Camp Lazlo (2005 - 2008)

An American animated comedy series created by Joe Murray, directed by Sue Mondi and Brian Sheesley.
Anthropomorphic animals are at summer camp. Lazlo the monkey stars with his friends Raj the elephant and Clam the rhinoceros. The scoutmaster is Lumpus the moose. They are always involved in some type of absurd situation.
American animated series of this time period were noticably poor in terms of plot and writing, but this is the exception to that trend. It didn't seem like "stupid kids' stuff", but more universal humor dealing with exaggeration and hyperbole. Some of the elements which entertained me most were the dung beetles (my favorite characters voiced by Steve Little), Lougie Llama and Lazlo's arms making impossible shapes. The animation style is very traditional and cartoony. Creator Jo Murray also made Rocko's Modern Life, an earlier cartoon which I like as well. Carlos Alazraqui voiced Rocko and Lazlo, Tom Kenny voiced Heffer on Rocko's Modern Life, Spongebob on Spongebob Squarepants, Eduardo on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Scoutmaster Lumpus and Slinkman on Camp Lazlo. Mr. Lawrence voiced Filburt on Rocko's Modern Life, Plankton on Spongebob Squarepants, Edward, Dave, Ping-pong and Nurse Leslie on Camp Lazlo. Jodi Benson voiced Ariel in The Little Mermaid (1989), Tula in Pirates of Dark Water, Patsy, Jane Doe and Almondine in Camp Lazlo. The series was produced in 16:9 aspect ratio and originally aired in 4:3. I watched a 4:3 version and it makes me wonder what got cut out or modified to change the frame shape. I rate this good.

About Cherry (2012)

An American drama directed by Stephen Elliott, starring Lili Taylor, James Franco and Heather Graham.
A girl leaves her home, messed up family and boyfriend to move to San Francisco with a male friend. She has paid for the trip with money from a nude photo shoot and enters the porn industry. She meets a rich lawyer and they begin a relationship. Her mother and sister visit, but things don't work out very well with that.
Kind of a weak start, strong middle and terrible ending. It took a little while for things to get happening, but then held my attention. Production was good and the characters worked. There was lots of selective focus in camerawork. A good example is filming filming and having the camera focus shift from camera screen to action. Correct casting and good writing made it seem like the characters were not acting, but actually in these scenes. Isn't that the goal with casting, acting and dialogue? The ending was really just a vaguely implied series of incomplete information. It's difficult to spoil what is so difficult to describe. Small changes took place and we have to assume that time has elapsed before these quick scenes of altered situations. I rate it adequate because the middle was made so well.
No image again because blogger is still broken.

Lekce Faust (1994)

A Czech, French, British, German, American fantasy directed by Jan Švankmajer
A man receives a map from men passing them out on a street corner. He follows it and becomes an actor in the role of Faust at a theater production. As the story progresses, stop motion fantasy elements are added and he turns into a marionette, but goes back to being an actor between scenes, while still in a deal with the devil.
Jan Švankmajer also made Alice (1988) and Little Otik (2000). This belongs in the same category as those: weird and wonderful. I liked Little Otik the most, but this was pretty cool too. The stop motion all looked good and there were some great scenes. The heads rolling through areas looked good and the small marionettes in the signature scene were great. My favorite was when the jester was trying to catch a bird. He repeatedly summoned and banished a devil with some humor involved. The audio was in Czech, but the version I watched had on time English subtitles. I rate this good just for being so strange. You should probably watch it.
Sorry, no image. Blogger is broken again.

Mutafukaz A.K.A. ムタフカズ －MUTAFUKAZ－, Mutafukazu, MFKZ (2017)

A French Japanese animated adventure directed by Shōjirō Nishimi and Guillaume "Run" Renard.
A character with large eyes lives in a city ghetto with his friend whose head is a flaming skull. He finds that there are "tentacle mafia" guys all around and he is involved with them. The daughter of the tentacle mafia leadeer takes a liking to big eyes and some luchador wrestlers help them.
Amazing! There are very few movies which will prevent me from playing guitar while I watch them. This is among that elite group. My friend, Thomas recommended this, so I have to thank him here. Although this is very unique, I would recommend it if you liked Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010), The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009), Bigg Snoop Dogg: Adventures of Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (2008) and The Boondocks (TV series). I rate it best. Watch it!

