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

[DrNgor]

Avalanche Sharks - This was essentially the cinematic equivalent of watching Cyrax's Animality from Mortal Kombat III for 70 minutes. During Spring Break at some resort in (presumably) the Rockies, a bunch of youngsters are devoured by the titular sharks, who turn out to be the manifestation of a local Indian god, Skukkum, who was invoked a century earlier by a shaman following the massacre of his tribe. Despite the outrageous premise, the film never really tries to do anything clever with the snow sharks and there's not much build-up or suspense in film, either.

The climax is the most bizarre part of the film: *SPOILER* Some random female Japanese skier who had shown up briefly in a few earlier scenes is skiing on the forbidden side of the mountain and finds some knocked-over totem poles. As she straightens the totem poles out, the sharks disappear. The character is completely oblivious to the fact that the sharks are on the other side of the mountain, trying to chomp down the rest of the main cast. Nor do the main protagonists ever figure out why the sharks are disappearing. It's really just odd like that. *END SPOILER*

Notable moments:

- One girl breaks up with her pot-smoking boyfriend and screams, "You'll never see me again." As soon as she finishes that sentence, a snow shark bites her in half.

- The climax, such as it is, revolves in the part around the heroes deciding whether or not they want to save the jerk-off rescue guy, who's had half of his face bitten off and is lying in the snow, used as bait by the sharks.

[DrNgor]

I'm curious what do you consider pretentious swordplay? Also do you like any of the older swordplay films (involving Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone -- who was a very good fencer, Tyrone Power etc...)?

To be perfectly honest, I'm unfamiliar with the works of those great men, despite the availability of their films over here, not to mention the Internet Archive. I will change that one day, although perhaps only next year. My to-watch list for this year is far too big.

When I saw pretentious swordplay, I mainly refer to the excessively overcranked stuff that we've been getting since the martial arthouse sub-genre took off in 2000. It's like they're trying to hard to be beautiful, instead of letting the actual swordplay choreography speak for itself.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

To be perfectly honest, I'm unfamiliar with the works of those great men, despite the availability of their films over here, not to mention the Internet Archive. I will change that one day, although perhaps only next year. My to-watch list for this year is far too big.

When I saw pretentious swordplay, I mainly refer to the excessively overcranked stuff that we've been getting since the martial arthouse sub-genre took off in 2000. It's like they're trying to hard to be beautiful, instead of letting the actual swordplay choreography speak for itself.

There are some great films from those I mentioned. Fairbanks started off awful with his swordplay being the equivalent of a basher (though his films would be entertaining when he got away from his comedy films) but would improve as the years went on. Rathbone was a trained fencer so he usually comes off quite good, though as one would expect declining as he got older. Flynn was just athletic (even though technically he had many health issues which untimely led him to not be enlisted into the military). To see both Rathbone and Flynn I would suggest starting with The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) if you have not already seen it. Check out Fairbanks in The Black Pirate (I am a fan of many of his films, but this is a great seafaring movie.)

I tend to dislike overcranking in general. But the other aspect you mention is problematic in the way that editing is overdone as well, especially in post Bourne fight scenes (weapons and/or hand-to-hand.) Memorizing a good sequence for swordplay is hard, so they tend not to do it. Surprising is how effective the swordplay was in The Princess Bride and how that (to me) made it even a better film.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

The Housemaid (1960: Kim Ki-young: South Korea)

This is now the oldest Korean film I have seen. A couple of reels are pretty poor here (this is talked about in the Scorsese extra as well as the essay link below) which might be the reason it did not get a standalone release. This is only the second South Korean release from Criterion with Secret Sunshine (2007) being the first. But I would consider this a more important release that probably should have been standalone, but it is part of a very nice boxset Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project.

You have a pretty good idea what is going to happen in the crux of this story by years of movie conditioning. An unknown maid is hired in a claustrophobic house with an apparently well-liked middle age man (not sure why all the females are falling for him as his presence is so-so) who has a traditional wife with an extra job sewing and two children with the daughter partially disabled. But sometimes you might wonder why the characters behave as they do except for the social commentary of trying to cling to position, job, social status at the cost of dignity, life and sound mind. You get a feeling of Douglas Sirk mixed with Hiroshi Teshigahara (or even a little of Luis Bunuel like The Exterminating Angel) as the events unfold as the characters seem to have little control (say like firing the maid.) You may wonder why keep rat poison in the household if you are going to stress over it constantly.

