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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 4, 2024 15:35:56 GMT -5
Yes, that's exactly the impression I got... I even told my wife that the film reminded me a little of the animé series we watched as kids (without the horror aspect), what with superpowers or magical aspects grafted onto a story that, in a western context, wouldn't have used them at all. I'll check whether The House is on Tubi. (I watched the Ringu prequel, Ringu 0: Bâsudai, which was, alas, a pretty underwhelming affair. What I enjoyed the most was the way "birthday" is transliterated as "bâsudai".) Should be basudei, otherwise it would sound like birth die! Right you are, I copied it erroneously.
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Post by Calidore on Jun 4, 2024 20:07:13 GMT -5
I watched Ringu for the first yesterday, although I had seen its americanized version The Ring years ago. And surprise, surprise, I actually preferred the latter! The Japanese original is fine, naturally, but I found a few things somewhat disappointing. The fact that the husband had psychic abilities, for example, felt way too convenient; that the dreaded phone call ("seven days" or, here, "you saw it") could only be received in the B4 cabin was less creepy than in its ubiquitous American version; the well being half-emptied bucket by bucket in just a couple of hours struck me as physically impossible. But those are small potatoes. Where the remake did particularly well, I think, is in setting up the great red herring about the fundamentalist family unfairly treating their innocent daughter, just to reveal that they were right all along. I love having the carpet pulled from under my feet like that! Ringu, for its part, didn't have the dreadful "you should not have freed her" revelation but stopped at "well, finding the body wasn't enough". An efficient ending, to be sure, but the remake managed to ratchet it up a little. I think I'll try Ju-On next. I hadn't particularly liked The Grudge, despite the extremely spooky-looking ghost, so perhaps the original will do the trick. I also preferred The Ring to Ringu. The former was a rare film that I saw multiple times during its theatrical run. The first time, I went in blind except knowing that was getting some pretty good reviews, and was delighted when it became clear that this was a ghost story. (I don't like horror as much as I did when I was younger, but I've always loved a good ghost story.) The second time helped clarify some confusing things about the plot. Then the third time let me notice some cool throwaway details, like a fly walking in a circle on a door.
I do disagree about Samara's family being right. The way I interpreted things, their daughter was an innocent victim of her own ability, and instead of trying to help her, it was her family's treatment, and eventual murder, of her that made her a monster. Actually, it was Ju-On that later gave me some validation on this by defining the revenant born of anger that I saw ghost Samara as being.
Loved the Ju-On movies also, or at least the ones made by the original creator (being the Japanese original two-part TV movie and the first two theatrical features, and the first two American Grudge movies), which are the only ones I've seen. The Ring never gave me nightmares, but the Ju-On/Grudge movies gave me several.
I can also highly recommend Ju-On director Takashi Shimizu's later ghost movie Reincarnation (a.k.a. Rinne).
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Post by Doghouse Reilly on Jun 5, 2024 10:53:21 GMT -5
I watched Ringu for the first yesterday, although I had seen its americanized version The Ring years ago. And surprise, surprise, I actually preferred the latter! The Japanese original is fine, naturally, but I found a few things somewhat disappointing. The fact that the husband had psychic abilities, for example, felt way too convenient; that the dreaded phone call ("seven days" or, here, "you saw it") could only be received in the B4 cabin was less creepy than in its ubiquitous American version; the well being half-emptied bucket by bucket in just a couple of hours struck me as physically impossible. But those are small potatoes. Where the remake did particularly well, I think, is in setting up the great red herring about the fundamentalist family unfairly treating their innocent daughter, just to reveal that they were right all along. I love having the carpet pulled from under my feet like that! Ringu, for its part, didn't have the dreadful "you should not have freed her" revelation but stopped at "well, finding the body wasn't enough". An efficient ending, to be sure, but the remake managed to ratchet it up a little. I think I'll try Ju-On next. I hadn't particularly liked The Grudge, despite the extremely spooky-looking ghost, so perhaps the original will do the trick. In The Ring, when the kid revealed that the ghost should not have been freed, wasn't that preceded by the protagonist saying something like "she's fine now because she's not in the dark place any more?" But didn't she just give the remains a regular underground burial? That's going to be just as dark as a well. Maybe she should have emphasized the relative dryness of the her new resting place instead. But I could be misremembering. In a Gene Wilder voice : "I'm wet! I'm wet! I'm dead, and I'm wet!". Yeah, a drier environ would make me a less cranky ghost, too. But I don't think her darkness situation improved. Going off my poor memory still, I recall The Grudge being a very wet movie. Even though the wetness may have been justified in the story somehow, I just can't get scared by water.
