Five Elemental Ninjas
Five Elelmental Ninjas Trailer
The Five Elemental Ninjas is an old martial arts movie in 1982. The plot revolves around the lone survivor of a battle with ninjas who exterminated his entire clan, seeking revenge against said ninjas. There isn't much wire fu to be had and the martial arts is solid. Its traditional Chinese martial arts versus the 'Southern barbarians'(the movies words not mine) ninjas. There is a samurai fight which is a bit short but nicely done anyway. The ninjas themselves don't stand out all that much. They are ninjas and do ninja like things, but nothing too absurd for a martial arts movie, like flying in on giant kites or something like that. They use the five elements to fight. Gold. Which basically use shiny weapons, hats and clothes to reflect light. Wood. Using the forest to camouflage themselves and ambush the enemy. Earth. Pretty similar to wood, except these guys are in the ground, and can jump out at will and fight. Water. Probably the least impressive since they stay in the water to sneak up on the enemy. To beat them would be to simply move away from the water. Fire. These guys use, you guessed it, FIRE, and smoke.
The ninjas are pretty tough the first time around when they're killing the clan members, but the second time around, they're pretty easy. They have a lot of ninja weaponry which I liked. But they hadn't used them in any cool way unfortunately, sometimes I prefer the outlandish madness that happens in these martial arts movies but not so much here. Fortunately, the martial arts is outstanding. Yea it looks obviously choreographed but still its nicely done. The special effects are okay, not that special but okay. Blood looks like, well not blood thats for damn sure. The set design is fairly nice given that the ENTIRE movie is built on a set. When they go fight the earth ninja, thats a set, fire, set too, even the water ninja, thats a set. The only problem I have with the sets are that some of the props look a bit too fake apart from that I don't mind. Overall a solid movie.
Inception
Inception Trailer
When I was watching this movie I kept thinking, 'man this shit looks pretty familiar.....'. Only after the hour mark did I realised that yes, it reminded me of Shutter Island, not just because of DiCaprio but the overall tone of the movie and story concepts(obviously not the dream parts). Thats not to say Inception isn't original, it is, in so far as original is these days. Or that its not a great movie, it is. But after watching it, I felt Shutter Island was a better movie. Inception had all its pieces in place, great acting, and a good cast, amazing special effects, just spot on. However I felt that it was lacking in imagination. I mean, there could be so much more done here. In terms of dreams and what could happen in them, and the potential symbolic imagery associated with them. Whats here is serviceable but I really wished they pushed the envelope more in terms of what we could see. For example there is a scene where Cobbs(Dicaprio) and his wife Mal(Marion Cotillard) build their private city, and it looks just the most generic city I had ever seen, with the exception being a little house in the middle. I mean you have carte blanche to do anything and you just make some buildings like you would see in real life? That's pretty lame to me. As many problems as I have with The Cell, it dealt with dreams far better and had more powerful imagery in my opinion. Inception is a good movie to be sure but I say watch Shutter Island, its better.
Dead Can Dance
Looking for some spiritual music? A slow meditative affair, and as best I can describe, very spiritual.
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