Agreement:0% of 2 voters agree with JT York's reviews Location: HKFlix, CA Web Site:http://www.hkflix.com
Bio: It is a scientific fact that JT York's tears can cure cancer - too bad he has never cried. Once he did get sniffy during a screening of "Citizen Kane" and the polio vaccine was developed as a result.
Street Angels [1996] (product link) Triad / Drama "Street Angels" can be considered the lost chapter of the "Young And Dangerous" series, mostly due to the same producers taking the same songs, cartoon transitions and the inclusion of the same actors, notably Chingmy Yau and Shu Qi. The music tries to be an homage or anchor point to the "Young And Dangerous" but mostly comes off as goofy, much like Ekin Cheng's cameo in "Those Were The Days."
The movie doesn't try to glamorize the gangster life, maybe the life of a nightclub owner and madam. Some unexpected bursts of violence liven things up. It's not particularly upbeat or fun. Overall it's a typical triad movie but during the course of the movie you won't be wondering what else you could be watching instead of this. Fans of Chingmy and Shu would have a good time, partly due to Shu Qi's nudity scene.
King Gambler (product link) Action/Adventure / Crime In "King of Gamblers", gambling takes up one third of the movie with con men tricking con games in the rest. Somehow it all works to be a nice diverting adventure. After a while, it makes you suspicious about how anyone can plan anything so well, predicting the other person's move and countermove. One intentional scene of hilarity is a woman with her arm up in bed allowing you see a jungle bush of armpit hair. Not as much kung fu and gambling tricks as shown in the trailer, but still a pretty well made movie. The thrill of gambling sharks playing each other really keeps you guessing on how it'll end. Of course the crosses and double crosses help keep up ratcheting the gambling scenes in a spy thriller sort of way. Good movie for gamblers or people who love playing elaborate pranks on people.
Challenge Of The Gamesters (product link) Crime / Action/Adventure Over the top should be applied to here, from the unexplained kung-fu, gun violence, silver backed killing playing cards, the theme from God of Gamblers or Shanghai Grand playing randomly and mahjong parlor tricks. The plot is largely unnecessary because it's really forgotten by the half hour mark until brought up again at the end. Between this and King of Gamblers, this movie would rate slightly lower since it was all over the place trying to please everyone or keep everyone tuned to what's going to happen next. One thing that bugged me is that some scenes look sped up as a result of the film not having enough frames in it, so that waiters and everyone else are unusually animated. Even slow motion scenes felt speed up due to this. Overall, it's a pretty entertaining movie despite have no core.
He Was Cool (product link) Comedy / Romance In "He Was Cool", what's amazing is how accurate its depiction of how a girl can sap your strength is. During the first half, the cool guy, Ji Eun-Sung, is ordering Ye-Won around, and she grudgingly allows it. Then he has a transformation when he gets wounded in a fight; later there's an explanation about why he never allows people to become close to him. The first half will test your cuteness tolerance. You start wondering whether the film could work better if it toned downed the overwhelming puppy love aspect; and when it does, you wonder why it can't be funny again. The funny scenes in the beginning make it all worthwhile.
Overall it's pretty good, not remarkable, but watchable. It accomplishes what it sets out to be: an average romance comedy of two characters who don't particularly like each other but end up doing exactly that. Like "My Fair Lady".
Gun Crazy 1: A Woman From Nowhere (product link) Action/Adventure / Crime "Gun Crazy" is pretty entertaining. It tries to be a spaghetti western set in a dirt lot that we know is in Japan, but still feels more like the backlot of "Back to the Future Part 3". The action is decent, but the story of a stranger bounty hunter coming into town feels fresh because we don't know where it's going. The ending has been spoiled on other sites that mistakenly let it slip, but it's still quite impressive when it's played out. Not as much good as subsequent sequels, but this has the most solid story.
