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

[teako170]

Just finished Dr Strangelove last night.

Crazy flick!!

Here's some of my latest....

Texas, Adios (1967)

Not the best of the spaghetti westerns by any stretch but if you're a Franco Nero fan.....

The Gift (2000)

Geez, I didn't know Keanu could act! Solid thriller with good cast. Giovanni Ribisi as Buddy stole the show.

My Kung Fu Twelve Kicks (1979)

Cool chuckle-fu with Bruce Liang, Ku Feng, and Lee Hoi San. But why does the Crash Cinema cover say directed by Lee Tso Nam?

12 Angry Men (1957)

All screenwriters should watch this movie. Brilliant script and tight writing.

Rome (2005) (TV series)

Watched the first two episodes of Season One. Will be watching more very soon.

King of New York (1990)

Watched, maybe, 30 minutes and turned off. Christopher Walken is a great actor but this film was suckorama!!

[AlbertV]

SHOGUN AND LITTLE KITCHEN (1992) - Yuen Biao as a acrobatic chef determined to save his uncle's restaurant/building from disaster. The film co-stars Ng Man-Tat as Yuen's uncle and Leon Lai as a rich boy who is determined to make his own despite the objections of his father, played by Jimmy Wang Yu.

KAMEN RIDER OOO (2010) - saw the debut episode and it's not bad. This time the change device is a belt with three medals representing a hawk, a tiger, and a grasshopper. Catchy henshin song too

ST. ELMO'S FIRE (1984) - will always love this Brat Pack classic with the likes of Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, and Andrew McCarthy as a group of friends who go through personal obstacles to keep their friendship after college.

[bearpower]

just watched Ninja staring Scott Adkins and Tsuyoshi Ihara. Used more ninja weapon than Ninja Assassin did and used modern weapon and body armor

[AlbertV]

LORDS OF DOGTOWN (2005) - love this biopic on the legendary Z-Boys Stacy Peralta (who wrote the screenplay), Tony Alva, and Jay Adams. The late Heath Ledger was great as Zephyr co-founder Skip Engblom ("wear it with pride, man").

DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS (2001) - one of the best documentaries I've ever watched, chronicling the career of Zephyr and the Z-Boys. Narrated by Sean Penn and directed by Stacy Peralta. Interviews included real-life Z-boys Peralta, Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Peggy Oki, Bob Biniak, Wenztle Ruml, and Shogo Kubo to name a few. It would be the influence for Lords of Dogtown.

[Rhythm-X]

Ben Affleck's THE TOWN - really, REALLY good film. Affleck can direct the hell out of an action scene. If they used any bullshit CGI blood/gore I didn't notice it.

[kngfu]

THE DEATH OF BRUCE LEE

Ron Van Clief and Charles Bonet make this standard basher stand out as a really entertaining old school kf flick.

[AlbertV]

KAWASHIMA YOSHIKO (1990) - Excellent performance by the late Anita Mui as the 14th daughter of Ching Emperor Xu, who is sent to Japan as a kid. She falls for a Japanese officer played by Derek Yee but finds herself forced to marry a Mongolian prince in an effort to restore the Ching Dynasty. However, as World War II begins, she begins to use her looks and charm to play both sides against each other. She even finds herself in love with a Peking Opera actor in the midst played by Andy Lau, who has a small fight scene against some robbers but ultimately shows why he is one of HK's best actors.

[fiol]

Yoga (요가학원)(2009): a good horror flick from Korea. Beautiful women, great story (the beauty is always damned..isnt it? eheh) and good spooky moments.

The Butcher (2007): awesome splatter movie from Korea. It was banned there but luckily Tartan brought it to the US market! 9/10 (the beginning is too damn long ahah)

Purple Sunset (紫日)(2001): a drama set during the japanese occupation during WW2 in China. A chinese,a russin soldier and a japanese girl must help each other to survive.. good flick.

[ShaOW!linDude]

Inglorious Basterds ------- watched this for the 1st time last night. Wow! Those actors got put their paces when it comes to speaking German and French. The villain(Christoph Waltz? I can't remember) is fantastic. I really thought there would be more of Brad Pitt in this. I loved his character and wish there would've been more exploration of him. That's my only complaint. Good action, quick and bloody. But the dialogue is superb. There were moments I was truly hunkered over on the edge of my seat. (Nazis make for such chilling villains.)

