Movies you've just watched

[Ixmucane2]

I liked The Expendables more than The Expendables 2. Many things remained good, but there have been many steps backwards in the sequel:

• The airplane is used in a much less creative way, before being (rather "out of character") destroyed and replaced with a boring one.
• Shooting got similarly less interesting: a lot more of efficiently mowing down mooks with plain automatic fire and a lot less of using heavy weapons in interesting destructive ways.
• Instead of a straightforward and reasonable mission, there is a combination of very awkward revenge (a villain so psychopath that doesn't even look like a real threat, and an overly lengthy confrontation, are needed to kill Mr Redshirt and motivate the company) and completely silly terrorist plan (am I the only one to cringe at the cavalier handling of plutonium ingots?).
• The attractive woman is, in many respects, more a dead weight than a valuable addition to the team.
• The character of Chuck Norris makes the implausibility cross the line between camp exaggeration, which is perfectly fine, and outright unrealistic fantasy, which is contrary to basic action movie principles. He is sadly out of place.

[Ed Oscuro]

Kano from Mortal Kombat sucking on the chick from Jag's neck.

can't stop laughing at that mental image

Oh goodness, I need to find MK sometime. For the environments if nothing else.

[Skykid]

[...]it's offensive to me to see him cast in the Expendables, despite it's shitness, because he's no way near earned the right to stand side by side with Willis, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, or basically anyone else in the cast.

You mean the two guys who had a 4 minute scene in the first movie and the guy who did a shitty job writing, a shitty job acting and a super shitty job directing? Face it, the only core member aside from Stallone with any true 80s action cred is Dolph Lundgren and outside of a fight with Jet Li, he's not used well. Yet another problem with the concept.

No disagreements there, haha. It was more of a 'he shouldn't even be considered for the cast' sorta thing. I actually thought Dolph was the only redeeming feature, but as you said, incredibly underused.

[njiska]

Completely unrelated to this, but does anyone know if a rip of Miike's adaptation of Gyakuten Saiban has been released with Eng subs? Fansub or the official ones? I'm assuming the JP Blu-Ray lacks them.

And while on the subject of Miike videogame adaptation films, anyone have an opinion on Ryu Ga Gotoku?

[ArmoredCore]

Solomon Kane

How did i not knew about this movie. Enjoyed it all the way through.

[lilmanjs]

Tokyo Sonata. Still can't fathom that ending! you just never see it coming, but when it does, you realize what a good movie you've watched. Though I've not seen any other movies by the director, he normally does horror movies, right?

[Skykid]

Tokyo Sonata. Still can't fathom that ending! you just never see it coming, but when it does, you realize what a good movie you've watched.

Lulz, cos you're not quite sure up to that point?

Tokyo Sonata isn't bad, but overrated imo.

On other things:

Chocolate is one of the best martial arts movies in years; not just for the exciting and creative fight scenes, but also because it tells a story with some real emotion.

^^this.

Haha, what movie did you guys watch?!

I went for this based on recommendations in this thread and it was balls. The premise is good, the girl is reasonably acrobatic, but it's such ham-fisted drivel. How on earth such appallingly cringeworthy melodrama works on anyone outside of asia is beyond me, it's totally unconvincing and cartoony and destroys any believability in the characters or plotting. If it wasn't for a few bloodless fight scenes of average choreography and Jackie Chan wannabee aspiration, it would be barely watchable.

Flat, flat, flat. After seeing The Protector, The Raid and Flashpoint, I expect more from modern martial arts movies. Not recommended.

[shmuppyLove]

Oh goodness, I need to find MK sometime. For the environments if nothing else.

Yes MK was deliciously goodbad. So wrong and so right at the same time.

And the second movie has one of the bestworst lines in scriptwriting history!

http://youtu.be/MIt0VY7Yg2w

[emphatic]

Chocolate is one of the best martial arts movies in years; not just for the exciting and creative fight scenes, but also because it tells a story with some real emotion.

^^this.

Haha, what movie did you guys watch?!

Sorry about that. For some reason, I felt the same as you did on my repeat watch (when I bought the Bluray). I have no clue how I liked it so much that first time around.

[drauch]

Oh goodness, I need to find MK sometime. For the environments if nothing else.

Yes MK was deliciously goodbad. So wrong and so right at the same time.

And the second movie has one of the bestworst lines in scriptwriting history!

http://youtu.be/MIt0VY7Yg2w

Don't forget that they also use the same death scene of Rain dying in the first one for Baraka's death as well. Classy!

[Skykid]

Sorry about that. For some reason, I felt the same as you did on my repeat watch (when I bought the Bluray). I have no clue how I liked it so much that first time around.

No sweat, at least I know I'm not the only one who saw it that way. Even the duffers can catch you on a good day sometimes.

[jonny5]

Sorry about that. For some reason, I felt the same as you did on my repeat watch (when I bought the Bluray). I have no clue how I liked it so much that first time around.

No sweat, at least I know I'm not the only one who saw it that way. Even the duffers can catch you on a good day sometimes.

Ya, I watched that one based on the recommendations here, and was thoroughly disappointed with the film. The fight scenes were lame and the story was boring.

Watched Raid Redemption again the other night. Now THAT is a good martial arts flick. No nonsense, no need for a complicated plot or anything, just enough to justify shit tons of ultra violence and speed stabbing.

[blackoak]

Buckaroo Banzai... so, so, so good. Hadn't seen it in a long time. I remembered how sad I felt as a kid when I saw them walk off-screen at the end credits, with the music still playing, because I kept hoping there would be more. Its just the perfect comic book movie for me.

[drauch]

Still waiting for World Crime League...

