Link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uhi5x7V3WXE&mode=related&search=

[youtube]uhi5x7V3WXE[/youtube]

Link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0443543/

Do yourself a favor and go see this movie. Visually it's amazing!
I have a need for wonderful things to exist in this world. Sometimes it's the only thing that gets me out of the apartment somedays and certainly the reason I always have my camera with me. Movies like this give me hope that there are things like that out there. If you're anything like me at all, you need to see this movie.

I present to you, my thoughts in chronological order while watching Blade Runner....

• What kind of bastard makes a replicant that doesn't know it's a replicant?
• Toy makers should not live in such large apartments.
• WTF is up with the unicorn?
• Hand crafted animals, and no one has a dragon made?
• The concept of a cheaply made snake is amusing in retrospect.
• Drunk calling replicants is dumb.
• A midget standing on a motor is not to be trusted.
• The future, and still no replacement for plate glass.
• I like the shot of Deckard drinking the vodka and a drop of blood difuses in the shot glass.
• No matter how drunk you are kissing a replicant is inexcusable.
• Decrepitude? Is that a word? Apparently so.
• I think replicant's eyes shine pink and therefore the test is useless and a cover. The machine does all the work.
• Note to self: watch out for gangs of midgets.
• Where is that building with the bubble window in the loft? I've seen it in The Maxx series as well.
• The guy with the cane creeps me out.
• Wait a minute, why did that dick with the cane speak English right there when he "couldn't" at the begining of the movie? That asshole.
• Awww replicants in love.

XXXHOLiC Manatsu no Yoru no Yume: The story revolves around Watanuki Kimihiro, a highschool student who can sense paranormal things others can't, and his strange relationship with a strange shop and it's owner Yuko. Yuko can grant wishes for anyone who can pay the right price. So in an effort to become normal again, Watanuki starts working at the shop to pay for Yuko's services.
This is a pretty strange anime though beautifully animated. The name of the movie itself has nothing to do with hentai, the Xs are meant as a place holder for various addictions since "-holics" are Yuko's primary customers. It's based on a manga of the same title and there is a new tv series for it as well. I highly recommend at least checking out the movie. It's visually impressive and you'll get drawn into the story.

The World's Fastest Indian: It's a story about a New Zealand man who wanted to do something that everyone would remember him for before he died and that was to break a land speed record on a 1920s Indian motorcycle. He travles to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah all the way from New Zealand and meets a lot of interesting people along the way. I'm a huge fan of Anthony Hopkins so I likely would have seen this regardless of the reviews. He does a great job as usual.

Hoodwinked: A hilarious retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood story. You end up watching the story four times from different perspectives as the local police attempt to figure out what happened, which makes for a mentally and visually stimulating trip as it pieces together the reasoning for every strange event from the previous scenes. Favorite moments were when I asked myself, "wtf was that flash?" followed later by, "wtf was that squirrel doing with a camera?".

Nana: Another live action movie based on a manga. There's nothing really spectacular about this movie other than it's a pretty good story with some very good acting. You wind up getting drawn into the story which is primarily a drama about relationships and chance meetings. Gives you a pretty good view of typical Japanese life, work ethic, and how they handle relationships.

Day Watch: This is a sequel to Night Watch and visually five times better. Wow is all I can say. I knew I was going to love this trilogy from the beginning and I'm glad my gut feelings were correct. Who would have thought a series of movies this good could come out of Russia? I don't know who the third movie, Dusk Watch, is going to turn out since FOX bought the rights to making it and will be filming it in the US. Thankfully Day Watch ends in a way that technically explains most things so the first two can stand together on their own.

Naruto Movie 2: Gekijyouban Naruto daigekitotsu! Maboroshi no chiteiiseki dattebayo!: Like the first movie this one revolves around a single mission, all be it one that gets much much more complex than anticipated. The enemy in this one being a civilization from "the West" in search of a source of ultimate power. Pleanty of steampunk overtones, lots of action, and the addition of a few more characters, including Gara! The visual style and detail was much better than the first, as well as the overall story. Naruto fans rejoice!

Revolver: A complex story of revenge(and I think, a heist) with so many twists you might have to watch it more than once. I've seen it three times now and I still don't quite understand what happened at the end. It's directed by Guy Ritchie of Lock Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch fame, so I was expecting it to be good. Apparently good enough to watch three times and still want to see it another.

