Zíza

A very ambitious project, beautifully lit, wonderful color, with artistic imagery, whose shoulders buckle under ambitions it can't fulfill. The series is a bit like a trashy soap opera; at times it disrespects the viewer's intelligence, offering holes in the script like crazy, clichés it can't handle, and unnecessary characters, played by great actors but absolutely useless. It just sounds great – a parallel world, a king and a detective; a handsome guy who can't act, Lee Min-ho, and an actress who sometimes fits and sometimes doesn't, Kim Go-eun. It's just that the script killed it, not to mention that it's clear this show just wants to make money, nothing else, because I haven't seen such ridiculous product placement in a long time (Fried Chicken, anyone?). The only one who got the most out of the series was the actor Woo Do-hwan, his characters were really different, he played them brilliantly and actually he pretty much saved the day. Not the overabundance of romance that came out of nowhere. However, the heroine's crush seems to have only come the moment she found out that the hero is really a king and rich... you know what that smells like... I could actually go on and on about that. For a villain, he looked tough, but didn't really accomplish anything, just hung around, scowled, did something here and there, but basically a character with no depth or interest (although the actor is great). The plot was simple, it's just that the story is weirdly jumbled so as not to reveal how weak the script is at first glance. And so on, and so on (if anyone is interested, I'm willing to message them more stuff :-D). But what I liked about the series was the music, which really fit the scenes, even though it's not memorable and the OST is not rockin' with at least one memorable song; also the cinematography and lighting were great, they really won with that and for me both thumbs up. Every now and then a scene was okay, except when they were just shouting those horribly embarrassing things that an adult would be embarrassed to say; but those scenes are certainly not worth watching the whole thing. The effects were fine. In short: The cinematography, the lighting, and Woo Do-hwan are three reasons why the series didn't fall into the mud, but these guys are soaking in it. Lee Min-ho is still a looker, Kim Go-eun can act but there was nothing here, they were even pretty good together but no miracle. It's all romance, and somewhere in the background the rest is happening, which is up all the fans' asses anyway. The main thing is that the king and the detective love each other... A series ruined by a very weak script that didn't even know what it wanted to say or how to manage all the characters it invented.

It started off really nicely, I could even get past the fact that Ellis was a bit of a jerk, or the awful stalker stuff like in Twilight, but then it lost its charm. Despite all the beautiful imagery and settings, despite the pleasant narrator's voice, it ended up being pretty dull and my enthusiasm for that strong beginning cooled down quite a bit. Basically, everything that happened from the moment she crashed the car around was worthless. A nice romantic flick, kind of a weaker The Makropulos Affair that turned out to be something completely mediocre in the end, even though it had its chances to stand out. Not to mention that I actually didn't wish it for the central couple – not like that, not so hastily. In the end, I thought she loved his dad more, but that was probably because Ford is just a much better actor than Huisman.

Haha, the way I rated it, suddenly red was blue. :-D Will it hold up? If I hadn't gone to the FilmBooster screening, but bought a ticket normally, I'd probably have mourned it at the end of the movie, thinking that maybe a McDonald’s love-in-a-bun would have been money better spent. It's not a complete disaster, but the story is thinner than a stool in dysentery, the characters are flatter than Voldy's nose, and the best part of the whole film is the fight scenes, the bulk of which can, of course, be described as follows: Hop here, hop there, the bad guy gets cut, yells ouch but is no longer hampered by his injuries, hop here, hop there, slice slice and the bad guy is dead. The film is very instructive though, because by the end you know that the only way to take on witches is with a flamethrower. Another plus was Jeff Bridges, his "rich baritone" (so it didn't matter what he said) and now and then he said a corny line to make us laugh (and we did laugh, but many were obviously ashamed of it and so only gave the film one star or the trash can). And quite nice effects. What was it about?!

Bland and flavorless, no suspense, cliché upon cliché that you can't even digest properly because the movie just won't let you, Cam Gigandet can't act, and the ending is a waste. The music didn't impress either. And I kinda regret the money I paid for it. The action was slow, and it wasn’t really any good. The vampires weren't that great, either. It's just a very, very weak film. Somehow, after sleeping it off, I can't even remember what (if anything) I enjoyed about it...

