A couple over the weekend, both I quite enjoyed. Oldboy Not sure how to say this, but this film is a bit mental.. just how I like it. Spike Lee directs and the film is quite stylishly noir.. Josh Brolin plays the lead role and is very good as a guy who finds himself imprisoned with no idea why. The story unravels and you find out why this has happened, needless to say the lead is fired up to get to the bottom of things and settle the score, but.... You'll just have to watch to find out ! The fight scenes were a little funny, but I guess keeping with the style. One in particular could have been executed a little slicker perhaps. But I guess it's always a stroke of luck when none of your twenty attackers has anything more dangerous than a big stick! 8/10 A Streetcat Named Bob A proper feel good tale, of down on his luck recovering junkie making good with help of cool cat.. Fairly predictable I would say, but done in a way where you don't really mind. Based on a true story and the cat plays himself! Worth it just to see Bob.. He plays a blinder frankly, and you can't help imagining there's more going on behind the eyes of this great feline friend. 7/10
Pointed the old Rods and Cones at 'Ghost in the Shell' - the Hollywood remake starring Scarlett Johansson. I was watching it in 4K and the movie looked stunning. Gorgeous visuals, with an awesome realisation of Hong Kong, I mean Neo Tokyo. The plot/story and set pieces, however, were passable, and perhaps good at best. Watchable.
Kong: Skull Island Loved this film!! I am a huge (no pun intended) Kaiju fun anyway, and this was REALLY well done!! Good build to the island and when he appears for the first time there is no messing about at all!! Plot, character and development? Forget it!! This is about a giant ape smashing things!!!!!!!!!- 8/10
Just watched the final Resident Evil movie and... man... what to say? What deliciously horrible schlock. If you like laughing at B-movies, this is a good one.
"Death Note" -- the brand new Netflix Original version. I watched the cartoon series a while back, and of course on the whole it's better than this stand-alone movie, but the movie is okay. Nobody is getting an Oscar nod, but they did a good job with the camera, and a good job with the acting, and a fantastic job creating Ryuk. He's beautifully voiced by Willem Defoe, but the end credits reveal that he was filmed with a live actor, like the famous Gollem was, and that explains why he looks so good. They put in a good effort with L, too, and that actor certainly gave it his best, but -- L is just not quite right. He was too messy. The cartoon L is neat -- he stacks candies on top of each other, whereas this L spills candies all over the place. Sorry, but L should be neat. Anyway, there is no way to squish the entire series into 100 minutes, so the writers didn't even try. Instead, they took the essence of the story, and rewrote an original script on that. This version takes place in Seattle, USA, so everyone can speak English (it's a Netflix Original, remember), and as a stand-alone movie, the script works. It's good. However, if there's a weakness, it's the insufficient explanation of Ryuk and death gods. Light is justifiably freaked out -- he cries like a baby he's so scared -- when he first see Ryuk because such things are not part of the American culture. And that's my point. That part of the story was insufficiently explained. Also, the ending was rushed. It was as if they absolutely could not extend the movie another 5 minutes for a proper ending, so they just rushed through it. I actually rewound the movie to hear it again, because I didn't understand it the first time. Anyway, if you liked the cartoon series, you'll like this one, too.
I watched Tsui Hark's Sword Master last night, kindof a cross between Swordsman and Storm Riders. Once you get used to the CGI scenery it's really enjoyable.
Watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I actually really enjoyed it. I love Drax as a character and think he shines in this one, he provided probably the most laughs for me in the film (I think Bautista should go into comedy full time).
Lady Bloodfight Currently on Netflix. It's a female Bloodsport with bits of the Quest, Kickboxer and Karate Kid 1 and 3. Starts of with Ms.Miyagi fighting Ms.Kreese in an obvious heated rivalry. The judges declare the match a draw and Ms. Kreese is angry and claims she was about to win. The judges tell her they can both enter a student in the next tournament.to settle their feud. Cut to a quest like scene of fighters from around the world showing off their skills and then receiving an invitation to the tournament. Cut to the American star (Amy Johnston) "Danielle-son" as a waitress who defends herself from some jerk and gets fired then gets jump by the jerk and his friends at her car. After beating them all up she decides to go to Hong Kong in search of her father who went missing a few years earlier. Upon arriving in Hong Kong she gets jumped and robbed. Enter Ms.Myagi to fend of the bad guys and nurse Danielle-son back to health and become her kung fu teacher. She's entered into the tournament as Ms. Myagi's student. Along the way she meets the female Jackson, Cung Le and Johnny as well as Ms. Kreese. We see several fights in the tournament including a weird weapon round where we see halberd vs nunchaku, pu dao vs kwan dao, and wu dip dao vs dao. We see the female Cung Le vs Jackson fight with the ominous warning to Danielle-son that she's next, we see Danielle-son nearly die in one of her fights and when she's in danger of forfeiting her final match we see Ms. Myagi's magical wudang healing get her to the final match just in time to have her show down with Johnny err I mean Joanie. Along the way she solves the mystery of her fathers disappearance and finds out that all the major players have a common enemy It ends with a feel good scene of everyone laughing and smiling and teaching kung fu on a hillside. It's good vs evil, righteous Myagi do vs do anything to win Kobra Ki, Wu dang vs Shaolin and every kung fu cliché you can think of thrown into one movie with mostly mediocre choreography, although there are a few good sequences especially during the weapon round. It's cheese with cheese topping but you might find it slightly entertaining if you have nothing else pressing to watch.
Watched Passengers last night; Was a not bad film, but the ending seemed abrupt, could have done something more to finish better.
The Chris Pratt one? I just seen IT remake. I can't remember the book, read it in my very early teens and also with the mini telly show. However, when it comes to design, creepy and looks it's great. As a whole average, it was quite the typical modern Horror remake. Jump scares and make things "more". More gore, more size, more exaggeration (you know what I mean).. I enjoyed it though. So a bit torn.
I've not seen the remake, but it's supposed to be nowhere near as good as the original (which is one of the most messed up films I've ever seen)