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Post by mgmarshall on Jun 10, 2021 6:49:18 GMT
 El MariachiAh, now this one was fun. Young Robert Rodriguez was a deranged spitfire of a director. Sure, the movie is rough around the edges and amateurish in spots. But it's the work of an amateur who's clearly loving every minute of the work he's doing, like Sam Raimi on The Evil Dead, or the Coens on Blood Simple, or Peter Jackson on Bad Taste. It overcomes its faults and shortcomings through sheer force of wild energy and passion.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 10, 2021 11:08:42 GMT
 NemesisWell, it's better than Angel Town, anyway. I can see why this one secured the cult following it has, especially in the 90's. It's really got that whole grungy, cyberpunk aesthetic that every sci-fi actioner was trying pull off for years after Blade Runner. And as far as that goes, this movie does look pretty cool, and it has some effective, memorably gruesome cyborg make up effects. (Although the budget limitations do kinda show by the end when Grunier is fighting a pretty shitty-looking stop-motion exoskeleton.) Grunier's still pretty bad, but at least this time he's supported by a strong cast including Tim Thomerson, Brion James, Deborah Shelton, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a sleazy ancillary antagonist bit for Thom Mathews, and blink-and-you'll-miss-them appearances from Thomas Jane and Jackie Earle Haley. Albert Pyun definitely brings some real directorial action-schlock moxie to the table, and stages quite a few inspired, batshit set pieces, including Grunier shooting his way down through several floors of a hotel. It's like a Tom and Jerry cartoon, I love it. Nice that you liked the film. I thought the fast paced action scenery, were very well done, but somewhere in, I kind of lost a bit of interest and maybe with another go, it might do a bit better. Yeah, there were a lot of familiar faces in this one, I think also Sven-Ole Thorsen appeared, getting gunned down by some old lady? Some of the locations, I guess were pretty heavily used back in the early 90s, as I noticed the backdrop, seemed like one which also featured in Dollman and at least one of the DTV PM Entertainment action films, starring William Forsythe. Usually as the final climatic shootout scene.
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Post by mgmarshall on Jun 10, 2021 13:02:11 GMT
NemesisWell, it's better than Angel Town, anyway. I can see why this one secured the cult following it has, especially in the 90's. It's really got that whole grungy, cyberpunk aesthetic that every sci-fi actioner was trying pull off for years after Blade Runner. And as far as that goes, this movie does look pretty cool, and it has some effective, memorably gruesome cyborg make up effects. (Although the budget limitations do kinda show by the end when Grunier is fighting a pretty shitty-looking stop-motion exoskeleton.) Grunier's still pretty bad, but at least this time he's supported by a strong cast including Tim Thomerson, Brion James, Deborah Shelton, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a sleazy ancillary antagonist bit for Thom Mathews, and blink-and-you'll-miss-them appearances from Thomas Jane and Jackie Earle Haley. Albert Pyun definitely brings some real directorial action-schlock moxie to the table, and stages quite a few inspired, batshit set pieces, including Grunier shooting his way down through several floors of a hotel. It's like a Tom and Jerry cartoon, I love it. Nice that you liked the film. I thought the fast paced action scenery, were very well done, but somewhere in, I kind of lost a bit of interest and maybe with another go, it might do a bit better. Yeah, there were a lot of familiar faces in this one, I think also Sven-Ole Thorsen appeared, getting gunned down by some old lady? Ah, yeah. I almost forgot about that part. That shit was nuts.
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Post by mgmarshall on Jun 10, 2021 22:20:28 GMT
 DesperadoNow, this is what I'm talking about! This movie is cool from top to bottom and badass from start to finish. It easily surpasses the original, though the brief callbacks are a nice touch. It's pretty interesting that Rodriquez recast El Mariachi when he clearly still had Carlos Gallardo available and on hand, but Antonio Banderas is everything you'd want in an action star- charismatic, sexy, funny. He's a fine replacement. And Salma Hayek matches him beat-for-beat. Their chemistry is just electric. Fun supporting cast too- Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, and an actually bearable performance by Quentin Tarantino. Rodriguez seems to be the only person that can get a decent performance out of him between this and From Dusk Till Dawn. Speaking of From Dusk Till Dawn, I noticed the dick gun making an early appearance here. This one is just as fast-paced and energetic as the original, and even manages to surpass it in my opinion. It's a wild ride from start to finish. It is a shame that it was trimmed by the MPAA (And the cuts to the finale are especially severe and noticeable. It'd be nice to maybe see that footage restored someday...), but the movie is far too much fun for that alone to ruin the experience.
