What ELSE (other than KUNG FU) has everyone been watching?

[DrNgor]

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015) - I finally watched the movie today, my first movie of 2017. I enjoyed it a lot. I'm no fan of Star Wars as a whole, and I enjoy the prequels as action films, so my opinions are rather suspect. But I liked the characters, especially Finn's devotion to Rey. The actions sequences were exciting and the final shot almost had me with tears in my eyes (I dunno why, but oh well). I didn't care for the whole Star-Killer Base thingie, although the sequence of the population of the planet watching death rain over them was very effective. All the women in the room sat with mouth agape when the Big Tragic Death Scene occurs at the end. I was glad to see Finn at least get one good hit on Kylo Ren before the torch was passed to Rey at the climax. I assume she held her own as well as she did because she already knew how to fight with a pole?

[Tex Killer]

legends of tomorrow - season1. Quite interesting DC serie about sort of antiheroes hunting for future tyrant Vandal Savage. Arrow and Jonah Hex have brief appearances, and it has some martial arts too. Prison Break brothers do fine here. I think it started to drag little bit towards the end tho so good it was 16 episodes instead of 20+

Edited January 2, 2017 by Tex Killer

[AlbertV]

On 12/27/2016 at 11:23 AM, laagi said:

Besides the ususal christmas suspects like Home Alone, Scrooged, Trading Places, Coming to America etc. I actually got around watching a more recent movie The Accountant.

To make it short I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I love how the movie is executed with a certain stillness and than just explodes with some brutal action. Although probably the last 30 minutes is more or less an allout war. The story while not going into much depth is interesting enough to make it different from other action vehicles. Ben Affleck did a good job and a solid performance by the supporting cast complete the package for a very enjoyable action/drama/thriller. Highly recommended!

I concur with laagi on this one. I caught this at a Dollar theater nearby this afternoon and I really enjoyed it. I loved how Affleck actually trained in Pencak Silat for the film's fight scenes and even having Ron Yuan as the Silat master was quite exciting to watch. I also felt close to the film being involved with autism (which Affleck's character is and I am myself on the spectrum to a degree). Even Jon Bernthal's role is quite pivotal in the film. Definitely worth checking out.

https://worldfilmgeek.com/2017/01/02/review-the-accountant-2016/

Re-visited one of my favorite Disney live action movies as a kid, Shipwrecked. Showed my kids this and my daughters enjoyed the film, a Norwegian take on Robinson Crusoe. This would be the only film appearance of the lead actor, Stian Smestad, who would go on to become a documentary filmmaker. The only recognizable face from a Hollywood viewpoint would be Gabriel Byrne, who makes a good villain in an undercover pirate looking for treasure. The final act is quite a hoot as well!

https://worldfilmgeek.com/2017/01/02/review-shipwrecked-1990/

 

[DragonClaws]

On 02/01/2017 at 2:36 PM, Tex Killer said:

legends of tomorrow - season1. Quite interesting DC serie about sort of antiheroes hunting for future tyrant Vandal Savage. Arrow and Jonah Hex have brief appearances, and it has some martial arts too. Prison Break brothers do fine here. I think it started to drag little bit towards the end tho so good it was 16 episodes instead of 20+

My girlfriends a big fan of this series, and she often has this on while I catch up on the forums. The second season is currently showing on Sky 1 in the U.K. Theres an episode that features The Flash and Supergirl among the cast of the characters in Season 2.

[Tex Killer]

22 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

My girlfriends a big fan of this series, and she often has this on while I catch up on the forums. The second season is currently showing on Sky 1 in the U.K. Theres an episode that features The Flash and Supergirl among the cast of the characters in Season 2.

I´m not familiar of DC characters much except batman so I think it affected little bit why I´m not more into Legends..."deathstroke" and "chronos" unknown for me who appeared in season 1. Flash I have not seen single episode, same with arrow(been considering picking season 1 tho...). Supergirl I do not know either...

[DragonClaws]

1 hour ago, Tex Killer said:

Flash I have not seen single episode, same with arrow(been considering picking season 1 tho...). Supergirl I do not know either...

