What was the last movie you watched?

[eegah]

I just got Hercules in New York from Amazon today. It's got some funny moments but it's mostly just kind of silly. Definitely not one of Arnold's best like Commando or Total Recall. I had fun watching it, and I mostly wasn't bored.

Which version: dubbed or actual Arnie voice?

[Russoguru]

Actual Arnie voice.

[stansimpson]

So, a few days ago, I watched a movie from 1994 called Tammy and the T-Rex.  The short form of the description, which I'm pinching from joblo.com because it's spot-on, is: "Paul Walker is mauled by lions and resurrected as an animatronic dinosaur so he can be with his girlfriend Denise Richards."  I can happily confirm that the movie is as amazingly terrible and goofy as it sounds.

It doesn't appear to have made it so far as DVD or Blu-Ray; its last legal release was on VHS.  It is, though, available on YouTube for free viewing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfxeN2YN3Q8

First heard about this from the RedLetterMedia/Best of the Worst guys. Looks fantastic. I don't know how to embed links into text, so I'll just post the link here for anyone interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4pJL1eAh00

[wihogfan]

Actual Arnie voice.

I didn't know there was a version with Arnie's actual voice. When I saw it years and years ago it was a dubbed version.

[Pak-Man]

Picked up a DVD with both audio tracks for a bad movie night a while back. There's a reason he was dubbed.

[Russoguru]

Picked up a DVD with both audio tracks for a bad movie night a while back. There's a reason he was dubbed.

You have strucked Hercules.

Oh, and I just picked up Coming to America today. That movie is easily my favorite Eddie Murphy movie because it's definitely him at his funniest. I didn't care a whole lot for Trading places or a lot of the movies from the early to mid 2000's, vehicles that were supposed to be huge comebacks for Eddie Murphy.

[Johnny Unusual]

Oh, and I just picked up Coming to America... TODAY!

Fixed it for ya.

[Russoguru]

Oh, and I just picked up Coming to America... TODAY!

Fixed it for ya.

I need to pay better attention to that in the future.

[wihogfan]

Three Identical Strangers (2018)
Documentary that goes in places that I wasn't expecting and is best if you know very little about it going into it. It did further my appreciation of Lawrence Wright

[Johnny Unusual]

Return of the 36th Chamber

It's the kind of sequel to the 36th Chamber of Shaolin. As kung fu movies go, the entire premise of the 36th Chambers is my jam: Most of it is training stuff. I could see some people being put off by that but ridiculously elaborate training techniques is something I love so having the fights taking up less than the last quarter doesn't bother me.

This time, the student is a scam artist whose community is being taken over by... THE MANCHURIANS! NOT AGAIN! I seriously don't have enough cultural knowledge of China to know about the animosity between the Cantonese and the Manchurians but this film assumes I does so I go with it, even though the fact that the film just keeps complaining about those damned Manchurians makes me feel... weird? Maybe because the thrust of the story is Manchurians have come to take jobs away from hard-working Cantonese? Yeah, basically some Manchurians show up at a dye factory and basically (legally and with government consent) take it over and give the other workers a pay cut.

At first our hero helps his friends by pretending to be a Shaolin monk with some parlor tricks and it works at first, but when the gig is up, his friends suffer for it. So he decides to use his scheming to trick his way into the Shaolin "36 Chambers" (which is confusing to me since I felt the first film basically said the 36th Chamber was the world, when you teach the little people who need it kung fu). Anyway, he doesn't really fool anyone but they don't let him know it at first, with him training with new techniques to wash his hair.

When he realizes he's been found out, the monk San Te (the only name I remembered) agrees to let him learn... after he puts up the scaffolding in the temple for an upcoming renovation. But, as you may have guessed... that was the real training ALL ALONG! And it's interesting because there is a real blue collar vibe to this one and an undercurrent of the working man rising up against the wealthy jerks who abuse their employees.

