What Have You Just Seen... Marks Out of 5

brooce-leroy · Post by **brooce-leroy** » 18 Jul 2007, 13:32

A Better Tomorrow 3/5

Still a classic, but dated horribly in many respects unfortunately. Decent Bey Logan commentary on the Optimum dvd. Picture is awful and the Cantonese soundtrack has the 'library music' (music from Speed to be precise)!

Bullet in the Head 2/5

Unfortunately, this is a film I feel doesn't stand up to repeated viewing. First time I watched it, I thought it was rather good, but this time I found so many things annoying about it. In actual fact, these were gripes I had on the initial viewing, but amplified when seeing it again. Bey Logan (on the commentary) pointing out all the inconsistencies and implausibilities only served to irritate me further.

City on Fire 4/5

Now we're talking. I thought this was even better than the first time I watched it. Chow is decent in a role he must have relished (someone vastly different to twin gun toting Mar Gor), whilst Danny Lee probably gives his career best in this one as a cold blooded killer, who aside from that small, is a actually a pretty decent guy. It's a shame Ringo Lam's career is in the doldrums because he is at the top of his game here.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 18 Jul 2007, 13:53

TMNT: Volume 5 (overall) - 4/5

Raphael is my favourite Turtlle IMO

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 18 Jul 2007, 22:10

brooce-leroy wrote:A Better Tomorrow 3/5

... the Cantonese soundtrack has the 'library music' (music from Speed to be precise)!

And "Forrest Gump".

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 19 Jul 2007, 08:05

It's not the original mono then?

Sesame Street: The First Ever Episode: ?/5

Don't know how to rate this... but interesting to see how it started out and was considered an "experiment" by all concerned including Sesame Workshop (at the time CTW).

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 19 Jul 2007, 08:35

grim_tales wrote:It's not the original mono then?

Uhm... what do you expect it to be, grim. We just wrote that it features music from "Speed" and "Forrest Gump".

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 19 Jul 2007, 08:51

Fair enough

It has The Terminator music too IIRC. I dont want to buy it for just the commentary.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 19 Jul 2007, 09:05

I got it for three pounds + shipping costs from eBay.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 19 Jul 2007, 10:11

Probably colour correction aside, I really hope that the Dragon Dynasty ABT1&2 releases will finally be the ones to get it right.

IVL ABT1 = interlaced, shit Engrishy subs, the jarring frame skip.
IVL ABT2 = interlaced, shit Engrishy subs.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 19 Jul 2007, 11:18

grim_tales wrote:It's not the original mono then?

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 19 Jul 2007, 11:19

EvaUnit02 wrote:Probably colour correction aside, I really hope that the Dragon Dynasty ABT1&2 releases will finally be the ones to get it right.

If Hard-Boiled is anything to go by I wouldn't count on it.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 19 Jul 2007, 11:55

Markgway wrote:
grim_tales wrote:It's not the original mono then?

Jeez, I was just checking.

I stayed away from that track since I received the "5.1" Anchor Bay disc (I sent it back).

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 20 Jul 2007, 09:34

Mock The Week - 4.5/5

brooce-leroy · Post by **brooce-leroy** » 20 Jul 2007, 11:48

Full Contact 4/5

Fucking awesome movie! I didn't know it was Simon Yam's idea to play Judge as a gay guy who lusts after Chow.

Bonnie Fu's character also cracks me up - whoever did the voice dubbing (if it wasn't her own voice) is genius. The movie is like Point Blank on crack.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 20 Jul 2007, 11:57

"Jack off in hell!"

The "Unlikely lines from the final Harry Potter book" routine in Mock the Week cracked me up

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 20 Jul 2007, 14:27

grim_tales wrote:"Jack off in hell!"

I've seen one translation that reads "masturbate in hell".

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 20 Jul 2007, 14:34

Yeah, me too. Can't remember which the Columbia uses.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 20 Jul 2007, 14:39

Markgway wrote:
grim_tales wrote:"Jack off in hell!"
I've seen one translation that reads "masturbate in hell".

Think that's the HK cinema print translation, yea?

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 20 Jul 2007, 15:17

Born to Fight – 2,5/5
Real life olympic athletes must fight to save a small village from terrorists. Sounds more fun than it actually is. Certainly Born to Fight is is a nice action and stunt fest, but unfortunately the footage isn’t used to the fullest. The raw footage is often mindblowing but poor editing and pacing in action scenes lessen the impact. The story sounds silly enough but somehow doesn’t feel as sympathetic as Tom Yum Goong or Ong-Bak. The actors and the characters are totally uninteresting, too. Once the action stops, the boredom hits within seconds. Worth one view for entertaining even if slightly disappointing action show with some incredible stunts.

Sure Death Revenge (Japan, 1987) – 3/5
Fukasaku’s 1987 jidai geki piece has the worst start in recent memory. The humor is mostly embarrasing, the story seems dull and the characters less than interesting. After the first 30 minutes Chiba steps in and the movie suddenly turns entertaining. The quality remains satisfactory till the end, where Fukasaku turns the films into an amazing samurai- spaghetti piece with terrific music and action scenes. Worth the effort.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 20 Jul 2007, 19:47

Hot Fuzz (hd-dvd) 3/5

Not as good as Shaun Of The Dead but still a very entertaining flick, some funny homages to Point Break & Bad Boys 2 and some good action sequences.Downsides would be length ( it's overlong) and the plot such as it is veers towards the preposterous at times. comparing the hd-dvd to the plain dvd is like night & day, the hd transfer blows the SD ouut of the water here.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 21 Jul 2007, 19:39

hey,

Shanghai Blues 5/5 (Encore viewing)

Tsui Hark's best film and on all fronts, be it comedic or romantic, a rousing success. High energy farce led primarily by Sally Yeh in what amounts to her best performance ever and a simple romance set against war times just makes you all giddy whenever approaching this Film Workshop creation. Tsui even injects the odd effects work, a representation of where he was at at the time.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 21 Jul 2007, 21:55

Which DVD version did you watch, Ken. Is it a recommendable one?

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 21 Jul 2007, 23:29

hey,

HK Video, France. Fansubbed and there's a 30 minute Tsui Hark interview on there as well. Great edition.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 21 Jul 2007, 23:47

Shaun Of The Dead (hd-dvd) 4/5

Great stuff and an improvement on the sd version.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 22 Jul 2007, 20:53

hey,

Challenge Of The Lady Ninja 4/5

Quite delightful, ACTUAL movie from Filmark, directed by Lee Tso-Nam. Featuring Elsa Yeung as a revenge seeking lady ninja in red and a bunch of awesome ninja techniques. Some that we've come to love, some very new and fresh. The shadow seduction one and the fight underground with a digging ninja is awesome and Elsa fight almost nude as well!

Bootleg versions are cut and also re-titled to make it a sequel to Five Element Ninja by Chang Cheh. It's not, nor does Polly Kuan appear.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 22 Jul 2007, 22:27

Knetan wrote:hey,

Challenge Of The Lady Ninja 4/5

Quite delightful, ACTUAL movie from Filmark, directed by Lee Tso-Nam.

You sure? I thought this was Taiwanese?