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Post by mgmarshall on Jun 11, 2021 0:35:51 GMT
 Once Upon a Time in MexicoWell, I'm blown away. This might actually be Robert Rodriguez's masterpiece. Everything from the previous two movies is just cranked up to 11 here. Intense action, complex choreography, insane and impossible gun battles, a giant, epic-scale plot and a cast filled to the brim with big personalities. Everyone is just on fire here-Banderas' tragedy-stricken second turn as El Mariachi, Salma Hayek's ghostly presence haunting the story through briefly-glimpsed flashbacks, Ruben Blades stoic, earnest FBI man, Mickey Rourke's haggard goon-with-a-conscience, Enrique Iglesias and Marco Leonardi as smart-assed comic relief, Eva Mendes's two-faced sadist femme fatale, Cheech Marin and Danny Trejo more-or-less playing heightened versions of the same roles they played in Depserado, and Willem Dafoe's terrifying, maniacal drug lord villain. It's a cast for the ages. But of course, the real showstopper here is Johnny Depp's inspired and eccentric turn as Agent Sands. Accomplishing the herculean task of stealing every scene he's in among the wealth of talent he's acting opposite and managing to completely upstage El Mariachi in his own movie, Depp just turns the movie into his own personal playground of crazy character actor impulses. He's clearly having a ball with the character, and I had just as much of a ball watching him do it.
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Post by mikef6 on Jun 11, 2021 0:46:58 GMT
The Equalizer and The Equalizer 2 The Equalizer / Antoine Fuqua (2014). Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is a nice enough guy who works at a Big Box lumber/home improvement store. He is liked and respected by the other staff, most younger than him. But he suffers from insomnia since the death of his wife. At 2:00 every morning he walks to an all-night diner, has tea, and reads. There he occasionally encounters a young, perhaps underage, prostitute named Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz). When he finds out she is being mistreated (and beaten) by the Russian mob, he goes to try to buy her away. This is when, 30-minutes into the movie, that we learn who he really is. When five impossibly evil thugs lock the door of a room and move in on him, he kills them all in 30-seconds. He had retired from his work as an assassin for The Agency (presumable the CIA) but he decides to use his skills to help other people. Of course, Denzel Washington is way overqualified for this kind of role but he can bring a real humanity and a feeling to his character.    The Equalizer 2 / Antoine Fuqua (2018). Retired super-secret agent Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) returns in Denzel’s first sequel of his movie career. Those sequences, which open and close the movie, are quiet good and involving. Most of the movie’s time, however, is taken up by a standard revenge plot which begins with the death of one of McCall’s former colleagues in the spy business. This story and how it develops turns quite tedious. A major draw of the film is the performance, almost a cameo, by 90-year-old Orson Bean who plays a Holocaust survivor trying to work the legal system to recover a painting he did of his sister which was lost when taken by the Nazis and is now in private hands. Bean made the entire movie for me. He passed away in 2020. A disappointing sequel as many sequels are.   |
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Post by mgmarshall on Jun 16, 2021 19:38:14 GMT
How I spent my birthday a couple days ago...  RobocopAh, I never get tired of this movie. I've loved it ever since I was twelve years old. There's really not much I can say about it that hasn't been said already, but it's a masterpiece. In many ways it's almost the anti-action blockbuster, taking what should be an absolutely stupid, shlocky premise and making it much smarter and deeper than it would appear to be on the surface. It's got sharp, mean-spirited satire of 80's capitalism, a multifaceted leading performance from Peter Weller, ranging from the highest emotional turmoil to complete blank-slate stoicism; it's even got Jesus analogies. But don't let the serious stuff fool you- it's also badass. It's got insane, hyperviolent gore (make sure you're watching the uncut version), giant, ridiculous guns, slimy ultra-80's douchebag villains (including the great Ronny Cox and Kurtwood Smith), a great coked-out supporting turn from Miguel Ferrer, Robert DoQui playing one of the most stereotypical 80's police captains in all of filmdom, awesome practical make-up effects and some sweet stop-motion. It's a hell of a picture.  