Reviews

I commenting Mega Man 2 after beating it a lot of years since I beat it the first time. Thanks to Console Emulation I am living again the experience of playing gems like this baby. I am surprised to see how amazingly addictive this games are still to this day.

Mega Man 2 is not only a sequel made to cash-out the success of the first Mega Man is a step forward in many aspects. More user friendly than Mega 1, this game has a system of password-saving that lets the gamer save his progress without having to play the game in its entirety every time. Also Mega Man 2 is not as difficult as the first one because the worlds of Dr. Willy's creations are easy to learn and memorize. In all I believe some people may be frustrated because there are many things and processes to memorize (jump that, don't jump that; use that weapon with that enemy, learn the AI patron of that other one)and also some good reflexes are needed of course. But that's the entertaining side of this thing after all.

Almost twenty years later Mega Man 2 with simple sprite-animation can give me more hours of enjoyment than many modern hits with incredibly astounding 3D Animation. But not always the better-looking game is the best game. I can't rate it with any other number than ten. Capcom scores another victory with this one (I lose the count of how many great games they have released throughout the years). Without a doubt my favorite from the Mega Man series for the NES system.

Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stones was the third part of the classic beat'em up saga. DD 3 Originally was an arcade recreational machine, and it was pretty forgettable unlike its two predecessors. The game featured (once again) the Lee brothers in a venture across the globe fighting alongside other martial artists, these characters were available if you 'purchased' their help in a special shop located at certain areas of the maps. This time the developers didn't came up with better, faster moves instead the enemies doubled the speed the player could get hitting the buttons. All this turned DD3 into a really hard game only for die-hard fans and extremely fast players. The Domestic version (the NES version) was a completely different thing. Maybe it was the lack of features the arcade version had what made the game more user-friendly. Yet still was easily the most difficult of the three versions it was possible to beat it. Usually the domestic versions are far too inferior compared with the original game; in this rare case the conversion exceeds the original. Rating for the Arcade version: 6, 5 Rating for the NES Version: 8, 5

The place: Argentina. Some people with money make a movie casting their sons as actors and make all kinds of disasters on-screen. That's the story behind Un Elefante en Banda (beware it's not the screen story is the story of the making of the film). Enjoy it (?) in Volver, it's screened there sometimes. At least it's a honestly naive film, and it was not released using money from the Argentinian State (The Elite-System for financing boring and pedant pictures for pseudo-intellectual snobs). I would gladly rate it but why? It's for children and exclusively for children. Avoid it if you are older than six years old. 10 lines of text, are we there yet? It seems so. Good Nights.

Croc 2 was the expected successor of the 1997's adventure-plat former Croc. The graphic engine is the same of the first installment of this short-lived saga. Similar to many games of the 90's spawned by the success of Super Mario adventures in the N64, Croc 2 was released for the Playstation and PC platforms. The storyline follows the quest of Croc in search of his parents, in the way he will aid those funny creatures called the Gobbos, and helping them Croc will progress with his quest aided by the (cat?) trader Swap Meet Pete. It's adventure in its most classic style.

Technically the game is amazing, fluid movements of the various characters that inhabit Croc's world and animated 3D environments that barely slow down a bit the framing of the PS-Version commented here. The game's aimed to kid-adults, little children will enjoy the first world, but later the upper levels are for expert gamers due to their difficulty. The game presents some very easy tasks to achieve in its first world, but as it develops into a more complicated game, the levels are longer and sometimes it will be necessary go back and replay the easier levels just to recharge energy (hearts). Maybe that's the reason some people didn't find Croc to be amusing and the game franchise sadly stopped. It's true that the game demands lots of time to learn the way the levels are finished and depending on the case that may be frustrating or encouraging. Croc 2's difficulty still is possible, because after a long and difficult scenario the bosses are hardly an important issue and usually are the simpler part of the game. Croc 2 delivers fun for more than one game-play with many hidden secrets. Music and sound effects are also great every new level has a new different and extended music track played with many instruments, thankfully there's more than just your typical MIDI score.

