Raptorclaw155

If something like this were released in the first decade of the 2000s as part of some G4, VH1, or MTV feature, this would have been among the best made-for-tv documentaries about the history of video games ever made. In 2020 however, these types of TV documentaries have really been outdone in terms of their depth of research and scale of what they cover by independent content creators on platforms like YouTube or Nebula. This type of mainstream programming is inherently hamstrung by the fact that it is tied to the whims of distributors, and financers, and so it must adhere to certain limitations to make it as appealing as possible to a mainstream audience.

The unfortunate fact for those who already have a decent depth of knowledge about this topic is that the content here is very surface-level and rarely explores topics it mentions any deeper than a simple mention. While this might make it feel a bit hollow for those who already know about this topic, I do believe there is some value in this as a work of nostalgia for those who grew up during this time and as a decent introduction into the history of the gaming industry for those who aren't likely to watch a 2 hour exhaustive documentary of the Universal v. Nintendo court case over Donkey Kong on YouTube. The information here, while obviously telling a story wherein Sega of America is the protagonist and therefore biased, I believe is just deep enough to be interesting to those who had no idea about any of this, but surface-level enough to be accessible and not turning into a college lecture.

This movie's biggest strength for me was that most of its runtime was spent interviewing the major faces of the American gaming industry at the time and hearing their own thoughts and opinions about the various stages in the development of the Sega/Nintendo rivalry in America.

It's a little hollow, but if coming from the position of an outsider possessing no prior knowledge about this subject, I would recommend it. At the very least, it's entertaining.

I don't mean to say that I expected this movie and Elvis Presley's acting to be something awful, but with showbusiness the way it is, when you have a star who enjoyed such meteoric highs in such a short amount of time like Elvis Presley, I couldn't help but to imagine a movie like this would rely on fanservice to sell its tickets than its merits as a movie. It turned out that Love Me Tender wasn't just a middle-of-the-road crowd-pleaser but this was actually pretty decent. The story is simple but solid, it's very easy to follow and is paced extremely well. No scene is wasted and each serves to push this movie's plot forward in a genuine, unpretentious way. It didn't feel at all like an 89 minute long movie and was actually quite engaging through its runtime. Of course it does still retain some of the tropes of its time especially including relying, at times, on melodramatic acting to heighten the tension and drama of some scenes, but it can't really be faulted for that since that was the preeminent style of popular cinema at the time as far as I'm aware. The highlights of this movie definitely had to be the stunt work performed on horseback and, of course, Elvis Presley's musical performances putting on full display his then-controversial, dancing moves. A really solid movie overall. While nothing exceedingly special, or one that really leaves the strongest lasting impression, taken for what it is, I can't help but to be impressed to some degree the level of care that went into crafting this acting debut for America's biggest pop star at the time, which isn't necessarily something you can say about acting debuts for other American pop stars of similar or slightly lesser prominence.

I came across this on Amazon Prime Japan and became curious since I was aware of Asuka Kirara and the single she put out in promotion for this film.

I'm not at all familiar enough with Japanese tokusatsu film or television to give an adequate comparison or barometer of what one might come to expect from a film like this but if I could attempt a brief description: it's a 90 minute action drama starring a very attractive girl fighting goons and other very attractive girls in a style indicative of tokusatsu.

The quality of the acting is all over the place. The biggest issue I have with the acting is that, being so inconsistent, the acting had me wondering if this was an action film or some kind of comedy. Tonally, because of the mixed performances it's a bit scatterbrained for the first few minutes.

The storyline, I would suspect, is one that would probably be considered average or below-average for a tokusatsu action film but, as far as stories go in general it's kind of a means to an end. The story exists to motivate the characters into the next action sequence.

The reason to watch this film isn't for the story, or the performances, or the cheesy special effects, and not even for the couple shots of the two lead female actresses topless, but it's for the action scenes. The sword fights are really well choreographed and the slow-motion wirework stunts are awesome. It's the kind of action that just straddles the line of schlock but stays within the range of acceptability that makes them really cool. The only complaint I have about the fight scenes is that they could be longer but I think that's more of a compliment to the quality of the action sequences and the stunt work.

Overall, it's not bad and I'd watch it again. There are worse ways to spend 90 minutes.