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Not that I disagree about the nationalism aspect but I just feel like it's par for the course with Chinese period films, they all tend to have that issue to varying degrees.
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Dec 13, 2020 17:22
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I might be naive(probably am) but nationalism in movies doesn't really bother me. It just seems inevitable and reasonable that a country would make movies that make it seem the best. Everyone does it
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Dec 13, 2020 17:30
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I recently watched GetEven (a.k.a. Road to Revenge) from 1993 and wrote it up for Letterboxd, I thought this thread might be interested: If you fail hard enough at doing something, you might end up providing an acute commentary on that thing. There are moments when GetEven almost achieves this. GetEven is the project of law school graduate and limousine company owner John De Hart, who put together some money and decided he was going to make an action film that he directed, starred in, produced, wrote, and composed for. If you seek his monument, look around you. The plot of GetEven is perfunctory, for reasons that we'll come back to. Fun-loving L.A. cops Rick Bode (John De Hart) and Huck Finney (Wings Hauser) are fired from the police after being betrayed by their partner, Normad (William Smith). Normad later turns up in the film as a judge, which leads to the troubling thought that De Hart managed to graduate from law school while believing that judges are created by being promoted from the police. While attempting to get back together with his estranged girlfriend Cindy (Pamela Jean Bryant), Bode learns from her that a Satanic cult practising human sacrifice is active in the city. Bode and Finney set out to dispense some vigilante justice. Or at least, that's how the plot would normally go in an action film. What happens here is that Cindy tells Bode that she witnessed a baby being sacrificed by a Satanic cult, and everyone then pretty much forgets about it. Rather than scenes of detective work or vigilante justice, we get a series of sex scenes between Bode and Cindy. This is what makes it more difficult to have the kind of positive feelings about GetEven that you might have about The Room, Samurai Cop, or Miami Connection. Whatever deficiencies those films have, they are genuine efforts at making films of their genre. This seems to have been made largely so that De Hart can repeatedly simulate sex with a former Playboy centrefold. Another major problem with this film is that De Hart lacks any ability to act or project charisma. The one exception to this is the bar scene when Bode is performing his (and De Hart's) country-and-western line-dancing song "Shimmy Slide". De Hart appears to be genuinely terrified, but the problem is that the character here is probably meant to seem charismatic and self-assured. Usually you solve the problem of an uncharismatic leading man by surrounding them with good character actors, and so it is here, with William Smith providing the kind of strange, camp performance that you actually want for the villain of an action film. Pride of place has to go to Wings Hauser though, who clearly made this film in a cocaine-fuelled haze, and whose resultingly demented performance is probably worth at least half a star of my rating. It's also his scenes that come close to being a comment on the buddy cop genre: Bode reacts to his friend's behaviour as just being good manly hijinx, rather than as the clear signs of a man undergoing a breakdown. Weirdly, some of Hauser's scenes remind me of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, a film which actually took the archetype of the wildman plays-by-his-own rules cop and both took it to an extreme and did something interesting with it. That film also leaves you with an appreciation of Harvey Keitel's acting talent, whereas here you're mostly just worried about Wings Hauser's welfare. GetEven also comes up short compared to something like Miami Connection when it comes to direction. Quite a lot of scenes in GetEven are filmed from a single fixed camera position, and when they arrive the action scenes are pretty anaemic. This film is a mixed bag. The highs are pretty high, but the cheap feel and the overall cynicism of the production make it pretty difficult to love compared to some of its cult film competitors. Rascar Capac fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Dec 13, 2020 |
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Dec 13, 2020 17:53
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Okay, who started this trend of "comic-style freeze-frame on someone as colourful bullet points about them appear in lieu of an actual character introduction"? I've now seen it in several crappy action movies (off the top of my head, The Losers, 6 Underground and XXX 3) and I want to know who to blame.
