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 Ghaz wrote:

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.

Why didn’t I know that? I have that film. I love that film. How could I not know that?

Sod it. I’m blaming the remake.

If I were you, I'd blame Bubo (who had a cameo in the remake)...

The remake makes Bubo look like Shaft.

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

heck yes. And Calibos, with the mix of make-up/mask/prosthetics and stop motion still is very effective as a scary baddie.



Right, how come I never watched Six String Samurai (1998) before?
I was looking for either of the documentaries on Streets of Fire (Rumble on the Lot and Shotguns and Six-Strings). Couldn't find either, but I did find Six String Samurai. And watched it, and liked it a lot. What a fun film to look at, what a fun film to listen to. If this had been made 15 years later I'd probably dislike it a lot, but then if it had been made 15 years later it would have been very different.

It's a post-apocalyptic USA, there's been an atomic war, Russia turned the US into a wasteland (and vice versa, most probably), so everybody is stuck in 1957, but with lots of dirt on them. The Six-String Samuari has to get to Lost Vegas to play a gig and become the new King Elvis of the city, but DEATH is on his heels. And that's it really.

It's very low-budget, even though it cost 20million dollars in 1998. I guess that there are a few things which make it look cheaper than it actually is, like the ADR'd dialogue (assumedly because 90% of the film takes place in a windy desert) and because it pays hommage to a lot of 50s sci-fi stuff I think. There must be a ton more references to the history of US rock&rock music and guitar playing, many of which go over my head because that's stuff I don't know as much about as I should.

The guy who plays the Six-String Samurai Buddy was an excellent pick for the role, because he's a martial arts fella and does a great job at all the actiony things. The kid was way un-annoying, which isn't typical for a 1990s US film production.

That's a film I can not help appreciating endlessly, despite all the stuff that's less than perfect about it.
Watch It. (it's on youtube. Don't worry about the distortion in the beginning; that isn't a thing to mislead copyright algorithms, that's a stylistic choice for the first 2 minutes or so of the film)

There I was looking for documentaries about the greatest Rock & Roll Fable ever made and ran into the greatest Post-apocalyptic Rock&Roll action film of all time.



edit: oh, and last night I watched about half of Hard Rain. Plot and all of that aside, the whole set design is pretty amazing. Imagine how they'd do that nowadays. Also: Not sure I've ever seen Betty White in a feature film aside from this one.

I saw the trailer for Six String Samurai back in ‘97 or ‘98, downloaded it on my computer. I waited for the movie, but never saw any ads on TV or in the papers, nor any reviews. I figured it was just one of those fake trailers made by fans. Now that I know it’s real I’ll have to find it.

That sounds exactly my sort of low budget mental!

Yeah, it seems like it had a bit of a rough development, but very interesting indeed. Made a trailer on no budget to shop it around, then got 2 million dollars from an upstart film publisher, and went on to make the film with a no-budget-mentality on everything, but convinced that they have to shoot in Death Valley. They had whole crews take off due to the rough shooting, had some people go down with heat strokes, etc. It was shown at festivals, got rave reviews from indie people. Less great reviews from more basic critics, and it only got a very, very limited release in cinemas in the US, and went straight to video/dvd elsewhere as far as I read.

It seems to be a unique thing, that film. I really enjoyed it though. I like a bit of the old rock&roll music. And the 90s. And things which aren't boring.
Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaPP00uNkNI


Where was Jeffrey Falcon when they did the Max Payne film!?

Gotta watch a Friday the 13th film on Friday the 13th, right? I went with Friday the 13th (2009). It was fine. The lack of anything remotely new or interesting is balanced against a mostly likable cast of hapless teenagers. Jason is suitably menacing. Hard to imagine a more average movie.

I didn't think of watching Friday the 13th for Friday the 13th but I did binge Rose Red after learning it as on Hulu.

Old miniseries based on Haunting of Hill House from King and Spielberg. Development hell project but it has a certain charm to it. Very much akin to the myriad of King adaptations from the 80s and 90s.