When you aren't plenty of financial resources you use more your imagination. In this case Ate de Jong & Brian Helgeland indeed made a great use of their imagination. Truth be told; this is a light movie, the dark and horror elements are included in a fantasy context. But that doesn't make this a bad horror tale, Highway To Hell not only is a very imaginative B-flick, it's remarkable and demented (in a good sense of course); that makes it a piece hard to forget.

The concept of hell of Helgeland is very original, there's some Dante's references here and there but mostly is Helgeland's merit all the wild ideas. A great detail is that the hero of the tale is a common kid, who finds his bravery facing the monsters he finds in the underworld.

The creatures are fabulous, especially the she-demon that disguises herself as the girlfriend Rachel Clark and the Sgt Bedlam of course. Don't expect gallons of blood, there's a lot of creature's blood but not human beings' blood. This is more like metaphysical fantasy not a slaughtering. It can be enjoyed by teens and older people. The script is better than many of Helgeland's modern scripts (specially those movies starring Heath Ledger). It was released in the early 90's, back when it wasn't a good move release a film like this one.

Also there are some notorious names in the cast list, whether you are interested in B-movie stars (Patrick Bergin, Kristy Swanson), rockers from the 80's (Lita Ford) or the early apparitions of today's Hollywood stars (Ben Stiller).

If you have seen Rush Hour and its sequel and you were impressed you have to see this one. If you have seen "Martial Law", and you were impressed you have to see this. And also you will meet the other star of this group of Masters of the Martial Arts and Comedy Yuen Biao.

Jackie, Sammo and Yuen play a group of losers that get in trouble in Spain, the rest is a non-stopping adventure full of incredible fights, laughs and healthy fun. Wheel on Meals is probably the ultimate mix of Kung Fu, Acrobatics and Funny Gags spawned by the admired Sammo Hung, he's got an incredible eye for action, that's why he's one of the best directors alive.

Jackie leading here is at his best along with his partners Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, they fight with an incredible physical ability, and not casually among the many thugs they kick are some real champs like Benny Urquidez or Keith Vitali. In the closing credit don't miss the bloopers, watching the bloopers the admiration we feel for the great Jackie increases. But Jackie not only uses his legs and fists to make you laugh he puts some funny faces that could make people fall off their seats laughing. The good thing in the movie is that there's enough of Sammo, Jackie and Yuen, every Fighter has their memorable moments on-screen. "Kwai tsan tseh" is a Masterpiece of humorous action.

The Rockman franchise is one of the best franchises of platform-games, with numerous sequels, the blue boy has enjoyed a unique success and especially he has gained his own fandom. It is hard to believe that some kids play this game, that may happen but Rockman X4 is a gift for the loyal fans. At the time Rockman X4 was released Capcom was trying to adapt the Rockman world to 3D environments, but still they developed this sequel in a classic Rockman style with some visual improvements.

The game itself is moderately difficult, increases its difficulty after the first initial levels. These first levels offer the usual side-scrolling 2D world. Some ability with the buttons and patience will be necessary, because there will be some failures on the way while the right way of face all the Robots-bosses is found. Unless you are cheater and find a walk-trough via-Internet. X and Zero have some interesting new powers, and as usual they will gain another weapons while they beat the different mavericks.

Capcom made a big effort with X4, it has a nice storyline with amazing anime interludes, the storyline differs if the player chooses X or his buddy Zero, die-hard fans will try to beat the game with both characters. In a few words: A good and addictive game.

One of the oddest pleasures in life is witness the work of a filmmaker who not just satisfies himself entertaining the audience, Cannibal Holocaust achieves that. After this trip to the deep corners of the savage nature of man, it's hard to forget Ruggero Deodato's masterpiece. As a cyclic process in the late 70s and early 80s Italian creators made for Horror the same thing they did for the classic Western in the 60s. In 1974 Tobe Hooper created a savage tale inspired by Ed Gein murders The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Massacre shocked the audience for its raw cruel vision of the world. But the ultimate piece of cruelty in film reached the surface some years later.

