Holi Movie Reviews

Aleesia

Overall, this is a very silly show. Even if you aren't in a silly mood when you sit down to watch it, that will change in under a minute. It's somewhat comparable to Airplane and Naked Gun, since the jokes are rapid-fire at times and off-the-wall. Watch it with friends and I guarantee you'll be repeating bits of hilarious dialogue to each other for months.

The one thing about the collector's set that's kind of annoying, they have only one peg to put the DVDs onto so one of your DVDs is put directly on top of the other one. The top disc tends to fall off the peg and could potentially get scratched in shipment (like my first one did before I exchanged it); also when you securely fasten the discs they can be kinda hard to take out. Just an annoyance but probably the only way they could've put the discs in this kind of book like case. Overall, a great gift or personal purchase if your a fan and want to get the definitive set with collectible extras.

Overall, this is a very silly show. Even if you aren't in a silly mood when you sit down to watch it, that will change in under a minute. It's somewhat comparable to Airplane and Naked Gun, since the jokes are rapid-fire at times and off-the-wall. Watch it with friends and I guarantee you'll be repeating bits of hilarious dialogue to each other for months.

The one thing about the collector's set that's kind of annoying, they have only one peg to put the DVDs onto so one of your DVDs is put directly on top of the other one. The top disc tends to fall off the peg and could potentially get scratched in shipment (like my first one did before I exchanged it); also when you securely fasten the discs they can be kinda hard to take out. Just an annoyance but probably the only way they could've put the discs in this kind of book like case. Overall, a great gift or personal purchase if your a fan and want to get the definitive set with collectible extras.

Overall, this is a very silly show. Even if you aren't in a silly mood when you sit down to watch it, that will change in under a minute. It's somewhat comparable to Airplane and Naked Gun, since the jokes are rapid-fire at times and off-the-wall. Watch it with friends and I guarantee you'll be repeating bits of hilarious dialogue to each other for months.

The one thing about the collector's set that's kind of annoying, they have only one peg to put the DVDs onto so one of your DVDs is put directly on top of the other one. The top disc tends to fall off the peg and could potentially get scratched in shipment (like my first one did before I exchanged it); also when you securely fasten the discs they can be kinda hard to take out. Just an annoyance but probably the only way they could've put the discs in this kind of book like case. Overall, a great gift or personal purchase if your a fan and want to get the definitive set with collectible extras.

Overall, this is a very silly show. Even if you aren't in a silly mood when you sit down to watch it, that will change in under a minute. It's somewhat comparable to Airplane and Naked Gun, since the jokes are rapid-fire at times and off-the-wall. Watch it with friends and I guarantee you'll be repeating bits of hilarious dialogue to each other for months.

The one thing about the collector's set that's kind of annoying, they have only one peg to put the DVDs onto so one of your DVDs is put directly on top of the other one. The top disc tends to fall off the peg and could potentially get scratched in shipment (like my first one did before I exchanged it); also when you securely fasten the discs they can be kinda hard to take out. Just an annoyance but probably the only way they could've put the discs in this kind of book like case. Overall, a great gift or personal purchase if your a fan and want to get the definitive set with collectible extras.

One has to wonder though why this film is available when "Maria Braun" is out of print. Of course the entire Fassbinder oeuvre should be on the market, but "Maria" remains one of his masterpieces, and it's scandalous that it's not currently available.

But there is much more of interest than its behind-the-scenes peek at dysfunctional moviemaking. There are its autobiographical layers (Fassbinder not only appears in a crucial supporting role as the harried production manager Sascha, he parodies himself wickedly through the central character of the tyrannical director, Jeff); a brilliant use of rhythm, both within scenes and in the overall flow of the film (Fassbinder was also the co-editor); some of the most beautiful, subtle and complex visual design - and camera movement - of any of his films up to that point (the great Michael Ballhaus was the cinematographer; he now shoots Scorsese's films); an ecelctic, brilliantly deployed soundtrack ranging from Peer Raben's haunting original score to songs from Leonard Cohen, Ray Charles, and Elvis Presley to a haunting Donizetti aria; a superb ensemble cast (it follows about a dozen major characters - although it focuses on Jeff - and looks ahead to, say, Altman's Nashville); not to mention psychological insight, and some surprising yet on-target character revelations.

