I'd seen the trailer for this a little while ago, and that was enough to make a mental note to watch at the earliest opportunity.
It's a film that borrows heavily from Stephen King, most obviously It, as well as bandwagoning on the current trend to set these sorts of things in a retro era (aka Stranger Things syndrome.)
We are introduced to Finney in an unusually leisurely way, the presence of an active serial child abductor that is so crucial to the story is almost incidental against a background of day to day life of a young American high school kid. Finney is unusually nuanced, a talented baseball pitcher, but also with less than clear sexuality, a victim of bullying but also defiant, he has a close relationship with his sister and appears to have healthy friendships with others, but they both suffer at home under the care of an alcoholic father.
The father is another character worthy of praise, he is clearly struggling with grief over the death of their mother as well as drink, but where many films would reduce him to a violent ogre, we are also shown the side of him that clearly loves his kids and wants the best for them, adding depth to an otherwise fairly incidental role.
The benefits of not leaping in with both feet means we get time to know and like Finney and his sister, which undoubtedly helps when he inevitably crosses paths with the Grabber (Ethan Hawke.)
Hawke is terrific and terrifying, aided by a mask that has every chance of making it into the figurative gallery of iconic horror props, his performance is the stand out of what is a really very decent film, and worth the watch alone.
But there is an elephant in this underground child prison, and that's the fact that if you've seen the trailer, you already have all the pieces. Yes, there's a lot to simply watch and enjoy, all the connective tissue between the plot points is entertaining (especially any scene with Hawke) but the story pans out exactly how you might expect (with one minor misdirect which has basically no impact, and is fairly clearly signposted) and that's a huge problem.
So, well written, some excellent acting performances, a refreshing aversion to cliché, and a genuinely disturbing villain all just about offset the totally unsurprising plot. But if this could have thrown in a few more twists and turns, it would be an all time great.
It's Resident Evil all over again, Milla Jovovich being badass in something that bares little more than a passing resemblance to the source material.
Fortunately, I love the Resident Evil movies so I found this entertaining even though it wasn't that great of a film.
To be fair, the first one was surprisingly good. The second one started pushing things but it was okayish. Everything after that? Yeah no. We get it. Mila is hot but I wanted a Resident Evil movie.
An Irish fishing trawler goes out to sea, looking for a big catch... in an exclusion zone, and find a horrible monster. It's got the parasite elements of Leviathan and Deep Star Six, but without the conceit of deep sea mining. The monster's done minimalist style, with the crew most often seeing its effects and battling its indifferent results, rather than attempting to avoid being eaten.
It's not the action packed, exciting traditional horror film- this one is more contemplative. It's very focused.
Sounds neat, I'll have to check that out.
We love horror movies. Good ones, bad one doesn't really matter.
We just watched scream 2022.
It's a scream movie, not bad. I'm sure we could nitpick.
Plot.
The killer is back in town with a cast of characters both new and old favorites.
Much better than I had expected. I'm not much of a fan of the scream movies.
Again a serviceable and decent HP adaptation. Nothing great, someone really needs to turn on the lights in some of these scenes, but nothing to hate either. The girls liked it.
I wonder if they intentionally downplayed the deaths to prevent upset kids though.
Unearthed - An anti-fracking horror movie starring Adrienne Barbeau. Unfortunately it’s too unbalanced and is mostly a drama until 3/4 way through when they shove in some horror.
Set in the 80s, this prequel covers things like how Maverick met Iceman, his relationship with Rooster's father "Goose" and how he became a Top Gun instructor. Nice soundtrack and acting, had to fast forward through a sex scene since I was watching with the kids, but the de-aged Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer had a bit of uncanny valley at times
Spoiler:
In all seriousness I never saw the original Top Gun all the way through before and yeah, I can see why it is such an iconic film. Good stuff all around.
The original Jaws (1975 dir. Spielberg) is in theaters with a new 3D version. I'm not going to really go over the 47 year old movie but just to comment on the 3D work. It is very good. This isn't some slap-dash conversion but one you can tell they put some time into and it really shows. There has been a bit of confusion as it is being advertised as Jaws in 3D which has had some thinking it is the third movie in the franchise Jaws 3D, which obliviously it is not. If you enjoyed the original and like well done 3D then I definitely recommend giving it a look.
I do like this new trend of putting classics back in theaters. I am JUST old enough to remember the days before VCRs when there was such a thing as revivals and so I got to see some real classics on the big screen.
I recall going to see A Clockwork Orange at a 2pm matinee on some random Tuesday when I was atUniveristy. That was a film that was truly odd to come out of and it still being light.
The new one. It’s bloody good fun! Perhaps a bit more tongue in cheek than it’s predecessors, but serving as a critique of the original’s critique, I think it works.
Whilst knowingly tropey (that’s kind of it’s point) they still manage to keep it fresh, even if there’s nothing exactly new about it,
This could’ve fallen flat for me, and it might fall flat for you. But…it’s going into my Church of Latter Day Sequels, on the Good Pews.
By rights, this movie should be awful. However, it is a masterclass in screen writing. Everything in this movie is there for a reason, and with a single line of dialogue serves to humanize characters very, very well.
Directed by the guy how plays Happy in Iron Man.... Jon something or other?
Drive Angry
This is not Ghost Rider.... honest!
This movie was made by a committee of 12-15 year olds, and then put on film. Every woman is a randy sex object, every cop is a gun-toting stereotype, ever dude is a dirtbag, and every cultist is.... well.... they at least had some character to their visuals.
Nic Cage is collecting his paycheck and being Cagey.
LordofHats wrote: ....
To be fair, the first one was surprisingly good. The second one started pushing things but it was okayish. Everything after that? Yeah no. We get it. Mila is hot but I wanted a Resident Evil movie.
I hated the first film. But I watched it in the cinema and I hated everything back then. Well, I kinda still do. Definately don't hate Milla Jovovich though and I kinda even like the thing her and her husband got going on.
Years ago I saw a pretty okay Resident Evil film, I think it was 5? Jovovich was walking through a huge underground Umbrella installation which was made for testing their zombie virus in all sorts of different enviroments. It's basically her walking through different levels and settigs and the camera filming her kill them by moving around a lot. It was great and probably the purest Resident Evil film experience. I like honest films. Couldn't give a toss about RE background, because Capcom don't either. They're also pretty honest about it: It's a justification to have a good game. And that's it. You're here, there are zombies all around, go to over there and don't die on the way. That's it. That's a video game. Or an action film. Don't bore me with made up silly names or made up silly explanations for things.
Few weeks ago I watched the excellent film The Warriors. Imagine that vitalistic, fast-paced (especially for the time), alive film getting bogged down with dialogues about character backstories about the gang members or how the gangs function or stuff like that. That's not only unnecessary padding, that's also taking the audience for fools. Oh well.
@Easy E: I watched Cowboys vs. Aliens and I fully agree.How they made this perfectly fine film based on the perfectly silly title is beyond me. But they got a surprisingly strong cast who also do a very good job doing their jobs. On Drive Angry I disagree, because I love Drive Angry. Maybe it's because I often showcase 12-15 year olds' sensibilities though. There are some fun ideas though and it's very much a car-driving supernatural genre film. You'll have to give it that: it's unique.
I had the opposite experience watching Cowboys and Aliens. I put that down on the same tier of cringe as Peter Jackson’s King Kong and the Eragon movie. Different tastes, I guess.
Harry and the Hendersons.
Still holds up. Fun and fast paced—so much so that they seem to waterski from reading Harry to adopting him into the family in what row like a single scene. Watch it for the Kevin Peter Hall performance and for the scene near the end that TV Tropes calls “The Harry and the Hendersons” trope.
So this came out of watching a Japanese game show with Mrs. Kyoto and the Wonder Twins and wanting to see Amadeus. Which I happened to have in the DVD cabinet.
A bit grown up for the twins, and we had to fast forward through a sex scene, but definitely one of the greatest movies of all time. Heck I want to see it again and hear the DVD commentary.
Watched Thor Love and Thunder. Enjoyable. Not as good as Ragnarock in my view. However, now I want a soundtrack of screaming space-goats to play wargames with.
Based on R L Stine books, so I was expecting something fun, and perhaps a little scary.
It’s just….not. At all. Granted the biggest warning sign was It’s A Netflix Original.
The pacing is bad. It’s not scary. There’s no tension whatsoever. Yet…due to content it’s not exactly aimed at the same audience Goosebumps was. I mean, there’s visible stabbing and slashing. And a scene where whilst not exactly graphic, would cause cringe in both parties if watched by parents and teenagers.
Oh, and if you’re going to set your show in 1994? And demonstrate that through a Stranger Things type use of contemporary music? Maybe use songs from 1994. And not later in the 90’s. Such as Garbage’s “Only Happy When It Rains”. A banger to be sure, but released September 18th 1995. Your Woman, Whitetown. Released in 1997.
Because I notice such things. And they point to a careless lack of attention to detail.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not being a Horror Snob. I love horror movies. And I can find something to enjoy in most, even if it’s just laughing at the cheesiness.
But this? This is just a flaccid outing, with no clear audience due to a curious mix of punch pulling and (latterly) distinctly R rated gore (such as someone being pushed head first through a bread slicer, which to be honest i very much doubt would result in the…erm….result….shown on screen.
Saw this advertised on Channel 4 a few weeks back, finally got round to watching it on catchup. Overall not a bad watch. The premise is interesting; a guy goes to extreme measures in an attempt to go viral and improve his social media following, with almost the entirety of the movie filmed as if it was a livestream.
It's a low budget production but overall not a bad film. Probably wouldn't watch it again but worth giving it a go.
Someone mentioned it, so I went and found it on Plex (maybe) for free.
This movie was made in a time when everyone was doing the Phantom Menace all CGI backdrops. This movie hits a lot of plot points for a standard Dirty Dozen kind of film. The problem is no one and nothing really gets time to breath. However, it does look like folks were really trying to capture the aesthetic for this film.
Somehow, this flick got Thomas Jane, Ron Pearlman, John Malkovich, other people you have seen in other movies (like Devon Aoki). No idea how they pulled that.
Those that wish for a 40K movie, should watch this as a warning.
Dead or Alive Since Devon Aoki was in the first movie I watched, I was recommended this. So I watched it.
Ridiculous, but cheesy. I could see it being fun if you are in the right state of mind. Terrible fights and stunts edited to death, and cheap CGI abound!
Someone mentioned it, so I went and found it on Plex (maybe) for free.
This movie was made in a time when everyone was doing the Phantom Menace all CGI backdrops. This movie hits a lot of plot points for a standard Dirty Dozen kind of film. The problem is no one and nothing really gets time to breath. However, it does look like folks were really trying to capture the aesthetic for this film.
Somehow, this flick got Thomas Jane, Ron Pearlman, John Malkovich, other people you have seen in other movies (like Devon Aoki). No idea how they pulled that.
Those that wish for a 40K movie, should watch this as a warning.
Dead or Alive Since Devon Aoki was in the first movie I watched, I was recommended this. So I watched it.
Ridiculous, but cheesy. I could see it being fun if you are in the right state of mind. Terrible fights and stunts edited to death, and cheap CGI abound!
A slice of quality cheese, but not good.
Anything that keeps people from asking for a 40k film is good in my book. Also good: Plex.
Dead or Alive to me is one of the most faithful (in spirit) video game adaptations out there. They probably did the best you could do with the source material given you have to do it with a western mind, the thing has to run in cinemas and actors rather than cgi or dolls. I love me some DoA, I was alright with the film (despite it having Jaime Pressly in it. Whom I don't dislike, but she tends to have a pretty overwhelming presence and do the same things over and over).
Have I seen any films lately? I don't think so. Spent my time being afraid, just like everybody else.
So, I watched some samurai flicks, because I can! These were in Tubi.
Blade of the Immortal
This is directed by Miike, the same guy who did Hari-kiri and 13 Assassins. He also made the infamous Audition. This is supposedly his 100th movie! Anyway, this guy knows how to make movies and good samurai movies.
This one was.... not as good. Our main hero is immortal, which takes some of the stakes away from the battles. However, expect a lot of sword play and a lot of blood with a Miike Samurai movie. This one delivers.
Sword of Desperation A Samurai gets caught up in court intrigue. This one is more of a slow burn, with a big finish. Of course, that is practically the definition of samurai dramas, right?
Great set-up in this one. Then, a big blood soaked finish. Much more real than the last one I watched, and reminded me a lot of Samurai Rebellion with Mifune.... which is a good thing.
It was also nice to see that many samurai were just civil servants with swords. Most of them, weren't even good with them!
The Hidden Blade A similar plotline to the previous movie, but a different movie. This one is at the dawn of the end of the shogunate, just before the Meiji Restoration. Despite the very similar plot line,
However, this one taught me a very cool technique in some detail. The finish is not as blood soaked, in fact the final revenge is near bloodless. However, I enjoyed this one a great deal, despite the slower pace.
Does what it says on the tin. A low budget B-Movie style romp. But one to watch and share if people want to understand the difference between Low Budget Horror, and Cheaply Made Horror.
The whole thing is tongue in cheek, and it works. I’d even go so far to say as it’s another “better than it has any right to be”. Not to say that it’s Oscar worthy like. Just it rises above its humble origins to deliver a genuinely enjoyable slice of gory fun,
Kid_Kyoto wrote: I do like this new trend of putting classics back in theaters. I am JUST old enough to remember the days before VCRs when there was such a thing as revivals and so I got to see some real classics on the big screen.
Let's keep it up.
Poltergeist (1982 dir. Hooper) will be back in theaters near the end of September so looking forward to that.
Home cinema has spoiled me somewhat. Spooky stuff and classics? Those I prefer to watch at home, where I can get the ambiance right.
But….big blockbuster stuff? Like Return of the King, End Game and even Rogue One? Happy to watch those at home, but the scale of cinema genuinely adds something,
Half way decent cast are game, and the visuals are pretty stunning. Yet it still manages to fall flat on its arse.
However, highlights? Catherine Zeta Jones remains easy on the eye. And we see Owen Wilson get his bonce knocked off.
I think the problem is Lili Taylor. She goes for a certain portrayal, but just doesn’t really land it. Fey and shy was the aim, damp squib and wet blanket was the outcome.
Go watch the far superior and actually scary House on Haunted Hill instead. And maybe Ghost Ship.
There are a number of films related to gun running, either the buying and selling or the politics. They may not all be perfect but they are usually very interesting and entertaining. War Dogs and Charlie Wilson's War are stand outs.
And then there's Lord Of War. It's got Nic Cage hamming it up with his best Max Payne noir voiceover, and Jared Leto not being insufferable. The writing hits the pitch perfect balance of comedy and hurt. Pacing and direction are excellent. And there are some fantastic side characters from the many countries he does business in.
You may have seen the bullet making intro sequence, or the "used gun" arms sale scene, but I highly recommend watching the whole movie if you haven't yet.
The Haunting I was alright with. Certainly not something I'd watch in cinema, but years later I saw it on TV and it was alright. Never seen Ghost ship, all I know it starred Miss Marguiles(?) of ER fame. And some show thereafter, but who cares about tv shows after ER. Anyway, I heard that ghost ship was pretty good actually. I guess it would have stood out better if it had been released some other time, because IIRC around that time they did a ton of rarther inconsequential ghost films.
I'm watching Knocked Up, which I did a mini-review of years ago on Warseer. Anyway, it's perfectly OK. It stars everybody you'd expect to be in there (including - so I think - the Deanelganger. Or Doppeldeaner.). I'm not a HUGE fan of Seth Rogen, but he's ok. I like how everybody's got hair, but not annoying hairdos. I will give the film that the female figures aren't written that great. Heigl's character is incredibly OK with these people coming into her life. Heigl's sister comes across as pretty horrible, not the least because she's supposed to be angry at Paul Rudd. How can you win in that situation.
Somebody might come at me for generalizing again, but Apatow's films make me very much dislike Los Angeles. Or the idea of living in it. Not that i've been there. I'M sure it's lovely.
From what I remember, the sister is written as controlling and hypocritical, perhaps borderline abusive, yet the movie portrays her not in that light. It made for an uncomfortable watch.
Pretty good. I didn't much like Peele's last fic I saw (Us) but this one was great. It reminds me so much of a classic Speilberg movie but modern and with so much in it that's just well crafted to make you think.This is a great movie. Even the seemingly odd picks in the film's presentation further its themes when you sit back and think about them.
Despite being a Punisher film in name only (Seriously, is it that hard to get a guy a t-shirt with a big skull on it?), it's the only one I like.
I think it has a lot to do with Mr. Lundgren looking half dead all the time, really sells him as a tortured soul.
In the Dolph version, I do have a soft spot for the Not-Teddy Ruxpin (sp) scene.
I saw: Thor: Love and Thunder. This is clearly the spiritual successor of Ragnarok in many ways. However, where Rags shed most of the "stuff" around Thor to make him a stand-alone character, you know stuff like the Warriors 3, Odin, Asgard, etc; this movie goes out of its way to ADD stuff back into Thor's character. However, in the epilogue and climax it tries to strip them out again? (I mean, even Korg gets married; out of nowhere; and all for a bad joke?) Just like comics, the movies are now going through a phase where they break every one apart and distill them down, only to build them all back up again. It will be interesting to see how long the franchise can get away with these old tricks.
The first half of the movie is really, really hammed up and delivered with terrible acting. I think this is intentional. It is not until Jane Foster shows up that things start to get a bit interesting. As the movie progresses, the acting becomes more serious.
Honestly, the Thor needs to find himself bit is really used up; but I guess that is Thor's whole schtick? They do make fun of the fact that all of Thor's adventures are basically the same, and therefore some what hollow.
The visuals in the shadow realm are really good. It gave me a 7th Seal vibe, and I was actually hoping they engaged Gor: The God Butch in a game of chess, or perhaps a Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey moment. It is all black and white, except for yellow, such as the weapon and Gor's eyes.
Overall, probably more along Thor II in my mind. Mostly forgettable, even if Jane Foster and Thor are RIPPED!
FWIW, the Shadow Realm just doesn't have any natural light. Any time we see color its from outside light sources the characters carry (the yellow comes from Zeus's bolt and Mjolnir casts some soft white light that brings out a little color around it)
I saw this because the reviews built it up as something more interesting than you would think from the trailers. That made me think it was going to be more creative and less …obvious? Conventional?
Anyway, the acting is good. Every performer is captivating, and more than the rest Justin Long gets some great material to work with. The tension and pacing are good if you like this kind of horror movie. Unfortunately, the characters have to act bizarrely stupid at key times for the movie to happen, which really detracts from the film. Also, there are times when slasher movie rules take effect, which really clashes with the feel of the first half of the film. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who isn’t hardcore into horror.
Ever watch an episode of the Simpsons or Family Guy or similar, and spot they're making a reference but not necessarily understanding to what?
That more or less encapsulates my experience watching this film.
Alongside that sense of not getting "it" (I'm fairly sure there's not an "it" to get, it just feels that way,) there's a consistent confusion about what the film fundamentally is. It seems to want to be a comedy, but there aren't any jokes, it's also trying to be a horror, but it isn't scary. Aside from the Gordy subplot, which is not only chilling but also all too plausible.
Daniel Kaluuya mumbles his way through his dialogue, the plot wanders from side to side for large parts but doesn't seem to want to advance forward, and the climax lacks any impact because not only is it relatively predictable, you simply don't care by that point.
I think the idea of Jordan Peele as the next great hope for horror is now effectively dead. Get Out was a great debut, Us was a respectable follow up, but this falls far short of either. It would perhaps have made a reasonable episode of The Twilight Zone, another Peele project, but as a movie there's not a lot here to recommend.
It seems to be a thing with Peel's films. Half the audience won't get it (I didn't get 'Us' at all, but other people apparently did).
I found this one straightforward though. There's at least two big messages in it;
-Exploitation is bad and unhealthy, made manifest by the way animals, personal tragedy, and crises are exploited by people throughout the film in search of fame or money often with complete disregard, or sheer ignorance, of obvious risks. I.E. an animal is still an animal, even if domesticated or trained and it should be respected as such.
