Change Your Image
oninagiinochi
But then there's TV. As a kid I think I was even more into TV shows than movies. I swear I've watched or at least knew of almost every cartoon and almost any show made for kids in general that aired between the 90s and 2000, at least in Canada. I watched the usual Sesame Street, Big Comfy Couch, Dudley, The Jetsons, TMNT, etc, like any other kid in those days, but I especially loved cartoons... more mature ones that are rarely made for kids these days, like Batman The Animated series, X-Men, ReBoot, Tin Tin, and Nighthood (Arsene Lupin), but what especially struck a chord with me were shows like Keroppi, Hello Kitty, Samurai Pizza Cats... and even more especially, Teknoman (Tekkaman Blade) and Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon was the first show or movie that I became obsessed with in my life... and during that fandom I learned what set those shows apart from the others I liked, they were called anime and imported from Japan. The same Japan that all my favorite video games came from!
All of this is what lead me to my favorite film of all time, and a film that changed my life, The Ghost in the Shell (from 1995). For a while I didn't want to watch it... I had seen a trailer of it in the Manga Entertainment previews on my beloved Street Fighter 2 The Animated Movie VHS, and I'd seen scenes of it on a TV special about Japanese anime (I think it was in how it influenced The Matrix) and I had seen it mentioned in some gaming magazines, but I associated it with a darker, adult, scarier side of anime that I wanted to stay away from. I thought it was going to be very violent and bloody. But somewhere on the internet I read about how it was one of the greatest anime of all time and very philosophical and actually not that violent, so I finally checked it out around the age of 13 as it had just showed up on my satellite tv movie channels. It was exactly what I needed at the time... it made me think so much and realize so much truth with its story about what makes humans human through a story about cyborgs. I had been very interested in learning about religions up until that point, and obsessed with existentialism... this film is how I came to the realization that there is no such thing as a soul or spirit, only metaphorically speaking. When I finally settled on the idea, I felt like telling the whole world, it felt like a Eureka and it just made sense, more than anything I'd learned about in any religion. We are our minds, the beings we are and our sense of self come about by our thoughts.. feelings are all in the mind, not the heart. When we die, we experience the same thing we did before we were born. And every time I watch that movie, I love it more, like its the bible of my own religion, and its comforting more than any other movie is.
That movie, as well as other anime in general, gets a lot of flack from many people for having moments of nudity. It's amazing, it's as if non-sexualized nudity doesn't exist for people. You can see all nudity sexually if you want, but it can be easy to figure out where a director of a film isn't using nudity simply to arouse viewers. And even if the director is trying to do that, so what? We can create images to evoke all kinds of feeling from viewers except that one? Then it's trash? This is another big thing that informs how I view films and my reaction to them. You see, as a kid, this is how I was raised... this is a simply story to explain it all. The move - True Lies. My parents always watched blockbuster action hero flicks with me, and in the 90s you know those were in abundance. They were full of violence, shootings, blood, killings, etc. I saw it all. It was all in True Lies. I still remember hating it when Arnold threw a knife at the mad doctor's eye. I was 7 and I saw the whole movie, rented from Blockbuster or Rogers Video... I saw it all except one part. My mom made sure to cover my eyes when the long striptease scene of the Mother-turned-sex-bomb character of Jamie Lee Curtis came up. That movie came on TV or Satellite a few years later and I watched it again... just to see what my mom wouldn't let me see, and it was and still is my favourite scene in that movie (and not just because JLC is amazing).
It was like that with a lot of movies in our house. My parents come from a country with religions that don't look at sexuality this way, but values brought to them by colonial powers changed that. Historically, most nations and most religions saw sexuality as a good thing and violence as a bad thing. So what changed? Colonialism, Imperialism, Conservatism, Puritanism. They taught the whole world to be ashamed. It's affected the whole world. Even those in western countries who call themselves Atheist, having denounced Abrahamic religions and their views on sexuality, it still affects them. It still affects me. It's my belief that Puritanism has ingrained itself into the fabric of society as a whole. In western cinema, most of the time, sexuality and nudity are only acceptable in two ways: it's either funny or it's dirty. Modern sex comedies always combine sex and nudity with drugs, alcohol, vomit, profanity, toilet humour, etc... basically, "Sex, like the rest of these things, is disgusting but funny". Sex is also acceptable if it's surrounded by a lot of violence, or shown in a disturbing light, juxtaposed with the most shocking, deranged, depraved, and/or twisted of fetishes, and shown next to other disturbing images for shock value, as if the movie is trying to show us "the real, hidden world" of human beings. If not in those ways, if it's sex shown as pleasurable and fun, then it's called "porn" and deserves no respect whatsoever, it deserves to be in the dark, curtain-covered corner of the video store, and that video store can only be entered through a dark alley, and if you go there to get such a video you must never speak of it and let the weight of shame weigh on your shoulders. I honestly believe if it wasn't for the west's history of Puritanism, actresses like Marilyn Monroe would have been happier and had the richer careers they wanted (even still be alive) and movies and shows like Baywatch, Barb Wire, Queen's Blade, Daud, Gayab, Showgirls, Striptease, and any of the more fun RGV Factory movies wouldn't be as critically panned as they are (no, I'm not saying they'd be considered masterpieces instead). Hell, everything would be different.
This is why on my lists, like my anime list, you see both Ghost in the Shell and Queen's Blade on my top anime of all time. This is why Citizen Kane and Some Like It Hot are both 10/10s for me, and even Barb Wire, the best Casablanca movie that isn't Casablanca, is also one of my favourite movies. Unfortunately, it's still difficult to find a good movie or series that contains sex or any level of sexuality/nudity and doesn't contain gross-our humour or violence. I think Japanese anime does that better than any other type of media, but most people, including anime fans themselves, feel that is not a good thing and needs to be changed... tsk. Humans, please learn to embrace your humanity.
Also, 1 means I hate it and 10 means I love it. It has nothing to do with how well made I think a movie is. I don't take society's views or consider technical quality when I review a movie into account at all, like professional critics do. Did I love it or hate it? That simple. And anyone who thinks most people don't rate this way or shouldn't rate this way on IMDB are kidding themselves. Most people don't see enough movies or shows to be professional critics, this site is just a reflection of how (predominantly western, English-speaking) society reacts to them as a whole.