"Gun Crazy: The Magnificent Five Strike" is bad. When the theme song for "The A-Team" mixed with the theme song for the NFL Pre-game show is played in the background, you know that it's going to be bad. The plot is a mix of "American Ninja 2" and "Born To Fight". Surprisingly, no one overacts as in typical action movies, but no one really acts either. It's not summer camp acting, more like dress rehearsal acting. People who dub in voices in cartoons probably give livelier performances. There's not enough action to help out the plot that tries to be a thriller, but without the pacing or reveals. The gunfights are unimpressive and uninspired. Watch for the kung fu that happens in the parking lot. In previous editions of "Gun Crazy", such problems would have been settled with someone whipping out a gun and people getting clapped, not here. If you go in hoping to see girls with guns, you're going to be disappointed.
Electrical Girl (product link) Erotica The beginning joke in the elevator that was ripped off of "Tricky Brains" shows promise, but quickly devolves into a series of sketches where guys who want to get it on with Sophie Ngan aren't able to for various reasons. However, if you're a cuckoo bananas fan of Sophie and just want to see her naked in four or five different scenes, shazam.
Spooky Encounters (product link) Ghost / Martial Arts "Spooky Encounters" has better vampire sequences than the original "Mr. Vampire" in creepiness and humor. The kung fu is nicely done as usual although the ending is a little bit over the top like in "Boyz in the Hood" when the main guy starts punching the air because he has so much anger he doesn't know what to do with it. The jokes are pretty good in kung fu terms, but bad in sketch value. Overall entertaining and would definitely be more popular with a catchier title.
"My Lovely Sam-Soon" is awesome, not as good as some people say, but it is awfully good. The daydreaming sequences do go away after the first few episodes, they're missed but the series is more than that. I'm almost assured that some jokes are really lost without having lived in Korea, i.e. why Sam Soon is such a bad name. But there are also lessons about Korea learned, such as for blind dates, it's ok to meet in a hotel lobby for drinks. Actresses are very pretty, actors are so good looking you want to punch them, low life threatening diseases count, comedy that doesn't rely on being wacky for sake of being weird, people being thrust into unknown situations with unknown consequences. You'll constantly see a character face something and wonder how you'll act if that was you, because there's a connection to the audience. Other shows I wouldn't even care. There are some lulls because you can't believe how some people behave or some turns are too convenient or unbelievable, but it does cause you stick with it because you know it'll right itself later on.
Weather Woman (product link) Comedy / Erotica Weather Woman starts off as a parody of a television station much like "Network" accomplished but ends up just being full of S&M, musical numbers, torture, nudity and anything else nonsensical. That's the appeal to most people, at least that got me through it. It's nice to see a movie have such a lofty goal of being a cult favorite. It seems as if the director planned for people to only appreciate it later in a "This is Spinal Tap" type of way. It's bizarre and fun at times, but that doesn't mean it's interesting.
First Kiss [1998] (product link) Romance / Comedy "First Kiss" doesn't contain much of a romance comedy. Just a set up and a long wait where nothing happens. Choi Ji-Woo wears glasses and men's clothing for 99% of the movie and you're never sure whether Ahn Jae-Wuk is really gay, borderline, bi, switching teams, you just don't know why he doesn't pull the trigger when it comes to Ji-Woo. Some mild diversions arise when they interview a bunch of actresses with too much makeup on but those are fleeting and don't flesh out the plot. Basically they've both never kissed and Jae-Wuk thinks Ji-Woo would look better without her glasses but "She's All That," this is not. Both their problems could have been easily solved in 30 minutes by playing "Truth or Dare" or "Twister."
Windstruck (product link) Comedy / Romance If "Windstruck" is the sequel to "My Sassy Girl", it's more like how "St. Elmo's Fire" is a sequel to "The Breakfast Club", not like how "Casino" was the sequel to "Goodfellas." Jeon Ji-hyun is pretty as usual. Plot is present, but lacking humor or anything to set it apart from others in it's genre. Lack of chemistry between the leads can be cause along with a reason to care for what happens. Some jokes do end up being funny, but then you wonder whether it's really funny or because the previous moments were so dull that made it funny in comparison. Or whether the silence was used to set up the joke. Either ways there are some nice moments. Not too frequent, but you could string them together in a custom music video if that's your hobby. The talked about ending is not as monumental as the ending of "Fast and Furious 3," but it's up there.
