|
Post by stefancrosscoe on May 25, 2017 9:45:04 GMT
a view to a kill. the bond movie i remember seeing in the theater with my family. never really watched too many bond movies but i've watched this movie many times growing up. still like it for the same reasons. christopher walken and grace jones were so confusing and interesting to me when i first saw it. great opening sequence. A View to a Kill was one of the first Bond films I saw as a kid, and it did such an impression on me, that for several weeks me and a couple of friends tried to make our own little James Bond stageplay at school, but it did not go down all that well with our teacher, and after she called our parents, I did not get to watch another Bond film for some time, as my mum hated action films, but it did not last all that long, as my dad however, was a huge Bond fan, and did not have the heart to not let me see the films. Max Zorin sure was one psychotic bastard, as I remember a scene where all hell is breaking loose, and instead of trying to flee the place as fast as humanly possible, he decides that it is more fun killing off (a lot of them) his own desperate co-workers, with a machine gun, all while lauging like a maniac. This nazi lovechild or whatever he was, I think were planned out as another movie vehicle part for David Bowie, but I am really glad they ended up with Christopher Walken, as he made that part really come alive with his evil grin and sadistic style/manners, and for me stands as one of the most memorable Bond villains, in any of Roger Moore's 7 films. And I completely agree, the opening sequence was like all 7 Moore Bond films wrapped into one little short film, and they used to be such a great experience to be met by an intro that explosive and good, while the last Bond film (I do not even remember its name) was just a mess full of horrible action scenes, and a terrible way of trying to open up a Bond film with.
|
|
|
Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on May 26, 2017 23:04:55 GMT
I watched a recording of The Rock last night. It has Sean Connery (one of his more enjoyable movies that I've seen. He's so great with his dry delivery of dialogue), Nicolas Cage (giving an entertaining performance), Ed Harris (as a really great 'villain' with understandable motives and who isn't cartoonish), Vanessa Marcil and Claire Forlani (I thank the movie for including both of these lovely ladies), and a bunch of actors I recognise from various things making up the rest of the cast. It also has a great action scenes, an awesome car chase, some good quotable lines and memorable music throughout.
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on May 28, 2017 10:34:45 GMT
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) Too Much, Too Little, Too Soon. 6/10
|
|
|
Post by lostinlimbo on May 29, 2017 12:45:13 GMT
Dead On: Relentless II (1992) 5/10 I can’t remember all that much of the original film, but I somewhat recall the hub was more so on the serial killer played by Judd Nelson, whereas the investigating detective (Leo Rossi reprising his role from the original) gets more of the spotlight in this follow-up. This sequel is rather a cold, tight, calculative action-thriller that has our detective teamed up with an FBI agent after a serial killer who moves around a lot (from D.C to Arizona) killing their victims by strangulation, followed by mutilation to use their blood for satanic symbols smeared on walls. Yet what started like a routine serial killer case begins to open up that maybe these killings are politically involved. The plot engages in parts, while interesting in its procedural build-up (thanks mainly to Rossi’s for better or worse larger-than-life presence), it’s not as tense, or even exciting due the mundane espionage angle and the director’s pointless choice to over-stylize scenes. Like I mentioned earlier, the focus lies on Leo Rossi’s character. We learn that he's still haunted by the events at the end of the first film, and this had caused a rift in his marriage that he lives elsewhere. The drama is beyond clichéd with Rossi pouting (cop first, husband and father second), but nice to see Meg Foster return.
Curious if the following two sequels are worth-a-look?