Me nor my other half have watched any of the other D.C related shows apart from Legends Of Tomorrow. The onylversion of SuperGirl Ive ever watched is the 1984 movie.

 

[Tex Killer]

the burning. Been decade++ since saw it last time and memory failed now badly. Was under impression this is great slasher but it is not. Not a lot murders but those are nicely done, Tom Savini did fine job with effects...Problem is director who failed to create any tension to flick. When nothing is happening movie is really boring and even scenes where killer is stalking are not that exciting...Raft slaughter is very good one and I believe very important factor why this movie has decent reputation..

Most of friday the 13th&halloweens are better than Burning..Unfortunately, those f/x would have deserved to be in better movie.

 

[ShaOW!linDude]

The Magnificent 7 remake --- Really enjoyed it. It's a fun western. There're plenty of good shootouts. The diverse casts works, there's a good chemistry among them. Denzel does what Denzel does. He's a good actor. Chris Pratt is funny at times, but there is an undercurrent to his character. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is essentially a Latin version of Pratt's character, though supposedly more ruthless. Vincent D'Onorfrio is a delight with some good lines. I'd forgotten that Ethan Hawke was in this, too. His is the cowardly role that is Robert Vaughn's in the first one, but an interesting perspective is given for it. Hawke and Byung-Hun Lee have a neat friendly dynamic, and the Korean places the knife afficionado of the group. Martin Sensmeier plays the Indian called Red Harvest, and I want a movie solely of his character. Peter Sarsgaard is the villain, played a bit campy in my opinion, but it works. You hate him 'cause he's a prideful ego-maniacal sociopath. You'll certainly want a feedbag of popcorn to watch this.

[DragonClaws]

20 hours ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

Martin Sensmeier plays the Indian called Red Harvest, and I want a movie solely of his character.

When I watched the trialer for this, Sensmeier's character made me think of Woody Strodes role in the classic Western The Proffesionals.

[Tex Killer]

resident evil - retribution. Finally watched dvd(which comes with nice slipcase)I bought from phuket sth like 4 years ago. Not very good one, flick felt bit empty at times...part 2 or 3 is my less favorite of all, this was slightly better. Lot slow motion in action but it`s still more friendly to eye than quick camera cuts(used for example in bourne movies)...

Part 4 - afterlife remains most supreme so far and overall it`s above average movie serie.

 

 

[AlbertV]

One Day at a Time - a 13-episode reboot of the original series that ran from 1975-1984. This one centers on a Cuban-American family with the separated single mom Penelope being a former military officer turned nurse and suffering from PTSD. Norman Lear, the developer of the original series, also worked on this reboot and it is actually pretty good. Rita Moreno is hilarious as Penelope's mother, who boasts about being from Cuba and does a heck of an accent and the new Schneider is played by Todd Grinnell, who kind of reminds me both looks and the way he plays Schneider like he can be Paul Rudd's doppelganger. Stephen Tobolowsky also cracked me up as the neurotic Leslie, Penelope's boss. The series does tackle a few important issues like the original, but overall, I enjoyed it for what it was. It's on Netflix.

Edited January 12, 2017 by AlbertV

[Tex Killer]

kidnapped. Mario Bavas crime movie is superb one, 3 robbers take man, woman&baby as hostages. Basically plot is very simple crooks just try to escape. Very unexcected end twist was fine way to drop curtain.

2/3 of criminals are such violent bastards they could teach for characters of movies like "last house on the left" a trick of two. "Stiletto" gets to use his blade but spaghetti western/giallo regular George Eastman gives fantastic display of being man easy to hate here...

There is 3 or 4 Bava movies I haven`t seen but so far all been good(or often lot better). He was clearly one of the greatest directors ever...

