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Post by codystarbuck on May 1, 2019 20:48:41 GMT -5
Watched Sonny Chiba in The Street Fighter... Was reminded of this a few weeks ago by a blogger/youtube host who I follow (his tag line is Pop Culture in Analogue) who focuses on retro pop culture especially movies, vintage paperbacks, comics, vinyl and Disney when he reviewed the new blu-ray release of the Street Fighter collection. It was one of those movies I had wanted to see but never did and had forgotten about as more and more stuff accrued in my to watch/read piles over the years, and then I ran across a DVD copy of the Street Fighter/Return of the Street Fighter double feature at a thrift store this past weekend and picked it up. I still haven't had a chance to watch Return of the Street Fighter, but I did watch the first film and quite enjoyed it. It's Japanese martial arts done 70s exploitation style and it is marvelous for what it is. Chiba is a phenomenal martial artist, but he doesn't have the presence of a Bruce Lee, and the movies lack some of the gravitas of Lee's features, being played over the top, but they are great fun and an enjoyable viewing experience (unless you just don't groove to exploitation style features, then you probably won't like it). It is certainly a product of its time, but it is enjoyable as what it is. -M Used to have this and Sister Street Fighter on VHS; might have had return, though I don't think so. Fine for what they are; but, apart from the action stuff, I felt they kind of plodded along. I much preferred the Lone Wolf & Cub films and more of the Hong Kong Kung Fu and action films, compared to Chiba's. His Golgo 13 movie Operation Kowloon, is decent, if kind of slow and low budget. He's just one of those guys who is fine at action scenes(started as a stuntman); but really doesn't have the leading man charisma that transcends the culture, no matter what Tarantino tries to tell me. I'd rather watch even Jackie Chan's lesser films, than most of Chiba, though, they aren't horrible (well, not the 70s ones, anyway). For Japan, though, he was the closest they had to a Bruce Lee figure, for martial arts and action films. I still haven't seen his tv, like Kage no Gundan (aka Shadow Warriors). I do recall one of Chiba's films (Champion of Death), about his mentor, Mas Oyama, where he kills a runaway bull, by punching it repeatedly in the head. It ran on Cinemax, when I was in high school. It was pretty uneven and they promoted that scene heavily, on the Cinemax promo spots. The opening tournament stuff was about as interesting as it got.
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2019 0:23:47 GMT -5
Filled a hole in my movie watching history tonight with... I first encountered Tarantino with Pulp Fiction, and I have seen a few other of his films, but I had never gone back and seen his first, Reservoir Dogs. It's one of those films everyone seems to have seen, or everyone but me until now. I found it for a buck or two at one of the thrift store visits I made the last couple of weeks and picked it up, and decided to pop it in tonight. Having seen it, I liked it, but didn't love it. It's a decent noirish crime flick, and I understand it was a bit revolutionary for its time, but since I didn't see it then, that impact is missing for me, though having been a film-goer at that time, I get the context in which it gets that reaction, but I have just seen too many other films since them for it to strike me that way. It moved very quickly, and the movie was over before it seemed like I had settled in really, but that's not a bad thing. I enjoyed Steve Buscemi's performance (as I always do) best, but there were a lot of good performances turned in (which is credit to Tarantino as director I guess). The odd juxtaposition is that I am rereading a bunch of Brubaker & Phillips Criminal right now, so I have been in that noirish crime mode, and this seemed to fit right in, but for me didn't quite measure up to the quality of the Criminal stuff (perhaps leading to the effect of it not striking me as particularly revolutionary, but who knows?). -M
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Post by Rob Allen on May 3, 2019 1:36:30 GMT -5
I've never seen Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction.
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Post by The Captain on May 3, 2019 7:01:17 GMT -5
Tarantino is one of those directors who I can take or leave. I've seen a good number of his films, but I'm not really blown away by most of them.
Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Kill Bill are all fine for what they are, but I really have no interest in rewatching any of them.
That said, I'm a huge fan of Inglorious Basterds and have seen that three or four times.
