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


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38 minutes ago, Secret Executioner said:

re Watchmen: does it follow (at least partly) the background we get from the original graphic novel ? I recall the main plot was interlaced with a lot of background elements on the original team and how superheroes became a thing in this universe. Or is it a more creative story loosely based on the property ?

I will say that it is very much tied into the original graphic novel. However, it is very much its own tale. It is very unique. I'm not sure about the specific backgrounds of the characters being addressed though. Many characters from the graphic novel are only fleetingly mentioned.

With that said, it feel...this won't make sense...small-time epic. Like, so much is going on but it all involves a small cast of characters. 

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This movie looks at the last years (not days, as implied in the title) of famous outlaws, Frank and Jesse James. The film opens in 1877 with the brothers trying to settle down after 15 years of thievery. Frank is shown to be a book-loving and family-oriented man, while brother Jesse is a money-hungry womanizer. The movie follows their lives through Jesse's death at the hands of the "rotten little coward" Bob Ford and Frank's death in 1915. - IMDB

 

Here's one of many films I've sat through over the last week. Very watchable two hour T.V movie Directed by William A.Graham. Starring musicians/actors Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson , as farmers turned outlaws Frank and Jesse James. Despite being a little old to play these two roles by 1986, tha pair have some natural on-screen chemistry. Which might come from their real life friendship?, Cash helped Krisofferson break into music business. When Kris was still just a cleaner at Sun records where Johnny Cash and others were signed at the time. Maybe Kris returned the favour and got his old friend some movie parts?. Country muisc fans should look out from cameos from Willie Nelson, June Carter Cash  and David Allan Coe. With strong supporting strong from Gail Youngs and Marcia CrossFor note to music fans, Johnny Cash sings the films main theme. Cash sings his version of the old folk song Jesse James. Which appeared on the movies soundtrack, alogside fellow artists including ace drummer Levon Helm(The Band) sweet vocalist Emmylou Harris, and Charlie Daniels. This is by no means a must see film, but if you fan of th genre and cast. It's an easy two hour viewing experience. It's not a perfect production, and Johnny Cash didnt have the same fire on camera as he did on records. That said, it's a decent attempt at re-telling well told story and the events surrounding it.

 

 

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Edited by DragonClaws
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Musicals period, the return !😃

A real fiesta of Musicals, these last days...

Calamity Jane, with Doris Day and Howard Keel 

My Blue Heaven with Betty Grable : a touching story about a couple of dancing and singing stars who loose their baby and they want to adopt one, and finally end with three babies among which one of their own.

Hit the deck with my favorite tap dancer and singer Ann Miller, Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds and one of the stars of West Side Story, Russ Tamblyn. A very funny movie about three sailors who find their loved ones during a permission, with a lot of twists, gags and of course, lots of songs and dances.

Athena with Jane Powell or how a rich and strict man falls in love with an unconventional beautiful girl who says what she thinks without any shame.

Small town girl with Jane Powell, Ann Miller and Farley Granger, or how a rich "son to his mother " is imprisoned by a strict judge and falls in love with the judge's daughter.

New faces of 1937 with Ann Miller at 14 years old !: a very funny movie about a director who wants his show to be a flop and get the money of his sponsors (who won't know each other and think that they are the unique sponsor), has to flee away and let one of his sponsors take the directing of the show. I can't calculate how many times I laughed during the movie with all the highs and lows of the new director !

Time out for rythm with Ann Miller 

She's getting her way through college with Virginia Mayo, Gene Nelson (another talented tap dancer that I had never heard of until now), Patrice Wymore and Ronald Reagan , or how a stage dancer and singer succeeds in entering the university in the class of her ancient teacher (Reagan), finds love and faces a jealous rival (Wymore).

Starlift with Doris Day, Jane Wyman, Janice Rule, Patrice Wymore and a lot of other stars performing songs and sketches for the soldiers on an air base.

Painting the clouds with sunshine with Virginia Mayo, Virginia Gibson, Dennis Morgan and Gene Nelson, or how three singing and dancing sisters go to another town to get a fortune and finally find love.

She's back on Broadway, with Virginia Mayo, Gene Nelson, Steve Cochran and Patrice Wymore, or how a stage dancer and singer who has left the stage shows to do movies 6 years ago and is now without any role in a movie, returns on a stage show directed by her previous lover (Cochran), with whom  she finally reunites after a lot of highs and lows.

