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

[Drunken Monk]

M3GAN (2022) - Sadly, this one is being overhyped. The concept is cool and when the tension ramps up, it's decent. But it takes too long to get going and ends up being average. It's fine but not a film I'll revisit. Grade: C

Bones and All (2022) - A fantastic film. It's a romance, coming of age drama and horror all rolled into one and manages to balance beauty, depth and violence. There's a lot to decipher when it comes to themes but if you're not the thinking type, you can just enjoy it for what it is. Definitely one of the better films of 2022. Grade: A

House Party (2023) - Remaking such a classic is blasphemy. They commit further blasphemy by making it utter dog shit. Grade: D

Beast (2022) - I really liked this one! It's not trying to be high brow or thoughtful. It's a simple "man vs lion" survival thriller. A lot of people are complaining about the CGI but it didn't bother me in the slightest. Could have been a little gorier but I had a lot of fun. Grade: B

[WangYu]

23 hours ago, Gaijin84 said:

I recently watched this out of curiosity and because it was filmed in Thailand. I found it really offensive when it came to portraying the Thai people. They were made to come off as borderline uncivilized and savages with the French there observing them in their native habitat. To me it felt more like the Europeans were lazy, hedonistic bums with too much money and too much free time on their hands. Scenery and landscapes were great, but an overall strange film. Not sure how this spawned over 60 related movies?

This was pretty normal back then from the portrayal of indigenous people in comic books or in films, the European are the rich elite living in their own little bubble. You see it in the cannibal movies of its time too. That is why they’re called exploitation movies i guess.

This movie was a massive success though, people went to the cinema in droves to watch this film, naked bodies in films performing sex acts were quite new so ticket sales went through the roof. I’ve seen pictures of people lining up for what looks like a mile to get into the cinema. I doubt those 60 movies are all related though, probably cashing in with adding Emmanuelle to the title.

I’ve seen about 5 of those, all are equally boring though admittedly some had very erotic scenes but this does not apply to the first one imo.

 

[WangYu]

M3GAN

I liked it though there were times I really wanted to stop watching because all characters are so painfully irritating lol. I couldn’t wait for the killings to get started. The doll is great, the build up is great, the drama that is in every horror film of the last 20 years is not needed but I guess everybody craves a coherent plot these days (not me). Either way the finale was great, I had a “hell yeah” moment 👍

Beast

Another one of those films that have drama to give the movie some weight,  for me all of that is not needed. Apart from that, great suspenseful film. The lion is terrifying and the characters were well written because I was not rooting for the lion.

[Gaijin84]

2 hours ago, WangYu said:

This was pretty normal back then from the portrayal of indigenous people in comic books or in films, the European are the rich elite living in their own little bubble. You see it in the cannibal movies of its time too. That is why they’re called exploitation movies i guess.

This movie was a massive success though, people went to the cinema in droves to watch this film, naked bodies in films performing sex acts were quite new so ticket sales went through the roof. I’ve seen pictures of people lining up for what looks like a mile to get into the cinema. I doubt those 60 movies are all related though, probably cashing in with adding Emmanuelle to the title.

I’ve seen about 5 of those, all are equally boring though admittedly some had very erotic scenes but this does not apply to the first one imo.

 

Yup, totally get it, just hit closer to home having family members who are Thai and having visited there many times. The 60 films are definitely not related, just cashing in, but the sheer number of imitators was surprising. Flattery they say… I was also interested where it all started as I had the Laura Gemser versions on the watch radar.

[morpheus]

Metropolis (1927)

The Fritz Lang classic.  Fortunately, an almost complete -albeit heavily damaged- copy was found in Buenos Aires and restored as best as possible,

 

[masterofoneinchpunch]

@BornToDefense How about a Frequency - Looper - Early Edition - Tru Calling connection hee hee

Frequency (2000: Gregory Hoblit): do you not just love when you see a film that was better than expected.  While you might get caught up in issues of the plot, I thought it was acted well and the thriller aspects kept it interesting as the film went on especially with the Hitchcockian “Wrong Man” scenario.

