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Relentless, a review by Achim

Relentless (1989/United States) (United States) Director: William Lustig Writing: Phil Alden Robinson (Writer) Length: 92 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround Subtitles: English, Spanish

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Stars:
Judd Nelson as Arthur 'Buck' Taylor
Robert Loggia as Bill Malloy
Leo Rossi as Sam Dietz
Meg Foster as Carol Dietz
Patrick O'Bryan as Todd Arthur

Plot:
A sadistic serial killer holds Los Angeles in the grip of unspeakable fear in this hard-hitting action-thriller.

Rejected from the police force on psychological grounds, Buck Taylor (Judd Nelson) exacts revenge by committing a string of brutal murders and taunting the LAPD. The only clues are pages torn from a telephone book and victims who appear to have somehow participated in their own deaths. But when a brash rookie detective (Leo Rossi) pairs up with a cynical veteran (Robert Loggia) to track down the killer, the cat-and-mouse game ends in a deadly fight to the finish.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Feature Trailers
• Closed Captioned

Probably the most mainstream film by William Lustig that I know. While not a masterpiece, this is a solid thriller but with some turns in the story line that sets it apart from similar films of the same era. I was surprised by the amount of well known actors (mostly by face not necessarily by name) this movie had to offer. Besides Nelson, Loggia, Rossi and Foster (she is such strange eyes...) there is also Edward Bunker, Roy Brocksmith and George 'Buck' Flower.

A buddy cop movie, a serial killer movie and eventually a revenge movie, Lustig does a great job balancing the elements so they don't get in the way of each other. Sure, the motivation of the killer is rather stock standard, but otherwise this film offers some solid entertainment.

Rating:

(From The Movies from Within My Lifetime on July 11th, 2011)

It's a Wonderful Afterlife, a review by Tom

It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010/United Kingdom) IMDb | Wikipedia Icon Home Entertainment (United Kingdom) Director: Gurinder Chadha Writing: Gurinder Chadha (Writer), Paul Mayeda Berges (Writer) Length: 96 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles: English

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Stars:
Shabana Azmi
Sendhil Ramamurthy as D S Murphy
Goldy Notay
Sally Hawkins
Jimi Mistry

Plot:
My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets Shaun of the Dead in this fun, heart-warming comedy about a mother whose match making efforts turn deadly when she tries to marry off her daughter Roopi (Goldy Nolay, Sex and the City 2).

A frighteningly feel-good comedy romp from the director of Bend It Like Beckham. Starring Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes), Sally Hawkins (Happy Go Lucky), Jimi Mistry (East is East), Mark Addy (The Full Monty) and Shabana Azmi (Fire, Godmother, Arth).

Extras:

• Bonus Trailers
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Interviews
• Scene Access
• Trailers

From the director of "Bend It Like Beckham" and "Bride & Prejudice". I didn't enjoy this one as much as those two. Nice idea and some fun scenes but overall they could have done more out of this. I wonder if the idea of the ghosts is taken from "Stardust". They have a similar look to them.
The movie stars the Indian guy from Heroes. I never really liked him on Heroes but here he was okay. Sally Hawkins also has fun supporting roles as one of the main character's best friend who just came from a vacation in India and now thinks she is Indian.
There was also a guy who I thought sounded and looked like the guy from "Ella Enchanted" who was trapped in a book. And it was him.
The mother who is doing the killings is played by an actress who I know from a few Bollywood movies. For example was she the star in "Fire", the only lesbian Indian movie I know of.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on March 18th, 2011)

Death Note anime/manga/movies comparison, a review by Tom

01. Rebirth

Light, a very bright, but bored, High School student finds a notebook, which promises that for each name written in this notebook will kill that person.
Ryuk, the death god who has dropped this notebook on earth to have some fun, is also introduced. Only Light can see him, because only people, who have touched the Death Note can see and hear him.

Rules introduced in this episode:
- the person written into the death note dies after 40 seconds of a heart attack if no cause of death is written down
- if a cause of death is written down, you have another 6 minutes and 40 seconds to specify the circumstances
- you have to know the face of the person whose name is written down
- touching a death god's death note will enable you to see and hear him

Manga:
This episode covers chapter 1 of the manga. Generally in the manga, Light is very collected. In the anime he is very hot-headed, even in his inner monologues.
In the manga, the order of the scenes is this:
- Ryuk decides to drop the book in the human world
- Light finds it
- jump five days ahead and Ryuk introduces himself to Light and is surprised how many people Light has already killed
- Light tells about his first try-outs of using the book and coming to the realization, that it's the real thing
- he tells Ryuk of this plans of using the notebook to get rid of all evil in the world

In the anime, these happenings are told linear. We see him finding the book, trying it out and then the visit of Ryuk. As far as I remember, this observation in difference can be made a lot. In the manga, we often see Light doing something and then after it is finished, we get to see his preparations. In the anime we first get to see his preparations and then the pay-off.

Movies:
In the movies, Light does not start off as a high school student, but is already a law student, who gets frustrated with the Japanese law system. This is when he finds the notebook. His first tests with the notebook and his first encounter with Ryuk are similar to the manga/anime.


(From Death Note anime/manga/movies comparison on January 30th, 2009)