Ruggero Deodato was an Exploitation-director he could pick a movie of gladiators, spaghetti-westerns or horror movies. But for some strange design he ended up directing one of the most extreme, violent and gritty films ever made, and maybe to be able to make movies out of profit helped Deodato creating this massive work of desolation, despair and cruelty. Yet Cannibal Holocaust is not only a collection of brutal scenes, one after the other.

Some calm and quiet music introduces us to what the world has come to name the cornerstone of civilization New York, but if the movie is comprehended as it should be, after the final titles close we'll have not only to feel disgust of how an inhabitant of the Amazonas eats raw meat. The first thirty minutes of 'Holocaust' work as introduction to the world of the tribes of the jungle in a semi-documentary style, after minutes pass we see more and more of the brutal human nature at its best; it's a crescendo of blood and death that crushes the senses of the audience more and more.

Deodato uses nudism, and a wide range of cinematically avoided elements to transport the audiences to a dark cornerstone of the mind we know but we refuse to accept. Inside this distorted view of 'reality' we recognize we are not as civilized as we claimed to be. We are greedy; we kill for fun, money or lust. Cannibal Holocaust uses gore, which is as realistic as it could be, to be the ultimate lesson of how the self imposed habits of society create the ultimate butchery, that's the reason why this could be made once and worked perfectly once. Finally 'Holocaust' is a moral tale; it can be a real enlightening experience. There are little chances that someone remains unchanged towards this work, whether you define it as good or a bad movie.

"Correccional de mujeres" has many well delivered moments of pure rawness and this is one of the biggest achievements of Vieyra's vision. In Argentina many filmmakers tend to underestimate its audience and give them easy to process movies. Correccional has more interesting social commentary than any art house pieces of any Argentinean director released in the eighties.

Vieyra's sexy piece is a Crime movie who follows the typical patterns of the genre, its main character is trying to prove her innocence while uncovering a criminal group that uses the women of the prison as 'employees'. From such a simple premise Vieyra give us daring sexy sequences with good special effects for the standards of a South-American production. The inexpert Edda Bustamante leads the cast but her inexperience is balanced with the presence of greats like Julio de Grazia and other familiar faces. But what makes Correccional a gem is the feminine cast of good looking girls in that aspect Bustamante grace the screen with more than obvious merits.

Maybe one of the reasons people doesn't like Correccional de mujeres is the lack of humorous moments, yet there are a couple of funny scenes this is a dark story of corruption, that pretends to be serious. There's a notorious lack of true genre-movies in Argentina. The intentions in Correcional are good but the execution couldn't fit the viewer's expectations at the time this movie was released, they believe it too silly and didn't give Correccional a chance, except the sexploitation aficionados. The abundance of porn and erotic theaters in Buenos Aires in the eighties helped Correccional find its audience.

Correccional de Mujeres is the kind of film only a few appreciate and judge under its true merits. Some people believe that a movie must tell some anguish story from the childhood of its director if a certain production doesn't fit that mold is not a movie, it's crap. On the other side there's people who likes to have a good time watching a flick, have a laugh or get mad but ultimately understand that a cinematographic story is a product, a product that many hands helped to create, not always the view of one author.

When this game was released years ago, it was a huge success, tough some game reviews of magazines were not very enthusiastic about it while others claimed it game of the year. The creators of the great Warcraft saga decided it was time to create something different this time. The player has three choices of character, a Warrior, a Rogue and a Sorcerer. Every fighter has his own abilities and weaknesses, but ultimately and obviously the warrior is the definitive of the three. The real fans will enjoy playing and finishing the game with all three characters.

The structure of the game is quite simple, you came to a once splendid town and immediately get involved with the problems of the townsfolk's, their problems involve demons and other monsters, the great evil behind all will reveal while the game progress.

