Returner

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and disjointed
Review: I rented this because I read about it from so many places, I figured it must be a good, fairly cheesy sci-fi kung fu movie, but I was really let down.
First of all, this movie doesn't know whether it wants to be a serious sci-fi movie or a b-movie. Budget probably came into play, but it should feel a little more polished. After watching the tense opening scenes, you think it's gonna be a serious film, but there are moments so ridiculous they take you right out of the movie.
There is some good here. Neat gunplay/action, some decent shoot outs and such. The movie was genuinely good at developing the relationship between the two lead characters, but unfortunately the movie is too cheap: too many close calls to make it believable, especially in some of the action moments.
Worst of all, the pacing slows to a crawl at key moments. Instead of moving the film along, it stops to meander and wonder. Especially the ending. Apparently the filmakers ran out of ideas of how to end the thing, because it could've had ended three ways and I would have been sufficiently satisfied either way. As it stands, though, the movie is too long and to end all that with a Lenny Kravitz song is salt on the open wound.
But I shan't be too hard on this. This isn't some flashy Hollywood movie, this is just people making movies they care about, even if it means they're, well, not good. And there are some genuinely good moments, except the bad outweigh the good. Add another star if you're a freak about this genre.
I actually didn't delve into the DVD deep enough to write much about it, however, but I can say the picture and sound were sharp enough. I watched it late at night so reading more subtitles to wade through the docs on this disc was not my cup of tea at the time. But they put effort into it, obviously, because there were a lot of extras here. For the general audience, don't feel bad passing on this.

Rating:
Summary: I liked it alot; a fun, interesting action sci-fi film.
Review: I saw the trailer for this film on another DVD, and bought it when it came out. It is a fun and interesting film.
First I'll tell you what the film is not: It's not an Oscar film; but I didn't watch it for that.
I keep reading where people say; Oh, it's like this film; It's like that film; The effects are like (fill in the blank).
Well, there is a small similarity between a couple of effects and past films like the Matrix. But I didn't watch the film solely for it's effects. Then again , I can compare almost any film today, with some past film.

This film has some good loveable characters (and love to hate). It has an interesting plot with some good character development. The plot has a small goal with large consequences. And some fun action, humor and , yes even, fun effects. Note, that aliens aren't running up and down the screen the whole movie. It's a bit more subtle.
So if you want some good fun, this is a good film for it.

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: I think this movie is not getting the credit it deserves. Not only is the action great but the story is also excellent. The acting is great too. I suggest that you watch it with subtitles to fully see the acting. Anyway, overall this movie was great and I recomend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Eh....
Review: I'm glad I chose to rent this first instead of buying it. The plot was extremely weak. For the most part this movie was fairly uninteresting. However, there were a handful of very short action scenes that were cool and fun to watch, which is why I gave this a 3 instead of a 1. Do yourself a favor and RENT it first.

Rating:
Summary: The borrowing goes both ways
Review: It troubles me how often in these reviews, and in the reviews of other non-American films, everything comes down to the fact that story and character elements are "borrowed" from Hollywood films, as though everything original in the history of cinema came out of Los Angeles. In fact Hollywood itself has a long history of "borrowing" - without Japanese Anime, "The Matrix" would never have existed. So why don't we lay aside the self-serving pretence that "The Matrix" is either an original conception or a yardstick for SciFi films, when in truth it's neither one, or that Hollywood is the ultimate font of cinematic art, which it most certainly is not, and evaluate these films on their own merits. This one has many.

Rating:
Summary: Acceptable amusement
Review: Lots of action, lots of guns, sneering bad guys, and fumbling-but-finally-successful good guys. I enjoyed watching it, but was glad that I paid only the price of a rental.

I will remember this movie for one striking feature. I saw it with both subtitles and dubbing in English. Sometimes the two actually said the same thing, very often they were very different. The mismatch I really remember was the subtitle that said "Damn!" while the sound track said "S**t!"

It's a good one to watch when you're already committed to wasting time. There are lots worse out there - but lots better, too.

