PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 1027

Alienoid: Return To The Future 2024 Written and directed by Choi Dong-hoon. A Koreaan SF film that is a sequel to Alienoid. 

Pretty much picks up where the last one left off. The aliens have plans to kill off the human race with poison in the present. A group of humans and robots fight to stop that. It jumps around from the present to the past. It's packed with plenty of battles, there's lots of sword fights, explosions, gun fights, noise, leaping about and death. They do save the world.

It was entertaining. I might be interested in watching the pair of movies again but I've no plans to buy the Blu-rays.

The Hitman's Bodyguard 2017 Written by Tom O'Connor and directed by Patrick Hughes. We'd watched the movie back in December 2018, FNM 715.

Ryan Reynold's has to protect Samuel L Jackson from a Belarusian dictator who's on trail at the International Criminal Court. Samuel is the witness who could put him away. It's packed with action, noise, gun fights and plenty of chases.

I enjoyed it all over again. There's a plan to watch the sequel soon.

Friday Night Movies 1017

Alienoid 2022 Written and directed by Choi Dong-hoon. A Korean science fiction action film.

Aliens have been punishing their criminals by implanting them in humans. The prisoners can't do anything to control the humans, when the human dies so do they. The aliens have been doing it for hundreds of years. The story takes place in modern times and 600 years in the past. A couple of robots act as caretakers for the prisoners. They don't have much to do, pop some prisoners in bodies once in a while. The rest of the time they appear as a guy called Guard and his car which was nicknamed Thunder.

Occasionally a prisoner escapes. They have to hunt them down and put them back in the human. During a bit of trouble in 1380 AD Thunder winds up bringing a human baby with them to the modern age. The story jumps around between the modern day and the past. They arrived from the past with the baby in 2012 and in 2022 the baby has grown into a 12 year old girl. The robots jump back to 1391 AD to capture the alien called The Controller.

There's plenty of action and the CGI is mostly pretty good. It's a long movie, 142 mins, and it movies along fairly well. I enjoyed it, there's usually something going on. I would watch it again. There's a sequel. I'd watch that.

Supernatural 1933 Story by Garnett Weston, screenplay by Brian Marlow and Harvey Thew, directed by Victor Halperin. I can't say I've seen many of Victor's films in the past. I have seen White Zombie and Revolt Of The Zombies. Both were fine.

An evil woman called Ruth Rogen goes to the electric chair for strangling three men, all lovers. Ruth was betrayed to the police by her 4th lover Paul Bavian, a psychic who preys on women. After Ruth was executed Dr Houston asks the state to loan him her body for experimentation. The Doctor is a friend of Paul's next victim Roma Courtney. Paul tells Roma that her recently deceased twin brother wants to communicate with her. Paul's land lady learns of the plot and tries her hand at blackmail. It didn't work out so well for her. Paul gives her a prick with his poison ring and she's out of the picture.

Eventually Roma gets possessed by Ruth. She starts acting odd, lucky for her Roma's pals help fight the evil psychic. Things mostly work out for the best. Things didn't go so well for Paul, Ruth's parting gift leaves him hanging.

It was slightly better than average, I enjoyed the story, and I might watch it again someday. I might pick up the Kino Lorber Blu-ray if I find it on sale.

Friday Night Movies 971

Ashfall 2019 Written by Lee Hae-jun, Byung-seo Kim, Tae-Yoon Kim, Jeong-deok Kwak and Joon-hyung Lim, directed by Lee Hae-jun and Kim Byung-seo. A South Korea disaster movie.

An active super volcano on the North Korea and China border is causing earthquakes. Scientists estimate it will blow repeatedly over the next 4 days, the final eruption will destroy most of Korea. Scientists and government officials have taken up a plan to nuke the volcano using mining tunnels, they are hoping to relieve the pressure in the magma pools and dampen the seismic activity.

A military bomb expert called In-Chang is due to retire that day, his retirement is put on hold and he's assigned a mission to extract the uranium from some old North Korean ICBMs hidden away in a bunker. He needs a guy to lead him to the site and that guy is in prison in North Korea.

