What was the last movie you watched?

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New Tales of the Flying Fox ( 1984 )
I was so sure that this was going to be a sequel to Chang Cheh's Legend of the Fox. Some sources even listed it as a sequel.  New Tales of the Flying Fox is one of those really obscure late Shaw Brothers films made just before the studio closed, and one of their few attempts at a New Wave film. So, something even the most devoted Shaw fans probably haven't seen yet. About five minutes into the film, I could not help but feel like I had either seen this movie before, or at the least it was repeating the plot from a previous Shaw Brothers film. When the movie was over, I immediately replayed it with the commentary track on, and sure enough, it wasn't a sequel, but a remake of Legend of the Fox. So basically a remake of a 1980 film made in 1984! Both were adapted from the same novel, only this version was easier to follow. I am not sure that was due to the script successfully condensing the plot, or because it was a story I had previously seen before. Plenty of memorable fights, so a good improvement over the first film.

Lincoln ( 2012 )
Everyone wanted to see this film, about a Republican president we could all respect, in response to a particular infantile president who desecrated  the Lincoln Memorial this weekend, and further desecrated another president's memorial by slapping his own name on it, then refused to remove it after a judge told him he could not legally do something as stupid as that. ( As I write this, it is unclear if his name was removed from the Kenedy Center as a tarp was set up in front of it blocking the names. Big baby. )

Ready Player One ( 2018 )
And as long as I am going to watch one Spielberg film, I decided to watch this one as well. Another one of my guilty pleasure films. I didn't seem to enjoy it as much this time around. Maybe it will be taken away from the guilty pleasure /  Favorite film box and put with the other Spielberg films.

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Return of the Bastard Swordsman ( 1984 )
A bit less ridiculous plot than the first film. So basically, the big bad villain who disappeared from the plot in the first film returns having spent years practicing his deadly style and advancing tom it's highest level.  Meanwhile the hero has retired from martial arts, and is living off in some cabin with the girl from the first film. The head of a clan of ninjas wants to defeat both the hero, and the big bad villain, so he can become the leader of the martial arts world, so goes around killing members of the clans both belong to and framing the other to trick both the hero and villain into killing each other in a duel. Which they nearly do. The hero goes off to recover, while the villain gets into a fight with the ninja leader and is killed. The hero reincarnates in a cocoon, and with the help of a fortune telling martial arts master takes on the ninjas. A far easier plot to follow than the first film, so more enjoyable.

Amistad ( 1997 )
Because it was the Juneteenth weekend, we all decided to watch Steven Speilberg's other slave film, Amistad. Which I have already reviewed here.


1941 ( 1979 )
And when I was digging through the box where most of the Spielberg films are still being kept together, I found this. "Why don't we ever watch this?" I was asked. Good question. For nearly a decade I have been planning to upgrade this to a Blu-ray. If you have ever seen the DVD release with all it's flaws, then you know why. So, if I am about to get the Blu-ray, then why watch the DVD? I realized I am probably not going to get around to upgrading to a Blu-ray this year, so this was watched. This is basically crap. Really fun crap, but crap. Which critics hated, because Spielberg made it after his two masterpieces, Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  This was made at the same time as The Blues Brothers, and supposedly Spielberg and John Landis were competing to see which one would make the most destructive film in motion picture history. So what is this film? Think half the cast of Animal House and half the cast of Jaws and half the cast of Laverne & Shirley in the same movie, with a lot of other popular character actors of the late 70s. It is just after the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor, and all of Los Angeles is nervous that they are the next to be attacked. Meanwhile, off the coast, is a Japanese submarine looking to attack Hollywood in order to demoralize the Americans, but just can't seem to find it. There is John Belushi as a wacked out pilot of a fighter jet who has gone awol and is searching the coast for Japanese fighters. And Dan Aykroyd and his tank crew from the local base who are installing  anti aircraft guns along the cliffside properties, and warning the residents of the homes on the properties not to use them. And the main plot about a teenager who wants to take his girlfriend to the local Jitterbug competition, only to find out the club is now USO only and will only let men in uniform inside. Also, a girl who only gets horny if inside an airplane during flight, and the assistant to Genrral Stilwell who  wants to have sex with her. And a whole bunch of other sub plots which all results in a movie where every two minutes something is either broken, punched, machine gunned or blown up. Yep. Mass destruction just for the sake of mass destruction. With the only pause in the mayhem being the jitterbug competition ( which still involves a soldier trying to punch the teenager. ) Like I said, a really fun film to watch, but Landis made a far better mayhem film with The Blues Brothers. ( which is another movie I have been meaning to add to my library. ) For Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi fans, this is a bit of a letdown. Their characters only share one scene together. There was only one shot where they were on screen at the same time, where Belushi swims past Aykroyd, which was cut from the film, so all you get is their characters saluting each other from a distance.

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Secret Service of the Imperial Court ( 1984 )
The last movie in the Shaw Brothers Classics Volume 8 set. As of today Shout! Factory has not announced any further volumes or any more releases of Shaw Brothers films. Nor has Arrow announced a Volume 5 for their Shawscope sets. I have been keeping my eyes on a couple of collector sets from Eureka, a British based company that released a lot of classic Hong Kong movies on Blu-ray. Almost all of them are region locked, but a few sets have "American Editions", meaning the same sets but not region locked. Getting them could be a risk as there is a possibility that they could end up on any possible future volumes of Shawscope or Shaw Brothers Classics. And it always sucks when you are forced to double dip on movies just to complete a collection. I am already double dipping on the Shaw Brothers DVDs, but at least can say the Blu-rays are an upgrade in quality. The Eureka sets  limited editions which Amazon has already sold out of and is only available from second party sellers, so I can't wait any longer to find out if they are to appear in any future Shout Factory or Arrow sets. This film is one of the three classics to be released by Shaw Brothers in 1984, which also included Opium and the Kung Fu Master and 18 Diagram Pole Fighter. The plot is similar to Flying Guillotine, although without any flying guillotine or any other memorable weapons. It involves a squad of elite assassins working for the Emperor. One becomes disillusioned when he realizes the squad is being sent to assassinate decent ministers, and after allowing two of them to escape, ends up being hunted by his own squad.  There is a bit more to this story, including an evil eunuch who is behind the assassination in a plot to overthrow the emperor.