The princess and the pirate, with Virginia Mayo and Bob Hope. I laughed a lot in this one too, in which Bob Hope plays a coward transformist lead into a crazy adventure with a princess escaping a forced marriage on a boat that is caught by pirates. One of them helps them to escape and gives the map of a treasure to Hope (without telling him, of course !) and tells them to go to an island find his cousin. What they won't know, is that the governor of the island is an accomplice of the chief of the pirates !

Frankly , if you don't know what to watch, just watch this one ! Bob Hope is excellent and so funny in it !

 

Texas carnival with Ann Miller, Esther Williams, Howard Keel and Bob Hope, or how a brother and sister (Hope and Williams) are mistaken for another multi millionnaire brother and sister couple, which leads to a lot of funny situations. The chariot race at the end of the movie alone is worth watching !!

Edited by ShawAngela
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I corrected the mistakes of my phone on the above post, some of them were enormous and didn't help to understand what I had written !!

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Blood Fest by Owen Egerton

 

Mediocre 2019 teen horror movie trying to be clever. Even worse than a tarantino movie, if that level of mediocrity is even reachable. It barely deserves to be mentioned anywhere, so I won’t write more about it.

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Deathstalker (USA / Argentina, 1983) [VoD] – 2.5/5
Watchable barbarian junk, weighed down by incomprehensible plot, cheap production values and a completely charisma free mullet Rick Hill (where do they find these guys, gym?) as the hero. But it does have: a pig faced monster eating a pig head, naked lady 1, naked lady 2, naked lady 3 and so on, also severed head 1, severed head 2 etc., mud wrestling, and… you get the gist.

Deathstalker II (USA / Argentina, 1987) [VoD] – 1.5/5
Holy shit! Where did the cast for this one come from, a porn movie? Rick Hill’s mullet deserved an acting Oscar compared to everyone in this one. John Terlesky (who?) is the new Deathstalker (“is that first name or last name?”), Monique Gabrielle plays not one but two roles (I don’t know in which one she sucked worse) and there’s the pig faced monster eating pig head again (stock footage, actually). And my God, villain John La Zar (from Beneath the Valley of the Dolls) gives the worst performance in the entire movie. The whole film is a joke, and it only makes it worse the filmmakers are aware of it. Half star from one good zombie scene and Gabrielle’s face and body.

The Warrior and the Sorceress (USA / Argentina, 1984) [VoD] – 2.5/5
Wandering warrior David Carradine plays Yojimbo with two rival gangs a tiny town. Carradine is a better actor and swordsman than most sword and sorcery or barbarian heroes; it’s just a shame the storyline is completely void of originality and invention. And the creatures are puppets that look too much like bloody puppets. Kudos from Maria Socas spending the entire movie topless (there’s also a four breasted stripper if two ain’t enough for you), but the film really rests on Carradine’s shoulders. The final duel, where he mixes swordplay and kung fu, is pretty good.

She (Italy, 1984) - 3/5
A goddess (Sandahl Bergman from Conan the Barbarian) walks into a cave full of boxes. Evil swordsmen jump out of the boxes and try to kill her, for no reason. Then a robot jumps out of a box and tries to kill her, for no reason. Then the robot's head explodes. This is one of the less bizarre, video game like challenges SHE encounters. But SHE is not really the main character because the story is about a guy looking for his sister, but HE ends up having much less screen time than SHE, although SHE no storyline of her own! Go figure. And you have to wait till the end credits to learn some of the main characters’ names! A completely nonsensical post-apocalyptic barbarian adventure, based on a book from which it reportedly borrows nothing. Not great cinema, but entertaining insanity, partly because it’s so nuts it’s 100% impossible to predict what the fuck will happen next.

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Marriage Story - Beautifully tragic story of love and divorce. Perfect acting by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson (and others). Touching, heartbreaking and actually funny. Fantastic movie from start to finish.

5/5

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tnt.jpg

TNT Jackson (USA / Philippines, 1974) [VoD] – 2.5/5
A Cirio H. Santiago kung fu / blaxploitation mash-up with plentiful nudity. Set in, but obviously not always filmed in, Hong Kong. It’s C-grade stuff with Jeannie Bell pretending she can do kung fu, but you kind of forgive her when she does it topless! Has some clumsy charm, and is better paced and has a more charismatic lead than Santiago’s inept Fly Me (the “Stewardesses vs. the world's most incompetent kung fu killers” film) from a year earlier.