Lists
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My kind of comedy
You may notice a lot of more recent popular comedy movies are missing here. I've seen many, many comedies released in the past few decades, including the most popular ones, but they honestly rarely make me laugh. Maybe I've just been too spoiled by the comedy brilliance of older stuff (it's hard to top Buster Keaton, Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Cary Grant, Bugs Bunny, Tex Avery, etc). Seriously, the further back in time you go the more likely you are to find the funniest stuff. In recent decades, it's been TV shows, cartoons, and foreign films that are more funny, and they're obviously inspired by the comedy of old classics.
Created by Women
Favorite Actresses
My Kind of HORROR
My most disliked (or even hated) series/movies/games.
favorite directors
Muh Childhood (1987 to 2002)
Great but hard to watch
Canadian stuff!
Reviews
Chhota Chetan (1998)
Watched it to see if Urmila was more than a cameo, but enjoyed the whole movie!
Urmila is part of Indian cinema history in another way here - this movie is the first 3D film made in India!
I had no idea this movie existed even though I was a kid when this movie made for kids was released. I think I first found it in the mid 2000s either on satellite TV or when I went to India in the late 2000s and spent all my travel money on as many DVDs as could interest me. I was like, "what the hell is Urmila doing there on the cover!?".
Urmila shows up 55 minutes in to this 1h40m movie. But what a role! She's really the main hero! She plays a BADASS "good witch" with amazingly powerful magic, and she plays it very convincingly. I was afraid she was only going to have a cameo or song and that's all, but she starts with the a song and soon after reveals that her family own the home where the main kids of the film find an imprisoned genie, and it's her mission to save him and her family's home. Surprisingly, even though it's a kids movie, it was impossible to hide Urmila's sexiness, this was when she was at the height of her career after all (so strange that she did this film at all, but I feel like she did it for the kids, so nice). Despite her only showing up for a few minutes all-together in the 2nd half of the movie she manages to have many crazy outfits, such as what looks like an Indonesian Yakshi, an East Asian style outfit, and my favourite, a form-fitting leather catsuit... literally! She even has claws and she even gets turned into an actual cat by the bad guy... very unfortunately, because she's already only in half the movie and for half of that she's a cat! Haha. For some reason she even has a cape and a motorcycle! She looks more like a super hero. Too bad the kids only meet her very shortly at the very end (and at first think she's evil, lol). By the way, I'm probably the only one who's seen this movie and thought that when Urmila joins the two dummies from the start of the movie, it really makes her seem like the Doronjo trio from the Japanese series "Time Bokan", lol!
As for the movie its self, I liked it. I always wanted to see more good Indian films for kids and I wish I had seen this as a kid. It made me laugh even as an adult. The only other good Indian kids entertainment films I can think of are Makdee and Koi Mil Gaya, both which were good too. Despite being a "3D film", most of the special effects here are classic, simple "movie magic", the best kind of special effects if you ask me... the kind that has worked well since the silent film era. They used strings a lot to make things look like they're flying or floating, but you rarely see the strings clearly unless you try (only once did I see a string without trying at all). It's weird but it looks like the 3D effect was applied to real objects and not CG or animated. But even though I couldn't watch it with the 3D effect (I guess that feature was only possible in the theatres and was lost for the DVD releases), it was always obvious which objects got the 3D treatment.
I like the story. The kids find a genie to grant all their wishes and help them on their lives, but in the end it's the genie who needs their help and shows them that they can have power too... with the help of the Magical Urmila of course!
After reading other reviews, I now know that it was originally not a Hindi film, it was made in the 80s as a Malayalam film and that Urmila's scenes were added in, among others. Now I realize why that one cabaret guy was obviously dubbed as his mouth wasn't synching, but other than that I had no idea! I don't think it was a bad idea to rerelease the movie in the 90s with the added star power for the majority Hindi audience, it gave the movie a new life and chance for more people to see it. I would have never seen it if it wasn't for this release. The Satish Kaushik added scene actually made me laugh, too. I thought the movie was already short for an Indian film with songs at just 1h40m, but the original must have been even shorter!? Anyways, I think they did a good job, but those who saw the original first may have a difference perspective. Ultimately it is still the kids who get most of the scenes, it's not like the star power stole the show (except on the DVD cover). To be honest, it is strange to see Urmila getting only a few scenes in any movie when she was at the height of her career. Maybe she loved the original and wanted to help get it shown to more people.
L'iniziazione (1986)
Good at what it tries to be - a teenage boy's sexual fantasy.
So, what is a fantasy? Basically, any story in which impossible or improbable things happen, anything unrealistic that wouldn't happen in real life. That's the basics. By default, most fantasy stories tend to positive - such as slaying a dragon to become a hero (otherwise, if they're not positive, they usually come with a qualifier: dark-fantasies). In this case, it's the fantasy of a teenage boy conveniently put into a situation where several beautiful and sexy women are sexually hungry for him just as he is for them. If there was a poll done asking men if they ever had a fantasy similar to this at any point during teenagerhood, I'm confident it'd be a majority "yes". The thing is, something like this can't happen in real life, at least not without hefty consequences. In real life, at least these days, at least one of these women would have immediately shut down his forceful sexual advances and accused him of attempted rape or assault. One actually did resist at first, until he convinced her quite easily that no one would know of her infidelity.... so then it was ok! Lol.
There is more to the story than that, though. It's a coming-of-age and sexual awakening story. The boy starts off almost like a hungry cartoon weasel for his first sexual encounter. But by the end, he's noticeably more confident, laid back, and mature, as he's learnt something from all the women he's met. He comes to genuinely care for all of them. It's also a story that makes you think about another less considered side of the war, such as what happened with those who couldn't fight or directly contribute to the war effort. Could this be one of those untold, secret stories? Could something like this have been possible? The success of this film is that as fantastical as its story is, the acting, direction, cinematography, and everything makes you believe it could have happened.
