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 Posted:   Apr 5, 2024 - 7:24 AM   
 By:   Nicolai P. Zwar   (Member)

Road House (2024, Doug Liman) 7/10
Who would have ever thought that the mediocre Patrick Swayze action movie “Road House” from the 1980s would get a remake? Even stranger, who’d have ever thought the remake would turn out to be good! Well, it happened.
To be fair: this is not a masterpiece or pondering philosophical movie. This is the type of movie Bud Spencer and Terence Hill did in the 1970s.
Plot is quickly explained: down on his luck ex-UFS fighter Elwood Dalton takes up a job to be the bouncer of a Florida “Road House” bar and beats up the bad guys. That’s it, but it’s done well and certainly entertaining. Even the “bad guys” are not all that “threatening”, some of them are quite funny and could just as easily be lifted from a Bud Spencer flick. A real highlight is Conor McGregor, who is playing an over-the-top parody of himself as an opposing enforcer. Entertaining from beginning to end, it’s a “what you see is what you get” movie. With the right frame of mind, very entertaining. We had a lot of fun.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 5, 2024 - 7:53 AM   
 By:   joan hue   (Member)

McGregor, who is playing an over-the-top parody of himself as an opposing enforcer. Entertaining from beginning to end, it’s a “what you see is what you get” movie. With the right frame of mind, very entertaining. We had a lot of fun.

I agree. McGregor was looney and a parody of himself. Actually, there was some humor in this movie. It was entertaining.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 5, 2024 - 9:01 AM   
 By:   eriknelson   (Member)

Road House (2024, Doug Liman) 7/10
Who would have ever thought that the mediocre Patrick Swayze action movie “Road House” from the 1980s would get a remake? Even stranger, who’d have ever thought the remake would turn out to be good! Well, it happened.
To be fair: this is not a masterpiece or pondering philosophical movie. This is the type of movie Bud Spencer and Terence Hill did in the 1970s.
Plot is quickly explained: down on his luck ex-UFS fighter Elwood Dalton takes up a job to be the bouncer of a Florida “Road House” bar and beats up the bad guys. That’s it, but it’s done well and certainly entertaining. Even the “bad guys” are not all that “threatening”, some of them are quite funny and could just as easily be lifted from a Bud Spencer flick. A real highlight is Conor McGregor, who is playing an over-the-top parody of himself as an opposing enforcer. Entertaining from beginning to end, it’s a “what you see is what you get” movie. With the right frame of mind, very entertaining. We had a lot of fun.


Check out the original "Road House" (1948). It's a noir thriller starring Ida Lupino, Richard Widmark, Cornel Wilde and Celeste Holm. Widmark plays a psycho who you won't forget.

 
 Posted:   Apr 5, 2024 - 9:34 AM   
 By:   Nicolai P. Zwar   (Member)


Check out the original "Road House" (1948). It's a noir thriller starring Ida Lupino, Richard Widmark, Cornel Wilde and Celeste Holm. Widmark plays a psycho who you won't forget.


Yeah, I've seen parts of that one. Always wanted to catch it in full. (I didn't mention it up there because it's an unrelated movie.)

 
 Posted:   Apr 5, 2024 - 11:17 AM   
 By:   Bill Carson, Earl of Poncey   (Member)

La spietata /the Ruthless
Superb Italian organised crime drama film, now available on netflix. Very decent score too.
8.5 out of 10

 
 Posted:   Apr 7, 2024 - 10:32 AM   
 By:   Solium   (Member)

The Last Man on Earth (1964) 4-5

I remember seeing portions of this in the 70's or 80's on some creature feature program. There's lots to like, especially the cinematography, sets, location shootings and mood of the film. Its a visual treat. VP does a good job carrying the majority of the film on his own. The zombies were rather ineffectual and really didn't pose the threat they should have had. The ending was out of nowhere, rushed and made little sense and almost felt like it belonged in another film, thus I can't give it a perfect 5 out of 5.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 13, 2024 - 1:48 PM   
 By:   Prince Damian   (Member)

The Devils (1971) 8/10

Finally bought this as a result of a review earlier up the thread ( and probably better). So just a quickie.
Very strong stuff, though watchable. We'll acted. It looked good, mostly, if a bit to clean looking in my opinion. Music went well but I wouldn't really want to heat it on its own. Did anyone else think the last shot looked like a perverted end to the Wizard of Oz. With 'Dorothy' leaving a destroyed oz / wizard. And down a ( not that yellow) brick road.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 14, 2024 - 11:17 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

