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Post by lostinlimbo on Jan 23, 2022 10:02:18 GMT
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jan 23, 2022 13:17:17 GMT
I think ‘the octagon’ was the one I liked the least from those films. Although Chuck’s hilarious whispering echo bubble thoughts (“OMG… ninjaaaa”) alone makes it worth a look. I take it your talking about the 90s straight to video horror documentary. I didn’t mind it, as there were a few amusing stories, but I was hoping for more lesser known titles to pop up. Well, honestly it would’ve been odd for Kaufman not to appear since Troma was big in the straight to video circuit. Although I agree in recent times he does seem to pop up a lot in docos. He was in the documentary (for a minute or so) I watched last night about people talking about their psychical movie collections. ‘In the Search of the last action heroes‘ was a good documentary, if a little thin in pockets. I would’ve preferred if they had broken it up in chapters, and went a little deeper. Maybe a series of documentaries focusing on the influencers, blockbusters, b-movies and the stars etc. I was really impressed with Scott Adkins, and his thoughts especially on how the action star has changed for this generation. Yeah, Direct to Video I think it might be called (got it somehow mixed up with the much weaker VHS Nasty, which was also recommended to me, when watching it on Tubi). Well, I did enjoy Direct to Video far more, even if, as you brought up, I wished for maybe a bit more of the lesser known releases as well. When it came to In the Search for Action Heroes, yeah. It could have used a few of the bigger names involved, instead of just having a bunch of "lesser knowns", talking about them, but still, I quite enjoyed it, and speaking of Scott Adkins, I think I might have posted it before (maybe on the former Action and Adventure section). But he seems to be enjoying making a lot of interviews with both former action stars, and more recent ones. I think they went under the name of: The Art of Action, and while I have not seen that many, specially lately, I somehow end up getting his videos recommended from tim to time, and he seems to really enjoy making these interviews. Both honoring the past, but also looking forward to what might come up next. Well, it seems like he has made up to 36 episodes, for now. And damn, I think I might spend a few hours going through them when I have the chance, as it looks like a nice and constant up to date project, that just keeps on coming with more and more: The Art of Action EpisodesWould really love to see another sequel, or maybe prequel, focusing on the kind of films, names and stars, which really put their influence on what to come, during the heyday of the action era of the 80s and 90s. I kind of want to re-watch a few of the 80s ninja features, and while stuff like The Octagon and Enter the Ninja has not been visited for a long while, I still have so many unseen 80s ninja adventures, still lined up. I think the Swedish made The Ninja Challenge along with the shortlived tv-show The Ninja Master, starring Lee Van Cleef and Sho Kosugi, is one I got from my uncle, on Scandinavian VHS tapes, and where they pretty much had cut up the show, into 3-4 full length films, probably in order to catch up with the Karate Kid success of that time and period.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jan 23, 2022 13:29:59 GMT
Shocking Dark aka Terminator 2 (1989) by Bruno Mattei Oh man, how did I end up with this one? And I thought Alienator was an awful movie, then this absolute piece of total garbage, took it to another "level" of movie making. Sure, I guess I had it somewhere in my mind, due to the striking movie poster (bearing heavy resemble to Stone Cold, featuring Brian Bosworth) and of course, the title. But this was surely a total rip-off, of the classic sci-fi/action 80s masterpiece, that was James Cameron and his Aliens (1986). I gotta be honest, this italian film, did start up, rather "promisingly", at least on the cheese and campy kind of entertainment. But after a while, it began to be very, very painfully slow and annoying as hell. The constant shouting: "SAAAARAAA!", "SAMANATHAAAAA!" and "AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!", that just kept on coming, all the damn time, it made my ears "bleed", and then having all these cheap looking sets, probably shot down in some random tunnels under a factory or building, with tubes, pipes and lots of dark alleys, with steam coming out from everywhere, sure, to try disguise how terrible this film really was. The story and characters are just not either funny (in a so bad its good kind of way) or entertaining, just horrible stuff. I could probably bear it, a bit more, if I was drunk or in the company of like minded b-movie lovers, cracking jokes and yeah, but I was not. Ended up falling asleep (here and there), and when I woke up, I almost prayed that it would be finished, and yeah, I were not that lucky, as it was still 15-20 minutes of more screaming, shouting and crapetity-crap left more me to "enjoy", and yeah, it might not be the worst kind of movie ever made, contendor, but it is easily the worst film I have seen this year, and hopefully, it might be some time, until I visit something as bad as this piece of absolute shit. The kind of films, that really ruins your movie appetite, for the rest of thenight. As I had a few more in the wait up next, but barely managed to get through another film afterwards, and just collapsed in my bed, and had to watch the rest of some random erotic thriller (starring Kim Basinger and Richard Gere), in the early morning today. 2/10Anyway, I guess 2/10 might feel almost too "generous", but you know, some of the stuff were not all god awful, as with many of these Italian b-movie rip-offs, of far more popular Hollywood films, the music and atmosphere, were at times rather soothing, and even beautiful, but sadly the plot and characters were just so far away of that kind of quality, and the score really deserved to be in a much better, or less horrible production.
