Rewatching the movie after many years, I managed to get several of the more dirty jokes that flew over my head when I was a kid and that shock me that they got away with putting them in a "kids' movie". If they had any of the more risque jokes in a modern movie aimed at kids and young teens, it would cause outrage. And with all the violence, this would have undoubtedly gotten a solid R rating, but I guess we were made of tougher stuff back in the day and didn't scare as easily--possibly it explains the way I am today. A wonderful trip down the 80s lane that is definitely worth the watch.

I really enjoy a good epic movie and this, in my opinion, ranks up there with the best of them. I think back to "Lord of the Rings", mainly because of the epic scale everything is done on, complete with a huge final battle, but thankfully ends once and not six times. Continuing on the previous entry's streak of epic filmmaking, this movie doesn't let the viewer down with the epic final confrontation. It manages to juggle several parallel storylines effectively and doesn't leave any of them to just trail off.

John Woo now has another sterling example of prime filmmaking to hang on his mantel, right next to such great gun-fu movies as "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled", earning him a spot as a top rate director and erasing such classics as "Windtalkers" and "Broken Arrow" from his legacy. This continues my personal belief that great Hong Kong directors (and Asian directors in general) should just stay away from coming to the US, because their talent gets hopelessly lost among studio executives, prima dona actors, and competition with directors whose highest achievement is music videos but who know how to lick boots. They may not make dumptruck loads of money, but at least they get to make quality product, and in the end you can't take the money with you but your movies will live on for the ages.

Apparently having learned from "Tokyo Gore Police", they stuck with a ridiculous parade of gore as the primary plot motivator here and kept the story short, sweet, and to the point: Girl who was pieced together from her 11 friends as some sort of Bionic Woman from hell seeks revenge on those who killed her. Simple, straightforward, and full of crowd-pleasing over-the-top gore battles.

The setting is the Tokugawa Shogunate of the future--who knows, maybe in 100 years they'll come back to power so we have a smattering of swords, Harajuku-inspired samurai fashions, and a steampunk sensibility. I can see this easily raising the hackles of many viewers, as its predecessor, "Tokyo Gore Police", did. There is a quirky low budget quality to this movie that either you'll embrace for its oddness or hate for the exact same reason. I immediately liked this movie, I liked "Tokyo Gore Police" as well, so maybe there is no accounting for taste. Because of the variety and speed at which the gore flies at you in this movie, we have guys getting their skeletons punched from their bodies, guys turned into fountains of spurting blood, breast balls of doom, killer fur-covered guitars, and more.

"Samurai Princess" cuts (pun intended) to the chase much faster than "Tokyo Gore Police" and has a style that honestly is second to none. It's worth checking out for gorehounds and fans of wacky cinema.

The movie is all about noises and creeping dread, something you feel if you spend any time in a big old house that you aren't familiar with. It does a good job with its 80s setting--most modern horror movies rip off 80s movies but few decide to actually set it in the 80s. A likeable main character really helps make the movie work--she isn't too much of a victim nor is she too much of a pain in the ass. She really is the glue that holds the movie together, a natural normal person sucked into a very spooky world. The ending isn't all that great. With all this build up it's pretty difficult to satisfy everybody, but it does the job pretty well.

It isn't perfect, but when compared to pretty much every other domestic horror movie I have seen this year, it beats them all hands down. This is one of those rare occasions that I have found myself agreeing with the hype surrounding a movie. Normally a movie that is hyped too much is always desperately trying to compensate for being junk, but this one actually deserves a lot of the hype it received. Not perfect, but still a very outstanding horror movie in a time when more horror movies like this are needed.

The movie is one massive build up. From the moment we see our girl sitting in her apartment staring holes through the phone waiting for the call--only to learn she has a guy tied up in a laundry bag in the background--to the climax, this movie is filmmaking gold. It also scores big points from me because I have a phobia for needles, which is good because I like it when a movie gets under your skin and tortures you, because well, it's a movie, and a horror movie at that, which is exactly what movies should be.

This was my first Takashi Miike movie (my second was "Ichi", kinda' a tone shift there), and I've been a big fan of his ever since. He knows how to make one hell of a good movie, and this is probably his finest in terms of raw, jagged, nerve-shredding terror.

The story is completely out there, and you really just need to go with it--don't think about it just let it take you on its magical, insane joyride. The movie starts off with a bang, literally. They blow a house up after a twenty-man free for all, which really should give you a pretty good idea of where they are heading. The beginning reminded me a lot of those old "WWF In Your House" ads where the wrestlers would destroy somebody's living room in the commercials.

The movie's main star, Shinya Hashimoto, a real life pro-wrestler, does an excellent job with his role, mainly because he is being himself in a more insane story than usual. It really helps the movie, unlike such pro-wrestler vehicles as "Suburban Commando", where the wrestlers are out of their element. To get the most out of this, you need some familiarity with wrestling. You need to understand the ebb and flow of its particular brand of storytelling. If you liked "Calamari Wrestler" but wanted more insane destructive fights out of it, then this will be your wacky cup of tea.

