Topic: Tom's Random Reviews

[Tom]

Title: Notting Hill
Year: 1999
Director: Roger Michell
Rating: FSK-0
Length: 119 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, German

Stars:
Julia Roberts
Hugh Grant
James Dreyfus
Tim McInnerny
Gina McKee

Plot:
The life of a simple bookshop owner changes when he meets the most famous film star in the world.

Extras:
A Travel Guide to Notting Hill
Commentary
DVD-ROM Content
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

This movie is a guilty pleasure of mine. Every time I watch it, I enjoy it just as much as the first time. This movie is filled some great funny moments. For example the scenes with James Dreyfus (before this movie known to me simply as Constable Goody from the Rowan Atkinson comedy series "The Thin Blue Line"). Or the first meeting of William's family and Anna Scott.
Also this romantic comedy has some nice touching moments, especially the ending.

Rating:

[Tom]

Title: Lissi und der wilde Kaiser
Year: 2007
Director: Michael Bully Herbig
Rating: FSK-6
Length: 81 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.35
Audio: German: Dolby Digital 5.1 , German: DTS 5.1 , German: Other
Subtitles: German

Stars:
Michael Bully Herbig
Christian Tramitz
Rick Kavanian
Lotte Ledl
Waldemar Kobus
Badesalz

My Thoughts:

This movie is the director's third movie based on a regular skit from his TV comedy show "Bullyparade". The first was a parody of the Winnetou movies and Western in general. The second a parody of Star Trek and Science Fiction movies in general.
This one now is a parody of the Sissi movies. It is the first one done as a CGI animated film instead of live-action. It stars the voices of director Michael 'Bully' Herbig (Sissi) and Christian Tramitz (Franz) who both played these roles in live-action skits on the 'Bullyparade'. Bully has said as a joke in interviews, that he decided to do this movie as an animated film, because Christian Tramitz didn't want to do the kissing scene with Bully
The movie is much better than I had feared when I first heard about this undertaking. The animation is top (especially because such movies are rare in German productions). I especially liked the facial expression of Lissi. They were modeled after Bully himself. I often forgot that this is animated and not really Bully himself.
Also the jokes were better than expected. I especially liked the movie references (e.g. the King Kong one).

Rating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpEYhh4UTbc

[Tom]

Title: Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl
Year: 2006
Director:
Rating: PG-13
Length: 325 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English

Stars:


Plot:
On a warm, cloudy afternoon, Tomari bursts in on two girls from her class, Hazumu and Yasuna, sharing a tender first kiss. Her heart breaks ... from jealousy.

Hazumu was born a boy, but he certainly doesn't act it. He's sensitive, delicate, and loves gardening. Lucky for him, he grew up with the tomboy Tomari, who is always there to protect him. Despite her own feelings, she pushes Hazumu to confess his love to the elegant Yasuna. After Yasuna rejects him, he retreats into the mountains in despair. So begins the strange series of events that changes him into a her, and earns her the love of both Yasuna and Tomari.

Extras:
Interviews
Textless opening and closing
Trailers

My Thoughts:

Surprisingly couragous for the conservative Japan.
A boy, which through an accident with an alien ship gets tranformed into a girl is caught in a love triangle with two other girls. Both of which were already interested in him while he was a boy. One is a girl also he was interested in, the other is his long-time childhood friend.
What I found refreshing is, that the makers made it clear from the beginning, that this change is not reversable. So there is no easy way out by simply turning him back into a boy. Also he is not trying to be more boyish after turning into a girl. As a matter of fact he was rather girly to begin with.
I don't know if it was intentional, but I see it as a metaphor for a girl caught in a boy's body who is now being turned into his/hers true self (sex-change operation).
This series touches a little on the topic of how friends and family will react on such a change. Partly in a comedic way, but also in a serious way (especially the girls caught in the love triangle).
Another interesting aspect brought into the series is a strange illness one of the girls has, where she cannot can see the boys only some vage figure.

Overall a fun romantic comedy, where the main protagonist happens to be a girl instead of a boy.

