Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Zootopia

Took my 3 year old daughter, she loved it, so did I

 

I Spit on Your Grave III

Definitely the Highlander II of the series. Very disappointing.

 

In which Celestial needs to move their butts and put these Shaw Brothers films on iTunes and other digital platforms stat:

Judgement of An Assassin (1977) - Love it. Smart story, great characters and an awesome villain. Not just one of my most favorite Shaw Brothers films, but among my most favorite films period.

The Proud Youth (1978) - Hate the lead character / actor, but the assassin working for the lead baddie is fantastic and sleazy. Not something I am used to seeing in a wuxia. This film is kind of growing on me with the exception of the lead character and the awful, goofy bad choreography for him once he powers up.

Two Champions of Shaolin (1980) - Love it. Shaping up to be one of my favorite Venoms films.

Mercenaries from Hong Kong (1982) Absolutely OTT men on a mission action comedy gold. Love it. Not every joke works but the brawl with he title characters clad in matching track suits against chopper wielding triads is a lot funnier than it should ever be.

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I tried watching Dragon Lord but I really do not like Jackie Chan outside of Project A (and even that was pushing it.) Still, I imagine I'll eventually wince my way through since Chan Wai Man has a secondary role in this.

 

The Rockford Files: Friends and Foul Play. When one of Jim's friends is convinced a mobster had her son killed, she winds up dead after harassing him; Jim investigates. There are points where the films leans cheesy (I'm not sure it needed all the mopey reading from her journal) but in general it's effective, and the banter is fantastic. It even manages to pull off a conceptually cheesy premise -- Chapman is leading a college criminology class that he lets trample all over the crime scenes, so Jim enrolls in the class -- by playing it low key, just another one of Jim's many, many scams to get at information. Not a series highlight, but solid.

 

The Rifftrax Live version of "Time Chasers". Very funny stuff, and the movie is actually pretty good.

 

Purple Rain. The musical numbers are absolutely incredible, it's just a shame that the rest of the film is a bit rubbish (although Morris Day is enjoyably camp)

 

2002 Count of Monte Christo

Despite some plot changes from the book I don't approve of and an over-the-top Guy Pearce, the basic awesomeness of the underlying story still wins the day. Love this movie as a monument to Richard Harris and for wanting to tell the story again.

 

'We Bought a Zoo'

 

Having never read the book (an oversight I plan to correct some day) I don't have any conflict about changes, additions and omissions (though I do sympathize with fans who do), so just based on what's there, I flat out love this movie. It successfully combines romance, betrayal, mystery, adventure and action and feels like an old fashioned swashbuckler in the best sense of the word. I agree, Harris is wonderful (though I happen to like Pearce here).

Captain America: Civil War (2016) - Like the vast majority of the movie going public this weekend, I suited up for another go 'round with the mighty MCU. Outside of the first Avengers, the Captain America films have been, for me at least, the best of the MCU to this point. First Joe Johnson delivers a fun period piece that, like its title character, builds its muscular action around an enormous heart. Then the Russo brothers craft a sleek, smart homage to the political thrillers of old in the exceptionally well made Winter Soldier. Now comes Civil War, also by the Russo's. If it's not quite on the level of the first two Cap films, it's miles better than the most recent solo efforts of Thor and Iron Man.

For all intents and purposes, this is really just another Avengers film. Only a few players sit this one out (Thor, Hulk) and while Cap is a central player, he's not the main character. That's because there really is no main character. Like Avengers, it's an ensemble. Cap may be 1A, and the friendship between he and Bucky the main dramatic thrust, but "Captain America" is a bit misleading.

This is a movie packed to bursting; with ideas, with story, and most certainly with characters. It's a bit bloated at times, lacking the laser-sharp focus of its predecessor. It never gets as unwieldy as Age of Ultron, but that's a backhanded compliment to be sure.

New characters were the big buzz going in, and they deliver. Chadwick Boseman has the charisma and physical goods to breath life into a character I knew nothing about and I look forward to his solo effort. Tom Holland (the seventeenth Spider-Man in the last decade, or so it seems), makes a big impact in his relatively brief screen time. In fact, his Spidey was like a B-12 shot here, waking the second act from its lethargy. The fact that he's an actual teenager really adds an important intangible to the character and it should be fun to watch him grow into the role.