Robocop 2Much like Critters 2, I went into this one with pretty low expectations, and I was pleasantly surprised. This movie is delightfully deranged, and I really can't see why it has such a bad reputation. I mean, what do you people want out of a sequel to Robocop? Any movie that features a group of small children gleefully robbing a store and beating the owner half to death with baseball bats truly understands the spirit of what Paul Verhoeven was going for in the original, I think. I will say I don't really love the Robocop suit in this one. Something about the bluing they did to it makes it look a little too cartoony, although it does look like Peter Weller has an easier time moving around in this one. On the plus side, Rob Bottin was still bringing it in regards to the make up and prosthetic effects- the Robocop-in-pieces puppet is especially impressive. Tom Noonan is understatedly creepy as always as the villain Cain, but it feels like a bit of a waste to turn him into a completely silent giant robot for the finale; somehow he just ends up leaving less of an impression than Clarence Boddicker. Still, the stop motion effects for the Cain-bot are jaw-droppingly good, even surpassing the ED-209 from the original for my money. And we do have some other villains to give a little more bang for our buck- Dan O'Herlihy returns as the OCP chairman, now giving the nameless character an overtly evil spin (he even gets one of those corporate villain lair hot tubs in one scene), and there's also the wonderful Gabriel Damon as the snot-nosed super-criminal Hob. Yeah, I know this movie got a lot of shit from the critics because of him, but I love this kid. His rise from sociopathic street punk to full-blown crime boss is just a wild ride. You really have to respect a movie that's actually willing to go there and even kill its child villain off. As for Robocop himself, it's not a bad arc. The suffering of Alex Murphy is just perpetual, from him having to deny his identity to his grieving wife, to him getting the same hand blown off yet again before being disassembled by Cain's gang, to him being reprogrammed into basically the Adam West version of Batman by OCP. It's a rough time for the poor guy, and it's a pretty solid sequel all in all, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for...  Robocop 3Now this one's shitty reputation is completely justified. It's pretty lame. Robert John Burke is a poor replacement for Peter Weller; I dunno what it is exactly, but his voice just sounds goofy coming out of Robocop. There's practically no gore (by and large things feel like they were going for a more family-friendly vibe with this one), there's no Dan O'Herlihy (and Rip Torn might've been an okay replacement, but the movie gives him almost nothing to do), there's very little in the way of memorable villains (The robo-ninjas aren't too bad, but these idiots actually managed to waste the presence of Mako. Unforgivable!), and worst of all the bastards kill off Lewis, and for nothing! It's bullshit! There are some interesting folks scattered throughout the supporting cast- CCH Pounder is actually pretty good as a Detroit revolutionary leader, Bradley Whitford is around for a couple scenes as a weaselly OCP underling, Daniel von Bargen and Stephen Root are members of Pounder's resistance group (What is this, a Coen Brothers movie?!), and Jeff Garlin of Curb Your Enthusiasm very distractingly pops up in one scene. Still, it's a pretty limp sequel. Eh, it's still better than the remake, and I guess that jetpack is kinda cool... |
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 22, 2021 11:19:27 GMT
RobocopAh, I never get tired of this movie. I've loved it ever since I was twelve years old. There's really not much I can say about it that hasn't been said already, but it's a masterpiece. In many ways it's almost the anti-action blockbuster, taking what should be an absolutely stupid, shlocky premise and making it much smarter and deeper than it would appear to be on the surface. It's got sharp, mean-spirited satire of 80's capitalism, a multifaceted leading performance from Peter Weller, ranging from the highest emotional turmoil to complete blank-slate stoicism; it's even got Jesus analogies. But don't let the serious stuff fool you- it's also badass. It's got insane, hyperviolent gore (make sure you're watching the uncut version), giant, ridiculous guns, slimy ultra-80's douchebag villains (including the great Ronny Cox and Kurtwood Smith), a great coked-out supporting turn from Miguel Ferrer, Robert DoQui playing one of the most stereotypical 80's police captains in all of filmdom, awesome practical make-up effects and some sweet stop-motion. It's a hell of a picture. Yeah, RoboCop is damn fine piece of late 80s classic gory and violent as hell, sci-fi masterpiece. I did re-watch all three films, almost exactly a year ago, and surely a 10/10, every time I have seen it. Pretty much agree on everything you said, but also feels that Nancy Allen should get a bit of a credit, for her part as well, where as Basil Poledouris fabolous and very emotional and powerful score, is such a great listen, specially love the calmer sounds, where Robo/Murhpy is trying to remember who is once was, and it is such a great little scene, when he re-visits his former home, and a great performance by Peter Weller, who shows so much emotions, just by the use of his mouth and movements, as his helmet prevents us from seeing much else of his face. Robocop 2Much