What was the last movie you watched?

[stethacantus]

Challenge of the Masters ( 1976 )
Already reviewed this one when I bought the Dragon Dynasty release. Slight improvement with picture quality for the Blu-ray, otherwise same print.

Fearless Frank ( 1967 )
A couple of weeks ago someone updated the Wikipedia live action superhero movie list, adding a bunch of movies the Wikipedia moderators have removed in the past, such as the Lone Ranger films, and a bunch of superhero films I never knew existed. For some of these, there is a risk that I will buy the film for my collection, and it will not come close to being a superhero film. Sure, someone has supernatural powers, but never once puts on a costume and uses his powers to become a superhero. So, is this movie a superhero film? It seems to have been promoted as a superhero film, including a poster with the star in a superhero costume...

...but, does this look to you like a superhero?

Frank is an ignorant country bumpkin visiting a big city who tries to help a woman who is being kidnapped by criminals, and ends up shot to death. Luckly a mad scientist stumbles onto his body and takes it back to his lab where he uses ancient technologies to bring Frank back to life and give him super powers, including flight, strength  and being bullet proof. The doctor implores Frank to fight crime, which Frank does. But wearing that suit and sun glasses.  The film does have supervillains. A gang leader called "The Boss" who uses smoke to commit crimes, and his henchmen The Cat who looks catlike, the Rat who looks ratlike, Screwnose who has a working drill for a nose, and Needles who has needles for fingers. So we have costumed supervillains, and a hero with superpowers, but no secret identity nor costume. So is this a superhero film? Nowhere as much as I wanted it to be, but I guess it still counts, especially as it was promoted as a superhero film.

But  it is actually one of those surrealistic 60s comedies I have mentioned before. Think of the Beatles Help! and you will get an idea of the type of film I am talking about.  The problem is that a lot of these films are deliberately strange as if deliberately strange is automatically funny. I mean, it was with Monty Python, but the Monty Python movies and television series was written by seasoned comedy writers who honed this type of humor. But most of the time you got messes like Casino Royale ( 1967 ) and  Skidoo ( 1968 ) where the writers merely followed the formula, coming up with something that was supposed to be both funny and artistic, but was neither. Fearless Frank was written and directed by Phillip Kaufman, an auteur who would go on to direct some grate movies, but not this. There is a reason why I never heard of this film before it was added to the Wikipedia list. It was odd enough to be interesting, but not funny at all, and bordering on boring  throughout it's 80 minute running time.

[stethacantus]

Executioners From Shaolin ( 1977 )
This film doesn't get the respect it deserves, as three years later Shaw Brothers released the very similar Clan of the White Lotus which is either a sequel or a remake. Actually, Clan of the White Lotus can neither be a sequel or remake, as it opens with Pai Mei being killed at Shaolin, when in this movie Pai Mei is the main villain who lives decades after the burning of Shaolin.  But basically both are very similar stories about a villainous white haired priest who the hero makes several attempts to kill in a fight. I myself prefer Clan of the White Lotus, but that does not mean this film isn't one of Shaw Brother's best. Chen Kuan Tai once again plays Shaolin hero Hung Tsi Kuan, who vows to avenge his master at Shaolin's death by the hands of priest Pai Mei.  What differs this film from Clan of the White Lotus is that the hero ends up killed at the end of the second act, leaving his son to take up the mantle and seek vengeance against  Pai Mei..

Cross ( 2011 )
Another one of those films recently added to Wikipedia's American Superhero film list. But is it a superhero film? It was the first of three direct to video action films with Brian Austin Green playing the title hero. And recently Sony released a bargain pack with all three Cross films in once $9 case, which Amazon was selling for $7. So I tossed it in my shopping cart just in case. The guy who wrote, produced and directed this movie originally developed Cross as an idea for a comic book, but as far as I can tell, no Cross comic book has ever been published. Nevertheless, the movie opens with the cover of a Cross comic book, followed by fake comic book panels explaining the hero's back story. Surprisingly no actual origin story. Not even in a flashback. The best we get is that a bunch of amulets were made thousands of years ago, each giving the person wearing it powers, and each passed down in families who use them to fight evil. The current owner of the Cross amulet is Callen, and his powers seem just to be a green forcefield that makes him bulletproof, and the ability to throw green energy at an enemy to knock them over. This was a low budget film, so the amulet's actual powers were kept to a minimum. I fact, most of Callen's crime fighting is done with guns. He leads a team of vigilantes who all use firearms. Each has a superhero style codename, but none wear any costumes, including Callen. I guess if they had published a Cross comic book, then this would have qualified as a superhero film easily, just for the fact that it was an adaption. But since no comic book was published, and Callen acts more like a mercenary that a superhero, I guess you can say this is almost a superhero movie. Or at least comes very close.  Did I mention this is low budget? So, very little when it comes to effects. And, another industrial park slog. Much like the worst of the Asylum movies, Cross is shot entirely in abandoned factories and warehouses. Even locations that are supposed to be hospitals or police stations are obviously run down warehouses with slight set decoration. Another thing this shares with most low budget action films is a cast of down on their luck but still slightly bankable actors who each have small parts, or are major characters with very little screen time. All paid a lot of money to do about an hour's worth of work so their names will be on the box. However, this movie wasn't as bad as a typical Asylum film. Most of the acting is better than this film deserves it to be, and the movie manages to move along at a pace that is just slightly ahead of boring. One annoying aspect is that many characters are introduced with a comic book style caption of their name and specialty. Although it seems random which characters get this treatment.  Some major characters who are in multiple scenes don't get any caption, while some characters who are only on screen for a minute do. I don't even think the main villain, an immortal Viking who wants to unleash an Egyptian curse that will kill everyone on Earth, gets a caption. This is better than it deserves to be. But we are talking about being just barely entertaining. Hopefully there will be some sort of improvement with the next two films.

[stethacantus]

This turned out to be an unexpectedly busy weekend, so lets get to it...


