Between (the) Parentheses

Breach -- (Why did they even HIRE someone this creepy?!)

2008-11-13T00:33:00.006-05:00

Bad films that are "based on a true story" often suffer from two crucial flaws. One is that they lack direction and stay too loyal to a string of facts for the story itself to go anywhere. The other is that the characters (ironically) don't seem very real. The movie may pin fascinating real people down to a laundry list of traits and idiosyncrases and leave us with a flat, distant-feeling character. But how do you defy these problems without deviating too much from what really happened and taking the "true" out of the story? A good example of the "true story" done right may be found in Breach.

Eric O'Neill is an ambitious would-be FBI agent assigned to a new case: spy on an agent suspected of being a sexual deviant, 25-year force veteran Robert Hanssen. Not a glamor detail, but Eric is a devoted kind of guy. It's only after he becomes close to the bitter, extremely conservative Hanssen that he learns the truth. Robert Hanssen is a suspected traitor who's been selling secrets to the Soviets for years, responsible for countless deaths. Robert Hanssen is also a human polygraph with years of experience in exposing spies and even though O'Neill has somewhat gained his trust, it's a thin wire he's walking on trying to expose the master interrogator. If Hanssen can't be caught in the act of making a drop, he'll walk in a trial. But if O'Neill pushes too hard and blows it, the brilliant agent will never make another drop again. It's a true story with no time period explicitly stated...but it was relatively recent news, so none should be needed. A quick scene of Clinton's picture being replaced with Bush's in an FBI office is really all we need, wink wink. It was the greatest security breach in FBI history, and it was stopped by one young man in two months.

Don't let that trailer fool you: it's actually very quiet for an "action movie." There's no lengthy car chases, covert ops with squads of suits, and only one scene with gunfighting, if you can call it that. (It was a scene that clearly didn't take place in reality, but they needed something for the trailer!) Despite that, Breach is gripping and Hanssen is scary. We may not all be able to identify with being locked in a fight to the death, but we can all remember snooping around in someone else's things and being terrified when they come back, look at you, and you have to wonder: Do they know? What if they do? That's what makes Breach so tense and spooky: it's a quiet terror.

It's also a great character study. No, it's not obvious why Hanssen, such a brilliant and loyal man, turned traitor to the Soviets, but we are given some potential reasons to chase after before realizing that we may never understand his mind, and it's okay. It's mostly okay because Chris Cooper is absolutely fantastic in this role. I would almost call it Oscar-worthy, as every scene he's in exudes his role's manic mind and sends us shivers. Ryan Phillipe as O'Neill is capable alongside him, especially in the scenes where he has to lie on the spot and shiver it out later. Unfortunately, one weakness of the movie emerges when Cooper and Phillipe come to the table...no one else in the movie is mildly interesting by comparison. Even O'Neill's wife is a flat second fiddle in the story and while a few spare scenes try to delve into the psyches of the more minor characters, they are scenes perhaps better spent elsewhere. Unless the focus is on Hanssen or O'Neill, it's not interesting. So, the movie has its flaws and isn't really "unique" in any sense, but it certainly is very good, and that's enough.

It's an intellectual thriller where each little gesture carries more weight than a gunshot . The final scene is most chilling of all, and only moreso when you think to yourself. "Wow. This actually happened." I highly recommend checking it out. It's not only a great example of how to handle "true story" material in an entertaining way while saving authenticity, but more than that, it's most thrilling when nothing is moving onscreen but the two men's deceitful mouths. O'Neill's undercover endeavors to earn the traitor Hanssen's trust are far more nerve-wracking than any car chase could be, and few films keep this balance so well as Breach. (One of the tensest scenes takes place in a rush-hour traffic jam, ironically.) Definitely give this one a look-see, and if you really like espionage movies, maybe take it home with you. It's an underrated gem, and that's no secret to be kept!

The Prestige (But magic is supposed to be friendly and happy, not murrrrrderous!)

2008-11-11T23:12:00.007-05:00

I'm really sorry for the lack of updates! Life has been caving in on me like a felled redwood. -.-' Without further ado, one of my favorite underrated movies from the director who brought you Memento and The Dark Knight. He's a real visionary for dark depths in the movies, and The Prestige is no exception!

As a director, Christopher Nolan has the curious trait of creating films that are drastic, dark, and depressing but always leave you feeling fulfilled as you walk out, not like you endured some horror, but that you saw the nastiest side of human nature...in a positive light. A perfect, 4 star example of this approach is The Prestige.

Sorry about the ugly windowboxing...

Around the turn of the century, two apprentice stage magicians become involved in a bitter rivalry caused by a woman's death. They use their stints as stage magicians to both one-up the other and plot turns of revenge that could eliminate the other. What you see above you is the end result for one man, then the other when he is accused of arranging the drowning. But really, it's just the beginning of a deliciously poisonous magic trick the movie plays on you until the very last frame. The film has a pledge, and a turn, and a prestige, but it's up to you to decide where all those things lie...or will you be fooled at each new revelation?

Enough of the smoke and mirrors, I should shoot you straight on this movie: it's brilliant, but it's easy to follow. (One of my favorite traits in a movie!) Like the apparatus of a well-planned trick, everything you see is, in fact, real, but may be more than it appears when all is said and done. Since this is during the Industrial Revolution, there is an interesting period fascination with the "real magic" in electricity, which leads magician Angier to acquire the machine you see in the video above. (It also gives David Bowie a cameo as the wise and withdrawn Nikola Tesla, who was a real man who pioneered alternating current.)

The photography is beautiful. Rich browns and navy blacks flow through each scene as deep violas and muted timpanis growl foreboding in the background. The period clothing and settings are quite rich, and I think their extravagantly restrained look (can I call it that?) adds to the film's tone of passionate men executing slow and quiet revenge. Those passionate men, by the way, are the best part of the movie. All three of them. For as marvelous as Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are in their respective roles, really making you believe in these half-crazed angry magicians, Michael Caine is just as important. You'll notice that this story doesn't really have a "good guy." Both of these guys sink pretty low over two hours of awesome man-angst, and Cutter (Caine) is the voice of reason, the only moral groundwork that keeps the story from becoming too dark to relate to. He (thankfully) brings out the humanity in the other men that is so necessary to keep the movie going, and of course does a great job acting his part. Scarlett Johansen also turns in a fine performance, but story-wise, she doesn't factor into the plot as much as that poster suggests.

I should warn you that there is one great criticism for this film, and that is its eventually resorting to a kind of "real magic." I don't want to give too much away, but your mileage may vary here. I thought the surprise "real magic" only emphasized the theme of the story more and added all the more meaning to its ultimate ending. But if you're liable to be disappointed by a tiny tweak of sci-fi late in this narrative, you have been warned. I will say that people who complain about it are kind of missing the point of what one man actually using "magic" represents in the end. It's all about the characters.

Because, point blank, the real fascination in the story is the dichotomy of the two characters. These men HATE each other with good reason, not only because of the accident, but the way each views the world is completely different. As the movie poster suggests, they reflect two VERY different approaches to the same passion. Angier (Hugh Jackman) lives for the applause and the approval of the audience while Borden (Christian Bale) lives for the mastery of the trick itself. Devotion to the critics vs. devotion to the craft dictates all their actions and their ultimate fates. Ironically, the movie about these men accomplishes both these purposes as well! The twists and turns are fun to watch, but the story's portrayal of the darkness in human nature is what has some critics gushing and may bring you back for a second or third viewing.

