What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

Film Reviews and Release Comparisons
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saltysam
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out

Post by saltysam »

The Last Passenger 2/5 low budget brit thriller set on a London commuter train hijacked by a madman intent on destruction.Dougray Scott stars amongst a small cast of familiar British actors.passable DTV timekiller.
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Run (1991-USA) **½
Fast-paced, wildly improbable, light-hearted chase thriller.

Executive Decision (1996-USA) ***
Solidly efficient action/suspense thriller.
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Knightriders 2/5 Saw this years ago and recalled enjoying it,this subsequent viewing on blu left me underwhelmed sadly.massively overlong (147 min) glacially paced tale of modern day King Arthur types jousting on motorbikes.Ed Harris's first lead role,he's good but his character is a little pompous and unlikeable here.i had the most fun spotting various actors from Romero's earlier movies..quick mention of Amy Ingersoll as the queen...what a hottie...an imdb check shows she's barely worked since.
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Markgway
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Penn and Teller Get Killed (1989-USA) *½
Oddball comedy flop starts out palatable, then just gets weirder and weirder until it becomes near unwatchable. A true misfire and waste of the magical duo's talents.
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Markgway
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Django Unchained (2012-USA) **½

Hip spaghetti western pastiche relocated to pre-civil war southern states. Actually there's little to connect this Django with any Italian horse opera other than the memorable theme song - the style here is contemporary, anachronistic, and spectacularly bloody. The performances are uniformly good - Sam Jackson's sinister 'Uncle Tom' being the standout. A major and unavoidable criticism is the film's terrible overlength. Tarantino shows little discipline as a filmmaker and is so in love with his own words and images that he doesn't know when to quit (his bizarre accent in a late cameo appearance included). The tone wavers from tongue-in-cheek (even in uncomfortable moments) to serious and nasty (the treatment of the slaves). Yes, the movie has something to say, but it's hardly original (no matter what Tarantino claims) and doesn't have the depth to really hit home. Django works best as a shallow comic strip romp and on that level I mostly enjoyed it.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out

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Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) - 3.5/5

I'm not into Star Trek but this is a good roller coaster ride. Negatives: Some fast editing in fight scenes, Simon Pegg, and the Russian character.

P.S. I was surprised to see RoboCop in it! Along with Dredd haha.
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Markgway
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Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991-USA) **
Junk food for the brain. This should have been better.

Who's Harry Crumb? (1989-USA) **
Moderate vehicle for John Candy - the most likeable of the 80s comedy stars.

Relentless (1989-USA) **½
Pretty decent detectives track serial killer suspense flick.
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Southern Comfort 2.5/5 ok backwoods deliverance style thriller from Walter Hill.

Futureworld 2/5 cheap looking,mundane sequel to the superior original. Peter Fonda & Blythe Danner sleepwalk through their lead roles.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown 2.5/5 little seen but cultish 70's true crime tale from regional filmaker Charles B. Pierce. an Arkansas psycho wearing a hood goes on a murder spree.Ben Johnson & Andrew Prine try to hunt him down. though cheap,the murder sequences are quite wel filmed but the film's pace stops dead anytime the completerly out of place comedy cop played by the director himself appears.

The Evictors 2.5/5 creepy atmospheric thriller from Charles B Pierce, good cast (Jessica Harper,Michael Parks,Vic Morrow) ludicrous climax unfortunately.
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Skin Deep (1989-USA) *½
Smug adult comedy; one of Blake Edwards' worst.

Deep Star Six (1988-USA) **½
Alien underwater; better than it's reputation would suggest.
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A Good Day to Die Hard (2013-USA) **
Empty-headed, cartoonish sequel scores mileage from the return of Bruce Willis, and absolutely nothing from his annoying, beef-headed son. The action set-pieces are bigger than ever, but where's the wit? Mary Elizabeth Winstead cameos (and looks to have put on a few pounds, though she's still beautiful).

Parker (2013-USA) **½
Pretty good heist-revenge action thriller; runs out of steam, but remains one of Jason Statham's better vehicles. Jennifer Lopez is hot, but her inclusion in the climax is contrived to say the least.

Freaked (1993-USA) **
How one responds to this original, gross, creative, and extremely weird comedy is a matter of personal taste.
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Side Effects (2013-USA) **½
Absorbing, if obvious psychological thriller.
No classic then, but the performances are good.

Fury (2011-Canada) **½
Dark, twisted thriller, likely to turn off many viewers with cruel incest subplot.
Sam Jackson is solid as usual.
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Jack Reacher (2012-USA) ***
Highly entertaining action thriller doubles as a successful star vehicle for Tom Cruise, whose charisma and confidence help iron over a few plot bumps (and the annoyance of Rosamund Pike's obtuse character).

Munich (2005-USA-Canada-France) ***½
Gripping, potent thriller about Israeli revenge over the 1972 execution of 12 Olympic athletes; thought-provoking and considerably more even-handed than I was expecting from a film made by Jews.
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Dream a Little Dream (1988-USA) *

The last and worst of the teen-adult-body switch comedies made circa 1987/88.
Acting, writing, directing, and editing are all truly dreadful.

