Recently viewed movie thread - Rental, Streaming, Theater etc (4 Viewers)

[Tick]

Synchronic (Netflix): 2019 scifi drama, IMDB rating 6.2. This is from Benson and Morehead, who did 3 movies I really liked: Spring, The Endless, and Resolution. This has the smallest possible tie-in (a reference to a red flower in California) but is otherwise standalone. I wanted to like this movie based on their earlier movies, and it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. The concept is pretty cool: a drug that has some time travel effects for some people. It was well made - shot well, good effects where needed, and an interesting story line. Where I think it fell short for me is in the character development, the casting, or acting. Anthony Mackie is the main character, and there are times when he's acting Will Smith cool, and those work well for me... but when anything dramatic happens, I just find him depressing. This has been true in the Captain America TV show and another Netflix scifi movie as well. The other lead is Jamie Dornan, who I don't really have an opinion on, but the character was also pretty depressing with his family relationships. I thought the movie picked up when Mackie turned on a video recorder, and from then on it was pretty cool. I'm not sorry I watched it, but compared to their other three movies, this was a dud.

 

[guru_007]

I watched Snack Shack (rental) and Dinner in America (Hulu), both from director Adam Rehmeier.

Dinner in America bludgeons the viewer with vulgarity for act 1 before it becomes an epic punk rock rom com. The two leads give amazing performances. I highly recommend it.

Just wanted to say this was a good shout. Dinner in America is something completely different and I enjoyed it as well.

 

[Eephus]

@KarmaPolice - After looking back at the list of 80s action movies I have to say - the genre isn't my favorite from that era either.

The 80s (through 1992 when John Woo went Hollywood) are the golden age of Hong Kong action movies. Many of the 21st century innovations in US action can be traced directly back to Hong Kong from that era.

 

[Eephus]

I watch late 90s and early 2000s action movies with trepidation because I know there's probably going to be a horrendous CGI effect at some point.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Run Lola, Run is in theaters this week sporting a new 4k transfer. 25th anniversary already!

 

[KarmaPolice]

@KarmaPolice - After looking back at the list of 80s action movies I have to say - the genre isn't my favorite from that era either.

The 80s (through 1992 when John Woo went Hollywood) are the golden age of Hong Kong action movies. Many of the 21st century innovations in US action can be traced directly back to Hong Kong from that era.

What are a handful of movies you would suggest as a primer here?

 

[Andy Dufresne]

@KarmaPolice - After looking back at the list of 80s action movies I have to say - the genre isn't my favorite from that era either.

The 80s (through 1992 when John Woo went Hollywood) are the golden age of Hong Kong action movies. Many of the 21st century innovations in US action can be traced directly back to Hong Kong from that era.

What are a handful of movies you would suggest as a primer here?

I know nothing but a quick search has made me want to track down a copy of A Better Tomorrow.

 

[Eephus]

I know nothing but a quick search has made me want to track down a copy of A Better Tomorrow.

I watched three John Woo Hong Kong movies in late 2023: A Better Tomorrow, A Better Tomorrow II and Hard Boiled. They're kind of hard to assess in retrospect because his action style has been so widely imitated. What was fresh at the time now looks rather dated. I found the stories to be very sentimental and corny, especially Hard Boiled.

As far as movies with modern settings, I prefer the over the top maximalism of something like High Risk or Black Mask over Woo's operatic dramas. Most Jackie Chan movies I've seen from this era have something in them that's worth watching.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Speaking of Chan, I watched The Fearless Hyena last night. Figured I'd start a little before the 80s.

 

[El Floppo]

Speaking of Chan, I watched The Fearless Hyena last night. Figured I'd start a little before the 80s.

Drunken Master and Operstion Condor (just for the wind test fight) for me.

 

[Ilov80s]

@KarmaPolice - After looking back at the list of 80s action movies I have to say - the genre isn't my favorite from that era either.

The 80s (through 1992 when John Woo went Hollywood) are the golden age of Hong Kong action movies. Many of the 21st century innovations in US action can be traced directly back to Hong Kong from that era.

What are a handful of movies you would suggest as a primer here?

The Killer is my favorite Woo Hong Kong movie.

 

[Eephus]

City on Fire (1987)

Ringo Lam's Hong Kong crime drama is best known in the west for its influence on Reservoir Dogs--QT borrows liberally from City on Fire's final 45 minutes. Chow Yun-Fat plays an undercover cop whose loyalties are torn when ordered to work with a group of thieves planning a jewelry store heist. Chow displays an undeniable charisma in the role that allows him to switch from a hardcore gangster to a goofy romantic subplot.