That and it's a lot of fun to watch the trick once you find out where all the trapdoors are, if you know what I mean. The DVD cover doesn't lie when it says you'll want to pull a Sixth Sense on this movie and run it back to see what you missed. Sometimes huge twists can be a cheap gimmick in suspense films like this, but The Prestige sets up its whammies perfectly, from pledge, turn and the final prestige delivery that gives it such a well-deserved name. Even if you spot some of the twists beforehand, as I did, it won't really matter when the case is closed for the vengeful duo. Every step of the dark journey, you'll just want to be fooled, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Ouran High School Host Club -- (Beverly Hills meets Tex Avery and explodes in pink roses)

2008-11-05T01:26:00.012-05:00

(Check it out. I've stopped putting the title in large font at the top of my reviews. I mean, it's really redundant and it looked stupid. Why don't people TELL me these things? From now on, by the way, I can post a new review every night for a while...I hope!)

If you're an anime fan and haven't heard of this show by now, you may very well be living under a rock. If it is terribly uncomfortable down there, I suggest you bid a fond farewell to the snails and lichen and join the party with the crazy/beautiful hosts of Ouran High. This is a show that really takes every cliche in the bishounen anime book and turns them on their heads with a wink and a smile. It cannot be missed, period.

The premise is more than a little ridiculous. Haruhi Fujioka, a scholarship student at the prestigious Ouran Academy, is having trouble fitting in. She's a complete wallflower who puts work first and play later, but because Ouran is an elite school for the rich and well-bred, lower-class Haruhi finds herself adrift in a sea of petty party animals when she would rather excel in her schoolwork. She sneaks off to an old music room in an attempt to find one quiet place to study (the libraries are all party halls) and finds out that it belongs to the host club: a group of six men with way too much time on their hands who are paid to romantically entertain young ladies in extravagant fashion.

They don't attempt to pander to Haruhi, however, because with her baggy sweatshirt, thick glasses, and rough masculine haircut, they assume she's a man (a gay man!) and pick at her commoner status, no less. Insulted and uncomfortable, she makes a bolt for the door and breaks a vase worth 8 million yen in her scramble. The flamboyant host club president, Tamaki, won't stand for this and makes Haruhi the club errand-dog. It's miserable for Haruhi until the club members catch sight of her without her glasses and see potential in her adorable looks...then it just gets worse! Haruhi finds herself in training to be a host herself in order to work off her debt and when the host club DOES find out that she's a girl, well, that's when the romance part of the rom-com kicks into a barely restrained overdrive. It's one girl pretending to be a boy in a pack of guys who just wish she'd wear a dress and act like a "real lady." Something's gotta give, but it never really does, and the balance teeters constantly for the gender-confused bunch.

So now we have our classic "reverse harem" situation with one innocent girl in a pack of beautiful men. And yet...

Haruhi doesn't want this harem. She doesn't like this harem. All the men in it are gorgeous, yes, but they're also enormously silly, naive, and S-P-O-I-L-E-D rotten! It's no place for a studious, practical, and completely UN-feminine girl...or is it the best thing that's ever happened to her?

Video created by Jaddziadax

It seems it's impossible not to fall in love with the host club as each zany new escapade unfolds, for Haruhi, the host club customers, and especially all of us viewers! The real brilliance of the show is not in its very cliche premise, but how it delivers, and oh how it delivers! The characters complement each other perfectly and fulfill different roles for the fantastic fetishes of their customers.

There's Tamaki, the "prince" type who's in such high demand with the ladies that he thinks himself "a perfect person on the inside and out." He's a charming narcissist who believes in traditional gender roles and comfort and beauty above all else. Despite it all, he also manages to be very lovable, as his intentions are pure and his naivete adorable. There's Kyoya, the "cool" type and his polar opposite, who sees the club as a fiscal venture only, the straight man in a jumble of goofballs. There's Hunny and Mori, the "lolita boy" and his "strong and silent" bodyguard. Hunny hugs bunnies and gobbles cake while Mori grunts and stares into space, and the contrast is an automatic smile for everybody. Most questionable are twins Hikaru and Kaoru, a pair of wily cheshire cats who entertain the ladies with teasings of twincest to stave off boredom. It's all an act of course, but with their constant mischief and twisting of tales, who's to say what the twins are really thinking anyway?

Watching the customers' reactions to all of this will bring back memories of crowded conventions full of crazy, screaming fangirls for many anime fans, and just illicit giggles in non-fans. (And a lot of eye-rolling from poor Haruhi.)

That's another charm of the show. It's actually funny even if you're not an anime fan. Lots of very funny shows like Fruits Basket, School Rumble, and Full Metal Panic! are just going to be funnier to those who are somewhat familiar with anime humor, and a bit lost on everyone else. The hosts at Ouran keep the jokes flying at record speed, but who can resist making fun of high school, upper class idiocy, skewed innuendo and cartoon hijinks? It's all universal, material everyone can embrace. A few anime in-jokes are present, but they're kept broad enough to be funny even to those who don't entirely understand them.

It's so goofy, but it so works. I think the creators of Ouran know full well that this show is corny, silly, and over-the-top, but they embrace it and break the fourth wall frequently to tell the fangirls (and perhaps boys) "We're aware this is stupid. Play along." (One great example is when Tamaki tells the other hosts that Haruhi will fall in love with him because this is a romantic comedy anime and he's the lead. They mention that they could have a chance, and he asserts that characters like them are all revealed to be closet homosexuals supporting the lead and shouldn't overstep their bounds. He even draws a line down the middle of the room to keep Haruhi to himself.)

Another major plus this show possesses is GREAT animation. Shoujo series, or slice-of-life girl focused shows, tend to get the lower budgets and the cheaper animation. After all, if what you have is a comedy (or drama) with a lot of talking heads, there's no point in throwing extra money at it. Ouran defies this by combining the stream of silly dialogue with Warner Brothers-frantic action. No one just stands still and talks in Ouran, at least not in the comedic moments. The hosts zip around the room like only they can, employing every non-rule of cartoon physics to take this show far and above others like it. The animation quality is just stellar, and the designs are very nice on the eyes to boot.

The music is also perfect: elegant waltzes and piping ballads that are just melodramatic enough to carry the mood but silly and spritely too. The music is most important when the show occasionally sobers up for a tender moment. Another great mark for Ouran: all those dramatic moments work. They're really touching and sweet, even when they pop up unannounced during a bout of laughter. Any time the show does drift into corny territory, one of the characters will shout "Well, this is stupid!" or a slight off-color twist will creep in and turn our "awwwws" into "ah-HA-HA-HAs." (A touching scene between Haruhi and Tamaki is mistaken for S&M by the other characters near the end of one episode, leaving the poor prez back at square one with Haruhi romantically speaking.)

While I'm talking about audio, I'm overjoyed to say that the English dub for this show is a match for its original. I was originally concerned for this dub because shows like Ouran, with all their zaniness, are easy to muff in translation, and furthermore, the Japanese casting for Ouran was already extremely above par. Amazingly, the crew at Funimation really stepped up to the plate with great writing and spot-on performances that are drop-dead funny without losing anything in translation. I think it's the best dub of a shoujo series I've ever heard. In particular, the leads are incredible standouts, with the normally high-pitched Caitlin Glass doing a great droll and boyish Haruhi while still sounding like an actual girl with gender indifference. Alongside her, Vic Mignogna blew me away as Tamaki, who is a very hard character to play if only because he has to be sincere and screwy all at the same time. Even if you aren't a fan of English dubs, this one completely merits a listen.

I honestly can't give Ouran High School Host Club enough plaudits. I couldn't give it a perfect score if only because it doesn't really "break new ground" in any sense. It's great fun and great entertainment, and that's all there is to be said. But by making fun of its own genre and pulling a double whammy of gut-busting humor with tender sweetness and a host of lovable hosts, this is a real rose among thorns in shoujo, and should leave every girl (maybe a few guys!) squeeing for more.