Rating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSvaVl0y-Xs

[Tom]

Title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
Year: 2006
Director: Liam Lynch
Rating: R
Length: 94 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Surround EX , English: DTS ES (Matrixed) , English: Dolby Digital Surround , Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo , Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Jack Black
Kyle Gass
Tim Robbins
Ben Stiller
Meat Loaf

Plot:
Witness the birth of Tenacious D, the greatest - and craziest - rock band ever "in a movie destined to become the most hilarious musical epic since 'This Is Spinal Tap'" (Pete Hammond, 'Maxim'). Featuring many A-list movie and rock star cameos, this laugh-a-minute riot is sure to have you begging for an encore.

On a fateful day in Venice Beach, JB (Jack Black) and KG (Kyle Gass) meet and realize they are destined to make history by combining their musical genius. But when overnight success eludes them, they set out to find the legendary "Pick of Destiny" - a special guitar pick believed to possess magical powers that can make any open mike wannabe a rock legend. Their epic quest, which includes run-ins with the law, sorority hotties and Sasquatch, will make you "laugh till it hurts and then you'll laugh some more" (Guy Farriss, KXTV-TV, ABC).

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Music Videos
Outtakes
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

As a Tenacious D. fan this movie is enjoyable. But sadly not as good as the HBO series on which their first album was based on. As a result, their second album, which is the soundtrack to this movie, is overall not as good as their first album. There are only a few good songs on it.
But that may be, because the first album was more of a comedic album in concept, and the second is "just" a soundtrack which take the songs out of context without a overall theme.

Rating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXxQFMG86HA

[Tom]

Title: Rocket Girls: The Complete Collection
Year: 2007
Rating: NR
Length: 300 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Eri Sendai
Hitomi Nabatame
Shizuka Hasegawa
Takayuki Sugo
Takaya Kuroda

Plot:
School is finally out for the summer and Yukari Morita has big plans this season. It's off to the Solomon Islands for her, in search of her long-lost father. Unfortunately, the archipelago stretches over 28,000 square kilometers and boasts a population of about 500,000 people. With odds like that, what's a girl to do? Luckily for Yukari, the local Solomon Space Agency is in desperate need of a new astronaut. With their promise to help find her father, Yukari begins her part-time job as an astronaut! Prepare to blast off into a world of fun, facts and fan-service at 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface!

Extras:
Scene Access
Textless Opening
Textless Ending
Rocket Girls Pilot Episode

My Thoughts:

How is it, that the Japanese can take a really ridiculous premise and make a real fun series out of it?
A Japanese space agency has had trouble with their past test rocket lauches. All rockets exploded after lift-off. Finally they come to the conclusion, that their rocket design would work, if their austronaut would lose weight to get down to 40kg (essentially being only skin and bones). He decides to take a run for it, because he doesn't want to take part in this. On the run, he encounters a girl, who is currently searching for her long lost father on the same island, as the agency is set. After both are being caught, the director of the agency, having not much time as the sponsors are dropping out because of the past failures, gets the idea, that the girl has just the right built for the mission. A new astronaut is born
What really helped this series is, that they had the real "Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency" as a consultant for the technical stuff.
As a conclusion to the series, they have a mission, where these small girls are helping out American astronauts, who came into trouble on their mission in space. Of course these are not happy it first to have to get help from Japanese girls because of their pride

Rating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15l28wbbJB8

[Tom]

Title: Titan A.E.
Year: 2000
Director: Don Bluth, Gary Goldman
Rating: FSK-6
Length: 91 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , German: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Czech, English, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Polish, Portuguese

Stars:
Drew Barrymore
Matt Damon
Bill Pullman
Janeane Garofalo
Ron Perlman

Extras:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Music Videos
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
THX certified
Trailers

My Thoughts:

I always enjoyed this movie since I first got it on DVD. Sadly this movie didn't do well at the box-office. I remember seeing a trailer at the time, with which I thought this was a kiddie movie. This is what a lot of people seemed to think and didn't go to see this at the cinema. But on DVD it became a huge hit.
This movie combines traditional 2D hand-drawn characters put into a 3D animated CGI environment.
For that time the animation was really great. Also it does not quite hold up against current animation, I still enjoyed it. The Ice Rings scene is as good as I remembered. What I always enjoyed about this movie is the soundtrack (I even bought the CD). I especially like the "It's My Turn To Fly" scene and the music when they reparing the ship at the drifter colony.

