What Movie Are You Watching?

21) Cruel Story of Youth (Nagisa Oshima, 1960): In this case, I know that Oshima's films are quite dark and miserable, but even I was shocked at how cruel this film was! Once I got over that, it was quite a gripping film that would never have been released in America at the time. There is a saturated look to the feel that is at odds with the dark characters, but I find it works quite well!


33) Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000) [RW]: Another one I haven't seen for many years, but getting a 5-disc blu-ray edition, I couldn't put it in the backlog. I've never watched the original cut (only the extended edition), but my goodness; this is a film that gets better with age. Barely any scene is wasted; the editing is incredible. What I loved even more is that despite the premise and the violence, how funny and how sweet it is in places; you really care about (some) of the characters and want them to survive. An absolute masterpiece. I know the 2nd film is pretty crap, but i'm kinda looking forward to watching it again...


RE: 21) I have that sitting on my shelf and still haven't gotten around to it. Should rectify it one of these days.

RE: 33) I have that on order and on its way...still waiting for it to arrive. Will be my third time buying BUT I absolutely LOVE Battle Royale and will gladly triple dip for it. Fun fact; one of my friends is featured in the new documentary on that set. Yoshiki Takahashi.

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@Your Boy Leroy - What was quite impressive about the 3rd Pusher was how chilled it was...until the last half an hour. Good grief that was an eye opener!

@danielmann861 - Yes, that documentary was really cool! I kept staring at his tattoo's throughout haha

@Truck_1_0_1_ - Kitano is amazing in this! It might have been my first entry point with him...that or Hana-bi, but I barely remember that film (I own it, but need to see it again as it's been so long). Kitano is one of the few actors where he could play himself (Woody Allen is another example) and it's gold.
 
i watched "big stand", which is a light hearted comedy staring rob schneider and david carradine. it's about a guy who is sentence to prison and basically wants to learn self defense so he doesn't get raped. lol quite funny, i liked it. david carradine is great.

and the other most recent film i saw was "oblivion" (2013).. seen that film tones of times before, love it. tom cruise makes awesome sci-fi movies, I wish he would make more. on re-watching it this time around I noticed several similarities with Kojima's death stranding game.
 
GUILTY PLEASURES! --- Not a term I necessarily agree with but I understand why it is a term. I can't say any of the movies I am about to list are masterpieces of cinema, but I've been in need of a light hearted mood for a while now after some pretty intense sessions at therapy....so I've been watching a lot of "guilty pleasures" of mine to just lighten the mood a little...

Now, I don't necessarily feel guilty about liking any of the movies I'm about to mention as I really don't care what film snobs may think, but I am also self aware that they aren't the greatest examples of masterclass cinema either. So while I don't believe in "Guilty Pleasures" really...I do use that term anyways just because...

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Not Another Teen Movie -- Has a 5.7 over at IMDB and I remember it being pretty trashed even when it first came out, but I've actually loved this movie ever since I saw it back when it first opened in 2001. I actually still think this is one of the last really good parodies before Friedberg and Seltzer shat up the genre. You can tell the people who made this had a lot of love for the 80s movies they were parodying and its actually got a really good ensemble cast. I especially have a lot of love for Samm Levine (of Freaks and Geeks fame), Sam Huntington, Cody McMains as the trio of virgins looking to lose their virginity. They could have easily made a movie out of those three guys alone with the chemistry they had.

Yeah, I really like this. It's probably one of the last good parody movies that came out before the genre just went to shit. As I've said elsewhere, the best parodies are the ones where the people making them have actual love for the things they're making fun of and I think that does come through in this movie.

Grandma's Boy -- Hated by critics and I can easily see why. It is a largely aimless movie. The plot really is non-existent and you'll probably fall into one of two camps. You'll either flat out hate it and find Alan Covert to be an annoying unlikable douchebag if you're uptight. Or you'll see him as the laid back stoner buddy you've probably known at least once in your life if you've ever partook. I fall into the latter camp. There are some really goofy moments in this movie that work for me. Dorris Roberts getting high as a kite off the herb she puts in her tea is one such moment. Oh and I make no apologies in saying Linda Cardellini is smokingly hot in this movie. I totally get why critics would hate this movie. But it's a total guilty pleasure of mine.

