shadokitty

Only the 2nd day of the challenge, and I've already ran into my first dud. I was browsing Hulu for something to watch, and thought I'd try Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. I suppose eing a video game movie, I should have had lower expectations, but I watched it anyways. In a way, I'm glad I suffered through it, as there was one high point near the end. Master Chief is actually in the movie near the end. It was cool seeing him in action. One thing I have to wonder though. Is Master Chief a man, or a robot? I've never played the Halo series, as I have a PS3, not an X Box.

LorenzoL

Enter the Dragon
I don't think we will ever see another Martial Arts actor like Bruce Lee. Many credit him as being the actor that popularize the Martial Arts genre in the West and you can't find fault in that theory specially in the above movie.
The movie has Bruce at his best as he goes off to participate in the tournament and just radiates cool and charisma. I highly doubt the movie would had the same impact with another actor. Great fight choreography and the surprise here is Jim Kelly. Also it has the brief appearance by Angela Mao.

The movie is far from perfect as it has the basic plot of a Martial Arts movie: a former student from the Shaolin temple is bringing disgrace and Bruce is in charge of stopping him. Also Bruce's looking for revenge for his sister's death. The main villain is laughable and not very threatening. Hey, I'm Han and I have a detachable knife hand to kill you with!!! Plus you have John Saxon as a Martial Arts fighter.
Even with its faults, there's no question that this is a must see for any person interested in watching a Martial Arts movie. Top 5 for sure.
One of my favourite movie line of all time: "Boards don't hit back!"

I watched it on my 2 Disc WB DVD as I have yet to buy the 40th Anniversary edition on Blu-ray.

LorenzoL

Five Venoms
This movie is considered as one of the classics of Kung Fu cinema. It was highly influential in western pop culture. Having said that, I have always felt this movie was highly overrated. The concept is perfect but the execution feels off. Trying to find out who the "venoms" are, plays more like a mystery than a Martial Arts movie.

The same Dragon Dynasty that botched the "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" on Blu-ray, actually came up with a strong release for this movie. PQ was really good and sounds was okay with a lossy 2.0 DD. The commentary with Bey Logan is very good and informative.

LorenzoL

Executioners from Shaolin
Lau Kar-Leung created an iconic villain in this movie. Priest Pai Mei (White Eyebrows) played exceptionally by Lo Lieh is one of the top villain if not the top one, created by the Shaw Brothers studio. Unfortunately for this movie, the villain ends up being more interesting than the rest of the heroes. Chen Kuan-Tai, Wong Yu and Lili Li played the thankless roles opposite Lo Lieh. It doesn't help the fact that Chen Kuan-Tai play a stubborn character in his stance about the Crane style of fighting. The last fight with Wong Yu is a bit of a downer since it all plays out like he "lucked" out in defeating Pai Mei. Nice cameo by Gordon Liu helps the proceeding.

I have the DD DVD but couldn't find it so I watched the English Dub via Hulu Plus. Great image btw!

LorenzoL

I took a break from the Martial Arts movies, to watch the rest of the episodes of Agent Carter series. Uneven first season but I'm hoping for a 2nd one since I like Hayley Atwell and the character of Peggy Carter.

Ash Ketchum

The film was not as well-received in HK that year as was expected (HOUSE OF 72 TENANTS was a bigger hit). A lot of the audience there resented the fact that Bruce plays an agent working for the British. If you took Lee's fight scenes out, the rest of the film is barely tolerable. HK fans preferred Lee's earlier film, FIST OF FURY (released in the U.S. as THE CHINESE CONNECTION), which remains my favorite Lee film.

John Saxon had karate and other martial arts training before making ENTER THE DRAGON. Here is a relevant quote from an interview with Saxon:

Whole interview: http://littledragon.builtfree.org/saxon.html

LorenzoL

Thanks for the link! Even with his Martial Arts training, Saxon just seems strange to be one of main cast for the movie.

I'm hoping to to watch Fist of Fury along with the Jet Li remake of Fist of Legend during the challenge. Heck, I might even go for the triple bill with Donnie Yen's Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen.

