Last movie watched...

[Rara Avis]

In a similar vein I watched Eden Lake - now I am afraid of locals and local teenagers because anyone who lives outside a major city is a pure savage.

Tbf it's a pretty decent English made psychological horror.

[milstar]

Dark Angel, also known as I Come in Peace (1989)

Possibly the most underrated and coolest buddy cop film, from the late 80s, with science fiction edge. Dolph Lundgren is typical cop who doesn't play by the book and his partner is annoying, schmucky, slick FBI asshole, who does play by the book. Together, they are to catch an alien drug dealer. Truth to the decade, the film is just exercise in self-indulgence, but I remember this film fondly when I saw it at the age of 16. Cliched, contrived plot, cheesy liners, yet eclectic (Jan Hammer) soundtrack, and as B film, it technically looks above average. Also, this is the film where you'd see a typical badass, streetwise cop (Lundgren), living in a vast, slick apartmant and who also enjoy wine or screwing colleague mortician. Yep. There is also pervading amount of actually very nicely filmed explosions, that actually rob the film of seriosity; then again, this is not the film that requires using any brain cells.

[pictsy]

Space Hunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone

...the film's exploitative nonsense.

Yup.  Lots of that.  Overt sexism all throughout.  Molly Ringwald is insufferable as well.  There is this annoying screech to her performance.  It has some nice design work going on in places, but overall (when it wasn't being offensive) it was just bland.  Ironside doesn't especially shine because he's not given enough to do.  Plus his character design is fucking stupid.

The stars of this film are the vehicles and locations.  It looks (Overdog aside) better than it has any right to.  So I'm conflicted.  It looks good but the film is garbage.

[Funt Solo]

National Treasure or Indiana Crohn's & the Sean Bean of Doom - the noughties tried to reinvent adventure archaeology movies, with Tomb Raider ('01), National Treasure ('04) , the haircut that was The Da Vinci Code ('06) and then finally (just to prove that they could mess up the formula as well as anyone else) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ('08). It's difficult to figure out exactly where the bottom is in that pile of compressed dino-poo, but this Nicholas Cage-lite vehicle is definitely down there in the realms of just-about-watchable in the same way as re-runs of The A-Team, but with fewer thrills, smiles or chutzpah. Cage and his sidekick's constant mansplaining to the beautiful tagalong professor woman makes us want to side with not-so-secret villain of the piece Sean "Blonde Locks" Bean. Or maybe that's just my man-crush.

---

Moxie - a Coming of Feminist Age movie, in which Amy Poehler's daughter wakes up one day and suddenly realizes that an annual list of positive and negative traits applied to every female at her school and propagated by the gleefully one-note alpha males is degrading, and she's not going to put up with it anymore! I really enjoyed the movie because it focuses entirely on the quests of the female characters and throws the males into relief, it was feel good in a way that didn't descend into schmaltz and it tackled some real world issues - such as patriarchal dress codes (that are still a current issue in schools). It does have a weak middle, and a too tidy end, but - unlike most movies I'm watching these days as a background to doing other work - it was compelling and made me want to know what was going to happen next.

[repoman]

Funnily enough, I just watched National Treasure recently.  I remember not minding it first time but this time it didn't do much for me.  Can't see me bothering with the sequel.

I'm going to watch the 4th Underworld movie later.  I know it's going to be dreadful.

Watched PG Psycho Goreman last week.  I get what it was trying to do.  Is flawed but was enjoyable enough.  Can't see me bothering with it again but I'd watch a sequel.

[pictsy]

OK, so you bring up National Treasure and don't mention how Nicholas Cage is so disgusted by the idea of stealing the declaration of independence that he steals the declaration of independence.  Personally, I like the balls the movie has in being that stupid.

[Hawkmumbler]

Last month I took out a MUBI subscription, a choice I can highly recommend, best streaming platform out there by miles.

Anyway, just slapped on ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA the last movie I needed to see to close the book on Leone's career. Report back in 4 hours (!!!!)...

[Colin YNWA]

Anyway, just slapped on ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA the last movie I needed to see to close the book on Leone's career. Report back in 4 hours (!!!!)...

It will be four hours well spent. Its a wondeful film. Enjoy.

[von Boom]

The American. No tension. No drama. No point.

[TordelBack]

Blade II. So much better than I had remembered, this surprised me by being one of those rare sequel-trumps-original dealies, until I saw del Toro in the credits and realised why it was biting me in my sweet spot: that man can do no wrong.

Truly amazing additions to the cast cast include Ron Perlman,  Donnie Yen, Norman Reedus, Thomas Kretschmann and rather improbably both Danny John Jules and Luke Goss. Spectacular design and FX on the Reapers, top-notch makeup and some amusingly gauche attempts at CGI acrobatics that do manage convey the idea that you're watching supernatural beings rather than humans that jump around a lot. Snipes delivers a more subdued performance as Blade, and a lot of the more stylish elements of the first are gone, in favour of a shiny Techno Vampire Nation. I still find Whistler's resurrection irritating and unnecessary,  but I do like the bit where he machine-guns hundreds of embryos.

