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Thread: recent purchases

  1. #1111
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    The B@st@rd Swordsman.
    Return of the B@st@rd Swordsman.

    One of my favorite wuxia characters. I've always enjoyed even the undercranking and wirework in the fights.

  2. #1112
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    The Fast Runner- I don't know how to do a review of this movie so I'll just give a rating. 7/10.
    "For someone who's a Shaolin monk, your kung fu's really lousy!"
    "What, you're dead? You die easy!"
    "Hold on now. I said I would forget your doings, but I didn't promise to spare your life. Take his head."
    “I don’t usually smoke this brand, but I’ll do it for you.”
    "When all this is over, Tan Hai Chi, I will kick your head off and put it on my brother's grave!
    "I regard hardships as part of my training. I don't need to relax."

  3. #1113
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    The Good, The Bad, The Weird (GBW) is, IMO, the best Korean movie I've seen, action-wise, and one of the best action movies out of Asia in some time. The cinematography is also beautifully done. Not only is the name similar, but it actually is an updated, 'Eastern' retelling of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly; but instead of Civil War-era U.S., the story is moved to 1930s Manchuria. Jung Woo-sung is placed in the "Good" role, and he has by far the least charisma of the 3 main stars. The other two leads more than make up for that. Song Kang-ho is excellent in the 'Weird' role as a seemingly bumbling thief. And Lee Byung-hun is equally excellent as the 'Bad'; every good action movie needs a good villain and he does not disappoint.

    Of course, there have been other 'Eastern-Westerns' that have come before, namely Magnificent Warriors with Michelle Yeoh, and Shanghai Express (a.k.a., Millionaire's Express, with Sammo Hung). Both of which were also epic in scope, but except for the MA fighting and stunts in Shanghai Express, neither film really stacks up story-wise and action-wise as well as GBW does. I'm not even going to count movies like The Warrior's Way or Blood Money as being in the same category (or league).

    8.5/10.

  4. #1114
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    Are you saying you aren't a fan of Blood Money? What's better than a movie about women's asses?

    I’ll have to pick up Good bad and Weird. I passed on it at BB yesterday. I think it was only $9.99.

    I saw Drag me to Hell recently. I remember you liked this one I think. I thought it was good but not great. Best scary movie I’ve seen since Red Eye.
    "For someone who's a Shaolin monk, your kung fu's really lousy!"
    "What, you're dead? You die easy!"
    "Hold on now. I said I would forget your doings, but I didn't promise to spare your life. Take his head."
    “I don’t usually smoke this brand, but I’ll do it for you.”
    "When all this is over, Tan Hai Chi, I will kick your head off and put it on my brother's grave!
    "I regard hardships as part of my training. I don't need to relax."

  5. #1115
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    Oh yeah, I do like Blood Money, I guess I should've just said it's not in the same category as GBW. I got GBW for $9.99 at BB, and at first was a little "on the fence" if it would be a good purchase or not. I've had mixed reactions to Korean movies in general; some I really like but lots of them are so-so. But I really enjoyed GBW more than I could have expected.

    Drag Me to Hell is a pretty fun movie. It's one of the more entertaining horror films in recent years, IMO. Like you say, good but not great. But at least Sam Raimi can still direct a fun horror film and hasn't really lost his touch since the Evil Dead series.

  6. #1116
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    The Expendables- ok at times, but overall a big pile of crap. If it would have had some good fights, then at least there would have been something good about it, but they couldn't even accomplish that.
    "For someone who's a Shaolin monk, your kung fu's really lousy!"
    "What, you're dead? You die easy!"
    "Hold on now. I said I would forget your doings, but I didn't promise to spare your life. Take his head."
    “I don’t usually smoke this brand, but I’ll do it for you.”
    "When all this is over, Tan Hai Chi, I will kick your head off and put it on my brother's grave!
    "I regard hardships as part of my training. I don't need to relax."

  7. #1117
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    IMO, the only really decent scenes in The Expendables are two involving Jason Statham: First, the basketball court fight; and second, where he's hanging outside of the plane strafing the dock with the machine gun. But it would have been much better if it had been made in the '80s.

