What was the last movie you watched?

[stethacantus]

Golden Swallow ( 1968 )
The sequel to King Hu's  Come Drink With Me ( 1966 ) relegates the character Golden Swallow to a supporting character in her own film. The Wuxia genre at Shaw Brothers was originally  dominated by female action stars. But director Chang Cheh, who made The One Armed Boxer which became the first Chinese martial arts film to earn $1 million  HK at the box office, preferred male leads in his movies, and preferred  the actresses in his films be reduced to just the girlfriends of the heroes. So Golden Swallow herself ( Cheng Pei Pei revising her role of the character ) does very little fighting in this film while her love interest Silver Roc ( Jimmy Wang Yu ) is the one who battles hoards of evil swordsmen. It's a great Wuxia movie, but naming the movie after Golden Swallow, it is a disappointment the film is not about her character.



The Incredible Hulk ( 1977 )
I Saturday night was a bit of a mess as I  was forced to go to a St Patrick's Day party. This was also the Saturday I was to begin watching my Blu-ray set of The Incredible Hulk: The Complete Series ( Although not including the later television films with Thor and Daredevil, which for whatever reason Universal has no rights to. ) And being St. Patrick's Day weekend, the Hulk being green sort of fit. So.. opened up  the set, put disk one in and... damnit! The first episode is a movie? I had not seen this series since... well, since it had first aired way back in the 70s. And had forgotten the first and second episode were both television movies. I should have known. Almost every hour long drama series began as a pilot movie. But for some reason I remembered this episode as a single episode. Perhaps because it has a single episode plot. Well, there was not enough time to watch the entire television movie before I had to leave for the party, so saved it for after the party when I had planned to watch R.I.P.D.2 as Saturday Night Live was on hiatus. So, I got back a bit late from the party, and being a bit intoxicated, watched the pilot episode anyway. Perhaps a bit drunk is the only way to watch this. 90 minutes of nothing happening, which would have run for two hours with commercials on it's original broadcast. The comic book begins with Bruce Banner saving teenager Rick Jones from the test sight where a Gamma Ray bomb is being tested, and getting caught in the blast of Gamma Rays, then turning into the Hulk and fighting the entire army. The movie has no Rick Jones, no General Ross or his daughter Betty. And no Bruce Banner. Instead, it has David Banner ( middle name Bruce ), a scientist obsessed with trying to find out why people sometimes exhibit superhuman strength in times of crisis. He discovers that each time this had occurred, it was when the sun was giving off  gamma rays. So he decides to experiment on himself with an X-ray machine designed to emit gamma rays, and turns it up full blast. This fails to give him super human strength, so he heads on home. But then throwing a fit while fixing a flat tire, he turns into The Hulk. After aimlessly walking through the woods, he scares  father and daughter campers, and gets shot by the father, who the Hulk throws into a lake. Banner turns into the Hulk two more times. Once when he decides to lock himself in a decompression chamber thinking the Hulk cant get out of tit, but it does. And at the end of the movie when the lab explodes. No villains, and a plot that should have been condensed into a one hour episode dragged out for two hours. But that's 70's television for you.

[LucasM]

I'm still not sure Aquaman works all that great as a hero in the DC universe. He's not that interesting as a character/superhero, and I have yet to see proof that he's got potential. To be fair, I think Namor in Wakanda Forever has the same problem... but at this point, he's still more of an antagonist in the MCU, which at least to me, is interesting.

At this point, I am so disinterested in underwater movies, that the only type of that movie that would drag me back to the cinema would be a live action Sealab 2021 film. Either that, or a fascinating movie about the evolution of sea creatures narrated by David Attenborough.

You may be right on Aquaman, if done comics accurate (though I've got this vague feeling that Peter David wrote some OK issues back in the '80s or early '90s, I don't recall reading any of the rest of his comics).

I think that if Sub-Mariner continues to be treated as Everett conceived of and wrote him, rather than the super-hero-ized versions in most comics, he'll continue to be viable.  Oddly enough, though I like Everett's Subby enough to have a page of original art (issue 51, p15 1972), I had minimal objection to his being translated into a Mesoamerical milieu.  (Of course, I'm interested in that area's history and art, so that might have colored my acceptance of it.)  But that Mesoamerican origin gave a perfect explanation for the name "Namor", and why he'd keep it.

