Wednesday, July 28, 2021
This Girl is Badass (2011):
This Girl is Badass (2011):
"A bike messenger (JeeJa Yanin) becomes caught between competing mob bosses. She confronts the gangs in a battle of bullets, face kicks and punches."
Pretty good movie from Thailand. Insane stuntwork and improv'd weapons. Free on Tubi. Watch it!
Labels:
2011,
action,
action movies,
Asia,
JeeJa Yanin,
kung fu,
kung fu movies,
martial arts,
martial arts movie,
martial arts movies,
Thai,
Thailand,
This Girl is Badass,
This Girl is Badass movie,
Tubi
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Dreamscape (1984):
Dreamscape (1984):
"A young psychic on the run from himself is recruited by a government agency experimenting with the use of the dream-sharing technology and is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of the U.S. president."
So, a lot going on in this movie. Allegedly, the dream tech is to help mental patients. But, in this movie we see: nightmares of a boy haunted by a lizard man, a cuckolded husband's dream, and of course dream assassins trying to kill the President. Not the best movie, but a weird one. Check it out. It's more like a general idea of a movie that someone just slapped together.
Monday, July 26, 2021
Split Second (1992):
Split Second (1992):
"In a flooded future London, Detective Harley Stone hunts a serial killer who murdered his partner, and has haunted him ever since. He soon discovers what he is hunting might not be human."
Rutger Hauer plays a psychic cop addicted to coffee and chocolate investigating the demon/alien who might've murdered his partner. Cyberpunk, Satanic panic, all mixed with Lethal Weapon! Definitely a weird one. Check it out.
Sunday, July 25, 2021
Heavy Metal (1981)
Heavy Metal (1981):
"A glowing green orb - which embodies ultimate evil - terrorizes a young girl with an anthology of bizarre and fantastic stories of dark fantasy, eroticism and horror."
A series of loosely related sci-fi stories holds together this weird animated film. My favorite is the story of the cab driver. Worth it for the animation alone. If one story doesn't grab you, another will. Watch it any way you can.
Saturday, July 24, 2021
Krull (1983):
"A prince and a fellowship of companions set out to rescue his bride from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet."
Krull is one of the best Star Wars-fantasy knockoffs I've seen. Does a lot with very little. You can see them trying to invoke high fantasy-adventure, were it not for a limited budget. Give it a watch.
Labels:
1980s,
1983,
adventure,
B-Movie,
B-Movies,
fantasy,
Krull,
Liam Neeson,
sci-fi,
science fiction,
scifi
Friday, July 23, 2021
Masters of the Universe (1987):
Masters of the Universe (1987):
"A life-action feature film based on the popular cartoon kids show about a prince turned warrior named He-Man."
Dolph Lundgren played a great He-Man. Great Skeletor, too. But, several other elements also make this film weird. Who insisted on the Orko knockoff? (Gwildor) Who OK'd a Back to The Future subplot? Great movie, but a little cheesy. I liked it, but you just have to accept its flaws as part of its charm. In honor of Masters of the Universe returning to Netflix today, I thought I'd reccommend it.
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Robocop 3 (1993):
Robocop 3 (1993):
"Robocop saves the day once more. This time the half man/half robot takes on ruthless developers who want to evict some people on "their" land."
The first one without Peter Weller. Still pretty good. Good action. I thought parts were funny. Like Robocop with a jetpack. Also uses a flamethrower and shoots up punks at the end. Leans into the goofiness, but doesn't mess around.
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Gantz: O (2016):
Gantz:O (2016):
"After being brutally murdered in a subway station, a teen boy awakens to find himself resurrected by a strange computer named Gantz, and forced to fight a large force of invading aliens in Osaka."
Okay, so when you die, what happens? Odds are, you wouldn’t think you end up in an alien hunting ground where if you kill 100 aliens, you come back to life. Or are you really dead? Or just abducted by sadistic aliens that make you hunt for entertainment in high-tech battle suits? But, you keep flashing back to high school. And there they think you’re dead. This is Gantz:O, and it’s a weird movie with more plot twists than I just described and plenty of over-the-top action. It's on Netflix, so check it out.
