Based on a Mark Millar’s comic book, Kick Ass is an interesting super heroes’ movie. A super hero without super powers, that’s what this movie is all about. A geeky teenager that sets himself to be a super hero just by using a crazy outfit and wandering in New York’s streets hoping to find situations in which he can be the hero of the day. But be careful now, if you’re expecting just some idiotic comedy mixed with meaningless action scenes, this is not it! There’s more into this movie than actually meets the eye. Both the pseudo super heroes interpreted by Aaron Johnson and Nicolas Cage are the expression of two unlikely but possible personas in today’s society – a teenager consumed by comic books and a strong will to make a mark in the society, and a retired cop willing to do anything to take a drug lord out of the business and avenge his wife’s death. By the way, it was good to see Nicolas Cage back to a more decent role in a movie. I don’t remember the last time I was satisfied with one of his performances.
Some may say the movie is too violent, others may say that the contents are sometimes way too explicit for the kind of movie this one pertains to be. Well, I say this is a very entertaining movie that kind of surprised me. I’m just sorry I couldn’t get my hands on a copy of the comic book before watching it.
“Fado – História de um Povo” is a musical by Filipe La Feria now playing in the “Casino do Estoril”. The play tells us the story of Fado from its very beginning in the 19th century until its biggest modern symbol in Portugal – Amalia Rodrigues. The musical is organized in a way that allows you to understand the several influences that Fado had until it became what it is today. Throughout the show several tributes to Fado singers are made but unfortunately many of them I couldn’t recognize. Still, there were also several names that I knew – Maria Severa, Alfredo Marceneiro, Ary dos Santos, Carlos do Carmo and of course Amália Rodrigues.
The cast is superb and the dynamic of the show is simply amazing. There’s always so much going on in the show with the artists on stage, people coming from below the stage, or even dancers descending from the ceiling right on top of our heads. The scenarios, costumes and all the accessories used are also brilliantly created.
I would recommend this musical to every Fado lover, and for those who are not big fans of the genre, it’s a very good way to get some knowledge on the music that represents the roots of the Portuguese people.
It’s just amazing the way they turned the most famous single-player platform game into a clever, fun and addictive multi-player game. Yes it’s true, the multi-player here is only an option, and you don’t have to play it if you don’t want to, but believe me, the fun is multiplied by 1 million if you play this game with your friends. Expect the traditional 2D Mario gameplay that made this character the most famous plumber in the world, lots of power ups, hidden secrets and the usual boss fights at the end of each world. Even though we can make use of the “continues” when you get a game over, don’t think this is an easy game to beat, actually it kind of requires a good amount of skill for you to beat all the levels! The graphics are the way they should be, with nicely polished and animated scenarios, and the sound effects are just brilliantly adapted to every situation in the game.
It’s the old school Super Mario at its best level!
Ok, now we’re talking!! This is what I call an ending! If you didn’t watch the episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, forget about this anime movie. If you watched them, and you liked the last 2 episodes, think before watching this movie as it will change the way you look at Evangelion’s ending. If you watched the episodes and you felt disappointed with the ending just like I did, than this movie is just what you’re looking for!
The movie takes off after the 24th episode, and it takes you 1 minute to realize that everything is different now. I’m not going to make the spoiler alert as I’m not going to focus on the story here. I’ll just say that instead of a bunch of recycled scenes, in this ending we get back to the action, and you’re finally able to understand some of the missing pieces that put the whole story together. The animation is of very high quality with clear improvements when compared with the TV episodes. The main character – Shinji – is still the biggest wooss ever created for an anime, but to compensate for this wimp, I finally got to understand all the fuss around Asuka – one of the other main characters. Asuka stars in one of the best action scenes I’ve ever watched in the anime world!
I’m sure that if Anno Hideaki had created this ending for the original series, he would have avoided the tons of criticism he received. Violent, psychologically intense, disturbing, and highly emotional… That’s Neon Genesis Evangelion alright!
All together, these 26 episodes had everything to be epic, but unfortunately, in my opinion, they end up failing to do so. Some talk about budget cuts during the series, others say the director, Anno Hideaki, didn’t have the ability to perfectly channel his ideas to the screen. Well, I go with a bit of both. If at the 18th or 19th episode I was completely amazed, towards the end I started to fill a bit disappointed. Still, in 1995/96 Neon Genesis Evangelion redefined the idea of Anime and came to influence many others that were released in the following years.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is a futuristic mecha-based Anime, which instead of focusing in the fantastic battles or in the aesthetics of the whole thing, tries to shift the attention to a deeper level. A great deal of importance is given to the development of the characters and how these mature and interrelate with each other during the plot. Central to the whole story is the analysis of the human psyche and subconscious, with Freudian theories of Ego and Super Ego playing a major role here. There is also a big religious connotation throughout the series, but I would say that most of the times these lack objectivity and are rather more superficial.
As I mentioned before, the characters are extraordinarily well constructed with lots of depth into every each of them, and the way they develop during the series is just amazing. The whole story is also very interesting. In the 21st century Earth is being threatened by these alien creatures - the “Angels” – which can only be stopped by an organization known as NERV. This organization created these giant robots known as Evas, which can only be piloted by few chosen children. The plot than evolves into discovering some secret, mind-twisted and greedy projects of NERV that attempt to defy God’s power by creating an ultimate form human android, capable of thinking and acting by itself – the previously mentioned Evas. So far, so good. The first half of the series let us know a bit of the daily life of the chosen children and let us meet all the different characters of the series and know all about their personal dilemmas. Meanwhile, we get to watch some cool and intense action scenes between the Evas and the “Angels”.
The second half of the series starts off well. You start getting more involved with the characters and their emotions, and you finally start asking questions to solve the big puzzle that is being presented to you. This is where Anno Hideaki gets too ambitious, and I would say, a bit pretentious. This was also the time when the budget for Evangelion was cut. It is said that because episode 19 was way too graphic and brutal, even for the Japanese TV, the sponsor decided to bail out. The original ending just leaves a lot of stuff unanswered as if we were missing some pieces of a puzzle, being controversial enough for Hideaki to create an alternative one released afterwards in DVD. Anyways, towards the end you get the feeling that you’re going repeatedly and excessively deep into the same old characters problems. The central characters are broken into pieces in a huge sequence of introspective recycled scenes that are just too much to arrive at the ending climax.
All in all, this is definitely a must-see anime, which unfortunately gets stained by a sequence of final episodes that leave you with the feeling that the director was promising you too much.
