Drama/Movie Listing

One of these days I need to make a list of all the dramas I have and which ones I've watched (which i no longer have).  I've done fairly well at keeping track on Jdorama but I haven't been there lately to update.

Although it would be nice to go through everything I have again.  I might even take a chance to re-watch certain things.  One day.

Movie: Crows Zero II

Plot: 
Several months after "Crows: Episode 0" trouble brews again when thugs known as "The Army of Killers" from rival high school Hosen Academy threaten Suzuran High aka the School of Crows.
The ruthless Hosen gang go after Suzuran alumni Sho Kawanishi (Shinnosuke Abe) after his released from reformatory for killing a Hosen member two years back. Kawanishi turns to his younger Suzuran gang members for protection. The Housen gang then seeks out right revenge on the entire Suzuran school, while in-fighting at Suzuran High makes them even more susceptible to the Housen threat.

Credit: AsianWiki

Cast: Oguri Shun, Yamada Takayuki, Kuroki Meisa, Kiritani Kenta, Takaoka Sousuke, Nobuaki Kaneko, Ayano Go, Daito Shunsuke, Miura Haruma, and a bunch of others that I don't want to list.... XD

Comments:
I don't know what it is about me and "yankee" movies.  Delinquent movies are so awesome... so much better than chick flicks haha, anyways..

I didnt realize that when I got this movie, it was the 2nd movie not the first.  So I'm not exactly sure if I had to watch the first movie in order to get the 2nd one.  The only thing that I do understand that I missed was that Genji Takiya (Oguri Shun) had beat the last leader Serizawa Tamao (Yamada Takayuki) to become the new leader of the school.  Other than that, I don't know if the rival school had any influence in the first movie for the 2nd.

This movie had a huge cast of actors that I know and recognize.  I'm going to start off with the acting.  I thought everyones acting was pretty good.  A lot of them, or pretty much all of them are seasoned actors which really propelled the storyline.  What I wasn't impressed with was Nobuaki Kaneko's acting.  Ive seen a couple things with him in it and I'm sorry but I didn't like how exaggerated his acting was in this movie. 
I also didn't like how small a part Miura Haruma had.  I thought it would have been bigger considering he's the brother of the guy that was killed during battle between the schools.  Unless this is a set up for another movie?

Fighting scenes in the movie were pretty good.  Pretty believeable.  I also like that they held onto their wounds and scars throughout the movie.  I hate watching a drama and then the next episode theyre all clean and shiny.  There's no reality to that.  I like that they all split up, working together to conquer all the delinquents and one by one they took their opportunity to showcase who they are.  It was a battle of similiar strengths basically.  I thought the movie was going to be darker or heavy than it actually was, just because the way it was filmed. 

I'm going to give this a 8 out of 10 because of story progression, great actors, the fact its a delinquent movie and has a lot of my favorite actors in it.  It's just I don't think i'll ever rewatch it again ahah.

Movie: Crime or Punishment?!?

Plot: Riko Narumi plays an unpopular idol who in an attempt to boost her faltering career becomes police chief for a day. During the day a robbery occurs at a convenience store and instead of letting a real police chief deal with the robbery she decides to take the matter into her own hands.
Credit: AsianWiki

Cast: Narumi Riko, Nagayama Kento, Inuyama Inuko, Okura Koji, Okina Megumi, Ando Sakura

Comments: The plot description is more or less correct.  Narumi Riko's character is unpopular, but I wouldn't go far to say she was an idol. Gravure model, even stepping up to AV model would be correct.  She had no choice but to become the police chief for the day because of a petty crime she committed and she had to take up the position because all the other popular models were busy.

This was one of the weirdest movies I've watched, but the set-up was so brilliant.  It's just all the scenes itself are so random and weird.  Scenes didn't make sense on their own... well no I can't really say that.  They... how do i put this.  They're typical scenes (at home, at the store, etc) but the things they were doing there were pretty weird/crazy.

The movie starts off with this guy going to the convenience store and the girl that works there mistakens him for one of her regular customers and hands him random items.  He heads off to do whatever it is he needs to do, witnesses a murder, and as he's about to call for help he gets run over by some guy driving a huge truck or bus. i wanna say Winnebago (do you all know what that is? ... err RV? LOL).  Scene changes..