Lucky Number Slevin: A very complex story of revenge on many levels not completely evident at the beginning of the film. I really enjoy movies this complex especially if they have clever dialog such as this one. I spent the whole movie wondering what was going to happen next to this poor kid because the movie gave little to no hints as to what was going to happen. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Schizopolis: This movie is the definition of wierd. I'm not sure if I can even begin to explain it. It started out as a parody of Scientology, but lost it somewhere in there. Oh man is it funny though! It'll leave you saying, "wtf?!?", but you'll be quoting it for weeks. "Smell sign"

13th District: Set in 2010 Paris, District 13 has been walled off to keep all the crime and corruption isolated to one part of the city, only now they have a nuke(dun dun dun). Ok so yeah, it's a dumb plot but it makes up for it in ultra realistic and yet somehow unreal fight sequences. Crazy stunts are the order of this movie and little else, but it's still moderately entertaining.

American Dreamz: The tagline for the movie says it all: "Imagine a country where the President never reads the newspaper, where the government goes to war for all the wrong reasons, and more people vote for a pop idol than their next President." It's a movie poking fun at the current state of affairs in this country, and it's absolutely hillarious and spot on. I recommend everyone see this at least once for a good laugh.

The Da Vinci Code: So yeah, I went to see it despite my misgivings........and I was pleasantly surprised. I actually got caught up in the story despite historical innacuracies and general goofiness. I liked a lot of the concepts used in the movie, both old and new, and I wish that some of the actually existed. Especially the security related ones. I didn't read the book and found that one can still enjoy the movie without having read it. I'd watch it again if someone wanted to see it.

The Proposition: Essentially this movie is an Australian western. A story of four Irish brothers seperated by their views of right and wrong inevitably ending in betrayal and death. Set in the 1880s in an era of settling and Aboriginal abuse in the name of taming a wild country, it's a pretty accurate period piece. The fact that is was written by Nick Cave of Nick Cave and The Badseeds, also made it entertaining.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmMO0E7104

In reference to an earlier post and this comment....

Link: http://www.adultswim.com/shows/robotchicken/index.html

Get out of my head, and by the way thanks for pitting Lindsey Lohan, Amanda Bynes, Hillary Duff, and Sean Connery in a battle to the death.

Thanks again, and "There can be only one!".

Sincerely,
Raymond E. Nordin III

The Cat Returns: If you've seen any other Studio Ghibli movies then you'll love the artwork. The movie revolves around a girl who saves a cat from being hit by a truck, only to find out the cat was in fact the prince of a whole cat world parallel to our own. All cat owners have sat and thought about their cats living secret lives and doing strange uncat-like things when no one is looking. This movie essentially caters to those people making for a wonderful movie. It's anime folks, you just have to expect this sort of thing.

Tokyo Godfathers: Essentially a movie demonstrating people's ability to overcome adversity. Three homeless people, a runaway girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum find an abandoned baby in the trash and set out to find it's parents. During the adventure, fueled by convenient coincidences, they all find the individual mistakes they made in their lives that led to them being homeless and fix them. It's an extremely mushy movie, but well thought out and wonderfully drawn.

Seven Swords: A kung-fu movie in every sense of the word, but with a decent backstory that draws you into the movie more. The government has been overthrown and is the country is being ruled by an overlord who has enacted martial law. Seven heroes, with seven swords each suited to their individual fighting sytles, set out to save their village from the governments soldiers. The movie has a couple of plots twists in it and some really good fighting scenes.

Pirates: As the titles states, this is in fact a pirate movie but what makes this one stand out is Walter Matthau. The man plays one of the most convincing pirates I have ever seen! He walked around on a peg leg throughout the entire movie! An actual peg leg! You can't get much more piratical than this movie. The only cliches missing were an eye patch and a parrot on the shoulder but the movie definitely did not disappoint.

The Promise: An absolutely beautiful movie both visually and story wise. It's an adaptation of a Chinese fable in which the moral is be careful what you wish for. The moral I got frome the tale is don't trust Chinese godesses. They're just like genies and just going to trick because they're bored from being alive for so long. In all due honesty, I wouldn't mind seeing more fables brought to the screen like this. With computer graphics now, we can bring just about any fanciful concept into a movie and do it justice.

Finding Neverland: I really liked this movie and for one reason. It's about a man who saw wonders in the world around him, J.M. Barrie. I can relate to him and his imagination, for anyone that knows me has heard my crazy stories and observations on things. The world is just a better place to live if you just let your eyes see what you're thinking rather than what's actually there.

Freeze Frame: This movie was pointed out to me by my friend Matt after telling him about my idea of filming my day from the time I leave my house to the time I get home again. 18 hours more or less, then burning them to dvd and shelving them. He had hoped it would convince me not to go through with it due to the movies main character being framed for murder using tampered with versions of his daily movies. If anything it makes me want to do it more, but encrypt the dvds first of course, something the movies character either didn't think of or deeemed unfeasible due to the medium he was using. It's a great movie with a very indie feel to it.

