The last action film you watched
Dec 16, 2021 14:36:05 GMT
theravenking, lostinlimbo, and 1 more like this
Post by stefancrosscoe on Dec 16, 2021 14:36:05 GMT
Have not been able of writing or visiting the place as often I would like. Things are just too busy and hectic, with little time in between, and well, I still have found place to watch a few films, here and there, but hopefully will save up room for far more within the next few weeks.
Anyway, here are a few I had planned on waiting until a bit later on, to watch, but decided that since I still have not recieved all of my ordered DVDs and Blu-rays, I could dig in, and start up with a few:
The Guyver (1991) by Screaming Mad George
A young man somehow ends up "stumbling" upon a very powerful and alien instrument, which will cause quite a huge change of lifestyle for the new owner, yet also make him the main target for a ruthless corporation known as the Chronos Corporation.
One of those, I have somewhat longed to see for years, but I finally picked up a very fine Blu-ray/DVD combo release by Arrow Video, and while they sure did a great job, one still early in, got the feeling that this must be a cut or edited version, as it sure looked like in several scenes, that gore and violence were either cut out or suffered from a rushed and lasy job, to make things look more "childish".
Sadly, the movie itself, never quite reaches the potential, or maybe just what I was hoping for, as it becomes a bit too much Power Rangers "light" over the style and costumes (not counting in the awesome looking Guyver suit that is).
With names lake Screaming Made George, I so much wanted more of the nasty and gory body-horry style, and while the last 20-25 minutes sure picked things up, much thanks to contributions from David Gale and Jeffrey Combs (here as Dr. East, which made be smile a little, and an obvious nod to his iconic Dr. Herbert West character).
Of course, you also have Mark Hamill, who I remembered from a few years ago, was somewhat tried to be sold as the leading man, on some DVD artwork, but he does not have all that much to do here, and kind of sad, because the main lead, is such a bore.
I have absolute no idea of the whole Manga stuff, that this film was based upon, but it is not hard to see which kind of audience and entertainment the filmmakers seemed to go after, and I think the obvious one, was the more light hearted and goofy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze (1991), still there is also a bit of RoboCop (1987), at least the badass suit and the whole yuppie-corporation games, but of course nowhere near that kind of quality.
Anyway, as mentioned. I do not think the film was a complete letdown. The Guyver suit, David Gale and the last 20-25 minutes, was well worth the wait, but I just hoped it would be a slightly better made film, and well, maybe I one day might caught up with the uncut version, and see where it leads me.
5/10
Last Embrace (1979) by Jonathan Demme
A burnt out top secret agent (Roy Scheider), seeks to get his life back on track, after witnessing the traumatic murder on his wife. However, that is not gonna be as easy, since he constantly has the feeling that someone is looking to get rid of him.
I had some solid hopes for this one. Comes with quite a colorful cast, Jonathan Demme as the director, and an striking movie poster as well.
Sadly, it early on, turned into a bit of a hit and miss suspense-thriller, with a off-beat use of comedy and action, and of course you meet up with guys like Christopher Walker, Charles Napier, John Glover and even a short glimpse of Joe Spinell, but for me, the one who holds it all together, is the solid performance by Roy Scheider.
Also, the latter and Glover, would work together again, much later, but in the far superior crime-noir thriller 52-Pick Up (1986)
6/10
Year of the Gun (1991) by John Frankenheimer
Another impulse buy, mostly because of the interesting cast and talents invlved, and turned out to be a pretty good film, at times, even though my recently purchased DVD copy, had a rather disappointing sound and picture quality going.
Anyway, Andrew McCarthy, Sharon Stone and Jonh Pankow turns in some solid acting here, and where we follow a naive american writer (McCarthy), who suddenly gets way too deply involved in a constant and brutal power struggle in the streets of Rome, and where he ends up finding a similar minded photo journalist (Stone).
Not a keeper, but it did contain some very good and surprisingly scenes and twists underway, and I end up with a very kind:
6/10
Pray for Death (1985) by Gordon Hessler
In a hope of putting the painful past behind and move ahead to new and hopeful challenges. A japanese family decides to move over to America, and try their luck within the restaurant business. However, the real challenge begin with the obivous cultural differences, and the rate of crime that dominates their new home.
The latter part, will eventually turn for the tragic, and which will cause the attackers are great deal of pain and suffering, when revenge is dishes out the old ways.
Surely one of the better made ninja adventures of Sho Kosgugi from the mid 80s, and while I still hold onto that Revenge of the Ninja (1983) is still the best of the ninja vehicles, I am glad that I picked up this 101 Films Blu-ray release.