[lilmanjs]

Interview. Watched it twice with 2 different edits. turns out when I bought it used, there was a korean released dvd(a dvd-r though) stuck behind the full screen dvd. Which turns out had the full version of the movie. I enjoyed it as it didn't leave out 30+ minutes of footage and was good quality. Nice little drama movie about a guy who's falling in love with a lady while he films a movie based on love and what it means to a lot of different people and couples.

[xbl0x180]

Okay, so I took my first dive into Blu-Ray and bought Just Jaeckin's L'Histoire D'O - the 105-minute version. It's the only way to have the full version since the DVD was truncated by about 10 minutes

[cyborc]

saw raiders of the lost ark in imax today. theater was only half full which was kinda surprising. it was awesome to see it in a theater for the first time. Transfer looked pretty good overall. the jungle scene at the beginning looked rough in spots.

[BIL]

Harakiri aka Seppuku. Splendid, mythos-upending samurai film, with strong human drama and an endearing lead performance by Tatsuya Nakadai. Having enjoyed his acting in several films beforehand, I've really come to appreciate him now - it's hard to think of a greater contrast between this film and the role I saw him in last, the glacial Ryunosuke Tsukue in The Sword of Doom.

[Ed Oscuro]

Solomon Kane

How did i not knew about this movie. Enjoyed it all the way through.

Have this one ready to watch sometime. SERIOUS hivemind going on in here. :O

[...]it's offensive to me to see him cast in the Expendables, despite it's shitness, because he's no way near earned the right to stand side by side with Willis, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, or basically anyone else in the cast.

You mean the two guys who had a 4 minute scene in the first movie and the guy who did a shitty job writing, a shitty job acting and a super shitty job directing? Face it, the only core member aside from Stallone with any true 80s action cred is Dolph Lundgren and outside of a fight with Jet Li, he's not used well. Yet another problem with the concept.

I dunno - that was really enough for me, and it was refreshing not to have it just tread the same ol' "look at this asshole, the whole movie is now about him" way of dealing with characters like Gunnar; he remained considerably serious and wasn't simply "solved." The fact they didn't kill him off helps keep that little drama in the background; it felt OK just having him pop in at unhelpful times. They were always aiming to make this a series, after all.

[xbl0x180]

Harakiri aka Seppuku. Splendid, mythos-upending samurai film, with strong human drama and an endearing lead performance by Tatsuya Nakadai. Having enjoyed his acting in several films beforehand, I've really come to appreciate him now - it's hard to think of a greater contrast between this film and the role I saw him in last, the glacial Ryunosuke Tsukue in The Sword of Doom.

Haha. My brother and I watched "The Sword Of Doom" last week and he hated it (I won't say why)! It's not your typical samurai story and I loved every minute of it

[emphatic]

Brave. 4/5.

The film looks amazing (sometimes I could swear the surroundings were shot and not animated) and has a good story, but lacks the memorable characters that make a Disney/Pixar film special. A weak 4 outta 5.

[SuperGrafx]

One of the guys

It's an 80's movie about a girl who is denied a summer internship at a local newspaper.
Her issue is that because she's pretty, her article wasn't taken seriously.
As a result, she decides to dress up as a guy for a week to prove her point.

It's more humorous than anything else.

[drauch]

My Lucky Stars - Stars so awesome, then turns into a slapstick nightmare. A couple of slightly funny bits, but overall a little too much. Ending fight scene makes up for it, thankfully.

Lethal Weapon 1/2 - You already know.

[drauch]

Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster - Fantastic Godzilla film. Mothra, Godzilla and Rodan team up to tackle Ghidorah in his first film appearance.

The Wild Bunch - Seen it a billion times. Watched it again. Of course it's perfect.

Mad Mission - The first of the series. Absolutely dreadful. Almost couldn't make it. Later films are supposedly better--or so I hope.

[IlMrm]

Couple of horrors:

The Innkeepers - I actually jumped at one scene. Haven't happened in a while.

Silent House

[powersoul]

Grave of the Fireflies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFP_RVWh-y0

Awesome animation for that era, I was wondering why this wasn't remade

[jonny5]

Buckaroo Banzai... so, so, so good. Hadn't seen it in a long time. I remembered how sad I felt as a kid when I saw them walk off-screen at the end credits, with the music still playing, because I kept hoping there would be more. Its just the perfect comic book movie for me.

YES!!!

Awesome movie indeed!!! I watch this every few months. I also sampled a bunch out of it for a song a few months back.

[BIL]

Samurai Rebellion. Of the postwar samurai flicks I've seen this one felt the most like a genuine tragedy, easily on par with obvious comparison points Throne of Blood and Ran but more affecting given the innocence of its victims. Sparing on action with good reason, combat almost feels like a formality against the larger theme of institutional inhumanity.

I don't think I'll ever see enough films co-starring Mifune and Nakadai. Such quality leading men, and their respective brands of intensity played off each other marvelously, as is the case here.

Until now, when I looked it up on imdb for a link, I assumed it was part of an anti-samurai trilogy, along with Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion. Harakiri tore down the idea of Samurai Honor, Samurai Rebellion tore down the idea of a Samurai's complete devotion to his lord, and I assumed Sword of Doom was meant to once and for all debunk romantic notions about a man who completely and utterly devotes himself to the art of killing; much like Unforgiven debunked romantic notions about gunfighters for hire.

Quality post. These three movies make for great sequential viewing.

[Obiwanshinobi]

What I like about Hong Kong films about people living by sword is what I suppose to be distinctively Chinese lack of admiration for such a way of life. The saying "you don't forge nails of good iron and you don't make a soldier of a good person" rings true to me.

[drauch]

Grave of the Fireflies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFP_RVWh-y0

Awesome animation for that era, I was wondering why this wasn't remade

It certainly doesn't need to be.