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Dec 13, 2020 23:53
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Lurdiak posted:I never thought the Donnie Yen Ip Man movies were very good. The second one has such a mean spirited third act it's almost impressive. I've written it up at least twice on these boards so I won't repeat myself, but dang that movie really rubbed me the wrong way. Also, the guy who played Bruce Lee in the third was a goddamn doofus. The last fight in that is great, though, and probably the best in the series. Payndz posted:Okay, who started this trend of "comic-style freeze-frame on someone as colourful bullet points about them appear in lieu of an actual character introduction"? I've now seen it in several crappy action movies (off the top of my head, The Losers, 6 Underground and XXX 3) and I want to know who to blame. 6 Underground wasn't crappy and I will half heartedly fight you on this point.
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Dec 14, 2020 01:38
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Ip Man 3 somehow has the two best fights (zhang and tyson) of all the movies. 2 is just off-putting and doesn't help that the jackass english guy doesn't even seem intimidating like adkins in 4 Grandmaster looks gorgeous, especially Zhang Ziyi, but Leung as Ip Man did nothing for me. The made-up ziyi character was way more compelling
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Dec 14, 2020 03:02
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Yea the female lead in The Grandmaster is practically the main character with Ip Man just being sort of a viewpoint character at times. The actual best Ip Man movie is actually just Jet Li's Fearless.
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Dec 14, 2020 05:35
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Mantis42 posted:Yea the female lead in The Grandmaster is practically the main character with Ip Man just being sort of a viewpoint character at times. Different, also real guy, Huo Yuanjia. That's the master that Jet Li is avenging in Fist of Legend and that Bruce Lee is avenging in Fist of Fury and Donnie Yen is avenging in Legend of the Fist. Not to be confused with Wong Fei Hung and Wong Kei Ying, who are also...
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Dec 14, 2020 06:00
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Peppermint, this one I liked. Much better than The Assignment. I've never seen Garner do action before- never watched Alias- apart from horrible Daredevil and Elektra, but I was pleasantly impressed.
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Dec 14, 2020 06:17
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I was being tongue in cheek, I know it's not literally about Ip Man, it just inspired the Donnie Yen series. Like the first Ip Man movie is extremely similar to Fearless. Of course, given what happens to Jet Li's character, it's clear why they couldn't do a direct sequel.
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Dec 14, 2020 06:29
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Mantis42 posted:I was being tongue in cheek, I know it's not literally about Ip Man, it just inspired the Donnie Yen series. Like the first Ip Man movie is extremely similar to Fearless. Of course, given what happens to Jet Li's character, it's clear why they couldn't do a direct sequel. The direct sequel to Fearless does exist. They've made it at least three times. One of those times starring Donnie Yen.
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Dec 14, 2020 06:33
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https://twitter.com/NetflixFilm/status/1337460546375831552 netflix doing more action stuff and this one looks to at least have a bunch of gun poo poo. (including shooting a handgrenade to make it explode)
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Dec 14, 2020 16:51
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Mantis42 posted:The actual best Ip Man movie is actually just Jet Li's Fearless. I actually really like Ip Man: The Final Fight, which is a sequel to a movie I have not seen and is entirely unrelated to the Donnie Yen films. Showing Ip Man's later years, It deals with Kowloon walled city and features many shots of a beautifully recreated old Hong Kong. It also handles the subject matter with a lot less nationalism and more humanity. It even briefly addresses the exaggeration of Ip Man's legend through the media through a charmingly corny wire-fu sequence. It's more concerned with being a biopic rather than an action movie, but of the Ip Man movies I've seen it's by far my favorite.
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Dec 14, 2020 16:57
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Lurdiak posted:I actually really like Ip Man: The Final Fight, which is a sequel to a movie I have not seen and is entirely unrelated to the Donnie Yen films. Showing Ip Man's later years, It deals with Kowloon walled city and features many shots of a beautifully recreated old Hong Kong. It also handles the subject matter with a lot less nationalism and more humanity. It even briefly addresses the exaggeration of Ip Man's legend through the media through a charmingly corny wire-fu sequence. I agree. It kind of hurts me to say it, but I prefer Anthony Wong’s Ip Man over Tony Leung. And yeah, you’re definitely not going to see that kind of nationalism from Herman Yau. The earlier film, Ip Man The Legend is Born, is ok (the highlight is a blindfolded fight between Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao) but not great. That one is more interested in the specifics of Wing Chun than Ip as a historical person, and none of the leads are that compelling.
