Epinions Recent Reviews for JavaDevil

Buffy, anime-style

Sat, 25 Aug 2001 00:10:07 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - James Cameron says of it, "Digital imaging has entered a new era. The world will come to consider this work as the standard of top quality in digital animation." Andy Wachowski gushes, "It was beautiful. It was as if the art of Francis Bacon had come to...

If this review doesn't make any sense, don't blame me. Blame the movie.

Mon, 13 Aug 2001 16:55:11 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - So here's the situation, as shown in A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box...when we last left Joker (Hong Kong's king of comedy, Stephen Chow), he had been accidentally flung 500 years back in time thanks to the power of the mystical talisman...

Weird & wonderful cinema around the world! (UFWO)

Tue, 17 Jul 2001 23:29:00 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - You know, I'd kill to find a horror flick from Samoa. Or a Zimbabwean science fiction film. Maybe an animated Iraqi musical. But, for all I'm aware, such things don't exist. Though the idea that they might be out there is enough to give me hope that,...

Stephen Chow destroys Journey To The West. Buddha help us all.

Tue, 10 Jul 2001 00:19:56 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - Sometimes I wonder why I watch Stephen Chow movies at all. When you get right down to it, he's essentially Hong Kong's answer to Adam Sandler. He's always playing a hapless loser (sometimes, a guy at the top of his game who suffers a fall from grace, to...

It's Fantasia! Only with robots! And not as good!

Fri, 22 Jun 2001 01:15:52 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - When animator Katsuhiro Otomo isn't supervising some new anime film or collecting checks from Akira merchandising, he occasionally finds the time to participate in one of those novel animated anthology films. One of these is the 1987 Original...

Chopstick lickin' good? Nope.

Fri, 8 Jun 2001 04:26:12 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - It's time for me to admit something just in case no one's figured it out yet: I'm of Asian descent. Half-Japanese, specifically. Whenever someone asks me "JavaDevil, why do you watch so much crap?", I simply respond with "I'm just keeping in touch with...

Yuen Woo-Ping leads the Yuen Brothers in their headlong descent into madness

Thu, 26 Apr 2001 04:30:29 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - I was having a conversation with a friend about Hong Kong movies and it was pointed out that pretty much every actor over there is a pop star, a model, a softcore pin-up, a Wushu guy, someone from the Peking Opera, someone who slept with someone from the...

A movie wholesome enough for your goth girlfriend

Sat, 14 Apr 2001 22:37:43 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - I hate it when I see a flick and can't decide if I liked it or not. I start second guessing my own opinions and become uncertain of myself and soon my nice, well-structured personal reality collapses in on itself until I decide to go to sleep and forget...

Who was that ponchoed man?

Sat, 31 Mar 2001 03:29:22 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - 1988's The Wizard Of Speed And Time. What a joyous, hyperkinetic, stupid movie this is. How does one describe it? Not only is it a satire about the Hollywood movie industry, it's also a semi-autobiographical "man vs. the system" film and a...

Okay, I was wrong. We need ninjas!

Sun, 18 Mar 2001 04:05:30 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - My offhand comment about ninjas in the title of my last review brought to mind something I've lamented for a long time now: there are no great ninja movies. We have excellent films about the kung-fu fighter and the samurai, but not the ninja. Maybe...

No Need For Ninjas

Thu, 8 Mar 2001 02:07:08 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - Asian cinema is limited to animated sci-fi epics, over-the-top HK action fare, and samurai hack-and-slash fests? Yes, it's easy to get this impression from the growing visibility of these kinds of movies but if you scour the foreign sections of your...

Orpheus for the hair metal generation

Sun, 25 Feb 2001 05:43:41 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - The most frustrating films to watch are those that threaten to make the leap into genuinely compelling, entertaining or even original territory but, for one reason or another, never manage to put in the extra effort required and simply collapse into a...

The Art Of Fightin' Wit'out Fightin'

Thu, 8 Feb 2001 06:18:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - Back in the day before kung-fu films had their resurgence in the 90's, coming across those fun Hong Kong martial arts movies wasn't easy for me. So whenever I needed a dose of instant smack-ya-in-the-face excitement, I used to put on the...

FMWO: We taste like chicken!

Mon, 22 Jan 2001 23:08:38 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - HOY! This is part of the Favorite Movie Write-Off headed up by KingpinLJC. The idea is for participants to take part in a deathmatch on an uninhabited Japanese island while wearing electronic collars that will explode in 3 days time. Alternately, we...

Superfights: The Movie? As opposed to Superfights: The Musical?

