Bullets 'n' Babes

Widows (2018) **
Hollywood remake of '80s British mini-series falls flat thanks to unappealing characters and clumsy storytelling.

Upgrade (USA, 2019) [VoD] - 4/5
Clever, fun sci-fi / cyberpunk revenge film made with just the right amount of money. If this dude does the Escape from New Your remake, I'm in.

The Delta Force (USA, 1986) [DVD] - 3.5/5
America kicks arse in a Cannon film. First rate cast (Norris, Marvin, George Kennedy, Robert Forster as terrorist!), good action and a solid plot flow even at 130 minutes. Alan Silvestri’s score is a bit crappy, though.

HungFist wrote: ↑08 Jul 2020, 15:56 The Delta Force (USA, 1986) [DVD] - 3.5/5
America kicks arse in a Cannon film. First rate cast (Norris, Marvin, George Kennedy, Robert Forster as terrorist!), good action and a solid plot flow even at 130 minutes. Alan Silvestri’s score is a bit crappy, though.

The score is great. Perfect for a rousing kick ass picture.

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019) *
Clerks was a hilarious indie gem made by an ambitious young filmmaker named Kevin Smith.
Since then, Smith has been on a one-man mission to prove himself the worst filmmaker in Hollywood.
We should congratulate him then for this abysmal, unfunny, utterly stupid piece of masturbatory crap.
If there's ever been evidence that excessive smoking of weed damages brain cells, this is it.

Rambo: Last Blood (2019) **
Weakest entry in tired franchise actually starts out OK, with Rambo living the quiet life on his ranch. But soon we're in Mexico, and things get very nasty and very, very bloody. The violence in Rambo was shocking, but fit for purpose; here Stallone is more like Jason from Friday the 13th, hacking and impaling his way thru scummy invaders to his patch. Wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Burma are all naturally grim material, but there's something uniquely nihilistic, depressing even about Last Blood. Enough now, please.

Markgway wrote: ↑12 Jul 2020, 00:56 Rambo: Last Blood (2019) **
Weakest entry in tired franchise actually starts out OK, with Rambo living the quiet life on his ranch. But soon we're in Mexico, and things get very nasty and very, very bloody. The violence in Rambo was shocking, but fit for purpose; here Stallone is more like Jason from Friday the 13th, hacking and impaling his way thru scummy invaders to his patch. Wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Burma are all naturally grim material, but there's something uniquely nihilistic, depressing even about Last Blood. Enough now, please.

Rambo vs Jason would be awesome!

Ivan Drago wrote: ↑12 Jul 2020, 18:24 Rambo vs Jason would be awesome!

They're saving that for Part VI.

Us (2019) *½
A middle class family are terrorised by doppelgangers in risible piffle from horror's flavour of the month Jordan Peele.

Upgrade (2019) **½
Didn't enjoy this as much as HungFist did, but it was an OK watch.

Kuffs (1991) **
Christian Slater is the youthful screw-up turned district cop in passable action comedy.
More action (and an R rating) would have helped this one quite a bit.

Rambo: Last Blood [Long Version] (USA, 2019) [DCP] – 4/5
Flawed, but satisfying film does decent job milking the Rambo character and his Vietnam War trauma. This continues in the same path as the 2008 masterpiece Rambo with more focus on the main character than action. The Mexico setting and the occasional shitty CGI are liabilities, and the drama may not be award-worthy filmmaking… but in these days of Marvel garbage and Matt Damon action heroes you’re willing to settle for less, especially when you get someone with charisma on screen. And as for Sly, this is easily better than the three Expendables mishaps. Reviewed here is the 100 min version with the mountain rescue opening (not a well made scene, but thematically important) and additional character development for Rambo. I'd imagine the 90 min US/UK version must feel a bit gutted without these scenes.

Miss Bala (2019) ***
Entertaining Hollywood remake of a "Spanish language film" (as the credits refer to it).
There's tension, some action, an involving story, and a solid performance from Gina Rodriguez in the lead role.
The PG-13 rating ensures that film's hardest edges are chipped away, but it still has grit and credibility.
I haven't seen the 2011 original, but if you have it will undoubtedly influence your opinion on this.

'Possessor (2020)' [DL] 2.5/5
Brian, David Cronenberg's son continueing his father legacy. Wasn't as special as I imagined it to be. Also it is missing that cool music piece from the trailer! It has it's moments. I didn't like the shaky cam, but I did appreciate the framing... reminds me a bit of Akio Jissoji, this transient life mostly. The pacing was lacking. But it does has some pretty sweet world building for some cool technoir (NOT CYBERPUNK) future; kind of like Existenz or Scanners.

