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

[laagi]

-.-

Edited August 23, 2021 by laagi

[ShawAngela]

The law and Harry Mc Graw : A 16 episodes YV series with Jerry Orbach and Barbara Babcock. I enjoyed each episodes, in which there were such guest stars as Robert Desiderio, young George Clooney and other whose names escape to me at this moment.

[ShawAngela]

House of cards : I only knew Georges Peppard through his TV series with Dirk Benedict and the others, and through the excellent movie The carpetbaggers, and I discovered this movie today. What a SUPERB movie ! Georges Peppard holds the movie alone and he does it very well !

[Gevixel]

The Vikings [1958]

Edited May 9, 2022 by Gevixel

[DragonClaws]

 

Rocky 2 – (1979) – The slugging sensation from Philadelphia Rocky Balboa returns, for the cinematic boxing re-match of the century. With the hard-hitting king of sting himself, Apollo Creed. Just weeks before this production began, Sylvester Stallone suffered a pectoral tear while bench pressing. Instead of allowing this to put the production on hold. He decided to switch his character from being a southpaw, to a right-handed hitter. With a budget of seven million dollars, this sequel is a more polished film with higher production values. It went onto become the second highest grossing films of 1979. Stallone not only wrote the sequel, but also took on directing duties.

 

“I like black, blacks my favorite colour”

 

Carl Weathers returns as the fast-talking Heavyweight Champion of the world. His portrayal of Apollo Creed in this sequel, is very different to the one seen in the first film. He never smiles once, and the humor and jokes are reigned in a lot more. A genuine verbal altercation between Weathers & Stallone, was chosen to appear in the final fight footage. After a few punches landed for real, despite the many weeks of rehearsal the two stars had done. Which shows how risky staging movies fights can be. Even when every precaution has been to made to minimize any danger.

 

The two actors said they got heavy whiplash, from constantly jerking their necks back as a reaction to the specially timed punches. They were filming for hours at a time, just to complete/perfect a short set of movements. The director and his team of editors, spent eight months just putting the spectacular final fight footage together. All of the final fight was choreographed by Sylvester Stallone himself.

 

“I was wondering, like, what you were doing for the next forty or fifty years?”

 

As with all the Rocky films, there autobiographical references from the writer/star. When Rocky struggles to read his lines for a T.V commercial job. Suffering from a speech impediment and Dyslexia in real life. It’s a small nod to when he was a jobbing actor looking for any role he could get.

 

The Rocky films are known for their training sequences/montages. Having a big effect on the music video boom of the early 1980’s. Old School boxing training methods are heavily featured throughout. Running on rail way tracks and chasing chickens. Not forgetting one of Rocky Marcianos favorite leg building exercises, carrying a log on his shoulders. While walking around in a squatted position. In part II the two training montages are accompanied by Bill Conti’s inspiring music. With Frank Stallone also returning, to sing the song Two Kinds of Love in the picture.

 

Boxing fans should look out for fighting legend Roberto Duran, playing one of Balboas lighting fast sparring partners. Special mention goes to character actor Joe Spinell as the all-seeing local gangster Gazzo, who Rocky once worked for as a debt collector. This would be the last time his character appears in the series.

 

Sylvester Stallone on sparring with Roberto Duran - "You're sparring and you say to yourself, 'Hey, maybe I can go with this guy.' Then you trade a few shots, and you realize you're an actor again."

 

Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith, Burt Young and Tony Burton all return to reprise their roles. The film would never have so successful, without this strong cast of supporting actors. Talia Shire was also working on another movie, at the same time she was filming for Rocky 2. Which meant there had to be a few re-writes, to the script once titled Rocky 2: Redemption. Overall its a great movie that stands out as one of Sylvester Stallones best.

 

[AlbertV]

He's All That: A gender reversal of the 1999 rom-com that launched Rachael Leigh Cook as a star with a My Fair Lady style story involving a bet to make a loser prom queen. Now, we have a social media influencer attempting to turn a loser into prom king. The original screenwriter returns for this one and when you have a lead role played by someone familiar with her career as a social media influencer, it works when you have the loser being a fan of kung fu films and an aspiring photographer, in this case, Cobra Kai's Tanner Buchanan (Robby). We even get to see Buchanan keep up his CK training in a fight scene against the film's bully, a conceited music star who is the ex of our lead character. 

The Crow: City of Angels: Been a long time since I have seen this 1996 sequel that is somewhat of an essential reboot of the original and yet it is connected (the only sequel in the franchise to have an actual connection to the Eric Draven story) in the form of Mia Kirshner's Sarah (played by Rochelle Davis in the original) as she becomes a mentor to Vincent Perez's Ashe Crawford, who becomes the new Crow. He makes the avenging character his own with the use of magic at times. My only gripe about this is the way the villain gets his at the end...it's not as good as the other films in the franchise. But altogether for a new story and a new Crow...not too bad. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by AlbertV

[nectarsis]

 

a classic approaches 

 

[nectarsis]

 

movie time #2

 

[shukocarl1441996347]

The Sartana Collection

Sabata

Take a Hard Ride

Day of Anger

Death Rides a Horse

The Champions (1967 series)

Knight Errant

 

[nectarsis]

 

movie time:

 

[nectarsis]

 

todays movie #2

 

[Cognoscente]

JFK. Agnes Aurelio was in it.
 

