TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Jacques98 First and foremost, the only reason I didn't give Izo a perfect or near perfect score is because of the production value. To be blunt, the production value in the first hour is hideous, but it gets a little better as the film goes on. The story itself is pretty amazing, intelligent, but not necessarily original or as weird as people are saying when you understand it. More on that in a moment.I'm sick of movies (such as Donnie Darko and Oldboy) that think they're so utterly intelligent when in reality they just rehash old clichés that have been done in movies exactly just like them time and time again. To say it's been a while since I've seen a movie that was actually as intelligent as it thinks it is an understatement. Izo, to my surprise, actually had something somewhat new and practical to say and was never pretentious about it. One of the best lines of the movie is, "He thinks he can find answers by just asking questions! Let's laugh at him!" which can be interpreted as Miike telling the audience he's not the egotistical moron like the other "intelligent" wannabe directors.Izo, for people who are having a hard time understanding, is a straightforward journey of a dead man's soul questioning everything that brought us as a society to the place we are. Family, sex, love, God, patriotism, government—Miike questions it all, and really leaves the answer up to the viewer. In a way, it almost reminded me of that biblical Proverb that claims everything under the sun is meaningless. In another way, it reminded me of a Greek morality play. Still, despite the things it reminded me of, it was never once just the same old questions you've always heard—they're presented in new, cool, modern ways.But before you start thinking Izo is just filmed literature, Miike ties all this together with an insane bloody body count. There is very little graphic gore, but there is a lot of blood splatter and kills that kept me interested through the entire movie. Even then, Miike backs up the killing with the statement: "History is built on bloody events, so why wouldn't I kill to find answers?" It has a really cool pulp literary feel that pleases both the 12-year-old boy who likes blood and action and pleases the old man who likes deep thoughts. What more could you ask from a film like this? Overall, Izo is a must see if you consider yourself an intellectual person or if you consider yourself a fan of hardcore violence. It's not run-of-the-mill in any way shape or form, and borders on originality through the entire movie. If only there was better production value . . .8/10

fertilecelluloid A warrior travels through time and space and thoroughly butchers, in spectacular grand guignol fashion, almost everybody he runs into. Miike's "El Topo-like action-fantasy is a strange, stylish, confused melange of energy and anger, a poem to retribution, the sins of history, self-abasement and bloody ambition. High production values dominate and the action set pieces are quite beautifully filmed and choreographed. The blood spurts in glorious geysers and the theatrical stylings give the entire affair a kabuki feel. Unfortunately, the lengthy running time tests tolerance levels because there is little emotional weight between the sprockets. "Izo" is a cold film, a distancing film, but it has an intensity that is engaging and a sense of anarchy about it that recalls Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers". Although my favorite Miike films are "Visitor Q" and "Ichi The Killer", I enjoyed "Izo" in spurts (bloody ones, of course).

angrymidget19 The film starts out with diagrams of the human penis. Then it moves on to war pictures and film clips, explosions, bombs dropping, and random acts of violence. About 30 seconds into this, is a film clip of some teacup ride at some crappy amusement park, then EXPLOSION! Back to the war clips. After a while, it goes to a samurai (IZO) getting speared to death while being crucified. IZO then comes back to life (though years later in the movie) and starts killing everyone. This is a totally fantastic movie! It's got a really deep plot (if you want that sort of thing), but it's easy to ignore, so if you just want random violence then sit back, ignore the dialog and focus on the 100+ murders that occur in this movie. IZO has everything, including a part where IZO is sucked into a lake, and somehow appears at a wedding, so what does he do? He STABS the groom, then slaughters the bride! He then jumps through a wall, but travels through some kind of portal into a classroom. He awkwardly walks out, and is confronted by dozens of ****heads in the halls. Needless to say, they are promptly murdered. Also, IZO kills some monks, vampires, businessmen, vampire businessmen (I'm not making this up) gangsters, goons, and random people in the middle of a highway (he somehow traveled through time, or to a parallel world or some damn thing.) Long story short, IZO rules. It owns your soul.

Mafisto-1 First off, Izo is a well shot film that seems a bit heavy on the peyote at times. The movie begins as the title character is crucified and executed. This is actually the end to the movie Hitokiri, which stared the late, great author Yukio Mishima.A healthy dose of intensity is in every scene as Izo fights his way through space and time to fulfill a grudge he has against aristocratic leadership and its treatment of the world. Even religion falls into the category of aristocracy for him as he blames the lie of the existence of higher beings for some of the worlds shallowness, weakness, and delusional concepts.There are random flashes of stock footage of World War II, and other times which are viewed as vast injustices. This is easily misinterpreted in such a way that Izo seems to be the embodiment of hate, and rage and therefore these events would invariably have a connection to him. These visions are the reiterated results from the unjust world and leadership he hates so much. All of these human fallacies provide further justification for his ultra violent actions.Another nearly random occurrence is the music of Kazuki Tomakawa. I don't mean that one of his songs keys in during the action, but rather he bursts onto the movie set singing and strumming his guitar with nearly unparalleled intensity. It looks as though he's going to break his guitar, burst into tears, have a stroke, or all of the above at any second. If you don't like the sound that's one thing, but no one will ever accuse the guy of not putting feeling into his music. His presence is ignored in the movie until the end when he gives Izo an order to "punish them" as he points to the ultimate hierarchy which Izo has been hunting. Without looking too deep into this, the musician is a part of Izo much as the random woman he encounters is. While she is Izo's missing duty and regret, he is Izo's passion. The philosophy stated in the final dialog further confirms this. It has to do with painters and artists being madmen, and doctors their audience. The fever and raw feeling within Izo is demanding retribution.Perhaps the most interesting ideas forwarded during the entire film occurred within the schoolhouse scene. The first thing that catches the viewer's attention is that Izo doesn't kill the children. This seems strange at first because he kills nearly everyone he comes in contact with. These obviously weren't normal children as they spoke a collective philosophy which mostly had to do with downplaying the limiting ideas and boundaries which human beings have placed on the world. It was an interesting scene which deserves a few repeat viewings.I only have two complaints about this movie. One is that it is slightly lengthy in several scenes which could have been cut for immediacy and pacing. Even that can be argued against as those scenes have some artistic value. One scene, however, had no artistic value, or any other value for that matter. I refer, of course, to the Bob Sapp scene. Without being too judgmental, that guy is a worthless sack of s#!+ who has the acting skill of a jar of mayonnaise. Not only that, but his scene included an terribly cheesy bit of computer animation. If you haven't seen it, just fast forward that section.This is a pretty weird but solid film otherwise.