View Larger Image |
Returner Actors: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Anne Suzuki, Goro Kishitani Director: Takashi Yamazaki Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Widescreen, Digital Video Transfer, Surround Sound, Subtitled, Digital Sound Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Running Time: 116 minutes Studio: Columbia Tristar Hom Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2004-09-07 Buy from Amazon |
 "Disappointing and disjointed"I rented this because I read about it from so many places, I figured it must be a good, fairly cheesy sci-fi kung fu movie, but I was really let down. First of all, this movie doesn't know whether it wants to be a serious sci-fi movie or a b-movie. Budget probably came into play, but it should feel a little more polished. After watching the tense opening scenes, you think it's gonna be a serious film, but there are moments so ridiculous they take you right out of the movie. There is some good here. Neat gunplay/action, some decent shoot outs and such. The movie was genuinely good at developing the relationship between the two lead characters, but unfortunately the movie is too cheap: too many close calls to make it believable, especially in some of the action moments. Worst of all, the pacing slows to a crawl at key moments. Instead of moving the film along, it stops to meander and wonder. Especially the ending. Apparently the filmakers ran out of ideas of how to end the thing, because it could've had ended three ways and I would have been sufficiently satisfied either way. As it stands, though, the movie is too long and to end all that with a Lenny Kravitz song is salt on the open wound. But I shan't be too hard on this. This isn't some flashy Hollywood movie, this is just people making movies they care about, even if it means they're, well, not good. And there are some genuinely good moments, except the bad outweigh the good. Add another star if you're a freak about this genre. I actually didn't delve into the DVD deep enough to write much about it, however, but I can say the picture and sound were sharp enough. I watched it late at night so reading more subtitles to wade through the docs on this disc was not my cup of tea at the time. But they put effort into it, obviously, because there were a lot of extras here. For the general audience, don't feel bad passing on this.  "Pleasantly surprised!!"I was pleasantly surprised because I didn't think that I would like it. Turned out to a slick action/futuristic/sci-fi film.  "The borrowing goes both ways"It troubles me how often in these reviews, and in the reviews of other non-American films, everything comes down to the fact that story and character elements are "borrowed" from Hollywood films, as though everything original in the history of cinema came out of Los Angeles. In fact Hollywood itself has a long history of "borrowing" - without Japanese Anime, "The Matrix" would never have existed. So why don't we lay aside the self-serving pretence that "The Matrix" is either an original conception or a yardstick for SciFi films, when in truth it's neither one, or that Hollywood is the ultimate font of cinematic art, which it most certainly is not, and evaluate these films on their own merits. This one has many.  "I wish I could've returned the DVD back to Blockbuster"I bought this DVD as one half of a (...) DVD special, the other being a Tomie sequel--to be honest, if I had known that this was a Hong Kong pfui special like most of their movies, I would have been warned and found better feminist action propaganda, like Tomb Raider--if you are a man and want to see a true sci-fi action movie, DON'T GET THIS! But if you are a quiche-eatin', chick-flick bawlin' with your girlfriend, kind of "guy" you will slurp this mess up like a decaf latte! Bad rip-offs of ET, Back To The Future, The Matrix and John Woo--check! Extreme sexual role-reversal where the cover "hero" ends up being bossed around by both women in the movie--doublecheck! Blonde, spikey-haired, psycho villian who abuses his own henchmen--check please! I watched this with a anime-fan friend of mine but I stopped watching within the first 5 minutes and read a book during instead, only looking up every 15 minutes when I'd hear a gratuitious explosion and when the movie was over, I was able to give my friend the resolution of every lame plot point in the movie to his amazement! "Here's a GOOD TIME film."I keep reading reviews that say Returner copied from this film or that. Well, all I know is that, for me, this was a pretty impressive film. I don't see many "MEGA-MOVIES", never saw the Matrix movies, not even E.T. way back when. Big blockbusters usually don't entice me. When I stumbled on this one (also recommended by store clerk who knew my likes) I thought it had just the right amount of warmth, with convincing characters and a good S.F. story. I'd recommend viewing in the original Japanese language (with subtitles), the English dubbing was not first rate. |
