What was the last movie you watched? Part 2

[Brutikus]

 

[squeekness]

Miles Ahead

 

[ObiWanCon]

TRAP (2024)

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Visiting Hours (AKA The Fright ~ 1982)

Cult Canadian slasher that made the infamous UK 'video nasty' list at the time. Lee Grant's crusading TV journalist becomes the target of Michael Ironside's complete psycho. After being attacked by Ironside in her home, Grant is admitted to hospital with serious injuries. Ironside follows her there to finish the job (coldly dispatching anyone who gets in his way). When Grant starts to 'rant' that she believes her attacker is in the hospital, Linda Purl's nurse is the sole person who believes her - only to then become a target herself. William Shatner - as Grant's initially sceptical boss - comes to realise that Grant wasn't as deluded/paranoid as he first thought.

Shatner is as entertaining as always (still wearing his TJ Hooker hairpiece), Grant and Purl are good (both were major crushes for me in my youth) - but the movie 100% belongs to Michael Ironside, who gives a top class performance as the killer; single-minded and calculating throughout, he's chilling, relentless, and totally believable. I don't know if Halloween II, which came out just seven months before, had any influence on this (it seems a bit tight), but they would make a great double feature - and Visiting Hours would easily hold its own. 7/10

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Ghostrider87]

The BoonDock Saints
10/10

A great Action Thriller Vigilante movie that is set in Boston, it was filmed in Boston, and is set in a realistic action movie universe.

It is a very well made Action Thriller Vigilante movie that shows off the location that is Boston,2 distinguishable fleshed-out charismatic protagonists with an understandable motive for an achievable goal, practical effects including the blood, unique good action scenes, good dialogue, memorable lines, terrifying antagonists that also have believable motives for goals, high stakes, a main conflict that doesn’t have an easy solution, other distinguishable protagonists, thrilling climax, soundtrack songs that fit the scenes, and a very memorable open ending.

Also with the protagonists having the number advantages it’s unsurprising that they defeat 3 Heavyweight Russian Mobsters showing a realistic outcome even though not a cakewalk, also protagonists with a number advantage attack at once which I enjoyed instead the very terrible writing cliche a group of characters having the numbers advantage except not all attacking at once.

I did greatly this movie doesn't have the common terrible writing mistake in movies that is a character saying a silencer is attached to the gun when really it’s a suppressor.



It’s a realistic action movie universe because the MacManus Twins and other characters are bound by the laws of physics, suffer the realistic consequences from violence including gunshot wounds result in blood loss that won’t stop without the needed solution, limited amount of bullets instead of ridiculous amount of ammo, and characters won’t quickly heal from damage after a fist fight.

The suspense is high for the Boondock Saints since they are badass Vigilantes bound by the laws of physics and realistic human morality in this Action Thriller movie.

The MacManus Twins killing Russian Mobsters in self-defense shows a realistic situation where a violent solution is justified.

The Irish Catholic Twins aka the MacManus Twins are distinguishable characters including different hairstyles, and they have common Irish names that are Murphy and Connor.

The movie provides a believable reason why the MacManus Twins decide to become badass Vigilantes who are going to murder evil men mostly the Russian Mobsters and Italian Mobsters that are operating in Boston.

The MacManus Twins known as The Boondock Saints are antiheroes since they’ve murdered Russian Mobsters, and Italian Mobsters to accomplish their good goal of eliminating the Criminal Underworld that occupies Boston.
They are breaking laws as Vigilantes, also they know as Catholics they are violating the commandment to not murder since they are murdering Russian Mobsters and Italian Mobsters that operate in Boston to achieve their good objective.

The Boondock Saints are using messy methods to achieve their good goal which would benefit vast Bostonians if they succeeded in murdering the Russian Mobsters and Italian Mobsters that operate in Boston.
It makes them similar to The Punisher, Paul Kersey of the Death Wish movie series, etc.

This movie succeeds with the comedy mostly with the comic relief Doc McGinity that is the owner of the Irish-themed pub, he misquotes commonly known sayings, can’t control the cursing, and does boxing punches behind the safe area of the bar while watching the customers fight 3 Russian Mobsters was very priceless.

Another priceless comedy scene is the brilliant FBI Special Agent Paul Smecker cussing loudly with a rant for an understood reason while walking before unexpectedly he see’s a very important detail.


The dialogue in this Action Thriller movie fits including bluntness similar to The Departed.

FBI Special Agent Paul Smecker is listening to music on a visible common CD player which isn’t surprising because this movie was released in 1999 when CD Players were still very common items, also very retro seeing him use a thick-style Laptop.
1 scene of a MacManus Twin using a pay phone is very retro because this is the era when pay phones were a dime a dozen in Cities.
Also, it was cool to see that this is the era when a pager was an item that humans had.