If your into that sort of cheesy horror it can be a fun nostalgia trip but I'd hesitate to call it good.

Sigur, did they say why they had to film in Death Valley? It’s bizarre when there are similar deserts right next door that aren’t deadly hot, like “Star Wars Canyon”, Alabama Hills, and not too far away, Vazquez Rocks. Was Death Valley part of the story?

Thanks for the link, though! Hopefully I’ll get a chance to watch it tomorrow afternoon.

As said earlier I wasn't able to watch Friday the 13th on Friday the 13th because it got rained out but will be leaving shortly to see them (part 2 and 3) tonight. Sadly they can't do the 3D version of 3 but it will still be a fun time.

Random question from a page back, is Ghost Ship the one with the killer opening on the dance floor where they have to cut the scene a little short?

That’s the badger!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Sigur, did they say why they had to film in Death Valley? It’s bizarre when there are similar deserts right next door that aren’t deadly hot, like “Star Wars Canyon”, Alabama Hills, and not too far away, Vazquez Rocks. Was Death Valley part of the story?

Thanks for the link, though! Hopefully I’ll get a chance to watch it tomorrow afternoon.

I have no idea. It sounds like one of the last places on earth where I'd wanna shoot a film. IIRCaccording to the article I read the filmmakers said they went there (unburdened by stuff like a script) because any direction you aim the camera there you get a beautiful shot. Maybe it was just a very "dedicated filmmaker" thing they felt they had to do, or it's just part of the sales pitch for the trailer.

Between Saturday and Sunday the Drive-In changed the screen showing the Friday the 13th films to the Taylor Swift concert film so I didn't get to see them again. The breadth and width of my sorrow is uncalculable but if I had to I would give it about a four.

I watched the last third of The House that Jack Built, because it was on TV last night.

I think that according to reviews I got the best part of the film. It was rather impressive and scary and a bit funny and darned cool in the very end. Matt Dylan can look eerily like a 50/50 mix of Jim Carrey and Willem Dafoe.

 Sigur wrote:
Right, how come I never watched Six String Samurai (1998) before?
I was looking for either of the documentaries on Streets of Fire (Rumble on the Lot and Shotguns and Six-Strings). Couldn't find either, but I did find Six String Samurai. And watched it, and liked it a lot. What a fun film to look at, what a fun film to listen to. If this had been made 15 years later I'd probably dislike it a lot, but then if it had been made 15 years later it would have been very different.

You can probably add that if the movie had been made fifteen years later, it would have been too late to inspire (a part of) Fallout New Vegas. Which I have every reason to believe that it did.

It's a really fun movie. Especially if you like Fallout, I'd say you shouldn't give Six-String Samurai a miss any more than A Boy and His Dog.

I’m about halfway through Six String Samurai and loving it. It’s a great example of how style and passion can more than make up for a low budget.


I don’t think it was all filmed in Death Valley, though. Some of it looks like Palm Springs, and the areas north of Joshua Tree. Fantastic use of location so far.

Devotion

The story of a black Corsair, carrier pilot in the US Navy during the Korean war.

I would say it is surprisingly flat. A good performance by the main lead, but the script just wasn't there. The action scenes are also surprisingly tepid too.

For warbird fans, you get to see some loving shots of F4F Bearcats, Corsairs, A-1 Skyraiders, and a Mig-15. A surprisingly short list really.

Slumber Party Massacre II

Why did I watch this? I was sick, that's why.

80's cheese, but not good in anyway, shape or form.

@Geifer: Oh yes, I'm rather sure it did inspire Fallout to some degree. Must have.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I’m about halfway through Six String Samurai and loving it. It’s a great example of how style and passion can more than make up for a low budget.


I don’t think it was all filmed in Death Valley, though. Some of it looks like Palm Springs, and the areas north of Joshua Tree. Fantastic use of location so far.