About Adam (2000)

An Irish British American romance directed by Gerard Stembridge.
3 women from the same family are all interested in the same man.
I could tell within 5 or 10 minutes that this movie was not for me. I waited until 35 minutes in to turn it off. As I have said before, love and war are my least favorite subject matter for films. The video was really bright, which is not bad, but this usually (and in this case) goes along with very feminine films. I'm just too male to appreciate any value which my be there. I rate it shit in accordance with my turn off policy.

Karas series A.K.A. 鴉－KARAS－, Karasu (2005 - 2007)

A Japanese science fiction fantasy anime directed by Keiichi Sato.
Deomons, spirits, kappas and city guardians duke it out in Shinjuku. A police detective is trying to figure out what is going on and there is a young woman wandering around.
Most of this was not so great. The plot was vague and muddy, so I didn't really know what was going on. There were a few fights and good scenes here and there. Then the ending happened. It made it all worthwhile. I'll just say that there is a long fight. The animation style mixed traditional anime with digital editing and really looked cool. I was watching the last 2 episodes, wondering what to write about this and that's all I got. I rate this adequate. You might want to just watch the last 3 episodes.

Xanadu (1980)

A Musical romance directed by Robert Greenwald, starring Gene Kelly.
A painter reproduces album covers on a larger scale and meets a woman who was on one of the covers. He also meets an old jazz musician and they open a dance club.
Not good at all. What I want to talk about here is not lack of originality or crappy music. I'm not discussing how this won more bad awards than good ones or how terrible a film it is. I want to point out Don Bluth's animation sequence. That's why I watched it. The male and female lead actors turn into fish and birds. That may seem inconsequential until you see them and their similarity to those in The Sword and the Stone (1963). So similar, in fact, that I expected the characters to become squirrels at any moment. The posture of this bird reminds me of when Wart turned into a sparrow (image). I rate this bad because it was damn near torture to watch. Don't inflict this upon yourself or anyone you know.

A Troll in Central Park A.K.A. Stanley's Magic Garden (1994)

post #2900

An American animated fantasy directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, starring Dom DeLuise, Cloris Leachman and Jonathan Pryce.
A troll is deported from troll land, into New York City because he has been making flowers with his green thumb. He lands in central park and meets a pair of children. It turns out that exiling him is not enough for the troll queen and she arrives to cause more trouble.
Alright, but not great. Pacing was what I noticed first. Everything flies by in a rush. Next was song quality. If Don Bluth wanted any chance of even co-existing with Disney, he needed better songs. At least the instruments and vocals were mixed better than All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989). The animation looked much like the other work of this studio, but not quite as good. It seems like somewhere in the late '80s and early '90s is when the studio stopped producing their best work. If you look at Don Bluth's filmography on Wikipedia, there are 4 columns for credit. I get the feeling that when these are all green (meaning Bluth did it), it's a great movie. He did also animate some Wolfgang Reitherman films for Disney. Something funny that I noticed in this film was the squirrel looking completely thrashed on drugs (image). Why? Then there was the issue with the bottle (baby bottle) and I was thinking that the squirrel probably has a liquor bottle if you need it that badly. I rate this adequate, but would only recommend it if you're into Don Bluth's work. There will be a few more of these coming soon.

The Killing of America A.K.A. アメリカン・バイオレンス, Amerikan baiorensu (1982)

A Japanese American mondo documentary directed by Sheldon Renan and Leonard Schrader.
Murder and murderers in America are discussed.
This was really nothing special. The killers were covered quickly. Lots of television footage was used, so the audio and video were both pretty terrible. There was tons of dead air noise to the point of cacophony and some of the video was so low quality that movement in it turned psychedelic. There was also a strong anti-gun message, even though most of the killers did not use guns. There was some gruesome crime scene footage, but that was tame compared to other mondo films I've seen. I rate this o.k. and would not recommend watching it.

