Last movie watched...

[NapalmKev]

Followed up with ID:Resurgence or at least the first 45 min...

I managed about an hour and 20 mins, or so. It's the sort of film that could drive you to take Hard Drugs just to forget the interminable, turgid Horseshit!

Can't wait for the next one, featuring Will Smith as a guy with a $50,000,000 dollar film contract pilot that can fly spaceships with a 1980's computer and Cuban Havana's.

Cheers

[Tjm86]

Independence day: returgence?

[Hawkmumbler]

Exterminator 2 is the 1984, Canon film sequel to the 1980 grindhouse fan favorite, The Exterminator. And, if like me you came into the sequel expecting more of the 42nd street type sleaze the original is famous for, you wont be disappointing. Considerably lower budget not withstanding, you can't be angry at a movie with a makeshift garbage truck come home made tank mowing down droves of street thugs whilst Patrick Ginty (Mr. Coke Lite of RLM fame) takes a flamethrowers to two dozen of them. Brainless, senseless, silly ad overly violent but that what I paid to see.

What and age we live in where stuff like THIS and The Guyver get blu-ray releases.

[By-Jove]

I wanna see those films, but not at my local. Since I have a grudge against them for not refunding or reimbursing me for a movie ticket that was either lifted from my wallet or I just lost it while walking around the food court/along the main concourse of shopping mall. Itself inbuilt under the same roof practically. So I never left the premises during my misfortune & had to purchase another ticket. I keep thinking they are trying to sabotarge me & now I have strong feeling that I may have to find another place to see movies now.

Since I had lost internet, I also had no telephone or cable. Even though the service providers now claim that my telephone is not linked with their service or something to that effect & then told me it might not be working because I have no internet. Which is confusing. They hung up sometime after telling me they would try to ascertain my problem from their end after I had finally told them I want another gateway adapter modem or one of their technicians to have a look. Next time I rang them minutes later, I got a recorded message reminding me that they're phone hours are only Monday to Friday & yesterday was Saturday. My internet problem is kind of crippling without my own phone working. The only people I can find who represent my service provider is  a small booth/stand/help desk in the very same shopping mall I mentioned above. The aren't very helpful, they can't do much & just kept telling me that I should contact my s.p. by phone. It's shocking how much I rely on internet these days.

So, I was still able to watch some dvd's....

I had to refresh my money on the works of Robert E. Howard, Monty Python by watching Conan the Barbarian & then the Holy Grail . I watched the last one twice over & over again while using the crafting tools in that game I wrote commentary about under the game topics last night. A lot of the stuff I said about Conan in the gaming forum last night should have been written here. I do like the original Conan film, even though Arnold isn't the exact likeness of the barbarian as he was in the books, but is anybody like their character they are portraying in film these days. There are some, but they are few. I fancy that the likeness of Conan that I made in the game fits the original description better. A hawked face brute of a man, built like a large upright walking wild cat, a panther with a square cut mane of long dark hair. The original mullet from times of antiquity. His skin coloured from exposure to many years spent travelling & living on the land, but not so dark to be confused with those from hot sands. I just made that shit up, but I assume it's close to what the author wrote.

I also watched Thor, but I think I said that under this topic about a fortnight earlier. Close enough to the comic book description to please the comic book fan. I might have complained about how Chris Hemsworth just speak in a deep vaguely Australian accent that I've heard in the other films Is seen him in and then when I playing the Marvel Vs Capcom game. I hear Thor in game graphically rendered to original likeness taunting in a similar tone.  Now, I'm not sure what is right, but I always wanted to hear things correctly or how I assume correct to be.  I swear I have seen Hemsworth on SNL switching back & forth between his natural Aussie voice and something sounding even more like I would have liked in Thor just to mess with fans, I suppose.  So, I guess ultimately I shouldn't care about such details.

There s Avatar as well, but missed most of that one again. Watched the early naughts or double 00's adaption of King Arthur. The one with Lone Gruffud, among more British, some American, & one Australian cast. Thinking any one of his circle of knights could have been real King Arthur. With the exception of that cockney speaking guy who provided voice talent as Beowulf in film of the same name.  Because passports, licenses, + 18 cards weren't around to identify anybody exactly. If not for their family & loved ones & even these days this type of fraud happens still, but probably not so easily, I guess. With Skarsgard from Thor looking more in form as a American sounding antagonistic Viking commander. Who I suspect spent a lot of time in Vineland picking up his fancy accent from the natives there. If that fits what known from historical records. Did I already say I found this adaption disappointing. It is in light of Excaliber & the work of Monty Python. I payed less attention to this & may have missed some good battle scenes. So, I will watch it again of course.