-The film would seem, IMO, to propose that the way many blockbuster films are made is shallow, devoid of meaning, and empty of soul or passion. It's all just made on the backs of professionals and creatives who take their work seriously but have to constantly deal with the pursuit of money stopping them from doing things the way they want. This same theme was also featured in Ford vs Ferrari (which used sports racing as a metaphor for film making IMO).
I got most of that, don't get me wrong, there is, after all, little subtlety to the way those themes are presented.
I guess it's more I felt like there was something.. deeper going on? Because I was being hit so relentlessly in the face with "the message" I guess part of my brain was looking for something more sophisticated, like because I'm as far away, culturally speaking, from the characters in the film as one can get that there was some deeper nuance I wasn't privy to.
I'm convinced there is a deeper meaning to the nature of the threat, but honestly it might just be wishful thinking.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I saw a Mark Kermode quote which I think sums it up more succinctly than anything I would likely conjure "the film is more interesting to talk about than it is to watch."
Both are valid. And they aren’t mutually exclusive.
Robocop is an easy and hopefully indisputable example of Having That Cake And Eating It.
On the surface? It’s completely standard 80’s shooty bang bang action dumb brain flick, and a good example of that peculiar genre.
And if that’s all you were wanting, it delivers in style.
But…there’s so much more to it in terms of subtext if you want to dig a bit deeper. From the American Jesus thing, to its critique of capitalism, some of the word play (dead or alive, you’re coming with me works as a dumb catch phrase, a witty retort to Emile when he says “we killed you man, there ain’t no coming back”, and indeed as a question about the very nature of Robocop Alex Murphy). Heck, even the soundtrack plays with the audience. That iconic theme tune? When it’s Alex Murphy, heavy on the brass and strings. During his first outings as Robocop? The Anvil features adding an inhuman, industrial robotic percussion - only for that bit to be dropped once Robocop rediscovers his humanity and remembers his own murder etc.
Oh sod it Robocop is going on again. Bloody love that film!
This is very much a "by the numbers" thriller, but competently done, even if I did guess the "reveal" within minutes of the movie starting. Very solid performance from Allison Janney as the titular Lou, the crotchety, mysterious, old lady that lives next door, and Matt Craven who seems to be forever cast as the local Sheriff for some reason. However, the rest of the cast sadly ham it up or phone it in, but it's a watchable movie, if a little over long. They spend a huge amount of time bigging up the "storm of the century" which turns out to be a bit of light rain.....
Lots of comparisons to Liam Neeson's "Taken", which I didn't really get. Closest comparison would be Jeff Bridges' "The Old Man".
So, all in all, not a bad movie if you have a spare couple of hours but it didn't set my world alight.
Robocop is an easy and hopefully indisputable example of Having That Cake And Eating It.
On the surface? It’s completely standard 80’s shooty bang bang action dumb brain flick, and a good example of that peculiar genre.
And if that’s all you were wanting, it delivers in style.
But…there’s so much more to it in terms of subtext if you want to dig a bit deeper. From the American Jesus thing, to its critique of capitalism, some of the word play (dead or alive, you’re coming with me works as a dumb catch phrase, a witty retort to Emile when he says “we killed you man, there ain’t no coming back”, and indeed as a question about the very nature of Robocop Alex Murphy). Heck, even the soundtrack plays with the audience. That iconic theme tune? When it’s Alex Murphy, heavy on the brass and strings. During his first outings as Robocop? The Anvil features adding an inhuman, industrial robotic percussion - only for that bit to be dropped once Robocop rediscovers his humanity and remembers his own murder etc.
Oh sod it Robocop is going on again. Bloody love that film!
Right on! I can't stop going on about how efficient that film uses its time and characters. But it's due to all of this and the above that Robocop sticks with you.
And that's one of the problems with the re-hashes of old stuff (the Starwarses and the Marvels) - Disney figured out that formula for making a film that feels fun for at least 60% of the 2 hours run time (in the cinema at least and if you're at least somewhat okay with the franchise), but once you step out all you think of is "well, that's off the list now". At least that's my more recent experiences with those films.
If a film is just enjoyable to watch for the run time and gives nothing to talk or think about beyond that I think they also start to deteriorate in terms of looking back at the experience rather fast. Instead of talking about stuff like "geez, imagine that could happen in our near future. No wait, it's like that already" or "why the heck did that historical mystery whodunnit into Soul Calibur in the end?" you think "ya, it was okay. The ending was a bit tame and that scene in the spaceship was unnecessary, but oh well.".
Maybe it comes down to doing it by the numbers and having something wrung through test audiences of people who the marketing people chose based on the most basic around so 'everybody gets it' versus a tiny ounce of creativity and daring to do at least something. The former producing something that's "okay while it lasts" and something that maybe has you raise an eyebrow at some point but at least will have a little impact.
Unrelated: I got to watch the first 30 minutes of the Paw Patrol film. Seems harmless. Weird how the politician is the bad guy (but it's made clear that he is a bit of a gakker really and fixed the elections) and that privately run emergency services company who apparently run on merchandise sales alone are policing the city. But overall it's OK.
Also watched 15 minutes of the Shaun the Sheep film. Yeah, seems alright.
If that's of help to anybody. Do watch Breakfast at Tiffany's though!
Star Wars is almost an exception there, because it’s grown so far beyond its original roots.
A point I always make when people accuse the the sequels of Not Explaining Something, is how little explaining the OT did.
Prime example is Luke, a Farmboy, jumping in an X-Wing and not just being able to fly it, but able to be an effective combat pilot, compared to Rey being able to do the same with the Falcon.
In both instances we get very little exposition. For Luke? “I used to Bullseye Womprat’s in my T-16 back home”. Granted that shows he’s some kind of pilot, backing up his earlier claim in the Cantina. But we’re left with no idea what a T-16 is, let alone that Incom made both that and ghe X-Wing with largely shared controls. That info is purely Expanded Universe.
Rey? As they’re legging it away from the TIEs, she replies to Finn’s concern about needing a pilot with “we’ve got one!” - referring to herself. We then get further exposition once Han reclaims the Falcon, where Rey shows quite detailed knowledge about the ship, and Unkar’s dubious upgrades.
Yet elements of the fan base only got out of their pram over Rey being a decent pilot, subjecting that film to a level of scrutiny the originals got a pass on.
But going back to my point? The longevity of Star Wars has always been the depth of its universe. And for my money? That genuinely starts with the Kenner toy range. And not just because that range was the accidental birth of Modern tie in marketing.
See, that was before Home Media really took off. And the range didn’t just include the heroes and villains, but lots of background characters. Jawa, Gonk Droids, R5-D4, Death Star Droid. Alongside the comics, it encouraged kids to come up with their own stories in the universe. So it’s always been expanding out with its original celluloid borders.
That almost certainly lead to the first Star Wars RPGs. The brains behind Knights of the old Republic (which I’ve never played, but await the Ps5 version) almost certainly started off down that path grubbing about on the platform making up stories for their Star Wars toys.
And so….the sequels also played with that, leaving deliberate narrative gaps between the ages to be filled in later, and backgrounds to be explored as and when. Sure it was a bit hamfisted, and perhaps it’s really not something you can force (Phasma for example. I love her, but she’s no Boba Fett). But that’s still the route of it for me.
Automatically Appended Next Post: OK doke.
Hocus Pocus 2
This is joining the Church of Latter Day Sequels, the repository of resurrected franchises which are actually worth the effort.
Now, I’ll preface that if you didn’t enjoy Hocus Pocus
1. What’s wrong with you?
2. Nothing here for you.
But for everyone else? There’s a lot to enjoy. Whilst a Disney+ release, I’d have been happy to have seen this in a cinema, myself.
Tune in next week to see what I think of Hellraiser, and whether it is gains admission to the Church of Latter Day Sequels.
I remember seeing the first one in the theater. I was too old for it to become a part of my childhood, so it became one of those films I enjoyed during the run time and never thought about again except when a Bette Middler song came on the radio. And that was rarely.
I suggested it for Halloween viewing last year because of all the internet hype and my remembering it as harmless. Well, it turns out it’s a bit more 80’s than I remember in that my young niece was traumatized by the first attempted soul-sucking scene. My wife and I finished it later with my son, but the magic wasn’t there for any of us.
It can be tricky with kids. God Sprog was around 5 when I first showed her Labyrinth, and she wasn’t a fan. We put something else on about 20 minutes in.
As residents of Egypt we saw Death on the Nile first. This is also a very pretty classic whodoneit and everything is competently done. Plot wise (without spoiling) I would say the plot in Orient Express makes more sense but Nile was prettier.
Lots of cool 30s style and music if you're into that.
Ryan Reynolds plays the only role he can, so forget about that. Watch this for Ben Mendelsohn playing a gambler that's born to lose. You've seen that person in pubs, on street corners and in alleyways handing over money, in your own life. He acts it so well, you think he must have been this person once. Exceptional.
Athena
Gang warfare on a French council estate. Directorship stamped all over it in the form of lengthy and tense scenes of running and rioting youths fighting the police who are trying to storm their kingdom. Brutal and stylish. In the end I felt that the plot was being forced into the mould of a classical tragedy, and the character development suffered a bit from it.
Still fun. My wife started snickering about fifteen minutes in, openly laughing by the volleyball game, and laughing every one of the many, many times the guys were all just hanging out in towels or briefs. We had to explain unintentional homoeroticism to our son, which was a bit awkward.
Watch it.
Tremors
A well-written, well-executed comedy thriller.
Watch it!
Tremors 2
This movie is a ton of fun. More of a comedy-adventure than comedy-thriller. Some amazing one-liners.
Watch it!
Tremors 3
The budget is clearly a fraction of Tremors 2’s, but it’s still a lot of fun. I really want that “Shriekers Vs Graboids” comic.
OK I genuinely put this on confusing it with Trading Places
This is one of those films I was aware as a kid, but don’t recall seeing before (was probably on telly on day though).
It’s actually pretty good! It reminds me of something, a much more sinister film where a stranger enters a family’s life and destroys it all. Visitor Q is that, but not the one I’m thinking of.
It’s a solid comedy, quite low key for its time. On Disney+ in the U.K., definitely give it a watch.
I have really liked all the Tremors movies I have seen but admittedly I do not think I have seen them all yet. Sad as it may sound, to a certain degree I can really relate to Burt Gummer.
Ted and Elain are having relationship problems and she plans to leave him when she returns from her flight. Ted buys a ticket on her flight hoping to work out there problems.
Memorial line, " Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue. "
Not too bad, but probably the weakest of the Thor films. It seemed to take the weakest parts of Dark World (Sacrificing a potentially good villain and plot for shenanigans. A failing of, unfortunately, too many Marvel films) and Ragnarok (Focusing too much on trying to be funny all the time), while ditching the good bits (Dark World had a much better side cast while Ragnarok was, IMO, a genuinely good movie underneath all the attempted comedy).
Still an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours, if you're a fan of the Marvel films.
The overtly comedy character in the Air Traffic Control. Unwelcome overblown distraction, or essential part of the ensemble?
I'm going to say yes because it's a whole cast of what turn out to be wacky characters. We think he's a normal person but it doesn't hold up.
A few things I think about Airplane!, This is the inside of Deadpool's head or well, they did it first. Striker breaks the forth wall and it has an after credits scene.
Which is a little funny because I seem to remember the first after credits scene being credited to Ferris Bueller's in 86', 6 years after this movie. Going back to dead pool, doing a coppy of the end credit scene of that movie was about the first time I read any chatter about the first end credits scene.
This movie has so many reticules scenes it's difficult to pick out a favorite clip. I think they do them well and keep the gags going just long enough. The Girl scout bar fight is brutal but does come to a conclusion. And all the people bothering people at the airport with their religious sects looking for donations, eventually someone's going to have had enough of that.
I really feel like talking about all the fun scenes here would ruin the movie for the first timer. And there's just so much to talk about.
Why did Jive talk fall out of fashion anyway? We should all be talking like that now, on the internet at least...
Even now, every time I watch Airplane!, there’s a new gag, visual or verbal. It’s just so densely packed it’s incredible.
Currently rewatching Shazam!
Thought I’d rented it from Prime, turns out I’d bought it. I’m not complaining either way.
It’s bloody good fun, and probably the first Actually Good DCEU movie.
Automatically Appended Next Post: The Hunt
Gained some controversy around release, as it was delayed due to real world atrocities.
It is a satire, but I’m not entirely sure who the butt of the joke is, as it takes (often quite literal stabs) at both left and right wing motormouths.
However, it is highly entertaining, and it stars the frankly divine Betty Gilpin. It definitely worth a watch.
It’s daft. It’s silly. The interesting premise of the original didn’t need more outings. But if mindless violence coquettishly draped in a diaphanous plot and barely-there-social-commentary holds appeal to you, this is still a fun watch.
Certainly I’ve seen a lot worse. But I’ve seen even more films that were just better.
There's a war in heaven and one side is looking for the most evil human soul they can find to help them turn the tide.
This movie has a wonderful cast.
Christopher Walken as Gabriel is such a fantastic character. With wonderful dialog.
Gabriel : I'm an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why.
I genuinely feel like His Gabriel would make Pinhead uncomfortable.
Viggo Mortensen as The Devil. Again fantastically delivered and almost chilling.
Lucifer : Your war is arrogance. That makes it evil. That's mine.
The best part is that there are 5 movies each not exactly as good as the one before.
An early 80's sci-fi horror movie in the vein of stuff like Event Horizon, with a surprisingly bleak ending.
Not a great movie by any means, but much better than I was expecting it to be.
Now that may be worth looking into.
Cybertracker (1994)
Sci-Fi action film about privatized law enforcement (ALWAYS a great idea) carried out by robots which are either Terminators or Robocop turned inside out. Starring Don "the Dragon" Wilson and Richard Norton. Here's a bit of an embarassing detail: I always confuse D"tD"W with Scott Adkins. Not that they have much in common at all except they're martial arts men. Somehow I got them both filed under "the Dragon". The name (and kudos to the guy for going through with it) is much more memorable than either of the two.
Richard Norton on the other hand - him I'll always recognize, because he's entertaining in his weird ways. I'm also quite scared of him, because I once watched that EXCELLENT episode of "Through the Night with.." (by French-German culture tv channel ARTE) featuring him and Cynthiy Rothrock being driven around in Berlin, meeting martial artist/stunt people, having dinner and generally chatting. Not only do the two have great chemistry and are old pals, but Norton seems a bit weird in real life as well. He scares me. He's got that legit "that guy could snap me like a twig before I even realize" thing, but also that odd calmness of the self-improved, crazy disciplined person.
Anyway, Cybertracker. It's got several car explosions, "the Dragon" is doing his best, it's cheaply made (and I love me some 1994 near future stuff), it's not all that exciting. It's alright. Nothing noteworthy. All the more surprising that there were TWO sequels.
Pass. Maybe it's somehting for DtDW fans? And if you are, please suggest some good films starring him, maybe that'll help me appreciate the Dragon.
Executive Decision (1996)
Starring Steven Segal, Luigi Leguizamo, Kurt Russel, Halle Berry, David Suchet, Oliver Platt, Dr.Kelso and many more.
Islamist terrorists kidnap a big passengers plane. Kurt Russel is one of these shady military think tank dudes, him and special forces dudes (led by Steven Segal) are sent in in a pretty exciting way to save the day. That's a film from that time when the US army (or airforce, whatever) allowed Hollywood to have stealth fighters on their films. And boy, did they use them around the time. Remember when Ice T stole one? I think that was a bit later on, not sure.
Anyway, yeah, Executive Decision is the one with The Twist.
Spoiler:
The funny thing is that I couldn't remember who of the top-billed stars is the one affected by it, which kept things interesting to an extent.
So once we're on the big airplane things don't stop being exciting. It's a pretty good terrist airplane kidnapping action thriller, and I don't think I've ever seen it in full before. It keeps being interesting, it's a bit of a slow burn but still there's always things going on which keep things interesting.
What a wonderful, warm hearted feel good comedy. Not in the schmaltzy saccharine feel good way. A genuine good feeling movie.
The cast are wonderful, and clearly having a great time in making it. Yes Jack Black is largely playing…Jack Black, it here it really works. I feel he’s being well restrained and channeled by the director, and so it turns out really well, rather than really annoying (and I like JB myself. Just….in moderation. I should’ve just said that, shouldn’t I? This film is proof that JB in Moderation is a good thing.
Now, aside from Jerry’s affliction? This really feels like something that could happen. And apparently does to some degree, as Swedeing is now a legit thing.
Evil Dead, 2013. Ironically enough, this film stands as an epic testament to Bruce Campbell's comedic power. I loved the other Evil Deads, and I definitely appreciate this one. It's intimate, gory, and sadistic and wicked in a way that the other films do not approach. The nail gun scene is absolutely extraordinary at showing incapacitating pain.
If you're looking for a gory horror film, look no further. What it lacks is Campbell's chin, and charm. He turns the other movies into horror comedies purely by his scene chewing presence- you can really see that in Evil Dead 2, where they tried to be serious. They had some success, then gave up and embraced the campy horror silliness in Army of Darkness.
This is the Evil Dead I think Sam Raimi always meant to make, and it is great. Much like the Necronomicon, Raimi did not count on running into Bruce Campbell and has been hilariously thwarted for decades.
Gitzbitah wrote: Evil Dead, 2013. Ironically enough, this film stands as an epic testament to Bruce Campbell's comedic power. I loved the other Evil Deads, and I definitely appreciate this one. It's intimate, gory, and sadistic and wicked in a way that the other films do not approach. The nail gun scene is absolutely extraordinary at showing incapacitating pain.
If you're looking for a gory horror film, look no further. What it lacks is Campbell's chin, and charm. He turns the other movies into horror comedies purely by his scene chewing presence- you can really see that in Evil Dead 2, where they tried to be serious. They had some success, then gave up and embraced the campy horror silliness in Army of Darkness.
This is the Evil Dead I think Sam Raimi always meant to make, and it is great. Much like the Necronomicon, Raimi did not count on running into Bruce Campbell and has been hilariously thwarted for decades.
The "remake" was really good! We really like it a lot. Remakes are so hit or miss but they did very well.
speaking of The Evil Dead, I made a super cut of Evil Dead one and two based on a Brue Campbell interview. He said his ideal cut would be stuck together at the end of Part 1 where ash is thrown into the big puddle and then again from part two where he come out of the much as a deadite. I'll have to look for the time stamps, the super cut I made is 2.41 minuets long. Easily made with movie maker.
The interview should be easy to find, if anyone wants to make their own.
Last nights movie was The Fallen -1998.
Denzel Washington and John Goodman play detective pulled into what looks like copy cat murders, murders that seem to match the killings done by a murderer recently put to death.
In the theater, watching Executive Decision, the “twist” earned the entire audience clapping and cheering. Really made the movie memorable. It’s up there with Passenger 57’s “Do you ever play roulette? …Always bet on black!” in the hall of fame for moments that elevate airplane-based action movies. Air Force One never achieved the like.
Tremors 4
Still lots of fun! This one has a lot of the same Big TV Movie Energy from Tremors 3, but the cast and director are more comfortable and the production value looks a lot higher. The special effects are used more sparingly but look better for it. It was nice to see Michael Gross getting a break from playing the same character yet again. A prequel that works.
@Mad Doc Grotsnik: Yeah, I enjoyed that one. It got a bit hollywood-y in the end, but i absolutely loved the montages in which they 'sweded' the films. A really nice flick, that one.
@Gitzbitah: Never seen it, but the Evil Dead remake (heck, has it been 10 years already?) is said to be really good. Nice.
@warhead01: Ooooh, I love The Fallen. Amazing cast, that song will forever be stuck in your head in relation to that very film, and I just love the "Denzel Washington is a straight-laced, possibly a little cocky lawperson and some (supernatural) power tries to ruin his life" genre. Really, really enjoy that film and I'll gladly watch it when ever it's on.
@Bobtheinquisitor: You may have a good point there. I haven't seen Passenger 57 for way too long. Never fully seen Air Force One. It didn't look very interesting.
As for the Tremors franchise - love the first film; good fun. Never seen any of the others I have to admit.
It has a strong cast of faces you'll probably know
Christopher Lee Peter Cushing and Telly Savalas.
It's a fun movie with an interesting monster.
To me the movie feels like a Spaghetti western in the way it was made, acting and casting.
You can almost tell not yon set speaks English much in the same way Spaghetti westers were cast. Which is something I like about Horror Express.