Stacy (product link) Horror / Thriller Stacy is bad. When you describe the plot to people and the Bruce Campbell chainsaw that goes over your hand to dispatch zombies, it sounds something worth watching, but it's just bad 50's Sci-Fi with a ton more blood. Between this or "Junk," which was also bad, I'd recommend "Junk." The zombies aren't entertaining. Seeing zombies in school girls is surprisingly not as enjoyable as it could be because they act like ravers. The special effects was bad. The blood looked like Fruit Roll-Up strips laid out on the victim's faces. It tries to have a message about people being happy when dying or remembering to recycle or some junk. It is not misunderstood. People expecting "Clerks 2" in Kevin Smith's "Mallrats," causes it to be misunderstood, not this movie. Stay away.
Boy Eats Girl (product link) Horror / Comedy "Boy Eats Girl's" first half hour is pretty boring as it builds up a backstory for the characters, but once the main character dies accidentally and is brought back as a zombie who doesn't act like a typical zombie, ala "My Boyfriend's Back," that's when the film gets into gear. As in all horror movies, don't get too attached to any character because you don't know when they might die. The zombie deaths and the actors reaction to them make it hilarious. There are some scary scenes, but the humor outweigh their plights. Blood and killing is scattered all over the movie but to get to the money shot, find the chapter where a gang of zombies are in the front yard and someone has conveniently left a tree trimmer that doubles as a zombie dispatcher. Good times for all who liked Peter Jackson's earlier gore movies and "Shaun of the Dead".
Junk (product link) Horror / Thriller "Junk" is trash cinema. It's pretty self evident when the a zombie attacks a scientist, but this twist is the zombie is topless. That's all the nudity in the film but the rest of the movie isn't any better. For some good quality zombie killing, this movie has a warehouse full. The often bad but sometimes inspired "Versus" is better than "Junk" but just marginally.
Versus (product link) Martial Arts / Horror "Versus" doesn't take itself seriously. Some people really dig it and they're not even zombie fans. The scene where the zombies can pick up guns and start firing is enough for them. Ninety eight percent of the movie is shot in the forest. There's no real plot, something about crosses and double crosses. If you enjoy watching people getting shot without having the need to feel guilty because they're in zombie form, this is for you.
My Sassy Girl [2001] (product link) Comedy / Romance "My Sassy Girl" is amazing. The comedy and the melodrama that comes near the end are on point. When the drama starts kicking up, you wonder if that's who's on Leno tonight, but then the plot goes somewhere unexpectedly that makes what happened previously even better. It's reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock movies where you wonder if it's possible to cut out some of the boring parts, but then you realize that it won't gel the same if they did. From the crazy girl antics to the whipping boy who just takes it, guys and girls can both appreciate it. Vomit jokes, guys in high heels, bad dancing, this movie has it all. Anyone who doesn't alternately cry and laugh throughout this movie is probably dead inside.
Gun Crazy 3: Traitors Rhapsody (product link) Girls With Guns / Action/Adventure "Gun Crazy 3" is a pretty entertaining picture as a whole. The series gets better each time in tiny increments in terms of action and story telling. This whole series can be seen as the equivalent of "Over The Top." In that movie, Sylvester Stallone is a regular truck driver, but during arm wrestling matches, when he turns his baseball cap backwards, it is on, it transforms him into a unbeatable arm wrestling competitor with intense concentration. For the "Gun Crazy" series substitute cap for gun and there you go. It teaches girls to have confidence in themselves and not rely on others to solve their problems, gun or no gun.
