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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on May 13, 2017 9:10:54 GMT
Cobra (1986)
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 13, 2017 9:28:48 GMT
Universal Soldier: The Return (1999), yeah that was quite the letdown, as it ended up as one of those "could have been -should have been" films. Too much cartoonish bad guys, idiotic and forgettable jokes/one-liners and this was during a time where Jeans movie career seemed to be getting worse by the minute, as I remember the terrible film he did with that NBA guy with silly hair/nose ring, and it really was a lowdown, and I hope a return to the Universal Soldier name would help him back into shape, but I was very wrong.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 13, 2017 9:30:23 GMT
Great film, but what did you think of it or how do you rate it?
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 13, 2017 10:23:03 GMT
Taxi 3 (2003) I recently watched the first one in the series for the first time since 1998, and I thought it had not really hold up all that well, (expect Marion Cottilard), and I have not seen the second one. Anyway, fast forward to 2003 (I had not clue they managed to milk out 3 sequels of the original, but I know about the horrible american version, too well) and we are back in the streets of Marseille with a explosive intro where none other than Sly Stallone shows up for a couple of minutes, before we end up with a very mediocre plot involving a gang of robbers dressing up as Santa Clause. Well, the action sequences are damn good, no question about that but the characaters have become now more and more annoying/tiredsome and I kind of wished they had been either replaced or that the director went for some new faces. 5/10
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bondfan90
Sophomore
@bondfan90
Posts: 208
Likes: 101
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Post by bondfan90 on May 13, 2017 14:31:40 GMT
On Deadly Ground (1994)
A decent Steven Segal actioner. It has an environmental theme, so it's a bit preachy at times. The bit where Taft's colleague is tortured to death with a pipe cutter, made me cringe.
Michael Caine plays a decent villain.
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on May 13, 2017 20:31:45 GMT
Great film, but what did you think of it or how do you rate it? I originally first saw it in '05 and gave it a 6/10. I liked it far more this time around. I give a 8/10 now.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 14, 2017 12:21:26 GMT
On Deadly Ground (1994)A decent Steven Segal actioner. It has an environmental theme, so it's a bit preachy at times. The bit where Taft's colleague is tortured to death with a pipe cutter, made me cringe. Michael Caine plays a decent villain. I will have to see this one soon, as it has been some time now, I remember Caine as the villain and the whole hilarious preach scene where Seagal, after killing off several people, decides to save the planet or something like that, and it seems like both his fans and critics labels it as the one that more or less "killed" his short period as a big time action star. But I enjoyed Fire Down Below (1997), which had a similar natural enviroment message, then he went real deep down with the terrible The Patriot (1998).
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bondfan90
Sophomore
@bondfan90
Posts: 208
Likes: 101
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Post by bondfan90 on May 14, 2017 14:02:36 GMT
On Deadly Ground (1994)A decent Steven Segal actioner. It has an environmental theme, so it's a bit preachy at times. The bit where Taft's colleague is tortured to death with a pipe cutter, made me cringe. Michael Caine plays a decent villain. I will have to see this one soon, as it has been some time now, I remember Caine as the villain and the whole hilarious preach scene where Seagal, after killing off several people, decides to save the planet or something like that, and it seems like both his fans and critics labels it as the one that more or less "killed" his short period as a big time action star. But I enjoyed Fire Down Below (1997), which had a similar natural enviroment message, then he went real deep down with the terrible The Patriot (1998). He directed it himself as well. I enjoy watching the Under Siege sequel. It seems like a buddy action comedy sometimes, with Ryback's sidekick cracking off one liners. I prefer Jordan Tate in the first film. She's terrifired at the prospect of shooting someone. But she overcomes this when she kills the Irish terrorist. She had a vulnerablility about her, whereas Morris Chestnut's character, was cocky. I guess people have different ways of coping in a crisis.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 14, 2017 14:44:36 GMT
