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niibu_yaa
Reviews
The Minis (2007)
Not a complete waste
This first 10 minutes of this movie is so horribly edited, shot, and acted that I almost stopped watching. Luckily from here it gets better. Roger (Joe Gnoffo) and his friends decide to play in the Venice Beach Basketball Tournament in order to raise cash for his son's college tuition. After some convincing, they agree but are still short one player. So they try to enlist the help of Dennis Rodman. Joe Gnoffo struggles with his role at times, and gives a pretty poor performance. That said I was mildly impressed by Gabriel Pimentel in the role of Chevy. Most of the others involved did a fair enough job, with the exception of Megumi Hosogai whom was very over the top. Not sure if I can blame her for that or not. Bad direction perhaps, or maybe her level of campyness was intended. Either way it didn't work and was rather annoying. None the less, it was entertaining at times, and had a decent message.
Clown in Kabul (2002)
bathetic, maudlin, schmaltzy, mawkish to the point of being offensive.
There are several reasons why I dislike this movie. I think we're all smart enough to understand that war is a pretty horrible business. We don't need people dressed up in clown suits crying over a dying child to know this. The movie quickly loses it's point, and shifts to a 60's style anti-war romp. How many times must we watch the scene of a woman losing her Hi-Jab and becoming free. This is a scene that you'll find in Clown in Kabul. I think we even have Clowns acting it out at some point during the movie. Hmmmmm.....nice way to show how you're sensitive to the people you're trying to help. What a novel Idea: Let's send Clowns to a war ravaged country to cheer up the suffering masses....and film it so we can show others what great people we are for doing this. Why not send 1/3 the number of people over there next time, without clown suits, and a film crew. And with all the money you save, give them food and sorely needed medicals supplies instead of Balloon animals and face paint. Yeah laughter can help cure people in some ways, but no matter how hard you laugh, it won't cure hunger.
A Boy's Life (2003)
Southern Caricature
Fairly well done documentary about one southern family's life in the midst of poverty and psychological abuse. I rather enjoyed this movie, and found my self laughing at times during the opening half. Yet this is certainly not a comical movie. Early on some the characters acted so uniquely odd, so over the top "Southern", that it seemed to be staged. As the movie runs on, you realize that it is not the case. The things that seemed laughable early on, seem quite different at the movies end. The documentary looks in to several ills that seem to go hand in hand with poverty. It takes on more social problems, I imagine, than even the film makers expected. Nonetheless it gives us a snapshot, not always an objective one, at this family's life.
Fung hung bei Cup (2002)
Piggy oil
Fung Hung Bei Cup follows Mario (Frances NG), a brown nosing skirt chasing, a worker at "Piggy Oil" ointment company. Enter Yuki (Michelle Reis of Fallen Angels), the attractive new girl at work who becomes the object of Mario's affection. After making a bet with co-worker Harper (Daniel Wu), Mario takes a no holds barred approach to win her over. An approach that includes faking a brain tumor to win her sympathy. And that's all in the first 15 minutes of the movie. We follow them as "Piggy Oil" under goes new management of the owners son. Who's plans to modernize the company by replacing there obsolescent product with a series of breast enhancing creams. Here's the catch: Yuki's father is a maverick herbal medicine practitioner.
While the plot is somewhat bizarre, it settles into you basic formulaic Romantic Comedy. Fair to good performances from all those involved, make this movie a little better than your average Rom-Com fair. If you are a fan of the genre, I can recommend this over most Julia Roberts / Sandra Bullock films in the same genre. 6.5 of 10 stars.
Ngo joh ngan gin do gwai (2002)
Ridiculous, Cheesy, yet still entertaining.
Being somewhat of a film aficionado, hearing the synopsis of this film should have been enough to turn me off to it. Being a fan of Sammi Cheng I hoped that it would be worth watching, regardless of how cheesy the plot seemed. Like in all of the other movies of hers I've seen to date I was not disappointed. Something about Sammi's screen presence, makes even the most ridiculous candy coated film a delight to watch. While this may not exactly be an art film, it does stand on it's own two legs, and delivers a wholly entertaining film. In genre (ROMCOM) that has more or less been killed by banality, My Left Eye See's Ghost's manages to deliver some fresh life and originality. Granted it not mind numbingly original, but original enough to make even the auteur smile.