What do you want to see most? -- (See the poll alongside this massive ugly cat face)

2008-10-23T12:14:00.008-04:00

It's time again to talk to mah face, peeples! (I think that poor thing's on cracknip.)

I'm not dead, fear not. I just haven't finished compiling the reviews I've been writing yet. (And finding videos for them, which takes time but really makes each mass of text stand out more in the final product, I think.)

I have decided, though, that it might be best to find out what the people that read this are most interested in. That way I can specialize what I review and how I go about doing it, making this blog a little bit more specific than it already is, and giving me a better comfort zone. (I haven't had time to watch all this stuff, but I've somehow made time, and it would be nice to make less time and specialize a little!)

So, if you will vote in the poll on the sidebar here, I'd be very happy. You can select more than one option, so pick two if you like, although picking three or four kind of misses the point, ha ha.

Either way, I can get into a nice rhythm once I've whittled down my options:

If New Movies wins out, I'll be making a lot of trips to the Redbox, the Family Video, and every once in a while, the theater.

If Retro Movies wins out, I have a massive collection to peruse at my leisure and rummage through bargain bins too.

If New Anime wins out, I'll be doing a lot of Youtubing and might sign up for an online renting service to help me out.

If Old anime wins out, I have a massive collection to peruse at my leisure and several titles to be networked through friends, internet, etc.

Now I will continue to review a little bit from every category if a certain movie or anime grabs me and I've just seen it, but instead of trying to keep them all equal, I can consistently stick with one and just put reviews in other categories when something really makes me sit up and pay attention...being either really good, really bad, or really popular.

On a side note, my upcoming reviews I've been working on to publish one after the other:

Movie Reviews: Finding Neverland, Batman Begins, Wall-E

Retro Reviews: Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Goonies, Airplane!

Anime Reviews: Wolf's Rain, Ouran High School Host Club, Neon Genesis Evangelion

Have a spiffy day, folks!

Utawarerumono -- (no, there isn't an English translation, now say it three times fast, I dare you!)

2008-10-17T00:21:00.004-04:00

UTAWARERUMONO

As I have snidely mentioned, there's no real English equivalent to the unnaturally long word that titles this anime. It's not like it matters, as it's only one of a LOT of really long names in this series featuring ten-syllable characters and countries. The best phrase to describe what it means is "one being glorified." The word itself only takes on significance at the very end of the story, but I should start this review at the beginning, shouldn't I?

The epic fantasy itself was based on a Japanese "ero" game of all things. (Dating sim.) That would explain the enormous female population of the show, many of whom are busty and attractive and fulfill different roles as potential love interests to the hero...or at least they would, except that this show so completely steps outside of anything resembling a dating sim that such petty smut doesn't permeate the series worth a drop.

The story follows Hakuoro, a soft-spoken masked man who awakens in a small village with amnesia...and an inability to remove the mask that is fused onto his face. He had been rescued from certain death by the caring healer Eruruu and her younger sister and grandma. At first, Hakuoro proves a father figure to the tiny family, but it's not long before he feels the need to stand up to the corrupt leaders extorting the little village, and the vicious tiger god that sporadically attacks the populace.

Through a series of pot-stirring confrontations and revolts, Hakuoro soon finds himself gathering a mercenary band against the powers-that-be in a quest to reshape the country for the better so his new homeland can live in peace. He joins to his party the motley likes of Oboro, hotheaded swordsman, Benawi, coolheaded samurai, and Karula, a savage and beautiful once-slave with immense strength...among many many many other fighters. The grand coup unfolds very smoothly, but it is like watching a video game as all the party members fulfill their cliched roles and just as one villain goes down, another (way more powerful) one randomly appears in his place.

Speaking of this broad world, the universe of Utawa is at least an intriguing one. Many of the characters are half animal-half human hybrids, although there are some pure humans, and saurian lizards are saddled and mounted rather than horses, but apart from that, it's a very down-to-earth fantasy, with more swords and feudal conflict than magic or superpowered monsters. There's just enough fantasy to make it different, but it's still tied to that middle ages sensibility of fantasy, much like the Fire Emblem franchise's storylines. It sounds complicated, but it isn't...yet. And that's the anime's greatest gaping weakness.

There's just not anything unique about it all, but it still tries to overcomplicate matters with trivial details about tribes, long names of countries that may or may not be a convenient plot device, and WORST of all, a terribly bizarre and convoluted overworld backstory that I had to rewatch several times just to (kinda) understand. The only reason I attempted it is because it's a detail tied directly to Hakuoro's true identity, one of the most interesting parts of the show. As you can see, I posted the theme song as a video clip...because I couldn't think of any one moment in the show that stuck out as noteworthy. (And the theme song is catchy...the credits song is even better, though!) The journey is fluid, but there's no real surprises of note here, with the exception of some unpleasant "revelations" late in the game that are giggle-worthy because they feel so out of place...two words: Giant Robots.

I mean, the plot, as RPG-like as it is, manages to please just dandy, but the characters are to fault for the lack of novelty here. To better explain my mild annoyance: characters are often described as having "dimensions." There are 1-D characters, who act a certain way in every situation and never change. A good story should have at most two of these, preferably none unless comic relief is involved. There are 2-D characters who fit a basic archetype, but may change over the course of the story and can be believed as somewhat realistic. All Disney movie leads are like this. Finally, you have 3-D characters who have entirely dynamic personalities and may change their motives or behavior depending on the situation but somehow remain believable and solid and you could almost take them for real people. My point?

Well, Utawarerumono's enormous cast of colorful beast-people has maybe three or four 2-D characters, and the rest are one-dimensional. Inevitably, it gets old. Our lead, Hakuoro, and his problems with amnesia and learning to lead an army, aren't even as sympathetic as they should be, because Hakuoro is so much of a flat-spoken goody-two-shoes. Likable maybe, interesting or unpredictable, no.

On the positive side, this anime has a pretty good score and remarkably consistent, fun-to-watch animation. There's even great use of CG with the armies that flood hilltops and valleys in scads, each soldier moving on his own thanks to computer mapping. It's neat to watch, as are the battles themselves, with slashing, swiping, spearing, and every once in a while, heaping helpings of blood. The gore is used pretty sparingly for a renegade tale, and its effect is always felt. The English dub is also quite good for this series, albeit nothing really special. This has nothing to do with the casting, which is just fine, but the stereotypical, predictable writing of the show itself. The only role that really sticks out is probably Luci Christian as Lady Kuuya, but the other actors do just fine with their one-note characters, and the campy villains are good for a giggle.

I might recommend this title for a week or two's enjoyment, but I wouldn't spend any money on it, lest you find it worthy of only one viewing. See if you can mooch it off someone else or Youtube the sucker and you may be kinder to the epic fun than I was. If nothing else, it is easy and fun to watch, even if you don't come back from it with anything you haven't seen before.

Dr. Strangelove -- (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb)

2008-10-16T13:13:00.006-04:00

DR STRANGELOVE (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb)

Long before Michael Moore and other bigoted copycats came along to make fun of America, Stanley Kubrick managed to do it right, way back in the 60s. (Your mileage may vary on the slough of political satire films flooding theaters now, including the recent "W." which I am hesitant to ever see if only because it seems too soon to be reflecting on a "historical" blunder. I feel the same about 9/11 films...) Anyway. It was during the Cold War and the Red scare (1964) when this film was meant to be relevant, but oddly enough it has stood the test of time to be just as hilarious and thought-provoking today. If you're looking for films with a screwy political bent, look no further, as this is as good as it gets.