Little Shop of Horrors ( 1986 )
I was originally going to watch another film from 1984, Streets of Fire, and then it was suggested we have a marathon of Rick Moranis films. So I found Little Shop of Horrors. Which we watched first. And then something came up, and we didn't have time to watch a second movie. There are two versions of this movie. The version you have probably seen, and the version you probably didn't know existed. And the Blu-ray I have has both versions. One is the version released in theaters, released on VHS and rented at Blockbuster, and shown on television. The other was the version Frank Oz originally shot, and the studio refused to release after a disastrous screening. There is nothing wrong with that version, other than everyone dies, and Audry II manages to spawn, and then grow into hundreds of giant plant monsters which go on to destroy every city in the world. It is actually the version that makes more sense, especially for anyone who has seen the Broadway musical that has the same ending. And it is supposed to be a horror film. Both films are identical up until the one hour sixteen minute mark, then in the original version gets incredibly dark. With exception to Audry II singing Mean Grean Mother From Outer Space, Frank Oz needed to recall his cast and completely reshoot the entire ending. This involved building an entire set for where the happy couple ended up. While the original ending makes fare more sense, it is a shock to watch it as each character you grew to love ends up with a tragic ending, and Earth gets destroyed. Which is why I watched the theatrical version this time around.

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Jaws ( 1975 )
It's a tradition to watch this movie every July 4th. Even last year when I had already watched it a couple of weeks earlier for it's 50th anniversary. This is an extremely well made film despite every story of it having to be reworked while filming due to the mechanical shark constantly breaking down. It had occured to me that next year will mark the 50th anniversary of Star Wars, so I wondered what movies are celebrating their 50th this year, most likely ignored since they are sandwiched between the Jaws and Star Wars anniversaries. Here is a partial list:

You have just missed the anniversaries of: Taxi Driver, Hot Potato ( the actual sequel to Black Belt Jones ), Robin and Marion ( remade this summer asThe Death of Robinhood ), The Man Who Fell To Earth, The Duchesses and the Dirt water Fox, The Bad News Bears, Sparkle, All The Presidents Men, Family Plot ( final Alfred Hitchcock movie. And surprisingly an enjoyable comedy ), Stay Hungry ( Arnold Schwarzenegger film debut ), Grizzly ( first major released Jaws rip-off ), Mother Juggs & Speed, Ode to Billy Joe ( based on the hit song about a suicide), Silent Movie ( Mel Brooks), The Food of the Gods, Midway ( one of the four movies to actually be released in Sensurround ), The Big Bus ( disaster movie parody film ), Logan's Run, Murder by Death, The Omen, The Outlaw Josey Wales.

As for anniversaries you can still watch films on: At the Earth's Core, Lifeguard, A*P*E, Futureworld ( sequel to Westworld ), Squirm, The Return of a Man Called Horse, The Shootist ( final John Wayne movie. Was offered a role in 1941, but cursed out Spielberg on the phone after reading the script ), Gator, Bugsy Malone, The Front, Norman... Is That You?, The Smurfs & the Magic Flute, Marathon Man, Burnt Offerings, The Song Remains The Same, Car Wash, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Carry On England, Carrie, Assault on Precinct 13, Two-Minute Warning, Alice Sweet Alice, Rocky, Network, A Star Is Born ( Streisand and Kristofferson ), Silver Streak, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Freaky Friday, King Kong ( Paramount remake ), The Enforcer, In Search of Noah's Ark, The Eagle Has Landed

As for martial arts films in 1976, it wasn't a very good year. A lot of Bruceploitation movies, including Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave, Bruce Lee and I, and Jackie Chan's first starring role in New Fist of Fury. Shaw Brothers revived the wuxia genre with Killer Clans, tried to revive Wong Fei Hung with Challenge of the Masters, and brought an end to Chang Cheh's Shaolin cycle with Shaolin Temple. But the clear stand out classic that year was Secret Rivals from independent studio Seasonal Films, which had it's anniversary this past June.

As for celebrating 100th anniversaries, the films that still exist from 1926 are The Bat ( supposedly inspired Batman ), The Black Pirate, Son of the Sheik ( final Rudolph Valentino movie ), Sparrows, The Strong Man, and coming up in December, the 100th anniversary of Buster Keaton's The General.


Men from the Monastery ( 1974 )
So I ended up getting the set Furious Swords and Fantastic Warriors: The Heroic Cinema of Chang Cheh. My concern all along on buying these Shaw Brothers box sets was double dipping on the movies I already own. I eventually decided it was worth it for anything I already owned on DVD as there was an upgrade. But now what worries me is the possibility of these sets having crossover films. Especially since they are originally from foreign countries who may have different regional exclusivities to these movies. This set, at least, only double dips with previous DVD releases:


Men from the Monastery
Shaolin Martial Arts
King Eagle ( originally released by Image Entertainment )
Iron Bodyguard ( originally released by Tokyo Shock )
The Fantastic Magic Baby
The Weird Man
Trail of the Broken Blade ( originally released by Well Go )
The Wandering Swordsman ( originally released by Image Entertainment )
Trilogy of Swordsmanship
New Shaolin Boxers

