Member Secret Executioner Posted January 17, 2015 Member Share Posted January 17, 2015 The AristoCats (1970) Another Disney film, and another one from my childhood. It's a film I remember watching a lot and loving when I was a kid. Watching it now, some 15 years later (if not more)... I noticed stuff that kinda buged me (plotholes notably), but the 2 chases with the dogs (hilarious stuff), the songs (Everybody wants to be a cat is a Disney classic), the look of the movie (I find it well drawn and rather nice to look at) and the characters are still as enjoyable as when I was little. Overall I would still consider it one of my fav' (mainly because of the nostalgia factor), but I can understand if someone doesn't enjoy it that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted January 18, 2015 Member Share Posted January 18, 2015 Batman: Mystery Of The Batwoman (animated, 2003) A spin-off movie in the Batman TAS universe that uses the New Batman Adventures/Gotham Knights (or simply Season 4) redesigns (when the show was being established as part of the same universe than Superman TAS and later the DC Animated Universe) instead of the original designs. In this movie, a new crime-fighter called Batwoman appears in Gotham. Gifted with great physical condition, advanced gadgets and a knowledge of crime operations going on in the city, she is however not related to the Bat-family who consists in Batman, Robin/Tim Drake, Batgirl/Barbara Gordon (who is in college and only appears for a cameo) and Nightwing/Dick Grayson (who is simply entirely absent). The crime-fighting is focused on weapon smuggling orchestrated by Rupert Thorne, the Penguin and a third guy whose daughter flirts with Bruce Wayne. Bruce also has a new computer genius female employee at Wayne Industries and the GCPD has a new detective teamed with Harvey Bullock. When it's obvious taking down the new bat won't be easy, Penguin hires a big-shot supervillain (who doesn't feel as underused as he used to be in the series) to take care of her while Batman and Robin also try and figure out who she is... The movie is okay, you get action, some humor here and there (lincluding a nod to Ace the Bat-hound who appeared in the animated series Batman Beyond). I wasn't too fond of it overall though, probably expecting something darker. Bruce goofing around with a young chick and a very 1990s sounding pop song as end theme aren't really what I want to see in a Batman animated film... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted January 18, 2015 Member Share Posted January 18, 2015 The Rescuers (1977) Yet another childhood memory. Based on late 1950s/early 1960s children books, it's the story of 2 little mice (named Bernard and Miss Bianca) going on a mission for a UN-like organization called Rescue Aid Society and composed of mice from various countries of the world - including one from Latvia (which was part of the USSR back then), one from Vienna (which should be Austria, a place that already has a representative) and one from "Africa" (care to mention a country maybe ?). The mission is to save a little girl called Penny who's kept hostage in some swamp somewhere in the deep south by some crazy bitch (she has no class or style like other female villains, she's just gross) who wants her to get a big diamond burried inside a cave - child slavery much ? The bad guys and their pet crocodiles (!) are defeated with help of local animals who may seem a bit clichee (the turtle has a Confederate cap from the Civil War and the owl is dressed like a mormon) but are pretty funny (especially that male rodent who keeps drinking some questionnable stuff he apparently brewed himself). In spite of the clichees and the whole "child slavery" thing (viewing this as an adult makes the movie look kinda disturbing...), the movie is still pretty nice. The animation is superb (for the record, I noticed in the opening credits that Don Bluth was involved - yup, the guy who gave us movies like An American Tail or The Land Before Time used to work for Disney at a point), the story is okay, there's a lot of funny stuff (thanks to the way OTT villains and the bumbling hero Bernard) and the songs are sweet, though a bit too sad maybe (to be fair, two of them are centered around the little girl and the only really up-beat song is the Rescue Aid Society anthem - a number that's very memorable). I'd say it holds up very well and I'd rank this one pretty high among my favorite Disney movies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member teako170 Posted January 19, 2015 Member Share Posted January 19, 2015 The AristoCats (1970) Another Disney film, and another one from my childhood. It's a film I remember watching a lot and loving when I was a kid. Watching it now, some 15 years later (if not more)... I noticed stuff that kinda buged me (plotholes notably), but the 2 chases with the dogs (hilarious stuff), the songs (Everybody wants to be a cat is a Disney classic), the look of the movie (I find it well drawn and rather nice to look at) and the characters are still as enjoyable as when I was little. Overall I would still consider it one of my fav' (mainly because of the nostalgia factor), but I can understand if someone doesn't enjoy it that much. My kids watch this one about once a week. Definite classic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted January 19, 2015 Member Share Posted January 19, 2015 My kids watch this one about once a week. Definite classic. Sounds like me when I was a little kid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member masterofoneinchpunch Posted