Chinatown Kid ( 1977 ) ( International Cut )
This was among the films the Weinstein's acquired the North American distribution rights to for Dragon Dynasty, but was never released. A long sought after Shaw Brother's classic, not just for it's memorable fight choreography, but for being considered Alexander Fu Sheng's best film, among director Chang Che's best films, and the first Venom Mob film. In 1976 Chang Cheh began recruiting a new batch of actors for his movies as the other actors he worked with were either leaving Shaw Brothers once their contracts were up, or were in such high demand at the studio that they were becoming too busy doing films for other Shaw Brothers directors.  This movie was the screen debut for five of the actors who would become the Venom Mob, who would get their name a year later after the success of The Five Venoms.  Chinatown Kid had a frustrating home video release history. It was part of those bootleg Shaw Brothers films sold on street corners and Times Square video stores in the late 80s and early 90s. Many of us suspect that these originated from World Northal itself, who in the 80s had the home video rights to all the movies they distributed to theaters and television. That as a side business World Northal was offering the Shaw Brothers movies via on demand mail order to video rental shops and collectors willing to pay $90 for films mastered from edited for television  syndication prints. Other theories as to the origin of "Shaw Brothers Video" are that a disgruntled World Northal employee walked off with a bunch of Beta masters of the Shaw Brothers movies after he found out the company would not be able to pay it's employees their final wages due to bankruptcy. Another theory,  the notorious bootlegger George Tan somehow snuck into World Northal and stole the Beta masters of the television edits, releasing them via his company Dragon Video.  Someone else recently claimed to have been the owner of Shaw Brothers Video, claiming he had made friends with the staff at World Northal, who allowed him to run off video copies of their films using their equipment. As for the distinctive Shaw Brothers Video boxes which used production stills not easily available to the general public, he claimed he had a collection of movie posters and lobby cards. Out of all these theories as to the origin of Shaw Brothers Video, the one where they were legitimately released by World Northal if you knew enough to contact them and ask, makes the most sense.

The Shaw Brothers Video release of Chinatown Kid was the censored edited for television version, which in turn was mastered from the World Northal theatrical release.  Around 1989 World Northal entered a deal with Emassy Video to release the movies they edited for television onto budget VHS tapes to be sold for $10 a movie. Embassy selected mostly Bruce Li and Jimmy Wang Yu films along with the odd Angela Mao, Sonny Chiba  and Jim Kelly film, because they had some name recognition, and released only one Shaw Brothers film among the first batch of releases, Master Killer, a.k.a. 36th Chamber of Shaolin. It was rumored that Chinatown Kid was among the Embassy releases, however I have still never seen an Embassy box with that film, nor have ever seen any catalogs with the film listed. Most likely Embassy planned Chinatown Kid as part of their second wave of releases. A wave that never came as Embassy ended up being bought, merged into another company and liquidated. In the early 90s South Gate Video acquired the rights to several Shaw Brothers films, many which were the earlier swordsplay films like Bells of Death, but some which were the later basher films including Chinatown Kid, mastered in letterbox and unedited from an English dubbed print.  South Gate went bankrupt before too many of the films made t to the street. They retailed for $69, and were mostly offered to rental shops.  In the mid 90s Forum Video acquired the rights to the Embassy/World Northal library, releasing the edited for television version of Chinatown Kid. But they also released the Bruce Li/Jimmy Wang Yu/Angela Mao/Jim Kelly films in boxes claiming those movies were also from Shaw Brothers Video, leading to them being forced to recall the tapes and cease releasing any more via a Shaw Brothers lawsuit. Shaw Brothers also claimed any previous home video distribution rights to their post 1970s films had expired, and they were currently not offering those movies for home video release. That didn't stop Chinatown Kid from getting an unauthorized release via a budget home video company, but from all accounts was mastered from the edited Forum Video release and not the uncut South Gate release.  For the longest time the South Gate release  was worth hundreds of dollars among collectors.

Finally in the 2000's Shaw Brothers announced a deal with Celestial to restore ad remaster their vast movie library for worldwide home video release. While Chinatown Kid never got a release in North America, the internet now made it possible to order releases from other countries. Those buying the Asian release of Chinatown Kid were in for a shock. It had been cut from it's nearly 2 hour running time to 90 minutes, and had a completely different ending. Celestial claimed that they restored the negative provided to them by Shaw Brothers, and were offered no other negative. It became apparent the version  released in Hong Kong was quite different than the print released internationally. This meant that whoever released the film on Home Video would need to further restore the film from other sources. I recall there were at least two collectors of 35mm films who had offered Dragon Dynasty access to their theatrical prints of Chinatown Kid for restoration, but never heard back from them. Some say that the reason Dragon Dynasty decided not to release Chinatown Kid was due to only the Celestial abridged print being available, and not wanting to add the extra expense of needing to restore the film. However, Dragon Dynasty was notorious for releasing the American theatrical edits of films instead of the uncut Chinese versions, so releasing the abridged Chinatown Kid would not have been a problem for them.

Arrow Films did an excellent job restoring the international version, tracking down a negative of the international print ( Most likely for the World Northal release ), and further finding a second print of the film that had a scene missing from the negative, and combining all with the Celestial footage. With exception to what appears to be some slight water damage to a few exterior scenes, their restoration looks just as good as the official print, running a 166 minutes, just short of the reported 120 minutes. All the footage recognizable to those who saw the North American release is here, and it is possible the missing four minutes never existed in any print, but was rather the original running time from the Shaw Brothers catalogs being rounded out.  Arrow claims they searched archived and collectors prints from all over the world and could not find any more scenes missing from their print other than on the abridged print, which to their knowledge was never added to the international print.

As for the film, it is the story of two poor immigrants who travel to Chinatown in San Francisco U.S.A. Fu Sheng is a poor immigrant from mainland China who had previously snuck into Hong Kong, but was forced to leave after being framed for selling drugs  by a gang . Chiang Shen plays a Taiwanese student accepted at a college in the United States who's parents can not afford to pay for his living expenses. Both end up working at the same Chinese restaurant cleaning dishes and doing other chores, both vowing to one day be successful. Fu Sheng beats up the gang that was threatening the restaurant for protection money, and ends up fired by the owner who wanted no trouble with the gang. But his martial arts skills are noticed by another gang, who hire him as one of their enforcers. Chiang Shen looses all respect for Fu Shen for becoming a gangster and doesn't want to be friends with him any more. However, needing to do a shift of work, spend the day in school, and study all night left him so tired that he begins using drugs to stay alert, and becomes a drug addict. When he finds out, Fu Sheng helps him beat his habit by secretly paying his boss to shorten his shift without cutting his salary,  and hiring extra workers to lighten his workload, and to keep an eye on him to stop him from buying any more drugs. Sheng then takes it onto himself to rid Chinatown of drug dealers and forced prostitution. This angers the gang's boss who sets him up by putting a briefcase full of drugs in his car and alerting the police. Sheng escapes the police and takes revenge on the gang and it's leaders.  It is pretty much a typical Chang Cheh gangster story that has been done in his other films, including Disciples of Shaolin, another film directed by Chang Cheh and starring Fu Sheng that had a very similar story, only taking place in central China in the 1800s. Reportedly shot in San Francisco, it was actually shot on American city street sets built at Shaw Brothers studio. However, some footage of Fu Sheng in actual San Francisco had been shot in 1976 to be edited into this film. At the same time,  B roll footage of various San Francisco locations, including the gate to their Chinatown,  was shot to be added between scenes.  What makes this film work is some of the best fight scenes shot at Shaw Brothers, including some of the best screen fighting of Fu Sheng's career.  A film that truly earns it's reputation as a classic.