 

Edited January 15, 2017 by Tex Killer

[AlbertV]

In Production - Cleveland-based filmmaker Mikhail Tot wrote and directed this indie dark comedy currently playing in various film festivals. Tot asked if I can review the film for my blog and to sum it up, it pretty does for indie filmmaking what Clerks does for corner stores, all about getting the job done no matter what it takes. The story revolves an intern who joins a local film crew and learns the actors and filmmakers are not all there. With funding needed to finish the film, this ragtag group will have to try various efforts to get the film made, and at one point, things go extreme. I enjoyed it as it was pretty funny, shot in black and white w/ some funny animation mixed in and color for certain areas. It's not really raunchy at times, but overall, a fun and wild ride all about filmmaking.

[lilmanjs]

Walker Texas Ranger, Neighborhood Hero (korean show) and Star Trek Voyager. Neighborhood Hero had a crazy confusing first episode but from 2 on it is all falling into place and getting to be a decent action show. Fights could be done a little better though.

Edited January 19, 2017 by lilmanjs

[DragonClaws]

Rogue One - Just got round to seeing the latest Star Wars offering from Disney. Enjoyed this installment a lot more than Episode XII, and not just because it leans more towards the original movies. I felt it was a much better story and that Gareth Edwards direction is much stronger than JJ.Abrams. Thats not a personal attack on Abrams movies, as Ive seen very little of his work. Felecity Jones did a great job with her role as Jyn Erso. For some reason I didn't take to Daisy Ridleys charatcer in Force Awakens. Not that she's a bad actress, I just didn't like her character as much. Jones as Jyn Erso managed to portray a strong independent female character who worked as part of a bigger team. While Daisy Ridlley portrayal of Rey felt like she was so independent, she didn't appear to want anyones help.

The action was really well done and nicely edited too. The ending is up there with some of the classic Star Wars battles. Donnie Yen's presence was a welcome one and a clever move by Disney. Tapping into the Martial Arts fandom and his recent success in China/Worldwide with the Yip Man trilogy. Hollywood has been slow to see the talent and appeal of the Yenster, and they should have offered him a role like this years agp. One of the biggest highlights for me was the russurection of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin. Hollywood is getting closer and closer to effectively bring to life deceased actors. I never thought I'd see this great actor on the big screen in a new production. These are just my first impressions, which may change when Im more familiar with the movie.

[AgriWuxia]

Space 1999, Season 1 & 2 (dvd box sets)

Absolutely loved this series when it was first broadcast on television when I was a child in the mid 70's. Created by Gerry and Silvia Anderson, this British series was heavily promoted here in New Zealand as a groundbreaking approach to Science Fiction backed by a level of funding unheard of at the time, certainly a step up from the Supermarionation that they were famous for previously. I can still remember the television promotions and fanfare heralding the arrival of this new Science Fiction series. 

Fast forward 40 years, I am browsing through the television section of a secondhand dvd store. On the shelf is the Carlton release of both season 1 & 2. Childhood memories can, of course, become idealised and what was enjoyable then may not engender the same feelings now. Some content can become horribly dated over time. Whats more, I am a different person now. So revisiting a beloved childhood series as an adult does risk disillusionment. So, I didn't purchase right then. Two box sets (48 episodes) needed some research. Hello YouTube! Watched the first episodes of both seasons and enjoyed them, it certainly brought back memories. A quick phone call to the dvd store the next day and both seasons were reserved. At 1 NZD per episode I felt the sets were good value, and was assured that the discs were checked and in good order.

Have been watching one episode per week for the last 23 weeks, just as I would have done 40 years ago, so am nearly finished Season One. Sure, some aspects are a little dated and timelines can get muddied, but overall I have enjoyed reliving the stories and the special effects. Of further interest has been the guest stars across various episodes. Brian Blessed, (who I best remember for his role as Augustus in I, Claudius) /  Joan Collins (Alexis, in Dynasty)/ Christopher Lee (Dracula)/ Leo McKern (Rumpole of the Bailey) and many others. The box sets also come complete with welcome additional content- Character Bios, Original Publicity, Memorabilia, Production Drawings etc.

