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    Woovember

    Current Events:

    Watch an action film set on a train to celebrate the claustrophobic intensity of Kill (Red Sun, The Gauntlet, Millionaire's Express)​
    Watch an action film starring Sammo Hung because he's still kicking ass in Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Millionaire's Express)​

    Memorial Special:
    Corey Yuen (2022) (Kiss of the Dragon, Millionaire's Express)
    Roger Corman (May 9, 2024) (Death Race)​

    Anniversary Special:
    Watch an action film directed by James Cameron to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Terminator (T2 3D)​

    Death Race (2008 via Prime)
    I've a bit of a soft spot for the original film as it's such a curio and a product of the time.
    This film is also a product of its time too - remake, Statham, Paul W.S. Anderson action film, gritty colours.
    I think Roger Corman's involvement was probably just adding his name to the credits, if I'm honest, but I ended up finding this a perfectly watchable Statham vehicle that I happily watched to the end with the ignition to my brain switched off.
    I think I mentioned at the time I first saw it that the cars reminded me of the Matchbox toy car spinoff of the Roadblasters arcade where you could put plastic armour and weapons on them.


    Terminator 2 3D (Via Blu-Ray)
    I dunno, as the years go by, I like this less and the original more.
    I just found the no-kills and humanising of the Terminator a bit silly, with Arnie grinning as he finds a minigun.
    It's still an amazing film, excellent example of a sequel upping the stakes and total thrill ride.
    3D is decent in this too. Fave shot being where Sarah Connor shoots the T1000 and we see her through the gaping hole in his head.

    Millionaire's Express (1986 via Blu-Ray)
    Any reason to dig out this Eastern-Western is fine by me!
    Apart from Jackie Chan, I can't think of anyone else from 80s Hong Kong films that isn't in this, even just cameos.
    There's plenty of humour in this that translates to Western audiences, like Richard Ng happily trotting along the train roof to see his mistress or when a dozen people are hiding in a hotel room and they all pretend that they're spies to avoid getting in trouble, but it's the action that we're here for.
    Particularly epic is Yuen Biao Vs. Dick Wei, Richard Norton Vs. Yasuaki Kurata, Yukari Ôshima Vs. a dozen baddies and Sammo Hung Vs. Cynthia Rothrock.


    It's not just the fights that are epic, but some of the stunts are nuts with people falling of buildings awl o'er the shop.
    Yuen Biao jumps from the top of a burning building, lands and carries on acting.
    It's the way the fights are framed too, giving it the sense that lots is happening simultaneously, rather than the bad guys lining up to get kicked.
    Action moves from the fore to background and other fighters step in and we follow them instead.

    It's this ability to frame the action is what has always set Hung apart, IMHO.

    Comment


      Originally posted by Finsbury Girl View Post
      QualityChimp Conan the Barbarian is the pinnacle of sword and sorcery genre. Nothing has come close IMHO. One of my all time favourites. CROM!
      Yeah, I ended up buying Skyrim after watching it. Can't wait to crush my enemies, see them driven before me and hear the lamentation of their women.

      Comment


        Originally posted by QualityChimp View Post

        Millionaire's Express (1986 via Blu-Ray)
        Any reason to dig out this Eastern-Western is fine by me!
        Apart from Jackie Chan, I can't think of anyone else from 80s Hong Kong films that isn't in this, even just cameos.
        There's plenty of humour in this that translates to Western audiences, like Richard Ng happily trotting along the train roof to see his mistress or when a dozen people are hiding in a hotel room and they all pretend that they're spies to avoid getting in trouble, but it's the action that we're here for.
        Particularly epic is Yuen Biao Vs. Dick Wei, Richard Norton Vs. Yasuaki Kurata, Yukari Ôshima Vs. a dozen baddies and Sammo Hung Vs. Cynthia Rothrock.


        It's not just the fights that are epic, but some of the stunts are nuts with people falling of buildings awl o'er the shop.
        Yuen Biao jumps from the top of a burning building, lands and carries on acting.
        It's the way the fights are framed too, giving it the sense that lots is happening simultaneously, rather than the bad guys lining up to get kicked.
        Action moves from the fore to background and other fighters step in and we follow them instead.

        It's this ability to frame the action is what has always set Hung apart, IMHO.

        I do wish that Chan, Biao & Hung would've made more films together. It'll never happen now though, not least because they're all old.

        Wheels On Meals (1984) & Dragons Forever (1988) are two of my faves of theirs - Jackie Chan's fight scenes with Benny "The Jet" Urquidez are arguably his best ever fights on-screen. I owe them both a re-watch soon.

        Comment


          I've got the fancy Eureka 2-disc version and listened to the Frank Djeng commentary where he explained that Jackie Chan was initially set to play the role that James Tien plays and it would've been lovely to have one more film with the three in action together.