like Critters 2, I went into this one with pretty low expectations, and I was pleasantly surprised. This movie is delightfully deranged, and I really can't see why it has such a bad reputation. I mean, what do you people want out of a sequel to Robocop? Any movie that features a group of small children gleefully robbing a store and beating the owner half to death with baseball bats truly understands the spirit of what Paul Verhoeven was going for in the original, I think. I will say I don't really love the Robocop suit in this one. Something about the bluing they did to it makes it look a little too cartoony, although it does look like Peter Weller has an easier time moving around in this one. On the plus side, Rob Bottin was still bringing it in regards to the make up and prosthetic effects- the Robocop-in-pieces puppet is especially impressive. Tom Noonan is understatedly creepy as always as the villain Cain, but it feels like a bit of a waste to turn him into a completely silent giant robot for the finale; somehow he just ends up leaving less of an impression than Clarence Boddicker. Still, the stop motion effects for the Cain-bot are jaw-droppingly good, even surpassing the ED-209 from the original for my money. And we do have some other villains to give a little more bang for our buck- Dan O'Herlihy returns as the OCP chairman, now giving the nameless character an overtly evil spin (he even gets one of those corporate villain lair hot tubs in one scene), and there's also the wonderful Gabriel Damon as the snot-nosed super-criminal Hob. Yeah, I know this movie got a lot of shit from the critics because of him, but I love this kid. His rise from sociopathic street punk to full-blown crime boss is just a wild ride. You really have to respect a movie that's actually willing to go there and even kill its child villain off. As for Robocop himself, it's not a bad arc. The suffering of Alex Murphy is just perpetual, from him having to deny his identity to his grieving wife, to him getting the same hand blown off yet again before being disassembled by Cain's gang, to him being reprogrammed into basically the Adam West version of Batman by OCP. It's a rough time for the poor guy, and it's a pretty solid sequel all in all, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for... I really wanted to love RoboCop 2, but for me, no matter how many times I have re-watched it, I just cannot get into it, so much annoys me about it, and yeah, I just never got the love so many has for it, and somehow I got a bit of the same vibe as to how I feel when watching Predator 2. Both seem to be very much loved, many action fans hail them as just as great as the first film, but yeah, I guess I will just be among those few, who feels they are no where as good as the original, but I can see why it got some love, just not the "great" part, that went down the drain, with robocain and that little brat. Sad to see, this was Peter Weller in his last Robo film. Also, the soundtrack was terrible, no where near the greatness of the first film. Robocop 3Now this one's shitty reputation is completely justified. It's pretty lame. Robert John Burke is a poor replacement for Peter Weller; I dunno what it is exactly, but his voice just sounds goofy coming out of Robocop. There's practically no gore (by and large things feel like they were going for a more family-friendly vibe with this one), there's no Dan O'Herlihy (and Rip Torn might've been an okay replacement, but the movie gives him almost nothing to do), there's very little in the way of memorable villains (The robo-ninjas aren't too bad, but these idiots actually managed to waste the presence of Mako. Unforgivable!), and worst of all the bastards kill off Lewis, and for nothing! It's bullshit! There are some interesting folks scattered throughout the supporting cast- CCH Pounder is actually pretty good as a Detroit revolutionary leader, Bradley Whitford is around for a couple scenes as a weaselly OCP underling, Daniel von Bargen and Stephen Root are members of Pounder's resistance group (What is this, a Coen Brothers movie?!), and Jeff Garlin of Curb Your Enthusiasm very distractingly pops up in one scene. Still, it's a pretty limp sequel. Eh, it's still better than the remake, and I guess that jetpack is kinda cool... Somehow, I again might be among the minority, but I always prefered the third one, over the second film. Maybe it has to do with nostalgia, as I saw it before the original back in 1993 on VHS with my classmates. But over the years, I still enjoy it more than the second one. It is cheesy and campy as hell, but somehow it reminds me a bit of the sequels to Darkman, starring Arnold Voosloo and Larry Drake. Nowehere near the first film, but packs something that just works for me, whenever I see them. All in all, a pretty uneven trilogy of films, where everything that followed the first film, just were no where near in same quality or entertainment, but still works as light hearted b-movie joy, every once in a while. How I spent my birthday a couple days ago...  A bit too late, but hoped you had a great one. 