Chaos: A great heist movie with Wesley Snipes playing the bank robber. I was happy to see Wesley Snipes playing a villain once again. This movie has numerous twists nested within one another, as every good heist movie should have. I honestly didn't see what happened at the end coming at all. A very well done hiest movie.

Inside Man: This was an even better heist movie! It used wholey different concepts than Chaos to obtain a much different ending and one I consider to be better. I've said it before and I'll say it again, any movie that can tie WWII Nazis into a coherent modern story has my vote.

Shinobi: A story of star crossed lovers from opposing ninja clans. For years the Koga and Iga clan have lived in peace after an imperial ban on their fighting but in those years the new emperor has grown fearful of these clans and their mysterious arts. In a plot to wipe out both clans the ban on fighting between them has been lifted. The movie does a great job of portraying each ninja's personalized skill with great effects. I've been a huge fan of the story after watching the anime Basilisk, which this is essentially a live action movie version of.

The Matador: A story of an assasin who's getting along in years and a chance meeting with the man who will later save his life. It's definitely not what you're expecting, as this is a comedy. The assasin is played by Pierce Brosnan, which I was kind of weary of at first, but he's pretty damned funny. It's a great movie and extremely funny.

Fearless: This movie tells the story of Chinese Martial Arts Master Huo Yuanjia (1869-1910) and is quite possibly Jet Li's greatest movie to date. This is a great story of a man trying to be the best and gain respect for his family's name but after doing so loses it all in his pursuit for revenge. He gets it right in the end though and goes down in history as a legend. Seriously, this is best kung-fu movie I've ever seen.

Tristan and Isolde: A classic tale of star crossed lovers and the inevitable tragic deaths that ensue over their love. I'm a stickler for sword fighting a fortress sieges.

Link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0375920/

While I have many movie reviews to post about, I felt that this one in particular deserved a great deal more focus than the others. There aren't many movies that come along that entertain me so much as to watch them more than once with serious interest. I often rewatch movies with friends as more of a social gathering and making the occasional remark about something on screen to get a good laugh. This is not one of those movies. Sticking with my most recent interest, it's set in the 17th century and revolves around a man who I feel even by today's lax standards would be considered shocking. It's a story about a man just wanting to be remembered after it's all been said and done and explain a bit about why he did the things he did. My primary fear in life is not being remembered in the end, just being that guy you all once knew. I don't care what was stated at the begining of the film, I liked the Earl of Rochester. I can relate to the man and I hope you all get what I got out of the movie. Do yourself a favor and watch this one. Watch it alone without anyone to distract you from rooting for someone society tells you that you shouldn't. You'll appreciate it more.

Link: http://strages.net/index.php/2006/03/26/of_wonderful_movies_and_the_inescapable

This movie is fanfuckingtastic! You don't need to read the graphic novel to appreciate this movie. Visuals, acting, plot, everything was superb. I also appreciated how it has ties to the 17th century like so many other things I have run across since I started reading Quicksilver, first part of The Baroque Cycle. This series of "coincidences" proves only to continue so long as I am reading these books. Which brings me to another appreciative point featured in the movie, Baader Meinhof Phenomenon, which is essentially "coincidence" with such an unsual frequency for it to be coincidental, if that makes any sense. Happens to me all the time and in fact discovery of the phenomenon happened right after trying to explain to a coworker the startling level of "coincidences" that happen to me without knowing what it was called, further demonstrating the phenomenon itself. So seeing the movie with it's tie in to the 17th century and it demonstrating Baader Meinhoff Phenomenon in the movie while being part of the phenomenon from a personal perspective was a double whammy and made the whole event very surreal for me. I apologize if all that doesn't make any sense, but I assure you that if you read about the phenomenon and know me well enough to have witnessed it happening, then it makes sense.

Link: http://blogs.philly.com/blinq/2006/02/the_incredible_.html

"Were there any justice, some small country - or maybe just a state - would canonize the late Don Knotts the way the French have Jerry Lewis." -Daniel Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer

We'll miss you Don, thanks for the entertainment....

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

The Incredible Mr. Limpet

The Apple Dumpling Gang

Pleasantville

...just to name a few out of so much more.

Link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0451094/

Completely unlike the similarly named, Sympathy for Mr. Vengance by the same director. The only thing common between the two movies is the central theme of revenge. Sympathy for Lady Vengance is a beautiful movie, not only in revenge plot, but in the visual style the movie was done. The classical music score throughout the movie also helped. I personally can't wait for Chan-wook Park to do another movie.

Link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0360717/

Do yourself a favor and see this movie asap. If you can make it past the first 55 minutes of the movie, the rest is solid gold....nothing but fan service. The scene depicted above is worth it alone, but let me tell ya, there are sooooooo many other awesome ones. Carrion crawlers man.....mother fuckin carrion crawlers......