Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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Overlord does feel very much like an Abrams product though, slick production values, well choreographed set pieces, no real depth. Even the horror elements were pretty boring by the halfway mark, a shame since I was getting some Bloodborne vibes for a while there.
MST 3K: Outlaw of Gor. Probably my favorite film of the entire series, it's just got so many incredible lines, and the film is just so cheezy it's fantastic. Crow is the MVP that episode, having the best comebacks and quips imaginable.
Johnny Mnemonic: I really love this movie. It might help that I went and saw it in the theaters when it released, high as FUCK, but I just rewatched it with my wife, and it still holds up.
So, the hilarious premise. *echoey voice* IN THE DISTANT FUTURE OF 2021!!
The virtual cyberspace internet is the standard! Rofl it's so hilarious to think about the technology prediction from previous decades.
Oh! It also shows civil unrest in China, with people wearing masks as they revolt against the dictatorial governments that rule the planet! Massive wealth inequality and people living in squalor in the shadow of the megacorps! All while a global plague is killing millions!! ...... Not so hilarious. I'd rather swap disturbingly accurate details about the future with the cyberspace one frankly. But yeah, that was a bit close to home within the first 10 minutes of the film.
But yeah, it's one of the few times that I actually like Keanu's acting. I love Keanu, I think he's a great human being, but....he's a terrible actor. He really is. But he's really attractive, he's got a strange form of charisma, but he's got the emotional range in his acting of a stick of wood. But it fits for this character quite well! Because he's fairly detached from his emotions due to having his childhood removed to make room for a neural implant. And you can see that Keanu actually put a lot of effort into making his motions seem very controlled, and restrained, and clinical. He looks around a room very robotically, scanning sight lines, moving only as needed to accomplish.
And THEN everything goes to shit when his brain gets overloaded with too much data, and it's slowly killing him, making his controlled, rigid persona crack as his mental faculties fragment. And it's frankly really fun to watch. His slow yet steady breakdown, in behavior, tone, mannerisms, emotional outbursts, etc. It's really good! And his Room Service scene, which a lot of people mock for some reason, I think is actually perfectly appropriate for him. I think people forget what's going on with him up to that point in the story, and how he's literally dying by the second, has less than 24 hours before his brain basically explodes in hemorrhaging seizures, has had multiple seizures in the film, and has been almost killed by multiple groups, multiple times during the night. Then, he just breaks. He's had it, he rants about how shitty his life is at the moment, compared to how it used to be, and when Jade gives him some, admittedly justified snark back, he goes off. But I think it's more than just a rich kid whining about having to slum it. His entire world is crumbling around him, and his brain is dying, and he has nothing familiar or solid to hold onto. So he starts naming off things that he remembers from his time in the city, like he's trying to piece his sanity back together. Like if he can just mention the things he is used to, maybe this will all just be a nightmare, and he'll wake up from it. So he finally just, slumps down, broken, defeated, exhausted, unsure what to do next, not seeing any way forward at that moment, and scared that he might just...die on this pile of rubble, in Newark slums, picked apart by rats, and nobody give a shit. It's actually more compelling than I think people give it credit for. And it's probably the most emotive and emotional I've ever seen Keanu.
I actually really enjoy the cyberspace sequences. Yes, the CGI is dated as fuck, but frankly it looked bad even back then. And frankly, CGI always looks bad, we like to critique it but it always ages poorly, if it even had to age at all to be bad. Even today you can find really bad CGI in some higher budget films. So I really don't care that it's janky as fuck, and looks like it's from the mid-90s. The choices they made on how to visually represent the various physical actions, translating to computer commands was really fucking good. They frequently show you Johnny surfing the net from the outside, and you just see Keanu doing physical acting, occasionally interspersing the CGI clips to illustrate what's happening with more detail. But honestly you can follow it pretty damn easily just from his movements. The gestures for sifting through data, discarding screens, finding something and pulling it to his location, just, all of it is really well done. Whoever was in charge of visualizing that, did a fantastic job with the resources they had at the time.
I won't call this a guilty pleasure, because I have zero guilt for enjoying this film. It does a really good job at presenting it's setup, and executes it more often than it misses. It's got some lumpy bits here and there, like the conspiracy level crap about what is actually causing the NAS plague, IT'S THE TECHNOLOGY MAAAN! IT'S KILLING THE WORLD!! But I thought it did a really good job of taking the cyberpunk genre, and showing us both the corporate/shiny side of it, and the slum/street side of it, and making both of them compelling in different ways.
So yeah, solid 8/10 for me.
Johnny Mnemonic: I really love this movie. It might help that I went and saw it in the theaters when it released, high as FUCK, but I just rewatched it with my wife, and it still holds up.
