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Spoilers What Movie Are You Watching?
- Thread starter Huntn
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Broken Oath (1977) So mom finally capitulated and wanted to see another of "these kung fu movies" and I couldn't think of a Shaw Brothers film I loved that was easy to grok and not very violent. Mom's more squeamish than ever lately so that meant no Sun Chung, Venoms mob or Ti Lung / David Chiang team ups.
So I decided on the one Golden Harvest film I watch frequently, Broken Oath, featuring Angela Mao Ying. What starts as a Lady Snowblood homage goes into a completely different direction as government coup plots and undercover agents soon jump into the mix with Mao Ying's avenger. It's a very satisfying story and elevates the revenge concept to where you are as interested in the good guys as you are the bad. As a Chan Wai Man fan, I love his baddie in this. He steals the film as Zhao Cai (or as mom said, "the bad guy wearing the lamp shade on his head"
) The one thing i don't like, Mao Ying's cheap shot use of a yo-yo. She doesn't need it. Otherwise, solid story, some fun acting, great make ups and lots of inventive, stellar kung fu (real and fake.)
Me: I dig it. Mom: still not convinced. She snapped on my beloved Deadly Breaking Sword, noting "this was better than the one you love with the white and orange haired villain; it made sense." OUCH. This apple has not only fallen from the tree, but rolled out of the orchard too.
===
Speaking of the Venoms and Ti Lung and David Chiang,
Revisited Flag of Iron (1980) and The Duel (1971) last night. Both great fun in their own ways and the snitched use of the 2001 theme during a critical moment in The Duel was absolutely LOL perfect.
So I decided on the one Golden Harvest film I watch frequently, Broken Oath, featuring Angela Mao Ying. What starts as a Lady Snowblood homage goes into a completely different direction as government coup plots and undercover agents soon jump into the mix with Mao Ying's avenger. It's a very satisfying story and elevates the revenge concept to where you are as interested in the good guys as you are the bad. As a Chan Wai Man fan, I love his baddie in this. He steals the film as Zhao Cai (or as mom said, "the bad guy wearing the lamp shade on his head"
) The one thing i don't like, Mao Ying's cheap shot use of a yo-yo. She doesn't need it. Otherwise, solid story, some fun acting, great make ups and lots of inventive, stellar kung fu (real and fake.)Me: I dig it. Mom: still not convinced. She snapped on my beloved Deadly Breaking Sword, noting "this was better than the one you love with the white and orange haired villain; it made sense." OUCH.
This apple has not only fallen from the tree, but rolled out of the orchard too. ===
Speaking of the Venoms and Ti Lung and David Chiang,
Revisited Flag of Iron (1980) and The Duel (1971) last night. Both great fun in their own ways and the snitched use of the 2001 theme during a critical moment in The Duel was absolutely LOL perfect.
I doubt that my mother has the slightest desire to watch one single minute of my favorite Italian horror flics with me. But that goes both ways.
Saw Andrea Bianchi's The Night of Terror / Burial Ground the other night. Not as great as the awesome Zombi by Fulci but not that far off either. Very trashy. As usual, great location (Villa Parisi in Frascati, 21km from Rome; with it's nice garden/park) and some highly remarkably scenes. Not to forget the creepy 25yo actor Peter Bark who plays the ~13yo son who was quite 'attached' to his mother.
I'd say 3.5/5 on my zombi-o-meter.
Saw Andrea Bianchi's The Night of Terror / Burial Ground the other night. Not as great as the awesome Zombi by Fulci but not that far off either. Very trashy. As usual, great location (Villa Parisi in Frascati, 21km from Rome; with it's nice garden/park) and some highly remarkably scenes. Not to forget the creepy 25yo actor Peter Bark who plays the ~13yo son who was quite 'attached' to his mother.
I'd say 3.5/5 on my zombi-o-meter.
I doubt that my mother has the slightest desire to watch one single minute of my favorite Italian horror flics with me. But that goes both ways.
Saw Andrea Bianchi's The Night of Terror / Burial Ground the other night. Not as great as the awesome Zombi by Fulci but not that far off either. Very trashy. As usual, great location (Villa Parisi in Frascati, 21km from Rome; with it's nice garden/park) and some highly remarkably scenes. Not to forget the creepy 25yo actor Peter Bark who plays the ~13yo son who was quite 'attached' to his mother.
I'd say 3.5/5 on my zombi-o-meter.
Great review. Thanks for the image too, awesome place (I would hate to be part of the cleaning crew though.) A lot of italian horror used great locations. I'd like to see more of your commentary on the locations since you have the architecture bug.
Mom actually watched a bunch of giallos with me when I was knee deep about decade ago. We'd both joke whenever Edwige Fenech was naked (read just about every film we watched) and mom actually figured out the killer in Black Belly of the Tarantula long before I did.
But she won't watch really gory stuff with convoluted plot lines now (no Argento, definitely no Fulci) and some of the more popular Shaws. Besides, the other funny crack she made last night, "Why do all these people suddenly drop into the frame. Where are they coming from?"
We used to watch a lot of movies together and now I am watching some of hers too. It's been kind of neat hearing her perspective. She has very little patience for current movies though.
Sadly, work conflict is not allowing me to see Blow Up (1966) on the big screen this weekend. If it was playing 3-4 hours later I could have swung it, but, oh well.
Ah..I feel for you. Blow Up's one of my top 5 movies probably so yeah...next time!