A Sealab 2021 film would be cool, as would the Attenborough film you came up with.  For me, my mental fingers aren't yet wrinkly from the number of water films I've seen, so I'm fine with more.

[stethacantus]

The Jade Raksha ( 1968 )
A Cheng Pei Pei Wuxia film directed by Meng-Hua Ho who would later give us The Flying Guillotine, the Black Magic series and Mighty Peking Man. It begins almost like a horror film. The countryside  is in fear of a female ghost called The Jade Raksha who has been beheading her victims and hanging their heads from the city gates. The killer is actually a flesh and blood swordswoman ( Cheng Pei Pei ) who is killing the members of the Yan family, and has taken the identity of a ghost. When she was just a kid, her entire family was slaughtered by a man with the family name of Yan, and she wants revenge. But as there are 20 members of the Yan family across the country and she has no idea which one killed her family and left her for dead, she will just continue killing anyone with the surname  of Yan until she kills the right one. There is more, but as this film has a lot of twists, elaborating on the plot any more would be nothing but spoilers. Another rally good Wuxia film from Shaw Brothers studios which proves the genre was short changed when World Northal aired many of the Shaw Brothers films on television in the 80s.


The Return of the Incredible Hulk ( 1977 )
The second of the Incredible Hulk pilot movies,  which was retitled A Death in the Family Parts 1 and  2 when it later re-aired during the season 1 reruns, and has since been known by that title. Once again a plot that could have been told in one hour stretched out to two hours. But this time, with Banner and a crippled girl he is trying to protect being chased through a swamp by thugs, at least something happens. The ratings for the television film were good enough for CBS to order a full season, but just in case, the movie ends with Banner possibly curing  himself from ever turning into a Hulk again.  Still, if I was to rank the Hulk solo films, it would be the MCU film at #1, the Ang Lee film at #2, this at #3 and the first pilot film at #4.

R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned ( 2022 )
Universal still had the rights to the R.I.P.D. comic book, so decided to make this direct to video with a feature film budget prequel, despite the original film bombing at the box office and having been released a decade earlier.  With no one from the first film returning, including the cast, the producers decided to make a prequel  which showed the origin of western lawman Roy from the first film, played by Jeff Bridges then, and a younger actor in this film, Jeffrey Donovan from that series you heard of but probably never saw, Burn Notice. I guess this film taking place a hundred years before the first one would explain why Roy ages. But wouldn't that mean that ghosts age? And if they did, then why didn't his female partner who died 400 years before he did age? Basically, this is the same plot of the first film, only taking place in the old west. It is just as predictable, just as borderline entertaining, and just as forgettable.

[Cyrusso]

R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned ( 2022 )
Universal still had the rights to the R.I.P.D. comic book, so decided to make this direct to video with a feature film budget prequel, despite the original film bombing at the box office and having been released a decade earlier.  With no one from the first film returning, including the cast, the producers decided to make a prequel  which showed the origin of western lawman Roy from the first film, played by Jeff Bridges then, and a younger actor in this film, Jeffrey Donovan from that series you heard of but probably never saw, Burn Notice. I guess this film taking place a hundred years before the first one would explain why Roy ages. But wouldn't that mean that ghosts age? And if they did, then why didn't his female partner who died 400 years before he did age? Basically, this is the same plot of the first film, only taking place in the old west. It is just as predictable, just as borderline entertaining, and just as forgettable.

Wait... R.I.P.D. had a PREQUEL? I honestly didn't even know about it. That honestly sounds like one of the worst ideas ever. You know what I would have spent the money on, if I worked at Universal? An animated Back to the future movie, featuring most of the returning cast.

I saw Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
It was kind of frustrating, because honestly I liked a lot of elements in it. I REALLY liked Kumali Ali Nanijani, a LOT in this movie. I don't think I have seen him in anything since he was in The Eternals. I really liked that Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd all returned. The problem is that the movie has trouble focusing on the most interesting aspects of the plot. Instead, it wastes WAY too much time on a subplot involving Walter Peck(William Atherton) benching the character of Phoebe for being underage and working for the ghostbusters. There is literally WAY too much time spent on this worthless damn plotline, which seems to have been manufactured solely for the purpose of setting up a much more interesting subplot, that ties in crucially to the finale.There was what I was hoping would become a romantic subplot between the character of Phoebe and a ghost character... but not in a weird, gross, non-con way... especially since the character of Phoebe is 15 in the movie. The ghost character is 16(she talks about how sad that is, because she'll always be 16). I'm also confused as to why the damn movie was called "Frozen Empire"... when... there's not really much of a Frozen empire in the movie.

