Sulphur on 8/6/2023 at 12:08
Yeah, that's actually a decent list (for his earlier movies; I detest Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon, and I'm not sure about his 00s-onward work). The best of his movies lie squarely in the 80s, IMO - Police Story, Armour of God, and Project A are just an incredibly solid run. The earlier ones like Drunken Master are no slouches either, and while I love the big budget ones best for their overall cinematic package, I found that the homelier, smaller scale fights from the 70s showcased his physical comedy prowess much more.
Tocky on 10/6/2023 at 01:45
My wife saw Sinbad at a performance at one of the casinos in Tunica before he died and Sinbad asked of the audience who was the leading tough guy lately and when my wife replied Jackie Chan he said but Jackie is getting old. He is banged up and can't move like he used to. Sinbad then went on with some joke I forget but I thought then how sad that was. He was so badass. Nothing lasts. And then I thought he could still kick my ass ten times over so I shouldn't feel too bad for him.
Anyway I had watched Casablanca again yesterday so when we were looking for one tonight some old ones popped up as suggestions and we hadn't seen Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in "The Keeper of the Flame". I love old movies. They remind me of those watched as a kid. These days if something is in black and white it won't be considered by today's youth. But they should. It was a sort of murder mystery without a murderer. I don't want to say too much about it but we both recognized the essence of Trump in it. The demagogue. The manipulator. The shill pocketing as much money as could be squeezed from the rubes. There was even a part where a closet was revealed that contained writings almost analog representations of today's internet manipulations. It's strange how things change but we stay the same. You should watch it. Often back then they foretold the same mistakes which we make again but had a noble fight I fear we will forget. We must never forget.
Cipheron on 11/6/2023 at 10:14
Jackie is turning 70 next year and had his breakout role 45 years ago. Naturally you'd expect him to have gotten a bit slower, and that would be even if he never got 'banged up'.
I saw three movies today, a quiet Sunday. I'm trying to stay off reddit and various online time wasters, so getting around to more movies.
The first was finishing off 2020's "Under ConTROLL", the "official" sequel to Troll 2. This was absolute excrement, a bad movie trying to be a bad movie. Troll 2 is great because it wasn't trying to be bad, but was incompetently made in every way imaginable. I thought the unrelated "troll 3" was bad, but it's actually a preferable way to round out the "trilogy" of "troll" movies than this "official sequel". And that's because the original three "troll" movies all have a similar vibe and general 1980s terribleness. Generally, you WANT to see the first two Troll movies, those are the worthwhile ones, and everything branded as a "troll" movie after that is crap.
Then I saw Jackie's 1978 Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. This one was made by the same director right before Drunken Master, and I'd recommend it if you want more of the same (a number of the same cast members in similar roles), though if you watch just one, it would be Drunken Master.
Lastly, i watch 2018s "The VelociPastor". This is about a priest who can transform into a crime-fighting dinosaur due to an ancient Chinese curse. Now, if you like bad movies, i can recommend "The VelociPastor". It probably has less budget than a Neil Breen movie or The Room, but man, they use it effectively here. It's also great to see how dinosaur special effects have come along since the Jurassic Park days.
Sulphur on 4/7/2023 at 16:53
I guess I killed CommChat with my last post (j/k), so uh, I watched some stuff, and I have thoughts, but it feels like each of them needs a broader, deeper examination to do them any justice - Barry, The Whale, Atlanta season 4. All very interesting, and at least two of them are so funny, quietly vicious and fantastically directed, the only obvious thing that could happen is that most people wouldn't notice they existed, and they would sink without a trace. And no, The Whale isn't either of them (of course).
However, I will say that I binged Succession's last two seasons in short order, and while it got to be fairly repetitive in the end with everyone betraying everyone, some nascent alliances being stillborn, others murdered in the cradle, and some surprising ones managing until they didn't, it was quite the high-powered game of political musical chairs. I didn't think I'd enjoy a show about the Murdoch family, but one of the nicest things about a good HBO show is that when it synthesises good writing with great performances and direction from just about everyone involved, the result is hypnotic. All of these people are shitty humans (and the patriarchal head of the family enterprise is the worst of the lot), but somehow the show ensures that the ones you should care about, you do - it cares enough to show there really is some human underneath the shit, and when they make the wrong decisions over and over again, you want to reach through the screen and shake them until their teeth rattle, but also sometimes you hope they're able to figure it out before it's too late. It's a delicate, fragile balance, and while the show doesn't always manage it, it somehow rights itself before things go completely topsy-turvy.