Men From The Monastery was the follow up to Heroes Two. After Bruce Lee died, martial arts cinema in Hong Kong took a hit, as no one could imagine the genre without it's king. Despite the low attendance at theaters, Hong Kong studios continued to pump out martial arts movies because they were the only things selling overseas. Especially in America where dubbed Kung Fu movies were still big business at the grind house theaters. Looking for something to inspire local patrons to return to his movies, Chang Cheh was advised  to look to the past, with the Chinese martial arts heroes from Shaolin. ( Exactly who advised him varies with each account, but is sometimes attributed to Lau Kar Leung, who was his choreographer at the time and anxious to use authentic Hung Gar and other Shaolin martial arts styles of Kung Fu. Heroes Two was a huge success, which lead to a cycle of Shaolin movies featuring the historic monks from that temple. The only problem being that each is a retelling of the overall story, and each tells different versions, so even though most feature the same actors playing the same monks, the continuity of the movies do not match up. Especially when characters are killed off, and are alive again in the next film. Men From The Monastery follows three of the Shaolin heroes, although adds a few more for the climatic battle. It is basically four short films together. The first is Alexander Fu Sheng as Fung Shi Yuk, with highlights of his adventures including his pole fight. Next the story of Hu Hie Chen who continuously tries and fails to avenge his father against the Manchurian thugs who beat him to death. Chen finally takes Fung Shi Yuk's advice and studies at the Shaolin Temple, learning the skills to defeat the thugs. Next story is of former Shaolin monk Hung Tsi Kuan, as played again by Chen Kuan Tai, and we once again get highlights of his legend. The final section is titled Men from the Monastery, and takes place just after the Shaolin Temple is burned to the ground. The surviving Shaolin masters gather together for one final showdown with Manchurian martial arts masters. This is the section that cuts to black and white film whenever the fight scenes get gory, supposedly to get the movie past the censors who were cracking down on violence in martial arts movies. Not considered a classic due to pretty much every section of this movie being covered by Chang Cheh in better Shaolin Cycle films. And for a while believed to just be clips from those other movies edited into this film. But it is all footage shot specifically for this movie, and probably should be considered an underrated classic.

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Shaolin Martial Arts ( 1974 )
Change Cheh's Shaolin Cycle was important for many reasons. It made martial arts films profitable in Hong Kong after the death of Bruce Lee, which kept the genre alive long enough for Jacky Chan to make his Kung Fu comedies, which in turn kept the genre alive for another five years. It allowed Chang Cheh to reclaim his position of the most successful martial arts director in the world, allowing him to continue making films for Shaw Brothers for another ten years. It allowed him to meet the venom mob. And it allowed choreographer Lau Kar Leung to shift from Karate to actual Chinese martial arts styles, which was the beginning of his path towards being his own director and making his classics. This was the third film in the cycle. It's no masterpiece. That would be the following film Five Shaolin Masters. This was just a potboiler, only slightly connected to the previous films, taking place generations after the burning of the Shaolin Temple and the deaths of the rebel monks. The rebel spirit and martial arts techniques continue in illegal martial arts schools across China, which the emperor wants crushed. The story here: Manchurian martial arts experts challenge a school, and kill each of their top students in duels. The surviving students go off to study styles that can counter the Manchurian martial arts for a final revenge duel. So basically a plot that has been rehashed thousands of times. Only with a shocking moment at the end of the first third of the film that would be a spoiler to mention. Even as a potboiler, this film is Chang Cheh at his best, and Lau Kar Leung's choreography at it's best. And just when you thought you thought this was a predictable formula plot, that shocking twist.


Josie and the Pussycats ( 2001 )
One of the films lost in my library that recently turned up while looking for something else. Needless to say, someone stuck a bunch of DVDs into the bottom of a box which was supposed to have something else. Back in the early 2000s I had just made the transition from Laserdisc, which was supposed to be the end all format, to DVD. Well, they stopped releasing anything on Laserdisc, and I wasn't about to go back to VHS. The last pre-recorded VHS I had purchased was around 1996.  So with little choice, I began buying DVDs. It was about this time I formerly began my superhero movie collection. I think maybe the 1966 Batman film was the first? There had not been that many superhero films made by 2001. And after a few disaster, mostly Batman and Robin, it looked as if maybe there wouldn't be that many more superhero movies. The genre of live action comic book movies began as bootleg VHS tapes sold at comic book conventions, and included not just superheroes, but movies based on comic strips and movies based on Saturday morning cartoons. So for a while there my collection was going to go beyond superheroes, but include any other live action adaption of a cartoon or comic. I'm not so sure if I am doing that anymore. That would mean having to buy all those Disney live action remakes, wouldn't it? So in 2001, when this came out on DVD, and not much else was out yet, I bought it, and watched it, and since then had no memory of if I liked it or not. A month or so ago I watched a YouTube clickbait about the tragic downfall of the band Letters to Cleo, and how it's lead singer Kay Hanley went on to record the vocals for Josie in this film, and felt like seeing it again. Then couldn't find the DVD and gave up. Then found the DVD.

So, is this a lost cult classic? I think it is more of a missed opportunity. Let's start with the songs that Kay Hanley sang and the other girls in the cast added backup vocals to. The most important thing about a musical is the songs. You could have something that is basically garbage, like Grease, and if it has a bunch of memorable enjoyable musical numbers with songs you remember the lyrics to after watching it once, then you have a great film. Sadly, no effort was made to give the band any song that rose above mediocre. They could have at least used the songs from the cartoon series. The only memorable songs in the film are given to the fictional boy band Du Jour, who are only on screen for about ten minutes before their jet disappears and they are presumed dead. Spoiler, sort of. They turn up at the end of the movie alive and well. Except for whatever reason, they couldn't get Breckin Meyer, Donald Falson and Seth Green couldn't or wouldn't return for the 30 second scene. Just the Du Jour band member played by Alexander Martin. So basically it is explained that Du Jour are now in full body casts. But that is poor planning by the director not to shoot 30 seconds of footage when he had the actors.