Rating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrmtpdPOP3s

[Tom]

Title: Go
Year: 1999
Director: Doug Liman
Rating: FSK-16
Length: 98 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , German: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Turkish

Stars:
Katie Holmes
Sarah Polley
Jay Mohr
Timothy Olyphant
William Fichtner

Extras:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Music Videos
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

I enjoy this movie every time I watch it. Nicely executed story which is told from different point of views. To be precise, it shows the story of different sets of characters and how they intertwine. Similar to Pulp Fiction.

This movie is one I constantly have to think of because of two reasons:
1) Everytime I watch a Columbia Pictures movie, I expect their logo at the beginning to be interrupted the same way as in this movie. It just stuck in my mind for some reason.
2) When I was on the search for a new user name a few year ago, I just had recently watched this movie and the name Todd Gaines just stuck in my head. I replaced "Todd" with my similar sounding real first name and "TomGaines" was born
You may remember one of my old avatars, which is a screenshot from this movie of the character Todd Gaines



Maybe I should switch back to it some day.

Rating:

[Tom]

Title: The Chase
Year: 1994
Director: Adam Rifkin
Rating: 14A
Length: 88 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85, Pan & Scan 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Surround , French: Dolby Digital Surround , Spanish: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Charlie Sheen
Kristy Swanson
Ray Wise
Claudia Christian
Wayne Grace

Plot:
Strap yourself in for nonstop action as two of the screen's hottest stars team up for a "racy" road romance that hurtles along the freeways of California! Charlie Sheen is escaped convict Jack Hammond and Kristy Swanson is Natalie, the billionaire's daughter Jack seizes as a hostage. The unplanned abduction quickly accelerates into a high-speed race for the Mexican border with Jack at the wheel of Natalie's BMW and a multitude of others in hot pursuit. Soon the fleeing couple realizes they're 'both' desperate to escape, as the chase - and their comical, high-spirited romance - shifts into high gear!

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

A fun little car chase movie with the lovely Kristy Swanson. But this car chase would have been over really soon, because Charlie Sheen always had the steering wheel about 90-180 degrees to the left (or was is right?) when driving straight on the freeway
And funny, how the interior of the car switched from a BMW 3 series to a BMW 5 series (which is totally different) during the love-making scene

Rating:

[Tom]

Title: Vikaren
Year: 2007
Director: Ole Bornedal
Rating: R
Length: 93 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Danish: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Paprika Steen
Ulrich Thomsen
Jonas Wandschneider
Nikolaj Falkenberg-Klok
Emma Juel Justesen

Plot:
A small-town sixth-grade class gets a new substitute teacher who wants to train them for a mysterious international competition in Paris. But something isn't right. How is she able to read their minds? Why is she so mean? And how does she so cleverly manipulate all of their parents into believing how great she is when it's obvious to the whole class that she's a nightmare come true? As the story unfolds, we find that there's a reason she seems to be from another planet...

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Commentary
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

I had seen this one in this year's FantasyFilmFest in Munich. I was surprised that this movie has been released so fast on DVD in the US.
I still enjoyed it as much as I did in the cinema.

Rating:

[Tom]

Title: Ice Age
Year: 2002
Director: Chris Wedge
Rating: FSK-0
Length: 78 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , German: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, German

Stars:
Ray Romano
John Leguizamo
Denis Leary
Goran Visnjic
Jack Black

Extras:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Shorts: "Scrats neue Abenteuer" & "Bunny"
Multi Angle
Production Notes
Scene Access
Sticker
Trailers

My Thoughts:

Still a much enjoyable movie. Even on its release, the animation was solid but couldn't quite compare to the works of Pixar, which were light years ahead. But maybe because they went with the simple animation approach, the animation still has its charm today as it did then.
The interaction of the characters is fun and the story suitable for young and old.

