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Reviews3
joseph_o's rating
I didn't know that this kind of movie was still made in HK. Leave it to an old Category III veteran like Billy Chung to make a movie like this in 2003. Although rated IIB, Devil Face, Angel Heart is Cat 3 sleaze all the way, complete with seedy sex and obviously censored violence (more than once I could hear the music score skip because of cuts).
Luckily, I kind of like this kind of trashy thriller and this one manages to be a little above average. Daniel Wu's rather blase acting style fits his tortured character. Really, It works. I liked him in this movie. The movie is well directed, too, giving it a polished look and feel that a lot of HK moves don't have (for the past several years it seems they've been doing better, though).
Now this isn't a great movie. The plot is a little thin. When the movie was done I didn't feel I had seen an entire story play out. What story there is isn't awful for this kind of movie. There's some twists and turns, but nothing surprising. If you're the kind of person who puts up with this garbage, then it's a decent diversion. It's probably pretty forgettable, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. This is fairly well-done genre filmmaking.
Luckily, I kind of like this kind of trashy thriller and this one manages to be a little above average. Daniel Wu's rather blase acting style fits his tortured character. Really, It works. I liked him in this movie. The movie is well directed, too, giving it a polished look and feel that a lot of HK moves don't have (for the past several years it seems they've been doing better, though).
Now this isn't a great movie. The plot is a little thin. When the movie was done I didn't feel I had seen an entire story play out. What story there is isn't awful for this kind of movie. There's some twists and turns, but nothing surprising. If you're the kind of person who puts up with this garbage, then it's a decent diversion. It's probably pretty forgettable, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. This is fairly well-done genre filmmaking.
How did they manage to make all that bloody violence so boring and uninvolving?
It starts off OK. It just rehashed the excellent beginning of the first Battle Royale, but hey, at least they rehashed something good. Riki Takeuchi is pretty amusing and over-the-top as the Takeshi Kitano type character, some kids die and then the rest cry about it. It was still pretty fun to watch. The students incompetently attack the terrorist hideout and even that was decent. But then Shuya emerges and the rest of the movie just sank and sank into the toilet and then to hell.
When did Shuya get so lame? Well, I guess he was always kind of a dork, but now he's a self righteous, brooding dork. And as for the rest of the characters... there were other character?! I cant remember much about them except that one had bleached hair and one was Kitano's daughter(which leads to one of the better scenes in the movie, a flashback with Kitano reprising his old character). Yeah, so the characters are worthless and whenever one of them is dying, they are cradled in someone's arms so that they can have a quiet reflective moment before exiting this world, like that's supposed to make us care about them! That got really obnoxious.
What happened to the quirky charm of the first? Tossed in favor of a more serious, topical message perhaps? I thought the original was good, but after seeing this hunk of boring hellrock, I'm inclined to believe that Battle Royale was actually a great, great movie.
It starts off OK. It just rehashed the excellent beginning of the first Battle Royale, but hey, at least they rehashed something good. Riki Takeuchi is pretty amusing and over-the-top as the Takeshi Kitano type character, some kids die and then the rest cry about it. It was still pretty fun to watch. The students incompetently attack the terrorist hideout and even that was decent. But then Shuya emerges and the rest of the movie just sank and sank into the toilet and then to hell.
When did Shuya get so lame? Well, I guess he was always kind of a dork, but now he's a self righteous, brooding dork. And as for the rest of the characters... there were other character?! I cant remember much about them except that one had bleached hair and one was Kitano's daughter(which leads to one of the better scenes in the movie, a flashback with Kitano reprising his old character). Yeah, so the characters are worthless and whenever one of them is dying, they are cradled in someone's arms so that they can have a quiet reflective moment before exiting this world, like that's supposed to make us care about them! That got really obnoxious.
What happened to the quirky charm of the first? Tossed in favor of a more serious, topical message perhaps? I thought the original was good, but after seeing this hunk of boring hellrock, I'm inclined to believe that Battle Royale was actually a great, great movie.
Yes, I definitely liked this one. And to think I almost didn't watch it because of a number of very negative reviews. This probably has something to do with this movie not being a typical sequel. It really does not have much to do with the plot of the original Evil Dead Trap and I'm sure that's disappointing to many. They are both fairly gory and have some thematic material in common, but that's about it.
Actually, I can think of so many reasons why people might not like this movie. The main character, Aki, is fat! She's not attractive at all. The rest of the cast is not too great to look at either. So if you agree with Dario Argento and love to watch beautiful women get mutilated in horror movies, this one ain't gonna cut it! Towards the end, this one gets pretty heavy on the surrealism and it's pretty easy to lose track of what's going on. I admit, there were a few moments where I wasn't too sure what I was supposed to be thinking about the what the hell was going on, but hey, that's surrealism and I liked it.
The surreal moments work because they are effective in being very nightmarish. The visuals are fantastic. The pacing is slow, but this was a GOOD decision on the part of the filmmakers. There's no question that it added to the frightening atmosphere of the movie.
If you liked the first, I think there's a good chance you will like this one as well as long as you don't actually expect a continuation. This movie can stand alone and I recommend it even if you haven't seen the first. Many people seem to really dislike this one, but it's worth your time and is much more well-done than you might expect. I was certainly surprised.
One last thing: the kid in this movie is one of the most frightening ever! Usually a "scary" kid in a horror movie makes me laugh and turns out pretty embarrassing, but this kid... creepy!
Actually, I can think of so many reasons why people might not like this movie. The main character, Aki, is fat! She's not attractive at all. The rest of the cast is not too great to look at either. So if you agree with Dario Argento and love to watch beautiful women get mutilated in horror movies, this one ain't gonna cut it! Towards the end, this one gets pretty heavy on the surrealism and it's pretty easy to lose track of what's going on. I admit, there were a few moments where I wasn't too sure what I was supposed to be thinking about the what the hell was going on, but hey, that's surrealism and I liked it.
The surreal moments work because they are effective in being very nightmarish. The visuals are fantastic. The pacing is slow, but this was a GOOD decision on the part of the filmmakers. There's no question that it added to the frightening atmosphere of the movie.
If you liked the first, I think there's a good chance you will like this one as well as long as you don't actually expect a continuation. This movie can stand alone and I recommend it even if you haven't seen the first. Many people seem to really dislike this one, but it's worth your time and is much more well-done than you might expect. I was certainly surprised.
One last thing: the kid in this movie is one of the most frightening ever! Usually a "scary" kid in a horror movie makes me laugh and turns out pretty embarrassing, but this kid... creepy!