Yeah, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory lacks not only Erika Eleniak, but also here Rycback comes off as not as likeable as in the first film, instead he and his new "partner" are a bit too full of themselves and never feel like they are in any kind of danger, and it hurts the film. But it was fun seeing Everett McGill as the bad guy, and of course as most late 80s (Die Hard) and several 90s action films, you just knew they had to throw in a high-tech geek, as the villains sidekick.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 15, 2017 12:12:08 GMT
Chaos (2005) By the look of the DVD cover, I thought it was gonna be another Wesley Snipes DTV title, but turned out to be a good (or probably more fitting) entertaining film that was more of a Jason Statham movie, than Snipes. It was a bit of buddy cop/mystery crime thriller, where Snipes plays the villain who holds a grudge against the Stahams character, and Ryan Phillipe is the young rookie who teams up with Statham, and along the way we get some nice decent action sequences, fights and shoot-outs, and also some hilarious stupid/cheesy lines, plus a bit of surprises. I went in thinking it was going to be somewhere between 4/10-5/10, instead it was a nice little surprise of a action movie, and I think it deserves a good: 6/10
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Post by lostinlimbo on May 16, 2017 7:47:18 GMT
The Glove (1979) ~ 6/10 Offbeat drive-in exploitation that doesn't give enough time to its main seller; the riot glove, which bail jumper Rosey Grier uses on prison guards. Instead we spend more time on a likeable John Saxon, as we get the days in a life of a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter. The narrative is episodic, yet there's a decent mixture of thrills, laughs and sensitivity. Great opening title song too.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 16, 2017 14:30:37 GMT
Mindhunters (2004) Maybe not action/adventure kind of film, more a psychological/suspense thriller, and at times it did remind me a bit of The Thing (1982) and D-Tox (2002), where you have a bunch of people thrown into the "meatgrinder" an of course one of them is a complete psychotic maniac who enjoys killing a little too much. Val Kilmer and Christian Slater is both being portrayed as the big stars, but they are taken out after a while. Directed by Renny Harlin, I quite enjoyed the first 60 minutes, then it become maybe a bit too clicheed at times, with over-dramatic scenes where everybody are accusing one and other of being the bad guy/villain. 6/10
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 17, 2017 9:22:17 GMT
Derailed (2002) Just as with Steven Seagal and his "masterpiece" Mercenery for Justice, I looked at the cover and thought it looked mighty familiar, but decided to give it a go, and yeah, it was bad and I had actually thrown away 85 minutes on it, several years before, the same rating too. This would have probably been just another hit for Van Damme 8-10 years back, but now he is in DTV hell, with terrible action, plot and special effects so bad its not even funny. The only thing that made me keep my eyes open and not fall to sleep was seeing the lovely Laura Harring as the elegant/sexy cat burglar, Galina. Van Damme does his usual stuff, even throws a little part towards his kid, Kristopher. The plot is total nonsense, and the acting is so wooden and lame it ends up in some small parts becoming a bit funny, still I think I am very kind handing it my rating which is a: 4/10
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bondfan90
Sophomore
@bondfan90
Posts: 208
Likes: 101
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Post by bondfan90 on May 17, 2017 18:25:32 GMT
The Living Daylights (1987)
Roger Moore has hung up his holster, so it's time for a new Bond, in the form of Timothy Dalton. I like TLD, because it's a great cold war plot, with several 00 agents being murdered and the blame is bein put on the new head of the KGB, Puskin and Bond is sent to kill him.
Jeroen Krabbe is great as the double-crossing Georgi Koskov, Maryam D'abo is great as the naiive Kara Milovy, the film's Bond girl. Andreas Wisniewski is terriffic as Necros (even if he is a Red Grant clone.). Joe Don Baker, plays a good villain. He's great as Brad Whittaker. A solier expelled from the army and spends his days re-enacting battles in his war room.
Great score from John Barry! Sad that this was his final Bond film. Not a fan of the theme song from A-Ha.