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Dec 14, 2020 20:22
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The Yen Ip Man movies are basically Chinese Rocky so the nationalism never really bothered me that much
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Dec 14, 2020 20:24
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e: I know about the other Huo Yuanjia adaptations but the 2006 film doesn't have sequels, does it? I can't find any info on them. Also is this thread the new kung fu thread? It might be too niche of a genre for it's own thread.
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Dec 14, 2020 20:27
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I don't know why anyone who grew up watching 80s stallone movies would even notice the nationalism in the Ip Man movies. I mean if you really want Chinese nationalism, Wolf Warrior 2 is the best version of that.
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Dec 14, 2020 20:35
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dokmo posted:I don't know why anyone who grew up watching 80s stallone movies would even notice the nationalism in the Ip Man movies. I mean if you really want Chinese nationalism, Wolf Warrior 2 is the best version of that. Wolf Warrior 1 is way more blatant. It also has a lot less action so you're forced to notice the plot more often. Mantis42 posted:e: I know about the other Huo Yuanjia adaptations but the 2006 film doesn't have sequels, does it? I can't find any info on them. As in, the sequel to Fearless is Huo Yuanjia's disciple, Chen Zen, arriving and investigating his death, and beating up heaps of people in the process. And there are at least three high profile films of that story.
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Dec 14, 2020 23:56
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dokmo posted:I don't know why anyone who grew up watching 80s stallone movies would even notice the nationalism in the Ip Man movies. I mean if you really want Chinese nationalism, Wolf Warrior 2 is the best version of that. Wolf warrior 2 is the spiritual sequel to top gun and I think wu jing has enough charisma to be the next tom cruise
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Dec 15, 2020 01:18
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this popped up in my recommendations, a 15 minute short in the style of 70s shaw brothers kung fu movies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjvRxhmfroI
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Dec 15, 2020 17:21
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dokmo posted:this popped up in my recommendations, a 15 minute short in the style of 70s shaw brothers kung fu movies. Very good. Thank you for sharing! e: Here's their 80s HK action riff. I've been on an early Yeoh/Rothrock kick recently, and this certainly hits the right notes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-xUOQD7kZ4 ynohtna fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Dec 16, 2020 |
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Dec 16, 2020 14:21
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ynohtna posted:Very good. Thank you for sharing! The loving powder coming off the hits! Very nice!
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Dec 16, 2020 22:14
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Birth of the Dragon, that Bruce Lee "origin story" from a few years ago is pretty lovely but it has a couple solid fight scenes. It's also very funny that it has a faux-Steve McQueen as the lead, as if Bruce loving Lee isn't an interesting enough character to revolve a movie around.
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Dec 16, 2020 22:23
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LesterGroans posted:Birth of the Dragon, that Bruce Lee "origin story" from a few years ago is pretty lovely but it has a couple solid fight scenes. It's also very funny that it has a faux-Steve McQueen as the lead, as if Bruce loving Lee isn't an interesting enough character to revolve a movie around. Sounds like typical racism.
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Dec 16, 2020 23:30
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Just watch Warrior instead. It's loosely based on an idea Bruce Lee had and is full of rad, violent fight scenes and the occasional random set of tits, which often corresponds to the owner of said tits being really good at fighting. It's the Banshee formula, if you're familiar with that.
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Dec 16, 2020 23:40
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I tried watching revenger(2019) but dropped it after like 50 minutes. really weak rip off of the raid
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Dec 16, 2020 23:46
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Stairmaster posted:I tried watching revenger(2019) but dropped it after like 50 minutes. really weak rip off of the raid It's got a terrible script and the lead is just a non entity. The fights are decent, though.
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Dec 16, 2020 23:49
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Snowman_McK posted:Just watch Warrior instead. It's loosely based on an idea Bruce Lee had and is full of rad, violent fight scenes and the occasional random set of tits, which often corresponds to the owner of said tits being really good at fighting. It's the Banshee formula, if you're familiar with that. Just watch Dragon:The Bruce Lee story instead.
