If you like soap operas and bitchy rich women, you'll like this. That ending is so fucked up though.

How I wish Penelope Cruz could be in more movies like these instead of crap like Gothika and Blow. Nevertheless, another movie that proved she could be a good actress finally came, and in her native language which is even better.

Volver feels like two movies in one at times. One of them deals with the ghost of a mother while the other story centers on a ?murder?. Though that may sound like the movie is really dark, it?s actually more on the lighthearted and funny side. I guess you may call this a ?dark comedy?? But I wouldn?t describe it that way. I enjoyed how the movie progressed and the subplots that were later revealed to having some relation with the main story. The twists were fun, touching, and disturbing at the same time. Aside from Penelope surprising me with her performance, she looked great in every scene as well. The only scene that she disappointed me was when her character was singing. You could so tell that was not her real voice. I?m easily impressed by Pedro Almodovar once again, but it?s expected of him to make wonderful films like these.

9/10

I can't get enough of horror movies that take place in a high school. When its an all girl school, its even better! The bullies make it even more fun and when one of them dies, its pure satisfaction.

Bushinsaba opens with a couple of girls using some sort of ouija board to curse the snobby bitches that are bullying them. The fun begins and the movie entertains whenever it stays in its high school setting. Garbage bags have never been so intense! When the movie moves along to another setting, it loses steam and becomes your typical revenge ghost flick. Is it the long hair again?

Directed by Yu Wang
MPAA:R(strong martial arts violence.)

Wow, this movie was a dream come true for me. It had everything I wanted in a martial arts movie; inventive fight sequences, superb music, kick-ass characters, a strong story, and something I didn't expext was one of the most stylish and unique weapons in film history. The notorious Flying Guillotine!
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The weapon is self-explanatory. It's a chained birdcage looking weapon that has razor sharp edges and the master of the weapon hurls it around until it captures his victims head, decapitating the poor soul. The master of the flying guillotine is an old blind man seeking revenge on a guy named the "one armed boxer". But there's much more to this meaningful story that I don't want to give away. The vengeance takes place during and after one awesome fighting tournament. During that tournament I saw how much inspiration video games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat got from this film. There's a particular fighter that can extend his arms, a lot of the deaths are very gory, and one of the fights from the tournament includes an arena with spikes. The climax of the movie with the blind master and the one armed boxer was truly incredible. It was just amazing to see these two men with disabilities go at it, as if they were just like everyone else. Its hard to say who the villain of this movie is, its definitely not the one armed boxer and the master, well, he's pretty cool and at the end I felt sorry for him. I really admired this film for giving us a hard time on what character were supposed to root for.
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You have to understand the genre in order to love this like I did. Some may not like the sounds, or even some of the music. I thought the music was exquisite in helping to present some of the mythic themes and the unforgettable characters. It also helped during those long and bloody fights. This is a must see for the fans of the genre, its highly entertaining, and already of my favorite marial arts movies.

9.5/10

Fact: Both Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson single out "Master" as one of their favorite films.

Interesting?

Ab-normal Beauty is very different from your typical movie under the Asia Extreme Label. Its more about the human psyche like Audition or Vital and less about the gory goodness and creep out factor. It does have those last two things I mentioned though. The catch is that you have to wait a while to see that and follow the story of a art student that suddenly becomes obsessed with taking pictures of death.

Quite an original premise I must say. Even if it doesn't reach its full potential, the film still lives up to its title. Its beautiful in an odd sort of way. The pulsating soundtrack often was a distraction, but for the most part, it worked during some of the standout scenes that showcased the lead character going through madness.

The movie takes an unexpected turn as the climax gets going. It does feel very abrupt when it comes along, but all in all, I didn't mind much and enjoyed how it ended.

(7.5/10)

The Nameless succeeds in a way that it makes you feel uncomfortable with the use of words and atmosphere. A scene reminiscent of The Silence of The Lambs has our heroine visiting the leader of satanic cult in his prison and having one very vile conversation.

The ending has more of that and a twist that has Rosemary's Baby written all over it.

This is a movie that I wouldn't mind if it got remade. Its biggest flaw is its pacing. Its another one of those thrillers that falls apart during its investigation plot. When it gets to the scenes I mentioned, it succeeds, but its not enough to recommend the movie as a whole. I think I'd rather read the book it was based on since its a movie that relies more on words rather than tension.