9/10
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 18, 2017 11:23:51 GMT
A beautiful review, bondfan90 of one of the best Bond films of the series. Dalton did a solid job as a new kind of Bond at least after it had become almost a parody with I think Roger (My favorite bond, but still seeing him closing in on 55-56 years of age, playing against actresses not even hit 20 years old) and it is sad that Timothy did not get to take part in more films, even if Pierce handled the role with style and badassness with Goldeneye. I really need to take a complete re-watch with the whole Bond series, as it has been almost a years since I saw the last one/newest with Daniel Craig, and that one I kind of want to forget about, it really was a big letdown after Skyfall. I see a new complete DVD-Blu-ray set is about to be released, and once again the artwork could not be more dull and lifeless, at least the one that celebrated the film series 50th Anniversary back in 2012, did it with some style, where you had all the Bond actors on the cover, and it looked really good, now it is just a white artwork which must have taken 5 seconds to come up with. Yeah, I know its what inside that counts, but still, if I was to pay some extra bucks for the whole thing (even thought I already own the complete DVD set from 2008), I would want to have one that did look good standing in my movie collection, and not one that looks terrible. "Maryam D'abo is great as the naiive Kara Milovy, the film's Bond girl." One of my favorite Bond girls/babes. I do not know how she went from starring in big movie like this, to suddenly scrapping bottom of the barrel kind of b-movies, but she did play a little part in one of the martial arts b-movies called Shootfighter, only a couple of years later. But, then again, I cannot complain, if not for her, I would probably never have bought the damn film, and it really was not all that horrible either, with Bolo Yeung kicking ass, as the good guy, for an instance. Agree on the theme song that was performed by a-ha, sure they might have done some fantastic pop songs, but boy did they deliver some bad songs too, and this one felt very rushed, like it was done within a couple of hours, and they could not find a better more worthy act.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 18, 2017 12:37:32 GMT
Code of Honor (2016) Steven Seagal is back, once again with sunglasses, caps/hat, scarf and a shady looking porn beard. We also have Craig Sheffer and James Russo playing against him. Well, the most kind thing I can say about it, is that it felt/looked like the film was of a bigger budget than his usual DTV made in Romania garbage, and even though Seagal is once again credited as the big "star", he usually only shows up in random scenes, killing a lot of people, then only to suddenly disappear without a trace. Which is kind of hard to believe, as a lot of the scenes are in broad daylight, and he is not a small guy, but still Steven manages to fool everybody by the use his "magic" act, that is done to perfection. The film does try to be a bit more "unusual" storywise, than the ordinary Seagal titles, as it comes with a confusing plot, where I am not really sure what went on in the last few 10-15 minutes, as what looked like a nice/surprising touch, ended up becoming more of a "WTF" was that? With an ending where I guess people might decide for themselves what really happened, anyway, that is probably a bit to heavy for a film of this kind, as it really is nothing to be all that excited about. James Russo feels completely wasted here, and most of the times sits in a dark room looking angry, then you have Seagal who opens the film by killing off 15-20 bad guys within a few minutes, from a high building during night time. Of course nobody is able to see him, instead everybody just fires their weapons like madmen, while he takes them out, one by one, by not even moving one centimeter, to try avoid the bullets. Seagal then only appears here and there, and we get to learn a new and hilarious word: "The Super vigilante", that was hilarious the first time, but then it becomes very annoying, as it must have been used at least 20-30 times more in the film. The action scenes are not bad, but I do hate the cheap/dull CGI blood, which looks like it is taken from a 15 year old computer game. Anyway, I almost ended up giving it a very kind 5/10, but the last 10-15 minutes really messed it up, and I did not think it was a bad movie, but it went on a bit too long, as the film has a runtime of almost one hour and fifty minutes, and could easily have lost 15-20 of them, wihtout damaging the "plot". All in all, Seagal is back in America making his films, and by the look of it, the budget is bigger than usual, but in the future I do hope they use it on better screen writers/director than on cheap CGI effects and dull action scenes. 4/10
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Post by sostie on May 19, 2017 8:41:39 GMT
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Post by stefancrosscoe on May 23, 2017 14:27:42 GMT
Elektra (2005) I did not "hate" Dare Devil (2003) as much as I thought I would, (by re-watching it through the directors cut for the first time in over decade), but leave out the stunning Jennifer Garner and it would be a waste of time. In Elektra she is back, taking out bad guys with no or little problems, and like the Resident Evil/Underworld films, it is all about making the female lead look as fine or good as possible, in every scene, all the time. Of course, that is not very hard, but it does hurt what little of a plot/story we are left with, along with the usual slow-motion action scenes, as there is not much left over to have a good story in there, but the film does fly away very fast, and I think that a kind 5/10 is fitting to this kind of comic book/fantasy-action movie.
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Post by rateater on May 24, 2017 20:40:11 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.
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