PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 776

Tai Chi Hero is a 2012 Chinese action comedy directed by Stephen Fung. It's a jazzed up fantasy about the creation of Tai Chi. It's a mix of melodrama and martial arts. The action sequences were choreographed by Sammo Hung. It's the sequel to Tai Chi Zero, which I haven't seen. They do give us a bit of a recap at the start of the movie. Now the action takes place in a village that's going to be destroyed for a railway line. The zero from the first movie is now getting married to a member of the Chen family, it's the only way he can learn the family style without bringing disaster to the village. Disaster comes anyway as the village is attacked by the scumbag in charge of the rail expansion. He's got it in for the Chen family himself. Peter Stormare plays Lord Flemming or "Flamming" as he's listed in the credits. He's as atrocious character, much like his atrocious British accent. I sure wasn't sold on the movie, the melodrama parts were dull but I did like some of the action scenes. By the time it was done I was pretty much thinking I wouldn't need to see it again.

I've seen Dinosaurus! more than once but I do like movies with big monsters. The movie has two decent stop motion dinosaurs and the fight between the T-Rex and the steam shovel is OK. It's from 1960 and when I saw it back in 2017 the DVD was $54 on Amazon. Now there's a DVD for $14 and a Blu-ray for $20, the later is what we watched. The movie looks pretty good but it's still about an average production.

I do like the two posters above. Sometimes the foreign posters are more entertaining than the US versions. The movie is fairly entertaining, buoyed up by the stop motion dinosaurs, dragged down a bit by the average script. I'm debating the purchase of the Blu-ray. There are some extras that sound interesting.

Friday Night Movies 771

Terrordactyl is a 2016 SF horror comedy about pterodactyls falling to Earth in meteors. Two hapless guys work as gardeners, they drink in a bar with a pretty waitress. The one guy has a crush on the waitress but can't get enough jam together to ask her out. A long haired vet drinks there too. They all get tossed into the middle of a flying invasion of space pterodactyls. The hapless guys turn out to have some guts, waitress has some brains and the vet has mucho guns and ammo. They battle their way around LA. The flying invaders look better than a lot of the CGI you see on the SyFy channel and the story is a fair bit better than most of their fare. Don Bitters III wrote the screenplay and co-directed with Geoff Reisner. Don has mostly been an effects guy for the last dozen years. This is his first film and so far the only one. He's currently directing episodes of Home Invasion. Not a title that makes me want to see the program. It's Geoff's first feature too, he's most a cinematographer, he's directing a new feature called F.E.A.R.

Return Of The Evil Fox is a 1991 Chines horror comedy written by Kong Mou and directed by Chuo-Chi Leung. An evil spirit is haunting a building and some religious types go after it. There's plenty of fighting, acrobatics, and flying about. There's some laughs as the movie pokes a bit of fun at the religious antics. It's about average for the time and place. I enjoyed the yelling and confusion and I'd watch it again someday.

Friday Night Movies 739

First up Holy Flame Of The Martial World, a 1983 Shaw Brothers picture. It's a comedic fantasy adventure filled with wire work and vengeance. Sui Chin Mok is 18 and that's the number of years ago his parents were killed. Little does he know that he's got a sister, they were separated when their parents were killed. The 2 are raised in the martial arts world and they're destined to fight a grudge match when they're 18. There's plenty of fighting, flying through the air and special effects. Philip Kwok plays the master who raises Mok, he's got a powerful ghost laugh that's like turning on a Ritter Fan and throwing a much of stuff in front of it. It's all pretty goofy but fun. While looking for a poster picture I looked on Amazon and the DVD is going for 110 smackaroonies. That's some crazy shit.

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween came out in 2018 and all the monsters on Halloween are coming to life. Some kids get hold of the ventriloquist dummy called Slappy the Dummy and Slappy works his magic on Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower to bring the monsters to life. What a dick dummy. A trio of kids has to save their families and the rest of the town. There's plenty of running about and screaming, some jokes of various quality, and some nice monsters and effects. Jack Black isn't quite as present as the first movie. It was fun enough but I wouldn't pick one up unless it was clearance cheap.

Ghost Ninja 1988

Ghost Ninja is a 1988 Hong Kong movie that's also called Diamond Ninja Force. It's directed by Godfrey Ho and stars Richard Harrison. The Black Ninja Clan has it in for Richard, they want his Golden Ninja statue, they will kill for it. It's only so-so. It's kind of dull at times. It's part of a two movie DVD along with Primitives.

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Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings is the third of the Detective Dee films. The movie was released in 2018 and the Blu-ray came out in November, I just noticed it was out a week or so ago an immediately ordered it. I real liked the two previous movies. It's directed by Tsui Hark and the screenplay is by Chang Chia-lu.

The first movie Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame came out in 2010, the second film Young Detective Dee: Rise OF The Sea Dragon came out in 2013 and it's a prequel to the first. Time wise, the 3rd film falls between the 2nd and the 1st. I'd recommend the whole trilogy.