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Post by Doghouse Reilly on Jun 5, 2024 10:59:33 GMT -5
I don't even remember if I saw Predator as a teen when it first came out. I saw it the another night, and what a disappointment. I know, and can accept, that the plot just exists to string together action sequences, but there were so many actively stupid bits that I couldn't finish it. Most glaring was how panicky these elite commandoes were.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 5, 2024 15:00:14 GMT -5
I don't even remember if I saw Predator as a teen when it first came out. I saw it the another night, and what a disappointment. I know, and can accept, that the plot just exists to string together action sequences, but there were so many actively stupid bits that I couldn't finish it. Most glaring was how panicky these elite commandoes were. That part never bothered me. They made so much noise that a troop of boy scouts could set up an ambush of them. I saw it while I was on my summer Midshipman Training Cruise and it was just dumb fun, with good effects work and John McTiernan's usual great camera work and clear storytelling. Dark Horse did more with the property than Fox ever did or any of the screenwriters or directors. Still, it was pretty enjoyable and it was a basic horror monster plot that crossed with a military action movie, creating a fun little hybrid. I still recall Jesse Ventura in an interview, claiming he started to have flashbacks...of what; sitting in a bar in Olongapo? The man never got closer to Vietnam than the Phippines! He saw as much combat as Arnold did in the Austrian army. The only person in that film that new what combat was like was Richard Chaves, who played Ramirez (with the grenade launcher) Unlike Ventura, he actually served in Vietnam, in the 196th Infantry Brigade. None of that really has a bearing on the film; just that, in the crowd I was in, we could see that it was all a fantasy and laughed at the pseudo-military stuff, starting with the damn mini-gun. Yeah, we're going to move silently through the jungle with an 84 lb weapon, probably another 60-80 lbs of batteries to power the electrically operated weapon, and another 50-100 lbs of ammo, that would be spent in 3 seconds of firing. Now, once you dispensed with that and the Predator is killing off team members and Arnie has to "go native," then we were really having fun! Now, that thing is Band of Brothers, compared to Navy SEALs or, even worse, Under Siege. I howled with laughter at that thing more than any comedy I ever saw. I hope Tommy Lee Jones got something nice with the money he earned on that POS, because it made Batman look like Citizen Kane.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 6, 2024 22:14:19 GMT -5
I watched Ringu for the first yesterday, although I had seen its americanized version The Ring years ago. And surprise, surprise, I actually preferred the latter! The Japanese original is fine, naturally, but I found a few things somewhat disappointing. The fact that the husband had psychic abilities, for example, felt way too convenient; that the dreaded phone call ("seven days" or, here, "you saw it") could only be received in the B4 cabin was less creepy than in its ubiquitous American version; the well being half-emptied bucket by bucket in just a couple of hours struck me as physically impossible. But those are small potatoes. Where the remake did particularly well, I think, is in setting up the great red herring about the fundamentalist family unfairly treating their innocent daughter, just to reveal that they were right all along. I love having the carpet pulled from under my feet like that! Ringu, for its part, didn't have the dreadful "you should not have freed her" revelation but stopped at "well, finding the body wasn't enough". An efficient ending, to be sure, but the remake managed to ratchet it up a little. I think I'll try Ju-On next. I hadn't particularly liked The Grudge, despite the extremely spooky-looking ghost, so perhaps the original will do the trick.
While I enjoyed all of the above-mentioned films (both the originals and the American remakes), they are indeed their own thing, and the plot foundations are the same, but obviously the films are tailored for their target audiences.
For some wacky Japanese Horror, try House.
If you want some really crazy, whacked-out horror films that will often leave you shaking your head in disbelief, look toward both Hong Kong and Indonesia.
I'm also still partial to the Tsui Hark's original Chinese Ghost Story trilogy, as they have solid production values and the acting is quite good.
House and Chinese Ghost Story are both SO GREAT! I’ve seen House four or five times over the years, but I still haven’t gotten around to seeing Chinese Ghost Story a second time.
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Post by berkley on Jun 6, 2024 23:01:52 GMT -5
While I enjoyed all of the above-mentioned films (both the originals and the American remakes), they are indeed their own thing, and the plot foundations are the same, but obviously the films are tailored for their target audiences.
For some wacky Japanese Horror, try House.
