Reviews

My version didn't have subtitles. So I'm just going by what I saw. But the basic elements of a pinku are there, lovely naked ladies, a bondage theme, some "training" of the ladies, and some final humiliation.

The opening credits show a blindfolded and bound young lady being gently caressed and fondled much to her pleasure while being gently showered by cherry blossom petals. This scene has nothing to do with the rest of the film other than to show you a beautiful naked body.

A young professional man is tempted by his sultry female colleague. He has a beautiful young wife at home. But after turning her on with his kisses, gropes, and caresses he stops when she tries to reciprocate.

The sultry coworker comes back into the picture and on a shared business trip the two get kinky in the bedroom. Their lovemaking gets kicked up a notch when she asks him to tie her hands behind her back. Some energetic sweaty sex results. A subsequent encounter brings even more rope.

Back at home the wife tries again but the same thing happens. Once she tries to get him aroused he turns off. He tries to tie her up but she refuses.

For some reason he has to send the wife off and she gets tied up and sexually tortured/trained by some guys. The sultry coworker is somehow involved in this too and they end up getting tied up side by side, wife and mistress, being sexually teased and tortured by the two masters. They eventually turn them into submissive sex slaves and the husband sadly is forced to watch as they have a lesbian encountered while covered in gold paint.

Why gold paint? I don't know. I thought the wife had a prettier face but her boob job made her look like she had implanted softballs. The mistress had a more natural look to her. The earlier scenes were hotter for me as they looked more consensual - never been a fan of the submission by rape genre. Best scene was probably in the hotel room between the man and mistress.

6.5/10

the only original part of it is that it is two ladies in the lead roles.

Sandra Bullock who is pretty much reprising her Miss Congeniality role is the serious buttoned down cop. Melissa McCarthy plays her famous role as in "Identity Thief", "Bridesmaids", the loud obnoxious fat lady.

Not only are the characters re-hashes but the storyline is familiar to anyone who's seen buddy Cop movies. Except here the laughs are not from the storyline, nor the plot, nor the situation, but from the outrageous behaviour of McCarthy. And for me that didn't really work after the first couple jokes about obnoxious behaviour unbecoming a lady.

4/10

Not going to bother you with the plot as it's been retold here many times.

The whole premise has promise. But the idea that you need to hide your fear from the Ursa creature turns Will Smith into a stoic robot. One of the traits he usually brings with him in his films is that his characters end up being filled with a sense of life. But here his eyes look cold and dead. The whole saluting your son at the end of the film felt cold and hollow to me. Yeah, "sign of respect, blah blah blah". But your son obviously is looking for a hug instead.

Several films have the main protagonist taking up the majority of screen time by his/her self. It takes a special character to capture the audience and a special actor to take on that much screen time and keep it interesting for us. Tom Hanks did it well in Cast Away. Jaden Smith is nowhere near that calibre of actor and the film suffers.

The special effects are pretty good. The scenery is nice. The idea of an earth that is rebelling against the inhabitants that have done it so much harm is very interesting. It's unfortunate that the two humans that propel the film's storyline are not interesting at all.

SPOILERS: Brilliant acting on display by Streep, Hoffman, Davis and even Adams. The story is enough to hold everything together despite not being overly complex. What really grabs you is how the different characters interact with each other and how they clash, how they try to convince each other.

That one scene between Streep and Viola Davis was riveting. I can't believe how transfixed I was with the interplay between these two great actresses. Davis held her own vs Streep who's acting (and character on screen) can overpower a mere mortal. But Davis and he strong willed mother was equal to the task and definitely worthy of an Oscar nomination despite her limited screen time. Sometimes it's not the time, it's the impact of a scene and that one really hit it.

Hoffman is very good at portraying a man who's hard to read. Is he guilty? He doesn't look very innocent in some scenes and yet in comes off as being the injured party being accused of wrong doing when none was found. I guess that was the keyword for me... none was found doesn't mean that none existed.

Doubt is highly recommended for those wishing to watch great actors on display.

The story has been recorded in other posts so I won't repeat here.

Wong Jing is mixing genres again. This time he combines pieces of the Godfather, Casablanca, and Inglorious Basterds all into one film. And as with most things that you throw into a blender, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's just a confused mess.