Although it’s never stated directly, it most likely Connor wanted to use a rope to smoothly move down before he and his twin brother begin shooting the Russian Mobsters.
Connor was possibly inspired by the action vigilante movie (1989) The Punisher because the Punisher used a rope to safely move down on a casino table before he began killing Yakuza members, also damaging the Yakuza-owned Casino which he damaged by shooting his M60 Machine Gun, also launching grenades from the same gun.

It's surprising that Die Hard isn’t talked about by The Boondock Saints when they are moving in the narrow area that is the air duct area much like John in Die Hard.

The action scene of the BoonDock Saints killing Russian Mobsters is a very badass memorable violent action scene, and it’s not tedious or uncreative in another action scene when the BoonDock Saints kill Italian Mobsters because it's in a different location, and other visible differences.

The Boondock Saints are distinguishable vigilantes that have memorable outfits which are also very practical because of the advantage of easy mobility.

A huge plot hole is avoided since FBI Special Agent Paul Smecker states to a shown character why he doesn’t want to prosecute the Vigilantes that are murdering evil characters that are Russian Mobsters and Italian Mobsters.
Because of good writing by Troy Duffy, the explanation fits naturally in a scene instead of being shoehorned in as an explanation for the scene.


A style that greatly sets this apart is the details on the screen for the name of a character, and occupation.
While that’s common with a text shown on screen for location, or how much time later after some shown scene except for names of characters and occupations isn’t a common movie cliche

It is a very cool scene when the MacManus Twins are shown getting their weapons, and the hunting knife that John Rambo uses is shown.
An implication is 1 MacManus twin saw Rambo First Blood because he recognized it as the same badass Hunting Knife that John Rambo uses.

Possibly Troy Duffy the Director-ScreenWriter felt inspired by the Action Vigilante movies Death Wish, and (1989) The Punisher because The BoonDock Saints is a Rated R Action Vigilante movie because it shows the messy violence, and shows the aftermath of the messy vigilante violence because those are key aspects of the Action Vigilante genre.

Downtown Boston does get shown off at the start of the movie, and multiple other locations are shown.
So it is similar to the great movie The Fugitive which showed off Chicago with multiple locations of that Midwest Metropolis.



The Climax is suspenseful, high stakes, very dramatic, and extremely memorable.

Troy Duffy like James Cameron aimed to be responsible for directing and writing an action movie so it’ll be well made for The Boondock Saints, and he hits a home run because The Boondock Saints is an impressive badass well-made Action Thriller Vigilante movie that stands out from other Action Vigilante movies including the MacManus Twins are from this movie not from a comic book, or some other fictional media.

2 small Nitpicks
The whole criticism that Angels don’t kill is wrong because 2 Kings 19:35 talks about an Angel of the Lord that killed a vast amount of people stated as 185,000 in the Camp area of the Assyrians.


A character saying the criticism that the BoonDock Saints are acting as Judge and Jury isn’t wrong except forgot Executioner because same as The Punisher the BoonDock Saints are Vigilantes doing exactly that.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

 

[Sculder]

The Passing Parade (2018)
The Turkey Bowl (2019)
Grandview, U.S.A. (1984)
Night Shift (1982)
Bromates (2022)
Cactus Flower (1969)

 

[Link]

View attachment 100210

View attachment 100211

Did you like Watchmen?

 

[3rdstone]

X

I actually didn't remember much of this flick the first time I watched it, except for the concept of a late 70s slasher during a low budget porn flick production. Hence I felt a rewatch was in order before watching MaXXXine (this far, Pearl feels like a great standalone I can rewatch anytime). Actually I quite enjoyed X this time. The characters were pretty fun with their over the top ambitions in the movie industry. The whole 1979 era, accents and over all hillbilly country place felt like classic slasher ground material.

The story and script etc is simple, but isn't most slashers? Tbh, I'm not a huge slasher fan and haven't watched that many, even considering my age, which is maybe why I felt this was quite OK this time. Mia Goth is really good especially considering her, ..special task as actress in this flick. But when first watching this I'd no idea she would elevete herself in e.g. Pearl and Infinity Pool later on (I've never watched Nymphomania, that random Suspiria remake or her other earlier movies).

Spoilers for this feel redundant now, but if you happen to be unaware:

Spoiler

The make up job for Goth's dual characters is great. Not only did they age her up almost 100 years lol, but also changed her facial appearences (like her nose etc) that I wouldn't guess it was her in both roles.

X isn't anything special, but this time I had fun with the era, atmosphere and the characters. But Pearl overshadowed this as a better sequel/technically a prequel film. Much due to Goth's performance. Whatever, now on to MaXXXine!

