T-850's Reviews

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Originally Posted by T-850
I've never seen it but I am interested in checking it out. Once I've seen the film I'll write a review for it. Are you a fan of Dark City?
Ooohhh...*slobber*...kind of.
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Originally Posted by LordSlaytan
Have you seen Dark City? I'd really like to see your thoughts on that sci-fi gem.

I'd like to start off saying T-850, you have written some awesome reviews. I haven't seen the Vikings, but have seen Yojimbo and T-2. And to answer the reply (that wasn't even directed at me) DARK CITY ROCKS!!!!! ANYway, T-850, did you think that the final battle scene in Yojimbo ended too quickly? I sure did. Everything else was amazing though.
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Originally Posted by LordSlaytan
Ooohhh...*slobber*...kind of.

I am also a huge Dark City fan, and I just LOVE J Connelly, she is the absolute bomb. I have had a crush on her since Labyrinth....
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Originally Posted by LordSlaytan
Ooohhh...*slobber*...kind of.
Coming from you Slay, I'll add Dark City to my must see list.

Originally Posted by led_zeppelin
ANYway, T-850, did you think that the final battle scene in Yojimbo ended too quickly? I sure did. Everything else was amazing though.
It was rather quick. Eijirô Tono [the man with the gun] looked like he could have been a good match for Sanjuro. But instead he was killed right away!
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Last 5 films I’ve seen

An American In Paris ****/*****
Once Upon A Time In China *****/*****
Father of the Bride ****/*****
Spartacus *****/*****
The Hidden Fortress ****/*****

You can view my review for each of those films at T-850's Reviews



Originally Posted by Sedai
I am also a huge Dark City fan, and I just LOVE J Connelly, she is the absolute bomb. I have had a crush on her since Labyrinth....
I've been in love with her since Once Upon a Time in America. She was 14, I was 16, we made beautiful music together in my imagination.



Cyberdine Systems Model 101
Here’s my very first review at Movie Reviews 4 Fun

The Hidden Fortress - 1958 - Dir. by Akira Kurosawa - starring Toshirô Mifune



T-850’s The Hidden Fortress Review



I am impressed. A very nice review.
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Spartacus *****/*****



Director: Stanley Kubrick

Writer: Dalton Trumbo

Stars: Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton,
Peter Ustinov, and Tony Curtis


Genre: Action/Adventure

Length: 196 minutes

Cinema: 1960

Rating: Not Rated


Another spectacular film starring Kirk Douglas as Spartacus. Not only did he star as the title character, but served as the executive producer. Douglas also hired blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo to do the screenplay under his own name--Spartacus stands tall in film history for breaking the blacklist. The first director, Anthony Mann, was fired a few days into shooting, and Douglas replaced him with Stanley Kubrick, his director from the great Paths of Glory. Though this is hardly a "Kubrick film," since Kubrick wasn't involved in the pre production, Douglas's wisdom in calling on Kubrick to bail him out on this ambitious production is evident throughout.

Spartacus, born a slave in ancient Rome, finds himself in a gladiator school run by Batiatus [Peter Ustinov, who won an Oscar as best supporting actor]. There he is trained with other slaves to fight in the arena, for the purpose of being sold to Romans who wish to watch, for amusement, combat to the death. There he meets Varinia [Jean Simmons] and falls in love.

But when Roman senator Crassus [Laurence Olivier] drops by and insists on a fight to the death right there at Batiatus' school, it evolves into a riot as the slaves revolt and escape. Spartacus eventually organizes them and they cross the land freeing other slaves and building an army.
Spartacus


Love is both the engine and the subject of Spartacus. It is because Spartacus loves fellow slave Varinia and is about to be deprived of her by the evil senator Crassus that he starts the revolt in the first place. Her love for him, in turn, gives him the courage to lead his rebel army even though it means certain death. This theme is made flesh in Douglas's performance. Paths of Glory is Kirk Douglas's greatest film, but Spartacus is his labor of love.

Spartacus plan is to make it to Southern Italy where they will pay a large group of pirates to sail them far away from the Roman Empire that had enslaved them. Spartacus who was born a slave, was fed up with being treated like an animal, and tells everyone he doesn’t want anyone to go through the same situation. This plan of course leads to a seven month journey where we see the group of gladiators facing different weather conditions such as: Rainy days, snowy days, and there are times where they had to cross lakes. Men, women, kids, and seniors are risking their lives to get out of this country, where there’s probably more slaves then Romans!

Meanwhile, the film spends a great deal of time showing us the backstage antics of those in power in the Roman Empire, namely the political warfare being waged between a senator with dictatorial ambitions, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and an older, more restrained senator, Gracchus [Charles Laughton]. For 1960, the film was decidedly frank about Roman decadence, which gives it an edge that is lacking in too many sword-and-sandal epics of the era. The film contains a great deal of talk about Gracchus' fondness for many women, and he and Batiatus have an amusing conversation about why corpulent men are better people.

There was no rating system in 1960, but this restored version has received a PG-13 for violence, along with a couple of brief moments where Simmons is partially nude.
Spartacus



This may be one of Stanley Kubrick’s weaker movies, but his massive cinematic talents make it a better than average epic. Considering his situation as a new director confronted with the acting egos of Douglas, Olivier, Laughton, and Ustinov, it’s a wonder that Kubrick was able to create any coherence at all. Without Kubrick, this could have turned into another forgettable Cleopatra, and that’s a scary thought.

Even if you don’t care that much about the actual movie, get hold of the newly released Criterion DVD version to learn the real behind-the-scenes “dirt.” After hearing Charlton Heston croon inanely about how each of the actors and film personnel in Ben Hur were either “good” or “very good,” this pleasurable DVD sets a new standard and feels like a Roman feast and orgy of film tidbits. It’s compelled me to re-watch Spartacus more times than I would have thought possible!



