Anime Review - Kimi-kiss ~ Pure Rouge Special

Director: Kasai Kenichi
Length: 1 episode
Year 2007-08

So, clearly not content with torturing myself by watching an entire series that I didn't like, I decided I had to watch the special episode as well. I expected more of the same, in other words, crap. But I was pleasantly surprised by how fun it was to watch. Compared to the main series anyway.

The plot revolves around a minor character of the main series, and I was damn happy about that. I was interested in this character, unlike any from the main series, and although she wasn't expanded on in any significant way, I was still far more interested than I had been for the previous 5 or so hours of watching the rest of the anime. Love is still the main plot point, but it's handled much better. It's about a girl looking for love, not about a few school kids who happen across it because they feel like it. But even then, it's not just about a girl looking for love, it has some twists that make it interesting. Really, it's still not great, but after watching the main series I was happy for it to be better than that, and that was certainly good enough for me.The animation is essentially the same as the main series. A few mistakes in mouth animation, but nothing else significant. However, it felt better since I liked what I was seeing, rather than being bored of it. Nothing else to say about that. In fact, since it's so short, I'll say the same about the music. Same as the main series.Now, onto the fun part. I enjoyed this! well, compared to the series I did. If I watched it as a standalone I'd enjoy it less since it still isn't great in most compartments, but after watching the series this was a huge step up in enjoyment. I almost found myself caring! I'm still not advising that you watch this, but if you liked the series, you should love this.

Score
Plot 6/10
Animation 7/10
Sound 4/10
Enjoyment 6/10
Overall 23/40
Grade C

Pros
- Kind of cared about the character
Cons
- Still didn't care about anyone else

Anime Review - Kimi-kiss ~ Pure Rouge

Director: Kasai Kenichi
Length: 24 episodes
Year 2007-08

I'm not quite sure why I suffered through this. Well, that's a bad thing to say, I know why. I had to. The worst thing about this anime is the reason I watched it fully, it only gets really bad after episode 10. The further along the plot went, the less I cared about the characters, and the easier I could predict exactly what was going to happen, down to facial expressions and body movements. In the last few episodes I was barely paying attention anymore, choosing to talk to people on MSN and check my facebook and twitter. It was getting that boring.

Anyway, enough of me hating on the anime...Well, it's not actually; I'll be doing it for almost the whole review. Especially this part. The plot and, more importantly, the characters of this show were horrible. There were two characters I cared for, sort of. Well, more like one, and she doesn't even get to be with the person she loves which irritated me. There were a few minor characters I liked, but they got screen time so negligible I honestly can't remember their names. Actually, I can't remember many of the names of any of the characters. That's not a good sign really. This anime is generic. So very, very generic. Such a standard childhood friend love triangle that I was angry at anyone who approved of this anime. That being said, the love triangle doesn't show up until after episode 10 or so. That's what annoyed me most. You could almost see it coming, but you dearly hope it doesn't. When it does, you just have to vent rage at the nearest wall, or the internet. However, that's only half the story since there are two love triangles in this show. Thank god. The other is far more interesting, and surprisingly I felt it to be more realistic even if the main focus of it wasn't. I can't empathise with hyper geniuses, but I sure as hell liked Futami as a character more than almost anyone else in the show. The only problem about this second love triangle...Well, there are a few actually. The guy involved in it reminded me far too much of the lead from Fate/Stay Night, Shiro Emiya. I found myself making multiple cracks at this fact, even going so far as to renaming his two love interests to match other characters from Fate/Stay Night just so I had more fun while watching. The other problem with this triangle is that he ends up with the wrong girl. I know this is subjective, but it really annoyed me for some reason. He ends up with the far shallower character in terms of exposition, in my opinion, and I just felt sorry for him. I'm also surprised at how generic I found this anime to be. I mean, I don't even watch romance animes often, or read any romance novels. I'm not knowledgeable in them at all, but this still felt boring and predictable to no end.
I've probably insulted the plot enough. Well, I haven't, but I'll leave it alone for now. The animation was pretty good. That's all there is to say really. Nothing spectacular, nothing horrible. Actually, that's a lie. The mouth movements are pretty bad, a lot of the time sounds are heard but no movement of the mouth. But that's all that was bad really. Crying, something rarely handled well in anime was quite good in this though. I suppose that's a plus. Overall, there really isn't anything to talk about here.
Moving along, the music. Oh dear god the music. Why? Just...Why? I've mentioned generic a few times in this review haven't I? Well, I'm doing it again. Normally when I'm watching an anime, or a tv show, or anything, I'll notice the music and think 'hey, that's a nice tune, maybe I should download the soundtrack.’ Not so here. I didn't notice the music, I can't remember any of the music. I lie actually. The opening song is stuck in my head...All the first line of it that I can't skip quickly enough to get to the show. The closing song is horrible too. An extremely weak effort by anyone involved here. I'm pretty disappointed really. In my pretty unknowledgeable opinion (but still clearly correct one) music makes a scene a lot of the time, even more so in dramatic scenes or the like. So for a romance, which relies heavily on drama and caring about the characters, the music for this series just failed. It failed so very hard.So, you'd think with all these scathing comments and bad words for the series I'd have hated watching it? You're right actually. This is one of the least enjoyable animes I've ever watched. Only surpassed by another romance story called Zero no Tsukaima, but only the second and third seasons (don't ever expect reviews of them, I am not watching them a second time. Ever.) As I've already stated, this series was boring me by the end, or from halfway through really. The biggest problem is that it starts out so well, with seemingly interesting characters and what could become a great romance story, but it falls prey to bad clichés and fails to expand characters properly or in a satisfying fashion. I really can't recommend this to anyone.
Scores
Plot 3/10
Animation 6/10
Sound 4/10
Enjoyment 1/10
Overall 14/40
Grade E+