Ok.. weird... what am i watching? The start of the movie really sets up for the rest of the movie, which is based off of that murder.  I'm not gonna go too deep into each scene but I'll go ahead and describe what had happened.
- Narumi's character, Ayame, gets arrested for stealing a magazine that she was in. She didnt understand why her picture was upside down and had a mark on her face.  She was gonna buy it but stole it since she lost her wallet.
- Ayame gets caught, and is stuck playing police chief for the day.  She encounters her old love.
We see a flashback of their relationship.  Apparently he had killed about 8 women and one attempted murder on Ayame.  She always forgave him but he continued to do so (WTF?).
- A couple and one of their "friends" planned for a burglary of the convenience store that we saw in the beginning of the movie. Ended up kidnapping Ayame's rival, who is a very popular model. and their manager who tags along to scold her, but ends up getting kidnapped as well.
- Ayame realizes something and does take the opportunity to do her duty as a police chief and arrests all the people that gave her bullsh--
- Ayame comes to the rescue and gets the kidnappers/robbers arrested. Even frees her rival and manager.  Her love wanted to confess all his murders, but she said no, but he ends up getting arrested anyways.

The set up of the movie was amazing.  All of these scenes (with the exception of the flashback) happened over the course of ONE day.  All the scenes actually fit together.  Everytime a new scene came on, it gave a new detail that wasn't scene beforehand which explained why certain things had happened.  Everyone's connected in some way.  I love these kind of stories.  You get to see everyones point of view and why certain events happened.

What made this weird were how the stories progressed.  When the couple was in their room, and it was mentioned their walls were paper thin, they heard their neighbors having what they thought was sex.  Turns out it was Nakayama's character trying to kill his girlfriend.   Which was what the murder that had started the whole movie.  The bus/RV/truck that killed the man had some weirdos driving it which didnt make sense.. even after the movie ended it didnt make sense but it fit into the story for some reason..

All these things, made this movie hilarious to watch.  I want to give this a 7 out of 10.  It's funny, the story moved well, if you like weird things, this is a movie to watch, slight romance, little nudity (which was hilarious).  All in all i think its a pretty good movie.

Movie: Koukou Debut

Plot: "Haruna Nagashima (Ito Ono) devoted herself to softball while in middle school. Now that she is in high school, Haruna believes its time find a boyfriend. Unfortunately for Haruna, she didn't pay attention to trends and is now clueless on how to attract a boy. Through a fortuitous event, Haruna encounters popular upperclassman You Komiyama (Junpei Mizobata) Haruna asks You to teach her how to become attractive to boys. You agrees but with one catch. She can't fall in love with him ..."

credit: AsianWiki

Cast: Mizobata Junpei, Ohno Ito, Suda Masaki, Aizawa Rina, Furukawa Yuki

Comment:
I have no idea why I got this movie in the first place.  The movie was too cute for my liking, but that doesn't mean it was bad.. but that also doesn't mean it was good. haha

A lot of people.. more like girls.. have talked about this movie, saying its one of their favorites and that it's really cute and all. And something about the manga...
I can't really say much about that since I didn't even know there was a manga, but I assume people liked it because it followed closely to the story?

Anyways.  The movie had its moments. It's a basic, predictable, romance movie.
Tomboy-girl tries to find a boyfriend. Boy tries to make her appealing.  Girl cant fall in love with boy.  Falls in love anyways.  He falls in love with her. They end up together.  Typical ending.  I didnt really like the main actress.  I thought she was really annoying, but maybe it's because of the way the character was written.  I'm not even going to say anything about Mizobata, because then it'd sound like I'm being biased (because I would be ;)).

I thought the younger sister was annoying as well, even more so than the main actress.  I think it's because of the way she talked.  I recognized Suda Masaki immediately but Furukawa Yuki it took me awhile to remember where i've seen him before (Asuko March.. would have never guessed haha).
The casting was pretty good.  I can't say if they matched the manga version well, but for the type of character they were playing, I think they did a pretty good job.

Overall, I want to give this movie.. mmm... maybe a 6.5/10. It's not my type of movie, but it wasn't particularly bad.