City on Fire is far from non-stop action. Things slow down after an opening murder as the film builds around Chow's conflicted character. There are a number of violent gun battles but no martial arts to speak of. Lam's directorial style is more grounded than John Woo's. His action scenes are more realistic and less artistic without Woo's fluttering birds and other excesses. Lam films a lot of the dialog scenes in long takes with a static camera which may have been dictated by budgetary limitations. I liked the movie's strong sense of place with lots of Hong Kong location work. I've always been fascinated by the city, especially in its late colonial period.

City on Fire (1987) subbed in English : Ringo Lam : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

1987 Hong Kong action movie directed by Ringo Lam and starring Chow Yun-fat. Original Cantonese audio with hardcoded English subtitles.

archive.org

 

[El Floppo]

Under Paris.

 

[Eephus]

Under Paris.

 

[El Floppo]

Under Paris.

Lol.

It was a deluge of "wait... What?"

 

[Joe Schmo]

If you want something unique and not hollywood-ish you can do much worse than Good Satan. It's irreverent and crass but also very funny. There are some lags but just wait and a one liner or gag will come along and put you back in the mood again. It's a quick watch at only 1:20 so makes for a quick night time watch before bed.

 

[Eephus]

Above the Law (1988)

Stayed on the 80s action tip with Steven Seagal's debut movie. Above the Law is a cop story that pits Seagal's character against an alliance of drug dealers and the CIA. I came in expecting to mock Seagal's acting but he's not bad at all. He seems a little awkward when he's listening to other characters speak but his line readings are generally OK. I was surprised by his lack of bulk--he's tall and lean but not particularly jacked at all.

The action is pretty evenly distributed throughout the film. Seagal gets to beat up some bad guys every 20 minutes or so. There are a couple of shootouts, a car chase where Seagal spends most of the time on the roof and a scene on a L train that starts well but fizzles out. The action is very meat and potatoes without a lot of blood or stylistic flair. The gun battles are staged more like a TV cop show than the gun fu popular in Hong Kong at the time. The martial arts scenes are similarly down to earth

The movie was directed by Andrew Davis who also did Under Siege (1992) and The Fugitive (1993). He's a Chicagoan who did a great job of choosing and shooting locations in his home town. There's a lot of Chicago atmosphere although Seagal seems like he comes from somewhere else. Davis moves things along at a fast clip. It's a complicated plot involving drugs, explosives, refugees, political assassinations, the Catholic church, some domestic scenes with Sharon Stone playing Seagal's wife and a flashback to Vietnam. But the whole thing is done and dusted in under 100 minutes.

 

[belljr]

Above the Law (1988)

Stayed on the 80s action tip with Steven Seagal's debut movie. Above the Law is a cop story that pits Seagal's character against an alliance of drug dealers and the CIA. I came in expecting to mock Seagal's acting but he's not bad at all. He seems a little awkward when he's listening to other characters speak but his line readings are generally OK. I was surprised by his lack of bulk--he's tall and lean but not particularly jacked at all.

The action is pretty evenly distributed throughout the film. Seagal gets to beat up some bad guys every 20 minutes or so. There are a couple of shootouts, a car chase where Seagal spends most of the time on the roof and a scene on a L train that starts well but fizzles out. The action is very meat and potatoes without a lot of blood or stylistic flair. The gun battles are staged more like a TV cop show than the gun fu popular in Hong Kong at the time. The martial arts scenes are similarly down to earth

The movie was directed by Andrew Davis who also did Under Siege (1992) and The Fugitive (1993). He's a Chicagoan who did a great job of choosing and shooting locations in his home town. There's a lot of Chicago atmosphere although Seagal seems like he comes from somewhere else. Davis moves things along at a fast clip. It's a complicated plot involving drugs, explosives, refugees, political assassinations, the Catholic church, some domestic scenes with Sharon Stone playing Seagal's wife and a flashback to Vietnam. But the whole thing is done and dusted in under 100 minutes.

Is this the one with the Jamaicans?

 

[Eephus]

Is this the one with the Jamaicans?

No that's Marked For Death. The drug dealers in Above the Law are Central Americans so the movie can tie in a well meaning but pointless refugee plot thread.

 

[Joe Schmo]

Above the Law (1988)

Stayed on the 80s action tip with Steven Seagal's debut movie. Above the Law is a cop story that pits Seagal's character against an alliance of drug dealers and the CIA. I came in expecting to mock Seagal's acting but he's not bad at all. He seems a little awkward when he's listening to other characters speak but his line readings are generally OK. I was surprised by his lack of bulk--he's tall and lean but not particularly jacked at all.