Fassbinder delves into extremely dark and tangled emotions in this comedy; and although there are many laughs, they often stem from violence. When a character asks Jeff what type of movie he is directing, he replies, "It's a film about brutality. What else would one make a film about?" Fassbinder was an enormously complex artist, and man, who understood from personal experience the cruel power plays, and blindness, of people in love. He admitted that he was capable of oppressing the people close to him (often his crews and cast were also his friends and lovers), yet he showed enormous compassion - in his life and work - for both victims and victimisers; and he understood that the same person could play both roles. And although this pivotal film - which looks back to his earlier, more abstract works and ahead to his unique melodramas - often has a languid pace, Fassbinder never stops digging beneath the surface, exploring the sources of human need: love, desire for power, longing, dependency, repressed wishes, unfulfilled dreams, and all manner of frustrations. With emotional meltdown possible at any moment, it is no wonder that the title begins with "beware," immediately telling us that that this is a cautionary tale. The title's other two words suggest the struggle, in each of us, between the spiritual and the raw.

Filmmaking proves a fascinating combination of those two distinct yet intertwined qualities, especially as embodied by Jeff. On the one hand, he makes life a living hell for his producer Manfred (Karl Scheydt) - who's in love with him, his production manager Sascha (Fassbinder), his fling Babs (Maragrethe von Trotta) - who happens to be Sascha's girlfriend, his ballistic ex named Irm (Magdalena Montezuma) who has convinced herself that she would "bear his children," and especially his on-again/off-again boyfriend Ricky (Marquard Bohm). Not to mention everybody else. But we also see Jeff's redemptive love for filmmaking, such as the spellbinding scene in which he tells his cinematographer exactly what he wants in a complicated shot and why. There is real fire in Jeff, and a natural poetry in his words, as writer/director Fassbinder turns cinema into language, even as the camera movement he uses counterpoints Jeff's vivid description of what he plans to film. But film is not all "holy," and throughout the camera often suggests voyeurism, both of cinema and of us, the audience. It often seems to be peeking around corners or pillars, as if it were eavesdropping.

Although film production is not part of most people's lives, Fassbinder manages to make it a probing metaphor for universal human experience, in one of his most hilarious, disturbing yet deeply moving pictures.

To quickly review what this series is about: Eikichi Onizuka, a former bike gang member, college karate champ, 22 years old and a bachelor, has taken it upon himself to be the world's greatest teacher. With little or no qualifications, he somehow gets accepted into a prestigious school, is assigned the worst class of delinquents and somehow has to control them.

Onizuka has to deal with various opponent-students during the course of the series: bully Aizawa Miyabi, super smart Kikuchi, fatal genius Urumi Kanzaki, and fierce Kunio Murai.

His opponent(s) this time include Vice Principal Uchiyamada, from a different perspective, and the seductively beautiful new school nurse Kadena. This time, Uchiyamada isn't steamed about Onizuka's un-teacher-like in-school tactics--seems his daughter has fallen for Uchiyamada's worst nightmare. Then, the school is taken by storm as a voluptuous nurse takes up residence at Holy Forest. Girls either envy her, or need something from her, while all the men are hopelessly under her charms. When she starts running a slightly illegal school clinic, Onizuka's best friend Ryuji recognizes her as the "Queen of Hakosuka," like Onizuka, a former gang member. However, her specialty was a car street race beating out red lights. GTO takes a step outside the school as he tries to deal with the alluring nurse.

Again, watching this series in Japanese is *necessary*, not only for the word jokes but because the story has pretty significant differences from the English to the Japanese versionin terms of what's going on. The Japanese vocal cast is far superior, and the vocal intonations better match the facial expressions; the storyline and what they say are far more risque and naughtier than the English dub as well.

If you've been collecting the series up to this point, I don't need to tell you to buy it. If you haven't, you're best off having watched the previous volumes, and may struggle as to who's bad, good, and why if this is your first GTO.