[DrNgor]

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) - Well, that was disappointing. There was a lot of good in this movie, but FAR TOO MANY characters, which doesn't work because it makes much of the coherency of the story dependent on your knowledge of the previous films *and* the comics themselves. The first half is spent introducing all the characters and the conflict in separate story threads, but with characters like Psylocke and Storm, we never fully understand their motives for allying themselves to Apocalypse. Professor X disappears for much of the first half after he goes to Langley after Moira MacTaggert. Characters like Jubilee show up for no other reason than for people to say, "Look! It's Jubilee! Look! She's not in the movie anymore!" And don't even get me started on the 20-minute interlude involving Commander Stryker and the Weapon X project that serves no purpose but to guarantee us that yes, the events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine never happened (much like the previous film wiped X-Men: The Last Stand from the timeline). The already overlong movie could've had that sequence axed without losing anything at all.

Fanboy rant: When I found out that one of Callisto's flunkies in Brett Ratner's movie was Psylocke, I thought, "Huh. That was dumb of him to treat a beloved character like that." And yet, Psylocke's character being wasted in this movie is even more disappointing. Why go through the trouble of hiring an attractive actress, covering her body in lube to get that reasonably faithful costume on, and then have her do almost nothing interesting with that katana and psychic blade? 

Finally, there's a goofy scene where the younger students are leaving a showing Return of the Jedi and talking about how the third movie in any given trilogy tends to be the worst. That was obviously a jab at X-Men: The Last Stand, but as this movie was the third film in the second trilogy, it becomes one of those "You suck, MacGruber!" moments where the dialog describes the film itself.

 

The Angry Birds Movie - Meh. In these days of cleverly-written animated films that seamlessly juggle humor aimed at different age groups, I was expecting the writers to find hilarious ways to mine humor from the concept of birds knocking over buildings. Instead, all that is relegated to about five minutes in the last act, with the first two acts dedicated mainly to a ramshackle subplot involving the Mighty Eagle; a pointless, trite moral about believing in yourself; and far too much humor derived from pee jokes, snot jokes and fart jokes. There's far too much build-up to far too little pay off in terms of Angry Birds destroying stuff. I guess my favorite part is the scene where Red is at the anger management class and the white bird starts reading Terence's background, growing more and more horrified as she does so.

[DrNgor]

My efforts to catch up with Hollywood on my vacation continue with:

Captain America: Civil War (2016) - So, first of all, I knew it wasn't going to happen, but I lament that Helmut Zemo never donned a hot pink outfit with animal fur-lined shoulders like he did in the comics. The fight scenes were choreographed nicely, with a few CGI/wire-enhanced jump kicks and what not for good measure that never felt forced. I was surprised that so much of the story revolved around Bucky/Winter Soldier. In other words, after "Thunderbolt" Ross introduces the Superhero Registration Act thingie, I thought we'd get more ideological/verbal wars than we did, but instead, lots of long set pieces revolving around making sure that Bucky doesn't die. Now, the whole thing about the lady blaming Stark for her son's death in the beginning (and another character later on). I'm assuming she wasn't privy to the details on Ultron's creation, so when you have a battle for the human race itself, why place blame for not saving a handful of lives when a million were saved immediately and six billion more in the long run? I can understand Stark accepting the blame, but...whatever. One thing that the film didn't really mention at the end: Team Cap may have been busted from the joint, but I'm going to assume that Hawkeye's family relations will have been irreparably damaged, as he probably won't be able to go back home (at least not immediately).

Mockingjay, Part 2 (2015) - As visual shorthand for the novel, it does a good job. Unfortunately, a lot of the deaths are diluted to keep the rating a PG-13 (so the melting beam becomes a disintegration beam, and the purple "bleed-from-all-orifices" ray is simply not present), and we don't even get to know the team that well , so it's hard to have any emotional reaction when everybody starts dying. My reaction was: Who died? Aw, I'm too lazy to rewind and see who it was.

Red Riding Hood (2011) - I'm not huge for blondes, but there's something about Amanda Seyfried that just captivates me. Can't describe what it is. She has the same willowy-yet-strong seductiveness to her that Chinese actress Zhou Xun has. There's some very nice atmosphere and music in this movie, especially during the celebration of the "successful" wolf hunt. But the film on the whole is rather "meh". I'm glad that director Catherine Hardwicke brought in former Jackie Chan stunt team member Andy Cheng (who worked with her in Twilight) to help out with the second-unit directing. That was pretty neat to see his name in the credits.