The action is pretty evenly distributed throughout the film. Seagal gets to beat up some bad guys every 20 minutes or so. There are a couple of shootouts, a car chase where Seagal spends most of the time on the roof and a scene on a L train that starts well but fizzles out. The action is very meat and potatoes without a lot of blood or stylistic flair. The gun battles are staged more like a TV cop show than the gun fu popular in Hong Kong at the time. The martial arts scenes are similarly down to earth

The movie was directed by Andrew Davis who also did Under Siege (1992) and The Fugitive (1993). He's a Chicagoan who did a great job of choosing and shooting locations in his home town. There's a lot of Chicago atmosphere although Seagal seems like he comes from somewhere else. Davis moves things along at a fast clip. It's a complicated plot involving drugs, explosives, refugees, political assassinations, the Catholic church, some domestic scenes with Sharon Stone playing Seagal's wife and a flashback to Vietnam. But the whole thing is done and dusted in under 100 minutes.

Is this the one where Segal comes out of a years long coma and is doing full on workouts and carrying logs uphills about five minutes later?

 

[belljr]

Is this the one with the Jamaicans?

No that's Marked For Death. The drug dealers in Above the Law are Central Americans so the movie can tie in a well meaning but pointless refugee plot thread.

I celebrate most of the early catalog but I don't recall which title is which movie lolllll

Which one is the Coma? Hard to Kill?

 

[belljr]

Above the Law (1988)

Stayed on the 80s action tip with Steven Seagal's debut movie. Above the Law is a cop story that pits Seagal's character against an alliance of drug dealers and the CIA. I came in expecting to mock Seagal's acting but he's not bad at all. He seems a little awkward when he's listening to other characters speak but his line readings are generally OK. I was surprised by his lack of bulk--he's tall and lean but not particularly jacked at all.

The action is pretty evenly distributed throughout the film. Seagal gets to beat up some bad guys every 20 minutes or so. There are a couple of shootouts, a car chase where Seagal spends most of the time on the roof and a scene on a L train that starts well but fizzles out. The action is very meat and potatoes without a lot of blood or stylistic flair. The gun battles are staged more like a TV cop show than the gun fu popular in Hong Kong at the time. The martial arts scenes are similarly down to earth

The movie was directed by Andrew Davis who also did Under Siege (1992) and The Fugitive (1993). He's a Chicagoan who did a great job of choosing and shooting locations in his home town. There's a lot of Chicago atmosphere although Seagal seems like he comes from somewhere else. Davis moves things along at a fast clip. It's a complicated plot involving drugs, explosives, refugees, political assassinations, the Catholic church, some domestic scenes with Sharon Stone playing Seagal's wife and a flashback to Vietnam. But the whole thing is done and dusted in under 100 minutes.

Is this the one where Segal comes out of a years long coma and is doing full on workouts and carrying logs uphills about five minutes later?

I think thats Hard to Kill

 

[belljr]

Oh ABove the LAw was the OG..... I remembered it somehow as the MOB for some reason

 

[Joe Schmo]

Is this the one with the Jamaicans?

No that's Marked For Death. The drug dealers in Above the Law are Central Americans so the movie can tie in a well meaning but pointless refugee plot thread.

I celebrate most of the early catalog but I don't recall which title is which movie lolllll

Which one is the Coma? Hard to Kill?

Yes, that's the one!! Took my fiance to watch that a the theatre when it came out...she never let me forget it

 

[Eephus]

My favorite is Under Siege. The film makes effective use of the confined space of the ship and the nuclear weapons raise the stakes considerably. I also find it funny that the bad guys call Seagal the cook for much of the movie.

 

[Osaurus]

The Ben Stiller one?

 

[Payne]

My favorite is Under Siege. The film makes effective use of the confined space of the ship and the nuclear weapons raise the stakes considerably. I also find it funny that the bad guys call Seagal the cook for much of the movie.

Is that the one where the blond jumps out of the cake? Best part of the movie.

 

[Eephus]

Stone Cold (1991)

Brian Bosworth followed up his brief NFL career with this biker action classic. I remember enjoying it during the VHS era which is still largely the case on rewatch. The Boz plays an undercover cop who infiltrates a biker gang that blew up a judge and is dealing drugs with the mafia. You'd figure a ridiculous mullet might be an impediment while working undercover but the Boz doesn't do things by the book. He's a little stiff as an actor but not terrible and definitely can pull off the haymakers and wrestling throws that dominate the fight scenes.

