Akhu's Movie Reviews: 'Lunopolis' (2009)

Movie: Lunopolis

Year: 2009

My Rating: 6.3/10 Stars ******

This was well done for a fake-documentary or as they say 'mockumentary', almost as good as a real one would be. A group of independent mystery enthusiasts decide to investigate the location of a supposed base for Moon People to discover a time machine and that it the so-called hoax is actually real.

DJ Akhu's Movie Reviews: 'Happythankyoumoreplease' (2011)

Movie: Happythankyoumoreplease
Sneaks' Rating: 5.9/10 Stars *****'

This was a bit of a different/oddball movie about a group of young people in New York City. Main character randomly meets the girl of his dreams on the street, the same day he gets rejected again for a script he wrote, and he ends up helping a kid who gets lost on the metro and doesn't want to go back to his foster family. Side stories are also a bit strange/have an element of creep to them in my opinion (maybe that was just me?)...check it out if your bored.

DJ Akhu's Movie Reviews: "Pineapple Express" (2008)

Movie: Pineapple Express (2008)


My Rating: 7/10 Stars *******

Hilarious movie, don't know why i waited so long to see it, 'Bill Lumberg' as the evil druglord is pretty funny in and of itself..awkward at times, violent, and also was a long movie for its genre. Check this one out if you haven't already, good action and comedy blend.

DJ Akhu's Movie Reviews: 'Old Khottabych' (1956)

Movie: Old Khottabych (aka The Flying Carpet) (1958)
Rating: 6/10 Stars ******

A strange but entertaining old Russian movie about a young school boy who unwittingly finds and opens a strange bottle he finds whilst swimming to discover it holds a powerful Genie who is so happy to be free that he takes it upon himself to be the boy's new guardian and servant. An adventure ensures. This could be a kids movie, but it is entertaining for adults too, and quirky, Check it out. Sorry there are no YouTube trailers for this one, but YouTube does have the whole movie up for viewing HERE.

Sneaks' Movie Reviews: 'Sex and the Single Girl' (1964)

Movie: Sex and the Single Girl (1964)

Director: Richard Quine

Rating: 8/10 Stars ********

Great Movie! A 60's era romantic comedy, with little to no seriousness to it, starring Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, and Natalie Wood. A young pHD female psychologist gets pursued and scammed by a tabloid-magazine writer who is looking for a juicy dirt-story to publish about her, however he finds himself in love with this pretty psychologist and a lot of misunderstandings ensue. Check this one out if you like goofy old romantic comedies.

Sneaks' Movie Reviews: 'Ricky' (2009)

Movie: Ricky (2009)

Director: François Ozon

Rating: 6.1/10 Stars ******'

French foreign film,  and for sure not your typical plot-line. Actually the movie isn't all that unusual, nor are the relationships or interactions in the movie except the one element of fantasy which is when the baby-boy develops wings and starts flying around. Although, were something like this were to happen, the way that the tabloids and press treat the family and situation is probably realistic to what it would be if it happened in real life. I watched this one because it was on Netflix streaming. Check this one out if you are looking for a different kind/oddball  movie.

Sneaks' Movie Reviews: 'Hellboy' (2004)

Movie: Hellboy (2004)

Director: Guillermo del Toro

My Rating: 7/10 Stars *******

Yes, I know, I am still way behind on my movies list, so once again will try to post more reviews to catch up with what I've been watching (and so many good ones too), but no more than one per day. Hellboy was quite a bit better than I expected it to be. A sci-fi action flick about Hellboy (comic book character) who, along with his team of special beings has to face monsters and villains from all time periods to save the world from destruction and demonic invasion. Definitely check this one out if you are looking for some sci-fi action/comedy to watch. Its kind of too good to miss, so just make sure you watch it at some point :) Hard to believe its an 8 year old movie already!