There's a lot of really good stuff in here, unfortunately it just never flows as smoothly as I'd have liked. - 7/10

 

The Rockford Files: Punishment and Crime. David Chase makes an interesting move by bringing back a minor recurring character from the TV series, Megan Adams, a blind psychologist with whom Jim had an on-and-off relationship before she ditched him for another man. It works great, as Kathryn Harrold is very good in the role and it gives the film a certain weight in reaching back into the past like that. Adams is a good character, sympathetic and appealing, but not some perfect saint just because she's blind; she can be argumentative and is more than a little squirrelly in a relationship. There's a nice dynamic, as the case revolves around her drunken, drug-addled talent-agent cousin, of whom she's very fond and whom Jim hates. Best of all, he's played by a Dr. Tim Whatley-era Bryan Cranston. After he and Jim get into a fight, Cranston hires him anyway to track down a client who's disappeared, which gets everybody involved with the Russian mob. Decent story, good laughs, quality supporting cast, some nice character moments. The best of Chase's three contributions to the TV movies so far.

I refuse to believe that anyone has ever liked anybody more than Grace Kelly.

 

I am a great fan of the book, but I have always been sympathetic to the film. There are couple of things about it I cling to strongly, and some that just tickle me personally. For instance, I am delighted by Luis Guzman as Jacopo, and whom I also imagine as basically just Rogue Number Ten.

 

I love Luis Guzman as well

 

It's to the point now that when I read the book, I imagine literal Luis Guzman being that character, even though literally none of the others have transferred that way.

 

As opposed to merely a figurative Luis Guzman.

 

The Hudsucker Proxy. Absolutely hilarious. A total farce, perfectly executed. Tim Robbins is outstanding as perhaps the world's most imbecilic rube. Is there a funnier sight gag than him excitedly whipping out his revolutionary new design -- a drawing of a circle? You know, for kids! Jennifer Jason Leigh's motormouthed, over-the-top-Mid-Atlantic-accented newswoman is a pitch-perfect sendup of screwball dames. Paul Newman is, as ever, perfect as a cigar-chomping villain. Fantastic set design, too. Just a perfectly calibrated bunch of outstanding nonsense.

 

The Magnificent Warriors (1987) - I completely give up on watching Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh and other Hong Kong stunt based performers. Me I want characters with my crazy action. And that's not what we get here. I understand I am a rarity when it comes to these films, but the Shaw Brothers films full of great characters AND kung fu have spoiled me rotten.

I will also save myself some grief and not watch as many Hwang Jang Lee films as I'd like because his villains are constantly beaten in the dumbest ways possible. The man is amazing, one of the best martial artists I've ever seen, but it's a damn shame he wasn't allowed to play more heroes and/or the writers think of better ways to thwart his villains.

 

Kickboxer (1993) In which Yuen Biao's plucky Lau Zhai must clear his name after being framed for opium smuggling. Not as much kicking as one would expect from the title, but this movie was a lot of fun. Bias's easy charms, good looks and ridiculously amazing agility should have made him even bigger than Jackie Chan, but for some reason that never happened. No matter. I know which of the two gentlemen I will continue to watch because he gets into character as much as he does fights / stunts.

 

Captain America: Civil War

It was was awesome. It's now tied with Guardians of the Galaxy as my favourite Marvel film.

 

Knockabout (1979) Much better the second time around. The con artist brothers Little John and Big John make a decent living and trip up their equally shady peers until they nearly have their heads handed to them. Soon after, they come into training with a rather nefarious kung fu master. Said master is wanted for murder and does so again, leaving one brother to bring this bad guy to justice while working with and against an undercover cop. Yuen Biao and Leung Kar Yan are great together. Besides Hwang Jang Lee, no one else came close to play evil ,older kung fu masters than Lau Kar Wing (had Chan Wai Man played more than two, I would think otherwise.)

A fun little film.