4v291o

The first half?
Incomprehensible claptrap redeemed only by the (accidental?) documentation of the bygone era of 70's LA,

The second half?
One of the longest and most viscerally immediate car chases in movie history, standing as a stunning rebuke to the slick, overproduced CGI packed nonsense Hollywood es off nowadays.

With a title like 'The Killer Elite' you don't expect a long segment on painful physical therapy, but you get one anyway and that sort of sums up the conundrum of the film. How amazing would it a straight up Caan/Duvall buddy pic have been, bc the first ten minutes are phenomenal.

This time around enjoying how there used to be movies full of pretty regular looking people, the only 'movie star' is an aging Robert Ryan, everyone else ranges from normal to quirky to weird. This is like someone accepting a challenge to make a movie with real locations starring real people.

what a beautiful little film.

the optimism and camaraderie of the three protagonists in the face of heartless unflinching capitalism is what solidarity looks like.

if you like closely examined faces and the most hauntingly beautiful industrial landscapes ever captured on film, this is the movie for you. Our protagonists sift through the mass destruction of the Three Gorges Dam project for AWOL spouses, with mixed results. Jia's eternal theme of capitalism vs humanity hits as hard as ever and as with everything I've seen from him the cumulative impact of a thousand small observations hits like a train.

you know what, this was pretty good.

It looks terrific, with just a touch of questionable CGI, the cast is stellar and all doing the Lord's Work, and the plot is enough to hang a movie on. Very much Scorsese in 'Cape Fear' mode, luxuriating in bombastic genre conventions and not worrying about any larger perspective.

Leo is great- he's a guy that annoys me as often as not, but he's terrific as our fucked up military vet federal marshall protagonist, always on the verge of crying or punching someone.

the first 40 minutes of this are a perfect film, and then it continues on for another 90 and somehow doesn't make a single misstep but expands like a blooming rose sprouting from the rotting body of capitalism.

fucking hell.

You know it's a great film when you get all choked up by an ending you don't really understand.

HOLY SHIT

Can't lie, at any point in the film I had very little idea what was actually going on, but you know what it still whipped ass- I appreciate any blockbuster with a focus on the collective good and cooperative action, it had great robots, there was some stuff about AI but it was interesting in a 'Ghost in the Shell' way and didn't mess anything up, and the human story winding throughout was also unusually good and in a non-blockbuster way.

A good watch, if you liked the first one you'll really dig this one.

picture Ocean's 11 but George Clooney is Charles Bronson and he's recruiting his team from all the barflies he knows

this is a great 70s SF movie (mostly terrific practical effects, fabulous analog synth score, compelling story) until Peter Ustinov shows up and ruins the vibe with his endless maulding.

this is 50x weirder and more interesting than I expected.

You pretty much already know if you're gonna like this or not, and it does what it says on the label. Lots of characters you like doing their thing, an interesting villain, serviceable plot and spectacular fights. I enjoyed it, it was really well done with some exceptional visuals.

But I also figured out what I disliked about this whole genre, which is by compressing the formula into two hours instead of a full season, the big finale feels a little off- the emotions, the powered up attacks, the whole galactic ultrablast of the finales are too much for the dramatic superstructure to bear and you can feel it groan and crack under the weight.

More an observation than a criticism, because you know I'll keep watching this shit as long as they're making them, and this is a really fine example of the genre.

I am not a stickler for the cinematic 'show, don't tell' rule of thumb, but there are some movies that would have been much improved by taking it to heart.

Tom Hardy carry performance, he singlehandedly elevates this uneven production to four stars.

Things I liked: Actual squibs and blood in the opening fight, the vibe of the not-quite-real city, which felt authentic even as it obviously existed as someone's dream of a noir metropolis, Tom Hardy, Luis Guzman, the anime coded villains, the big action setpieces.

things I disliked: Reversion to digital blood for the rest of the movie, a somewhat shambolic, overburdened plot, thin character development.

but you know what, it did exactly what I want a movie like this to do, it's weaknesses were expected and its strengths more than outweighed them. I had a good time.

ACAB rating: 8/10

The bloodiest, most profane English Manor House murder mystery of all time.

Say what you like about Quentin Tarantino, he and Robert Richardson rode those Panavision cameras hard and put them away wet, shooting the hell out of every frame of this one. The landscape is more than a character here, it's the whole movie.