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Journey To The West (2014):
Journey To The West (2014):
"A story centered on Tang Sanzang, a Buddhist trying to protect a village from three demons, his emerging feelings for Miss Duan, the demon hunter who helps him repeatedly, and Sanzang's transformative encounter with the Monkey King."
Pretty good, pretty weird action comedy by Stephen Chow. Look it up if you wanna watch something funny and unique, with a weird spin on Chinese legend. Check it out if you can.
"A story centered on Tang Sanzang, a Buddhist trying to protect a village from three demons, his emerging feelings for Miss Duan, the demon hunter who helps him repeatedly, and Sanzang's transformative encounter with the Monkey King."
Pretty good, pretty weird action comedy by Stephen Chow. Look it up if you wanna watch something funny and unique, with a weird spin on Chinese legend. Check it out if you can.
Monday, July 19, 2021
Black Widow (2021):
BLACK WIDOW (2021):
Hunted down in the US after “Civil War”, (2016) Black Widow elopes to Eastern Europe to find her family. But, she's not even safe there, as Russians try to bring her and her family back under a mind-control program and she's being pursued by Taskmaster. This film does a great job with action scenes, as well as family drama. It's basically a spy film with a superhero twist.
The film doesn't slow down very much. If I have one complaint about the movie, it's that anything other than the action feels very slow. But, maybe that's just because they address the questions of free will vs. Authority very directly, and it being a Marvel film, they have to make it over two hours. I'm a fan of Black Widow, and Scarlett Johansson is a good action star, but there was something about the pacing that gave me a sort of mental whiplash.
David Harbour is funny as Red Guardian. He sort of exists to establish the Russian supersoldier legacy. A major theme of modern Marvel movies seems to be leaving legacies behind. Whether for yourself, or family. Anyway, I enjoyed it. It's female James Bond with a Marvel twist. If that's your thing, check it out!
Hunted down in the US after “Civil War”, (2016) Black Widow elopes to Eastern Europe to find her family. But, she's not even safe there, as Russians try to bring her and her family back under a mind-control program and she's being pursued by Taskmaster. This film does a great job with action scenes, as well as family drama. It's basically a spy film with a superhero twist.
The film doesn't slow down very much. If I have one complaint about the movie, it's that anything other than the action feels very slow. But, maybe that's just because they address the questions of free will vs. Authority very directly, and it being a Marvel film, they have to make it over two hours. I'm a fan of Black Widow, and Scarlett Johansson is a good action star, but there was something about the pacing that gave me a sort of mental whiplash.
David Harbour is funny as Red Guardian. He sort of exists to establish the Russian supersoldier legacy. A major theme of modern Marvel movies seems to be leaving legacies behind. Whether for yourself, or family. Anyway, I enjoyed it. It's female James Bond with a Marvel twist. If that's your thing, check it out!
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Ghost in The Shell (1995):
Ghost in The Shell (1995):
Ghost in The Shell is about a cyborg spy woman (Major Makoto Kusanagi) working for the intelligence agency Section 9 to track down The Puppetmaster who hacks into people’s brains making them commit terrorist actions they can’t remember through their “ghosts” or computer brains. While it is uniquely 90s in its presentation of tech, with wires and virtual realities galore, its philosophy is both uniquely Japanese, and timeless. In the first scene we see The Major taking down some terrorist separatists negotiating with the gov’t. She guns them down and jumps out the window naked, before disappearing. This establishes her as a badass.
Every action scene is really well done. When she’s tracking down the Puppetmaster she has to jump from a truck to tracking down the puppet masters victims by foot and using martial arts, again while naked and invisible. It would be easy to dismiss Ghost in the Shell as eroge were not the rest of the story so good. Every intense action scene is followed by philosophy.
Typically, in the West we have the theme of Man vs. Machine, and we have the idea that punks are lowlifes, bad people. Ghost in the Shell purposes that man and machine are inseparable, that they improve each other. Kusanagi wonders aloud throughout the movie if she was ever human, and what that would mean, while drinking beer, and smoking. Which is typically not what we see in the West. Her vices humanize her, even if she is a machine.
