What Movie Are You Watching?

I rather enjoyed Death Wish, even if it wasn't amazing; it got thrashed around because of political correctness, not because of the merits of the film (and its short too), but my wife and I enjoyed it; as I mentioned above as well, I'm a bit more attuned to Bruce Willis, nowadays.

I've been on a bit of a binge lately, as I'm no longer walking to work and back (weather and illness are forcing me to drive), as you can see above lol.

1. Apostle (2018)

Gareth Evans new film came out 2 Fridays ago on Netflix, so I watched it 2 Mondays ago, using my sister's account (I don't like Netflix). Its absolutely hilarious reading people's takes on the film, bashing it for not being like the Raid films in any way, shape or form, yet if you read the synopsis or watch the trailer, its clear as damn day that it would be NOTHING like the Raid films.

But that's fine, because this film is a great watch: Dan Stevens (Beast from the recent Beauty and the Beast) ventures to a Welsh island, where a cult has kidnapped his sister (there's a damn good reason as to why this happens, but not gonna spoil). He has to blend in and do whatever possible to get her back, without exposing that he isn't with the cult.

It is a very well-done film and harkens back to Gareth's horrorish leanings, that he did with V/H/S/2, though nothing is ridiculously over-the-top. Another thing that I much appreciated, was that nearly all of the actors and actresses, are Welsh (or grew up in Wales, as is the case with Stevens), keeping it a film true to it's setting (Evans, of course, is super Welsh himself, as he speaks the language and was born/raised/educated there). Pacing is fairly good, the ending is a touch ambiguous, but I thought it was done well-enough.

If there is any issue, it is that things escalate a bit too much at one point and characters don't get enough development, at said escalation.

That's a minor gripe though; great film. 8/10

2. The Raid II: Berandal (2014)

In anticipation of the above film, I watched (or rewatched) all of Gareth Evans' films, leading up to Apostle's release (which was pushed back almost a month), but saved the best for last.

If you aren't familiar with the Raid II, quite simply, it is one of the best action films that has *ever* been made and that's not hyperbole; It is a brilliant title from beginning to end, with absolutely no major plotholes or mistakes, very few goofs and it tells a wonderful story that is paced perfectly and is well-acted by the entire cast.

Rama (Iko Uwais) is now with the man his brother set him up with at the end of The Raid: Redemption (which is an incredible film as well, BTW) and a plan of action is created, in order to take down the greater-scope villain of the series, so that police corruption can be brought down to a minimum. As a result, Rama goes undercover to infiltrate one of Jakarta's largest crime families, who is in cahoots with said police corruption. Along the way, he'll have to deal with a Yakuza clan that has interests in Jakarta, an outsider wishing to ingratiate himself with the top crime families in Jakarta and deal with a few years in prison.

If the Raid: Redemption was a film that showed off Uwais' fighting skills a bit more, than the Raid II showed off his acting chops, a bit more; the man can do both and both, very well. He gets into a ton of fights in this film, each more awesome than the last, however he has much more dialogue and one can see that he is a natural at acting.

The rest of the cast is wonderfully-casted as well, with all of the major players giving great performances. The fight scenes though, are still the cream of the crop; everything is choreographed beautifully and everything is wonderful to watch, whether it is on the street, in a building, in a car (which is a phenomenal scene, especially if you read how they did it) and whether it is Prakoso, Rama, Baseball Bat Man or Hammer Girl, everything is just incredibly done; there's a reason why it is 71 on Metacritic, 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, 8/10 on IMDB, etc; this is a wonderful film, Evans' finest by far.

I'll watch this movie any day of the week, gladly, 'til the day I die.

10/10

3. The God of Gamblers (1989)

A film about a master gambler, who wins everything, despite how or which form of gambling it is (cards, Cho-Han, Mahjong, etc.). A suave, sophisticated man, who is a touch snobby, yet benevolent in his actions, Ko just has a charisma and charm that make him a super-endearing character; as he's played by Yun-Fat Chow, that completely makes sense lol. Anyways, he escapes an assassination attempt, but as he's strolling home, he steps into a trap (initially set up for a snobby Indian man), that was created by Knife (Andy Lau). Ko hits his head hard on a rock and suffers amnesia, along with behaving and acting like a child. What follows are a bunch of hijinks and hilarity, along with some great gun-fu and well-shot scenes, culminating in a climax that is just absolutely fantastic. Though a bit over-the-top at times, it doesn't detract from the overall story and experience.