Diablo had an interesting generator of random levels; this made the game interesting for more of one play with the same fighter. The graphical aspect of Diablo is similar to Warcraft but with more realistic movements and very detailed graphics. The main goal is kill every monster gain experience and go deeper into the labyrinth. Almost there's no strategy to be used here, the speed with the mouse (or buttons) is the most important thing in Diablo. Yet this is not a game for fans of unstoppable action, there are tasks to achieve, puzzles to solve, and use the brain before fighting the stronger enemies.

I recommend avoiding the Playstation version of this game, it's extremely slow for loading, uses too many memory card blocks and the game control can not match the experience the simplicity and practice (movement and the use of menus) that the PC version has. One positive detail of the Ps version is the possibility of a two-player battle mode. The best way to play it is with a Pentium PC, the game doesn't require any kind of 3D chips, and also it is not necessary an extremely fast processor. The game can be saved immediately and you can have more than one game saved. Diablo pays a high tribute to the world of fantasy and sword & sorcery, there are lots of the monsters fans of fantasy will enjoy destroying, the living skeletons, dark knight and sexy succubus looks great and at times Diablo is like a video game version of Ray Harryhausen's fantastic adventures.

Rockman DASH (Megaman Legends) was the attempt of Capcom of prepare the Rockman franchise for the new century, the video-game of late 90's were all in 3D worlds. This game has some similarities with the previous incarnations of Rockman as well as it has many differences. Rockman's adventures no longer take place in a bi-dimensional world. He doesn't have to jump from platform to platform, shoot fast and use the adequate weapon with the right "boss".

DASH presents the live of Rockman in a high-tech world where cities are strong fortresses surrounded by the natural environment. In this world some people dig underground tunnels to find pieces of technology and credits. The gamer will have to be able of understand the right technique to attack the enemies and build a better armor for Rockman, the opponents Every time will be stronger and bigger, in a classic Rockman style.

The graphics are not top-notch today, but they still look cool. The game offers hours and hours of game play. The scenarios are huge and there are many things to explore, in order to find the right elements to solve the game in its entirety. It is unavoidable talk to all the characters. Hopefully the save system appears in the right place and moment to avoid the loss of hours of game play. A must have video-game for fans of Megaman.

This was the first Dragonball Z animated feature released in Argentinian theaters (the second feature was a mix of two different titles). In the late 90s Latin-America were captivated for the epic adventures of Goku and company, this animated series arrival on Latin-America happened several year after the huge success it had in Japan. Japanese Animation was perceived as too violent for children and other nonsense babbling of ignorant critics avid of sound like expert psychologists or sociologists.

"Dragonball Z la pelicula" it was the Argentinian title of this feature. It is a one act movie, there's no introduction, there's a conflict (Turtles and his plan for the Earth) and then we have fights, fights and more fights. The final result is stunning, the animation is superb and the chace enjoy it in big screen made for me a even greater experience. If we compare this title with others from i.e. Disney or Dreamworks, indeed it is more violent and bloody, but no much more bloody than the news we watch on TV. Yet there's enough sensibility and zen philosophy to make Dragonball Z something fascinating for children and non-children (even though this sounds like a cliché).

Ghosthouse - La Casa 3 (aka House: La Maldición Final) was released in the Eighties when the House franchise was a pretty big business, not as big as the Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street franchises but something important. Fortunately Umberto Lenzi only tries to exploit this franchise superficially and he creates an intimate ghost story. A young couple tries to find the answers for a strange radio phenomena and that leads them to the famous haunted house of the title, from that point they and some other guys find themselves threatened by a strange and powerful ghost.

This movie has some cool gory moment right from the beginning. But we couldn't expect less from Umberto Lenzi. But Ghost house isn't such an extreme piece of carnage as Cannibal Ferox or other works of this extraordinary filmmaker. Ghosthouse has more suspense than massacre. Even having nothing but low-budget Lenzi delivers a good worthwhile horror flick using his imagination to give a handful of creative killings and a good use of the cameras makes the rest.

