Zatoichi Night: Zatoichi the Fugitive

Zatoichi The Fugitive IMDb

This Zatoichi movie was a bit slower than the others.  It's got an okay story.  This is the first time where someone finally cuts Zatoichi a little bit during a battle.  In the beginning of the movie, Zatoichi gets challenged by a young thug and Zatoichi kills him.  Because he's an honorable man, he goes to the man's hometown and tells his mother about his death.  He gets into a few fights with some yakuzas and he's on the run as a fugitive.  His long time love (Tane) is back in this movie.  She's married to another samurai.  The samurai wants to challenge Zatoichi and kills his wife.  Their fight at the end was an awesome battle (that's where Zatoichi gets cut).  Love that Zatoichi does a little quirky dance and walks away at the end.

Overall, this was okay.  I love the first three movies so far.

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Robot Friday: Bicentennial Man

Bicentennial Man IMDb

Delayed last month's Robot Friday to this first Friday of March due to work.  Here it is.  Robin Williams as a robot who learns to have feelings and become more human. Literally, more human.  I would of wanted him to stay robot all the way but this is supposed to be romantic. So basically, this rich family buys a robot to do house stuff. The robot they got was unique from the other robots. This robot seems to understand slight feelings. Instead of returning it back, the father decides to teach it more human things and gives them thousands of books to read.  This movie jumps a generation every 20 minutes. The robot becomes more advanced that it searches for the right scientist to help him become literally human. Oh, there's incest in this. Our robot has a crush on the main daughter.  She gets old and dies. The robot then falls in love with the granddaughter who looks exactly like grandma. They literally get married towards the end. So yeah, this was a weird movie. It has its charms and a few comedic moments but mostly a drama about a robot.

Overall, this was okay. Good for a one time deal. Next Robot Friday will be in three weeks (if work permits).

Good Ol' Freda

Good Ol' Freda IMDb

This decent documentary is about Freda Kelly, the long time secretary for The Beatles.  She talks about her career from the beginning to present.  She was there right when The Beatles were just barely starting.  Hell, Ringo wasn't even in the band yet.  She was in charge of their fan club.  She witness the band go from just any regular band to the most popular band in the world.  She talks about her crushes with each member.  The documentary plays some of the Beatles music and other original songs that the Beatles remade later.  It was fairly entertaining.   Anything to do with The Beatles, I know I'm going to like (at least a little bit).  Must of been a hell of a good life being part of Beatlemania.  This would of been a lot better if they were interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.  At least Ringo came out for a few seconds at the end acknowledging Freda. 

This documentary was made mostly for fans of The Beatles.  So, if you are one of the few that aren't fans, I won't recommend watching this.

Aftershock

Aftershock IMDb

This was okay to see for a few gory scenes but that's about it.  It's supposed to be a man vs. nature story but it turned out to be half party and half survival (mostly running away from escape convicts).  Nothing wrong with both but I was wanting more about the earthquake and the tsunami approaching.  This was about an American guy who is vacationing in Chile.  By the way, Chile looks very beautiful, at least in the first half.  Must visit there one of these days.  Anyways, this American is partying with some Chileans and they meet up with these other girls.  They convinced the girls to stay another day in order to visit more of the countryside.  During a big club scene, an earthquake erupts.  Lots of insanity.  Chaos.  Lots of gore.  The streets are filled with madness and our survival story begins.  There's a prison nearby that gets damaged and prisoners escape and cause more damage.  It's survival all the way until the end.  Almost everyone gets killed here.  There are a few stupid scenes but they need to be stupid in order for the horror element to work.  For example, Eli Roth's character is trapped under a piece of concrete.  He is badly hurt.  The escape prisoners torture him in order to find out where the girls are at.  No matter what, you're going to get killed.  So, why tell them a few minutes later?  I know, he was trying to save himself because he has a daughter.   And why did the prisoners did not believe him at first?  I would believe a near dying man, but then again, I'm not a cold blooded gangster. 

Overall, nothing to make a great big fuzz about.  I wouldn't recommend this movie.

So, at your own risk if you're interested. 

Big Ass Spider

Big Ass Spider IMDb

Just like the title says, this is a movie about a big ass spider.  B-movie all the way.  Usually most of these types of movies end up being thrash, but not this one. Yeah, it's not great or anything like that.  It is entertaining, though.  Plus, the main character (the exterminator guy) and his sidekick (the Mexican security guy) make a great likeable team.  I laughed a few times with these two.  It's corny and stupid at times.  The ending felt rushed but this could of been a lot worse.  Basically, it's about this exterminator guy who gets bit by a brown recluse spider.  He goes to the hospital.  At that same hospital, a 10 pound looking spider comes out of a mysterious body in the morgue.  The exterminator makes a deal with the hospital to catch this spider.  He gets help by the security guy.  Things get crazy when the military take over and this spider starts killing people as it gets bigger and bigger.  The exterminator and his new partner help the military save the world from this mysterious creature. Lots of unnecessary moments stop this movie from being super awesome.

I would recommend this movie if you're looking for just a plain old stupid fun time.

Oldboy

Oldboy IMDb

The U.S remake of one of my favorite Korean movies was disappointing but not that bad.
I knew this version wasn't going to be something special but I still had to see it.  I tried hard to not compare this to the Korean version but I couldn't resist.  A lot of things are pretty much the same except for the ending and some details. I have not read the original manga this is all based on but I didn't like the twist here and I also didn't like Joe's decision at the end.  Of course, the Korean version was more poetic.  Oldboy is about this drunk no good person named Joe.  After a typical night of being a jerk, he passes out and wakes up in a hotel room with locked up doors and no windows.  He has been abducted and locked up.  He goes crazy staying in that room.  Days turn to years.  20 years later, he gets released.  The first thing on Joe's mind is who's responsible for this?  He goes on to find the truth.  It's a sick twisted revenge tale.  The guy responsible for all of this, played wonderfully by Sharlto Copley, is a disturbed guy who lost his family a long time ago all because of certain actions taken by Joe.  In the Korean version, the guy responsible did all of this because he lost his sister (whom he was in love with) to suicide.  So, major difference.  Pretty decent performance by Josh Brolin who plays Joe in this U.S. version. Didn't like the fake daughter trick they did here and that there was no hypnotism.  Kudos for the long hammer fighting scene.  Although not as cool as the Korean version, it was still pretty impressive.

Overall, it was a little okay for a remake but doesn't do justice.

 If you haven't seen the Korean version, do yourself a favor, and go get it now.

Saving General Yang

Saving General Yang IMDb

It's been a busy week.  We moved to another place.  I was busy covering a murder trial on Friday that I had to push Robot Friday to this Friday.  I had my sister and my brother in law in town for the weekend.  Zatoichi Night will be moved to next Monday.  I installed Netflix for the first time this weekend so now I'll be able to have easier access to some movies.  I am still going to be devoted in going to my local video stores but in the case I can't go, it's good to have a back up.  My brother in law picked this movie to see for my first time Netflix experience.  None of us never heard of it until today.  It's an Asian epic movie about 7 brothers who are on a mission to rescue and bring back their father (General Yang).  It's a war out there.  This movie was non stop action and less drama.  While I did enjoy some battles and certain scenes, I didn't feel it overall.  One of the main issues I had was the subtitles.  I don't know if it's Netflix but the subtitles were delayed in a lot of scenes.  Other times, the subtitles were on for less than a second.  So I didn't understand a lot of the details in the movie just the specifics.  It was cool to see a little arrow battle towards the end. 

This was an okay Chinese action movie.  Nothing I would recommend or see again.