BASEketball -- It's certainly not Matt and Trey's finest hour. It's no Team America or The Book of Mormon, let's just put it that way. But it is a very funny low brow Zucker brothers movie that I've always enjoyed. Matt, Trey and their buddy Dian carry the movie quite well. You can tell they know it's dumb as fuck but at the same time while hamming it up they are clearly enjoying themselves. The satire does run out of steam very early as the movie falls into gross out sight gags for the sake of gross out sight gags but I'd be lying if I said I didn't laugh.

Spice World -- I wasn't even all that big a Spice Girls fan. I certainly grew up in that time and enjoyed one or two of their songs, but I wasn't the biggest fan. But for some reason, I've always kind of loved the absolute randomness of this movie. It's clearly taking its cues from A Hard Days Night but the humor is just so much goofier but for some reason it's always worked for me. Plus it has fucking Meat Loaf as their bus driver. Win!

Little Nicky -- It's all too easy to take a swipe at Sandler and I get it, the guy has made some pretty lazy films that are just excuses for him and his buddies to take a holiday. But again, there are Sandler films I enjoy and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Little Nicky is one of them. It has Harvey Keitel as the devil. It has Rodney Dangerfield as Lucifer. It has Harvey Keitel shoving a pineapple up Hitler's ass. I can see why people would find Sandler's voice grating as all shit in this movie, but his goofy ass mannerisms worked for me in this one. Also it has fucking Quentin Tarantino delivering some of the best moments in it as the blind priest. Objectively not a great film but one that I've always had a soft spot for.
 
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GUILTY PLEASURES! --- Not a term I necessarily agree with but I understand why it is a term. I can't say any of the movies I am about to list are masterpieces of cinema, but I've been in need of a light hearted mood for a while now after some pretty intense sessions at therapy....so I've been watching a lot of "guilty pleasures" of mine to just lighten the mood a little...

Now, I don't necessarily feel guilty about liking any of the movies I'm about to mention as I really don't care what film snobs may think, but I am also self aware that they aren't the greatest examples of masterclass cinema either. So while I don't believe in "Guilty Pleasures" really...I do use that term anyways just because...

--------------------------------------------------------


Not Another Teen Movie -- Has a 5.7 over at IMDB and I remember it being pretty trashed even when it first came out, but I've actually loved this movie ever since I saw it back when it first opened in 2001. I actually still think this is one of the last really good parodies before Friedberg and Seltzer shat up the genre. You can tell the people who made this had a lot of love for the 80s movies they were parodying and it's actually got a really good ensemble cast. I especially have a lot of love for Samm Levine (of Freaks and Geeks fame), Sam Huntington, Cody McMains as the trio of virgins looking to lose their virginity. They could have easily made a movie out of those three guys alone with the chemistry they had.

Yeah, I really like this. It's probably one of the last good parody movies that came out before the genre just went to shit. As I've said elsewhere, the best parodies are the ones where the people making them have actual love for the things they're making fun of and I think that does come through in this movie.

It was one of the few that DIDN'T involve Selzberg and Friedman or Friedberg and Selzman or whatever their names are; they absolutely tore apart and ruined the, "parody," genre, single (or in this case, double) handedly.

I quote this film on the daily and yes, this is far and away the best of all the parody films that came out around the turn of the century (even better than Scary Movie). Especially watching She's All That, 10 Things I Hate About You, Bring it On (and more), YEARS after this film came out, I understood every reference, every joke and I was very-impressed at how well they were done and how faithful they were to the films that were being parodied.

Also love the modern covers of songs in the film and while not a fan of Good Charlotte, seeing them in the film a few years before they got big, was AWESOME lol.

AND! I am forever smug that I was a Chris Evans fan from this film, before any of the MCU plebs knew who he was ;)

"Hey! I found a Buffalo Nickle!"

