Casshern

Casshern
Japan (2004)
Starring:  Yusuke Iseya, Kumiko Aso, Akira Terao, Kanako Higuchi, Fumiyo Kohinata

Casshern, is ghost hero in local folklore from one of the small towns in this movie.  Based on an old Japanese anime this movie follows Tetsuya through the transition into Casshern where he might become the hero legend.  In this movie you will find there is a blur between being alive and being the ghost of the living.  I decided to get this movie for two reasons.  Casshern is a superhero in a sense and the imagination that goes into creating superheros is unique, so it piqued my curiosity.  The other reason is because I read about it being better then both of the Matrix sequels.

I found this movie to be extremely well put together.  The scenery and effects are masterful at some moments.  The concept of this superhero ghost is unique.  The plot is very different.  Kazuaki Kiriya filmed this movie in such a way that it made me think to put it together and afterward.  Granted I could be incorrectly projecting meaning where there is none, but that's part of why I like this movie.  The action though left a little to be desired.  It seems as if the beginning starts out great, but where great forces come into play later in the movie they are filmed with regular actions it seems - potentially a money saving venture aimed at reducing special effects costs.  Even so, if you like a semi-dark twisted sci-fi anime based superhero story check this one out.

20th Century Boys

20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End
20-seiki shônen: Honkaku kagaku bôken eiga


20th Century Boys 2:  The Last Hope
20-seiki shônen: Dai 2 shô - Saigo no kibô


20th Century Boys 3:  Redemption
20-seiki shônen: Saishû-shô - Bokura no hata


This is a series of three movies produced from 2008-2009 from Japan.  The movies is based on an award winning magna series called Yawara written by Naoki Urasawa.

When my week long venture of watching these three was over I was happy.  I can see why this might have been a huge success in Japan.  It was kind of gory and in some ways seriously creepy.  The story continuously develops and devolves as more and more information lost in the minds of the group who wrote a story during their childhood.  This is the story of one man, Friend, who climbed to the top of the religious/global political ladders and a group of childhood friends who must gather together years later to fight against the evil that Friend is unleashing on the world.  

Aside from being a super long story this set of movies was cool.  The special effects left a little to be desired and the style of filming was a little different, but all in all for another take on the end of the world it was worth the watch.  I don't think I'll watch it twice though.   

Koi Mil Gaya - I Found Someone

Koi Mil Gaya - I Found Someone
India - Bollywood
2003
Sratting:  Rekha, Hrithik Roshan, and Priety Zinta
Awards: over 15 different awards

I often look around for foreign alien movies.  In a way similar to written history I am positive that movies and other cultural media help to depict how topics are viewed within a country or culture.  I also pay attention when foreign movies show those who are less fortunate and are invalid or slow for some reason; I find it equally interesting to see how cultures around the world view and treat people who are challenged in such a way.  Another example would be one from Tibet with a group of blind children on a pilgrimage to a location in the roof of the world; that showed quite a bit of how blind children are treated in today's world - another movie for another day when I write that review.  While this movie didn't really help me to understand either from India add ten more movies like it and I might be able to extrapolate what I am looking for.  What this movie did do is to be one of the first sci-fi movies from abroad that incorporated aliens and super powers that I have found.

Rohit's father worked on programs involving contacting aliens and then fell from the scientific community after a strange turn of events.  Rohit was born challenged and finds his way through his younger years happy and care free.  Then one day he discovers his father's research and his whole world changes.

This movie was a great little family oriented movie.  It made me laugh and smile.  In short I enjoyed it!  Between Rohit's developing relationship with Nisha and children dancing and singing with aliens it was a unique and fun little move for me.  Then I discovered that it had a sequel:  Krrrish.  If I have enough time I'll get that review up tonight...  This movie does borrow heavily from about a dozen movies that I grew up watching in the US, but if you can not pay attention to that it's a good intro for Bollywood into the Sci-fi scene.

на игре / Na Igre - Gamers. In Search of the Target

на игре / Na Igre - Gamers.  In Search of the Target
Russia (2009)
Starring:  Sergey Chirkov, Marina Petrenko, Pavel Priluchnyy, Evgeniy Kharlanov, Tikkhon Zhiznevskiy, Nodar Siradze, and Aleksey Bardukov


Na Igre seems to be patterned after a guy's teenage dream; any gamer from the olden days of Street Fighter tournaments at the local arcade to the Halo fanatics of today can appreciate the concept behind this movie.

In Gamers there is a group of video game tournament winners who are given a CD.  Once played the CD programs the brain granting the skills of the games each played to the winners.  From there on out it is a battle for control of the CDs by many different parties.

All in all Na Igre was worth watching.  It was different and unique.  It is kind of amusing to watch these super first person shooters try to out smart themselves and the world around them.  There are a few things in the movie that don't really connect and make sense, but if you can forgive that and were a game fanatic - it's worth an attempt at watching.  Na Igre certainly was a difficult movie to get my hands on though.

Daybreakers

DayBreakers
USA
2009
Starring:  Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neill

Daybreakers is a modern day vampire movie.  Some of the concepts it tackles and the way the movie is presented it is not your average teen vampire flick.  This movie touches on global catastrophe, greed, corruption at the highest level, extremely twisted population control methodologies, and then of course vampires creating some action.

