KAIJI: THE ULTIMATE GAMBLER (2009)

[Update 03/09/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

I might not be the best person to review this movie since I've never read the manga or seen the anime, but then again that didn't stop me from falling madly in love with DEATH NOTE. I heard about KAIJI because the two stars of DEATH NOTE (Tatsuya Fujiwara and Ken'ichi Matsuyama) reunite in this film and that sounded exciting! And it was, but it was also disappointing because Tatsuya is the main star (and he's great), but Ken'ichi only has a very minor part with probably less then two minutes of actual screen time!

The story is about this dude who has a crappy job with no fucking future. One day he's hard pressed by these evil dudes into going on this cruise ship where he's suppose to gamble away his debt to them (whether or not his debt was actually real I never figured out). So he gambles and ends up as a slave for these people and spends 15 years(?) working on some underground construction. Finally one day he get the chance to gamble his way out if slavery and all kinds of wild shit happens.

I liked the story a lot and enjoyed the movie, but it felt like they were just cramming too much into the movie and skipping right over some important shit. My recommendation is to read the manga first then watch the movie. Personally I liked the story enough that I'm going to try and read them myself before I watch Part 2.

Part 2 - Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler (2011)
Part 3 - Kaiji: Final Game (2020)

HALLOWEEN II (2009)

"Fuck!  Fuck!  Fuck!  Fuck!  Fuck.  Fuck.  Oh, God.  Fuck.  Fuck.  Fuck!  Oh, fuck!"

Michael's back. The endless string of fuck's are back. The 70's rock is back. The close-ups are back and this time they brought along a friend: really bright lights shining into smoke.

The story is pretty simple...Laurie is still alive and now living with Danielle Harris and her father, Sheriff Brad Dourif. Laurie also has some new friends that are exactly as annoying as her old friends. Michael is still alive and, I guess, for the last two years he's just been walking around working on growing a powerbeard. He's also been building his lower body strength as evidenced when he picks up a fucking car! What the fuck?

Anyway, the beginning of the movie is actually almost alright with the stabbing and action and blood. Then during the middle, it starts to slow down with lots of talking and the world's shittiest party band. And the ending...holy shit. Zombie just takes a gigantic undead shit all over the viewer with the slow motion, the unemotional emotional horseshit, a full length music video (I'm not joking), silent moments and Michael talking! What the fuck is that blasphemous shit?!

Another thing that really burned my biscuits was making the Dr. Loomis character into an asshole. I bet Donald Pleasence was fucking spinning in his grave. That's what they should do! Make a movie where Donald Pleasence is so pissed off over the shitty HALLOWEEN remakes that he comes back from the dead and starts chasing Rob Zombie around, except that Rob can't run very fast because his giant boots and bracelets and designer jeans keep getting caught up on shit.

Fair amount of blood, overstylized everything, tons of cussing, nice body count, mostly boring kills, a few boring tits, horrible Halloween party and distracting cameos including "Weird Al" Yankovic. Great, now I'm daydreaming about Spatula City when I'm suppose to be watching Michael.

Not a terrible watch if you're looking for a few good laughs.

Part 1 - Halloween (1978)
Part 2 - Halloween II (1981)
Part 3 - Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Part 4 - Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Part 5 - Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Part 6 - Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
Part 7 - Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Part 8 - Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Remake 1 - Halloween (2007)
Sequel to Original - Halloween (2018)
Direct Sequel 2 - Halloween Kills (2021)
Direct Sequel 3 - Halloween Ends (2022)