After discovering that The Puppetmaster was designed by another intelligence team (Section 6) she meets with the Puppetmaster who blows up the place and announces that he is a living AI named Kaze. Think of a living internet. Kusanagi followed Kaze to the Kyoto docks, but is ambushed by a Section 6 spider tank with machine guns. She is able to hold her own for a while, but is torn apart by the tank. During this time, Kaze suggests that they merge into one new digital body. Kusanagi’s partner Batou destroys the tank, and Section 6 stands down, since the Puppetmaster has been subdued/vanished. He has merged into a new body with The Major.
Overall, I think the original Ghost in The Shell is a classic. Easily 8/10. Great fight scenes, great art, serious subjects…my only complaint about the original is that with all the heavy philosophy some scenes do drag. Particularly, after the great action scenes. But, it is nice to see the movie say something beyond Man vs. Machine. That mankind would exist with machines. The answer to The Major’s question seems to be in my opinion that it wouldn’t matter who she was before she was a cyborg. She drinks, and smokes, and kills just like humans. Most humans don’t really live anyway.
It’s never really answered, but the fact that she merges into a new body plays into this idea, as well as Buddhist ideas of reincarnation and impermanence, which I think are really Japanese. It’s just a shame that each series after the classic movie has diminishing returns, and only looks more dated each time. The Netflix 2020 series is very action heavy, but still good if you like seeing The Major and Section 9 in action. Then, there’s the series which has tiny talking spider tanks, as sort of comic relief. The Scarlett Johansson Hollywood movie, while good on action, both completely avoids philosophy and answers the question if she was ever human. It’s all very silly.
In conclusion, the original Ghost in the Shell is a classic which takes time to appreciate and savor its plot. Its message is as timely as ever. Technology is here. It’s not good or evil. It’s part of us. Who hasn’t zoned out in front of a computer? But, who’s to say that life would be any different without it? In the end, it’s up to us and what we do with it.
Ghost in The Shell is about a cyborg spy woman (Major Makoto Kusanagi) working for the intelligence agency Section 9 to track down The Puppetmaster who hacks into people’s brains making them commit terrorist actions they can’t remember through their “ghosts” or computer brains. While it is uniquely 90s in its presentation of tech, with wires and virtual realities galore, its philosophy is both uniquely Japanese, and timeless. In the first scene we see The Major taking down some terrorist separatists negotiating with the gov’t. She guns them down and jumps out the window naked, before disappearing. This establishes her as a badass.
Every action scene is really well done. When she’s tracking down the Puppetmaster she has to jump from a truck to tracking down the puppet masters victims by foot and using martial arts, again while naked and invisible. It would be easy to dismiss Ghost in the Shell as eroge were not the rest of the story so good. Every intense action scene is followed by philosophy.
Typically, in the West we have the theme of Man vs. Machine, and we have the idea that punks are lowlifes, bad people. Ghost in the Shell purposes that man and machine are inseparable, that they improve each other. Kusanagi wonders aloud throughout the movie if she was ever human, and what that would mean, while drinking beer, and smoking. Which is typically not what we see in the West. Her vices humanize her, even if she is a machine.
After discovering that The Puppetmaster was designed by another intelligence team (Section 6) she meets with the Puppetmaster who blows up the place and announces that he is a living AI named Kaze. Think of a living internet. Kusanagi followed Kaze to the Kyoto docks, but is ambushed by a Section 6 spider tank with machine guns. She is able to hold her own for a while, but is torn apart by the tank. During this time, Kaze suggests that they merge into one new digital body. Kusanagi’s partner Batou destroys the tank, and Section 6 stands down, since the Puppetmaster has been subdued/vanished. He has merged into a new body with The Major.