Beautiful Creatures (2013) - A post-Twilight movie about a boy in a Southern Bible Belt town who falls for the new girl, who happens to be a witch...I mean "caster." According to the story's rules for witches, at age 16, a witch will either be claimed to the Light or the Dark, sort of like the Harry Potter Sorting Hat by way of the force. If you have any fear or trace amounts of negative emotions, there's a good chance you'll be drafted to the dark, even if you don't want to. Or so the movie says. I think I liked this more than Red Riding Hood, and I liked that the two leads looked more like your average person than your typical pretty boy/girl teen protagonists. The cast is good and it's great to see Emmy Rossum vamping it up and giving a good performance, especially after being introduced to her via the tragedy that was Dragon Ball: Evolution. The problem is that the film is simultaneously too long for what it accomplished and too short for what it should've done. A lot of the mythology regarding the casters isn't explained enough, so much of the dialog and the final conflict sort passed over my head. I also found the depiction of Southern Christians as intolerant, Bible-thumping a**holes to be irritating, but then I just paused and pondered on that for a moment before just letting it go.

Suicide Squad (2016) - Uhhh...That was a thing. The movie is structured in a weird way and the script on the whole is rather uninvolving. I mean, I didn't even realize that a major character had died until after the movie when I looked up the movie on the Wikipedia to see if I missed something in the plot. That means that the characters had so little emotional impact that I didn't even notice one of them missing at the end. And what was the point of putting Katana in the movie? Just to have an analog to Psylocke, considering that this movie had a very similar plot and theme to X-Men: Apocalypse.

Maniac (2010) - A remake of the 1980 classic, brought to you by Alejandre Aja (he wrote and produced), the same fellow who gave us remakes to Piranha and The Hills Have Eyes. The gimmick here is that our title maniac, mannequin restorer Frank Zitto, is played by Elijah Wood and the film is shot almost entirely in first person perspective. The numerous scalpings are not for the squeamish and the final 15 minutes alternate between super creepy, ultra gory and outright bizarre. The film is a bit slow at times, but the stalking sequences are well done and strangely enough, I often found myself saying to Frank, "Be careful! You'll give yourself aw---oh right, you probably should do that if we want to see innocent people not get killed in violent ways."

[DrNgor]

10 Cloverfield Lane - The spiritual sequel to Cloverfield has manic pixie girl Mary Elizabeth Winstead getting in a car accident as the Plot Point News Bulletin on her car radio mentions some weird stuff happening on the East Coast (she's presumably somewhere in Texas or Louisiana). She wakes up in a bunker built by John Goodman, who also shares the place with a local hick. Goodman says that there's been an attack on American soil and that the air has been contaminated, so she can't go out (although she certainly does try a few times). She eventually gets used to life in the bunker, until one day she discovers something while fixing the air filtration system...

I found it to be very suspenseful and entertaining. I knew about the last minute "twist" that I agree with others is out of step tonally with everything that came before it, but in the end I can accept it. It's still pretty creepy and leaves a lot to the imagination. I'm now excited about the third film in the series, God Particle, which is set to come out this year.

[Tex Killer]

shinjuku incident. Jackie is illegal immigrant in Japan and gains some rank in underworld. His character is quite righteous and bit naive by trusting his fellow countrymen and eventually he gets into deep trouble as some some japs do not like new player in their area..

Derek Yee wrote and directed quite enjoyable drama. I guessed almost from the start there is not going to be martial arts, Jackis characters body language was not like those who can fight well. And frankly it disturbed of enjoying movie little bit. I would rather watch movie like this made in hollywood instead. Jackie plays drama well tho...

Still it was not bad way at all to spend ~2hours but no reason for revisit>goes into recycle pile.