Watching the extended cut this time- it honestly doesn't play much different, but I enjoyed more screen time for Walton Goggins' sleazy rebel sheriff. The fly in the ointment remains the inexplicable presence of Tarantino's petulant, whiny voice over in one scene, which is like a mosquito buzzing in your ear, disrupting the whole tenor of the film until he shuts up.

you sort of understand why the dude wanted to shoot that kid.

more of a lecture than a film, but it looks spectacular and delivers some terrific scenes. Not sure I trust the predictions of a film that claims "engineers" are going to lead society back from the abyss with their mighty powers of logic, tho.

This first collaboration between Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood is the Rosetta Stone for the rest of Eastwood's career- the incorruptible, absolute outsider striding into the amoral cesspool of New York City and showing both the ineffectual, bureaucracy hobbled cops and the diseased, perverted hippy counterculture How A Real Man Does It.

Unfortunately the typically stoic Eastwood performance and simple, effective Siegel direction don't fully cohere, and it comes off as a rough draft for Dirty Harry, which amped up every aspect of the same basic story to much greater effect.

Also has a genuinely spectacular final shot, one of my favorites.

Jack Black should have won an Oscar for this and then never been allowed to make another live action motion picture.

a spectacular first reel of Heston haul assing around post apocalyptic Los Angeles in a sports car having flashbacks and shooting anything that moves transitions to an unfocused mess of clubfooted social criticism. You can still detect the faint outline of Matheson's source novel, but it's blurred and smeared like you're seeing it through several layers of dirty glass.

Frustrating, because it's hard to imagine a better representative of The Old Order railing against modernity, literally playing chess with a bust of Caesar in his bunker, than Heston, and Anthony Zerbe is a powerful foil. But the movie is unsure of itself and sort of meanders along to a fairly laughable conclusion

A terrific straightforward action picture like they don't make any more. Peak Bronson, a tremendously sweaty, desperate turn by Al Lettieri as the hit man, some penultimate 70s fashion and a tight, polished script that's consistently doing more than one thing. Features some unheralded stunt driving, especially during the final chase through the mountains.

Take a drink every time Bronson references just wanting to harvest his melons and you'll end up on the floor.

ACAB rating 8/10

a cautionary tale with a banger soundtrack.

"We don’t think you fight fire with fire best ; we think you fight fire with water best. We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity. We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism."

- Fred Hampton

Odd mix of police procedural and 50's melodrama that undermines its aspirations to gritty reality by insisting every cop is a good egg that only does bad things for the best and most moral reasons.

Interesting bridge between old and new Hollywood cop movies, with some spectacular location shooting and period cityscapes.

ACAB rating: 0/10

the best opening and the best ending of any film I've seen in a long time.
if the rest meanders and feels a bit drawn out and aimless, ah well, it still reaches heights few other movies ever will.

I was randomly scrolling menus, decided to watch the beginning of this one and got sucked in for the whole ride.
Which never happens anymore, I have too many queues packed with movies and shows I badly want to watch for backtracking to have much appeal, but this one is so perfectly constructed I couldn't escape. It's built like a swiss watch, but somehow organic- the workings are complicated, precise and inescapable but also feel human, like a real thing that happened to actual people.

incredible stuff.

Burt Lancaster as an amoral mercenary with no thoughts for anyone else and no motivation beyond his own satisfaction is really a sight to behold.

the rest of it is good too, but Lancaster dominates like a wild tiger in a room full of house cats.

the only jhorror adaptation better than it's source

a lot of politics, a little swordplay.
I like the enigma of the protagonist, I like the weird vibe it generates, and if I'm not sure what it all amounts to, that's fine because there are some great shots and scenes along the way.

Maximum Shin, Maximum Stars

just great, it's like what if you crossed a classic melodrama with a manga and a historical epic and then gave a couple of dudes man-sized polearms.

perfect film no notes

more discursive and scattershot than the first film, but still a lot of fun with some terrific fights and a sturdy band of camaraderie throughout. I'm happy to hang out with Shin and the crew any and every time they come knocking .

THE GOODS

if you're in the mood for some grand sweeping martial drama, this banger will satisfy. Astronomical fights, engaging heroes, diabolical villains, machinations, alliances, betrayal, the depths of despair, the pinnacle of elation, this baby has it ALL.

on to part 2!

last years best anime

I'm glad I missed this when everyone was foaming at the mouth about it, bc no film could live up to that level of frenzy.

thoroughly enjoyed it- looked fantastic and it neatly sidestepped the "how do I wrap up my serial killer movie without tripping on my dick?" by having it actually be a horror movie.

great performances, especially Blair Underwood of all ppl? Also did great capturing its era, the scene in the barn with the shitty old analog flashlights really took me back.

overall a smart, effective horror movie posing as a cop flick.

a teen meanders through a couple of days trying to do things then changing his mind or being thwarted- it feels very like an impulsive teen adventure and it looks gorgeous.

comparisons to 'Memories of Murder' & 'Cure' are lazy and wrong, this is more 'what if Andrei Tarkovsky made a cop film'.

