shmups.system11.org

Zulu (1964)
Depicts the Battle of Rorke's Drift between the British and the Zulus in 1879. Long, but necessary for great depiction of the characters. Lovely scenery too.

Just saw Shazam! It's one of the better DC movies out there, just as good as Aquaman.

The Man Who Would be King (1975)
Michael Caine and Sean Connery are two 19th century ex-soldiers of the British Army, that travel to Kafiristan (modern day region in Afghanistan) to make a fortune by uniting the different tribes, and then stealing away all their treasures. Things go apeshit.

Bobby Jasoos
An Indian movie from 2014 about a woman who's a disgrace to her father and wants to be a successful detective. She gets a bunch of low rate cases such as trailing people to find out about smoking or cheating and some such till a rich man shows up and gives her a case and loads of money to do so. Musical numbers are few and don't actually get in the way. Sadly the editing is awful at times, but I did enjoy it.

Shazam. Good movie with good energy. Mostly family friendly for those who may be wondering, but there are some things very young kids may find scary. Nothing worse than what you would have seen in an Indiana Jones or Ghostbusters movie back in the day. This movie has a few good laughs in it & some stuff that really surprised me even though I saw the trailers. It has a realistic but positive message about being orphaned/adopted & I didn't sense any spiteful progressive messaging or anything like that. I liked it more than Aquaman & about even with Wonder Woman, if not a little more.

Starsky and Hutch (2004): **1/2

Remake of the 70s cop show with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson in the lead roles. Fairly average on its own, but it's difficult to separate the actors from their previous co-starring roles. Basically, you spend the entire movie thinking it's Derek Zoolander and Hansel trying to be cops. The fact that the movie operates on roughly the same level of intelligence as Zoolander doesn't help matters any. Probably still better than that CHIPs remake from a couple of years ago, but I'm not in a hurry to watch that one to find out.

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Caught the Fathom Events screening of this one. On the good side of the Miyzakai films I'd say. Has the usual fantastical and charming atmosphere, with characters that you kind of like right out of the box. A bit more schmaltz than I expected, and a few things seemed to rise and resolve for no reason at all. Still enjoyable. At a running time of roughly two hours my kid stayed mostly focused which is a feat. Watching the credits afterward I realized Takuya Kimura voiced Howl. Egads.

I’ve always thought this was one of the most visually stunning Miyzakai movies, never saw it on the big screen and missed the subbed screening here last night, hopefully make the dubbed one tomorrow. Caught Castle in the Sky on 35mm a few years ago and it looked great.

Edit: how packed was the theater for your screening?

A bunch of theaters in Chicago will show this for one night, and one night only. This Wednesday! I've purchased my ticket. I've long resolved that I ought to see this movie. I had tried to corral friends, but work schedules and distance means it's just me (my original plan). Don Quixote likewise holds a special place in my heart. Hopefully this movie will too!

You are right about the look of Pryce. The only one who can compare in the looks department is Francisco Reiguera from Orson Welles' cancelled Don Quixote project. He looks like an illustration or Picasso sketch come to life.

Not very, but note that it played in 3 theaters in the area (and I think that was just one city in LA County. Generally Fathom Events happens at 3 theaters in the entire Chicago area. Again, I think. But that makes sense as Chicago is far more dense than LA.

Anyway, we were definitely not the only people there, but the theater was only a quarter full or so, which was about what I expected. But note this is Torrance... I speak Japanese to my son in the park / grocery story and nobody bats an eye. However I only noticed one Japanese speaking family there.

Shurayukihime 2 / Lady Snowblood 2

A far cry from it's predecessor, unfortunately. I would have expected them to up the ante for a sequel, but it seems they downed it in every aspect. First and foremost, the fight scenes from the first I found required a bit of suspension of belief. This was not rectified at all... arguably they put in less effort. The caricature violence eventually rears it's head, but it's not a supporting character as it was the first time. The dead simple, but well executed revenge story is now somewhat convoluted and centers around something that borders on goofy. Some ridiculous filming tactics that reek of early 70s are there... as well as zooming lenses. Yikes.

I guess if you really dig this kind of film go for it, but I found it highly unnecessary. Thankfully they took the hint and didn't try to cash in any further.

Just saw Hellboy. I don't get why people are crapping all over the movie.

Of course you don't. You are, by extend of your words here, the most unassuming single-line commenter I can witness.
When I heard that they gave Milla Jovovich a role that would require more than portraying a human-shaped sign post, I undertook some pagan tricks to exorcise the thought from my mind. Alas.

Gremlins (1984)
Another one I never watched beginning to end, for some reason. Bloody good and funny, Gizmo is fucking adorable.
Too bad they went full black humour on the sequel, together with a shitload of references and cameos.

May not be as good as the Guillermo del Toro ones, but I thought it was okay.

If you want a similar type of movie, I'd recommend Female Prisoner Scorpion and its sequel. I guess she's a classic character, I still see references to her once in a while (eg. Love Exposure).

Hellboy (2019)

Plot: the monster of the week is not only a major threat that deserves a whole film, but clever and insidious enough to call into question Hellboy's humanity and force him to come to terms with his predicted apocalyptic role. Non-spoiler: in addition to saving the world, Hellboy resists temptation and chooses life.
Unusually high body count, with villains ranging between unnecessary cruelty and genocide for fun.

Given Del Toro's precedent, an interesting and possibly better alternative take on the same characters and setting, with less style and more feeling. Differences include a strong focus on Hellboy and his problems at the expense of side characters, and more attention to action, particularly what Hellboy thinks and says and does, at the expense of details and atmosphere.