Beowulf is excellent advertisement for the highest form of cartoon or just digital motion capture and what I would like to see more of when adaption classic old world myths. So much can be achieved when everything is produced by script writers, concept artists, captionists, talented programmers, voice actors & whom ever else is needed to make this type of production. Favourite scene is near the end [Spoiler]when the hero breaks his own arm, cutting most of the way through it & relying on what was left of the chain mail holding it together. So he can reach further into the dragons gullet to grab it's vulnerable heart & then falling to his demise lying side by side with the now dying golden man, his son to the female demon. Some version of the tale I never read in the Brimax Edition of Ancient Myths I was given one Easter. Where the illustration showed Grendel as true monster resembling Cthulu's Deep Spawn or the creature from the Black Lagoon  & not the terribly deformed titan given the likeness of former Marty McFly's dad. His mother was equally hideous, paled skinned & their was no hint of romantic liasons between any of the Danes, Geats. Beowulf did rip off Grendel's arm with his own bare hands, because it was probably rotting any way & some strength from within. He slayed his mom when she tried to avenge it's death. Yet, I may need to read that again. I think I still have the book & there might have been some reconciliation between the hero & mother instead. Yet, not what your thinking [/spoiler]

I also like the bit where Beowulf assumes kingship of that small village after Hrothgar's supposed suicide. I thought that was very fishy. Falling to his death & how his own death mirrored that. I just only now that Grendel was a descendant of biblical Cain, but that could be Wikipedia making stuff up to make it seem more interesting. Although it doesn't hurt to give the monster a better known heritage I was always impressed with White-Wolf's alteration of Cain to be the very first Vampire. Anyway, they do this thing where the embossed figures are shown all the way around the king's metal head band as time shifts forward until our hero is shown to be grey of hair, but still a healthy, strong man.  Reminiscent of seeing Conan's transition from boyhood to manhood on the Wheel of Pain. 

I watched Hallmark's Merlin starring Sam Neil as the Wizard & hero of the this tale more like the Mentor of Heroes & those who would be hero's, but are just typically too flawed for that. Before digress about it further, the previews are other Hallmark films of the same Ilk. Dinotopia, with guy from Prison Break & David Thewlis,  Snow queen, Gulliver's Travels, with Ted Danson & what I now know to be Voyage of the Unicorn because the film title was never shown in the trailer. With Beau Bridges. All of them look to be on small budget, but still made with enough talent to carry them. They'd never be big screen film, but I was always fascinated by Dinotopia. Special-effects wise, I think Gulliver's Travels was the best, because it's not hard to make believe able giant of a man or a man among giants.  Merlin is pretty good to watch as well, all shown from the wizards perspective.  Just before his miracle conception to his reunion to his once betrothed. Yet, I find it even in it's subtly it shows how much of ass the Wizard or any of the fair folk who made him, mentored him meddled in the lives of mortals & guided to success & then onwards to tragedy. I guess that is the nature order with demons, Gnomes being a step above mere mortals. They say the old gods die when people leave or forget them I wonder if they only exist in imagination while it's really humans who play at being those gods themselves. never the less it's hard to Hate Sam Neil & his portrayal of Merlin. It's hard to taken Miranda' Richardson's Mab seriously. She who helped bring Merlin into the world through her own magic. When she adopted a silly E.T. the Extra terrestrial like voice over her real one or did she just smoke too much? Helena Bonham Carter entertains as the socially flawed Morgan Le Fay & was saddened by her demise. Not so comparatively evil as she is shown in other versions. I was surprised to find a barely recognisable Lena Headly as Gwenivere. The same lady who got thrown from the top of city block in Dredd & forced to walk the streets naked because of her forbidden love in Game of Thrones. Which happens in this film miniseries too. Billie Whiteclaw is Merlin's mother's mid-wife Ambrosia & that's supposed to be his last Ambrosius. Translates to Emrys. Same as the Mountain fort of relating to legends of King Arthur & Myrddin's Eternal Fortress from Slaine. Of course, this is all from the same source. Merlin Ambrosius is also Myrddin Emrys or perhaps a later incarnation of him in Slaine. I assumed so much from reading Treasures of Britain when a Merlin did make his appearance trapped inside Medb. Is that right? Billie is also the voice of Augra from the Dark Crystal. A film for you if you like the Muppets & Fraggle Rock. John Gielgud is King Constant , but not for long after exclaiming that he wanted the world to die with him. I think it does too, but only from that perspective. Rutger Huer is King Vortigen who replaced that king & who was succeeded by Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father. James Earl Jones, former Thulsa Doom and voice of Darth Vader is now the mountain king who took Excalibar between his butt cheeks & clenched them so tightly for many years until Arthur was able to pry them open again reclaim the sword. Merlin did trick Uther into giving him the sword, but it was also he who gave him the sword in the first place. Martin Short is Frick. A tall Gnome who claims his kind come in all shapes & sizes & Mentor to young Merlin & assistant to Mab. They seem to be life long friends who themselves live for a very long time. Even after Frick was forced to go wayward & wander alone for years on end. Anyway, it was Ethics & morals that Merlin taught Arthur in preparation for his kingship & I wonder if that what wizards or wise men actually did. Were they he ones that made people more civilised & is this apart of his magic that people can't use to the same extant that he did .

