Elfie-5 Reviews

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Definitely *Not* "the saddest movie I've ever seen"

[7/10 · 10 July 2003]

The only thing I'd heard about this movie before seeing it was many people saying that it was the saddest movie they've ever seen. I finished watching it about a half an hour ago, and I can only conclude that the people who think so probably don't watch many sad movies.

It was very good and even sad, but it was far from the saddest movie I've ever seen. Perhaps it's the first five minutes of the movie that "ruined" that element for me. It was made perfectly clear what was going to happen by the end, so expecting it made it less sad. To me, anyway.

I guess I'll have to chalk this up to another "est" movie- saddest, scariest, funniest- that many have viseral reactions to that I simply don't get.

The Ring (2002)

Apparently a lot of people scare very easily

[7/10 · 4 November 2002]

I am on a quest: to find a movie that will truely frighten me- what does a girl have to see to scare the pants off of her? With all the hype surrounding this movie, which so many have called "the scariest movie ever" I was hoping to have found a truely scary movie. I did not.

My conclusion from watching this movie is a lot of people are very easily frightened. What on Earth did people find so very frightening about this movie? It doesn't have a more than mildly frightening scene in it up until the last 15 minutes. Personally, I wouldn't rank it in the top 20 scariest movie, never mind *the* scariest. I should have know better than to expect it to be scary when one of the ads compared it to Rosemary's Baby, which is about as scary as 3-day-old leftovers- you know, before they go all green and moldy.

However, if people thought The Ring was really scary, they should see Session 9, another non-scary horror movie that has a similar "feel" to it, which seems to scare some people, anyway.

Don't get me wrong, though, the Ring is a pretty good movie, I'd give it a 7.5 or 8 out of 10, but it's just not very scary.

Dragonfly (2002)

A Twist Ending??

[21 August 2002]

I won't spoil the ending for you, but I'm curious as to why so many others compared it to The Sixth Sense because of the "twist ending." Personally, I figured out how the movie was going to end even before the scene in which he and his wife argued; those first pictures of his wife was all the foreshadowing necessary to predict the ending.

Storytelling (2001)

Given the director, I expected more

[5/10 · 21 August 2002]

This entire movie seemed like a step backwards for Todd Solondz. Had this come out before Welcome To The Dollhouse, and Happiness, I probably would have liked it more, because it seems to have some potential despite its flaws. However, it's not the work of a new director so it's puzzling that it's so disjointed and rambling. After his previous works I expected something surprising and subversive, and instead got a film that was nearly mundane. I suppose I would have thought even less of the movie had I saw the R-rated version of it. 5/10

Glory Days (2001–2002)

Not Good, but entertaining

[20 June 2002]

I would have kept watching it. There was something appealing about the show, but it wasn't plot contingency. The show was really odd in that you could watch the episodes, after the first one, in pretty much any order you wished, and it wouldn't make the series make more or less sense to you. The only contingency between episodes at all was the various relationships, not that they were really solid either. Besides that there was no carry-over from one episode to the next at all. I sort of miss it...

Rose Red (2002)

Still trying to decide if I liked it or not

[6/10 · 28 February 2002]

To start with, I really didn't "get" the ending. I'm not sure what we were supposed conclude about Ellen, April and her maid; nor did the automatic writing scene, Pam's fate, or the time-line involving the hapless reporter make much sense. Yet, I don't dislike the movie despite its glaring short-comings. I suppose the movies you think about long afterwards are worth seeing even if you don't formulate a solid opinion of it one way or the other.

I was surprised that one of the other comments suggested that the character of Annie would be more realistic had she taken her ideas from Rain Man; Annie isn't an idiot savant. Personally, I found her take to be fairly realistic, at least comparing the character to the autistic children I work with. The scene in which she was requested to say "good morning" could have been lifted from any number of morning circles at school. Admittedly the children I work with are younger(3-6), I didn't think the character was much different from them- though she didn't echo back what people said at all, which I thought was a little odd. I don't think that her take could have been expected to be any more "authentic" in this type of movie, which doesn't give one hours for character development.

The Road to El Dorado (2000)

A great movie for grown up animation fans

[8/10 · 27 April 2001]

I watched this movie with my younger brother (who is in his late teens) and we both loved it. This movie, and Titian AE, are part of an interesting new trend- animated films that appeal to teens and adults. I was stuck by how much this movie wasn't for little kids- the whole Tulio/Chel relationship notably- but since I'm not a parent, I don't have to be bothered by that. I got the impression that this movie was animated only because it is easier(ok, cheaper) to draw the elaborate settings than it would have been to constuct sets that showed as rich a setting. My only qualm with the movie is the awful musical numbers that all animated films insist on having in them- why do they all strive to be musicals? But all in all, it's a great movie. If you too find yourself drawn to such shows as Batman Beyond, you might appricate this animation that isn't geared towards small children.