Overall, I think the original Ghost in The Shell is a classic. Easily 8/10. Great fight scenes, great art, serious subjects…my only complaint about the original is that with all the heavy philosophy some scenes do drag. Particularly, after the great action scenes. But, it is nice to see the movie say something beyond Man vs. Machine. That mankind would exist with machines. The answer to The Major’s question seems to be in my opinion that it wouldn’t matter who she was before she was a cyborg. She drinks, and smokes, and kills just like humans. Most humans don’t really live anyway.
It’s never really answered, but the fact that she merges into a new body plays into this idea, as well as Buddhist ideas of reincarnation and impermanence, which I think are really Japanese. It’s just a shame that each series after the classic movie has diminishing returns, and only looks more dated each time. The Netflix 2020 series is very action heavy, but still good if you like seeing The Major and Section 9 in action. Then, there’s the series which has tiny talking spider tanks, as sort of comic relief. The Scarlett Johansson Hollywood movie, while good on action, both completely avoids philosophy and answers the question if she was ever human. It’s all very silly.
In conclusion, the original Ghost in the Shell is a classic which takes time to appreciate and savor its plot. Its message is as timely as ever. Technology is here. It’s not good or evil. It’s part of us. Who hasn’t zoned out in front of a computer? But, who’s to say that life would be any different without it? In the end, it’s up to us and what we do with it.
Labels:
1995,
2020,
action movies,
animation,
anime,
anime review,
cultural analysis. ethnography,
cyberpunk,
cyborg,
Ghost In The Shell,
Japan,
Japanese,
movie,
Netflix,
Scarlett Johansson,
sci-fi,
science fiction,
The Major
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006):
Strange movie based on the imaginary life of a photographer who photographed circus freaks. In this version, her husband is the photographer. Eventually she meets a circus freak neighbor (man with werewolf syndrome.) and they begin a romance, and it encourages her to start exploring her body, desires, and the human form.
Pre-Iron Man RDJ does a great job as the neighbor with werewolf syndrome. Unfortunately, the DVD cover gives away a huge spoiler. In any case, it's a great quirky film with a lot of dark tension and heavy romance themes. I've never quite seen anything else like it.
Friday, July 16, 2021
Hell Comes To Frogtown (1988)
Hell Comes To Frogtown (1988):
"After a worldwide nuclear war, where 68% of the male population was wiped out and virile men becoming a rarity, Sam Hell, a scavenger and a highly virile man, is assigned to help rescue a group of fertile women kidnapped by humanoid frogs."
That summary should be enough to qualify as a strange movie. Plus, I always like Mad Max-ish films. Pretty good acting here. Piper brings his trademark wildman antics to the fore. Pretty funny to see him fistfight with frog mutants. Also, good use of puppets, if that's your thing. Give it a watch!
"After a worldwide nuclear war, where 68% of the male population was wiped out and virile men becoming a rarity, Sam Hell, a scavenger and a highly virile man, is assigned to help rescue a group of fertile women kidnapped by humanoid frogs."
That summary should be enough to qualify as a strange movie. Plus, I always like Mad Max-ish films. Pretty good acting here. Piper brings his trademark wildman antics to the fore. Pretty funny to see him fistfight with frog mutants. Also, good use of puppets, if that's your thing. Give it a watch!
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Kafka (1991)
Kafka (1991):
"Kafka is a 1991 French-American mystery thriller film directed by Steven Soderbergh. Ostensibly a biopic, based on the life of Franz Kafka, the film blurs the lines between fact and Kafka's fiction (most notably The Castle and The Trial), creating a Kafkaesque atmosphere."
Here is a strange film. It's about Franz Kafka working as an insurance salesman and trying to write his uncanny stories. While it presents itself as a biography, he soon finds himself pursued by anarchists, a zombie, devious cops, and even a mad scientist.
Kafka finds that his regular office life is now subject to the uncanny horror he writes about, including being summoned to The Castle. While it does take some liberties with Kafka himself, what this film does is essentially put Kafka himself, in the role of his stories' main characters and mixes them with a monster movie. Jeremy Irons plays a good Franz Kafka. Definitely a weird film. Check it out.