Little Nicky is one of the few Sandler films from that era, I'm not a fan of at all (same thing with Waterboy). The cast is absolutely awesome though and P.O.D.'s songs are prominent throughout the film, so I would never turn down watching it
 
It was one of the few that DIDN'T involve Selzberg and Friedman or Friedberg and Selzman or whatever their names are; they absolutely tore apart and ruined the, "parody," genre, single (or in this case, double) handedly.

I quote this film on the daily and yes, this is far and away the best of all the parody films that came out around the turn of the century (even better than Scary Movie). Especially watching She's All That, 10 Things I Hate About You, Bring it On (and more), YEARS after this film came out, I understood every reference, every joke and I was very-impressed at how well they were done and how faithful they were to the films that were being parodied.

Also love the modern covers of songs in the film and while not a fan of Good Charlotte, seeing them in the film a few years before they got big, was AWESOME lol.

AND! I am forever smug that I was a Chris Evans fan from this film, before any of the MCU plebs knew who he was ;)

"Hey! I found a Buffalo Nickle!"

Little Nicky is one of the few Sandler films from that era, I'm not a fan of at all (same thing with Waterboy). The cast is absolutely awesome though and P.O.D.'s songs are prominent throughout the film, so I would never turn down watching it
I think the problem with Friedberg and Seltzer is simply that they don't give a shit. They don't care about the movies they're actually parodying. They don't care about the audience. They don't even care about the movies they're making themselves. They know they're making lowest common denominator trash and they're just in it to make a quick buck.

Just listen to this snippet of an audio commentary they did for Date Movie and you'll instantly find out what these guys were all about and why their movies sucked. They were simply in it to make a quick buck.



But yeah, Not Another Teen Movie actually had some effort put into it and you could tell the people who made it actually had love for the films they were mocking. And that's when parody is done best I feel. You got to have some love for the thing your making fun of. That's what made the best of the Zucker brother parodys as well. Airplane is awesome and you tell they do have affection for the films they're ripping off.

It finds a good blend between ripping off the 80s John Hughes stuff and that small collection of 90s teen movies that came out around the time and you're right, a lot of good quotes in it too. The ensemble cast in that film really was quite well cast.

Yeah I understand why people don't like Little Nicky...but I don't know, something about his goofy ass mannerisms in that film just worked for me. But I completely understand why people would hate that film too. Objectively it's not a great film, but one I've always kind of enjoyed.
 
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I may watch NATM again soon; I watched it a good 100 times from 2003-2011 or so (at least, probably more), but I'm pretty sure only once in the past 10 years. Think maybe this week, I can wind down while my wife finishes her work :)

This Saturday, we took in...

Horrible Bosses (2011):

Nick, Kurt and Dale (say it fast, without the, "and!" ;)) are 3 best-friends who work for bosses with varying degrees of awful to them... well Kurt doesn't for the first 10 minutes of the film, then he does lol; Kurt's boss's son (Colin Farrel lol) takes over the business and doesn't give a shit about anyone in the company or about the state of the company itself, Dale's boss (Jennifer Aniston) is always trying to have sex with him, but he is super-devoted to his fiancée and isn't interested in his boss, but Nick's is the worst; a complete POS human being in the film (and in real life, as he's portrayed by Kevin Spacey), he uses and abuses anyone in his sight and is a complete opportunist. They all shoot the breeze one day and randomly joke about killing all of their bosses... but then each has a moment where things go too far and then they... REALLY DO want to kill their bosses and thus the plot thickens.

This is the second time I've seen it (as we don't own it), but we've seen the 2nd 5 times now (as we do own it. It isn't a bad film in the slightest, even though it was piggy-backing on the, "Trio of Modern and Realistic buds get into wacky adventures," genre that started with the Hangover and there are a lot of endearing moments and truly-funny moments as well. It's an objectively-better film than its sequel (as it isn't as over the top and ridiculous), but I personally find the sequel to be MUCH-funnier experience from top to bottom (that prospector voice Day does in the second film nearly gives me a heart-attack, every time I see it; just beyond-hilarious).