It's also really funny at points. I don't know how anyone can say that a virgin boy getting c*ckblocked (sorry, there's no other proper word for it, it may as well be in the dictionary) on the verge of his first time by the declaration of world war 1 isn't hilarious. That's gotta be one of the funniest moments in cinema history. The ridiculous premise of the whole movie had me laughing, actually - "Why is this kid getting away with everything!? Why does he keep getting so lucky!?".
I'm just glad to see a rare film that depicts sex and sexuality and something fantastical, fun, and joyful for once, rather than connected with some dark drama or other problematic issues.
I wouldn't even call this pornographic. Since it's the fantasies-come-true of a 15 year old, they never show any explicit sex, it's always implied or shown in a way where he's off screen. So don't go into this expecting pornographic sex scenes, not even simulated.
Ishtar (1987)
SHOCKED by the rating on IMDB
I didn't see any reviews before watching. The movie just aired on TCM and I decided to watch it as I've been liking Elaine May's films from what I'd already seen (especially A New Leaf). I couldn't stop laughing from beginning to end! If a comedy can make me laugh, that's all that matters. The more it makes me laugh, the higher the rating. I guess maybe this was ahead of its time or something, maybe its type of humour resonates more with my generation? It's not often that comedies since the 1970s can make me laugh so much and I love that it doesn't require anything crass or lots of swearing. This is up there for 80s comedies for me next to the likes of Clue and Withnail and I.
Mikey and Nicky (1976)
Character study of a complex childhood friendship between 2 gangsters.
Right off the bat, I'm seeing that a lot of reviews seemed to have missed some crucial plot points while watching this movie. But I kind of understand those reviews, actually. I felt the same as some other negative reviews about the movie for a while and struggled with how I ultimately felt about it by the end. I think it would have helped if it was established right off the bat that these are two filthy old gangsters who are capable of doing filthy things and have likely done so in the past, it's not just simply a friend trying to help out another seemingly crazy friend so may or may not be in a heap of trouble.
Right off the bat I was loving the movie for its dialogue, acting, style, atmosphere, and screenplay. It's one of those rare times I feel like the movie I'm watching is gonna be an easy 10... but along the way, I felt it drop down to a 7, and by the end I settled on an 8. I just couldn't bring myself to give it a good/average score like 7, it IS a damn well made movie, and I'll explain why.
Director and writer Elaine May decided to show us these two characters gradually with revelations that change our perspectives on them each time. I see it as multiple "mini twists", and if you don't see them then you're not paying attention. Even I found myself saying "wait, since when has Mikey been playing Nicky this whole time!? He's with the hitman!?" it just gradually dawned on me as the movie doesn't make a big deal out of the twist. I think the first hint of it shows up when Nicky gives Mikey a good, long stare in the restaurant when he suddenly mentions the phone. In fact, Nicky had been suspicious of Mikey almost since the start of their meet up, but it comes off as just craziness and paranoia to us at first. Turns out he was right to be suspicious the whole time when it becomes clear to us that Mikey has relayed a message to the hitman through a call to his wife.
So, first we start off thinking that Mikey is just a good, selfless friend who's giving his all to help Nicky out of the jam he's in. And it's true, he IS. But then there's the twist, and now we see he's also setting his friend up. Nicky starts off as seemingly crazy, but then we learn that maybe he's just crazy like a fox. What seems like capricious decisions turns out to be smart decisions that are throwing off the scent for the very real hitman who is after him. But why? CLEARLY Nicky is his friend, maybe even best friend, why in the world would he be assisting in getting him killed and why won't he pull the trigger himself?
Then again, another twist, after Nicky finally wears down his friend after talking about how much he remembers from their childhood, even the death of his beloved younger brother at the age of 10. Nicky finally gets some ease for the first time that night when Mikey says he'll fly off and escape with him. This is where things got rough for me, as Nicky decides to take Mikey somewhere to celebrate - to have sex with some poor, sad woman who Nicky sees as a sl*t who will have sex with anyone for some reason. It's a rough, ugly scene. Nicky coerces her into having sex with him while Mikey is in the room. In a way, it's actually a very weirdly and darkly humorous scene in a way that only Elaine May can somehow achieve, as the camera focuses on the excellent Peter Falk showing Mikey's discomfort during this ridiculous moment. But intentional or not, any humour is soon out the window as now Nicky convinces his friend, wrongly (and probably knowingly) that this woman is a sl*t who will put out for anyone. Even though Mikey's approach to her is "nicer" and less rough than Nicky's, he's totally shut down and embarrassed, and he takes out his frustration out on the woman before she throws them both out in a fit of rage.
So now we're all wondering... what the hell was that about? Why were we subjected to that nastiness? Here's where the revelation comes as to what is driving Mikey's betrayal. First, this is when I had to remind myself, these are mobsters. Nicky didn't just steel from the mob, he was one of them, and so is Mikey. These aren't the kind of guys who grow up with great respect for women. Also, it turns out, when Nicky is in a state where he doesn't feel like he's in trouble and no longer needs anyone's help, usually Mikey's, he takes every opportunity to feed his own ego at the expense of others. Nicky does have some serious mental health issues and has narcissistic tendencies. This is proven even further when we see how other people who should be Nicky's loved-ones treat him now, namely his wife and even infant child. And Mikey has been putting up with this since he was a kid, and remembering this finally pushes Mikey away and has him seek out the hitman to help him track down Nicky,
Even though this is a spoiler filled review, I don't need to bring up the end. Ultimately what this movie is about is the tragedy of this strange and complex friendship. Finally, Mikey does realize that while this guy has treated him like crap so often, he's the only other person left in the world who remembers his younger brother who died and other things from his childhood, stuff that even his own wife didn't even know about and can't discuss with. He was really more like family. Is it really worth having a friendship like that? He now struggles to make a decision - try to do what he can to save Nicky or let the mob gun him down?
I absolutely love the direction in this film. May lets her perfectly cast actors do whatever they need to do with as much time as they need. The dialogue is extremely witty and perfectly delivered. And while this is far from a comedy movie, Elaine May expertly sprinkles her brand of humour throughout and the film is better for it. If it wasn't for an uncomfortable moment or two, this would have been an enjoyable blast all the way through.
Out There with Melissa DiMarco (2004)
The negativity by so many people here is bizarre...
