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

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

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The Overnight (2015-USA) **½
Adult comedy-drama about two couples spending an unusual night together.
Offbeat and interesting, but likely to turn off more viewers than it attracts.
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Blazing Magnum (1976-Italy-Canada-Panama) *½
Pedestrian stew of cop thriller and giallo, in which a Dirty Harry-like detective investigates his sister's murder.
The scene in which Stuart Whitman is beaten up by a transvestite would be the nadir, if it weren't for the awful scene in which a knife is held against a new born baby. Yuck!
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Solace (2014-USA) **½
Reasonably engrossing thriller in which psychic Anthony Hopkins tracks a serial killer.
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Krampus (2015-USA) **
Xmas-set black comedy-horror would dearly love to be this generation's Gremlins... but the result ultimately disappoints.
Best bit: those Gingerbread Men assassins.
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Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies (2016-Austria) **
The hills are alive with the sound of... screaming?
One-note splatter slapstick is more silly than clever.
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Dante's Peak (1997-USA) **½
Haven't seen this since it came out; enjoyable enough disaster flick.
Mostly practical effects, some restrained use of CGI.
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The Boss (2016-USA) **½
Melissa McCarthy comedy vehicle; no great shakes, but I laughed a few times.
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Pulse (1988-USA) **½
Creepy, quietly effective little chiller.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Soldier Blue (USA, 1970) [DVD] - 3.5/5
No doubt this manifestation of a white man's guilt draws a very one-sided image of America vs. the aborigines in its attempt to question (and answer) who were the real brutes. At the same time, however, it's such an emotionally honest piece of angry, anti-war, pro-gender equality, Vietnam era cinema that it's hard not to sympathise with it. The final massacre that earned the film its tagline "The most savage film in history!" is as memorable as it's manipulative. The film is admittedly incoherent, going from ultra violence to romance comedy and back, but that only adds to its odd charm.

We Own the Night (USA, 2007) [DVD] - 4.5/5
Terrific crime drama set in 1988 is so atmospheric, so well directed, so captivating and well acted that occasional clichés and the lack of credibility with a couple of plot turns doesn't really matter. The drug lab and car chase scenes are amazing.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Markgway wrote:Blazing Magnum (1976-Italy-Canada-Panama) *½
Pedestrian stew of cop thriller and giallo, in which a Dirty Harry-like detective investigates his sister's murder.
The scene in which Stuart Whitman is beaten up by a transvestite would be the nadir, if it weren't for the awful scene in which a knife is held against a new born baby. Yuck!
It did have a great car chase that was extremely well done only for Whitman who, after wrecking half the city catching the suspect just asks him a few routine questions like he was giving him a traffic ticket then letting him go :clap:
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Jack Reacher 3.5/5
Solid Tom Cruise thriller,much better than you'd probably expect.Good cast,some good set pieces. A little overlong though.

Deepwater Horizon 3/5
Well made film about the oil platform disaster of a few years back. Mark Wahlberg pretty much plays himself aided by a grizzled Kurt Russell & John Malkovich as the villlain of the piece
.
The Conjuring Part 2 2.5/5
Massively overlong sequel (130 minutes!) sees intrepid ghost hunters the Warrens (Patrick Wilson,Vera Farmiga) travel to 70's London to assist n the Enfield Haunting of the time period. A few scares but it's too long and Franke Potenke is pretty much wasted in a supporting role.

Being There 3/5
Peter Sellers gives a great performance in his next to last role as a simpleton gardener who is left to fend for himself in the outside world after the death of his master and ends up, after meeting Shirley McLaine and her dying political millionare husband being mistaken for a genius who's every utterance the political world of America hangs on. Quite decent but of it's time.
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saltysam wrote:
Markgway wrote:Blazing Magnum (1976-Italy-Canada-Panama) *½
Pedestrian stew of cop thriller and giallo, in which a Dirty Harry-like detective investigates his sister's murder.
The scene in which Stuart Whitman is beaten up by a transvestite would be the nadir, if it weren't for the awful scene in which a knife is held against a new born baby. Yuck!
It did have a great car chase that was extremely well done only for Whitman who, after wrecking half the city catching the suspect just asks him a few routine questions like he was giving him a traffic ticket then letting him go :clap:
That sort of illustrates my point. Yes, the car chase was well enough done, but it made no sense. It was there simply because they needed a car chase.

Fans would likely think I was being harsh, but I didn't grow up with these Italian movies, so hold no real affection for them.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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The Witch (2015-USA-UK-Canada-Brazil) **
Overwrought, drab religious horror, spoken in ye olde English tongue.
The bleakness wears you down, though the actors certainly commit to their performances.

