Avatar (12A)

Short review by Chris Hewitt


 Plot


When his twin brother is killed, disabled ex-Marine Jake Sully is recruited to aid a mining expedition on the distant jungle moon of Pandora as only his DNA will bond with the alien hybrid body, known as an Avatar, that allows humans to breathe the toxic air. With orders to infiltrate the Na’vi, Jake finds himself falling in love with native girl, Neytiri, and complications soon ensue…


 Review


Avatar is unequivocally, completely, 100% the film that has been percolating in James Cameron’s head for the last fourteen years. It is not, in all probability, the film that you had in yours when you first heard that the man who directed Aliens and The Terminator was returning to sci-fi with a movie so ambitious that he had to build the technology to make it happen. If you can let go of your version and embrace Cameron’s – if you’re not, in other words, one of those splenetic internet fanboy types who’ve apparently made their minds up about Avatar before seeing it – then Avatar is a hugely rewarding experience: rich, soulful and exciting in the way that only comes from seeing a master artist at work.
Let’s address the Big Question first: to use the key phrase so often used in connection with the movie, is it a game-changer? Yes, and no would be the cop-out answer, but it’s also the truth. Avatar employs technology necessary to render its largely computer-generated, 3D world that will give directors, including but not limited to Cameron, one heck of a sandbox to play in over the next few years. That’s how the game has changed off screen.

On it, it may not be a game-changer, but no director to date has built a world of this scale, ambition and complexity before, and Avatar – much as the arrival of Raymond van Barneveld forced Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor to up his game – will have rival directors scrambling to keep up with Cameron. Avatar is an astonishing feast for the eyes and ears, with shots and sequences that boggle the mind, from the epic – a floating mountain range in the sky, waterfalls cascading into nothingness – to the tiny details, such as a paraplegic sinking his new, blue and fully operational toes into the sand. The level of immersive detail here is simply amazing.
And Cameron plunges you straight in, not even giving you time to don water wings. In a dizzyingly fast, almost impressionistic opening ten minutes, we’re introduced, in no short order, to everything you need to know for the next 150: about Pandora’s climate and largely deadly population, about Jake Sully’s situation, about the Avatar programme and the ruthless plans of the human invaders (led by Stephen Lang’s Col. Quaritch and Giovanni Ribisi’s Selfridge, a clear nod to Aliens’ Carter Burke, one of several touches reminiscent of Cameron’s earlier masterpiece). And then we’re off and running, literally, into an action sequence where Jake-Avatar barely survives encounters with unfriendly local wildlife that would make Ray Mears cream his shorts.

And it’s here where Cameron begins the detour from the all-out actionfest that many might have expected, choosing instead to slow things down over a three-month time period in which Jake – hair and beard markedly growing in the live-action sequences – immerses himself in the Na’vi culture, and gradually finds himself losing his heart to their ways and practices, and, in particular, Zoe Saldana’s fierce warrioress, Neytiri.
The lack of a ticking clock plot device here may deprive Avatar of momentum or drive through its middle-section, but it’s also part of Cameron’s agenda. After all, he’s also the guy who directed Titanic, and Avatar isn’t just about spectacle and stupendous action (though we’ll get both in spades), but a love story. We need hardly be surprised by this – every Cameron film, even True Lies, has a love story at its core – but the surprise here is how effective Avatar’s central coupling is, the emotion between Jake and Neytiri earthed by Weta’s astonishing digital effects. You can safely stow away all that spurious crap about videogame-style effects, or blue Jar Jars: this is truly next-level stuff, which doesn't smother Worthington and Saldana under a pile of pixels, but rather teases out and enhances the emotion in their excellent performances.
The Na’vi, each of whom has clearly distinct features (no small feat for a clan of some several hundred creatures) may not always seem photo-real, but they do seem – and this is crucial – alive and extremely expressive, helped by the fact that the dead-eye problem, which has plagued mo-cap movies since their inception, has been well and truly solved.

Worthington, fully justifying all the hullabaloo about him with a controlled, charming and physical performance (both in and out of his Avatar), may have a magnificent Lee Marvin leading man monotone, but an even bigger asset is his soulful eyes, a quality that is retained and magnified in the larger peepers of the Na’vi. Jake and Neytiri’s burgeoning love is contained in the intricacies of detail in the eyes – a flicker of longing here, a widening of the pupils or a rolling tear there, that further aids the illusion that these conglomerations of ones and zeros actually exist. It’s a genuinely engaging relationship – just because they’re aliens doesn’t mean they have to be alienating.
Mind you, despite all the advances and groundwork laid, we might be not quite ready to see two CG characters effectively dry-hump each other. That’s just wrong…
But, as much as technology aids and defines Avatar, it’s also a love letter to humanity and the glory of mother nature. The analogy with the Vietnam and Iraq wars is obvious, but Cameron, in siding with the insurgents (hardly an all-American move, but then again he is Canadian), is also asking fairly complex questions about what it means to be human. “How does it feel to betray your race?”, Sully is asked at one point, but by then, Cameron’s point has been made: the humans here, Sully and an assortment of ‘good’ scientists, led by Sigourney Weaver’s Dr. Grace Augustine, aside, are the monsters; avaricious, rapacious, planet-killers. There’s never any doubt that Cameron considers the Na’vi to be more human – freer of spirit and emotion, more connected to the world around them.

