Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Trevor]

"River Of Death" (1989)
Twenty years after World War II, a South American jungle guide (Michael "American Ninja" Dudikoff) leads an expedition to a fabled Lost City in a remote, cannibal-infested part of the Amazon, where an ex-Nazi scientist (Robert Vaughn) has been hiding out creating the Ultimate Weapon.
A goofy but entertaining "Indiana Jones" wanna-be from good ol' Cannon Films.

Filmed in South Africa 😊

[lester1/2jr]

Krull (1983) - Fascinating German documentary about the inventor of the Kruller donut. No, it's a passable sci fi adventure movie that I've vaguely wanted to see since it came out. The title implies something darker and more violent than what ultimately transpires, but it's decent. In fact, it's the definition of decent. Some might think it's great, some might think it's stupid, but ... it's decent.

In the (very) heavily Star Wars influenced opening, the plot of rescuing a kidnapped princess is set. Basically it's a medieval type world, but it's in space so they have lasers (which my friend Jared assures me sound exactly like the ones from Star Wars).


Here is one of the guys who goes around in the space forest on the way to the thing.




Some much need comedy relief comes in the form of a British guy who is one of those bad magicians like Presto from Dungeons and Dragons. The princess and the final boss guy's character are kind of just there, they needed to be developed a lot more. Sex and evil are actually pretty interesting things to people, without it you're left with a kid's movie with more aggressive than usual swordplay.

Glad I finally watched it, but I'd much rather see "Zu Warriors from the Magic mountain" or "Clash of the Titans" or something as far as early 80's sci fi/ adventure stuff. Mostly of interest because of the large-ish budget and as an artifact.

3.75/ 5

[M.10rda]

I sense you are being very kind, and you make some good points, but also I insist that we mention the cast, which (besides the bland yet nice-looking leads) contains several Great British actors (including a couple of my favorites) getting stabbed/wincing in pain/etc.  (That swordplay is very aggressive!)

Also, since you mentioned Ergo the Magnificent (indirectly), I feel obligated to mention that there are no fewer than three "Magic" Dudes, so naturally one of them could spend his stats on "Charisma" rather than "Dour Wisdom". But on that topic, I'd like to say that Ynyr (Freddie Jones!) is a much better written character than Ben Kenobi in the original STAR WARS (or... after!) and has a far more dramatic/tragic arc. Alec Guinness is great but I rewatched A NEW HOPE a couple years ago and... honestly his exit is almost as cheap and hollow as Han's in TFA. Ynyr's sequences with the Widow of the Web and the sand are... haunting and profound!  Of course Guinness was more famous and was nominated for an Oscar for playing some very silly scenes with gravitas in STAR WARS... but if he'd played Ynyr I bet he would have won!

I also rewatched CLASH OF THE TITANS around the same time as STAR WARS. It has a few awesome FX moments but it doesn't hold up as a movie nearly as well as KRULL. And ZU is much more visually inventive than KRULL, but... ZU also drags! Just sayin'.

[Rev. Powell]

I remember KRULL as being fun, not magnificent, but fun. Saw it in theaters at the right age (15).

BABY INVASION (2024): A first person POV run of the VR video game "Baby Invasion" (that may or may not be also occurring in real life), where players go on a home invasion while disguised as babies while digital effects play across the screen. A bad trip disguised as a movie disguised as a video game. Liked Harmony Korine's nihilistic experiment more than I expected to--he may be doing actual satire for a change. 2.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981)
It's 1936, and pistol packin' whip crackin' archeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is on a quest to find a powerful ancient artifact before the Nazis do.
Lucas and Spielberg's action packed ode to old fashioned movie serials is still one of the best adventure films ever made. I will never get tired of re-visiting this one.

[lester1/2jr]

M Iorda - I guess it's all kind of subjective. Clash of the Titans' overall aesthetic of Ancient Greece and so forth was, to me, superior to the medieval/ space hodgepodge of Krull, as was the opium dream (or nightmare) of Zu. The best movie of all time of course is Weekend at Bernie's 2 and the part where he's walking on the ocean floor while the people in the submarine see him is the best fx.