This movie tells your typical love story of two people meeting, falling in love, going through conflict and meeting again one day.
Yes, like you havn't seen that before.. - but there is a twist! It's told using footage of 450+ movies. It often doesn't take more than a couple seconds to jump to a different movie and thanks to the great editing job this flows pretty well and isn't as distracting as it sounds. The scene arrangements even allow for certain in-jokes depending where they have been taken from. The whole thing is also more involving since there is not only the story itself you're putting together but also the context of the scenes and the quiz that runs in your brain about where it's from, where it's at and if you know X, Y or Z. The entertainment value further raises by the amount of the movies used you have seen. It certainly makes for a boss level super-cut.
The director György Pálfi (Taxidermia) put this movie together with four editors over the course of three years. It is the result of the Hungarian state funding not giving new grants for projects for a year and his reshuffeling of post-production budget he got for previous movies.
So, what will you check out next season?
Me:
Looks good
Hoozuki no Reitetsu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZZHTHUWcL0 - I could use a funny comedy
Noragami http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjSZ7X-kvi0 - a bit scared bc of two female authors but the art looks intriguing
Space ☆ Dandy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o480GrsQGmo - watanabe is back
A Love Song to a Certain Airship Pilot - I hope it's good at least...
OK
Magical Warfare http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h24ESqimig0 - staff looks promising
Nobunaga the Fool - crazy enough
Sekai Seifuku http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tujajMz2boU - director is allright
Could be OK
Tonari no Seki-kun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ufd8z0F0Uk - could be funny
Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha - looks like a shojo Gingitsune
Wizard Barristers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxx2pnBKHes - I hope this redeems Goldfish
Mikakunin de Shinkoukei http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F14JWnYSwM - looks OK
Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road - I think I will regret it
Will probably end up giving them a go anyways
Nobunagun - can't judge yet
Nisekoi - meh harem but a popular manga
Witch Craft Works http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq4fPH-It5g - eneric harem 2?
Pupa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTsUfCeQB2o - the manga isn't very good but it will be short
Sailormoon - ?_?
Pupipo - it's short
Returning & On-going
Chu2-2
Silver Spoon
KlK
Yowamushi Pedal
Nagi no Asukara
Log Horizon
Samurai Flamenco
No idea how this got favorable reviews, the IMDB rating is fitting.
"House & Home" is a predictable story that builds no tension and makes gore boring. "Mutant Tool" is trying too hard to be shocking and runs for way to long and once it comes full circle makes no sense. The last in the bunch, "Bitch" is more a drama than horror and the resolution to the story is set to a ten minute long song and has rather shacky camera work and depicts something I wouldn't attribute to people with that kind of kink... it might be the "best" one out of the three but it can't make up for the two before in any way.
The movie has some fantastic scenes, especially the space launch at the end but it is a rather uneven pace and I felt that the characters could have used some more depth. The planned second movie would have helped but that funding failure has given us Neon Gensis Evangelion so I'm OK with that!
Edit: Looks like the sequel is coming afterall. They announced it earlier this year ("only" 10 years later).
So these guys have been a bit jealous/disappointed by the fact that Blair Witch Project has gotten that popular and accused it of being a rip-off of their movie (that has been released a year before). This obviously has been denied and appart from the occult angle they're not really similar.
In this we watch the documentary investigation of already found footage of some Ghost Hunters-esque team that looked into the Jersey Devil and got killed except for one guy who ends up being prosecuted for their murders (who then died in prison). There is obviously something more to it which is what the documentarian wants to uncover.
Where as Blair Witch actually built tension, this one feels mostly like an episode of a Fact or Fiction show. I found it rather boring and there is a lot of repetition. It later on proceeds to hammer in it's message about media and tops that off with a ridiculous ending.
I'm still blinded by the strobe light but can't say I hate his style. Interesting music choices from the The Carnival of the Animals (you heard that in Harry Potter) to Goblin and ending up with A Silver Mt Zion.
An insightful documentary about movie editing including many interviews with people that worked on great films. Most of the iconic edited films get linked to films produced in Hollywood so that can be a little offputting (WWII propaganda flows into Starship Troopers for example) but it still does it's job.
