons and magic. A rather nice idea was to include a bizarre death transport, where a taoist monk has skills of a zombie-master. But overall this ancient realm stays colorless. The demon-story lacks originality, depth and is actually quite unimportant to the story. The movie has few and simple effects, but they are always well used and sufficient in quality. The set and locations are also very nice and the actors are decent. But the problem with this movie is, that appears like patchwork. There is nothing that keeps you engaged. In the beginning you have this immature, noisy young woman and it's quite funny, seeing her wandering around clueless. But her maturing process is quite unconvincing and most of all uninteresting. Too many characters have no depth at all. And what disturbed me most was, I felt too often, that the movie does not meet the right mood. It felt really off at times. It is not really a bad movie, but there is also nothing really special about it, that makes it worth watching. So, for genre-fans it might be interesting if nothing better is at hand.
Michael Clayton (2007)
Groups of people who might not like this movie
I will take a different approach on this comment, than I do usually. Instead of describing why one might like this movie, I give some thoughts to people who won't like it.
There are three groups of people I can think of, which might not like this movie.
The first group comprises people, that watch movies for pure entertainment. They seek for enjoyment in a positive way. They don't watch movies to be remembered of problems in this world, on the contrary they want to forget about them when watching a movie. "Michael Clayton" will reward you with a wonderful conclusion, but I still had these thoughts: Too bad, it's just fictional. I would really like to see it for real, a corporation like "U/North" getting a good spanking. So it's not a movie for these kind of people. It is just too serious for that.
The second group is rather a small one, I suppose. It comprises those people, who will see their own bad actions reflected in this movie. Of course, there is no way people like that could ever like this movie.
The third group are those people, that will have problems to follow and understand the plot. "Michael Clayton" is movie that expects the audience to think. It does not explicitly explain what is going on. You need to be attentive and patient. Of course, people won't like something they don't understand. And some people simply don't want to make any effort.
Granted, this is oversimplifying, but not utterly wrong.
Anyway, "Michael Clayton" is still a good movie. THAT is MY opinion.
Posutoman burûsu (1997)
Postmen were always suspicious to me!
This movie features an annoyed postman, searching for excitement, a bunch of stupid and clueless policeman, thinking they are super-brains, a chopped of finger going on travel, a hit man tournament with a Japanese Léon, a cute romance with a cancer suffering girl and last but not least one of the best police chases of movie history... on BICYCLES!!!
"Postman-Blues" is a crossfire of genres. It is a hit-man-movie-parody, a slapstick action-comedy and a romance.
The movie has wonderful, absurd dialogs. The postman talking with a hit man on the roof of a hospital (dialog from recollection and in the original much better): Hit-man: "Girls like postmen, I should have become one as well." Postman: "And what are you?" Hit-man: "A hit-man. But I am suffering from cancer. The small killers are killing the big killer." [...] Postman: "How often do you kill in a year?" Hit-man: "2 or 3 times." Postman: "What? That is not often..." Hit-man: "Times are heavy. There are over 800 killers in this country." And all that with a face, as if they would talk about the weather :D.
Or when the policeman come up with their abstruse theories, and the others all nodding: "Yes, that sounds plausible." It is SO funny!
While the music perfectly accentuates what is happening, the camera always comes with shots that keeps us interested and curious. Furthermore this movie features a cast which includes so many cool Japanese male-actors, it's amazing. At that time many of them still fresh, now all acclaimed actors in the business.
And all of it is coalesced into a story full of ideas, which even somehow makes sense! Unbelievable and simply brilliant!
And the end :)... See for yourself!
The Last Unicorn (1982)
A hymn for the fantastical! Unique and wonderful.
There are only a few movies that I rated 10/10. This is the only one, where my rating diverges that much from that at IMDb (then again, it is also the only movie I know of, where the arithmetic mean is decreased by a full 1.0 to make the IMDb-rating, although having over 7000 votes!).
"The Last Unicorn" is like many, a story of a quest. A quest starts with a few, while on the way new comrades are made. But you seldom find stories, where the comrades appear in such a natural flow, in such an intelligent, creative and unusual way. I love the scene, where Molly is mourning why the unicorn only appeared that late in her life and Schmendrick does not want her to join the party.