But it is a thoroughly watchable film and an important one in Korean cinema.

The ending reminds me of Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry though more didactic and thoroughly Brechtian (Verfremdungseffekt)* ending. It feels like it comes out of nowhere, but it might have been done to satisfy the censors after all the “horror” that preceded it. A wink-wink and a “be careful” warning of what you might get yourself into if you hire a pretty and crazy maid. Though one might also consider not keeping the rat poison, especially in the kitchen cupboard next to the food and other medicine bottle that look just like it.

The Housemaid was later remade in 2010 by Im Sang-soo (which I have not seen.) Can anyone compare the two?

* This term is often overused in film analysis describing any “breaking the fourth wall” scene. I tend to only use it when it combines direct audience content with a didactic intent which I believe is what Brecht originally intended for this idea. Also, there are so many windows used on the set that you accidently get to see the crew in many scenes.

Martin Scorsese Interview (2:17m): Small little introduction where he talks about the major Korean directors he first saw before getting into earlier ones like Kim Ki-young. I like that he mentions that you can see some of this in later horror films like Whispering Corridors (I have not seen) and A Tale of Two Sisters (I have seen.) A kinship with Whispering Well (?) as well as Poe’s writings. Two reels of original negative was lost and talks about removing subtitles from an English print.

Bong Joon-ho on the Housemaid (15:03m): Talks about director who had a cult following in the 1990s. He compares him to Shohei Imamura and Luis Bunuel. Film made right before military dictatorship (Park Chung-hee unlike Chun Doo –hwan). With his talk about hair length it reminds me of the lengths (of hair) imposed still on North Korea. Talks about stairs and how it represents upper middle class because of the two-story house. The same goes for the piano. Housekeeper = monster. Single young women from out of Seoul would do maid jobs in big city. Director remade the same film three times. His talk on the ending echoes some of my statements above.

The Housemaid: Crossing Borders (by Kyung Hyun Kim): “Of the thirty-two feature films Kim made in the course of his career, only twenty-two survive intact. His first picture, Box of Death (1955), miraculously turned up at the Washington National Records Center in Maryland in 2011, without its sound reel, and a twenty-minute portion of Touch-Me-Not (1956) was recently recovered, but eight films still remain missing altogether.”

[AlbertV]

The Hangover Part III - I decided to finally take a chance and see this after all negative reviews of it. While it is not as good as the first two films (which I absolutely loved), it did have some moments. My favorite would have to be the doped-up Leslie Chow parachuting all over Vegas and singing a rendition of R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly". I couldn't help but crack up at that.

Plus, I kept wondering what was going to happen to Stu this time...first the tooth, then the tattoo...but when it was revealed mid-credits, I was a bit disappointed.

Overall..a 2 out of 5 stars. Wish it ended on a better note.

[DrNgor]

The Big Gundown - Pretty good Spaghetti Western about a bounty hunter (Lee Van Cleef) who's on the trail of an accused rapist (Thomas Milian). After a rather strange odyssey where the two come across a number of quirky characters, the former finds the latter in Mexico. But as usual, things are never quite what they seem. I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to Spaghetti Westerns, so I don't have much a metric for this type of movie. I will say that Lee Van Cleef is appropriately bad-a** and the main theme is pretty classic (stolen a number of times for kung fu movies, including The Secret Rivals films). Thomas Milian is such a sleazy anti-hero (he shamelessly leaves his wife to eek out a living as a cheap prostitute so he can cavort around with more expensive prostitutes) that he convinces you multiple times that he really is guilty. Definitely a different American West than what John Wayne and Roy Rogers gave us. Worth a watch.

Motorway - Hong Kong police thriller about a pair of cops (Shawn Yue, Anthony Wong) who try to bring down a legendary getaway driver after he orchestrates a violent jailbreak. The action, which was nominated for Best Action Design, focuses mainly on car chases in tight locations. We see the villains in the car, but the filmmakers focus mainly on the car itself, making it feel like its own dangerous, sentient entity. Entertaining, especially if you like car-oriented action.

[Secret Executioner]

Blood Feast (1963)

Found out about this one (apparently the first gore film in cinema history) thanks to this. Found the DVD some time ago and finally watched. Definitely worth the price of admission: the gore is a bit too OTT which makes it more hilarious than gruesome (but there's a lot of it) and the acting is really hilarious at times (the guy who plays the killer is a riot). Despite some goofy stuff though, the story is rather well executed and it doesn't feel rushed, which is all the more impressive seeing the film has a running time of only 67 minutes.

