Alive (2003)

Alive is about some dingle berry who is a calming psychopath being utilized in a government experiment pertaining to some mystical thingy. Nice settings and some good action sequences but the story goes nowhere and the pacing is like slugs screwing. If this movie was at least 25 minutes shorter I would of liked it more because this dicking about with idle dialogue and meaningless progression was poofy. It's only worth one assimilation in its entirety at best.

I found this movie to be very well-paced. The premise is quite imaginative, and as a viewer I was pulled along as the characters developed. The pacing is done very well for those that like to think--enough is kept hidden from the viewer early on, and questions keep arising which are later answered, producing a well-thought out and very satisfying film, both cerebrally and from an action standpoint.It seems some people were looking for a non-stop roller-coaster ride with this film--one of those that comes charging out of the gate. This would be more analogous to one of those coasters that first takes you slowly up the hill--creating a wonderful sense of anticipation--and is ultimately, in my mind, more fulfilling for the foundation initially laid.Excellent film.

I'm a big fan of Kitamura Ryuhei after films like Versus and Azumi. He paints a great picture with action and flare in his movies. The movie Alive drained 2 hours of my life that I could have used wisely (putting my head down in shame). The movie starts off very slow and I mean yukkuri. When it gets down to the action I'm pretty much half a sleep and the action scenes weren't that great. No variety in environment cause it's just a jail and if I had to give credit it felt like I was in jail for watching the movie. The movie Cube pulls together better than this movie and it was probably more low budget than this. Big disappointment. All I have to say is don't watch this movie. Hope to see Aragami soon hope that's better. Peace

AliveAlive is a very entertaining SCI-FI movie from Japan. I have noticed a lot of disappointed film geeks who loved Versus this director's debut film or his third film Azumi. I have heard they are blood drenched films with swords and zombies and all kinds of goodies. Frankly I went to the video store to get Versus but I am just fine with Alive.If you are looking for beginning to end wall to wall action then Alive is not your pick. There is plenty of action however it comes as pay-off for a whole hour of character driven build-up. Personally I think it is well done and worth it.Of course some of the plot is silly as with many SCI-Fi action films and I think the subtitles using the term foreign object could have replaced with parasite for greater effect. This film is brutal when it needs to be so faint of heart need not apply.They kept the budget down by for the most part confining all the action to one underground building(taking a cue from the cube) but the film doesn't suffer for it. Another bonus for this film is intense gothic imagines that are done with great artistic flair during the many Flashbacks and dream sequences. Rent this!