Recent Viewings

[Mr_Vindictive]

Well, I've been busy the past two days.  Three movies yesterday and one today:

The Killer (1989) - Amazing John Woo film!  The story revolves around Ah Jong (Jeffery in the dubbed version).  He's an assasin who accidentally blinds an innocent woman during one of his hits.  He then begins to date her and takes one last job so that he can make enough money to leave the business and get her cornea replaced.

Of course, not all is well.  Someone wants him dead after he finishes the hit, and it's an all out action packed flick from there.  This is quite possibly the best John Woo film I've ever seen.  Other than this, I've only seen his American flicks (Paycheck, Face/Off, etc).  Can anyone else make any other recommendations on other good older Woo flicks?  I picked up this DVD from Ebay for 1.00!

9/10


Grave Of The Fireflies (1988) - This is one of those films that I had heard so much about and just never got around to seeing until I picked it up for one cent on Ebay.  This is one of the most powerful and emotional film I do believe I have ever seen.

Fireflies is an Anime film about a young boy (Seita) and his four year old sister (Setsuko) during WWII.  One day their town of Kobe is firebombed by us Americans, and their mother dies of burn injuries.  They live with a distant aunt for a period of time before her hatred of them forces them to go off by themselves and try to live in an abandoned shelter.  

This is a film that, from the beginning, you know what's going to happen and you sure as hell don't want to see it.  It's a truly beautiful and sad film that I say everyone should see.  I don't care who you are, you will cry.  Superb film.


10/10!


Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005) - Sweet mother of God, I hated this film.  My wife and I had been wanting to see it since it first started playing, but just now got around to it, and it was a waste of $14.00!

So, what did I hate about it?  Well first, I hated Depp's Wonka.  Once again, the guy gives a good performance, but I guess I'm just biased due to the original film.  Wilder's Wonka was just so evil, right to the core.  He knew what was going to happen to each child and wasn't afraid to show his disdain at their actions.

While, Depp's Wonka did seem to know what would happen, he just wasn't as menacing.  He was a man child and it just didn't work for me.

Two high points of the film for me though were Deep Roy as the Umpa-Loompas and Chistopher Lee.  I loved the Umpa-Loompas and their songs, but loathed their backstory.  As for Christopher Lee, it's just good to see him in any film.  It amazes me everytime I see him, to realize just how old the man is.  Overall though, this film was a let down.

3/10



Loose Shoes (1980) - So, I bought this on DVD (1 dollar again) hoping that it would be like various other skit films from the 70s/80s like Amazon Women On The Moon, KF Movie, etc.  Well, I was wrong.

I couldn't make it through about thirty minutes before I turned off the DVD.  It's terrible!  Buddy Hacket speaking on the behalf of the bedwetters of America was too much.

Terrible terrible film.

0/10



Post Edited (07-31-05 18:45)

[Yaddo 42]

I've seen some of the better known John Woo HK films like: The Killer, The first two A Better Tomorrow films, and Hard Boiled. I also saw a much earlier HK martial artist flick he made with Jackie Chan in a small role, but the name escapes me, and it had none of his trademark style, some more versed in his earlier career would probably know it. I have the first version of "Once Upon a Thief" on DVD, but have yet to watch it. Of his HK films I've seen I like "Hard Boiled" the best, but most people consider "The Killer" to be the best of his gunplay action flicks from the era. "hard Boiled" was so exciting to me the first time I saw it, I was actually tired when it was over.  WHile I liked "The Killer" I've tended to recommend HB to people more, but that's just me. Which version did you see? There are supposedly versions of varying length out there.

At one time there was going to be a US remake (big surprise) of "The Killer", Richard Gere's name was usually mentioned  for the hit man role. I'm glad it never came to be. I'd rather people see Woo's HK films than watered down remakes. I just hate that Hollywood seems to have taken the fun out of his films as his career over here has gone on.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Skaboi I watched Grave of Fireflies that I bought at a convention.  Your right it a great flim that proves IMO that cartoons have just the same emotion and live action. I really thought I was going to cry at the end and I am a burly man that cries at nothing and laughed at Titanic. The only thing is I can't watch again. Its to dam emotional.

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Ray,when some asks you if your a God you say YES! - Ghostbusters

[dean]

I'm pretty interested in watching Grave of the Fireflies as well.  After watching Princess Mononoke I was blown away, and then Spirited Away also added to the excellent Studio Ghibli works.  Hopefully I'll get around to seeing it soon.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Yaddo,

I can't be quite sure at the moment, but I want to say that the version of The Killer that I saw clocked in at about an hour and 50 minutes.  The DVD that I bought was an original from China, hence all of the menus and such were in Chinese.  I have a feeling that it's the longer version.

