You know, I don’t want so much from life. There are only some things I wish for - a good  and entertaining movie is such a thing. Hence I love each and every movie that just gets this one thing right that entertains me, makes me laugh or wonder. As I recently had again to learn with Avatar this is rare nowadays. But it’s not impossible. Because where Avatar failed so miserably Tokyo Godfathers succeeded.

Tokyo Godfathers blasts Avatar to atomic dust to with its funny and lovable characters, with its simple yet engaging story. Even more: it does it so well I even don’t care about the deus ex machinas and some other small problems it has.

Originally I planned to restart my blog (see here for details) with a review of the anime classic Akira but after watching Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers I had to change my plans because the experience is simply too charming and funny while wearing a heart of gold to be ignored or pushed back.

Tokyo Godfathers basically tells the story of three homeless people who one day find a baby in the trash and instead of going to the police decide to find its mother. Of course, this goal is not that easy to achieve which leads to a 90 minutes long short movie in which there are so many things happening that your head starts spinning.

Not only do we get the hunt for the mother, there’s a shooting, a kidnapping, a near death experience, a mix-up, a car chase and more. In a way you could say that Tokyo Godfathers had more plot going on in its 90 minutes than Avatar in its three hours.

Besides all those elements, one thing is sure: after watching Tokyo Godfathers and thinking about it I knew that the director Satoshi Kon really got guts when making this movie. You know, the Japanese society seems to have the habit of ignoring the problems it faces or already has. One of those problems is the broadening poverty and therefore the existence of homeless people. There is the saying in Japan that if a nail sticks out you hammer it down. Well, they really don’t know what to do if one nail is sitting too low. In light of that kudos to the whole team for reminding the Japanese of this very serious problems.

But thanks God they don’t forget the characters. And what a lovely bunch of characters they are. You simply gotta love them. There is the tomboyish girl who by Japanese standards behaves so not Japanese and therefore is so funny to watch. Then you have the transvestite who is simply made of pure win with his over-the-top but still lovable antics and a heart of gold. And last but not least the deadbeat dad who is somehow the most normal one of those three. In a way you could call them the modern version of the three Stooges because their interactions are so fantastically written and executed it’s simply great to watch them interact. By the way: The background story of each one of them shows that there is no massive naivety at work here because everyone really, really messed up their lives on their own accord. And they know it. The plot makes great use of this fact because, as the story unfolds, we see the smaller and bigger changes this adventure makes in them and the people they meet.

This fact, that everyone gets their story finished, might be one of the biggest problems of Tokyo Godfathers because the plot basically is one giant coincide. Each and almost every time they - by chance - meet their past in one way or another, or people which are important for the main plot. If you want you could make a drinking game out of this and be sure to be drunk beyond heavens when the movie is over. But you know what? I didn’t care about the massive coincides because I loved the characters, the atmosphere, they style, the pacing. In fact, I even like those coincides since they help the plot resolve all major questions. There is even a small joke with a lottery ticket by the end of the movie to top every other coincidence so I guess the director knew very well, what he was doing.

So even if by now you aren’t convinced to watch Tokyo Godfathers I present you another reason why you should: the humor. Some idiotic reviewers might call it a drama, but after some minutes into the movie I knew it was a lighthearted - no warmhearted - comedy with some serious tones here and there.

And boy, what a comedy they managed to create. Holy crap! It’s been months since I laughed that hard during a movie. Toyko Godfathers in its best moments is classic screwball comedy at its finest accompanied by pitch perfect comedy timing. There are way too many moments, one-liners and jokes to count so I won’t do it here because it would spoil all the fun. But for those who already seen the movie: smelly train and open eyes. Tokyo Godfathers solidifies my impression that Japanese anime directors simply “get” comedy whereas the Hollywood directors don’t. Or can’t. In any case - if any screenwriter or director reads this - rent it, buy it, but watch it immediately and learn!

The same applies to you, my beloved readers: even if you only have an ounce of interest in animation or a bunch of lovable characters you need to give Tokyo Godfathers a chance - believe me, every minutes is worth it.

Tokyo Godfathers is a fantastically funny, heartwarming Christmas movie that yet never gets too naïve for its own sake. You know, I have some classic Christmas movies I watch each and every year during Christmas. One is Wonderful Life, the next are Christmas Vacation, Scrooged and Christmas Carol.