Ash Ketchum

Bruce Lee fought the Japanese in THE CHINESE CONNECTION. Keye Luke (who played Kato 26 years before Bruce Lee did) fought the Japanese in SALUTE TO THE MARINES, which I watched tonight.

SALUTE TO THE MARINES (1943) is an MGM production, in Technicolor, about a retired Marine Corps sergeant (Wallace Beery) living in the Philippines who gets pulled back into action when the Japanese invade on Dec. 7, 1941. (Keye Luke plays his sidekick.) Why did I purchase this DVD from Warner Archive? Because my father’s unit was used to provide background extras for the film in scenes shot for the prologue and epilogue at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, where my father served during the war as a Marine Corps Drill Instructor. And the reason I watched it today was because today is the 30th anniversary of my father’s death.

Is my father in the film? It’s hard to say. I spotted one guy marching at the head of a formation who could have been him, but it was too hard to tell for sure.

In any event, it’s quite a rousing film about the war, focused on the Philippines and the Americans who were stationed there. There’s quite a spectacular battle scene late in the film where Beery leads a contingent of marines and local Filipinos in defending a bridge to keep the Japanese invaders from getting across. And it’s all in Technicolor. It may not be as intense as the similarly-themed BATAAN (1943) and BACK TO BATAAN (1945), but it’s quite an astounding film in its own right. And now that I think of it, the battle over the bridge looks forward to a very similar scene in Sergio Leone's DUCK, YOU SUCKER (1972, aka A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE), 29 years later.

mrcellophane

I learned from Ash Ketchum's list that Lisabeth Scott died in January. I will have to rewatch The Racket, a favorite unsung film noir. She was also very good in Dark City. I also learned that Bob O'Link watched Noah and didn't enjoy it as much as I did!

I had lots of plans this weekend, but Oklahoma got snow and ice dumped on it so I was stuck at home. I decided it was the perfect time to watch The Towering Inferno which is entirely too long and overblown. However, I enjoy Irwin Allen's brand of long and overblown so I enjoyed it quite a bit. Paul Newman and Steve McQueen are always entertaining, and it was cool to see Fred Astaire and Jennifer Jones way past their Hollywood heydays. Most of Allen's films are just spectacle, but this one bends over backward to push its controversial pro-firefighter agenda. McQueen's exasperated fire chief never passes up an opportunity to berate everyone about fire safety and prevalent fire-related ignorance. The film made me nostalgic for the disaster books that I loved as a teen.

sleepyhead55

I actually have Dead Reckoning on DVD and might pull that one out since it also has Bogart. The Towering Inferno is in my unwatched pile on BD. To be honest, I've got other Steve McQueen films to watch (mainly The Getaway).

I watched The Replacement Killers and it's a perfectly good time waster. I'm not really sure what the criticisms were but I found the film enjoyable. I guess the dialogue isn't exactly the best and Mira Sorvino and Chow Yun Fat don't really have that much chemistry together.

shadokitty

I watched UFC 180 earlier today, and noted one thing in particular. It seems rare for a match to last the entire amount of rounds. The combat gets so intense, 9 times out of 10, the ref stops the fight and declares a winner early.

mrcellophane

If given the choice between The Towering Inferno and The Getaway, I would definitely choose the latter. It's a tense, gritty crime film that has some great performances and tone.

Ash Ketchum

Yeah, the Liz Scott film I watched, which I'd never seen before, was TWO OF A KIND (1951), in which Liz convinces gambler Edmond O'Brien to lose the tip of his pinky (shades of THE YAKUZA!) in order to impersonate the long-lost son of a millionaire, all to worm his way into the millionaire's life, get recognized as his lost son and reap millions in inheritance. It's a pretty ridiculous plot, but the actors are all good, it's fast-paced and only 75 min. long. Liz is the one who entices O'Brien into it and keeps him motivated to stick with it during the shaky phases of it. (The entire thing seemed pretty shaky to me and hard to believe anybody would sign on for it.) It's on Columbia's Bad Girls of Film Noir DVD set, which includes another Liz movie, a melodrama with Charlton Heston called BAD FOR EACH OTHER (1953), which is probably not eligible for this challenge, but is a fascinating movie anyway. It's always great to see Heston in one of his few b&w movies. His debut film, DARK CITY, also co-starred Scott.