Brother's Keeper ( 1984 )
I completely forgot that the first episode of Miami Vice was a television movie.  While the syndicated version of this series has the movie broken up into a two parter, the blu ray has it as a single film. As I am currently adding favorite television series of the past to my library, I had finished Kolchack: The Night Stalker last week and began Miami Vice this week. ( Saturday afternoon around 5pm is when I watch one episode of each series, before watching a second movie at 8pm. My Saturday, if I do not need to go out,  is usually a riffed movie, usually a MST3K episode, around 12pm while eating brunch, followed by a martial arts movie at 3pm as was the tradition in the 80s, followed by whatever television series I have bought the entire series of, a movie at 8pm if nothing important is on, and probably another movie at 11pm if there is no new episode of Saturday Night Live. This because I am currently building a physical media film and television library while physical media is still being released, rather than spread it out a few years and have to pay a fortune to buy used copies on eBay when the movie/series I want goes OOP.  Aside from Miami Vice, I am currently working my way through Person of Interest, and the Norwegian Blu-rasy release of Monty Python's Flying Circus which is taking a little longer than expected because I insist on completely reading the liner note book that comes with each season before resealing then in their boxes. Which would damage the fragile collectors set box if I kept removing the season boxes over and over again. )

Anyway.... Miami Vice was pretty much a ground breaking series for a single reason. The budget. Just look at how cheap television series were prior to Miami Vice ( Not including the U.K. where they did spend a lot of money on drama series, but insisted on shooting interior scenes on video, and exterior scenes on film, making those series look a lot cheaper than they really were. ) ( Also, I should mention that Walt Disney spent a fortune on his television productions. But he made the money back by releasing those shows as movies overseas. And the expensive television episodes made by Disney Studios ended when Walt passed away. ) ( Also should mention that Battlestar Galactica spent a record amount of money on their budget, only agreed upon because Star Wars had been such a huge hit, and ABC wanted their own version of Star Wars. However, I am pretty sure all of that budget was spent on the pilot movie, as every episode that followed just reused the same sets, same Cylons, and same visual effects from the movie.  And I am sure they made a fortune selling the special effects footage to the producers of Space Mutany )

Before Miami Vice, networks spent as little money on their series as they could get away with. That was especially evident when it came to licensing popular music. Take for example The Greatest American Hero which had plenty of hit songs in random episodes. But instead of being sung by the original recording artist, were all covers by Joey Scarbury. Miami Vice did what only movies spent the money to do. And that was to license actual popular hits by actual popular artists as the music background. This was something you would only get in films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Risky Business.  Licensing music wasn't the only thing producer Michael Mann did to make this series seem more cinematic. Lighting, costumes, locations, and just about everything else was up to the level of the quality of a theatrical film. Even Jan Hammer's score was specifically written for each episode as opposed to a flat score that would be banked and edited onto episodes.  Watching Miami Vice was like watching an hour each week of a theatrical movie on your television set. Something that was still new in 1984 where families were just beginning to buy VCRs and join video rental shops, and cable was just starting to spread to suburban neighborhoods allowing  access to channels like HBO. NBC agreed to the increased production costs due to NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff wanting a police series that would appeal to the MTV viewers.  Each episode would need to have music video production values, and the actual music.  Of course, music videos were only four minutes long. A Miami Vice episode would be eleven times longer. And music videos didn't have the extra expense of licensing music as they were made by the record labels that owned the music. Miami Vice would need to license about ten songs per episode in order to maintain the music video motif.  Initially a ratings failure, it began to pick up  viewers later in it's first season, becoming a hit by the time the season ended. Enough of a hit that ABC ordered two knock-off series done in the same style  for the 1985-86 season called The Insiders and Hollywood Beat.

Producer Micael Mann left the series after season one, turning it over to other producers while he worked on Crime Story.  Any fan of the series can tell you that something changed in the second season. It just wasn't as good as the first season, and became more and more like a parody of itself. I thought it got really good during it's final season, but recall the middle seasons being so-so with a handful of memorable episodes.  So this is a rare instance of a television series that is among my favorites for a single season. I haven't watched Miami Vice  in decades so it should be interesting to see if the first season still hold up or has dated, and if the following seasons are not as disappointing as I remembered them to be.

But getting back to the point.... the pilot movie. Although derivative of a lot of other buddy cop films, with all he tropes, it is still good enough to have been released as a theatrical film. If not for the lack of nudity or foul language, this felt very much like I was watching a typical R rated police film of the 80s.  And I would not be surprised if Brother's Keeper did get a theatrical release in some countries.