At times – and this is perhaps Avatar’s biggest flaw, even beyond that bloody awful Leona Lewis song which mars the end credits – this manifests itself in New Age-y, hippy-dippy language and images that suggest that Cameron is one mung bean away from dropping out, man, and going all Swampy on our asses.
In truth, the big idea here, that Pandora is a giant mass of connected energy and emotional synapses, isn’t really all that far away from Lucas’ The Force, and works just fine in the context of a sci-fi fantasy, which Avatar undoubtedly is, but there’s a fair amount of unintentional laughter to be had from watching hundreds of Na’vi, swaying like extras from the Zion rave scene in The Matrix Reloaded, surrounding something called The Tree Of Souls and banging on about becoming one with Mother Eywo. If there’s one element of Avatar that the made-their-mind-up brigade will use to mercilessly beat the film with, even more so than the somewhat prosaic plot, it’s this.

But it’s hard to imagine even the most jaded and cynical having any issues with the last forty minutes, in which Cameron uncorks the action and shows all the young pretenders – the Bays and the Emmerichs and the Von Triers – how it’s done. The human attack on Pandora and the subsequent fightback, led by Avatar-Jake, is a largely sustained setpiece of quite staggering scale, imagination and emotion that manages to compress both the truly epic – a human attack on a Na’vi landmark that recalls 9/11 in its devastating imagery – and the thrillingly intimate, as Jake finally faces off against the excellent Stephen Lang’s Quaritch, a scenery-chewing bad guy so badass that he can breathe the Pandoran air without a mask.
It’s a relentless sequence which, while not quite matching the emotional punch of Titanic’s three-hanky conclusion, will still leave you dazed, confused but exhilarated, a feeling that will be enhanced further if you can - and we really, really recommend that you should - catch it in 3D, where Cameron’s unparalleled and meticulously constructed use of the technique expertly envelopes you in the beguiling, exotic sights and sounds of Pandora, a planet (or, to be precise, a moon) that throbs and hums and teems with life and energy in three dimensions.


It’s a world, not to give too much away, that Cameron clearly fully intends to return to and further explore. When he does, our bags are already packed.

Verdict
It’s been twelve years since Titanic, but the King of the World has returned with a flawed but fantastic tour de force that, taken on its merits as a film, especially in two dimensions, warrants four stars. However, if you can wrap a pair of 3D glasses round your peepers, this becomes a transcendent, full-on five-star experience that's the closest we'll ever come to setting foot on a strange new world. Just don’t leave it so long next time, eh, Jim?

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Sci-fi, Suspense/Thriller
Written by: James Cameron
Directed by: James Cameron
Release Date inTheatrical: December 18, 2009
Running Time: 150 minutes, Color
Origin: USA

Raging Phoenix (2009) Short Review by Nix:


Raging Phoenix (2009) 


Short Review by Nix:You can’t blame the Thais for continuing to produce action movies like “Raging Phoenix”. There are basically only two genres coming out of Thailand that sells nowadays – martial arts movies and horror films. Everything else just doesn’t translate very well. One of the industry’s newest import is female ass kicking wonder Jeeja Yanin, who burst onto the scene last year with “Chocolate”, directed by “Ong Bak” head honcho Prachya Pinkaew. The film benefited greatly from Yanin’s unassuming features. For “Raging Phoenix”, we already know the deal, so director Rashane Limtrakul and action choreographer Panna Rittikrai (another “Ong Bak” vet) had to throw us a twist – a new form of martial arts that combines Muay Thai with breakdancing. Or at least, that’s the idea.
The plot for “Raging Phoenix” is as superfluous as they come – neglected rich girl Deu (Yanin) spends her time playing (badly, I might add) drums for a pop band, when she’s nearly abducted one day while trying to drink herself to death thanks to an ex-boyfriend. As luck would have it, Deu is saved by Sanim (Kazu Patrick Tang), who happens to be hanging around when the bad guys come for our heroine. Sanim whisks her off, battling guys in pogo shoes outfitted with blades along the way. He takes her back home, or what passes for home, where Deu meets his two inebriated comrades. Sanim, you see, didn’t stumble across Deu by accident; he, along with his buds, have been tracking a kidnapping ring snatching up Thai girls for nefarious purposes for some time, and was on a stake-out when Deu stumbled into their business.
We eventually come to learn that Sanim and his pals are more than just crusaders; they are themselves victims of the kidnapping ring – men whose women were taken by the scoundrels. When it becomes obvious that Deu is the perfect bait to lure out the bad guys, she must be taught the ways of the b-boy combat arts. Which, um, happens in a couple of days. Or however long the film’s training montage lasts. To be honest with you, it’s all a little silly how easily and quickly Deu goes from bad drummer in a pop band to super ass kicking heroine. Not only does she suddenly develop amazing b-boying skills, our girl mixes them up with some primo Muay Thai striking abilities as well. Yes, this is definitely one of those, “Just go along with it” moments.
The hook for “Raging Phoenix” is that director Limtrakul and action choreographer Rittikrai have come up with an original form of combat by combining the free-flowing rhythms of breakdancing with Muay Thai. And lots of drinking. It works, to an extent, but more often than not the whole thing looks and feels clumsy, not helped by the fact that the breakdancers are probably not real martial artists, and as a result their kicks and punches don’t look quite as convincing. It’s saying something when the tiny girl actually looks like she can kick ass even before she is supposed to have been privy to the (in this case, literally) secret “sauce” of the Muay Thai fighting breakdancers.
It’s beyond reason to expect too much from a movie like “Raging Phoenix”. It’s just understood that the acting will be bad, the emotions so forced as to be painful, and plotting only necessary to get our heroes from fight A to fight B. That’s what director Rashane Limtrakul provides, and honestly, it’s more than enough to carry the day. The action is really what everyone has paid money to see, and “Phoenix” certainly doesn’t skimp on the goodies. The choreography takes some getting used to and is nowhere near the punishing type of combat we’ve become used to from Rittikrai, perhaps a direct result of having to incorporate the stylish moves of breakdancing into the mix.
Things do pick up in the final 30 minutes, when the good guys finally discover the hidden lair of the baddies (underground, no less) and converge for a final series of seemingly neverending combat. Interestingly enough, Yanin’s style seems to revert back almost exclusively to Muay Thai during the film’s latter half, which is telling. And although you probably didn’t expect for it to be any less “out there”, the bad guys are led by an Amazonian fighter wearing a bikini bra. I kid you not. She is aided in her criminal empire by two kung fu types, and her real goal for kidnapping those Thai girls? Well let’s just say I’ve never heard of pheromones being that lucrative.
A movie like “Raging Phoenix” and, indeed, a lot of the current crop of action movies that are coming out of Thailand defies the traditional review. Which is why I won’t bother criticizing the acting, or the screenplay, and just tell you that if you like the idea of little Jeeja Yanin flying around onscreen taking it to the boys, then “Raging Phoenix” is your cup of tea. Anyone who finds that notion too ludicrous, or demands an explanation as to how a rich girl is able to grasp enough of Muay Thai to take on a warehouse full of baddies after a couple of days of training need not apply.