The story launches from a drastic measure taken by certifiably cuckoo General Jack D. Ripper to launch an attack on Russia and wipe out the communists once and for all, for fear they will pollute America's "precious bodily fluids." The Pentagon finds out about this, but they're so tangled in their own red tape (red, yay irony) that they can't even get the right radio code to call the planes back. To make matters worse, they find out from the Russian ambassador and the invalid presidential advisor Strangelove that any nuclear threat on Russia will automatically trigger their failsafe "Doomsday Device," a terrifying weapon that will wipe out all plant and animal life on Earth and hang in the atmosphere for a hundred years.

You'd think this would be a serious subject, but it turns out that it's just too important to be taken seriously. In its own quiet, absurd way, this movie is drop-dead funny, and takes a dry approach to the whole affair that kinda makes you fear for the government, as we're in a tense situation with nuke-missiles ourselves.

One of the unique things about this movie is its cast of characters. With the exception of one Russian, one German, and one Brit, all the important characters are nondescript middle-aged old guys with funny names...and yet they manage to stand out perfectly from one another. You will never confuse one character for another in this movie, and they're all great fun to watch, from the cool-headed to the war-mongers, the bigots to the morons, the only sane people in the entire movie end up wholly at the mercy of the stupid. (Including the completely normal president. Yeah, This movie does NOT cheap-shot the president for quick blame like many others. It's those middle-management people who screw everything up.)

This is even more impressive when you consider that Peter Sellers played three of these characters: the President, the Brit, and the German: Dr. Strangelove himself. The (good???) doctor doesn't get much screentime, actually, but the significance of his appearances and his way of thinking are enough to justify the movie being named after him, with all its gallows humor and tongue-in-cheek self-mockery.

The scene above is pretty indicative of this. The man on the phone is trying to contact the president and give him the code to call the airplanes back from their dastardly mission. It's not enough he has to worry about dogmatic soldiers and telephone operators...now he'll have to answer to the Coca-Cola company! (Maybe in the midst of the nuclear crisis, they'll hold off on suing him.)

It's no wonder this movie has been designated a spot in the National Film Registry, but like most old relics, it's been largely ignored by this generation. Before you see "W." give this film a chance. It's funny, well-acted, so well-written that nearly every line is quotable. Quite frankly, my dear, it's the bomb...

...that pun was bloody arful.

Now and Then, Here and There -- (nearly putting Schindler's List to shame in 13 episodes)

2008-10-13T17:16:00.010-04:00

NOW AND THEN, HERE AND THERE

Shu was a normal, if not overly friendly and optimistic, young kid who enjoyed a comfortable suburbian life in Japan. He was. But everything changed when he was swept away through time and space to the desolate kingdom of Helliwood because he tried to save an innocent young girl: LaLa-Ru. She is an ancient water spirit coveted in a dry, dying world.

Before I admit that this series was quite good, I have to say: I really don't know what the inspiration for this story was, to be honest. I think someone must have been horribly depressed or convinced that society was going to hell in a handbasket to write this kind of thing. Anyway, I should better explain my strong reaction, shouldn't I?

The kingdom of Helliwood is overlorded by an oppressive tyrant, King Hamdo, who overtakes all the native villages of the Dune-like world with his military might and unsurpassed technology, which is sort of steampunk-influenced in design. At every village he sacks, he kills the older men and women and recruits the young boys, down to small children, into his army. The girls...well, it's implied that they become breeders for the massive army, if you catch my drift. It's scary and oppressive, and we get to watch.

I know the art style looks tame, Disney-ish, and simplistic compared to most other anime, but that's more a blessing than anything considering the subject matter. This story does NOT feel cartoony, as evidenced by this music video here...

Video created by NHMK

That's not to say that the story is all gloom and doom and has no redeeming qualities. That's where Shu comes in. Despite all the trials he faces, along with the other boys and girls in the story, he doesn't despair and tells everyone that if they hold out, change will come for the better. Turn after turn, things only get worse, but he sticks to his guns and refuses to either give up hope or do wrong just because he can get away with it. (One of the most notable examples is when he is ordered by a drill sergeant to whip the boys who had been bullying him. He tells them he won't return evil for evil or harm a man with his back turned to him.) Really, Shu's optimism is what keeps us going throughout the story's 13-episode run, as he attempts to save LaLa-Ru and escape the evil Hamdo's clutches.

The dismal ride is made all the more elating in the few moments of triumph, but happy or sad, you will find yourself emotionally moved by this story. Or, some might argue, emotionally manipulated. Myself included. I have to argue that for all the opportunities this story has to say something powerful about the human condition or something that would validate its heavy content, it kind of backs off. There's nothing particularly deep or profound about this show, it's just a story about people who suffer and persevere, and maybe that's enough. Personally, I would have liked some more insight, but if all we get an engaging fantasy holocaust, it's a well-written one and it will suck you in and leave you believing in these very human cartoony characters.

The animation, as I mentioned before, does a lot in making this easier to watch. No matter the art style, you're going to be gut-wrenched over how this story progresses, but the muted watercolors and basic shapes probably tamed the darkness of it all a lot. The English voice acting is...interesting. Almost all of the roles are well-played, with the exception of some drill sergeants and angry mob-types, you're not going to struggle with corny acting. But it's weird because the group that dubbed this show also lends their talent to 4Kids.

Basically: you're going to hear a lot of Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh! actors in this dub. Apparently, once they're not doing 4Kids garbage, they're rather decent actors! The portrayal of King Hamdo, the head tyrant, is particularly striking. The character was clearly modeled after Hitler, but lacks any of the fuhrer's charisma or even a smattering of sanity. This is pretty different, because it's so rare to see a leader so COMPLETELY insane, and Jack Taylor does an amazing job of making Hamdo uncomfortably, eerily psychopathic and fear-consumed. The oddest choice in casting, I must point out, was giving the roles of the two most important soldier children to voice actors famous for DEEP voices. Dan Greene (Yami of Yu-Gi-Oh!) and Crispin Freeman (Alucard of Hellsing). I understand they're good actors, but having them play little boys?! Why...? Well, they do decent enough jobs anyway, with Green focusing on acting quality at the cost of sounding like a ma-yahn, and Freeman keeping a "young boy" register at the cost of more believable acting.

In the end, I didn't regret shoving through Now and Then, Here and There and all its tragedy, but I was left wondering what the real point of it all was. Good story, great characters, beautiful moments, but after it's all over and things are "put right" again, Shu just...well, maybe you'll just have to see for yourself. After watching a series so full of emotion, I still catch myself wondering why I felt so empty at the very end, waiting for a theme behind all the pathos that never really arrived.

Index of Reviews

2008-10-13T17:04:00.007-04:00

Yeah, so just in case those labels on the side get ungainly (and they will) I've constructed an index for reviews of titles. That way, if you want to read about something specific I've reviewed and DON'T want to scroll down twenty pages of other junk, you can go here:

Batman: The Dark Knight
Dr. Strangelove
Full Metal Panic!
Incredible Hulk, The
Iron Man
Now and Then, Here and There
Ouran High School Host Club
The Prestige
Utawarerumono

Batman: The Dark Knight -- (nothing to joke about here)

2008-10-13T16:57:00.002-04:00

BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT

Like this movie needs to be applauded any more, but Christopher Nolan is quickly making himself one of my all time favorite directors. Heck, his LOWEST rated film is The Prestige and anyone who knows me at all knows how I feel about that masterpi—movie. Movie is what I meant.

It’s really not at all fair to call Batman a superhero movie, at least not this rendition of Batman. Like its predecessor, this movie approaches the superhero idea from a thriller/crime drama root instead of a fantasy/action one. It’s not really like any other super-suit franchise out there. There aren’t any big sweeping facedowns between the hero and the villain while townsfolk look on in dismay and take pictures. The men upstairs try to keep criminal activity under wraps and the Batman works with them in undercover tandem. There’s no heroine pining away for the man in the mask. She already knows who he is, and, like many normal women, is alarmed by his fetish for justice and tights and prefers security with a perfectly-coifed lawyer while Bruce gets his priorities straight. However, it still retains all of the suspense and glory of the superhero genre. It’s a fascinating mixture and comes out of the oven tasting so good you’ll have a Joker-sized smile throughout.