Stone Cold is action packed compared to the two movies I've written up recently. There's plenty of the debauchery and mindless violence you expect from a biker movie. It's directed by longtime stuntman Craig R. Baxley who gets his money's worth in the pyrotechnics department. But all the best parts of the movie happen whenever the biker villains are on-screen. Lance Hendriksen and William Forsythe are both terrific as the leader of the gang and the member who is suspicious of the Boz. They bring a combination of menace and amusement to the movie that counterbalance Bosworth's acting. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense but it moves quickly and the ending is wild.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

 

[Joe Schmo]

Stone Cold (1991)

Brian Bosworth followed up his brief NFL career with this biker action classic. I remember enjoying it during the VHS era which is still largely the case on rewatch. The Boz plays an undercover cop who infiltrates a biker gang that blew up a judge and is dealing drugs with the mafia. You'd figure a ridiculous mullet might be an impediment while working undercover but the Boz doesn't do things by the book. He's a little stiff as an actor but not terrible and definitely can pull off the haymakers and wrestling throws that dominate the fight scenes.

Stone Cold is action packed compared to the two movies I've written up recently. There's plenty of the debauchery and mindless violence you expect from a biker movie. It's directed by longtime stuntman Craig R. Baxley who gets his money's worth in the pyrotechnics department. But all the best parts of the movie happen whenever the biker villains are on-screen. Lance Hendriksen and William Forsythe are both terrific as the leader of the gang and the member who is suspicious of the Boz. They bring a combination of menace and amusement to the movie that counterbalance Bosworth's acting. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense but it moves quickly and the ending is wild.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

80's action movie/The plot didn't make a whole lot of sense=redundant. Man, so many late nights with my boys watching double and triple features while mimicking the catch phrases and tossing each other around the basement or family room, good times!

 

[Payne]

Stone Cold (1991)

Brian Bosworth followed up his brief NFL career with this biker action classic. I remember enjoying it during the VHS era which is still largely the case on rewatch. The Boz plays an undercover cop who infiltrates a biker gang that blew up a judge and is dealing drugs with the mafia. You'd figure a ridiculous mullet might be an impediment while working undercover but the Boz doesn't do things by the book. He's a little stiff as an actor but not terrible and definitely can pull off the haymakers and wrestling throws that dominate the fight scenes.

Stone Cold is action packed compared to the two movies I've written up recently. There's plenty of the debauchery and mindless violence you expect from a biker movie. It's directed by longtime stuntman Craig R. Baxley who gets his money's worth in the pyrotechnics department. But all the best parts of the movie happen whenever the biker villains are on-screen. Lance Hendriksen and William Forsythe are both terrific as the leader of the gang and the member who is suspicious of the Boz. They bring a combination of menace and amusement to the movie that counterbalance Bosworth's acting. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense but it moves quickly and the ending is wild.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

All I remember from that movie is the girlfriend getting out of the bed.

 

[Dan Lambskin]

What’s the one with van damme and Dennis Rodman

 

[Eephus]

What’s the one with van damme and Dennis Rodman

Double Team (1997), a rare film in English from the great Hong Kong director Tsui Hark

DOUBLE TEAM (1997 ) |Action ,Comedy, Sci fi | Full movie

Double Team -Action, Crime, Drama movie 1997An international spy teams up with an arms dealer to escape from a penal colony and rescue his family from a terr...

www.youtube.com

 

[KarmaPolice]

The one with double Van Damnes was good too.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but wouldn't his movies be more suitable for children if he was named Jean-Claude van Darn?

 

[Eephus]

It's been a long time but I enjoyed Timecop and Sudden Death. I'm not a big hockey guy but it's very cool that there's a JCVD movie set in the Igloo.

Last year I watched Hard Target, the movie Van Damme made with John Woo, and I thought it was awful.

 

[BroncoFreak_2K3]

My favorite is Under Siege. The film makes effective use of the confined space of the ship and the nuclear weapons raise the stakes considerably. I also find it funny that the bad guys call Seagal the cook for much of the movie.

My Dad served on the battleship USS Iowa BB61, sister ship of the USS Missouri BB63, which is the setting for the movie. He absolutely LOVED that movie, especially birthday cake girl, Playboy Playmate Erika Eleniak.

 

[BlackCrowes]

My favorite is Under Siege. The film makes effective use of the confined space of the ship and the nuclear weapons raise the stakes considerably. I also find it funny that the bad guys call Seagal the cook for much of the movie.

Alternate title: Die Hard on a ship

 

[Eephus]

Alternate title: Die Hard on a ship

Under Siege has nothing to do with Christmas

 

[KarmaPolice]

These Expendables movies worth a watch?

 

[KarmaPolice]

Death Warrant is a hoot.

 

[WVU Alum]

These Expendables movies worth a watch?

