Change Your Image
opium_nick
Reviews
8 femmes (2002)
Underrated slice of musical indulgence. Surprisingly funny.
Most films on the IMDb have enough reviews to make your mind up from, but I decided to add this one for 8 Women because all the others combine to be misleadingly negative. The prospect of this film looked interesting when it came out but I skipped it due to a lot of negative "it doesn't work" style comments and then only finally got to see it 2 years later after various friends all saw it and recommended it.
Basically it's a combination of 2 different types of film. Firstly, it's an old fashioned Agatha Christie-like murder mystery with the usual group of people who, surprise surprise, all have both motive and opportunity for the initial killing: each is revealed to have probably done it before some shock reason why it couldn't have been them is also revealed. Secondly, its an emotional, very European repression/revelation type of film, where all the characters have secrets to hide and are often in some way repressed and, through their confrontations, secrets are revealed and their lives are changed. The thing is that, on both of these levels, the film really doesn't particularly work! And that is what a lot of reviewers seem to noted and then declared "rubbish".
However, all of this above is really just a premise to stage a classy yet over the top musical, showing off the talents of a whole lot of great French actresses in a great setting with classy costumes... and provide a lot of laughs. At first I wasn't sure what to make of the bizarre collection of elements, especially the odd musical moments, all somewhat detached from the actual storyline and acting of the 'normal' parts of the film. But once it got going it was impossible not to love the film. Each actress plays unashamedly to type, camping it up, and their enthusiasm for doing it is infectious. This is clearly why those actresses were chosen: What else were they gonna do all squashed together in one film! As the film goes on, each character's revelations become increasingly more over the top: It was possible to second-guess half of them and by the end I was left thinking "can this family possibly have any MORE dirty secrets to reveal". The songs are used to neatly define each character in a fun way and are surprisingly catchy (the "papa" one at the start is still stuck in my head!). Most of all though, and something not mentioned much in reviews, this is actually a very funny film. The shear ridiculousness of the plot twists, one-too-many sexual revelations (especially the completely underplayed revelation of who someone's baby's father is), out of place songs and slapstick moments (one scene with the grandma a wine bottle and a cupboard had me laughing out loud) is wonderful.
All of this doesn't mean that the emotion is neglected. The cast are talented and as it goes on, especially at the end, you realize that this isn't meant to be particularly original or powerful in terms of plot and emotion but rather it's like a slightly surreal stage play and like most musicals it's designed to entertain and provide emotion but in a very theatrical way. On top of this, it's great if your a fan of either murder mysteries or French cinema as it almost spoofs a lot of elements of both: it gave me a wry knowing smile with each predictable twist or melodramatic outburst. It's individual parts are not original and wouldn't make great films on their own but the combination makes for an original and fundamentally fun, funny and classy film plus the songs are good enough to make it easily re-watchable.
On a related note, I recently saw Japanese film "The Happiness Of The Katakuris" and have to say that to me they were very similar films. While 8 Women uses murder-mystery and European cinema as its basis, The Katakuris uses the "family pulling together through overcoming adversity" basis mixed with horror, Japanese love flicks and weird animation, but both work perfectly as surreal musical comedies pandering shamelessly to fans of the genres they steal from. 8 Women is very "French" and The Katakuris is very "Japanese". I loved them both!
Kyofun no byoningen saishu kyoshi (1988)
Fantastic, surreal Manga.
This is one of those films that was made for people who already love manga. If you dont see the title "Ultimate Teacher" and think "I've gotta see that" then this isn't the film for you! It simply takes those odd really Japanese bits that come across as pretty stupid in most manga and makes an entire film out of them. This film is dumb and completely rediculous with a few scenes that were hillarious and moments that just make you go "WTF?!" plus some super-dodgy dubbing and animation. Not exactly a masterpiece (!) but a perfect film if you're an anime fan and in the mood for a good laugh with some mates.
Rôjin Z (1991)
Unusual, funny, well paced animation. See it!
A great manga film with a somewhat unusual storyline about a young nurse and her patient, an old near-vegetative man who is chosen to test drive 'project z', a government funded initiative to care for the old; using state of the art computer controlled care beds but of course this being manga, this guys bed turns out to be more than they bargained for. The animation is a little lazy in places but this is a great little film with lots of subtle comedy, satire and enjoyable over-the-top manga moments. Comedic but with good dialogue and some serious ideas, so one to watch with subtitles and not dubbed.
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Terrible love scenes + awesome action = great popcorn flick
Oh my god, IT WAS ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD!
I though that the Episode 1 pretty much sucked and went to see E2 with low expectations (especially after seeing some tacky trailers) but it really rocked. It is basically just a load of action sequences tied together with some hole filled, good-to-terribly-acted plot scenes and some hilariously terrible love scenes... and no Jar Jar Binks! Well, he does pop up for a few seconds just to remind you of how bad the film would have been if they'd included him for longer but generally there is very little in the way of the lame unfunny comedy of the last film.
