Jason Rainey Patron

Favorite films

  • Big Trouble in Little China
  • Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
  • Local Hero
  • The Twilight Samurai

All
  • Joy Ride

    ★★★½

  • The Fast and the Furious

    ★★★★★

  • Bullet Train Explosion

    ★★★

  • Bad Ben

    ★★★½

More
Wood Job!

2014

★★★★★ Liked Watched

Back in the early Aughts, I came across a Japanese movie in a video store dollar bin called ADRENALINE DRIVE. It turned out to be a peculiar comedy/romance/yakuza thriller and become a brief staple of past movie nights. I recently watched it again, and was surprised at how well it held up. I was curious to see what that film's director-- Shinobu Yaguchi-- had been up to since then, and eventually ended up with a copy of the oddly named…

The Emoji Movie

2017

★½ Rewatched

Day TWO of the EMOJI MOVIE EXPERIENCE. Today's focus: This Movie's 3D is Bullshit and It Has A Secret Satanic Plotline

But first, you may notice half a star added to the rating of this movie. I should come clean. I went with the flow of the crowd that says this movie should be terrible. It really isn't. It's at least base-line competently made. It has the occasional laughable moment. It has sins and offenses, but they're pretty much the…

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Joy Ride

2001

★★★½ Liked Watched

Brian and Tanner were having a wild 2001.

Wanted to catch this after seeing the trailer at a revival screening of THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS last week. I didn't expect much, but it's another movie with Paul Walker driving a car and has some early 2000s scuzz to it. Turned out to be a surprisingly fun thriller.

ittedly, this feels like a trashier noir that's had some of its edges sanded off. And while Walker and Zahn are fine…

The Fast and the Furious

2001

★★★★★ Liked Rewatched

I want more FAST & FURIOUS movies with lower budgets, higher amounts of bromance, sweeter liveries, and extra kisses on Vin Diesel's bare noggin, and I'm not kidding.

Watched at The Academy Theatre for a revival screening. They showed some trailers for movies that would make for a pretty FAST-tastic triple-feature:
- GONE IN 60 SECONDS (2000)
- JOY RIDE (2001)
- MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II (2000)

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Ito

2021

★★★★ Liked Watched

I feel like most movies of this type would focus on one, maybe two hooks, while this juggles three -- maid cafes, sishamen playing, characters speaking in the Tsugaru dialect. In the case of the latter, it was interesting to see how translators tried to convey this nuance that would fly over the head of non-native speakers.

It's quite heartening to see Ren Komai find her groove throughout this, as well as shred in the finale, but also to see the community that builds up around the cafe.

Yatterman

2009

★★★ Liked 2

Miike combining cloying children's entertainment and being horny on main. It's certainly my jam, though I'm wondering which demographic that cocktail's being served up to.

KAMIKAZE GIRLS' Kyoko Fukada gets to play a leather-clad baddy and we get the closest thing to live action Wario and Waluigi. It gets weighed down by its pacing unfortunately, but it's still a helluva ride.