Rating:
Summary: Great Foreign Film
Review: People say Returner copies ideas from other movies, but in this age of unoriginality (which movies is Hollywood remaking or making crappy sequels to this year?), the least that can be said is that it does a fine job of representing ideas from other movies.

The title is original, though, it's one of those Japanese-made-up English words: RI-TAA-NAA. I think it's derived from the idea that Milly (Suzuki An) "returns" to the past, and is therefore The Returner (even though the posters make it look like Kaneshiro Takeshi's character is The Returner).

I used to be one of those people who hates watching subtitles, but after watching dozens of Hong Kong films, I've gotten used to it, so I watched Returner first in the original Japanese, then in dubbed English. I must say that the English dub sucks. They tried TOO HARD to stretch English dialog over slow moments of Japanese lip movement, and the English voice acters didn't sound like they cared at all about the characters they played. (The leads sounded goofy and the old woman always sounded like she was on her death bed.)

In short, Returner is a fun movie, and for the best viewing experence, you should watch it in the orignal Japanese.

Rating:
Summary: Medicority at its Best
Review: Renting foreign movies is usually a hit or miss experience. I try to stick with genres countries are known for HK=action, martial arts; Japan=Anime, horror, Korea= well Korean maybe the exception. I have seen a good comedy, action, and a crime drama from there. This time it was a perfectly average experience.

The movie is a blender of the E.T., Matrix, ID4, Terminator and Back to the Future. Nothing original, everything is exactly mediocre and rehashed. The wire work is OK, the gunplay pretty good, the acting bad to mediocre. The bad part is the dubbed English or were they real American actors? Those scenes were on par in acting and set design as Stargate SG-1 TV or Andromeda. There are a few funny moments to break the rhythm. The end was a little unexpected, but (don't hate me) just does not seem plausible even in movieland.

VIDEO: The DVD was watched in widescreen mode. The transfer looks good with no cross coloration.

SOUND: It made good use of 5.1 DD sound. The voices and effects were clear and traveled among the speakers without any breaks.

EXTRAS: This is the best part of the DVD. They show a split screen of before and after shots of special effects. For example they have the actual shot with actors/actress in front of a blue screen, then show the actual movie part on the bottom half. This was pretty cool. This was actually clear. On some DVDs these scenes look like home movies.

www.xanga.com/Rander

Rating:
Summary: RETURNER WAS ENTERTAINING
Review: Returner had great special effects and some pretty cool action sequences, albeit some were so obviously stolen from other movies.
I mean, c'mon, if you can't notice that so blatantly, you are blind. But it also had a great look to it, with very different and interesting special effects. That's what made this movie!!

The plot has been done, and this one still has some great ideas and unexpected twists and turns - all the way to the very end!
And that's a plus. It showed me that this director stretched to at least make an above-average B-movie. And he did.

The acting was not as bad as a lot of other Asian movies I've seen, but still was not as greatly acted as movies such as - Hero with Jet Li, Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon, ALIVE, directed by Ryhuei Kitamura, who also did the Azumi 3-hour epic and the somewhat lame VERSUS. Alive was a much better film by far. Good luck finding it.

But RETURNER, though worth watching for it's special effects, comes up short in some facets. (the slow-time action sequences are done the best!) The acting is Ok, but some of the dialogue and storyline lack far behind other Asian films. But it is a step above the many I've seen thus far.
But MUSA, THE WARRIOR, is by far the best acted and action Hong Kong movie ever! Hands down. See it, you'll see what I mean.

It's like the Asian story of their own The ALAMO. Awesome setting, acting, and action of such film giants as BRAVEHEART.
But Returner had some very uniqueness about it, thus saving it from mediocor film making.

Rating:
Summary: ET with automatic weapons
Review: Returner is a pleasent diversion, a little brainless at times, but overall it is very well done. The special effects are pretty good and there are some great wild action scenes in this film. This is essentially a John Woo film with a few Sci-Fi elements thrown in, but it all works out.