Higurashi is an adaptation of an independently released horror/mystery visual novel series. While those kind of games usually work in the way that you have multiple paths you can choose (and often have a "definitive" true end after you played through all of them) this one actually has an overarching mystery behind them. So instead of getting a "mixed" adaptation or only one of them you get them all.
The basic setup for the different arcs is always the same: Our protagnonists goof around in the town of Hinamizawa in your typical 'Slice-of-Life' manner until shit hits the fan on the night of the local Cotton Drifting Festival. By no later than then someone has lost all their marbles thanks to the curse of Oyashiro, smashing all their friends to a squishy red mass.
To keep the mystery flowing each of the arcs features variations within including who will be covered in blood at the end and in each of them you learn some new hints to what is happening. Most of the arcs also get an "answer arc" to them in which you see things from a different character's viewpoint covering more ground (although only two of them are present in the first season).
If you want to know the truth behind it all you will have to watch season 1 and 2 which leaves you at 50 episodes. From that point on everything is optional. Season 3 is 2/5th fanservice and 3/5th a new arc and season 4 is just an hour long action/gore fest that isn't really in the spirit of the first two seasons.
Now the reason why I watched the show is simply because I love horror and if you see recommendations within the genre it does not take long for Higurashi to pop up. It is however not exactly what I hoped for. Due to the repetitive nature it can sometimes be tedious, especially so the "The Disaster Awakening Chapter" arc in the second season. The early parts of every arc are also often really silly.
What it really does do well is building the mystery and changing the tone from cutsey to sinister.
The art itself hasn't really aged well and isn't detailed but the expressions of the maniacs are always great and I loved how the crazies sddenly et demon eyes. The sound design is OK and I guess has many taken from the game and no one can hate on an OST composed by Kenji Kawai.
The whole thing is flawed in my book but it is an interesting ride.
PS: I called the show just "Higurashi" but the full romaji name would be "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" for the first season and the official english title is "When They Cry". If you were to translate it directly from the Japanese you would get something like "The Moment the Cicadas Cry" which sounds just as shit so yeeah, it's easier that way :)...
Based on the poster alone I thought myself this would be a more kids oriented goofy animation flick so I was actually suprised by the topics and blood present but it appears this was even rated "R" in the US. The story itself is unfortunately not that great or at least not that fleshed out (maybe that is left to the manga from the 90s this was based on), it does although go deeper than I anticipated. The real star however are the animation and music. It is similar in style to Mind Game but still more realistic. And the backgrounds, talk about a show stealer! It' worth watching for those alone. So, if you're looking for a diffrent looking animation film give it a go!
At first I was a bit sceptical since it's Karl playing Karl but if you liked "An Idiot Abroad" you will enjoy this aswell.
A pretty comfy documentary that is a lot less superficial than this cheesy poster makes it seem like.
Probably one of the worst Documentaries I've seen. No idea how much of it actually came from NHK itself (they produced it) but the music, editing and structure was awful. The even bigger issue for me was how condescending they were towards their interviewee's. I did not really trust the english dub, it feels like they added some things themselves. To be fair: they at least tried to cover different interest groups and having the author of the Higurashi series there was kinda cool.
What the actual fuck. Havn't been this mad at an ending in a while.
So yeah, this got a lot of hype in the press back when it was released here because it's basicly the only Swiss sci-fi movie... They were proud of the special effects in particular which have not aged well and I was more distracted by the balant product placement for the sponsors. Next to recycling various ideas I just couldn't get down with the badly written characters which they cemented in a scene early on which is even worse considering the slow pace.
What a turd. H20 did end it quite alright so this has no reason to exist and seemingly blew it's budget and ideas on the actors.
So I put that one on my watchlist due to some interesting sounding reviews. I was a bit reluctant due to the very graphic stills avaiable but if it isn't "mean" ultraviolence I can deal with it. Anyways, this should have been a short film - at best. There isn't any plot here and it's even predictable at times when it doesn't play the artsy card. It's raison d'être seems only to be shocking (which it isn't). Having a (unrealisticly) decomposing woman calling a guy over only to want him to fuck her seems really dumb. Not even the special effects are that great which the editing and often out of focus camera doesn't add any value to. I can imagine that this was inspired by either some death metal cover art or Merzbow's Venereology which would explain the noisy inbetweens.
