What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

Death Wish III

The epitome of way over-the-top 80's action & brooding 70's vigilante film in one crazy fever dream, this thing's a roller coaster of slain street punks. Hell, dead people in general - I ended up losing count but it had to be at least 200 people that get dusted in every manner possible. Men and women are shot, stabbed, burned, blown up, beaten, run-over, mowed down w/ a 50 caliber, a hilarious nail-in-the-friggen-skull by one of Bronson's little MacGyver devices he rigs up. I wanted to go play Disciples2 but I couldnt tear myself away. It has everything you want from an 80's action movie, and more.


It's just too fun, I laughed the entire time. 10 stars


The Death Wish movies are great (in exactly the way you describe), and a lot of very famous actors got their start in them.

Jeff Goldblum made his debut as one of the bad guys in the original Death Wish, playing a crazy gang member. Denzel Washinton also debuted in that movie as a mugger. A young Laurence Fishburne was one of the gang members in Death Wish 2, and Danny Trejo had one of his first roles in Death wish 4.

I've seen 1, 2, and 5, but after your little review, I think I'll make an effort to check out part 3. :)
 
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Death Wish 4 was also "good", AFAIR.
 
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The Death Wish movies are great (in exactly the way you describe), and a lot of very famous actors got their start in them…

Deanna Troi has an early role as a minor character in this one and eventually, victim.

It's funny to watch this film in comparison to the original. Much like the Conan the Barbarian films, the original was quite different and actually pretty good. Then someone gets ahold of the license and tries to ride the coattails of the original with a laughable thrill-fest.

Thanks for the links, Gorath!
 
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Lots of photos of the stylish Death Wish 3 can be found in the….

Looks like I'm going to have to netflix the thing now, I was missing a lot of stuff in the cable version that I saw. I cant imagine the version that I saw being the "mellow" cut, the uncut version must be totally insane!

and yes, JDR - as much as it pains me to say it the Conan sequel totally sucked. I bought the awesome collector's edition, and I was aghast. I loved it when I was 10, how can this be?? Reminded me of the tragedy that is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom…

I'm sorry, any movie that has Wilt Chamberlain cast as the guardian of a young woman's virginity is doomed right out the gate! LOL
 
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Just got done watching Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.

I've probably seen it a dozen times now, but I never get tired of it, especially the epic chase/battle scene at the end. It was definitely the best chapter in the MM trilogy, imo.

It's easy to recognize the influence those movies had on games like Fallout.
 
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Legend of the Guardians
(aka That Owl Movie)

Maybe it's because it's been a few weeks since we've been to see a show, but this one didn't cut it for me at all. The story was bland and the background music refused to stay in the background. I will give full points for the animation work, though. Perhaps because we saw it in 3d (which was largely wasted, BTW) or maybe it's just "good source", but the textures in the visuals were exceptional--the feathers really looked like feathers.

Overall, give this one a pass unless you're doing research for a thesis on graphics.
 
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Revenge of the Ninja (1983)

This one gave Death Wish 3 a run for it's money, it was great. The Cannon group action movies of the 80's are priceless in my opinion, I almost want to start a collection. One thing common to these films is that theyre downright nasty and indiscriminate in their violence - women get it just as bad as men, even a kid catches a throwing star in the head! That said, another kid (a mini ninja since he's the son of a ninja) actually whoops an entire gang of kids, and also beats up a grown woman in a martial arts duel. Was that before the Granny has her showdown? (I guess she's a Grandma Ninja since she's the ninja's mom!)

One thing that always endears these movies to me so, is the crazy depiction of the criminal element circa 1984'ish. Theyre a mishmash of what a corporate suit would consider punk rock, break dance gear, and flat out gay pride parade. In this case, it's just flat out Village People. Here's "thug 1-4" (in the credits) as encountered in the park by the protagonist hanging out one day, lookin for trouble. Or something…
screenshot16769.jpg

They unfortunately mess w/ the wrong mofos and get some particularly painful punishment from Sho Kosugi and his friend. Hilarious!

