What's so tolerable about American politics anyway?

Jack Bauer

Huh?

With that logic, how about for UK politics....JAMES BOND.

I win, boy.

Grindhouse *
Planet Terror
Directed by Rodriguez. This was more interesting than the second movie. Funny in a bizarre way and also resembling Tarantino's usual style of film making.
Death Proof
I don't know if this was a spoof, tribute or just a plain old B-grade movie. Except for the cool car stunts, this movie wasn't good. Tarantino should stop making all this homage-for-some-random-crap genre and make some original movies for a change.

Svsg, be careful or Irish will call you elitist!

Anyway, I quite understand absolutely what you're saying. Seriously, if any of those 2 films were released seperately, they would flop.

I think the best thing I can say about PLANET TERROR is that its a movie that could have been released on its own. While DEATH PROOF is really a glorified short film. Seriously, would B-car exploitation movies of the 70s have not one, but TWO dining conversations that don't matter really in the movie at all?

Remember when QT would have his pop culture statements and conversation bits that were natural and didn't feel out of place?

I remember No Holds Barred. Zeus fucking scared the shit out of me when I was little. For some reason I used to think he had killed somebody in the ring once.

American politics have made me want to vomit perpetually since 1968.

Game of Death **
(Second Viewing)

Bruce Lee plays Billy Lo, a HongKong based movie actor, who is a box office draw. His girlfriend, Ann Morris is a singer who is also climbing to the top. Now it seems the syndicate wants Billy and Ann to join their "management firm". But Billy knows that they will be treated like property, so he refuses and tells her to do the same. So they try to "encourage" him to join but he still refuses. He would be advised that they will not stop, so he must stop them, permanently. He is even more hesitant to do that but when an attempt on his life is made, he fakes his death and alters his appearance, and decides to go after the syndicate; taking them out one at a time.

The 10-15 minutes Bruce Lee was actually in the movie were awesome. Did I think the movie needed to go ahead as planned since they had some footage of Lee? No. Was it their way of paying homeage to him? I don't know. But once you move past the fact the main guy isn't really Bruce Lee and try to enjoy it, it is decent. The fight scenes were the best I've seen in a Bruce Lee film and my all-time favorite fight is now Bruce Lee vs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

This is one of my favorite cinematic images:



What I loved about the end of this film was how Bruce Lee would fight a guy, climb a staircase, fight another guy, climb a staircase, etc. It made me think I was watching/playing the old Kung Fu game for the NES (one of my personal favorite games of all-time BTW)





Finally, it was again nice to see the film that inspired Quentin Tarantino to use the yellow jumpsuit for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Volume 1.

Game of Death II 1/2
(First Viewing)

While investigating his friend Chin Ku's (Hwang Jang Lee) death, martial artist Billy Lo (Bruce Lee) is killed. His younger brother, Bobby Lo (Kim Tai Chung), investigates both deaths. His search takes him to Japan, where he befriends Lewis (Roy Horan), master of the Castle Of Death. But when Lewis is brutally murdered, Bobby must investigate the mysterious Fan Yu temple, where he must enter an underground pagoda and face off with the most terrifying of enemies.

This to me seemed to exploit Lee's death. At least with the the first Game of Death they had some shot footage of him to use. This film was made 8 years after his death and really just used old scenes from Enter the Dragon. Now that I've seen all the Bruce Lee movies, can anyone recommend a good Jackie Chan film (I haven't seen much of his work either)

Those Games of death films are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to "Bruceploitation". Some of the films and stars during that "bruceploitation" period seem almost ridiculous in trying to fill the void which was created after Lee's death. Chinese cinema was in major trouble. It took a while before Jackie Chan emerged. Still, for the sake of deleted scenes and whatnot, Game of death I and II are essential films for any Bruce Lee fan out there. Note that the funeral of Billy Lo is actually the real funeral of Bruce Lee.

Anyways Irishman, you are far from watching all of his movies; those 6 movies are the easy part - now try and get hold of his movies from the 40's and 50's when he was just a boy

But if you got TCM - I'm sure you can catch "Marlowe".

Anyway, you want some Chan recommendations:

-Well, there's the classic "Drunken Master" - a must-see for every Chan fan out there. His first major hit and still a cult film to this very day. You can start with that one.
(BTW you've already seen him in "Enter the dragon" - but that was a small part)

-There's the very famous "Rumble in the bronx" - its a fun movie, I think you'll like it. The plot BTW is said to be based on Bruce Lee's "Way of the dragon".

-Then you got the Police Story series. The 4th is the most popular and rightly so. Also my favorite Jackie Chan film. The full title is Jackie Chan's First Strike (PS4). What I really dig in this film is the outstanding choreography of the fights. Awesome stuff there. Plot is secondary, as usual with his films, but who cares about that?

-Need I tell you of the "Rush Hour" films? probably not. Still, I highly recommend the first, the second was not as good, but still y'know. And I think they're filming a third one right now.

