I have been waiting for this movie for such a long time, and managed to access to a preview of this movie in UK cinemas about a week ago, however, I was so glad that I managed to actually get a seat for this movie as I was certainly not disappointed.

As with all my movie reviews, I shall give you an honest opinion of the movie, going through both its good and bad points.  Now, to start with, and I must write this before I forget, I had a major issue with the contingency of the movie, centering around the character Abe Sapian.

Those of you familiar to this series of comic know that Abe is a water inhabitant that in order to survive out in the open must wear the water equivilant of an oxygen tank…though its not exaclty a water tank, but anyway I digress.  For the first half hour of the movie, Abe wears this tank when both in the Headquarters and the outside world…however, randomly, part way through the movie seems to decide that he can actually breathe oxygen and the water tank disappears for the rest of the movie.

See, in all honesty, this isnt even a small inconsistancy…in fact, its actually a pretty large one.  Thing is some people are saying its because he randomly got some kind of small adapter, however something like this would need to be explained and would really only go hand in hand with Red getting a new weapon…which by the way he does not.

And now that my rant is over I shall go on to talk about the actaul film and story itself.  Now most people seem to have mixed feelings about this movie.  I quite simply really, really liked it.  It’s not often I find myself actually laughing at this type of movie, and enjoying it, but I did.  In fact its one of those rare Dark Knight occassions, and probably the last for the year as more Hollywood drivvel prepares to hit the big screens.

The acting is this movie was brillant, and the guy that plays the Prince, superb.  The make up was awesome and very believeable on such characters as Red.  And as for Ron Perlman, that guy is highly under-rated as an actor and an action hero.  In fact most people seem to forget he was in Alien Resurrection and Blade II…in fact, seems he likes to be in sequals…hmm.

I was however disappointed that David Hyde-Pierce didn’t do the voice of Abe Sapien unlike in the first movie, a voice that definitely suited the character, however the voice acting was above par, and if you hadn’t seen the previous movie, then you honestly won’t care.

Also, a new addition to the Hellboy cast was the infamous and brilliant Seth MacFarlane doing the voice of the robot whom I believe was called Krauss…though I am not entirely sure of the accuracy of that statement.  Anyway, his character was completely different the usual Family Guy and American dad that MacFarlane has introduced us to over the past few years, and I was pleasantly suprised at the limitless acting skills that this man possesses.

The story to this new movie was very interesting and successfully managed to keep my attention for the majority of the film, with the random comedy scenes, great action scenes and fantastic general story telling.  And even though there will be a lot of people who will disagree with my opinion of this movie, I actually don’t care.  This is one of those movies that you will either love or hate, and for me this is defintely one of the best movies I have seen all year…not that there have been many contenders.

Files under movies | 1 Comment | 1 Comment »

You may remember a while back I announced the production of a Live-Action Dragonball movie.  Well I finally have an update for you, and its one that is hard to find on the internet. 

Thanks to a well known Super Hero Movie source, I have managed to get hold of some one of the first EVER images of Justin Chatwin as Goku.  This image was taken from a Japanese movie magazine.  There is also an update on the cast and release date of the movie, which is set for an April 10, 2009 release. The current cast is as follows: James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, Eriko Tamura, Joon Park, Chow Yun-Fat, Texas Battle, Randall Duk Kim and Ernie Hudson co-star.

But now, the moment you have been waiting for, the image of Justin Chatwin as Goku.  Now what you must remember about this image is that it is quite possibly just a concept image, but we will just have to wait and see in order to find out.

Now this initial image is not of great quality, but as you can see, they have opted to have a much more sensible hair style for the character of Goku, something that has the potential to annoy many fans.

There is also the lack of the infamous Gi worn by Goku throughout the WHOLE series of Dragonball and Dragonball Z.  However, it is very unlikely that this will remain due to the fact that the Gi is relevant to the story of Dragonball .  For those who are not well versed with this series, the Gi was firstly given to him by his Grandpa, however, once his training with Kame (Master Roshi), he then has the Kame insignia sewn onto his Gi.

Anyway, as small of a snippet as this is to the Dragonball movie, I still felt that it was well worth sharing as the first image of the upcoming movie.  Enjoy!