There is a freak electrical disturbance as the aurora borealis is at its strongest effect in 30 years (Oct 10, 1999).  John Sullivan (Jim Caviezel) is a cop, his wife is leaving him (again), he looks like he drinks too much and has issues most likely due to his dad firefighter Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid) dying nearly 30 years ago in a warehouse fire.  He takes out an old ham radio, gives it a spin and gets in touch with his dead dad.  Time travel Kenneth.

The question becomes what you would do if you could reach out to a dead one.  My concern, of course, would be a butterfly effect – which in a way is part of this film.  Changing the past will change the future – often in unforeseeable ways (I am thinking it would be much more different, but that would be a different script).  Regardless you might do exactly as he did.

But with a serial killer lose, new murders that have happened and John being the only one who has memory of his past as well as the changed past makes this quite interesting.

There are two TV series that this made me think of: Tru Calling (which also had an aspect of someone trying to prevent a person changing the past) and Early Edition (seriously love this series).

Leonard Maltin gave this a poor rating of **/**** and his main concern was the unbelievability of it.  Are not all time-travel films unbelievable?  His second concern was Dennis Quaid’s New York (Queens) accent?  I did not even think about it when I saw it.  It was noticeable, though I wonder if unbelievable as I have heard worse in real life.  Roger Ebert gave it ***½/**** in a much more positive review Read it here: https://bit.ly/3jvCMVo.

I did not get bogged down into thinking too much on the paradoxes. The film does not explain too much on the how and that is a good aspect of it – it just happens.  I also like that these really are not stupid people.  John Sullivan catches on quickly to the problems and what is happening – a little quicker than his dad.  But they know when to shut up.  I’m quite impressed with Jim Caviezel as an actor.  He has been solid in every film I have seen him in.

I am sure this is not the first film that has what a person does in the past affect the future right away.  But do you get the feeling that Looper was influenced from this movie?  And how about Quaid and baseball – The Rookie which was filmed after this.

I found this interesting, intense and fun.  The ending is so-so, wraps up a little too nicely and I am not sold on the antagonist, but still overall a good watch.

[BornToDefense]

On 2/6/2023 at 3:52 PM, Gaijin84 said:

Scenery and landscapes were great, but an overall strange film. Not sure how this spawned over 60 related movies?

Euros, man. They were real horny.

[BornToDefense]

I've only had the old blu-ray sitting in a drawer for close to a decade, but I finally got around to watching Keoma (on the Arrow Player site of course, because I needed to complete the cycle and make the blu-ray purchase a total waste of money). Haven't fully digested it yet (not sure how I feel about Woody Strode's character mainly) but I liked it a lot overall. Even the much derided soundtrack didn't phase me. Mannaja and Four of the Apocalypse prepared me for that I suppose.

[dionbrother]

A very quirky UK childrens show from the 70s titled ACE OF WANDS.  First two seasons are lost but the complete third season is on a Network DVD set I bought from Amazon UK.  Being an American who is a huge fan of shows like the pre-1975 DOCTOR WHO, THE SAINT and THE AVENGERS, I'm always on the lookout for other Brit shows in that vein.  You can check out some episodes on Youtube. 

 

 

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Superbad (2007: Greg Mottola): here we have a film that has a good reputation (on Reddit’s Top 250 films, on Empire’s The 500 Greatest Movies, Roger Ebert), was a box office hit and has been personally recommended to me several times.  And yet I felt this was sometimes lackluster, sometimes funny, sometimes cringy, sometimes creepy and not really new or groundbreaking with any of the humor. 

Seth Rogan made a bizarre statement that there were no No One's Made A Good High School Movie” Since “Superbad” which I suppose he means that this is a good film.  We will ignore all the good high school films since (21 Jump Street; The Fault in our Stars).

The key to the film is the relationship between Seth and Even (obviously autobiographical with the writers of the film) and this aspect works.  Seth is a bit creepy (having the classmate accidentally see the penis drawing seemed too much in bad taste – yes I knew classmates who drew phallics on everything) and Even is so milquetoast that yeah they could be friends.