 

[ShawAngela]

The complete series of It takes a thief, with Robert Wagner.

I loved the first two seasons, with Malachi Throne, but I was a little bit disappointed with the season three, which he didn't play in. Does anyone know why ?

The highlight of the third season was Fred Astaire playing Robert Wagner's father and each of the three of four episodes he appeared in was an enjoyement : fun, glamour, grace, humor and even two or three atemis and stunts on a roof (of course, he was surely doubled) ! The quality print of the third season was also less brilliant that the one of the first two seasons in my opinion.

All in all, it was a great series, and I kept the musical theme in my mind for days after having watched it !

[ShawAngela]

And now, I'm currently watching the complete series of Matt Helm (just one disc left to watch to finish it).

I guess that I must have seen one or two episodes on French TV when I was a child, because as soon as I heard the musical theme, I recognized it and it has now replaced the theme of It takes a thief in my mind !!

Frankly, I love this series, and I prefer it to the Matt Helm movie I watch a while ago with Dean Martin and Sharon Tate. The series is much more interesting, and I love these old series, with beautiful cars that don't look exactly alike each other like nowadays whatever the company (at least here, in France, when I see a car, I'm unable to say if it's a Citroën, a Renault or another company's car since they all look alike !), with beautiful clothes, houses, and entertaining music and plots.

This is the third old TV series I recently got, and Matt Helm was the only one I was familiar with.

[WangYu]

Emmanuelle 1974

yes the porn film, the dialogue is so cringeworthy, the scenes in itself are hilarious, purely male fantasy but apparently it was conceived from a book written by a woman. You get this girl who starts masturbating during a house visit in front of the host. You get a complete stranger almost raping a girl in a packed airplane, when the guy is done another passenger takes over. You can’t make this up in your wildest fantasies…

Other than the magnificent landscapes there was nothing that raised my blood pressure because the sex scenes are completely boring and overacted

[WangYu]

Jurassic World: fallen kingdom

Sue me I liked it. Love the outlandish plot ditto set pieces. This doesn’t mean it is a well written film because it isn’t but it is fun and packed with cool ideas. The indoraptor was some scary monster and it totally worked in that big gothic mansion. Great nod to the old gothic horror films of the past. The set piece in the truck with the T rex? Gold! The escape scene with that thick skulled thing? Super fun.

But yes the film feels rushed, the island scenes especially. The characters are copies from the past films, there is a kid but this one isn’t obnoxious luckily, there is a comic relief character but he luckily gets forgotten during the climax (loved his screams though). The film is also plagued with random scenes but the entire franchise has this problem. Random dinosaurs pop up to save the day multiple times like in the original when the t rex saves the day vs the raptors. That is just lazy writing.

The film is basically a comic book for kids, perhaps a kid even came up with the idea lol

Can’t wait for the 6th installment really.

[FightingFool]

two evil eyes(88 br). Millionaire is dying and his wife+her lover are after funds but things do not obviously go as planned...George Romero story is terrific, all actions of characters make (at least some kinda) sense you rarely see such rationalism in horror movies...In Black Cat there is meaw meaw inside the wall.,.Dario Argento did fine but story has been used so many times Romero one wins. Harvey Keitel is really cool in Cat.

 

bandidos(arrows vengeance trails boxset br). Passengers are killed and hands of ageing gunman are wounded by his ex-pupil Billy Kane+co...It`s up to recruit some new blood who can take Billy Kane out of business for good..Superb spaghetti western with great score but it`s still just 3rd finest in box as there is 2 superiors in set..

 

[DarthKato]

Carved: The Split Mouth Woman(2007): Being a fan of Japanese ghost films, I was quite pleased with this movie. The Kuchisake-onna was really cool and creepy, as a murderous ghost should be. The story was good and kept my interest throughout. Tho I did find it kind of funny that one of the kids had a book that basically had all the information they needed in it. So yeah, pretty good movie. Defiantly recommend it.  

Phone(2002): It was alright, tho I called most of the twist before they happened(Except for one). So its a very predicable, by the numbers movie. Got to say tho, that little girl in the movie(Cannot recall her name) was really amazing. I found her acting ability impressive to be so young. Not much else to say. If you see it cheap, give it a shot. Its not that bad. 