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 22, 2021 11:35:36 GMT
 Jake Speed (1986) by Andrew Lane A pretty mediocre and slow moving (at least the first hour or so) action/adventure movie, and one which I kind had my hopes up for, maybe something not that far off Romancing the Stone, Indiana Jones meets up with Remo Williams or Big Trouble in Little China. Sadly, that was never to be. I have seen Wayne Crawford in a few late 80s horror/adventure titles, and thought he handled himself very well in those, specially within the charming and kind off-beat comical anti-hero, but as Jake Speed, he came off as quite calm and maybe a bit "dull". I guess I went in, expecting more of the same, but got, well not exactly that. Thankfully, after about an hour of mediocre stuff, all of a sudden John Hurt shows up, and things finally begin to be very exciting, as he is such a sleazy and slimy scumbag in this one, where he portrays a ruthless and sadistic villain, and seems to love every second of being so, and yeah, it is kind of a shame, that such a memorable baddie, gets stuck in a not so memorable movie. Anyway, it is interesting to learn that Lane and Crawford were involved in cult-movies like Valley Girl and Night of the Comet, but sadly, Jake Speed just did not deliver enough thrills and kind of was a let down for my part, but one I might hold onto, maybe give it another go, when I am in the right mood. All in all, the Arrow Blu-ray release I recently picked up, has great picture quality, but something is kind off, with the sound, as it seems to jump up and down in volume, and I am glad it came with subtitles. 6/10
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Post by mgmarshall on Jun 28, 2021 8:21:29 GMT
 Crazy SixWell, this was just flat-out awful. Visually stylish, but downright incoherent narratively. Between all the awkward slow-motion, crossfades, and vibrant lighting choices, it almost looks like Albert Pyun is deliberately trying to ape David Lynch's visual style. But where Lynch uses those tools to create a tone of menace and dread among the banal, Pyun seems to be using them just to use them. Ah well, I guess it's at least an interesting look for an action movie; shame there's not much of a story to go along with it. Rob Lowe looks pretty fit and healthy for supposedly being a burnt out Eastern European crack addict, almost as if they just slapped a cheap wig and a mustache on him and called it quits there. Ivana Miličević is fairly awful as the love interest, but she has an okay singing voice (if she isn't dubbed). Ice-T is given very little to do aside from sitting around looking vaguely villainous until he decides get off his ass and actually be in the movie in its last ten minutes. Mario van Peebles at least seems like he's having fun playing a flamboyant, chihuahua-toting, French (?) crime boss, but he too is given practically nothing to do other than popping up here and there. Burt Reynolds wanders around the periphery of the story, wearing a ten gallon hat and crabbily mumbling his lines. It's like he doesn't wanna be there, and knowing Burt that was probably the case. Oh, and Thom Mathews (whom I most recently saw in Pyun's Nemesis) has a substantial supporting role. He's fine. All in all, despite the couple decent names in the cast, there's just not all that much interesting stuff going on in this one.