Of course, the set-up of having the two leads looking forward to drunk rape was a little off-putting.  Yes, a lot of people wanted to do this in high school and it was creepy then and creepy now.  You know the characters will have some sort of redemption, though that does ring a bit hollow.

I like Fogel (McLovin) and with all the fake IDs I saw growing up (yes Hawaii was often included) there were some stupid names (Honestly if I did one then I probably would have done Travis Bickle or some not so obscure name; now I would do a more obscure one like Toshiro Mifune – actually I did that one before nevermind). Fogel (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) in his first film reminds me of Paul Krapence in Cheers.  He is the nerd that nerds look down upon yet keep him around well because there is no one else.

The cops were a bit annoying to me.  Some funny lines, some funny situations, but sometimes (like a lot of this film) the jokes felt repeated and repeated and can I get a little less Rogan please. 

Ebert loved it: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/superbad-2007 I find it interesting I like Sandler’s comedies more than this (which Ebert normally hated) and his statement "Superbad" is a four-letter raunch-a-rama with a heart which is weird because Sandler has the same type of formula (though not as much four-letter words for his PG-13 comedies).  It is the idea that if you cap a film with heart you can get away with whatever comes before it.

Do you notice the scenes that you know are written by the writers that no high schooler is probably going to mention/know like Orson Welles.

So, an OK film that I feel is definitely overrated.  The direction is so-so, the humor is hit-and-miss but I guess because all’s well that end’s well it is a teen classic.  Yes, I’ve liked films I should not have.  I think Animal House is a raunchy classic.  I thought Project X was so insane that there was a lot of life to it (though reprehensible in some ways).  So maybe I just came to this too late or just have seen to many films.  Or maybe I’ll blame Seth Rogan.

[WangYu]

@masterofoneinchpunch

Maybe try other modern teen films like”booksmart”, “ eight grade”, or “ edge of seventeen”. I liked all 3.  Also vaguely remember watching “sex drive”. They’re all films of the last 15 years.

Edited February 11, 2023 by WangYu

[masterofoneinchpunch]

6 minutes ago, WangYu said:

@masterofoneinchpunch

Maybe try other modern teen films like”booksmart”, “ eight grade”, or “ edge of seventeen”. I liked all 3.  Also vaguely remember watching “sex drive”. They’re all films of the last 15 years.

I'm heard good things about Booksmart.

[BornToDefense]

Trying to build off the Keoma momentum and see some more Castellari so I watched The Big Racket (in Italian). Remarkably cynical and jaundiced even by Italian standards, and goes places that even as a fairly jaded viewer I was not expecting. It took me a little while to warm up to Fabio Testi's performance but by the end I was convinced he did a great job, very slow burn kind of thing, I always liked him in Four of the Apocalypse. Castellari directs well, he seems to be the kind of director to adapt his style to the genre/material he's working with but has very clear defining traits and a good visual sense overall.

I'm not super up on the poliziotteschi genre, always has been something I've meant to brush up on, but I def enjoyed this one in spite of whatever real world political misgivings I may or may not have (I realize these movies were made during pretty volatile times in Italy). Only complaint at the moment is that at some point the fx budget seems to have run out, and the big final action setpiece (which is very well staged, Castellari knows his action, and even if the "Italian John Woo" title he's been given recently is a little hyperbolic it's probably closer to his actual style than "Italian Sam Peckinpah") is distractingly bloodless. I'm just a guy who likes big bloodsplosions.

Based on watching this and Keoma, as well as all the Shawscope extras I've been watching (because I am the kind of person who spends hundreds on two giant box sets but is too lazy to put a disc into my computer just to watch one interview), I'd def recommend Arrow Player to anyone who is into these kinds of movies and likes streaming. It's also cheaper than Criterion Channel if a little less comprehensive.

[BornToDefense]

The Arrow Player Castellari binge is complete with The Heroin Busters. Watched the Italian version, not sure if that was a mistake given that much of the cast seemed to be speaking English (got too distracted trying to read lips for my own good), but I split the difference between Fabio Testi and David Hemmings in Testi's favor. I never know what dub is the best for what Italian genre movie until I've watched both unless the English dub is just too atrocious to sit through.