[Tex Killer]

6 bullets. Van Damme is mercenary, expert in finding missing children. On a last mission after rescuing boy from child sex slave gang things do not go out quite as expected and cause some collateral damages...When daughter of martial arts competitior gets kidnapped van damme who is tormented by ghosts eventually accepts task...

Lot darker atmosphere here than in your usual VD flick, movie is very good. Action is not topnotch, might be some sloppy editing but can forgive that because stroryline is strong(maybe or maybe not some Taken influence here). It seems villains are eastern europe origin which fits to this kind of movie perfectly they have looks and attitude to be tough crooks.

Very pleasant surprise, this was on pile waiting to be watched some years and does not end up into recycling.

[AlbertV]

Fakye (2013) - this was my first Ghanaian film, available like loads of shot on video African films, on YouTube. For some reason, the filmmakers decided to mesh a murder mystery involving the victim being a music star with a kung fu comedy. The murder plot and the conspiracy behind it was enough for me, but I learned the reason why they added these kung fu like scenes that will make you think they were influenced by IFD and Filmark, is that playing the so-called "kung fu master" is Ghana's most popular actor and comedian, Kwadwo "Lil Win" Nkansah. We don't see any real meshing until the last hour of the film (the complete film runs 2 hours and 44 minutes) and it is not what one would think. It's what I somewhat expected from this type of film, but I found it tolerable compared to Nigeria's Dragon Warriors LOL.

[Tex Killer]

x-men:apocalypse. All previous x-mens been average except 1st class can be called good, was hoping this turns out to be best. I guess it did although dragged at times, over 2  hours felt tad overlong. Not sure if "sansa stark" was right choice for Jean Grey but cast was otherwise great.  While there was not much action in 1st half, director managed to keep interest up save some yawns and end battle was quite terrific..Bummer "coming attractions" after movie ended though, in avengers and captain america lot better

 

 

 

 

Edited February 12, 2017 by Tex Killer

[DragonClaws]

Traveller(2013) - Billy Cook stars as loner Owen Mcbride, who is half Irish gypsy. Interesting British film that takes a different look to the gypsy lifestyle. Which is often given a very negative image in the media. Owen has to overcome the predjudices not only of his own people, because he's seen as a half breed. Yet he's looked down upon by the rest of society. When he agrees to help some friends in a bodged robbery. Some local gangsters come looking for him, so he goes to horse trainer Blackberry(Former singer David Essex) for help. He aso ends up befriending a mongal horse expert who lives with the gypsys. Not the best Britsh movie ever made, but still worth a look if you enjoy indepedent British movies. While its not a full blown action moive, it does feature a few well staged bare knuckle encounters.

The Last King(2016) - Norweigen action adventure directed by Ravn Lanesskog and starring Jakon Ofterbro and Christiper Hivju. Based on true events, in 1206 Norway a young illigimate heir to the throne is protected by two fearless warriors Torstien(Hivju) Skjervold(Ofterbro). I watched the subtitled version of this, which is the only version available on the r2 DVD release. I shoud imagine an English dub would simply ruin this movie. A decent action adventure, that features some excellent chase sequences. The stunning snow covered locations make for a great backdrop to the drama and action.

Beyond The Law(1968) - Lee Van Cleef stars in this bullit riddled Italian production. Gordon Mitchell, Antonio Sabata and Bud Spencer fill out the supporting roles. A small group of theives aplan to rob some silver from a mining community. Only to end up being turned into the towns heroes., in a strange twist of events. Entertining movie, with an action packed finale. Not one of Lee Van Cleefs best role in my opinion, but well worth a look if you enjoy his Italian movie work.

Edited February 20, 2017 by DragonClaws

[Tex Killer]

undisputed. Heavy weight boxing champion is charged with sexual assault and is sent to prison where another champion (wesley snipes) ,of prison fights is waiting to be fought. Interesting movie but sequels offer more excitement when it comes to action.

Saw 1&2. Only 2nd view of these flicks and part 1 is still quite clever flick but part 2 has lost it`s charm I had for it when it was new movie. Nevermind, going to rewatch all parts this week.