The music is a completely different stuff, we could define it as the typical bugging synthesizer music, this is not a low point, on contrary this is the music that helps to create the uncomfortable ambient that surrounds the movie. Recommended for fans of Lenzi (yes he have some fans!), if you appreciate B-Movies and don't criticize every second of them you will find that Ghoshouse is stunning.

Rolling Cheeks is another video of the series that John Stagliano (aka Buttman) created in the nineties. This particular movie is one of the best examples of why he wasn't topped in the sub-genre of porn he created 'gonzo'. He and Rocco Siffredi (Dario here) spend time in all kind of exotic places in the world and find the best looking girls who must accomplish two goals, have generous forms, notoriously behind their backs and been absolutely wild in sex. Also a trademark is the structure of the movie, a couple of occasional sex encounters of Rocco or another actor with generally two ladies and a big orgy at the end.

The video is divided in segments that have Rocco and John doing funny sketches, these sketches center around them trying to convince the girls of having sex with Rocco mainly, and everything is recorded by Stagliano using his Video-Recorder, all the stuff that comes before the hardcore moments is intentionally funny. Stagliano uses his camera to get inside everything that is possible to catch on camera.

The Cast of girls is responsibility of Buttman, and as Rocco and friends enjoy a good time with these ladies, one can't do anything else than applaud the excellent taste this man has choosing women. Rolling Cheeks was released before he decided to be just the man behind the camera and Stagliano documents himself checking if the girls are as good as they look.

It would be good if Dark Water shows to the American film industry that some of the currently exploited trends are getting rancid as the water of this remake. Dark Water is one more of the Hollywood's adaptations of Asian horror movies. Once again they use Hideo Nakata's successfully created material. And they hire a foreign director that has had success with two of a list of movies, Diarios de Motocicleta and Estación do Brasil were both critically acclaimed. But was he ready to direct a horror flick? It seem like he wasn't or maybe the producers are the bad guys here and he is the next John Carpenter, who knows?

The script is quite a mess; it only shows one scene of high tension and desperation felt by one of the characters at the end of the movie. Desperation is the source of fear, we can only feel the fear that exudes characters if they are in danger or they feel that way, this is quintessential in horror and it's the reason why Dark Water almost has no real scaring scenes. Dark Water has an intimate way of story-telling, showing how the supporting characters are when they hide their true nature. But at the end this works against the final result due to a not so little unfinished subplot involving the father of Ceci. Many movies with more ridiculous premises and much less budget are more respectful to what is horror. The last half of Dark Water is better than the first half. The last half doesn't show new ideas but at least tries to give some satisfaction to the audience. One can imagine Dahlia having this imaginary thought "oh yeah, there's a ghost in my house, well I'll deal with that once I have solved my familiar problems (?????)" or at least it looks like that is the posture of Jennifer Connelly's Dhalia.

Jennifer Connelly's performance is adequate, even tough in the highly dramatic scenes she shares with Ariel Gade (her fictional daughter) the result is erratic she seems too theatrical and Ariel appears as a dull young actress. Dealing the movie mainly with the whole mother-daughter motto this is not an insignificant matter. Tim Roth's performance is a redeeming note, he is an amazing actor in supporting roles (remember Pulp Fiction?) here he creates one interesting lawyer.

The music and cinematography are way too standard also. The score is the average for a psychological horror-thriller work but the cinematography has some shots that look too raw for a blockbuster like this one unless the intention was create something stylish but it certainly doesn't look good.

80's really were a creative era and Defenders are a good example of the cartoons of that decade. The Defenders of the Earth were a team that united some characters such as The Phantom, Flash Gordon and Mandrake all of them are classics of the comic-strips. The whole idea of getting them together was great but this cartoon also had good and interesting stories that also had the unavoidable moral-message to young kids. And also all of them were the source of inspirations for the superheroes that came with the birth of Superman.

