The Second mrbasehart Film Challenge!

[GregMcduck]

Oh, I should probably start coming back the forums more often, I didn't know you started this again.

Patlabor is a movie version of the supposedly popular anime series, set in the not too distant future and concerns a team of robot operators whose job it is is to capture and destroy malfunctioning robots, which the world seems to use a lot of and has lots of problems with.  I think that's the set-up, because there's really no quarter given for non-fans of the show, and for about two-thirds of it I was furrowing my brow in confusion.  It also has the problem of horrible voice dubbing, which late 80s non-Ghibli work seems to suffer for.  However, the animation is pretty neat, and some of the set-pieces are pretty decent.  Even if I didn't understand what the hell was going on.

Truth be told, I don't care for this one that much, but I recommended it so you could have some proper setup for Patlabor II, which is probably in my top ten films of all time.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

American Pop is an animated movie from the infamous (around these parts anyways) Ralph Bakshi.  Telling the story of 4 generations of sons and fathers through the 20th century, its initially very impressive, with the focus on recently arrived Jewish immigrants to the US before WWI and in particular a young boys' relationship with his friend/business partner.  Bakshi captures the period well, and the rotoscoping technique isn't as obvious as in other parts.  The middle section concentrates on a disaffected teen who falls in with the hippie movement, experiencing the highs and lows of that particular culture before dealing with its drugged out aftermath and the backlash it experienced in the late 70s.  Those sections really didn't work well enough for me, with a lot of off-putting lingo and barely disguised caricatures of famous actors.  Still, it's a well made, ambitious and positively adult animated feature that has more good moments than bad.

Depressing film that infers that hundreds of years of poverty and death resulted in a coke dealer who ripped off a Bob Segar MOR song (or he was Bob Segar?).

It's unfortunate Bakshi has to be infamous before he is known....

Oh, some of us knew him from the time of Wizards at the drive-in....but eventually he went mainstream.

[mrbasehart]

I see the end more as a culmination of the collective ambitions of the characters.  The fact that the kid uses his father's weakness (drugs) to open the door for himself into the music business is probably something to do with learning, though I really didn't analyze that much.  I do like that Bob Seger song though. 

[stansimpson]

I see the end more as a culmination of the collective ambitions of the characters.  The fact that the kid uses his father's weakness (drugs) to open the door for himself into the music business is probably something to do with learning, though I really didn't analyze that much.  I do like that Bob Seger song though. 

Yeah, that's how I saw it too.  I saw the kid at the end redeeming his drug-abusing father through his success in music, that music being the culmination (or evolution) of the generations that came before.  I wondered if the Bob Segar song was supposed to be meant as original.  Then I concluded "yes" because that would make story-sense (if it were "no", then it's undeveloped drama and never touched upon again).  Odd choice certainly, but I think the conceit is that the songs were "real life songs cast to play a role in the story" (to build a metaphor). 

Funny story about the song too. I watched this multiple times ten years ago, then didn't see it for a long time.  In that time, I discovered Bob Seger's music and Night Moves became my favorite of his.  Imagine my surprise when watching it again.  I was like "Whoa!  I totally recognize this song!  Can't believe I didn't recognize this as 'The American Pop song' when I heard Bob Seger play it!'"  Haha.  I love when that happens.

[mrbasehart]

I see the end more as a culmination of the collective ambitions of the characters.  The fact that the kid uses his father's weakness (drugs) to open the door for himself into the music business is probably something to do with learning, though I really didn't analyze that much.  I do like that Bob Seger song though. 

Yeah, that's how I saw it too.  I saw the kid at the end redeeming his drug-abusing father through his success in music, that music being the culmination (or evolution) of the generations that came before.  I wondered if the Bob Segar song was supposed to be meant as original.  Then I concluded "yes" because that would make story-sense (if it were "no", then it's undeveloped drama and never touched upon again).  Odd choice certainly, but I think the conceit is that the songs were "real life songs cast to play a role in the story" (to build a metaphor). 

According to the imdb's trivia page (perhaps not the most reliable source of information), Bakshi wanted to end the movie with the kid singing Freebird.  It's over the end credits, but it's not in the main bulk of the movie, IIRC. 

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Bakshi wanted to end the movie with the kid singing Freebird.

I feel better about Bob Segar now.   

[mrbasehart]

Revenge of the Ninja is, apart from its slightly preposterous final battle, a typically bland and rote Ninja-themed martial-arts movie.  Sho Kusugi plays a martial arts instructor who gets caught up in the murderous drug business of some rent-a-mafiosos and an Evil Ninja who has Lots Of Creative Ways of Seperating Bits of You From You.  The plot really doesn't go much farther ( and I'd be hard pressed to understand some of the motivations behind the characters actions either) and leaves small things like coherence and suspension of disbelief behind, as it presents us with a series of pretty lame action sequences.  Kusugi's quite good when all he needs to do is throw himself around like a madman, but he's certainly no Jackie Chan or Jet Li, projecting neither the charm of the former or the athletic brilliance of the latter.  The rest of the cast fare just as well, with some painfully awkward performances and a general lack of competence in the acting department.  The whole movie is basically a bit of a downer, except for the head-scratchingly weird final battle.  I'll leave you with one rhetorical question:  what kind of ninja carries a flamethrower in his sleeve?