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Dec 17, 2020 00:09
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PeterCat posted:Just watch Dragon:The Bruce Lee story instead. I really like Jason Lee. He's not a good actor or anything but he's just having so much fun in everything he's in.
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Dec 17, 2020 00:19
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PeterCat posted:Just watch Dragon:The Bruce Lee story instead. Never do this.
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Dec 17, 2020 00:25
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Wtf Thats so much photoshop they just used the paint icon for most of the main dude
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Dec 17, 2020 00:26
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Lurdiak posted:Never do this. What the heck? https://youtu.be/ErsCpTgg5tQ
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Dec 17, 2020 00:32
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Shageletic posted:Wtf I will say this: the poster gives you a pretty accurate impression of the film.
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Dec 17, 2020 00:41
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Payndz posted:Okay, who started this trend of "comic-style freeze-frame on someone as colourful bullet points about them appear in lieu of an actual character introduction"? I've now seen it in several crappy action movies (off the top of my head, The Losers, 6 Underground and XXX 3) and I want to know who to blame. I have bad memory, but didn't Lock Stock and/or Snatch do it? other than that I think Wild Card did it,. maybe it just seems to follow Statham around. I'm sure it goes back way further. Zombieland 's another one that popup'd in my head that does that sort of annoying thing
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Dec 17, 2020 07:37
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Snowman_McK posted:As in, the sequel to Fearless is Huo Yuanjia's disciple, Chen Zen, arriving and investigating his death, and beating up heaps of people in the process. And there are at least three high profile films of that story. Well yeah, I've seen Fist of Fury, that Fist of Fury sequel starring Jackie Chan, Fist of Legend, etc. What I really meant with my original post was "If you like Ip Man you'll like Fearless because they are very similar movies, intentionally."
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Dec 17, 2020 07:45
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that reminded me I watched that Jackie Chan + Arnold movie, and it was like way way worse than The Wall - with Matt Damon/Mandalorian (The John Cena "The Wall" owned  and everyone should check it out). I mean I'd say it's almost a kids movie, but thee was like sword kills and poo poo if i remember right... and it prolly had an epic budget... it's a shame because The Foreigner has been Jackie's best movie in a long long time. Is Bleeding Steel worth checking out, it's been on my list but always picked something ahead of it
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Dec 17, 2020 07:58
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No, Bleeding Steel is one of his worst ones yet. The best I can say about it is that it's not Kung Fu Yoga. I was doing a review series of all the Chan movies on another forum, working his filmography from both ends - ie watching his first film, then his latest one, then his second film, meeting in the middle - and his recent films are all poo poo. I never finished that review series (I'm planning to reboot it as a video series after the holidays) but the conclusion I remember reaching is that the last 'real' Jackie Chan movie is probably New Police Story from 2004, though there are certainly parts in movies made after that that I enjoy.
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Dec 17, 2020 08:43
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dokmo posted:this popped up in my recommendations, a 15 minute short in the style of 70s shaw brothers kung fu movies. That's a loving tribute to everyone who's ever made a loving tribute to something. As usual for 1970s kung ku movies, the Foley team caries the production, but the concept and especially the second fight are above reproach. I'm grateful it was linked here. Megaman's Jockstrap posted:The loving powder coming off the hits! Very nice! e. That's a difference of about 8 months between the two videos. They learned a lot from the 80s project to the 70s. I'm going to have to keep an eye on this studio, they're likely to drop a classic on us without warning. mllaneza fucked around with this message at 09:18 on Dec 17, 2020 |
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Dec 17, 2020 08:59
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Mantis42 posted:No, Bleeding Steel is one of his worst ones yet. The best I can say about it is that it's not Kung Fu Yoga. That lego fight is really fun. I haven't seen Andy On in anything else apart from the execrable Black Mask 2
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Dec 17, 2020 14:45
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Shageletic posted:Wtf lol GETEVEN is one of my favourite RLM segments, even for poo poo movie veterans that are aghast at the whole production
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Dec 17, 2020 15:26
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