rick3197 Reviews

The Rover (2014)

Much better improvement from Animal Kingdom

[10/10 · 30 July 2014]

The Rover has proved that these "Mad Max rip-offs" can be great films of their own. I like to think of The Rover as Animal Kingdom in Mad Max's dystopian world. The resulting film is more like a crime-thriller similar to No Country for Old Men. The thing that The Rover has going for it is that it is set in a believable world, the global financial crisis, regular oil and energy shortages, major civil wars and violent revolutions show us that a Mad Max-like dystopian future is more possible to happen now then it was back in the 1980s when the original three of films came out when the world still had plenty of oil and gas to give around, people back in the 1980s thought that we all would be by now be driving alternative fuel cars but nope, it has not happen yet and so another Mad Max 4 film is coming to remind us of our grime future without a steady supply of oil to keep our economy going unless we find a alternative source to replace it.

Overall The Rover is a slow paced tension filled crime road-trip film, I'm not going to tell you the plot for this film because I am assuming you already have an idea before you started reading my review, as you can guess just by watching the trailer that The Rover dose not have many car chases or action sequences and nor dose not need to. The Rover has relevant themes that are affecting Australia today, multiculturalism, Australia's over reliance on its mining industry and unemployment. These are qualities that Animal Kingdom lacked and The Rover is a much superior film because its everything that the Animal Kingdom had going for it and much more, also the art direction is much better.

As a Mad Max fan myself, The Rover is a great distraction to keep you entertained until the more action packed Mad Max Fury Road comes out. I'll recommend that you see this film if you are a: Mad Max-fan, A fan of crime films like No Country for Old Men, or you enjoyed other Mad Max inspired films like Dead-End Drive In and Bellflower. 10/10 The Rover is an excellent film.

Noroi (2005)

A very creepy and disturbing film

[8/10 · 21 December 2010]

This J-Horror film really had me on edge from its beginning to end, shot in the same style as the Blair Witch Project this is probably the only Japanese film that can be categorized in the "Found Footage" genre and I believe this is a lot more disturbing then the Blair Witch.

Set between the years of 2002 and 2004 we follow paranormal investigator Masafumi Kobayashi and his personal cameramen as they interview (or try to interview) a wide range of different people who claim to have seen ghosts, hear creepy noises or have some other involvement with the paranormal. During this Kobayashi realizes that all the ghost and paranormal events that all these people see are all connected to an ancient Japanese demon that was summoned in the 1970's. While the plot line dose sound basic it really does get complex as there are a lot of characters and storytelling in this film, the audience really must focus on detail and its characters to really understand most of its story.

This movie is very scary with its creepy background music and jump scenes, they probably use CGI for the ghosts effects but it's still very shocking to see. I had trouble sleeping after watching Noroi: The Curse and I still can't get the images of those ghosts out of my head, this movie will shock you and will probably frighten you, it grabs you in a weird way and won't let you go, this is the experience that every horror fan wants and Noroi: The Curse delivers.

Aside from its horror, the film's story also explores some of the issues in Japanese society like its high suicide rate, illegal abortions and animal cruelty, this serious horror film is well worth watching for every horror fan and I am very glad that I had the opportunity to see it.

Dark Island (2010 TV Movie)

A below average film

[3/10 · 25 November 2010]

Criticism is something that a lot of people find it hard to both explain and deal with and there are some who just ignore it all together, as such Dark Island is one of those many low budget action/horror movies that has so far had received very negative reception from critics, but from the film company's point of view they probably do not care as long as the film sells well enough to make money. Dark Island copies the many successful franchises like the Lost and Resident Evil series by putting them together with a cast of unknown actors and first time directors on some Canadian island.

Why is this film bad? The first question should be what isn't bad? Well it's not the low budget, as some low budget horror films have succeed both financially and critically like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. It's not the special effects which I think are some of the best special effects I have ever seen on a low budget movie, the detail on the black fog monsters is very good but I personally think CGI means very little when judging how good a film is, and I hate those Avatar lovers who only think Avatar is good because of its state of the art computer generated imagery.

The acting is only decent at best, just by watching the film you can tell that the actors are trying so hard to play the roles of their characters to make their acting as realistic as possible, the acting does not suck but they could at least be more relaxed about it.

Now for the answer to the question, why is this movie bad? Well it's the story, editing and script (if they even used a script and storyboards) the story is just plain bad from the start to finished and it has been done many, many times before it in far better ways. A group of people from different backgrounds are sent to a secret island that is run by Altracorp an evil corporation that specializes in developing biological weapons for the military, the same as the Umbrella corporation from the Resident Evil series, each character is not who they seem and they all have their own flashback sequence like in the Lost TV series, the story also has a twist ending which is not really worth waiting for, as I watch the film I feel as though the film's target audience was a dumb, uneducated audience. Now that's the story covered, another bad thing about the film is its action sequences which are very poorly edited and badly produced, they are often very cheesy and are not real enough to be taken seriously.

I will not be recommending Dark Island to anyone wanting to see an action sci-fi movie. It's not the worst movie I have ever seen but it does add to my top 10 worst movies I have ever seen list and while its special effects did save it from a 1/10 rating I still dislike this film and hope that this review will save you from both renting or buying this movie, it does not deserve your hard earned money.

3/10

Highschool of the Dead (2010)

Anime + Zombies = Highschool of the Dead

[10/10 · 2 August 2010]

It is very rare for me to give a 10/10 to any movie or game, but Highschool of the Dead defiantly deserves the 10/10 because it's one of the top best anime I have ever seen, and I'm not just saying that because I like it, and it is better than all the other teen high school anime like Gantz, Persona, and NGE.

Highschool of the Dead is a perfect flawless anime that has well exceeded my high expectations in terms of story, characters, music, action and production values, based on the ongoing manga series of the same name Highschool of the Dead follows a group of Japanese high school students who witness the violent global zombie apocalypse during class time at their school, similar to the opening of Red Dawn except the Russians are replaced by flesh eating zombies from the George A Romero's of the Dead films.

As the story progresses the students witness World War Z first hand and are forced to fight and evade their way through the thousands of the ever growing undead as well as rescue other survivors and deal with the ones who have gone insane or crazy by the chaos of the zombie apocalypse.

The characters are all very well developed and the story is very well written and keep's you wanting to see more, the music plays on the right mood and for those who have seen 28 Weeks Later might recognize the background music that plays near the end of the first episode ;-) Highschool of the Dead is definitely an anime that is worthy of your time and I will be investing my money into the English dub when it gets released. Watch it ASAP; zombie fans will not be disappointed!

MGS: Philanthropy (2009)

Made by the fans for the fans.

[9/10 · 27 May 2010]

Based on Hideo Kojima's critically acclaimed stealth game series Metal Gear Solid has become a huge success selling over 20 million copies worldwide and has a huge loyal fan following.

Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy is a fan film created by the loyal fans of the MGS video games and I must say they did a very, very good job! The movie is very true to the games and for those who have played the games will be happy to know that Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy stays in the same style and tone as the games. The CGI is very good for a fan movie and so is the acting even though it's been dubbed is still very good, Snake's voice and even his personality is exactly the same as he is in the games.

Fans of the games should definitely watch Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy as they would enjoy this movie and for non fans would probably see this as another low budget Sci-Fi flick. This is the best fan film based on a video game I have seen so far.

I've only seen Part 1 of Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy which only has a 60 minute runtime and I still look forward to part 2 and 3 when it comes.

9/10