Director: Rashane Limtrakul
Screenplay: Sompope Vejchapipat
Cast:Jeeja Yanin … Deu
Kazu Patrick Tang … Sanim
Nui Sandang …
Sompong Lertwimonkasem …

Bronze Medallist (2009) Review by James Mudge:


Bronze Medallist (2009)



Short Review by James Mudge: Its inspirational sports time again with “Bronze Medallist” (a.k.a. “Lifting King Kong”) from Korea, marking the directorial debut of Park Geon Yong, who had previously worked on the blockbuster “Typhoon”. Although its themes are common enough, the film earns extra points both for having been inspired by a true story, and for the fact that it focuses on a rather obscure sport in women’s weightlifting. With popular actor Lee Bum Soo (recently in “More Than Blue” and the teen horror “Death Bell”) in the lead role, the film also features a number of up and coming young actresses as his charges, including Jo An (“Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait”), Lee Yoon Hoi (“Perfect Couple”), Choi Moon Kyung, Jeon Bo Mi, and Kim Min Young, all getting their chance to show off their strength. The film begins with weightlifter Ji Bong (Lee Bum Soo), nicknamed King Kong, injuring himself at the 1988 Olympics and only managing to win Bronze as a result. After a number of years in the wilderness of forced retirement, he reluctantly takes on the job of weightlifting coach at a small town girls’ school. Things don’t get off to a great start, with Ji Bong being decidedly lacking in enthusiasm, and with the girls themselves being reluctant to commit to the unpopular sport, not least since it involves bulking up and putting on weight. However, they slowly get into the swing of things, and their spirit grows as they work their way up to becoming genuine contenders for glory.
As should be obvious, “Bronze Medallist” is a predictable affair, with all of the boxes of the form being duly ticked on its route from ragtag losers to potential champions. However, the underdog sports story and its upbeat, inspirational kick is very much the genre’s lifeblood and indeed its raison d’être, and as such what matters here more than originality is whether or not the film engages and offers up a set of characters that are likeable enough to root for. Thankfully, “Bronze Medallist” scores highly on both counts, benefiting from a grounded feel and from its being a largely character driven affair – thanks in part to the fact that weightlifting is essentially a sport which sees participants competing against themselves, rather than against the usual stereotypical black wearing ‘evil team’ so often seen in the genre.
Interestingly, for large parts of the film, the sport itself doesn’t even play a major role, with most of the challenges faced by Ji Bong and his girls coming through personal problems or authority figures. Lee Bum Soo turns in a good performance as the embittered coach, battling his own insecurities as he gradually comes out of his shell, and though its obvious from the start that he is a nice guy at heart, his increasing efforts to help the girls, in particular the unfortunate orphan Young Ja (Jo An) are still quite moving. With the girls themselves suffering from parental issues, bullying and boy trouble, the film arguably works more as a drama or personal journey than as a sports story in a traditional sense, though this turns out to be no bad thing, helping it to stand out from the crowded playing field. Even more importantly, this investment in its characters means that the film is surprisingly affecting, and when the competitive scenes do arrive, they are all the more rousing for the fact that the viewer actually cares about the girls.
Although the film is quite harsh in places, director Park manages to keep things bright and breezy for the most part, and whilst things are played straight rather than wacky, it is light hearted and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Thankfully, he refrains from including much in the way of overt comedy, though there is plenty of music and the expected training montages, which given the nature of the sport tend to be quite outlandish. Crucially, he manages to achieve the all important sense of camaraderie needed to lift the film, with the characters all supporting each other through trials both sporting and teenage girl related. As a result, the film is one of the few of its kind to be not only exciting and emotive, but also believable.
Thanks to this, “Bronze Medallist” is certainly one of the more rewarding films of its kind, and should be enjoyed even by those who normally steer clear of clichéd underdog sports stories. Anchored by a strong lead turn from Lee Bum Soo and a well developed set of characters, although the film doesn’t offer anything new, it grips and entertains throughout in a way which so many other similarly themed efforts fail to.