The early part with his entry into mob world is pretty formulaic HK gangster style. We've got the mob guy with a heart of gold (Chow telling his cronies to stop the prostitution racket but keep up the gambling dens). We've got his rapid ascension in the ranks, the sworn brotherhood to the head guy (Sammo Hung who looks really obese now) and his loyalty to those around him.

then comes the Casablanca story... lost love. tragic romance. a reappearance of his young love who is now married to someone who's a freedom fighter of some sort. They even ripped off the airplane scene at the end. C'mon Wong Jing... did you just copy/paste that into your script? And of course the end is with Inglorious Basterd style massive slaughterfest of the bad guys as they're trapped in a theatre. Again. More copy/paste.

I love Sammo Hung and Chow Yun Fat. But the story was too derivative. The scenes were too overtly ripped off from other movies which are so famous and so highly regarded that it's hard not to see the cheap knockoff The Last Tycoon really is. In fact - the best parts of Last Tycoon are from Casablanca.

When is a homage really just a ripoff??? In this case I'm glad I didn't have to pay to watch this one.

Conclusion: It looks great (nice cinematography). It's acting is good. But the stories and scenes obviously belong to better movies. All that was missing was a piano player named Sam.

5/10

LOTS OF SPOILERS BELOW: in the DVD extras Ang Lee is quoted as challenging the CGI Tech team to create moving works of art. And boy did they ever deliver.

In a film like this where the ocean dominates the scenery and in itself becomes a "character" and antagonist it is important to have it rendered well and here it is brilliant. So vibrant and realistic.

That's just part of the fun. The tiger is amazing. It's hard to believe it's mostly CGI. And the acting by the young Pi is also incredible, especially when watching the extras and seeing him; eyes fully bugged out in terror at the tiger, while staring at a green screen.

The story line seems bare but when you think about the raw emotions being delivered on screen it really hits home. the maturation of the young boy into a survivalist young man is quite an epic adventure.

The ending - well I'll leave that alone. It' quite the twist and really makes you think hard about what's true, what's a representation of the truth. When he asks at the end "which do you like better" I started re-thinking about what it was I had just watched. And I think that's the mark of a great film.

9/10

It's a beautiful movie to look at. But the reason most of us go to cinema or watch movies is to follow a story, get involved with characters, and we want to see what happens to them.

But this movie isn't about that. It's about setting a mood, a tone... imagine someone told you to make a movie about a sense of loss, brokenness, betrayal, death, evil, brotherhood, and yet do this movie without dialog, without a story line and that's pretty much what we have here.

Sean Penn maybe says 3 words for the entire movie. He's also barely in it. Jessica Chastain cries a lot. Brad Pitt (one of the producers) has a lot of yelling and screaming to do. Most of the acting is left up to the 3 kids playing 3 brothers.

At the end of the movie I was thinking WTF!!! What was that? There's no beginning. There's no middle. There's no end.

3/10 for nice pictures. If only there was more to it than that....

Unfortunately I'll never get those 2 hrs back.

World War II was a horrible episode in history that lasted 6 years and took countless lives away all for the sake of hatred, greed, and tyrannical madness.

And out of this springs Tarantino's movie about revenge, killing, and trying to find a way to kill as many Nazis on screen as you can. As with most Tarantino films the violence is over-the-top, outrageous, bloody, and definitely excessive. He makes a point with a sledgehammer when a tap would do.

His scenes are also characteristically Tarantino. He has long stretches of dialog that seemingly are headed nowhere. But eventually his characters start getting closer to "the point" and then the tension builds, makes the viewer want to know what's going to happen next. And then they start meandering again. And suddenly the scene's final climax will explode across the screen in a trail of blood and guts.

as far as Tarantino films go I'd put this below his most famous works. In fact I'm perplexed as to how it got so many academy award nominations. I'll definitely agree that Christoph Waltz's performance was enthralling and Oscar worthy but the film as a whole, just too much excess in a setting that required a more sober touch.

6/10

If you want to see Meryl Streep take on the spirit of another person then this is the film. She's not acting, she actually seems to become Thatcher. Her voice, her way of speaking, her mannerisms, she's got them all down to a T (for Thatcher).

The story takes us through highlights of Thatcher's political career and intersperses that with glimpses of her struggles with dementia late in her life. Because it's recent history, you're going to generate controversy no matter how you portray the issues being dealt with here. And as one of the most polarizing figures in modern times, the depiction of the events will no doubt generate controversy depending on which side of the fence you sit on.

