The 12th Hall of Fame

I stand corrected.

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Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?

I realized I'd seen this movie before, when the frequent calls between Di Nero and Pantoliano started showing up. I must've watched it on tv and turned it on halfway through, but I remembered Pantoliano's bad combover and the shtick with "five days or I pay the 1/2 million bond." Couldn't remember anything else, but the combover still haunted me...

Less brutal violence, more focus on the comedy in this one as opposed to my most emidiate previous watch/review, and it is a better movie for it. Scenes of clipping fingers wouldn't rhyme well with the more imbecillic, funny version wise guys that are portrayed here. Btw, what was the situation with the two goons working for Serrano? The one in charge seemed you usual feckless, somewhat incompetent thug, but what about the other one? He acted like he was eight or something, mock-punching his partner and jumping about. Working for Serrano, a guy that seems to have little patience and a short temper, he'd look once at the guy, watch him jump about for a few seconds and promptly shot him, fit him for cement shoes and put him in the river.

People who did a good job, on the other hand, were Di Nero and Grodin. These two had chemistry between them almost from the get go. Great banter, fun jokes and surprisingly earnest conversation in the quieter scenes. The rival bounty hunter was...okay, but nothing special, and the goons are just an ineffective pair of numbnuts who should be taken care of and the you call in Jean Reno or something. A professional, if you will, that can take care of buisness.

Overall, I liked this. Di Nero and comedies have been hit and miss for me. I like Analyze this, but I can't stand Meet the Parents and it's sequels. In his defence, most of the thing I dislike about those movies has nothing to do with him (mostly).

Good choice, SV!

Yeah, the mafia were a bit three stooges, Serrano was even ridiculous. They were basically just supposed to be silly caricatures. Personally i like that about it, it shows that the film wasn't really taking itself too serious which i think could have been its downfall. The scene with Deniro's daughter doesn't work for me because it does attempt to create genuine drama.

I also love Meet The Parents actually, hate the sequels though.

The scene does take a more emotional tone, something at odds with the rest of the movie. I can see what they'd be going for, but for that to work they'd have to bring the family deeper into the story and not just do a drive-by emotional drop. Have them hide out there, forcing them to interact and be in the same room, confronting the fact that he's been gone for nearly a decade. Or just have him going towards them after the movie is over. The last line could be that he's heading home, trying to start a relationship with his daughter again.

Either bring them in, or have them on the fringe. Don't go half and half. That doesn't work.

So...Taken, only more badass.

Seriously, this was a better version of Taken, delivered two years after Taken had come out, which makes sense. Take the concept, polish out the flaws and give it a Oldboy flavour to create a better version of the original.

Korean films have something special about them. Setting aside the more graphic violence stemming from very harch firearm restriction laws, resulting in a increase in useage of knives, bats and other close range weapons, the look of a Korean action movie is at once recognizable and hard to pin down. A color palet going for more washed out and faded tones, or maybe a lack of much besides grays, browns and blues (excluding clubs and similar locations) could be one component, but that isn't exclusive to Korean or even Asian thrillers/action movies. Maybe it is then the lack of firearms and the more up close and personal ways the fight scenes are executed, along with the high level of skill going into them, that sets them apart.

Whatever the underlying causes, they come together hereto form a very tight, somber and dark story following drugsmuggling and organ trafficing through an unnamed city in Korea. Here, we find a man running a pawnshop, frequently visited by the neighbours daughter seeking a haven away from her mother's drugsessions. When the mother steals from a local drug ring, she and the daughter gets abducted, all the while goons break into the pawnshop owner's home, looking for the drugs. Learning that they've been taken, he sets off in pursuite, resulting in one fight after another until the final showdown, where the established rules gets turned on their head a bit, resulting in a style change that made it stand out from the rest, something far to many film makers forget to adress when creating a action heavy movie.

The result's a movie that never feels dull or repetetive and I enjoyed very much.

A very good choice, Royal!

And that's me done. Will send a list shortly.

Too bad Royale is most likely not going to finish. The Man From Nowhere was great.

yes it was.

Liv Tyler was dating Joaquin Phoenix at the time, after starring with him in Inventing the Abbotts. She came to visit him on the set and ended up being used in the movie.

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Cool

great lil wrap up of movies, Clazor! NICELY DONE!!

I'm the same way with Korean movies. There is a poetic beauty to even the most darkest subject matter that I have become utterly frickin bias. Which I have done as a young man with Japaneses and then Mandarin/Cantonese films.

thanks for the movie trivia about liv tyler having a cameo, Vicky. Always wondered about that.