Director:Geon-yong Park
Screenplay:Geon-yong Park, Se-yeong Bae
Cast: Beom-su Lee … Olympic bronze medalist
An Jo … Park Yeong-ja
Yoon-hoi Lee … Song Min-hee
Moon-kyeong Choi … Seo Yeo-soon
Bo-mi Jeon … Bbang-sun-ee


Samurai Princess (2009) Review by James Mudge:


Samurai Princess (2009)




Short Review by James Mudge: More Japanese gore madness arrives from 4Digital Asia in the shapely form of “Samurai Princess”, the cover art not coincidently bearing a striking resemblance to that of its recent sister in slaughter, “Chanbara Beauty”. The film’s pedigree should certainly give fans of the form reason to be excited, with it having been directed by Kengo Kaji, the co-writer of “Tokyo Gore Police”, and featuring effects by Yoshihiro Mishimura, the director of said genre highpoint. Also likely to be of no small enticement is the presence of AV actress Aino Kishi in the lead role, with support from fellow AV star Mihiro (recently in the horror “The Cruel Restaurant”).
The film’s plot is essentially nonsense, with Aino Kishi playing neither a samurai nor a princess, but an android killing machine stitched together from the parts of eleven young girls who were raped and killed by a particularly nasty gang of miscreants. Brought back to life by a mad scientist, she sets off on the usual revenge spree, slicing and dicing her way through hordes of strangely clad enemies and bizarre villains.
Given its director and the involvement of Yoshihiro Mishimura, most viewers should know well in advance whether or not “Samurai Princess” is likely to be a film for them. For those who don’t, or for the curious, the first 5 minutes of the film will make things abundantly clear one way or the other, featuring such delightful scenes as the heroine removing a man’s brain to quite literally read his mind and her detaching her breasts to hurl at her enemies. Certainly, the film is bloody even by the standards of the genre, packing in an impressive amount of dismemberment, evisceration, mutilation and shots of characters being torn apart by freakish villains with weapons for body parts.
However, as with many of its peers, the violence is incredibly cartoonish, and hard to take seriously, and although the effects are imaginative and well-handled, they are about as convincing as those in one of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ gore opuses. Of course, this is by no means a bad thing, and the film is a great deal of fun, and although it doesn’t quite scale the giddy heights of “Tokyo Gore Police”, still the form’s best example, it displays a winning sense of demented creativity and an entertainingly grotesque predilection for the misuse of limbs and internal organs. If anything, the lack of real sadism is to the film’s benefit, making for guilt free enjoyment and a number of genuinely jaw droppingly amusing moments.
The film does suffer from many of the pitfalls common to the genre, mainly in that it looks rather amateurish and cheap. Although Kaji has obviously put some effort into the film’s mythology, its crazy half-defined future setting and the characters’ back stories, it all kind of gets lost thanks to the low budget, which aside from the effects didn’t seem cover more than people in outlandish costumes wandering around the woods. His direction is wild and unfocused rather than kinetic, though generally enthusiastic enough to inject a certain energy into the proceedings, especially during the insane fight scenes.
Unsurprisingly, the acting is mostly poor, with most of the cast attempting to get by with wide eyed stares, odd face pulling and mock hysterical laughter. Still, Aino Kishi is fine in the lead role, managing a pleasing mixture of cuteness and psychotic violence likely to endear herself to male viewers – not least since the film does feature a few flashes of female nudity, as well as a reasonably graphic and excellently gratuitous sex scene halfway through. However, to call the film erotic horror would seriously be pushing it, as it for the most part Kaji avoids the kind of perversion and twisted sex seen in some of its peers.
All of these are minor criticisms, with the gore factor and general insanity being the main draws, and for fans of the form “Samurai Princess” certainly more than delivers. Definitely one of the better and livelier examples of Japanese extreme cinema, it offers cheerfully sick entertainment for those with strong stomachs and a fondness for low budget wackiness.