This is a movie that needs to be watched twice just to catch everything. The plot is non-linear and that will probably throw many people, especially those who are used to domestic movies with their spoon-fed plots. You need to pay attention to what's going on and allow yourself to be thrown around by the movie. I love this kind of movie that plays with time/space, but in a manageable way.

The Japanese really have a good firm hold on how to do this and do it right, with good pacing, a really darkly funny story, and plenty of surprises. It reminded me a lot of the anime series "Baccano", with its love of having a single story being told by different points of few at the same time, and times future and past often overlapping one another. It's a smart movie and I love smart movies and it is a shame that too often smart movies are hard to come by.

Yes, it is a strange statement, but this movie--a mix of 60s German Krimi films, "There's A Secret In My Soup" cannibal movies, and comedy--manages to keep the mood light and it really makes the movie work. The movie is really held together by Victor Buono, most famous for "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane", as the corpulent butcher who makes the best sausages in Vienna and the many funny outfits he wears. The movie is amazingly blood-free. All the killings are strangulations and, aside from a few scenes where meat is butchered, it's all gore-free. True, if you are a vegan you'll freak, but what can you do?

The movie has a certain charm about it, it doesn't take itself seriously and has fun with what should be a rather gruesome concept. If you check this out, be sure to get the Something Weird DVD of it so you can check out the great extras including a short called "Cannibal Massage", which is one of the oddest short movies I have seen--now that is a disturbing cannibal movie.

It is a silent film and I have found it takes a certain type of person to really enjoy a silent film. It is much more of a visual medium rather than a multimedia experience of modern film. "The Lodger" does run a little long for a silent movie, I've found the best silent movies run an hour to an hour twenty, but this one goes the feature length distance at an 108 minutes, which will be a tough row to hoe for many--especially those who've never seen a silent film before. But what it lacks in dialogue and soundtrack it makes up for with amazing visuals and some great trick effects. My favorite scene in the movie is when the lodger is pacing about his room and the floor dissolves to a clear plate of glass so the audience and the people below can watch him pace about.

Not for everyone, but I've found that I can really sink my teeth into a good silent movie, and this is one of the greats.

This is another adventure of Kosuke Kindaichi, but it is a little different because you aren't even introduced to him until almost half an hour in, and then you don't know who he is for another twenty minutes. It was a bit like Ian Fleming's "The Spy Who Loved Me". In the book James Bond isn't the main character. Rather it is one of his flings. In this, Kindaichi is leading the investigation but the movie centers around the young heir to the family fortune.

This is very much an old school style mystery movie with hidden family secrets, horrifying sins of the past, and plenty of murders, although probably not enough for a modern audience over a three-hour run time. I really enjoyed it, but this is one of my favorite genres.

I was really impressed by this one, I had been hearing the hype going on for months and whenever I hear hype I immediately take the movie down a grade or two simply because to me hype is always trying compensate for the movie's glaring flaws (this is one of the lingering effects of "Episode 1" to me, the more anticipated a movie the less I know I'll like it, thanks George). But this actually impressed me. It really taps into the fun, mischievous spirit of Halloween. It isn't too gory, too scary, or too violent, because Halloween isn't the Spanish Inquisition (because nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!). It is about tricks and pranks and spooky stories, not chainsaw massacres, so in that way I think the movie really finds its vein.

Halloween has always been my holiday, more than Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Fourth of July, or Earth Day. My holiday has always been Halloween, and a movie that loves the holiday with the same verve and gusto as me will always find its way into my heart. It reminded me a bit of a live action "Nightmare Before Christmas" in that same Halloween reverence and energy. This is a must watch for Halloween fans the world over, and is perfect viewing for Halloween night.

This movie is much more about characters than battles, although the final battle in the movie is a very satisfying conclusion. Everyone from Gene Hackman to Ian Holm to Terrance Hill does a very good job breathing life into their characters, making them more than stock war movie characters, and the movie does an excellent job of mixing things up in who gets killed when. I was not expecting certain characters to die when they did, and that kept the movie interesting to me.

It fits into the "Zulu" category of war films, where European nations are questioning their actions in colonization and what it was all for. Not explicitly anti-war as many '70s war movies were, but it isn't a glorification of it either. All in all it is a unique war movie featuring the French Foreign Legion and is worth checking out for fans of '70s cinema and war movies in general.

If you have any familiarity with the traditional format of murder mysteries, then you'll immediately catch the wave of this show as our hero makes more and more ridiculous accusations as he goes along. The campy parody premise of the show manages to maintain the humor thorough the show and keeps it from getting stale by doing something new and ridiculous each episode. From the clue gathering sequences to the riding in the car, each time they manage to keep it fresh and funny.

If you like murder mysteries (not criminal procedural dramas like "Law And Order", this is more "Sherlock Holmes" than that) and you love sharp parody like "Airplane", then you will love this series.