On the down side, I actually thought that the effects were pretty dodgy in places, especially the first few scenes. Everything looks really shiny and unrealistic and the main city is, like in so many films, just a total carbon-copy rip-off of Blade Runner. It's so obvious when they swap between computer FX and models. The new Yoda (animated instead of a puppet) looks especially fake and despite the fact that they must have spent millions animating individual hairs on his arms, they couldn't actually make the mouth move in time with the words and his voice is slightly off too. The Love scenes with Anakin and Amidala are absolutely terrible but enjoyably so in a Bollywood kinda way - people were laughing out loud to some of it in the theater.
Any problems though didnt really matter by the end - basically a huge set of action sequences with MUCH more realistic effects than the rest of the film - because it was so much fun, especially the fight between Christorpher Lee (as a super hammy bad guy) and Yoda, and anything involving the Fetts. Actually, pretty much every action scene was better than the main fight at the end of Episode 1, which meant that all the dodgy elements just became enjoyable bits of cheese to break up the action. Even if Jar Jar had popped up at the end I was enjoying it so much that I might (MIGHT) have even laughed!
Ultimately, the film was a shallow but super-enjoyable popcorn-flick. After seeing Episode 1, I came out trying - unsuccessfully - to convince myself that it was actually good. After coming out of Episode 2 my only thought was - I've gotta go see that again!
Batoru rowaiaru (2000)
Very pleasantly surprised... in awe! Watch this film!
The basic premise is that in the very near future youth violence is getting out of control so the government introduces the Education Reform Act, under which a randomly selected school class is forced to fight to the death as a deterence! This is a pretty far fetched storyline and I thought the film would just be a comedy live-action manga-type gore fest but the film was actually really good.
It has a great mix of subtle black humour and really good acting and characterisation so that you actually feel sorry for the kids instead of laughing as their blood sprays across the screen! My main worry was that it would be pretty pointless and dull after the novelty of watching the kids get splattered wore off but the plot was really well balanced and constantly interesting without getting stupid. The other thing which made it great (and surprised me) was that the violence is NOT comedy gore but actually really graphic and nasty - I flinched quite a lot and I love gore flicks. Despite a huge cast (41 classmates) the film manages to give them all at least a bit of real character. Most arent particularly developed but that doesnt really seem to be the goal of the film. You just get enough of a snapshot to feel sorry for them before they get butchered.
The best thing about the film is the way it balances between realism and a slightly surreal stylised approach.
On the negative side, the basic premise of the film is rather far-fetched. The class seem generally quite innocent rather than violent delinquents (there is one out of place incident which tries a bit awkwardly to imply this). The film doesnt portray a society in which the tournament would be acceptable and the kids dont seem to know that it exists until they become part of it(!). There is also no TV coverage of the fight so whats the point apart from for the teachers sick pleasure?! Why not just kill them or select a bad class rather than a random one? I am guessing that the book explains this better.
Once the film gets going however, its so good that you forget about the unrealistic setup and it becomes quite believable. The intro is dispensed of quickly with some black humour and plenty of style to make way for the main film. Another great part is the use of little voiceovers and flashbacks for surprisingly effective characterisation. There are some parts where the screen goes black with just some text which seem odd but dont detract in anyway (though I would have thought dubbed versions of these would seem tacky - dubbing sucks!). The teacher character is played particularly well, balancing between comic book violent comedy character and a real emotional person.
There are errors than I have seen other reviewers point out. For example, someone asked where the computer hacker guy got a laptop from... well the students did all get to keep their personal stuff and he obviously already had it. However, there are other inconsistencies, especially at the end. The finale is a bit over twisting but is surprisingly good.
In conclusion, this film is an excellent mix of stylised violence, fairly subtle black humour and good acting. Its is not at all a really deep philosophical film as some have suggested and if you approach it expecting this or for deep characterisation you will be disappointed. What it is is an excellent over-the-top action flick, but one that actually has good acting, an exciting premise, a very balanced plot and manages to get a surprising amount of depth in for the type of film it is. The best description I can come up with for how I felt after seeing it was like having just watched The Cube, The Shawshank Redemption and Dawn of the Dead at the same time!
A great film for fans of action & gore flicks and pop culture who also like some depth and good old human spirit :D
On a little extra note. I bought it on the PAL region 0 DVD and the quality and presentation is excellent. The version I saw was also the Japanese version with English subtitles. Japanese films like this are ALWAYS better subtitled rather than dubbed because the voice actors for dubbed versions are usually poor at best and make it into a joke so I would recommend you dont watch a dubbed version!