In-Chang is really the technician on the job, there's a special ops team of soldiers who are supposed to get them to the ICBMs and to the mine. That team's plane goes down right away and In-Chang's team now has to survive and get the mission done. Of course there are plenty of obstacles in their way.

The action scenes are fast paced, noisy and filled with dirt. It's a wonder their cars would work the air is so dusty. There's plenty of near impossible escapes and stuff on fire. It's pretty predictable and filled with cliches. I gave it a 6 for the effects but I couldn't rate the script that high. I don't feel the need to buy a copy, I doubt I'd get back to it. You can see it on Amazon Prime, free with ads.

Lifechanger 2018  Written and directed by Justin McConnell. A Canadian movie shot in and around Toronto.

A story told from the POV of a shapeshifter that murders people when it takes over their identities and personality. I don't want to be sharing a monster's life choices. I want to see a monster get destroyed. It's another well made film with a poor script. This is so disappointing I can't be bothered to go on. Don't watch it.

Friday Night Movies 948

Space Monster Wangmagwi 1967 Written by Byeon Ha-yeong and directed by Kwon Hyeok-jin. A South Korean movie that's been unseen in the West until SRS Cinema licensed the film in 2022, they released it on media June 13 2023. I bought the DVD that was on Amazon.

SRS ruins the experience by having one of the loudest menu screens I've heard in a while. Another annoying thing, the box lies by claiming the film is 1080p but it's really 720p. It's probably talking about the limited edition Blu-ray which they don't sell through Amazon. They only made 2000 copies and aren't making anymore. I find the limited edition treatment as annoying as any really annoying thing.

Some space aliens invade the Earth, the giant monster guy is their weapon. He stumbles around a bit, scares the locals, knocks over some buildings, and uses a gas spray in it's head to burn some other office blocks. Despite the collateral damage it's hardly exciting stuff. A jet pilot, his wife and a homeless boy fight the monster and win. The aliens leave with their tails between their legs. The subplot with the bride and her mother was funny but it was really mostly padding to get the movie to 90 mins.

There were some funny bits and some odd bits. Different sense of humor. In a crowded space in a building a man really needs to go, he decides to go on a newspaper in a corner, the monster bumps into the building and he's knocked over into his own pooh. Across the room a woman gives birth to a child. There are several scenes with two scared guys, they just aren't that funny for the amount of screen time they get.

I did like the part where the homeless kid pees inside the head of Wangmagwi. That's not something you see very often. All in all it was kind of fun but not great. A lot of people on the IMDb, 19 out of 51 voters, gave the movie a 6 or a 7, I'm struggling to give it a 5.

Notzilla 2020 Written and directed by Mitch Teemley. It's a parody of kaiju films that was made in Cincinnati.

The JSDF kills a monster in Japan. A paleontologist takes her egg and heads for Ohio. Through a silly accident the eggs gets out of his control. An idiot scientist and his more capable assistant find the egg, it hatches and they try to take care of it. The paleontologist finds they and despite his warning not to get the monster beer, the idiot scientist does so. The little kids size monster grows really big and gets out.

There's a struggle between the idiot scientist and the paleontologist, the idiot wants to kill the creature and the paleontologist wants to revert him to his original zine. There's plenty of running about as they put their plans in motion. A romance develops between the paleontologist and the assistant.

There were a lot of jokes but I wasn't finding them that funny. A lot of it fell flat to me. It's almost like they're trying too a little too hard. It's got a good size cast and they all have a quirky personality. A bit tiring. There were so many in jokes and movie references they became rather distracting. Someone gave me a download, I'll keep it but I might not get back to it anytime soon. You can watch it on YouTube.

Friday Night Movies 923

Seobok Project Clone 2021 Written and directed by Lee Yong-ju.

Seobok is a new species of human created by cloning and genetic manipulation. The process gave Seobok some mental powers but the companies goal is to tap into his bodily fluids and use that to create a longevity serum.