Mother! Oh, God! Mother! Blood!
Originally Posted by T-850
Spartacus *****/*****
I watched this film for the first time last summer, and I loved it! Good job, T-850!
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Originally Posted by Mark
I watched this film for the first time last summer, and I loved it! Good job, T-850!
Thank You, Mark. As you can probably tell... I’m a fan of Kirk Douglas’s films.

Paths of Glory and Spartacus proved to be two of the most popular and acclaimed of Douglas' career.

Lust for Life and The Vikings are also favorites of mine.



Cyberdine Systems Model 101
Here’s my current review at Movie Reviews 4 Fun

Father of the Bride - 1950 - Dir. by Vincente Minnelli - starring Spencer Tracy



T-850's Father of the Bride Review



Great reviews, Jose. I especially like your review of Spartacus. I liked it more than you did, I think, but I can understand your reasoning. I'm also glad you've joined Mark's site, it's a nice place. Keep 'em coming, bro.



Nice reviews. While Spartacus may not be my favourite Kubrick film, it is my favourite sword and sandal epic.
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Once Upon A Time In China *****/*****



Director: Tsui Hark

Writer(s): Yiu Ming Leung, Pik-yin Tang, Tsui Hark, and Kai-Chi Yun

Stars: Jet Li, Rosamund Kwan, Yuen Biao, Kent Cheng, Jacky Cheung, and Wu Ma

Genre: Adventure/Drama

Length: 134 minutes

Cinema: 1991

Rating: R

The movie that revived the period kung fu film and recharged the career of action star Jet Li by casting him as the legendary 19th-century martial artist, Master Wong Fei-Hong. This was the very first Jet Li film I had seen. Once Upon A Time In China made me a Li fan!

Set in the late 19th century, "Once Upon a Time in China" shows a populace under siege from the outside world. More and more often, colonial forces from the United States and Britain turn up on native shores. Their presence is intimidating, to say the least, but the indigenous people have no intention of succumbing. Their resistance ranges from small (neighborhood musicians play and sing at top volume to drown out the hymns of western missionaries) to full-scale military face-offs.
Once Upon A Time In China


The head of a healing clinic, Wong is asked by a general in the Black Flag army to teach the locals self-defense by training them in the art of kung fu. Things get complicated with the arrival of Wong's "Aunt" Yee (Rosamund Kwan), just back from a two-year stay in the West. Despite her title, Yee and Wong are not related and romance simmers between the two.

Wong and his students (Porky Lang/Kent Cheng and Buck Teeth Sol/Jacky Cheung) notice how easily China is changing because of the Westernization attendance. The Westerners promise the Chinese people that America is paved with streets of gold. They handout contracts for a three-year stay in the U.S. But the three years will be nothing but tragedy for the Chinese. They don’t know it, but they are future slaves once they set foot in American ships. As you can tell... America and the British are the bad guys.

There’s a scene in the first half of the film called the Theatre Massacre. Wong’s students (he calls them his “militia”) are preparing a play for the townspeople to see. The foreign government is also present. The reason they are there is because they want to kill a priest who knows their secret plan and kill Wong as well since he is always in the way of things. Later we see the extremely tragic massacre where the foreigners are shooting innocent Chinese people. Wong Fei- Hung refuses to stand by and watch as his country is decimated by the foreign forces and takes the law into his own hands. He eventually gets into deep trouble. The magistrate tells Wong that he’ll be arrested after he helps the injured since he is the head of a clinic.
Once Upon A Time In China



The second half of the film gets even better. Aunt Yee is kidnapped by thugs, who have allied themselves with a master fighter named Iron Robe Yim (Yee Kwan Yan of "Iron Monkey"). Yim is not really a bad guy, but he has fallen on hard times, so he compromises his principles and goes to work for the local thugs. Wong ends up having to fight his way through the whole lot of them in order to save Aunt Yee.

The film's most interesting character ends up being Iron Robe, who, although he doesn’t show up until halfway through the movie, is portrayed as a broken man from the start, making it one of the few times that you actually sympathize with the “bad guy” in a Kung Fu movie.

Wong Fei Hong’s name and character has been played in hundred’s of films. Jackie Chan, who also played Wong in The Legend of Drunken Master, doesn’t come close to Li’s performance. Hark’s direction is dynamic. He’s able to hold shots long enough for us to be in awe before the performers’ physical prowess. If you’ve never seen a Jet Li film, this is a good place to start—it’s got a little bit of everything…action, adventure, romance, and some excellently choreographed fight sequences. While it falls just short of unmitigated classic status, it’s still well worth a look.



Nice review T, I too have penchant for hyberbolic Kung-Fu action, and this is one of the better flicks in that regard.



Originally Posted by T-850
Once Upon A Time In China *****/*****

.
Thanks for a great review, I have put this one on my "must see List" now it is sooooooooooo long now, but don't feel bad.
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Finally had a chance to catch up on all of your reviews… well done T-850... I especially liked the T-2 one (which is a favorite of mine) and Spatacus (which I haven’t seen in ages)… and… I'm adding Once Upon A Time in China to my 2 mile long “to see” list…
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Mother! Oh, God! Mother! Blood!
Originally Posted by T-850
Once Upon A Time In China *****/*****
Add me to the list of those putting this on their list (does that make any sense?)

Good job, T-850! I like your variety of genres.



Kaiser "The Devil" Soze
Hey great review this series made me a Li fan as well, did you see the 2nd, 3rd or 4th one?

the last two aren't so great but the second was equally as awesome.
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