Directed by Marcus Adams
MPAA:R(disturbing violence, language, and suggestive content.)

Caught this one on cable a week ago but when it was halfway through, so not knowing much about it just that it was about a mom trying to protect her bitchy daughter from a cult that kidnapped her. I really liked this during my incomplete first viewing even though I wasn't sure what exactly was going on, it still kept my attention with many of its thrilling scenes and hip soundtrack.

Now that I've seen it in its entirety, I noticed its sheer stupidness plus frustrating plot clichés. Not everything made much sense either, that wasn't because the story was too complex but simply because the filmmakers couldn't care less how its audience would take all the weirdness. Or it could also be that they didn't have any answers.

This is a decent film to see only once, not twice. I was yawning after having to experience scenes that I was already familiar with when I first saw this. The only person I recognized in this was Mischa Barton from The OC as the daugher. The mom, played by Madeleine Stowe showed good charisma during many of the mom and daughter fights. You know, the "I hate you, you never let me do what I want" scenes. Good work from both of them.

This barely gets a recommendation from me, I'm not even sure if should use the word "recommend" with this movie. But I say it's worth a look if you catch it on cable, I guess.

6/10

Memorable Quote:

Religious Man: Are you familiar with the words of Jesus Christ?
Senga(The Mom): Are you familiar with the words "fuck off"!?

Directed by Toyoo Ashida and Carl Macek
Unrated(graphic animated violence, gore, nudity.)

I wonder why adult animation has never been popular in the U.S.? After seeing such magnificent films like Princess Mononoke, Street Fighter II, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, and now Vampire Hunter D. I really want to see a teen/adult animated film become a box-office hit in the U.S.
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Vampire Hunter D is not only a breakthrough in animation, but also in horror. Of course, every vampire movie was inspired by the classic Dracula novel but Vampire Hunter D does a great job at having its own ideas surrounding these gothic themes. The movie is set in the far future in where supernatural creatures are controlling the small civilizations left on Earth. It starts off with a young farmer girl who has been bitten by a very powerful vampire for trespassing in his land while she was hunting for demons that were threatening her home. She seeks and finds D, a vampire hunter that offers to help her and kill the vampire that bit her so she can prevent from becoming a vampire herself. D stays at her home protecting her and her brother from some monsters that are attacking her farm trying to capture her and bring her to the evil vampire. We soon get to find out more about every character up to the point when we actually care about these animated drawings. The storytelling worked really well and it was what stood out for me because it was so much better than any of the other vampire action movies like Blade and Underworld.

Its an 80s movie so some of the animation may look very old and cheap but whatever the movie didn't disappoint me in that aspect. There was really nothing that bothered me that much just that it was too short and some of the voice work was lame. Other than that, this was an invigorating fantasy epic that spawned a sequel in 2000. I can't wait for that one. Vampire movies aren't made to be scary but there was this very moody and dark ambiance all the way through. Animated movies can get away with a lot of violence, in this its so unbelievable gory that if it was made into a live action movie, it would get a strong NC-17 rating. The monsters were very well drawn and they didn't remind me of anything I've seen before. This is a good recommendation for anyone that wants to experience more of the world of anime. I still haven't been exposed to many of these anime films.
8/10

I remember seeing this as a kid back in the early 90s in Mexico. All I remember is that there were a lot of crows and those pins under the girls eyes. My aunt made me close my eyes during one of the death scenes that involved scissors. That scene didn't even turn out to be all that gory, but it was still well staged and beautifully put together. All of the death scenes are like this. There is one big problem though: the music. Why Mr. Argento felt the need to use metal music during the deaths is beyond me. I did not like that at all.

Overall, the whole movie is pretty uneven. A killer that forces an actress to watch her colleagues get murdered is a nice idea. It gets way too silly at the end though and it felt like entire different movie altogether The English dubbing is really distracting as well. There was no option for Italian audio on the DVD I rented from Netflix. Lame. Next time I'll just download a torrent or something.

I was invited to a movie screening of some movie called "The Company Men" yesterday but I got there too late and it was full so the people in charge of screening that one movie felt pity for me and bought me a ticket to see whatever movie I wanted.

There was really nothing good to watch so I went to see this and it wasn't bad. I was ready to fall asleep during the first act. Good thing the giant scorpions woke me up. Nothing else in the movie is as good at that scene. I saw the 2D version. I doubt 3D would have made me like it more.