I enjoyed both parts and rate it 4/5 acorns.  No clives.

The best part of the movie are the hopping vampires.  I didn’t know vampires hopped in China.  It makes them look a little silly.

Love and Honor is one of the 3 movies directed by Yoji Yamada.   Twilight Samurai is my favorite more contemporary samurai picture and I really enjoyed Love and Honor.  The period of all three movies, ( the third one being The Hidden Blade) is that time when the samurai class is started it’s decline.  The gun has arrived and the “west” is knocking at Japan’s door.

In this story, Shinnojo Mimura, played so well by Takuya Kimura, is a mere 50 koku samurai, who’s job, with 5 other samurai,  is to taste the Lord’s food to screen for poisons.  At 50 koku, he has one vassal, and a very devoted wife.  One day he becomes ill after eating an exotic seafood, and is in coma for about 3 days.  When he wakes, he is blind.  His family bickers about who will have to support him, so his wife goes to government official for help.  The sleaze ball had offered help, and she naively goes to him at the urging of her in-laws.  He promises help in exchange for services.  She is very shamed, but when the Lord’s officials tell them that has been decided that he should keep his 50 koku, she feels she must continue for the love of her husband.

Meanwhile, the man decides he is not useless, but that he should follow his dream of becoming a fencing master.  His teacher works with him and he developes a sense of his opponents moves.

He begins to suspect his wife is up to something and has his vassal follow her to one of her rendezvous.   It is Mimura’s right to kill her, but he banishes her from his home, in the middle of the night.  After suffering his vassal’s horrid cooking and have to subject his guest to the worst cup of tea, he agrees to take in a cook.  But before that he discovers that the Lord had insisted on supporting Mimura as he was very grateful that Mimura sacrificed so much to save his life.   When he finds out that his wife was duped he challenges the corrupt official to a duel.

These one on one duels are always the high point for me in any samurai movie and this one does not disappoint.

I recommend this movie and give it 5 acorns.

Homecoming, by Joe Dante of Gremlins fame is a story of soldier zombies who come back for one reason.  When denied their purpose, they do what zombies do best…eat some brains and other body parts.

Haeckel’s Tale by John McNaughton of Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer.  A young women has died and her distraught husband seeks a crone to reanimate her.  She tells him Haeckel’s tale to try and dissuade him.  Haeckel is Dr. Frankenstein’s comtemporary.  While traveling home to see his ailing father he crosses paths with a medicine man who claims to be able to bring people and animals back to life.  He demonstrates on a dead dog he has in a basket.  He is convinced the man is a fraud.  As he travels on he is invited to take shelter from a storm in the home of man he meets on the road.  This elderly man has a very young and beautiful wife, who mysteriously goes out at night.  She goes to the graveyard where she party’s with the undead.

Chocolate is the story of a man, separted from his wife and son, who dreams he tastes chocolate, and then dreams about a woman and a place he’s never been too.  He follows his obsession with some unexpected results.

I didn’t see Edward Norton as the Hulk, but he has played many memorable roles.  He plays the John Voight’s son.  He is part of a police family, with dad, older brother (Noah Emmerich) and brother-in-law (Colin Firth).  The acting is very good and there is quite a bit of action and violence.  A group of policmen in older brother’s squad are killed in a narcotics raid.  Edward Norton, who has been on leave from his job on narcotics is asked to be on the task force formed to bring the evil doers to justice.  He does so reluctantly and has he gets deeper in to the case it looks more like a setup and corrupt police.  Unfortunately it leads to to Colin Firth and the case threatens to bring his whole family down.

The reason for Norton’s leave of absence had to do with him doing something against his conscience to protect the police force.  The dilemma of being put in to a similar situation again is cause for a lot of grief.

I will rate this one 3.5/5 acorns.  1/2 of a clive.

Enter the more sofisticated detective from Seoul who looks for patterns.  The killings occur on rainy nights, were all wearing red, and on each night a certain rare song is requested on the radio.  As the police narrow down their search they are constantly stymied by the lack of evidence.  Even the specimen sent of to American for DNA testing is equivocal .

Does Hae-il Parklook like James Spader?

I will rate this one 3/5 acorns with 1/2 for crimes against women and policemen beating up suspects, guilty or not.

Nine Queens is an Argentinian movie about con men.  The nine queens is a set of rare stamps, most valuable as they contain a printing error.  A conman, Marcos, who has recently lost his partner hooks up with a young man, Juan,  who he catches bungling a simple con and offers to bring him in on a scam in which they will sell a forgery of the nine queens to a stamp dealer.  Many things go wrong.   Many people are involved including members of Marco’s and Juan’s sister.  As the plot thickens it is less clear who is conning who.  This movie did not have a lot of action.  Marcos talks a lot as he “trains” his apprentice.  The end is most satisfying.  I will rate this one 3/5 acorns, no clives.

City of Ember surprised me in my search for movies to see on movie day.  I love a good fantasy tale and this one has Tim Robbins in it.  The City of Ember is an underground city, powered by a massive generator.  The city was created by the “builders” 200 years earlier as a way to save the human race from total annihilation.  A box holding the secret, given to the mayor had been lost and when the generator starts to flicker, the Citizens of Ember turn to religion or believe in the corrupt mayor.  A small fraction is more concerned and tries to find how why and how.

Martin Landau has a great cameo as a pipe worker who knows his job very well but no one else.  His young apprentice, Tim Robbins son, very much wants to fix the generator.  He swaps graduation jobs with a classmate to get her job in the pipeworks and she becomes the messenger she so wanted to be.  Together they discover meaning of the box hidden in grannie’s closet, a giant mutated mole and the mayor’s secret.  As the puzzle unfolds the movie took on a Myst like quality with a bit of the Goonies and Whoville thrown in.  I will rate this one 3/5 acorns, no clives.

Body of Lies stars Russell Crowe and Leonardo Dicaprio as CIA operatives.  Russel Crow put on a bunch of weight for this roll as the protected man back in Washington and Leonardo as the operative in the Middle East.  Following a lead on a terrorist who anonymously has been blowing up stuff in Europe, Leonardo goes to Jordan.  He enlists the aid of the Jordanian CIA equivalent, played by Mark Strong.  Crowe’s character is detached from any personal relationships other then that with Leo.  Leonardo’s character is not only immersed in the relationships with Mark Strong’s character, but he also sees the destruction and loss of life that result from his actions and relationships.    As an action picture, Ridley Scott has made an excellent picture.  The acting was a+.  As a commentary on American’s in the Middle East, I can only hope there is much fantasy.    I will rate this one 3/5 acorns.  I will give it 1/2 of clive for torture and finger smashing.  Youch!

I was sad to see the last episode.  Now I have to wait until Season 3 comes out on DVD.

Someone should have warned Lila not to mess with a serial killer.  But, I for one was glad to see her end.  Still there is something very scary about the look in Dexter’s eyes.  He truly likes what he does.  Luckily for the “normal” he has a code, like Anton Chigurh, in No Country for Old Men.   Just stay off their list.