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mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Jan 24, 2022 22:11:30 GMT
The Street FighterWild, hyperviolent grindhouse chopsocky action, and a hell of a good time all around. Sonny Chiba's Terry Tsurugi is one mean motherf*cker. If you can't pay him what you owe, he'll sell you into prostitution or throw your ass out a window. If you piss him off, he'll knock your teeth out or crush your skull with a single blow. He's basically a live action Mortal Kombat character, and Chiba more than possesses the gravitas and charisma (not to mention the whacked-out, terrifying facial expressions) to pull that off.
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mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Jan 25, 2022 21:34:08 GMT
Return of the Street FighterIn some ways, this is even better than the original. Sure, it's padded out with stock footage in a couple spots, but all the new footage is simply fantastic. It's just as deranged and cartoonishly violent as the first one, but with a bigger story and even wilder, faster fight choreography. An incredibly worthy sequel.
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mgmarshall
Junior Member
@mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Jan 27, 2022 4:37:26 GMT
The Street Fighter's Last RevengeYeah, this one is kinda dumb. They really soften Tsurugi (or "Sugury" as it's now pronounced in the inexplicably terrible English dub of this one) this time around. They practically turn him into a James Bond knockoff, with gadgets, secret rooms built into his apartment, and ridiculous Mission Impossible-style face masks. Hell, they even find an excuse to put him in a tuxedo, which just feels wrong on the character. Still, when it gets good it gets pretty good. The frenetic choreography is still there, even if the gore isn't, and there's some fun, wacko touches- like the mariachi-themed, laser- powered villain Mr. Black. Plus, it is nice to know that no matter how much softer "Sugury" is, he'll still burn a guy alive in a crematorium.
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Post by politicidal on Jan 27, 2022 17:59:05 GMT
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Post by politicidal on Jan 28, 2022 15:51:22 GMT
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jan 31, 2022 13:44:56 GMT
Runaway Train (1985) by Andrei Konchalovsky "Boy, I guess you guys picked the wrong train!" Two inmates, hellbent upon getting as far away as possible, from their former "home", that is a huge maximum security prison, located far out in the ice cold and empty wilderness of Alaska. And while they succeed in escaping, still the toughest part is yet to come. As their supposedly "easy" going route for freedom, is on board a train, which soon turns into a one route ticket to hell, when the locomotive driver, suddenly drops dead from a heart failure.Well, I had a really successfull and enjoyable re-watch (my third one, since summer of 2019), but this time I decided to see my recently picked up Arrow Video Blu-ray, that came with a superior picture and sound quality, compared to my much older DVD copy (that must be at least 20 years old). Anyway, this incredible intense, fast paced, and thrilling adventure-action film, sure is packed with some great actors, settings and where I sure loved the chemistry between the two main leads, and where Jon Voight puts in one of his best performances, (at least of those I have seen of him) as the hateful and vengeful veteran prisoner Manny, who ends up having a much younger and a bit more naive partner, in the cheerful but loyal Buck (Eric Roberts). In other parts, we meet up with some familiar first timers on screen, with both Danny Trejo and Tiny Lister, in maybe not the biggest parts, but still quite memorable ones, at least very early in. Of course, in the more heavy ones, it is impossible to leave out the great J.P. Ryan, who is the real baddie here, a true evil and sadistic villain, who runs his prison with a tight grip, and have most likely no thoughts of bringing his escaped two prisoners back alive, and much less see them get away from him, as it would ruin his "perfect" reputation, as the main man, back at work. Also, I sure enjoyed seeing a less pretty version of Rebecca De Mornay, who arrives midway through, but does not hold back, and soon becomes just as tough and eeger to survive the ride, as the