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Rad

I am super excited as I now have access to a couple new cinemas, so I have been watching more movies in theatre lately. There are two things I LOVE so far, first is they have a weekly "Nostalgia" series that shows re-releases and older flicks. The second is a Monday Mystery Movie. Both of these are at discounted prices. That is why I got to see Rad on the big screen.

To sum up, this movie is about a local BMX biker who tries to win a local BMX race against the Nationwide professionals.

In a word, this movie is Rad.

This is a clealy a B-movie effort and is basically MST3K material. I mean, there is a big scene where the movie wants us to believe in "BMX Boogie" is a thing and is magical. It ends on a freeze-frame! The transitions and cuts between scenes are terrible. The actors are community theatre level, with the stand-out performance being the guy from My Favorite Martian!

Damned, I am so glad I got to see this on a big screen with an audience. There was a lot more respect for the film and very little crowd interaction, which surprised me. However, there WAS about two dozen folks there; including families.

They’ve arrived! So here I go with Stripped to Kill

In which some rotter is going around bumping off Exotic Dancers. And so our female detective goes under cover as a stripper to find the loony.

It’s 80’s! It’s cheap! It’s salacious! It’s tacky! Roger Corman Was Involved Somewhere Along The Line! It’s quite good fun if you like this sort of thing, and I for one do. Even the acting is fairly cromulent.

By the end, you realise you’ve gone from watching Cheap Titilation to an actually fairly reasonable thriller. In particular it gives some depth and nuance to the strippers and their performances, showing the artistic side of getting your baps out for money.

Just a shame the opening is so cheap and tawdry.

Rad was featured on either Best of the Worst or GoodBadFlicks if you’re looking for a riff on the film.

I don’t think we’ll ever be able to explain to younger generations just how radical a BMX bike was at the time.

Fade to Black

In which our loony is a young, film obsessed, socially awkward young man that loses the plot and goes a-slaying, but in ways that echo his beloved films.

This is better than it should be to be honest. Whilst the loony is our lead character, he starts off somewhat sympathetic. He’s not inherently unlikeable or irredeemable to begin with, and he’s kind of a product of his environment and a world that sees him as someone to just push around and make fun of.

It by no means even attempts to justify his acts though, and he becomes increasingly unpleasant as his delusions deepen.

A nice touch is clips from the films inspiring his methods showing within the film, as if we’re seeing into his head. And that helps what could’ve been a cheap Video Nasty type flick elevate to something with genuine artistic merit. There are also lots of easter egg references to classic movies. Such as a photography studio called Blow Up and so on.

And so we end up with a solid thriller. Definitely going to put this in my general movie rotation.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorority House Massacre

Oh dear. It’s basically a low-rent Halloween knock off this one. And it’s all the more disappointing as around the middle there’s almost a hint of a twist in the tale. But no. This is a by-the-numbers-absolutely-nothing-new-to-see-here slasher.

It is at least competently made and has reasonable acting. It’s just so boringly derivative. Even has officers named Kruger and Voorhees, in what feels like a middle finger to far more interesting and thrilling films.

In summary? An Own Brand Cornflakes of 80’s slashers. Good enough for a night’s entertainment, but you’re still wishing you had the real McCoy as you choke it down.

Watchmen (2009)

It's 1985 and the cold war is about to get hot. Masked heroes are outlawed. There's a murder mystery to be solved.

Zack Snyder does superheroes. Which means it's always dark and rainy. I feel like there should have been more slow motion because Watchmen wasn't long enough yet.

Not sure I have much to say about this one. It's fine, if slow. The most notable thing about the movie is remembering an acquaintance coming back from the theater disappointed because he wanted to see a fun superhero movie and got what he called a long ass boring drama instead. No idea if that was just a matter of wrong expectations, but I can see how it happened. When you're in your early twenties you probably don't want to spend hours of your life watching aging has-beens pining for the good old days.

Was he not familiar with the graphic novel at all? It always had a reputation for not being a fun superhero story. It won the kinds of awards they never give to fun stories.

The movie feels like an adaptation made by someone who only understood Watchmen on a surface level. It feels like he misinterpreted things that weren’t supposed to be cool as cool and badass. To a lesser degree, this feels like the adaptation of Starship Troopers’ relationship to its source material, only inverted.