Pros
- Crying looks nice
Cons
- Don't care about the characters crying
- Or anything else for that matter

Cinema Review - Law Abiding Citizen

"Well, justice should be harsh...Especially for those who denied it to others."

Law Abiding Citizen. Plot holes, gore, and good acting galore. Well, I'm a bit generous on the acting, and overstating the plot holes a bit, but they're there. This movie will be hit and miss for a lot of people, I loved it, but I know that quite a few of the friends I saw it with didn't enjoy it that much.

As I've already mentioned, Law Abiding Citizen has a few plot holes. The biggest one is why Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) is always first onto the scene...He's a lawyer. I know that it's needed in the context of the movie, and I didn't mind it too much, but it's fairly distracting if you stop to think about it. Both myself and the person sitting next to me commented on it more than once. Aside from that, and the slightly farfetched reasoning of Gerard Butler's character, the movie flowed very well. There are some very powerful scenes, both emotionally and physically, and the themes portrayed throughout the movie are valid. Gerard Butler is the star of this movie, in more ways than one. Aside from being the main character, he plays his role spectacularly, from seemingly deranged psychotic to concerned/loving father. Every moment that he's on screen is what makes this film so good.
Where the plot is sometimes lacking in this movie, what's shown on the screen more than makes up for it. This movie is beautiful, albeit in its own special way, but that doesn't change how good it looks. Camera movement and angles are done superbly, although the use of shaky cam does obviously prelude any and all action or explosions, taking away some of the excitement. There's a beautiful explosion in one of the closing scenes that employs some great angles and slow motion. I'm looking forward to getting this on blu-ray immensely.
The music and sound in this movie are also brilliant. The soundtrack is extremely haunting, using some very strange techniques to creep you out. The fairly standard classical score is sometimes pitch changed for a second or two which really jars you, but thinking back on it, it adds a lot to the tension of the movie. In some scenes there are some dubbing issues since what's being played and what's being heard is clearly different (at least from a musicians perspective), but it won't bother many people. Aside from that, nothing stands out, but there's nothing bad about it either. Definitely a solid effort.While all of the above doesn't make for that great a movie, it was surprisingly good. I know I won't be seeing it again until it comes out on blu-ray and dvd, but that's only because of how the plot works. It's good for one use, but upon more viewings it pretty much sucks because you know what's going to happen. I was enjoying myself so much when I was watching this in the cinema, and bad plot be damned. This movie is amazingly fun to watch if you can overlook the plot holes (not really hard at all) and just love it for what it is.

