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 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I remember when The Siege came out, and everyone was incensed and rolling their eyes. Then by 2005 everyone kind of went back and thought, “Okay, The Siege. I owe you an apology.”

Yes...... I do remember. Sadly.

Bandersnatch

Nowhere near as clever as it thinks either plotwise or with the choices but a passable 5/10, maybe 6 just for the Jeff Minter cameo, starting to think Black Mirror is running out of steam as if the best episode of late features Ron's tiresome offspring thats worrying

I do love the storyline in Bandersnatch where.....



For some reason that cracked me up.

oh it had some moments I liked



a possible reference to a very stupid murder plot in the UKs finest misery and tedium soap opera Eastenders

but overall still mehh

Mission of Honor

A film about Polish RAF Pilots during the Battle of Britain.

The film has some pacing issues and the dogfight sequences are kind of boring. It can also be a bit challenging to tell who is who when they are all kitted out.

Overall, pretty Meh and I can not recommend.

 Easy E wrote:
Mission of Honor

A film about Polish RAF Pilots during the Battle of Britain.

The film has some pacing issues and the dogfight sequences are kind of boring. It can also be a bit challenging to tell who is who when they are all kitted out.

Overall, pretty Meh and I can not recommend.

thats a shame as 303 squadrons story is fantastic, was in one of the war comics wee 1970s Turnip had instead of supers, and came with a little history write up at the end

The Void

Really enjoyed this lower budget (cleverly used though with plentiful practical effects) Cosmic Horror film.

Would have preferred an even bleaker ending but it went farther than most are willing to.

Just watched "the triangle". It was not bad, far above the level of garbage the asylum puts out.

It might appear to be a dumb horror movie, but to get it you must remember it's sort of based on the legend of King Sisyphus.

Land of the Dead

Belated fourth instalment of Romero’s loose series of Dead films.

I greatly enjoy this film, but it’s definitely the poorer cousin. Main reason for me? The production feels too polished. The plot itself is pretty solid. And Big Daddy’s sort of sentience builds neatly from ‘Bub’ in Day of the Dead.

It’s on Netflix in at least the UK, so if you’ve time to spare it’s worth a look.

Flags of our Fathers

I rewatched Letters of Iwo Jima recently and decided to see the partner film which I don't really remember... and now I remember why I don't remember.

Is it just me, or is Flags of our Fathers a movie with great scenes, good actors, and everything that makes a good movie good... that just isn't good? I forgot how much and how randomly this movie nonsensically jumps around in time. It's kind of like Dunkirk, except I could follow the plot of Dunkirk. The plot of this movie is like someone cut the script up and it was pieced back together at random. It's so unviewer friendly I'm kind of shocked Letters from Iwo Jima was made by the same director.

EDIT: Though on a history note, this movie is straight eerie at times now that it's been determined Rene Gagnon was not a flag raiser. It makes multiple scenes outright eerie, even prophetic. There's one where someone threatens to accuse him of not being a flag raiser if he doesn't reveal the names of everyone who raised the flag, and another scene where Hayes jokes that 'he didn't do anything'. I'm curious if these incidents appeared in the source material, and are only just now given new meaning. Given that the film presents him as the only one of the film's principal characters who reveled in sudden fame, he almost comes out looking like a villain, despite the film being made at a time when people thought he was one of the flag raisers. EDIT EDIT: In fact, apparently Hayes was the only actual flag raiser on the war bond tour. John Bradly was determined to have been mistaken for Harold Schultz in 2016, which puts a whole new spin on Hayes' struggles in the film.

I read the source material..... and it sucks! I hope my memory is faulty, but I recall a very bad impression of it.

I read it on a flight and it was so bad, I decided to just stare at the seat in front of me instead...... the worst sort of Pop History paperback I recall having read.

Do not expect to find any answers there Hats.

Daredevil

Finally got to the end of the Netflix Marvel shows so thought id give the Ben/Jen effort a rewatch, its still a bit mehh but still better than Hobojesus of Steel or Dark World

Umbella Academy

more super hijinx better than recent CW output and the young chap that plays 5 is the standout

[b] Wild at Heart [b]

Or as it should be called Nic Cage Begins, lots of Lynch crazy and the nastiest bone crunching noise since Superman 2

Bombshell

A pretty good film about the sexual harassment scandal at Fox News that brought down Roger Ailes. It has an amazing cast, and Charlize Theron kills in this film! John Lithgow is also very good as Roger Ailes.

It is a pretty strong look at how Sexual Harassment impacts the culture of a workplace, and impacts everyone there; the people being harassed, the people not being harassed, the management, etc. Pretty interesting stuff even if you take the Fox News angle out of it.

The Lobster

Well.... that was something else.

If you are not in a couples relationship, you are packed up and sent to an indoctrination camp immediately. Then, you have 45 days to get into a relationship or you are turned into an animal of your choice. The protagonists wishes to be turned into a lobster.

The movie really evolves from that plot summary, but it doesn't get less weird. Instead, it gets more weird as we are introduced a bit to society outside of the "Hotel", and that culture is also weird.

