THE EYE (Chinese - 2002)
Directed by: Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang
Cast: Angelica Lee, Lawrence Chou and Chutcha Runjinanon.
Watson Scale: 5.5

Though my fellow reviewer Val liked this film (click HERE to see her review), she wasn’t quite as taken by it as I was. What amazed me about THE EYE is that a worn idea (a blind girl gets cornea transplants and suddenly see ghosts), which usually ends up as one huge cliché, avoided all pitfalls and turned out to be one of the finest ghost stories I’ve ever seen. Great direction, a magnificent script, and wonderful acting made every scene a success. Even at the end, when I feared a “sap-attack,” the perfection of the filmmaking left me deeply satisfied.

THE EYE is a thoughtful, scary, and highly effective movie that shouldn’t be missed.

CRYING FREEMAN (French - 1995)
Directed by: Christophe Gans
Cast: Mark Dacascos, Julie Condra
Watson Scale: 2.5

The CRYING FREEMAN story went from comic to manga to (finally) live action – much to the delight of its many fans. Made before Gans’ far superior, BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (see below), this film (which was put together for a mere eight million dollars) is about an unstoppable assassin who, after falling in love with a “target,” tries to free himself from the service of a secret Chinese criminal organization.

Sporting stylistic beauty and a smooth soundtrack, I had high hopes from the credits on. Sadly, my expectations dwindled as unnecessary characters came and went, as bullets flew numbingly past our “immune” hero, and as the story gelled into a vacuous mess.

Though there were some interesting moments, the lack of any real drama and any compelling characters left me feeling as hollow as the script.

BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (French - 2001)
Directed by: Christophe Gans
Cast: Samuel Le Bihan, Vincent Cassel, Mark Dacascos
Watson Scale: 4

This French martial arts period piece thriller offers stunning visual images, magnificently choreographed fights, and some very interesting/compelling characters. When a French village is reduced to terror due to horrific wolf/demon mutilations, a French naturalist/philosopher and his Iroquois Indian blood brother (who happens to be a martial arts expert – let’s just enjoy the insanity and not try to over-think this, okay?) are called in by the King to hunt down the creature. We are soon faced with politics, ignorance, bigotry, conspiracies, love, and the constant question of what the elusive creature really is.

Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, and the whole cast turn in stellar performances, and I really enjoyed the dreamlike quality of many of the scenes. A bit slow at times, frenetic at others, poetic, artsy, exciting, and perhaps longer than it should be, BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF isn’t perfect, but it IS great entertainment.

I SPY (2002)
Directed by: Betty Thomas
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Owen Wilson, Famke Janssen, Malcolm McDowell
Watson Scale: 2.5

As a child, I really loved the old I SPY television series. Thus, I thought a feature film version staring Murphy and Wilson was a great idea. Once it was released, though, horrible reviews came pouring in and I decided to avoid the theater and wait for the DVD. I admit that I prepared myself for the worst, but for the price of a 99 cent one day rental, what did I have to lose? Perhaps it was my negative expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The script is weak, the chase scenes are interesting but generic, the humor sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, and common sense is tossed into the garbage when the U.S. sends one of its worst agents (Wilson) on a mission of enormous importance (a top secret stealth aircraft carrying a nuke had been stolen). Nevertheless, the two stars are so likeable, and their interaction is so enjoyable, that I SPY gave me my full 99 cents’ worth of value. If you are looking for a pleasant bit of escapist fluff, this movie should do the trick.

EVIL DEAD TRAP (Japanese - 1988)
Directed by: Toshiharu Ikeda
Cast: Miyuki Ono, Fumi Katsuragi, Hitomi Kobayashi, Eriko Nakagawa
Watson Scale: 3

I’ve always hated slasher films – a genre devoted to the mindless mutilation of as many men and women (usually teenagers) as possible. Though loved by American teenagers, and also common Italian fare, the Japanese tend to like a bit more story and subtlety with their horror. EVIL DEAD TRAP, though, isn’t about subtlety. It’s a pure “kill everyone in sight for no reason” snuff flick that will gladden the sadistic hearts of American audiences.

The story is very basic: a famous TV reporter receives a film showing the torture/killing of a young woman in the mail. Not sure if it’s real or staged, she takes note of the location hints in the video and, together with several co-workers, drives out to the abandoned factory where the scene was shot. After that, it’s one brutal murder after another.

What makes this film stand out from many of the American “knife anything that moves” efforts are: The characters are likeable, the death scenes are inventive and realistic (the knife-point in the woman’s eye and the rush of retinal fluid almost made me lose my lunch), the suspense is heavy, and the threatening tone (in some ways reminiscent of Argento, though they Cronenberg the finale and, in my mind, do real damage to the film as a whole) lingers in the mind long after the movie ends.

EVIL DEAD TRAP is a genre classic that should be seen if you enjoy the mass evisceration (and one rape) of pretty Japanese women.

ANOTHER HEAVEN (Japanese - 2000)
Directed by: Jôji Iida
Cast: Yosuke Eguchi, Akira Emoto, Yoshio Harada, Miwako Ichikawa
Watson Scale: 2.5

The fact that one of the producers of THE RING (click HERE for the review of that excellent Japanese film) was associated with ANOTHER HEAVEN forced me to check this one out.

Part horror tale, part supernatural thriller, ANOTHER HEAVEN has a promising start: an unusually large group of cops are investigating a murder in the victim’s apartment. Slow on the uptake, they eventually realize that his head is sliced open and his brains are simmering away in a pot of stew. Soon other people, sans brains, also turn up.

Though the mystery of “who and why” is interesting at first, far more to my liking is the interplay between a good looking cop named Manabu, his tough as nails old partner, Tobitaka, and Asako, a very young (in body and mind) female ex-con who forces her way into Manabu’s bed and, eventually, his heart.

In some ways this movie reminds me of FALLEN (A Denzel Washington flick about a body-jumping demon) and THE HIDDEN, which is about an odd parasitic life form that leaps from one (used up) host to the next. The idea of something taking over people is an old one (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS from 1956 comes to mind – click HERE for that review), but ANOTHER HEAVEN isn’t nearly as good as the three movies just mentioned. Nevertheless, I found it worth a watch and, if you like this type of thing and don’t set your sights too high, you probably will too.