men. Some of the best scenes, and acting, I think comes after Manny has kind of raged himself out a bit, and calmed down, such as his incredible speech, where he tries to give out a bit of life lesson to his much younger "dreamer", Buck, or the intense fighting scene, much later on, where Rebecca claims Manny to be an "ANIMAL!", to which Manny replies: "Worse! HUMAN!" and not long after that, the same Rebecca screams out that Buck should kill Manny, and yeah, it sure gets lively but again, I loved how it always keep the viewers unprepared for what might arrive up next. It is a damn shame, that the film did not become a bigger hit back then, even if it seemed to gain some heavy points among the critics, I guess the name of Cannon Films, did in some ways, got hard to shed off, as most people knew the Cannon company and their two eccentric producers (Golan and Globus), as ones who usually made b-movies and not more serious films, and as an result, it most likely hurted the movie and its chances of reaching out to a wider audience. Still, it did give both Voight and Roberts nominations for Academy Awards. Anyway, the film seems to have gotten way better recognition over the years, and I am sure glad one decied to upgrade my former DVD, as Arrow did a great job, and it also helped lift the film a bit higher on the rating scale, as my former one, lie around 8,5/10, which is of course not bad, but I so much hoped it might go a bit more upwards, and yeah, last night was the time for that to happen. 9/10Two great examples of how bad ass an solid written and acted this movie really is: Also, the scene where J.P Ryan gets the wind of some fat inmate, trying to make fun of his mum, and the moment he stops, and you just see the mouthy inmate disappears in his cell, like a frightened rat, and you sure get the sense early on, how brutal and strict this prison is held up, by its Warden. Also re-watched Bloodsport II (1996) which is surely a huge letdown, after the classic first film, and no changes in how I rated it. But still, it has a few positive things going, where as it was a pleasant surprise to see Donald Gibb, return as Ray Jackson, but yeah, Daniel Bernhardt were no Van Damme, even though everything from my DVD to far too many of the scenes in the film, tried to sell him as the next big martial art star, and yeah, I guess for a short while, it must have worked, at least within the world of b-movie entertainment. Since this video release, ended up getting several follow ups, but doubt I would ever bother with those. Anyway, the story is pretty simple. Some smug master thief, ends up in prison, where he is almost immediately thrown into one fight, after another, then some training sessions and more fighting, then the Kumite gets going, and yeah, we get a completely generic and forgettable villain, and a very weak movie score, and well, at least Ray got to hook up with a mighty fine female fighter, but yeah, a weak and not very impressive follow up, but still it went by rather fast. 4/10
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Post by politicidal on Feb 1, 2022 2:03:03 GMT
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 1, 2022 11:11:01 GMT
Nicolas Cage was really on a roll back then, with The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off, when it came to doing high explosive action films of the mid 90s. An impressive and very successfull move away from his more dramatic or comedic roles, and fitted really well into that kind of fast paced and action dominated entertainment.
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Post by brandomarlon2003 on Feb 1, 2022 12:04:46 GMT
Spider-Man: No Way Home
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mgmarshall
Junior Member
@mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Feb 2, 2022 22:07:49 GMT
Sister Street FighterThis one's okay. I don't like it as much as the Street Fighter movies (and it's very much not a sequel to them), but it still has plenty of wild, frenetic fight choreography and it's pretty energetically shot. There's so many dutch angles going on it practically looks like an old episode of Batman. Sue Shiomi is an assured, likeable lead, and believably tough. Sonny Chiba, despite his prominent billing, is a tad underused, and he's playing a much nicer, cleaner-cut character than Terry Tsurugi this time around. Still, he gets to snap a few arms and be a smartass here and there.