MONKEY MAN (2024) – 7/10

Revenge films all have the same basic plot: someone is wronged—often a friend or relative has been killed—and the wronged party sets out to get revenge. In this film, the wronged party is an anonymous man known only as “the kid” (Dev Patel), who lives in a forest village in India. From early flashbacks in the film, we gather that his mother (Adithi Kalkunte) had been killed when he was just a child (Jatin Malik). Later, the full story is filled in, which involves “Baba Shakti” (Makarand Deshpande), a ruthless spiritual guru, who sends “Rana Singh” (Sikandar Kher), the corrupt police chief, to force out the villagers and acquire their land.

A powerful person in a land grab. That’s also the plot of a thousand “B” westerns. The only thing that distinguishes the revenge plot is its treatment. Here, star, co-writer, and co-producer Dev Patel sets his tale in Mumbai, India, supplying plenty of local color. Other than Patel, the actors are likely to be unfamiliar to U.S. audiences.

As a grown man, “the kid” earns his living as a mediocre club fighter who wears a monkey mask in the ring. To take on his mother’s killers, however, he needs to train under the tutelage of “Alpha” (Vipin Sharma), the keeper of a local temple of Ardhanarishvara. That gives us the obligatory training montage of the kid punching, kicking, and pounding a heavy bag until he eventually pulverizes it. The film is overly stylized, particularly in some of the flashback sequences, which are blurrily rendered. (Reportedly, due to budget cuts, multiple shots were filmed with GoPros and iPhones.)

The film has had a long gestation. Initially gearing up to shoot on location in India in early 2020, the film was postponed and nearly canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Patel then opted to shoot the film on a small island in Batam, Indonesia. While filming the first action sequence, Patel broke his hand, causing a further delay.

In March 2021, filming was completed and Thunder Road Films sold worldwide rights to Netflix for $30 million, describing the film as "John Wick in Mumbai." However, Netflix later felt the film was too gritty for Indian audiences and was concerned about their reaction to the film's political commentary, instead quietly shopping it around and nearly cancelling the release. Sometime thereafter, Jordan Peele saw the film and came on board as producer under his Monkeypaw Productions banner and persuaded Universal Pictures to acquire the film from Netflix for under $10 million. The film has grossed $18 million in 10 days of release.

MONKEY MAN is earning some critical points for incorporating social commentary, about the downtrodden poor being exploited by the rich, into its action format. JOHN WICK’s revenge, after all, was only about his dog. Jed Kurzel composed a new score for the film, replacing original composer Volker Bertelmann. It’s nothing special.

 
 Posted:   Apr 14, 2024 - 11:23 AM   
 By:   Octoberman   (Member)

I finally caught up with all three Hobbit movies.
A bit of a slog, but I didn't hate them.

Collectively, 4/10.

 
 Posted:   Apr 23, 2024 - 9:09 AM   
 By:   MusicMad   (Member)

Captain from Castile (1947) ... 4-/10

I have no recollection of ever seeing this before and know of it solely from Alfred Newman's score, especially the theme Conquest which has outlived the film (I have easy listening recordings of this by Henry Mancini and Stanley Black).

It's not the type of film I'd normally choose to watch but having recorded a TV broadcast some time ago decided to give it a try ... I came close to turning it off on several occasions but was sufficiently interested to see how the story developed. It seemed as if the basic idea was that of a western (e.g. horse chase scene in the first act / the explorers (invaders?) seeking to tame the wild regions even if this meant removing the indigenous communities) but the overall impression I got was: what a melodrama!

The main cast either tried to play it seriously (Tyrone Power ... not an actor I've seen much of) or as a big joke (Cesar Romero ... did he ever stop smiling?) with Lee J. Cobb hamming it up (outdone by Alan Mowbray as the Professor who cons everyone into thinking he knows medicine, etc.) and Jean Peters looking as if she had new clothes for every scene (nothing she wore was ever stained or dirty).

And, sorry to add, it looked very cheap: despite the characters sailing to the New World there were no sailing scenes and the few scenes which did include ships were as realistic as if they were a painted backdrop. When De Vargas/Power boards the galleon to stop [whoever ... I lost track] sailing to Cuba it's clearly a studio mockup.

