"Over the top" doesn't really begin to describe "RoboGeisha." Suffice to say, it's big, dumb, poorly dubbed fun...although you're probably just as well off watching the trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HdeX4mO1Kg) than sitting through all 1 hour and 40 minutes of it. It's available on Netflix, though.

Also, I've been covering the Portland International Film Festival for a local publication, so in the last week I've seen seven
foreign films of varying quality. Here's a quick'n'dirty recap of what I've seen so far:

1) "Bullhead," A. Set in the Flemish "hormone mafia underground," it's a knotty crime drama with a unique setting and an even more unique performance from Matthias Schoenearts (I'm probably butchering that name). It's a better character study than crime movie, but definitely worth checking out (it's nominated for an Oscar, too).

2) "The Forgiveness of Blood," A. Joshua Marston's follow-up to "Maria Full of Grace," about a blood feud in an Albanian village and its effect on a family. Quietly compelling, and really tense even in scenes where nothing much is happening.

3) "Monsieur Lazhar," B. From Canada, it has a really startling opening image: A boy peaking into his classroom and finding his teacher's lifeless body hanging from the ceiling. It gets more conventional from there (it's your typical, "new teacher comes, has a rough early go with the kids, ends up forging a bond with them, but has a secret that threatens to separate them" flick), but has a really great natural performance from Mohamed Fellag and the two main kids. It's simple and unassuming enough that that's all it needs to succeed.

4) "Cirkus Columbia," C-. About a guy returning to Bosnia after 20 years in exile and extracting revenge on his ex-wife, who refused to follow him. Couldn't get into it.

5) "Declaration of War," C. A whimsical French movie framed around a child battling brain cancer. It's not quite as terrible as that sounds, but it's not all that good, either.

6) "Where Do We Go Now?," D. Really shallow, tone-deaf Lebanese movie that resembles one of those English community comedies (i.e. "Full Monty" or "Calendar Girls") then swings to melodrama, then back again. Considering the subject matter -- religious strife in a remote village -- it's handled really indelicately. But director-star Nadine Labaki isn't bad to look at for two hours.

7) "Cafe de Flore," F. Eye-rollingly pretentious, annoyingly edited, uses Down syndrome kids as symbolism, has a lot of underwater dream sequences shot in a pool, etc. Terrible.

Lastly, I saw Ti West's latest, "The Innkeepers." If you saw "House of the Devil," you know West is great at making traditional, effective horror throwbacks. This one is a haunted house movie set in the '90s. It's another slow burn, but a pretty ho-hum payoff. Still pretty good.