Very much the film Alien Resurrection only wishes it could have been.

[Funt Solo]

OK, so you bring up National Treasure and don't mention how Nicholas Cage is so disgusted by the idea of stealing the declaration of independence that he steals the declaration of independence.  Personally, I like the balls the movie has in being that stupid.

It is as dumb as a bag of hammers. See also: flimsy wooden door in opening sequence protects against barrels o' gun powder explosion that's big enough to upset a glacier. It's not that I don't like Lemony Anyone's Sequence of Unlikely Events movies - I've a lot of time for The Long Kiss Goodnight, for example, but National Treasure isn't ... a, erm, national treasure? It is so awful that I'm curious what strange piece of US historical documentation they try to stuff down their trousers in the sequel. Reagan's vacuum-sealed underpants?

[pictsy]

Blade II is definitely fun.  I think it is the best presented of the three, but it lacks the charm the first one had.

If you haven't seen the Special Edition of Alien Resurrection, I would recommend it.  It made me re-evaluate my opinion.  A lot of stuff is added to the beginning and I think it puts the film into a much better context.  That said, I've only seen it once and it was a few years ago.

I found Once Upon a Time in America tedious.  I watched it with two of my brothers.  None of us were happy with the experience and were glad when it ended.

OK, so you bring up National Treasure and don't mention how Nicholas Cage is so disgusted by the idea of stealing the declaration of independence that he steals the declaration of independence.  Personally, I like the balls the movie has in being that stupid.

It is as dumb as a bag of hammers. See also: flimsy wooden door in opening sequence protects against barrels o' gun powder explosion that's big enough to upset a glacier. It's not that I don't like Lemony Anyone's Sequence of Unlikely Events movies - I've a lot of time for The Long Kiss Goodnight, for example, but National Treasure isn't ... a, erm, national treasure? It is so awful that I'm curious what strange piece of US historical documentation they try to stuff down their trousers in the sequel. Reagan's vacuum-sealed underpants?

You're not in any way wrong.  National Treasure is a dumpster fire.

I don't remember what the National Treasure was in the sequel.  I don't remember anything that happened in the sequel.  I certainly watched it.

I'm not going to go to bat for the films, but I know I will watch them again in the future.  Sometimes I like watching dumpsters just burn.

[milstar]

Last month I took out a MUBI subscription, a choice I can highly recommend, best streaming platform out there by miles.

Anyway, just slapped on ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA the last movie I needed to see to close the book on Leone's career. Report back in 4 hours (!!!!)...

I remember that movie from when I was 15 I think. From midnight to somewhere around 4:30am. It was solid film however. Overlong yes and it has that brutal rape scene, but the film had soul.

Blade II. So much better than I had remembered, this surprised me by being one of those rare sequel-trumps-original dealies, until I saw del Toro in the credits and realised why it was biting me in my sweet spot: that man can do no wrong.

Truly amazing additions to the cast cast include Ron Perlman,  Donnie Yen, Norman Reedus, Thomas Kretschmann and rather improbably both Danny John Jules and Luke Goss. Spectacular design and FX on the Reapers, top-notch makeup and some amusingly gauche attempts at CGI acrobatics that do manage convey the idea that you're watching supernatural beings rather than humans that jump around a lot. Snipes delivers a more subdued performance as Blade, and a lot of the more stylish elements of the first are gone, in favour of a shiny Techno Vampire Nation. I still find Whistler's resurrection irritating and unnecessary,  but I do like the bit where he machine-guns hundreds of embryos.

I don't know if I am only one here who hated that film (that amusing opening sequence in the first one is still un-topped). Although it's miles ahead of Blade Trinity.

[repoman]

Blade 2 is a great film.  I tend to think that Blade 1 was good for 10-15 minutes and then boring, occasionally becoming straight up bad.  Blade 2 on the other hand is full of excellent effects and stunts.  Even Luke Goss is good in it.  I'd say it has a lot more character than the first one, especially in terms of having better bad guys.

The third one was really bad.

And yes, Alien Resurrection is great too.  Apart from the Newborn thing.

Underworld 4 ended up being better than I expected.  Just finished it.

[TordelBack]

I don't know if I am only one here who hated that film (that amusing opening sequence in the first one is still un-topped). Although it's miles ahead of Blade Trinity.

I really like the first one, Snipes and Dorff are great, as Milstar says the opening is superb, as is the lighting throughout and the look of all the vampire archives and whatnot: it's simple, fast and stylish.

I hadn't seen the sequel since the cinema, and didn't enjoy it at all then, so it was curiosity rather than expectation that drove a re-watch. It's different to the original and rather overstuffed, but it has some really spectacular Aliens-style action sequences, the Reapers are full-on arsom, and the backstabbing team of vampire commando poseurs is great fun (in the manner of these things). I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

I'll approach unseen No. 3 with caution!