So, the hilarious premise. *echoey voice* IN THE DISTANT FUTURE OF 2021!!
The virtual cyberspace internet is the standard! Rofl it's so hilarious to think about the technology prediction from previous decades. Oh! It also shows civil unrest in China, with people wearing masks as they revolt against the dictatorial governments that rule the planet! Massive wealth inequality and people living in squalor in the shadow of the megacorps! All while a global plague is killing millions!! ......
Not so hilarious. I'd rather swap disturbingly accurate details about the future with the cyberspace one frankly. But yeah, that was a bit close to home within the first 10 minutes of the film.But yeah, it's one of the few times that I actually like Keanu's acting. I love Keanu, I think he's a great human being, but....he's a terrible actor. He really is. But he's really attractive, he's got a strange form of charisma, but he's got the emotional range in his acting of a stick of wood. But it fits for this character quite well! Because he's fairly detached from his emotions due to having his childhood removed to make room for a neural implant. And you can see that Keanu actually put a lot of effort into making his motions seem very controlled, and restrained, and clinical. He looks around a room very robotically, scanning sight lines, moving only as needed to accomplish.
And THEN everything goes to shit when his brain gets overloaded with too much data, and it's slowly killing him, making his controlled, rigid persona crack as his mental faculties fragment. And it's frankly really fun to watch. His slow yet steady breakdown, in behavior, tone, mannerisms, emotional outbursts, etc. It's really good! And his Room Service scene, which a lot of people mock for some reason, I think is actually perfectly appropriate for him. I think people forget what's going on with him up to that point in the story, and how he's literally dying by the second, has less than 24 hours before his brain basically explodes in hemorrhaging seizures, has had multiple seizures in the film, and has been almost killed by multiple groups, multiple times during the night. Then, he just breaks. He's had it, he rants about how shitty his life is at the moment, compared to how it used to be, and when Jade gives him some, admittedly justified snark back, he goes off. But I think it's more than just a rich kid whining about having to slum it. His entire world is crumbling around him, and his brain is dying, and he has nothing familiar or solid to hold onto. So he starts naming off things that he remembers from his time in the city, like he's trying to piece his sanity back together. Like if he can just mention the things he is used to, maybe this will all just be a nightmare, and he'll wake up from it. So he finally just, slumps down, broken, defeated, exhausted, unsure what to do next, not seeing any way forward at that moment, and scared that he might just...die on this pile of rubble, in Newark slums, picked apart by rats, and nobody give a shit. It's actually more compelling than I think people give it credit for. And it's probably the most emotive and emotional I've ever seen Keanu.
I actually really enjoy the cyberspace sequences. Yes, the CGI is dated as fuck, but frankly it looked bad even back then. And frankly, CGI always looks bad, we like to critique it but it always ages poorly, if it even had to age at all to be bad. Even today you can find really bad CGI in some higher budget films. So I really don't care that it's janky as fuck, and looks like it's from the mid-90s. The choices they made on how to visually represent the various physical actions, translating to computer commands was really fucking good. They frequently show you Johnny surfing the net from the outside, and you just see Keanu doing physical acting, occasionally interspersing the CGI clips to illustrate what's happening with more detail. But honestly you can follow it pretty damn easily just from his movements. The gestures for sifting through data, discarding screens, finding something and pulling it to his location, just, all of it is really well done. Whoever was in charge of visualizing that, did a fantastic job with the resources they had at the time.
I won't call this a guilty pleasure, because I have zero guilt for enjoying this film. It does a really good job at presenting it's setup, and executes it more often than it misses. It's got some lumpy bits here and there, like the conspiracy level crap about what is actually causing the NAS plague, IT'S THE TECHNOLOGY MAAAN! IT'S KILLING THE WORLD!! But I thought it did a really good job of taking the cyberpunk genre, and showing us both the corporate/shiny side of it, and the slum/street side of it, and making both of them compelling in different ways.
So yeah, solid 8/10 for me.
The Phantom
I was a biggish fan of the Phantom comics way back when, and have fond memories of this movie not being as bad as people said it was. And it isn't. It's certainly not as bad as some of the high budget DC or Marvel rubbish we've got now. It's just not very good.
There's some good bits. The movie opens with the bridge from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, only the danger isn't all swordfighty, it's getting a heavy truck across. Indy didn't do any vehicle stuff with the bridge, this is suitably different, fair enough. The bad guys all get out and walk across, and then get a kid to drive the truck cause the kid is lightest, which, ok. The kid refuses to go any farther, and one of them says to tie him up, and not kill him cause they need him to drive the car back. I am not sure what the film is going for there, is the guy evil and wants to kill the kid, but needs to keep him alive? Or does the guy not want to kill the kid but wants an excuse to look tough to the others?
