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Just finished reading the entire thread.

Was pleased someone has at least mentioned "Ninja Assassin", "Flight of the Navigator", "Airplane!", "Airplane! 2", "Ghost in the Shell (1995)", Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", "Loaded Weapon 1", "The Bourne Identity" and "Gattaca"


But there are a couple of stand-out classics in waiting which i broke out the DVD and Blu-Ray respectively and re-watched for this post.

Curse of the Golden Flower
Its a 'martial arts' political thriller set in some ancient analogue to the Imperial Palace (i'm too western to definitively claim what language is being used or where/when its supposed to be set).
Its focus is on the hidden past lives of the imperial family and the sets and costume are absolutely incredible.
The story has a genuinely shocking twist you can kinda see coming but its not exactly telegraphed or "checkoffs gun'ed" too hard IMO.
It has much death, some very early CGI armies and lots of moments that clearly are for the Asian market in how it uses symbolism within its screen composition.
But the acting is absolutely fantastic all round; its definitely Chow Yun Fat's best role and it leaves you with a lot of food for thought about the intellectual chess-game being portrayed between emperor and empress.
It doesn't lie to the viewer to retain intrigue and it shows off some great moments for fans of martial forms -especially where group forms meet individual forms in a mass combatant situation.
There is an element of horror to the conclusion as the viewer sees how bloody pointless it all was for all the characters involved.
Must watch for anyone who likes 'martial arts' movies and a solid should watch for anyone with a missus or significant other.

Gangster No1
Paul Bettany's 'big break' set in the 60's UK.
Its the story of an individuals psychosis/obsession with a famous gangster and portrays his rise from "some ambitious thug" to 'king of the world'
It has occasional cheesy moments thanks to a large part of the film being set in retrospect but the acting, sets, costume and script delivery are all on point.

"Nice! Very Nice!.....Creative! That deserves a drink, that does!"

This film is a masterclass in implied violence and the central character can be quite sinister occasionally too much so but it still works.
The guy playing 'eddie' absolutely smashes his role like 'Mad John' smashes his ***** *****. (censored for shock value when watching)
Also Malcom Mcdowell is in it.
Must Watch for non child audiences
Its the film a gore fanatic can uphold and claim they are actually a cultured human being.


Going to have to find a copy of "The Prestige".

 SirDonlad wrote:

Gangster No1
Paul Bettany's 'big break' set in the 60's UK.
Its the story of an individuals psychosis/obsession with a famous gangster and portrays his rise from "some ambitious thug" to 'king of the world'
It has occasional cheesy moments thanks to a large part of the film being set in retrospect but the acting, sets, costume and script delivery are all on point.

"Nice! Very Nice!.....Creative! That deserves a drink, that does!"

This film is a masterclass in implied violence and the central character can be quite sinister occasionally too much so but it still works.
The guy playing 'eddie' absolutely smashes his role like 'Mad John' smashes his ***** *****. (censored for shock value when watching)
Also Malcom Mcdowell is in it.
Must Watch for non child audiences
Its the film a gore fanatic can uphold and claim they are actually a cultured human being.

I think of this movie every time I see David Thewlis. Great flick!

Justice League:- Crisis on Infinite Earths:- Part One

Bit of a weird one this.
Don't know if it was a deliberate design choice, or the studio was rushed in to making this and they initially thought they would have more time (and films) to get all the pieces in place, but it's basically 90 minutes of rather clunky exposition and setup rather than an actual movie.
Still an interesting watch though, and it has the Question in it, so it can't be all bad.

Sounds pretty good actually. I think that Lovecraft stuff really lends itself best to small- and mid budget films (and nothing above that. Nothing ruins lovecraft stuff like actually seeing a huge cgi sea cucumber with a mouth). Maybe I can seek this one out some time.


Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li (2009)

I finally saw this infamously bad film. Turns out it's really, really bad. Not just because it's a stupid premise and a Hollywood-made Street Fighter film, but also because it's an aimless, weirdly-paced and edited mess. And as much as it pains me to say, Kristin Kreuk isn't very good. She's very good at being pretty and at times showing the correct emotion on her face in close-ups, and it looks like she put in quite a bit of work with making the film martial arts stuff look decent-ish (the editing almost seemed detrimental to the whole thing. An odd occurance.).