Yeah, it's a pretty rad film. I was rather positive you'd like it.
Funny thing i just realized days later: Buddy's dialogue especially sounding way ADR'd may be to make him sound like a dubbed samurai.


edit: Oh, last night I witnessed a proper abomination: A TV version of Demolition Man (we all love demolition man, don't we. And it's eery how prophetic that film is ), cut to fit the "FSK12" mold (comparable to PG13, maybe a bit harsher). The cut is a few years old, done by a German private tv channel. It's just horrifying. They cut like 6 minutes from the film. I've seen Demolition Man a few times, and it threw me each time. Okay, I get that maybe they cut the eye thing, but in many cases they cut absurdly tame stuff like the virtual sex images in Stallone's head. They just put the things on their heads, Bullock tells Stallone to relax, cut, Stallone tears the thing from his head, asking what's going on. And in many other cases the cuts are way hard and disorienting and it's all a very traumatic experience to be honest.

Reminds me of Patton Oswalt’s bit on Clean Filth, how it’s so much more disturbing than actual swearing.

Gosh I do miss TV Edits of movies.

In the U.K., whilst many violent scenes were cut, I usually didn’t know/notice until I saw them on DVD in their true format.

The swear editing was always hilarious though. Mother Father, Money Farmer, Melon Farmer, Fdam, Muddy Funster. You get the drift.

Tried watching The Bad Guys last night, but didn't get more than 10 minutes into it.
Thought it was going to be similar to Zootopia, but a small gang of anthropomorphised animals being uncatchable criminals in an, apparently, mostly human world caused my brain to rebel.
Don't know if it gets explained later on, but it was just too much nonsense for me.

Life (2017)

Astronauts on the ISS pick up samples of stuff taken from mars, discover a single-celled alien organism and want to make it do stuff.

Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds and others are playing astronauts. Ryan Reynolds annoyed me a little, because he was Ryan Reynoldsing around, "referencing" ReAnimator, calling himself a "nerd". There are so few eligable professions to be depicted as adults left; astronauts should be among them. I'm not against the obligatory "sitting around a table, being human" scenes, but when we're looking at a first contact thing with alien life and such it's not the right moment.

Anyway. The actors do a perfectly fine job. Gyllenhaal works alright, refraining from grimacing, being more dweeby and not the commander. Overall I liked the characters alright.

Overall it's a perfectly OK space alien thriller. Cool to see a film taking place on the ISS; I know so little about it (apart from the fact that it's really cool) that the depiction worked great for me, and the film basically all happening in zero G is also very cool.



A perfectly OK film, that. Watch It, if you wanna see a tense sci-fi space film. Probably more enjoyable if you aren't all too familiar with the genre. I liked the 'realistic' setting.

It has a lot of poor decision making, but it is pretty good.

I saw A Haunting in Venice the other day.

On its own it was.... ok.
But since I paid for it I found it slightly below average.
If you don't ever see it? You won't have missed anything.
If you are inclined to see it though? Wait for it to come onto your streaming service of choice & save yourself the price of the tkt.

That's the new Kenneth Brannagh Agatha Christie one? Like usual, but with more ghosts (for the spoopy season), right?

I watched The Pyramid, (2014). It was okay, a pretty standard lost in a pyramid film. It hit all the expected elements of a mummies curse idea, with an interesting deist twist. Unfortunately, it really portrayed archaeologists as loose cannons- like the sorts who make decisions drunk and drugged up college students shouldn't. If you ignore their stated archaeologists vocation, and treat it as a bunch of college students who got dumped in a pyramid, you'll enjoy it more. Not too shabby.

I have a guilty pleasure love for found footage horror movies and The Pyramid is one I rather enjoy. Yes, it's a movie with all the cliches but oh well.

The weirdest thing about that one is that it's only found footage like 50% of the time? The other 50% it's just a regular low-budget horror flick. So that was weird.

 Sigur wrote:
That's the new Kenneth Brannagh Agatha Christie one? Like usual, but with more ghosts (for the spoopy season), right?

Yep, except there's no actual ghosts involved , just a human based murder mystery.