Consider Tokyo Godfathers added to this list of mine. It’s a worthy addition.

I finally gave up. After all of my friends nagged me to watch James Cameron’s Avatar I finally let my rejection flow away and go to my cinema of choice.

Since everyone is praising Avatar as the new holy grail of movies I will take my time here and rip this thing to shreds talk about my humble impressions and why some elements just don’t live up to the hype. (Be aware of spoilers (see flag on the left of the title) and length of post)

Avatar is a visually extremely impressive movie that at the same time feels strangely empty and hollow. I don’t think it’s only one big reason but many smaller ones which give me this feeling about Avatar.

When I went to my cinema of choice I went to it while not expect much judging by the various reviews I’ve read on the internet. I kinda knew what was coming to me. Yet - in review - it is shocking to see how bland and unbelievably predictable Avatar turned out to be. There was not one single big plot element I didn’t see coming miles ahead. For example, in one scene they were briefly talking about some legendary men who united all people by riding on the back of the most dangerous dinosaur-flying-thingy you can find. It took only two sentences long but I immediately knew that Jake would be the one to do just that. When the scene finally came…it was only ten seconds long.

To call the love story of Avatar ridiculous would be an understatement even by the very low love comedy standard established years ago. James Cameron follows the cliché formula by the letter with the boy gets girl, boy looses girl and boy gets girl back. While the first two plot elements were done rather nicely it’s the boy gets girl back moment that I cannot stand. After the destruction of the tree and the dead of her father, all you need is just to become a legendary hero and everything is forgiven. The double play, the deaths and the destruction of everything holy to her. Hey, no problem, because he lost her only because she had fear!(?) This scene was a truly and mind blowing wtf moment.

Besides the love story the overall plot in many parts was waaaayyyy too cliché. That Jake was the “chosen one” or at least a “special one” is one such story element I’d be glad Cameron would have cut. It would also have been better if Jake wouldn’t have been written as a guy who seems to be perfect for the Avatar-program - without training or exercise. He simply wakes up in his new body and voila, everything works perfectly. You know, there are many bad anime which utilize just such a story archetype and Cameron’s name on it doesn’t means it starts working now.

It is truly sad how shallow the character of Jake Sullan turned out to be (the rest of the cast unfortunately are simply walking cliché cardboards). In those 162 minutes we almost learn nothing about Jake or his past. Sure, there were some hints here and there but come on: anyone could write those tidbits of info about your usual standard cliché marine with some traumatic events in the past. As a result it was inevitable that the change of heart in Jake felt too shallow and unimportant. Why did he change? Did he learn something about himself or his life? No - which is a shame.

Imagine what a cool story Avatar could have been if Cameron would have done something else, for example interwoven both main elemts of the movie: the planet Pandora as well as the inner demons of Jake. The Navi could have shown him a way out of his own grave with their teachings and their kindness. They could have shown him something about life and living, letting go and so on. But since Cameron didn’t do this, we more or less get some borderline esoteric blabbering of your standard good natives accompanied by some impressive visuals.

This leads me right to the next point: Avatar overall felt too simplistic for my taste. James Cameron didn’t even try to avoid this kind of black and white painting of the good Navi and overall bad humans (with some usual good guys to counter the bad impression).

You know what would have been great? Just imagine a story in which the humans still act as assholes, but instead of doing this for money, they do this for their own survival. The stone material could have been a crucial element to save Earth which is not found anywhere else. This way we would’ve got a perfect moral dilemma and a story way more powerful because it would’ve naturally avoided your cliché ending of the bad humans leaving the planet instead of trying to work together. You know, something like this. The 162 minutes would have been enough time to flesh out such kind of plot.

All of these points above don’t necessarily mean that Avatar is a bad movie. Somehow far from it. With the exception of the end perhaps which is really bad. Sorry dear friends out there, but as I really don’t like this let-me-become-a-navi-moment, I really laughed out at the scene beforehand when Jake Sullan rides flies with his dinosaur-flying-thingy into the sun while telling us that the hero wasn’t needed anymore. Ugh!