[AlbertV]

THE KID (aka KID CHEUNG/MY SON A-CHANG) (1950) - I got to see the full Hong Kong movie that starred a 9-year old Bruce Lee as A-Chang, a rebellious kid who lives with his uncle. He becomes friends with local gangster "Flying Knife" Lee (played by Fung Fung, the dad of Fung Hark-On) and gets into trouble when he goes to school. Bruce's dad, Lee Hoi-Chuen, played Chairman Fung, a sort of corrupt manager who announces plans to open a school for children but can't afford it. There's alos a subplot with Chairman Fung's son trying to date a local factory worker, Siu Mei. Soon all the characters' live intertwine when a strike results in a possible robbery. Bruce does some nice cartwheels and mugs pretty well for the camera, as if this was truly his destiny. Saw it on VCD with English subtitles.

[kngfu]

COWEB

I enjoyed this movie, but the direction and music cues were a bit erratic. The fights and acting were pretty good but lacked power.

[fiol]

Sweeney Todd (T.Burton) - an enjoyable flick with really good actors, interesting plot and a dark london recreated via computer graphic. Maybe too much singing (sometimes i couldnt stand em -.-) but overall a good movie.

[kngfu]

THE KILLER

I just rewatched the classic with the Bey Logan commentary. A must for any film fan.

[bearpower]

Jet Li Hero a most awe inspiring film

[David Rees]

Salt: Angelina Jolie stars, good plot and action possibilities of a series. I found it a little flat but some good action.

Grown Ups: Great fun, good cast, Adam Sandler does it again with a very funny comedy with heart.

Expendables: Much better than expected, good action with most of the stars although Jet Li was underused and his fight was badly edited. Hopefully there will be a sequel.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

The good the bad and the ugly-A masterpiece of cinematic art. A movie that created atmospheric settings, vicious characters, and magic mezmorizing score!

Fistful of dollars -Another masterpiece of cinematic western art. Director Sergio Leone was a visionare, and masterful filmaker ahead of his time. More amazing cinematography, and magic score. This movie introduced Clint Eastwood to the world.

Missing in action- Chuck Norris rips off Rambo 2 with this action extravaganza. One of Chuck Norris' most bad-ass action films but still on the b-movie side. Still worth picking up for $7 and even comes with Delta force 2.

Don't forget Fistful of Dollars rips off Yojimbo as well sometimes so badly that several scenes are exactly the same as in Yojimbo. For me Leone's first masterpiece is his next film: For A Few Dollars More.

[teako170]

The good the bad and the ugly-A masterpiece of cinematic art. A movie that created atmospheric settings, vicious characters, and magic mezmorizing score!

Co-sign on that. Rewatched two nights ago.

Probably have seen this one 20-30 times now since first seeing it on TV back in the mid 70s.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Leone got the idea from Yojimbo, but he turned it into his own. Totally different culture experience, different types of action scenes. This movie made westerns cool after all that John Wayne crap.

@Teako Yeah man it's the first time I saw the fulluncut 3 hour version. I was very impressed with it, and they even made the sound much better.

Got the idea from Yojimbo is something I can't quite agree on. Watch both films back to back and you can easily see the many similarities. Of course, Kurosawa sued and got a settlement because of this.

Here is a great little link from The Emperor and the Wolf by Stuart Galbraith IV on this subject.

I am going to have to respectfully disagree about the John Wayne crap. I also thought there were plenty of cool westerns from the ranown cycle to the Mann westerns to the Ford/Wayne collaborations. But nothing to take away from Leone, several of his directed films are some of my favorites.

[ShaOW!linDude]

To DragonSword:

John Wayne suggestions:

The Cowboys ----- it'll break your heart.

True Grit ------- the Coen Brothers are doing a remake.

The Sons of Katie Elder -------- one of my favorites and it has Dean Martin as well.

