The idea behind 'A Tear in the Sky' is a fantastic one: Get a group of scientists, experts and ex-military men to team up and observe a UFO hotspot, using state-of-the-art equipment. The result is ultimately disappointing because the group are given an incredibly short window of time (5 days) to produce their results. Ideally, the team should've been given months, not days to observe the skies and gather evidence. It was great to see the ex-navy guys Kevin Day and Gary Voorhis being given the chance to participate in a project like this. But the quality of the findings was incredibly poor. Grainy or distant footage and small objects that only appeared on screen for a split second. If the public is going to take the UFO/UAP phenomenon seriously, we have to come up with much better evidence than this.
Reviews
10 Reviews
Freedom
(2006– )
Freedom fails to live up to the hype
2 May 2012
The fact that director Shuhei Morita only directed one 25 minute animation prior to this series, goes a long way to explaining why the Freedom Project is all over the place. The futuristic story has epic written all over it: the earth has become uninhabitable due to a massive disaster and a colony of humans living on the moon are humanity's only hope. With such a set up, the finished project is sadly less than half-baked.
Freedom has awesome set, vehicle and character design, but as it uses cell-shaded computer models rather than the traditional, hand-drawn method, it lacks the heart and the human touch that makes real animation worth watching. There's a lot of one frame shots (which to be fair Japanese anime is notorious for) sometimes subtly, sometimes it's painfully obvious.
There are 3 main characters: Kazuma, is likable enough, Biz is just outright annoying and Takeru (the main character) rebels against Eden's authorities, risks his life, and travels all the way to earth (with no way of getting back) in order to try and meet a cute girl! That's the motivation for the whole Freedom story! And if that didn't drag the series down enough, the voice acting in the English dub is terrible (the Japanese version is fine) with the Nissin tie-in easily the most awkward product placement I've ever seen. I'm sorry to say that the 10/10 reviews that Freedom has online are both undeserved, and a bit suspicious.
Freedom has awesome set, vehicle and character design, but as it uses cell-shaded computer models rather than the traditional, hand-drawn method, it lacks the heart and the human touch that makes real animation worth watching. There's a lot of one frame shots (which to be fair Japanese anime is notorious for) sometimes subtly, sometimes it's painfully obvious.
There are 3 main characters: Kazuma, is likable enough, Biz is just outright annoying and Takeru (the main character) rebels against Eden's authorities, risks his life, and travels all the way to earth (with no way of getting back) in order to try and meet a cute girl! That's the motivation for the whole Freedom story! And if that didn't drag the series down enough, the voice acting in the English dub is terrible (the Japanese version is fine) with the Nissin tie-in easily the most awkward product placement I've ever seen. I'm sorry to say that the 10/10 reviews that Freedom has online are both undeserved, and a bit suspicious.
The Classic
(2003)
The most Sentimental movie you'll ever see
4 December 2008
As a big fan of 'My Sassy Girl' I was interested to see what Jae-young Kwak would do next, and 'Classic' in a similar genre should have been just as much of a success.
The movie starts off promisingly enough. Time-shifting to tell the story of Ju-hie's mother and her love-triangle relationship with Ki-woo Lee and Seung-woo Cho. The movie focuses mainly on the 'separated by fate' relationship between Ji-hae and Seung-woo Cho, and for this reason you can't help but pine for his love to win through.
Each scene is handled delicately. In one scene Seung-woo Cho shares an evening with Ji-hae by the river catching firefires. Some time later he catches up with her by accident and hands her flowers, before Ji-hae is whisked away again. But there's only so many years of Seung-woo Cho affections being unforfilled before things start to become tiresome. Why, beside their brief encounters and letters of correspondence do the characters feel so deeply for one another?! More than Ji-hae's status as a congressman's daughter, it's her 'What do I really want?' character that stops her from choosing her man, and effectively breaking both men's hearts.
Several elements are repeated throughout the movie, and all to bad effect. One, being the constant use of the same annoying, indie song throughout the movie ... and the other the use of characters being caught in the rain without an umbrella. This in particular is done so many times, and is so asking for parody that I hope Korean comedians have really had a field day with this one.
While My Sassy Girl shied away from schmaltzy, blubber inducing moments ... Classic overdoses on them. Three quarters of the way through the movie manages to segway one cliché movie moment one after another. The separated at the train platform moment... with Ji-hae pressing her hands against the train window, then running after the train as it leaves. Then the dying comrade army moment... with Seung-woo Cho trying to resuscitate a fellow soldier by punching him in the chest, before being told 'It's too late! He's already dead!' Classic really goes on for too long, and its incessant attempts to tug at the audience's heartstrings just becomes sickening long before the story reaches its conclusion.