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Post by theravenking on Feb 2, 2022 23:06:25 GMT
Assassins (1995; Richard Donner) By now I must've seen Assassins about a dozen times. I first watched it at the cinema when it came out. I saw it on VHS and on TV, and it was among the first DVDs I bought. So I almost regard the movie as an old friend who is always good to have around. I just can't quite fathom why it received such poor reviews on its release. Though I do get why it wasn't a huge commercial hit. For a movie produced by Joel Silver there isn't a large amount of action and most of it is relatively low-key. Also Stallone's protagonist is perhaps a bit too calm and shall we say sophisticated by this risking to alienate his usual fanbase. The movie's plot is certainly not too original. Pitching two contract killers against each other isn't exactly a fresh idea. It has been done in films like The Mechanic or Scorpio. However Assassins puts a nice spin on the concept by having its two antagonists compete for the prize of world's greatest hitman. A reviewer actually called the plot comic bookish in this sense, since the characters motivations aren't entirely realistic, and even likened Julianne Moore's character to Catwoman, which I think is a bit of a stretch though. Poor Sly Stallone earned a Razzie nomination for his portrayal of aging hitman Robert Rath. Which I find very much undeserved agreeing with director Richard Donner who said about his leads: Banderas IS wonderful. As the loudmouthed, unpredictable young contender he radiates danger in every scene. He also gets all the best lines clearly cherishing the opportunity to play a villain. Julianne Moore meanwhile is a nice addition to the cast, her character being different from the usual action movie love interest. This was made before Moore's star began to rise making her one of the most sought after character actresses in Hollywood. Richard Donner's direction is as understated as Stallone's performance. Visually Assassins has more in common with a classic espionage feature than a typical 90s action flick. Originally penned by the Wachowski siblings, the script was later re-written by Brian Helgeland, it would be interesting to know what changes were made, since the Wachowskis were so pissed they wanted to have their names removed. As much as I like the movie I have to admit that it's not perfect. That plot certainly asks you to suspend your disbelief, heavily relying on coincidences and some of its more outlandish aspects like the scene where Banderas' character escapes from a moving police car don't fit in too well with the film's more serious tone. Along with Cop Land I would still rate it as the best movie Sly did in the 90s. 8/10
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 3, 2022 8:06:41 GMT
Assassins (1995; Richard Donner) By now I must've seen Assassins about a dozen times. I first watched it at the cinema when it came out. I saw it on VHS and on TV, and it was among the first DVDs I bought. So I almost regard the movie as an old friend who is always good to have around. I just can't quite fathom why it received such poor reviews on its release. Though I do get why it wasn't a huge commercial hit. For a movie produced by Joel Silver there isn't a large amount of action and most of it is relatively low-key. Also Stallone's protagonist is perhaps a bit too calm and shall we say sophisticated by this risking to alienate his usual fanbase. The movie's plot is certainly not too original. Pitching two contract killers against each other isn't exactly a fresh idea. It has been done in films like The Mechanic or Scorpio. However Assassins puts a nice spin on the concept by having its two antagonists compete for the prize of world's greatest hitman. A reviewer actually called the plot comic bookish in this sense, since the characters motivations aren't entirely realistic, and even likened Julianne Moore's character to Catwoman, which I think is a bit of a stretch though. Poor Sly Stallone earned a Razzie nomination for his portrayal of aging hitman Robert Rath. Which I find very much undeserved agreeing with director Richard Donner who said about his leads: Banderas IS wonderful. As the loudmouthed, unpredictable young contender he radiates danger in every scene. He also gets all the best lines clearly cherishing the opportunity to play a villain. Julianne Moore meanwhile is a nice addition to the cast, her character being different from the usual action movie love interest. This was made before Moore's star began to rise making her one of the most sought after character actresses in Hollywood. Richard Donner's direction is as understated as Stallone's performance. Visually Assassins has more in common with a classic espionage feature than a typical 90s action flick. Originally penned by the Wachowski siblings, the script was later re-written by Brian Helgeland, it would be interesting to know what changes were made, since the Wachowskis were so pissed they wanted to have their names removed. As much as I like the movie I have to admit that it's not perfect. That plot certainly asks you to suspend your disbelief, heavily