See, our hero literally learns scaffolding kung fu, using all of his newfound knowledge of scaffolding AND kung fu into one unstoppable force. He opponents start off using poles and he can just use bamboo string to tie them together. It's a fun style to watch. But then his opponents bring out their real strong weapons... chairs! Which seem silly, but these guys are really good at fighting with chairs. And this is where I think the message of the poor worker vs. the rich jerks comes in because one is the strength of a man's hard hand hewn work and the other is a chair, the symbol of what you put your butt on when you don't hafta work!

As silly as it sounds, the last fight really is really creative and fun, though the film ends kind of abruptly. Despite that, I was a little down on it, at least when comparing it to the first movie, which I loved. I think I love the ideas in this one more than the execution. We are supposed to by that the scaffolding training made him basically a martial arts superman but I feel like even in this fiction, not being able to actually fight with another dude might be a set back. I do like that the main character thinks he got no training at all when he's actually a super bad-ass without realizing it but I wish they played with it more and had a bit more fun with it. I wish I liked it a bit more, but it was still plenty of fun.

[stethacantus]

Return of the 36th Chamber

It's the kind of sequel to the 36th Chamber of Shaolin. As kung fu movies go, the entire premise of the 36th Chambers is my jam: Most of it is training stuff. I could see some people being put off by that but ridiculously elaborate training techniques is something I love so having the fights taking up less than the last quarter doesn't bother me.

This time, the student is a scam artist whose community is being taken over by... THE MANCHURIANS! NOT AGAIN! I seriously don't have enough cultural knowledge of China to know about the animosity between the Cantonese and the Manchurians but this film assumes I does so I go with it, even though the fact that the film just keeps complaining about those damned Manchurians makes me feel... weird? Maybe because the thrust of the story is Manchurians have come to take jobs away from hard-working Cantonese? Yeah, basically some Manchurians show up at a dye factory and basically (legally and with government consent) take it over and give the other workers a pay cut.

At first our hero helps his friends by pretending to be a Shaolin monk with some parlor tricks and it works at first, but when the gig is up, his friends suffer for it. So he decides to use his scheming to trick his way into the Shaolin "36 Chambers" (which is confusing to me since I felt the first film basically said the 36th Chamber was the world, when you teach the little people who need it kung fu). Anyway, he doesn't really fool anyone but they don't let him know it at first, with him training with new techniques to wash his hair.

When he realizes he's been found out, the monk San Te (the only name I remembered) agrees to let him learn... after he puts up the scaffolding in the temple for an upcoming renovation. But, as you may have guessed... that was the real training ALL ALONG! And it's interesting because there is a real blue collar vibe to this one and an undercurrent of the working man rising up against the wealthy jerks who abuse their employees.

See, our hero literally learns scaffolding kung fu, using all of his newfound knowledge of scaffolding AND kung fu into one unstoppable force. He opponents start off using poles and he can just use bamboo string to tie them together. It's a fun style to watch. But then his opponents bring out their real strong weapons... chairs! Which seem silly, but these guys are really good at fighting with chairs. And this is where I think the message of the poor worker vs. the rich jerks comes in because one is the strength of a man's hard hand hewn work and the other is a chair, the symbol of what you put your butt on when you don't hafta work!

As silly as it sounds, the last fight really is really creative and fun, though the film ends kind of abruptly. Despite that, I was a little down on it, at least when comparing it to the first movie, which I loved. I think I love the ideas in this one more than the execution. We are supposed to by that the scaffolding training made him basically a martial arts superman but I feel like even in this fiction, not being able to actually fight with another dude might be a set back. I do like that the main character thinks he got no training at all when he's actually a super bad-ass without realizing it but I wish they played with it more and had a bit more fun with it. I wish I liked it a bit more, but it was still plenty of fun.