My Sassy Girl looks like it was a one off. This movie couldn't be further away from being a Classic, and I certainly won't be watching anything else Jae-young Kwak puts his name to in the future.
The movie starts off promisingly enough. Time-shifting to tell the story of Ju-hie's mother and her love-triangle relationship with Ki-woo Lee and Seung-woo Cho. The movie focuses mainly on the 'separated by fate' relationship between Ji-hae and Seung-woo Cho, and for this reason you can't help but pine for his love to win through.
Each scene is handled delicately. In one scene Seung-woo Cho shares an evening with Ji-hae by the river catching firefires. Some time later he catches up with her by accident and hands her flowers, before Ji-hae is whisked away again. But there's only so many years of Seung-woo Cho affections being unforfilled before things start to become tiresome. Why, beside their brief encounters and letters of correspondence do the characters feel so deeply for one another?! More than Ji-hae's status as a congressman's daughter, it's her 'What do I really want?' character that stops her from choosing her man, and effectively breaking both men's hearts.
Several elements are repeated throughout the movie, and all to bad effect. One, being the constant use of the same annoying, indie song throughout the movie ... and the other the use of characters being caught in the rain without an umbrella. This in particular is done so many times, and is so asking for parody that I hope Korean comedians have really had a field day with this one.
While My Sassy Girl shied away from schmaltzy, blubber inducing moments ... Classic overdoses on them. Three quarters of the way through the movie manages to segway one cliché movie moment one after another. The separated at the train platform moment... with Ji-hae pressing her hands against the train window, then running after the train as it leaves. Then the dying comrade army moment... with Seung-woo Cho trying to resuscitate a fellow soldier by punching him in the chest, before being told 'It's too late! He's already dead!' Classic really goes on for too long, and its incessant attempts to tug at the audience's heartstrings just becomes sickening long before the story reaches its conclusion.
My Sassy Girl looks like it was a one off. This movie couldn't be further away from being a Classic, and I certainly won't be watching anything else Jae-young Kwak puts his name to in the future.
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
(2006)
Interesting but...
26 October 2007
The story: Young-goon is a girl whose family has a history of mental illness. She ends up in a mental institution after she starts believing that she is in fact a cyborg. In the institution she meets Park Il-sun, a young man who develops a bond with her.
If you're reading this you probably already know how talented Chan-wook Park is. But 'I'm A Cyborg...' is a big departure from familiar, and (sadly) stronger territory. I'm a big fan of any film or story which is attempting to do something different. God knows, we all get subjected to enough crap at our local cinemas. The main point about the movie I need to say is, that it fails to say anything about mental illness, or create a characters that you care about.
This story has to be one of the weirdest things I've seen in years...but weird isn't enough. There's no heart to the movie...just surrealism and confusion. Confusion does seem to be the main theme of the movie. The characters all try to make sense of their own problems, but it's Chan-wook Park himself who proves to be the most confused of them all.
If you're reading this you probably already know how talented Chan-wook Park is. But 'I'm A Cyborg...' is a big departure from familiar, and (sadly) stronger territory. I'm a big fan of any film or story which is attempting to do something different. God knows, we all get subjected to enough crap at our local cinemas. The main point about the movie I need to say is, that it fails to say anything about mental illness, or create a characters that you care about.
This story has to be one of the weirdest things I've seen in years...but weird isn't enough. There's no heart to the movie...just surrealism and confusion. Confusion does seem to be the main theme of the movie. The characters all try to make sense of their own problems, but it's Chan-wook Park himself who proves to be the most confused of them all.
Café Lumière
(2003)
A test of patience...
11 November 2006
I've given 'Kôhî jikô' a low score not because it was a bad movie, but because it doesn't do anything worth praising.
I've not seen any of Hsiao-hsien Hou's work before, but for the uninitiated (me included) 'Kôhî jikô' is advertised as a homage to Yasujiro Ozu. (A Japanese director whose last film was way, way in 1962) The film is an extremely sparse work...containing very little dialogue, story, music or emotion.
Yo Hitoto plays 'Yoko' a jobless, wandering character who spends her time in her local coffee shop or loosely investigating a Taiwanese composer she likes. Tadanobu Asano plays her friend, who works in a cd shop and occasionally indulges his otaku interest in trains. And that's about all it.
We watch as Yoko drinks coffee alone...walks around...waits for a train...catches a train...falls asleep on the train. The kind of mundane reality anybody in Japan can see on a daily basis. Hou captures these ordinary moments of these characters life, but without any meaning to these vignettes it's an entirely pointless film to make or watch.