Seriously... even a writer as terrible as me could have crafted something more interesting. Or, if worst comes to worst? Just edit out the goddamn subplot, and shoot some pickups with some ADR, to quickly and efficiently make the elements of the movie happen in a way that respects the concept of brevity. Paul Rudd is great, Finn Wolfard is cool... but these characters don't seem as interesting or as alive as they were in 2022's Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Like I say, there's more than enough original, compelling elements to make the movie work really, really well... and it just feels like the writers seriously fumbled the ball a bit. I'd personally give it a C. A little polishing in the writing and editing could easily get the movie to a B- or a B.

It's definitely worth at least a watch.

[stethacantus]

Bells of Death ( 1968 )
Shaw Brothers wuxia which is an unauthorized remake of Nevada Smith (1966 ) done in the style of a Japanese Chambara film. And one of the best films the studio ever made, despite having none of their stars in it. Overlooked by martial arts fans for decades, it gradually built a cult following in the 90s after being released on home video by Southgate, a small boutique home video label that was the last to release any Shaw Brothers films I'm the United States before the studio put all of their films back in their vault and kept them out of circulation for over a decade. Which is why it was among the films released by Image Entertainment, the first American home video company to release Shaw Brothers films when Celestial Films bought, restored and released the Shaw Brothers catalog.  Is it an overlooked classic as some say? I wouldn't say no. A very simple story thar is easy to follow. Three bandits slaughter a family so they can abduct their daughter. The only other surviving member of the family who was out gathering firewood at the time of the murders vows revenge, learns to become a master swordsman, and hunts down all three bandits one by one. Not a very original film considering the sources it borrowed from, but one of the more enjoyable Shaw Brothers wuxia films.

Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday ( 2022 )
The sequel to Accident Man  which is on Wikipedia's live action superhero movie list, because it was based on a comic book. Not as enjoyable as the first film,  but has a lot of really good Scott Adkins fights. The only two cast members who's characters weren't killed by Adkins in the first film return. However, despite getting second billing, Ray Stevens is barely in this film. Although I enjoyed the first film a lot more than this one, I did like the sequel as well.

[stethacantus]

The Sword Of Swords ( 1968 )
This is odd. I originally bought this film back in 2012 as part of Funimation's release of Shaw Brothers DVDs. It is one of the handful of previously released Shaw Brothers films on the Shout! Factory Shaw Brothers Classics collection that were previously released.  Yet, as I watched this movie, not one moment seemed familiar. Is it possible that I didn't watch the Funimation DVD after I had bought it? Well, no. I found the box with all the Funimation DVDs I bought, and the factory seal was removed. Jimmy Wang Yu is  given a magic sword by his dying sifu which he is to protect until the day a knew emperor is crowned and can receive the sword. The bad guys want it, and continuously kidnap members of Jimmy's family to get him to try to use the sword to rescue them, and get killed by his archers in the process. Eventually the bad guy does get the sword, and after throwing  steel spikes into Jimmy's eyes, stabbing him with a bamboo  pole, and leaving him for dead, decides to return to make sure the job was done, only to find that Jimmy survived and crawled off. Of course Jimmy learns to use his ears to hear his enemies, much like Zatoichi.  And for some reason, I don't remember  seeing any of this before. It is a good film, but why did I forget it?

Corrective Measures ( 2022 )
Another film from Wikipedia's American Superhero Film list which is questionable.  Some sort of mysterious radiation pulse gives a lot of people superhuman powers, Many use those powers to become supervillains, So the government builds a prison for supervillains, where their powers are kept in check by an ankle bracelet that neutralized them. This film seems to have no superheroes at all. The only hero in it is a non powered vigilante called Payback who is a rip-off of the Punisher, who ends up in the villain prison after he  is caught killing a couple of supervillains. Despite having Bruce Willis in the cast, and a few other well known actors, this is strictly a low budget film, which appears to have been filmed at an abandoned prison that looks nothing like something that could hold supervillains. There is very little displays of superpowers from any of the villains. So it is mostly just an average prison film which I guess sort of counts as a superhero film. Also, is supposed to be a comedy, but I didn't laugh once. But the gags aren't that obvious, so works as a lukewarm drama.