It's a terrible show about terrible people, and I use terrible in both senses of the word - awful, and deeply unpleasant. It's no surprise that Jesse Armstrong's writing career stretches back to The Thick of It, because clearly terrible people are in his wheelhouse. But also, some of the snappiest dialogue and casually wrenching insults I've heard since The Thick of It, many of them delivered by the kid from Home Alone's brother (his real-life brother, not his movie brother), with both gusto and gross insensitivity. And yet - even he isn't beyond saving, or his siblings; but the question the show's really asking is, in the end, will anyone save them from themselves?
TL;DR - it is a good fucking show, and you'll hate it. Watch it.
P.S. Also, if you're a fan of modern classical soundtracks, Succession's is one of the most appropriately majestic and inflated scores of recent times, gorgeously developed and a perfect complement to its scenes of big, sweeping machinations set into motion by very small and very mean people.
Tocky on 14/7/2023 at 01:20
I feel like I have killed it every so often. I bet we all do at lulls. Not as many regulars but I'm sure many irregulars. Haven't seen any of the stuff you mentioned though.
What I did see was the new Indiana Jones on opening weekend. Not great. Sort of like the last but with a weaker plot. I kind of liked the last even though most didn't. Anyway it's still got the Indy nostalgia, a few in jokes, and action piled on action till you get dizzy. I would have preferred a bigger bang or at least a plot to go out on but hell. This has to be the last of them and I saw it with my daughter whose company is incomparable. You should be so lucky as to have one like mine. Smart, classy, beautiful, and just the right touch of silly.
But I didn't come here to say any of that. I've also rewatched the Terminator series, at least the first two which are the only two that count. I did so in preparation for my trip out to Hollywood and to note locations so I may make pictures of myself in those locales. I want to hang on the Elysian park fence as Linda Hamilton did as the nuclear blast burned her to bones. I want to go back to Griffith park for some pics where Arnold ripped a heart out. I want to climb the Music Box stairs... oops Laurel and Hardy. Anyway I like being where things were done. But none of that is what I came to say I watched.
What I came for was to say that Cocaine Bear wasn't near as funny as I thought it would be and the trailer had all the funny bits. The rest was grizzly horror. I mean, it's a bear on cocaine. What did you expect it to do? The last role of Ray Liotta was bloody as hell. And even that was not what I came here for. I came because the actual funniest thing I've seen lately was "The Outlaws" with Adam Devine from Workaholics. He even drug in Blake Anderson from it. It was funny as hell. Adam stamped the hell out of it with his unique humor. To his credit Pierce Brosnan was an excellent counter point and even snuck in a James Bond joke. Each of the characters played off each other well but Blake carried it. It was well written like the best of the pre Trump comedies when folks didn't feel as if their neighbor was a secret Nazi and there was a naïve hopefulness about people. The wife and I give it two thumbs up.
henke on 15/7/2023 at 05:22
A Gunfight (1971)
[video=youtube;R6iNKn5rqck]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6iNKn5rqck[/video]
Johnny plays Abe Cross, an ol’ gunslinger trying to go legit. Abe rides into a small town to sell some gold dust and nurse his snake-bit horse back to health when he finds out there’s another legendary gunslinger living in town: Will Tennerey, played by Kirk Douglas. Pretty soon the whole town has caught wind of the situation and the rumors start swirling. “Are they gonna duel?” is what everyone is thinking. Pretty soon the gunslingers themselves start pondering the question. For a western called “A Gunfight” it might be surprising that a lot of the running time is taken up by the gunfighters sitting around and discussing whether or not they should indeed have a gunfight, but it leads to some great scenes and performances.
I’ve got this movie on DVD. Watched it a bunch of times. Love it. And it made me curious what else Johnny has been in, so I popped imdb open. This was his only theatrical release, but he’s been in a whole bunch of TV-movies, with good reviews too. And wouldn’t ya know it, a bunch of em are on youtube! For free! So of course I spent the following week watching a bunch of em.
