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Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:You’re probably almost certainly not wondering why I didn’t include this in the first bit. Well, that’s because simply put, I’m just not as familiar with this one.

You disgust me. Go on.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Now as ever, and for clarity, I’ve never read the books, and don’t particularly intend to.

You disgust me. Go on.

All kidding aside I think you're spot on about not making the different House's soldiers have strong distinct visual styles. As for the soundtrack:



Rob Zombie, for better or worse, has one style and one style only. Sometimes it works though most of the time I would say it doesn't, but you can usually tell it is a Zombie film so I appreciate that at least he isn't generic.

The Valley of Gwangi

Another Harryhausen stop motion movie.

This time? This time it’s Dinosaurs. In a Valley. In old Mexico. A secret previously known only to *checks notes*….Gypsies, and horrifically stereotypical ones at that. At least until some Cowboys find it, and decide to go there to get new attractions for their faltering Wild West Show.

Naturally after one of them gets eaten off an Allosaurus, the eponymous Gwangi. To be honest he sodding deserved it, having immediately prior lanced a Styrocasaurus which had up until that point, been doing a solid job of engaging and distracting Gwangi. The tit.

They all leg it, get out the valley, promptly all fall of their horses for drama. Gwangi follows, gets knocked out, and taken to the Wild West Show.

With entirely predictable results. Spesh after the dwarf Gypsy unlocks Gwangi’s cage, and is promptly eaten (there’s gratitude for you).

Gwangi then gets into it with a Stop Motion Elephant and has another meal. He’s gonna be a Fatty at this rate, the prehistoric glutton.

Anyways, townsfolk run into the big Church, then out the back door. Our hero locks himself, the woman and the Annoying kid in the church. Maybe figuring a calming psalm or two will bore Gwangi into submission. Then he burns the church down. Sacrilege and ecological crimes in one. Nice.

Gwangi becomes extinct all over again, and presumably our heroes learn nothing, and are probably gonna get their heads kicked in for burning down the Church and endangering everyone’s lives in the first place with their reckless behaviour.

So. Yeah. Harryhausen’s masterful works aside? Really not much to see here. Spesh as only two humans get ate off a Dinosaur. Though I’m pretty sure the Pteranadon was trying to dry hump it’s prey. Skip to 1:30 to see what I mean.

I haven't seen The Valley of Gwangi for decades. I have a fondness for it, probably born out of nostalgia for something I saw as a child. If I saw it again I'd probably have a different opinion. I can't remember too much. A tiny horse and Gwangi being finished off in a burning church (that's how to deal with a borderline extinct creature Chris Packam! Or maybe not). I remember feeling sorry for the poor allosaurus. I read somewhere that Ray Harryhausen wasn't that enmoured with his own work with this one.

I think it leans too much into Western for me, which is a genre I’ve never had an appreciation for.

In a way, it’s a pretty by-the-numbers King Kong clone. Indeed, the guy that made King Kong was the original driving force behind it, before he passed away.

It just lacks charm. The stop motion bits remain value for money. But they are wasted in the overall context.

Re: the Die Hard films.
Among the many quality attributes, the stand out for me is Willis' portrayal of a guy who wishes the bad guys would go away because they're making life too difficult and nobody wants to listen to him. This lines up with Doc's analysis that he's not a Shwarzenegger character. He's not storming through the bushes roaring his war cry, and when he walks into the room most people wish that he would rather go away than save the day.

In the first he throws someone out of the building with the "welcome to the party, pal" to get attention and in the second he's ignored until he fires a magazine full of blanks in a crowded room. I can't recall if he does something similar in the third, but the consistent theme of an exasperated Johnny nobody saving the day was one of the strengths of the early films.

In the third and fourth he’s more listened to, as his reputation stands for itself. And we get pretty different movies as a result.

I’m just on 4.0 right now, and it’s fairly enjoyable. A bit more out-there than its predecessors, but nothing we can’t put down to One-Upmanship of sequelitis.

The fifth I may watch if I’m feeling masochistic.

Runaway Jury (2003)

Lovely legal thriller, which is a bit on the kookie/wacky side of things starring Gene Hackman (as the grand puppet master who's all about jury manipulation, utilizing rather crude and scummy tools), Dustin Hoffman (as the lawyer of the wife who sues a big arms company after the shooting of her husband), John Cusack as jury person#9, Rachel Weisz as his girlfriend, Bruce Davidson (as the arms company lawyer, Bruce McGill as judge and so on. Great cast of character actors. Hackman has this little command post in an abandoned building across the street from the court, where him and a bunch of computer nerds (led by Pollux Troy IIRC) and his PA follow the going-ons in the courtroom via cameras in the defence lawyer's glasses. An early reminder that people who wear glasses with integrated cameras are complete tools who make life miserable for everybody.