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Post by lostinlimbo on Jun 29, 2021 23:35:32 GMT
Last watched a couple spaghetti westerns.   Nothing too groundbreaking, but nonetheless serviceably entertaining. Namely in the shape of Lee Van Cleef in Day of Anger and the anything goes approach of Cemetery without Crosses. |
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Post by Dramatic Look Gopher on Jun 30, 2021 3:56:03 GMT
 Revenge Of The Ninja (1983) After most of his family was slaughtered in Japan, a ninjutsu martial artist moves to the United States to open an art gallery. Little does he know is that his partner (who also studied ninjutsu) is using the business as a front for a drug-smuggling operation. Out of all the 1980s ninja movies I've seen this one's my favorite. Tons of brutal, gory action with amazing fight choreography; has enough action to fill about three movies. A definite improvement over the inferior Enter The Ninja. |
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 30, 2021 8:11:42 GMT
Crazy SixWell, this was just flat-out awful. Visually stylish, but downright incoherent narratively. Between all the awkward slow-motion, crossfades, and vibrant lighting choices, it almost looks like Albert Pyun is deliberately trying to ape David Lynch's visual style. But where Lynch uses those tools to create a tone of menace and dread among the banal, Pyun seems to be using them just to use them. Ah well, I guess it's at least an interesting look for an action movie; shame there's not much of a story to go along with it. Rob Lowe looks pretty fit and healthy for supposedly being a burnt out Eastern European crack addict, almost as if they just slapped a cheap wig and a mustache on him and called it quits there. Ivana Miličević is fairly awful as the love interest, but she has an okay singing voice (if she isn't dubbed). Ice-T is given very little to do aside from sitting around looking vaguely villainous until he decides get off his ass and actually be in the movie in its last ten minutes. Mario van Peebles at least seems like he's having fun playing a flamboyant, chihuahua-toting, French (?) crime boss, but he too is given practically nothing to do other than popping up here and there. Burt Reynolds wanders around the periphery of the story, wearing a ten gallon hat and crabbily mumbling his lines. It's like he doesn't wanna be there, and knowing Burt that was probably the case. Oh, and Thom Mathews (whom I most recently saw in Pyun's Nemesis) has a substantial supporting role. He's fine. All in all, despite the couple decent names in the cast, there's just not all that much interesting stuff going on in this one. Never seen this, but sounds like one that I guess I am in no hurry to catch up with.  I have often went in, hoping to love some of Pyun and his films, at least those during the 80s and early 90s. I still think Cyborg (1989) and Radioactive Dreams (1985) are the two that I enjoyed the most. Cyborg for its pure cheese and fast paced "story", ridiculous villains and the hot female sidekick, always forgot her name, but yeah, also one of the earliest Van Damme films I remember from childhood. Radioactive Dreams, I just recently saw, and thought it was both funny and impressive in the stylished and cool combination of music video looking sets and use of lights and colors, along with two solid performances by the leads, and a kicking soundtrack as well. But yeah, Albert often seems to focus more on the visuals and action, rather than the story and characters, but I doubt I will ever complete all of his releases, still have few I might like to give a look, such as re-watching the Lance Henriksen post-apocalyptic early 90s film, Knights, which I do remember seeing a few times, on night cable, but never found on DVD or Blu-ray.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jun 30, 2021 8:19:41 GMT
Revenge Of The Ninja (1983) After most of his family was slaughtered in Japan, a ninjutsu martial artist moves to the United States to open an art gallery. Little does he know is that his partner (who also studied ninjutsu) is using the business as a front for a drug-smuggling operation. Out of all the 1980s ninja movies I've seen this one's my favorite. Tons of brutal, gory action with amazing fight choreography; has enough action to fill about three movies. A definite improvement over the inferior Enter The Ninja. That movie poster, is surely among the coolest looking, from the heyday of the ninja craze, which surely Cannon Pictures made into a bit of a goldmine, and while I have not seen either of Enter the Ninja or Revenge of the Ninja, for a long while, I do remember enjoying both films, very much, but the latter surely were on another level. Sadly, my nordic DVD release, has done some terrible cuts of Enter the Ninja, and I will be planning on re-purchasing it, hopefully one that is uncut. Have still not seen Ninja III: The Domination, but picked it up just recently, and yeah, from what I have been hearing, reading and seeing of some clips and trailers from the net, it looks like I am in for something different, with that one.
