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Post by jakeawesomesnake on Dec 31, 2014 15:00:35 GMT -5
I watched Richard Brooks 1966 Western The Professionals which starrred Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance, and Ralph Bellamy. It's about a group of professionals (half having become disillusioned with the Mexican Revolution) hired by a rich railroad executive to retrieve his wife whos been kidnapped by bandits into Mexico, but as they set out to complete their contract they find out not is all as it seems. The acting ranged from bad-good, the acts of violence ranged from awful-great (some of the fist fights scenes were incredibly slow and clumsy, others looked real; the same could be said for the shooting scenes). The soundtrack ranged from bad-great (the Mexican music in the soundtrack was great, but the string music was too whimsical and didn't fit the scenes at hand), there was barely any gore despite all the violence ,but what you saw looked good. The cinematography was great. In a way it was similar to one of my favorite films, the Wild Bunch (1969), which was filmed just 2 years later. You have a group of ex soldiers/bandits who conflict over whether keeping your word or who you give it to matters more (I side with the latter), you have the mixture of Old West with modern weapons (machine gun and pump shotguns), and you have four charaters who are dealing with everything in the violent times of the Mexican Revolution. One of the things I found interesting was how one of the more happy go lucky characters (played by Lancaster), was also one of the more pragmatic in terms of both getting the job done and survival. Overal I'd say it's an ok movie, leaning more on the good side of ok. It was interesting to see how you had more sexual talk and nudity ,but still hokey holdovers from older films.
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Post by jakeawesomesnake on Dec 31, 2014 19:51:06 GMT -5
I watched Martin Scorcese's 2013 drama-comedy The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, and Jon Bernthal. It is based on white collar criminal Vitor Belfort's and more specifically his self-authored book of the same name, exploits on Wall Street. The acting, acts of violence, soundtrack, cinematgraphy, gore, and dialogue are all great. Besides the main cast excelling, alot of the smaller characters do as well (alot of them looked familiar to me similar to old character actors). The soundtrack was very blue's heavy, but was also mized in with a variey of more modern rock, Cyprus Hill's Insane in the Membrane, and some jazz songs. The movie mixes a variety of perspectives (such as breaking the fourth wall, showing internal monologues, narration, and standard filming presentation), but it is done in such a way that your aren't taken out of the movie and adds instead of taking away. The dialogue is both hilarious and true, very entertaining. This movie is incredbily comedic ,but I liked that it never just went into straight up cartoony material. One of the funniest scenes I have ever scene was in this film. I also liked how it was sort of a period piece of the 80's showing the excess of the time (particuarly cocaine) and making liberal use of the word faggot (which you don't really here as much anymore in entertainment media). Despite being a nearly 3 hour movie with little action, I never felt bored during it. I liked how it showed the reasoning, psychology, and methodology between the stockbrokers and their clients. It just shows you how knowing what to say and not to say to certain people can be key in manipulating them. I also liked how it showed how macho the stockbroking environment is/was, something that surprised me was how despite the wide variety in professions throughout the world, there is a surprising amount of machismo involved in all. This is a great movie (as I expected it to be) and a definite reccomend.
