The Official Movie Thread

[Einherjar86]

21. The Pope's Exorcist
Not offensively bad, and Russell Crowe was great, but I'm just so tired of these lame CGI-fest horrors. It's 2023 and we're still doing the implausibly wide open mouth effect? We haven't learned shit since I Am Legend lol.

Pretty sure they blew their entire budget on Crowe. There weren't even any good scares. Just a bad horror script.

 

[CiG]

Pretty sure they blew their entire budget on Crowe. There weren't even any good scares. Just a bad horror script.

Right. It had a popcorny momentum that made it somewhat watchable, but as a horror film it's utterly worthless.

 

[RadicalThrasher]

@RadicalThrasher did you end up doing 31 movies?

Yeah, here's the rest of them....

Spoiler

Through the Fire (1988)

A young woman asks a policeman to help her find her missing sister. They find a medallion, sought after by some worshipers of demon Moloch, a beast that may be invoked and wreaks havoc, but can only be stopped with the amulet.

regional, fun movie




Eyes of Fire (1983)

A preacher is accused of adultery and he and his followers are chased out of town and become stranded in an isolated forest which is haunted by the spirits of long dead Native Americans.

some of that so called folk horror. Pretty good, pretty creepy. Heavy on atmosphere

Spasms (1983)

A gigantic serpent is captured on a remote island and shipped to an American college for experimentation. A British millionaire and an American scientist find themselves in hot pursuit of the beast when it escapes from captivity and starts to kill innocent people.

fuggin awesome, grotesque special fx

 

[CiG]

Spasms looks awesome, will definitely have to wishlist that one.

 

[Slammed]

This doesn't look entirely terrible. But to me he's going to be Ken forever more.

 

[CiG]

Few things I watched lately:


The Spine of Night (2021) As per my recent craving for western animation (because anime sucks ass nowadays) I finally checked this out and it totally delivered. I seem to remember Carpe Mortem talking about this but maybe I'm tripping. Anyways this is some dark adult fantasy shit. It follows the journey of a magical plant through the centuries as it affects different people who take claim over it. Nudity, gore, horror, it's all here.

Spoiler

Pandorum (2009) I checked this out explicitly as part of my action movie watchlist, and it turned out to not be an action movie, or at least not primarily so. This would've been great to see for my horror marathon last month. Oh well, it ruled and I love Ben Foster in general. This is some completely apeshit spacecraft survivalist stuff following crew members who awaken from hibernation chambers to find the ship in complete disarray, being hunted by vicious humanoid creatures. Reminded me of a bunch of other horror/sci-fi projects (Alien 3, Event Horizon, games like Dead Space) kinda smashed together in a cool way. Very gritty, grimy, claustrophobic, post-apocalyptic, dark etc etc. Awesome shit.


The Hunted (2003) I thought I'd seen this before but didn't remember any of it. Anyways what a great later era Friedkin psychological thriller! Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro are perfectly cast and don't even have to do much dialogue to steal every scene. Pure presence. Basically TLJ is a former civilian military survival and combat instructor who helps the FBI track BdT who is a former Delta Force black ops with severe PTSD on a murder spree. Amazingly shot on location in Oregon wilderness and sewers. Quite violent.

 

[RadicalThrasher]

Pandorum is pretty good. Big fan of The Hunted

 

[CiG]

Pandorum is pretty good. Big fan of The Hunted

You just gotta check out The Spine of Night then!
Imagine if you smashed Heavy Metal and Fire and Ice together, and sprinkled in some sex and Lovecraft.

 

[RadicalThrasher]

You just gotta check out The Spine of Night then!
Imagine if you smashed Heavy Metal and Fire and Ice together, and sprinkled in some sex and Lovecraft.

Will do

 

[CiG]

Watching tonight:


In anticipation of John Woo's new movie Silent Night, I'm checking out his last most recent one. Woo himself said this was more of a return to his older style, like The Killer. Guess I'll see.

Edit: THIS SUCKED ASS. Hopefully not an indication of how this new movie will be. Jesus Christ what a piece of shit.

 

[Bloopy]

I've binged a heap of movies lately, but can't usually be bothered to write words about them. Estômago was good. The Platform was alright, though I found reading other people's interpretations & thinking about it afterwards was more interesting than actually watching the thing and getting the basic idea.

Just watched Platoon Leader which @CiG recommended about 8 months ago - quite smug about my watchlist turnaround time there. Good for the most part. Comparable to Hamburger Hill, but more exciting. Though maybe some overacting and felt a bit short. It conveniently avoided showing if anyone still wanted to live in that godforsaken village by the end of it.

Also rewatched The Parallax View. Love the eerie vibe of that film & laugh at some of the absurdity of it. Particularly the vehicles screeching into the auditorium and the protagonist being nuts enough not to let any near death experiences stop him from poking his nose around.

 

[no country for old wainds]

the parallax view owns yeah, one of the best directed thrillers of all time.

 

[CiG]

Watched this last night:


Still riding on the high of this one. What a fucking amazingly entertaining movie. Almost as good as the first one.

A young Mario Van Peebles plays an unhinged cult-like gang leader, somewhat similar to Fraker in Death Wish 3. In fact if The Exterminator could be (lovingly) called a Death Wish ripoff, Death Wish 3 ripped this one off in return. A gang decides to declare war on the streets in the midst of Robert Ginty burning criminals to a crisp, derailing their plans as they make him their target instead. In the same spirit as the first movie (with Steve James), Ginty's new best buddy is another black actor, this time Frankie Faison, a guy who drives a garbage truck. Yes eventually that garbage truck sees a lot of action, and it rules, especially when it gets tricked out into a fucking mobile fortress with machine guns and RPGs etc. Like the first, this also has a shitload of fire-based stuntwork, which feels even more dangerous and refreshing now that we live in the era of gay CGI fire/explosions. Also in the tradition of Death Wish, it has zero remorse for Ginty's loved ones lmfao.

