Enlightenment Guaranteed

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01/29/2015 A wonderful little comedy/drama. Very true to life, amusing, and even moving -- a genuine little Zen tale! See more 06/27/2013 an overlooked gem apparently See more 05/29/2012 Starts off looking promising, but the last 45minutes or so will convince you that "Enlightenment Guaranteed" is just an okay movie. See more 02/19/2012 global truth that travel opens up your point of view to see that your own little life is not so great or horrible as you believe it to be See more 12/02/2010 It's worth seeing. You won't be wasting your time by watching it. Some may not like it, but it's worth the hour and a half. I liked it. It's thought provoking. See more 04/20/2010 [b]1408[/b] [color=red]6.0/10[/color] :fresh: Few real chills, and gets rather carried away with some over-the-top nonsense, but Cusack and the occasional real moment of truth save this one from being duly buried. [b]Bender's Big Score[/b] [color=green]2.0/10[/color] :rotten: ... [img]http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/1536/benderoj4.jpg[/img] Nah, I'm just kidding. [b]Bender's Big Score[/b] [color=red]8.0/10[/color] :fresh: Although I [i]am[/i] in two minds about this one. It feels like a TV movie - obviously because it [i]is[/i] a TV movie. And I usually detest plots where time travel is involved, as it is almost invariably done poorly. On the other hand, this flick is pretty much a Futurama fan's dream. Yes they've brought in an array of lesser characters but it's not as if there are unwarranted cameos from every minor schlob who's ever been in the series. For the most part the whole thing ties together very well, despite the whole time travel/paradox thing going on. Amongst all the in jokes and self referential imagery, Bender's Big Score has some great laughs and a bit of that genuine Futurama-style pathos that separates the series from other, lesser, cartoons. if you're not a fan then this flick won't convert you. if you are a fan then ... well, you've seen it already so I wasted my time typing all this in the first place. Bite my shiny metal a[b][i][/b][/i]ss. [b]Spiderman 3[/b] [color=red]6.5/10[/color] :fresh: Overlong, and overstuffed, Spidey 3 is brought down by some rather curious revisionist plotting [spoiler](I fully expect Aunt May to admit to being the [i]real[/i] killer of Ben Parker, in a dramatic scene halfway through Spidey 4)[/spoiler], poor use of the villains, and some ridiculous literal flag waving. Sure Spidey's always been a flag waver on the big screen but really this time it was genuinely laughable. On the upside, Sandman's effects were entertainingly bombastic, and Parker's "strutting" was hilarious. But please, can we leave it at 3 and not drag out a fourth episode? [b]Enlightenment Guaranteed[/b] [color=red]7.0/10[/color] :fresh: [img]http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4417/enlightenmentguaranteedvu2.jpg[/img] Two middle aged brothers - Uwe the uptight kitchen salesman whose wife suddenly leaves, taking their battalion of kids - and Gustav - a feng shui consultant with his own brand of relationship issues - take an inauspicious trip to a Japanese monastery in order to, well, gain enlightenment. Hilarity ensues, in somewhat formulaic and largely predictable ways. This is a gentle, fairly lightweight, comedy about life's little (and not so little) setbacks, the art of letting go, and how to steal sushi in Tokyo. I was going to say "it won't win any awards" but apparently it did (Best Actor and best Production, according to IMDB). I'm not sure why - the acting is fine, but not exactly praiseworthy, and everything seems done on the absolute cheap. Still, enlightenment is, as the abbot says, the [i]absence[/i] of something, not the [i]achievement[/i] of something, and in that respect Enlightenment Guaranteed rather works. It's not overburdened, it's not over polished, and it's that Zen simplicity that lets it sneak deeper into the soul than perhaps it would otherwise deserve. [b]Winter Sleepers (Winterschalfer)[/b] [color=red]6.0/10[/color] :fresh: [img]http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/1011/wsix2.jpg[/img] In a small German ski-resort town, the intertwining lives and lies of a handful of curious individuals. There's the immature Rebecca who seemingly spends her life doing reception duties at the ski lodge, translating erotic novels from English to German, and fuc[b][i][/b][/i]king. The dark, introverted Laura - nurse and intensely strange. Marco, the handsome but dim ski instructor. And Rene, the town's cinema projectionist with a strange past and uncertain future. Whilst there are some wonderful shots and interesting touches of flair in this film, the pacing is decidedly uncertain and the characterisation seemingly half-hearted. The whole film feels somehow unfinished, or at least lacking a real core or purpose. That aside, I'm rating it (just) fresh because of the feel of the piece, and the slightly surreal, dreamlike feeling that it manages to evoke. Just don't expect to really get sucked into this half-sleeping world. See more Read all reviews

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