 Director:Kengo Kaji
Screenplay: Sôtarô Hayashi, Kengo Kaji 
Genre: Action
Release Date: 2009
Run Time: 83 min
Cast: Yû Aiba, Takeshi Ayabe, Miki Hirase, Mitsuru Karahashi, Asuka Kataoka, Aino Kishi, Mihiro, Dai Mizuno, Mao Shiina

Cyborg She (2008) Review by James Mudge:


Cyborg She (2008)



Short Review by James Mudge: “Cyborg She” sees Korean director Kwak Jae Yong of “My Sassy Girl” fame switching to Japanese for a genre blending romantic comedy that adds a science fiction, time travelling twist to his usual formula. Also known as “My Girlfriend is a Cyborg”, the film is not to be confused with “Oldboy” director Park Chan Wook’s “I’m a Cyborg but that’s OK”, with which it shares a vaguely similar premise. If anything, Kwak’s film is even wackier and more oddball, managing to throw in pretty much everything imaginable, whilst still remaining not only highly enjoyable, but also surprisingly moving. Having been a popular hit in Asia, the film finally arrives on region 2 DVD via 4Digital Asia, coming with a host of features including a making of documentary, various interviews and press spots, plus featurettes on its special effects.
The film begins with a lonely Tokyo student called Jiro (Keisuke Koide, also in “Gokusen: The Movie”), who spends his birthday every year by himself at the same restaurant. One year, he spots a strange girl (the gorgeous Haruka Ayase, recently in “Ichi” and “Hero”) stealing clothes from a department store, who later shows up at his dinner table. The two spend a crazy night together, only for her to disappear under strange circumstances. She shows up on the same day the next year, saving him from a crazed gunman, and revealing to him that she is in fact an android from the future, built by his future self and sent back to save him. This time she sticks around to move in and take care of him, and inevitably the two begin to form a relationship of sorts. Unfortunately, as she is only too aware, the future holds unpleasant revelations, and the road to robot romance is by no means an easy one.
Unsurprisingly, “Cyborg She” is very similar to “My Sassy Girl” – in fact, “My Sassy Cyborg” would have been a fitting title. Certainly, Haruka Ayase’s character basically behaves in a very similar manner to Jeon Ji Hyun, acting kooky and aggressive, beating Jiro up, doing amusingly inappropriate things, and getting drunk. Jiro himself is exactly the kind of protagonist favoured by Kwak, being a very familiar loser nerd type. As such, his meeting an impossibly beautiful woman who quite literally has to fall for him smacks of male wish-fulfilment, though in a sweetly innocent rather than dishonest or sleazy fashion – despite the fact that his reaction upon finding out that she is a robot is to ask her whether her breasts are real and if she is able to have sex. Her android powers do make for a few twists on the formula, or at least see the director having an excuse to take things to a new level of super female protagonist, with her moving at incredible speeds, and throwing people through the air or zapping them with electricity. Thankfully, Ayase is note perfect in the lead role, not only being incredibly cute, even when acting violent, but also adding a real sense of fun, and even a touch of emotional depth.
Kwak is one of the few directors to show a talent for balancing comedy, characters and romance in this fashion and the film is genuinely quite moving, if in a rather manipulative fashion. As such, although things do get overly melodramatic towards the end, with some obvious yanks at the heartstrings and gratuitous montage scenes, the film never crosses the line into cheap sentiment. This having been said, he does tend to use the time travel element to wallow in nostalgia, for example during a laughably tangential trip to Jiro’s old home town, complete with misty streets, bizarrely friendly people and of course, sappy music.
Wisely, Kwak never seems to take things too seriously, and for every moment of emotional high camp he throws in some fun special effects. The last act of the film is actually quite spectacular, as it shifts gears and heads into disaster movie territory. The film contains a surprising amount of action, and is quite violent at times, as a gunman opens fire in restaurant and tries to burn people to death, and a knife maniac goes on a rampage at a girls’ school. There is also a fair amount of comedy, and though most of it comes in the form of basic slapstick, it works well enough, with a few standout gags including a great scene involving Ayase robot dancing. Kwak’s scattershot approach proves a good fit for the material, distracting from the inherent predictability of the plot, which frequently and in heavy handed style signposts events and motifs which will be revisited later for ironic reasons and in a vaguely annoying manner. This having been said, the last 15 minutes or so are pretty off the wall, and whilst it is debatable whether or not they are really needed, do help to end the film on an odd, if saccharine note.
Still, this is only to be expected from Kwak, and on the whole “Cyborg She” is one of his better and more charming efforts. Successfully combining science fiction, comedy, romance and more is no mean feat in itself, and the film makes for entertaining viewing throughout, in no small part thanks to Haruka Ayase’s wonderful turn in the titular role.







Director: Jae-young Kwak
Screenplay: Jae-young Kwak 
Genre: Action | Comedy | Romance | Sci-Fi 
Release Date:31 May 2008 (Japan)
Cast:Haruka Ayase … Cyborg
Keisuke Koide … Jiro Kitamura

Automaton Transfusion (2006) Review by Scott Weinberg:

 
Automaton Transfusion (2006) 



