ggravier Reviews

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)

A bad combination of everything that normally is good in other movies

[2/10 · 28 December 2023]

If I had to list everything that is wrong with this movie, I wouldn't know where to start. Let's just say the idea of the story isn't too bad... That's all it has going for it. The scene in the cantina is modeled (at the beginning anyway) on that of Star Wars. The dialogues suck. The characters (and a good part of the scenes involving them) are caricatures of what is most lamentable (or, but in lamentable version, of what is best) in cinema. Action scenes with unbearable slow motion. Moments where part of the screen is blurred without knowing why... In short... I cringed almost constantly throughout the movie.

Fists of the White Lotus (1980)

A fun movie and has some good martial arts facts

[9/10 · 9 May 2020]

As a kyusho practitioner, I was quite impressed by the movie. It popped up on my radar so decided to give it a go not quite knowing what to expect. At the first fights, I saw the hand positions (one blade of grass, claw, blood pool) my curiosity was sparked even further. Then during the movie our hero learns to have a soft (woman kung fu style) of touching, which is exactly what we learn in kyusho, not to strike with strength but rather with heavy feather touch. When even that is not enough to kill the bad guy, he is wounded, cured with acupuncture, and learns the pressure points from an acupuncture manual. The bad guy even goes as far as to show him how to have a penetrating impact to affect the pressure points. His training complete, he can finally attack the bad guy and we learn again of pressure points that should leave the opponent dead after 100 steps. That's dim mak right there for you.

Oh and the story, of course, is fun. The multiple attempts to get to the bad guy, the progressive training... I had a really nice time.

White Crane style is a very very old, traditional, martial arts style described in the bubishi... The movie does it credit while remaining a very entertaining film.

Kamikaze Girls (2004)

A view into the Gothic Lolita Japanese movement

[7/10 · 31 January 2007]

It's a Japanese movie. You may find the acting a bit caricatural or extreme, but I guess this is due to the history of Noh theater strongly present in Japaneses culture. Past this possible barrier, the movie itself is entertaining. The two main characters are played deliciously by remarkable actresses (again, considering that they are acting in the Japanese style).

The movie immerses you into the Gothic Lolita culture, as the heroin is the typical representative of that movement. Lots of insights into the whys and hows of that culture. There is also a fun vision of the Japanese punk subculture, represented by the Yankis.

It's a comedy, so you laugh or smile a lot. But the above mentioned aspects also make it a very interesting movie.

I'll watch it again. More than a few times.

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

So disappointing!

[3/10 · 25 November 2001]

I was hoping for a movie as good as the first 3 ones were. Sure, I got fantastic visuals... but scenario full of inconsistencies (remember when Ben tells Luke that he will go to Dagobah to meet Yoda, the Jedi master who tought him? well... Lucas now thinks that the Jedi master who taught Ben is now Qui-Gon Jinn... why this turn around)... and full of unneeded add-ons... Whe de medicloreans... did Lucas feel afraid of the religous lobbies that he had to make the Force a physical/biological phenomenon rather than a mystical one? I won't go into the bad acting of Jake Loyd or the cliches of the various non humans we meet... or of the pathetic Jar Jar, or the almost inexistent Darth Maul... And... did anyone actually feel a menace somewhere?

There were some great ideas, lightsaber fights are absolutely beautiful... but the movie lacks so much elsewhere.

Come on, George, please, don't disappoint us again. And avoid titles that sound like 1960's movies...