'The Painted Bird (2019)' [DL] 4/5
Bit of a Bela Tarr-like warmovie. I expected something like ' Come and See', because of the child and WWII, but this is closer to Turin Horse honestly. Clocking at 2 hours and 50 minutes, which seems to be the Eastern Euro cinema standard XD, this film might sound like a long sit. But quite honestly, time flew, pacing was much better as Possessor which we watched before this. There are a lot of familiar 'actors' from the western world; Udo Kier, Harvey Keitel, Barry Pepper all speaking that inter-slav language. Pretty cool stuff, especially Barry Pepper doing his sniper routine like in Saving Private Ryan. I also appreciated the short spaghetti western feel when the Kozacs raided a little village. It is very very very nihilistic tho! You have been warned. The main character can' t catch a break!

'Never Too Young To Die (1986)' [DL] 4/5
Felt like a Cannon Film production, but it wasn' t. Quite honestly it's a hoot. Gene SImmons plays a hermaphrodite, Velvet Von Ragnar leading a gang of bargain bin Mad Max rejects (and Robert Englund in a cameo). They have some evil plan which I didn't quite catch, but George Lazenby plays Secret Agent Stargrove. Unfortunately he get's offed in the beginning. And now it's up to his son Lance Stargrove (played pretty badly by John Stamos), his asian nerdy sidekick Cliff (who just build his own flamethrower-rocketlauncher?? and likes killing a bit too much without questioning what's happening???) and former partner to his father, Danja Deering (Vanity ), to stop Velvet Von Ragnar.. and... yadda yadda. It's pretty cheesy shlockfest that kind of feels like the old James Bond Jr. cartoons. But for all it's shlock, it's one hell of an entertaining ride filled with great oneliners, great pacing (sacrificing story... but ehhh who needs it here anyway?). Best 'Best of the Worst' flick in a while.

Shazam! (2019) **½
Uneven comic book romp is plenty fun, and made me chuckle a bit, but has issues that bugged me.
1. How does little Mark Strong survive that car smash without wearing a seat belt? Surely he would've been turned into a pretzel?
2. The adult Billy behaves nothing like the teenage Billy. One can only assume neither actor saw the other's performance. This is a crucial flaw.
3. The mythos (basically all the stuff with Djimon Honsou) is hokey-as-fork, and even the actors don't look like the believe it.
Some scary stuff for little 'uns, but I'd have probably given this a PG rating.

Beyond the Law (USA, 1993) [VoD] – 3.5/5
Surprisingly good Charlie on a Harley (ok, maybe it wasn’t a Harley) film with Sheen going undercover in a biker gang. Exceedingly stupid childhood trauma / side-plot aside, this finds a good balance between cool and dumb, and still has decent enough production values. I guess in the end it comes down to “do I want to see Charlie Sheen and Michael Madsen in an early 90s biker film?”. This delivers exactly what it promises; nothing more, nothing less.

Stuber (2018) *½
Stuber is stupid.

Best of the Best II (1992) **½
Violent revenge replaces noble underdog spots competition as theme, and film is better for it.

Framed (1974) ***
Joe Don Baker stars as an innocent man framed in tough, violent prison-revenge picture.

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) **½
My expectations were low, but this frantic, motormouth action comedy wasn't too bad.

Night School (2018) **
Well-intentioned comedy vehicle for Kevin Hart crumbles under the weight of crass stereotypes and crude jokes.

Missing in Action (USA, 1984) [DVD] - 3/5
Entertaining Norris vehicle with ridiculously stereotypical Vietnamese villains, boobs, and suspense. Silly as it may be, the story actually fares better than the action scenes, which are pretty dull.

The Invisible Man (Canada etc., 2020) [DCP]
Nothing here to see.

Alright, on a more serious note:

The Invisible Man (Canada etc., 2020) [DCP] – 3/5
Politically correct horror update with Elisabeth Moss haunted by toxic, mainsplaining ex-boyfriend who tried to dominate her in a relationship. Interesting as a product of its time, although sometimes frustratingly by the 2020 book. The biggest issue, however, is director Leigh Whannell’s reliance on loud sounds and the viewer’s inability to see the enemy as means to create tension and jump scares - both cheap tricks. Still, the film is effective, even clever at times, and features an excellent performance by Moss.

Knives Out (2019) **½
Unconventional murder mystery with all-star cast pitches itself somewhere between Clue and Poirot.
There's a fine line between clever and too clever by half,
and just when you think you've got it all figured out... it keeps going.
That said, I really didn't mind the time spent, all 130 mins of it.

I enjoyed it too

Guardian of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) **½
Enjoyable viewing.

Charley Varrick (1973) **½
Good, if you don't mind the typical 70's slow pacing.

Passport to China (1960) **
Acceptable, if unambitious spy drama from Hammer Films.
Damaged by casting whites as Chinese, general cheapness.

Joker (2019) **½
This intense character study of a psychopath is about as far away from a typical DC movie as you can get. At one point Martin Scorsese was involved in the production, and his influence shows greatly. This is what makes Joker interesting and unpredictable. It isn't, however, a great film, and I'm somewhat puzzled by both the enormous box office success (there's little mainstream appeal here) and wild over-praise (and conversely) over-revulsion. I can't say the final product inspired that much of a reaction from me either way. It is certainly worth seeing; but whilst thought-provoking (and provocative), it's not the masterpiece some have suggested.