[Darth Geek]

Revenge of the Ninja is, apart from its slightly preposterous final battle, a typically bland and rote Ninja-themed martial-arts movie.  Sho Kusugi plays a martial arts instructor who gets caught up in the murderous drug business of some rent-a-mafiosos and an Evil Ninja who has Lots Of Creative Ways of Seperating Bits of You From You.  The plot really doesn't go much farther ( and I'd be hard pressed to understand some of the motivations behind the characters actions either) and leaves small things like coherence and suspension of disbelief behind, as it presents us with a series of pretty lame action sequences.  Kusugi's quite good when all he needs to do is throw himself around like a madman, but he's certainly no Jackie Chan or Jet Li, projecting neither the charm of the former or the athletic brilliance of the latter.  The rest of the cast fare just as well, with some painfully awkward performances and a general lack of competence in the acting department.  The whole movie is basically a bit of a downer, except for the head-scratchingly weird final battle.  I'll leave you with one rhetorical question:  what kind of ninja carries a flamethrower in his sleeve?

An awesome one?

[mrbasehart]

Revenge of the Ninja is, apart from its slightly preposterous final battle, a typically bland and rote Ninja-themed martial-arts movie.  Sho Kusugi plays a martial arts instructor who gets caught up in the murderous drug business of some rent-a-mafiosos and an Evil Ninja who has Lots Of Creative Ways of Seperating Bits of You From You.  The plot really doesn't go much farther ( and I'd be hard pressed to understand some of the motivations behind the characters actions either) and leaves small things like coherence and suspension of disbelief behind, as it presents us with a series of pretty lame action sequences.  Kusugi's quite good when all he needs to do is throw himself around like a madman, but he's certainly no Jackie Chan or Jet Li, projecting neither the charm of the former or the athletic brilliance of the latter.  The rest of the cast fare just as well, with some painfully awkward performances and a general lack of competence in the acting department.  The whole movie is basically a bit of a downer, except for the head-scratchingly weird final battle.  I'll leave you with one rhetorical question:  what kind of ninja carries a flamethrower in his sleeve?

An awesome one?

But it doesn't even work! It misses the guy by a mile and the flamethrowing ninja ends up looking stupid.

[Johnny Unusual]

Nice to see you back and in full force.

[mrbasehart]

Early start today:

The Wrong Guy is a comedy starring Kids in the Hall alum Dave Foley as a man who believes he is falsely accused of murder and goes on the run.  In actuality, the police know he's innocent, but his constant blundering attempts to escape justice keep him in close proximity to the actual killer, who thinks Foley is really a crack detective who's on his trail.  The tone of the movie is very much in keeping with the previous Kids in the Hall movie, Brain Candy, and manages to retain its odd sense of humour while using the thriller template as a way of not letting the film feel stretched too thin.  Not all the jokes work, but Foley's likeable enough, and I love Jennifer Tilly, who provides ample support as the love interest.

[mrbasehart]

Early start today:

The Wrong Guy is a comedy starring Kids in the Hall alum Dave Foley as a man who believes he is falsely accused of murder and goes on the run.  In actuality, the police know he's innocent, but his constant blundering attempts to escape justice keep him in close proximity to the actual killer, who thinks Foley is really a crack detective who's on his trail.  The tone of the movie is very much in keeping with the previous Kids in the Hall movie, Brain Candy, and manages to retain its odd sense of humour while using the thriller template as a way of not letting the film feel stretched too thin.  Not all the jokes work, but Foley's likeable enough, and I love Jennifer Tilly, who provides ample support as the love interest.

This movie had a very Hitchcock feel to it, to me.  A surreal Hitchcock.

It felt more like The Man Who Knew Too Little to me, in that it takes some of the Hitchcock tropes, and turns them on their heads. 

[mrbasehart]

Ah, but TMWKTL is much, much funnier.  But I see what you mean.

I agree.  Murray is absolute gold in that movie.   Onwards:

The Sadist is a terrific little suspense movie about 3 schoolteachers who because of car trouble end up at a wrecking yard in the middle of nowhere, which just happens to be where Arch Hall Jr's titular sadist is holed up with his girlfriend.  There begins a standoff between the crazy people with the guns and the incredulous (and increasingly more desperate) hostages.  What I really liked about the movie was its refusal to explain too much: Hall's character wasn't rebelling against anything, wasn't on drugs, or angry at his parents: he's just a sociopath who enjoys hurting people.  The movie's admirably even tone works just as well when horrible things being to happen and the camera's steady gaze lends a creepily realistic air to proceedings.  One review I read of the movie summed it up perfectly with one word: nihilistic.  From tone to look, there's an almost post-apocalyptic slant to the movie where rules and morals are out of the window.  It's not perfect by any means: even at 90 minutes, I think it's a little long and labours in parts; the female schoolteacher is a little too helpless for my liking; and the ending's less than satisfactory, but all in all, it's well worth watching.

[THE QUEEN!!!]

Ah, but TMWKTL is much, much funnier.  But I see what you mean.

I agree.  Murray is absolute gold in that movie.   

I didn't really like that movie, but Bill was awesome as usual

[mrbasehart]

It's my unfortunate duty to drop some of the suggestions from the list due to their unavailability.  I'll accept replacement suggestions, but the following can't be used:

Raw Force
Stanley Cuba
Cheerleader Ninjas
One Hundred and One Nights
Body Slam
Invasion of the Astro Monster
Dear Brigitte