    Speaking of the '80s, I picked up Predator and Back to the Future. Two films that were so good they would have been even better without sequels. They still stand up today. I had never noticed before, or I had always taken it for granted, but the story, acting, effects and cinematography in Back to the Future were outstanding. If it were made nowadays, most of it would have been CGI animated. Which is fine to a point, but sometimes CGI can be overdone. Or if CGI isn't done well enough it just looks cheap. Ironically, just like in the '80s people thought the '50s were ancient and quaint; now the '80s are seen in the same way (Hot Tub Time Machine).

  8. #1118
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    Inception- Christoper Nolan outdoes himself once again. Memento and Following were my favorite films from him, in that order, and Inception tops those.

    Zombieland- disappointed with this. It was average, no more, no less. The one good thing is Bill Murray. When he hits the screen, it becomes a great movie, and when he exits, it goes back to being average.

    Death Race with Jason Statham- total waste of time.
    "For someone who's a Shaolin monk, your kung fu's really lousy!"
    "What, you're dead? You die easy!"
    "Hold on now. I said I would forget your doings, but I didn't promise to spare your life. Take his head."
    “I don’t usually smoke this brand, but I’ll do it for you.”
    "When all this is over, Tan Hai Chi, I will kick your head off and put it on my brother's grave!
    "I regard hardships as part of my training. I don't need to relax."

  9. #1119
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    General Stone

    Finished watching this last night. Older kung fu flick and i forget who stars in it. The basic premise is a young fighter loyal to Tang has his mother kidnapped by the imperial guards. After falling into a well, he refines his kung fu from the stone soldiers dwelling in the well, which is below the Tang emperors tomb. Turns out one of the Stone soldiers is his dad. He beats the stone soldiers and is released, basically a right of passage to see if his kung fu is good.

    The fights aren't that great, there is some mention of magical powers used by some but it doesn't really go further into that part of the story. The camera work was horrible. Half the time when two actors were having a dialogue, you would only see half of their faces or the space between the two.

    I would only give this a 3/10

    I'm watching Young Tiger now, hopefully it's a bit better.

  10. #1120
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    General Stone was definitely *NOT* one of Tan Tao-Liang's better films.

    Big Man Japan.

    This has to be one of the weirder movies I've seen, even among some of the more bizarre Japanese films. It starts out slowly as a mockumentary, with an interviewer/cameraman following around Big Man Japan, a superhero who, through electroshocks grows into a giant and defends Japan from monsters. Unlike his predecessors, though, he is universally disliked by the people he has sworn to defend. Sometimes boring (esp. at the beginning), sometimes hilarious, and sometimes disgusting. The movie goes from a reality-TV-type feel to becoming completely surreal. This one is hard to rate, but the closest I can come to is about 6/10.

  11. #1121
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    Merantau- heard a lot of good things about this, but it didn't come close to living up to the hype. A villain or two with good fighting skills would have helped.

    Sword of Swords- this was great. Probably my second fav Wang Yu movie behind One Armed Boxer.
    "For someone who's a Shaolin monk, your kung fu's really lousy!"
    "What, you're dead? You die easy!"
    "Hold on now. I said I would forget your doings, but I didn't promise to spare your life. Take his head."
    “I don’t usually smoke this brand, but I’ll do it for you.”
    "When all this is over, Tan Hai Chi, I will kick your head off and put it on my brother's grave!
    "I regard hardships as part of my training. I don't need to relax."

  12. #1122
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    I kind of liked Merantau. IMO it's a pretty decent film, but was it "the best martial arts film of the decade"? Nope. But it's still better than a lot of the stuff that gets made into movies these days.

    Leading man Iko Uwais bears a remarkable resemblance to a slightly smaller Tony Jaa. Whether that's coincidence, or an intentional reason for his casting, I don't know. Even some of his physical movements take after TJ. I was glad to see a movie with Silat as its featured art. While some of the fights were good (especially towards the end), there was really nothing too original. Since comparisons to TJ and to the Thai MA films are inevitable, I would say that while the Indonesian onscreen MA is not shown to the same level of sharpness or power as the Thais', there is a lot of potential there. If they can continue to make successful movies, they can get better and better.