[Cyrusso]

I went on a friends date about three weeks ago... and had a wonderful time with an amazing lady friend of mine. We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, watched the sunset. It was very romantic, but she probably doesn't have the same feelings for me that I have for her,  and I freely accept that.

We saw Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire... and... DAMN, that's a fucking great movie. What really struck me as cool is that a LOT of the monster action took place in the daytime, and it looked incredible. Remember the Godzilla movie that came out 10 years ago that was good, but prematurely robbed us of Bryan Cranston?

I loved this movie. It was a lot of fun, and I love a lot of the songs that ended up in the movie, such as Twilight zone by Golden Earring, and I was made for lovin' you by KISS(Kippers in Satans Service).

Wonderful movie, never a dull moment, and even some wonderful emotional moments.

[stethacantus]

Killer Darts ( 1968 )
Another Wuxia film from the prolific Ho Meng Hua. The plot is a bit convoluted, and it doesn't help that it has a short 84 minute running time. But still an entertaining potboiler from Shaw Brothers.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ( 2023 )
I mean, sure, by this point the MCU films feel formulaic.  But at the 1 hour mark, I felt like I had only been watching for 15 minutes. Which is a lot better than the average superhero film from the 90s where the first 15 minutes felt like you had been watching for an hour. And the visuals were spectacular.

[LucasM]

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ( 2023 )
I mean, sure, by this point the MCU films feel formulaic.  But at the 1 hour mark, I felt like I had only been watching for 15 minutes. Which is a lot better than the average superhero film from the 90s where the first 15 minutes felt like you had been watching for an hour. And the visuals were spectacular.

I agree.  Plus I've been a fan of Salvador Dali for about 50 years now.  'A-M a t W: Q' could've been called, "Surrealism: the Movie".  And yet, in amongst the amazing and surrealist visual ideas was actually a plot that held together quite well, with a threat that was believable (in context).

I'd say it is likely my favorite MCU (Marvel-filmed) movie since Endgame.  ["Marvel-filmed" since 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' likely ties with it for incredibly different reasons.]  I don't get the negative press I understand that it got.

[Charles Castle]

It seems absurd at this late date to be rediscovering the depth of metaphor in Ishiro Honda's Godzilla. Godzilla has been an icon of world cinema for seventy years, an ambassador for international moviemaking in spite of the derision his films have sometimes received. After years of interpretations have pulled Godzilla out of the realm of metaphor and into the world of monster versus monster wrestling fights, that original nightmare born of the hydrogen bomb has faded into memory, but it hasn't vanished completely. Godzilla's home studio, Toho Pictures, has been leasing Godzilla to American studios for years at this point, and Americans don't have that memory of atomic destruction. They see in Godzilla a franchise to exploit, like good little imperial capitalists. Art isn't even in the equation. When it happens at all, it's purely by accident. Every so often, Toho makes a film of their own to keep their hand in and remind the world who owns Godzilla. On the occasion of Godzilla's seventieth year, they've taken Godzilla back to his roots. The result, Godzilla Minus One (2023, directed by Takashi Yamazaki), is an astonishment, a film that can stand not only with the original film from 1954, but as one of the best fantasy films ever made, full stop. It's certainly one of the best films of 2023. It's the real thing. It's a film with something meaningful to say about history and nation and the human heart in conflict with itself. It's a film that the makers of the American "Monsterverse" films should look at with dismay and shame and envy.