Pray for Death has many things going, and specially some of the action and fighting scenes are top notch, where as some other, well, feels more at home in some 3 Ninjas rip-off made for kids, not adults. And I wished they had been just left behind, permanently, as they add neither action or laughter, just annoying the hell out of me.
The feel and tone, is very much in style with the more typical Cannon releases starring Charles Bronson of the same era, and of course, it is quite ridiculous that this seemingly unbeatable killing machine, somehow struggle so bad to take out one old grumpy guy, but of course, it turned out that the actor I believe wrote and put heavy money into the film and script, so maybe not a big shock that he also added himself more "favorable" in how he got to have a bit of extra fun doing the villain part.
I still have another Kosugi film on wait, Rage of Honor which also look to be a pleasant or enjoyable cheesy ninja/martial arts ride of the late 80s. Not expecting it to be much of a match for the already mentioned Revenge of the Ninja, but I sure hope it will be fun.
6,5/10
I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) by Keenen Ivory Wayans
"How does he go to the bathroom with all this shit on?"
Former "war hero" Jake Spade (Keenen Ivory Wayans) returns to his old playgrounds, only to find out that the ruthless Mr. Big (John Vernon) is in complete control of everything and everyone. And that is not how it should be. As a result, Spade seeks out a gang of former heroic misfits in hope to finally end the terror of Mr. Big and his nasty business, once and for all.
Now this was my kind of parody/comedy and tribute to the many blaxploitation cult-titles of the 70s, and where many of the films stars, would appear as well.
Surely one of the better impulsive picks ups, that I have been doing lately, and one which might jump a bit higher on the rating scale, with further views.
7/10
Sting of the Black Scorpion (2002) by Stanley Yung and Gwyneth Gibby
More like 3 episodes, mixed all together into milking the sucess of the first film. Sure, you get guys like Martin Kove and Frank Gorshin, you awesome and striking movie and tv- villains, but sadly without Joan Severence it feels just a bit, well, something is missing.
Of course, the budget and the whole look, is very cheap in comparison to the first film, but it picks up when it gets to Gorshin and where also the swedish model-babe Victoria Silvstedt arrives as well.
All in all, not terrible, just not all that fun or campy (sexy) as the first one. However, it was not much worse than the sequel.
4,5/10
Company Business (1991) by Nicholas Meyer
Typical late cold war era spy thriller, with a bit of buddy-cop routine on top, and where I think Gene Hackman was almost burnt out, from overdoing far too many performances in a very short time, and well, as a professional, he still carries most of the scenes, but sadly the plot is not all that exciting.
There is some nice and fun moment between him and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and I have seen it, years ago, from when my dad got a VHS player, and along the way, he got 4-5 movies included for free.
Not seen the film since fall of 2003, but for a similar themed and far better Gene Hackman release, I would have gone for The Package (1989).
Of course, it did not exactly hel on my mood much either, that the recent purchased DVD decided to shut down, after 50 minutes. And it turned out, due to nearer inspection, that the DVD disc had been badly damaged under travel, and had to watch the rest of the film online.
But yeah, not the end of the world, as this was not something worth to complain about, just a very mediore and forgettable filmf.
5/10
Guyver: Dark Hero (1994) by Steve Wang
A year after the indicent in Los Angelse, and where the young Sean Barkers life, turned the moment he found the Gyver suit, and was a heavily part of the collapse of the once mighty corporation known as the Chronos.
But a happy ending, is not exactly what happened, as Barker still has trouble with frequent nightmares and the fact that his suit, seems to have gotten quite an appetite for murder.
As an result, Barker tries to seek out to a archeological site, where some familiar looking cave painting has been discovered, and which might hold a key to the secret of the Guyver suit.
I really wanted to like these films, so much more. But yeah, over 2 hours was pretty hard to keep awake, and be too interested in all the hammy acting and boring stuff, that goes on, between quite some impressive and very bad ass fight scenes.
If only the film had ditched around 30-40 minutes, and focused more the fighting scenes and impressive looking monsters, this film could actually had way more potential going.
But also, on the positive side, the main lead of David Hayter, is surely a big upgrade to the former lead in The Guyver (1991), and I kind of got a bit of laugh, when I constantly thought he looked very much alike Eric Freeman (the ridiculous cult-actor from Silent Night, Deadly Night 2), and I am specially thinking of the scenes where he looks quite grumpy:
All in all, the second part is surely the "better" film, or better made one, however the runtime is just way too long for this kind of entertainment, and I was just not expeting it to go on for that long, as I had one version running for about 1 hour and 36 minutes (must have been heavily cut) and the 2 hour version.
