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Themroc (1973) -


This wasn't an easy watch, but even though it's a hard film to recommend, I did enjoy a couple things about it and thought it was competently directed.

To get my issues out of the way, I thought many scenes dragged on for too long. While the film became more watchable and focused once Themroc started destroying his apartment, I also thought many scenes throughout the final hour or so could've been tightened up. The initial conflict with the police, Themroc interfering with a man laying bricks outside his apartment, and the final scene made for some nice humor, but I didn't find these scenes as humorous as the movie did. More often than not, sequences like these overstayed their welcome, in part due to the film's one dimensional themes. I also didn't care for the frequent female nudity. The constant nude shots of Themroc's sister were unnecessary and got tiring after a while. In fact, the film contained no male nudity to balance any of this out. Like, yeah, there were a few scenes where it showed some male actors with no clothes on, but they were only shown from the waist up, at most.

In spite of those issues though, I'd still give this film a loose recommendation. As mentioned earlier, its themes on rebelling against society are one dimensional, but I did find the exploration of this one dimension amusing at times, with its one note constantly increasing in weirdness as it rolled along. My favorite part of the final hour was watching Themroc's apartment and the streets below him grow progressively more beaten up and polluted. It recalled the second part of Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks with how this progression made the film feel post-apocalyptic. I also found the incompetence of the police quite humorous, failing to stop Themroc multiple times and oftentimes simply standing around as he and his neighbors destroyed more things.

Overall, while this film is flawed, I enjoyed enough about it to think it was competent. I don't know of many people I'd recommend this to, but if you enjoy these kinds of films, I'd recommend giving it a go.
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The Long Riders (1980)

A weirdly paced western about Jesse James and his gang. It relies too much on its gimmick (all brothers are played by real brothers) and feels like a collection of random scenes instead of a story. In a way, it's The Wild Bunch lite with the blood spurts and slow-motion shoot-outs and all.
I'm in the minority here, but as far as Wild Bunch influenced Walter Hill movies go, I enjoyed Extreme Prejudice quite a bit more.*Bloodier climax, Powers Boothe in a dirty as hell white suit, Nick Mother****ing Note, what's not to dig?



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
The Train (1964) -




WARNING: "The Train" spoilers below
What's the cost of art? Is dying for art worth it? Obviously, art represents the nation and its people. It's got cultural significance, it represents a spirit.

It's almost grotesque how snobbish and dogged von Waldheim is. He doesn't really care about human life, German lives incl., and he's just fixed on getting those paintings across the border. It's degenerate art, thought trash by Nazi, which makes it even more interesting. To other Germans, von Waldheim states that the art can be sold, which can help Germany's war effort, but privately he seems to be a connoisseur and wants these paintings for himself. His snobbish speech toward the end is quite preposterous!

Both Germans and French are willing to take many lives for art, and the shots of box crates juxtaposed to the shots of dead people at the end of the film are quite striking. The film's plot isn't complicated. We get the motivations of the protagonists within the first 15 minutes or so. What's really interesting is the spectacle, or another bizarre juxtaposition: man versus machine. Men are fragile, tiny. Trains are large metal beasts, hoofing and poofing as they speed up, hard brake, or get derailed. The metal beast, the German war machine can and was stopped. In part by people like Labiche. Stopping the train was a victory of sorts but what a bitter victory! Crates full of priceless paintings scattered next to a derailed train and a pile of bodies. In war, there are no winners and losers; only losers.


Gone Girl (2014) -




Really hated the first 30-odd minutes, but then kinda got into it. Many people's problem with Gone Girl seems to be that it's misogynist in its display of a woman character. I'm too tired of this "portrayal of a single character is (not) a portrayal of a group" thing, and I don't really care. The ending is probably the best argument these guys can present anyway. Gone Girl works fine as a thriller but it's too long and took me some time to stop vehemently hating its characters. Paradoxically, the more assholish/psycho they were revealed to be, the less I hated them because after some point is reached you actually start liking characters like this, partly in an ironic way. Case in point: Anthony Wong in Ebola Hunter or The Untold Story. All in all, an okayish film.

