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Reviews
Legend of Hell (2012)
Move along, nothing to see here.
Well, on the positive side the starting credits looked good. I mean, lovely font. Also, some nice cinematography. Unfortunately the narrator speaks over them using a voice not too dissimilar to South Park (keep in mind I watched the English language version, so perhaps the German one is better). I thought it was a joke but no, it was deadly serious. It really really went down from there. Incredibly bad, stilted acting reminiscent of a bad porn film. Audio (again, keeping in mind I watched the English version) that would go in and out - at times making it impossible to hear what the actors are saying. Not that that really mattered - the storyline (for want of a better word) was simply an excuse to jump from one scene of people having their heads cut off, to another with people having their heads exploded, to another of people having axes being embedded into their heads. Don't get me wrong - people also tend to lose limbs as well, but there are a lot of heads being exploded.
If you want to see a lot of blood being splattered around, and yes at one point there's some chainsaw action, then this might be worth considering. The painfully bad acting, bad story, and bad audio (at least with the English version) amongst other things makes this otherwise quite difficult to watch unless as part of a drinking game - you know: take a drink every time someone's head explodes - although you would be risking alcohol poisoning . Plan 9 had a certain amount of charm to it. This doesn't.
Samsara (2011)
Amazing eye & ear candy, but......
I really, really wanted to love this movie. Decades ago I sat mesmerised by the power and beauty of Koyaanisqatsi in '82, followed by the various "qatsi's" over the next few years (that were good but never quite hit the mark like the original). Then in '92 there was Baraka that finally rivaled and frankly bettered Koyaanisqatsi in many areas. When they restored Baraka recently, watching that film was like watching a new movie. Absolutely stunning.
I heard amazing reviews of Samsara, and perhaps that was the problem - I came in expecting something that built on what had come before, taking the experience to a new level..... instead, what I found was a set of sometimes disjointed images. Frequently I felt as though I was looking at a stream of some absolutely stunning computer wallpapers or screen savers, the only thing linking them being the music backing.
Don't get me wrong. This is a beautiful film. I am definitely going to watch it again. The cinematography is generally flawless. The quality of many of the images are absolutely stunning. In this respect it matches - and possibly is better than - Baraka. The audio side (music etc) also is excellent. Just - in my opinion - it is possibly the least coherent movie of these non-narrative documentary films. If you loved this film, and haven't seen Baraka (or haven't seen the restored version), put it down on your 'must see' list.
Pearlie (2008)
Entertaining show, with a moral. Parent approved... ;-)
I was amazed by a couple of very negative reviews of this show. In fact I was moved enough to register on the site simply so I could try to address some of the points raised. Please understand I'm not attacking these original reviewers - they are entitled to their opinions! I'm just trying to put some balance to the comments that appear to have made the show rate way lower than I believe it deserves.
The first was about a single episode where one of the characters is suspected of taking some boots. The reviewer had never seen any other show and immediately jumped on the fairy being black so that must have been why they were suspected - which is a little sad that they thought that when the characters made it quite clear that in an earlier episode it had been shown how much (more than the others) she really loved boots.... if cookies disappeared on Sesame St, you'd probably ask the Cookie monster where he'd been....
The other review suggested that a US cable TV channel had taken one of their existing shows and copied it. In fact both shows were made by different companies (Flapjack by the cartoon network, and Pearlie by a co-production between an Australian producer & Canadian animation studio), and even if there are similarities there are also differences. No doubt similarities between Flapjack and other shows could also be made if you looked hard enough. Frankly, complaints such as the show (an animated show about fairies, for goodness sake!) being too colourful indicates that the reviewer simply was watching the wrong show for them and was not giving an unbiased opinion. It was like a review about cats from a dog lover.
So. That's off my chest. The show is actually a spin off from a series of children books written by an Australia comedienne, Wendy Harmer. They are written with humour, but also with various overlying moral themes generally about 'doing the right thing' - being responsible for your actions, helping others, being kind, etc. My two girls loved the books, and also the animated series (many of the episodes were also written by Wendy or based on stories from the books) - although their (and my) preference was probably for the books. Is the series a classic? Well, no. But it is at worst harmless, and is definitely better than many other shows out there that try to be too smart or hip for their own good. My girls (9 & 7) would rate it a ten out of ten. My son (7) would rate it maybe a 5 (Clone Wars would be a ten for him). As a parent, I'd rate it seven & a half out of ten.... maybe a borderline 8.
So in short, don't be put off by the low rating in IMDb. It's not perfect, but the show is decent enough, many episodes have some underlying moral theme, and overall it's approved by this parent!