The Official Movie Thread
- Thread starter Manic Ferocity
- Start date
CiG
Dimension Hatröss
Saw this last night and it fuckin' ruled. Basically if you liked Black Dynamite and if you liked Blazing Saddles, you'd probably like this. Actually shockingly offensive at times.
The depiction of Indians is even crazier than Cannibal! The Musical (iykyk) like for example one of the Indians Johnny meets is blatantly a white dude and his wife is an Asian actress who translates English for him because he doesn't speak it.
Generally funny as fuck (might be the funniest film of the year) and the action is really well done (kung fu and shootouts). The soundtrack is a cool blend of funky blaxploitation and classic westerns. Even beneath all the slapstick and parody is a religious message about redemption, forgiveness, justice etc.
Also there are cameos by people like Randy Couture, Donald Cerrone, Roger Yuan, Michael Madsen, Waymond Lee (any Workaholics fans?), Fred Williamson and Jim Brown.
Johnny: "Now don't make me wop you this foot upside your head."
Thug: "Go ahead and try, you dumb ni---"
[Johnny kicks him in the face and drops him]
Thug: "I was gonna say nincompoop."
CiG
Dimension Hatröss
Saw this last night and I loved it. Beautiful cinematography and world-building, utilizing CGI that blends seemlessly with the tone and aesthetic, really great cast, very cerebral without being boring. Just everything I wanted from a film like this. Basically Blade Runner meets A Perfect World, but set during a 'Nam-esque war. Definitely some Star Wars and anime influences too.
Gareth Edwards' best film to date imho, and another notch on John David Washington's belt.
TechnicalBarbarity
Poser Disposer
Watching this right now...
...laboof as an enforcer, george lopez as a hood boss...shit, i wont be surprised if the wizard turns out to be Al Bundy. As a comedy this is okay .... otherwise it's pretty much crap with generic/safe writing(wont say bad until i finish it up) and lame acting.
...laboof as an enforcer, george lopez as a hood boss...shit, i wont be surprised if the wizard turns out to be Al Bundy. As a comedy this is okay .... otherwise it's pretty much crap with generic/safe writing(wont say bad until i finish it up) and lame acting.
TechnicalBarbarity
Poser Disposer
RadicalThrasher
Active Member
CiG
Dimension Hatröss
Btw there's a film component to RYM that you should definitely take advantage of.
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CiG
Dimension Hatröss
Been too long since I watched this 90's cheese classic. Hail Carpenter.
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
This was about what I expected it to be. It is a relentless, 100-minute burst of almost uninterrupted action. I need a little more writing than that to get invested, but it's definitely everything it set out to be. Unlike the sequel.
Honestly I'm a bit disappointed, considering how many people call this the best modern action movie. I feel like that plaudit only makes sense if you only evaluate action movies solely based on their action scenes (which are fucking amazing, to be fair) and ignore everything else. And this one has about 2 hours of "everything else".
I like the idea of expanding the minimalist premise of the first movie into something resembling a crime epic, to give the fights greater stakes and contextualize them within a wider world. Evans would do this exact thing very successfully with the first season of Gangs of London. But the writing here is so confused. Characters get lengthy introductions only to feature in one fight and then die without having had much impact on the plot. The story seems to forget that the main character is undercover, for all that he does with crucial information he comes across. I also found the characters of hammer girl and baseball guy at odds with the rules of the setting. Like yeah, it's unrealistic, but in a very specific way; it's a brutal crime story with exaggerated body counts and ubiquitous martial arts prowess among mooks. A guy that assassinates people with baseballs feels too anime. And again, they get very long introductions only to be dispatched very quickly when they meet with Rama. Meanwhile, the longest and coolest fight in the movie is given to an opponent that is barely characterized at all.
It's definitely good, Iko Uwais really comes into his own as an action hero here and the kitchen fight is one of the most savage fights I've seen in cinema. But I expected more, especially having seen what Evans is capable of in Gangs of London. If this is what the competition looks like, I feel affirmed in my belief that John Wick 4 is the best modern action movie.
CiG
Dimension Hatröss
The confused writing is because it's actually an older script Evans wrote called Berandal, that he decided to rewrite into The Raid 2 after the success of the first. So yeah, he basically smashed an older crime drama he wrote with The Raid, and it really shows.
CiG
Dimension Hatröss
Damn just found out Mark Toia died as I was checking to see if he was working on a follow-up to Monsters of Man.
CiG
Dimension Hatröss
Decided to finally watch John Wick 4 again, for the first time since the theaters.
Exactly as good as I remember it being. 3 hours of cinematically meticulous non-stop action.
Adkins as Killa still stole the movie for me, as brief as his moment was. Still felt like the big Paris roundabout car scene jumps the shark a bit. Also I genuinely hope Mr. Nobody gets worked into his own spin-off movie/series someday, such a cool character. Is it just me or does Keanu have even less lines than usual in a Wick flick? Anyway not sure how the fuck they'll top this if they do a part 5.
I think I still slightly prefer Sisu, but that's another one I need to watch again. Vegard how are you defining "best modern action movie" here? Since you're comparing it to The Raid 2, I assume you don't mean the 2020's. Best since the 2010's?
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
I don't have a concrete definition and I'm not sure where to draw the line. In my mind Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009) is a "modern" action movie because it's an update of an 80s classic in a more contemporary style. It's actually kind of shocking that movie came out before The Raid because it really seems like something that would've been inspired by it. I guess The Raid (2011) and John Wick (2014) are both massively influential touchstones that have come to define the "modern action movie". So I suppose the cutoff is somewhere around there.
I should definitely check out Sisu.
I should definitely check out Sisu.
TechnicalBarbarity
Poser Disposer
CiG
Dimension Hatröss
@TechnicalBarbarity drop your opinion once you've finished that. Looks cool.
That's about what I was assuming. Also yeah Regeneration is surprisingly prescient with its proto-Raid style. There's even that big tower block scene. For me the best action movies of the last 20 years are Mad Max: Fury Road, The Raid, and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning.
no country for old wainds
Active Member
- Nov 23, 2002
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CiG
Dimension Hatröss
Fury Road would've been better if Mel was cast as an older Max. Hardy's forgettable performance and crap Aussie accent is the biggest fault for me, otherwise it might be above The Raid and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. Still great though obv.
TechnicalBarbarity
Poser Disposer
I dug it. A fun little by the books western. Perfect sunday flick. The little girl actress was pretty badass. And that concludes my detailed in depth review lol
CiG
Dimension Hatröss
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
This was hard to get through, and the friends I saw it with pretty much hated it. I spent much of the runtime bored out of my mind and feeling like I was watching an overlong and unfunny version of The Favorite. But the more I think on it, the more it seems like a very bold film that subverts a lot of the tropes of Hollywood historical epic storytelling. The battles are few and far between, but when they occur, they've been thoroughly divested of any sort of meaning or historical justification and instead recontextualized as the cost in human lives of the megalomania and sexual pathology of history's "great men". It's a great feat to make immaculately directed battle scenes (and I think these are some of the best of Scott's career) outright uncomfortable to watch instead of exhilarating and awe-inspiring.
But I don't fully agree with this interpretation of Napoleon and worse, I don't think it's internally coherent. When you strip him of all intelligence and charisma as this movie does, his life trajectory becomes a contradiction the movie can't explain. Upon his return from his exile at Elba, why did the fifth regiment, sent to arrest him, instead throw their support behind this uninspiring, mopey cuckold? When you reduce his character to this and only this, the larger-than-life elements of his story cease to make sense.
But all in all, a pretty audacious film that I can see having some real longevity.