Well, but I can understand why so many people forgive little Cameron for what he did with the story because of the effects. And those are truly fucking impressive as Hell on Afterburner^TM, there is no question about it. Just like the Lord of the Rings some years ago and The Matrix before that Avatar is raising the bar to a new level for the movies to come and I am quite sure it will take some years until other production will start to come close to this. Cameron managed to bring a whole planet to life and I almost never felt I was watching some CG renderings. In fact, I often wondered if they shot some elements live or did that in post. The visual result is that impressive.

On the other hand, I often felt that the visual impressiveness is just the trap James Cameron fell into while realizing Avatar. Some scenes gave this feeling of that See-What-I-Can-Do-syndrome (or in short: The George-Lucas-Syndrome), like the flying scene in the middle of Avatar or many smaller moments in which I thought “Okay I got it, could you please continue with the story? Thanks.”

But on the yet other hand I am also quite sure Cameron knew what he was doing. He probably absolutely knew that some scenes felt too long but still went on with it. Why? Because he knew that the environment of Pandora with its lush alien vegetation and esoteric mysteries was enough to fill the time and please the viewer. Heck, even I didn’t get angry by watching the pseudo documentary because of those very reasons. When Titanic was a perfect exploitation of a love-catastrophe, then Avatar is your perfect exploitation of lush, awesome looking, wallpaper-like backgrounds and vivid environments - with some added people here and there to create some kind of “story”. Remove all of that and you basically get nothing we haven’t seen dozens of time already.

It’s really sad that James Cameron, the guy who did Aliens, couldn’t or didn’t want to achieve more. This doesn’t mean that Avatar was a horrid movie. It means that Avatar is okay but definitely doesn’t deserve this praise and this mesmerizing amount of box office.

So, what is my final impression? Well, this fact is driving me nuts: I simply don’t know. As I said Avatar is not bad but also not great. Avatar is a movie that wants to be loved but to me fails on way too many occasions. I want to love Avatar but I can’t. I could hate Avatar but I can’t. Avatar is “meh”, is “I don’t know”, is “perhaps I know it one time in the future”.

And you know what? I hate this kind of feeling.

Others write about improvements. I simply improve!

Others may try to sneak changes slowly into their blog. I simply do them openly and immediately.

Sounds crazy after just another year of small and big changes? Well, this is madmind!

I know, I know, this sounds utterly ridiculous, like taken from a cheap action movie. But I am serious and here’s the meat behind the words or in other words…

Here’s what you can expect from this blog in the year 2010 (with some background information regarding the reasons)…

First and most important of all, I will start to write much more movie reviews than ever before. You could say, that madmind finally will become what it already claims to be: a movie blog.

In the past year or so I tried to find a niche in the vast sea of movie blogs while having a nasty time problem, meaning that since I live in Germany I am two months to half a year late until I can get my hands on a movie. This is simply because of the late release date compared to the US. What could I possible compete with the amazing sites out there with that drawback…Well, because of this I decided to go more for an industry approach - what’s hot in the industry, what’s shit and what movie/genre got some interesting statistics.

Although this was kinda fun I realized some weeks ago that this cannot be madmind. For one, posts for which I need many, many hours to prepare are simply too much too handle. For the other: those statistical posts are interesting, but also fucking boring!! Basically they give you some insight you can also gain on BoxOfficeMojo. The industry specific posts are not that great either, because they deal not with the movies themselves.

So, how did I circumvent the time problem? I didn’t. But I think I found two simple solutions that might be fun for everyone and interesting to you, my dear readers:

1. I will focus my reviews to those movies I really like, hate or care about.
2. I will widen the focus of my reviews: besides Hollywood movies I will start to do reviews of anime movies.

“Anime movies? Are you nuts?!?!” you might think. So, let me explain.

Although I will and want to increase the amount of Hollywood movie reviews there is the problem that I simply don’t give a shit for most of them. So often it’s the same shit with toned down writing, boring sequels with boring characters accompanied by boring stories from people that love to boast about the technical achievements (i.e. 3D). How possible could I then give you something funny or nice to read on a weekly or even daily basis?

Funnily enough, what I so miss from Hollywood I got from anime movies and anime series in the last weeks and months. As crazy as this might sound but I found some anime more entertaining, more interesting and more fruitful to write about than this stupid Hollywood shit. The only reason I didn’t write about anime was the focus of this blog and its claim “movie blogging with smyle” which basically meant “Hollywood movie blogging with smyle”.

