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L: Change the World, a review by Tom

Title: L: Change the World
Year: 2008
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Rating: Category IIB
Length: 129 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital Surround EX , Japanese: DTS ES (Matrixed) , Cantonese: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Chinese, English

Stars:
Ken'ichi Matsuyama
Shunji Fujimura
Mayuko Fukuda
Sei Hiraizumi
Renji Ishibashi

Plot:
The film is a spin-off from the Death Note and Presents the "final 23 days of L." The mystery the world wants to know will be revealed. After solving the Kira case in Death Note, another serious one finds L and he only has 23 days left to solve it. A boy and a girl hold the key to solving the case and L faces a crisis of global magnitude to protect the kids. L is without his trusted partner, Watari, and to solve the case all by himself for the very first time.

What will happen to L? What will change? The 23 days are packed with turns of events even L himself cannot predict.

Extras:
Scene Access
Trailers

Sadly rather disappointing. I knew that it will not be as great as the Death Note movies, but I still thought that another adventure with L could only be good.
But except for some minor references to the Death Note movies, this movie could be set around any set of characters. Though it is supposed to center around L, I had the feeling, that he had a bigger role in the Death Note movies, than in his own film. Also it feels more like L is just going along with the flow of the events. It doesn't feel like he has any major influence here. His skills of deduction are sadly rather underused. As I said, it could be any other character in the center of this movie. It wouldn't have needed L. It feels a little like they had already a script for another movie and after L was such a fan-favorite character in the Death Note movies, they made little adjustments in the script and used it for an L movie.

Rating:




(From Tom's Random Reviews on July 12th, 2008)

Where Eskimos Live, a review by Rich

in and out of Poland...



In the course of his travels, Vlado meets Sharkey (Bob Hoskins) a rough-hewn Englishman who claims to be a caseworker for UNICEF. Actually, Sharkey is rounding up children for a black market adoption ring in Poland. Sharkey persuades Vlado to join him, assuming the boy would fetch a fair price and Vlado, unaware of Sharkey's true intentions, says yes. Sharkey and Vlado soon become unlikely friends but Sharkey soon learns getting Vlado out of the country may not be so simple

  I could write several pages to describe how awful this film is and why you should not part with any money to purchase it. I gave it one point purely on the scenery, and the child actors performance. This is a poor attempt at trying to cover too many subjects - Bosnia,War,Kidnapping, Relations etc etc., and doing them all badly. Avoid it 1/10 

(From Around the World in 80 DVD's on January 20th, 2008)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Haibane - Renmei: Ailes Grises (2002/Japan) IMDb | Wikipedia (Germany) Length: 330 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78 Audio: German: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: DTS 5.1, Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: German

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Haibane Renmei
1.01 Mayu - Sora wo ochiru yume - Ourudo Houmu (2002-02-09)

A wonderful story about angel-like creatures with beautiful animation work. A girl finds herself, after having some strange dream, coming out of a cocoon with small wings on her back. She has lost all memories of her previous life and now must find out what it means to be a "Haibane" (this is how these creatures are called).

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on July 4th, 2011)