Movie Reviews

[isa]

Just thought after chatting with Akhunaa Abdraheim that we should have a thread where we talk/review movies we have watched.

I wanted to put up my review for 5 Fingers, but could not find it.

Admin, what happened to it? Any idea? Or didn't I post it in 'Reviews' to begin with?

[Abdraheim]

Review: Step Brothers funny, but true to jew form ..full of swear words and a couple of gross scenes

Edit: watched it last night and i don't recommend it. too much filth.

[Abdraheim]

i like sci fi movies anyone suggest good ones? ...recently saw avatar 3d..pretty good

[Musa]

Why settle for less when you could watch the greatest movie of all time?

Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai) by Akira Kurosawa (1954)

The archetypal action film, Seven Samurai is also one of the richest works to ever be committed to celluloid. Each of its characters is extraordinarily realized; each has his or her own arc, his or her own vital part to play in the film's slow progression towards its dramatic finale. Typically, Kurosawa has put the film together using an exceeding degree of artistry; each and every shot, each action sequence, is exquisitely composed; and yet none seems contrived or out-of-place within the overall fabric of the work. Everything is beautifully conceived and in focus, both literally and figuratively.

When watching Seven Samurai, movie lovers will immediately recognize that several of its key elements can be readily detected in countless similar films made during the last half-century. The audition scenes, in which several samurai are recruited for the difficult task of defending a farming town from a group of bandits, strikes a particularly familiar chord, as do those showing the samurai training the lowly villagers to fight and use weapons. Indeed, the theme of a highly experienced group of "tough guys" taking up the cause of the disenfranchised has become something of an action film cliche, portions of which echo throughout the American western, as well as its progeny (think The Dirty Dozen, The Road Warrior or even television's The A Team).

But what really stands out in Seven Samurai are its characters. They run the gamut, from elder teacher to hopeful youth, stoic warrior to undisciplined brigand. Kurosawa even finds room for a youthful romance, not to mention the mix of poor and beleaguered townspeople he depicts within the setting of the town. Perhaps its no wonder the enemy bandits are virtually faceless-- there is so much conflict and passion present within the group of protagonists, the villains need not be more than a vague threat.

Through it all Kurosawa never forgets who these people are and where they stand in comparison to one another. Obviously, the samurai are, for the most part, samurai, while the townspeople are merely peasants, lacking even in funds to pay their noble defenders. Kurosawa deftly illustrates these class differences by having one peasant fear horribly for the honor of his daughter, who he suspects will be lured by the wealth of the samurai; and also by giving us one samurai who is no samurai at all, but merely a peasant himself whose own farming village was in his youth destroyed by marauding warriors. The film thus wraps a a portrait of class conflict in a cloak of solidarity. The samurai unite to defend the poor peasants, but the ending is not exactly happy for them. Nor are the peasants completely honorable. We learn, for instance, that they have in the past murdered defeated samurai and looted their bodies, and it becomes apparent late in the film that their claims of poverty are perhaps not as truthful as at first seemed apparent.

So why do the samurai defend them so valiantly? For honor? For love of adventure? The answer to this question is left intentionally vague; it is up to each viewer to draw his or her own conclusions. It is to the film's credit that it forces such questions upon us while never allowing them to cause the motivations of its characters to seem untrue.

Modern viewers will find the action sequences of Seven Samurai to be restrained. There are, for instance, no "Gladiator" or "Braveheart" moments in which limbs are visibly hacked off, blood flies and speakers pound with booming audio. But the action is wonderfully filmed and there is some early use of slow motion to accentuate key moments. The 3 1/2 hour running time may also deter some, but I find the length to be one of the film's charms; it takes its dear sweet time in exposing its riches, and no single moment feels underdeveloped or awkward. Don't miss it.

10/10

Storyline - Do not read if you plan to watch the film!!

A gang of marauding bandits approaches a mountain village. The bandit chief recognizes they have ransacked this village before, and decides it is best that they spare it until the barley is harvested in several months. One of the villagers happens to overhear the discussion. When he returns home with the ominous news, the despairing villagers are divided about whether to surrender their harvest or fight back against the bandits. In turmoil, they go to the village elder, who declares that they should fight, by hiring samurai to help defend the village. Some of the villagers are troubled by this suggestion, knowing that samurai are expensive to enlist and known to lust after young farm women, but realize they have no choice. Recognizing that the impoverished villagers have nothing to offer any prospective samurai except food, the village elder tells them to "find hungry samurai."

