Just Watched Movies (2013)

[slayrrr666]

Sudden Death-One of the more underrated and undervalued Van Damme efforts, as this is one of his best efforts of his early years and manages to get a lot right. Employing 'Die Hard' to a real tee and allowing for a generous amount of confrontations and fights, a pretty involving storyline that gets exciting and thrilling with some great double-turns and a fantastic finale. Not a lot I disagree with, as this one's got a lot to like here.

[slayrrr666]

Added an uncut copy of Circle of Iron to the collection.

[slayrrr666]

Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions-Hired to protect a widow, a private detective learns of her husband's work in the supernatural when his instructor, the leader of a black-magic cult awakens and seeks his vengeance upon them for their past work against him. This turned out to be a massive disappointment due to the fact that there's just not a whole lot here to like. One of the few good elements is the traditional use of an obscure atmosphere and occult imaginings that are just really creepy and chilling as they tamper with themes they have no business doing so with. As well, the search for the leader's writings and hiding place make for some pretty interesting times and the finale in the decrepit halls of his sanctuary and the full use of the black magic is a lot of fun. The main problem here with the film is the fact that it's just far too long and really takes far too much to get going as there's just so many useless scenes that add unnecessary time to the proceedings that there's no real use in featuring them, which include the scenes of them in the magic club, the following home from the funeral and the numerous failed attempts on his life that make the cult seem wholly incompetent to risk that kind of exposure that often with so many failed attempts. As well, the special effects are wholly terrible with primitive CGI that looks laughable and totally unconvincing, a villain with a changing conquest plan that makes no sense and a really thin story that's never fleshed out. These here drag it down quite a bit.

[Fenril]

Agree on "Lord of illusions", this was Barker's worst effort (of the movies that he himself directed, that is). The odd thing about it being too long is that it was already masively trimmed down (perhaps what Barker had in mind was more like a miniseries).

Of the rest of Barker's output, I think the best movie he directed was the original Hellraiser, and the best adaptation was the original Candyman.

[Fenril]

- Obsession. An american businessman visiting Italy meets a young woman who is a dead ringer for his wife, who died about fifteen years ago on a botched kidnapping atempt. He starts courting young Sandra, unaware of her sinister agenda...

Virtual remake / rip-off of "Vertigo"... but an exceptionally good rip-off, with a neatly twisting storyline and a haunting score. I thought the big twist was extremely obvious and that the ending went beyond the unbelievable, but this was still one hell of an entertaining mystery.

[slayrrr666]

Saw both versions of Mighty Joe Young, the 49 original and the 2000 remake. Both have their moments (the original treats him more like an ordinary gorilla; the remake goes for the spectacle) and both have their issues (the original tries too hard to make modern society seem corrupt and damaging to instigate the rampage; the remake hammers home the poaching-is-bad lifestyle with the sort of subtlety that makes a nuclear explosion seem like just a boom) while both manage to actually look good and keep him respectable enough that he seems like a threat when he's released and in the end seem to be an even mix. Gun to my head and force me to pick one, the spectacle of the remake wins out only slightly.

[slayrrr666]

The Raid: Redemption-A SWAT team trying to rid an apartment complex of a murderous thugs associates encounters more dangerous obstacles than they expected and must fight to survive the overwhelming odds against them. A spectacular and highly entertaining action movie that really only has a minor flaw in a let-down middle segment instead of building up towards a frenetic climax but not really one that gets anything else wrong. This is practically wire-to-wire with an assortment of brutal gunfights that spray blood around quite freely, a series of stabbings or impalings that are just as graphic as any true horror film out there, and then comes the hand-to-hand fighting that is just otherworldly and contains three jaw-dropping fight scenes that really have to be seen to be believed they're that good. The performers are capable, energized and pull off some outstanding work that proves America really doesn't know what to do in the genre anymore as the baton has been passed back to Asia quite thoroughly, as this Indonesian effort attains to. Simply spectacular.

[slayrrr666]

The Fly-Accused of murder, a woman recounts how her husband's experiments with teleportation accidentally mutated him into a monstrous fly and forced her to put him down to safely end his experiments once and for all. This one never really seems to fit well into the horror genre and feels more like a Sci-Fi effort that manages to turn into a horror film in the last act since the opening has the murder already occur off-camera, the ensuing investigation take forever for her to unload the real story with the constant back-and-forth of her being insane or not and then the movie proper tend to focus on the scientific investigation of the machine and the strain on their relationship as it gradually goes about telling the story. It's not until the final act that anything really approaching horror is documented even though that is exceptionally fun stuff with the slow-burn of his change and the glimpses demented appearance generating some fun before he goes crazy and the finale which is still outright classic material. Still, by taking so little horror it feels a little light in comparison to some of the others that came out at that time.

[slayrrr666]

The Innkeepers-After staying late during their hotel's final open weekend, the two remaining employees decide to investigate the building's haunted past and find a deadly spirit still around not content with the plans for it's future and forces them to find a way of appeasing it. This here turned out to be quite a lame and rather bland effort that really doesn't have much really going for it. This is mostly due to the fact that hardly anything ever happens here as this one has just about zero screen-time for the ghost and it's hauntings as it's just under an hour before the two even get the idea of going after the ghost. That's just to get them going with the main plot of the story, as that time is spent with them complaining about their job or the guests or trying to build a substandard romance for them that borders on a one-way crush that is just tedious and never-ending, and it's about an hour before the ghost shows up. Not that there's a lot to like with this stuff but at least it finally gets going and generates one or two mildly creepy scenes, but otherwise this is just lame.

