JayDee's Movie Musings

I think the first watch will be more fun!

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Fear and Loathing in MoFo... The Gunslinger 45's Top 50 Favorite Films

In the 10 Ring: Gunslinger45's reviews

I watched it with Miss Vicky during her first watch.

Well I just ordered the DVD so now we wait.

It's there for the other 50% of the population. Seriously. That's, pretty much, the reason for all pointless romances in Hollywood films and/or English language films in general. The moneymen worry about how they'll sell their product to women and think that a romance is the easiest/best sell. If they can get a woman that other women like to watch, so much the better.

Loving these films, JD. Shame you're not watching stuff as good or as interesting as this of late. I'm also pleased to see how much you enjoyed Good Will Hunting.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Another batch, this time just a general mix












Talk about a film going out on a sour note! I had been greatly enjoying this little film right up until the ending which left me completely dejected. It had perhaps been heading for something around the 3.5 mark but had to drop it to at least a 3 after that conclusion. Up until then Timer had provided a novel, interesting and fun twist on the romantic comedy, replete with quite a few laughs and a sweet romance. The plot details a piece of technology, a timer, which informs you when you are going to meet your soul mate. The film never really explains how it works but that's probably for the best. After all there's no really plausible reason to explain it. The film's greatest asset is Emma Caulfield. Known to most people on here I assume as bunny-hating Anya from Buffy she is just lovely. With beauty, charm and comic timing she really does deserve to be a much bigger star than she is. The reason that the ending was such a punch in the gut for me was that in my eyes the film had been a tale of not taking a scientific approach to love, about following your heart and not your head and not restricting yourself to a certain type of individual or circumstance. And then the ending just went completely the opposite direction with it.









Warm Bodies is fun and surprisingly sweet little flick. I certainly wouldn't call it a hilarious film but I did find a few laughs in there. And I liked some of the film's little facets such as the zombies eating brains to gain the memories of their victims, and the fact that R is a bit of a pack rat just like Wall-e. Considering that for much of the film he is unable to string together a sentence of more than 3 words, Nicholas Hoult does a very good job at creating a pretty endearing character in his zombie, R. Teresa Palmer is lovely and attractive as the apple of R's eye, Julie, and together they actually form a rather sweet romance despite how ridiculous it sounds. Rubbing blood and guts on someone's face has never been so romantic! With their forbidden love and even a balcony scene Warm Bodies is very much like Romeo & Juliet. Except you know, with zombies! Analeigh Tipton is also a bit of a delight as Julie's friend. I was rather expecting a small, cheap little effort for some reason so I was pleasantly surprised to find that on a number of technical levels the film was really quite impressive at creating a decent zombie world. The make-up, special effects and set design all did a nice job.








I'll be honest and say that the rating I've given there is a little bit of a guess. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this film as it certainly wasn't your typical movie experience. It's story is really quite minimal as are its levels of characterisation, relationships etc. And I didn't really form any great connection to its story, I didn't find it to be a life-changing, religious experience like some people appear to. Though just on the simple level of an adventure film it works quite well. While I can understand the need for the narrator in terms of framing the story it feels rather clunky on occasion and maybe it was just me but I felt that the end was a little lifeless. All of that is rather redundant however because of one thing. It looks absolutely astonishing! I'm honestly struggling to think of anything I've ever seen before that is anything like it. Its cinematography and its mind-blowing effects create some truly stunning images. The CGI that brings the animals to life, the luminescence that frequently envelops the screen, the fantasy sequences, the moments where the ocean and the sky seem to merge. It is a truly beautiful thing to behold and in terms of its visuals Life of Pi is a ground-breaking, landmark film. For me they created a sort of hypnotic, soothing, peaceful sensation within me, making it a very pleasing experience to watch it. I can see why people love this film, and perhaps one day I will as well.









You're unlikely to be blown away by the originality of The Warrior, or even find any originality whatsoever for that matter. We've seen the story numerous times before and it's basically Rocky set in the MMA world; except that this time out we don't just have one underdog story, but two. We know exactly where the story is going to go at every turn and you have to suspend your sense of disbelief to go along with its rather far-fetched developments. And it ends up in a rather sentimental, corny place. However in a way the plot doesn't matter all that much, it just acts as the background to tell this story of how your childhood can define you. The two men nearly destroy each other as a result of their past with their father. And it's all told with such a raw intensity and a guttural power. And its fights are pretty damn brutal. The performances across the board are impressive and very powerful. Tom Hardy is like a wild, uncompromising animal as Tommy while Joel Edgerton brings a lot of heart as Brendan. As their father, Nolte gives a very emotional showing, although thank goodness for subtitles otherwise I don't think I'd have understood a single thing he said. While I was also rather impressed by Jennifer Morrison in the role of Brendan's wife.