Sneaks' Movie Reviews: 'Snow Cake' (2006)

Movie: Snow Cake (2006)

Director: Marc Evans

Rating: 7.8/10 Stars *******''

Hi folks, so I just realized that I am about 3 months behind on my movie reviews, so I may have to step them up a notch, but have been busier lately and doing fewer posts in general. That said....This is quite a good movie and quality acting too. Rickman's character picks up a friendly young teenaged hitch-hiker who gets killed when a semi-track t-bones his car. He goes to the girls mother (Weaver) to offer his apology and consolation to the family to find the mother is Austistic and needs his help to organize the funeral and get things sorted again. During his stay with the mother he finds he makes some friends and discovers a few things about himself and his own tormented history. Check this one out if you haven't yet.

Sneaks' Movie Reviews: 'Bill Cunningham New York' (2010)

Movie: Bill Cunningham New York (2010)

Director: Richard Press

Rating: 8/10 Stars ********

An interesting doco about Bill Cunningham, a life-long and dedicated photographer who has documented street and runway fashion from the 1960's to present day in New York City and Paris. Quite entertaining and the best part is that is real, and about real people, so check it out, especially if you are into fashion at all.

Sneaks' Movie Reviews: The Running Man (1987)

Movie: The Running Man (1987)

Director: Paul Michael Glaser

Rating: 2.4/5 Stars **'

I finally watched this one! I had been searching at movie stores overseas for ages and never came across it. Finally I moved back to the USA and it was Netflix to the rescue. In a futuristic world of shortages and conflict exists military states. In this one there is a gladiator-esque gameshow in which prisoner-contestants fight for their lives against super-gladiators who try to kill them, and often do, on live television. All to act as a distraction for people who would otherwise be rioting and over-running the power structure that served only the elite few. Shades of the Roman empire, and when empires collapse I suppose. Check this one out, although don't expect much other than the typical Schwarzenegger action-adventure formula, and sort of a rushed conclusion. 

Sneaks' Movie Reviews: 'Our Idiot Brother' (2011)

Movie: Our Idiot Brother (2011)
Director: Jesse Peretz
Rating: 4/5 Stars ****
This movie was way better than I thought it was going to be. The essentially ego-less and laid back character of Paul Rudd gets sent to jail for selling pot to a cop, and is released to find his girlfriend has shacked up with someone else and thus he has to move back in with his family and get help while he finds his feet again. Lots of funny moments, and actually is much more mature and interesting than the previews make it look. Don't miss this one, its well worth it.

P.S. Movie Reviews: 'Passionfish' (1992)

Movie: Passionfish (1992)

Director:John Sayles

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars ***'

I have liked every John Sayles movie I have seen thus far, and this one continues with that pattern. A soap-opera actress is paralyzed from the waist down following an auto-collision, and has to face up with her new reality of being confined to a wheelchair and having a constant care-taker around. She meets up with nurse-carer Chantelle and the story goes from there. Check this one out, it is one of Sayles's more serious films.

Brief Movie Reviews: 'How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog' (2000)

Movie: How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (2000)
Director: Michael Kalesniko
Rating: 3.4/5 Stars ***'

Don't be fooled by the dodgy title of this movie, as it really has nothing to do with the movie, except that at the end of the movie someone's dog gets shot by a crazy person. This is a light-hearted comedy about a successful English-playwright who lives in Los Angeles and is struggling to balance his professional life with his wife's desire to have children, as well as be stalked by a fan who wants to be him. This was better than I thought it would be and actually has some clever dialogue and humor, check it out.

Brief Movie Review: 'The Landlord' (1970)

Movie: The Landlord (1970) 
Director: Hal Ashby
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars ***' 

Quite an interesting and ground-breaking movie for 1970. A rich, white, young and naive man buys a block of flats in a New York slum and finds that it is a little more than he can handle. This movie came out only 3 years after "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," and I appreciate that it contributed its part to breaking racial barriers by increasing understanding and compassion by including inter-racial couples and and relationships, which even to this day are still challenged in places like the South. Check this one out!