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on May 31, 2017 12:15:27 GMT
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)Too Much, Too Little, Too Soon. 6/10 Well, I decided to have another go at this film, as I kind of "fell off" halfway through the last time, and sadly seeing it for a second time, I am very tempted of downgrading my original vote from a very kind 6/10 to a mediocre 5/10, as it was a disappointing experiece. I did not see what was so fantastic about the first one either, but I enjoyed it for what it was or tried to be, which I mostly saw as a very stylished and explosive revenge action-thriller, 7,/10. If John Wick: Chapter 2 had been done during the 80s, it would probably be just another Charles Bronson or Dolph Lundgren vigilante b-movie vehicle, but somehow seeing the miserable mug of Keanu Reeves as he massacres 15-20 armed bad guys, within what? 10-12 seconds or less, now that is suddenly being labeled in 2017 by critics and fans as: "Gritty realism", "Brilliant" or "groundbreaking". First time I saw it, I just sat there with a look of "You got to be f.... kiddin me right?" whenever Keanu took down 5-10 bad guys with no problems. And my "favorite" was when John Wick was being chased down a tight/small tunnel wearing only a bulletproof west, and he had a small army of armed professional trained killers shooting the place down, and not one of them managed to aim a bit higher so they could have blown his head off clean, or maybe a bit lower, to take out his legs, but no, they did not hit anything. People seem to laugh and ridicule over-the-top 80s action films such as Commando where you have Arnie running with an entire army of bad guys behind him, shooting at everything, and hitting of course nothing, but with John Wick 2 it is somehow "groundbreaking". All I saw was just one overlong and very tiredsome "something has to happen every other second or the audience will loose interest, so lets leave out any thing that can resemble a memorable plot, bad guy, eccentric henchman or even a movie quote, and lets just keep on piling up the body bags with more of these dull and lifeless bad guys and let us keep on doing the same stuff for another 5-6 movies to come". I really wanted to like the sequel, as it did open up pretty damn good, I admit that, but after only 40-45 minutes, I was more than ready to throw in the white towel. There was just too "much" going on, and it was not very good. I do love a brutal and explosive action film but not when you are watching 2 hours where some indestructible force just kills a lot of forgettable bad guys, and yes, even now, after seeing it twice, the only "quote" I rembemer is that John Wick promises that he will "Kiiiiill eeeem aaaaaaallll" in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth sequel, which he will "Kiiiiillll" even more dull bad guys, and look even more miserable than ever. 5,5/10 I tried, even twice but I still cannot find anything about it that was so great or fantastic, just a forgettable and slightly above average movie that I got absolute nothing out of. That is it, I am done.
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on May 31, 2017 12:37:04 GMT
I watched a recording of The Rock last night. It has Sean Connery (one of his more enjoyable movies that I've seen. He's so great with his dry delivery of dialogue), Nicolas Cage (giving an entertaining performance), Ed Harris (as a really great 'villain' with understandable motives and who isn't cartoonish), Vanessa Marcil and Claire Forlani (I thank the movie for including both of these lovely ladies), and a bunch of actors I recognise from various things making up the rest of the cast. It also has a great action scenes, an awesome car chase, some good quotable lines and memorable music throughout. I love The Rock. Nicolas Cage at his absolute peak along with Bruce Willis as the 90s "ordinary" action hero, along with the older, more sarcastic and unlikely "buddy" partner played to perfection by Sean Connery. I agree, Ed Harris is fantastic as the villain, a very likeable one too, which is not that often one comes by, especially these days. Hans Zimmer and his score here is probably among the most sampled or used within TV-commercials or TV-shows, and really captures that whole mid 90s action era so very well, unlike his dull and incredible repetitive Batman scores. It is also a miracle that this fantastic action film is made by the Michael Bay, who seems to be comfortable of never being able to hit those heights again instead keep the assembly line busy by delivering another CGI explosive turd called Transformers Part 6 or 7, every other year. Also when you read the names of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, back then, you knew you where in for something special, the same with seeing Joel Silvers name in the opening credits. These guys sure ruled the action era durings its heyday of the 80s and 90s. Bad Boys was not really all that bad either, even though I cannot stomach either Will Smith or Martin Lawrance, Michael Bay still managed to put out a solid and ejoyable action film, and I do not know what happened afterwards, as not one of his films have come close of matching his two first ones.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on May 31, 2017 18:49:29 GMT