Seobok becomes the pawn of the old man who runs the company and one of the people in the intelligence agency who wants to sell Seobok to the Americans. Stuck in the middle is an ex-agent of the intelligence agency called Min who's supposed to get Seobok to his new digs. The transport is attacked by mercenaries and Min and Seobok go on the run. There's some fish out of water stuff and some gun fights along the way to the end of the movie. The factions interested in Seobok battle it out until most everyone is dead.

It's a longish movie, 115 mins, and it takes a while to get going. There's a few action scenes along the way but at it's core it raises questions of ethics in medicine. Is it OK to create a human clone for the purpose of harvesting it's biomass for medicine like an insulin pig and is it OK to kill everyone who opposes your plans. I enjoyed it for the most part but would have enjoyed it more if they had picked up the pace a bit. It's not going to get added to my library unless it's a free download which I probably wouldn't ever get around to again.

The Munsters 2022 Written and directed by Rob Zombie.

It's the Munster's origin story. A mad scientist puts Herman together and sends him out into the world. Herman gets some success as a comedian and meets Lily Gruesella and her father the Count. They get married and Lily's brother Lester tricks Herman into giving away the family castle to the Count's ex-wife. Herman, Lilly and the Count move to Hollywood, winding up at 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

There's plenty of gags and slapstick, all briskly paced to keep the story moving. Some of them work well, other's pratfall. I got plenty of laughs from it and will eventually pick up the Blu-ray so I can watch it again someday. I need to re-watch the original show, I haven't seen much of it for years and years.

Friday Night Movies 902

Monstrum 2018 Story by Jeong-uk Byeon and Heo-dam, screenplay by Heo-dam and Jung-ho Huh, directed by Jong-ho Huh. A Korean giant monster story set in the 15th century.

King Jungjong's got some trouble with his Prime Minister. The PM is turning the citizen's against the King with a series of plots to instill fear into the citizens. He plans to depose the King and take over. There's a plague going on, and now, a monster is killing the locals in the countryside.

Yoon Gyeom was a member of the King's guard but he had a difference of opinion with the king and was booted out of the court 5 years earlier. Yoon had gone to live in the countryside with his right hand man Sung Han and Myung, a young girl he'd saved from being killed by the Prime minister's men. The country is having many issues and food is short. Muck of them are the PM's doing. He's totally ruthless and human lives mean nothing to him.

The King send Heo to ask Yoon to help find and kill the monster. The King suspects it's the Prime Minister behind the beast but there is no proof. A large group of men are organized, they march into the woods intending to flush the beast and kill it. The group is half civilians rounded up to help and 100 of the Prime Minister's soldiers. The soldiers soon turn on the civilians but the monster shows up and all hell breaks out.

The rest of the movie is about trying to survive the monster and the Prime Minister. There's plenty of action, colorful locations, a great giant monster, plenty of court intrigue, an incredibly scummy villain, endless slaughter and wonderful explosions. Entertaining enough for me to order the Blu-ray. I will want to see this one again.

Men On The Hour 1977 Written and directed by Ming-Hua Chen. A dull kung fu film made soporific by the dubbing. It was a struggle to get through the thing. I have rarely seen a worse kung fu film. You can check it out on YouTube but I wouldn't recommend it.

Friday Night Movies 851

Wooshi: The Demon Slayer 2009 Written and directed by Choi Dong-hoon. A Korean fantasy comedy with plenty of action and effects.

The movie mixes events from the modern day and 500 in the past. Some of the characters are immortal beings, others have magical powers. Back in the past the goblins have taken the Flute Of the Prophecy. The Immortal Taoist Wizards band together with The Master and Hwadam and banish the goblins from our world. They retrieve the Flute, break it in two, and in trust half to The Master and Hwadam. When The Master is murdered his student Wooshi is blamed for the crime and imprisoned in a painting. We know it's really Hwadam what done the dirty deed. He's a real monster.

In modern day the Immortal Taoist Wizards find the goblins are escaping their imprisonment and hiding among the humans. They can transform, only their green blood gives them away. The Immortal Taoist Wizards get Wooshi and his dog pal Chorangyi out of the painting and they have a smashing time fighting the goblins. On top of that it turns out Hwadam has gotten even more evil.