Not that…the Joker smiles much. This is an uncomfortable movie to sit through at times, because for all its clever writing and cool characters, it’s a harsh attack on human nature. At once affirming, but suddenly disturbing, the Joker’s headgames combined with Heath Ledger’s Oscar-worthy performance are more akin to Saw material than Spiderman. This is the movie’s greatest strength. Like Iron Man, it defies expectations of what SHOULD happen in a Batman movie, and what tragically and shockingly does. You will probably leave the theater still on edge. For as spectacular as it is, there’s precious little breathing room in the dark and stormy Knight.

Fight sequences are both creative and easy to follow. There’s a really long car/trailer/motorcycle chase scene that’s exhilarating, and I usually find chase scenes to be repetitive and impossible to follow. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and the lawyer “Harvey Dent” played by Aaron Eckhart are all exceptionally well-performed and absorbing amongst many terrific supporting roles. For those who have seen Batman Begins, this movie also drastically improves the weaknesses of its predecessor. It’s less confusing and less distant in its characterization. All the major details are easy to process in this sequel, although you will be wanting to pay attention to the layered dialogue. Also, while the original was sorely lacking in fascinating, proactive villains, the almighty wickedness of the Joker is a constant force to be reckoned with. Even Two-Face, in his limited abilities, is more compelling than the former Scarecrow and Raz Agoul.

I can’t say much more about this movie that hasn’t been lauded already. You get the feeling that the creators went over their universe with a fine-toothed comb, because really, it’s OUR universe, too. Bruce Wayne’s Gotham City is more eerily familiar than Peter Parker’s New York City, and bridging the gap between fantasy and reality, when done right, always makes for a delicious double whammy. It’s thought-provoking, action-packed, suspenseful, well-written, well-shot, and well-acted, especially by Heath Ledger and WHY did he die? Crap. Crap-crap-crap. Anyway. Don’t let this Knight pass you by.

The Incredible Hulk -- (now with less Ang Lee for your consumption)

2008-10-13T16:56:00.001-04:00

THE INCREDIBLE HULK

Given that the old “Hulk” was an ABOMINATION of a movie, (I’m sorry, the pun was SO there…) any news had to be good news for this franchise, and for the most part, The Incredible Hulk delivers. It’s enjoyable, campy enough to keep you interested, with a healthy sense of humor and great visual timing and shooting. The movie manages to make an ongoing e-mail conversation interesting, the cinematography’s so snappy. Despite the often tense pacing, (your heart rate will probably go up every time Mr. Time-bomb Banner’s does,) the yuks are constant and enjoyable throughout the movie.

So it’s really too bad that the flick suffers from reading like a checkoff list of “Stuff to include in a Hollywood movie.” Do we have the exploding helicopter? Oh, good! Where’s the random undressing woman? Oh, phew, got one in scene three. Okay. Catchphrases? How many? NOT ENOUGH! PUMP EM IN! Well, make some up them! Give Abomination a flippin’ catch phrase! We have to explain the science here. Well, we’ll make a scientist character! He’ll spout exposition throughout the movie, but it’s totally okay if we don’t give him anything else to do. It’ll seem TOTALLY natural, for reals! What’s our villain’s motivation? Ummmmmmm…*insert a million more ms here*…he’s power hungry! That’s totally original!

Yeeeeeeeeah.

Enough of that. This is an extremely fun movie and will not bore you. It’s a little insulting to your intelligence, but this is greatly eased by super performances from Liv Tyler and especially Edward Norton as the green giant himself. You really have to feel for the guy. He’s quite engaged in quelling his anger problems and getting his life back, rather than continuing the tradition of a mopey, emo Hulk, misunderstood and easily hurt, never getting picked up by those cars on the highway giving the thumbs down to his hitchhiking thumb. (Watch the old TV show, you’ll get it.)

A slight drawback is the pedestrian CGI. I was honestly stunned at how unimpressive the special effects were. The Hulk himself is mean and green but in harsh lighting and rainstorms it’s easy to separate the fictitious and poorly rendered creation from the background he’s painted on, and this is a problem. Lighting should not affect well-rendered CGI, not in 2008 when computer technology is so advanced. It’s a nitpick, though, as the character animation is solid, for facial expression and large-scale muscle-tastic action. Abomination, however, is FAR worse. In dark city lighting, his fights with the Incredible Hulk made me feel like I was watching a Soul Caliber game. I wish I was kidding.

Either way, once you get past the various drawbacks of the movie, you have a solid, fairly clever action flick with LOTS of smashin’ and uber-testosterone levels countered by Liv Tyler’s sultry hotness. The movie, for all its cheesiness, works and it works pretty well. I’d see it with a solid sound system as the mix for sound and music was pretty engrossing in the theater. HULK SMASH PUNY INCOMPETENT SPEAKERS. (Yeah, the Hulk totally wouldn’t say incompetent, would he?) Anyway you watch it, it’s smashing good fun!

Iron Man -- (tin can hit man, come and catch him if you can)

2008-10-13T16:55:00.003-04:00

IRON MAN

Heeeeeere coooooomes I-ron Man. His theme song rocks harder than anybody else’s, even if he is kind of a lame superhero. At least…that’s what I’d THOUGHT before I saw this movie. Now I am a major Iron Man fan. This movie defies all expectations but stays firmly in the superhero-movie blockbuster sweet spot of bliss.

First of all, Henry Downing Jr. is a total smart-*** as Tony Stark. There’s no other word for it. He has no qualms about justice or using his powers (by which I mean money) for good. He’s eccentric and has no tact, but is in many other ways, a pretty normal egoistic guy. Not superhero material. So how does he end up in a tin can flying around taking out terrorists with ballistic pizzazz? He gets stuck in a rathole hooked up to a car battery, that’s how. You heard me. A car battery = his heart. No wonder he’s so insensitive.

It’s a good thing his prospective love interest, as played by Gwyneth Paltrow, works his odd personality marvelously against her own. She’s a little squeamish, rather wry, and sort of a Munnypenny-like wallflower that does all his secretary work and doesn’t mind him ignoring her as long she can show his routinely invited Playboy bunnies to the door. All the characters are like this, from cohorts to technicians and our surprise villain who makes his presence known later in the movie. Their unorthodox human foibles are what make the movie so fun yet feel so real.

There are real moral dilemmas and conflicts in the story as well that haven’t been addressed in any superhero movie before it. Conflict is handled on the corporate scale in the land of opportunity and on the personal, visceral levels of terrorist territory and it all feels genuine, despite the ridiculous idea of a guy flying around in a bright red metal body bag. Ideas about the utilization of weapons and the price of security, as well as a few perfectly subtle ideas about personal responsibility, just slip right into the story without taking a breath away from the tight plot, clever characters, and nonstop action. But who gives a big hang about subtext? Is that nonstop action any good?

It rocks harder than the theme song, and if the theme song is a Guitar Hero staple, by golly, it MUST be good, wink wink. Action scenes are easy to follow and twist on ironic notes, as the movie constantly masters intertwining hilarious sarcasm and suspenseful drama for dynamic scenes. A scene where Iron Man violently escapes from a POW cave is just as engaging as a quiet scene where his secretary his to tweak his cardiac wiring and squeals as she fiddles around with his internal juices. (No, his heart juices, you pervert.) They both begin and end rather differently than expected. It’s times like this I wish I could just spoil it all, but I really don’t want to, do I?