Fabio Testi is great in this one too, only this time I liked him off the bat, the moment I saw him in his ridiculous skinny jeans junkie getup. Whoever did his costuming here deserves an Italian genre movie oscar. I don't know if I was as absorbed by this one on first viewing as The Big Racket, as it was more of a slow burn kind of movie that didn't go out of it's way to be outlandish from the opening scene, but I liked it. Testi is absorbing, and while it's not uncommon in deep cover narratives, the film does make a point of showing just how compromised his character is, engaging in all kinds of occasionally surprising criminal activity in order to work his way up the food chain (reminded me slightly of Tony Leung's char in Hard Boiled). Faced with the human toll of the racket, he has no choice but to steel himself for the sake of the mission. Spoiler ahead:

Spoiler

One of the characters that stuck with me the most was the old hippie drug dealer. Like the older crooks in The Big Racket, he seems to suggest a dying order of more honorable small time criminals being pushed off their turf by a new, industrialized, soulless form of multinational organized crime. Which gives what could have been a more straightforward "one man war on crime" picture a little bit more nuance, and maybe a little more despair. His dream of the 60s is dead before his eyes.

Castellari seems to have favored certain actors, as I saw a whole lot of familiar faces from The Big Racket. His direction here, while stylish, is a bit more subdued, favoring more new wavey handheld ala The French Connection. Of course, being an Italian action movie, any pretense of realism goes out the window in the finale, which is credulity straining high genre BS (I mean that in the most complimentary way I can). And of course Goblin's soundtrack is worth the price of admission.

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by BornToDefense

[BornToDefense]

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man was a little disappointing. Ray Lovelock and Marc Porel are great as the sociopathic leads, and convincingly give the impression that if they didn't have badges and guns they'd be off torturing small animals and setting fires. Deodato's horror chops are on display with plenty of gore

Spoiler

(although the infamous eyeball scene was censored in all the copies I could find),

The episodic structure did a good job finding new and shocking ways of showing how bad our protagonists are, and their relationship with their superior at the department was a darkly comedic take on the old "the department's going to have my ass" scenes in these movies. The film opens with a satisfyingly insane (and probably extremely unsafe) motorcycle chase and the action is handled well all around. Some have complained about the lack of buildup for the film's villain, but it seems like that may have been the point, as the focus is mostly on pushing the rogue cop idea to an extreme (even for the genre) limit.

Spoiler

What detracted from my enjoyment of was the film's genuine and sleazy misogyny. I realize it might be weird to some to object to that and not the would-be serial killer cop leads' murder, arson and torture, but the later is essentially what I signed up for. I liked the other aspects of the movie but a few scenes in this left a sour taste in my mouth, and I consider myself a pretty jaded viewer. The ending was also fairly underwhelming after all the build up, though final Beavis and Butthead-esque sequence was a nice bit of black comedy.

Deodato, even this early in his career, is an in your face director. He doesn't pile on the style so much as go for the gut reaction. The soundtrack of wistful folk-pop songs by Ray Lovelock (very similar to the soundtracks of late Spaghetti Westerns like Keoma and Mannaja) is a nice juxtaposition with all of the bleakness on display. I've heard that Fernando Di Leo's original screenplay would have been even more subversive, and I'm curious what was changed. Overall I think this film had a lot of great scenes and a compelling core idea but squandered a lot of potential in it's missteps.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

For All Mankind (1989: Al Reinert): continuing on unwatched Criterions under spine number 100. This is a good movie. It is a combination of avant-garde and documentary (reminding me a bit of Werner Herzog like Lessons of Darkness) in which the form dominates the function. 

This is like a glorified home movie of the trip to the moon. It is a compendium of footage and interviews of astronauts for the nine manned flights to the moon between 1968 and 1972. His movie is more of a feeling than an exacting documentary. The footage is breathtaking (quality varies on the different films used). You watch this to be immersed in the screen. 