More missed opportunities. The characters. Aside from a couple of really bad casting choices ( Those who remembered the cartoon will know which ones  ) the movie has all the characters from the cartoon. Well, al the human characters. Sebastion the cat is missing, most likely because the studio refused a budget that would allow a CGI cat. Also missing was the alien pet from Josie & The Pussycats In Outer Space. As this wasn't based on the later seasons taking place in space, then that character was not going to be in this movie. But every human character was here..... and not properly utilized.  There is one moment when the evil record executive played by Alan Cumming sees Alexandra accompanying the band on the private jet and asks her why she is there. She replies with a meta joke "Because I am in the comic book."  One has to ask why Alexandra was even in this movie. In the animated series she was always causing trouble and constantly trying to steal Allen the roadie from Josie. Here she is just reduced to a few insults. Her twin brother Alex, who is the band's manager in the cartoon, is given very little to do in this film either. Alan is given nothing to do but nearly kiss Josie in a couple of scenes, and suddenly profess his love for her in the final scene. None of the interplay of the characters from the cartoon is here. So basically they are just in the movie because they were in the cartoon, and are otherwise acting like extras than characters.

The show usually had the band stumbling onto a criminal plot by a mad scientist or an evil spy organization, so the plot from this film sort of fits into that. But there are no chase scenes as in the cartoon. The plot is uncovered and the Pussycats end up fist fighting the villains. There was more of an attempt to make this movie a commentary on the modern music business rather than recapturing the fun of the animated cartoon. It is also a commentary on subliminal messages, and as a joke, there is obvious product placement in every single scene, and nearly every single shot. Which the director said were put in the movie for free. Which is very dumb, because the studio could have earned hundreds of millions of dollars for the amount of product logos and products displayed in every scene.

Does it deserve it's reputation as a cult classic? Nope. It's just an underwhelming attempt to turn a popular Saturday morning cartoon into a story about corporate greed in the music industry. Had it been more loyal to the source material, it could have been as fun as the Scooby Doo movies. Instead it just exists, and just barely entertains.


Mr. Hulot's Holiday ( Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot ) ( 1978 version )
So I made up my mind that, since a lot of my favorite films and guilty pleasure films take place on a beach, that beginning with Jaws that each summer I will rewatch them. Well, until I begin to get bored with them. This one still works. Still amazed at how many really good gags are in this movie.

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King Eagle ( 1971 )
This is an unusual film. Almost from their first films for Shaw Brothers, David Chaing and Ti Lung worked exclusively for director Chang Cheh, and were always partnered in the same films. The trio of director and his two stars were known as the Iron Triangle, and their films were box office hits. And then we have this Chang Cheh film, which has Ti Lung, yet no David Chaing. Not even in the brief part as the friend of the King Eagle who gets killed and motivates the King Eagle to seek vengeance. Ti Lung plays the swordsman known as the King Eagle, who is one of those reluctant heroes. A villain has just murdered the leader of his clan, and intends to murder the rest of the clan chiefs to make himself the leader. Before he died of his wounds, the leader asked one of the chiefs to warn the other chiefs, but before he could, he is attacked and mortally wounded by henchmen for the villain. He stumbles into King Eagle, who is returning from hunting, and begs him for help. But King Eagle wants nothing to do with the martial arts world, and does not want to get involved, so allows the chief to die. However, the villain is convinced the chief told King Eagle of his plans before he died, and continuously sends hitmen to assassinate him. Only after a number of close friends are killed, and he has fallen in love with a swordswoman who is one of the clan chief's in danger, does King Eagle finally become motivated to confront the villains.

Blue Crush ( 2002 )
Physical Media is making a return in popularity. It took a bunch of games, movies and music that people thought they had bought on streaming sites to be removed for those people to realize "Oh. That's why people wasted shelf space on physical media." Your best chance of owning your favorite media for the rest of your life. Provided the disc it is stored on doesn't deteriorate, and you can still own a working machine to play it back on two decades from now. One of the reasons why physical media has gotten to the point where everyone was saying it was about to be phased out, was that back in 2000 everyone was buying physical media. The economy was better, so everyone had lost of disposable money. And they were nowhere near running out of shelf space. So you were a lot more likely to purchase a DVD of a movie you were curious to see rather than rent it from Blockbuster. Everyone was buying stacks of movies. Even bootlegs. A Chinese woman who spoke very little English showed up once a week to the depot where I worked, with a shopping cart full of DVDs of the lates films not yet supposed to be on DVD. Sometimes movies that had not been in theaters yet. And by the time she left the depot, that cart was nearly empty. There were stores like Coconuts, Suncoast and FYE. Blockbuster expanded into DVD sales, both preowned and factory sealed. Sam Goody had a DVD section.  Tower Records had a DVD section. Borders Books had a DVD section. Circuit City had a DVD section. There were thousands of independent physical media stores all over the city. DVDs were everywhere, and every Tuesday,  my co-workers would buy stacks of new releases to watch over the weekend. And very often, it would be something they decided they didn't want. And before retailers began taking trade-ins for store credit so they could resell the used DVDs, my co-workers would bring into work the movies they didn't like that weekend and ask if anyone wanted them. Otherwise, they were going into the dumpster. I am pretty sure that is how I got Blue Crush. A co-worker snatched it because there were three attractive girls in bikinis on the box, and didn't like it. So I brought it home and watched it. I mean, it was a badly made film that only worked because the cast had chemistry and seemed to be enjoying themselves. And perhaps there was something about the plot I liked. And it did have a lot of moment I enjoyed. It is also one of those rare movies where there is no extended scene that bores me. Not even the scenes that are really just padding. So this has become one of the films I rewatch every summer, and enjoy it each time.