I actually remember this show coming on late in the evening or overnight when I was a teen in the 2000s, but I didn't think much of it. It was just another bit of "Can-Con" (Canadian Content) that not even Canadians cares about because we were all watching AmeriCon instead like everyone else in the world... very unfortunately. Anyways, I finally started to look into her and her show once I realized that she was the same person I had seen in various other Canadian shows, showing up in episodes here and there, and she was always memorable. It wasn't until I decided to finally check out what all the fuss over some show called "Degrassi" was that I saw her in it and had to figure out where I had seen her before... Relic Hunter, Due South, and... her very own show. Mostly Canadian shows. Maybe if she was American with an American-based show, Melissa Dimarco would get more noticed and appreciated for her work.
Her work, from what I've seen, is being one of the best movie star interviewers ever. It depends what you want from interviews, I guess. If you want hard-hitting questions, then you won't get it from her. But why would that be necessary when interviewing movie stars about their movies? Instead, what we get is Melissa asking questions that other interviewers may not ask and getting the interviewee to be funny. I bet everyone she's ever interviewed has enjoyed it. Her love for movies really shines through in every episode of her show. She's just fun and she always gets something interesting out of every actor. I loved how when she interviewed Miss Piggy for the sequel to the Muppets movie, she brought up her previous interview with Kermit for the previous Muppet movie, where she had planted a kiss on Kermit... if you know Miss Piggy, then you know that interview had to be fun.
One other review mentioned her voice being annoying, which is the most bizarre comment of all to me, honestly. It's only in some recent episodes that she sound kind of like she's losing her voice, but even now it's far from "annoying". The very opposite. There's a reason why she played the "Hot Teacher" in Degrassi, after all.
I wish I had given this show a chance when I saw it airing on Cable in the early days, as she's one of my favourite Canadians now. I've tried to find full recordings of her early episodes but haven't been able to, just the previews of them that she uploaded to youtube. And that's the other thing... her show is still going! It's gone from cable to the internet now, with videos uploaded to social media, still getting A-list celebrities to do interviews. She's still at it, going into her 50s now (though it's hard to tell, she's one of those
"possibly immortal" people, like Keanu Reeves or Tyra Banks) despite what I'm sure is pretty low returns of any kind... I guess she just does it for the love of it! It's hard to believe some people can be annoyed by someone like this, unless maybe they're just jealous due to all the celebs she's met, I guess.
The Goddess (1958)
Underrated, overlooked, and misunderstood gem about intergenerational trauma.
I'll state it right up front that this movie is flawed and imperfect for sure, but that doesn't negate the remarkable things it does manage to accomplish. This is the earliest film I've ever seen that shows the reality of intergenerational trauma. It never uses that term... hell, I don't know if that term existed back then, but near the end one of the essential characters basically spells out the very definition of it. And the movie dares to be harshly realistic about it.
I've seen so many negative reviews clearly misunderstanding what this movie is about and the focus. I also read about how this was said to be "loosely based on Marilyn Monroe", but I know enough about Monroe's life to realize just how "loosely" based on her this is, enough for me to completely set that notion aside and just focus on the bare essential, underlying commonalities between The Goddess and the life of anyone who seeks fame and parasocial interaction to fill the bottomless void of love in their lives. This is a bleak, sad, and dark film that sheds light on something not enough people understand or pay attention to. Forget intergenerational trauma - consider that still today in the 2020s it still feels shameful for too many people to take mental health seriously. Hell, I've seen reviews that clearly show that people still don't realize these things even after having seen this movie, somehow thinking it was just supposed to be another movie about "the evils of show business".
Kim Stanley blew me away. I had never heard of her before this movie, but after this movie was over I was shocked how I had never heard of her and how she wasn't even nominated for an award. Sure, it was odd to see the clearly too relatively old-looking Stanley playing a teenager (I guess in 1958 she would have been in her early 30s here, being born in 1925), but that really doesn't last too long before the movie moves into her adulthood. Sure, they could have had another actress play the teenage bit, after all they didn't have her go so far as to play the childhood scenes! But it really should just be seen as a nitpick and shouldn't be enough to totally pull down the film for anyone. If she seems miscast any time due to her looks, she more than makes up for it in her acting. The only issue is that next to her, its hard for anyone else to make half as much as an impression.
This is a complex, layered, roller-coaster of a character that seems wonderful one moment and horrible in the next, though it seems a lot of viewers only pay attention to the horrible parts and end up feeling little to no sympathy for her. If you pay attention, you see that the movie does show how the simple fact of her mother abandoning her in childhood was enough to affect every relationship in her life afterwards, so that even when she did her best attempts at getting into a good relationship with a good person it was just inevitable to always fall apart as mental illness was self-sabotaging any chance she had at happiness. It's especially interesting when we see what happens when she tries to get back into her mother's life... the results are devastating.
I really hope some day that in the future, this movie will be looked at more fondly and will be rightly noticed for being ahead of its time.
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974)
Worked for me as a great comedy more than anything else, with action as a close second.
For some context, this is my perspective from having just seen the movie for the first time in the past few hours. We're in 2023 now. I'm also what they call a millennial (I like to say borderline Gen X, but whatever).
I wasn't expecting to laugh as much as I did, maybe because I was more focused on it being a "car chase movie", but it's one of the funniest I've seen so far, easily topping the previous spot held by The Gumball Rally. Definitely funnier to me than Smokey and the Bandit (which had its moments too for sure, but for me, Sally Field was the best and funniest part of that movie). Until these movies, my idea of a car chase movie was more action, crime, and violence, like in The French Connection. This definitely had some great car stunts, action, and chase moments, but at one point I literally was thinking "this might be the most crime I've seen in a movie without any character getting seriously hurt, never mind killed" (even though that's likely not true, it's just this is the first time a movie made me consider that). And that's actually a great thing, in my book. In writing it sounds cartoonish, but in the film it manages to come out realistic.
Thinking back to the beginning now, it actually started off kind of rough. My impressions of the characters started way more negative compared to what it ended up being. Why I consider this a comedy foremost now, though, is because the scenes, actions, characters, and dialogue (except for one or two dated stuff, but I accept that from the movie being a product of its time) can get pretty ridiculous, somehow in the most realistic and believable way. I mean, life can get pretty ridiculous, too. The funny parts don't hit you over the head with how funny they are, not even using a soundtrack! I don't think there was even a soundtrack at all, other than one moment where Mary sings nonsensically with the radio in the car.