Daybreaks starts out by describing what the human race went through and how vampires rose to power.  With their food supply dwindling and having farmed nearly all the humans left in existence the vampire race is facing a widespread change coupled with near extinction after a decade or two in complete power.  The surviving groups of humans aren't about to give in without a fight.

All in all the movie was pretty cool.  The story was unique and the effects were fairly decent.  I would recommend this one for vampire movie lovers.

Quote: "Living in a world where vampires are the dominant species is about as safe as barebacking a $5 whore."

La Hora Fria - The Cold Hour

La Hora Fria - The Cold Hour (AKA The Dark Hour)
Spain
2006
Starring:  Silke, Omar Munoz, and Pepo Oliva

La Hora Fria is dubbed a horror, mystery, sci-fi movie.  It fits the sci-fi category; works with the mystery category; yet, I wouldn't call it a horror.

I keep an eye out and continue to look for new sci-fi and horror movies from Spain because there is something just a little different about them that I like.  Maybe I'll figure it out in the next 5 or 10 of them that I come across.  It could be that I understand about 85% of Spanish movies in their native language so a little less is lost in translation.

La Hora Fria is no exception.  The movie followed suite with a post apocalyptic theme, a little creepiness, and a plot that I couldn't figure out till the movie was over.  Then this one kept me pondering the situations presented throughout the plot.  The movie twists all the way through the plot and has an ending that I didn't guess or predict.  I recommend this move for anyone that enjoy's  slower moving sci-fi and mystery movies that keep you wondering all the way through.

Quote:

Het Leven Uit Een Dag - Life in One Day

Het Leven Uit Een Dag - Life in One Day
Netherlands
2009
Starring:  Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen, Lois de Jong, and Tygo Gernandt
Awards:  Nominated for Best Cinematography at Camerimage and for the Dutch Film Critics Award at the Netherlands Film Festival

Life in One Day is a unique movie.  At first I thought that it might have followed the storyline of a movie called Wristcutters, though it did show a small resemblance the movie was far from what I anticipated.

This independent film from the Netherlands explores love and relationships through experiences that take place in two parallel worlds.  One world is nearly the same as the other with a couple major differences; if one were to pick at some of the possibilities of the "alternate" world there are some fundamental issues that could be addressed, but the fact of the matter is that movies are a vehicle, a image if you will, from someone's mind as it imagines the possibilities and impossibilities in life and creates stories.  Het Leven Uit Een Dag is no exception.  This movie started out a little twisted, but surprised me as it continued.  The plot flows smoothly throughout the movie.  I am most positive I would thoroughly enjoy the movie in its native language.

The plot is that of two lovers who desire the impossible and strive towards it; this impossible being eternal love.  The story flows along this line all the way through.  There is quite a bit of eroticism, nudity, and sex through the movie - go Europeans.  How can one have an eternal love without considering sex and nudity in the relationship?  Through the exploration of life and satisfaction this movie journeys through situations ironically humorous and sad at the same time.

Het Leven Uit Een Dag, Life in One Day, was worth seeing once.  I enjoyed the movie enough that I came back and finished watching it; dread the movies that I can not do that with.

Quote:  In the world where I was born, life lasts one day.   One day in which you experience everything only once.

Cargo

Cargo
2009
Switzerland
Starring:  Anna-Katharina Schwabroh, Martin Rapold, and Regula Grauwiller

Cargo is a Swiss sci-fi movie.  With that said not many sci-fi movies have come from Switzerland.  Cargo is unique in some of the environment that the story takes place in.  The ship is cool and there are some really cool looking scenes.  Production wise this movie is visually entertaining.

I've had a problem with Hollywood specifically for the better part of the past decade though:  Hollywood can't seem to do anything original, everything is a prequel, a sequel, or heavily borrows plots and story lines from already produced movies.  This movie though far from a Hollywood production follows suite there.  The plot was paper thin and could be predicted before you were halfway through the movie.  It also borrowed from the plots of a half dozen or more blockbuster sci-fi movies ranging from the mid 50s to nearly present day.  There are a couple of blunders if one picks apart the science involved in the move, but a movie is a move some scientific blunders are acceptable in my book.

With all of that said, I am more then happy to help support independent film and watch this movie.  It does have some uniqueness about it and is unique in the way some of the material is presented throughout the movie.

Quote:  You were right, earth won't make it.

Soon to come

I have unfortunately been lax in my reviews, however I have not been so in watching the movies. Soon to come (next few days) will be reviews of Cargo, Zeitgeist, Het Leven Uit Een Dat, Strigoi, Action Replay, Ip Man 2 & 3, Black Death, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.... amongst a couple of others. Check back soon ;)

Mr. Nobody

Mr. Nobody
2009
Starring:  Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, and Diane Kruger

Mr. Nobody has a misleading title.  For a while the title sounded kind of depressing, but don't let that scare you off; the movie is phenomenal in its own rights.

The movie continuously uses Schroedinger's Cat theory as a base for a temporal exposition that left me in awe.  I am a fan of the movie on two parts.  The first is because of a foundation of physics used through the movie and the second is the story itself.  This in essence is another movie on life, but it portrays it in a very entertaining and easy to follow manner.


About all I can tell you without spoiling the movie is that it begins in the year 2092 and Nemo is the last mortal on earth.

Mr. Nobody received awards at the Catalonian, Stockholm, and Venice film festivals.

Quote: "Nothing is real, everything is possible."

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