Snyder's problem has always been that he's a fan of comics that deconstructed the genre without being a fan of the genre itself. It results in him taking things that were parody and presenting them as how the genre should be. The problem with that is its the same pitfall the whole industry fell into in the 90s and ran into largely the same issues.

2000ad is mainly responsible for that. DC talented scouted from The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic’s writers and artists. Vertigo was created as their American playground.

If you can find it streaming (it’s on Prime at least in the UK), Future Shocks, the story of 2000ad is worth your time.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Was he not familiar with the graphic novel at all? It always had a reputation for not being a fun superhero story. It won the kinds of awards they never give to fun stories.

I couldn't say, but I'm guessing he wasn't.

Might have been about the best time to go into it with the wrong expectations. Just based on trends of the time you wouldn't have suspected what kind of movie it is. The MCU was only starting out and DC had yet to go off the derp end.

Lure

Low budget feature length horror thriller kinda Saw movie from the UK, found and paid for on Prime.

It’s not too bad to be honest. IMDB shows it’s the Writer/Director’s feature length debut, so is a bit rough about the edges.

I don’t want to reveal plot stuff, because I think that again despite some glaring flaws I really enjoyed it. It’s not completely original, but it feels somewhat fresh.

Downside is some dodgy sound mixing, where the dramatic music is louder and more prominent than the vocals. And some things Which Happen Because Otherwise We Can’t Move The Plot Along. The cinematography is solid. The acting is perfectly acceptable. Atmosphere is a wee bit hit and miss, but mostly hit.

For low/no budget horror/thriller though, this is comfortably above average. And as I do love in this sort of film? There’s the makings of something really quite special underneath it all. Even better? It’s underneath due to lack of budget and experience and absolutely not a lack of raw talent.

Now, I paid £7 for this, which you may wish to factor into your own decision making process. But honestly? I do not feel short changed at all.

 LunarSol wrote:
Watched the original Scream again last night and it was just as good as always.

After this my daughter has demanded to see the rest. So far Scream 2 was fine but not as good as the original. I was kind of surprised how much I liked the third one. I'm not sure I've actually seen it, but its fun though probably more as a product of its time than it would have been in its time.

Also somehow I forgot Project Hail Mary of which I have like one or two nitpicks and a million little bits of joy to take from the film. I'm very glad I read the book first, but the movie definitely cemented it as something special.

Project Hail Mary reminded me of 80s family adventure films, like Explorers. I was a little confused by the PG13 as there isn't a lot of violence and almost no swearing*. Pet rocks might make a come back. Certainly have some nitpicks as well but overall I found it very engaging and delightful.

Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

The privatized Tokyo police force fights violent criminal mutants who upon mutilation regrow damaged body parts in the shape of deadly weapons.

Mostly the story is there as pretext to spray preposterous amounts of blood all over the place every few minutes. It's a very silly movie. Good fun.

On the technical end it's not bad, but you can definitely see budgetary constraints.

 Ahtman wrote:
Project Hail Mary reminded me of 80s family adventure films, like Explorers. I was a little confused by the PG13 as there isn't a lot of violence and almost no swearing*. Pet rocks might make a come back. Certainly have some nitpicks as well but overall I found it very engaging and delightful.

Spoiler:

* The scene with the space walk where Grace is collecting the specimen is intense but I'm not sure I'd say it was enough to warrant warning 10 year olds. My guess is that we glimpse the corpses of the two other crew that died in flight, which may be an instant PG13.

There are some very odd things that give you PG-13. Johnathan Frakes said that the automatic machine gun fire was one of the things that bumped First Contact to PG-13.

Also saw Hail Mary today.

It hit all the main plot beats, and looked spectacular. Mr Gosling gave a fine showing I thought, given that much of it must have been to green screens and reacting to oddly shaped prop stand ins.

I’m interested to see if any Dakkaites go that haven’t read the book, and if much of it makes sense to them. I mean the main messages of the story are pretty simple, but it has to race through so much stuff I’m wondering if it is intelligible to people coming straight to the film.

One of my favourite scenes in the book didn’t make the cut unfortunately. There is a great courtroom scene that really sells Stratt better than the film.