The monster. Well with out spoiling everything I will say the monster has a 1970's equivalent of an mcu style fight scene which I found really well done given what they had to work with and the limits on special effects at the time.
You can find this whole movie free to watch on Youtube if you're up for it.
The arrival of this "reboot" of the storied horror franchise has been much anticipated by fans, so in many ways it's a shame it isn't better, but it is at least respectable, which given the quality of some entries in the series, feels like a win.
I use reboot in quotes because frankly there's little that's rebooted. Sure, Pinhead is a girl now, but who are we to say what limits an avatar of the Leviathan and how they manifest?
Very little old ground is trodden, and what 2022 is, fundamentally, is a simple advancement of the ongoing story. It's more Force Awakens than Batman Begins. There are no (human) returning characters, there is nothing in the story that, to my recollection, draws from The Hellbound Heart or first film. It's just another take of what happens when mortals encounter a certain puzzle box.
Nevertheless, not giving 2022 a subtitle, as well as framing it as a reboot, is going to invite comparisons to the original, and in this it comes up lacking. There's an intimacy to the original, where Julia sacrifices of herself each time she lures a victim back to the house, as well as a tension between her motivations, her actions and the inevitable outcome. The lack of scope makes it taut, claustrophobic even, and this is entirely absent from 2022.
A wider cast and greater scope aren't inherently poor ideas, but there's 2 hours to play with here and none of it is used to try and make you care for the human cast members. Consequently the final act relies purely on spectacle to sell itself, and it very nearly lands it. The cenobites are all reimagined, portrayed using practical effects (massive kudos just for this) and great imagination, they're probably worth the watch alone.
But fundamentally reviews for this movie probably won't matter, if you're a fan it's unlikely anything will prevent you finding out for yourself, if you're not then this isn't the movie to change your mind. There's a lot here worthy of praise, but ultimately it just lacks that little sprinkle of fairy dust to really take it to the next level. I hope it goes well enough to spark another run from the same crew though, as it still feels like they have sights to show us.
The Three Musketeers A three musketeers movie with Mad Mikkelson as Rochefort, Christopher Walz as Richeliu, and Mila Jovachovich as Milady (I apologize for all the mis-spellings of those respective actors) and I had not heard of it before? How did this escape my notice?
Oh, it is by Mila's husband? That's probably how. The movie is ridiculous and tries really hard to be cool and epic, but ultimately the highlight is the sets and costuming! Mads and the Hero have a great final duel on the top of Notre Dame.
Oh yeah, James Corden is also treated like crap through the whole movie, so you may like that part MDG!
From Beyond So, I started looking for some fun Halloween night movies to settle down and watch with the fam. They are all adults, but I am not great with scary movies. Last year we watched Vincent Price flicks and that was about the right speed. I ma thinking more Hammer Horror this year? Maybe?
So, I had heard about this H.P. Lovecraft based movie. I gave it a watch, and it is not scary. However, it definitely is not for family viewing either. A bit.... racy.
A formerly lost movie. It kind of Martha’d before BvS. And in a way actually more insulting to the audience.
Potted plot? Insane trans woman collects female corpses in the hope of possessing them (as in, spiritual possession). Actor is male, but dubbed with female voice.
When Our Heroes arrive, Miss Leslie is surprised Martha looks like a Martha they knew but died in the same fire that killed Miss Leslie’s Mum.
2006 reboot/sequel in the long running Kaiju series.
Very kid friendly. Distinct shades of Gremlins. Version on Prime is subtitled, but….the dialogue is pretty light.
Whilst still part way through? If you’ve got smols of your own? This seems a solid My First Kaiju movie to introduce them to the genre. It’s wholesome. It’s interesting. It’s funny in the right way. And because the dialogue is quite light, even the subtitles are accessible to younger folk, and it’s always clear which character is talking.
Everybody loves The Last Unicorn! It's great. It'll stick with you. It's beautiful, cheesy, silly, scary, heroic, unconventional, sad, funny, impressive and it's got a kick-ass soundtrack.
@MDG: I'm not that huge on monster films (tried to get into it proper, not quite convinced), but wasn't Gamera generally more geared towards kids? Or did he just get big (no pun intended) during the time Toho(?) generally made their monster films much more with the young'uns in mind?
Continuing my TNG/DS9 Trek binge, I've reached the first of the movies...
Star Trek: Generations
This really is an odd fish of a film. The lighting is all over the place, the plot is not to feature length standard and while it was clearly designed that all the separate elements would converge to tell a story of "generations" it doesn't succeed. The story is simply too weak.
But in spite of this it does have its merits. We've seen Picard cry in the series and it's always a highlight. Once more, Stewart doesn't let us down. The battle scene with the Klingon sisters is both satisfying as a fan and a truly great "Trek" action sequence. And Brent Spinner is having a blast overacting the stuffing out of his role and getting away with it. Data's light heartedness is needed as much of the film is both dour and dull.
After we're reintroduced to Shatner (who is commendably good, to the detriment of Stewart) the last third of the film is a thoroughly uninteresting less-than-mediocre set piece that goes on for far too long.
Not the worst Trek by a long shot, but hardly worthy of recommendation.
Generations is the Trek movie I watch and he least. It is one of the bad ones, but it isn’t an ambitious failure like TMP, nor a complete trainwreck like Final Frontier. It doesn’t have the shark-jump of Nemesis nor the making-the-audience-angry energy of Insurrection. It might be the least bad of the bad ones, but it’s also the least interesting.
The good- New Pinhead does a great job being calm, detached and thoroughly menacing. The Cenobite dispassion is fantastic. The Cenobite designs are also outstanding, very well executed.
The bad- The humans are terminally dumb. Like Prometheus levels of actively trying to die.
Spoiler:
The twist that the puzzle box needs to be opened so many times to fulfill a wish is an interesting one, and it would work for creating a sense of impending doom if we had a hedonistic sadist actively seeking to complete it. Trapping a strung out drug addict, with no knowledge of the occult it really should have just led to an OD, or pawning the box, leading to a series of murders like Leprechaun 3.
As is, with the idea of a victim trying to escape the box, we end up with a lot of really dumb, plot driven decisions.
It's Hellraiser, but pretty much Syfy movie level Hellraiser.
This was a fun, weird movie. We almost stopped early on because it took a while to get going, but then we were really enjoying it. There were a few laugh out loud moments, but mostly it was just a fun time rather than a hilarious comedy.
Heavy on the special effects and action, globe travelling treasure hunt.
While it isn't a bad film, it also isn't a good one. There's nothing that stands out as particularly memorable or significant. I reached the end of the film and found myself asking what was the point of the whole thing?
Other than being this generation's Tomb Raider or National Treasure (and rather amazingly not being as engaging as either), this is almost the definition of the movie you put on in the background while you do something more interesting.
This was a fun, weird movie. We almost stopped early on because it took a while to get going, but then we were really enjoying it. There were a few laugh out loud moments, but mostly it was just a fun time rather than a hilarious comedy.
I'm terribly cautious about any comedies starring Nicholas Cage these days. They all seem to rely heavily on the pretty nonsensical "internet lols" connected to his name. Maybe I'll give this one a go at some point though.
@Henry: I forgot that film existed if I hadn't seen some commercial for some streaming provider earlier today. Only thing I remember about any review about this is how it's utterly forgettable.
Wait, didn't "this generation" get at least one Tomb Raider film just a little while ago? Oh well. Maybe not a single film leaves an impact these days unless it's connected to some "controversy" or some franchise some boring people can worked up about.
Well, for Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode, I think it's fair to say, without spoilers, that her arc is done for the franchise. Is the franchise itself over? I'd say yes, for at least 3 years.
The more high minded themes of the Halloween films, such as they are, have always been around the nature of evil, the nature vs nurture debate with an added suggestion of the possibility of a malevolent outside force pulling the strings.
Ends does at least try something new with this idea, and while I'll always look to praise any attempts to introduce a dash of originality into these sorts of by the numbers franchise freight trains, sadly it comes up short.
There's two things that torpedo this movie, the first and most grievous wound is the relationship that Stride's granddaughter Allyson embarks on with new character Corey is structural to the success of the plot, and it just flat fails to be in the least bit plausible. This lack of credibility then has a domino effect on that characters' actions making the whole thread, which is a substantial part of the plot as a whole, complete nonsense.
The second issue is the film seems to be posing some questions which may or may not allow the franchise to go off in a new direction in the future. While I would be fine with leaving any or all of those questions unanswered for future installments to address, it isn't actually clear what those questions are. Things that are suggested in one scene are contradicted in others, leaving the viewer, or this viewer at least, confused as to their significance and wondering if something was missed, either in the watching or, not entirely impossibly, the edit.
The final kitchen knife to the chest is that it's not all that scary. There's little tension, and while one or two jump scares find their mark, it feels insufficient.
For all that, I found the story engaging enough to stick with, and the final act is satisfying, if not particularly surprising.
If this is to be the final Halloween movie of this generation at least, it's a shame that it seems to have rather wobbled to its conclusion. It's not good, but it does feel like there's elements that have been left out (it's almost 2h which is getting up there for a horror) and it might yet be redeemed in the future if a director's cut can better establish the relationships between key characters and provide a little more clarity on what it's trying to say about the mythos.
The epitome of a film that doesn't know what audience it's trying to reach and kind of embodies the meme "hello there fellow kids." This movie would have made more sense from the perspective of parents instead of teenagers, but even then its scares would have been pure cringe rather than scary.
This isn't a movie about Internet or cyber-culture or even parenting gone horribly wrong so much as it is a movie about people who don't get the internet thinking they can scare people with it by not understanding it.
It's like a movie made from a creepypasta by someone who has no idea what a creepypasta is. This movie is bad. Watch Unfriended, The Host, or Channel Zero if you want to see actual Internet inspired horror. Or even X, which is set in the 80s but still manages to tell a chilling story that's a lot more relevant to an online world than this crappy movie.
A quick recap on Sonic the Hedgehog - I found the first movie a bit kitsch. The delivery was awkward, everything was a little substandard and Carrey was regrettable.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Entering this film with more than a smidgen of cynicism I finished it with a wide smile on my face. Let's not get carried away, it isn't a master piece, but it is a successful kids film that's better than the first.
The jokes still aren't clever enough to play with the best but at least Carrey isn't a mistake this time. There are a number of quite memorable moments, it bounces along at a great pace and the writers show that they have enough intelligence to do that thing which is so rare to find in movies these days - a touch of creative set-up for later payoff.
Art the clown is at it again. The movie picks up weirdly where it left off with art coming back from the dead in the morgue. (Or I think more likely it was a flashback to set the scene for things to come.)
Honestly this movie is a little too long and has just a little too much going on. There is the gore factor as well. It seemed like they went all out just to impress upon the audience that it was in fact a gory film. The characters aren't bad over all. Was it worth the wait? yes.
Was it everything I had hoped for? I still don't know.
Big take away remains the same. Art the clown isn't anyone to fool around with. ever. full stop. I will say I think Art was better in the first film but I think that has more to do with not really knowing what to expect from him. He relies on body language, facial expressions and of course copious amounts of ultra-violence.
I dig it. it's good to have a strong competitor to our long time favorites like Freddy, Jason and Michael. And like those before him I can see at least one more film for Art.
If you are sensitive to gore and over the top murders in film. You might skip this one.
Tremors 5, alias Tremors Bloodlines, alias Tremors Jamie Kennedy, alias Tremors Immunity Has Just Been Revoked
The one in South Africa.
It was a decent entry. My least favorite Tremors movie so far, but still a fun watch despite Jamie Kennedy’s best efforts. The effects are mostly good with a few really bad shots. Michael Gross is great. A few weeks ago there was a thread about movies not having sweaty, dirty, horny characters any more. Tremors 5 has plenty, and they’re ugly to boot. And they’re about 30% Jamie Kennedy.
Only for the true fans of the series.
Ernest Goes to Jail
This living cartoon character still makes me laugh. This is worth watching for the absolutely bonkers climax. Heck, this is worth watching for the song played over the end credits. (Seriously, where the heck did that come from?)
My sister cancelled her Amazon Prime membership, so on the last night we all sat down and decided to watch ...something. And whenever you do that you end up watchin Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, hosted by Jonathan Frakes.
So we watched two episodes; the first one I remembered in its entirety, the second one I don't think I'd ever seen and The Horn had me laughing like I hadn't laughed in years. It was embarassing how I couldn't stop laughing about that moment when the flowery mortician sees that huge thing his antiquarian pal got, we get a cut and the next thing we see is the mortician blowing into this HUGE thing and it goes TOOOOOOOOOT. I expected this thing to be anything (despite the fact I'd just read the title being The Horn) or do anything but going TOOOT. It really had me in stitches. Anyway, the story itself is ...okay, but the actors were funny. I actually enjoyed the story about the ladyfriends walking up and down a pier, then the one lady sees that musical clock / Glockenspiel, but it's broken and so on. Most of you probably watched the episode a thousand times. At least in Germany/Austria/Switzerland Beyond Belief has been running forever in syndication (it's called X-Factor here for some reason, which to this day leads to hilarious confusion when UK and DACH people talk about their respective X Factors).
Anyway. What a fun show to watch with friends and family. If you're not sure what to watch, give two or three episodes a go. It's a very funny show and I love with how they mostly work with limited budgets and actors.
My wife has watched every Christmas movie on Netflix, but it has been decreed that it is Christmas movie season again, and she has access to new streaming venues now, so here....we....go.
Ghosts of Christmas Past A software developer tries to build a seasonal app. During an office holiday party, a fortune teller advisors her that she needs to make amends to all the men she has ghosted. This leads to romance and Komedy when a co-worker decides to help out.
Not very Christmas related, just the set design and season but this premise could be any time of year.
4 out of 10 reindeer?
Secretly Santa Two rival Apps are purchased by a big company, and the rival developers are forced to work together in order to improve the results of the gift-recommendation apps before the Holidays.
I could have sworn the leading lady (Alicia Josipovic?) was Morgana from the TV series Merlin, but I guess she was from a Degrassi reboot? Who knew. Edit: The actress I was thinking of was Katie McGrath.....
This one was much more Christmas themed, but was a pretty standard Lifetime Rom-Com. Not the worst Christmas themed Rom-Com I have seen, but not the greatest either.
Is app designer the new wedding planner? It looks like it.
Also: how many of these films starred Dean Cain? Bunch of months ago I had a look at christmas films on Netflix, and many of them starred the same lady (whom I don't know) and Dean Cain.
Holiday Fix-up Instead of App Devs, this one is about a TV Interior Designer who goes back home to help re-model the local Inn and reconnects with her old boyfriend from before she left town. Interior Designers are also very popular for Christmas movies!
The first few minutes are kind of funny as her producer rips her away from the home owners of the homes she remodels before she can even see their reactions. Of course, she is also competing with an up and coming rival interior designer who has better social media followers, and her producer wants her to amp up her presence on Social Media.
From there is is all pretty formulaic for this type of Rom-Com Christmas movie. Nothing terrible and competently done, but you have seen this movie literally hundreds of times, and that is what makes it comforting like a warm blanket during a gentle snowfall on Christmas Eve Eve by the fireplace.... or so I am led to believe.
Holiday Fix-up Instead of App Devs, this one is about a TV Interior Designer who goes back home to help re-model the local Inn and reconnects with her old boyfriend from before she left town. ....
That already sounds so wholesome it makes my blood bubble. Reminds me a little bit of that film in which Holly Hunter meets up with her family for thanksgiving. Robert Downey Jr. is her brother and has gread 90s hair and all.
Oh well, I'm still stuck on watching spooky stuff for as long as I can until christmas comes around. That and a film called Deathsport from 1978 which came suggested to me.
Yeah, I mostly watch documentaries about horror films on youtube or documentaries about horror literature and such. Also rather wholesome local tv station spooky documentaries. I lack the mental fortitude to watch horror films any more I think. Used to watch a lot, not so much any more. I watched a documentary about a spooky house in Switzerland three times because it was very nicely made (mostly more about how to make documentaries about spooky houses and how the crew reacts to working there for weeks, thus portraying how spooky myths come to be) and even that had me scared a little at night.
Right now I found the excellent German miniseries on Wallenstein from 1978 on youtube, which I watch now. It probably requires some knowledge on the period, but it's rather cool to watch. Lots of men sitting in chambers, talking to each other how they dislike each other and like god a whole lot and how this Wallenstein dude is really, really good at administrating things, but also a pain in the backside. Classic thirty years war story, ie classic gangster story. Oh, and everybody talks GREAT. Very 60s style stage German.
It had to happen eventually, but I've finally watched a Marvel movie that is, IMO, pretty bad.
There's always been weaker Marvel films, those that run a little too long, get a bit boring in places or just have certain elements that don't land for me, but never before has there been one so unrelentingly dull as this.
The characters, the plot, even the fight scenes are extremely lacklustre.
Even if, like me, you're one of those people who need to see everything MCU related, I can't really recommend watching it.
My teenage kid watches Eternals all the frikkin' time. That and Birds of Prey are her "comfort movies" that she just puts on in the background or when she doesn't know what else to do.
No idea why those two, but I have seen parts or them so many times now.
It's always disappointing when a movie that you think is going to be good lets you down. It's especially disappointing when you were looking forward to it.
For those unfamiliar, the VHS series is a collection of horror anthology films, the central thread of which is that the various tales are found on VHS video cassettes, normally as a consequence of events of some overarching bonus story that knits the various disparate elements together.
99 does away with that overarching story in favour of dropping in and out of something that appears to have been recorded on the tape previously, although this apparently random stop motion student animation project does ultimately prove to have more involvement with one of the stories.
Anthologies by their very nature tend to vary in quality, the trouble with 99 is that none of the elements really shine. Shredding is a largely uninspired zombie story, Suicide Bid does have a pretty decent monster, but ultimately does nothing new with the buried alive trope, Ozzie's Dungeon tips it's hand far too early, any half serious horror fan will see the way the winds blowing in seconds, and again does little new with the trope. The Gawkers is fun in that it evokes the high school sex comedies of the 80s and 90s very well but suffers from the same issues in that it broadcasts it's intentions to any fan watching far too early and does nothing to disrupt them. Lastly, To Hell And Back is not a particularly remarkable story, but does feature one of the best on-screen depictions of hell I've yet witnessed, it would be great to see someone pick up the ideas here and populate them with more creatures and lost souls in the same way, sadly I suspect budget limited hell's population here, but the concept is great.
So a movie I was excited to watch disappoints with a lack of originality in both story and largely in execution. A VHS film with nothing new or interesting to say is a real shame.
Easy E wrote: My teenage kid watches Eternals all the frikkin' time. That and Birds of Prey are her "comfort movies" that she just puts on in the background or when she doesn't know what else to do.
No idea why those two, but I have seen parts or them so many times now.
Ah. But we all have our preferred comfort movies. That in itself requires no further explanation.
Yes some of mine are of questionable quality. Maybe even kwalitee with a Kapital K (the only seel of apruhval nided). But they’re comfort movies. Movies I enjoy greatly and everyone else can just…..Bugger off. No bugger off further than that style Bugger Off
Whilst I’m not a parent myself, and have all the parental instinct of….I dunno….a brick made out of incel badgers? I’m pretty sure a kid enjoying mass media of any type is not to be sniffed at
Very capable and well-executed war flick in the vein of Platoon and Full Metal Jacket (war is hell). Nothing new here, or particularly mindblowing.
The scene with the tanks is especially well done though and really hammers down the shock these weapons caused when first used. There's a very short scene where no punches is pulled on what it's like to see a man get crushed under a track.
Sad thing is that the world today is largely desensitized to the upfront and brutal depiction of war that made the original novel so iconic. Or at least, it doesn't hit with the shock the novel itself caused nearly a century ago.
As a result, while this adaptation is faithful to the spirit of the novel and very well done, that's kind of all there is to say. Good movie. Worth a watch.
Yus, surprisingly this one seems to be actually good (against all odds). I'll watch it some time.
I gave Rango another whirl, because I adore the visuals in that film. The story is a bit meh, the humour is so-so, but the centre idea is ok, everything is so alive and animated (no pun intended) and the characters just look great. Everything looks great. And I like people talking all Western or Southern USA like.
