Brandon Inada's Blog

I first read about this movie on Ain’t It Cool News, and intrigued by the real-world superhero premise (and the promise of cool martial arts action) , I took a look at the official site here.

The site itself isn’t terribly impressive but does the job certainly.  Clicking on the “Watch The Trailer” link opens up a new browser window with the trailer on youtube.

The movie, which has been getting a lot of positive reviews thus far (the film was shown at Austin’s Fantastic Fest and at the Valdivia Film Festival in Chile), was written and directed by Ernesto Diaz Espinoza and stars actor and martial artist Marko Zaror in the pair’s second onscreen collaboration.  The first, Kiltro, has the distinction of being the first ever South American-produced martial arts film.

Here’s a synopsis of the film’s story:

Maco (Zaror) leads a solitary existence, training and practicing martial arts during the day and working nights as a bouncer for a local strip club.  He and his younger brother Tito lost both their parents to violent crime, and ever since the attack, Tito has been living in a catatonic state in a mental institution where Maco visits him often.

One night Maco stumbles upon a young Chilean woman about to be raped by a gang of street thugs and, wearing one of the criminal’s masks to protect his identity, intervenes using his finely-honed martial arts skills to overpower the attackers. 

The very next day, the intended rape victim, a television news reporter, praises her savior’s heroic deeds on national television.  To Maco’s surprise and delight, Tito reacts to the news of a masked vigilante, showing interest again in the world around him.  Hopeful that his younger brother will finally emerge from his catatonic state, Maco decides to become the costumed crimefighter everyone, including his brother, believes exists. 

I want to see this movie for a couple of reasons.

For starters, it’s been awhile since I watched a decent martial arts flick, and from what I’ve read and seen so far, Mirageman looks promising. 

Secondly, I like that Zaror’s Maco has a good, emotionally valid reason to become a costumed vigilante.

I’ll post a review some time later when I finally get a chance to see the film.

Ah, Pixar. 

I love Pixar animated films.  They continue to set the bar for non-traditional, CGI animation. 

Some of my all-time favorite movies are Pixar movies: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, The Incredibles.

I finally got around to watching Ratatouille, the latest Pixar flick, on DVD, and I have to say, while it’s a step up from their last feature Cars, (a huge disappointment for me despite having lowered my expectations as a result of the fairly unimpressive trailers) Ratatouille, while certainly an enjoyable movie, doesn’t come anywhere near a Toy Story (really though, what could?) or a Finding Nemo.

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So a couple of weeks ago I ended up watching the last few episodes of Heroes Season 1 in a late-night, up-’til-four-in-the-morning, marathon session, devouring home-made chicken quesadillas (I make a pretty mean chicken quesadilla, by the way.) and chugging down caffeine-free Diet Coke while glued to my TV.

It’s a good thing I waited until the Season 1 DVD Boxed Set came out.  I don’t really like having to wait an entire week to find out what happens next. 

On a related side note, I don’t watch TV.  Ever.  I stopped watching in high school.  I’m not entirely sure why.  I guess I just had better things to do with my time. 

In college, I’d watch the occasional episode of the Simpsons.  My roommate at the time, Pat, never missed an episode of the Simpsons and was really into Felicity and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, so I ended up having to sit through quite a few of those as well.

Now with a writer’s strike still in progress and no new episodes of Heroes for the foreseeable future, I think maybe I’ll break down and watch the episodes online.  (The original plan was to wait until all of Season Two comes out on DVD.)  My friends tell me the current story arc concluded with last Monday’s episode, so I can watch the story unfold in its entirety without having to wait unnecessarily. 

I enjoy coming up with ideas for cliffhangers.  Having to wait for the resolution to cliffhangers not of my own devising – torturous.

I found these cute lil guys at Foodland of all places. 

Enjoy.

On a scale of 1 – 5, with 5 being the highest recommendation…

• 5 - Buy It – You’ll want to own it and watch it over and over again for many years to come.

See this movie immediately, in theaters, if possible. An awesome experience, a great movie, perhaps worthy of an award or two somewhere down the line.  Tell all your friends to see it.  It’s THAT good.

• 4 – Watch It – See it in the theater; definitely worth the price of admission.

Fun, entertaining, worth the nine bucks, but it ain’t gonna win any awards, that’s for sure.

• 3 – Rent It – Wait until it’s out in rental stores.

Worth a rental, or catch it in the dollar theater.  Not a bad way to spend an evening.

• 2 – Avoid It – Steer clear if you can; not worth your time.

If it happens to be on, or if someone pays you to watch it, sure, why not?  Afterwards, you may regret losing two hours of your life watching this movie, but, hey, you were warned.

• 1 – Destroy It – You’ll wonder why it was made; it probably shouldn’t have been made.

Avoid this movie at all costs.  Tell all your friends to avoid it.  Even if they pay you to see it, don’t.  Destroy any copies of the movie you happen upon.

- 

For the record, here are the movies I’ve reviewed over the past several months (with links to the original reviews) and the scores I would’ve given them.

Balls Of Fury – 4

DOA: Dead Or Alive -3

28 Weeks Later - 4

Beowulf - 3

I’m going to try to avoid assigning half-points, as that seems kind of lame to me.

Later on, I may add a score prediction for movies that have yet to release.  AVP: Requiem, for instance, will probably score a 3 when it debuts.