Perkinsun Dzees

War is proof positive that Bollywood can churn out big, dumb, state-of-the-art action movies that rival anything Hollywood produces.

Hrithik Roshan stars as Kabir, a brilliant Indian soldier who has suddenly gone rogue and is now killing players on his own team. Tiger Shroff portrays Khalid, a former protege of Kabir, who is now assigned to track down and capture the man who once mentored him. Luckily, Bollywood action movie stiff Salman Khan is not around to put a damper on things.

Relentlessly silly and wildly over the top, War is also undeniable fun, with some impressively kinetic action sequences (including one in a depressurized aircraft that will no doubt be copied by some future Hollywood film) and a few nutty plot twists (including a final Face/Off inspired curve that even caught me by surprise). There isn't a wisp of subtlety to be found here -- the testosterone fueled heroics are played out with stone-faced sincerity that borders on parody, and the incessant musical score is an ear-splitting bombardment of emotional manipulation.

Yet it somehow works. Despite its over two-and-a-half hour runtime and a couple of pointless song-and-dance numbers, War is such a gleefully unrestrained blast of epic action movie craziness that it somehow makes Hobbs and Shaw look like an Antonioni film.

mphtrilogy

Elevator to the Gallows - 1958 - Criterion Channel.

This was terrific 4/4

I've had the Miles Davis score on Vinyl so glad to finally watch the movie that he wrote the score for. Directed by Louis Malle, he was just 24 at the time, incredible.

TheMovieman

Damien: Omen II (1978) — Actually not half bad and kind of enjoyed this one a bit more than the first film. Still not great but had its moments, mainly seeing Damien come to realization of who he is and coming to accept it. 3.25/5

Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981) — Sam Neill was great, even with some of the cheesier dialogue, as Damien. Feels a bit of an underwhelming conclusion to a trilogy but still was entertaining in a shocking way, going places not many films go... 3.0/5

Killer Nun (1979) — I'm not exactly steeped into the history of the 'nunsploitation' or anything, in fact this the first one I've ever seen, but I found this to be a disjointed film as many Italian films from the 70s tended to be, at least the many I've watched so far. Anika Ekberg actually wasn't half bad at least. 2.25/5

rogerrobert69

And that set the stage for the upcoming "nouvelle vague" with Truffaut, Chabrol, Godard and co. emulating Malle's shooting methods, editing and music score to (mostly) great results!

rogerrobert69

Jeune et Jolie (2013)

Rather blend François Ozon film about a 17 year-old girl who after losing her virginity turns straight away to chic prostitution with older men. When one of her regulars dies of a cardiac arrest while making love to her in a hotel room, police finds out and the cat is out of the bag. Her mother tries to make sense of her daughter's doings. The movie lacks emotions as did the main character (which was how it was meant).

rogerrobert69

Shrooms (2007)

Awful irish/american horror film about a group of youngsters going to Ireland to do mushrooms and encountering hillbillies and spirits from a haunted orphanage nearby. Everything was bad in this. But mostly how the protagonists went in and out of their 'trip' depending on the situation. If you've ever done hallucinogenics you know you can't stop the buzz on command...

rogerrobert69

Cronos (1993)

I hadn't seen this in ages and barely remembered the story. Guillermo Del Toro's first film is a bizarre mix of fantasy, suspense and horror. It's nice because it is very different story-wise, set-up wise and acting wise from the usual Hollywood similar stories but it's no masterpiece by any means. Still, worth seeing once if you're into alchemy and fantasy.
An old antiquary finds an ancient device that when applied to his skin, rejuvenates him while sucking his blood. Another old man (and Ron Perlman as his nephew) will do anything to get this device. Feuding ensues.

JeffTheAlpaca

Josh Hamilton was really creepy in this movie

Ursula Parker was one of daughters on Louie.

JeffTheAlpaca

I did not care that much about during the first viewing but I changed my mind and thought it was quite enjoyable.

Way Back in 1988 when Cruise did other stuff not related to Mission Impossible.

JeffTheAlpaca

It seems everybody hated this but enjoyed it even more the second time.

Vincent Moore was a kickass villain.

Pharad

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

TheMovieman

Toy Story 4 (2019) — Dang, is it dusty in here? After what was a near perfect conclusion with Toy Story 3, wasn't sure if this was really needed. I'm glad they did go through with it and although it's not exactly unpredictable, still was highly entertaining with some genuine emotions and a great finale for Woody. Really says a lot that as good as this was, it's still the fourth best movie of the series. 4.0/5

Don't really want a TS5 but wouldn't mind some short Toy Story Toons with the group...

JeffTheAlpaca

Another movie I go against the public and thought it was pretty good.

What happened to Chris Cooper? He was a good actor but you never see him in anything anymore. Hope he is in good health.

TheMovieman

Omen IV: The Awakening (1991) — Pretty bland movie that can't even offer any gnarly kills due to it being a TV movie. Harmless but unnecessary "sequel". 2.25/5

The Omen (2006) — Even by remake standards, this was creatively bankrupt on top of utilizing the terrible techniques of 21st century horror with jump scares. The cast I guess tried their best but having just recently watched the original, I was mostly bored as this pretty much follows the same exact plot, scene for scene. 1.0/5

JeffTheAlpaca

This was a good comedy drama

Ray Romano could do drama full time if he wanted too and maybe this might be crazy but he gave an Oscar worthy performance.

JeffTheAlpaca

Any movie with Julia Stiles in one of the leads is going to be horrible

TheMovieman

True, though the lack of any imagination was even worse. Such a lazy movie. Reminds me of this year's The Hustle, same problems.

JeffTheAlpaca

JeffTheAlpaca

Just another money grab by Hollywood since they have no imagination when it comes to making new material.

rogerrobert69

I thought the two punkish villains (especially the girl) were really annoying.

JeffTheAlpaca

They were annoying though the second time they were more tolerable for some reason.

I liked Dev Patel's character.

JeffTheAlpaca

This was better than what I expected probably because Octavia Spencer did a good job in her role.

I hope they don't make a sequel.

Diana Silvers looks like a young Anna Hathaway.

MR Round

Over the weekend we watched:

Once Upon A Time In The West - 1968 4/5
12 Angry Men - 1957 5/5
Playing God - 1997 2.5/5
All Is Lost - 2013 4/5
Children Of The Corn 1984 2/5
Hudson Hawk 1991 2.5/5
Mask 1985 5/5

Hstrybuff1

Liked both Kubrick's adaptation and the 1997 TV mini-series which is more faithful to King's novel. Nicholson plays the lead character as somewhat unbalanced right from the beginning in the original while in the mini-series the lead character is played as a very normal husband and father who slowly succumbs to the Outlook's malevolent spirits. I got more chills watching the mini-series than I did watching Kubrick's adaptation.

Agree there have been some real duds among the Stephen King adaptions.

But some excellent ones as well -- Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile, Stand By Me, and Misery were ones I enjoyed. In a couple of cases -- Apt Pupil & Dolores Claiborne -- I thought the film adaptations were superior to King's novels.

Hstrybuff1

I disliked the lead characters in Big Eyes - the phony husband who passed himself off as the creator of his spouse's artworks and the wimpish wife who let him get away with that for so many years. But I guess gender roles & expectations were very different in the late-50s & early 60s.

Agree the paintings were cheesy. Was surprised when director Tim Burton mentioned in one of the blu-ray extras that reproductions of the paintings seemed to be everywhere when he was growing up in SoCal. Apparently he has several Keane originals in his art collection.