Rate The Last Movie You Saw

If you can spare a third slot, I'd suggest the below:


Avengement (Jesse V. Johnson)
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (John Hyams)
Ninja (Isaac Florentine)

Sssshhhh, don't ruin it.

Have you seen Replicant or From Hell? Those are the earliest things where I've seen where he gives a decidedly non-action-star performance.


I'm kinder to Seagal than you are (Seagology by Vern somewhat endeared me to him), but I think the reason those early movies work is because he was paired with good directors who worked overtime to play to his limitation and make him a compelling screen presence and build a good movie around him. As soon as he directed himself in On Deadly Ground, the results were like a Tommy Wiseau movie with explosions. Still very entertaining, because instead of Greg Sestero, you get Michael Caine and R. Lee Ermey devouring the scenery.

Also...





Never forget!

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I haven't seen Avengement yet or the Debt Collector films. My favorite from him so far is probably Accident Man, which benefits from a good supporting cast.

And I would just say that this ~7 minute YouTube video shows off a lot of what I like about the nature of his martial arts work. He's capable of such explosive action, height that I would have assumed was achieved with wire work, and a remarkable degree of precision in his movements. It's like martial arts, gymnastics, and dance all mushed together.

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17727690

High and Low - (1963)

Mark off another on the Kurosawa/Mifune list for me, this is the 6th collaboration between director and actor I've seen and the 9th Kurosawa film overall. There's a lot to unpack with High and Low, an epic detective story where people are ruined, a kid is kidnapped and a loathsome perpetrator hunted by the police. Mifune's Kingo Gondo lives in a large house on a hill and is just days away from a boardroom coup that will cement his ownership over a shoe manufacturing business he oversees. Someone attempts to kidnap his son, catches the wrong kid, but asks for the ransom anyway. Gondo is compelled to pay up - and it is up to the cops to track this person down. The first segment focuses on Gondo and his palatial home, which is invaded once the kidnap has taken place, then we descend from this heaven into the hell of the streets, ending up with the living dead in heroin dens (the film's Japanese title, Heaven and Hell is more apt.) For 1963 this film is ambitious and beyond most everything I've seen from that time period. I'd say that many police procedural films have taken a cue or two from it. It's genuinely exciting, captivating and emotionally wrenching. There's a final scene that just puts an added stamp on the excellence that has gone before.

8.5/10

Foreign Language Countdown films seen : 56/100


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9f/Leben_der_anderen.jpg

The Lives of Others - (2006)

Set in East Germany, this brilliant masterpiece of a film places us inside the lives of people living under an oppressive regime where privacy has become a thing of the past and friends, family and neighbours have been scared to the extent that they betray those they love. But in the midst of this, a wonderful character has been created - Gerd Wiesler (played by Ulrich Mühe) : a true believer and ruthless Stasi Captain, who nevertheless becomes involved in the life of a person he's spying on. I can't say anything more than that. The Lives of Others is a film you have to see and approach fresh to get a wonderful, but difficult, surprise from. It's incredibly rare to come across a film that feels so fresh and brand new - something that's saying something unique enough to really stand out and be well worth the time invested in watching it. Tremendous performances, a last line I'll never forget, and just on the whole a perfect film for me. I can't believe a film about the East German Stasi is so life affirming and inspirational - really bucks up my faith in the human race as a compassionate and hopeful phenomenon.

10/10

Foreign Language Countdown films seen : 57/100

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High and Low is my favorite film by Kurosawa, and it's not even close. The mix of the police investigation, the social commentary, and the drama of the decision the main character has to make is so well-balanced. It also has that sequence on the train which I have seen copied almost frame-by-frame in at least two other thrillers.

And if you're still not sold on Adkins, please note that when asked about the best fight scene in a movie, he cites . . . (skip to 2:22)

L'amour braque (1985, Andrzej Żuławski)
What if you made a typical crime/romance film except every character, literally all of them, were just as loud, annoying and unhinged as possible? Probably my favourite Żuławski film so far.

I'd hazard a guess not many people have seen this, and it's a shame. I blind bought it a year or two ago and remember enjoying it immensely. Christopher Abbott is fantastic.

I actually have had it bookmarked since it came out, because I read a review of it (in Entertainment Weekly or on the AVClub?) that gave it really high praise. The subject matter kept me away for a while, but I'm so glad I finally watched it.

For anyone else who is maybe a little hesitant there are some serious themes and content, but it's not just some misery slog.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Hands of Stone (2016)

Adkins absolute best is Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. Especially if you track down the director's cut. Rather than feeling lineage to the franchise, it feels like Gaspar Noe and Nicolas Winding Refn decided to co-direct a blend of Blade Runner and Apocalypse Now.

Ninja 2 is also quite possibly the best Ninja movie around (it’s even got Sho Kosugi’s son in it).

After that, I’d say either Triple Threat or Avengement. Triple Threat has an incredible cast of action stars and puts them all to good use. Avengement is like if an early Guy Ritchie movie had extremely violent and elaborate fight scenes.

I watched Encounter, a movie I never heard of until I got the screener. It ended up being a lot more interesting than I initially thought. It’s on Amazon Prime.

No, I've only seen the original trilogy, but if I had to rank 'em, they'd currently look like...


Supremacy (sorry, Rock-o!)

Ultimatum (which is just behind Supremacy for me at the moment)

Identity (decent, but it kind of feels like a basic espionage actioner/first movie, like more of an entry point/foundation for the series to move onto better things later, rather than standing on its own as a great movie)

rewatched my childhood favorite movie

true i only seen the one with jeremy renner when i was at my ex house

You had my curiosity. Now you have my attention.

And just like that, you and I are buddies.


(Dead Set was the first live Grateful Dead I ever heard, approximately 35 years ago, and "Brokedown Palace", when I'm forced to choose one song by someone, is often the song I cite as my favorite.)