[KUNG FU BOB]

Blood Feast (1963)

Found out about this one (apparently the first gore film in cinema history) thanks to this. Found the DVD some time ago and finally watched. Definitely worth the price of admission: the gore is a bit too OTT which makes it more hilarious than gruesome (but there's a lot of it) and the acting is really hilarious at times (the guy who plays the killer is a riot). Despite some goofy stuff though, the story is rather well executed and it doesn't feel rushed, which is all the more impressive seeing the film has a running time of only 67 minutes.

I got to meet the director, Herschell Gordon Lewis once. He told great stories and was a total trip! If you liked this, I recommend his films THE WIZARD OF GORE (1970) and TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! (1964).

[Secret Executioner]

I got to meet the director, Herschell Gordon Lewis once. He told great stories and was a total trip! If you liked this, I recommend his films THE WIZARD OF GORE (1970) and TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! (1964).

Two Thousand Maniacs! is a classic, never heard of the other one - but the title alone sounds promising. I really enjoy horror flicks and Blood Feast may now be one of my fav' horror movies, up there with classics like Nosferatu (the Murnau film) or Cronenberg's Scanners.

Not sure what the fairly recent 2001 Maniacs is worth though, but I think the title is a pun on making it a sort of sequel to Two Thousand Maniacs! and the year 2001 in which it was released (or supposed to be released before being delayed ?).

[Doctor Schnabel von Rom]

Contraband (UK DVD): Lucio Fulci's very bloody mafia movie is worth to be watched! Watched it the first time in italian with englisch subs, but the italian audio sounds not very good. 8/10

Wolf Creek 2 (US Blu Ray): Better then the first movie! More action (some great car stunts and scenes à la the hitcher), more terror, more blood. 8/10

[KUNG FU BOB]

I really enjoy horror flicks and Blood Feast may now be one of my fav' horror movies, up there with classics like Nosferatu (the Murnau film) or Cronenberg's Scanners.

Though I enjoy BLOOD FEAST, I wouldn't include it among my favorites (which do include SCANNERS and NOSFERATU). Did you know SCANNERS was released today by Criterion Films on DVD and Blu-ray?

Two Thousand Maniacs! is a classic, never heard of the other one - but the title alone sounds promising.

WIZARD OF GORE has my favorite premise of all of H.G. Lewis' films. You should definitely see it!

Not sure what the fairly recent 2001 Maniacs is worth though, but I think the title is a pun on making it a sort of sequel to Two Thousand Maniacs! and the year 2001 in which it was released (or supposed to be released before being delayed ?).

It's a remake of the original, and it spawned it's own 2010 sequel. WIZARD OF GORE was also remade in 2007.

Contraband (UK DVD): Lucio Fulci's very bloody mafia movie is worth to be watched! Watched it the first time in italian with englisch subs, but the italian audio sounds not very good. 8/10

I've been curious about this film for a long time. I've only ever watched Fulci's horror stuff (many, many times! ), but I'd like to give this a look.

Wolf Creek 2 (US Blu Ray): Better then the first movie! More action (some great car stunts and scenes à la the hitcher), more terror, more blood. 8/10

Just watched this with my wife, after a "not bad at all" review from Karlos. I liked it more than the first too, and thought it had some very suspenseful scenes and an interesting plot device. Unique enough that I won't spoil it by saying anything about it here.

[Doctor Schnabel von Rom]

I've been curious about this film for a long time. I've only ever watched Fulci's horror stuff (many, many times! ), but I'd like to give this a look.

Just watched this with my wife, after a "not bad at all" review from Karlos. I liked it more than the first too, and thought it had some very suspenseful scenes and an interesting plot device. Unique enough that I won't spoil it by saying anything about it here.

From Contraband exists an american dvd from blue underground. Uncut, Englisch Dubbed, very good picture qualitay but no italian audio.

i guess the dvd is code free.

the first half of wolf creek 2 was the better one for my taste. specally the non cgi car scenes and stunts à la the hitcher!

