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Ponyo, a review by Critter

Ponyo



Anime Type: Movie

Year: 2008

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Plot: The story is loosely based on the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid", about Ponyo, a tiny fish-girl who dreams of being human. She is washed ashore and rescued by a boy, Sosuke, but despite their friendship she has to return to the oceans. Undeterred, Ponyo uses a spell to transform into a human girl, unaware of the dire consequences of the powerful magic.

My Thoughts:My Rating



(From Critter's Animated Film/Anime Marathon on January 12th, 2010)

Breaking the Waves, a review by Rich

a trudge through Denmark



In a small coastal village, young and naive Bess marries an oil rig worker despite a strict community's opposition. It is a marriage of spiritual and sexual bliss until an accident severely paralyzes him. Out of open-eyes self-sacrifice and love, she ignores her own safety in the hope that a miracle will bring her husband back to her.

Filmed like a low-budget documentary, a naive young woman who believed her desire to reunite with her offshore oilrigging husband caused the accident that paralysed him. She repents by submitting to his wish that she sleep with other men. The more she degrades herself, the healthier he becomes. Emily Watson is brilliant (clothed and naked), but the movie itself, whilst being gritty and original, was not to my taste, so I could only give it a 4.


(From Around the World in 80 DVD's on January 4th, 2008)

Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews, a review by Tom

Star Trek: Voyager
5.23 Relativity
Writer: Bryan Fuller (Screenwriter), Nick Sagan (Screenwriter), Michael Taylor (Screenwriter), Nick Sagan (Original Material By)
Director: Allan Eastman
Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), Bruce McGill (Captain Braxton), Dakin Matthews (Admiral Patterson), Jay Karnes (Lieutenant Ducane), Josh Clark (Lieutenant Carey)

Seven is recruited from the future to prevent the destruction of Voyager in the past. I always liked episodes which plays with past occurances in the series. Here we got a little taste of it. They use a similar device (time rifts) in a future episode to have multiple instances of Voyager's past scattered throughout the ship ("Shattered"). A question I asked myself during this episode: Why should it not be possible to remove a person multiple times from their timeline? They say they have done it with Seven the third time now and probably further extractions won't be possible. But why? After a failed attempt, they always got a Seven who existed before the last extraction. Therefore for that Seven, it is the first time. I liked the reference to Star Trek: First Contact. The acknowledgment of the causal loop generated by the time-travelling borg and thus the arrival of the Enterprise making the first warp flight possible when they assisted Cocraine. By the way: Seven looks great in a Starfleet uniform. A shame they did not make it her regular outfit.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews on November 29th, 2011)