I saw "Deliver Us From Evil" and still want to see Oculus. I don't dig too deep in underground horror because if it's good, I'll hear about it on a forum eventually. Besides that, I just go by what's getting a national release and/or related to the James Wan/Blumhouse family tree of horror films.

Oculus is pretty fucking good. Not much else seems to even look decent as it's all just another batch of supernatural exorcism movies with the exact same settings, lighting and characters as any other of those films...oh and The Purge 2, which is the worst movie I've seen this year so far. I'll have to dive into the underground shit when I can find it. Hoping there's some great ones I hear about.

Saw Ender's Game again for the blog, I made it through a little more of the movie without falling asleep this time. Then it happened again anyway. I had to force myself to stay awake - what a boring, unpleasant, pretentious film. Really not fun.

I think I'll throw on The World's End tonight. That one's always good for a spirit-lifting.

No it's all been mediocre horror this year, films just to keep the wheels of horror spinning so to speak. No word of mouth regarding any good films in the genre and I doubt they'll be any until next year. In 2015, there's a remake of Amityville by Franck Khalfoun who directed the remake of Maniac. I'm over remakes in general but Maniac was magnificent.

Currently watching Jodorowsky's Dune, and it's one fine failed-movie documentary if I do say so, Jodorowsky is a really captivating story teller and some of the art is amazing. The scope of his Dune would have been breathtaking and still impressive to this day. I can't get enough of these 'what if' documentaries.

Got around to watching The Raid last night. It was really cool but I was utterly wiped out from the day's activities so I was on the brink of dozing off throughout some of the middle parts. I think I'll watch a couple other movies before watching the sequel - cool as it was the first movie seemed a lot longer than it was due to the relentless pace of the action/fight scenes, so I think I need a breather before sitting through the 2.5 hour sequel.

I'm really kicking myself right now because I forgot tonight was a one-night-only showing of the original RoboCop at the discount theater by my house. It would have been nice to see it again on the silver screen after all these years.

I remember the first time I saw this film, I couldn't stop thinking about the blatant social messages. After enough thought, I actually managed to figure out both the sentiment to the film, and that of Silas Marner.

As to the film itself, I think it's very good, and it's funny to see Red as a criminal.

Stallone really has balls for saying he was outdoing The Raid with Expendables 3. It didnt even come remotely close.

I've held off on watching any of the Expendables, as it seemed like a cash grab for the washed-up. Are either of the first two anything approaching Stallone's great films?

Short answer, no.

Escape Plan is a much better pairing of action heroes and feels like a genuine movie that could have been made in the 80's.

Plus it doesn't have stupid self referential quips about their age and how the world isn't the 1980's anymore.

Ehh, maybe the first one, but the third one is practically a remake of the second(obviously a slightly different cast and setting).
The big action scene is this one, which feels very tame now:


And they really kissed Chuck Norris's ass just to do a very lame cameo:


Expendables 3 is even tamer than that action scene. I highly recommend Sabotage if you want something like what Expendables should've been.

If you enjoyed the The Raid then you'll almost assuredly enjoy the sequel. It's better in nearly every way. The final fight scene in the kitchen is one of the greatest martial-art battles ever filmed. Outstanding fight choreography. It's amazing what the director could make with that tiny Indonesian budget. Leagues ahead of any of the typical, crappy, modern Hollywood action flicks.

Heh, I actually just watched the sequel!

It was good but honestly it could've done with some editing. I noticed that the writer/director also edited the movie - probably essential in terms of getting the action and fight scenes to come out like they did, but a second opinion editor would've helped a bit as I thought the beginning of the movie dragged on for far too long before things really started getting interesting. That said, the action scenes were fucking phenomenal. I know everyone loves those Ong Bak movies but these Raid movies are just a million times better in every way, but most importantly this Indonesian martial arts stuff is just fifty or sixty times more brutal and awesome than the fights in Ong Bak.

I also watched The World's End last night. Really fun movie. I like how it basically pulled the From Dusk Till Dawn move of having a standard movie just get invaded by a campy action type movie, but it actually worked so much better mainly due to the comedy being spot on and all of the characters being drunk as fuck by the time shit starts getting weird.

I'm completely in love with Ong Bak so believe me, I've been meaning to see The Raid for years now. I just always A) forget, B) blow it off when Necroticism demands I watch it, or C) get very, very close to watching it and then decide "eh I gotta work tomorrow" and just go to bed.

I enjoyed The Raid 2 quite a bit, but it feels more like a crime epic than a martial arts action flick, what with all of politicking happening.

Nope.

Nope.

Aw, so is this your first martial arts movie? You could certainly do worse. And I say that because the immediate comparison to Hollywood movies makes that fact stick out like a sore thumb. Comparing The Raid franchise to Hollywood, lolwot.

Yeah, the fact that most of the action is in the last hour/45 min or so is the usual quibble some viewers have. I didn't mind too much, because the story, while derivative, was told well enough. Especially for a martial arts film. But honestly, I'm not sure they could've made another movie with the pacing of the Raid. Unless you just basically repeat the plot from the first. The first one was almost non-stop fight scenes with a thread-bare plot. But it worked in the context of the film. They were just a bunch of SWAT team guys trapped in a building trying to get out. Hopefully, the sequel will be more evenly paced.