Things like this are the reason why I never watched the sequels from the big horror franchises >_>... They should never have released this under the Halloween banner, would have helped already. It is rather boring and I've seen variants of this story before by things that came after it. Better watch the Goosebumps Mask episode (http://trakt.tv/show/goosebumps/season/1/episode/1) while being for kids it's still has more tension...
This seems to be not very popular ratings wise eh? I was inclined to rate it a 7 but the movie is just not that good throughout. If you're looking for a "scary" Thai horror better stay away but if you're out for a satirical take on Asian horror this should please you. Not much of this is played seriously (which is already hinted by the nurses who were cast) and there are some hilarious deaths (some of them in bade taste).
Despite sounding a lot like "Mud" on paper and even sharing one of it's kids it really is quite different. Based on a book and set in a poor town in the south Joe is a lot less romantic especially ones it goes for the ending. With solid acting all around and involving people they just picked up with even Cage being great (I know were going to get gifs from this) I was left quite pleased.
Shunji Iwai's first english feature film has some troubles translating his style to the US but it was enjoyable for me anyways. Being released two years after it's premiere kind of shows you what Lionsgate thought about the mass appeal (despite involvement of known actors like Kevin Zegers, Amanda Plummer or Kristin Kreuk). It certainly breaks the romantic trope of the bloodsucking aswell as some others along it's two hour runtime. It isn't really much about the vampire anyways but the meetings he has with the suicidal people from whom he gets the blood at the end.
This movie has the genius alternative title Toilet and Women. Now that sounds like fun, no? I'm glad they deceided against that one because "Helpless and Reckless" gives a much better idea of what it's about (but it remains true that two important scenes involve a toilet and a woman). Anyways, this is one of these raw JP indies that make you go 'WTF JAPAN'. Let's just say that our protagonist became quite distrubed and is on a free fall into the abyss. One of the core issues is incest so if that does not sit well with you don't even bother (same for scenes involving a fetus (shout out to Let's Make the Teacher Have a Miscarriage Club)..). The whole affair was directed by a woman which is maybe the reason why the boy is a bit too young in one of the backflashes which was what bothered me the most. Looking past the themes it's a well made and acted movie, it just probably won't be the cup for most people.
Rich white people being unhappy because they don't talk to each other with a lesbian twist. If only I ever once felt the thing Abby deceides to do was plausible... They actually avoided spelling things out by the characters themselves but do it with either a phone call or a quote that gets read - why not leave it be at all? That's what the actors are for.
A non linearly told revenge story that doesn't really bring anything new but works thanks to the direction. If you hate going to the dentist this will not convince you otherwise ;).
This is a rather generic movie with sometimes questionable character motivations... I guess that is thanks to the LNs it's based on. It isn't bad by any means but seeing that the screenplay was penned by Satoko Okudera who did the same for three of Mamoru Hosoda's movies it is a bit disappointing. It ends rather open ended and the synopsis for the 2014 spin-off series reads similar; it is more about the point in time rather than an actual story.
I don't know why but I somehow expected something from this. The biggest problem I had is that this seems to be targeted at a younger audience and next to this years other unlikely-father-figure-coming-of-age-movies this pales in comparison. Every non-family member seems to be in this kid's support group and it's climax is rather ridiculous... Works if you look at it as a lighthearted ?comedy? but not as a drama.
Attack on Titan (aka Shingeki no Kyojin in romaji) has proven to be one of the rare shows that sparks the attention from people who don't regulary watch seasonal anime. I mean, just look at the numbers on trakt alone: Two of the other more popular shows that started at the same time, Maou-sama and Gargantia don't even come close (less than a 100 watchers on the last episode). But not only that - even in the anime community itself it gained immense popularity and currently is still in the Top 10 on Myanimelist (kind of the western Facebook of anime). What is to take away from this is certainly that it seems to make for a good entry-level show but it's not one without flaws and I can't frankly understand why it gets that much praise (oh hello SAO!).