Charlie's Angles ( 2000 )
Meanwhile, here is a film I bought rather than rent. I was under the impression that Yuen Woo Ping had choreographed the fight scenes, mainly because articles about the movie said Woo Ping from The Matrix had been hired to choreograph the fight scenes. Turns out the choreography was done by his brother Yuen Cheung-yan, who choreographed some of the Matrix sequels. Anyway, I was a big enough Yuen Woo Ping fan to have said "What the hell" when I saw this on the shelf and added it to the other DVDs I had bought that week. The fight scenes in this, very low quality. Done in the style of The Matrix, despite the fact that the style developed for The Matrix was created because the story took place in a computer simulation where physics could be broken, and they wanted to feature that new effect where the scene freezes whenever someone leaps and you see a full 360 pan. This is a bad film, made palatable because every scene is about thirty seconds long. It rapidly jumps from one location to the next, so you never get bored. The angles are always in new outfits and in a new place. In the original television series, the Angeles were just private detectives. In this movie, they act like they are a spy agency.  I give them credit for making this an official continuation of the television series, with John Forsythe reprising his role as the voice of the mysterious Charlie. It made sense that the Townsend Agency would have three different Angels two decades after the final episode of the series aired. During the series run there had been three replacement Angles for departing cast members.  Although Bosley  was recast from  the late David Doyle to Bill Murray. I think it was explained in the later films that the Townsend agency hired a number of assistants named Bosley.  The film is watchable, and once done, completely forgettable.

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Iron Bodyguard ( 1973 )
An overlooked classic by Chang Cheh which deserved to be as renowned as Boxer From Shantung.  It was based on the historical character, the poet Tan Sitong and his fictional friendship with another Chinese folk hero, Wang Wu. China had been ruled by the Dowager Cixi ever since the death of the former Emperor as she was the mother of his only surviving son. And since the son was only five, Cixi essentially ruled the empire for him until he was old enough to take the throne. What followed were a bunch of mysterious deaths of various children in line of succession to Emperor just as they reached the age to take the throne, leaving Cixi in charge for thirty years.  Emperor Guangxu was her nephew, and next in line to the throne, and once again too young to rule. When he was old enough, Cixi delayed his assent by a few years. Finally assuming the role of Emperor in 1898, he instituted a number of reforms, many of which were to forever keep Cixi out of power, and to demote the ministers who kept her in power. Tan Sitong was asked by the Emperor to lead the reformists who would change the government. But 108 days later, Cixi mounted a coup, and had the Emperor put permanently under house arrest. His brief reign as Emperor was known as the Hundred Days Reform.  Empress Dowager Cixi then ordered all the reformists working for the Emperor to be rounded up and arrested. She would then order the reformists executed without a trial.  Tan Sitong, along with five other reformists, were executed on September 28, 1898. His last words was his final poem: "Eager to kill the oppressors, powerless to turn the tide. To die where one should, how exhilarating, how exhilarating!" The men executed that day were from that moment on known as the  six gentlemen of the Hundred Days' Reform. Very little of this is explained in the film. It is a well known historic event for the Chinese, but meaningless to most Westerners who watched this movie. Not only would they not have know who Tan Sitong was, but not have known who Wang Wu was either. In this movie, Wang Wu becomes close friends with Tan Sitong, and upon hearing of his arrest, decides to rescue him while he is being led to the execution spot. This plot required the help of a police officer who was supposedly friends with Wang Wu, and sympathetic to the reformists. But instead, he lures Wang Wu and his men into a trap while the real execution is happening elsewhere. The men trying to rescue the reformists are all gunned down by riflemen, and only Wang Wu survives. After recuperating, he decides to go on a suicide mission to kill the police chief who betrayed him, once again being fired at by rifles once the police chief is killed. In real life, Wang Wu didn't die for another two years, being killed in the Boxer Rebellion. He was shot to death, but by a collation army that included United States soldiers, along with soldiers from the other European nations.


Spring Breakers ( 2012 )
Continuing my yearly rewatching of my favorite beach themed movies.

Rat Race ( 2001 )
This is much funnier that the celebrated Its A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, mostly because Stanley Kramer had never shot a comedy before and had no idea how to properly cast and utilize comedians. Jerry Zucker was a comedy director, so knew exactly how to cast and utilize the best talent for this movie. Pretty much every character in this film is funny. Also, as I reached the ending, I realized that I had intended for years to do a Smash Mouth Trilogy with the three films in a row that featured their song All Star, which would be Mystery Men, Shrek and this movie. Actually, All Star is in a lot of other movies, but those three is the most prominent.  Maybe I will get around to doing that next year, if I remember, and can find my copies of the other two films.

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The Fantastic Magic Baby ( 1975 )
If there ever is a Chang Cheh film you want to skip, it would be this one. It is basically his tribute to the artform known as Cantonese Opera. You have probably seen this style of stage show depicted  in various Chinese films. It has actors in costumes and painted faces doing a lot of summersaults while a band just off stage bangs percussion instruments and gongs in rhythm to the action. And yes, there is some singing too. Chang Cheh drew inspiration  from Cantonese Opera for his martial arts films. Particularly the ones that depicted heroic generals  being fatally stabbed in battle, yet continuing to fight until they finally died of blood loss. This film is an adaption of an opera featuring a chapter from Journey To The West where Monkey King battles The Red Boy. This adaption eliminates the singing, and the fights are more realistic then the version of fighting found on the stage show. But you have that Cantonese Opera music playing throughout the action scenes. The film has a 98 minute running time, which was why I was surprised when it ended at an hour seven minutes, complete with the "Another Shaw Brothers Production" screen credit. What follows is another 30 minutes of two actual Cantonese Operas, condensed and performed on film, one of them also featuring Monkey King. If you are into Cantonese Opera then this should be a treat. But if you just want your Chang Cheh film to have the usual bloody fights, then this is a disappointment. You instead get an hour long Monkey King film with Ultraman style fighting, and another thirty minutes of Cantonese Opera that feels more like filler than Chang Cheh presenting the artform to a new generation.


Summer Lovers ( 1982 )
I complete my beah themed films with this. Actually, I have a set with most of the Beach Blanket films, which I got only for the Buster Keaton scenes. Which you are better off just fast forwarding to the brief comedy scenes with Buster, because the rest of those films are hard to watch. Teenagers in the 60s really liked these movies? Anyway, Summer Lovers ends the beach themed movies that are among my favorites.

Risky Business ( 1983 )
Like Summer Lovers, already reviewed here.