About a Boy (2002)

A British French German American romantic comedy directed by Chris and Paul Weitz, starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collette and Rachel Weisz.
An independently wealthy man decides that single mothers are good to date and gets himself in trouble by lying about having a son. Through a friend of a friend, he meets the 12 year old son of a suicidal single mother and they become friends.
I think I like Chris Weitz as a director. I recently watched A Better Life (2011) and saw the similarities between these 2 films. His films don't jump out and grab the viewer like those of Alejandro Jodorowsky or Quentin Tarantino, but these realistic dramas about families are made well and hold my attention. They seem to have a tendency to get a little sappy at the end, but I can see past a little maple syrup when the rest is this good. Something about this one that I really liked was the heavy double narration. The man and the boy both had voice-overs spaced through the duration. I'm rating this good. If you like this or A Better Life, you should watch the other and possibly other films by Chris Weitz.

Mondo New York (1988)

An American mondo film (not a documentary though) directed by Harvey Nikolai Keith.
A young woman walks through the city and watches performance artists, comedians and musicians.
I tend to like mondo documentaries, but this is mondo in name only. Most of the others deal with recording as much of reality as will fit in the time, but this was all performances. It seems forced and contrived by comparison and that is not what mondo is supposed to be. The Italian word, "mondo" translates into English as "world". Mondo Cane (the original) was "a dog's world", making this "New York World". I have seen other films which used the mondo film principle of uncensored reality in New York and were good. Pedal showed bicycle messengers in the way in which this film should have been done. The third from last performer was worst. She covered her body in glitter and screeched "oh" before each sentence. The last one was my favorite. He was a cross-dresser who said "fuck _____" with the ____ fill in banks, fast food, whatever evil of modern society. Enough trash talk. I rate it bad because it defies the precepts of the genre and made me want to turn it off.

Mondo Cane 2 (1963)

An Italian mondo documentary directed by Gualtieto Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi.
Scenes of contrast from around the world are shown and "explained" by the narrator.
These old mondo films were wild and still are. There were funny moments like the explanation of the vending machine restaurant, paint spitting art and the "hard head" village. Many of the scenes from America were explained as if Americans are a strange and foreign tribe, almost aliens from another planet. It may have been intentional for humor. There were also tragically disturbing moments like the stink bug tacos in Mexico, flamingos and the tortured children. I can watch almost anything, but those pushed my limits. The audio on the version I got was in English, so it was easier to watch than the last mondo film I reviewed. I like to keep my reviews of mondo films short so as not to give away everything. If mondo films are for you, you need to see the originals (like this) and I rate it good. If mondo films are not for you, you know it and won't watch them. Be aware that it seems nothing is "off limits" in these.

A Better Life (2011)

An American drama directed by Chris Weitz, starring Demián Bichir.
An illegal  Mexican father works in landscaping. His sister lends him money to buy his friend's truck, but the truck is immediately stolen. His son has been distant, but grows closer to his father while searching for the stolen truck.
Pretty cool. The plot held my attention and characters fit their roles. Acting seemed natural and dialogue was convincing, meaning there was good writing. Camerawork and editing looked good. The audio was pretty level and mixed Spanish and English in a convincingly Mexican American way. I'm talking about a solid green good rated film in which everything just worked. There's not much more to say, except you should probably watch it.

Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance A.K.A. 修羅雪姫 怨み恋歌, Shurayukihime - Urami renka (1974)

A Japanese jidaigeki directed by Toshiya Fujita, starring Meiko Kaji, Juzo Itami and Yoshio Harada.
Lady Snowblood, the main character from the first film, is supposed to be working for the government to bring down an anarchist. He has a document which will cause problems for the government and she ends up on his side.
A lackluster sequel to a classic. The video looked fine, except for a lack of spraying blood and violence in general. There were some great shots from rooftops, a hallmark of the era and area. There were also lots of handheld shots, which I found odd. The audio was terrible: gritty and treble-biased. The plot failed to hold my attention and I saw some really bad acting. I imagine some bad writing was also involved. It was boring and I was counting down minutes until the end. I rate this poor because there is so much worse out there.