No.

 

[need2know]

The one with double Van Damnes was good too.

Double impact. I liked it

 

[Hastur]

Brats by Andrew McCarthy - Documentary of the Brat Pack(Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, etc.)on Hulu.

I think Andrew does a good job with this. It centers on a magazine article written by David Blum who coins the term 'Brat Pack', and how that article affected the actors careers and lives.

 

[Eephus]

These Expendables movies worth a watch?

Only saw the first one and didn't love it. There were too many characters to build any familiarity with and the climactic battle was incoherently shot and edited.

 

[KarmaPolice]

These Expendables movies worth a watch?

Only saw the first one and didn't love it. There were too many characters to build any familiarity with and the climactic battle was incoherently shot and edited.

I feel like the genre is ripe for a Cabin in the Woods style movie, and was curious is there is even a nugget of that in here, or if Sly takes himself too seriously still.

 

[Eephus]

Miracles aka Canton Godfather (1989)

Most of the Jackie Chan movies I could find on streaming were dubbed so I watched this on (HBO) Max. Jackie directed, wrote and starred in Miracles which may explain why it's a personal favorite of his. It's a remake of Frank Capra's last movie A Pocketful of Miracles. Chan moves it from New York to Hong Kong but keeps the 1920s time period. He plays the role of an unlikely mob boss who believes in luck provided by an old woman who sells flowers. It's not a typical action movie story, the Tong stuff is just a backdrop to a screwball comedy of mistaken identities with a handful of brilliant martial arts scenes thrown in because it's Jackie Chan.

In retrospect, it was a bad decision to watch this in Cantonese. There was a ton of rapid fire dialog some of which went over my head between the subtitles and the missing cultural nuance. It was still a delight to watch Jackie; his acting talent is more evident when speaking in his native tongue and he was still in his physical prime at age 35. As an actor, he's one of the greatest entertainers but as a director, he's a bit of a show-off. There were some beautiful boom and tracking shots that didn't do much other than display the lavishness of the production. This coupled with a huge cast and a complicated plot made the movie seem a little bloated. But all this was forgotten in the last 40 minutes when the big action scenes made the movie come alive. I'm glad I watched it but I'd recommend something more centered on fighting.

 

[whoknew]

Monkey Man - Finally watched this tonight on Peacock. Awesome. If you like action, hard to imagine you wouldn't like this. Reminds me of John Wick.

 

[Eephus]

Red Heat (1988)

Another cop buddy picture starring 80s action icons Arnold Schwarzenegger and checks notes... Jim James Belushi as mismatched partners from Moscow and Chicago. I had high hopes going in because Red Heat was written and directed by Walter Hill who made one of the classics of the genre in 48 Hours. Red Heat is nowhere near as good because the star pairing doesn't work as well. Schwarzenegger's Russian cop is a human variation on his Terminator character which limits the humor to dated jokes about the differences between the US and USSR and a lot of complaining from Belushi.

The plot isn't the strongest either. The bad guy from the Georgian mafia wants to make a big cocaine buy from a Chicago street gang that he somehow plans to ship back to Russia. The deal goes south and everyone spends the rest of the movie in search of a missing key for a locker containing the villains' cash. Every so often, Arnold beats someone up for information to moves the story along. Gina Gershon pops in an out in a poorly written role as the main villain's wife. It all culminates in a Greyhound bus chase and then Arnold and Belushi express their grudging admiration and the credits roll.

The action scenes are solid as you'd expect from Hill but everything is familiar to the point of dullness. There are chases on foot and brutal, close range gun battles that you've seen done better in other Hill movies.. There's lots of neon reflecting on rain soaked streets and smoke coming up through manhole covers because it's the 80s. I don't think Hill can make a truly bad film but this is more like Another 48 Hours than the original article.

 

[Gally]

Brats by Andrew McCarthy - Documentary of the Brat Pack(Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, etc.)on Hulu.

I think Andrew does a good job with this. It centers on a magazine article written by David Blum who coins the term 'Brat Pack', and how that article affected the actors careers and lives.

I thought it was ok and could have been better. It would have been nice if they would have been able to get the entire group together to bounce stuff off each other. I thought Estevez was very uncomfortable and that Demi Moore was the most relaxed. It was definitely interesting to get many of their perspectives about the moniker being a negative and that it really had such a negative affect on them. I never saw the term in a negative way from an outsider perspective. It was more of just a generic term to group a bunch of young actors. Really nothing more than that. But obviously they saw it differently.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Holy crap is Rambo: First Blood Part 2 a lot of movie. First time watching it, and . Absolutely amazing, and very 80s.