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The Weird Man ( 1983 )
Chang Cheh was the indisputable king of martial arts directors, with his former choreographer Lau Kar Leung being a very distant second. No on has directed  as many martial arts classics as Cheh. For sixteen years he had directed at least one martial arts classic per year, and at one point was averaging four martial arts classics per year, on a run that began in 1967 with The One Armed Swordsman, the film that ushered in the modern martial arts film. And then came 1983. This was the final film Chang Cheh directed for Shaw Brothers The studio was on it's way out1984 would be it's last full year producing theatrical films. By that year, Cheh had left, and beginning with Attack of the Joyful Goddess,  was attempting to direct his own self produced films without the budget of a major film studio. The Weird Man has never been mentioned favorably by film historians, usually describing  Cheh's final Shaw Brothers film as a misstep. Upon viewing it, it appears as if it was probably made just to complete a contract rather than being a film Cheh wanted to make. It had the elements that many late Shaw Brothers films had as they desperately tried to win back the audiences that were abandoning their films for Golden Harvest and other independent studios. A combination of comedy and the supernatural. It begins as what seems to be a typical Chang Cheh epic. The first five minutes introduces characters and sub-plots from the epic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. This is a lot of plot condensed into such a short amount of time,  and one of the characters from the novel is featured in  one of Cheh's signature red void sets with the character fighting off several villains, suggesting he is going to either be the hero of the movie, or at the least the main focus of the film. And then the movie shifts to a Taoist priest and his disciples. during meditation, he has seen his future where he is executed, and deciding it is an unavoidable fate, wanders into the town where the execution is to take place.  He is loved by the masses as he has the ability to cure the sick and injured. The guy we thought was going to be the film's hero, who is the warlord of that town, becomes jealous of the priest, and has him executed. His body magically returns to his temple, and using the last of his essence to reanimate his body, he tells his disciples that he will be spending the next month exercising his soul in order to reincarnate. He gives them three commandments. Do not try to avenge him. Do not allow his body to be destroyed before the month is over. And to slap his body's forehead three times at noon and midnight to prevent his spirit from wandering off. Of course, that month is spent haunting the warlord who had him executed. So basically, the entire plots and subplots about the various warlords turns out to have nothing to do with the actual plot of this movie. And the guy we thought would be the hero does not given very much to do in this film. It is almost as if Cheh wanted to f*&k with his audience for his final film. Or perhaps he had begun an adaption of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and mid production switched it to a supernatural comedy. Actually, not a bad movie. But with a director who had previously made so many classics ( the previous year he made House of Traps and Five Element Ninjas ) ending his career at Shaw Brothers on an okay potboiler is a letdown. Then again, blame that on Shaw Brothers for choosing to release this film last.

Stan & Ollie ( 2018 )
Rewatched this. Such amazing performances from both leads who look and sound exactly like Laurel & Hardy, and a touching story about two comedians at the end of their careers, sabotaged by a few historical inaccuracies. I could probably allow the falsehood that Stan Laurel was angry with Oliver Hardy for making Zenobia when it happened during the months that Laurel was no longer under contract with Roach and Hardy was, And Laurel understood that Roach only made the film to pressure Laurel into signing the contract he was offering. But yeah, the plot needed some sort of rift between the two comedians, and nothing else existed. So for the sake of a good story, I could let that one slide. But it shows Laurel at the office in 20th Century Fox studios awaiting Hardy to break his contract with Roach in order to sign a contract to make films there. This was never the case. Laurel had hoped to make Laurel & Hardy film via his own production company for either Roach, M.G.M., or United Artists. Fox would have never signed an actor who was still under contract to a rival studio. And the Fox deal was not offered for another two years, and Stan signed it begrudgingly as he would need to give up any creative control over the team's films. Just in the first few minutes, we see Laurel and Hardy on their way to the set of Way Out West. Laurel complains that Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin are making more money than they are, and Hardy mentions that all three comedians produce their own movies, to which Laurel replies that they should begin producing their own films. Actually, Way Out West was being produced by Stan Laurel's production company, which Roach had agreed to prior to the movie's production. And not only had Buster Keaton never produced his own films, and after being fired by M.G.M. in 1933, four years before Way Out West, he was never paid a high salary by a studio again. So many inaccuracies in just the first few minutes. I admit, the casual viewer would never pick up on this and enjoy this movie. But most of the audience for this film would be Laurel and Hardy fans who would be taken out of the film by these mistakes. Anyway, a nice movie despite the historical sloppiness.

Times Square ( 1980 )
Also, got around to rewatching my favorite movie this weekend.

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Trail Of The Broken Blade ( 1967 )
The abridged history of the martial arts film: Shaw Brothers made Come Drink With Me in 1966. It was a hit. It's director King Hu left Shaw Brothers.  Chang Cheh was asked to replace him as the studio's lead director of wuxia. He made The One Armed Swordsman. It wasn't just a hit. It broke box office records. The actual history: Shaw Brothers launched what they called The New Wuxia Era  in 1965. Wuxia movies had faded in popularity.  Shaw Brothers sought to revive the genre  by filming them in color, removing the fantasy element, and making them more grittier. There were actually a couple of their New Era Wuxia films prior to Come Drink With Me. But Come Drink With Me was the first to be a hit. And, there were a bunch of New Era Wuxia films made in between Come Drink With Me and The One-Armed Swordsman.  Trail of the Broken Blade was one of them. Directed by Chang Cheh, and starring Jimmy Wang Yu. No, not quite as violent as the films made after The One-Armed Swordsman.  Despite stabbings, very little blood is shown. And most of the movie is devoted to the soap opera plot of Wang Yu's fugitive character becoming close friends with the swordsman who has been searching for him, but does not reveal to him that he is actually the fugitive. And then discovers the swordsman is in love with his former girlfriend, who he left when he went on the run as a fugitive. So, most of the film is devoted to that plot before the final confrontation between Wang Yu and the leader of a criminal gang and his army of henchmen. This is Chang Cheh just months before his films were drenched with blood and gory violence.