But I found the story had trouble linking the personal, heart felt relationship between Thatcher and her husband Dennis (both young & old versions) and the iron-willed political scenes. maybe that was on purpose. Maybe that dichotomy was there and could never be reconciled. But it leaves the viewer feeling like he's watching two different and un-related stories about the same person.

6/10

Quite a marvel to look at. The first thirty minutes of Cloud Atlas are confusing as it introduces six different story lines to you. Adding to the confusion is that the story lines all use the same actors (but in different makeup) and that the stories are all in different eras.

After piecing together the various story arcs I found myself following and getting interested in it and then suddenly they cut away and it's off to the other story. It's a bit jarring and disorienting and doesn't really work until the end when all the various story climaxes are about to meet at the same time.

The acting was quite good all around. Kudos to Hugh Grant for taking on a few roles you'd never see him normally do - without an English accent to boot. Tom Hanks looks like he had fun with his short but memorable role as the author of "Knuckle Sandwich". The role of the young musician was very well acted and was a standout for me.

Part of the fun and the distraction was trying to recognize the various actors in different costume/makeup in the various scenes.

Definitely not a perfect movie by any means but if you can put in the effort in the beginning, the payoff at the end is worth it.

8/10

I watched this because I'd heard so many good things about Guillermo Del Toro. And the film looked good. The effects were quite impressive. But the movie felt hollow. It was all a beautiful exterior shell with no heart, nothing to keep it moving, and a threadbare plot acting as sinew holding it (barely) together.

If you grew up watching the Michael Bay Transformer movies, then this is your adult version because the plot is slightly more complicated this time around.

The plot summary is basically, bad guys are alien fish like giants. Humans fight back by creating giant robots controlled by humans. Lots of fights happen, destruction and mayhem ensues, and voila, you've got a blockbuster on your hands.

there are some minor characters that do get screen time and backstory time. They work great as caricatures. And that's about it. I don't want to watch this ever again, and likely not interested in the rumoured sequel.

crash bang boom kaching 5/10

There's no deep thoughts about fighting or it's role in hockey. There's no deep psychological study of the goon and his motivations for punching another man for a living. this is light hearted comedic film making - hockey style.

Sean William Scott plays Glatt, a big hearted, strong fisted, weak brained individual. He's not the sharpest guy around but he's got a lot of good qualities including a fierce loyalty and two fists that can do a lot of damage. He loves his role as the enforcer on the team and he loves being part of the collective. His infectious enthusiasm wears off on his teammates and in the end, they stop short of a magical Hollywood ending - but it's a good one for Glatt and his mates.

7/10

I wanted to like this movie. I like Mark Wahlberg's comedic roles - his timing, his dumb look on his face worked great in "The Other Guys". I like Dwayne Johnson in his turns at comedy as well, I think he's an underrated actor overall.

There was also a promising premise. Three muscle-for-brains buddies get involved in a get-rich-quick scheme which involves kidnapping, fraud, and absolutely no finesse whatsoever. Hilarity should have ensued.

But the main characters were too hard to root for - none of them seemed to possess any real redeeming qualities. the murders were grisly and the laughs were uncomfortable ones at best.

Other than seeing the uber sexy Bar Paly and her magnificent body writhing on the dance floor I don't want to ever watch that again.

4/10

A lot of serious themes are breezed through and sung about in this musical adaptation of Oliver Twist. It covers child poverty and exploitation, a time where those in the orphanage were no less corrupt than the hucksters on the street. The scenes with Bill Sikes are quite violent and the violence against women is not a main theme but it does rear its ugly head. In fact, the song where the lady explains her illogical attraction to Bill by singing "He Needs Me" was a little bit too real and a sad reflection of what happens to many women in the real world.

It's a good movie, a lot of fantastic characters and some great acting. But for me the serious undertones left me with mixed feelings.

7/10

It's not an overly complicated plot; a man named Doc (Walken) picks up an old accomplice, Val (Pacino), being released from prison after serving 28 years. The two reminisce, enjoy some wild and crazy times. Doc unfortunately has the task of eliminating Val by the next morning as retribution for a botched job that both were involved in so many years ago. The botched job ended in the death of the boss's only son. And the boss wants vengeance. Well as the night progresses more and more wild and crazy things happen...

What great characters. The trio of Walken, Pacino, and (later) Arkin all had great dialog, interplay, and they genuinely looked like a threesome of old timers being reunited.

that was something very conspicuous in this film. The old people were allowed to look old naturally. They had wrinkles. They had creases. They had lots of gray or in Arkin's case no hair at all. Even the normally fashionable Julianna Marguiles is covered in wrinkles and looks quite plain.

the ending is fairly predictable but it doesn't take enjoyment away from the rest of the film... great performances by all.