There's also a Joe Pesci mobster, an Indian assassin (whose final last ditch attacks are a couple tomahawks!), Ninjas galore and a ton of ninja devices, and a crazy fight scene or ten.

This movie's an instant-watch on Netflix, you should check it out if you like Ninjas!
 
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watched the 70's version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with Donald Sutherland. It was pretty good for it's time i suppose, nothing real special. Had it been boiled down and spent a little more time during grand finale doing something other than having people running around being chased, again, it may have been better. The special effects were impressive for the time tho.

Then we watched "Gi Joe: The Rise of Cobra", and I had a relatively good time with it. Big dumb action, it was kinda fun to eat microwave lasagna and watch it. All I can say is that I liked it ten times more than those absolutely awful Transformers movies.

That's what lifes all about sometimes, you know. The little things. Sitting there on a weekend on the couch with my girl and my schnauzer, watching impossible action sequences and seeing things blow up real good while eating kinda-hot-in-some-spots Stouffers lasagna. Times like those, i realize i should be thankful. Ive got it good ='.'=
 
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A short warning for everybody considering to buy the Robin Hood DC:

It seems the only available uncensored version so far in English or German is the German(!) DVD. The US, UK and German Blu-rays as well as their DVD equivalents, with the one noted exception, have the blood effects digitally removed in a couple of scenes. It's unclear why that's the case - the movie is pretty harmless.
 
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watched the 70's version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with Donald Sutherland. It was pretty good for it's time i suppose, nothing real special. Had it been boiled down and spent a little more time during grand finale doing something other than having people running around being chased, again, it may have been better. The special effects were impressive for the time tho.

Visually very impressive movie for its time. I'm not a big fan of the film as a whole though. Just of a couple of scenes which are outstanding.
 
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still on my 80's kick.

watched "The Octagon" w/ Chuck Norris, and woah… did this movie kinda suck! What I remember from my first viewing as a kid, watching it from around the corner of the living room (my parents thought I was in bed), was that cool end-battle chuck has w/ the red ninja. It was the coolest thing ever, from that point on I was determined to practice the art of the ninja. I made all kinds of cool improvised throwing stars, nunchucks, etc. Good times

I wasnt alone, as this was the movie that kick-started the ninja craze of the early 80's. That said, the rest of the movie kinda blows. For one thing, Chuck Norris is such a wooden actor no matter what he plays. Sure he's a badass, that cannot be denied, but his acting is irretrievably poor when he's not kicking some dude in the teeth or emptying an automatic weapon. The weird whispery, echoing inner conversation that he has with himself the entire film is silly, and difficult to understand. The end-ninja and the fight with his brother Seikura is cool, but the surprisingly inept rank-and-file ninjas that he plows thru wholesale on the way are hilarious. They dont do much but wait for him to give them a concussion or cut them up, no parrying or blocking whatsoever. They also use very little of the ninja bag of tricks, often choosing to just attack with hands and fists or maybe a katana now and then. Meh

Long lulls between action as chuck woos women and hangs out with his friends made this overall a pretty boring flick. The end brawls are cool, but by then it's a little too little, a little too late…
 
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For one thing, Chuck Norris is such a wooden actor no matter what he plays. Sure he's a badass, that cannot be denied, but his acting is irretrievably poor when he's not kicking some dude in the teeth or emptying an automatic weapon.

Better hope ole Chuck doesn't read that. ;)

Want a good laugh? Type "find chuck norris" into Google, and click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

Here's the result.
 
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Robin Hood DC

Average. Good entertainment for 2.5 hours. Solid actors, not much action and the stupidest end fight in recent history. No remarkable scene at all.
I'd recommend it as a rental. It's not in the same league as Scott's Kingdom of Heaven DC or Gladiator.
 
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