Stray

I'm giving this a generous 5. Wasn't bad enough for me to want to stop watching. But wasn't that great that it left something to the imagination. The biggest issue I had with this movie, was that it had no flow. Too much character development (2/3 of it was), and not enough of the plot. When it finally got around to the guts of the film, it was pretty much nearing the end of the movie. It's like they cut out a big chunk in the middle. Kinda like going to a fancy restaurant ordering a meal for $80, and all you got was a little piece of steak, and bunch of garnish around it to make it look pretty. That you upon leaving the restaurant, you go to a burger joint to get something actually filling. lol

This is one of those movies, that if you absolutely have nothing else to watch, and need some background noise, and visual distraction from working from home.

When a woman is found carbonized and petrified in a storehouse, Police Detective Stella Murphy (Christine Woods) is assigned by her chief Jake (Ross Partridge) to the case. Jake is Stella's former husband and they separated when their only child died in a tragic accident. Stella has just recovered from her loss and returned to the police department. The woman is identified as Kyoko (Saki Miata), and Detective Murphy goes to her home and meets her mother Seiko (Takayo Fischer) and her daughter Noriko (Karen Fukuhara). Soon Stella befriends Noriko and learns that her family has a secret power and is threatened by a mysterious biker (Miyavi).

"Stray" is an action film with a dark and depressive cinematography that could have been a great pilot of a series. The story has a great potential unfortunately wasted in a rushed screenplay that does not develop well the interesting and rich characters. Anyway, it is worthwhile watching this intriguing film with less expectations. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

I really wanted to check this out because it had an interesting poster, and a plot-line straight out of a killer fantasy paperback. But, god, was this movie a torture sit through. First, I would say that the characters felt almost bland, except the detective, Murphy, whom we're introduced to while she stares at a man making her a tattoo. One would infer that she's trying to be flirtatious and get some action, but no, the tattooist is just a throwaway character.

Just like every other character that exists in the movie. No one really ever felt that they were in their zone, and crucial time was wasted on nonsense drama of the detective with no connection to the theme or narrative, than introducing the conflict and antagonist soon into the movie. Our secondary heroine, Nori, is also a blank slate of a character with no drive or motivation to get things moving. She mourns, she rests, does magical bullsh*t that's pretty much unexplained, and runs like a puny chicken with no real purpose.

Coming to the plot, it's one of the most predictable and bland storylines, that I've seen on screen. What could've been a thrilling supernatural horror drama, ends up being a half-assed attempt at a superhero origin story. The director must've watched some Dark, and some superhero films, and some anime, and tried to blend in everything to give us a stale and flavorless product. A premise like this should have excitement and tension, but none of it exists here. All because the characters react in an oblivious manner to any damn interesting supernatural phenomena. Seriously, if I'd seen something remotely anything otherworldly, I would legit freak out for days.

Solid technical values, and interesting music don't help the movie for lift off, since the engine isn't even there. A tighter and earlier sense of character conflict, and tension could've help the movie very much.

This movie is very dark visually, so at times it was hard to see what was going on. This movie could have been better, but they focused too much attention in the wrong areas of the plot. The plot was interesting, but could have used a lot more development in terms of the antagonist. I'd say the one saving grace was Miyavi. He strikes me as a very talented actor and is able to display a lot of emotional depth for an otherwise very jaded character. Wish they had focused more on him as it could have saved the movie. If anything watch this movie for him. He's got talent.

Well.... To be honest... Thw movie had a potential... From a rather lovely and ok cast, through story, even effects... It was not just a cheap chip off or something... Effort was made... But in the end the editing, cutting, piecing things together did the damage, I d say... Something was lacking and edit was, I assume from my stand point, bad, so... But the material was good and somethi g could have had been done with all of it to make the movie truly compeling instead of letting people looking forward to the end so just to be done with watching the movie...