The film opens near the end of World War II, as a pilot lands at the remote garrison on Odo Island. This is K?ichi Shikishima, a Kamikaze pilot who has fled his duty on the pretext that his plane is faulty, but really because he doesn't want to die. He thinks of himself as a coward. The head mechanic at the Odo airfield is Lt. Tachibana, who suspects Shikashima, and is initially understanding. The war is coming to an end. One more useless death won't change anything. As he stews in his shame at the water's edge, Shikishima sees strange fish washing ashore. Later, after the sun has set, something else comes ashore, a gigantic reptilian monster. Tachibana tells Shikishima that the locals have a legend about just such a creature. They call him "Godzilla." As the beast wrecks the garrison, Tachibana orders Shikishima to get in his plane and use his 20mm guns on the creature. Shikishima manages to get to his cockpit, but when the monster is in his sights, he freezes. His terror incapacitates him. Godzilla then wrecks the entire garrison, killing every man except Tachibana and Shikishima. On the troop ship home after Japan's surrender, Tachibana gives Shikishima a packet containing photographs of every man who died with their families and loved ones. It's a harsh rebuke, one Shikishima believes he entirely deserves. At home in the ruins of Tokyo, Shikishima finds his parents house destroyed. Like most of the neighborhood, his parents burned in the firebombing. Their neighbor, Sumiko, is similarly grieving. She spots Shikishima's cowardice right away and blames his failure for the deaths of her children. At the open air soup kitchen near his home, Shikishima encounters Noriko, a woman running from a mob who believes she is a thief. She shoves a baby in Shikishima's arms and vanishes in the crowd. Shikishima doesn't know what to do with the child. He considers abandoning it in the market square, but his guilt prevents him. As he leaves with the baby, Noriko rejoins him to take the child and then follows him home. She has nowhere to go. Her family is dead, too. The child is not hers, but a burden given to her by the baby's dying mother. They make a life together, though Shikishima keeps her at a distance. His war isn't over. Shikishima eventually finds work on a minesweeper, a wooden boat tasked with disarming the aquatic mines placed around Japan during the war. It's dangerous work, which suits Shikishima and his growing death wish. In the meantime, the Americans begin exploding nuclear bombs at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The creature from Odo Island is bathed in the radiation and mutates.

In Tokyo, Noriko takes a job with an office in the Ginza area of the city, intent on self-sufficiency if Shikishima refuses to marry her. The Japanese and American authorities track some force that is wrecking shipping and send Shikishima's minesweeper crew to investigate under the aegis of Mr. Nodo, a former weapons maker. When they find a wrecked American battleship, Mr. Nodo tells his crewmates that they are a delaying action to slow the creature's progress before the battleship Takao can intercept. Unfortunately, the creature--the same creature from Odo Island that has been haunting Shikashima's dreams--appears first, and the mine sweeper has to use all its resources and ingenuity to outrun Godzilla. They are rescued by the Takao, but the Takao is insufficient. Godzilla shrugs off its firepower and eventually destroys it with an eruption of atomic fire. The minesweeper escapes, though. Godzilla makes landfall in Tokyo and lays waste to the Ginza area where Noriko is on a train home. She survives Godzilla's destruction of the train and flees on foot, where Shikishima finds her. When Godzilla unleashes his atomic ray, Noriko pushes Shikishima to safety, but is caught in the shockwave and vanishes. As Shikishima is grieving yet another loss, Mr. Noda invites him to a citizen's committee to combat Godzilla in the absence of help from the government or the Americans. Mr. Noda, it seems, has a plan for killing Godzilla, and Shikishima has a central role to play.

In most Godzilla movies, the human stories are filler between monster rampages. Not so, this film. This has characters who are sharply delineated, with complex relationships and comprehensible motivations. The story of a shamed Kamikaze pilot wandering in the ruins of Tokyo after the war is the kind of story you might find in the art films of the early 1950s, perhaps directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. The heart of the film isn't Godzilla himself, but the trio of orphans trying to remake their lives. Shikashima and Noriko are both profoundly damaged at the outset--Shikashima more than Noriko--and the relationship between them, the family they form, pulls them both from the abyss. The theme of a found family coming together in the wreckage comes right out of a Hirokazu Kore'eda film, a link strengthened by the presence of Kore'eda regular Sakura Ando as Sumiko. Another influence: the finely detailed caricatures of the crew of the minesweeper might come from a Miyazaki movie--particularly Mr. Noda, a kindly genius, and Mr. Akitsu, the minesweeper's pacifist captain. The aerial sequences at the end of the film featuring an unusual aircraft also show the influence of Miyazaki. This film casts a wide net for its influences. It is a film that's ambitious in spite of its genre. The result is characters the audience identifies with and cares about, even in scenes where there is barely a whiff of fantasy. It roots these characters in a stark reality and lets their humanity carry the film. My wife asked me if all Japanese films were as emotional as this one is. I think rather that it is emotional without the cynical irony of American films. It's an unabashed melodrama and it works marvelously in that key.