    Probably the biggest surprise is that the makers of Merantau used European actors (playing the main villains) who can truly ACT. In the past, most MA films from China, Thailand, HK, Taiwan, etc. with white characters in them utilized American/Canadian/European martial artists who can fight/perform but were clearly not actors. Or they would cast whatever Caucasian foreigners they could find in the pubs, hostels, or teaching in English-language schools. In particular, the main bad guy appears highly experienced as a dramatic actor.

    ***spoiler alert***
    IMO, the best fight of the movie is when Yuda (Iko Uwais) fights an acquaintance, another Silat man, in an elevator. This fight showed more unique techniques that would set Silat apart, cinematically, from the style of movement that Tony Jaa has popularized over the years. I hope they continue developing in a way that further distinguishes the cinematic Indonesian Silat from the cinematic Muay Thai Boran.
    ***spoiler alert off***

    Based on the positives I listed, I rate this at 7/10.
    Last edited by Jimbo; 01-12-2011 at 01:03 AM.

  13. #1123
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    I agree with you on the elevator fight. Good stuff there. It was one of the very few scenes that got me to sit up in my chair and keep up my hope that Merantau would somehow turn into the great martial arts movie that I'd been hearing about.




    Just watched Tough Guy with Chen Sing. DVD title Revenge of the Dragon. This is one of the very best bashers I’ve seen. Decent enough story, good music taken from Once Upon a Time in the West, and nonstop incredible action. Chen Sing, Henry Yu Yung, Nick Cheung, San Kuai, Fong Yeh and Wong Ching all have big fighting roles, and they go at it hard.

    I wish I could find a wide version of this. It is actually the first kung fu movie I ever saw when I was around 10 years old. I once tried to find the title of it and gave a description on kfc, All I could remember was 2 guys at the end of the movie covered in mud and that is was probably a basher. Someone told me it could be Tough Guy. I always planned on checking it out, and just now finally got around to it. I saw the Revenge of the Dragon DVD at Suncoast, somehow it popped into my head recently to look it up on hkmdb, and I saw that it was really called Tough Guy. I am so happy to finally find this. I never thought I’d see it again!
    "For someone who's a Shaolin monk, your kung fu's really lousy!"
    "What, you're dead? You die easy!"
    "Hold on now. I said I would forget your doings, but I didn't promise to spare your life. Take his head."
    “I don’t usually smoke this brand, but I’ll do it for you.”
    "When all this is over, Tan Hai Chi, I will kick your head off and put it on my brother's grave!
    "I regard hardships as part of my training. I don't need to relax."

  14. #1124
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    It sounds like Tough Guy must be the same movie I saw decades ago with the title Kung Fu The Headcrusher. I remembered Chen Sing and Shan Kuai at the end fighting forever in the mud. Didn't Cheung Nick also do the nunchaku against a bunch of attackers? I also remembered the Once Upon a Time in the West soundtrack music in it.

  15. #1125
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    Yeah that's the one. Kung Fu Headcrusher sounds like the real title. Weird that title isn't listed on hkmdb.

    The fights are all very intense, but there's a scene at the end that had some unintentional humor I think. Chen Sing graps San Kuai's head to crush it, and Kuai has a pot hidden under the hat he is wearing. He says "that won't work on me!" And Chen Sing looks at the pot in his hand and has this confused look on his face. So funny.
    Last edited by jethro; 01-17-2011 at 12:35 PM.
    "For someone who's a Shaolin monk, your kung fu's really lousy!"
    "What, you're dead? You die easy!"
    "Hold on now. I said I would forget your doings, but I didn't promise to spare your life. Take his head."
    “I don’t usually smoke this brand, but I’ll do it for you.”
    "When all this is over, Tan Hai Chi, I will kick your head off and put it on my brother's grave!
    "I regard hardships as part of my training. I don't need to relax."

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