I was curious on new AQWF, as the original is sooooo good.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I managed to catch Day of the Dead 2: Contagion as a Halloween treat (or trick).....
You know, I think Zombie Horror movies are popular because, frankly they are not scary... like .... at all. They follow well worn tropes and story beats that makes them a bit of a "known entity". Now, of course, this has some exceptions but they are basically gruesome action flicks for the most part.
Oh, this movie..... yeah..... it exists.
White Zombie The original zombie movie.... except the Zombies are Voodoo style! You have to have a certain taste for these types of older flicks as the pacing, story beats, and style are very different than what we are used to. Plus, what was considered fresh and breathtaking then.... well.... it has changed a lot.
It wasn't a waste of time, but I would have preferred to watch The Most Dangerous Game instead.
House on Haunted Hill The Vincent Price version has become some what of a tradition in my household. Like watching White Christmas or The Ten Commandments when their holidays come around.
Some cracking dialogue between Price and his wife in this one. The pacing is all over the place, and the plot makes 0 sense, but I always enjoy it. Even though I watch it every year, I still never recall the ending 100% so it is always a surprise to me.
Say what you will about this film, but it is amazing to look at, and great to listen too. The music and lighting really set the stage and the mood.
You can see its heritage as an Italian Giallo film, as they try to play it a bit as a mystery. However, it is a mystery with a murderer reminiscent of the Orient Express. Things are much darker than just a simple murderer on the loose.
Always great to see Udo Kier on screen as well. My family was amazed he was the same guy as in Blade.
Hell's Angels
No, not the bikers; but the 1930's movie about WWI pilots by Howard Hughes. This movie was made before the Hayes Code came into effect, so it is old.
This picture has all the tropes we would come to know and love about airplane movies, but it was there first! Off course the pacing is a bit strange to our modern eyes, but the footage of airplanes dueling is TOP NOTCH even today.
The Zeppelin scenes are chilling. The reminded me of sequences from Submarine films. However, the efforts of the German crew to escape the pursuing fighter craft are horrifying.
Overall, the pacing is wonky, the make-up is odd, and it is in black and white. If you can get past those items, it is pretty impressive and the aerial antics are jaw dropping.
Edit: Looking into the film further, several stunt pilots were killed and injured making this film. Hughes himself crashed during a stunt and severely messed up his face.
Hell's Angels surely was a very interesting film to be around for the shoot. Think of all the amazing aerial shots they ended up not using.
Well, I watched Retro Puppet Master (1999)
I'm not too familiar with the series, but familiar enough to know that there's a ton of sequels, that it got dragged though a LOT of different time periods, but mostly stems from the puppets fighting good people, then bad people, then nazis, now mummies.
This direct-to-video film takes place in Paris in the early 20th century and kinda tells the story of the first series of puppets getting into the possession of the old dude (the puppet master). There's a lot of different accents in that film, which is very amusing, but it takes place in Paris, so everybody tries their best to do an Americans-doing-French-accent accent. And some German accents. And Egyptian. And some just don't care and sound like they're straight out of Arizona or some place.
The pacing is meandering and slow, the main guy sadly is really boring.
Don't Watch. It's probably the low point of the franchise, but who knows. IIRC there#s been another puppet master film being released every now and then ever since the series started. I never found it too interesting. The whole killer puppet thing is always intersting to an extent, but somehow these puppets which are very much made to be characters or recognizable and marketable don't really do it for me. Oh, and it's not scary. It's a mix of boring and goofy.
Those Roger Corman films based on Poe's stories (very, very loosely so) starring Price, Lorre, the occasional Boris Karloff and others are great to watch.
Now for something completely different - yesterday I zapped over the Dragon Quest TV show. I haven't played a single DQ game, but I do very much like Akira Toriyama's character and world design. Instantly recognizable, very nice and cosy looking. In general I think that anime tv shows made digitally I find to look horrible. I was all the more surprised to see that that show actually looked alright. Still a bit too clean, still entirely antiseptic, but for what it is is looks surprisingly nice. That's all I can report.
This debuted on Apple TV yesterday, starring Jennifer Lawrence as a returning veteran from Afghanistan with a brain injury. This is definitely a very slow burn film, so if that's a deal breaker for you stay away. I personally loved it, but I generally like my slow burns. It's got some stellar performances from the two leads. Without spoiling anything, the film is less about her deployment and more about finding a new life for herself at home in the aftermath of her injury.
If you're looking for a break from CGI spectacle and wanna watch something low stakes and heart felt, I would highly recommend.
To me this is a better version of Aliens vs Predator. Well, sort of. This movie is full of bloody ninja action with some over the top, almost 3d cgi. The plot isn't bad the story ties it self together well enough. The Ninja stars are crazy. From some of the historical Ninja stuff I have seen recreated from texts over the years this movie gets a few things right and it may not be obvious things to the casual viewer but they are there in a few places which is fun.
Ninja III the domination - 1984
This one was both better than expected but also a bit cringe in parts. It feels like the Spaghetti Western equivalent of a ninja movie. That's not really bad or good but noticeable. The first maybe 10 minuets are Ninja power madness on full display with an assignation in full daylight on a golf course 4 bodyguard, some lady and a guy who looks like he belongs in the cast of SNL from the 80's slain followed directly by the fastest police response ever. And an action packed chase ensues. The Ninja wrecks at least 4 motorcycles and possibly two cop cars and a police helicopter and slays something like 20 or 30 cops. Before being nearly gunned down and some how he pulls off a ninja vanish escape in a cloud of flash and smoke. Only to have no escaped but have buried himself exactly where he was standing. The police believe he's run off. And if that wasn't enough as he's about to die he brainwashes a woman who at first is trying to help this man she is trying to help. Now the story begins.
The cringe is bit of a plot hole as the brainwashed woman ends up in a fight with 4 men who were trying to harass her friend then her, right in front of the a cop. The cop tells her she is in trouble for beating up 4 men who had put hands on her and all that... Groan. I love a lot of 80's movie but this was ignorant even for the 80's. Past that it's a paranormal possession ninja revenge thing. Kinda fun. The actress lead seems to be very competent when she's doing scenes as the ninja but some times you can tell when she has male a stunt double. It's not hugely obvious, they tried. It's a tad clumsy at times but over all fun. Love me some ninja movies!
Edit. I just realized that yes as expected Shô Kosugi is in fact in both of these movies. Because of course he is! I didn't recognize him in Ninja assassin! Weirdly none of his kids are in Ninja assassin... Talk about a twist.
My son insisted we watch another Ernest movie, and this was the last of the big four we had access to. It’s got some funny stuff, but it’s as much a Christmas movie as it is an Ernest movie. It also feels more dated than the others so far.
Definitely worth a watch alongside Home Alone and A Christmas Story. And Die Hard.
Keanu
Key and Peele made a comedy movie full of violence, drugs and nudity, and boy did they look like they were having fun. The action scenes especially had the old Key and Peele magic. The middle of the movie had a lot of people-embarrassing-themselves humor, so I wouldn’t rank this as highly as the best Key and Peele skits, but it was still a good time. The kitten was adorable.
Attack the Block
“What if Predator, but also Menace 2 Society, with a dash of Goonies?” Well-written and constructed little story about aliens invading the wrong part of London. Lots of swearing and drug abuse, so not kid friendly. Recommended.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, and subtitles are mandatory!
A perennial favourite in my crypt, and a classic for good reason.
What always impresses me is how little Mucking About is involved. The opening scene establishes Gary and Wyatt as bottom of the social pecking order. Within minutes, we know their motivations, we get to empathise with them, we learn some of their background. Then they make Lisa and the shenanigans begin.
That lack of mucking around establishing backstory could’ve gone wrong, leaving us with hollow protagonists. Yet…not a bit of it. Their tale builds as the movie moves along, learning more and more about them.
So many of these types of movies have really great titles, but fail to deliver on them.
This is an anthology film supposedly written by the guy who wrote Psycho. It has some very famous British faces that you will recognize from a lot of movies and TV shows.
None of the stories are particularly good, even for their time.
A Virgin Among the Living Dead... or something like that.....
Wow, this one is very Italian and very sleazy. There are a couple of interesting shots, but it is not worth wading through all the sleaze and leering camera.
The title is completely misleading. There are ninja in this movie but it's at best a sub plot that goes nowhere. That said this movie is basically a live actin GIJOE movie with a good guy team that seems reasonably set up with a Ninja, a tough guy commando/ army guy and an foxy intelligence and communications officer. Shô Kosugi was our ninja and his kids were also cast as kids in the movie as was they style at the time.
Our bad guys were wacky horrible and over the top tropes hell bent on being evil and selling drugs in southeast Asia.
Not a very good movie more like a live action cartoon but there are a few gems in there. Spike played by Shô Kosugi uses several disguises including masquerading as an old man and stays in characters as the old man in his fight scene which was good fun.
One of the memorable lines was delivered by our commando. " If only I wasn't so desperately rich" He is keeping some "probably sex workers" distracted while holding them at more or less gun point And they are very interested in helping him spend all of this supposed money he says he has.
Oh and one of the bad guys has only about two lines in the movie the rest of his 'speaking" is him laughing and that's 95 percent of his speaking in the entire movie in every scene he's laughing. And he's a "really bad dude". You'll feel no pity for any of the bad guys.
So many of these types of movies have really great titles, but fail to deliver on them.
This is an anthology film supposedly written by the guy who wrote Psycho. It has some very famous British faces that you will recognize from a lot of movies and TV shows.
None of the stories are particularly good, even for their time.
Gasssssssssssspppp! How very dare you Sir! I demand to speak with your Manager or Responsible Adult!
You take that back. I will not have Amicus Portmanteaus…..besmirched…in my presence!
Easy E wrote: I love all the Ninja movie reviews! Keep them coming!
Makes me want to go back an revisit the old Gladiator movies again!
Well, I'll do what I can. Thanks!
I think it's part of my mid life crisis... I think I have two more for sure I can add.
I love these old Ninja movies they were a lot of fun and so cool when I was a kid.
Given the release of Terrifier 2 made me realise there's a whole cluster of movies featuring one of the most interesting villains since the 80s heyday that had passed me by, I went back to the start.
A movie anthology strung together by the conceit of a babysitter and her charges watching a tape that had mysteriously appeared in the kids' trick or treat haul, the individual stories are clearly cheaply made, in most cases fairly derivative, but are entertaining enough.
They serve a purpose of allowing the film's real standout, Art the Clown, to make his way into "our" reality, with each story watched allowing him to get closer to breaking through.
Wrapping up with a suitably bleak ending, the whole movie would be instantly forgettable were it not for the inclusion of Art, but his presence essentially carries the whole movie, and make it worth watching, if only to see the origin of one of the only great slashers to make it to screen since Freddie, Michael, Jason et al made their debuts decades ago.
Given the release of Terrifier 2 made me realise there's a whole cluster of movies featuring one of the most interesting villains since the 80s heyday that had passed me by, I went back to the start.
A movie anthology strung together by the conceit of a babysitter and her charges watching a tape that had mysteriously appeared in the kids' trick or treat haul, the individual stories are clearly cheaply made, in most cases fairly derivative, but are entertaining enough.
They serve a purpose of allowing the film's real standout, Art the Clown, to make his way into "our" reality, with each story watched allowing him to get closer to breaking through.
Wrapping up with a suitably bleak ending, the whole movie would be instantly forgettable were it not for the inclusion of Art, but his presence essentially carries the whole movie, and make it worth watching, if only to see the origin of one of the only great slashers to make it to screen since Freddie, Michael, Jason et al made their debuts decades ago.
That's a very fair review, Art's the real deal! We saw Terrifier before we saw All Hallows Eve. And Art the Clown may be in another movie called The 9th circle which I believe is a short film not a full length feature. you might be able to find that on the Youtubes. I have it book marked I think but haven't gotten around to watching it.
Given the release of Terrifier 2 made me realise there's a whole cluster of movies featuring one of the most interesting villains since the 80s heyday that had passed me by, I went back to the start.
A movie anthology strung together by the conceit of a babysitter and her charges watching a tape that had mysteriously appeared in the kids' trick or treat haul, the individual stories are clearly cheaply made, in most cases fairly derivative, but are entertaining enough.
They serve a purpose of allowing the film's real standout, Art the Clown, to make his way into "our" reality, with each story watched allowing him to get closer to breaking through.
Wrapping up with a suitably bleak ending, the whole movie would be instantly forgettable were it not for the inclusion of Art, but his presence essentially carries the whole movie, and make it worth watching, if only to see the origin of one of the only great slashers to make it to screen since Freddie, Michael, Jason et al made their debuts decades ago.
That's a very fair review, Art's the real deal! We saw Terrifier before we saw All Hallows Eve. And Art the Clown may be in another movie called The 9th circle which I believe is a short film not a full length feature. you might be able to find that on the Youtubes. I have it book marked I think but haven't gotten around to watching it.
There's more All Hallows Eves as well, but don't know if they feature Art or they're just a bunch more shorts strung together.
I feel I should also add that if the babysitter in the original AHE had even the slightest amount of authority over the kids she was allegedly looking after, the whole thing would have never happened!
An artist gets hooked on something that isn't drugs in order to fuel her crazed painting sprees.
The movie does a great job making normal everyday things actively nausea inducing with odd sounds, strange angles, cuts, and other tricks. The city also looks very lived in thanks to good location shooting.
The concept is nothing we have not seen before. However, I was half expecting Blade to show up in the closing minutes to end the film. He did not, but the movie does end with a bang.
Probably not worth watching, and seems pretty "film school" or "early film project" but the production is slightly too good for that.
Have you been following GoodBadflix’s obsession with bad ninja movies? He might have some good recommendations.
Also, I recently heard about New York Ninja, a modern reconstruction of an 89’s ninja film from a warehouse full of unedited footage. RLM cover it in their way here:
Have you been following GoodBadflix’s obsession with bad ninja movies? He might have some good recommendations.
Also, I recently heard about New York Ninja, a modern reconstruction of an 89’s ninja film from a warehouse full of unedited footage. RLM cover it in their way here:
No hadn't realized that I may have seen one of those videos I can't recall. So what had happened was... I got back into reading GIJOE comics and have the entire Marvel run and all the side stuff. I had a few of the old Ninja movies I grew up with around and just fell back in. My D&D group is also playing L5R 3rd edition and the guy running it is a bit into historical Ninja stuff. And I fell into a Youtube ninja video spree after that. Needless to say I am playing a Shinobi and love it. That kinda kicked it all off after all of these years. Where was this when I was a kid!
Turns out I have maybe 8 or 10 more titles to watch.
Revenge of the Ninja, Enter the Ninja, Ninja Warriors, Deadly life of the ninja which you can find on youtube, American Ninja 1-5, and maybe more. I also have a Zatoichi boxed set I got some time in the early 2000's. I will have to find Pray for death as well. I think it's on youtube. That's one I can't recall ever watching, should be fun. It's going to be a fun few weeks ahead!
For anime I recommend "The dagger of Kamui" 1984/1985 it's an interesting story with some intrigue and well, it's not Ninja Scroll. One review describes it as a bloody rollercoaster of lies, betrayal and revenge. And that's fair. Growing up we got these VHS tapes that were bad dubs and this one was called revenge of the ninja warrior if I remember.
Lately, the missus and I have been watching an episode or 2 on a near nightly basis of the new Netflix series, "La Revolution"
Yes, it's a french drama/action show set around the French Revolution time period. But it has a twist, and at first I went in with trepidation what kind of silly "twist" they'd throw at us, but honestly??? It just works for us.
Definitely a tad bit more slow burn than some would prefer in their "monster flick" type shows, but I do think they are setting things up well for the future.
Ensis Ferrae wrote: Lately, the missus and I have been watching an episode or 2 on a near nightly basis of the new Netflix series, "La Revolution"
Yes, it's a french drama/action show set around the French Revolution time period. But it has a twist, and at first I went in with trepidation what kind of silly "twist" they'd throw at us, but honestly??? It just works for us.
Definitely a tad bit more slow burn than some would prefer in their "monster flick" type shows, but I do think they are setting things up well for the future.
I quite liked La Revolution and wish it had been picked up for a second season.
(Autocorrect changed “cold” to “coke” and ai have no idea why. But I’ll allow it.)
Another decent Tremors movie. This one is a bit tighter in pacing and direction than Bloodlines, but still well below the endearing charms of Tremors 1, 2, 3 or 4. There are a couple fun new characters, and Jamie Kennedy seems to be a bit more engaged in this one. The graboid/assblaster kills are kind of weak, though.
Blood Red Sky…. A much better film than I was expecting premise (“vampires on a plane” but no Samuel L. Jackson)…except for the end. It seems so many writers really struggle with coming up with a decent ending for a story on tv & in movies.
Seems it had done well enough for Netflix to want a sequel…
I finally got around to watching Black Crab. The first half was interesting but it went down hill after that. Many of the images made me think of Ukraine. Noomi Rapace was pretty good in her role. Again though, a poor ending.
Some folks may not like the vague setting but I think that made it feel a bit more… universal and not quite so setting specific. It does leave a number of unanswered questions. You have to be willing to connect some dots on your own to perhaps create your own interpretation.
Spoiler:
For example, I kept waiting for an explanation on why LT Nylund left the protagonist in the car… was it a test of some sort? Or was he already trying to sabotage the mission because he knew what was in the canisters?
The frozen ship would make a great wargame table theme….
Jesus wept. I went round to a friend's house last night for a few drinks and the lot of us ended up having to watch Samaritan. What utter drudgery. The Dakka swear filter needs to be removed just for this post because there is no other way to accurately describe it apart from a steaming pile of dog gak. Nothing happens in the entire film, there is zero narrative to be found and the plot twist was about as subtle as a brick.
I quite like Stallone even though some of the movies he's been have been drivel. But this was just utter bollocks. I heartily dislike superhero movies but this was like a condensed version of everything to despise about them. Save yourself the bother and jam a crayon up your nostril if you want to suffer, it won't take as long to feel the effects.
This one is again good and bad but still fairly fun. They did a few things I really found clever as far as filming and choreography the story wasn't bad but had some problems as movies like this usually do.
The cast was tolerable and imbd says Ken Watanabe was in in as he head bad guy ninja,
Kurudo.
Kurudo heads a group of ninja as their master. They are aligned with an ambitious Dr. And steal some top-secret plans for something or other involving mind control? The ninja act asa team in the beginning and it was fun to see them operate that was in their mission employing their unknown number to wonderful effect against 80's renta-cops. Honestly they seemed really skilled and I wondered why they needed a fight scene aside from illustrating their power to the viewer.
The cops in this movie are not very good but I think that is a trope of some kind. crimes like these aren't something they understand and are not prepared to deal with effectively and there's the dynamic where they don't work together very well for office reasons or whatever. The lead detective tries and lucky for him has a friend who is into martial arts and, you guessed it, "spent time in Japan" wink, wink. Enter Steve, martial arts aficionado. wink, wink. He's very stoic as they discover ninjas are involved and tries to steer his friend the detective clear of getting himself murdered. Steve seems to have the strongest situational awareness and almost a sort of 6th sense to his surroundings.
The filming bits I enjoyed the most was just that they filmed in the dark and the Ninjas were in black and genuinely difficult to impossible to see some times. It's a feature not a bug in this case.
It was cool to see the ninjas operate using a decent amount of covert ops and spy techniques and not just sneak around in the dark they were organized and didn't exclude useful "modern" equipment like radios. I fell that as the right call.
There's some other stuff that was good but the icing on the cake was Steve finally getting into Ninja gear and mindset and being a ruthless killing machine. He keeps that side of himself under lock and key but when he's on the job he's as bad as the bad guys. Or if you know the quote, it takes a lot of self control to be this violent." I think that's the one.
Again it's from the 80's so it's got those ... sensibilities about it, not horrible as some. Not too bad really. Some of the casing is really good because they are clearly just people not modern actor types as far a build and looks. Very sagittate western in a way.
Ah, one of my favorite bits in this movie is when they employ metsubushi powders. Very ninja both times. Also I like that this again builds onto the Ninja mythos we've learn from basically every ninja movie.
Shogun's Shadow - 1989
Sonny Chiba was the big name I knew in this one. He doesn't play the hero but quite the imposing villain in the form of the head henchman for lack of a better term.
