DSL's Movie/TV Reviews and Discussion

[Dr. Strangelove]

poster-780.jpg

[Dr. Strangelove]

ACTION USA (1989)
d. John Stewart
Starring: Gregory Scott Cummins, William Knight, Barri Murhpy, Ross Hagen, William Smith, Hoke Howell, Cameron Mitchell

I've posted the trailer for this before a while back. Have looked forward to finally seeing it and it's just about everything I could've hoped for. The movie has been circulated in bad movie crowds for years now but the only copies available were shitty, very old, VHS transfers. Well that's finally changed and several companies got hold of the original prints and restored it. It looks great! With it becoming more widely available I could see this becoming very popular on the cult movie circuit, like The Room or Troll 2. But don't get me wrong, it's not inept like those movies are. A lot of the stunts are extremely impressive! It's just super cheesy and mindless fun. Half the cast are seasoned B-movie veterans and the rest are stuntmen. Many may know Gregory Scott Cummins better as Mac's dad from Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

It also has William Smith, who just died this past week. The dude had over 250 credits and if you've seen an action movie or B movie since the late 60's, you've probably seen him. More than anything you might remember him from his voice, which as he got older sounded like he gargled with broken glass.

The Alamo Drafthouse trailer pretty much says more than I ever could

[Cody_Russell]

1990 is stacked with re-watchable films.
Can’t count how many times I’ve seen “Total Recall”, “Tremors”, and “Home Alone.” Among other classics.

…

A lot of buzz surrounding the new “Dune.” Hope it delivers.

Trailer #2:

[Hannibal]

A remake of a book-based movie. What could possibly go wrong?

[crashcourse]

lot of movies coming out in the next few months

mothers close down the movie theatres again over delta gamma corona VIII im gonna be pissed

[Cody_Russell]

A remake of a book-based movie. What could possibly go wrong?

I know, right? What could go wrong...

[Dr. Strangelove]

lot of movies coming out in the next few months

mothers close down the movie theatres again over delta gamma corona VIII im gonna be pissed

There's a weekend in October when the final Jackass movie, the latest Wes Anderson movie, and Dune are all coming out. Last Night in Soho (the latest Edgar Wright movie) was supposed to come out that same weekend but has now gotten bumped to a week later.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Never heard of this movie in my life. I got about 10 minutes in and had to call it quits. Maybe I will eventually finish, but it's one of the worst things I've ever seen.

It stars Hulk Hogan, Grace Jones, and poor old Robert Vaughn. Big Show and Brutus the Barber Beefcake from wrasslin' also show up for a bit. The Director is Sam Firstenberg, who directed some really great cult classics at Cannon Films in the 80's but must have fallen on hard times once that studio collapsed in the early 90's.

[froot loops]

I catch up on movies on vacation in the hotel and this time it's no different.

Mean Girls - I had never seen this one before, it was an OK movie. The amount of cultural cachet it has outweighs how good it was as a movie.

Baby Driver - this one disappointed, I'm big on heist movies but this one is a little bit too gimmicky. The lead is not given a lot to work with but he's ok. Jamie Foxx and Don Draper are in a contest to overact the most. Kevin Spacey is pretty much reprising his character from the movie 21. The tone of the third act changes dramatically and brings down the movie.

John Wick - I had never seen it and the movie delivers.

Atomic Blonde - this was described as a female John Wick and it is in the same lane. It has a bit of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in it with the complexity of the plot. Any time you have Charlize Theron in an action role, it is going to work.

A Knight's Tale - about the 20th viewing of this masterpiece. It blows the above films out of the water. Everything works, the 4 sidekicks are all great. The love interest is great. The antagonist is giving a masterclass in mustache twirling villianry. Brian Helgeland might be the most underrated writer/director in Hollywood. This was made in the middle of his great run of films at the turn of the century.

[Dr. Strangelove]

bef07b91-4525-4527-ae92-94cc94dd1a5f_1.3db61deb041069244ad9c59d151601bb.jpg

THE KING OF THE KICKBOXERS (1990)
d. Lucas Lowe
Starring: Loren Avedon, Billy Blanks, Richard Jaekel, Sherrie Rose, Keith Cooke, Don Stroud

In the distant past of 1981, Jake Donahue accompanies his older brother to Thailand to watch him beat a bunch of guys to death in an underground kickboxing tournament. The brother wins! But uh-oh, it looks like he was supposed to throw the fight and Billy Blanks is NOT HAPPY. He kicks the older brother to death then when Jake tries to fight him he kicks the shit out of him too. "Let me give you something to remember me with!" snarls Billy Blanks.

Flash forward 10 years and Jake Donahue is now the best damn undercover cop New York has ever had. But he's a loose cannon! To cool him off a bit, his chief decides to loan him out to Interpol for a bit (?!) breaking up a ring of snuff film distributors in...you got it...SIAM! I mean...THAILAND!!!

It turns out that Billy Blanks has teamed up with the guys making snuff films. He gets to kill people to his heart's content, and they capture it all on film. Can Jake stop the crooks and get his revenge?!?!?!?!

Oh my god, the overacting in this thing...Billy Blanks is wonderfully psychotic and our male lead is going for his Oscar. It's a very cheap movie and kind of looks like crap but the action is really pretty good. It wasn't made by Hollywood, it's from one of the lesser Hong Kong studios. I've never heard of Loren Avedon before but he actually seems pretty good skills-wise. Also, I don't know if anyone here ever played any of the Street Fighter games when younger, but game designers have said that Bill Blanks' character in this film (Khan) was the inspiration for the fighting game character of Dee Jay.

There's an acceptable enough version on Youtube but if you just want to see the epic final battle here ya go

[THE_WIZARD_]

Good movie but not Bloodsport good...

[Cody_Russell]

Absolutely love “A Knight’s Tale.”
The heart, fun, and enjoyment of it. Easily one of the most re-watchable films there is IMO. Can’t explain why, it’s just so comforting and enjoyable. Guilty pleasure that I’ve also seen probably 20-30 times (counting times it’s been on as background noise).

“Duel”
Re-watched this film for the first time in a while during the weekend. Want to give it some love. My dad introduced this 70s classic to me years ago. The thrill, suspense. Can see how Spielberg transferred that directing style over to “Jaws.” It still holds today as being a thrill ride.
Heck, I’d rather watch “Duel” than most of Spielberg’s films since 2004.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The era of NetFlix giving near complete freedom to their directors may be drawing to a close...they hired this weirdo to direct a Marilyn Monroe biopic and now they're freaking out because instead of Oscar bait he's made an extremely unpleasant arthouse flick that includes graphic rape and an appalling scene in which Monroe has her period while a man gives her oral sex.

[froot loops]

When you give these well known directors huge budgets for a film that isn't constrained by the need to make money at the box office, it is very hard to match the movies that were being made pre-streaming era. Netflix has given near blank checks to a lot of these creative types and it doesn't amount to much.

[lineygoblue]

That Weinstein guy used to be the toast of Hollywood. People with big money backed him. This is the kind of trash they want. They don't care what movie goers in Iowa or Michigan want. They produce whatever crap they choose and send it to the theaters. Shame on anyone that pays money to see that garbage, or supports people like that.