Des

Cloud Atlas (2012) Beautifully crafted film with many actors playing many different roles. Six main 'storylines' (perhaps seven or eight if you count the really small ones as well) set in different ages and different civilizations. This sounds complicated but it really is not. Each storyline is fairly simple and mostly presented in a logical order for you to process, never making it unnecessarily difficult for the audience to understand. At times the film was too preachy. It was not complicated, yet it seems the filmmakers thought it would be too difficult for some people? Some of the dialogue and voice-overs could have been removed. I can work things out on my own and really do not need those Captain Obvious statements like "why do people keep making the same mistakes over and over again'?". Yeah, I noticed that, but thanks... I guess. There were some parts in which the actors were mumbling, so I had to resort to the (Dutch) subtitles because I could not hear everything they were saying. There were several 'comic relief' moments throughout the film which were not very well done. These moments add up to about two or three minutes of the entire film so it was not that bad, but they still kind of damaged the atmosphere that was created prior to these jokes. However, the scenes that followed quickly made up for these moments and put you back into the magical journey called Cloud Atlas. It is a magical film and it is very satisfying to see a big budget (100 million dollars) can still be used to create a film like this. At the same time it is slightly disappointing to see that this film does not bring in many bucks and gets its ass kicked commercially by many inferior films (*cough* garbage *cough*) of 2012. Definitely one of the best films I have seen that was released in the past few decades. It has a few minor flaws but the experience as a whole is memorable and I highly recommend this film. 9.5/10

Wow, those are some quality releases right there. The price tags are pretty damn high though. I think they should've included the DVD + Blu-ray discs in that big box, then all of that together for 21000 Yen seems fair.

Skyfall (2012) Just plain bad. Has two or three nice scenes, but mainly thanks to the visuals. Plot was dumb, characters were lifeless, dialogue was ridiculously bad. I fail to see how a film like this could get positive reviews. I even prefer Bonds like 'Moonraker' and 'You Only Live Twice' over this. Both ridiculous films plot-, gadgets- and villainwise but at least their ridiculousness set an enjoyable atmosphere while Skyfall was just empty. 3/10 Don't Bother to Knock (1952) One of Marilyn Monroe's earlier films before the big hits... and she actually does a pretty good job at acting for a change! Never was much of a fan, but her performance in this film is one of her best I've seen so far. The real reason why I watched this is because Richard Widmark plays the male lead here, one of the best actors during this era and he does not disappoint. The plot could've been a bit more exciting and I'm not 100% satisfied with the ending but overall this is undeniably a good film. 7/10 Angel Face (1952) One of the best films I've seen lately. Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons play the biggest roles and both are most excellent. Sometime past halfway through the film there's a court session which took some of the atmosphere and pace out of the film, but even this was well done and thought through. The ending was dramatic in every sense of the word. Excellent picture! 8.5/10

This is one hell of a setlist. Wow. Definitely getting this on Blu-Ray! If it's region free...

I think 99% of the listeners grow out of the childish visual bands like An Cafe, D=OUT, ViViD, that kind of stuff. If you never get tired of this then you are truly a special person. Not trying to offend anyone but if you're 30 years old and still listening to An Cafe then you will have to admit you're quite unique and most likely not very mature mentally. For bands like the GazettE and Versailles and countless others, it's harder to tell. They're somewhat childish but not entirely. I can see people in their late 20's still listen to these bands occasionally. But beyond that age? Hmm... Bands like MERRY, cali≠gari and BUCK-TICK might last longer. At least they have a certain maturity in their music and fashion style that might be ageless... or might not. Again, that's hard to tell. For these kind of bands their band is a company, their music is a product and their job is to sell it to teenagers. For example: Green Day's most recent music is still aimed at 15 year olds while their lead singer is 40 years old now.

To be honest I only liked preview #8. #5 a little bit too... I guess. Altogether, based on the previews, this album sounds like a routine job to me. A little better than their previous singles but still no good compared to what they did in around 2009 and further back in their discography.

I didn't like their last two singles much. However, the rerecording of their debut album was excellent. Wait and see.

BLANKEY JET CITY - Red Guitar and the Truth Their first and their best. The definitive BLANKEY album. They sound like they've had experience for years but they were only starting out. Combined with a very youthful and energetic sound. An awesome collection of songs without fillers or misses. L'Arc~en~Ciel - Dune I wouldn't say this is their absolute best, they might have surpassed this with their second album, Tierra, but it's very impressing still. Another one of these albums where I think "these guys have been going strong for years" but they were young and inexperienced. I feel like their later albums suffer from some forced artistic boundaries... but on this album they sound free and limitless.

Sherlock Holmes (2009): the sequel (A Game of Shadows) was terrible but I watched this anyway as people assured me it is better. Well, it isn't... it's just as bad. Please don't give this director and the entire crew who worked on this garbage the opportunity to make another film! That would be a complete waste of time and money. There is no tension, there are no interesting characters (and Holmes turned into a parody of the character), it's too flashy, approaches the viewer as a brainless creature, has a lame plot, tries to be interesting but is really boring... this film actually doesn't do anything right at all. Well, the costumes and decors maybe. But you might as well look at photographs of old fashion and architecture. That's definitely more exciting than this film. Blackboard Jungle (1955): somewhat exaggerated, but still tastefully done, and unavoidably rolls into cliches near the end of the film. But the acting is good, the directing is good and the general plot is amusing. Shows some very nice elements about teacher-pupil relationships (not romantically!) and the rise and downfall of leaders in the classroom and several other things that are still relevant today. Especially recommended to those who enjoy films who take place on schools... but also to anyone else who enjoys good films.

