Tag: splatter

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Animation Features Movies

All You Need is Kill
(Oru Yu Nido izu Kiru)

Directors – Kenichiro Akimoto, Yukinori Yakamura – 2025 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 86m

***1/2

A woman trapped in a repeating time loop dies fighting alien plant monsters, joins forces with a man in a similar time loop – animated science fiction tale is out in UK cinemas on Friday, February 27th

This began as a science fiction novel first published in Japan in 2004. Ten years later, as is the way of things in Japan, it appeared as a manga. It also formed the basis of the Tom Cruise / Emily Blunt vehicle Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014). The novel is about a cowardly military man killed in a skirmish with unexpected invading aliens who wakes up and realises he’s reliving that first day of the alien invasion. He gets killed over and over again, and wakes up and relives the same day over and over again. Similarly trapped in a time loop is a brave military woman fighting the aliens. It’s a military hardware alien action movie using the looped repeating day structure of Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993).

While I recommend the 2014 movie, and have no issue mentioning it in terms of contextualising the new film, I also recommend you put it firmly to one side and don’t try and base whatever expectations you might have about the new film on it.… Read the rest

Categories
Animation Features Movies

LUPIN THE IIIRD
The Movie
The Immortal Bloodline
(RUPAN SANSEI ZA MUBÎ
Fujimi no Ketsuzoku,
LUPIN THE IIIRD
THE MOVIE
不死身の血族)

Original comic books created by Monkey Punch © Monkey Punch All rights reserved. © TMS All rights reserved.

Director – Takeshi Koike – 2025 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 93m

***

Lupin and his friends are lured to a zombie-populated island run by an immortal being where a toxic gas kills people after 24 hours – out in UK cinemas on Saturday, February 21st

Lupin III (or LUPIN THE IIIRD as he’s called here) has been around in Japan a very long time, first in the manga created by artist Monkey Punch in 1967 and later in live action movies, animated TV series, animated features and various other media formats.

© MP / T

You be forgiven for thinking that makes the franchise inaccessible for the newcomer, but this latest instalment opens with a burst of fuzz guitar and black and white images of ink clouds in liquid and drawings of the five main characters, who are helpfully introduced one by one, invaluable to the newcomer but equally, given the stylish drawings and the rapid pace at which they are introduced, a pleasure also for the viewer already familiar. Thus, we meet master thief (and narrator) Arsène Lupin III (voice: Kenichi Kurita) (“the cops are always after me”), his gunslinging partner Daisuke Jigen (voice: Akio Otsuka), his friend Goemon the swordsman (voice: Daisuke Namikawa), his friendly rival the curvaceous Fujiko Mine (voice: Miyuki Sawashiro), briefly zipping up cleavage that appears have been considerably enlarged for this particular film, and his nemesis Inspector Zenigata (voice: Koichi Yamadira) who has failed to apprehend him for decades, here introduced as an ace even though elsewhere in the franchise he’s pretty hapless.… Read the rest

Categories
Animation Features Movies

Blood
The Last Vampire
(2000)

Director – Hiroyuki Kitakubo – 2000 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 48m

****

Part English, Part Japanese with English Subtitles, Widescreen (1.85)

REG 2 DVD / PAL VHS review from Starburst (UK Edition), 2001.

The animation weighs in at a mere 46 minutes on home video formats, although on both you also get an informative, 20 minute Making Of documentary which goes into a lot of fascinating detail about the project’s innovative production processes via interviews with most of the animation staff involved.

Set largely on an American Air Base in Japan in 1966’s early stages of the Vietnam War, Blood’s tale cleverly employs both American English for the US military and Japanese (here subtitled in English) for the indigenous population. Sometimes, of course, the Japanese speak English to Americans and on one occasion, an American schoolgirl is told by Japanese heroine Saya (voice: Youki Kudoh from Heaven’s Burning, Craig Lahiff, 1997; Mystery Train, Jim Jarmusch, 1989; Typhoon Club, Shinji Somai, 1985; The Crazy Family, Sogo Ishii, 1984) to back off in American English after attempting to greet Saya in the Japanese tongue.

Language wise, there’s therefore no need for a separate track, but the DVD includes two sound mixes of which the 5.1 scores hands down since every implement dropping to a stone floor or every bullet flying into a wall springs to life in the 5.1 mix, but sounds comparatively flat in the stereo.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

The Ice Cream Truck

Director – Megan Freels Johnston – 2018 – US – Cert. 15 – 96m

**1/2

A housewife newly moved in to a suburb is unnerved by the creepy, local ice cream man and van… with good reason, as it turns out – on VoD and DVD from Monday, March 1st

Having just moved back into the neighbourhood where she grew up, Mary (Deanna Russo) should probably be worried that it looks a lot like the location of classic shocker Halloween (John Carpenter, 1979) with its pavements bordering lawns and hedges around residential houses. (There’s now prowling, gliding camera here though – the shots are mostly static.)

The locality also now boasts the traditional American ice cream truck, a simple, slow moving van which still serves exactly the same traditional ice cream that it has for generations. The ice cream man himself (Emil Johnsen) seems almost a parody of his profession, addressing both children and adults alike with archaic lines like, “hello there, young fellow.”

She takes an immediate dislike to nosy next-door neighbour Jessica (Hilary Barraford) but nevertheless accepts an invitation to a barbecue where it’s promised drink will flow celebrating the recent graduation of local couple’s son Max (John Redlinger – who feels a lot older than 18) who she meets on her way to the party as he hangs out with his girlfriend Tracy (Bailey Anne Borders) to smoke pot.… Read the rest