[stethacantus]

Chinatown Kid ( 1977 ) ( Official Edit )
The Shaw Scope box set offered both the international cut and current Celestial edits of Chinatown Kid. I had planned to watch the abridged cut at a later date, but realized this and the other Cross film would only be about three hours combined, so spent 8 through 11 watching both. Besides, it is easier to compare both versions if I watch them the same night. Also, it had some excellent fight scenes, so I would not get bored on a second viewing.

okay, I get why people hated this version. Many of the edits are jarring as relevant footage is cut to reduce the running time. For example, thugs enter a dry cleaner to demand the owner pay them protection money. The 90 minute version completely cuts the part where they threaten the owner, and cuts immediately to Fu Sheng beating them up.  They didn't just cut scenes between Fu Sheng and his grandfather which fleshed out his character, but the entire sub plot about Fu Sheng saving a girl from prostitution was removed, which was how he got into conflict with Wang Lung Wei and his gang. Also cut out of the film completely, the main villain! The big bad, a half Chinese half white gang leader who is attempting to take over Chinatown who Fu Sheng fights near the end of the film.  SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON. It was during the fight with the main villain that Fu Sheng is fatally stabbed. His second in command shows up with more gang members, and  a weakened Fu Sheng fights him, eventually killing him, but then dying soon after. In the abridged version, a completely different ending is shot where the fight ends with the arrival of the police who arrest both Fu Sheng and Chiang Shen, who played the second in command. So they both live and go off to jail. While a lot of footage was cut, a lot of new footage was added with Sun Chen who plays the college student friend of Fu Sheng. The opening scenes are switched so that the movie opens with Sun returning from the army and telling his father he wants to go to college in America,  instead of opening with Fu Sheng and his grandfather. Thee are new scenes between Sun and his father. And at the end of the movie there are new scenes depicting Sun Chen completing his studies and  returning home to Taiwan as a successful graduate. Why Shaw Brothers released this different version in Hong Kong is a mystery, unless it had something to do with censorship. Some had suggested the changes were made on the re-release so that it would be more of a Venom Mob film. However, that would not explain why they shot two different endings, and why one exists where both Fu Sheng and Chiang Shen are arrested but survive. Tis version does have a brief fight scene between Fu Sheng and Sun Chen not in the international cut.  While this abridged version with most of the plot removed still retains the great fight scenes, it is an editing abomination of the film. Chang Cheh's films were great dramas above the fight scenes, which is what gave them the edge. This movie is just a mess.

Cross Wars ( 2017 )
I am pretty sure the producer/director of the Cross series intended this direct to video sequel to be released a year later. I know he had some footage for the sequel in the can as the opening of the first film had  footage of Danny Trejo, who's character is not introduced until the second film. But for some reason, this took six years to be released, during which time Michael Clarke Duncan, who basically played a variation of the Kingpin character, died and needed to be written out of the film series. The same villain from the first movie returns with another scheme to kill everyone on Earth, and this time Cross and his unit team up with an all girl vigilante unit run by another hero with a magic amulet. Basically another industrial park slog, only this time with an annoying comedy relief character on Cross' team who will not shut up. This one drags more that the first, making it almost as bad as an Asylum film. The action scenes are just not paced right. Every actor in this film makes far less effort to act than they had in the first film. Once again you have heroes with amulets that give them powers, and they barely use them. But what most confuses me about this film is the unnecessarily large cast. Cross has a team with dozens of members. The all girl team also has dozens of members. Danny Trejo and his criminal gang  who is hired by the film's villain has dozens of members. There are just two many god damn characters in this film, each who has an individual name,  and usually just one line of dialog. Once again the film suggests it is a comic book movie. It does so via framing scenes of a brother and sister ( more damn characters! ) who buy from a comic book store the only existing copy of the second issue of Cross, then spend the rest of the film reading it as the movie occasionally cuts back to them via a trope ripped off from The Princess Bride.  I guess that the producer planned to eventually release a comic book series based on the Cross character, but so far that seems to have never happened.

[stethacantus]

Five Venoms ( a,k,a, The Five Deadly Venoms ) ( 1978 )
Seems as if they couldn't do a Shaw Brothers box set without including Deadly Venoms. Perhaps the most overrated martial arts film ever. It is a good film, but I would not put it in the same class as 36th Chamber of Shaolin. A dying martial arts teacher tells his lone student that he was one of the founders of the evil Venom Clan, where he had five other students. Each kept their identities secret by wearing masks, and were each taught a different deadly style of kung fu based on poisonous animals. Now dying, the teacher wishes to abolish the remnants of the clan. He has trained his final student to fight all five styles of Venom Kung Fu, which has left him at a disadvantage of not mastering any specific style. The student is asked to track down the five Venoms, and to kill the ones who are using their skills for evil. It is that gimmick of the student trying to figure out who the venoms are which gave this movie it's cult status. But there are a lot of other Shaw Brothers films I prefer.

Cross: Rise of the Villains ( 2019 )
DAMN IT!I was supposed to get a shipment from Amazon with a few new movies, one of which was one of my all time favorite films finally available on blu-ray. According to the tracing, it was at my local post office Friday, a day later than the delivery date given to me by Amazon.  The according to USPS tracking, it is now in Philidelphia? And this weekend I had enough time to watch two movies on Saturday Night. So, it was just Cross: Rise of the Villains. the third, and worst film in the Cross box set. The first film was just barely entertaining, then spiraled downwards from there. Once again trying to make it look as if this film series was based on a comic book, the film opens with a group of  people breaking into a comic book shop to steal the only existing copy of the third issue of Cross. once in their club, they begin reading the comic book, acting as if the events in the comic book are real. Oh, and they all have power rings which each shoot out a different color beam, and at several points in the movie attempt to help Callen, the current owner of the Cross amulet, and his team of mercenaries whenever they are in danger. To do this, they point their rings at the comic book panel in unison, shooting their beams at it where it somehow enters the comic book realm and almost knocks out an enemy. Actually, I don't think they  help the Cross team once, as this appears to be footage shot long after the principal photography was completed, and tacked on to lengthen the running time. Once again you have supposed superheroes with amulets that give them powers, who never actually use those amulets, and instead use guns. A lot of gun fights in this movie that go on forever, and have no choreography. Just both sides shooting away at each other while every now and then a bullet makes contact with a bad guy and you see CGI blood splurt out of them before they fall. Once again an industrial park slog where most of the scenes are shot in the abandoned rust belt part of the city. Once again well known actors who are down on their luck pop up in cameo roles. Once again there are two many damn characters, most who only have single lines, or no dialog at all. Basically there are about ten members of the Cross team, about six members of an all girl superhero team, at least six members of Danny Trejo's criminal gang, Six members of a 60 something mercenary gang who  show up to help the Cross gang near the end of the movie, and the six power ring people reading the comic book. And a bunch of other characters who are on screen for one scene. I would say that 90% of the characters in this movie were unnecessary. The acting in this film is the worst. This time around Brian Austing Green not only does not bother to act at all, but seems to barely know his lines as he his constantly taking long pauses mid sentence. And I am not talking about a William Shatner style pause. But more of a pause to try to remember a next line. Thank God only three Cross movies were made.

