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


Guest kenichiku

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That's a coincidence, I just bought this on dvd today. Looking forward to watching it :bigsmile:

It's good! I love that the two fighters are respectful to each art, the various masters and students, and each countries customs and religious beliefs too. They're not just two meatheads that want to learn a new way to kill somebody in a bar. :smile: Plus, the one guy Doug, is from Philly! :bigsmile:

Forgot to list this earlier... I recently watched NEW JACK CITY for the first time in many years. Still awesome! It's funny seeing a lot of these stars before they had work done. When Chris Rock gets taken down by Ice T in the beginning, and he's screaming, you can see what his teeth looked like before Hollywood sent him to get them fixed. He did such a fantastic job in that role. I loved revisiting this classic 90's gangster flick again, and it made me wish that my Original Gangster tape hadn't worn out! Good extras on the two disc set too. Van Peebles is a little bit too self-congratulatory (and drops multiple F-bombs in front of his cute little girl- lame), but still enjoyable to listen to on the audio commentary, and watch on the features.

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Watched The Bulldog Breed (Norman Wisdom). Think of an Abbott & Costello/Jerry Lewis service comedy+The Relunctant Astronaut mashup. Think of Norman as a one-man Abbott & Costello (heavy on the Costello), though only having seen one film in his oeuvre, I reserve the right to change my assessment. If you like the above mentioned, you'll likely like Norman.

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I just watched UNDISPUTED 2: LAST MAN STANDING. Damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Michael Jai White can do no wrong! And Scott Adtkins is incredible! This film was filled with "must rewind" moments. I can't believe I've been sitting on this one for years. :ooh: After the first film, I just assumed that the sequel would be boxing only, otherwise I would certainly have checed it out long ago. I like boxing action, but much prefer feet of fury in the mix when I see combat. 8 out of 10

I can't believe you haven't taken this gem earlier!:ooh: This is classic stuff, and the reason they had Scott Adtkins double Ryan Reynolds in Wolverine.

Like they say: He does wire stuff-without wires. :bigsmile:

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I can't believe you haven't taken this gem earlier!:ooh: This is classic stuff, and the reason they had Scott Adtkins double Ryan Reynolds in Wolverine.

Like they say: He does wire stuff-without wires. :bigsmile:

I know! After watching it I was amazed that it has been sitting here unwatched for years! :tongue: I just watched the behind-the-scenes feature and fights again last night! LOL Now I'm a big fan. :bigsmile:

...basically a Shaun The Sheep spinoff, if I'm correct...:-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_KLp5doATk

LOL I don't know SHAUN THE SHEEP either. But I checked out the clip you linked. Very cute. I dig shows that are model animation as opposed to some of this generic looking traditional animation you see so much of. The colors of the characters and backgrounds are so colorful, almost trippy. I've actually been wanting to see the MR. FOX movie, but my son isn't interested. Funny- he likes Wes Anderson films, but is just at that age where seeing an animated film is starting to lose it's appeal for him. Fortunately I dragged him into the theater to see WALL-E and UP and he loved both of those.

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I know! After watching it I was amazed that it has been sitting here unwatched for years! :tongue: I just watched the behind-the-scenes feature and fights again last night! LOL Now I'm a big fan. :bigsmile:

LOL I don't know SHAUN THE SHEEP either. But I checked out the clip you linked. Very cute. I dig shows that are model animation as opposed to some of this generic looking traditional animation you see so much of. The colors of the characters and backgrounds are so colorful, almost trippy. I've actually been wanting to see the MR. FOX movie, but my son isn't interested. Funny- he likes Wes Anderson films, but is just at that age where seeing an animated film is starting to lose it's appeal for him. Fortunately I dragged him into the theater to see WALL-E and UP and he loved both of those.

Probanly because it's British but over here we to get a lot of US shows, KFB do you know what Walles and Gromit is? because Shaun the Sheep is a spinoff of Walles and Gromit and Timmy Time is a spinoff of Shaun the Sheep also there is another spinoff called Chicken Run do you know that? lol many spinoffs :wink:, Walles and Gromit first aired on 25th December 1989

Walles and Gromit-The Curse of the Were-Rabbit film trailer

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a scene from the first Walles and Gromit-A Grand Day Out

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Chicken Run trailer

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Probanly because it's British but over here we to get a lot of US shows, KFB do you know what Walles and Gromit is? because Shaun the Sheep is a spinoff of Walles and Gromit and Timmy Time is a spinoff of Shaun the Sheep also there is another spinoff called Chicken Run do you know that? lol many spinoffs :wink:, Walles and Gromit first aired on 25th December 1989

Aha! Yes, I love Wallace and Gromit! I have some of the W&G shorts and the movie in my collection, and I thought CHICKEN RUN was a lot of fun too. Thanks for linking them all up for me. :wink: I had no idea they were related. But I should have known good ol' Nick was behind that animation.

