UZUMAKI (2000)

I recently read Junji Ito's manga "Uzumaki" and it was so brilliant, creepy and addictive that I finished the entire thing in two days.  So with some genuine excitement I sat down to watch this live action adaptation and...it was shockingly lame.  The main actress (Eriko Hatsune) is perfect and the atmosphere is sufficiently creepy but the story suuuuuucked.  Not only did they leave out like 90% of the story but they added in a bunch of useless filler.

Some of the residents of the small Japanese town of Kurozu-cho have developed a unhealthy obsession with spirals.  At first they simply enjoy looking at snail shells or other things that have spiral shapes but before long they are mutating their bodies into spiral shapes and turning into snails themselves.  In the manga, things get really demented, but in this film adaptation things just move along at a snails pace until the weak ending.

My advise: read the awesome manga by Junji Ito and only then watch this movie.  Also check out "Gyo".  I'm currently reading that and it's crazy as fuck!

I would love to see another live action remake of "Uzumaki" but hopefully this time it's more faithful to the source material.

A WALK IN THE WOODS (2015)

Mildly entertaining lightweight comedy about a aging travel writer (Robert Redford) who's beginning to face the fact that he's getting old.  Spurred on by this reality, he teams up with his old buddy Nick Nolte and they beginning walking the 2,200 miles long Appalachian Trail...without any preparation (other than buying a few supplies).  I don't even think they looked at a map because two months in they're completely shocked to learn that they're not even halfway to their destination despite the fact that Redford said at the beginning of their journey it would take 5 months or so.

I wanted to enjoy A WALK IN THE WOODS, but the whole thing just felt very disjointed.  There's little introduction to either of Redford or Nolte's characters and the entire walking along the Appalachian Trail doesn't have any feeling of progress or hardship.  Both characters look the same the entire film (even their hair stays the same).  Also they ride in a car at one point, stay in a hotel, eat at multiple restaurants.  I've never walked the Appalachian Trail, so all of these things were very confusing to me.  I thought it was all about being in nature and camping, not hitchhiking and sleeping in motels.  Another thing, besides the weak script, was weird stuff going on in the background.  There's multiple scenes that looked really really fake, like they were acting in front of a screen or in a studio.  That took me out of the movie.

Overall, I liked the film and I'm glad I watched it (I always enjoy seeing Redford and Nolte), but I just wish the script and direction had been better.  Oh yeah, Emma Thompson and Mary Steenburgen are both in this film as well, but their roles are so small that they're only on screen for a few minutes each.

Vermont and New Hampshire switched.

Somebody in the background controlling traffic.