Murder in Coweta County (1983)
[video=youtube;Cly9JHV0Ih4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cly9JHV0Ih4[/video]
Andy Griffith (Matlock!) plays John Wallace, a rich landowner residing over his county, which he calls The Kingdom. He owns the law and runs the county with an iron fist. When one of his underlings steals his price cow and tries to escape, Wallace chases him across county-lines and beats him up, possibly killing him, in front of witnesses in Coweta county. The hard-as-nails sheriff of Coweta, Lamar Potts, played by Johnny, sets out to prove that no one is above the law in HIS county!
It’s a nice crime procedural that unravels its tale in a straightforward but satisfying way. Well paced. June Carter Cash shows up in an absolutely scene-stealing role. I was surprised when I saw her name in the credits because she completely disappears into her character. Johnny’s good, but I wish June got more movie roles as well.
The Pride of Jesse Hallam (1981)
[video=youtube;WnNH8GwPZcA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnNH8GwPZcA[/video]
Johnny plays Jesse, an illiterate Kentucky coal miner who moves his family into the big city to get spinal surgery for his daughter. A lot of the early parts of the movie deals with Jesse trying to find a job but is constantly hindered by his illiteracy. Eli Wallach plays a warehouse owner who eventually gives him a job, and Eli’s daughter tries to teach him how to read.
The movie starts out great, and the scenes of Jesse hiding and struggling with his inability to read provide a lot of tension, but it kinda runs out of steam in the second half. Still a good watch though!
Five Minutes to Live, aka. Door-to-Door Maniac (1961)
[video=youtube;H17RPWYEfVY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H17RPWYEfVY[/video]
Johnny plays small time thug Johnny Cabot in this, his first movie role, tho he had shown up in a few TV shows previously. Him and his partner are gonna rob a bank, and the plan is for Johnny to go take a bank executive’s wife hostage, and if his companion don’t call him up once every 5 minutes while executing the robbery, he’s to kill the wife.
It’s a good plot setup, and could provide some nice tension if there was actually any question about whether he could go through with the killing, but Johnny’s character is such a stone cold killer from the get-go that there’s no question about whether he’d ice the wife. Tonally, the movie is all over the place. The scenes of the bank executive and his wife and son having breakfast play out like a sitcom scene, but then later on Johnny is threatening the wife with murder and rape and it’s fuckin dark. I gotta say it’s a ballsy move for a musician to play such an unredeemable villain for his first movie gig, and Johnny does a good job of it, but the movie is kinda a mess. Give this one a skip.
The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James (1986)
[video=youtube;1hXctmAEecE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hXctmAEecE[/video]
Johnny and Kris Kristofferson play Frank and Jesse, respectively. The brothers are trying to go legit but can’t seem to help themselves from doing just one last robbery. Or two. You probably know this tale already. Jesse is kinda a wild man. Frank is the responsible one. Robert Ford is an off-putting weirdo.
I can’t help but compare this to The Assassination of Jesse James, which is a better film. This is the same tale, told in a more straightforward and workmanlike way. It’s fine.
Bonus: Ridin’ the Rails - The Great American Train Story
[video=youtube;aW1X4bk31ik]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW1X4bk31ik[/video]
“Orange Blossom Special”, “Hey Porter”, “Wabash Cannonball”. If any fan still wasn’t clear how Johnny felt about trains he went ahead and just spelled it out in 1970 when he recorded “I’ve Got a Thing About Trains”.
I don’t know the year of this TV production since it doesn’t even have an imdb page, but it’s 45 minutes of Johnny waxing poetic about trains, and some very well produced recreations of historic train events. It’s entertaining and informative. A good watch! Also, uh, don't ask me why the thumbnail says "Johnny Carson". My best bet is that the thumbnail maker got kicked in the head by a horse before sitting down to put this on youtube.
Cipheron on 15/7/2023 at 13:31
I got around to watching the movie
Gladiator.
The interesting thing for me was reading about critic's responses about what they thought was unrealistic, and comparing that to the actual history of Emperor Commodus. The reviewers thought the Emperor fighting in the Colloseum was silly and over the top.
But ... the real Commodus did all that, and more. He makes the movie Commodus look restrained and sensible:
(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodus)
Quote:
His recorded actions do tend to show a rejection of his father's policies, his father's advisers, and especially his father's austere lifestyle, and an alienation from the surviving members of his family. It seems likely that he was raised in an atmosphere of Stoic asceticism, which he rejected entirely upon his accession to sole rule.