There's a plot to kill the oldest son of the shogun but who wants him dead.
This movie is a crazy escort mission to castle of the shogun. Arrive on time or more heads will roll. Assassins and soldiers hun the son of the shogun and his bodyguards as they make the attempt to arrive on time. The bodyguards are a mixed bunch and each is cool and skilled in a different way. Lots of character to that group. The henchmen are a very serious threat. The goons try but they're mostly just fodder as we'd expect.
Don't want to spoil it. I really enjoyed it though I found one of the plot points completely obvious and thought that events would go one way but didn't. Which was probably for the best.
Olthannon wrote: Jesus wept. I went round to a friend's house last night for a few drinks and the lot of us ended up having to watch Samaritan. What utter drudgery. The Dakka swear filter needs to be removed just for this post because there is no other way to accurately describe it apart from a steaming pile of dog gak. Nothing happens in the entire film, there is zero narrative to be found and the plot twist was about as subtle as a brick.
I quite like Stallone even though some of the movies he's been have been drivel. But this was just utter bollocks. I heartily dislike superhero movies but this was like a condensed version of everything to despise about them. Save yourself the bother and jam a crayon up your nostril if you want to suffer, it won't take as long to feel the effects.
Olthannon… I can’t quite tell if you enjoyed it or not. Can you make your review a bit clearer
The plot is solid, the acting really good. Angela Bassett in particular is amazing.
But..some of the action shots and even scenes let it down. It’s not awful like. Just doesn’t quite work for me. At once too much motion in places (who is who, I dunno!) but then not enough in others (think someone near no-selling a move in WWE, then deciding last microsecond to sell it).
Overall enjoyable enough. Better than a 7/10, but not quite 8/10 in my book.
Right, OF COURSE Angela Bassett is in that film. And I'm sure she makes it much, much better. She makes everything better.
By happy accident I watched Casino this weekend. If you want treat yourself, put on Casino. It's just great to watch, these actors perform to their top (DeNiro doing little but effective things, which is where he's best, Joe Pesci does Pesci things, but also kinda more subdued than you'd think. Maybe it's also because there's Sharon Stone, doing EVERYTHING. She couldn't be 'bigger' than in this film. Really impressive. ), there's a rock solid supporting cast, and the film just looks amazing. The off-text is a really interesting narrative device, but maybe it would have been more interesting in some cases to just have the faces of the actors tell what's told off-camera. But it was 1995, people were looking for new things, and so did even Scorsese I guess? It's great fun though, and a pretty sneaky way of making you care about these characters a bit more.
So yeah, I'm sure you haven't watched it in years (because I hadn't seen it in a LONG time). Watch it again! It's interesting seeing it with a slightly different view now.
I've watched this one from time to time over the years and it's not really my favorite ninja movie featuring Sho Kosugi. This was his big film as far as him being the leading man as it were. It's an action movie with a predictable plot building to the big ninja showdown but it could have been more with the smallest amount of extra creativity but that's Cannon film for you. They have a history of failures or projects they just gave up on and every now and then a good movie. Not that I am being exactly or specifically critical I just saw a video about them some time ago and am going from what I recall.
Our hero is trying to live the simple life of an import export art dealer and opening art galleys with his good friend, an American who lived in Japan for 20 years. nothing suspicious at all, right?
and then there is the mob who become victims of a ninja after busting a deal in which they were to pay x amount for Heroin but reneged on the deal out of greed. And our first ninja shows up to make them pay or die because it's what ever and they'd been warned. oops.
From there after a few creative kills, Cho's son is kidnaped after his gallery is robbed leading to a few over al pointless fights which gain him no information but show off his martial arts skills. Oh ya, Cho is played by you guessed it Sho Kosugi. (They say he was at least 6 foot tall and they might have been right... You could say he was big in Japan... )
from there He's on the hunt to save his son which leads him to the mob building and the big showdown.
After the other recent ninja movies I've seen this one was way too straight forward for anything more than a Saturday afternoon movie. The other had stronger plots and more ninja action. I'd looked down on some of those but after the re-watching I was more impressed with them. I'd remember Revenge of the Ninja differently and thought it would be strong than it was. It's fun the first time but give it a few years so you can enjoy it again.
As far as Ninja stuff in the film I thought was cool there were a few things. Our evil Ninja using hypnosis was one and most of his kills as well. I actually liked him more than our hero which is a little sad I think. Cho also catches a mostly full coffee cup as it falls off a desk in the police prescient and smirks a little. The man has skills. And I'll end with the big fight before the end which had the right set piece I think it was set in a part with a playground and a huge sort of jungle gym with ramps and nets and slides. How could a kid not watch that then go out to the playground and not have crazy ninja fun after that. Of course we did. The question is did the studio plan that or was it just some place they could cheaply afford to film at.
It's worth at least one watch even f you're just going to MST3K it.
Now I have “Big in Japan” stuck in my head. Thanks.
Hocus Pocus 2
It was fine.
It doesn’t feel as alive or as zany as the first movie, but it is just as cringey, although for new reasons. The film focuses way more on plot and lore instead of hijinks, which is good since the hijinks were fairly meh and the plot stuff was better than I feared it would be. The movie feels slick and modern and bland, but the acting is better than the first’s, the pacing is more even, and the characters are a bit more likable. All in all, an easier watch than the first for me and my family.
Except for the opening 10 minutes which contained 90% of the film’s cringe. Also, the accidental Aesop that the witch-burners were right and blossoming teenagers who refuse to be wedded to powerful older men are evil…kind of an odd choice.
I've watched this one from time to time over the years and it's not really my favorite ninja movie featuring Sho Kosugi. This was his big film as far as him being the leading man as it were. It's an action movie with a predictable plot building to the big ninja showdown but it could have been more with the smallest amount of extra creativity but that's Cannon film for you. They have a history of failures or projects they just gave up on and every now and then a good movie. Not that I am being exactly or specifically critical I just saw a video about them some time ago and am going from what I recall. Our hero is trying to live the simple life of an import export art dealer and opening art galleys with his good friend, an American who lived in Japan for 20 years. nothing suspicious at all, right? and then there is the mob who become victims of a ninja after busting a deal in which they were to pay x amount for Heroin but reneged on the deal out of greed. And our first ninja shows up to make them pay or die because it's what ever and they'd been warned. oops. From there after a few creative kills, Cho's son is kidnaped after his gallery is robbed leading to a few over al pointless fights which gain him no information but show off his martial arts skills. Oh ya, Cho is played by you guessed it Sho Kosugi. (They say he was at least 6 foot tall and they might have been right... You could say he was big in Japan... ) from there He's on the hunt to save his son which leads him to the mob building and the big showdown.
After the other recent ninja movies I've seen this one was way too straight forward for anything more than a Saturday afternoon movie. The other had stronger plots and more ninja action. I'd looked down on some of those but after the re-watching I was more impressed with them. I'd remember Revenge of the Ninja differently and thought it would be strong than it was. It's fun the first time but give it a few years so you can enjoy it again. As far as Ninja stuff in the film I thought was cool there were a few things. Our evil Ninja using hypnosis was one and most of his kills as well. I actually liked him more than our hero which is a little sad I think. Cho also catches a mostly full coffee cup as it falls off a desk in the police prescient and smirks a little. The man has skills. And I'll end with the big fight before the end which had the right set piece I think it was set in a part with a playground and a huge sort of jungle gym with ramps and nets and slides. How could a kid not watch that then go out to the playground and not have crazy ninja fun after that. Of course we did. The question is did the studio plan that or was it just some place they could cheaply afford to film at.
It's worth at least one watch even f you're just going to MST3K it.
I really enjoyed that film, and the action scene in the driving car was amazing. Also, the one in which the elderly lady gives the bad guy a rough time. And the finale gives plenty of ninja action, albeit very gimmicky. Once you're done with your ninja overview, I'd be very interested in how you rank the ninja films you watched, so I got a shopping list of films to watch.
I've watched this one from time to time over the years and it's not really my favorite ninja movie featuring Sho Kosugi. This was his big film as far as him being the leading man as it were. It's an action movie with a predictable plot building to the big ninja showdown but it could have been more with the smallest amount of extra creativity but that's Cannon film for you. They have a history of failures or projects they just gave up on and every now and then a good movie. Not that I am being exactly or specifically critical I just saw a video about them some time ago and am going from what I recall. Our hero is trying to live the simple life of an import export art dealer and opening art galleys with his good friend, an American who lived in Japan for 20 years. nothing suspicious at all, right? and then there is the mob who become victims of a ninja after busting a deal in which they were to pay x amount for Heroin but reneged on the deal out of greed. And our first ninja shows up to make them pay or die because it's what ever and they'd been warned. oops. From there after a few creative kills, Cho's son is kidnaped after his gallery is robbed leading to a few over al pointless fights which gain him no information but show off his martial arts skills. Oh ya, Cho is played by you guessed it Sho Kosugi. (They say he was at least 6 foot tall and they might have been right... You could say he was big in Japan... ) from there He's on the hunt to save his son which leads him to the mob building and the big showdown.
After the other recent ninja movies I've seen this one was way too straight forward for anything more than a Saturday afternoon movie. The other had stronger plots and more ninja action. I'd looked down on some of those but after the re-watching I was more impressed with them. I'd remember Revenge of the Ninja differently and thought it would be strong than it was. It's fun the first time but give it a few years so you can enjoy it again. As far as Ninja stuff in the film I thought was cool there were a few things. Our evil Ninja using hypnosis was one and most of his kills as well. I actually liked him more than our hero which is a little sad I think. Cho also catches a mostly full coffee cup as it falls off a desk in the police prescient and smirks a little. The man has skills. And I'll end with the big fight before the end which had the right set piece I think it was set in a part with a playground and a huge sort of jungle gym with ramps and nets and slides. How could a kid not watch that then go out to the playground and not have crazy ninja fun after that. Of course we did. The question is did the studio plan that or was it just some place they could cheaply afford to film at.
It's worth at least one watch even f you're just going to MST3K it.
I really enjoyed that film, and the action scene in the driving car was amazing. Also, the one in which the elderly lady gives the bad guy a rough time. And the finale gives plenty of ninja action, albeit very gimmicky. Once you're done with your ninja overview, I'd be very interested in how you rank the ninja films you watched, so I got a shopping list of films to watch.
Oh ya, can't forget her I just didn't want to spoil anything. So, spoilers, she one tough cookie! I may have undersold the action, it's there in abundance. I had not considered a ranking I will have to give that some thought. These movies are a good time for sure and I hope you can find them!
It doesn’t feel as alive or as zany as the first movie, but it is just as cringey, although for new reasons. The film focuses way more on plot and lore instead of hijinks, which is good since the hijinks were fairly meh and the plot stuff was better than I feared it would be. The movie feels slick and modern and bland, but the acting is better than the first’s, the pacing is more even, and the characters are a bit more likable. All in all, an easier watch than the first for me and my family.
Except for the opening 10 minutes which contained 90% of the film’s cringe. Also, the accidental Aesop that the witch-burners were right and blossoming teenagers who refuse to be wedded to powerful older men are evil…kind of an odd choice.
I think the biggest problem with the beginning was that the film tried to set them (well, her) up as innocent and awful simultaneously, and that doesn't really work. They also just didn't need a backstory about how they got their powers, let alone the indifferent convenience that the writers decided to go with.
The modern day stuff was a lot less painful than the original film, though they still never settled on whether or not the witches were modern culture savvy or not (and just bounced between both as the jokes demanded); and the modern kids were fine, but honestly needed a real conflict between them rather than... that. I would've split the modern group over the <plot device> (one knowing about it) and shown that, rather than the bad backstory.
As a weird coincidence, Big in Japan was currently playing as I wrote this.
This is a Jim Varney movie we watched because we heard it had an Ernest cameo. My son was bored for 80% of the movie, my wife was too creeped out to watch, and I spent most of my time watching it for the production value and 80’s-ness of it.
This was a weird, weird movie. It’s essentially a sketch show, where JimmVarney transforms into different characters and enacts silly plots to try to kill his archnemesis, Lance Sterling. The film opens with financial Armageddon eerily similar to the end of Fight Club, with Varney’s Dr Otto rocking the hell out of some 80’s low budget Sci Fi costumes and sets. All the Dr Otto scenes are shot like music videos, which goes well with his catchy theme. Those are the highlight of the film in my opinion. Most of the other sketches are chuckle worthy at best.
I only recommend the film if you love low budget Sci Fi or oddball movies. If the Dr Otto scenes are on YouTube, watch them.
It doesn’t feel as alive or as zany as the first movie, but it is just as cringey, although for new reasons. The film focuses way more on plot and lore instead of hijinks, which is good since the hijinks were fairly meh and the plot stuff was better than I feared it would be. The movie feels slick and modern and bland, but the acting is better than the first’s, the pacing is more even, and the characters are a bit more likable. All in all, an easier watch than the first for me and my family.
Except for the opening 10 minutes which contained 90% of the film’s cringe. Also, the accidental Aesop that the witch-burners were right and blossoming teenagers who refuse to be wedded to powerful older men are evil…kind of an odd choice.
I think the biggest problem with the beginning was that the film tried to set them (well, her) up as innocent and awful simultaneously, and that doesn't really work. They also just didn't need a backstory about how they got their powers, let alone the indifferent convenience that the writers decided to go with.
The modern day stuff was a lot less painful than the original film, though they still never settled on whether or not the witches were modern culture savvy or not (and just bounced between both as the jokes demanded); and the modern kids were fine, but honestly needed a real conflict between them rather than... that. I would've split the modern group over the <plot device> (one knowing about it) and shown that, rather than the bad backstory.
As a weird coincidence, Big in Japan was currently playing as I wrote this.
I completely agree the opening set up doesn’t work. I understand why they had to include a set up for Midler caring more for her family than for evil in order for the ending to work, but it didn’t really do that and just started the whole thing off badly. The “and then a witch showed up and gave her everything” feels like someone read all the criticisms of Solo’s prequelitis and thought, “I can do all that and worse in ten minutes”.
I didn’t mind the kids’ backstory. It was blander than most artificial conflicts between protagonists in this sort of film, but less annoying and frustrating than most “divided by a miscommunication” plot lines. I wouldn’t trust the writers to set up anything deeper, either. At least the good witches’ powers were a result of years of ‘practice’, friendship and study and not a total plot convenience.
A much better and more entertaining film than I was expecting to be honest.
I wouldn’t say it’s a classic myself, but it’s one I’d happily watch again in time.
Bonus points for Johnny Depp getting shot in the neck. Overall it’s…curiously restrained. It’s a silly and daft film yes, as befits a comedy. But it stops just short of outright farce and gross out. Which makes it a slightly odd fish. On one hand I think it could’ve done with being a bit sillier, but given the action scenes are played fairly straight faced, I don’t think sillier humour would’ve worked.
Overall, I think I appreciate that restraint, and the oddness it creates.
Haven’t seen this in ages, but it’s on Disney+ so what the hey.
This really is a solid film. Arguably better than it ever deserved to be, and is a nicely balanced for family watching. Not that I have a family myself as such.
Also serves to show Jake Lloyd was a decent actor after all!
What, like all that gaks going to go off just sat there, and there isn't enough stock in the shops to support a massively reduced population for years?
I mean, ok, sometimes there might not be time or safety, but access to the products isn't all that surprising.
It needs a little more context for me, when Maggie et al were essentially homeless in the wilds of Georgia in the early days of TWD and still had time to pluck, shave, cut and paint then it's more egregious than when they're settled in a location, as they are in Zombieland for chunks of both films IIRC.
But I think it's reasonable that if scavenging medical supplies is still feasible then cosmetics etc are probably even easier.
This one surprised me a little.
Sho Kasugi at it yet again and I think this one was a little better than Revenge of the Ninja.
Akira Saito is moving his family to America because his wife wishes for them to move, he father is American and Akira wants to open his own business so it looks like a good opportunity for them.
Akira has a dark past as a ninja which he has worked to leave behind and leaves for America with the blessing of his adopted father. (Not sure of the right term for a father of an adopted child.)
In the US things don't go quite so well. They buy out a shop owner who is looking to retire and move on but there's a small problem. The building they now own was used as a drop point for some heavy criminal activity and a stolen item goes missing in a petty double cross leaving the blame at the feet of the Saito family. And as we all know bad guys gunna bad guy. This leads to some ninja style intimidation tactics that should have worked except the targets are very stubborn bad guys who live to push back as it were. One thing leads to another. There's a fair bit of reasonable motivation after that building up to the final confrontation.
I enjoyed some of the ninja tricks used in the action and fight scenes. I'm not a huge fan of high jumps and we have our fair share. Ya there fun but well there fun anyway.
Ah, and our here ninja, Akira, does get wounded quite badly and presses on but they do make the wound an actual issue and a way to level the playing field for that fight.
There's a lot of action and a good story. You can check it out on youtube if you want, which is a bonus!
Sho Kosagi is king of the Ninja movie.... like Steve Reeves is king of Peplum films.
Now, onto two flicks I watched:
Mistletoe and Menorahs
A toy developer needs to land a big gig with a Jewish employer, who invited her over to a Hanukah party. She doesn't know anything about Jewish traditions, so connects with a teacher to help her learn. Hijinks ensue.
This movie is not good, but it is a Christmas movie... about Hanukah..... so um..... yeah. Anyway, not terrible but two things really bothered me. One was the "Tough time" the early 30 someting was having with their job..... honey, what you are going through is peak First World problems. Meeting her incredibly cheesy and WASPy family was also really teeth grinding. Thankfully, they were barely in the film, just long enough to annoy me.
Disenchanted
The new D+ sequel to Enchanted with Amy Adams. There is a reason it went to D+ as it is not quite up to movie theatre standards. Needed a bit of editing and a script re-work to get there. However, the cast is game and the end product is workmanlike and well done.
I am not really the target audience, so I don't have too much more to say. However, their was an interesting sub-text that as an actress ages, the only roles left available to them is "the wicked stepmother". At least, I thought there was.
A sort of supernatural Mad Max influenced Indy flick. Not only starring Charlie Sheen, but Charlie Sheen seemingly not off his tits on something.
Absolute banger of an 80’s soundtrack, but the film itself is nothing particularly special. There’s nothing particularly wrong here, it’s just….painfully mediocre. The cars look and sound great, and the race scenes are competently shot. But the acting isn’t up to much (particularly Mr Sheen who is incredibly wooden)
It is watchable, and enjoyable enough. But if it’s this or Mad Max/Mad Max 2, there’s just no competition.
However, that has given me a possible thread concept “We’ve got *insert film* at home”, where we nominate worthy knock-offs and inspired by movies. Hmm.
Matt Smith stars. Super Mega Bad Rabies has rampaged through the human species. Army Scientists try to find Patient Zero because vaccine I guess.
Rules are get nibbled, and you go crazy ape bonkers within 90 seconds. Except if you’re Matt Smith, as you got ate off an infected, didn’t turn, but…erm…*checks notes* Can Now Speak With The Infected. Because reasons.
Bunch of folks from Game of Thrones. Writer has seen 28 Days Later and Day of the Dead. They thought they could write an equally good film.
They could not. This is one to miss. Riddled with plot holes (early on Army Ranger explains they brought in two new infected, at the cost of 5 lives. We then see Matt Smith wandering a prison….where we see dozens of infected safely squirrelled away. So…..yeah.
It really is BHD beat for beat. We see the Marines living their lives one's retiring soon, one's getting married, one's seeing a psychiatrist etc, meanwhile the news talks about strange meteor showers and you can guess the rest. Suffice to say the Marines have a very bad day.
It's also the War of the Worlds update Tom Cruise should have made.
Good modern action sequences, an 'anyone can die' feeling. The aliens motivation is BS (they came for our water!) but it's just some dude on the news so he might be wrong. But a good movie become mediocre in the last 20 minutes when
Spoiler:
our very mortal jarheads are promoted to superheroes and go blow up the enemy mothership all be themselves. Which of course shuts down all the enemy fliers because of reasons.
Was apparently meant to be a franchise that never took off but makes for good background while painting your Chinook.
It really is BHD beat for beat. We see the Marines living their lives one's retiring soon, one's getting married, one's seeing a psychiatrist etc, meanwhile the news talks about strange meteor showers and you can guess the rest. Suffice to say the Marines have a very bad day.