Even the ending, the only way I was able to accept it, after a long pause, was to realize how ridiculous it was... I mean, when it comes to story telling in a movie, it's ridiculous, but realistically... yeah, it could happen, why not? But during that long pause of thought, I did wonder - c'mon, in the 30s, directors and writers had no choice but to give the "bad guys" their comeuppance and hit the audience with a moral "don't do bad things or things will end badly for you", when in reality we all figure out at some point in our lives that it's totally possible for people to get away with bad deeds and crimes, at least sometimes. This was made in the 70s, far from the constraints of any 30s code. But I can't help but forgive it for taking the less risky route because it decided to do it in a risky and ridiculous way. The way I see it, a comedy's main objective is to make people laugh, nothing is more important than that (which far too many modern comedies forget). It was ridiculous comedy, but also dark comedy, though comedy none the less. And so, my final reaction to the movie was laughter. All in all, the movie was a joy to watch and I'll be sure to watch it again after some time.
I don't expect Shakespeare from every movie, my only hope is that it does what it does as well as it can. This movie was obviously never trying to tell unique and amazing story, to provoke thought, or to be poetic. Its focus was to be a vehicle for its vehicles and to entertain. It's not the best car chases I've ever seen, but in that regard it was certainly well done, and it was certainly entertaining. I mean, compare it to more recent similar films (car cash action comedies), like The Dukes of Hazard (2006), this movie is way, way better for me in every way.
Six Men Getting Sick (1967)
Make that seven men...
Disturbing. That's the strongest word that comes to mind after experiencing this short. The distressing sound of the constant siren combined with those six faces that seem to be taken off petrified corpses, and the imagery of their organs and pain and blood, and then it's all repeated multiple times. I did think about turning it off half-way through the third repetition, but curiosity to see if the repetition changed anything got the better of me. Curiosity is why I even bothered to watch in the first place, after all. Knowing how short it was also helped, although by the end you could swear it was much longer.
David Lynch is really good at what he does, which is invoking reactions and applying whatever unique images he can conjure up in his mind onto film. The only question is, do you want to experience what he succeeds at creating? It's interesting to check it out at least once, especially if you're a fan of his other work... or you can just show this to someone you want to freak out.
To sum up the film, I think this short is more like an art piece or animation that represent the pain, fear, and distress of being sick. If you forget what it feels like to be sick, this may remind you well enough.
Eiken (2003)
Hilarious, unique series unfairly maligned because it was and still is socially unacceptable to be sexually perverse
This is an insanely funny series that I put in the same category as the likes of Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemi. Whether you agree with me entirely depends on your hang-ups regarding sexual content or how harshly you want to judge the creators and fans of Eiken for what you assume is the reason for its existence - sexual depravity. Whither you find it sexy or not, that SHOULD be irrelevant, because I'd hope most people either way realize that almost everything about this, in terms of story, visuals, characters, and dialogue, is obviously supposed to be ridiculous and over-the-top. It's the ridiculousness that makes it funny. And Kirika, especially, is still one of the funniest and most unique female characters of all time for me, which brings me to my only gripe - this anime is more like an ad for the manga series. It gets the jist of the comedy and atmosphere of the manga series right, as well as adapting some of the story from the first few chapters, but it's only a drop in the bucket compared to the manga's content. It's too bad more of the manga wasn't adapted.
Sure, some people might find the character designs and scenarios to be sexually arousing in this anime, if they're into any of what it has to offer, but generally I think the real main focus is to be hilarious. If you're too busy being upset by what you're seeing from a self-righteous perspective, you won't have any time to laugh. But if you do find yourself laughing, I highly recommend checking out the manga, which (believe it or not) WAS actually was translated to English and distributed in North America (and yet the Kenichi series never got that treatment? Unbelievable).
As a side note, there's next to no violence in this, any violence in it is entirely slapstick and meant for laughs. There's also no actual nudity, just some "almost nudity". Hard to believe so many people actually see this as a total "hentai", an English loan-word from Japan used to describe hardcore animated porn (but means sexual perversion in Japanese). No, there's no sex happening in this anime or in the manga.
Shallow Hal (2001)
I don't like to make very short reviews, bi
I was this movie back when I was 14 and it first released. Even back then I quickly figured out how hypocritical and ironic the whole premise of this movie was... how can anyone take its message seriously after realizing that? Show that "it's what's on the inside that counts" by making a woman with good "insides" look like a stereotypically attractive thin woman. Realizing that is so much funnier than any of the movie's numerous ironic fat jokes. I mean, you start off a movie with all that and then expect people to fall in love with the saccharine and cliche love story underneath it all? Can't say anything special about the acting either. It didn't surprise me in the least that Paltrow's career trajectory departed from acting and into whatever the hell Goop is.
There's a lot of room for movies that question our social norms and make us question them, or subvert the rom-com genre in general, but they should be made intelligently, and this is far, far from that, if it's even seriously attempting to do that all or rather just be used as a gimmick to try to put a fresh spin on the genre and attempt to make itself stand out in the laziest way possible.
Relic Hunter (1999)
Sydney Fox, The Relic Hunter, was the greatest of "Tomb Raiders".
I watched this show thoroughly when it first aired and I was around 11/12 years old (thanks to my love of series like Carmen Sandiego and Mummies Alive! That stoked my interest in history/archeology), and since then I watched every rerun I could for the next 20 years. It's one of my favorite Canadian-made shows of all time, and a source of national pride for me, personally.
The best way to describe Sydney Fox is something in between Indiana Jones and Lara Croft (love both those series too btw, well mostly the early Tomb Raider games). She's got Lara Croft's drive, but with the moral integrity of Jones, while being just as intelligent and tough as them, and a combination of their personalities. Oh, and instead of snakes she hates roaches, which I totally relate to! But of course, this show may not have ever existed without those other series. I always liked how they made a point of showing how she hated guns, unlike what the Tomb Raider series is partly known for, especially these days. This show can also get creative with its definition of what a relic is, such as one episode where Syd uses her love and knowledge about Baseball to track down an infamous old baseball glove. They also make a point in numerous episodes of contrasting her against other rival Relic Hunters that have lost their moral compass.