Rating:

[Tom]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Death Note
Year: 2006
Length: 126 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Japanese: DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English, Japanese, Korean

My Thoughts:

OK, so I couldn't wait any longer to watch this movie 
I have read the first 5 volumes of the manga so far and it was enough to not spoil later volumes by watching this movie. I had lowered my expectations for this movie because of this thread but I must say, that this wouldn't have been necessary. I really liked this movie adaptation of the manga. Of course the movie deviates from the manga, but I think they made the right choices. The manga is mostly characters talking. Which is great for the manga, but would have not been fitting for a movie. Plotwise the first half of the movie follows more or less the manga. The second half uses a lot of elements from the manga but leaves out a lot and changes a lot of things.
Regarding the two main characters:
Light: In the beginning I almost thought they had ruined this character. He was too hot-headed. But I think during the course of the movie he becomes closer to his manga counterpart.
L: He was surprisingly true to his manga counterpart! He was also the main reason I couldn't wait to take a look at this movie. When I saw screenshots of him in the booklet, I was surprised to see how closely he resembles the character of the manga. So I wanted to see, if his mannerism is also true to the manga. And yes, it was

Now I will have to wait until June, when the 12th volume of the manga is released in Germany, to be able to see the second movie. I will probably become weak long before then

Rating: 

I don't know if I already have mentioned it, but this movie is finally available as US RC1.

[Tom]

Title: The School of Rock
Year: 2003
Director: Richard Linklater
Rating: PG
Length: 109 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , English: Dolby Digital Surround , French: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround , Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Jack Black
Adam Pascal
Lucas Papaelias
Chris Stack
Sarah Silverman

Plot:
Fired from his band, rock guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn takes a job as a 4th grade substitute teacher at an uptight private school where his free livin' lifestyle, attitude, music and antics soon influences the students to explore other sides of themselves the school doesn't encourage. Finn's real goal in taking the job is to recruit a 9-year-old guitar prodigy, Yuki, to become the lead guitarist in a band that would be able to win a "battle of bands", solving Finn's money problems and re-establishing him as a respected rocker.

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Commentary
DVD-ROM Content
Featurettes
Music Videos
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

After watching the Tenacious D movie recently, I felt like watching Jack Black in another movie where he plays the role he does best: the one of a wanne-be rock star.

I enjoyed this movie more than the last time around. Jack Black is in obviously in his element here.

Rating:

[Tom]

Title: Hoodwinked!
Year: 2005
Director: Cory Edwards
Rating: PG
Length: 81 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , French: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: Spanish

Stars:
Anne Hathaway
Glenn Close
Jim Belushi
Patrick Warburton
Anthony Anderson

Plot:
So you think you know the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Don't be too sure.... One of your favorite fairy tales is turned upside-down and inside-out in what the L.A. Times called "high-energy, imaginative entertainment." With irreverent storytelling, spunk and wit, Hoodwinked delivers a comedy caper for the young, the young at heart and everyone in between. When the police arrive at Granny's cottage in the woods to answer a domestic disturbance call, it looks like just another open-and-shut case. But Red, Granny, the Big Bad Wolf, and the Woodsman are not your usual suspects, as they have their own dark secrets, wily deceptions and conflicting accounts of the crime. Together, they must put aside their differences and find their own original twist on Happily Ever After in this "raucous, genre-busting, animated gem (Entertainment Weekly, The Must List)."

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Music Videos
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

A fun play on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. Police investigates four different points of views of what has happened. These four POV do interweave quite nicely and result in a story totally different as it first seems.
Animation is far from the league of Pixar (especially the movements) but it did not detract from the story otherwise.

Rating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpVqRm8G97U

[Tom]

Title: Spy Hard
Year: 1996
Director: Rick Friedberg
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 81 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , German: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Czech: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: Croatian, Danish, English, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish

Stars:
Leslie Nielsen
Nicolette Sheridan
Charles Durning
Barry Bostwick
Andy Griffith
Robert Culp
Stephanie Romanov

Extras:
Scene Access

My Thoughts:

A very weak attempt at a Bond parody. Sadly another movie which did get the Naked Gun kind of humor wrong. Almost all of the side gags were completely unfunny.
The best thing about this movie is Weird Al's opening theme sequence.
This movie may be interesing for seeing all the cameos. For example I liked Robert Culp's appearance as an annoying business man.

Rating:

[Jimmy]

Sadly another movie which did get the Naked Gun kind of humor wrong. Almost all of the side gags were completely unfunny.

Not a big surprise when you know that it was written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. They are responsible for some of the worst "parody" movie ever made :

Date Movie (2006), Epic Movie (2007), Meet the Spartans (2008) and Disaster Movie (2008)