9/10

there was a period in time where Disney was cranking out these direct-to-video sequels and prequels. The production values aren't as good as the first, the scripts seemed slapped together, and the characters are mere reflections of their "former selves" from the original movie.

This is a good case in point. Lion King is easily one of the best animated films in "recent" Disney history but this sequel is a far drop off from that one.

It hurts that the beginning story line is very similar to the first with a rebellious youngster venturing off into the forbidden lands. The story gets more complex and darker when the focus turns to Kovu and his childhood of being abused and manipulated by his mother.

Eventually the story becomes the strongest part of this film. The animation is crude and looks like it was put together at the last minute. The songs are rather forgettable.

so what's left? An OK Disney cash grabber that was worth watching once but hopefully never again.

5.5/10

Hard to review this film. If it's supposedly aimed at kids, the subject matter is fairly dark with a dead father, a single mother obsessed with work and finding her husband's killer, some betrayal, some really obnoxious bad guys and a charming lovable cat.

The story is interesting and despite all the loose ends and unanswered questions it leaves, it held enough of my interest and entertained my eight year old.

But the ugly drawings - ugh. Reminded me of Beavis and Butthead. On the one side, they work hard to have some decent looking backgrounds. But the characters look like Picasso rejects. Don't know why they went with that style. I found it distracting and annoying. My 8 year old's drawings have more art and substance in them.

Being such a crudely drawn film I am perplexed as to how this film could have received an Oscar nomination for Animated Film. Was there nothing else that year? Nothing at all?

5/10

warning, I don't speak nor understand Japanese - so I can only write on what I saw. my version didn't have subtitles unfortunately.

for pinku lovers this one may be too mild on the violence. for those looking for sex, this one may be not sexy enough. the motif of the film is manipulation and how an older man is somehow able to control a beautiful young lady (played by Mitsu Dan).

Mitsu is gorgeous with a body to die for. And she definitely has the young man interested. Yet his sexual interactions with her are largely unfulfilling. He's forced to hold a video camera for the first two times. The last time he's being watched by the old man who seems to be in charge of everything and she's crying in agony.

While Mitsu Dan shows off her unbelievably gorgeous breasts, her acting is actually really good and shows you how painfully vulnerable her character is - at times making the viewer feel guilty he's enjoying her humiliation so much.

Zero Woman 2 was the first Asian erotica I'd seen and I've been hooked ever since. I stumbled upon this installment in the series and according to IMDb, it's the latest (last?) Zero Woman is on the trail of a large organized crime ring that has links to the US Military. Also accidentally on the trail is a male police officer.

The rest of the plot didn't make sense to me, either because of the poor subtitles, or because I was too distracted by the physical beauties on display here.

Rei (Atsuko Miura) is a serious, cold blooded assassin who manages to get out of jail with a lesbian tryst as a distraction and later makes passionate love with the police detective. She looks all natural to me and is lithe, thin, and lovely to look at.

the other young lady is probably enhanced but still very natural looking. She displays her skills with one of her victims (killed Basic Instinct style) and with a priest. Both scenes show her beautiful form and wow, I've got to find out her name.

Other than the stabbing death there's very little violence to speak of. Even the end where Rei is tied up and stripped naked, it's more the threat of harm to her than anything else that is displayed. Pinku violence fans will be disappointed.

6/10 because the two young ladies are super lovely to look at. The plot? I guess you don't want to mess with the central gov't and the Americans.

"Fortune" (Macy Wu) comes from the year 2046 in an effort to save mankind which has become infertile. She's looking for a genetically healthy male to impregnate her in the year 2011 to keep the human race going. Her quest is made difficult by two alien assassins (called Zuckers). They're actually more rapists than assassins but the result is the same - the destruction of mankind in the future.

Fortune's other obstacle will be the clueless group of young neighbours that she meets upon landing on planet Earth. The 3 guys are horny losers constantly spying and ogling their four gorgeous female neighbours. There's a fourth guy, "Lawrence", who's actually a decent human being and his girlfriend happens to be one of the neighbours - Jeana (AV star Akiho Yoshizawa).

Fortune falls in love with Lawrence and he's a 97.8% healthy human. Lawrence is pretty sure he's in love with Jeana but as the movie moves along he changes his mind. Along the way there's lots of nudity (including full frontal from a couple of the girls), a shower, some passionate sex, some weird alien goings on, and of course, the sexy consummation at the end between Fortune and Lawrence.

