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I've only seen the first film now, but given how that one was I think that kinda fits the feel of the film. Also, let's remember how horror series of several more films tried to 'explain things' and got tangled up in their little backstories.

A Quiet Place

A good horror movie that is more about tension than actual horror. The monsters look ridiculous.

A Quiet Place 2

A direct continuation of the first in terms of story, tone and quality. The monsters’ toughness is wildly uneven, distractingly so.

A Quiet Place: Day One

A good horror movie in a more exciting, dynamic setting*. The cat is the least believable part of the movie.


*Farmhouse horror has felt played out for me since Signs. I find it hokey, especially when it plays into romanticized survivalist tropes, not that AQP did too much of that in the first film.


Twister

This was what a mediocre, mid-level “dumb fun” movie used to look like. Today it feels like a masterpiece of set up and payoff and character writing. Plus, who doesn’t love the cast?


Twisters

Just as good as the first one in most qualities, but the cast just doesn’t have the same spark. Glen Powell isn’t as instantly likeable as Bill Paxton, nor is what’s-her-face the next Helen Hunt.

High-Rise

A film starring Tom Hiddleston of Loki fame.

This movie is all allegory, and very British. You see, these people live in a high-rise building designed by Mr. Royal. The folks at the top of the building start taking the resources used to supply the people at the lower levels... and..... well.... did I mention it is a British allegory about the Class System?

Not very subtle, but also some very odd choices.

The Law of Hell

Great title! This is a movie about an inn-keeper caught in the middle when the Samurai start investigating a group of smugglers on his little island. Intense Japanese conversation/interrogation scenes as the inn-keeper tries to keep himself from getting tangled up in all the nonsense. Of course, it leads to some swordplay.

You have to be okay with 70's style Japanese Samurai movie pacing for this movie to work for you at all. Plus, I am not sure the Pay-off for your patience is worth it. However, some of the Samurai and Inn-keeper scenes are very tense.

Ministry of ungentlemanly warfare.

Nazi murder extravaganza with an assault group with so many layers of plot armour the action scenes got a bit dull.

I found the write up of Operation Postmaster on Wikipedia to be much more interesting

Romancing the stone - 1984

This was a lot of fun if you like a romp through the jungles of Columbia and a bit of a treasure hunt.

 warhead01 wrote:
Romancing the stone - 1984

This was a lot of fun if you like a romp through the jungles of Columbia and a bit of a treasure hunt.

I love this movie and frequently quote it. Probably one of my favorite '80s adventure movies. "Look at those snappas, Ralph!"

The sequel wasn't half bad either, but not as good as the first.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths:- Part 3

And so we reach the final part, it's also easily the best part as it doesn't have to devote a big chunk of it's runtime to setup.
However, much like the first two films, while it has its moments it is still pretty lacklustre overall.

I've been a big fan of DC's animated movie line for years at this point, and while it has had it's ups and downs, I think the good has outweighed the bad (I'd argue that there has only been two outright terrible films in the entire run) so it's a shame that it couldn't come to an end on a higher note than 'meh'.

It’s always baffled me that DC/WB’s amination team can produce really, really solid fare. It’s Live Action TV Team also produce better than average fare.

Whereas its Live Action Movie Team have only produced a series of increasingly wet farts.

Sure as with any long running series the quality is inevitably mixed. But as said above, there’s only a couple of outright stinkers (the Japanese Batman is to me, unwatchable as soon as the Batmobile keeps breaking down into smaller and smaller and smaller vehicles)

I'd forgotten about that awful Ninja Batman movie!
Okay, three terrible films (The other 2 for me are The Killing Joke and Batman and Harley).

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

A Nick Cage and Disney adventure film from 2010. It also features Monica Belucci, Alfred Molina, and Jay Baruchel. Not a bad cast.

This had an A-list budget and a B-movie script team. Good effects and some fun BUT ultimately the by-the-numbers writing left the whole thing a bit cold to me. It felt SUPER Disney to me.

Still, in the genre of family-friendly adventure flicks it holds-up. A workman-like production with everyone doing their part. I wouldn't go out of my way to see it again and will forget about it as soon as I finish this mini-review.

 ZergSmasher wrote:

 warhead01 wrote:
Romancing the stone - 1984

This was a lot of fun if you like a romp through the jungles of Columbia and a bit of a treasure hunt.

I love this movie and frequently quote it. Probably one of my favorite '80s adventure movies. "Look at those snappas, Ralph!"

The sequel wasn't half bad either, but not as good as the first.