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Post by jakeawesomesnake on Dec 18, 2015 3:30:23 GMT -5
Watched Robert Fleischer's 1972 American film The New Centurions, based on the novel of the same name by Joseph Wambaugh, about officers in the LAPD and stars Stacy Keach, Erik Estrada, Scott Wilson, and George C. Scott. The acting (particuarly George C. Scott who steals the show every scene he's in) is great, the soundtrack (a mix of 70's Funk, Disco, and Funky Ba chicka wa wa rock) is great, the acts of violence look great, the gore looks great, and the cinematography (especially during the sunset suicide scene) was great. This movie is both very 70's (which isn't a bad thing) and still surprisingly poignant. For example the scene with the landlord, where he's housing illegal immigrants in awful conditions and trying to extort them by claiming they aren't paying him, but it turns out they're just trying to make a living and he's scum. At first it seems Scott's character is going to be racist because of his choice of language (he calls them wetbacks but not in a negative sense, purely in the sense of their immigration status) and tells the landlord that if he finds out that he deports or tries to extort them again (after backhanding him to the ground), he'll call the health department, housing, ratcatchers, etc. on him and he'll beat the shit out of him, the whole scene is great, but especially due to Scott's rageful eyes. I also liked the discussion of psychology in the movie, with Scott's character explaining Kilvinski's Law, which is basically that you should treat everyone civilly ,but not courteously and always have the upper edge in fight (no such thing as a fair fight). Later on you also see Keach (who is the main protagonist of the film) bluff a guy with a warrant into giving himself up by "calling in ambulances for him" if he doesn't comply. The scene where he's joined Vice and has to arrest a gay lumberjack who wasn't hurting anyone was both funny and sad, he's tossing them around and yells for the police. I mentioned earlier that this movie is incredibly 70's (in terms of soundtrack, some of the prevailing social attittudes, and some of the slang), and it also has an incredibly brutal and sudden 70"s movie ending where Keach gets gunned down by a wifebeater when his life is finally getting back on track and it just ends there. Seriously 70's movies are some of the most brutal and realistic films, especially with their endings, I sort of saw it coming ,but still it's an actual surpise of sorts when the characters have a happy ending. This was the third Fleischer film I've seen, having previously seen Tora! Tora! Tora! and Mr. Majestyk and this one was probably my favorite, but I've enjoyed each of them so far and have heard good things about some of his other films. Overall, this was a great movie and a recommend.
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Post by jakeawesomesnake on Dec 10, 2016 17:16:25 GMT -5
I watched Raymond De Felita's 2014 movie Rob the Mob, starring Michael Pitt, Nina Arianda, and Ray Romano, based on the true story of two small time criminals robbing mob social clubs after realizing that they're gun free (sitting ducks). The acting is good-great, the cinematography is great, the soundtrack is great (a mix of Italian Rock, Funk, Rap, and Blues Rock), and the movie is generally funny. The movie is a comedy-drama and switches throughout the film from being funny to serious, but never in a way that took me out of it like some movies have. The protagonists and antagonist are both likeable and shown in a balanced way, which was interesting. For example, the protagonists are recovering drug addicts and petty criminals (screwups who can't get it together) who have moments of intelligence that are brought down by their own stupidity and the antagonists are higher up gangsters who've done their fair share of killing (both personally and by proxy), but are presented as more intelligent and together albeit more sinister (the main two are presented as surpisingly reasonable guys, but aren't to be messed with). At the same time though it could be argued that that latter's stupidity is also what brings them down in the long run and gives the protagonists a chance to ruin both them and themselves, I mean it is an incredibly stupid idea to have lot's of money and valuables in a place with no guns or real protection. Similar to gun free zones, a gun free mob social club seems like idiocy to me, because if anybody decides to attack you you are sitting ducks. I was very vaguely familiar with the true story (I knew that people robbed gun free mob social clubs in the early 90's and were eventually killed for it ,but nothing else) so I was spoiled in a way in regards to the ending ,but it was probably my least favorite part of the movie due to the execution. I didn't enjoy how it showed a romantic scene and then showed the glass breaking in slow motion before the bullets hit them (with bad glass CGI) and then not showing the gory aftermath, because it took away from the emotional impact for me. I think it would've been more emotional and shocking if without any warning they get gunned down and the gory aftermath is shown as the films ends, similar to many 60's and 70's movies that leave you feeling like you sort of watched a snuff film (think Bonnie an Clyde's ending for example, it's so brutal and sudden). The way it was done felt like a copout, trying to go for the downer ending, but not wanting to commit explicitly. Overall it was a really good and quick movie, but not quite great.