The men go into the city, but initially are unsuccessful, being turned away by every samurai they ask — sometimes very rudely — because they cannot offer any pay other than three meals a day. Just as all seems lost, they happen to witness an aging samurai, Kambei, execute a cunning and dramatic rescue of a young boy taken hostage by a thief. As Kambei walks towards town a young samurai, Katsushirō, asks to become his acolyte. Kambei insists that he walk with him as a friend. Then the farmers ask Kambei to help defend their village; to their great joy, he accepts. Kambei, with Katsushirō's assistance, then recruits four more masterless samurai (rōnin) from the city, one by one, each with distinctive skills and personality traits. Although Kambei had initially decided that seven samurai would be necessary, he plans to leave for the village with only the four that he has chosen because time is running short. The villagers beg him to take Katsushirō also and, with some prodding by the others, he agrees. A clownish ersatz samurai named Kikuchiyo, whom Kambei had rejected for the mission, follows them to the village at a distance, ignoring their protestations and attempts to drive him away.

When the samurai arrive at the village, the villagers cower in their homes in fear, hoping to protect their daughters and themselves from these supposedly dangerous warriors. The samurai are insulted not to be greeted warmly, considering that they have offered to defend the village for almost no reward, and seek an explanation from the village elder. Suddenly, an alarm is raised; the villagers, fearing that the bandits have returned, rush from their hiding places begging to be defended by the newly-arrived samurai. It turns out that Kikuchiyo, until this point merely a tag-along, has raised a false alarm. He rebukes the panicked villagers for running to the samurai for aid after first failing to welcome them to the village. It is here that Kikuchiyo demonstrates that there exists a certain intelligence behind his boorish demeanour. The six samurai symbolically accept him as belonging with them, truly completing the group of wanderers as the "seven samurai."

As they prepare for the siege, the villagers and their hired warriors slowly come to trust each other. However, when the samurai discover that the villagers have murdered and robbed fleeing samurai in the past, they are shocked and angry, and Kyūzō, the most professional and calm of the samurai, even comments that he would like to kill everyone in the village. The always clownish Kikuchiyo passionately castigates the other samurai for ignoring the hardships that the farmers face in order to survive and make a living despite the intimidation and harassment from the warrior class, in the process revealing his origins to Kambei, who suddenly perceives that Kikuchiyo is himself a farmer's son. "But who made them like this?" he asks. "You did!" The anger the samurai had felt turns to shame, and when the village elder, alerted by the clamor that this revelation instigates, asks if anything is the matter, Kambei humbly responds that there is not. The samurai continue their preparations without any animosity, and soon afterward show compassion toward the farmers when they share their rice with an old woman who, her family having been killed by bandits, cries out that she merely wants to die.

The preparations for the defense of the village continue apace, including the construction of fortifications and the training of the farmers for battle. Katsushirō, the youngest samurai, begins a love affair with Shino, the daughter of one of the villagers. Shino had been forced to masquerade as a boy by her father who hoped the deception would protect her from the supposedly lustful samurai warriors.

As the time for the raid approaches, two bandit scouts are killed, and one is captured and reveals the location of the bandit camp. Three of the samurai, along with a guide from the village, decide to carry out a pre-emptive strike. Many bandits are killed, but one of the samurai, Heihachi, is struck down by gunfire. When the bandits arrive in force soon after this raid, they are confounded by the fortifications put in place by the samurai, and several are killed attempting to scale the barricades or cross moats. However, the bandits have a superior number of trained fighters, and possess three muskets, and are thus able to hold their own. Kyūzō decides to conduct a raid on his own to retrieve one of the muskets and returns with one several hours later. Kikuchiyo, jealous of the praise and respect Kyūzō earns, particularly from Katsushirō, later abandons his post to retrieve another musket, leaving his contingent of farmers in charge. Although he succeeds, the bandits attack the post, overwhelming and killing many of the farmers. Kambei is forced to provide reinforcements from the main post to drive the bandits out, leaving it undermanned when the bandit leader charges this position. Although they are driven off, Gorobei is shot and killed.

Apart from defense, the initial strategy of the samurai is to allow the bandits to enter a gap in the fortifications one at a time through the use of a closing "wall" of spears, and to then kill the lone enemy. This is repeated several times with success, although more than one bandit manages to enter the village several times. On the second night, Kambei decides that the villagers will soon become too exhausted to fight and instructs them to prepare for a final, decisive battle. During the night, Katsushirō's affair is revealed, and after an initial uproar, his amorous adventures provide comic relief to the embattled militia.

When morning breaks and the bandits make their attack, Kambei orders his forces to allow all 13 remaining bandits in at once. In the ensuing confrontation, most of the bandits are easily killed, but the leader takes refuge in a hut unseen. In what is portrayed as dishonorable act, he shoots Kyūzō in the back from the safety of the hut, killing him. A despondent Katsushirō seeks to avenge his hero, but an enraged Kikuchiyo bravely (and blindly) charges ahead of him, only to be shot in the belly himself. Although mortally wounded, Kikuchiyo ensures he kills the bandit chief, finally proving his worth as a samurai, before dying. Dazed and exhausted, Kambei and Shichirōji sadly observe "we've survived once again," while Katsushirō wails over his fallen comrades. The battle is ultimately won for the villagers.