賭聖2之街頭賭聖 [The Saint of Gamblers] (1995) -







Jing Wong films are my cinematic happy place and you can't do anything about it, haters! Two Michael Jacksons!!! xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Chingmy Yau marry me please. ;_;

豹妹 [Her Name Is Cat] (1998) -




I like me some cheesy trash once (or rather five times) in a while. Needed nudity but still gr8 cheese. Michael Wong is so cheesy with his insecure-sounding voice. The Wong Kar-Wai & John Woo inspirations are cheesy, too. Lots of cheese and cheese. CHEESIEST FILM OF ALL TIME!!!!!111

異常性愛記録 ハレンチ [‎Shameless: Abnormal and Abusive Love] (1969) -




Teruo Ishii doesn't care about PC!!! This has woman beating but also cross-dressing (SIC!). My favorite scene is a guy saying "I wanna marry you, you're the world for me" while taking a poo and forcing the girl to watch him. Been a while since I've seen such a f*cked up psycho in cinema and trust me I've seen some psychos lately!
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



I enjoyed Gone Girl in theatres thanks to Fincher's craft, and I think it's a decent media satire with the pileup of twists revealing new depths to the characters' stupidity and moral bankruptcy, forcing you to completely reorient yourself with respect to the narrative. But I've really soured on it over the years, thanks to people treating it like it's some brilliant gender satire (including seeing some really baffling internet drama break out over different readings of the film), combined with Fincher's mix of smugness and nihilism.


You bring up those Herman Yau movies, but they don't pat themselves on the back like Gone Girl does.



TBH the only Finchers I can see myself willingly returning to are Alien 3 and Zodiac, where the genre trappings and real world setting, respectively, temper the nihilism. And I do love Mindhunter.



Oh, and The Train is really good, but I don't have anything smart to add.



I enjoyed Gone Girl in theatres thanks to Fincher's craft, and I think it's a decent media satire with the pileup of twists revealing new depths to the characters' stupidity and moral bankruptcy, forcing you to completely reorient yourself with respect to the narrative. But I've really soured on it over the years, thanks to people treating it like it's some brilliant gender satire (including seeing some really baffling internet drama break out over different readings of the film), combined with Fincher's mix of smugness and nihilism.
Yeah, there were enough attempts at essentializing the gender roles, and interpretations on "the cool girl" that went both positive ("feminist manifesto") and negative ("death of feminism"), to respond to the film in that light.

I'm more on board with your latter comment. I thought it was just mean-spirited exploitation.



I enjoyed Gone Girl in theatres thanks to Fincher's craft, and I think it's a decent media satire with the pileup of twists revealing new depths to the characters' stupidity and moral bankruptcy, forcing you to completely reorient yourself with respect to the narrative. But I've really soured on it over the years, thanks to people treating it like it's some brilliant gender satire (including seeing some really baffling internet drama break out over different readings of the film), combined with Fincher's mix of smugness and nihilism.


You bring up those Herman Yau movies, but they don't pat themselves on the back like Gone Girl does.



TBH the only Finchers I can see myself willingly returning to are Alien 3 and Zodiac, where the genre trappings and real world setting, respectively, temper the nihilism. And I do love Mindhunter.
Gone Girl IS a brilliant gender satire though. It’s also not a movie to take particularly seriously.

It however, like Midsommar, it is not an endorsement of any particular gender idea nor is it a celebration of any particular ideology.*

It’s more like a self aware Lifetime film with superb craft. It’s awesome.



Gone Girl IS a brilliant gender satire though. It’s also not a movie to take particularly seriously.

It however, like Midsommar, it is not an endorsement of any particular gender idea nor is it a celebration of any particular ideology.*

It’s more like a self aware Lifetime film with superb craft. It’s awesome.
Your Lifetime comment seems accurate, but I'm not sure I equate that to brilliant satire.*







Snooze factor = Z



[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it





Invincible (2021)


The deconstruction of the Superman mythos is nothing new neither is the animated Comic series. Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) has put together a distinctive and powerful story that elevates the genre. Mark Grayson is the son on Omi-Man who finally gets his powers, the next eight episodes are a winding road of suspense, surprise and heart.

The vocal acting here is fantastic, JK Simmons, Steven Yeun, Sandra Oh, Mark Hamill, Walton Goggins, Gillian Jacobs, Zach Quinto, Clancy Brown, Marshala Ali and even Seth Rogan are really good in this. And the pacing, scoring, world building and writing are top notch. This could be watched as an 8 hour film and you will be rewarded by the character development.

The show isn't perfect though, while the story feels like it's shot in widescreen the backgrounds are lacking movement. The action scenes are great but they could be better and one character is really a flat tire on the story. But what's crazy to me about this series is you could spin off a dozen characters and tell great stories and series.



...
Looking back, I'm surprised at the many scores of films he did. One that always sticks out in my mind is Requiem For a Heavyweight (1962) with Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason. Really first rate. He was a riot in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) playing a Japanese man.
...
I was waiting to see how many wokesters would chime in to diss a 20th Century actor and role with 21st Century fashionable notions. Only two. Not as bad as I'd thought...



