Originally posted by Baseley09
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Agree 100% ... had a great time with this film, esp the trips into 60s London, but there was a 10 minute segment that felt exactly like an episode of Doctor Who. -
I had a re-watch of Heat this week. It's been a long time since I saw it at the flicks and going back I think it's good but not great and Michael Mann has definitely done better. I still fail to see what all the fuss is about with the famous shootout in the streets ... it's loud and chaotic but that's all it is. Still, it's a fun crime caper with a lush, cool as ice LA backdrop like only MM does. As big as DeNiro and Pacino are it's Waingro I remember the most, he's such a great character/part of the story.Comment
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The Fall - recent scare fest around 2 climber girls who get stuck up a communications pole. Honest to god my palms were sweating, I'm not the best with heights and this had me reaching to pull my eyeballs out, sounds like I didn't enjoy it, bit I really did, just made my guts go!! If you're looking for some non paranormal scares, worth a go.Comment
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My wife gave up after 20 minutes and i feel like maybe a lot of people will but wow it’s such a wild ride, funny, crazy, touching and dizzying all at once. It really dose feel like a film that really is different to anything else out their, bits of it where really sad too which really took me by surpriseOriginally posted by fuse View Post
the cast is fantastic too Michelle Yeoh really gets to shine, and i was really surprised to see Ke Huy Quan (Data/short round) back on my screen after all these years, playing a loveable idiot and then Suddenly
was a joy to see.Comment
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This weekend I watched the two Top Gun movies.
I hadn’t seen the first since back in the day. I don’t know if this is blasphemous but I think it’s not a great film. To be fair to it, I think some of my feelings in the movie come from having seen Hot Shots so many times so I found so many scenes funny. But even without Hot Shots, there is so much unintentional comedy in it. The characters are ridiculous and there are just so many weird little moments, like following a woman into the toilet to hit on her. The story has very little to it and the air stuff is just peppered with random catchphrases, like a game that has glitched audio and you need to restart it. It’s entertaining enough but I don’t quite get the love for it.
And I never really felt from others that it was ever hailed as some masterpiece which is why the huge success of the recent film has taken me by surprise.
So then I actually watched Maverick and, in so many ways, it’s a really similar movie. But I found it to be far, far better. Even though following some similar beats, it seemed to have much more of a human heart to it and had some character depth. Events had a bit more weight to them, like they mattered. I really enjoyed it.
I have to hand the director some serious kudos for how the aerial stuff was shot too. In this day and age, he could have created any shot at all in CG. He could go as fancy and as ridiculous as he liked. And yet it all felt like it could have been shot for real. Nothing ever really felt CG. No shot even remotely stretched reality. It all just felt like it was shot on actual cameras.
It’s a good movie… although I still don’t quite get how it has been so successful.
I do find it interesting that, in both movies, we have no idea who the enemies are, get zero context and they just go and kill people and celebrate and we’re supposed to cheer without a shred of info about the conflict they are getting themselves involved in.Comment
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Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
This is pretty much exactly where I land. The original is a very dated film and the best way I can box it is that it's a date movie. It contains all the romance and stakes mixed with the imagery and one liners etc but I've always found its reputation as being an all time great action film to be hugely undeserved and misrepresentative of the film.
With Maverick, it's more like a sequel/remake of the film people think Top Gun to be rather than the one it is. It affords the original more depth than it has but this is one of the rare occasions where it works in the films favour. It's pretty much superior in every regard. But... no, I don't know how it made so much either. I have to assume it's a bit of right time, right film and a pre-pandemic box office might not have been quite so forgiving.
Effects wise, it's spotty to be sure and I'm presume the disc release will clear it up, but broadly it's said that Maverick utilises CG for the missiles, gun fire etc but other than that the rest is practical footage culled from thousands of hours taken. Another testament to how much CG needs to be scaled back in the industry.Comment
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We're in the same boat jet here.
We saw Top Gun the night before seeing the sequel at the cinema.
We thought it was okaaaay, but all over the place with story and how you're supposed to fast forward to caring about the various relationships, without much effort into giving you reasons to.
The sequel was a real treat though - just streamlined action like the old days, but better.
I guess seeing it on the triple ScreenX made it an experience too, but those aerial sections with the surround screens was mint.
The bit where he blows the roof off was real but unscripted!
John Carpenter posted that one of the stars of Assault on Precinct 13, Austin Stoker, died on the 7th October, so I rewatched the film with JC's commentary and an interview with the two of them, which was really interesting. JC banged out the soundtrack really quickly and was influenced by the opening of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song"! I can totally hear that!
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Never knew that, but yeah, can totally hear it. Then Bomb the Bass borrowed it for Megablast. Love Precinct 13 ... RIP Austin Stoker.Originally posted by QualityChimp View PostComment
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Megablast was my first exposure to the track ("ah ah, ah yeah!") and I'm sure I'd read it was from Precinct 13, but it made sense when I finally saw the film.
I got a copy of the film on VHS when a magazine gave it away (The Grifters was the other choice) with one issue.
It's surprising how well it holds up considering how old it is and how it was JC's first studio movie.
Bought the Blu-Ray from CEX and it's got loads of extras.