relying on coincidences and some of its more outlandish aspects like the scene where Banderas' character escapes from a moving police car don't fit in too well with the film's more serious tone. Along with Cop Land I would still rate it as the best movie Sly did in the 90s. 8/10 Solid and very enjoyable review. I have only seen Assassins twice, so do not have the same fondness (nostalgia and all), but having re-watched it back in summer of 2020, I remember really enjoying the first half, specially the rivalry and tense "cat and mouse" game, going on between Sly and Antonio, which resulted in some incredible action scenes, but I guess somehow, when Julianne arrived, yeah, it kind of went down a bit (for my liking), not saying I hated it, but the pace and runtime, suddenly felt very long and not that entertaining, even though it sure picks up, at the last part. I always looked at Assassins and The Specialist, as two rather underrated attempt from Sly, to maybe break out from the stuff he made in the 80s and early 90s (the more typical action releases), and where one could maybe see that his more calm and "shy" laidback acting style, would eventually lead up to what in my opnion, is his finest hour of the 90s, in Cop Land (1997). Might just have to re-watch both Assassin and The Specialist the upcoming summer, as I quite liked those, as late night action films, along with some pizza and cold drinks. Both I rated somewhere between 6/10 or 6,5/10, so it could be very possible, that one of them might turn into a 7/10 with my next visit.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 3, 2022 14:18:17 GMT
Sister Street FighterThis one's okay. I don't like it as much as the Street Fighter movies (and it's very much not a sequel to them), but it still has plenty of wild, frenetic fight choreography and it's pretty energetically shot. There's so many dutch angles going on it practically looks like an old episode of Batman. Sue Shiomi is an assured, likeable lead, and believably tough. Sonny Chiba, despite his prominent billing, is a tad underused, and he's playing a much nicer, cleaner-cut character than Terry Tsurugi this time around. Still, he gets to snap a few arms and be a smartass here and there. I really enjoy the movie posters of these films, and I kind of wished I could reply to your fine reviews in some ways, but since I have not seen either of them, I feel that one has not exactly too much, to bring forward with. However, I am quite tempted, to try and look up a few of Sonny's films, as I sadly had a rather "poor" introduction to some of them, years ago, when I picked up some random DVD collection, where I think 3-4 of his movies were included, among many other martial arts films of the 70s and 80s. But where the horrible (surely among some of the worst DVD "quality" in sound and image experience) did not do any of the films, any favor. Anyway, if I end up with a few of them, I will try to use a few of your reviews, as a bit of a guide, towards which one that might be worth checking up, and then see where it would lead me next.
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Post by politicidal on Feb 4, 2022 0:26:49 GMT
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Post by Captain Spencer on Feb 6, 2022 16:15:04 GMT
Death Hunt (1981) In the Yukon Territory in 1932, a trapper accused of murder is relentlessly pursued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and bounty hunters. An old fashioned action-adventure movie that feels like it may have epic proportions, or at least has a bit of an epic feel to it, even though the runtime is 97 minutes. Director Peter Hunt keeps things at a steady pace and stages lots of bloody shootouts. The story is also an examination of a place in a bygone era that was a simpler time, yet the people sometimes acted like savages and didn't like how the times were changing. The leads are perfect. Lee Marvin is the hardened Sergeant Edgar Millen and Charles Bronson is the lonely trapper Albert Johnson who just wants to be left in peace. These are men who would like to escape from modernization; Millen doesn't care for technology and Johnson doesn't like how places are getting "too crowded." Like any other action movie, Death Hunt is at times far-fetched (like how in the hell did Johnson survive when his cabin got blown up to smithereens), and during this viewing I noticed one seriously bad continuity error; Johnson jumps off a cliff to latch on to a snow-covered pine tree to prevent from being shot, but prior to the jump the trees didn't have snow on them at all! But these flaws aren't enough to make me dislike Death Hunt, as there are many good points to it.
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Post by brandomarlon2003 on Feb 6, 2022 16:17:51 GMT
Death Hunt is a decent action film but call me weird, I hate it when the dog Bronson takes in gets killed.
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Post by Captain Spencer on Feb 6, 2022 16:20:51 GMT
Death Hunt is a decent action film but call me weird, I hate it when the dog Bronson takes in gets killed. I agree.
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