Reviews by aechris

Finally Hollywood does more than just sully the name of a decent Asian flick. Most remakes have been absolute trash but The Departed does a good job of standing up to Infernal Affairs.

The pacing was a little off in parts but the acting was for the most part top notch. I am not a huge fan of Nicholson but even he didn't piss me off as much as he usually does.

The movie falls short in that it made the audience laugh unintentionally in a few places - whether that is the fault of the movie or of general movie-goers is a totally other matter. There are a few beautiful scenes from the original that are missing/lacking in The Departed and I found they explained things too much. Too much talking and too much pushing each other around. Infernal Affairs excelled in what wasn't said - I missed that in The Departed. The ending in this is terrible by comparison to the original.

Overall though a solid movie and a "should watch". I'd give it a "must watch" but there is a better movie from Hong Kong with the same storyline that you should see instead.

Decent flick, not as powerful as other WWII movies out there but still gets the message across. The acting was great for the most part but I thought the pacing was a little sketchy. It felt genuine, which I appreciate a lot.

I know I am in the minority on this one but I didn't really enjoy this film. I thought it was decent, it made me laugh a few times, but overall I was a little disappointed. Could be my sense of humor doesn't match up, could be I went in with my expectations too high, just didn't do it for me.

I do have to say however, the music was amazing. Potentially worth it for price of admission alone.

I am sure most people who are interested in this movie have already seen it, but in the chance someone hasn't I am writing this review. I am even writing it for the people who saw it once and felt it was enough!

I saw this in the movie theatre in Taiwan in the summer of 2005 and it blew my mind. I finally got around to picking up the DVD and watching it a second time and it still held up, despite the hype in my mind for how great a movie it was. The art direction, the casting, everything about it is just fantastic.

Highly, highly recommended.

A decent flick with a nice story; it wasn't exactly what I was expecting but it was not bad at all. The characters are fairly well defined and you fall for their back stories pretty easily so by the end of the movie it is touching to see what happens to everyone.

While not as classic as some of Satoshi Kon's other works, it's still worth a watch. I don't really think it deserves an 8 but it should have higher than a 7. Round up, eh?

There has been a lot of hype and a lot of questioning leading up to the release of this game. As a spiritual successor to the ever-popular Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, Elite Beat Agents had a lot to live up to... and live up to it it does!

While the basic game mechanics are the same, there are a lot of little improvements here and there to actually enhance the experience. The style is amazing to watch and you really see a difference in the focus to Japanese and North American audiences in the scenarios and characters.

A lot of people knock the soundtrack but for the most part it is a case of what they are "supposed to find cool/lame". I don't listen to Ashlee Simpson, but her song "La La" fits the game incredibly well. With other favourites like Queen, David Bowie, Earth, Wind & Fire and Chicago this game delivers in almost all stages. Highway Star doesn't fit so well and there are a few others that are just decent, but for the most part the songs were very well selected.

If you have a DS you owe it to yourself to pick this game up! You won't regret it!

I recently read this novel to prepare a literacy unit for grade six students. The story follows the difficult journey of two slave girls out of the deep south of America to the free land of Canada. Although the main characters are fictional, real people like Alexander Ross and Levi Coffin help them reach their goal through the underground railroad.

It's an appropriate enough read for students and delivers the proper messages in an easily understandable, yet thought-provoking manner. I have no doubt this will go over well in the classroom, and I enjoyed it myself as well!

What a fantastic movie. It was recommended to me by a friend a couple years ago and just recently did I get around to watching it; if I knew what I was in for I would have definitely found time sooner! I would much rather have a film stay with you after the credits have finished rolling and Oldboy definitely does that.

It is a very mysterious movie and always has you guessing as to what's really going on. I worried in a few places because it seemed like it was getting off-track but for the most part it always pulled it back with sensical story elements, finishing off with an explosive and intensely emotional ending.

I only give it a 9 because like I quickly mentioned, there were a few parts that fell into the problem many Asian films have of not being coherent.

This game plays a lot like a Zelda game. People will argue against it, but there are a lot of similarities. It's a lot of fun but it slowly and steadily feels more and more like a chore instead of fun. Get a new power, move on, get a new power, move on. It's beautiful and amazing and completely worth a full playthrough. The only real problem is the inability to skip text. Most people will be able to read much quicker than the text scrolls and it really feels like a chore to hit X again and again waiting for it to finish. Maybe not necessarily game-breaking, but it really was a damper for me.

I got a recommendation of this from a buddy and with a score of 6.6 on IMDb it couldn't be THAT bad, so I gave it a shot. The setup was nice: cliched, but it really set the tone for what I had expected was coming, but they blew everything they had going for them when things actually started happening. The last third of the movie (when it should have been amazing) was boring, uninteresting, completely obvious and stupid. Stay away from this piece of garbage.