Opaque, deliberate, beautiful...a dream of solving the crime of society, the detective housed in a converted movie theater watching slides of evidence on a projector that keeps going dark....to me, that's cinema.

Roger Deakins the GOAT.

Achieves a perfect 10/10 ACAB score- yes there is a 'good cop' but her presence is simply to justify the depredations all the others get up to and they will explicitly murder her if she doesn't cover for them.

Watching this I can't help feeling that Denis Villeneuve is squandering his talent making big empty entertainments like 'Dune'- the perverse incentives of capitalism stay robbing us of our cultural heritage.

if you want a big dumb CGI blockbuster but make it Chinese mythology, this is your movie. It's entertaining enough and has some neat stuff and engaging characters, and I'll definitely watch the sequels.

A suitable paean to the golden age of Hong Kong Action Cinema, with an unbeatable setting and enough bone snapping action to satiate even the most ravenous appetite (and it was great seeing Sammo Hung in action again even if it was mostly visual trickery).

Has more going on than the usual no thoughts only kill hk movie, not quite enough to rise to the level of Cinema, but it has way more personality than most modern genre exercises

what a beautiful film, just immaculate, I can tell I'll come back to this one many more times.

I tried it when I was younger and thought it was boring, I was expecting a slice em up and while this one has two of my favorite duels of all time, that is definitely not the vibe, it's more a contemplative tragedy than 'Shogun Assassin'.

But it's engaging throughout, even if I found the ending abrupt and a bit unsatisfying (an opinion I suspect will change on repeat viewings).

Anyway check it out, it's a terrific film.

kudos to George Lucas for making C3PO and R2D2 massively less annoying than their inspirations.

I love Princess Yuki tho.

The most visually luxurious Star Trek episode ever filmed. Bava's usual mastery of light and color on full display, the influence on 'Alien' is obvious and if you can ignore everyone always choosing the stupidest possible action it's a great ride.

more like CRAPtain America, am I right folks!

a female simulacrum amalgamated from your own subconscious by a sentient alien ocean will still wake you up at 3am saying "we need to talk" and then claim you don't love them...truly universal themes at work here.

also, you know how directors have trouble with endings, they roll through the first three reels in fine form but then the landing is a little wobbly?

Not Tarkovsky

a film can be wobbling along in a discursive way, then the ending hits u like Stephen Chow landing the Buddha Palm in 'Kung Fu Hustle'

some films are legendary for reasons that fade over time, and then there are movies like this that tower over every era of cinema like the looming mass of its titular gate.

either you think this is one of the funniest things ever, or we can't be friends 😔

Social pressure forces a vital old woman to disfigure herself and commit suicide for the benefit of her lazy wastrel grandson and his ravenous wife.

A soundstage, meticulously recreated scenery and matte paintings make for an environment more immersive than anything possible with cgi. One of the most beautiful films I've ever seen, I could watch these villagers toil through it forever. The periodic caterwauling song/narration is distracting but not crippling.

one of those films that gets better every time you watch it.

My 'Secret of Chapell Roan Inish' post flopping made me realize the John Sayles fandom is dying, so I'm making a list about it- this is based on the ones I've seen, which isn't everything so don't yell at me I am learning and growing*

*watching the rest as availability and time allow

1. Matewan
2. Lone Star
3. The Brother from Another Planet
4. Eight Men Out
5. The Secret of Roan Inish
6. Men with Guns
7. Return of the Secaucus Seven
8. Sunshine State

every horror film I watched in October 2024, ranked

1. The Conference
2. Exhuma
3. La Llorona
4. The Vourdalak
5. An American Werewolf in London
6. Scanners
7. Island of Lost Souls
8. Talk to Me
9. In a Violent Nature
10. Oddity

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

sequential list of all the horror movies I watched in October 2024

• In a Violent Nature
• Oddity
• Hellbender
• Exhuma
• La Llorona
• House on Haunted Hill
• Blood Flower
• All You Need Is Death
• V/H/S/Beyond
• Demons

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

when nothing will do except that oldschool Mythos vibe

(there are plenty of raggedy examples, going on a *** or better gatekeeping rating here)