It's action packed and the magical effects are top notch. The story has a nice sense of humor and the baddie gets put down. I was glad to have picked up the Shout Factory Blu-ray from Hamilton Books for a fiver. I'll watch it again.

Crumbs 2015 Written and directed by Miguel Llansó. A rather surreal Spanish-Ethiopian science fiction story set some centuries after a big collapse. Candy is a deformed man who lives with a woman in an abandoned bowling alley. He scavenges for ancient artifacts, there's some sort of economy left over that allows a trade in collectibles. Above the landscape, floating in the sky, is a dormant spaceship. It's been there since before the big collapse.

There's a rumor going around that it's coming back to life and Candy thinks they should be on the ship if it leaves. He sets off an a quest for tickets, wondering through the landscape, following the train tracks. Eventually he finds a guy running a cinema showing the Turkish Superman film.Candy throws his Superman top into the river and the movie is over.

It's such a personal story that I can't tell you what it's all about. It was sort of interesting to watch, wondering what was going to come next, but the message is so lost in the medium that Marshall McLuhan would just tell me to go to bed and not think about it.

Tidal Wave 2009

Tidal Wave 2009 Written and directed by JK Youn.

It's a 120 min Korean disaster movie that takes about 75 mins to get to the tidal wave and all the destruction. First we meet a whole bunch of people and then many of them get slaughtered by the water. It's always a good idea to live far inland. The melodrama is a bit tedious and the CGI is fair to good. I wouldn't need to see it again.

Jonathan Ross's Asian Invasion

Jonathan Ross hosts Jonathan Ross's Asian Invasion, a three part look at Asian cinema, circa 2006.

Episode 1 Japan Jonathan spends some time with Ryuhei Kitamura who's first film Versus was a big international cult hit. I liked it, I even have two DVDs of it. Jonathan takes Ryuhei shopping for DVDs, he then shows clips from Casshern, Ping Pong, Wild Zero, The Calamari Wrestler. He talks about other directors and their films: Shunji Iwai, "Beat" Takishi Kitano, Takashi Miike, Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Oshii and others.

Episode 2 Hong Kong Jonathan talks to one of my favorite Chinese actors and directors Stephen Chow and looks at the comedy of HK cinema. Then he spends some time looking at crime cinema and Michelle Yeoh.

Episode 3 Korea Jonathan visits Korea to look at their movies.

Friday Night Movies 731

Stung is a 2015 movie about some giant wasps that attack an outdoor party. The caterers try to survive but have a tough time of it. Adam Aresty is the screen writer and Benni Diez is the director. It's the first feature for the both of them. It's not too bad, there's some gory bits, a bit of comedy, some horrible monsters and a fairly good cast. The wasps are the borrowing kind, they're also ones that  lay their eggs in other insects. Once they become massive, they lay their eggs into the biggest hosts available. Did you guess the party guests? You'd be right.

That's Matt O'Leary, Clifton Collins Jr, Lance Henriksen and Jessica Cook. Lance and Clifton are the only ones that I knew. Lance makes it through two thirds of the movie. Often you only seen him in small roles these days. Mostly it was a fairly good movie, though a bit slow to get rolling, I enjoyed it but didn't feel the need to go pick one up once it was over. Good combination of CGI and practical monster effects. Sadly, nothing else was that special about it.

I think the same can be said about our second feature, Sector 7. It's a 2011 Korean movie about a monster on a oil rig. It was 3D and that might explain some of the goofy shots. The monster is another fast growing critter, it comes on board as a luminescent swimmy thing that escapes and grows massive. The beast reminded me of another Korean monster, the thing from The Host, but that was a much more interesting monster. The creature starts killing and it's pretty much chase about and die. The one thing that bothered me was two of the characters had motorcycles on board the rig. They even ride them around in an early scene. That only makes sense when they use the bikes to defeat the critter later. I can't believe anyone would let them ride their bikes on a rig. I'd only give the thing a 5 and wouldn't need to pick one up.