Yun-Fat Chow is quickly becoming one of my favourite actors, after seeing all of these films recently and he is simply brilliant in this film, whether he's playing the sophisticated, mature gambler or the child-like, immature amnesiac, he just steals every scene he's in. Andy Lau does a wonderful job as well and his support are all great foils to him. Only the supporting cast is a bit hammy at times, while the main cast tends to keep it straight, for the most part.

A wonderfully-enjoyable film, (a rounded) 10/10.

4. The Night Comes for Us (2018)

As I still have Netflix available and this film was released last Friday (the 19th), I thought, "well, why not?" The main cast is 2/3 made up of actors from the Raid series (literally) and it is another Indonesian Film, written and directed by the other half of Evans' effort in V/H/S2, Timo Tjahjanto, so it made sense for a viewing; man, I made a good choice.

Ito is a member of a Triad, one of the elite members at that (called one of the, "Six Seas)," whose family massacres an entire, poor fishing village, who had a handful of it's members stealing drugs from the Triad. Once everyone is killed, a young girl remains and Ito snaps, saving the girl and heading back to Jakarta, with a price on his head. He has to survive long enough to flee the country with the girl, but will he? Past friends also come back into his life, but are they really there to help him, this time around?

There's literally a fight scene (or guns scene) every 5 minutes or so and each one is choreographed brilliantly, though one goes a bit over the top with gore and violence (which I don't mind!). Also, Iko Uwais is back and he's a villain for the first time in his career, which was easy to take as a viewer, as he starts out as a sympathetic character (really, more of an anti-villain, if anything). Julie Estelle (Hammer Girl in the Raid II) is brilliant as the Operator, both in acting and in fighting and personally, I feel this film has propelled her career a bit and she'll get a bit more exposure/roles in the future.

Ito is played by Joe Taslim (Jaka from the Raid: Redemption) and he's fantastic as well, making his presence felt in every scene (though he makes a bunch of weird faces at times lol). The film is a wonderful action flick and having a cast that has worked together a lot, really helped in the cohesion and progression of the film on the whole.

9/10

Might venture out to the cinema this weekend for the first time in a while and I have a few more films to view at home as well!
 
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Went to an early screening of The Nutcracker and was pretty let down honestly.
I didn't expect it to be anything groundbreaking, but I wanted something that felt a little more epic in scale. This movie felt downright small and lacked the atmosphere that I want from fantasy films like this. There were some good aspects like the overall cinematography and the ballet sequences. The ballet scene during the end credits had one part that incorporated one dancer doing like modern hip hop style dancing to the nutcracker score that actually made me laugh out loud though so.... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'd say only see it if you have kids or if you're a Disney otaku like me.
 
Recently watched the Equalizer 2. I was a fan of the first & anything with denzel washington in is always a plus to a movie (for me atleast :cool: ) Gotta say it was awesome!

I'll have to give Death Wish a go @Black Tiger of Death - Big fan of the die hard series

Otherwise The Meg looks interesting
 
NinthTiger said:
Recently watched the Equalizer 2. I was a fan of the first & anything with denzel washington in is always a plus to a movie (for me atleast :cool: ) Gotta say it was awesome!

I'll have to give Death Wish a go @Black Tiger of Death - Big fan of the die hard series

Otherwise The Meg looks interesting
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It is a brilliant remake (y)
 
Batman Ninja. I really wanted to like the movie, but it was way too anime for me.
 
Black Tiger of Death said:
I love Bond movies too. Do you like Mission Impossible?
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Sadly, no; the premise doesn't bother me, I just REALLY can't stand Tom Cruise. At all lol.

If he wasn't in them, I'd watch them.

I'm a Bond nut lol; have read two of the books (own them all), have seen each film 3 times (2 of them, were 3 times too many) at least, with some in the hundreds (Goldeneye I've probably watched a good 600-700 times or so, legitimately and it is my 3rd favourite film ever; easily the film I've watched the most in my life).
 
Couple more to add, that I've seen recently.


Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000):

I get why this film was so huge when it came out; it is a wonderful film, though, like most things that get a ton of attention too quickly, it is a bit overblown.

If nobody is familiar with the story, based off of a Wuxia novel series, Li Mu Bai (Yun-Fat Chow) is a legendary warrior with an even more legendary sword, who has returned to his (can't bear to tell her) love, Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), after training in the mountains. He has decided to retire from training and take on a new student (though he can't find one worthy enough) and finally profess his love to Shu Lien, but things get in the way, when he asks her to transport the sword to a noble lord (basically) and it gets stolen.

