Kris

Kris, why did you have to remind me of "I Come in Peace"? Dolph Lundgren and Brian Benben (Dream On) team up to stop an intergalactic crack head who feeds off peoples endorphines and goes around saying, "I come in peace" to everyone.

Towards the end the alien says his line, then Dolph right before shooting him with a space gun says, "and you go in pieces, asshole!"

 

oh my, why must the crap stay in my head? :icon_cry:

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Its called "sadism"....

but hey, i come in peace.

Quite honestly, I enjoyed the hell out of many of those movies, Kris

 

They're so so bad its hilarious, they're gory, many of them are rarely boring......its fun times with a bunch of buddies, a sixpack or two and the right mood.

 

Of course some of them are just plain bad.

Oh definitely, most of Arnold Schwarzenegger's action movies during the 80s were stultifyingly awful but enjoyable i.e Commando, The Running Man, Red Heat and Raw Deal being the prime suspects.

I am not a fan of any of those terrible martial arts movies that appeared during the late 80s/early 90s with Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme, Michael Dudikoff, Jerry Trimble or Cynthia Rothrock in them.

Just thinking though, Sethos mentioned the likes of Aliens, The Terminator and The Last Boy Scout being some of the best American action movies ever made and i wouldn't dispute or argue against those opinions but two glaringly obvious omissions from everyone's lists was Robocop and Total Recall, which IMO were both fucking great action flicks...shame on you all.

Rutger Hauer is the coolest dutch guy who ever lived.

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Rutger Hauer is alright, the last movie i saw him in before he disappeared into straight to video oblivion during the 90s was in this enjoyable but badly acted piece of movie trash...

While we're on the subject of European actors and actressesr, i also remember one Dutch actress called Renee Soutendijk and this really awful attempt at making a female version of The Terminator which she starred in with the late Gregory Hines back in the early 90s called Eve Of Destruction...

Another extremely shitty action film around the same time i remember when i was in my teens was this Dolph Lundgren sci-fi movie called Dark Angel, which in the U.S was called "I Come In Peace" where he played a cop up against a psychopathic alien who looks like Peter Stringfellow with white contact lenses...

This one below featuring Christopher Lambert was particularly woeful...

Spider, you just invited me to up the ante....

10/10 for it myself, read it three times now and been mightily impressed, it certainly does read more like a Jamie Delano-penned tale than the kind of thing Mike Carey would normally do, however Mike Carey has written some cracking stand alone issues during his run of Hellblazer so yet another great story doesn't come as any surprise and not a demon in sight to be seen although Kenny Nelson seems like he might have been created by Satan himself.

The artwork wasn't a problem for me, it worked well with the mood Carey was trying to capture with this story but i wouldn't want to see Frazer Irving do the artwork all the time plus i don't think John Constantine really deserves to have an elongated Jimmy Hill chin or an Edward and Tubbs from League Of Gentlemen-esque nose after all he has been through in Hell.

and these....

You lousy bunch of fuckers, you're all sitting there in front of your computers and apparently discussing the best action movies ever made but you have the audacity to omit such classics as...

Mostly I've been plowing through the Kurosawa the last couple of weeks, but I think it's time head on over to the European side of things.  Really, I'm almost buying these things at random...haven't been let down thus far.

Just scanning the list now, lot of good titles i own on video myself in there...My Life As A Dog, Dead Ringers, The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor, Do The Right Thing, Knife In The Water, M, Maitresse, Man Bites Dog, My Own Private Idaho, Picnic At Hanging Rock, Peeping Tom, Rififi, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Short Cuts, Slacker, Tokyo Drifter... could go on, got all of John Cassavetes' movies as well

Is this too low cut to go out in?

It would be if i wore it.

I'm on a big Criterion Collection kick right now...namely, abusing my discount at work to pick up as many of these expensive DVD's as possible.

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Just had a look at their site, lot of good titles there...which ones have you bought so far?

To be fair, it wasn't all soul. Quite a lot of it was sentiment, too.

 

I more or less agree with you about Lola Rennt, but don't necessarily think that makes it an inferior piece of work to Amelie - which, while an excellent film which I enjoyed a great deal, I still feel is slightly overrated. It's a damn fine piece of work, but occasionally a little cloying in its sentimentality. It's also a little too shamelessly manipulative, and as a result I actually found myself less affected by it than I was by either Delicatessen or City Of Lost Children.

