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

[AlbertV]

Everyone's been talking about this film around here...they said Chiwetel Eijofor should get nominated for an Oscar for his role of the main character.

Traces of a Dragon - I finally saw this 2003 documentary on Netflix. The story of Jackie Chan learning that he has four elder half-siblings. He also learned his father's real name is Fang Daolong (which is why Jaycee Chan's stage name is Fong Zu Ming rather than using Chan). Chan's father not only trained in Northern Shaolin, but was in the military but escaped during the Sino-Japanese War. He met Lily (Jackie's mother), whose husband had died during an air raid and was mother to two daughters. They married and of course, Jackie was born. Really good documentary from the husband-wife team of Alex Law and Mabel Cheung. Great memory to Lily Chan, who had died a few months prior to the film's release.

I just hope after 10 years, Chan finally somehow reached out to his older brothers. I know his sisters helped care for their mother before her passing.

[AlbertV]

Samurai Cop (USA, 1989) [DVD] – 3.5/5

Sylvester Stallone’s bodyguard Matt Hannon stars as a mullet hero in an inept action movie that has become a laughing stock. The train wreck excels with unbelievable acting performances as tons of quotable dialogue, though action scenes are lame. Unlike the majority of great cult classics Samurai Cop is a film where all the glorious merits are indeed accidental.

”They call him Samurai. He speaks fluent Japanese. He was trained by the masters in Japan.”

I watched this last night...I knew what I was getting into and I laughed throughout the entire film. There are virtually zero martial arts fight scenes, with the exception of Gerald Okamura getting some nice licks in before being defeated in a bad way by the Samurai Cop. The sounds were beyond atrocious..Robert Z'Dar playing a Japanese named Yamashita and doesn't even look the part at all...the late Matt Hannon (he died last year - dont know the cause of death) being the most wooden actor I've ever seen, even for a Z-movie (the hell with B, this is Z fare), and don't get me started on the final samurai duel between Hannon and Z'Dar...this is definitely one for the MST3K crowds

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Ender's Game. It was a real task sitting through this, as it seemed to be a story about a bunch of pasty faced gamers who are given the power of life and death over the solar system. Tedious, but my 13 year old son wanted to see it.

[Secret Executioner]

Recently watched King Kong vs Godzilla. One of my very favorite Godzilla movies.

Also watched the Nostalgia Critic's review of Doomsday Machine and I must say I find this film A-MAZ-ING. I want to see it REALLY bad. Looks like a holy grail for bad cinema lovers.

[massa_yoda]

Ender's Game. It was a real task sitting through this, as it seemed to be a story about a bunch of pasty faced gamers who are given the power of life and death over the solar system. Tedious, but my 13 year old son wanted to see it.

The book is amazing. The movie is still quite good, though it condenses everything and cuts a lot out, which is to be expected.

[Secret Executioner]

Inspired by the Nostalgia Critic 12 Christmas specials list, I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas today. Pretty nice, I especially enjoyed the comedy provided by Snoopy. It has a weird pacing though; it's rather slow yet the end comes quite fast (probably because it runs for only 25 minutes).

I'd be into seeing more Charlie Brown "films". I enjoyed the very simple animation and designs in that Christmas special.

[AlbertV]

The Drummer - Kenneth Bi's drama of a reckless youth who is forced to flee to Taiwan and finds spiritual enlightenment when he joins a group of tribal drummers. For those who have had doubts about Jaycee Chan's acting, this is clearly his breakthrough role. He definitely proves he did not need to follow in his father's footsteps, although I did like his action turn in Invisible Target. Here, he proves himself in a drama and has great support by Tony Leung Ka Fai, Angelica Lee Sinje, and Roy Cheung.

[massa_yoda]

With the upcoming Robocop remake on its way, I thought I'd sit down and actually watch the original three for the first time to see what this franchise is all about. Here are my thoughts....

