Films Recently Watched

red peony gambler III : flower cards game by tai kato (1969).

a far more serious and sober, successfully-handled outing that places many of the same characters and familiar actors from previous entries in different roles, into the hands of (by then) veteran tai kato.

this time around, its comedic relief is thankfully all but gone, but wakayama remains. takakura ken returns as though reincarnated and honorably navigates yakuza in-fighting as he visits one of two families at war over power, money and honour. the setting shows the beginnings of westernisation, and possibly hints at changing ways, with loss of tradition giving way to opportunists and shifts in power. oryu the red peony is gloriously refined as a woman, naive as a yakuza, assisting troubled young lovers and a misguided, flawed mother of a young child in need of a better start in life.

kato's influence is a rare and very impressive ability to fully maximise the greatest potential of familiar elements, in story and in scenery, with elevated compositions and rich balance of elements placed deftly across the screen, shown in muted tones and given a quite appropriate somber atmosphere. although easily regarded as disposable, its lack of originality is general, but success in many moments, makes it fascinatingly familiar and surprisingly a cut-above too.

They blew their load in the first 30 minutes, which is well done, the rest of the film kind of wanders aimlessly. B+

  On 7/13/2024 at 11:30 PM, Rubin Farr said:

They blew their load in the first 30 minutes, which is well done, the rest of the film kind of wanders aimlessly. B+

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is this the 3rd or 4th film where the plot is about staying quiet or ELSE!?!?!??

an almost accurate prediction of los angeles after the pandemic (here it's the year 2006) where most of DTLA has been transformed into "the hellzone" (corner of san pedro and east fifth street is commonly referred to as 'hell on earth' which is a stone's throw from the main blade)

pm entertainment never disappoints

  On 7/13/2024 at 11:52 PM, ignatius said:

3rd or 4th film

wtf. I guess it's easy to churn out this shit when you have connections. years ago I posted a yt comment for an interview of Jimmy Office on Colbert or one of those guys, where I said that the first film was mediocre and only got made cos of his and his wife's star power, and someone called me "toxic" lol.

  On 7/10/2024 at 1:56 AM, Rubin Farr said:

Anyone seen MaXXXine yet? Is it worth finishing the trilogy? 

I've seen it, but it's my least favourite of the three. Kinda meh.

I haven't seen Furiousa yet as I could tell from the trailer that it was very CGI heavy and kept putting it off and then it wasn't in the cinema anymore.

It was ok, nowhere near as explosive or dynamic as fury road but still solid compared to most current action movies. I guess he didn't get the budget he needed to do more practical stuff, it's got an unappealing layer of slick cgi sheen instead of the lovely dirt and grit of previous mad max movies. Story was a bit undercooked as well.

The woman in it is super over saturated in roles right now. Her time will soon be up I guess. 

This was great, but one plot hole bothered me, why did DeNiro’s character go to the trouble to get Mollie one of the first batches of insulin, if they wanted to killer her anyway? She would have died from diabetes earlier, which killed her eventually IRL.

In a Violent Nature - Brilliant!

 / 

Long Legs, is mostly cringe.  janky scenes stitched together. over acting by a few cast members. some classic nicholas cage being nicholas cage stuff. some lol's from the audience because of it. in the hands of a better story teller it might've made a good movie but it's obviously low budget and obviously lacks a single minded vision.. or perhaps was too focused on the big reveal which is kinda obvious. it's very plodding and slow to start and this doesn't really work in its favor. i was losing interesting. until it moved forward far enough just in time to hold interest.

some of the fast cut scenes are decently done and one in particular is quality. otherwise it's quite telegraphed and expected. there are a few moments where nick cage is believable and his character seems well formed and genuine but only a few and not enough to redeem the film. it makes the FBI and law enforcement world seem incredibly small. unrealistically small. even if it's like a special unit trying to solve the crimes and catch the bad guy it just kind of disappears into the background and the FBI agents seem like regular people who stood in a line and were handed blue jackets that say FBI on them and then those people went away and forgot all their training and forgot how to use the radios in their cars or something. 