 Flinty wrote:
Also saw Hail Mary today.

It hit all the main plot beats, and looked spectacular. Mr Gosling gave a fine showing I thought, given that much of it must have been to green screens and reacting to oddly shaped prop stand ins.

I’m interested to see if any Dakkaites go that haven’t read the book, and if much of it makes sense to them. I mean the main messages of the story are pretty simple, but it has to race through so much stuff I’m wondering if it is intelligible to people coming straight to the film.

One of my favourite scenes in the book didn’t make the cut unfortunately. There is a great courtroom scene that really sells Stratt better than the film.

I saw it last week without ever reading the book. Perfectly intelligible.

That’s good to hear

Coming back to this since I've now seen Eddington:

 Easy E wrote:
Some very mini-reviews that hopefully will spur discussion from others who have seen these flicks.

Eddington

I can't say it is good, but it touches on a lot of issues... shakes them up.... and then leaves you asking, "What the hell did I just watch?"

I'm actually inclined to say it's good. At the very least I'd recommend giving it a look if a farce is something that might interest you.

Not sure if I want to say more about the movie since I don't want to spoil it for people. I think it's one you best see unfold without too much information upfront. But I quite enjoyed it.

As for the what the hell conclusion, I got that from the trailer back before release. Which does not do the movie any favors and played a part in my reluctance to watch it until now. Unlike it, Eddington itself is a perfectly coherent movie.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I can’t believe I’ve misread Eddington as Paddington. Very different movies, I imagine. We still need to see Eddington, as we are fans of Aster’s weirder work. Wasn’t able to convince anyone to watch a movie about pandemic stress for some reason…

I get why one wouldn't want a reminder of the pandemic. It certainly did nothing to help me come around and give the movie a shot. It might be good to know that Covid is more of a backdrop than the point of the movie. Kind of like the riots in Dark Blue, for instance. Unless I totally misremember that, in which case I have to watch Dark Blue again.

Anyway. Not a great foundation for happy memories, I reckon. But it would be a shame to miss Eddington for fear of getting exposed to that nonsense again.

 Flinty wrote:
Also saw Hail Mary today.

It hit all the main plot beats, and looked spectacular. Mr Gosling gave a fine showing I thought, given that much of it must have been to green screens and reacting to oddly shaped prop stand ins.

I’m interested to see if any Dakkaites go that haven’t read the book, and if much of it makes sense to them. I mean the main messages of the story are pretty simple, but it has to race through so much stuff I’m wondering if it is intelligible to people coming straight to the film.

One of my favourite scenes in the book didn’t make the cut unfortunately. There is a great courtroom scene that really sells Stratt better than the film.

My wife followed it pretty well outside of some things she felt implausible because the movie didn't spend as much time overexplaining them. My daughter too, though she'd been reading it and just didn't finish it on time. I will say that Stratt definitely came across as less ruthless in the movie in general. They cut most of her "whatever it takes" scenes and make her overall a far more sympathetic character.

The MPAA is VERY conservative with ratigs.

I also saw Project Hail Mary and it was good fun.

I really enjoyed havng a movie that decided that it would tell you something once, and you better keep up with me because I am not going to waste time repeating it to you again. If you wanted to watch this movie you should have gotten off your damn phone, Chad!

There was one swear word in my vieiwing. It did not come from the audience, but my wife during a big jump scare moment. LOL.

Got a £25 Amazon voucher from work for being a Good Clever Boy, so naturally I spent it on some movies.

First up? In a world where Steven Seagal was already baffling audiences with his ridiculous slap fighting and running like a demented chicken, a man sets out to avenge his crippled brother. Van Damme is Kick Boxer

I have of course seen this before. And it’s equal parts glorious and really really silly. Mostly pretty average as late 80’s action flicks go, it’s undeniably elevated by Van Damme’s stage fighting.

An alternative more descriptive title could’ve been Cheesy Feet. And I’m perfectly happy with the £3 I paid for it.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Got a £25 Amazon voucher from work for being a Good Clever Boy, so naturally I spent it on some movies.