Mark Chao played Dee in YDD:ROTSD and he plays him again in this film. Dee has been promoted to head of the Department of Justice. He's been given a super weapon, the Dragon Taming Mace.

Empress Wu Zetain is the wife of Emperor and she's got a power grabbing personality. She sets an Indian cult against the detective but,w sadly, she's no match for Detective Dee.

Unlike the first two movies this is more a Wuxia fantasy film with flying martial arts and magic. The magic is often illusion but the martial artists are bouncing around like they're made out of rubber.

There's plenty of action but that's often weighed down by the melodrama. The sets, props and costumes are all top notch. The CGI works well for the most part and there's usually something of interest to look at. I enjoyed it and I know I'll want to watch it and the rest of the films again.

I really enjoyed The Predator. It came out in 2018 and it's not a reboot, characters mention the previous Predator visits. The screenplay is by Fred Dekker and director Shane Wood. Shane had appeared int he first Predator movie back in 1987. He's written and directed a few movies I like. He wrote the first two Lethal Weapon films, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. All those are worth watching and even having. He wrote and directed Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys and Edge. I've only seen Iron Man 3 and didn't care enough about it to blog about it. Shane's writing and directing the new Doc Savage movie. I'm kind of interested in that.

The Predator starts with a Predator ship crashing on Earth. Boyd Holbrook and some US soldiers are on a mission when they encounter a Predator. Boyd manages to knock the Predator down. He steals a bit of the Predator's suit and sends it to his son. A secret US gov department gathers up the wounded Predator and takes him to a secret base. Boyd gets arrested, the gov wants the bits that Boyd took but he ain't talking. Another Predator turns up, a bigger and meaner beast, and he's got two space dogs with him. The new Predator wants to keep the downed ship and Predator gear out of the hands of the humans.

It's got a great cast, I particularly liked Olivia Munn, Thomas Jane and Keegan-Michael Key. There's plenty of action and plenty of dark humor and craziness. I liked many of the characters and the baddies all got slaughtered. The CGI Predators didn't look bad to me and there was a guy in a suit for movement and the like. The other CGI was fine. There were good locations and sets. I'll want to watch it again so I just ordered the 4 pack of Predator films on Blu-ray. I already had the first two on DVD but I didn't have a copy of the third film or fourth film. Not surprisingly it was cheaper to buy a four film Blu-ray set over buying the 3rd and 4th films separately. I'll look forward to that.

The Great Wall 2017

I know it's hard to believe but I kind of like a film by Zhang Yimou. The Great Wall came out in 2016 and it's got Matt Damon, Willem Defoe and Andy Lau fighting monsters on the Great Wall of China. Of course, since the director is who he is, he can't not make a boring movie. It sadly beats down the monster fighting part and I was speeding along between the slightly more interesting bits. It averages a 6.0 on the IMDb but I only gave it a 4 because I can't stand Zhang for the most part.

7 Guardians Of The Tomb 2018

There's a secret labyrinth in 7 Guardians Of The Tomb that leads to a locked tomb. You don't want to go in there, they buried that ancient demon bitch for a reason. Since it's a movie they head right there and open that right up. Well, it's really the baddie that forces the nice people to break the code that locks the door. Well, he'll get his, turns out the labyrinth has a lot of dangerous secrets buried under that mountain in China. Many of them are spiders and and some of those spiders are damn big. That's not trivializing the things that kill you right away. You know, pointy sticks that shoot up through the floor, big falling stones, and floors that disappear under your feet, the stuff you expect in a secret tomb guarding a demon from hell. The movie is an Australian and Chinese production that came out earlier this year. 

Lead actress Bingbing Li has turned up in a few American releases, you might have missed Transformers: Age Of Extinction or Resident Evil: Retribution. I saw both, as well as the highly entertaining Detective Dee: Mystery Of The Phantom Flame. I can't recommend that film highly enough, and Young Detective Dee: Rise Of The Sea Dragon was equally entertaining. Both of those movies show the Chinese have really stepped up their game in the CGI arena. I read there's a third film, in development, but it won't be directed by Hark Tsui. There was a 1974 US TV movie that was based on one of the Robert Van Gulik Judge Dee novels. Judge Dee And The Monastery Murders is available on YouTube but it's not the best copy. You can see what's going on. It's got a teleplay by Nicholas Meyer.

I liked the Resident Evil series enough to pick them up on Blu-ray. It helped that I found some on clearance and the rest were relatively cheap. I got the whole set of 5 Transformers films on Blu-Ray for less than 15 bucks. I should know better, I've seen the first three already. At some point I'll work myself up into watching the whole series in one go. Some day.

Li was in two Jackie Chan films, 1911 and The Forbidden Kingdom. I watched both and would recommend them. I'd recommend this movie, thought it's more fun than good. There are way better searching for buried treasure movies. I'd watch the National Treasure series again and Sahara was entertaining.