Speaking of shows from the UK... my wife and I were just introduced (by my sister) to THE MIGHTY BOOSH. Any fans out there of this show? We thought it was great, silly, fun. Very bizarre and unique. You can tell these guys have "got some moves"! :xd:

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Aha! Yes, I love Wallace and Gromit! I have some of the W&G shorts and the movie in my collection, and I thought CHICKEN RUN was a lot of fun too. Thanks for linking them all up for me. :wink: I had no idea they were related. But I should have known good ol' Nick was behind that animation.

Speaking of shows from the UK... my wife and I were just introduced (by my sister) to THE MIGHTY BOOSH. Any fans out there of this show? We thought it was great, silly, fun. Very bizarre and unique. You can tell these guys have "got some moves"! :xd:

just had a look on bbc iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/ at the Might Boosh can't say i found it that interesting, KFB heres one online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b008d1x9/The_Mighty_Boosh_Series_3_The_Power_of_the_Crimp/ . i've been watching a lot of Balls of Steal.

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Speaking of shows from the UK... my wife and I were just introduced (by my sister) to THE MIGHTY BOOSH. Any fans out there of this show? We thought it was great, silly, fun. Very bizarre and unique. You can tell these guys have "got some moves"! :xd:

Haven't seen much of The Mighty Boosh but I really liked what I saw.

BTW - if you haven't seen Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, give it a shot.

"I'm Garth Marenghi. Author. Dreamweaver. Visionary. Plus actor..." :xd:

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masterofoneinchpunch

The Shop Around The Corner (1940: Ernst Lubitsch) ****/****

The most pertinent aspect of being a film fan, critic and/or historian is that there is a lifetime of cinema that awaits. Even the most pernicious devourer or contrarian curmudgeon should be able to find perspicacious art and entertainment. I have heard of The Shop Around The Corner sometime ago but had never had a chance to consume. I have liked the Criterion films of Ernst Lubitsch of Trouble in Paradise and Heaven Can Wait. I have also loved so many James Stewart films from his comedies, dramas, westerns etcetera that coming into this film I had high expectations. It is quite satisfying when these expectations are met.

The film centers around Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) a long-time employee of a good's shop owned by Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan: The Wizard of Oz) who has recently fell for a pen pal. Unfortunately, while this mail-only relationship is blooming, his life has turned difficult with the recent hiring of petulant blonde Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) and an attitude change of his boss who seems to now take a not-so-subtle dislike of him.

Sullavan (who receives top billing in this film) and Stewart first worked together in Next Time We Love (1936) and had starred in several together in a few other movies. Her life was chaotic and was married to Henry Fonda (also saw this in a Fonda documentary recently) and director William Wyler. But she performs quite well here with Stewart and their verbal tirades against each other highlight the wonderful dialogue. She is quiet brutal in her derision.

There is also a strength in almost all of the characters here. They are treated for the most part humanistic (some are conniving, some are backstabbers, but multi-dimensional well except for Ferencz Vadas the corporate sycophant). This film feels quite Capra-esque in this aspect as well as its late-depression era setting (though the location of Hungary does through you off a bit).

Even William Tracy as Pepi Katona the lowest boy on the totem boy was used well in this role, especially with the scenes where he gets promoted and gets his own lackey to use. I had seen him in Tobacco Road a little while ago in one of the most irritating roles (possibly brilliant) ever in cinema as Dude Lester (I am not going to spoil it, but I will state he is more annoying than the lead of The Tin Drum).

I can easily recommend this movie to fans of 1940s cinema and/or fans of the James Stewart or Ernst Lubitsch.

This movie was later remade as "You've Got Mail" which I did not like as much.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925: Rupert Julian) ***/****

While the 1930s had a much more dominate share of horror films the 1920s certainly had many iconic movies in that genre. Such classics as Nosferatu, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and this would permeate the minds of the cinema going populace for years to come. While the latter two are dated a bit (Nosferatu is the best of those three) there is still much to like from this movie.

