LorenzoL

The thing with Tarantino is that he has been heavily influenced by movie genres that sometimes is very hard to tell from his movies whether he's paying "homage" to them or blatantly copying them without making it his own.
Kill Bill is a very good example of this. From the appearance of the "Shaw Scope" logo to the duel with O-Ren, which Tarantino "lifted" it from "Lady Snowblood" including the music, opinions are varied. I didn't find it particularly bloody the whole fight with the Crazy 88's since it reminded me of other movies with similar battles.

Dimension X

Can't say I blame you for cutting out early. It wasn't really a "good" movie (but I still liked it). The big fight at the end, using the gymnastics and exercise equipment, was pretty good. The BMX bike fight was just as silly as it sounds like it'd be. Most of the rest of the fight scenes were just standard stuff.

BobO'Link

Pulp Fiction is a film I was all set to *not* like but wound up liking quite a bit. It's the film that convinced me John Travolta was actually a decent actor. Inglorious Basterds was also pretty good - enough so that I picked up the original Inglorious Bastards to see the inspiration (I liked it better). Dusk to Dawn surprised me as well. Again, I was ready to not like it but found it oddly attractive and enjoyable. Enough so that I purchased the Dusk to Dawn trilogy to watch during this year's Horror Challenge. I've never seen Kill Bill but it's never sounded like a film I'd like. I *did* watch Django Unchained and while I mostly enjoyed the film the violence was *way* over the top for my tastes. I'll not revisit that one.
If "over the top gore" is what's turning you off horror movies I'd say you're chosing the "wrong" ones. There are *many* horror movies that don't use gore as a scare factor and are the ones I tend to prefer. I'm absolutely not a fan of slasher/gore/body count/giallo type horror films and usually try to avoid them. I avoid the extreme "blood porn" action films too.

LorenzoL

Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Carpenter's homage to a Martial Arts movie as he bring us Kurt Russell and it is through his eyes that we see the crazy happenings in Chinatown. As he states in the movie, "He's an outsider" and does not realize what the heck is going on and what he got involved with by trying to locate his missing truck. A big favourite of mine growing up, it has not lost its charms. Awesome Blu-ray release with extras and must listen commentary by Carpenter and Russell.

Five Element Ninjas (1982)
Basic run of the mill Kung-Fu plot but crazy ass fight sequences including getting killed by crazy contraptions. Nobody is safe. Highly entertaining. Media Blaster Blu-ray is exceptional.

My Wife is a Gangster 3 (2006)
Shu Qui as a HK Mob Boss' daughter running away to South Korea to hide from killers and being provided refuge by Korean Mafia underlings who don't know her identity. I like this movie a lot and the bulk of the humour is provided by Hyun Young as the translator who likes to embellish her translations causing even more confusion.

LJG765

Well, not all horror movies. The past year or two, I've been watching older ones like the original The Fly or Hitchcock films. I think my dislike for horror movies stems from when I was a kid. My sister and brother are much older than me (8 years and 12 years older respectively) so they'd watch them and tell me to cover my eyes and then they'd tell me when the bad scenes were over. Well, being older siblings, they'd tell me to open them at the money shots-when I was 6. Then, as I grew older and my tastes emerged, I've just never grown to like them or blood and gore stuff. Or the stuff for the cheap jump factor. Blah. I do enjoy films like Seven-more psychological thrillers than anything. Still, the entire genre is not something I enjoy on an everyday basis.

Gobear

I don't think it's any secret that Tarantino doesn't have an original bone in his body. All of his films are Frankenstein creations, films that have been sewn together using concepts from other films. His artistry comes in the way the he blends the stolen ideas together. Kill Bill I and II are an amalgam of 70s blaxploitation, Shaw Brothers wuxia films, and spaghetti westerns, yet they come off as wholly fresh and new.

Blood for blood's sake is repulsive. I dislike movies like the Hostel series because those films wallow in sadism. I generally prefer supernatural horror, but a slasher film can be artistic. Take Hitchcock's Frenzy, which contains grotesque scenes where women are raped and strangled, yet the violence happens offscreen. The first tiem we see a murder, the camera stays entirely on the vicitm's face as we hear the sounds of the rpae happening. Then in this scene, we know that woman is being killed and Hitchcock uses the camera in a long traveling shot that emphasizes the horror without showing anything.