To circumvent this problem there will be a change next week. Starting next week this blogs claim won’t be “movie blogging with smyle” anymore but “movie and anime blogging with smyle”. This change is not final at first, therefore I didn’t add the anime part directly into the claim but added this addition as an image.

This image thing directly leads to the last announcement: starting next week the design of this blog will change. Although I like the current theme the main problem is its somehow cold and technical feel. Because of this I did some redesign of the current style and since I am a sucker for minimalism I came up with something even more minimalistic.

Basically what you will get is the same visual structure with even less visual clutter and a more warm feeling to it since the main background is not white anymore but light grey.

So, as you can see I did a lot of thinking and coding during the last few weeks (sorry for my lack of posts during that time).

To sum everything up: madmind will be soon redesigned with a new focus on movie reviews and anime reviews while not completely ditching industry posts or statistics.

Let’s have some fun…

The end of the year is near and soon we have fewer years left until a meteor, alien invasion, malfunctioning earth core, solar eruption or George W. Bush completely destroys humanity in the year 2012.

But don’t think I’d let me (and you) off the hook so easily - until our fated doom I serve you blog posts with a smyle and a heart, even if it’s only list posts to review the past…

Therefore here are the best blog posts of madmind of this year in no particular order. Thank you for your support albeit how small it may be.

Let’s get started!

• Ten “Plot Holes” and Errors in Wall-E
  This post caused quite a stir in a certain Wall-E fan forum but despite that I firmly keep my stand regarding my observations. I still love Wall-E but plot holes, plot errors, mistakes and blunders still remain in it. But let’s be frank, anything perfect is boring.
• The most successful Genres of 2008
  If you ever wanted to know which genre fared best - in 2008. Perhaps I will post something similar again despite the work accompanied by it.
• Why Sequels are a Wise Investment decision
  I hate to admit it, but sequels still are a wise investment decision. Read this post about the why’s.
• To Disney
  Disney could have remade the industry and started something completely new. Well, could have. This is a rant I wrote after reading some details about the movie which was released some weeks ago.
• Genius Party Beyond - Moondrive
  a short movie which is part of an anime anthology. Nothing much on the outside but so funny and interesting once seen that I give a wholehearted “Yes” to anyone who asks if he or she should watch it.
• How to spot a Bad Movie in 1 Minute
  You really don’t need much time to spot a bad movie and you really only need one minute - or less. Read it and you know why.
• The Top 101 Sequels of All Time
  one of my biggest analyses I’ve done to date. If you want to know which sequel stands where from Evil Dead 2 to The Dark Knight, here you find the answer.
• Fooly Cooly
  Two words that describe another word: genius. Anyone even slightly interested in highly-imaginative, creative but crazy laugh-fests with a deeper meaning behind everything and a soundtrack to behold, you have really missed something. Fooly Cooly is one of the best. Read this post to learn more about it, get it, watch it! You won’t regret it.
• A Moment beyond the Alphabet
  Bad acting is bad. Horrible acting is great. Horrible acting in a C-movie is marvelous. This video proves just that.
• Stupid German Additional Movie Titles
  Germany can be a funny place, at least if you don’t care too much about movie titles. Or about additional movie titles which get plastered under almost every movie title. Head to this post to see some examples which range from funny to wtf.

That’s it! The Best of madmind 2009. I hope I will reach new heights in the next year to further increase your reading pleasure…

Happy New Year!

Originally I didn’t plan on writing anything before or during Christmas. But…I have a confession to make: I can’t stand hypes and anything behind it. In the best case I get suspicious of the hypey-thingy, in the worst case I’d love to kick it off this ball.

I think I have this habit because to me a hype is nothing else than burning love in disguise. You don’t see the weaknesses, you do anything a normal person wouldn’t and you plaster the world around you with the usual lovey-thingy crap nobody wants to hear about.

Many Apple products and the company as a whole are a perfect example. Okay, perhaps I should start to call this phenomena religion than hype because it nothing else (sorry, evangelists). To me the products look cool and are nice, but…they are some freaking pieces of hardware and software for crying out loud!

I have another confession to make: the last weeks weren’t easy for me. Because another hype hit the net and me with full force. Of course, I am writing about Avatar, the newest movie by uber-director James Cameron.