I've not seen any of Hsiao-hsien Hou's work before, but for the uninitiated (me included) 'Kôhî jikô' is advertised as a homage to Yasujiro Ozu. (A Japanese director whose last film was way, way in 1962) The film is an extremely sparse work...containing very little dialogue, story, music or emotion.
Yo Hitoto plays 'Yoko' a jobless, wandering character who spends her time in her local coffee shop or loosely investigating a Taiwanese composer she likes. Tadanobu Asano plays her friend, who works in a cd shop and occasionally indulges his otaku interest in trains. And that's about all it.
We watch as Yoko drinks coffee alone...walks around...waits for a train...catches a train...falls asleep on the train. The kind of mundane reality anybody in Japan can see on a daily basis. Hou captures these ordinary moments of these characters life, but without any meaning to these vignettes it's an entirely pointless film to make or watch.
Superstar
(1999)
Non-essential Will Ferrell movie to watch
25 August 2006
I saw this movie mainly because of Will Ferrell and boy does it deserve it's low IMDb rating. Molly Shannon manages to create a comedy vacuum around herself with NO funny moments for her central character FOR THE ENTIRE MOVIE. Quite a feat. But, the weak script can take the most of the blame. You'd think one of the writers from Seinfeld (Steve Koren) would come up with something better than this garbage. Molly Shannon french kissing a tree or a stop sign is not funny! The only kudos can go to Will Ferrell, who reprises his Roxbury-style character to great effect, silly dancing and all. See it if you must, but beware of Molly Shannon movies from now on!
Steamboy
(2004)
In defence of Steamboy...
16 August 2006
Steamboy does seem to have been overly criticised in every review I've seen. In my opinion the film should be seen more as a family friendly adventure movie rather than comparing it to 'Akira' or 'Memories'. In this genre it can be fairly considered.
The story in particular has been attacked by fanboys. If you do a story vs. animation quality argument then there is a massive imbalance between the two. But it's not a bad story. I always compare heavily criticized stories against something like 'Pirates of The Caribbean' Which is largely worshipped, but has one of the weakest, messiest scripts I've ever seen.
Interestingly the main struggle is between three members of the same family, rather than a hero and random villains. Also, to it's credit it's not immediately obvious who has good intentions, which kept me guessing. Toward the end of the movie the early excitement and momentum is lost to a rather slow and drawn out ending. Which does leave things on a down note, but doesn't ruin the movie.
Steamboy does seem like a bit of an odd choice for someone like Otomo to make. But, Otomo's not following in anyone else's path so all credit to him.
The story in particular has been attacked by fanboys. If you do a story vs. animation quality argument then there is a massive imbalance between the two. But it's not a bad story. I always compare heavily criticized stories against something like 'Pirates of The Caribbean' Which is largely worshipped, but has one of the weakest, messiest scripts I've ever seen.
Interestingly the main struggle is between three members of the same family, rather than a hero and random villains. Also, to it's credit it's not immediately obvious who has good intentions, which kept me guessing. Toward the end of the movie the early excitement and momentum is lost to a rather slow and drawn out ending. Which does leave things on a down note, but doesn't ruin the movie.
Steamboy does seem like a bit of an odd choice for someone like Otomo to make. But, Otomo's not following in anyone else's path so all credit to him.
Attack the Gas Station
(1999)
Unnecessary Korean heist movie
7 September 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I've seen a good variety of Korean movies but this ranks among the worst I've seen. The story (without spoilers)...4 young Korean guys rob a local gas station for fun. Some time afterwards the guys get bored and decide to rob the same station a second time. This time around the owner has hidden the money, so the gang decide to capture the staff and work at the station to get money.
And so the comedy ensues. Or not. The four central characters somehow all manage to act badly and be annoying throughout the movie. Seong-jin Kang is incessantly flicking his hair around and stomping around. Sung-jae Lee is pouting moodily or chewing on invisible gum. Oh-seong Yu has at least half an hours screen time where he does nothing but shout at the characters to kneel with their heads on the floors. Ji-tae Yu is unconvincing as 'Paint'.
The inherent pointlessness & stupidity of the storyline makes the movie completely un-enjoyable. Why does the station not have any alarms, video cameras or security? Why do the hostages not put up any resistance against the criminals? Why is the music so embarrassingly 80's when this film is made in the late 90's?