The three surviving samurai, Kambei, Katsushirō, and Shichirōji, are left to observe the villagers happily planting the next rice crop. The samurai reflect on the relationship between the warrior and farming classes: though they have won the battle for the farmers, they have lost their friends with little to show for it. "Again we are defeated," Kambei muses. "The farmers have won. Not us." This melancholic observation sheds new light on Kambei's statement at the beginning of the film that he had "never won a battle." This contrasts with the singing and joy of the villagers, whose figuratively life-sustaining work has prevailed over war and left all warriors as the defeated party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Samurai

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047478/

[Abdraheim]

cool me liks a good asian action movie

[fatima_43]

Fearless with Jet Li is a good one

[isa]

Ermm... Just before we get carried away...

Can we add some reviews, and if possible why the one adding to the list reckons it is watchable/not watchable?

[fatima_43]

Fearless is a thought provoking movie. It stars Jet Li in the beginning as a sort of bad guy who likes to start battles to show off his kung fu but when it results in the death of his family he realises the error of his ways... there's the teaser now you have to watch it to see how it pans out =D

What I personally like about it is that it's not one of them mind drilling, zombefying action movies but it's a good movie about morals and contains valuable life lessons like how arrogance destructs and that you should only use your powers for good and helping others.

Also very good cinematography and fight scenes imo.

[~fLoSs~]

my favourite scene from fearless is when they are in the rice fields and a cool breeze blows and the villiage people and jet Li have a zen moment, you kinda have one to when you are watching it. My second favourite scene is the sword fight which is absolutely mental....third favourite would have to be when jet li dies, its real cool.

[isa]

my favourite scene from fearless is when they are in the rice fields and a cool breeze blows and the villiage people and jet Li have a zen moment, you kinda have one to when you are watching it. My second favourite scene is the sword fight which is absolutely mental....third favourite would have to be when jet li dies, its real cool.

LoL!!!

Thanks for not giving the ending away

LoL!!!

[thRilNs]

7 Samurai is a top movie its one well worth buying.
- Also if you want to see jet li when he was in his prime checkout The Shaolin Temple and Fist of Legend. Both are top movies.

[NRaf]

Yeah, 7 Samurai was a cool movie. Wouldn't call it the best of all time, though...

[Al Baitel 'ateeq]

I will have to thank both your posts for getting the apostrophe right in losers'. Can be such a tricky thing that little speck for most people.

[BintMuhammad]

I deleted my post because I thought this was "your fav movies" thread LoL

[isa]

People...

I sincerely appreciate everyone advising us what movies to watch or steer away from, but the thread is clearly labelled Movies Reviews!

[NRaf]

http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/125535

Sorry, had to be done...

[isa]

http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/125535

Sorry, had to be done...

JazaakaAllaahu Khayr.

I am sure however, that not all movies would fall under that category.

w'Allahu A`lam.

[Umm Binyameen]

What I'm always concerned about is the fact that we are suppose to lower our gaze, and also the first look is forgiven but the next is a sin. How can that work then if we're staring at a TV which gives closeups of people? Even if you're not watching something with any bad or haram actions, you're still staring at people of the opposite sex. How about that we take pleasure in watching people do haram? Movies are pretend, so even if you're watching something that you'd deem as halal (where the characters are married for example) they aren't in real life, so you're watching a man and a woman touch each other in a haram way (even just holding hands or whatever). They are complete strangers, yet you enjoy watching them do this haram action. Won't we be accountable for that?

[Tay_]

People...

I sincerely appreciate everyone advising us what movies to watch or steer away from, but the thread is clearly labelled Movies Reviews!

lol. I'm personally surprised that this thread exists, because some time ago the mods said movie reviews aren't allowed on the forum; unofficially (as its not part of the forum rules)

I haven't been able to find where they have said that via the search function, all I have found is what Aussiemu said in the Transformers movie thread that I started:

20-Jul-2007, 01:44 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

assalamu alaikum

It has been mentioned before that the topic of TV watching is in another thread and can be discussed there. Feel free to bump up that thread. We've gone through this 10x before and I don't feel the need to go through it again.

wassalamu alaikum

[Musa]

Seven Samurai is great as there is only 1 objectionable scene in the whole film, otherwise the film is dominated by the Samurai embarking on their quest. Even the music is minimal or hardly noticed.

There was a genre of film that began in Denmark called Dogme 95, it is characterised by the following points -

No props
No Music
No lighting
No murder
No weapons

Some of the Dogme films did really well and were quite enjoyable.
Its a lesson for Islamic film makers that films can be made with no music. Just add to that no needless showing of women, have all characters dressed well and that covers most of the objectionable stuff shown in films we usually see.

Still though, some films do have a great benefit such as The Message, even though it has music and men's awrah's are shown.