January 19, 2015 Member Share Posted January 19, 2015 The AristoCats (1970) Another Disney film, and another one from my childhood. It's a film I remember watching a lot and loving when I was a kid. Watching it now, some 15 years later (if not more)... I noticed stuff that kinda buged me (plotholes notably), but the 2 chases with the dogs (hilarious stuff), the songs (Everybody wants to be a cat is a Disney classic), the look of the movie (I find it well drawn and rather nice to look at) and the characters are still as enjoyable as when I was little. Overall I would still consider it one of my fav' (mainly because of the nostalgia factor), but I can understand if someone doesn't enjoy it that much. This one definitely has nostalgia factor for me as well (I have it on VHS and DVD). I love the drawn Disney films. I'm not sure how I could review it without being completely bias. I end up watching this every few years. I like the The Rescuers too though it is not as memorable for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted January 20, 2015 Member Share Posted January 20, 2015 Mandando Bala - Another one of those extreme R-rated action movies that belong in the same group as the Crank movies. Clive Owen kills dozens of people in order to protect a baby and Monica Belucci from Paul Giamatti and evil gun manufacturers. What I liked about the movie is that the filmmakers made a valiant effort to give each gunfight its own personality: there's some more typical John Woo blowout, a shootout while the leads are having sex, a skydiving shootout (which is stupid, but at least the filmmakers were trying), and more. The way that Owen turns the tables on Giamatti at the end is also pretty classic. The plot is some mishmash about a policitian running a clandestine baby factory to produce a child who can give him a bone marrow transplant, and the gun company who wants to kill the baby to insure said policitian's death. Bloody and over-the-top--and even fun at times--but not quite up to the same level as the best John Woo films. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted January 20, 2015 Member Share Posted January 20, 2015 The Jungle Book (1967) A Disney animated movie (the last one made before Walt Disney passed away) based on the Rudyard Kipling book (though loosely cause the first thing asked to the people in charge was to NOT take the book into account...). In spite of lots of differences with the original work (which BTW is a great piece and I highly recommend it), the movie has a solid story, great characters, fun songs (I especially enjoy the monkeys' number and the Elephant march) and is very nice to watch (the designs are great with gorgeous sets and nice character designs with each elephant getting a unique design, vultures based on a famous British band that were to be the birds' voice actors...). Too bad it is getting remade in horrendous CG animation (what the fuck is with this trend ?! The characters look like plastic dolls and the sets look blend) and a Marvel Universe-based voice crew... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted January 20, 2015 Moderator Share Posted January 20, 2015 Mandando Bala - Another one of those extreme R-rated action movies that belong in the same group as the Crank movies. Clive Owen kills dozens of people in order to protect a baby and Monica Belucci from Paul Giamatti and evil gun manufacturers. What I liked about the movie is that the filmmakers made a valiant effort to give each gunfight its own personality: there's some more typical John Woo blowout, a shootout while the leads are having sex, a skydiving shootout (which is stupid, but at least the filmmakers were trying), and more. The way that Owen turns the tables on Giamatti at the end is also pretty classic. The plot is some mishmash about a policitian running a clandestine baby factory to produce a child who can give him a bone marrow transplant, and the gun company who wants to kill the baby to insure said policitian's death. Bloody and over-the-top--and even fun at times--but not quite up to the same level as the best John Woo films. The English title for this one is 'Shoot 'Em Up', and if you want to see a sky-diving shoot out scene done for real, I'd recommend the 2002 movie by Alpha Stunts founder Koichi Sakomoto called 'Wicked Game (aka 'Extreme Heist'). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Keung Posted January 20, 2015 Member Share Posted January 20, 2015 – Lucy (2014) Scarlett Johansson evolves into a USB stick. There should have been an alternate ending where Morgan Freeman connects it to a computer, only to find all the data has been corrupted. Edit: Morgan Freeman is the most consistently boring actor in Hollywood. ★★★★ / ★★★★★ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted January 20, 2015 Member Share Posted January 20, 2015 The English title for this one is 'Shoot 'Em Up', and if you want to see a sky-diving shoot out scene done for real, I'd recommend the 2002 movie by Alpha Stunts founder Koichi Sakomoto called 'Wicked Game (aka 'Extreme Heist'). I actually knew that (despite my living in Brazil, I was born and raised in Califórnia). I just like to use the Portuguese titles from time to time to shake things up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member masterofoneinchpunch Posted January 20, 2015 Member Share Posted January 20, 2015 I actually knew that (despite my living in Brazil, I was born and raised in Califórnia). I just like to use the Portuguese titles from time to time to shake things up. That name threw me off for a second. How come you didn't mention the carrots? And more seriously where in California were you from? (I'm right in the middle of the state.