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Megazone 23 (1985)
One of the greatest animes of all time.
What do you get if you cross The Matrix with The Truman Show?
I'm sure you've all seen The Matrix by now. The creators of The Matrix say that it is 'anime inspired'. Just from watching the trailer to this classic, you can see where they took the plot from.
The film is sort of set in 1980s Japan, and it really shows. The costumes, music and words(in the recent English Language version by AD Vision) are all like they've been directly lifted from the era. I believe it was made in that time also, but due to certain plot points, this doesn't date the film!
As you probably guessed by my referencing to The Matrix, the world isn't real. It's not really the 1980's. In fact, it's something more like the 2480's. After a nuclear war, the Earth(or "Biosphere Prime")'s ecosystem was destroyed. The survivors we're forced to escape into space, where the conflict continued. Once the planets(or "Biospheres") were all abandoned, people began to live in MegaZones - cities inside of spaceships, where, via hypnotism techniques and Truman Show-esque illusion, they were made to believe they we're back on earth, in the most peaceful time in recent memory... The 1980s. When young Shogo obtains a mysterious advanced looking motorcycle, it leads him to find out more than he's supposed to know... The Garland(a bike which becomes a mech), a weapon from the 2400's, aids Shogo in his escape from the pursuing military. As more and more is discovered about the MegaZone, the war comes closer to home, and due to conflicts between the military and the computer, the war comes to the MegaZone too... I apologise if those points are seen as spoilers, but the plot is outlined basically that way on the synopsis.
Emotions run high in this movie, moreso than The Matrix. You really do believe the war is going on, and Shogo really does become quite scarred by what he's discovering. What starts off as an uber-happy cool 80's flick becomes a tragic tale of war and unreality. These characters are real people, not the cardboard cutouts we saw flipping around in bullet-time in The Matrix. There really is the sense of the suffering people can go through after being caught up in such a conspiracy, and a war. It may just choke you up towards the end... I know it did me.
Animation is pretty impressive for it's day, and the picture quality on the ADVision DVD is unbelievable for it's age. The artwork style is beautiful and reminiscent of traditional anime, very cultural. Be prepared for quite a lot of violence and blood, there's also an erotic sex scene.
The ending can be seen as a 'there can be no ending', similar to the Matrix, or, supposedly can be followed by the sequel, which I haven't yet had the pleasure of watching.
I have to say that this is one of the best animes I've seen, in fact, one of the best movies I've seen, and considered by many to be one of the greatest animes of all time.
I must recommend the ADVision DVD, as their take on the English Language is incredible, and does the movie justice, and can be purchased with an artbox for holding the two sequels when they are released, which will have the same vocal cast.
All in all, MegaZone 23 is an incredible movie, and deserves to be held highly, and should be an essential in any anime fan's collection. Heck, even my mother enjoyed it.
Sonic X (2003)
Sonic returns, YET AGAIN, in something a little different.
It was quite a stomach-turning thought, to hear that yet another Sonic Hedgehog how was airing. The spikey blue 'cooler' version of Speedy Gonzalis kept me happy as a kid. The first few shows had been very enjoyable for me as a kid, and I would definitely play to kids, and I must admit I still watch some myself, not just for the nostalgia, but also for the chuckles, but they took the character on a really strange turn as things progressed. DiC entertainment pulled the characters right out of the videogames, did their own little makeover on them, and bought an adorably cute and fun piece of comedy, "The Adventures of Sonic", which admittedly even gives me the occasional belly laugh when I catch it on UK Sky TV nowadays(Doesn't quite live up to Spongebob there though, sorry Sonic).
As a kid that show made me collect merchandise, the comic books, and the games. When I caught the second show airing(ingeniously titled "Sonic the Hedgehog") I jumped for joy, what more could a kid want, than a higher budget, more serious show with his favourite character in! This show didn't have such replay value to a more mature audience though, instead it gives me the same sort of cringe I'd get from any kid's shows which try to be dramatic and teach them a lesson at the same time. Then there was that anime title, the hour long one, which was supposedly 2 OVA(Straight-to-video animation, "Original Video Animation") episodes in Japan. Very entertaining, apart from the rather nasty voices. Lastly followed "Sonic Underground", which was just poor on so many levels that I don't even want to go into it.
I think it's about time I got to the point and started reviewing THIS show now! I wasn't expecting much from this show. I saw a few previews and learned that it was another Japanese anime, and set amongst humans, in the real world. ...Well at least it's better than singing songs on lethal magical guitars. Hearing that it was anime at least assured me that I wouldn't have to put up with DiC entertainment's growing obsession with drama and tears.
