degeneration wrote:but what Hong Kong films DON'T have completely out of place and unfunny comedy moments.
True. I wish they wouldn't bother. They can rarely do comedy right or I guess not to my tastes.
After he's realised his new fighting style, I don't know if he sticks to it completely in his final fight, but the essence is the more power someone hits with, the more power there is to use against them! That's what the hitting the ball in the water showed. If you don't hit it, it doesn't come back at you, but the harder you hit it into the water, the harder it will come back at you.
Immensely disappointing.
Probably the most overrated piece of crap I have ever seen.
You can see the final twist coming from a mile away.
+ All the stuff that happens before the twist is just a badly-scripted build-up.
I'll give it 2 points for Kevin Spacey.
I used to be "the man who loves the movies you hate".
Now I'm just "that weird french guy with a cat avatar who comes to BnB once a year for no reason and then disappears again".
The twist in The Usual Suspect is excellent. I didn't see it coming a mile off. I do think it's a wee bit overrated but still very good.
Closer 4/5
A different type of love story - not very Hollywood at all.
After all the hype I thought this was really overrated. Lots of swearing for the sake of swearing and nothing like a real adult relationship at all. The female acting is perfectly fine but then the two female leads are very good actresses. Jude Law is good enough too. The less said as per usual about Clive 2D Owen the better. I really hope he doesn't stuff up his role in the new Elizabeth film.
Hammer thriller about phantoms and smugglers set in ye olde England. Jolly good fun with a young Oliver Reed as a romantic hero and the untouchable Peter Cushing as the town vicar.
PREDATOR **.5/4
Pretty good macho sci-fi-action blockbuster. Builds up nicely but never quite hits the target. Arnie is on fine form.
DISTRICT 13 ***/4
Action-packed French thriller with a political agenda. The stunts and fights are great fun.
Eye in the Sky - 4/5
Great directoral debut from Yau Nai-Hoi, a frequent underling of Johnny To. This is a film about a Hong Kong police surveillance team working to track down a gang of heist professionals, and their mastermind.
Great pace, the film never slows down or gets dull for a second, and good acting by everyone. I will especially point out newcomer Kate Tsui, who shows some very compitent acting skills, not to mention she is HOT as hell.
Good stuff.
I may have asked before but why on earth do you rate out of 4 Mark? It does make it difficult to work out based on the rating alone if you liked a film. Is 2.5 out of 4 the same as 3.5 out of 5 for example? A rating that people are used to.
bradavon wrote:I may have asked before but why on earth do you rate out of 4 Mark?
I'm idiosyncratic. And that's how I likes it. 8)
Is 2.5 out of 4 the same as 3.5 out of 5 for example? A rating that people are used to.
No. Closer to 3/5. But there's ni exact equivilent. Sometimes I use five stars. Depends on my mood. But for some reason I find marks out of 4 easier to assign.
But especially for Brad....
NIGHT CREATURES ***/4 (4/5)
PREDATOR **.5/4 (3/5)
DISTRICT 13 ***/4 (3.5/5)
4 is so limiting and why not go to 3 out of 3 by that point? At least with 5 you have a fair range to work with. Personally I prefer 10 out of 10 as 5 out of 5 is way to limiting to properly differentiate between films. So many films are so close but have things that pip them to the post from another film.
What political agenda did District 13 have? Must have missed that
King Boxer: 4/5
Rather slow build up, but the fights are great I recognised Tien Feng (Fist of Fury) as the bad guy Master Meng, and is that Bolo as the Mongol fighter in the square?
Who's the guy who gets into a fight with Lo Lieh when he pours a drink on his head - he looks familliar
Was ok, but nothing special. The story reminded me somewhat of Star Wars. The Jedi are the dragon riders and their lightsabres are their dragons... They rescued a princess type person, certain specific deaths along the way... There was even lots of crap dialogue to make it seem even more like it. Just this one didn't have the magic that SW does have.
I watched this again the other day and enjoyed it much more on it's second recent viewing (in reality probably 3rd/4th viewing). Of course Timothy Dalton is fantastic as Bond. He's tough just how Bond should be, he's also cold and restrained which works well too.
I loved the cold war espionage feel, that hadn't really been seen (AFAIK) since the Connery days. The scene near the start when Bond is a Sniper is great.