Attack The Gas Station reminds me vaguely of 'Airheads', which may or may not be a compliment. If you've contributed to this movie's 7.1 IMDb rating you really should be ashamed of yourself. Let's recommend good movies for fellow IMDb users.
And so the comedy ensues. Or not. The four central characters somehow all manage to act badly and be annoying throughout the movie. Seong-jin Kang is incessantly flicking his hair around and stomping around. Sung-jae Lee is pouting moodily or chewing on invisible gum. Oh-seong Yu has at least half an hours screen time where he does nothing but shout at the characters to kneel with their heads on the floors. Ji-tae Yu is unconvincing as 'Paint'.
The inherent pointlessness & stupidity of the storyline makes the movie completely un-enjoyable. Why does the station not have any alarms, video cameras or security? Why do the hostages not put up any resistance against the criminals? Why is the music so embarrassingly 80's when this film is made in the late 90's?
Attack The Gas Station reminds me vaguely of 'Airheads', which may or may not be a compliment. If you've contributed to this movie's 7.1 IMDb rating you really should be ashamed of yourself. Let's recommend good movies for fellow IMDb users.
The Island
(2005)
Pearl Habour sucked...and this does too
15 August 2005
The first 1/3 of the Island was pretty enjoyable stuff. An interesting (if familiar) dystopian set up with McGregor & Johansson as confused inhabitants of a strange community.
Anyone who has seen the trailer has a sense of 'where have I seen this before?' about the look and the premise. Michael Bay aims at making something very similar to Minority Report, with little touches of the Matrix but ends up making a longer version of John Woo's terrible 'Paycheck'. Like 'Paycheck' (with Uma Thurman) good actors are put to waste with a laugh out loud bad script. We know the two main leads can act up a storm, but with a weak script both look embarrassing and unconvincing. No wonder the producers are slagging them off for it.
In supporting roles Steve Buscemi and Sean Bean are similarly wasted. The fact that we have to put up with yet another British bad guy in a Hollywood flick is another negative mark against the film.
When The Island goes into full on chase mode after the initial set up it begins a steady decline. The chase scenes are nauseating to watch, handy cam shots that genuinely make you feel ill. There are attempts at humour and romance (which fail) and the whole film drags on past the 2 hour mark when it could have easily sewn the story up much sooner.
Oh and the film also features one of the biggest clichés in film history. The scene where the characters are viewing video camera footage, they spot something and go "Hey! Wait a minute. Rewind that tape...enlarge that area. I knew it!" An unnecessary and pointless movie. In the word of Team America, "Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?"
Anyone who has seen the trailer has a sense of 'where have I seen this before?' about the look and the premise. Michael Bay aims at making something very similar to Minority Report, with little touches of the Matrix but ends up making a longer version of John Woo's terrible 'Paycheck'. Like 'Paycheck' (with Uma Thurman) good actors are put to waste with a laugh out loud bad script. We know the two main leads can act up a storm, but with a weak script both look embarrassing and unconvincing. No wonder the producers are slagging them off for it.
In supporting roles Steve Buscemi and Sean Bean are similarly wasted. The fact that we have to put up with yet another British bad guy in a Hollywood flick is another negative mark against the film.
When The Island goes into full on chase mode after the initial set up it begins a steady decline. The chase scenes are nauseating to watch, handy cam shots that genuinely make you feel ill. There are attempts at humour and romance (which fail) and the whole film drags on past the 2 hour mark when it could have easily sewn the story up much sooner.
Oh and the film also features one of the biggest clichés in film history. The scene where the characters are viewing video camera footage, they spot something and go "Hey! Wait a minute. Rewind that tape...enlarge that area. I knew it!" An unnecessary and pointless movie. In the word of Team America, "Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?"
Save the Green Planet!
(2003)
Interesting premise, but undeniably a poor movie
28 October 2004
A summary of the plot does make this film sound interesting. It's a shame that such a bad job is done of it all. Most of the film is taken up with the capture and torture of Kang Man-shik. Which is pretty sadistic stuff, and there's no point to it.
I can't see where the entertainment in this film is supposed to come from. It's interesting for half an hour or so but it's not funny, the story is dragged out for far too long. And just when you think the movie will finally put itself to rest, there's an extra scene of gratuitous violence with no point to it. The main characters are stupid and unsympathetic and it's a thorough waste of time for any cinema fan.
I can't see where the entertainment in this film is supposed to come from. It's interesting for half an hour or so but it's not funny, the story is dragged out for far too long. And just when you think the movie will finally put itself to rest, there's an extra scene of gratuitous violence with no point to it. The main characters are stupid and unsympathetic and it's a thorough waste of time for any cinema fan.
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