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The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Watch City on Fire and then watch Reservoir Dogs. Now try to imagine Tarantino was telling the truth when he said he'd never seen the former before he made his film.

mrcellophane

If you want more verification about Travolta's acting chops, I would highly recommend Blow Out (1981). I watched it earlier this month because the "F! This Movie" podcast did an episode on it. Then you can pop in Saturday Night Fever and have a "This Travolta guy can act!" marathon.

As for Quentin Tarantino, I'm a huge fan of Jackie Brown. It's definitely the least graphic of his films and has some of the most sympathetic characters. I'm toying with the idea of working my way through Tarantino's filmography this month. I've never seen Reservoir Dogs or Inglorious Basterds and need to rectify that.

Lord, I love that film! I may have to revisit it this month. I like your observations about Russell's character. It's refreshing to see a protagonist that doesn't know everything about the situation and has been homing skills for decades for just such a situation.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I completely forgot how Alice, Sweet Alice plays out, so it was like watching for the first time, all over again. It was ok. The only thing I remember about it is that the Anchor Bay dvd went out of print ages ago and it commanded a high price.

Trevor

Watched my first ever Smallville last night. It was ok, but my wife liked it, so I'll likely try to seize that opportunity to power thru it. It'll take at least 5 years, but I'm looking forward it now.

Ash Ketchum

I've seen all of Tarantino's films in theaters (except for that anthology film FOUR ROOMS, which I still have yet to see).

I loved KILL BILL, VOL. 1. I saw it four times in theaters (including on 42nd Street where it would have been a grindhouse hit once upon a time) and many more times on DVD (I have the Japanese cut.)

I did not love KILL BILL VOL. 2. But I've seen it twice.

I saw DEATHPROOF once and did not like it.

I like all the rest of them but have yet to see the last two a second time, mostly because of their length, although I have both on DVD. But I loved seeing them in theaters.

ntnon

I tend to think that the phrases "trying too hard" and "being a bit too clever for one's own good" sum up my feelings. I didn't really grasp for many years how one COULD try "too" hard, but then watching references and comments get shoe-horned in to try and prove a point or just 'be clever' rather than serve thebplot or fit... I think I get it.

Then again, it's in the eye of the beholder - I don't like the Superman monologue from Kill Bill because it's 'wrong'; many seem to appreciate it's nuances and the commentary/counterpoint it provides...

davidh777

I seem to have gotten mixed up with the April challenge because I just watched Sketch Artist 2 on Hulu. I thought I'd seen it years ago, but maybe that was the original. While I was on Hulu, I watched Assassin's Creed Lineage because I recently started playing the game. Only 35 minutes was just enough time to throw in some VG-inspired images and resolve the plot.

Did you start with the pilot? I started watching the show on DVD with season 4 (long story) and stuck it through till the end, though there were some tough times toward the end. Some people say that the early seasons are the best (I like Erica Durance, though) so you might like it if you stick with it, and as you know shows often need to get their footing early on. I need to catch up on those in one of these challenges.

ntnon

It makes great sense to me - but I have a slightly different take on it (sometimes), because I far prefer SOME OF the "unrealistic" over-the-top films simply because it makes things less personal and more fictional. I tend to find that I would much rather be entertained or scared in a context that is explicitly fictional than dangerously realistic.

ntnon

Me, too. I remember enjoying Vol. 1 much, much more than I'd expected. And then getting my hopes up for part 2, only to be Matrix-ed again..

ntnon

Arrow is great. Wonder Woman was a surprise - dark and mythological rather than "superhero-y". I've had to warn a lot of parents who'd hoped their young daughters would like it to watch it first and be sure..!

shadokitty

I decided to continue with more kaiju this morning, and when I got back from a run to the dump, turned on Godzilla, King of the Monsters. Thought I knew where I put my Volume 1 case of the Classic Media Collection but luckily Netflix has all of them. I like Gojira too, but I was just in the mood for the US version.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Try watching all the indie films that came out after Pulp Fiction and tried to imitate that style. If you want to see your two phrases in action, you'll see it in spades.