Score
Plot 6/10
Visuals 9/10
Sound 8/10
Enjoyment 8/10
Overall 31/40
Grade B

Pros
- Gerard Butler.
- Hauntingly good music and camera work
Cons
- Decent sized plot holes

Cinema Review - Bran Nue Dae

"It's a bran' new day"

I'll start this review off by saying Bran Nue Dae should not have been a musical. The director, Rachel Perkins, has done a good job with this movie; it's very enjoyable to watch, highly amusing, and looks good. However, it's marketed as a musical, and at this it fails. It also fails at plot, just not as much.

This movie's plot would work well as a comedy, but it doesn't as a musical. In fact, at some points the plot seems to be rushed forward to get to a song, rather than letting songs tell the story. Actually, for a musical, not much of the plot is told through the songs really. The ending to this movie, while completely and utterly trash, is absolutely hilarious. It rushes to get plot points tied up, and does so in such a ridiculous fashion that it's impossible not to laugh. The same can be said for character development. There are at least 5 'plot twists' in the last 10 minutes of the movie and they're all stupid. Yet, they're fun. This movie can't be taken seriously, but it feels like that was intended. That's one of the best things about this movie. I was laughing A LOT at this movie, something that I really don't do that often. I probably haven't laughed so much, or so loudly, at a movie since The Room (directed by Tommy Wiseau). Some of this laughter was from ridiculous plot, but a lot of it was from the humour that Perkins wanted us to feel, and it's definately there!If you're looking for a deep and meaningful plot, go see Up in the Air, not this. Another annoying product of the musical nature of this film is that you can clearly tell the actors from the singers. Missy Higgins in particular puts up an awful performance, and in all honesty doesn't even sing that well, but I'll say more on that later. Ernie Dingo, on the other hand, puts up one of my favourite performances in a movie in a long time. He suits his character perfectly, from the rough shod look, to the off colour humour. It's clear that he's a brilliant actor, as well as his character being extremely well written. Ernie is probably the clearest redeeming factor for this movie.The way the movie looks is not very dissapointing at all. The desert outback is portrayed wonderfully in this movie. Some great shots of the desert and towns are seen, and the camera work is solid. It's not often that I feel engrossed by a set, but for some reason this movie seems exceptionally real, but that could be because I live in Australia and the architecture is more familiar to me. The use of 'shaky-cam', or handhelds, seems out of place in many of the scenes it's employed in, and really throws you out of the movie, destroying any sense of feeling that you were there, but since it's used sparingly, it doesn't infringe too much, and overall it's not a huge detractor. This also goes for some of the more hectic scenes where very fast, jarring camera movements are made, especially in dance scenes, and it feels unreal and out of place.Now to my biggest complaint, the sound in this movie. I've already mentioned that the songs had no real plot significance, and I'm going to say it again. This movie would have been so much better off if it weren't a musical. The songs are all overly digitalised, and don't fit in with the scenes they're in at all. The best example of this is when Missy Higgins is singing in a hippie van. There is no background noise that's distinguishable. Hippie vans are not quiet beasts, and any singing would not be so clear in one. I realise that the singing has to be clear, but there was no feeling that they were actually singing where they were on screen, something that really detracted from the movie, in my opinion. Another horrible by product of the musical nature of this movie is that the lip-synching is pretty awful. Within five minutes of the movie starting, I was thinking that a large majority of the film was dubbed, and not that well either. A lot of the voices sounds fake, and much of the singing is largely ignorable. The sound in this movie is a massive downfall. That being said, some of the songs were extremely catchy, and once again Ernie Dingo has the best performance with one scene featuring traditional (or so I'd assume) aboriginal dance and song. This song is probably the best in the movie, and while it still felt forced, I was somewhat sad at how short it was.

This movie, while certainly fun, isn't really worth watching. The humour is great, and Ernie Dingo is pretty much priceless, but the sound and plot just fail to engage and for a musical, that's pretty fatal. If you love musicals or movies, avoid this, it's not really worth the time. Maybe for a quick laugh if you can ignore the seriously bad plot and the way it progresses, or the essentially worthless musical components, but even then, I'd prefer to see a proper comedy.