After repeated attempts on Commodus' life, Roman citizens were often killed for making him angry. One such notable event was the attempted extermination of the house of the Quinctilii. Condianus and Maximus were executed on the pretext that while they were not implicated in any plots, their wealth and talent would make them unhappy with the current state of affairs. Another event, as recorded by the historian Aelius Lampridius, took place at the Roman baths at Terme Taurine, where the emperor had an attendant thrown into an oven after he had found his bathwater to be lukewarm.
... kind of fits with the guy in the movie. But in the movie he doesn't murder anywhere near as many people.
Quote:
early in 192 Commodus, declaring himself the new Romulus, ritually re-founded Rome, renaming the city Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana. All the months of the year were renamed to correspond exactly with his (now twelve) names: Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, Exsuperatorius, Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, and Pius. The legions were renamed Commodianae, the fleet which imported grain from Africa was termed Alexandria Commodiana Togata, the Senate was entitled the Commodian Fortunate Senate, his palace and the Roman people themselves were all given the name Commodianus, and the day on which these reforms were decreed was to be called Dies Commodianus.
So, the movie plot thread about abolishing the senate and arresting senators, that's a VERY toned down version of what the real Commodus did. In fact he tried to remake the entirety of Roman culture as a personal Cult of Personality.
As for his gladiator stuff and death:
Quote:
In November 192, Commodus held Plebeian Games, in which he shot hundreds of animals with arrows and javelins every morning, and fought as a gladiator every afternoon, winning all the fights.
Quote:
To celebrate the Roman New Year in AD 192, Commodus decided he wanted to make an appearance before the Roman people not from the palace in traditional purple robes, but from the gladiator's barracks, escorted by the rest of the gladiators. After telling his plan to Marcia the night before, she begged him not to behave so carelessly and bring disgrace to the Roman Empire. Commodus, upset by Marcia's reaction, then told his plan to Aemilius Laetus, the Praetorian prefect, and Eclectus, his servant. After they, too, tried to dissuade him, he became furious and put their three names on a proscribed list of people to be executed the next morning, along with prominent senators
Quote:
When Marcia found a list of people Commodus intended to have executed, she discovered that she, the prefect Laetus, and Eclectus were on it. The three of them plotted to assassinate the emperor. On 31 December, Marcia poisoned Commodus' food, but he vomited up the poison, so the conspirators sent his wrestling partner Narcissus to strangle him in his bath.
So the movie, while not accurate in all details, is by far, not that over the top compared to the real time period in which it is set.
mxleader on 20/7/2023 at 05:23
I just finished watching Live or Die in La Honda. It's kind of low budget modern film noir. It was interesting enough to watch all way through but at the end I just didn't feel anything. Maybe that was the point. Anyway, it's on Tubi for free.
henke on 5/8/2023 at 20:07
Ok so I think youtube is just my fave movie service now. There's a bunch of cult classics and obscurities on there you won't find streaming elsewhere. After my Johnny Cash binge I moved to the ouvre of Mr. Rudy Ray Moore.
Dolemite (1974)
[video=youtube;bkIzwKlSU04]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkIzwKlSU04[/video]
His breakout hit! Honesly, it's... eh. Rudy is a delight with his crazy line deliveries, but the rest of the movie around him kinda drags on and feels like it has a hard time stretching out to 90 minutes.
The Human Tornado (1976)
[video=youtube;tOQeRZxqJOg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOQeRZxqJOg[/video]
The first Dolemite sequel improves the storytelling somewhat. The fight scenes are a hoot.
Petey Wheatstraw (1977)
[video=youtube;1SzAZR-7WyY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SzAZR-7WyY[/video]
Easily the best one of these. Moves along at a good pace, has some really crazy and imaginative plot twists, and Rudy is just on FIRE! It's a good one!
Disco Godfather is also on youtube. (WHAT HAS HE HAAAAD?) I kinda wanna see it.
demagogue on 5/8/2023 at 20:35
Entire episodes and seasons of a lot of old TV shows are on YouTube. I think even a number of 1980s shows are there, but if it's before 1980 there's a really good chance... A few that I've already binged were Dobie Gillis, Sanford and Sons, Otherworld, 3 Stooges, Amos 'n' Andy, Honeymooners, Twilight Zone, Playhouse 90...
There were some obscure scifi movies I was watching too...
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRL4cXXX9Po) Hard to be a God, (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8VRbaVNvSA) Lathe of Heaven, the Tarkovsky movies...