What did you watch today?

[Ain_Uussaar]

Ils / Them (2006)

[Samuel_Scott]

Cake (2014) - A great performance from Jennifer Aniston, but the film itself feels kind of empty and uneventful.

The Intern (2015) - An inoffensive fun little comedy that perhaps has too many meaningless sub-plots which slows it down at times.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) - First time I have watched this in about ten years. Still great.

[Ain_Uussaar]

Bushwick (2017)
Detroit (2017)

[Samuel_Scott]

An American Carol (2008) - When it's the worst movie David Zucker has made, you know it is extremely bad. Ugh.

[Ain_Uussaar]

Kill'em All (2017) - With names like that in cast I hoped much more from this JCVD film.

[Samuel_Scott]

Cutthroat Island (1995) - Didn't deserve to be the failure it was. Although not a great film, this is a fun swashbuckler, with some decent set pieces and stunts. Unfortunately the movie got the blame for killing production company Carolco (which made a comeback recently).

[Davy_Lee]

Cutthroat Island (1995) - Didn't deserve to be the failure it was. Although not a great film, this is a fun swashbuckler, with some decent set pieces and stunts. Unfortunately the movie got the blame for killing production company Carolco (which made a comeback recently).

Agree. I saw this at the cinema and quite enjoyed it, but Matthew Modine wasn't a superstar and didn't have the screen presence.

[Samuel_Scott]

Cutthroat Island (1995) - Didn't deserve to be the failure it was. Although not a great film, this is a fun swashbuckler, with some decent set pieces and stunts. Unfortunately the movie got the blame for killing production company Carolco (which made a comeback recently).

Agree. I saw this at the cinema and quite enjoyed it, but Matthew Modine wasn't a superstar and didn't have the screen presence.

We talked about this film briefly in our group chat on whatsapp, and James said it right in that pirate films just weren't in at the time. I would say they have never really been the in thing, as even with Pirates of the Caribbean being a massive commercial success there are few pirate-genre based films about.

[Ain_Uussaar]

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi 3D (2017)
Rough Night (2017)

[Mark_Meakin]

Sorcerer. My first viewing & I was very impressed.

[Mark_Meakin]

Cutthroat Island (1995) - Didn't deserve to be the failure it was. Although not a great film, this is a fun swashbuckler, with some decent set pieces and stunts. Unfortunately the movie got the blame for killing production company Carolco (which made a comeback recently).

Agree. I saw this at the cinema and quite enjoyed it, but Matthew Modine wasn't a superstar and didn't have the screen presence.

We talked about this film briefly in our group chat on whatsapp, and James said it right in that pirate films just weren't in at the time. I would say they have never really been the in thing, as even with Pirates of the Caribbean being a massive commercial success there are few pirate-genre based films about.

I thought this & The Long Kiss Goodnight deserved to do far better at the box office. I've never been a huge fan of the Pirates Of The Carribbean movies, but I have a soft spot for Roman Polanski's Pirates.

[Ain_Uussaar]

The Snowman (2017) - WTF!?!? You have story by Jo Nesbø. You have cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, J.K. Simmons, Toby Jones, Chloë Sevigny, James D'Arcy, Val Kilmer and Charlotte Gainsbourg. You have Tomas Alfredson for director, Thelma Schoonmaker & Claire Simpson for editors and Martin Scorsese as one of the producers. So much talent packed in one movie you must get at least something good or if things fall apart something mediocre but watchable. But instead you get this and you are left with big fat WTF happened!?!?
At first saw the trailer for this and loved it. Added it to my must see in cinemas list. But when it opened and reviews started to come in and there was article about it where director said that he knows that the film is s**t cos the production was rushed and 15% of the script was not filmed. I decided not to see it in cinemas (I'm glad I didn't). But I still wanted to see it. I wondered were the critics too harsh because the trailer was so good, how could it be soo bad. No, no they weren't.
Changing the story and killing off characters that live on in book series is nothing when you haven't even read the books. But when so much that is shown in trailer is not in the finished film what they were supposed to make, thats a problem. I hope the missing 15% were the parts that would have linked the filmed bits from trailers into the film, if not, there were much bigger problems with the production.
Because of the missing footage editing is horrendous. Weird cuts and subplots that are there for no reason and left unresolved. Some scenes look like they were reshoots, but with low or no budget. And well then there's the Val Kilmer fiasco. Because his cancer treatment his tongue was numb and voice changed so it was dubbed in film, but it was done so badly. I have seen better dubbing done in underground Russian pirate DVD copys. Why they used an actor who needed to be dubbed in post but not spend money to do it right? Why not cast another actor?
Yeah a lot of questions WHY - why was it rushed, why weren't the problems solved, why release it??? Doesn't makers of this film have pride in their profession to push out a turd like this and put their name on it?