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)Too Much, Too Little, Too Soon. 6/10 Well, I decided to have another go at this film, as I kind of "fell off" halfway through the last time, and sadly seeing it for a second time, I am very tempted of downgrading my original vote from a very kind 6/10 to a mediocre 5/10, as it was a disappointing experiece. I did not see what was so fantastic about the first one either, but I enjoyed it for what it was or tried to be, which I mostly saw as a very stylished and explosive revenge action-thriller, 7,/10. If John Wick: Chapter 2 had been done during the 80s, it would probably be just another Charles Bronson or Dolph Lundgren vigilante b-movie vehicle, but somehow seeing the miserable mug of Keanu Reeves as he massacres 15-20 armed bad guys, within what? 10-12 seconds or less, now that is suddenly being labeled in 2017 by critics and fans as: "Gritty realism", "Brilliant" or "groundbreaking". First time I saw it, I just sat there with a look of "You got to be f.... kiddin me right?" whenever Keanu took down 5-10 bad guys with no problems. And my "favorite" was when John Wick was being chased down a tight/small tunnel wearing only a bulletproof west, and he had a small army of armed professional trained killers shooting the place down, and not one of them managed to aim a bit higher so they could have blown his head off clean, or maybe a bit lower, to take out his legs, but no, they did not hit anything. People seem to laugh and ridicule over-the-top 80s action films such as Commando where you have Arnie running with an entire army of bad guys behind him, shooting at everything, and hitting of course nothing, but with John Wick 2 it is somehow "groundbreaking". All I saw was just one overlong and very tiredsome "something has to happen every other second or the audience will loose interest, so lets leave out any thing that can resemble a memorable plot, bad guy, eccentric henchman or even a movie quote, and lets just keep on piling up the body bags with more of these dull and lifeless bad guys and let us keep on doing the same stuff for another 5-6 movies to come". I really wanted to like the sequel, as it did open up pretty damn good, I admit that, but after only 40-45 minutes, I was more than ready to throw in the white towel. There was just too "much" going on, and it was not very good. I do love a brutal and explosive action film but not when you are watching 2 hours where some indestructible force just kills a lot of forgettable bad guys, and yes, even now, after seeing it twice, the only "quote" I rembemer is that John Wick promises that he will "Kiiiiill eeeem aaaaaaallll" in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth sequel, which he will "Kiiiiillll" even more dull bad guys, and look even more miserable than ever. 5,5/10 I tried, even twice but I still cannot find anything about it that was so great or fantastic, just a forgettable and slightly above average movie that I got absolute nothing out of. That is it, I am done. I know you're Lonestarr_Winnebago/Admiral_Pointdexter/PVC_Marine _Corps/Scott_Sinclair/Hendry_William_French. Now you're pretending to be a guy from Norway? Lol you're one of the most delusional, annoying, pathetic, dumb fuck losers I've ever encountered online. You should have died at birth. I hope you die real soon.
|
|
|
Post by lostinlimbo on Jun 1, 2017 10:12:40 GMT
Invaders of the Lost Gold (1982) - 2/10 From the same director of Killer's Moon (1978), comes overly boring jungle exploitation adventure. During WW2 some Japanese soldier hide away a loot of gold in the Phillipines, after being attacked by cannibals. Which is probably the best thing about this clunker. Switching to modern times a wealthy businessman organises an expedition to recover that gold. Along for the journey is Stuart Whitman, Woody Strode, Harold "Odd Job" Sakata and exploitation queen Laura Gemser. Even with these names, this jungle trek is an uninteresting slog sit through with some of the worse editing I've ever seen.
|
|
|
Post by sostie on Jun 1, 2017 11:17:43 GMT
John Wick (8/10) - relentless, dumb and thoroughly enjoyable Free Fire (8/10) - will probably make my 10 best of the year.
