Lottsa great Old School kung fu films on AP.
Gonna suggest this over-the-top triple bill:
36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN
5 VENOMS
FIVE ELEMENTS NINJAS
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Lottsa great Old School kung fu films on AP.
Gonna suggest this over-the-top triple bill:
36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN
5 VENOMS
FIVE ELEMENTS NINJAS
Star Trek Beyond.
Is on amazon Prime.
I just watched it. really good star Trek movie.
And it's available on amazon prime right now.
PATERSON
4.5/5
If you dig the idiosyncratic and eccentric films of Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man; Down By Law; Ghost Dog; Broken Flowers; Only Lovers Left Alive) then this one delivers in spades.
Addmittedly, this is a slow-burn look into the seemingly mundane life of a bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey, whose name just happens to be Paterson. The film takes place over the course of one week (Monday to Monday) and we witness Paterson going through his daily routine, dealing with his quirky girlfriend, their (but really her) dog, Marvin, and a few random denizens at the local bar.
In addition to being a bus driver, Paterson is also a closet poet.
Jarmusch thrives on repetition (the themes of black/white, twins, and water, as well as ongoing “jokes", both visual and auditory, not to mention lots of interesting reflection shots in windows) as well as a brilliant red herring and a totally obvious bit of foreshadowing that leaves you on the edge of your seat wondering if it will happen or end up being a bait/switch.
Wonderful, understated performances from all involved, too.
Also a great score from Jarmusch (making him a triple threat).
Deadpan humor galore (I laughed out loud almost through the entire film).
Green Room. It's like American History X meets Surviving the Game.
Just watched The Great Wall with Matt Damon.
Had no clue what it was about and that allowed some surprises to unfold.
Wednesday 7/28 edit: The Great Wall just got loaded onto youtube yesterday, fairly good copy.
Get it before it's taken down.
Search 'scifi Lauren Ford' - Not The Great Wall.
or Deliverance on meth...Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazderati
taut, white-knuckle inducing flick.
Holy fuck. Watched it last night. Gonna have to give it another go to see WTF I missed to make a little more sense of it. Wish my French was better--->Hard to keep up with the visuals when reading subtitles.Quote:
Originally Posted by dookey67
Anyhow thanks for the rec.
Fortitude....It has a slow start but it is pretty good.
I didn't care for "Green Room". Seemed very B-movie-ish and the characters and their actions felt contrived and predictable.
I felt that Season 1 was really strong.Quote:
Originally Posted by farmguy
Season 2 isn't nearly so, but it's still engaging.
I would also recommend Mad Dogs; its only 1 season long and pretty entertaining in a nutso, gonzo, violent, and strangely kinetic way.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2306745/
Sound City. Didn't see it mentioned here. Decent Doc. by Dave Grohl.
There are a few horror fans so Hell House LLC.
Yup good doc.Quote:
Originally Posted by tom tuttle from tacoma washington
BTW- Sound City is back open. He should give the board back!!! [emoji12]
So, last night, despite having like 400+ movies queued up in my Amazon watch list, I stumbled upon this new release: Karate Kill.
The poster image alone sold it for me.
Watched it.
It's super low-budget, neo-grindhouse, owes a HUGE debt to Sonny Chiba's Streetfighter, as well as QT's Kill Bill (and others).
It stars Japanese porn actresses.
There are lots of titties.
Lots of blood.
Some OG practical effects.
Gore galore (but in waves, not continuous).
It's campy.
The villain looks like the bastard offspring of Charles Manson and Jack Elam.
There's a fight to the death in a moving semi-truck trailer container.
Joe Bob Briggs would approve.
Me, I'd give it a 3.25/5.
Get hopped up and indulge in some gonzo karate chintz.
Attachment 213227
I have been binge watching The Guardian.
Some of it is a bit contrived but I am enjoying it anyway
I loved that show. Was bummed when they canceled it. So dark. Never lets you off the hook with any feel-good bs.Quote:
Originally Posted by MTT
Thank youQuote:
Originally Posted by dookey67
Can't find it- could they have taken it off?
weird. i just searched, found it, and booted it up about 5-minutes ago, so it should still be on there.Quote:
Originally Posted by steepconcrete
JUNGLEGROUND
3/5
Whoa.
I thought I had seen all of Rowdy Roddy Piper's cinematic excursions, but obviously not. Have no idea how I missed this one back in the '90s, but it is a classic B-grade, drive-in-styled gonzo affair that borrows liberally from Escape From New York, The Warriors, Class of 1999, and After Hours (just to name a few of the obvious influences).
But you know what it's got that those others don't? RODDY-f$%kin'-PIPER!!!
Familiar story, but decent pacing, and tons of over-the-top over-acting (the guy who plays the gang leader is amazing).
And, what I truly miss the most about this era of low-budget action films, is that they ACTUALLY blow shit up, like real explosions, real cars catching on fire, real buildings crumbling ablaze; no CGI!
If you're feeling nostalgic for bare bones, kinda stupid (but stupid fresh), gonzo B-movie action fare, you could do a lot worse'n this.
Crack a brew or two and enjoy. I did.
PS
the gang is called The Ragnarockers and their leader is named Odin and one of his henchmen is named Thor and carries a sledgehammer (considering that Thor: Ragnarok is opening this week, it would make a fun and goofy primer...)
If you're in the market for some 1980s, gooey, gross, bugged-out horror (a la Re-Animator), I highly recommend SOCIETY.
I just watched
Predestination
DAM!
Go for it, free this month on amazon
Very much agreed. For a movie that grossed $70k in the U.S., it really delivered.Quote:
Originally Posted by MTT
Says a lot about today's cinema.
KISS KISS BANG BANG
4/5
Written/Directed by Shane Black, best known as the screenwriter behind Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout (he also wrote/directed Iron Man 3 and the insanely awesome The Nice Guys).