The Jasons (Bateman, Sudeikis) and Charlie Day have great chemistry with each other and they carry the film along well. Bateman's playing of the straight, serious guy is always great, even if he is typecast in that role constantly. I'm not a fan of Day's over-the-top loudness and antics, but he plays that well-enough, at least. Sudeikis is in-between, with being a bit over-the-top at times and straight at other times. Spacey is good in everything he does and this film is no exception, easily the best of the 3 bosses (though the others do a great job as well, especially Aniston).

Worth a watch for a light movie night.

8/10
 
GUILTY PLEASURES! --- Not a term I necessarily agree with but I understand why it is a term. I can't say any of the movies I am about to list are masterpieces of cinema, but I've needed a light-hearted mood for a while now after some pretty intense sessions at therapy....so I've been watching a lot of "guilty pleasures" of mine to just lighten the mood a little...

Now, I don't necessarily feel guilty about liking any of the movies I'm about to mention as I don't care what film snobs may think, but I am also self-aware that they aren't the greatest examples of masterclass cinema either. So while I don't believe in "Guilty Pleasures"...I do use that term anyways just because...

--------------------------------------------------------


Not Another Teen Movie -- Has a 5.7 over at IMDB and I remember it being pretty trashed even when it first came out, but I've loved this movie ever since I saw it back when it first opened in 2001. I still think this is one of the last really good parodies before Friedberg and Seltzer shat up the genre. You can tell the people who made this had a lot of love for the 80s movies they were parodying and it's got a really good ensemble cast. I especially have a lot of love for Samm Levine (of Freaks and Geeks fame), Sam Huntington, Cody McMains as the trio of virgins looking to lose their virginity. They could have easily made a movie out of those three guys along with the chemistry they had.

Yeah, I like this. It's probably one of the last good parody movies that came out before the genre just went to shit. As I've said elsewhere, the best parodies are the ones where the people making them have actual love for the things they're making fun of and I think that does come through in this movie.

Grandma's Boy -- Hated by critics and I can easily see why. It is a largely aimless movie. The plot is non-existent and you'll probably fall into one of two camps. You'll either flat out hate it and find Alan Covert to be an annoying unlikable douchebag if you're uptight. Or you'll see him as the laid-back stoner buddy you've probably known at least once in your life if you've ever partaken. I fall into the latter camp. There are some goofy moments in this movie that work for me. Dorris Roberts getting high as a kite off the herb she puts in her tea is one such moment. Oh and I make no apologies in saying Linda Cardellini is smokingly hot in this movie. I get why critics would hate this movie. But it's a total guilty pleasure of mine.

BASEketball -- It's certainly not Matt and Trey's finest hour. It's no Team America or The Book of Mormon, let's just put it that way. But it is a very funny low-brow Zucker brothers movie that I've always enjoyed. Matt, Trey, and their buddy Dian carry the movie quite well. You can tell they know it's dumb as fuck but at the same time while hamming it up they are enjoying themselves. The satire does run out of steam very early as the movie falls into gross-out sight gags for the sake of gross-out sight gags but I'd be lying if I said I didn't laugh.

Spice World -- I wasn't even all that big a Spice Girls fan. I certainly grew up in that time and enjoyed one or two of their songs, but I wasn't the biggest fan. But for some reason, I've always kind of loved the absolute randomness of this movie. It's clearly taking its cues from A Hard Days Night but the humor is just so much goofier but for some reason, it's always worked for me. Plus it has fucking Meat Loaf as their bus driver. Win!

Little Nicky -- It's all too easy to take a swipe at Sandler and I get it, the guy has made some pretty lazy films that are just excuses for him and his buddies to take a holiday. But again, there are Sandler films I enjoy and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Little Nicky is one of them. It has Harvey Keitel as the devil. It has Rodney Dangerfield as Lucifer. It has Harvey Keitel shoving a pineapple up Hitler's ass. I can see why people would find Sandler's voice grating as all shit in this movie, but his goofy ass mannerisms worked for me in this one. Also, it has fucking Quentin Tarantino delivering some of the best moments in it as the blind priest. Objectively not a great film but one that I've always had a soft spot for.
I honestly hate the term "Guilty Pleasures" when it comes to something as subjective as entertainment. It's a way of saying, "I shouldn't like this because others hate it, but I like it." Some unpopular movie opinions of mine are that I enjoyed Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. You know, the movie that a certain critic spent eight hours trashing on. Or how I think Citizen Kane is one of the most boring movies ever created.

