list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

The Art of War II: Betrayal

Mediocre sequel to the fairly good first one, the best thing here is of course Wesley Snipes, his strong presence and spritely martial arts skills.   The rest is bland and easily forgotten.

Atavachron wrote: I greatly admire his body of work and agree Misty is a kind of masterpiece though I never thought so in my youth, it seemed blah and silly compared to modern films, and only later I realized why it's so effective (the stalker flick that started it all), The Beguiled, Escape From Alcatraz good too.   And of course his Spaghettis are the best.   I find his later stuff inconsistent but very much liked Unforgiven .

There is indeed something very unnerving and uncomfortable about that stalker, and the manner in which it's communicated on screen is, imo, a small stroke of cinematic genius. People looking for Dirty Harry or other such Don Siegel masculinity will be let-down if they're looking for the same thing though. The "explosions" in the movie are far more subtle. Not exactly what you'd guess to find in his directing debut.

Btw, David, have you seen Million Dollar Baby? That was the one I was referring to earlier;-) A pseudo boxing movie, that succeeds in shining a no nonsense light on the sport. Especially the inner mechanics and beauty of it is captured to perfection in Morgan Freeman's old and wise voice overs. Oh how I love that man!

Two remakes: Ole Bornedal's 'The Night Watch' and 'Nikita' with Bridget Fonda.

Wow.... Why even bother? You have two brilliant original movies, that just so happen to be in French and Danish. Why make a remake just to add English?

The Night Watch sees Ewan McGregor taking on the role of Nikolaj Coster Waldau, the young night guard who is starting out in a morgue. While Ewan does a fine job of conveying the angst and natural fear of the films protagonist, that suddenly sees himself swept up in a nightmarish murder mystery that keeps leaving dead people around his work place, it never really manages to reach any of the highs of it's ancestor.
It lacks the bite of the original. There's no "spark". You can just tell how frustrated Bornedal must've been, when all he can do with the left over cash that presumably had to be spent, is tying black bin liners around the huge cypress trees in front of the morgue......for no obvious reason whatsoever. They're just there. Kinda like this movie...

The exact same thing can be said about the remake of Luc Besson's Nikita, although, in fairnesss, this was at least not the work of Besson. No no, here we are served with notorious shoot-em-up director John Badham, who is widely known for being just as lame as his last name.
There is no real and horrorfying violence, like the one found in the original. The one put there to illustrate something far more interesting: detachment. Again something that's completely missing from the Badham movie, at least the right kind of detachment. Everything about Badham is very much detached, maybe except for the action and kapow scenes, and that makes the original thought of the movie superfluous. The movie stops making sense, if you are watching it from the original maker's eyes, and that is a shame.

Edited by Guldbamsen - May 19 2014 at 03:48

I think that's why he worked so well with RZA for the Kill Bill flicks. They'd both seen the same movies! RZA used a lot of samples from them in early Wu Tang too.
All the movies you mention there are top dollar. I still think Drunken Master holds the finest fighting scenes though:-P

I liked Hero a lot, but there has been too many of the same films made to look like it.
The Grandmaster is one I haven't seen. I'll make a note of it though:-)

Yes that and the original Monty Python's Flying Circus run again. I don't know how it is over there, but here in DK we never get to see the real show. Always hapdash compilation shows or the two long movies...sigh

I can relate. Back when they used to show fishtanks or a simple clock just to pass time. Those were the days...

But now we've got... *drum roll*.......wait for it....... TADAAAHH commercials!!!! Let's all go buy some crap, that we'll never use!

Atavachron wrote: Earthlings Horrifying and deeply disturbing film from 2005 on how animals are really treated in the names of science, food, medicine, pets, and entertainment.   Far worse than any prison camps or gulags, the reality of animal breeding for use by man, as well as the rape of the world's oceans, is illustrated in undeniable vividness.

Edited by AtomicCrimsonRush - May 19 2014 at 04:52

Thanks for noting that, Scott, my review got stuck at the page bottom and it is an important, if almost unwatchable, film.

Atavachron wrote: Thanks for noting that, Scott, my review got stuck at the page bottom and it is an important, if almost unwatchable, film.