Wheels of Fire (Philippines, 1985) [VoD] – 3/5
A surprisingly good Mad Max derivative with one-impression hero Gary Watkins chasing wasteland bandits who kidnapped his sister (’82 playmate Lynda Wiesmeier). The action is non-stop with occasional bits of originality, Wiesmeier frequently loses her top, and the acting isn’t that bad either (villain Joe Mari Avellana makes pretty solid b-film crook). And perhaps most importantly, the post-apocalyptic desert is lively enough with heroes, villains and strange societies to keep this a notch above the cheaper post apocalypse pictures.  Director Cirio H. Santiago certainly has done worse films.

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The Sisterhood (USA, 1988) [VoD] - 1.5/5
Cirio H. Santiago undoes any good post-apo vibes left by Wheels of Fire (1985) with this dull dud that may have been intended as a children's movie but ended up with an R-rating. In the future men have enslaved all women except THE SISTERHOOD aka two riders one of whom can move light objects with the thought of mind and the other who fires blue beams from her eyes. Yeah, really! Void of graphic violence and with only tiny glimpses of nudity (body doubles for the leads), this comes out as overlong, misguided picture best suited for little girls who like ponies, complete with an odd 80s video game musical score. It only comes alive at the end when the gals find a war wagon and assault rifles, enabling them to go girls with guns.

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A triple threat of horror yesterday...

Some Kind of Hate (2015): Last year, I saw Adam Egypt Mortimer's Daniel Isn't Real, which I highly recommend. So I decided to check this one out a few months after buying it on Blu-Ray at Dollar Tree. OMG, this was so bloody good in both a figurative and literal way. The story of a bullied teen who is sent to a retreat/school for troubled teens and after being more bullied there, unleashes the ghost of a girl who died there years ago due to bullying and as a result, unleashes a revenge-killing spree with a Corsican Brothers twist. When she cuts herself, the victim gets cut...nice concept and there was a welcome role for former child star Spencer Breslin, who plays the new best friend of the protagonist and playing the protagonist's biker dad in the opening of the film is Andrew Bryniarski, who played Leatherface in the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of Mortimer's work after seeing this and Daniel Isn't Real.

Unfriended (2014): This is quite interesting in terms of its narrative, in which we see basically a first-person POV view from a Skype call, which revolves around six friends who find themselves potential victims of an unknown caller, who may be the ghost of a girl who killed herself a year ago after a viral video of her embarrassing herself was viewed on YouTube. Some of the deaths are very gruesome and shocking and gives the trope of jump scares.

Unfriended: Dark Web (2018): An in-name sequel, involving a guy who took a laptop that had been sitting in the lost and found at a cyber cafe he works at for 4 weeks. He attempts to patch up his relationship with his hearing-impaired girlfriend but he soon realizes the laptop he took belongs to a member of a mysterious group who use the dark web to do sinister things and now he and his friends, who are playing Cards Against Humanity (love this game BTW) on Skype and of course, it gets dangerous. I liked this one slightly better than the original. There are three alternate endings to this one and there was a bit of the Purge meets Illuminati feel to thing in the film.

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Secret Executioner
On 1/27/2020 at 3:22 PM, AlbertV said:

Unfriended (2014): This is quite interesting in terms of its narrative, in which we see basically a first-person POV view from a Skype call, which revolves around six friends who find themselves potential victims of an unknown caller, who may be the ghost of a girl who killed herself a year ago after a viral video of her embarrassing herself was viewed on YouTube. Some of the deaths are very gruesome and shocking and gives the trope of jump scares.

I've seen this one. Not too bad, but a bit annoying in how it's done with the shots from either the webcam or showing a computer screen, the jumpscares... I like the idea of the revenge thing, it makes for a good lesson in that it's essentially a bully getting her come-uppance for a social network-based prank gone awry. I feel it's a bit of a modernized take on the premse of I know what you did last Summer - people do something bad and they decide to keep it a secret, then their bad deed comes back to haunt them.

 

My latest viewing from the theater is A hidden Life (USA/Germany, 2019)

Based on real events, the movie deals with Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer who refused to go fight in WWII for the Third Reich because his deep Christian faith made him opposed to the horrors of the war and the Nazi mentality. In spite of suffering through insults and humiliations from his fellow villagers, he retained his will until he was pretty much compelled to go and serve, but went to jail and eventually got sentenced to death as he kept refusing to swear allegiance to Hitler.