• The Void
• The Endless
• In the Mouth of Madness
• Re-Animator
• The Thing
• Mandy
• Spring
• Color Out of Space
• Starfish
• Annihilation

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

doing a Carpenter re-watch and ranking them based on current perceptions and not nostalgic memories

1. The Thing

   a perfect film, peak cinema, wouldn't change a single frame

2. Big Trouble in Little China

   about the most fun you can have watching a movie

3. Christine
4. Escape from New York
5. In the Mouth of Madness
6. They Live
7. Halloween
8. The Fog
9. Assault on Precinct 13
10. Prince of Darkness

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

movies I think are genuinely great and offbeat that haven't gotten the viewership they deserve

• The Vampire Doll
• Viy
• Messiah of Evil
• The Wailing
• The Ritual
• Next of Kin
• #Alive
• She Will
• Saloum
• The Orphanage

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

a list of zombie movies that come at it from a different, original perspective- mostly funny, but a couple not

• Zombie for Sale
• Cemetery Man
• #Alive
• The Girl with All the Gifts
• One Cut of the Dead
• Anna and the Apocalypse
• Zombieland
• ParaNorman
• [REC]
• Braindead

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

watching and ranking the films in Criterion's Heisei Era Godzilla collection.

1. Godzilla vs. Mothra

   Mothra rules and I'm so happy they had the stones to keep the tiny singing ladies.

2. Godzilla vs. Biollante

   Biollante is one of the great Godzilla antagonists, and I want to see the series take a swing this big again before I die.

3. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

   Mecha King Ghidorah is an elite enemy and one of the coolest monsters in the whole vast sprawl of the 'monsterverse'

4. The Return of Godzilla

   You can see the genesis of Anno's 'Shin Godzilla' in this one, it's unfortunate it's got the weakest Godzilla of the Heisei run, a googly eyed blob with a too long neck and elephantitis of the legs.

punk docs I'm gonna watch

• Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk
• Joy Division
• Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All
• Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten
• I'm Now: The Story of Mudhoney
• White Riot
• Punk '76
• What We Do Is Secret
• You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977–1984
• The Decline of Western Civilization

...plus 18 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

the first two films are high art, 'White Heaven in Hell' is a wild, fitting send off to the series, and the other three are interchangeable in mixing some great action in with a lot of weird, questionable shit

1. Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance
2. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx
3. Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell
4. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades
5. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril
6. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons

Toho's 'Bloodthirsy Trilogy' ranked

• The Vampire Doll
• Lake of Dracula
• Evil of Dracula

Suggestions from friends for the Spooktober challenge

• The Silenced
• Pontypool
• The Green Knight
• A Wounded Fawn
• A Dark Song
• The Call
• The Feast
• Black Hollow Cage

1. Moonrise Kingdom
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. The Royal Tenenbaums
4. Rushmore
5. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel
7. Isle of Dogs
8. The Darjeeling Limited
9. Bottle Rocket

watching them all and adding them to this list
the man was an auteur in the best sense

1. Rodan
2. Godzilla
3. Destroy All Monsters
4. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
5. Battle in Outer Space
6. Matango
7. The Mysterians
8. Atragon
9. Invasion of Astro-Monster
10. Dogora

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I watch and rank all the Mission: Impossible films

• Mission: Impossible – Fallout
• Mission: Impossible II
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
• Mission: Impossible III
• Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

I'm watching every Naruto movie on Netflix, rating them, and adding them to this list

• Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Will of Fire
• Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Blood Prison
• Naruto Shippuden the Movie
• Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow
• Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Bonds

I watched a lot of horror movies this year, these are the 10 best that were 'new to me'

• Malignant
• Next of Kin
• [REC]
• The Night House
• She Will
• Saloum
• Fascination
• Revenge
• The Vampire Doll
• Lake Mungo

watching at least one horror movie every day for the month of October and collecting the reviews here

/edit

mission accomplished, reorganizing this into a ranked list for the historical record

• Next of Kin
• The Hidden
• [REC]
• The Lair of the White Worm
• Versus
• Mad God
• Saloum
• Lake Mungo
• The Night House
• Tenebre

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

watching at least one horror film for the month of November, because people gave me too many great suggestions for Spooktober 2022, and because seasonal thanksgiving movies just aren't a thing.