Don't let others dictate to you what you should enjoy.

On a side note, I just finished watching the Street Fighter II movie from the Nineties. Proving once again that not all video game adaptations are bad.
 
I honestly hate the term "Guilty Pleasures" when it comes to something as subjective as entertainment. It's a way of saying, "I shouldn't like this because others hate it, but I like it." Some unpopular movie opinions of mine are that I enjoyed Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. You know, the movie that a certain critic spent eight hours trashing on. Or how I think Citizen Kane is one of the most boring movies ever created.

Don't let others dictate to you what you should enjoy.

On a side note, I just finished watching the Street Fighter II movie from the Nineties. Proving once again that not all video game adaptations are bad.
It's interesting that so many people love the SF games and hate the Street Fighter movie with Raul Julia and Jean Claude Van Damme, I found it to be enjoyable when I watched it. It's a lot better than any of the actual Street Fighter games.
 
The last movie I watched was the Blu Ray of Final Fantasy the Spirit within . I purchased it last week. I saw the movie back then in the movie theatre and was not impressed. After I re watch I somehow like it. The Story was not suitable for teenage self I presume because I did not like it back then. As an adult I can somhow enjoy the philosophical aspect of the story line. Still not a master piece but a entertaining movie. The animations are still quite impressive I think. Not on the same level as the Resident Evil animated movies but still quite good.

I would rate the movie with solid 7/10.
 
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I honestly hate the term "Guilty Pleasures" when it comes to something as subjective as entertainment. It's a way of saying, "I shouldn't like this because others hate it, but I like it." Some unpopular movie opinions of mine are that I enjoyed Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. You know, the movie that a certain critic spent eight hours trashing on. Or how I think Citizen Kane is one of the most boring movies ever created.

Don't let others dictate to you what you should enjoy.

On a side note, I just finished watching the Street Fighter II movie from the Nineties. Proving once again that not all video game adaptations are bad.

Bingo.

It should be reserved for objectively-bad things in life (when it comes to movies, for example, something like Manos: the Hands of Fate or Daniel- Der Zauberer), that have been purposely made shitty for just being shitty; not for art or any other value.

It's why things that are campy for camp sake (Street Fighter), films purposely made, "poorly," for art (as Dan mentioned above, Trash Humpers) or what the filmmakers did to make the best of the situation (MK: Annihilation), tow the line of, "objectively-bad;" all of those films have issues, but none of them are BAD films; they tell a competent story, the acting isn't the worst thing ever and there absolutely IS entertainment to be had out of it, which is the entire premise of a film in the first place.
 

Slither - I fucking love this movie! Such an overlooked film. I remember seeing it when it first opened on a Friday night with an audience consisting of 5 people...that's it. 5 people on opening weekend here in Australia. But I fucking loved it and it quickly became one of my favorite horror films.



Tekken - I have avoided this for a long time but given my long run of Tekken 7 online recently, I decided to sit down and watch it. How bad could it be? OH BOY! PRETTY FUCKING LAME! Oh and no Xiaoyu! That's an automatic fuck you to the film makers from me right there! How can you have a Tekken movie and not include Xiaoyu? Fuck you! At least it had Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa as Heihachi though. So that was one tolerable thing about it. But yeah, no wonder why this came and went. It's not very good at all. Even as far as lame video game movies go, it's not even memorably bad. It's just there.

Seriously, no Xiaoyu in this movie is an unforgivable sin to me! At least a live action Xiaoyu may have made it tolerable.