This time we are treated to a cast of animal characters already known from the videogames and comics, an annoying little kid, and a bunch of other humans who seem to want to capture Sonic. It's more clever than it sounds. The new setting amongst the humans keeps the characters in a sort of stealthy status, hiding away and trying to keep their actions a secret whilst at the same time defending the world from the infamous(and ever varying in design) Dr. Robotnik(Now simply known as "Egg Man" o_o; Which comes from the Japanese name). The stealthy idea is surprisingly thoughtful, in that, if a friendly blue spikey THING that talked appeared out of nowhere, the sad truth is that it'd be in the clutches of scientists, being studied in no time. In a way it goes to show that the humans aren't always the good guys(especially egg shaped ones with oversized moustaches).
After the first couple of seaons, inspiration from the (in)famous "Pokémon", another videogame based anime series, begins to show, mainly in the relation between cartoon and game, how the events which you played through in the game begin to happen in the show, with more characters thrown in and the inability to actually control it. Whether this is a great idea or a sigh that the writers can't think of their own story is the decision of the viewer and fan. If the game's events work well as a story(and that they did in Pokémon, surprisingly well) then who am I to complain? In fact, I'd quite like to see some of the events from the end of "Sonic Adventure 2" in an animation, especially Japanime like this.
The artwork is smooth, crisp and colours are bright. There is the occasional use of CGI special effects and such, which tend to look really out of place, but are impressive nonetheless. The animation appears to be slightly lower framerate than your usual cartoon, a sacrifice worth making for such bright, sharp artwork. As with usual Japanese animation, corners are cut everywhere, although I'm surprised at how rarely any animation cels are re-used over different backgrounds and such.
The story layout works in one of my favourite ways a TV series can work. The whole series has a long running story behind it(The transition to the human world, and getting back home), each series handles a story of it's own which takes place during this, and each individual episode counts as an 'event' which took place along the line, some episodes continuing on directly, whilst others appear to stand alone. This way you get full story satisfaction, yet are still left wanting to see the next episode.
I'm quite fond of the English voices. Sonic is probably the best he's ever sounded. Since the original series in which Sonic's voice was that of Steve Urkel from Family Matters(Jaleel White), all of the blue spiney mouse-like-thing's followup voice actors have given it their all to try and sound like him, resulting in nasty whiney nasal voices. This guy just goes for the attitude and forgets about trying to be someone else, and ends up suiting Sonic more than any of the Jaleel White impersonators ever did. Many of the other voices are squeaky and annoying, as can be expected from a TV-broadcast anime, but it's a treat to hear Lisa Ortiz(The wonderful voice actress behind Lina Inverse of Slayers) as Amy, and a very deep, agressive Knuckles.
Overall it's not too bad a series, especially after it's got into things a little. The earlier episodes may test your patience, especially when the overused anime cliché "my very best friend in the world" motto keeps weaving it's way in in the first few episodes, and it really does make you wan't to shoot yourself or something, I don't think even kids enjoy that stuff. Either way, worth a watch if you're a kid at heart, or you actually are a kid, or if Sonic just gives you that nostalgia attack which we all need to keep us sane. This is probably the best show for fans of the videogames too, as it pretty much stays within the guidelines of the games' stories, and adds more details, even fills in plotholes which fans of the games complained about.
Jason X (2001)
Great movie on it's own. A tad 'different' to the Friday 13th's though.
Spoiler Alert Okay this may be pretty crazy of me, but I'm going to review this as a stand-alone flick. It's been done before, how a movie will 'spin off' from another, and have so little to do with it's predecessors that changing the name will attract new audiences. So, I figured that the most fair way to review this movie is as "Jason X" from a non biased view, not just as "The Friday 13th part 9/10 that never was".
The start of this movie warmly welcomes anybody, weather they have seen the original Friday 13th movies or not. Jason Vorhees is a crazed serial killer whose almost invulnerable body and immunity to death has been discovered and is being researched - this is all you have to know to understand this movie, and it's made clear in a pretty detailed way by the doctors and miliatary men at the start. No references to the other movies or Jason's mother are made. A wise move seeing that a lot of audience of the appropriate age for this film would be too young to remember the original franchise.