Thu, 18 Jan 2001 13:23:08 GMT
rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - American-made martial arts films have always been mixed bags for me. Despite having the generally insubstantial plots and the low-budget values of HK kung-fu films, they just don't have the same breakneck excitement. One could say that American companies...

On the ontological virtues of having a hose for a penis

Tue, 2 Jan 2001 07:32:11 GMT
rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - Don't feel bad if you've never heard of Stephen Chow (Chow Sing-Chi to the Chinese). Most people in the USA haven't even though in Hong Kong he's easily considered right up there with Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat in terms of popularity and box office...

A rat-man & a virgin battle watermelon monsters & the Devil!

Sat, 30 Dec 2000 22:54:58 GMT
rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - The Yuen Brothers' Drunken Wu Tang from 1984 is one of those films that simply has to be seen to be believed. Everything I said about the animated flick Chinese Gods being a journey into madness goes double for this movie because it's...

Giant robots, evil aliens, curvy chicks...it must be anime!

Mon, 18 Dec 2000 06:53:02 GMT
rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - Like his more well-known contemporaries Mamoru Oshii (Patlabor, Ghost In The Shell) and Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Laputa: Castle In The Sky), you can always count on Hideaki Anno to helm a compelling animated work...

Sheer kung-fu/comedy entertainment!

Wed, 13 Dec 2000 17:45:33 GMT
rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - While it seems that everyone loves Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I can certainly see some people being put off by the sheer pretentiousness of it all. Some folks just want an entertaining flick that you don't have to dwell on for awhile to get...

Bizarre, 70's Chinese animated Bruce Lee film

Tue, 5 Dec 2000 02:45:59 GMT
rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - In contrast to the cult following that Japanese animation (anime) has in the West, Chinese animation remains almost completely obscure. I can only think of two examples myself: Tsui Hark's animated version of A Chinese Ghost Story and the even...

Fine mix of kung-fu, religious cults, racism, and explosions

Mon, 27 Nov 2000 02:01:38 GMT
rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - Don't you love it when the setting of a story is a completely fictional country? In the 1998 Chinese action flick Blacksheep Affair, it's the "former member state of the USSR" known as Lavernia. I imagine it's located just south of...

Ugh.....

Sat, 25 Nov 2000 01:27:40 GMT
rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - I'm just going to come right out and say from the beginning that I don't like the supposedly revolutionary, self-referential, post-modern horror dreck embodied by Scream. To me, the tongue-in-cheek references to other horror films contained within...

And the Award for Worst Film Soundtrack Ever goes to...

Thu, 23 Nov 2000 01:18:15 GMT
rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - I don't think I've seen a movie that simultaneously bored me to tears and yet almost made me vomit at the same time before. This unique synthesis of contrary reactions was brought forth from me by the extremely low-budget 1989 sci-fi film Split. I...

Well, I'll be damned. I was wrong about this movie.

Sun, 12 Nov 2000 07:28:55 GMT
rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - It's not often that seeing a film a second time changes my perception of it dramatically. Anyone who's talked to me about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon recently knows that I felt that the buzz surrounding it was insane and that I thought this...

"That's not funny.....that's not....."

Mon, 6 Nov 2000 08:30:49 GMT
rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author JavaDevil - How is it that Warner Brothers' live-action division continually fouls up their Batman films while their animation division so consistently makes outstanding contributions to the superhero mythos? Perhaps they've come to their senses after...

Epinions Recent Reviews for JavaDevil

Buffy, anime-style

If this review doesn't make any sense, don't blame me. Blame the movie.

Weird & wonderful cinema around the world! (UFWO)

Stephen Chow destroys Journey To The West. Buddha help us all.

It's Fantasia! Only with robots! And not as good!

Chopstick lickin' good? Nope.

Yuen Woo-Ping leads the Yuen Brothers in their headlong descent into madness

A movie wholesome enough for your goth girlfriend

Who was that ponchoed man?

Okay, I was wrong. We need ninjas!

No Need For Ninjas

Orpheus for the hair metal generation

The Art Of Fightin' Wit'out Fightin'

FMWO: We taste like chicken!

Superfights: The Movie? As opposed to Superfights: The Musical?

On the ontological virtues of having a hose for a penis

A rat-man & a virgin battle watermelon monsters & the Devil!

Giant robots, evil aliens, curvy chicks...it must be anime!

Sheer kung-fu/comedy entertainment!

Bizarre, 70's Chinese animated Bruce Lee film

Fine mix of kung-fu, religious cults, racism, and explosions

Ugh.....

And the Award for Worst Film Soundtrack Ever goes to...

Well, I'll be damned. I was wrong about this movie.

"That's not funny.....that's not....."