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

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 21 Oct 2005, 12:12

Game of Death II (with Bey/Roy Horan commentary) - *****/*****

Surely one of the best HKL commentaries ever

Roy seems more clued up than Bey does!

How does the international version of GOD II differ from the HKL version? Is the music different (plus the additional scenes featured in the HKL "Deleted Scenes" gallery)?

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 21 Oct 2005, 12:14

ReconFive wrote:Yep
She is Kaname Chidori from FMP.

Quite kawaii

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 21 Oct 2005, 14:45

grim_tales wrote:How does the international version of GOD II differ from the HKL version? Is the music different (plus the additional scenes featured in the HKL "Deleted Scenes" gallery)?

Yes.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 21 Oct 2005, 15:47

Ok while we are asking question about ReconFive avatar, what is his signature from. It looks quite cool

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 21 Oct 2005, 16:43

Batman Begins - 4/5
When I watched it at the theatre, I gave it 3.5/5 in this thread. As I just rewatched it now on DVD, I rate it 0.5 points higher. The first half is just so awesome and the soundtrack made it even better. Unfortunately, did the seond half seem a bit forced. Thankfully, Scarecrow is not the main attraction.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 22 Oct 2005, 16:59

Strange Days - 3.5/5

Dark, exciting (but occasionally nasty) thriller set at the turn of the Millenium, about a hustler called Lenny who deals in virtual reality "clips" - people's real life experiences recorded for a cheap thrill. The parts that were hard to watch for me concerned the "blackjacks" - recordings of death.

When a close associate is murdered, the only two people Lenny can trust are his friends security expert Mace, and Max, as he tries to stay alive into the 21st century.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 22 Oct 2005, 22:50

Ah, Strange Days is a cracker... even though Juliette Lewis and Tom Sizemore are annoying as fuck.

Ralph and Angela are excellent and Katheryn Bigalow shows she can make 'em as good as the big boys in Hollywood.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 23 Oct 2005, 03:33

Tiger Cage - 1/5
Err... why was everybody praising this film so much and begging HKL to release this etc.? I mean apart from that one Donnie Yen fight and very few cool stunts, there wasn't really anything that made this film worthwhile. Not even the presence of so many stars.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 23 Oct 2005, 04:30

Damn, man. TIGER CAGE is a classic. I even prefer it to the sequel.

I'm glad you have no influence over HKL!

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Oct 2005, 08:46

Markgway wrote:Ah, Strange Days is a cracker... even though Juliette Lewis and Tom Sizemore are annoying as fuck.

Ralph and Angela are excellent and Katheryn Bigalow shows she can make 'em as good as the big boys in Hollywood.

Tom Sizemore is Max, right?
I wasn't impressed with Juliette Lewis, she had the right slutty/cute look but was annoying as you say.
I think its good the film explores issues beyond its genre, like corrupt politics and racism, its' an intelligent film certainly.
Yes I was particularly impressed with Angela Bassett as Mace.
Trivia: In one scene where she says ..."Right here, right now" to Lenny, this is the same sample used by Fatboy Slim on his 1997 single "Right Here, Right Now"

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 23 Oct 2005, 14:51

Markgway wrote:Damn, man. TIGER CAGE is a classic.

In what way is it a classic? Because it is directed by Yuen Woo-ping?

I mean there is nothing that made me keep on watching it apart from the fact that many people say it is a classic. So I thought the big fight must come at the end. I was wrong though. The only person who could fight dies in the middle of the film.
The storyline is so predictable and it has many plotholes.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 23 Oct 2005, 16:34

Markgway wrote: Leo Nichols was a westernised psuedonym for Ennio Morricone used by distributors on intitial release to give the film(s) a more American appearence. Later prints corrected this.

Yup, and Leone used "Bob Robertson". They did this quite a bit in early spaghetti western days, having fake English names inorder not to put off the local audience who may've rolled their eyes at local filmmakers/actors/etc (there was apparently a dude who went as "Clint Westwood".

)

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Oct 2005, 16:49

Thats funny.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 23 Oct 2005, 17:36

thelostdragon wrote:In what way is it a classic? Because it is directed by Yuen Woo-ping?

Well, having a great director helps, naturally, but I found this to be a cracking gunplay film (it's NOT a martial arts movie) with an all star cast, gripping plot and tremendous action sequences. I honestly enjoyed this one as much as an D&B film from the late 80's - and they made some really good ones.

I mean there is nothing that made me keep on watching it apart from the fact that many people say it is a classic. So I thought the big fight must come at the end. I was wrong though. The only person who could fight dies in the middle of the film.

