All posts by Nix »
Silver Hawk (2004) Movie Review
If you picked up Michelle Yeoh’s “Silver Hawk” expecting something serious, then you’re out of luck. The movie, directed by Jingle Ma (“Tokyo Raiders”), is all camp. After the average “The Touch”, one should...
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American Cousins (2003) Movie Review
I suppose that in the final analysis Don Coutts’ “American Cousins” is innocuous enough that one finds oneself having no real attachment toward it. Then again, one also finds oneself not having any real...
Read More »The Sweet Sex and Love (2004) Movie Review
Man-dae Bong’s “The Sweet Sex and Love” is filled with sex held together by a flimsy story that may or may not be worth making a feature length film around. It’s not as if...
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Ghost in the Shell (1995) Movie Review
In many ways, Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 effort “Ghost in the Shell” is one of the more influential sci-fi works out there. Which doesn’t mean it’s one of the best, only influential. The film that...
Read More »Lost in Translation (2003) Movie Review
I suppose it’s not all gravy being the daughter of a world famous filmmaker like Francis Ford Coppola. On the plus side, you can pretty much get any movie made, because even if investors...
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Natural City (2003) Movie Review
One obstacle in the way of the new South Korean sci-fi film “Natural City” isn’t the undeniable fact that its every construction is derivative of Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner”, but that the film is,...
Read More »Belly of the Beast (2003) Movie Review
Steven Seagal and Hong Kong filmmakers don’t go together, mostly because the filmmakers are used to throwing actors around with wild abandon; this includes making them do absurd stunts. Now add Steven Seagal, who...
Read More »Why We Had to Kill Bitch (2004) Movie Review
Depending on how you approach John-Paul Nickel’s “Why We Had to Kill Bitch”, you may or may not be disappointed. Approached as a comedy filled with film-savvy post-modern hipsters, it’s a pretty enjoyable little...
Read More »Ghost Lake (2004) Movie Review
I’m a tad peeved by writer/director Jay Woelfel, and here’s why: for about 20 minutes of “Ghost Lake”, I had convinced myself this might be one of those hidden gems in a sea of...
Read More »Open Range (2003) Movie Review
Fans of American westerns rejoice! Kevin Costner, coming off disappointments with “Dragonfly” and “3000 Miles to Graceland”, brings the world the first great western in, oh, 10 years or so. Not that Costner could...
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The Battling Angel (2003) Movie Review
Ishould really stop watching Japanese movies that sells itself as “action” because, invariably, I am disappointed. “The Battling Angel” follows the trend of big-budget actioners like “Yesterday” and “Resurrection of the Little Match Girl”...
Read More »American Psycho 2: All American Girl (2002) Movie Review
There’s something oddly entertaining about watching serial killer Mila Kunis stalking a college campus and leaving bodies lying nonchalantly everywhere, not unlike a rabid dog marking her passing. Maybe it’s because Kunis (“That 70′s...
Read More »Anna in Kung Fu Land (2003) Movie Review
“Anna in Kung Fu Land” is the second 2003 film from Hong Kong that sports an asinine love story wrapped around a martial arts tournament. The other was “Star Runner”, which looks like a...
Read More »Hope Springs (2003) Movie Review
I suppose it’s hard to go wrong with a Romantic Comedy. The conventions of the genre are so firmly established, and all the archetypes etched into stone, that it takes a really bad director,...
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Ghost System (2002) Movie Review
Although it clocks in at just a shade over 70 minutes, writer/director Toshikazu Nagae’s “Ghost System” really has no business being a feature-length film. Or, in this case, a pseudo feature-length film. Aside from...
Read More »Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2004) Movie Review
The good news is that Quentin Tarantino is back after 7 years. And apparently he took the lengthy hiatus post-”Jackie Brown” to learn how to stage and shoot action scenes like a pro, and...
Read More »Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2004) Movie Review
Billed as the final installment in writer/director Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi trilogy, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” takes guitar-slinging, gun-toting, drug dealer-killing musician El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) back to Mexico, where he has...
Read More »Whispering Corridors 3: Wishing Stairs (2003) Movie Review
I suppose the producers of the “Whispering Corridors” series figured it was too late to do anything different with the franchise now that they were at part 3. Which may explain why 2003′s ”...
Read More »Wishcraft (2002) Movie Review
It used to be that I could watch 100 Direct-to-Video movies in a row and not find a single good one in the bunch. At least not good enough to ever get over the...
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