And I wouldn't really call that a review (let alone a good one). I guess you haven't watched it then? It really is one of the better outputs of that era - still trashy but in a good way. And it has Etruscan zombis - so how's that! DeRossi (the FX man behind Fulci's best movies and apparently the Italy shots made in 007: Casino Royal or for Bertulucci's The Last Emperor) made the FX and it shows. No happy end either (still not half as depressing as the Fulci flics) so what's not to like?
(Well, the acting is quite forgettable). It has no plot whatsoever (maybe one of it's stronger points ) but still a good grind house flic.And the Villa is quite famous for filming. Vittorio De Sica shot there as did Ridley Scott. Judi Drench, Cher, Mastroianni, Jude Law etc. pp.
And Andrea Bianchi
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Ah..I feel for you. Blow Up's one of my top 5 movies probably so yeah...next time!
And I wouldn't really call that a review (let alone a good one). I guess you haven't watched it then? It really is one of the better outputs of that era - still trashy but in a good way. And it has Etruscan zombis - so how's that! DeRossi (the FX man behind Fulci's best movies and apparently the Italy shots made in 007: Casino Royal or for Bertulucci's The Last Emperor) made the FX and it shows. No happy end either (still not half as depressing as the Fulci flics) so what's not to like?
And the Villa is quite famous for filming. Vittorio De Sica shot there as did Ridley Scott. Judi Drench, Cher, Mastroianni, Jude Law etc. pp.
And Andrea Bianchi
Haven't seen it in eons, but I enjoyed reading your post about it and that refreshed my hazy memories. DeRossi's work was always pretty inventive and I dig how crude some of his make ups look (Zombi).
Just finished Red Sun (1972)...with mom. She was disappointed in the ending (but all I say is, what I said to her. "His character didn't change.") Haven't seen tthis in at least a dozen years. Completely forgot Alain Deleon was in it (and what a looker he was), but Bronson and Mifune were terrific together.
Fort McCoy.
horrible. slow plot. bland characters. zero energy in any of the acting.
is there any less mesmerizing actor in the world than eric stoltz ?
horrible. slow plot. bland characters. zero energy in any of the acting.
is there any less mesmerizing actor in the world than eric stoltz ?
no, there isn't
Interesting, most essentially see it the other way around.
Care to expand on that. I have never heard anyone think that way. Usually it's the other way around.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. One of the Best westerns of all time! Young Clint Eastwood.
Sure, when I heard the title Civil War, I was expecting huge warring factions fighting for a real reason, and not because of one guy's beef with another (Warning spoiler! Winter Soldier killing Iron Man's parents).
It just seemed so forced, the new Spiderman was too goofy for my taste and the struggle was so irrelevant. Not to mention the registration subplot taken from the Xmen universe! I did like Black Panther tho
Finished watching Ex Machina (2015) before I fell asleep passed 3am. Not my kind of my movie. Humorless and I didn't really feel for the story. But I will say nice performances from Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac. I almost didn't recognize either one.
I watched The Force Awakens like 20+ times before this, so listening to their accents and seeing their personalities here made me ask myself is the nerd supposed to be General Hux and the boss is supposed to be Poe Dameron? If you saw TFA first before, you would be amazed by their range and ask yourself the same thing.
Problem was I never felt any connection with Domhnall's character at all. Liked his performance but not into the character. I didn't find him to a genius but a wimpy idiot who needed a girlfriend. Still much better than General Hux who was the worst character in Star Wars 7. I just didn't feel an emotional connection to the characters or story.
Oscar Isaac was great though. The first 30 minutes, I didn't recognize it was him. I thought it was some Saudi version of David Krumholtz. But I figured he would be the antagonist within the first few conversations by being such a jerk. I knew he was just toying around.
Liked the performances by the male leads though but the characters were hardly likeable. Pacing and story wasn't compelling enough for me. Pretty good movie. Not my kind of movie to rewatch over and over but pretty good and a lovely house. I didn't feel Ava was a robot at all and didn't believe what she was saying. Predictable for me.
Music didn't move me. I already figured out way before that Domhnall's character would be duped by them. Seriously, Ava can apply skin to her like a sticky note? Alicia Vikander is a cutie though. The only time I laughed out loud was the ending. I liked it since General Hux sucks. Go Ava!
7.5/10
I watched The Force Awakens like 20+ times before this, so listening to their accents and seeing their personalities here made me ask myself is the nerd supposed to be General Hux and the boss is supposed to be Poe Dameron? If you saw TFA first before, you would be amazed by their range and ask yourself the same thing.
Problem was I never felt any connection with Domhnall's character at all. Liked his performance but not into the character. I didn't find him to a genius but a wimpy idiot who needed a girlfriend. Still much better than General Hux who was the worst character in Star Wars 7. I just didn't feel an emotional connection to the characters or story.
Oscar Isaac was great though. The first 30 minutes, I didn't recognize it was him. I thought it was some Saudi version of David Krumholtz. But I figured he would be the antagonist within the first few conversations by being such a jerk. I knew he was just toying around.
Liked the performances by the male leads though but the characters were hardly likeable. Pacing and story wasn't compelling enough for me. Pretty good movie. Not my kind of movie to rewatch over and over but pretty good and a lovely house. I didn't feel Ava was a robot at all and didn't believe what she was saying. Predictable for me.
Music didn't move me. I already figured out way before that Domhnall's character would be duped by them. Seriously, Ava can apply skin to her like a sticky note? Alicia Vikander is a cutie though. The only time I laughed out loud was the ending. I liked it since General Hux sucks. Go Ava!
7.5/10