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Reviews
Erufen rîto (2004)
This is the best.
This is the best anime I have ever seen. I have been frantically looking for the manga of the same title, but none have been published to date in English.
This story entwines the deepest of human (and not so human) emotions in a cruel yet truthful way. The ideas of amnesia, revenge, abuse, love, hate, trauma, racism and so on are cleverly mixed to produce a masterpiece.
This anime has the fault of having a rather... shocking first scene, and this would discourage sensitive people from watching it. On the other hand, it made me want to continue watching it more eagerly.
Another aspect I loved of this was the sceneries. You know those 'blank' cuts which are shown before any of the story occur, and serve to set the setting? Those are gorgeous in Elfen Lied. The tranquillity is astounding. I would hang one up on my wall if I could.
I also really like the music. The theme song "Lilium", sung in Latin still sends chills down my spine, even after hearing it so many times.
All in all, Elfen lied is the best anime to date in all aspects of it. 10/10. As a final note, I must confess that this is the one and only video I actually cried to at the end. Literally.
Meet the Spartans (2008)
Great failure
300 was an excellent film. Meet the Spartans was the perfect insult to the film.
As it is a parody film, it can be cut some slack with regards to the plot. However 90% of the 'jokes' were pop-culture references or parodies of films other than "Three Hundred".
Several times over the course of the film, jokes were repeated over and over again in slightly different styles when in essence being the same old thing.
One good use of this film is for interrogation rooms. Sit the victim in front of an IMAX screen and play this movie. You'll have them begging for mercy within seconds.
Beta House (2007)
A shame to the name
For starters, I would like to say that I'm a fan of the American Pie series. Even though 'the naked mile' and this one are the two worst, this one seems to be the downfall of the whole series.
First of all, the best part of the film was that it was an American Pie film, which is always appreciated.
However, there are tonnes of bad things to say about this film. First of all, the story has a very stale 'arc' structure. First, there is the introduction of the characters, then the pledging of the beta house and finally the Greek Olympiad. Each of which has exactly 25 minutes of length. Apart from the general staleness of the plot, there is little to no character development, which makes a double whammy of a bad plot.
Apart from that, I deeply disliked the stereotyping in this film. That is, showing the jocks as the extremely cool, only-thinking-about-sex guys, and explicitly displaying the geeks as inferior. Also, it shows females only as sexual objects, and males as only wanting to treat the females as sexual objects.
Apart from that, the acting was also poor. With perhaps the exception of Steve Talley.
So, in the end, a generally horrid film, if seen from a critical point of view. If seen from a teen point of view, I guess that it's better, but this film is rated 18+ in most countries, so it shouldn't really be seen by minors.