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Post by jakeawesomesnake on Jul 7, 2017 10:07:41 GMT -5
I watched Clive A. Smith's 1983 Canadian animated film Rock and Rule, which is about an evil David Bowieesque rockstar trying to summon a Rock demon by harnessing the perfect voice. The voice acting is good-great, the soundtrack is great (a mix of 80's synth, some funk, and various 80's style hard rock, heavy metal, and punk/ new wave; with Earth, Wind, and Fire, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Cheap Trick, and Chris Stein and Debbie Harry of Blondie all contributing original songs for the film's soundtrack), the animation in parts of this film is amazingly great (apparently it was the 1st film in history to merge CGi animation with traditional hand drawn animation), and I loved the particular art style reminiscent of 80's post apocalyptic animation with all these dark and harsh colors abounding. It's probably pretty apparent now, but there's obviously an appeal to me with beautiful cinematography/shots and motions with great music melding together to create these amazing feelings and that was a gigantic part of this movie's appeal for me: great animation and art, supported by great music leading to parts of this film giving me goosebumps of pleasure, this film banks heavily on being a visual experience. The villian in this film is great, a mixture of various Rockstar personalities such as Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger (apparently the villians name was orignally going to be a not so subtle reference to Jagger ,but Jagger got pissed off and threatened to sue so the name was changed) ,but I was also getting major David Bowie vibes from him. There's something awesome about an evil vampire looking cat man rockstar that sings rockstars about how awesome and evil he is, while sporting an Iggy Pop 8 pack and doing copious amounts of drugs, I mean seriously he's trying to summon a Rock Demon because his concert wasn't fully sold out, it was hilarious how petty he was. I also liked how his apperance kept changing throughout the movie, which I thought was reminiscent of Bowie. Speaking of drug use, this movie was sort of weird because of parts of it seemed like it was aimed more at kids ,but then you would have pretty blatant sexuality, violence, cursing, and drug use (the aformentioned villian is seen tripping and smoking a joint as well as snorting cocaine) and there's a crazy club scene (with the Earth, Wind, and Fire original song playing) where there's all these crazy flashing colors, and mentions of drug use), it wasn't really a problem for me ,but it was just sort of weird how there'd be voice acting styles reminiscent of kids' cartoons ,but then you'd have all this adult oriented stuff in it as well (apparently it was made with an adult audience in mind). The protagonist (altough arguably he's sort of a secondary protagonist and his girlfriend, Angel, is the lead protagonist) is pretty unlikealbe, I mean he comes off as a douchebage almost constantly and is such a gigantic asshole that it takes a Rock Demon for his to finally not be an asshole and actualy let his girlfriend sing what she wants, that being said he redeems himself at the end in a pretty badass way. I originally became interested in this film when I saw a picture of it ony my Youtube reccomended list, because of the 80's fantasy animated look it had to it, because while I'm used to seeing animation used in serious and violente stories (mostly Japanese animation), I am not very familiar with Western adult animation especially in the 70's and 80's and became immediately intrigued. Unfortunately, this film was sort of screwed by the studio MGM, who basically gave them no advertisment and dommed it to relative obscurity although apparently it has developed a cult following. Interestingly it was made by the same people who made the freaking Care Bears cartoon. Also an official soundtrack of the film was never released, which is unforutnate ,but it has been compiled from various sources and put together on Youtube. The film isn't quite perfect, with the story needing just a little more to really push it over the top and it felt like there was a chunk of the story left out (the narrative feels sort of rushed and incomplete at parts , which I think may have had to do with budget issues), in terms of just pure enjoyment this was a great film for me and a reccomend. The film and soundtrack are available on Youtube (or at least were at the time of this posting) and the links are below.