Our Brand Is Crisis (2015-USA) **½
Amusing political satire, timely in the Trump-era, with a good role for Sandra Bullock.
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Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005-USA) **
Very crude comedy sequel; some laughs, but grosses out too often.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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JENNIFER ON MY MIND (1971) Wealthy bored Jewish kid from New York tries to keep his girlfriend hidden after she O.D.'s on heroin and spends the whole movie reminiscing about how they met and got involved. Straightly bizarre. Robert De Niro has a small role as a gypsy cab driver. Currently it's free to watch if you have Amazon Prime.
Probably about a 3 on a 5 scale, but glad I saw it just because it's a bit weird, and I dig 70's movies.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Get Smart (2008-USA-Australia) **½
Harmless spy comedy.
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Mike's Murder (1984-USA) **
Debra Winger stars in this sluggish murder mystery.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Under Siege (USA, 1992) [DVD] - 4/5
I saw this as a kid, and like all young boys who saw it back in the 90s on VHS, never forgot that cake scene. I'm a little embarrassed to admit but I still like Erika Eleniak in this film. What's more important, however, is that this is top notch Seagal with great production values. Entertaining action, good villains and an awesome battleship setting. The sequel, however, is even better. A small bit of trivia: the film was released in Japan as 沈黙の戦艦, "The Battleship of Silence" or "Silent Battleship", which started a naming trend. By March 2017, more than 30 Steven Seagal films have been titled "Silence" something in Japan. On Deadly Ground is "Fort of Silence", The Patriot is "Silent Plot", and so on.
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Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (USA, 1995) [DVD] - 4/5
Steven Seagal's most enjoyable movie? This feels a bit cheaper than the first film (although it wasn't), but it offers bone crunching, fast moving Seagal action at its best. There's not a dead moment in the film. Great villains as well, especially Everett McGill, and the film's climax is ridiculously awesome. A couple of special effects look badly dated, though.
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The Dyatlov Pass Incident (2012-USA-Russia-UK) *½
Yet another found footage horror movie... this one starts competently enough, with a group of contemporary American students investigating the titular 1959 mystery in authentic fashion, but eventually succumbs to the usual shouting and screaming in pitch black. What's the point of crucial scenes in which you can barely see anything? And why has Renny Harlin been reduce to churning out the fodder of low budget newcomers? Using a true life tragedy (and what appears to be actual photos of the frozen corpses) for crappy exploitation is offensive.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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HungFist wrote:Under Siege (USA, 1992) [DVD] - 4/5
I saw this as a kid, and like all young boys who saw it back in the 90s on VHS, never forgot that cake scene. I'm a little embarrassed to admit but I still like Erika Eleniak in this film. What's more important, however, is that this is top notch Seagal with great production values. Entertaining action, good villains and an awesome battleship setting. The sequel, however, is even better. A small bit of trivia: the film was released in Japan as 沈黙の戦艦, "The Battleship of Silence" or "Silent Battleship", which started a naming trend. By March 2017, more than 30 Steven Seagal films have been titled "Silence" something in Japan. On Deadly Ground is "Fort of Silence", The Patriot is "Silent Plot", and so on.

Nothing wrong with Erika Eleniak, if we're going by looks, and if you get a chance to check out 'Chasers' from 1994 - she's got an even more 'revealing' scene!
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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chazgower01 wrote:
HungFist wrote:Under Siege (USA, 1992) [DVD] - 4/5
I saw this as a kid, and like all young boys who saw it back in the 90s on VHS, never forgot that cake scene. I'm a little embarrassed to admit but I still like Erika Eleniak in this film. What's more important, however, is that this is top notch Seagal with great production values. Entertaining action, good villains and an awesome battleship setting. The sequel, however, is even better. A small bit of trivia: the film was released in Japan as 沈黙の戦艦, "The Battleship of Silence" or "Silent Battleship", which started a naming trend. By March 2017, more than 30 Steven Seagal films have been titled "Silence" something in Japan. On Deadly Ground is "Fort of Silence", The Patriot is "Silent Plot", and so on.

Nothing wrong with Erika Eleniak, if we're going by looks, and if you get a chance to check out 'Chasers' from 1994 - she's got an even more 'revealing' scene!
I saw that as a kid, but I can't really remember anything about it. I think I rented the VHS.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Don’t Torture a Duckling (Italy, 1972) [DVD] – 3.5/5
A surprising effort from Lucio Fulci, a giallo that is more of a look into human psyche, religion, and countryside vs. modernism, than a murder fest. In this film the killer is slaughtering young boys rather than beautiful women. It may appear less entertaining that some other films in the genre, but also offers a lot more to chew on.
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Chef (2014-USA) **½
Amiable drama about a temperamental chef (Jon Favreau, also director) rediscovering his Cuban cooking roots.

Fury (2014-USA-China-UK) *½
Obnoxious WWII picture, in which Brad Pitt and cronies act like murderous psychopaths rampaging thru Germany in a tank.
A men-on-a-mission movie where the good guys are indistinguishable from the bad. An insult to real war heroes.
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The Glimmer Man (USA, 1996) [DVD] - 3/5
Steven Seagal goes serial killer thriller. This has a very entertaining start, but the film partly runs out of steam during the repetitive second half. There are far more plot threads here than in your average Seagal film, and that's part of the problem as the film fails to tie them together in a coherent way. In the end, the story somewhat makes sense, but you don't feel it's the work of accomplished filmmakers. Nevertheless, the film is better than its reputation. I'd imagine the reception was a bit harsh upon its release for it is basically Seven meets Lethal Weapon meets older Seagal films, and it's not as good as any of them. Now that two decades have passed, I think it's easier to see the film as what it is: a pretty decent product of its time.
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