It gets stolen by Jen (Ziyi Zhang), who is the daughter of a Governor and a secret practitioner of Wudan, though nobody is aware of it (Shu Lien kind of is, but she does certain things to confirm it, after she fights with Jen in Ninja garb).

The plot isn't bad, but I found it indeed was a bit ploddy at times (the flashback scene that takes almost 20 minutes, is long and drawn out, IMO) and they throw too many things at you that aren't connected at first, without much cohesiveness; all plot points come together in the end though and make the tied-up loose ends quite good, so its not a total loss.

The reason why this film did so well was because of the Martial Arts and acting, as both are top notch (mind you, Mortal Kombat had better martial arts IMO and later films such as the Raid, just take a dump on CTHD), even if the wire-fu is beyond ridiculous (everyone can, "fly," or at the very least, float around by waving their legs; it looks a bit funny, actually) and over-the-top. Michelle Yeoh is just awesome, truly a great actress and a worthy practitioner of, "movie martial arts." Being Yun-Fat Chow's first martial arts film, he does a fantastic job as well, plus his acting is always superb. Ziyi Zhang will always be a great actress, regardless of what role she has, but her fighting chops are really not bad, especially someone who has no formal training. Chang Chen is the fourth-billed actor and while he's good, nothing to write home about (he has a handful of scenes where he stand out, though).

Again, a wonderful film, but probably a bit overblown. Like Derek Jeter, a great thing for it's time, but people overrate it too much to make it greater than it is; worth it to see Yeoh and Chow, plus Zhang.

9/10

I Saw the Devil (2010)

A "psychological thriller/horror," I first viewed the last 45 minutes, about 5-6 years ago, one night after coming hom from work (my father was watching it) and it captivated me big time. After struggling for a long time to find the title of this film, I searched 2 years ago for, "Korean Films Revenge," and I discovered that there were a ton of films in that, "genre," lol (its how I discovered Oldboy, actually). After going through the descriptions,, "I Saw the Devil," looked like the film I had seen. Got it recently and watched it on Monday.

The opening crawl displays credits and the POV inside of a vehicle (looks like a bus, from how wide and open the windshield is), while driving along on a snowy evening. A special forces cop (Lee-Byung Hun) is speaking with his pregnant fiancée on the phone, as she has a flat tire and is waiting at the side of the road for a Tow Truck to come. The POV vehicle then stops and a pudgy, little man steps out (Sik-Min Choi), offers his help and doesn't leave after she declines. She then continually declines, before watching him head back to his bus. After not leaving for a while, she wonders this fact aloud, until the pudgy man starts attacking her car with a hammer and tries to drag her out; he does (after beating her in the head with the hammer) and then drives off. The next scene, he has stripped her naked (it is implied that she was raped, if later events are any indication) and after pleading for her life because she's pregnant (and not all there, also implied that the skull bashing has impaired her), he kills her, dismembers her and cleans up the area.

If that wasn't wild enough, the rest of the film is just brutal and it doesn't pull it's punches with how cruel a human being can be. The acting is phenomenal (a bit hammy at times with the older folk), especially from the two leads (Sik-Min Choi is the Korean Kitano and probably a better overall actor lol) and the film is written brilliantly. If you can handle the gore, this film is fantastic.

9/10

The Black Cauldron (1985)

The film that almost bankrupted Disney (and was bashed because of this), certainly couldn't have been THAT bad, right?

Its not; not even close for that matter, but like many things in life, timing is absolutely everything.

Taran is an assistant Pig-Keeper, who has aspirations to become a great warrior. He is entrusted to take said pig (an Oracular Pig) to safety, after an evil king (most-likely a Lich) has aspirations to procure the titular Black Cauldron (as it created an "Undead Army)", which only the pig knows where it is. In typical Disney fashion, in order for the character to learn his lesson, everything goes wrong at just the right time, so that the main character can learn his place and why things happened the way they did (character development). The pig gets kidnapped by the king, Taran rescues her, but is caught and sent to a dungeon, where he meets a, "princess," (quoted for reasons) and they escape, after finding an enchanted sword.

The rest of the film is the typical Disney plot, where the hero(es) go on to self-discovery, fight together and destroy the evil, running off happily ever after. The big thing with this film, was that it would've been rated R, if not for the PG rating to become instituted just a year prior and if certain cuts were made; the film has a sequence in particular, that even WITH the cuts, is very reminiscent of Heavy Metal, which is bad for children who are Disney fans lol.