Girl Boss Guerilla (product link) Crime / Action/Adventure "Girl Boss Guerilla" is an awesome movie. The best of the Pinky Violence series. You learn lessons never taught in history books. Apparently in the 70's, girls who rode motorcycles never wore bras, I never knew that. It does perform a delicate dance of taking itself seriously while delivering the expected girl fights that you know will inevitably end up with shirts torn off. The violence is fun, believable and seems to fit in their girl gang world. The characters are developed enough so when they're threatened or harmed you either feel remorse or say, "That's right." To gauge whether you're in the audience for this type of movie through a rather trivial scene, when the main boss stoops down, puts her hand out to introduce herself to a rival boss like she's shaking hands with a cat and you think that's the coolest thing ever, then this movie is for you.
Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (product link) Thriller / Crime "Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs" is crazy bad, the motives don't match up to what's gets accomplished. Like in "Sex and the City" when Carrie keeps on picking Mr. Big when everyone knows Aidan is the right match for her. The plot is as deficient as a diet candy bar. The action comes and goes, but mostly goes. Most of the violence are the rape scenes in the beginning. The red handcuffs come out a few times, but they're as effective as Halle Berry in the first two "X-Men" movies. If you just want to watch the main female lead naked, I refer you to "Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch's Law Classroom", a crazy delicious movie in comparison.
Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom (product link) Crime / Action/Adventure After watching "Girl Boss Guerilla" first, "Terrifying Girls' High School" fails to reach the same levels. It's entertaining in bits, but fails altogether. There are some genuinely interesting moments, but then sags, lets you look at girls in school-girl outfits without feeling guilty because they're older than high school girls, then more girl on girl violence. There's some plot to move things along but feels like excuses for different types of torture to occur, such lightbulbs and binge water drinking.
Street Life (product link) Documentary / Crime "Street Life" is bad. Reminded me of why I hated "Groove," a movie about raving also described as really real, it's realistic because in both instances I'm immensely bored. The segment where Killa introduce us to the streets feels fake, like he's overacting deliberately for the camera or sadly he acts like that in real life. Watching crack being cooked in the kitchen seemed too planned, if someone turned on a camera when I conveniently had a bandana covering my face, someone is getting blasted. That's why guns are needed in high risk jobs. It's nice to spot rappers all over the video giving their little bits about pimping or how being poor sucks. Hearing Trick recounting his story involving Trick Daddy was nice but seeing him drive around with no seatbelt made me too nervous.
Eko Eko Azarak: Wizard Of Darkness (product link) Horror / Thriller "Eko Eko Azarak" is not "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" at all. As a slasher, it's effective, but it's okay, in the way seeing Ted Danson guest star on "Frasier" as the same character from "Cheers" is okay. Main problem would be the idea of the supernatural killing people, that's just not scary. The chalkboard with numbers counting down deaths was the peanut butter jelly time. Feels pretty campy but with the actors sadly believing it's something more than that.
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READER COMMENTS
AUTHOR
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Who the hell ever said this was anything at all like Buffy? By the way, your references are not clever, they're annoying like sand in the vaseline. This dvd was good, scary, lighthearted fun - unlike your reviews. Hugs and kisses, The Bottle Kids.
Freeway Speedway (product link) Action/Adventure In the first movie of the great series, it has the most believable and acted out parts of the series. The racing is short and brisk, but they're only time trials, to see straight up heads up racing you'll have to go the subsequent movies in the series. The racing gets the adrenaline pumping but you don't really feel the sense of speed plus it's very short sprints compared to the ones later on in the series. It's hard to believe people would want to watch this for the plot. For gratuitous shots of the R31 Skyline and the Datsun, this is the movie to cop. The overacting and the workout montage that simultaneously shows the car being worked on and the driver lifting weights preparing to break the record provides comic relief in this straight forward movie.