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Post by mgmarshall on Jun 30, 2021 20:51:10 GMT
 BlastAnother Pyun effort. This one is at least better than Crazy Six, but that doesn't change the fact that this was one of the most dull, rote, by-the-numbers action movies I've ever seen. Even among Die Hard knock-offs, this movie barely does anything to distinguish itself from the pack. Oh, and speaking of that, despite the movie blatantly being a rip-off of Die Hard, they actually have the balls to to tastelessly evoke the 1996 Atlanta bombings in the opening text crawl, claiming the movie is some kind of "alternate history." It's an incredibly bad foot to start off on. Linden Ashby is fine, though just as bland and generic as the movie around him, as our McClane-of-the-moment, a former Olympic martial artist turned janitor. Andrew Divoff isn't too bad as the Hans Gruber equivalent. Filling in for Al Powell as man on the ground is the late, great legend himself, Rutger Hauer. Sadly, Rutger seems to have been on the same pay scale in this one as Burt Reynolds was in Crazy Six- he spends the majority of his screen time filmed separately from the main action, in tight close ups in a darkened room, mumbling to himself. Also, very bizarrely and distractingly, Rutger appears to have been made up as a Native American- full braids and red makeup and everything. I have no idea why, it never comes up in any pertinent way. Just odd. I would feel bad for Rutger in all this, but let's face it- this movie is just one in a whole host of indignities his later career subjected him to. Oh, and Thom Mathews pops up yet again as the Ellis of this movie, pulling off the worminess of the role just fine. I guess he and Albert Pyun were joined at the hip in the 90's. That, or Pyun was the only one offering him roles. What ultimately hamstrings this movie more than anything is just how obviously the low budget shows. It's clear from moment one that they just had a swimming pool or a Y.M.C.A. or something like that available for filming and desperately tried to build an action movie around that one location. It's pretty cheap. Plus, they clearly weren't allowed to actually use the word "Olympics." Every time they're mentioned, it's just "the Games." It's hilarious. In the end, if I want Die Hard set at a sporting event, I'll take Sudden Death any day. Then again, I suppose that comparison is a little unfair. Sudden Death truly is the Cadillac of Die Hard clones.
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Post by Popeye Doyle on Jun 30, 2021 21:15:34 GMT
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jul 2, 2021 9:34:38 GMT
BlastAnother Pyun effort. This one is at least better than Crazy Six, but that doesn't change the fact that this was one of the most dull, rote, by-the-numbers action movies I've ever seen. Even among Die Hard knock-offs, this movie barely does anything to distinguish itself from the pack. Oh, and speaking of that, despite the movie blatantly being a rip-off of Die Hard, they actually have the balls to to tastelessly evoke the 1996 Atlanta bombings in the opening text crawl, claiming the movie is some kind of "alternate history." It's an incredibly bad foot to start off on. Linden Ashby is fine, though just as bland and generic as the movie around him, as our McClane-of-the-moment, a former Olympic martial artist turned janitor. Andrew Divoff isn't too bad as the Hans Gruber equivalent. Filling in for Al Powell as man on the ground is the late, great legend himself, Rutger Hauer. Sadly, Rutger seems to have been on the same pay scale in this one as Burt Reynolds was in Crazy Six- he spends the majority of his screen time filmed separately from the main action, in tight close ups in a darkened room, mumbling to himself. Also, very bizarrely and distractingly, Rutger appears to have been made up as a Native American- full braids and red makeup and everything. I have no idea why, it never comes up in any pertinent way. Just odd. I would feel bad for Rutger in all this, but let's face it- this movie is just one in a whole host of indignities his later career subjected him to. Oh, and Thom Mathews pops up yet again as the Ellis of this movie, pulling off the worminess of the role just fine. I guess he and Albert Pyun were joined at the hip in the 90's. That, or Pyun was the only one offering him roles. What ultimately hamstrings this movie more than anything is just how obviously the low budget shows. It's clear from moment one that they just had a swimming pool or a Y.M.C.A. or something like that available for filming and desperately tried to build an action movie around that one location. It's pretty cheap. Plus, they clearly weren't allowed to actually use the word "Olympics." Every time they're mentioned, it's just "the Games." It's hilarious. In the end, if I want Die Hard set at a sporting event, I'll take Sudden Death any day. Then again, I suppose that comparison is a little unfair. Sudden Death truly is the Cadillac of Die Hard clones. I knew something was familiar with that title, but the poster were not, still I did waste money and time on this trashy b-movie, back in late summer of 2017, think I wrote a review in this thread back then as well. However, what save it from an even worse rating, was the hilarious cheese, which surely Rutger Hauer put into his character, but even then, it was barely watchable for most of the time, and yeah, surely one of the worst Die Hard knock-offs of the 90s. Should do fine, fitting along with another terrible Die Hard clone, in Skyscraper (1996), starring Anna Nicole Smith in the role of John McClane, well, if he suddenly turned into a big chested blond female.