Files under Anime, movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

By now, most of you who read this must know of the Live-Action Dragonball movie that is to released around July 2009.  Well, it appears that we are in for another shock on the live action band wagon, as we are informed that there i now going to be a live action Evangelion movie with a release date of 2009.

Unlike with the Dragonball movie, the evangelion movie is actually going to be written by the Hideaki Anno, the writer from the original anime, so lets hope that they dont mess this one up, as America is so prone to do so.

ADV films announced the production of the live action movie at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, however, since then, there has been no work on the film.  However, the film is now in post-production phase, so even though its not 100% definite that the movie is to be made, its definitely looking likely, and with the release of the Transformers movie last year, and the upcoming Dragonball movie, it seems likely that the Evangelion movie will go ahead.

Sadly, as of yet, there are no confirmed actors, producers or synopsis which I can share with you, however, as soon as information is made available to me, I will be writing an update.

Files under Anime | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

Well I finally got round to watching the third installment of the 4 Horror Tales stories, and in actual fact, I think this is the best one so far.  It was kind of like Ju-On in its style, but the story was told in a very unique way to this type of horror film. 

The basics of this story are (spoiler free) ,  Min-young moves onto the fifth floor of a new studio apartment with her six-year-old daughter, Joo-hee. She’s concerned when her downstairs neighbour, HAN Chang-soo, says that he cannot tolerate the noise above him, even though the two women live tranquilly. Furthermore, she is anxious about other residents’ strange behaviors and their mysterious deaths.

Min-young hardens herself mentally after the move into the new house, largely because of her daughter’s unprecedented odd behavior and continual run-ins with a bizarre woman. Convinced that Joo-hee has fallen sick and perturbed by the mysterious events around the studio apartment, Min-young looks to disclose the truth by herself.

The little girl in this film is a brilliant actress, being able to switch instantaneously from a cute and well behaved child, into a demonically possessed monster, making the film that much more convincing to the viewer.  There is also a twist to the story right at the end, which I did actually suspect, but it wasnt exactly made to be obvious.

This movie was actually really good, its not exactly scary, but it shows human nature to be what it truly is…every man for themselves.

Files under Asian Horror Movies | 1 Comment | 1 Comment »

Well, thankfully I managed to watch this horror movie yesterday so I can tell you all about it.  The movie is basically about girls being sent to a school to study, but this school is a very strict and indoctrinative school, where everyone must wear the same clothes, and compete to be the best.

As the story goes, four girls find themselves in a room together, in which they bond over their current situation, that is except Woo-Jin who is the rebellious type.  In order to scare the other girls, she tells them about how the school burned down three years ago, with all the students inside, locked in their rooms and unable to escape.

This is just the beginning of their weird journey.  As the story progresses, some of the girls begin to have visions of the death that surrounds them, and strange things…not exactly paranormal on the whole, but psychological things begin to happen.

Watching this film as a nice change of pace from the usual Ju-On type horror movies that I have been brought up with.  It is not often that I get to watch the psychological breakdown of individuals, and the acting was fantastic, and added to the belief that you truly are watching all this happen.

The story itself is actually very basic and drawn out, but not in a bad way.  It allows you to witness people disintegration into madness, and see jsut how horrific the conditions they are expected to live in are.

So all in all, this film is actually very good.  The acting, from people so young, is absolutely fantastic, and in some cases I think they gave a better performance than their older co-stars.  This is definitely a film to watch if you are looking for a change in pace in the horror movie scene.

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

Despite the name, this horror film actually has nothing to do with ‘The Eye’.  The story revolves aroun a young man finding a book that describes the 10 ways in which you can summon ghosts to yourself.

When he takes the book to his friends, they decide to participate in the rituals descibed within the book.  At first everything seems to be going ok, and no

ghosts make their presence known…that is until they try to summon the hungry ghosts using a ritual that requires you to site a cross roads with a bowl and chopsticks, enough for five.  You must tap the bowl, and when the ghosts appear, you must continue to tap the bowl otherwise they will notice you and aim to torment you.