It's also the War of the Worlds update Tom Cruise should have made.
Good modern action sequences, an 'anyone can die' feeling. The aliens motivation is BS (they came for our water!) but it's just some dude on the news so he might be wrong. But a good movie become mediocre in the last 20 minutes when
Spoiler:
our very mortal jarheads are promoted to superheroes and go blow up the enemy mothership all be themselves. Which of course shuts down all the enemy fliers because of reasons.
Was apparently meant to be a franchise that never took off but makes for good background while painting your Chinook.
I agree with you mate. Not bad, could have been better. I never thought of the direct BHD comparison before but yeah. Nice. Poor ending notwithstanding, a decent enough military sci-fi movie. Could have made a decent tv series. While not perfect they got the “feel” of the military better than a lot of other movies.👍
Just the best. I keep pestering my brother to show this to his daughter, but they just feed her Disney+ rubbish.
Tell your brother I have a bizarre aversion to Anime. Tell him I’ve tried and tried to get into it, as on paper, I should by all rights be a massive, colossal weeb. Weebzilla if you will.
And even I bloody love My Neighbour Totoro. And indeed all Ghibli I’ve seen.
A sort of supernatural Mad Max influenced Indy flick. Not only starring Charlie Sheen, but Charlie Sheen seemingly not off his tits on something.
Absolute banger of an 80’s soundtrack, but the film itself is nothing particularly special. There’s nothing particularly wrong here, it’s just….painfully mediocre. The cars look and sound great, and the race scenes are competently shot. But the acting isn’t up to much (particularly Mr Sheen who is incredibly wooden)
It is watchable, and enjoyable enough. But if it’s this or Mad Max/Mad Max 2, there’s just no competition.
However, that has given me a possible thread concept “We’ve got *insert film* at home”, where we nominate worthy knock-offs and inspired by movies. Hmm.
I watched that one a few months ago.
Enjoyed it at the time, but all I can remember it how weirdly robotic the Wraith's design is, considering he's supposed to be a ghost.
Yeah. I think that detracts from the overall whole. But. Limited budget considerations? It does mark The Wraith itself as otherworldly. Something not human. I’d have preferred a more ethereal look and vibe, but I’ll take the odd killer cyborg look.
Hellraiser 2022
Little over half way through. And as a long term Hellraiser film (I’ve seen all of them. Yes. Even that one) I can’t contain the need to dish out some Trumps and Grumps.
Trumps
The Cenobites look amazing. Like…..seriously good. The original film had some iconic designs, and the series then suffered diminishing returns somewhat. Not only was the visual “cripes!” spent, but particular in Hell on Earth they were uninspired, even with Pinhead in-universe bemoaning his new creations as a bit cack.
The atmosphere is really, really solid.
It’s trying something new. I’ll get back to you on whether it works when I’m done watching. It might blob the landing, but take off and flight is wonderful.
Grumps
So far? It’s not Following The Rules, as laid out in Hellraiser and Hellbound. Specifically Pinhead’s declaration “no, it is not actions that summon us, it is desire”.
Now this is of course a remake/reimagining. And whilst it plays with elements of the original three, and does so really quite well? It’s not afraid to be it’s own thing. I can respect that. A simple retread might’ve been awful.
Right. Getting back to it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: It sticks the landing. It absolutely sticks the landing,
I also watched the Wrath again last month. Dead on about the soundtrack I pinched it from youtube shortly after. I did find it interesting that they made us almost feel bad for the head bad guy for a split second in the grave yard. It's subtle but it's there as he tries really hard to keep from freaking out or crying. But no pity for him or his crew. Those guys suck and deserve what they get. Honestly they're just lucky they didn't run into the wrong person on that lone stretch of road they like. But in the end they're just hollow bullies. I laughed to myself thinking of all the ways some one would hurt them.
Still a fun little story.
Spawn - 1997
We watched this last night. It was such a laugh. John Leguizamo as the Violator sold this movie. He killed it. If you are thinking about watching it He make this movie work.
The Violator takes spawn to a grave yard and Spawn ask what is this. The Violator replies "It's where old people go after Florida.
The best line ever.
The special effects are dated but given what they had to work with I fee; like they compliment rather than detract. Not the best but less is more in a way so I feel like they worked well.
If you get the chance it's a fun ride.
warhead01 wrote: I also watched the Wrath again last month. Dead on about the soundtrack I pinched it from youtube shortly after. I did find it interesting that they made us almost feel bad for the head bad guy for a split second in the grave yard. It's subtle but it's there as he tries really hard to keep from freaking out or crying. But no pity for him or his crew. Those guys suck and deserve what they get. Honestly they're just lucky they didn't run into the wrong person on that lone stretch of road they like. But in the end they're just hollow bullies. I laughed to myself thinking of all the ways some one would hurt them.
Still a fun little story.
Spawn - 1997
We watched this last night. It was such a laugh. John Leguizamo as the Violator sold this movie. He killed it. If you are thinking about watching it He make this movie work.
The Violator takes spawn to a grave yard and Spawn ask what is this. The Violator replies "It's where old people go after Florida.
The best line ever.
The special effects are dated but given what they had to work with I fee; like they compliment rather than detract. Not the best but less is more in a way so I feel like they worked well.
If you get the chance it's a fun ride.
It’s been a hot old…erm…probably couple of decades since I last watched Spawn, but for me the standout line is (Spoilered because it may be upsetting for folk of faith and frankly one of the words is unnecessary)
Spoiler:
How come God gets all the good worshippers and we get all the retards?
\
Sod it. It’s going on my watchlist. Even if I still have issue with some of Spawn’s lines.
Spawn - 1997
We watched this last night. It was such a laugh. John Leguizamo as the Violator sold this movie. He killed it. If you are thinking about watching it He make this movie work.
Damn..... I remember seeing this in the theatre when it first came out.
Spawn - 1997
We watched this last night. It was such a laugh. John Leguizamo as the Violator sold this movie. He killed it. If you are thinking about watching it He make this movie work.
The Violator takes spawn to a grave yard and Spawn ask what is this. The Violator replies "It's where old people go after Florida.
The best line ever.
The special effects are dated but given what they had to work with I fee; like they compliment rather than detract. Not the best but less is more in a way so I feel like they worked well.
If you get the chance it's a fun ride.
It’s been a hot old…erm…probably couple of decades since I last watched Spawn, but for me the standout line is (Spoilered because it may be upsetting for folk of faith and frankly one of the words is unnecessary)
Spoiler:
How come God gets all the good worshippers and we get all the retards?
\
Sod it. It’s going on my watchlist. Even if I still have issue with some of Spawn’s lines.
I laughed hard at that one too. The quips all through this movie are the reason to watch it. The Violator lives up to his name one way or another.
Spawn - 1997
We watched this last night. It was such a laugh. John Leguizamo as the Violator sold this movie. He killed it. If you are thinking about watching it He make this movie work.
Damn..... I remember seeing this in the theatre when it first came out.
Just the best. I keep pestering my brother to show this to his daughter, but they just feed her Disney+ rubbish.
Tell your brother I have a bizarre aversion to Anime. Tell him I’ve tried and tried to get into it, as on paper, I should by all rights be a massive, colossal weeb. Weebzilla if you will.
And even I bloody love My Neighbour Totoro. And indeed all Ghibli I’ve seen.
That's it. Anime diesn't really mean anything, does it. There's good stuff and there's bad stuff, and Ghibli films are just good stuff. As are Neon Genesis Evangelion, Trigun and Bubblegum Crisis. Right?
Anyway, Spawn. Yet another black superhero before the Black Panther film. Anyway. I never cared much for the film really to be honest. The CGI is kinda meh, but it's from 1997. And I don't remember all that much else.
I'm on the 12th season of NYPD Blue. Still good. Interesting thing is that this show has a crazy turnover of cast. Many times pretty big roles just disappear between seasons, but oh well. Anyway, there seems to be an important rule that there always has got to be a blonde police detective lady. Anyway. Andy Sipowicz is one good character. Interesting new police lieutenant as well stays interesting in the new season.
I'm also watching Spaced again. What a cool little tryout place for all sorts of film making things. Spaced is to Edgar Wright's work what the Spanish Civil War was to WW2.
Yeah, I stay away from those, especially if they've been made any later than 2003 or so. Because life's too short for anything remotely connected to "awesome lol".
But then again, I catch myself not putting up with anything made after 2003 any more, which is a slightly worrying tendency.
Not as good as the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.
Hilariously bad, with a heavy dose of nightmare fuel in the Wookie family, dancers, disturbing situations, and general 70’s drug-fueled creepiness. We watched the whole thing, having to stop for the day after the cartoon. That nightmarishly drawn cartoon. Really, the Jefferson Starship bit broke our resolve, but then the cartoon came on like a grisly traffic accident, and we all froze until it was over.
Besides the creepy costumes and animation, watch for the grandpa virtual-porn scene and all the disturbing sexual harassment. Of Chewy’s wife and Bea Arthur. Played as endearing. Really uncomfortable to watch in some scenes.
Also watch for the balls-tripping Life Day celebration and coked-out Carrie Fisher singing to the Star Wars theme. Then watch it again for Stir Whip, Stir Whip, Whip Whip Stir.
Automatically Appended Next Post: That said, the kids were laughing so hard they started coughing.
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this film is, unofficially, James Gunn's first entry in the DCU. There's a certain Marvelisation to this film which I suspect are Gunn's fingerprints bringing some of those elements he feels work over to DC prior to his official reveal. (Plus a cameo from one of the stars of Peacemaker is another hint)
How one feels about this will largely depend on how one feels about previous DC and Marvel entries of course, but I find it largely positive.
There's nothing new here, but the action is visually impressive (also I suspect the director has shares in a high speed camera manufacturer, lots of slow mo here,) the origin story largely dealt with mercifully quickly and the supporting cast is excellent. I particularly enjoyed angry Hawkman rather than an angst ridden, lovelorn Hawkman, and Brosnan's Dr Fate is a really good piece of casting, even if there's a little too much Dr Strange in his on screen antics.
This doesn't change the superhero movie landscape like an Infinity War or Dark Knight did, but it might just signify the early stages of DC bringing the fight to Marvel on a more even footing.
Pretty sure Suicide Squad's remake was his first entry, but I wouldn't be shocked if subsequent films aped him since everything in the vein of Snyder sucks. I know people like it and it has its fans, but it still sucks and I stand by that claim XD. The DCU is a flailing bird that desperately wants to fly but can't figure out quite which way up is and Gunn's Suicide Squad was maybe the closest any film in the franchise has come to universal acclaim since Wonder Woman and Shazam.
I had seen the old 30's version, and enjoyed it. I am sure my mini-review is around here somewhere. Therefore, I watched the 70's version with Klaus Kinski as the aforementioned Nosferatu.
The basic premise is exactly the same, but they do ramp up the nihilism and absurdity a bit. This was made in the 70s after all! Some great use of shadows, and Kinski is other-worldly as all heck in the way he acts the part.
I enjoyed it for what it is, but modern audiences would be very, very bored with it. Some good visuals and plenty of unsettling "That is not right" moments. However, nothing shocking or really exciting. The final climax is also, surprisingly slow moving.
Pirates of the Caribbean Dead men tell no tales. - a few years ago. ( Should have been called the mouse really hates money. )
This movie is way too long. It's just a drag to get through and lacks the consistency in the world established in the first three movies. This world thinks no woman can read? Or that their brains are as described by the government scientists in Kazakhstan circa Borat movie. This is the third time I have watched this and I honestly got more out of it this time than the last two. Captain Barbosa is easily my favorite character, his laugh is infectious, in the entire series so I like that he end his story and that there is a bit of closure for that story. I see possibilities to bring him back and I'd like that. Capin' Jack on the other hand. I found him disappointing again much like I did in the 4th movie. He's more or less half animated squirrel and far less sophisticated compared to at least the first two movies.
I really dislike the lack of consistency in the world. Some random Lieutenant is more or less running an island settlement and has a silly amount of resources to pull from including a ship and crew and a witch. The lack of structure alone pushes this down into what should have been an animated movie.
My larger problems are just with the franchise being only in one direction where I feel it should have spawned at least two different casts of characters or a show not unlike the Mandalorian to grow the franchise and make the mouse huge piles of money, which they clearly want but have no idea how to bring in because reasons I will never know or understand.
I'd say it's worth at least one watch but maybe not more than that and I would drink the whole way through and will if I ever put this on again. I have no plans to watch this again for t least 10 years, maybe not even then.
The Simpsons had stopped being funny long before the movie came out, and it did nothing to make them funny again. Eugh.
Yeah, I wasn't a huge fan either. Turning a sitcom into a film just doesn't work (exception: The Honeymooners, starring Cedric the Entertainer. That stuff was GOLD. ), lest of all with the Simpsons at that point in time. While it wasn't horrible, it was pretty unnecessary. The pig was so lazy I suspect them of using that as an in-joke.
@Easy E: That's something I should watch. Never seen the Kinski version.
@Commissar von Toussaint: Goodie. Few months ago I caught 10 minutes or so. It's alright, I suppose.
Finished NYPD Blue. Good show, and even with some in parts wild roulette in characters I can't say there was a single one I disliked from the get-go or for whom it took me time to get used to (with the exception of John Clark maye). I really enjoyed how Upstairs John's hair gets more amazing each time we see him until it reaches its final form in the last episode.
Does anybody even really care deeply about Grease?
I'm thinking if I hold any 'unpopular opinions', but I don't think I do. I'l wholesome. Because of course we all know that every single Marvel film except Blade 1 and Punisher:Warzone are utter tosh. And Star Wars is in no better state than in 2000, there's just more of it.
Funny and sweet, this is a modern classic unless you hate Will Farrell.
A Day Without Santa Claus
The old creepy claymation movie that gave us Heat Miser and Cold Miser. It’s like a dull sermon you sit through to feel closer to the suffering of your ancestors.
Die Hard
Still one of the best Christmas movies ever made, and the bar against which all later action films are measured.
You know how seasons 1 and 2 of Vikings were fantastic and then the show just slowly went down hill with a plot that got so jumbled and wacky you not only didn't know what was happening half the time anymore but you couldn't care less?
This show basically starts there.
Just watch Vinland Saga. It's a million times better and I'm somewhat certain Valhalla's writers know it's better because this show is basically discount live action Vinland Saga. Even some of the character beats are outright identical.
And that's just the better half of the show about the Danish invasion of England.
The worse half involves conflict between Pagans and Christians in Norway and it's just a much less interesting plot and the writers know its less interesting because they spent very little time on it while wasting yours reminding you it exists.
I haven't watched this one in a few years.
I'm impressed by the ruthlessness' of the shinobi in their manipulation of out lead character Jubi. He was found as in infant and raised never knowing he was a token in the game for the shogunate. they let him live till the age of 12 only to kill his foster mother and sister to drive him into their arms, train him and send him off to complete the mission his father was suppose to have been working on.
They coerce him into killing his own father as an act of vengeance. He had no idea at the time. The Shinobi even slay everyone who knew him as a child and burn down that village. Just absolutely brutal, the lengths they go to to make things happen and keep secrets.
The other night I had the grave misfortune to watch Mechanic: Resurrection. A bad 80's action tv/straight to video movie. Made in 2016. Mark's out of 10? -10
Their only excuse for them is that Michelle Yeoh, Tommy Lee Jones and Jessica Alba must have all needed their roofs retiling.
A step up from the Jamie Kennedy years, this film has a bigger budget and a seriously ambitious cinematographer. Like, “this movie feels like a movie” cinematography. Really, really cinematic.
The character acting is here, the effects are here, the script is decent, but… The editing. *sigh*. The fact that I kept noticing the editing means it is a problem. Editing should not be an impediment to the storytelling, yet here we are.
There are a few fresh kills in this, and a few distracting homages. (Or “homages” depending on how uncharitable you feel.). The big finale falls a little flat due to editing. The score also kind of gave away what was about to happen, too. On the plus side, there are lots of explosions and goo for the fans.
It's rare for me to venture into foreign films. Not because I'm snobby about it or anything, it's just when I'm watching at home it's all too easy to get distracted for a minute by a quick scroll on the phone and before you know it you've missed a major plot point and either forge ahead regardless or have to scroll back and rewatch from where you missed.
So consequently, a foreign language film that grabs my attention sufficiently to tackle this first worldiest of first world problems is a rare thing.
Hailing from Argentina, and not to be confused with anything related to Terrifier, this is a spin on the haunted house trope, by providing the viewer not one house but three on the same street to keep track of, all with slightly different tales to tell, but surely three different hauntings in the same street can't just be a coincidence?
That aside, we follow a fairly well trodden path. Things escalate until the authorities get involved, the authorities bring in specialists, things build to a head and then ultimately conclude.
So why bother with a largely formulaic film in a non native language? In short, some of the ideas on screen provide some of the creepiest images I've seen for a long time (shout out to under the bed man!) The hauntings are all varied and original in their idea and execution, strongly evocative of some of the best Japanese horrors, and that was enough to draw me in.
So why start with a sigh?
This film suffers from the worst case of "best bits in the trailer" I've ever seen. If you can go into this movie completely clean slated, there's much to recommend it, but if like me you discovered it from promotional material, significant amounts of the movie's impact is stolen, and you're left watching an at best competent haunted house movie where everything that elevates it has already been spoiled.
I think I've seen that as well. It had some really fantastic individual pieces for sure but I agree that as a full movie, it's kind of slanted a full movie. They never quite managed to string the individual scares together into a coherent plot as I recall.
There's barely three lines of dialogue from the professor lady before a jump scare derails the scene and we don't find out any more. I'd say the writers probably had an idea what was linking it all together, but a lousy job was done conveying it.
I don't mind a Lifetime Christmas movie at all, I can even enjoy them!
But, this one almost put me to sleep. It was no Starcrash, but it almost did what only The Specialist and my second viewing of Titanic have managed to do before!
I don't mind a Lifetime Christmas movie at all, I can even enjoy them!
But, this one almost put me to sleep. It was no Starcrash, but it almost did what only The Specialist and my second viewing of Titanic have managed to do before!
Of course you were bored with Titanic on the second watch; you already knew the big twist towards the end!
Released in 1986, with cutting edge CGI. The CGI is still better than some of the guff we get these days, and never used when a physical prop could do the job. Perfection
The ship set itself is wonderfully realised. Quite minimalist, but lots of greeblies to stop it being monotonous.
Favourite thing? Ship’s Computer downloads stuff from David’s brain. Accidentally downloads a bit of a human, and turns into a complete male chicken, if you catch my drift.
Also, one of the first, if not the first film I ever saw in the cinema at my own request. I remember Timmy Mallet (ask your parents, young’uns) reviewing on Wide Awake Club or perhaps Wacaday, and asking Mum if we could go see it. And she said yes!
If you’ve not seen it, not seen it in a while, or have Smols that haven’t seen it? Do your eyes, your brain and your endorphins a favour and get it watched. Like. Seriously. Tempting the internet I don’t know anyone with a bad word to say about this wonderful bit of fantasy cinema.
Watch it, or I’ll find your house and…and…and…..tut at you. Through the letterbox.
It’s not particularly action packed, true. But still a wonderful flight of fancy. A film with no particular point to make or tale to tell, but a wonderful bit of cinema all the same.
Next? Fred Savage and Judge Reinhold in the almost certainly not that well remembered Vice Versa, a movie Daddykins took me to see whilst on holiday in Harrogate.
I remember Vice Versa coming out just after the Dudley Moore/Kirk Cameron movie of the same stripe, Like Father Like Son. If I recall, Vice Versa was the better attempt.
As that the one with the crystal skull? For some reason it always reminded me of Vibes, the comedy-adventure with Jeff Goldblum, Cyndi Lauper and Peter Faulk. Loved that movie.
For Flight of the Navigator, apparently there was surprisingly little CGI. A lot of the effects that look like CGI, such as the flowing stairs, were done with older techniques, like stop motion and composited, reversed wax melting, stuff like that.
Alright, I'm cheating a bit because I'm only half way through DoS, but the manner of extension is the same across all three, so I'm pulling the trigger early.