3/10

[Davy_Lee]

Anti-Terrorist Team Double Feature

Counterforce – 6.5/10
An anti-terrorist team (Jorge Rivero, Andrew Stevens, Isaac Hayes, Kevin Bernhardt) is assigned to protect a political leader and his family from assassination by the death squad of a vengeful Middle East dictator (Robert Forster).

George Kennedy co-stars. J. Anthony Loma (Target Eagle, Killing Machine) directs.


Cool video cover

Another 80’s action adventure from my video days. Not on DVD or BD.

Navy Seals – 6.5/10
I saw this at the cinema. Charlie Sheen’s hot-headed character kills the movie, otherwise the action scenes are exciting and the score heroic.

Genre: Action
Worth watching? Yes, if you are familiar with 80’s-90’s manly action movies.
Worth re-watching? Yes
Bottom-line? Enjoyable watch for nostalgic 80’s-90’s military-action movie buffs.

[Ain_Uussaar]

Spent a day watching films to get me closer to end of the year 500 mark.

The Mountain Between Us (2017)
The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017)
Overdrive (2017)
The Big Sick (2017)
Daddy's Home 2 (2017)
A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)
Coco (2017)

[Ain_Uussaar]

The Wall (2017)
Jawbone (2017)
The Dark Tower (2017)

[Anthony_DiPaola]

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

[Davy_Lee]

Operation: Sabotage Triple Feature

Black Thunder (1998) (First viewing) – 4.5/10
A classified prototype of a stealth jet fighter has been stolen by a renegade pilot (Richard Norton) and sold to a Libyan terrorist group to destroy the West. Only one man can retrieve it and foil their plan – the test-pilot (Michael Dudikoff).

B-grade action thriller with a childish plot.

Black Eagle (YouTube) – 5/10
A USAF state-of-the-art aircraft crashes and sinks into the sea near Malta. A CIA agent is assigned to recover it while the Soviets, who are also after the aircraft, are surveilling him.

Dull, slow-paced action thriller despite the cast. Not what you expect from a Kosugi-Van Damme duet. Eric Karson (The Octagon, Hell Camp) directs.

Watched this long time ago and felt it was dull. Re-watched it to decide whether I should get the upcoming US BD.

Sniper (First viewing, YouTube) – 6/10
Two snipers – one an expert, the other a newbie – are sent on a mission in the jungles to eliminate a South American druglord and an insurgent general.

One shot. One kill. No thrill.

Genre: Action, Thriller, War
Worth watching? No, unless you set your expectations low.
Worth re-watching? No
Bottom-line? Below par to mediocre covert military action thrillers.

[Samuel_Scott]

The Trust (2016)
Exposed (2016)
The Foreigner (2017)
The Vault (2017)
Rio Lobo (1970)
A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012)

[Ain_Uussaar]

Flatliners (2017)
How to Be a Latin Lover (2017)

[Davy_Lee]

Super Soldiers Triple Feature

T-Force (First viewing, YouTube) – 4.5/10
A team of cyborg cops is instructed to self-destruct after a hostage rescue mission goes awry. Having been programmed to self-preserve if threatened, three of the cyborgs rebel and begin to wreak havoc. A police lieutenant, with the aid of another cyborg cop, is assigned to stop the renegades.

Boring and derivative B-grade sci-fi action.

Jack Scalia (Fear City) stars.

War Dog (1987) (YouTube) – 6.5/10
A Vietnam vet teams up with a reporter in an investigation to uncover the mystery behind his brother’s death which leads him to confront a clandestine super soldier organization.

This is a pretty watchable Swedish action thriller with well-staged car chases and violent slo-mo shootouts.

Not on BD.

Solo – 6.5/10
Solo (Mario Van Peebles), a super android soldier is hunted by a team of commandos following his refusal to be deprogrammed. In the jungles of Central America where he flees to, he befriends the natives and rebels whom he was assigned to destroy in his last military op. Once restored to fighting condition, he is ready for battle - this time on the side of the oppressed rebels. When his hideout is detected by the hunters, Solo must defend himself alone in an all-out battle against the commandos who are headed by another super soldier.

Adrien Brody (The Pianist), William Sadler (Die Hard 2, Trespass) co-star.

Not on BD.

Genre: Action, Sci-fi, Thriller
Worth watching? No, unless you set your expectations low.
Worth re-watching? No
Bottom-line? There are better movies of this genre out there.