[stethacantus]

Nothing new this weekend. Two films I have already reviewed here.

Crippled Avengers ( 1978 )
Once again, another film from the Arrow Video box set Shaw Scope Volume One.  Already had the Dragon Dynasty DVD  release of this film. I guess you can say this Blu-ray release is an upgrade. ( although Dragon Dynasty insisted on releasing it with the title Return of the Five Deadly Venoms burned onto their copy.  Arrow restored the proper title of Crippled Avengers. Other than that, read my Dragon Dynasty review.

This week Arrow announced the lineup of films for the Shaw Scope Volume Two set. This time it will be 14 films instead of 12. But once again, only 4 Shaw Brothers movies not previously released in North America are in that set.

Times Square ( 1980 )
Last watched this a couple of years ago. As my all time favorite films, I had meant to watch it again since, but decided to hold off until the Blu Ray release. After a long delay due to the COVID economy, Times Square is finally on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, no deleted scenes or directors cut as I was hoping for. Already reviewed this one here a  couple of years ago.

I actually meant to watch a third movie this weekend. Normally when Saturday Night Live is on hiatus or on summer break, I watch a second movie between 11pm and 1am. But I decided I didn't want to kill the buzz of just having watched a movie I like a lot, as the current films in my queue are what appear to be really bad Superhero movies. ( I had the final James Bond in queue, but was pressured into lending it out to a family friend, and it still hasn't been returned. ) So decided to instead watch a few Monty Python episodes. 

[stethacantus]

Heroes of the East ( 1978  )
A Chinese martial arts expert is in an arranged marriage with a Japanese girl who turns out to be a Japanese martial arts expert. Their constant bickering over which countries martial arts are the best, and spars to prove which is the best,  leads to the wife leaving her husband and vowing not to return until she has mastered her martial arts and can best her husband in a fight. The husband attempts to goad her into returning by sending a challenge letter mocking Japanese martial arts. Unfortunately the letter falls into the hands of her teacher, who reads it to his master and the rest of the school, leading to seven Japanese masters traveling to China to challenge the Chinese martial artist in a fight. He is to face a new challenger each day, concluding with a master in the Ninja arts.

One of director Lau Kar Leung's classics, this is a rare 70s film where instead of treating the Japanese as unredeemable murderous villains who need to be killed, it preaches tolerance between the cultures. The film ends with the Japanese experts becoming friends of the Chinese expert. A couple of things to note of this film.  It was originally filmed with the Chinese characters speaking Mandarin and the Japanese characters speaking Japanese. The rare exception being the wife, the Ninjitsu expert and the father-in-law who are bilingual in Japanese and Mandarin. This was to lead to confusion between the Chinese martial arts expert and the Japanese during the film. However, the English dub has every character speaking in English. This is especially detrimental in the final scene where the Chinese expert apologizes to the Japanese experts, and asks the Ninjitsu expert to translate. Since there is no explanation for a character translating English into English, the English dub instead has the Ninjitsu expert talking over the Chinese expert while he is apologizing, telling his men "Now listen closely to what this guy is saying. etc. " In other words. this movie makes a lot more sense in it's original language. 

No Time To Die ( 2021 )
A cople of years ago I began rewatching  my entire James Bond movie collection in chronological order, from Dr No to what was supposed to be No Time To Die. which would have debuted on home video by the time I finished watching the other Bond films. But then came the delay of the release due to COVID. and another delay, and another delay, and yet another delay. This film was delayed so much, that it's theme song was in the top 40 a year and a half before the film's release, and won a Grammy six months before the film's release.  This week I finally got around to watching it, completing my collection. ( Well, sort of. The DVDs I bought back in the early 00s look like crap, and I am thinking of upgrading to blu-ray on those. )

My opinion on this movie
#1 I never considered the Daniel Craig Bond films to be in canon with the novels or the previous Bond films. You can technically say that Dr. No through Die Another Day are within the same continuity.  And, Bond has no business being Blonde. So I never really felt any of the films in this reboot series were legitimately James Bond. Or at best, an alternate reality James Bond that was nothing like either the novels or original movies. So therefore could not care less that this was supposedly the conclusion of the current reboot series. I will admit that most of them are excellent action films. But so are the Mision Impossible films, which are no more Bond films then these are. So as it goes, the combination of this being an alternate canon, and the production company making the Bond series claiming that there will be more Bond films with a new cast, means there is zero drama as characters in this series are killed off.
#2
It's hard to say goodbye to Bond when you then put "James Bond Will Return" in the closing credits.
#3
So are they from now on going to reboot the series every time an actor gives up the role as Bond, or are we going to do the thing in the next film where Bond is alive, but needed plastic surgery?
#4
You know..f$#k you guys for putting the music and song All The Time In The World in this movie, and having Bond say to Madeleine Swann on several occasions "We have all the time in the world." That is supposed to be the love song and theme for Bond's romance with his wife Tracy di Vincenzo in On Her Majesty's Secret Service which despite George Lazenby, was one of the best Bond films. It should not be appropriated for a different Bond romance.
#5
While we are at it, was anyone buying that Bond was in love with Madeleine Swann? This after establishing that Vesper Lynd was the love of his life in this current continuity, and he could never settle down with a girl again? They could have had the same exact plot if they just showed Bond having the usual one night stand with Swann and leaving her, as the Bond in the original series did with every girl he met.
#6
Why the hell did a film with a 90 minute plot end up running for nearly 3 hours? I mean, it didn't seem to slow down or get tiresome. But did it have to be that long?
#7
Now that the series may be rebooted again, ma I suggest that this time they actually do faithful adaptions of the novels? Sure, that would mean redoing novels they already adapted. One being Casino Royale which is less than 20 years old. But the novels had a pretty good continuity that was ignored and f&%ked up for the film series because they filmed the books out of order.