Although all three are some 30 minutes or so longer than the cinematic version, there's nothing that really be considered a new scene or sequence, it's 30s here, 2m there of extra dialogue or a slightly different shot. Certainly as someone who hasn't really watched the films since the cinema release, there's nothing that leaps off the screen as new, but there are moments that feel unfamiliar.
These aren't films that are going to be unfamiliar to many, so there's little point in reviewing the content, but is it worth the effort of watching the 9 or so hours of the extended editions?
In short, probably not.
That said though, if one were intent on watching the Hobbit Trilogy regardless, then this is the version that's probably worth seeking out. The films were probably torpedoed below the water line the day it was decided to stretch a book shorter than any single volume of LOTR into three films, and nothing here does anything to redeem that. But there are improvements that have softened my attitude to the movies. Firstly, and from my perspective probably most importantly, it isn't in 48 FPS. I hated the soap opera feel of the higher framerate in the cinema, and the removal of this plus the 3d element actually improves the look to my eye immeasurably. There's still some questionable moments where they seem to have managed to go backwards with more mature and sophisticated tech than when LOTR was filmed, but the whole affair looks a lot closer to the main trilogy, which is a big plus for me.
Secondly, and this is more an advantage to having all three movies together and at home than anything directly connected to the extension, there are elements running through the films that are far easier to track and appreciate for the casual viewer when watched closely together than when released a year apart. This is fundamentally a 9 hour story broken into three bits, after all, rather than a film with two sequels.
Finally, the extended elements don't detract from the film. While mostly subtle, and blink and you'll miss them in some cases, the extra bits and pieces only enhance the films, and at no point have I noticed anything jarring where we transition from cinematic to extended footage.
Because there's so much to ridicule in the trilogy, it's easy to forget there's quite a lot of good in there too. Once I'm done, I think I'm going to be a lot more positively disposed to these movies, and that alone is worth the time.
The weirdest thing to me is that in all of extended versions, there's maybe one scene that really really shouldn't been cut.
The goat cavalry. Because it's freaking awesome and because it explains where those goats came form in the finale act of movie that were all 'wtf where from' in the theatrical release.
A film from 1959 featuring Vincent Price. It is a bit of a Crime story with a few horror elements that feels more like a cinema Serial made into a single movie. Interestingly enough, the main character is an older, middle aged woman as our True Detective!
It is pretty obvious who The Bat is, but it is 1959 so there you go. If you like watching old serials, than this is for you.
“Well Steve Rogers, sorry, Trevor. Steve Trevor. That’s my special plot armour. I may need that later. Who can tell?”
Nonsensical main villain motivation. I mean, we get he’s an insecure man dreaming of greatness. But….one wish and straight to pants on head wibble dibble snivvet Oooh Dr Parson’s What A Lovely Sideboard Insanity. Just. No.
It’s overly long, and doesn’t really bother telling us anything about the villain’s motivations until 2h 15m or so in.
High points overall though? Cheetah is a coherent villain. Pedro Pascal is acting his socks off.
Low points. Action scenes are crap. No sense of weight to anything. At all. Gal Gadot still unable to express any kind of emotion.
Total waste of time overall. I mean, Wishmaster did the whole “be careful what you wish for thing decades ago, were kind of crap, and still better than this tripe.
If they had ended the film shortly after the White House scene, it would be more fondly remembered. Cheetah was great there. Then her arc went off the plot.
“Well Steve Rogers, sorry, Trevor. Steve Trevor. That’s my special plot armour. I may need that later. Who can tell?”
Nonsensical main villain motivation. I mean, we get he’s an insecure man dreaming of greatness. But….one wish and straight to pants on head wibble dibble snivvet Oooh Dr Parson’s What A Lovely Sideboard Insanity. Just. No.
It’s overly long, and doesn’t really bother telling us anything about the villain’s motivations until 2h 15m or so in.
High points overall though? Cheetah is a coherent villain. Pedro Pascal is acting his socks off.
Low points. Action scenes are crap. No sense of weight to anything. At all. Gal Gadot still unable to express any kind of emotion.
Total waste of time overall. I mean, Wishmaster did the whole “be careful what you wish for thing decades ago, were kind of crap, and still better than this tripe.
You actually made it all the way to the end? You must have the patience of a Saint. I made it half an hour, maybe 40 minutes? It's such a dumpster fire.
I tend to be stubborn about watching stuff to the end.
I’ve never walked out of a screening (unless you count the recent sequel to Unbreakable, and that was due to a cinema malfunction), and other than Dodgy Horror Films Of Yesteryear, I’m genuinely struggling to think of films I’ve not watched all the way through.
I would say I watch most things all the way through because it's very hard to let go of my inner completionist, but there are exceptions and most of them have been DCEU productions. Aquaman? Ww1984? Snyder cut Justice League? All aborted.
Firstly, it's a remarkable thing that I watched this on D+ UK, this service has come on in leaps and bounds since the introduction of the Star sub channel a while back.
As for the film? Well, it's a little disappointing. A lot of the buzz around the film is centred on its unpredictability, and so to try and preserve that I'll skirt around plot details beyond mere spoilers.
This is a horror movie, but, true to the marketing, it does take several twists and turns which mean that wherever you think it's heading, you're probably wrong (albeit less so as things progress.) Some of the camera work in the opening act does a great job of manufacturing tension out of very little. Broadly, the problem of horror movie characters acting illogically to put themselves in peril is avoided, anything perilous normally occurs as result of sound and clear reasoning.
There are other things I liked, but will skip to preserve the surprises and not chop the post up with spoiler tags.
Downsides? I really don't like Justin Long as an actor, although he is at least playing a character most people will struggle to like, it's also one of those whiny, entitled types he always seems to play. Some of the scenes seem to unwittingly cross the line into parody. The horror seems to be aiming more towards the Saw/Se7en end of the spectrum, but I struggled to take it seriously at times.
This taints the whole thing, which is a real shame as there's some genuinely interesting ideas here, much of the film feels fresh, even if it's retreading well work ground. If I could have taken some of the scenes more seriously, I could be talking about this film as a watershed moment in the genre. But as it stands it is more of a curio that, while worth seeking out for fans of the genre, falls just a little short of what might have been.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: If they had ended the film shortly after the White House scene, it would be more fondly remembered. Cheetah was great there. Then her arc went off the plot.
IDK. I'll forever remember Diana's final speech at the end for it's incredibly shallow and patronizing take on people and agency.
It shows a supreme sort of arrogance on the part of whoever wrote it and thought it was compelling. It's someone who I can't help but think has never truly struggled or faced any real strife at any point in their life. If they did, they walked out a sociopath.
A parent with a child dying of leukemia, will never give up the chance to just wish their dying child to health.
A single parent about to be thrown out on the street when the bank forecloses on their house is not going to give up the money they wished for to pay off their debt and send their kids to college.
A generically brown terrorist man whose first thought when told he can wish for anything and his first idea is to wish for a nuclear bomb is not going to give that up because a strong white woman told him it was wrong to take shortcuts in life.
The entire ending of 1984 is a cluster feth of what happens when privileged people born into prosperity who have never struggled try to monotize the plight of the commons for the sentimentality of people like themselves. It's a fethed up display of arrogance and self-righteousness that the world and it's problems are never the fault of people with power and wealth but always the unreasonable expectations of people whose kids are laying in a hospital dying in a healthcare system that bleeds them dry in the process.
That entire scene could be used in college courses as a textbook example of class guilt on full display and it's shocking to me that it was made and then acts so sincerely.
Says an awful lot about Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins imo, and I was unshocked that WW3 was canceled on the heels of this complete collapse of judgement. The greatest sin elitists with no real life experience can commit is saying the quiet part out loud and they put the quiet part on a damn pedestal like it should have won an Oscar.
This movie deserves to be watched honestly, if only for all the horrible things it has to say about the society that produced it. It's the perfect image of many of our ills between its double standards, arrogance, and presumption that people who aren't living the perfect life should just accept it and not want better. There are good stories to be told about how we can deal with and manage the inequity of life, but this movie was not that story.
It all boils down to the US President’s nonsensical waste of a wish.
I mean….more Nukes doesn’t solve the problem, never has never will. Given the Wish? Why not wish for a peaceful resolution which sees advantage solely to the USA?
And when we get the Pleb Wishes, how come nobody is wishing for peace and prosperity, wishing cancer away etc. We just get rather heartless, greedy wishes shown.
It’s an interesting concept done incredibly poorly.
And where is the actual sacrifice play in rescinding Pedro’s wish? He basically wishes away his own greed. That’s it. That’s all he gives up.
They could’ve done it so much better. Have the stone initially grant three wishes. Have him save his kids life or something else ostensibly noble. The second wish for something of comfort, like vast wealth. The third wishing himself to be the stone with its associated powers.
I mean, Villain Motivation is often DC’s stronger suit, especially the like of Victor Fries. But here, there’s just none of it. I get it’s meant to be a critique of 80’s “Greed is Good” attitudes, but it just falls flat. Instead we get caricatures in place of characters. We get random decision made instead of personal motivations.
We even see points where it starts going off the rails. The villain is confronted by his investor, who’s figured out it’s kind of a pyramid scheme, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Yet, rather than get that guy to wish The Villains’ investments paid off? We get pantomime villain drivel.
How much better would it be if The Villain was more a metaphorical Golden Goose, being used by already rich folk to increase their own wealth, complete with the toll it takes on his body and mind.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Santa’s Slay
Bill Goldberg plays evil Santa and rampages through Smalltown, USA killing people. Because he’s actually a Demon, previously tricked into being Nice for 1,000 years.
It’s silly. Very silly indeed. And it shouldn’t stop. It’s not even pretending to take itself seriously, and is a joyous slice of silliness, swearing and even Rude Bits. And for all that, it’s actually really quite well made.
If like me you retain a childish sense of humour, there’s a lot to enjoy here.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Anna and the Apocalypse
Part zombie movie. Part teen comedy. Part High School Musical. Didn’t know of the musical part at the start.
It’s really quite charming. Song and dance numbers whilst not my thing, are decently done. Bonus points for featuring Paul Kaye channeling some Mr Bronson from Grange Hill.
Being British and post Shaun of the Dead there is of course a heavy influence, and the influences Shaun of the Dead played on itself are evident The Musical element raises it up to be its own thing, rather than a simple knock-off with some song and dance tacked on in a crap attempt to disguise a knock off as something original.
Big bonus is an unknown cast, all of whom are solid in their roles.
After chopping up a half dozen of their ships I felt I should at least see the film. It is OK. Wrongheaded in some ways. But OK.
Buzz Lightyear accidentally strands a colony ship on a hostile world and breaks their one hyper crystal so they can't leave. So he vows to get them home and tries and tries again to make a replacement crystal.
Plot twist! Each time he tries minutes pass for him and years for the people on the planet. Decades go by, they build lives and now don't want to leave.
Plot twist! Now we enter a new movie as an army of robots invade and Buzz and a band of misfits have to defeat them and
Plot twist!
Spoiler:
The Zurg are really Buzz from the future obsessed with making everyone go home whether they want to or not.
It is... OK. It didn't cause cancer and entertained me as made dinner. It's basically 2 Star Trek episodes strung together. The high concept is that is the 1995 movie that Buzz Lightyear toys came from but it really doesn't feel retro and that could have been scrapped (heck just make it a 2022 Toy Story in-universe Lightyear reboot film).
I wasn't all that impressed with the first film but I liked this one a lot more. It still has the faults of it's predecessor( the human threat is painfully underdeveloped, and the whole eco message is annoyingly preachy ) but somehow it manages to flesh out the world and characters of Pandora just enough to become a more interesting film.
I just watched 7Zatoichi movies over the last week or so.
zatoichi meets Yojimbo
zatoichi the Outlaw
Zatoichi : the festival of fire
Zatoichi at large
Zatoichi in desperation*
Zatoichi the conspiracy
Zatoichi meets the one armed swordsman
These were interesting and you might enjoy them. I marked In desperation in my list. To me it was the darkest of the bunch and illustrated just how nasty of a world Zatoichi really inhabits. He feels he has to do some good but it's mostly for not and he takes heaps of abuse for it emotionally and physically. He's put through the wringer.
Meets Yojimbo was the most fun of the bunch as he plays off Yujimbo really well as they are so much alike in many ways that they find it irritating, Yujimbo finds it more irritating as fits his character.
I got this boxed set in the early 00's and forgot about it until this marathon. I'm not sure just how many Zatoichi movies there are. Worth the watch if you can find them.
One thing of note is that most of the time Ichi is surrounded by at least 3 if not 4 assailants when the swords come out. But I have begun to think most of those guys got the minimum education is swords before they ran off to work for some boss. Like they know how to chop stuff but not so much how to fight.
Just found it amusing.
And before that I enjoyed the first three Shogun Assassin movies. worth the watch as well. The third one ended oddly with a big fight that made me laugh a little as it reminded me of a MXC obstacle course. Still lots of cool stuff in there but the payment process seemed to change after the first movie. It was something like for 1000 gold coins it will be done but later is was down to 500 for the next two movies. Or I am misremembering. I just found it funny. Lots of sword swinging and buckets of blood!
Remember Scream? Have you ever really wanted to watch the same film again, but with updated references, different actors and a slightly different story? Then have I got a film for you!
To call this a shot for shot remake would be a little harsh, and absent it's predecessor it would be a perfectly entertaining, well made slasher picture.
My one big issue is I remain unconvinced that essentially remaking a film is excused by using the meta, in-joke methodologies that it created to tell the audience that you know that's what you're doing. As such, this film is a cracked bowl, it looks fine but it doesn't have the same ring when you tap it. It's like a joke being told by someone who doesn't themselves understand the punch line. All the components are there but the delivery is lacking.
There are some quality franchise moments, but unless someone can completely refresh the the concept, it's probably best that this time the killer doesn't come back.
My wife and I wasted a rare free morning while the kids were at school watching this tosh. The graphics were super shiny, but the acting dialogue and situations were just terrible. Didn’t really care about any of the characters and any time they tried to redeem themselves it seemed wasted. 2 hours or so of “well I guess that might as well happen”.
Couldn't be bothered to finish the print book and only got round to the audiobook in the recent no intertubes weeks due to moving
The film is a rare miss from High Lord Speilberg, to the fair the book isn't that good and Cline is, putting it politely, not right, but it had it's moments (and still a bit chuffed I got the 2nd ? clue, the Zork one)
The film is just all big bang level of geekdom, with all the characters being smoothed out, Wade is less of the dick, Art3mis is levelled down from super nerd genius to generic geek girl, H is mostly okay bar as case of "no fat folk" as cinema demands, and the Otaku lads was okay and wasn't sure if their book versions being very Japan stereotypes was part of their muddying their real life ID's or wobbly writing
The film challenges are just so stupid, yes the book stuff might have been to tricky to weave into a run time of a movie, but going backwards in a car race replacing a Jousts on mutant chickens against a Lich was ungood (and over looked Arty cracking it first)
And the ending, Mr S might be showing his age, switching off the internet 2 days a week so you can have cuddles is silly in the extreme, as Hallidays problem was being Halliday, more sane folks like Ogg and his wife managed the balance (also I love you Mr Pegg but accents arent your bag)
Flight of the Navigator: It's one of those films I never really appreciated, because of my well-informed and well-meaning parents sitting me down in front of the tv and said "watch this, this is GOOD for you". They were right, but if you're a kid and your parents tell you that, it's a bit of an instant turn-off. Just like with the animated Lord of the Rings. I did appreciate that a bit more though. Not so much with Monty Python's Flying Circus, which I got to watch when I was very little (one of my earliest tv watching experiences), which gave me nightmares.
Wonder Woman: Yeah, it's a bit tosh. I don't remember much about it, but it was charming in a way. I like a sincerely good character.
Santa's Slay: I really enjoyed that film! Mostly for the insane lore they made up to turn Santa into a villain. Few years ago I watched Clown (the horror film in which a dude unwillingly gets turned into a clown, kinda like Tim Allen gets turned into Santa), and the silly backstory they made up there and the way it was presented reminded me quite a bit of Santa's Slay. The latter is more fun though and they go all-out on their premise. Which is a thing I can appreciate.
Another thing I appreciate: Warhead01's dedication to completeness. Only Zatoichi film I watched was the blonde Takeshi Kitano one.
Only thing I've watched recently was the David Brent Netflix special thing, which I'd watched a few years ago. Still blegh and manipulative and just gack. In the same time one could watch almost the entire Office series. Or the proper christmas special. Both eternally better than Life on the Road or what it was called.
3:10 to Yuma is on Netflix now, so I'll make sure to watch that one again. Because that's a cool film.
Another thing I appreciate: Warhead01's dedication to completeness. Only Zatoichi film I watched was the blonde Takeshi Kitano one.
Haha, too kind. It's probably my brain damage. I hadn't actually dug in to that one at all. I just have that old boxed set. However, I am a fan of his movies which started with MXC on spike tv way back when. Yes I realize that's a bit silly but it lead me eventually to the movie Sonatine through a music video by Aphex twin. The film and that music together were a perfect fit. And later to Battle royale. He was also in Ghost in the Shell.. I didn't even realize that. I should find a few more of his movies to watch.
After posting about the Zatoichi flicks Youtube has been pushing his show into my feed. I'm not against it I just need time for it which I don't have right now. I hadn't considered that He had a show but it does explain the large number of movies.
That two seater jet, with the seats side by side? Is that an actual real jet, or a contrivance for the movie?
It's real. The F-111 Aardvark. A design predecessor of the F-14 Tomcat from the late sixties and seventies.
Because I like mocking this movie though, it's set in 1984 and the F-111 was still in use until the 90s so it seems contrived that one would be in storage at the Smithsonian.
That two seater jet, with the seats side by side? Is that an actual real jet, or a contrivance for the movie?
It's real. The F-111 Aardvark. A design predecessor of the F-14 Tomcat from the late sixties and seventies.
Because I like mocking this movie though, it's set in 1984 and the F-111 was still in use until the 90s so it seems contrived that one would be in storage at the Smithsonian.
Not to mention a Pilot from 1918, when aviation wasn’t exactly advanced, just jumping on in and being able to fly it….
And was there really any reason for Steve to even go on that trip other than Diana being thirsty?
I'm just saying.
We can literally mock this movie for days for all the things in it that are stupid. It's one of the most deservedly ridiculed films I can think of. It has near no redeeming qualities beyond the villains giving performances better than the film really deserved.
To give her a stake in the wishing game. But not a very good one, as her wish involved a random spod losing his autonomy after Steve hijacks his meatsuit.
Though there is one redeeming scene. Kind of.
White House fight, when Diana is slumped against the wall. That physical pose and characteristically perfunctory line delivery is exactly how I see all Gal Gadot’s performances. Just….slumped. Uninterested. No effort.
Firstly, it's a remarkable thing that I watched this on D+ UK, this service has come on in leaps and bounds since the introduction of the Star sub channel a while back.
As for the film? Well, it's a little disappointing. A lot of the buzz around the film is centred on its unpredictability, and so to try and preserve that I'll skirt around plot details beyond mere spoilers.
This is a horror movie, but, true to the marketing, it does take several twists and turns which mean that wherever you think it's heading, you're probably wrong (albeit less so as things progress.) Some of the camera work in the opening act does a great job of manufacturing tension out of very little. Broadly, the problem of horror movie characters acting illogically to put themselves in peril is avoided, anything perilous normally occurs as result of sound and clear reasoning.
There are other things I liked, but will skip to preserve the surprises and not chop the post up with spoiler tags.
Downsides? I really don't like Justin Long as an actor, although he is at least playing a character most people will struggle to like, it's also one of those whiny, entitled types he always seems to play. Some of the scenes seem to unwittingly cross the line into parody. The horror seems to be aiming more towards the Saw/Se7en end of the spectrum, but I struggled to take it seriously at times.
This taints the whole thing, which is a real shame as there's some genuinely interesting ideas here, much of the film feels fresh, even if it's retreading well work ground. If I could have taken some of the scenes more seriously, I could be talking about this film as a watershed moment in the genre. But as it stands it is more of a curio that, while worth seeking out for fans of the genre, falls just a little short of what might have been.
Barbarian is one of those movies that seems like it should work, but in the end it just doesn’t. The build up of tension is masterful—until it pays off with some Jason X level schlock. The characters are well written, until they have to be bumbling oafs who leave phones and keys on any surface despite having pockets and going right back into danger without taking any simple steps to mitigate it as you would expect given they previously demonstrated a reasonable appreciation for personal safety.