The way I’m reviewing this movie, I must say, I’m making it sound horribly unrefined, but maybe that’s okay. The movie is really different and really clever, but it’s kind of a broad, maverick experience, too. The final scene of the movie, the final line, almost perfectly explains what I’m talking about. Just when you expect the superhero response, snarky Tony Stark gives you something totally out of the blue, and what you really wanted to hear all along. This is really the superhero movie for people who don’t even like superhero movies. More than that, with its sarcasm, explosive action, and vibrant humanity, it’s a movie for everybody. It changed my perception of Iron Man, the superhero, but I hope it will change how superhero movies are made from now on, period.

LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!

2008-10-12T16:52:00.005-04:00

Yeah, now that song is stuck in your head. I'm not sorry, cause I have it up there too. ("Be a man! You must be swift as a coursing river!") Basically, I have NOT been keeping up with my blog. This disturbs me, and there are two major reasons for it:

1. I really don't like talking about my life. I figure I'm the only one who should really care about it, and I tell other people the parts they'd be interested in. It feels weird to write about it on a large scale, so as of now, I will put entries under it ONLY if something major happens in my life that affects me or my blog in some fashion: like this one.

2. What I really want to do with this, I think, is write reviews. A lot of them. I love movies, TV and anime, so I want to share my opinions on them. Here's the only problem with that: I don't see movies right when they come out very often, and those are the only reviews that people (usually) want to read. If something's just coming out, it has to be REALLY good for me to want to risk 8 bucks on it, especially when my standards are so high. I'm a classic cinema/rental kind of girl unless there is a blockbuster involved. That's why I hadn't been adding reviews...I was scared to just talk about old stuff.

So I guess I'll be doing retro reviews. Maybe those aren't as exciting, talking about a movie that came out months or maybe even decades ago, but it's better than the alternative: just swamping my review section with anime.

Yeah, anime. The nice thing about reviewing anime is that it can come out anywhere between a month and 20 years ago, and it has about the same effect on people: there's less exposure in general, so no matter how old it is, it's usually "new" to you, right? Heh. (Unless you're a hardcore otaku like me, but I still usually check out things that are at least three years old before anything brand spanking new from overseas.)

So I'm going to try and restructure my blog, come up with a logo or banner or something, and write a LOT of reviews for everything I watch or rewatch. As usual, I'll (try to) keep it entertaining and always read between the parentheses. I'll try to review movies and anime equally, with some TV dramas thrown in there if I see anything that catches my eye...my American television viewing is usually reality/variety stuff, and I don't take it seriously.

I'll split my reviews into "Movies," "Anime," "Television" and "Retro Reviews," once I have a little of each. Huzzah. By the way, feel free to comment, as it gives me motivation to actually use this blog. (I really want to, but there's always that feeling of nobody, eh, reading it?) Hopefully, I can steer you straight on some stuff to pick up from the Blockbuster down the road on a weekend, if nothing else.

As an added goodie, all my reviews will have some kind of video clip, even if all I can give you is a theatrical trailer, that will give you an idea of what I'm talking about in the review. I did this in the Full Metal Panic review, and apparently more people read it, so hey! :D

OH! IMPORTANT! Just so you'll know when I have updated and whether it's of interest to you or not, and so you'll NEVER have to "just check" or "forget to check" the blog, I'd suggest subscribing. There is a tab in the address bar for this as well as one at the very bottom of this page. There are dozens of ways to subscribe, through e-mail, Yahoo, Google, or your own browser, you get to choose however is convenient. You'll just get a quick message when I've updated my site, so you can read it for a chuckle or a good movie idea.

Be seein' ya! :D

Nostalgia Attack!

2008-08-27T23:17:00.004-04:00

I've had a few days of classes go by now and I'm beginning to get into the swing of things! (I only got lost twice today!) My BCOM 101 class teacher is a swell guy, and economics...well, he's a bit nuts, but he means well. He seems to be rather ardently passionate about economics, even if his students have NO idea what he's talking about most of the time. According to some people I talked to, all economics teachers...like, all of the ones in the state, really...are a little cuckoo.

(I apologize to any perfectly sane economics teachers out there. I mean, it must be pretty boring being perfectly sane.)

Karate is turning out to be a nice easy review from past endeavors at the old OKS dojo, but it's making me really hungry every day. Good thing there's plenty of tempting FAST FOOD on campus. (Route 66 to that Frosh Fifteen.)

Anyhoo, I recently watched two good old nostalgia movies, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and The Goonies. I even got a poster for my room of Chunk doin' da "Truffle Shuffle." Adorable little nasty thing. Like a Gremlin. I saw both these movies at a pretty young age, so returning to them yielded interesting results. Same reaction you get, really, when you listen to the Spice Girls for the first time after 5 or 10 years. How much INNUENDO are you oblivious to at that age? A lot, I guess.

The Goonies and Robin Hood were chock-ful of "awkward for under-tweens" moments. I mean, it's funny now, but it's amazing that I never caught all this stuff when I was little. Maid Marian's iron panties just blew right past me. (Chastity Belt. They're all the rage in Nottingham these days.) Speaking of panties, you could make a heck of a drinking game out of how many times you see Andy's undies in The Goonies. That skirt of hers is nonexistent enough to put a Japanese schoolgirl to shame, SHAME I say! Not to mention it gets even better/worse when it's wet.

Speaking of Japan... (Can I keep segwaying like this? Naw, I think I'm done.) ...me and some new friends went to check out the WKU library today. We had just enough time to browse the movie section, though, and it's almost all indie stuff. I spotted "Hidalgo" and "Lord of the Rings" (did Viggo Mortensen attack the library with star power or something?) but not much else that's mainstream. I did however, find several of Satoshi Kon's movies, which I had been dying to see, and will probably be reviewing on this blog in the next couple of days. Satoshi Kon is an anime movie director known for "stream of consciousness" movies. That is to say, they're told entirely from within the minds of his characters. So, some stuff will make complete sense, and then, well, a chalk drawing starts talking to people or they start to literally shrink when they feel overwhelmed and you go, "Um, what?" It's easier to figure out once you realize you're inside the character's head, though. The only work I've seen of his was his only TV series, "Paranoia Agent," and it was brilliant.

On the non-anime side of things, I found "Vertigo," "Step Up," and "Cats," along with a non-Kon anime classic, "The Wings of Honneamise" and what appears to be a documentary on dachshund racing. Yes. Dachshund racing. I couldn't help myself. You laugh that loud on picking up a title in the library, you pay the price and rent it!

So, eight movies in seven days. Psssssh. Easy. That is, for now. All I've been given assignment-wise is a lot of reading and my job at PBS hasn't quite started yet...or should I say "volunteer work." It won't turn into a job unless I'm diligent and hang out there for a while.

-.-'

Hidey-ho, then!

First Day of Classes--Woot da Roof

2008-08-26T00:40:00.005-04:00

Well, I've quite survived my first day of classes. Doozy, but a good doozy. A bad doozy is more like tripping down the stairs and seeing everyone point and laugh at you upside down, so since that didn't happen, I'll take the better doozying option of a long tiring day.

I woke up at a fairly decent hour to go to World Civilizations, feeling fresh and ready to walk all the way up to the top of the hill to Cherry Hall...until the flood arrived. Load up the boat, Noah, I forgot to bring an umbrella to the dorm. So I slogged up the hill, got my shoes all wet, (I liked those shoes...) and wondered at the irony of having the geyser fountain outside FAC on to the max WHILE IT'S RAINING. So that's how Western spends their money, eh? Then I realized I was getting rained on more, so I stopped with the gaping.

