LorenzoL

The daughter might have been the catalyst for his exile but didn't find her very important however, you are right about the wife. She doesn't have a big role in the sequel but she's there to remind Jimmy Wang Yu about leaving the Martial Arts behind.

shadokitty

I think the Heisei Gamera films are marketed more to adults maybe, because other than Gamera the Brave, there is such thing as the annoying kid, unless you count a girl villain as one in Gamera 3.

Earlier today I caught part of one of the kung fu movies on El Rey. I watched The Lady is the Boss. I didn't have time to watch it all, but even if I did, I don't know if I would have counted it, since it seemed more comedy to me than action.

sleepyhead55

Watched a couple of movies today to check off a couple of boxes on the checklist:

Kill Bill Vol I was an entertaining film. I guess I had the same impression I had when I watched this around 10 years ago. It's entertainment and I treat it as such which is why I don't get annoyed with stuff like the spraying blood. I have to say that the dialogue here isn't really funny or good here (as like in Pulp Fiction). And I also found one of the later fight scenes (the latter half of the Crazy 88's one) a little too long for my liking. Not one of Tarentino's best but it is nowhere near as long and exhausting to watch as either Django Unchained or Inglorious Basterds.

Also watchedChanging Lanes today on Netflix. I liked the first 45 minutes of this but the last third seemed kinda predictable and really the characters started behaving like idiots. It's watchable but not something I would go out of my way to see again.

pacaway

Went to a couple foreign movies at an art house theater today, one of which should qualify for this. The first one was Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, an Israeli courtroom drama of a woman trying to divorce her husband.

The second, and qualifying film, was A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. The first Iranian vampire movie. It was okay... more worth seeing because of the novelty of it than anything. Very nicely shot in black & white.

lisadoris

So I just finished the Amazon series Bosch and it was much better than I expected. It always helps when you have a couple alums from The Wire on your show. I hope Amazon gives it a second season and now I might have to go read the books.

Ash Ketchum

The three '90s Gamera films are great, especially the first and third, GAMERA GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE and GAMERA III: THE REVENGE OF IRIS. Lots of location shooting in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan and use of actual on-air TV talent to report on the kaiju goings-on. Steven Seagal's daughter, Ayako Fujitani, plays a key role in all three. There are scenes in GAMERA III where you'll just swear they filmed the monster attacks as they happened! In one, the usual Friday night antics in Shibuya are interrupted by a monster attack. In another, there's a battle between Gamera and Iris at Kyoto Station, filmed with two actors in monster suits on a miniature set that's so well crafted that the scene looks like they simply went to Kyoto Station and filmed an actual monster battle.

Shinobu Nakayama, who plays the ornithologist character, played Jet Li's Japanese wife in FIST OF LEGEND.

coyoteblue

Nakama Yukie (Trick/Gokusen/etc) is an early victim of Iris.

shadokitty

Because I was in the mood for kaiju, as well as to prepare for sometime watching the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy, I just revisited the original movie that started all the Mothra appearances, Mothra. At least to me, the movie still holds up.

Trevor

I think I'm going to stick with DC Comic stuff all month, to sync with our comic challenge.

Watchmen held up well for me, and the animated Wonder Woman film from a few years back was decent. Maybe I'll start Arrow or Smallville today.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I watched Ender's Game last night and liked it. Never read the book but I could tell they had to speed things up in the film to get where they wanted to be at in the end, so it didn't bother me as much as other people apparently. I also refuse to believe that the idea for Harry Potter just fell into Rowlings head one day, without the help of the Ender's game short story.

I'd like to see the series continued without feeling rushed but since that probably won't happen, I'll just need to start reading the books.

Next on my plate is Alice, Sweet Alice from this set http://www.crazedfanboy.com/npcr11/d...eap-chills.php

shadokitty

Continuing with kaiju, I just finished Cult of UHF: Monster From a Prehistoric Planet. I know it's a bad movie, about as bad or a little worse than the Showa Gamera films, but I still enjoy it. But then I'm a sucker for monster movies. Sometime this month, plan to watch m copy of 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

Trevor

The first book is great, an all-time classic. The next was very good iirc, but then I lost interest.

shadokitty

Just watched my first Doctor Who episode of the challenge. An old ep from series 2. I always preferred classic to new Doctor Who. Maybe it was cause of growing up seeing them on PBS.

BobO'Link

That's good to hear!

My youngest granddaughter (almost 4) came in Saturday afternoon while I was watching one of the middle three films, asked if it was "scary" (I said "no") and hung around a few minutes. She liked the flying turtle so when she came over Sunday she asked to see more of the "flying turtle movie." Hmmm... what have I done!?!?!

BobO'Link

I've always liked the original Mothra and it's even better in the remastered OAR version. Several times I've almost picked the "Rebirth" films but reviews have kept me away. I'll be interested in your opinion of those.

Dimension X

What makes you think Action/Comedies don't count? So I guess I shouldn't have counted Return to the 36th Chamber (1980) or Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985) last week either since they're both Action/Comedies.

