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Akahige (Red Beard), a review by Antares

Akahige





Year: 1965
Film Studio: Toho
Genre: Drama
Length: 185 Min.

Director
Akira Kurosawa (1910)

WritingProducerCinematographerMusicStarsReview won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. What followed would be a successful string of classic cinematic works that have never been rivaled by any director or actor since. Shichinin no samurai, , Yojimbo, and High and LowHigh and Low, work began on what would be their last collaboration, Akahige (Red Beard) was a box office failure and dissolved the company, leading to an un-successful suicide attempt by the director. Mifune, on the other hand, starred in a string of very successful films over the next decade, all of which were profitable, but were inferior in quality to anything he had made with Kurosawa. In essence, Mifune had exchanged artistic integrity for the benefit of a steady paycheck, and his career would never be lauded over again.

       AkahigeRatings Criterion
- The pinnacle of film perfection and excellence.
- Not quite an immortal film, yet a masterpiece in its own right.
- Historically important film, considered a classic.
- Borderline viewable.
- A gangrenous and festering pustule in the chronicles of celluloid.



(From Akahige (Red Beard) (1965) on December 20th, 2009)

Cheerleader Camp, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Cheerleader Camp
Movie Count: 14
TV Ep Count: 2
Time Started: 10:30am
Plot:
Welcome to Camp Hurrah, where a psycho killer is slaughtering high school cheerleaders on the eve of the all-state finals. Drive-in goddesses 'Betsy Russell' (PRIVATE SCHOOL, AVENGING ANGEL) and 'Lucinda Dickey' (BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO) star with former teen idol 'Leif Garrett' in this bouncing, bleeding bonanza of B-movie goodness featuring graphic violence, gratuitous nudity, bad rapping and more from the glory days of late '80s splatter. This is CHEERLEADER CAMP!

Playboy centerfold 'Rebecca Ferratti', Penthouse Pet 'Krista Pflanza' and Playboy centerfold-turned-hardcore-porn queen 'Teri Weigel' co-star in this slasher fan favorite also known as BLOODY POM POMS. CHEERLEADER CAMP has been newly transferred from the original negative and is now presented completely uncut and uncensored!

My Thoughts:
I was definitely NOT impressed. This is pure low-budget cheese... which is ok sometimes... but with this one I found myself struggling to stay awake through the entire movie.  I really didn't feel like I cared for any of the characters. But I will say there was a decent kill or 2 in the movie... so it isn't like it was all bad... just mostly bad... yes I have seen worse... but not many! Oh well... can't win 'em all.

(From Month-Long Horror/Halloween Marathon on October 5th, 2007)

Smallville Marathon #2, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Lois's younger sister Lucy calls in the middle of the night from Switzerland and heralds her in arrival in Smallville. But this isn't a happy family reunion since Lois and Lucy have never gotten along so well since the death of their mother. Additionally Lucy is followed by a loan shark whom she owns $50,000. Lois and Clark try to help her but she isn't completely honest with them.

My Opinion: Maybe I would care much about this episode and Lucy if I knew that we would see her again. But as far as my knowledge goes (to the first episodes of the seventh season) we will not see her again. Even though it wasn't a regular FotW episode it felt like one because of this one-time-character.

Synopsis: During an experiment green Kryptonite is transformed into black Kryptonite and then the entire lab explodes. Somehow the black Kryptonite tears Lex apart into two seperate beings, one that has all his good aspects and one that is purely evil. Evil-Lex imprisons Good-Lex and does all the things Normal-Lex wouldn't do - or maybe he would?

My Opinion: It the classical Star Trek episode The Enemy Within, set in Smallville. But I liked it because Lex's evil side is actually in him. There are few characters that can believably do such a split and Lex Luthor is definitively such a character. I also liked the analogy to The Man in the Iron Mask, it fits into Lex's biography that this was one of his favourite books.

Synopsis: Dawn Stiles is bound to become the Prom Queen. But then she drives her car down a ravine and falls into a coma - sort of. Her spirit wanders around until she lands herself into Martha's body and has control over it. From now on she switches bodies at will and tries to make her dream come true.

My Opinion: I loved to see Annette O'Toole as an adolescent teenager and the others were also great. I also liked the fact that Clark didn't ran headless into the fight (as he often does; granted often he has less time than Jack Bauer) but was prepared for the possibilty that Dawn would take over his body. It was also good that Chloe found out about his weakness, she will need that knowledge later.

Synopsis: A young man who has been treated at Summerholt Institute tries to clean out the register of the "Talon". When Clark tries to stop him, all his memories are erased and he has no clue,  who or what he is and what he can do. With Clark's parents being in Metroplis it's now Chloe's job to introduce him to his abilities and along the road she learns about some of them that she didn't know before.

My Opinion: One of my favourite episodes. It's so funny to see how Chloe teaches Clark about his own abilities. Especially funny was the scene when she learns that he has an X-Ray vision and she tries to cover her chest. But I also liked that she's learned that it isn't that easy to keep such a secret.


Synopsis: Clark and Lana find a baby in a huge crater and they bring it to the Smallville Medical Center. Even though there wasn't a spaceship Clark believes that this child is special. He takes it with him to the farm and he and Lana care for it. But then it suddenly ages into a 7-year-old and it doesn't stop there. Lex tries to help them but only the biological father can prevent that this child dies within a few days.

My Opinion: Honestly: I loved to see Clark and Lana as parents. It was heart-warming. But I didn't like the part where he met his father. This part wasn't well written and a bad excuse for why he couldn't be saved. Don't get me wrong: I am not mad about the fact that he didn't survive, just about the part where (and how) his father died.

Synopsis: A high school graduate wants to "freeze time". He wasn't accepted to a college and in his mind everything should stay as it is just now. For this he captures Chloe, Lana and a few others and imprisons them in a "Smallville High" copy. But he leaves too many traces and soon Clark and Lois are on the search for their friends.

My Opinion: Some people have weird ideas. While there are days that I'd like to relive again I wouldn't give up the future for it. The porcelain effects were great, especially the one where Lois tries her karate kick. But it still was just an average FotW episode where the bad guy's abilities mysteriously turn against himself.

Synopsis: Lana has been taken over by Isobel and kills Genevieve Teague with one of the stones. As Jor-El has warned his son this sets a chain reaction in motion. The first link of this chain is the second meteor shower over Smallville in 16 years and it wreaks havoc in the city. And the gang is scattered throughout the scenery: Clark tries to put the three rocks together, Lana sits in a helicopter and crashes, Jason tries to kill Martha and Jonathan and Lionel is in some sort of coma.

My Opinion: Another great finale. There's wasn't the smallest space for any more action in it. And finally that "Isobel" storyline is finished (although without a satisfying conclusion). Now I am really eager to watch the continuation - the cliffhanger has done its job.

The Season - My Opinion: Hmm. Sorry, but I couldn't make head nor tail out of this "Isobel" arc. What was the point of it? As suddenly as it arose as suddenly it vanished into nothingness. I am not entirely sure but apart from the mentioning of Jason that story will never come up again. Let's imply forget about it.
But this season had some extraodinary developments. For one, Chloe's discovery of Clark's secret and how she influenced him afterwards. But I also found it interesting to see that Lex has also feelings for Lana. The relationship will evolve over the next seasons. From an outside perspective it's interesting to see how simultaneously Clark and Lex drift apart and Lex and Lana get closer. I also liked to see how ambivalent Lionel behaves. It was never clear towards which goals his actions were directed.

(From Smallville Marathon #2 on June 7th, 2008)