Robocop

Pretty solid film. Good action and some decent satire. I liked all the politics and corporate shenanigans behind the creation of Robocop. Good bad guys too. There were some parts where I was hoping for more though. I wanted some techno babble explaining how they actually made Murphy into Robocop and I wanted to see the process. Instead they go for a POV shot of him waking up as Robocop, which is effective, but not satisfying for me. I also thought that they just scratched the surface with the whole man/machine struggle within Murphy. The conversation he had with officer Lewis toward the end, for example, was good stuff. I was hoping for more of that, but instead we jump straight to the last action set piece. It's a very good finale though! 8/10

Robocop 2

From what I understand, this was critically panned and didn't do so well box office wise. Sue me, but I actually thought this was a pretty good, exciting action film with big set pieces, plenty of cool Robo moments (that no-look shooting!), and probably some of the better stop-motion photography I've seen to create the huge Robo 2 vs. Robo finale. The movie starts on the right foot, with Murphy's wife visiting him and asking if he recognizes her. This is what I wanted more of in the first movie and didn't get. Unfortunately from here it gets kind of messy, but there's some interesting stuff in here. Probably could have made two movies out of what's all here...the ideas they bring up don't get expanded upon properly. The most interesting part is when Robocop gets reprogrammed by OCP. They get together and talk about how they can make Robocop more family friendly. I kind of wonder if this focus group-like moment was a self-parody of their own writing room or Orion production meetings. "Robocop is a role-model for children." (Next movie: PG-13) "He could talk about environmental issues." Robocop then, like the movie itself, becomes a bloated mess. So he fries himself to be free of all his directives (contrasting to when he was programmed to say he was free) in order to do what is necessary to stop the bad guys. Cool stuff here, but they could have explored it so much more. How was he able to overcome his programming like that? What is the consequence of him having zero directives now? I would have forgiven all this if they had one more scene of Robo visiting with his wife and son, even if it's to say goodbye to them. He needed one more scene to wrap up that arc. Instead it sort of ends like an old school kung fu movie: they celebrate beating the big bad, Robo has a clever line, cue end credits. Bummer. Overall a good, slick production here. Oh, and I kinda liked the suit better. 7/10

Robocop 3

I'm not a fan of people complaining about ratings. You could have something very thought-provoking and intelligent, but if it's PG-13, then everybody whines about it being for children. Whatever, only the movie determines whether it's good or bad. That being said, everyone's pretty much right about this one. What a bore. Some interest at the beginning and end, but it's mostly a chore to get though. It's like they were hyping up the jet pack and saving everything for the big reveal....but then the final battle lasted for, what, a minute? The jet pack was bad-looking too. Ugh. The Robo-Samurai battle also lasted maybe 30 seconds. Come on. At least there was some closure with OCP pretty much beaten once and for all. Unlike the high production value of the first two movies, this is pretty cheap-looking, almost a TV show feel to it. Too bad it had to end like this (not including TV shows, which I haven't seen). 3/10

[Secret Executioner]

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes (1972)

A great entry in the POTA franchise (I may like this one more than the 1968 movie), but a pretty violent and harsh film also. The apes look really nice too, great work from the make-up/prop department.

[Secret Executioner]

Speak of the devil...

Re-watched the1968 Planet Of The Apes film. Having Pierre Boulle's novel still in mind, I must say the film is a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean it's a bad movie by any stretch, but I clearly prefer the novel.

[Secret Executioner]

Thor: The Dark World

After the really bad Iron Man 3 and another disappointing Wolverine movie, this was a good surprise because it is really good.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

maybe some small spoilers:

Escape Plan (2013: Mikael Håfström) **½/****

Mostly mediocre film. I was expecting more. But should I have? I am a fan of both Stallone and Schwarzenegger (more Arnold though) and will watch anything with either. Heck I even like prison films and TV series like Prison Break as well. Should have been a match made in Heaven, but was more of a middling movie helped float by three good performances (the two mentioned and the prison warden played by Jim Caviezel who is doing his best Anthony Perkins imitation.)

Stallone plays Ray Breslin who has the unenviable job of prison tester. He test maximum security prisons (even has a book on the subject, though I doubt it was a bestseller) by concocting elaborate routines to break out and thereby embarrass whoever has hired him. He has some past issues which help push him into his solitary but profitable existence.