The stakes in the movie are actually lessened at every revelation: first the movie foreshadows a date far, far worse than death, then a fate arguably worse than death but clearly better, then the stakes become a swift, merciful death. And about 2/3 of the way through the movie introduces a far more terrifying monster than the main monster, reminds you of the stakes you were teased, and then firmly placed those safely in the past. That contributes a lot to the anticlimactic feel of the last 20 minutes, as well as the main villain being hard not to laugh at, both by design and against it.
I strongly disagree about Justin Long, though. He was a highlight of the film as the sleazy, self-centered douche-bro you want to see killed. He also got the biggest laughs of the movie, and on purpose!
To be honest I was baffled that people hailed the 1,000,000,000th iteration of;
Spoiler:
There's a creeper living in your house and they want to kill you
As 'bold' and 'fresh.' It's the most generically eye-rolling twist in horror films. I hate it everytime I see it. Barbarian isn't even close to the first to do it, let alone do it well, and on top of that I stopped caring what the movie was about 20 or so minutes in when I realized that's where the movie was going.
It's one step up from 'it was all a dream' twist endings.
You want a good horror movie about barbarism? X. X is freaking great for what it is. War better than Barbarian was.
Apocalypse now - 1979 / remastered? The complete directors cut, or what ever it's called. 3 hours and 15 minuets long. It's a lot to take in. Which seems fitting to me because the trip up river is akin to a religious experience for Cpt. Willard. I enjoyed this version Cpt. Willard has a since of humor in this cut that some people don't care for but I think it adds to his character as he is a burnout with a death wish, in a way. But deep down there was this dude who was fairly cool but he's lost himself. Seeing a glimpse of that just adds a layer to his character. In the end. Col. Kurtz philosophical views weren't wrong but his implementation was just more than the powers that be could handle. It's an experience if nothing else.
LordofHats wrote: There's a universe? It was good but it wasn't that good.
If it’s the one I’m thinking of, they filmed three movies with her following 3 characters over most of a century, playing variations on a theme (I understand from reviews). I guess “trilogy” would have been more accurate, but everything cinematic these days is about universes.
This film had 2 headwinds to overcome. The death of Chadwick Boseman being the first of course, and Letitia Wright (Shuri) and her anti vax shenanigans. It's hard to root for her character when what I little I know about the actress is annoying.
With a 3rd headwind being that I'm one of the few people who did not like Black Panther 1. The whole idea of an advanced secret realm is great, an advanced secret kingdom where you decide who's king by having a fight under the waterfall... not so great. Especially when the new King's plan is blow up New York, London and Hong Kong (what the heck did Hong Kong ever do to Africa)?
So with this is mind it was better than it should have been. I found Mayan Namor a bit odd, not sure we needed Ironheart, but they worked, and I like the stinger in the end. So a solid 3/5.
warhead01 wrote: Apocalypse now - 1979 / remastered?
The complete directors cut, or what ever it's called.
3 hours and 15 minuets long. It's a lot to take in.
Which seems fitting to me because the trip up river is akin to a religious experience for Cpt. Willard. I enjoyed this version Cpt. Willard has a since of humor in this cut that some people don't care for but I think it adds to his character as he is a burnout with a death wish, in a way. But deep down there was this dude who was fairly cool but he's lost himself. Seeing a glimpse of that just adds a layer to his character.
In the end. Col. Kurtz philosophical views weren't wrong but his implementation was just more than the powers that be could handle.
It's an experience if nothing else.
It may be too long and meandering for many audiences but I felt it made a great film even better. It has amazed me how the film has taken on so many different meanings for me over the course of my 5 decades of life, before… during… and after my time in the military. I particularly liked the inclusion of the Indochinese French enclave and more detailed story of the USO entertainers.
Some of what Kurtz says I agree with, such as the absurdity of US Command, but I do not think in a war you should try to defeat horror with greater horror. It may help win battles but I think that path does not win wars and ultimately destroys those that wage war with such tactics. I think that is one of the key messages of the movie.
Surprisingly good, not great, but better than expected. Surprised to read it was not filmed in Egypt but all on sound stages in Georgia, the cars, the concrete, the dust, were all very familiar.
They don't quite land the moral ambiguity, and the Justice Society is so thinly developed the contrast doesn't really work. Probably a lot left on the cutting room floor, like where did Adam learn English. But still, good.
Tangent - The Justice Society was really ripe for more development. In the comics both Dr Fate and Hawkman have links to ancient Egypt where Black Adam is from (never mentioned but the helm of Fate was around at the time, and Hawkman is a reincarnated pharaoh). A few throw away lines to the effect of 'that guy again' or 'I warned them he'd be back' would go a long way towards explaining why these randoms are there. Heck have the actors in the background of some of the flashbacks and see who catches it.
Also the JSA were the premier heroes of World War II, again never mentioned. They could have filled Hawkman's house with JSA memorabilia, old costumes, comic covers as paintings on the wall etc. Given them a sense of history. Which would make it very very sad that they can only rally 2 dudes and 2 rookies for this vital mission. Have someone go down a list - Wildcat? Retired, Spectre? No one knows, Hourman? heart attack, Sandman? died in his sleep last year...
But now I'm in full on 'rewrite the movie' mood which inevitably ends with me liking the movie in my head rather than the one on film. Ah well, in 10 years an AI will be able to deliver me the film I want.
Solid 3/5.
Spoiler:
Wish they'd gone with a pale redhead for Cyclone through.
Not as good as I remember it being, but it's still a fun little action romp somewhat letdown by the sequel bait ending (Considering they never did make another one).
A sequel to Knives Out. It’s alright. I’ve seen better, but I’ve also seen far worse movies.
Good for killing a couple of hours, and Daniel Craig remains a highlight.
I also watched Glass Onion yesterday and I thought it was pretty great. I like Rian Johnson as a director, he always makes a good cinematic experience. Which sounds obvious but there's plenty of directors who can't do that. Whoever does the costuming for Benoit Blanc is a genius. It's an enjoyable satirical movie and the over the top comic characters fit into the story excellently. Any movie that spends a good two hours just taking the piss out of tech billionaires is a good one.
A sequel to Knives Out. It’s alright. I’ve seen better, but I’ve also seen far worse movies.
Good for killing a couple of hours, and Daniel Craig remains a highlight.
I watched the first hour of that a few days ago. I really dislike the pictures in these films. Everything looks incredibly instagrammable and fake. One may argue that this is in tone with the film and how over the top it is. Still, I'm getting the impression that this film couldn't produce a real looking shot if it tried.
The first 15 minutes are entirely unnecessary; it looked like it's been made soley for the trailer. The very one-dimensional characters (at least for the purpose they have to serve then) are much more effectively introduced in the fist 20 seconds after Craig arrives in Greece.
The satire part is ....yeah, it makes fun of all the crap that's going on, but it's not really critisizing the crap; it just shows it and shows the protagonists of said crap as baffoons, but we already know that. We know that most silicone valley tycoons are narcissistic, detached egomaniacs. We know that influencers and youtube coaches are useless gakkers (who sometimes actually believe in their own bs), we know that greenwashing exists and many try to ride the wave without having any change in mind, and so on. We know that. It's just a means to an end show these infinity pools once more, to show some tasteless plexiglass interiors once more, and so on.
The funny thing is that nothing in this film looks authentic even if we get to a (supposedly) authentic layer of that onion.
Solid cast though. Yes, Daniel Craig is fun to watch, and it's nice to see Edward Norton.
edit: That's highly unfair and unfounded though, because I've only watched the first half so far. Instead of watching the rest I'm watching the first film now. That's a neat film, that.
edit2: I watched the first film. It's not perfect, but really good fun. It's nice to see a murder mystery film even though it took more twists than a twisty thing on a twisty road. And I watched the rest of the second film. Then I looked up who wrote the scripts for both films, and it's the same writing credits, it's the same producer credis. That surprised me, because the second one is so much worse.
I'm all for taking the piss out of tech billionnaires just like anybody else, but the broadness of that thing, and lack of anything but broadness (especially in the end).... that's just disappointing. I would love to see films shown produced for Netflix without the big red N in front, because I'm not sure at this point if this ruins films for me in the first place, or if I would have disliked this film as much under any other circumstance.
Not terrible, not spectacular. As good as most of the Marvel entries.
Almost all of the stuff with the civilian side characters was cringey.
I’d watch a Hawkman or Dr. Fate movie. Liked both of them a lot. Felt like Cyclone could have had a better presentation of her powers. It always looked too busy when she was doing her thing. Atom Smasher was just ok. Aside from the one casualty, I’d like to see them have a spot in Gunn’s future project.
The vilian could’ve had some build up.
Shame that The Rock put so much effort into this, and it was all for nought.
I’d say it didn’t hold up, but it was pretty cringy back when it came out. The effects are pretty and the action is better than average, but the story is cliche central, and the direction and core creative decisions are condescending*, and the musical score is bafflingly bad for a James Cameron film**. Damn if it isn’t gorgeous, though. Shame it doesn’t have a brain. Still not sure if we want to see Wet Avatar for the experience.
*Making the space natives tall, lithe and sexy seems like a good way to tell your audience you don’t trust them to get the point without everything circled in crayon.
*Sure it has that one “Duh. duhduhluh Duh.” sound over and over again so that ut sticks in your head like a burr. But that’s all it’s got. Even when the scene needs something with more energy or impact, say a Terminator Running or Escaoing the Hive, nope! You get “Duh. duhduhluh Duh.”
I've been rewatching Avatar I on Disney Plus and...
Funny how it is already outdated.
It hit me when I saw someone driving a cart in the human base. And my first thought was you flew a dude a million light years to a planet where everything, including the air, is trying to kill him, and you have him driving a cart? Don't you have an AI/drone/thing to do that?
And then when Jake disappears their plan for finding him is to fly around yelling 'Jake!" instead of a swarm of drones to look under every leaf and tree.
(also why can't you triangulate his location from the signal his Avatar body is putting out, but that's more a plot hole)
It's funny how in just 10 years drone tech, self driving cars and the like just have changed what I think the future will be like. And it won't be like the Vietnam War but with blue cat people.
I know I am not supposed to, but I can not help but like Col. Quaritch. He reminds me of the First Sergeant I had in my company of the Berlin Brigade back when the Wall came down. I am a bit surprised to hear he is supposed to somehow be back in the sequel.
I just watched a film called American Psycho (1999). Never watched it before, but it's as good as peeps say. Can't say much more about it than others have already. Watch It.
Operation Petticoat (1959)
Very one-note of the surface, but there are some fun bits in there, and a good main cast. Supposed to illustrate the utter chaos in the early stages of the war in the Pacific, which gives some interesting hooks for wargaming the period. Some will not be able to watch this film, but I can't help that.
Take or Leave.
Btw, yesterday I read that The Ninth Gate got lukewarm reviews in the US at release. sheesh.
Sigur wrote: Btw, yesterday I read that The Ninth Gate got lukewarm reviews in the US at release. sheesh.
While I liked enough to try to read The Club Dumas, it was pretty slow paced and I remember Depp being pretty wooden throughout. Its one of those movies that I wouldn't mind watching from time to time.
Probably one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Really enjoyed it. Solid character build up. People acting in their natures consistently throughout. And just fun. It's a new one for the christmas rotation for sure.
Top Gun: Maveric
I do not understand the hype this got. It was decent but not amazing. I don't hate that I watched it or anything and it's perfectly nostalgic and a decent feels film. But it wasn't special. It does have the advantage of being a sequel that doesn't actively destroy the franchise from 25+ years ago though.
Gremlins
Watched this with my kids on Christmas Eve. This holds up. I still love it. And more importantly my kids loved it. They wanted a stairway rail seat till......
Wrath of Man
This was really really well done. It's a Statham movie but more subdued than his general action stuff.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Do you plan to show them Gremlins 2? I’m curious is they will like it as it is a notorious love-it-or-hate-it movie. My son and I loved it.
Indeed. That'll come up probably this weekend when we can all sit down for family movie I love that one.
Shinobi no mono - 1966
This was a lot better than I had expected. The plot is solid. There's what looks like a fair bit of shinobi/ninja philosophy in action through out the story from disguises to manipulation.
Two rival clans are attempting to kill a would be shogun for religious reasons.
They are both working toward that end but also trying to prevent the other clan from being successful.
There seem to be several movies under this banner and I will look for the rest.
It's worth a watch if you can find it, not as flashy as 80's ninja movies but it does show maybe a more historical ninja in action which I enjoyed.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Do you plan to show them Gremlins 2? I’m curious is they will like it as it is a notorious love-it-or-hate-it movie. My son and I loved it.
Indeed. That'll come up probably this weekend when we can all sit down for family movie I love that one.
The alternative title for this could easily be Green Lantern: Jon Stewart - Day One
Beginning with the standard GL origin (crashed ship, alien bequeaths mysterious ring) this story goes big early, introducing members of the Justice League and going on an interstellar adventure.
The DCAU continues to outperform the DCEU in most respects, and this is no exception. I'm not sure why we needed this particular story, it seems kinda redundant, but the minimum standard for DC animated movies is always high, so it's welcome nevertheless.
Nothing marks GL: BMP out as exceptional, but it's still decently entertaining, and maybe the best Green Lantern origin movie ever made.
Brad Pitt in a thinly fictionalized version of US Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal. (How thinly veiled? He's named Gen McMahon, I guess because McGlass was deemed too close).
I liked it. A lot. Pitt does a great job playing a general who's tough as nails but also smart and sees the war for what it is.
He does a speech where he explains how if you have 10 insurgents and kill 2, you get 20 insurgents, because the 2 guys you killed each had friends/cousins/brothers who were on the fence. He constantly talks about how this war is not about killing but about nation building. If anything I think the film (based on the book The Operators, by a Rolling Stone reporter embedded with McChrystal) is unfair to him.
And the last shot of the film is worth the price of admission.
The film is especially poignant after the collapse in 2021.
Given the reach of modern internet communication, it's incredibly rare to discover a genuine hidden gem these days. The times of picking a VHS from the rental place on the strength of its cover and then realising that it is in fact an amazing movie are, I fear, largely gone.
So imagine my surprise to see The Night House referenced briefly in a documentary, and realise that there was an appealing looking, contemporary horror/thriller I'd simply no knowledge of. I was then delighted to discover that it was available to stream on Disney + (UK, suspect it'll be on Hulu in other territories.)
While that sequence of events is rare, it is even rarer that I watch a movie that I can genuinely offer no real criticism of. The Night House put me in mind of Jordan Peele's films in so much as a large part of the movie is spent building a quiet dread, without really offering anything extraordinary to justify it. What Lies Beneath is another point of reference that kept popping into my head.
Rebecca Hall more or less carries the film singlehandedly, and does an amazing job with material that could easily have been accidentally comical in the wrong hands. FX are subtle, but expertly realised. In fact "subtle but expertly realised" pretty much sums up the whole production.
The Night House is a small film that is complex enough to offer multiple interpretations of the story, ranging from a simple ghost story to musings on grief, mental health or the idea of how well we really know those closest to us and how we cope when we're wrong, or the fear of leaving things unfinished. That's after just one viewing. It's also brave enough to leave questions unanswered, allowing the viewer greater freedom to apply their own interpretation.
Unless you're completely unable to watch anything vaguely spooky without ruining your sleep for weeks (these people exist) then this is a film really worth checking out.
Brad Pitt in a thinly fictionalized version of US Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal. (How thinly veiled? He's named Gen McMahon, I guess because McGlass was deemed too close).
I liked it. A lot. Pitt does a great job playing a general who's tough as nails but also smart and sees the war for what it is.
He does a speech where he explains how if you have 10 insurgents and kill 2, you get 20 insurgents, because the 2 guys you killed each had friends/cousins/brothers who were on the fence. He constantly talks about how this war is not about killing but about nation building. If anything I think the film (based on the book The Operators, by a Rolling Stone reporter embedded with McChrystal) is unfair to him.
And the last shot of the film is worth the price of admission.
The film is especially poignant after the collapse in 2021.
I agree. I got out in 2000 and the stuff in the movie reflects the Army far above my paygrade but there was an air of poignant, albeit satirical, authenticity many elements of it.
This one's quite good and a worthwhile waste of your time. The lead is a strong actor although none of the rest of the cast are anything special. We see a lot of the Predator, maybe a little too much.
It reminded me in many ways of the action heavy Mad Max: Fury Road without ever quite being as good as it.
Our hero is a woman who wants to be a hunter rather than her assigned gatherer role. The whole film is centred on her becoming this recognised hunter. We start with "You can't be what you want to be, you're supposed to be something else ..." and I'm waiting for the very tired trope of "because you're a woman" to land, but it never does. Indeed, she gets plenty of opportunity early on to prove herself and the script gracefully handles her failure which sets up the over arching character development. I think they handled this very well.
If I have any complaint it is that the script reads as though it was made for a video game. Our hero starts with limited skills and unlocks new features as we progress, gets a weapon upgrade, interacts with the environment in very set ways, has the obligatory level where they've lost their weapons, fights grow from struggling with a single opponent at the start to single handedly clearing a camp of enemies, has a big boss fight. Maybe I'm being picky and maybe this is how modern action movies are, but for me the script screamed VIDEO GAME! - Lara Croft is Tomb Raider: Predator
On Prey, it’s worth noting it’s the skills she was taught as a woman which lead to success, including figuring out the Predator sees in heat.
Sure she’s not a bad hunter herself, but it’s the uncommon if not not unique mix of skills she has, rather than what I’m sure some would call Mary Sue. That, and she’s clearly observant and clever. Every encounter brings a lesson she ultimately puts to good use.
Last night?
The Secrets of Dumbledore
Laaaaaaaaame. Eddie Redmaybe gurning! Weightless CGI! The audible sound of the bottom of the barrel being scraped! It’s not thrilling. It’s not interesting. The story is outright plodding and boring.
Take everything wonderful about the Harry Potter films, strip it out, and replace with bleach, Eddie Redmayne Gurning and a rather bored looking Mads Mikkelson, and you get this horrific mess of a movie.
Even though I'm not much of a fan of the Daniel Craig Era, I think it takes itself far too seriously (I'm one of those weirdos who prefer the whimsy of the Roger Moore Years), it was actually a pretty good, if over long, film and a decent finale. Looking forward to where the franchise goes next.
Rather disjointed affair with a lot of “well that might as well happen”
The fight scenes were even more confused smashings of big wibbly stringy things punching holes in apparently invulnerable or instantly self healing play-dough beasties. No threat felt at any point, and while I usually really like Tom Hardy, the writers didn’t give him much to work with, which is ironic seeing as he wrote the thing.
Absolutely flabbergasted that this is a Studio Ghibli film. The main character is intensely unlikeable, the plot is practically non-existent, the animation is so-so (Anime studios still seem to struggle to do that Western CG style) and it doesn't so much have an ending as it just stops.
Still my favorite Bollywood/Heist/Dance off/Musical of all time, and the perfect NYE film.
Ah, now I'm gonna have to check that out.
I watched RRR, went in with zero expectations as I have little to no experience of Tollywood/Bollywood movies but boy oh boy was I pleasantly surprised.
RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt) is a tale of 2 heroes, from different viewpoints, who apparently are real historical figures but turned into action heroes for this movie.
It has everything, bonkers action set pieces, crazy fight scenes including a using motorbike as a weapon, or a tiger, song and dance numbers, evil British villains, the biggest bromance of all time and was possibly the film I enjoyed the most of 2022. Honestly, it shouldn't work. The story is nothing original, the CGI isn't mindblowing and, out of context, some of it just shouldn't work, but watch it all together and it was the most enjoyable 3 hours I've had in a long time.
Definately don't hate Milla Jovovich though and I kinda even like the thing her and her husband got going on.
Couldn't give a toss about RE background, because Capcom don't either. They're also pretty honest about it: It's a justification to have a good game. And that's it. You're here, there are zombies all around, go to over there and don't die on the way. That's it. That's a video game. Or an action film. Don't bore me with made up silly names or made up silly explanations for things.
Anyway, I heard that ghost ship was pretty good actually. I guess it would have stood out better if it had been released some other time, because 