If you want some really crazy, whacked-out horror films that will often leave you shaking your head in disbelief, look toward both Hong Kong and Indonesia.
I'm also still partial to the Tsui Hark's original Chinese Ghost Story trilogy, as they have solid production values and the acting is quite good.
House and Chinese Ghost Story are both SO GREAT! I’ve seen House four or five times over the years, but I still haven’t gotten around to seeing Chinese Ghost Story a second time.
I just saw both again fairly recently, within the last year or so, and for the first time in a long while - especially Chinese Ghost Story, which I last watched way back in the 90s. Along with a few other things, it's rekindled my interest in HK movies, so I have several lined up for the near future, some to re-watch and some that I haven't seen before (and some that I'm not entirely sure whether I've seen them or not).
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Post by berkley on Jun 6, 2024 23:12:18 GMT -5
Last night I saw Santo vs Doctor Death (1973) at the movie theatre. Luchador movies aren't something I grew up seeing on tv, as many US and mainland Canadian viewers did, but I did watch a few on video back in the early 90s. Can't recall if I saw any El Santo ones then but I don't think so.
This one was a ton of fun - and not only in a Mystery 2000 Theatre sense: it's actually a well put-together action movie with surprisingly good production values. Of course it's crazy too, as a movie featuring a masked wrestler as an Interpol agent has to be, but it can be enjoyed on both levels. There are three wrestling sequences, two of them quite elaborate, nearly like full-length bouts - is that common in luchador movies? I now want to see some Blue Demon and Mils Mascara movies to compare.
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Post by commond on Jun 7, 2024 3:10:37 GMT -5
There are three wrestling sequences, two of them quite elaborate, nearly like full-length bouts - is that common in luchador movies? I now want to see some Blue Demon and Mils Mascara movies to compare. There are usually wrestling matches in lucha films. In some cases, it's the only footage we have of famous luchadores.
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Post by berkley on Jun 7, 2024 5:16:09 GMT -5
There are three wrestling sequences, two of them quite elaborate, nearly like full-length bouts - is that common in luchador movies? I now want to see some Blue Demon and Mils Mascara movies to compare. There are usually wrestling matches in lucha films. In some cases, it's the only footage we have of famous luchadores. I see. I don't remember the ones I saw back in the 90s too well, it's been so long. Looking up a list of Mexican wrestling movies, I think one of them was Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy and possibly Doctor of Death, another "wrestling women" movie. Reading up a little on the lucha movies has also made me interested in the Mexican horror revival that started in the 50s so I'll probably start looking for a few of those as well, if I can figure out which ones I'd like to see.
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Post by Calidore on Jun 7, 2024 5:16:32 GMT -5
Chinese Ghost Story is wonderful. I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen the first time as part of a Hong Kong film fest, then got the DVD as soon as I could find it. Still haven't seen the sequels, though.
Heard a lot about House but have never watched it.
I've seen Predator twice and Predator 2 three or four times, though neither in quite a while. Always liked the sequel better.
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Post by driver1980 on Jun 7, 2024 14:35:21 GMT -5
Last night I saw Santo vs Doctor Death (1973) at the movie theatre. Luchador movies aren't something I grew up seeing on tv, as many US and mainland Canadian viewers did, but I did watch a few on video back in the early 90s. Can't recall if I saw any El Santo ones then but I don't think so. This one was a ton of fun - and not only in a Mystery 2000 Theatre sense: it's actually a well put-together action movie with surprisingly good production values. Of course it's crazy too, as a movie featuring a masked wrestler as an Interpol agent has to be, but it can be enjoyed on both levels. There are three wrestling sequences, two of them quite elaborate, nearly like full-length bouts - is that common in luchador movies? I now want to see some Blue Demon and Mils Mascara movies to compare. Good to know you. Drop by the wrestling thread soon.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 7, 2024 22:34:56 GMT -5
