Back in the early Aughts, I came across a Japanese movie in a video store dollar bin called ADRENALINE DRIVE. It turned out to be a peculiar comedy/romance/yakuza thriller and become a brief staple of past movie nights. I recently watched it again, and was surprised at how well it held up. I was curious to see what that film's director-- Shinobu Yaguchi-- had been up to since then, and eventually ended up with a copy of the oddly named…
Day TWO of the EMOJI MOVIE EXPERIENCE. Today's focus: This Movie's 3D is Bullshit and It Has A Secret Satanic Plotline
But first, you may notice half a star added to the rating of this movie. I should come clean. I went with the flow of the crowd that says this movie should be terrible. It really isn't. It's at least base-line competently made. It has the occasional laughable moment. It has sins and offenses, but they're pretty much the…
The truest detail to me of the old teen/young twenty-something apartment experience is having a mannequin as part of the decor.
During the opening, I was excited by the possibility that this was a John Wick-esque world of assassins that were all minimum wage flunkies. Sadly it didn't go that far, (and really, I can't imagine a retail worker that would try to avenge their boss) but it's still delightful watching these two leads bounce off each other and get into assassin-related hijinx.
Wish we got to know the coworkers from the maid cafe. Maybe they'll turn up in the sequels?
Brian and Tanner were having a wild 2001.
Wanted to catch this after seeing the trailer at a revival screening of THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS last week. I didn't expect much, but it's another movie with Paul Walker driving a car and has some early 2000s scuzz to it. Turned out to be a surprisingly fun thriller.
ittedly, this feels like a trashier noir that's had some of its edges sanded off. And while Walker and Zahn are fine…
I feel like most movies of this type would focus on one, maybe two hooks, while this juggles three -- maid cafes, sishamen playing, characters speaking in the Tsugaru dialect. In the case of the latter, it was interesting to see how translators tried to convey this nuance that would fly over the head of non-native speakers.
It's quite heartening to see Ren Komai find her groove throughout this, as well as shred in the finale, but also to see the community that builds up around the cafe.
Miike combining cloying children's entertainment and being horny on main. It's certainly my jam, though I'm wondering which demographic that cocktail's being served up to.
KAMIKAZE GIRLS' Kyoko Fukada gets to play a leather-clad baddy and we get the closest thing to live action Wario and Waluigi. It gets weighed down by its pacing unfortunately, but it's still a helluva ride.