At first I thought more or less the same as all the other guys out there: Finally a new scifi-movie from the guy who made Aliens. Let’s rock and roll. At the beginning I wasn’t suspicious at all because the first news where real news. Anything new was good to see to learn more about it.

But then it happened.

I watched the trailer (a thing that more or less should answer all important questions anyway) and I was not that blown away as I have should been. Well, at least I then knew everything important I should knew (premise, plot, characters, style…) and I was fine with that.

But the net full with movie bloggers kept writing and hyping.

“Here is a new image…from the trailer.” “Look at that awesome movie still and the poster!” “Another news that is none but is because it is about Avatar!!!” “The new Avatar website launched!” “Here are my thoughts about a movie I haven’t seen yet!” etc. etc. etc.

I couldn’t let pass one day without hearing anything “new” about Avatar. And the more headlines I read the more I wanted to kick this movie off this ball. (If nothing else this shows that too much is not good as well as too less).

The final match to light my inner hate and let it burn with the intensity of thousands sun are the posts or PR stuff about Avatar’s box office. Avatar made around 73 million dollar. Not too bad but not too good either judging by the hype. At least I was surprised by the low result - which indicates that normal people don’t give a shit about hypes.

So what do the hyper-people do? Of course, they try anything possible to make it look good. I read something about being one of the best ever - for December. I read something about Avatar having one of the most successful openings ever - for a movie not being a sequel, from another world, from a comic book and so on.

What we all can witness here is something just like any other hype at works which I so friggin’ damn hate. They should simply admit that their hype was simply a hype and the movie good but not the Revelation Of Cameron. Let life go on! Don’t sugarcoat everything. Please!

By the way, the icing on the cake of post-opening hype is the following headline which seems to directly stem from Fox’ PR machinery that perfectly uses this hype (don’t shoot the messenger): $232 million dollar opening weekend for Avatar. Of course, this movie made $232 million in its first weekend - internationally including US. Domestically it still lurks around $73 million dollar.

If someone’s an avid fan he can of course either use this PR stunt to make the numbers look good or he can blame anything and everything for the not-being-three-digits box office weekend (the weather is always good - and I even read that excuse somewhere).

It might sound a little bit harsh but to me it feels kinda good that Avatar didn’t break every record ever from the start. If nothing else this puts back some reality and down-to-earth attitude into this hype-game so many people seem to be so used to. Moreover it proves something very important: Avatar might be great and the new Star Wars for many movie geeks but it nevertheless is still only a movie.

But perhaps I am too harsh on hypes in general and Avatar. What do you think? Would you agree with my statements above, or do think I should readjust my inner sensor for The Hype? Let us know!

By the way, here is a fantastic review from That Guy with Glasses which not only sums up my feeling about Avatar, but also nails the surrounding hype:

(via)

Christmas is slowly but surely knocking on the door - which means you gain a lot of weight on some places (fat) while you loose an astonishing amount of weight elsewhere (money).

If you cannot wait until the presents arrive or you are being tortured with yet another version of “My heart will go on” on the Christmas market (seriously, are they nuts?), I will therefore present you with something to ease your pain.

Since this is a blog, my presents to you are of course digital: four links to great stuff you can watch, read and listen to.

Link 1: The 20th Birthday Portfolio

If you ever wanted to see your much beloved movie actors incorporating again their most famous roles, here’s your chance. The empire magazine managed to drag some very well known actors before their cameras and some of the results really look cool.  My favorites are Simon Pegg/Nick Frost and Sean Bean/Viggo Mortensen. Especially the Bean/Mortsensen picture is great, because I felt they still are some of the best friends. Well done.

Link 2: The Morgan Freeman Chain of Command

I already knew that Morgan Freeman is one of the coolest actors out there. But the graphic on this German website proves not only this but even more: this guy essentially could found his own state - no, his own universe. Now, that is what I would call awesome/coolestest/whatever. The only problem in that universe could be the fact that he never played women in a movie. But who would want this.

Link 3: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review

This 70 minute YouTube-Video (that makes its rounds on the net) about the train wreck called Phantom Menace is a must see for any movie geek out there. It proves - if nothing else - that letting George Lucas take full creative control of the prequels was one of the most epic mistakes ever.  They just should have fired him.

