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I'll also always prefer the first one, but I do think that Conan the Destroyer is perfectly OK.

Late Night With The Devil

A different kind of horror flick. Not one that’ll make you afraid of the dark or anything that bumps in the night, but it was effective. Worth a rental imo.

From Conan the Destroyer's Wikipedia page

Deleted scenes

To secure a PG rating, Sarah Douglas said several scenes involving her character were cut, including a sex scene with Schwarzenegger, slapping Chamberlain, a virgin sacrifice, and the seduction of a statue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Destroyer

Now I demand a director's cut. DEMAND!

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Now I demand a sex scene with Schwarzenegger. DEMAND!

Here's the best I can get you :

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
From Conan the Destroyer's Wikipedia page

Deleted scenes

To secure a PG rating, Sarah Douglas said several scenes involving her character were cut, including a sex scene with Schwarzenegger, slapping Chamberlain, a virgin sacrifice, and the seduction of a statue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Destroyer

Now I demand a director's cut. DEMAND!

Seconded.

Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005)

The 3 hour one with Jack Black.

I have no idea who this is for. I mean I am a fan of the original King Kong, and I love pre-war New York and even I was bored with the 45 minutes it takes them to get to Skull Island. I was duly impressed with the monsters of Skull Island but didn't need 90 minutes of them.

The third act, Kong rampaging through Depression-era New York is almost worth the wait.

As far as I can figure Jackson, coming off LotR and with a blank check, wanted to do a period piece about Golden Age Hollywood (look at all the dialogue Jack Black has about filming, studios and such) and to outdo the original Kong. Where Kong fought one T-Rex, this Kong fights three! The result is bloated, decent at parts and every forgettable.

And yeah I say that as a fan of Jackson, Kong and Olde New York.

I like what they tried to do when they were on Skull Island. Portray a Lost World of relentless danger, where just as our human cast survive one encounter and catch their breath, something else comes after them. It’s kind of like I’d imagine landing on a Death World might be like - just utterly lethal, and relentless with it.

But it just didn’t really work. It was exhausting in the wrong way. It’s fun not to give the cast much of a breather, but for the audience it all just blurs into one, and we stop caring.

Ten minutes in, I was ready to walk out and get my money back. But my friends decided to stay and heckle the movie. What an embarrassment.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005)

The 3 hour one with Jack Black.

I have no idea who this is for. I mean I am a fan of the original King Kong, and I love pre-war New York and even I was bored with the 45 minutes it takes them to get to Skull Island. I was duly impressed with the monsters of Skull Island but didn't need 90 minutes of them.

The third act, Kong rampaging through Depression-era New York is almost worth the wait.

As far as I can figure Jackson, coming off LotR and with a blank check, wanted to do a period piece about Golden Age Hollywood (look at all the dialogue Jack Black has about filming, studios and such) and to outdo the original Kong. Where Kong fought one T-Rex, this Kong fights three! The result is bloated, decent at parts and every forgettable.

And yeah I say that as a fan of Jackson, Kong and Olde New York.

A few years ago I caught the last 15 or so minutes of this on TV, looked pretty good so I brought the DVD to watch the whole thing...

...I've never made it to Skull Island.

It takes a long while to get to the good bits, but I think its vastly superior to the last few recent Kong offerings, though I don't go out of my way to view it.

Although its full of tropes in addition to the oversized insects, the bottom of the trench scene was nightmare fuel for folks who are afraid of bugs. Andy Serkis character's fate in particular.

Deleted scenes that are set on the island are also pretty good creature/survival horror. Think there is some sort of giant piranha and some flying beasties.

If you’re saying Peter Jackson’s King Kong is a superior film to Kong; Skull Island, I must vehemently disagree with you.

Alien (1979)

Space truckers ignore quarantine protocols: hi-jinks ensue.

Didn't realize it was going to be shown in a half sized theater where the main lights just slightly went down so it wasn't as atmospheric as it could have been. Adding to that the small room size had a myriad of lit exit signs, which just added to the poor lighting. Still it was nice enough to see and the ticket wasn't very expensive.

Purge... 3? Maybe? Election Year

It's the FUTURE! To combat high crime rates America makes crime legal for one night a year... THE PURGE!

I saw another Purge film and it was just survival horror as thugs besiege a house. But this a pretty big budget film with a big cast and big fights. An idealistic senator promises to end the Purge Night but the government does not want that to happen. So the whole night is spent trying to evade assassins and purge gangs and rebels.