I think the term both of you are looking for is that Amelie is a "feel good movie" so soulfulness and sentimentality tend to go hand in hand in those type of movies anyway, i think the thing that propels Amelie over most Hollywood efforts is the Gallic humour, which is why i don't think its overly sweet with its sentimentality, there's a lot of black comedy in there and we are invited to laugh at tragedy from time to time but thats as much as i would expect from a film written by Jean Pierre Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant.

I also prefer Jeunet's earlier films Delicatessen and The City Of Lost Children but mainly for the reason that i am a fan of Dominique Pinon's work.

I love Amelie but I can certainly see where you are coming from (and also where James is coming from on Lola Rennt). but if you think Amelie is sentimental, you clearly haven't  seen A Very Long Engagement. at least as manipulative as anything Spielberg does, but somehow I'm more forgiving towards Jeunet than Spielberg. well, except when it comes to Alien Resurrection. which sucks tremendously.

 

that said, the ending of A Very Long Engagement manages to hold back on the big whopping sentimental stuff and is all the better for it.

And i am glad you said very little about A Very Long Engagement as i am currently awaiting its arrival in the post.

first half of the downfall (der untergang) extended version on tv.

as i expected after viewing trailers/clips, its nothing compared to really good german films (goodbye lenin, knocking on heavens door, lola rennt, es geschah am hellichten tag etc etc etc), and nothing compared to schindlers list, at least in acting, because this was my main problem: almost everybody acted bad, wheter too dramatizing or being too cold. or i havent got many times feelings for them. or the stage-like exteriors.

the other things were okay, the story, other point of view, clothings, props etc.

will add complete thoughts after watching the second part tomorrow.

its okay but i dont quite get the hype and how much it is beloved.

because i know many superb german and austrian films, and things like this are going to be successfull. hmpf.

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I thought the acting in Downfall was rather good if you ask me, for a film about the last days of Hitler's life i wasn't expecting Weekend At Bernie's. Bruno Ganz, whom i think is excellent in everything i have seen him i.e The American Friend, The Marquise Of O and the sequel to Wings Of Desire Faraway So Close! for examples, gave the best performance as Adolf Hitler that i have seen in a while, i thought Noah Taylor played a young Hitler fairly competently in Max but Ganz played Hitler as a man who was coming to accept defeat and realising his days were about to be numbered, i can't think of any other way other than cold and dramatic you'd want to play that kind of role if a person was in that situation.

I think the difference with Downfall is to any other movie i have seen about Hitler is that Hitler is played in such a theatrical way, in Ganz's performance there's some humanity in his performance, he runs through a whole gamut of emotions and doesn't ever descend into the usual histrionics most of us associate with any film where the character of Hitler appears.

I don't ever expect to relate to or feel any sympathy for Hitler but i think Downfall is an interesting film in the respect that it tries to show another side to the man and not just showing him as this evil lectern-thumping, goosestepping shouty monster is what i have always seen him being played as.

Never have I been more delighted to witness another human being's failure.

 

Though Harvey Weinstein comes across as an almost equally enormous bastard, in all sense of the phrase.

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I think Duffy truly got what he deserved, there's not one thing to like about a guy as odious and as loathsome as him, especially going as far as to alienate every person he knows because his desire for success has given him such a blinkered view of reality.

I also find it laughable that he believed The Boondock Saints was the "hottest fucking thing to be written in years", a straight to video, lower than average vigilante movie is merely what it is and its not even fit to stand alongside some of the worst Death Wish sequels, Duffy's direction is so bad that he makes Michael Winner look like an auteur and that is really saying something.

The people i felt most sorry for during the whole film was Duffy's brother and mother, from the get go whom were both quite cautious with their opinions where all the matters surrounding the movie in general were concerned and they genuinely look uncomfortable and embarrassed to be in the same room as Troy Duffy when that arrogant asshole starts kicking off with one of his many childish tantrums.

It didn't surprise me in the slightest that Harvey Weinstein reacted the way he did because Duffy was completely irrational and volatile in almost every meeting or phone call he was involved in, a guy with zero experience in the industry to be acting like that is something that would put any producer off working with an idiot like Duffy, Weinstein stuck his neck out for Duffy and Duffy acted like a prick in return, he definitely deserved to be treated like that by Weinstein.