And the first Ong Bak is great if you haven't seen it. The sequels are terrible however.

Ehh, fair enough statement I suppose. There isn't near enough plot or character development (and why should there be, it's a martial arts film) for it to be a crime epic but I guess I could see how someone could feel that way.


It is. And I'm certainly not in the minority in that opinion of the film. But please, do elaborate your points. If you can call "nope" a point.


Lol now you're being stupid. Even if you hated the film, the fight choreography is undeniably good. Remember, I said one of the best martial-arts fights. If I made a top 10 best martial-art fights it would easily be in there. Better then Ong Bak's and Ip Man's and I liked both of those films. What would you consider superior?


Swing and a miss. Not even close. Just because I don't enjoy shitty Hollywood action franchises like the Expendables which you may enjoy, doesn't mean I'm some neophyte when it comes the genre. And how is comparing two films of the same genre so ridiculous exactly? Especially, when it's films that have common elements like martial-arts (guys from the Raid, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Ronda Rousey) and gun fights?

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - I thought it was a lame idea to reboot Spider-Man in 2012, and re-tell the origin story that was still fresh in people's minds. But I ended up liking that first non-Tobey-Maguire movie more than I expected to.

The sequel is a step down, IMO. By now, I just don't care about the backstory with his father, so those scenes (which didn't bother me much in the first movie) have become tiresome. As comic book movie villains go, Electro's motivation is a little underwhelming. Those blue and purple lightning effects looked cool, I guess, especially at the finale. But I still think the 2002 movie had the best final showdown.

And wow, that kid from Chronicle plays Harry Osborn like a total sleaze-ball, doesn't he? Plus by the end of the movie he looked like Evil Ed from Fright Night. (I thought I was crazy, but other people noticed it too.)

I haven't seen the sequel, but I definitely preferred Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man to the newer one. Seeing Peter Parker as a skater seemed odd, as did his closeness to Gwen Stacy. I do think I liked Michael Sheen as Uncle Ben, but the Lizard seemed a mediocre villain to open things up with. I understand not wanting to use one the other series had used, but I don't feel like he's significant enough for an first film.

I've seen 'the raid' and liked it very much. I've never been interested in seeing Ong Bak though because of the advertising campaign surrounding it's release over here, it really rubbed me the wrong way when they said the lead guy was 'better than Bruce Lee' and 'puts him to shame', and that seems to get thrown around a lot, I think it's simply disrespectful.

In the spirit of reviews I really don't recommend anyone see When A Stranger Calls.

When A Stranger Calls (1979) - 2/5

Starts with very cool opening with the story about the babysitter everyone's heard of, and this 20 minute scene would have been perfect for a short film, because everything after is a spiralling mess.
Number one, they show the killer and show him interacting with society, this de-mystifies him instantly, ruining much of the initial horror I liked about the intro.
Number two, they make the killer into a seriously awkward social outcast, who randomly tries to make friends with a rough woman who is equally odd in an anti-social way. Number three, the detective who's assigned to take the killer down is shit at his job. Put all those things together and you've got a slow, plodding bore of a 'horror' film.

Watched 'Predators' tonight. Yeah, yeah, four years late. It was pretty awesome. Adrian Brody had me sold on the whole tough-guy thing.

Winterbeast (1991)

Holy chit! This movie scared me to death as a kid. I honestly have no idea where and how I saw this on late-night television, but it always stuck with me. Totally incomprehensible plot that comes to a head (pustule even) when the lead antagonist dances for his collection of corpses in a cheap Halloween mask and proceeds to blow his top...

Tons of cheap stop-motion creatures that make it sort of worth it if you are into that sort of thing (which I am). There is a giant turkey/vulture sorta thing that scared me to death as a kid! The guy that did the stop-motion did the ABC "After these messages..." animated commercial lead-ins. There are some boobs...and an unfortunate excess of plaid. So much faux wood paneling and plaid that it just screams of the '80.

Bird thing:

Empyreal needs to do this one if he hasn't already...

I'll definitely, possibly, maybe do that one.

My thought process during that movie went: awful, awful, awful, MORPHEUS best movie ever 10/10 would buy on VOD.

God damn The Protector 2 sucks.

Needlessly muddled and silly plot, green screens for practically every major indoor fight scene, completely unexplained environmental hazards*, electrically charged kicks that make fucking lightsaber sound effects, and RZA's acting. So, so disappointed.

*

So if I want to see a Tony Jaa movie, I should go for the first Ong Bak and ignore everything else?

Actually, the first Protector movie is awesome. Pretty long winded, but awesome. I kind of like Ong Bok 2 for what it was; there are worse ways you can spend two hours. But...I'll just say we don't talk about Ong Bok 3 in my household.

