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

[DiP]

City on Fire (1987) - 9/10

Prison on Fire (1987) - 8.5/10

School on Fire (1988) - 10/10

[Daxtreme]

City of God (2002)

What a brilliant movie. Raw. Visceral. Mesmerizing.

I think I was legit stunned for like 10 mins at the end.

9.2/10

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

2 hours ago, Daxtreme said:

City of God (2002)

What a brilliant movie. Raw. Visceral. Mesmerizing.

I think I was legit stunned for like 10 mins at the end.

9.2/10

Excellent Flick!

[Tex Killer]

On 2/19/2018 at 5:42 PM, Takuma said:

 

The Sect (Italy, 1991) [VoD] - 1.5/5
Another film by Michele Soavi. This one starts out well but soon turn into a snore fest about a woman haunted by visions and strange people. No plot, a story that doesn't go anywhere, irritating characters, and it doesn't even have any good shocks. And it runs almost two hours.

 

Garbage. Your rating is accurate. Either script should have been lot tighter or director extended many scenes too much.Or both. Surprisingly little happens in 2 hours.

After beginning only few rare moments are  interesting which hint something may be coming from basement but never delivers. Movie has it`s admirers but superboring it is. Stagefight and Church are far superior.

 

 

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Death Wish 2018 with Bruce Willis. Decent time killer, but that's about it. Willis is a pariah in Hollywood at this point, but he has enough fuck you money, so to speak, so he just cranks stuff out. I imagine he just makes movies to travel and have extra money, but his hearts not in it. Not that he ever had much of one, from what I understand.

Mrs K- Kara Wei still a babe, at least when you're the same age, LOL! Anyway, graphic fights here and there, slow paced in some parts. Decent suspense. Daughter and husband are sympathetic characters, so you worry about them throughout. Very Tarantino influenced as well. Worth checking out, but don't expect any 80's HK action. More street fighting kung fu with people using weapons at hand. Still, a decent flick.

Gringo- Couldn't finish.

[Takuma]

The Hot Box (USA / Philippines, 1972) - 2/5
Not quite a WiP film but women in captivity nevertheless, again shot in the Philippines and scripted by Jonathan Demme. A group American nurses get kidnapped by South American rebels trying to overturn the government. Action and plentiful bath scenes ensue, but not much exploitative edge since the kidnappers are essentially good guys. While more action packed than some others, the film is just so mediocre that it fails to make any kind of impression. One of the problems is that there's too much focus on the rebels instead of the girls who remain too passive in the action scenes.

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (Canada, 1974) [DVD] - 2.5/5
Mean spirited exploitation film mixes soft core sex with sickening human experiments that dominate most of the running time. Not exactly an enjoyable film, but certainly a memorable one. It's interesting to see how it differs from similar Japanese films (e.g. The Joy of Torture) which were technically and artistically superior, but also aestheticized and eroticized the violence against women to no end. Ilsa is much grittier and less sexy, making it feel sicker (although the opposite interpretation would also make sense).

Barbed Wire Dolls (Switzerland, 1976) [DVD] - 1/5
I was under the impression that this was supposed to be a real movie, but it turned out to be a porno (and not even a good one). Or at least I think it was a porno; the Japanese DVD I rented was so badly fogged that I couldn't tell for sure. It was advertised as "hair nude" version but since beavers are still outlawed and the film only features about one hair shot as opposed to seven hundred beaver shots, that promise ended up meaning not a damn thing. This was my first Franco and would be the last if I didn't have another damn Franco disc lying on my table. Maybe it's time to put my recently renewed fire insurance to use?

Tropical Inferno (Switzerland, 1976) [DVD] - 1/5
Another Jess Franco WiP film. Compared to his earlier movie Barbed Wire Dolls this one tones down the porn and replaces it with very nasty sexual (and non-sexual) torture. Don't be fooled by the cool title either: most of the film is set indoors; only towards the end we get a bit of swimming in a river and a crocodile. That's it. What a mean spirited bore.

