Last movie watched...

[von Boom]

If you where looking for something to wash the taste of LAST BLOOD out of your mouth, Jackie Chan vs. The IRA might tickle your fancy, THE FOREIGNER on Netflix right now.

Does for Chan's POLICE STORY what GRAN TORINO was for DIRTY HARRY.

I heard that it wasn't very good at first, but when I finally watched it I loved it. Jackie Chan was wonderful and the story was really tight and well done. I put the negative reviews down to the kung-fu brigade not liking it.

[TordelBack]

So The Black Hole is as crazy as a pangolin baguette. It's the most jarring collection of elements - exciting believable designs, state-of-the art late '70s models and seamless wire-work, plus Star Wars-level cool robots, jumbled up with utterly flat dialogue and bland characters that would have sat quietly in any under-performing film from the '50s on, all dropped into what is essentially a horror film with some heavy religious framing.

Maximilian remains the coolest of robo-Satans, the Humanoids are creepy as hell, Roddy McDowell's V.I.N.C.E.N.T. is a likably brave know-it-all, and some of the set-pieces are really superb - the decompressing garden dome, the humanoid funeral, the meteor swarm, anything with Maximilian strutting his stuff or the brilliantly realised black hole effect itself. 

There's the heaviest helping of weird, from the crystal palace Cygnus, the famously 2001-alike finale with added Dante, and there's Kate's ESP connection with a robot. What's that about, then?  Is it just her? Is it just robots? Is it just V.I.N.C.E.N.T.?  (Wouldn't it have been cool if Maximilian had used the reversed version of that linlk to control the humanoids).  And talking of Kate and the humanoids, why doesn't she seem paticularly bothered that her father is almost certainly one of the cyborgs arrayed about the bridge?

But then the human characters are all non-entities (even Schell's Reinhart is a dull bargain-basement Nemo - Perkins' wide-eyed Dr Durant comes closest to being interesting, so naturally is the first to die) there are endless stilted conversations, static shoot-outs where laser-blasts seem to have been drawn on with luminous crayon and interact with nothing around them.

All this dissonance means it feels simultaneously original and horribly dated for its time, much like Flash Gordon if Flash was po-faced and had an extended vision of Hell as its finale.

I first saw this one for my 8th or 9th birthday and amassed a giant collection of bubble-gum cards, and the good lady reports she had V.I.N.C.E.N.T. and Maximilian action figures, so it's safe to say it was a big deal for its intended audience in its day - and it definitely held our two kids' attention throughout.

But it is weird.

[Tjm86]

So The Black Hole is as crazy as a pangolin baguette.

....

But it is weird.

Also-fraggin-lutely it is!  That's the beauty of it.  I mean, where else have you come across a film where one minute characters are being sucked out into space and the next they are staring out of a smashed travel tube at vacuum without a thought.  Not to mention a character floating off into space as they clamber over the outside of the ship!

[TordelBack]

I mean, where else have you come across a film where one minute characters are being sucked out into space and the next they are staring out of a smashed travel tube at vacuum without a thought.  Not to mention a character floating off into space as they clamber over the outside of the ship!

The Last Jedi.

[paddykafka]

My favourite element of The Black Hole was the wonderful music by John Barry. It sounds as good now - from what I've been able to hear online - as it did then. I've been trying to source the soundtrack on CD but they are as rare as hen's teeth and very expensive.

[Greg M.]

Pretty cheap on vinyl though.

[paddykafka]

Aye, but I don't have a record player (and no particular interest in getting one either). And it's a pain-in-the-arse listening to the soundtrack on You-Tube because of the frequent advert interruptions.

[Apestrife]

Oh boy, watched Videodrome today. A nightmare take on the media trifecta of sex/violence/paranoia. Reminded me of The manchurian candidate, They live and Eraserhead. Was quite the trip, to say the least. Every bit as brilliant as well. 

Are there more Cronenberg movies like it?

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5cLj6L6zvo

I also saw Dead or Alive 2: Birds. As the first DOA movies it's a very weird and darkly humouristic Yakuza-movie, but it also has some very heart felt bits of two childhood friends reminiscing about the past while visiting the place where they grew up.

Trailer https://youtu.be/hdl-HHBE7dg

[TordelBack]

Tron. It's not very good. The middle act, aka The Bit With The Video Games, is good fun. Before that it's dull 80s corporate stuff, after that it's sketchy nonsense with some shoddy animation (the MCP in particular is awful).

Still, enjoyed recognisng the great Peter Jurasik

I spent a decent chunk of my childhood writing a light-cycle game, and never really got anything fun out of it, and decades later a good while trying to develop it as a project for CoderDojo, with similarly disappointing results. I wasted a lot of money on the bitty arcade game, and never got anywhere with the C64 game (no relation). Maybe Tron was just never what I wanted it to be.

Nevertheless, on to Tron Legacy!

[Jim_Campbell]

Nevertheless, on to Tron Legacy!

I like this movie a lot. Better than the first one, for all the reasons you list. Any movie that shows me something I haven't seen before gets a big pass in my book, and the [spoiler]climactic dogfight[/spoiler] in Legacy does exactly that. Also, no movie with Olivia Wilde in it is a waste of time.

[Apestrife]

Saw Carrie (the original from 1976) this morning. First time watching it, and even if I knew what would happen towards the end (much like a certain father and son moment before watching Star wars ep 5) it still really grabbed me (much like a certain father and son moment still do in Star wars ep 5). A very sweet and sad horror movie. I especially enjoyed how playful the film is up to the point it all crashes down. The sped up chip munk dialouge during the tuxedo test, silly music during certain scenes and so on... Even the way the bucket is handled. And then the fun stops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD0EUQnElEE

Awesome film. Easily up there with De Palma's Blow out.

[repoman]

I need to watch that one again.  It was always pretty effective.

[karlos]

Speaking of Tron, Cindy Morgan popped up in a film I found on YouTube called The Midnight Hour (1985).

A TV movie that I'd never heard of - a camp, sweet, daft little film that apparently is a bit of a Halloween institution in tbe states.

If you're in tbe mood for some ultra 80s it's worth a peep.

[broodblik]

Anyone who likes violent over-the-top action movies will enjoy Extraction currently showing on Netflix

[TordelBack]

Anyone who likes violent over-the-top action movies will enjoy Extraction currently showing on Netflix

The missus has been pressuring me to watch this one. Can't Hemsworth think why.