[stethacantus]

Dirty Ho ( 1979 )
And with this I complete the Shaw Scope set.  This was one of the four Shaw Brothers films on the set not previously released in North America. Not among my favorite Shaw films, it is still considered one of Lau Kar Leung's best.  The emperor is about to chose among his 14 sons which is to be the successor to his throne. The 11th prince is currently outside of the Forbidden City and wandering around China incognito, disguised as an antiques merchant called Wang. A favorite of the emperor and most likely to inherit the throne, one of the other princes has set hit men after him. Not to blow his cover, the 11th prince pretends not to know martial arts. He runs into a thief named Ho, and for some reason decides to put him on the path of redemption by constantly tricking him into giving back or donating to the poor his loot. ho eventually accepts Wang as his master. After Wang gets a leg injury fighting an assassin, Ho saves him. He is repaid by being taught Kung Fu, and eventually helps the injured prince fight his way against an army of assassins in order to get back into the forbidden city in time for the emperor to select his heir.  This film is probably best known for its secret fights.  As neither the prince nor an assassin want to give away that either knows martial arts, each strikes or blocks the other in a way that conceals they are fighting.

Accident Man ( 2018 )
This one was a pleasant surprise. First of all, this was on the Wikipedia list of superhero films, despite being about common criminals in the real world. Scott Adkins is the Accident Man, a hitman who specializes in making his hits look like accidents. Much of the plot is your basic  "hitman turning against the boss who set him up" formula. But the quirky characters are  interesting, the film is often funny,  and the fight scenes are really good. While not a great film, I enjoyed watching it. Even more than the James Bond film I watched last week.

[dbsommer]

Bullet Train

The first non Rifftrax movie I have seen in a theater since Demon Slayer: Mugen Train last year. And in writing that I realize it's really bizarre that both movies take place entirely on trains, yet that has nothing to do with me watching either of them.

But onward. I would have skipped it but I was assured by people who I trust it was enjoyable. So I took the chance and while it wasn't awesome, I felt entertained. Money well spent then. Also I will never watch it again because for me, seeing everything for the first time and not knowing what's coming next was what made it enjoyable.

Brad Pitt does a great job as a fairly reputable criminal for hire that needed some down time and therapy to help him deal with issues, but now he's back and ready to make a go of it again with his new outlook on life. I say this because the character is frenetic and doesn't always do the smart thing, because he's trying to do the right thing. At least for him. His main issue is his bad luck. Missions always go horribly wrong in some way and become more difficult to finish. But this one should be fine. Get on a train. Find a briefcase. Steal it. Get off. Literally all he needs to do. And he finds it immidiately. So as the train pulls up to a stop, he tries to disembark.

And yeah, things go fantastically wrong from that moment onward.

It turns out the train is filled with over the top assassins and criminals, all of whom have one agenda or other, and aside from a two man team, it's every person for themselves.

Now to understand why it works is primarily for two reason. The first is this thing is not meant to take place in the real world. It's kind of like a John Wick universe, but flashy and more over the top than that. The pace is frantic, action well done, especially when everyone except Pitt is eagerly trying to kill one another. It's well shot considering there aren't that many sets in it.

The other thing that makes something that could, and perhaps should, have failed badly but didn't is casting. The people they chose make the bizarro dialogue and totally not human reactions of the characters work somehow as they interact with one another. Entertaining despite the high degree of unrealism being displayed. Pitt first and foremost as he makes me buy into his stressed out character that simply has nothing go right. Everyone else does a fine job as well (actually a couple aren't given much to do, but it's not their fault, there was simply no time for them). Had even two of the actors been miscast, the movie would have been awful. But they pulled it off.

Edit: A third thing was the plot. What appeared to be many disparate plot threads that explained things, all ended up being tied together in ways that were *not* obvious when they are told. Lines that sound normally delivered actual foreshadow future events, but it only becomes obvious in hindsight. I thought they did an excellent job in that as well. But that only has maximum impact the first time.

So yes, I do recommend it not because it's great, but because it was a decent spectacle and it could have so dropped the ball on managing that.

[stethacantus]

Once Upon a Time in China ( 1991 )
Finished the Shaw Scope set last week. This week I begin the Criterion Collection Once Upon a Time in China box set. All of the five films in the series, and Once Upon a Time in China and America, which for some reason isn't considered part of the series, despite being produced by Tsui Hark, and having both Jet Li and Rosamund Kwan reprising their roles. Fortunately, Criterion includes Once Upon a Time in China and America, but considers it a bonus film rather than part of the series. Sony Pictures, which previously held the home video release rights in the United States to the series, only released the first three films as a trilogy. The Criterion set is the first time the entire series is available on home video in North America. The Once Upon a Time... series not only revived folk hero Wong Fei Hung to the cinema, but revived the martial arts film which had all but vanished in 1984. ( Sure, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and other martial arts stars were still making films. But those were modern action films with a few martial arts fights in between the chase scenes and shootouts. ) The first film earns it's reputation as a classic with outstanding fight choreography.  Wong Fei Hung is presented as an undefeatable superhero, as he should be.

Alter Egos ( 2012 )
How didn't I hear about this film until a couple of months ago? A superhero film distributed by Kevin Smith? Well, maybe because of it being so damn low budget.   Pretty much just six characters in the whole film, the rest being minor characters with a couple of lines. A couple of superheroes are at a motel in the middle of nowhere where they are keeping a supervillain prisoner while waiting to transport him to a prison. One of the heroes wants to break up with his girlfriend for cheating on him, with his alter identity. The rest of the plot is mostly spoilers, but nothing mind-blowingly shocking. It is, a low budget film which just barely qualifies as entertainment. If you were expecting superhero action, forget it. This was meant to be a comedy that pokes fun at the superhero genre, and nothing more.

[stethacantus]

Once Upon a Time in China II ( 1992 )
The second film in this Wong Fei Hung series takes place during an actual historic event, the failed attempt by Dr. Sun Yat-sun and Lu Haodong to launch a revolution against the Quing government. However, the film sems more like it was meant to be set on the eve of the Boxer Rebelion. While the failed revolt by Sun is barely touched upon, we get the White Lotus sect who basically act as the Boxers. Historically, the Boxers were lead by false mystics who claimed they could empower their members with the ability to make them bullet proof. This encouraged them to revolt against the Europeans, despite the Europeans having guns. Most of the Boxers ended up getting shot to death. The White Lotus cult came and went throughout the history of China, but didn't seem to be active during the years of the Boxer Rebelion. Here they are presented as a Xenophobic  cult that teaches their members that magic can make them bulletproof, and to revolt against the Europeans. Much of the film involves the characters trapped in the English embassy as a group of White Lotus fanatics hold them under siege.  Other alterations to history, the cult burns down Tongwen Guan and murders the teachers. In actual history, Tongwen Guan, the government school that taught children to speak European languages, was never burned down. It did temporarily close during the Boxer Rebelion in 1900. Also changed was the death of Lu Haodong, who in history was captured by the Chinese government and executed. Here he dies from gunshot wounds after burning a book that had the list of rebel names. Of course, there is no record of Wong Fei-Hung being in Canton for these events, so this film is more of a "What if?" than historically accurate.  It does feature more spectacular fight scenes.