We plan to watch the next one when we find the time, hopefully this week.
Ira yelling back to Ralph "We'll come back for you" was brilliant after the "Thundergun" episodes in always sunny.

Luc Besson's Taxi.

Haven't seen it for ages. I remembered the car scenes but not much of the rest. Its such a charmingly stupid film. And Marion Cotillard...

The cast have fun, the chase scenes are amazing given quite how pre-cgi the film is. Great fun. And Marion Cotillard...

Luc Besson always knew about shoot/cast/stage/write for leading ladies. And fun films in general.

I'm watching Bloodsport 2 now. Not sure why. Never seen it in the original audio, so that's reason enough, I suppose. I kinda like Daniel Bernhard as an action guy since i first saw him in the Mortal Kombat tv show. He's tall and capable and has a face. Unfortunately, he isn't very charismatic. But he's Swiss, which is weird enough for me to like him.

Just saw Twisters earlier this evening, and I thought it was good, although it was only tangentially connected to the first movie (mostly just little winks and nods rather than returning characters).

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

A perfect horror-comedy B movie.

It’s so ridiculous and trope-y that it feels like they set out to make a so-bad-it’s-good movie and accidentally made a good movie instead. Everyone seemed to have a blast making it. The effects are memorable and the soundtrack kicks clown butt. Also, Royal Dano! Perfect B-movie.

Side note: John Vernon is the scariest thing in this movie. He’s also the scariest foe in the Ernest series, and Ernest fought an army of trolls. How is this guy so intimidating?

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Just saw Twisters earlier this evening, and I thought it was good, although it was only tangentially connected to the first movie (mostly just little winks and nods rather than returning characters).

I’m really glad they didn’t fill the movie with sad, tired, old characters from the previous film. This feels like the first legacy sequel not to make that mistake.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Did The Sorcerer’s Apprentice ever use that music from the Mickey scene in Fantasia? I hope so.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Killer Klowns from Outer Space

A perfect horror-comedy B movie.

It’s so ridiculous and trope-y that it feels like they set out to make a so-bad-it’s-good movie and accidentally made a good movie instead. Everyone seemed to have a blast making it. The effects are memorable and the soundtrack kicks clown butt. Also, Royal Dano! Perfect B-movie.

Side note: John Vernon is the scariest thing in this movie. He’s also the scariest foe in the Ernest series, and Ernest fought an army of trolls. How is this guy so intimidating?

Love that movie.

They just released a Killer Klowns co-op horror survival video game back in June. I keep hovering over the "buy" button, but I'm told the novelty wears off after a few hours.

That’s the second legacy game I’ve heard about recently after The Warriors. I like this approach much better than legacy sequels, which kind of spoil the original films even when they are decent*.


*Looking at you, Bill and Ted Face the Music.

 Flinty wrote:
Ministry of ungentlemanly warfare.

Nazi murder extravaganza with an assault group with so many layers of plot armour the action scenes got a bit dull

That's a great way of putting it. I didn't find the movie engaging anymore after the first half hour or so.

At some point I have to catch up on Killer Klowns. I MAY have seen it years ago, but I'm not sure. I'm fairly certain that the video game only holds one's interest for a few hours indeed (if that).


Now that I'm watching Bloodsport 2 I remember that I probably watched that one more than the original film. The protagonist really is bland, but all the characters around him make up for that. It's a fun film, and the Bloodsport/Kumite formula is hard to beat as long as you got a gallery of colourful contestants.


edit2: Okay, Bloodsport 2 just plain rocks. Really good fight scenes, loads of fun. It's on youtube. It's also got a theme. They tried to capture the magic of the Mortal Kombat film theme to a deg

They do an homage to the broom scene from Fantasia in The Sorcerer's Apprentice but it is not the exact same music.

Someone dropped the ball in my opinion.

Bloodsport 2 is going on the list.

 Easy E wrote:
They do an homage to the broom scene from Fantasia in The Sorcerer's Apprentice but it is not the exact same music.

Someone dropped the ball in my opinion.

That’s really disappointing. That would be like including a Nicholas Cage as Superman homage and not having him fight a giant spider, something even the people behind The Flash figured out. Even the people behind The Flash.

Harry Brown with Michael Caine

I went into this thinking it might be a bit like the Equaliser… it is not like that film whatsoever. It is dark and tragic at every point through its run time, and it’s slow enough that you just marinade in the despair. I can’t really recommend this one.

Munchies

“We have Gremlins at home.”


Did you ever wonder what Gremlins would be like if it didn’t have good special effects or any horror or good music or if the whole movie was the bar scene? Munchies is the answer.