They made a whole B-story featuring very model-looking policepeople from interpol being after Bison as well.

Apart from featuring the worst "sexy dance scene" I've ever seen the film is surprisingly violent at times, even for a martial arts film. Maybe it just looks more violent than it is because eversthing about this film is so painfully clean and all the actors are so pretty and artificial.

Don't Watch. There is no merit to it.

Okay, one thing: Her internet café research scene. In an inexplicable voice-over, Chun Li tells us that she had to find everything she could find out about Shadaloo. While the voice-over is running she walks into an internet café in Thailand, sits down in front of a computer, puts the term into the internet search engine, two newspaper articles show up, she smiles, cut to the next scene. That was rather hilarious.

Inadvertent savage burn of the zoomer generation?
Where "everything you can find" is the first two search results in isolation..

 SirDonlad wrote:
Inadvertent savage burn of the zoomer generation?
Where "everything you can find" is the first two search results in isolation..

Interstellar is so mediocre that I had to stop watching it for the first time and go watch Contact again. Attempting to watch it just reinforced my belief that Nolan fell off a fething cliff after Inception.

trexmeyer wrote:
Interstellar is so mediocre that I had to stop watching it for the first time and go watch Contact again. Attempting to watch it just reinforced my belief that Nolan fell off a fething cliff after Inception.

His film history:
1998 Following (haven't seen, can't say)
2000 Memento (very good)
2002 Insomnia (haven't seen, can't say)
2005 Batman Begins (good)
2006 The Prestige (good)
2008 The Dark Knight (very good)
2010 Inception (very good)

2012 The Dark Knight Rises (the worst super hero film ever made - very bad)
2013 Man of Steel (writer and producer only - the wrong side of meh, therefor bad)
2014 Interstellar (the right side of meh, therefor good)
2017 Dunkirk (good, but this one is an opinion splitter)
2020 Tenet (the wrong side of meh, therefor bad)
2023 Oppenheimer (haven't seen, can't say)

I wouldn't say it's dropped off a cliff but you do have a point that the overall quality is much lower from The Dark Knight Rises onwards.

A lot of directors have a bad habit of making movies that appeal more to them than anyone else when given too much of a free hand with too much money at their disposal imo.

Many of them do their best work when they 1) have a budget limit that forces them to be creative and actually collaborate 2) are forced to make certain concessions for marketability by someone else, 3) are named James Cameron and just seem to be good at getting everything done themselves, or 4) are not trying to control every single aspect of the production, including all the parts they're just not good at.

I'm not sure how much writing Nolan did on MoS beyond an initial draft. So many stories of changes as well as him saying he didn't want Superman to kill and having to be repeatedly pushed to be agree to it.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

Incredible motion picture for 1954 and the book by Jules Verne was well ahead of it's time, with it's relevence still felt today. For a Disney film its at least light on the songs and offers quite a bit of action. Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre steal the show.

Insomnia is also good.

 Henry wrote:

trexmeyer wrote:
Interstellar is so mediocre that I had to stop watching it for the first time and go watch Contact again. Attempting to watch it just reinforced my belief that Nolan fell off a fething cliff after Inception.

His film history:
1998 Following (haven't seen, can't say)
2000 Memento (very good)
2002 Insomnia (haven't seen, can't say)
2005 Batman Begins (good)
2006 The Prestige (good)
2008 The Dark Knight (very good)
2010 Inception (very good)

2012 The Dark Knight Rises (the worst super hero film ever made - very bad)
2013 Man of Steel (writer and producer only - the wrong side of meh, therefor bad)
2014 Interstellar (the right side of meh, therefor good)
2017 Dunkirk (good, but this one is an opinion splitter)
2020 Tenet (the wrong side of meh, therefor bad)
2023 Oppenheimer (haven't seen, can't say)

Oh no, I can assure you that, while it might be Nolan's worst superhero film, Dark Knight Rises is NOT the worst superhero film ever made. Not even close.