They find some ancient burial ground full of loot, and one of them gets strangled by a skeleton in such a fake way I was sure it would be revealed that one of his friends was just putting the dead guy's hands on him as a prank or something. A lot of this movie looks cheap. Yeah, it was the 90s, and the budget was a mere $45m, but Escape from New York had a budget of $6m and was done years earlier and looks way better. A
The film stars Billy Zane, who went on to do such direct-to-DVD films as The Scorpion King: 3, but the year after making this he was in Titanic, which I personally didn't like, but was sorta a big deal at the time.
Also starring is Catherine Zeta-Jones, as the leader of a band of pirates. Not just any pirates, but an all female band of pirates, which would probably get you in trouble with the authorities for discrimination nowdays, except it was set in the 30s when that sort of thing was allowed I guess. And maybe they'd get in trouble for piracy, you wouldn't download an aeroplane, would you? An aeroplane in that these aren't just any all female band of pirates, they are sky pirates. This differentiates them from the other, not sky pirates and gangsters in the film (who are all male). Doing almost nothing in this film differentiates them from some of the other pirates and gangsters.
This is another problem with the film, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't go anywhere. Cathy and the Sky Pirates (Catherine Zeta-Jones and the Sky Pirates is too long for a good band name) kidnap the love interest (played by Kristy Swanson, the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer), allowing the Phantom to get embarrassed when he barges into a locker room full of not totally dressed people during the rescue, but then Zeta-Jones goes off and leaves them behind. I don't know about you, but if I had a band of Sky Pirate followers, I'd keep them around. They are inherently moderately cool, would improve the film, come in handy if you were going on dangerous adventures, hanging around with gangsters that might start fighting amongst themselves, or just hanging around with gangsters that might get handy in another sense when you are the only woman around. But no, she leaves them all behind, and goes to meet up with a bunch of gangster leaders who all have their own henchpersons, but who also all leave them behind. When they go after the treasure, the evil party consists of evil rich guy (no henchmen), gangster leader (no henchmen), pirate who is in some sort of leadership role because he had henchmen before (no henchmen), sky pirate (no henchwomen) and captive (one love interest hanging on the the outside of the plane for like 12 hours that nobody noticed). Get rid of one or two evil groups, make the balance up with henchpersons, movie would be simpler.
There's one scene in particular I'd mention that belongs in a totally different movie. The evil rich guy knows he's been betrayed, so he's in his office playing with a microscope that has blades pop out of the eyepieces when you play with the focus knob. The guy who's betrayed him comes in, they talk, the rich guy pretends he doesn't know he's been betrayed, he asks the guy to look at the microscope, the guy sees the word "LIAR" just before he gets the blades in his eyes. It's like something out of a horror film, not something where the hero shoots at enemy guns to disarm rather than harm them.
The film was all over the places, lots of stuff went nowhere and lots of stuff just looked bad, but there no pretentious rubbish or angsting or anything. Would watch again, not in a great hurry, though.
I was a biggish fan of the Phantom comics way back when, and have fond memories of this movie not being as bad as people said it was. And it isn't. It's certainly not as bad as some of the high budget DC or Marvel rubbish we've got now. It's just not very good.
There's some good bits. The movie opens with the bridge from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, only the danger isn't all swordfighty, it's getting a heavy truck across. Indy didn't do any vehicle stuff with the bridge, this is suitably different, fair enough. The bad guys all get out and walk across, and then get a kid to drive the truck cause the kid is lightest, which, ok. The kid refuses to go any farther, and one of them says to tie him up, and not kill him cause they need him to drive the car back. I am not sure what the film is going for there, is the guy evil and wants to kill the kid, but needs to keep him alive? Or does the guy not want to kill the kid but wants an excuse to look tough to the others?
They find some ancient burial ground full of loot, and one of them gets strangled by a skeleton in such a fake way I was sure it would be revealed that one of his friends was just putting the dead guy's hands on him as a prank or something. A lot of this movie looks cheap. Yeah, it was the 90s, and the budget was a mere $45m, but Escape from New York had a budget of $6m and was done years earlier and looks way better. A
The film stars Billy Zane, who went on to do such direct-to-DVD films as The Scorpion King: 3, but the year after making this he was in Titanic, which I personally didn't like, but was sorta a big deal at the time.