Not bad, not bad at all. The Purge films are a lot more disturbing than the usual horror flick. Watching the First Purge next.

I’d suggest giving The Forever Purge a miss. That’s the only one I didn’t enjoy.

Argylle

OK. So the adverts made this look proper crap. Henry Cavill with a “Buzz out of Weird Science haircut” in a poorly CGId car chasing Dua “who?” Lipa.

But…it’s good, it’s really really good. Bryce Dallas Howard, Catherine O’Hara, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston among others are our leads. And there’s plenty of other talent on screen.

This is a spy romp with a vein of comedy flowing through it, but well short of being a Spoof. And there’s plenty of twists and turns and rug pulls.

MASSIVE

 Sigur wrote:
I'll also always prefer the first one, but I do think that Conan the Destroyer is perfectly OK.

Both movies were beloved by me as an 8yo kid, and just about were the first thing that put me on the path to loving medieval fantasy. Just unashamedly awesome, even if they weren't really that loyal to the Conan mythology.

To be fair they are more loyal to the concept of Conan than a lot of the stuff we get today. At least its a fairly low-magic world with an adventurer who is mostly saving himself and those around him than saving the whole world every time. They feel like adventures which is something I feel we have steadily lost in a lot of media over the years.

 AegisGrimm wrote:

 Sigur wrote:
I'll also always prefer the first one, but I do think that Conan the Destroyer is perfectly OK.

Both movies were beloved by me as an 8yo kid, and just about were the first thing that put me on the path to loving medieval fantasy. Just unashamedly awesome, even if they weren't really that loyal to the Conan mythology.

They are awesome.

But medieval fantasy? Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the Sons of Aryas?

If its old-timey with swords and bows and arrows and black powder isn't yet around then its medieval fantasy

If there's a single castle or fortress then its guaranteed medieval.



You've got the ancient era; the viking era; the medieval; the black powder (often called Napoleonic); the steam punk era and then you hit the desielpunk, rock punk and modern.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’d suggest giving The Forever Purge a miss. That’s the only one I didn’t enjoy.

Argylle

OK. So the adverts made this look proper crap. Henry Cavill with a “Buzz out of Weird Science haircut” in a poorly CGId car chasing Dua “who?” Lipa.

But…it’s good, it’s really really good. Bryce Dallas Howard, Catherine O’Hara, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston among others are our leads. And there’s plenty of other talent on screen.

This is a spy romp with a vein of comedy flowing through it, but well short of being a Spoof. And there’s plenty of twists and turns and rug pulls.

MASSIVE

Spoiler:

It’s part of of the Kingsman series!

Really enjoyed Argylle. Much fun. Bollocks - but fun. But I like that kind of movie.

 Overread wrote:
.
You've got the ancient era; the viking era; the medieval; the black powder (often called Napoleonic); the steam punk era and then you hit the desielpunk, rock punk and modern.

This got my head spinning and my teeth biting down on my tongue heftily.

I've been out this weekend, at an anime con thing. In the evening in the hotel I watched a film!


Blue Steel (1989)

Pretty sure I've never seen that one before. Jamie Lee Curtis is a police officer, Clancy Brown is thin and very curly-haired and Ron Silver is a weirdo. Pretty sure Tom Sizemore has a little role as well. Directed by Catherine Bigalow, and that's why the film, sat in New York, looks really cool. That lady knows how to shoot a grimy city at night.

After I watched it I read some reviews from when it came out, and was surprised how often it got compared to Halloween just because it stars Jamie Lee Curtis. I mean she was pretty young in that film, but surely she'd done something in between Halloween and that. Also, the film is nothing like Halloween at all.

Anyway, on paper this is a pretty regular thriller, but the cast, the look, and the addition of some problems and themes elevate it over the usual 80s cop thriller. Surely somebody theorized that Curtis' and Brown's roles are bascially a gender-swap of the usual fare and that their haircuts underline that, but only a hack with a taste for the obvious and the boring would go for that. These are characters, period. And good ones too.

Watch It. They don't make'em like that any more.

Dune Part 1

Decided to give this a rewatch.

Much like part two? It’s quite pretty. Acting is fine, cinematography is dandy. Design work is pretty damned good.

But I still prefer the first take on the film. It’s just more fun, and the soundtrack is vastly superior to my ears.

I think a big part is the battle scenes. In Villeneuve, there seems to be a lot going on (big ships, big explosions), but nobody seems to be in a hurry. Like. At all. Yes I get the slow blade penetrates the shield, so rapid stabby slashy wouldn’t make sense (and the shields look so much better). But it’s too much a Waltz pace, and comes across as if those involved really can’t be arsed, and they’re just going through the motions until they can slope off to the pub, And….where are all the guns?