Godzilla Minus One is a film that is conscious of and careful about the politics it's playing with. Given the disaster of World War II, it could adopt a more nationalistic tone about military honor and the lost cause of Japanese imperialism. It teeters that way from time to time with its emphasis on the duty of the Kamikaze pilots to the nation. The film's initial set piece is a reframing of part of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah from the 1990s, which also has a World War II island garrison encounter a proto-Godzilla. That film embraces a reconstructed glorious Japanese empire and Godzilla defends Japan from American forces. It's a disastrous sequence in a wrong-headed film. Throughout this film, however, there is an emphasis on survival. The Americans never make an appearance in this film. Its gaze is inward at Japan's own faults. All of its characters are dealing with survivor's guilt, none more than Shikishima. When Shikishima is given his chance to fulfill the mission of the kamikaze, he chooses an alternate option, in the hopes of living for the future. The film accepts the culpability of the Japanese state for wasting an entire generation, and the resentment that instills in its survivors. When the film ultimately abandons the idea of a state solution to Godzilla in favor of a volunteer force of veterans, it chooses this direction. An American film in the contemporary climate might choose this as a libertarian rebuke to the inertia of big government (By focusing on a corporate bureaucracy dealing with a contemporary encounter with Godzilla, Godzilla Minus One's immediate predecessor, Shin Godzilla, makes exactly this point), but this film's disillusion with government has been earned by a different kind of firestorm kindled in fascism and empire. The upside of its ending is a nation by and for the people. It sows the seeds of democracy. This theme, presented at a time of rising authoritarianism and nationalism worldwide, is why the film is relevant even as a period piece. It's talking about the past, sure. Japan's past. But it's also talking about the present. It's talking to the countries of the world that haven't been through the nuclear holocaust and utter destruction that Japan endured in the name of authoritarianism.

Godzilla Minus One is the most terrifying of all Godzilla movies, not excluding the original item. Godzilla's first appearance here is a nightmare of claws and teeth coming out of the night to murder exhausted soldiers. When Godzilla wades ashore in Ginza, all of the elements of a traditional Godzilla rampage through Tokyo are there, but the filmmakers have shifted the point of view a bit. Almost all Godzilla movies film such scenes from a god's eye-view. This one puts the point of view on the ground level, among the terrified victims of the rampage. This is a film that shows people being trampled by Godzilla. We see the attack on the commuter train from the point of view of Noriko, a character we've gotten to know, then see Godzilla and the mushroom cloud that comes from his atomic breath from Shikishima's point of view. Even the requisite destruction of buildings is intensified by placing a news crew on top of one of them, and we watch in horror as they keep their posts to the last. Because an audience actually empathizes with the human characters--they are not cardboard stand-ups included to give the special effects scale--there is an extra investment in their fates in the face of a cosmic horror. One of my favorite shots in the film is the dismay Mr. Noda feels when it's clear to him that his plan hasn't worked, that Godzilla is still alive and is going to destroy them all. The other element that ramps up panic in an audience is the score by Naoki Sat?, which blends a mournful chorale with Akira Ifukube's original Godzilla music to merciless effect.

I've heard some grumbling among some of my movie friends that the very end of the movie bumps the film down a notch because it's shamelessly tear-jerky. I'm sympathetic to this complaint and may have felt similarly after my first viewing. After my second--I saw the black and white "Minus Color" edition a few days before writing this--I no longer have any qualms about it. It's of a piece with the themes of the film. Necessary for them, even. Let's be honest here: misery and despair aren't inherently more realistic than hope and happiness. This is something other cinematic traditions haven't forgotten. Their melodramas are unashamed. I hope our own American cinema relearns it one day.

[stethacantus]

The Invincible Fist (1969 )
A minor Chang Cheh wuxia film that is  best remembered as a minor footnote in martial arts film history where Cheh gave David Chiang  one of his first major roles. However, this is a pretty surprising film, as it had many of the over the top cartoony elements usually found in Cheh's later career when he was working with the Venom Mob. If I didn't know he date of this film, I would have sworn it was released in the late 70s. It has a very simple plot. A gang of bandits slaughter a rich family and make off with their gold. The bandit gang is ruthless, and will kill anyone who suspects their real identities. Lo Lieh is a bounty hunter known as the Invincible Fist who along with his brother ( David Chaing ) are on the trail of the gang, who in turn set up traps to capture and kill Invincible Fist and his men. Of course the villains have fantastical weapons, like an abacus that shoots it's balls into whoever it is pointed at. or a chain weapon similar to what Scorpion has in the Mortal Combat games. A lot of this film felt like Kid with the Golden Arm. About the only thing out of place was the blind girl who Lo Lieh unconvincingly falls in love with in a matter of minutes just to set up an ethical conflict between the hero and the villain. There is also a generous amount of padding, which made no sense as it clearly passed the 90 minute mark at 1 hour 38 minutes.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ( 2023 )
My only complaint about this film is how the MCU downplayed thew Adam Warlock character, and basically ruined Counter Earth. And here I was hoping there would be a serious MCU adaption of the Marvel Premier and Incredible Hulk issues with the Warlock/Counter Earth saga.