[slayrrr666]

Playback-When a group of film students attempt to document the brutal history of their town's past, they unleash the evil spirit which inspired the rampage and must stop it's current rampage before it exposes the secret behind it's existence. This is overall a pretty lame and barely worthwhile effort. The only true sense of credit that this one really has is it's plotline about the body-hopping spirit that can only be transfered through video, which is pretty creepy and doesn't get used often-enough as a concept since it generates some really impressive moments here and there of the possessed beings out and about with their unknowing victims. Otherwise, this here is a gory, low-budget boring mess that seems to fling itself around in ten different directions without any sort of inner compass to determine what it wants to do, a low-budget feel that never lets it's full scope become apparent despite the feel it's going for and a laid-back pace that rarely lets on it's a horror film and never really goes for any sort of excitement or enjoyability. A true let-down and not really worth it.

Jade Warrior-I'm not going to say a whole lot here because I frankly don't know what to say about it. Watching a Finnish movie dubbed into Spanish with Spanish close-captioning, despite my not knowing either language all that well (well, not true: I've seen enough Spanish horror films to understand a little more than I expected to) but that frankly meant that I was totally confused here and didn't really know what was going on beyond the fact that a group of warriors were searching for a relic that could signal the end of the world and it fell to a special guardian to protect it. The fights were what really upheld this one, as it was really good and featured some energetic, rousing battles that were actually pulled off well by capable performers, but the total lost in the story really got to me.

[slayrrr666]

Jet Li's The Defender-After testifying against a vicious mob boss in a murder trial, a woman's bodyguard begins to fall for her while he protects her from the ruthless gang of henchmen out to kill her. A once-lost entry from my Jet Li collection, which turns out to be strongly middle-of-the-road in terms of his HK entries. Rather than just a few elements that signal she's falling for him, this one instead shows it as a full-on plot-point to the degree that it really begins to drag the film down as she contemplates telling him or not. This isn't detrimental but rather slightly problematic, as this still manages to deliver the goods as an action film with some outstanding scenes including a marvelous shootout in a crowded mall that's just all kinds of enjoyable, a brawl on the city streets that works well and the finale in the house with a series of clever, ingenious shoot-outs before segueing into one of Jet's better brawls with the main bad guy who provides a good enough match overall. This was pretty good and only slightly flawed.

[slayrrr666]

The Expendables-No need to recount the plot here, we all know it and what it's about. Frankly, I thought the first half was a real disappointment as the majority of time was spent on lame storylines (giving Statham the lead here was totally the wrong move; Lundgren's gone-crazy storyline) or miscast personas (what the hell has Crews or Coutoure done to deserve even being in the movie? Giving the great Gary Daniels such a nameless, thankless role after knowing what he's really capable of) that the one big action scene, the car chase through the city followed by the plane's dive-bombing the marina is a welcome relief. Thankfully, that's followed up by what the movie should've been, true balls-to-the-wall, no-holds-barred action of the grandest caliber with no shortage of thrilling moments, from the underground tunnel brawls with the guards and henchmen as well as the ensuing gunfights and the demolition of the headquarters that's a true firestorm of grand design. Had this been the style throughout the whole film it would've scored a lot higher, which hopefully the sequel provides.

[slayrrr666]

Added an uncut copy of the 1960 version of The Lost World to the collection.

[slayrrr666]

Fire Serpent-A firefighter and a reluctant FBI agent team up to stop a creature made of fire that was born on the Sun from destroying the Earth in a rampage of flames and fire. Mistakenly viewed as a horror film this one isn't at all and is instead a rather decent but flawed Action film. Because the creature's made of flames it's rampage generally ensures it'll leave behind a lot of explosions and things catching on fire to the point where they become the predominant image of the film whenever that occurs, and they're impressive when they occur, but the fact that the majority of the film is a long-winded and fruitless investigation/surveillance type of film it really drags the pace down considerably with not allowing a great deal of things to occur and only stumbling upon the aftermath left at the scene. The plot twists are ludicrous and go nowhere as well, making for a rather curious inclusion, and all in all this one was a real disappointment.

[slayrrr666]

Firestorm-Investigating a strange fire in the wilderness, a veteran forest ranger finds it to be caused by a group of criminals using it to escape into the wilderness and must fight them off before they can execute their plan. A strangely enjoyable enough outing, more due to the fact that there's a pretty exciting pace above anything else that gets really exciting as it picks up steam towards the end when the groups show off their moves against the other hoping to get the whole affair finished at the dockyard. It's got a lot of confrontations beforehand because of the pacing here, as well as the storyline about the rescue attempt that must be made on the hostage which goes pretty well. Does have some problems with it taking too long for the criminals to discover the ruse about their numbers being picked off and it makes them seem a little stupid, as well as their escape plan which just seems ludicrous something like that would get past the guards, and it's a tad too CGI heavy in the finale with the massive firestorm but overall this one wasn't too bad.