Manchuria was one of the nations that China built the Great Wall to defend their empire against. And it worked for hundreds of years, until one of their generals deliberately opened the gates and allowed the Manchurian army to march to the capital and decimate the royal family, replacing Ming Dynasty with a Manchurian family and beginning the Quing dynasty. Aside from promoting the Chinese general who allowed them to overthrow the government, the Quings took away government positions, franchises, and even businesses from the Hans ( the native population ) and gave it to immigrating Manchurians.  But this is not why the Chinese look to the Manchurians as villains. But rather that they blame the Quing for the downfall of China. Specifically the reign of the Dowager Cixi, a concubine of the previous Quing emperor who bore his only surviving son, and as a result ruled over the country because the prince was only five years old.  The prince demanded ascension to the thrown when he was 18, eventually refusing to obey Cixi. He mysteriously died shortly after, of what the government was calling Smallpox. Cixi was put back in power with her only grandson eventually being named the next  emperor. He wasn't dumb enough to cross Cixi, so she basically ruled China until her death in 1908. During her reign she allowed European countries to turn China into colonies, lost the Sino-Japanese War, instigated the Boxer Rebellion by endorsing a mystical Kung Fu that was suppose to magically make bullets bounce off the skin of the practitioners ( it didn't ), and attempted to assassinate all dissidents.  So basically she was a historic villain who in turn made the Quings look bad.


There is another reason why Manchurians and the Quings were the villains in most 70s Martial Arts films. The go to villains were the Japanese, which Chinese hated after their treatment during the Second World War. Most films made in the 60s and early 70s feature Japanese as villains. But this eventually became a problem because Japan was a market for the Hong Kong studios, and the Chinese couldn't sell the Japanese distributors martial arts films where Japanese were the villains. After Bruce Lee's death Chinese people lost interest in martial arts films, so most of the money came from selling the films to foreign markets.  The studios needed a substitute villain that could be sold to any foreign market, but ate the same time could be recognized as a historic villain to the Chinese. Manchurians fit the bill, because what they did to China was very similar to what the Japanese and Europeans did. All that hatred of being invaded and colonized could be vented on the Manchus.


And something else.  With their modern day hero Bruce Lee dead, the Hong Kong studios turned to their historic heroes, the Shaolin monks who allegedly spread Kung Fu throughout China. Chang Cheh began making movies abut Shaolin which were very profitable, and soon every other studio was making Shaolin films. One legend of Shaolin was that one of the Quing emperors ordered it to be destroyed, resulting in it being surrounded by troops, burned to the ground and all it's abbots being killed. Some of the Shaolin monks were said to have escaped and gone on to spread their martial arts to the rest of the Hans so the could revolt against the Manchus. No historic evidence of the burning of Shaolin exists, and the legend can't even agree on the year or emperor, or even how many times it was destroyed.  But the Manchus became the perfect villains for the Shaolin monks to fight, and therefore were present in all the Shaolin cycle films.


One other thing to bring up.  After years of so-so box office returns on martial arts films, there was finally a blockbuster with Jackie Chan's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master. The studios realized that what sold those films was that they mixed martial arts with comedy, and soon after almost every Hong Kong martial arts film produced was a comedy. This is why the sequel to 36th Chamber shifted to comedy. Liu Chia Liang detested being forced to turn the sequel into a comedy, which is why he ultimately decided to remove San Te  as the lead character and shift it to a con artists who impersonates San Te. 

[stethacantus]

King Eagle ( 1971 )
Ti Lung is the hero known as King Eagle, an unbeatable swordsman who has no desire to involve himself in any conflict. An evil member of a clan is killing off the chiefs so he can be the clan leader. A dying swordsman who had been tasked with warning the other clan leaders, but was ambushed on the way to the head chief's stronghold,  begs King Eagle to finish his mission. King Eagle refuses because he doesn't want to get involved. Of course he evil clan members are sure that King Eagle will get involved, so set up an ambush at the restaurant King Eagle frequents, killing his friends who were waiting there for him. King Eagle fights them off, but still refuses to get involved in the clan's conflict. A swordsman friend of his shows up ant tries to talk him into getting involved because the clan leaders getting killed off are righteous. But once again King Eagle doesn't want to get involved. The bad guys set up another ambush where they push a heavy cart full of rice sacks down a hill into a group of playing children. King Eagle jumps in front  of the cart and stops it, but not before a child gets trapped under one of it's wheels. While he is stuck holding the cart back from crushing the child the bad guys kill his swordsman friend, then tease him before attempting to kill him too.  A swordswoman shows up and drives them back, then helps pull the child out from under the cart. King Eagle kills the henchmen who set up the ambush, but still refuses to get involved in the conflict despite having to burry another friend. He falls in love with the swordswoman, who turns out to be another chief from the clan the bad guys are taking over. King Eagle tries to convince her to walk away from the clan, but she insists she has to do something. So finally he gets involved, just in time to decimate the bad guys in the final reel.