          I've lost count how many times I've watched Wheels on Meals.

          Comment


            Inside Out 2 - for as obvious a direction to take a sequel as this is, I thought the intro to the new emotions was genuinely quite good and probably the highlight of the whole thing. It definitely loses interests as it goes on. Must be reassuring to all of you parents on here to know that puberty gets solved in the space of a week!

            Enter the Void - bleary-eyed, tripped out journey around Tokyo from a first-person perspective. Technically it’s very impressive even when it’s not very interesting, but it is an overly-long cocktail of misery, sex, and drugs that does feel a little bit like someone trying very hard to impress you with their familiarity to these subjects.

            Woman of the Hour - Anna Kendrick directorial debut is… kinda flat. It’s reasonably made and not awful, but there is a real-life story inspiring this which makes the focus of the film and its need to jump about all over the place all the more baffling.

            My Old Ass - pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed this. The pivotal setup is a bunch of 18 year olds taking shrooms, and yet somehow I didn’t hate any of them, and if anything found it to be quite poignant and subtlely charming. Worth a watch!​

            Comment


              Yeah, My Old Ass is lovely. Well worth seeing.

              You heard me.

              Comment


                Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
                Yeah, My Old Ass is lovely. Well worth seeing.
                He’s not wrong! I’m not sure I am quite ready to see it again, but I also wouldn’t run away if I were to see it coming, which you know, might reasonably be someone’s instinctive reaction.

                Comment


                  Originally posted by fuse View Post
                  Enter the Void - bleary-eyed, tripped out journey around Tokyo from a first-person perspective. Technically it’s very impressive even when it’s not very interesting, but it is an overly-long cocktail of misery, sex, and drugs that does feel a little bit like someone trying very hard to impress you with their familiarity to these subjects.​
                  I'm wary of Gaspar Noe. I really liked Climax but Irreversible was a one watch and done affair.

                  Comment


                    I need to make an opening for My Old Ass as I've heard a lot of people were into it.

                    My friend saw this film and we had a lot of fun with puns around the title.

                    Woovember:
                    Anniversary Special:
                    Watch an action film starring Denzel Washington to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Equalizer and the 20th anniversary of Man on Fire

                    Gladiator II (2024 via cinema)
                    Meh. I wanted to like this more and give it a chance, but it's a bit bobbins.
                    All the lead cast are great, especially Denzel Washington. Paul Mescal has a tough challenge to beat Russell Crowe's performance, which won a bloody Oscar, remember! However, he's pretty engaging throughout. My wife was obsessed with "Normal People", so I want him to do well, but I don't think he has much script to work with other than "look melancholy".
                    Looks gorgeous with Ridley Scott capturing the glory of a CGI Rome in the golden hour.

                    However, we walked away thinking it was overlong and fairly dull.
                    I think what wound us up was the action scenes that varied from mediocre shakycam through to (literally) shark-jumping Colosseum battles.
                    The story was a rehash of the first film, with enough nods to it to make it cheesy.
                    Some of the British cast felt like they were just their comedy characters (Tim "Darling" McInnerny from Blackadder, Matt Lucas from Little Britain).

                    I personally think the first two seasons of Spartacus have not only more action and gore, but engaging characters and their duplicitous machinations as they manipulate to get what they want.

                    Comment


                      Not shocked, I feel like I could have seen that verdict before...

                      Originally posted by QualityChimp View Post


                      Meh. I wanted to like this more and give it a chance, but it's a bit bobbins.
                      All the lead cast are great, especially Oliver Reed. Russell Crowe has a tough challenge to beat Mel Gibson's performance, which won a bloody Oscar, remember! However, he's pretty engaging throughout. My wife was obsessed with "Normal People", so I want him to do well, but I don't think he has much script to work with other than "look melancholy".
                      Looks gorgeous with Ridley Scott capturing the glory of a CGI Rome in the golden hour.

                      However, we walked away thinking it was overlong and fairly dull.
                      I think what wound us up was the action scenes that varied from mediocre shakycam through to (literally) tiger-jumping Colosseum battles.
                      The story was a rehash of the Scottish based classic, with enough nods to it to make it cheesy.

                      Comment


                        Loads of people were saying it's really good, but we left underwhelmed. I seen what you've done there, though, Macduff.

                        Woovember:
                        Anniversary Special:
                        Watch an action film directed by Michael Winner to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Death Wish (The Mechanic)

                        Dolph Bronson Day (November 3):
                        Watch an action film starring Charles Bronson (Red Sun, The Mechanic, Death Hunt)

                        The Mechanic (1972 via YouTube)
                        Not the Statham remake but the original because I was tasked with watching a film directed by Michael "Calm down, dear. It's a commercial" Winner and didn't want to watch a Death Wish sequel.