-There are really lots o other films, tho some are harder to get, but I think that should give you a good start.

Hey Irish, you REALLY think those producers did GAME OF DEATH out of respect for Lee? Ha Ha Ha!

More like out of respect for their WALLETS...

Weren't those the only ones he starred in though? Thanks for the Chan recommendations. And yes I've seen the 2 Rush Hours (I'll probably buy the special edition DVD's next month)

I really like Chan's Who am I it has some of the best fight scenes I think especially the fight on the roof. Also Black Dragon has some pretty good stuff (and I own that one so you can borrow it)...and as Fame said First Strike also has some pretty good stunt work in it.

If you want to go another way with Chinese cinema you cold go for some of the wire work films like my favorite The Bride with White Hair or Heroic Trio and actually Heroic Trio is directed by Johnny To - which I recommend you watch several of his films Running Out of Time I & II, The Mission, Fulltime Killer, and the pretty funny Running on Karma.

I saw Fulltime Killer and that was very enjoyable. My only problem with Chan is he's made so many films (it might be hard to get a lot of them, plus I'd like to weed through the "sucky" ones)

"sucky Chan movies" then don't watch The Prisoner unless you like very thin ripoff scenes from Cool Hand Luke- how ever there is one early Chan movie which I'm having trouble remembering right now but the stunts on the highway were just out there amazing I'll try to find out which one it is.

Hey Irish, quit being such a wuss. Do it like the rest of us do. Go through IMDB, ask action fans/Chan-afficiondos/Martial Arts nuts for recommendations, read up on reviews, check out Chan's best known movies, etc.

suspect, WHO AM I? is a decent movie...just funny enough, it went straight to video in North America because Hollywood refused to distribute it(despite being, I believe, the most expensive movie in Hong Kong history).

Are you trying to piss me off with the Bay avatar?

Hard Boiled ***
(Second Viewing)

Tequila is a "hard boiled" cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers. In order to bring down the gun smugglers, Tequila must team up with an undercover cop named Tony, who goes undercover as a hired gun with a Hong Kong Triad, which is run by a vicious boss named Johnny Wong.

I am now convinced John Woo is one of the great action directors of all time. Great fighting, shoot out and explosion scenes. This is another reason why I think Chow Yun-Fat is a great action star. He's not a martial artists like a Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, but to me, he's like the Bruce Willis of Hong Kong. What other action films did John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat do together besides Hard Boiled and The Killer?

The early 1990s called. They said "NO SHIT!"

Not all of us have seen every John Woo film. I've only seen A Better Tomorrow II, Hard Boiled, The Killer, Hard Target, Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II

You admitted to seeing M:I 2, that piece of shit?

You're brave.

Number One was enough for me..

"Rodrigo D: No Future" 3/4

About real life in Colombia, no trained actors were used, and all but 1 character wound up being killed before the movie was released. Its just an honest look at live in the slums. (Subtitled)

"Turtles Can Fly" 3/4

About children from Afghanistan before the U.S. Invasion. It was a little slow moving at times but overall it was factual and you really see how other people live, also subtitled.

I saw the entire trilogy and it didn't do it for me. III was the best but that's not saying much. ronnie, I thought you said Criterion was going to rerelease Hard Boiled in July?

Hey Irish, Is Deer Hunter any good?

Yeah well Criterion is still considering re-releasing it...but not this summer.

As for the M:I movies, neither are worth a damn at all.

Part 1, maybe I guess the "best" of the bunch, in what Tom Cruise didn't control away from Brian DePalma, you have the master director try to have fun with his own Hitchcock-esque spy thriller "Mistaken Man" conspriacy movie...while Cruise jammed in his super expensive and loud summer blockbuster nonsense.

Part 2 is a piece of shit. Cruise took it away from Woo, and made "Asia's MArtin Scorsese" his bitch.

Part 3, well JJ Abrahams was always overrated as a writer/producer for TV with ALIAS, and he directs M:I 3 like TV...I don't pay $8 to watch TV in theatres.

Besides, P.S. Hoffman outacts Cruise not once, but twice around the scientology crazy.

It is. Really good drama of home and a war far away that basically screws up 3 friends, for good, from a small mining town.

Michael Cimino makes such a damn good movie, and then basically killed his career when using his carte blanche from DEER HUNTER, he makes HEAVEN'S GATE, which destroyed United Artists. A pity.

Still, Cimino also made the pretty good YEAR OF THE DRAGON with Mickey Rourke(go review that Mick)

DEER HUNTER (1978) - ****

Yes I enjoyed it. Not De Niro's greatest role but worth watching if you've never seen it

Thanks Ron

You're right to a degree Ronnie but getting fired from FOOTLOOSE half way through making it is what really put the nail in the coffin for Cimino.

You think it will still come this year? Also, still no word on The Killer being rereleased? If not, what version do you own (if you own it) or worth owning?