Just watched Platoon Leader which @CiG recommended about 8 months ago - quite smug about my watchlist turnaround time there. Good for the most part. Comparable to Hamburger Hill, but more exciting. Though maybe some overacting and felt a bit short. It conveniently avoided showing if anyone still wanted to live in that godforsaken village by the end of it.

Hell yeah, a late 80's Dudikoff cult classic. The psychological horror vibe really sets it apart from the usual Cannon stuff. @RadicalThrasher actually put it in his 1988 list.

 

[RadicalThrasher]

Exterminator 2 is great. Dude those are some of my favorite kind of movies.....the gritty, urban, no fucks given, death to everyone, vigilante, tough on crime, revenge kind. Basically DeathWish copies. I could recommend some if you're interested, good chance you'd be familiar with some or most em though.


Platoon Leader is awesome. For another good under the radar nam war flick, check out the Siege of Firebase Gloria with Wings Hauser and R. Lee Ermey directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith

 

[CiG]

I could recommend some if you're interested, good chance you'd be familiar with some or most em though.

Sure drop them down!

Also The Siege of Firebase Gloria looks wild, can't believe I've never seen this.

 

[RadicalThrasher]

@CiG , trying to give more obscure titles but you may have heard or seen some of these, recommend all of them highly either way

Spoiler

Defiance (1980)

Tommy takes up temporary housing in a New York neighborhood plagued by a violent gang called the Souls. Tommy is waiting for his next assignment as a seaman and though he tries to avoid the gang and his neighbors, it does not work. Soon he is battling the Souls and not only changing their attitudes, but the attitudes of his previously intimidated neighbors as well.

Jan Michael Vincent cleans up a neighborhood, good supporting cast




Fighting Back (1982)

An Italian deli owner (Tom Skerritt) forms a vigilante group to rid his Philadelphia neighborhood of street punks.

Tom Skerritt cleans up a neighborhood




Tenement (1985)

A drug selling and violent street-gang terrorize the renters of a big trashy apartment-house.

this movie ia as filthy as the neighborhood it's set in




Rolling Vengeance (1987)

When a clan of drunken goons get off scot-free after senselessly killing a young trucker’s family, the trucker, Joey Rosso (Don Michael Paul), takes matters into his own hands by building the ultimate monster truck to even the score. Spitting flames, armed with a giant drill, his awesome rig is unstoppable as Joey pursues the clan leader Tiny Doyle (Ned Beatty) and his murderous offspring. He tracks down the clan, one by one, crashing cars, flattening trucks, demolishing buildings and destroying anything or anyone that gets in his way

loses the urban setting but still pretty badass...a few scenes with shocking violence



Walking the Edge (1985)

Jason Walk is a part-time cabbie and small-time numbers runner on the seedy fringes of Hollywood. But when he accidentally helps a woman kill the drug dealers who murdered her son, he finds himself hunted through a deadly underworld of pimps, players and sadistic killers. As the violence hits closer, Jason hits back with a plan that puts him far out of his league and dangerously close to the edge.

figure you probably seen vigilante with Robert Forster, but this one's a little more obscure. Robert Forster is such a badass and plays so many of these types of roles ( Alligator, The Banker, etc.)

 

[Bloopy]

Platoon Leader is awesome. For another good under the radar nam war flick, check out the Siege of Firebase Gloria with Wings Hauser and R. Lee Ermey directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith

Will check it out also. With only about 1.3 million deaths in the 'Nam war, it's winning the great movie vs death ratio stat easily!

 

[CiG]

@RadicalThrasher haven't seen Fighting Back (heard of it though) or Walking the Edge, so cheers. Walking the Ledge looks fucking awesome.

 

[RadicalThrasher]

@RadicalThrasher haven't seen Fighting Back (heard of it though) or Walking the Edge, so cheers. Walking the Ledge looks fucking awesome.

Have more, but figured that was a good starting point

 

[CiG]

Saw this last night and it fuckin' ruled. Basically if you liked Black Dynamite and if you liked Blazing Saddles, you'd probably like this. Actually shockingly offensive at times.

The depiction of Indians is even crazier than Cannibal! The Musical (iykyk) like for example one of the Indians Johnny meets is blatantly a white dude and his wife is an Asian actress who translates English for him because he doesn't speak it.

Spoiler

Oh and the "language" they speak is South Park-tier gibberish ("derka derka" type shit). Some of the Indians are clearly Asian, the Indian Chief is played by Russell fucking Peters, and his daughter is a big hairy dude in women's clothes. I don't see how this movie doesn't get some backlash except that maybe it's not popular enough to be seen.

Generally funny as fuck (might be the funniest film of the year) and the action is really well done (kung fu and shootouts). The soundtrack is a cool blend of funky blaxploitation and classic westerns. Even beneath all the slapstick and parody is a religious message about redemption, forgiveness, justice etc.

Also there are cameos by people like Randy Couture, Donald Cerrone, Roger Yuan, Michael Madsen, Waymond Lee (any Workaholics fans?), Fred Williamson and Jim Brown.

Johnny: "Now don't make me wop you this foot upside your head."
Thug: "Go ahead and try, you dumb ni---"
[Johnny kicks him in the face and drops him]
Thug: "I was gonna say nincompoop."