Four Daughters (2023)

An Oscar nominated Tunisian documentary that looks at the life of a single mom and her four daughters, 2 of which were famously "devoured by the wolf". It uses weird re-enactments with the mother and 2 remaining daughters present, offering commentary while the re-enactors play their parts. Pretty sad at times, but also kind of touching, it sheds a brief light at how extremist groups liked ISIS (the wolf) are able to get their hooks into what were "normal" children growing up in a poor situation. The mother tried her best, but she clearly has generational trauma that she passed on to her kids and being poor in Tunisia meant she and her daughters had the cards stacked against them.

It's ben mention earlier, but rewatched Dungeons and Dragons: Honour among Thieves. I thought it was fun at the movies and it didn't disappoint on a second viewing. Knowing the plot didn't detract from the enjoyment.

Friday the 13th part 3

The one where Jason gets his mask.

It was pretty much what you would expect. The gore and nudity were still in their development stage for the franchise, but the weird character actors and stalker tropes were on point. The 3D gimmick shots were entertaining. The ending homage to the first film was pretty bad.

Overall I’d say skip it unless you have some emotional investment in horror icons of the 80’s.

Somehow I never had an interest in watching the Friday the 13th films. maybe I'm missing out.

 Sigur wrote:
Somehow I never had an interest in watching the Friday the 13th films. maybe I'm missing out.

Not particularly but they are somewhat interesting as cultural artifacts. Not very good honestly but influential in shaping the horror scene for the coming decades.

They’re oddly campy fun these days. The first…four are fairly worthy, as we see the mythos evolve. And the fifth is an interesting if not exactly competent entry which tries something new.

Though special mention for Jason Takes Manhattan. It’s utterly ridiculous, but very funny. Even if it’s probably unintentionally so.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They’re oddly campy fun these days.

I don't disagree I just wouldn't categorize them as "essential cinema". I wouldn't tell someone to avoid them but I don't think anyone is missing out if they haven't seen them.

The Guard

Its an Irish Narco-Western.
It follows the experience of an Irish Police Officer picking his path as larger forces than he can control are imposed on his world.
Overall it feels like the director of 'Hobo With a Shotgun' got told to "tone it down for the next film" and 'The Guard' is the result.
Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson do a good performance that hold your interest in the characters despite every character being a little larger than life.
Mark Strong's 'common london criminal' accent needs some work, he's too well-spoken for the role imo.
Fionnula Flanagan does a cracking job though, lends a very human almost down-to-earth element to it.

Its an okay film - not a waste of 92 minutes.

Highlander the Source - 2007

Good lord. It's disappointing just like the one before it. On one hand I know Adrian Paul, Peter Wingfield and Jim Byrnes probably thought, play their character, hang out, have a good time and get paid. so I don't blame the actors for bad material. On the other hand the story is like what if we take the worst possible story for a really bad episode and drag it out to an hour thirty. The Guardian may as well have been Beetlejuice if he were an immortal from the series crossed with the guy from - The Cell.
Really unhappy with Methos this go round. He's usually a clever guy but this time not so much. The dialog was not very strong and that's me being polite.

If you skip this movie you wont be missing anything. The 4th one as bad as it is is better.

Lastly, they didn't use the sounds, like they did in the series, for the immortals. The sounds that tell the viewers the Immortals sense each other. But they mention at one point, "Why couldn't I sense you". Swing and a miss.

 warhead01 wrote:
Highlander the Source - 2007

Good lord. It's disappointing just like the one before it. On one hand I know Adrian Paul, Peter Wingfield and Jim Byrnes probably thought, play their character, hang out, have a good time and get paid. so I don't blame the actors for bad material. On the other hand the story is like what if we take the worst possible story for a really bad episode and drag it out to an hour thirty. The Guardian may as well have been Beetlejuice if he were an immortal from the series crossed with the guy from - The Cell.
Really unhappy with Methos this go round. He's usually a clever guy but this time not so much. The dialog was not very strong and that's me being polite.

If you skip this movie you wont be missing anything. The 4th one as bad as it is is better.

Lastly, they didn't use the sounds, like they did in the series, for the immortals. The sounds that tell the viewers the Immortals sense each other. But they mention at one point, "Why couldn't I sense you". Swing and a miss.

Spoony did a great review of it years ago on YouTube. Just about broke him

Oh yes, Jason Takes Manhattan and Jason in Space I watched. I might be ignorant to the Friday the 13th series, but I do try to keep up with the important films.