Escape from Hell (Italy / Spain, 1980) - 3/5
Surprisingly enjoyable jungle prison film is the very definition of exploitation with (frequently naked) female prisoners consumed by the heat, sadistic guards, snakes, even heart failures when they're not engaging in sex scenes bordering pornography. Just like the better Italian cannibal films this is a relatively well made, stylish and slightly mean spirited film that knows what it is and throws a menacing score on top to underline it. It could use trimming (at 93 min its 15 min too long), but there's something so charming about its honest trashiness that it can only receive a recommendation. Unsurprisingly, BBFC banned the film upon its first release attempt in 1980, probably for displaying the women's mistreatment in a slightly too appealing manner.

Chained Heat (USA, 1983) [DVD] - 1.5/5
Bizarrely popular WiP film feels like a director fired from The Bold and The Beautiful helming a group of Dolly Parton's porny cousins in DTV production in 1983. Linda Blair's boobs are presumably the main appeal here, however it is John Vernon as a horny pornographer warden who comes out more entertaining. Everything else from story to acting, cinematography, score and 80s hairdos are either dull or irritating.

Women's Prison Massacre (Italy, 1983) [DVD] - 2/5
Semi sleazy WiP thriller does well by introducing a pack of psychotic male prisoners who are temporarily placed in a women's prison about 25 minutes into the film. The score isn't half bad either, if extremely repetitive, and the ending is zombie film gory. This could've been a good film had they remembered to wrap up the opening 25 minutes (there's a build up for something that never materializes) and if the rest didn't drag. The thriller vibes are there, but every other shot is too long and the film could've lost a good 15 minutes from the 89 minute running time. Still, it's more watchable than some of the duller and more sexploitative entries in the genre.

[Tex Killer]

Quite enjoyable romp of young boy who owns wortless piece of land or so it seems at first and "flatfoot" as his guardian angel....

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill are like David Chiang and Ti Lung,.,.Both are good as solo but as duo great. No Hill around here but veteran villain Jack Palance earned his paycheck well.

[whitesnake]

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017) starring Liam Neeson as Mark Felt, the FBI agent whistleblower known as 'Deep Throat'.  The cast is excellent, including Diane Lane as Mark's wife Audrey, Marton Cxokas as acting FBI Director Gray, Tony Goldwyn as FBI agent Ed Miller, Michael C Hall (Dexter) playing John Dean as a real prick, and Tom Sizemore as Bill Sullivan, J. Edgar Hoover's "bagman".  Critically, the movie did not fare well on Rotten Tomatoes, or at the Box Office, which probably explains why it never played in town.  Much of the movie was filmed in dark hues, with lit-up outlines of people.  It's all serious, no humor at all.  Based on Mark Felt's two memoirs, The FBI Pyramid and A G-Man's Life (co-written by John O'Connor), the movie is told from Mark Felt's POV.  Bob Woodward is more deferential here than as played by Robert Redford in All The President's Men.  Some elements of Felt's personal life, irrespective of Watergate, are included here to show he did have a personal life.  The movie is skimpy with the details of the sequence of events after Watergate; I enjoyed Mark Felt more, having seen All The President's Men quite a few times.  With the current situation between the White House and the FBI, and the relationship following the Watergate break-in, between the White House and the FBI, the timing of the release of the Mark Felt movie in September 2017 does not appear to be a coincidence.  

[Tex Killer]

Superb thriller, Bronson is tough cop who is after serial rapist. Just one action scene, but does not hurt movie. Clever script, time did fly with this.

[Tex Killer]

cynic, the rat and the fist. Independent sequel to Rome Armed to teeth which I haven`t seen, of 2 german releases better one is difficult to get hold of (at least for OK price). Ex-cop who after failed assasination attempt leads outside world believe it was succeed gets involved into business of 2 rivalling crime gangs and when his uncle gets killed it becomes even more personal issue.

