My random reviews

[Tom]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Full Metal Panic? FUMOFFU
Year: 2003
Length: 300 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Japanese: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English

Plot:
Sousuke and Kaname are back in action! And this time, the battleground is the school ground! High-yield explosives and hilarity come together with a bang, as the somber soldier and his unwitting target brave everything from lovesick “terrorists” to an unforgiving teacher who is bent on revenge. But as good as he is with guns, Sousuke is one clueless commando when it comes to girls – especially Kaname! Don’t miss the hilarious antics of everyone’s favorite military maniac and Jin High’s most fiery female!

My Thoughts:

This is a hilarious spin-off series to "Full Metal Panic". FMP is based on a series of novels which tell the main story and a collection of comedic short stories. The first anime series "Full Metal Panic" is a mixture of the first few novels and some of the short stories. The series "Full Metal Panic? FUMOFFU" solely uses the fun short stories as its source. No mecha action in this series. But a lot of fun nonetheless! As a time-filler I just wanted to show my brother and a friend one or two episodes, but we ended up watching all 12 episodes in one go until 2 in the morning 
Both of them never have seen an episode of either FMP or FUMOFFU. That tells me, that one can enjoy this spin-off without having seen the original FMP.

Rating: 

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/c1bAVLCL50o" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/c1bAVLCL50o</a>

[Tom]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Death Note
Year: 2006
Length: 126 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Japanese: DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English, Japanese, Korean

My Thoughts:

OK, so I couldn't wait any longer to watch this movie 
I have read the first 5 volumes of the manga so far and it was enough to not spoil later volumes by watching this movie. I had lowered my expectations for this movie because of this thread but I must say, that this wouldn't have been necessary. I really liked this movie adaptation of the manga. Of course the movie deviates from the manga, but I think they made the right choices. The manga is mostly characters talking. Which is great for the manga, but would have not been fitting for a movie. Plotwise the first half of the movie follows more or less the manga. The second half uses a lot of elements from the manga but leaves out a lot and changes a lot of things.
Regarding the two main characters:
Light: In the beginning I almost thought they had ruined this character. He was too hot-headed. But I think during the course of the movie he becomes closer to his manga counterpart.
L: He was surprisingly true to his manga counterpart! He was also the main reason I couldn't wait to take a look at this movie. When I saw screenshots of him in the booklet, I was surprised to see how closely he resembles the character of the manga. So I wanted to see, if his mannerism is also true to the manga. And yes, it was

Now I will have to wait until June, when the 12th volume of the manga is released in Germany, to be able to see the second movie. I will probably become weak long before then

Rating: 

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4NmhxbLXQbg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/4NmhxbLXQbg</a>

[Achim]

Great review Tom! Glad to see you enjoyed the movie, I like it as well. The second one is slightly different, but there will be more of L, which appears to be good news to you.

L: He was surprisingly true to his manga counterpart! He was also the main reason I couldn't wait to take a look at this movie. When I saw screenshots of him in the booklet, I was surprised to see how closely he resembles the character of the manga. So I wanted to see, if his mannerism is also true to the manga. And yes, it was

Have you heard/read that there is a spin-off film featuring L, called "L"? (Well, the title as a tagline attached to it.) It is about L and separate form the manga, bt I believe they mention the Death Note as well.

Don't worry, I can't spoil it as I haven't seen it myself yet. It played in the cinemas in Taiwan but supposedly in Japanese with only Chinese subtitles (Death Note 1 & 2 had Chinese and English subtitles). I have accidentally watched a Japanese film with Chinese subtitles before and if the film is well done one can follow the basic story without the words, but I would never do so on purpose.

[Tom]

Have you heard/read that there is a spin-off film featuring L, called "L"? (Well, the title as a tagline attached to it.) It is about L and separate form the manga, bt I believe they mention the Death Note as well.

Yes, I have heard of it. It is supposed to be some kind of prequel.

[Tom]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Predator
Year: 1987
Director: John McTiernan
Rating: R
Length: 106 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , English: DTS 5.1 , English: Dolby Digital Surround , French: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Carl Weathers
Elpidia Carrillo
Bill Duke
Jesse Ventura

Plot:
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this action-packed adventure story of fighting men pitted against an unseen enemy, a force more powerful than their fiercest weapons. Recruited by the CIA to rescue hostages held by the guerrilla fighters in a Central American country, Schwarzenegger and his men encounter an enemy unimaginably more deadly than any on Earth - because the Predator is not of this Earth. Packed with spectacular effects and combat scenes of gut-wrenching power, PREDATOR is the most terrifying Schwarzenegger movie yet.

My Thoughts:

The first time I have seen this movie (at least as far as I remember). Nothing special. Wouldn't have missed something if I wouldn't have watched it.

Rating: (previously with old rating system  . Just for information to make sense of following discussion)

[Achim]

Yes, I have heard of it. It is supposed to be some kind of prequel.

Correct.

My Rating : 

[Jon]

OMFG! Agreed with Ya_Shin. Predator is never

The "You're bleeding" sequence is one of my favourites.

[Tom]

OMFG! Agreed with Ya_Shin. Predator is never

This movie is just not my cup of tea. I did not expect to like it much and this is why it took this long to get into my collection.  is probably a little harsh. A more objective rating would have been between  and  but  is what I felt like after watching this movie yesterday 

[Tom]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Mr. Bean's Holiday
Year: 2007
Director: Steve Bendelack
Rating: FSK-6
Length: 86 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: German: Dolby Digital 5.1 , English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Croatian, English, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish

Star:
Rowan Atkinson

My Thoughts:

Average movie. Nowhere the brilliance of the TV series, but it was nice to see Mr. Bean again. I liked the ending in Cannes (the movie presentation, not the "musical" number at the end.