[LucasM]

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ( 2023 )
My only complaint about this film is how the MCU downplayed thew Adam Warlock character, and basically ruined Counter Earth. And here I was hoping there would be a serious MCU adaption of the Marvel Premier and Incredible Hulk issues with the Warlock/Counter Earth saga.

I agree, but would add that they made Adam Warlock (one of my three favorite comic characters) an ignorant and stupid buffoon rather than the peak specimen he was created to be (both in the comics and the end credit scene in GotG v2).

With how Gunn ruined Drax (again: buffoon) I had to brace myself for how he'd ruin Warlock... and was very sadly, right.

At least if the MCU brings Warlock back, they can have him transform into a respectable character by cocooning himself (preferably: found in his cocoon at the start of the film so that we don't have to see the buffoon version again).  Personally, I would very much love to see the Warlock/Magus/church saga in film.  But unless they thoroughly revamp the character, there are NO Warlock stories that will hold up in MCU retelling.

[Cyrusso]

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ( 2023 )
My only complaint about this film is how the MCU downplayed thew Adam Warlock character, and basically ruined Counter Earth. And here I was hoping there would be a serious MCU adaption of the Marvel Premier and Incredible Hulk issues with the Warlock/Counter Earth saga.

I agree, but would add that they made Adam Warlock (one of my three favorite comic characters) an ignorant and stupid buffoon rather than the peak specimen he was created to be (both in the comics and the end credit scene in GotG v2).

With how Gunn ruined Drax (again: buffoon) I had to brace myself for how he'd ruin Warlock... and was very sadly, right.

At least if the MCU brings Warlock back, they can have him transform into a respectable character by cocooning himself (preferably: found in his cocoon at the start of the film so that we don't have to see the buffoon version again).  Personally, I would very much love to see the Warlock/Magus/church saga in film.  But unless they thoroughly revamp the character, there are NO Warlock stories that will hold up in MCU retelling.

I agree. I would have liked for Warlock to have been more of a dignified, smart character in GoTG 3. I however, did find his character at least to be acceptable. These characters have plenty of room to grow as people, and that should be the end goal of good drama: taking these characters that started off as weak, but their character arcs end as characters who could crush their opponents with physical strength, but have the ability and strength of character to think of better, smarter solutions. That only means(to me) that they're the one in the elevator who says "Hail Hydra", if you get my meaning.

True, it doesn't necessarily need to be completely synonymous with the likes of Cap or Tony's hero journeys, just done in a way that is emotionally satisfying and fun.

[stethacantus]

Dragon Swamp ( 1969 )
Another fantasy wuxia from Shaw Brothers, once again centered around a magic sword everyone wants to steal. The Dragon Swamp of the title is where anyone who steals the sword is exiled for 20 years, and it has dragons. Or at least, some sort of live lizards blown up on a back projection screen.  Which was some of the worst effects I have ever seen in film. Far worse than in King Dinosaur. Here, look. For some odd reason, there is a pattern on the back projection. I have no idea if that pattern was on the film clip used, or if it was on the screen they projected the film clip on, but it was there for every effect shot.

The painted backdrop to the set was also obvious. Not that the backdrops on the Shaw Brothers sets were not obvious in other films. But usually there was a lot of trees or walls or other structures in between. Here we just have water leading into what is obviously a wall a few feet in front of the boat.

And there was a door in what was supposed to be a background sky. It is not as visible on this screen grab, but you can still see it.

Maybe it is only visible because these are 4k transfers off of the original negatives, and they would not have shown up on the third generation theatrical release prints. But they took me out of what was otherwise a decent fantasy film.