 

I'm not that familiar with Terrence Malick's material, but I recall finding To the Wonder (2012) painfully slow and dull, so this one had to be an improvement. And it certainly is. Sure, the movie is very long (nearly 3 hours), has a lot of nature footage (apparently a Malick trope, though those landscapes are certainly gorgeous) and a lot of its dialogue feels cryptic (often discussing various aspects of faith and religion such as free will or whether the church/God would approve of the Nazis' actions), but in the mean time, many characters are very developped and complex, their relations are well-explored and a lot of them are shown having kind of a double personality - the front that is shown in public (the mayor making a speech that's pretty much a summary of Hitler's thoughts, guards beating or abusing the prisoners) and a more natural, emotional "private" side (the mayor privately talking to Franz as a friend to convince him to get along with the Nazis to avoid trouble, prison guards dancing or acting goofy). The only characters that don't seem to be double-sided like that are Franz and his family who are genuine, which makes them hated for not supporting the Nazis but their kindness isn't based solely on circumstances while some villagers will turn from hostile to friendly because Franz accepted to enlist - they get insulted and suffer abuse but people are kind again when Franz goes to the army, only to become hostile again when he gets to jail.

The movie also uses a lot of stock footage from Nazi Germany and WWII to set up the context - the movie actually opens with stock footage of Nazi propaganda with books being burnt and Hitler at a huge rally (I assume it must be one of the Nüremberg events from the mid-to-late 1930s) - and some parts of the movie mirror it, which makes for a great effect and adds to the strength of its realism. And even if I had already seen color footage of WWII, it still felt bizarre to see footage of Hitler in color - to add to the creepiness/disturbing aspect it was shown as Franz was narrating of a nightmare he had.

Definitely a very good movie, recommended to anyone interested in history, character studies and/or people who like movies with philosophical/spiritual overtones.

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On 1/11/2020 at 1:20 AM, Takuma said:

Deathstalker II (USA / Argentina, 1987) [VoD] – 1.5/5
John Terlesky (who?) is the new Deathstalker

Terlesky was a staple actor of the 80s, appearing in both teen flicks and Corman-produced flicks. He was the first of the young victims in the horror film Chopping Mall but had also appeared in The All Nighter (the film debut of Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs) and Secret Admirer. These days, he occasionally acts on TV but works more as a TV director. 

John Allen Nelson (from Killer Klowns from Outer Space and later co-wrote Best of the Best 2) replaced Hill and Terlesky for the 3rd installment, Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell before Hill returned to the role for the final Deathstalker IV.

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Love Camp 7 (USA, 1969) – 1.5/5
The foundations of the nazisploitation genre, unfortunately a piece of shit film. It starts out amusing enough alright. First we get a British general declaring "You'll be whores of the 3rd Reich for the next five days" with a wide smug smile on his face, having just conceived his master plan to infiltrate two American female spies into a nazi camp. You also get a French resistance leader asking the two busty operatives to strip buck naked and change in front of him while he does the mission briefing - a scene where not one viewer heard a single word he said. Unfortunately the amusement is stops there once you realize whoring is all this 90 min sex marathon has to offer. The premise isn't entirely indifferent to some Japanese exploitation films of the era, but the film is missing their professionalism and seductive visuals. What you get here is girls licking the boots of a nazi leader played by producer R.W. Cresse himself, giving a whole-hearted if comically bad performance that perhaps reveals more about his motivations than we needed to know.

Women in Cellblock 7 (Italy / USA, 1973) - 2.5/5
A crime / action / WiP hybrid with Anita Strindberg going undercover in prison to retrieve information to save her father who is being chased by gangsters. It would be a stretch to call this a good film, but the prison drama / erotica is a bit better done, more story driven than in many other WiP junk films, and the frame story sneaks in an entertaining car chase or gunplay scene 25 minutes. Oh, and Alien vs. Ninja stole a scene from this.

Rulers of the City (Italy, 1976) [VoD] - 2.5/5
Lightweight Fernando Di Leo gangster actioner with two young blokes trying their luck against the mafia. Moderately entertaining if you can get past the brain dead script and the fundamental question why make a film with these silly youngsters when there were older, more charismatic actors available? A very passable time waster, but Milano Calibro 9 this is not.

Hell of the Living Dead (Italy, 1980) [VoD] – 2.5/5
Idiotic zombie film mishmash that is nevertheless watchable. There’s stolen Goblin music, nature stock footage, a half-arsed attempt to borrow from Cannibal Holocaust with social commentary, bargain basement gore effects, a staggering lack of logic, and brain dead arseholes (the heroes), one of whom is a reporter running out topless in the jungle. And yet the last half an hour is surprisingly solid, with some genuinely well done scenes (the sound design in the house scene near the end is great, fans of the 1996 Resident Evil video game should feel at home here) and atmospheric footage of zombies walking the earth. At 98 min the film ought to have lost 15 min, though.

