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Reviews
Fainaru fantajî V (1992)
Chocobos, crystals, and airships... but it's not your usual FF game
Originally released on the Super Nintendo in Japan, Final Fantasy V never found its way to the states in its original form. But a few years ago it was re-released on the Playstation with Final Fantasy VI in a collection of the two games called Final Fantasy Anthologies.
Final Fantasy V follows the adventures of a love traveler named Bartz. He and his pet chocobo Boko were startled one night as a meteor came crashing down not far from their camp. Upon examination of the meteor they find an old man by the name of Galuf who seems to have amnesia caused by the meteors impact. Nearby as well, is Reina, the princess of the kingdom of Tycoon. You are joined shortly thereafter by Faris, the saltiest pirate on the seas. The four set out to find Reina's father, the king of Tycoon, as well as to protect the four crystals of Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth.
So there's chocobos and crystals and whatnot, but what makes this game stand out? Well, the crystals give your characters powers. You are able to equip each character with a job class and they can then level up each of their jobs, giving them abilities from that job class that can be equipped later. For example: one of your characters is equipped with the Black Mage job and they gain a level. They are then given the ability Black 1 which allows them to cast Black Magic. But you can then change their job to say, a Knight, and then equip the Black 1 ability as well. Or maybe you want a Monk that can use Blue Magic. Perhaps you want a White Mage that can hold its weapon with 2 hands for double the power (a Knight ability). This unique and functional system lets the player play how they want, and gives them tons of possibilities.
The usual good stuff is in here too. The plot starts out simple with you protecting the crystals but soon escalates to encompass so much more. The characters are all interesting in their own aspect and all have their own mysterious back stories, some of which intertwine a bit. As usual in any FF game, the mood is set well by Nobuo Uematsu's compositions. The beautiful and diverse soundtrack accompanies your journey well, and rarely gets annoying or repetitive.
This game, while following the same pattern as most Final Fantasy's, differs greatly with its job class system to give it an extremely unique touch. It's an old school game with a great feel and a must have for any FF or RPG fan. I give it 8 and 1/2 out of 10. Ya can't beat that 8-bit goodness.
Sahara (2005)
not worth sneaking into
now maybe i'm being a little too harsh when i write this, but the showing i saw last night at the theatre at which i work, bored me to death. the director seemed very confused as to what he was trying to prove. but we'll get to that in a minute...
first let's discuss the top-notch acting. McConaughey trying to pull off the role of the hero was one of the weakest attempts i've ever seen. it wasn't that his acting is bad - he is a good actor - but as stated, i don't think the director knew what he wanted to do with the character. even the hilarious Steve Zahn can't save this film. his comic relief, while slightly amusing, missed it's mark. and Cruz....i'm not even gonna touch that...
the director really didn't know what he was doing with this. all the chase and action scenes were confusing and slightly nonlinear. not to mention extremely unrealistic. now, i understand that movies such as this are supposed to be entertaining through fictional circumstances. but this goes way out of line. Steve Zahn's accuracy with an AK is uncanny and just not believable at all.
all together, this movie had potential to be like National Treasure, or better. but the poor editing and directing ruined it for everyone. Favorite part: the scene at the beach with the antique car, look carefully....there are no tire tracks behind or in front of the car!! this is actually smart, i wouldn't want to drive such a nice car on the beach either, but they could've at least faked some tracks.
blah, if you have some spare time, go for it. but don't say i didn't warn you.
Sin City (2005)
original, sexy, and demoniacally excellent
right from the opening scene this movie had me hooked. the story is not about the characters, but about the city they live in. it follows the lives of about four or five main characters, all whom seem to have one thing in common: Nancy Calahan. whether they actually knew her or just saw her dancing at the club, she is the one thing that ties their stories together.
like i said, right from the beginning, i was hooked. i'm a bit of a fan of both Rodriguez and Tarantino (even if Tarantino only directed one scene), so this was quite a treat for me. the style is simply amazing. everything about it just blows your mind. unfortunately, i've never gotten a chance to read any of the comic books...sorry, "graphic novels"...but watching this is enough to make me want to go out and buy anything i can get my little mitts on as long as it has Frank Miller's name on it.
Rodriguez's amazing adaption of this already outstanding story (or so i hear) is instantly among my top ten movies, and is certainly one of the best movies i've seen in months.
but the direction isn't everything, the actors were given the chance to show off everything they had. Mickey Rourke certainly gives one of his best performances as Marv the heart- broken bad ass. Bruce Willis also gives quite a spectacular performance. but i think my favorite was Clive Owen and his bright red Converses. he was lovably insane (especially in the car with Benicio Del Toro) and i think everything he did with the character was awesome.
all-in-all this is exactly what we movie lovers have needed for the past year or so. something original, inspiring, and something that's overall breathtaking. it does everything right, and waiting for the movie will be seem like heaven compared to the hell of waiting for the DVD.