I first came into contact with it's manga because it ranked extremly high on Mangaupdates with some of the genre tags I browse. After reading the first 15 or so chapters I deceided to put it on hold. It didn't impress me and the art was everything but pretty (given that it was the authors first series and he didn't draw much before this). So when the show came around I saw potential for improvement given that the art could only get better plus action never suffers from being animated. This also means I had certain expectations and some of the early tension had been lost on me due to knowing some twists.
Now the story itself has plenty of shortcomings but is still entertaining. It starts out like your grimdark show about the struggle of mankind (in this case versus the titans) but it falls into the usual shonen trappings further down the road. I also find most of it's characters kind of stagnant in terms of developments and it's everything but subtle. The source material is still being published and is probably not even at the midpoint of which thr first season maybe adapted half of. This also means there isn't an ending yet. There is plenty of padding going around in the show and they added some filler to end it before the start of a new arc. I don't think the filler was all that bad but the padding put it's toll on it. Some episodes are extremly tedious to the point that nothing at all happened.
One the shows biggest problem for me comes in terms of animation quality. There are good looking scenes and the 3D rendered high-speed slides through the city on their 3DMG always looked great... it's just that it was inconsistent to the max. Quite early you begin to notice copy pasta and the worst possible use of stillframes with narration or dialogue over it. This is done a lot in the industry and it isn't necessarily a bad thing but the way they do it in this is so in your face and frequent you just can't help it. There was some talk about them lacking animators and that they were apparently looking for more but that couldn't have been the only issue. Around the episodes that relied on it the most a new OP hit the show with plenty of quality animation so yeah... The level of detail also decreased towards the end whenever it wasn't a closeup or something in the focus.
I guess this sounds really negative but I still gave the show a 7... it is just frustrating to see this hyped to the heavens when it really is far from perfect. If you're looking for an action show, sure - give it a go. It's just nothing great. I'm sure there will be more coming down the road (there have been spin-off stories already) and I cannot wait to see the train-wreck the live action movie planned for 2014 will be.
R.I.P. Moe titan.
While comicbook movies boom at the box office this one sees the first graphic novel adaptation winning the prestigé Palme d'Or.
Clocking at almost three hours this is a lenghty coming of age story coupled with the main girls discovery that she might like women too (but it really isn't about the gender in this). The french subtitle for this was "Chapter 1 and 2 and a possible end" which gives you an good idea of where the story goes. The movie lives from it's strong performances and is entertaining through out. I would lie if I told you that I never wondered where that "end" could be but it really isn't tedious.
I loved that in many scenes there was something going on in the background and cinematography was quite good aswell. Given that many scenes were more traditionally shot they could have gone for a Steadicam though.
If something caught me a bit off guard then it was the transition to the second chapter. It took my quite a while to be certain that there really was a skip (with the most obvious indicator being the hair not being blue anymore).
Now this wouldn't be a complete without the mention of the sex scenes in the movie. Those are really the thing the press loves to follow up on (just search for related news). They're explicit and let's just say that they scissor the shit out of the molds. I would agree that they might have gone a bit over the top as after a while of love making no audience will be able to prevent some giggles (for ours it was the constant ass patting I guess). Doesn't help that the author itself wasn't happy with them although they're not excatly the straight men variant either. But those are just a part of a long movie.
I felt like I'm overrating this the moment I clicked that eight but it is really solid for it's runtime - just don't expect a revelation.
I cannot help but be disappointed. Not only do I hold del Toro in high regards but the hype for this was quite big (esp. seeing the similarities to my beloved NGE in the trailers). The story, characters and acting come second the the action & CG which even doesn't always look great unfortunately. I would have probably liked it more if I saw it in the cinema but the flaws are more apparent in the living room. My hopes for a kick-ass live-action mecha are now with Oshii's adaptation of Patlabor (and it better not end up like Assault Girls)!
Let's see if I'm ready for a three hour lesbo epos..
I enjoyed myself quite a bit with Jim's alt rocker vampires. There are some clichés in there but just the direction alone makes it different. If one thing was a bit weird than it were the comedic inbetweens but this makes it a bit broader for the audience. It helps if you enjoy the music so these two hours felt like nothing (they even go to a White Hills concert).