The moon trip is fascinating, though the moon itself is a bit lifeless. I’ve read Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon as well as H.G. Wells’ The First Men in the Moon – both worth reading and human’s journey to them was just a matter of time (and lots of money). 

The use of the bathroom has to be one of the most annoying aspects of the flight. What is that floating in the air? The heat difference between the dark and light side of the moon (because of no atmosphere) surprised me. 

Some of the footage did get me to think of how George Clooney was in Gravity when he was goofing off that eventually led to his doom. Here they are skipping and playing and later comment that one accidental tear and they would have died. In space, it is never Miller time. 

One transition seemed weird. The moment of “Houston, we have a problem” straight to goofy footage of them playing around. In space, no one can hear you scream. 

This is a meditative love letter to those hazardous flights. It is always interesting though maybe more in its aesthetics than anything else. I wonder why the trip bad was barely covered. But overall, a film worth watching, especially if you are into space, the final frontier.  

[shukocarl1441996347]

Vampia (1974) well this was a strange one. David Niven as Dracula in a film that doesn't know if it's a "comedy" or a late Hammer entry a la 'Dracula AD 1972'. Lots of yummy 70's totty (70's birds were the best!) and many regular British actors turn up for cameos. It even features a groovy disco scene. Early scenes are quite witty but the tone is just all over the place. David Niven was just too good for this kind of stuff.

[AlbertV]

Saw a few new films this week:

Ambush - Vietnam War-set action/drama about an ambush at a remote firebase and the Viet Cong steal an important document the Americans want. However, the only ones who are available to track them down are a group of engineers, two Special Forces soldiers, and a tracker. Pretty good emotional drama mixed with some sporadic war action. 

Linoleum - A children's science show host who lost his job finds a satellite in his backyard and decides to live a childhood dream and build a rocket from its parts, which begins to affect his family and others. Great performance by Jim Gaffigan here and some major twists in the story, including a subplot where Gaffigan's daughter begins to bond with their new next door neighbor's son. 

Jesus Revolution - the story of the 1970's movement that rocked Southern California, when a conservative pastor joined forces with a hippie "prophet" to bring fellow hippies into the Church and away from all the drug use and negativity as seen through the eyes of a shy young man who finds his calling and comes of age. Based on the novel by Greg Laurie (who serves as the main character played by Joel Courtney), this was a passion project for directors Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle, one that took seven years from research to production. 

[BornToDefense]

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion earns it's reputation in my book. I might be too dense to have fully understood what was going on on a first viewing (a repeat of the first time I watched Blow-Up). But Elio Petri's direction is excellent, full of movement and uncomfortably close, disorienting framings, the satire was on point and genuinely funny to boot, and Gian Maria Volonté gave what was probably the best performance I've seen of his thus far (and I say that as someone who loves him in the spaghetti sauce). It was uncomfortably prescient at times which I always love in an older movie, and it's always fun to see characters hail those old punchcard computers and tape machines as state of the art.

I was liking Confessions of a Police Captain a lot until the subtitles totally desynced and wouldn't resync no matter how much I fiddled with them. I guess I'll try again with the English dub soon.

Edited February 26, 2023 by BornToDefense

[PandaPawPaw]

On 2/7/2023 at 7:48 PM, Drunken Monk said:

House Party (2023) - Remaking such a classic is blasphemy. They commit further blasphemy by making it utter dog shit. Grade: D

The original is so good and funny!

I haven't seen the remake but the trailer for it did make me laugh. IMO they should of called it something else and be a stand alone movie.

Edited February 27, 2023 by PandaPawPaw

[PandaPawPaw]

American Horror Stories S2. Solid series and much better that S1 one. The stories have been great. I love anthology Horror.

American Horror Story S11. Again a solid series and the story is interesting. I'm also really impressed by Russell Tovey's American accent. Nice to see him in a different type of role.

[PandaPawPaw]

VHS, VHS2, VHS Viral, VHS TV Series, VHS94 and VHS99.