He takes on an assignment to test a privately funded prison with a location that is not known holding very dangerous inmates. He is egged on by his partner Lester Clark (Vincent D'Onofrio) who is a slimy germaphobe. I could not believe Ray Breslin would be this stupid to take this assignment as with the information given it looks and smells like a set-up. Of course, it is and so he is locked up with extremely dangerous inmates with one who happens to be Arnold. Now he has to find a way to break out. Hint: he needs to befriend Arnold.

When you see the jail, which is impressive, you wonder why go through all this trouble when you can just kill the prison patron and save a lot of time, effort, money, etc... It probably is best not to think about this point. Have your cinematic friend Logic play some video games or stare at the posters while you watch this film.

I like the secret of the hidden prison. There you will notice several nods and scenes to THX-1138 (including some sound cues; fans of Nine Inch Nails song

will have those sound cues memorized) as well as the moment where the secret is revealed about their location. However, so much is repeated and the last half is standard 80s fare so you know exactly what the results are going to be.

It was good to see an non-standard Muslim role with Faran Tahir (who also has a decent role in another mediocre film this year Elysium) though he is still superfluous prison escape buddy fare so you know his fate later on in the film as well as every other character in the film.

[blue_skies]

A vampire/zombie movie called Stake Land that was actually quite good and worth renting.

[Takuma]

Lords of Salem (USA, 2012) [Cinema] – 3.5/5

Rob Zombie’s near excellent devil horror film. Zombie is best known for excess and gritty world view, and while the latter can certainly be found here, the film is a surprisingly sedate, moody affair. Zombie gives a lot of room for frightening atmosphere and characters. A couple of dream sequences and clichés miss the mark, but overall the film is highly satisfying. No digital effects are used.

Psycho (USA, 1960) [Cinema] - 4.5/5

Date movie - and a bloody good one of course, except that I've never been such a fan of Bernard Herrmann ('s main theme). Never came to think of it before, but I'd bet my money when Shinji Mikami was making the first Resident Evil game they were drawing inspiration from Bates' house and office.

Deadly Prey (USA, 1987) [VHS] – 4/5

A group of mercenaries use live targets for practice - except this time they picked up the wrong man. Mike Danton is Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and the Predator all in one. He kills a man and doesn’t pick up his gun because he doesn’t need it. He sleeps on the road because that gives him an opportunity to kill more bad guys. He is Mike Danton, the hero. Deadly Prey is an incredible low budget testosterone barrel where all logic is secondary to “manhood”. Mike Danton has balls big enough to make Rambo a homosexual!

- We’ve gotta get to him before he gets the authorities!

- He won’t do that! Why would he? He doesn’t need any help. He’ s killing all my men by himself!

trailer:

[ShaOW!linDude]

Stake Land --- (2010) Stars: NIck Damici, Connor Paolo, Michael Cerveris, Kelly McGillis, Danielle Harris

Vampires have overrun the world. Mister (ND), a notorious vampire slayer, saves Martin (CP) and begins schooling and training him how to become fang killer. Along the way they encounter a nun (KM) and pregnant young woman (DH), and take them along on their search for New Eden, a place suposedly free of bloodsuckers.. But the vamps aren't the only threat. There's also a fanatical group led by Jebedia (MC) who believe the vampires are agents of God, and he's a ruthless and violent man.

I'd read a lot of good things about the film and found it to be relatively true. These vampires are a cross between those found in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT and zombies in appearance. They're animalistic with traits borrowed from other vamp movies. The action and f/x are good; the characters and plot are engaging. There's a couple of freaky scary moments, but not like I thought there would be. It's definitely worth a watch and a better add to your collection of vamp films than a lot of what's out there.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Stake Land --- (2010) Stars: NIck Damici, Connor Paolo, Michael Cerveris, Kelly McGillis, Danielle Harris

Vampires have overrun the world. Mister (ND), a notorious vampire slayer, saves Martin (CP) and begins schooling and training him how to become fang killer. Along the way they encounter a nun (KM) and pregnant young woman (DH), and take them along on their search for New Eden, a place suposedly free of bloodsuckers.. But the vamps aren't the only threat. There's also a fanatical group led by Jebedia (MC) who believe the vampires are agents of God, and he's a ruthless and violent man.