My sister swears by Hateful Eight, and I probably will try to watch that and Django Unchained at some point, but neither of them is something that I'm dying to see.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 3, 2019 10:25:11 GMT -5
Pulp Fiction is fin; never cared for Reservoir Dogs or Inglorious Basterds. Kill Bill has moments I like, but gets rather self indulgent.
Tarantino is a guy who doesn't do much for me. His conversations may be interesting; but, few of them add to the character and most don't add to the plot and I get bored in his films. I tend to like his influences far more than his work.
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Post by String on May 4, 2019 11:43:01 GMT -5
My favorite Tarantino film isn't one he directed rather one he wrote:
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Post by brutalis on May 6, 2019 9:21:28 GMT -5
My favorite Tarantino film isn't one he directed rather one he wrote: This is on my to get list as have never seen it. Was blown away by Pulp Fiction when seen for the 1st time at the theater. Really like Django and Hateful Eight (I am a western buff) and Inglorious Bastards. But personally I think Jackie Brown and Death Proof are his most entertaining films. Pulp Fiction does have some crazy scenes and quotable moments though that everyone remembers.
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Post by dbutler69 on May 6, 2019 9:30:45 GMT -5
I agree. I'm sort of lukewarm on Tarantino though to be honest I've only seen Pulp Fiction and the two Kill Bill movies.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 6, 2019 10:29:23 GMT -5
I watched Vivre sa Vie recently and Godard is my favourite director now. It's the most impressing movie I've ever watched considering acting and plot. I've seen a lot of Godard's films over the years. I used to have very mixed feelings toward him. The first one I saw was Contempt, which is great! But I didn't think too much of Alphaville. But I saw quite a few of his films over the last two or three years and I've come to appreciate him even if I don't really get what he was going for. My favorite is Weekend!
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Post by Hoosier X on May 6, 2019 10:38:40 GMT -5
Tarantino is my favorite modern filmmaker and I've seen all his films. I've seen Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill (I and II), Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds over and over. Sometimes I think Tarantino is thinking "I wonder what Hoosier X would like to see in a movie" when he starts working on a project.
I love The Hateful Eight, but I only saw it once. It's four hours and I just don't watch four-hour movies that often, even when they're great! I've seen The Seven Samurai and Lawrence of Arabia and Andrei Rublev three or four times each. I'll get to The Hateful Eight again eventually.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 6, 2019 10:48:04 GMT -5
I've been house-sitting and I've been looking for weird stuff on Netflix and Hulu and Tubi. I found two Bela Lugosi movies I've never seen on Tubi! They were The Return of Chandu (1934) and Chandu on the Magic Island (1935). The 1935 film uses the giant gate from King Kong as one of the settings for the Magic Island.
I'm getting to the point where I've seen just about every genre film that Lugosi made after Dracula. I was looking at Bela's filmography on IMDB and I've seen all his feature films after 1931 except for seven films in the 1930s with titles like Women of All Nations and Gift of Gab.
I've seen Broadminded, which isn't a horror movie. It's a comedy with Joe E. Brown. It starts off with a "baby party," where all the adults are dressed as babies and drinking their hooch from baby bottles. Lugosi isn't in that scene. He shows up later as a South American polo player. Which is almost as weird as the baby party.
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2019 3:43:18 GMT -5
Watched Hitchcock's North by Northwest earlier this evening. It was another gap in the movies I should have already seen but hadn't list that I filled. I'd seen bits and pieces of it here and there before, but not enough to have pieced together the whole story. I liked it quite a bit, but I couldn't help but think after watching/reading so much crime noir lately that had it ended with Eve driving off to return to Vandamm and Thornhill returning unhappily to New York after the staged shooting at Rushmore, it would have been a hell of a noir ending, but instead we get a happy ending, which, for me, was the weakest part of the film. -M
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Post by Hoosier X on May 7, 2019 14:24:44 GMT -5
Watched Hitchcock's North by Northwest earlier this evening. It was another gap in the movies I should have already seen but hadn't list that I filled. I'd seen bits and pieces of it here and there before, but not enough to have pieced together the whole story. I liked it quite a bit, but I couldn't help but think after watching/reading so much crime noir lately that had it ended with Eve driving off to return to Vandamm and Thornhill returning unhappily to New York after the staged shooting at Rushmore, it would have been a hell of a noir ending, but instead we get a happy ending, which, for me, was the weakest part of the film. -M It's a great movie but I've always considered it a tad over-rated. For starters, even as a kid, I could never accept that there was a house on George Washington's head. My two favorite Hitchcocks are The Birds and Suspicion.