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 1, 2017 11:41:07 GMT
Invaders of the Lost Gold (1982) - 2/10 From the same director of Killer's Moon (1978), comes overly boring jungle exploitation adventure. During WW2 some Japanese soldier hide away a loot of gold in the Phillipines, after being attacked by cannibals. Which is probably the best thing about this clunker. Switching to modern times a wealthy businessman organises an expedition to recover that gold. Along for the journey is Stuart Whitman, Woody Strode, Harold "Odd Job" Sakata and exploitation queen Laura Gemser. Even with these names, this jungle trek is an uninteresting slog sit through with some of the worse editing I've ever seen. I tried searching for a trailer, but the closest I came was a 10-11 minute clip of the opening scene, which more or less looked incredible trashy, but I guess from what you wrote and the clip I saw, it is probably a movie that won't go into my watchlist, anytime soon, even if the beautiful Laura Gemser do walk around naked for the rest of the film, which I guess she did not. I did however notice or I think I did, that one of the cannibals attacking the soldiers in the opening scene was throwing shurikens at their enemies. That is pretty cool, and the name Dick Randall, (sound like some sleazy low budget porn director from the 70s), turned out he did produce/write one of the best slasher/horror films of the early 80s that is Pieces (1982).
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 1, 2017 11:55:15 GMT
Whiteout (2009) More of a crime/thriller than action, where some murdering lunatic is doing his evil schemes on an American south pole station located in the icy cold Antarctica and where a Deputy U.S. Marshal must investigate the case. I thought Kate Beckinsale held her own pretty damn good in this one, and instead of doing the whole open-mouth "mouthbreathing" act every other scene like in the Underworld films, she actually pulls off a pretty solid job her, and we also do get a good glimpse of her beautiful body as the director seem to put in all his magical skills to do a hot and steamy close-up of her well shaped body early on, which was a nice surprise. Tom Skerritt plays also well here, with the little he has been offered, but it is impossible for me to watch a film taking place in the Antarctica and no to think off The Thing (1982), and the tension or suspense in Whiteout is not exactly groundbreaking or scary, and is more in the same tone as Sly Stallone and his ice-winter thriller D-tox (2002). All in all, a mediocre movie, but still a rating above the usual Underworld films: 5/10
|
|
|
Post by lostinlimbo on Jun 1, 2017 13:50:20 GMT
Invaders of the Lost Gold (1982) - 2/10 From the same director of Killer's Moon (1978), comes overly boring jungle exploitation adventure. During WW2 some Japanese soldier hide away a loot of gold in the Phillipines, after being attacked by cannibals. Which is probably the best thing about this clunker. Switching to modern times a wealthy businessman organises an expedition to recover that gold. Along for the journey is Stuart Whitman, Woody Strode, Harold "Odd Job" Sakata and exploitation queen Laura Gemser. Even with these names, this jungle trek is an uninteresting slog sit through with some of the worse editing I've ever seen. I tried searching for a trailer, but the closest I came was a 10-11 minute clip of the opening scene, which more or less looked incredible trashy, but I guess from what you wrote and the clip I saw, it is probably a movie that won't go into my watchlist, anytime soon, even if the beautiful Laura Gemser do walk around naked for the rest of the film, which I guess she did not. I did however notice or I think I did, that one of the cannibals attacking the soldiers in the opening scene was throwing shurikens at their enemies. That is pretty cool, and the name Dick Randall, (sound like some sleazy low budget porn director from the 70s), turned out he did produce/write one of the best slasher/horror films of the early 80s that is Pieces (1982). I notice there's a lousy 10 second trailer of the croc attack under the title "Horror Safari". I guess they don't want to lull everyone to sleep, if they show too much of it. Anyhow all the best bits wouldn't be able to make up a full trailer. The opening 10 minutes is definitely the most exciting thing about it. For some reason these natives don't even show up again in the film. Gemser does go skinny dipping in what is probably the most dumbfounding sequence of the entire film. It just doesn't make much sense what happens to her character. While Sakata and Strode do have a little scuffle... but not much else.