[AlbertV]

I saw 2001 MANIACS only for the fact that Robert Englund plays the mayor (Bill Moseley replaced him in the sequel), and it is definitely a reboot. Of course, they kill the hottest of the girls first (won't spoil how, but was disappointed that hottest one died first LOL), and there were some inventive death scenes. I liked it, but have yet to see the second one.

[Secret Executioner]

Though I enjoy BLOOD FEAST, I wouldn't include it among my favorites (which do include SCANNERS and NOSFERATU). Did you know SCANNERS was released today by Criterion Films on DVD and Blu-ray?

Saw that there was to be a release of this one in the Criterion thread in World cinema.

WIZARD OF GORE has my favorite premise of all of H.G. Lewis' films. You should definitely see it!

It's a remake of the original, and it spawned it's own 2010 sequel. WIZARD OF GORE was also remade in 2007.

Guess I'll get the originals first and eventually get to the remakes later.

[Doctor Schnabel von Rom]

In The Mouth Of Madness (US Blu Ray): Very entertaining john carpenter horror stuff!

Countess Dracula (US Blu Ray): Very solid hammer production. movie tells the elisabeth bathory story. good setting, costumes and acting. little bit more exploitation scenes would be nice, but better little than nothing.

[Doctor Schnabel von Rom]

Fight For Your Life (US DVD: When you like cheap sleaze flicks like i spit on your grave or last house on the left (and i mean the 70s orginal classics) you are did right to watch the little bastard of a movie!

Texas Chainsaw 3D (french Blu Ray = Unrated Version): Not so bad i heard. solid and when the terror is starting, the boring scenes are going away and it's chainswa action til the end. no movie highlight, but for my taste better then the michael bay remake!

See No Evil (US DVD): Solid slasher in a building movie. nothing special, but i like the genre. part two can come!

[AlbertV]

See No Evil (US DVD): Solid slasher in a building movie. nothing special, but i like the genre. part two can come!

SEE NO EVIL 2 is supposed to come out this fall and yes Kane is returning as Jacob Goodnight, this time terrorizing med school students when he wakes up in the morgue.

[Doctor Schnabel von Rom]

SEE NO EVIL 2 is supposed to come out this fall and yes Kane is returning as Jacob Goodnight, this time terrorizing med school students when he wakes up in the morgue.

Sounds okay. Specally med school and morgue as setting and victims:-)

[AlbertV]

MY LIFE AS A DOG: 1985 Swedish hit film about a young boy who comes of age as moves to a small town when his mother in terminally ill

http://albertvfilm.blogspot.com/2014/07/my-life-as-dog-mitt-liv-som-hund-1985.html

BULLIES: A 1986 Canadian action thriller that melds Romeo and Juliet with Straw Dogs

http://albertvfilm.blogspot.com/2014/07/bullies-1986.html

THE TOXIC AVENGER PART 3: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TOXIE: 1989 sequel that was the second film of Michael Jai White

http://albertvfilm.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-toxic-avenger-part-iii-last.html

[the moose]

I watched a movie called 'Highlander: Endgame' last night. I enjoyed the first 2 movies years ago during the VHS era. This one sadly was atrocious. I managed to endure 50 minutes of it. It's funny because Donnie Yen has a small role and the couple of fights he was in were obviously also choreographed by him and made him look good (which he did look good in this movie) yet it was completely inconsistent with the rest of the fighting in the film (and also comedically sped up which was inconsistent to the incrediby slow movie fights of the westerners.) And is quite amusing because of the huge difference. The swordfights were just painfully aweful to watch. somewhat unchanged from the 1930's errol flynn "on-guard" style. And what is it with western camermen and film editors that they completely don't have a fucking clue whatsoever how to film a fight scene. Donnie should have choreorgraphed all of the action and given all the creative control he needed. What we see now is how terrible hollywood is at shooting fight scenes because we can compare to the hong kong style in the same damn movie. And please, don't get me started on the acting, stroyline, direction......

Just avoid it. Not that you would be interested in watching this forgotten and insignificent crap. Many of you here may well have already seen it anyway.