Also starring is Catherine Zeta-Jones, as the leader of a band of pirates. Not just any pirates, but an all female band of pirates, which would probably get you in trouble with the authorities for discrimination nowdays, except it was set in the 30s when that sort of thing was allowed I guess. And maybe they'd get in trouble for piracy, you wouldn't download an aeroplane, would you? An aeroplane in that these aren't just any all female band of pirates, they are sky pirates. This differentiates them from the other, not sky pirates and gangsters in the film (who are all male). Doing almost nothing in this film differentiates them from some of the other pirates and gangsters.
This is another problem with the film, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't go anywhere. Cathy and the Sky Pirates (Catherine Zeta-Jones and the Sky Pirates is too long for a good band name) kidnap the love interest (played by Kristy Swanson, the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer), allowing the Phantom to get embarrassed when he barges into a locker room full of not totally dressed people during the rescue, but then Zeta-Jones goes off and leaves them behind. I don't know about you, but if I had a band of Sky Pirate followers, I'd keep them around. They are inherently moderately cool, would improve the film, come in handy if you were going on dangerous adventures, hanging around with gangsters that might start fighting amongst themselves, or just hanging around with gangsters that might get handy in another sense when you are the only woman around. But no, she leaves them all behind, and goes to meet up with a bunch of gangster leaders who all have their own henchpersons, but who also all leave them behind. When they go after the treasure, the evil party consists of evil rich guy (no henchmen), gangster leader (no henchmen), pirate who is in some sort of leadership role because he had henchmen before (no henchmen), sky pirate (no henchwomen) and captive (one love interest hanging on the the outside of the plane for like 12 hours that nobody noticed). Get rid of one or two evil groups, make the balance up with henchpersons, movie would be simpler.
There's one scene in particular I'd mention that belongs in a totally different movie. The evil rich guy knows he's been betrayed, so he's in his office playing with a microscope that has blades pop out of the eyepieces when you play with the focus knob. The guy who's betrayed him comes in, they talk, the rich guy pretends he doesn't know he's been betrayed, he asks the guy to look at the microscope, the guy sees the word "LIAR" just before he gets the blades in his eyes. It's like something out of a horror film, not something where the hero shoots at enemy guns to disarm rather than harm them.
The film was all over the places, lots of stuff went nowhere and lots of stuff just looked bad, but there no pretentious rubbish or angsting or anything. Would watch again, not in a great hurry, though.
I remember that. Cringed real hard when the dude got stabbed in the eye. I was six at the time when seeing it theaters. As far as the film being better than Marvel or DC's films of recent, I find it highly debatable. Okay, I would take the Phantom over most of the Marvel's phase 2 films and Captain Marvel, but I would not go that far in watching it over other Marvel films. Even with DC films I don't like, I would still take most of them over the Phantom. I would watch The Phantom over Watchmen and The Spirit, but that is about it. It's been years since I last watched The Phantom, but even as a child, I saw the film as just average or whatever.
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Apparently there's a bunch of these books, but they made this one into a film because it's most like Harry Potter. It even has a Harry Potter style name, though to be fair, those are common. Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince does as well, and that's about teen school drama, and it's a catchy song until you say "Half Blood Prince" instead of "Heartbreak Prince" and the song is ruined.
This film has Percy Jackson, the boring white hero, Annebelle or Annabeth or something the boring white girl that hangs around him, and...someone else, who is the black comic relief. They are all as cliched and dull and forgettable as the writers could make them. With the exception that white hero has ADHD and dyslexia, black comic relief walks on crutches and white teacher played by Pierce Brosnan is a wheelchair user. Apparently the writer's kid had ADHD and/or dyslexia and wanted to have a hero with those conditions. Fair enough, people have ADHD and/or dyslexia, you've got a zillion superheroes/demigods/Chosen Ones, some are going to have ADHD and/or dyslexia.
Nope, they don't. Black comic relief is a satyr and is just pretending to uses crutches, Pierce Brosnan is a centaur (who doesn't wear any pants in his centaur form, but seemingly doesn't have any bits to hide, there's some shots where it should have been noticeable), white hero is Extra Special, he doesn't have dyslexia, his brain is "hardwired" to read Ancient Greek and it's not ADHD, it's being an awesome fighter somehow which is not really addressed. These issues don't come up again, so well done with the inclusion, which the author, I believe, specifically stated they were doing.
Everyone is a Greek mythological figure, or descended from one (or Roman, cause the writers didn't know the difference. Furies are Roman, Erinyes/Eumenides are Greek). Someone has stolen lightning, and people blame white hero for some reason, and he has to get it and give it back within 2 weeks or there will be a stupid war (stupid conflicts between Greek gods are true to the source material, so there's that). And...I don't really care. It's dull and by the numbers. Some big names though.
A pretty unimpressive attempt to cash in on Harry Potter. It's not woeful, but don't rush out and get this film.
