Rocky

Rocky

Last night I watched “Rocky”, the classic 1976 movie which surprisingly I had never seen before. When I was growing up, this movie was so popular, but I think I might have been too young at the time to be into it. I would have been 8, after all. Later on, I think I saw a couple of the sequels, but never the original. So I rented the blu-ray from Netflix and watched it last night and liked it! It was kind of cool to see a young Sylvester Stallone. He was a pretty good actor! I liked all the characters, except for Rocky’s friend Paulie, who is a complete jerk! I really hated that guy. Why anyone would be friends with him is beyond me. Obviously Rocky just wanted to get with Paulie’s sister Adrian, but after that, he should have just dumped Paulie.

I watched the movie by myself, except for the final fight scene. Koa watched with me, but I’m not sure he liked it. It did look a little dated, but still not too bad. My favorite scene is the famous workout montage featuring the classic song, “Gonna Fly Now”. When you hear that song, you can’t help but get so inspired! Anyways, if you haven’t seen Rocky before, it’s worth your while to rent it!

From Up on Poppy Hill / コクリコ坂から (2011) – Movie Review

Poppy Hill

I’m not sure how I missed watching “From Up on Poppy Hill” when it was showing here, but I corrected that mistake by ordering the blu-ray version and watching it last week. After seeing some high ratings, I was expecting a great film and I was not disappointed; I loved it! It had everything going for it: beautiful artwork, and interesting setting, likable characters, and great songs and soundtrack.

To me, the story’s setting was so cool. Early ’60s Yokohama is depicted as a busy and hopeful town, and I just loved the small details, like the old posters on the walls. My favorite scene was when Shun was taking Umi to the shopping area on his bicycle, and they were speeding down the hill. That was excellent! I just love slice-of-life stories, and From Up on Poppy Hill was one of the best so far. There wasn’t anything supernatural about it; the only thing that came close was Umi’s dream sequence. But the characters and story really didn’t need any of that. To me, the story was great; my only complaint is that the ending is too abrupt. I wanted the story to develop a little bit more. Is it too much wishful thinking that there will be a follow-up movie? Maybe now that Hayao Miyazaki is retired, it’s a possibility.

Below is the trailer for the US release. I prefer it over the Japanese trailer, although I did watch the Japanese-language version of the film. If you haven’t seen it yet, waste no time!

My rating: 8/10

Bayside Shakedown 3

Bayside Shakedown 3

Just a week after we watched “Bayside Shakedown 2”, Mariko and I watched the third movie, appropriately named “Bayside Shakedown 3”. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting much since I didn’t really like the last one, but I was pleasantly surprised! What made this one better was that the villains this time had some personality and smarts to them. And the police weren’t as idiotic either. It’s kind of strange because the movie tries to be funny and serious at the same time. For instance, the three police chiefs are inept and silly, so the movie takes on the feeling of a straight comedy. But in contrast, the villains are serious and cruel. It’s a little difficult to reconcile these different styles in one movie, at least for me. At any rate, Bayside Shakedown 3 was better than the previous, but really the bar wasn’t set too high. One thing that was pretty funny was the sheer number of cameos of popular Japanese actors. And I liked the homage to the late Chō-san (長さん)!

Love Collage (2003) – Movie Review

Love Collage

Following my Netflix recommended movies, I watched “Love Collage”, a 2003 movie starring Ryoko Hirosue and Makoto Seigawa. It started off great, and I was getting into it especially because it was kind of about photography, and I enjoyed the scenes where Hirosue’s character, Shizuru, would run around Tokyo snapping photos. It looked like this movie would turn out to be one of my favorites, but it all took a severe nose-dive when the plot moved from Tokyo to New York.

One phenomenon with Japanese dorama is that any gaijin actors used are usually not very good. The main thing they have to do is just look foreign, and any other acting skills they might have are at best lacking, and at worst, truly awful. That’s usually not a problem since they are often only a small part of the scene or plot. Well, half of “Love Collage” takes place in New York City and not only are the American actors terrible, but the storyline itself gets too weird and unbelievable. It went from quirky and charming, to cheesy and campy. There is one shootout which is so over-the-top and just plain stupid, I was wondering if this was all a big joke. Plus, what is up with all the guns and violence in New York? I mean, the main character gets beat up three times? Are we to think this is realistic?

Finally, after all the plot weirdness settles down it seems like the original director comes back into the picture and tries to end the movie. It’s not terrible ending, but then I just keep scratching my head as to what that whole New York part was all about. That pretty much ruined the whole movie.

My rating: 6/10

Hospitalité

hospitalite-2

Hospitalité” has been sitting in my Netflix queue for a while now and I finally got around to watching it. I almost didn’t make it through! It was pretty frustrating to watch because one of the characters was such a manipulator and the others were so timid. I wanted to shake them and tell them to be strong and not take his crap! Ugh, it made me so mad. The film is described as a comedy, but I didn’t see anything humorous about it. Oh well, at least I can remove it from my Netflix list.