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True Lies, a review by DJ Doena

True Lies



Arnold Schwarzenegger ... Harry Tasker
Jamie Lee Curtis ... Helen Tasker
Tom Arnold ... Albert Gibson
Bill Paxton ... Simon
Charlton Heston ... Spencer Trilby
Tia Carrere ... Juno Skinner
Art Malik ... Salim Abu Aziz
Eliza Dushku ... Dana Tasker

Harry Tasker pretends to be  a computer system salesman who travels a lot and attends fairs. At home he as a loving wife and a pubertal daughter. But Harry doesn't go on business travels of the usual kind. Harry is an secret agent who works for Omega Sector and one day his family is dragged into his second life.

My opinion:
The movie works very well because it doesn't take itself seriously. The action spiced up with the humour is excellent. And seven years before 9/11 the Arabs-are-bad-terrorists-plot has not been used ad nauseam.

(From Schwarzenegger-Fun-Movies-Mini-Marathon on February 4th, 2008)

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, a review by DJ Doena

September, 16th


Riisa Naka    ...    Makoto Konno
Takuya Ishida   ...    Chiaki Mamiya
Mitsutaka Itakura   ...    Kousuke Tsuda
Ayami Kakiuchi   ...    Yuri Hayakawa
Mitsuki Tanimura   ...    Kaho Fujitani
Sachie Hara   ...    Kazuko Yoshiyama
Yuki Sekido   ...    Miyuki Konno

Synopsis: When Makoto slips in the chem lab one day she falls backwards onto what looks like a walnut. Later that day she drives down a hill towards a train crossing when her bike brakes fail and she falls directly in front of the oncoming train - but then she's back on top of the hill again. She has acquired the ability to travel back in time and she's decided to have fun with it - until she learns that it can also hurt people.

My Opinion: This is not a saving the world time travel movie. This is about a young girl growing up and falling in love. It is a slow and quiet movie, sometime a bit to slow for my taste but it conveys its story really well to the viewer and I really enjoyed watching it. As to the animation: Like with all manga and anime (that I know) it uses the art of showing only detail where detail is necessary. It's not a Pixar animation where you can see every single hair but that doesn't matter because it isn't necessary.
There are also the huge eyes but if you compare American/European smiley drawings :-) with their Japanese counterparts ^_^ then you begin to understand that in this culture emotions are expressed more through the eyes rather than the mouth.

(From DJ Doena's movie watchings 2009 on September 16th, 2009)

The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

What's the show about?
Black King? White Knight? Nate is a former insurance investigator but now he works with a thief (Parker), a hacker (Hardison), a hitter (Eliot) and a grifter (Sophie) to help people the normal law can't or won't help. Nate is a master at Xanatos Speed Chess and he uses this ability to outmanoeuvre his opponents and get what he wants.

"The Nigerian Job"
The CEO of an airplane manufacturer hires Nate to be the boss of a gang of thieves to steal back blueprints that were stolen from him. But he has played them all and tries to get them killed. Now Nate is turning the tables. He hires a new face and old "friend" of his, Sophie, and together they are getting the prints back and the CEO in trouble.

My Opinion
It's a worthy successor of the 80's A-Team and basically as unrealistic - which didn't matter then and doesn't matter now. Back then B.A. welded some steel together and built some form of tank, today Hardison is manipulating any electronic device to get hoodwink the bad guy. The characters are funny to watch and two of them (Nate and Sophie) have an even more personal connection.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on September 11th, 2009)