Where to begin? They sure packed a lot of sex and nudity into a short time (75 min?). It's tough to choose between this and Sex & Zen 3D for a more beautiful ensemble of females. The males are pretty repulsive and one guy in particular (the skeleton with the thick glasses) has the best job in the world, getting to fondle and caress Chen Chih-Ying. Man she is gorgeous and she probably shows the most nudity in the movie including a hot shower scene at the beginning. Akiho also has a shower scene and a lovely sex scene on the couch with Lawrence.

Another actress of note is the alien, played by Hsueh Ya-Wen. She's got super sexy nipples and a hot lesbian scene towards the end.

These girls really drove me to distraction. If you're looking for a softcore sex-heavy cat3 with a threadbare plot and a lot of cornball HK related jokes then look no further - you've found the perfect movie.

10/10

I don't speak a word of Korean so obviously my interpretation of the plot may be flawed. It's a good thing this movie can be enjoyed without knowing the details of the storyline.

A bespectacled man chances upon a young couple making passionate love inside their home. He peeks thru the window and gets a great view of the two lovers as they twist and turn, and kiss and do lots of other things. The young lady in this tryst is extremely attractive and has obviously got our hero's attention. She's got dyed brown hair, has a flat stomach topped by beautiful rounded breasts and she obviously loves sex. What's not to like.

Being aroused, he returns home and calls someone up. Not sure if it's his girlfriend or mistress but she does not seem to be all that enthused about coming over. He tries his best to mimic the passionate sex he just saw with the younger couple but his lady friend, despite getting naked - does not seem to be all that into it.

Act 3 shows the first young lady who obviously hasn't had enough and is masturbating in the shower. Just when she's done our young hero comes to her door and introduces himself. I have no idea what they're talking about but they seem to be hitting it off and oh my God are they going at it now?! Wow she's really sexy!!!

The rest of the movie shows him having sex with the young lady in different situations interspersed with telephone calls being made by another young lady with black hair and one last scene with the second mistress who obviously still does not like sex with him all that much. Good thing he's got a tight young lady nymphomaniac friend to help him out.

That young lady has got an awesome body and those sex scenes really sizzle. If that's what you're after then you can't go wrong with this short (60 min) film.

Megu Fujiura plays a young beautiful woman who is a teacher by day and a sexy video chat girl by night. Her night job is to help pay off her debt accumulated as a young student. Her class is mostly rejects and bullies except for one shy guy named Ishii who happens to stumble across her chat website one evening and of course, recognizes her by her cleavage.

He confronts her, blackmails her into allowing him to grope her on the train and follows her home. He tries to rape her but stops - eventually heading her pleas to stop because he's just a student and she's a teacher. She tells him her tale of woe and he proceeds to prostitute himself out to horny women in exchange for cash.

He takes the cash and offers it up to the teacher to help pay off her debts. Of course, more sex ensues with the teacher giving Ishii more important lessons in the art of love. A male teacher eventually stumbles upon the lady's secret, tries to rape her before being stopped by Ishii and his Louisville slugger. the end.

Megu is beautiful and her cleavage really is memorable. The plot is the weakest of the 3 Train Girls movies I've seen thus far as are the sex scenes. But Megu is really cute and for her alone I'll give his one a 7

Sexy An Nanba is the star of the show. She's got a sophisticated beauty about her complemented by her tight, lithe body. She has one spirited sex scene where she's looking like she's really into it - but her 'husband' isn't - and there's the story...

Nanba plays Akiho, a beautiful young wife who gets molested every time she's on the train. Her biggest irritation however is that she suspects her husband is cheating on her with a coworker. In between all that she has a reunion of sorts with Shinji, a young man who's family used to work for Akiho's family as servants. The young man still treats Akiho as his master and is eager to help her in any way he can.

Most of the sex scenes are involving the mistress (Meika Kitagawa) and the husband. She's not bad but she's no An Nanba. And that's a problem in my books. If the majority of the sex scenes don't involve the most beautiful lady in the movie, it seems like a bit of a waste.

Eventually all the molesters accosting her on the train are "taken care of" as is the mistress and the husband. You can probably guess by now who did that and why he did that.

Lots of sex in 72 minutes of film. Enjoy

7/10 - Nanba is really growing on me. Or am I growing on her?