Score
Plot 4/10
Visuals 7/10
Sound 2/10
Enjoyment 6/10
Overall 19/40
Grade D+

Pros
- Ernie Dingo
- Very funny at points

Cons
- Horrible music and sound
- Bad plot and plot pogression
- The music. It's really that bad

Cinema Review - Sherlock Holmes

"Never theorize before you have data. Invariably, you end up twisting facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."

Sherlock Holmes, directed by Guy Ritchie, is a fun and engaging watch from start to finish. Not being a Holmes fan, or at least not having read any of the books, I had no idea what to expect going into the movie. When I came out however, I was thoroughly pleased with almost every aspect of the film. I'll liken it to Iron Man due to the sheer enjoyment of it, however it isn't on the same level as the enjoyment level drops significantly after a second viewing.

The plot of this film is what makes it so enjoyable. It may be because I'm not knowledgeable about Sherlock Holmes, or mystery stories in general, but I was left clueless as to how many of the feats in this movie were accomplished until our fine Detective Holmes informed us about them with his casual wit. On the subject of Holmes' character, Robert Downey Jr. plays the part brilliantly. From his ridiculously enigmatic manner, to his over the top theatrics in solving crime, Downey Jr. has the character down to a tee. The same can be said of Jude Law as Watson, the straight man to the jokes made by Holmes, playing everything in a realistic and normal manner. The pair work off each other brilliantly, and whether that's due to the script being so natural, or the talents of Downey and Law, I don't know, but it makes this movie extremely fun.

While the characters are stunningly real, the visuals are not. There are many shots that are glaringly fake, and while I know that they can't be done with models or whatnot, the effects company could have done things much, much better. That being said, there is a glorious explosion that plays out for a long period of time that almost redeems the visuals, however it's rendered in an extreme slow motions scene that suits some parts of the explosion, but feels far too dragged out for what it is. This slow-mo fetish that Ritchie seems to have going expands into almost all the action scenes, in particular any fight that Sherlock may be inclined to choose, excepting the final battle and a mid movie one. These slow-mo 'pre-battle plans' are a fresh take on fights, but the fact that they're followed up with the exact same footage at normal speed almost ruins some of them. There were some excellent places for solid cuts to black that would have added so much to the fight, but were left to run on and ruin the pace of the scene. Depth of field was used brilliantly and was much more noticeable than in many other movies I seem to pay attention to those sorts of things in. However, it wasn't used gratuitously and it suits the scenes when it is used. The camera work in general is of a very high quality that almost makes me watch to watch the film a third time just to purely watch how the camera works in the environment of the movie.

While the slow-mo and effects ruined some scenes, the music was the exact opposite. A mix of fiddle tune and classical orchestral music is used to brilliant effect to build atmosphere and suspense, but that's what you'd expect of any good score really. What you don't expect is how brilliantly the music is used to emphasise Holmes and his strange ability to be exceedingly eccentric. One particular scene that would normally have heavy, dramatic music is instead filled with an upbeat and eclectic fiddle tune that suits Holmes so well in the scene, but doesn't break the dramatic tension that's present in the scene. The heavy cello cues that were present in many of the songs also helped the visuals on more than one occasion, particularly in fight scenes and other dramatic moments.

This movie was a delight to watch for the first time, and an ok watch the second. Its rewatch-ability is pretty low since a lot of the enjoyment comes from not knowing what's causing what, or what will happen next, but there are still some very fun moments that had me enthralled the second time, even some jokes that still made me laugh although I knew they were coming. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should, and if you've already seen it, probably avoid it for a second time until about a year after it's come out on DVD, you should have forgotten most of it by then!

Score
Plot 9/10
Visuals 7/10
Sound 9/10
Enjoyment 8/10
Overall 33/40
Grade B+

Pros
- Suspenseful and enigmatic, you won't know what's coming
- Great camera work and music to suit it
- Fun characters that will please you no end

Cons
- Only good for one viewing, after that it loses a lot of its charm
- CG is fairly obvious and intrudes on the movie at points