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Post by jakeawesomesnake on Jul 10, 2017 0:16:43 GMT -5
I watched Bryan Bertino's 2016 American horror film The Monster, which is about a mom and daughter with a negative realtionship who become trapped in a car on an isolated road after an accident and are then threatened by the titular monster. The acting was bad-great, the cinematography was ok-great, the soundtrack was ok-good, the monster special effects were good, the acts of violence were good, and the gore was good. This is one of those single locations, few character movies, where in order to be successful it is necesarry for whatever actors featured to be great otherwise the film won't quite suceed, which was unforutnately my main problem with this movie. As I already stated the acting is this movie is varied, the mom's I thought was mostly bad, but interestingly I thought that her character was well written albeit not well executed because she thoroughly pissed me off throughout the film even though I wasn't really buying the acting (so props to Bertino on that end since he also wrote the movie). She's an abusive alcoholic asshole throughout the movie so you don't really like her because of that (it also reminded me of people I've had to deal with in my life), but additonally her performance was bad, so I found myself disliking the character for both intentional and unintentional reasons. Surprisingly the daugther (played by Ella Ballentine) did a great job throughout the movie and I found her character to be quite likeable. You really feel sorry and scared for her throughout the movie and because of that I was rooting for her throughout the film and was genuinely scared for her, as oppossed to the mom who I didn't really feel bad for or feel myself caring about when her death occurs via the monster. Apparently the actress playing her is 15 while, she's 10 in the film, so they did a good job of convincing me that she was a lot younger and more vulnerable looking than she actually was. This film suffered froma similar problem that The Babadook also suffered form where, they did a good job creating a credible threat in the form of a monster ,but then ruin it by making it easily defeatable and take away the meaning in it. After the daughter's mom dies, she basically just says she's not scared 2-3 times and then flamethrowers the monter like it's nothing, which I didn't buy at all (although this was no fault of the actress). The monster itself looked good and it was nice to see that they used practical effects for it as well as the gore, but it wasn't anything groundbreaking and reminded me of some of the monsters from Resident Evil 7. I also thought that the mom's death was sort of unecessary because the creature seemed to be scared of light so instead of going together with the torch and flashlight or using both in the shelter until sunrise, she sarifices herself pointlessly and I didn't understand why the daughter didn't just keep the flashlight with her in the ambulance. Overall the movie wasn't bad by any means, but it also wasn't good , and sort of just ends up being on the better side of ok, so I don't really feel the hype it's been accumulating is deserved.
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Post by jakeawesomesnake on Sept 14, 2017 10:11:07 GMT -5
Spoilers Below:
I watched Gordon Hessler's 1970 British horror movie, starring Vincent Price, Hilary Dwyer, and Hugh Griffith about the conflict between a Witchfinder's family and a pagan cult. The biggest problem with the film is that it is completely uneven throughout. The acting ranges from awful-great, the soundtrack is awful(that traditonal horror horn stuff that I hate) or great (the songs during the various dance scenes), the gore is awful-ok, the cinematography is good-great (in particular the outdoor scenes and after doing some quick research it turns out that the cinematographer worked with one of my favorite directors Sam Peckinpah on 3 films), the acts of violence range from awful-great, and the special effects were ok. In regards to the acting Vincent Price is great as the sadistic Witchfinder and does a great job of playing a dangerous person who can fly off the handle at any moment (it sort of reminded me of his Witchfinder General performance where he plays an asshole well and is sporting a beard instead of his trademark mustache, which he also does in this film). The antagonist's acting and character were awful, the acting was badly over the top (which really clashed with her struggle against Price) and I didn't really get why she was going after people who hadn't wronged her instead of just the people who were involved, and I thought that that the son from Cambridge (played by Carl Rigg) had the most likeable character and also did a god job acting. The problem with alot of the acts of violence were that: somtimes a punch clearly wouldn't connect but the person being punched would sell it like he had been, the gunfire sound effects were too quiet and didn't do a convincing job of displaying power and again the people being shot didn't do a good job of making it look devastating, and the gore (while quite plentiful, this is a pretty bloody film) doesn't have the right color or consistency to be either realistic or satisfying in a fun way. On the other hand there are other times such as a uppercut to the gut or various beating scenes that look solid and real. The film also makes allusions to Irish Folklore horror, specifically the Banshe and the Sidhe, but they aren't really well explained and I think they had a missed oppurunity to focus on some creature that are more uncommonly used in horror. There's a rape scene where the eldest son Sean (played by Stephan Chase) rapes his stepmom ,but the mom's acting wasn't very good so you can't really tell is she's consenting or not, it just wasn't shot very well. The ending was predictable ,but I was surprised at how late it was enacted, after all the sidhe doesn't kill everyone until the final scene which is playing as the credits are rolling which is something you don't really see too often. I also don't know why the movie was titled Cry of the Banshee because the Banshee isn't an antagonist... at all. There was a cool animation at the start which reminded me of some Monty Python stuff I'd seen and it turns out that Terry Gilliam did in fact make it. I checked this film out on random reccomend of Folk Horror. Now despite all of the seeming negativity I wouldn't really say that overall this is a bad film, while it's not good in the intended sense ,it is a thoroughly entertaining movie and it never really gets dull.
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