Kickboxer Series (1989 - 1995)

An American action series directed by Mark di Salle, David Worth, Albert Pyun, Rick King and Kristine Peterson, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
A man's brother is injured in a Thai boxing match and he trains with an old man to get revenge. Then it all goes down the toilet.
This series had a great start, faltered in #2, came back with drama/comedy in #3 and then died. I can't believe someone re-booted it (2016, 2018, 2020) after what a disaster #5 was. The first one is a classic. It has style, the viewer cares about the characters and there are extended training scenes. The second was annoying at best, but there was a kid with a King Diamond shirt (image) in the beginning. The third resurrected the series. There was a large sub-plot about kidnapped girls, but the main plot was about the hero, the old man and 2 kids. Sasha Mitchell did a great job in his role as David Sloane. He was expressive and charismatic. He was not so great in #2 and #4. Speaking of #4, it was one of the worst films I've ever seen. The main plot of the tournament would have been fine, but there was this added thing with an abducted wife, a ninja and an EXTREMELY graphic sex scene. If it were not following such crap, #5 would have been terrible. I thought it was really boring. The moral of the story here is to watch #1 & #3, but not the rest. I'm rating the whole series o.k. because of the wildly variable quality.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

An American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Bruce Willis.
Vignettes tell of interrelating stories happening around Los Angeles. Drugs are bought, sold and consumed, things are stolen, people get killed and stories are told.
I think what makes this so awesome is the dialogue. Every scene is full of Tarantino's eloquent writing. The long list of stars and great production help too. It's another classic crime film that so many people have written about. One amusing fact I can relate is that Amanda Plummer (Honey Bunny) also played Lydia Sinclair in The Fisher King (1991). It's fun to imagine Lydia holding a gun and screaming the F word in the diner scene. Speaking of The Fisher King and crime films, the vaudeville singer from that also played Dr. Jarvis in Thursday (1998).
I get too off-topic. This ends the "catch up" reviews. I'm going back to just writing about films I actually have something to say about.

Goodfellas (1990)

An American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino.
A young man grows up working for the Italian mob. He marries a Jewish woman and they try to have a family while he is involved in gangster stuff.
This is a pretty classic and well known crime film. I hardly think anything that I could say about it would add to what has already been written. What I liked most were the heavy narration and juxtaposition of family normalcy with violent crimes. It makes for good contrasts when scenes switch. Name a film element and it was done well. If you haven't seen it, you must. I rate it awesome.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

An American science fiction comedy directed by Joe Johnston, starring Rick Moranis.
A scientist's machine accidentally shrinks his 2 children and the neighbors' 2 children as well. He sweeps them up and leaves them in a trash bag across the yard.
Late '80s classic. I have no idea why I'm writing about these obvious movies. They are mostly made around the same time and all get decent to good reviews. I've seen a "making of" about this and lots of physical effects were used. Large props and sets look way better than CG to me. Another interesting note is that Matt Frewer (neighbor Russell) also played trash can man in The Stand (1994). The first time I watched this after finding out about these roles, I couldn't help thinking about neighbor Russell saying "bumpty bumpty bump, thumpty thumpty thump". I rate this good. You really should watch it.

History of the World, Part 1 (1981)

An American comedy directed by Mel Brooks, starring Dom Deluise and Cloris Leachman.
Short skits show important times in history: stone age, old testament, roman empire, Spanish inquisition & French revolution.
Mel Brooks is great at comedy. Some of my favorite scenes include the first art critic, Roman signs in the street scene, the Shim-Sham Sand Dance, detecting the non-eunuch, street crawling with Roman soldiers and ending the revolution meeting on a high note. The humor is pretty universal, or at least has a wide audience. Video and audio were recorded and edited well. I'm not going too deep on these "catch up" reviews. I rate it adequate. You might want to watch it.

Heathers (1988)

An American black comedy directed by Michael Lehmann, starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater.
A girl in a popular clique at high school is taught true human values by a homocidal maniac.
This is one of those movies that can be replayed in my brain without turning on the computer. It's a very popular movie and a very good movie. In fact, I don't want to spoil anything. One interesting not from my quick read of the Wikipedia page is that Winona Ryder said she looked like her character in Beetlejuice (1988) at the time of casting. If you haven't seen it, watch it now. I rate it best.