So what can you do to someone who won't die and, by the looks of things, doesn't talk either? Jason has been held captive for quite a while so it seems, doctors and scientists performing all kinds of tests and research on his body. The intention is to cryogenically freeze Jason until there is something they can do with him, but, of course, things don't turn out quite as planned. After beginning a true Jason style massacre. Up to this point it could have been the so called "Friday 13th part 9/10".
Next, however, comes the twist, and the change of style setting this apart from the Friday 13th series. Dr. Rowan, a pretty female(as if that wasn't expected) lures Jason into a cryogenic chambre, freezing him, but accidentally freezing herself too. 400 years later they are discovered by a bunch of students. Horny teenage students. Starting to make sense yet? Here's where the Sci-Fi comes in. They have been unfrozen in the year 2455, when Earth is a barren wasteland and all humans now live on "Earth 2". This paves way for some fantastic special effects, CG space-ships, and all sorts of science-fictional gadgets.
Seeing poor Rowan trying to adjust to life in the future, whilst the whole crew are being tracked down by everyone's favourite retarded machette-weilding anti-hero is really quite entertaining. It has a feel reminiscient of he classic, 'Alien', being stalked through a futuristic environment by something that wants to get you. Except in place of H.R.Giger's monstrosity, we have Jason.
The effects are all fantastic, I haven't seen CG spaceships look so real in quite some time, in fact I stopped to think afterwards, "were they CG?". The space suit used later in the movie is almost an exact copy of the one from Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey".
The most exciting part, I'd have to say, is the appearance of "Uber-Jason", Jason's 'upgraded' self. The half-mechanoid monster looks like a cross between Predator and "Lord Zedd" from the Power Rangers(lol).
There's also an interesting, and particularly amusing 'illusion' towards the end of the movie where Jason finds himself in Camp Crystal Lake again, which serves as a nice hint of Jason's past for newcomers, and as a nice bit of nostalgia for fans of the classics.
Last, but not least, there's the 'spectacular death' scenes. Something that's been in the horror films for years, and Jason X is definitely no exception. A girl's face is frozen in liquid nitrogen and shattered to pieces on a table, a man falls on a big drill machine and rotates as his body 'screws' down onto it, necks are broken, people are cut in half, et cetera.
The bottom line? A great Sci-Fi Horror. More of a thinking man's movie than the original Friday 13th franchise, but you don't have to be Einstein. Reccomended to most slasher and sci-fi fans, probably better for newbies to Friday 13th than hardcore fans because of the change in style, setting and sub-genre.
Army of Darkness (1992)
The Three Stooges meets Willow and The Mask
What happened here? I don't quite understand how this works...
Two fantastic, disturbing, and fun horror movies shocked and amused us at the same time, The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. Evil Dead II left us with an amusingly unfortunate and suggestive ending, Ash got sucked into the portal and found himself in medieval times.
Okay, so he's in medieval times, it does leave the expectation that the next movie would be more of an 'adventure' than a horror, but this still isn't quite what was expected. Instead we got this strange comedy 'spin off' if that's what we can call it, Army of Darkness.
If you haven't already guessed by the fact that the title doesn't even include the words "Evil Dead", this is going to be very different...
The problem is, although a very entertaining flick on its own, especially for somebody who hasn't seen the original Evil Dead movies, this movie hardly bares any resemblance to the original 2 films. Ash is a different character alltogether, his cowardly behaviour and developing insanity are gone, and have been replaced by a one-liner spouting superhero who likes to say "baby" a lot. There is no gore at all. There are only 3 'deadites' or possessed people from the original films and they are all at the start(the only part which had even a remote resemblance to the original 2 films) the rest of the movie is filled with living skeletons with English countryman accents.
I'm sorry to sound harsh about this film, but you just don't think Evil Dead when you see a man's face stretched out of proportion like a cartoon and shaking it back into shape.
Don't get me wrong though, this is a good movie. It's thoroughly entertaining. Just try to forget it's an Evil Dead movie. Don't be expecting an "Evil Dead 3", because it doesn't work as one, which is probably the reason why New Line insisted there was no ED3 in the film's title. The relationship it shares with the original ED movies is pretty much the same as "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" shared with the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies. It involved the characters, but it was different, and pretty much just a big joke.
It's best to see Army of Darkness as a fun flick made to answer the people who wonder "Wouldn't it be funny to see what actually happened to ash in medieval times.".
As I said in my summary, it's like The Three Stooges meets Willow and The Mask. It's a fantasy adventure, with cartoony out of proportion slapstick humour.