I'd read a lot of good things about the film and found it to be relatively true. These vampires are a cross between those found in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT and zombies in appearance. They're animalistic with traits borrowed from other vamp movies. The action and f/x are good; the characters and plot are engaging. There's a couple of freaky scary moments, but not like I thought there would be. It's definitely worth a watch and a better add to your collection of vamp films than a lot of what's out there.

I have to give that a big thumbs up as well. Made with a tiny budget, it engages. Basically a sort of I am Legend across the midwest.

I saw 2 guns, which is basically the American version of an HK 80's action film. OK, but I dozed off in parts.

[Secret Executioner]

Jonah Hex

Sounded promising, but rather poorly executed. The ending especially is horrible. When you have the good guy fighting the bad guy, make sure the flashbacks aren't stuff seen dozens of times before and make sure they don't get in the way of the current action.

[AlbertV]

Heroic Duo (Hong Kong, 2003) ***1/2/**** - Benny Chan's action film revolving around a hard-nosed police officer, played by Ekin Cheng, who teams up with a jailed hypnotist, played by Leon Lai, to investigate a crime perpetrated by a fellow officer who claims he was hypnotized before killing himself. The film has some nice twist and turns and of course, once again, Francis Ng impresses as the villain. The film was co-written by Alan Yuen, who wrote NEW POLICE STORY. I thought it was actually a good film. The few unarmed combat scenes were nicely choreographed by Stephen Tung Wai, and there are some nice gunfights and a very nice rooftop chase scene between Ekin Cheng and Raymond Wong Ho-Yin, who plays a high ranking inspector after Cheng is framed for theft.

CIA: Codename Alexa (USA, 1992) **/**** - Former real-life couple Lorenzo Lamas and Kathleen Kinmont star in this B-film about a FBI agent who must help a hitwoman who is hired by a ganglord because her daughter has been kidnapped. There are a few MA sequences in the film, but it's hard to see "The Fight Doctor" Stephen Quadros lose to O.J. Simpson (who plays Lamas' partner) in a hospital fight scene.

CIA II: Target Alexa (USA, 1993) **1/2/**** - I thought this was just a tad better than the original film. Former hitwoman Alexa is accused of a crime she didn't commit. Graver, the FBI agent who saved her in the first film returns and offers her a new assignment for her freedom. She must infiltrate the terrorist organization who once trained her in her killing skills. There are more MA fights in this one with Art Camacho as choreographer. The 1/2 star up goes to those fight scenes, including one between Kathleen Kinmont and Lori Fetrick, aka Ice of the original American Gladiators. John Savage makes for a decent villain in this one.

[Secret Executioner]

Alice Cooper - Prime Cuts (2-DVD set)

A really good documentary from 1991, featuring lots of nice footage of the Coop'. The bonus DVD is also pretty cool, and has some interesting interviews.

Donald Duck: Der Fuehrer's Face

Anti-Nazi propaganda short based on Donald Duck who is a citizen of "Naziland" and works in a shell factory - and everything around Donald has to do with Hitler, swaztikas... This one is easy to find on youtube, not sure about DVD releases.

[Secret Executioner]

Inside Llewyn Davis

The new Coen brothers movie is a pretty sweet one.

The film is set in 1961 in New York City (though there's a small part set in Chicago) and deals with a guy named Llewyn Davis, a (imaginary) folk singer played by Oscar Isaac. He basically wanders around, trying to find where to sleep, trying to find a gig or getting a record deal - though without becoming commercial.

The music is pretty nice, you get some comedy every now and then and overall, you can see the struggle between the deep artist who wants to make it as an act while doing as he pleases and the more commercial approach where the artist will accept leaving what he likes aside and do commercial stuff that will sell more.

On a sidenote, you also see Justin Timberlake as Llewyn's friend Jim (another folk singer) delivers a nice performance. I enjoyed his character and his music too.

Basically, while it's not the absolute best film I've seen this year, it easily ranks in my top 10 for 2013.