Delightful! Absolutely, positively delightful! I've fancied this one for a while and it certainly lived up to my hopes and expectations for it. The stop-motion approach that is employed for the film works tremendously well for the material, so much so that afterwards it's impossible to picture the film being made in any other fashion. Even in its unique form there is really no mistaking Fantastic Mr. Fox for anything other than a Wes Anderson film. By populating the world created by Dahl with his typically quirky characters and dysfunctional family dynamics he has perhaps made the most satisfying film of his career. It even looks like one of his films in terms of set design and colour schemes etc; he does a great job with the direction that makes the film a whole lot of fun. There are also some great touches on the soundtrack, particularly with some fun nods to Ennio Morricone's spaghetti westerns work. Given the story's roots it may seem like the obvious choice for the voice cast was to go very British, and casting the likes of George Clooney may seem strange. But it works perfectly, particularly in the case of Clooney. He's got a voice that is easy to picture belonging to some con man of the 1930s or 40s (in fact there's more than a touch of O Brother Where Art Thou going on here) and it fits perfectly for the daring thief that Mr Fox is. I'd say that Fantastic Mr. Fox has a chance of becoming a real favourite of mine. Excellent stuff

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I'm with ya on Life of Pi (although I think I liked it a bit better than you did) and Fantastic Mr. Fox (I so love that movie, but you lost me with The Warrior. I didn't like that much at all.

Life of Pi is a very good film, one of my favourites from the year, and Fantastic Mr. Fox has always been a favourite of mine, great film.

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There is much wisdom in this post

Back to the C21st. Back to virtually zero interest levels. Sorry.

Though I can't say I have seen any of the movies you just listed.

Have only seen Fantastic Mr. Fox, which I didn't care for at all.

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The only one I saw from your last set is Warrior; I watched it only because it's Masterman's favorite movie, and I absolutely loved it. I usually don't like movies like that, and everything you said about it being corny and predictable is accurate, but it blew me away and it felt great.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is just plain awesomeness. It's probably in my top ten favorite animated films of all time and next to Moonrise Kingdom, it's my favorite Wes Anderson film. LOVE it!

I'm very glad to see that you enjoyed it just as much.

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

Think this will do for the micro musings just now. Still got a few more recent ones kicking about but this is all those that have been kicking about for months and months













Best film ever? Well maybe not quite but contrary to general opinion I thought this was actually great fun. A large factor on that front is certainly its cast. Slater and Freeman aren’t exactly stretched to the limits of their ability but both are very fun and likeable. And there’s the delightful bonus of having the legendary Betty White pop up in a sort of extended cameo as a crotchety resident of the town. She’s brilliant. In technical terms Hard Rain was actually very impressive, to a really surprising level in fact. It opens with an epic and rather astonishing tracking shot that sweeps over the town's dam, across large areas of flooded farmland, into the town and through the flooded streets in a single take. It's like Orson Welles is in charge of this s*it! And then throughout the whole film I was constantly left wondering “how the f*ck did they do that?!” The whole film takes place under three feet of water, not just one location like a ship as we’ve seen before but everywhere; every location and throughout every street of the whole town. Over the decades loads of action films have been released, and I’ve seen my fair share, so it’s rare that you ever come across something original. Well Hard Rain features a water ski chase through the flooded corridors of a school. That was most certainly something I had never seen before, and outside of this film I doubt anyone else has either. I’m really surprised that there doesn’t seem to be a bit more love for this film. I’m not saying in general it’s a great film but as an action film I think it’s got a lot going for it and I’m surprised it’s not more popular amongst fans of the genre. I will say that I wouldn’t be surprised if my score dropped (perhaps considerably) with future viewings. I think I just caught it in the perfect mood, it was exactly the film I was looking for at the time. If I were to watch it again in a few months time I might ask myself what the hell I was thinking/smoking!









A ridiculous but highly enjoyable film. It's very much a standard cop crime film concerning drugs, except that a couple of aliens crashland on Earth and instigate themselves in the story. The aliens using humans as guinea pigs to create a drug is a great concept. It's got some fun over-the-top action and decent performances from Lundgren, Benben and some of the supporting cast. It's also pretty funny in places. Whenever I watch an old Dolph Lundgren film I always wonder, why didn't this guy ever become a bigger star than he did? I mean let's compare him to Arnold Schwarzenegger for instance. Both big guys, both foreign, but on a few levels I'd say Dolph tops him. Lundgren may not have quite the same screen presence but I'd say he was perhaps a more natural actor (certainly at this stage), he had good comic timing, a much softer accent and while Arnold only had his muscles to convince us he was a bad-ass Lundgren had his background in karate, meaning he could bring a real interest to his fight scenes. I think he just didn't have luck on his side, he never got his great movie that would have made him a star. Yes there was Rocky IV but that was still Stallone's film. Had he gotten something along the lines of a Terminator (Schwarzenegger), a Die Hard (Willis) or a First Blood (Stallone) he could have been right up there alongside them instead of getting the films they had usually passed on.