5,5/10
Anyway, here are a few I had planned on waiting until a bit later on, to watch, but decided that since I still have not recieved all of my ordered DVDs and Blu-rays, I could dig in, and start up with a few:
The Guyver (1991) by Screaming Mad George
A young man somehow ends up "stumbling" upon a very powerful and alien instrument, which will cause quite a huge change of lifestyle for the new owner, yet also make him the main target for a ruthless corporation known as the Chronos Corporation.
One of those, I have somewhat longed to see for years, but I finally picked up a very fine Blu-ray/DVD combo release by Arrow Video, and while they sure did a great job, one still early in, got the feeling that this must be a cut or edited version, as it sure looked like in several scenes, that gore and violence were either cut out or suffered from a rushed and lasy job, to make things look more "childish".
Sadly, the movie itself, never quite reaches the potential, or maybe just what I was hoping for, as it becomes a bit too much Power Rangers "light" over the style and costumes (not counting in the awesome looking Guyver suit that is).
With names lake Screaming Made George, I so much wanted more of the nasty and gory body-horry style, and while the last 20-25 minutes sure picked things up, much thanks to contributions from David Gale and Jeffrey Combs (here as Dr. East, which made be smile a little, and an obvious nod to his iconic Dr. Herbert West character).
Of course, you also have Mark Hamill, who I remembered from a few years ago, was somewhat tried to be sold as the leading man, on some DVD artwork, but he does not have all that much to do here, and kind of sad, because the main lead, is such a bore.
I have absolute no idea of the whole Manga stuff, that this film was based upon, but it is not hard to see which kind of audience and entertainment the filmmakers seemed to go after, and I think the obvious one, was the more light hearted and goofy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze (1991), still there is also a bit of RoboCop (1987), at least the badass suit and the whole yuppie-corporation games, but of course nowhere near that kind of quality.
Anyway, as mentioned. I do not think the film was a complete letdown. The Guyver suit, David Gale and the last 20-25 minutes, was well worth the wait, but I just hoped it would be a slightly better made film, and well, maybe I one day might caught up with the uncut version, and see where it leads me.
5/10
Last Embrace (1979) by Jonathan Demme
A burnt out top secret agent (Roy Scheider), seeks to get his life back on track, after witnessing the traumatic murder on his wife. However, that is not gonna be as easy, since he constantly has the feeling that someone is looking to get rid of him.
I had some solid hopes for this one. Comes with quite a colorful cast, Jonathan Demme as the director, and an striking movie poster as well.
Sadly, it early on, turned into a bit of a hit and miss suspense-thriller, with a off-beat use of comedy and action, and of course you meet up with guys like Christopher Walker, Charles Napier, John Glover and even a short glimpse of Joe Spinell, but for me, the one who holds it all together, is the solid performance by Roy Scheider.
Also, the latter and Glover, would work together again, much later, but in the far superior crime-noir thriller 52-Pick Up (1986)
6/10
Year of the Gun (1991) by John Frankenheimer
Another impulse buy, mostly because of the interesting cast and talents invlved, and turned out to be a pretty good film, at times, even though my recently purchased DVD copy, had a rather disappointing sound and picture quality going.
Anyway, Andrew McCarthy, Sharon Stone and Jonh Pankow turns in some solid acting here, and where we follow a naive american writer (McCarthy), who suddenly gets way too deply involved in a constant and brutal power struggle in the streets of Rome, and where he ends up finding a similar minded photo journalist (Stone).
Not a keeper, but it did contain some very good and surprisingly scenes and twists underway, and I end up with a very kind:
6/10
Pray for Death (1985) by Gordon Hessler
In a hope of putting the painful past behind and move ahead to new and hopeful challenges. A japanese family decides to move over to America, and try their luck within the restaurant business. However, the real challenge begin with the obivous cultural differences, and the rate of crime that dominates their new home.
The latter part, will eventually turn for the tragic, and which will cause the attackers are great deal of pain and suffering, when revenge is dishes out the old ways.
Surely one of the better made ninja adventures of Sho Kosgugi from the mid 80s, and while I still hold onto that Revenge of the Ninja (1983) is still the best of the ninja vehicles, I am glad that I picked up this 101 Films Blu-ray release.