Dimension X

Smallville is a real mixed bag; every season seemed to be about 1/4 crap, 1/2 so-so, and 1/4 excellent (but I'm a pretty forgiving Superman fan-boy). I need to go back and watch the first season because I don't think I caught every episode when it first aired.
I liked the later seasons best, after Erica Durance joined the cast, and especially after Green Arrow showed up.

ntnon

Oh, absolutely! He's hardly the worst for it, if perhaps the best known. Lucky Number Slevin seemed packed full of random cultural references in this mode.... but most if them were neither heavy-handed nor sneery nor film-stopping, so (for the most part) I actually enjoyed the asides. So I suspect viewing mood has a lot to do with it, too.

sleepyhead55

I actually didn't have a problem with this since I realized that this film wasn't going to be that realistic and was closer to a fantasy. I just started laughing at some of those scenes. I was entertained and that's all that really matters.
I agree and find this more noticeble in his latter films. Some of the dialogue just goes on and doesn't really seem to serve any purpose. I had a real hard sitting through all of Inglorious Basterds but I watched Pulp Fiction a few months ago and the two and a half hours just flew by. I don't know whether or not it was because the film was more interesting or the fact that the dialogue was better and made more sense. In Kill Bill, I think the one scene where Uma Thurman walks into that bar and talks to the Sonny Chiba character takes a bit too long and just bores me a little.

BobO'Link

I finally cracked open that 3-disc set of The Maltese Falcon for viewing last night. Since I've seen the 1941 film several times I started with the 1931 version. It was quite good, fairly true to the novel, and essentially the same as the 41 film. Ricardo Cortez, as Sam Spade, isn't nearly as good as Bogart (and I didn't expect him to be) playing the character with a bit more humor. He has a Cheshire Cat type grin, used frequently, and is a bit too flippant but overall is quite passable. It has a coda where Spade visits Ruth one last time in her jail cell. It's rather effective and helps Cortez's characterization considerably. I was surprised to see Dwight Frye, Renfield in 1931s Dracula, in a supporting role (the 2 films were released ~3 months apart). Overall it plays like the early 30s film it is with the typical pacing/staging of films from that era.

1936's Satan Met A Lady was interesting but not *truly* the same tale. It has many of the same double-crosses and critical scenes but is re-written enough to be a "I *think* I've seen that before" type production. Sam Spade is now Ted Shayne, more a type looking for a easy mark among wealthy widows than a true detective, and most of the other characters names are changed. Bette Davis is in this one as Valerie Purvis (the Ruth Wonderly character in the 1931/41 films). It's quite interesting to see her in a early role but it's not a powerhouse performance. Overall this one is a fairly good "programmer" but nothing spectacular.

I plan to watch the 1941 version tonight.

Oh... I should add my 4 year old granddaughter came in while I was watching the 1931 version and asked "Is this the one with the flying turtle, pa?" Yes... it appears I've created a monster...

Ash Ketchum

SATAN MET A LADY's light touch really confounded me when I saw it umpteen years ago. At the end, they're leading Bette Davis off to jail (for murder, right?) and she's still exchanging rom-com banter with the "hero" as they're taking her away. (I wonder what Davis thought of this. There must be a record somewhere.)

Re: your granddaughter. When my daughter was four, I had SON OF GODZILLA playing on TV on one of the local channels and she got hooked on it. As a friend of mine put it, "The apple never falls far from the tree."

shadokitty

Nothing wrong with creating kaiju fans while they're young. You might want to point them to the Kaijucast podcast too. About every other episode is a review of a kaiju movie.

Trevor

Any story involving me watching anything out of order involves me being chained down with toothpicks holding my eyelids open.
I actually enjoyed both Smallville (pilot and episode 2) and the Wonder Woman film more that I let on. I'm just such a DC fanboy that I usually minimize my praise for all things related to try to fit in. I'm not proud of that.