Actually. I’m gonna extend the “feels like nobody can be arsed” to pretty much all of it. The dialogue is sedate and calm. Nobody really speaks with much emotion. Compare to Baron Harrkonen’s bile in the original, and it’s just not the same. It takes me out of the moment, and leaves me with a lesser understanding of their motivations. Like, they don’t seem overly bothered, so I’m not invited to care.

Riki-oh, The Story of Ricky

1991 Hong Kong made live action adaptation of an anime film.

This is a very silly film. Made all the more hilarious due to a ridiculous English dub. But whilst we’re becoming increasingly spoiled with well dubbed and subbed eastern cinema offerings? This was kind of par for the course when Anime really started being noticed in the west.

Plus its violence makes up for it. Still silly, but the film is notorious for it.

If like me you enjoy this sort of thing? Definitely give it a watch.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Not as bad as I was expecting. It opened in great Indy fashion with a non-stop extended action sequence, with thrills and humour. The story worked, more or less. Phoebe Waller-Bridge was engaging and her character had her own arc. Karen Allen had remembered how to act again, and Mads Mikkelsen made (another) decent enough bad guy. Just as we think Indy is going to live out his years in the ancient world, he has to come home and get back with his wife.

Cons: The CIA agent was a complete waste of space (personally and as a pertinent character) and the young street thief was utterly unlikeable. I'd have punched him off the tuk tuk.


Speed Racer

Wow. That's a lot more brightly coloured than I remember! A world where in sports it's more about the stock price of the companies that own the teams rather than who wins or loses. A frightening dystopian sci-fi nightmare that has no basis in reality. Crazy car races, organized crime, torture, a father who can build a top flight race car in his house's garage in under two days, a son who can never go home - and ninjas! Ninja's who go from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Clouseau vs Cato is a heartbeat. Somehow, it works.

I love the live-action Speed Racer movie more than a person should.

 Easy E wrote:
I love the live-action Speed Racer movie more than a person should.

I found the open scene (despite the 'now' and flashback not that clearly separate) when Speed goes for the record but lets up at the last split second so his old brother's time still still stands quite impactful. Moreso the second time around. But I'm soppy like that.

the wachowski sisters' speed racer has certainly been seeing a critical reappraisal in recent years. i think people are more accepting of
its campy and silly nature now than they were back in the 00s (i still need to watch it; haven't seen it since it was in theaters)

I only saw Dune part 1 for the first time recently. It might well end up being for the only time. I really wanted to like it, theoretically it should be right up my street. But I was just bored. My wife is less inclined towards epic sci-fi than I am, and she was more bored. My eldest son was bored. My youngest son was confused and bored. It was not a successful screening for us!

Purge 4-The First Purge

So as is the style in these days #4 is in fact #0. I blame the Star Wars Prequels.

And...

Maybe it was seeing two Purges in a row but this one felt like a let down, not all that shocking or interesting. Part of it was the feeling that the director wanted to go somewhere but couldn't.

It's the FUTURE! not as FUTURE! as Purge 3, but a bit more future than today. Our corrupt tyrannical government wants to thin the herd of poor folks by allowing one night of CRIME! in Staten Island, NY. When the poor dark-skinned residents don't kill each other with enough enthusiasm the government sends in mercenaries - literally dressed as the KKK - to stir things up.

It's like they go 90% of the way to saying the evil government is racist but can't quite go there. It's like it's fine for the government to stir a class war and kill thousands but we wouldn't want you to think they're racist or nothing. So possible biting commentary becomes just kind of limp. Like a lot of modern films.

Also... dude, I'm from New York. Staten Island is the lily white suburban borough of ranch houses and back yards and softball games. Sure maybe it will be a heckhole of urban decay in the FUTURE! but it just kind of rankled. So yeah, OK, 2 to 3 stars of 5.

I think my issue with The First Purge is its exactly the same message as The Purge.

And it is a powerful message. But even the densest of viewers will have got said message now.

Though it is…dunno what the word is. Satisfying feels wrong, but will do. It is satisfying when the Gubmint have to draft in soldiers to make it look like everyone enjoyed and took part in Purging.

Highlander

Bit of an odd one this.
It's not particularly well acted and a lot of the plot is vague gibberish, but somehow it all comes together as a good film, when it really shouldn't be.
Great soundtrack though.