We had a couple of discs from NetFlix. Joe brought Conan The Barbarian and we watched that first. It's directed by Marcus Nispel who directed Pathfinder, which I've seen and thought was ok. I've also seen his tv movie re-imagine of Frankenstein. Not great but watchable. I haven't seen his 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which I wouldn't bother with, or the 2009 remake of Friday The 13th. He's working on the remake of The Fly due out next year. His Conan isn't quite a remake, it looks back to the Robert E Howard stories, and doesn't resemble the Arnold movie. It's a darker story, most everyone dies, that starts with Conan's birth on the battle field. His mom is stabbed in a raid and Conan's dad, played by Ron Pearlman, has to slit open her belly and pull out the baby so she can see her kid before she dies. The rest of the movie is less funny. Years pass and Conan grows up. The village is attacked by an evil powermad warlord searching for a fancy ancient magical mask. The village falls and Conan and Ron are chained together under a pot filled with red hot molten metal. It doesn't go well for Ron and Conan lives to continue growing up but with a need for vengeance. Of course that warlord is still running about years later and Rose McGowan plays his sorcerous daughter. Soon their paths cross and the stabbing and chopping commences. Jason Momoa does a pretty good job looking like the Conan, he's all muscles and dark eyes. It was mostly entertaining and worth a look. It is pretty gorey and not everyone would like that.
Sperhauk found Ashura at NetFlix too. It's a 2005 Japanese fantasy movie. Some demon lady wants to bring back Ashura the Demon Queen. Then the demons could take over Edo and snack on the humans. There's a group of demon hunters to keep them in check. Izumo has a bad time and quits the group. He turns to acting in Kabuki plays. He sees a masked thief unmasked and catches her hair pin when it falls. His interest in the woman leads him to the demon lady and soon enough he's fighting for his life. It's a fairly interesting looking movie with pretty good special effects. There are a lot of nice sets and locations. The story is pretty average and the dialog nothing too odd but for some reason it put nearly all of us to sleep. It's 119 minutes long and it would be better to be shorter. Not for everyone, that's for sure. i don't care to see it again anymre. That's ok, lots more to watch.
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