Movie enjoys great reputation and partly agree and disagree with that. When cop(quite average maurizio merli, never liked him although not hate either) starts to create plot to pit mobs against each others it becomes bit too corny. On positive side there is quite lot action and brutal scenes although finale is bit letdown involving just some people not big gunfight was looking for. Both crimebosses are excellent, reliable John Saxon and Tomas Milian.

Solid eurocrime, just not quite among toptitles.

[DrNgor]

The Killer Must Kill Again (1975) - This giallo film was directed by Luigi Cozzi, best known for Alien Contamination and the infamous Starcrash. It reminds me a lot of Fargo, in which the villain is an unscrupulous man who acquires the services of the unsavory element to make money off his rich wife with an even-richer father. The man is played by George Hilton (Sartana's Here...Trade Your Pistol for  a Coffin). We don't know what his profession is, but it frequently puts him in contact with beautiful women whom his wife (Mexican actress Tere Velázquez) disapproves of. One evening, George witnesses a man pushing a VW Bug into the harbor with a dead woman inside. George blackmails the man into murdering his wife  and making it look like a kidnapping, in exchange for a cut of the ransom money. The murder goes as planned, but there's a kink...after placing the body in the trunk of his car, the killer goes back inside to remove any trace of fingerprints from a glass he had held. That's just enough opportunity for a young couple (Alessio Orano--who looks like a young Ray Liotta, and Cristina Galbó from The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) to steal the car. Now things will start to get complicated...

Unlike many giallo films, the film never plays the mystery card. We know who the killer from the very first scene, and it's clear that George is just as bad a few minutes later. The major part of the suspense is drawn from the killer's unflagging pursuit of the couple, who don't know they're being pursued. There's also the body in the trunk, which the couple isn't aware of, despite several close shaves. Those scenes are interesting enough to make up for the film's major structural flaw: George is made out to be the main character, but after the twenty-minute mark, his character becomes less and less important until the last ten minutes, when the film remembers that he needs his comeuppance, too.

As a giallo film, there isn't a whole lot of violence here, save a brutal stabbing in the last 20 minutes. What people will most remember is a pair of sex scenes that are played out in parallel. One is between a guy and some hot blonde floozy with car problems (Femi Benussi, of Strip Nude for Your Killer). That one is relatively sexy, complete with full frontal nudity and stuff. Interspersed with that is a rape scene, which isn't as explicit--there are some close-up's of the victim's nipples--but is drawn out and horrible. The camera focuses on the faces of the parties involved: the emotionless, skeletal visage of the rapist and the horrified resignation of the victim. It's a bizarre juxtaposition of something that should be sexy and something that should be anything but. Apparently this film received critical acclaim and Luigi Cozzi was announced to be a promising figure in the giallo genre, but then he decided that science fiction was his true calling...

[LuFengLover]

Last movie I watched was I Belonged to You.  Link to the review:  https://asianmoviepulse.com/2018/06/film-review-i-belonged-to-you-2016-by-zhang-yibai/

[AlbertV]

Re-visited Assassination (1987) starring Charles Bronson as a Secret Service agent who is assigned to protect the new First Lady (played by real-life wife Jill Ireland, in their last film together before her death in 1990). When she becomes the target of an assassination, Bronson does what Bronson does best to protect her. This would be the only film in Bronson's filmography to get a PG-13 rating. Gotta love Cannon Films' style of action during this era. 

Also saw Blockers this weekend and it's not raunchy, but I liked the fact the film split screen time between Leslie Mann, John Cena, and Ike Barinholtz with their daughters, who make a certain pact on prom night, prompting the three parents to attempt to stop them. Funniest scene is the "chugging" contest Cena is forced into and their run-in with the parents of one daughter's boyfriend, who are let's just say "open". I thought for what it was, pretty funny movie. 

[Drunken Monk]

I watched a movie I thought I'd seen before...which I hadn't. So, with that said, I'm happy to say I watched Michael Mann's Heat for the first time. I am even happier to say it's made my "top twenty films of all time" list. What a superb film. Plot driven, well constructed and deep characters and perfect action sequences. I loved every second of its lengthy run time. A true masterpiece.