This was not among Chang Cheh's best films, but still a very entertaining potboiler from his swordplay phase of his career. Once again a film with a hero who is far superior to the villains who is reluctant to act until the final reel. I guess I can understand why. If he went after the villains in the first reel then there would be another 80 minutes to fill with no villains left for the hero to confront.



The Spirit ( 1987 )
And now the last of the Spirit films. Well, actually this franchise only had two entries. The big budget Frank Miller adaption from 2008, and this forgotten television pilot movie from the 80s. The pilot was ordered by ABC, but had the unfortunate luck of the entire ABC executive branch being replaced after the company merged with Capital Cities Communications. The new executives didn't want a comic book series and shelved the pilot. They finally ended up airing it a year later, but by then the cast had been released from their contracts and the sets had been torn down. Even if the pilot got decent ratings, it is doubtful ABC would have picked it up as a series. It wasn't promoted prior to broadcast. Most of those who had seen it over the years were those who bought bootlegs of the movie at comic book conventions. Recently Warner Archives officially released the film on DVD.


The movie does suffer from what was then the typical television budget. For example, the graveyard where The Spirit lives is extremely fake looking, has an obvious painted backdrop, and really fake looking fog that rolls no higher than a few inches off the ground. The graveyard set from the original Ghostbusters Saturday morning series is more realistic, and that show was really low budget. The villain's extravagant plot is forging and replacing artifacts at a museum. Had the series been picked up, the villains would have been of the Barnaby Jones variety and not supervillains. And yet, despite rewriting the origin so that it would fit within the budget restraints, the movie was very faithful to the original comic book. Okay, so it is trying to be funny but instead comes off corny. but it all kind of worked. And I am sure if a Spirit television series had been made, I would have enjoyed it as much as Greatest American Hero and the first Flash television series.


Running Wild ( 1927)
Another of the WC Fields silent films. This has the same basic problem as the other Fields silent movies, and that is that you cant hear Fields. The lot is both familiar. and predictable. Fields is a timid man who is abused by his second wife and his stepson, and treated shabbily  by his boss who hasn't given him a raise in over 20 years. After accidentally tossing a "lucky" horse shoe through a florets window, he is chased by the owner into a theater and ends up on the stage during a hypnotist act. There he is hypnotized into believing he is a mighty lion. Suddenly with the courage he never had before, he takes on his wife and his boss, eventually ending up with he respect of both. There are a few funny moments, but this movie could have been among his classics if only it was made during the sound era.

[stansimpson]

Watched A Star Is Born (2018) last night and Bohemian Rhapsody on Friday. Really shows the two extreme ways of making a musician movie.

Bohemain Rhapsody was fun but too tepid; extremely formulaic in a VH1 Behind the Music way... to the point where they changed major parts of the real story to fit it. Any moment  a Queen song was playing though was fantastic, especially the climactic concert.

A Star Is Born was the polar opposite. Dark, gritty... and I liked it a WHOLE lot more (and, believe me, I had no intentions of liking it). The music was phenomenal. The performances were career bests. I was MUCH more emotionally involved.

The strangest thing is that I felt like BR was most lacking in the first half hour but then it picked up slowly and climaxed well. The opposite happened with ASIB. First half hour was one of the best things I've seen all year, but then it goes downhill (more emotionally, than anything... painful to watch at times, y'know?).

[Russoguru]

I have a very strong, very deep emotional connection to Queen and their music so naturally I loved Bohemian Rhapsody and I was kinda like "This is the pinnacle right here.".

[Darth Geek]

I did enjoy Bohemian Rhapsody a lot. Mostly because of the music. I do agree it has a lot of flaws, largely in the first half when it's just a cliffs notes version of their rise to fame with seemingly no obstacles. It is certainly not Best of the Year Oscar caliber. As far as biopics go, Stan And Ollie was MUCH better.