Movie: Love Exposure (2009)

*WARNING - explicit language and maybe... MAYBE graphic images*

Plot: 
"Love Exposure" tells an epic tale of love, family, religion, and sex.
Yu Tsunoda and Yoko meet under the most unusual of circumstances. After Yu loses a bet with his friends he agrees to go into the city dressed as a woman and kiss the first woman he sees. When they go into the city Yu and his friends comes across a young teenage girl named Yoko who is surrounded by a group of thugs. Yu, still dressed as a woman, then helps Yoko beat up the gang of thugs. Afterwards Yu kisses Yoko and runs away. Yu for the first time falls in love with a girl, but Yoko falls in love with the woman in drag known only as Miss Scorpion.
Meanwhile, Yu is being followed by Aya Koike, a member of the cult group "Zero Church." Aya Koike devises a plan to bring Yu's entire family into the "Zero Church," but first she will gain the favor of Yoko by masquerading as Miss Scorpion
Credit: AsianWiki

Main Cast: Nishijima Takahiro (AAA), Mitsushima Hikari, Watabe Atsuro, Watanabe Makiko, Ando Sakura

Comments:
This movie.... THIS MOVIE... is SO. Damn. Twisted.  While there's comedy in it, it's sickening.
It's sick, twisted, morbid, dirty, funny, disturbing........... and more, that i cant really find the words to describe.

Definitely not suitable for the young crowd.  There's a lot of sexual content.  Don't think there was nudity, but there were definitely a lot of panty shots and boners shown for a lifetime.

I didn't know what I was getting into when I got this movie.  I originally wasn't going to get this movie, but every time I went to search for certain genres, it'd pop up, so I thought why not, especially since Nissy was in it.  This movie really gave me a new perspective of him.... not really one I'd like to imagine, but yeah...

So the movie is broken up into chapters.  Some longer than others.  The first chapter seemed normal enough.  The mother gets sick, fairs her son some last advice, passes away and lives to help Dad.  Typical drama style.  So then, a woman enters into their lives, falls in the love with the dad, wants to become part of his family.  But here's where it gets a bit out there.  The dad had become a priest for a catholic church, so he cant fall in love with the women so goes against the catholic religion and secretly lives with her.  She breaks up with him because they cant get married.  The dad goes crazy, kept asking for the son to tell his sins on a daily basis and in order to get his dad's attention to starts to break a lot of rules and sin really badly to confess everyday.

.......... Sin-seeking........... that's the basic story of the first 1/4 of the movie.

The rest of the movie (and excuse my language from here-on out) gets hella fucking crazy.  The biggest sin this fool can do is become a panty photographer.  Sneaking upskirt shots of women and girls in the streets.  And he was doing all these crazy ass moves trying to get them. How the fuck can they not notice what he was doing?!  After getting caught by this one chick, he lets her off free, but you know this bitch is up to something cuz she starts stalking his ass.  He ends up losing a bet and has to dress as a women and kiss a girl in the street (which is described up top).  That chick falls in love with him... but she thinks he's a girl.. so she ends up thinking she's a lesbian.

She gets all hot and bothered when she thinks of his alter ego, yet she never knows that the person she fell in love with is actually a guy.  She hates men, thinks theyre the worst.  This chick is actually an "adopted" daughter of the lady that fell in love with the kids dad. they end up coming back together and the 4 live as a family.  He loves that chick, but she hates him and thinks hes a perv.  Crazy bitch starts to mess around with them.  Joins their school, lies that she's the alter ego, chick falls in love with her, and all this crazy ass bullshit happens.

So after it was revealed the kid was a perv to the class, he gets kicked out of the house and the family get abducted and brainwashed to join a cult called "Church Zero" (church zero? zero church? cant remember).  The kid tries to reprogram the chick but without success and gets dragged along to join the cult but didnt work out and she goes on a rampage and kills a bunch of people in an attempt to save the girl.  Everyone goes crazy, crazy bitch kills herself, the kid goes fucking psycho and then the last chapter occurs.

With all the intense moments in the middle of the movie, I was hoping the last chapter would end with something huge.  It ended lame.  The kid is in the psych ward thinking he's his alter ego. The reprogrammed chick goes there to save him.  She ends up doing so in the end but gets arrested, he chases after her and ... thats basically it... WHAT?!
-----
This movie is full of crazy ass shit that me explaining the movie can't justify.  I mean... this was full of almost 4 hours... 4 HOURS of manipulation and sinning and all this crazy shit.  On a catholic standpoint I felt disgusted that they were using that as a premise.  I thought it was going to be somewhat subtle, especially after the start of the movie but things started to propel worse and worse and got more perverted as the movie went along.  FOUR FUCKING HOURS.  Never have I ever had to watch a FOUR HOUR movie full of perverted shit.  NISSY.. HOW MANY BONERS DID YOU GET THROUGH THIS FUCKING MOVIE?!  MITSUSHIMA HIKARI.. HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU SHOW YOUR PANTIES?!!