FreakyLinks (2000–2001)

It Could Have Been Great...

[20 April 2001]

I'll try to be objective, even though I'm an Ethan Embry fan... Freakylinks was an ok show. It wasn't spectacular, but it was better than many of the new shows this season that outlasted it. The problem was that the show didn't live up to its premise. It was supposed to be dark and scary, but it was more funny than it ought to have been. It was taking the middle ground between horror and comedy that was its downfall. While some shows can get away with that (like Buffy the Vampire Slayer) it is because the plotlines evolved into an in between state, not that they aimed for it to begin with. I think the show might have been more successful if it had set out to be a comedy or a horror show, not both. It's sad that we'll never find out if the show could have become what it wanted to be- one of those rare sci-fi shows on network tv that people liked.

I've Been Waiting for You (1998 TV Movie)

Better Than Expected

[8/10 · 20 April 2001]

I rented this movie with the hope that it would be half-way decent despite it having been a made-for-tv movie. It was a lot better than I was expecting. I especially liked the party scene. It was a nice change from horror movies where the majority of the cast is killed in gruesome ways. Not a bad rent at all. 8/10

Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever (1991)

Wonderful, Yet Under-rated

[10/10 · 20 April 2001]

I love this movie. However, until a few months ago, I had no idea that this movie was a sequel to anything. I suppose that it's hard for a sequel to live up to a cult favorite, but as I've never seen the first movie, my opinion of this one isn't tainted by that. This is one of the funniest high school movies I've ever seen, and everyone ought to see it, the Appliance Worship scene is alone is worth it.

The Charmings (1987–1988)

I too wish they'd air this again...

[20 April 2001]

Sadly this is one of those half-remembered shows from my childhood that I wish I could remember better. I remember loving this show, but the details are hazy...I know that it was on this show that I first saw a cd, though. This would a a great show for Nick at Night to air for Revenge of the 80's.

Labyrinth (1986)

Outside Over There

[10/10 · 15 April 2001]

When a few of my friends and I found out that one of the girls in our dorm had never seen the movie, we were dumbfounded. We promptly fixed the situation by rushing home to grab the movie. I find it hard to believe that someone in her early 20's could have possibly missed this classic, but it just goes to show you that everything great misses someone. Now that I have a DVD player, this is on the list of movies I must buy!

Is anyone else familar with the Sendek book " Outside Over There"? My parents borrowed the book for me from our library in 1983 or 4 when my own brother was an infant. If you haven't read it, look for it in the children's section of Barnes and Noble. Read it once, and you too might believe that this book is what inspired a movie of a girl looking for a brother who was taken by Goblins...=)

Supernova (I) (2000)

Supernova Super Sucked

[3/10 · 4 April 2001]

Man, this is still considered a better 00' space movie than Battlefield Earth? Wow. I don't think I'll ever see Battlefield Earth then! You know a movie is bad when you don't care that cast members are getting murdered. I was hoping it'd have a daring ending, and have the entire cast killed off before the end, but I guess that was too much to wish for. As my kid brother put it, " One night, while I was sleeping, my @$$ snuck over to the computer and wrote a better screenplay than this." Without a doubt this is Robin Tunney's worst movie. I don't watch many movies set in space, yet I must have seen everyone of them that this movie borrowed from, because I knew what was going to happen next the entire movie. The only bright spot is that Peter Facinelli looks much better in this than anything else I've seen him in.

Judgment Night (1993)

Strangely Familiar

[22 March 2001]

I think I saw this movie before I saw it. The first time around it was a tv movie called Survive The Night. Both movies came out the same year, but clearly one writer cribbed from another to come up with a movie so similar. The only major differences in the two movies is that in one the cast is primarily male, the other female, and that there are different reasons for the gangs to seek the people out. Frankly, I liked the tv movie better, the women in the cast were more likeable, and one was more worried for their safety than in this movie.

Bless the Child (2000)

Not a bad movie, but a horrible adaptation

[4/10 · 14 March 2001]

I'm fully convinced that makers of this movie never read the book. The book is about Maggie and her perfectly normal 3 year old granddaughter, Cody, and how they get help overcoming evil from a psychic, a priest and an FBI agent, two of which are conspicuously absent from the movie plot. And I suppose the producers decided to add in the series of murders (which are not in the book, either) to make the film more exciting. The only thing this script got right besides the names was Eric's character.

The movie isn't bad as horror movies go, but I was much more horrified by how little it had to do with the book than any events in the movie.