Brief Movie Reviews: 'Dreamscape' (1984)

Movie: Dreamscape (1984)
Director: Joseph Ruben
Rating: 3.8/5 Stars ***'
Definitely an 80's era sci-fi film, and personally I found this film more interesting than its fancy effects/over complicated, grand-child-film Inception. Dennis Quaid's character, who has some telepathic and psychic abilities, is reluctantly recruited by a covert government experiment on dreaming, and trained to enter other people's dreams via use of special lab equipment. After a few benign dream tests Quaid discovers that there is more to the experiment than any of them had bargained for. Check this one out, it is a classic.

A Brief Movie Review for 'White On Rice' (2009)

Movie = White On Rice (2009)

Director = Dave Boyle

Rating = 3.5/5 Stars ***

White On Rice was refreshing for me to watch just because it is actually different from the typical formulas. The movie revolves around hyperactive (almost ADD) Jimmy, a Japanese expat living in America (as well as an ex-movie-actor out of work) with his sister and her family whom he manages to drive up the wall on a regular basis. You don't see many English movies (although not all of this is in English) about Asian-American families, and that is really what made this movie entertaining and interesting for me. I would watch it a second time.

A Brief Movie Review for 'Adrift In Manhattan' (2007)

Movie = Adrift In Manhattan (2007)

Director = Alfredo De Villa

Rating = 2.5/5 Stars **

This is a film worth watching about a group of New Yorkers whose lives unknowingly become intertwined. The individual stories of each of the characters makes the movie a slow one, but it is interesting and a little weird too, but I suppose that is more like real life in a way. It is not the most entertaining movie to watch, so just be prepared for a slow and awkwardone if you sit down with it. I wouldn't watch it a second time.

A Brief Movie Review for 'Tom Jones' (1963)

Movie = Tom Jones (1963) 

Director = Tony Richardson

Rating = 3/5 Stars ***

I was surprised that this movie won the best picture in 1963 as it seems altogether too goofy to be taken seriously as a contender for the Oscar, but apparently it did. Tom Jones is the bastard child adopted by a wealthy English-noble (or so we are led to believe) who womanizes and causes lots of trouble amongst the drunken-noble class of the 1700's English countryside. Lots of humor for a change, which I must say is a relief as so many of the modern-day movies are ultra-serious and this one is anything but a stone-faced movie. Good fun.

A Brief Movie Review for 'Mr and Mrs Smith' (1941 version)

Movie: Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Rating: 2/5 Stars **

A somewhat funny movie, and entertaining to say the least. I don't however really find the whole 'cutesy lover's quarrels' to be all that funny or cute, although I can tell that they are supposed to be, I guess I just don't get the humor there. For context, this film was shot during the great depression and WWII so perhaps people were just looking for pure escapist flicks which is understandable. I know they made a new version with Pitt and Jolie where they just add guns and lots of punching and kicking, but I doubt its much better. Not your typical Hitchcock flick, but check it out if you like the whole lover's quarrels bit.

A Brief Review for 'Paths of Glory' (1957)

Movie = Paths of Glory (1957)

Director = Stanley Kubrick

5/5 Stars *****

This movie is one to watch, although it is not for the light-hearted as it is a war-movie. Kubrick does a brilliant job showing us another side of war not often talked about or shown in movies, and by that I mean the internal politics that ravages the very structure of the military itself. Like all human organizations, when the big egos clash their is a price to pay and it is usually in the form of sacrifice by the lower-ranking infantry. Of course the powerful do this all in the petty search of their own egoic and short-lived personal glory. I must disagree to those critics (most of them) who say it is an anti-war film, it is a war-film, and it depicts situations of war that are not uncommon, so if having a hint of realism means a war-movie is anti-war then maybe they are right. I won't say any more here, other than that Kirk Douglas and George Macready both do an excellent job in their roles and so cheers to them both. Good one to watch for sure.