The Evil Dead (1981)
Requirements: 1 sense of humour, 1-5 buddies, 3-6 cans of lager, 1 strong stomach
Wow.
What an entertaining (and shocking) flick! I picked this one up after seeing a clip of it on a "Top 100 Scarey Moments" programme on Brittish TV.
Now, I am a person who finds it extremely hard to be frightened by a movie. The only movie that ever frightened me before was The Blair Witch Project, a movie with very mixed opinions in the public. The Evil Dead didn't scare me as such, but it did really shock and thrill me. This is a brilliant, original movie, with some great filmmaking and tricks with camera work.
This is such an inspirational movie, it deserves more recognition than it currently has. You name it, Evil Dead started it. So many films try to copy it's camera tricks, surreal effects and style.
It isn't a film which makes you think at all. 5 college students go out to an old cabin in the woods to spend some time there. There they find a strange, disturbing looking book, and a tape recording. Upon playing back the tape recording, the words recited on the recording awaken something in the woods... The spell is said to give the dead license to posess the living.
As has been copied by about a million films now, naturally, somebody gets possessed. When the possessed inflict wounds on the living, they will soon too be possessed. That sets the scene for the rest of the movie, with a 'survival horror' style. What follows are a series of shocking and gorey attacks and weird goings on.
The best part though, is this movie's great sense of humour. You won't just scream and cringe, but you will laugh too. The absurd 'gore humour' really is absurd. You'll feel guilty for laughing as Ash's headless girlfriend is humping him, blood leaking all over his face, whilst her head lies on the floor a few yards away making childish noises. That's the sort of absurd, sick over the top gags you can expect. The interweaved comedy sequences mix with your fear and disgust and balance it all out to just leave this feeling of enjoyment.
I think I have now made it clear what sort of people will enjoy this flick. If you take gore and things too seriously, or you don't like to be frightened out of your wits by sudden 'boo' sequences, then for gods sake stay away from this film.
To a horror fan, any horror fan, who also has a sense of humour, and isn't always looking for movies which take Einstein's brain to understand the plot, this is perfect, and a classic. One to watch. As I made obvious in the 'one line summary' for this comment, this film is perfect for a night with some friends and some drink.
The Evil Dead later spawned a kickass, although less over the top, sequel, Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn, and an odd comedy-adventure type movie (I suppose you could call it a spinoff?) called Army of Darkness.
Guyver (1991)
Twisted Mutant Insane Cyborgs
Despite what many reviews say, I really liked this. It may be dated in special effects, and be crawling in flaws, but it is a generally enjoyable movie. Sean Barker finds a strange alien mechanical looking device that merges with his own body, turning him into a cyborg-like superhero. When Zoanoids, Werewolf like people that can turn into mutants, appear and start chasing him down in order to obtain the device, Sean uncovers Khronos Corp.'s evil schemes.
Fans of the Guyver cartoon and comics may or may not like it. A lot of the "best bits" from the cartoon's storyline are involved in this movie but are done slightly differently. While the action and Zoanoids(monsters) seem like an adult version of the Power Rangers, and some of the tongue-in-cheek gags almost take over the Guyver's story, something about the movie is just irresistible. The problem is it's impossible to put your finger on what it is.
Reminiscent of a lot of the late 80s to early 90's action comic inspired movies, the movie never takes itself too seriously. Weather that's a good or bad thing is your decision. There are times where the comic relief, or purposely amusing action scenes can start to become annoying, as any fan of The Guyver is obviously looking for some serious action and gore. It does have it's moments in that department, however.
The movie covers most of the main Guyver story, apart from the actual origin of the Guyver. A sequel, "The Guyver: Dark Hero" spawned from this(although it can be watched on it's own and understood, especially if you have seen the cartoon or read the comics), which takes The Guyver much more seriously, and uncovers the origin of the Guyver, whilst at the same time throws constant violent action at you.
Casting is good in the means of appearance, Mark Hamill as a CIA agent must have boosted the sales of the film, and Michael Berryman makes the perfect mutant, with his bald head and evil stare, but the acting could use some work.
Hardcore fans of the cartoon or comics may be iffy about the tongue-in-cheek humor used in this movie, but as long as it's not taken too seriously it can be a great movie to watch. The important part is that it FEELS like The Guyver. If you don't want to put up with lots of flaws and comic relief gags, then go for "The Guyver: Dark Hero" which is much more similar to the cartoons and comics.