And I watched the above film because I also watched Den of Thieves. Aka "Baby Heat." This film was massively overlooked when it came out and is really, really good. I was surprised. Tense, well acted and, again, fantastic action sequences. Well worth the watch.

[Ah_Tao]

Continuing on my favorite series of all time- with the focus on 80's driven Bond flicks this week. Currently on AVTAK

[massa_yoda]

80s was a strong decade for Bond IMO.  Dalton’s films in particular.  AVTAK was the only weak spot.

[Ah_Tao]

I agree too. I honestly hate comparing but if I did have to choose 80's vs 90s Bond, I'd have to choose 80s. There's that whole arguement where you could say that "there were only 4 (I include Die Another Day) Bond movies in the 90s, it's no fair." Yes, it is like comparing apples and oranges, but to me the 80s Bond gives off a certain vibe that makes me enjoy each and every one of them. And if you were wondering, my top three from that era would be: 3. The Living Daylights, 2. For Your Eyes Only, 1. Licence To Kill.

[massa_yoda]

That would probably be my exact top 3 as well!  

[Asmo]

Eight Taels of Gold

[DragonClaws]

The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017)  - Superb western, written and directed by Jared Moshe(Dead Man's Burden), starring Bill Pullman, Kathy Baker, Stephen Alan Seder, Tommy Flanagan, Jim Caviezel and Peter Fonda. Left Brown(Bill Pullman) is framed for the murder of his best friend of over forty year's. While he's not the sharpest tool in the box, he more than makes up for that, with guts and determination. He's also not short on bravery either. It's not action packed movie, and that's certianly no bad thing here. At hour and forty minute,s, it might take too long to get going for some film fan's. Like so many of the great western's, its as much a movie about people, as it is about the old west and gun slinging. Bill Pullman puts on a strong performance as the title character, and has some great supporting player's to back him up.

 

 

 

Blackhat(2015) - Average thriller, thats poorly paced, and at times poorly filmed. Suprised to find out it was Michael Mann saw in the Director's chair. There are some really stand out visual at time's, with some good use of SFX. The way in which the finale was shot, was quite unique.  Chris Hemsworth is the generic characterless computer hacker/whizz, whos bailed out of jail, to help stop and even badder cyber criminal from wreaking havoc. Some good sport from Chinese actors Andy On and Wei Tang, and while I've watched a lot worse, I also know Michael Mann is capable of a lot more. Without knowing much about the production detias, I'm going to take a guess and say this was a U.S/China co-production?.

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2018 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

King Arthur Legend of the Sword - Guy Ritchies big budget attempt at making the King Arhtur character's trendy and hip to a new audience, kinda of works. It's a bit like Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings, only with the cast of Guy Ritichie regular's thrown into the mix. By the look of the new Robin Hood film, it must have been inpsired a lot by this production. Ritchie threw everything he had at a blank canvas, and some of it looks good, but most of it looks plain terrible. There's some nice new touches to an old story, but somehow it just never really gel's together. The impression I got from this film, is it could have been a realy original new take on the old legend, but with added cockney slang and cheeky chap antics, it really doesnt pull it off. It cant decided what it really wants to be, and the cast of talent invovled just blur into the many big CGI set peices. Then there's the inclusion of a Martial Arts dojo, and Hong Kong style choreography, which I'd normally welcome with open arms, but here it stands out like fancy dress costume at a wedding. Jude Law make for an excellent villian, but again, he let down by direction and script.

Not a movie I'd really recommend, but it's hard to completely write it off too, watch it and make your mind up.

 

Nobody spills my pint and gets away with it, Charlie Hunman as Arthur

Edited July 16, 2018 by DragonClaws

[Takuma]

Argo (USA, 2011) [Hulu] - 3/5
Not bad thriller by Ben Affleck, but I don't quite get the high praise. The last 20 minutes is the most intense part, though almost entirely fictional in a film advertising itself as true story. That's quite ok in the name of entertainment; stealing the honour from the Canadians (who, in my understanding, came up with a lot of the stuff credited to the Americans here) on the other hand was a jerk move.  

