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

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 01 Oct 2007, 23:34

bradavon wrote:I could be mistaken but I'm sure FOL isn't undercranked, it's partly why people love it so much. You're probably thinking of Iron Monkey (which is awesome and one of my fave martial arts films).

FOL is definitely undercranked. I'd go so far as to say every fight is to some extent, but it's mostly pretty subtle so it doesn't distract. The only fight where the undercranking is pretty blatant is Li's fight with Yasuaki Kurata.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 02 Oct 2007, 00:09

Thanks my bad. You're right it's not obvious unlike when Donnie is at the helm.

Personally I don't mind undercranking at all.

EvaUnit02 wrote:I definitely wasn't thinking of Iron Monkey. That's another Yuen Woo-ping choreographed film.

I would say for sure Donnie also had a say so too but I know what you mean.

BiscLimpkit wrote:I'm going to watch this IMO. It's so tempting to go up and ask "one ticket for War! Huh! Yeah! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing."

Yi-Long wrote:I'm not a fan of Statham. I think he's a mediocre actor and a very mediocre martial artist (as far as screenfighting goes). There is just nothing about him that really excites me, or makes me a fan. I cant believe the guy has fans.

It's not as if he has any competition. Whatever happened to The Rock's film career?

I think he's fairly good myself. He doesn't know how to pick a good script for shit though, sure some of his films have been acceptable but not classics.

The days of Arnie and Bruce are long gone, IMO.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 02 Oct 2007, 00:29

bradavon wrote:The days of Arnie and Bruce are long gone, IMO.

*cough*DIE HARD 4.0*cough*ROCKY BALBOA*cough*

8)

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 02 Oct 2007, 01:32

I've not seen Rocky 6 but come on Die Hard 4 is far from a classic, but yes Bruce is way better in it than any of Statham's action films.

I just feel so nostalgic to the 1980's action films where stars like Bruce and Arnie were so macho and really kicked ass.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 02 Oct 2007, 07:39

BiscLimpkit wrote:
Shen wrote:War 4.5/5

Just got back from seeing this, WOW, great film, Jet Li is one evil bastard, but so good at it. What a twist too. the MA is a bit thin on the ground but the action was still, very good. gotta go to see this one again.
I'm going to watch this IMO. It's so tempting to go up and ask "one ticket for War! Huh! Yeah! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing."

Adding to the discussion, The One was poo.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 02 Oct 2007, 09:22

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: Complete Season 1 - 4.5 / 5
Loved the reimaging complete series, it is great. The series carries on how the miniseries finishes off, completely bleak world, really depressing.. its great. Okay lets get the bad stuff out the way

1. Not enough space battle, so hoping that changes on next season

2. Starbuck is just annoying, sorry but i don't like her

I love the interaction between the doctor and no6 (who is just soo fine!!), loved the way they just focused on characters, and lovely surreal/dream/fantasy scenes which are fantastic and also integral to the story. My favorite character has to be the doctor, he is just fantastic, he is just funny

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 02 Oct 2007, 10:09

hey,

some fucking review over here tried to sell THE ONE as some form of clever send up or satire of the genre. Guess a lot of us missed that...

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 02 Oct 2007, 10:27

Satire? Huh?

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 02 Oct 2007, 10:35

hey,

indeed. One of the few times a reviewer over here reviewed, he or she managed to squeeze out THAT!

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 02 Oct 2007, 11:12

HungFist wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:I HATED The One. just a worthless crappy movie.
I didn't even make it to the end...

Yi-Long wrote: The only reason I have The One, is because I won it (plus a workshop with Ron Smoorenburg).
Why not sell it? I wouldn't keep a bad movie in my collection without reason. Not even if I had to throw it out of the windom in order to get rid of it.

Selling it isnt worth the effort. I'd make 1-2 bucks out of it, TOPS. And I could give it away I guess, but tbh I have few enough friends as it is already. I cant do that to them. I would have given it to my father in law, as he seems to enjoy crappy movies (he often buys those REALLY crappy C-movies no-one even heard of, cause they're cheap), but I think he already has it on some bootleg chinese DVD.

I think it just stays on my 'crap pile' for the time being.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 02 Oct 2007, 11:23

bradavon wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:I'm not a fan of Statham. I think he's a mediocre actor and a very mediocre martial artist (as far as screenfighting goes). There is just nothing about him that really excites me, or makes me a fan. I cant believe the guy has fans.
It's not as if he has any competition. Whatever happened to The Rock's film career?

I think he's fairly good myself. He doesn't know how to pick a good script for shit though, sure some of his films have been acceptable but not classics.

The days of Arnie and Bruce are long gone, IMO.

Yeah, but that's a fault of the studios. The talent is there (look at Mark Dacascos, Scott Adkins, David Belle, etc.) for martial arts movies, and if you wanta strong big guy they could go and use John Cena, or The Rock or whatever.

I do think it's also a bit of a sign of the times. Movies nowadays mostly want to be very politically correct, whereas in the 80's we had simple movies where it was good guy vs bad guys. And it was about money, drugs or weapons. Usually all at ones.

It's kinda strange that our biggest action heroes at the moment are Matt Damon in Bourne, and Daniel Craig in Bond. I love Craig, and I like Damon, and those movies are great, but still... occasionally a dumb fun action flick can be enjoyable as well.

Ah well.... we'll always have Tony Jaa...

(untill he moves to Hollywood and agrees to star in crap)

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 02 Oct 2007, 11:33

The One is Better than War which doesn't say much for either movie.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 02 Oct 2007, 13:01

Yi-Long wrote:Selling it isnt worth the effort. I'd make 1-2 bucks out of it, TOPS. And I could give it away I guess, but tbh I have few enough friends as it is already. I cant do that to them. I would have given it to my father in law, as he seems to enjoy crappy movies (he often buys those REALLY crappy C-movies no-one even heard of, cause they're cheap), but I think he already has it on some bootleg chinese DVD.