Friday Night Movies 677

The Foreigner is our first movie. It's a 2017 movie that's based on a Stephen Leather book called The Chinaman. It's got a screenplay by David Marconi and Martin Campbell is the director. David once wrote Enemy Of The State and Live Free Or Die Hard. I've not seen any of his other few movies and they aren't inspiring me to see them. Martin once directed a couple of James Bond movies, the newer version of Casino Royale and GoldenEye. He was also the director of Cast A Deadly Spell and a couple of episodes of Bergerac. He's British, he directed a fair bit of work for the BBC, but by 1988 he was working in the US.

Jackie is a single dad living in London. His daughter goes to a dress shop and gets blown up by some IRA bombers. Jackie wants justice and he visits the police, wanting the names of the killers. They won't tell him anything so he goes out on his own. He might just be a restaurant owner now but in the past the American military gave him some mad skills. His first target is an Irish politician, played by Pierce Brosnan, who has strong ties to the IRA. I say strong ties, he's in this shit up to his neck.

While Jackie is hunting down the rogue IRA cell there's an occasional fight. The action is fairly good but there's not as much of it as there is in some Jackie films. It's a darker film than a lot of Jackie's work, slower than many too. Still I thought it was worth seeing and I was happy to see it. I'm still a big Chan fan so you know I'll be getting a copy eventually.

Our second feature was The Being. I didn't think I'd seen it. When I got home I checked, surprise, we watched it on FNM night 9-21-08. I reprint the post below.

The Being is a family affair. Producer Bill Osco, who produced both Flesh Gordon and the nudie musical Alice In Wonderland with Kristine DeBell, hired his wife Jackie Kong to direct him as the main character, whom Bill is playing as Rexx Coltrane. They also hired their baby daughter and sadly she was one of the most natural actors in the movie. There's something going on in a small Idaho town. Jose Ferrer is the mayor and the head of Big Potato. Ruth Buzzy is his wife. Martin Landau is a crappy crooked science guy who says that dumping radioactive waste into the lake is doing it no harm. Of course there is a radioactive mutant who kills people. They have to stop it before it kills everyone in the town. The monster and the movie are laughable. Sadly we enjoyed ourselves more with this movie than the first. I wouldn't run out and buy a copy of the movie but I might watch it again in 10 or 15 years.

I forget pretty easily what I saw but it's a pretty forgettable movie. The monster is pretty lame. Turns out I didn't quite get to 10 years before it popped up again. I bet it looks much better than the copy I saw ages ago. It still doesn't make it better than it is and that's below average.

Friday Night Movies 671

The Legend Of The Naga Pearls is a 2017 Chinese fantasy. It's set in a made up place that looks like ancient China but with a so-so CGI animal mascot. It's got Simon Yam for a baddie. I actually wasn't sure if it was him under the make up, I had to look it up to make sure. He's a descendant of the Winged Tribe, they lost their ability to fly when they were defeated by the human's in the past. Simon wants some revenge and a magical box with some magical pearls are going to help out. A trio of noisy young people put a stop to Simon's activity. It's alright, drags a bit in the middle act, but has a bit fight at the end. The CGI is fairly good, except for the critter that hangs out with the hero. I didn't like that and I didn't care that much for the smug faced hero. I wouldn't need to see it again but it was OK for free.

I don't know how many times I've seen Tarantula, the 1955 SF film with John Agar, Mara Corday and Leo G Carroll, but I do know I last saw it in 2010. It still holds up and I still enjoyed it.

Friday Night Movies 665

A couple of Hong Kong films today, first up the sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, CTHD: Sword Of Destiny. It was a Netflix original that I'd already seen but not since it came out last year. John Fusco wrote the screenplay from Du Lu Wang's book and Woo-Ping Yeun is the director. It's got Michelle Yeoh, Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee and a bunch of other people I mostly didn't know.

Jason wants the Green Dragon Sword and he sends Harry Shum Jr to steal it. Harry gets caught. Donnie gathers some fighters and brings them to the house where the Green Dragon Sword is held. Michelle shows up there and so do the bandits. There's plenty of martial arts and flying about. There's some family drama among the members of the martial arts world. Nearly everyone dies. I liked it better the second time and it's more re-watchable than the first film.

The Fate Of Lee Kahn is a 1973 King Hu film that I hadn't seen before. Sadly, it's on a VCD and the quality is pretty poor, the subtitles are pretty hard to read. This copy on YouTube is much better than that VCD we watched. It was directed by King Hu, who co-wrote the script with Chung Wang. Hu is most famous for directing A Touch Of Zen, Come Drink With Me and Dragon Gate Inn. All interesting films worth seeing.

The story in The Fate Of Lee Kahn is about a group of rebels fighting against Mongol rule. They're being hunted by Mongol Official Lee Kahn and his soldiers. Most of the action takes place at an Inn where the rebels operate. When Lee Kahn shows up things get dicey and people start dying. It's not one of Hu's best films but it's a pretty good action film with some nice court intrigue. You can check it out on YouTube for yourself. Check for a link in the first paragraph.