The premise is simple and it was already successful with shows such as GI.Joe and others, a group a brave men gather their forces to fight the threat of the Day. In this case the group of brave men is formed for fabulous creations of geniuses such as Alex Raymond and Lee Falk. But they also have to take care of their young children (they wee added to had characters more down to earth and young), teaching them and trying to keep them away from trouble. Anyway Mandrake and the rest were the star and the favorites. Lothar is an interesting case he was portrayed as the obvious strong guy but he also was much more intelligent than previous incarnations. The need of change is rooted in be more politically correct because the modern times have had trouble with the previous status quo of Lothar. The nemesis in this case was Ming who is probably one of the best fictional villains.

Even comparing this classic to some of today's cartoon it has energy and a good pace that if it is given a chance could capture the attention of a new generation of children who want to see adventures and heroes.

How many times we have heard our friends and relatives asking us about our fascination with action-movies or films with martial arts? We always expect a film that could teach them how artistic could be Action and Kicks and Punches.

The Wuxia Genre is the perfect way to tell stories so deep, emotional and philosophical such as the stories told in Ying xiong (Hero), but in the past and due to the high amount of movies of Wuxia that deliver Hong Kong these aspects sometimes are deluded in stories that just deliver action and energy. This particular film could perfectly be the sole justification of the existence of cinema of martial arts. But is not the first and hopefully won't be the last time when Asian filmmakers teach us why the Adventure and the Action speak better about ourselves rather than other movies. There are many undiscovered Martial Arts Films that has similarities with Hero.

Slightly based in reality Hero is more a fantasy, at this point we should be careful with any accusations of wrong perception of history. The subtext and the moral that surround the plot are mature, intelligent and personal. Zhang Yimou view of heroism is superb. It's not a slow movie, but Hero leaves space for dialogue that has the same transcendence that the fights have. Hero not only dares to stretch the boundaries of storytelling also has and incredible visual style (Chris Doyle's cinematography), and colors also help to understand the story better. The final touch is the music of Tan Dun, a whole narration itself, Tan Dun give us a memorable score. Jet Li is probably the best martial artist alive and a good actor (two things that hardly are bond), and a rich story such as this one needed a talent like Jet's. Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen, a cast that is a mixture of dramatic actors and martial artist, all of them teaching us how the physical and emotional acting are one thing. Sorry for the super-stardom that believe in the use of a body double in almost every scene.

Enjoy it and watch it again, tell your friends about Hero.

Planet of the Apes could perfectly be a part of the selected group of good remakes. This group of films could include movies such a The Fly, The Thing, and some others. The criteria to be a part of this selection would be that every new remake should try to take distance from the seminal classics. Those old and dear movies are classics, there's no sense in make the same movie using the same script and so. If there's any need of release a remake it is necessary a new take on the same tale.

Tim Burton has done just that with his version of Planet of the Apes, and also has made the whole myth of this saga his own. Leo Davidson is a hard action astronaut but still he's very innocent just like many of the heroes of Burton. And these Apes who are a distorted image of us as society (greedy, intolerant). The special apes that don't follow these ideologies are the good sensitive beings. I think this is probably one of the most important messages in every good movie of Tim Burton, the special outsider view of the artist in a world who's not sensitive.

Owning an amazing design of make-up, scenarios, and lots of practical FX, P.O.A is honest to the old fashion style of Sci-Fi .This is the remake that the seminal classic of 1968 deserves. A great cast of actor and actresses is here and they deliver over the top performances even wearing pound of Makeup! This new version pays homage to the first Planet from the first minute to the last. It deserves an absolute 10.

Aristide Massaccesi a.k.a Joe D'Amato directed Buio Omega in the early 80's. Back in the day when movies weren't accused of being the cause of violence in schools and nonsense like that, filmmakers as D'Amato dared to stretch the limits of what can be seen in a screen. The gory scenes in his movies are not unintentionally funny they look like awful and painful, and D'Amato uses incredibly long shots in these murders shots. That is the main difference between his films and the American production to set an example Underrated as only an exploitation director D'Amato showed he had a trademark mixing gore and sex. He tried to take horror to the extreme without making a parody.