I really like my professor for World Civ, but my student senses are tingling with a heavy workload on the way. Still, she surprised me, as I'd heard she was kind of a slave driver, and she appeared to be a nice woman with a heavy passion for history, that's all. I prefer passionate to lazy anyway.

On the way back from that class, the rain was still pouring, so I borrowed a gentleman's umbrella. We were able to share a brief conversation about our respective majors, (he was Broadcasting and I was Broadcasting, but we tried to find some common ground) and then we both stopped to gape at the fully functional sprinklers whirring away in every yard of the Hill while the rain poured down. So this is how Western spends their money, eh?

After that was Mass Comm class. I stayed awake, miraculously, but my memory's a little fuzzy on what exactly she said about the syllabus at some points. My brain must have been sleeping without my eyes again. It happens. It sucks. Another course, it seems, with a heavy workload, except that this professor was not a very interesting lady. Very young, and kind of normal. I think my body runs on a steady diet of weird or something because it just wanted to shut down during that class.

I woke up pretty fast when she showed us that nude Calvin Klein commercial though. Apparently, the point is for us all to find some advertisement of that nature and mention how it affects its audience. The more controversial the better, although I doubt that CK commercial affected anybody except horny guys browsing YouTube. It was banned and never broadcast in the USA.

After that was Public Speaking. Giggly teacher. Nice woman. I think I'll like her as she's pretty laid back and the course looks like PIE. I mean, there's next to NO out-of-class work. I was wondering if I was even in college, or heck, high-school level schooling. We'll have to do research for our speeches, but there aren't many of them, and the course load is featherweight compared to my previous courses.

Except Karate. That was the fourth class today, and you can't really do out-of-class work in that area. Beating the pus out of someone might be educational, but I think it violates some silly rule about campus safety, so the pus-beating will take place solely in-studio. Actually, the power went out during that class. The entire Preston Center turned into a black hole of student screams and giggles. (Sigh.) No matter how old you get, some things just give you the sillies, and a power outage during class is always the shizz. Power outage while working on a paper is rather shizz-less, though. I wondered what the kids in Mass Media thought about our surprise surge while they were researching syllabuses and whatnot. Not the same reaction, I'd wager. (Is it syllabuses or syllabi? I was thinking about the same thing with "octopus" today actually. Octopi? Sounds like a secret weapon or something: "Activate the Octopi! I don't care about the risks! Do it NOW!" Next time on The Adventures of Blowfish...disaster strikes!)

Anyhoo. I have a job interview tomorrow. Huzzah. Possibly working at the TV station, although "working" and "getting paid" don't exactly walk arm-in-arm when you're talking on-campus jobs. Maybe after a semester.

I nap now. Hit the books again tomorrow. With my head.

Full Metal Panic! -- (we may experience some slight turbulence, and then explode)

2008-08-20T16:26:00.041-04:00

Yeah, the quote there is from Firefly. But it perfectly exemplifies the mood of the anime I just finished watching. Lots of explosions and lots of teenage hormones....which are like explosions, eh?

FULL METAL PANIC!

(This might be a good time to note that my ratings are strictly critical evaluations of the story, characters, direction, etc. They don't always collate with how much I enjoyed the show/movie. I really got a kick out of Full Metal Panic! and will probably be picking it up. But I'll be the first to admit that it's pretty sophomoric.)

Full Metal Panic!, as I understand it, was a smash hit in Japan, and has some healthy popularity amongst anime fans over here as well. Given the generic presentation of the show, (our leading lady has blue hair, our leading man is a really young "war veteran," the art and music are totally generic, which is why I won't be mentioning them in my review...) I kind of wondered why it was a smash at first, but I think it has a lot to do with mixing two styles: FMP is equal parts action-mech-war drama and high school antics comedy, and the blend is so complete that it doesn't feel forced at all.

On the contrary, it's a total blast.

The story centers around Sousuke Sagara, a no-nonsense teenaged sergeant born and raised in the Middle East as a mercenary recruit and seasoned in all things combat. Well, in the two-sided spirit of FMP, it's equally about Kaname Chidori, a normal, clever, peppy high school girl with great athletic skills and a short fuse who the government believes has untapped psychic abilities. And that's how the two opposites attract.

Russian terrorists are eager to get their hands on the secrets of the Japanese mechs' advancements. The Whispered are a small percentage of people believed to have untapped knowledge of any technology they come across, processing all its secrets down to their scientific building blocks instantly. When the Japanese intel discover that Kaname could be one of the Whispered, they send Sgt. Sagara out to protect her. There's just one problem. While he's the best age for undercover work at a high school, Sousuke knows NOTHING about living a normal life. No matter what the subject, his mind shifts to his military duties.

No. Matter. What.

So he's prone to blowing up "bugged" lockers, putting any guy who speaks to Kaname out of commission, interpreting flirtatious behavior as covert ops code, so on and so forth. This is when the show is at its strongest. In a sea of repetitive, cheap-shot humor anime, FMP is consistently funny. It even spawned a 12 episode spin-off show called Fumoffu! that discarded all of the drama involving battle conflicts and focused exclusively on Sousuke making Kaname's life a warzone. Every episode was at least pretty funny, and many were gut-busters. Additional characters like gung-ho Major Melissa Mao and pervy sharpshooter Kurtz Webber only add to the spice of each screwy scene.

It's when the show traipses into dramatic territory that things get sticky. Thankfully, the presentation of the military forces, (army and navy) in FMP walks a secure line between being believable and respectful. Other than the presence of robot mechs, nothing feels forced or unusual about the international conflicts that pop up again and again. The white-braided soft-spoken Commander Teletha Testarossa ends up really helping the drama carry later in the show, along with some MORE romantic tension and "fanservice." The MORE, of course, means that there's an awful lot to begin with.

But for the most part the drama of Full Metal Panic is really simplistic and grade-schooly. None of the various arcs are gonna make you cry or even tense up in your seat much. Action scene after action scene goes by, but none of it feels epic. The villain is a stereotypical spawn-of-satan kind of terrorist that won't go away no matter how many times his mech explodes, and too much of the drama is centered around characters we barely know/don't care about that will disappear from the story in a couple of episodes.

Don't get me wrong. The show is well-written comedically and fairly believable, but it was clearly intended to be a crowd-pleaser. There's kind of a big climactic showdown at the end, but it doesn't feel that way. The show keeps a relaxed "high school daze" atmosphere throughout, and when it gets all dramatic and corny on us, all we can do is wait for something to blow up so Kurtz can make a joke about it and we can cheer.

The best drama you can glean from the show is the unspoken romantic tension between Kaname and Sousuke, and that is pretty good stuff that might actually tug on your heartstrings later in the story. It's too bad the show spends so few minutes on it, opting instead for a second season called "FMP: The Second Raid" that will develop their relationship further. I haven't seen this season yet, but I'm eager to as Kaname and Sousuke had only started to realize their feelings for each other by the time the 24 episodes were over. And then there's Commander Testarossa, but I don't want to spoil anything there...

In conclusion, great high-schooly fun with giant robots, explosions, plenty of laughs and lovable characters. Just don't go searching for any depth. In fact, I wouldn't even recommend trying to keep up with the "international tension" details in each arc. The real meat of this story is in the high school, not on the battlefields.

Uuuuuuuugh, I'm tired

2008-08-18T19:12:00.003-04:00

So after about four days of camp I was both feeling really wired and kind of stressed.

The long version? I have a million things to take care of, I'm having extremely crazy issues with electronics because we CAN'T have power strips in the dorm, I have to go to all these boring seminars, I spent way too long trying to figure out my new phone (yeah, I have a cell that works now), and I left my purse at Loucon so I was completely helpless for a while as my parents got it for me. Groan. I did what I usually do when I'm not on the sunniest side (read: ratha pissy) and that's eat a lot of food. I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep up with everything, but feel like I haven't had enough time to sit down, and when I do, hey, I'm writing a blog of all things...