So it’s like this – I watched it at school with my class. I was hearing from all directions: "That's disgusting!", "That's a terrible movie.", "I'm going to kill that Oskar!", "This movie has only one negative character and that's Oskar.", etc... so I guess I can't even make up my own mind anymore, or rather – I do, but I'm out of words to express it. I understand what it was about, I know when it was written and for what purpose. Period. The end. Plus, David Bennent was really excellent! He really played it to the hilt, after all, 90% of my class started hating him, and when so many people in my class agree on something... well, that's saying something! :-D

Even after all these years I still haven’t quite gotten a taste for Koreeda. He makes nice films which are civil, mundane, but well crafted, and he's also quite good at polishing his actors so they don't do silly nonsense on set (like Hirose, for example; he played a similar character in Sensei but here he was more believable). The same is true of this film. It's obviously not a detective story, I guess there's some minimal investigation going on, but I still wouldn't see it in that genre, let alone a thriller. For me, it's just a regular drama that shows a sort of excerpt from the lives of a couple of people (mainly the defendant and the defense attorney). The good and bad thing about the film is that it is so multi-layered – you can explain it in your own way, even make up your own mind about the ending, take into account all the clues that have been presented to you and come to your own conclusion. And when you’re satisfied, that's just the way it was and that's that. While there is a beautiful freedom in this, I still find it a bit convenient – so, viewer, you decide for yourself how it was based on your preferences, I'm not going to spoil it for you with some intention of my own. Perhaps it would take another viewing to perhaps find a hint in the jumble and understand what the author intended, but I'm not sure I want to go through all that. After all, the film is a bit lengthy for my tastes and I can't say I was exactly glued to the screen, eating it up. Plus, there might be no clue there whatsoever and the whole thing would be a waste of time. If you want a good opportunity to philosophize and contemplate a film, this film is your ticket. It's a good movie. So I’ll give it a three.

As always, I commend the animation, it's really beautiful. The idea of incorporating the songs was also interesting, it sounded like an opening/ending for the beginning/end of the main character's life stages. The characters and their personalities were ok. So far so good, fine, not mediocre. But the script. Dear Lord, the script! Mr. Shinkai, please find someone else to write the scripts and stick to animating and directing, because you're just not very good at those scripts. Maybe the book is better, more coherent, makes more sense, but this was really bad. Weirdly disjointed, for a long time you're actually groping for what it's exactly about, and by the time it becomes somewhat clear, another theme has gotten mixed up in it. If it had been two different films, it would have been better. And then there was the ending! God, that ending! I haven't seen anything so stupid in a long time. [SPOILER] Three years of constant rain? And everyone's fine with it, especially things, their apartments that don't succumb to mold, corrosion, disrepair, the global order going under? Sure, after three years of rain, it would definitely be this sunny. Whoopee. [END SPOILER] And unfortunately I didn't enjoy watching it that much. I was actually kind of looking forward to it being over.

I wasn't expecting much from this, so when I found the beginning to be pretty entertaining, I was very surprised and wondered why it got such a low rating. And then it all became clear during the film. Kaulder is lame, the fights are even more so, and for being only 107 minutes long I thought it might be over after the 70th minute, it was kind of long. I was entertained until about the time Kaulder gets his gnocchi on, but there was nothing more interesting than that. Pretty mediocre, below average action fantasy.

This is more about the father-daughter relationship than the election of a president. The fact that he became famous for 5 minutes only began his journey to be a proper citizen of the United States of America. ;-) It's definitely not a bad movie, but if you think you'll be rolling on the floor laughing at it, you won't, but that doesn't detract from it's cool and, I'd say, fairly original story. There are little things that I really liked, little things that are pleasing, because you don't usually find them in a film this self-indulgent. Yeah, it was good. I'd say a better 3 stars is an adequate rating. I wasn't bored. And I knew exactly how it was going to turn out. Behind the screen.

The main character seemed awfully smart at the beginning, she used her brain brilliantly, but then I thought she froze up at times. Too bad. The scenes from the past where Lee Yeon had long hair and was weirdly smiling made my teeth chatter. I wasn't impressed with the effects. The fights were boring. The chemistry between the main couple was almost nil, much more so with the supporting couple or even the good cook and the heroine's awkward boss... The Imugi had no rules. Or rather, his power; it was basically unlimited and then they remembered at the end that it shouldn't be, so they weakened it a bit. It was kind of hollow. I figured it out, then forgot I had it figured out for a few weeks and didn't miss it at all, didn't even care how it went on. But eventually I finished it and I have to say I wasn't surprised by the ending – it was stupid. Happy/unhappy, basically the last two episodes just illogically switched victims. Nobody kept their word here. What was said was only to be broken, twisted. For in the same way the heroine used logic, the hero and the villain basically used intellect against each other, it lacked logic, order... Lee Dong-wook's performance absolutely did not appeal to me. I was disappointing. I had been excited at the beginning, I had even liked Kim Bok's character a lot (the entire time, in fact), so I found it boring. The weird thing is that I thought the characters were well written, but that the rest of it was worthless. What can you do, the series left a rather strange taste in my mouth. Let's call it dissatisfaction.