Reviews by A Rain King

This is an entertaining movie, not much of a plot. Not enough of kung fu and play ball action though. It was entertaining to watch it once, but didn't feel much for it on the 2nd time. For a person who does not play basketball, it was okay. For a person who plays basketball like a friend of mine, he was a bit disappointed because they wasn't much action shown (well, since dunk is in the film title so maybe more dunk should have been down). But anyways, I am looking forward to watch Chow's Secret (2007) when I have the chance.

First experience with Woodruff's acting of David, we know that he has an evil aura around him. Who would have though that this cute little kid could give such a genuine performance. But he did. Woodruff plays a boy who gets kidnapped and plays his little games with his kidnappers. And this is not Home Alone. This is intense stuff.

I love this movie. It's different and what I like most is that I am not able to predict what is going to happen. I like slow movies and of course, this is a slow one. Some people like fast action, intense and fill with thrills and they should prepare themselves if they wish to watch this movie. This is more of movie that talks about an emotional experience, of hidden worlds you would never knew of had you not been invisible. Don't expect much from the movie and you'll be having a good time watching it. I would have loved to talk about the plot but I guess if I do, I'll just spoil it so yeah, this is all I have to say about it.

Okay, If I had not watched Hitchcock's movies, I would have really liked the plot. This is the modern day version of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) . Instead of having stuck at home with a cast on his leg, LaBeouf who plays Kale was under house arrest after punching his teacher. Why is it that even though LaBeouf acted in many notable movies that his performance is so predictable? For a while I almost forgot that I wasn't watching Transformers. This is like a teen-flick-with-some-thrill. I enjoyed watching Yoo. Ya ya.. I like looking at Asian cuties. LOL

I enjoy the whole lot of the movie. The plot, the effect, the thrill I get from watching it and of course, the selection of cast had made a lot of difference. It's about a room known as 1408 at Dolphin Hotel in New York City that has a long history of guest who died in gruesome ways in less than 1 hour. Cusack who plays Mike Enslin is sort of a ghost writer/critic wants to experience it and of course prove that it's just bogus while Jackson who plays Mr Olin is the hotel manager that tries to talk Enslin out of it. This tug-of-war film is very interesting and dense. It does not divert your attention away from the screen because if you do, you'll miss out of the little details and also the message it's trying to bring across to the audience. So, I have to watch The Shining (1980) since it was also a writer and a haunted hotel.

I just finish watching D.W. Griffith's Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) and of course it's message is about intolerance. What was so unbelievable about this movie is the size of the set and the battle scenes with needed more than 3,000 extras! In a year such as 1916 without having technology of computer effects.. it was astounding. The Babylonian set must have been so HUGE that horse chariots and elephants could move around. I came to know that the movie wasn't received well when it first released and having watching 4 different stories of 4 different eras cutting through each other within this movie and it being a silent movie didn't help either.. I can understand why but really, the mise-en-scene was spectacular and almost believably true as it tries to portray.

The movie consists of 4 stories of man's cruelty to man: the fall of Babylon, the crucifixion of Christ, the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre and the modern story of a man wrongly accused of murder. As magnificent as it is and sending strong messages, it was a tiring piece of movie for me to watch. I like the movie but I won't watch it again. (lol) Truthfully, there was times that I was tempted to push the FF button. In the supplement section, restoration works was shown and noted how much restoration work had to be done on the whole movie. This movie is one of the most expensive production in its era and it was this failed movie at the box-office that caused the studio to go bankrupt. The version I watched is The Killiam Shows Version. Did you know that the original running time was actually 8 hours? (o.0) OMG. While searching online, I found out that the detail of the film-making is explained in William M. Drew (1986) book called D.W.Griffith's Intolerance: Its Genesis and Its Vision.

Rear View Window is about a world-class photographer who was injured in the line of duty and bound to a wheelchair and a cast on his leg. So, for entertainment of being stuck indoor, he begun to be an observer of his neighbours' daily activities through his window. In one of the occasion, he believed that one of his neighbour had murdered his wife and so began to do a stake-out on the guy and his movements for proof that the murder was real.

This movie has joined my list of all time favourite movies because of the suspense I felt throughout the movie and the way the plot is arranged is so interesting. You know there are some movies where you can predict what is going to happen in the end. Well, in this movie, you know what will happen but you are not confident if it will really happen the way as expected.

For a movie done in 1954, this is a very good one especially the set apart from the entertaining performances of the James Stewart and Grace Kelly. Through watching the movie, you will know that it is a set but that is one freaking huge set as tall as 3 or 4 storeys high.. and having 5 blocks of apartment building was mind-blowing of the scale used.

A movie that is a must to watch!

When I asked for an option of a good Japanese movie, I was introduced to Kurosawa's movies. Worried about being bored with a b&w, I chose Ran which was shot in 1985 in color. I am glad with my choice to being introduced to his work through 'Ran'. The version I saw was on DVD and the movie had gone through better color treatment and there was additional suppliments to the DVD which includes

The movie is about a fearful man, Hidetora who self-declared himself as a lord through ruthless killings and wars. It is the same man who is also a father of 3 son. After a series of events, the father began to realise which of the sons is loyal.

The astonishing scene of the movie would be the burning of the castle and also the numbers (in hundreds) of extras and horses used in making this movie. The capibility of the director and his crew to organise the whole props and people on the set and successfully making this movie a beautiful piece in the midst of chaos is simply breathtaking.

I suggest watching this movie with appreciation for its cinematic creativity and the acting of the character Hidetora by Tatsuya Nakadai who has acted regularly in most of Kurosawa's film replacing Toshiro Mifune.

This movie does have some influnces of Shakespeare's 'King Lear' because Kurosawa himself is an avid fan of Shakespeare which we could see in most of his films. Anyways, I would recommend this movie to start of Kurosawa's movie marathon.

This movie is mostly about the flashback of a well-renowned director of his childhood growing up as little boy and his love with the movies after hearing the news of the dead of Alfredo, a projectionist. The director whose name is Salvatore Di Vita or lovingly known by people who saw him grew up as Toto has his whole life evolved around the movie house which is the Cinema Paradiso. It also touches on the love and the community but it is the relationship between Toto and Alfredo that catches the heart of the audience about the movie. Toto as a son whom Alfredo never have and Alfredo as a father whom Toto never had.

I first watched this movie as part of a requirement for one of the film classes that I had taken. It was a good movie and little did I know that what I had watched in the class was the whole movie without the actual theatrical release version. This left me in surprise on the topic on the question to why the movie that was first released in 1988 would have been criticized so badly for being "too sentimental".

I once again watched this movie after purchasing this dvd supposedly as a gift. This movie is done in such detail and you could watch it over and over again just to catch the glimpse of the details of parts that i might have missed to make sense of the other pieces.

The interesting part of the movie would be the score. The music has blended well with the movie and noticeably repeated in great length that it has become part of the whole movie itself. If I were to listen to the music, it would bring me back to the movie itself. No other movie could use the score without abandoning the existence of Cinema Paradiso.

Overall, it is a movie to watch. This movie is all about different type and stages of love. However though, if you're not a fan of slow-pace movie then I would not recommend this movie to you. I liked it a lot too because I appreciate slow pace movie more than high impact action movie because not everything in life are action packed