Short Review by Scott Weinberg: There's 2/3rds of a great little indie flick to be found in Automaton Transfusion. Despite a handful of clearly evident flaws (most of which come from the inordinately low budget, and not from a lack of effort), this 71-minute zombie-fest has more than enough energy, mayhem and gore to keep the serious horror freaks entertained -- but one can't help feel that the movie was released in half-cooked form. From the truncated running time to the consistently shoddy video presentation, the thing feels precisely like the "backyard production" that it is. But having survived dozens of these (generally worthless) movies, I'd settle for the "partial" movie that is Automaton Transfusion than most of the other 'do-it-yourself' horror flicks.
You want a plot synopsis? Cool. "A town is overrun by zombies." That's literally it. We're introduced to a broadly forgettable group of characters, but don't worry about trying to keep track of the young folks. 70% of the flick's idiots are dead and zombified before they get six lines of dialog out of their mouths. A small group of survivors bolt from garage to high school to basement, and at every stop there's another (ahem) transfusion of seriously explicit carnage. What the movie lacks in plot development and legitimate characters (which is a lot), it seems intent on making up in gruesome gristle and freakish flesh-eating. (Seriously, this is one splattery movie. There's a quick bit involving a pregnant mother that threw me for a loop, and it's fun when a jaded horror guy gets a surprise.)
 Gore flick" is certainly a legitimate sub-genre beneath the horror heading, and Automaton Transfusion is most definitely one of those. It barely makes an attempt at being "scary," but thankfully it does take its zombie stuff pretty seriously. (Nothing sinks a $25,000 horror movie like a cast who keeps winking at the camera.) If you find yourself having a hard time with the flick's aggressively grungy look, just pretend you're watching a sketchy old zombie relic from 1982. Once I got used to the movie's "handycam" look, it actually added a little campy charm to the proceedings. And say what you will about the questionable acting or the almost complete lack of "plot," but for a mega-low-budget movie, the gore effects are both powerfully plentiful and surprisingly effective. Oh, and the score is quite good. That always helps.
Given the movie's brief running time and almost ridiculously abrupt ending, part of me wishes that someone had given the Automaton producers an extra 10 grand to polish their baby up a little. As it stands, it's an amusing diversion for only the most ardent of horror fans. But give these guys a half-decent production budget, and I bet they'd turn out one powerhouse horror flick. Perhaps the fact that Automaton Transfusion was purchased and distributed by the Weinstein brothers means that director Steven C. Miller will have a little more cash on hand as he moves forward on Automaton Transfusion: Contingency. Yep, the sequel's already brewing.
Fortunately the DVD extras seem intent on making up for the relatively brief movie. There's a solid 26-minute "making-of" featurette that offers a few interviews and segments of on-set footage, as well as a feature-length audio commentary from writer/director Steven C. Miller and producers William Clevinger and Mark Thalman.
The (optional) commentary continues on four deleted scenes. One of Miller's short films, Suffer or Sacrifice, is also included here, as are two music videos: "Can You Hear Me Now" by Blinded Black and "Arsenaholic" by Dancefloor Tragedy. Rounding out the (surprisingly stocked) DVD is the Automaton Transfusion trailer.

Basically, when I'm "judging" a movie I look at A) what it's trying to do, and B) what it had to work with. Based only on those criteria, I'd certainly call Automaton Transfusion movie a successful effort. Maybe not a cult classic waiting to happen, but certainly more worthwhile than most low-budget zombie flicks. And no, I have no idea what the title means.







Director:Steven C. Miller
Screenplay:Steven C. Miller
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Runtime: 75 mins
Starring: Garret Jones, Juliet Reeves, William Bowman, Rowan Bousaid





Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) Review by Stephen Holden:


  Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)



Short Review by Stephen Holden: In "Zathura: A Space Adventure," an extraterrestrial fantasy shared by two squabbling young brothers, a cavernous suburban house turns into a rickety spacecraft adrift somewhere in the vicinity of Saturn.
As the house tilts and wobbles through space, it is besieged by meteors, a demented robot and lizardlike creatures called Zorgons. Now and then, its occupants - 6-year-old Danny (Jonah Bobo), 10-year-old Walter (Josh Hutcherson) and their teenage sister, Lisa (Kristen Stewart) - must fight against fierce gravitational forces pulling them toward the void.
The intrusions, including a visit from an abandoned astronaut (Dax Shepard), are conjured by Zathura, a magical board game Danny discovers at the bottom of a dumbwaiter in the house where he and his siblings have moved with their recently divorced father (Tim Robbins).
In the enchanted limbo between waking and sleeping, "Zathura" feels both real and unreal, like a dream you could shake off at any moment.
It doesn't strive for verisimilitude. Even when its computer-generated effects are fancy, they have a homemade quality. The clunky, old-fashioned robot that barges in on the house has the grace and intelligence of a muscle-bound moron. Those Zorgons, creepy heat-seeking carnivores with a taste for human flesh, may be hideous, but they're no great shakes in the brains department.
Summoned by cards drawn by the Zathura players, the robot and the Zorgons wreck a house already riddled by meteors from the shower summoned in the first round of the game. (During the pummeling the boys cringe in the fireplace.) No sooner does Lisa wake up than another round of the game turns her bathroom into a freezer, and she becomes a rigid, frost-covered ice sculpture.
But a house, even one as battered as this, is still a home. Because Danny and Walter remain sheltered, "Zathura" gives its young characters (and the young audience members who will identify with them) the same comforting anchor as "Peter Pan," "Mary Poppins" or "E. T." The movie also richly gratifies the "if only it weren't a game" fantasy of children: not just to play a board game, but to project themselves into its world.
In the game of Zathura, a creaky metallic relic of the 1950's, winding a key activates a metal figure, which marches jerkily along a track and stops at a number, whereupon a card pops up to announce a new fantasy. The movie, adapted from a short, illustrated children's book by Chris Van Allsburg ("Jumanji," "The Polar Express"), is in many ways a sequel to "Jumanji," which also revolved around a board game.
But "Zathura" is gentler, more family-friendly and in every way better than its special-effects-clogged forerunner, which starred Robin Williams and was too scary for many children. In that mean-spirited fantasy, a jungle's worth of terrors, including lions, spiders, carnivorous plants and crocodiles, menaced the characters.
Like other movies adapted from Mr. Van Allsburg's surreal stories, "Zathura" is episodic. It has neither the grand design of the "Harry Potter" movies nor the mythological portent of the "Star Wars" cycle. Jon Favreau, in his first directing assignment since "Elf," shrewdly avoids science-fiction pretentiousness. Except for Mr. Robbins, who disappears early in the film, "Zathura" is without star power. It's left up to the young actors to carry the film, with a hefty assist from Mr. Shepard. (Ms. Stewart's character spends much of the movie cryonically immobilized.)
From the outset, "Zathura" digs into the messier stuff of childhood: fierce sibling rivalry, festering boredom and destructive impulses. The early scenes find the father at his wit's end coping with his sons' fraternal strife. Walter, who is naturally athletic, can catch a baseball; Danny, who is more imaginative, can't.
As they take their turns, and the dangers from outside worsen, the movie becomes an increasingly weighty fable about growing up. Its conventional messages would stick in your craw if pushed too strenuously. But Mr. Favreau and the screenwriters David Koepp and John Kamps refrain from overdoing the preachiness and sentimentality.
In the middle of the game, the brothers realize that to avoid being trapped forever in the game, they must complete it, and that the only way to do that is to cooperate rather than compete; it's easier said than done. Guiding them toward harmony is the astronaut, a glorified Boy Scout who bears a distant resemblance to the young, brash Harrison Ford. As the story takes a final mystical turn that links him to the brothers, the fable clicks into place.





