Recently watched movies!

[lhb412]

^I looked it up, and apparently the fan-assembled 'Cabal Cut' (using VHS sources and supposedly based on the workprint of the movie) is 40 minutes longer than the theatrical version, while Barker's director's cut is only 20 minutes longer than the theatrical version. Yeah, I guess it was just his discression as to what he thought needed to be in the movie. Maybe he didn't want it to be over 2 hours?

[lhb412]

Tenebrae

Dario Argento doing another stylish murder mystery. Great score by Goblin, and setting everything in a harshly lit modern city and swank homes gives the thing a unique feel for a horror movie.

[eabaker]

[Dr Kain]

So does anyone know what the deal is with this new horror movie called Ghost Stories? Rotten Tomatoes said it came out today, but we wanted to see a movie tonight and not a single theater is showing it, even if the Alamo Drafthouse.

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

Return to the 36th Chamber

A very fun and unconventional sequel to The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Gordon Liu plays not kung fu master monk San Te this time, but a petty conman named Chu Jen-chieh who impersonates San Te to help his brother and his brother's fellow workers with a labor dispute (they all have to take a pay cut and are coerced by violence to not quit). They use theatrical tricks to fake the kung fu of the fake San Te. Wires, rehearsed moves, etc. - really meta for a kung fu movie! Well, they're eventually found out and Chu goes to Shaolin to learn kung fu for real. Chu's inclination is towards trickery and obstinance, so the real monk San Te (here played by a different guy - how cool would it have been in Gordon Liu played both roles?) takes Chu out of the training chamber and puts him to work on the scaffolding above Shaolin temple, where he observes all the training techniques and jury rigs makeshift version of their equipment while balancing up in the air on the bamboo scaffolding. Chu's so dim that he doesn't comprehend he's actually learning kung fu. The final battle is brilliant.

This is a wonderful sequel. It's rather like Gremlins 2 in that it's partially a spoof of the original film.

[Dr Kain]

Saw Rampage today. It could have been worse.

[lhb412]

A Quiet Place

As everyone else has said: it good. I especially liked how effectively tight a 90 minute film it is. Bring back 90 minute movies!

Also, it seems smartly made horror films with low or modest budgets are the new blockbuster. I hope studios approach this new reality with clarity instead of flooding the market with clones.

[lhb412]

Disciples of the 36th Chamber

Gordon Liu is back in the role of monk San Te, but this time he's not the main character. It mostly follows an unruly pupil of his, who's family has hidden him in the Shaolin temple because he offended some Manchurian big-wigs.


The movie is wall-to-wall action; fights and training and whatnot, and it's all spectacular. Unfortunately, the main character of Fong Say-yuk is immensely frustrating. He's constantly causing trouble in a way that suggests he's either a Bugs Bunny-esque trickster or a character who's foolishness is a fatal flaw that will cost him. He's too dim to be a proper trickster, he never suffers enough to be a tragic character undone by his flaws, and he never learns from his mistakes to grow as a character. It's like they struck out on all points with this guy, crippling an otherwise solid movie.

[klen7]

Beyond Skyline - I almost bought this sight unseen because i remember thinking the first one was underrated (4.4 on imdb - yikes) and this one has Iko Uwais - fortunately for me it was available on Netflix. Uwais shows up half way into the runtime and unlike his wasted cameo in role in Force Awakens starts right in with the martial arts, he also seems pretty comfortable speaking in English. The main character actually crosses paths with a couple characters from the first film but i guess they decided not to pay for likeness rights for the actors because they recast them for flashback scenes. The movie has fun in its last act but the first half could have been cut down significantly to get it to place where it finds its footing

[EricDent]

A buddy got me a copy of the Japanese version of King Kong vs Godzilla (on Blu-Ray) with custom subs.
I watched it, and it was not that much different than the US version IMO.

Still hoping we get a legit version from Criterion with both US & Japanese versions.

[lhb412]

^ I think it's super different. Just giving the jokes and running gags more context makes so much difference - and it has Ifukube's best score!

I also hope that Criterion releases it. They have almost the entire Showa series and I think they're almost certainly angling for a complete box set and they license stuff from Universal (KKvG's US rights holder) frequently.

[Dr Kain]

Not much different? Sure, if you ignore the altered inferior bland soundtrack, the added news scenes that can't even get the continuity correct, and half of Tako's footage cut out.

[klen7]

Psychokinesis - I was looking forward to this one, but came expecting a more nuanced angle like Inuyashiki, unfortunately this is a straight up superhero movie which is tonally all over the place. Hard to believe it was from the director of Train to Busan.

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

^Hell, it's a good setup. If they do it smart A Quiet Place could be like Romero's Dead trilogy; showing different groups of people surviving in the monster-ravaged world.

[Dr Kain]

All I will say at this moment for Infinity War is that holy christ, Thanos is hands down the BEST MCU VILLAIN TO DATE!!!!!!!!!!! Well worth the 6 year wait! Oh my god was this movie "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" amazing!!!!

[Joseph Goodman]

Rampage - lol @ a video game adaptation no one was asking for turning out better than G2014 and Pacific Rim

[Dr Kain]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

Avengers Infinity War. It was good. Shocking but good.

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

Tale of Tales - Saw this oddity on Netflix, it was listed as a "creature feature" and it had John C Reilly, so i watched it. it did have some creatures, it did have some John C Reilly, but kind of false advertising on both accounts. Kind of an anthology of macabre fairy tales woven together. some evocative scenes, but the lack of an overall narrative makes it feel meandering and random.

[lhb412]

Tetsuo: The Iron Man

This is another one of those films I've known about for half my life but am just now seeing. Shot in grainy black and white on 16mm film with super low-tech effects this film tells the story of a man who, after a car accident, finds himself violently transforming into a being that's part-metal and part flesh. Soon finds himself locked in a a fight with another mysterious metal-organic lifeform. Despite the intensely graphic body horror and the weird, experimental direction and editing I can't help put feel how closely related it was to other Japanese pop-culture transformations. It's only a short walk from being a Cronenbergian Kamen Rider.

Oh, and I saw Avengers: Affinity Gwar

[jellydonut25]

[Joseph Goodman]