pizza0 Reviews

Robot Dreams (2023)

You are likely to Cry watching this movie

[10/10 · 14 October 2023]

Robot Dreams is a beautifully crafted, well structured, multi-layered animated feature that is packed with meaningful messages and emotional triggers about relationships, memories and connections. As you follow the story, the lack of dialogue sharpens your senses and your mind interprets the imagery but also supplies this process with your own experiences, attempting to connect to the pictures at a subconscious level. As the movie reaches the climax, you will realize that the movie has somehow mirrored a large number of your memories where relationships or connections ceased to exist because the passage of time got in the way. This overwhelming feeling will make you emotional.

Robot Dreams reminds me of Mary and Max: two unlikely characters find comfort and much more in each other's company, the magic of this connection gets imprinted onto a single piece of music used throughout the film, for Mary and Max it's Perpetuum Mobile and for Robot Dreams, well you can watch it for yourself.

Succession (2018–2023)

Rated low for what?

[9/10 · 17 July 2018]

Not a single likable character? You mean all of them are so WELL WRITTEN for you to hate.

I don't understand people rating this show low because they despise the plot or the characters, surely you have to realize that you were engaged to hate this, which means the people behind this show did a superb job at crafting characters for you to hate. NY in autumn, concrete jungle in the shade of grimly grey, and that epic theme song playing over and over again in every arrangement orchestra to electronic, I'd say they are trying something here.

Succession has been a great show thus far, dialogue heavy but never felt theatrical, there's a VEEP style satirical element to the writing but it does not over power the over all shadiness of the plot.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

Forgettable, Generic, Meh

[5/10 · 18 December 2015]

This movie gives you the same amount of thrills as any one of the expendables movies, in similar fashion too, the key word is nostalgia.

I think it is time Hollywood learns a lesson about playing it safe because it is apparent now Abrams is a pioneer in this movie making style, pumping a slew of slightly above average movies that people can not definitively say bad but therefore they become good movies by technicality.

Force is not a bad movie, it is an extremely average movie, the thrills are old and non-thrilling, no risks were taken by the movie makers, the story is generic down the twists and turns. It is a very poor reboot of a legendary series, far inferior than Nolan's batman reboot, and even far more inferior than the animated clone wars which has kept this franchise alive till this day only to be ignored as non official material...

Mad Max is still the best blockbuster this year!

Vanilla Sky (2001)

From 4.9 to 6.8

[9/10 · 18 December 2013]

I saw this movie when it first came out in theaters, I had just lost someone in my life and let's say I saw this movie a few times. Over the years I kept on coming back to this IMDb page to read people's reviews on this movie, the score started as low as 4.9 and came all the way up 6.8, i think once the blu ray comes out, in a few years it will go up some more. I have seen the original movie, and i have to say the low budget intrigue & minimalistic approach makes it a better film. Cameron Crowe put a killer mix tape over this and added some production value and it went from a sci fi indie to a melodrama. people savor it because they can relate to it, the bits and pieces of music and short quotes, like "consequences", "every passing minute", "when we are both cats", it's an effective movie because like Eternal Sunshine, this movie teases your emotions. so 6.8 really tells me a lot of more people are still out there with pain buried in their hearts, and that they have to live their lives with regret, and when they see this movie, their minds wonder about what could have happened.

Project X (2012)

Life's a cliché, I know

[1/10 · 5 June 2012]

15 years ago, I had been to a few crazy parties, we did pot, we drank and made out with girls, had I seen this movie then, I would have loved it and thought it was the shxt.

fast forward to now I have a family and I have kids, life has caught up to me and a movie like this only brings out a variety of unpleasant feelings in me that make me despise this movie. I get it that I'm not young anymore(the tits didn't help either), so I'm jealous of these kids and their worry free days of youth. I own a house now, it's not easy to swallow the idea of trashing someone's house in the name of fun.

a lot of you say people that hate this movie are uptight grown ups, sure, i was a kid once, now i'm grown up and I got responsibilities on my shoulders so that makes me a pooper, that's fine. I wanted to write this and recongnize the irony, and the cliché-ness that is life. In a few years people that loved this movie will grow up and hate the next party movie. so continues the cycle.

this is a movie i'll show my kids at some point that being irresponsible and care free has its consquences, but, if they end up thinking that awesome parties are awesome, that's fine too.

The Chaser (2008)

Some people just can't handle this movie

[9/10 · 25 December 2010]

Saw this movie when it first came out, just recently watched I saw the devil and Mother, thought I'd come on IMDb and see what people have to say about those two movies when this movie came back to my mind. I just finished reading all the previous user "reviews", and I have to say that some of the comments posted here are just laughable, some people just don't know how to deal with this film. If you saw the movie and became enraged by the level of "stupidity" and "nonsense" in the plot - especially the ending, and if you are also thoroughly disgusted by the the unnecessary violence, so much so that you feel like this is just another wannabe noir movie that is just all gore and no substance, please sit back, take a deep breath and ask yourself, when was the last time you were this emotionally engaged??sure white chicks was bad but you didn't despise it so much you had to log on IMDb and warn other people about it right? the truth is however empty the plot was, the final delivery was thought provoking: the good doesn't win, there is no happy ending. You are presented with a couple one dimensional characters, that, unlike fincher's characters, are not exactly full of personalities, and while in-depth character development may give fincher movies that extra layer of sensitivity, the lack of it actually adds to realism, which in the chaser's case, made the tragic ending even more spectacular. anyways the point is maybe you don't have to be entertained all the time, if you reacted to it, maybe the movie may have just done something right.

