The Tattooist (2008)

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

THE TATTOOIST has the potential to be a great, off-beat horror production, a one-of-the-kind effort from New Zealand that celebrates the virtually unknown to the West Samoan culture by combining it with a traditional horror movie. Unfortunately, in reality it turns out to be a film that rips off the whole J-horror genre, in which a cursed tattooist finds himself menaced by a cheesy CGI spirit.THE TATTOOIST has some potential, and indeed the storyline isn't quite so bad. I like how the whole tattoo sub-culture is developed and explored here, and in addition there are plenty of gruesome scenes to keep horror fans satisfied; if anything's going to put you off wanting to get a tattoo done, then this is the film. Sadly, though, in the end this is a film that doesn't really go anywhere, and in the end becomes a series of bloody deaths rather than anything insightful. Some insipid acting - particularly from the lead - drags the enjoyment factor down still further.

American tattoo artist Jake Sawyer wanders the world, exploring and exploiting ethnic themes in his tattoo designs.At a tattoo expo in Singapore, he gets his first glimpse at the exotic world of traditional Samoan tattoo, and, in a thoughtless act, unwittingly unleashes a powerful angry spirit.In his devastating journey into Pacific mysticism, Jake must find a way to save his new love, Sina, and recover his own soul...This film has a lot going for it. Not only is it one of the more convincing films about vengeful demons, it's actually an original idea and not a remake of a Japanese ghost story, which is refreshing.Sure, there are similarities to the Grudge and the Ring, but these days that cannot be helped. It's not that scary, and there are a few pointless characters, but the lead holds the film well, and the ending is more convincing, than the gore-fest i was predicting.So if you are expecting a gore packed horror, look elsewhere, but if you want a movie that concentrates more on it's story rather than trying to make the audience jump, this is for you.

A boring tattooist with the personality of a dead animal becomes cursed by an evil spirit for misusing his tattooing career. …At least, that's what we're lead to believe, but then the story sort of shifts away from that and becomes a cliché ghost story.There are a few decent ideas wrapped up in here. There's some slick set design, decent camera work, and an interesting visual or two. That's where my compliments end.You can probably assume most of my reasons for hating this film based on my plot description. The character is boring as hell. There's absolutely nothing interesting about him. The actor portrays fear well enough, and might have been capable of expressing an interesting character, but the script didn't provide one. A love story gets wedged in there too. I NEVER complain about chemistry between lovers in movies… but in this case, I will make a girly exception and say that these two people didn't have any reason to give a crap about each other, aside from a compatible set of reproductive organs. Two boring people have boring interactions and suddenly screw each other. It seemed forced, sudden, and unnecessary. Perhaps they should have spent more time developing the characters, rather than having every single person prattle off historical facts about tattoos. Seriously, we don't care.The trailers and plot synopsis suckered me in with some seemingly original and cool concepts, but as written above, this simply ended up being another cliché whodunit ghost story. Screw that. That's not at all what I bought this movie for.The score is terrible. Some of the best moments in the film are completely ruined by a crappy, cheap-sounding soundtrack. The rap music didn't sit well with me either. It was annoying and it just didn't fit.The only reason I would ever recommend this film is so you can laugh at the hilariously out-of-place scene involving the fat ethnic kid who can communicate with the dead when he rides in a fast car and blasts rap music loud enough. You think I'm kidding… but that seriously happens.Someone got a decent idea to start with, but then they were lazy about every other aspect of the production after that point. The writing is lazy, the characters are lame as hell, the score sucks, and there are some ridiculous moments that just don't fit. The overall presentation is as about as compelling as the hair on my scrotum.

What can I say about this one: you got a melancholic guy as the main character, who charts a course from South East Asia to return a stolen tattoo object to a traveling group New Zealand natives and also using this adventure as an opportunity to see more of this mysterious woman that he had first met while traveling with the tribes men only after he's pricked by the art instrument from a surprise encounter from a very disgruntled client. The prick from the instrument releases a murderous ghost who you could call "Oil boy" who's on a hellbent quest to restore his honor; Ghosts (shrugs shoulders). Well there's more and there's a twist that could be presumed as obvious that wasn't so obvious and that's why I had given it a 7 out of 10. My complaint about this movie is 1: in the beginning, the main character is a boy who has his inner left fore arm skinned from his Puritan-Priest like father because he spots a rather cool looking Pentagram tattoo nested on some tribal vines or something or other. The problem with this is that considering the main character is at an age where he got me by three or four years and assuming he was let's say 15 at the time of this tragic incident with his father would mean that the kid had to of had this tattoo professionally done somewhere which of course would be illegal and the tribal design itself with crowning pentacle wouldn't be in style until 1995 and it seems like this incident happened in 87'-but this is pure speculation. But stuff like this is important because when I watch a movie, I like to be lost in a movie and forget that I'm watching a movie. Anyway, point two with problem one is, despite the off time frame of this situation, is the fact that even if it's illegal for a pre-addy getting inked like that, it wouldn't of been uncalled for somebody to call Child Protection on the dad. I mean a kid with a skinned inner arm would catch attention since it would most likely be infected. Problem two with this movie and I don't know why this is the current trend is that they used Rap music for the main theme of the movie-Rap as in bubbly pop, cool for club casual play music. You know the happy up beat music crooned over by ignorant lyrics of non-sense. This had no place in the movie. IF you can overlook those points, then you have an alright ghost flick.