I still think the Bond girl isn't attractive enough, pretty plain really. I also still think the main villain is really, really weak and how he dies is pants. This lets the film down.
Overall it's a solid Bond film but I still prefer "Licence to Kill" which has a much better villain, and overall story. I do think both of the Dalton Bonds are let down to an extent by a slightly poor script. That said it's a real shame Dalton never made any more, he showed so much potential.
Last edited by bradavon on 03 Nov 2007, 18:29, edited 1 time in total.
grim_tales wrote:What political agenda did District 13 have? Must have missed that
France, and some other european countries, have problems with certain big areas in bit cities, where there are too much assholes who commit crimes etc.
Some populist idiots will sometimes just spout nonsense like; 'just throw a bomb on it to get rid of all the rats'. That was kinda the message in B13: the goverment was planning to have a (HUGE) bomb go off there, and obviously there are also still lots of normal/good people living there, so that's (again, obviously) NOT a realistic solution to a not so simple problem.
I liked the movie as well, btw. Not as good as it could or should have been, but still entertaining non-the-less.
I was there, the big BNB blackout of november, 2008. We lost many that day...
Yi-Long wrote:Some populist idiots will sometimes just spout nonsense like; 'just throw a bomb on it to get rid of all the rats'.
Has Romero migrated to France?
I don't usually like it when politics is dealt with in films as it's rarely dealt with in a realistic manner, glossing over the more difficult subjects. It can also often feel ham fisted.
Not that I've seen District 13 but have the DVD.
EvaUnit02 wrote:Blow up the ghettos filled with all the minorities?! HAHA, sounds just like the kind of idea a Frenchman would have.
Nope. I'm sure you'll find many Kiwis, as there are Brits who'd say that's the answer. Romero has said just the same in the past, not of course that he'll probably admit to it when it's someone else saying it.
Seriously Eva have you ever left your own country, let alone been to Europe? That's some sweeping statement from someone who lives the other side of the world from France.
degeneration wrote:
Firefly & Serenity 5/5
Just finished watching Firefly and I don't know why it wasn't that popular as it is really good! Really wish it wasn't cancelled as it could have been awesome if the story would have been allowed to be fleshed out more!!
Firefly was cancelled because of Fox's usual bullshit, lack of advertising and erratic scheduling (Eg the show moving days/times without telling anyone, being pre-empted by live sports, etc). The episodes were also all aired out of order.
This is the fate of many programmes on Fox. Eg this was also why Family Guy was cancelled the first time around, Futurama too.
As to why Serenity bombed? The mainstream audience probably just wasn't interested.
bradavon wrote:Nope. I'm sure you'll find many Kiwis, as there are Brits who'd say that's the answer. Romero has said just the same in the past, not of course that he'll probably admit to it when it's someone else saying it.
No shit Sherlock. As for many Kiwis? You're dead wrong, as they'll want to blow up the majorities living in the Urban/suburban regions. The whities are upset about being gradually made a minority by the mass influx Asian migrants. The country only has a population of 4 million after all.
That's some sweeping statement from someone who lives the other side of the world from New Zealand. Pot. Kettle. Black. Look yourself in the mirror before making accusing others of having narrow-minded world views.
Seriously Eva have you ever left your own country, let alone been to Europe?
The whities are upset about being gradually made a minority by the mass influx Asian migrants.
Wouldn't that prove my point?
That's some sweeping statement from someone who lives the other side of the world from New Zealand. Pot. Kettle. Black. Look yourself in the mirror before making accusing others of having narrow-minded world views.
The difference being I don't make sweeping statements regularly.
bradavon wrote:
I don't usually like it when politics is dealt with in films as it's rarely dealt with in a realistic manner, glossing over the more difficult subjects. It can also often feel ham fisted.
Sadly, that sounds EXACTLY like how real-life politics nowadays are being dealt with by our goverments!
I was there, the big BNB blackout of november, 2008. We lost many that day...
Enjoyable buddy (not sure if thats the right word) action comedy. Starts off a bit slow but when Eddie Murphy turns up and gets saddled with Nick Nolte it comes to life. Murphy is funny That said Nolte's insults leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouth.
Some of the score (steel drums) reminded me of the Commando score for some reason.
I love Tom's reviews. 