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:

 warhead01 wrote:
Highlander the Source - 2007

Good lord. It's disappointing just like the one before it. On one hand I know Adrian Paul, Peter Wingfield and Jim Byrnes probably thought, play their character, hang out, have a good time and get paid. so I don't blame the actors for bad material. On the other hand the story is like what if we take the worst possible story for a really bad episode and drag it out to an hour thirty. The Guardian may as well have been Beetlejuice if he were an immortal from the series crossed with the guy from - The Cell.
Really unhappy with Methos this go round. He's usually a clever guy but this time not so much. The dialog was not very strong and that's me being polite.

If you skip this movie you wont be missing anything. The 4th one as bad as it is is better.

Lastly, they didn't use the sounds, like they did in the series, for the immortals. The sounds that tell the viewers the Immortals sense each other. But they mention at one point, "Why couldn't I sense you". Swing and a miss.

Spoony did a great review of it years ago on YouTube. Just about broke him

Not quite sure it was THAT which broke him in the end , but Spoony to me is one of the major reasons (lack of talent, drive, etc notwithstanding ) why I do not want to be a streamer or internet personality of any sort. And the whole youtuber thing hasn't become any less icky over the past ~10 years, that's for sure.

I think I just watched his video. The channel name was different but it came up top of the search. I don't know who Spoony is or was so I wouldn't know if this movie broke him or not. It was an entertaining enough review. What struck me the most is I didn't realize that the destruction or deconstruction of IP's I grew up enjoying started as fat back as 07'. I didn't consume very much media back then.

 Sigur wrote:
Oh yes, Jason Takes Manhattan and Jason in Space I watched. I might be ignorant to the Friday the 13th series, but I do try to keep up with the important films.

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:

 warhead01 wrote:
Highlander the Source - 2007

Good lord. It's disappointing just like the one before it. On one hand I know Adrian Paul, Peter Wingfield and Jim Byrnes probably thought, play their character, hang out, have a good time and get paid. so I don't blame the actors for bad material. On the other hand the story is like what if we take the worst possible story for a really bad episode and drag it out to an hour thirty. The Guardian may as well have been Beetlejuice if he were an immortal from the series crossed with the guy from - The Cell.
Really unhappy with Methos this go round. He's usually a clever guy but this time not so much. The dialog was not very strong and that's me being polite.

If you skip this movie you wont be missing anything. The 4th one as bad as it is is better.

Lastly, they didn't use the sounds, like they did in the series, for the immortals. The sounds that tell the viewers the Immortals sense each other. But they mention at one point, "Why couldn't I sense you". Swing and a miss.

Spoony did a great review of it years ago on YouTube. Just about broke him

Not quite sure it was THAT which broke him in the end , but Spoony to me is one of the major reasons (lack of talent, drive, etc notwithstanding ) why I do not want to be a streamer or internet personality of any sort. And the whole youtuber thing hasn't become any less icky over the past ~10 years, that's for sure.

What, no love for Jason Lives: Part VI? It’s fan favorite

I’m genuinely thinking of dropping £25 on a boxed set of 1-8….


Automatically Appended Next Post:
No. Wait. I’ve got most of them on Prime.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m genuinely thinking of dropping £25 on a boxed set of 1-8….


Automatically Appended Next Post:
No. Wait. I’ve got most of them on Prime.

That means nothing. If the past few years have shown me anything, it’s that owning digital copies is more like “extended borrowing” and they can take it back whenever they want and not compensate you. Physical media is the only way to actually own something.

I had my digital copy of Superman III, The Donner Cut removed and refunded the other month.

I wouldn’t call the Friday the 13th movies essential, but I would call them culturally important. Horror icons like Jason and Freddy have become part of our shared mythology alongside Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster. They’re recognizable bogeymen that children love to talk about every Halloween even if they’ve never seen any of the movies. The characters seem more vital when they appear as pop culture artifacts and cameos in other movies than in their own, often lackluster, movies.


I wouldn’t recommend any of the Ft13 films to most movie goers, except maybe Freddie VS Jason, which encapsulates everything that makes both characters and their genre films work while also nailing the “vs”.