Link 4: National Lampoon’s  Christmas Vacation - Intro

And since Christmas is knocking on the door it’s time to get you in the mood for Christmas with the opening of one of the best Christmas comedies ever.

Merry Christmas to all of you and a happy new year!

By the way: I will make some big changes and a bigger announcement to and regarding  this movie blog so stay tuned.

Your chair might be one of the most personal objects you possess with the exception of your bed. It’s one of the few if not only pieces of furniture you sit on, on a daily basis. Because of that your chair tells a lot about you.

And of course, the way you sit on yours.

The anime series Bokurano, or to be more precise it’s ending, does just that: it presents all of its characters sitting in their respective chairs. Just that. But at the same time it goes way that. Because the way each character sits in his personal chair tells so much about them. The beautiful music is the icing on the cake.

By the way, the series itself sounds interesting as well:

A group of middle-school students unwillingly assume the task of piloting a giant robot named Zearth in a series of battles against other robots where the survival of Earth is dependent on their continuing to win.

Call me hooked, especially considering the big catches of this game - which I removed from the text above to save your spoiler. If you don’t care for them or don’t intend to watch this series,  you can find some spoilerific reviews and thoughts about the series here and here.

Did you know that out of the Top 10 movies listed on IMDB three are in fact sequels?

Just imagine my indifferent reaction to that obvious yet epically useless discovery - until I figured out that only a mere 3500 movies out of millions are considered sequels at all.

Following this shock I did something normal people caring for their sanity should never do: for a moment I perceived sequels as a Genre; and suddenly I was impressed with the success this “genre” achieved.

Following that shock another question came to mind: what are the top sequels of all time in terms of commercial and critical success? After many hours of work this post will give you the answer you never wanted to know to begin with.

To make surfing and reading easier, the following list is split up into several sub-pages each containing ten movies. The rank of every movie sequel is based on a “movie score” that ranges from 0.3 to 300. This is due to the fact that the score is calculated using IMDB rating and US box office respectively, so naturally the numbers vary a lot.

Have fun clicking and reading!

Some additional notes: to make the list more varied I’ve decided to limit the list to contain only first sequels (i.e. Superman 2). As you have read above, the maximum score is 300. I didn’t change this to 100 because by doing so too many movies would have got the same score (using one decimal place).

When do you watch a sequel or even the third movie of a trilogy? There are many opinions on that one, that’s for sure.

I came to the following conclusion: you want to watch a sequel when you want to see more.

But this is where a massive problem comes into play that plagues many if not most sequels or thirds. Ironically it’s the first movie itself that basically starts everything else.

When you read screenwriting books you read a lot about story/plot structure and so on. Basically you can divide a movie in three or more parts. You have the first fifteen minutes in which the setting, characters and so on are introduced. Then the second act kicks in and messes up the lives (and the plot). This second act heats up continuously until the third act kicks in until the heroes save the day, get busted or regain their love.

This kind of structure doesn’t allow much room for open questions. Big open questions.

So because of this plot structure, you rarely watch a movie that leaves enough (big) questions unanswered so you have an urge to continue - which goes beyond pure eye-candy or action stuff. In other words, you rarely watch movies that intrigue you to find out more. To want to learn more about the world. To see more of this world presented up to the final minute.

If nothing else, you can say that movies are no TV series in which the continuation of a plot is a part of the storytelling from the get-go. As a result, we get presented nasty, horrible, time-stealing sequels which were never meant to be because the original movie never thought of this possibility.

If you - by any chance - decide to search through the archives of this blog…be sure to ignore one post I wrote many moons ago.

The post in question is this one: Why Spiderman 3 had to become what it is today.

At that time my naivety got the better of me. I theorized something that looked good on paper (?). I theorized the whole mess we witnessed on the big screen was a result of the script. I theorized this theory from a mathematical perspective - and epically and totally and actually ignored the harsh reality called money.

As it turned out many decades ago (I *am* slow), the mess we got with Spiderman 3 was not a result of writing too much or writing oneself into a corner. It was seemingly and simply the result of some producer’s calculation that three plus x villains (0 < x < 5) are better than one.

Boy was he wrong!

And so was I with my post.

Well, life’s full of learning. The only problem is the fact that the producer made a ton of money thanks to our love of movies and our hope of another great installment. So I guess he learned nothing except for one thing: “I was right! Yaayyy!” *starts swimming in money*