As for Hard Boiled, it's a film I've wanted to check out for a while but have never gotten around to it.  The Killer was good enough for me to finally go ahead and pick it up.  Thanks for the recommendation!


Dean, you really should check out Grave Of The Fireflies.  It's not your normal Studio Ghibli film.  The animation is similar, although a bit dated compared to the anime that's coming out of there now.  Hayao Miyazaki actually helped work on Grave back in 1988 although it's not remotely close to his latest lighthearted films like Princess M. and Spirited Away.

Consider this a warning though, the film is damned sad and it will affect you.  I got my wife to watch it Sunday night and although she hates subtitles and doesn't much care for foreign films in general, she was crying her eyes out by the end of the film.

I've read that at the time of release of Grave that they put it back to back with a standard comedy-anime film.  I can only imagine the types of reactions to that.  Consider putting Schindler's List and Are We There Yet back to back and you'd have the idea.

[AndyC]

I liked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I was kind of disappointed that they felt compelled to show all of the children leaving the factory safe, if somewhat altered. As they were being picked off one by one, I thought this movie went a little further than the original toward suggesting that they were not going to be all right, and that Willy was indeed setting traps to let survival of the fittest (or the least bratty) decide who would be his successor. You weren't sure they were dead, but it was just ambiguous enough to make you wonder. Then the kids came walking out of the factory and blew it.

[Mr_Vindictive]

I agree Andy.  I kept thinking that the Charlie story would work great as a slasher flick because at it's heart - that's what it is.  Charlie picks off the kids one by one.

[dean]

>>>I agree Andy. I kept thinking that the Charlie story would work great as a slasher flick because at it's heart - that's what it is. Charlie picks off the kids one by one.

Well aren't they doing an evil remake of Alice in Wonderland, based on the violent video game "Alice"?

I sense a trend of subverting your old childhood stories into violent slasher films.  It can be the new thing in hollywood: coming up "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" the tale of a porn actress trying to find love amongst seven drug dealing dwarves, or "Cinderella" the tale of a slave who violently rebels against her owners and steals a prince's heart [for real]

[AndyC]

Ah, but Willy Wonka does not need to be subverted. It's violent in that classic fairy tale way, fitting right in with the witches that fatten children up to eat them, and the giants that grind their bones to make bread. An eccentric candy maker lures children into his wondrous factory where they fall victim to a series of bizarre industrial accidents, as they are put into situations that conveniently exploit each of their various weaknesses. Better be good, kids, or look what happens.

Classic stuff.

[Yaddo 42]

Yeah, Andy C is right again, many of the original versions of popular fairy tales were much darker, being watered down only later on. In early versions of Cinderella, the ugly step-sisters cut off some of their toes trying to make the glass slipper fit. Didn't the Wolf eat Granny in early versions of "Little Red Riding Hood"? And various versions have the woodsman either killing the Wolf out right, or cutting him open to release Granny, somehow not digested. Also in "The Three Little Pigs", the straw and stick houses are not only blown down but their owners are eaten in some versions, rather than getting away to take shelter with the other pig in his brick house.

[dean]

Alot of fairy tales were pretty gruesome anyway.

I was told about a Brother's Grimm one the other day about some big bowl of blood in some building.  Something about the house it's in is made up of the bodies of the kids who have tried to drink from the bowl, therefore making it harder to get to as more people get into 'construction'.  

Pretty gruesome stuff really.

But although I know that alot of original stuff may have been a fair bit darker, when I meant subverted, I meant in that 'heavy handed in the way only Hollywood can do' sort of way: whilst the original Dahl books had their dark moments, I'm all up for taking that one step [or four] further, which is why I'm intrigued by this new Alice movie, or at least the concept behind it.

[Yaddo 42]

I call that "running a film through the Happy Ending Machine", but I know what you mean. Wrapping a film up so that there are no consequences (or lack of them) that will make the audience even a little uncomfortable. Good must win outright, bad must be not just defeated but punished, kids must remain unharmed (no matter how bratty the same story made them out to be), Love must bloom in the air no matter how far it has been from the characters thoughts up until then, etc.

Not a kids movie, but the ending of "Scent of a Woman" always comes to mind. I almost expected someone to hand Chris O'Donnell a cute puppy with the phone number of Gabrielle Anwar's character written on it's dog collar. That film tried to make EVERYTHING "just right" when it ended.