I remember seeing this film perhaps a year after it was released (i.e. on DVD, not in the theater during it's initial run) and thinking it was meh. But last summer I watched The Nice Guys and was sucked in by the pithy dialogue and fast pacing (watched it twice in a row I thought it was so good). Then I remembered how I had really dug all of the movies Black had written over the years, so when Kiss Kiss Bang Bang showed up on Amazon, I decided to give it another go. Glad I did. In many ways The Nice Guys is basically Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2; similar story, similar witty dialogue, similar fast pacing.
On a serious note, there's a coupla scenes in KKBB that address the rampant sexual harrassment aspects of Hollywood. I won't go into detail (don't wish to unleash any spoilers), but they were rather interesting scenes given the current climate in the movie capital today; remember, this film came out in 2005, so for Black to be addressing this problem back then means that it was a problem.
At any rate, the cast is top-notch: Kilmer. Downey, Jr. Monaghan. Plus a great cast of supporting characters.
Totally worth a watch. Definitely worth a re-watch.
Love that movie. One of my favorites.
Yep. That Sarah Snook is a hell of an actress.Quote:
Originally Posted by MTT
It's got all the mindfuck that Christopher Nolan's movies supposedly deliver, but without the CGI distractions covering up the lack of coherence in the mindfuck.
Aussies find ways to deliver on a budget for sure. The Horseman. Wolf Creek. The Interview. And the classic, Wake in Fright.
Vincent n'a pas d'écailles (aka Vincent Who Has No Scales).
4/5
Cool, low-key comedic love story about a wandering loner, but the film has what I would loosely call a "supernatural" twist (some critics have billed it "France's first superhero movie", for whatever that's worth).
Languid pacing, lush cinematography, and minimalistic on the dialogue front; one could almost refer to it as a modern day, full-color, neo-silent film.
It is also teeming with thematic elements found in Frankenstein and King Kong, but without the monsters.
In French with subtitles.
I found it quaint and quirky and incredibly engaging.
Tin Star: great cast, a little slow to develop and thin on background, a little heavy on the dark in the dark comedic thriller balance.
took me 3 weeks to watch the first 4 episodes but now things are rolling.
I started on this one and walked away.Quote:
Originally Posted by PB
Should I give it another chance?
Depends - do you enjoy seeing tim roth beat the crap out of a coke snorting biker??? I'm also expecting great things from the "Swede", who of course is norski. And there's always Christina Hendricks - the exception that proves the rule that thick is over-rated.
I like Tin Star.
They Live was awesome.Quote:
Originally Posted by dookey67
I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum-and I'm all outta bubblegum.
Best fing line ever!!!!
The stone age Puzzle
It's interesting. Might make you rethink our history
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: not for everyone but very quirky in a fascinating way; crackling jewish dialogue, threatens to turn into a musical at least once every episode, and delightful characters plus great cast. Interesting peek into life during the late 50s/early 60s, focusing on "modern" jewish culture and the early days of stand-up.
I see it at the top of the selections. I might give it a try when in the right mood.Quote:
Originally Posted by PB
Logan Lucky is a Steven Soderbergh inversion of the Oceans heist flicks by Steven Soderbergh.
A bunch of redneck archetypes from West Virginia try to knock off a NASCAR race. Nobody looks great. Nobody has nice clothes. No one has a tunnel machine.
Why watch it? Because it's good and Dwight Yoakum's in it.
Loving itQuote:
Originally Posted by PB
Yup.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Pow
IT COMES AT NIGHT
4/5
Slow-burn survival film that is ripe for post-screening discussion as it leaves a lot up to the viewer (much like Blackcoat’s Daughter). I liked the vagueness of the film, which in others films of this usually ends up being incredibly annoying, but here it works well. We never know the who/what/why and as such it keeps the viewer in the dark, which creates a feeling of connectivity witgh the characters in the film, who are just as in the dark as us. The slow build up of paranoia is great. And it’s never clear what is really going down, there are a ton of unanswered questions and, again, not sure why, but this heightened ambiguity really works well here. I found the overall sense of dread and doom that permeates the film to be great, too
COWBOY BEBOP
4.5 / 5
I wouldn't call myself an anime connoisseur by any stretch of the definition. Heck, I was always one of those idiots who thought all anime looked the same, for the most part, too. I have seen some of the "benchmarks" of the genre over the years--Akira; Ghost In The Shell; Ninja Scroll; Fist of the Northstar; Spirited Away, and have enjoyed them, but again I wasn't into the genre enough to notice the subtle differences between the various films/series.
I'd heard about Cowboy Bebop for years, but had never felt compelled to track it down.
Then it showed up on Prime, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
WOAH.
While it has all the elments of your standard anime: skinny women with big breasts and "European" noses, children who look like Japanese variations on Keane's big-eyed paintings (sidenote: https://www.theguardian.com/artandde...-burton-biopic), muscular male heroes, excellent use of lighting and shadows, etc., but it also has it's own distinctive visual allure.
For starters, one of our heroes, Spike, is drawn all stoic and Bruce Lee-esque, however, his feet are obvious odes to Mickey Mouse (he literally wears clown shoes). Meanwhile all the landscapes, industrial elements, and spaceships look to be modeled after the surreal sci-fi/fantasy art of revered French comic book artist Mobius.
The episodes, which work as stand-alone stories, but also meld into an overreaching arch, vere from standard sci-fi to neo-noir.
And the music is a mutation of jazz, folk rock, and pop that, as sonic pastiche, is pretty damn good (just watch the opening credit sequence).
Even if you are skeptical about anime, I think you would dig this as it's got engaqging storylines, well-rounded characters, and the action sequences are, simply put, amazing.
Totally worth watching, imho.