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Post by berkley on May 7, 2019 22:18:48 GMT -5
I'm a big Tarantino fan and have enjoyed all his films. Back in the days before the internet, I used to read a a lot of movie magazines and thus had heard about Tarantino and Reservoir Dogs before the movie made its way to the local cinemas here. Nothing to give away the feel or impact of the movie, just that it was a from young film-maker who was a huge film-buff and into a lot of the "cult" and B-movie kind of thing that I was into and that was covered by the magazine in question, the name of which I forget.
Anyway, when the movie we had been planning to go to one night ended up being sold out (I think it was Coppola's Dracula), I convinced my two friends to see Reservoir Dogs instead. We were all blown away - it's impossible to convey the impact of the movie now that it and Pulp Fiction have been imitated to death for so many years, but it was real and it was heavy, in both cases. Pulp Fiction I was lucky enough to see on its opening weekend, before hearing or reading anything about it, and once again, it's hard to understand what an impression it made under those circumstances (which would have been difficult to reproduce even a week or two later, as word of mouth spread really quickly about it).
I think all his films are great. My least favourite are probably Inglorious Basterds and the two westerns, partly because I'm not a huge fan of those genres, but I wouldn't missed any of them for the world. If I had to recommend one to a Tarantino-sceptic, I might go with Jackie Brown, as it's a little more restrained or less show-offy than usual with him while still I think showcasing his strengths as a film=maker.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 9, 2019 11:15:30 GMT -5
I'm a big Tarantino fan and have enjoyed all his films. Back in the days before the internet, I used to read a a lot of movie magazines and thus had heard about Tarantino and Reservoir Dogs before the movie made its way to the local cinemas here. Nothing to give away the feel or impact of the movie, just that it was a from young film-maker who was a huge film-buff and into a lot of the "cult" and B-movie kind of thing that I was into and that was covered by the magazine in question, the name of which I forget. Anyway, when the movie we had been planning to go to one night ended up being sold out (I think it was Coppola's Dracula), I convinced my two friends to see Reservoir Dogs instead. We were all blown away - it's impossible to convey the impact of the movie now that it and Pulp Fiction have been imitated to death for so many years, but it was real and it was heavy, in both cases. Pulp Fiction I was lucky enough to see on its opening weekend, before hearing or reading anything about it, and once again, it's hard to understand what an impression it made under those circumstances (which would have been difficult to reproduce even a week or two later, as word of mouth spread really quickly about it). I think all his films are great. My least favourite are probably Inglorious Basterds and the two westerns, partly because I'm not a huge fan of those genres, but I wouldn't missed any of them for the world. If I had to recommend one to a Tarantino-sceptic, I might go with Jackie Brown, as it's a little more restrained or less show-offy than usual with him while still I think showcasing his strengths as a film=maker. Unless you had seen Ringo Lam's City on Fire and John Woo's films and could spot the scene-by-scene swipes, as pointed out by Chris Gore, in Film Threat magazine. From the start I tended to turn a cynical eye on Tarantino's output, as less researched critics and interviewers heaped praise on him. He makes entertaining films; but, he was stealing left and right. As time wore on, he got better about attributing his influences and doing more of what I would call homages, rather than outright theft, while putting a more modern sheen on it. That said, most of his influences are far better films, to me, as far as his 90s and 00s stuff. I haven't seen Django Unchained or Hateful 8 yet. I never got the praise for Inglorious Basterds; but, to each their own. Outside of Chris Weisz, who was deserving of his recognition, I just didn't see it. I did not get that Churchill was Rod Taylor until I saw the end credit and did a freeze frame on his scene. Man they had him covered up!
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