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.

[Henry R. Kujawa]

"I watched the first part of New Adventures over the weekend, and was struck by how much Brix/Bennett looks like Ron Ely, especially in profile."

That I never noticed... but way back, it struck me that of all the various Tarzans, that I could most easily believe that Ron Ely and Jock Mahoney were playing the SAME version-- only at different ages, with Mahoney being an older, tougher version.  It's not that they look alike-- but their characters just seem the most similar.  (Ron Ely slowly evolves into a tougher character over the course of his 2 TV seasons.)

Considering it was Sy Weintraub's decision to replace Gordon Scott (but only after doing 2 very successful movies with him), I found myself wondering if he hadn't done that, if we might have wound up with Gordon Scott doing the TV series in '66-'68.

[Kirk G]

I saw Wrath of the Titans (the sequel to Sam WOrthington's hit of a few years ago) and liked it mostly. See my comments in Mr. S.A.'s forum on why it reminds me of the early Avengers stories.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

Behind That Curtain (1929) 

The oldest Charlie Chan film still in existence -- that is to say, not "lost" -- is barely a Chan film at all.  Charlie shows up in the last few minutes purely to play second fiddle/assistant to the Scotland Yard detective who's been running the "investigation" -- such as it is -- for the previous 80 minutes.  I say "investigation" because the film isn't really a mystery, either.  It's mainly a melodrama about a heiress who realizes too late that she's married a cad (and a murderer) and turned away a better man.  (SPOILER: The cad dies -- at Charlie's (offscreen) hands!!! --- and the good guy gets the girl.)  One of the few Chan films to cast an Asian actor as Charlie, though.

This one's mostly notable for a (very) brief appearance by Boris Karloff as the good guy's faithful Arab servant -- so brief, the character doesn't even merit a name.  IMDb credits the role as "Beetham's Manservant."

 

[PapaLouANowNow]

Pre-Frankie didn't Boris play "Quebec trapper" Villians a lot? Ooh la la!!!

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I saw The Raid this morning. It's a Korean film that has recently been released in the US. It's a fun, fast paced action flick. Pretty violent, so it might not be for everyone. It's intense the whole way through.

[Chris Fluit]

Watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2 today with the girls. 

[Kirk G]

now that's a marathon H.P. session if I ever heard one.  My wfie went to see Mirror, Mirror with my daughter tonight, giving me an opportunity to have "the Talk" with my teenaged son tonight.  It went fairly well, but they walked in on it, so we dropped it.

[Henry R. Kujawa]

I liked DEATHLY HOLLOWS Part 1 so much I went to see it twice (and I've been to almost no movies at all the last few years).  Part 2 I only saw once. Later read online how most fans seemed to feel that after splitting the novel in two to finally do one of the "longer" ones "right", they did Part 1 great justice... and totally screwed over Part 2. How does a thing like that happen?

In any case, I was so glad I had no idea where the story was going (or supposed to go) before seeing the films. It allowed me to enjoy them (or not) entirely on their own terms.

[Chris Fluit]

Wow!  I have the almost opposite reaction.  I loved Part 2.  I love the epic battle scenes and the great story arcs for supporting characters like Neville Longbottom (the true hero).  But Part 1 really dragged for me, especially this second time through.  That's mostly the fault of the book as the main characters spend a lot of time doing nothing while they figure out what to do next.  There's good stuff in Part 1- the cartoon effects for the three brothers story was very cool- but I'd take Part 2 in a heartbeat.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Jason , IIRC , I saw the beginning of - but left , phhysically having to blow it off - The Raid , which I believe is Indonesian , at this thing called " The Secret Film Festival " in SC this moring , there may not be any promo/description up for it anymore:-( , so.........

Jason Marconnet said:

I saw The Raid this morning. It's a Korean film that has recently been released in the US. It's a fun, fast paced action flick. Pretty violent, so it might not be for everyone. It's intense the whole way through.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

The Black Camel (1931)

Waitaminnit!  Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye?  There's your answer right there, Inspector Chan!

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

You're right, it's Indonesian.
The film is about 20 cops in the SWAT team who raid a condemned building run by a crime lord to arrest said crime lord. He rents the rooms out to various undesirable types. So when the team's cover is blown. All hell breaks loose. The fil centers on a rookies cop who is part of the raid. Lots of shoot outs at first then lots of hand to hand combat.

Emerkeith Davyjack said:

...Jason , IIRC , I saw the beginning of - but left , phhysically having to blow it off - The Raid , which I believe is Indonesian , at this thing called " The Secret Film Festival " in SC this moring , there may not be any promo/description up for it anymore:-( , so.........

Jason Marconnet said:

I saw The Raid this morning. It's a Korean film that has recently been released in the US. It's a fun, fast paced action flick. Pretty violent, so it might not be for everyone. It's intense the whole way through.