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Killer Meteor

How uncanny, I watched Hell of the Living Dead last night too! Must be something in the air...

 

On the origin of the stock footage - http://www.aycyas.com/hellofthelivingdead.htm

 

Quote

 

The curious thing about Hell Of The Living Dead is that its gore scenes are probably its least offensive aspect. The real issue here centres upon the inserted stock footage---the way in which it is used in-story, and the way in which it tied to the film’s philosophy. (Oh, yes, it has “a philosophy”: you can thank Fragasso for that.) The pilfering from La Vallée is always highlighted in any consideration of Hell Of The Living Dead, probably because that is quite a well-known production in its own right, but in fact the bulk of the re-used material comes from other sources: some of it from the French-Belgian documentary Des Morts (Of The Dead), which is an almost-silent contemplation of death and funerary rites around the world, but most of it from the Italian-Japanese co-production Nuova Guinea, L'Isola Dei Cannibali, better known as Guinea Ama (and recently released on DVD as The Real Cannibal Holocaust).

There’s a case to be made, I suppose, for the study of death in a documentary, although there will also be something deeply troubling about the public exposure of people’s most private and painful moments, whatever the justification. Des Morts, which offers images without commentary, editorialising only in the juxtapositioning of certain passages, is generally considered one of more morally sound entries in this particular sub-genre of film-making. Guinea Ama, however, is a mondo film masquerading as a documentary. Supposedly it is a contemplation of New Guinea at the time of the granting of its independence (and the film’s IMDb listing rather amusingly presents it as starring Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip as “herself” and “himself”), but from the get-go the aim is exploitation, with the camera dwelling almost exclusively on those aspects of life – and death – guaranteed to be shocking to Western eyes.

 

The film was one of the banned Video Nasties in the UK, under the title ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH!

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Anchor's aweigh and On the town, two musicals with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.

My favourite dancer Ann Miller plays in On the town, and the talented Kathryn Grayson sings like a nightingale in Anchor's aweigh.

I discovered the actor Dean Stockwell in the series Quantum Code, but I discovered that he was a child star while watching Anchors aweigh, in which he was SO CUTE !!

Dean Stockwell enfant.jpeg

Edited by ShawAngela
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Call of the Wild (2020)

I don't know. I was on the fence after watching the trailer and my feelings pretty much just got confirmed. I couldn't get myself involved emotionally with so much "fake" stuff. Everything just looks to made up; in other words too much CGI. Also the entire story and especially the thrills sprinkled throughout feel awfully forced at times. It's unfortunate because I love a good adventure film not to mention I love dogs. I recommend you skip this and watch Togo on Disney+ instead. Now that's how a movie with sled dogs has to look and feel!

The Way Back (2020)

Great movie which hooked me from the first minute. Ben Affleck delivers an incredible performance as a struggling alcoholic trying to straighten out his life. Also who doesn't like a good underdog story. However this is not so much the focus here. It's really about how we deal with personal loss. And how it can take us to some very dark places. At the same time we can also battle these demons to find back to our lives. Highly recommended!

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Ozark Season 3 on Netflix

The last 2 movies I watched, and for the first time ever, was Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

I loved them both. I actually prefer these 2 movies over any of the Avengers films. I don't know what took me so long to watch them either. 

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Binge watched COPS on Monday on the Paramount Channel. Some favorite lines from the suspects- " I've only had a couple beers" when getting pulled for DUI,  "These ain't my pants" when the cop pulls dope out of their pockets, and "Are you serious?" when being told they are under arrest...

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4 minutes ago, SkemeRichards said:

Just finished watching The Hunters. Great series.

DJ SKEME RICHARDS! Welcome to the forum. It's incredible to see you here you, thanks for joining.

martial arts GIF

Hunters definitely looked interesting when I first saw the trailer, but based on that fact that you enjoyed it, I will make sure to check it out.

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supernatural season 12...I think this was pretty bad, son of lucifer is about to be born. Still final episode left cliffhanger so it saved quite a lot.

Man with Iron Fists part 2...Rubbish, part 1 was ok timewaster but this was not...one ok battle with 2 chinese around middle of movie...there was chinese mine owner slaving his countrymen and some mysterious who kills ladies...meh

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