Just trying make sense of the make believe there. When it probably wasn't mean to be made sense of.

I almost forgot , I popped in Steel Dawn. It's post apocalyptic film featuring a nomadic wandering martial artist hero. The late Patrick Swayze. Noting that he was tough guy, but never Jean Claude Van Damn, Steven Segal, Chuck Norris. So, the fighting did look more like the wandering gangs of outlaws were holding back a little. Probably expecting any one else in their number to give the signal to do something more lethal their usual desert ballet. I woke up when I heard the word  SWEET ROLL

You know there word gets a lot of use..... & a recipe.

[By-Jove]

The films I wanted to see are the Arrival and that Harry Potter inspired flick about creatures.

[I, Cosh]

I had to refresh my money on the works of Robert E. Howard, Monty Python by watching Conan the Barbarian & then the Holy Grail .

Just out if interest: you don't happen to be fan of Slaine, do you? I think he's the one 2000AD character who would sit alongside that stuff.

[By-Jove]

That show about Merlin had me thinking about Slaine abit. With the Gnome & the set design for Mab's secret lair. Of Slaine, does borrow a lot from a cross over with Arthurian myth, Ulster Cycle, & maybe the Fenian Cycle, as well. I notice parallels between him & Conan as well. Not bad thing though. It happens in journalism a lot, media feeds off it's own kind. Early Slaine is quite entertaining & my interest in Conan peaked when I started playing Age of Conan years ago. Since then, I have taken note about the important characters that have cropped up in game & what I have read as well as the films.

I just read what you quote ad my typo. That was meant to be memory, not money. Don't know how I let that one slip. Maybe it's because, I get paid in another 3 hours hopefully.

About Slaine sitting by that stuff. I think he might stand being a Sessair Knight of the Red Branch.

[GordonR]

Obsessive detailing about the minutiae of your daily life - check
Personal/financial problems (none of which is ever your fault) - check
Wall o' text posts - check
"Someone is stealing my stuff!" - check
Obsession with fantasy tat - check

Don't worry, though,Michael. No-one will figure out it's really you.

[By-Jove]

#2 & #4 are the same really and the last one don't really count. I just said I had problems with internet, unless your talking about the loss of movie ticket. Well, that did happen.

[Frank]

Billie Whiteclaw

Paging Dan Abnett; would Mrs Abnett and Elson please come to the white courtesy telephone.

[By-Jove]

I was going to say, she only did the voice of Augra & not hard to she was young once.

[By-Jove]

So, it's Whitelaw I thought the other was her American indian deed name.

[flip-r mk2]

Obsessive detailing about the minutiae of your daily life - check
Personal/financial problems (none of which is ever your fault) - check
Wall o' text posts - check
"Someone is stealing my stuff!" - check
Obsession with fantasy tat - check

Don't worry, though,Michael. No-one will figure out it's really you.

filippo

[Goaty]

Obsessive detailing about the minutiae of your daily life - check
Personal/financial problems (none of which is ever your fault) - check
Wall o' text posts - check
"Someone is stealing my stuff!" - check
Obsession with fantasy tat - check

Don't worry, though,Michael. No-one will figure out it's really you.

Well spotted! Oh no, he's back!

[Keef Monkey]

Had a bit of a horror doubler with friends on Saturday night, starting with 31. It's sort of a slasher version of The Running Man (group get kidnapped and thrown in an arena and have to survive against stalkers for a few hours), and apart from one really great performance (Richard Brake as 'Doomhead') there's not much to recommend. The main characters are all really unlikeable so you'll never care if they make it or not, chunks of it drag awkwardly and would have benefited from a tighter edit, and the ending is really poor in that 'if it had finished 5 minutes earlier instead of tacking this on it would have been way better' kind of way. So, not a great film, and I say that as someone who (Halloween aside) likes Rob Zombie's movies, I think he has a real eye for a cool image and set-up when he puts his mind to it.

For all of that, the Richard Brake performance I mentioned really is something to behold. The guy absolutely oozes menace and horrible charisma, and when he's front and centre the thing really comes alive.

Then we watched As Above So Below on Netflix, which looked like it'd be a bit of a lame neutered Hollywood attempt to emulate something like [REC] (the writer/director apparently did the US remake of that), and it took us completely by surprise. Really, really enjoyed it. It's basically about a Lara Croft-alike who gathers a group to head into undiscovered areas of the catacombs under Paris to find a stone that grants eternal life, and what occurs is a slightly odd combo of [REC], The Descent and The Goonies. Sounds weird, but the solving riddles and finding treasure adventure angle really blended well with the horror, which is really effectively claustrophobic in places and captures a bit of that found-footage rollercoaster intensity that the best ones manage.

Really didn't expect much, and we all agreed it was a rollicking good time.