You'd think that I'd give this movie a low rating, honestly I probably would but just for being this fucking perverted and fucking crazy I'm giving this shit a 10/10.  That's how fucking cool this shit was LMAO


I'm sorry about the language but that was me rambling my real thoughts about this movie.

Movie: Paradise Kiss

Back when this movie was first being promoted, I couldn't wait to get a chance to watch it.  Now that it was finally able to share with others, I lost that need to watch it and thought I'd just give it a chance.  I was really disappointed and I thought the movie was really boring.

I'm not a fan of Kitagawa Keiko, nor am  I a fan of Mukai Osamu (anymore at least).  I honestly thought the acting was horrible and the way the story progessed didn't flow well.  The story went from point A to point B without character development and you don't see much of the other characters that play into the story.  It felt like they just threw everything together without placing swift transitions.

One thing I did enjoy in this movie was the bright colors, it really draws attention, especially since this movie has a lot to do with fashion.

I'm going to hold onto this movie, for now at least.  I doubt I'll ever rewatch it, but it's nice to have for now.

Movie: GS Wonderland

I just watched GS Wonderland.  It's been sitting in my external for months now and while I got into the excitement of Summer Dramas, I forgot I had a couple movies waiting to be watched.

GS Wonderland was very.... oldies to me.  Which means this movie had done its job since it was based in the late 60's up to 1970.  Really retro.  Really Brady Bunch.  Really..... Austin Powers!  I had no idea what GS stood for (apparently its Group Sound), even after watching the movie.  I'm not even sure if they mentioned what it meant.  All I knew was GS were people who can sing AND play instruments (group sound.... lol).

So the story is about a guy (Masao played by Ishida Takuya) who can play the guitar that wants to start his own GS band (like The Beatles, who was referenced 2 or 3 times) and be able to perform on the Grand Stage (grand stage? cant remember the name).  By fate, he meets 2 guys who can play the Drums (Shun played by Mizushima Hiro) and Bass (Kenta played by Asari Yosuke).  They are discovered one day while playing on the roof of a building, but aren't able to form a group, not until they find someone to play the organ.  Miku (Kuriyama Chiaki), a female looking to get a recording contract, had come to Kaiji Ryosuke's agency in hopes of getting signed.  She mentions that she has been able to play piano since she was young and has even won competitions, but ultimately he rejects her because GS bands are what's in at the moment.  After discovering the band, it occurs to Kaiji that in order to sign them, he needs to disguise Miku as a boy and have her play the organ.  The guys are suspicious that HE really looks like a SHE and aren't believing it.  After a few sessions together, they decide to follow Miku to "his" apartment only to find out that he really is a girl.

Their popularity rose when they changed their gimmick as a GS band from Military with the name "The Diamonds" to fairytale men in tights called "The Tightsmen" (LOLLLL!!!!!).  Mick (Miku) was their ikemen of the group, girls loved... him.  Shun didn't like the idea of having a female in the group, but went along with it because of their popularity.  At the height of their popularity, the Tightsmen was threatened that if they don't stop before the chorus of their song on national television, The Knuckles (another band that went from GS to Hendrix), was going to reveal that Mick was a girl.  As they stopped before the chorus, Mick revealed that he is in fact a girl and that was the end of the Tightsmen's career.

Miku was offered a job as a solo singer, which is what she wanted all along, but she didn't like the idea, especially after getting along with her group members so well.  They supported her and told her she should go ahead and do it.  At her debut live, it appeared that the Knuckles were opening for her.  Masao ran off saying something about a party leaving Shun behind.  The Tightsmen hijacked the Knuckles equipment sending the Knuckles off (and nekkid) chasing after them.  When they get there, it turns out it wasn't the Tightsmen, but the Fresh Four (the oldies band that I didnt mention earlier) dressed as them.  The REAL Tightsmen did so in order to have a real farewell concert as the Tightsmen.  At the end of the movie, Masao is getting his school stuff together, and really.. I had no idea this guy was actually in High School still haha.. with the TV on.  Miku was performing on the Grand Stage that he dreamed of doing.  The movie ends with him cutting his hilarious moptop wig of a hair.