Who told you it was a "fight" movie? If that's all you were after then, yeah, you'd be disappointed. I don't think that's a fair criticism though... you can't blame the film for your misconception of it. The "sequel" has much more fighting in it.

The storyline is so predictable and it has many plotholes.

Most do... lol But I was entertained throughout and cared about what happened to the characters. It's funny you should come down so vehemently on one of the better examples of the genre. But, hey, that's what opinion is for....

I wonder what anyone else thinks.......???

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 24 Oct 2005, 13:38

The Myth - 4/5
Jackie is back. Since many years he has been talking about how he wants to combine real action with CGI as he is getting older now. In the first few films he had tried that in were either flops ('The Tuxedo') or not as good as his other films. With 'New Police Story' he got closer to what he had on his mind and 'The Myth' might be the closest it will ever get. I dare not say perfect as the storyline lacks a bit of quality.

Don't get me wrong here, though. The thing is that all the scenes that play in the past, where we can see Jackie as a Chinese General fighting armies on his horse, are actually dreams or illusions Jackie's actual character from the present has. He believes that he remembers his previous life and that he is a reincarnation. As an archeologist, he brings back the 'Armour of God'-feeling. Teaming up with Tony Leung Kar-fai, he goes to India to find some kind of anti-gravity stone.

The action in this film is very cool. Finally we get some good old Jackie-action again. And while we have this comedic type of action, the action scenes that take place in the past are more violent and gory. Man, there is one scene where Jackie kills more people than he did in his whole movie career, leaving behind a mountain of dead bodies.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 24 Oct 2005, 14:21

LD where did you see this?

Your review sounds very positive and makes me want to see it

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 24 Oct 2005, 20:26

Jackie seems to have a hard on for CGI?

Why?

I thought HE was the Special Effect!!

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 24 Oct 2005, 23:44

grim_tales wrote:LD where did you see this?
Your review sounds very positive and makes me want to see it

A friend of mine is helping with organising the upcomiong Asian filmfest over here in Cologne and they already got the film material for it. He took me to a little private screening with a few other colleagues of his.

Jackie seems to have a hard on for CGI?

Why?

I thought HE was the Special Effect!!

He indeed WAS the special effect and in some way still is. Man, he is 51. And at his age he calls himself lucky to be still active in making action films. Watch 'The Myth' and you will see that he is still doing so much of the fighting and stunts himself. The outtakes in the green box are really funny. He fights on some kind of high scaffolding, then accidentally slips and falls down. A few guys from the crew run to him to see if he is okay, but he just gets up, quickly climbs back onto the scaffolding and gets back into fighting position.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 25 Oct 2005, 04:17

Yeah, but you know hardcore fans will NEVER be happy with any CGI included.......

ReconFive · Post by **ReconFive** » 25 Oct 2005, 07:19

Doom - 2/5
Well, i simply could not help going to see this. Overall it was pretty bad. There was not nearly as much action as i was expecting, and the quality of the action was mediocre at best. The first person view segment was certainly original, but could have been done alot better. Gave me a damn headache from watching it.

As bizarre as it sounds, The Rock was probably the best thing about the movie. I've liked him in every movie he's been in so far, and he fits his character in Doom just as well. There are a few rediculasly corny lines that he delivers quite well.

Overall, a mildly entertaining romp that could have been a hell of alot better. Such a shame, since i'm one of the few people who believes that some video games could actually make great movies.

slasher13 wrote:Ok while we are asking question about ReconFive avatar, what is his signature from. It looks quite cool

Sorry for not replying sooner.. missed this message

My sig is artwork based on an anime called Gunslinger Girl.
The character is Henrietta, wielding her P-90

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 25 Oct 2005, 12:47

Markgway wrote:Yeah, but you know hardcore fans will NEVER be happy with any CGI included.......

If they were hardcore fans, they'd care about Jackie's health, mind you.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 25 Oct 2005, 14:46

Jackie could make straight thrillers in the mold of Charlie Bronson or Clint Eastwood did in their fifties...

Why does he either have to be hanging off a helicoptor risking life and limb or CGI'd up the ying-yang...

What happened to good old fashioned movie-making??

I think fans would respect Jackie more if he just acted his age and did only what he was capable of WITHOUT CGI.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 25 Oct 2005, 15:36

Let's wait and see what 'Shinjuku Incident' will be all about. It is this dark thriller he is currently preparing with Derek Yee in Tokyo.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 25 Oct 2005, 15:54

Is that the film where he plays a really EVIL bad dude, LD?

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 25 Oct 2005, 18:53

thelostdragon wrote:Let's wait and see what 'Shinjuku Incident' will be all about. It is this dark thriller he is currently preparing with Derek Yee in Tokyo.

Now that sounds interesting.... 8)