Me being a guy, I also loved the partnership and friendship between her and Nigel. Some sexual tension between them would be expected... well, mostly.... no, entirely on his part, but who can blame him? Syd demonstrates on numerous occasions that she has a uniquely relaxed, liberated, and pre-Abrahamic perspective on the human body and sexuality. But what I really like is this rare example of a man that is more brain than brawn supporting a great woman in every way he can, and remaining friends throughout his long-term professional relationship with her. Not to mention they can be pretty hilarious together. It's a rare kind of dynamic duo I have yet to see replicated in any other series, personally. People who have complained that this is a case of "Hollywood lifting up the badass female protagonist using a bumbling stupid male sidekick" clearly haven't watched the show, at least not enough. Sydney has made it a point that she absolutely needs Nigel, on multiple occasions... she is in fact not a "one woman army" (see S3E1, when Nigel wants to abort their next trip once he sees Karen for the first time, offering to stay and help Karen get adjusted in her new job... Sydney wasn't having any of it).
It's too bad the series couldn't go on for a few more seasons, as season 3 has always been my favorite! We got more insight into Syd's past and how she became who she is, as well as more higher stakes storylines with the recurring shadowy group "The Gurel Nataz" and giving her an arch-nemesis, Deviega (who's story they obviously only resolved so quickly because they knew there wasn't gonna be another season). And even though Claudia's character improved in S2, I still much preferred Karen replacing her as secretary in S3. One of the reasons I wanted a S4 is that in her first episode (and I think once or twice in later episodes), she made a point that she took the job to help support her brother... it's so obvious that they planned an episode that would go deeper into that. Even worse is that her actress, Tanja Reichert, somehow dropped off the film/tv map after this series.... it's too bad, as besides being a capable actress, she is probably the most gorgeous Canadian in film of all time, certainly from BC... sorry Pamela, lol.
My favorite episode is really tough to choose, but maybe the Warlock episode in S3 or Gypsy Jigsaw in S2 (though as Nigel points out, I'm glad, the correct term is Roma). My least favorite is The Executioner's Mask, though I can't decide if it's lazy or awesome that one of the S3 episodes basically followed the story of The Thing but with a mummy instead of a Thing, but it gets points for Karen being in it (even if just a little bit). I also wish that the episode related to India could have had a more original idea than just copying the whole Kali cult from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Even the way they did the one "clip episode" was alright as it brought back some familiar faces and actually used the clips to reflect on things like Syd's friendship with Nigel and how things have come along since he first took the "teaching assistant" job.
If I could have any real nitpick against the show, other than not having enough seasons, it's that it reused actors in new roles thinking we wouldn't notice (one was the Kali zealot who also returned in The Light of Truth episode, but I'm sure there was at least one other instance I'm forgetting). Also, both main protagonists kept going through romantic interests and picking up new ones out of nowhere as if the ones before never even happened. But that's not enough to make me want to give the show any less than a 10.
One last thing, I think all great shows need to have a great intro and intro/main theme music, and this show definitely checks that box.
Of course, this show isn't scientifically or historically accurate all the time, but that's not something Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider are known for either, yet they're beloved series that are considered classic and have even inspired multiple people to pursue study and careers in actual archeology (even if it means slowly and methodically digging in dirt rather than raiding tombs and fighting off rival relic hunters). This show is fun entertainment in a kind of genre that hasn't been tapped into enough (archeological action-adventure). All that said, unlike Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider, this series actually does take the time at least once to show actual, realistic typical archeological work (multiple people having to patiently and carefully dig in sectioned-off areas), and they even make it a point to say "this is where the real archelogy happens" or something to that extent.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
I'm not even a fan of CG animation but I loved this movie.
Somehow, this movie made me forget my dislike of the exaggerated style of animation most CG animated movies tend to have. It just somehow felt more like a classic 2D comedy cartoon in its style and execution. This is also my kind of humor in both dialogue and screenplay, almost every funny bit actually makes me laugh, sometimes a lot. It's hard to believe I live in a world where this has a 6.9 while Despicable Me has a 7.6. This is one of the few actually funny movies I've seen in general in the past 2 decades. I usually have to go back to Hollywood classics for my kind of comedy, especially silent classics like anything from Charlie Chaplin or Harold Lloyd.
The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall (1942)
One of the greatest cartoon shorts ever made!!
I was somehow fortunate enough to see this as a child in the 1990s as my uncle had a VHS with a bunch of really old cartoons, a mixture of WB, Disney, and others. 30 years later, and having seen a lot more classic and recent cartoons, I put this right up there, if not even above any of the best of Tex Avery's cartoons. It's insane, hilarious, creative at every moment, and way ahead of its time. You'd be hard pressed to find another cartoon made since that could keep up with this old geezer of a short. I've seen no other cartoon from that era make a comeback and entered the real of modern memes the way this one has.
Ladki: Enter the Girl Dragon (2022)
NO ONE HAS SEEN THIS YET. I'll change this review and add a score once I have ACTUALLY SEEN IT.
So many "reviews" here already, but the movie isn't even released yet! It was slated for December 2021 but got delayed because RGV, so far as he says, wanted a simultaneous worldwide release and there was an issue with launching in China on the scheduled release date. Then we got a date in July 2022, which has passed without a release also. Meanwhile, RGV continues to sporadically keep up interest with new trailers and social media posts... you could joke that so many different trailers have been released that if you put them together you'd get the whole movie, but no that's just a joke not reality.
All the reviews so far boil down to two kinds:
1-3 if you already hate RGV and/or you're a prude that hates sexual content of any kind
7-10 if you are already a fan of RGV and/or you're a perve who loves sexual content of any kind
Based on historic trends when it comes to Indian films and RGV films (that show any skin), I expect this movie to also be review-bombed.
Me, I'm in the middle. I've loved RGV's earlier films as most people do, but I also like a lot of the movies that have been unfairly panned by Indian society for unreasonable reasons. It's amazing the level of prudery and puritanism still remaining in the land of the Kamasutra and Khajurao long after dropping British rule.. even more than the British have themselves, today. But I do admit RGV's quality has been dropping and a mixed bag since the 90s and 2000s.