There are usually wrestling matches in lucha films. In some cases, it's the only footage we have of famous luchadores. I see. I don't remember the ones I saw back in the 90s too well, it's been so long. Looking up a list of Mexican wrestling movies, I think one of them was Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy and possibly Doctor of Death, another "wrestling women" movie. Reading up a little on the lucha movies has also made me interested in the Mexican horror revival that started in the 50s so I'll probably start looking for a few of those as well, if I can figure out which ones I'd like to see. Full matches were usually part of the plot. Santo vs The Vampire Women, aka Samson vs the Vampire Women (in the English dub) was shown on Commander USA's Groovie Movies, back in the 80s, and on Mystery Science Theater 3000, as the farewell episode of TV's Frank (Frank Coniff). The early Santo films are usually considered to be the best ones, and the same for Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras' debut film. I just recently got digital copies of several Santo and Blue Demon films, but haven't watched them yet. I have seen Wrestling Women vs The Doctor of Doom, which was the double feature, with Samson vs The Vampire Women, on the Commander USA show, as well as WW vs The Aztec Mummy (had the dvd collection of the pair) and one of the Neutron films, Neutron vs The Amazing Doctor Carante. The latter series featured Wolf Ruvinskis, a former luchador, as a masked hero, in 5 films. he was the most prolific of the luchador actors, appearing in films between 1949 and 1996. He also appeared in an episode of I Spy, in 1968. Santo's son, Hijo del Santo, also appeared in several films, between 1968 and last year. I used to get a lucha fanzine, that covered mostly the film stuff, and a bit of the trends in the major promotions (CMLL, AAA and the then-Promo Azteca) and the editors seemed to favor the Blue demon movies over the Santo ones. Blue Demon was generally rated a better wrestler. Ironically, both were rudos (heels) prior to their film popularity, with Santo teaming with Eddie Guerrero's father, Gory, as The Atomic Pair. Eddie later teamed with Hijo del Santo, recreating this team, before turning heel on Hijo del Santo, thanks to interference by "Love Machine" Art Barr, leading to the formation of Los Gringos Locos, which set the Mexican wrestling world on fire, drawing sellouts all over Mexico and in Los Angeles, when the WWF was struggling to get a decent crowd to an arena. That led to the When Worlds Collide PPV, in conjunction with WCW. A great movie to watch is Los Campeones Justicieros, from 1971, which features a whole Justice League of luchadors, including Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras, El Medico Asesino, Black Shadow, Tinieblas, and Sombra Vengadora. The heroes also act as sponsors to a group of contestants in a beauty pageant, who are kidnapped by the villain, who is aided by his dwarf henchmen (and some full size ones). Each hero also has his own motorcycle or other mode of transportation. If you like those, you might also try a couple of Italian wrestler/super hero films, with Super Argo: Superargo vs Diabolicus and Superargo and the Faceless Giants. They were inspired by the Batman tv series, though, in the first film, he looks more than a little like the Phantom, except with a red bodysuit, instead of purple. The mask was redesigned for Superargo and the Faceless Giants. There is an unrelated film, called Argoman, The fantastic Superman, which is a super hero and spy mix. Then, there are the 3 Fantastic Superman films, which are a bit closer to the Batman tv series, played with more comedy. No wrestling in those or Argoman, but the are similar gonzo fun. Superargo's wrestling scenes are nowhere near as good as the Mexican films and you more endure them, until they get to the real fun. Not sure how much of a pro wrestling scene there actually was in Italy, at that time. There are some groups now, following the WWE model. England had a long pro history, as did Wales and Ireland (and matches were held in Scotland) and Germany had had a long history. France did in the 50s and 60s, but it seemed to die out, by the 80s. The action is pretty basic. The films are done on the cheap and the first film is by far the better of the two. Same for the first 3 Fantastic Supermen film. They got cheaper and progressively worse, as they went, though Supermen Against the Orient is decent fun.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jun 8, 2024 5:11:34 GMT -5
Watched The Taking of Pelham One Two Three last night - no, not the 2009 remake with Denzel and Vinnie Barbarino, rather the original from 1974... With a cast led by Walter Matthau as the transit authority police lieutenant and Robert Shaw as the leader of the subway hijackers, this is a just a thoroughly enjoyable, old-style crime drama that's perfectly intermingled with little humorous bits - both wry and dry. It's also fun seeing younger versions of rather familiar faces, like Jerry Stiller as Matthau's fellow transit cop or Hector Elizondo as one of the hijackers. And I loved all of the scenes shot in above-ground NY as well (for some reason, I always love seeing footage of American big cities back in the 1970s). Edited to add: since I mentioned the 2009 remake, I have seen that one, or rather most of it (missed the first 20 or so minutes of it), and while I found it perfectly watchable - mainly due to Washington in the lead role - I don't think it holds a candle to the original.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 9, 2024 16:26:07 GMT -5
Last night I watched Small Faces (1996). It’s pretty good. One of the films from the BFI Top 100 British Films list.
It’s one of the films in that genre about how awful it is to live in Glasgow.
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