Once this ritual goes awry, things gets even worse…

I really liked the idea behind this movie, and the ending is definitely something that you dont see every day.  The ghosts in this are extremely creepy, and I guess the closet I can describe them is that they are like the Ju-On, however, they produce ectoplasm…in other words they are extreremly slimy.

Sadly it is really hard to get this on dvd, as no where I could find in the UK sells it, other than ebay…which very rarely has it available anyway.

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

The translation of this is "Tales of Terror from Tokyo" and is made up of Fifteen 5-minute horror films from Japan,Terrifying and sensational tales of ghosts hold

Japan in the grips of fear.  These horror films are meant to be made up from real ghost stories…creepy.

This begins with the story of the Bus Lady, an old lady that gets on the bus, and always asks "Do you want to hear a scary story?", and she will not accept no for an answer.

The next story is that of the "Elevator", when a young woman enters into her apartment block and selects the elevator to go up, however, as she watches the elevator decend, the doors in front of her randomly open up…but why is the lift here when it is still decending?

"The School Excursion" is the next story in this series, and is about a school trip to an ancient inn, however, upon visiting the bathrooms late at night, one of the girls finds an occupant of a different kind.

The third story is "Kengo Nishioka" and is about a wife alone at home whilst her husband works late.  She hears some noises coming from the wardrobe.  when she builds up the courage to confront it, it tells it that it is a former employee of her husbands and wishes to know where he is so that he can take him to hell.  But what happens when the wife refuses to divulge the location of her husband?

 The next story, "The Visitor" is my personal favourite, mainly because it is so creepy.  When the doorbell rings, the youngest daughter Mika is told to go and open it.  When she asks who is at the door, the ‘thing’ claims to be her Aunt Machiko.  Mika doubts this as the voice is different so goes to look through the letter box and is greeted by a zombie-esque entity.  Will the entity simply go away upon refusal of entry, or will some foolish individual open the door and grant it access to the abode and its tennants?

"Covering the 1000 Tales" is about a journalist who goes to take part in this event where people take turns to tell stories late at night.  As she sits there they begin to talk about how they died, and she notices characteristics of such a death presenting themselves on their bodies.  She can’t believe what she is hearing.  What will happen when it gets to her turn?

The next story, "Cassette Tape" is about a guy who can’t sleep so decides to reminice about his past.  He finds a cassette containing songs he wrote and sang in his youth.  As he is singing along, he receives a phone call from his old friend, informing him of the recent suicide of one of the female members of the band.  But who is that talking on the cassette?

"Split Water" is the story of a young girl who’s fatehr died when she was merely a child.  She remembers only his shoes about him as she had an interest in these when she was very young.  As the anniversary of his death comes around, her mum and herself decide to buy a melon for her father as it was his favourite fruit.  As they buy the melon and make their way home, the young girl stops and looks down, and sees a pair of shoes she recognises…but who do they belong to?

The story "Backward Suit" revolves around a young girl living with her drunkard father.  Every night he comes home drunk, until one night, he takes a different route and when he enters the door his suit is back to front, something that his daughter is not amused at.  After this event her father stops coming home drunk.  However, one day, the daughter takes the same route home from work.  Could it be her dad is making it all up, or will the strange event happen to her as well?

 "A Forgotten Item" is about a young girl who moves into a new flat.  However, every night at about 1am she receives a phone call telling her to "Give it back".  This phone call occurs every night, so the girl decides to unhook the telephone, thinking this will solve the issue, however, the caller simply calls her mobile.  What is it that has been left in the flat?  And will the previous occupant simply enter to find it?

The next installement,  "Video", begins with a girl being invited to her sisters apartment for a house warming.  As she enters the apartment block she sees a man walk behind her and up the stairs.  And as she gets to her sisters apartment, she sees the man walk in.  Upon entering, she sees that the man has left his shoes in the hall, but upon asking her sister if there is anyone else there, she is informed that she is the only other person there.  Who is this mysterious person, and will they make themselves known?

 "A Drop of Blood" is my least favourite of the short stories.  A girl is heading to an interview, however, when she gets there the place is empty.  She also notices that instead of getting there on time (as she set off an hour early) that she has actually arrived an hour late.  She tries to find someone to give her CV to, but the store is completely empty…until she receives a phone call.  Who is on the other side of the line?