I like what I'm seeing so far from the trailers. It's mostly thanks to the amazing Pooja Bhalekar. This movie is possible only because she exists, and RGV discovered her with his somewhat miraculous discovering abilities. She's the first REAL, professionally trained, born-and-raised martial artist to become an actress in India. She's kind of the Instagram generation of martial arts heroines, she often posts beach bikini shots on her social media but at the same time... she seriously does know martial arts! Martial artists in cinema haven't been great actors going all the way back to Bruce Lee himself (seriously, I love Bruce Lee, but has anyone argued that he should have won an Oscar for best actor? Nope, and his legacy is doing just fine otherwise), but when they're good at what they're good at, that's what matters, and we can already see that Pooja is amazing at action. Until now, the best martial arts action I'd seen in an Indian film was in James (2006) from Mohit Alawat, who is not a martial artist but could look like one thanks to great fight choreographers. Pooja and RGV have worked with professional Chinese martial arts film choreographers for this film and it shows, but few, if any other Indian actresses or even male actors could have pulled off what we've already seen from Pooja, let alone their own stunts. No Akshaye Kumar fight scene in history has ever looked as convincing as anything from LADKI's trailers, even if he did do them himself.
Now, if you think Pooja wearing a bikini negates any level of skill or intelligence she has, that's up to you. Clearly, she seems to be loving showing this self of her's to the world, this balance of sexy and dangerous. You can say this was only made for men, but then explain the millions of fans of Megan Thee Stallion and her music and videos? It seems even more women love her than men do!
Never mind the bikini, let's not ignore that Pooja is somehow able to fight effortlessly in traditionally Indian clothes like a sari. I haven't even seen that in video games! It makes me wonder if it'd be harder to fight in a sari or a kimono. Scientists have to get to work on this! But really, everyone noticed her fighting in a bikini but no one sees how she's actually getting messy and dirty and taking the hits too, she's not afraid to make even frightening faces in the midst of battle...
I'm still looking forward to the film since I saw the first of RGV's many trailers. As a fan of Bruce Lee films, martial arts films, Indian films, RGV's films, and now also as a fan of Pooja. I just hope there's a way to see it in 4K from here in Canada... it looks perfect for theaters, but I doubt that will happen here.
Pooja doesn't look to reach the levels of Jeeja Yanin of Chocolate fame (the making-of for that movie is brutal!), but so what? In this world we need more Jeeja Yanin of all kinds from all backgrounds... there's too few female martial arts heroes and Pooja is helping that pool grow.
I even like what I see of the story so far. It's simple, partly silly and partly serious, but it works for me. In a martial arts film, a good story is a bonus, not a necessity. I like the idea of there being a love triangle between the main gal and guy... and Bruce Lee. Her obsession over her long-departed teacher and her mortal lover is interesting and also pretty funny, and the movie knows how to subtly laugh at its self (whenever they kiss, there's an image of Bruce Lee somewhere in the background). At the same time, the movie is also about the reaction men have to her and how they are threatened by her power, so they try everything they can to reclaim power over her again... this threat against their perceived "manhood" is enough to drive the villains in this story. She puts up a good fight as she's pulled deeper into conflict with them, but it's shown realistically as she's still human and not a marvel superhero... she has to take a lot of hits to the chin, even she has to shed tears.
The homages to Bruce Lee even extend to the great music, with one song being entirely full of Bruce Lee teachings and quotes... and it manages to sound great.
To summarize, yes this is a preview, and I'm obviously positive about what I've seen so far and am looking forward to the movie. If there's any weakness I see it might be in the story and dialogue, but you can count the martial arts movies that do those things well on one hand.
Castlevania (2017)
Fine as its own thing, but it's not Castlevania (enough) to me.
I know this is a hot take even among my fellow fans of the Castlevania games, but this series has ruined one of my favorite video game series. After watching this series and never having played the games, you'd be forgiven expecting the games to be M rated and very "adult", but the fact is that most Castlevania games have ever been rated M and even those that have been were very tame compared to most other games rated M for violence as 99% of that violence is directed towards things like skeletons and monsters and any killing of humans isn't graphic or only spoken of in dialogue. This allowed me to love this series of games as I can't stand hyper violence. It boggles my mind and even depresses me how shows like Game of Thrones and Invincible can be loved by a mainstream audience. I see and hear about enough horrible violence on the news, happening in real life, to want to see it happen for entertainment purposes in a fantasy series. And even putting aside the violence, I can't even remember a single swear word in the entirety of the video game series.
And I haven't even gotten to how this series changed my perception of some of my favorite characters from the games towards a more negative opinion of them. The humor is so typical of western productions these days, a style that can only be defined by me using one word that is increasingly used by English speakers: Cringe. You can't escape shoehorned humor in most western animation in the past two decades, whither it's made for children or adults. Why is so hard for just one series to stick to a grim/serious tone without having to try to make us laugh at some point?
To justify the 1 because I couldn't give it a 0, well it mostly looks like Castlevania at least and it is animated well (although the rest of the content actually makes me wish it wasn't). It was the whole reason I even decided to give it a shot (that and positive reactions from fellow Castlevania fans... I should have learned my lesson from when so many reacted positively to the Lord of Shadow series). As far as animation goes I still prefer (Japanese) anime though because anime doesn't have the same reused exaggerated facial expressions pretty much 100% of 2D or 3D western animation has these days (you can argue "but anime has its own set of overused facial expressions!", fine, I just like theirs better then).
If this had been a new series that wasn't using the Castlevania IP, but retained the same kind of characters, dialogue, story, animation, humor, and edginess... I'd have completely ignored it, like I did with Invincible. Instead, the draw of one of my favorite game franchises drew me in and here I am giving it 1 star and a bad review, and probably upsetting most people who are reading it, or making them think I have no taste (no, you). It's pretty upsetting to think that the majority of people who know of and are fans of Castlevania now are probably only people who have seen this series and never played the games... it terrifies me to think how this could affect any future games should Konami stop being stupid (i.e. Smell the potential sales thanks to this show) and make a new one.