It was for those reasons that the film bombed at the box office, but the voice acting is done fairly-well, the animation is great on the whole and the actual backstory (which is damn brilliant and I want to procure the novels now, as a result) is somewhat faithful, but not handled correctly. Disney just had a ton of turmoil at the time and it showed in this film.

Easily an 8/10 and it doesn't deserve the bashing it has received, all these years.

Going to see an Italian film this evening! :D
 
Took my dad to see Bohemian Rhapsody last night.

A bit disappointed that they cut the Live Aid performance short (understandable as it is), but I'd defo recommend it to anyone who likes Queen. The sound's fucking phenomenal and I've never heard anything like it. Out of every single song in this film, it's only Don't Stop Me Now that I've listened to at a higher level of quality, and that was relegated to a credits track.

The film itself is entertaining enough, and it's nice seeing some of the stories play out in front of your eyes, but really it's all about the sound, and they've done a fucking phenomenal job working it into surround sound cinema. Go and watch it.
 
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Highly recommended. Jackson and his studio remastered and colorized original WWI footage set to stories told by archived interviews of veterans from the war. In addition, Jackson had lip readers transcribe what the soldiers were saying in the footage and had voice actors voice the lines. The overall effect is stunning. It's a world of difference from the static, jerky black & white footage. There's some sort of mental disconnect when watching the original footage. It's like your mind (or my mind at least) categorizes it as ancient history from a bygone era that you just can't relate to despite it not being too long ago (relatively speaking). Seeing the remastered footage makes it seem a whole lot more real and concrete, like it could've happened the other day.

 
The Goonies. I purchased the Blu-ray yesterday for 6,99 €. I saw this movie the last time in the year of 2002 or 2003 and i remembering me while watching the movie is too old. But on this BD-Release the movie is still fine like in my childhood. But i had a big fear before Sloth. Oh man. And the dead men in the fridge.
 
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Ichi the Killer -- One of my favorite Takashi Miike films of all time. A crazed psycho sexual horror melodrama. It gets better with every re-watch. It's more than just a simple shock film, In typical Miike fashion there's a lot of layers to unpack here. It never ceases to amaze me how he can frame violence that is at one moment absurdly hilarious and then the next moment disturbing as all hell. For as crazed as all the characters are within it, there is something deeply fascinating about these largely repulsive characters that just keeps me hooked the entire way through.

Tadanobu Asanou is just genius as Kakihara. The real show stealer of the piece. I love the wry little smirks he delivers after brutally torturing his poor victims. I love the fact that he actually brings some pathos to it. One moment he is smirking with glee at the pain he inflicts. The next he is on the edge of despair due to the heartbreak of losing his lover (the boss). The character is completely repulsive but he makes it such a joy to watch.

I love the style of it. I love that it has a ton of energy to it. I love that buried within the craziness of it all is some real humanity as some of the characters are quite tragic (Kaneko and Takeyama are really the last beacons of humanity throughout all of the madness that ensues and even they struggle to hold on to the last remaining shreds of their humanity in the face of Kakihara's increasing madness)

I don't know, I just really love this film. I've seen it a number of times and I think it gets better with every re-watch. It's not just a shock film that is aiming to shock for the sake of it. There really is more going on here than meets the eye. Much like most of Miike's work. It's flat out bold, daring and borderline genius.
 
I've read nothing but great things about it and it is considered his best film; I will need to give it a view sometime.

Run Lola Run (1998)

A German film about a young adult, who must get 100,000 marks in 20 minutes, otherwise her b/f will be killed. TO do so, she has to run... and run... and run some more, to obtain the funds and fix things, either from her father or from either her or her b/f's quick thinking.

The scenario replays 3 times, with a different outcome each time.

That's basically all there is to it. It is an incredibly fun film and the interspersing of CGI (not the type of CGI you're thinking of), music and the action on screen, makes it a wonderful title. Good acting abounds (though one character is a touch hammy) and the end is result is super satisfying.

9/10
 
Godzilla King of The Monsters(2019), it was alright movie. I only cared the monsters and not the humans story. The only thing I hated was cutting away from the monsters whenever they fought to show the humans getting destroyed or arguing against one another.
 
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Sympathy for the Underdog -- A masterpiece of Yakuza cinema from the master Kinji Fukasaku. I first had the pleasure of seeing this on 35MM in a small Shibuya art house type cinema a few years back and fell head over heels in love with it. One of Fukasaku's finest.
 
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