The plot is quite simple, out of this simple story we get a collection of bizarre strong images. The gore is hard as a punch in your nose. This rawness makes Buio Omega unique as one of the most extreme pieces D'Amato made (along Anthropophagus). As we watch the hideous acts of this taxidermist we are surprised because he is not judged using the old trick of put phrases that make him look evil. Buio Omega is almost a silent movie. The moral view is on the viewer not in the filmmaker. But the last act has a common moral resolution that could let the people feel they are living in a just right world. The place you probably will find Buio Omega is an old rack of a dirty old video store, the kind of video that is found only for those treasure-seekers of unseen rare films.

The music of Goblin is adequate for this kind of production; with their intense tunes they make the viewer feel even more uncomfortable. Synthesizers is all what this band needs to create dark ambient.

I'm writing this review in first person because I'm fully aware that is impossible to convince people to view a movie of the Friday the 13th franchise when they already have a negative point of view of Jason and his world. I saw this movie at least twice and what can I say? I loved it, I really enjoyed every second of it. Mr. Kane Hodder is the Ultimate Jason, and Jason X, has it portraying two versions of Jason. JX is the classic FT13 tale with the futuristic twist that introduces a lot of sci-fi extravaganza. Jason Voorhees is one of the most interesting monster of cinema, due to his origin, his killings are somehow justified (not like M. Myers or Freddy) because he died as a child when some horny teens didn't take care of him when he was in Crystal Lake Camp. Throughout the years he has become a modern myth. Some of the movies of Ft13th were great others not so great, but I think Jason X is among the best. JX shows how much cinematic language changed in this years, has an agile modern montage, the actors are well... unknown actors but they do it great, and the script has some clever and ironic lines, and finally the cinematography is stunning, JX doesn't appears to be a $20 million dollar flick it looks like a more expensive movie. If that is not enough, two celebrities of Horror met in the first scene.

Open Water is a small film that is remarkable as experiment but it shows some weaknesses that keep it away from the league of great unforgettable pieces of ultra-low budget. O. W. was shot in DV (Digital Video) a significant tool in film-making for new directors. Tough O.W. successfully creates some suspense in various moments, the poor clarity of open range shots works against the general interest that the movie could generate. Maybe the crew of this movie could have used various operators for the cameras. The weakest point is the photography. The performances of Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis are great, they carry the weight of the story on their back and they make a good work. Blanchard Ryan could perfectly be the next "Scream Queen" of Hollywood.

If the audience is expecting the successor of Jaws with the ticket they bought, they probably will be disappointed; this is a pretty small story, from beginning to end. If it is not given an excessive candor (as some critics did) Open Water is revealed as intelligent experiment in film-making. OW is a good flick for a new director, who could use this experience as a first step in a successful career. The how we analyze that this is the second effort of Chris Kentis? O. W. is not Assault on Precinct 13 or 28 Days Later, films that used low-budget and created BIG MOVIES.

In general terms the plot and its simplicity moves Kentis opus toward a good direction. He wins some points trying to create a different horror.

If you love techno-anime, certainly you need to see Transformers the movie, this classic is a epic tale of death, the eternal battle of good and evil, an many things more tell in a bombastic way. If you are a fan of the character-construction of Superheroes (Marvel-Dc) you need to see Transformers. The mix of American storytellers and Japanese animators in the original 80's Transformers series turned out to be one of the most successful and remembered cartoons of that era. And the colossal movie that worked as introduction to a whole new cast of characters is a magic piece of cinema. Many will ask if these words are true, after all we are talking about a piece of animation. Yes, this is a cartoon conceived for kids, but it has all the drama and solid storytelling that is vital to all good movies.