To anyone saying "Fine, just play the games". I have, I do, and I will. No, I wasn't expecting this series to be 1:1 with the games with their limited storytelling, but I expected the tone and style to be kept the same at the very least, that's how low my bar was, or maybe it was apparently too high with that criteria.
If one person ever upvotes this review, thanks for being a kindred spirit. To anyone else who read this far, thanks for giving my perspective a fair shake.
Lady from Chungking (1942)
Ahead of its time in some ways.
To focus on the archaic aspects of this film, like having a white man play a Japanese general (which, of course, is extremely unconvincing and just comes off as silly, on top of being a terrible practice of those decades), is to ignore what it did right and that was unheard of among other films of the time. This is Anna May Wong's film all the way, an Asian-American woman in a respectable lead role, and she does a great job in it. Her final scenes actually gave me chills. It takes a lot to make a viewer forget about the silliness of Japanese general being clearly played by an actor of European descent and put the viewer back into a suspension of disbelief. I'd say it's my favorite of her roles. And besides the general, I think pretty much every other Asian role is played by someone that's actually of East-Asian descent. And if one female action hero wasn't enough, this film actually has two women leading the turning of the tide on the fortunes of the Japanese invaders. One more issue I have, though, is of course the racist language towards the Japanese, but that's honestly just realistic and expected from anyone who faced the Japanese as enemies at the time. I was going to give this a 7, but Anna May Wong's final scenes made me push it to an 8.
Star Trek: Voyager: Someone to Watch Over Me (1999)
If I wanted to watch Pygmalion I'd just watch Pygmalion!
...or My Fair Lady! This is the worst episode in Voyager since Retrospect. I honestly can't believe it has such a high rating. It's literally just Pygmalion with the Doc and Seven shoehorned into the lead roles, leading to an out-of-nowhere budding relationship between them by the end of it... which is honestly kind of creepy with them being in both a teacher-student relationship, as well as doctor-patient relationship. And even if Pygmalion didn't already exist and the show's writers came up with it on their own, I hate the whole concept of constantly pressuring Seven to conform to society and stifling her individuality. It's amazing that Seven is actually mostly human but she's the one constantly being programmed like a robot without objection, but the Doc is an 100% AI yet behaves 100% human to a fault.
I don't watch Star Trek for stories like this. Maybe if there was a futuristic/scifi twist to the story, then it'd be worthwhile, but any show could just spoof Pygmalion like this, and many shows have to the point of it being cliche. The "B story" going on with Neelix was the only worthwhile part of this.
Star Trek: Voyager: 11:59 (1999)
Good story about ancestry and legends.
To get it out of the way, I honestly only had 2 issues with this episode. One has been brought up by other reviewers, which is the idea that Janeway's ancestor looks exactly like her. Yes, maybe for the sake of realism they could have at least tried to have her look and act a little different, but it's a minor issue that's easy to overlook. I bit more of an issue is that despite being written in 1999, the writers of this story thought it feasible that the concept of something like the Millennium Gate would become actuality as early as by 2012.
I don't understand how people can say this is a throwaway episode. If you care about the characters in the series and want to get more of a glimpse into their past histories, especially the Captain's, then this is worth checking out. It's also a very timely episode as part of it deals with a pretty hot topic at the time of it's airing - the turn of the millennium. I had to double check if this was actually made in 2000 or 2001 and not 1999 as Janeway's ancestor talks about Y2K in the past-tense the way it pretty much actually went down.
Its refreshing that there isn't some calamitous situation on the ship and yet it still turns out to be a good learning experience for multiple characters, especially Seven in her progress of relearning what it means to be human, but even more-so Janeway when it comes to the how ancestry and legends can influence a person to become who they are, and that even one simple, right choice can be just as important and influential as a lifetime of work.
Strangely, I'm in the minority both when it comes to enjoying this episode, and when it comes to my dislike of the preceding episode. As I thought, any chance of the budding out-of-nowhere and shoehorned growing romantic relationship between the Doc and Seven in the previous episode is completely ignored in this one, as if the previous episode didn't even happen, thankfully (I laughed when Seven responded to the Doc's input about his "ancestry" with asking Paris why he hadn't spoken yet). It was just an excuse to have a weak retelling of Pygmalion anyways. At least this episode can be considered an original story they actually had to write, like most good Star Trek episodes.
Kôkaku kidôtai (1995)
Best FILM I've ever seen, period. Changed my life for the better.
I've given a lot of 10s to a lot of films before, because I seek out to watch really good films from all eras and all places. Casablanca is a 10, even though I don't care much for romance or love stories, Citizen Kane is a 10, Kagemusha is a 10. But when it comes to Ghost in the Shell, there is no other film I would call the best film I've ever seen or my favorite film of all time. A lot of films affect my life, but no other film has changed my life as fundamentally as when I first watched GitS back when I was around 14, and even then I didn't fully grasp most of what the film was saying. I re-watched it over the past 20 years (once in theatres! Back in 2014) and every time I felt like I had seen it for the first time and seen it in a new perspective. On the surface you can eventually come to the conclusion that GitS is on the surface something simple - it's Sci-Fi in a near-future dystopia about cyborgs and AI, you can say it's ultimately a weird love story or a marriage story when you really boil it down. Most accurately for me, GitS is film about humanity and existence. Who are we, what are we, why are we here, what makes us human, what is humanity anyways, what is individuality? Rarely has any other film made me consider the profound the way this one does. It's not simply through story that it does this. I think most people forget what the medium of "film" is, sometimes, and this film uses it's medium to the fullest extent. The visuals, animation, music, combined with the story, paint the painting that brings up all the questions and emotions in the viewer. It ultimately all comes down to perspective of the individual, but the fact it's even capable of being what it is so to many viewers makes it a massive achievement of cinema that very few films have achieved. Even if you ignore all that, it's got the action, it's got the beauty, and it's got the thrills as well, if that's all you ask for. That's all I asked for the first time, but more than thrills, I got chills. There's been films considered weird and artsy and hard for most usual viewers to watch, but how many were that kind of film as well as satisfied as a totally understandable run of the mill action film at the same time?