The Marvels ( 2023 )
And now on to a fantasy film with flawless effects. Yet another really good MCU film that bombed at the box office. Superhero fatigue my ass. Disney only has themselves to blame. This film relies heavily on having seen the Disney+ series. One character had her origin story in Wandavision. The other in Ms Marvel. And her lies why many of the marvel movies are tanking at the box office. If you don't  have Disney+ then you can no longer follow the continuing MCU saga. Sort of like having a novel with missing chapters. So you would not be as anxious to see a movie that continues out of two separate Disney+ series you didn't see. As for the Disney+ subscribers who did see these miniseries, they no longer need to go to the theaters to see the latest MCU releases because they are on Disney+. So yea, as good as this movie was, Disney pretty much narrowed the audience down to those who can afford Disney+ and live in an area where streaming video works, yet at the same time would rather see what they can get for free in a theater. Fortunately for me, Disney finally released Wandavision on Blu-ray in North America  along with the first season of Loki, so I knew about the adult Monica Rambeau and her powers. As for Ms Marvel, although Disney did air a free preview of the series on ABC, I did not know it was going to be on until I found it midway through the broadcast while channel surfing, and I have no idea if they aired every episode, or like with the Star Wars series shown on ABC, just aired the first two episodes and told you to see the rest on Disney+. So the third girl in this film was a complete mystery to me, and I had to guess at who she was and what her family members had to do with the story. If they were going to pull this shit, then they should have just made The Marvels a Disney+ Miniseries and got to one of their other backlogged film projects.

[stethacantus]

The Flying Dagger ( 1969 )
Once again director Chang Cheh marginalizes actress Cheng Pei-Pei in another of Shaw Brothers late 60s wuxia films. The studio's top martial arts star at the time, in this film she barely gets to fight. It opens with her character, who is chivalrous swordswoman, showing up just too late to prevent a villain from raping and killing a girl, hen when he tries to kill her as well, kills him in self defense. It turns out the rapist's father is the leader of the evil Green Dragon Clan, who specializes in throwing knives with deadly accuracy at his victims. He vows to wipe out Cheng Pei-Pei's clan, critically injuring her father with one of his knives, and forcing what is left of their clan to hide from the Green Dragons at an inn. Enter  Lo Lieh as a sort of anti-hero. A wanderer who sometimes steps in to stop the Green Dragons from killing innocent people. Yet at other times refuses to help. When Cheng Pei-Pei's little brother is kidnapped by the Green Dragons to lure her and the rest of her clan out, Lo Leih refuses to save him unless Pei-Pei agrees to sleep with him for one evening. But eventually, after denying he is a hero, helps to wipe out the Green Dragon clan for good. Although a wuxia film taking place in China, it was definitely an attempt by Cheh to mimic the typical chambara films, right down to their anti-heroes. And as such, is an entertaining yet lesser Shaw Brothers effort, which could have been so much better if Chang Cheh had allowed Cheng Pei-Pei into more of the many fight scenes.

The Hindenburg ( 1975 )
What the Hell?  I can't say this was the worst of the 70s Disaster movies, but it is certainly the most disappointing.  For one thing, despite the destruction of The Hindenburg being history's most notorious disasters, it only lasted twenty seconds, from the initial explosion until the mangled wreckage was on the ground, the hydrogen had completely burned off, and any survivors had managed to escape. A disaster that lasts that briefly is not something you can pad out for a feature film. By this time disaster films involved the cast navigating through a series of hazards, be it a burning building, a sinking ship, or a crumbling city. Director Robert Wise tried his best to stretch out the disaster  by a few minutes longer than it did historically, but it is still less than five minutes of disaster in a two hour and six minute film. To make up for this, a plot is fabricated about a bomb being abord the Hindenburg, and George C Scott playing a German general trying to locate the bomb and the saboteur  who planted it. This is a complete fabrication as a bomb was completely ruled out as the cause of the disaster nearly three decades earlier. As with most disaster movies, there is an all-star cast abord the Hindenburg. However, most of the characters  serve no purpose and hardly have any scenes.  But perhaps the biggest complaint is that Universal spent very little money on this film, and decided instead of having any special effects, would instead use their archived newsreel footage of the actual Hindenburg disaster. The final ten minutes of the film switches to black and white so that footage can be mixed in. Wise lobbied Universal to allow him to film the entire movie in black and white, but they refused, insisting that the rest of the movie be shot in color.  The most Universal agreed to spend on the disaster shots was for some twisted burning girders some cast members walk through after the ship has completely crashed into the ground. This wasn't the only time producers cheeped out on the  Hindenburg disaster. Two years later an episode of The Waltons had John Boy as a reporter covering the landing of The Hindenburg and eye witnessing the disaster. At least in that episode they did something to color the newsreel footage instead of switching to black and white.