The Warriors ( 1979 )
Streets of Fire  ( 1984 )
Finally got around to watching these two films as a double feature.

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The Wandering Swordsman ( 1970 )
So, Chang Cheh makes a bunch of very successful films starring Jimmy Wang Yu, including The One-Armed Swordsman. Jimmy breaks his contract with Shaw Brothers and goes to rival studio Golden Harvest. Almost immediately Chang Cheh discovers two new actors who rival Wang Yu in popularity. David Chiang and Ti Lung, who are presented as a team, sort of. At least, their screen chemistry works so well that Chang teams them up in several films. The director and both stars become known as the Iron Triangle. So it is strange that the moment this winning formula was discovered, Chang Cheh would decide to give both stars their own solo films. Imagine if after discovering how well Laurel and hardy worked as a team, Hal Roach decided to give both solo films. I already reviewed one of those films, King Eagle with Ti Lung. And here is the other one. Probably should have been together on the same disc, but this set keeps both films on separate discs with other films. What can I say about this film other than David Chaing plays an idiot. So basically, the Wandering Swordsman is one of those chivalrous heroes who wanders around China stealing from bandits who robbed the rich, and giving the money to the poor. Throughout the film he has run-ins with several villains. So about halfway through the film when he gets into a fight with another villain, the other four villains show up to help him, and the Wandering Swordsman realizes they are all in the same gang. But then a sixth villain, the leader of the gang, shows up and stops the fight. After talking to The Wandering Swordsman for a few minutes, he convinces him that they are actually the good guys, and then enlists his help in attacking an armed escort transporting treasure after convincing him that the escort service are actually villains.  The Wandering Swordsman knew that at least four members of the gang he joins up with were villains. And even as they mercilessly slaughter the guards of the escort, he still does not get that they are actually villains. It is only after one of the hired henchmen accidentally gives away that the gang are actually criminals and they had raided an escort service that The Wandering Swordsman finally gets it, and ends up getting fatally wounded while fighting the gang to get the stolen treasure back. Wuxia heroes are essentially the ancient Chinese version of superheroes. So imagine a Batman movie where a gang with Penguin, Two-face, Joker, Riddler and Bane trick Batman into thinking they are also superheroes, then tricks him into helping them rob an armored truck. 




Leap Of Faith ( 1992 )
The Out Of Towners ( 1999 )
I wanted the movie Leap of Faith right after it was out of print and unavailable. Except for one of those double feature sets, with the movies unfortunately on those double sided DVDs. Never actually watched both films on the same night. The Out Of Towners is the weak film here, but mostly because it is a remake of a classic comedy that was much better than this one.

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Trilogy of Swordsmanship ( 1972 )
Wuxia was on it's way out in 1972, replaced in popularity by martial arts films where the heroes used their fists and feet instead of weapons. Wuxia had been such a popular genre for Shaw Brothers that they were not ready to abandon it just yet. So they came up with this idea. A film composed of three shorter films. The Iron Bow has a corrupt official trying to force the beautiful daughter of an inn keeper to marry him, but her mother insists that he follow the wishes of her late husband before he died.  Only someone who could fire an arrow using his bow could marry his daughter. The corrupt official cant even lift the heavy bow. Meanwhile, a hero swordsman turns up in town and easily does the task. So the corrupt official decides to try to frame the swordsman as a burglar, and when that fails, attempts to kidnap the daughter and force her tom wed him. It turns out she and her entire family are martial arts experts, and wind up slaughtering the official and his men during a climatic fight. The Tigress is the second story, about a popular prostitute who gets a general to agree not to execute her lover if she can capture a notorious bandit. It has a touching finale when she learns how the bandit is related to her. And finally White Water Strand is the segment Chang Cheh directed. A typical plot for him where two swordsmen bond with each other after a playful fight. One of them is captured, and the other mounts a rescue that results in one of them dying, but taking out an army of armed men before he dies. We got David Chiang and Ti Lung in this segment, so basically a formula Iron Triangle film condensed into 40 minutes. All three mini-movies are good, with The Tigress as the stand-out best of the three.


Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ( 1998 )
Previously reviewed here

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Sadly this week, actor Tim Curry went from 'is" to 'was' on Wikipedia. Tim played the radio DJ  Johnny LaGuardia in my favorite movie Times Square, so I felt I needed to mention his passing. While his character was only in a fifth of the film, despite Tim getting top billing, had he not agreed to take the role, the film would have never been greenlit. Five year prior to that, Tim had become a cult icon in the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a role he had originated with the Rocky Horrorstage show. He would star in many other musicals, most notably as King Arthur in Spamalot. He was in several memorable roles in motion pictures, including Rooster in the 1982 film adaption of the musical Annie, The Lord of Darkness ( a.k.a Satan ) in Legend ( 1985 ), Wadsworth the butler in Clue ( 1985 ), Dr. Yevgeniy Petrov in The Hunt for Red October ( 1990 ), Mr. Hector the concierge in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York ( 1992 ), Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers ( 1993 ) and Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island ( 1996 ). And he also worked on television with such roles as The Poet in Lexx and Pennywise in the television adaption of It. He also did a lot of vocal roles for cartoons. It should also be mentioned that he briefly tried to have a career as a rock star in the late 70s, and had a minor hit with the song I Do The Rock. In 2012 he had a dibilitating stroke, but continued to do vocal work for cartoons, and would make his final live action apperance as the narrator for FOX's live television adaption The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again. He died just a couple of days after Dolly Parton, which meant hos passing was overshadowed, and for some news outlets, ignored. The news show that I was watching when it was reported had it as a thirty second mention, with a brief clip of Time Warp, when the lead stories were about ten minutes of Dolly Parton tributes, followed by another five minutes of the lates insane thing Trump had done that day, followed by a run-down of all the latest gang shootings and E bike caused fires.  Much like Parton, he was 80.