Rating: 

[Tom]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: RTL Samstag Nacht: Das Beste aus Staffel 1
Year: 1993
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 800 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: German: Dolby Digital Stereo

Stars:
Wigald Boning
Esther Schweins
Olli Dietrich
Tanja Schumann
Stefan Jürgens
Mirco Nontschew

My Thoughts:

Just finished watching this set. "RTL Samstag Nacht" was the German incarnation of Saturday Night Live which was produced during the 90s. Like in its American counterpart, most sketches were more miss than hit, but the lasting effect this show had is still perceivable today. It made way for all the German comedy show that followed and a lot of the catchphrases from this show are still used today. It also made a lot of comedians household names.

This set calls itself "Best of Season 1". But what it really is, is a season set which includes all 25 episodes from season 1 but which were cut from their musical guests and some comedy acts due to licencing reasons and some skits which are not shown in current reruns because of other problems (mainly with the church).

Rating:  (due to its nostalgia bonus)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/oLy4co0zkAY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/oLy4co0zkAY</a>

[DJ Doena]

This set calls itself "Best of Season 1". But what it really is, is a season set which includes all 25 episodes from season 1 but which were cut from their musical guests and some comedy acts due to licencing reasons and some skits which are not shown in current reruns because of other problems (mainly with the church).

Really? Cool. I've seen it lying around but thought "Best of"? Thanks but no, thanks.

I loved RTL SN back in the 90s and now I will buy it for old times' sakes.

[Tom]

Really? Cool. I've seen it lying around but thought "Best of"? Thanks but no, thanks.

But keep in my mind, that about 5-20 minutes are missing from each episode. On average the runtime is 32 minutes per episode.

[Tom]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: For Your Consideration
Year: 2006
Director: Christopher Guest
Rating: PG-13
Length: 86 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Catherine O'Hara
Stephen Rannazzisi
Ed Begley, Jr.
Eugene Levy
Harry Shearer

Plot:
Director Christopher Guest reunites his star-packed team from 'A Mighty Wind', 'Best in Show' and 'Waiting for Guffman' for this hilarious, keen-edged comedy set in a town where "Oscar® is the backbone of an industry not known for having a backbone."

In 'For Your Consideration', buzz of a potential Oscar® nomination sends the cast and crew of the low-budget indie film 'Home for Purim' into a wide-eyed frenzy. Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer and Parker Posey play 'Purim''s lead actors who ride the wave of buzz with odd and oddly touching results. Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Bob Balaban and Fred Willard round out the cast of Hollywood types more than happy to exploit, bask in and leverage the Oscar® hype.

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

A decent comedy in which you will see a lot of familiar faces improvising their way through the movie's plot. In style similar to Christopher Guest's previous work (This Is Spinal Tab, A Mighty Wind), only this time it is not a mockumentary. Harry Shearer does, as always in these movies, steal the show.

Rating:

[Tom]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Night at the Museum
Year: 2006
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: FSK-6
Length: 104 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , German: Dolby Digital 5.1 , German: DTS 5.1 , Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, German, Turkish

Stars:
Ben Stiller
Carla Gugino
Dick Van Dyke
Mickey Rooney
Bill Cobbs

Extras:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Outtakes
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

This movie was as much fun the second time as it was at the cinema! Favorite parts are when Jed and Octavius are quarreling 
And the second movie in a row in this thread, where Ricky Gervais had a small role. He was very fitting as the museum director.

Rating:

[Tom]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Death Note: The last name
Year: 2006
Director:
Rating:
Length: 140 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Japanese: DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English, Japanese, Korean

My Thoughts:

I also enjoyed this sequel to Death Note and it is a great conclusion to the story. I was surprised how close it stayed to the manga. To shorten the story, most changes affect the second half of the movie. The biggest change was of who

(click to show/hide)

got the Death Note after Light gave it up

. I think it was a good change as the storyline of what happened in the manga here would have filled another (and probably a boring) movie and even then they kept some of the stuff of the manga intact.

(click to show/hide)

I liked the way L dies better than in the manga. The manga death has been used as a ruse in this version. In the manga, L dies halfway through the storyline. Therefore a lot of material has been let out of the movies, but IMO the L storyline is the more interesting one anyway.

After reading some reviews on the internet about the Death Note movies I noticed, that most reviews which were unfavorable where of people who first saw the anime before seeing this movie. But I do not think that you can compare those two. Whereas the anime tells the story of the manga almost line-by-line (I had the chance to see the first six episodes so far) that would have not worked for a live-action movie. In my opinion they have transferred the material to the screen in a very good way.
And I think that they only got a chance to have so many episodes green-lighted to tell the manga in anime form because the movies were such a great success.

Rating:

P.S. I have revised our rating system for my reviews a little. A movie will not get a  as easy as before (I have used this revised rating system since the last Death Note review, because I noticed that I almost only gave  ratings).

My rating will be something like this:
= Perfect, you have to see this movie
= Great. I can really recommend this movie (This is what I in particular changed. Before it was a "Not so bad", which makes it hard for me to give it to good movie and therefore I almost always gave the best rating)
= A decent movie. I can neither recommend this movie nor advise against it.
= I did not particularly like this movie. No recommendation on my part.
= A total waste of time. Avoid this movie at any cost!

P.P.S. I am now using the forum standard for rating and have re-rated some of my reviews.