According to old showbusiness legend, when Chevy Chase and Bill Murray came to blows at SNL, the insult Murray used to break Chevy was calling him “Medium talent”. Munchies is the cinematic embodiment of Medium Talent.

The big star of the film, playing two roles, is Harvey Korman, of Star Wars Holiday Special fame. The sister from Critters (who you forgot existed) outshines the rest of the main cast, which includes that guy who runs from the Yama Yama Yama scene in Police Academy IV and isn’t David Spade. There are a couple good cameos from Robert Picardo and Paul Bartel, but this is still a Z-grade production.

There are a few fun surprises in the film, but a lot of the jokes land somewhere between 70’s Variety Show and 2000’s anti-humor. If you’ve seen The Stuff, it has a lot of the same energy, but without the satire.

I don’t really recommend it, but if you’re looking for a bad movie night movie to laugh at, check it out.

The Jewel of the Nile 1985

This movie was lots of fun. It almost has it all.
It reminds me in parts of a Mad Max movie.

I hadn't seen this one in many years so I was surprised at how much I misremembered it.

 warhead01 wrote:
The Jewel of the Nile 1985

This movie was lots of fun. It almost has it all.
It reminds me in parts of a Mad Max movie.

I hadn't seen this one in many years so I was surprised at how much I misremembered it.

I enjoyed that movie when I was a child. I remember what the Jewel of the Nile was, as well as a fun sequence involving an F-16, as well as some of the least convincing fire effects I’d seen in a film.

I should really revisit this one.

It's good fun. The bad guy is devious but not the brightest candle on the birthday cake.

I'd thought Ira returned at the end of this one but I believe my brain damaged brain mixed the two movies together some how.


We watched the Maltese falcon the other night. I can't say I'd seen it before. Maybe in passing but not all the way through till this week. My Brother mentioned it so I had to see it.

I enjoyed it. Lots of fast talking by Sam Spade.
He, humphrey bogart, didn't look like I thought he did. Interesting characters all over.

No Way Up

Aka O’Brien, The Last Suffering

O’Brien is on a plane. Which ditches into the sea and sinks a bit under the surface. O’Brien is half drowned, but saves little girl and her granny (hurrah!). He then saves granny’s husband’s army cap, retrieves a precious bottle of oxygens off a dead person, then gets ate off a Shark. Thus ends O’Brien’s tribulations.

This is certainly an interesting premise, as we have a handful of survivors in an airlock up the back of the plane. And it’s about how do they get from there, back up to the surface. Oh, and the Sharks wot ate O’Brien clearly found him way too tough, as they’re really quite insistent on scoffing the soft lads left behind.

However, it’s oddly free of tension. Maybe it’s the overall hopelessness of their situation. Maybe it’s because other than Granny and Kiddo, we’re given no reason to care a jot about anyone. In particular I’m not sure if one of the lads is himself gay, or incredibly homophobic. Could be both I suppose if he’s a Friend of Aslan.

watched Hideaki Anno's Love & Pop with some friends over discord last night. but the subs I grabbed for it turned out to be pretty badly mistimed (consistently a scene ahead of where we were), so I turned them off, and it turned into a fascinating experience as a result

the cinematography and direction of the film perfectly convey the tone and mood it's going for. one of the people watching had seen the film before, and it was really funny for her to be consistently annoyed at us not getting the dialogue, yet confirming everything we were saying about the themes and meaning of the film— its themes transcend language

and good lord, what a gorgeous film it is. it well and truly feels like an anime director trying to make an anime film in live action. the eccentricity of the shots creates such a singular atmosphere for the film. the things Anno does with a camera here are unbelievable. avant-garde to the max. this is a film that could only have been made by these people at this time. but the unique ways this film are shot aren't just there to be weird. the entire time, they're building towards an atmosphere, one that changes as the way the film is shot changes. it creates the sense of watching childhood innocence die. at times, it feels dissociative, and not just metaphorically— this film truly captures what it is to face something for which your only response is to have a temporary shattering of consciousness

I wouldn't hesitate to call Love & Pop a masterpiece. what a wild film. I'm going to be thinking about this for a long time

also watched Three Resurrected Drunkards. have less to say about it. but the format of the film really stood out in an interesting way, and the ending in particular is incredible

also also watched Hundreds of Beavers (thanks for the recommendation btw!). incredible movie. it needs to be seen to be believed. it is simultaneously a live action cartoon and a video game that you watch instead of play. there is nothing else like this, and never could be