There is little action throughout the film's long running time and the script asks us to believe an escaped slave from the opening scenes has returned to his homeland ... exactly where the explorers arrive. And the Romeo and Juliet plotline near the film's end before joy and happiness take charge (as the explorers go off to tame more wild lands) had me laughing rather than emotionally involved.

I'm glad i stuck with it .... I enjoyed Alfred Newman's score.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 23, 2024 - 9:23 AM   
 By:   Prince Damian   (Member)

Apparently the book went on longer. However they chose to end the film before plenty of rape, pillaging and genocide came along to spoil matinee fun. So I read.

 
 Posted:   Apr 23, 2024 - 2:27 PM   
 By:   MusicMad   (Member)

Apparently the book went on longer. However they chose to end the film before plenty of rape, pillaging and genocide came along to spoil matinee fun. So I read.

Given the film I watched shied away from any scenes in which Pedro/Tyrone and Catana/Jean are seen to be romantically involved (her declaration to Juan/Lee that she will bear Pedro a son before he marries his intended bride is one of the film's melodramatic moments!) ...

... I'm not surprised smile

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 23, 2024 - 3:39 PM   
 By:   eriknelson   (Member)

THE MODEL AND THE MARRIAGE BROKER (1951) 9/10

I saw this rarity a few days ago at the TCM Classic Film Festival. It's the only film in which character actor Thelma Ritter appears as the star, and she carries everything with ease. Ritter was always wonderful with her wise-cracking roles. She has plenty of fun lines in this one, along with enough depth to show she had much more talent than she usually had the chance to display. In this picture, Ritter's character valiantly endeavors to play matchmaker to some characters who you would think are unmatchmakeable. One exception is Jeanne Crane who plays a beautiful model who has bad taste in men, and who Ritter tries to keep out of trouble. I had never seen this film before and it was such a big hit during the festival that a second screening was shown.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 23, 2024 - 10:53 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (2024) – 7/10

Whether it’s the more recent “Halloween” films, or the “Godzilla/Kong” films, or now the “Ghostbuster” films, it seems as if I’m watching only every other film in these franchises. I missed 2021’s GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE, so in watching this current film, I had no idea as to who the characters played by Paul Rudd (“Grooberson”) and Carrie Coon (“Callie”) were, other than they appear to have taken over the Ghostbuster business in New York. I’m sure that how this all came about was explained in the earlier film, but it doesn’t appear essential to know the details in order to follow the current film, so I haven’t bothered to go look them up.

The menacing spirits this time come from a strange brass orb with ritual markings discovered by “Nadeem Razmaadi” (Kumail Nanjiani), which belonged to his late grandmother. The Ghostbusters eventually discover that the orb was built by four sorcerers called the Firemasters to imprison Garraka, a demonic god who sought to conquer the world with a ghost army, feeding on negative emotions to lower temperatures to absolute zero. Once unleashed, the New York summer suffers a severe cold snap.

The film would be only fitfully interesting if it wasn’t for yet another reunion of the old band: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts, who reprise their original characters to help out the new bunch, who are kind of bland. These folks are getting a little long in the tooth for this sort of thing, but they serve as a reminder of better days for the franchise.

Jason Reitman, son of original GHOSTBUSTERS producer-director Ivan Reitman, has been involved in these two most recent films. He co-writes and co-produces this one. Gil Kenan directs. Ivan Reitman himself gets a producing credit on the film, even though he died more than two years ago.

The special effects are OK, but there is nothing as memorable as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the original film. Similarly, there is nothing in Dario Marianelli’s score as memorable as Ray Parker’s iconic song. It, as well as some of Elmer Bernstein’s original music, turns up on the soundtrack. Peter Bernstein acted as score consultant. The $100 million film has done $177 million worth of business in about 5 weeks, and will likely top out about where its predecessor did, at just over $200 million.

 
 Posted:   Apr 23, 2024 - 11:19 PM   
 By:   steffromuk   (Member)

CIVIL WAR
Meh... the marketing campaign was clearly selling another movie than the one I saw.

What I expected to be a shaking political and social commentary ended up being a pretty stereotypical and underwhelming road movie about war photographers career's end and begining. The civil war is merely a backdrop and never develops into some deeper commentary on our fucked up world.

3/10

I always said Alex Garland is overrated. His movies always lack the depth and complexity they pretend to have.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 24, 2024 - 2:36 PM   
 By:   joan hue   (Member)

The Zone Of Interest: 10 out of 10.