Pray for Death has many things going, and specially some of the action and fighting scenes are top notch, where as some other, well, feels more at home in some 3 Ninjas rip-off made for kids, not adults. And I wished they had been just left behind, permanently, as they add neither action or laughter, just annoying the hell out of me.
The feel and tone, is very much in style with the more typical Cannon releases starring Charles Bronson of the same era, and of course, it is quite ridiculous that this seemingly unbeatable killing machine, somehow struggle so bad to take out one old grumpy guy, but of course, it turned out that the actor I believe wrote and put heavy money into the film and script, so maybe not a big shock that he also added himself more "favorable" in how he got to have a bit of extra fun doing the villain part.
I still have another Kosugi film on wait, Rage of Honor which also look to be a pleasant or enjoyable cheesy ninja/martial arts ride of the late 80s. Not expecting it to be much of a match for the already mentioned Revenge of the Ninja, but I sure hope it will be fun.
6,5/10
I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) by Keenen Ivory Wayans
"How does he go to the bathroom with all this shit on?"
Former "war hero" Jake Spade (Keenen Ivory Wayans) returns to his old playgrounds, only to find out that the ruthless Mr. Big (John Vernon) is in complete control of everything and everyone. And that is not how it should be. As a result, Spade seeks out a gang of former heroic misfits in hope to finally end the terror of Mr. Big and his nasty business, once and for all.
Now this was my kind of parody/comedy and tribute to the many blaxploitation cult-titles of the 70s, and where many of the films stars, would appear as well.
Surely one of the better impulsive picks ups, that I have been doing lately, and one which might jump a bit higher on the rating scale, with further views.
7/10
Sting of the Black Scorpion (2002) by Stanley Yung and Gwyneth Gibby
More like 3 episodes, mixed all together into milking the sucess of the first film. Sure, you get guys like Martin Kove and Frank Gorshin, you awesome and striking movie and tv- villains, but sadly without Joan Severence it feels just a bit, well, something is missing.
Of course, the budget and the whole look, is very cheap in comparison to the first film, but it picks up when it gets to Gorshin and where also the swedish model-babe Victoria Silvstedt arrives as well.
All in all, not terrible, just not all that fun or campy (sexy) as the first one. However, it was not much worse than the sequel.
4,5/10
Company Business (1991) by Nicholas Meyer
Typical late cold war era spy thriller, with a bit of buddy-cop routine on top, and where I think Gene Hackman was almost burnt out, from overdoing far too many performances in a very short time, and well, as a professional, he still carries most of the scenes, but sadly the plot is not all that exciting.
There is some nice and fun moment between him and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and I have seen it, years ago, from when my dad got a VHS player, and along the way, he got 4-5 movies included for free.
Not seen the film since fall of 2003, but for a similar themed and far better Gene Hackman release, I would have gone for The Package (1989).
Of course, it did not exactly hel on my mood much either, that the recent purchased DVD decided to shut down, after 50 minutes. And it turned out, due to nearer inspection, that the DVD disc had been badly damaged under travel, and had to watch the rest of the film online.
But yeah, not the end of the world, as this was not something worth to complain about, just a very mediore and forgettable filmf.
5/10
Guyver: Dark Hero (1994) by Steve Wang
A year after the indicent in Los Angelse, and where the young Sean Barkers life, turned the moment he found the Gyver suit, and was a heavily part of the collapse of the once mighty corporation known as the Chronos.
But a happy ending, is not exactly what happened, as Barker still has trouble with frequent nightmares and the fact that his suit, seems to have gotten quite an appetite for murder.
As an result, Barker tries to seek out to a archeological site, where some familiar looking cave painting has been discovered, and which might hold a key to the secret of the Guyver suit.
I really wanted to like these films, so much more. But yeah, over 2 hours was pretty hard to keep awake, and be too interested in all the hammy acting and boring stuff, that goes on, between quite some impressive and very bad ass fight scenes.
If only the film had ditched around 30-40 minutes, and focused more the fighting scenes and impressive looking monsters, this film could actually had way more potential going.
But also, on the positive side, the main lead of David Hayter, is surely a big upgrade to the former lead in The Guyver (1991), and I kind of got a bit of laugh, when I constantly thought he looked very much alike Eric Freeman (the ridiculous cult-actor from Silent Night, Deadly Night 2), and I am specially thinking of the scenes where he looks quite grumpy:
All in all, the second part is surely the "better" film, or better made one, however the runtime is just way too long for this kind of entertainment, and I was just not expeting it to go on for that long, as I had one version running for about 1 hour and 36 minutes (must have been heavily cut) and the 2 hour version.
5,5/10