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Directed by: Takashi Yamazaki Starring: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Ann Suzuki, Goro Kishitani Take the terminator, ET, HALO, the Professional, the Matrix, ID4 and Transformers and throw them into a blender. What you will get is The Returner. Basically a girl from the future gets sent back in time to stop an alien invasion. Helping her in the present day is a badass hitman, who is hunting down an equally badass villain. There are some ridiculously cool gun fights and action scenes, along with some very cool looking visuals. The story is old, but it works. This was a cool movie, definately worth the price of a rental. RATING: 4 PROS: Cool special effects, great action scenes CONS: Steals from about 700 other movies. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339579/
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May 13, 2004 18:47
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:39 |
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I enjoyed The Returner. There's some pretty cool looking effects work, the film is stylish as hell and I really liked the relationship between Kaneshiro and Suzuki but it just felt all too familiar for me. It's like the filmmakers felt really unoriginal that day. But it's still great fun nonetheless. 3.5/5
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May 14, 2004 01:36
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This movie seems to be directly inspired by 90's american action/sci-fi films, to the point where it is marketed on its effects, and in actuality only had two or three sequences worth noting. The time device gimmick is a cool one, and the hero and villian are entertaining, but on a whole the movie came across as trying too hard to be an action blockbuster while lacking the budget necessary to actually deliver. Most of the special effects are equal to those of a western television series, although the ideas behind them were novel. One oddity of the film are the sequences with seemingly western actors speaking incredibly bad engrish. I'm interested in how that happened. Overall The Returner is entertaining yet derivative action filler. 2.5 / 5
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May 14, 2004 02:54
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I really liked Returner, from the transforming 747 to the hypertime effects. The budget restrained a lot of the action, but it worked around it rather well. My only complaint is that it has some prolonged and overdramatic scenes that interrupt the flow. 3.5, derivative but well-done
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May 16, 2004 04:31
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I really enjoyed returner, I think mostly because it was a look at mainstream action from a society other than the one I currently live in. Basicaly if you like Sci-Fi then you shouldn't be disapointed with this film. I think this film uses multiple langauges wich is a nice touch, switching between Japanese and Chinese mostly. There are some fun little side plots that are developed as well. 4.0* Edit: This is a nice change from big budget films, so I am changing my vote. I would say that in it's catagory it's a 5.
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May 20, 2004 00:58
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Meh. A completely hackneyed and ripped off action movie made with such skill that it's actually enjoyable. The whole story is predictable as hell, but the actors, action, direction, pacing, etc. make the whole thing very, very watchable. Every AMERIKAJIN I have told to watch this has loved it to death. Also, on the BAD ENGLISH from whiteys in the movie, I assume that they are not native english speakers, and are just speaking phonetically, with no actually comprehension of what they are saying. That would explain the odd annunciation and misplaced stressing.
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Jun 6, 2004 12:35
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Quite possibly one of the most derivative movies ever made - so derivative in fact that attempting to call it a rip off of any particular movie is futile because it really does grab bits and pieces from everywhere. Terminator, The Matrix, ET, Independance Day, you name it, you'll see pieces of it. The story ends up being pretty good (although it does get bogged down in the middle), it's action is well done, it's stylish and the leads worked well together. It might be hard to push aside the originality thing but if you can theres an entertaining movie underneath. 4.5 (I'm also tempted to throw on an extra .5 purely because it's the first time in a while I've seen Bullet Time™ not overused and where is at least has a decent explaination for happening.)
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Jun 6, 2004 16:52
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I really didn't like this movie. Derivatives aside (I can at least forgive good ones) this one had banal dialogue, underchoreographed and unimpressive action scenes, and ending after ending after ending. So many cringe-inducing moments... 1.5/5
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Jun 6, 2004 22:00
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nvm
Apolis fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Feb 1, 2010 |
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Jun 7, 2004 12:47
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Entertaining movie, with some interesting action scenes. And actually, the story is not all that bad if you ask me - It's not Shakespear, but for a sci-fi/action movie it's not too shabby actually. Gave it a 3,5 - Not a masterpiece, but excellent for a sunday of movies and MacD to cure the hangovers.
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Jun 7, 2004 19:15
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2.5- nothing special. if it's on tv though, by all means, watch it.
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Jul 9, 2005 13:28
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I really enjoyed this movie. I don't really care that it stole from other movies and I can look past the story because of the action scenes. The only thing that brings it down is some of the cringe worthy dialogue. 4/5
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Jul 9, 2005 13:41
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:39 |
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This movie was completely ridiculous in every aspect. The acting was poo poo, the dialogue was poo poo, the action was poo poo, and the plot was poo poo squared. Seriously, this movie didn't so much have plot holes as plot chasms. You know that one niggling problem with Back to the Future: Part II, wherein Old-Biff returns to the future timeline that he had just altered? Picture that level of absurdity, but as a main plot point, and repeated several times without even the pretense of an explanation or apology. The acting was some of the worst I've ever seen. Day-time soap opera stars can out-act any of these people. Ever seen a marionette show done by a one-armed puppeteer? That's what this was like: only one person ever spoke or moved or gesticulated at any given time. Anyone who wasn't currently the center of attention stood still and lifeless like an animatronic doll with a faulty power supply. As soon as they had dialogue they needed to spout or some spot they needed to be standing on, they jerked back to life. The directing and screenwriting was worse than anything Uwe Boll has ever done. Everything was heavy-handed and overdone, the villain did some really hosed-up poo poo for no reason other than to show that he was the villain, and there was little or no continuity from scene to scene. At one point the girl is shot in the arm at point-blank range, and in the very next scene she has completely forgotten about it and there isn't even any blood on her sleeve or her skin. The action sequences were beyond ridiculous. Imagine a jet chassis hurtling toward you at the wavefront of an explosion. Now imagine running toward that, hopping inside, and closing the hatch while it's doing a barrel roll. Also, at one point the protagonist and antagonist are shooting at each other but don't realize who they're shooting at. They both run past a doorway at the same time, in slow motion, guns drawn and pointed and each other, and have time to recognize each other, but neither one fires. Keep in mind that the antagonist was such an evil, trigger-happy bastard that he shot a five-year-old kid in the head the day before. This was less like a movie and more like a bunch of movie trailers spliced together. If you have superhuman powers of disbelief suspension, you may enjoy the movie as a silly getaway. If you have even the slightest tendency to analyze plot consistency or artistry of direction or acting, you will have a hard time reconciling the time you spent watching this with all the other things you could have done instead. 1/5
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Aug 28, 2008 19:25
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