Thinking of buying all his films (I have most) and doing a picture on the spines that make up a montage picture on the shelf.Comment
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Halloween Ends
The best way I've seen this described is that it's a solid, reasonable film in of itself but arguably the worst Halloween film in the franchise and that is probably about right. Laurie is good and just about everything else is either irrelevant to the franchise arc or poorly handled. It's a film that suits its name on a technicality that I won't get into yet as it's new and quite easily spoilered but once again the writers swung and missed.
Smile
Do you like sudden loud music queues? Do you like jumpcuts? More importantly, do you like The Ring? If so then you might get some mileage out of this film that is blatantly a rip off of that prior franchise with a videotape swapped out for smiling. By the end you get to where you know it's headed all along with some reasonably delivered moments but absolutely nothing left in the tank for the now inevitable sequel.
Insidious
Goths in a House, been a while since I last saw this one and it's an odd one. The story is fine but there's very little effective horror to it.
Jason X
The opposite end of the scale, it's still the same that it always was - awful to the point whereby it at some point pushes through to become entertaining again
Hereditary
Slow burner that does a really good job of having an unreliable narrative throughout for its characters, some decent moments and then it utterly and completely ***** the bed for its finale and ruins the whole film.Comment
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To the other cineastes in the thread, I'm planning on doing Woovember again and it'd be cool to see what lists other people come up with:
I found it to be a great way to see some new films, seek out ones you've meant to watch and work through your disc backlog (with maybe a couple of new discs to treat yourself!). It's nice to have a focus on what to watch and I really like trying to see if I can meet all the tasks in as few films as possible!
Woovember 6: White Heaven in Hell
https://letterboxd.com/krautsalat/li...eaven-in-hell/
Woovember is back! For the entire month of november we will celebrate action cinema in all its glory. So join us for a month of action and check out the official Woovember twitter account.
Previous years: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021
The rules are simple: Watch 30 action movies during the month of November and complete the following 30 tasks. One film can fulfill several tasks. If you can complete all tasks in less than 30 films, that's fine as well. Use the tags woovember or woovember 6 for your lists and reviews.
The Tasks:
Watch an action film directed by John Woo
Current Events:
Watch an action film directed by S. S. Rajamouli or starring N.T. Rama Rao Jr. or Ram Charan to celebrate the international success of RRR
Watch an action film starring Tom Cruise to celebrate him single-handedly saving cinema with Top Gun: Maverick
Memorial Special:
Watch an action film starring Dean Shek (Died October 31, 2021)
Watch an action film starring Robert Wall (Died January 30, 2022)
Watch an action film starring Jimmy Wang Yu (Died April 5, 2022)
Watch an action film starring Fred Ward (Died May 8, 2022)
Watch an action film starring Cüneyt Arkin (Died July 28, 2022)
Watch an action film starring Gene LeBell (Died August 9, 2022)
Watch an action film directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Died August 12, 2022)
Watch an action film starring Henry Silva (Died September 14, 2022)
Anniversary Special:
Watch an action film directed by John Hyams to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning
Watch an action film starring Jason Statham to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Transporter
Watch an action film starring Wesley Snipes to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Blade II and the 30th anniversary of Passenger 57
Watch an action film starring Chow Yun-Fat to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Hard Boiled and Full Contact
Watch an action film starring Olivier Gruner to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Nemesis
Watch an action film starring Brandon Lee to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Rapid Fire
Watch an action film directed by Albert Pyun to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Sword and the Sorcerer
Watch an action film directed by Corey Yuen to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ninja in the Dragon's Den
Watch an action film starring Bruce Lee to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon
Watch an action film directed by Kenji Misumi to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Lone Wolf and Cub and the 60th anniversary of Zatoichi
Watch a James Bond movie to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Dr. No
Watch a Most Dangerous Game adaptation or rip-off to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the original
Watch an action film starring Douglas Fairbanks to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Robin Hood
Dolph Bronson Day (November 3):
Watch an action film starring Dolph Lundgren
Watch an action film starring Charles Bronson
Diversity of badass cinema:
Watch an action film directed by a woman
Watch action films from 3 different countries
Extra credit:
Watch an action film directed by a stunt performer
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The Descent
A reasonable idea ruined by awful effects work and a script that just doles on the misery for misery's sake because it lacks the conviction in its premise.Comment
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Is it streaming anywhere? Haven’t seen since the cinema and quite fancied another viewing after Dog Soldiers … even if it doesn’t sound like it’s stood the test of time very well.Originally posted by Neon Ignition View PostComment
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Okay, I haven't watched it for a while, but my take is different from Neon Mehgnition's, in that it's a tense, scary, claustrophobic horror that gets progressively grim (which it's supposed to!), but a must-see for horror fans.Comment
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Both the first and second are on Paramount+ atm
It might have been different if I'd seen it back when it came out but I struggled with too many issues with Knightmare level CG in places, wobbly cave walls etc and though it's common in horror it felt out the gate overplayed that they couldn't just end up in that scenario, they just had to have her be in an accident, and lose her husband, and her child, and he was having an affair, and it was with her friend etc. Though I've since read the US version has a different ending from the UK version that neuters the film by giving it a happy ending so I'm thankful I didn't see that version.Comment
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