Apparently there's a bunch of these books, but they made this one into a film because it's most like Harry Potter. It even has a Harry Potter style name, though to be fair, those are common. Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince does as well, and that's about teen school drama, and it's a catchy song until you say "Half Blood Prince" instead of "Heartbreak Prince" and the song is ruined.
This film has Percy Jackson, the boring white hero, Annebelle or Annabeth or something the boring white girl that hangs around him, and...someone else, who is the black comic relief. They are all as cliched and dull and forgettable as the writers could make them. With the exception that white hero has ADHD and dyslexia, black comic relief walks on crutches and white teacher played by Pierce Brosnan is a wheelchair user. Apparently the writer's kid had ADHD and/or dyslexia and wanted to have a hero with those conditions. Fair enough, people have ADHD and/or dyslexia, you've got a zillion superheroes/demigods/Chosen Ones, some are going to have ADHD and/or dyslexia.
Nope, they don't. Black comic relief is a satyr and is just pretending to uses crutches, Pierce Brosnan is a centaur (who doesn't wear any pants in his centaur form, but seemingly doesn't have any bits to hide, there's some shots where it should have been noticeable), white hero is Extra Special, he doesn't have dyslexia, his brain is "hardwired" to read Ancient Greek and it's not ADHD, it's being an awesome fighter somehow which is not really addressed. These issues don't come up again, so well done with the inclusion, which the author, I believe, specifically stated they were doing.
Everyone is a Greek mythological figure, or descended from one (or Roman, cause the writers didn't know the difference. Furies are Roman, Erinyes/Eumenides are Greek). Someone has stolen lightning, and people blame white hero for some reason, and he has to get it and give it back within 2 weeks or there will be a stupid war (stupid conflicts between Greek gods are true to the source material, so there's that). And...I don't really care. It's dull and by the numbers. Some big names though.
A pretty unimpressive attempt to cash in on Harry Potter. It's not woeful, but don't rush out and get this film.
I found it amusing when they ended up in a Casino in Las Vegas and it basically looks like what kids think a Casino looks like.
Though I did enjoy the visual shout out to the Parathon in Nashville, TN. I literally don't remember the rest of the movie beyond those two bits.
![Road, The [2009, USA, John Hillcoat, BD remux].mkv_snapshot_01.33.17.450.jpg](https://eg-forums-escapist-data.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/attachments/1/1900-5bb533e897e916511bd5198fb58eba0b.jpg "Road, The [2009, USA, John Hillcoat, BD remux].mkv_snapshot_01.33.17.450.jpg")
![Road, The [2009, USA, John Hillcoat, BD remux].mkv_snapshot_01.44.30.488.png](https://eg-forums-escapist-data.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/attachments/1/1899-20e383205b4c0c525bc12d2eac269937.jpg "Road, The [2009, USA, John Hillcoat, BD remux].mkv_snapshot_01.44.30.488.png")
First Blood, or Rambo 1 as it's also known.
US law enforcement decide to victimise some random innocent person for the hell of it and get their comeuppance.
Oh, and there's some stuff about him being a traumatised Vietnam veteran as well, but the OtT action heroness clashes with the "this is an actual issue for reals" ness of that.
Decent enough film, though gets overshadowed by the mindless action stuff that came out later.
US law enforcement decide to victimise some random innocent person for the hell of it and get their comeuppance.
Oh, and there's some stuff about him being a traumatised Vietnam veteran as well, but the OtT action heroness clashes with the "this is an actual issue for reals" ness of that.
Decent enough film, though gets overshadowed by the mindless action stuff that came out later.
Rambo 4 was my 2nd favorite of the series but very violent and gruesome. 5 was like a pretender. The worst.
As for the first? My boy is jaded and difficult to impress. He thought nothing that came out before he was born in the 90s would be any good. He watched that, turned to me wide eyed after the Rambo kicks butt in the forest scene and said, "He just totally owned those guys!"
I read they had to do a ton of editing to come out with the film we finally got. Before deep cuts, it was a meandering, sentimental mess. Also, it was a huge departure from the book which is very good for it's own reasons. As I recall, a well worth it quick read.
I am not sure if you know, but First Blood was a novel first. The novel is way darker and vast, and Rambo is villain. He dies in the novel too. There was an alternate ending you can see on the DVD/Blu-Ray where they keep true to the source material, but decided to change it because the film made Rambo nicer and more sympathetic. A change I did not exactly mind.
I remember back in the early 2010s Spill.com (now Double Toasted) ripped on these movies hard. Mainly Korey, but I cannot blame him. Especially with a horrible and way beyond dated black character comic relief. I am so glad these movies did not get too far and made no more than two movies.