I'd definitely sell it, or give it away. I don't want crud in my collection. I may even chuck it in extreme cases if no one wants it. It's not as if you'd miss it.

My Dad likes buying those crap direct to video titles too, just because they're cheap and have some B-List star who hasn't done any decent work for years.

Yi-Long wrote:Yeah, but that's a fault of the studios.

That's presuming they want to be A-List stars like Statham. It's not as if Dacascos is even trying. I've not heard of the other three.

Yi-Long wrote:I do think it's also a bit of a sign of the times. Movies nowadays mostly want to be very politically correct, whereas in the 80's we had simple movies where it was good guy vs bad guys. And it was about money, drugs or weapons. Usually all at ones.

I know it's so, so, so sad

. The thing is you should be able to make a PC film and it actually be any good, although the lack of PC did help greatly in those films.

Yi-Long wrote:It's kinda strange that our biggest action heroes at the moment are Matt Damon in Bourne, and Daniel Craig in Bond. I love Craig, and I like Damon, and those movies are great, but still... occasionally a dumb fun action flick can be enjoyable as well.

True and neither of them actually want to be action heroes.

Yi-Long wrote:Ah well.... we'll always have Tony Jaa... (untill he moves to Hollywood and agrees to star in crap)

Ong-Bak was pretty pants though, very clever choreography aside (it was better than DM2

). I hear TYG is worse. I have the UK DVD but haven't seen it yet.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 02 Oct 2007, 13:13

Wrong Turn 2 - 3.5/5
It actually quite a good sequel, direct to video, cool gory scenes, Henry Rollins is pretty good in this, good b-actor, this movie kinda suited him, you can tell he is really having fun in this.

You should check this out Salty, I have a feeling you may like it

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 02 Oct 2007, 13:18

Ong-Bak is Ok. Not better or worse than your average martial arts/action movie, storywise ... but it's the action that makes it a classic in my book. It has some amazing stuff which had never been seen before.

Tom Yum Goong is a horrible movie, but the action is even better than it was in Ong-Bak, as far as I'm concerned. Just amazing choreography and editing. And also very ambitious, as Tony really tries different styles during the movie, like one fight is a Jackie Chan style fight against many punks, using props and his environment around him to fight them, the other is a huge 1-take battle up some stairs, there's a huge grab-and-break fight scene, there are some great one-on-one fights against talented fighters, etc etc.
Action-wise, it's a great movie. Story and acting-wise, it just sucks bigtime.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 02 Oct 2007, 13:31

Ong Bak is okay and benefits from the fact that it was the movie that started this new wave Thai action. It's already got some nostalgia value in my eyes (world record time I think).

Tom Yum Goong is superior in every way, though. Terrific action and much better flow when it comes to "storytelling". But the editing is poor.

Born to Fight is decent at best but Tabunfire is amazing and equal to Tom Yum Goong, although the action isn't quite as good.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 02 Oct 2007, 14:17

I had a feeling TYG was like that. For me I find it almost impossible to disconnect the action from the rest of the film, such as the story. Something I know most people can do.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 02 Oct 2007, 14:50

Well.. the action just saves the movie. I mean, the story and acting etc was just laughably bad at times. Whoever wrote that script should go write for Uwe Boll or something.

But man, that action is just outstanding.

So it's worth owning for the action.
It's a shame the 2 disc UK release doesnt have a making-off as long and good as the Ong-Bak making off.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 02 Oct 2007, 15:07

I have to agree with Yi on this, the action is outstanding, but I prefer Ong Bak in terms of story. Watching Tom Yum Goong, I thought I was watching a computer game really, especially in the scene was here is running upstairs and fighting people.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 02 Oct 2007, 15:16

the other is a huge 1-take battle up some stairs

I think I saw a clip of that on Youtube.

Awesome action. Better than anything Jackie or Sammo or Hong Kong has done in the last decade at least.

Shame the film is supposedly so crap.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 02 Oct 2007, 15:21

My Heart is That Eternal Rose 3.5/4

Patrick Tam's romantic bloodshed classic finally gets the release it deserves on DVD. Underappreciated mainly due to it's long lack of availibility, now the film should get a new lease of life among fans of HK cinema. Basically if you like 80s John Woo then you should check this out, you won't regret it.

Warning: the Mei Ah DVD has a mastering glitch that causes the disc to freeze at the 62m mark. So you may want to hold off buying for the moment.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 02 Oct 2007, 15:25

Is there a remaster?

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 02 Oct 2007, 15:35

I'm talking about the new release. It came out Sept 18th.

No word yet about a fix.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 02 Oct 2007, 15:52

Oh right. Thanks

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 02 Oct 2007, 16:01

slasher13 wrote:BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: Complete Season 1 - 4.5 / 5
Loved the reimaging complete series, it is great. The series carries on how the miniseries finishes off, completely bleak world, really depressing.. its great. Okay lets get the bad stuff out the way

1. Not enough space battle, so hoping that changes on next season
2. Starbuck is just annoying, sorry but i don't like her

I love the interaction between the doctor and no6 (who is just soo fine!!), loved the way they just focused on characters, and lovely surreal/dream/fantasy scenes which are fantastic and also integral to the story. My favorite character has to be the doctor, he is just fantastic, he is just funny

Just wait till you see Season 2, you will impolde with excitement! it gets so much better, its scary. Season 2 for me was probibly some of the best tv EVER! (with one single blip for me, which you may or may not enjoy when you see it). Hell if you gave Season 1 that mark, Season 2 will be 5 stars from you then