The only thing that I can see that would disqualify anyone listing The Lady is the Boss is if they did like you, and only watched "part of" it.

EDIT: A note to anyone who recorded The Lady is the Boss off El Rey, but hasn't watched it yet; you might want to hold off watching it until next month's Drive-In Challenge since it's a very '80s movie (fashion, BMX bikes, etc.).

Dimension X

I remember liking Ender's Game, but not being overly impressed with it. I think I'd read too many fan-boys on the internet calling it the "best sci-fi book ever" - nothing would've lived up to all that hype. Haven't bothered with the sequels - yet.

BobO'Link

I've only read the first 2 (3?) books of the main "Ender" series and that was almost 30 years ago when they were first published.. I really enjoyed the first and didn't care as much for the 2nd but I still recall it being good. The "feel" of the books is quite different as it goes into more philosophical territory with the 2nd book (don't know about the others). In spite of being a major SF fan I was unaware it began as a short story. I've only read the novel. I've also not seen the film but it's on my "to purchase" short list. I can also see the need to "speed things up" for the film. There's quite a lot that happens in that ~400 page novel.

shadokitty

I didn't mean not count Action Comedies, but at least not till the end, I didn't see much action at all.

Ash Ketchum

It should be pointed out that the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy was designed as children's entertainment. I'm not sure how well they work with kids but it's worth a try. I remember when I watched them, esp. the first one, thinking how much better I'd like it if I was a child. There are some imaginative touches in one of them (I think the first one). I bought the Blu-ray 3-pack because the price was so cheap but I haven't seen them since I bought the VHS fan-subs around 15 years ago.

LJG765

I've had a fairly slow start, not sure if I'll pick up any speed the rest of the month, but hope to watch at least a few more. Just finding myself busy or traveling a lot this winter for some reason.

I did watch Kill Bill vol. 1 for the first time yesterday. I had started it one other time a few years ago, reached the part where the Bride is in the hospital and turned it off. Got through it this time, it was better than I had remembered but could have done without the blood. I'll definitely look around for Kill Bill vol. 2, hopefully for this challenge, but I wasn't that impressed with this one compared to some of Tarantino's other movies.

As for Ender's Game the movie, I enjoyed it, but thought the book was much better. I have been waiting for probably 20 years for that book to be made a movie and was a bit let down. I had hoped for more Battle School scenes but realize that it had to be hard to pare it down to fit a 2 hour movie. The books themselves I really do recommend. I agree with the others, though, that say that the first two are kind of the best. Xenocide and Children of the Mind are two of his worst-they are very esoteric, morals driven fare. Kind of difficult to get through, imo. Card took a break, then came back to the series by writing about some of the other characters in the original book and those were much better. I almost would say, you could skip books 2-4 without losing much.

I do have to say, my enjoyment of the books has been dented when Card was outed at a bigot when the movie came out. I had no idea what his beliefs were and it did tint his achievements in writing for me. I'm still not sure if I am going to buy any of his books anymore. I just am having a hard time separating the art from the artist. And to be honest, I don't want to show support for his ideas by giving him money. But...I really do enjoy the books and don't feel like they have his opinions written in. I haven't gone back and reread them since, but I don't feel like he was trying to share them with his books.

Dimension X

How much of the movie did you see? Yeah, there was a lot of "story" and the inevitable training sequences. But there was the dancing-fight scene at the disco. A fight between the prostitutes/new students and their johns and the waiters/pimps. A fight with the Lady Boss and the waiters/pimps. The BMX fight at a construction site. A few more fights at the disco and a bar. And the big fight in the gymnasium at the end. There was plenty of kung fu (and bike fu) action in that movie. I just wish I'd waited until next month to watch it since it was such a goofy flick.

sleepyhead55

I find that I don't really love any Tarentino films except for maybe Pulp Fiction. I liked the Kill Bill films, but I don't exactly love them and would only watch maybe once every few years. I saw Jackie Brown once and kinda liked it but I'm not sure how much I'd rewatch it. I think I might watch it for the challenge since it fulfills one of the categories. And I find most of Tarentino's current output tedious. Those films aren't unwatchable but they are a pain to slog through.

LJG765

I wouldn't say I've watched all of his films, but I've mostly enjoyed the ones I have except for Reservoir Dogs. Like you, Pulp Fiction is probably my favorite. I enjoyed Inglorious Basterds, though the first bit is tough to slog through for me. From Dusk to Dawn is alright as well. Hmm, was just going though his filmography. I didn't realize how few of his I've actually watched-weird, I feel like I've watched most of them but really haven't, especially the more recent ones. Also, I totally thought he directed Desperado, but I see he just acted in it. My main complaint about this is the over the top gore like in Kill Bill. Where it is so bad that it is past realistic. I know that that is his "style" but it's not something I enjoy. It's one of the reasons I just don't watch horror movies.

I enjoy action movies and gun fights and what not, but I just don't enjoy the blood porn aspect of the more extreme ones, if that makes sense...

shadokitty

I only saw a couple of those sequences.