Got a copy of this through the mail today...deary deary me, that Troy Duffy is a bit of a twat isn't he?.

I voted hot but we need more pics.

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Of the dog or Wolvy?

And here's a pic of me peering over the Dr. Who toys that sit on my computer desk.

Dude yer fuckin dog is HOT!

 

Just kidding, you're gonna make some mountain man a fine wife one day Wolvy.

 

:p

Tee hee.

I imagine these people are among the ones already queueing up for Wolvy's hand in marriage...

Happu hunting Wolvy!

I wasn't going to offer you any sympathy Kris. 

 

Now, what a perfect time to join our latest contest.  :lol:

Its not still that no-wanking contest thats never made any progress is it?

Man, Kris and I have agreed on this, Timothy Dalton as Bond, AND he sent me Dead Man's Shoes.  I think I've found my cinematic doppelganger.

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Our music tastes will scarily similar as well i remember too.

Whats going on with me?

Well, tonight, me and the now ex-ladyfriend decided to part company on amicable terms, things were a tad difficult as my working hours affect things a little bit, she works full-time during the day and i work nightshift so its been a little tough seeing each other but thankfully it didn't get so serious that anyone felt hurt by the split so its fine, we're still going to be friends and hang out from time to time but hell, the four months we had been seeing each other have been mostly fun and a good laugh with very little misunderstandings or arguments ruining things so can't complain really, we both think we make better friends than partners though so it seems reasonable to give it up this way.

But hey, i am not looking for sympathy or "there's plenty more fish in the sea" type comments, i am kind of relieved in a way because i wasn't really comfortable recently in this relationship and thought our work patterns were affecting matters so i kind of saw this coming anyway.

Anyway, thats me single and back on the market once again...time to go get myself some new aftershave and get myself back out there again

Well the dog seems to like you :D

Whats the question here Wolvy?

Wasn't "A dame to kill for" Marv's tale? I may be getting forgetful, but come on...he even says "a dame worth killin' for, a dame worth dying for, a dame worth goin' to hell for."

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Nah the Marv story was retitled "The Hard Goodbye".

"A Dame To Kill For" was the story that featured Dwight before he got his plastic surgery due to his ex-girlfriend Ava doublecrossing him and her lover Damien Lord and shooting Dwight in the face with a gun and has a classic scene where Marv extols the virtues of Merle Haggard's country and western songs whilst Dwight is clinging onto his destroyed face....and that will hopefully feature in the next Sin City movie where "A Dame To Kill For" will be the prominent storyline.

Thank you, James!

 

Kris, yes, I've gone on record here many a time about how much I loved that film. It had its drawbacks but it was as near perfect a comic adaptation as I have ever seen. I adored every second of "A Dame to Kill For." "Big Fat Kill" wasn't as good, but still entertaining. "That Yellow Bastard" was probably the most disappointing of the bunch. Madsen took a shit on the beginning of it, Willis was lackluster, Nick Stahl sucked at the beginning but was cool at the end all fucked up. Jessica Alba, well, she is what she is. So, I guess I've cooled off of it some, but I still think it's greatness.

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When you say you enjoyed "A Dame To Kill For", do you mean the short introductory scene at the beginning with Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton based on the short story "The Customer Is Always Right"?....or are you meaning the graphic novel of "A Dame To Kill For"?

Mojo - I said a while back on IMDB during the making of the film that my choice for the role of Bob would've been Phillip Seymour Hoffman, i think he could express Bob's awkwardness in that uncomfortable situation he has with Hartigan in those first couple of frames of That Yellow Bastard because of the fact that Hartigan uses his physical prowess to loom over Bob and intimidate him during that scene but that is just not evident in the first scene of the film which is why all these divisive opinions amongst us are appearing.

James- I don't think its particularly fair to begrudge Madsen for sending the film on a downer when he is only in the film for a maximum of 4 very brief scenes which total to about maybe 5 minutes worth of screen time, its Rodriguez's and Miller's mistake for casting Madsen in a role that definitely wasn't suited for him.

Spider - In hindsight though, did you enjoy the film as a whole?