There are some great Liz Scott movies that are eligible for this challenge. In addition to the ones cited above, there are THE PITFALL, TOO LATE FOR TEARS, I WALK ALONE, RED MOUNTAIN, SILVER LODE and THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (her first--which also has Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas and Van Heflin!). Oh, and this one, the "color noir," DESERT FURY (1947):



Burt Lancaster is in it, 5th billed, as the hunky, good-hearted boy-next-door deputy sheriff. Liz ignores him in favor of sleazebag John Hodiak, who has a jealous sidekick played by snarling Wendell Corey. Mary Astor (THE MALTESE FALCON) plays Liz's mother, a gambling house proprietor in Nevada. Miklos Rozsa did the music. Unforgettable.

shadokitty

I just found out that apparently nature shows can count as adventures. At least by Netflix. I just watched Search for the Great Sharks: IMAX as I saw it listed under the heading of exciting movies.

davidh777

We watched two more episodes last night.

I saw season 1 and thought there was some good stuff in it, but it didn't grab me the way I'd hoped. I might go on to S2 someday.

This is definitely on my list.

I'd like to catch up on this series but I'm doing a poor job of staying current on TV shows I watch by myself rather than with the family. Two episodes behind on The Walking Dead, only three episodes into Agent Carter and one into 12 Monkeys. And they all qualify!

sleepyhead55

I also have Desert Fury on DVD and will probably watch it now that you recommended it. Most of the reviews I've read seem to mention and focus on the lesbian overtones. I also have Yakuza and will probably watch that at some point as well.

I found a bunch of Lizbeth Scott films on Youtube so if anyone is interested in her films they can go there to watch it.

Ash Ketchum

For some reason THE FIVE VENOMS really took off with 42nd Street audiences back in the day and to this day, people still refer to the actors by their Venom names, Lizard, Toad, Centipede, Scorpion, et al. I tend to only know the actors by their real names and have been unable to connect them with their Venom names, so when they say "Lizard," I'm not sure who the hell they're talking about until I look it up and see that it's Kuo Chui.

In any event, the five actors making up the Venoms went on to do a whole series of exemplary kung fu films with director Chang Cheh, most of which I enjoy more than FIVE VENOMS, e.g. INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN, REBEL INTRUDERS, THE KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, SHAOLIN RESCUERS, DAREDEVILS OF KUNG FU, etc. I've reviewed a lot of these on IMDB as well.

BobO'Link

I was about to ask just *who* you've been talking to as I've only discussed the movie with a couple of local people when I remembered I put my rating in my list last night!

But you are correct, at least partially - I didn't care for Noah as a "Biblical Epic." I recently purchased a copy of Noah in spite of so-so reviews. I tend to like Biblical Epics, even the "bad" ones, so thought it would be OK anyway. IMDB lists is at "Action/Adventure/Drama" - cool! It qualifies so I don't have to wait for the Historical Challenge.

It wasn't all that "bad" but I don't know if I'd truly consider it a Biblical Epic which is mainly due to how the subject matter was treated. OK... so the story of Noah's Ark is rather short with little background information making it somewhat difficult to bring to the screen without *some* embellishment. I accept that as most (all?) such films have varying levels of embellishment to get a good running length. Noah went to the "what if" well of thinking a few times too many and altered several events of the story too much to still be a fairly accurate Biblical Epic. That's because it combines many of the flood accounts which alters some key aspects of the Jewish version of the story (which is what I think put off the majority of Christian viewers). In spite of this it has some good imagery and is a fairly good action movie. It's just not the Biblical accounting of Noah many were expecting which is what I feel hurt its box office and general appeal. My rating was based on the "Biblical Epic" aspect. If it had been called something other than Noah or I were to view it strictly as a "Action/Adventure" film I'd give it a higher rating.

BobO'Link

And... Noah was the first of 3 films dealing with some legend/myth I watched yesterday that came up wanting. The other two are Robin Hood (2010) and The Legend of Hercules (2014).