BOЯAT: A Subsequent Moviefilm
Sasha Baron Cohen returns in his most famous creation. I'm talking of course about Ali-G... NOT!
New Borat dropped rather unexpectedly, without any announcement on Amazon's streaming service. And since i was already subbed i decided to give it a watch.
And... it's fine. It's not as good as the original, but i'm not even sure if i should atribute that to the movie, or my sense of humor changing.
Probably the former, since while i do like good cringe comedy(IASIP), the one in Borat 2: Election Year Boogaloo feels less organic and forced, in a way, compared to the original.
But first things first. We meet Borat Sadgiyev again after he's released from his gulag sentence for turning Kazachstan into a laughing stock in the first documentary. He receives a non-refusable offer - chance to clear his name, in return for delivering a gift to Donald Trump from the Great Nation of Kazachstan, in a top secret mission.
Of course things get further complicated. Due to the yuge success of the first moviefilm, Borat is a world celebrity now, and will have to depend on clever disguises to yet again fool the unsuspecting american public. On top of that, Borat's similarly, erm, "exotic" daughter becomes an unexpected part of his mission, and their interactions are arguably the real main course of this story.
Because this time there's actual plot. While still resembling a mockumentary, Borat Rising: Revengeance is much less freeform in its... form. Still constructed from short skits, essentialy, featuring Borat(and his daughter) and someone else being stunned at his shenanigans. But more ofter than not, this the bystanders seem to be either in-on the joke, or atleast realizing they're in one. Mostly they just stand there, with Jim Halpert's "Well this is awkward" expression.
It might be intentional choice, and it's understandable departure if Cohen didn't simply want to just repeat the whole shtick again. But it still dulls sharpness of the satire. Some guy caught nazi saluting at a Q rally is awful, but less shocking, imho, than an aging cowboy admitting in front of cameras he'd be down with executing gay people(a scene in Borat The First).
The whole subplot with Borat's daughter also adds some odd wholesomeness, that feels like another way to make the humor more contemporary. I can't really blame him for trying, and at the very least the actress playing the daughter is really good in her role.
In the end, Borat: The Post-Sequel, while not quite living up to the first movie, still got some chuckles from me(Canada's First Black PM), and might be a good idea for a quarantine movie night as this cursed year comes to an end.
KONG: Skull Island
I may elaborate on this review later, cause i wanted to write a bit more about it, but i spent too much time on a review above and it's getting late and i'm tired-
ANYWAY, Skong: Kull Island is a really fun not-Marvel movie(three main leads also hail from MCU) about a giant ape fighting monsters on a beautiful tropical island and bunch of stupid humans being running around them. It's a ROMP in the best meaning of that word, and i don't know how it's supposed to tie to these Godzilla movies, and if didn't hallucinate that, but it's probably the best western movie about giant monsters fighting alongside Pacific Rim. And that's a high praise and basicly my seal of approval.
Sasha Baron Cohen returns in his most famous creation. I'm talking of course about Ali-G... NOT!
New Borat dropped rather unexpectedly, without any announcement on Amazon's streaming service. And since i was already subbed i decided to give it a watch.
And... it's fine. It's not as good as the original, but i'm not even sure if i should atribute that to the movie, or my sense of humor changing.
Probably the former, since while i do like good cringe comedy(IASIP), the one in Borat 2: Election Year Boogaloo feels less organic and forced, in a way, compared to the original.
But first things first. We meet Borat Sadgiyev again after he's released from his gulag sentence for turning Kazachstan into a laughing stock in the first documentary. He receives a non-refusable offer - chance to clear his name, in return for delivering a gift to Donald Trump from the Great Nation of Kazachstan, in a top secret mission.
Of course things get further complicated. Due to the yuge success of the first moviefilm, Borat is a world celebrity now, and will have to depend on clever disguises to yet again fool the unsuspecting american public. On top of that, Borat's similarly, erm, "exotic" daughter becomes an unexpected part of his mission, and their interactions are arguably the real main course of this story.
Because this time there's actual plot. While still resembling a mockumentary, Borat Rising: Revengeance is much less freeform in its... form. Still constructed from short skits, essentialy, featuring Borat(and his daughter) and someone else being stunned at his shenanigans. But more ofter than not, this the bystanders seem to be either in-on the joke, or atleast realizing they're in one. Mostly they just stand there, with Jim Halpert's "Well this is awkward" expression.
It might be intentional choice, and it's understandable departure if Cohen didn't simply want to just repeat the whole shtick again. But it still dulls sharpness of the satire. Some guy caught nazi saluting at a Q rally is awful, but less shocking, imho, than an aging cowboy admitting in front of cameras he'd be down with executing gay people(a scene in Borat The First).
