lavieneko-1 Reviews

Stay Alive (2006)

Amazingly Terrible

[1/10 · 25 March 2006]

I haven't laughed so much in a theater in years. The only problem is that it was not the intent of the movie to make my throat raw from laughter.

This movie is absolutely overflowing with bad CGI, absolutely terrible duologue, absolutely terrible *acting*, and enough geek references to make the whole thing come off as nothing but complete cheese.

As a gamer and a geek-type girl myself, I did recognize all of the obvious game references in this movie as well as the geek STUFF that was just thrown into the background as eye candy (the Steamboy poster, the t-shirts from thinkgeek.com and j-list.com), and that didn't redeem the movie at all.

The only thing that might have been good at ALL were the ghost children type characters that were purposefully badly done in CGI to make it look like they were from a game, and who were OBVIOUSLY stolen from Japanese horror movies.

To be honest, it was hilariously bad, and something I'd expect from a midnight showing of a made-for-TV b grade Sci-Fi channel movie. Don't expect more than that and you'll have a great time. Just don't get a soda or you'll spit it everywhere when you get great lines like: "Why did you bring that game into our lives?! WHY?!"

17 sui de tian kong (2004)

Heartwarming and Silly

[10/10 · 1 January 2006]

Although this movie is low budget and completely silly, it revels in that and seems proud of it rather than trying to ignore it. A completely generic plot that anyone can guess, especially if they're familiar with gay fiction, and your typical gay characters would usually mean a boring movie. Instead this film puts together characters that you can completely believe and expect to meet on the street. I found myself thinking "I wish I knew these guys!" many times. A totally adorable wonderful happy movie that will make you giggle and squeal and completely believe in love, even if it's just for the duration of the film, this one is not to be missed. Heartwarming, adorable, real, yet fantastic... I can't rate this one highly enough.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

angst does not equal depth

[1/10 · 27 December 2005]

While the acting is superb and the filming is beautiful, this movie falls short before it even begins with a story that has no point. The point of a story is to have a beginning, middle, and end. The point of a movie is to take people where they've never been and share something with them. Perhaps there are people out there who have never felt hopelessness or depression, and maybe those people can learn something from this movie, but other than that I really don't feel this movie brings anything new to the viewer. The entire point of the movie seems to be "life is pointless and will never get better, no matter what." Angst does not equal depth. The characters angst quite a bit, but never do anything to improve their state in life. Instead of having obstacles and overcoming them, or at least TRYING to, they simply exist in a horrible depth of "poor and depressed" for the entire movie, and never pull out of that at all.

As someone that's read far too many badly written fan fiction and writings by angsty teens, I can assure you that angst does not automatically equal depth. ;) It never, ever does. I would expect more from Ang Lee than what I get out of fiction written by angsty emo 13 year old girls, but this movie falls into the same category as most slash fiction does, which is massively disappointing.

This movie was not sad or tragic, it was simply depressing. If you want to feel depressed and hopeless and leave the theater feeling as if nothing matters, then this is the movie for you. Otherwise I'd avoid it. Depression is a real part of life, and it is something that a lot of people can relate to, especially in a society where being outed and gay is practically a death sentence. However, a movie where nothing happens except the characters are depressed the entire time and nothing changes doesn't seem to have much point to me. I guess the main point of this review is "Wow, that was a downer."