Freeway Speedway 2 (product link) Action/Adventure The initial fifteen minutes of "Freeway Speedway 2" with Keiichi Tsuchiya appears to be an public service announcement to not purchase bad brakes. The racing as usual is spectacular. All the battles seem long and dragged out after a while even after being visually interesting because it's giving you what you want. The main car crash and the ending race seems to condone street racing while at the same time exploiting it in the middle, like drug use in "Requiem for a Dream". The sums are greater than the whole. It's so funny watching car wrenching scenes in this and other movies where the mechanic is always grabbing a wrench or asking for a wrench, as if that's the only recognizable tool in car repair.
Includes the famous slow motion drift around a mountain corner that has been downloaded by some car fanatic at one time or another which is magical in the way it stayed in one lane throughout the drift except for the exit. Overall entertaining. Finally shows a FD Rx7 instead of the same white FC used in the other movies, unfortunately the driver starts to learn drifts by driving around on dirt roads. Very harsh on the car. I derived some "Napoleon Dynamite" type of humor when there are little flashes of their gauges and corrected to mph standards, it shows they're only going 70 mph on the freeway. After watching all these movies, I have to conclude that all the racing is real, it's just too raw, the honks on the freeway from taxi cabs seem like they were real honks recorded during the racing scenes. You see giant radio antennas on the top of the car and I know they're not because they're hauling Legos or tofu. The races drag after a while like the 30 minute car chase in "Hollywood Homicide," but I wouldn't have it any other way.
"Freeway Speedway 6" contains the most spectacular racing scenes of the whole series. After awhile the scenes meld together in your memory, but the three way race of the Nissan Skyline and Nissan 300zx with the Toyota Supra keeping watch just stays there. The behavior of the characters make it even more bizarre, betting for slips of a MR2 and Skyline, a woman climbing into the backseat of a Supra through the trunk among others. Features the fakest in-car footage of the whole series. Each movie in the series with the exception of the first one has the "Star Trek" shake, where the camera will shake and the actor will shake to give the illusion of movement. Anticipating them is a nightmare. Like the rest, the music comes and goes during racing which is just weird. Nice way to wrap up the series. They've already covered track, grip, drift, touge, freeway and drag racing and any new movie would just feel like a retread like what happened to every "Police Academy" movie made after part three.
Outlaw Brothers (product link) Crime / Action/Adventure Pretty entertaining car stealing movie. As usual, the car chase scenes slack off after midway, but unlike "Offtrack", "Highway Man", or "Full Throttle", what replaces the racing isn't a contrived love story but some kung fu. Pretty good use of it too. I lost count on the amount of cans of ass-whoopings opened during the whole film. A warning: if you're sensitive towards animal suffering, skip the the warehouse scene, no good can come out of it.
SARS Wars: Bangkok Zombie Crisis (product link) Comedy / Action/Adventure Pretty bad while entertaining. A lot of forced humor and situations. Overall the crew seemed like it had a good time. But does that make it movie worth watching? Hard to say. It delivers more on its potential, but it's so unabashedly cheesy, it makes "American Idol" look like "M.A.S.H.". For instance: one scientist happens to wear a leather outfit underneath her radioactive garb; a schoolgirl killing zombies; a lightsaber that runs on D batteries; a giant snake eating random people... The movie actually delivers on some of these promises, and that's what makes it good if you can handle the ridiculous setups.
Hi, Dharma 2: Showdown In Seoul (product link) Comedy / Crime Cheap cash-in on a previously hot movie. Not as guilty as "My Wife Is A Gangster", but still a case for a lot of fingerpointing. This can all be traced back to lazy scriptwriting. You know it's going to be bad when a major plot device involves a lotto ticket to solve the monk's problems. And the winning numbers were based on the monk's, Buddha's and Jesus' birthdays combined. There are some bright spots, such as the competitions between the gangsters and monks that are a holdover from the previous film. Some of them are entertaining, such as the karaoke duel, but most just don't reach the same heights as before. The absolute worst is when you think back to where you could have stopped it to not ruin the memory of the previous movie. There is no place to bookmark it. Pretty much every scene is just bad.