First up? In a world where Steven Seagal was already baffling audiences with his ridiculous slap fighting and running like a demented chicken, a man sets out to avenge his crippled brother. Van Damme is Kick Boxer

I have of course seen this before. And it’s equal parts glorious and really really silly. Mostly pretty average as late 80’s action flicks go, it’s undeniably elevated by Van Damme’s stage fighting.

An alternative more descriptive title could’ve been Cheesy Feet. And I’m perfectly happy with the £3 I paid for it.

All it really needed to push it to that higher shellf was the film having the audacity to try and tell you it was a real story, like Bloodsport does.

To be fair, Bloodsport is pretty much a remake. And sliiiiightly more polished.

But Kick Boxer is still a fun bit of cinema. And my god, Van Damme’s physique in the final scene is impressive. Definitely helps he is a trained kick boxer too.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another one from the same haul?

We Bury The Dead

Big name is Daisy Ridley, proving she bloody well can act when given a proper script. This is something of a thriller, with sort of zombies.

Central conceit is a new American weapon went wrong off the coast of Tasmania. This kind of killed the entire population. But not quite. It did something to the brain which ended higher function. Some victims remain dead, some regain a semblance of consciousness. So they’re Not-Zombies, but pretty much Zombies.

This is so, so close to being The Next 28 Days Later. Like…really close. But fatally far. What’s here is plenty enjoyable, don’t get me wrong. And it’s far from short of gruesome, challenging moments. Props as well for giving a new spin on an old trope. But for me it’s just not quite got the Fear Spark.

If you’re into your zombies or character study horror flicks? Do give this a watch. It’s absolutely worth your time, despite just missing out on Excellence.

Hoppers

Pixar's latest attempt to be good again. It has a good emotional core and message, BUT I am not sure it brings back that Pixar magic.

A college girl learned love of nature from her Grandmother, and tries her best to perserve a pond that was important to them. However, the Mayor wants to build an overpass over the pond.

Then, her professor finds a way to put human consciousness into animals. This also allows them to communicate. The girl goes into the animal world in order to find a beaver to live in her pond and bring the animals back, thus stopping the construction.

There is a lot going on in this flick, but the general message that humans and animals can live together in harmoy falls a bit flat.

And just in time for the Easter Bank Holiday? Disney+ has the five Jovovich Resident Evil films.

That’s the gak-pump sorted then!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
And just in time for the Easter Bank Holiday? Disney+ has the five Jovovich Resident Evil films.

That’s the gak-pump sorted then!

Don't forget to watcher her new Monster Hunter movie, it's directed and produced by the same folks...

And looks like it wants to be another franchise.

Oh and cat people! It has cat people!

Five Nights At Freddy’s

Sadly a wasted opportunity. It’s not in the least bit scary or creepy. It’s not bad bad. It just never quite gets going. Instead it just sorts of meanders, staring at its shoes.

Given it’s coming from Blumhouse, that’s extra disappointing.

Willy’s Wonderland is a knock off, yes. But in every way the superior film.

Will the sequel by any better?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Five Nights At Freddy’s

Sadly a wasted opportunity. It’s not in the least bit scary or creepy. It’s not bad bad. It just never quite gets going. Instead it just sorts of meanders, staring at its shoes.

Given it’s coming from Blumhouse, that’s extra disappointing.

Willy’s Wonderland is a knock off, yes. But in every way the superior film.

Will the sequel by any better?

The Willy Wonderful sequel should be better.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
And just in time for the Easter Bank Holiday? Disney+ has the five Jovovich Resident Evil films.

That’s the gak-pump sorted then!

Don't forget to watcher her new Monster Hunter movie, it's directed and produced by the same folks...

And looks like it wants to be another franchise.

Oh and cat people! It has cat people!

And it’s so boring I had to fast forward through most of it. Or maybe I stopped watching, I can’t recall. I can recall being decidedly unimpressed though.

It's a decent action film but it doesn't really stand out. For me I think the main issue is that it does that whole "Random real world person thrown into fantasy setting" where its not even a focus of the original material. So you never really get that feel that its "Monster Hunter". Heck you have to wait more than half the film to see a Palco and even then they are basically there for one or two scenes and that's it.

There's just no real sense that its part of the lore of the games (accepting that for the most part the lore in the is fairly thing anyway)