The short version? I think I'm happier than I've ever been. College is gonna rock out loud.

Anyway, the food here's pretty decent and the company's nice as well. My roommate is friendly and the weather is beautiful. I have all sorts of freedoms and I'm TRYING to be as organized as possible. Oh, there's so much to say about what's going on, but I'm too FRIIIIIIED to document it all. It will come in little bubbles and squeaks over a period of time. For now, know I'm missing all of y'all, my buddies, and that I'm struggling through and enjoying this explosion of new life on campus.

I need a nap but I get to go to a seminar. *blows on party whistle* Huzzah....

Super Special Awesome Superhero Movie Reviews!

2008-08-14T03:26:00.020-04:00

Okay, so I’m totally going to be absent from the internet for the next four days. (Nice consistency, huh? Start a blog and then you can’t update it.) I’ll be moving into my new dorm tomorrow and then leaving on the honors retreat to Loucon. (Maybe Skillet’s still hiding there from the music festival last week. I’ll bring home the lead singer as a souvenir. Bwahahaha!)

So I thought I’d leave y’all with some starter reviews of mine, from this past summer’s three biggest superhero movies. (Arguably. I think these were the three biggest. Hellboy II was good, too, though…)

I need some way to centralize this on the blog…(I’m a total dummy with layout so far,) but for now, this is the ratings system I use. It’s the official rating system professional critics use because seven levels is easy for the mind to process, and I can choose a rating pretty immediately based directly on my gut impression without waffling in between.

DEPLORABLE, MAKES YOU ILL TO SIT THROUGH, PRETTY MUCH MASOCHISM

BAD, WITH SOME ENDEARING QUALITIES, BUT DON'T PAY MONEY TO EXPERIENCE

AVERAGE FARE, IDENTICAL TO THOSE OF ITS GENRE, PROBABLY SKIP IT

DECENT, WORTH ITS RESPECTIVE TIME, WILL STICK OUT IN THE SHORT TERM

GOOD, SHELF-WORTHY, CERTAINLY A RECOMMENDATION!

REALLY GOOD, TRULY SOMETHING SPECIAL AND AWARD WORTHY!!

FANTASTIC, AS CLOSE TO PERFECTION AS CAN BE ACHIEVED, DON'T MISS!!!

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s critic time! I won’t even bother explaining the plots to these movies, because A) I. Am. Tired. …and B) You should totally know already.

EDIT: All three movie reviews were put in separate posts by yours truly, but here's the template, which I put in the sidebar in a less pretty fashion...why can't you choose your own buttons? I'll have to look into that...

See y'all on Sunday! :D

So I'm thinking I'll start a blog

2008-08-12T05:00:00.001-04:00

This cat's mood and mine are one. One, I tell you. I always wanted to have a blog, as I write like a fiend, but no one ever reads it. In the past, of course, I had dial-up. BAD dial-up. Ten years from now, I will wake up in a cold sweat screaming "2 kb/s! 2kb/s! Lord, why? WHYYYYY?" until I pass out and dream about bunnies or at least something mildly more pleasant. Bunnies can bite you and poop on your floor...

But now that I'm internet-capable, I'd love to write and force people to slog through my opinion. No, actually, I plan to make this blog interesting to both my friends and the fleeting stranger, perhaps. Obviously, I'll use this blog to talk about aspects of my life, but more than that, I'll talk about movies, anime, books and other media a lot. Why? Because that's my obsession. Some people have many varied interests, and I'm just going to have to come to terms with the sad truth that I am passionate about storytelling, theater, print, and especially screen, and not even close to as passionate about anything else, except maybe Jesus, but that's a different beast to approach as far as life passions. I can be eclectic, sure, and take an interest in/like many different things, as you'll see in my day-to-day posts, but I am only flamingly, burningly passionate about storytelling and media, I guess. Can't deny it any longer.

I also wanted to do this because those public profile community things like MySpace and Facebook aren't...my cup of tea. I like looking at OTHER people's, don't get me wrong, but I hate maintaining mine. Heh heh. I just don't find myself interested in baring every little part of my soul or my pictures or music to the world so people can idly yak about it. And boy, I don't like those useless applications. So I figure I'll just waste my life on the internet (Facebook will eat your soul if you let it) when I have something to say. Like now. Kind of. Sort of. Yeah, this is totally important. (Rolls eyes waaaaay back in skull, oh, wow, the brain is gray-green, not pink. The cartoons, they LIE.)

So, WHY the title? Because I tend to write using parentheses. (A lot.) Usually, I'll say/write something and a tiny mental rabbit trail or floating sarcasm will attach itself to whatever I'm talking about. So I add such a smart-aleck comment or clarification as a parenthesis, (or a mumble if I'm talking) and move briskly along. It just seemed a fitting title for the way I speak, the way I write, the way I think, the way I extrapolate annoyingly repetitive phrases like this bloated sentence.

Anyway, I made a litta bitty opinion poll on the side, and I'd be happy if you'd throw your opinion at it! Explanation of the topics (and yes, I'm aware that the poll titles don't match these. The ones here are official, the poll names were just off the top of my head):

EDIT: THIS POLL IS EXPIRED, AND ONE THEME FOR MY BLOG HAS BEEN CHOSEN. SEE THE POST ENTITLED "LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS"

My Life: Self-explanatory, ain't it?

Reviews: I just love to review things. I'll try to keep each one kind of brief, but I like to be flowery in these, so expect them to be written at an attempt at a professional level. (Hey, I can try!) Not that they won't be fun to read. This will probably get updated CONSTANTLY up front.

Spiritual Musings: I've been studying my Bible more recently, and I try to be profound to counteract all that sarcasmic juice that runs through me like a six pack on a fishing trip. (Of RC, of course. I don't drink alcohol. I just shmell it if it's around. Addicting. Like gasoline.) Anyway, I thought this would be a nice venue to talk about spiritual stuff and concrete my beliefs in print and whatnot.

Symbolism and Motifs: Ha ha, so this is really a weird one. I love this stuff. Point blank, I love it. It's what makes me love my favorite movies, books, or anime, and sometimes I can't explain it in words and make people understand where I'm getting all this insight into a good story. Learning to recognize symbolism in great works of fiction really makes them more enjoyable, so in this section I'll take about the layered ideas in some of the deeper junk I waste my time on. If I had to guess what I'll talk about most, I'd say most anime chat will go here, followed closely by literature, with MAYBE some movies and TV, but those have less dirt to dig through than the former two.

Projects: I'm always doing SOMETHING, so to keep track of it and get other people's opinion on it, I'll share segments here. Videos, scriptwriting, databasing, I dunno, I'm usually playing with something. Good school projects that are actually interesting may end up going here, too. This would be a great opportunity for feedback.

Funnies: If there's one thing I love more than laughing, it's making other people laugh. I lurve it. So I'm not talkin' "Guy walks into a bar" here, I'm talking funny stories from my past or rants that I come up with when the irony gods just fong you in the face in an otherwise dull day and you have to rant about the beautiful idiocy of the world we live in. So, comedy club corner, I guess. You be the judge of if I deserve roses or rotten rutabagas.

OTHER: Yeah, my life can't be that boring. Any other ideas you have for stuff I could talk about?
Don't be shy, comment me here.

Totally excited about starting this blog. So, if I could find my niche in the blog-verse, things should go down quite nicely. Love all you now-seniors, (woo!) and all my friends and family who may read this. And welcome strangers! How in the heck did you FIND this empty little blog? How BOOOOOOORED ARE YOOOOOOU?