Okay, since the clock is ticking and I've crap luck renting and then actually watching movies from my library, any online assistance for:

Hiroshima Mon Amour (already sent over by Clazor)
Barbara
and
Joe (both from Cricket -- THANK YOU)

It is truly appreciated! THANKS

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

If someone hasn't already done so i'll send them to you tomorrow Ed. Don't really have the time to do so right now.

clazor sent me Hiroshima, an again, THANKS clazor, so at your leisure, camo
and thank YOU

I'll send Ed those links after a short time.

THANKS cricket!!

The script of Withnail & I alone is an outstanding piece of literature. When I see people praising a movie like Shakespeare in Love by its script (which is ridiculous, IMO) while this film keeps so unknown to the general public is simply unfair. It's not only the references to british dramatic literature (although the Hamlet monologue at the end of the movie stands as one of my favourite scenes of all time), but the way every dialogue is written! It's like watching a really really good play!

The acting is very good from everyone involved especially by Richard E. Grant who has the most interesting character on the whole film. The entire psychology between Withnail's character is amazing! We spend the whole movie believing he's just a bad actor who claims being unlucky but then there's that last scene. Someone who delivers Hamlet like that can't be a bad actor... He somehow fell into a self destructing vortex that doesn't allow him to show his potential and that destroys everything around him, especially I.

Also, gay Uncle Vernon ruined my childhood...

The atmosphere of this movie is fantastic, even the weather plays its part, and the personality of all the characters just fit perfectly into it.

I have been thinking about updating my Top 100, when I do, this movie will be in my Top 10, or really really close to it.

When I started watching this, the thought on my mind was: "So, this is a movie about a Trump supporter, very appropriate cricket".
The movie eventually proved me wrong, at least in part. It's a deeply ironic and sarcastic film! The last 30 minutes, especially are really really good! The father going through everything he criticizes about his daughter's life (and liking it) to then going in a mad run eventually killing his own daughter by accident, is a evolution that gives a strong purpose to the whole film, and it's the only bit of the film I really liked!

It was nice to see Surandon so young (and naked ) and the rest of the cast does a pretty good job too! It's a movie that, for its atmosphere and themes, is obviously conected to a very specific period. A period that sadly never interested me, so that could explain my lack of interest by such a big part of the film. The father's motivations, however, are enought for me to give it a nice rating.

I haven't much to say about this!
It's a very light comedy, though the beginning suggested a very different film. DeNiro does a very good perfomance, trying to give some depth to a character that hardly had some.
The Mobsters were treated like stupid caricatures which took away some of the dramatic tension. I was never afraid that someone would die, or get arrested,because all the villains were just there for comical effect.
I imagine this should be interesting and fresh when it came out, but I don't think it's a great movie.

Glad you got something out of Joe, Neiba. I'm actually not a Trump supporter; I'm more against the over the top theatrics of his opposition.

I also just finished watching Joe. It's a very original movie, I can sure give it props for that. I would give the movie merit, but I don't know if I liked it, I mean there were lots of very unpleasant moments, I don't see an overall message out of the film and I didn't find it to be that entertaining. I'd give it props for it's originality, for the relationship between Joe and Compton, I liked the way they interacted, they were from different social classes and it showed well, but the movie started going downhill when they went to the party at the end, it didn't really make sens to me. And also, kudoes for Susan Sarandon's **** haha.

So overall original film, but don't think it's quite my cup of tea

(spoiler talk below)

I don't see why would Joe who from the beggining of the movie hates the hippies, can't stand them, even wants to kill them, etc. Would go to a party, take some drugs (which he basically said he hated), **** the girls, etc. He actually did what he despised and the moment later he goes and kill them, I don't see it. He's an idiot I get it, but why would he do the actual things he despises? I don't know. Also, the way I see the character of Compton, he isn't particularly violent in himself, he's a businessman loving his money, he doesn't care that much for te hippies, so why the hell would he go on a killing rampage also? How could Joe convince him of that? I don't see it. I'd say that my favorite part is the interaction between Joe and Compton which basically are from 2 different world's (it particularly shows in the scene where Compton and his wife goes to dinner at Joe's house). It was a nice subtle and well written way to show class difference and how workers who make much less have a different culture, etc. But it wasn't really the point of the film. Also, I have to say the ending was shocking, I didn't see it coming (that Compton would kill his daughter).

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