MaXXXine

First of all: how sucessful was Maxine supposed to be at the beginning of this film, affording to drive around in that Mercedes SL? Just moving from low budget porn flicks and hoping for slighter better opportunities wouldn't get her that expensive car, just saying lol. Anyhows, this was fine. Goth is great as expected in the lead, and the story/twist around the serial killer worked for me. Elizabeth Debicki was really cool as well, and I was todays old when realising that she's actually British. Duh!

Also kudos for the team making these movies around 01.45 in runtime. Personally a perfect run time for horror/thriller films with a story like this. Also takes me back to an era when movies didn't have to be two and an half - three hour long to tell a simple story. Still though the best offering in this trilogy would without doubt be Pearl for me. That character is so great, and after these two I feel a rewatch of that one would be in order.

A fun little detail for me (probably not for anyone else lol) was the Judas Priest song suddenly turning up, in which I instantly recognized Rob Halford's voice, but not the song: Prisoner Of Your Eyes. Turned out it was added on the remastered CD of the classic Screaming For Vengeance album. I bought the LP in -82 and listened to it 24/7 as a kid, and also later got the CD in early -00s, but of course didn't remember this song from the CD. Anyhows, a recommended album, one of Priest's absolute best.

Batman Ninja (2018)

Wtf did I just watch? I had no idea what this would be going in, and got 1.25 hours of just total insane anime madness. I quickly realised the only way to enjoy survive this was to just sit back and embrace all the craziness. The plot, story, script, Batman characterization, or like any kind of sense whatever - just forget about it lol. The voice acting is mostly decent (even though Tara Strong's Harley felt way more annoying here than I remember from her other offerings, but I blame that and many things on the writing). Loved Gorilla Grodd though. I'd say the Batman voice actor is also decent enough considering our spoiled demands post Conroy. Even though this Batman had a fair share of weird monologues and lines.

I actually highly enjoyed the animation, seemed like a mix of various 2D and 3D animated techniques. There's even sequences that felt like water coloured animation, which was truly beautiful. You even get a short glimpse of the classic Hokusai painting The Great Wave Off Kanagawa (!). Yes, an insanely wild mix of various anime stuff turned up to the max, and it's obvious the generations growing up with anime (which I didn't) will find nods and easter eggs here from various anime media and TV-shows and probably enjoy this at least by pure nostalgia.

As a dumb fun, elseworlds totally over the top anime flick, with lots of flaws but with a highly entertaining visually insane spectacle, it was an entertaining and weirdly fascinating experience in the end. Lol.

 

[ObiWanCon]

The Instigators (2024)

 

[Ash J. Williams]

 

[KaijuDude1992]

 

[emielaen]

Evil Dead (2013)

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Strip Nude for Your Killer (Nude per l'assassino ~ 1975)

Giallo directed by Andrea Bianchi, starring Italian-exploitation goddess Edwige Fenech and Nino Castelnuovo. A model suffers a fatal heart attack whilst undergoing an illegal abortion, which is then made to look like a natural death in her bath. Before long a mystery figure dressed in motorcycle helmet and leathers kills the doctor responsible, as well as several models and photographers working for the same agency as the first girl. Fenech and Castelnuovo play the agency's last surviving photographers, who try to find and stop the killer before they themselves become victims.

The film looks great and really evokes 'swinging 70s Italy' (it was filmed entirely in Rome and Milan). The basic plot is straight-forward, although some scenes are a little confusing. The cast are all good (it'd help if actresses Erna Schürer and Solvi Stubing - both playing blonde models - didn't look so damned similar). There is a lot of nudity, as well as a healthy amount of blood and gore. Some scenes do raise an unintended smile, as well as some intended lighter moments. There's also a final joke just before the credits role that is so unexpected it makes you laugh just by virtue of it being there! I cannot think of any other film that ends in a similar way - I had to rewind just to make sure I'd interpreted it right! Definitely recommended (so long as you're into Euro-sleaze). 7.5/10

 

[Brutikus]

 

[KaijuDude1992]

 

[Link]

Jackpot! (2024)

As a connoisseur of terrible wax figures, there's a sequence in this movie that made me very, very happy. Loved the MGK cameo as well, but this is far from Paul Feig's best.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Did you like Watchmen?

I liked it but I felt like it could have been a lot better especially in the animated format. Granted, I haven't read a lot of the source material outside of the graphic novel, but I still feel like there are so many better alternatives out there when it comes to this IP like the motion comic, The Snyder film or the HBO series.

I'm still interested in seeing Part 2 though.

 

[ObiWanCon]

Alien: Romulus (2024)

 

[Ash J. Williams]

The second one is Ebola Syndrome.

 

[Brutikus]

 

[NDX]

Jackpot

Quite amusing

 

[Spider-Fan83]