Your Lifetime comment seems accurate, but I'm not sure I equate that to brilliant satire.*
I find the subversion of the ridiculous lengths…

WARNING: spoilers below
a woman goes to in order to shift the public eye and socially accepted role for her husband to play the role she wants him to, when the default is more or less the default expectation, to be pretty hilarious and pointed in the same way the film spits in the eye of sensational media. Like Swift’s baby eating, it isn’t subtle or complex, but it certainly makes an impression and I have a lot of fun with it.


Even the choice of choosing a Lifetime-esque plot seems a part of that pointed attack, as that network lives and dies by reveling in the freak-show fascination of tabloid exploitation and pilfering real life for loose inspiration for schlocky melodrama. Apologies if that last bit isn’t entirely intelligible, I’m headachy and REFUSE to reread it and get caught in the rewrite vortex.

Long story short, Gone Girl,(and most of Fincher’s filmography) as the kids say, slaps




Gone Girl (2014) -




Really hated the first 30-odd minutes, but then kinda got into it. Many people's problem with Gone Girl seems to be that it's misogynist in its display of a woman character. I'm too tired of this "portrayal of a single character is (not) a portrayal of a group" thing, and I don't really care. The ending is probably the best argument these guys can present anyway. Gone Girl works fine as a thriller but it's too long and took me some time to stop vehemently hating its characters. Paradoxically, the more assholish/psycho they were revealed to be, the less I hated them because after some point is reached you actually start liking characters like this, partly in an ironic way. Case in point: Anthony Wong in Ebola Hunter or The Untold Story. All in all, an okayish film.

Yes the misogynist creator




I find the subversion of the ridiculous lengths…

WARNING: spoilers below
a woman goes to in order to shift the public eye and socially accepted role for her husband to play the role she wants him to, when the default is more or less the default expectation, to be pretty hilarious and pointed in the same way the film spits in the eye of sensational media. Like Swift’s baby eating, it isn’t subtle or complex, but it certainly makes an impression and I have a lot of fun with it.


Even the choice of choosing a Lifetime-esque plot seems a part of that pointed attack, as that network lives and dies by reveling in the freak-show fascination of tabloid exploitation and pilfering real life for loose inspiration for schlocky melodrama. Apologies if that last bit isn’t entirely intelligible, I’m headachy and REFUSE to reread it and get caught in the rewrite vortex.

Long story short, Gone Girl,(and most of Fincher’s filmography) as the kids say, slaps
Right, but you acknowledge that the satire is broad and glib by design, which I find the opposite of brilliant. At this point I'm quibbling with definitions, but I also hopelessly associate the movie with a lot of obnoxious interneting, so you'll forgive my irrationality here.


I will concede that to the extent that the movie does slap (as the kids say), it's thanks to Fincher's technical finesse. But the movie did not slap me.



Hellraiser

“Jesus wept”

Can’t believe I was allowed to watch this as a child so many times, what was wrong with my parents

Like a comfort blanket.. Sadistic demons and S&M.

I turned out okay. Sort of.
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Do you know what a roller pigeon is, Barney? They climb high and fast, then roll over and fall just as fast toward the earth. There are shallow rollers and deep rollers. You can’t breed two deep rollers, or their young will roll all the way down, hit, and die. Officer Starling is a deep roller, Barney. We should hope one of her parents was not.



”Greenland” - 8/10

Far superior to “Armeggedon” or “Deep Impact”. Felt this one took it to a believable level, given the subject matter. If I had a top disaster film list, this would be on it.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
義蓋雲天 [A Hearty Response] (1986) -



Finally found the source of that Joey Wong with mustache picture!

POV: Joey Wong gets hit by a car and starts pretending she's your wife upon waking up. Obviously, she has some ulterior motive, but you decide to play along because you feel sorry for her plus, I mean, she's Joey Wong. Very nasty and uncomfortable rape scene toward the end. I'm quite used to this kinda stuff but still made me feel uneasy. Maybe because she's my crush.

斬、 [Killing] (2018) -




Just freakin' great. Another one of my crushes - Yu Aoi - got raped. Why did I stumble upon two films in which my crushes get raped in just one day? ;_;

野火 [Fires on the Plain] (2014) -




Great! Finally, a film, in which my crush doesn't get raped. Even better, a film, in which nobody gets raped. Sadly, also a film that doesn't have any of my crushes. Even sadder still, a film, in which people get shot, blown up, and cannibalized. F*ck my life. Seriously, though, I should have rewatched Ichikawa's film before to compare the two adaptations of the novel, but I was too lazy to do that, and now I can't really do that and write anything smart like "Tsukamoto's approach is much more naturalistic".