This is a pretty bad movie. Scratch that, it's a very bad movie! And yet it's so dumb and cheesy that I couldn't help but enjoy it to a degree. The Specialist is almost like a blending of two completely different movies. When Stallone or Woods are on screen you have very much a classic example of the action movie, if a rather pedestrian one. Whenever Sharon Stone appears however the film frequently has a tendency to take on the appearance of a softcore adult movie (not that I'd know what one looks like of course! ). The picture tends to go rather steamy and sexy, the camera gropes its way along her body and we get constant little tempting glimpses of sex and nudity. It makes for an interesting partnership between the two styles. Stallone is solid enough in the lead role although he really isn't given a great deal to work with to make us care for the character. He has no emotional backstory, he doesn't deliver one-liners in the classic action movie tradition etc. James Woods and Eric Roberts prove to be quite good fun with their despicable characters, Woods in particular giving his character a lot of charisma.








This seems to one of Arnold's lesser loved and talked about films, and admittedly just a lesser film in general, but I've got to say I found it really rather enjoyable. The main hook of Eraser certainly comes in the form of its hi-tech, futuristic weaponry, and I have to admit they were pretty cool in terms of design and how they were realised on screen through the special effects. It's just a shame that they weren't featured more often and that there wasn't a larger variety of weapons. All we get are the awesome rail-guns which produce a sort of sonic wave blast like something out of a sci-fi flick, and the drillbit launcher which is like a grenade which fires out dozens of nasty spikes. As I said the effects that render the features of the rail-gun work well, and there are a few other occasions where the effects still hold up. There are also occasions unfortunately where they look decidedly ropey, most notably in the form of some CGI crocodiles. It's got a couple of great, nicely choreographed action set-pieces including a rather ridiculous sequence aboard a plane. While the film is not as heavy on one-liners and puns as the typical Arnie film, Eraser does still retain a sense of humour, mostly found through Robert Pastorelli's mobster turned witness. There's also a fun moment where Arnie crash lands after jumping out of a plane and a kid treats him like an alien. Oh and I just remembered Arnie does actually get to deliver a single one-liner...to a crocodile! After shooting the croc Arnie remarks to it, “You're luggage!” Arnie is fine as always in a typical Arnie performance although I felt that Vanessa Williams was a touch bland but mostly ok. James Caan is good fun as the villain of the piece though, as is Pastorelli as the comic relief.









This is a really trashy, really clichéd slice of 90s action/revenge. So of course I really liked it! The film is immensely over-the-top and ludicrous, and somehow manages to get even more preposterous the longer it goes. What really makes it worthwhile is its two stars. Denzel Washington shows what it means to be a top actor, getting a great deal of mileage out of a very simplistic character. But without a doubt the main draw for me was another chance to see the great John Lithgow once again hamming it up in a deliciously evil villain role. He’s just so awesome as the bad guy. Oh and some of the dialogue that he is gifted by the script? Tremendous! At one point a prison guard jokes that he hopes Lithgow has remembered to floss. Lithgow’s response? “I did. With your wife’s pubic hair!” And then at his parole hearing when asked what he would do if he was released he tells the parole board official that he’ll pay a visit to his house to “f*ck your wife. And your daughter. Hell, maybe even your dog.” Those are just a couple of examples and Lithgow spouts each with absolute relish. The film also delivers some delightfully lurid thrills outwith its dialogue. There’s a bizarre gladiatorial battle between Lithgow and a fellow inmate where they tape magazines and books to themselves as armour before commencing the fight. And during a prison escape Lithgow and his fellow inmates attack their guards with power tools that include an electric drill and a buzzsaw. Nice and grisly. So Ricochet is cheap, trashy and stupid. And really rather fun!








Soldier clearly had a decent budget at its disposal, as can be seen from its impressive CGI and set design. And yet due to the amateurish nature of much of the film (directing, writing, acting etc) in the end it actually comes across feeling really quite cheap. Its plot is immensely simplistic and the whole film constantly feels like it has the ambition and intelligence of a plot from a first-person shooter video game. It hits every cliché of the genre and completely lacks in any creativity or original thought. Only the occasional bit of fun action provides some relief. One major problem with the film was how it utilised its cast and its characters. You cast Kurt Russell, a very charming and likeable actor, and then give him barely any dialogue or range of emotions. And even worse you cast Gary Busey and have him play a sensible, level-headed character! I mean the whole point of casting Busey in a film should be to get a fun, over-the-top, immensely colourful performance. Very poor.

Ricochet is definitely the best of that group, mainly for its sick sense of humor.

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I don't care what movie he is in, you put Dolph Lundgren in a movie and I WILL watch it! I Come in Peace being one of my favorite Lundgren flicks!

I saw Ricochet when it came out, and you're right, it is good fun. That's the only one I saw from the last set, although I'm going to give Hard Rain a try; it's on all the time.

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I don't know what to say about that set Jay Dee. The rep is for the effort of sitting through these films.

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Apologies for being MIA the last few days people. Will try and be back tomorrow