Movies I Have Seen Lately

[The Baron]

Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

I may have to turn in my geek card...but I have never been able to watch Buckaroo Banzai all of the way through.  It's one of the those things, like Highlander, that I just don't get even though friends and other people I like love it.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

I saw it with a group of school friends during my second or third year of college. I liked it so much, my brother and I went back to see it again a few days later. I bought it on VHS and DVD. I own the original paperback adaptation, too. It's one of my all-time favorites. It might give you a little insight into my tastes because it hit me square on.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

Tim...BB or Highlander?

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Sorry, I meant The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension. As Henry said, it's a tribute to Doc Savage, and I think it's a good one.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

It's funny how something can hit you just right and bounce off others.  I went with some college friends to Joe vs the Volcano when it was in theaters and came out saying..."Man, that was pretty much my perfect movie." and receiving blank stares from everyone else.  They all disliked to outright hated it. 

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

I like Doc Savage, but can't stand Peter Weller as an actor...maybe that's why I couldn't connect the two. 

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

You're right about the way things hit for some people and not for others. I loved Flaming Carrot Comics, too, but I was among few there. Since we're both Doctor Who fans, we're used to it, eh?

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

See, I like Peter Weller. I really liked him in an episode of Longmire a few weeks ago. I like Ellen Barkin. I even like Jeff Goldblum much of the time. I liked Clancy Brown in Banzai and Highlander.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Doc Beechler (mod-MD) said:

What about The Hunger Games?

Oh, I liked it. I just don't have enough to say about it to warrant starting a discussion. If I were in junior high or high school when it came out, I could easily see myself embracing it as my own. I do consider Alien, OTOH, as "mine," and Prometheus is right in my wheelhouse.

I've never seen Buckeroo Banzai. this is the first time I've ever heard it had anything to do with Doc Savage. I wanted to see Ron Ely's Doc Savage movie so bad in 1976 I could taste it, but I didn't get the chance. I watched it for the first time on VHS just a few years ago and... let's just say it is not what I was expecting. Someone still needs to make a good Doc Savage movie.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Jeff, I'll recommend Banzai, especially if you can get Tracy into a silly mood.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

If he can get Tracy into a silly mood...maybe watching movies isn't what they should be doing.  Ammiright?

[Doctor Hmmm?]

Banzai (which I haven't seen in decades -- not just years, decades) is running on one or another of the Encore channels all the time.  And I know for a fact that Doc Savage is on my TiVo To Do list for sometime in the next week or so (I just can't remember when or what channel).