Very nice! Looking forward to this.

Sounds decent. But that's it, only decent.

Nice little joke. However there's no way anyone can assume people might have skipped this band entirely. There are no statistics to back this up. Nobody knows how many people would've downloaded the music if the correct artist picture was posted. If you see this as an 'experiment'... well, you can't because you don't have any real results! Now if you posted this music on two different forums (but both regarding Japanese Rock music of course), one time with the correct band photo and one time with the incorrect VK photo, only then you can talk of an experiment and compare the # of downloads as a percentage of the total active forum users. Then you can prove a point with results! But now it's just a little joke.

I like it! Just saw the album should be out already... let's see if I can find it somewhere.

Never really cared much about Gullet, I thought 9GOATS BLACK OUT was way better. I don't see a Gullet reunion happening anyway... very slim chance.

... and another good "visual" rock band from Japan quits. Such a shame. The scene is really dying now. Hopefully they'll go out with a bang. One good last album please!

Sounds beautiful!

Amazing! Looking forward to it. Whether it's SHERBETS or PONTIACS or solo, Asai Kenichi is always fantastic.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) A complete mess. Apart from the nicely decorated sets and costumes, everything was bad. Really, really bad. Dumb plot, dumb characters, dumb flashy animations and slow motion effects to make it look neat (I assume), but the film failed miserably. Rear Window (1954) Brilliant psychological film from Hitchcock. Some people say it's his best... maybe. But it's very, very good indeed. Beautiful timing which creates suspense, great dialogues, nice shots, great set, much use of symbolism throughout the film. Highly recommended! This Means War (2012) A typical girl's movie... but filled with action! Much of the action is dumb. The characters are dull. The plot is like every girl's dream (I imagine)... and also very shallow. It has a few enjoyable moments but it's still a bad film. Gran Torino (2008) Watched it for the third time now. Still great! One of the best films from recent years. Includes a couple of very memorable scenes and great characters (especially Clint Eastwood's... naturally).

I can't open it either. They broke the internet with their songs.

It's very sad to see a good band quit so soon...

The concert was great. Especially strong were the drums and vocals. Loved the drum solo! As for regular songs, Sleeper and Yami no Kuni no Alice were my favorites. Minor negative points were: the encore Day by Day was the only "weak" song during the entire concert IMHO and they played it at the very end. And Asagi (and sometimes the others) shouted/screamed at the audience inbetween choruses and verses nearly every song. That got very repetitive, sometimes even distracting. He even did this when one of the guitarists was playing some very nice parts! There was a translator lady present. You can ask a question in English and she'll translate it to Japanese. The answers the band members gave were in Japanese, but she translated those back to English for the audience. If I remember correctly it was the bassist who answered another question about the music he listened to. He said Boom Boom Satellites and Korn. I thought it was nice to hear Boom Boom Satellites there. I think it's okay to ask most questions except the business related ones (about record labels and such).

I've heard many great things about The Avengers... it's probably mediocre at best (superhero films always are) but I guess I should give it a try. Maybe this one is better for a change. Hate it though that the only cinema in the area that shows this film, shows it in 3D. Do not want! So The Pirate Bay it is.... once a decent version shows up. There has never been a better reason to skip the cinema and head straight to downloading. Anyway... recently I've seen: Murder, My Sweet (1944) Classic example of a film that is too short for its content. After reading some explanations after watching it didn't turn out to be a very complex plot at all (however it's not the simplest one either), but it was VERY confusing when they threw names, motives, relations and a lot more information at you in very short dialogues... followed by even more information in another dialogue very quickly after. As a watcher, you're not even getting 2 seconds rest to put it all together. This would've been much better if it was 30 to 60 minutes longer. It's an interesting film though, just way too fast paced. 6/10 Gilda (1946) Nearly perfect! Everything one could wish for in a good film is brilliantly put together in this one. Very entertaining, very intelligent. With memorable lines and actions, natural human emotions (love, jealousy), crime, complots, everything. There was one scene I would remove altogether though. It was kind of unnecessary and it... I wouldn't say "ruins"... but it takes a "surprise" away from the ending. You're given some subtle hints towards that certain plot twist already, and that would've been sufficient. But the filmmakers decided to hand it to you on a silver platter. Other than this, a perfect film. 9/10

I don't think I'll buy any merchandise, the concert on its own is expensive enough for a band like D in my honest opinion. Setlist looks pretty good indeed. Hopefully they'll stick to this one or a similar one with a few minor changes.

Did anyone else notice the beginning with the woman talking consists of FOUR separate takes? As if she can't even do that short intro in one go. The same thing is done at the end, but in three different takes I think. It's quite silly and distracting. Learn to deliver some lines before making a video! Anyway, I think these people don't actually believe what they say here. Many who like to predict the "apocalypse" or "the day Jesus returns to earth" only want to be the center of attention, the subject of conversation and controversy. Experts at the art of pretending to be insane. I don't think the people of this video are any different. But maybe they are actually honestly insane, we might never know. By the way, they should analyze the "THE 7 DEADLY SINS" album from SADS. They would probably eat their hearts out.

I love it! It suits them perfectly. A very refreshing song from exist†trace, I really hope more songs on the new album will explore this style!