Thursday, April 13, 2006

yeesh

four new movie reviews are up. too lazy to post anything right now. but i would just like to congratulate gma 7 for doing a great rip-off job again. saw the teaser for the captain barbell series and noticed the obvious resemblance to the superman fan made poster that got out way back. i know that captain barbell is the pinoy version of superman and similarities will definitely surface but cant they come up with something entirely different? well, with such brains brimming with ideas, the answer's pretty easy. no, they can't. superman returns june 28.

bravo, brainless bastards.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

PULSE by jaiskizzy

Way back in dial-up internet days of japan, there was this obscure horror film entitled pulse. good thing I found a copy. The last few horror films I saw didn’t frighten me at all and Ive really missed that feeling for so long, so thanks to pulse for brining back the fear in me. The self-dialing internet, the weird internet feed, the slow moving shadow thingy, the red taped doors, the wallprints, golly good stuff. But the one thing that was burned into my brain that I’ll never forget the awe I had upon seeing it was the no-cut scene where a woman jumps off a very high industrial building and lands smack on the ground below. Coolness.

The story is complex, and told in an even complexer way, which is great considering most Japanese movies are presented in the same approach, with scenes that seem kinda detached from the flow of the story. Ive gotten used to it so much that I expect it beforehand. An example would be the scene where the computer lab chick and the loser dude go into a train station, ride the empty train, and then go back to where they’ve been. The suicide is also an example of the “detached” scene. No Hollywood or pinoy film has employed this style and made it work. One more thing that separates this movie from the mainstream ones: the lack of screaming. I know, a good scare needs a good scream, but not always, and besides, the blaring blonde bimbo can get annoying sometimes. This movies does away with that cliché and does no harm to the fright factor

Pulse is just one more evidence of the uniqueness of Japanese films. Remakes have been made but they could never really capture the odd visuals and unorthodox storytelling. In a way I think that all Japanese filmmakers had some sort of agreement that all their movies would be done in this manner, no matter how different their movies are, there’ll be this very noticeable “essence” only Japanese films would exude. Good job, guys!

The good: the scared feeling it gave me and the red tape idea.
The bad: no sudden frights, but it’s ok, I guess.
The ugly: the black ghost dude talking about death near the end of the film.
The verdict: 8 white dots.

the skiz.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

BASIC INSTINCT 2: RISK ADDICTION by jaiskizzy

the she-devil who opened her legs and showed the whole world the thing in between them in basic instinct 1: no subtitle is back for more mind games, murder and of course hot humping action! This time around, she’s making her shrink’s life a living hell as people get murdered around him like ducks in hunting season. Whodunit? Whocares?

ah yes. basic instinct. the matrix of r-rated movies. the one that our parents didn’t want us to see back then. but we were able to anyways, and so here we are with this sequel of sorts, expecting the same steam. But nah-uh, Sharon stone disappointed me. first of all, the trailer was misleading. I could clearly remember seeing a scene there that involved one lucky sonomabitch double-teamed by two women. a ménage-a-trois. a threesome. i wanted to see its entirety. but satan knows where it went, it is nowhere to be watched and enjoyed perversely in this film. That and probably a hundred other sex scenes that were omitted in the final cut. Darn. Really, it’s basic instinct dude, why else would I watch it?! Okay, there were a couple of screwings but nothing special went on. plus, they featured the old and wrinkling Sharon stone, and a nobody not worth googling for. Not happy. So the movie basically (hehe) fails to deliver what it is notorious for, and the rest just falters with it.

the dialogue was kinda good though, especially the conversations that went on between Sharon stone and the psychiatrist dude, credit will mostly go to the fine acting from both of them. Ms. Stone was mind-fuck mistress all throughout, talking to her in real life would probably have resulted in me slapping her face or my monkey. The old wrinkling lady’s still got it, I guess. The psychiatrist dude was very very… um, psychiatristic, in a slight qui-gon jinn kinda way. But I think the movie would have worked better if Sharon stone was in a lesser role and some new sexy girl was cast in the lead, with sex scenes in 75% of the movie. Make the new lead Jessica Alba and I’d pay triple.

another case of sequel failing to at least equal its predecessor. Basic instinct 1 had fucking right from the opening credits. This one had fingering in a car running at high speed. I don’t know why they made a sequel to a classic and not try to come up with something to make it as memorable as the first. pussies.

the good: the acting.
the bad: too tame, too lame. What a shame.
the ugly: Sharon stone compared to herself in the first one.
the score: 4 big ben lighters.

the skiz.