• Banshee Chapter
• The Wolf of Snow Hollow
• Malignant
• Deadstream
• Anna and the Apocalypse
• Memory: The Origins of Alien
• Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell
• V/H/S

suggestions from friends on Twitter that I'm going to try and fit into my 31 Horror Films in 31 Days Halloween vow, will be removing as I watch them and adding to my Spooktober 2022 Reviews list

• A Dark Song
• Berberian Sound Studio
• All About Evil
• Black Magic Rites
• Hagazussa
• The Innocents
• Antrum
• I Am a Ghost
• Timecrimes
• Mad God

...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I watched at least one horror movie a day in October, here they are ranked best to worst

1. Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
2. Tales from the Hood
3. May the Devil Take You
4. The Haunting
5. The Queen of Black Magic
6. Kandisha
7. Viy
8. Phantasm
9. Southbound
10. White Zombie

...plus 22 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

all the films in Criterion's 80's Horror collection
going to try and fit in all the ones I haven't already seen!

• Near Dark
• Prince of Darkness
• Inferno
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne
• Dead & Buried
• The House by the Cemetery
• The Funhouse
• Strange Behavior
• Wolfen
• Scanners

...plus 19 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

definitive list of the top ten films set in a forest or jungle

1. Apocalypse Now
2. The Witch
3. The Ritual
4. Deliverance
5. The Evil Dead
6. The Great Silence
7. Predator
8. Return of the Jedi
9. Gaia
10. The Emerald Forest

Best Batman movies ranked

1. The Lego Batman Movie
2. Batman Returns

The best MCU movies, ranked

1. Thor: Ragnarok

watching at least one scary movie (mostly on Shudder) every day until Halloween, let's goooo

• Viy
• Phantasm
• White Zombie
• Southbound
• Bad Moon
• Kandisha
• Night of the Demons
• Blacula
• Scream Blacula Scream
• Sleepy Hollow

...plus 22 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

movies for mike to watch
mostly on Shudder, some on Hulu.

• The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion
• Memories of Murder
• Gaia
• The Queen of Black Magic
• Satan's Slave
• The Night Comes for Us

  the best John Woo film not directed by John Woo

• May the Devil Take You

  the best Evil Dead film not directed by Sam Rami

• One Cut of the Dead

  don't read anything, just watch it

• Tales from the Hood
• The House That Screamed

  didnt' mention this one but should have

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

that rara avis, the dream of moviegoers, the remake that sures the film it was based on

• The Thing

  Superior to The Thing From Another World (1951)

• Invasion of the Body Snatchers

  better than the 1956 original

• True Grit

  Jeff Bridges >>>> John Wayne

• The Fly

  Sorry Vincent Price =(

• Little Shop of Horrors

  Frank Oz FTW

• Ocean's Eleven

  take a seat, Rat Pack

• Enchanted April

  step aside 1935 original

• 13 Assassins

  blows away the 1963 original

• The Man Who Knew Too Much

  Hitchcock tops his own 1934 original, the showoff

• The Ring

  the only American remake of a Jhorror film that's even good, let alone actually better.

here, is my most important contribution to the cinematic discourse. Drop any i've missed in the coments tia

• Motel Hell

  Chainsaw Pig

• Stage Fright

  Chainsaw Owl

maybe there's a plot here but if you pay attention to it you're missing the point.

• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
• Beau Travail
• Eyes Wide Shut
• Stranger Than Paradise
• Local Hero
• Vernon, Florida
• The Thin Red Line
• Once Upon a Time in the West
• Beyond the Black Rainbow
• Le Samouraï

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Arrival
2. Annihilation
3. Interstellar
4. Sunshine

my favorite films, alphabetically
not necessarily the best, but the ones I love the most
one film per director
under construction, aiming for a Top 50

• The Apartment
• Beau Travail
• Beauty and the Beast
• Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge
• Faust
• The Heroic Trio
• The Killer
• Local Hero
• Monsoon Wedding
• Moonrise Kingdom

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

various eras, all great

• La Bête Humaine
• Double Indemnity
• Scarlet Street
• Brute Force
• The Third Man
• White Heat
• Sunset Boulevard
• Kiss Me Deadly
• Point Blank
• Le Samouraï

...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

my favorite Korean films that aren't on every top ten list you see

• The Villainess
• The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion
• Pandora
• Stoker
• #Alive
• The Wailing

  a little more exposure than the rest of the list but it's not a universal pick, and it should be

• Nowhere to Hide

watching all the nic cage films I haven't seen and ranking them, as a treat

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
2. Mandy
3. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
4. Drive Angry
5. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans
6. Color Out of Space
7. Ghost Rider

look at this filmography and tell me i'm wrong, i dare you

• The French Connection
• The Seven-Ups
• Jaws
• Marathon Man
• Sorcerer
• All That Jazz