The whole subplot with Borat's daughter also adds some odd wholesomeness, that feels like another way to make the humor more contemporary. I can't really blame him for trying, and at the very least the actress playing the daughter is really good in her role.
In the end, Borat: The Post-Sequel, while not quite living up to the first movie, still got some chuckles from me(Canada's First Black PM), and might be a good idea for a quarantine movie night as this cursed year comes to an end.
KONG: Skull Island
I may elaborate on this review later, cause i wanted to write a bit more about it, but i spent too much time on a review above and it's getting late and i'm tired-
ANYWAY, Skong: Kull Island is a really fun not-Marvel movie(three main leads also hail from MCU) about a giant ape fighting monsters on a beautiful tropical island and bunch of stupid humans being running around them. It's a ROMP in the best meaning of that word, and i don't know how it's supposed to tie to these Godzilla movies, and if didn't hallucinate that, but it's probably the best western movie about giant monsters fighting alongside Pacific Rim. And that's a high praise and basicly my seal of approval.
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Well, playing devil's advocate, the Roman and Greek gods exist in the same "Riordanverse" (along with other pantheons), so on that, the film isn't technically out of bounds.
But as for the gods being true to the source material...yeah. One word. "Hades."
I'd still put Skull Island below Pacific Rim, not to mention the Jackson Kong film.
Skull Island was fun if I turned my brain off, but it was a pale imitation of what had come before, and the on-screen stuff wasn't enough to engross me. I get that plot and character aren't the point of kaiju films, but that never stopped the prior Kong film(s), or Pacific Rim, so why should I give Skull Island a free pass?
The spike trap thingy sorta ruined that for me, he had time to make that? Hurt suspension of disbelief. Especially as he didn't really need it.
Yeah, apparently they used footage for the other ending in a dream sequence in a later film.
Yeah, they..wait, two movies? Never knew there was another, people only ever seem to talk about this one.
Yep. The second movie came in 2013. It did not do well and performed worse despite being truer to the books. Hell, the author of the books hates both films. I see his point of view clearly.
I've been watching the Undisputed sequels. Did you guys and gals know they made 4 of these films? And that 2, 3, & 4 are directed by Issac Florentine? Seriously, that guy knows how to make and direct awesome action. I've only seen the original once or twice and that had Ving Rhames and Wesley Snipes boxing in a prison. The sequels have nothing to do with the original aside from the 2nd film, but it's tangible related and character, Chambers (originally played by Rhames), is acted by Michael J. White. The sequels range from decent to great.
With 2 being on the decent side of things. UD2 has Chambers framed for a crime he did not commit in Russia and ends up in jail again, but this time in Russia. In order to get out, he has to fight in the underground fighting rink and take on the champion, Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins). This film and sequels go for a more MMA/Kickboxing style of fighting, instead of regular boxing. This films has good action scenes and it always nice to see White in a leading role. I just wish they did not make him the same character from the first movie as Rhames and White have different body types. They might as well named him something else. It's good watch; especially if you are in to old school style martial arts flicks like Bloodsport, Kickboxer, or Best of the Best (mainly the sequels).
UD3 stars Scott Adkins as Yuri from 2 who's trying to recover after that knee injury Chambers gave him at the end of the film. He later takes a shot at his freedom and fights in a tournament with other prisoners. UD3 is even better in terms of action and character. Yuri grows less arrogant and learns humility after his defeat in the 2nd movie. I like the moments he has with Turbo, one of the other prisoners in the tournament. There is a better build of character. The action gets better and is more elaborate. No stunt doubles, CGI, or wire work here folks. God, these films take back in the 90s when they would release direct to video martial arts action schlock. Though Undisputed reaches a level above entertainig schlock and is just entertaining. I highly recommend it and is the best of the sequels.
UD4 stars Scott Adkins as Yuri again enjoying his freedom and fighting in other rings outside of prison. He kinda goes through a minor character reset and becomes arrogant again. This mistakes ends up costing him, because he ends up killing a guy in the ring, and the guy he killed owes money to a Russian mobster. Since the dead guy can't pay, that means his widow has to pay off his debt. Struck by guilt, Yuri does fights to gain money to pay off the widoew's debt. The action is even better and you see how far Scott Adkins has come as an action star, and how far Issac Florentine has come as an action director. I almost want neither to go out in to big cinema, because I don't want either of their visions compromised by a bunch of executive Hollywood hacks. UD4 is good, but my main problem with it is thatit makes 3 nearly pointless. Yuri is able to get the widow out of her dead husband's debt, but he goes back to jail as he never got out legally. The only saving grace is that his knee is fully healed and people in prison still highly respect him. Otherwise I feel it's a bit of a step down in the story department, but I still enjoyed it.