The main strength of this film is Lon Chaney's, The Man of a Thousand Faces, performance and makeup skills. Hard to imagine today, but Chaney would do apply all his prosthetics and cosmetics with a consummate skill and a certain masochistic streak to getting things perfect. This resulted in such injuries as damaged eyesight in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and extreme discomfort such as when he pinned his legs back for hours at a time for his legless performance in The Penalty (another film where his presence is the strongest part of the movie). His countenance is still the most grotesque appearance of this character in all the versions I have seen of the Phantom and the most effective. The suspense building by not showing his face until 45 minutes (in the 95 minute version) into the film is one of the scariest moments of 1920s cinema and would be echoed later in such films as the Steven Spielberg directed Jaws which took the same approach with his creature.

I prefer this Lon's characterization of the Phantom over his Hunchback, but part of the reason was I could not always get past the makeup of Quasimodo. Both films are not as sagacious as The Unknown or Laugh Clown Laugh, but both films have excellent sets and some daring scenes. The most beautifully filmed sequence in this film is the Bal Masque scene which was done in two-strip Technicolor and features the red/scarlet cloaked Phantom as Death. The most startling scene is the initial unmasking mentioned earlier.

There are certainly many faults with the film. Many of the actors are almost non-entities. Plots points are quickly glossed over (Ebert mentions in his Great Movie review the fact of the gigantic chandelier that comes crashing down with bodies underneath but nothing much happens because of this) such as who the Phantom really is, how Christine Daae becomes a better singer and more (though to be fair I still have not seen the pieced together 1925 version from source 16mm; I watched the well known 1929 restoration; it gets a bit confusing on how many actual versions there are including a sound one).

The Carl Davis score is quite brilliant and probably the best one to listen to.

For more information on Lon Chaney check out the documentary "Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000)" on the Lon Chaney Collection from TCM. A future movie for me will be the semifictional biography starring James Cagney as Chaney in Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). Anyone seen this?

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Just saw Chocolate today. Very good movie with non-typical characters and superb choreography. Those Thai guys are in top shape and if she plays her cards right, Jeeja will go very far. Just hope Hollywood doesn't call as she'll be ruined, but Jeeja is it!

I saw Black Dynamite last night. also a good movie. Very enjoyable and has sentimental value to me as someone who wants to go into film production and make these types of films.

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Finished up the first season of Dollhouse. Eliza Dushku certainly is a mult-faceted actress.

Also got my hands on a copy of The Last Ninja. A movie that I hadn't seen since I was abou ten. Actually enjoyed it quit a bit even without the nostalgia factor.

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Raging Phoenix - actually liked it, despite some wirework, but loved the hybrid which I call "break-ung fu" and was a fan of Kazu Patrick Tang in the short HK and he was great here.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story - decided to check out my VHS vaults at my new home and my wife and I watched this. She would ask me questions throughout the film about Bruce and Jeet Kune Do.

Dual Flying Kicks - popped my VHS cop out of the blue and loved seeing both Tan Tao-Liang and his real-life brother, Tan Tao-Chien as the titular investigator duo beating up the likes of Chan Sing and Tsai Hung to name a few.

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sifu iron perm
One of my favorite shows from the UK is a show called PEEP SHOW. Check it out. I dig it ALOTS.

Great taste..the first 3 seasons were top notch..the last season was quite dry and boring.

I am watching some boxing tonight, live from american feed..

anyone else a big boxing follower?

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Been getting back into Farscape now that Netflix has it available for streaming. Also been keeping up with the second season of Legend of the Seeker.

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Saw The Red Canvas and actually liked it. Ernie Reyes Jr. gave out a great performance IMO as a former prison fighter who is released on the condition he enters an upcoming tournament led by Mr. Sulu himself, George Takei. At first, he wants no part of it, but when his family is drowned in debt and his father is in a coma, Reyes Jr. decides to enter and gets himself two trainers, one in Burmese boxing and the other in Mixed Martial Arts.

The movie was a family affair as Ernie Reyes Sr. played the father and gets a fight scene in before not doing much for the rest of the film and Lee Reyes (from American Ninja 5) as the fiancee of the hero's sister.

Frank Shamrock and Gray Maynard co-star as a the champ's trainer and the champion respectively.

In Europe, the film was known as BLOODSPORT: THE RED CANVAS.

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