Super Capers ( 2009 )
Here is a film I never heard of before it was added to Wikipedia's superhero movie list a few months ago. Basically, it never got a theatrical release in the United States, and went directly to home video via Lions Gate, so no wonder this fell completely under the radar. Oh, and it sucks. Really bad jokes combined with bad sound effects ( the type you would expect from a Banana Splits episode. ) and I actually fell asleep twice while watching it. A wannabe superhero named Gruberman who has no powers, is arrested for assaulting a mugger and is sentenced to a halfway house for wannabe superheroes who call themselves the Super Capers, and have weak or flawed powers. There is a convoluted story about how Gruberman is set up by a villain who wants to turn him evil, which completely sucks. We only get to see the Super Capers on one mission, at which they do not even use their powers. Gruberman is annoying, both the actor and the character. As this is a low budget film, we get a lot of famous actors in small rolls that the filmed in an hour for a  quick buck. This includes Adam West who isa cab driver who's cab is the original Batmobile from the1966 series. He tells Grunberman that he was once a superhero himself, called the Man Bat. And that is as funny as this movie gets.

[ihavemyreasons]

Running with the Devil - Netflix doc about John McAfee.
Was hoping for an overall story of his life and insanity. Instead it's mostly the story of his fleeing authorities- first after allegdedly (likely?) murdering his neighbor in Belize in 2012 and then fleeing the U.S. over tax evasion charges 5 years later. Mostly actual footage and recollections, no corny reenactments. Every time it started to drag and I thought "well they are just gonna gloss over" xxx, they added the crazy that I thought they were going to skip. The footage of McAfee high on bath salts shooting at people out to get him who aren't really there was scary stuff. Not really a great doc, but OK. Did make me want to see a doc about the 30 year war videographer redneck/hippy who filmed most of the footage and got to know McAfee and was interviewed throughout.
The teases that McAfee might have been murdered or faked his own death at the end were corny and unnecessary.

[stethacantus]

Once Upon a Tine in China III ( 1993 )
Third in the OUATIC franchise. This time he plot revolves around a lion dancing competition. If you are not sure what that is, it is sort of like the Chinese dragon you see in parades, only instead of a dragon's head, the costume has a  fanciful lion's head. The costume has two men, who both hold up the costume and provide the lion it's feet. Both men are required to move the lion via a rhythmic dance, and the object is for the lion to eat some sort of prize before the other contestants in lion costumes can. Also, contestants are usually from martial arts schools, so films involving it usually have them fighting each other in their costumes. Although I am pretty sure the actual rules are that the duo who does the best dance gets to eat the prize, so that it is an exhibition rather than a fight.  Perhaps the best film with a lion dance competition previous to this film was the Shaw Brother's comedy Lion vs Lion. Wong Fei Hung was known to be a champion lion dancer, and had participated in lion dances in the old Wong Fei Hung films. Tsui Hark goes crazy with the concept, as the plot has the empress throwing a lion dance competition that every martial arts school in China is invited to. So you have hundreds of lions in the competition, many which are weaponized. Such as one lion that spits fire, and another with swords for whiskers. And then there is the giant mega lion which takes about a dozen men to operate. Another highlight is a trap set by a villain for Wong Fei Hung involving a locked room with a floor soaked in slippery grease.

The Double-D Avenger ( 2001 )
And then there was this. I sort of knew about this as it had been mentioned as a cult classic from time to time. But it didn't show up on the Wikipedia list of American Superhero Films until last spring. It is pretty much currently out of prints in every one of it's releases, so had to buy this off of Ebay for nearly $30, which was actually a bargain as it was $30 for this factory sealed copy when some of the used copies are listed at $45 - $99. Still, if this had been on the Wikipedia list last year, I bet I could have bought a new copy from Amazon for $10.

So...all that extra money for an OOP superhero film, and was it worth it? NO! I went into this with low expectations, and discovered my expectations were set too high. I know this  reportedly has a cult following, and Variety actually gave it a good review. But it is a comedy that isn't funny, and a superhero film that isn't exciting. Also, while the hero is played by Russ Meyer vixen Kitten Natividad, and the entire point of the character is that she has enormous boobs, there was no attempt to give the Double-D Avenger any powers related to them. She is basically a superhero who's only power is super strength and just happens to have huge breasts. By the way, super strength, the cheapest power to film because it involves no special effects. And yea, this is low budget. So low that it was shot on camcorder.....in 2001! Even the TomCat movies used digital video. This movie must have broken some world record for the most annoying characters in the same movie. And that is basically every character in this movie! Just when you thought you had seen the most annoying character in the film, one turns up that is ten times more annoying.  The only thing keeping me awake this time was that it was irritatingly annoying! At least all the actresses in this film have huge breasts, right? Well, if you think actresses in their  mid to late 50s are still sexy. Th only real saving grace here is that this release was part of the Joe Bob Briggs Presents collection, which I thought would at least open with him doing a host segment. But no. His only contribution is a commentary track, which I probably should have had on. But foolish me, wanted to watch the original version of this movie first. 


Ready Player One ( 2018 )
I was ready to knock off for the night. Usually, I take advantage of Saturday Night Live being on hiatus and watch a second movie at 11pm. But for a wide variety of reasons, that just didn't happen this summer. Usually because I began the PM movie late, or the PM movie was a lot longer than I thought it would be, or I had a bunch of stuff building up on the DVR I needed to get rid of. But mostly because I am now getting around to collecting some of my favorite television series on physical media while they are still available, and Saturday I usually end up binging something like Person of Interest because it is so good that you immediately want to watch the next episode.  So after watching Double-D Avenger, I was both annoyed and nearly bored to sleep, so was groggy and ready to go to bed early. Then I realized Double-D Avenger was only 77 minutes long. I felt like the damn thing was on for two hours and it must be after 11pm. But it was only 10:30. I have a pile of DVDs and Blu-rays near my television. Films I actually enjoyed and decided to keep nearby for a second viewing whenever time permitted. Ready Player One was in that pile. And I did rewatch it, maybe six months after originally seeing it. And for some reason I never removed it from the pile. I was so worn down by Double-D Avenger that I thought any film I watch next I would doze off in the middle of.  So decided to put Ready Played One on because I didn't need to finish it. But it is a really good film. It woke me up and had me watching the entire 2 hours 10 minutes, and feeling exhilarated when it was over. That is the difference between a bad and good film. Bad films drag on and on, and feel like they lasted hours. A good film feels like you are only about a half hour in at 3 hours.