|
|
|
Post by lostinlimbo on Jun 1, 2017 14:01:03 GMT
Whiteout (2009)More of a crime/thriller than action, where some murdering lunatic is doing his evil schemes on an American south pole station located in the icy cold Antarctica and where a Deputy U.S. Marshal must investigate the case. I thought Kate Beckinsale held her own pretty damn good in this one, and instead of doing the whole open-mouth "mouthbreathing" act every other scene like in the Underworld films, she actually pulls off a pretty solid job her, and we also do get a good glimpse of her beautiful body as the director seem to put in all his magical skills to do a hot and steamy close-up of her well shaped body early on, which was a nice surprise. Tom Skerritt plays also well here, with the little he has been offered, but it is impossible for me to watch a film taking place in the Antarctica and no to think off The Thing (1982), and the tension or suspense in Whiteout is not exactly groundbreaking or scary, and is more in the same tone as Sly Stallone and his ice-winter thriller D-tox (2002). All in all, a mediocre movie, but still a rating above the usual Underworld films: 5/10 Pretty much feel same. Vanilla story set-up made more interesting due to its choice of location and servicable performances.
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 2, 2017 10:53:10 GMT
Horror Safari, now that is a pretty good title, but I guess back then, everybody wanted in on the jungle adventures of Indiana Jones, so for a more exotic title, Invaders of the Lost Gold must have been seen as as the most "money grabbing" choice. Yeah, I watched that 10 seconds clip of the crocodile attack, but they really should just have added a long video of Laura Gemser instead, as the italians often did when editing their "own" versions of american films, by spicing it up with lots of nudity and erotica, to keep the viewers happy, but I guess they went for a killer crocodile and some ninja star throwing cannibals instead.
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 3, 2017 9:27:58 GMT
Revolver (2005) Talk about a complete and royal mess of a movie. Guy Ritchie really "outdone" himself this time. Never understood the hype surrounding this guy. Sure, he made two good movies back in the day, and that was it. While both the Sherlock Holmes releases are enjoyable as fast-food flicks, but for me, he never have come close to bringing along the same quality and sharp mobster-comedies such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. This time he just tries too damn hard to please and come up with one "clever" line/scene after another, including the usual quirky gangster figures, which at one time, just goes out of control and you end up with a very forgettable adventure.
Neither Jason Statham or Ray Liotta can manage to save it, and Guy Ritchie has a horrible way of editing/trying to make every little scene look cool and tough, instead it just becomes annoying as hell, with all the laughable close-ups of people bad teeth/mouths, going backwards/forwards, slow-motion, more slow-motion and worse of them all, that god-awful shaky-cam which looks like the film is directed by somebody with some serious muscle spasm, whenever a shooting/action sequence take place, and, well the list goes on and on.
Still, it really is not that much of a horrible movie, but one that is more frustrating than enjoyable as somewhere in it, there once was a bit of potential, but after Guy Ritchie and Luc Besson got their way with it, it was all over. No matter how hard they try, (especially Ritchie) they will never come close of matching the quality of british mobster classics such as The Long Good Friday or Get Carter. 4/10 (and that is very, very generous of me)
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 3, 2017 10:26:35 GMT
Direct Hit (1994)The other action adventure that I saw last night, and this time it is done by none other than the "big budget" company that used to be, PM! Entertainment, and I knew then that I was in for a real "treat". William Forsythe is one of those guys that seem to end up in a lot terrible "comedies", either as some quirky/horny cop/bad guy, or just play the angry guy part, especially in some of Martin Lawrance or Rob Schneider's "classic" titles, but rarely I have seen him in a leading role, well beside Beyond Desire (1995) Direct Hit is the only other film I have seen with Forsythe as the leading man. Here, William plays an ice cold killer, trained by the best to kill the worst, and one day he decides that enough is enough, and all he wants is to do is go fishing at the lake with his old dad. But of course the "company" that has trained him, won't let him off the hook that easy. They want him to do one last job, which is to get rid of a beautiful mistress/call