I actually intended to do a short summary of the movie, but I ended up writing more details than I intended which I ALWAYS tend to do.  Whatever.  I liked this movie, but it wasn't enough for me to keep it.  I deleted it and emptied the recycling :/.  I was going to say it's strange to see that Hiro didn't have a bigger role than what he had, but this was from 2008, when his popularity was rising.  I don't even know what I was expecting from this movie, I don't even know what prompted me to watch this in the first place but I finally watched it and now I miss watching my dramas which I'm going back to later.

Koizora

I never intended to actually watch the drama, I don't even know why I decided to watch it 2 days ago, but I did, and I just finished it today (yay for 6eps only!).  I was pretty reluctant because I really loved the movie, so I wasn't expecting much with the drama especially since it had a pretty low viewership.  But I gotta say, I actually liked it.  I can't really say if I liked it more than the movie since I haven't seen the movie in awhile either, but it was pretty good.

It's funny how during the emotional scenes in the first couple episodes, I was just sitting here like "oh gosh, she's gonna start crying again" but by the end of the drama, I was really immersed and started to get teary-eyed as well.  I'm glad I gave it a chance, but now I'm debating if I want to keep it or delete it.  It'll have to sit on my computer for a bit since my external is completely full.

and what's up with me watching a lot of emotional dramas this season which I expected to drop instead of the comedies.. crazy!

Movie: Cafe Isobe (2008)

** Click Image to Enlarge **

Plot:
Sakiko is a typical teenager in many ways. She hates her divorced father, who chases after every skirt he sees. She does not know, if she will ever be loved by the other sex. When her dad suddenly inherits a lot of money and becomes really lazy, she hates him even more. He finally decides to start his own cafe, where Sakiko, of course has to help. From this moment, strange customers and good-looking waitresses form the center of tension between father and daughter.

Credit: Asian Media Wiki

Cast:
Miyasako Hiroyuki, Naka Riisa, Aso Kumiko, Hamada Mari, Wada Toshihiro, Saito Yosuke, Kondo Haruna, Mickey Curtis

Comments:
I assumed that this movie was going to be a comedy, but it wasn't so much which is probably why this isn't going to be a keeper. Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie, but probably not something I'd watch again.

 (Latte art that inspired the opening of Cafe Isobe... kind of haha)

The description of the movie was a bit misleading. Sakiko (Naka) doesn't necessarily hate her father, she just doesn't like how he lives his life, but she does care for him. Also, the strange customers that come in aren't so much the center of tension between Sakiko and her father, in fact, the strange customers weren't really THAT strange as what the trailer suggested. Though most of the customers were guys and pretty much a bunch of pervs, but that's another side of the story.

 

(Family picture to commemorate the Grand Opening)

 (Cafe uniform)

There were a lot of awkward silences and awkward moments where I'm thinking "ok... this is weird, why'd they add this in." I can't really explain it without spoiling the story, so I won't get into it in more detail.

I do like the small details in the movie that have no reflection to the movie whatsoever. Like in the end, there was a scene where Moko offered Sakiko a piece of her giant Dorayaki. It's so random, it doesn't affect the story, yet it was added in there and it was hilarious to me.

I'm not much of a Naka Riisa fan, so I was a bit hesitant to watch the movie, but lately I've started to lighten up on her. I think the only thing I didn't like about her was the whole Zeebra Queen thing. I thought it was pretty lame and I remember when she performed on some music show, i cant remember which one, for sure not Music Station, when they were going for an interview with her on stage, she walked off before they could talk to her. Im sure she didnt do it on purpose, but it was a "WTF" moment.

Anyways....

Movie: Utatama (2008)

**Click Image to Enlarge**

Plot:
Kasumi is a member of her high school’s choir. When Jun’ichi tells her she looks like a fish when she sings, she loses all her confidence, until she meets gang leader Hiroshi

credit: Asian Media Wiki

Cast:
Kaho, Ishiguro Hideo, Gori, Tokunaga Eri, Akiko, Iwata Sayuri, Tomosaka Rie, Hazama Kanpei, Yakushimaru Hiroko

Comment:

I went into this not knowing what kind of movie it'd be. I picked it because Kaho and Ishiguro Hideo was in it. The story is actually pretty good, and incredibly funny, at least to me (though I'm sure it's not supposed to be as funny as I thought it was).  Immediately the first few minutes of the movie I couldn't stop laughing, especially during the bus scene.