Sudden Terror: The Hijacking of School Bus #17 (1996)
The Horror.
This is one really pathetic movie. Snobby movie dorks across the world, like my self, probably get more entertainment out of it than anyone. If you take this movie as a play on "tv movies" then it makes it's mark. Unfortunately the people who made this were pretty serious. As for those of you wondering why anyone that finds this movie so horrible would finish it? Well it's more or less a sickness I have. Once I start a movie I have to finish it. Admittedly, in this case it was rather hard to do suchly.
Puberty Blues (1981)
Camp
This movie, as many have noted, is not exactly an example of great film making. It goes over well because of it's camp value. Scores of interesting to silly one liners, that are sure to amuse any viewer from somewhere other than the films country of origin. I originally rented this movie several years ago when I was in college, mainly because it was in the "foreign film" section. After getting over the shock of how bad the dialouge was, I started to enjoy it. To this day I have some strange desire to go to Australia and ask some if they: "Fancy a root."
Pendulum (2001)
....dang ole yee haw mate....
It is amazing how Hollywood keeps pushing the envelope on making unwatchable movies. Every time I think I've come to a new low in film making, something comes along and proves me wrong. That is the case with this movie. As many have mentioned the writting is truly bad. Couple that with less than believable performances from the cast, and we are left with a movie without a leg to stand on. The lead in the movie , who I've not seen before, seemed out of place with her poorly done "American" accent. I later found that she was from New Zealand which could be an excuse. However, I don't feel there is an excuse for poor acting. There are many English or foreign actors that can pull off the "American" accent without problem, she is certainly not one of them. To compound all these factors, they were attempting to make a film noir type movie. Something that was so poorly done, it's almost not noticeable. Later in an attempt to save the movie they add some purportless nudity. At this point I think they should have just gone ahead and made it into a porn flick, as the writting was about that level. I give this movie 1 star out of ten.....only because I can't give it a lower rating on this system.
Kuon puos Keng Kang (2001)
An Important Film
I found this movie somewhat by mistake and am glad that I did. While it may not be the best movie ever made, but may will be one of the most important films of the decade. The film is one of the first full features made in Cambodia since the 1970's when the Khmer Rougue Regime took over. In 1975 films and other cultural activities were ordered to cease, and subsequently many actors, writers, and directors were executed. Eventually the Khmer Rougue fell, and Cambodia started to rebuild there film industry. What make this movie even more remarkable is the fact that it was made without any many of the essentials one needs to make a film, or even movie theatres in which to show it. Not to mention the complete lack of acess to such things as "digital effects" that Hollywood is all to reliant on these days. Yet some how they were ale to pull it off. The movie features some beautifully shot scenery, and may be worth the price of admission for the Ankor Wat(sp?) scene alone. Although there are some problems with the visual aspects of the movie, remember the resources the filmakers were dealing with, the color is very good. Pich Chanboramey does an excellant job as Soraya (the lead), as well as the other actors in the film. This film is a must see, and is hopefully a indication of a new renaissance of Cambodian film making. In case you were wondering why that Snake hair looks so real? Well.........it's really live snakes glued and tied to a headset
Tell Your Children (1936)
"May.........May.......get me some reefers."
All the comments of about this movie being bad and poorly produced are true. But I still find it one of the most entertaining movies in the genre. Some of the lines are classic, and have been imprinted in my mind forever. Perhaps it's just me or does the piano player look a little like "Kramer" from the Seinfeld series? Perhaps a long lost relative.
Rudy (1993)
Uninspiring Drivel
This is a movie you will soon forget. When I first heard about this movie, I was in some ways excited about it. The story was penned by Indiana native Angelo Pizzo and was directed by David Anspaugh who teamed up and brought us "Hoosiers". Add the fact the "Rudy" is based on actual events much like "Hoosiers" was you should have a winning combination. It didn't take very long into the movie to find that certainly wasn't the case. The things that made "Hoosiers" so palatable were absent in "Rudy". Much of the dialog was contrived and ingratiating. Some of the scenes were so bathetic, that I felt as if they were trying to satirical. I would consider this to be amongst the worst films I have seen.
Le lac des morts vivants (1981)
Hmmm..........where do I start.
This is more than likely one of the poorest made horror films I have ever seen. There is little or no "production value' put into the movie. What makes it worse is the fact that I don't think they realized that it was this bad.