girl, who had a fling, several years ago with some crooked politician. John Hatch (Forsythe) takes on the mission, but not without having his say, then later we see him stalk the girl, very "discreet" of course, in broad daylight, only a few feet behind her, then only to find out later on that she is not a dumb prostitute at all, but an innocent little angel that cannot do any wrong, as she has a little kid, and goes to the holy church where she has seen the light, and now Hatchet has a serious moral problem, because if he does not fulfill the hit contract, others will. The unlikely duo then decides to go up against the bad guys, and well, a lot of action, explosions, hilarious bad b-movie scenes do follow within the next hour, and it is all Classic PM! Entertainment mid 90s movie, that looks like it was made during the late 80s. William Forsythe seems to be stuck in the Richie part from the classic Steven Seagal action film, Out for Justice (1991), as he only has one facial expression throughout 99 percent of the film, which is "what the fuck am I doing here" along with the Clint Eastwood death stare, which looks hilarious, like he really must use the toilet, and instead the director yells: "One more, scene. Just one more, I promise. You can go to the toilet and do your business afterwards". The film is low budget all the way, but there is more happening in the first 10-11 minutes than in all of Revolver (2005), and the action is not all bad, in fact some of it is really good, but I guess the filmmaker decided to spend most of the films budget on the opening act, since after that there is a lot of scenes taking place in dark alleys, and motel rooms/garage and locations than looks incredible cheap, like they just hired someones garage for a day, and decided to film a scene or ten inside it. Beside William Forsythe, you have the beautiful Jo Champa (who also alongside Forsythe starred in Out for Justice), Australian martial arts and stuntman Richard Norton and George Seagal. While far away of a winner, Direct Hit still does beat out the poor Revolver (2005), much thanks to a laughable plot and several scenes that is just too funny and I had to re-wind my tape to see that it did actually happen. Like when the director suddenly decided to throw in a "tender" love scene out of the blue, where Jo Champa finds Hatchets "secret" room where he has kept all his memories of his victims, and of course he find her snooping around downstair, and he begins to tell about all the people he have brutally murdered over the years, and before you know it, we have a sex scene in the making, which is just so over-the-top that it is pure comedy gold. Well, it is a bad movie, but enjoyable and I think compared to Revolver, it knew what is was and that most people would not expect a masterpiece, but a entertaining trashy b-action late night flick, and a kind: 4,5/10 I think it is well worth.
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 5, 2017 9:29:09 GMT
Underworld: Awakening (2012) Not even Kate can save the franchise anymore now, as the film in several places makes the first two look like good/solid efforts, and while I have not seen, nor I have any plans either on seeing the third one, Awakening is just bad and messy CGI dominated Videogame fantasy gone very wrong. Kate look stunning as usual, but it is just a lot more of the same shit, she kills people, lots of them, slow-motion, then enters terrible looking werewolfs, and other CGI creatures. Charles Dance steps in in a smaller part too, but has very little if nothing to work with. To top it off, we get some annoying little brat that takes up too much time. The only positive thing, really is that the film goes by very fast, as it is over before the 80 minute had clocked in. 3/10
|
|
|
Post by RedDeadFallout on Jun 5, 2017 11:20:23 GMT
Beverly Hills Cop. 10/10 A film from a different time, where film could be a cop movie and comedy with everything fitting together. And it's actually funny, unlike pretty much all Hollywood comedies now.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2017 16:25:20 GMT
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) 10/10. Another solid entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some good jokes and solid action scenes. I really liked the whole political themes put in there as well.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2017 16:28:58 GMT
Beverly Hills Cop. 10/10 A film from a different time, where film could be a cop movie and comedy with everything fitting together. And it's actually funny, unlike pretty much all Hollywood comedies now. Pretty much any comedy Hollywood produces nowadays try to bring in their audiences by using crass humour instead of a good storyline. What Hollywood has become is just shocking.
|
|