I am sure there is lots of symbolism, metaphor, and subtext in the film but my pretentious hat is at the cleaners right now so I really do not have much more to say.

Colin Farrel (sp) is passable, and Rachel Weisz is below standard. However, I think that is more based on some of the direction she was given in some scenes.

 Easy E wrote:
Mission of Honor

...

Wasn't there a short-lived Chuck Norris series of post-9/11 actions films of the same name?


REVENGE OF THE NINJA (1983)

First time I've seen this one. Happened across it on TV, because this is where we get to see classics. Netflix is an utter wasteland and waste of time. I only use it to watch the IT Crowd over and over again really. Sometimes I'll watch The World's End or Der Tatortreiniger. But in terms of films in general it's absolute trash. I'd love for them to get rid of all that "original content" rubbish. I know, I know, it's their business model, but I don't care for it. A netflix logo is an instant incentive to turn it off. If we see annoying stuff in Hollywood films and think "thank you, studio interference/ test audience" we have to be aware that Netflix productions (apart from shows they bought from smaller production firms or tv channels) are JUST that. Oh well. Back to better things.

Revenge of the Ninja is the second installment of the ninja trilogy by Cannon films. This sentence already explains several factors of why I had to stick around and watch this film. Haven't seen the other two films, I hear the first is weaker.

The film stars Sho Kosugi and if that verb ever was fitting it's for this situation. Kosugi plays the hero as well as the villain for the most part of the film as far as I know. In short - the (main) baddie is played by a strapping white fella with strapping blue eyes. Of course he's not trained much in the way of the ninja, and they found a brilliant way to work around that fact WITHOUT resorting to differently coloured ninja outfits for the goodie and the baddie. Great stuff.

The story is somewhat secondary. It's about Sho Kosugi displaying a collection of painted ninja figures, the baddies want one of the figures because they smuggle drugs in them or something. Now that is a plot I can get behind! A baddie wants to steal nicely painted figurines and break them? How dare they!? Get them, Sho Kosugi! There's also something about his son and his police friend and his girlfriend or something, but who cares. This is about ninja figurines!

I'm aware of the name Sho Kosugi, but I don't think I'd ever seen him much on screen. Now I have and I'm a fan. Any irony or nostalgia aside, this film has some brilliant and very inventive action scenes. There's one very long sequence in which some baddies steal figurines and Kosugi tries to stop them. It starts out pretty regularly, and keeps on getting better and better and better. Most of all, it keeps you guessing about the result! Which is pretty rare. I really liked it. The ninja duel in the end is as fun as it is inventive and ridiculous.

I'm not a huge martial arts guy, but this has got to be my favourite ninja film. Yes of course I've seen the American Ninja films. Yes of course I've seen the pilot of The Master. Nope, none of those are as good as Revenge of the Ninja.


Watch It. It's fun, it's cool, it's gory in places, but not excessively so.


Just a reminder - the documentary "Electric Boogaloo" about Cannon films is still up on Youtube and it's brilliant. Watch it.


Other things I've watched lately:
Universal Soldier - Regeneration (2009). Bleh. Blue/grey.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006): As brilliantly heart-warming as ever. If you haven't seen it in a while and remermber it as being "yeah, it was nice, but very American-indie-film, and the ending was slightly lame" watch it again just to remind you of how nice a film it is and how bloody strong the cast is. Sure, the ending IS slightly problematic since "wee look at me, I'm odd, but I'm owning it and make it my annoying message!" is a silly approach. We're all odd, we all live with it, but never ever rub anything in people's faces. They got their own crap to cope with. THAT BEING SAID, in this case it's a thing about family and solidarity in this very situation. Of course, the whole focus on family is always a cheap cop-out by films, but these people are in a situation in which family is the only thing that works for them at the moment. So no matter how much I try to be cynical about it, it's a very, very, very nice film that makes ye feel happier.
Jodorowski's Dune (2014): Ha, finally got to see it! Worth it. Watch it. Brilliant.
Watched documentaries on The Kinks (interesting), Whitney Houston (seems like I knew nothing about her. Interesting.), Patrick Swayze (seems to have been a tip top lad, bascially trained as a superhero from age 3 up. Best thing about the documentary was the bit about the fight at the end of Road House. Which seemed to be a shoot, brother. The baddie actor coming from a martial arts background, knowing Swayze came from a ballet background, wanted to test him. Then they did that weird thing manly fighty dudes do which people like me can't ever understand. They punched and kicked each other and had a great time and bonded over it.), Frank Zappa (interesting fella) and "pop music and space" (Incredibly interesting. Listened to a radio feature about Afrofuturism a few years ago, been interested in the subject ever since. The whole space thing in pop in the 70s and early 80s ...interesting stuff. Now of course we're all about retro stuff because we're contronted with sci-fi stuff every day now and we see that it leads to a LOT of harm for us, so we have little interest in the future it seems).

Sho Kosagi is legend.

He is to Ninja movies as Mifune is to Samurai and Eastwood to Cowboys.

Recently rewatched The Three Amigos. It still holds up. I had forgotten just how funny Steve Martin can be using just the inflections of his voice. Martin Short and Chevy Chase also shine. A plethora of laughs.