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted January 20, 2015 Member Share Posted January 20, 2015 That name threw me off for a second. How come you didn't mention the carrots? And more seriously where in California were you from? (I'm right in the middle of the state.) I'm from Stockton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member masterofoneinchpunch Posted January 20, 2015 Member Share Posted January 20, 2015 I'm from Stockton. Ha, that's cool. I'm from Modesto (both 209 area code; anyone curious Stockton is 30 miles from Modesto, both have over 200,000 people; MMA fans know that the Diaz brothers are from Stockton, so is Chris Isaak.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted January 20, 2015 Member Share Posted January 20, 2015 Robo Vampire (HK, 1988) A Filmark production directed by Joe Livingstone and produced by Tomas Tang. The movie sees a Robocop ripoff and hopping vampires be added to a Thai movie involving drug dealers and a hostage situation. Yeah, cause the drug dealers (in order for the shipments to be safe) called some magician to summon Gyonshi to protect their cargo and fight the cops... Sorapong Chatree is (again) the protagonist of the Thai film, while a bunch of Gwailos (including Ernest Mauser, a Canadian who's not unfamiliar to HK cinema specialists as he also appeared in some John Woo and Johnnie To movies) lead the other part and there's also a romantic subplot involving a ghost chick who seeks revenge against the magician because he turned her beloved into a Gyonshi and they can't get together. The movie isn't that great, it actually even gets kinda boring at points - there's some nice action in the Thai part and the scenes with the Robo Warrior (yup, that's the what the cheap Robocop knock-off is called) and the hopping vampires are usually pretty fun just for how bad they are. Guess I could have enjoyed it more if I had seen it on DVD rather than on youtube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted January 20, 2015 Member Share Posted January 20, 2015 Ha, that's cool. I'm from Modesto (both 209 area code; anyone curious Stockton is 30 miles from Modesto, both have over 200,000 people; MMA fans know that the Diaz brothers are from Stockton, so is Chris Isaak.) The Suncoast at Vintage Fair Mall was one of my favorite places in the world growing up. My mom was a coordinator for Clinique at Gottschalk's before it closed and frequently went to Modesto. So yeah, fond memories of your hometown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted January 21, 2015 Member Share Posted January 21, 2015 Bad Man's River - Generally considered one of Lee Van Cleef's worst Spaghetti Westerns, and it isn't hard to understand why. It's supposed to be a Western comedy, but it's never very funny (unlike McLintock!, which I watched the other day). I almost shut the film off after the first 10 minutes because of the abuse of the freeze frame technique FOR EVERY SINGLE SCENE. It also suffers from a soundtrack consisting of annoyingly light Western ballads. Oh, and James Mason shows up just to cash a check, if you know what I mean. Basically, Lee Van Cleef is a máster bank robber/gunfighter who makes off with some nice bank after a job. He gets swindled and thrown into a mental institution by master con artist Gina Lollobrigida. Upon his escape from the joint, he reunites his old gang for a big job to blow up an arsenal belonging to the Mexican army. This turns out to be part 1 in a plan to steal a million dollars from the Mexican government. But the subsequent parts of the plan will get everybody mixed up with bandits, the army, and Mexican revolutionaries. The main reason to watch the film is the action, which is frequent and fun. The movie feels like a test drive for the sort of one-man army movies that dominated the cinematic landscape during the 1980s. Nobody ever comes close to hitting Lee Van Cleef and his gang, but they have no problem hitting dozens of men when they fire their guns. The heroes have an endless supply of dynamite at their disposal, so we get lots of explosions. I enjoyed those scenes. The film also gets some points for putting two gorgeous women (Gina Lollobrigida and Diana Lorrys) in the same movie, although the latter is sadly underused. Depending on your mood, the film may be worth a rental. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG Posted January 22, 2015 Member Share Posted January 22, 2015 Saw this last night: Got these today: Is this any good? GD Y-Y Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted January 24, 2015 Moderator Share Posted January 24, 2015 Is this any good? GD Y-Y Hey GD Y-Y, in my humble opinion, 'Sympathy for Lady Vengeance' is a cinematic masterpiece. It's the third movie in Korean director Park Chan-wook's unrelated Vengeance Trilogy. The first being 'Sympathy for Mr Vengeance' and the second being 'OldBoy'. Check out this thread for some opinions on his movies - http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21936 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted January 24, 2015 Member Share Posted January 24, 2015 Texas, Adios - Spaghetti Western starring Franco Nero as a Texas sheriff who turns in his badge and heads to México with his his brother to find their father's killer, the enigmatic Cisco Delgado. What starts out to be your average revenge-themed Western takes on a few twists and layers of complexity as the film progresses. Mix that with a healthy dose of action (fisticuffs, gunfights--including several one-on-one's) and you get a very entertaining entry in the genre. A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon - This is a prequel to the first film and serves as an "origin" story to Chow Yun Fat's iconic Mark Gor character. The film wants us to believe that Mark was taught to be a bad-*ss Triad by a female gangster (the late Anita Mui) in Vietnam right before it fell to the communists. I personally don't have a problem with that interpretation. The problem is that the film builds up to something epic and then fails to deliver. Mark doesn't get involved with much of the action (staged by Lau Chi Ho, who worked onThe Big Hit) during the first two acts, so I was hoping for a complex gunfight between him, the gangsters, the villainous GENERAL BONG, and the Viet Cong at the end. Instead, the film gives us a clímax that's too much melodrama and not enough badassery from Chow. I'm sorry Tsui (Hark), but two minutes of Chow Yun-Fat firing two-fisted M-16s is not enough to justify his absence from the rest of the action. The movie also runs close to two hours, but could have easily been about 10-15 minutes shorter; too many scenes are dragged out for maximum suspense or dramatic value. Not a bad film, but certainly not a great one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted January 24, 2015 Member Share Posted January 24, 2015 Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (US version of Invasion Of Astro-Monster, 1970) Damn good stuff. I didn't notice much difference with the original Japanese version (except for the dub, and that English dub was actually pretty good), but I have seen the original once and it was a couple of years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted January 26, 2015 Member Share Posted January 26, 2015 Hangman's Knot - Early 1950s Western starring Randolph Scott about a band of Confederate soldiers who raid a transport of Union gold in the West, not knowing that the Civil War ended but a month earlier. They are quickly pursued by the law and a band of robbers posing as deputies. They hole up at a stagecoach station with some hostages and the robbers waiting outside. Things quickly get tense. Very suspenseful film with characters who are more complex than usual and some nice action sequences. Lee Marvin is great as a hard boiled soldier whose true nature manifests itself as the film goes on. Richard Denning is the same sort of greedy a**hole that he was in Creature from the Black Lagoon, which he was rather good at. Western fans should find a lot to like here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Keung Posted January 26, 2015 Member Share Posted January 26, 2015 – The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) I see Jonah Hill continues to punch way above his acting weight. DiCaprio is good, but literally anyone could've played his part. I really don't understand all the critical acclaim and accolades that this film has received. For reasons unknown to me, Scorsese took three hours of my life to tell me a story I've heard over and over again – you don't like the characters, you don't care about what's going on, you don't even understand it half the time. What a lousy, bloated mess. If you like misogyny, you'll fucking love this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member masterofoneinchpunch Posted January 26, 2015 Member Share Posted January 26, 2015 Hangman's Knot - Early 1950s Western starring Randolph Scott about a band of Confederate soldiers who raid a transport of Union gold in the West, not knowing that the Civil War ended but a month earlier. They are quickly pursued by the law and a band of robbers posing as deputies. They hole up at a stagecoach station with some hostages and the robbers waiting outside. Things quickly get tense. Very suspenseful film with characters who are more complex than usual and some nice action sequences. Lee Marvin is great as a hard boiled soldier whose true nature manifests itself as the film goes on. Richard Denning is the same sort of greedy a**hole that he was in Creature from the Black Lagoon, which he was rather good at. Western fans should find a lot to like here. I just bought this a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to watching it. I've been a big Randolph Scott fan over the years. I can pretty much watch anything with him in it (and have.) While he has a lot of OK westerns, there are so many good ones from the Budd Boetticher ones (7 Men From Now is my favorite with Westbound being my least favorite) to Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country to underrated ones like Coroner's Creek. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted January 26, 2015 Member Share Posted January 26, 2015 I just bought this a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to watching it. I've been a big Randolph Scott fan over the years. I can pretty much watch anything with him in it (and have.) While he has a lot of OK westerns, there are so many good ones from the Budd Boetticher ones (7 Men From Now is my favorite with Westbound being my least favorite) to Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country to underrated ones like Coroner's Creek. This was my first Randolph Scott film. It made for a good introduction to his films. I want to see his more lauded efforts like Ride the High Country, Seven Men from Now, and The Tall T. I'm at the end of my current Western film binge, so I may check those out later this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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