The Shootist --------- if you don't watch anything else, watch this. It's the last film he made and probably the grittiest western he ever did. And it's got Opie.....I mean, Ritchie Cunni.....I mean Ron Howard in it.

[ShaOW!linDude]

Teen Boxer

Karate Bullfighter

Tears of the Black Tiger

Posted mini-reviews in the Reviews thread.

[kngfu]

KING OF FIGHTERS

Awful piece of crap from the guy who directed FIST OF LEGEND?

SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW 2

Wong Tao vs Lung Fei and Chen Xing

[masterofoneinchpunch]

The Land Unknown (1957: Virgil W. Vogel) **/****

Whenever you go through box sets of B movies there is always the possibility that deep down hidden amongst the many features is a beautiful gem that you have been longing to see like Mad Love in the Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection or The Black Room in the Icons of Horror – Boris Karloff. However, most of the time you get something like The Unknown Land that I have in the The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection: Volume 2, not horrible, but not particularly of great interest either. This movie has enough cheese to keep it from being a waste of time.

This is a great month to start off with a hybrid sci-fi monster film. The monsters in this film are either real footage of lizards (Gila?) with the camera at their level or a man in a monster suit pretending to be a Tyrannosaurus with a mouth that opens way too wide and is slower than a constipated sloth. There is one more main monster and that is a water-faring lizard (elasmosaurus?) that resembles a bit like The Loch Ness Monster, but is also quite slow and is about as flexible as sedentary octogenarian. Come to think about it, there should have been many more creatures (the real lemur doesn’t count, though being eaten by the plant was pretty hilarious).

The plot is a variance on The Lost World or Journey to the Center of the Earth, but here the expedition flying over Antarctica gets lost amongst a storm (using lots of stock footage in this film; some quite good), hit by an unidentifiable object and has to crash land. However, when they are set to land they find themselves thousands of feet below sea level and the temperature rising dramatically. They are in a lost world, a place where time has stopped for the species that are not hospitable for humankind. However, there appears to be at least one biped in existence as there food has not-so-mysteriously disappeared.

The acting is decent, but still very typical of the stiff 1950s style. What is interesting is the amount of promiscuous talk early in the film, most of which would probably amount to sexual harassment nowadays and probably would not have been in a a-list feature. Of course, she supplies her own though later in the movie she does not really keep on par with the men as she faints or screams on several occasion and is generally a hindrance.

Sometimes when you go through the sci-fi sets you actually get horror and vice versa. This actually is a sci-fi film in a sci-fi set, but I was wishing it had more horror or at least more men in monster suits.

On a side note, the director Virgil W. Vogel did an incredible amount of TV direction including such shows as Quantum Leap, Magnum P.I., Miami Vice, The Streets of San Francisco, even Walker, Texas Ranger.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I just got done with Miraculous Flower and I’m a bit our of breath right now. This one really took me by surprise. Good movie with lots of really good action sprinkled throughout, and the end fight is wild. I’ve always liked Pearl Cheung, but I’ve never been like a supermega fan or anything. But I will be if I see her in a few more movies like this.

[Michael L.]

From what I have heard from experts is Leone got the idea for the storyline of FOD from Yojimbo. He was highly inspired by Yojimbo, and the film blew him away at the time. John Wayne made his mark in film history, and I will admit John Wayne was a bad dude in his time but I did not enjoy his westerns(though I have not seen them all). I find myself liking the Euro-westerns more because they are more gritty, violent, realistic, and with more action. I find the settings in Euro westerns better looking than the polished hollywood westerns where everything looks clean and washed. I am a big fan of Leone and Corbucci, I really enjoy their movies and I feel they deserve more credit for their brilliant works in this genre.

But isn't Yojimbo pretty much Dashiell Hammet's Red Harvest and The Glass Key (both of which were already adapted for the screen) with swords?

And besides martial arts movies, lately I have been watching Urusei Yatsura and just finished revisiting Firefly.

[kngfu]

rewatched

SHAOLIN MANTIS

CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS

SHAOLIN MANTIS was never a favorite of mine in the past, but watching it now, I must have been crazy. Great empty hand and weapons throughout. It even made me rethink my prior dislike for David Chiang.