[DrNgor]

Heroic Duo (Hong Kong, 2003) ***1/2/**** - Benny Chan's action film revolving around a hard-nosed police officer, played by Ekin Cheng, who teams up with a jailed hypnotist, played by Leon Lai, to investigate a crime perpetrated by a fellow officer who claims he was hypnotized before killing himself. The film has some nice twist and turns and of course, once again, Francis Ng impresses as the villain. The film was co-written by Alan Yuen, who wrote NEW POLICE STORY. I thought it was actually a good film. The few unarmed combat scenes were nicely choreographed by Stephen Tung Wai, and there are some nice gunfights and a very nice rooftop chase scene between Ekin Cheng and Raymond Wong Ho-Yin, who plays a high ranking inspector after Cheng is framed for theft.

I watched this earlier this year and was not a very big fan of it. The story was interesting, but I wasn't a fan of Stephen Tung's action.

The Man from Utah - Pre-fame John Wayne western about the Duke investigating some shading dealings at a rodeo. A few good horse-related stunts (presumably performed by Yakima Canut), but a bland affair overall.

[AlbertV]

Floating City (2012) - Yim Ho's tale of a self-made businessman who lives in Hong Kong during the waning days of the turnover from England to China and his struggles with both life and business. Aaron Kwok does well, proving that he has become a better actor than he has been in the past, with Charlie Yeung as his long suffering wife.

Olympus Has Fallen (2013) - I love this film. Korean terrorists led by Kang hold the White House hostage with a disgraced ex-Secret Service aide the only hope to stop the threat. Gerard Butler kicks major tail in the film with Rick Yune making quite the villain...think his James Bond villain without the deformity. J.J. Perry was the film's action choreographer. Actually can't wait for next year/2015's sequel, London Has Fallen.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

...Donald Duck: Der Fuehrer's Face

Anti-Nazi propaganda short based on Donald Duck who is a citizen of "Naziland" and works in a shell factory - and everything around Donald has to do with Hitler, swaztikas... This one is easy to find on youtube, not sure about DVD releases.

It's on both the limited R1 releases:

Walt Disney Treasures: Walt Disney On the Front Lines - Limited Edition Tin (1941-1946)

Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume 2 - Limited Edition Tin (1942-1946)

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Sidewalks of New York (1931: Zion Myers, Jules White)

This is the earliest American film where I have seen martial arts in it. Buster Keaton gets picked apart by an Asian-American kid (unfortunately not credited and IMDB does not have his name) who picks him apart with a variety of Judo throws like the Tomoe-nage (circle throw). Later Buster does the same to a bunch of criminals making this a much early appearance of Judo than James Cagney’s in Blood on the Sun (1945).

One thing to consider is that some of these moves would be incorporated into professional wrestling and at least one move the inappropriately named “airplane spin” is a wrestling move – though if you know a Judo origin of this move please tell me. Judo is never actually mentioned in this film and some reviewers call these “wrestling moves”, but given that kayfabe wrestling was slowly on the rise at this time and the kid who takes him apart early is certainly no wrestler I would consider this source of the fighting Judo.

The co-director Jules White, who would later helm lots of Three Stooges shorts (in fact one short he produced for The Three Stooges called “Disorder in the Court” would lift a gag from this film) and would direct Keaton in some of his Columbia shorts was never one of the best fits for Keaton. He never really knew how to handle Keaton and his directorial style was always to do things louder, faster and more violent. However, Keaton does handle action well as he is still in good shape at this time. The boxing scene is a mix of City Lights (1931) and Keaton’s own Battling Butler (1926) and is with the Judo is among the highlights in this film. The plot certainly is not (as I have avoided writing about it; if I do a proper review then plot points will be added) and his co-star Cliff Edwards is OK (they also star in Doughboys which I have not seen), but not much of a presence.

I am Keaton fan so I have been getting all of the films he is in. This is available on a DVD-R from Warner Bros. Archive Collection. This is an OK film but his silent era is by far the best bet if you want to start with Keaton where he had much more control of the material. He made the mistake of signing up with MGM which took away his creative control (though some good films were made like The Cameraman (1928)) which led to him drinking more (a bad marriage also contributed to this) and eventually being let go by MGM. Luckily he kept working and saw a resurgence of the popularity of his early work before he died in the 1960s.

[Secret Executioner]

Black Sabbath (1963)