Director: Jon Favreau
Genre: Childrens
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Theatrical Release:Nov 11, 2005
Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart







Yes man (2009) Review by Roger Moore:


Yes man (2009)



Short Review by "Yes is the new 'no'." in Yes Man, a Jim Carrey comedy that has him covering much the same ground he did in Liar Liar. It's an often engaging romance shot through with sweetness, a movie that hangs on a handful of simple, magical scenes.
The first comes when Carl Allen, a morose divorced loner of a loan officer who has let "no" rule his life lets himself be talked into attending a self-help seminar. In a room full of delirious "YES!" shouting cultists, Carl is confronted by The Yes Man himself, Terrence Bundley. The great Terence Stamp -- and his menacing, owlish eyes of many a movie villain -- hurls himself at Carl, urging/ordering him to "embrace the possible. Say 'yes' to everything!"
And the movie, based on a Danny Wallace book, written by Carrey collaborators and directed by the klutz who botched The Break-Up, proceeds to show us the wondrous possibilities in that free-spirited philosophy, and its limitations.
Carl says "yes" to giving a bum a lift. He lets the guy use his phone (John Michael Higgins is the yes "sponsor" who nags Carl into this). That leads to running out of gas with a dead phone and a sparks-flying first meeting with Allison, a real free spirit played by Zooey Deschanel.
Phony free-spirit Carl signs up for guitar lessons and Korean language classes. He responds to spam from Persianwifefinder.com. He says "yes" to a Harry Potter theme party thrown by his needy, nerdy boss (Rhys Darby). And he approves loans, every hair-brained business or personal loan pitch that crosses his desk.
All this spontaneity leads to another magic moment -- a "Let's sneak into the Hollywood Bowl and sing" scene with Allison that climaxes with an adorable Beatles duet sung on an empty stage.
Everything Carl embraces pays personal dividends. Well, almost everything. And every time he says "no" the karma goes bad.
Deschanel, she of the quirky timing and quirkier bangs, is perfectly cast as a scooter-driving flake who fronts a band named Munchausen by Proxy and leads a jogging photography club (they shoot pictures while they run). She gives the movie a shot at being as romantic as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
It isn't, sadly. Yes Man attempts to update the 46-year-old comic genius for a ruder, cruder Judd Apatow-Frat Pack comedy universe. The film surrounds him with less funny "pals" (Bradley Cooper of Wedding Crashers and Danny Masterson of That 70s Show), injects one funny but off-key sex-with-the-elderly joke and tries to make Carrey, a brilliant soloist, an ensemble player.
It's the soloist who delivers the third magical moment here, as Carl uses his guitar lessons to sing a suicidal man ( Luis Guzman) off a ledge. Carrey's comedy is aggressive but sweet. The Apatow style is crude with a hint of sweet. They don't quite mesh.
The script caves in on itself when the multiple writers (one an Apatow alum) conjure up artificial obstacles to the romance and the pitfalls of living your life through self-help slogans. And there aren't enough Bruce Almighty/Liar Liar Carrey set-pieces to give this the zing of those, his last wholly formed comedies.
But it's great to see the funnyman switch off the glum and the grim -- The Number 23, anyone? -- and embrace the comically possible again. Let's hope he says "yes" to a few more funny films before he ages out of them altogether.