D.O.A Dead or Alive -- So this was another one I had heard nothing but bad things about and had kind of purposely avoided for a long time. But I decided to give it a shot after watching Tekken and...I didn't hate it. I mean honestly, what can you really do with Dead or Alive anyways considering most of its appeal is Sex Appeal? I will say though, this film at least delivered on the sexy ladies being bad ass fighters and I suppose that's really the best you can do with a Dead or Alive movie. For what it was, I didn't hate it. Maybe it was coming off of the Lame Tekken movie that made this feel infinitely better but yeah, for what it was, I thought it was fine and did the best it could with what material it had to work with.



The Raid 2: Berandal -- Keeping the martial arts theme going. I had to re-watch the best martial arts movie of the last decade. I hadn't seen it since it first came out but god damn does it hold up on revisit. Utterly compelling and those action scenes? Still very top notch! In some ways, this is what I wish Mortal Kombat 2021 had been...at least in terms of fight choreography.
 

Slither - I fucking love this movie! Such an overlooked film. I remember seeing it when it first opened on a Friday night with an audience consisting of 5 people...that's it. 5 people on opening weekend here in Australia. But I fucking loved it and it quickly became one of my favorite horror films.



Tekken - I have avoided this for a long time but given my long run of Tekken 7 online recently, I decided to sit down and watch it. How bad could it be? OH BOY! PRETTY FUCKING LAME! Oh and no Xiaoyu! That's an automatic fuck you to the film makers from me right there! How can you have a Tekken movie and not include Xiaoyu? Fuck you! At least it had Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa as Heihachi though. So that was one tolerable thing about it. But yeah, no wonder why this came and went. It's not very good at all. Even as far as lame video game movies go, it's not even memorably bad. It's just there.

Seriously, no Xiaoyu in this movie is an unforgivable sin to me! At least a live action Xiaoyu may have made it tolerable.



D.O.A Dead or Alive -- So this was another one I had heard nothing but bad things about and had kind of purposely avoided for a long time. But I decided to give it a shot after watching Tekken and...I didn't hate it. I mean honestly, what can you really do with Dead or Alive anyways considering most of its appeal is Sex Appeal? I will say though, this film at least delivered on the sexy ladies being bad ass fighters and I suppose that's really the best you can do with a Dead or Alive movie. For what it was, I didn't hate it. Maybe it was coming off of the Lame Tekken movie that made this feel infinitely better but yeah, for what it was, I thought it was fine and did the best it could with what material it had to work with.



The Raid 2: Berandal -- Keeping the martial arts theme going. I had to re-watch the best martial arts movie of the last decade. I hadn't seen it since it first came out but god damn does it hold up on revisit. Utterly compelling and those action scenes? Still very top notch! In some ways, this is what I wish Mortal Kombat 2021 had been...at least in terms of fight choreography.
Haha! I actually did the same thing with Tekken and DOA and watched them one after the other. I had the same exact feelings on them too. Tekken was bad with exception to Shang Tsung, though admittedly its the worst movie I've seen with Cary Tagawa. DOA was bad but it was so corny and so far out there that I actually had fun watching it, for what it was.
 
It's interesting that so many people love the SF games and hate the Street Fighter movie with Raul Julia and Jean Claude Van Damme, I found it to be enjoyable when I watched it. It's a lot better than any of the actual Street Fighter games.
I guess I should make it clear that I am referring to this Street Fighter movie.

 
[


D.O.A Dead or Alive -- So this was another one I had heard nothing but bad things about and had kind of purposely avoided for a long time. But I decided to give it a shot after watching Tekken and...I didn't hate it. I mean honestly, what can you really do with Dead or Alive anyways considering most of its appeal is Sex Appeal? I will say though, this film at least delivered on the sexy ladies being bad ass fighters and I suppose that's really the best you can do with a Dead or Alive movie. For what it was, I didn't hate it. Maybe it was coming off of the Lame Tekken movie that made this feel infinitely better but yeah, for what it was, I thought it was fine and did the best it could with what material it had to work with.