The unicorn is told, that all other unicorns were driven to the end of the world by a beast called the red bull. The incompetent magician, named Schmendrick and the middle-aged woman Molly help her. Their trail of the red bull leads them to the realm of King Haggard. The unicorn is a metaphor for the beauty of nature, for the magic, the unbelievable in our world and first of all for the creativity and fantastical in our minds, while the red bull is the exact opposite, of destroying nature. And to me, King Haggard represents people only earning money from creativity and achievements of others, without ever contributing anything by themselves, just becoming greedier and greedier every day, not noticing they are destroying what made them rich in the first place. Is this the path to happiness? Or is it, to enrichen this world with beauty and creativity, which leads to happiness? Maybe neither?
As for the technical quality of the movie: I often read, the movie has "tacky drawings and poor animation". As a long fan of animation, I must assume they saw a different movie than I did. Just because it is different from Disney, does not mean it is bad. It is actually very unique, could be right out of a fairytale picture book. The background drawings are beautiful and the character drawings fascinating (especially the unicorn, the red bull, the old witch and all the other fabulous creatures). While the flow of the animation may not belong to the best, the style certainly is neat and florid.
By the way, in Germany this movie is more popular than elsewhere, it seems. For many years already, it is always broadcasted several times around the Christmas days, even at prime time. And Germany is, as far as I know, the only country, where the soundtrack was published (of course with the original English songs, which fortunately were not dubbed into German). I think we also have the best DVD-release (remastered, widescreen, uncut, Eng/Ger dub). I still wish, somebody would publish a better DVD. Though the German release is good when it comes to the movie itself, the box, menus and extras are very poor.
Back to the content of the movie: Its distinguishing feature is the mature, remarkable story, enjoyable by children, but opening its true profoundness only to older ones. Degrading it to a kid's movie is not only a true shame, it is an error. The novel was certainly never meant to target children and the overall atmosphere of the movie is quite dark and dreadful and there are certain elements, like the womanly tree or the wine drinking skeleton. But don't take me wrong, I still think children should be able to watch it. I did so as very young child, and it stayed in my mind for all this time. I was scared by the red bull, sure, but all these movies with great villains like Darth Vader in Star Wars, the Terminator or the red bull in here became all time favorites for me. Scaring children is not necessarily something bad, as long as the good prevails. But the reason, why it's not mainly a story for children is that it contains so much depth, metaphors and symbolism children will never be able to understand. And there is even more than a great story and beautiful drawings. It features a famous, excellent cast, including Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow and Christopher Lee. The music score is great and the song "The Last Unicorn" is nothing less but phenomenal.
Usually I only rate movies 10/10, if I consider them almost perfect. Here, there are a few things, I am not completely comfortable with. For example the two songs "Now That I'm A Woman" and "That's All I've Got To Say" or also the complete lack of violence. For example you don't see the red bull crashing into Lir, you only see Lir falling down. I would also like to see the red bull being smashed below the tidal wave of unicorns. This might seem bloodthirsty, and maybe it is, but could increase the impact of the movie, making it more tangible. But maybe it is better the way it is, who knows
Although not perfect in my eyes, it is still a very beautiful, inspiring and faithful adaption of one of my absolute favorite novels and therefore has my highest appreciation. It made me read the novel and has part in my realization, what the fantastical really means for my life. Not escape, but inspiration, energy and so much more.
Besides the movie is also very entertaining, seems to pass in a moment, and could have been even a bit longer, including more content of the novel. "The Last Unicorn" is a hymn for the fantastical, and being such, it has to be and it is creative and fantastic in its own. I very well know, this is not a movie for everyone, but speaking in the language of "The Last Unicorn", those who will recognize a unicorn, if they see one, will love this movie. Unicorns are alive, in our very own minds.
True North (2006)
"Please, not...", but you KNOW it will gonna happen! Great movie!