I Saw the Devil (2010)

Brutally profound

[8/10 · 15 September 2010]

Just came back from the TIFF 10 screening of the UNCUT version of this film, and after reading the very first review posted here, I feel somewhat compelled to leave a short comment.

the movie is about revenge. a woman is murdered by a serial killer, the woman's soon-to-be husband, who happens be a highly trained special agent, takes revenge on the serial killer in some of the most gruesome ways ever presented on film.

The "TAKEN"-esque plot is fairly straight forward and even predictable at times, for some people, this unfortunately exposes the violence and turns it into a dominating theme, hence remarks of it being mindless and unnecessary are brought up.

But fans of this genre can easily see past the violence, and be drawn back to the noir nature of the film with each passing violence "segement", in the end, you can feel the main character's will for revenge, and that simply transcends the violence, and ultimately turns the film into an imaginative commentary on the human condition.

the film would also remind you of classic Fincher films, namely se7en, however, the theatrical construction of plot is a signature Ji Woon Kim style, the mise-en-scene, the soundtrack, you see it in every single film of his, especially bittersweet life.

after watching this film I found myself immediately comparing it to another masterpiece sympathy for mr.vengeance, so for those of you who have seen chan wook park's revenge trilogy and loved it, you should find time to see this film.

Flashdance (1983)

Not Epic, Not Dramatic, Eletrical & Magical

[9/10 · 27 December 2004]

The definition of the word "Movie" states that a movie is: "A contiguous series of video frames (and optionally synchronized audio) that are displayed fast enough to provide the illusion of motion. A frame rate of 30 frames per second is a typical target for a movie." that said, I really don't see why people pick on this movie because it doesn't have a plot. I'd understand if people don't like the plot, but to those of you who think FlashDance's a joke because it doesn't look like a movie, I say gimme a break. This picture has a simple plot, perhaps, a story about a wielder/dancer going for her dream and falling in love with a man might not be enough for a lot of viewers. however, the movie en-powered itself with what is arguably the best ORIGINAL movie soundtrack of all time, I think someone mentioned earlier, if the studio was to release every song on the sound track as a single, then everyone one of them could have topped charts. And, those who didn't like the movie also complained about acting, well now, I personally thought there was great acting on Jennifer's part. I think, maybe what people do not see is that, given the plot, there was only so much to act for, so instead, she created an attitude, which translated into the music, the cloth, and everything else in the movie. and that, made the movie an icon. The fact that Flashdance made a huge impact on people(hell, it defined a whole generation!!)just like any other memorable moving pictures, is more than enough for me to say it's an excellent movie.

Infernal Affairs II (2003)

Far more superior than IA1

[8/10 · 24 December 2004]

Infernal affairs 2 is a prequel to the very popular IA. The movie recorded a number of events happened prior to the story told in IA, including how the two main characters came to become what they are in IA, and how Sam got into power. the theme of IA2 is complete different from IA1, thus it's hard to compare the 2 movies, but I feel that this movie is much better than IA1, because it's very well done, given the scale of the story, it could easily turn into a mess, but the film makers maintained balancer. Also, a lot of people thought the acting was bad, I think the opposite, I thought the acting was more than convincing, especially from the young actors, in IA, i actually thought Andy Lau was not good at all. Aside from the 2 young actors, Francis NG who is one my favorite HK actors, also did a great job, although the role was not very fitting for him. As for Eric Tsang there are some flaws on his part, but it's because of the script.

The only problem in IA2, is the relationship between Sam and SP Wong, it was confusing, unclear, and didn't make sense. As a result, Eric Tsang over acted his part, and so did Athony Wong.

IA2 presented events from 1991 to 1997, from gang wars, to HK returning to PRC, the historical background give the movie an incredible flavor. I recommend this movie to everyone.

Pom Poko (1994)

Masterpiece!

[9/10 · 17 November 2004]

Pom Poko is about a bunch of raccoon-like animals, native to japan and many other Asian countries, fight to save their homeland, which was a large mountain covered with an evergreen forest. the story is pretty simple too, if we strip the basic plot from the movie, what's left is a lot of comedic stuff, the whole movie is a satire. now i like this because it's extremely thought provoking, in a way the movie bashes all the other perfect animate fairy tales, at first glance, this looks like a story about a bunch of magical animals, trying to do the right thing and teach us humans a lesson, but no, make no mistake, in this movie, these enlightened animals are just like humans, they are mixed into this crazy world, influenced by human values, and in the end they weren't able to save their land, so they learned to adapt, and those who couldn't, went on to live a harsh life instead. but the messages are clearer than any happy-ending-learn-a-lesson kind of movies, what are they? well you'd have to watch it to find out yourself.

PTU (2003)

PTU is hk cinema at its best

[9/10 · 24 September 2004]

PTU is undoubtly one of To's best work to date, to me, it's as good as The Mission, with a more developed Johny To touch in it. and for me the best John To film has to be Running Out Of Time. i'd like to point out that PTU is a Johny To's "personal" work, meaning that it's solely produced and distributed by his own production company - MilkyWay Image, and there have only been 2 other movies that are considered Milkyway Image films, or Johny To's personal works, one is 1999's Running Out Of Time, and one is The Misson, he's stated that he'd only make one in about every 3 years(numerous times), in his career he's done a lot of movies, but they are mostly block busters. so if you are interested in other movies by him, just know that they are not really the kind of movies he want to make.