 (Look at him flying through the bus after an immediate stop!)

The first half of the movie, I was getting a bit pissed off because Kasumi (Kaho) is conceited and thinks too highly of herself to the point where I want to punch her in the face.  I'm really glad that Makimura (Ishiguro) took a picture of her that was humiliating, not because it'd piss her off, but because it'd be something to change her.  But really, the picture was pretty damn funny.

 (Look at her face.  Now look at his. HAHA. Hilarious!)

But in the end, a predictable turn around happened. But it really is a cute story. The best part of the movie was the Yankees. Not your typical yankees which is why it made the story extra hilarious.

(It looks like they're ready to fight!! haha!)

The singing was really good as well, the last song will get stuck in your head because of the amount of repeating the chorus occurs.

I just gotta say that this movie isn't really something that everyone would like. The moral is basically overcoming yourself and not caring what others say about you. Not really a school genre nor love.  To be honest, it's worth watching if you like yankee humor, that's mainly the reason why I liked the movie haha.
At first I wasn't sure if this would be a movie to keep, but when I got to the end, it was really inspiring, so I think it's going to be a keeper....for now at least.

Movie: The Incite Mill (2010)

* I'm trying to do this without spoiling the story *
** Click image to enlarge **

Plot:
Ten people gather together at a complex named “Ankikan” after hearing of a short term job paying 112,000 Yen ($1,236 USD) per hour. The ten people are informed that they will be monitored 24 hours a day for 7 days straight in a psychological experiment. They are then sent to individual rooms with a different weapon located in each room. Once they are locked in they learn the rules of the psychological experiment. 1.) Each person must return to their room by 10 PM. 2.) At the end of 7 days or when there are only two surviving members left alive the experiment will end. The next day a person is found shot to death. Now, what looked like a dream job will turn into a nightmare ...

credit: Asian Media Wiki

Cast:
Fujiwara Tatsuya, Ayase Haruka, Ishihara Satomi, Abe Tsuyoshi, Takeda Shinji, Hirayama Aya, Ishii Masanori, Ohno Takuro, Katahira Nagisa, Kitaoji Kinya

Comment:
Surprise twist ending! Yes, it's one of those movies.  Anyways. I just randomly saw this on one of my media sites and thought about trying it out.  The synopsis really caught my eye.  It had the feel of Saw and Battle Royale put together (which happens to be some of my favorite movies) with a hint of the reality show "Solitary".

(That's a helluva lot of money! approx: $1,120USD per hour!)

I really enjoyed this movie, though I didn't get to watch it without any interruptions, so I might have missed a couple parts of dialogue, but I don't see that affecting the perception of the movie.

At first, I thought these 10 people would come together and find out that they had some sort of connection to each other and in the end, it was all about how they deceived each other, which is why they start murdering, but it wasn't like that.  They were actually strangers, no connection whatsoever and just decided to try out this "experiment" for the money.

 

The story does go on smoothly meaning that there are no holes and everything has it's own place, however, the ending was disappointing even with the twist which is almost a bit predictable (which I wont spoil).

As for the acting, they used some of HoriPro's best actors and actresses to play in this film.  And you can't expect less considering it was a 50th anniversary film.
- I was surprised to see Ohno Takuro in the film.  I thought his first acting gig was Misaki Number One, but turns out it was this movie.  Can definitely tell he's a rookie with this film.  His lines seemed kind of forced and a bit exaggerant, but I can see improvement after watching Misaki. 
I also need to mention that I don't get what everyone's problem is with the hwole "self-proclaimed Kimura Takuya" thing.  Yeah he's a long ways before he can even touch the career KimuTaku has and will never be him, but you gotta admit, he does look like a young version of KimuTaku.  I got no hate for this kid, plus where's that perm? haha.
- Why does Fujiwara Tatsuya always get stuck in some sort of Death game. I mean really? Not that I have a problem with it, I'm just seeing some sort of trend haha, although in this movie, he's more of a coward than the other ones.  I was a bit happy to see him get a chance to smile.  I feel like I haven't gotten a chance to see him actually smile in the stuff I've seen him in.
- During psycho scenes, definitely a bit of overacting, but what can you expect for something that's almost a horror film.  I did really like the fighting scene at the end though.  The struggle really looked believable.