"True North" is about a fisherman boat, transporting illegal Chinese immigrants from Belgium to Scotland, because they need the money in their desperate situation. This movie is about cruel reality. It is one of those movies, which reminds me, that I live a comfortable live. This movie keeps you mesmerized from the beginning to the end. Throughout the movie my thoughts were "Oh no, please don't let that happen, please not that...", although of course I knew it is unavoidable. Because that is, what the movie is about in the first place. Although there are some moments of relief, beware, the story is desperately unhappy. It leaves a lump in your throat. At the end, when the camera zooms out, a shiver went through my spine and I had tears in my eyes. "True North" accomplishes this not just by storytelling alone. It is perfectly executed. The actors performances are superb, the camera gives you the impression of being on the ship, in the storm, better than for example in "The Perfect Storm". It all feels so real. It is a great movie.
Jo'ô no kyôshitsu (2005)
Perfect execution of a great script
Joou no kyoushitsu is one of the best Japanese television dramas.
The drama is about a class of sixth graders facing a "demonic teacher". I think already the scenario will please most people, because almost everybody of us can somehow identify with this situation. Well, but of course there is a lot more to this series than that.
First of all, the script is superb. Every episode is suspenseful, and gives you stuff to think about. Did any of your teachers ever told you something like that in this world of us "only 6% can become happy"? Well, this teacher does, and she confronts the children with more of that kind. There is a lot happening like bullying, theft, discrimination and rebellion. But unlike with many other rather artificial appearing series', all of it is interweaved into a quite believable, continuous plot. It gets emotional, but there is also much fun in it. It never takes itself completely serious, although there is much truth in it. This is an important point, why in my opinion this is so good. On the other hand, reading other comments I sometimes get the feeling, that many people miss the irony.
A good script is nice, but here we also see a great execution of it. The camera uses all the tricks to create the right atmosphere. I love the shots, when the teacher is looking down on the children and the children are looking up at the teacher. It is funny and scary at the same time. Furthermore the actors are simply wonderful. Amami Yuki gives us a perfect "demonic" teacher Maya. Beautiful, intelligent, mysterious, strict, cold, evil and more, she is everything. Shida Mirai, very cute, funny and when she makes her scared face, I can't help... it's just great, you have to see her mimic! You won't find any weak actor or actress in it, but convincing performances and really interesting and fascinating characters. Although we have some main characters, every single child in this class has it's own important role in the concept of the plot. (----Spoiler----) And when in the end, every single child is shown at the graduation ceremony and their names are mentioned, without any distinction, (----Spoiler END----) you really feel that this series does not just want to please the audience, but stays absolutely true to it's message.
And like I said before, this series has much to say to it's audience. In my opinion it does not force any message on us, but rather gives us stuff to think about. I always enjoyed thinking about these topics, because I always had the feeling that something was missing regarding my own time in school. I was happy finishing school and felt, that much of it was a waste of time. I could start philosophising about it now, but you will have more than enough stimulus to do so, while watching this one. And here is more than just topics regarding school. You can of course say, it's about life in general.
The music, stunts, set etc. is also of high standard. There are not many weak points to find here. (----Spoiler----) There is only something I sometimes wonder about. When I read statements like "I wished I had a teacher like that" or "Every teacher should be like her". Did these people really give it enough thought? (----Spoiler END----)
Well, build your own opinion! Watch it!!! It's worth it!!!
The Flight of Dragons (1982)
Magical
I only watched "Flight of Dragons" already being in adult. "The Last Unicorn", another Rankin/Bass production, is one of my dearest movies as long as I can remember. So one day, I thought the makers must have been producing something similar. And indeed, in the same year as "The Last Unicorn" "Flight of Dragons" was produced. "Flight of Dragons" fascinated me from the beginning, just by having a wonderful theme song (again like "The Last Unicorn" does). And I knew, this would be a movie of my taste. But it does not work in every way for me. It could be a bit more fast-paced. More detailed drawings and a bit more depth in background-sounds would have given the movie a more tangible feeling, though I am aware this is a video-production. (Spoiler) Finally, the conclusion of the last battle is not to my taste. After all, I am fan of fantasy and magic. Science is my work, and still I don't want to see science beat magic. On the other hand do I like the suggestion, that there is still magic in our today's world. (Spoiler end) Fact is "sword and magic"-fantasy is absolutely underrepresented when we discard all the worthless trash made without heart. This story and movie has heart for certain and therefore should be a must watch for friends of the genre.