I've seen the first two before and enjoyed them but I managed to get my hand on the rest so I'm going to rewatch them from the beginning.

Formula 1 Drive to Survive S5 (NETFLIX). I stopped watching F1 about 3-4yrs ago as it became boring so this comes in handy as a season highlights/review type thing.

[PandaPawPaw]

Fall (2022) (NETFLIX). I was pleasantly surprised with this. A suspenseful story and it kept me interested as to what was going to happen next. Some nice cinematography and lots of cleavage too.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Always (1989: Steven Spielberg): I had a recent discussion on Spielberg films unwatched and this came out as a lesser Spielberg.  I had a copy of it and someday want to complete all of Spielberg’s films.  This is a lesser Spielberg.  I always have this contrarian strain running through me, but sometimes the faults are obvious.  This is more mediocre than bad. Both Leonard Maltin and Roger Ebert (https://bit.ly/3SVhVbp) give mediocre reviews. Ebert: “Spielberg's weakest film since "1941."” which I cannot disagree with. 

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots.  There are no old bold pilots.  Pete Sandich (Richard Dreyfus) is a talented pilot who uses his skills to put out fires.  It is a dangerous job.  His long-suffering girlfriend Dorinda Durston (Holly Hunter, definitely not mute here but definitely cute here) wants to fly just like him and/or for him to quit this business so he will not die.  That is an internal conflict (and not particularly handled well here).  And, of course, he will die so that he can come back as the Angel Whisperer or some invisible Heaven Can Wait.  But what he had to do annoyed me. 

Ted Baker (Brad Johnson who died last year) is a Schlemiel, well until he gets his guardian angel Sandich whose interest might not be for Ted’s benefit.  This aspect was touched on, but really was not an issue because ultimately Sandich is a good guy – I do wonder if I would feel the same way if I was in his position of watching somebody fall in love with someone he lost (well she lost him).  Dreyfus has a touch of imp in him, just not enough to ever make you believe he is not always going to try to do the right thing.  I felt sorry for him more than anyone else.  It is like heaven put him in a personal hell position – well if he did not seem so sanguine. I seemed to feel more anger and awkwardness than he did – which is wrong for the movie. 

Interesting trivia tidbit: this is Audrey Hepburn’s last film (and I would like to also see all of her films).  She had pretty much stopped acting (3 films in the 1980s) and dedicated herself to charity work. This is also a remake of A Guy Named Joe (1944) which I have not seen. I wonder how that is in comparison to this. Richard Dreyfus is a huge fan of the film, which is one of the reasons it got made. 

This is an OK film where the drama felt forced, you felt bad for Dreyfus (even more when he had to deal with Bob in a few years) and you knew exactly what was going to happen (including Dreyfus’s “I love you” moment and death both of which annoyed me and was pure schmaltz) – even if you wished it did not.  Spielberg, like John Ford, is not at his best when comedy dominates.  He handles action fine and is great with spectacle but does not always hit the comedic beats and films like this and 1941 are among his worst. But there are so many other Spielberg movies to watch than this one. 

[WangYu]

The naked prey 1965

This was so thrilling, action packed, suspenseful as a hardcore survival adventure. Mel Gibson must have watched this before making the equally grand apocalypto. There is hardly any dialogue which is not needed to understand the natives discussing. Then there is of course the tribal soundtrack and chanting which always puts me in the mood. You could compare it to the Tarzan adventures of the era as it has a lot of wildlife footage inserted in and our "hero" is bare chested during most of the film as he is being stripped of his clothes and hunted by the natives.

This is reviewed by some as a very racist film but I don't see it that way, not at all. This stands next to Zulu which was released a year earlier as a benchmark for British African action films. The fight scenes are well choreographed and executed with the right amount of brutality to it which wasn't always there during the 60s European and Hollywood action films (I'm looking especially at peplums with sometimes comically unconvincing  fight scenes).

Also close to the end there is interaction with a little native girl that was very heartwarming after all the brutality and it put a big smile on my face.

This is the second time I watch this and now I am sure this goes right into my top 100.

Edited March 7, 2023 by WangYu