Zatôichi

Rating: 80%

(http://www.cineol.net)

Also Known As:

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi

Year:

2003

Country:

Predominant Genre:

Action

Director:

Outstanding Performances:

Premiss:

The blind masseur/swordsman comes to a town in control of warring gangs, and while bunking with a farming family, he meets two women with their own agenda.

Themes:

Alienation

Compassion

Destiny

Ethical Politics

Friendship

Loneliness

Loyalty

Personal change

Redemption

Self-expression

Social class

Totalitarianism

Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:

Zatoichi series

Review Format:

Cinema

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Zatoichi the Great

Superior movie about a blind swordsman in old Japan that sets the quality bar high for the entire Zatoichi series.

As usual with Takeshi KITANO, the blood flows freely while the movie is quite funny - in a self-parodic way: A homily on the virtues of really seeing rather than merely observing the world around us.

Moreover, it is a sad tale of orphaned children turning to prostitution to make a living and to provide them with the funds to take their revenge on the samurai who killed their parents. Here, the characterization is finely-wrought - yet Zatoichi himself remains too much of a mystery.

The Seven Brides for Seven Brothers finale is somewhat out-of-place, yet fits perfectly!

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Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Archer - Series 3

Rating: 60%

(Image: http://www.soundonsight.org)

Also Known As:

Unknown

Year:

2011-12

Country:

Predominant Genre:

Action

Director:

Adam Reed

Outstanding Performance(s):

Aisha TYLER

Premiss:

At ISIS, an international spy agency, global crises are merely opportunities for its highly-trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other.

Theme(s):

Alienation

Destiny

Emotional repression

Grieving

Guilt

Loneliness

Narcissism

Personal change

Political Correctness

Self-expression

Sexism

Sexual Repression

Solipsism

Stereotyping

White culture

White guilt

White supremacy

Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:

OSS: 117

Review Format:

DVD

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World’s Greatest Secret Agent

Amusing-but-lazy spy spoof that understands the White supremacy and Sexism inherent in the genre being mocked, but fails - in its unsophisticated way - to offer anything in its place other than its own White supremacy and Sexism.

Rather than create fully three-dimensional characters, stereotypes are used to laugh at stereotypes - as if Whites have no other method of communication and no other understanding of the world. Comedies about comedy have a very difficult time being funny because they are not about anything outside of their own esthetic limitations - anything in the real world of lived experience.

Neither the characters nor the writers possess any sense of whom they are except in terms of others. Others they clearly have neither respect nor liking for; hence, the lack of any actual comic exploration of the White need for stereotyping. Much of the political confusion here comes from the vapidity of White culture and its resultant inability to compare and contrast itself with others - without which it is difficult to understand both oneself and others. Without such understanding, there is nothing to be humorous about; hence, the odd unreality of the comedy here.

Eventually the joke repetition starts to annoy rather than to amuse, once the end of the series has been reached, and the usual White obsessions with evading meaning, passion and purpose stakes its claim on your declining interest. Moreover, there is a curious pride in the ignorance and fear-of-life on display here in this parody that is nowhere near as insightful, nor as funny, as OSS: 117. More proof that Political Correctness has successfully killed the White ability to be funny.

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Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://boxofficebenful.blogspot.co.uk)

[For a Few Dollars More]

An improvement over its predecessor (A Fistful of Dollars) since it focuses more on character than on action.

This time Clint EASTWOOD plays second fiddle to Lee VAN CLEEF’s patrician (& more experienced) Colonel Mortimer; while Gian Maria VOLONTE essays a more sexually-twisted villain who kills for sadistic reasons rather than out of necessity. He seeks his own death through killing others in constantly seeking someone better than him to duel. This is genuinely disturbing and a highlight of the movie.

The usual moral ambivalence is evident along with sweaty close-ups and extreme long shots. The main characters have their own music theme to bolster their characters and aid audience identification. The standard revenge plot does not stand up to too much scrutiny, but is effectively and subtly-handled by all concerned.

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Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

King Solomon’s Mines

Rating: 60%

(http://lebeauleblog.com)

Also Known As:

Year:

1985

Country:

Predominant Genre:

Action

Director:

Best Performance:

Premiss:

Fortune hunter teams up with a resourceful woman to help her find her missing father lost in the wilds while being pursued by hostile tribes and a rival explorer.

Theme:

White supremacy

Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:

Review Format:

DVD

White Man’s (Cinematic) Graveyard

Despite the pervasive White supremacy, intermittently-funny comedy and weak characterization, this is rather fun.

(http://lebeauleblog.com)

Moving at a cracking pace, you can almost ignore the bizarre and glaringly-bad continuity. Just how does Colonel Bockner extricate himself from quicksand; while having no trace of the fluid on his uniform immediately afterwards? How do Jessie’s shorts become skimpier as the film progresses (not that we mind, of course)? And how does Dogati (John RHYS-DAVIES) escape - after being crushed by rocks (twice) - to engage in a climactic showdown with the hero Quatermain?

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Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Sleepless in Seattle

Rating: 60%

(www.ldrmagazine.com)

Also Known As:

Unknown

Year:

1993

Country:

US

Predominant Genre:

Comedy

Director:

Nora Ephron

Outstanding Performances:

Tom Hanks

Premiss:

A recently-widowed man’s son calls a radio talk-show in an attempt to find his father a partner.

Themes:

Alienation

Destiny

Emotional repression

Loneliness

Narcissism

Solipsism

Political Correctness

Self-expression

White culture

Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:

You’ve Got Mail

Review Format:

DVD

It is easier to be killed by a terrorist than it is to enjoy this movie

There is no sense here that either Jews or Whites ever look in the mirror to see themselves as they really are. And that simple fact is what makes this movie ultimately depressing and emotionally unmoving.

Self-indulgence and solipsism makes it hard for the characters to live fully and equally hard for the audience to empathize with their plight since this is almost entirely the creation of personalities refusing to face reality. Moreover, there is no comic exploration of the difficulties Whites possess in expressing their emotions - along with the resultant difficulties they face in developing Personal relationships (as opposed to Political ones).

Love is never defined so we never find out why the characters have such a hard time dealing with such fundamental issues as their own emotions. Like Science, this movie deals with the Phenomena of love but not its Noumena; making it a superficial and overly-sentimental trawl through neurotic neediness and self-willed existential despair.

The psychological dishonesty here is only partly-masked by the humor; existing to pretend to a depth of feeling not present in a work that does little more than whine about how only other people are the problem. By pretending talking about love is the same as actually doing it, the movie satirizes Hollywood romantic drama, while being merely another example of it.

Here we have people who have never gotten-over failed love affairs, who then retreat into dishonest sentimentality as solace for their lack of honest sentiment. They waffle-on about statistical probability as a substitute for making individual decisions about the course of their actual lives. They then blame the bad luck they so created because of the fear of facing the attendant consequences and responsibility that making choices inevitably brings. The unwillingness to see others as individuals, rather than as representatives of particular demographics, explains the loneliness here, when the people they actually meet do not conform to such statistical metaphors for real life.

Perhaps the worst aspect of this ethnocentric movie is its implication that love is the only reason to get married - as if compatibility, values or income counted for nothing. An amusing film, but quintessentially empty since it conflates love with Marriage.

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Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.