Happily this is a Korean movie where no one has a terminal disease. However you get a chubby girl who, through the magic of plastic surgery, becomes skinny, attractive and lands a record deal. Kim A-jung plays the main character Hanna in a fat suit for the first twenty minutes that brings some really cringe worthy fat jokes. She's a part time phone sex operator and an unseen vocalist for a popular singer. A result of which comes some jabs at the Korean music scene that are on target but also some are soft lobs that you think will be a setup for a harder swing, but the hit never comes.
The problem with this and the similar but less funny "Love on a Diet" is that it gives people that the idea that the world is ok with fat people but would like them more if they were a bit skinnier. Hanna's transformation takes a year with complications but the end results are the desired ones albeit with humorous results. While in a makeout session, she remembers the doctor's warning that no one can touch any of her enhanced figure or else they will know of her surgery. So basically the makeout session ends right there because nothing was left untouched. To back up the story there is a strong kpop soundtrack that doesn't overwhelm but rather enhances scenes. It wasn't until halfway that I noticed that this movie is pretty hollow because the music was regulating the tempo so well. The "Maria" song Hanna sings will really stick in your head for a while.
Entertaining at points but the whole "plastic surgery and not being fat is ok" premise really stops it from receiving a higher grade.
Full Throttle [2005] (product link) TV Shows/Movies / Action/Adventure
Do not confuse this with the semi-classic Andy Lau biker movie. This one is marketed as an overseas "Speed." However instead of a bus with 20 different characters, you have a two door German car and two main characters you don't particularly like. It starts off nicely with an ambulance whipping it through some crowded streets to deliver what the driver thinks is an organ but is instead a bottle of champagne for a party. He promptly quits in disgust. About ten minutes later the driver and his boss' wife is trapped inside said coupe until the end of the movie. There's a voice on the phone telling them that if they try to get out of the car, a bomb will explode but about five minutes inside the car you've already figured out a way without endangering anyone but the characters still stay trapped inside. So literally nothing happens after that. There's some driving, some unexciting car chases, some bonding, but nothing to really keep you interested because you've already figured a way out and everyone's problems doesn't seem that interesting to be kept updated on. If they had more car chases similar to the one in the beginning then it would have succeeded. Instead it is worse than Taxi 3.
This movie is similar to the first "Back to the Future" movie, but besides breaking many of the laws set in that movie (don't meet your younger self, don't bring anything from the future that can alter history) this movie is pretty middle of the road entertaining. The only annoyance would be the mole on Na Jung-Ju's nose and how no one learns anything despite having a time-traveling laptop. It is somewhat hard to care about the plot because basically Jung-Ju goes back in time to set up her younger self up with Oh Tae-hoon who is now a millionaire. The problem is that Jung-ju forgets how strong willed her younger self is and how she's infatuated with Jo Hani, who in the future breaks her heart and is a famous singer on top of that. Naturally the future wants to protect the past, but sometimes people have to make mistakes to grow up. This being a time travelling movie, there are science inconsistencies but you'll soon forget them because the movie sure does. A lot of first love jokes are hampered by a cynical, jaded outlook due to the fact that you already know the end result. Anyone brought up on early 1990's Korean pop culture will find the inside jokes about Jinro Soju and D.E.U.X mildly funny. Everyone else will see the jokes coming but don't know how much to laugh.
The makeover in the title refers to how Jung-ju tries her hardest to make Tae-hoon not be viewed as just a friend, but ends up with bad Cyrano de Bergerac jokes, inadvertant boob grabs and more kpop jokes circa 1994. Despite all this the movie entertains but it's not going to leave an impression that will make you recommend it to others.
Worse than part one, which is a hard thing to accomplish. Instead of a group of four pervy friends, you get four sexually curious girls, and not in the "Kissing Jessica Stein" type of way. Most of their focus is on the new teacher-in-training, whose downfall is that he farts whenever he gets excited about a girl. It is less funny played out onscreen. The fact that he's a pretty boy with an afro that would make Sideshow Bob look bald doesn't help his case.