The story is reasonable and focused first, and canonical second; the BPRD is rather aligned with the comics but there are some moderate deformations (e.g. no mention of the Ogdru Jahad and of some major characters), perplexing strange corners (e.g. why is Lobster Johnson, basically a slightly more sinister variation of Captain America with no known involvement in the story after participating in Hellboy's rescue, so legendary?) and a significant neglect of the summoning of Hellboy (told briefly, without even trying to introduce the numerous important characters, the Nazi evil plan, and what went wrong in the ritual). There's an unusually good balance between throwaway and recurring villains and a realistic amount of references and flashbacks to earlier adventures (Hellboy has been around for a rather long time).

Gilda (1946)
Rita Hayworth, that is all.
Wonderful written dialogue, too, to complement the performances.

Gun Crazy (1950)
Two gun specialists leave their travelling carnival to be together, but when money runs out, they start a Bonnie and Clyde run that ends sour, especially since the man is horrified in killing anything, while the girl seems to have no problem in gunning down anyone in their way. Good watch.

Never forget that Aladdin could have asked Will Smith to abolish the class system and make every man a king, but chose to become a class traitor because it was more profitable.

Even so, we see that Smith is able to create life from nothing. Instead of wishing for 1 princess Jasmine, he could have wished for 10 or 10000 of them instead. This Aladdin guy seems to have a real dearth of imagination, is what I'm getting at here.

Which would have been a great angle to further explore the theme in a TV series, instead of another "this movie never goes away" thing.



Oi, I liked how the Resident Evil movies were just there for the director to go "hey check out my dreamy wife!" That's nepotism I can get behind.

.... the god awful action cuts in #2 killed it for me, though. Felt like my neck had whiplash.

It's definitely in the queue. Not sure if I can watch it on a plane though... a bit racy.

I second that, the first two Female Prisoner Scorpion films are really worth it. I remember spoting a character similar to Sasori in Killer 7... Anyway, I have to go with the second movie as the best one for adding one more interesting character to share screen with Meijo Kaji. Also, Jailhouse is a bit more whimsical.

Speaking of which, I watched Yōkai Daisensou/Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare(1968)
A fantasy film full of costumes and special effects staring the japanese mythological creatures, set on the Edo period. The yokais join forces to defeat the evil foreign vampire demon Daimon and save the land. The appeal is, of course; glimpses of buddism and japanese folclore, monsters, sword fights and to some extent, humour. The scenes are dark and mostly at night, which works really well to make the yokais more believable. The story has a interesting contrast. While the humans mostly speak a serious and polished speech, the yokais are more fun and empathic, having more personality (Maybe similar to how Batman's crazy villains can steal the show). Not quite a horror movie, could even be a adventure family film if you're okay with some amount of blood. I would love to see this one getting a bluray release.

Damn. I hadn't gotten around to this yet but the first was pretty enjoyable. I think I posted about it here, but maybe it was on another forum. I usually c/p after the initial type up to a few forums but sometimes I forget.

I got sick fairly severely (and suddenly) so I can't play Bloodborne tonight (too drained I'd just get wrecked) and this was actually on my short stack of BDs I had out. It was probably going to win out because I am not sure if I am in the mood for a Mizoguchi ball punching. Maybe I'll shamble over to the shelf to grab something else.



Somehow they keep making Resident Evil movies.



Gremlins 2 has to be pretty high up on the list of unnecessary sequels. It's a long list too.

Really? I honestly liked Gremlins 2 over the original, because of dropping the Christmas theme (having movies take place on holidays, especially Christmas, is a bit of a dead horse for me, honestly), being much more lighthearted, and feeling a bit like Die Hard or Rambo at times.

If you think the theatrical cut of Gremlins is dark you should read the original script.



The Mrs. and I watch Gremlins every Christmas night. One of my favorite traditions:D

Yeah, the second one definitely has more flair and gets pretty nuts with the sets and tricks, but I probably still prefer the first as well. The manga is also great; it's mainly just vignettes, and Sasori is even more cold in that.

All the Yokai movies are rad. It's a shame they didn't continue that series and pump them out like Godzilla or Zatoichi, or at least make a show with all those puppets and costumes.

Pepe le Moko (1937)
One of the movies that inspired the noir genre, it's the story of French gangster living in Algiers, and the police forces trying to capture him. The dialogue is beautiful, and the characters deliver their lines wonderfully. Must watch.

Either way, I still prefer The New Batch over the original. Who cares about the Looney Tunes and Hulk Hogan cameos?

Under the Silver Lake (2018)

The miserable Andrew Garfield as a heartbroken, unemployed, slothful paranoid who uses his cock as a dowsing rod to find answers where a) there are none or b) they're irrelevant/insignificant; I won't look for or fabricate explanations where there are none.
The copious scantily clad ass and cinematography are the most memorable aspects of what otherwise has the coherence of a Pollock painting, and reminds me of some of the more negative reviews I'd read: "Mulholland Drive, but written by a 9th grader...".
I'll defer to Zens review on the previous page.

My wife & I finally got around to starting the Shunya Itou Sasori series. The first movie is a straight up pink film but we still enjoyed it. Meiko Kaji is such a badass. The scene with the female undercover cop in the solitary confinement cell had us in stitches. We liked the second movie too, but it’s very different. It was a bit of a weird choice to make the Sasori character less of a focus, but the demonic co-star was so good that I was totally along for the ride. Looking forward to the third & fourth movies.

Yeah, in the comic she's not always at the forefront of the stories, but more so the solution to whatever trouble the other inmates are in.