[WangYu]

Pather Panchali 1955

a truly moving film about life in rural India, it is about the hardships, poverty and especially raising kids, this is also a coming of age film, we see the world through the eyes of children and we become children ourselves again.
The scenes where the kids enjoy playing and discovering the world are my favorites. Despite the vast cultural differences and the even bigger difference in wealth I knew while growing up, it was still very easy to see resemblances in my childhood years. It is comforting to know kids at the other end of the world living in poverty know the same childhood magic as the rich kids from the West. Get your handkerchiefs ready though…

 

The Straight story 1999

David Lynch in a rare moment of tranquility and peace. Based on a real life event. It is about an old man traveling hundreds of miles on a lawnmower to visit his sick brother. On the way he meets people and he talks with them and many of those scenes are beautiful. The score by Badalamenti is one of the greatest I ever heard, the acting is phenomenal. This is one of those films that depict people at their kindest and it manages to touch the heartstrings easily.

[Yihetuan]

The Dawn Rapists aka Rapists at Dawn aka Los Violadores del Amanecer - Dir. Ignacio F. Iquino [1978]

A bleak and nihilistic crime drama about a bunch of young Spanish miscreants who go on a rape and robbery spree. More in the vein of A Clockwork Orange (even in terms of hierarchy within their own criminal gang) than the more typical 70s rape and revenge films in terms of violence and onscreen brutality. Turns into a police procedural and there are some superficial scenes attempting to show the dysfunctional family life which produced these monsters but overall a very depressing look at disaffected youth, their criminal behavior and the consequences for the general society at large.

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Panna A Netvor (1978) Gothic Czech screen version of the popular Beauty & The Beast fairy tale.

Rambo (2007)

The Guv'Nor (2014) Documentary

Black Sea (2014)

The Joker (2019)

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by DragonClaws

[DrNgor]

Cruella (2021)

Lucca (2021)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

The Shining (1981)

Edited September 8, 2021 by DrNgor

[shukocarl1441996347]

The Unholy Four

If You Live - Shoot!

Horror Rises From the Tomb

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Annihilation (2018: Alex Garland): 

This is a tough one for me. It does not help that I had just read the Southern Reach Trilogy from Jeff VanderMeer thanks to you of course. The movie is like someone had read the book when it first came out and decided to do their own version (which it is; the director had read the first book and used his impression of it to make the movie.  He has said this in interviews).

Small rant: obviously, a movie is a different medium than a book. But when using the name of the book and some of the characters and situations then personally I would like some more fidelity to it. If not change the title at least. But I have to review the movie as it is. But there lies the problem with me. I have the entire series in my head. Now the director had only read the first book and only once and really had his own ideas he wanted to incorporate. I don't have issues with that in general. But it feels like piggybacking.

But on to the film: I like it.  Even with my nitpicks (and yeah I nitpick everything) I think Alex Garland is a good director (Ex Machina is better). If you read the book, try to put it out (Out Damned Spot -- yes Macbeth reference). The visuals are captivating. Look at this (some H.R. Giger, who was the big influence on the original Alien designs, vibes throughout).

The plot is purposefully enigmatic (though not as much as the book). You have Natalie Portman (Lena), who seems to be forced on a mission (different than the book, though her husband also came back; all throughout I'm thinking this happened in the book differently, I just cannot turn off my head) when her husband appeared after being gone (supposedly KIA).

This mission is to enter the "Shimmer" aka Area X and go to the lighthouse for some reason (I kept expecting the journals to be there hee hee).  I really miss the tower and the creature in the tower from the book. Wrong lighthouse, reading the book will remind you of the movie The Lighthouse (2019) -- I'm not sure if you have seen it, it is a bit pretentious on purpose and it looks great though I do not think you will like it -- Roberto thought it was pretentious even though he liked the director's The VVitch.  Both that movie and this movie (and book) have a H.P. Lovecraft feel. Most who went across the Shimmer, did not come back (different than the book, but technically the movie could be lying, plus more was explained in the second book -- the director did not read the second book).

So, what is in this area? Everything seems to take on a type of cancer (this avoids the time speed up from the book, which is really explained in the third book). Everything here is being transformed. This creature has this horrific scene that will remind you of the horrific mauling in The Revenant.  If you have not seen The Revenant, check out that scene on YouTube (the film is worth watching).  It is brutal.

The film can be gory and has elements of supernatural and science-fiction. Sometimes it makes you think of a more violent Stalker (the author of Annihilation has denied that film as an influence; the author also denied a Lovecraft influence as well -- it reminds me of the author of Hunger Games denying the Battle Royale influence).

I know this was not supposed to, but it had me thinking of Ghostbusters. I hope I'm not the only one.

Overall, I enjoyed it (even with my book prejudice and my issues with the book). I sometimes feel it is too ethereal, but that does add to the surrealness of it. It is an interesting movie but feels light. Many of the images stays in your head (and I took a lot of snapshots of it), but I do not feel mentally moved like the humanity has been effaced from this production.  I will ponder more on this movie.

Edited September 8, 2021 by masterofoneinchpunch

[WangYu]

Synchronic 2019

Fun sciencefiction film by these guys (Benson & Moorhead). They always come up with these fun concepts and they manage to execute them in a pretty minimalistic but always fun and entertaining way. You just know one day Hollywood will make big budget remakes out of their films and stuff it full of action…