He can't express how he feels towards his students because they're students; and his uncontrollable flatulence: he even goes to a doctor to try to cure it. There are two girls competing for his attention: the plain girl of the group and a classmate who is a model/actress, as you get to see in her glamourized take on the schoolgirl outfit. The other girls in plain girl's group try to jazz her up to make her noticeable to the teacher. These scenes are as creepy as the dress-up scenes in "Leon." One scene had them send her up to his apartment liquored up with too much make-up. You can guess what happens. That's right, he lets her sleep on the bed while he stays on the couch trying not to fart. The whole movie is like this: barely a setup and no payout.
The movie doesn't deliver on its promises to be a sex comedy. It has no parts of either. The only funny bits were the flasher who would come to the school weekly. You really hope that the teacher doesn't get with either student and hope the girls can find someone their own age. People who come to see girls in schoolgirl outfits might come out happy, but there are other movies that can fill that niche too easily.
You get to see "My Lovely Sam Soon" star herself, Kim Seon-Ah, before she packed on the weight for the epic TV show. She is still chubby, but in the appropriate hot teacher role. Things that are funny in this movie: the way the kids obsess with anything involving girls reminds you of the pool scene in "The Sandlot" where the guy drowns on purpose just so he could kiss the lifeguard. Lots of awkward scenes involve trying sneak in porn and crushing on the teacher. The main character's goal is to get the teacher to kiss them to win a bet. Out of this is the whole movie with a subplot about an older teacher that used to be Kim Seon-Ah's tutor. Things are awkward in a "Wonder Years" sort of way but not as rewarding.
With a title like this, you'd expect some raunchy jokes or some tasteful nudity, but there was only one naughty joke and it involved Whiteout. The title is as misleading as the Japanese movie "Swing Girls" which was about a jazz band. It is even harder to believe the story because the kids actually look like kids, not adults playing kids. You can't even believe that the teacher would bat an eye at them, although there was one scene where she looks away from the camera and you start to wonder, but that scene quickly passes. There are no major hook ups shown or cared about. If you need a korean "American Pie", go for "Sex Is Zero."
This contains more drama than I'd like in a movie. Throughout the first 20 minutes there's a glimmer that it could be good, but it's dashed away when you realize that the rest of the movie is going to stay this tone. In the beginning the story arc is whether the guy will propose to his girlfriend of 7 years. Later it becomes whether he chooses the girlfriend or the actress he became stuck in an elevator with. Amazingly no one has a terminal disease to force a decision so you see the guy swaying back and forth on the idea. To make matters more confusing, the actress is about to star in a movie where her character is an actress who falls in love with a regular guy, so you're not sure if she's playing him just for research material.
People who fall for this "Little Women" type of drama might care, but I didn't. Lots of unfunnies include the "Sex and the City" batch of friends who have their own love problems and become their own sad sack support group. The way everyone falls over the actress when she looks just alright pretty confuses me--she's no Ha Ji-Won, that's for sure. The guy is a pest specialist so a continuing running joke is how he finds cockroaches everywhere, including restaurants. These scenes felt more creepy than funny. Credit must be given to the director for making us care which girl is ultimately going to win his heart, but then again that's the only reason to stick around and here that's just not enough. In that respect, this is similar to "Ever After: A Cinderella Story": you already know the story but you stick around to find out which ending the director chooses, the one where the evil step-mother is banished from the kingdom or is forgiven. Or in this case, girl A or girl B. And that's all the movie gives you.
Finally, a gambling movie that works. Not having an understanding of the Korean card game Hwatoo holds back a bit on the total enjoyment. I didn't understand what an 8 or a 9 score meant; but it seems that if I understood the rules some more, the movie could have gotten a 1/2-star upgrade--or maybe be docked 1/2 a star for not being accurate. Either way the movie deals with people whose personalities lend themselves to professional gambling. All their relationships are toxic to each other, yet that's what makes them so ideal for the job. There were more than a few scenes that were reminiscent of "The Grifters" that actually didn't detract from the movie. In fact they're upgrades to them. In one scene, instead of storing money under some carpet in the trunk of a car, dude has a complete safe there.