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Arena (1989)
Arena (1989):
"A human becomes an unlikely rising star in the biggest fighting tournament in the galaxy that's dominated by alien species."
This movie has it all. Rocky in Space! The best cheeseball 80s puppet technology! A boxing blob! A four-armed hobbit guy! It's free on Tubi! Check it out.
Labels:
1980s,
action,
action movies,
alien,
alien movie,
aliens,
Arena,
B-Movie,
B-Movies,
boxing,
sci-fi,
science fiction,
scifi
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Clash of the Titans (1981):
Clash of the Titans (1981):
"Perseus must battle Medusa and the Kraken to save the Princess Andromeda."
My favorite film, and first exposure to Greek myths. Lovely claymation monster work by Ray Harryhausen, including the evil Kalibos, Kraken, Medusa, and others. Excellent scenes in Mount Olympus help give the film a sincere sense of epic scale, without being bloated. Highly recommended. For me, the monsters and gods are what make it strange and mesmerizing to watch.
Check it out!
"Perseus must battle Medusa and the Kraken to save the Princess Andromeda."
My favorite film, and first exposure to Greek myths. Lovely claymation monster work by Ray Harryhausen, including the evil Kalibos, Kraken, Medusa, and others. Excellent scenes in Mount Olympus help give the film a sincere sense of epic scale, without being bloated. Highly recommended. For me, the monsters and gods are what make it strange and mesmerizing to watch.
Check it out!
Monday, July 12, 2021
The Prestige (2006)
The Prestige (2006):
"After a tragic accident, two stage magicians engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other."
Recommended, but you definitely understand more with a second watch. Good performances by Bale and Jackman as rival 1800s magicians. Plus, Nikola Tesla is played by David Bowie. Twist ending too! Watch it any way you can.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Dollman (1991)
Dollman (1991):
"A hard-boiled, intergalactic policeman lands on Earth where he is only 12 inches tall."
Tim Thomerson plays a Clint Eastwood-esque cop with a tiny but powerful gun out to stop a criminal who's just a head who has an interdimensional bomb. Also, he has to stop a Bronx gang. And he's helped by a kid and his mom, who think he's a toy. It's great schlocky fun! This and it's sequel, Dollman vs. The Demonic Toys (1993) you can watch on Tubi for free! Check it out.
"A hard-boiled, intergalactic policeman lands on Earth where he is only 12 inches tall."
Tim Thomerson plays a Clint Eastwood-esque cop with a tiny but powerful gun out to stop a criminal who's just a head who has an interdimensional bomb. Also, he has to stop a Bronx gang. And he's helped by a kid and his mom, who think he's a toy. It's great schlocky fun! This and it's sequel, Dollman vs. The Demonic Toys (1993) you can watch on Tubi for free! Check it out.
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Trancers (1984 -)
Trancers (1984):
"A trooper (Tim Thomerson) leaves 2247 Angel City for 1985 Los Angeles to stop a zombie mystic (Michael Stefani) out to change history."
A good cheesy sci-fi series that's something like Blade Runner meets Quantum Leap. Pure B-Movie fun as Jack Deth tries to adapt to the 80s, and solve his case. Won't stop using weird slang. Part of the comedy is the modern people being oblivious to zombies a.k.a. "squids". Each movie has diminishing returns however.
Trancers 1-3 are good. The rest just feel like standard sword-and-shield fantasy, like someone mixed up two scripts. Pretty weird sci-fi concepts executed as action-comedy. These are all available on Tubi. Take a look!
Labels:
action,
alien,
alien movie,
aliens,
B-Movies,
Blade Runner,
Full Moon Entertainment,
hypnosis,
medical sci-fi,
movie,
sci-fi,
science fiction,
scifi,
Tim Thomerson,
Trancers,
Tubi,
zombie,
zombie hunters,
zombies
Thursday, July 1, 2021
The Book of Eli (2010) Review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSMHmtaoXtI The Book of Eli (2010): "A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind." I always love a good post-apocalyptic story. This one is certainly strange, with a couple twists. Good humor and action too.
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