My brother and I watched Ong Bak semi-randomly one night, and we spent the whole movie whooping and high fiving. We watched the second a few days later and thought it wasn't as good but was still worth watching since the weapon fights were interesting, though not as visceral as the first movie. Then we made the mistake of hyping the series up to everybody. A few days later we had my whole family, his girlfriend, and one of my friends all gathered in the living room to watch Ong Bak 3, the epic finale to that fucking awesome trilogy. Let's just say that after about two hours of our fearless hero stumbling around crippled while his idiot comic relief David Spade to his Kung Fu Chris Farley tried eating the scenery, pretty much everybody in the room was just glaring at us for tricking them into watching such a stupid, dull, dragging, boring as fuck movie. There's only one fight scene and it's at the very end, and it turns out to be a dream sequence. I don't care if I just spoiled it for you, it's a service.

Don't watch Ong Bak 3. Lick a cactus instead.

I like Ong Bak, but I didn't like the staging of some of the stunts. The fight scenes were good, though. The Protector was good as well, albeit using some crappy computer-generated shit. The Protector 2 looks pretty cool, but it looks like it may have some crappy computer-generated shit in it, too.

Just finished watching 7 Boxes (2012). Right now, this flic is being so fucking hyped here in Argentina, that my hopes for it had to be extremely moderated in order to properly enjoy the damn thing. The movie is really good. A nice paraguayan crime/comedy film with hints of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino and some latin idiosyncracy cliches (take City of God or Perdita Durango as an example) which as a southamerican, I really enjoyed. The budget was minimal but the action, the chase scenes and the acting was convincing, plus there are some really nice camera shots.


Watch it if you are bored, you won't regret it. 7 Boxes won a couple of prizes and was nominated at San Sebastian's Festival so it shouldn't be too difficult to get.

The Woman in Red - 2/5

Teddy meets a woman at his work and falls in love with her. He has a wife and kids at home and blablabla...so the plot isn't very original, but the problem is the story is shallow as shit. Problem is that the roles themselves aren't very interesting to begin with. Gene Wilder does a fine role and had me cracking up several times, but he alone can't save the movie. No doubt Kelly LeBrock looks very attractive in this movie but her acting is pretty much on existent. Other roles are just there but never do anything interesting. Movie itself could have taken another direction but at the end of it I wish it was over much quicker because there isn't so much going on here. Boring.

I've seen Weird Science several times, but never got around to watching The Woman in Red. Guess I shouldn't be in a hurry to change that.

The Sacrament - This is a found footage thing featuring about half the cast of You're Next and directed by the guy who made The House of the Devil. So there's these 3 Internet journalist dudes, and one of them has a sister who recently kicked a drug habit. The brother brings his two buddies to visit her, and they find she now lives in a self-sufficient community built from the ground up by a diverse group of people, guarded by men with guns, and under the control of a charismatic religious figure. If this sounds familiar, you can guess exactly where the movie is going.

I didn't hate this, but - similar to watching Carrie for the first time - knowing the big climax from the beginning usually doesn't help my enjoyment. I will admit the actor who played the cult leader was appropriately creepy, though.

Phantom with Ed Harris and David Duchovny. Submarine movie loosely based on the still-unsolved sinking of the K-129 in 1968. It's essentially a twist on the rogue captain theory of what happened. Characters' names are all fictional, their background stories don't appear to be modeled after any of the crew. The unusually large size of the crew, the bit about being way off course, and are all based in truth. The actual "Phantom" device is made up for the movie, for the purpose of giving a more concrete demonstration of , which might be true. The last minute or so is completely made-up and a trifle hand-fisted.


The acting is fairly convincing here even when the dialogue isn't (some of the expository dialogue is fine yet a decent chunk of it is distractingly cringe-worthy). But then I also just really like Duchovny and Harris. That being said, David does not scream OSNAZ or KGB in this movie at all. Harris is great though.

Well, Richard Attenborough died today. I watched his Gandhi for the first time a few weeks ago and it's about as good as a biographical film can be, with a wonderful sense of Gandhi's character, no doubt helped by Ben Kingsley in the role. I think I'm going to check out more of his directorial and acting work, of which I am woefully ignorant. RIP to "the old guy from Jurassic Park", as I used to know him as a youngster.

Watch Brighton Rock (1947). Probably his best role.

Going to see a free sneak preview of "As Above, So Below" tonight. There's no way it's NOT going to be terrible.

I dunno, the trailer looks claustrophobic and cool, I love that sort of horror....a lot of films don't do it right, but this looks pretty neat. I love the occult and all things historical, so I'm willing to give it a shot.

https://movies.yahoo.com/video/above-be ... 47353.html

I haven't seen the film but based on the previews, it looks like instead of doing straight paranormal 'ghosts in the catacombs' they do a justice angle. Each person in the film has some skeleton in their closet (PUN!) and they have the relive the trauma while lost in the catacombs. They did something bad and now they have to pay. I'm imagining something a lot like the elevator movie "Devil". I'm sure the found footage aspect will work well in the catacomb setting but that shoehorned storyline will kill it for me.

They should let the setting speak for itself. The characters in the Blair Witch Project didn't have back-stories with baggage. The woods were creepy. That was it.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3481250841/

This looks fucking badass. Jake Gyllenhaal, like Matthew McConaghuey, is a real rising star - he's becoming the go-to guy for great crime movies lately.