Robin Hood, like Noah, is not a "bad" film but it's not really what it appears to be. Instead of a retelling of the legend we all know parts have been changed (reimagined) for no reason other than to put new ownership on the story. I watched the Director's Cut. Frankly by the time the film ended and we get the payoff I felt somewhat cheated on the Robin Hood front.

At the end of the film we find that Robin is now

I felt ripped off as I saw this coming as soon as Robin met Sir Walter Loxley.

Once again, it was a very good Action/Adventure movie with a stellar cast but it's *not* "Robin Hood." I expected more considering the names involved and perhaps that's why I feel a bit cheated.

The Legend of Hercules has little in common with *any* of the Hercules tales other than that he's the son of Zeus (actually with the name Heracles) by the mortal woman Alcmene. Amphitryon (his "father") is made out to be somewhat of a tyrant and Alcmene sleeps with Zeus out of spite and hatred (she actually honored him) towards the womanizing Amphitryon (who was faithful) rather than Zeus being in disguise as Amphitryon thus tricking her into bed while Amphitryon is avenging her brother's deaths. It's *another* "reimagined" origin story.

I frequently felt like I was watching another of those films from "The Asylum" intended to rip off a better film released that same year. The action was mostly bad and over-utilized 300 style slow motion in spurts. A attack would start out fast, slow down for a second, pick back up, slow down for another second, pick back up, etc., etc. The story was trite and cliche throughout with horrible lines and poor acting. Hercules *did* slay the Nemean Lion (although in somewhat altered form) in the only one of the "Twelve Labours" in the film but it was horribly done with a laughably bad CGI lion. I wish I had heeded the reviews better on this one!

I still have the Dwayne Johnson Hercules film in the queue... I hope it's better... but based on reviews it sounds like another rough slog...

shadokitty

I wanted to like Spartacus: Blood and Sand when I turned on the show on Netflix this morning, but ended up turning it off. I saw no real plot, wooden acting, and lots of blood, and that was all.

shadokitty

If anyone who has Prime is interested, I see there are a lot of Ninja movies on Prime.

omike

I just happened to watch The Racket last night because I wanted some cops and robbers action and this one seemed to fit the bill. I thought it was pretty good with Robert Ryan's performance as the old fashioned, violent gangster making the movie for me. There's also a strong supporting cast including an appealing Lisabeth Scott as a singer and a great performance by William Conrad as a rumpled, sleazy investigator. It provided just what I wanted to wrap up my Sunday viewing.

I also watched this yesterday and it's probably the most interesting thing I've seen so far in this challenge. I'm a big George Reeves fan and I was initially disappointed that there was so much Louis Simo, the fictional detective investigating the death, and so little George. By the end I realized that Louis was actually the main character and the Reeves case was acting like a mirror to his own life. Looking at it this way it turned out to be a very good film and I need to watch it again with this in mind. That said, I still would have like more about Reeves especially since Ben Affleck did a great job portraying him.

shadokitty

I watched my first episode of The Adventures of Superman for the challenge earlier today. George Reeves has probably got to be the best Superman. Too bad he didn't enjoy portraying him more, but I guess he felt typecast into the role.

LorenzoL

I would love to read some of the reviews that you done for the Shaw movies. Any links?

LorenzoL

The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter
Even with a great performance by Gordon Liu, this movie is all about what could have been. During production, the star Fu Sheng died in a car accident which resulted in a rewrite and delay as the movie focus changed from Fu Sheng "6th Brother" character to Gordon Liu's "5th Brother" character. The change in tone is noticeable but Lau Kar-leung does a good job in paying tribute to his star last role. And unlike other Lau Kar-leung movies, this one lacks humour. It might have been the tragic death of Fu Sheng but there's no comic relief in sight and it seems like we stumbled upon a Chang Cheh movie. Even the ending is stoic and somber as
I found Lili Li great as the Matriarch of the Yang family along with Kara Hui and even a cameo by the director himself as a hunter. Great sequence of "Defanging the wolves" and it contains great pole fighting sequences.

I watched the Dragon Dynasty DVD which has a decent PQ and AQ however, they screwed up in providing only the Mandarin mono instead of the Cantonese as it was originally released. The iTunes release is on 1080p and has the Cantonese track on their Celestial release. However, no English Dub.