The Raid 2: Berandal -- Keeping the martial arts theme going. I had to re-watch the best martial arts movie of the last decade. I hadn't seen it since it first came out but god damn does it hold up on revisit. Utterly compelling and those action scenes? Still very top notch! In some ways, this is what I wish Mortal Kombat 2021 had been...at least in terms of fight choreography.

DOA was great fun. I believe I rated it a 6 or a 7 /10 on IMDB, back when I first watched it in 2008 or so and it definitely still holds up. Again, a competent story, good-enough acting (much better than MK: A or Tekken; it DOES have Eric Roberts and Jamie Pressley) and is more-than entertaining. While I've liked Jamie Pressley forever (Not Another Teen Movie! lol) and she is arguably the best-portrayed of the fighters in the film, her, um, chest is too small to be Tina...

BTW, Dan, how do you feel about Holly Valance? Many Aussies I've spoken to hate her to death lol (not on a personal level; as a celebrity). I find her super-attractive, but she's a relative unknown in North America.

The Raid 2 is still one of the greatest action films ever; Gareth Evans is a master of the genre and I own each of his films, as a result of these 2.
 
I just finished rewatching the fan edit of the 1984 David Lynch science-fiction film Dune titled "Alternative Edition Redux" which in my opinion, is vastly improved over the original theatrical cut. Maybe it was because I watched the theatrical release when I was ten, but the plot was very convoluted. This time, however, the fan edit made the narrative more cohesive and had some great scenes I never saw in the theatrical release. It's a movie I highly recommend.

 
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DOA was great fun. I believe I rated it a 6 or a 7 /10 on IMDB, back when I first watched it in 2008 or so and it definitely still holds up. Again, a competent story, good-enough acting (much better than MK: A or Tekken; it DOES have Eric Roberts and Jamie Pressley) and is more-than entertaining. While I've liked Jamie Pressley forever (Not Another Teen Movie! lol) and she is arguably the best-portrayed of the fighters in the film, her, um, chest is too small to be Tina...

BTW, Dan, how do you feel about Holly Valance? Many Aussies I've spoken to hate her to death lol (not on a personal level; as a celebrity). I find her super-attractive, but she's a relative unknown in North America.

The Raid 2 is still one of the greatest action films ever; Gareth Evans is a master of the genre and I own each of his films, as a result of these 2.

Largely indifferent towards Valance...I do remember that period when she was the new hot thing and there was quite a backlash to her being shoved down our throats through Neighbors (long running Australian Soap Opera for those unaware) and her new found pop career...but I was largely indifferent towards her. I will say, she was smoking hot in this movie though as Christie...but yeah, I was always largely indifferent towards her.

Yeah, I've always had a soft spot for Jamie Pressley....for the most part I thought the casting of most of the ladies was fine. Kevin Nash as Bass was oddly enough perfect. I got to say, for the small bit parts he gets, Nash is usually pretty entertaining whenever he shows up in a movie.

Like I said, I didn't expect award bait from it, but for what it aimed to deliver? I thought it was fine. Again, how much can you really do with Dead or Alive to begin with? It's not like it has the greatest lore to work from or a compelling story. It's a franchise that is mostly about style (or sex appeal) over substance....so in those terms, the movie delivered just that. It was all style over substance...and I had a surprisingly good time with it.
 

We decided to watch the DOA Dead or Alive movie again today and see if it's worth giving a second view. It was actually more fun than I remembered it being the first time, although it's not great it delivers with humor and action. I wish they would have focused more on the original game plot, but what video game movie ever does that? And even the retcon of video game lore was done fairly well in this movie. Surprisingly Christie was by far the most memorable, interesting and well acted character, which I didn't expect. Hayate was pretty cool too. Regardless of how silly or cheesy the DOA movie was, it's still far better in every way than the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie, which is extremely sad. It was nice to see 1995 Mortal Kombat's Robin Shou who is the only real Liu Kang as far as I'm concerned make a cameo in DOA too, I wish they would have cast him as Hayabusa or Hayate, but Collin Chou as Hayate was solid and Hayabusa was a bit lame in this movie, so I'd rather not see Robin Shou in that light. This is free on YouTube for those that are interested.
 
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