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The Last Of The Mohicans. 1992. In the 18th century, a man adopted by a Mohican and his brother become protectors of two British sisters of a British colonel during the French and Indian war. Aside drifting away from the source material novel this is still a great film to watch, Daniel Day Lewis plays the adopted son Hawkeye and crosses a boundary in romance with Brit Madeline Stowe as she and her sister head to Fort William Henry. Wes Studi plays the tribal native Magua who is a guide and turns on those he fell have done his people injustice. From what seems to be like a adventure film becomes a violent battle. Michael Mann done a decent job directing this and able to create great cinematography with the scenery and able to include a great background score. p14197_p_v12_an.jpg
__________________ " I have seen trees that look like tortured souls" |
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Lost Bullet 2 LOST BULLET 2 (2022) Lino strikes again! Alban Lenoir returns to shatter limbs, crack skulls, and destroy every car in France as he hunts the people who SPOILER: Director Guillaume Pierret uses his bigger budget to expand the action and capture it with tremendous camera (drone) work. The acting has also improved too, probably because they could afford more takes this time. However, the simple elegance from the first film is missing, as Lost Bullet 2 brings in deception, undercover cops working undercover, and police and political corruption. Still, it does give us Lenoir sending cars flying off the road, and putting goons' heads through workbenches. And that's what we're here for, right?
__________________ "We're outgunned, and undermanned. But, you know somethin'? We're gonna win. You know why? Superior attitude. Superior state of mind." |
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Hong Kong '97 HONG KONG '97 (1994) Albert Pyun has left us mere mortals, and ascended to a greater plain. I always had a fondness for the B-movie legend (many in college couldn't believe me when I raved about him), and I think it's time for me to revisit his extensive (and often maligned) filmography. Starting with this political action thriller. Hong Kong '97 is set during (the then future) handover. Just before Hong Kong joins the mainland, spy/hitman Robert Patrick is hired to kill a top Chinese operative. As soon as he does, he is stalked by multiple assassins, and needs to find a safe way out of the city before Chinese authorities march in. It's fascinating to see this film now. Although the actual handover was relatively peaceful, the scenes of chaos and protest that Pyun presents is very close to what is happening in the city right now. That's not to say that Pyun has a serious political point to make. It's just intriguing that a throwaway DTV action film was more clairvoyent about it than bigger Hollywood productions. What Hong Kong '97 is, is scaffolding for Pyun to create shootouts. Pyun was a very underrated action filmmaker. His careful use of movement and slow motion, as well as striking colours, inspire excitement that the script or acting fails to do. An athletic sex scene transforms into a nude gunfight when ninja assassins appear. This whole scene is lit with cool blues, with a neon red billboard outside the window to create contrast. The whole film is a visual marvel, with Pyun delighting in the Hong Kong setting. The acting is a mixed affair. Robert Patrick is surprisingly wooden. I'm guessing he was trying for an emotionless killer performance. Mission accomplished! Ming-na Wen is okay for what she has to do. She's window dressing. Pyun regulars Tim Thomerson and Brion James fare the best, even if James is affecting that hideous English accent from Tango and Cash again. Hong Kong '97 is a dour thriller that showcases a lot of Pyun's style, but little of his themes and interests. It's inessential for anyone wanting to brush up on Pyun, but it's competent enough to warrant a post-pub late night viewing.