The movie starts with a roll-down resume of the entire story (a la Star Wars) and seconds later, the well-known tunes the title song of this robots pounds the air. But this time is different, this is a heavy-metal version that song. It is not only fitting the mix of Heavy Metal and Transformers, these songs are used adequately as a composer uses his variations to call the attentions on certain moments. The unfairly forgotten composer is the responsible for the rest of the soundtrack he used all kind of synthesizers to create a futuristic and emotional score.

Every sequence is a masterpiece by itself. There are no weak points, even comic relief moments like the introduction of the junk-ions is something big and great. If there were not enough reasons to give T: The Movie a chance, think about the famous actors that are part of this mega-event using their voices to give life to some of the new robots (besides the cast of voices of the original series).

RoboCop 2 had to carry the weight of been a sequel of an immediate classic. The original Robo was such a surprise and a success that spawned two reactions. 1. The producers felt it was necessary a sequel due the success of the Verhoeven's movie. 2. RoboCop became a cultural icon and a cult movie, with lots of fans. All that left a difficult task to new director. Hopefully this sequel turned out great. And this wasn't at all the standard is those days.

A list of the good stuff of this film will be too large, that's probably the best compliment a movie could receive. It was a good detail that many of the original cast (the surviving characters, obviously) were present once again plus the addition on new characters. In this case Robo has not new allies just new enemies. Enemies like Cain that has some bizarre characteristics that put them side by side with the semblance of villains of comics, they are nasty but deeply emotional people, and some just misguided like Hob (it is worthy check out those biblical references).

Irvin Kershner is a director who knows how to make good sequels, he proved himself in The Empire Strikes Back. Frank Miller along (co-writer) W. Green had clear in their minds what made Robocop the success it was. Violence, irony, social commentary, clever dialogue all that is present here again, yes but it's all a bit less intense, anyway to beat the quality of the first movie it would be necessary the presence of Verhoeven, Miner and Neumeier. But the new creators had respect towards their predecessors and started to build the new story using the previous material. If that's not enough there are lots of incredible action scenes, great even to the standards of today. Everything is tied by the solid thread of a great script. These are the reasons that made RoboCop 2 a great predecessor of the first installment of the saga.

If RoboCop 2 would be the only sequel of the original Robo, many things would be different; maybe more people would dig more this second part. It would be nice if people made clear differences between this movie and Robocop 3. At least among all the negativity the future of the two first movies seem brighter than the diet-future of RoboCop 3.

Watching a Hong-Kong thriller is always a good experience, there's always hope of find a movie that will stick to your memory like did many movies of John Woo or Tsui Hark. The Last Blood is not only a surprising piece of Hong Kong action is also an under seen movie. It is a good time to discover this hidden jewel that could surprise many viewers. Old racks of movie-stores have many unexpected good movies to be found.

This movie has a frenetic but clear editing that put it in the same league of classics of John Woo. But anyway, Woo is the master and Wong Jing would be a talented disciple. Jing managed to make The Last Blood is an amazing piece of entertainment with a budget that is far from the standards of Hollywood, something that must be studied by filmmakers who want to shot but don't have the money of a mega-millionaire producer.

The level of violence and gore is high, this turn outs to be some of the highlights in the film. The plot is just what one expects from this kind of production. The situations hang between the exaggeration and realism. There's authentic drama (or well focused melodrama), some laughs, interesting characters and enough adrenaline to boost the viewer out of his seat. The relationship between both cops and the common guy who becomes target of the terrorist is handled in a magnificent way. There's space for some reflection in the middle of all the action to focus on important moral matters. All this is quintessential in the good exponents of this genre. Also the characters don't try to be sympathetic to the point of been insufferable. Final notes: Jing tian shi er xiao shi (The Last Blood) was released in the early nineties, a crucial period for HK cinema when it was discovered massively by audiences. This audiences were tired of movies of eighties decadents stars, whose reputations were going down with really lame movies that were mere vehicles for the exploitation of their profiles.