The Ring Two (2005)
Ring of Cheeze
Wow...that was what i said when i got done watching this movie. Now, i get scared pretty easily. After watching a scary movie, i'm usually afraid to turn around for the next week or so. This movie had the opposite effect. I want to turn around...so i can smack Samara for agreeing to make this trash. Not only does it fail to scare even the most wimpy of people (i.e. me) but the plot and characters were quite weak.
Without too much spoiling, here's the plot. Samara's tape was destroyed so now she's back, and quite angered. There. That's it. It seems like it would be a good plot for a sequel. It's reasonable, and holds true to the first movie. But the way they go about it is really...just not scary.
However, the direction and cinematography was rather good. I can recall one scene in which the characters moved out of a heavily lit area and into darkness as one of them began to freak out. There were also some rather interesting camera angles, but while good, were kind of predictable and boring.
Now let's talk about symbols. Oh boy, my favorite part. WATER! And lots of it. While it did serve it's purpose, the water was WAY overdone. I do perfectly understand why they put so much water in it (you'll find out) but it was way too obvious. Talk about lack of suspense, i guessed about the water not even half way through the movie.
The deer attack is another really awful attempt at suspense. Naomi Watts would've been dead at least 5 times in the attack had it been real. Somehow, she was able to sit still and the rampaging deer's antlers kinda just went right through her. Ooo, one of my favorites: listen to when she tells her son to get down. She says it so calmly and cool, pushes the kid down, then doesn't really get down herself. She takes the full force of the antlers, except they don't hit her. Aw, what a loving mother.
So if you couldn't tell, i didn't really like this movie. It turned out really cheesy. Though i will say, if you go with your friends, there are rather funny parts you can crack the occasional joke at (Gotta love that Satan, what a character that guy!). In the end, it ended up looking like a bad mix of the Grudge and the upcoming Dark Water. If you really liked the first one or you like laughing at horror movies (Evil Dead like a motha!) you can go see it. I suppose it will offer some closure to the first, so check it out.
Robots (2005)
Grow some bolts!
as it is quite noticeable, Robots is meant for the younger audience. and it shows. the entire length of the movie is one big mechanical pun. everything has to do with robots, nuts, bolts, gears, ratchets, wrenches, and basically any and all electronic or mechanical item. while cute and rather funny at first this begins to become annoying.
luckily, thats not all there is to it. while a bit weak on the plot side, the characters and their interaction with each other is great. when each character meets another there is an initial reaction and later, once they get to know each other, they gather a new perception of the person...robot, whatever. in other words, they're just like real people, so i guess that could be good or bad. however, some character interaction could have been done better. for example; Fender is worried about his younger sister Piper so he tells her to stay where she is and not get hurt. this would be interesting character development if it went anywhere. they never actually expand on it besides the fact that Piper shows up to help anyway.
besides those comment the movie was quite good. the characters were likable (except Halle Berry's character who was pointless), the setting (Robot City) was magnificent, the humor was pretty funny without trying to be dirty, and Robin Williams actually didn't steal (or try to steal) the show. so if you do go see it, just try to remember that its a kids movie and if you don't like it, that's probably why. ha, just wait till you see Aunt Fanny let it rip!
Hitch (2005)
over all junk
i got to see this movie late last night, the theatre i work at shows new movies for the staff. I had heard that it got good reviews but i was poorly mistaken.
Will Smith's role as a match-maker by any means nessecary is basically his worst role since Independence Day. While he tries to help Kevin James with getting his girl, Smith has women troubles of his own, leading to what i believe were supposed to be "humorous moments". The only funny things he did was hi-jack a dog and kick a girl in the face.
Now, i'm a bit of a fan of Kevin James and i feel disgraced that he would take this role. I'm not sure how anyone could've read the script and thought is was worth making. However, i'm not a total jerk. James's performance was just about the only thing that kept me in the theatre. We got to see a bit of his trademark "flipping out" as seen in most of his stand-up, so that was a bit of fun.
All in all, the plot wasn't really believable in that James would never be able to get the girl he was chasing. It has it's moments but not many. I suppose it's an OK date movie since it has "chick flick" written all over it, and the ladies'll laugh a bit. But if you're by yourself, you're better off seeing Pooh's Heffalump, at least the pain doesn't last as long.