I am quite ignorant when it comes to the latest animated series, since most of them are absolutely terrible. Save for a few gems here and there, the newest animated series on television will turn your kids brains in to pudding. “Lego Hero Factory,” however, isn’t that bad a series. I don’t intend to follow it any further beyond the DVD I was tasked with reviewing, but as a whole I could see collecting the individual characters and really engrossing myself in to the lore when I was nine or ten years of age. And that’s who this series primarily is marketed toward. For a show it’s really just another Transformers wannabe.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
2069: A Sex Odyssey [Ach jodel mir noch einen – Stosstrupp Venus bläst zum Angriff] (1974)
There is a planet of hot women out there. They want sperm. And they’re coming to Earth for some men who have sperm. Unfortunately where they’re from men are rare, and their race may wither and die without man seed. There’s your plot for “2069” a sex comedy that’s about as stupid but arousing as all of the other porn parodies of the sixties and seventies. True, I refer to it as a porn parody primarily because of its title, but in reality it’s not even a slight spoof on Kubrick’s classic film. It merely borrows the title for the excuse to implement the 69 and is a pretty tame softcore porn and sex comedy that sets down on a group of alien women who happen down on Earth to abduct and sex up a bunch of hapless men to revive their society. What confounds me is how was their planet originally able to reproduce without men around? And are these women hoarding sperm for their planet or are they hoping to become pregnant on their own?
Last Train Home (2009) (DVD)
“You have not tasted the bitterness of life.”
Director Lixin Fang has observed with his deeply moving portrait of a working class family at the brink of destruction that often times life can presents itself a cruel irony that can sting even the kindest and well meaning of individuals, all of whom strive for something that they’ll likely never be able to grasp. Not prone to manipulating his scenery, director Lixin Fang stands back and seemingly lets a story unfold in the midst of chronicling migrant workers in China where he happens upon a small family of workers the Zhangs, all of whom are comprised of five people who struggle to be close to one another, but are hopelessly stuck in a vicious circle that will grant them misery and sadness no matter how much they may reach for a dream.
The Sinister Eyes Of Dr. Orloff (Los ojos siniestros del doctor Orloff) (1973)
Normally I’m a big fan of Jesus Franco’s work as they often border on the delightfully sadoerotic where reality and fantasy are often blurred and dissolve in to bouts of acid like dreams and flashbacks. “The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff” is sadly one of the bigger bores from the Franco library and one that feels like a thirty minute premise stretched in to almost ninety minutes. Factor that in with a goofy villain relaying a hopelessly convoluted devious plot, and you have what is essentially just a glorified Spanish novella that is a take on Svengali.
Absentia (2011)
It is a very rare, almost non-existent trait these days in directors who are capable of knowing their limits. Even in indie directors, it’s almost impossible to find a director who knows their limits and can properly test theirs without going over board or not fully realizing their personal boundaries. Director Mike Flanagan’s slow boil and utterly unnerving horror film “Absentia” is a consistent test of limits. Director Flanagan is a man who almost seems aware of what he is capable of doing and what he simply can not do on-screen and it shows in what is a very artistically self-aware indie gem that works as an enduring yet complex character study and a truly harrowing horror film. “Absentia” provides so many layers of subtle characterization, gentle exposition, and gripping back story that affords just enough depth for our protagonists to earn our sympathy without seeming as if we’re being manipulated in to caring for them.
Two-Faced Woman (1941)
Following up “Ninotchka” is something of a task, especially since Ernest Lubitch’s cinematic masterpiece went on to immortality. For Melvyn Douglas and Greta Garbo, “The Two Faced Woman” is a disappointing follow-up but I’m shocked it was so poorly received by literally everyone during its initial release. “The Two-Faced Woman” is reportedly the film that ended Greta Garbo’s career when she quit show business after the poor reviews during the film’s run destroyed her enthusiasm for acting. As for George Cukor’s film itself, “The Two Faced Woman” is not the disaster I expected, but it’s certainly no masterpiece.
Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
Like it or not, “Paranormal Activity” was the indie success story of the decade. After the big take off of “The Blair Witch Project,” director Oren Peli proved a valuable successor to the end of the twentieth century sensation by providing a horror film for the digital age where the chronicling of a couple at the mercy of a demon was filmed through HD camcorders and the advent of the then seasoned instrument of the worldwide web. “Paranormal Activity 2” commits what is almost an impossible task. It completely compliments the storyline of the original film while also adding to it.