The Town (USA, 2010) [Hulu] - 3.5/5
Another good action/thriller/drama by Ben "I direct better than I act" Affleck. Good story, decent action scenes and an ending that seems like an improvement over the source novel. Oh, and in all honesty Affleck isn't a bad actor these days, he makes a pretty good lead here, as he did in Argo.

The Eiger Sanction (USA, 1975) [DVD] - 3.5/5
Dated Clint Eastwood picture strikes as both misogynistic and homophobic, suffers from plot holes and could have lost 30 minutes, but also features breathtaking mountain climbing action that makes almost any modern action film pale in comparison. Reportedly Eastwood performed all of his own stunts, many of which seem awfully dangerous. Decent cast as well with George Kennedy giving good support.

[DragonClaws]

15 hours ago, Takuma said:

The Eiger Sanction (USA, 1975) [DVD] - 3.5/5
Dated Clint Eastwood picture strikes as both misogynistic and homophobic, suffers from plot holes and could have lost 30 minutes, but also features breathtaking mountain climbing action that makes almost any modern action film pale in comparison. Reportedly Eastwood performed all of his own stunts, many of which seem awfully dangerous. Decent cast as well with George Kennedy giving good support.

 

As the world becomes more and more obsessed with the lunacy of being P.C, Clint Eastwood's movies will certianly not age well in that respect. Made during less sensitive times. That said, he treat's all the villians in The Eiger Sanction with the same contempt, doesnt he refer to his albino employee Dragon, as a bloodless freak?. He he was singling out Jack Cassidy's character, then you could say he was being homophobic. Jack Cassidy is superb, as always, playing just one of the many villians. He popped up in a few episode of Columbo, and pretty much stole those too. They also make a clear point, of showing that Eastwood character has some morals. When the school girl suggests doing certian favours, in return for higher marks.

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Inherent Vice (2014) - Another one of those movies, that I wanted to see much sooner, but it just slipped by me. While picking up a film for the girlfriend, I was drawn into a buy two titles, and save money deal, so I picked this up. Where do you start with this crime story plot?, I'll use th IMDB breakdown, In 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.

At two and half hours, with the use of steady editing and pace, this aint a film for the ADD social media generation. It's by no means a masterpeice in filmaking, but for those who enjoy crime movies with a difference, this is for you. Looking for gun battles and car chases?, then you better look elswhere. The filmakers and performer's, have done a great of creating a crazy, drug and greed filled setting, that pulls no punches. It might come across as arty and prententious to many, but I really enjoyed it. Director Paul Thomas Anderson, re-wrote Thomas Pynchon's novel of the same name, for the big screen. With a big cat of ms rought on board to bring it to life. Jaoquin Phoenix as the private dective Doc Sportello, Josh Brolin, as a hard nosed narrow minded police chief, along Reese Witherspoon, Katherine Waterston, Benecio Del Toro, Hong Chau, Eric Roberts and Owen Wilson.

 

Edited July 22, 2018 by DragonClaws

[ShaOW!linDude]

Bone Tomahawk (2015) Stars: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins

The little town of Bright Hope is subjected to night raid that results in the kidnapping of a drifter, a deputy, and a lady doctor. Now the sheriff (KR), the doc's husband (PW), and the local dandy/former Indian killer set out to track down the abducted, which leads them to an area in the wilderness the Indians refer to as the Valley of the Starving Men, a place inhabited by a tribe of prehistoric troglodyte cannibals.

Dude! This movie is good! This is a little bit different kind of Western. It's got a run time of about 2 hours 15 minutes, but I didn't even realize it. It's got a small cast and the acting is aces. The moments of humor can be very dry which make them funny. The story sets up quick, but the build to the finale is slow and taken up with the journey of the 4 man posse. And that's not a bad thing as it goes to character development. But when events start happening...oh man, it's gets pretty gruesome real quick. 

Edited August 6, 2018 by ShaOW!linDude