In "Enlightenment", we are brought back to the young woman from the first story "Elevator" as she enters into her home.  She decides to look back over the years as she is about to get married.  Upon looking through old belongings, she finds a book that she wrote, informing her to read it when she was older.  Upon reading it, she is shocked to find a message that couldn’t possibly have been there.  What is this message and what does it mean?

The final story, "Waiting Time", is simply the conclusion to the preceeding story.  It explains what the message means and where it came from.  For this reason I’m afraid I cannot tell you any more about it, without revealing spoilers.

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

This story is also known as Death Water, or Water of the Dead. This horror story is about a journalist investigating a mysterious series of deaths in an isolated

region of Japan. People all over are starting to commit suicide, by first puncturing their eyeballs and then, if that is unsuccessful, then continuing to kill themselves through any method possible.

Our journalists interest in the Death Water theory begins when she finds that her lecturer has killed himself under mysterious circumstances. His journal

reads only “Water of the Dead…Do Not Drink!”. What is this about the water of the dead and how can our journalist stop the spread of this cursed water?

This story is suprisingly enjoyable, though I must admit, there were times when I was tempted to turn it off. However, this was merely because there is a story between the journalist and her ex-husband that is completely pointless in reality. It plays a very small part in the plot of the story.

However, the overall story of this movie is actually really good, and definitely something that I have never seen before in a movie. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie, and watching the truth of the story unfold. Definitely worth a watch!

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

This Japanese horror consists of the short stories "Rattle Rattle","Hagane" and "The Inheritance".  My favourite of these is definitely "Rattle Rattle"…by far.  The story begins with a young woman walking home, but she hears a strange rattle sound above her.  When she looks down on the floor there is an earring which looks like the ones her fiance just gave her.  When she looks up, she is thrown to the floor by something.

As she is unconscious, weird events take place within her mind, involving the rattle sound that she heard before.  The reason I like this film is because the rattle of the creature, reminds me of the choking noise of the Ju-On, which added LOADS of suspense and a sense of danger to the story.

The next story in the anthology is "Hagane", and let me tell you, this is weird.  Hagane is not a horror story as such, its more of a thriller.  The basic story is that the main character gets set up on a date with his bosses sister.  Upon meeting her, he sees that she has a potato sack over the top half of her body.  The question is what is it that lies underneath this?

The worst story in this anthology is "The Inheritance".  The story begins where the mother is a child, and she sees her younger brother enter into their shed at night, only to never come out again.  It then comes back to modern day, the mother has recently divorced and has decided to go to live with her mother again.  However, once they enter into that old house again, strange things keep happening involving her son.  Is history repeating itself again?

The reason I dont like this story is it simply doesnt entirely make sense, the story is never made 100% clear, and the story that you are left with is poor at best.  It didnt entertain me in the slightest, and I certainly was not scared, though I did feel sorry for the son.

So even though the last story is poor, the other two make up for it ten fold.  If you ever get the chance to watch this, I would definitely go for it.

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

Black House is based on the Japanese writer Kishi Yusuke’s award-winning hit Psychological horror novel.The story centers around an insurance agent that suspects a family murdered their son to receive his insurance policy.

The story begins when the main character is sent to a difficult clients house, after apparently being asked for by name.  When he gets there, he is invited to sit

down in the lounge.  The father then calls his son, calling him rude for not showing his presence.  When the son does not appear, the father tells the insurance agent to go and get his son, something which the agent finds extremely weird. 

When he enters into the boys room, he finds him hanging there.  At this the father stands up and walks over to the room.  What is that we see in his expression?  Shock at the events that have occurred under his roof?  Or guilt at the death of his son?

This film was REALLY good, in fact, so good, I didn’t even expect the ending, I was too drawn into the stories that occur throughout.  The movie shows the story of the insurance agents attempt to prove the guilt of the father, as well as the breakdown of his relationship as he becomes too engrossed in his work.  If you want to watch a movie that is not your typical horror, then this is the one for you.  It’s not so much a horror, as a psychological thriller, and a brilliant one at that.

Files under Asian Horror Movies | Leave a Comment | No Comments »