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I watched a "film" last night that I'm sure MDG would approve of: 1988's Chopping Mall.

Which is the classic tale of 1980's youngish couples having sex at a shopping mall after hours and get laser blasted by three robots that look like Short Circuit's Johnny Five had some naughty time with a Dalek.

Thankfully the mall is filled with weapons, and the plot armor is thicker for characters with backstories.

It was dumb, but bizarre enough to keep me entertained.

It would've been better if the computer at the end had been a giant robot, but alas, it was not to be.

That’s a terrific nonsense B-Movie! I think I’ve got it on DVD, somewhere.

Managed to leverage a bank holiday Monday into a trip to the cinema with my beautiful darling wife.

We saw the new Naked Gun. My face is aching. My goodness it’s a fire hose of utterly bizarro gags. Not all of them hit, but enough do that I was almost crying. I haven’t laughed like that since the first time I watched Airplane.

 Flinty wrote:
....I haven’t laughed like that since the first time I watched Airplane.

Woah. That's big. I may have to watch that after all.

I’m just glad Dakka’s collective fears appear misproven. Police Squad! and the Naked Gun are not easy to get right.

Kinda need straight actors with just the right amount of Poe Faced Ham, not reacting to the nonsense they cause and that happens to them.

Haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on my list.

It will win no Oscar’s, but I was in very much the right mood for it I mean I’m pretty sure there is a cameo from the beaver from the first one

It was one of the better things that people on this forum have recommended.

(I still haven't finished that Star Wars show everyone told me to see.)

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
That’s a terrific nonsense B-Movie! I think I’ve got it on DVD, somewhere.

Chopping Mall is indeed a delight. A slice of eighties horror cheese in the best possible way.


Batman (1989) got to see this in the theater tonight and boy what a mess. It is a self serious trifle of a film that doesn't seem to understand the assignment. In creating a remake of the campy Adam West series that was a translation of the silly three color comic they forgot the jokes and bright colors. Some unknown director picked an unknown stand up comedian to play the role of the Bat Man and he acts like a robot: he just turns his body never his head like he is some sort of automaton and stares a lot. He never even uses a red phone nor does he have an adolescent sidekick. The Joker doesn't steal anything and causes a lot of harm to others, even killing people! The city doesn't look like a real place and the music, my goodness the awful music. It is all sweeping and moody instead of fun and jaunty. Where is Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters when you need them? Overall I can't imagine this will go over well and it will be disliked by most audiences then forgotten within a few years.

Last night I finished watching Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team, which was rather neat. Last episode is clever.

Serious spoiler:


Then I watched Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989). 6-part OVA, but really a film (considering the length of newer blockbuster films it certainly is). Boy, that is on another level. Drawing style, amazing animation, some stylistic choices in general. This is the raddest 80s Spielberg/Stand By Me/that sorta stuff film. As usual, lots of knowledge on the big story of Gundam isn't required. It probably helps and enriches the whole thing, but in itself it's the sort of story Gundam excels at (as far as I know): People thrown into war.. First I was a bit surprised by the art style (I watched the rather clean/clear mid-90s 08th MS Team before), which actually is amazing at expressing feelings on a face. I was a bit put off by the school setting, which is also gone very, very soon, so don't worry. This is about credible characters, acting bravely at times, but in a credible way. The main character is competent, smart, but - again - credible and un-annoying. Not sure who exactly this is made for, because it's got this coming of age or kids adventure film aspect to it - and very strongly so - but also pretty graphic violence. Which is a requirement for the whole thing to work, because the whole idea is about the clash of the kids adventure, the cool giant robots and that unlikely and very touching bond vs. the realities of war, where the games end and people get hurt or die.

Watch It. It's proper good stuff. And it's got rad 80s music, characters aren't annoying, and it's got christmas. Yes, there are some anime tropes, but nothing serious. Can't be helped, it's the medium.

Ghosthouse aka La Casa 3

Lowish budget Italian horror flick, in the mould of Poltergeist and Evil Dead. It doesn’t come close to the quality of those, but it’s a fun enough bit of haunted house silliness.

Possibly interesting, Evil Dead and Evil Dead II were released in Italy as La Casa and La Casa 2. So in the time honoured “we’re Italian movie makers, and we’ll rip off any US movie, and pretend anything is a sequel to such as we damned well please” tradition? Whilst made as its own thing, this became a second sequel.

And it wasn’t the last. I managed to entirely accidentally collect nearly all the series. Which goes….

La Casa / Evil Dead
La Casa 2 / Evil Dead II
La Casa 3 / Ghosthouse
La Casa 4 / Witchery/Witch House (David Hasselhoff and Linda Blair star!)
La Casa 5 / Beyond Darkness
La Casa 6 / House II
La Casa 7 / House III / The Horror Show (Lance Henrikson is in that one).

Didn’t know of this link, and overtime I’d procured all but Beyond Darkness. Yes, I’ve just bought a copy.

So I watched Toy Soldiers now. Fun Fact: German release title was "Boy Soldiers" apparently, but I'm rather sure I always watched it under the Toy Soldiers title. It's good fun. Soundtrack is a bit hard to take, and I'm not sure if that much US special forces XY drill was required, but it's a fun film.

Now the question is - to read the novel this is apparently based on, or to look up Soldier Boyz, the Michael Dudikoff film in which he recruits kids for some military operation out of jail....

 Sigur wrote:
So I watched Toy Soldiers now. Fun Fact: German release title was "Boy Soldiers" apparently, but I'm rather sure I always watched it under the Toy Soldiers title. It's good fun. Soundtrack is a bit hard to take, and I'm not sure if that much US special forces XY drill was required, but it's a fun film.

Now the question is - to read the novel this is apparently based on, or to look up Soldier Boyz, the Michael Dudikoff film in which he recruits kids for some military operation out of jail....

Seriously? There is no option. Michael Dudikoff was the American Ninja for feths sake! The American Ninja!

 Sigur wrote:
So I watched Toy Soldiers now. Fun Fact: German release title was "Boy Soldiers" apparently, but I'm rather sure I always watched it under the Toy Soldiers title.

This can be a little bit like how the US marketing for Zootopia is plastered everywhere and yet the UK regional version is called Zootropolis. Yet no one in the UK calls it the latter name at all. Basically one branch of the marketing just dominates to an insane degree and it becomes the "name" for the thing even if the actual localisation ends up with an altered title.

 Overread wrote:

 Sigur wrote:
So I watched Toy Soldiers now. Fun Fact: German release title was "Boy Soldiers" apparently, but I'm rather sure I always watched it under the Toy Soldiers title.

This can be a little bit like how the US marketing for Zootopia is plastered everywhere and yet the UK regional version is called Zootropolis. Yet no one in the UK calls it the latter name at all. Basically one branch of the marketing just dominates to an insane degree and it becomes the "name" for the thing even if the actual localisation ends up with an altered title.

I mean, it helps that Zootopia is just the better name, too.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Overread wrote:

 Sigur wrote:
So I watched Toy Soldiers now. Fun Fact: German release title was "Boy Soldiers" apparently, but I'm rather sure I always watched it under the Toy Soldiers title.

This can be a little bit like how the US marketing for Zootopia is plastered everywhere and yet the UK regional version is called Zootropolis. Yet no one in the UK calls it the latter name at all. Basically one branch of the marketing just dominates to an insane degree and it becomes the "name" for the thing even if the actual localisation ends up with an altered title.

I mean, it helps that Zootopia is just the better name, too.

I remember spending 30 bucks on a Highlander movie called Highlander: The Sorcerer, only to discover upon getting it in the mail it was just the foreign name of Highlander III.