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New Shaolin Boxers ( 1976 )
This wasn't planned, although this would seem like it was planned. But this weekend is the 50th anniversary of this film's Hong Kong release. And the reason I watched it this weekend, was because it was the last film in the Furious Swords and Fantastic Warriors: The Heroic Cinema of Chang Cheh box set. I didn't even know the release date until I was about to write this review and looked it up. After celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jaws last year, and realizing the 50th anniversary of Star Wars is coming up next year, I had been considering celebrating the 50th anniversaries of some films I own on DVD   King Kong, A*P*E,  Logan's Run, The Big Bus, Grizzly, Food of the Gods, Silver Streak, The Eagle Has Landed, and a few more. Was even thinking of finally getting around to buying The Rocky Films and Car Wash. Completely forgot about those plans. And then this happened. Surprisingly, this film was never part of the Blackbelt Theater film package syndicated to television in the 1980s by World Northal, even though it is exactly the kind of film they would have added. Mostly Kung Fu, directed by Chang Cheh, with Alexander Fu Sheng and Johnny Wang Lung Wei as the stars, and Shaolin in the title. ( Well, actually World Northal had changed the name to Grand Master of Death for it's English Dubb release )  It is pretty much a potboiler story. Fu Sheng is a teenager who keeps getting into trouble for fighting the local gangsters. His martial arts teacher sends him off to a different teacher to learn Choy Li Fut. While he is there, the leader of the gangsters kills hi teacher. Now a master of  Choy Li Fut, Fu Sheng returns to his home town to face off against the gangsters and seek revenge. Despite it's formula plot, it still feels fresh, and  is actually one of Fu Sheng's best movies. And the final fight with Johnny Wang Lung Wei is one of their best.


I was able to get the afternoon martial arts  movie in on Saturday, but then we left for a planned road trip for a two day stay with relatives for Labor Day.  Got there around 9pm. They are the kind of family that lets their kids dominate the televisions, which they use to play Roblox or something like that. Their parents are satisfied with watching Tic Tok on their phones. So, no more movies this weekend. We will be making the return trip around 5pm on Monday, so hopefully will be home by 11pm. Got work the next day, which is why I hate having to make these trips. Not just because the weekend is blown and a holiday lost, but the possibility of getting back home so late that I will barely get any sleep. At least this means no traveling on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

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The Black Butterfly ( 1968 )
The 88 Films problem. So I have been collecting the Shaw Brothers films, and a bunch have been released by a company called 88 Films. The problem is that the titles are usually listed as unavailable on Amazon, and despite claims that they are being released in the United States, a lot of them have a warning that they are region blocked. Also, 88 Films has been releasing them as individual films instead of as part of sets, and charging a lot for the individual films. Also, most of them are films I already have on DVD. The only reason I have been upgrading my Shaw Brothers films I already own on DVD  to Blu-ray is that they are part of sets with films I do not already own. So getting the Blu-ray of Shaolin Mantis is a waste of money if I already have it on DVD from Dragon Dynasty. It would be less a waste of money if it was in a set with a bunch of other films I don't own yet. ALSO... Some of the 88 films have been showing up in the Shout! Factory and Shaw Scop sets. So I have no idea what to do with those films. Nor do I know what to do with the few stand alone Arrow films that may or may not be region blocked in the United States and could possibly show up on future Shaw Scope sets. They have announced a special edition of Shaw Scope coming out in a couple of months featuring a film I have been waiting for a home video release for decades. More on that one when the release date nears. There is a good possibility that set could be scrapped if the pre-sales are weak. And Shout! has yet to announce any further releases of any Shaw Brothers Classics collections. Meanwhile, Eureka has been releasing Region 1 disks, so I am collecting them right now.  This week I begin Martial Law: Lo Wei's Wuxia World. A set with only three movies. The Black Butterfly,  Death Valley and  Vengeance of a Snow Girl. Only three films in this set, but none I have already so no double dipping this time. The Black Butterfly starts with a mysterious burglar of the same name who has a reputation of being a master swordsman and has been robbing the rich. Meanwhile, a drunken beggar has shown up in town and has been buying rice to give away to the poor. A few other characters are introduced, and the identity of the Black Butterfly is supposed to be the film's central mystery, but the identity is easily figured out in the first few minutes. The film ends with the Black Butterfly, the drunken beggar and all the other hero characters raiding the fortress of a bandit gang who have stolen the emperors seal, and there is a subplot introduced about an attempted coup by a prince which really has nothing to do with the plot. It takes more than a half hour for any action. And just when I was beginning to believe I was watching a historic mystery film rather than a wuxia film, the bad guys show up and we finally see some sword fighting. This leads to the action packed raid on the bandit's fortress. Far from a classic, but even the potboilers from this studio had a level of quality that made their weakest wuxia films much better than the best of the wuxia coming from the independent studios. Anyway, a film to satisfy a completest looking to collect every Shaw Brothers martial arts film.

Phantasm ( 1979 )
The Omega Man ( 1971 )
A double feature of two of the coolest  films made in the 70s, and both with great soundtracks. I had the sound bar blasting for both of these films.

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Death Valley ( 1968 )
Not the Death Valley in California, but a Death Valley in China, which is actually the top of a mountain. The hero even dispatches a couple of henchmen by shoving them off the cliff. The plot has a manipulative niece of a martial arts master getting her boyfriend to murder him so she can inherit his property, then has her boyfriend murdered as well, then tricks two swordsmen to have a duel to the death, one being the legitimate heir to the dead master, the other being the swordsman she tricked into killing her boyfriend.

Logan's Run ( 1976 )
King Kong ( 1976 )
Decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of two 1976 films, and these are the two I saw in the theaters on their first run. Logan's Run was quickly forgotten when Star Wars raised the bar for Science fiction movies a year later. But it has great campy scenes, like Box the killer robot. King Kong is well made, but has a very disappointing Skull Island with only one other monster, a giant snake.