Director: Peyton Reed
Genre: Comedies
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Theatrical Release:2009
Starring: Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Darby









Wall-E (2008) Short Review:


Wall-E (2008)




Short Review:WALL-E is the latest in the line of stellar features from the powerhouse Pixar. It is a romantic story of a small, lonely garbage cleaning robot that finds his purpose is greater than simply gathering trash into piles. Beautiful, charming and with an important message interwoven, WALL-E is flawless.
When the people of earth cover the world in garbage, they take off on a five year cruise, leaving behind teams of robots, called WALL-Es (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), to clean up the enormous mess. As the mess-makers live generations of their lives in hover chairs, tied to their projected televisions and easy-come food, one particular WALL-E (Ben Burtt) works diligently and becomes ever lonelier. That all changes one day when a cute, white robot named EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) comes to earth and begins systematically scanning everything.
As I watched WALL-E, I found myself taken aback by the phenomenal animation.
First, I was greatly impressed with care paid to the characters and the ambiance. When WALL-E is on earth, the lighting looks natural and radiant (even the dust is shaded properly); when he is in artificial light of the spacecraft, his appearance changes appropriately to a more artificial look. Even when he watches TV, the colors are spot on and the reflections in his eyes are bewitchingly realistic. EVE sparkles majestically in the light and appears luminescent in the dark. She is beautiful.
Secondly, the “acting” by the animated characters is beyond belief. That’s because there is very little speaking in the movie; most of the
interaction is done solely via expressions and body movements. WALL-E’s mechanical eyes appear that they should be welling up with tears when he is sad and his body language is easily the most expressive I’ve ever seen by an animated character. These animators, to me, are on the level of demi-gods – creating such realistic animated life and breathtaking scapes. It is this attention to detail that allows the
audience to believe that this world is real and that this little robot has truly come alive.
WALL-E isn’t just easy on the eyes, it is chock full of comedy antics that nearly emptied my bladder and actually caused me to snort out loud. WALL-E doesn’t really talk, so all his humor is done through his reactions to his surroundings and situation. No opportunity to bond with him through laughter was missed and thankfully the writers (Andrew Stanton and Jim Capobianco) didn’t force any of the jokes either. I’d say it is safe to say that WALL-E is the Charlie Chaplin of robots.
On top of all this, WALL-E also comes with a message about responsibility to tell children and parents alike. When you stop paying attention to the world around you and you let your chair be your entire universe, it effects more than just you. Moreover, you miss out on the things that are truly important and the amazing things you can experience when you actually live your life instead of watching it on the TV. Sneakily, Andrew Stanton (who also directed) peels away the curtain of what he feels is societal wrongs, but makes you feel good that you peeked behind the curtain. How often can we be told what we are doing something wrong, face it and still love the experience?
WALL-E stole my heart right from my chest and for that reason I rule that this movie is criminally adorable. It challenged my behaviors and for that I’m grateful. I promise you, you won’t regret seeing WALL-E.





Directed: Andrew Stanton
Genre: Action/Adventure
Runtime: 16 hrs 38 mins
Theatrical Release:Jun 27, 2008
Starring: Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, Ben Burtt, Sigourney Weaver





Vacancy 2 The First Cut (2009) Review by DVD:

 
Vacancy 2 The First Cut (2009) 
                                                  


Short Review by DVD: Every now and then I'll watch a slasher movie. So, when time came to review Vacancy 2: The First Cut, I decided it must be the right time. I didn't catch the first Vacancy film, but I knew the general idea well enough to follow where the sequel was going — especially since it was being billed as sort of a prequel. In the first Vacancy, a killer at an off-the-beaten-path motel, finds new victims and really gets into his work.
So I worked my way through Vacancy 2. Sometimes it's tough sledding for me to get through a slasher picture. It's not that I don't like blood, gore, and violence. I'm your typical American Male. I can stand a good amount of those elements. Vacancy 2 has a story that flows nicely back into the story from the first movie. Unfortunately it takes far too long to develop.
Yes, things happen.
Yes, characters fall into familiar traps found in most slasher movies.
But it really didn't get going for me until the second half when the young couple and their friend enter the picture. Then things get interesting.
The setup is simple. A couple of guys manage a small, out-of-the-way motel off a little traveled road. They have installed cameras in a particular bungalow, which allow them not only to watch what goes on in the room, but record it for a trucker (David Shackleford) and make a little money on the side. David Moscow plays the creepy hotel manager, and Brian Klugman plays the hapless hotel employee. It's sort of like a perverted version of the Three Stooges. The trucker is Moe, the hotel manager is Curly or Shemp, and the hotel lackey is Larry. They're a bumbling group who will eventually get caught.
When a killer (Scott G. Anderson reprising his role as Mr. Smith from the first Vacancy movie) checks into the hotel to take care of his latest victim, Curly and Larry call in Moe and they strike a deal with the killer. Snuff films sell even better than bad hotel camera pornography evidently.
So they cut the killer into their deal and lie in wait for some poor unsuspecting victims to be the stars of their next snuff movie. This for me was when the movie got going.
Caleb (Trevor Wright) and Jessica (Agnes Bruckner) are driving from Chicago on their way to their new lives in North Carolina. Their friend, the wise-cracking Tanner (Arjay Smith), is along to help with the move. The trio decides to check into the convenient roadside hotel for a nap and to get cleaned up for the last leg of their journey. Who knew they'd be driving into a trap by this group of psychopaths who want to film their murders and sell it for a profit?






                                                                          


Directed: Eric Bross
Written: Mark L. Smith
    Genre: Horror/Suspense
Running time: 86 minutes
Country: Cinema of the United States
Starring: Agnes Bruckner, David Moscow, Scott G. Anderson, Arjay Smith