Leviathan (1989-USA-Italy) **

Underwater Alien rip off; not bad for what it is.
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The Hangover 2/5 hugely successful yank comedy is ok for what it is but overlong.
The Hangover Pt II 2/5 Rehash of the first movie relocates to Bangkok,glossy and well filmed but the laughs are few and far between.
The Burning 3/5 Well done 80's slasher flick enlivened by excellent Tom Savini effects. usual plotline of teens at a summer camp is serviceable enough on which to hang the gory kills.
Bullet To The Head 2/5 ok Sly actioner,looks very cheap and more like a DTV effort at times. the chemistry between Stallone and his korean partner is non-existent and there's some daft lapses in logic at times. worth seeing though.
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Markgway
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The Guilt Trip (2012-USA) **½

A tolerable family-ish (PG-13) comedy starring Seth Rogen - who would've thought?
Mother and son go on a road trip across America.
Not hilarious by any means, but there are dramatic moments which hit home.
Barbara Streisand at 70 shows why she's still a big star.

Freejack (1992-USA) **

Unlikely futuristic action thriller doesn't really work... but kills time painlessly.
Be amused by: Rene Russo aging 18 years, but looking exactly the same.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out

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No Place Like Home aka Zombie of Oz (Canada, 2012) [VoD] – 4/5
A brilliant short movie by Canadian director Nicholas Humphries. A little girl wakes up in a cellar with three other survivors during a zombie apocalypse raging outside. Only 7 minutes long, but expertly crafted in every sense.

The Taint (USA, 2010) [Yubari 2013] – 3/5
Kill Women! An amusing but amateurish Troma film about an epidemic that turns (almost) all men into homicidal killer rapists. “You see, gang rape is ok now!”. The film is utter trash, but takes itself with humor – even too much so. Often playing purely for laughs, the film forgets it would be a black comedy in any case. Too much and too obvious humor makes it less fun and ballsy. Nevertheless, there’s enough well made non-CGI splatter and political incorrectness to make it a sure entertainer. Frequent over-acting and cheap digital video complete the package.

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saltysam
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out

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The Monster Squad 3/5 cracking little movie resurrects the universal monsters in a bright,breezy fashion.must've passed me by but the "fat kid" Horace who was very good,passed away at just 22 years old :(
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Renegades (1989-USA) **
Slick, but stupid action thriller with Young Guns' Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Philips as the mismatched buddies.

Shag (1988-USA-UK) **
Forgettable 1963-set dance-musical would like to be Dirty Dancing, but nostalgia and oldies soundtrack is all this really has going for it. Phoebe Cutes stars. Film was released in the UK first and amazingly they used that title (it's hard not to snigger when lines like '...at the party they'll be lots of people shagging' are spoken).

Another You (1991-USA) **½
Amusing farce; final teaming of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. Pryor is clearly struggling with health problems, but Wilder is on good form. Final scene holds unexpected poignancy.
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Markgway
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Frankenhooker (1990-USA) **

Good premise - a heart-broken medical student brings his fiancée back to life using mad science and hooker body parts - given amateurish treatment. There are some laughs and clever (darkly) comic ideas, but the filmmakers only infrequently exploit their true potential. Penthouse Pet Patty Mullen deserves credit, however, for her memorably funny portrayal of the eponymous monster (it's a shame that this was her second and last movie).

Patty interview circa 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74DchWBpskc
(She still looks great).
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Markgway
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Body Parts (1991-USA-Canada) **
Grisly medical horror works rather well for about an hour; then takes preposterous turn toward the absurd. Released before Jeff Fahey's career got stuck in DTV hell.

Only the Lonely (1991-USA) **½
Middling romcom/drama vehicle for John Candy; his central coupling with shy Ally Sheedy is sweet, but his 'Oirish' mother is so unpleasant (and bigoted) that irritation often takes over from genuine humour.

Under Suspicion (1991-UK-USA) **
A cynical, unpleasant, and seriously unconvincing conclusion ruins an otherwise decent period thriller. Solid performance from Liam Neeson.

Scenes form a Mall (1991-USA) *½
Hey, I have an idea: Let's put Woody Allen and Bette Midler in a self-important comedy that isn't funny!
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Markgway
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out

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From now on I'm just going to post star ratings because I'm not even sure anyone reads my quick takes. If you want me to post one just ask and maybe we can get some actual discussion going.

Shattered (1991-USA-Germany) ***
Bud Abbott, Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948-USA) **½
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990-USA) **
My Blue Heaven (1990-USA) **½
Funny About Love (1990-USA) **½
Drag Me to Hell (2009-USA) *½
My Soul to Take (2010-USA) **
Shadows and Fog (1991-USA) **
Company Business (1990-USA) **
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out

Post by luckystars »

Post up your thoughts on Drag Me To Hell. I love that film. Surprised to see a poor rating for it
2010 - The return of the HK movie industry :)
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HungFist
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out

Post by HungFist »

I'm sure people are reading them even if they don't comment. Just stars alone are quite useless as they don't explain why you liked or disliked it.

Posting comments without stars would make more sense actually. That's why I don't use stars at all in my blog or in the other threads here...

And I would post a lot more mini-reviews here too, but recently I only have time to watch 5-7 movies per month...
saltysam
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out

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Texas Chainsaw (2013) 2/5 New movie takes the step of discarding TCM 2 and follows on directly from the climax of the original (even including scenes from it) unfortunately the execution is pretty poor,unlikeable teenagers,poor acting and one character personality switch which just didn't work. The guy playing Leatherface does a decent job and there's a couple of ok gore sequences.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out

Post by grim_tales »

Henry's Cat (Series 1): 2.5/5

Quite surreal in places but still pretty funny to this day with its own charm :D Has very cheap, wobbly looking animation akin to Roobarb and Custard (in the 70's) or Bunyip (80's) that looks like it has a budget of about £2.50.
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