v_a: Sums it up pretty well.

It was an entertaining enough 80 minutes.

I was disappointed at how much of a conventional monster film it was. All that made it different was the Blair Witch touch.

jimbrim: it's rare that Malcolm McDowell isn't fantastic.

I've never seen this but really want to check it out.

Re: Miike. He is kinda tough to categorize. He has a lot of straightforward films that he does to pay the bills and then he definitely gets oddly gimmicky. I personally love Ichi the Killer. There are some interesting changes that Kakihara goes through. I think that most people miss the point that it's comedy. My favorite Miike film is still pretty easily The Great Yokai War:

i actually like kakihara a lot as a character. it's that the other characters are not as interesing, and the middle of the movie is moving very slowly, and ichi himself gets on my balls ha ha. and then i don't understand 100% what is going on (watching in japanese w/ subtitles). in any case i'll finish watching & consider. another hour to go! :o

yeah, but better :D

10/10

incredible film. cinematography is A+. it has wonder/magic in it and Ana Torrent is the best child actor (and most adorable kid) i've ever seen.

I liked Clover, but prefer Blair.

I highly recommend you do.

Not a film, but I'm working my way through the three series of Black Books at the moment.

Rarely laugh-at-loud funny, but funny enough.

8/10

Also, regarding Miike, most of his films suck. I've seen every single one released in America and a few not released here. He has so many brilliant ideas in each film but most of his films are overlong and just a mess, overall (even though my personal favorite Miike film is one of his bigger messes actually). Even the films where he tries to cram in as many brilliant ideas as possible -- like Gozu -- aren't that great! I love Ichi the Killer, it's brilliant, and it's not nearly as violent or as crazy as most people make it sound... which is probably why I like it... the violence kind of comes out of nowhere. Great acting by Shinya Tsukamoto and Tadanobo Asano. Also, love how Ichi is brainwashed into associating violence with pleasure.

My Miike top 10:

1. Izo
2. Dead or Alive 2
3. Happiness of the Katakuris
4. Visitor Q
5. Deadly Outlaw Rekah
6. "Box" segment from 3... Extremes
7. Zebraman
8. Great Yokai War
9. Dead or Alive
10. Fudoh

la régle du jeu - fucking awesome, i thoroughly enjoyed this.

8.5/10 very well done

very nice

fun! not as fun as the movies, but eh, it's fucking cartoons!

kikujiro - 7/10

Exactly what you'd expect of a takeshi kitano family film.

1. I love horror.
2. I hate Miike.

You hate Miike eh? What does that have to do with horror anyway? Miike's not a horror director (despite having that shitty episode on Masters of Horror, which is just a terrible show period)... But I'm curious as to how many films you've seen by him then, considering he has somewhere in the range of 80 films.

I don't really like Audition or One Missed Call, and I find Gozu and Ichi the Killer decent. And most of his other films I can take or leave, but the 10 I listed above great.

But yeah, Izo is an amazing psychadelic samurai journey, the Dead or Alive series is a surreal yakuza epic with rocket launchers and robots, Happiness of the Katakuris is a family film with claymation and zombies and singing/dancing, etc. He's actually got a lot of great stuff. He just needs to be a better self-editor.