[the moose]

[Lionclaw]

I watched a movie called 'Highlander: Endgame' last night. I enjoyed the first 2 movies years ago during the VHS era. This one sadly was atrocious. I managed to endure 50 minutes of it. It's funny because Donnie Yen has a small role and the couple of fights he was in were obviously also choreographed by him and made him look good (which he did look good in this movie) yet it was completely inconsistent with the rest of the fighting in the film (and also comedically sped up which was inconsistent to the incrediby slow movie fights of the westerners.) And is quite amusing because of the huge difference. The swordfights were just painfully aweful to watch. somewhat unchanged from the 1930's errol flynn "on-guard" style. And what is it with western camermen and film editors that they completely don't have a fucking clue whatsoever how to film a fight scene. Donnie should have choreorgraphed all of the action and given all the creative control he needed. What we see now is how terrible hollywood is at shooting fight scenes because we can compare to the hong kong style in the same damn movie. And please, don't get me started on the acting, stroyline, direction......

Just avoid it. Not that you would be interested in watching this forgotten and insignificent crap. Many of you here may well have already seen it anyway.

Am I the only one in the world who enjoys this movie? Adrian Paul is an okay martial artist, and I had no problem with his sword fighting. Yeah the acting was wishy washy, the effects dated, the editing was pretty bad and, Lambert was doubled way too much, this movie has a special place in my heart. It introduced me to the awesome Donnie Yen, plus those quickening scenes always get to me.

[the moose]

Am I the only one in the world who enjoys this movie? Adrian Paul is an okay martial artist, and I had no problem with his sword fighting. Yeah the acting was wishy washy, the effects dated, the editing was pretty bad and, Lambert was doubled way too much, this movie has a special place in my heart. It introduced me to the awesome Donnie Yen, plus those quickening scenes always get to me.

I did watch some of the Highlander TV series with Adrian paul years ago. It was on the UK channel ITV quite late. As a TV show it wasn't too bad.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

I'm not sure if this would be considered a MA film (though it has some wuxia elements to it):

I've considered doing a top 100 HK films. I've done a top 50 a few years back using the following format (one paragraph though, the additional information is if I do a longer review later.)

??) A Chinese Ghost Story (1987: Ching Sui-tung): For a film that many consider a must-watch in Hong Kong cinema I do wonder why there is no US release of it (a R0 NTSC release is OOP; I bought a R3 to watch this.) A true hyphenate of styles in which there is action, comedy, music, romance, ghosts and more in a well-blended film from director Ching Siu-tung and producer Tsui Hark. Leslie Cheung is in one of his most famous roles as the milquetoast tax collector who is completely out of his depth for his job and even more out of his depth when he finds himself having to find shelter in an abandoned temple populated by a surly Taoist fighter (Wu Ma in one of my favorite roles of his.) He falls in love, while gaining nerve, with Lip Siu-sin (Joey Wong) a ghost who is enslaved by a 1000 year-old tree demon. Can ghosts and humans mix? This movie, based on a previous Shaw Brothers film The Enchanting Shadow (1960) which was based off of 17th and 18th century writer Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai Zhiyi), was a critical and popular success in Hong Kong that beget two sequels, a remake, an animated film and influenced countless others (including some Cat. III films.) A fun film if you get to see it.

NOTE: I just ordered Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling translated by John Minford.

I have read a lot of conflicting sources on how much Tsui Hark directed/edited this. David Bordwell states in Planet Hong Kong that Tsui had his hands in some of the dramatic scenes.

Stephen Teo’s Hong Kong: The Extra Dimensions is a good source for this film.

I do get an Evil Dead vibe to this film.

[AlbertV]

I'm going to work on full reviews of these on my other film blog as they are not MA films obviously, but here's what I saw this weekend:

Fire of Conscience (2010) - Leon Lai and Richie Jen as two rival cops in a deadly cat-and-mouse game. Both cops have past demons that tend to catch up to them when they are assigned the same mission.

Killing Season (2013) - Robert DeNiro as an ex-military officer during the Serbian War who tries to find peace in the Appalachian wilderness only to have his past catch up to him when John Travolta's Serbian rebel arrives and forces DeNiro in a deadly game.

Homefront (2013) - Sylvester Stallone-scripted film stars Jason Statham as an ex-DEA agent who tries to start life anew with his young daughter. However, what should have been a simple issue with bullying escalates into an all out war when school bully's uncle, a meth-making dealer, is hired to scare off Statham only to learn his past and decides to use it against him. James Franco plays said drug dealing uncle.

The Frozen Ground (2013) - Nicolas Cage as an Alaskan detective on the hunt for a serial killer, played by John Cusack. His only clue to nailing him is the only one ever to escape from the killer's clutches, a 17-year old hooker played by Vanessa Hudgens. Based on a true story in the 1980's.