__________________ "We're outgunned, and undermanned. But, you know somethin'? We're gonna win. You know why? Superior attitude. Superior state of mind." |
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The Dark Knight Rises. 2012. Some films never really match up to their predecessor but this final instalment of Nolan's trilogy is amazing to watch and enjoy, clocking in at 2 hours and 45 mins doesn't really seem to be that as it is engrossing and forget the world around you. Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine return along with Cillian Murphy in a small role, Anne Hathaway dons the black leather as Selina/Catwoman and does a better job than what Halle Berry did with the role, who is the best Catwoman out of the Batman franchise? You do forget at times that Tom Hardy is the man behind the mask of Bane, previously seen in Batman And Robin, here he is a bit more believable and a bit more unbalanced in life. download (3).jpeg
__________________ " I have seen trees that look like tortured souls" |
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Nicholas And Alexandra. 1971. The life of the last monarch of Russia Tsar Nicholas II from the birth of his son and the family exile to Siberia. Having read and done a history paper (for high school) on The Romanov's, this was a decently made adaptation of the family with a growing sense of paranoia within the family and the Tsar and the people he trusted. Michael Jayston and Jane Suzman play the Royals and the way they portray their characters you would think they were a real couple. Tom Baker makes his appearance as Rasputin and portrays the character very sinisterly as he was lead to believe. The cinematography is decently done and nice set pieces crafted and costume is what you would expect it to be from the time era. Some parts may not be accurate but certainly worth a watch. images (1).jpg
__________________ " I have seen trees that look like tortured souls" |
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The first big screen outing for Spidey which is basically his origin story with a brilliant Willem Dafoe as the deranged Green Goblin. Who still has to be the best Spidey villain because of Dafoe performance. Still my favourite of all the Spiderman movies it's a none stop ride with some great action scenes and a tradic villain . The will they won't they between Peter and Mary Jane continues and Harrys Osbourne hatred of Spiderman grows as he blames him for the death of his farther . The whole train scene is still as gripping as the first time I watched it. Now watching. |
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Decemberdike # 1 Scared Stiff (1987) A pop singer (Mary Page Keller) begins getting vivid nightmares when she and her psychiatrist boyfriend (Andrew Stevens) along with her young son move into an old plantation house which was formerly owned by a fearsome slave owner. An eighties ghost story which just about remains on the right side of interesting thanks to Stevens becoming creepier throughout as the film sort of meanders by means of some weird happenings in that vaguely fun way to a great big practical FX gloopy climax. The slow pace during the first hour is long forgotten when you see a character unzip their head to reveal their bloody gray brain for example. A film that isn't as good as it could be perhaps but also better than it could have been. However the poster art below sums up the films final twenty minutes nicely. The Arrow Blu-ray looks gorgeous in outdoor scenes and has a suitably grainy tv like sparkle to it when indoors. |
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THE DEEP HOUSE – Maury and Bustillo are at it again. This time they have a gimmick; TDH is an underwater haunted house movie. Two Youtubers hear about a mysterious ruin at the bottom of a lake and decide it’s the hot property that will bring the hits and the ‘likes’ rolling in, so it’s on with the diving gear and the underwater vid cams. M&B derive maximum impact from Jacques Ballard‘s deep-dive cinematography, which is commandingly atmospheric and sets the film’s eerie tone. The fact that most of TDH, which plays out in semi ‘real-time’, is basically just two people wandering from room to room, searching through the subaquatic grot that surrounds them, makes it seem quite entrancing at first. This spell doesn’t last - in time, the constant POV repetition starts to resemble some kind of underwater computer game, and the addition of a fairly by-the-numbers wrap-up leaves you with the impression that there’s more literal than cinematic depth to it. But overall, worth a watch for its atmospherics and slight novelty. THE LODGE – From the makers of the original ‘Goodnight, Mommy’. A family, transformed by a tragedy that sets the film up with a truly unsettling tone, heads off to a remote, snowy region where their holiday home stands waiting to be filled with the joys of christmas. What follows is another take on warped parental dynamics, a theme familiar from ‘Goodnight Mommy’, and this time the twists and turns are different but the ride is similar. Again, there’s that chilly Euro arthouse feel and a baleful atmosphere, not to mention an overall trajectory that’ll keep you guessing. What’s going on might not be all that hard to decipher in the end and there were some aspects that didn’t quite click for me, but ‘The Lodge’ is a solid thriller, unnerving and compelling. Doesn’t seem to have had much of a release weirdly enough. SUKKUBUS – We’re off over to the Alps for a dose of hitherto obscure Euro horror from the late eighties. It’s set in the 19th cent; three herdsmen venture up the icy slopes to look after their cows. They seem to be raving sexists, as evinced less by their taste in bawdy singalongs than by their desire to enact violence against a sex toy they’ve made from bits of stump and straw. They’re a bit pent up, you do worry about those cows really. Anyway, magic’s afoot, and what happens next is either supernatural vengeance or otherworldly manipulation depending on your take on this film’s slightly sullen ambiguity; whichever way that goes, naked Pamela Prati turns up to teach them all a few manners. ‘Sukkubus’ is an odd film that to me seems a bit contextless. It’s not original, but I can’t think of much else like it from the time and place (which says more about my ignorance than anything else). I guess today it slots into the retroactively convenient ‘folk horror’ construct that young urbane types seem to natter about on their electronic devices, but for me it simply works as a mood piece. Not much happens – three people go up a mountain and get done in by a succubus, that’s it – though on the other hand aesthetically it’s very nice, with lots of atmospheric shots of snowy mountainsides and a feeling of desolation giving way to something worse, and there’s a progressively more dreamlike edge once we’re at the stage of Prati‘s cavorting. Slight in some ways, but worth checking out if you’re into vaguely aloof, dreamy European horror films. |
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__________________ " I have seen trees that look like tortured souls" |
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