Rating: 
Summary: you've got to be kidding me
Review: two hours of gorgeous, sepia-toned screensavers.
Rating: 
Summary: "Jack-in" ... if you're "game" !
Review: [[cannot comment on the "Region-1" release of this DVD -- this is a review of the movie itself]] Oshii Mamoru, the guy who gave us the innovative anime, "Ghost In The Shell: Koukaku Kidoutai," has translated that vision to a "live action" production, filmed entirely in Poland and in the Polish language. The story revolves around an "illegal" Virtual Reality war game which attracts the disheartened and disfranchised young people in a drab, depressing, uninspiring 'monochrome' world. The game, called "Avalon," offers its players a brief escape from the harsh realities of their world. (For some-- those who are particularly skilled and experienced at it --the game has also become a means to earning a living.) But is it possible that there is another world 'beyond' the one they know and experience everyday-- a world 'within' Avalon --that is more desirable and more "real" than the one in which they exist? That is exactly what Kusanagi Motoko... uh... I mean "Ash" hopes to find out. Motoko... umm... sorry... I meant "Ash" is a solo player who formerly belonged to a team of raiders which called itself "Wizard." Their team was the best of the best, considered 'invincible' amongst other players of the game, until something goes wrong during one of their VR campaigns which would later result in the group being disbanded and the decision of several of the former members to go solo. Going solo exposed the player to greater and more difficult challenges, but the rewards reaped through greater experience points, etc., not only proved an attractive lure but also advanced the player closer to the game's ultimate goal much quicker. Motok... "Ash" decides to use her experience to advance through the levels until she reaches the point to where the former leader of "Wizard" became trapped in a permanent vegetative state. Oh, yeah... that's the part that got left out -- SOME of the players who advance through to the highest levels never 'snap out of it' ... a condition described as "unreturned." And Mot... "Ash" wants to know what her former teammate experienced there and what's keeping him there. But in order to do that she's going to need the help of someone she's been observing closely in the game ... the same 'someone' who has likewise been observing her very closely. The film opens with a scene taken right out of "Ghost In The Shell," carries us through a landscape & mood similar to a cross between a 'Big Brotherless' "1984" and "The Thirteenth Floor" on Ritalin, culminating in an ending which will surely inspire yet another philosophical discussion about "real" and "virtual" existences. No real or easy answers are given at the end of the film, and perhaps that's just as well. Sometimes maybe we do need to just take what's presented to us and write our own ending, as it were. I can just see the tag line already: ''AVALON''.... WE DISTORT, YOU DECIDE.
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