I believe this movie won the Oscar for the best foreign film and for the best sound design. I think we all know it was about the Hoss family living a delightful life right outside of Auschwitz. Hoss ran the camp for several years.

It is a HORRIFYING movie. It is subtle horror but still most horrifying. The way it is filmed is superb. Symbolism is also subtle but there. The sound design is equally horrifying and brilliant. How this camp just over a brick wall affects the family again is subtle but certainly out there for the discerning viewer.

I think high schools should show this movie to see the horror of this camp without ever going into this camp. Certainly, it shows, "the banality of evil."

Do I want to watch it again? Not now. Maybe someday.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 24, 2024 - 3:19 PM   
 By:   jenkwombat   (Member)

Executive Decision (1996)
6.5/10

I'd never seen this film before, mostly because I can't stand Steven Seagal. I finally gave it a watch, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, mainly because Seagal's character leaves the film fairly early. smile

An entertaining enough actioner, with another good score by Jerry Goldsmtih. And Kurt Russell is always welcome.

 
 Posted:   Apr 24, 2024 - 3:43 PM   
 By:   Advise & Consent   (Member)

I finally gave it a watch, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, mainly because Seagal's character leaves the film fairly early. smile

If I had a nickel every time someone told me that or a variation thereof. big grin



 
 Posted:   Apr 24, 2024 - 6:28 PM   
 By:   Solium   (Member)

Executive Decision (1996)
6.5/10

I'd never seen this film before, mostly because I can't stand Steven Seagal. I finally gave it a watch, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, mainly because Seagal's character leaves the film fairly early. smile

An entertaining enough actioner, with another good score by Jerry Goldsmtih. And Kurt Russell is always welcome.


It’s a fun popcorn film. Seagals early demise was a surprise back then. That’s how you subvert expectations. Also another actor known for dying in every film he’s in dies as well.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 25, 2024 - 10:42 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE (2024) – 8/10

It’s been 35 years since one of Alistair MacLean’s adventure novels has been adapted to the big screen. So, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Guy Ritchie have endeavored to fill the gap for that type of film with THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE, a film that can slide in right next to WHERE EAGLES DARE and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE when it comes to World War II action tales.

The main thing that the current film is missing is star power. In that department, we must content ourselves with the likes of Henry Cavill, Cary Elwes, and Henry Golding—a far cry from Burton, Eastwood, Peck, and Niven. But it doesn’t much matter that we have no stars, since the film doesn’t spend enough time with them for us to get to know them any more than their brief introductions to us.

The five-man team that takes on the mission of destroying the ship that supplies Hitler’s U-boats is made up of men of varying skills—a demolitions guy (natch), an archer (for taking out those sentries silently), a weapons expert, a navigational genius, etc. They must travel to the West African coast, to the Spanish-controlled island Fernando Po. There, a local club owner (Babs Olusanmokun) and his female confederate (Eiza González) must figure out a way to keep the local German garrison, led by an SS Commander (Til Schweiger), occupied during the raid.

In place of stars, there is plenty of combat action, some good pyrotechnics, and, despite a few hiccups, the sense that the mission comes off just a bit too easily. Perhaps that’s due to a short running time of 2 hours. It’s rare for me to complain that a film is too short, but at times, MINISTRY seems rushed. Interestingly, it is exactly 38 minutes shorter than both WHERE EAGLES DARE and the GUNS OF NAVARONE, both of which seem to have more substance, and suspense, to them. But, we are assured, MINISTRY is based on a true story—one that led a member of the British Naval Intelligence Division that organized the mission, Ian Fleming (played by Freddie Fox), to create the character of James Bond. So there’s that. Still, as these “stiff upper lip” British war films go, this is probably as good as we are going to see these days.

The film has a score with some real themes, and the infectious main title—a guitar and whistling-based theme—would fit right in to any Italian western. The score is by Christopher Benstead, who also does the guitar playing and whistling. So far, I haven’t found any score release, digital or otherwise.

The film came in at a reasonable $60 million (no stars to pay). But unless you are Quentin Tarantino, a World War II-based film is not likely to be big box office, and MINISTRY had an opening week of just $11 million in the U.S. But it hasn’t opened in Britain yet, or elsewhere internationally, so maybe things will pick up. But that title is doing the film no favors.

 
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