Talk about missing the point..jeez..uhm hello?!! Are we watching two different films here..as a BoC obsessive I thought you'd see the devil was in the detail with the Nine Circles of Hell book appearing prominently ..

love hotel by shinji somai (1985).

appears to have been made by the 'directors company' then subsequently picked up by nikkatsu, which might explain the apparent divergence from typical designated structures for their own output in erotic dramas during the 70s and 80s. still likely to be difficult to sell this one as an alternative sub genre of drama, rather than one of pornography.

somai worked within this kind of film earlier in his career. it's a rejigged take on how to go about the exploration of sexual relationships that provides the undercurrent to diverse approaches and outcomes that saw nikkatsu churn out two such films a week for almost twenty years.

with somai, a stronger desire to explore personal ideas from within vast possibilities of imagined or theorised aspects of sexual relationships being more dominant than it might frequently otherwise be. at this time nikkatsu was less creative force in quite expensive widescreen films of this kind for cinemas (the 70s) and more provider of part of emerging video soft core crowd (the 80s) that was dominated by video, and something more often straightforward, rather than risky or questionable.

here, it's possibly about the odd ways relationships can start and end, appear unlikely when they initiate for the most questionable or simply odd reasons. they then can evolve into desirable repeated fantasies, but are not the best basis for greater long-term involvement, when the subject focus shifts back and forth gradually and they both gain new perspectives on past events from within a now bigger picture, as fate and obsession mix.

still, the likelihood is that for those that go in for eroticism might be prejudiced at accepting all the possible facets of the attempts to explore differing desires and the challenges of fantasy mixing with reality.

nsfw >

  On 7/22/2024 at 11:42 PM, Schlitze said:

Talk about missing the point..jeez..uhm hello?!! Are we watching two different films here..as a BoC obsessive I thought you'd see the devil was in the detail with the Nine Circles of Hell book appearing prominently ..

who you talkin at?

  On 7/20/2024 at 3:40 PM, Squee said:

In a Violent Nature - Brilliant!

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i can imagine people standing up and clapping in the theater for this scene

they did a Hollywood remake of Speak No Evil    

Deadpool & Wolverine 

I dunno, kinda get there's weak points, buuuut... It's been ages since I enjoyed myself at the cinema this much and even longer since I enjoyed anything Marvel shat out. I had a great time. Probably because I'm smack dab in the target demo for all these crazy cameos, references and ugly dogs.

  On 7/24/2024 at 7:04 PM, ignatius said:

who you talkin at?

i can imagine people standing up and clapping in the theater for this scene

 

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Loved that scene.

  On 7/27/2024 at 9:30 AM, chim said:

Deadpool & Wolverine 

I dunno, kinda get there's weak points, buuuut... It's been ages since I enjoyed myself at the cinema this much and even longer since I enjoyed anything Marvel shat out. I had a great time. Probably because I'm smack dab in the target demo for all these crazy cameos, references and ugly dogs.

Did Ryan Reynolds bring the fourth wall breaking random lols? I love when he does that.

  On 7/27/2024 at 10:25 AM, Squee said:

Did Ryan Reynolds bring the fourth wall breaking random lols? I love when he does that.

Oh, it's all over so you better love it, probably too much for those who want more film out of their Deadpool. I especially like the Disney vs Fox quips, copious eyewinks and totally acknowledging that it took wayyy too long to get Hugh Jackman a proper Wolverine suit. Oh and a store in the background called "Liefeld's - Just Feet", fucking floored me.

  On 7/27/2024 at 10:56 AM, chim said:

Oh, it's all over so you better love it, probably too much for those who want more film out of their Deadpool. I especially like the Disney vs Fox quips, copious eyewinks and totally acknowledging that it took wayyy too long to get Hugh Jackman a proper Wolverine suit. Oh and a store in the background called "Liefeld's - Just Feet", fucking floored me.

YES!

I want to see the new horror flick "Oddity", trailer looked good and has good numbers on Rotten.  But it's not playing anywhere by me and only a cam version is online.  Anyone check it out yet?

How the hell do you find movies online in europe without stealing them? netflix is trash

Kinda crazy finally seeing this after years decades of waiting. Not much story. Mostly just highlights of the recoding sessions and rehearsals. Honestly, I don’t see what the big fuss was about it making the band members look bad. It’s pretty benign. Definitely inspired me to pick up my guitar afterwards, probably for the first time in 6 months. 
There are some cool moments in there that weren’t in the Get Back series but, at the end of the day, I would say if you had to choose between them, the series is infinitely more interesting. Still, The Beatles are The Beatles and I would gladly watch a 12 hour documentary about them doing their taxes. 
/10