[Variety of Cells]

I went to see Bros in theaters, a movie I worked on.  It was really good!  Very very funny, and well written.  I highly recommend it.

[stethacantus]

I have no idea what happened last week, but my cable provider blocked access to this forum, claiming it was no longer safe. Tried to reach it on my phone, and Android blocked it too, with another message saying the website was trying to access my passwords and attempting to change the clock on my phone?  So this week will include reviews from last week as well.

Last week:
Once Upon a Time in China VI ( 1993 )
Jet Li had left the franchise, so Wong Fei Hung was recast with actor Vincent Zhao. Generally, the films without Jet Li are considered the low point of the series. Also gone were Rosamond Kwan. Instead of recasting her character 13th Aunt Yee Su-Kwan, Jean Wang was brought in to play her sister 14th Aunt Yee May.  Just like her sister, May is westernized. Actually, it made little sense to bring in an identical character instead of just recasting 13th Aunt, as they were already recasting Wong Fei Hung. Also gone was Tsui Hark, who while still the producer,  left the directing  duties to choreographer Yuen Bun. Lan Shun, who was introduced as Wong Fei Hung's father Wong Kei Ying, continued in the role for the rest of the series. Sensing that maybe this film would not be as successful as the previous films in the series, Golden Harvest cut the budget. The story is a direct follow up to the previous  film, as after winning the lion dance trophy, Wong is asked  to represent China in another lion dance competition being thrown by the Germans. My only complaint with this film is how poorly the fight choreography was done. Much of it is the variety of a lot of editing, close up shots, and slow motion blurry film to cover up that they probably spent less time staging fights. Also, the horrendous wirework., which includes wires that are way too visible.  The series was still entertaining. But this was a big step down in it's quality.

Cornman: American Vegetable Hero ( 2001 )
Oh crap, what the f&#k is this? As I said, the Wikipedia page listing superhero movies expanded a few weeks ago to include more independent superhero movies I never heard of before. This includes the next three films in my queue which were all out of print and had to be bought on eBay. BTW, the Wikipedia list continues to grow as a lot of films I would not consider superhero films are added. This includes Blaxploitation films like Dolemite and Blackbelt Jones, a lot of Kurt Russel films he did for Disney in the 70s, the Star Wars series, Cannonball Run?, The Indiana Jones series, films with Ninjas, Ghostbusters, Weird Science,  Captain EO, the Beastmaster films, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Army of Darkness, Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter ( Van Damme ), a Baywatch television film, the Charlie's Angle's films, the Austin Powers films..... I think someone should define what a superhero film is, otherwise eventually everything will qualify. Mary Poppins,  superhero film. Carrie, superhero film. Lawrence of Arabia, superhero film. Citizen Kane, superhero film......

Anyway, this definitely counts as a superhero film as the lead hero wears a costume, has powers, and fights crime.  Unfortunately his powers are that he can communicate with corn. Otherwise, all he does is punch enemies. A low budget film that the director/writer/producer had hoped to be released by Troma, that is until he decided t cut out the scene with a cameo by Lloyd Kaufmann. and suddenly Troma was not interested. Instead, it was released by Sub Rosa Studios. A distributor who is far below the radar. Except that, for some reason, Lloyd Kaufman agreed to do an intro as if it was a Troma film? Anyway, this has a lot of stuff that you would find in the average Troma film, such as gore and sexual content. The director had previously made a 20 minute super 8 student movie of Cornman, and brought the entire cast back for this sequel. The arch enemy of Cornman, Doctor Hoe,  a villain with a hoe for a hand, is bent on taking over all the corn in the world, along with his sidekick, a dumb red neck farmer named Starch, and his minions of foot soldiers. But first he must eliminate Cornman. And yes, this is supposed to be a comedy. I will say this. While I did not laugh at anything, this did come very close to being something that could be called funny. Stupid, but not stupid enough. The actresses are very attractive, which is not always the case in a low budget film like this. The acting, although sub par, is pretty decent. This is almost a good film. It is one of those films that, while I did not like, I respected the effort.

Alita: Battle Angle ( 2019 )
Another one of the films that was on the Wikipedia American Superhero Film list, which I do not think qualifies. I got this two years ago and reviewed it then. Still a likable film. Rodriguez  insists he has not given up trying to pressure Disney into greenlighting sequels, and hopes his work directing episodes of the various Star Wars television series will influence them to let him continue the Alita franchise.


This week:
Once Upon a Time in China V ( 1994 )
So, the fourth film in the series bombed. So this time Tsui Hark returns to the directors chair. Also, every character in the series is brought back. Including Rosamund Kwon as Aunt #13, who gets into a sort of love triangle with Aunt #14 over Wong Fei Hung. This time the movie is about pirates attacking Fei Hung's home town, and his efforts to stop them. A vast improvement over the fourth film, but not quite as good as the first three films. This also bombed at the box office, resulting in the film series being cancelled. Although actor Vincent Zhao returned as Wong Fei Hung in the Once Upon a Time in China television series produced by Tsui Hark.

Boy Wonder  ( 2010 )
Another independent film from the Wikipedia Superhero List. But despite being called Boy Wonder, despite a synopsis that suggests that it is a superhero film, and despite the box showing what looks like the hero wearing a superhero costume, this is just a vigilante film in the vein of the Death Wish series. After seeing his mother murdered during a car jacking. a young boy named Sean Donovan grows up to be an unhinged vigilante who tracks down criminals who got away with murder on a legal technicality, and shoots them. Not really a superhero film, although in one scene near the end of the film, he puts on black face paint when going after a crazy homeless man who has been threatening a Chinese woman and her children. Other than that, this is actually a decent independent film. I liked it. Maybe not enough to add to the pile of films I want to some day see again, like with Alita last week. But not something I had to force myself to sit trough like the films I had seen in the past few weeks.