With 2 being on the decent side of things. UD2 has Chambers framed for a crime he did not commit in Russia and ends up in jail again, but this time in Russia. In order to get out, he has to fight in the underground fighting rink and take on the champion, Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins). This film and sequels go for a more MMA/Kickboxing style of fighting, instead of regular boxing. This films has good action scenes and it always nice to see White in a leading role. I just wish they did not make him the same character from the first movie as Rhames and White have different body types. They might as well named him something else. It's good watch; especially if you are in to old school style martial arts flicks like Bloodsport, Kickboxer, or Best of the Best (mainly the sequels).
UD3 stars Scott Adkins as Yuri from 2 who's trying to recover after that knee injury Chambers gave him at the end of the film. He later takes a shot at his freedom and fights in a tournament with other prisoners. UD3 is even better in terms of action and character. Yuri grows less arrogant and learns humility after his defeat in the 2nd movie. I like the moments he has with Turbo, one of the other prisoners in the tournament. There is a better build of character. The action gets better and is more elaborate. No stunt doubles, CGI, or wire work here folks. God, these films take back in the 90s when they would release direct to video martial arts action schlock. Though Undisputed reaches a level above entertainig schlock and is just entertaining. I highly recommend it and is the best of the sequels.
UD4 stars Scott Adkins as Yuri again enjoying his freedom and fighting in other rings outside of prison. He kinda goes through a minor character reset and becomes arrogant again. This mistakes ends up costing him, because he ends up killing a guy in the ring, and the guy he killed owes money to a Russian mobster. Since the dead guy can't pay, that means his widow has to pay off his debt. Struck by guilt, Yuri does fights to gain money to pay off the widoew's debt. The action is even better and you see how far Scott Adkins has come as an action star, and how far Issac Florentine has come as an action director. I almost want neither to go out in to big cinema, because I don't want either of their visions compromised by a bunch of executive Hollywood hacks. UD4 is good, but my main problem with it is thatit makes 3 nearly pointless. Yuri is able to get the widow out of her dead husband's debt, but he goes back to jail as he never got out legally. The only saving grace is that his knee is fully healed and people in prison still highly respect him. Otherwise I feel it's a bit of a step down in the story department, but I still enjoyed it.
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Rambo 2
In which Rambo goes to Vietnam to kill lots of people some years after the war ended, and I think blows up a civilian village at some point.
There's some stuff about veterans and PoWs and the US government being evil, but whatever, just a silly OtT action movie.
Also the basic premise of the US's ex-best special forces soldier being a convicted criminal angry with his government who gets a pardon if he agrees to go somewhere dangerous for a rescue mission is a lot like Escape from New York, only that had one quarter the budget and was much better. Snake Plissken is just better than John Rambo, in part because there's not an attempt to have a clumsy message about Vietnam vets.
In which Rambo goes to Vietnam to kill lots of people some years after the war ended, and I think blows up a civilian village at some point.
There's some stuff about veterans and PoWs and the US government being evil, but whatever, just a silly OtT action movie.
Also the basic premise of the US's ex-best special forces soldier being a convicted criminal angry with his government who gets a pardon if he agrees to go somewhere dangerous for a rescue mission is a lot like Escape from New York, only that had one quarter the budget and was much better. Snake Plissken is just better than John Rambo, in part because there's not an attempt to have a clumsy message about Vietnam vets.
Rambo 3
In which the brave people of Afghanistan will not submit to a foreign aggressor, and yeah it's all been said before so I won't say anything more about that.
Even sillier OtT action movie. Though, sorta interesting in that it was mostly filmed in Israel, using captured real Soviet built stuff, and then filming finished in California, using whatever was left over from Red Dawn.
In which the brave people of Afghanistan will not submit to a foreign aggressor, and yeah it's all been said before so I won't say anything more about that.
Even sillier OtT action movie. Though, sorta interesting in that it was mostly filmed in Israel, using captured real Soviet built stuff, and then filming finished in California, using whatever was left over from Red Dawn.
LOL. That was a documentary compared to how much belief you have to suspend for 3. In the book, Rambo simply gets some moon shine brewers to give him a rifle. He gets to some high ground as the cops start walking across completely open ground below. And he snipes them. Only the chief gets away: he was a vet. from Korea involved in one of the most successful military retreats ever.
I'm hoping you review 4. I had a blast with that, while 5 was an insult. It could have been worse. I read Sly wanted it to be similar to John Carpenter's "The Thing".... with Rambo fighting the alien.