Overall the movie was pretty long at a bit more than two hours, there was some unexpected violence and nudity, and it doesn't glorify gamblers as much as make them out to be conmen; but it is in good fun.
One of the best seasons story and epic-wise. As usual the plot lines run from the serious (Buffy's mom dies) to the tongue-in-cheek funny (Buffybot). The series never takes itself seriously despite having this season's final boss being a girl who sucks the life force out of victims through their skulls (Clare Kramer of "Bring it On" fame) but still has time to pick out pretty dresses. Much of the enjoyment of the show is credited to Sarah Michelle Gellar's portrayal of a girl who is chosen to save the world from vampires and other related demons, while at the same time trying to live a normal life.
Some of the best episodes include Triangle which has the classic line, "That's insane troll logic." Crush has Spike completely falling for Buffy. Spiral has the gang being chased by knights on horses while they're in a fortified RV. The Gift has Buffy making the hard choice between saving the world or sacrificing her sister. There are some bad moments too. The first slayer mythology seems more hackney than epic. The reintroduction of Riley even for a few episodes brought back bad memories of season four. Dawn's ultimate purpose isn't revealed until the last episodes, and even now it is hard to remember why Glory was so bent on having her. Spike's obsession of Buffy is reminiscent of "Swimfan" at times.
If you are a newcomer to the series, it is best to start from the first season, although you can start here and work backwards to understand the inside jokes and connections to throwaway lines said seasons ago. After this the seasons got worse and worse. They tried to jazz it up with more special effects and graphic lesbian make-out scenes, but those totally miss out on the spirit of the show which was embodied perfectly in this season. Sometimes a show can be enjoyed by the whole family, and people who aren't usually fans of sci-fi end up sticking around until the end.
Not as disturbing as "All Night Long" but just as effective. Although the whole movie takes place inside a room, claustrophobia isn't used to scare the audience. All the horror is setup on the premise of making the other people tap out. The characters don't seem to be out to hurt people (unlike "Hostel"), they just want to win the prize with the least damage afflicted--at least initially. To list the offenses which occur is to take away from the whole suspense of the movie. From the second the tool box is revealed to contain a screwdriver and a blow dryer, you know something awful is about to go down.
The torture scenes were really effective because the film seems really low budget, so it feels like it could turn into a real life snuff movie anytime. The way the game was played felt like "Truth or Dare" without the truth, which adds a comical touch until the brutality sets in. You won't be horribly scarred from this, but you will come out shaken--and probably feel like watching "Audition" again.
This movie is a few pretzels short of a bag of pub mix. Be prepared, 90 percent of the movie happens inside the same restaurant where the go-con occurs. The guys do the same party tricks to get the girls' attention but the only things that change are the type of girls (stewardesses, college girls, housewives) and that's it. One guy takes out his Olympic gold medal, one guy gets the girl's phone number, and another dude does a trick with chopsticks to kiss a girl. Over and over again.
It reminds me of "Kissing Jessica Stein" where they show Jessica on different dates in the same restaurant with different losers. Imagine that five minute montage stretched out for a whole movie. You would never feel like going on a group date again. One scene later everyone is fast forwarded two years into the future and they're still at it. Meaning each week these guys have been doing the same tricks on the dot like a Las Vegas lounge act. The restaurant's staff actually has a pool to see who's going to end up with whom at the end of the night.
Eventually there's a message about how go-con's are perfect for people who can't handle a regular one-on-one date so they feel the need to involve a group of friends to lighten up the pressure. At least I think that's the point. The unseen narrator actually said that but that could just be a red herring. Good for people who want to learn a few tricks and have always wondered why that table over in the middle of the restaurant is so happy and loud. Bad for everyone else.
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