A plethora ?

 Easy E wrote:
Sho Kosagi is legend.

He is to Ninja movies as Mifune is to Samurai and Eastwood to Cowboys.

Seems like it! Michael Dudikoff - king of ninjas no more!

Michael Dudikoff was/is only the king of "American" Ninjas. Ninjas from other places can have different royal lineage based on their own Ninja lines.

Extraction

A movie directed and produced by the Russo Brothers, starring Chris Hemsworth.

The plot? It is standard action movie fare. The son of an Indian drug lord is kidnapped by a rival Bangladeshi drug lord. A Mercenary is hired to retrieve the son. Bad things happen as everything falls apart. If you have seen an action movie before, you know the story line of this film.

This movie does have and amazing chase/actin sequence that is very well done and very exciting. It is a smooth "single take" that has become popular thanks to Children of Men. It starts in a jungle and evolves into a car chase, then a street fight, then a house-to-house search, followed by an aerial chase. All very well done and shot. That sequence alone is worth seeing the movie. This long mid-way scene carries the rest of the movie.

The Joker

I'm going to give up on super-hyped movies because they always turn out a bit meh. Not good, not bad, just forgettable meh.

 Easy E wrote:
Michael Dudikoff was/is only the king of "American" Ninjas. Ninjas from other places can have different royal lineage based on their own Ninja lines.

Extraction

....

What about Hawaii? Is Dudikoff's reign limited to the mainland? Do the Surf Ninjas rule the islands? Or are they more like dukes of hawaiian ninjadom?


I heard good things about Extraction. Well, good in that it's serviceable and does what it says on the tin.

Was Surf Ninjas the one with Ernie Reyes Jr? Or was that Three Ninjas? Pocket Ninjas?

There are too many movies about kid ninjas.

 Turnip Jedi wrote:
A plethora ?

I know what that word means.

Saw Birds of Prey
Wow. That was bad. Not even entertainingly bad.
Worse than Suicide Squad bad.
Even worse than Batman v Superman bad.

The pacing was frakked. (I get the flashbacks/rollbacks were supposed to be a joke, but... it wasn't funny).
The characters were dull, some seemed 'still reading the script in shot' dull.
The 'action' was dull, the betrayals were emotionless, no one really seemed to be excited to be there.

Everything was too normal and banal, which seems absurd to say about a 'supers' movie

Time after time.

H.G. Wells really built a time machine. Then his best friend who was secretly jack the ripper stole it and escaped into the 'future' of 1979. Wells goes off to save 'utopia" from the monster he let escape into it.

 Matt Swain wrote:
Time after time.

H.G. Wells really built a time machine. Then his best friend who was secretly jack the ripper stole it and escaped into the 'future' of 1979. Wells goes off to save 'utopia" from the monster he let escape into it.

That was a mid-Saturday afternoon favorite on my local UHF station. Loved it.

For some reason I thought you meant Biggles: Adventures in Time, and I was confused.

 Matt Swain wrote:
Time after time.

H.G. Wells really built a time machine. Then his best friend who was secretly jack the ripper stole it and escaped into the 'future' of 1979. Wells goes off to save 'utopia" from the monster he let escape into it.

So... what do you think of it?


I think i watched it twice or so. It was alright, I suppose?

 Sigur wrote:

 Matt Swain wrote:
Time after time.

H.G. Wells really built a time machine. Then his best friend who was secretly jack the ripper stole it and escaped into the 'future' of 1979. Wells goes off to save 'utopia" from the monster he let escape into it.

So... what do you think of it?


I think i watched it twice or so. It was alright, I suppose?

I'd call it a good movie. It was fairly original in concept and pretty clever, playing on wells actually building a time machine.

It was amazing to see malcolmn mcdowell playing wells as a saintly character given the fact he's most famous for playing very dark and negative roles like caligula and alex delarge.

Dave warner was at his villainous best as Jack the ripper.

AtomicBlonde

I really do not like movies that start the movie at the end, and then replay most of the story in flash back. Typically, this is to set-up a twist in the end, but it pretty much drains the tension out of the rest of the film. WE know they get to that point at the end, it is just a question of how.

This movie, and Extraction both use this technique. I would argue Atomic Blonde uses it better as there is actually a who-dun-it element to the cloak and dagger mystery to be resolved.

The second reason I dislike this movie making technique is because it "forces" a twist, and as a seasoned film watcher, I am now expecting it and predicting it; instead of letting it unfold. This also drains away tension as when it is revealed I am less impressed; either because I think mine was a better twist, or I predicted the "twist" all ready.

Therefore, I hate the story-telling technique that starts at the end of the story and tell the majority of it in flashback. This movie uses that technique but I do not hate it. I was not blown away by it either, and I actually liked it less than I expected too.

Why? The protagonist is not likable in anyway. The who-dun-it was not a surprise. The pacing was a bit tepid. The soundtrack was solid and new wave. The cloak and dagger was mediocre. There was less action than I wanted. The ending twist made no sense.....

Therefore, I was disappointed. However, I love seeing Charlize Theron as an "action" star. After seeing this, perhaps making a Black Widow movie would be harder than I thought......