                        This was a really interesting watch because at times it was quite plodding then others it was thrilling.
                        It's also a bit non-sensical at times.
                        Bronson plays the titular Mechanic, a hitman that makes his hits look like accidents.
                        There's an opening sequence where nothing is said for the first 15 minutes, which is pretty cool, but it's pretty convoluted way to kill the victim, spending ages trailing and spying on him before leaving the gas hob on and shooting a book he loaded with explosives to trigger a gas explosion. Like a really rubbish level of Hitman.

                        Then he kills another guy who's a friend, engineering him to have a heart attack after shooting around him and making him run away, then as he has a heart attack, he suffocates him anyway.

                        Then that victim's son is a right weirdo (Jan Michael-Vincent), happily watching a friend kill herself, chums up with Bronson and he starts learning to be a hitman too. What?

                        The final quarter is probably best, with a shift to scenic Italy and some decent action scenes, with us wondering how the dynamic will play out between the two leads. Will they betray each other or find camaraderie?

                        It's not a bad film, but probably best for Bronson completists or those interested in the inspiration for the Statham series.


                        Last edited by QualityChimp; 28-11-2024, 08:25.

                        Comment


                          Woovember:
                          Anniversary Special:
                          Watch an action film directed by Zhang Yimou to celebrate the 20th anniversary of House of Flying Daggers

                          The Great Wall (2016 via Prime)
                          After watching Gladiator II, where a scar-faced Pedro Pascal partakes in epic historical battles atop a wall, I watched The Great Wall where a scar-faced Pedro Pascal partakes in epic historical battles atop a wall. At least he wasn't escorting a kid to safety.

                          I'd kinda avoided this as it didn't review well and I was worried it played the the White Saviour trope, but it was actually decent.​ If you've seen Zhang Yimou's "House of Flying Daggers" or "Hero", you know you're in for a visual treat. There's plenty of practical effects and dazzling costumes, but there's a lot of CGI as it's about soldiers on the Great Wall of China battling monsters, but for a near-decade-old film, it holds up. No worse than Gladiator II, plus the whole film is silly, so you take things in your stride more.

                          Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal are dodgy traders looking for "black powder" explosives, but end up being attacked by a monster, which they managed to kill. They get captured by the soldiers defending the wall and end up being forced to help defend attacks from hordes of the monsters. Will they end up sneaking away with the black powder or join the soldiers in the face of terrible odds against them?

                          It rattles along at a decent pace with likeable leads bickering in a friendly manner, some pretty locations and fairly exciting battle scenes that feel pretty unique.

                          That's why I like Woovember, as it's a chance to give films a chance if you'd not seen them previously.
                          This wasn't anything spectacular but I'm glad I checked it out.

                          Comment


                            You Should Have Left - Blumhouse horror starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried. Basic set-up is: older hubby, younger actress wife, bit jealousy going on, some mysterious history, marriage bit sketchy, so a nice fam-hol airbnb is booked in rural Wales with daughter. The credentials were decent with writer/director David Koepp at the helm but the film is far from decent. You get the feeling there's a good story and some good ideas hiding in there (it's adapted from a book) but nothing is explored with any depth. The pay-offs don't pay off. It feels too short and fleeting and ultimately unsatisfying.

                            Comment


                              Originally posted by Atticus View Post
                              It feels too short and fleeting and ultimately unsatisfying.


                              Comment


                                Originally posted by Atticus View Post
                                You Should Have Left - Blumhouse horror starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried. Basic set-up is: older hubby, younger actress wife, bit jealousy going on, some mysterious history, marriage bit sketchy, so a nice fam-hol airbnb is booked in rural Wales with daughter. The credentials were decent with writer/director David Koepp at the helm but the film is far from decent. You get the feeling there's a good story and some good ideas hiding in there (it's adapted from a book) but nothing is explored with any depth. The pay-offs don't pay off. It feels too short and fleeting and ultimately unsatisfying.
                                Took a second to click, but after reading House of Leaves and trying to describe it to my boss, he came back a week later having seen the trailer for this movie, and wondered if it was based on what I'd been rambling about. It isn't the book that it is openly based on, but there are definite similarities that get brought up a lot in relation to it given the internet's fixation on that book. I should really watch the movie!

                                Also agree re: Noé apprehension. This was my first of his and felt like a relatively safe entry point, but I know enough about his work to prepare myself going in.

                                Watched Bone Tomahawk the other night, and it made me think of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in more ways than one, but primarily because after years of hearing about it had lead me to believe it was a particular thing, and then in reality it was something else? I knew it'd be violent - and it was - but I knew much less of the central party riding off and their interactions with each other, which is very slow and steady, but quite enjoyable as the bulk of the film.

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