From that situation develops a nice little intrigue thing back and forth with a very, very smart premise.

I enjoy the film when ever I see it. The moral lines aren't quite as clearly drawn as you'd think for most of the film, so it's much easier to cheer the goodies and dislike the baddies. There are several interesting characters in the jury itself as well, most of them character actors/"that guy'"s from all the 90s films.


Watch It. It's not perfect, but it's very enjoyable, not the least due to the great cast.

Mad Max Fury Road

What a film! What a lovely film!


WIIITTTNEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!

Broadcast ends.

Strange World
Disney kinda shoved this one out with minimal fanfare (I certainly don't remember seeing any trailers or anything for it), which is a shame as it's not a bad movie.
Yes, the whole concept doesn't really make sense if you think about it, but it's a solidly entertaining movie.

Also tried watching the live-action version of City Hunter but only made it about 30 minutes in (Grumpy Old Man Me doesn't like Jackie Chan movies as much as Teenage Me did), was rather impressed that it actually managed to be more cartoony than the anime version though.

Mandy

Nic Cage stars in this high concept, highly stylised horror thriller. And he goes Full Nic Cage.

This is partly psychedelic horror, part revenge thriller. So far it’s like those weird Indy 60’s-80’s low budget schlock. But done really, really well. Cage is absolutely in his element here.

Suffice to say if Cage isn’t your cup of tea, you’ll hate this. But I’m loving it.

Watched the Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar this afternoon.

Which I figure I'm putting it in this thread because it's a short film.

Always love Wes Anderson and this is no exception. Very enjoyable eye catching style. Burpsnort Clumphouse managed to be not irritating and did quite a good job.

Watched Ghostbusters Afterlife last night. The first two acts were great. Interesting and fun characters, a bit of fan service. The. The third act kicks in and someone on the writing/production team bottled it and decided that something new here would be waaaay too much to ask… It was Definately fun and the set pieces were impressive enough, but it just lost the initiative toward the end.

Jules

Another sweet, easy watch movie. This stars Ben Kingsley, a lonely old man from a small town who is just developing the symptoms of Alzheimer's. His son no longer stays in touch due to his erratic behaviour and his daughter is clearly frustrated but still cares.

He lives in a huge, fairly isolated house on his own and his day is spent mostly lobbying the town council and watching CSI.

One night a UFO crashes in his back garden and an alien crawls out. Of course, nobody believes him....

This is a very easy going, gentle film and is more about getting old than it is a sci-fi movie but obviously has sci-fi elements.

I enjoyed it but maybe that's because I am also getting old and could sympathise with the characters.

3 O’clock High

A lesser know, and perhaps forgotten, 80’s high school comedy drama.

Kind of nerdy kid ends up on the Wrong Side of the new kid at school. A new kid with quite the reputation for being Hat Stand.

We follow our protagonist over the day, as we creep closer to 3 o’clock and his scheduled fight with Buddy.

The comedy aspect of this is low key. More “FML” type mishaps for our protagonist (Jerry, his name is Jerry) throughout the day, including an over zealous school security guard, a faculty unwilling to listen to him, and the building excitement across the student body for the coming fight.

It is quite brutal though when it comes to the violence.

What here is enjoyable. The cast are fine, the plot is perfectly serviceable. But its tone is…odd. As I said the comedy is low-key, so someone looking for a John Hughes romp is going to be sorely disappointed. And there’s not enough in terms of action for those seeking something properly fighty, like Karate Kid.

Cursory Google shows it was a box office bomb, and I’m gonna lay that at the feet of it’s unusual tone.

The Hunger Games all 4 films.

It's pleasantly surprising that this series is as enjoyable as it is. I had an expectation that at some point the show would be derailed into unspeakable stupidity but this never happened. In fact the whole lot was a rather sensible and rational take on a typically daft soft sci-fi premise. What inspiration the films take from their sources' (I assume) young-adult-fated-romance-love-triangle ickiness is rather tastefully kept minimal and adds to the plot rather than dominating it.

High points for me included almost everyone behaving sensibly and within reason throughout, and then the consequences of those actions were reasonable enough. To isolate a single point, in the second movie a minor character does something that made me think "well, they're going to make him pay for that and if I were them I'd do it at exactly this point". And the film went and did it, exactly how I thought they would. The only troubling part was that his action was so obvious that it seemed stupid to do it, until we get to the third film and then the sacrifice is rationally explained. Have we fallen so far that I have to praise movies for not being actively stupid?

There are some minor quibbles. The main actor is not my cup of tea. There's plenty of times where she gets to show emotion and seldom do I feel moved. It's made worse for her when in the third film Natalie Dormer is introduced and, with a minor character and no interesting lines to speak of, gives a side-by-side demonstration of what someone with real acting chops can do.