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Post by theravenking on Jul 2, 2021 11:26:10 GMT
 Boss Level (2021) I have a soft spot for time-loop films and Boss Level looked like it could be a fun combination of Groundhog Day and Crank. Joe Carnahan certainly had a lot to atone for after the awful Stretch. Sadly Boss Level is not the comeback I was hoping for. Frank Grillo plays Roy Pulver, a war veteran who for some reason keeps reliving the same day, which starts with some goons attacking him in bed, continuing with an assortment of henchmen and women hunting him to death. His wife (Naomi Watts) works as a scientist for a dubious tycoon named Craig Venter (Mel Gibson), and her experiments might have something to do with Roy being stuck in time. With each repeated day Roy acquires new survival skills while trying to figure out what's happening to him. Watching the movie I kept wondering what the budget might've been, because from the beginning the film gives of a distinct B-movie vibe (meaning it looks a bit cheap) which it never manages to shake off. It seems it cost 45 million, which would be more than the first John Wick, but unlike that movie Boss Level lacks a strong visual identity, camera-work, set and costume design are disappointingly average. The action relies heavily on CGI, the fight choreography is nothing special and the antagonists although colourful and somewhat unique (In what other movie do you get a mean dwarf with a grenade or two German assassin brothers who happen to be black?) have too little personality. They are clearly supposed to be an homage to video game characters, but they are not as much fun as they could've been. Perhaps a considerable chunk of the budget was spent on attracting some recognizable names to the project such as Naomi Watts, Mel Gibson or Michelle Yeoh (whose appearence is not more than a cameo). Watts plays the protagonists's wife and she does a solid job but there is not much chemistry between her and Frank Grillo. Gibson has two longer speeches and is otherwise wasted and Yeoh who plays a fight trainer, mentor figure barely registers. Still the first half is quite entertaining, but once Carnahan starts introducing more serious elements to the plot, the film slows down considerably and the theme of an absentee father trying to reconnect with his neglected son is hardly the freshest idea. Boss Level lacks the budget and sophistication of the somewhat similar Edge Of Tomorrow, but it shares the former movies major weakness, a rather lacklustre and contrived ending which comes so abruptly that you wonder whether the last few pages of the script got lost. While there might be worse ways to spend a couple of hours, Boss Level sadly didn't live up to its potential. 5/10
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Post by louise on Jul 3, 2021 10:33:41 GMT
Brannigan (1975). Highly enjoyable with John Wayne as a Chicago policeman chasing crooks in London. Especially enjoyed seeing John Wayne chuck Tony Robinson in the Thames.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jul 5, 2021 15:04:32 GMT
Off Limits (1988) by Christopher Crowe One of many Vietnam themed films, which got made during the 80s, and where Willem Dafoe and Gregory Hines has some great chemistry going on, as two detectives, on the chase for a brutal serial killer, set in the chaotic city of Saigon 1968. I guess this is more of a action-thriller, with a dose of the buddy-cop formula thrown in, rather than just another war drama, and also in lesser parts, you got names like Fred Ward and Scott Glenn showing up as well. For my part, I thought the film would benefit of having more of Glenn and his absolute insanse character, but sadly that was not to be, and I thought the film kind of went down hill, after his part, and the film ended up on a typical poorly delivered Hollywood thriller ending, which seemed like a bit of a disappointment, after so many great and thrilling moments. The atmosphere is also another solid effect here, very lively and nasty at times, but yeah, great stuff by Dafoe and Hines, but one of those films I kind of felt could have been a bit better, as it seemed to lose steam for the last part. 6,5/10
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