I didn't find any of the films nailed their finale particularly well, for various reasons, and the last two films really should have been a single film as there simply isn't enough interesting material and what there is has been stretched paper thin.

But, I can honestly say that this bloke the wrong side of 40 would recommend this series as an enjoyable diversion.

I also was surprised that I enjoyed the Hunger Games films.

Hunger Games is great, though I personally didn't think there was anything wrong with the lead. Jennifer Lawrence is awesome in pretty much everything she does.

Hard Candy

Elliott Page and Patrick Wilson star.

A revenge movie. And not for the feint of heart. This deals with serious issues, in a serious if dramatised way.

Nothing is glorified. Nothing is played for laughs.

This is a smart, understated vigilante movie.

It doesn’t titillate. It doesn’t eroticise the underlying subject matter.

It’s creepy in exactly the right ways, in that it shows how grooming works.

The finale? The finale is similarly understated. No gore ridden revenge. Not asploding the Johnson. The revenge is about as cold as the groomer.

The leads are *superb*, convincing in their roles. And frankly, outside of its generally “why would you want to see that?” premise? It’s perfect.

Ghost Ship

‘Tis the season to be spooky, fa la la la la, la la aaaaaaaargh!

Yes folks as we approach the most wonderful time of the year, it’s back to Spooky Movies.

And this one? It’s ropey, but fun, and with a pretty stellar cast. It’s incredibly early 00’s but for me that adds to the charm. There is gore, there is violence, there’s even some Rude Bits*, but it’s not gross out with any of it.

It’s played pretty straight, and that’s to its benefit. No post-ironic drivel. Just a ghost move made as a straight ghost movie.

Up for free on Prime right now, I’d recommend giving it a watch.

*Which as we get older, get Ruder and Ruder.

Totally Killer

80’s Nostalgia Modern Day Time Travel Slasher Thriller.

This is a pretty groovy flick! Lifts elements from your traditional 80’s slashers, bits from Scream, bits from Back to the Future, with a side of “hey, 80’s nostalgia is in”.

But it’s blended these things to an absolute tee. Tongue firmly in cheek, it delivers on each element confidently, and is definitely worth a move night watch.

The Mill

New Hulu movie that probably could have been 45 minutes long.

That said, I got a pretty good fething laugh at some of the workplace humor in this very bland satire of the 'dignity' of work.

I too got a pen once and yes, I too thought that was the dumbest fething gak.

This movie's seriously 45 minutes longer than the satire can carry it though.

The Exterminator

1980 vigilante thriller in the mould of Death Wish, but done by Troma. But whilst evidentially a Troma film, this isn’t a Troma Movie.

And it’s really quite good! The action is solid, and not especially lurid. The acting is fine, plot more or less holds up. And it ensures we empathise with our hero, and feel like the baddies are getting a long overdue comeuppance.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Totally Killer

80’s Nostalgia Modern Day Time Travel Slasher Thriller.

This is a pretty groovy flick! Lifts elements from your traditional 80’s slashers, bits from Scream, bits from Back to the Future, with a side of “hey, 80’s nostalgia is in”.

But it’s blended these things to an absolute tee. Tongue firmly in cheek, it delivers on each element confidently, and is definitely worth a move night watch.

Just don't think about the time travel issues or timing in general

But seriously fun movie.

Slotherhouse

More horror! This time involving a psychotic Sloth on a revenge fuelled rampage.

No.

Really.

This is mental. But in a mostly good way. It’d set in a Sorority, where the Sloth (Alpha) is adopted at the house mascot. Alpha then goes on a wee killing rampage.

There’s a lot of odd stuff. Like constant screen overlays showing each characters social media follower count, but I’m not entirely sure why.

But overall it’s pretty fun!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Dakka I need your assistance.

There’s a film I could’ve sworn was a Sinbad flick, but apparently it isn’t.

It’s the same sort of setting. The main memory I have is of the Princess/Damsel type character being abducted each night, having sleep walked into a gilded cage, carried by a stop motion animated giant Vulture type bird.

It’s definitely a movie made somewhere in the 60’s or 70’s. And not knowing what it is, is driving me nuts.

Well, more nuts than I usually am.

It sounds familiar but I can't think of a title.

Clash of the Titans.

Princess Andromeda gets taken to the swamp each night to be with Calibos.

Effects were by Harryhausen, which is probably why you thought it might be a Sinbad film.

pgmason wrote:
Clash of the Titans.

Princess Andromeda gets taken to the swamp each night to be with Calibos.

Effects were by Harryhausen, which is probably why you thought it might be a Sinbad film.

Yep.

We just watched that. It really holds up, especially the Medusa scene.

Swamp Thing 1982.
Still loads of fun.

Drive in not far is showing Friday the 13 Part 2 and 3 tonight and I had planned on going but there is a 100% chance of rain during that time.